In this interview, Justin Gordon talks with a startup founder (Speaker B) about how the company’s early go‑to‑market strategy was built around in‑person (IRL) events and a founder‑driven community. The founder explains that they started by targeting local direct‑to‑consumer (DTC) brands in Nolita, New York—companies like Glossier and Caraway—because they were physically nearby and part of a dense entrepreneurial ecosystem. Their first growth hack was hosting coffee‑shop meet‑ups, VC‑focused gatherings, and other low‑cost events to create value through community, a tactic rooted in the founder’s teenage experience producing hip‑hop concerts at Lincoln Center. Recognizing the importance of community, they hired a head of community who ran PR and event programming, positioning the startup as a hub for founders and investors. This IRL focus generated daily customer interactions, deep market insights, and a strong brand presence. When COVID‑19 struck in March 2020, the event engine stalled; the team pivoted to inbound demand handling, long‑form written content, video media, and partnership development to sustain growth. Virtual happy hours and webinars proved unsatisfying, reinforcing the belief that face‑to‑face connections are irreplaceable. After pandemic restrictions lifted, the company doubled down on IRL events, leveraging the lessons learned to scale their community‑first approach across new markets, including an office in San Francisco. Throughout, the founder emphasizes that founder background shapes go‑to‑market choices, that community reduces founder loneliness, and that in‑person events remain a high‑impact growth channel for fintech and e‑commerce platforms.
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Did you know pretty clearly? Because you have obviously you experienced that that pain point. Did you know who your ICP was going to be in the early days? Like okay, we're going to go after these types of customers, these types of customers. I'm curious about that, especially when you went to market.
Yeah, we did. We tried to keep it really simple, and so we we were based not too far from here in Nolita, New York.
Yep.
And so we wanted to go after other companies that were in our backyard. So at the time, what was happening in New York, you know, was the rise of all the direct-to-consumer companies. And so, you know, Glossier and Caraway and you know all these companies were you know a block. or 2 away from us. They were all kind of in one little area. And so we would do events with them. We would try to get to know them. And we were trying to build a product for them. So we would talk to them and try to understand where their pain points were. How do we solve them? How do we build a great product for them? So that was where we started. We were just like, hey, like, we want to, you know, whatever is happening here in New York, we want to be supporting and be a part of because it's our backyard. We know this market.
I grew up here. Yeah.
You know, we're able to be be the best option for folks in here? And as the market evolved in New York, and we evolved with it too. Now we have an office in San Francisco. We have folks in a lot of different markets, but we still try to look at our backyard first. We're like, what's happening around us? How do we make sure that our products are able to solve problems for those entrepreneurs that are in this great city?
Was that just intuitive to you to do events early on?
It was. I don't know. You know, that's how I always saw things get started. I was, I had a, when I was really young, I started a company that did concerts in New York City. This was my first attempt at entrepreneurship. So, you know, briefly lived, but I went out on a high note. I produced the first hip-hop concert at Lincoln Center with Jay-Z and The Roots.
Wait, what?
We can talk about that later. But, but, but for me, yeah, it was, it was, this is how you get stuff going, right? You just, you figure out how to get people together, you create value through community, and then ultimately you can amplify that through marketing channels. But, That's the easiest way to kind of get things going in a market where you know people are pretty well networked and are you know talking to each other.
That's just like a perfect example of companies being like a reflection of their founder. I think like that community approach because you have that background makes so much more sense now because I was always thinking about that and knowing that you did that, I'm like why? Because everyone doesn't think IRL right away.
Yeah, I think that I think that it's a mistake. IRL is great. Like and one of our first hires was the head of community and. She did PR, and she did community. And we would start with just really easy, fast— I'm at Momon Coffee Shop. Come by if you guys want to chat about e-commerce. Or we would do events with VCs.
Hmm.
I think being a founder can be a lonely journey, especially in the early days, but really throughout. And so one of the things you want to be able to do is bring them together. I think this is something that you know the older banks like SVB did pretty well back in the day. I think that you know the technology side, I think there was a lot of a lot to be desired, but I think this is actually something that that people really valued, and so we tried to do that and really just turn it up to ten. I think we're the most active producer of startup events in the ecosystem, at least as far as I'm aware. Yeah, and and it's fun. It's great. You know our team gets to meet customers every single day. Not only is it great from a business development perspective, but you know you there's really no substitute for meeting with a customer face to. I love talking to founders. I love talking to people that are starting companies. I always, you know, start the conversation with, what are you building? Tell me about it. And for me, it's like I learn so much. I learn so much about what's happening in tech. I learn so much about, you know, what is new, where are people, you know, focusing their efforts. And more importantly, I learn about, you know, what can we do as a financial platform to help them get there, get a little bit further, make things a little bit easier? So when we hear, hey, what's really valuable? Actually, like, bringing us together is pretty valuable too. All right, we want to do more of that.
Yeah. With that context, though, you're growing quickly, 2019, then it's March 2020, COVID hits.
Yeah.
You were doing all these events. You're doing all this in-person stuff. Then what?
So, yeah, the good news was, you know, we had all this stuff coming inbound to us. The bad news was, yeah, our kind of key growth strategy sort of stalled out. We tried a lot of stuff. It was— none of them were as good as events. We kind of went back to that after, you know, when the world opened back up. But yeah, we did a lot of— we did a lot more content. At the time. We still do a lot of content these days, but it was, you know, it was challenging.
So that shift, so going from events then to, you said content, what was that? Was that videos? Was that newsletters? Was that— what types of things did you switch to when you're like, wait, we can't do our bread and butter, which is events. We have to shift to something else. We have these resources. Like, what did that look like?
Yeah, I think at first it was just dealing with inbound demand. So we weren't really doing that much marketing at the beginning of COVID because we were frankly just like inundated with customers. Yeah. A little bit later it was, yeah, we were doing, you know, more written content or long-form content. And then I was doing more media. And then we ultimately, you know, we ultimately continued to develop other channels of growth, partnerships. And then, you know, the world opened back up and we got back out there.
When the world opened up again, like after that, so you go from in-person event strategy, then COVID hits, you're like no in-person. Then it opens up again. Like, how are you prepared on like the in-person event side? Did you double down again? Or like, what did that look like after?
Yeah, so the period, you know, from COVID to post-COVID was a little rough. I don't know if any of you remember, you know, virtual happy hours and webinars. They weren't nearly as fun. Not very satisfying. I think we did one of those and, you know, called it a day.
Like, nah.
For us, we were really excited when the world opened back up and we, you know, we started doing events with with other companies based here in New York. I remember we did one with Olipop, the soda company. And that felt like the world had just opened back up. And all of a sudden, everybody, especially founders, wanted to be together, wanted to learn about how everyone else was doing. And we got right back on it and kept going.
