Brothers - 5 traits shared by Simon about his bro Nick Molnar of Afterpay that led to a $39b exit

• No ego. Nick’s greatest trait is his ability to come up with an idea and convince you that it was your idea first. It doesn’t matter who owns it if it gets the outcome.

• No limits. Nick thinks without ceilings. Everything is possible. Think big and figure the rest out.

• “Make it a no brainer”. At Afterpay, Nick made sure customers and merchants had no reason to say no.

• There’s a job to do and you don’t rest until it’s done. After a $39bn exit, it would have been easy to sail off into the sunset but Nick is working harder today than he was pre-acquisition.

• “Know your superpower”. Lean into what you do better than anyone else.

I love David Shein’s 6th Trait 

• how to remember that despite all your success your pee is still the same color as everyone else’s!!!

Are Sucasa's low-rate home loans too good to be true - offering professional a 98pc lvr with no lmi?

I was speaking to my nephew and wife - 2 successful high income  earners with 2 kids - about the affordability of buying their own property to live in! 

The graph below shows that the average house cost nine times the average salary in 1990. That ratio shot past 16-times the average salary in 2021 and has stuck there ever since. 

The First Home Buyers Assistance have alleviated some of the pressure for homes up to $1m - the exceptionally high assessment criteria makes it nigh impossible for a professional couple with no bomad (bank of mum and dad ) to afford a desired home 

Enter SaCUSA founded by  Mario and  Marian Emmanuel  and Adam Trouncer and who has teamed up with David Ewens as head of distribution and Paul Coloe as head of credit and underwriting. 

They have a small but mighty team leveraging technology to provide loans with affordable  rates, low upfront fees and no LMI - but it does charge a risk fee! 

“We're trying to give great loans to great borrowers,” says Mario . 

So who is the target market? 

Professionals looking to buy a house within their income bracket, but don’t have a spare $200,000 kicking around to make it happen. 

The key is to get distribution via brokers - the majority of whom use a few aggregators - and have recently been added to the LMG loan market panel ! 

So , if you are a Professional looking to buy a house within their income bracket, but don’t have a spare $200,000 kicking around to make it happen - give me a ring at BSI Finance :) 

Pintarnya raises $16.7m to provide Indonesians with Jobs and Money

Pintarnya - have raised $16.7M to power jobs and financial services in Indonesia 

Founded in 2022 by co-founders Nelly Nurmalasari, Henry Hendrawan, and Ghirish Pokardas is an employment platform connecting people to jobs and money!!

It provides filtered job opportunities with AI-assisted matching and CV creation for job seekers in Indonesia. 

Investors - led by Square Peg i include Vertex Ventures SE Asia & India and East Ventures

The problems 

Many workers are not earning enough and borrowing responsibly 

Where do they find jobs?

Where do they find money?

What Pintarnya does

Pintarnya  digitises job matching with AI to make hiring faster and provides workers with safer, healthier lending options — designed around what they can reasonably afford, rather than pushing them deeper into debt.

60pc work in informal sector , so lack verifiable income and official employment documentation. They are providing loans using collateral such as gold, electronics, or vehicles.

Customers 

Pintarnya have 10 million job-seeker users and 40,000 employers nationwide.

Ideal client -  aged 21 to 40, most of whom have a high school education or a diploma below university level who do not have  steady monthly income and bank account activity.

It’s vision

To empower Indonesians to not only make ends meet today, but also plan, grow, and upgrade their lives tomorrow … 

Pintarnya will be  the go-to super app for Indonesia’s workers, not just for earning income, but as a trusted partner throughout their life journey. 

It will be the go to place when someone is looking for work, a place that helps them upgrade their skills, and a reliable guide as they make financial decisions.

Kate Park for TechCrunch today 🔗 : https://lnkd.in/eze6jhEm

How to attract investment

How do you unlock the secrets of attracting investment in today’s market? 🕵️

One Ventures Investment Associate Shawn Li joined the Investor Panel – Pathways to Funding Your Startup, hosted by Stone & Chalk, to discuss what we look for in scaling technology companies, the decision-making process behind our investments and the value we can bring beyond capital.

Shawn works in our Growth Credit team, offering a flexible form of capital that can complement equity. It can help founders extend runway, fund acquisitions and reach profitability while staying in control of their growth journey 🚀

Stone & Chalk hosted Nicholas Jerrat (Perth Angels), Shishir Chowkse (Birchal), Joanna Lee (Giant Leap) and Paul Naphtali (Rampersand) who shared their insights

Do names of VC Rounds Matter?

Companies raising the same amount of money have different post-money valuations depending on the round name.

Eg. If a seed-stage round raises $15M, that company is likely valued at $58M post-money. Whereas if a Series B company does so, the startup is typically worth $93M.

Why?

1. The companies that are raising Series B have likely raised more capital over multiple rounds than the earlier stages. So the valuation 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 be higher accounting for the excess capital already on the books.

  

2. The later the stage, the higher the traction / underlying business metrics needed to justify the next round (typically). 

  

3. Some round name fraud happening? Founders do sometimes choose to raise a "seed" when they've already raised significant capital in order to stand out relative to their peers..

#startups #Seed #SeriesA #SeriesB #founders