🧾 Issue #18: From Lawn-Mowing to Crypto-Invoicing
The Paysail co-founder who is shaking up the invoicing and payments scene
💬 Welcome to issue #18 of Between the Lines
It’s Thursday - you know the drill. Read all about how new Claremonsters are combining cryptocurrencies with invoicing payments, reimagining communication skills, building new companies, hiring for your next job, and creating a better world! Oh, and hello from Camp Claremont, where Miles joined students, alumni, and faculty for some exciting events with other Claremont founders and alumni on campus! Shout out to leaders in the Claremont community like Devon Hartman (pictured above hosting a group of alumni, faculty, and students at his solar manufacturing initiative in Pomona - CHERP), Adele English, Brentt Baltimore, and Maya Horgan for giving back to the next generation and bringing us all together. Happy Halloween! 🎃
~ Miles & Josh
👤 Community Spotlight: Liam Brennan-Burke
Liam is a recent grad of Claremont McKenna College and the co-founder/CEO of Paysail. Paysail leverages stablecoins to enable instant, global B2B invoicing and payments. Liam had early insight into the inefficiencies and inaccuracy of fragmented invoicing and payments at 11 years old when he started his first business. Now, he and the Paysail team are on a mission to enable borderless invoice payments! Liam took a quick break from their current fundraise and wanted to share some thoughts on his journey with the BTL community.
I know you turned down a return offer at BlackRock to found Paysail. What was the moment you knew you were going to go all-in on the company?
I think we knew early on that the idea behind Paysail was technologically an interesting concept, and there were robust market trends that supported our underlying premise. While I really loved my time at BlackRock, I think there were enough early signals to encourage going all-in on Paysail and seeing where things went! I think for me and my co-founder, Nicole, it was all about incrementally de-risking the opportunity. We knew the pains of peer-to-peer payments and had seen first-hand the inefficiency of international payments, but the more we talked to businesses, we saw just how pervasive the problem itself was. This encouraged us that there was certainly an opportunity to build and scale Paysail and that the timing seemed to be right!
So much young talent has turned their attention to innovations that can be built on the blockchain, and Paysail leverages asset-backed stablecoins to offer a new product. It’s so important to consider not just where the puck is, but where the puck is heading as young people chart their careers. If a young person asked you how to get started about getting informed on the blockchain ecosystem, where would you point them?
I fundamentally believe blockchain-based solutions and stablecoins will fuel the next generation of technological innovation. I think cryptocurrencies’ innate utility is not necessarily as a store of value but as a medium of exchange, enabling low-cost, near-instantaneous transactions globally. In terms of resources, I recommend Celo and Bitcoin’s whitepapers as good overviews. I know Coinbase also has a pretty robust incentivized educational platform and if you want to start really young, B is for Bitcoin is a great children’s book! If people are interested more in the origins, David Chaum’s 1982 Berkley dissertation titled Computer Systems Established, Maintained, and Trusted by Mutually Suspicious Groups is fascinating and one of the earliest conceptualizations of blockchains I have found.
You spent almost two years of your time at Claremont in Zoom-University. Hit us with your favorite memory from both being on campus as well as remote.
Now you’re asking the tough questions, Josh! While there isn't a singular moment that I can pinpoint, my experience at Claremont, both virtual and in-person, have been shaped by the various extracurricular communities I've been a part of, from time in the Student Investment Fund to the Graphite Group, from being apart of the campus tour guide community to innertube water polo. When classes became remote, it was challenging to regain that sense of community that is so integral to the CMC experience. However, I was fortunate to spend my senior fall with five friends living in rural Rhode Island. It was surreal to be taking class away from campus since so much of the CMC experience revolves around community. However, despite being across the country from 888 N Columbia Ave, the six of us had so much fun taking classes together, cooking, hiking, playing board games, and exploring! We were incredibly grateful to be together during such a challenging and isolating time. It was very different from time on campus, but the time in Rhode Island added a new dimension to my Claremont experience in a really special way.
What is the best way for the community to be in touch and follow the work you do at Paysail?
My email is always open! Please feel free to reach to learn more about Paysail or just to chat! I always love talking about anything crypto as well.
Read the full interview below to hear more about Paysail and Liam’s journey thus far! 👇
🚨Claremonster Call-Out: Varun Puri
Meet Varun Puri (CMC), one of the newest Claremont community members making an impact in the world and taking a leap as a startup founder!
After spending time at Intuit, Google, the Moonshot Factory, and time at the Allen Institute as an EIR, Varun has officially announced his new company, Yoodli, along with his Co-Founder Esha. Yoodli is building AI-powered technology to help you practice and improve your communication skills without the pressure of an audience, and they are already backed by the Paul Allen Institute for AI and Madrona Ventures Group. Read all about their recent launch here.
Sign up here to join their waitlist and get early access to their platform!
💼 Who’s Hiring?:
Skio (YC S20) helps Shopify merchants sell subscriptions without pulling their hair out. They’re growing extremely quickly after launching in April and just raised a $3.7M Seed. Scripps alumna Bridget Payne is now heading up partnerships and ops at Skio and is hiring aggressively- she’d love to bring some Claremont talent onto the team! Think you’re the right fit for one of these roles? Bridget is inviting candidates from the Claremont community to reach out directly with questions or to apply.
Upgrade has quietly raised over $200M in capital from top-tier investors and they are on a mission to drive the transformation of financial services, solve big problems and make a meaningful difference in people’s lives. Jack Brown (CMC) leads Strategy and Execution at Upgrade, and he is currently hiring for his team and looking for some Claremont talent! At Upgrade, their goal is to offer an online and mobile banking experience that delivers exceptional value, including affordable loans and cards and helps our customers make good financial decisions so they can build the future they want.
After an incredible journey at Airbnb, Alex Berman (CMC) is joining Happy Money as VP of Product. Happy Money is a fully remote, Series D Fintech startup shaking up the financial services and credit card industry to help usher in a new world of more mindful capitalism. Alex is looking for some other Claremont folks to join him and hop along for the ride.
Made of Air is a climate-focused materials company transforming waste biomass into high-value, carbon-negative, thermoplastic materials for industrial use. They are a portfolio company of Claremont Investors Prashant and Pat Gallagher at Tuesday Capital, and they are in the market for some exciting roles!
An all-star that could transition to Head of Finance as we grow ideally with investment banking, analyst, or suitability background who is looking to jump into climate tech
Check out all the other 5,000+ open jobs at 400+ Claremont-founded companies here on our Storyboard!
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As always, if any of these roles catch your eye 👀 , apply and mention Between the Lines! Or if you are an employer and are looking to hire tip-top Claremont talent, fill out this form to have your jobs featured!
🗣️ Conversations on the interwebz:
This week’s top read 🔥
A beautiful nugget of wisdom from Samba TV Founder, Ashwin Navin. Here’s to all of us trying to use social relationships to overcome our limitations! 🍻
Everything else you need to know….📖
Maddie Hall (CMC) and Living Carbon are up to some incredible work! A great reminder that we all have so much more in common than we usually think. 🌳
Great advice for employers to keep in mind from Laszlo Bock (PO) - 2X founder of Humu and Gretel.ai 💡
Some interesting thoughts from VC and company-builder at 8VC - Eric Scott (CMC) 🤔
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🍽️ BTL Snacks:
🍄 The Psychedelic Renaissance is about to transform neuroscience and behavioral healthcare….. Neurosurgeon Daniel Kelly (CMC) shares his mushroom thoughts
🧠 Flow Theory Architect and legendary CGU Professor….. RIP to the architect of the flow theory, and the prominent psychology and management professor at CGU - Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. You will be greatly missed ❤️
🎮 The maker of blockchain games - Lucid Sight is making huge moves….. Lucid Sight and Founder Randy Saaf (HMC) recently just raised $3M and acquired open-source multiplayer engine Colyseus
📹 Trillion Dollar Coach - the leadership playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell….. Jonathan (CMC) and Google are partnering with LIT Videobooks to bring you this can’t-miss documentary
Feedback? We love to hear it. Hit us with an email. 👊🏼