💵 Issue #3: Rethinking Currency
Have...you met Bridget? And, the social buzz you might have missed along with your next job!
💬 Welcome to issue #3 of Between the Lines
Happy Friday, y’all! I’m excited to share our first Community Spotlight in this issue. First up is the one and only Bridget Payne, founder of fintech company AlgoPay. Also, make sure to check out our “Who’s Hiring” if you’re thinking about what’s next!
My Best, Miles
👤 Founder Spotlight: Bridget Payne
by Miles Bird
Bridget Payne is the co-founder and COO of AlgoPay. AlgoPay provides a virtual debit card that layers on top of any bank or e-wallet, to offer a seamless spending experience for Gen Z and millennial spenders in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA). Prior to AlgoPay, Bridget led a Financial Services Advisory team at EY. She also served in several political roles during Egypt's Arab Spring, including serving as Head of Global Media for Shayfeencom while living in Egypt between high school and college and while she was a student at Scripps. She now splits her time between Los Angeles and Cairo.
We got a chance to catch up with Bridget, and we were inspired by the conversation….we think you will be too!
What motivated you to start Algopay?
Two catalyzing moments motivated me to build Algo, and they happened about a decade apart.
When I moved to Cairo as an 18-year-old in 2013, I quickly realized that I had lost access to digital financial tools. I was doing everything right: I dove into my work, I was taking on increasingly important roles at the organizations I was a part of, and I was learning from some of the best minds in Egypt. BUT, I was being paid in envelopes of cash for all of the work I was doing. And the limitations that I faced as a young woman navigating mid-revolution Cairo with wads of cash in hand were staggering. I had so little control of my money -- I struggled to spend it, I couldn't invest it, and I couldn't manage it. As an American, I had full context on just how huge that payment gap was.
A decade later, I was still seeing friends struggle with digital finance. Egypt's leading banking apps were barely functional, forcing friends to make in-person visits to change their login passwords or view their most recent card transactions. When I lost my card and was frantically trying to manage my account's security, it took me three days and two in-person visits to freeze my card. Those were powerful clarifying moments for me. Egypt's financial tools hadn't innovated or been built for consumers, and I was still feeling the same payment gap that I had felt a decade earlier.
What is something that has surprised you in founding and building this company?
My co-founder and I reflected often as we were building our MVP that anything is buildable -- and I mean that in an utterly non-cliche way. We made Algo's first MVP in a week, and it included a virtual card interface and hundreds of prepaid cards that we manually entered into user accounts. And, when we couldn't keep up with sign-ups only a day later, we integrated with a corporate card solution and scrambled to keep building. We created a crawler and automated card updates when we couldn't keep up with the manual account updates. And, even while in lockdown, I moved ahead with in-region hiring and new city launches. The founder's experience has redefined what I think is possible. I think COVID has probably done that for a lot of us.
What do you believe about how young people participate in mobile commerce, and how has that changed over time?
Indeed, the gap between global brands and their cash-based customers is still huge. MENA's millennials and Gen Zs more urgently than ever want to close that gap, whether that's to get set up for their favorite Netflix or Spotify subscriptions as users, or to tap into the benefits of AWS as small business owners. Consumers want to interact with the world's leading companies seamlessly, but even Amazon relies on cash-on-delivery for most of their MENA transactions today.
But what doesn't get as much airtime is that MENA's young consumers feel a similar urgency around transacting with new technologies like cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Let's take Egypt. It has the largest population in the region, and half of its population is under 25. These are digitally native consumers who game, spend time in digital spaces online, and share virally. They're about to enter the world of digital finance, and they'll want access not only to baseline e-commerce purchasing capabilities but also to more complex digital transactions and investments. Gen Z gamers make up one of our most prominent user groups, and I'm hugely excited to keep learning from/building for them.
When you’re not rethinking currency in Egypt, what do you like to do in your free time?
Paddleboarding! I dedicate a few hours every week to explore the California coast. It gives me the space I need to think about the bigger picture and to work through challenges. Or, on days when I need some peace, I can clear my mind. 10/10 recommend time out on the water.
What's the best way to get in touch?
My email is always open to the Claremont community!
💼 Who’s Hiring?:
Living Carbon, founded by CMC grad Maddie Hall, is a startup company on a mission to fight climate change by genetically enhancing CO2 capture and storage in trees! 🌳 They are hiring for the following positions:
Chief of Staff
Looking for someone with bassline knowledge of climate change, startup experience, and politics/consulting experience
Go ahead and apply or reach out to us if any of these positions catches your 👀 !
🗣️ Conversations on the interwebz:
by Josh Tatum
Show me the money 🤑
Chris Temple, CMC grad and Director/Co-Founder at Optimist is currently filming a documentary on the first Dogecoin millionaire, Glauber Contessoto 📷
Erikan Obotetukudo, CMC grad and Founder of Audacity, is starting what could be the first-ever venture-capital fund focussed only on crypto startups led by a black woman! 🥇 Fun fact: She’ll join superstar Pomona grad Maya Horgan, founder of Ingressive Capital, who founded what may be the first tech fund founded by a solo black female GP.
What else you got? 💡
Daniel Goodwin, a HMC grad and founder of MileIQ, chimes in on Masters of Fine Arts degrees and their importance for society, but the mounting debt they hand students 💸
A great podcast and insight on Co-Founder dynamics by Sam Corcos, CMC grad and founder of insulin monitoring technology company Levels
HMC grad and CEO of LanzaTech, Jennifer Holmgren, is partnering with Lululemon to create the first-ever fabric using recycled carbon ♻️
Takeaways
Take a think! Bridget came up with the Algopay concept because of personal problems and experiences she had in her own life. If you are looking to create a company, think about the opportunities where you’re an insider to the problem. 🤷
Might want to take your head out of the sand if you haven’t already… Currency is clearly changing right now; between NFTs and cryptocurrencies, digital finance is here to stay. $1 out of every $5 raised globally last quarter went to the fintech space to combine for over $33B! What can you build, learn, and impact in this new space?💥