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Conversation
Highlights
Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech’s most innovative B2B founders. In today’s episode, we’re speaking with Eric Velasquez Frenkiel, CEO & Founder of Pomelo, a money transfer platform that’s raised over $70 Million in funding.
Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:
- Innovative Money Transfer: Pomelo uses credit to facilitate international money transfers, reducing transfer fees to zero and providing instant access to funds.
- Founder’s Journey: Eric transitioned from leading SingleStore, a successful database technology startup, to founding Pomelo after identifying a personal need for a better money transfer solution.
- Military Influence: The responsibility and problem-solving skills Eric gained in the Israeli military significantly shaped his approach to entrepreneurship.
- Product-Led Growth: Pomelo focuses on a product-led growth strategy, emphasizing customer experience and community engagement.
- Market Validation: The initial launch saw 125,000 people sign up on the waitlist, validating strong market demand.
- Regulatory Navigation: Pomelo leverages the Visa and Mastercard networks to provide a secure, transparent money transfer solution, avoiding the traditional pitfalls of cash-based systems.
Actionable
Takeaways
Embrace Product-Led Growth:
Focus on making your product accessible and easy to use. This can drive growth and improve user experience.
Identify Personal Problems:
Use personal experiences to identify and solve real-world problems, creating products that resonate deeply with users.
Leverage Existing Networks:
Utilize established networks (like Visa and Mastercard) to enhance your product's reach and reliability.
Innovate Within Existing Categories:
Introduce new methods within traditional categories to disrupt and improve current standards, like using credit for money transfers.
Validate Market Demand Early:
Build a waitlist or similar pre-launch strategy to gauge interest and validate demand before fully launching a product.
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