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 Reed Switzer, CEO and Co-Founder of Hopscotch, a payments platform for small businesses and freelancers that aims to bring the ease and magic of consumer apps like Venmo and Cash App to the B2B space. The company has raised nearly $10 million in funding to date.
Key topics discussed in this episode:
- Reed's unorthodox journey as a 22-year-old founder, dropping out of Wharton to start Hopscotch after experiencing the pain points of B2B payments firsthand while running an apparel company and working at a music streaming startup.
- The admiration for Elon Musk's unrelenting pursuit of his goals and ability to rally people to build the impossible, despite the controversies surrounding him.
- The challenges and opportunities of being a young founder, including the need to work harder to build trust with investors and the market, while leveraging the advantages of a fresh perspective and long-term potential.
- Hopscotch's mission to eliminate friction in B2B payments by providing a user-friendly platform that allows seamless transactions between users and non-users, with a focus on the creative freelancer and small agency verticals.
- The company's success in building trust through a clear vision, conviction in their product, and transparency about their strengths and weaknesses, while remaining open to feedback and iteration.