Should I take my company public?

My interview with René Lacerte

👋 Hi all! Welcome back to another episode of Fintech Stuff.

Should I take my company public? It’s one of the biggest questions founders face—and few are better equipped to answer it than René Lacerte, founder and CEO of BILL.

René is one of the longest-standing CEOs in fintech. He started BILL in 2006, took it public in 2019, and today the company serves nearly 500k SMBs and processes over $300B annually—roughly 1% of U.S. GDP.

In this conversation, we dive into:

• How a failed pitch to Intuit led to his first company (and getting fired from it)

• The lessons that shaped BILL and why he built it differently

• Scaling through the 2008 recession—while navigating personal loss

• The 2021 acquisition of Divvy and what’s next

• Why he opposes dual-class shares—and what founders can learn from going public

You can watch the full interview here:

Next up is Denise Leonhard, head of Zelle :)

3 links

1️⃣ Hot take. FedNow is going to be 10x more transformational for fintech in the US than stablecoins. Read more on linkedin (+ join conversation)

2️⃣ Complex card perks are dumb. Read more on linkedin (+ join conversation)

3️⃣ Plaid’s next gen fraud model Read more on linkedin (+ join conversation)