Enrique Allen

Co-founder @designerfund | Investor in @stripe, @GustoHQ, @omadahealth, @notion, @netlify | Teach @stanforddschool | Alum @StanfordMSoccer | Fan of @majo

[Stanford Men’s Soccer @StanfordMSoccer]

GOALLLLLLLL!! 🚨

DYLAN HOOPER WITH A MIRACLE FROM MIDFIELD TO WALK IT OFF!!!!!!

💻» @ACCNetworkExtra

#GoStanford

[Zach Abrams @zcabrams]

Bridge is joining forces with Stripe!

I’m incredibly excited

We started 2.5 years ago and we’ve done a lot since then :) We’re going to do a whole lot more in the years ahead. This is an important milestone, but we’re still at the very beginning of the Bridge journey.

We started Bridge because we thought stablecoins could become a core, global, regulated payment platform. Our first year was hard. The digital asset space was in turmoil. We struggled to find partners / customers.

We launched with our APIs in March 2023.

After launch, we quickly saw inbound interest from cross-border payments companies. People talked about stablecoins for x-border money movement, but we didn't understand the space or need.

These developers onboarded, showed us what was possible, and Bridge quickly started to scale.

After that, we had government entities onboard with us to disburse aid, fintechs build US dollar-based savings and spending products, SpaceX to manage their global treasury, and many others.

Our belief that stablecoins could be a new payment platform started coming true. Developers worldwide were dreaming up new stablecoin-enabled financial products and coming to Bridge to bring them to life. And each new use case was larger than all of those that came before it.

Today, we’re moving many billions in payment volume. Our business has grown >10x this yr. But more importantly, we’re now helping 100s of developers all around the world. And their products are giving millions of consumers and businesses more economic choice.

A lot has changed (and improved) over the past 18 months. But we’re still incredibly early.

Stablecoins represent an entirely new payments platform. Realizing the potential of this platform will be a decades-long journey.

As we’ve gotten to know the Stripe team, it’s become clear that we both share a vision for what’s possible with stablecoins and an excitement around the opportunity to create and build this future

Stripe operates globally and understands better than almost anyone the problems created by our existing localized payment systems. Our teams share an excitement about stablecoins and vision for how to maximize their impact.

Together, we’ll be able to solve bigger problems, support more developers, and help more consumers and businesses all across the world.

We built Bridge to solve our most vexing global financial challenges; to pull a more connected world forward; to give everyone more economic choice.

We’re thrilled to be joining forces with Stripe to fully realize these ambitions.

Full blog post here --> https://t.co/Dl3TkP12E4

[Enrique Allen @EnriqueAllen]

@andybudd Congrats!! Thanks for distilling these insights, just ordered!

[Jorn van Dijk @jornvandijk]

Big day @framer yesterday!

🔹 Plugins, plugins, plugins
🔹 CMS references
🔹 $100k awards

Here’s everything in 60s → https://t.co/j1wgVxAO2K

[Enrique Allen @EnriqueAllen]

The deadline to apply for Designer Fund Partnership is tomorrow, Friday Oct 4! We’re offering Pre-seed to Series A startups up to $1 million in funding plus the design expertise you need to scale your product, brand, and team. If you’re a founder building something ambitious, apply here: https://t.co/d2zT4GqTTm

[Major League Soccer @MLS]

Adding trophy No. 46 to his record-collection. 🐐

[Ben Blumenrose @benblumenrose]

Only a few days left to apply to Designer Fund Partnership - https://t.co/62Lda120OJ
Up to $1M investment
Guidance on creating a world-class product and brand
Help hiring designers
Fundraising support
Access to top design leaders
Intros to top designer angels

[Cole @colderoshay]

if you're not studying metallurgy and forging buttons like Celebrimbor, what are you even doing?

[Noah Levin @nlevin]

This is an exciting step in the direction of how our tools can become more fluid 🤩

The idea of intermixing between brainstorms, to slide decks, to design files, etc, depending on where you're at in the process and what the context requires feels like a peek into the future of more flexible dynamic tooling.

Kudos to @jooliahan @natashatenggoro @imryanreid and more for great work here!!

[Lenny Rachitsky @lennysan]

By popular demand, I've removed the paywall on this post.

I want every founder to have all of the insider information they need to raise a great seed round, and I believe this is the most in-depth, tactical, and practical how-to guide out there.

Including templates to plan and model your raise, how to find and reach out to investors, and specific fundraising tips from @karrisaarinen (Linear), @zoink (Figma), @ivanhzhao (Notion), @collinmathilde (Front), @jasonfried (37signals), @eglyman (Ramp), @christinacaci (Vanta), @joshm (The Browser Company), @Max (Instacart), @tomerlondon (Gusto), @zachperret (Plaid), @blader (Runway), @qasar (Applied Intuition), and the guide is lovingly written by @tmrohan and @jaltma 👏

Have at it: https://t.co/2Y79EcxHr5

[Cecilia Uhr @UhrCecilia]

Today we're shipping more Bezi 101 content - a labor of love from our design advocate team 🫶

[andrew chen @andrewchen]

update.

15 days left -- we'll be investing $23M in the next **2 weeks** in seed-stage startups.

This is for a16z SPEEDRUN, a new seed program kicking off Jan 2025 in San Francisco.

Thanks to all the amazing teams who have applied so far!

A few of the sectors where we've invested so far:
- 3D creation tools
- gamified AI dating
- real money digital slots
- superchat gaming apps
- ... with many more in the pipe

[Patrick Collison @patrickc]

a16z made this handy list of the top 50 AI Gen AI web products: https://t.co/wxI5MVEw4o

We checked, and turns out that 82% use @Stripe.

We've been building a bunch of functionality that's useful for AI products, including usage-based billing (https://t.co/AjNmBJ7wIz) to handle inference costs, Link (https://t.co/oEgjeF4Cq8) for higher-converting checkouts, and support for a lot more local payment methods (since these products are typically global from day one). Stripe Billing has also seen a raft of improvements.

More to come.

[Enrique Allen @EnriqueAllen]

Great to see @designerfund portfolio co's @MonographHQ, @GustoHQ and @stripe recognized in The SMBTech 50, a list celebrating innovative companies building for SMBs

[Notable Capital @notablecap]

The 2024 SBMTech 50 List is out now!

Check out the complete list of companies here: https://t.co/P1cUEIoqsE

#SMBTech50

[Enrique Allen @EnriqueAllen]

Interested in learning more?
Join us Tuesday, September 10 at 1PM PDT for Designer Fund Partnership Office Hours - https://t.co/ROAHF6yIzr
We’ll discuss what we're looking for in founders, best practices for a great application, and our decision-making process and timeline.

[Enrique Allen @EnriqueAllen]

Applications are now open for Designer Fund Partnership, the best design support and investment offer of up to $1 million for Pre-seed to Series A startups!

Apply by October 4th here: https://t.co/eEiEHBSQpx

Here are a few reasons why we’re opening up an application:

[Enrique Allen @EnriqueAllen]

We’re offering founder-friendly terms - The reality of today’s fundraising environment is that founders will often raise multiple times during the early phase of a company. That’s why we’re offering up to $1 million with flexible ownership terms for Pre-seed to Series A companies because one size doesn’t fit all. We can also invest alongside angels, accelerators, seed funds and VCs so you have the best possible people around the table.

[Ben Blumenrose @benblumenrose]

Still have questions?
Join us Tuesday, September 10 at 1PM PDT for Designer Fund Partnership Office Hours - https://t.co/nhaEkdLNvq
We’ll discuss what we're looking for in founders, best practices for a great application, and our decision-making process and timeline.