Joe Guzel

Partner at @haven_vc. Formerly @crosslinkcap, @intuit. All things Fintech and digital money.

[MrBeast @MrBeast]

I'm so excited to share that we are acquiring the financial services app, @step

Nobody taught me about investing, building credit, or managing money when I was growing up. That's exactly why we’re joining forces with Step! I want to give millions of young people the financial foundation I never had. Lots to share soon :D

[Joe Lonsdale @JTLonsdale]

Advisor: why are you wasting time on (founder / company), you need to dump the struggling losers faster. You’ve founded several BILLION dollar companies, keep your bar higher.

Me: well, hard to know; I was a struggling loser too, a few times, until we got the companies to work.

[Frazer Anderson @FrazerAnderson]

@dharmesh This is actually technically funny (not a dad joke) because getting the joke requires insider knowledge of gaap and engineering culture - a classic comedians technique of letting the audience in on something and implying that they are smart

Good joke!

[Rick Zullo @Rick_Zullo]

This is why VC is broken right now

Whole swaths of the VC ecosystem think:
1) that every good deal is concensus
2) that "research" is simply doing a market map
3) that the core skill of venture is knowing what deals are hot, rather than building independent conviction

[Naval @naval]

Innovation is art - it can’t be scaled.

Scaling a team creates a hierarchy to reduce coordination costs.

Hierarchy introduces the Principal-Agent problem.

Agents optimize for status and cohesion over correctness.

Going from zero to one requires a founder-led flat team.

[Joe Guzel @JoeGuzel]

Clearance = sub-accounting + reconciliation, layered over GRPC databases with blockchain.

Think of it like ‘copy, paste, special, values’ but on-ledger—then AI optimizes the settlement layer.

The goal? Zero settlement margins.

Big banks already act as clearinghouses, this just formalizes it into a unified system of record.

[Joe Guzel @JoeGuzel]

Clearance = sub-accounting + reconciliation, layered over GRPC databases with blockchain.

Think of it like ‘copy, paste, special, values’ but on-ledger—then AI optimizes the settlement layer.

The goal? Zero settlement margins.

Big banks already act as clearinghouses, this just formalizes it into a unified system of record.

[TJ Parker⚡️ @tjparker]

Could someone just make all venture returns public? Would be a lot more fun that way.

[Joe Guzel @JoeGuzel]

Stablecoins aren’t the opportunity—they’re the tool.

Clearance is the non-obvious but foundational unlock. It’s the hardest problem to solve, which is exactly why it’s where the leverage is.

It’s the same pattern I saw in neobanking when I left Intuit for venture. The consensus bet was credit—easier monetization, clearer PMF. But I focused on checking instead, leading to early bets in Chime, Step, Novo, etc., because checking was always the system of record.

People don’t think about checking—until their card doesn’t work. Until they try to replace it. That’s where the pain points surface. That’s where the control is. Everything else—lending, payments, wealth—stacked on top.

Clearance is that system of record for capital markets. It’s the read/write unlock.

Own clearance, and you own the enablement layer for the new physics of fintech—agentic applications, AI-driven risk infra, and next-gen settlement rails will all emerge from clearance.

Plaid was the read-only backbone of fintech. Clearance is the read/write backbone of what comes next.

Neobanking re-architected consumer finance by controlling the foundation. Clearance is that for capital markets.

[Joe Guzel @JoeGuzel]

These folks aren’t all <30, but the real distinction in the millennial VC cohort is who was trained for Board seats vs. who wasn’t. Founders building for the long haul should care deeply about this. Follow-on investors—these are the people who will create and protect value. @hberkman @CarolineBroder @NilssonRoos @ChaseAPackard @VivekKri @bmarshallg

[Joe Guzel @JoeGuzel]

@semil It is 2013 right now… can you feel it?

Clavier just closed SoftTech VC III—$85M, ~55 investments.

I just ordered an Uber. My first ever ride. From a desktop on Mason & Union—$40 for a black car.

At Intuit Corp Dev, we’re gunning for Braintree—fixated on how identity wasn’t about forms and docs, but a tokenization engine and a ledger. We lost it to eBay for $800M. A year later, PayPal spins out.

Seed rounds were $2M/$10M post. The application layer was unfolding fast. Rejoice, my friend. Rejoice.

[Mark Suster @msuster]

I know &amp; accept the news moved on from the Palisades Fire. 🔥

Update: Most of us are still in hotels or Airbnbs.

Even if your house is standing there isn’t potable water or gas or electricity

My home burned but didn’t burn down. This is my neighbor
🧵

[Blaine Davis @blainerdavis]

3 months in. More soon

[Joe Guzel @JoeGuzel]

@pitdesi Woolly Mammoth = Embedded Payments.

[Joe Guzel @JoeGuzel]

@thejesterhead9 @shaunmmaguire They hit my street twice already. Marina Del Rey. I’m sure it’s happening elsewhere.

[Bill Essayli @billessayli]

For everyone saying this is not a time for blame, this is exactly the moment that the people who have been responsible for the mismanagement of California's fire policies be held accountable.

Our governor has been obsessed with holding a special session to "Trump-proof" CA, when he should be focused on FIRE-PROOFING our communities.

Here are a few hard facts about the democrat-run state's failures to address fire prevention:

[Joe Guzel @JoeGuzel]

My focus on the U.S. comes from how uniquely this idea of ‘cognitive benefits’ dominates the discussion around multilingualism here. In many parts of the world, learning languages is about connection, culture, and empathy—not just a transactional skill. It’s just a part of life. 🤷🏽‍♂️👍🏽

[Joe Guzel @JoeGuzel]

@pitdesi Your dad is giving the Braintree dude a run for his money. He has the Fountain of Youth. Love it! 🙏🏽📈🎄