brandon owens 🪐

Prev @meso_network, acq'd by Moonpay. Ex-founder, led Product teams, w/INSEAD MBA. Into crypto, stablecoin cards, dogs, vinyl & The 80's.

[brandon owens 🪐 @SpareVentures]

@Etherealize_io @zachobront @zachobront sent you a dm with my background

[brandon owens 🪐 @SpareVentures]

@gizmothegizzer @mercury Not sure if they have all the features you need but could check out @dakota_xyz

[brandon owens 🪐 @SpareVentures]

Good list I’d add
19. It’s your number 1 job to protect your users. When a vault or service or partner blows up, you’ll be blamed.

[eric @defyneric]

20 tips for neobank founders:

1. distribution matters more than features

2. personal relationships are the #1 GTM driver (especially in b2b banking).

3. you live and die by your infrastructure providers. choose them carefully.

4. get as close to the underlying infrastructure as possible

5. pick one customer segment and dominate it before expanding (when you build for everyone, you attract no one)

6. solve one painful problem really well before becoming a "financial super app”

7. strategic partnerships are one of the most underrated growth channels.

8. local markets need local teams and local knowledge.

9. compliance is KEY.

10. obsess over activation and retention, not just signups.

11. a strong affiliate program can blow you up. don't just pay a % of revenue, offer great signup bonuses too. pair it with a viral influencer program.

12. banking businesses is a better model than banking consumers. businesses hold more money, move more money, and generate more revenue.

13. an exceptional UI is the bare minimum in consumer fintech.

14. credit is an amazing moat. but also the fastest way to blow up a fintech. play it carefully.

15. open your app as an API for others to build upon.

16. add vertical (non fintech) features to better serve your customers. (for example, one of flex’s biggest customer segments is construction companies, so we built estimates to help them track project costs and expenses.) this increases retention.

17. most consumers don't care about fees or cashback. they just want the product to work. (the largest crypto neobank, redotpay, charges a 3% fx fee and caps cashback at $18/month, yet millions still use it.)

18. interchange alone isn't a business. build multiple revenue streams from day one.

what are some other good tips of advice?

[Kfir Aberman @AbermanKfir]

1/ Today, we’re excited to introduce Lucy 2.5.

Lucy represents a paradigm shift in world models, not just in how generated worlds look, but in how we interact with them.

A thread on what makes it a paradigm shift 👇

[brandon owens 🪐 @SpareVentures]

Breakout consumer crypto will likely have to make similar tradeoffs, less technical, less user freedom but ultimately safer, to support the product’s North Star of protecting & growing the users’ net worth.

[brandon owens 🪐 @SpareVentures]

The winning consumer crypto app will be the one that protects & grows users’ net worth above all else.

[brandon owens 🪐 @SpareVentures]

Early computers were hard to use and well-suited to technical users.

Apple computers are locked-down, with limited customization and (relatively) safe.

[brandon owens 🪐 @SpareVentures]

@glider__ Where does the extra 5% yield come from?

[brandon owens 🪐 @SpareVentures]

@bscholl Absolutely give $ but also give them a job at Boom and a team to build

[brandon owens 🪐 @SpareVentures]

So that’s what the crop circles are for

[Historic Vids @historyinmemes]

The final boss of ADHD in the ocean. This tiny pufferfish spends an entire week flapping its fins to create a perfect seven-foot mandala in the sand, then decorates it with shells—all to impress a single female that may or may not swim by.

[brandon owens 🪐 @SpareVentures]

Never give marketing access to iOS notifications.

[brandon owens 🪐 @SpareVentures]

. @AlexKFine is leading a 🔥 team at Fun, keep a close eye on them.

[Fun @fun]

Modern payments, from first principles.
Meet Fun.

[brandon owens 🪐 @SpareVentures]

@davefontenot Let’s go, me:
- Ex-founder; product + ops + partnerships
- Prev Chief of Staff at Meso (Crypto onramp, Ribbit & Solana-backed; ex-PayPal/Venmo team)
- Led overall ops, how to work & product for Risk -> MoonPay exit

[brandon owens 🪐 @SpareVentures]

hey @willums_ why aren't fees shown before adding @phantom cash ?

i was testing out phantom debit card.

the fees apply area is not clickable for me, doesn't show the final charge on apple pay before confirmation.

tested onramp w/ both debit & credit, same problem.

this stopped me from wanting to continue.

[brandon owens 🪐 @SpareVentures]

@MikeIppolito_ Likely due to a US centric and retail centric view.

The biggest opportunities from onchain equities are from international buyers initially. Similar to the previous US view on stablecoins.

[brandon owens 🪐 @SpareVentures]

Ondo out here casually adding another oh 200 million potential retail buyers of their products.

The retail momentum behind onchain stocks & ETFs is moving fast. It’s just mostly outside the US.

https://t.co/EvAweuIeGS

[Ondo Finance @Ondo]

The world's largest crypto exchange just listed 10 more Ondo tokenized stocks & ETFs.

New on @binance:

→ AMD (AMDon)
→ Adobe (ADBEon)
→ Broadcom (AVGOon)
→ PDD Holdings (PDDon)
→ SPDR Gold Shares (GLDon)
→ Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMon)
→ ProShares UltraPro QQQ (TQQQon)
→ Global X Copper Miners ETF (COPXon)
→ Physical Palladium Shares ETF (PALLon)
→ ProShares UltraPro Short QQQ (SQQQon)

These assets are among the first digital securities admitted for trading under the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) framework. This follows the landmark listing of 10 Ondo digital securities on Binance Alpha in March.

Ondo Global Markets continues to expand access to the world's most in-demand assets.

[brandon owens 🪐 @SpareVentures]

@amasad v cool @amasad & @samuel_spitz

replit envisioning a future where, sure, any AI tool can build your app. but use replit when you want customers as well.

scalable distribution & sales are the final boss of all businesses in the end.

[brandon owens 🪐 @SpareVentures]

@edwinarbus @levelsio Epic teaser gif, bravo

[brandon owens 🪐 @SpareVentures]

A lot to debate here on org design but 1 interesting point is that in an age of networked digital intelligence, remote-first companies will regain some advantages over onsite / ‘return to office’ teams.

Remote forces almost all comms to be digital & therefore easily ingested by a company’s AI.

Then all that shared context is immediately available to all employees to make better, faster, more coherent decisions.

[jack @jack]

https://t.co/jgZkBvYOPt

[brandon owens 🪐 @SpareVentures]

You can try here https://t.co/VimbHPURNE or DM for a high-resolution image.

References
[1] https://t.co/g476SAHMCb
[2] https://t.co/RYDjqggLOx
[3] https://t.co/JxyXpfYFYn
[4] https://t.co/WLMrw6uY6T
[5] https://t.co/Ecr9jssvnq

[brandon owens 🪐 @SpareVentures]

Agentic commerce will look like a cute side quest next to agentic finance.

Autonomous capital allocation, real-time risk management, yield optimization, corporate treasuries on steroids and agents quietly eating ETFs/funds.

Commerce gets headlines. Finance gets the trillions.

[brandon owens 🪐 @SpareVentures]

https://t.co/M3iKbKZPyu