cclayporter

President and cofounder, Metal.

[cclayporter @cclayporter]

@RachaelRad @bzlwang It’s very much mutual, Rachael. Working with you is a gift.

[Loong @bzlwang]

Hello, world. After a little time away, I am stoked to announce that I am back…

and teaming up with the amazing @cclayporter to build @metalntwx: the global settlement network for the future of regulated, tokenized, agentic finance.

Six months ago to the day, I was introduced to @awxjack. What started as a discussion about stablecoins has since expanded to a much bigger vision: global infrastructure for tokenized financial products.

Now, I am excited to share that @airwallex and Capital49 have co-led our seed round, and as part of its investment, Airwallex has joined Metal as our first design partner.

Airwallex will bring the most extensive network of local payment rails — covering 200 countries and 90 currencies — to tokenized financial products: stablecoins, tokenized bank deposits, money markets, securities, and much more.

[Jack Zhang @awxjack]

Excited to work with @bzlwang (a fellow Aussie!) and @cclayporter as a design partner to @metalntwx, a Layer-1 blockchain designed for compliant global settlement at scale.

Filling an important gap in infrastructure purpose built for licensed financial institutions to move and settle stablecoins securely, efficiently, and within regulated global frameworks. Follow this team 👇

[cclayporter @cclayporter]

@FDavidsonT Norway.

[cclayporter @cclayporter]

@businessbarista AI-native

[cclayporter @cclayporter]

@RachaelRad Happy for you, @RachaelRad! And congrats, @awxjack.

[cclayporter @cclayporter]

@bgurley @altcap It was an awesome run. I especially loved the insights you brought back from your recent trip to China. Keep running down your dreams!

[cclayporter @cclayporter]

@bgurley Congrats, @bgurley! Ordered, and I plan on reading it with my son.

[cclayporter @cclayporter]

@FitFounder Oura.

[cclayporter @cclayporter]

@bgurley @kevinweil This was a great ep. @kevinweil is a world-class leader. Looking forward to OpenAI’s exponential impact with him at the product helm (along with the hundreds of others, as he mentioned, who are all world class at what they do).

[cclayporter @cclayporter]

@fidjissimo @chrisfralic @OpenAI @sama @Instacart How exciting, @fidjissimo! Wishing you the best.

[cclayporter @cclayporter]

@kylezink Thinking of you, Kyle. Stay safe. ❤️

[cclayporter @cclayporter]

@ProveIdentity partnering with @Uber for verified riders.

Bloomberg: " US riders whose identities are verified — either automatically using partners like Prove or manually uploading documents — will receive a blue badge that’s visible to drivers." https://t.co/aJJJeEXy0c.

[cclayporter @cclayporter]

@kevinweil @OpenAI @thefriley Love! Have so much fun.

[cclayporter @cclayporter]

@thefriley @OpenAI @DigEconLab @Walmart @Consensys Congratulations, Sarah!

[cclayporter @cclayporter]

@benln Would love it!

[cclayporter @cclayporter]

Exactly how I feel about the remote work era and RTO.

[Andy Dunn @dunn]

Recently we moved at our company to 5 days a week in-person, all day every day for everyone.

We had to 100% change out personnel on a small team. Everyone leaving had an offer to move and 90 days of severance if they didn't want to.

With nothing but gratitude to the people that got us here, we ended up with a full re-build.

It's changed everything. Not because the quality of the team has increased -- it was sky high in both eras -- but because the nature of the day-to-day motion at the startup has completely changed.

- everyone who works at the company (5 people) says they love their job; this includes me
- we're moving 2-3x faster in terms of rate of iteration, which according to at least one friend is one of the top two drivers of startup success along with outlier levels of resistance and grit (rate of iteration credit: Ellie Bharmasel; outlier resilience by several standard deviations credit: @sama).

Personally speaking:th rough the remote and remote/hybrid era, I now look back as being like a wooly mammoth -- frozen in amber.

I was frozen. Stuck. Not even aware that I wasn't professionally full alive.

Now: the spontaneity, socializing, team lunches, feedback, long 1:1's, white-boarding, cross-functional banter, camaraderie... it's like black and white has moved to color. The wooly mammoth is dancing again.

I don't think this would have been possible if we hadn't been re-building a very small team from the ground-up. I do think there is work life balance magic in remote and remote/hybrid, particularly for people juggling work and family.

That said -- for our young people -- which now comprises the majority of our work force at pie (<30), this is the experience of mentorship that they deserve, just as anyone >30 already had as the foundational stage of our careers.

To be clear: I also respect the sh-t out of entrepreneurs who have made remote hybrid or fully remote work -- like Erik Allebest at https://t.co/GuY9tbBdoc -- who has done it for 16 years.

That said, now that I am having this experience, I am deeply skeptical of the cohort of overvalued startups that were launched between 2020-2022. I have no idea how you find product-market fit and a revenue drivetrain, let alone build a retentive and talent-dense high performing culture, without being in-person. Maybe depends on the kind of company.

I just want to be a counterpoint on remote. And a counterpoint that going all-in on return to office is all bad. I do recognize that at some companies and startups this would be a full revolt. And that it would require human stresses and costs of restructuring. I do also want to recognize that the answer is very different for cultures that were already formed pre-pandemic.

But if you're building a startup, and it started during the pandemic, and you are remote or remote-hybrid, I want to share that at least at one little company in Chicago, we are having the time of our lives.

Full love and support to everyone out there, however you're doing it.

Let's build.

[cclayporter @cclayporter]

@fidjissimo -- an incredible commitment to leadership and vision to land @Instacart today. Brava!

And right on, @juliahartz.

[Julia Hartz @juliahartz]

Five straight quarters of profitability within two years of taking over a company. Pretty damn impressive. Congratulations to @fidjissimo and team on taking @Instacart public today!

[cclayporter @cclayporter]

@ElizabethJSays @chrismichel Thank you, @ElizabethJSays.

[cclayporter @cclayporter]

@MaggieMenderski Yes. Twice. For serving as Attorney General in the state’s youth assembly, and for representing Kentucky at Girls’ Nation.