Victor Esteban

To infinite and beyond! Building a better world @joinforage CTO/Cofounder

[Victor Esteban @Victor_Vector]

It feels like the consumer surplus portion is broken now that the prices of everything are going up.

[Victor Esteban @Victor_Vector]

I think we talk past each other because folks look at the same thing but from different perspectives. Capitalism is positive-sum at the macro level but feels zero-sum at the individual level. Just look at how that wealth gets divided between wages, profits, and consumer surplus. It's in the math.

[Brad Gerstner @altcap]

Beautiful & true. 🎯🇺🇸🤍

[Victor Esteban @Victor_Vector]

With better marketing, data centers would be approved across the country

[Victor Esteban @Victor_Vector]

@zachweinberg True! It feels like there's a difference between how well the system works overall and how people experience it personally. When folks see enormous profits they wonder why more of that money isn't going to them.

[Scott @scottstts]

My god this is such a good speech that every SWE needs to hear. You know what? Every person should hear it

Keep the happy memories, eyes on the reality, be excited about the future. That��s the best that anyone can do

[Victor Esteban @Victor_Vector]

@jwmares I'm amused to see this today! Yesterday, my dad received a box of premium meats in the mail. He was selling me on these grassfed cuts that you can't get at the local grocery store!

[Victor Esteban @Victor_Vector]

@harris we love to rewrite the past so it feels inevitable

[Paul Graham @paulg]

Before vibe coding became a thing, programming was already evolving in that direction. It already increasingly consisted of installing and configuring stuff other people wrote, without reading the source.

[Victor Esteban @Victor_Vector]

@omgsidewalks capitalism rewards risk

[Victor Esteban @Victor_Vector]

Okay problem fixed:

Companies that pay people enough to live get tax credits.

Companies that don’t, pay more taxes.

Why should taxpayers cover the gap when a company chooses not to?

[Ofek Lavian @OfekLavian]

We just raised $40M to solve America’s affordability crisis.

Groceries are the #1 financial stressor in America. Food prices are up 30% since the pandemic. For the 100 million Americans earning under $50K, the money runs out before the month does.

To fix it, Forage is building a network for affordability:

1. For families, we’re building a suite of products to expand financial access

2. For partners, we’re building a revenue growth engine by helping them win on affordability

Today, our technology is used in over 100,000 stores across all 50 states. Our payments volume is up 13x YoY. When grocers switch to Forage, they see a 15% lift in EBT revenue.

We also launched the Forage app, a free tool that helps cost-conscious families check their EBT balances, save on groceries, and earn rewards on every purchases.

US grocery is a $1.5T market. We're just getting started.

Onwards! 🚀

[Victor Esteban @Victor_Vector]

@SteveHiltonx @sarthakgh @grok fact check. I read there are two tranches

[Victor Esteban @Victor_Vector]

Money is the most powerful abstraction ever created for measuring human activity but the danger of any good abstraction is that it becomes so convenient you stop looking through it

[Victor Esteban @Victor_Vector]

The hard parts of parenting are easy to describe.
The best parts resist language.
That’s why people talk more about the struggle than the joy, even when the joy is greater.

[Victor Esteban @Victor_Vector]

Seriously one of the greatest of all time

[Patrick OShaughnessy @patrick_oshag]

.@williamhockey is one of the least visible founders in tech relative to what he has created.

He co-founded Plaid and is now building Column, a software company that owns a bank, and powers Ramp, Wise, Bilt, Mercury, and others. He funded it himself by borrowing against nearly everything he had in Plaid shares, and has never raised any outside capital.

His story matters because so much of the value in our industry gets created through exactly this kind of extreme personal risk. He is maniacal about being the best in the world at his thing, and has spent his entire career betting on himself and doing whatever it takes to win.

He also spends a lot of time outside the US (in places like Kinshasa) which has given him a rare perch on the power of the US dollar.

We discuss:
- Why emerging markets are often the most financially innovative
- What owning 100% of his company allows him to do that VC-backed founders cannot
- Getting margin called and nearly going bankrupt
- Why the best founders are specialists
- What it takes to be the best in the world at your thing
- How Silicon Valley's consensus culture produces consensus founders
- How the US dollar functions as an instrument of national security

Enjoy!

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
9:19 Emerging Markets
14:03 Silicon Valley's Elite Consensus Problem
16:03 Rejecting the VC Hamster Wheel
21:45 Equity and Liquidity
26:03 Funding a Bank
29:45 The Necessity of Extreme Founder Risk
37:18 Finding Leverage
45:20 Longevity and Profitability in Banking
48:46 Matching Your Capital Structure to Your Business
51:44 The Unseen Power of the US Dollar
1:02:30 How AI Will Transform Legacy Banks
1:09:23 The Kindest Thing

[Patrick OShaughnessy @patrick_oshag]

.@williamhockey is one of the least visible founders in tech relative to what he has created.

He co-founded Plaid and is now building Column, a software company that owns a bank, and powers Ramp, Wise, Bilt, Mercury, and others. He funded it himself by borrowing against nearly everything he had in Plaid shares, and has never raised any outside capital.

His story matters because so much of the value in our industry gets created through exactly this kind of extreme personal risk. He is maniacal about being the best in the world at his thing, and has spent his entire career betting on himself and doing whatever it takes to win.

He also spends a lot of time outside the US (in places like Kinshasa) which has given him a rare perch on the power of the US dollar.

We discuss:
- Why emerging markets are often the most financially innovative
- What owning 100% of his company allows him to do that VC-backed founders cannot
- Getting margin called and nearly going bankrupt
- Why the best founders are specialists
- What it takes to be the best in the world at your thing
- How Silicon Valley's consensus culture produces consensus founders
- How the US dollar functions as an instrument of national security

Enjoy!

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
9:19 Emerging Markets
14:03 Silicon Valley's Elite Consensus Problem
16:03 Rejecting the VC Hamster Wheel
21:45 Equity and Liquidity
26:03 Funding a Bank
29:45 The Necessity of Extreme Founder Risk
37:18 Finding Leverage
45:20 Longevity and Profitability in Banking
48:46 Matching Your Capital Structure to Your Business
51:44 The Unseen Power of the US Dollar
1:02:30 How AI Will Transform Legacy Banks
1:09:23 The Kindest Thing

[Victor Esteban @Victor_Vector]

The sign of a good restaurant or bakery, leaving with fomo

[Victor Esteban @Victor_Vector]

@IceSolst @DanielMiessler @pmarca so you only understand things if they're packaged correctly? sadly you'll miss out on a lot of knowledge with that type of attitude