I sold to Visa for $2 billion. I could be on a beach right now, but I’m risking my own money to solve the problem that held my first company back
Source: Fortune ·
Listen to European founders talk over dinner after a few glasses of wine, and you’d think the U.S. is a gung-ho frontier. The reality is different.
From the source
A successful exit brings with it a world of possibilities. You can move your family halfway around the world, back the next generation of brilliant ideas, or never answer a work email again. My first exit gave me that freedom, but also a sense of unfinished business. In the years leading up to and following our acquisition by Visa, I watched Tink change, and slow down in a way that will be painfully familiar to many founders. Ideas my co-founder Fredrik and I used to dream up in a taxi and ship within a week now needed to be cross-checked by dozens of people across half as many departments. Compliance as we know it has a way of eroding the very things that make building in tech attractive: speed, agility, and the confidence to try something that’s never been done before. Growth is what every founder chases – it opens doors and tells you you’re doing something right. But the bigger Tink grew, the harder it became to move at the speed of our own ideas. Don’t misunderstand me — I love…