Grit or resiliency is one of the most important traits in modern life, especially if you’re a Founder. Our guest today Reed Switzer is one of the youngest guests on Tank Talks, and he’s been a Founder or Co-Founder of multiple companies. His current venture is Hopscotch , a simple, easy-to-use business payments platform that grew out of Reed’s frustrations as a small business owner. About Reed Switzer: Reed Switzer is an entrepreneur and rising product leader in the financial technology space. Born and raised in New York, Reed got his start bussing tables at a local diner. In his early professional career, he developed a passion for apparel and launched his own brand in partnership with a couple of friends. He later served as Operations Lead for a music streaming startup led by the former CFO of Combs Enterprises. In 2021, studying finance and technology at Wharton, Reed decided to drop out of school to pursue his entrepreneurial spirit. He founded and currently leads Hopscotch, a FinTech startup backed by Stellation Capital, Shine Capital, NOEMIS Ventures, 3KVC, Valar Ventures, NfX, Valor Equity Partners, Red & Blue Ventures, The MBA Fund, Switch Ventures, and Brightlane Ventures. A word from our sponsor: At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves.  The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at anytime. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees. Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook, or AWS every month. New users can earn up to 3% cashback for their first 90 days. The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for companies. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in  24 countries including Canada, the US and many other countries around the world. Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a‍ $250 statement credit after the first $2,500 in spend or a $500 statement credit after the first $5000 in spend. Lastly, all Jeeves cardholders receive access to their Lounge Pass program and access to over 1300 airports globally. Visit tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more. In this episode we discuss: 02:47 Reed’s career in startups 03:46 Using google to learn early lessons in entrepreneurship 05:25 The decision to drop out of school to start Hopscotch 06:49 Reed’s tenacious approach to cold reach to find advisors and investors 09:32 The decision to bring on more seasoned Co-Founders and advisors 10:53 Why business payments was such an exciting field to explore 12:49 How Hopscotch is aiming to be Venmo for businesses 14:28 The difference between Hopscoth and its competition 15:41 What the Hopscotch Risk Score is 16:15 The Hopscotch business model 16:49 Long term vision for Hopscotch 18:29 How Hopscotch leverages its data 20:25 Dealing with competition in FinTech and SaaS 21:46 Who the ideal customer is for Hopscotch 22:52 Who Hopscotch is currently serving 24:42 How they are dealing with higher interest rates and protecting their business 25:51 Best ways they are attracting customers 28:03 Plans for their recent fundraise Fast Favorites: 🎙- Favorite Podcast: Joe Rogan Experience 📰- Favorite Newsletter/Blog: Lenny’s newsletter 📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: Apple watch 📈-  Favorite New Trend: Hiking 📚- Favorite Book: Ryan Breslow - Guide to Fundraising 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: Everything happens for a reason Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here! Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency