The Brazilian banking system was an oligopoly of five banks that had been around for decades, that were making 25% return on equity, charging the highest fees and highest interest rates in the world, and yet had the lowest NPS scores. So the opportunity was massive — you had a lot of value being extracted from consumers with very little value being given back.
You might also like
He has advised more than 50 startups on growing from zero to $1 million in ARR, drawing on his own experience as a founder who spent two years pushing a product the market didn't want before accidentally stumbling onto what actually works.
Lenny Rachitsky
He repeatedly risked his career rather than bend to Hollywood executives. As one friend put it, Larry doesn't have "fuck-you money" because he's successful. He's successful because he's always acted like he had it.
Polina
One of my hangups in terms of advertising is that I take my ethics super seriously, and ultimately, if a company is helping pay the bills, it's hard to be truly objective about them. What I realized, however, is that it's hard for me to be objective about Stripe anyway. I wanted to be a professional blogger long before I started Stratechery; however, I thought I had missed my chance, particularly as it became clear that advertising was not a long term business model for a one-person site.
Ben Thompson