Yanni started building in crypto back in 2013, when you could buy one Bitcoin for $20. At one point, he was playing poker games and betting 1 bitcoin each round!

He built an extension that let people use bitcoin to buy anything, anywhere on the internet. Then he pivoted to building the first on ramp for bitcoin. And finally, pivoted into Wyre, which was like Stripe for Crypto, a platform to let developers build Web3 apps.

In a couple of years he scaled it from nothing to a $90M run rate. In late 2021, he started working on an exit with Bolt. By mid 2022 the deal was signed. The company was to be sold for $1.5B.

Yanni would make hundreds of millions of dollars himself.

And then, at the absolute last minute, the world changed. Stocks fell, crypto plummeted— and the deal fell apart.

Startups are often one call, one customer or, in this case, one day away from complete success—or total failure. That’s the game you’re playing.

And there are few stories better than the one you’re about to hear.

Why you should listen
- Why if you want to be a founder you can't avoid taking punches to the face

- How Yanni found Bitcoin just a couple of years after it was started

- Why it often takes multiple twists and pivots to find real PMF

- How acquisitions tend to happen and why they can always fall apart

Keywords
startup, acquisition, Bitcoin, Web3, entrepreneurship, crypto, payment processing, innovation, technology, business, crypto, infrastructure, product-market fit, Web3, acquisition, startup challenges, fintech, business growth, developer support, market downturn

Timestamps
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:01:50) Getting Into Bitcoin
(00:04:48) Creating a Hacker House in San Francisco
(00:08:00) Building a All-in-One Online Shopping Cart...Manually
(00:15:14) Automating the Process
(00:19:08) Creating Crypto Wallets
(00:26:41) Becoming WYRE
(00:33:56) Making the Decision to Go All In on Crypto
(00:37:34) Post Decision & Down Sizing
(00:41:18) The Acquisition that Didn't Happen
(00:47:33) Learning from All the Mistakes
(00:52:03) Some People are Builders

Send me a message to let me know what you think!

He grew to $90M ARR, was about to exit for $1.5B—and then, it all fell apart. | Yanni Giannaros, Co-Founder of Wyre

A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders