Democratizing One-Click Checkout — with Ryan Breslow

Ryan Breslow, the founder and CEO of Bolt — a technology company that has raised more than $600 million and 18x’d its valuation in 18 months, joins Scott to discuss scaling the company, fundraising, and his approach to company culture. Follow Ryan on Twitter, @theryanking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Scott Galloway?

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• 0:49Speaker 01

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• 1:26Scott Galloway?

  Welcome to the Prop G Pod. Today, we're mixing it up. We're crazy. We're cray cray. And instead of answering off-is-air questions, we're sharing our interview with Ryan Brazlow, the founder and CEO of Bolt. Bolt is a technology firm transforming the checkout experience and has raised more than $600 million to date and 18xed its valuation in just 18 months. We discussed with Ryan how he's been able to scale this company so quickly, all at the impressive age of 27. My gosh, so intimidating and so discouraging that a kid of 27 can have this shit this together. Anyways, we'll also hear his advice on fundraising, investing in crypto, and approach to building a company's culture. Ryan, where does this podcast find you?

• 2:10Speaker 02

  I'm in my home in South Florida, in Miami.

• 2:14Scott Galloway?

  So talk to us a little bit about Bolt. What is Bolt? How do you guys make money?

• 2:19Speaker 02

  We are a checkout platform and a shopper network. And so retailers use us to power their checkout flow. And we do all the hard things around orchestrating their payments and managing their transactional stack. We call it Checkout OS.

• 2:36Scott Galloway?

  Mm hmm.

• 2:38Speaker 02

  And if you're using our Checkout OS, as shoppers go through our checkout, we enroll the shoppers in accounts that are not just for that merchant, but across the Bolt network. So when we see the user at the next Bolt merchant, it's an instant one-click experience.

• 2:54Scott Galloway?

  So isn't the idea that you're giving, you're taking Amazon one-click and enabling it or democratizing it to every retailer? That you sign up once, give your information, and then you can end all that registration bullshit across multiple retailers? Is that, is that a fair explanation?

• 3:09Speaker 02

  I think that's it. They've had one-click since 1999, I believe. And, you know, it's over 20 years later. The rest of the world still doesn't have that. And there's a huge transfer of wealth from independents to Amazon, who, you know, will pay to get a shopper interested and shop will go on their site. They'll get educated, they'll have intent to purchase. And then they just end up going and buying that thing on Amazon. So the retailer is paying for Amazon's transactions. And we're ending that paradigm. Every independent business should have that same Amazon-level experience.

• 3:49Scott Galloway?

  Yeah, I just want to talk a little bit about this company. You've raised 600 million in funding. Your valuation grew 18X in 18 months. What advice would you have? You've obviously been remarkably successful raising capital. What advice do you have for young entrepreneurs in terms of raising capital?

• 4:06Speaker 02

  Well, I happen to have a lot of advice. I even wrote a book about it. It's called Fundraising. If you follow a process where, you know, you build your network, you build momentum, and then you raise, as that momentum is built, you can help ensure a high likelihood of, of success.

• 4:25Scott Galloway?

  Mm hmm. And you've, so you're, you're obviously a very young man. You're 27 and you've built an incredible company with around 10 million shoppers. Can you point to any key moments or any specific things that have helped you achieve such a level of success at such a young age? I mean, you're, you're, I think I would argue, I'm going to go out on a limb here. If you've raised $600 million, you have a company worth somewhere between, I don't know, five and 10 billion and you're 27, you're one of the youngest, I don't know what they call them, mega unicorns when something reaches that valuation. Like, what have been the influences or the biggest influences on you since getting out of college? Or was it college that was that influence?

• 5:07Speaker 02

  Well, I've, I've thought a lot about this. I think, you know, a characteristic trait of not only myself, but the company is activity. We're always going. We don't get stuck. We just keep moving. And so persistence really pays. And the team you build around you also has a big impact. And so I've always taken pride in bringing the best people in the world around me. I spend a lot of time making sure we have the best. We're also very thoughtful about how we do things. Like we, you know, are taking a radical new approach to culture. We call conscious.org, Conscious Culture. So actually, all of our attributes on conscious.org around our operating values, I would say

• 5:52Speaker 02

  also describe how I personally live my life.

• 5:56Scott Galloway?

  And so it makes sense to try and attract the right, the best people, but do you find that it's, I mean, how have you been able to do that?

• 6:05Speaker 02

  You know, attracting people is your number one job. And so I'd say the biggest lesson there is focus. You have to be focused on it. If you're not focused on it, it's not going to happen. And you know, your most lethal asset or weapon that you have, especially early on is your vision. And so we were able to attract top, top folks very early. Now it's obviously easier because it takes less imagination, but we never hesitate to lean on that imagination, especially early on.

• 6:41Scott Galloway?

  You're sort of, I mean, you, you must be sort of drinking from a fire hose in terms of managing. You guys have, I think you have approximately, you have what sounds like around 400 employees. Is that right?

• 6:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, almost 500 now.

• 6:53Scott Galloway?

  500. So you're, you've had to mature as a manager. You've really kind of, it's sort of trial by fire. What have you learned as a manager and as a leader over the last several years running this company? Like, how has your initial view or approach to management and leadership evolved or changed?

• 7:11Speaker 02

  Well, I've really learned what good leadership is. And even a couple of years ago, I would, I would not have considered myself a great leader. Now I know what great leadership looks like, having learned from others around me who I hired who were great leaders and having learned from others who weren't and being like, what's going wrong over there? Is it the company or is it them? And you know, they would try to blame the company and we put someone else in and it would, it'd solve all the problems. And you know, I realized that leaderships have certain traits that, that now I start to look for in myself and in others. I really love this book, Winning From Within. It talks about

• 7:55Speaker 02

  four categories of leadership. One is the dreamer, visionary, right? Two is the warrior, executor. Three is the thinker, problem solver. And four is the lover, an empathetic leader, empathetic teammate.

• 8:14Speaker 02

  And so I find that the great leaders have all four of those.

• 8:18Scott Galloway?

  Mm hmm.

• 8:20Speaker 02

  And for me, I was dreamer and warrior, right? That's my comfort zone. And I was less on lover and thinker, right? And so I've personally worked on those areas, being a more empathetic leader and taking the time to say, okay, and say, okay, let's think through how we're going to solve this versus just, so what we need to do is the vision.

• 8:45Speaker 02

  Those four quadrants have been really helpful for me.

• 8:48Scott Galloway?

  And when you think about Bolt, like, who do you describe as your competition? I mean, what are you? Are you fintech? Are you payments? Are you a SaaS company? Like, and I realize it's, everyone wants to bucket someone and to make it easier to understand, but how do you describe Bolt? Or who's your, who is your competition?

• 9:07Speaker 02

  Well, we're really a paradigm shift of a business model. Nothing like it exists. And so I say, we have the technical mode of a middleware company. It's very hard to build all of our checkout OS integrations. And we have the network effects of a consumer company. And there's elements of fintech, there's elements of enterprise software, there's elements of a platform. So, you know, I think Bolt is kind of a little bit of everything. I mean, really what we're building is Amazon inside out. We're saying, okay, what, what is their network advantage?

• 9:49Speaker 02

  And let's create a network effect of shoppers, of data, of economies of scale with technology, and distribute that in a distributed decentralized way to all independent brands on the internet.

• 10:05Scott Galloway?

  So but for example, does Shopify have a similar payment technology that they offer their retailer or offer their customers?

• 10:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, they do. I would say that's the closest comp. Although Shopify has the network effect and shoppers and data and tech economies of scale, but in an end-to-end enclosed platform. Right? And so that's fundamentally different than us, which is fully decentralized. And so if you think of kind of the progression of commerce, right? It's like Amazon, where you have network effects and scale, but on one website, amazon.com. And phase two is Shopify, where you have all of that, but on one end-to-end platform. And then phase three is Bolt, where you have all the scale and network effect, but in a decentralized platform.

• 10:50Scott Galloway?

  And what's the friction in the business right now? Is it, it's clearly not capital. It appears that you've been very successful raising capital. Is it finding good people, finding clients? Is it the ecosystem where when you look at the next 24 or 36 months and you think, okay, we have this, you must have this very aggressive business plan to justify the valuation. What is, where do you see the greatest risk? Where's the friction?

• 11:13Speaker 02

  You know, for us, we can't be satisfied with what we've accomplished this much.

• 11:20Speaker 02

  And we can't rest, right? We, we have to go even bigger the next month. And so, you know, I think it's for us, it's all execution risk right now.

• 11:31Scott Galloway?

  So well positioned, it's just, so execution risk comes down to the right people and the right players. When you're interviewing somebody, and obviously the company's done really well, like what is it, how would you describe your culture? And is it, has it been difficult to, to try and mature this culture in what is probably a mostly remote environment right now?

• 11:51Speaker 02

  Difficult, yes, but we've been very successful. We have started the conscious culture movement. And so we wrote an entire framework for how to build consciously. And that means how do you take the execution culture of a company like Amazon or Netflix, but bridge it with humanity, mindfulness, and employee well-being and happiness? And so being able to hold those two polarities at the same time.

• 12:23Speaker 02

  We believe those are the going to be the lasting companies of the future. And so, for example, you know, we say work like a lion, right? Not like a cow. So that means that, you know, we want you all in when you're working, but we also want you resting when you're resting. So we're the first tech unicorn to do four day work week. And that's one byproduct of conscious culture. But there are a lot of other examples, you know? We say protect your own time like it's the founder's time. Right? Don't just guard my time, guard your time. And so if there are meetings on your calendar that are not the best use of your time, speak up, right? Push for them to be done in writing so it could be done asynchronously over talking.

• 13:07Speaker 02

  So when you're talking, you're fully present, engaged and in the moment. And I could go on and on.

• 13:14Scott Galloway?

  So how else do you? I'm fascinated by this notion of a conscious culture. I think that's a, it's, it sounds nice. And I think a lot of people would like to incorporate that into their company. So I know that you implemented a four day work week in September. What are some other ideas, whether you've implemented them or you're thinking about them to try and create that sort of more mindful culture, if you will?

• 13:35Speaker 02

  There's a lot of work that needs to be done in corporate culture. Let's talk about diversity, equity and inclusion. That's another big section of conscious.org that we're about to launch, which are our guides on how to do that in the workplace and, and create a workplace where, you know, all different backgrounds, perspectives are heard, where everyone feels comfortable, where your identity doesn't give you any privilege in the organization, where it's purely your qualities of do you execute? Do you lift up others around you? You know, another thing we're big on is feedback.

• 14:16Speaker 02

  If you're playing on a sports team, coach is giving you feedback every day. If you're in the work world, you're getting feedback once every six months. And, you know, it's a super scary, fear inducing situation for both the manager and the report. Cause you've been in the dark for so long and things have built up that haven't been said, right? And so feedback you want to address at the ground floor, nip in the bud. You want to give people real time feedback. And so we do bi-weekly written feedback. We have a whole guide on how to do it in a way where it's embraced. And where gratitude is shown around it versus it being fear inducing. And so that's another component, but we've outlined all of our playbooks on conscious.org.

• 14:59Speaker 02

  And it's open source, so a company can go say, oh, I like, I want to use a feedback guide. I want to use founder mentality as an operating value. Steal it, use it as your own and, uh, and make it your own.

• 15:16Scott Galloway?

  We'll be right back.

• 15:22Scott Galloway?

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• 17:31Scott Galloway?

  So, look, you clearly have an ability to kind of see around corners here and envision companies and where technology is headed. What sectors or what technologies are you most excited about? And would you counsel or coach people to invest in and learn about with their finite human capital? What are you most excited about?

• 17:52Speaker 02

  Undoubtedly crypto, I think, is going to govern our future, quite literally. And we're just getting started there. And also commerce and financial technology. I mean, I'm not saying anything shocking, like the whole world is now realizing that those areas are important, but I've been saying the same thing for the last six or seven years. You know, you want to get deep in crypto, but you also want to understand how to execute in a more traditional, softer sense because I think the mirroring of both of those is going to be where a lot of the future is held.

• 18:36Scott Galloway?

  Which components, when you say crypto, are you most excited about? Is it the big guys, the Bitcoins and the Etheriums? Is it NFTs? Is it the platforms? Is it smart contracts? Like, help us zero in on which part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem you think holds the most promise right now.

• 18:52Speaker 02

  I actually think that it's DAOs, where you can have decentralized governance and the infrastructure hasn't really been there for it to be reliable. But the second it's reliable, it changes everything. Right? You don't really have the need for a corporation anymore or a government anymore, or like you can have fully transparent governance and reliable governance and voting and all of that jazz. And so that's an area that I think is under discussed, that I believe is going to change literally everything in the next five years or sooner.

• 19:37Speaker 02

  So that's all I'd be focused on, basically.

• 19:40Scott Galloway?

  So help us take this one step further. How do you invest around? If you buy into this notion of decentralized autonomous or the decentralized autonomous organization, how do you play it? Do you, are there certain coins? Someone says, okay, I buy this. I heard from this, this young genius, Ryan, with this great company and I'm buying the DAOs. How do I play it?

• 20:03Speaker 02

  Well, it's still early and it's still a little bit of the Wild West, right? And so if everyone knew that this was the future. There wouldn't be as much of an opportunity, right? So you're early. That's the first thing to remember. And so go experiment, go get involved in different DAOs, go get involved in different Discord communities, get a feel. You know, the, the, the interesting thing about DAOs, they're not like starting a software company. They're more of starting a community, right? Or a movement. And so it's going to reward those who understand community the best. Right before community building used to be tied to people who didn't really have financial upside

• 20:48Speaker 02

  or interests, right? It was more social work. Now they might become the kings of tomorrow. And so you want to think about that. And you want to just get involved and play around and be smart, know all the different DAO infrastructure projects, know the pros and the cons, you know, know the tech, know the, know the culture side as well. It's granted, it's hard to make money on that right now. So if you need to make money on something, that may not be your main day job, but it could be your main passion area of, or research area.

• 21:28Scott Galloway?

  Yeah, it definitely, it seems like the idea to elegantly harness with less friction, human capital and IP. And when you think about, I mean, you're an entrepreneur, I've been an entrepreneur my whole life. And I think about just the amount of brain damage. I would say the first 24 months to get from letters A to C are just so much brain damage. Hiring Silicon Valley Bank, hiring the law firm, hooking up the printer, finding office space. I mean, you have to do it, but the idea that you could get from kind of letters A to D, sort of instantly almost with DAOs. I think that's their vision is, it's really intoxicating and, and interesting or kind of a mind meld to think about. So let's return back. Where do you want to be in 10 years?

• 22:12Scott Galloway?

  Or do you, have you thought about that? Both for Bolt and for you personally? What, what is your objective? Both from the, from the company on a professional level? And then personally, what are some of the goals you've set out for yourself in the next 10 years?

• 22:27Speaker 02

  So Bolt should bring all of the power of a centralized commerce marketplace like an Amazon to everyone, anywhere.

• 22:35Scott Galloway?

  Mm hmm.

• 22:36Speaker 02

  So that creativity and good products win at the end of the day and not, you know, scale. And so that's one, right? It's fully democratized commerce and access to it globally, right? Not just in the US, but we're expanding globally. And so there should be one permeated way to transact.

• 23:00Speaker 02

  I mean, for me personally, you know, my goal is to help out as much as physically possible with every dollar that I make. Use it to lift the world up because there are a lot of problems that I think as society we're turning a blind eye to. It's just to me, I just can't understand why no one's doing anything. And so I really want to do a lot of things to help.

• 23:32Scott Galloway?

  You chair an interesting nonprofit that provides free dance classes for underserved communities in Miami called The Movement. Can you say more about that and how you got involved in that?

• 23:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, so it was an idea that I had one day. I love to dance and I was like, you know, dance could really be a scalable way to help. I've taught people to dance and it changes their lives, right? You're giving somebody self-confidence and there's no more precious gift to give somebody than self-confidence. And also dance is very scalable, right? All you need is a floor and a speaker. And so as, you know, if I'm going to donate money, right? If I'm going to donate a hundred thousand dollars to my school's endowment, I'm paying for, you know, just another person to work there, right?

• 24:26Speaker 02

  It was what then are they making? But if I'm paying with The Movement, we've proven that we can teach 10,000 students how to dance for a hundred thousand dollars. And so what's now in Miami, New York, we're launching New Orleans, LA, San Francisco, and then we'll be all over the country, really, in the next 18 months. So free dance classes, removing all the barriers, financial levels, all beginner classes, after-school programs to remove the transportation barriers. We're just going to get everyone dancing.

• 25:04Scott Galloway?

  So you're going to bring seamless checkout and dance to the masses. I like that. Dance. I think that's a

• 25:10Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 25:11Scott Galloway?

  That's a really neat vision. Ryan Breslow is the founder and CEO of Bolt, a technology company transforming the checkout experience outside of Bolt. Ryan is also the founder of ECO, a digital global cryptocurrency platform that can be used as a payment tool for daily use transactions. He also chairs The Movement, a charity that provides free dance classes for underserved communities in Miami. He joins us from Miami. Ryan, congratulations on your success and keep on dancing.

• 25:40Speaker 02

  Pleasure, Scott. Thanks for having me.

• 25:45Scott Galloway?

  Our producers are Caroline Shagrin and Drew Burrows. Claire Miller is our assistant producer. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. Thank you for listening to the Prop G Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Thursday.

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