Tank Talks
Tank Talks By Ripple Ventures
How Failing at your First Startup is the Best Education for Young Entrepreneurs with Reed Switzer from Hopscotch
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How Failing at your First Startup is the Best Education for Young Entrepreneurs with Reed Switzer from Hopscotch

Episode 119

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.


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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.

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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


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