Why Demand ≠ Product Market Fit | How to Kill Your Golden Goose Before It Kills You | Why Pessimistic Founders Win | The $100M Pivot That Defined Arc's Future | Basile Senesi, Chief Revenue Officer at Arc
When every YC batchmate wanted their product and investors threw money at them, Arc made the unthinkable decision - abandon the business. Learn the framework for identifying false product-market fit that saved Arc from the fate of their now-struggling competitors.
Basile Senesi is the Chief Revenue Officer at Arc, the financial operating system for growth companies. He's built multiple YC companies including Phonebox (raised $500M+), is a prolific angel investor, and owns Chateau Pavo winery in Sonoma.
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
02:17 - How Arc originated $100M in loans then killed the product
07:25 - The warning signs that made them abandon massive revenue growth
10:49 - Why unit economics matter more than investor expectations
14:16 - How to convince investors to kill your fastest-growing product
16:38 - Pivoting from lending to cash management during market chaos
19:05 - Why do the hard thing first in fintech
22:14 - Everything is a funnel: validating ideas without building
27:34 - Building operating models before you have revenue
34:50 - Why startups need pessimistic salespeople
37:00 - How to know when you're building the wrong business
40:14 - Not all revenue is created equal in venture
43:11 - Hire for the long haul, not the next milestone
46:54 - Tactics equal strategy in early-stage startups
50:49 - Learning what not to do is your competitive advantage
Basile Senesi is the Chief Revenue Officer at Arc, the financial operating system for growth companies. He's built multiple YC companies including Phonebox (raised $500M+), is a prolific angel investor, and owns Chateau Pavo winery in Sonoma.
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
02:17 - How Arc originated $100M in loans then killed the product
07:25 - The warning signs that made them abandon massive revenue growth
10:49 - Why unit economics matter more than investor expectations
14:16 - How to convince investors to kill your fastest-growing product
16:38 - Pivoting from lending to cash management during market chaos
19:05 - Why do the hard thing first in fintech
22:14 - Everything is a funnel: validating ideas without building
27:34 - Building operating models before you have revenue
34:50 - Why startups need pessimistic salespeople
37:00 - How to know when you're building the wrong business
40:14 - Not all revenue is created equal in venture
43:11 - Hire for the long haul, not the next milestone
46:54 - Tactics equal strategy in early-stage startups
50:49 - Learning what not to do is your competitive advantage
Creators and Guests
Host
Pascal Unger
Co-founder / Managing Partner at focal.vc We lead pre-seeds in North America with up to $1M: We exclusively back AI native software startups at the very start. Thereafter, we help them get off the ground better and faster, supported by a network > 200 GTM executives. That's our singular, unwavering focus.