Danilo Stern-Sapad

Blixo

Want to get paid upfront while your customers pay over time? With Blixo Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) never get paid late again. Blixo pays you in full, on time, every time with zero risk to you. 

Want to turn onetime customers into lifetime subscribers? Blixo helps you grow sales, manage subscriptions and invoices, automate accounting, all with one app.

Want to automatically reconcile all transactions? Want real time revenue data coming from a single source of truth? Want to unlock your cash flow to grow your business? The answer is Blixo Cash Application AI and Blixo BNPL.  

Backed by Y Combinator, Blixo’s order-to-cash (O2C) platform improves conversion rates by 70%, retention by 30%, and saves you 35% on factoring, collections, and subscription fees. We handle collections, we extend financing to your customers so you don’t have to, and we don’t charge you extra for subscription management. 

Contact me if you want to offer BNPL to your customers, increase conversion rates, improve retention, and automate your business. :)

Hyperion360

- Built remote engineering teams for multibillion dollar Fortune 500 companies and top startups—many of which either raised or were acquired for hundreds of millions of dollars based on the technology those teams developed.

- Built highly productive distributed teams of over 100 people for multiple companies at less than half the cost of US-based engineers with similar education and years of experience.

- Designed a rigorous interview and onboarding process to recruit and hire top quality software engineers and other technical talent with a less than 1% acceptance rate.

Forbes Technology Council

Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only organization comprised of elite CTOs, CIOs, and other senior technology executives who contribute to Forbes on the topics of technology and business strategy.

Official Member

FabFitFun

- Early part of the senior leadership team that built one of the fastest growing companies in the US, grew it to hundreds of millions in revenue, and raised an $80 million Series A at a $1B+ valuation led by Kleiner Perkins (Mary Meeker aka Queen of the Internet is a board observer and other investors include NEA, Upfront, and 500 Startups).

- Recruited and managed a team of over 100 technologists across engineering, QA, IT, and infrastructure in multiple time zones for 24/7 coverage.

- Architected a payments platform to process hundreds of millions of dollars worth of orders in a matter of minutes—orders of magnitude faster than any commercially available order management system (OMS) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.

- Oversaw the successful implementation of a Warehouse Management System (WMS) in only 7 months.

OpenTrade

America's largest online wholesale automotive trading and monetization platform. OpenTrade offers the only comprehensive SaaS platform allowing participants ranging from leasing companies to corner-lot retail car dealerships to analyze, buy, sell and inspect any vehicle. Thousands of vehicles per month are traded on the OpenTrade platform, including large volumes from "top 10" automotive dealership groups, leasing companies, and auction companies.

CTO & Co-Founder

Joyus, Inc.

Acquired by StackCommerce.

http://www.joyus.com/

"Americans spent more than 200 billion dollars online last year and by 2016 that number is expected to climb to 300 billion. It's easy to do, but not really as much fun as shopping in a store. But a new website called Joyus is putting more joy in it." http://katiecouric.com/videos/what-is-joyus/

Advisor

Kingmaker (acquired by Joyus)

- Co-founded a venture-backed startup (investors and advisors included the COO of YouTube, ex-Chairman of William Morris, SVP of Marketing for Guthy-Renker, CEO of Machinima, co-creator of Farmville, the Pritzker Group, and Greycroft Partners).

- Recruited and managed a team of software engineers, UX and visual designers.

- Created a high performance, execution-oriented environment, bridging product, engineering, and executive leadership to set product and company vision.

- Instituted an agile software development life-cycle to deliver all major features on time for every sprint.

- Grew talent by promoting development of both technical and soft skills through goal-oriented, continuous improvement plans centered around objectives and key results (OKRs).

- Filed patent for technology facilitating a seamless and uninterrupted video commerce experience.

- Led development of beauty and style video network, Marlay Drive, which came complete with a full range of social, e-commerce, and administrative features.

- Led development of the Kingmaker Commerce e-commerce and online video platform (OVP), which is the technology powering an embeddable online video commerce player as well as the EpicMealTime (#1 cooking show in the world) and Weylie pre-order campaigns.

BetterWorks

- Championed analytics, programmatic SEO, and security efforts including website audit procedure, penetration testing, and access control architecture for sensitive customer data.

- Designed and implemented initial database schema and rating system (game mechanics & quality score algorithm) for Vendor Onboarding, Ticketing, and Rating System (VOTRS).

- Designed and implemented core features including the employee management, catering, group messaging, and invitation systems.

- Designed and implemented 3rd-party integrations with Salesforce (CRM), ExactTarget (email service provider), Twilio (automated telephony), HubSpot (lead tracking), Mixpanel and GoodData (analytics).

Software Engineer

Ideum

- Led information architecture, on-site SEO, and social media strategy. 

- Authored financial reports supporting continued grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

- Designed and implemented event-based analytics system to track and display stats for several NSF-funded websites.

- Maintained and extended multiple NSF-funded projects including ExhibitFiles.

- Designed and implemented a lightweight MVC framework.

- Responsible for Linux web server administration and developer operations (DevOps).

Lead Developer

Open Exhibits

- Led and completed development of the open source project Open Exhibits, a multi-touch software distribution platform, in under three months. 

- Designed and implemented initial version, which came complete with user-specific blogs, member directory, plus LinkedIn and Twitter integrated profiles. 

- Designed and implemented software distribution system similar to GitHub with project-specific issue trackers, forums, categories, versioning, comment system, and Wiki-like documentation inspired by the Netflix play queue.

Launched several multimillion dollar businesses—one made hundreds of millions in revenue, one made millions in the first year alone and grew to tens of millions in revenue after two years, and another was acquired in less than one year. Was also part of the founding team of the most popular legal website on the Internet and created one of the most played online games in the world while still in high school, garnering over 40 million visitors per month.

Don't let last week's setbacks prevent this week's comebacks. 💪 💙  Here's to a new week of new goals. Joshua Miller 

"Every third unicorn had an Asian founder."

This is why I started Hyphen Capital, to make bets on Asian founders who are underfunded and underestimated. Founders who have had to constantly prove themselves their entire lives. Founders who refuse to be capped by a bamboo ceiling and instead have chosen to build their own houses. Asian founders make it despite the odds stacked against them. 

The study "Unicorn Founder DNA Report” by Defiance Capital of 845 unicorns and 2,018 unicorn founders set out to look at the “DNA” of unicorn founders, concentrating on the U.S. and U.K. from 2013 to 2023, to define the common traits of these kinds of founders:

- 70% of unicorns have “underdog founders” (immigrants, women, people of color).
- 62% had first or second generation immigrant founders.
- Unicorns used to have only male founders, but this is changing, with 17% having a female founder in 2023.
- 53% have degrees from the top 10 global universities.
- 49% of unicorn CEOs had STEM degrees (64% of female founding CEOs had STEM degrees) and 70% of founder teams have STEM degrees.
- Outside of SV Angel (6.4%) and YC (10%), no other VC fund got into more than 2.8% (Sequoia) of unicorns. This suggests the market to invest in a potential unicorn is completely fragmented at seed, meaning outlier VC funds have as much chance as a well-known fund to invest in a unicorn at the earliest stages.

"The study also found three dominant factors in the “DNA” of a unicorn founder.
1. No “plan B”
2. “A chip on the shoulder”
3. Unlimited self belief

The study found that many unicorn founders were forced to develop a growth mindset, with values, work ethic and ambitions all established during childhood.
Most had a personal story of feeling unfairly treated or feeling limited in their native environment.

VCs famously say that ‘it’s all about the people’, but with only 10% of unicorn founders fitting the Mark Zuckerberg profile, most of the thousands of seed funds are backing the wrong type of founders."

techcrunch.com • 5 min read

New study of unicorn founders finds most are 'underdogs,' and female founders are rising | TechCrunch

CFOs, Finance VPs: Is late payment choking your cash flow? 💸🛑
Let's be real, chasing invoices is NOBODY'S idea of a good time.

The Culprits:
1. Tedious manual processes 😫
2. Zero idea where invoices stand 🔎
3. Customers dragging their feet on payments 🐌

Imagine a world where...
✅ Invoices practically create themselves 🪄
✅ Payments happen on autopilot 💳💨
✅ Recurring billing is a breeze 🔁
✅ You always know if invoices are read 👀

That world is possible! Blixo's invoice-to-cash solution is a game-changer for SMEs.

Ready to unlock your cash? 👉 Book a meeting via this link: 
We'll show you how to streamline your finances and achieve those growth goals! 🚀

Invoice to Cash: Your Secret Weapon for a Smoother Financial Flow 🚀

Imagine your business flourishing with consistent cash flow. The invoice-to-cash (I2C) process can be your secret weapon. As an entrepreneur or business owner, you understand the importance of a healthy financial picture. But late payments can disrupt your entire operation.

I2C Explained: It's the smooth journey of a sale, from sending an invoice to receiving payment. Key steps include:
1. Creating & Sending Clear Invoices: Efficient, error-free invoicing ensures a good start.
2. Flexible Payment Options: Offer online, credit card, etc., for faster customer payments.
3. Effortless Reconciliation: Ensure your books seamlessly match incoming funds.
4. Efficient Dispute Management: Address customer inquiries with ease.

Why I2C Matters: Late payments can silently hinder your cash flow. Optimizing I2C can:
1. Boost Cash Flow: Get paid faster and fuel business growth.
2. Reduce Costs: Automate tasks, eliminate errors, free up resources.
3. Strengthen Relationships: Automated reminders keep communication positive.
4. Gain Valuable Insights: Track data to identify areas for improvement.

Empower Your Team with Automation: Manual I2C is slow and error-prone. Blixo's I2C solution automates key tasks, saving you time and money. Imagine:

✅ Effortless Invoicing: Issue invoices electronically in seconds.
✅ Seamless Payment Collection: Offer flexible options for customer convenience.
✅ Automatic Reconciliation: Eliminate manual data entry errors for good.
✅ Intelligent Reminders: Send gentle nudges to late-paying customers.

Ready to Streamline Your Cash Flow? 📈
Stop late payments from becoming a roadblock. Blixo's I2C solution can streamline your cash flow and empower your team.

Visit Blixo Invoice-to-Cash: https://lnkd.in/g8zentw2 to learn more!
#InvoiceToCash #CashFlowManagement

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