Transcript
A (0:00)
Foreign.
B (0:08)
Welcome to Coruscant Technologies, home of the Digital Executive podcast. Do you work in emerging tech? Working on something innovative? Maybe an entrepreneur? Apply to be a guest at www.corazon.com brand welcome to the Digital Executive. Today's guest is Jeff Mahoney. Jeff Mahoney is a serial entrepreneur, investor and the founder and chief architect of Wright, a purpose built layer one blockchain designed for institutional grade performance and compliance. With more than two decades of experience leading innovation across fintech, data infrastructure and emerging technologies, Jeff Mahoney has founded and invested in over 30 companies spanning financial technology, digital identity and decentralized systems. Before Wright, Jeff built Save Daily, one of the earliest fintech platforms enabling micro investing through white labeled cloud based solutions years before the concept became mainstream. His work consistently bridges traditional finance and cutting edge technology, guided by a belief that complex systems should empower, not burden their users. Well, good afternoon Jeff. Welcome to the show.
A (1:16)
I appreciate you having me Brian. Thank you.
B (1:18)
Absolutely my friend. I appreciate it and taking the time. You're in la, Los Angeles, California. I'm in Kansas City and we're just a couple hours apart. But again, I appreciate you making the calendars work. So Jeff, you founded invested in more than 30 companies across fintech, digital identity and decentralized systems. What patterns have you seen that consistently separate successful innovation from hype driven failure in emerging tech?
A (1:46)
It's a great question. I think what most people are doing is they're solving Stone's future problems, not solving today's problem. They're looking to create behavioral changes rather than work in concert with existing behaviors. When you see that, you know that it's mostly hype because it won't succeed. Changing people's behaviors is tremendously difficult and incredibly cost inefficient. So when you're looking at solutions, particularly the way that I do, I'm trying to see if there's a real world setting today that doesn't require the participants in that solution to change their behaviors. If it does, then I know it's mostly going to be high. There might be some abundance behind it that will increase that hype, but ultimately that solution will fail. So those are the main things that I'm looking for when I'm investing in different companies. But I'm also looking for something that's coming out in sort of a narrow path. Right. Does it look like it's actually going to solve a specific lane or is it trying to be a solution for all problems? And what we find is there's always a series of solutions out there that are created usually by younger folks who have this grandiose vision about all the possible problems that they're going to solve this instead of staying in one lane. And when you find the seasoned veteran, they're usually solving a singular problem. They're looking at something that has meaning to the constituents that they're serving and trying to solve that particular problem not at the symptom level, but at the core level. So the difference for me when I look at different companies to determine height versus reality is those are the key factors. If you're trying to switch behaviors, it's a no go. If you're looking at too expansive, it's a no go. If you're trying to solve a future problem instead of today's problem, it's a no go. So there's a lot of different ways that we can evaluate those companies, but those are the primary ways that we're looking at it.
