On the TechTO & TechVancouver stages ×3
Pick Good Problems
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Fundraising with Intentionality
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Entrepreneurship is the modern form of adventure | Daniel Eberhard, Founder of KOHO
Watch on YouTube ↗First seen on the TechTO & TechVancouver stages in 2016. Every talk is searchable — ask the archive about Daniel ↗
In their words
The scale of the problem doesn't necessarily correlate to complexity, and it doesn't correlate to skill. I actually think it's easier to solve big problems.
We have five very large banks — some of the most profitable banks in the world — and we as Canadians pay some of the highest bank fees. And it's those of us with the least that often pay the highest. That struck me as an injustice.
Would you still do what you're doing if you had to do it totally anonymously? If you wouldn't, that tells you something about the relationship to your work — about what is motivating you and what is driving you.
these businesses look very impenetrable from far away they're not they are the closer you get to these problem sets they are like deeply flawed and very mediocre
it's easier to solve hard problems than it is to solve sort of let's call them more pedestrian problems — when you are solving a hard problem by definition a lot of people will not be competitive with that
whatever a life of agency is to somebody it is very difficult to have agency if you do not have Financial stability
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Quick answers
What is KOHO and how does it work?
KOHO is a no-fee alternative to a checking account. Partner bank Peoples Trust is the depository institution and the card runs on Visa; KOHO operates as a technology company on top, adding spend categorization, automatic savings goals, and real-time updates.
What did Daniel Eberhard do before KOHO?
In 2010, while still in university, he co-founded a wind-energy company that grew out of a school project. The team developed 20 megawatts of wind projects — one worth about $50 million — and the company was acquired just before construction.
How does he approach fundraising?
Early rounds are about proving you're an outlier. KOHO spent $1,000 to de-risk its cost of acquisition, built a confidence-interval calculator showing a $7 CAC, published it, and wrote 'How we used $1K to raise $1 million.' By 2020 he had raised six equity rounds and two debt rounds, including a $52M Series B.