‘They proved me wrong.’ Investor who passed on Seattle startup Remitly analyzes its upcoming IPO

Maverons Jason Stoffer.

Jason Stoffer was early started his career with venture capital firm Maveron in 2012 when he turned down an opportunity to invest in Remittance, then a young startup in Seattle with the ambition to challenge Western Union by bringing a technical mindset to the international money transfer business.

He was impressed by Remitly co-founders Matt Oppenheimer and Josh Hug, but knew they were facing a huge challenge in obtaining the government approval required to send money to what was then the international market at the time, the Philippines.

“It felt like the final vision was powerful – if they can do it,” recalled Stoffer. “But two guys in a room in Seattle said they were going through an incredibly complex regulatory environment and figuring out how to market in a country a continent away, it felt like it was too big a hill to surround it to climb. And they proved me wrong. “

Ten years later it’s Remitly shortly before the IPO as part of an IPO who valued the company at $ 6.5 billion, as we reported this week.

Stoffer, whose successful exits as an investor include Flywire, Course Hero, General Assembly and Zulily, analyzed Remitly’s financial data recently on his new blog, Ring the bell, with admirable humility in his assessment of a company that could have been part of the Maveron portfolio.

He joins my colleague John Cook and me on the GeekWire podcast to talk more about Remitly, the lessons it learned, the current technology investment market, and its approach to reading S-1 regulatory filings.

In the final section, we discuss Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s first television appearance since assuming the top role of founder Jeff Bezos. Stoffer is an investor in Cap Hill brands, a third-party aggregator of Amazon sellers.

Listen to the episode above or subscribe to GeekWire on any podcast app.

Audio editing and production by Curt Milton; Theme music by Daniel LK Caldwell.