Lessons Learned from the Early Days of a Fintech Unicorn

Whether you’re thinking of launching a startup or in the trenches of your first entrepreneurial venture, any morsel of advice from someone who’s been in your shoes can be like gold.

That’s why my team sat down with serial entrepreneur Alex Tonelli.

He knows a thing or two about the hurdles entrepreneurs face, to say the least.

Back in 2009, Alex was a young founder looking for a loan for one of his early ventures, a chain of fitness centers.

Despite the fact he had six profitable units in operation, he struggled to secure a small business loan to help his company scale.

He experienced months of paperwork, endless bureaucracy, with no promise of actually securing that all-important injection of capital, despite continually jumping through all the necessary hoops.

So he focused his efforts on solving that problem for other small businesses in his position.

Fast-forward to today.

His solution is now a unicorn fintech startup that makes small business financing easy and affordable.

In addition to his success in the fintech industry, Alex is a Partner of Endurance Companies, where he leads a Venture Lab focused on building mission-driven companies in healthcare and fintech.

During our conversation, he shared the lessons he learned as a young founder navigating the hurdles of building a fintech startup. As well as actionable tips on product, funding and hiring.

Link to the interview: https://altar.io/lessons-from-a-fintech-unicorn/