A few weeks back I wrote about the finTAM explosion across the globe. Alpaca is at the center of it. Today, Alpaca’s founder Yoshi Yokokawa joins me to talk about the company and the opportunity.
You can listen to the podcast here on Spotify, or the Apple podcast app.
Guest: Yoshi Yokokawa
Profile: Founder of Alpaca
Where to Find Him: LinkedIn, Twitter
Fun Fact: If you want to hear Yoshi fawn over how great it is working with Social Leverage, check out this quick video up on our Youtube channel.
What’s the Panic About:
Yoshi Yokokawa is on fire — and no not because he is currently living in San Francisco amidst the wildfires. What I mean is that his fintech company Alpaca is growing fast, which is great for me because Alpaca is also a part of Social Leverage’s portfolio. Yoshi’s company builds API’s for stock trading, essentially allowing anyone to build a brokerage and offer free trading with real-time market data. I’ve always been bullish on Yoshi. We hit it off right away and I appreciate his perspective on fintech and investing. On this episode, Yoshi and I discuss the history of his company, the problems they’ve faced, APIs, optimizing the customer experience, and of course I had to ask if he prefers the food in Kyoto versus Osaka. Hope you enjoy the episode!
The Takeaway:
I love when we have people on from Social Leverage, especially when they can help foster the conversations we’re already having on the podcast, like with APIs and open-source software. With that said, don’t be afraid to find those intersections within your networks and utilize them to create more win-win opportunities!
Favorite Quotes:
“Money is super emotional.”
“Opening up the API does not make you an API company.”
“No is 95% of the business. The yeses aren’t overnight.”
Food for Thought:
I’m so appreciative of my listeners and the conversations this podcast has allowed us to experience together. I encourage you to keep these ideas and conversations going even when the episode ends. Don’t be embarrassed to reach out and ask me questions — I want this podcast to be a space we can all learn together.
PS – I am now doing two ‘Panic With Friends’ podcasts per week. Thanks for listening and make sure you subscribe over on Spotify or Apple.
