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OSU NEWPATH

December 5, 2016

Dan Manges

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I’m a cofounder and the CTO of Root.

Root is an auto insurance carrier, like Geico and Progressive. We use data science to identify and insure good drivers, reducing insurance premiums for good drivers significantly as a result.

https://www.joinroot.com

Founded March 2015.

Raised $7M from Drive Capital.

Launched June 2016.

17 employees

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I was the founding CTO of Braintree.

Braintree is a payments provider that helps businesses accept credit card payments online and in mobile apps.

https://www.braintreepayments.com

I joined in 2008 when the company had 5 employees.

Company was bootstrapped until raising $34M in June 2011 and another $35M in October 2012.

Acquired by eBay/PayPal in 2013 for $800M

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Pre-Entrepreneurial Background

May 2005 - March 2007: Software developer at JPMorgan Chase

March 2007 - October 2008: Consultant at ThoughtWorks

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JPMorgan Chase

Moves slowly, hard to get things done.
Opportunity to develop both soft and hard skills.
Startup within an Enterprise:

Built first application at JPMChase to use Ruby on Rails

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ThoughtWorks

Software consulting company with a few hundred people in the US.
Lived in Columbus, company based in Chicago, worked in Atlanta.
First project: 20-30 person team.

Surrounded by talented people

Second project: only consultant on a small project with 5 client developers.

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Braintree

Company was bootstrapped from 2007 - 2011.

Initial clients from previous industry relationships
Partnership deal with OpenTable
Built full payment gateway

Fortuitous Timing

Technology / Mobile
Regulatory: PCI Compliance

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Root

Alex Timm (CEO) is an actuary and spent almost 4 years at Nationwide
Timing

Industry with high barrier to entry
Shift in user experience and trust factors
Availability of more predictive data

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Common Traits

Founding team: domain expertise + capable builder

Product met a known need

Large market

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Hard Work

“Economically, you can think of a startup as a way to compress your whole working life into a few years. Instead of working at a low intensity for forty years, you work as hard as you possibly can for four.”

— Paul Graham

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Questions?

Email me anytime: dan@manges.com