Dan Eberhard is the CEO of KOHO, a fintech company that focuses on democratizing the best financial products for Canadians, This is his third successful startup. His first was a decentralized wind energy company that he sold after reaching $70 million in assets!
Our conversation with Dan is all about the value of walking the road less traveled and setting your sights high from the start. Dan shares his experiences on how to raise capital for projects of this nature. We hear about how Dan raised capital for his first venture, a wind power company. He talks about how he and his partner grew this business to the point where they were installing industrial-scale wind farms and it was all thanks to the use of incredibly creative ways to get past significant barriers to entry.
Dan tells listeners more about KOHO too, including its aim to challenge the oligopoly model by providing Canadians with banking services that 10x their capacity to save. We also talk to Dan about how to acquire investors for your startup from having no track record to later rounds, and he weighs in on vetting investors and the function that emotional connections can play in finding sound partners.
He makes a powerful case that people with long term goals have a self-serving interest to be good people. Dan leaves us with some final words of advice for CEOs about the value of going big, how to know you’re thinking from your heart, not your ego, and getting clear about the very core motive behind your firm. Tune in for the full story.