Founder Lawrence Lin Murata leveraged his experience with his family's wholesale business to create Slope, a B2B payments platform that raised $77M. He identified that business payments were stuck in the past compared to consumer experiences and built a product to bridge that gap. His story provides a playbook for finding market gaps, building a network, and learning critical skills in non-obvious places.
Key takeaways
- Mine your own 'unfair' experience for startup ideas.
- Treat your job as a real-world MBA to learn skills beyond your role.
- Find clunky B2B workflows and give them a B2C-grade user experience.
- Build your network long before you need to fundraise.
- An exit isn't the end; the acquiring company can be your training ground.
- Digitizing offline payments is a massive, underserved opportunity.
Your Best Startup Idea Might Be Hiding in Your Past
Many founders hunt for ideas in trending markets or tech waves. Lawrence Lin Murata, co-founder of Slope, found his by looking backward—at the three decades of pain his parents endured running their wholesale business in Brazil.
While you use Amazon and enjoy seamless digital payments in your personal life, your business customers are often stuck with paper invoices, manual credit checks, and 30-day payment terms managed on a spreadsheet. This gap between the B2C and B2B experience is where Slope was born. Lawrence saw his parents, quintessential business owners, struggling to digitize their operations during the pandemic. He recognized a massive, unsexy, and underserved market.
The 'Consumerization of B2B' Playbook
Slope’s core insight is simple: business owners are consumers, too. They’ve been trained by Apple and Amazon to expect speed and simplicity. When they return to their business operations, the tools are often clunky and archaic. This is your opportunity.
The First 'B' (The Platform): This is Slope. They provide the technology for a modern payment experience. · The Second 'B' (The Merchant): This is Slope's customer—an enterprise wholesaler or B2B merchant currently handling payments offline and manually. · The Third 'B' (The Business Buyer): This is the merchant's customer, a small or large business that now gets to pay using Slope's modern platform.
Slope’s business model is to charge a fee on the transaction volume, aligning their success directly with their customers'. By moving these offline processes online, they unlock cash flow for the merchant and dramatically reduce administrative overhead.
The Common Mistake: Ignoring 'Boring' Problems
Founders often chase exciting, futuristic ideas. Yet, some of the largest venture outcomes come from solving deeply entrenched, boring problems. The pain of managing B2B trade credit is immense. It involves:
Manual Underwriting: Assessing a new customer's creditworthiness often involves phone calls, trade references, and gut feelings. · Paper Invoicing: Sending, tracking, and reconciling paper or PDF invoices is a full-time job. · Collections: Chasing down payments for Net 30/60/90 terms ties up capital and strains customer relationships.
Slope's solution was to build a product that automates these steps with a clean, consumer-grade checkout experience. Don't underestimate the power of bringing modern software to an industry still running on paper.
Turn Your Job Into a Real-World MBA
Before Slope, Lawrence founded and sold a self-driving car startup, Newton Technologies, to Nauto. Many founders would see the exit as the end goal. Lawrence treated the next step—working inside the acquiring company—as a crucial training ground.
At Nauto, he was given the autonomy to run AI and data science platforms. But more importantly, he learned to manage cross-functional teams, negotiate with stakeholders, and navigate the complexities of a later-stage company. He reported to the CEO, Stefan Heck, and learned to lead through influence, not just authority—a critical skill for any founder.
How to Maximize Your 'Intrapreneurship' Phase
Seek Autonomy: Don't just execute your assigned tasks. Push for ownership over a product, a team, or a P&L. Lawrence was given the reins, which allowed him to learn how to run a business within a business. · Get Your Hands Dirty: He didn't stay in his technical lane. He joined sales calls and design reviews. This is how you develop a 360-degree view of the business. · Learn to Manage Up and Sideways: At his own startup, people reported to him. At Nauto, he had to persuade stakeholders and resolve disagreements with peers. This is the real work of scaling a company.
Your time at Google, Apple, or even a mid-stage startup is not just a line on your resume. It's an opportunity to get paid to learn the skills you'll need to run your own company.
Build Your Network Before You Need It
Lawrence’s journey from Brazil to Silicon Valley was made possible by key relationships built years before he needed them. His acceptance to Stanford was sparked by a teacher who believed in him. His early exposure to the startup world was supercharged by Sam Altman’s “How to Start a Startup” class (CS183B).
That class didn't just teach theory; it brought in successful YC founders, building a direct bridge between academia and the industry. It was a masterclass in both operations and networking. By the time Lawrence was ready to raise for Slope, he wasn't starting from scratch. He was activating a network he had cultivated for years.
The Anti-Fundraising Networking Strategy
Engage in non-transactional environments. A classroom, a club (like the “CS + Social Good” group Lawrence started), or a shared project is a better place to build genuine connections than a cold DM. · Provide value before you ask for it. When reaching out to a speaker or mentor, lead with a smart question or a relevant insight. Show you've done the work. · Play the long game. The most powerful investor relationships don't start with a pitch. They start with a coffee, a piece of advice, or a casual introduction years earlier. Nurture these weak ties.
The common mistake is to only think about your network when you need to raise money. By then, it's too late. The work starts now.
How to Apply This This Week
Map your 'lived experience.' List three frustrating, manual processes you've encountered in past jobs or through your family's work. Is there a 'consumer-grade' B2C equivalent for each? That's a potential idea. · Audit your current job. Are you just fulfilling your job description, or are you actively seeking projects that teach you sales, product, and management? Ask your manager for exposure to a different part of the business this week. · Send one 'no-ask' email. Reconnect with a former colleague, professor, or contact whose work you admire. Share an interesting article or a quick note of appreciation. Don't ask for anything. · Find one B2B transaction in your life. Whether it's expensing a receipt or dealing with a vendor at work, analyze the process. How many steps did it take? Was it digital? If not, why not?
Frequently asked questions
- What is Slope's business model?
- Slope provides a consumer-grade 'buy now, pay later' experience for B2B transactions. They charge a transaction fee to the merchant (wholesaler) for digitizing payments and managing credit risk.
- How did the founder get the idea for Slope?
- He saw firsthand the manual, paper-based challenges his parents faced running their wholesale business in Brazil, especially compared to the slick B2C payment experiences he used as a consumer.
- What is a B2B2B model?
- It's a business-to-business-to-business model. Slope (the first B) sells its payment platform to a B2B merchant (the second B), who then uses it to transact with their own business customers (the final B).
- How much did Slope raise?
- The company has raised $77 million from prominent venture capital investors.
