The entrepreneurial journey of Doug Storf, co-founder and CEO of Swap, emphasizing his experiences, problem-solving skills, and the importance of trusting.
The entrepreneurial journey of Doug Storf, co-founder and CEO of Swap, emphasizing his experiences, problem-solving skills, and the importance of trusting one
believe your instincts. We human beings are exposed to so much more data that we process. Our algorithm are able to capture very subtle signs that we can describe, but we're still processing them and it's super valuable. [music] All righty. Hello everyone and welcome to the dealmaker show. So today we have an amazing founder. You know, we're going to be learning quite a bit, you know, when it comes to building, scaling, financing, also being able to build a business uh that is really in the financial infrastructure, you know, type of uh approach. And I mean, what they've done is remarkable because they had to even fire everyone at one point. They ran out of money. Um I mean, crazy stories that we're going to be sharing. Very inspiring conversation. So, brace yourself for it. And without further ado, let's welcome our guest today, Doc Stof. Welcome to the show. >> Thanks for having
me, Alejandro. It's a pleasure to be here and share some of those uh stories. >> So, give us a walk through memory lane, dog. Born and raised in Sao Paulo. How was life growing up for you? >> Sa Paulo is a is a huge city as you you know, right? So, uh, it's interesting because you get exposed to a lot of, uh, different situations. Um, I grew up in a neighborhood. My school was in a different neighborhood, um, quite far apart, maybe one hour away. Uh, so that gets me exposed to a a number of different uh, uh, situations during my my myth. um from being with my grandma uh on evenings and uh going back to home uh playing on the streets uh during weekends. So quite a fun uh youth. >> That's amazing. Now obviously the um the problem solving has been with you you know very early on whether it was with studying engineering or when it was about for example uh going into
consulting but problem solving has been a big one. So, so tech tell us about how was you know for you to like where did that problem solving you know approach and mentality where where does that come from? Ah [sighs and gasps] gosh, I think it's always been there to let me let me share you with you a story, right? So, it was at the end of uh the high school and I I took on a a summer job um on this on this firm. And my job was basically there was there has been a software update u which back in the day was a big thing. uh we're talking 95 something like that. Um and somehow on that company all the zip codes got got messed up. So imagine you have like 4,000 um addresses of your clients and you get all the the zip code messed up. And I start and and I was hired to basically look at that zip code database, update the the the files and that back and forth back and forth. Uh and then I
noticed um basically what it did is it missed it missed the zeros on the left right very basic uh software error. So once I I realized that I I I fixed it using Excel and in two days I had my summer job done basically. So I I started looking for other things to do and I noticed uh people were constantly going from their table to the manager's table to use an HP 12C calculator to calculate the the the the payments that some uh client needed to do. And I said that that that's lame. Why why everybody has a computer in front of them with an Excel? Why would they have to go there? So I did a very simple uh template on on Excel and installed in everyone's computer uh so that they could calculate PMT and I was 15 probably at that time. So I think that the problem solving mentality has always been with me. Uh and obviously during the the during college when I was studying engineering that got to
a whole different level because as an engineer you learn to once you face a very challenging problem. You simplify that problem as most as as much as you can. Right? So a car becomes a single dot and uh the whole uh road from here to Sanentos becomes a straight line. So you simplify the problem, you try to solve that sliced simplified problem u with the tools that you have and then you recombine them to perhaps get to the solution of a more complicated problem. U and I I kept applying this throughout my entire life. How do you think for example consulting whether it was at Carney or Mckenzie shaped up the way that you approached problem solving because you had it from engineering but now with consulting you know probably shaped it up a little bit more. >> Yeah. So the synthesis and analysis that I just mentioned they are present both at engineering and at consulting. I think what
the the difference is and what I learned with consulting is to be hypothesisdriven. Um as an engineer you tend to think more like a scientist testing alternatives and as a consultant you tend to work more on a hypothesisdriven scenario. So you basically come up with the solution and you believe that solution is the right one and you you try to prove that wrong. Whereas with the engineer you you kind of test different solutions and see which one stick right >> now for you you know you did your MBA at Michigan and then from there you know you did a little bit of of a rodeo whether it was working at Google or AWS obviously different AWS now than than than what it is today you know but I guess that gave you you know some type of comfort to be able to understand what it would I guess get more on the operating role with 99 which I think that that was quite pivotal for you especially
going through that acquisition with DD that was in fact the most immediate you know step that needed to happen for you to to be able to bring swap to life. I'd love to hear, you know, what what what was what was the sequence of events that happened there and what you think you needed to really feel the safety or the or or or the confidence to to to be okay with with venturing into the unknown with your own business? >> Uh I'm not sure I ever got to that point to be feel safe, [laughter] but but let's let's let's get there. Uh so at 99 I had an important shock uh in my career actually uh because I came as a head of corporate strategy obviously coming from a consulting company uh consulting firm like McKenzie that should have been an easy transition into the operating world uh but it was not because um I arrived at 99 with the consultant mindset set and suddenly it felt that all my
tool set was not appropriate for the task because what was needed was actually an operator even though I was sitting in a strategic role um the company didn't needed anyone doing PowerPoint it needed someone to take on a real problem and solve it right which is different the tools that you have as a consultant and as an operator they're completely different. The pace that you get to the solution are completely different. So when I got there, I spent my initial six months or so uh spinning my wheels. I was like working a lot, putting all my energy deploying all the tools that I had and I wasn't getting anything done and because I didn't know how to get things done. Um and it was only after the acquisition uh from DD that I actually left the strategic role and said you know what let me create something real and that's when I I started working on the project of launching 99 pay a a wallet
for the ecosystem that I got into this operator role that was the pivotal moment in my career when I started learning what being an operator and an entrepreneur in the sort um felt like because I needed to prove my my my my thesis. I needed to sell it to the Chinese people. I needed to with limited resources try to get something out of paper. Um so that's a little bit of what happened there that gave me somehow the confidence. But what made the shift was it was not really the priority for DD at that time to launch the wallet. So I was kind of uh stumbling my head against the wall there. Uh not really getting the traction that I wanted and at the same time I was being exposed to the market and seeing that the pain points that I was having trying to launch that product at DDI was the same pain points that a lot of my peers were facing. So kind of it was clear to me that the demand was
arising, the market was opening up and I wasn't finding the the the right partners. I wasn't finding the right solution and neither were my peers. So demand was arising, the offer was not there and the opportunity kind of seemed too big to let pass. is when you see that huge opportunity and you jump into it. Um, not because you were super confident that you can make it, but just it it's too good to let it pass. That's >> So then what happened next? >> What happened next, Doc? It sounds like swap was born and the rest was history, but but what happened? >> So we basically that was October 2018. Um and it was a very good year. Uh 2018 was the year when DDI acquired 99. So that uh created a lot of momentum in the VC market in in Brazil because it was a big exit. So everybody was excited. me coming out of 99 kind of gave me the credentials to talk to VCs and be a credible
uh potential uh…