Feb 12, 2022On The ContraryTranscript of my Q&A with Seth Kimmel of Contrary Capital — For Today’s Q&A, we have Ron Pragides.Ron is currently the VP of Engineering at Trustly. Previously he was an engineering lead at Carta, AppDirect, BigCommerce, Twitter, and Salesforce, as well as an advisor to many startups. Welcome! I like to get a sense of how people got to where they…7 min read7 min read
Jan 18, 2022Scaling Engineering @ Trustly“Over the past year, Trustly has seen significant growth, both in Europe and North America, with North America now representing close to half of total group revenue compared to around one-fifth a year ago.” — Johan Tjärnberg. Trustly CEO Our Engineering team scaled in response to the growth of our…4 min read4 min read
Sep 3, 2021How Big Should Your Option Pool Be?We’re swimming in an ocean of information about Stock Option Pools and the promise of future liquidity. Each year, a new wave of advice washes upon the shore. Let’s dive right into the deep end… Prepare Your Company (Y Combinator) The market figure for a Series A option pool — by far — is an…8 min read8 min read
May 16, 2021Stop, Collaborate, and Listen.Companies across the globe are embracing a new reality: more work can be done remotely. This trend is not new. Companies like Automattic (founded in 2005) and GitHub (founded in 2008) were intentional in hiring a completely distributed workforce. Due to the COVID pandemic (and social distancing mandates), employers learned…Collaboration5 min readCollaboration5 min read
Dec 8, 2020Be ResilientThe term Black Swan was made famous by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book of the same name, which he describes as an event that has three attributes: (1) it is an outlier, outside the realm of regular expectations; (2) it carries an extreme impact; and (3) in spite of…14 min read14 min read
Apr 15, 2020The Long and Winding RoadMy journey at Carta is coming to an end. I’m thankful to have been part of the mission to Create More Owners: Employees sit on the debt stack of a firm, while owners sit on the equity stack... But what if issuing equity were as easy as paying payroll? …Carta6 min readCarta6 min read
Sep 17, 2019The Financialization of HousingIs Housing a Right or a Commodity? — Human Rights and the United Nations In March 2017, Lailani Farha — the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing — presented to the UN General Assembly a report on the “Financialization of Housing” and its impact to human rights. …Finance6 min readFinance6 min read
Jul 23, 2019Cultivation: Intentional GrowthTo be cultural, to have a culture, is to inhabit a place sufficiently intensive to cultivate it — to be responsible for it, to respond to it, to attend to it caringly. — Edward S. Casey Agriculture — the science of cultivating plants and livestock — was a key milestone…Wine8 min readWine8 min read
Mar 25, 2019Launch: My First 30 Days at CartaI joined Carta in February, and it’s been a whirlwind! But my experience with Carta began even before my first day on the job. While waiting for my first day, I was pleasantly surprised by the new hire welcome package that was shipped to my home. After opening the package…Startup4 min readStartup4 min read
Feb 17, 2019Think Like An OwnerWhy I’m Joining Carta Market Opportunity I have deep admiration for entrepreneurs — those special individuals with the conviction to start a business from scratch. I’m fascinated by the act of company formation and scaling, whether at a technology startup or a traditional local business. One of my favorite local businesses in San Francisco is Mission…Startup6 min readStartup6 min read
