Ep 52: Kendrick Nguyen (Co-Founder of Republic) - on Creating the Amazon of Private Investing

Kendrick Nguyen is the co-founder & CEO of Republic - one of the US’s top equity crowdfunding platforms where over USD$ 100 million has already been raised in just 2021 alone. And boasts a heavily curated list of startups that, according to Kendrick, is harder to get into than Harvard! Before Republic, Kendrick was a trading and securities lawyer at Wall Street. Knowing that this wasn’t for him, he eventually transitioned into becoming a Stanford teaching fellow and COO of Kanbar Enterprises. He later became the General Counsel of Angellist (also its first non-engineering hire!) and simultaneously spearheaded Angellist’s expansion into Canada and Europe and the launch of various products. That is, until the JOBS Act passed, which changed the investment landscape and allowed non-accredited investors (i.e. anyone regardless of net worth) invest in startups. With the blessing (and investment!) of Angellist before him, Kendrick decided to launch his own startup, Republic, with the ultimate aim of becoming the Amazon of private investing. Where anyone can invest in the next potential Uber or Airbnb for as little as $10. Highlights: 3:26 Studying neuroscience & law at Berkeley and Oxford 4:38 Becoming a securities & patent litigator 7:20 Becoming a teaching fellow at Stanford University 11:48 Joining AngelList as its General Counsel & first non-engineering hire 14:22 The JOBS Act 16:04 The vision for Republic to become the Amazon of private investing 17:51 Telling the AngelList board that he wanted to quit & launch his own startup 19:46 Getting 2 investments out of 250 VCs in 8 months 25:12 Republic’s curation process 28:25 The different lens between Republic and VCs 31:38 Allowing a 12-year-old founder to raise funds on Republic?! 34:48 Getting deal flow 37:43 Why startups would raise on Republic & not from other VCs 39:47 Republic’s business model 42:12 Hallmarks of successful campaigns on Republic 43:53 How Sahil Lavingia (founder of Gumroad) raised USD $5 million in 12 hours from just under 7,000 investors 45:51 How founders can activate their community 51:06 Distinguishing Republic from other competitors 52:54 Republic Notes - launching Republic’s own digital tokens 54:29 Partnership with Meet the Drapers television show 1:00:21 Use of Republic’s recent $36 million for Series A 📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/52 💌  Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605