A founder's week, with a top closer on every deal

What she sells

Stablecoin payouts for online marketplaces: one API, 140+ countries, in minutes, 0.8% per payout. Plus the free Corvo wallet for the people being paid.

Who she sells to

Marketplaces and gig platforms with international freelancers, 50-500 staff. The CFO or head of payments owns the problem; the CTO signs off the integration.

Sales cycle, deal size, proof

A few weeks to a few months. $30k-150k a year per platform. 14 platforms live, $2.1m a month, 4-minute average payout. No client she can name publicly yet.

Snapshot

"Brightgig has a payout problem it has publicly admitted. He's new in the seat, so this is the kind of visible fix a new CFO wants to own. The problem is already budgeted and in motion: they're hiring a Head of Payments Operations to cut payout failures and support volume. You'd be arriving while they define the solution, not after they've picked one."

Watch out for

"Scale gap: 30,000 monthly payees could be many times your entire $2.1m monthly volume. Don't promise capacity you haven't tested. Have a straight answer on how you'd ramp, and propose a pilot."

An angle in

"Make the money point as a question: 'Who pays the wire fee today, Brightgig or the freelancer, and what does a typical payout look like?'"

"On small payouts 0.8% beats a $25 flat fee, and break-even is around $3,125 per payout. But that only matters once you know the typical payout size and who bears the cost, and him telling you builds the business case in his own numbers."

Subject: who pays the wire fee at brightgig?

Daniel, When you pay a freelancer in Nigeria or the Philippines by wire, who takes the fee, Brightgig or the freelancer? And how long do they wait? We charge 0.8% a payout and it lands in about 4 minutes on average. On smaller payouts that can beat a flat wire fee. Worth a quick call next week? [your name] Corvo

"I cut the line about the platform never holding crypto and the licensed off-ramps. It's a good reassurance, but it's a call topic, not a five-line email topic. Don't bring MiCA up in writing."

Top layer: open, and about him

"Before we get into payouts, how did you end up at Brightgig, and what's the job been like since you arrived?"

"Talk me through what happens from the moment a client pays you to the moment a freelancer has money in their account."

Mid layer: the crypto question, on his terms

"When someone says 'stablecoins' to you, what's your gut reaction, and what would your legal team's be?"

"Raises the crypto question gently on his terms. You hear the real objection, and it opens the way to explain that the platform never holds crypto."

Bottom layer: the real reason he'll buy

"You've said publicly you want freelancers paid as fast as clients pay you. Why does that matter to you personally?"

"We're a small company next to your volume. What would you need to see to be comfortable putting us between Brightgig and your freelancers?"

Don't

"Don't read his LinkedIn post or his company details back to him. Use them to pick the questions and ask them like a person."

What's really going on

"He's new-ish in the seat, so a board or bank saying no is a career risk to him. He likes the product and he's told you the pain: 1,800 tickets a month and freelancers leaving. Test it, because 'the board and bank would never' may be his guess rather than something either has said. It may also be hiding 'you're small and I can't defend you'."

Dig for the real objection

"That's fair. Boards and banks should be careful with this. Can I ask, has anyone on your board or at the bank actually said that, or is it your read of how they'd react?"

"On a scale of 1 to 10, if the crypto question wasn't there, how likely is Brightgig to go ahead with this?"

"So if your board and your bank were comfortable, you'd want to go ahead?"

Once you know what it is

"You told me failed payouts cost you about 1,800 tickets a month and some freelancers are going to a competitor that pays faster. That's the cost of leaving things as they are. Nobody is asking you to move 30,000 freelancers across. We'd start with one or two countries, leave wire and PayPal alone everywhere else, and give your board real numbers on speed, tickets and cost before anyone commits to more."

Where you really are

"This is close. Daniel has stopped asking whether and started asking how. So close now, but close the pilot, not the full $90k a year. The two real risks are the bank relationship manager nobody has spoken to and Ana's team being tied up with a launch. Neither is a reason to wait. Both go into the plan as dated steps with owners."

How to close

"So here's what happens. I send you the pilot agreement today. Ana and I settle the integration plan this week, small and light so her team isn't pulled off the launch. First live payouts in week three, which leaves you two clear weeks of data before the board. Does that work?"

"Say nothing after 'Does that work?' Count to ten in your head if you have to."

If he says "let's wait until after the board meeting"

"Don't say 'of course'. Say: 'Daniel, the whole point of the pilot is to give the board something real to look at. If we start after the meeting, you walk in with a plan instead of results.'"

Snapshot

"Priya is an operator turned investor, not a generalist. She ran product at a neobank, so she has probably lived the pain of moving money across borders and will see through hand-waving about payouts in about two minutes. Her portfolio already has a cross-border B2B payments company and a payroll company, so she has conviction in the area and a possible conflict to deal with."

Watch out for

"Investors will do the sums. At 0.8% on about $2.1m a month, the payout fee revenue is roughly $17k a month. Across 14 platforms it also implies an average of around $14k a year per platform, well below your $30k-150k target. Be ready to explain this."

The core message

"Priya needs to believe that finance teams at marketplaces are already switching to Corvo for a boring, expensive problem, that we win them in about nine weeks, and that paying both the platform and the freelancer gives us something Stripe and Wise would struggle to copy."

The structure

1. The boring problem. 2. What Corvo does, and the proof it works. 3. How we win platforms, and how long it takes. 4. Why this isn't just Stripe or Wise. 5. How the money works.

On slide 3: "She asked about this three times on the intro call, so this is the slide she cares about most. Be honest that it is founder-led today and say what the first sales hire changes."

Get ahead of it

"You can't name a single customer. How do I know these 14 platforms are real?" "Deal with it before she asks, on the traction slide. Say you can't name them yet and say why. Ask her: 'What would you need to see to be comfortable on that point?' Her answer is her due diligence list, so write it down."

What's really going on

"'Come back at $100k' is most likely a polite not-now that sounds like a target. She spent the meeting on the sales cycle and asked twice about Stripe, so the real worry is probably whether this is defensible and whether you can win platforms repeatedly without a named client to point at."

Dig

"That's fair, and thanks for being straight with me. Can I ask what makes $100k the number?"

"So if I could get you comfortable on Stripe and on how we win platforms, would the $100k still matter, or is that the real gate?"

Reframe to value

"We're at $18k a month, with payout volume growing about 15% a month for six months. If that holds, $100k is roughly a year away. By then the round's done and priced on what we've proved. So what you're really asking me is whether you want to be in before that or after it."

What game you're playing

"This is win-win with a small zero-sum core. On the pool, check the maths: because it's topped up before the round, it comes out of your side, so $8m headline is nearer $6.95m effective. Both of you want this deal done, so you can be punchy, but you hold the weaker alternative, so don't bluff."

If she insists on the pool before the round

"Say yes in principle, but the pool must be sized to a real 18-month hiring plan, not a round 10%. If she wants it at 10%, the headline pre-money has to rise to compensate. Either way you're negotiating the effective pre-money, not the headline."

Your walk-away

"I want you on this round, and I mean that. But I can't go below $8.5m once the pool is properly counted, and the board stays at one investor seat. That's a red line for us. If we can't get there, I'd rather say it now and stay friends."

What's really going on

"This is a real objection, not a stall. He lost actual money, and the fear is specific: his earnings sitting somewhere he can't get at them. Underneath it, he's already losing about 8% and waiting five days, so he isn't happy with the status quo, he just doesn't trust the alternative yet."

Reframe to value

"I get it, you got burnt, so it makes sense to be careful. Right now you wait five days for every payment and lose about 8% to fees and the exchange rate. That's money out of your hands too, every single month. So which feels riskier to you: waiting five days and losing 8%, or having it in your hands in minutes and choosing when to cash out?"

Don't

"Don't say 'we're nothing like FTX' and leave it there. It sounds like every crypto salesperson, and he's heard it before. Answer the specific question: who holds the money, and can he withdraw?"

What this hire really needs

"The person who wins this job is a self-starter who has sold without a net: no brand, few inbound leads, no sales engineer holding their hand. Founders usually hire the polished big-company name because they're easy to be impressed by, then find that person was riding the brand and the inbound."

The decision

"My read: Candidate B, subject to the role play and references. They've done the thing you need: sold B2B in a crypto-adjacent world, booked their own meetings, closed nine deals as the first salesperson. That's the curiosity and ownership you want in a first hire, and those are things I can't train."

Test them

"You play a sceptical head of payments. Watch whether they ask questions and listen, or pitch. Count how many questions they ask before they start talking about Corvo."

And a hard truth about the target

"Two new platforms a month by month six, at $30k-150k each, is a lot to ask of someone starting cold on a multi-stakeholder cycle. Check your own close rate and average time to close. Otherwise you'll lose a good hire for missing a number you set too high."

Summary

"Tom spent the opening five minutes pitching, then pushed 'we're cheaper' without a number. Maria gave him two real openings: the Egypt tutors struggling to withdraw from PayPal, and whether tutors need a crypto wallet. Tom ignored the first and brushed off the second. Tom talked for 14 of 18 minutes."

Coaching

"He missed the best moment of the call. When Maria said Egypt tutors can't withdraw easily, the right response was 'Tell me more about that. How many tutors, and what happens when they can't get their money?' Tom changed the subject to security features, and nobody ever got excited about security features in a first call."

"'It depends, but a lot' is the worst answer to 'how much cheaper?'. Better: 'We charge 0.8% per payout. What are you paying PayPal all-in at the moment, including FX? Then I'll show you the difference on your actual volume.'"

Then it wrote the rescue email

"Thanks for your time earlier. Tom did most of the talking, which wasn't ideal, so I'd like to hear more from you."