In this episode, we speak with Leighton Cusack, founder and CEO of PoolTogether. Leighton was previously the co-founder and CEO of Kindrid, a company dedicated to increasing generosity through technology. PoolTogether is a no loss lottery built on Ethereum leveraging Dai and Compound. Their mission is to create financial security by offering a healthy alternative to lotteries. We explore how PoolTogether started as a hackathon project at ETHDenver and what Leighton has done to transform it into a high growth project in such a short period of time. Enjoy! Notes [0:32] Polyient sponsorship intro. [1:12] Episode intro. [1:52] Overview of PoolTogether and history of the idea. [3:33] Cusack’s background and what prompted him to start PoolTogether. [5:38] Why PoolTogether is better done on a blockchain as opposed to using the traditional financial system. [7:39] What concepts inspired the thinking behind PoolTogether. [8:45] PoolTogether’s total addressable market and target users. [10:38] How Leighton thinks about user research and driving user adoption. [14:04] The challenges in conducting user research given the anonymous nature of crypto. [17:33] PoolTogether’s approach to community outreach and development. [19:19] What Leighton’s experience has been using Aragon and the incremental approach to decentralizing governance of PoolTogether. [21:30] Team breakdown of PoolTogether and challenges they’re dealing with. [24:08] The skills Leighton thinks crypto startups need to be successful. [26:22] How Leighton and the team prioritize their time given how small the team is. [28:12] Story behind how Leighton started PoolTogether at ETHDenver 2018, funded its initial development and secured a grant from the Maker Foundation. [31:55] What about PoolTogether keeps Leighton up at night. [32:56] If we fast forward five years, how is the world different with PoolTogether in it. [33:28] Where you can learn more about PoolTogether. Links Leighton’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/lay2000lbs PoolTogether Website: https://www.pooltogether.us PoolTogether Twitter: https://twitter.com/pooltogether_ PoolTogether Discord: https://discord.gg/hxPhPDW PoolTogether Blog: https://medium.com/pooltogether * MakerDAO Website: https://makerdao.com/en/