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/