The Early Bet That Changed Chime
By Theresia Gouw
A lot of incredible stories were written about Chime last week. But this is my favorite: Minutes after ringing the bell at Nasdaq, Chime co-founder Ryan King sat down with TechCrunch.
They asked him, over 13 years of building Chime, what was the most challenging moment and how did you navigate it?
He pointed to 2016 — Chime was weeks away from running out of cash. More than 100 investors had passed. The company was almost out of time, with no clear backstop.
“So what happened to save Chime?” asked TechCrunch. “A single investor said yes: Lauren Kolodny, co-founder of Acrew Capital.”
My partner, Lauren, led Chime’s $9M round — a second Series A for the company. It was the only term sheet on the table.
“She really took a bet on Chris and me,” Ryan said. “She believed in our passion and zeal and sort of attitude.”
But that belief wasn’t blind.
Lauren had done the work. She read through dense financial partner contracts to see that slim margins could become meaningful at scale. She combined her own insight with a ton of user research to build conviction that a member-aligned, mobile-first bank serving everyday Americans could be a massive business. And she developed a strong belief in Chris and Ryan as the founders to do it.
She convinced me. And then she held the line when others walked away. Not easy to do as an early career VC.
“Kolodny saved the company by buying in at 26 cents per share.”
Last week, the company opened at $42/share and hit a $14.5B market cap. And Lauren stood on the podium with the team to ring the opening bell.
There’s a lesson here:
It’s easy to say yes when it’s obvious, when everybody wants in.
But saying yes with conviction when you’re standing alone is an entirely different thing. And it’s one of the very rare moments when we as VCs can change the trajectory of a company’s future.
Thank you to Ryan for sharing this story on the morning of your IPO — most people would have just taken the win and been silent on the challenges. But that’s never been how you and Chris have approached leadership.
Congrats again to Ryan King, Chris Britt, Matthew Newcomb, and Chimers everywhere. And thank you for choosing Lauren — and our team at Acrew Capital — as your long term board member and partner.
