Alex Steele
514 posts

Alex Steele
@alexsteele
founder & ceo of opal (hiring, DMs open)

founders are moving out of washington too you guys. to the surprise of absolutely nobody with half a brain (or honest bone in their body)...

Fire me up Travis Kalanick, fire me tf up.


Today I'm excited to announce that @GetOpal has raised a $6M Seed round in just 4 hours. Our first angel, @ianwcrosby, made one call on my behalf when I moved to San Francisco. That call changed everything. I moved to SF on October 17th. The next morning, my phone rang. @xuezhao from @BasisSet was on the other end. I’d never met her before. She said: "Ian tells me I need to meet you immediately. Can we go for a walk tomorrow?" We lived five blocks apart. The walk was supposed to be one hour. We ended up walking for four. She was asking questions to get to know me as a person. Feeling me out for one thing: Am I the kind of founder crazy enough to build a credit card company with no finance degree and no banking connections? By the end of the walk, we had agreed on terms. Today, Opal is announcing our $6M seed round, led by Basis Set, with participation from Founders Co-op, Ian Crosby, and Adam Orser. We didn't start as a credit card company. But our customers told us we had to be. Here's what we've built: - A Visa credit card built exclusively for ad agencies and the brands they manage - Credit limits that reach seven figures - underwritten on managed ad spend, not agency revenue - 1%+ cash back on all ad spend - A fraud system that actually understands ad spend, so Google and Meta charges never get flagged and kill your campaigns Traditional banks look at an agency's revenue and give them a $50K limit. We look at the millions they manage for clients and give them what they actually need. To Lan Xuezhao and the team at Basis Set - thank you for betting on this on day two. To Ian Crosby - you opened a door I didn't even know existed. None of this happens without you. To the Opal team - you're building something that doesn't exist anywhere else. That takes a specific kind of crazy. I'm grateful for every one of you. If you run an ad agency and your credit limits are costing you - reach out. We built this for you.

A proposed “millionaire’s tax” in Washington State would yield the highest combined state and local top income tax rate in the country. Read more: hubs.ly/Q045t2RJ0 #Washington #MillionaireTax


huge biz opportunity for whichever fintech can offer credit card payments and pay meta via ach on the backend


BREAKING: Mathis Roy Vigne, Zohran Mamdani’s new appointee, repeatedly berated airline staff on X over business class seats, lounge access, and even not being served a drink. He raged at American Airlines after being denied lounge access on a business class trip. Socialism.


i just found out chatgpt has a SUBSCRIPTION service?? WHO IS PAYING IM LAUGHING SO HARD RN






