From Hedge Funds to $100M+ Startup Founder

Hey, Justin here, and welcome to Just Go Grind, a newsletter sharing the lessons, tactics, and stories of world-class founders! Premium subscribers get full access to this newsletter, exclusive events, event discounts, and more.

Presales for Newsletter Founder, the course & community I created with Daniel Berk from Beehiiv (The platform I use to send these emails) are officially LIVE!!

We want to help take you from 0 to 1 and beyond with a newsletter.

Not only are we sharing our insights from operating newsletters with tens of thousands of subscribers...

We're building a community to actually make sure you get help building yours.

This course & community is for creators, founders, and marketers who want to build, grow, and monetize a newsletter.

Whether you're just starting or already have traction, the course gives you a clear roadmap.

And, since many Just Go Grind subscribers are founders, you’ll also learn how to leverage a newsletter to grow your non-media business.

Super excited to see where this goes!

Let me know if you have any questions 😊 

More to come soon, but the presale ends April 30th.

Everett Cook’s dream was to start a company.

Even before Rho, he’d always loved markets and finance. So much so that he interned for the Mike Bloomberg, where he got to learn from one of the best entrepreneurs in the world.

Then he spent a decade as Portfolio Manager at multiple macro hedge funds, and had the time of his life.

But still, there was something missing. Something of his own.

So when he got tired of waiting for the ‘spark of opportunity’, he decided to go look for it himself.

That was the start of Rho, the fintech that quickly became a key player in the business finance world.

Listen to Everett Cook’s interview on Spotify, YouTube or Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to our sponsor:

Rho - A business banking platform, purpose-built for startups.

Let’s dive in.

Rho is a business banking platform, purpose-built for startups and they work with everyone from two-person YC startups with world-changing ideas to publicly-traded enterprises.

With Rho, founders get:

• A single pane of glass they can use to run and scale their business from Day 1: Bank account, corporate cards to start running – and expense management, bill pay automation, and accounting to help you move fast as you scale.

• The big thing with Rho: Every customer has a "person" at Rho. 24/7 customer support - phone, text, email - they will be there at every critical milestone in your startup's journey.

To learn why startups choose Rho, visit www.rho.co today.

• In the lead up to Rho’s beginnings, Everett quit his job and took 90 days to himself, with the sole purpose of brainstorming. Three months, focused entirely on his soon-to-be startup gave him enough clarity to come up with the best idea, the one that later turned into Rho.

• Rho takes a holistic approach to banking — one system for all operations; this way making banking frictionless for organizations. This view was unique at the time in the finance world, and guaranteed market opportunity.

• Rho’s mission is to be the best partner in the space. Whether it's bank partners, commercial collaborators, accounting firms, or even customers, Rho views every relationship as a priority — not just in words, but in action. For Rho, partnership means putting people first.

• Everett highlights how important community has been in regard to customer discovery and acquisition. Doing meetups, panels, Lunch&Learn’s and anything that can add value to the community is a great way to build a platform and get people talking about your product.

• At Rho, they believe human interaction to be pivotal in the workspace as it helps build more transparent and empathetic teams, both with each other and with customers. Even in early post-pandemic days, when remote had turned into the new norm, they took in-person teams as a competitive advantage for Rho; something that, to this day, sets them apart from competitors.

• Rho’s a customer-focused company, not a competitor-focused one. They’re committed to their mission—giving each and every customer the best possible banking experience. But that, in and of itself, is what makes them stand out in the market. Paradoxically, not obsessing over competition is exactly what gives them the competitive edge.

• When raising capital, Everett’s advice is to keep your mentality strong and your approach soft. VC’s appreciate building respectful and trustworthy connections with founders, while confidence always helps make the vision clearer.

• What’s helped Everett grow as a founder is approaching life with a growth and learning mindset. Whether it’s reading books, listening to people’s stories, or asking questions about the ever-evolving world around you, these habits shape better leaders—and that growth inevitably reflects in the company they build.

Listen to Everett Cook’s interview on Spotify, YouTube or Apple Podcasts.

00:00 What’s coming in the episode…

01:18 Introduction

02:14 The start of Rho

04:14 Everett’s background

9:53 Decision-making in the early days of Rho

14:50 Partnering with banks

17:48 Growth in the early days

20:44 Building community

25:19 Rho’s competition

27:10 How does Rho get feedback

29:16 Rho’s target and non-target market

31:29 The SVB crisis and other challenges

35:22 Hiring in-person vs remote

38:15 Raising capital

47:43 Everett as a founder

54:47 Visit Rho.co

Best,
Justin

Founder of Just Go Grind

P.S. Hiring? Check out the team at Athyna