Fomo Co-Founders on Building the Social Network for Finance
What happens when crypto finally builds a trading experience for everyone, not just crypto natives?
This week, Jason sits down with fomo co-founders Paul and Se to discuss why consumer crypto has struggled, how fomo is approaching onchain trading differently, and why they believe social finance is the next major platform.
They explore building for mainstream users, the future of tokenized assets, product design tradeoffs, creator-driven distribution, and why transparent onchain data could redefine how investors discover ideas. Enjoy!
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Intro
03:35 Why Consumer Crypto Keeps Failing
09:32 Selling The Social Finance Vision
15:57 From Niche App To Breakout
22:22 How Fomo Acquires Users
27:57 Building The Social Trading Layer
34:44 Fees, Perps, And Onchain Competition
43:37 Expanding Beyond Trading Fees
49:12 Funding Growth Through Market Cycles
53:14 Robinhood, X, And Copy Trading
58:00 Media And Frictionless Onboarding
01:04:03 The Everything Trading App
01:09:00 Crypto, Tokens, And Going Public
FOLLOW GUESTS
› Se – https://x.com/seyong
› Paul – https://x.com/paulerlanger
› fomo – https://x.com/fomo
FOLLOW THE SHOW
› Empire – https://x.com/theempirepod
› Jason – https://x.com/jasonyanowitz
› Telegram –https://t.me/+CaCYvTOB4Eg1OWJh
› Blockworks – https://x.com/Blockworks
EVENTS
› Join us at Digital Asset Summit 2026 Asia October 7th & Digital Asset 2026 London November 10-11th
https://blockworks.com/events
DISCLAIMER
Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only. Any views expressed are opinions, not financial advice. Hosts and guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.
20VC: How We Got Fred Wilson, Benchmark and Index to Invest $94M | Why Robinhood's Strategy is Wrong | Why 1-1s are BS and What Every Founder Gets Wrong About Equity | Why Taste Beats AI But How AI Kills Org Charts with Paul Erlanger, CEO @ fomo
Paul Erlanger is the Co-Founder and CEO of FOMO, the social-first trading platform building the future of on-chain investing. Since founding the company in 2025, Paul has raised approximately $94 million, including a $17 million Series A led by Benchmark and a $75 million Series B led by Index Ventures with participation from USV, valuing the company at $550 million. Today, FOMO has grown to 600,000 users, processed over $4 billion in trading volume, and is adding thousands of new users every day—all with a team of just 17 people.
AGENDA:
00:00 – Building a $550M Company with No Salaries, No Managers & No 1:1s
03:58 – Why Traditional Brokerages Will Lose in the Next 10 Years
09:30 – Why Robinhood's Strategy Is Wrong; The End of the Financial Super App?
13:05 – "Markets Aren't a Casino" — The Case for Retail Investors Fighting Wall Street
16:45 – The Radical Hiring Bet: Giving Employees Founder-Level Equity
23:40 – AI Kills Org Charts: Why FOMO Will Stay Under 25 Employees
29:30 – Why Taste Beats AI & The Biggest Mistake Most Consumer Startups Make
33:10 – The Social Media Playbook That Every Startup Gets Wrong
39:20 – How Benchmark, Index & USV Won the Deal—and the VC Advice Founders Need to Hear
46:10 – The Future of Investing: Social Trading, Creator Economies & Financial Networks
Selling a SaaS Business: Shopify App to 7-Figure Exit
In 2016, Ryan Kulp made a SaaS acquisition that changed his career. He bought a tiny Shopify app called Notify with a few hundred customers and turned it into FOMO - a social proof platform used on over 30,000 websites generating seven figures in annual revenue. Six years later, he completed the journey by selling a SaaS business to Relay Commerce.
The playbook was unconventional. Cold emails using fake personas got the first wave of growth. Content marketing, SEO, and newsletter ads all flopped. What actually worked was integration-led growth - building 100+ integrations and using Google Analytics to figure out which ones to build next. You will learn the full SaaS exit story, from SaaS acquisition to a 7-figure sale.
What You Will Learn
How Ryan grew a small SaaS acquisition to 30,000 active websites through integrations
Why content marketing, SEO, and newsletter ads all failed for a social proof tool
How FOMO reduced integration build time from 3,000 lines of code to 60 lines
The cross-promotion strategy with integration partners that drove organic growth
🔑 Key Lessons
🛠️ Integration-led growth beats content for niche SaaS: FOMO tried every channel before discovering that building 104 integrations opened direct access to each platform's customer base.
⚡ Reduce integration cost to make selling a SaaS business scalable: FOMO's engineers cut integration code from 3,000 lines to 60 lines, shipping multiple integrations per week.
🎯 Use on-site search data to prioritize product decisions: Ryan tracked zero-result searches on the integrations page to build a demand-ranked roadmap.
🤝 Build integrations permissionlessly then pitch the partner: Ryan built integrations using public APIs first, then reached out - partners were thrilled and featured FOMO in newsletters.
🔄 Know when your mission is complete before selling a SaaS business: After six years and 100M+ consumer interactions, Ryan recognized it was time to exit and sold FOMO to Relay Commerce.
Chapters
Introduction
Ryan's favorite quote and motivation
What FOMO does and who it serves
Why FOMO serves "honest entrepreneurs"
The FOMO exit and sale to Relay Commerce
Life after FOMO in Seoul, Korea
FOMO revenue and scale at time of sale
Acquiring Notify and the decision to go wide and deep
Co-founding with Justin Mears and Kettle and Fire
Running FOMO as an engineering-led organization
Cold email strategy with fake personas
Building email lists with BuiltWith
Why cold email only lasted a few months
Trying ads, content marketing, and what failed
Push vs pull marketing for niche SaaS
Newsletter ads experiment and results
How FOMO built 100+ integrations at scale
First successful integration with WooCommerce
What integration partners got in return
Using search analytics to prioritize integrations
Cross-promotion and permissionless integration strategy
Mutual case studies as a growth channel
Companies with unused APIs
Lightning round
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/324
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email