Today, I'm sharing three courses of conversation and food with my friend Neha Govindraj. She is the founder of Bonside, a financing platform for brick-and-mortar businesses. The way it works: if you're a physical retail business looking to expand, you get access to growth capital from Bonside that you pay back based on your business's income and performance. In other words, you share a percentage of your monthly revenue rather than paying a guaranteed interest rate.

It's flexible payback, an upgrade over the traditional solutions of fixed payment loans. And for investors who want access to this asset class, Bonside is their solution: they get to invest in vetted, emerging small businesses, and get monthly payouts as if they were an owner.

Beyond the literals, Neha is a huge believer in the future of brick-and-mortar, and it's one of the more interesting parts of our conversation.

We also get into the tough stuff of foundership -- like building a sales muscle, dealing with competitors and comparisons, decision fatigue, and so much more.

It's three courses of conversation: Neha's unique market insights, mutual founder therapy, and her strengths and weaknesses (fueled by conversations I had with her founder friends).

This is Three Course Founders, Episode 003: Scurry Like a Swan, with Neha Govindraj of Bonside.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intros and welcome

02:15 - Bonside and adjacent businesses

12:41 - Industry insight fueling Neha

22:33 - Founders need a sales muscle

31:26 - Selling something new with Bonside

42:09 - Neha's friends give us the gossip

59:40 - Goodbyes!

My mission with this show is to have deeper conversations with people trying to change the way the earth spins -- to follow my own curiosity, and help me and you better understand how the world works and how to move with more intention. I'm Sherveen Mashayekhi, founder and CEO of venture-backed Free Agency, and I'm an angel investor & startup super-nerd.

Subscribe and stay tuned for the next episode! Weekly on Thursdays.

Inspired by Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, and all of the bad startup podcasts out there.

Follow:

Sherveen Mashayekhi: https://x.com/sherveen

Neha Govindraj: https://x.com/nehagov

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