42 min
Changing US Law to Build America’s First Federally Regulated Events-Based Exchange, with Kalshi Co-founder & CEO Tarek Mansour. Tomorrow Talk
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- Technology
Tarek Mansour is the 25 year old co-founder and CEO of Kalshi, America's first federally regulated exchange where you can trade on events, just like you would a stock or a commodity. During his time at Goldman Sachs, Tarek was set to help clients hedge their investments during Brexit, but there was no direct way to do it. In 2018, he started Kalshi with fellow MIT classmate Luana Lopes Lara. After three years of work, they got approved by the CFTC and made history. Kalshi’s list of investors include Y Combinator, Alfred Lin at Sequoia, Charles Schwab, Ali Partovi of Neo, and Co-founder of KKR Henry Kravis. In this episode, Tarek talks to host Sabrina Halper about his experience working to change US legislation to legalize future markets, how different founders in his circle approach fundraising, his advice for other entrepreneurs building in highly regulated areas, and his views on all types of things, including manifesting, receiving advice, and which technological innovations are most exciting.
Please like & subscribe! Reach out to Shalper@hofcapital.com with any feedback, requests for guests, or if you're building something to shape the future ❤️ .
Engage with HOF on Twitter: @HOFCapital and at HOFCapital.com.
Follow Tarek’s journey: @mansourtarek_.
Connect with Sabrina: @SabrinaHalper.
Timecodes:
0:00 - Intro
0:50 - Early life, MIT, learning CS, working in finance
3:45 - Inception story of Kalshi
6:00 - Pitching YC hackathon & winning
7:58 - What Kalshi does and who its built for
10:00 - Why Kalshi ISN'T a gambling website
10:30 - History of grain futures
11:47 - The events that Kalshi CAN'T put on the platform
12:27 - How to prevent people from manipulating events 14:30 - Why Tarek believes the markets predict better than experts
16:10 - Kalshi's approach to building in a highly regulated industry 19:11 - Advice for other companies building in highly regulated spaces, working with SEC and CFTC
21:42 - Tarek's view into how crypto will be regulated
23:00 - Fundraising from YC, Ali Partovi, Justin Mateen before receiving regulatory approval
25:40 - Competition 27:24 - Putting midterm elections on Kalshi
30:14 - Misconception of being a young founder
32:50 - Best advice Tarek has been given
35:20 - What Tarek would be doing if he wasn't building Kalshi
36:05 - Most surprising thing about Tarek
36:40 - What's most exciting about the future: longevity, nuclear fusion, carbon transformation
39:46 - Who would Tarek like to see on Tomorrow Talk next: Alex from Deel, Tony from DoorDash
Tarek Mansour is the 25 year old co-founder and CEO of Kalshi, America's first federally regulated exchange where you can trade on events, just like you would a stock or a commodity. During his time at Goldman Sachs, Tarek was set to help clients hedge their investments during Brexit, but there was no direct way to do it. In 2018, he started Kalshi with fellow MIT classmate Luana Lopes Lara. After three years of work, they got approved by the CFTC and made history. Kalshi’s list of investors include Y Combinator, Alfred Lin at Sequoia, Charles Schwab, Ali Partovi of Neo, and Co-founder of KKR Henry Kravis. In this episode, Tarek talks to host Sabrina Halper about his experience working to change US legislation to legalize future markets, how different founders in his circle approach fundraising, his advice for other entrepreneurs building in highly regulated areas, and his views on all types of things, including manifesting, receiving advice, and which technological innovations are most exciting.
Please like & subscribe! Reach out to Shalper@hofcapital.com with any feedback, requests for guests, or if you're building something to shape the future ❤️ .
Engage with HOF on Twitter: @HOFCapital and at HOFCapital.com.
Follow Tarek’s journey: @mansourtarek_.
Connect with Sabrina: @SabrinaHalper.
Timecodes:
0:00 - Intro
0:50 - Early life, MIT, learning CS, working in finance
3:45 - Inception story of Kalshi
6:00 - Pitching YC hackathon & winning
7:58 - What Kalshi does and who its built for
10:00 - Why Kalshi ISN'T a gambling website
10:30 - History of grain futures
11:47 - The events that Kalshi CAN'T put on the platform
12:27 - How to prevent people from manipulating events 14:30 - Why Tarek believes the markets predict better than experts
16:10 - Kalshi's approach to building in a highly regulated industry 19:11 - Advice for other companies building in highly regulated spaces, working with SEC and CFTC
21:42 - Tarek's view into how crypto will be regulated
23:00 - Fundraising from YC, Ali Partovi, Justin Mateen before receiving regulatory approval
25:40 - Competition 27:24 - Putting midterm elections on Kalshi
30:14 - Misconception of being a young founder
32:50 - Best advice Tarek has been given
35:20 - What Tarek would be doing if he wasn't building Kalshi
36:05 - Most surprising thing about Tarek
36:40 - What's most exciting about the future: longevity, nuclear fusion, carbon transformation
39:46 - Who would Tarek like to see on Tomorrow Talk next: Alex from Deel, Tony from DoorDash
42 min