Wooooohooo, Woooo, Wooow, Woa, Wow. It’s probably mind-boggling to even think about how many different words there are to express your excitement for this month’s newsletter. Woah! We know, calm down Stacy…
Welcome to the March installment of The Carrier. Like every other month, this edition is packed with the latest and greatest updates directly from Pigeon’s ghostwriter. And this month, you are all in for a special ride: we are feeling fun, flirty (is this PC?), and ready for some spring treats! For both newsletter veterans, and newcomers (shame on you for taking this long to find us) alike: “Welcome, welcome, welcome!”
Now, let's get started!
How many words starting with the letter “M” do you think we can cram into one sentence? The month of March marked many memorable days, filled with momentous moments.
^ Our intern is back, please excuse their corniness.
Momentous Moment 1: YC Demo Day 👨🏫
By this point, everyone knows (if you didn’t know…again…shame on you) that we have been hard at work trudging through Y Combinator workshops, talking to our customers aka you, and developing strategies to further grow Pigeon and this amazing community we’ve built. As is the tradition at YC, we underwent DEMO DAY (*enter dramatic music* dun dun duuuuuuuun!), which is the grand finale. Every YC company in this batch, all 414 of us, huddled together for 2 days to pitch to more than 1,100+ interested investors our dreams for changing the world with our businesses.
Today is YC w22 Demo Day (Day 1). Good luck to all the founders presenting! pic.twitter.com/IDEjUqkBVz
— Michael Seibel (@mwseibel) March 29, 2022
Well, Demo Day for us was on March 29th. Along with founders from 42 other countries, representing every possible industry, and solving every kind of problem imaginable. We are still coming down from the post-Demo Day high, but we’ve loved speaking to everyone who was interested in getting to know us or joining our flock! It was & is invigorating, to say the least.
You can read more about the event, and the W22 batch here. Wanna watch our pitch? We’ve granted your wish below 👇
We did want to take a moment to thank Y Combinator, for not only letting us participate in the batch but also for mentoring us throughout the past three months. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience we’ll never forget.
Momentous Moment 2: The Miami Modern Finance Forum 🎙️
Okay, so we told you in last month’s newsletter that we were hosting a Q&A and party for the Pigeon community, and well we did that. On March 11th we conducted The Miami Modern Finance Forum! To kick off our newest fundraise (wait till you read next month’s newsletter 🙃), we gathered all of the Miami-based Y Combinator-backed startups in the W22 batch (who also presented at Demo Day btw!)
We hosted a special panel and Q&A, sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank, where we were able to chat with a special select group of investors and stakeholders. We answered some questions, we ate some delicious food (shoutout Coyo Taco), and we had many engaging conversations throughout the night.
Here is a breakdown of the companies that presented at the panel:
Avocademy
Building dream careers in technology. Teaching UX/UI design and to help people get great jobs.
Onyx Card
A modern luxury black card membership with a digital 24/7 concierge. Onyx is a personalized and more affordable luxury credit card experience for the next generation.
Valari
Embedded finance platform for LatAm. Valari allows companies to access additional capital based on revenue and issue loans to interested customers.
Finnt
The future of savings. Finnt makes it easy for anyone to earn high-interest rates from the crypto market.
…and yours truly was there *takes a bow* but you already know us.
And of course, you might recall us mentioning an after-party in newsletters past 👀?
Well, let’s just say “what happens at the Miami Modern Finance Forum After Party, stays at the Miami Modern Finance Forum After Party”.
Momentous Moment 3: An All-Star Engineer 🦸
Finally, we have found ourselves an all-star engineer to join the team and we couldn’t be more excited to introduce him to everyone! Let’s all put our hands together, smile nice and big for us, and welcome Brennan Batalla — our new ✨Director of Engineering✨.
Pigeon on LinkedIn: Meet Our Flock: Brennan Batalla
Brennan received his Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rowan University in South Jersey, followed by his Master’s Degree in Computer Science from Georgia Institute of Technology. Prior to joining Pigeon, he has worked at Amazon, AT&T, Comcast, and Capital One. Now, as Director of Engineering, Brennan will be working towards developing every aspect of the Pigeon platform (literally everything). We could not be happier to have him on board.
And, might we say it seems like Brennan is equally as excited to join us, as we are to have him. We shall leave you with a quote, directly from Brennan:
The experience I gained from working for these large tech giants was valuable, but I have never felt quite at home, like a bird without a flock.
Welcome to our flock, Brennan!
Thanks for reading. Thanks for scrolling. Thanks for being you. And we’re out (mic drop).
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