Today, 4 years ago -- we incorporated the company. I spent 30 minutes on the phone with Scott Birnbaum at Red Sea Ventures and Roberto Sanabria at Expa sharing the original vision for a money management company for households -- and they both committed nearly $4M in seed funding on the call.

We didn't have a pitch deck, financials, or anything other than what David and I started thinking through in google docs that I shared on the phone. These guys were also some of the earliest seed investors in Convoy, 10 years ago. They knew me well and the magic we could create, again.

They were ready to quickly get the paperwork started and send us the money before the year ended! However -- we didn't even have a bank account. With Christmas coming up and family travel we were about to attempt in the middle of a pandemic (December 2020) -- we just told them we'll get started in 2021 after the holidays. LOL. In the meantime we got our lawyers to incorporate the business.

Pylon Inc. was born. Named by my wife, an art history major -- she astutely pointed out that in ancient Egypt a Pylon was basically a structure held by two pillars (like a couple in a household, with money being a key bridge). Pylon.com wasn't available, but hellopylon.com. Lets goooo!!!

We said to ourselves: "If this thing ever takes off, we'll just buy the domain. If it doesn't, it only cost us $10 bucks". I'll save our story on our attempt to buy pylon.com and how we ended up with Range.com for another post.

We spent the next few weeks outlining what Range (FKA Pylon) would become while enjoying time off with our families. My wife was 9 months pregnant at the time and our 15 year old dog Otto (RIP) was taking a lot of our attention due to his declining health. It was the height of the pandemic and the vaccines weren't even out yet -- so we were working in our homes. Me in Maryland, and David at his dads house in Pennsylvania where he had temporarily moved from SF while looking for housing in DC.

It was starting to get fun. We had lots of ideas and were in prototype mode -- flush with investor cash to go build whatever we wanted.

As January started, we got to work in our home "offices". We called other friends and family members who ended up joining the round and we ultimately decided that $5M was actually too much money to start a company. We said "NO" to some pretty epic investors who would only join if we took a bigger check for them so they could meet their allocation needs.  This is where being a 3x founder was really helpful. Very few first time founders, including myself, would know to take less money for a variety of reasons. It was the beginning of the wild 2021 financial ride that was about to start in the venture world.

Our first order of business was to get the founding team together. We knew we wanted this to be a tech first company -- so even before thinking about hiring anyone in the financial space, we made 4 phone calls on who we wanted to work with.

Derek (Ke) Zhang - He had never done startups, but trusted Dave after working with him at Twitch and was willing to give us a shot.  Dave said he was "epic". A year later, Derek almost quit because we still didn't really have a solid vision or plan -- but I asked him to trust me and keep going. It was all part of the startup process, which was still new to him. I couldn't be more thankful that he trusted me and kept going. 🙏🏽 🎉

Scott Sadlo -- You all don't know this, but being friends for nearly 20 years, I ALWAYS ask Scott to work with me. He said yes to me in 2006 and then has been saying NO ever since. But I don't give up 😊 This time Scott said........NO. His company was just acquired and he rejected me again 🙁. Don't worry - 3 months later I called him and in true Scott fashion he just said: "Ok, I'm in". That was that.

Josh Madewell -- Dave also said this guy was good and fun to work with at Twitch. "We should get my boy Josh". Josh interviewed with our early team and some advisors and we wanted to get him on the team ASAP, but like Scott -- he rejected us!! One of our advisors who interviewed him asked me if he could go after Josh since he was so impressed. LOL. Josh joined Discord. Don't worry -- I persisted. 😊 It only took 1.5 years -- but then in the summer of 2022, I called him again to "check in" -- and almost instantly on the phone he said yes.

Jeffrey Wong -- Ahh, I always call Jeff with ideas. And like Scott he too is a friend of nearly 20 years who also always said no!! But -- he was also always willing to help out. We stayed in touch as Jeff was wrapping up a long journey on the west coast with his startup; and 10 months after starting Pylon -- he said yes, and joined as our Creative Director.

Our first year was crazy. Some of you know this, many of you don't, but after starting this company, here are the events that transpired in my life between January and June of 2021.

• Incorporated the company! Today, 4 years ago.
• January 6th happened -- big day in our country's history. Wild to see it living in DC.
• January 15 -- We got all the money from investors! Woohoo!
• January 20 -- A new president was sworn in.
• January 22 -- Abraham was born!! My first born!!
• March -- My wife was diagnosed with advanced thyroid cancer.

She battled hard with surgery, radiation, and countless doctor visits along with everything that comes with being a new mom -- let alone fighting for her health. The next year was really hard -- especially doing it in a pandemic. She’s now cancer free, doing great and in amazing health! Range is not possible without her unconditional love and support. Every spouse is a co-founder by default -- especially mine.

• April -- The vaccines came out and the world started to open up again! Lets gooooooo!!

My dog started showing signs of dementia. With a newborn in the house, a wife fighting cancer, and an animal that was starting to decline rapidly -- the fight to hold on to him for as long as we could had started. Every day was a struggle. Those who work with me know that I don't give up. We drove up and down the DMV talking to every dog specialist we could find and spending inordinate amounts of money to help him. A year later, we had no choice but to put him down. It was the worst day of my life. Nothing broke me until he passed. Then I broke. I cried for two days straight. 🥺

We moved into our first office!! The WeWork in Mclean, VA. Me, Dave and Scott. It would be our home for the next 2.5 years.

• May -- We hired a nanny to help us while we tried to launch the company, my wife was fighting for her health and we needed all the help we could get with a newborn in the house. Our nanny, in her mid 40s and healthy as can be -- had a minor heart attack or something. I know. Insane. She's alive and well, but seriously...WTF!!

At this point we had barely spent any of the money we raised and investors were actively telling me it would be OK if we just returned 98% of the capital, and started again once all this had passed.

We didn't give back the money.

We put one foot in front of the other and kept going.

We built budgeting tools.

We built estate planning tools.

We built investing tools.

We built tax calculators.

We did what all startups do and asked our friends and family to test our beta tools.

And then we threw it all out -- and did it again and again.

When I say startups are hard -- and you have to be ALL IN, this is a peek behind the scenes of what it takes. Half the time it has nothing to do with the company.

None of this would be possible if I didn't have a co-founder as supportive and helpful as David Cusatis. This company wouldn't be around today if he didn't help keep things going behind the scenes whenever I'd be gone.

He's watched my kid.

My dog.

My house.

He's done whatever was needed to allow us to persevere -- and I haven't even mentioned the actual work he does as an engineer.

Fast forward 4 years and...LOOK AT US NOW.

+ $40M Raised

+ 1200 Customers

+ Millions in Revenues

+ And nearly 50 Rangers!!

There's a reason why I believe we're unstoppable -- and now so do you. 😊

Happy Birthday, Range!

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