The market you choose carries its own wind, shaping how far and fast you can go.
If you are lucky, you get to catch a tailwind:
If you are unlucky, you end up fighting a headwind:
Sometimes, the tailwind is so strong that just a few strokes can carry you far. (Try paddling here!)
Other times, the headwind forces you to paddle hard just to inch forward.
Wind matters, but how hard (and how well) you paddle matters just as much.
If you are a world-class paddler, the same headwind as before becomes a challenge, not a barrier.
Ideally, you have both: a strong tailwind and great paddlers. That's Ramp.
Today, Ramp raised a new round at a $32B valuation.
The longer I work at Ramp, the more I am convinced that Ramp is a company of world-class paddlers moving with a remarkably strong tailwind. In turn, that combination has allowed Ramp to move faster and further than any boat I have seen.
Ramp is changing how companies think about money. Before, money walks. Now, money can think.
It is also changing how I think about wind. I used to assume wind was constant and beyond control. Now, I see how one's actions and decisions can influence the wind.
Paddling into a headwind is painful, sometimes demoralizing. But given enough time and persistence, the wind might turn -- and when it does, paddling can carry it further.
Just as it is happening right now at Ramp.
But in Ramp's fashion: the paddling is not finished!