Before Alek Koenig launched Settle, he wanted to be sure of two things: Was he solving an actual problem and was he the right person to solve it? Those two questions were key to ensuring product-market fit and founder-market fit, and ultimately, key to finding investors. It turns out Settle is solving a major pain point for startups in desperate need of working capital, and with his extensive background in credit risk and lending, he was the right man for the job. In this episode, he shares how he developed the product, how it solves a critical need for most startups, and how he navigated a successful Series B funding round. We discuss: The importance of interviewing customers to uncover pain points Why you should look at your company and yourself through the lens of an investor How Settle attracted the first 30 customers Advice for hiring and choosing the right investor This discussion with Alek Koenig was taken from our show Startup Success. Find Alek on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/alek-koenig and visit settle.com. If you want to hear more episodes like this one, check us out on Apple Podcasts. If you don’t use Apple Podcasts, you can find every episode here. Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Startup Success in your favorite podcast player.