Samuel Poirier - Adventures of a Serial Entrepreneur

the talktank

Introducing our new, limited, mini-series founded by alumni talktank member Ksenia Kutuzova...

Founder Friday - Samuel Poirier

Hosted by Ksenia Kutuzova

The guest is Sam Poirier, Forbes 30 Under 30, serial entrepreneur (founding his first business at 14!) and founder of Mercantile, a credit card startup that offers rewards to small medical practitioners. 💳

Mercantile recently raised Series A funding at a $75 million valuation.

He was the recipient of the Peter Thiel’s scholarship which is a scholarship granted to people to build a startup instead of going to university.

https://www.forbes.com/profile/samuel-f-poirier/

Timestamps:

0:50 - Who is Samuel Poirier?

2:10 - Sam Poirier in his own words

2:41 - Courage built vs naturally-born

3:45 - Being taken seriously as a young entrepreneur

5:06 - The death of crypto?

6:30 - Sam’s innovation framework

7:59 - Strategic fit: the key to successful entrepreneurship

9:40 - The 70% margin rule

10:33 - Trend-following vs relevancy

11:03 - All about pricing power

12:09 - How does Mercantile help small businesses?

15:00 - The major perks of co-branding

16:51 - How does Mercantile make money?

17:50 - From funeral homes and medical to beyond…

19:28 - Sam’s cold email and coffee chat quota

21:04 - Startup tunnel vision

22:36 - Where to find business ideas

23:00 - If Sam could change one thing about society, what would it be?

24:33 - Sam’s book recommendations for entrepreneurs

26:47 - Napoleon: an underrated thinker

28:41 - “The best entrepreneurs are not by choice”

Credit to Ksenia for self-producing this episode! 👏