Matt Brown

3 min read Original article ↗

san francisco, ca, usa

currently

  • investing in and helping early-stage companies at matrix
  • focusing on fintech, vertical software, and adjacent areas

previously

  • founded bonsai (acquired by zoom)
  • founded seiza (acquired by adzuna)
  • led product at afterpay (acquired by block)
  • studied politics, philosophy, and economics at uc berkeley and oxford

selected writing

Your data model is your destiny When code is commoditized, your data model is the last durable moat

B2B payments aren't payments, they're workflows The real money in B2B payments is in the workflow, not the transaction

Interchange in 1,000 words How card fees work, who keeps what, and why margins keep compressing

Payfac in 1,000 words What payfacs actually do, how they make money, and when to build one

The future of interchange Where payment revenue moves when interchange runs out of room

Stablecoins in 1,000 words What stablecoins are, how they work, and why they matter for payments

Why VC and software have PE envy Three hybrid models blurring the line between VC and PE

Invisible asymptotes in vertical software Every generation of vertical software must solve harder problems to win

Vertical AI: beware what you wrap AI commoditizes fast. The moat is the system of record, not the model

Vertical software already won the context graph Vertical software already owns the most valuable context graphs

Dark software When software is cheap and distribution is expensive, bundle, don't build

Undifferentiated heavy lifting Fintech infra rarely differentiates, so stop building it

all writing

elsewhere

@mattbrown twitter

@matttb linkedin

notes.mtb.xyz substack

matttbrown github

mb @ matrix.vc email

/llms.txt agents