Cyrus Shirazi, founder of Haven, joins Dez Fleming to discuss his journey from watching his father leave private equity to becoming an entrepreneur himself. After experiencing both the highs and pitfalls at companies like Mainstreet and Meow, Cyrus launched Haven - a unified financial operating system for startups and small businesses. He shares tactical insights on guerrilla marketing, community building, and why he chose hand-to-hand combat over paid acquisition to reach $5.5 million in revenue in just 20 months.

Key Takeaways:

• Build organic growth channels before investing in paid acquisition
• Focus on solving problems for your entire customer base, not just subsets
• Community building and genuine value-add relationships drive sustainable growth
• The importance of failing fast and learning from every setback

Cyrus's approach to building Haven reflects lessons learned from three different startup experiences, emphasizing the power of authentic relationships and solving real pain points for entrepreneurs. His 500-person WhatsApp group of founders and VCs demonstrates how genuine community building can become a competitive advantage in B2B startup investors markets.

Chuck Bradford, founder and CEO of Dexari, shares his journey from engineering student at UPenn to crypto entrepreneur. After experiencing the inner workings of centralized exchanges at Binance US, Bradford identified a massive opportunity to combine the user experience of traditional fintech with the benefits of decentralization. Dexari is building a mobile-first, self-custodial crypto platform that leverages account abstraction and modern blockchain infrastructure to deliver advanced trading features without the overhead costs of centralized exchanges. Bradford discusses the technical challenges of building in crypto, the importance of product-market fit, and why he believes the future of crypto belongs to self-custodial solutions that don't compromise on user experience.

Key Takeaways:

• Centralized exchanges operate more like traditional banks than decentralized platforms, creating significant overhead costs
• New technologies like account abstraction are finally making self-custodial platforms viable for mainstream users
• The mobile crypto trading experience remains underserved, particularly for advanced traders
• Building in crypto requires a product-first approach rather than starting with marketing and tokens

Bradford's vision extends beyond just replacing centralized exchanges - he sees Dexari as part of a broader convergence between traditional fintech and crypto, where self-custodial solutions become the dominant model for digital asset management.

This week on The Longest View, Desmond Fleming sits down with Abdul Al-Assad, founder and CEO of Basic Capital, shares his remarkable journey from growing up in Damascus during the Syrian civil war to building a revolutionary fintech company in New York. As a Palestinian entrepreneur who arrived in America with $140 and no connections, Abdul built Basic Capital to solve what he calls the "cold start problem" of wealth building - helping everyday Americans become asset owners through innovative 401k solutions.

The conversation explores Abdul's philosophy that "saving is a scam" for average earners and how his company enables working-class Americans to access leveraged investing typically reserved for the wealthy. He discusses partnering with PE roll-ups and small businesses like Service Professionals, an HVAC company in New Jersey, to provide employees with advanced retirement investing tools. Abdul also shares insights on entrepreneurship, the difference between high achievers and entrepreneurs, and his vision for preventing American society from "crumbling from within" due to wealth inequality.

Key Takeaways:

• Traditional saving favors the wealthy due to higher saving rates and lower cost-of-living ratios
• Basic Capital targets B2B markets, specifically PE roll-ups acquiring small businesses
• The company focuses on enabling asset ownership rather than just access to investing
• Entrepreneurship requires tolerance for uncertainty and long feedback loops unlike traditional high-achievement careers

Abdul Al-Assad is building Basic Capital to democratize wealth creation by giving working Americans the same tools wealthy individuals use to build generational wealth - access to leveraged, diversified, cash-generating assets through their workplace retirement plans.