Rafael Anthony Roa Podcast Transcript
Rafael Anthony Roa joins host Brian Thomas on The Digital Executive Podcast.
Welcome to Coruzant Technologies, home of the Digital Executive Podcast.
Brian Thomas: Welcome to the digital executive. Today’s guest is Rafael Anthony Roa. Rafael Anthony Roa is a transformative ecosystem and operational leader. Who over the last 11 years has brought his community building narrative and operational leadership to startups and growth orgs across Web3, AI, InsureTech, and IT services, with a focus on how to put these organizations at the center of a scalable future proof ecosystem.
He is currently the head of ecosystem at spree.finance, where he’s focused on building the community to power Spree’s mission to bring true commerce to Web3. By seamlessly combining payments, loyalty, and financing into one integrated web2 and web3 solution. He holds an MFA from New York university and has studied at Trinity university and Stellenbosch university.
Well, good afternoon, Rafael. Welcome to the show.
Rafael Anthony Roa: Thank you for having me, Brian. Really appreciate it. How are things in fair Kansas City?
Brian Thomas: They’re awesome, except it’s just really cold. And we got like a blizzard a week ago, which is crazy for us, but it’s all good. And I’m glad that you’re able to jump on a podcast here from New York.
And I always love doing these no matter what time of day or night it is. So Rafael, I’m going to jump right into your first question. You’ve led ecosystem and operational initiatives in sectors like web3, AI. Insure tech and I. T. Services. How do you adapt your community building strategies to cater to the unique challenges and opportunities within these diverse industries?
Rafael Anthony Roa: Thank you for the careful read of my background. Appreciate it. The key there is listening, and that’s the truth with any community, any ecosystem, right? Ultimately, we as people we want to belong, and we have a way of looking at the world. And we have a way of seeing our role in that world and truthfully, the way to get the people in any industry to want to join what you’re doing is by listening to them very carefully.
And honestly, that’s, that’s the same advice that great product leader, a great salesperson, they have the same view, which is ultimately go into the community, see what they think their problems are. And critically, if you want to get adoption within that, not only what those problems are, but what and how they see themselves as, right?
There are certain people that see themselves as the warrior fighting against or revolutionizing something, I think, very much within the Web3 ethos. Then you have things like AI, where it’s all about innovation, right? And so many of the people there see themselves as innovators. And if your job is to grow an ecosystem within any one of those, You need to listen really carefully to what it is that they think their problems are, but equally who they think they are by solving those problems.
And then if you can do that and position your organization as naturally fitting into that role, then you’re doing beautifully. In fact, that’s kind of the approach that we’re taking really at Spree.finance, which is, we’re listening to all these people within both Web3, right, who are going, hey, we really see this dream that, you know, Satoshi established way back when in 09 in his paper, but honestly, Web3 is mainly a speculative place right now for a lot of people, at least externally.
And then. Likewise, you ask a bunch of people, okay, how do you grow this thing? It might be a little bit scary. And all these merchants, like I hear that there’s all this wealth in cryptocurrency, but I don’t know how to quite get there or access that wealth. And so likewise, you, you want to demystify that for them.
And that’s where our mission really came in, which is. We want to make commerce happen in Web3 to actually make that dream come true, which is to turn Web3 into a truly a commercial space and we do that honestly using a whole combination of techniques. From, yes, Web 2 stuff, but also Web 3, and that’s kind of what we try to do, and that all came from listening to the merchants who want to get access to that cryptocurrency wealth, and the people who have the wealth who also are kind of like, I kind of want to do more than just stake.
Or try to get what, what beam coin it’s going to be the next big thing, right? What’s going to be the next talk about a current Solana project. It’s very hot right now with the next Pegu penguin. That’s what we did is we listened to both sides and we said, okay, let’s make commerce happen because that’s ultimately where the bridge between these two communities exist.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. I appreciate you highlighting and that’s what I took out of your answer. There is, you know, listening and that’s key. I know we were created. Obviously, you’ve heard this before. We were created with one mouth and two ears. And I think that’s so important that we do listen to our community. We listen to our customers, our consumers.
You know, what are the pain points? That’s the only way to really make something better. In this world. So thank you. And Rafael as an award winning bilingual writer, how do you perceive the role of storytelling in enhancing user engagement and driving the adoption of complex technologies like blockchain and AI?
Rafael Anthony Roa: I know it was, it’s a couple of years old now and it’s no longer the it book of the moment within the technology and entrepreneurial spheres, but Yuval Harari’s book, Sapiens, obviously took off and quick thematic encapsulation of that is we are at our core, a storytelling species that most of the great innovation that we’ve had have come from someone figuring out a compelling story, And figuring out a way to get that compelling story out to where a large group of people then want to follow.
And honestly, within blockchain and AI, that’s essentially what we’re in. We’re in this moment where the version of the story that we’ve told so far. Within blockchain or the version of the story that we’ve told in AI, and you could argue that AI specifically as a story is a little more well worn with things like sci fi, but essentially we’ve capped the number of people that are going to eagerly jump in at this point with the current story that exists as I was getting that earlier for a lot of people.
Within blockchain, there seems to be, yes, some momentum and excitement, but again, it’s momentum and excitement largely on this sort of speculative aspect when if you talk to, again, the people really see where this could lead and bringing value to everybody for their own contributions, then you really need to make commerce possible.
And so creating the infrastructure for that, building a story that Web 3 can also be a place for commercial, not just speculative activity means that’s the story that you have to start telling. And we have to start telling as a whole. Likewise for AI. Yes, it’s a little bit of a story right now of, hey, helping and everything else, but part of the reason people are so excited about this AI agent world, and I know you’ve had a few guests on here recently in the past few weeks that have been focused on that part of the reason people are excited about AI agents.
Is because they think, oh, that’s AI doing something for me. That’s a different story that that’s AI helping. That’s not ai, just retrieving information and effectively serving as a new UX to like a search engine, which is kind of how people were wrapping their heads around chat GPT for, for a while or LAMA or, or a claw instead.
With AI agents, there’s this belief of, oh, we can tweak things to where there are things human beings want to do, but if they interact with this specific agent, it takes care of it for them, right? And in this moment, and to a certain extent, this also applies to blockchain, this moment where people today feel so overwhelmed by the amount of just information that just floods them at any given time.
The ability to. Bring in the technology and say, Hey, this will take care of things for you is really exciting. Right? So how do we increase user engagement? It’s figuring out our ways as industry to start to change our narrative to be one that is about helping people and helping people in the ways that with their basic problems.
Again, it kind of goes back to what I was saying earlier about listening, right? And then finding that story. What we really believe at Spree, and actually it’s the inner blockchain AI, it’s a perfect intersection, is that people ultimately want an easier, more seamless, More remunerative way to do commerce and business globally.
And because of that, we found that actually to enable and accelerate like this AI agent world, they’re going to need for a whole variety of reasons, also a way of transacting. And that’s actually easier on the blockchain. So what we’re doing here at Spree.finance is not just telling the story of commerce and credit and all of that, bringing that to Web3, but we’ve ended up realizing that.
It dovetails really nicely with where the future of AI and that agent universe is going because eventually commercial activity is also going to happen in that AI agent world because that’s honestly what makes it useful and tangible for people. That’s how I see it. Anyway.
Brian Thomas: No, it’s great. I appreciate that.
And you’re absolutely right. You know, telling a compelling story so people can get immersed in what you’re trying to share and the why behind it. There is so much stuff thrown at us these days and someone that has a really good story to tell with it. A lot of this stuff, Web3 is, you know, taking some time to be adopted out there.
AI is just, there’s a lot of information. So I appreciate your share. And Rafael, as the head of ecosystem at spree.finance, You’re working to merge payments, loyalty and financing into a unified solution. What are the key challenges in integrating traditional web2 systems with emerging web3 technologies and how is free. finance addressing them?
Rafael Anthony Roa: Thanks for the question. I think the key thing here is Again, helping translate how people perceive things in these communities now, right? So to a certain extent, for Web3 to grow, right, more people who currently don’t hold any cryptocurrency assets at all need to feel welcome in the space.
And right now, if I take one of those users Web3 land, It’s not going to be that different from dropping them off in a country where the scripts and the language is so different that they feel completely lost. Likewise, if we look at the Web 2 world, there’s that skepticism of Web 3. But likewise, the Web 3, when they look at Web 2, we can sometimes As an industry, get a little ahead of ourselves and think in our revolutionary, we’re changing the world zeal think, okay, we’ve got to remake everything.
We’ve got to change everything. Everything has to be its own true web3 native version of reality. And while I love the innovation mindset that that brings. One of the key things that we’ve decided as a team at Spree is we don’t have to throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. And in fact, our solutions are a combination of Web 2 aspects and Web 3.
Like, for example, one of the key things that if I talk to a business now that they will understand, any big Web 2 merchant, right? Is, hey, give us an API, and if you connect it to it, like, we’ll take care of the rest. That’s something they’re used to, right? They, every Web 2. 0 megacompany at this point understands APIs.
Likewise, on the Web3 aspect, yes, we can have things be on chain, can have all the peer to peer networks that that creates, and what that’ll do is suddenly you have, through simply giving these Web2 merchants a gateway via the SimpleAPI, a technology they understand, say, hey, you just have to plug this in, but what it plugs into then Is this full robust Web 3 on chain ecosystem?
Suddenly you’re giving that Web 2 merchant the ability to be in that Web 3 world, right? And likewise, you’re able to for those people from a user experience standpoint who aren’t sure what Web 3 is. It’s okay. You, you can hide all that stuff in the background and I’ll make it a magic trick to where, yes, actually they’re earning rewards points, for example, as one of the aspects of what we’re doing and they feel, oh, rewards points.
I recognize that, but the rewards points are actually on chain and by virtue of being on chain are able to create. This entire ecosystem, wherein that loyalty actually leads to faster and faster payments within merchants, which I can get into in a second, but starts to then potentially increase profit margins and everything else by merging that solution, right?
So you take that infrastructure, you take concepts like stable coins. Right. And there are a lot of people speaking out, obviously, and right now writing about stable coins and, and how they have real potential to dramatically revolutionize payments, really getting at the duopoly of Visa and MasterCard and everything else and attracting that literally trillions of dollars worth of fees that are taken out every year from merchants.
And then suddenly, you’re giving merchants not only access to Web3 wealth, but you’re lowering their costs and getting them their money faster. And meanwhile, you’re giving individuals within Web3 the opportunity Not just to participate in commerce, right? Buy something from a trusted partner. We have over 2 million that we’ve partnered with, but you’re giving them also the ability to participate in that accounts receivable settlement market all in the background.
But in all that’s happening, Jan, who’s never had a crypto wallet before, but likes the idea of points. Just bought a vacation to Paris for the first time. That’s the idea of how we’re trying to build it. We’re trying to make it so that everybody can participate here. And instead of trying to force people to learn behaviors that they might not yet want to learn.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. And that’s awesome. You started out with, Hey, it’s just kind of the plug and play. Everybody understands API is the web to space, right? But you’re making it easy for people to plug into Web 3 and be a part of this large growing ecosystem with the rewards, which is awesome. I think that’s just another way that we’re going to get people to adopt this faster.
And then when you say faster payments, that’s just a game changer. So appreciate that. And Rafael, last question of the day. Your focus has been on positioning organizations at the center of scalable, future proof ecosystems. What core principles do you believe are essential for companies aiming to achieve long term sustainability and adaptability in rapidly evolving tech landscapes?
Rafael Anthony Roa: Thank you so much. I love this question because, you know, I know so many of your listeners have an entrepreneurial background or interest or themselves working on an organization, but I know that also they’re the people that write, that are at the big organization and kind of looking around and going, well, how can we get in some of this?
And one of the things that I’ve found having worked at all level of scales to be true is you have to be self aware about what are the problems that you are trying to solve. so much. Going back to listening, if you’re listening and ultimately the problems that you’re solving are just refinements, you’re tweaking something here, you’re bettering something there, but you’re not having any changes and you look at your whole organization and you realize.
That’s basically what everyone’s doing, right? Finance team is looking to get their accounts receivable a little bit faster and look at your sales team and they’re marginally trying to quote improve the revenue target by the revenue by like 5%. And meanwhile, you’re looking at the devs and they’re like, Oh, we want to have slightly more efficient code.
That’s all great, right? Obviously the law of interest and how that builds over time can lead to great success. But if you’re looking at all the departments in your organization and you know, obviously in a startup that could be three people doing three departments jobs, then that means that you’re starting to go off track because the way you stay future proof.
Is at least half your organization is sitting there thinking, okay, we know how to get a little bit better, but what’s the thing that we think can get us a lot better? Right? What is the thing that we think can truly make a sea change? And if you have enough of the organization thinking that way, then you have enough of the organization that’s going to be looking for innovation and pushing things forward to where you’re future proofing because you already have people.
Thinking about their future and yes, it can be obviously on the big systemic strategic scale, right? And hopefully that’s where you’re you’re a large enough organization. That’s what executive team is But honestly if most of the organization at least trying to think How do I make a sea change happen within my own corner of the universe and not just a little bit of tweak?
That’s really where you get a future proof organization from an ecosystem standpoint. Right? So that’s internal, it’s the exact same thing. It’s how do you get partners who aren’t just concerned about making things a little bit better, but are really trying to see their own problems that they’re doing and tackle them in a way that truly excites them and enlivens them because they think it can be sea change.
And if you bring enough of those partners into your ecosystem, then They’re going to tell you about innovations that you wouldn’t have been able to think about beforehand. They’re going to offer opportunities through their own innovation and development that will end up supercharging your organization.
So as long as that’s what you cultivate, you cultivate the people that have that kind of curiosity and drive for and creativity, you’ll be future proof. Right. Well, assuming you listen to them, which is the second and harder part, but it’s an entrepreneurial podcast. What we’ll assume, uh, most of your listeners want to listen to that innovative group.
Brian Thomas: Absolutely. And I love that. This thing goes hand in hand with everything that you said this evening, Rafael. It’s so important, but yes, curiosity, and if you can engage your team or your ecosystem, you’re going to have a much better process at driving innovation, but also the sustainability in the long run.
So I really appreciate that. Rafael, it was such a pleasure having you on today and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
Rafael Anthony Roa: Thank you so much, Brian, really appreciate it. And hopefully we’re, we’re on here again, chatting about Spree.finance is great success and growth. For those of you interested, check out spree.finance. Lots of cool stuff coming down the road, and thank you.
Brian Thomas: Bye for now.
Rafael Roa Podcast Transcript. Listen to the audio on the guest’s Podcast Page.