Sadi Khan, co-founder and CEO of Aven, retired from Facebook only to return 3 months later to build a $2.2B fintech solving America's $1 trillion credit card debt crisis.

In this brutally honest interview, he reveals:
- Why his first advice is "Don't start a company"
- The CFPB graph that ended his retirement: 75 years of unchanged 20-25% credit card rates
- Why he checks SAT scores when hiring ("Intelligence is massively underrated")
- How 70 employees beat FAANG revenue per employee
- His extreme lifestyle: Same shirt daily, "I love boring"

Key quotes:
"Unless you're willing to go decades without pay or recognition, don't start"
"Your weakest engineer determines your ceiling"
"If we die, we can't help anyone"

The unconventional story of building a robot arm to sign mortgages, reading Dodd-Frank instead of TechCrunch, and why removing emotions from decisions built a $2.2B company.

00:00 Don't Start a Company (Unless You Have This)
01:40 Meet Sadi Khan & Aven 
02:51 How One Graph Created a $2.2B Company 
05:40 What 12 Years at Microsoft & Facebook Taught Me 
09:00 Most Founders Don't Know Why They'll Fail 
11:03 Do Half of What You Think You Should 
13:31 Why Feelings Are Your Biggest Scaling Enemy 
18:01 Kill Decision Fatigue Before It Kills You 
24:08 Credit

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Sadi Khan, CEO of Aven (valued at $2.2B), shares hard-earned lessons about startup challenges and building successful companies. He emphasizes that starting a company requires extreme conviction and warns against underestimating the difficulty. Khan details Aven's mission to reduce consumer debt costs through innovative home equity products, discusses hiring elite technical talent based on intelligence and work ethic, and advocates for rational decision-making frameworks. He also covers regulatory compliance in fintech, product development mistakes, and maintaining focus through simplified personal routines.

Why 90% of Startups Fail: The $2.2B Lessons | Sadi Khan, Aven CEO