Building Licensed Stablecoin Rails Across

In this Stabledash Live interview from Stablecoin Conference LATAM 2025, Drew sits down with Bernardo Simonassi, CEO of BlindPay, processing $75 million monthly across five countries while growing 50-100% month-over-month.

The contrarian thesis: Bernardo argues the moat in stablecoin payments isn't product quality. It's licensing. BlindPay's first post-founder hire was their Chief Compliance Officer, burning capital on Money Transmitter Licenses (US), CASP licenses (Europe), and Brazil regulatory frameworks ($800K for that single license). BlindPay's bet is that future consolidation will favor regulated players who can operate globally without friction.

Timestamps:
01:38 - Company overview: $75M monthly volume, 50-100% MoM growth, 5 countries
02:39 - Three Y Combinator applications: $100 to $3,000 monthly revenue arc
05:22 - Y Combinator expectations vs reality: Not a classroom, but founder war stories
07:04 - Structure: First 2 months = sales acceleration, last 2 weeks = fundraising
10:03 - The fundraising sprint: 90 investor calls in 2 weeks
11:27 - First call = $500K commitment before learning how to fundraise
13:18 - The car ride: 468 Capital commits final $800K while driving to Ribbit meeting
15:14 - Demo Day at Palace of Fine Arts: 60 seconds, 174 companies, 1,000+ investors
17:10 - YouTube co-founder Javed Karim invests after 5-minute Demo Day conversation
18:40 - Brazil CASP license: $800K cost reveals regulatory expense reality
19:28 - Thesis: Licenses beat product quality in fintech M&A history
21:19 - Drew's vision: Interactive licensing map on Stabledash directory

About Bernardo Simonassi & BlindPay:
Bernardo Simonassi is CEO of BlindPay, a stablecoin API for global payments. BlindPay scaled from $100 first-month revenue to $75M monthly volume across US, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia. After Y Combinator Winter 2025, Bernardo raised $2.3M from investors including YouTube co-founder Javed Karim and 468 Capital.

About Stabledash Live:
Stabledash Live brings exclusive conversations from leading stablecoin conferences, exploring fundraising journeys, go-to-market strategies, and contrarian theses shaping digital dollar infrastructure.