Andrew Staub tells the inside story of the early days of Venmo, of the determination and creativity of its founders, the audaciousness of making financial interactions social and how that led to a small team of young engineers changing the way friends interact around money. How they took an awkward, terrible experience and turned it into a positive social interaction.

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Chapter 1 - Eating with my hands

I stood at the counter, inhaling the overwhelming aroma of curry, as I waited to pay our bill. I stared out the window at the parking lot full of yellow taxicabs.  My iPhone 3G buzzed in my pocket and I reached for it. "iqram paid you $14.00 for dinner at kabobeesh" read a text from an unknown number.

It was August 2009, and it was my first experience with Venmo, a new project Iqram Magdon-Ismail was working on with his friend and former college roommate Andrew Kortina . Iqram had paid me his portion, settling up before I could even get my card swiped. I didn't understand how Venmo worked. I had no account; all I had was a text telling me I'd been paid. But it felt magical and I had an immediate feeling that Iqram and Kortina were on to something big.

Iqram could get me excited about anything -- he had an infectious positive energy that radiated to all those around him -- a trait that would go on to make him a great early startup leader. He had no filter. His playful personality was unapologetically on display for all around him and his boisterous laugh would no doubt travel to every corner of whatever restaurant, bar, or coffee shop we frequented.

His lack of filter was also contagious and something I loved being around most of the time. I'm a reserved person when I'm around people I don't know. Only around friends and family do I truly open up. He made me uncomfortable. And he helped me open up. He was never shy to share a crazy idea and he loved hearing the ambitious business ideas that were always flowing through my brain.

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Who is Andrew Staub?

Andrew Staub was one of the first users and employees, the roommate of a co-founder, and eventually the head of growth at Venmo. He helped build the early product and grow Venmo to 1 million active users.

More recently, he worked as a Product Architect and Engineer at Fin. Prior to that, he co-founded a growth platform called Mave.

He lives in El Cerrito, California with his wife @rachel (Venmo user #42) and their three children.