Building Real Startups with Purpose – Kanyi Maqubela
Episode Topic:
Kanyi Maqubela, Managing Partner at Kindred Ventures, joins PayPod to discuss how values-led venture capital supports high-impact startups across fintech, climate, and more. Discover how Kindred identifies founders who move fast, think big, and adapt as they scale game-changing ideas into real-world solutions.
Lessons You’ll Learn:
Why startup success hinges on speed and altitude-shifting, how to think about funding vs. profitability, and the importance of empathetic market insight when serving underrepresented or global communities.
About Our Guest:
Kanyi Maqubela is the Managing Partner at Kindred Ventures, a firm backing mission-aligned startups that want to reshape industries. With investments across fintech, health, and frontier tech, Kanyi draws from years of founder-first investing and has a sharp lens on team-building, product-market fit, and scalable impact.
Topics Covered:
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The role of velocity and quick iteration in startup success
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How VC can be a vehicle for real-world problem solving
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Startup risk frameworks and phases of survival
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The critical skill of "altitude shifting" in founders
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Diversity in startups: Empathy > Demographics
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Where fintech is heading—just-in-time lending, modular ledgers, and more
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Balancing profit and purpose in early-stage companies
