This week’s episode brings back my friend Woody Levin. Woody is a great entrepreneur. He’s the founder and CEO of Extend a clever and powerful product protection technology.
Extend already works with companies like Peloton, iRobot and some 150 others. Beyond his work at Extend, Woody is a limited partner (investor) in the Social Leverage funds. But Woody and I have crossed professional paths before. We were investors in his previous company Estate Assist, which was acquired by Docusign where Woody took over as Vice President of Growth. Last time Woody was on the podcast, we talked about his company, crypto, fintech, and more. Since then, fintech is back in the news and crypto is taking off. So it seemed about time to have Woody back on. This time around, we talk about Woody’s work with SoftBank, BNPL, extended warranty, software, fintech, Shopify, Docusign, raising money, banks, crypto, and more. Enjoy!
You can listen to the episode right here on Apple, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.
Guest: Woodrow (Woody) Levin
Profile: Founder & CEO of Extend
Where to Find Him: LinkedIn, Twitter
What’s Woody Panicked About?: The Chicago Cubs will wholesale the entire team and give up for the next five years.
The Takeaway:
Woody highlights his panic about the Cubs, his experience with SoftBank, and the business of providing extended warranties and protection plans. His meeting with Masayoshi Son was limited to 20 minutes, but ended up going for over 45, resulting in a $260 million round at about a $1.6 billion valuation. Woody covers aspects of working with some of the buy now pay later (BNPL) companies. One cool insight: BNPL customers are 2.5 times more likely to purchase an extended warranty. He suspects the BNPL default rates on products purchased with an extended warranty will be much lower as well. You’ll meet Extend’s “hot librarian” Kaley, and we round out the episode with crypto. Woody is a crypto fanatic. He says crypto had a seminal moment with the infrastructure bill. The community banded together and stood up to make their voice heard. Woody was calling his Senator five times a day, and now, particularly Bitcoin, is on the tongues of every single politician in the US.
Favorite Quote:
“Congratulations Woodrow. You have my attention.” (Masayoshi Son)
