Jake Gibson

Background

Jake Gibson is a Founding Partner at Better Tomorrow Ventures (BTV), an early-stage fintech-focused venture capital firm he co-founded in 2019 with Sheel Mohnot ¹². Gibson co-founded NerdWallet, the personal finance comparison platform, where he served as COO and helped build the company over four years, leveraging SEO and content marketing to drive growth ³⁴.

Before NerdWallet, Gibson spent six years on Wall Street as an interest rate derivatives trader ¹². After leaving NerdWallet, he spent five years as a full-time angel investor before co-founding BTV ¹².

Gibson holds two bachelor’s degrees from MIT in Math and Management Science, with a focus on Quantitative Finance ¹². He has also served as an Entrepreneur in Residence for 500 Fintech ⁵.

Stated Thesis

(Self-reported: These represent what Gibson says publicly about his investing approach. See Inferred Thesis for analysis of actual investment behavior.)

Gibson has articulated a clear thesis centered on financial services as a lever for global impact: “If you want to create consumer surplus and improve economic outcomes around the world, I can’t think of a bigger lever than financial services” ¹.

BTV leads pre-seed and seed rounds in fintech companies globally, with check sizes typically ranging from $500K to $3M ²⁶. The firm runs a program called The Mint to support fintech founders in the earliest stages of their journey, often even pre-incorporation ⁶.

On portfolio support, Gibson has stated: “From startup to IPO, Ramp consistently delivers. It’s part of the foundational tech stack that we encourage all of our founders to adopt” ⁶. BTV emphasizes hands-on operational support: “At The Mint, we focus on removing distractions for founders” ⁶.

Inferred Thesis

The analysis below is based on BTV’s publicly listed portfolio of 150+ companies and Gibson’s pre-BTV angel investments ²⁶⁷.

Sector concentration (based on BTV’s portfolio of 150+ companies, of which 55 are classified as fintech): - Fintech (core): 55 of 150+ (approximately 37%) — spanning payments, lending, insurance, banking, infrastructure - Enterprise applications: 43 of 150+ (approximately 29%) — including accounting, compliance, and B2B SaaS - Payments: prominent sub-sector including Coast, Outpost, Butter (approximate) - Cards & banking: including Relay, Mendel (approximate) - Insurance: including Clearcover (approximate) - Accounting & finance: including Basis, InScope, Layer (approximate)

Note: BTV’s portfolio exceeds 150 companies. The breakdown above uses BTV’s own categorization from their portfolio page. Given the portfolio size, precise percentages across all companies are approximate ⁷.

Key patterns:

• Pure fintech specialization: BTV is among the most sector-focused seed funds in venture capital, with an almost exclusive focus on financial technology and adjacent enterprise applications ²⁶.

• Global geographic reach: Unlike most US seed funds, BTV actively invests in fintech companies across Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Portfolio companies include ChipperCash (Africa), Mendel (Mexico), Outpost (London), and others ⁷.

• Pre-seed emphasis: BTV’s The Mint program and pre-seed focus allow Gibson and Mohnot to work with founders before they have even incorporated, capturing the earliest-stage deals ⁶.

• Operator-investor with fintech domain expertise: Gibson’s experience co-founding NerdWallet and trading derivatives on Wall Street gives him direct operational and domain knowledge in financial services ³⁴.

• Scale through fund progression: BTV has grown from a small initial fund to $450M+ in AUM across three funds (Fund I, Fund II at $150M in 2021, Fund III at ~$140M), with 12 unicorns in the portfolio ²⁶.

• Pre-BTV angel portfolio includes breakout hits: Before BTV, Gibson angel-invested in Albert, ChipperCash, Clearcover, Ethic, Ethos Insurance, Drip Capital, Flexport, Hippo, Human Interest, Nova Credit, Ramp, and Starship ². Multiple of these became unicorns.

Portfolio

Note: BTV’s full portfolio exceeds 150 companies. This table represents a subset of verified investments with the most available detail. The firm claims 12 unicorns across its portfolio ⁶.

In Their Own Words

“If you want to create consumer surplus and improve economic outcomes around the world, I can’t think of a bigger lever than financial services.” — Jake Gibson ¹

“From startup to IPO, Ramp consistently delivers. It’s part of the foundational tech stack that we encourage all of our founders to adopt.” — Jake Gibson ⁶

“At The Mint, we focus on removing distractions for founders, and Ramp is one of the first tools we suggest. It allows founders to spend less time managing finances and more time building their business.” — Jake Gibson ⁶

Gibson has a Kierkegaard quote tattooed on his ribs: “There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming” ¹.

What Founders Say

BTV portfolio founders have praised the firm’s hands-on approach. One founder stated: “This is our 3rd company, and we’ve never worked with investors who have been more accessible — and every BTV company will say the same” ⁶.

Another founder noted: “BTV has been a huge part of our journey, especially as first-time founders… They offer so much beyond capital. What sets them apart is their remarkable responsiveness and hands-on support they provide” ⁶.

Note: These testimonials are from the BTV website and may reflect selection bias. The specific founders are not named in the source.

Sources