Rick Marini
Co-Founder, President & COO, Rails. On 3 shows, 3 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderinvestorexecutiveoperator@rmarini ↗LinkedIn ↗rails.xyz ↗
Rick Marini is an entrepreneur who founded BranchOut, established Protocol Ventures, and served as COO of Grindr. As an early-stage angel investor, he has backed over 50 startups, including Snapchat, Reddit, and AngelList.
3shows
3appearances
42statements
15resolved
11supported
0contradicted
73%fully supported
16said about them ↓ Everything Rick Marini said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Marini: Grindr turnaround team terminated 70% of employees
“We ended up, and we don't normally do this terminating 70% of the employees, because it just, they were C players, and we wanted at least A minus players, if not A players, right?”
Marini: Conservative ICs and Middle East Investors Refused to Buy Grindr
“Now, because Grindr is focused on LGBTQ, it was really interesting. A lot of the traditional buyers were not there in the process. There was always like someone conservative on the investment committee that was like, we can't touch that. We went to try to rais…”
Marini: Angels must make 30 investments before they know what they're doing
“If you're serious about becoming an angel investor, you're going to need to do probably 30 investments before you really know what you're doing.”
Marini: FTX would probably be world's largest exchange without Alameda scandal
“Now, if they had never done that FTX would still be around and they'd probably be the biggest exchange in the world.”
Marini: Gary Gensler's SEC refused to offer clear crypto guidelines
“Previously the SEC head of the SEC, Gary Gensler, didn't want to give specific guidelines on what we need to do. It was more about, well, if we don't like it, we're going to come after you. And, you know, that's not a good way to grow an industry.”
Marini: Crypto is a terrible tool for criminals compared to cash
“Everything is, is traced on the blockchain. Like, crypto is a terrible place for criminals to move money because it's actually traceable on the blockchain. US dollars or any hard currency is much easier to be able to do nefarious things than having a currency …”
Marini: Naval Ravikant predicted Bitcoin would reach $1M when trading under $1,000
“I remember early days, Bitcoin, you know, was trading under a thousand dollars, and I said to Naval, so how big does this get? And he said, I said, what's the price of Bitcoin? He said, a million. And I said, a million? It's only at like, you know, 800. And I …”
Marini: Silicon Valley is far more open and collaborative than Boston
“I'm originally from the Boston area, and anytime somebody wants to talk about their idea, they want you to sign an NDA, and you know, they're really secretive and closed, and when I came to Silicon Valley back in 2000, it was so different. You know, sign NDAs,…”
Marini: Acqui-hires prioritize employee retention, leaving early investors with pennies
“In an acqui-hire, the acquiring company, they don't care about the investors, right? They only care about retaining the employees. Therefore any kind of cash compensation that's going towards the acquisition is going to be earmarked for the employees, and the …”
Marini: Silicon Valley turned on Color after its pre-launch $40M Series A
“They raised, like, a forty million dollar Series A, and Silicon Valley turned on them before they even launched.”
Marini: Only five employees held equity at Grindr before turnaround
“There's only five people that had equity.”
Grindr doubled revenue to $200M and EBITDA to $92M before IPO
“And in that last year, we were able to double the revenue to two hundred million, double the EBITDA to about ninety two million, and then take it public for two billion.”
Marini: Grindr Leadership Insisted PE Backers Grant Equity to All Staff
“Jeff and I were insistent with the other PE firm that everyone is going to have stock that will, you know, it will reflect their level in the company, of course, but we wanted everyone to have stock.”
Marini: Protocol Ventures was the first crypto fund of funds
“When I started protocol ventures, which was again, the first fund of funds in crypto”
Marini: TradFi is bridging into crypto defensively to avoid disruption
“Well, I think what's interesting right now is that TradFi, traditional finance, is really finally starting to bridge in to crypto and get really interested. And I think, you know, they may see like, hey, if we don't do something here, we may get disrupted. So …”
Marini: Investors bought Grindr for $600M at 12x to 13x EBITDA
“So we bought it for about six hundred million. It was doing less than fifty million, about forty five million of EBITDA when we bought the company, so, you know, call that kind of 12, 13 X EBITDA, and the market was probably trading at more like 20, the public…”
Marini: The $600M Grindr buyout used $200M equity, $200M debt, $200M earn-out
“So the deal structure, the 600, there was about 200 of equity that went in. And, you know, some of that was our personal money, but most of it was outside money that we raised. There was two hundred million of debt. So Fortress was our debt provider. And then …”
Marini: Grindr's $2B IPO generated a 9x return on $200M equity
“We took Grindr public, and we'll talk about how we got there, but we took it public for two billion on the New York Stock Exchange two and a half years after we bought the company. And as I mentioned, as part of the deal structure that earned out, the first tw…”
Marini: Partners bought JibJab for $20M using $15M debt and $5M equity
“The company was doing about five million of EBITDA and we bought it for twenty million. So four times EBITDA, which is a low multiple, but you know, Greg needed to sell it quickly and that's where we came out. And we were able to put fifteen million of debt on…”
Marini: JibJab repaid $15M acquisition debt in three years, funding a recapitalization
“And with JipJab, it was throwing off so much cash that we paid down the debt in about three years. And then we did a refi where we recapped the company and borrowed another Fifteen million and then ended up buying out kind of half the investors with that. And …”
Marini: Grindr revenue doubled from $100M to $200M before its $2B IPO
“And in two and a half years, we took Grindr from a hundred million of revenue to two hundred million of revenue when we took it public.”
Marini: Demonstrating pre-investment value motivates founders to include investors
“So for me, I would rather prove out my expertise to an entrepreneur. I would rather contribute to the ecosystem. And hope that they see that value, and instead of cutting me out of a deal, they're more motivated to bring me in.”
Marini: Angels should review 300 to 600 companies to make 30 investments
“If you're going to do 30 investments, you should probably have a investment rate of, let's say, five to 10%, which means you should see 300 to 600 companies if you're investing at five to five to 10% acceptance rate before you hit 30 companies.”
The other half of the tape: Rick Marini's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 15 times in 8 episodes across the shows. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 10James Currier 4Sam Parr 1
Statements about Rick Marini, by other people (1)
Bonforte: 70% of Grindr hires under new management were minority or LGBTQ+
“By the time Rick and I left, 70% of the hires from the, in the company were minority hires, basically. We were hiring people from the LGBTQ community, or we were hiring people that were in, in the DEI, which is not something people like to talk about anymore, …”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 10
My First Million 5
2025 4 mentions in 1 episode
2020 1 mention in 1 episode
2018 1 mention in 1 episode
2017 7 mentions in 4 episodes 2 per episode
- 20VC: Why We Will See A Big Series B Crunch? Why Proprietary Data Pools & AI Talent Will Be The New Limited Natural Resources? Why Now Is The Closest Thing To A New Normal with Tim Chang, Managing Director @ Mayfield Fund
- 20VC: How To Balance Between Vision and Stubbornness, Why Speed Is The Most Important Startup Superpower & The Main Role of A Startup Founder Today with James Currier, Managing Director @ NFX
- 20VC: If You Do Not Like VCs, You Have Not Worked With a Good One, How Andreesen Have Added The Same Level of Value As A Co-Founder, Why Market Is The First Thing To Consider When Angel Investing & Why Series A Is A Hiring Decision with Roger Dickey, Foun
- 20VC: AngelList's Naval Ravikant on The Secrets To Success At Seed, Why Micro VC Is The Return of Traditional Series A & Why We Will See The Unbundling Of Traditional VC Brands
- every mention in 2017, scene by scene →
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Rick's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 INNOVATORS & INVESTORSLEDGER | Co-Founder, President & COO, Rails | 1 | 16 | 83% 5/6 | full record on Innovators & Investors → |
| 20VCLEDGER | Co-Founder, President & COO, Rails | 1 | 15 | 75% 3/4 | full record on 20VC → |
| MY FIRST MILLIONLEDGER | Co-Founder, President & COO, Rails | 1 | 11 | 60% 3/5 | full record on My First Million → |