Episode 6: Column's Employee #1 on Building Championship Culture in Banking

In this episode, Alex and Todd Sorrel (CEO of 6lock) dive deep into what it takes to build a championship culture in an industry that's never been known for it. From owning 100% of your infrastructure stack to understanding why 99.999% of payments are boring (but that 0.001% creates all the value), this conversation is packed with insights for anyone building in fintech or serving private markets.

Key Topics:
• Why Alex left Stanford 5 months before graduation to join Column
• The simple framework for early-stage companies: big market, big problem, great team
• How Column bought a bank and rebuilt the core from scratch
• Why "culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner"
• The 0.001% game — why all the value in payments lives in the edge cases
• Column's measured approach to AI in banking infrastructure

Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction
02:50 - The Stanford Dropout Story: When Plaid's Co-Founder Calls, You Show Up
09:44 - No One Likes Their Banking Partner And That's a Huge Opportunity
12:51 - Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
32:29 - Why Column Had to Own the Entire Stack
42:16 - The 0.001% Game: Why All the Value in Payments Lives in the Edge Cases
48:57 - How is Column Approaching AI?

Guest:
Alex Du, Chief Operating Officer at Column
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexanderdu/

Mentioned in this episode:
• Column: https://column.com/
• Upstart article on Column by Alex Conrad: https://open.substack.com/pub/upstartsmedia/p/profile-column-william-hockey-fintech-china?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
• Invest Like the Best podcast - @ILTB_Podcast  (William Hockey episode): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFIvttHf0oo

About Column:
Column is a nationally chartered bank built to enable developers and builders to create new financial products. Founded by William Hockey (co-founder of Plaid), Column owns 100% of its banking infrastructure and is the largest RTP originator in the country.

Have a question or suggestion? Email us: podcast@6lock.com