If you’re running a company, you often need to outsource several peripheral functions such as payroll, expenses, and financial reporting, so that you can focus on your core business. DAOs have the exact same needs: realizing the business opportunity for providing these services to DAOs, Kaito Cunningham, CEO of Utopia Labs, and his team built their own tools to help DAOs manage their payroll and expense management needs.

Kaito’s career is nothing short of meteoric. Having operated his first startup during his freshman year of college in 2019, Kaito eventually dropped out of college and moved from Vancouver to San Francisco to work on Utopia Labs in September 2021. By June 2022, Utopia Labs received series A funding of over $23 million, which IVC took part in. But listening to Kaito describe his journey, it’s clear it wasn’t sheer luck that got him where he is today.

Join IVC Founding Partner Akio Tanaka as he sits down with Kaito to discuss how Kaito’s team started their company before they’d ever met in person, how they converted their first clients, why San Francisco is still an ideal place to build great products, and the vision for the future of Utopia Labs.