Linktree co-founder and chief executive,Alex Zaccaria,said Mr Molnar’s experience in scaling a company with global impact from Australia stood out as a key asset.
“We were looking for business people that have been there,done that to help us through the scaling issues,” Mr Zaccaria said. “Also from a product perspective,he is so across fintech and[given that] we are really investing heavily in being the future of social commerce,we are definitely excited to work with Nick.”
Mr Molnar also stands to benefit from his startup investments beyond the potential financial returns.
Domm Holland,co-founder of Fast,which Mr Molnar was an initial angel investor in,said there were three identifiable drivers for Mr Molnar’s startup investments.
“One is purely financial if you have the capital and you don’t need immediate liquidity on that capital,then startups can be a great investment and provide really good returns,” he said. “He would get great deal flow and a great position on cap tables and any cap table he wants.”
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Secondly,Mr Holland said investing in startups gave entrepreneurs like Mr Molnar a way to give back to the startup ecosystem.
“It’s a great thing for founders to be giving back and helping entrepreneurs both in terms of giving them that cheque and that his name behind the cheque will help them as well as any sort of mentorship.”
Mr Holland added the investments gave Mr Molnar “optionality” and additional insight into any startup Afterpay may be keen to invest in.
“Any business which is remotely interesting to Afterpay in the future,I presume it’s going to give them a closer look,” he said.
Mr Holland said in the United States,where he is now based,there are “tens of thousands” of angel investors who have made money out of technology and who invest that money back into startups,a phenomenon which is still in its early days in Australia.
“The Nick Molnar effect is is amazing but sadly it’s one of few examples of that,we need lots and lots more of these angel investors,” he said.
Mr Molnar declined to comment.
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