Scaling your business requires laser focus, strategic partnerships, and deep customer insights.

Alek Koenig, CEO and Founder of Settle, has built his company by doubling down on what works, minimizing distractions, and embedding deeply within the customer’s operational needs. Starting his career at Capital One and Affirm, Alek transitioned from corporate roles into entrepreneurship, driven by the desire to make quicker impacts and meaningful decisions.In this episode, Alek shares critical lessons from Settle’s journey of becoming an essential financial operating system for consumer packaged goods (CPG) businesses. He emphasizes the power of specialization, the importance of cultural alignment from your earliest hires, and how strategic partnerships can drive exponential growth.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The importance of staying hyper-focused on core competencies to achieve sustainable growth.
• Why the first hires set the foundation for your organizational culture.
• How deep industry-specific knowledge and customer intimacy can differentiate your offering in a crowded market.

Jump into the conversation: 
(00:00 ) Meet Alek Koenig 
(01:33 ) Alek’s journey from corporate to startups 
(02:35 ) Founding Settle and discovering customer needs 
(05:09 ) Building intentional company culture 
(07:08 ) Balancing planning and execution in early business
(09:17 ) Going deep vs. broad in product offerings 
(13:19 ) Why Settle prioritized depth in CPG vertical 
(16:47 ) Differentiation and avoiding direct competition 
(19:11 ) Leveraging accounting firm partnerships 
(22:44 ) Settle’s strategic product roadmap 
(26:35 ) True meaning of vertical specialization 
(32:27 ) Growing with the business and evolving leadership