About me

👋, I’m Jared.

I used to work at Stripe, Blispay, PayPal, BlockFi, Costanoa Ventures and a few other places. I love learning and trying to be part of meaningful companies.

I'm currently building Spoolis to turn what an AI agent is buying into machine-checkable acceptance criteria, verifies the work, and connects verified outcomes to payment. I think buyers will need new forms of protection as new rails with fewer reversibility capabilities and dispute machinery gain traction.

A few months prior, I ran an experiment in AI-native product building, taking on markets historically too small to matter by using AI and shared infra, and strong product judgment to build a portfolio of genuinely useful software businesses.

The products span different industries, but they share a common thesis: important economic and administrative decisions are still handled through fragmented information, vague rules, and workflows designed for experts or humans to interpret manually.

The information, rules, or intent often exist. A usable software layer does not.

I think of this as the “it’s always been this way” tax.

My portfolio turns that ambiguity into structured software: clear answers, explicit rules, machine-checkable conditions, visible sources, deterministic calculations, and an honest next step.

  1. LabLookup.com: specimen-collection requirements across major laboratories, consolidated into one clinician-verified workflow for medical practices.
  2. AppealSeason.com: a nationwide property-assessment appeal platform that identifies the local season, evaluates whether the evidence supports an appeal, and helps homeowners prepare.
  3. UnderstandMyRating.com: a simple decoder for VA disability rating decisions, grounded in the federal rating schedule and designed to help veterans have more productive conversations with accredited representatives.
  4. UnderstandMyCert.com: guiding small businesses through diverse-owned certifications (veteran, women, minority-owned) that unlock government and corporate contracts. Consultants traditionally charge $2,000–$5,000 per application.
  5. UnderstandMyPolicy.com: a household insurance operating system that organizes policies, maintains history, and identifies document-grounded changes and inconsistencies across the household.
  6. TruckCompliant: a dashboard for every DOT deadline an owner-operator has to hit. New carriers face a mandatory safety audit in year one, and a missed filing can mean fines, out-of-service orders, or revoked authority.
  7. NoticeOfChange: turning the benefits notices an aging parent receives into clear deadlines. Every fall Medicare mails a dense Annual Notice of Change, and a missed window can quietly raise a parent's drug costs by thousands.
  8. HOACompliant: helping Condo and HOA boards stay ahead of association deadlines. Missed filings, lapsed insurance, or blown reserve-study timelines can trigger fines, special assessments, or personal liability for board members.

Outside of work
You can reach me on LinkedIn or Twitter @jsfranklin221.

I live in S. Florida with my wife and 4 adorable dogs, Capri, Basil, Tofu and Moana.

I’m an ISTJ (borderline INTJ) who values my wife, dogs, health, independent thinking, authenticity, self-awareness, pragmatism, judgment, progress, intellectual honesty, and curiosity.

Here are some of my Favorites

Books

Product ManagementInspiredhighlights | podcast
BusinessBuilt to Lasthighlights
BusinessThe Age of the Platformhighlights
BusinessGrinding it Outhighlights
Personal FinanceStop Acting Richhighlights
Personal FinanceI’ll teach you to be rich
Personal FinanceStay the courseHighlights 1, 2
Personal FinanceMillennial Moneyhighlights
Personal FinanceThe Millionaire Next Door
InvestingThe Intelligent Investorhighlights
InvestingMastering the Market Cycleshighlights
InvestingThe Four Pillars of Investinghighlights
InvestingThe Elements of Investinghighlights
InvestingA Random Walk Down Wall Streethighlights
InvestingThe Little Book of Stock Market Cycleshighlights

Blogs, Posts, Memos, Vids, and Emails

Long overdue for an update...

Product ManagementBlog: SVPG Silicon Valley Product Group
* Product Management – Start Here
* Product Success
* Behind Every Great Product
* Good Product Team / Bad Product Team
* The Product Manager Contribution
* The Four Big Risks
Product ManagementPost: Crossing the Canyon: Product Manager to Product Leader
Product ManagementPost: Product Work Beyond Product-Market Fit
Product ManagementPost: Good Product Manager / Bad Product Manager
Product ManagementBlog: Black Box of PM
* PM Mental Models
Product ManagementShreyas Doshi:
* n+ Tweet threads
* How to Improve your Product Sense
Product ManagementAnthony Cintron Series:
* Responsibilities of a Product Strategists
* Responsibilities of a Product Manager
Product ManagementMini Thangaswamy (Braintree PM): What it Takes to Succeed as a Payments PM.
* Podcast
* YouTube vid
* Slideshare
Product ManagementBlog: Jackie Bavaro
* How to Hire Great Product Managers Part 1, 2, and 3
Product ManagementBlog: Adam Nash
Product ManagementBlog: Ken Norton
Product ManagementBlog: Sachin Rekhi
Product ManagementResources: The Ultimate Product Management Guide
BusinessBlog: Bill Gurley
BusinessBlog: a16z
BusinessBlog: Benedict Evans Essays and Presentations
BusinessEssays: Paul Graham Essays
BusinessMemo: Sequoia’s Investment Memo on YouTube
BusinessMemo: Brad Garlinghouse Yahoo Peanut Butter Manifesto
BusinessMemo: Slacks Stewart Butterfield We Don’t Sell Saddles Here
BusinessEmail: Howard Schultz The Commoditization of the Starbucks Experience
BusinessLetters: Amazon Shareholder Letters
Personal FinanceBlog: The Irrelevant Investor
Personal FinanceBlog: A Wealth of Common Sense
Personal FinanceBlog: Of Dollars and Data
Markets & InvestingEssays: Eric Peters One River Asset Management Weekend Notes
Markets & InvestingResearch: Vanguard Research
Markets & InvestingResearch: Federal Research Economic Data
Markets & InvestingBlog & Letters: Eric Cinnamond of Palm Valley Capital
Markets & InvestingLetters: wknd notes by Eric Peters of One River
Markets & InvestingLetters: Howard Marks / Oaktree Memos
Markets & InvestingLetters: Alta Fox Capital
Markets & InvestingBlog & Letters: Crescat Capital
Markets & InvestingLetters: Hedge Fund Letters

Podcasts

Companies

Movies & TV

Activities

  • Walking
  • Working out
  • Working
  • Dog daddying
  • Husbanding

Quotes/Mantras

  • Luck favors the persistent & relentless.
  • It could always be worse.
  • Whatever the fuck it takes.
  • All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • If your plan is clear, it will be easier for you to stay on plan. Malkiel, Ellis
  • Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. Einstein

People

Tweet Threads

Startup Investing

I'm a very tiny angel investor, targeting 1-2 per year. Reach out if you think I could be an asset to your startup. Regardless, I can put you in touch with The Fintech Fund and other great investors where it makes sense.

Below are some investments that I've made directly or through syndicates:

Professionally, as a venture capital investor, I sourced and helped lead the seed round for Tensec and Definite.

Popular tags

Product Management Startups fintech