Matt Oppenheimer’s first lessons from a 15-year journey with Remitly – GeekWire

Build with purpose. Lead with authenticity. Put customers first than your ego. And focus on the problem you’re solving — adapting to the solution.

That’s part of the playbook Matt Oppenheimer followed as he helped grow three-person Techstars Seattle into one of the world’s leading remittance platforms.

After nearly 15 years leading Remitly as CEO, Oppenheimer announced Wednesday that he is stepping down as CEO and moving to the role of chairman of the board. He is passing the baton to Sebastian Gunningham, a longtime technology and finance leader who previously led Amazon’s marketplace and payments businesses.

“I feel great, honestly,” Oppenheimer told GeekWire on Thursday. “The thing that has driven me since I started the business 15 years ago is impact and purpose and doing things with purpose. And I feel like that’s how we’ve done this succession plan.”

Remitly’s story began more than a decade ago after Oppenheimer recently returned from Kenya, where he worked for Barclays and saw how difficult it was for families to send and receive money overseas.

He teamed up with co-founders Josh Hug and Shivaas Gulati, pivoted before going to market for the product and raising nearly $400 million. The company went public in 2021 at a valuation of around $7 billion.

Remitly’s mobile technology allows people to send and receive money across borders, eliminating the many forms, codes, and in-person agents typically associated with international transfers. It is used by more than 9 million people. The company reported revenue of $442.2 million in Q4, up 26% year-over-year, and had its first full year of GAAP profit in 2025.

We spoke to Oppenheimer about the lessons learned from Remitly’s journey and his advice for entrepreneurs. Here are some important things to take away.

Love the problem, not your product

Oppenheimer recalls the frustration he saw and felt as he watched families struggle to send money across borders. That sparked an idea for Remitly. The key, he says, was the key to that problem — not a single product idea. The danger is when inventors use their resin in the wrong place.

“If they transfer that patience to the wrong place – the product or trying to force a customer that doesn’t care about it – they fail,” he said. They run out of time, energy or money.

Approach customers

In the early days, Remitly set up a booth at Southcenter Mall near Seattle outside of a legacy remittance facility, complete with signposting.

Oppenheimer cited a phrase from Airbnb founder Brian Chesky: “find marketing channels that don’t measure up.” The goal was not to grow, but rather to understand.

They learned why customers weren’t using Remitly. That response has fueled a pivot from mobile wallets to cash withdrawals, bank deposits, and door-to-door delivery.

“We had to go after the customers,” Oppenheimer said. He added: “If we had been stubborn about making mobile wallets only – that’s what our pitch said – we would have failed.

Define culture as behavior – and keep rewriting

Oppenheimer said many companies stand on a short list of vague values. “Cultures are the way people in a company or institution communicate to bring their customers,” he said.

Before Remitly launched its product, the founding team created an outdoor space to explain the culture on a whiteboard. Early values ​​like “relationship” were well-intentioned but too broad. Remitly has updated its values ​​every six months and now every few years, it translates them into specific behaviors such as “be an empathetic partner,” “lead authentically,” and “manage constructively.”

Customer centricity sits at the top as one of the biggest values. Oppenheimer said to test whether values ​​appear in concrete decision-making: “Once you define it, [you embed it] in the interview process and the performance review process.”

Find compatible co-founders

Oppenheimer said Remitly wouldn’t exist without its founders, pointing to Hug’s product prowess and Gulati’s engineering chops.

“It is important that all founders combine themselves with complementary skills and respect those skills deeply,” he said.

In the early days, his contribution was often to remove obstacles: money transfer licenses, office rentals, even garbage collection. “My job was to help them,” he said. Oppenheimer emphasized the importance of shared values ​​but different strengths.

Raise more money than you think you need

Remitly has raised hundreds of millions of dollars on its way to an IPO in multiple rounds. None of them were easy.

“It takes a lot of yes and no,” Oppenheimer said. “It takes that tenacity, tenacity and perseverance that is essential for any entrepreneur to be successful.”

He advises treating fundraising as a two-person conversation, not a one-way pitch. “Investors can smell the desperation,” he said. Make sure investors are asking the right questions, and consider whether you want them on your board.

If the partner is right, Oppenheimer leans towards a bit of amplification. “Things always take longer than you think,” he said. For companies pursuing bright ideas, “if you have the right partner, you can raise enough money, then it’s worth the dilution to be able to move forward against realizing that vision.”

Manage your growth as a product, with updates and roadmaps

With a strong focus on management, Oppenheimer created a formal process for developing himself as CEO, especially as Remitly grew from a handful of people to more than 3,000.

He began asking each new investor who joined Remitly’s board to conduct a performance review. “I’d like you to talk to all the other board members, I’d like you to talk to my leadership team,” he told them. “And then I would like your understanding.”

He turned that idea into a written development plan, shared it with the company, and got coaches and mentors to help him work on specific areas. “It took a lot of effort to grow as a leader,” he said.

That work continues in his new role as chairman. “After mission and purpose, the second thing that motivated me the most personally is growing as a person,” he said. “That’s what I loved about the journey, and it continues in this next role.”

Don’t underestimate the role of the community

Seattle is a big part of Remitly’s story. Techstars Seattle helped launch Remitly (back when it was called Beamit Mobile); talent from the region’s tech ecosystem helped grow it

“The talent we’ve been able to get from some of the biggest tech companies has been fundamental,” said Oppenheimer. Since there are fewer growth-stage companies in the city than in other hubs, he believes Remitly can attract people who want to join a mission-driven startup with big ambitions.

Last year the company moved to a new headquarters in downtown Seattle. Oppenheimer said he and Remitly are committed to Seattle, noting that he wants to make sure “that’s the case for the next decade.”