Garrett Ransom
2023 Parity Project Innovation Challenge Winner
A Blockchain-Based Business Line of Credit: Data-Driven Change
“You should apply to the Parity Project Innovation Challenge because it’s a great opportunity to showcase your business in front of a bunch of really credible people who care about the type of work that you’re doing.”
Hi, Garrett! Tell us a little bit about yourself!
I’m the founder and CEO of Thurman Labs. Basically, I built a lending cooperative that provides microloans to diverse-led small businesses using blockchain technology.
I’m originally from Antioch, California. I went to Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, and graduated in 2015. At Morehouse, I spent a bunch of time going towards a career in investment banking, working on Wall Street.
Eventually, I found that I really had more of a passion for startups. I ended up getting into a fellowship called Venture for America, which is a startup fellowship for recent grads. It was a great opportunity for me to learn how technology works and how building a startup works. But it also led to me teaching myself how to code around a year out. And then from there, I ended up working in the crypto space at a decentralized cloud storage company called Storage, which really just helped me bridge the gap between the finance that I learned in college, the startup stuff, and the crypto stuff to work on what I’m working on now, which is providing microloans using blockchain technology.
Tell us more about the pitch for your 2024 Parity Project Innovation Challenge submission.
So the product that I created is called Thurman, and essentially, we provide microloans to diverse-led small businesses using crypto. And the way that we use crypto and blockchain technology is that we created a lending pool that works to approve borrowers through a blockchain-based voting process. So all the people that pool together their money vote on approving borrowers that we’ve selected out of our applicant pool.
An example of a borrower that we’ve approved is Ade Dehye, a fashion brand that sources their fabrics in Ghana. So we helped a brand like Ade Dehye get the working capital that they need to roll out their next upcoming fashion release.
Why did you decide to build your business using blockchain technology?
The reason I chose to use blockchain technology to do microlending is because I have conviction that blockchain technology will be able to put all the pieces together. So lending is one aspect of it, but businesses want to be able to grow. In order to grow, they need sales, they need community. I just look at blockchain technology as a foundational technology that will be able to put all those building blocks together and help them work together as one to be able to help and affect communities as well as business owners within those communities.
Why did you apply to the Parity Project Innovation Challenge?
I applied to the Parity Project Innovation Challenge because it was recommended by a friend and colleague of mine, Darren Carter, from Coinbase. He told me that it was a great project, and I decided to look into it. I saw that it really, really applied to the type of work that I was doing in terms of trying to address disparities by providing microloans to small businesses.
From there, I saw that there were a lot of great opportunities to be around other like-minded people and be able to showcase my business in front of a bunch of people who could be able to help out my business.
What are your plans for the future?
The plan for Thurman Labs’ future is to continue to do more of what we do but at a larger scale. So, we built a nice grassroots community filled with people who gave between $50 and $5,000. That allowed us to give microloans up to $5,000. What we want to do is scale that by partnering with accredited investors and institutions to provide more impact at a larger scale to more small businesses.
Why should someone do the Parity Project Innovation Challenge?
You should apply to the Parity Project Innovation Challenge because it’s a great opportunity to be able to showcase your business in front of a bunch of really credible people who care about the type of work that you’re doing.
What does parity mean to you?
Parity, to me, means equality.
Why is STEM important to you?
STEM is important to me because I think it’s a great building block for creating things in the world. When I taught myself how to code years ago, it was because I wanted to learn how to build things and put software out into the world. STEM is such an important part of the builder process and being able to put products out into the world that people enjoy.
Who is a mentor or someone who inspires you?
So both of my parents are really great mentors to me, and they do it in very different ways. My mom is somebody who’s always gonna push me to say, “Hey, you should always dream bigger. Think about this from a different perspective.” And my dad has just been a great example of somebody who goes out every day and does the work and lives by his word. And those are the things that I carry with me into my career every single day.
Do you have advice for anyone doing the Parity Project Innovation Challenge?
The advice that I would give for anybody that’s applying, regardless of what stage you’re at, is try to clearly communicate what you’ve done up to this point and where you want your business to go. Be as concise as possible and also just take time to pay close attention to the revisions that you need to do from that first initial draft.