John Llamas

Fintech covers everything from consumer neobanks and wealthtech to B2B payments infrastructure, crypto exchanges, stablecoin issuers, and insurtech. Each sub-vertical has its own competitive dynamics, regulatory landscape, and growth trajectory.

In 2024, stablecoins emerged as the hottest sub-vertical in all of fintech. Stripe’s $1.1 billion acquisition of Bridge was the catalyst that put stablecoin infrastructure on every investor’s radar. What followed was an explosion of capital, M&A activity, and mainstream institutional interest.

For a growth professional evaluating seed-stage opportunities, understanding these sector dynamics is the difference between a career-defining move and a resume gap. Joining a stablecoin payments startup before the sector exploded required conviction, timing, and access to the right deal flow.

John wasn’t a first-time operator looking for a safe landing - he was a career entrepreneur who had always been on the founder side. He knew startups, growth, and fintech. What he wanted was something very specific: seed-stage, fintech, lead the growth function from scratch, direct founder access, and meaningful equity.

The challenge was that seed-stage startups don’t recruit on LinkedIn. They hire through networks, warm intros, and investor referrals. John needed a team that could source across the entire fintech landscape and identify the handful of companies where timing, sector, stage, and role all aligned.

Archer’s approach was fundamentally different from a traditional job search. This wasn’t about volume - it was about mapping the fintech landscape and finding the intersection of sector momentum, company quality, and role fit.

John met with startups across crypto infrastructure, stablecoins, neobanking, traditional banking, payments, and wealthtech. The breadth of sourcing was intentional - John didn’t know which sub-vertical would produce the right opportunity, and neither did the market.

Through the process, Archer identified BEAM - a seed-stage startup building stablecoin payment infrastructure, founded by a former Visa crypto executive. BEAM checked every box: seed-stage with $7M raised, lean team, stablecoin sector, first dedicated growth hire, and equity-heavy compensation.

John joined BEAM as Head of Growth, stepping out of his agency founder role to lead marketing and growth at a seed-stage stablecoin payments startup with direct access to the CEO and a meaningful RSU equity position.

In October 2025 - roughly 18 months after John joined - BEAM was acquired by Modern Treasury in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $40 million.

John’s RSU equity - the risk he deliberately took by choosing a seed-stage role - converted into stock in a late-stage unicorn through the all-stock acquisition.

The stablecoin expertise he developed at BEAM is now a core capability of Modern Treasury’s platform, and the growth function he built from scratch is integrated into a company processing hundreds of billions of dollars.