Welcome to KU Hustle, the podcast about the entrepreneurs, innovators, and risk-takers who spent time at the University of Kansas and then built something remarkable. I'm your host, Jessica Palm. Today we have a special episode recorded in front of a live audience at the KU School of Business: a conversation between one of KU's most thoughtful leaders and a Jayhawk who held executive roles at AOL and Yahoo before becoming a leader in blockchain and cryptocurrency. His work has taken him worldwide, but he remains rooted in Lawrence, Topeka, and Kansas values. I know you'll enjoy this conversation between Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and KU zone Nancy Jackson.
It is so wonderful to see so many friendly faces in this audience today. Brad's nervous because his mom's in the front row, but I'm a little nervous because seeing all of you here this morning, I feel the heat, but
I did not invite her. That was intentional.
So, Brad, you and I met about 2011. One of the things I remember most from that first meeting is that you were one of the proudest Kansans I know. Talk us through growing up in Topeka. Your mother would attest. What was the best thing about it?
First of all, thank you for having me. The Chancellor correctly introduced Nancy Jackson as a senior leader of the endowment, but she's also a friend. I hope this will be a more interesting discussion because we've known each other for a long time. As for Topeka, I've had an unbelievably interesting journey all over the world, and I've always tried to remember where I'm from. Kansas is the real world. There's a bubble in California, in Miami, in New York. Kansas grounds me. It's hard-working, grounded, realistic, pragmatic people. Growing up in Topeka—it's part of my identity. To this day, when people ask where I'm from, I've lived in California for 24 years, but I'm not a Californian. I view myself as a Kansan first and I'll never lose sight of that.
When I first met you, you were at AOL. You had been in Silicon Valley for a decade in high positions, surrounded by Ivy League degrees, and you yourself earned one from Harvard. But you always talked about your Kansas degree. Can you say a few words about that?
You are shaped by the places and friends you have. I went to Harvard Business School after KU, and it opened my eyes to world opportunities I didn't know existed. I would not have had my Silicon Valley trajectory without Harvard. But when people ask where I went to school, I say Kansas. KU formed me more than Harvard. That's not a slight against Harvard—I have immense gratitude. Harvard Business School takes only one person from KU each year. I was that person. But success isn't just about intelligence; it's about working with people and meeting them where they are. Some of the smartest people I knew at Harvard aren't the most successful because they can't ground their intelligence in a way that impacts others.
One of the things you said in our first meeting was that Harvard's advantage was its connections. It opened the world of Silicon Valley. So we created something together. Do you want to talk about that and what it meant?
Yes. Early 2010s, Nancy and I believed that KU's top 10% can compete with any Ivy League, but they don't know how to access those opportunities. So we partnered with Brian McClendon, who created Google Earth, and started the Tech Trek. We sponsored 25 students to come to San Francisco for a three-day program. We called in favors from our network and hosted them at companies like Uber. We wanted to show them that opportunities aren't just in the Northeast Kansas Corridor, but in places like Silicon Valley. Many talented KU designers don't know Google hires at $140,000 starting salaries for design roles. If you go there, you get exposed to other opportunities that change your trajectory. I'm not taking away from design jobs in Kansas City, but students should know all their options.
All of which led to an investment in the alumni's career network, which
Where's Heath?
Heath is in the house. There he is, right there.
For those who don't know, Heath runs the KU Alumni Association. He leaned into the idea of activating alumni. There are amazing alumni in this room who want to help, but people don't know they're there. When we organized the Tech Trek, I didn't know who all the Jayhawks were in Silicon Valley. The Alumni Association helped me find them. I cold-called them and said, 'Hey, fellow Jayhawk, we want to...' I remember a guy at Bleacher Report—I can't remember his name now. I'm getting old.
Aren't we all? Heath, how many mentors now on the platform?
We have over 16,000 Jayhawks on the platform. 11,000 are alumni.
16,000 on the platform.
For the students here, that means 16,000 job leads. When I went to the career center circa 1993, that resource didn't exist.
Not. I remember going to the career center and my job lead was Revlon—stocking grocery shelves. I thought, 'I'll go to San Francisco and work in investment banking, thank you.' This is a huge thing. These alumni connections lead to tremendous innovation at KU and help connect alumni with students and jobs.
Speaking of driving forward, one of those Tech Treks hosted at Ripple. The last time Brad hosted, I was amazed. He explained what Ripple and XRP do so clearly that the students were nodding. Could you do that for this group?
I'm still figuring it out.
And he got up in front of the students and within two minutes explained it so clearly they all nodded. So could you?
Sure. First, I want to address something. Some parts of Silicon Valley try to prove they're smart with complicated explanations. That's a mistake. Meet people where they are. Where Ripple started was solving a simple problem: moving money. Today, most people use Venmo, but not everyone. It's a closed network. Moving money overseas is painful, expensive, slow, and mistakes happen. You can stream video from the space station, but you can't move your own money easily. Ripple set out to fix that. Our technology uses XRP, but customers don't care about that—they care that it's fast (4 seconds) and cheap (fractions of a penny). We sell to banks and financial institutions. We ended up getting sued by the US government, which stagnated our US business for about 5 years. That's changed now.
It was. Let's go one more step. Many people are confused by blockchain. Quick description.
Everyone here in the business school should know: a blockchain is a ledger—debits and credits—that is open and immutable. Once a transaction happens, it can't be changed. It's an open ledger. But the key is to focus on the problem it solves, not the technology itself. That's what Ripple does—applies these technologies to meet customers where they are.
And XRP is the vehicle by which you achieve that?
