About
Paul Erlanger is the co-founder and CEO of fomo, the social-first crypto trading app that hit a $550 million valuation 13 months after launch on a $75 million Series B led by Index Ventures. He and co-founder Se Yong Park skipped a conventional seed round entirely: they wrote down 200 people they dreamed of having on the cap table, worked warm intros and cold-called the rest, and 140 of them wrote checks — among them Solana co-founder Raj Gokal, Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron and former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan. That roster is what sent three separate introductions to Benchmark's Chetan Puttagunta, who led a $17 million Series A and took a board seat in November 2025. Erlanger studied physics at NYU and finance at NYU Stern, analysed private credit at Deutsche Bank, then spent three years running business development at dYdX — the vantage point from which he watched ordinary traders lose to bridges, gas tokens and wallet setup. fomo now carries more than 625,000 traders, $4 billion in cumulative volume and 110 million social interactions, on a team of 17.
Beyond investing
- Founded
- Co-founded fomo in 2024 with Se Yong Park and Prashan Dharmasena, all three out of dYdX; the app launched publicly in May 2025.
- More
- Raised fomo's first money as an angel-only round instead of a seed: a list of 200 dream angels, 140 of whom invested, closing about $2M in February 2025. Adding Apple Pay a month after the May 2025 launch reset the company's trajectory — roughly $150,000 of weekly revenue and $3M of daily volume almost immediately. Led business development at dYdX from July 2021 to October 2024, scaling its institutional trading program. Worked private credit at Deutsche Bank in 2020-21, structuring project financing for sustainable energy and battery systems. Co-founded Rogue Aerospace in New York from 2017 to 2019, while still an undergraduate. Studied physics at New York University and finance at NYU Stern, graduating summa cum laude, and tutored physics at NYU. Sets fomo's product bar as onboarding, funding an account and buying a token inside about 30 seconds, whether or not the user has touched crypto before. Closed a $75M Series B on 22 June 2026 led by Index Ventures at a $550M valuation, with Union Square Ventures and returning investor Benchmark, plus angels including Zynga's Mark Pincus, Discord CEO Humam Sakhnini and Eventbrite's Kevin Hartz.
From published sources — common ground for a warm intro.
Co-Founder & CEO at fomo
Intro paths
In turn, Paul can intro founders to fomo's investors below.
fomo's investors · 21
Co-founders at fomo
Experience
- fomoCo-Foundercurrent2024 — presentNew York, New York, United States
- dYdXHead of Business Development2021 — 2024
- Deutsche BankPrivate Credit Analyst2020 — 2021New York, New York, United States
- Rogue AerospaceCo-Founder2017 — 2019New York, New York
- New York UniversityPhysics Tutor2018Greater New York City Area
Skills & more
From Paul's professional profile.
Podcasts & interviews
featuring Paul Erlangerfomo CEO: How We Got Fred Wilson, Benchmark and Index to Invest $94M | Why Robinhood's Strategy is Wrong
20VC with Harry Stebbings · thetwentyminutevc.com
Paul Erlanger, Co-Founder of fomo, on 11AM w/ Seed Club
11AM w/ Seed Club
Index Ventures, Union Square Ventures back trading app Fomo at $550 million valuation
Fortune · fortune.com
Why Benchmark made a rare crypto bet on trading app Fomo, with $17M Series A
TechCrunch · techcrunch.com
Frequently asked questions
- Who is Paul Erlanger?
- Paul Erlanger is the co-founder and CEO of fomo, the social-first crypto trading app that hit a $550 million valuation 13 months after launch on a $75 million Series B led by Index Ventures. He and co-founder Se Yong Park skipped a conventional seed round entirely: they wrote down 200 people they dreamed of having on the cap table, worked warm intros and cold-called the rest, and 140 of them wrote checks — among them Solana co-founder Raj Gokal, Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron and former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan. That roster is what sent three separate introductions to Benchmark's Chetan Puttagunta, who led a $17 million Series A and took a board seat in November 2025. Erlanger studied physics at NYU and finance at NYU Stern, analysed private credit at Deutsche Bank, then spent three years running business development at dYdX — the vantage point from which he watched ordinary traders lose to bridges, gas tokens and wallet setup. fomo now carries more than 625,000 traders, $4 billion in cumulative volume and 110 million social interactions, on a team of 17.
- Where does Paul Erlanger work?
- Paul Erlanger is Co-Founder & CEO of fomo.
- What companies did Paul Erlanger found?
- Paul Erlanger founded fomo.
- Where did Paul Erlanger go to school?
- Paul Erlanger studied at New York University (Bachelor of Arts - BA, Physics); NYU Stern School of Business (Bachelor of Science - BS, Finance).
- What podcasts and interviews feature Paul Erlanger?
- Tracked appearances include "fomo CEO: How We Got Fred Wilson, Benchmark and Index to Invest $94M | Why Robinhood's Strategy is Wrong", "Paul Erlanger, Co-Founder of fomo, on 11AM w/ Seed Club", "Index Ventures, Union Square Ventures back trading app Fomo at $550 million valuation", and 1 more.
Same school
Also attended New York University385
+ 379 more
Also attended NYU Stern School of Business430
+ 424 more
Shared employers
Also worked at fomo3
Also worked at dYdX5
Also worked at Deutsche Bank540
+ 534 more
Also worked at New York University93
+ 87 more