Rudolf Falat's Blog, page 5
June 3, 2020
May book tips and other resources
Photo by Michelle Tan on Unsplash
Following up on the recaps of May episodes of Voice of FinTech podcast, here are also book tips and additional resources related to May episodes. You can subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcast apps here. Keep safe!
Emerging technology due diligence - how?
Following up on the podcast with Rodney Reis, here is further recommended reading.
May 31, 2020
May recap!
Photo by Sora Sagano on Unsplash
In case you missed out on May episodes of Voice of FinTech podcast, here is the monthly recap. You can listen to all the episodes on the Episodes pages of this website or when you subscribe to your favorite podcast apps under Subscribe.
Emerging technology due diligence - how?
with Rodney Reis
Doing due diligence is never an easy exercise. Especially when you want to form a view on emerging technology - is it going to work or not? Are there bugs in the code that are so hard to find they will only manifest themselves when the product will be live and overloaded by interest? Is it purely technical diligence? Is it a conversation or a tour? These are some of the topics we covered with Rodney Reis from Avalia Systems, based in Yverdon-les-Bains, close to Lausanne, Switzerland.
Rodney Reis is co-founder and CEO of Avalia Systems. Avalia advises its clients on how to improve the return from their investments in software development. Avalia's clients range from CTOs and CIOs to investors, looking at emerging technologies and trying to assess the value of potential investments into tech-led companies.
Investing in enterprise technology and scaling up: a Bay Area VC perspective
with Shruti Van Dyke Gandhi
In this episode, we speak with Shruti Van Dyke Gandhi, Partner at Array Ventures in San Francisco and adjunct Professor Computer Sciences at Columbia University in New York, about investing in Enterprise Tech including FinTech, her transition from an engineer to a VC investor, Array's investment philosophy and approach, comparison between the West Coast and New York start-up scene with respect to FinTech and more.
In this episode, you will learn:
Back story: About Shruti's transition from an engineer to an investor
Array's focus area: Enterprise software. Big issues, problems and pain points – for which you raise money early on, even pre-revenue but you need to have relevant prior experience
Array's investment philosophy: Investing in founders that sell to global customers. Portfolio companies are US incorporated, but in the times of remote working, they may be all over the globe.
Deal sourcing: the network is vital if you are looking to back early-stage founders. Ideas from accelerators or advisers could be too late! Chemistry with the founders is more important than paperwork
Success stories/exits: Simility (AI/ML fraud prevention) acquired by PayPal or Passage AI (Conversational AI) acquired by ServiceNow
Learning: Keep on learning to avoid becoming antiquated
Is New York better for you if you are a FinTech? Listen inside:)
There is no playbook for the founder’s life that you can learn in school, so you need to stay agile and prepare for the curveballs to come at you, expect it and find a way to tackle them so you become a big business regardless what comes your way.
— Shruti Van Dyke Gandhi
with Sven Siat
An interview with Sven Siat, Head Connectivity at SIX, the Swiss Exchange Group about open banking in Switzerland, comparison to the state of open banking in the EU and Switzerland, attempts to standardize connectivity between banks and FinTechs (third-party providers), SIX developed platform b.Link - user benefits, key clients and onboarding. What's in store for the connectivity efforts in Switzerland later this year?
In this episode, you will find more about:
The state of Open Banking in Switzerland and comparison to the EU
PSD2 in the EU - is fostering cooperation between banks and FinTechs in a balanced way, or not?
Can we have one standard worldwide for connecting FinTechs and banks, or will we end up with the electrical sockets situation?
How does one develop an enterprise-grade platform in Switzerland with multiple stakeholders? Example: pilot data exchange program involving UBS, Credit Suisse, Klara and Abacus
b.Link, a platform for standardized interfaces open to the banks, FinTechs and software providers, developed by SIX, enabling them to provide account information or payment services
Key clients and onboarding on b.Link
What's in store regarding the connectivity of the financial institutions in Switzerland for later this year
Find out more about b.Link, the platform connecting banks and FinTechs in Switzerland, here.
In Switzerland, we are in the early days of open banking and we have several players and initiatives, many focusing on technical aspects only. Our approach is a bit different, we not only focus on the technical aspects (we do have the technical expertise to run reliable and scalable financial infrastructure), but I think we also understand the challenges that banks have with regard to legal and compliance.
— Sven Siat
This episode of the Financial Markets Series was brought to you by SIX, the Swiss Exchange Group. If you would like to learn more about SIX, please go to www.six-group.com.
with Marc Gruber
We talk to Marc Gruber, Vice President Innovation at EPFL and Professor of Entrepreneurship, about innovation, entrepreneurship, implications for FinTech, InsurTech and incumbents. In their book Where to play, Marc Gruber, together with Sharon Tal, Professor of Entrepreneurship at Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, address the issue of the need of start-ups to get to the target market first vs. the reality that more than 70% of them end up pivoting anyway. How to pick the right arena/domain early on to make pivoting less costly and increase the chances of success? How does entrepreneurship differ in Europe vs. the US or Asia?
Marc Gruber, Vice President Innovation and Professor of Entrepreneurship at EPFL and Sharon Tal, Professor of Entrepreneurship at Technion, co-wrote the book Where to Play, which is an excellent complement to the Lean Start-up toolkit. You can get their book Where to Play on Amazon. You will find out more how to pick the right arena, so pivoting is less likely or less costly! We also talk about implications for InsurTech and FinTech businesses, but also insurers and banks and their innovation projects.
This episode of the InsurTech Series was brought to you by HITS - House of InsurTech Switzerland, a Generali company. HITS is the innovation corp-up hub focusing on the InsurTech sector, bringing corporates and start-ups to develop customer-centric solutions. HITS creates the perfect environment to make innovation happen with early-stage investors and partners from the InsurTech sector.
with Ute Koenig-Stemmler
In this bonus episode, we speak to Ute Koenig-Stemmler, Head of Business Development & Sales Non-Traditional Financial Institutions, Central Europe at VISA about VISA's activities regarding Open Innovation in the region that comprises Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
We cover the following topics:
Ute's Business Development Central Europe mandate
VISA's activities in the region and Switzerland in particular
VISA's investment in the FinTech space (e.g. acquisition of Earthport, a cross-border payments services provider or investment in SolarisBank, Banking-as-a-Platform start-up from Germany)
VISA's outreach to the FinTech community through VISA Everywhere initiative and their cooperation with Tomorrow, a sustainability-focused bank and Penta, credit cards for SMEs
Views on partnerships with start-ups and VISA's focus on working with companies looking to scale-up, leveraging their network
VISA in Switzerland cooperates with Yapeal, first independent Zurich start-up with the FinTech license
Note: The episode was recorded before pandemic lockdowns in Europe
What if money becomes fully electronic, so it would become nothing but electrons and photons moving around the world at the speed of light?
— Dee Hock
If you have suggestions for topics or guests on the show or have ideas about how to make this podcast better for you, please e-mail us at info@voiceoffintech.com.
Keep safe!
Sincerely,
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May 2, 2020
April book tips and other resources
Photo by Clark Tibbs on Unsplash
Following up on the recaps of April episodes of Voice of FinTech podcast, here are also book tips and additional resources related to April episodes. You can subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcast apps here. Keep safe!
Wealth Management vs. WealthTech
In this episode, we talk to Christine (Mar) Ciriani about the Wealth Management challenges and where WealthTech companies could provide solutions and add value for high net worth or ultra-high net worth clients. If you would like to gain a comprehensive overview of WealthTech, check out the WealthTech book by the FinTech Circle.
Founder story: Pivoting to Scale with Rapyd and guest co-host Adelle Grisaffe from RFi Group's Global Digital Banker podcastwith Adelle Grisaffe and Sarel Tal from London
Check out the teaser we did together with Adelle Grisaffe, host and producer of RFi Group’s Global Digital Banker podcast about the podcast episode with Sarel Tal, VP EMEA at Rapyd, a fast growing international Fintech-as-a-Service company.
We talk about pivoting from B2C to B2B to accelerate scaling up, Rapyd's unique advantage and the state of Open Banking in Europe. We also cover short and long term threats and opportunities coming of the current health crisis for start-ups and FinTechs in particular.
Founder story: In vino veritas - How to invest in wine businesses?
Photo by Viktor Ritsvall on Unsplash
In this episode, we talk to Maxime Debure, INSEAD alumnus, former winemaker and management consultant, about investing in wine vs. investing in wine estates, either through crowdfunding or private equity type of deals.
If you would like to buy outstanding fine wine online, don't go further, recommended by Maxime:
Les Grappes is a market place offering to buy directly from a wide selection of 1000 wine growers. The wine is shipped directly from the estate to your door in France and neighboring countries.
April 30, 2020
April recap!
Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash
Another a month in a lockdown! Keep safe! In case you missed out on April episodes of Voice of FinTech podcast, here is the monthly recap. You can listen to all the episodes on the Episodes pages of this website or when you subscribe to your favorite podcast apps under Subscribe.
Wealth Management vs. WealthTech
with Christine (Mar) Ciriani in Zurich at the Swiss Wealth Management Awards in 2019
We talk to Christine (Mar) Ciriani about the Wealth Management challenges and where WealthTech could provide solutions for pain points of client advisors servicing high net worth or ultra-high net worth clients. Christine (Mar) Ciriani is Chief Commercial Officer at Finantix, Board member at Barclays Switzerland and Industry Partner at Motive Partners, well-respected Wealth Management and Wealth Tech expert.
Founder story: Pivoting to Scale with Rapyd and guest co-host Adelle Grisaffe from RFi Group's Global Digital Banker podcast
with Adelle Grisaffe and Sarel Tal
In this bonus episode, together with Adelle Grisaffe as a guest co-host, we interview Sarel Tal, VP EMEA from Rapyd, London based, FinTech-as-a-Service platform. Rapyd provides APIs that help integrate local payments and FinTech capabilities. Adelle is London based Australian, producer and host of RFi Group's (Retail Finance Intelligence) podcast Global Digital Banker. We talk about pivoting from B2C to B2B to accelerate scaling up, Rapyd's unfair advantage vs. competitors and the state of Open Banking in Europe. We also cover short and long term threats and opportunities coming of the current health crisis for start-ups and FinTechs in particular.
Founder story: In vino veritas - How to invest in wine businesses?
with Maxime Debure from Bordeaux
In this episode, we talk to Maxime Debure, INSEAD alumnus, former winemaker and management consultant, about investing in wine vs. investing in wine estates, either through crowdfunding or private equity type of deals. His business called Wine Funding helps winemakers to obtain equity financing to help them grow their businesses in France and around the world.
Core banking in the cloud with Thought Machine
with Paul Taylor from London
In this episode, we talk to Paul Taylor, CEO and founder of Thought Machine, London headquartered cloud-native core banking technology company about benefits of running core banking infrastructure in the cloud, how the banks' thinking about this has shifted over last few years, Thought Machine's recent funding round ahead of the further growth phase and the importance of good coding practices in a growing software company and banks.
The Insurtech Series brought to you by HITSI am glad that HITS - House of InsurTech Switzerland, a Generali company, will sponsor the Insurtech Series of the Voice of FinTech podcast
April 8, 2020
InsurTech Chat |Minh Q. Tran chats with Rudolf Falat from Voice of Fintech
Recently, we held a live InsurTech chat with Minh Q. Tran on Twitter. Here is the transcript:
Question 1 (Minh Q. Tran): What are the current trends in insurance regarding customer experience?
Answer (Rudolf Falat): In the podcast with Generali, we talked about the increased use of technology by insurers, with the underlying goal of improving customer experience and being a partner to the customer, helping with their insurance needs.
One example could be the use of AI for risk assessment, predictive underwriting techniques and telematics to offer usage-based insurance model. Another focus is on platforms and ecosystems where insurers can participate as a protection provider or risk mitigator.
Question 2 (MQT): Why would large, incumbent insurers cooperate with start-ups at all?
Answer (RF): Start-ups are much bolder and much faster. However, an incumbent can benefit from working with them, and start-ups can benefit from working with an incumbent. Open innovation is the right way to do innovation nowadays.
For example, in my podcast with AXA, we talked about their cooperation with Veezoo, a data science start-up. Veezoo helps AXA to analyze and visualize sales data. AXA is rolling out Veezoo’s tool to the agents who love the program, thanks to which they have a better view of their sales and client interactions.
Question 3(MQT): How can this cooperation be successful? What are the prerequisites?
Answer (RF): For incumbents, it’s crucial that when start-ups approach them, they know what they’re doing. In other words, they have the first product in the market and already have the first clients.
Then, incumbents are happy to see how it might fit into its business and how it might solve a problem that their clients have. The team fit is essential: start-ups have to be able to work with corporates, which is not easy sometimes!
Question 4(MQT): Why just investing money by the VCs is not enough?
Answer (RF): We talked about with you and a few other VC investors on the podcast. Also, this is a common thesis among sophisticated early-stage investors.
As the allocations of pension funds and other institutional investors to VC and PE have relaxed over the years, VC’s dry powder has exploded. Let’s see what happens now with the coronavirus impact…
In general, though, the money has become a commodity, and high-quality start-ups choose whose money to accept also based on the ability of the VC to add value as an advisor, coach, sounding board, a backup executive and most commonly, someone who can open the doors.
Question 5(MQT): What does it mean, asset builder?
Answer (RF): Well, in the podcast, you explain that Odysseus looks for start-ups with reasonable strong growth, not hyper-growth. Odysseus intends to help these businesses to build their markets. It’s like investing in Uber, on the one hand, and the other hand, buying a taxi company to bring customers to Uber.
Likewise, it’s like investing in Airbnb, on the one hand, and the other hand, investing in a real estate company to buy apartments that will use Airbnb to find customers. That’s the Odysseus model. Did I get that right?
Question 6(MQT): How close or how far do start-up ideas have to be for Generali to make sense to partner with them?
Answer (RF): Based on our podcast talk, Generali seems to take a fairly broad approach to deal with start-ups. If there is some nexus to their business, that works, which is excellent because the ecosystem approach or open innovation would hardly work!
Question 7(MQT): Examples of start-ups that cooperate with Generali?
Answer (RF): Billte digitizes and automates the entire invoicing process built with Generali together to simplify the invoice process for Generali customers.
Imburse provides hassle-free integration into the global payments ecosystem. Shift crypto security offers a hardware wallet for private keys.
24 credit is a P2P loan platform that connects borrowers with investors with insurance in case the borrower dies and the debt doesn’t pass onto heir.
Klara.ch is a digital assistant for SMEs, managing payments and bookkeeping.
Question 8(MQT): Are the insurers active in the outreach within the start-up ecosystem?
Answer (RF): In the podcasts with Generali, we talk about how Generali participates in ActionJam in Bern, Swiss FinTech Ladies, regular InsurTech meetup at F10 and many other events, for example discussing new technologies impacting customer behaviors, etc. Also, AXA and AXANauten are very active in the Swiss start-up ecosystem, no doubt!
Question 9(MQT): Customer focus and chatbots? Really?
Answer (RF): Insurers want to be partners with the customers. At the same time, everyone is trying to automate low value add, repetitive tasks — like answering similar customer queries all over again. This is where chatbots come in.
Often, people find interacting with them very frustrating. Enterprise Bot is one start-up that participated in Generali Garage and has been profitable since Day 1? How? Natural language processing — NLP.
Question 10(MQT): How does NLP make a chatbot better?
Answer (RF): In my podcast interview with Enterprise Bot, who took part in then Generali Innovation Garage and won many start-up awards, the co-founders explained that they had to use NLP in any case. Based in Switzerland, their bot has to work in multiple languages and therefore has to learn on its own.
Enterprise Bot leveraged this technology, unlike other bots that cannot learn on their own; they are programmed as basic trees that you have been facing in the call centers.
Question 11(MQT): How does it improve customer experience when dealing with an insurer?
Answer (RF): I would say when customers generally reach out to their insurer, it’s not a happy occasion. However, the insurers are under pressure to cut costs, so they have been outsourcing call centers, sometimes struggling with training their staff and managing stressed-out customers.
Enter bots — if not done smartly, they can only backfire. So if we have an opportunity to make bots smarter, i.e., set them up, they learn themselves, go for it! This will pay off when you are balancing the cost of customer care and customer satisfaction.
Find out more about Minh Q. Tran and Odysseus Partners here.
April 2, 2020
March book tips and other resources
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Following up on the recaps of March episodes of Voice of FinTech podcast, here are also book tips and additional resources related to March episodes. You can subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcast apps here. Keep safe!
MassChallenge Lausanne: A million francs for you?
with Matt Lashmar in Lausanne, Switzerland
These are the key points of the MassChallenge Switzerland’s acceleration program. In line with MassChallenge Global’s announcement Switzerland also confirmed that they will move forward with the 2020 program & have not made any decisions to alter our 2020 July-October acceleration.
Founder story: Who is the best research analyst? Invisage has the answer
with Harsh Dadhich in Zurich, Switzerland
In the time of market turmoil, what’s the book you wish you had read a long time ago?
April 1, 2020
March recap!
Zurich, photo by Eric Weber on Unsplash
What a month this has been! Keep safe! In case you missed out on March episodes of Voice of FinTech podcast, here is the monthly recap, happy to distract you! You can listen to all the episodes on the Episodes pages of this website or when you subscribe to your favorite podcast apps under Subscribe.
MassChallenge Lausanne: A million francs for you?
with Matt Lashmar in Lausanne, Switzerland
In this episode, we talked to Matt Lashmar, Managing Director of MassChallenge, Switzerland. He explained the origins of MassChallenge, how they differ from other accelerators, how to apply, how start-ups can benefit from the program (access to the corporate sponsors and prize money of a million Swiss Francs!) and their success stories. Their program continues, leveraging the remote working technologies!
Terra Ventures: A sneak peek into Israeli VC mindset
with Astorre Modena in Zurich, Switzerland
We caught up with Astorre Modena, General Partner at Terra Venture Partners, Israel, on the side of Startup Funding — VC Talks in Zurich, organized by FinTech Connector. We talk about the Terra Venture Partners investment approach. He also explains Israeli government’s support of innovation, his views on the art of startup valuation and fundraising and Israeli-Swiss VC and start-up connectivity.
Founder story: Who is the best research analyst? Invisage has the answer
with Harsh Dadhich in Zurich, Switzerland
How do you assess the research analyst performance in the MiFID II world? COO of UK based start-up Invisage and the member of the F10 Incubator/Accelerator Zurich current cohort, Harsh Dadhich, explains in this podcast. Are popularity rankings useful at all? Or should the returns on your portfolio, constructed based on the analyst’s research drive whose research you should read? How do you find out ex-ante though? Invisage’s slogan is
“from research complexity to investment clarity”
Harsh explained the importance of research in the active asset management and Invisage’s solution for the buy-side.
Financial Markets Technology: VC perspective
with Mark Beston from London
We talked to Mark Beeston, founder and Managing Partner of Illuminate Financial, London, headquartered VC firm with a global mandate, about their investment approach, success stories and views on the Capital Markets FinTech as well as WealthTech and Asset Management Tech companies scene in Europe and globally. Mark Beeston is the founder and Managing Partner of Illuminate Financial, based in London and New York, with a global mandate. Illuminate is a VC firm backing technology companies solving problems in the Capital Markets, Wealth Management and Asset Management.
Swiss FinTech Awards 2020 - and the winners are…
Oliver Bussmann, Andy Iten, Daniel Sandmeier, David Bloch and their teams in Zurich, Switzerland
In this bonus episode, we talked with:
Oliver Bussmann, CEO and founder of Bussmann Advisory, jury member of the Swiss FinTech Awards, about Digital Transformation in Banking, FinTech start-up community, Blockchain and his views on the finalists this year and the winners of Swiss FinTech Awards 2020. Oliver Bussmann, CEO and founder of Bussmann Advisory, is a well respected FinTech influencer in the German-speaking world. Oliver explains his advisory services to the corporates:
There is a generational change of the CEOs, who understand that the industry is going through a massive business model, operational model and structural change. Somebody who went through strategy and execution changes and is well connected to the FinTech start-up community is very helpful to guide them.
Further in the podcast, Oliver explains also his advice on digital transformation to Private Equity investors, activities in the blockchain world and his perspectives on the Awards winners as a juror.
Andy Iten, co-founder and member of the Board, F10, Switzerland’s only FinTech focused incubator and accelerator. We talk about the start of the incubation program in Singapore, an online version of the F10 Hackathon in Zurich this year, which is used to attract and source teams for the next batch of the program of the F10, cooperation with the corporate members. F10 is now also receiving applications for its Scale-Up Program in Zurich.
Daniel Sandmeier, CEO of Instimatch, explains how his platform brings together institutions that have excess cash deposits or need cash, replacing the traditional voice or chatroom markets.
David Bloch, CEO and co-founder of Legartis, is a lawyer. David makes life easier for lawyers and corporate clients by taking out the routine work from the contract review by leveraging the AI and allowing humans to focus on more value-added tasks.
Finovate Berlin
Greg Palmer and Myles Stephenson at Finovate Berlin
In this episode, we spoke to Greg Palmer, VP at Finovate, based in San Francisco, a leader in FinTech conferences around the world about the Berlin edition that took place in February. Also, we talked about Finovate’s concept that varies across the globe and plans for San Francisco, New York and Asian editions, updated for the current situation around the COVID-19. We then spoke to Myles Stephenson, CEO of Modulr, London based, integrated payment service for businesses about Copernican Leap in banking, direct connectivity of FinTechs to Bank of England and Modulr’s growth plans.
Greg Palmer is VP at Finovate, Host of Finovate Podcast, Director of Fintech Strategy at Informa Connect and contributor at Banking Technology, based in San Francisco, USA. Check out video demos of the startups presenting in Berlin here, for example, with a leading Swiss RegTech company Apiax, here. You can also check out Voice of FinTech podcast with Apiax here.
Myles Stephenson, CEO of Modulr is an Oxford University alumnus and a seasoned executive in the Payments space based in London, UK. Check out Modulr’s developer portal and sandbox on their website.
Founder story: Last mile in data analytics with Luminant Analytics
with Renu Ann Joseph from Basel
In this episode, Renu Ann Joseph, founder and CEO of Luminant Analytics, a Swiss-American InsurTech start-up, talked about the “last mile” when it comes to using data science and data analytics in the insurance industry. We also talked about the benefits of open innovation for both insurers and InsurTechs. Renu also shares some early thoughts on the impact of the COVID-19 on the start-ups and the insurance industry. Proud alumni of the F10 2018 acceleration program. Based in Basel, Switzerland and Hartford, CT, United States.
If you have suggestions for topics or guests on the show or have ideas about how to make a podcast better for you, please e-mail us at info@voiceoffintech.com.
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February 28, 2020
February book tips and other resources
Courtesy of Arteide
Following up on the recaps of February episodes of Voice of FinTech podcast, here are also book tips and additional resources related to February episodes. Subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcast apps here.
R3 — Enterprise blockchain solutions for corporates and start-ups!In this episode, we talk to Yves Guillaume A. Messy about what enterprise blockchain means, its relevance for the Financial Services and R3’s co-operation with the F10 Incubator & Accelerator.
Check out this TED Talk from Don Tapscott, explaining the blockchain:
or his legendary book, Blockchain revolution - you can get the book on Amazon (through Amazon Associates Program).
Direct lending for SMEs in Switzerland
With Ghassen Benhadjsalah, we talk about direct lending (or P2P lending) in general and then we focus on Swiss SMEs, why this market is an excellent opportunity for both SMEs needing financing and lenders/investors and how it all works and Accredius’ competitive edge vs. other platforms or banks!
The only investors who shouldn’t diversify are those who are right 100% of the time. Sir John Templeton
Learn more about the John Templeton Foundation, their funding areas and grants they provide here.
The Danube Valley: Vacuum Labs example
Source: Inside Vacuum Labs blog
In this podcast, we talk to Matej Ftacnik, co-founder of Vacuum Labs, based in Bratislava, Slovakia. Vacuum Labs is a FinTech focused software engineering powerhouse with over 200 employees, taking innovations to the market around the world, building neobanks for incumbents in Asia, for example.
Check out an article on The Mysterious World of Core Banking on Vacuum Labs blog.
Paris FinTech Forum 2020In connection with short interviews from Paris FinTech Forum with, we would like to share some additional resources:
Clara Durodie, Chair of Cognitive Finance Group, London about Artificial Intelligence for Financial Services: You can get the book Decoding AI in Financial Services directly from their website.
Ian O’Sullivan, European Lead of Mastercard Start Path: Check out the research report FinTech in 2020: Five Global Trends to Watch
Susanne Chishti CEO of FINTECH Circle & FINTECH Circle Institute: Check out their latest book PayTech on Amazon (through Amazon Associates Program)
Emmalyn Shaw, Managing Partner from Flourish Ventures, San Francisco. Check out the blog of Flourish Ventures here.
If you have suggestions for topics or guests on the show or have ideas about how to make a podcast better for you, please e-mail us at info@voiceoffintech.com.
Happy to hear from you!
Thank you!
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February 27, 2020
February recap!
Engadin, Switzerland. Courtesy of Delia Ying Xing
In case you missed out on February episodes of Voice of FinTech podcast, here is the monthly recap. You can listen to all the episodes on the Episodes pages of this website or when you subscribe to your favorite podcast apps under Subscribe.
R3 — Enterprise blockchain solutions for corporates and start-ups!
with Yves Guillaume A. Messy in Zurich, Switzerland
Yves Guillaume A. Messy is a Blockchain architect and ecosystem builder at R3, an enterprise blockchain company behind Corda blockchain software. We talk to Yves about what enterprise blockchain means, its relevance for the Financial Services and R3’s recently announced co-operation with the F10 Incubator & Accelerator. In particular, we discuss the suitability of blockchain for enterprise, including privacy, regulation and scalability aspects. Yves explains what he means by the Blockchain 3.0 and outlines growth plans of R3 globally and for the DACH region.
Direct lending for SMEs in Switzerland
with Ghassen Benhadjsalah in Zurich, Switzerland
Ghassen Benhadjsalah, CEO and co-founder of Acredius, is already a serial entrepreneur, based in Switzerland. We talk about direct lending (or P2P lending) in general and then we focus on Swiss SMEs, why this market is an excellent opportunity for both SMEs needing financing and lenders/investors and how it all works and Accredius’ competitive edge vs. other platforms or banks! Ghassen also explains the difference between crowdfunding and crowdlending or direct (P2P) lending. We also talk about the importance of diversification, Ghassen’s team proprietary credit scoring, coverage of the entire Switzerland and strategic partnership helping to manage the risk of the start-up intermediary like Acredius.
The Danube Valley: Vacuum Labs example
with Matej Ftacnik in Bratislava, Slovakia
In this podcast, we talk to Matej Ftacnik, co-founder of Vacuum Labs, based in Bratislava, Slovakia. Vacuum Labs is a FinTech focused software engineering powerhouse with over 200 employees, taking innovations to the market around the world, building neobanks for incumbents in Asia, for example. Matej Ftacnik is the CXO & co-founder of Vacuumlabs, a team of 200+ experts in developing products & services with modern tech stacks. They also organize regular meetups, workshops, hackathons and conferences about advanced front-end technologies. Besides that, Matej loves to travel and see the world, enjoy good food and whiskey, spend time with his great family and meet new people with the wildest personal stories.
Paris FinTech Forum 2020
with Clara Durodie, Susanne Chishti, Emmalyn Shaw and Ian O’Sullivan in Paris, France
Paris FinTech Forum 2020 took place in January 2020. It was a great way to connect with FinTech leaders from over 70 countries, 250+ CEOs, 170+ FinTechs and 2,600+ attendees in Palais Brogniart. These are short interviews from Paris FinTech Forum with:
Clara Durodie, Chair of Cognitive Finance Group, London about the implications of the Artificial Intelligence for the Financial Services (especially the Wealth Management) and her book
Ian O’Sullivan, European Lead of Mastercard Start Path, who explains how Mastercard works with start-ups, helping them to get to market and gain scale, providing services to Mastercard customers and their support of female entrepreneurship
Susanne Chishti CEO of FINTECH Circle & FINTECH Circle Institute, London describes their business angel, education and digital transformation acceleration programs
Emmalyn Shaw, Managing Partner from Flourish Ventures, San Francisco, speaks about global scalability and financial inclusiveness.
You can get Clara Durodie’s book Decoding AI in Financial Services here. Check out also Paytech, the latest book from the FinTech Circle on Amazon.
If you have suggestions for topics or guests on the show or have ideas about how to make a podcast better for you, please e-mail us at info@voiceoffintech.com.
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February 19, 2020
Crossover - Voice of FinTech on Money never sleeps podcast!
with Pete Townsend, host of Money Never Sleeps podcast
In this episode of Money Never Sleeps podcast, Rudi and Pete cover the below topics:
Rudi's inspiration and his affinity for people who understand and believe in the imperative of growth, fueling innovation and relentless new product development. Teaching entrepreneurship versus learning by doing or from those who have done it before. Raising capital outside of your home market when you're from a small country but have a global ambition. The rational or irrational approach of deal flow sourcing by VCs. Corporates engaging in "open innovation" and what startups should look out for to reduce "innovation theater" to a minimum.
Here is the full transcript:
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00:12 Pete Townsend: Hey there, welcome to Money Never Sleeps, a podcast that looks inside the head of entrepreneurs and at what makes them do what they do. I'm Pete Townsend, your co-host on Money Never Sleeps, along with Eoin Fitzgerald. This episode of Money Never Sleeps is kindly sponsored by Ireland's FinTech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you or a colleague need help attracting or retaining great talent for your FinTech or financial services company, it is highly advisable that you build a relationship with the team at Top Tier Recruitment. You can find them at toptierrecruitment.com and tell 'em we sent you.
In this episode, I talk to Rudi Falat from the Voice of FinTech, a podcast mapping out the Swiss and European fintech ecosystem. Rudi and I met in 2013, while we were on opposite sides of the table for an M&A deal that we were working on. After we both moved on to other things, we were reconnected by another guy from the same deal team, Benoit Mercier just last year. Since then we've been engaging a lot more frequently and I'm really impressed by what he's built up around his Voice of FinTech brand in the past year. So let's get on with Rudi Falat in our first podcast crossover episode of Money Never Sleeps.
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01:18 PT: Here we go again, welcome to Money Never Sleeps, I'm Pete Townsend, and we're on today with Rudi Falat. Rudi and I go back a few years, he and I worked together on a deal way back when we were both in the corporate world, he's now got his own podcast called Voice of FinTech and we'd like to welcome Rudi to the show, how are you doing, Rudi? Great to have you today.
01:35 Rudi Falat: I'm great, thank you very much, Pete. Thank you for having me.
01:38 PT: Awesome. So why don't we just dig right in and you get into your back story and tell us what you're up to, yeah?
01:43 RF: Yeah, absolutely. So first of all, I'm a finance guy. Last few years I worked in banking, post-MBA, that's where we met, I worked in in-house M&A team at Credit Suisse and we sold you guys a business in Ireland when you were at BNP Paribas and before that I worked in London for Deutsche and HSBC, but I started in New York, in Finance, in Consumer goods and then I switched over to Banking, and now I'm looking into the start-up world, the innovation world. Sometimes it's a crossover of the corporate world and the start-up world but we can talk about it a bit more as we progress.
02:25 PT: Okay. And tell me why you started getting involved in the startup ecosystem. I know we talked a little bit about this last year, but would really like to understand kind of your motivation for doing what you're doing.
02:39 RF: Right, I mean, it started with a bit of a self-reflection and also I tried to read a lot and I've been inspired by people who understand and believe in the imperative of growth, and I believe that the growth comes from innovation and from relentless focus on new product development or new services and improving the way we do things around in the business. I started looking into this and I've been attracted to people who think along those same lines and they know that sometimes it takes a while to bring the business to life or a new product and they're patient and they also can experiment and they try to be creative. So I'm still looking for the right home or the right role in that ecosystem, but in general, I love to hang out with the founders who have the courage to get going and start a business from their own and also the incumbents who are the believers in what I just said or the investors as well.
03:46 PT: Gotcha, and is there, if you think about the last last year or so, Rudi, and some of the inspiration in terms of the reading that you've been doing, anything really stand out as being an author or a book that made you think, "Wow, yeah they're on to something."?
04:02 RF: Well, in terms of growth, I think it's one of the books from Dambisa Moyo where she talks about that the growth is the imperative. If you don't grow, then the business cannot function, right? But of course, if you're in a large corporate sometimes, you need to get stuff done today or this week, and you don't think about the things that can bring fruit in the next few years or something like that. So that's one of the ideas here. And in general, of course, there are different sort of motivational clusters or incentives that work for the corporates and the startups. And unfortunately, the professor Clayton Christensen just passed away and he talked about it a lot, when you could look at Kodak and you would see, "Oh my god, why didn't they go for digital, right?" They could have and they didn't, but to be honest, at that time, it didn't really make sense for them, right? So, but essentially that led to their demise. So I'm attracted by thinking about those sort of problems and see how you can prevent that. You could be an incumbent and maybe you can be still agile and change things, still foster innovation and entrepreneurship also within that sort of large framework. Or am I being naïve, I don't know, I'm still hoping...
05:30 PT: No, no, you're onto something there, Rudi. My reflection really from leaving the corporate world and getting up to the start-up worlds, it's really night and day, right? In the corporate world and someone that I nearly went to work for a few years ago said, "Pete, you sure you wanna leave the bank? Do you know that when you're working for a bank, you can just go hide in the corner for two weeks if you don't like the way things are going?" [chuckle] And I said, "No, no, I'm ready for that, I'm ready for that." And then I didn't take that job a few years ago and then when I left BNP Paribas a few years ago, and the story I've been telling recently when people asked me why I left, I said, "Listen, in 2014, I kind of woke up to some of the technology that was going on around me, and I felt like I was the manager of a blockbuster video store." And that there's gotta be folks that will still want to go back and stock videos on the shelves, but in the long run, everyone's gonna need to be able to eventually go do something else, for the part of the business that I was in. But long story short, that when it comes to the startup world, my first real lesson learned was that the very first one I went to go work for, a share hedge here in Dublin.
06:55 PT: We had this great agenda for what I was gonna do for the first month. And then once you get into it and you see where things are, you say, "Well, listen, the main objective here is fundraising because this is about survival." This is about getting to the next stage of funding, and everything else that you think about in terms of building an organizational chart for the next level, building a culture, building a stock ownership plan, all those types of things like listen, it's just about survival a lot of these times, and contrasting that to the corporate world those corporates will survive, it's inertia, it's momentum. And that's one of the things that yes, rest in peace, Clay Christensen, that he talked about as well competing against inertia, as well as his book Competing Against Luck, but yeah, lots of thoughts in there. Speaking of thoughts, what do you think about the Swiss and European FinTech scene? What are you seeing happening there?
07:48 RF: Well, I mean, I'm a foreigner who was fortunate enough to being able to live in Switzerland for more than 10 years. So I obviously enjoy it. I think it's a fantastic country as people know. And now it's winter, so people think about Switzerland and skiing or chocolate and the watches and things like that. But it's actually a huge startup scene as well and especially a FinTech scene. And in particular, that's true for Zurich. You have lots of people coming out of the great technical universities, like ETH in Zurich, and the EPFL in Lausanne and they're coming up with great tech, which is amazing. However, I don't really see them pairing up with the founders from business schools. And that's where the incubators come in. So I've been mentoring an F10, which is also called Home of FinTech. And this is what the F10 does, they fill in the vacuum in terms of education. We can debate whether you can teach entrepreneurship or not but I think there are certain things that you could learn as a founder that would improve your chance of survival, whether that relates to how you should teach for one minute, three minutes, etcetera.
09:06 RF: What should be in the deck? How you should prototype, how you should test and things like this. This is sometimes something that I don't see in... I don't see that as a skill that people have developed in a business school. They either learned that in the incubator, or just by doing or from advisors, or mentors and people like that. But the hardcore tech skills, yes, they are being taught and developed and nurtured within those tech clusters, as I mentioned in Zurich and Lausanne. So that's something what I've seen and I've been mentoring in F10 and I'm trying to help as well leverage my experience from a big corporate, especially helping B2B FinTechs and that relates to basically saying also how to navigate that decision-making at the big corporate, right? And also maybe share some knowledge about how just the packaging should look like, right? When you go to see a big boss, what should you focus on? How you should play this and things like that.
10:10 PT: Yeah, I'm with you, I'm with you, that interesting point you raised about teaching entrepreneurship. And when I did my MBA back in the '90s, I took an entrepreneurship course, right? Did I learn entrepreneurship then? Of course, I didn't, right? All you're doing is you're learning about these themes and these topics and doing a couple of projects. I think we did a project on creating an online tee time system in Boston, right? Back in 1998 it was novel to be doing something like that. Entrepreneurship to me is... And we've talked about this on a number of episodes of this podcast is that, sometimes can you build a great, incredible tech product? Absolutely. But is that entrepreneurship? No, that's tech. Can you build a great product full stop? Yeah, but can you sell it, right? And can you build a team? Can you grow that team? Can you build a culture of people that just want to do an incredible job for you, for the business, for the shareholders, for customers, right? Those are much, much bigger questions than just entrepreneurship. And I think that what the business schools do is just give you some of the repetition with things like case studies, and just basically put a few tools in your toolbox, so that you can draw on these things and draw on these other experiences that you've heard from folks, but it's really entrepreneurship is just getting out there and doing it, right?
11:32 RF: Right. And there is one thing related to it, which I didn't mention is ambition. And I did speak to Geoff Ralston from Y Combinator about this on my podcast, and he said, look, ambition comes from within, right? And yeah, good ideas can come from anywhere. But when I meet founders, I try to be a good coach. As you know, I love tennis. So I think the best coaches are the ones who are positive as well. They try to stretch the players, but they stay positive. So the tech, I think, very often is great but sometimes people are not ambitious enough on the continent, you don't have that problem in the US.
12:11 PT: No, you don't. You don't, no. Ireland, I'm still a student of this, and I will forever be but in Ireland, you see, yeah, you can get it off the ground here, but in order to get to that billion level valuation, you need to go to the UK, to Europe, to Asia, to the US, right? Do you see that same thing happening in Europe is that, whether it be in Zurich, or whether it be in Lausanne, where people are thinking, well, I've got to, yeah, get my product off the ground and get up to maybe series A level but then I got to go somewhere else. Do you see that?
12:48 RF: Yes. I mean, I'm more aligned with the founders who say, look, Switzerland is our launch market, then of course, we'll go to Europe and we'll go to the world, right? So that's kind of my bloodstream or my kind of thinking or philosophy, even though there are other people who say, "Well, there's nothing wrong with having an SME, and having a higher chance of it, you know, having a smaller business that can sustain you, etcetera." And yes, there's nothing wrong with that, but then when you go to business angels or VCs, let's be honest about it, right? So I'm more in line with people who say, look, we have a tech, it's a software. So why not be ambitious, right? So you need to go further than from Zurich to DACH which is, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, you need to go further than that. And if you struggle, because sometimes people say, "Well, there are not even funds here who can grow with me past A round or something like this." Then again, what is the problem to raise money elsewhere? So, I think you just have to think big, especially when you're developing a software or a tech business, why not? And learn from others. Look at the examples, there are some people who lack ambition and they are weak in tech, once you have a strong tech, I think the ambition should be an easy fix.
14:16 PT: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, they say that being a really successful entrepreneur takes half determination and half delusion, right? So it's a learning experience all the way throughout. You mentioned investors a couple seconds ago Rudi and we'd like to hear your thoughts on that. What do you think that investors could be doing differently so that we get to see more unicorns in Europe?
14:39 RF: Well, a lot of the things I've heard were also about sourcing, and that the people want to only deal with founders that have been introduced to them by other people that they know and they trust. And I understand that, but I think also the investors should think more widely and spread their net more widely. So I like some of the founders who are also starting to think about the startup that, for example, would be a software that does your long list for you, ideally, in three places first round of analysis, if you're a small fund, and you don't have 10,000 analysts to look at 1,000 startups that you like around the world, you use that software and then, yes, you find out whether you get a reference on the team, on the company, on the tech and you see if there is a warm introduction that you can use, but I think to limit yourself only to do business or invest in friends of friends, I think that's not a way to go, especially in Europe, where we have lots of frictions in terms of preventing us from scaling up. So let's try to break those barriers down and compete with the US and China, because I think there's great ideas here, but we need to be a bit stronger around commercialization.
16:12 PT: Yeah, I'm with you, we talked last week on the episode that we did with Ivailo Jordanov, I finally got his name right after a few months of saying it wrong. He's from 7percent Ventures, they're an early stage tech investor based in London and on your note on growth that is a critical part of what they do. On their website they quote Paul Graham, the famous investor who said, "A successful growth rate is 5 to 7% per week, the best are doing 10% per week, if you can't hit that 5 to 7% you're really not gonna get too far as a startup." So that's why they call it 7percent Ventures and they only invest in what they consider to be billion dollar opportunities. But in that conversation we were talking about the warm intro. And I said listen, it almost feels like the warm intro has become a bit of a cliche in the VC community but there's a lot of truth to it in that it helps to somewhat de-risk the proposition or de-risk this relationship. But if you take a look at what some of the other VCs are doing, well, not even other VCs, but some more creative approaches to this, Rudi, I think it's SignalFire VC in Silicon Valley, they spent about $10 million a year on their own tech platform that goes out and runs these algorithms and runs these social media programs to find the startups, right? And find the ones that might fit their thesis just based on an algorithm.
17:44 PT: I even heard about one that went so far as to say, we're gonna do a personality type screening on folks in LinkedIn and find people that may end up becoming excellent founders and invite them to an event for those thinking about starting a business. And out of the 100 people that they invited, 75 came and maybe five started businesses and I think out of four of them they invested, right? So, people are taking new and interesting approaches here, the VC business, in terms of what I've seen of it over the last few years it's cumulative. People say it's not scalable, but yeah it's cumulative, in that every single deal you do, is just another deal on top of another deal on top of another deal and that it is hard to make that, as an individual partner, scalable, you could scale a VC business but the individual partner has trouble doing that. So you look for anything you can get, in terms of saving you some time and those warm intros do help but in the longer term, even perhaps in the medium term, there's some more interesting technology plays coming to market here that I think is really gonna open up VC to a whole new approach which is gonna be fun to see.
18:54 RF: Yeah, I don't want to sound too academic or anything but if you want to end up with some sort of a rational portfolio in the end, you also need to have a rational approach to sourcing and that may mean that you need to use some AI algorithms that also obviously can have biases build into them, but you can be careful about that. Then on top of that, you would obviously have the analysts and your judgment, but to just purely rely on the referrals, I think that may not lead into the right direction in the end. You may get lucky, so you will never see it or you will not see it in the near term. But I like some of the innovative approaches that you mentioned where people also can leverage that too, they don't have to develop it in-house for themselves, some of the bigger funds they just develop it for themselves, and they have kind of an algorithm that they don't want to share, but there are others who could benefit from using that as a kind of standardized software. And then, of course, the knowledge and the experience of the partners and the team would be feeding into it.
20:03 PT: Absolutely, and just to flip it a bit if you think about those things that are perhaps coming out of the corporate world right now, people talk a lot about open innovation and I've been hearing that a lot lately. What's your opinion on that? What do you think?
20:18 RF: Well, I think it's a necessity, these days if people in corporates cannot rely on being able to develop every single product or service themselves, they need to look outside. I like the people who respect the other people's time, so if they do speak to startups, I think it's great that they engage with them but also there should be clear process and open honest communication in terms of what the corporates are looking for, what the startup is looking for, what the milestones and definitions of success are so that the people know, right? You can't have a situation where somebody just meets with the startups, makes a report out of it and entertain their bosses and in the meantime, the startups are starving and hoping that they would make some money out of this. So it's no problem if you don't do business with them, but just tell them or tell them what they should do differently and things like that. That's what I would say to the corporates.
21:21 RF: On the other hand, on the side of the startups, I think in Europe we see that startups are hoping or trying to do more of the partnership deals and take a partnership approach that's not maybe happening in the US. Some of the founders, they have already some experience, they worked in the corporates. If they don't, I would really encourage them to get an advisor or a mentor who did and that they can save them a lot of time, and prevent some miscommunication and then the things can move slowly. And lastly, I think, of course as it is with every corporate or individual, you need to see whether you're dealing with somebody that I call a believer or not. So when you are a startup, you need an advocate for your project, for that particular corporation, that advocate has to believe in you and has to have clout within an organization to push it to a resolution, whether that's positive or negative, so it's not a zombie project. So that's another thing I would say, obviously open honest communication and by the people, and driven by the people who are actually capable of doing that and they are willing to do that, and then everything can work nicely. And in terms of innovation theatre hopefully we can reduce it to the minimum.
22:47 PT: Yeah, I'm with you, I'm with you. I've been having some conversations around open innovation recently with a few corporates and the main message I give to them is you just need to be transparent and be respectful about what this really is about, right? Some of the time, it's just about branding, to be able to say to all their corporate customers that we are doing something in the startup ecosystem, that can be one. Sometimes it's about giving your executives and your middle managers an opportunity to go on a bit of a field day and go play in startup land for a day or two and then go back to their day job. Other times, it's about inspiring new and creative thought. And when you start getting to that level where you're kind of expecting startups that you're engaging with to contribute at that level to your business, you gotta get something back. So whether it's a paid pilot, whether it is levering their technology as a true customer or perhaps making some well-founded introductions for them to other corporate buyers that might be in your network, that's where it's really gotta start to go both ways. But I think there's a place for it but it just needs to be transparent and clear as to what the intentions are of both parties before you really spend too much time on it, right?
24:13 RF: Right.
24:13 PT: Cool. So when you're looking at the rest of this year, Rudi, what do you think your plans are for the remainder of 2020 given that we're at beginning of February now?
24:26 RF: Well, I have a very strong pipeline and fantastic guests in store for the podcast, but also I'm doing live events and I want to do more. The reason being is that it's great fun to do the recorded interviews, but it's a completely different experience if you do it live and in front of people. I try to do it in a small group where people actually ask questions and the topics range from Digitalization of the Art Business to AI in the Recruitment or AI in Financial Services, things like that. And I do a bit of entertainment and hopefully in June, we'll do a one year anniversary party for the Voice of FinTech podcast. And other than that, I'm trying to graduate from being a mentor to being an advisor or a board member in the startup. And ideally, an investor like yourself.
25:20 PT: Absolutely, absolutely. It's a journey that's different for everybody. And it's been three years for me, actually approaching three-and-a-half years now, in March, it'll be three-and-a-half, which is pretty crazy, but it's all about listening, is probably the biggest lesson learned that I've had over the last three years, that when you're in the corporate world, it's all about trying to get your point across. When you are doing what we're doing, Rudi, you do really have to listen, right?
25:49 RF: Right, so how was last year for you and what's in the store for you in this year or this decade?
26:00 PT: Yeah, 2019 was interesting. It was my third full year and Q4 was excellent and I built up a number of new relationships on the advisory side as well as on the non-executive director side. I'd like to try to contribute in one or the other of those two areas. It's hard to kinda do both, but what I spent a good chunk of last year doing was helping a new venture capital fund in Ireland to get off the ground, did the full 10-year projections, the portfolio construction, did the modeling, the pitch deck, the legals with the lawyers. But then I think the fundraising appetite was less than anticipated. So I stepped away from that in August but going through that experience really supercharged me to be able to hold my own as a venture partner within a VC so focusing really on one specific plan right now in that area and I will be able to share more in the future, as those discussions move along, but I have my own strong-willed ambition to participate in the upside of the companies that I have been helping and I am shifting gears so that, yes, I will still be helping companies on an advisory basis, but where I'm really gonna see the upside is through directing investment towards them and as a venture partner.
27:37 PT: So that's for this year and probably going into next year as well, and perhaps the year after, and each year, each month, each week that passes, there's new lessons learned and feel like getting stronger and stronger doing this as each day passes even. So it's just about determination, staying on the path, knowing what it is that your main target, your main ambition is, but allowing yourself to veer a little bit left-of-center or right-of-center in order to continue to have these interesting creative experiences that still form perhaps an alternate path towards your goal, but perhaps not a very straightforward path.
28:18 RF: Right, fantastic.
28:19 PT: So what do you think, just to wrap up before we get to my last question, what do you think in terms of business partners that you're targeting, who would you like to hear from?
28:36 RF: Right, so if you're in FinTech, B2B that thinks that could use some help in sales strategies or in fundraising or if you're an investor that focuses on B2B FinTech in Europe, then I would love to hear from you. Also, if you have ideas on regarding the podcast, either the themes of the speakers as well and for the live events, I've done them so far in Zurich, but I think going forward, I'll also do them in London or elsewhere in Europe. So you can email me at info@voiceoffintech.com or you can check out the website voiceoffintech.com and you will see lot more of what we've referenced here, whether that's the episodes or the events or other activities that I have and I'd love to hear from you. Thank you very much.
29:27 PT: Yeah, that'd be great, Rudi. And I'd love to get you to Ireland here, to Dublin and we could do a joint live event, that would be pretty cool, 'cause there's lots of opportunities to do that here in Ireland and it's a hungry market for that kind of...
29:39 RF: Fantastic... I'd love to do that. I've seen that you're very active on the conference or speaker circuit as well, so I'd like to do more of that as well. So, in many ways, you've been very inspirational and very positive and that's what you sometimes need when you're thinking about doing something new. You don't know how it's going to pan out and as we talked about a podcast, a year ago, you sounded so positive about it, I thought I have to give it a try and it's been a great journey since then.
30:11 PT: Yep, someone said to me, sometimes you just gotta get out there and tell the story and see what sticks. So it's so awesome to see how far you've taken this, Rudi, it's just fantastic, in only one year to see how far you've gotten, which is great.
30:29 RF: And I've been following your podcast, and I know that you always ask the guests a tough question, if not all of them are tough, right? And that's why I'd like to ask what is the one thing that people don't know about you that you'd like to share today?
30:46 PT: Well, I've shared so much about myself over the years and have been pretty transparent, but the one thing that I was thinking about that many people may not know, they might not be too surprised but that I'm quite a spiritual person. Never been very much of a religious person, but if you ask me what I believe in, I believe in the universe and I believe that there is a lot that we haven't discovered about how the universe works and I think the next 100 years and unless someone plugs in a hyperdrive into the healthcare system, I don't think I'll see the next 100 years, but hopefully see at least 40 of it, that we're just going to see such a massive change in humankind and our awareness of the universe, and I think that, just the imagination of what that might be just keeps me running, keeps me moving towards helping to create that future. So whatever it may be, but yeah, that's my deep thought for the day.
31:53 RF: And I didn't know about this, so I can concur that this is a new piece of information, right?
32:00 PT: Absolutely, absolutely, and it's just... You know what, I think it's 'cause one of the books I read recently Homo Deus by Noah Yuval Harari or the other way around, but where he really gets into where humankind is going and it gets you thinking and it's like, geez, you're right. The way things have been unfolding over the last 10 years around technology and just the human race, it's where this could end up is just completely fascinating.
32:30 RF: Yep, but let's stay positive and there should be a roaring '20s in front of us, and hopefully, we'll make the best out of it and make the world a better place than it was at the end of last year.
32:47 PT: Absolutely, absolutely. Well, let's wrap up there then, Rudi, thanks so much for coming on the show, really appreciate it and let me just give a shout out to all of the Voice of FinTech fans and I know you've been building up that base and we'll hopefully be able to either see you in Dublin sometime soon, or get down your way to make a stop through, yeah?
33:05 RF: Yeah, and thank you, Pete, and Money Never Sleeps and we'll keep in touch. Thank you so much.
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33:19 PT: That does it for this week, folks. And thanks to Rudi for opening up his mind to help us figure out why he does what he does. Links and show notes for this episode are on moneyneversleeps.ie, so check us out online. Remember if you or a colleague need help attracting or retaining great talent for your FinTech or financial services company, it is highly advisable that you build a relationship with the team at Top Tier Recruitment as they really know their stuff. You can find them at toptierrecruitment.com. Also, thanks to Conan Brophy from Create Sound for editing this podcast. As for me, I increase the odds of startup success, get in touch through the contact page on norioventures.com and you could follow Eoin on Twitter @EoinFitzgerald9. Finally, till next time thanks for listening, see you.
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