7 Strategies To Build A Fintech Business That Attracts Investors Final 181117

Guide to Build a Breakthrough Fintech Venture
Copyright © 2017 Jay Tikam
Published by Vedanvi Ltd

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Introduction
New technology led financial services ventures (Fintech) are transforming an industry that has
resisted change for decades. Contrary to popular belief, these ventures don’t only emerge from
vibrant start-ups. Whilst start-ups are more likely to bring new disruptive thinking, traditional
players are also exploring technology to improve operational efficiency and deliver a better
customer experience.
Change is slow in an industry that is so well established. To make a real difference,

entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial ventures need to scale to a sufficient size, where they can
operate on par with traditional players. This is when real change happens. To fuel this growth,
Fintech ventures need a flood of customers, investors and possible acquirers who can help take
them to new heights not reached by any Fintech firm before.
This guide proposes 7 strategies, when working together, can build a solid business foundation
for breakthrough success. When implemented completely and with precision, your venture will
attract the right investors or acquirers to help propel you to the next level, so that you can make
a meaning difference in the world of finance.
Feel free to challenge any concepts presented, however, I ask you to keep an open mind as you
read through the 7 strategies. You may just pick up the one idea you were looking for.
Best of luck in building your Fintech entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial venture.
Get in touch if you have any questions or suggestions at www.vedanvi.com or

enquiries@vedanvi.com

Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 2
The Fintech Revolution: Opportunities & Challenges .................................................................. 4
Fintech Fortunes for Founders .................................................................................................. 6
The Problem Fintechs Underestimate the Challenge ................................................................... 7
Preparing for Success .................................................................................................................... 9
The Solution - 7 Breakthrough Business Building Strategies to make you Irresistibly Attractive
..................................................................................................................................................... 10
Strategy #1: FORCE Build Magnetic Market Force ............................................................. 12
Strategy #2: OPERATIONS Operational Excellence ........................................................... 16
Strategy #3: REGULATION Embrace Regulation and Turn it to a Competitive Advantage
................................................................................................................................................. 19
Strategy #4: TALENTED TEAM Magically Attract Top Talent ......................................... 23
Strategy #5: UPSCALE Build a Scalable Business ............................................................... 26
Strategy #6: NURTURE Nurture your Success .................................................................... 30
Strategy #7: EVOLVE Evolve or Exit .................................................................................. 34
Conclusion................................................................................................................................... 39
About the Author ........................................................................................................................ 40
About Vedanvi ............................................................................................................................. 41

The Fintech Revolution: Opportunities &
Challenges
There is a new storm reshaping the world of financial services. This industry has resisted
change for centuries and it can no longer keep up this resistance. Technology and a changing
consumer base is reshaping the world of finance.
Many refer to this change as the Fintech revolution. Fintech refers to financial technology.
Technology being used to improve financial services.
There are three facets to Fintech:
1. Disruption. Fintech is used to disrupt an old industry to create a totally new one.
Crowdfunding or cryptocurrency are good examples of disruption. Often, disruption
emerges from new start-ups, however, there is no reason why incumbents can’t disrupt
their own industry.
2. Operational Efficiency – Technology is used to enhance operational performance by

reducing costs, minimising wastage, and improving profit margins in the process.
Regtech is a good example where technology helps to significantly reduce the rising
cost of compliance.
3. Customer Experience – Technology is used to enhance the customer journey, and win
over their customer loyalty. Mobile payments or the internet of things used in insurance
(for example) are good examples where technology makes consumers lives better.
Fintech brings huge opportunities, because this is the future. It opens the door, once closed, to
new age entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs looking to reshape this industry and make their
fortunes. More importantly, it affords them an opportunity to make a meaningful difference in
the world. Finance has excluded certain businesses and consumers, and you can help to bring
greater access. In the process, you are sure to change lives.

We are at the dawn of a new age. New financial services ventures launched today, have the
potential to become the multinational giants of tomorrow, making their founders and investors
millionaires if not billionaires. Fintech ventures have a high potential for growth.
To build such a business requires persistence, knowhow, a shrewd business mind and human
and financial resource. To fuel rapid growth, funding is vital, and Fintech ventures will need to
attract investors. In Q1 2017 alone, Fintech investment deals reached $5.2 billion globally,
according to CB Insights.
Source: CB Insights
Although at the time of writing, investments in Fintech have stabilised, this sector is still hot as
an investment option, and investors actively look for opportunities. A well-built, well run firm
is more likely to access this funding compared with firms leaving their growth to chance.

Fintech Fortunes for Founders
Investors are interested in the alarming growth rate of a Fintech business. More amazing is the
speed of growth in this sector. On average, Fintech Unicorns take just 6 short years to grow to a
$1 billion business, according to Fleximise. Rong360, the Chinese provider of customised
financing and loan services, did it in just 7 unbelievable months. Stripe took 2 years and 5
months, and closer to home in the UK, Funding Circle took 4 years and 9 months.
In their Global Fintech Report: Q2 2017, CB Insights

highlight 26 Fintech Unicorns valued at a total £83.8 billion. ________________________
2017 Adding five new members to this club, raising the

question whether Fintech Unicorns are indeed the mythical
creatures that they are made out to be.
“On Average, Fintech
Unicorns get to £1 billion
valuation in just 6 years”
Fearing being disrupted and losing market share, its not
surprising that many incumbents are out shopping for Fintech
acquisition targets, hoping it injects a bit of that magic into __________________________
their traditional business.
Great news for Fintech founders, whether looking for investors or acquirers. Even more
attractive if investors and acquirers come knocking of Fintech doors, putting them in a healthy
position to negotiate to their advantage.

The Problem
Fintechs Underestimate the Challenge
Let’s face it, such success isn’t easy, and it’s only a very tiny fraction of Fintech ventures that
go on to join the mythical Unicorn club. Not surprising that there are only 26 Unicorns world-
wide. Like any start up, Fintech start-ups are just as prone to failure, if not more likely. Not
every idea works, and sometimes, founders are forced to shut down. Financial services
businesses are complex and not for the faint hearted or ill prepared.
From our experience and research, we’ve concluded that there are three primary causes of
Fintech failures:
1. They underestimate the vital importance of regulation and the huge risks that their
business is exposed to if they don’t get this right. Many ends up closing because start
believing that they don’t need to be regulated. Others over engineer compliance at great
cost, fearing the might of the regulator. Many don’t know how to comply on a day to
day basis, going home nervous that they’ve missed something, or the organisation is not
fully compliant.
2. They don’t get market traction in the early days and therefore don’t start producing
much needed revenue to sustain the business, never mind scale. Without traction, its
much harder to attract customers, investors, suppliers and top talent – pushing growth

and success even further away. Firms that get through the early start-up stage, hit a
revenue growth ceiling because they don’t keep up the momentum.
3. Even if they build up such market force and get traction, they build on a weak
operational foundation. They can’t deliver on the promise they made to their
customers, investors and other stakeholders. The business loses clients, money and
investors, being forced to close their doors, or if they survive, they never end up
realising their true potential
________________________
“Blueprint your path to

Success”
__________________________

Preparing for Success
Deliberate planning and flawless execution is needed to build a Fintech business with
breakthrough success. The process starts with the end in mind.
Whatever your end Goal, be certain of what you want. I mean really certain – with crystal clear
vision of:
• What that end goal is – a sale, being acquired, acquiring other firms, private equity
investment or IPO, or something else?
• How big do you want your business to be at the end – how much revenue, how much
profit, size of staff, locations, number of customers, etc?
• What will the revenue be made up of? How much recurring revenue versus lumpy
spurts of revenue?
• What will your expense base look like? Where do you spend most of your money?
What is the cost as a percentage of income?
• How much money will the business have in the bank?
• What assets will the company have at that point?
• What is your role in the business at that point? Are you CEO, Chairman, Chief Tech
Officer, or juts a shareholder – or have you sold all your shares?
• What will the company be valued at when your goal is finally reached?
• Who is your ideal buyer or acquirer (if this is your preferred strategy)? – you should be
able to name them, and know everything about them
• What earnout you are willing to accept if you sell your business?
• What will the share price be on the first day of the IPO, if this is part of your plan?
Ensure you and the wider organisation revisit this vision at least once a month (of course
considering what needs to be kept confidential – for example, you wouldn’t want to broadcast a
trade sale to your staff).
Now build a carefully considered plan, designing every step of the way to your end goal. Even
if you never plan to sell your business, building a successful business will attract investors and
acquirers, driving its value up.

The Solution -
7 Breakthrough Business Building Strategies to
make you Irresistibly Attractive
We’ve been fascinated about what makes Fintech unicorns so successful, so we set about doing
some research. We also reflected on our own experience working with clients to help them
launch and grow their Fintech ventures.
What we found was that there are 7 foundational strategies that successful Fintech Unicorns
seem to use. They themselves won’t know they are using these strategies, however, it’s a
common factor we’ve seen in almost all of them.
We developed a model based on our research and termed it the FORTUNE model. These are
the critical building blocks to launching and growing a business with Breakthrough success.
All 7 strategies need to stand together for breakthrough success. Without one, the foundation is
shaky, and failure is likely. The Fintech business may well survive, but won’t realise its true
potential.

You may challenge these 7 strategies and our model, because after all, we don’t have empirical
evidence, and the research was based on recording observations and distilling a conclusion.
You don’t have to believe this research, and it may not even work for you.
However, would it hurt to keep an open mind. Try something and observe the results. That is
all we ask.
Before dismissing it however, its worth taking note that we tried the exact same strategy on a
client project with phenomenal results. We helped a serial entrepreneur build a peer to per
business lending venture within 9 months from ground zero. Within 60 days of launching they
managed to attract 100 investing (not just users) investors who invested n £500k of business
loans.

Strategy #1: FORCE
Build Magnetic Market Force
Successful businesses attract people, whether this is in Fintech or not. These businesses seem to
have everything going for them – almost like they have the “Midas Touch”. Nothing ever
seems to go wrong, at least when looking at them from outside. They keep on getting bigger
and stronger, exploring new markets, creating new products, forming valuable partnerships and
attracting more customers. The funny thing is that their success almost seems effortless.
Google, Amazon, Apple, Uber, AirBnB, Snapchat, and Instagram are companies that come to
mind. Fintech have their own examples, like Stripe, Transferwise, Sofi, Coinbase, Funding
Circle, Credit Karma, Klarna, and Zenefits.
Without this market force, life seems like an uphill struggle. Not enough customers, so you
constantly chasing revenue, nervous about making pay day. You’ve thought up some great
strategies, but they take ages to implement, because you don’t have the right people, and
everyone is too busy fighting fires. Mistakes annoy customers and you end up paying out
compensation for the screw-ups.
What is this magic force that so starkly divide success and failure? We’ve termed this magical
force, “Magnetic Market Force”. Its easy to see the impact of it but very hard to define it
precisely. It seems to attract just the right people at the precise moment the firm needs them.
How do you earn this market force? Here are the key ingredients to building magnetic market
force:
1. Have a strong purpose in your business

A purpose and a vision not for you but for your market. Vision to improve the lives of
your customers and anyone who touches your business. Most mission and vision
statements are “me” focused rather than them focused. This market focused purpose
must be embedded in your organisation’s DNA. It must have a higher purpose, not just
more profit for you.

2. Convey this vision with conviction
Don’t just say it, show you are changing the lives of your customers through their eyes,
not yours. Doing this will get the attention of your market because you will touch
something inside of them, making them feel like you understand them. This applies
regardless of whether you are serving businesses or consumers. If you aren’t living this
vision, your market will catch you out through your forced communication.
3. Focus on a hyper niche and be great at it

Most entrepreneurs want to cast their net as wide as possible or too quickly move onto
the next shiny thing, without first mastering one product or service line. Narrow down
a niche and then put all your focus on creating the best experience for that niche. For
example, if you were setting up a crowdfunding business, just focus on attracting city
workers as investor, or only help crowdfund the wine or hotel industry.
4. Intimately know who you are selling to and understand deeply, their fears and
frustrations and wants and aspirations
Do this simply by asking your customers. Unearth needs that they may not even know
they have. Then show them how to fulfil these needs or overcome fears. You need to
create accurate buyer personas and focus all your marketing on solving the problems of
your buyer personas.
5. Optimise first before innovating

There are many areas of financial services that are underserved by traditional players, or
where they do the job badly. Just improve your product or services and customers will
flock to you. There are many hidden opportunities in making improvements without the
need to make radical innovation.
For example, you process business loan applications in a few hours as opposed to day.
You allow money to be transferred abroad at a fraction of the cost of what foreign
exchange firms or banks charge. Look for low hanging fruits before venturing down
the path of disruptive innovation. Looking to take a bold innovation step will freeze
you up, and you may never end up executing that big bold strategy.

6. Innovate in your market
Innovate once you’ve exhausted all optimisation strategies. Innovation doesn’t have to
be on a grand scale. Start with small steps. In fact, the bigger you try to make
innovation, he more likely it is that your brain freezes up at the thought of this
enormous mountain to climb. Its much easier to take the first step.
When you get it right, innovation can propel you to dominate your market niche. In the
UK, Funding Circle, and Zopa gained first mover advantage with breakthrough success
in the P2P lending industry. Its now very hard for competitors to catch up.
7. Partner to propel
Success is a team sport. Its hard to get traction as a new entrant in the financial services
market. Acquiring customer trust is challenging, especially for a new player with no
track record. Find a high-profile partner to help distribute your product.
If your customers are other businesses (for example banks who buy Fintech solutions),
then win a contract with a mega player and
________________________
leverage this experience and case study. Get a
high-profile investor (like Elon Musk, founder of
Tesla, or a well-known venture capital firm) and “Attract your Market with
this will open the doors for other investors to
Magnetic Market Force”
follow, because they don’t want to miss out.
8. Build profile & Get Noticed __________________________

Win awards, be accepted by a high-profile
accelerator programme, visibly get the support of
regulators (for example, being accepted in their
sandbox programme). Do whatever it takes to get
noticed. Build a magnetic profile and protect this
profile with your life, because one mistake can wipe
out a lifetime of effort devoted to building your
profile. Build a brand that stands out in your
category.
9. Develop a Killer Marketing Plan & Work the Plan

Do content based marketing, focusing on educating your customers, suppliers, investors
and other stakeholders, rather than advertising to gain traction. The right content on the

web and other channels, will draw people. Then develop strategies to converted them
into loyal paying customers.
When done right, you will pull the market to you, dictating the terms on which you do business
with them. Your market value surge as your attractiveness to the market surges.

Strategy #2: OPERATIONS
Operational Excellence
You’ve drummed up a huge buzz in the market, and are the hottest news in your space.
Customers are flocking to buy your services and products. Investors are lining up to inject
capital and partners want to joint ventures with you.
Maybe you weren’t that well organised, and so become overwhelmed as the magical market
force attracts a flood of customers. You can’t deliver on the promise you made to the market
around your products and services. Customer complaints rise, they may lose money, losing
their trust in your company. Systems fail because of bugs in the software or staff make too
mistakes. Things are moving fast and there is a lot to do, but nothing seems to get done.
Can you relate to this scenario? If this goes on for long enough, your magnetic market force,
soon becomes magnetic repulsive force, just as quickly chasing customers, investors and other
stakeholders away, leaving you forced to closure.
No investor, or acquirer would want to inherit such operational problems and the market will
soon find out anyway.
On the other hand, having your operations under control fuels your market force even further,
because your customers and stakeholders are reassured every time you deliver on your promise
and exceed their expectation. A good customer experience can go viral very quickly, bringing
more customers in.
Here are 5 ways in which your Fintech venture can attain operational excellence to drive higher
performance:
1. Get things done.

Fast growing businesses will have lots of things going on, especially if they have
managed to build up magnetic market force. Leaders and staff will have a lot of things
occupying the mind. Trying to juggle these thoughts leads to mental overload, and the

mind shuts down. The result, nothing gets done. Follow this system suggested by
David Allen.
a. Embed a mind clearing culture. Develop a system that allows people to capture
and categorise every project and to-do list. Make this visible to all.
b. Revisit these daily in team meetings, re-prioritising actions and checking in on
progress.
c. A trusted system to capture everything where it will get reviewed and actioned,
will free up mental space, allowing for more
creativity and innovation, and providing ________________________
confidence that at any given moment, all

team members will know exactly what needs
“Zero latency between
to get done.
d. If the system works well, things should get
strategy thinking and
implemented without much friction, and with flawless implementation.
certainty. This is the magic to scaling
a business”
2. Document everything.
Develop written operational processes and update
them regularly. A senior person should take __________________________
responsibility for this action. Think about a car.
Imagine trying to build it without a well thought out and written processes.
The operational manuals give everyone the exact same road map to getting things done.
So, not surprisingly, if they follow the instructions, the results should be the same each
time. Manuals reduce reliance on founders, allowing more people to get the job done so
the company can scale a lot faster. They also allow for expansion into other products
and countries, because the same operations apply and can be set up very quickly. Think
McDonalds and their system which are the same across the globe.
3. Build in feedback loops in the form of Key Performance Indicators (KPI).

Measure everything, then analyse and report it in management information (MI) report.
Feedback loops are vital for continuous improvement. Adjust the business quickly,
when KPI fall below the threshold, or when things are just not going to plan. Analyse
the data regularly, looking for ways to improve.

4. Constantly look for ways to do things better, faster and cheaper.
However, without compromising on quality of service or dropping the ball on your
promise to the market. Look for innovative ways to improve operations. You are a
Fintech firm, explore, Regtech, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and Machine
Learning to automate and improve operational performance. This will reduce chances
of error and costs of delivering the operations. A low-cost base also provides a huge
competitive advantage. Its really challenging for most banks to drop below 60% cost to
income ratio. Fintech businesses have been known to operate at 20%.
By way of example Blockchain technology offers a lot of hope to massively improving
operational efficiency. At the time of writing, it is being explored for many business
application, notably, in Regtech, or a super-efficient and secure way to enter into smart
contracts with your customers and other stakeholders. Its definitely worth exploring.
5. Focus on your company’s financial habits, aiming towards perfection.

Knowing how to manage money in your business will prove a key ingredient for
success. Getting this wrong can quickly ruin any business.
Focus on profitability, not just revenue growth. I know this may sound counter intuitive
for an early stage Fintech business. However, investors are waking up to the power of
profit and will value such businesses well above non-profit generating businesses. Its
logical, because investors would like a dividend or realise that a profit-making business
is more valuable to the market when they wish to exit. Acquirers won’t want to have to
pump money into a recently acquired business, just to keep it going. They will value a
profit-making business much higher.
Attaining operational excellence will bring mental calmness to founders, knowing everything is
going right. New ideas and strategy will get executed in a systematic and flawless way. This is
known as “zero latency” between strategy thinking and execution. The process is almost
instantaneous.
Customers will send you delightful emails because they had such a great experience and you
manage to exceed their expectation. They spread the word and suddenly, you get a whole new
intake of customers. Suppliers are paid on time and want to not only work with you, but want to
see you succeed. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just run such a business?

Strategy #3: REGULATION
Embrace Regulation and Turn it to a Competitive Advantage
Even the CEOs of the world’s largest financial services firms struggle with regulatory
compliance. Despite spending millions on compliance, organisations still end up with
compliance breaches, resulting in regulatory censure and in many cases, enormous fines.
The impact of regulation can significantly change the landscape, weeding out certain businesses
(for example the payday lending sector shrunk considerable through regulatory change in the
UK). Some businesses become uncompetitive through regulatory change, for example, Basel
III capital requirements made investment banking a tough business to be in because of stringent
capital requirements.
In the highly innovative Fintech space, regulators struggle to keep up. Fintech founders
mistakenly launch in certain sectors without the necessary regulatory license, believing its not
needed. Failing to carry out due diligence could result in them being shut down.
Day-to-day, as the Fintech firm gets bigger, with more staff coming on board, how do you, as
the founder and/or CEO of the business know that all your people are complying? What if there
is hidden non-compliance which surface during a regulatory review. You worry, losing sleep at
night, as this problem occupies your mind.
On the other hand, when company’s get a grip on compliance, it can be turned into competitive
advantage. I know you won’t believe me that compliance can actually make you more
competitive!
Think of how safe clients will feel when you reveal to them the steps you are required to go
through to protect them and treat them fairly. Most firms never communicate this to their
customers.
If you did, your customers would appreciate you and trust you more over your competitors.
Effective compliance will also help to improve your operations, as you need to have proper
functioning systems and controls to protect clients.

Here are some ways in which you can get a grip on compliance and turn it into competitive
advantage.
1. Know what you must comply with and how.

Go through the rule book line by line and against each regulatory requirement, map out
how you will comply, who is responsible, how you will monitor compliance, who will
take responsibility for monitoring and how often will they monitor. List supporting
documents against each regulatory requirement.
Sounds like a massive task, right? However, before dismissing it, think about how
would you ever be sure that you are fully compliant, without going through such a
comprehensive and detailed approach.
2. Compliant Culture –
As the firm grows, its imperative to ensure that everyone in the firm understand the
significance of compliance and the consequences of not complying. Each individual
needs to understand the overall compliance obligations of the firm and the part they
must play in ensuring the firm complies.
Personal values play a big part in ensuring that people do things in a compliant way.
This is even more important during tough times or in the face of a huge reward for
taking risks that put customers at risk.
This culture is driven from the top. Then ensure you only hire people that fit with your
firm’s values. Regular communication and training help to enforce the culture and
compliance responsibility.
Make compliance breaches transparent, not with the view of rebuke, but to learn
valuable lessons on how to avoid such breaches. Deliberate and negligent compliance
breaches should be dealt with severely to ensure that the firm send out a strong message
that such actions or behaviours will not be tolerated.

3. Turn Compliance into competitive advantage –
If you must spend time, energy and money to comply, then make sure you get a return
on investment (ROI). Always look for a benefit or commercial advantage if there is a
regulatory change you need to implement. Sounds obvious, right?
Our team has worked with some of the world’s largest banks and insurers, and it’s
always amazing to see how such firms spend hundreds of millions in implementing
regulatory change, just to comply and not worry about ROI.
One way to leverage ROI for example, is to tag a “Commercial Impact” workstream to
any regulatory change programme. Just by adding such a workstream, organisations
have been able to squeeze out significant commercial and competitive advantage in the
process.
A large insurer realised that they were losing an opportunity to optimise capital at group
level, because life and general insurance never came together. They found this gap
when implementing Solvency II regulatory change, and decided to combine the two
portfolios in some way. This initiative resulted in the creation of a group reinsurer that
had site and control of all reinsurance being purchased within the group. At the
portfolio level, they found ways to take advantage of the diversity between life and
general insurance risk. The result was that they save hundreds of million in reinsurance
costs, as they chose to reinsure many risks internally rather than through a third-party
insurer.
There are many other ways. For example, if you collect MI for regulatory reporting
purposes, why not see how you could use the same data to factor into your business
KPIs, and find ways to improve your business.
4. Stay Ahead of Regulatory Change

The regulatory landscape is constantly changing. New regulation could possibly
weaken your business or put you out of business. As highlighted earlier, Basel III rules
weakened many investment banking product lines. A new regulatory framework wiped
out many payday lenders in the UK. If you are a small player, such a move could force
you to close.
Would you want to be caught by regulatory change by surprise?

Regulatory change doesn’t happen overnight. Usually there is an extensive consultation
process before new rules are announced.
Stay abreast of these changes and start planning way ahead, planning for potential
scenarios emerging in the regulatory landscape based on what’s put out by the regulator
in the consultation process.
5. Leverage Technology for Greater Efficiency

Compliance permeates everything that a financial services firm does, and therefore the
cost of compliance (in the widest sense) is hard to quantify. However, estimates
suggest that when taking direct and indirect costs into account, as well as redress costs
and cost of fines and regulatory investigations, the cost of compliance could be as high
as 30% of revenue.
To avoid regulatory breaches, and to implement the plethora of regulatory changes,

firms need to invest large amounts of money in people, systems and processes.
As a Fintech firm, explore how technology (specifically Regtech) can be deployed to
reduce costs, possibly by as much as 50%, when implemented correctly. Apart from
cost reduction, the advantage of technology is that potential regulatory breaches can
also be avoided. Machines avoid mistakes that humans could easily make, especially
where processes are repeatable.
________________________
“Compliance can be a
competitive advantage if
you know how to leverage
this asset”
__________________________

Strategy #4: TALENTED TEAM
Magically Attract Top Talent
Talent forms the base strategy on which all other strategies rest. Without the right leadership
and talent, the other six strategies are almost impossible to implement.
However, in a market trying to disrupt status quo and pioneering new business models, how are
you going to find the right talent with the right experience to help propel your ambitious
growth?
Many of our early stage Fintech clients have turned naturally to banks and other traditional
incumbents to search for talent. Sadly, they find that there isn’t the right cultural fit. In
traditional financial services, there is also a war on top talent, especially in technology,
compliance and sales. The high demand drives prices up, making it unaffordable for Fintech
firms to tap into the same resource pool.
Despite the odds, successful Fintech pioneers develop innovative ways to attract and retain top
talent. If you’ve drummed up enough magnetic market force, then you should already have
talent lining up outside your door. However, here are some of the strategies that successful
Fintech businesses use to attract and retain top talent.
1. Academy to Recruitment
As a Fintech business, you’re in a new tech enabled environment. Who better than tech
savvy millennials to bring onto your workforce. Granted, they may not have financial
services experience or even enough work experience. However, if they have the right
character and the right values, then why not employ them on a temporary basis, and put
them through an intensive training program for say 6 to 12 months. If they perform,
hire them. If they don’t then release them to pursue other opportunities.
We have a programme to help onboard compliance trainees. We will find the right
people (in consultation with our clients), train, coach and mould them. When they are
ready and performing, our clients can recruit them. If not, we replace them and train the
recruit at our own cost.

This programme helps to takes the fear and uncertainty out of recruiting, especially in
the early days where each new staff member can have such a big impact. Imagine
hiring your first compliance officer. Getting it wrong can have severe consequences,
and you may only find that you have the wrong person when its too late.
The “Academy to Recruitment” approach takes that risk out of the hiring process.
Through this process, you will grow loyal and high performing leaders, who are well
aligned with your culture and vision, as well as infused with the ambition and drive of
the founders.
2. Agile workforce
We live in a time where a regular 9-5 job is not the panacea everyone strives for, like in
the old days. People now want more flexibility and freedom. They want to be part of a
gig economy that is expanding fast. Even highly experienced executives are turning to
contract jobs, rather than aspiring to a high powered permanent job.
Flexibility and freedom may be more valued than high pay and bonuses. Offering such
a free environment will certainly help to attract some of the best and brightest.
Now you may think that such an arrangement will produce an unstable workforce. The
trick is to have many such freelancers on your books so that you can quickly replace
one from another.
If the gig economy doesn’t work for your firm, then why not try a location independent
staff pool. With online collaboration tools, there is no reason why everyone must be in
one office. A virtual team can be just as effective as a permanent team.
3. Engage all your team in building the business

Gone are the days where strategy was developed in secrecy and staff only knew when it
was way down the implementation stage, only to discover that their job is now on the
line because of the new strategy.
The best ideas will often come from the front line. Staff will feel a lot more valued if
they are involved in strategy setting and decision making. Nowadays, we have many
communication channels to ensure an open and transparent culture.

For example, when developing strategy, founders or executive team can develop it
using online collaboration tools, allowing everyone to see how the thinking and strategy
evolves. These tools also allow people to participate, by either providing comments and
ideas, critique of the strategy, or vote for the best strategic approach.
4. Provide Opportunities for Employees to Realise their True Potential

The reason why employees are turning to Fintech firms rather than sticking to
traditional banking jobs, is because they want to help build something new, something
special. They too have the ambition of making a meaningful difference in finance.
Perhaps, in their career with traditional financial services firms, they were forced to
focus on profit rather than customers. Perhaps they opened their eyes to the devastating
impact of financial exclusion. Whatever their reason, by working for a Fintech venture,
they feel empowered to help reshape finance. Give them the opportunity to make this
difference and they may just surprise you.
An interesting way to empower employees, is to allow them to create a mini

intrapreneurial venture within your Fintech venture, for example. This could be a new
product line or indeed a new business offshoot.
By providing such opportunities, you will build the necessary organisational capability
and culture that can scale your business fast. If successful, staff prove that they can
work independently and in an entrepreneurial way. Such capability is vital to building a
billion-dollar business within the average six years.
________________________
“Top Talent is the

Foundation of a successful
Fintech Venture”
__________________________

Strategy #5: UPSCALE
Build a Scalable Business
Investors, acquirers and the market want a business that scales fast. A scaling company quickly
gets the attention of the market. But, what level of scale should you aspire to? FT 1000, an
index of the fastest growing companies across Europe, saw the best performing company
growing at 409% per annum compound annual growth rate(CAGR), with revenue growing at
13,159% over a period spanning 2012 to 2015. The 1000th ranked firm had a CAGR of 16.1%
(minimum growth rate required to be included in the ranking) and a cumulative growth rate of
57% over the same period.
Fast growing companies are known as Gazelles in the US. These are companies growing at
more than 20% year on year consecutively over the past four years.
So, the benchmark is set at a minimum of 16% CAGR annually. Keep this benchmark in mind
so that you have a way of knowing whether you are a scaling business or not. Your growth rate
is critical to how valuable your company is, especially when looking to raise funding, become
an acquisition target or sell it. A Fintech business will often be valued at a multiple of revenue,
often net rather than gross revenue. Businesses with a huge future potential do get valued at a
multiple of gross revenue.
Scalability is something built into the DNA of the organisation. Its not one specific thing that a
firm can do. Without this DNA, there are vast numbers of firms who get stuck in a “black
hole”. They continue to bubble along at the same rate year on year, never being able to break
through the growth ceiling. For a lifestyle business, this may be an ideal strategy, however, I
doubt that any Fintech firm wants to be in this position, given the huge opportunity that are
waiting to be seized in this industry.
Bear in mind that it doesn’t matter whether you are at launch, growth or evolving to enterprise
level, you can get stuck in this state for the entire lifetime of the firm.

When in this black hole, it seems like whatever you do, you just can’t break through that growth
ceiling. You try different products, different strategies, but nothing seems to work.
On the other hand, getting scaling right will seem to propel your business at lightning speed. Its
tough in the beginning as you invest in growth, like a rocket that experiences gravity drag at
launch. Once propelled, however, the business attains escape velocity and things take off. The
business continues a growth trajectory with seemingly little effort or resistance.
Diligently implementing the 7 strategies outlined in this paper, will put the firm on a path to fast
growth. For example, the market force starts you off like a rocket. The operations are designed
for scale and can also withstand the forces brought about by high growth. Robust compliance
will ensure the organisation is not dragged down in lengthy regulatory reviews or damage their
reputation through fines and regulatory censure. An excellent leadership team is vital for
growth. Success needs to be nurtured so that there is little gravity resistance as the organisation
propels to great heights. The firm continually evolves to meet market demand and quickly pivot
where things are not working. All 7 strategies in combination will generate escape velocity and
propel the firm out of any black holes. Bear in mind however that fast growth requires
investment of time, effort and resources.
Here are some examples of investments that fast-growing Fintech ventures are willing to make
to scale to Unicorn heights:
1. Building a Growth Culture around your purpose –

Growth is a mindset, and attitude that is an intrinsic part of the firm that scales.
Changing behaviours and an organisational culture is a vast topic that needs its own
book. Briefly, a culture stems from inherent values of an organisation. The
fundamental values drive how you deal with opportunities and failures. In Thomas
Edison’s mind, he found 1000 ways of how not to make a light bulb through his
failures. Many in his position would have given up a long time ago. Its all about
having the right mind set.
Some Fintech firms will be ecstatic for achieving a 10% year on year growth rate. In
their minds, this will be an impressive achievement. Gazelles, on the other hand, will
be appalled at a seemingly high 20% year on year growth rate.
a. Communicate your firm’s growth vision and reinforce the message regularly, so
everyone knows the ambition.
b. Review your organisational culture regularly. Ask yourself, is it truly growth
driven?

c. Develop growth habits led from the top. Factor growth in everything you do
and set stretch targets. Instil the philosophy that if you are not growing you are
dying. Set short term small growth targets rather than asking your team to aim
for an unattainable target. A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first
step. If a target seems impossible, the brain will reject this idea, or worse,
freeze up and that target forever remain a target never achieved.
d. Regularly review your firm’s growth trajectory – are you still on track or do
you need to take corrective action
2. Gain a Sustainable Competitive Advantage –

The harder it is for competitors to copy your business model, the longer you will be able
to sustain your competitive advantage. Where possible, protect your intellectual
property in the form of patents, designs and trademark registration. Get further details
on intellectual property protection by clicking here.
Sign up exclusive distribution partnerships, for example if you are a peer to peer lender,
sign up with a bank to refer loans that they do not wish to grant, exclusively to your
firm, locking other out.
Constantly innovate or strive for continuous improvement. Following the 7 strategies

will create barriers to entry, as many firms will not be able to implement all strategies
and more importantly keep them up.
Focus on hidden attributes of a high growth firms such as your market force (or your
Brand value), your ability to attract and retain top talent, leadership, flawless execution
or strategy and a high performance organisational culture.
3. Focus – Entrepreneurs like creating new things.

They launch a business and then very quickly move onto the next venture. When
drilling for an oil well, would you rather drill 500 shallow holes or drill deep down an
area where you have a hunch that there might be oil. Dominate your market before
moving onto the next shiny strategy.
4. Build profitable recurring revenue base.

This is a controversial one, especially in the tech and Fintech industry, where building a
customer base is more important than building profits. To grow / scale, you can’t do it

without investment. You need money, people and time to scale to the next level.
Reserves can be quickly utilised for the growth phase. Fund raising could take months,
and suck up organisational energy, hampering growth.
Having a predictable and recurring revenue stream day in day out, takes the pressure off
meeting daily expenses. No longer do you stress to make payroll. With the base
revenue covered, and healthy reserves in the bank, you can now focus on finding
growth opportunities.
5. Partnership & Strategic Alliances–

Success is a team sport. No one succeeds alone. Leverage other people’s customer
base, market presence or resources and combine it with your unique insights, innovation
and entrepreneurial drive to reach markets that you would never be able to reach on
your own. The world’s largest companies are effective at scaling even further through
partnerships. Think of your mobile phone supplier and mobile phone operator, or
McDonalds and Disney, or your car company teaming up with a financial services firm
to sell your car financing an insurance at the point of sale.
________________________
“If you are not growing

you are dying”
__________________________

Strategy #6: NURTURE
Nurture your Success
Strangely people and organisations are programmed to sabotage their own success. Recent
scandals in Fintech and the corporate world in general, gives us practical evidence of this
phenomena.
Sofi, a lending starts up worth $4billion, was, at the time of writing, embroiled in a sex scandal
saga, implicating its CEO, Mike Cagney. Employees witnessed sexual harassment, verbal
harassment, sexual relationships between managers and lower level staff and an overall culture
of fear and disrespect. This behaviour started at the top. Bad publicity is sure to have a
negative impact on Sofi’s bottom line.
Lending Club is another example of where the Fintech Unicorn sabotaged its success by
scandalous behaviour. Employees allegedly doctored loan applications to make them look more
appealing to investors. Its no surprise that Lending Club is no longer in the Unicorn club after
its IPO.
Even the biggest organisations are not immune from this self-sabotage. In 2014, £2.5 billion
was wiped off Barclays’ market value for various unscrupulous activities, including adjusting
LIBOR rate and certain fraudulent activities which they encouraged by giving preferential
treatment to traders trading in a dark pool system.
In Wells Fargo, one of the world’s largest banks, employees created fake accounts of real
customers to prop up performance. The bank was forced to return $2.6 million ill-gotten fees
and pay $186 million in fines to the government. Wells Fargo took a major fall in its reputation,
and the CEO John Stumpf was forced to leave.
Perhaps success gets to the heads of leaders of successful firms, boosting their egos, making
them feel invincible.

Whilst the financial penalties are easily affordable, a tarnished reputation could lead to
irreparable damage. Larger firms could withstand reputational damage. For a small firm
however, this could be catastrophic.
Day to day, if risks and losses are not managed, they start to eat into profits and the company
starts to recede its growth trend.
On the other hand, if losses are contained, reputation is managed, and risk exposure carefully
controlled, such organisations will continue to build on their success.
Investors, acquirers and the market in general don’t like surprised. The ability to control and
manage risks proactively, will significantly enhance the value of your firm.
Here are some practical ways in which success can be nurtured
1. Develop a risk management culture –

To succeed, high growth firms need to take risks. This is inevitable. However,
controlled risk taking is the name of the game. Maximise the upside but always protect
the downside. Everyone in the organisation should live by this mantra. Its must be
embedded into the DNA of the firm culture. Everyone should be encouraged to take
risks, however, before moving ahead, they need to think through every possible
downside risk and the impact it can have. If the impact exceeds the risk appetite, then
don’t proceed with the decision. Where a decision is taken, always look for ways to
protect the downside.
2. Risk assess regularly

Whilst risks should be assessed at the point of making a decision, it should also be done
at the highest strategic level. Start out with a scenario analysis. Scan the market you
operate in and think of all the external events that can lead your company to ruins,
forcing you to close. This could be a new regulatory move, a strong competitor putting
you out of business, political risk in the country, etc. Then develop mitigation
strategies.
Similarly, carry out a risk assessment at the process level, understand the likelihood and
impact of things going wrong for each process. For example, system errors lead to
customers experiencing losses, which you need to make good. How likely is it that this
risk will materialise? You’ll know this based on past experience, or looking at similar
errors happening at competitors. Then estimate the likely impact of this risk
materialising. How much will it cost you to redress customers? Is there likely to be
reputational damage? In which case, how can you quantify that loss?

Hope you see how valuable this exercise could be.
3. Issue Escalation –
You need a process for unearthing any potential risks lurking in your organisation or
affecting you from outside. If you have a handle on it, then literally, you will “sleep
well at night”. Your mind will be freed to focus on scaling your business rather than
worrying about something going wrong. This end goal starts with a change in your
organisation’s culture. Everyone should be aware of the issue escalation process. They
need to know what to escalate and how to escalate it. The process itself needs to be
well defined and communicated regularly so people follow it. Everyone should be
encouraged to report an issue – no matter how small or at the risk of reporting
something irrelevant. Then, once you have the data regularly, analyse trends to
discover the source of common problems. By following this process diligently, you
will have created an early warning system, giving
________________________
you the chance to deal with any lurking issues,
before they materialise in a risk or losses.
“Nurture a High Potential

4. Protect your Reputation like its Gold
It takes a lifetime to build a reputation and an
Business with great care”
instant to lose it. The problem with reputational
risk is that it is hard to control once the risk has __________________________
materialised. Customers could defect, suppliers
opt out, shareholders revolt and the saga continue. Without remaining in check,
reputational damage can force business closure. Manage reputation by firstly ensuring
that everyone in the firm and your stakeholders externally, fit well with your set values.
Don’t recruit or engage with people who don’t fit well within your values framework.
Regularly monitor your external environment. What are customers saying about you on
social media and forums? How often are they complaining? How quickly are
complaints being resolved? How often are complaints resolved in favour of customers?
Encourage staff to speak up about bad management practices. Keep your pulse on
office gossips.
You have got to develop a reputational risk policy and reputation management
framework document, so that you systematically manage your reputational risk.

When managed well, your reputation is an asset that will translate directly into your company’s
market value. It’s a value that will encourage more customers and other stakeholders finding
you to do business with you. It’s the asset that will lead investors and acquirers to your door.
Protect it at all cost.

Strategy #7: EVOLVE
Evolve or Exit
If you are implementing strategies 1 to 6, then success is almost certain, provided you execute
the strategies with precision and for the highest impact. Great success however has a downside.
It leads to complacency and yes, possibly self-sabotage. When reaching great heights, its easy
to believe that you (as an individual or organisation) are untouchable, only to discover that
someone is just waiting around the corner to bump you off your number one spot.
Just remember, that your market is also looking for something new and fresh. You may have
garnered magnetic market force and have been the hottest firm in your sector. But people get
bored if they see too much of the same thing, and your newly founded stardom is short lived.
Many small and medium sized businesses find it comfortable to stay at a manageable level once
they’ve transcended the risky start-up phase. It’s comforting to continue doing what works,
offering no incentive to take added risk to make any changes.
In the face of such complacency, remember “If you are not growing you are dying”. Decline is
inevitable.
________________________
On the other hand, high growth firms never accept
complacency. Amazon are always looking to disrupt new
markets, from grocery shopping, internet services and “If you are not growing &
pharmaceutical distribution. Google considers new
evolving, you are dying”
industries. Leading Fintech firms are considering global
expansion, or even evolving to more traditional models,
such as launching a bank. __________________________
Constant Evolution
Remember, markets never remain the same. Fintech moves at lightning speed. There is
innovation waiting just around the corner. New disruptors are waiting in the winds, looking for
a way to disrupt you as a leader in this field.
If you are not doing so great, then consider pivots at the right time and after careful market
assessment.

Evolution require the following habits, practiced regularly and with rigour:
1. Focus on your goals daily if possible. Reinforce them when communicating with your
team. Have it written down somewhere you will see it daily.
2. Assess your environment and become aware if there are any developments (internally or
externally) that will blow you off course from achieving your goals.
3. React quickly to take whatever action it takes to stay on course. If this is not possible,
then change course by changing your goals. In other words, pivot. Its pointless
continuing on a path that’s going nowhere.
4. Look for ways to continually evolve and grow the business, finding new ways to do
things better, cheaper, faster.
5. Be aware of the competition. However, its far better to make the competition irrelevant
by doing something completely different to what everyone else is doing.
Having attained success, Fintech firms have 2 options. They can either evolve to the next phase
of their lifecycle, or founders may decide to exit and enjoy the fruits of their labour or go on to
find their next entrepreneurial venture.
Exit
Its probably the worst time to start looking for a buyer when you want to exit. Like magnetic
market force to get market traction, you need to become attractive to potential acquirers. You
should start preparing at least 3 to 5 years in advance, focusing on the following.
1. Implement the 7 core strategies in the FORTUNE model

The 7 core strategies set out in this guide will make your business investible, provided
of course, that the strategies are implemented diligently. You should start to see a well-
run business that gains market appeal. Buyers will come knocking on your door.
2. Enhance Valuation –
Get your firm valued annually, and execute strategies to enhance valuation year on year.
Read this article to generate ideas on how to enhance the valuation of your business.

3. Focus on Financial Performance
A business is attractive to an acquirer because it has potential for profit well into the
future. Ensure your revenue streams are diversified (in other words, not an over
reliance on a handful of clients).
Recurring revenue streams are very attractive and will enhance the value of your
Fintech business. Drive to enhance profitability by driving down cost while increasing
revenue. Focus incessantly on cash generation and cash preservation. Even if your
business is profitable, running out of cash will kill any business, no matter how strong
the fundamentals of the business are.
Get your financials audited, providing confidence in your numbers.
You are more likely to get a higher multiple valuation if the business is bigger, because
this demonstrates a sustainable track record and proof that the business can scale.
Evolve
You have the ambition to create a true force in your market. Becoming a dominant player that
evolves to become a global enterprise level multinational business. Peer to peer lenders are, at
the time of writing, contemplating whether they go on to become a fully-fledged bank, or
embark on an initial public offering to float on an exchange.
There are XX ways to evolve to the next level:
1. Be Acquired by a Strategic Acquirer –

Perhaps you’ve taken the business as far as you and your Board can possibly take it.
You now need the might of a larger player to take you to the next level. Consider an
acquirer that could benefit their business model by incorporating your business into
theirs. You have the technology and the Fintech know how. You also have new age
customers who incumbents struggle to acquire (for example Millennials). Your
acquirer may have deeper pockets to invest in your growth, as well as a huge customer
base and networks in the right places to open new doors. Again, to control the terms
and pricing of being acquired needs immense and long-term planning in place.
2. Mergers & Acquisition

A business can only scale organically so far. Strategic mergers or acquisition of
complementary businesses can benefit both businesses in aggregate, more than their
combined value. It’s a case of 1 + 1 = 3 (or 5) instead of 2. Many less well performing
businesses in your market space will struggle to grow and scale. Some never get out of

the start-up mode. Others fail. Despite poor performance, they may have assets in the
form of technology, a customer base (you can’t tap into) or talent that will be valuable
to you if you acquired such a firm. Acquiring a poor performing firm and embedding
Strategies 1 to 6 highlighted above could prove to be a lucrative strategy.
International expansion is also possible through strategic mergers and acquisitions.
3. Initial Public Offering

Floating a firm on an exchange can bring enormous attention and revenue to a firm. It
also allows the founders to liquidate some of their equity / wealth tied up in their
business. IPO’s when successfully executed, could provide the firm with a healthy
injection of cash that can allow them to scale or go out buying up complementary
businesses. They can also use the cash pile to invest further in research and
development, gaining a competitive advantage by locking competitors out.
The stockpile of cash can be used to drum up more market force through marketing
campaigns.
4. Agglomerate
This is an interesting concept of building massive scale quickly. Especially in Fintech,
its challenging for new disrupters to reach sufficient critical mass to truly take away
significant market share from incumbents, Many Fintech firms get acquired by
incumbents and end up (often but not always) losing their magic, as they get embroiled
in corporate politics and big firm bureaucracy.
To build scale, several successful players can combine forces to take on the dominant
players. Let’s take the alternative lending sector as an industry. At least in the UK, no
challenger bank or peer to peer lender has reached any scale to truly make a dent in
/disrupt banking. Imagine if 5 of the biggest Peer to Peer Lenders and one or two
challenger banks combined forces and operated like one entity. Then they would have
scale to start making a dent in the oligopolistic market space dominated by the biggest
players.
Under this model, a group holding company would be formed, and each entity
becoming a subsidiary of it, creating a massive balance sheet at Group level. Each
business / Subsidiary continues to operate autonomously, however, the leaders all
converge to sit at the Board of the Holding Company to control it. The holding
company could float on a well-known stock exchange, giving shareholders liquidity,

allowing them to tie up as much or as little wealth in their business as they choose,
without affecting how they work in the business on a day to day basis. The group is
now big enough to take on the big boys.
5. Invest in Growth –
Time, money and resource is required to evolve to the next level organically. The firm
could decide to raise equity funding from a private equity or venture capital firm, who
are looking for a pure high growth investment. The cash injection allows for
investment in building the necessary infrastructure to scale. The private equity acquirer
could also open new doors or provide Board advisory support. When big enough or at
the point of an IPO, the firm could buy out the stake held by the private equity firm,
putting them back in control.

Conclusion
Fintech is opening the world of finance to new opportunities. It brings opportunities for greater
financial inclusion and global prosperity. It offers entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, the
opportunity, not only to make their fortune, but also make a meaningful difference in the world.
Real transformation comes from new thinking combined with the entrepreneurial spirit. The
impact of this transformation is only felt when a Fintech venture reaches sufficient scale. Many
end up failing. Others get acquired by incumbents and risk having their innovative spirit and
entrepreneurial flair killed in the process. Some will survive, but struggle to break through the
growth sealing, staying in a constant and contented state forever.
The strategies set out in this guide will help you survive through your early years and help your
breakthrough the growth ceiling once the business gets the market traction. When implemented
in the right way, you will create a venture that has market presence. This presence will help
attract investors and acquirers bring you, as the founder, the opportunity to either evolve your
business to the next level or exit for a life changing some that enables you to pursue your
lifelong passion or spend more time with your loved ones, or take on philanthropic causes.
We wish you luck in building your Fintech venture and hope you reach great heights and
become a member of the mythical Unicorn club.

About the Author
Jay Tikam, Managing Director, Vedanvi
Jay is a leading management consultant with over 20 years’ experience in the financial services
industry. Jay has worked with some of the world’s largest names in financial services,
including, Lloyds Bank, Egg Bank, Halifax, Schroders, Nationwide, South African Reserve
Bank, European Fund for South East Europe, Aviva, Prudential and Aegon.
He combines unique insight based on a very varied and non-traditional background. Jay started
his career as an Electronic Engineer, and quickly became interest in innovation and disruption.
He obtained a full Legal qualification and practices as an intellectual property lawyer, helping
clients protect their ideas. With a passion for commercialising intellectual property, Jay
obtained an MBA qualification and joined an investment bank in 1996 and has been in financial
services since then, reaching executive level in various banks, and insurers.
Jay founded Vedanvi in 2012 when he foresaw a radical transformation in finance, and set out
to support the launch and growth of Fintech ventures. He has worked with global
multinationals and over the last five years, have worked at the opposite spectrum, mainly
working with early stage Fintech businesses. He has taken a board position with a few Fintech
firms, and was responsible for founding and growing a successful peer to peer business lender
in the UK
Jay.tikam@vedanvi.com

About Vedanvi
Vedanvi is a professional service firm, specialising in helping entrepreneurs and corporate

executives build high growth and sustainable technology enabled financial services ventures in
this highly regulated market.
Like its customers, Vedanvi set out to disrupt the professional services market by combining
advisory services with an accelerator and venture capital firm. We are doers helping our clients
achieve results, rather than just advising them.
Built on a solid foundation of risk and regulatory consulting, Vedanvi evolved into a full-service
firm exclusively serving the Fintech sector. We provide a range of services including, training,
coaching, consultancy, recruitment and fund raising. The Fintech foundation training and
accelerator programme are our flagship products, and we’ve also had great success with helping
our clients get regulatory approval.
Vedanvi has also develop joint venture partnerships with our clients, taking on a hands-on role
to helping launch and grow Fintech businesses.
For more information about Vedanvi services, or if you want us to post our brochure to you,
please contact us.
Tel: +44 (0) 203 102 6750
Email: enquiries@vedanvi.com
Web: www.vedanvi.com
Address: 40 Gracechurch Street, London, EC3V 0BT, United Kingdom

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Guide to Build a Breakthrough Fintech Venture

Copyright © 2017 Jay Tikam

Published by Vedanvi Ltd

© 2017 Vedanvi www.vedanvi.com | info@vedanvi.com | +44 203 102 6750 1

Change is slow in an industry that is so well established. To make a real difference,

Best of luck in building your Fintech entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial venture.

Get in touch if you have any questions or suggestions at www.vedanvi.com or

© 2017 Vedanvi www.vedanvi.com | info@vedanvi.com | +44 203 102 6750 2

© 2017 Vedanvi www.vedanvi.com | info@vedanvi.com | +44 203 102 6750 3

There are three facets to Fintech:

2. Operational Efficiency – Technology is used to enhance operational performance by

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© 2017 Vedanvi www.vedanvi.com | info@vedanvi.com | +44 203 102 6750 5

In their Global Fintech Report: Q2 2017, CB Insights

2017 Adding five new members to this club, raising the

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© 2017 Vedanvi www.vedanvi.com | info@vedanvi.com | +44 203 102 6750 7

“Blueprint your path to

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© 2017 Vedanvi www.vedanvi.com | info@vedanvi.com | +44 203 102 6750 10

© 2017 Vedanvi www.vedanvi.com | info@vedanvi.com | +44 203 102 6750 11

1. Have a strong purpose in your business

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3. Focus on a hyper niche and be great at it

5. Optimise first before innovating

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8. Build profile & Get Noticed __________________________

9. Develop a Killer Marketing Plan & Work the Plan

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1. Get things done.

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confidence that at any given moment, all

3. Build in feedback loops in the form of Key Performance Indicators (KPI).

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5. Focus on your company’s financial habits, aiming towards perfection.

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1. Know what you must comply with and how.

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4. Stay Ahead of Regulatory Change

Would you want to be caught by regulatory change by surprise?

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5. Leverage Technology for Greater Efficiency

To avoid regulatory breaches, and to implement the plethora of regulatory changes,

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3. Engage all your team in building the business

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4. Provide Opportunities for Employees to Realise their True Potential

An interesting way to empower employees, is to allow them to create a mini

“Top Talent is the

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1. Building a Growth Culture around your purpose –

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2. Gain a Sustainable Competitive Advantage –