00:03:42 · Nik Storonsky, David Senra
[00:03:42] S1: Yeah. Basically, mentally, for me, if I chosen to do this game, right, and as I said before, I need to be in number one on this. And right now, is a huge opportunity in the world while we have many countries. And then in in each country, we have 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 banks. They're all very fragmented. Basically, there is a unique chance in the world to build a global bank, which provides much better services and products at a much better price in every single country. And then effectively to optimize, compete with these banks, to to drive prices on their products down, to improve customer experience, to save customers' time as well, because you don't need all these physical branches for banks and so on. [00:04:23] S0: Will you say more about this, like, this ambition or this, like, competitive drive that you have? So like, like, how how does it manifest in your life every day? Like, you wake up with just like a burning desire to achieve mission success? Are you looking yourself in the mirror and just like, I'm not doing enough? Like, what is happening? Like, I'm interested in you, the entrepreneur, and then we'll talk about the business, but like, this is
00:04:23 · David Senra, Nik Storonsky
[00:04:23] S0: Will you say more about this, like, this ambition or this, like, competitive drive that you have? So like, like, how how does it manifest in your life every day? Like, you wake up with just like a burning desire to achieve mission success? Are you looking yourself in the mirror and just like, I'm not doing enough? Like, what is happening? Like, I'm interested in you, the entrepreneur, and then we'll talk about the business, but like, this is [00:04:40] S1: the fascinating part for me. Well, basically it's a banking business and the way I view it, Okay. If I chosen to be in this business, I need to be number one in it. And obviously, are tens of thousands of banks in the world. And what it means to be number one, okay, it needs to be number one in country one, two, three, four, and so on. Let's say it's a 100 countries. Then in terms of competition, how I look at competition, I mean, to be honest, I don't really look at competition. I look at kind of myself. Right? And then what would I do to beat up myself, right, to outcompete, to outsmart somehow? And the philosophy is very simple. So every day you need to be, like, almost 100% every day. And then even if you lose to competition, then you can't really blame yourself because, okay, every day you're at 100%. Right? So I think, you know, that's that's the mentality that will help you win most likely.
00:05:35 · David Senra, Nik Storonsky
[00:05:35] S0: I love this. Have you spent any time with Toby Luque, the founder of Shopify? No. Not yet. Okay. So he was on the show. I'm actually recording with him in another two weeks. But he says he likes to take the view that he's a corporate raider, that somebody now has bought Shopify. It's him. And he's like, the hell was the previous management doing? How would I essentially improve every single element of what this previous management was even though it also is him? So you said basically the same thing. It's like, well, okay, you can't really control what your creditors do. I can control what I do. Let me analyze how I'm doing and then how would I beat me you know, from the outside. [00:06:10] S1: Yeah. That's part of the game, Azuliya. [00:06:12] S0: Why do think you have this opportunity to be number one? Like, what do you see that they're doing wrong that you think think think that you can do better?
00:06:12 · David Senra, Nik Storonsky
[00:06:12] S0: Why do think you have this opportunity to be number one? Like, what do you see that they're doing wrong that you think think think that you can do better? [00:06:18] S1: A lot of them, they are are... They're not founders. That's number one. Right? So they're there only for three, four years at best. They just collect their bonuses and the search rate. And then they might, you know, optimize certain parity metrics. But I mean, they they are not really 10x people. Right? So they are... Mean, I they're just there for their bonuses effectively for three, four years. As a result, they don't really need... Do bold decisions. They always play in defense. They never play in defense. I have a different style. Right? So... Yes. Of course, I play defense as well, but I always think, okay, what I can do more. Right? Which industry I can go? Like, which product can I launch? And so on. So it's like, you know, always pushing myself, pushing myself to do more. [00:07:00] S0: Why do think it's important that you're competing against non founders? [00:07:03] S1: I mean, it's much easier to compete not against founders. Right? If I would be competing with all the banks and they were all founder led as a road, we would all have, you know, much better products by now. So that's not what's happening. Right? Yeah. [00:07:17] S0: Say more about the difference between... In your perspective between a founder and a professional CEO.
00:07:17 · David Senra, Nik Storonsky
[00:07:17] S0: Say more about the difference between... In your perspective between a founder and a professional CEO. [00:07:21] S1: Well, professional CEOs, ultimately, their goal is not to improve organization. Right? Their ultimate goal is to protect their job. So there, by definition, they make suboptimal decisions for for the company. Because they they think about themselves and they think about the companies as two entities. Right? I think about myself and as a company, as a as a one entity. Right? Like, I do everything what is good for the company, and I never kind of try to dirge myself what is good for me. This should be different to what is good for the company. For me, it's the same. So I have, like, a 100% alignment with the company. [00:08:01] S0: Yeah. Heard you say something like your entire life is work. It's like 99.5% of your time is dedicated to building your business, correct? Yeah. [00:08:12] S1: Yeah. Also, we speak with regulators, they're all kind of fear about growth or it's not a good mentality and so on. And my answer is very simple. Every time when you think as a regulator that I'm an excessive risk taker, it's completely wrong. Right? Because I'm the only one motivated for this company to succeed and to survive, right? And that means I'm actually not going to take stupid excessive risk compared to professional CEOs or professional boards. Because there's no separate... This is
00:08:12 · Nik Storonsky, David Senra
[00:08:12] S1: Yeah. Also, we speak with regulators, they're all kind of fear about growth or it's not a good mentality and so on. And my answer is very simple. Every time when you think as a regulator that I'm an excessive risk taker, it's completely wrong. Right? Because I'm the only one motivated for this company to succeed and to survive, right? And that means I'm actually not going to take stupid excessive risk compared to professional CEOs or professional boards. Because there's no separate... This is [00:08:40] S0: what I hate when I was like, oh, it's just business, it's not personal. So like, such thing with founders. Yeah, yeah. So this is another thing that surprised when I started reading about you was originally you set out to like not be regulated. And there was something about you saying this is like the worst mistake you ever made. Can you talk about what happened and how you learned this lesson? [00:09:00] S1: Yeah. Basically, when we got several million customers and then we applied for banking license, the entity with zero customers is less riskier compared to an entity with millions of customers. And then the regulator eyes, they become much more risk averse to you. Right? Because for them, it's much easier to give a license to a company with zero customers because maybe they will have zero customers in three, four, five years' time. If you give a bank license to a company with five, 10,000,000 customers and something goes wrong, then the regulator will be to be blamed.