00:13:07 · Mark Swan, Sebastian Johnson
[00:13:07] S1: What [00:13:08] S0: is it about Revolut that is creating this whole new ecosystem of of operator turned entrepreneurs? [00:13:15] S1: It's an incredible... First of all, it's an incredible company, number one. And so... But number two, it was an entrepreneurial spirit. I always talked about Revolut being in a fantastic meritocracy. It didn't matter who you were, what your role was, if you delivered value, you got promoted and you got more responsibility. And I think that type of culture breeds a level of entrepreneurship. Whether that is Alan Chang from going and finding Fuse, Fernando Torres with Dollar App. Like, there's incredible, incredible people who I think thrive in that environment. And that environment was created by Nick, and the founders and Vlad as well. And it's a phenomenal place to be. When I decided to join Revolut, knew honestly exactly what I was going in for. Wanted to get that very fast acceleration of career growth, but a lot of opportunity to responsibility and ability to deliver impact. And that was exactly what I had. So it was an amazing place and it's no surprise to me that it's a founder factory. If you could just create an ETF of ex Revolut founders, could be quite positive. [00:14:25] S0: Yeah. And I I actually know some people who are ex Revolutists who were senior or who have done really well now who pretty much just exclusively invest in people they know from Revolut. And and you look at their portfolio, and it's an amazing portfolio.
00:14:25 · Sebastian Johnson, Mark Swan
[00:14:25] S0: Yeah. And I I actually know some people who are ex Revolutists who were senior or who have done really well now who pretty much just exclusively invest in people they know from Revolut. And and you look at their portfolio, and it's an amazing portfolio. [00:14:41] S1: I I think there's also a unique combination of what Revolut taught you was to really be really focused on, you know, there was a core value of deliver why and deliver really exceptional products and have incredible product taste and really understand what the end user wants. And so I think on one side of the spectrum, you've got this just amazing taste product, deep focus on high quality. But then on the other side, it's all about execution, execution, execution. And execution eats everything else. And I think that Revolut was a place where both of those things were held very important. And as a result, I think a lot of people learn that playbook of build amazing products, execute aggressively and do that to kind of grow fast and ideally build big businesses. [00:15:34] S0: And that's what you're applying today, I guess.
00:15:34 · Sebastian Johnson, Mark Swan
[00:15:34] S0: And that's what you're applying today, I guess. [00:15:37] S1: Yeah, exactly. We were I founded the business with two of the smartest people I've ever had the privilege of meeting, honestly. I worked closely with both Philippe and Ivan when I was at Revolut. Philippe was a partner at Revolut. He was leading several of the AI initiatives and was essentially head of AI on the consumer side by the time we left. And then Ivan was the general manager of the whole retail department, which essentially was the consumer application. And so I was very lucky for them to come and find the business with me and it's a real privilege. And so we have that DNA of very strong product sense. And my co founders are some of the best product people I've ever seen and I think in the market. But we also have this very focus on execution and delivery and speed and velocity. And that means that we execute hard. Right? And we think that will benefit the business over the long term. [00:16:38] S0: How did you know when was the right time to to to kind of pack up and do your own thing?
00:16:38 · Sebastian Johnson, Mark Swan
[00:16:38] S0: How did you know when was the right time to to to kind of pack up and do your own thing? [00:16:45] S1: I have this like theory on S curves, right? Which is, everything is essentially an S curve. You're kind of you're either growing or you're slowing, right? And for me, I actually joined Revolut straight out of university, right? I joined initially as a junior operations manager at Revolut. And my goal was learn as much as I possibly can and really kind of hold on in this rocket ship and gain a lot of experience. But I always knew that at some point, I would want to leave and find my own business. Even before going to Revolut, I knew I would be a... Want to be a founder. And so I think I got to the point where I was reaching the eclipse of the s curve. And that was the moment for me that I felt that now is the right time to find a business. And in parallel to that, AI and what was happening post the chat GPT moment, I think unlocked this whole new opportunity to build in areas which I was deeply interested in like wealth management. And so I think it was the coming together of a lot of different factors like that. That meant that now was the right time and now found out this
00:16:45 · Mark Swan, Sebastian Johnson
[00:16:45] S1: I have this like theory on S curves, right? Which is, everything is essentially an S curve. You're kind of you're either growing or you're slowing, right? And for me, I actually joined Revolut straight out of university, right? I joined initially as a junior operations manager at Revolut. And my goal was learn as much as I possibly can and really kind of hold on in this rocket ship and gain a lot of experience. But I always knew that at some point, I would want to leave and find my own business. Even before going to Revolut, I knew I would be a... Want to be a founder. And so I think I got to the point where I was reaching the eclipse of the s curve. And that was the moment for me that I felt that now is the right time to find a business. And in parallel to that, AI and what was happening post the chat GPT moment, I think unlocked this whole new opportunity to build in areas which I was deeply interested in like wealth management. And so I think it was the coming together of a lot of different factors like that. That meant that now was the right time and now found out this [00:17:54] S0: amazing. And looking back, you know, you're what a year, just over a year into this what have been biggest highlight, maybe a moment where you've broken through with the product or you signed your first customer, some bit of magic has happened where you're like, okay, this is going to work, we've built something meaningful. Then on the other side, I'd like to hear about the lowest point where you're like banging your head against the wall and you just gotta push through.
00:17:54 · Sebastian Johnson, Mark Swan
[00:17:54] S0: amazing. And looking back, you know, you're what a year, just over a year into this what have been biggest highlight, maybe a moment where you've broken through with the product or you signed your first customer, some bit of magic has happened where you're like, okay, this is going to work, we've built something meaningful. Then on the other side, I'd like to hear about the lowest point where you're like banging your head against the wall and you just gotta push through. [00:18:19] S1: Yeah. Look, I think that the the high points I can think of too. I mean, getting our first customer and is incredibly important, right? I think we knew that there was validation in this market and one of our first customers was almost a 24,000,000,000 assets under management, wealth management firms, so these are very large firms. [00:18:39] S0: And