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
00:18:40 · Mark Swan
[00:18:40] S1: secure that type of customer is incredibly important. And a lot of value you can deliver in that type of firm. And then I think that the second highlight is then actually launching that customer really at scale, right? And being able to show the value and I'm a metrics guy, being able to see the dashboard and just see every positive metric go up into the right. Positive moments because you identify the opportunity, you spend time to go through the problem, you then match that with a product that helps solve those problems. And then you actually see it all the way come through and you see the value that has been added and the feedback that we get from advisors and also from just broadly the customer. So I think those two moments, just to see the sequence of that in such a short space of time is very impactful. I think in terms of low moments, I think that we spent a lot of time initially trying to decide whether we would focus initially sales on The UK and on The US. And we started initially actually looking at The UK as a market, which has all the same problems, right? UK wealth management firms and actually European more broadly, it's a global problem. Admin a burden for all wealth managers. I think that we spent quite a lot of time initially trying to understand, do we take a bet on The UK initially and scale and build up the product here and then go to The US Or should we take the bigger initiative to sell to The US initially, right? Which is a much larger market, a little bit more unknowns initially. And I think that period was just exciting, but also a little bit uncertain. And we spent a decent chunk of time to make that proper decision. And we've got such a strong men pool from The US that it was a no brainer for us. The market is so big, the willingness to buy was so large. And so we wanted to benefit all of those RIAs that really needed and wanted our product and we could service them. We ended
00:20:44 · Sebastian Johnson, Mark Swan
[00:20:44] S0: up there. Was there a real noticeable difference? One of the things I see to know about founders who are scaling into Europe and The US is essentially procurement and willingness to try and test new tools, and their risk appetite for new technology is a lot a lot better than in Europe. Was that something that you faced as well when speaking to different wealth managers in The UK versus US? [00:21:03] S1: Look, I I would say so. I mean, like the... In in The US, there is just much more of an entrepreneurial spirit generally. You know, wealth managers typically actually find that the business themselves. They're finders themselves. They understand the kind of hustle of being a founder and what it means. And I think that contrast that to The UK, I think there's less of that there. And so I think it was easier to actually resonate with that entrepreneur, CEO, wealth manager who was based in The US, who was much more open to trying out new tools and really trying out different things to help them serve their clients better and grow as well. I think the macro of wealth is much stronger in The US than it is in The UK. And just as a function of the economy is growing faster and so on. And so for all of those factors, someone once said to me, don't climb ladders, ride waves, you've got to kind of the right macro wave. And I think The US wealth management wave is incredibly strong one and to be building a business in. And so the pool is so strong. So we how
00:21:03 · Mark Swan, Sebastian Johnson
[00:21:03] S1: Look, I I would say so. I mean, like the... In in The US, there is just much more of an entrepreneurial spirit generally. You know, wealth managers typically actually find that the business themselves. They're finders themselves. They understand the kind of hustle of being a founder and what it means. And I think that contrast that to The UK, I think there's less of that there. And so I think it was easier to actually resonate with that entrepreneur, CEO, wealth manager who was based in The US, who was much more open to trying out new tools and really trying out different things to help them serve their clients better and grow as well. I think the macro of wealth is much stronger in The US than it is in The UK. And just as a function of the economy is growing faster and so on. And so for all of those factors, someone once said to me, don't climb ladders, ride waves, you've got to kind of the right macro wave. And I think The US wealth management wave is incredibly strong one and to be building a business in. And so the pool is so strong. So we how [00:22:13] S0: helpful if at all was it to have Sequoia lead the seed, you know, having that brand behind you to that carry weight in those early customer calls.