The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
00:00:00 · Nik Storonsky, S1
[00:00:00] S0: I just don't understand how the product which is being provided by UK can compete with the product provided by US. It is less liquid, so it's much worse compared to US. Plus, it's much more expensive because it pays on YouTube. It's just not rational. [00:00:13] S1: And so you would list in [00:00:14] S0: The US? Because everyone's operational person. Right? That's all I can answer. So unless I have, you know, a better product from UK, then if I get the bet... Better product from UK, will list in UK. But so far, if you just compare these one is far ahead compared to another.
00:00:27 · Harry Stebbings
[00:00:27] S2: This is TwentyVC with me, Harry Stebbings, and the show state is the one that everyone has been waiting for. Revolut is the generational defining company of our time, 50,000,000 customers, $2,200,000,000 in revenues, and aiming to be the number one bank in the world. Joining me today, we have Nik Storonsky, founder and CEO of Revolut, to discuss growth and IPO plans, how Revolut approaches new products and building a hiring machine, and why work life imbalance is the secret success. This was such a special one to do live in Revolut's offices. But before we dive in today, if you're driven by the pursuit of knowledge and personal growth, you'll love exploring the vast collection of insightful book summaries on the Blinkist app. So with Blinkist, you can access expertly crafted summaries that distill the essence of thousands of influential books, allowing you to read or listen to each in just fifteen minutes. I know they beat 20 VC. Being recommended by The New York Times and Apple CEO Tim Cook, it's no surprise that 82% of Blinkist users see themselves as self optimizers and 65 say it's essential for business and career growth, empowering over 32,000,000 users since thousand and twelve. As a 20 VC listener, even better, you get 25% exclusive discount on Blinkist. That's b l I n k I s t. Just visit blinkist.com/20vc to claim your discount and transform the way you learn. And while you're optimizing your learning, what do Henry Ford and AI have in common? Neither could change the world without automation. In the future, there will be two types of businesses, those that have automated and those that wish they had. UiPath, undisputed leader in automation, is taking us into the era of agentic automation. UiPath's new AI agents don't just follow rules. They think, they make decisions, they work alongside the world's most powerful software robots already trusted by over 10,000 businesses. If Vagantic Automation sounds new, just think of UiPath as more growth, not more overhead platform or customers, happier employees platform. Whatever you want AI to do for your business, agentic automation with UiPath will make it happen. Try UiPath's new AI agents for free at uipath.com. The future of automation is both agentic and robotic, so don't get left behind.
00:02:54 · Harry Stebbings, S1, Nik Storonsky
And talking about building trust, Secure Frame provides incredible levels of trust to your customers through automation. Secure Frame empowers businesses to build trust with customers by simplifying information security and compliance through AI and automation. Thousands of fast growing businesses, including Nasdaq, AngelList, Doodle, and Coda trust Secure Frame to expedite their compliance journey for global security and privacy standards such as SOC two, ISO 27,001, HIPAA, GDPR, and more, backed by top tier investors and corporations such as Google and Kleiner Perkins. The company is among Forbes' list of top a 100 start up employers for 2023 and Business Insider's list of the 34 most promising AI startups for 2023. Learn more today at secureframe.com. It is a must. [00:03:44] S1: You have now arrived at your destination. Nik, I'm so excited to do this. Thank you so much for having us in your office first. [00:03:51] S0: Thanks for coming. [00:03:52] S2: Not at all. Listen. I was chatting to Klaus Hommelz before, and he said, you know, I'm not gonna do [00:03:55] S1: the German accent because I'm terrible at it. But he said that Revolut is one [00:03:59] S2: of the most KPI led companies. And so I just wanted to start with, how do you approach KPI based leadership, and what does that actually mean?
00:03:59 · Harry Stebbings, Nik Storonsky, S1
[00:03:59] S2: of the most KPI led companies. And so I just wanted to start with, how do you approach KPI based leadership, and what does that actually mean? [00:04:07] S0: Well, basically, it's the whole goal setting. Right? So we set up the goals for the company. So usually, we have five, six goals a year, and then we quantify these goals. So what does it mean to achieve certain goal? Then we cascade these goals on the department level, then on the team level, and then on individual. So every single effective team department and on the company, we have metrics describing, the performance. And then, all people go through performance review process, every quarter. Then they're judged based on the metrics that they delivered, their skills, and then, cultural values. [00:04:42] S1: In terms of the management when you get the metrics, how do you think about distributed management? I spoke to a lot of your team and you have a lot of direct reports. Yeah. How many direct reports do you have and how do you
00:04:42 · S1, Nik Storonsky
[00:04:42] S1: In terms of the management when you get the metrics, how do you think about distributed management? I spoke to a lot of your team and you have a lot of direct reports. Yeah. How many direct reports do you have and how do you [00:04:52] S0: think about distributed management? So we've got 40 plus reports. And I mean, to be honest, you are... I built a team already for the last five years. So generally because I don't really work with people who are not excellent. Another way I define, people who are excellent, strong, average, or below average is pretty simple. So they should be like a self guided missile. Right? So excellent people, they select the goal themselves, and they press the button, and they reach the goal themselves. Strong people, you need to show them the goal and they reach the goal themselves without you iterating with them. Average people, you need to, on a weekly basis, iterate to reach the goal. And then below average people, I mean, you iterate with them, but, you know, sometimes very often they don't reach the goal. So the key is to select all your direct reports, either strong or excellent, so they're able to reach the goals themselves without you kind of directing them. [00:05:44] S1: Will they be excellent on day one, and how long do you give them to get
00:05:44 · S1, Nik Storonsky, Harry Stebbings
[00:05:44] S1: Will they be excellent on day one, and how long do you give them to get [00:05:48] S0: good enough? Well, majority of people, you see them performing strong or excellent after three, four weeks, right? So they hit the ground running on week three. Majority of them, they actually are probably on week one. So generally, if you see a person who's not performing for one, two months, most likely they will not perform... Performing for for for the next year. So I don't really believe in kind of, you know, needing some time to adapt, to speed up. So if the person is not delivering within the first three months, most likely they will not. [00:06:18] S1: What are the most common ways you find them not delivering in the first three months? Like, what are the most obvious signs? [00:06:23] S0: Well, you just give them the goals. Right? And then you have some weekly or biweekly catch ups, and then they show you what they produced. And then, you just observe what they produced for two, three weeks, how small they are, how deep they go with their analysis. It's just based on what they show you. [00:06:37] S1: Do you agree with when there's doubt, there's no doubt? [00:06:39] S0: 100%. I mean, as soon as they start doubting, I mean, there's no love. [00:06:42] S2: In terms of the different people, I I love