Fintech Start-Up
2017-2018Boot-strapping
A teammate from two prior start-ups told me about a new business he was putting together with experienced Fintech entrepreneurs in an underserved financial market.
He felt the breadth of my experience across technical and non-technical businesses would bring a useful perspective to the team, and was confident I’d build good rapport with his co-founders.
In the age of fintech, it’s easy to be swayed by trends. We both had enough high-risk experience to recognise the danger of potential distractions. He needed my help as an external source of discipline – helping them to build and stick to a framework of key development milestones to ensure they were getting the right things done quickly. He knew he’d get a direct, rational, objective opinion with no ego (and some sharp-toed boots).
We had a few group brainstorms about a path to market – taking their prototype solution through several successive stages of customer testing and trials. The team set up and executed our plan, securing vanguard customers to help lead development.
They continue to work toward the latter goals in the framework, and we are in touch regularly to top up and re-set their relevance and pace.