20VC: Revolut Founder Nikolay Storonsky on His Leadership Style and Relationship To Ambition, His Biggest Lessons From Scaling Revolut Globally; What Worked, What Did Not & Why Speed of Product Shipment is The Most Important Thing
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 12 April 2021
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nikolay Storonsky is the Founder & CEO @ Revolut, one of the world's largest and fastest-growing fintechs offering everything from personal to business banking, providing a better way to manage your money. To date, Nikolay has raised over $905M with Revolut from Ribbit, Index, DST, Balderton and Bond Capital to name a few. Nikolay has scaled Revolut to over 2,000 employees across 4 continents. Before changing the world of neo-banking, Nikolay spent 8 years as a derivatives trader at both Lehman Brothers and Credit Suisse in London.
In Today’s Episode with Nikolay Storonsky You Will Learn:
1.) How Nikolay made his way into the world of startups from derivatives trading and how that led to his changing the world of fintech with Revolut?
2.) How would Nikolay describe his style of leadership today? How did his time in banking impact his operating style? What elements has Nikolay found the hardest to scale into as a leader? How does Nikolay assess his relationship to ambition? What drives him today? How does Nikolay deal with self-doubt and vulnerability in leadership?
3.) Why does Nikolay feel the most important thing in a company is the speed of product shipment? From a product perspective, how does Nikolay determine what to do next vs what to do later? What does that prioritisation process look like? Has it changed over time?
4.) How does Nikolay think about gepgraphic expansion today? Given Monzo's challenges in the US, why did Revolut decide the US remained a good strategy? What does it take to launch and scale a new country? How does Nikolay think about the relationship between growth and profitability? What companies does Nikolay admire most for their international scaling?
Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Nikolay Storonsky
Nikolay’s Favourite Book: Principles by Ray Dalio (PDF)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and we've been on a tear recently of welcoming |
| 0:03.9 | some of the biggest and best founders in the world as guests over the last few weeks. |
| 0:07.7 | And that continues today as we welcome an individual building the financial super app of the next |
| 0:12.4 | decade, one of the world's fastest growing fintechs, Revolut. |
| 0:15.9 | So with that, I'm thrilled to welcome Nikolai Sturonsky, found and CEO at Revolut, offering everything from personal |
| 0:21.5 | to business banking, providing a better way to manage your money. To date, Nikolize raised over |
| 0:26.0 | $905 million with Revolut from some of the best, including Ribbitt, Index, DST, Balderton, and |
| 0:32.4 | bond capital, to name a few. Nikolai's scale Revolut to over 2,000 employees across four continents, |
| 0:38.1 | and before changing the world of Neo-Banking, Nicolai spent eight years as a derivatives trader at both Lehman |
| 0:42.7 | brothers and Credit Suisse in London. I'd also want to say huge thank you to Mickey at Ribbitt, |
| 0:47.0 | Mood and Juliet at Bond, Martin and Index, Daniel at Bullerton, and more for some fantastic |
| 0:51.4 | questions suggestions, as you can hear there, a real team effort. |
| 0:54.6 | But before we move into the show today, Mercury is building full-stank banking for startups, |
| 0:59.0 | applying under 10 minutes from anywhere for FDIC-insured bank accounts, physical and virtual |
| 1:03.6 | debit cards, domestic and international wires, in integrations with gusto, stripe, |
| 1:08.3 | quickbooks, plaid, basically every other tool your startup uses. |
| 1:11.6 | They also offer unusual features like API Access, custom team management, and their newly launched Mercury Treasury, a cash management product for high-growth startups. |
| 1:20.5 | They'll even help you build your startup with Mercury Raise, a program to connect you to Silicon Valley's top investors. |
| 1:26.3 | Head over to Mercury.com forward |
| 1:28.1 | slash sign up to apply. And speaking of full stat banking there with Mercury, I have to say I just |
| 1:32.7 | love using AngelList's fund admin platform to manage my investments. The team and platform |
| 1:37.4 | at AngelList take care of all my back office needs so that I can focus on working with great |
... |
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