I’m a Fintech Guy Now…?
Disrupt & Conquer #1
Hi friends 👋
Happy Friday and a warm welcome to my new newsletter “Disrupt and Conquer.”
Hopefully this is the first of many to come. I’m excited to have you with me for the ride!
Benji
I’m a fintech guy now
I’ve taken up an exciting role at up and coming London fintech Doshi. They are the ‘Duolingo for Financial Education’.
It’s only been 4 week but has already felt like 4 months. During this time, we’ve begun projects with 2 of the UK’s largest banks.
Legacy financial institutions are desperate to find new ways to convert younger customers and Doshi offers a creative new channel to do so.
Here’s a picture of me and our CEO Daniel at a conference hosted by Lloyds Bank in Edinburgh. We also sponsored Money20/20 in Amsterdam at the beginning of the month.
Jaco and Daniel deeply understand their customers, apply experimentation to all areas of the business and appear unafraid to fail, it’s been really refreshing and exciting to be a part of their journey.
My experience with Doshi convinced me that Fintech is the best category for launching a startup in London. There’s a large customer base and a strong business appetite in this familiar space, unlike the unconventional ideas preferred by US investors.
More on Doshi in issues to come…
An insightful dinner
Over the last 6 months, Bruno Genovese has become a close mentor of mine. His influencer agency MGEmpower recently exited to DXG and I began advising him on his new start up Glyn AI, a sandbox for content creators to validate and prioritise the most optimal content to post that aligns with your audience’s unmet needs.
Bruno has also started a founder community called Roma with the incredible Luciano Biscaro, who brings 25 years of experience at HSBC and was a key player in the rapid growth of Apollo Global Management. I was fortunate to be included in a dinner with some truly admirable individuals at the top of their game.
Congratulations to…
Robert Chandler and Flip Kozera of Wordware AI (notion for prompt engineering) for getting into Y Combinator. I feel proud to be able to witness a small part of their journey.
Lena DeLaet and the team at Summerfest who hosted their 4th SummerFest Tech event. Milwaukee is a city close to my heart so I’ll do whatever I can to help shine a light on such a wonderful city.
Fantasy fund spotlight
Every few issues, I’ll spotlight a new company I’d invest in with a hypothetical £100M fund. I’ll detail the company’s public valuation, the stake I’d aim to acquire within my budget, updates on my other hypothetical portfolio companies, and the reasons behind my investment choices. Stay tuned for the first company next month!
Have a great weekend everyone.
I’ll be back in your inbox next month.
Thanks for reading
Benji