Did you know that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was originally created with a one-year mandate? Today, FATF is one of the most influential bodies in global anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CFT). Its recommendations influence national legislation, regulatory frameworks, financial institutions and, increasingly, the way FinTech and Read more…
I really would like to challenge the conventional wisdom of the “hire slow, fire fast” principle. I’ve never personally followed this advice, but only after hearing Ben Horowitz talking about it, did I realize why my gut instincts were credible. Hire slow… I don’t think it works because you’ll never Read more…
FinTech startups often struggle to find the right Board Members, and indeed there is a lot of confusion about who they should be, how much you can expect from them, and what their fees should be. Let me break it down for you. (And by the way, if you prefer Read more…
Today, I wanted to share with you my thoughts about FinTech co-founders who are also best friends and how it may become a problem for the company and the team. You often hear that the best startups are launched by founders who already worked together before, and when one of them Read more…
Let’s question the idea that startups need to hire employees before they actually need them, ahead of growth. I personally observed many times that this is actually terrible advice, but somehow, this misconception exists in the industry as soon as founders get new funding, they go on a hiring spree like there Read more…
I recently had an interesting exchange with a FinTech founder about how to structure T&Cs in such as way that customers complain less and protect the entity from unreasonable or unfounded customer complaints. My position is that the easier and simpler your T&Cs are, the less likely your customers are Read more…
Today, I wanted to tell you about what happens when early-stage startup founders resist/refuse/delay/feel reluctant to hire compliance people and ask other team members to do compliance instead (or even prefer to do it themselves): Do it yourself and work harder and longer or ask your Customer Support person or CFO Read more…
If you are a FinTech founder or a CEO, you are constantly selling and your hardest pitches are not necessarily to customers. First and foremost, you need to sell your business model, your technology, and your overall concept to regulators, banks, investors, and partners. You often need approvals and permissions Read more…
Most compliance officers would agree that onboarding and reviewing corporate customers is one of the most painful and annoying KYC tasks ever. It takes forever, it’s confusing, and everyone involved (customers, UBOs, compliance officers, and relationship managers) hates every step of the process. BUT WHY? Why cannot we all simplify Read more…
If your compliance officer is performing poorly, they should be fired from your organization. But sometimes it can be difficult to know who is responsible for the things that are going wrong, and therefore who to fire. In today’s episode, I’m going to share with you some red flags to Read more…