00:02:07
Thank you so much. This is really impressive what you do around the fintech and you started to talk about the magazine. So I am now really curious. So what is the collective magazine and how does it work? How can I be part of this? Well, the easy one is for everyone. Also for the listeners is to basically read the magazine. So it's a digital magazine. It comes out every month. It's called the Finance X Magazine. So if you go to financexmagazine. com, you'll end up on the site or you go join the connector. com and you click on Finance X. The whole idea about the magazine was to find a way to bring more latest news to the market.
00:02:50
And when I started it or the idea started, which was end of 2023, a lot of people looked at me like you're crazy. Because why? Why the hell would you like to start a magazine in this day and age? Whereas there's so many overflows of information available on the internet. And I think that was exactly the reason that I thought it would make sense to create a magazine because people like to have some information very structurally combined. And that's really what we try to do. So, we run it 10 times a year. And every month it has a different theme. So, for example, the first one of the year was around wealth tech so wealth management and now the next edition coming out end of February will be about insuretech so something completely different but we also cover payments uh technologies um sustainability all like the themes that are very um into the market
00:03:50
and uh you said that you are from Belgium originally is this magazine for the global audience is it in English or uh oh absolutely in English um I personally believe that uh the world we live in it's uh it's one big world so I I I find it very difficult that some companies have a sort of regional approach I think today especially if you're in the fintech industry the world has became very global um it's very hard actually for a lot of fintechs to even survive in a more uh localized world You need to think global, so the the magazine is also global. And as I said, it's a collaborative magazine. So, um, how does it work is that we define the team and what happens is that a lot of fintech associations or communities are participating to provide input on that specific topic.
00:04:48
Today, we have already plus 30 different partners, and we only ask one thing: and that's whenever they bring content to the to the magazine that they also distribute the magazine. So, content is king; distribution is queen-she wears the pants. So um, that's why now today I can legitimately say that the magazine goes to more than 10, 000 people because it has A large distribution, and it's still growing every day; that's a really interesting, and congratulations for this success. This is also very old, and it's still growing every day. So I think it's a really interesting, and of the brands are usually starting that people just think that you're crazy, and then you just make it work somehow and with the proper strategy. But can you tell us more about your journey to fintech?
00:05:38
Because fintech is quite recent; I have to say that maybe I started to hear about fintech like around Covid times. So, like how did you land in fintech also? Let me give you some history lessons in fintech no just. Joking, you asked first of all to give a little bit of my own journey so for me I ended up into the banking industry worked for a financial market infrastructure for about 15 years, so very global banks for banks Euroclear and then I did some other stuff, I was also a general manager for a Belgian bank, went back to Euroclear and and then I started scaling for me. This is where my journey started, but maybe before I speak about my journey, I'll just go back and and give my version on fintech.
00:06:32
I actually think that fintech literally was born after the crisis in 2008, and it was a very obvious moment that fintech was born because we were In a financial industry that basically was ongoing for a long time, we find the urge to sort of improve and and to to become better towards their customers. And then 2008 was hitting on us, and suddenly well, you all know or maybe you don't know, but it was the time that our industry was very weak because the many of the the governments had to bail out the banks; a lot of things happened. So, the general public was not so much in favor of the bank at that time. When I was going to a bar and I said I was working for a bank, they would not give me a beer because they would point at me – 'You banker!
00:07:33
It's your mistake, it's your problem; you have caused The crisis, obviously, the world is never black and white; the world is always great, especially in Belgium. Not having a beer is uh painful, painful, very, very painful. Um, no, but, but all joking aside, this was the moment where a lot of entrepreneurs were already in this industry, but think about e-commerce – it was a hot thing at that time. So why would those entrepreneurs not actually start doing something in the banking industry because it's a highly lucrative business? And why not tackle them when the the trust levels were the weakest? So, that's what we saw at that time; there were companies that were emerged and they said they Would actually replace the bank, and what they did in reality was to take sort of parts of what the bank's value chain is and they really made that a lot better.
00:08:30
Now, in the beginning, the bank was very concerned about this because there were two things to be concerned about. The regulator was putting them to a lot of regulations because it was the regulator that stood up and said, '2008 will never happen again and we were going to make sure that this will never happen again, and that's by regulation. So they were actually trying to survive and recover, and at the same time, they had these annoying fintechs that were claiming that They would actually destroy them and would take all the clients now. If you fast forward to today, to be honest, that's a change from all clients to fintechs. Never happened, there obviously are a few very interesting fintechs. It has been a very fruitful industry, but the vast majority of fintech startups did not survive.
00:09:26
And if you think about language, you hear that today, you don't talk about fintech, you talk about the wealth tech, you talk about insuretech, you talk about regtech, you talk about technology that is supporting the financial industry, so we moved from something that was attacking the industry. Into something that is collaborating, and that's where we stand today; the equilibrium between financial institutions and technology has been sort of normalized, and and covet actually made things um go into a hyper-speed model because suddenly um the fintechs were no longer required to be local but they had to be global, because if they weren't doing it, other parties were doing it. So what I mean by that is that I was selling KYC (Know Your Customer) at the time of COVID, and I literally was able to open up the doors in industries or regions that we never worked on because very simply, that banker was willing to Speak to me, so it was the matter of being the first.
00:10:35
So at the time, we did a lot of good business during COVID for that reason. So local became global and global and local sort of came together as global because you sort of need to act global but you still need to comply with local regulations, and that's also one of the difficult things today with fintechs and scaling. Interesting. Uh, thank you so much for uh having uh a brief uh introduction to the history lesson, history in a few minutes uh we got all of the information that we need. Is there like why should I, why should I be interested in the fintech if I, for example, have a startup? Is uh like uh everybody who currently is inside the system doing manage continue something business or branding consultations should actually these people be interested in fintech to some extent?
00:11:31
I find it a difficult question because I think that, well, interest it depends which industry you're in, honestly. If if you're in a completely different industry, I would definitely say have a look and and try to learn from from how some of the fintechs or scaling. But then I guess the the the message is more from how do they do it and how can I apply the sort of similar techniques to me as a startup in, for example, healthcare because There has been a lot of 'overspill' from the regtech area, regulatory technology, because frankly this was more apparent first in the financial industry, but it definitely had a spillover into other regulated environments, such as healthcare, but uh also governments and stuff.
00:12:25
So, but if you're really in something completely different, I'm not sure if regtech or fintech should be your number one place to go and actually learn like the new techniques. I would rather go into growth tech communities for example. But that's my take, yeah. The main reason why I ask because how you mentioned the local becomes the global, but then there are the regulations that needs to apply on the local perspective uh i have in mind mainly bitcoin and also blockchain so uh how is it like uh in the fintech currency with the bitcoin is it like uh because it seems to me that it also came at the right moment and why we have the fintech and like why we are speaking about globalization because bitcoin can be actually really nicely
00:13:16
integrated in the fintech and in what we are looking at um maybe we can collect a new word or a new fin financial system or something like this well i guess that the new word for that is called defy the decentralized finance um now i have my own theory about Bitcoin and, um, I told you about 2008. But sometimes when I do keynotes about fintech, I start my sort of presentation with a nice quote which dates back from 1983. And these are the cyber punks that were active in the valleys of Silicon Valley and they already made a sort of a white paper about how new money should look like and how money should be decentralized. And if you, if you think back about the financial industry being on its weakest point that's where you attack, right?
00:14:17
That's where you built up your company so maybe bitcoin by coincidence was also invented or brought to the market in 2008, so it could also be an extremely Nice marketing stunt to to bring that into the business when the financial industry was at its weakest. There's a lot of like uh glimmer and shine around Bitcoin, the fact that Satoshi has never been found and stuff like that, so it could also be a nice marketing gimmick that it that it was started at exactly that time. Now I guess the bridge that you're making between Bitcoins and Fintech is it's a large bridge because um Bitcoin as is an alternative currency, it's something where there's a heavily traded upon and it's has a large overspill that is not only Bitcoin but there's a lot of cryptocurrencies as well.
00:15:09
now if you look at from a financial um point of view or financial industry point of view it's it's it's a currency it's an instrument but i think what is more interesting is is actually the idea of blockchain and the fact of decentralization which which brings up a lot of technology advantages to solve some of the modern um problems and think about self-sovereignty like the fact that you own your own identity on the internet and that's if you look at dlt then dlt is a is an interesting technology that can solve or can help to accommodate to overcome this this problem statement can you maybe elaborate more on the sovereignty And self-sovereignty of owning your own identity, to our audience who might not know about this new um, new technology, like web3 and these things, we're speaking more about owning than like, well I guess um, it's it's not something that is new because uh, even in Europe there's there's a
00:16:19
legislation that is sort of going in this direction that helps you to create a self-sovereign identity. Maria, you name it very right, it's the fact that you have the the rights and the ownership of your own identity, and that also means that you have the right to share some of the information that you leave as an audit trail while For example, surfing the internet, the idea that cookies will disappear, it's part of this, this sort of next step. And then you can also use it in a variety of ways. Some call that the web tree, others call it Web3. The more interactive part with uh, with uh specific avatars and worlds. I think Web3 is probably more the first thing that I explain which which is happening um and the idea is that you, you are the owner so you also share to others, that that they can do stuff, which doesn't mean that um you cannot give information sometimes.
00:17:18
And I give you an example; it's it's a it's a bit of a strange example but I was in Las Vegas last week and They're still all smoking in the casinos, but they do have a law that you cannot get cigarettes before 18 years old. So an old way of doing this would be that they ask for my passport and when they look at my passport they see that I'm obviously older than 18 years old, but at the same time they see that I'm from Belgium, they see my first name, my last name, they see a lot of information in a self-sovereign world. This could be that I just say and officially acknowledge I am above 18 years old, and that's the sort of information that I legitimately can give to the casino to for selling cigarettes to me, so that's a bit of the notion.
00:18:07
Around this, um, it also comes with with latest technology. Think about um, um, a little bit-what is it again? Um, self-no, it's it's a confidential computing that's the one I'm looking for. So the notion that you can start comparing data sources with each other without jeopardizing the privacy in those data sources. A lot of new technologies that sort of make that all possible really interesting. I really liked what you said about data and about web3, I actually didn't expect that we would dive into these topics uh during this podcast but definitely it's uh relevant uh especially like also i'm looking at the branding because like There are lots of startups, e-commerce, a lot of
00:18:57
people. They have their own website, and even though like Web3 as such uh is not something new we are hearing about it already for some time, and we are also looking uh at making uh the bridge because it's, we are still at the Web 2 so Web 2 is the internet, and uh we are slowly but surely moving into Web3. But my question here is, for example like if i have my own brand, like you have your own business, the connector um how can i be progressive and get myself out there on Web3 and already start this new way of living and managing my business in the self-sovereign way? Practical stuff, how what can I do tomorrow to already set myself like one of the first on a Web3, for example yeah well I guess my advice would be sit and wait
00:19:56
no uh no to be honest uh and to a certain extent yes I think there is a certain hype around Web3 so I think you need to look at it from a way how does it actually serve my business and I think that's a very important point question to ask yourself as an entrepreneur, there's a lot of things out there but which one do I pick and how do I get my next step into my next level and my um my objective of success how can I get my mission statements moving on and I've seen some brilliant examples in Web3 and examples that We typically don't think about, but uh for example, um, sports brands have been testing, um, for example, new sneakers into Web3 to find out which one were more, um, successful and they only brought out those that were successful in the market.
00:20:52
So, whereas an old way of thinking, this would have cost a lot of money because they had literally had to produce these sneakers and then only then they could do a market research; now they get a lot easier market research from a set of people using a Web3 environment. It's a specific type of people I would say-not everyone is in that avatar world, but if that's your user group, if that's a representative. User group, then you can do a lot of nice stuff by doing this on the other hand I've heard some very interesting situations also because Webtree very often we talk about NFTs (non-fungible non-fundable) traded, fun non-fund non-fungible traded that's what I'm talking about tokens.
00:21:42
Thank you, ah, you see it's getting late in the evening but I saw some very very cool stuff like um for example, sports companies that uh have a let's say a football team that uh wear activity trackers, but because you own an NFT, you see more information about these particular supporters, so it sort of gets you more into um into whatever is happening. Around that brand so it can create you a lot of brand engagements by using a sort of web tree technology where maybe in the past you just had a collector's card today this card, this token, can give you access to a lot more perks or a lot more insights which brings the audience your bias much closer to your brand yeah I think that's more the direction that I would think yes I saw a lot like for example even gym membership
00:22:39
that with gym membership you can get the NFT and then you can like collect it, you can like claim the token or even like with Tomorrowland I think that you also get the NFT uh but there are also a lot of scams I was one. Time in a conference which was about affiliate marketing and all of these, like, also Web3 and stuff. Then I received really nicely done email that I really thought that it's from organizers, and they sent me: 'You are a winner of the free NFT, which will give you actual access to our conference for free in the next five years.' And when you actually clicked on claim it, brought you to your, for example, Coinbase application where if you would give them access to it, it would just get out all of your crypto if you own some.
00:23:30
There are also a lot of like bridges between the Web2 and Web3 that not a lot of people know, actually what is inside. Of web3, and so I think that's a really good way to like the web3, okay? NFT, wow, cool! I heard that there is a boom around the NFT, like, few years ago. I want my NFT; I want free access. So, there are also a lot of scammers around-no, no, absolutely! And I think that's the reason why it's important that also this industry gets regulated, because, uh, and regulation I don't want to bring regulation here as a showstopper for innovation, but it's also a way of protecting, um, the common people and and the uses of common people.
00:24:11
Because, can you imagine that a child of 14 years old puts all his savings into a Bitcoin account and basically loses because Of this type of email, it's a shame right? It's hard quote unquote earned money, but it's not the experience that you want to give a 14-year-old and, and that is different if a 14-year-old would have opened a bank account with a bank. And the likelihood that this sort of activity would happen, it's obviously a lot, not less. There will be a big gap in education. I also think that because we are like already, like there is education gap even in the normal banking and financial system in the white public, so uh, in Web3, how we are going to educate people about advanced technologies, how to leverage them, how to not be a victim of these.
00:25:02
Things like, for example, now you receive when you go to a new company as an employee, you receive, for example, training on how to not be victim of phishing, uh, in the future. There might be also other, uh, other things so you need to watch out for the new ways of, uh, scale absolutely that comes back to self-sovereignty because everything has a shiny side and a dark side, and the fact that you're responsible for your own, also means that you need to be responsible to to fence yourself against potential criminals. Now the good news, I guess is that on a larger scale of things, money laundering is more hap, it's more and it's more happening. Actually, on the traditional finance, it is actually on this, on DeFi platforms, and why because the vast majority of money is still on the old systems right on TradFi, that's true, uh, do you think that we will ever like me that we will ever move from the traditional system to
00:26:09
DeFi, that we will actually have majority in DeFi and in traditional system? Well again, that's what I put as a definition of DeFi. There's a large thing ongoing with central bank digital currencies so where um this sort of system is being um managed and created by central banks why not um although there's a lot of discussion on where is that exactly. The use case because today I think that we as users, what we really want is convenient to be convenient and frankly, if I can pay with my own Apple Wallet or I can tap with my card, there's a lot of convenience already in place so why, why am I looking for a new way of paying? Making my payments that is a bit of, I guess the discussion today um I don't know where that will go to.
00:27:07
I see a lot of for example, discounts uh of some brands like who are providing services or some retreats that if you pay with Bitcoin, you get like a five percent off or something like this that they uh like try some businesses, they try also like in Dubai, you have a lot Of like ATMs for uh, for Bitcoin, etc so it's really interesting to see the evolution. But uh, let me then navigate the conversation more towards branding. So um, there is also like uh, there is for example like hub of fintech I think in London and it's a growing industry. So what about the fintech and branding? Um, do we see some branding trends in the industry? I guess that you come across a lot of different companies, a lot of different startups.
00:27:59
Are there some trends that you see that is happening? Yeah, I don't necessarily see any trends, but I would like to highlight two different types of fintechs, um, and and there's obviously a lot more. Variations, but there's a big difference. What is B2C and what is B2B? And I think probably when you look at B2C, you actually make your brand known, and you make it appealing or make you make it 'can I use the word sexy' for your buyers for your customers that really lies very closely with any brand. And I think that's a big difference between B2C and B2B. And I think that's a big difference between B2C and B2B. And I think that's a big difference between any other sort of e-commerce branding that anyone else would do.
00:28:43
The only i guess limitation that you would have by doing this is that there are still regulations and i'll give you an example if if i used to work for a bank and we wanted to change the sentence on on for example an investment product this had to be approved by the regulator so what does that mean i cannot like a booking . Com have 800 different landing pages so I'm a little bit constrained about how I can provide my my branding experience or how can I personalize the experience. However, if you look at B2B, I think that branding is very often underestimated because in Fintech, what you see is a lot of Fintech startups they become very successful in their own region and they're very successful because they bank upon the network that they already built before they started the company.
00:29:39
And that's in my case as I look back into the connector and we scaled about 30 different clients already in the last two years, that was really a common thing that my clients were world-famous in the area they come from but unknown in the area they need to scale. And then it's it's a bit like, okay, we did it in our own region so we can easily copy and paste it somewhere else. But they forgot to do it in their own region so we can easily copy and paste it somewhere else. And that's why we as the connector, we spend an awful lot of time helping to do branding for our clients because we want the The companies and the people to know there's a new solution in the market that is a viable solution for what they actually are trying to solve, so yes it's awareness, but it's also a lot of consideration.
00:30:35
And put that together, so brand is underestimated, absolutely nice uh I really like what you said that it's underestimated and can you tell us more about how do you help the clients like you said that you helped 30 clients to scale up? So, how you help them with branding? What are really the initial steps like if I'm a brand uh in fintech and I want to scale up, I have really amazing idea but I don't know where to start so what are the steps that you guide me through yeah, the, the levers that we have or that we use are not for example the ones that you could do yourself which uh again I think is underestimated it's, it's how you actually position the visual identity of your brand because very often and there is nothing wrong with being a geek because I've, I think I consider myself being also a bit geeky sometimes but a lot of the technology providers are very geeky
00:31:34
therefore they're not necessarily appealing on the level of the brand ie that translates into a poor website, no strong call to actions, not, clear definition of what they actually do so I think That's already a quick win, we are not necessarily the one that can help, we can guide you to people but that's not what we do as a connector, so I just want to park that separately. But at the moment, as from the moment that this is the case and we take over yeah, we start helping them to become a voice in the market. So our strategy is strongly on earned branding around content strategy, but we do that through ourselves, we do that through the connector brands, for example recording a podcast with them giving them a voice to tell their story, bringing them into our magazine, helping them to be present at a lot of events.
00:32:32
We we participate. In 75 industry events every year, and we found a way to also take our clients with us. And we would also post that our clients going to these events in their own visual identity, in their own branding, so that they're the levers that we have. We also apply influence marketing, although if you look at Europe, this is I think underestimated. If you go to the US, they pay an awful lot of money for influencers. Well, this is not the case in Europe unfortunately, because I cannot even imagine like being influencer in fintech. I think that I never came across an influencer in fintech, to be honest. How does this look like, yeah that's true. A very beautiful face, no, just just joking no beautiful face.
00:33:27
Uh, I don't, I don't, it's not at all compared to um, what can be an influencer on TikTok or on uh, Instagram, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Instagram, but the same principles apply and for me it's fake it until you make it, but a very important one in in a in a very strongly regulated but also um, sort of knowledge-driven industry. It's fake it until you make it, but when you make it, you don't break it. So what does that mean? Is that yeah, you can brag a lot about uh, the things that you want and that you can do and what you stand for. But if you put in front of an audience, You also need to show that you know your stuff and that you really are real.
00:34:11
So authenticity, I think it's one of the most important jack-of-trades that you need to have when you're in the influencer space on fintech. And frankly, it was, quote unquote, a lot easier to become an influencer when X, the former Twitter platform, was still full-on. Because with Twitter, there were a lot of APIs that allowed us to make like comparisons and rankings and stuff like that. I don't know if you noticed, but since Twitter became X, there aren't so many, the top 50 of this, the top 100 of that. Because simply the algorithms on LinkedIn, which is, I think, the platform that is used most at the moment, it's not as easy to start comparing profiles with one another. Yeah, that's true.
00:35:04
Also, like a lot of people are struggling now with X, with like, because like Twitter was used to actually speak up your voice and like to interact with different decision makers. And I really like the idea that Elon Musk at the beginning had about freedom of expression. But now it became a really something else than it's supposed to be. Let's put it this way. Yeah, exactly. I mean, yeah, I have my, my, my. Opinion about it. The fact that when I open it, I get always like input from the ones that are pushed. Yes, of course. That doesn't, that doesn't make it a neutral platform anymore. And for that reason, I literally stopped. And when I stopped, I had more than almost close to 30,000 followers.
00:35:53
So it was, it was a heavy decision to stop because it was definitely a way for expressing who I was and what I stand for. But. And I didn't think it made any more sense. And then it came for the reason being authentic. I was like, if this is the platform, how can I show the world that I'm authentic if the algorithms are actually manipulated to the favor of somebody else? This is very interesting because, like when we just came, I just popped the idea into my head, like we were speaking about decentralization of the financial system. But then, when as an influencer, you select a platform, you are starting to be dependent on that platform's future as well. This is also something that is happening with, for example, TikTok currently.
00:36:46
So first it happened with the former Twitter X. Now it's happening with the TikTok. So how can we, I am also interested here in your experience. So like how somebody can get the switch. From one platform to another, when you have a big follower base in a, in a debt account, and then you need to switch, also to help maybe the former TikTokers here. Yeah, I guess, um, well back in the days when there was, I have been direct tech influencer number one for almost a year and a half worldwide. And frankly, why was that? Because no, I was, and I am still very passionate about the subject. But I also knew how to play the algorithms. So if you're a little bit smart, also on any other platform, there's a lot of ways to have the algorithms work in your favor.
00:37:47
And I'm not saying you do anything wrong. You just know how they react. Like, for example, still today on LinkedIn, if you put your own face on a post, the algorithm will pick it up and we'll boost it in your, on, on your friends, uh, walls. So, stupid things. But if you apply all these things, then, then you get a better pickup, fake it until you make it. But when you make it, you don't break it. So what I thought is that if, if I'm an influencer now, there is an expiration date and that expiration date is, is actually very quick. So what I did at the time, I thought, how can I diversify me as a, as a voice into the industry?
00:38:29
So that's what I wrote a couple of books because the books had an undifferentiated stream of providing me as a brand into the market. So I guess as anyone else, it's about diversification and making sure that you're not depending on one brand. Oh, sorry. On one platform, it's, it's about you. It's about your own brand. And if you can sort of make that bigger than the platform. Yeah. That's the trick. Not easy, but that's the trick. So, uh, I would recommend mainly to go with. Uh. Your own brand. Your own products, like your own book, your own, um, digital products, your own stuff, like, to also have maybe your email list, uh, this I'm still like with email is I'm a bit, uh, like skeptical because for me, it's a bit obsolete way of doing things because I myself, like, uh, unsubscribing from all, to be honest, but on the other hand, the email list is, uh, your own, you don't need to be dependent on any platform.
00:39:30
So, yeah, true. But I guess the, the, the topic you actually talk about is that the, the, um, people are backing up from, from push as long as you stay pulled, then it makes sense. So my, my advice would be try to find out ways how you can be in a pool situation, meaning that anyone in the industry can come to you whenever they feel that's needed. And if that's the case, you need to be found very easily. And I think that's why I liked the Twitter in the past. And I still like LinkedIn. Because they have bloody good algorithms to bring you on top of the pile. When it comes to a Google search, you really have to spend a lot of SEO dollars to get above your Twitter account.
00:40:15
For example, still today, although I'm not using it, it's still sort of pops up. So diversification is King again. If you can come into different places, then, then it's almost inevitable. If people search on topics that are, that, that are very close to your heart. That they, one way or another, are being confronted with, with the quote unquote, influencer. Can you also tell us more about your books, because you mentioned that you've written many books. So like, can you tell us more about maybe your latest book that people can take a look at to buy, where to buy it? Is it in English? It's always in English. So no worries on that side. No, the first book was 2019. But it's still in English.
00:41:02
And then the second edition came out in 2022, and both editions were collaborative books. So I made them; we wrote them together with usually a bunch of 25 different content distributors or contributors better. And the reason why I did that, because I wanted to, to find a way to get distribution embedded into my book, because otherwise you write yourself a book and you only can hope that people find it and people buy it. But if from day one, you have already a distributed, a distribution with 25 content writers, 25 authors that are very proud and happy to be part of that project, you know, that 25 people are talking about it and they're sharing it with their friends, mother, grandmother, and everyone else. So that, that was the main purpose.
00:41:59
Now, the latest one that we wrote was last year. It's the ESG Green Book, and in this book, we took the stand of immediately from day one, having a distribution in all the four continents in the world. So I, I, not I, we came together with four main authors, and every four of us, we went back into our own networks and we selected five people that were fitting into the objective of the book. And we brought that all together. Now, personally, I never made a book to sell it on, on, on eBay or some, or on any of the platforms, Amazon, because it's, it's, it's not that it's hard, but I don't really see the business model that fits with what we want to achieve. Again, it's very geeky.
00:42:52
So it is within a closed community almost that these books have been distributed. And the fact that the authors are the distributors makes the value of the book. Even higher, if you use it for a branding perspective. Hmm. That's a very nice perspective and a very interesting thing, like how you can leverage a really geeky system for like, because some people would maybe think about it. It's disadvantage that it's like super narrow niche, et cetera, but you made it something exclusive, something also collaborative. It is also something. I think that I think it's not a lot of influencers put as an example, like, it's underestimated collaboration is underestimated in the influencer world and like the approach that you are doing that everything, what you are producing as a product is the collaborative effort of many different authors, many different contributors.
00:43:54
And so can you maybe tell us how, because you will see a lot's of companies that are coming to you as a client. And how they can use the networks that you are providing from the events, from, uh, partnering with you in the magazine. So how a startup can leverage networks and collaboration to accelerate, to accelerate growth effectively. What are the tips from the expert like you on collaboration that, uh, the startup should make from, uh, from the day number one, when they want to embark on and networking and collaboration. Yeah. First of all, Marie. Uh, I like. I like that you call me an expert, but I'm as good as anyone else, to be honest, I think that the spirit here is, is to get collaboration on the table.
00:44:41
And I think as a startup, it's something you can also bring to the table and you can bring that to the table with a lot more players than you think. Uh, if you think FinTech, there's an awful lot of FinTech associations that do a really good job in helping the community to thrive. So it's a very quick win to, to be. Uh, to be a part of that ecosystem and, and to become a, an active participant, but this is just one example, but there's many other ways of how you can collaborate; it's it's by getting to know your neighbor. FinTech, for example, they might be in a different space, but if both of you are listening to, and know what is the need from the other, you might just come across potential.
00:45:24
And I think that that's a bit missing, honestly. Um, if I, if I'm comparing again with the U S; um, I've, I've had the pleasure to be a couple of weeks in, in, in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, and there's a lot more sort of ongoing spirit to, oh, what are you doing? I said, how can I help you? And, oh, look at this and what can, what is the magic trick there? And, oh, how did you fail? That is completely different than Europe. We are more stuck in how we need to make a success story and let's do it. Let's do it on our own. And we've got one mission is to, to bring it forward.
00:46:00
But I think sometimes, for example, I was at, um, Anthony Horowitz, the, the, the famous VC, we were invited at his office and, uh, one of the startups, they were saying like the one and only thing, the golden trick we have, we have is we try to kill our business as soon as possible. And that's something we sometimes forget. We, we don't want to be so critical on ourselves. Because we wish we are sort of stuck with an idea and we want to run with it, which in a way is good. But on the other hand, I mean, you also have to be careful that you're not overwhelmed by success. That is maybe not necessarily the global success you need or the end story, the end game. I really like this narrative.
00:46:49
Uh, it's also about knowing when to stop, or like, as you said, like, uh, trying to kill your company. It's, uh, sometimes in Europe, I see that it's like a never-ending, uh, investments in something that the person knows that the person know that it doesn't work, that it doesn't go forward just because it's an idea that he or she told to parents, to all of the world on the social media without like admitting, like, yes, I failed and I'm going to another idea. I am going to try something else. I, uh, it was, uh, a lot of lessons learned and admitting, uh, that, uh, yes, it's, uh, it's. It failed and you should try to feel quickly. Yes, that's a, that's a really good one. Also.
00:47:33
I was, um, uh, one year ago, I was actually in Las Vegas and I had a similar kind of impression that, um, I was there going with one of our projects, uh, innovatology. It was also about, uh, technology, how to bridge, uh, the digital skills and how to close the digital gap. And, uh, we were just going to the CS, uh, the biggest technology. Oh, lucky you I'm jealous. Yes, it was amazing. And, uh, we were in the hotel and in elevator, just, uh, some people were asking us what, uh, we were doing with Innovatology and we told them, and they were like, 'Yes, this is great.' We crossed fingers for you. You are great. You will make it. We love it.
00:48:14
And, uh, they were really like supportive and it just made my day, like to see this kind of energy, because in, uh, Europe, usually when I speak about, uh, my, uh, my business, my branding, uh, they usually say, 'Yeah, you're, you're a little thing.' Yeah. Everybody knows. I mean, why you are just so awkward, you know, like, uh, why you are just showing up? Like nobody cares, you know, it's, uh, just like different mindset about like how we approach business. But I think it's also about the narrative that for example, in us, uh, whenever you go to different channels on TV, you see, for example, Shark Tank, you see like how people are trying to invest money. Somewhere different television shows. And, uh, it's like really business, uh, straightforward.
00:49:01
Whereas here in Europe, if you want to watch Shark Tank, you need to go to YouTube. Sometimes you cannot find the latest episodes. So what do you think that it's the difference between the U. S. and, uh, the Europe that, uh, what, what is, uh, what is it about the mindset there? I guess it's historical. It's, uh, it's part of their narrative of being an American citizen, I think. And we are more socialist, uh, European, which is not necessarily a bad thing and I don't want to make this into a political podcast at all, but, um, I was, I was thinking the other, I mean, a couple of months ago, I was a pleasure, pleasure to be two weeks in Asia and had a lot of conversations with Asian people and, and middle East, uh, companies and that started to realize that, um, and again, black and white thinking the world is gray.
00:49:53
There's always. In the middle. So, black and white does not necessarily exist, but, uh, for the sake of time, uh, I kind of felt that a lot of nations across the world are trying to create middle class and all of those nations. They're like looking at Europe; like all regulation, Bob, we don't need to be, but in reality, it is that they all tried to be like Europe because Europe has created not all, not all places, but in a lot of places in Europe, the middle class has been created. And therefore, you need to find ways to control the middle class and keep everyone happy. And a very easy medicine is regulation. So I think it's inevitable that also these countries will come into a world where regulations will have its place.
00:50:41
And, and I think the balance is always like, 'when are you not going too far?' And that's more of the question rather than do we need regulation? Because it's there to protect. Yes. Especially now with the artificial intelligence, uh, it might, uh, be really interesting, uh, uh, interesting, uh, mindset in the different countries and how they approach, uh, the regulations and where the data are going and how the AI is evolving. So, uh, this is a really interesting to see and, uh, how it's evolving, especially in FinTech, because FinTech might be like super vulnerable because we are speaking about financial system and like, um, there we are actually speaking. about data, which are super sensitive.
00:51:26
It's, uh, not, uh, for example, when you are doing, um, I don't know, creators platform where you are like, uh, of course, like you can always anonymize, uh, the data, but in FinTech, you are really playing with the numbers of like, um, yeah, I agree. I agree. Um, what is really at stake is, is the fact that, uh, you save money for be able to go on pension when you get older and you can have yourself a nice life. So that's, that's what's on stake it away. Isn't it? It's a lot of trust. Hmm. Uh, also speaking about scaling in FinTech and maybe scaling startups in general, uh, what are the practical steps on how to scale a startup from your perspective?
00:52:13
What you have seen so far, as you said that you scaled up, uh, 30 clients around 30 clients. So what are the different stages of scaling up a FinTech startup? Mm-hmm. Um, first of all, I like to correct when you say that we scaled 30 clients, we helped 30 clients in their scaling exercise. It's a completely different approach or, or, or a way of looking at it. Um, well, the first thing they should do is to contact the connector. No, uh, I think that's important. Just, uh, get in a conversation with us and, and you know, what I learned also is that every business is different. And it's just good to, to spark with people, to talk about, to talk about like strategies and ideas. Some strategy may not necessarily work for another one.
00:53:05
Hmm. So I think it's good. Talk about it, get in contact with other successful scale of companies, learn what were the pitfalls, dare to ask them. And then we come back to what you said earlier. It's about collaboration. Just really ask them. They are. They're most likely very happy to. To share. Hmm. And to connect, uh, with, uh, so yeah, it's a plus plus plus. And I think that, that's important in your scaling journey is, is to really learn from the others and, and dare to also stipulate the next steps for you. What I personally like a lot is that sort of reverse engineering that you make the big hairy goal and put it on the wall. And you sort of look back, what are the steps?
00:53:53
We need to take in order to get to that point. So how would success look like and, and what are the different steps that need to happen and how can I create and I amplify it multiple playbooks to get there because never trust a one-way street. There's always multiple ways to success. And I think the best thing is to try them all. Yes. I also really like what you said that, uh, like if in, in any industry you are, you can actually just look for some kind of community, some, uh, some kind of platform for that exact, uh, so like for example, contact connector, if you are from FinTech, but if you are in some other, uh, in some other subject, you can find a community, the people who are already few stages above you, and you can exchange the ideas with it, the community.
00:54:45
Okay. Something. What also popped into my mind is a chamber of commerce. So for example, when you are also looking into Expanding your startup, you usually want to contact the, the chamber of commerce of, uh, that exact country to, for example, if you are Belgian startup and you want to expand, uh, to London, you first go to the Chamber of Commerce of Belgium. And, uh, you ask them about how to actually expand, uh, for example, your business there, what are the regulations, what do you need, what kind of documents. And now in the globalization, we also have that. You can get connected to the communities. Across the world, which are like people who are actually interested in the same subject as you are, and you can get ahead of, uh, other people who are actually working in the same industry in that region where you are, uh, because as we said, like our us might be, for example, two, three steps ahead.
00:55:40
So like, if you connect, uh, or not, or not, yes, or not, but, uh, the exchanges are really important to have and have the conversation and discussion. Frankly, I think as a summary, it's just to be human again, it's just to, to, to dare, to have that conversation with one another, that frank and honest conversation. Yes, uh, exactly. And, um, taking into consideration all of your experiences, uh, with Connectifier and how did you build your brand, uh, the Connectifier, uh, what would you give yourself as an advice at the beginning of your journey with the Connectifier? Like when. You. Look, uh, now with the knowledge that you have and all of the experience is, and you really look, uh, at Kuna, who was like, really in the first days, first month, first year of, uh, the developing, uh, the Connectifier, what would you give yourself?
00:56:37
Hmm. Well, it's, it's only two years ago, so it's, uh, it's a bit of a tough question. One year ago, what would you give yourself? Yeah, the, the learning curve is still ongoing in a way. Um, I'm not sure if the advice would have come from the journey of the connector, um, but I think I would like to use your question and even pull it back earlier in time, uh, much earlier in time. I'm a, I'm a 47-year-old bloke. So, if I go back very much in time, um, I may want to push myself earlier to become an entrepreneur. Hmm. Because I think. I think that when I see the learning curve that I actually had working in the traditional industry was very steep and I, I cannot, I cannot lie, or I am super happy because I learned a lot of like basic stuff from the industry and I probably would not, not have been able to do what I do now if I did not have those foundations.
00:57:41
But when I look back at my own career, maybe I was too long in those foundations. If. If an entrepreneur is what I wanted to become, I may have had opportunity to do that earlier. Hmm. And the older you are, or the dependent where you are in your sort of life situation, it can become an advantage to be older. It can be a disadvantage. And I'm thinking about other obligations that, uh, people may have like, uh, paying off a house, uh, family duties, uh, you name it. So sometimes it's good. Sometimes it's bad. But. But I think for me personally, um, I, I would have given myself the advice, maybe to start a little bit earlier on this journey. Hmm.
00:58:25
And would you start to assert it as a side hustle, uh, during, uh, your, uh, employment or you would just like quit and like go for it full-time? Because this is also a bit like discussion around, like, uh, if to go like full-time for, uh, the business or like, uh, to have it as a side hustle, see step by step how this will go. Well, I guess, depending on, on what type of business you want to build, uh, and how much time you've got available, because what I've seen too much is entrepreneurs that, that start with a side hustle, but actually don't have the, the means and the times to put into it. And then at that moment in time, you can almost expect the business to fail.
00:59:10
And that's also not good, right? Because then you do spend time, you, you build a dream and the dream doesn't realize. So I guess the, the, the trick is to really balance out what type of effort you need to be able to give to what type of dream that you have. And, and the side hustle can be totally fine if, um, if the ambition that you have is also within reason, or maybe you do have the time to spend and that's also fine. So again, there's no right or wrong in, in being a side hustle or not. Yes, I'm just like thinking now what we said also at the beginning, like, uh, that you should try to fail your business as soon as possible.
00:59:56
How did this then, like, uh, correlate with, uh, life that, uh, because then when you need to pay the bills you have at home, for example, children, I mean, like, uh, also like they are the dependencies in life that you just are starting, like the more free you have, the more free you are, the more freedom you have. Of course, like you can play around. But all the time, like, uh, you will actually try to make it success as much as possible, but then it's, uh, I would say that it's about making your brain to work like an entrepreneur. So like, even like if it's side hustle, or if you decide like full-time to start to think as an entrepreneur, how the financial system works, how you should, uh, for example, pay the expenses and learning how money works in general.
01:00:45
This is just a really. they also another underestimated skill? No, sure. And I think that entrepreneurship is something that's in your veins. It's something that wants to come out, but it can also come out as an entrepreneur, somebody who has entrepreneurial skins into, sorry, an intrapreneur. So within a company. So for many, many years, I saw myself as an entrepreneur, but within a large organization. So, I was able to generate, create, bring to life a lot of ideas within the traditional sort of salary connection. So that also is fine. And then again, nothing is bad or wrong. For me, it's about general happiness, to be honest. It's what suits you as a person best. And I think that should be the ultimate goal of all of us is to be happy.
01:01:44
And the definition of happiness? That's also different for everyone. Yes, I totally agree. So, Koen, my last question, do you have some more insights that you would like to share with our audience? Do you have something that you would like to share that we didn't pay enough attention to during our conversation? Something that I didn't ask correctly? Anything? Oh, no, I've got the feeling that we could go on and on for many, many hours, because there's only one thing that I can say. And that's that we're very passionate about what we do. So I guess the advice is to the audience is to check in to your next and your previous podcast to check in mine. And stay connected, connect with us, collaborate, find your ways.
01:02:34
And at least from my end, I'm very open to have any sort of conversation. And always one leads to the next. So that's how the world works. Amazing. This is really nice. Finally. Final note, and you will have all of the links below in this podcast. So this is bringing us to the end of this episode of Your Brand, Your Business. Thank you, Koen, for sharing your insights with us and also to you, to our listeners. Thank you for tuning in. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a review. I'm Marie, and I will catch you next time. Bye. Thank you. Bye bye.
