5 Tips from Top Fintech CEOs to First-Time Founders

Starting your own business in tech is a thrilling experience. Sometimes, too much. To help you navigate through these overwhelming beginnings as a founder, we've gathered tips from founders and CEOs of successful Fintech companies. Enjoy!

First of all, stay calm.

Easier said than done. M1 founder and CEO Brian Barnes agrees, sharing the turbulence of his early years as a founder with The Entrepreneur’s readers.

Barnes says that the distance between the “on the top of the world” feeling and the panic pulling you into the depths is really just one random thought. Worse, this emotional rollercoaster is quite common, sapping founders’ focus and energy crucial for the startup’s growth.?

One of the first things starting founders should learn is to control their emotions and concentrate on being productive. "

Communicate with your team transparently and honestly

Talking about the lows, remember that you’re not alone in that.?

Mercury ’s co-founder and CEO, Immad Akhund , is convinced that a CEO should not keep their challenges to themselves and hide them from the team. Being a leader doesn’t mean bearing everything on your own. Find a way to share your struggles with the team and be transparent about the state of things, the expectations, and the company goals. When you share your fears and struggles with the team, sometimes you can realize that the situation is not as bad as it looks, and the solution can follow immediately after.?

Share, and discuss with others what to do about the problem. That’s what the team is for.

Put quality first, because it’s Fintech.

Joshua Silver , Founder and CEO of Rainforest , led his company to a ~$32 million VC funding round in less than a year. Maintaining top-tier quality is one of the things that account for this achievement.

As fintech does not forgive mistakes, the startup must double- or even triple-check every smallest detail and set the security and compliance to maximum on a gauge. Personal and financial data and wellness are at stake here, so customers are super cautious and won’t forgive you a fail (and they shouldn’t). So, you’ll need to put extra effort into building your MVP or find a tech partner whose expertise you can trust.?

Meet more people. Or don’t.

Recalling his regrets as a two-time founder, Nilay Modi (co-founder of fintech Central (YC S24) and Clayboard (YC W20) ) encourages first-time founders to explore every chance of meeting new people. You shouldn’t necessarily try to build a lasting relationship with everyone in your accelerator cohort - your product needs your focus, too. However, the more people you meet, the more chances you have of meeting the right people to expand your team or learn an insight that will shape your perspective for making the winning decisions.

Still, maintaining balance is crucial: if you feel like networking starts to drain you, take a break. Too much is never too good and can potentially drive down the efficiency of your socializing efforts.

“Hire your lieutenants first.”

The last tip is not from a CEO but a professional working with founding CEOs for over a decade.?

Rob Hayes has been a partner at First Round Capital for 18 years. He led the VC’s participation in Uber’s 500-thousand USD seed round, and founders who turn to him for advice get the one that works.?

As for hiring, Hayes has two core points.

1. Hiring is both challenging and transformative and should take at least 50% of the founder’s time, says Hayes. It can be a profoundly frustrating experience with two points of extreme: a) you hire a random person after months of searching just to get someone on the team finally; b) you put hiring on pause because the product seems to be a bigger priority at the moment. Both are poor decisions. Growth is about people, so hiring is vital. If your company lacks a professional in a position critical for its development, deprioritizing that hire will make things worse for your business.

2. Find one hire to hire them all. You should focus on the things you’re the most efficient in and delegate the rest; otherwise, you’re putting your company’s future in danger. Think of one position you could hire for that would strategically take off your plate as many of the focus stealers as possible. Ideally, aim for a senior hire: a professional capable of assembling their own team is several more hires you don’t have to worry about yourself.

Hiring is a never-ending story. Depending on how you feel about it, you should either minimize your involvement in this process over time or find someone you can trust with this responsibility. If you want seasoned experts on your development team, led by experienced managers who invest every effort in your product, we know one more CEO you might want to talk to. Vasyl Soloshchuk ???????? leads INSART , Fintech Engineering Startup Studio & Innovation Lab, and has decades of experience in Fintech. Schedule a quick founder-to-founder call with Vasyl to discuss your startup’s funding and product opportunities .