Beyond Resilience with Leda Glyptis | Fintech Daydreaming S11E02

Beyond Resilience – A Fintech Daydreaming Conversation with Leda Glyptis

It’s not every day you get to sit down with a fintech industry powerhouse, but for the second episode of season 11, Ville Sointu and I had the pleasure of welcoming back the one and only Leda Glyptis PhD . If you’ve spent any time in banking or fintech, you know Leda. She’s a former banker, fintech executive, academic, speaker, and now a two-time author, bringing her latest book, Beyond Resilience, into the spotlight.

Our last conversation with Leda back in season 7 was centered around her first book, Bankers Like Us, a raw, honest, and sometimes painfully relatable take on what really happens inside banks when they attempt transformation (maybe they had missed to use my "Ecosystem Enabled Banking" method :) ). This time, the focus was different. If Bankers Like Us was about everything we’ve done wrong, Beyond Resilience is about what we’ve done right. Leda has spent years researching, interviewing industry leaders, and distilling key lessons from fintech startups, banks, and transformation programs. What makes some succeed when most fail? And how can resilience, something so often worn as a badge of honor, be balanced with the need to pivot, learn, and sometimes completely change direction?

No More Rockstar Founders?

One of the first topics we dove into was the classic fintech trope of the "rockstar founder", the charismatic, larger-than-life personality who leads a company to success through sheer force of will. Think of names associated with companies like Revolut and Klarna . But is this actually a recipe for success?

Leda doesn’t think so. In fact, her research shows that the true success stories often come from leaders who aren’t necessarily in the limelight, but who build strong teams, listen, and adapt. The fintech world has glamorized the lone genius, but in reality, the most successful companies have co-founders or strong teams balancing each other out. As we discussed, companies like Enfuce and OakNorth have shown that it’s not about having a singular hero at the helm, it’s about having the right team in place, at the right time, making the right decisions.

Success in Fintech: What Works and What Doesn’t?

So, if being a rockstar isn’t the secret sauce, what is? Leda identified a few key themes that kept surfacing in her interviews:

• Building the right foundation early: Some of the most successful fintech founders take their time at the start, even when they don’t have the luxury of time. The team at Pismo spent an entire year whiteboarding their strategy before building. Enfuce’s founders mapped out how they would resolve future challenges before they even had a product. As Leda put it, “Taking the time to get the important things right is counterintuitive when you're burning cash, but it makes all the difference.”
• The fundraising trap: Getting funding isn’t just about money—it’s about control, direction, and expectations. Many founders realize too late that they’ve taken the wrong money and are now being pulled in a direction they didn’t anticipate. “Fundraising is great,” Leda noted, “but it’s a trade-off. And it’s not just a trade-off of equity for money. It’s a trade-off of time, focus, and strategic freedom.”
• The myth of "move fast and break things": The Silicon Valley mantra doesn’t necessarily apply in fintech. Unlike social media startups, fintech companies are dealing with money, trust, and regulation. There’s a fine balance between agility and governance. You can’t just “fail fast” when customer deposits and financial data are on the line.

What Can Banks Learn?

Much of Beyond Resilience is focused on fintech startups, but Leda didn’t leave out the traditional banks. We all know that digital transformation inside a bank is a different beast. Regulations, legacy systems, and corporate inertia all get in the way. But Leda highlighted three critical lessons that banks need to embrace if they want to stay competitive:

1. Know how to learn. Many banks still operate with a “closet of shame” where failed projects are buried and never spoken of again. The organizations that succeed are the ones that build institutional learning into their DNA.
2. Be intentional about being early. There’s a difference between being early by accident and being early by design. Some banks have wasted years chasing trends that weren’t ready yet (remember when everyone was obsessed with blockchain for everything?), while others have strategically positioned themselves to wait out the market and strike at the right time.
3. Burn the ships. Capital One made a big bet on cloud computing years ago and committed fully, no hedging, no rollback plan. When they hit roadblocks, they didn’t retreat; they pushed forward. That level of conviction is rare in banking, but necessary for real transformation.

A Must-Read for Anyone in Fintech

For Vme, this episode was more than just a conversation about Leda’s new book with good friends, it was a deep dive into the realities of transformation, resilience, and why some ideas take off while others never quite make it.

One of my key takeaways? The fintech world is still maturing. We’re moving past the era of flashy rockstar founders and towards a more pragmatic, thoughtful approach to building sustainable businesses. Success isn’t just about vision, it’s about execution, adaptability, and knowing when to push forward and when to pivot.

If you’re working in fintech or banking, Beyond Resilience should be on your reading list. It’s a rare blend of insightful research, industry war stories, and practical advice from someone who’s been in the trenches.

And if you haven’t already, go listen to the full episode—it’s packed with sharp insights, candid moments, and, of course, a few terrible jokes (one of which was mine).

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Big News: Fintech Daydreaming Ranked Among the Top 20 Fintech Podcasts!

What started over five years ago as a fun side project between Ville and me has grown into something far bigger than we ever imagined—Fintech Daydreaming is now ranked #19 among the top fintech podcasts in the world! ??

We’ve been on this journey with no sponsors, no ads—just a lot of passion, curiosity, and probably an unhealthy amount of coffee and energy drinks. From day one, our goal has been to have real, insightful conversations about the ever-evolving world of fintech, and it’s incredible to see how far we’ve come.

A huge thank you to all our listeners and supporters who have been with us along the way. Whether you’ve been here since season one or just tuned in recently, we truly appreciate every download, comment, and conversation sparked from the podcast.

Here’s to many more fintech daydreams ahead! ??