From a fintech start-up to a bank
Recently we announced the exciting news - Loop was acquired by Tandem Bank. For any start-up this is a momentum milestone, a moment of big celebration….oh and it was a fun night with my amazing fellow ‘Loopers’
Conventional fairytales end on a wedding and a start-up exit event seems to be a version of that! We do not hear about the logistics of integrating a small agile business into a corporate machine nor do we get to know the feeling & emotions that come with it (much like we don’t know how newlyweds manage their relationships after the wedding).?
So, I thought I would take a moment to reflect on the past couple of months as we went from fundraising to being a part of a financial institution and what it meant at every step.
The internal kitchen of going through a funding round?
When a start-up goes into a funding round there is always this element of uncertainty. You can win very big or you can lose everything. So maintaining the team’s morale becomes a top priority and we are fortunate our founders were always very good at that.?
How did we make the funding period a success??
We kept on brainstorming, innovating, fixing & grinding. Some may say it is a waste of time since you don’t know what will happen while you are raising a round, but it is what keeps the team going, and ultimately reflects in a product, which shows to investors that in this company innovation never stops.
2. Clear product roadmap
Since we did not know how much budget you will get for product development & marketing, we went into a low power mode. But that did not mean that we stopped product development. In an early-stage start-up, there are always product fixes you can do and we prioritized those that can be done with the limited resources we had. That way we kept ourselves busy and always improving the product.?
3. Scenario planning?
In any business there is uncertainty, but in an early-stage start-up (in a recession!!) you should thrive on uncertainty. In marketing our job was to maintain certain levels of growth but also build ready-to-execute plans for almost any outcome of the funding round, so we would be ready to launch all guns blazing the moment we sign an agreement. It is hard to operate without concrete facts and a solid budget but I feel that it helped to massively broaden my horizons, as I had to creatively think about our audiences, available channels, trends & the economy. Honestly, it was a unique opportunity to come out of the everyday routine & think critically about everything we do to grow this business.?
Naturally, some of these scenario plans will change with whatever happens on the business acquisition but at least I had a clear understanding of the different options and it was easier to think of ways to integrate it with the wider bank’s strategy.?
4. Keeping it real.?
Just because funds were running dry, it did not mean we dropped our guard and sat twiddling our thumbs. I took this opportunity to really understand our customers and derive learnings from the last 18 months. So, this meant daily learning something new about Gen Z’s, keeping track of what's happening in the world of Tik Tok and then really taking apart the product and seeing how we can make it better.?
From a start-up to a bank
A buyout is an enormous commercial success for the start-up’s team, and often it is assumed that there are only clear blue skies after that. However, integrating a small super agile, and efficient team that is not used to any logistical roadblocks into a huge organization with established processes and restrictions is not an easy job!?
We are now almost 2 months into the integration process and it is HARD!?
The software you use requires regulatory approval, strategies need to be approved and signed on many different levels, and you need to align with many teams across the organization in order to move things forward - on technical, logistical, and psychological levels this is not easy.?
I have never worked in a corporate environment by choice, as I prefer being in close-knit efficient teams that deliver big results. However, I am excited to see what we can do when powered by a bigger engine.?
Sometimes when start-ups migrate into a corporate, they stay in their own cluster. This is not our case, as we now work on all things Tandem Bank , and Loop is just a part of our job spec. This is both exciting and challenging, as we are trying to grow a very early-stage product whilst also looking after the main brand and other products.?
Despite the acquisition, we are maintaining our independent social media presence and hence my articles will continue to come out here. I will keep you in the loop (pun intended) on our marketing strategy, success stories and failures, start-up life in a corporate environment, and much more. Stay tuned - this is only the beginning!