Meet the Founders: Luis Lancos, Data Whisper

We first met GenAI governance and compliance startup Data Whisper through the Funding Readiness programme we deliver in partnership with Barclays Eagle Labs. Following the company's recent announcement of a successful SEIS funding round, we spoke to CEO and co-founder Luis Lancos about what really works when it comes to raising.

This is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation.

Capital Enterprise: What’s the elevator pitch for Data Whisper?

Luis Lancos: We focus on enabling safe and responsible AI within organisations with a strong focus on? regulatory compliance. Legal risks, compliance risks and exposure risks are the second biggest factor holding back adoption of generative AI across high compliance industries. So we developed an agentic platform that monitors in realtime the usage of generative AI across the organisation, manages the risk and is able to moderate and enforce business rules and regulatory compliance.

Capital Enterprise: When you’re talking about highly regulated industries, I’m guessing that means finance, legal services, maybe pharma. What are the big sectors you’re looking at right now?

Luis Lancos: Right now we’re focused on financial services and that’s to do with our origins. I’ve been working in financial services for the last 14 years, as have the other co-founders, so that industry is a natural focus.?

Capital Enterprise: Let’s talk about where your drive to start a business came from. Is this your first business or have you done it before?

Luis Lancos: I was always an entrepreneur in spirit, even during my corporate career. Even wearing a corporate hat, I wanted to build my own thing. Some people are entrepreneurs, full stop, and there’s nothing you can do. It’s like the story of the scorpion and the frog – do you know that one?

Capital Enterprise: Yeah, the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across the river and promises not to sting him. They’re crossing the river, and he stings the frog. And the frog asks why he did it and he says, “It’s in my nature.”?

Luis Lancos: Exactly, it’s my nature.?

I have this memory of when I was in primary school, watching something on a black and white screen. And I saw this robot playing the piano, a Japanese robot. And I said, that’s it, I want to build things like this.?

When I first came to the UK I was working for a web consulting company and we partnered with PayPal to build one of the first mobile payment applications. It was way too early, nobody was using mobile phones to pay for things back then, but that kind of work has defined my career ahead.?

Most recently, I was SVP Europe for technology for a leading payments provider. I was constantly trying to bring AI into the corporate world to make an impact and enhance our products. That was really the springboard.?

Capital Enterprise: It’s great to talk to someone who had a really successful corporate career and then reinvented themselves this way. So many people think entrepreneurship is only for young people, and it’s not.?

Luis Lancos: For me, the shift happened in 2023. I had to decide whether I wanted to stay in the station, watching the trains go past, or drive the train. And I decided I have to drive the train. I couldn’t be in the station anymore.?

Not everyone in the corporate world has the right mindset for this. You need to have a mindset that is willing to accept risk and lean into it, right?

Capital Enterprise: You started Data Whisper in 2023, and we’ve just entered the second half of 2024 and you’ve completed a fundraise through SFC Capital as well as with the participation of a couple of business angels. That seems to have happened very quickly! How was the fundraising process for you?

Luis Lancos: Even when the fundraise is complete, you don’t have the feeling of success. You have the feeling you are at the bottom of a big mountain to climb.

It’s very intense and you have to be willing to accept and expose yourself to criticism. One of the things I used to do, I’d ask people to criticise me and it was hard to hear sometimes, but by exposing yourself to that in a controlled way you build up your tolerance so you can take criticism constructively.?

Capital Enterprise: That's such good advice. What was the thing that finally worked, in terms of meeting investors?

Luis Lancos: The warm introductions are the ones that work, and the demo day created by the Barclays Funding Readiness programme was a key part of that. It’s a great way of creating real connections with investors.?

One of the things I learned was, if you cold call someone, don’t expect any results in the first or second call. It takes the full cycle, like five or seven discussions, to transform that contact into a relationship. It’s a long process to get to know the people on the other side.?

Capital Enterprise: What I’m hearing is, when you do cold outreach, you have to understand that you’re not presenting them with something they can say yes or no to immediately. You’re building a relationship, and you need to develop that before they can even think about saying yes.?

You've already given great advice but I always ask this at the end. What’s the single most important thing you would say to someone looking to start a company?

Luis Lancos: You need resilience, because it’s a bumpy ride. And the second thing is listen, listen to the markets. Really, truly listen to understand what’s behind the feedback you are getting and the criticism. There are many people who are willing to help you but listening to them and understanding their feedback is a skill that you will have to develop.?

Thanks to Luis for taking time to speak with us!