Searching for Mana with Lloyd Wahed

This week’s guest on the Searching for Mana show is Head of Plaid Europe, Ripsy Bandourian. A journey from Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, Apple and Booking.com has led Ripsy to her most recent role at Plaid, helping to strengthen a Trans-Atlantic bridge for the open-banking leader.

How does open-banking enable the goal of accessible fiscal liberty for everyone, and what are Plaid doing to achieve that?

One of the tropes this podcast has covered across episodes is culture, and with Ripsy we explore how culture changes within a business as it scales, and what specific changes are necessary.

Lloyd also speaks with Ripsy on her background, with pivotal elements such as learning English through school and the freedom of choice in studies at university helping to shape a fantastic career.

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[ 0:00 - 4:12 ] Trans-Atlantic Bridge, connecting US and Europe

[ 4:13 - 6:12 ] Humans make business happen

[ 6:13 - 14:33 ] Culture and change

[ 14:34 - 18:55 ] Plaid elevator pitch

[ 18:56 - 23:56 ] Value and potential in open banking

[ 23:57 - 26:12 ] Competition and collaboration

[ 26:13 - 32:38 ] Origin story

[ 32:39 - 38:06 ] Belief in optionality

[ 38:07 - 43:25 ] Goldman and McKinsey

[ 43:26 - 49:09 ] Apple in its early stages

[ 49:10 - 54:58 ] Family and perseverance

[ 54:59 - 1:04:17 ] Quick-fire round

[ 1:04:18 - 1:06:06 ] Hollywood outcome for Plaid

On a pathway to hiring Apple CEO Tim Cook? Pascal Gauthier is the CEO and co-founder of Ledger, a global leader in security and infrastructure solutions for cryptocurrencies and blockchain applications.

Now one of the most respected, outspoken and well-known leaders in web3, Lloyd walks us through Pascal’s founding journey and how he has scaled Ledger from zero to over 1000 employees. 

Pascal discusses the importance of Ledger’s hardware and software security, which offers complete protection for web3 digital assets. From psychology, to hiring, to thought leadership and entrepreneurship, Pascal offers insight for all those founding, looking to get into or curious about the blockchain space.

[ 0:00 - 9:45 ] Ledger’s product 

[ 9:46 - 17:47 ] UX and 100% web3 security  

[ 17:48 - 28:18 ] Size & Scale of Ledger, Apple inspiration & Ian Rogers 

[ 28:19 - 35:09 ] Pascal’s masterclass in hiring

[ 35:10 - 48:54 ] The origin story and Pascal’s career journey 

[ 48:55 - 57:00 ] The Mana Round 

[ 57:01 - 1:05:09 ] Future projections for Ledger and Web3

Joining Lloyd this week is Floww CEO & FinTech expert Martijn de Wever. Partnered with The London Stock Exchange, Floww provides data to increase transparency & liquidity across private markets.

Former Venture Capitalist and trader Martijn sheds brilliant light into the state of UK FinTech, the pros and cons of private vs public companies, and how his contrarian style has fuelled his success.

Highly insightful, honest and always with a touch of humour, Martijn is a brilliantly entertaining guest, and example of how outlier experiences so often make brilliant entrepreneurs.

[ 0:00 - 8:32 ] An intro to Floww’s product

[ 8:33 - 20:35 ] The Macro Market & Working with the LSE

[ 20:36 - 30:52 ] The Big Vision for Floww

[ 30:53 - 40:02 ] Martijn’s background & contrariasm

[ 40:03 - 51:16 ] Trading, 2008 and entrepreneurship

[ 51:17 - 57:26 ] Martijn’s venture thesis

[ 57:27 - 1:07:33 ] The Mana round

[ 1:07:34 - 1:21:22 ] Crypto and Floww’s Hollywood outcome

This week’s podcast episode guest is Bolt Financial CEO Maju Kuruvilla. A former executive at Amazon, where he helped launch Amazon Fresh, Maju has taken over at Bolt to help build the future of e-commerce.  

Searching for Mana is about finding future category leading tech firms in real-time. Almost every business goes through ups and downs, and the path to the top is never completely smooth.

Bolt has scaled to great heights already, but also faced challenges, competing against the likes of Amazon, Shopify and Alibaba to create the future of e-commerce.

Lloyd dives into Maju’s background, from helping the family business during his childhood in India, how this gave him perspective and shaped his leadership style, to becoming CEO at a leading FinTech player.

Inspired by the Ride of a Lifetime, by Bob Iger, evening walks, and with a love of building, Lloyd dives into Maju’s psychology.

Please subscribe for more content and check out our website for other episodes.

[ 0:00 - 4:37 ] Size and Scale of Bolt 

[ 4:38 - 10:09 ] Commerce 3.0: Taking on Amazon, Shopify

[ 10:10 - 13:46 ] Decentralised commerce & crypto 

[ 13:47 - 21:43 ] Bolt: seamlessly managing the checkout experience 

[ 21:44 - 25:57 ] Quick-fire round 

[ 25:58 - 32:58 ] Walking, walking and more walking & Maju’s Mana

[ 32:59 - 39:10 ] Maju’s background and family shop 

[ 39:11 - 47:45 ] Competitiveness, Maju’s winning mentality and causing fundamental change

[ 47:46 - 54:58 ] Helping merchants and providing solutions for the modern consumer 

[ 54:59 - 59:18 ] The Hollywood outcome for Bolt