Finscale in English

In this episode, I welcome Ambassador Stacey Feinberg, U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg, for a discussion on what draws American companies and capital to Luxembourg, from funds and space to the way founders pitch on both sides of the Atlantic.

We talked about:

• Why Luxembourg: a financial hub with $9 trillion in funds, a third of them from the United States, that she says runs like a startup, and the conversation in which, she recalls, President Donald Trump told her he had 18 highly qualified men who wanted the position.
• How she negotiates: never one and done, building relationships and trust so that people want to work with her again, and her conviction that diplomacy is all about trust.
• The move of American companies to Luxembourg: listed companies opening an EU office to passport throughout Europe, SES making an expensive and slow industry fast and far cheaper with startups like Apex, Blue Origin's European headquarters and HawkEye 360's European hub.
• Where security starts to limit openness: doing business with China, keeping the dialogue open, being prepared for a country that is not a democracy and not transparent, and sharing information with friends in other countries, for example on a company registered as a European company that is not.
• The nonstop flight between Luxembourg and New York, every day of the week on United, which she names as what she is proudest of after one year, and the business plan she presented to get it: board meetings do not arrange their schedules around Tuesdays and Thursdays.
• The funding gap for women founders and 33 Capital, which she started with her own money: the odds she accepts, with eight out of ten startups that don't make it and one 20x that pays for all the others, and Cooler Heads, a first check for a portable device that freezes the head during chemotherapy, now in 165 chemotherapy centers in the United States.
• Why European founders are not ready for the United States: public speaking taught at seven years old, risk-taking and failing fast against a failure that is, in her words, like a death sentence in Europe, and her advice to let someone else give the pitch if English is a struggle.
• A direct conversation with a businesswoman turned diplomat on what makes Luxembourg attractive to American companies and on what separates American and European founders.

Stacey's recommendation:

All-In podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@allin

Useful links

Stacey Feinberg: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacey-feinberg-497643141/

Website: https://lu.usembassy.gov/

Finscale is also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@finscale.

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Finscale is much more than a podcast.

It’s an ecosystem that connects key players in the financial sector through networking, coaching, and strategic partnerships.

Enjoy listening!

Produced by Gokyo Sàrl-S, hosted by Audiomeans©. Visit the Privacy Policy of Finscale and Audiomeans for more information.

This is an excerpt of Solenne's conversation with U.S. Ambassador Stacey Feinberg.

Finscale is also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@finscale.

********************

Finscale is much more than a podcast.

It’s an ecosystem that connects key players in the financial sector through networking, coaching, and strategic partnerships.

Enjoy listening!

Produced by Gokyo Sàrl-S, hosted by Audiomeans©. Visit the Privacy Policy of Finscale and Audiomeans for more information.

In this episode, I welcome JB Graftieaux, CEO of Coinbase Europe | MiCA & EMI Entity, for a discussion on crypto regulation in Europe, from the MiCA licence to the products Coinbase can offer under the licences it holds.

We talked about:

• The end of the national patchwork: before MiCA, a crypto player needed a local registration in each country, in Spain, Italy or France, and a portfolio of six, eight or twelve registrations was very expensive and very complex to maintain. With one licence, it can now operate in every EU member state and passport its activity everywhere in the EU, like a bank or a payment service provider.
• The white-label solution for banks and payment providers: they integrate Coinbase's custody, liquidity and portfolio of assets into their own app, they take care of the distribution, and Coinbase takes care of the tech aspect.
• Why Luxembourg: a country that has supported crypto for more than 12 years and, according to him, gave the first licence to a crypto player in Europe in 2016, where Coinbase set up its EU headquarter, received its MiCA licence last year and an Electronic Money Institution licence earlier this year. - The estimate, which he says he cannot give exactly, that between 1,000 and 3,000 crypto companies will not secure the MiCA licence while more than 200 are still applying, and the consolidation he expects as consumers look for regulated actors.
• The share of trading that already goes through self-hosted wallets and decentralized protocols: 20 to 25% today, against a couple of percent four or five years ago, alongside the regulated and centralized account Coinbase offers.
• The Everything Exchange, one access to crypto, equity, derivatives and prediction markets, and a rollout set by licences: the product is ready in the US, while elsewhere Coinbase offers what its licences allow, equity in the UK and derivatives from Cyprus, where it holds a MiFID licence, with spot margin announced for the next couple of months.
• The five-year outlook: a MiCA 2 expected in three or five years, he does not know which, stablecoin settlement still dominated by the dollar, probably more than 90%, and DeFi, which he can imagine reaching 50 to 60% of the market in five to ten years.

An open exchange on what regulation changes for a crypto platform in Europe, from the MiCA licence to the products it can offer, and on what could come next.

JB's recommendation:

"The Promise of Bitcoin", by Bobby Lee

Useful links

JB Graftieaux: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jb0001/

Coinbase: http://www.coinbase.com

Finscale is also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@finscale.

********************

Finscale is much more than a podcast.

It’s an ecosystem that connects key players in the financial sector through networking, coaching, and strategic partnerships.

Enjoy listening!

Produced by Gokyo Sàrl-S, hosted by Audiomeans©. Visit the Privacy Policy of Finscale and Audiomeans for more information.

This is an excerpt of Solenne's conversation with JB Graftieaux, CEO de Coinbase Europe | MiCA & EMI Entity

Finscale is also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@finscale.

********************

Finscale is much more than a podcast.

It’s an ecosystem that connects key players in the financial sector through networking, coaching, and strategic partnerships.

Enjoy listening!

Produced by Gokyo Sàrl-S, hosted by Audiomeans©. Visit the Privacy Policy of Finscale and Audiomeans for more information.

In this episode, I welcome Raphaëlle d'Ornano, founder of Decoding Discontinuity, both an advisory firm and an investment fund, for a conversation about agentic AI, architectural resilience, and what it really means to invest in a world where business models are being fundamentally rewritten.

We talked about:

• Orchestration as the real competitive moat of AI labs: why only 11% of enterprise builders switched AI providers last year despite the switch being technically trivial, and what that paradox reveals about where lock-in actually lives
• The concept of architectural resilience: why analysing classical competitive advantages no longer makes sense if a company's terminal value is drifting toward zero because of AI
• Warren Buffett's castle metaphor revisited: attacks now come from the sky and from the foundations, not through the front door
• The choice of a hedge fund over a venture capital structure: how her framework, companies going to the moon vs. going to zero by 2030, maps better onto public assets across global markets
• The SaaSpocalypse: why historical SaaS categories (horizontal, vertical, infrastructure) are dissolving in a world of agent fleets, and why many companies' defensive positions are, in her view, short-lived
• The gap between US and European allocators: not a difference in intelligence, but in physical proximity to the AI labs, creating a lag of several months in real-world understanding
• The human side of the transition: how companies that face the truth honestly are beginning to redesign their workflows with intelligence at the core, rather than resisting the inevitable

A sharp, unfiltered conversation that gives concrete tools for thinking about company value in the age of agentic AI.

Raphaëlle's recommendation: 

• “Letters” by Albert Camus & Maria Casarès https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/313959/letters-by-casares-albert-camus-and-maria/9780241400425

Useful links:

Raphaëlle d'Ornano: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphaelle-d-ornano/

Decoding Discontinuity : https://www.decodingdiscontinuity.com/

Finscale is also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@finscale.

********************

Finscale is much more than a podcast.

It’s an ecosystem that connects key players in the financial sector through networking, coaching, and strategic partnerships.

Enjoy listening!

Produced by Gokyo Sàrl-S, hosted by Audiomeans©. Visit the Privacy Policy of Finscale and Audiomeans for more information.

This is an excerpt of Solenne's conversation with Raphaëlle d'Ornano, Founder of Decoding Discontinuity.

Finscale is also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@finscale.

********************

Finscale is much more than a podcast.

It’s an ecosystem that connects key players in the financial sector through networking, coaching, and strategic partnerships.

Enjoy listening!

Produced by Gokyo Sàrl-S, hosted by Audiomeans©. Visit the Privacy Policy of Finscale and Audiomeans for more information.

In this episode, I welcome Anne Lucas, Founding Partner of Alt-a, for a conversation about executive search, board building, and leadership transitions in tech companies.

We discussed :

• Why finding alignment between founders and investors before a search even starts is the most critical — and most underestimated — part of a headhunter's job, illustrated by a CTO search where both parties said "we want an AI expert" but meant completely different things
• Three recurring hiring mistakes in tech: giving a C-level title prematurely, recruiting from large corporates without assessing context fit, and launching a search too late — given that a full process takes around six months from start to day one
• Why independent board members in Europe are still treated as a "would-be-nice" rather than a strategic lever, and why that is a governance mistake for companies planning an exit
• The four pillars of an effective board according to Anne: the right complementary skill set around the table, a culture of constructive conflict, strong relationships between founders and board members, and adherence to basic best practices like reading the board pack
• Why looking only for candidates who have "already done it" is a mistake — and how the real question should be "can they do it?", which often leads to more creative and better-fit profiles
• The leadership profile shift across growth stages: a zero-to-one builder thrives on chaos and ambiguity, while scaling from ten to a hundred requires structure and process — and the two profiles are rarely the same person
• How AI is reshaping the headhunting profession not by replacing human judgment, but by accelerating the labor-intensive parts of the job — leaving more time for the advisory and relationship work that actually drives results

Anne's perspective challenges the idea that governance and talent strategy are operational afterthoughts. This conversation is a reminder that the decisions made around people and boards shape a company's trajectory for years.

Anne’s recommendation : 

• “The Athena Doctrine” by John Gerzema and Michael D'Antonio

Useful links:

Anne Lucas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-lucas-alta/

Alt-a: https://www.alt-a.co/

********************

Finscale is much more than a podcast.

It’s an ecosystem that connects key players in the financial sector through networking, coaching, and strategic partnerships.

📢 With Finscale Private Talks, I bring together investors, entrepreneurs, and institutions for high-value private exchanges.

🎯 Through my coaching and advisory support, leaders and finance professionals can better structure their vision and accelerate their impact.

🤝 As for partnerships, they create unique opportunities to position yourself at the very heart of the industry’s transformation.

🔗 Discover all the initiatives on the Finscale website : https://finscale.business

Enjoy listening!

Produced by Gokyo Sàrl-S, hosted by Audiomeans©. Visit the Privacy Policy of Finscale and Audiomeans for more information.

This is an excerpt of Solenne's conversation with Anne Lucast, Founding partner at Alta

Finscale is also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@finscale.

********************

Finscale is much more than a podcast.

It’s an ecosystem that connects key players in the financial sector through networking, coaching, and strategic partnerships.

📢 With Finscale Private Talks, I bring together investors, entrepreneurs, and institutions for high-value private exchanges.

🎯 Through my coaching and advisory support, leaders and finance professionals can better structure their vision and accelerate their impact.

🤝 As for partnerships, they create unique opportunities to position yourself at the very heart of the industry’s transformation.

🔗 Discover all the initiatives on the Finscale website : https://finscale.business

Enjoy listening!

Produced by Gokyo Sàrl-S, hosted by Audiomeans©. Visit the Privacy Policy of Finscale and Audiomeans for more information.

In this episode, I welcome Thomas Restout, Groupe CEO of B2C2, for a rigorous and highly technical conversation on crypto « market making »  and the structural differences between traditional finance and blockchain-based markets. Unlike many discussions focused on price or retail narratives, this episode goes deep into balance sheet mechanics, risk management, derivatives infrastructure, and capital efficiency.

We discussed:

• How B2C2 works as a « digital asset securities bank » -  providing continuous pricing, OTC execution, and derivatives solutions to institutions, exchanges, and token issuers.
• What market making really means in practice: aggregating fragmented liquidity, holding risk temporarily, and matching client flows /  just like in FX, but 24/7.
• The full risk stack behind every trade: credit risk, settlement risk, liquidation risk, regulatory risk  and why it's more complex than most people think.
• How B2C2 evolved from cross-exchange arbitrage in 2015 into a regulated OTC model built to compete with the world's top HFT firms.
• Why institutional adoption is « overstated » ETF exposure grew fast, but real on-chain adoption (wallets, stablecoins, infrastructure) is moving much slower than expected.
• Why blockchain settlement is a game changer: near-instant settlement reduces credit risk, speeds up balance sheet rotation, and can dramatically cut margin requirements in derivatives.
• How B2C2's trading engine works in practice: streaming prices via API, internalizing flows, and hedging across 50+ venues including ETFs, spot exchanges, perpetual futures, and DeFi.

A dense and highly educational exchange that connects traditional finance expertise with crypto-native infrastructure, and clarifies what truly changes, and what does not,  when markets move on-chain.

Useful links:

Thomas Restout: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-restout-b2c2/

B2C2: http://www.b2c2.com

********************

Finscale is much more than a podcast.

It’s an ecosystem that connects key players in the financial sector through networking, coaching, and strategic partnerships.

📢 With Finscale Private Talks, I bring together investors, entrepreneurs, and institutions for high-value private exchanges.

🎯 Through my coaching and advisory support, leaders and finance professionals can better structure their vision and accelerate their impact.

🤝 As for partnerships, they create unique opportunities to position yourself at the very heart of the industry’s transformation.

🔗 Discover all the initiatives on the Finscale website : https://finscale.business

Enjoy listening!

Produced by Gokyo Sàrl-S, hosted by Audiomeans©. Visit the Privacy Policy of Finscale and Audiomeans for more information.

This is an excerpt of Solenne's conversation with Thomas Restout, Group CEO of B2C2

Finscale is also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@finscale.

********************

Finscale is much more than a podcast.

It’s an ecosystem that connects key players in the financial sector through networking, coaching, and strategic partnerships.

📢 With Finscale Private Talks, I bring together investors, entrepreneurs, and institutions for high-value private exchanges.

🎯 Through my coaching and advisory support, leaders and finance professionals can better structure their vision and accelerate their impact.

🤝 As for partnerships, they create unique opportunities to position yourself at the very heart of the industry’s transformation.

🔗 Discover all the initiatives on the Finscale website : https://finscale.business

Enjoy listening!

Produced by Gokyo Sàrl-S, hosted by Audiomeans©. Visit the Privacy Policy of Finscale and Audiomeans for more information.