In our latest episode of the Wharton Fintech podcast, Miguel Armaza (WG’21/G’21) is joined by Pedro Conrade and Marcelo Haddad Silva from Neon Bank, one of the fastest growing Neobanks in Brazil and around the world. Join us as they share some great anecdotes and advice on a variety of topics.

Pedro Conrade

Pedro Conrade is the CEO and founder of Neon, one of Brazil’s top challenger banks. After a frustrating episode with his bank, he decided to drop out of university and launch Neon in 2016 with the goal of liberating its customers from the bureaucracy of traditional banks. Today, the company has grown to over 3 million clients and hundreds of employees across Brazil, offering a wide range of banking products.

Marcelo Haddad Silva

Marcelo is a Group Product Manager at Neon. In this role, he oversees the digital account for individual consumers, including payment methods, investments, and core banking transactions. Prior to joining Neon, Marcelo worked almost 10 years in strategic planning in firms such as BRK Ambiental, Whirlpool Latin America, and Booz & Company. Marcelo holds an MBA/MA from the Wharton School and the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the Instituto Tecnologico de Aeronautica, and a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia.

In this extensive interview, Pedro and Marcelo share:

- Pedro's serial entrepreneurship, how he went from launching a bikini shop at only sixteen years old to dropping out of college to found Neon Bank

- How high fees and poor customer service from his old relationship bank, motivated Pedro to start Neon in 2016 without any prior professional banking experience

- The multifaceted challenges of building a financial institution from scratch and the steps Neon took to develop their initial products

- How Neon's focus on understanding customer needs helps them analyze and decide their expansion efforts

- The duo's management approach to ongoing monthly double-digit growth and why finding the right talent and technology are Neon's biggest challenges

- Neon's relationship with the Brazilian banking regulator

- A look forward to Pedro's vision of the Brazilian banking industry in the next decade

- The factors that drove their September 2019 acquisition of MEI Facil, a fintech startup servicing Brazilian micro-entrepreneurs

- The duo's advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, including the importance of finding the right investors and why attractive unit economics matter greatly

Interview recorded February, 2020.