On this episode, Sabine VdL interviews Spiros Margaris who discusses the pros and cons of working for a young venture, setting up a startup, as well as the best way to succeed in business. He shares insights on the future of FinTech and much more.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• You build trust with founders by telling them what you think, honestly, but not always expecting them to do what you say. Trust is the basis of working together and with trust anyone can go far, even in difficult times.
• You have to play to your strengths. If somebody asks you questions – and startups will – and you don’t know the answer, you need to say you don’t know. But then call someone in your network that has expertise and will know the answer.
• A startup engagement is like any "relationship": you will have great times, you will have mediocre times, you will have bad times. It won’t always be this exciting thing people think of. Even if the job you do is extremely boring and repetitive, whichever job that is, that’s what will make you good at that job long term.
• The future of FinTech is embedded finance. Even non-financial companies will go into this space with trusted partners or develop their own FinTech solution, which will complement their existing offerings even better. They don’t need to make money through finance, unlike banks. The finance ‘cake’ is going to be split into more ways in the future, including financial offers and non-financial offers.

 

BEST MOMENTS

‘It’s a privilege to be recognised by your community, but at the end of the day, you’re only as good as your community. We grow together.’

‘Winning is about teamwork: Together we win, like a football team.’

‘Great young people want to work in great companies that give them responsibilities and let their voice be heard. They’re not so bothered about money yet. They want purpose.’

‘The nice thing about my job is that I talk to so many smart people. This means that I keep learning. Think about our world as a fantastic international digital school!’

 

ABOUT THE GUEST

Spiros Margaris is a venture capitalist, futurist, keynote speaker and senior advisor. He is the first international influencer to achieve ‘The Triple Crown’ FinTech ranking. He was ranked the international № 1 FinTech, Blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) influencer (05/2018) by Onalytica. Spiros once again was ranked the global № 1 Fintech influencer (02/2020) by Onalytica. He regularly appears in the top three positions of established global industry influencer rankings. 

He is a keynote speaker at international FinTech, and InsurTech conferences. He also gave a TEDxAcademy Talk. He published an AI white paper, “Machine learning in financial services: Changing the rules of the game,” for the enterprise software vendor SAP. First non-IBM Keynote Speaker at the biggest IBM event in Europe “2019 IBM Systems Technical University” among others.

 

Twitter: @SpirosMargaris  Linkedin: Spiros Margaris  
www.margarisventures.com
Linkedin link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/spirosmargaris/
Twitter Link: https://twitter.com/SpirosMargaris 
Website Link: https://www.margarisventures.com/ 
Keynote Speaking Agent: www.gspeakers.com

 

ABOUT THE HOST

Sabine is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew, a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers & accelerating over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. 

Twitter: SabineVdL

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Website: www.sabinevdl.com