Since its inception, Finshark had the ambitious goal to revolutionise the financial status quo by empowering any business to become a true innovator. That is a pretty powerful statement, right? But how can two visionaries with a dream bigger than their house bring such an ambition to life? Rhetorical questions usually don’t call for an answer, but here it is anyway. And free of charge: a great (very great!) deal of hard work supported by a team that works as hard and shares the exact same goals as the founders. At least on paper, that is the simple recipe to stand a chance of surviving in the merciless startup stage.
At Finshark, we’ve been through quite a lot already, but we have recently reached some very satisfying milestones, such as the receipt of a financial license authorising us to operate in Scandinavia (and in the rest of the EU) along with the launch of our first data product designed to greatly simplify customer verifications for businesses. And just so you know, there will be more coming soon, but this is not the time nor the post to hint at fantastic product launches which might very likely happen in the near future.
Anyway, none of the above (nor what is yet to come) would be possible without our awesome team. As a matter of fact, we do believe we have the best people in the world, and even if that might not be based on facts – but rather on biased beliefs and anecdotal evidence – we will be listing here five reasons (of no scientific value) why we think we got the greatest asset a fintech startup could wish for.
1) We’re as Pan-European as they come.
Since day one, Finshark had already some presence in at least three countries: Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Spain. As the team kept growing, we always thought of Finshark as a very European fintech with some Swedish flair, a Bosnian heart and a charming Spanish voice characterised by a soft Italian accent. Currently, the team at Finshark speaks 11 languages (or 16 if we analyse the facts with a less punctilious approach):
2) We’re a diverse, delightful bunch.
Did you know that 60% of our tech team is made of women? That is pretty interesting considering the global figures of such a predominantly male-dominated industry. To be completely candid, we have always hired to fill any position with the best possible candidate for the role, so the current team is a natural consequence of that transparent and straightforward approach. We are incredibly proud of what we built, and at Finshark, “code like a girl” is an ambition rather than anything else. Also, we can boast about having some cool nationalities and dual nationalities within our staff, including Swedish Bosnians and Bosnian-Swedes. Sounds like a tongue twister, right?
3) We’re deeply committed to the mission.
You will have a hard time finding a team more faithful to the cause than us. We have known it all along, but we wanted to bring some scientific evidence to the conversation. Therefore, we decided to thoroughly poll our team, and the results were outstanding! When asked, 95% of our staff would rather give up their Netflix account or the ability to use their GPS to assess their whereabouts rather than giving up on their fintech dreams. That must count for something, right?
Also, when confronted with an even more stringent question on what they would rather choose among four equally dark scenarios, the majority stated that they would bravely face sinister situations rather than cancelling a product launch they committed to. If this isn’t going the extra mile, we don’t know what is.
4) We think outside of the box.
When working in a startup, anything can change in no time. Challenges and unexpected events lurk around every corner, so it is vital to have members of the team capable of thinking independently and taking the lead when everybody else seems slow to react. Since we believe in showing, rather than telling, once again we can prove empirically how efficient we all would be in a situation of emergency.
If somebody pointed enough guns at us asking to choose, 65% of Finshark would prefer to give up pizza altogether rather than having to eat it at every meal for a whole year. That figure certainly shows strength, but the most interesting outcome to focus on here is that free-spirited 10%, who regardless of what others might think, pretended to show indecisiveness, accusing the question itself to be foolish. Clever move, 10%.
And lastly, another demonstration of collective wits and determination. An astounding 90%, if having to pick which sense to prioritise between hygiene and the sacred sense of humour, went for the third and less obvious option and chose “the ability to answer multiple-choice questions”, beating the system at its own game while putting an end to the insensate survey. Chapeau.
5) We’re building the future of finance.
Beside being Pan-European, diverse, committed, and pragmatic, we truly love what we do. We have very big ideas and some sense of fun which always helps along the way.
What we build, powered by data from thousands of banks and financial institutions across Europe, supports financial and non-financial businesses to improve their services and launch new products and applications. In fact, we are in the business of innovation, helping the creative minds out there to turn their companies into true engines of financial genius.
We started by launching our first data product and we will soon add payments, revolutionising how businesses charge, transfer and pay out funds. So, do keep an eye on us as the best is yet to come!
