It’s not every day you close a $13m Series A funding round, but to do it in a global pandemic is really quite an achievement. That’s what today's 40 Minute Mentor Stefano Vaccino successfully did with his FinTech Yapily. A feat that is even more impressive, given the fact that he also contracted Covid-19 during the raise – he is truly made of tough stuff. Stefano has an impressive and diverse career, pivoting from academia to Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs, then into product leadership roles in start ups, before he took the plunge and set up Yapily in 2017. Yapily’s mission is to transform the Financial services sector by harnessing the power of open banking and it was an absolute pleasure to hear more about their incredible growth journey over the last 3 years. In today’s episode we talk about the future of Financial Services and dig deeper into various aspects of Stefano’s entrepreneurial journey, including: The lessons he learnt from raising a $13 million Series A round this year and his advice for anyone looking to fundraise Why building a diverse team and a positive company culture is so important and why you need to build a team that embraces learning and innovation Plus, his candid insights into the day-to-day life as a CEO of a fast growing, well-funded, start up. Stefano was a fantastic guest and it is not difficult to see how he has achieved so much in such a short amount of time with Yapily. He shares some wonderful advice that is applicable to anyone working in or looking to move into the start up world – from CEO’s looking to fundraise, to frustrated bankers looking to break into Fintech; Stefano provides fantastic mentorship throughout this episode. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please get in touch at james@jbmc.co.uk If you’d like to find out more about Stefano, check out his LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefanovaccino/ And if you want to get to know Yapily a little better take a look at their website – https://www.yapily.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices