Curve: Building an $800m FinTech Business After Mastercard Laughed Him Out of the Room with CEO & Founder, Shachar Bialick
Growing up in Israel instilled a grit and perseverance mentality in Curve CEO and founder, Shachar Bialick. A multi-exit, serial entrepreneur with a background in the Israeli Defence Force special forces, Shachar is no stranger to hard work.
“There's a joke in Israel: how do you win a competition in racing? You start as fast as you can, and you slowly increase the pace.”
While the idea for FinTech company Curve, a bank card and an app that allows users to keep all of their finances in one place, with easy access and oversight to all of their money, first came to Shachar in 2006, he knew that launching a business is all about timing.
And so he waited until 2014 to pick it back up, when he knew the world was ready for his unique idea. After creating a proof of concept in 2015, and raising the first series seed funding of £1.2m in 2015, Shachar finally launched Curve in 2016.
“When we [first] went to MasterCard and told them about what we’re trying to do and the vision we have, we were laughed out of the room, literally they said, ‘Have you opened the MasterCard rules?’”
So what makes an SF soldier do 3 MBAs before revolutionising the way we access our money? And why is he using Amazon, Netflix and Spotify to validate his mission with Curve?
“If we are successful in our mission with Curve, you will still have Revolute, Monzo and all those great FinTech and financial institutions out there. It's just that with Curve, we're going to be this access point. The gateway to your money is going to be one place from which you access everything.”
Sponsor links:
smithandwilliamson.com/secretleaders
netsuite.com/secretleaders
linkedin.com/secretleaders
vanta.com/secretleaders
“There's a joke in Israel: how do you win a competition in racing? You start as fast as you can, and you slowly increase the pace.”
While the idea for FinTech company Curve, a bank card and an app that allows users to keep all of their finances in one place, with easy access and oversight to all of their money, first came to Shachar in 2006, he knew that launching a business is all about timing.
And so he waited until 2014 to pick it back up, when he knew the world was ready for his unique idea. After creating a proof of concept in 2015, and raising the first series seed funding of £1.2m in 2015, Shachar finally launched Curve in 2016.
“When we [first] went to MasterCard and told them about what we’re trying to do and the vision we have, we were laughed out of the room, literally they said, ‘Have you opened the MasterCard rules?’”
So what makes an SF soldier do 3 MBAs before revolutionising the way we access our money? And why is he using Amazon, Netflix and Spotify to validate his mission with Curve?
“If we are successful in our mission with Curve, you will still have Revolute, Monzo and all those great FinTech and financial institutions out there. It's just that with Curve, we're going to be this access point. The gateway to your money is going to be one place from which you access everything.”
Sponsor links:
smithandwilliamson.com/secretleaders
netsuite.com/secretleaders
linkedin.com/secretleaders
vanta.com/secretleaders
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