Summary of "«Мы играем в нападение». Интервью с основателем Revolut Николаем Сторонским"

Summary of Business-Specific Content from the Interview with Revolut Founder Nikolay Storonsky

Company Strategy & Vision

Global Market Leadership Goal: Revolut aims to be #1 in each country it operates in, targeting presence in 60 countries out of approximately 200 globally.
User Base & Growth: Currently about 15 million daily active users, 25-30 million weekly active users, and approximately 35-40 million total users with accounts (including infrequent users).
Revenue & Profit Targets:
- Next year goal: $9 billion in revenue and $3 billion in net profit.
- Long-term targets: net profits of $5-6 billion to reach a valuation of $200 billion.
Valuation & Investment:
- Latest valuation at $75 billion (May agreement with investors), achieved without raising new capital (profitable company).
- Secondary share sales allowed employees and early investors liquidity without dilution.
IPO Plans: Targeted in 2-3 years, primarily to increase trust and provide investor exit, not primarily for capital raising.

Operations & Organizational Tactics

Headcount & Distribution:
- Core team of about 5,000 employees.
- Additional 5,000+ in customer support, sales, and financial crime teams, totaling over 10,000 employees globally.
Engineering Focus:
- Around 30-40% of staff are product engineers and data scientists.
- Development offices in London (largest), Spain (Barcelona, Madrid), Poland, and others.
Flat Organization & Culture:
- No formal office hierarchy; open communication encouraged.
- Radical honesty and direct feedback are core cultural values.
- High-performance culture emphasizing top talent, problem-solving skills, and ambition.
- Attrition rate for high performers is low (~1.5% monthly), while average attrition is about 6% per year, much lower than traditional banks (20-30%).
- Management expects 10-20% turnover in leadership to maintain performance and avoid stagnation.
Hiring Practices:
- Extensive interview process (~10-20k interviews conducted personally by the founder).
- Focus on top 5% performers with strong STEM backgrounds.
- Interviewers are monitored and retrained to maintain quality.
- Emphasis on problem-solving skills and ambitious goal-setting.
Leadership & Governance:
- Founder and CTO have been with the company since early days (2015).
- Around 30 partners with additional share compensation and KPIs.
- Founder holds ~29% equity plus an additional 10% contingent on KPI achievement.
- Board consists mainly of former operators and founders for faster decision-making and deeper understanding.

Product & Technology

Banking Licenses & Expansion:
- Holds full banking licenses in Europe (started with Lithuania, now under ECB regulation).
- Applying for banking licenses in UK, USA, Latin America (Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Colombia), Middle East, Africa (Morocco, South Africa), Asia (Philippines, Indonesia, India), and Australia.
- Strategy is to acquire full banking licenses first before launching products, contrary to lean startup advice to start small.
Product Portfolio:
- Diversified revenue streams: transactions, crypto (~7% of revenue), lifestyle products, SIM cards, wealth/trading.
- Crypto business significant but less profitable in Europe due to fragmented regulation; growing crypto exchange (FX X).
Technology & Automation:
- Heavy automation in customer support: chatbot and voice assistants handle ~75% of volume.
- Advanced AI and data science models for compliance, fraud detection, and risk management.
- Built proprietary neural networks and language models to parse ~400,000 pages of global regulations for compliance automation.
- Continuous product development with multiple small teams working in parallel; typical product release cycle 9-18 months.
- Products are evaluated by profitability within first 3 months; bottom 25% of products are discontinued.
Risk & Compliance:
- 300+ people in financial crime (Fincam) and risk management teams building data-driven models.
- Compliance systems outperform traditional banks in fraud detection accuracy.
- Multi-layered client onboarding and offboarding with human oversight to minimize false positives.
- Strong collaboration with regulators, educating them on AI models and compliance automation.
Customer Support & Operations:
- Customer support is largely automated, reducing costs compared to legacy banks.
- Compliance and operational costs are major expense drivers for traditional banks.
- Revolut builds most software in-house, avoiding legacy system integration issues common in traditional banks.

Marketing & Sales

Community Building:
- Created a business community “TheChat” on Telegram for founders, investors, entrepreneurs to share experiences and network.
- Monthly events and calls to engage the community.
Physical Presence & Branding:
- Recently moved to a new large London office with ~2,000 staff.
- Experimenting with “Ref Store” experience centers (similar to Apple Stores) in Madrid, Barcelona, and France to enhance brand presence.
- Marketing expenses are significant but justified by growth and customer acquisition.

Frameworks, Processes & Playbooks

Talent & Culture:
- Radical honesty feedback culture.
- Meritocracy with a focus on high achievers.
- Structured recruitment with interviewer performance metrics.
Product Development:
- Small, agile teams.
- Data-driven product evaluation (profitability within months).
- Portfolio management akin to venture capital: kill bottom 25% products quickly.
Compliance & Risk:
- AI-driven regulatory parsing and monitoring.
- Multi-layered fraud detection models calibrated for low false negatives.
- Continuous feedback loop between compliance, product, and risk teams.
Performance Management:
- Founder has direct reports of 40+ people, supported by a “Found of Societs” team (~30 young analysts from top firms) who monitor performance independently.
- Frequent one-on-one meetings with structured agenda covering metrics and challenges.

Key Metrics & KPIs

Financial:
- Next year: $9B revenue, $3B net profit.
- Long term: $5-6B net profit to support $200B valuation.
Users:
- 15 million daily active users.
- 25-30 million weekly active users.
- 35-40 million total users.
Talent:
- Attrition: ~1.5% monthly for high performers; 6% annual average.
- Performance metric: ~70% of employees rated as strong performers.
Product:
- 25% of new products survive initial profitability tests.
- ~40-50 product teams working on new initiatives.
Compliance:
- Compliance agreement rate with quality control >90%.

Case Studies & Examples

Hiring & Talent Management:
- Founder personally interviewed thousands of candidates; rejects average performers; expects managers to fire at least 10-20% of underperformers annually.
Banking License Strategy:
- Opted to acquire full banking licenses before product launch, enabling full product suites and easier competition with local banks.
AI in Compliance:
- Developed proprietary AI to parse half a million pages of regulation, outperforming human analysts in fraud detection.
Crypto Business:
- Launched FX X crypto exchange in Europe; crypto contributes ~7% of revenue but is less profitable due to regulatory complexity.

Leadership & Entrepreneurship Insights

Emphasizes problem-solving ability, ambition, and STEM background in hiring.
Advocates for meritocracy and radical honesty as cultural cornerstones.
Believes in building technology-driven banking infrastructure rather than relying on legacy systems.
Views risk management as a technological challenge, not just a compliance checkbox.
Recognizes importance of founder/operator experience in board and management for agility.
Stresses quantitative, data-driven management over subjective assessments.
Shares personal discipline: sports, balanced lifestyle to avoid burnout.

Other Business Ventures

Founder invests primarily in Revolut shares (95%) and low-risk cash instruments (5%).
Owns a real estate development company focused on premium villas and resorts in surfing destinations including Costa Rica, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Barcelona, Dubai, and Cape Town.

Presenters & Sources

Nikolay Storonsky – Founder and CEO of Revolut.
Interviewer: Unnamed journalist based in London.
Mentioned entities: Revolut, Easy Staff Payroll, Goldman Sachs, Oleg Tinkov, Michael Calvey, among others.

This summary focuses on Revolut’s business strategy, operational model, leadership philosophy, technology and product innovation, compliance automation, and growth metrics as shared by Nikolay Storonsky in the interview.