YouSaid · the spoken record

Anne Boden

lines on the record: 92
first: 2021-11-22
most recent: 2021-11-22
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“No, by then they'd refuse to accept my resignation. Because It's a long story. I don't want to go into all the details, but they refuse to accept it because, you know, of certain things. So I stepped in and took control of Starling.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It meant that I had to be, you know, totally, I had to talk to people and say. I had a vision of creating something which is. Organization that does things in a right sort of way. You know, I'd been a banker for 30 odd years and I was ashamed to be a banker. And this idea of Starling was to do things my way. And I really wanted to lead the organization to where it is at the moment. So I had to make that clear. And I took backstalling. But the consequence was that I was on my own. I was on my own in the office.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I literally ran out of the coffee shop. And I can see the street in front of me now. And I got into the car, drove into London. And tucked Darlin back.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think as I write in the book, I sort of retreated. I went to a coffee shop, went to Starbucks and met a guy that I'd seen in Starbucks every Sunday for the, you know, for the previous 10 years. And he's a tech entrepreneur. And he came to me and he sat opposite me and he said, you know, chatted about things. And I said that I'd stepped away from Starling because that was the only way the And he said to me, What are you going to do next? And I said, I'm probably going to start another bank. And he said, Well, You don't have to start another bank. You can go back in and take Stalin back. And I realized that I'd made a mistake that I needed, you know, I desperately wanted to create starning. I desperately wanted to lead Starling. I had to take Starlin back.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I should never have volunteered to resign. I should never have volunteered to go. That was me saying that the survival of Starling was more important than me. And both things are important. My part in Starling and the survival of Starling.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You've talked about how women act differently to men. I was prepared to give up starling. I was prepared to give up my part in starling for the good of Starling. And that was a very stupid thing to do. Because it was my business, it was my idea. I got the business to where it was, but I was volunteering to give up my roll in Starling because I wanted Starling to succeed. Tom, I think, didn't think I was capable. Somebody that, like me, that has spent so many years in corporate life, that I wasn't capable of delivering and building a big tech company. And I built a big tech company. Yeah. So he didn't have that faith in me. But I realized that I could do it and made it happen.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's the first time I heard it, but I knew that story was being retold in places where I couldn't hear it, but I'm quite philosophical about this. We all see the world and a story in different ways. And yeah, you know, it's another piece in the story of the Starling Monzo journey.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it's a very, very difficult question to answer. I chose Tom as a CTO I still believe he is an extremely talented individual and he has you know grown a great business of course Darling is a better business But isn't it great that what happened you know the story of you know it's a yeah you know two individuals come across each other they meet you know sort of one decides to start a bank high as the other person there's a falling out both businesses going on to really change things well it's it's it's the story of digital banking in the UK I keep wondering if you know if that story never happened would we've all got so much you know sort of inches in the press to be honest it was quite A story.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't think different personalities lead the clashes. I think that. People who have different personalities working together can create great businesses. I think Tom went on to sort of lead a great group at Monzo. And, you know, and I've listened to the show where he talked to you, and he had a tough time.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Think that businesses are very, very stressful. I think Tom is an individual that sometimes has tough times and, you know, sort of every single conversation between founders on the wrong day about the wrong thing could possibly lead to that sort of breakup. Wow, what a story, eh.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There's going to be two answers. There's going to be one set of answers from Tom and myself who tend to have the same view on things and then a different answer from the incumbent banks. And sometimes I can see I look across the panel, catch sort of Tom's eye and I answer or he answers. There's lots more we have in common. And it's a real pity it ended the way it did. There's lots of places in the book where I talk about Tom's intellect and Tom's energy. It's a real pity it ended the way it did.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think Tom and I have much more in common than people think. You know, sort of Tom and I often sit on panels now, right? So it's a panel of four. And, you know, and they go, great idea. I've left Starling and Monzo on the panel. And we'll have two traditional banks in the middle, you know. Barclays and Lloyds, whatever. And there's lots of questions. And somebody asked the question”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, no, Starling was starting to, you know, this was a fund. We were going to take investment about from, and one of the founders of that firm Didn't have the reputation that we wanted. Starling is a very, very believes in something we have a mission. We believe in doing the right thing, and I think it's very, very important that we. Know, especially in those early days, we maintain, and are true to our vision.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It one day Tom decides to go. Unfortunately, we were about to take funding, which meant that the deal was not going to happen. And basically at that particular point, the funding and the team fell apart. You know, looking back of what happened, Tom had a really, really, really tough time at Monzo. I feel for him. Perhaps that we could have stayed together as a team and I could have done what I'm good at and perhaps Tom could have done what he was good at. But, you know, sort of, you know, that's history, both Monzo and Starling have done really, really well. And having a bit of competition does actually lead to probably a better industry.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, yeah, I need a CTO. I've been a bit of a mentor to Tom. Tom had gone to the States to work for Gruper. You know, we kept in touch. I'd met him with coffee once or twice. And when he was back, I mean to the UK, I phoned him up and said, oh, he contacted me, says he's back. And I hide him as CTO.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm sure I met Tom at a dinner I'd met Tom Atterdin in twenty eleven when he was working the go card list. And I spotted him as being a very clever, funny, charismatic individual that was running a business. And we kept in touch.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then Tom left. With the team And I started again. I started again in exactly the same way, phoning people up and saying, yep, I'm still trying to stop this bank. Now, please, please come and help me.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I phoned them up I've always been quite an unusual boss. I've always been quite different to the people that I work with and other organizations. People tend to be quite loyal to me. And I phone them up and say, yeah, I got a great idea. We're going to start this bank. Defanza coming to work with me and we'll raise some money, whatever. And that's how the team got together.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“crazy idea. She wants to take on Barclays ha It'll never happen. No, no, let's try it, you know, we may learn something on the way. You know, sort of, she got all these crazy ideas. You may be able to take them and sell them to other customers. You know, let's just help her. And I must admit I hung out in their customer lounges for years.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, it is all about sort of phoning up people I knew, explaining what I was going to do and the idea and really working with. The traditional venture capital route wasn't open to me. Actually going to VCs and saying, can I raise 50,000, 100,000, 300,000? It wasn't open to me because I wasn't like the other people and those schemes. I had to really work with big consultancy firms and tell them that I had this idea to start a new bank and they were going to miss out if they didn't back me. Unfortunately, I didn't have any money to pay them. I would pay them once I raised the money. But would they help me? And some of those big firms decided to back me. And lots of people in those firms took big personal risk because most people in those big consulting firms thought that this was just”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think it's a question of it's a very, very difficult balance. If you come over as arrogant, if you come over as demanding, you're not likable. You're too soft and underplay what you have or what you're doing too soft, you know. You can't get it right. But... I had to learn how to sell the ideas, and it took years.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We tend to over deliver because deep down you tend to underplay your ideas or underplay your success And therefore, you know, Starlings consistently over-delivered and surprised people over the years.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I've managed to pull off things throughout my career where people thought I couldn't go to the next stage. And throughout my career people have looked at me and thought your case will probably get one promotion. She won't get any more. Those people will normally, well, working in my department a few years later So I've always managed to go one step beyond or a couple of steps beyond what people expected. When I started this venture, I was surrounded by people who knew how this new world worked. They knew how venture capital worked. They knew how you behaved, how you talked, how you pitched your ideas. I had to learn that. I was... As a woman, and as somebody who'd come from the corporate world, I was not used to overselling my ideas. You know, one of the things about Starlink's whole journey is that”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think that at that time I was talking to venture capitalists and investors about this concept of a new bank. Yeah, it is possible to build a new bank. It is possible to be a bank that actually has a lower cost base, has a different way of relating to customers. It is possible to do this. I kept hearing those same statements replayed in different ways to different routes. You know, occasionally I go on to a VC sort of website from Silicon Valley and somebody'd say roughly the same thing. There weren't any new banks at that stage. There wasn't anybody else doing it. But I felt that there was, whether it was an echo chamber, where there was my own ideas back to me or other people were thinking the same way. I felt I was on to something. I felt that it was possible for people to create an Organizations that are going to change things.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh definitely in a people assume that I'm not technical people assume that I'm not, you know, capable of coding. You know, there's code running in banks, big banks today that I wrote. People assume that you have to be from Silicon Valley, you have to be in your 20s or your 30s and look and sound a certain way to build a tech company. You don't look like me or sound like me. But I was determined to build a tech company. And that was very, very hard for people to appreciate.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think that there was one meeting with a set of investors where I just didn't have any of the answers. You know, you've been there. You're an entrepreneur They ask you all these questions. And I didn't have any of any of the answers. I hadn't got as far as, you know, coming up with that part of the plan. And that felt, you know, that felt awful. But you pick yourself up and you figure out how you're going to find the answers. And you find the answers by asking people for help. You ask people for help that have that are in the industry. You ask people that help for help that you've worked with in the past.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Some people tell me to my face that I was never going to do it. The people thought they were being kind would say, you know, you've never been an entrepreneur and you've never run a bank as a CEO before. And those two things are things you can't raise money for. So it is tough. And yeah, there was a lot and lots of knocking on doors. Lots of people telling me it was impossible. And in some cases, it was really hard to carry on, you know, sort of sending the emails. But I was determined, and even a glimpse of people somebody telling me something positive was enough to drive me on to the next meeting”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think you have to cope with the fact that you no longer have that business card. You no longer have a title. And, you know, I thought it was going to be relatively easy to raise money for Starlink bank. You know, sort of, yes, sort of, I raised money in a job before. I can knock on a photo doors and they would give me the money I needed. It was incredibly difficult. Going into lots of offices, basically saying, I have this great idea. Okay. It's an awesome idea. I'm going to build a bank like no other bank. I'll be going to build the technology from scratch. It's going to be really fair to customers. They have a whole new way of engaging with the people that it's served. And I'm going to take market share of Barclays and HSBC and Lloyds. That's all I needed some money. People would...”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I decided very quickly. I left and within weeks I was working on the new proposition. It's only last weekend I started unpacking the boxes. I came back from Ireland. I was in Ireland and I decided my notice in, you know, started the whole proposition, you know, booked the removal vans to bring me back over and then put them in the house and immediately went out knocking on doors. It's only now when finding some time to unpack those boxes.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I the only thing I knew about was banks and how banks are run. And, you know, people who start banks, well, they don't start banks. People don't start banks. And if they do start a bank, they are probably a billionaire. And therefore, you know, I was very different. You know, and when I started talking to people about, you know, I'm going to start a bank. You know, I could see people thinking I was totally crazy.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, well, I was getting up every morning thinking somebody has to do something about this banking industry. I was sort of ashamed to be a banker. I wasn't quite comfortable with it. And the banking industry was, you know, hadn't embraced tech. Everything was changing and the banking industry was looking backwards rather and forwards. And I started thinking, look, you know, I've got a bit of independence now. I can do whatever I want. I really like to do my own business. And perhaps I'll start a dress shop, right? You know, I quite like fashion, you know, perhaps I'll do a dress shop. I realized I know nothing about fashion. I know a lot about banking and what I should do is start a bank. But nobody ever starts banks.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's very, very unusual. I've also done different things in the jobs. I keep meeting people and people go, I know Anne Boden, she worked in insurance. That's me. And I go, no, no, no, no. There's Anne Boden and she worked in, she's a computer scientist. She did computing things. That's me. So I've had a long career doing lots of different things in different companies. But I was a corporate person. And I quit to become an entrepreneur. That was something I'd never done.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I did three and a half years of Pricewaterhouse studying banks and advising banks. And I went to UBS in the city and then out to Switzerland five years out in Switzerland working for a big bank. Joined a big insurance company, worked all over the world, worked in Chicago a bit, and then joined a bank in Amsterdam, ABN Amro, worked in all sorts of places from Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan to all the places around the world. Quit again, spent some time in fintech before going into Allied Irish banks as chief operating officer.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I had a four and a half year thing going on. So I was four and a half years at Loyn's Bank. You know, great job. You know, so, you know, did the branch thing, did all the jobs, and then my first boss told me, you better tone down your aspirations, otherwise you'd get very, very frustrated. And that didn't work with me. I was really, really determined that I was going to get on. So I did four and a half years at Lloydsbank. I did five years of standard chartered bank.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Studies metals are made. Yeah, but there was It was no concept of home of jobs for women or jobs for men. That didn't really exist. I came from a home where my mother was very capable and my grandmother was very capable. So me becoming a computer scientist and going to Swansea University to study where they were all men wasn't something that really phased me.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I never thought I'd ever be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is something which is quite recent. You know, coming out of school, it was very much, I wanted a job that was scientific or interesting where I could, I actually wanted to be a scientist. I actually wanted to be doing something with chemistry and computers, wherever. And my mum said to me, you're going to try for one normal job, you know, apply for a job in a bank. And I did. And the competition for the job was huge. There were thousands of people applying for a job at Lloydsbank to be a computer specialist as a graduate computer specialist. And I got the job. So when I got the job, I had to take it.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I wanted a job with a briefcase. I wanted a job in an office. I didn't actually know anybody that worked in an office. My inspiration was from television. It is very much seeing people on television and seeing that people had jobs in London, in glamorous places. We're doing interesting things. And I could do that. And my parents are very supportive. They gave me as much money as I wanted to spend in the bookshop. Yeah. And they, you know, went out and bought me. It bought me a 24-volume set of excitely pre de Britannica. The only problem was it was 1953 edition. Right. So all my knowledge was somewhat sort of outdated. But it was a great home and we did interesting things. And I did well in school and I went to university.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think my parents didn't push me. My parents believed were very liberal. You know, all the kids of the neighborhood sort of hung out in our house. It was a very happy home. We were very, very fortunate to have Jesse, probably a little bit more money than everybody living around us. But there was no emphasis on education. That was something I did. You know, I went to the local academic bookshop and I remember sort of taking a book off the shelf, you know, what you do at 14, you know, what subjects do you choose? This was all much, this was me choosing these things, not my parents.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think I did most of my studying myself. The school couldn't do a lot to help, to be honest. When I had my O-levels, I think everybody was quite shocked by how well I'd done. But I did most of my study in by my own textbooks and reading myself. And the house wasn't an academic home. My father left school at 15, 14, my mother at 15. There were no books at home except holiday brochures. We lived to go on holiday. We were very, very happy family. We had a touring caravan and we went all over Europe. But it was very unusual for a daughter of that home to be interested in studying. Why, I was studying or why was unusual?”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I went to local comprehensive school. It's a very, very new school. I was brought up in my grandmother's house, my parents, my grandmother, in an older house on the edge of a big, big councillor state. And in the middle of this huge councillor estate, they'd built this new comprehensive school. And it was... Not a very good school. It was very new. I was one of the first children to go to university, and to be honest, there was a bit of a stigma from coming from that area and that school.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, only child my parents married late, my father came back from the Second World War, found his dream wife, and they had a really, really happy marriage.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it was humble. My father worked in the steelworks. My father came home from work with newspapers under his arm, all greasy from, you know, sort of doing hard work. My mum worked in the local department store. And we were happy.”
2021-11-22 · The Diary of a CEO · Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT