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Nick Bortot

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26
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2015-08-07
most recent
2015-08-07
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1
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podcast

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  1. “Yes, the next five years I will be with Blocks and we want to build out our company geographically and not only build a great app, but also build a great brand. My personal ambition and our dream as a company would be to create a financial services company that has true fans. Because I think when we really have fans, we can offer other related financial products under the Buck's umbrella and we could become hugely successful.”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “There's one app I use a lot of standard apps, but there's one app I particularly like, and that's called Brain Toss. It's a productivity app. I came across it a while ago, and it's the most efficient productivity app I've ever came across. I could recommend that to everyone.”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “I'm convinced that it's here to stay because it's a much better way of gradually teaching people how something works. Look at the financial markets, which are pretty complex. But by taking people by the hand and by gradually teaching them the different steps, it's much easier to understand how the financial markets work.”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “As a startup founder and CEO, it's appealing to read everything about startup VCs, et cetera. But I think it's good to also keep having a feeling for what's happening on the other side of the world. Not everyone's into VCs and startups. So I love to read advice magazine website.”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “I think running two huge companies that are SpaceX and Tesla that are probably going to change how we do things here on Earth. I think that's amazing. And of course, I don't know if he's ever going to manage, but create a second life on Mars.”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Do you Yeah, I'm really amazed, especially after reading the book about how he's changing the way we kind of organize things on our planet.”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Yes, I think maybe this book, maybe other people who are on the show have mentioned the book before, but I think it's a must-read after the jobs bio. Yes, yes. This is one of the greatest bios I've read. It's a must-read for every entrepreneur.”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Yes, I see quite a lot of entrepreneurs, especially in fintech, doing everything in-house. So getting a license, building a front end, building a back end. My advice would be to focus on one part of your business, so let's say the front end or the back end, and work with partners. We work with a company called Aondo Markets in London. We have teamed up with Iondo, first of all, because they are better in the back end and we are very good at building a product. Secondly, Ayondo already has a license for Europe, so we can operate under their regulatory umbrella. And that gives us a much more faster time to market. So my advice would be don't do everything yourself, but try to Find partners and do the focus at the thing you're good at.”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “Because you have to work together for at least 80 months and probably for three, four, or five years. And just then approach, let's say your shortlist and don't approach 20, 30 or 40 different investors.”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “I wouldn't talk to so many investors. I would make a list first, look what investors really can add value to your company. Also look for investors that give you a good feeling personally, so it's not only about ratio, it's also something human. So look for someone you like and who likes you.”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “It's hard to say. It depends on your product. But we have quite a fast product. So we acquire customers and we monetize on customers pretty quickly. I guess if you're in another area where things don't go that fast and raise money for a longer period”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “I think you should try to raise more, definitely. Not raise too much because it doesn't make sense to have money sitting sleeping on your bank account. But the approach I like is to tell investors that you need a specific amount of money to do this and that. If you manage to get in more funding, you can do some extra things on top of that. And you also have to make sure you're able to do it, to execute. That's the approach I prefer.”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “It's good to keep that in mind, but it's hard to say what your value in the future would be. So I think there should be a good balance between your valuation and other conditions in the contract, like a liquidity preference or things like that.”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “Of course, there are the metrics and the KPIs. But when a startup gets hot and in the round, in our previous round, in the beginning, it was quite tough, but gradually bugs became hot and people started calling us if they could invest. When you get hot, it's like investors are losing their minds a little bit. It's like you're the most beautiful girl on the dance floor and everyone wants to dance with you.”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “When I look back, I especially look back at our first round with great pleasure, because in an early stage round, you often raise capital with informal investors. And those informal investments are often former entrepreneurs themselves. And they all have their own story. And that's what I really liked to hear their story, to see how they let their companies to success. That's very helpful. What I actually found surprising when raising money that investors are just like normal people.”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Yes, it is. And by building a great brand, it's easier to distinguish yourself from the competition. And it's also easier when competition gets tougher to hang on to a great brand”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “Because we think that a lot of financial content, a lot of financial stuff on the internet is very difficult to read, hard to understand, is long. So we have our own editorial team. We have a very specific tone of voice. I think we speak the language of the millennial, so no vague jargon or quasi-intelligent bullshit.”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “Thank you First of all, our app is extremely straightforward. We do not use complex bells and whistles. Secondly, the commissions are very low. If you look at a regular online broker as a customer, you pay between 5 and 10 pounds or euros, whereas we start with 25 cents for a trade. We love UX, we love UI. We're from Amsterdam, like I said, and our designer has a kind of rule. He wants to be able to on his bike place a trade, riding over the canals in Amsterdam. That's his rule. Principle. And he managed to do that. So it's extremely straightforward. Another great asset of bugs is that we create our proprietary content.”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “The best advice is to find someone who is good at what you're not good at and the opposite. So make sure that within your team, and I think a team should consist of at least three or four people, make sure that”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “If you're in a certain industry quite long and I really have a vision about the fact that the market is way bigger than the current market, my story was convincing, I guess, because it didn't take me a lot of effort to make them join me.”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “And he's a specialist in gaming. And he's also a specialist in mobile. So he was like, this was the best of both worlds. And we form a great team. And then we bumped into another guy who is great in developing scalable systems. He was in messaging before. And the fourth founder of Bucks is a good friend of mine who used to work in market making.”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “I first started thinking, what do we need? And one of my experiences in online brokerage was that loads of people don't trade to make money, money for a lot of retail traders is only secondary. Most of them trade because they just like it. It's fun. It's exciting. People like to learn about what's happening on the markets. So I thought if there are so many similarities, I need to find someone with a lot of games knowledge. So I started looking around in the Netherlands. We're based in Amsterdam. And there is quite a big gaming community here in the Netherlands. And after drinking loads of cups of coffee with all kinds of people, I bumped into a guy.”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “Started to look out for top notch co founders. And what I see a lot of young entrepreneurs do is they bump into a couple of guys at the university. They start a company together, but most or quite often the team is not very well balanced. So that's a great advantage of being a slightly older.”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “I think it's good when you slide the older. I read in an article in the New York Times that the idea about founders being very young is not completely true actually because the average founder of a startup is 38, I read. But I think it's great to be a little bit older. First of all, you're much more focused when you're older. It's harder to distract me. Many problems you come across, you've seen before. What really helped me is that during these 15 years in online brokerage, I understood the importance of a team. I kind of developed a talent for finding other talent. And what I did when I started bugs is I started with a team.”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “of trading by trading platforms, you know, all these bells and whistles, charts, blinking lights, jargon, et cetera. So I thought if I want to reach out to this much bigger group, I have to come up with a device, with an app that's much more straightforward. The commission should be lower and it should be more fun. So that's what we did at Box. We basically created an app that makes trading, so stock trading, very straightforward, very easy to understand, extremely cheap. Our commission started at a fraction of what normal commissions are. And last but not least, it's great fun because we added a lot of gaming elements to trading.”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “Yes, yes, I will. Let me first tell you a little bit about myself and my background. I worked in online brokerage for 15 years, so stock trading for retail investors. And I met loads of investors, but I met even more people who wanted to invest because the financial markets, the stock exchange have a huge appeal to a lot of people. I think about the success of the film Wall Street. This huge group of people who want to invest and there's only, let's say, a much smaller group that's actually investing. And I was always wondering, why is this large group not acting on their wish? So why don't they open an account? And by talking to them, I found out that many of these people were a bit scared off by the”

    2015-08-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source