The David Rubenstein Show
00:07:59 · Nik Storonsky, David Rubenstein
[00:07:59] S1: Yeah, I think so we might do secondaries as well before we do IPO, because we do it every one or two years. So we might do a second results. [00:08:07] S0: All right, Well, if anybody wants to sell their shares to me, let me know. And have any investment bankers told you why they're the best to do the IPO for you? [00:08:14] S1: Yeah, obviously every single one is the best. [00:08:16] S0: Everyone is the best. You're not in a rush to do it. [00:08:18] S1: You don't need the money, so we a bank. And then for the bank, it's super important to have trust. And then public companies are trusted and more compared to private companies. So there's the reason. [00:08:30] S0: What are you most proud of having done so far and what do you most enjoy? [00:08:34] S1: Well, it's basically designing something, designing solution to solve a problem that I see it are being realized, and then are using it. That's what I enjoy when I see some elegant solution. [00:08:44] S0: Many people think that companies like yours, which are often called fin tech companies financial technology companies are changing the world dramatically, but they could be changed dramatically. So for example, artificial intelligence is coming along. You worried about ourtificial intelligence? Or do you use artificial intelligence to help grow your company?
00:08:44 · David Rubenstein, Nik Storonsky
[00:08:44] S0: Many people think that companies like yours, which are often called fin tech companies financial technology companies are changing the world dramatically, but they could be changed dramatically. So for example, artificial intelligence is coming along. You worried about ourtificial intelligence? Or do you use artificial intelligence to help grow your company? [00:09:04] S1: An additional tool that we obviously use and I think with LLM chatbots, so it's another surface on top of the infrastructure that we build, because banking is not a simple UP right under UP you have a lot of back end, a lot of systems, and a lot of regulatory systems and so on. And then UP is effective interface to all this back end logic. And then LLM can be something on top of the UP or directly interacting with our back end logic. So call it another interface. That's what we're building as well and allowing people to interact with all our products through Childbot. [00:09:42] S0: Let's talk about how you came to start the company. So you are doesn't sound like you're a native of England from your. [00:09:50] S1: Accent, originally from Russia. So it came to u K first in two thousand and six for the internship, then in two thousand and seven I came for another internship afterwards our estate to be employed by Lehman Brothers as a trader. [00:10:05] S0: And at what age did you leave Russia? [00:10:07] S1: Twenty years old? And then as soon as I finished my university I moved to London to work full time for Lehman Brothers.
00:10:07 · Nik Storonsky, David Rubenstein
[00:10:07] S1: Twenty years old? And then as soon as I finished my university I moved to London to work full time for Lehman Brothers. [00:10:15] S0: And were your parents educated? Are they math specialists or they have computer training or not? [00:10:21] S1: So my father he is a physicist by training. My mother, she's a teacher. [00:10:26] S0: I assume you're a pretty good math student or a physics student or something because you have technology background. [00:10:30] S1: I assume yeah, I was always trained in mass physics as well. [00:10:35] S0: Right, So you go to England and did you have a job lined up before you got there? [00:10:39] S1: So Lehman Brothers came to my university and then they tried to recruit some people for the internship. So they recruited me for internship. I came there in summer two thousand and six, and then they invited miss for second internship in the spring two thousand and seven, and they also gave me a job for a full time when I graduated from my university. So when I graduated in July, I think it was July two thousand and seven, I came to London to rock full time for Lehman Brothers. [00:11:12] S0: Didn't Lehman go under at some point. [00:11:14] S1: Two thousand and eight, Yes, I wasn't Are you there then? [00:11:17] S0: Yeah?
00:11:17 · David Rubenstein, Nik Storonsky
[00:11:17] S0: Yeah? [00:11:18] S1: I was there. I was one of probably two hundred people on the trading floor. It all happened. I still remember. There was Sunday evening announcement and then I was wondering I could do I need to come on Monday morning to my kind of job? So I came and then we had all these two hundred traders locked at one trading floor. Everything, all the systems were locked, and we're all playing the same game. I think it was a game shooting helicopters or something, all all two hurrying people because there was nothing to do. [00:11:48] S0: So did you think capitalism wasn't such a great system at that point when you go to Lehman Brothers and they go bankrupt and you're out of work. [00:11:56] S1: Yeah, I was full of confidence right about myself. I was not afraid to lose the job because I knew I can always find any one. [00:12:02] S0: So did you have a hard time finding another job? No? [00:12:06] S1: I got kind of a job from the Nomura and then from Credit. [00:12:11] S0: Swiss as well. All right, and so where did you go? [00:12:14] S1: I went to Credit Suisse, I went to Credit Suisse. [00:12:17] S0: They've had their problems too. Actually, did you leave Credit Suisse before they had their problems?
00:12:17 · David Rubenstein, Nik Storonsky
[00:12:17] S0: They've had their problems too. Actually, did you leave Credit Suisse before they had their problems? [00:12:23] S1: Yeah, of course I left Credit Suisse twenty thirteen. So basically as soon as I got my British passport I resigned, and then when I came to UK. It was never a kind of objective to stay there more than two years. I always wanted to start my own business. But then I know, I said one year, then the second year, and the third year, and then after year six, when I got my passport, I decided to resign and then start my own business. [00:12:51] S0: Okay, you started your business in twenty fifteen. [00:12:55] S1: So I started working in twenty thirteen and I launched it twenty fifteen. [00:12:58] S0: Did you have any capital to help you start the company? [00:13:01] S1: I have my own savings, yes, right, so you. [00:13:03] S0: Put in some of your own money, but you presumably weren't a multi billionaire, so you didn't put in that much money, right, I. [00:13:09] S1: Mean back then I put probably about or half a million dollars half a million overall. But obviously I also didn't work for two years myself, so if you don't count my salary, I didn't have any salary. So to build something back then was my ship I compared to you nowadays, you have. [00:13:24] S0: A venture capital arm I it's called Quantum Light.
00:13:24 · David Rubenstein, Nik Storonsky
[00:13:24] S0: A venture capital arm I it's called Quantum Light. [00:13:29] S1: So it's a separate business. CE think it was three years ago as entrepreneur. I've done a lot of fundraising rounds with the vcs, and then I think at a certain point of time. I was very pissed off with the crowd thinking mentality right. So I had cases when termships were withdrawn, sign termshets, I had cases when a round was mucked down because I spro was down. So I had quite a lot of negative experience with the vcs. And then as a founder, I also wanted to invest my own money and I thought I can create something better in terms of investment. I think that has to be a scientific approach rather than human judgment. And then we build effective models that invest in startups Series B based on millions and millions data points on our startups, so they are trained machine learning models that invest plus. On top of it, I'm able to share with these statups my perisional knowledge. As a fund of revlut Plus, we help our startups to distribute their product for Revolut or to sell into Revolut, So we're all it's much better value proposition to funders compared to VC. [00:14:41] S0: What would you call you what you're doing angel investing or around A or we. [00:14:46] S1: Do serious B. We started we just launched a fund for serious LYS. [00:14:51] S0: What did you raise money for it? I assume people gave you all the money you wanted, but did you just use your own money and your friends money? Did you have to go out and raise money?