041: Racing Stripes | Andrea Reynolds and Swoop

0:07 Hey there, welcome to episode 41 and money, never sleeps podcast, it looks inside the head of entrepreneurs in at what makes them do what they do. I'm Pete Townsend your co-host of money. Never sleeps, so long with this week's Comeback Kid. I want Fitzgerald this episode of money. Never sleeps is kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialist. Top-tier recruitment, you are a colleague need help, attracting retaining great talent for your fintech or financial services company. We Highly recommend, you have a chat with a team at top-tier recruitment, as they really know their stuff. You can find them at top-tier Recruitment.com and tell him we sent you. I first heard about what Andrea Reynolds was up to when she spoke at this year's high potential startup event put on by Enterprise Ireland and I like, what she had to say, Andrew is a founder and CEO of swoop who simplified speed up access to loans, grants and Equity funding for businesses. Be on the extreme relevance to what Owen. And I both do with our day jobs and was just a really cool person.

0:58 So we're thrilled to chat with her. Here we go, with episode 41 of money. Never sleeps. Here we go again. Welcome to money. Never sleeps were here and we worked up and Landings in the offices of our sponsor top-tier recruitment. I'm Pete Townsend, and I'm old Fitzgerald. And we're here with Andrea Reynolds the founder and CEO of soup. Welcome to the show, Andrea. Thanks Paige. It's great to be here. Awesome, thanks for coming. So I think that you and Owen know each other probably a little bit better than I know you given we just met just weird moderated. A panel Iran last week. Correct. Interscope said I was okay. Matt relationships a week old You were not at the HPS you event. That is my darling.

1:38 Hold on. No, I should. You have been there possibly? Okay. You were. And you were on stage. I was yeah. So I remember hearing what you're up to. I'm like, ooh, we got to talk to her. Yes. And then I was very pleasantly surprised that Owen made it all happen. Great. So here we are. So maybe just to get things started. You can give us a bit of your back story on what got you to this point in life and what you're up to now, sure. So I started my career With KPMG, Dublin in the financial services division and I trained as an accountant had a wonderful. Wonderful time, their wonderful career spent most of my time with gonna speed Aviation so GPA.

2:20 And so was really surrounded in a very entrepreneurial environment from the get-go. Most people associate auditing as very staid but my experience was completely different. And then I decided like a lot of Irish people that I was going to London for a year and I went for the year and didn't come back. I worked with KPMG in London, but felt that the atmosphere was not the entrepreneurial environment that I'd experienced in Ireland. So I was actually seconded to the financial conduct authority to write insurance directives and I thought, no, this is not me or my personality so I left and that was back in 2014. I decided I was going to set up my own Corporate Finance advisory arm and Serendipity.

3:08 McLaren the formula one team had just set up McLaren Applied Technologies, and that was for them to do joint ventures. So, spinnings to McLaren and spinouts from McLaren and I looked after those those businesses that they were incubating. And so my job was to actually raise all the finance that those businesses needed. And as you can imagine, they were highly Innovative Capital intensive businesses pre-revenue. So I had to look under every single Rock to find every form of funding, that was out there. And that's where I got into this space of looking for funding for growth businesses. And that's how I got to this point now. Okay, so with KPMG give me speed Aviation be a big client and then McLaren with F1 that whole kind of that that transition with the the the background of the types of companies that you were either auditing more Consulting.

4:04 Or helping. Yes. How did you how did you do that, right? How did you, what was that transition? Like, across the different kind of product lines. I've always been really curious about businesses, and when I was actually an auditor, one thing clients used to always say to me was, but you're not an auditor, you don't come across as an accountant or an auditor and probably, because my, just my genuine curiosity was, I wanted to know how these businesses worked And I wanted to understand what were the weaknesses and the strengths of every particular business within a sector. So I've never had a problem understanding any form of business.

4:45 And I think that experience that I got from KPMG of assessing, lots of different types of businesses. Help me. Then when I moved into my into my own Consulting business to never get overwhelmed by whatever the business is, at the end of the day, there is a universality about businesses. Is regardless of what the product or the sector is. Okay, I got you. And do you think when you were an auditor, I know there's going going a little bit, little bit back but just curious about that because I had. So I was never an accountant myself but I've played one on TV. We do you think you kind of went above and beyond you had your own framework for auditing and how you looked at companies and you were doing probably a bit more of a SWOT analysis than an audit? Yes, my favorite aspect of auditing a business and actually it's stood me in great stead and I'll come on to it in terms of where we are today and what we've achieved my biggest Joy was doing the walkthrough process of the business, so literally you take it from inception through to it. Going out the door through two Collections and just really understanding the business at.

5:58 It's very core. What's the business model and that to me was probably the best training I've ever. Okay. Okay. And with, I saw arc consultancy on your LinkedIn profile. That was the where you got into the McLaren area and that? Yes. And I combined because and why I led to to building a platform, but I combined large clients with younger ones. So I preferred working with younger more challenging businesses, that really need a growth Finance with the larger ones because the ones I really wanted to work with could never afford it. Corporate Finance advisor. And So I Married it with working with larger organizations and again that wasn't something I had designed and thought about it actually worked out really well because I was able to stay in touch with what are the large companies looking for, what's happening, what are the trends occurring and then being able to go back and say, oh, there's all of these Innovative companies and sometimes I'd actually match both my clients together, we're a young Tech.

7:04 Penny would have solved a problem for what a large Enterprise was having. So that's, that was quite useful. Actually, yeah, I'm totally with you. I think the same way and, you know, initially, for me, it was that there were no big clients there. They were just small ones. Yeah. And then you get the big ones and that gives you more Liberty to work with the small ones. Like I said. Yeah. Yeah. And then you start connecting the dots between the two. Yes. Oh we're totally aligned on that. Yeah. Cool. Since the the are consultancy things since you've kind of transitioned how How did that go moving? And what was the decision point to say that you were going to launch swoop here? Lots of you know years of experience there and opportunities to get a real.

7:44 Like I said at the beginning framework there for you to assess businesses, the funding situation, what do they need? But then kind of make it more accessible for people for companies. Tell me about how you made that decision. Sure, I think when you leave a large corporate so you've been in this environment of large. Ization, where there are departments, that solve certain things for you and you focus on your one track to move out of the large corporate environment. Your salary gets paid at the end of every month to move out of that. And start your own business is one huge leap to make and so I think moving from large corporate to consultancy doing similar work that I was doing was a good idea.

8:28 It was a nice transition before starting my own Tech business. And so you have to learn how to run your own business and that is a challenge in itself. And I felt that the Consulting side of things allowed me to make those mistakes that everybody makes when you don't know what it means to to run and grow a business. And so that was my learning ground and what it also enabled me to do was to earn a living and set aside revenues that I could then put towards what my hypothesis was that the market needed my X. And I didn't want to to lose my earning capabilities while I was testing that out. So what it enabled me to do was actually put money aside to build prototype and to then be able to go out and speak to key stakeholders.

9:20 And say, Here's my idea. And, by the way, here's a click-through prototype and get reaction to see. Was I right? And so that for me was a nice way to transition into starting a tech company? And when did your feet when did, You sort of get that idea that you wanted to go down the route of building a tech company, was it kind of prior to stepping out to do to Consulting with that? The first step to get to something later? Or did it just come over the course of doing the consultancy? Or I never actually set out to start a tech company? How is came about was as a corporate finance advisor? First of all, the UK Market in particular is highly fragmented. Second of all the market was growing.

10:02 It was expanding massively because 2010, the British Business Bank came in and they really seeded the alternative Finance Market in the UK. So, the good news for a business owner was that there was all of these alternative Finance providers out there. The bad news is they still had the same amount of time to try and navigate the market. And so, every time I'd work with a company, or I was getting all of these word-of-mouth referrals saying apparently you know where to get a grant you know what the lending markets like. And so I was getting all of these clients By Word of Mouth. And I realized I can't be everywhere. Half of them. Can't afford me. Surely, I can bring all of this together in a scalable way through technology. And so, it was more about how can I automate what I do? Rather than, oh, hey, I'm going to start a tech business. That's that's how it came about.

10:52 Yeah, yeah. It's having first-hand experience with the problem that you're solving. Yeah. Right. I was just annoyed that I couldn't go somewhere. Yeah, and find what. A my business is eligible for I'm fully enough. My annoyance started mainly The UK government and, and being an auditor funny thing. I decided I'd ordered how much the UK government spends on SME interventions. And what return do they get for the taxpayer? And, and what, how is that moving? The dial for actual smes and I did a whole order went through the Public Accounts committee got every single piece of evidence, put it together and I presented in Downing Street, It's to the Enterprise adviser to the cabinet office. I had, literally this Roundtable in Margaret Thatcher's old office, I was terrified and I was essentially embarrassing them into how badly they are running the grants intervention. And so I was like well you're spending 12 billion a year and four billion goes in admin and two billion gets lost and Grand fraud.

11:57 Oh and by the way, you're not moving the dial at all and you don't even know what's working and not working and I gave them Really, really embarrassing case study and they said, you know what, you are. 100% right? We know it's broken, we love your solution. You're the first one in the door with this solution, and that was the moment. After getting that feedback, they wrote to me and said that was one in the top 1% of presentations we've ever had Downing Street and I was like, that's it. I'm I'm putting everything into this. Well no. And that was the day. I basically started to hire a tech team, when was that? That was in 2016 in 2016. Yeah, okay.

12:37 Yeah. And when did you when did you hit MVP? When was that when was that long? So this comes into the one of my learnings, what did I do wrong? So I did not have any experience of tech tech people didn't know what an API was didn't know what a piece of code look. Like, I knew nothing, I was a domain expert, and I've had a painful Journey. Of Miss spending on, poor tech for tech people. And I think, if I was to to say, you know, if somebody starting out today similar to me, where you, you want to bring something to your world where you are a domain expert.

13:19 The I think that's an area where you really need to take your time on, choosing your Tech providers. How do you know whether someone is good or not, you're just going by what you're being told, and I made mistakes and I lost time. Time and investment into that process. And I think I was speaking with Enterprise Ireland about, you know, we won the overseas competitive start fund. That's how I we ended up back in Ireland, and relocating here. And thankfully, I had made my mistakes before we won that because then I was able to use that funding, to build the correct version with the correct team and I sometimes hear from others who have one last that they lost that money. Through making bad Tech partner decisions. So that's we would have launched earlier but we launched in May 2018.

14:13 Okay. And how do things look today? We're on that part of the cycle where nothing seems to be going wrong for us. And I don't know how long that lasts and I'll take it while I can because it's not always going to be like this but we launched in me and our momentum has been phenomenal. I could not have I've wished for more and I say that because it wasn't always like that. I've had many painful long talks with myself to say is this the right thing to do but we launched in May and then really the game changer for us was we won a competition called the open banking challenge in the UK, and open banking as a phrase, that not many people know, but by 2020 to 80% of businesses will be using open banking every day of their Lives. And essentially it's based around PSD to all. It means is that you as a bank account holder or any accounts that you hold you are the owner of your data and and it basically moves ownership of your data from the banks to you and you can share that data via platforms like us to get the best deals for you.

15:23 So timing for us, was incredible, we launched in may, we entered a competition, which we won in July, twenty twenty eighteen and And they gave us a hundred thousand to build out. A piece of functionality in our platform which enabled us to integrate with all of the banks in the UK, our customers can integrate their bank accounts and then in seconds, we analyze how they're using their bank account, and then we start to show them. Actually, you're with the wrong Bank actually, you shouldn't be paying for your International payments with your bank because you're getting fleeced, you should be using transfer meat or transferwise and we help them switch over to those. Eyes.

16:04 So we identify the savings that businesses can make we. And the reason we do that is to improve their Financial Health, as soon as we improve their Financial Health that helps their affordability to go get a loan. So one example I give you a small business starting out like ourselves turning over 100,000. We identified he was using Lloyd's and they're all the same so I'm not poking. I'm Lloyd's he was spending 15 pounds per transaction and then we compared the spot right here, I was getting with Lloyds to transferwise and we worked out that in that 12 month period. He could we could save him 6,000 pounds at the same time, he was looking for a 25,000-pound loan from his bank.

16:48 They told him he couldn't afford it. When we'd saved him, the 6,000 pounds that equaled a years repayments on his 25 Grand low. So within a few clicks on the platform, not only saved and that we've now given him his first year as repayments nothing's changed in his life, other than He's gotten a bit of intelligent analysis, about how did financial decisions, he's making and how he's using his bank account. So, that for us, was a game-changer, in terms of we built that functionality and then we presented that to the competitions and Market Authority in the UK. And a lot of Judges was 24 judges on the panel, including the global head of Digital Services for Mackenzie has quite a Quite a feat.

17:31 And and they selected us as the Her. Okay. And so that, now means we've launched with nine banks in the UK and that in itself, brings its own momentum. So that's really been the majority of why things have really gone, well, for us this year. And I thought that's fantastic. I mean, how have the bank's responded to, yeah? I mean, it seems like an element of something that's forced upon them. Open Banking, and PST to, and yes, you know, in that law is example. Not necessarily good, for them know, when we started out, when in 2016, I started out, I could not get a meeting with the bank, just nobody cared. Why would they and fast forward to today? I can the conversations I'm having are just unimaginable and what's happened particular in the UK, but it is changing here in Ireland to initially.

18:22 They saw it as a threat and then they realized well these you know, Challengers are coming in revolutes, taking our customers mons. Oh they're all taking our customers. So we're just going to have to get over this and Come up with, what's our strategy for the future. So they've gone from seeing this as a as a challenger competitor space. To actually, let's Embrace this. And let's work out our new, our new strategy. And so what they're doing is collaborating, they still own the customer relationship. They have the brand Equity, so they still have time to turn this around. And, you know, I was just reading or BS has strategy for the future and they see themselves as the Amazon. Of the financial services industry, that it'll be a Marketplace that if they're not the ones to give you the the loan or any other service that they'll show you the marketplace to do that.

19:15 So we are, we're running Pilots with some of the banks here in Ireland, as well as the UK and we're integrating with nine of them in the UK. So I've seen a complete shift, we are speaking with the three main Banks here where they are embracing open banking. They don't have to in the UK was mandatory. Three. Whereas here, it's a choice. Yeah, so that this is truly you. Taking everything that was inside your head for how youth look at a company. Yes. Big or small correct. And you'd say, how can I actually automate that and we're going to use the word automation, we're not going to use artificial intelligence. We're not going to use natural language processing. We're just we're just saying automated yes.

19:56 Gail it. Yes, yes. But it nap. Yes. That's effectively what you've done. Yes, that's pretty cool. And you know, it Tricks I used to do for businesses was, I would say, you know, because a lot of businesses, they're not accountants and why, should they, why should they be? But they need to know their numbers. So I used to build this little Fitbit for their businesses, and I'd say, okay, don't be terrified of the numbers. Just look at these little indicators, like you do when you look at your weight or anything. When it goes up, this is good. When it goes down, you need to worry. Look at your overhead. See if you can improve that number by the time I get back to you next week and it worked and I would see growth and business. Has I would see business owners becoming empowered about their financial understanding and so we built that piece of Kiss into the into the platform as well and yes it is Automation and yes I'm sure machine learning and AI comes from this but yes.

20:49 In simple man's terms. It's just my brain and it seems like a bit of a mission I suppose given to us. Yeah. It's it was a frustration you felt now and do you find that you're on a path to helping businesses? And yes, I'm quite He can probably tell, I just think it's so unfair that smes are make up 99% of businesses and they are what the economy relies on to get countries out of recession. So smes are well, got this country out of recession and yet, it's the most underserved Market. Why is that, why, why should a company sitting in Longford, if it's a brilliant company, why should that company not access investor Finance as easily as?

21:34 A business sitting in London is that for me is kind of, it doesn't make any sense and I think if you're a great company and you're eligible for that finance and you needed to grow your business then it should be available to. Okay what was that moment that you were sitting in Downing Street or perhaps afterwards, where they gave you, the good feedback on that that you realize you had something? Or was it at some point after that? I thought I had something before that. Okay, I just didn't have the courage to say, I have something. Yeah, and I suppose, I just wanted a little bit of external validation that I wasn't, you know, to Tunnel Focus that I thought I had something great and working with a lot of young businesses, you do come across businesses where they think they have something great.

22:20 And it's not a viable business. And so, I'd seen that myself and working with clients and I thought Just need somebody who knew doesn't know me. Yeah, a challenging group of individuals, and I don't think he can get more challenging than that group and, and to go there and hear that. Yes. Because I had the Department of Business and UK t.i., which is the, you know, the export agency individuals who work with a lot of businesses and to hear them say this is a great idea. All my customers were telling me it was a great idea but I thought I'd they just being nice because yeah I do. A lot of work for them so that was until they pay you more for it. Yes. Yeah.

23:00 They're just thinking well I can get it for free now. Yeah and you talked about the learning as opposed over that first year of when you were looking to start his wash what different learnings have. You had known the last year when things have been on an upward trajectory yes, building a team, building a team and how to be a good leader. So it's all very well when you're on your own and then you've a co-founder and you have this sort of your your Little group, tight-knit group and then you're scaling fast. So you've started hiring fast. And I think that for me managing that growth of people and and trying to instill in them the passion that we all feel. And for me, it would just kill me. If we had somebody who joined our platform and didn't feel that they got value out of it and that they had someone on the other end of the phone that was intelligent. That wasn't just reading a script and trying To push them through the sausage machine.

23:58 I was looking for so all of our team are really well except have great experience in so they're either X Equity analyst or Underwriters or financial advisers. So I want to marry the technology with an empathetic smart team and trying to find that you know, that it's really hard. So that for me I think has been the challenge that I thought. Yeah, I'll just recruit people. Then you realize it recruiting people who have the same philosophy. Same empathy for businesses that I do has been challenging and and then motivating them when you're not there all of the time.

24:39 I think that's been the most, the most challenging and I had to fire someone. That was the worst thing I've ever had to do. Did it take a long time? I did talk me about Founders Forum. That is where I would say. I love my Founders Forum group. We eat Each bring our challenges to the table and that is just the most phenomenal program, that Enterprise Ireland has created, and it's just world class. So I brought my Challenger. I know, I have to follow this person, I don't want to. I've never fired anyone in my life and they really talk to me through the process and and also they're saying you have to report back on the, what's up for? So I've no choice, I've got to go do it and then you do it. And you, Realize actually that that person probably done them a favor.

25:29 We weren't the right fit for them as much as they weren't the right fit for us. So yeah, yeah. We're with the Ali Walsh who's the founder and CEO of pipit out in Galway. He's spoken just as well about the founders form. I hadn't been aware of it until I was at that high potential startup event that you were at and saw the video on that talking. Yes, yeah, seems pretty cool. Yes, hiring is hard. Firing is just as hard, if not harder. You mentioned courage, a few minutes ago. Go right as something that you perhaps didn't have the courage to the beginning, to take some of these fantastic ideas you had and basically turn them into products, right? Or turn them into services that injection of inspiration that you got from that. Experience on Downing Street, seems to have gone a long way in terms of creating the courage there. Right?

26:15 What else, what are some of the other personality traits that you think have been helpful or enabled you to get to this point? I perseverance. Mmm. And I don't say that. As in perseverance, I think about who I have perseverance, I just get on with it. I don't really got huge highs and lows. So, when when things are really bad, I just go great. I'll just knuckle down and get on with it. And when things are really high, I think that's great. But this is just a little Milestone Tomorrow. There's going to be something else so I try and keep an even Keel as to you know today's a good day. Tomorrow's bad day can be the same in one day. I So for me, that just keeping it together, whether it's a good day or a bad day.

27:02 I think probably one of the things that have stood me in good stead so I don't panic about that things. I can quickly think on my feet when I'm put into a situation and that's helped a lot. I think I've got empathy for who my customer is. I like I've sat in their seats so I didn't come from this as oh there's a market opportunity because of legislation changes in PSD to I came from it from this is really frustrating. If you're a business owner, it's just not right. And so I think knowing my customer because I've lived and breathed that experience has been the biggest strength of all, and I think differentiates us from our competitors and empathy.

27:42 I have huge amount of empathy. I love people, I love businesses. Love getting to know those businesses and I think there the the qualities that I think will sustain me throughout this. So I'll always love what I do because I love working. NG with different businesses. So it's not really a chore ever. Yeah. Okay. And what's the, what to do next 12 months old and it's been a fantastic last 12 months, but it sounds good. Yes. So we're really, really focusing on our building our relationships with the bank's we are direct to Market ourselves. So the platform is available, it's free to use. It's free to register and get all of the the results that you are eligible for reaching. The SME, Marcus is a difficult task even with our years of experience in it.

28:32 So we did we get our name out there and awareness out there through Partnerships and the other route is now working with the banks. So building our relationships with the bank's both in Ireland and the UK is priority. 101 in some cases, their licensing, our technology. So we're white labeling it and then they can have their own version of it themselves. In some cases it's Just through Integrations with certain aspects of their platforms. So I think for us that's that's the focus. We have Ambitions to launch in Asia, so we have already started the investigation process of Asia and it looks like Singapore Shanghai would be the good entry point for us.

29:18 Most likely, Singapore. So that's another huge challenge that I've never experienced before and taking something Global. So Being actually, in the Irish, in the UK Market is very interesting. You probably think actually we're very similar. Absolutely not. Yeah, absolutely. Not the, the psyche of an Irish business owner versus the UK. When is completely different. The market is completely different. An Irish business owner is a lot more, conservative, a lot more Savvy in terms of achieving better rates for what they're looking for. And, and yeah, I just think actually. Lee, I would say better run when you when they're at a certain stage better run businesses, the UK, our psyche is more.

30:06 I need the cash I needed. Now, I'll figure out the radar after all refinancing. Three months tired. What's going on right now? The UK. Yeah, yeah. And and, and you have to look at that eye. They move faster. So they grow faster with that attitude and they understand or I can refinance, yes. Rate today. I'm not going to be paying in three months time. So I think it's a younger Market here in terms of the alternative Finance Market. A lot of businesses, think the only place they can still go was the bank. Yeah. And then they get rejected and then they think. Well, that's it. I'll have to put my plans on hold or or use my own cash flow to reinvest, whereas the markets of a bit further on down the line in the UK. So I just very well run businesses here, but more conservative, for sure.

30:52 Yeah, yeah, and in terms of people knowing what their options are here in Ireland. I mean, We before we got started today, Andrea, we talked a little bit about blockchain Ireland week. It's going on here at the end of May. And one of the projects as part of the working groups that I'm heading up for four blocks in Ireland, is looking at. What is it that blockchain enabled startups need to know about funding about grants about how to get investment because there is a lot of Word of Mouth that goes around. There are the, you know, the usual places that people may direct you. Such as to Enterprise Ireland, right? Or two. Perhaps they very small VC Market here, but it's just, there needs to be a way to level the playing field. So, everybody just has access to the same information. So, one of the first things we're doing, is just taking a very basic one page approach to say. Here are your options.

31:44 Yes. And here, my on that page. Yes, I will download the app afterwards and check it out. But there's one point I will Make on this Irish companies think. Oh, I'm eligible for Irish invest investment, or they think about going to the West Coast and that to me is the general theme, I hear Irish business is need to know that they can raise investment in. The UK under the E, is for the uke is version, and as long as they have a branch, they don't have to have anything else, but a branch in the UK, those funds flow back to their Irish company. So we are funded both by Enterprise are Some Irish investors and UK investors and soon-to-be Chinese investors. Yeah, and for me an Irish business needs to know, get the most out of both markets.

32:36 So Ireland is really good at the early precede stage so your Leo's your feasibility, grants your Innovation, vouchers Enterprise Ireland, fantastic. Those do not exist in the UK. So what it means is when you come to raise your first, 150, and in what's called udonge prize investment in the UK Irish businesses are a little step further and stronger than their UK peers. So they're very popular in the UK at the moment and we have great success for Irish businesses. So, I'm I would say to any Irish business, whether in blockchain or anything. Yeah, if you are looking to raise investment do not just think of it as the parameters of Ireland, see it as Ireland and the UK, and your deepening, your investor Market Gadget that makes sense. In terms of your business split between Kind of, you know, 12 to 18 to 36 month old companies versus those businesses that have been running, seven, eight, nine years that you know, may be struggling to get Beyond a million in Revenue. Where's most of your activity?

33:38 Is it on the newer side or the more mature side of? Yes, it's interesting when we started, I thought oh it'll be the zero to nine employees, you know, just starting out and actually it's just such an array of businesses that so we have businesses Start earning over, 23 million looking to scale to the next level, and in those instances were giving them access to the VC Market. In the UK, we have everything from pre-revenue right through to we're doing one of the moment that is 15 million in Revenue. Okay? So I thought we would wouldn't be relevant to that customer in the 15 million. Mark. What I've discovered is that they actually had used a corporate finance advisor spent thousands of pounds on one and they realize their Corporate Finance advisor.

34:25 Had a Very small network of potential investors. They made it through that list, didn't get a didn't get a bite. And so they came to us to say your network is huge, we have over 1,000 VC funds in the UK, on our, on our platform. So we were able to even in that case, help a business that I thought. That's not our customer, but actually has become our customer. Yeah. Does having a nap lessen? The opportunities for people to lean on Andrea. Yes, it's I can't help everyone. The only way I can help people is by bringing awareness to it. I run a lot of funding master classes. I did one of the ndrc last week I do we have a partnership with Virgin.

35:11 I go on road shows with Virgin to get the word out there and so I think when I do classes where we can have a big cohort, we get everything out there, every form of Finance, And I do a download and bespoke to what they have and then the platform helps them tangibly to actually go and get that Finance then. Yeah. Okay. And who leans who do you? Lean on. I have a brilliant co-founder. I'm so lucky that has been the changer for me, in terms of not having to have sole responsibility for the development of the business. He had experience of building very successful platform in the past. He was able to take on the role of, no, I'm going to choose the tech team.

35:58 I'm going to challenge them on. Every Sprint, his name's Kieran Burke, and he had built a platform called Hive, which is like LinkedIn for the creative industry had built that up, huge community. And it was a similar similar bringing together a Marketplace of creatives and all of the ad agencies, Etc. So that was just fantastic for me to have Have that support and that type of co-founder. Look, it's been great to hear the story. Thank you. Aunt fantastically well over the last 12 months. Yes ma'am. We usually like to finish up a one. My favorite question which is what would people not expect to know about you that well I suppose they might know but I'm a huge formula one fan. I'm a petrol head, not a petrol head in terms of road cars. I couldn't care less if I had them but if you want to know anything about the design of any Formula 1 car, that's on the grade right now.

36:53 I will Tell you what? Someone asked me that question in a taxi from caloric Allen to Killarney last week. Do you know much about f1p dice? Yeah, not a thing. You can do. I'm the woman. All right. Thank you very much for being on the show. Best of luck with everything. Thank you. Thanks for having me. That wraps it up folks. Thanks to Andrew for opening up her mind to help us figure out why she does. What she does. Remember, if you were a colleague need help, attracting retaining great talent for your fintech or financial services company. Get in touch with the team at top-tier. Recruitment, is a really know their stuff. You can find them at top-tier recruitment.com.

37:35 As for Andrea you can find out more about her and swoop by following swoop on Twitter at swoop funding. If you like what you heard today, please subscribe to money. Never sleeps. On iTunes and leave us a five star review. You can also subscribe via our website to channels like Spotify and Stitcher. So just go to the subscribe page on money, never sleeps. .I and follow the links, if you're searching directly on iTunes or Spotify money. Never sleeps is spelled is all one word for more info and links. Check out the show notes on money. Never sleeps that IE. You can drop us a line on info at money. Never sleeps dot IE or at M and S show on Twitter as for me, I increase the odds of startup success. DM me on Twitter at Pete, Townsend Envy. If you want to know more and you could follow, Owen on Twitter at Owen Fitzgerald 9, finally, thanks to Conan, Brophy from create sound for recording and editing this podcast.

38:22 Till next time, thanks for listening, see you