#4 How to Network Your Way Into a Unicorn Startup With Varo Bank Co-Founder Roger Van Duinen
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Today’s guest, Roger Van Duinen is the co-founder of Varo Money – an “entirely new kind of bank” that uses tech to bring financial inclusion and opportunity to all of its users.
With 25 years of experience working as a C-level executive in the banking and financial services sector – he brought a lot of industry expertise to the table.
In that time, he built and nurtured an extensive network of like-minded entrepreneurs and business leaders.
In fact, it was that network that led him to co-found Varo Money in the first place.
It started when a mutual connection put Roger in contact with Colin Walsh.
Colin was also a veteran in the banking industry but had taken a very different path than Roger.
They got to talking and realised that, despite their different paths, they saw a lot of the same problems in the industry.
Before long, Roger and Colin had co-founded Varo Money. Fast forward to today, and Varo has raised over $990M to date – most recently raising $510M in their Series E round, at a $2.5B valuation.
In this episode, Roger and I dive deep into
- The idea behind Varo
- The road to product-market fit
- The lessons Roger and his team learnt from dealing with investors
- Key insights on building an early-stage startup team
- Balancing the intense work every entrepreneur faces with their personal life (something Roger admits, was a huge challenge for him)
- Advice on every facet of the entrepreneurial journey
Tune in as Roger shares entrepreneurial insights from a career spanning nearly three decades.
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