Leo is an accomplished executive with over a decade of experience in entrepreneurship. He previously ran an IT software consulting company Alty that consults, designs, and engineers for fintech, banking, and crypto clients worldwide. Under his leadership, Alty became the #1 fintech service provider in CEMEA. Leo’s wide expertise in fintech and banking inspired him to launch his own innovative fintech startup — Card Blanch. With Card Blanch, Leo aims to introduce a new multifunctional solution that combines bank cards, crypto, and loyalty programs in one place, optimizing your finances in the best way possible.

There’s always a lightbulb moment before the beginning of a new venture. What was that moment for you?

Before starting a new venture, I was a Co-founder and CEO of Alty — an award-winning IT software company. We have been developing dozens of fintech and banking digital products for over 13 years, allowing people to manage their finances more comfortably.  On this path, I delved deeply into the financial sphere and its target audience preferences, discovering that people are not looking for new banks, but rather for better use of their current banking services. And in 2021, my new team and I approached these needs together with Card Blanch — a fintech startup that consolidates all your bank cards, crypto assets, and loyalty programs in one place.

Can you tell us about your experience prior to launching your business?

As I have already mentioned, my path to launching a fintech startup has been quite lengthy. I joined Alty in 2012 as a managing partner. The company had been in operation since 2009, and the team remained small — only 5 people, including myself. There were two iOS developers, a designer, a PM, and a front-end developer. The operating partner of Alty at that time was my childhood friend — Viacheslav Bushtruk, and years later, in 2017, he stepped away from the operational processes and completely passed the role of CEO and Co-Founder of the company into my hands…

Since 2017, we've rebuilt the entire business strategy from the ground up, identified fintech and banking as priority industries, and scaled the company globally. Alty is now the leading provider of fintech services in CEMEA, serving both large banks and fintech startups.

What inspired you to launch your business and what is the end goal?

I am greatly inspired by the younger generation. I remember being a student and feeling like half adult back in my youth. Today's youth faces far more global problems in society. And one of my goals is to make their lives more financially structured and independent. To help them manage their lives without loans and benefit from each purchase.

I've seen numerous cases when people loaned $100K on multiple cards and then went into heavy overdraft, further harming their credit score. I also know people who just feel confused about the numerous rewards, loyalty, credit, or debit cards in their pockets. They forget them at home, in a car, or in ATMs, or even lose them randomly. Whatever the situation, a large number of cards can overwhelm people, creating a sense of complexity, which in turn negatively affects their mental health as well.

According to a recent survey held by Bankrate and Psych Central, 42% of US adults state that money is negatively impacting their mental health. Of all age groups, millennials, aged 26 to 41 years old, have the highest level of financial anxiety (48%), followed by Gen Z, aged 18 to 25 years old (40%). One thing is clear — the stress of having debt or other financial issues leaves people feeling depressed or anxious. That is why the end goal of Card Blanch is not just to improve people's interaction with their cards, but to also change their shopping experience. To help people better control their income, debt, and monitor spending over a specific period of time, enabling inventory of their finances and having a much clearer idea of their current financial status. Keeping financial situations under control and effectively prioritizing emergency savings along with other financial goals, positively impacts both financial and mental well-being. And this is what I believe Card Blanch is able to ensure.

Another mission of Card Blanch is to also reduce global plastic consumption. Can you believe that approximately 6 billion payment cards are produced globally each year? With 8 billion people on the planet by the end of 2022, it means that statistically, each person has the equivalent of three credit or debit cards. Card Blanch eliminates the need for additional cards by allowing them to be consolidated instead.

What does your business offer its target audience?

“I didn't write with a target audience in mind. What excited me was how much I would enjoy writing about Harry. I never thought about writing for children - children's books chose me. I think if it is a good book anyone will read it.” J. K. Rowling

This beautiful and sincere quote by Joanne Rowling keeps me thinking about the value that this product brings to the audience, rather than the audience itself. The way children’s books chose Joanne, the same happened to me — fintech chose me. Launching Card Blanch makes me and my team feel excited, just because we all know what a great product it should be and how vastly people’s financial experience can change.

Card Blanch unites all user’s credit and debit cards, loyalty program profiles, and crypto assets adding great AI-powered services. It also has the smart Card Blanch SplitPay© technology that enables splitting the purchase of any amount from different cards either automatically or manually, depending on the user’s preferences. All cards are kept in one wallet with intuitive aggregation which is also very comfortable. It eliminates the need to keep in mind and choose what card is better to apply for a particular transaction as all the payments are automatically optimized in the app with 360° tracking of your spendings. We have implemented all these features based on our personal demands, needs, and wishes.

I remember how stressful it was to choose the right card while traveling in order to convert the currency in the most efficient manner. We implemented this feature in our fintech app as well, and now traveling is even more predictable in terms of spending because each coin with Card Blanch counts.

What was the journey like when you decided to raise funding for your startup? And what tips would you give to early-stage founders getting ready to take the same path?

No successful story can be possible without experiments. Card Blanch began as an experiment in 2021 as well. It took us a year to assess the market, conduct research, and determine whether our hypothesis was viable. We invested our resources — money and time — to understand all the pitfalls, until we took off in 2022. Over the course of a year, we raised an additional $459K on the crowdfunding platform for product development. It was critical to get validation from real people, which we accomplished through crowdfunding. Our next steps are to raise $2,5 million in order to activate user revenue and begin moving toward breaking even.

Therefore, I have a few tips for early-stage founders: always experiment and do what you are good at, but not what is in trend. It is better to avoid the temptation to raise a million dollars on an idea, no matter how good it is. Usually, entrepreneurs have amazing ideas, but many of them are not destined to come true. It happens because they are trying to reach the highest peak in a very short time. Your path should involve intermediary results, analysis, and planning. Give it a try and then watch, collect the feedback, then one more try, and so on until your experiment will be completely justified. Only after that, you can move to scaling. This process never ends. You have to always experiment to keep the product updated.  We do the same with Card Blanch — our next experiment will be a collaboration with merchants. We want to see how scalable our product is within their networks. The product market fit is vital when launching a startup and there you are free to experiment.

Many people derive important lessons from difficult or stressful experiences. If this applies to you, can you give some examples?

Challenges come to our life for different reasons: Some of them we cannot foresee, unfortunately. But there are many others we can definitely avoid or for which we can be ready. Based on my own experience, a number one principle that can help guide a company through the ups and downs of turbulent times — is to adjust to conditions as quickly as possible. Adaptation should be held in all departments simultaneously and your team should be super-flexible. Flexibility in turbulent times may help you avoid sharp angles and keep the business flow.

For example, when we launched Card Blanch in 2021 the global fintech market reached and passed $210 billion due to the KPMG report. We all know that COVID-19 dramatically hastened this flow and it is expected that by 2027 the market will reach $225 billion. Thereby we keep adapting our strategy on the run, find new opportunities, and respond to client demands which change at light speed.

The second principle — is a deep knowledge of the market where you launch your product. Hold a market and TA research before launching your product and keep tracking the situation on an ongoing basis to avoid unexpected surprises.

What’s the most important question all entrepreneurs should be asking themselves?

Successful business entrepreneurs do not have just one important question, but dozens of them. Each startup founder has to consider:

• corporate issues (specialists hiring, engagement, productivity), 

• business issues (operations, finances, growth strategy), 

• personal issues (avoiding burnouts, leadership), etc.

All of these issues have an impact on overall business success. Let me highlight a few of the most significant in my opinion:

1. There are millions of challenges entrepreneurs meet on their path. The thing is HOW you treat them. When you treat a problem as just another task in your life, it shrinks and becomes less stressful. Taking on another task may help you concentrate, avoid burnout, keep moving forward, and avoid allowing emotions to take over. Don't question why it happened to you (it obviously should be investigated, but later). Ask yourself — What are my next steps to overcome the situation?

2. Each business has ambitious plans and goals, but ask yourself first — did I take into account all the risks? Even seemingly insignificant risks can have a significant impact on your business if they are not anticipated in advance. Your strategy should be based on the main goal and any potential risks that may arise along the way to success.

3. Any success is impossible without intermediate achievements. Set intermediary goals, check your hypothesis, and move to your main aim step-by-step, assessing the results at each stage.

4. Ask yourself: Is my team an extension of my ideas and vision? Can I fully rely on it? Does my team follow my company’s culture and fundamental values? You are lucky if your answer is “Yes!”. Make sure to be transparent with your team and your clients as well. Clarity and vision for all sides bring motivation and growth in business aspects.

5. Last but not least, entrepreneurs should ask themselves: did I consider all financial opportunities to avoid dead ends and dismissals? Controlling your finances and having a safety net is essential in any business.

What routines have you established to ensure that you don’t ignore your mental health?

You believe your inner pillars are impenetrable until one day you lose everything that motivated you. That is exactly what happened to me in 2010, when I was forced to sell my first business to pay off debts. Even though I consider myself to be mentally strong, those times left me feeling empty and unmotivated.  My friend shared with me his recovery method — vipassana.

Vipassana, a meditation method taught in India over 2500 years ago, continues to help people today see things as they truly are and, more importantly, admit them. It became a part of my routine and my key to mental health. The most important thing that vipassana has taught me is to treat success and failure equally. To keep reminding myself that neither failure nor success is eternal. In business, this skill helps to keep your mind sharp and better manage emotions, so you can always keep the ground under your feet.

Working on the Fintech product that helps consolidate people’s finances, do you have any overarching tips or unorthodox practical advice regarding money?

When working in banking and fintech for many years, you automatically become an expert. This fact has funny consequences: for instance, your friends can address you for consultation on what bank to choose, what currency is best for saving money, and what is the future of bitcoin, etc. That’s why you have to keep up with trends and be aware of all the financial issues, not only to help your friends and relatives but also to be updated yourself.

Prior to giving some advice, let's think together: What is money? In my point of view, money is an indicator of what value I bring to this world. The more value I bring, the more money I get. The more money I get, the more I think about how to make them work.

Due to this, I have my top 3 tips regarding money:

1. Improve your financial literacy. Teach financial literacy to your kids and help them understand the principle of hard work, the value of financial digital tools, and the money itself.

2. Make savings. Commit to small steps to gain a greater sense of financial control — refine a budget, identify methods to earn more, reduce high-interest debt, and set even a little cash aside for the future.  Keep at least 10% of your revenue to have a  financial cushion. 

3. Avoid loans. Loans deprive you of both money and energy. The pleasure passes quickly, but the loan remains, sometimes for years. Loans impact your self-esteem and often lead to mental health problems. It is better to have small wins, like +2$ on your deposit each month, which is 100 times better than a loan, which brings you a fleeting feeling of joy and then fades, leaving you alone with the burden of debt.

Describe your business in three words?

A new shopping way.

What are the major values or principles a business should follow?

If we look through people's preferences they spend money for two reasons: 

• To get joy

• To relieve pain

That said, not all businesses correspond to these needs and continue to follow their own strategy, ignoring people. Such businesses do not usually last long. Same as with money: the more value you bring to society, the more people are willing to pay for it. There are two ways to deliver value:

• A small value delivered to a wide audience

• A big value delivered to a small audience

For instance, in many countries today, people do not use cash on a daily basis and instead rely on banking services, which provide a wide audience with a secure and comfortable way of handling money. Because of the mainstream in banking, this has already become an ordinary (small) value for a wide range of people. However, a small value is still a value, which is why it will continue to exist and be in demand among millions of people for years to come.

On the other hand, we have a big value for a small group of people. This principle is inherent to luxury brands that create enormous value for their exclusive clients. These people are willing to pay a lot of money for exclusivity because it makes them feel special.

Both small and big values are vital for the business, just because they reach their respective audience and convert people's love and loyalty into revenue.