Avoiding startup failure, getting boards working well, work/life balance, fintech and much more with Elliot Limb of Cubed

Elliot Limb is co-founder and CEO of Cubed and spends his days supporting fintech companies scale. Having worked with many startups, he has a broad insight into their challenges and difficulties. He also has some strong views, which makes for a very interesting discussion!

We covered a huge number of areas, including:

- why fintech has a long way to go

- what causes startup companies to fail: Elliot gives the two most essential metrics monitor

- the relationship on boards between founders and VCs and how both sides often get it wrong

- the importance of getting the right staff and board members

- how to thrive with a weak board

- the merits of generalist vs specialist investors

- whether work/life balance is possible for founders

- how founders can pull through when crisis hits

- how keeping the wrong customers can ruin a business

- generating a path companies in crisis to recovery

- the importance of transparency between founders and investors.

And this only scratches the surface! We planned to focus on fintech, but ended up with a much wider discussion which is essential listening for any founder, VC or investor.

Links

Cubed website - https://www.cubed.company/

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/cubedcompany/

Subscribe to the EIS Navigator podcast on most services here: https://the-eis-navigator.captivate.fm/listen

Suggested books

The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons in Creative Leadership from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company by Bob Iger

Rules For Revolutionaries: The Capitalist Manifesto for Creating and Marketing New Products and Services by Guy Kawasaki

From Brian:

The Power Law by Sebastian Mallaby

Lying for Money by Dan Davies

Bio

Elliot Limb

Co-founder and CEO, Cubed

In a career spanning over 20 years, he has held multiple prestigious positions in the Banking and Fintech industry.

Realising the depth of opportunities available as the finance industry reached an inflection point, he founded CoBa - where collaboration and agile (cross eco-systems) operating models have true alignment from strategy through to value realisation, digging deeper than technology, API and standard platform level. CoBa is his vision of how to build sustainable business models, based on collaboration between banks, fintech, regulators and corporates to maximise profitability on an individual and collective basis.

His expertise in Banking & Fintech stems from the major challenges and opportunities he faced over his career, most notably as the technology head for Citibank’s transaction banking business in EMEA, overseeing the strategy, delivery and support of all of the transaction banking services across 53 countries. Post Citibank, he was the head of Corporate Banking for the world’s 3rd largest fintech company Finastra (formerly Misys) which also gave him the experience of how to grow a technology business. In addition, he has also held senior positions at Barclays, Travelex and a subsidiary of the Lloyds banking group, as well as running his own consulting business and Payments advisory. He has been involved in all aspects of the transaction banking business and provided thought leadership in various aspects of payments and transformational change, regularly speaking at industry events around the globe.

Currently a Board Member at World Trade Board, he is a passionate leader and founder of multiple ventures that aim to foster a bridge between the financial sector with disruptive technology.

Based in London, he is a musician at heart, a published author and an experienced keynote speaker offering industry insights, sharing his experiences gained across UK, EMEA, New York, Singapore, India and Australia.