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Market like a Fintech is a podcast by Mint Studios and the Fintech Marketing Hub, on a mission to find out what marketing strategies and tactics the top fintech companies in the industry use to acquire real customers, build a brand and grow revenue.
Intro: Yapily is a FinTech
company that's seen some strong
growth in the past few years.
In 2024, their live annual recurring
revenue increased by 51%, and in Q1 of
this year they were profitable and every
month since then, they've also just
signed a huge enterprise customer, Google.
In this podcast I was able
to get under the hood of what
enabled this growth since 2021.
What the team has learned
along the way and the role of
marketing in enabling that growth.
If you don't know what Yapily
does, they are an open banking
infrastructure platform that connects
their customers to thousands of
banks across Europe, allowing them to
access financial data and initiate.
Payments To date, they've raised $69.4
million in funding and employ
over 200 people worldwide.
And in this episode, I get to deep
dive with two people from their
marketing team, Gregory Aubert, their
head of marketing, and Edvin Pauza.
Demand generation leader at Yapily Full
disclosure, yap is also a client of
ours and we've been working together
for the past year and a half on
their content and it's an absolute
pleasure working with the team.
So yeah, I'm really
excited to go even deeper.
In this episode.
Specifically, we talk about Yap
Lee's marketing journey to date,
why they're data-driven and how
this impacts their marketing.
How do they get Google ads
to work so well for them?
Why consistency across channels
is what works really well and
their future marketing plans.
Enjoy this episode.
Araminta Robertson: I'm really excited
to have both of you here, Greg and
Edvin, thanks so much for jumping.
I'm gonna start with,
getting straight to it.
So, Yapily recently published
their financial results of 2024,
and they're really positive.
So congratulations, and I know
it was a really big year for you.
So I'm excited to get into it and
I know 2025 is a very big year.
But yeah I'd love to get into
the marketing behind that.
Compare 2024 to 2021.
What's changed?
I know a lot has.
what do you think was the role of
marketing to get Yapily 2021 to YAP.
2024 and 2025.
Gregory Aubert: thank you.
Thank you for the congratulations.
Yeah, indeed.
It's it's been an
amazing year as you said.
I mean, profitable in 2025.
We just signed Google.
So both are like massive milestone for us.
I think in terms of marketing you know,
I've only been IPD for two years, so I
think Edvin will be able to show you more
insight for back in the days and so on.
But I think for me like one of the
observation is like, kind of moving
away from kind of growth and all
cost, like, not focusing on leads
leads, leads, we need to generate
leads, but more about how can we.
Build like a sustainable but also scalable
kind of marketing growth kind of engine.
As a business we are very.
Performance led, data driven.
And I was like, to be fair when
I joined, yeah, very impressed
by the quality of the data.
But that means that we can be
very return on investment focused.
So, we really consider every activity
that we do, it's a campaign or even,
onboarding a new agency or a new supplier.
What's gonna be potentially
the return on investment.
That we do.
So that's one thing.
I think the other thing is and that's
as a team we are a fairly lean team.
Our marketing team is not very big.
So that kind of like push us to be
super efficient in everything we do.
And I think that's
probably the key, right?
by doing that means that the
focus as marketer is really about.
Straight to the point,
like what's the pipeline?
What are the opportunity and the deals
that we can generate as a marketing team.
So it's that very focused mentality on
like, marketing is not like, I said,
when you say sometimes the painting
and drawing department, but like, it's
a revenue driver for the business.
think one of the thing that I've
observed here, and like, maybe it
sounds a bit cliche, but you know,
a lot of time you always talk about
friction between sense and marketing.
And I think one thing that we.
At least what I've seen since
Sam John we do very well is
alignment with the sales team.
So, SBR team under the marketing team,
we work very closely with the sales team.
I think even more than that, like we build
all kind of commercial strategy together.
So like, the marketing and sales
strategy is actually like one
strategy that we build together.
Obviously, we then go
into more of the specific.
But I think that has been essential.
So it's like that, collaboration
element moment with the sales team.
So we act as a kind of one, almost kind
of one revenue engine for the business.
Araminta Robertson: Yeah,
and I think I agree with you.
I think when we first started talking
like about a year and a half ago, I
was also very impressed with the really
comprehensive spreadsheets and lots of
numbers in there, which I love because it
just, it really helps understand external
people also understand a lot better what's
Speaker 7: working and what isn't.
Gregory Aubert: I'm sure Edvin has a
more concrete example that, because
he's been here for quite a while now,
We're doing differently as
well, but.
Araminta Robertson: I was actually gonna
say just before I go to Edvin, like
what's interesting though is that you
are very performance driven, but you do
appear in a lot of like your PR is very
strong still, like very, there's a lot
of brand awareness for Yapily as well.
I mean, I feel like most people in
the FinTech industry do know Yap.
And if you look up any list topic,
open banking providers, whatever,
yap is always on that list.
So that's something I wanna talk about as
well later how you've done that balance.
But yeah.
Edvin, I'd love to hear your perspective.
You've been there for over
four years now, right?
So.
How have you seen the
marketing team transition
Edvin Pauza: Since 2021, I think what we
know the best and what we learned is learn
myself and gain much deeper understanding,
is our ideal customer profile of
who are we actually going after.
'cause if you do reach out to
them and get through to them, our
message will resonate with them.
And, in 2021 it was a lot more vague
and generic, let's reach out to
every payments company across Europe,
but how many companies are there
in total being specific and develop
that stronger grasp of key markets,
helping us to target and be effective.
But really what I think
it also comes down to is.
We improved and standardized
our internal process.
So, it might be great.
Okay, let's reach out to every, let's
just say payments company across
Europe, even if you have a list.
'cause it's not that difficult to
get a list of every FinTech company.
Across Europe, across the globe.
But how do you reach in an
efficient, quick manner?
And look at the ROI it, required
internal processes, ensuring everyone
understands what they're doing, and,
establishing those processes and
training or staff from sales development,
senior sales across commercial.
We had to customize our CRM using
Salesforce and, and through trial and
error and there are many things we
implemented and maybe six months down
the line I'll speak with our Salesforce
admin and he's getting frustrated 'cause
he is now has to remove it and change it.
But there was constant trial and error.
So that it does not introduce
friction of how our sales development
and our senior sales work, and to
make that as efficient as possible.
So we once get the target, we
tee it up and we go directly
to them and get that quick ROI,
and I think this, this has been.
it's that internal process
integration, trialing what works,
what doesn't and nailing it.
And now we have in our go to market
strategy, we can do that efficiently.
Araminta Robertson: Yeah, so
getting really good at Salesforce.
And how do you under understanding
the ICP better, how do you think
that's improved the marketing?
Like how do you think that's
translated into better marketing?
Edvin Pauza: from our message to who
we choose to target, how we do the
outreach, and how well it resonates.
Maybe back then, we might have
to target 250 prospects let's
say from 50, 60 companies.
and and now we might actually have
to select a list of 20 companies.
40, 50, 60 Prospect has become a
lot more efficient in that process.
So our kind of ROI what, what
resonates with the wider market?
'cause we know.
What works and what has
become a lot more efficient.
And since then, 21 'cause key
staff have stayed with the company.
We learned that we have that
knowledge knowhow and it was not lost,
Along the way.
Araminta Robertson: Yeah.
No.
Amazing.
And so Apart from, understanding
your ICPA lot better.
I mean, I think it, it sounds like
also iterating and testing, as you
said, that was a big part of it.
Do you feel that often at other
companies, maybe people aren't willing
to like, test and experiment so much?
Like, why do you think often that doesn't
work out so well for certain companies?
Like what you think is necessary to really
understand, basically your SP better?
Edvin Pauza: I think
staff have to be comfortable at failing.
And the senior leadership have to
provide room and provide space to fail
and not to feel bad about failing.
Failure is, should be seen as
good 'cause you're trying right?
But you just fail a little things
and your leadership is telling
you off and, and you don't have.
Their trust.
You're afraid to test, but
it's constant trial and error
that you eventually succeed.
And then once you succeed, it's
something you can kind of optimize
what works and leave out what doesn't.
And just me being for four and
a half years, it allowed us to
constantly do the trial and error from
messaging, from channels, from paid
advertising to organic, to different
markets, different personas testing.
And we are still continuously learning
Araminta Robertson: Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Are there any experiments that didn't work
out, maybe or failures that you can share?
Anything that you're like, oh man,
this just did not work at all.
Edvin Pauza: So there have been
many experiments that do not work
out too many to list individually.
And I was kind of thinking that,
I think the main theme that comes
out is not following through to
the end and given up to you early.
Often everybody comes out with
great, fantastic ideas, as they say.
In the startup industry
ideas are kind of cheap.
People get excited, 5, 4,
8 people get together and
everybody gets really excited.
And then, Friday, Monday comes
and then different priorities come
up and they just give up easily.
So a key learning is kind
of, and a key account.
So if you know your ICP, and those
big accounts, you never give up.
'cause one campaign fails,
one message doesn't resonate.
You don't give up on a
large company, right?
There's only so few of
these Decacorns enterprises.
You say, oh, I reached out to five
people in a corporation of 10,000.
It doesn't work.
So if one message or one campaign did
not work, it was just a touch point.
Then we are gonna re try out with our
ICP again to till it works so that
we get through to the right person.
And I think just, we have
yet made failed many times.
But one thing that we have
not given up is the accounts.
'cause we know our ICP, the
company is right, but the message
might not be, or the individual
at the company not, not right.
Araminta Robertson: Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
And in terms of like, are there any
specific campaigns or specific efforts
that you have seen maybe made like a
strong impact over the past few years?
Like anything specific or maybe a
pr, like a specific press release
announcement that made a difference.
Gregory Aubert: yeah, it's
an interesting question.
I think first, what I've made a massive
difference, I think the last two years.
I think it's more about the consistency
across all the Chanel that we've
made and trying to achieve for
instance, like, Adrian is doing
an amazing job with everything.
Paid search.
We've got a very, robust
engine on that perspective.
We started to work with you guys from an
SEO perspective where, we had, like a lot
of gap, which now is kind of turning into
kind of, Chat GPT optimization and so on.
And I think the fact that we've
got that kind of consistent
approach across multi-channel.
And then on the top of
that, We are scaled up.
We don't have like huge
marketing budget, right?
So we can't really afford
kind of brand campaigns.
So, so literally all brand campaign is
those kind of enhancement and so on.
And if you put that over the top, on
the top of this, then that means we've
got like a very, kind of refine engine.
, And we are seeing it a lot, even more
and more recently where, we can see a
deal that we closed, like, started from
an impression on clicking on one of
our ads on LinkedIn and then kind of.
Came back to a website, then came back
again on search, clicked on an ad,
converted, or did a research on chat.
GPT then got captured by a Google Ads.
So I think it's the fact that we've been
very consistent across all channel and
we not like, put all the eggs into one.
Like let's say, oh, we just gonna do
PR or we just gonna do paid search has
really helped us to build a very kind
of sustainable kind of inbound channel.
So I think it's not about like, just
like one magical marketing campaign.
I think it's a consistency that
actually compound or results.
And I think, yeah, as I said,
like, we see that more and more.
In terms of attribution and where
all kind of deals close come
from and it's very multitouch.
Araminta Robertson:
That's really interesting.
Yeah, because I was gonna ask, as I
mentioned earlier, like you in terms of.
You're maybe more performance
driven and all that and have a lean
marketing team and budget, but you
still, Yapily seems to be everywhere.
Whenever open banking is mentioned
in the uk, Yapily always turns up.
How do you think that happened?
Is that just from being kind of early
to the market or that consistency,
what do think contributed to that?
Gregory Aubert: there's a few thing.
I think like a few years ago, I
think we used to spend a lot of
money into pr that time I think
it really helped to build a brand.
Then also, from open banking
perspective, like, we've been.
In open banking, since the start, right?
So we are one of the first company.
So there is that that consistency.
I think we have also like a very
clear positioning in the space.
Like, at the end of the day there's not
that many players, like, we position
ourself as, infrastructure first platform.
we are like, the backbone of
it and basically other business
build open banking application
on the top of us, right?
So, so I think we have a very
clear positioning that kind of
set us apart a little bit as well.
Araminta Robertson: Yeah.
And I think what's interesting is this
has also translated into in terms of the
work that we're doing, what we're seeing
in LLMs, you have, yap has really good
visibility in LLMs and we're publishing an
article on this, so it's public knowledge,
but, you have good visibility and we
think this is partially due to that.
Basically that you're the strong
PR that you did a few years ago.
Because basically as I said, like on every
top X list that's written by someone else
for the uk Yeah, please always mention.
And I think that's
benefited in UMS as well.
So it's quite an interesting, like later
impact of doing something many years
ago, attribution and hard to measure,
but it's an interesting connection
Gregory Aubert: It's,
again, it's consistency.
A lot of those leases as well
they can be based on, your revenue
and so on and, and how you grow.
And we've been growing stead, like, like
doing environment for the last few years.
So, as open making, grow as an industry as
well, like, we naturally grow and so on.
So,
Araminta Robertson: Yeah.
Yeah.
Nice.
I wanna talk about paid ads as
well, because in my experience
when we start working with FinTech
companies, I always find it's
hard to get it to work, basically.
It's tough because FinTech financial
services is an expensive industry.
CPCs are high.
It's like multi-month sales cycle.
So attribution is difficult.
And when we started working with
the app athlete, like your paid
ads was really like advanced.
And Edvin you've written a LinkedIn post
that said that your responsibilities
were once described as running a world
class performance marketing program.
So I wanna ask you like,, what
would you say is key to running.
Like a world class performance
marketing program in FinTech.
Edvin Pauza: so it was kind
of, I was tasked with that.
I did not come up with
a world class performance
marketing program.
So I think it really, world
class depends how you define it.
For me, I have spent probably last
few years, sometimes I just think
about like, what did I truly mean?
Like it could be seen as almost, arrogant,
especially if I would call it myself.
But for me it's about, building
from zero, setting up right.
Processes, systems and ad structure
to drive measurable impact.
Or focus is UK European markets.
So some say it's regional,
it's not world class global.
But we also work at global companies
entering especially or kind of market
payments are international by nature.
So we have to think beyond borders
of global companies that would want
to work with us with what we offer.
And it's also about creating demand, not
just capturing it, understanding how our
audience thinks, searches real performance
is not just about clicks or impressions.
It's actual revenue.
Because you mentioned,
performance marketing.
So it's actual revenue
and money in a bank.
Being really brutally honest with
yourself and holding yourself accountable,
always challenging yourself with
deeper KPI, so it's so easy to say.
Okay.
I generated a hundred thousand
impressions and a thousand clicks or so.
That would be a 1% clickthrough rate,
but probably wouldn't be world class.
How many leads stand into meetings?
So, just not clicks, but Okay.
Say leads, well, I bought you
so many leads, but it would.
Commercial team would say, okay,
but we didn't have meetings.
None of them just booked.
It could be bots, right?
But then it say, okay,
you generated meetings.
But you could say, well, these meetings
were not good quality, so how many of
them had real prospects that he can
sell to companies that have money?
Just yesterday during meeting I
end up challenging one of the sdr r
saying, do they actually have money?
Why did we put 'em as a, as an
SQL, but we can't afford this.
How can we sell to them?
And how many opportunities
are most importantly, deals?
One, because, the company has
raised the money from investors
and we decide to deploy that on.
One of the channels performance marketing.
If we spend that money on a channel, we
want to bring show return on investment.
'cause otherwise, you know what's
just the goodwill and brand marketing
will not keep the lights on.
Some previous marketing
managers that I work would use.
You need to keep the lights on
in a building to keep going.
So it's about measuring, I
think, to be, well, class
performance marketing is holding
yourself accountable, being
brutally honest with yourself and
to what am I doing in this company?
Is it.
Does it bring in positive ROI and
looking at as well, commercial team
impact is marketing, keeping, the
sales development, the senior sales,
busy with quality opportunities.
what's my role is to support 'em and to
provide with opportunities and I think.
world-class marketing is not about awards,
it's about efficiency and outcomes.
And I have seen, before the 2022,
then money was not an object.
Especially in kind of FinTech space, okay?
Growing free XA company.
But if your resources, if your
investors gave you huge amounts
of money, so you spend 20 x
resources, but you grew by three x.
Now by outsider you could say
you're doing fantastic 'cause
you grew a company by 300%.
But what if you've spent millions on it?
But, and I think it's about true
marketers, good quality work, class
marketeers are the ones that grow.
The company, but with fewer resources.
So the growth might not be as phenomenal.
You won't be as everywhere, but if
you manage to do the tiny resources,
you're doing fantastic job.
'cause if somebody just kind of chucks
money at the wall and it grows and it's
like, oh look, we're doing phenomenal.
There's a huge loss, right?
So Yap is a profit making
company as of this year.
So I think it's ultimately about
achieving greater growth multiples when
resources available, and that's what
performance marketing becomes world class.
I think it does have to be that
kind of angle that you're dealing
globally with global companies
and being able to attract them.
But assuming that ROI and being
ability to set up from ground
zero, fully implementing.
And it's not just one channel,
it's how it feeds a wider team.
That's how we define it.
Araminta Robertson: yeah,
it's about being resourceful.
Ultimately it's about knowing what you're,
understanding what you've been given,
and knowing how to use, what you have.
Would you add anything to that, Greg?
Gregory Aubert: yeah, is spot on.
I mean, I have to say like what is
put together in the last four years?
Super impressive on how efficient
it is and how it's performing.
We had month where like, oh, we are
not sure it's performing that well and
being persistent and optimizing it.
it's still like one of the key channel,
like we constantly see deal coming through
and they're not necessarily small, right?
Some of them.
Very meaningful as well.
So the return on investment
in pay, that is very good.
I think for like, on your, one of your
points around why sometimes does it fail?
Like from my own experience, a
lot of time in FinTech, people use
it as as a way to fix pipeline.
Like, we don't have any pipeline.
What can we do?
What's the quick answer to that?
Or let's just spend more money into ads.
And as an issue, you probably start
to spend too much too quickly.
You don't give yourself the time.
And I think Adrian mentioned it like
he started that program four years ago.
So, Imagine the level of optimization
that has gone through this.
I think it's about, you need to have
the time and focusing on the quality.
And I think, I don't know if I can
remember if you mentioned it and
so on, but I think like, we fully
integrated or with Salesforce.
To optimize your ads and so on.
And that's, some of the stuff
like that are super essential
and help you to, performing.
But it does take times
you need to be patient.
Araminta Robertson: Yeah.
And if another FinTech is
listening to this and they're
trying to figure out paid ads.
'cause as I said earlier, like I feel
like it's tough in FinTech it and
it sounds like it takes maybe years
to really get it to, to work well.
What do you think maybe other FinTech
companies are not doing right or
what do they need to be doing to
really make the most of paid ads?
Edvin Pauza: Or it could be
what they shouldn't be doing.
you don't need to start
running paid advertising.
If you don't have product market fit
'cause so many early startups have kind
of targets to hit, but if they, there
is no product market fit and they.
Check everything, trying
to hit those targets.
But you've really like going back to the
start of this conversation when we start
discussing the ICP and the pain points,
the use cases, like really defining
and that's when you can start scaling.
'cause otherwise, you need
to start experimenting.
But I think paid advertising as to, come
in when you, we hit that, what works with
pain point use case and start scaling.
if they're not focused on their
core markets, ICPs and it's
not established, it becomes.
Too broad un unfocused targeting and
then they, end up blaming the markets.
Here we end up blaming the paybacks.
But it comes down to, you know,
sometimes a company is struggling,
sometimes a product is not working.
Sometimes, the product was designed
with like a theory, but actually if
you look at the kind of statistics
once a paid ads running, it just
doesn't resonate with your audience.
'cause maybe our audience.
Or the product service as creative is
not, it looks amazing on, on, theory, but
is there a demand for it?
So I, I think, yeah it has to be
grounded in data ICP and lack of
internal understanding of pressure from
leadership kind of forces as kind of
grasping onto anything that's out there.
Araminta Robertson: Yes.
So did you start doing paid ads at yap?
Like 2022?
You didn't do it right when Yapily
started as that also what you did at Yap,
Edvin Pauza: 2021.
I started the early ads, and
it was pretty much a blank
slate of setting everything up.
Somebody there, there was some in initial
tests, but then they, I think that's
where they got me and start setting up,
from, actually I really enjoy setting
up first, Google tag manager of a
first
account
connecting to Google Analytics.
It's actually, it's.
It's a kind of a plain sailing, but once
it comes down to, you set up and you start
going and receiving early results, that's
when you kind of start understanding
what is working and what is not working.
and 'cause we measure all the way to the
end, we can even find out later on in
the stages, which industries work well.
Maybe it comes down once a lead
MQL, once it becomes an opportunity,
which is all fine, maybe.
Down, later down the funnel.
There are differences in
terms of ICP and what doesn't.
Araminta Robertson: Yeah.
And what year would you say Peans
really started to work well?
Was it like, 'cause I imagine
as you say, like maybe the first
year you're still figuring it out.
At what point do you
think it really took off?
Edvin Pauza: think from a
get go there was an impact.
So, was made.
'cause I mean, it's easy to make an impact
and you start from ground zero, right?
Then proving positive ROI, it's again,
going back to Yapily, the product.
The solution.
Open banking, there is a demand.
So, we are winning the deals that
opportunities that they're creating.
We are winning deals and money was
in a bank, so I was able to measure
that and, and the leadership were
trusting performance marketing.
It was proving the ROI.
So sometimes it comes down not to
like the marketing, but it comes
down to the actual product and the
technology, the company behind it.
I could have been running exactly
the same, program performance ads.
But if a different product,
different ROI you could be winning.
But if the deals are smaller,
you suddenly it's too expensive.
And especially if you have higher
total contract value, you might only
win fewer, but the fewer that you
win really make up for the spend that
you put in for the last six months.
And I think.
Because it's also B two, B2B three
Bs, I think make a big difference.
And if you're selling like smaller deals,
it might not prove the ROI but it is
Araminta Robertson: yeah.
I think this is why some, something
that annoys me a little bit in content
marketing is a lot of advice out there
for SaaS companies where you kind of.
The,
The sales cycles are a lot shorter.
I mean, not always.
Obviously there's enterprise
SaaS, but it's often a lot faster.
You pay just quickly and it's like
a OV of, I mean, I don't know,
50 pounds a month or something.
And it's just those tactics and advice
just does not apply to FinTech often.
I mean, sometimes it does, but
often it doesn't apply because
we're talking about 50 KA hundred k.
A million plus often value of customers
and it's just a different ball game.
And in that world, it's
not number of leads.
It's a quality that matters so much.
And this is why we're always
like chasing our clients.
Like we wanna see the sales force,
we wanna see the spreadsheet because
we wanna make sure there's actual
deals coming in and that proper value.
And it's the same, it applies The
same applies in paid ads as well,
Edvin Pauza: I remember thinking about
payments industries and I used to think
it's so tough because if you do any kind
of advertising, you can pay cost per
click five, 10, whichever amount, but
especially with kind of transactional
if you work, dollars to euros, pounds
to euros, the margin is so tiny.
I used to think how do they make a profit?
But being at Yapily
where we go to kind of.
The B2B the payment service providers.
It does make sense 'cause it's not kind
of a, based on a single transaction,
like in B2C and then it's okay.
I can't spend that time researching,
targeting, think planning it out.
'cause the ROI is big enough.
Araminta Robertson: Yeah, exactly.
Another thing I wanted just to ask about
is also like understanding FinTech.
I know you're both quite deep in FinTech.
I know Edvin, you're you've done a few
posts about your thoughts on FinTech.
I think you've also in
invested in some fintechs.
I dunno if that's correct.
But do you feel that it's necessary
in FinTech marketing to be a bit of
a, like FinTech nerd and to really.
To also just to enjoy it, to like
it, to wanna learn more about it and
be a bit of a nerd about all these
payment things and all of that.
Gregory Aubert: I mean, maybe I can start.
Yeah, it's a good question.
I think it's not essential to
come from FinTech to be successful
in FinTech.
I think we've got like many people in
our team that used to work in different
industry and they're doing very well.
the reality is like, it's more
about your personality, right?
Like, you need to be curious.
I have a genuine interest
in terms of what we do.
And I think for me, like, so I've
worked in FinTech and B2C and B2B,
B2C is probably less
important in a sense because.
it's much more straight to the point.
You're just sending the product.
So you might have to understand maybe
the benefit of the product and so on.
Whereas in B2B, you need to
understand the ecosystem.
like the reality is for us, like, YCP on
many financial services business, right?
you need to understand the ecosystem.
On the top of that, like as an open
banking provider, we do payment and data.
The payment ecosystem
is super, super complex.
I've been in the space for
like almost 10, 10 years.
I wouldn't be able to say
I understand everything.
It's still very complex.
But this is so important from
a marketing perspective, right?
Because if you think about.
As I said, like OICP and then the persona
within the ICP, like, they are experts
into their domain with which are financial
services could be payment as well.
So for us as marketer we need
to understand the detail, we
need to understand the trend
and what's going on in industry.
I can give you an example, like, if,
let's say we want to do a campaign
and targeting kind of lenders, right?
we're gonna target
product manager and so on.
We can't just be like, use open banking
for X, Y, Z reason, because it's gonna
help you to get better view of your
potential customer better, KYC and so on.
Like, we need to get a bit more
deeper and really understand what's
the benefit and the value almost
from a technical perspective.
But I think yes you're
gonna have to naturally.
You don't have to come from that.
As long as you're curious and
interested into it, that's fine.
But I think for me is, yeah, it's one of
the key success and good marketing that we
are doing is the expertise that translate
from the content that you put together.
Right?
Araminta Robertson: Yeah, you have
to be like, just interested in it
at least a bit of a nerd, of a,
like, I like learning, and I think
these people succeed in industries
like FinTech, which are a little bit
more complex and more technical and
Gregory Aubert: Yeah and I think you need
to appreciate that, that it is complex.
Like you're not gonna come in and
after a month understand everything
and like I know exactly how payment
flows are working and so on.
It's gonna take time.
Araminta Robertson: Yeah, agree.
Edvin, would you call
yourself a FinTech nerd?
Edvin Pauza: gosh,
Greg.
Gregory Aubert: Yeah,
Definitely.
Edvin Pauza: I think you previously
mentioned and I probably made the post
about investing in startups and fintechs.
And that again came out of my
curiosity to better understand,
but also frustration when I was.
Working partially as a freelancer and
choosing which companies to work for
and choosing the right ones, right?
'cause part of your success if work
in a right company career can really
take off and have massive success.
So I thought I wanted to learn what.
What makes a good company from bad and
again, from my freelance days, I had bit
of money that I invested through Cedars
in EIS Enterprise Investment Scheme.
Just that I learned about that and how
to submit my taxes and claim from that.
That gave me an exposure eventually,
I think now a hundred over 140.
I mean, these are tiny sums, but
that's the beauty of FinTech.
It allows you to miss from 10 pounds into
a FinTech, and then it gives you exposure
to company reports and access to, c-suite
of the companies that you invested.
So that helped me to learn and
see what kind of companies fail,
what kind of companies succeed.
The only thing I learned is almost
still to me seems like by chance,
but I've been fascinated by finance
and banking from a young age.
My first work experience at age of
14 was a large northwest branch.
But I didn't go straight into
finance for many reasons.
And actually marketing
came naturally to me.
I was.
Almost not.
I did study marketing at uni, but
I also studied other dual degree.
And actually then I.
I.
used to come back from summer holidays
and wanted to make a bit of money
or engage in some kind of venture.
I was building my own websites.
I was writing my own Google.
I just, yesterday I made LinkedIn
post, it was in 2008 summer holiday.
I posted my first Google AdSense advert,
and that's when I used to get paid myself
from other people clicking on the advert.
So I don't think fin technology
is crucial to succeed.
Sometimes it actually can be an advantage.
Gives you a fresh perspective and
clouded by industry assumptions.
'cause you can come like, you
might actually have a really good
strong back design or an approach.
This industry, which financial services
is a stuffy old fashioned industry.
FinTech has a bit of a tech edge.
But if you come, like worked or.
TikTok or somewhere and now you joined
a FinTech company, you can market that
FinTech completely different way than
somebody who's been in financial services.
And actually I was kind of part of that
example 'cause I brought into this.
Google search, paid search,
different way of thinking.
And then I was initially sharing
my findings on Slack where the
senior leadership could see, they
probably just opened their eyes
to new, different knowledge of
how people search for a company.
But once foundations are built and
running smoothly, the foundations
that you discussed, setting everything
up, that deep industry understanding
it, really starts to matter.
Especially, the pain points,
use cases and the ecosystem.
And if you want to go up the gear, so
you might, start new, set everything up.
You don't need any knowledge.
But once suddenly you will.
That kind of, it'll saturate the space
where you can kind of build upon.
And that's when you want
to go into higher gear.
Then suddenly you need to start
thinking, okay, what's a use case?
What's the pain point?
What's the ICP?
What use case pain point will
resonate with these audience?
Now that starts to matter,
once you need that extra boost.
but hopefully, if you just join from.
And like TikTok is pretty
much a FinTech anyways.
But if you joined from completely
different industry and now you work
in FinTech, by the time saturate it
you should learn, you should have that
knowledge within a year, two years.
And that's when you can put together
the knowledge where you came with
the new knowledge where you learn.
it's your Nitro boost to,
10 x results even further.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Araminta Robertson: And I think
being really in touch with experts
on the team, like just interviewing
you, you get so much knowledge just
from interviewing people and this
is why it's part of our process.
Like just constantly talking
and speaking to the experts.
You learn so much as well.
And that's like a big part of it as well.
Cool.
So I just wanna end on Yeah.
Yapily in the next few years.
Speaker 7: You know,
Araminta Robertson: 21 to
2024, there was a big change.
A big jump.
What is the focus for the next, I
don't know, three, three or four years?
how do you see maybe your marketing
changing, but also, also for Yapily?
Like, are you going global?
what are the next kind of ideas?
Gregory Aubert: It's a good question.
So I think for us, the fact that we
kind of have control over the future
being profitable is ascension, right?
So how do we build on that?
How do we kind of continue to grow?
Like, we've, like you had a good growth
trajectory that has been accelerated
in 2025, and the challenge is how
do you maintain that in 2026, right?
I think given where we are, where
like, capabilities and so on I
think it's being even more focused.
like Edvin talked a lot about ICP,
but this is gonna be like, even
more and more important for us,
really being hyperfocused on those.
How can we win more,
understanding the pain points.
And so on.
Like, I think as we said, like, we have a
very strong kind of inbound engine, right?
But like, now how do we supplement that?
And the fact that we have that
allow us to be even more focused.
So I think, in the next few months that's
gonna be what we're gonna try to do.
'cause I think in a scale up,
like, we kind of always want to
be focused and I think we try to
be focused throughout the year.
But you know, there's always
so many distraction priorities,
shifts and you have project that
you didn't plan , that you need to
do and take some priority, right?
So I think for us it's kind of how can
we kind of reduce the noise around the
team and be hyper focus because, it's
one thing to, to have amazing grow,
but like it's even more challenging
to maintain that, maintain that grow.
Uh, there.
Araminta Robertson: Yeah.
Get 'em.
Used to very strong growth,
but then it's you have
Gregory Aubert: Yeah.
Yeah.
You have
to
Araminta Robertson: another story.
Gregory Aubert: Exactly.
Araminta Robertson: Yeah.
Amazing.
Would you add anything, Edvin?
Edvin Pauza: Well, we're focusing
personally a lot on scaling efficiently,
and, pretty much con the whole podcast
without saying the word ai, know, you,
I just ruined it.
you know, Seeing how we can use these
AI agents, let's call 'em agents, these
robots, you know, instead of having
to, you know, it's easier to build out
processes and automating the manual work.
To be done by an AI agent rather
than hi hiring, a hundred employees
creating a hundred AI agents.
And also wanted to mention that and
marketing that creates intellectual
property that adds value to the company.
And we have worked at a creative
design agency and that would
help to visualize better what.
Yapily open banking infrastructure
platform is, that is unique to Yapily
only and not just a bunch of stock images.
' cause in FinTech and open banking
space, these, some of these
companies are like cookie cutters,
stock images and apart from a funny
name, there's little difference.
'cause the connections are very similar.
But really creating unique IP
visualization, the brand that will really
help to push these deals over line In
competition to other companies out there.
So, watch the Space.
There will be as soon as a update
on a art that's unique to Yapily,
basically, that will help people
to visualize and understand just by
looking, because it's open banking.
What does open banking
infrastructure platform?
tough to kind of, to say and understand,
but if you can visualize that easily.
I think that will be really built
on Yap Lee's intellectual property
and uniqueness of the brand.
That will really help us to kind of, as
we scale, help us the brand to stand out.
Araminta Robertson: yeah.
No, I love that.
I think that makes sense.
Gregory Aubert: Just to add on
that, I think Edvin, you mentioned
AI and this true, we haven't
mentioned it throughout the podcast.
I think and it's also a lot of work
that we do with your, I mean, I think
it's one of the key thing is how we
gonna adapt on, like basically what's
the bio journey and how AI as a play
with this and the different touch
points we kind of feel like that we.
People are gonna do more and more research
without looking at your website, right?
So your website is gonna, at least
for us, website, that's where people.
Like, fill in a form and contact
us form and book a meeting.
That's the ultimate goal.
You like a lot of, more and more people
are gonna come to the website and they
always, I mean, it's always the case, but
like, they're always gonna have made the
decision, but it's always almost gonna
be a conversion point and that's it.
Right?
So I think kind of really understand
that kind of shift of behavior and
whether people are gonna get the
information and make the decision.
I think we are gonna have to adapt quite
a lot And I mean we just got relaunching
new website, which is great, but I think
we're gonna have to optimize a lot of it
to really maximize performance around.
That think gonna be super
interesting because I mean,
if you look at, GBT is trying to
be more an operating system than
anything else now.
So how are we gonna
Speaker 7: definitely.
Gregory Aubert: That's a big question.
Araminta Robertson: No, it's
a really interesting topic.
It could be in a whole other episode.
people are predicting, maybe websites
just no longer exist really, and
through an LLMI think it'll be quite
a few years before that happens.
But it does, as a marketer, it, you
start to ask interesting questions where
maybe we only ever market to an LLM.
And we'll never be able
to reach the end customer.
'cause like it's the first time where
when you create an article, you know the
reader is gonna read what you produced.
Exactly the same thing.
But with an LLM, you don't know how
the end customer is gonna read that.
So it's like for the first time
as a marketer, you're actually
marketing to the LLM in a way.
And it's kind of this weird situation
where you don't know how the end
reader's gonna interpret or how the
LL m's gonna interpret your content.
So I think there is a
world where marketers.
Maybe half of your work is
influencing an LLM and half of
it is influencing the customer.
And that's just a very
interesting concept to me.
I don't know what, how it's
gonna look like but definitely
one, one be interesting.
But yeah.
Amazing.
Well, thank you so much for coming on.
This has been really fantastic
to deep dive into yeah, please.
Marketing.
Congratulations again on the
incredible growth and on your
world class performance marketing
program, and I think it's helpful.
To other fintechs, to see a little bit
like what is possible and especially,
and paid ads that often it takes time
and you have to just optimize a lot.
But yeah, so thanks so much for coming on.
It's been fantastic.
Gregory Aubert: Thank you for having us.
Edvin Pauza: Thank you.
I.
Araminta Robertson:
Thank you for listening.
You can find show notes and information
about guests at fintechmarketinghub.
com forward slash podcast.
And finally, huge thanks to Orama.
tv for producing this podcast.
We look forward to having
you on our next episode.