Gamechangers: Hello Soda

When you are doing something disruptive, it can be difficult to get people to back your ideas. Innovative companies tend to get excited about new ideas before the rest of the pack. Slower-moving businesses, however, start embracing innovation once the proof of success is already out there.

The inspiration for our business was largely born of frustration – frustration that people were not able to access financial services. I had encountered large credit agencies offering great products, but some consumers were getting knocked back because companies were using unreliable data.

I don’t really see myself as an entrepreneur, but I do believe you have to earn your success through hard work. A lot of the time people say I am really lucky, but you make your own luck.

One of the things that sets us apart from our competitors is that we don’t just do one thing. A lot of our competitors focus on ID verification or data recognition. With Hello Soda, we do everything through one platform to allow customers to get the maximum possible benefit from our service.

‘Keep going and your time will come’ – that’s what I’d say to other fintech companies looking to make a big breakthrough. The biggest challenge businesses in this sector face is persuading stakeholders to fall in line with innovation and technology.

Rise has enabled us to increase our contact base within Barclays and continue to develop our products by adding new alerts and features such as multi-lingual technology.

If I could implement one piece of financial regulation, it would be to make data more readily available in the correct manner to ensure businesses aren’t abusing data. In the past, businesses have relied on very restricted traditional data sources, which are, at best, six months old. It should be a requirement for businesses to base decisions on the most up-to-date sources.

The three words that sum up a gamechanger? Trailblazer, dynamic, successful.

I don’t really look back and wish I had done anything differently. But If I were to embark on another career, it would relate to boats or planes since I love flying and sailing.