Chasing the Great Evolution instead of Revolution, latest insights with Spiros Margaris

By @SimonCocking, latest catchup with Spiros Margaris Senior Advisor to Arbidex

Briefly, what is your background?

I am a venture capitalist and advisor to global FinTech and InsurTech start-ups and financial institutions. Thanks to the support of my great FinTech and InsurTech community, I am very fortunate to frequently appear among the top three positions of the established global industry influencer rankings.

I use my social channels––mostly my Twitter handle, @SpirosMargaris, and LinkedIn account––to share with my followers what I read and what interests me at the moment. I don’t always agree completely with the views of the authors I share on my social media accounts, but I do believe that contrary opinions are worth reading, so we can get a better and more objective understanding of certain issues in our industry.

I am often invited to speak at think-tanks and conferences, which are great platforms for the exchange of thoughts and ideas with other experts and passionate people. Last year, I wrote an AI white paper, Machine learning in financial services: Changing the rules of the game, for the enterprise software vendor SAP, which took me longer than I expected, but I was ultimately very happy with it.

Does your background seem logical to what you do now?

To answer this question, I’d like to refer to Steve Jobs’ Standford commencement address (2005), which I love and would recommend anyone to listen to, again and again, as I do. There is one quote in particular from this speech that I often think about: “Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life”.

I also believe that everything you do in your life prepares you, in a way, for what you want to achieve. More specifically, in my own case, I contend that my money management experience, the two start-ups I launched in New York, and my love for art, amongst many other things, have prepared me well for what I do now, and more importantly for what I love to do.

It is important to also mention that my personal and professional set-backs along the way have most likely been the fuel that drives me to strive for more in life, and have made me more generous and much more supportive of the people who try to make a difference. On this topic of great importance for me, I wrote a personal piece at the beginning of the year, entitled ‘Thank you, dreamers’

and talked about it in my TEDx Talk ‚How Fintech can positively impact the world’

Give us a one-minute pitch for what you are doing now?

I look for opportunities to invest in promising FinTech and InsurTech start-ups, and also advise companies on their global growth strategies. I am a senior advisor to Glance Technologies, Datametrex AI, kapilendo.de, moneymeets.de and F10 FinTech Incubator and Accelerator. My very latest involvement as a senior advisor is with the London cryptocurrency trading platform company, Arbidex.

 Why did you get involved with Arbidex?

To answer this question, I would like to talk about the birth of Arbidex. Kamilya Arslanova, CEO of Arbidex, was looking for the right opportunity for investors in her Solidity fund to participate in the crypto-asset market and, at the same time, limit their exposure to risk. She examined all the crypto-exchanges that have recently emerged as tools to profit from crypto-asset ownership, but they were far from being free of pitfalls. Addressing the needs of her clients, she conducted one of the largest blockchain hackathons, with the support of the co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin. The generous contribution and guidance of Vitalik to the hackathon helped to get Arbidex off the ground, for which Kaimilya and the Arbidex team is forever grateful.

What attracted me to Arbidex was the beauty of its very convenient method for trading cryptocurrencies. Arbidex provides cryptocurrency traders with a much-needed solution, by enabling them to trade via a single platform interface on different exchanges, whilst also offering an automatic arbitrage feature.

By providing the opportunity for investors to trade via a single account on different exchanges, and completely automating the arbitrage process, Arbidex helps to improve price accuracy and reduce spread. Besides the comfort and convenience that it provides to investors, the Arbidex solution addresses the volatility and liquidity issues of the crypto market, which, in the longer run, will simplify the integration of crypto-assets into the community, and make the market more approachable for institutional investors.

I am a strong believer that, despite their volatility, cryptocurrencies are here to stay, and are set to become a huge market. This is an exciting opportunity for me to support Kaimilya and her team in building a business with high growth and a very compelling value proposition.

Why do you think it is such a powerful idea?

Successful and popular business propositions are not necessarily revolutionary ideas, but rather convenient ones that focus on simplicity and fulfilling a customer’s basic needs. Arbidex, with its cryptocurrency trading platform integrator, did exactly that; it created a very convenient solution for the trading of cryptocurrencies from one trading destination. That, for me, is a great business proposition and a powerful strategy.

How can people find out more about Arbidex, you and your work?

People can find more information about Arbidex by visiting their company website www.arbidex.uk.com. For my work, see my website: www.MargarisAdvisory.com. For what I like to read and write, see my Twitter handle, @SpirosMargaris, or LinkedIn profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/spirosmargaris/.

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If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at Simon@IrishTechNews.ie or on Twitter: @SimonCocking