MoneyNeverSleeps ep 101: Digital Underground – Ambre Soubiran and Kaiko

Ambre Soubiran, CEO of Kaiko, joins the show this week to talk about how the pioneers of crypto and blockchain laid the foundation for the transformation of capital markets, Kaiko’s role beyond crypto as a financial market data provider…and the best route for sailing across the Atlantic!

This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here.

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EPISODE OVERVIEW:

Kaiko was founded in 2014 and is now a market data provider in the blockchain-based digital assets space, providing institutional investors and market participants with enterprise-gradedata infrastructure. In this episode, Ambre talks through the intersection and merging of Kaiko’s story with her personal story – see below for some of the best soundbites:

On her entry point to the crypto and blockchain space: “In 2012, for me, it was a refreshing new venture, I was going to these really random bitcoin meetups in these underground venues on Brick Lane in London, it was really sketchy at the time, but in a good way. It was really smart people that were inspired and changing the world and doing so in a technological and mathematical way that were really close to my heart.”

On thinking about crypto differently: “Bitcoin is very often perceived as a “crypto-anarchist revolutionary-against-institutions” mindset, which is indeed the genesis of it, but not everyone is like that, and I think it was more about challenging the status quo and re-thinking the notions of money, and that’s what I really liked about those meetups.”

On dispelling market rhetoric: “Banks definitely don’t ignore blockchain anymore, but I was trying to push it at a time when they weren’t ready for it yet. But the “blockchain-good-crypto-bad” mindset frustrates me a little bit, because what makes a blockchain work are the consensus and incentivization mechanism.

If you don’t have a unit of value, i.e., a cryptocurrency or token, that incentivizes people to maintain the network in a decentralised way tied to a blockchain, you’re missing out on the main points of what makes a blockchain work.”

On knowing your target investors: “If you’re a founder in the blockchain or crypto space, and you have to spend the first 15 minutes of a 30-minute pitch to a VC explaining blockchain and crypto, you’re in the wrong meeting.”

On the capital markets: “The capital markets industry is definitely less creative than it used to be, and that’s one of the things that drove me to crypto is that there’s still so much room to build.”

To learn more about Kaiko, get in touch at hello@kaiko.com, and you can get in touch with Ambre at Kaiko directly at ambre@kaiko.com.

For more episodes and our entire back catalogue of show notes go to MoneyNeverSleeps.ie.

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