Strategic Co-Pilot for B2B Tech & Fintech Founders | I Help You Scale Without Chaos | AI & Data Delivery at Radsody

I am a fintech founder turned Independent Non-Executive Director, working with boards, founders, and investors navigating growth in regulated and high-velocity environments.

Over 15+ years, I have built and scaled fintech and SaaS businesses across the UK, Europe, and MENA — from early-stage startups to regulated financial institutions. My experience spans digital banking, payments, embedded finance, and financial infrastructure, with a strong focus on translating strategy into durable execution.

I currently serve as an Independent Non-Executive Director and board advisor to fintechs and financial institutions, bringing an operator’s perspective to governance, risk, and growth decisions.

Current and recent roles include:
- IFC-nominated Independent Director, TBC Bank Uzbekistan
- Fintech Advisory Board Member, PayU
- Executive Board Director, Fiat Republic

Earlier in my career, I was a founder and operator:
- Founding team member at HelloFresh (NYSE: HFG)
- Launched and scaled the UK arm of digital bank Fidor, supporting its sale to Groupe BPCE
- Co-founded and scaled a regulated payments platform (Fiat Republic)
- Led revenue growth in multi-million-dollar B2B SaaS businesses

I am also the co-author of Embedded Finance (Wiley, 2022).

In the boardroom, I help teams bring clarity to complexity and turn strategy into scalable outcomes.

Sophie Guibaud 👾

First day at IMD for the Mastering Board Governance programme, and genuinely excited to be here.

Didier Cossin defines Governance as 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬, 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐬.

In real life, those decisions need to be made with incomplete information, competing priorities, and real consequences.

The best directors I know never stop sharpening that skill. The landscape - AI, ESG, regulation, stakeholder expectations - is shifting faster than ever.

So here I am. Taking notes, in a room full of people who take this responsibility seriously.

That's exactly where I want to be.

Sophie Guibaud

Independent Non-Executive Director & Board Advisor | Financial Services

There’s a moment in board discussions where everything has been analysed.

The numbers work. The deck is coherent. The downside has been modelled.

And still, something either sits right… or it doesn’t.

People call that “gut feeling.”

At board level, it isn’t instinct. It’s compressed experience.

It comes from reading the full pack.
From understanding how the business actually makes money.
From knowing your own biases.
From not needing to win the room.

Ego is expensive in governance.

The intuition that matters is pattern recognition + preparation + integrity, especially when pressure builds, and consensus feels convenient.

That feeling isn’t emotion.

It’s what’s left after you’ve done the work.

I recently joined the 100 Women In Finance's 100WFinTech Directory as part of the #100WFinTech Global Initiative.

As fintech matures, the conversation is shifting from pure innovation to questions of governance, risk, capital discipline and long-term value creation. 

Communities that bring together senior operators, investors and board members across financial services are increasingly important in shaping that evolution.

I was on the Fintech Insider podcast this week to dig into something many of us have noticed but not quite put together the way the team at 11:FS has done: the banking battlefield hasn't just evolved, it's gone vertical.

The original Banking Battlefield they framed back then was genuinely useful when it was created. 

But the battlefield it describes? That's not the one we're fighting on anymore.

So we took the time this week to revisit it.

The challengers who everyone wrote off are now posting billion-pound profits, helping write the rules for the next generation of payments infrastructure, and finally getting their UK banking licence (congrats Revolut!).

The real competitive pressure has shifted underground. It's no longer about who has the best app. It's about who controls the infrastructure underneath.

Primacy gets you the customer. Infrastructure keeps them.

We should also be honest: incumbents got a break. High interest rates bought them time: margins recovered, pressure eased, transformation felt less urgent.

That window is closing.

And most incumbents are finding transformation harder than expected.

Not because the will isn't there, it is.

But because the constraint was never really the technology. It's culture and governance, and that starts at the board.

You cannot navigate this battlefield without commercial and product expertise at the top. Not just risk and compliance - though that matters - but people who genuinely understand what it means to compete in this environment.

Without that, transformation is just expensive theatre.

Have a listen, would love to know what resonates 👇
🎧 https://lnkd.in/gcPZ5nGf

Financial services boards are packed with experience. But is it the right kind?

Having spent much of my career working with fintech operators and now spending more time in financial services governance, the difference in operating perspectives is striking.

Across the industry, many bank and payments boardrooms are rich in decades of risk, regulatory, and traditional banking expertise. That experience is invaluable and necessary.

But when career paths around the table look too similar, it can quietly shape how the future is evaluated.

Meanwhile, the industry itself is being reshaped by digital platforms, fintech operators, and entirely new customer expectations.

This is where board skills mapping matters.

When boards honestly assess the expertise around the table against where the institution needs to go (not just where it has been), the gaps often become clear.

Innovation.
Growth.
Digital transformation.
Customer experience.
Technology-led operating models.

These capabilities are still less common around many financial services board tables.

What someone with a fintech or startup operating background brings to a board isn’t disruption for its own sake. It’s a different lens.

In practice, that perspective often changes the questions that get asked in the boardroom.

• 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞. In high-growth environments, slow decisions don’t just cost time, they cost relevance.
• 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬. Fintech operators are often used to framing decisions through the lens of the end-to-end customer journey.
 • 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. Innovation requires bets that won’t all pay off.

The financial institutions that will lead the next decade are already expanding the range of operating experience around the table.

Because boards don’t just govern the present.

Does the expertise around the table reflect where the institution has been, or where it needs to go?

The Bancolombia outage last week has reopened an important conversation, one that goes well beyond a single institution.

When payments move in real time, interdependence increases, and fragility surfaces faster.

This isn't about blame but about architecture.

A few things stand out from a board governance perspective:

𝐀𝐯𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐟𝐢𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐲. 
Uptime is trust, not only an IT metric. For customers, it's whether salaries arrive. For boards, operational resilience deserves the same seriousness as capital and liquidity.

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐤 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬. 
Core systems. Cloud providers. Vendors. Instant rails. We tend to assess risk at the institutional level, but increasingly, the real exposure sits in the interconnections.

𝐒𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐨 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 
What happens if a major participant in a real-time rail is down for 72 hours? How is liquidity managed? Who coordinates communication? How is contagion contained? Resilience is not a framework. It's a rehearsed capability.

And the stack is expanding.

Stablecoins now operate as parallel settlement layers. They add optionality, particularly cross-border, but introduce new concentration points at issuer and protocol level.

Risk doesn't disappear. It migrates.

The question for boards and regulators is no longer simply: "Is our institution resilient?"

It's: "Is the stack resilient?"
Institution. Rail. Vendor. Issuer. Protocol.

Digital finance will never be risk-free. Resilience must be designed, not assumed. And at the board level, design is governance.

The recent debate in Colombia, highlighted by Marcel van Oost and sparked by comments from Marcela Torres of Nubank Colombia, points to a broader systemic issue.

Open article: Nu Flags Systemic Risk After Bancolombia Hits Bre-B Rails by connectingthedotsinfin.tech

Nu Flags Systemic Risk After Bancolombia Hits Bre-B Rails

Writing daily tips and jokes for product guys

I don’t just post on LinkedIn: I work on building the engine that powers it ⚡

As a Product Lead at Taplio, I spend my days analyzing what makes content go viral, how the LinkedIn algorithm actually works, and how to build AI that helps creators win while staying authentic

I write 3x a week on: 
📌 LinkedIn Growth Engineering: Reverse-engineering the feed
📌 Product Strategy: How to build features that drive revenue (not just clicks)
📌 AI & Automation: Using data to scale your personal brand

I’ve spent 10+ years building products for startups and scale-ups and learned that impact doesn’t come from cranking out features: it comes from making better decisions

☕ Also a big fan of coffee and product chats: my DMs open for strategy talk!

Josquin Fougeray

Yes, that’s me on the left 😬

Nice suit, probably overconfident, definitely under-aware

𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟲
I had just started as a junior consultant after an engineering and business degree, wearing suits every day, walking into big corporations, trying very hard to look like I knew exactly what I was doing (full disclosure: I didn't)

I didn’t really know what I wanted to build
I didn’t really know what kind of life I wanted
I was just following the path that made sense on paper

Good school, good job, good trajectory

What I didn’t know back then is that this “logical” first step would shape the next ten years in ways I couldn’t imagine, because in that same consulting firm, I met my wife, and everything started shifting from there

𝗙𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲
I’m turning 33 in a few weeks
We moved to Nantes (𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘍𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦)
We have twins who just turned 2 at the beginning of the year (𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘭𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘥, 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦)

At 24, I thought work had to be serious to be meaningful
Now I believe work has to be 𝗳𝘂𝗻 to be sustainable

I used to optimize for prestige
Today, I optimize for 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀

For choosing projects that excite me
For building a life that feels aligned 
For being present (at work and at home)

And honestly, I like the 2026 version a lot more!

Building the #1 Tool for LinkedIn Growth 🚀 | Writing about Product Strategy & Personal Branding

No alternative text description for this image

We just reduced churn by 30% without shipping a single new feature

Here's what we actually did:

The instinct when churn goes up is to build
Add a feature, close a gap, ship something ...

We did the opposite: looked at where users were dropping off, not what they were asking for

Three things we found:
→ Most churned users had never reached the "aha moment" (for us that means never got a post scheduled)
→ They'd tried once, hit friction, and quietly disengaged
→ None of them had complained, they just left

So we fixed the path, not the product
→ Rewrote the onboarding flow around one action
→ Triggered in-app prompts at the exact drop-off points
→ Sent one email at day 7: "you haven't scheduled a post yet: here's the one thing that changes that"

Churn dropped: not because of a new feature, but because we finally paid attention to what was already failing

Discovery isn't just finding new problems: it's looking at the ones already in front of you

What's the last non-feature thing you've shipped recently (𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘐 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯)?

LinkedIn gave me 36,000 impressions on a meme I created in 15 minutes

My most carefully researched post got 5 likes

The fun part: I work on a tool that structures and leverages LinkedIn data for a living

I know the signals (hooks that earn the second line, saves over reactions, early engagement in the first hour...) I applied all of it to the researched post

The joke had none of that

Here's what I've accepted: 
👉 The patterns are real, but the algorithm still has its own ideas

You can understand most of what it wants and it will still humble you on a Tuesday morning when you least expect it

What's your version of this? Share it in the comments 👀

graphical user interface, application, Teams

After 9 years in product, here's the one thing I wish I'd learnt in year one:

The best product decisions aren't made with more data.
They're made with clearer priorities.

I've watched teams drown in dashboards while the real question went unasked:
"What problem are we actually solving this quarter?"

Every time I've seen a product team go from chaos to clarity, it started with one shift:

Stop debating features.
Start aligning on outcomes.

It sounds simple. It rarely is.

But when your team can answer "why this, why now" in one sentence: everything speeds up

undefined undefined

Certified Pega Decisioning Consultant 7.4

Design Thinking

Core curriculum
• Mathematical Analysis
• Energetic and industrial application (automobile, aeronautics, production)
• Virtual engineering (Computer aided design, digital modelling, calculus)

Major : Web Strategy and Development
• General knowledge on the evolution of the Web
• Understand the impact of the digital revolution
• Programmation in HTML, CSS, JS
• Web Project Management

Partnership between Centrale Nantes and Audencia Business School

Core curriculum : control management, financial analysis, sectorial marketing, entrepreneurship, business strategy, innovation and creativity

Double Major :

Marketing for Product Managers
• Various team projects for international companies (Ferrero, DIM, L’Oreal, Danone)
• Developing trade marketing
• Integrating retailing channels
• Developing the value proposition

Management of Digital Business, Information & Technology
• Big data & Business transformation 
• IT consulting, Information systems strategy and planning
• Digital transformation & Marketing


Product Lead @Taplio | Get leads, not just likes

Product guy with 9+ years of experience in product teams and consulting, feel free to DM if you want to chat about product or project management, I would be happy to help!

5 LinkedIn metrics: most creators track them in the wrong order

We analyzed 200k+ posts 

Here's the hierarchy that actually matters, and why:

𝟭. 𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗲𝘀: 𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝘆𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗱
↳ A save = someone found real, lasting value
↳ The algorithm reads it as the strongest quality signal
↳ Almost nobody checks this one

𝟮. 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀: 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗳 𝗼𝗳 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲
↳ Real replies, not "great post"
↳ Signals to the algorithm that your content sparked something
↳ Where actual relationships get built

𝟯. 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘀: 𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
↳ Rare, but powerful
↳ When someone reposts, they stake their audience on your content
↳ One repost > 100 reactions

𝟰. 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: 𝗮 𝘄𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹
↳ Confirms your hook landed
↳ But the algorithm barely moves on reactions alone
↳ The ratio to impressions matters more than the raw count

𝟱. 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰
↳ Measures reach, nothing about quality
↳ High impressions + low saves = you entertained someone for 3 seconds
↳ The metric everyone puts in screenshots

Most creators optimize for #5
The algorithm rewards #1

I'm breaking this down from 200k+ posts, one insight at a time.

Follow for weekly LinkedIn data and connect if you want to talk about your own numbers 🤙

It took me long to realize the LinkedIn algorithm wasn't the problem:


I was.

For months, I'd write something, give it all my heart, hit publish, check the numbers two hours later, and feel... confused.

So I did what any reasonable person would do: 𝗜 𝗯𝗹𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗴𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗺.

Then, as a PM on taplio.com, I got access to a lot of data 
(𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴)

And the pattern I kept seeing wasn't about timing, or hashtags, or posting frequency, it was simpler and more annoying than that:

Most posts don't flop because of distribution.
→ 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗳𝗹𝗼𝗽 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱.

That was hard to accept, because it meant the problem wasn't some mysterious black box: 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗺𝘆 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴

Specifically:
→ I was giving context before tension
→ I was warming up instead of starting
→ I was writing for myself, not for the person scrolling past me at 8am with half a coffee in them (hi!)

Once I started treating the hook like the only line that matters, things shifted.

Not overnight, not dramatically, but enough to notice

I still write posts I'm proud of that go nowhere.
I still sometimes open with two lines of setup that kill the momentum.

The difference is I recognize it now. 
And recognizing the pattern is most of the work.

Do you have writing habit you had to unlearn before things started clicking?

LinkedIn also has its own love languages

And if you’re a creator, you should know them:

💞 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 = 𝗗𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲
If people stop scrolling and actually read you, that’s powerful
Retention > impressions, always.

💌 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 = 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀
Not “Great post”
→ Real conversations
Conversation density = platform value

🎁 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 = 𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗲𝘀
Saves signal long-term utility
“This is useful for future me”
That’s a strong quality signal

💘 𝗣𝗵𝘆𝘀𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗼𝘂𝗰𝗵 = 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝘀
Shares multiply distribution
But only if your content makes the sharer look insightful

💍 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 = 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆
Predictable creators reduce ranking uncertainty
Systems > random virality
If users win → you win.

This Valentine’s, stop trying to seduce the algorithm
Build posts people actually care about ❤️

Most product debates aren't about the decision.

They're about the fact nobody agreed on the criteria beforehand.

Before your next prioritisation meeting, try this:

1. Write down the 3 criteria that matter most this quarter.
2. Share them with the team 24 hours before the call.
3. Score every option against those criteria — live, together.

You won't eliminate disagreement. But you'll stop arguing about apples vs oranges.

Alignment isn't magic. It's prep work.

taplio

The Battle

Sophie Guibaud 👾

Josquin Fougeray

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreSophie Guibaud 👾's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJosquin Fougeray's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Sophie Guibaud 👾

Josquin Fougeray

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Sophie Guibaud 👾's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJosquin Fougeray's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreSophie Guibaud 👾's LinkedIn Performance