Team Spotlight: Solenne Niedercorn-Desouches, Executive Director at Fabric Ventures

At Fabric Ventures we want to go the distance for potential founders, and perhaps the best person to exemplify this is Solenne Niedercorn-Desouches, our Executive Director, based in Luxembourg. A podcast host, experienced trail runner and with an impressive proven track record in private banking and start-ups, Solenne is the go-to for learning more about regulation, compliance and critical processes in the Fabric Ventures team.

With degrees from Paris Dauphine and La Sorbonne in Management, Finance and Tax, Solenne has had an expansive career characterised by her extensive knowledge and expertise. Her career has taken her from working in the hedge fund industry to financial communications, an analyst position at HSBC and also as an Advisory Portfolio Manager at UBS. She has an extensive understanding of Private Equity funds, and an in-depth knowledge in numerous asset classes. Solenne’s regulatory experience has been enhanced with her time at Lombard Odier, assisting with their opening in Luxembourg.

Solenne has also had substantial entrepreneurial experience — demonstrated to this day through her passion for working with new founders. Her first company was located in the SaaS field, and she later joined the start-up accelerator (NYUKO). In 2017, she was then recruited by a Luxembourg-based start-up in RegTech. Solenne provides consulting work to start-ups or scaleups and is deeply knowledgeable about the FinTech European field.

This entrepreneurial experience has lent itself to a certain resilience in Solenne. With an understanding of business failure, Solenne understands the importance of remaining motivated and self-aware whilst running a business — two qualities admittedly difficult to achieve. A passionate advocate for innovation and change within the finance industry, Solenne’s dedication is undoubtedly rooted in her convictions in the value of decentralised finance and the Open Economy. Her resilience and willingness to embrace change, combined with a strong sense of energy and drive makes her an active and dynamic team player. Solenne understands the complexities of many Founders’ situations, especially from a regulatory perspective, as they navigate the path of bringing their projects to fruition.

This knowledge and expertise is manifested in her podcast, FINSCALE. A space to explore the constantly changing financial, banking and insurance industry, Solenne’s work is one of the foremost podcasts to learn more about the movers and shakers in the FinTech and InsurTech industry, through insightful interviews and thoughtful analysis.

What developments are you most excited about in the crypto space at the moment?

I’m principally interested in De-Fi, of course — I’m coming from that world. At the moment, I’m constantly researching because I want to learn more in order to understand the potential forthcoming challenges for the regulators. I’m a bit obsessed about researching and acknowledging all the intricacies of the topic in detail. So De-Fi is, I would say, what excites me the most. But I’m fascinated by the other businesses coming in: whilst I’m fulfilling my due diligence responsibilities, I go through all the documents and read all the details of those targeted companies. So, it forces me to extend my knowledge on other elements, other verticals and technology. I am continually ensuring that critical processes and suppliers are under control, efficiently performing their duties to properly conduct Fabric Ventures business.

Could you tell us a little bit about your journey to Fabric Ventures?

I’ve been working for almost 15 years in the banking and finance industry. After the subprime crisis, I took the decision to shift from investment and instead concentrate on projects linked with asset management. In this period, I was the person in charge of new products or projects, such as the launch of a new branch or a new business unit. I focused on starting the business development, meeting clients, and when it became the moment to scale the business, I would switch to another project. This experience has shown me what I like most about the finance industry is its diversity, and there are so many different avenues to go down, which for me, is the key for the economy. In 2016, I launched my own venture whilst simultaneously working in a bank. I did this for one year, and then after one year it became incredibly complicated to do both in parallel, so I joined an accelerator of start-ups in Luxembourg. After this, I worked as an advisor for FinTech early stage companies. I also have a podcast where every week I interview a person, usually a Co-Founder or CEO, who is there to explain the launch of a product or start up associated with FinTech, RegTech or InsurTech companies or big banks. It’s so great because it forces me to analyse a new player each week, and to understand who the new joiners are and how these companies are working together in their partnerships. So, I have a very extensive knowledge of these FinTech, RegTech ecosystems in Europe.

How do you think Fabric Ventures will evolve?

My first perception of Fabric Ventures was solely related to DeFi. But when I started digging into Fabric Ventures Investment Thesis, I really discovered a new world. I am fascinated by the potential for the Open Economy, and I believe it is the future. Yet, it still is very niche and there is not a widespread awareness of what it entails or what it can achieve. I believe that there is a mission for Fabric Ventures to train people on these concepts, because even VCs I have discussions with aren’t familiar with the Open Economy. So, people are not fully aware of all the possibilities that exist not only for businesses but also for the users. I have the feeling that this is what Fabric Ventures will start to address, which, compounded with good investments, will help raise our awareness in the VC world.

You have so much experience with setting up your own projects — what lessons have you learnt and what advice can you give?

I think it’s so important to be strong and to keep the momentum going. It helps to remember that the worst thing is to not start at all, yet it’s vital to also have an awareness to stop when the work is no longer making sense, or to find a way to pivot the project in a better direction, meaning that you are constantly assessing yourself as you go. I find it helpful to have good people surrounding you, as advisors. This is a recommendation that I make regularly, and regardless of the size of your team or where you are in the scaling of your activity, it is important to have the best possible advisory board and executives around you, ensuring that they are always adapted to your needs. That is why with Fabric we do everything possible to build the best teams around founders and CEOs. For me, the most important thing is remaining flexible and having the ability to embrace change.

Thank you for talking to us, Solenne!