Connect Trailblazers: Curve

On the heels of raising an impressive Series C round of $95M, Curve, which allows customers to consolidate multiple cards into one smart card and an app, is well on its way to people’s pockets around the world. Founded in the UK in 2016 by IDF veteran Shachar Bialick, Curve is already changing the way people manage their finances in 31 markets across the U.K. and Europe. This is just the beginning.

With Curve crossing such an important milestone, Connect partner, Rory Stirling, sat down with Shachar to talk about it all: from their origins to their growth, their most surprising features to their most anticipated ones, their biggest challenges to their soaring successes. It’s all here, for your reading pleasure.

Rory Stirling: First up, I wanted to acknowledge another huge milestone for you and the team. Congrats on raising the Series C round. Can you take us back to the beginning and tell us about when you started Curve and what led to that moment?

Shachar Bialick: Funnily enough, my wife reminded me two weeks ago that I pitched Curve to her on our first date. I was already passionate about it.

The idea behind Curve, its mission, and the inevitable evolution of finance, emerged in 2006. It was before we had smartphones in our pocket at all times. The idea was all web-based, and it was to have one simple point of access to your money that knows the customer the best, connects them to the best financial products and services, and allows them to manage those services from that single access point instead of multiple websites, passwords, etc.

Back in 2006, I made myself an executive summary with the usual “go/no go” at the end. I ultimately decided “no go” because at the time, Facebook had its own digital currency. A billion people with a virtual currency potentially made it one of the biggest economies in the world, and I figured they could neatly solve the online micropayments problem as the first hook. Eventually, Facebook dropped their virtual currency in 2008. The other reason to hold back was PayPal, who at the time was a very innovative company. Their user experience was among the best and they were already on the web with an over-the-top financial infrastructure. That’s how I had envisioned Curve working, so we thought they might get there first. They didn’t, and in hindsight, it was also too early from a market perspective.

The real shift came in 2014, when a number of events took place. First, smartphones became a household item. Second, Europe implemented PSD1/PSD2 regulations on payment services and payment service providers, making it possible for new companies to actually compete with incumbents. Finally, Don Kingsborough, who PayPal had hired to execute what I had envisioned, left in a storm because he felt he couldn’t achieve the mission he set out to do — bring PayPal to the brick-and-mortar world. So in late 2014, I started to revisit this idea from 2006 from my bedroom. I thought about where the market was headed and how to win this emerging category. It didn’t emerge right away, but the idea was there and I understood market principles enough to see it.

RS: That’s a very strong “Why now” reason for starting the company, and you were extremely patient with the idea. Was there a specific customer problem or pain point that you wanted to solve?

SB: The answer is of course yes. Good founders need to choose good markets, full stop. Two things need to happen in a good market: Number one is timing. Most businesses fail because of timing; they’re just too early, or too late. Number two is product-market fit. Is there a big enough problem, a deep enough problem, and a big enough market for customers, with a sustainable business model and well-perceived channels.

With regards to the market, what we saw around us was the beginning of the unbundling of the bank. It started a few years before Curve, with Transferwise and N26. In late 2014, we started to see all these new companies crop up — new challenger banks and FX providers providing faster, better, cheaper solutions than banks. They really offered the same legacy infrastructure, but with better distribution. And unbundling begins with distribution before it goes down the value chain to production.

Anyone with experience in startups knows that unbundling and rebundling is common in the market. We saw it in music with Spotify, in TV with Netflix, in commerce with Amazon, in fashion with ASOS. It starts with unbundling — a number of players start popping up in specific niche products and markets with new distribution alternatives. Then, because the market isn’t big enough, and content acquisition and capital requirements increase, winners and losers emerge. These winners are usually the ones who rebundle the market. It’s an inevitable pattern. So when we saw the market moving towards segmentation, we knew it would inevitably come back together.

For me, the race to rebundle the finance market was very exciting. It was a long game in many aspects and we were thinking about it ahead of everyone else.

Timing was a risk. Luckily, it worked really well for us. We also knew that the big market for rebundling was not only Europe, but really the U.S. Realistically, you can’t just start in the U.S. because of the relationships and competition. You have to do what Spotify did: start in Europe, prove the point, scale, then passport it to the U.S. So that was a long game as well. Remarkably, our shareholders, investors, and partners all played the long game with us. They placed a huge amount of trust in our team and our ability to execute, even when we didn’t have a license to operate yet! We were lucky to find investors, like Connect, that focused on the market analysis and the product itself to make a decision rather than the immediate outcome. That’s one of the aspects of Connect that resonated the most with me.

Our product strategy came down to how everything is moving from analogue to digital. In order for us to win the rebundling race, we needed to play into our customer’s behaviour. Nowadays, people want things to come to them. They want convenience in the palm of their hands, and they want it simpler, faster, and less expensive. Our technology can do that for finance.

RS: So after all that, can you tell us more about what the Curve product looks like today?

SB: Today, Curve is simply this:

“one card to rule them all.” We bring your wallet to the cloud in the most simple, convenient way possible. When you sign up, you add all your cards, as you would with Apple Pay, then you receive one card that works everywhere.

The Curve Card is magical because it can become any other of your cards whenever you use it. This opens up a whole world of other benefits. If you made a payment on the wrong card, you can Go Back In Time and change from one account to another, giving you unparalleled control and flexibility with your money. If you suddenly find yourself short on cash, you can Go Back In Time and make decisions differently. You can move an expense from your checking account to your credit card, taking advantage of the credit grace period and immediately getting more cash in your checking account, with zero percent interest.

Curve also allows you to pay your bills with your credit card. If a vendor doesn’t accept a credit card, such as Samsung Pay, Google Pay, or Apple pay — no problem. Curve creates a standard of accessibility and control across all your cards, supercharging the experience and making your life easier.

RS: It’s amazing to see the market play out almost exactly how you envisaged it. I’ve always been most impressed with Curve’s user engagement, retention, and advocacy. Why do you think your users love the product so much?

SB: I think it’s because it just makes sense and the product does what it says it will. As I mentioned earlier, we moved from analogue to digital, and we did it in a very seamless way. We’re not telling you to leave your old life behind. We’re telling you, you’re fine where you are, just click on a button and transform what you’re already using into a digital world. Your loyalty cards, your payment cards, your Excel spreadsheets… Bring them to a simpler, faster digital form.

With very little behavioural change, you get to keep the products you love and trust and just connect them all into one card and one app for a supercharged experience across all your finances. This convenience is why people love Curve, why they are very engaged, and why we have such high retention rates.

RS: We backed you because of your insight in this market and your unique and bold way of solving this particular customer problem. The Curve proposition today is still extremely differentiated in an otherwise fiercely competitive market. Why do you think that is, and how would you describe the product culture that’s created what we see today?

SB: If you’re building a new category the way Curve is — special shoutout to Pietro for introducing me to the book Play Bigger at one of Connect’s amazing founder events — and no one is competing in your category after 2–3 years, you need to ask yourself why, because it’s not a good sign. Right now, some players are trying to come in, but we are indeed mostly alone. Why?

Because the category we are creating is not just a new product category in a usual world; it’s an unregulated category for which we had to create new rules in an uphill battle.

That means we have this kind of natural moat between us and other players entering the market. We do know that incumbents are trying to get to our category, so we’re confident our category is good, in terms of value. We also notice that this moat is working, which makes us stronger.

Another interesting aspect to category creation is that any player who comes into a category they did not create needs to ask themselves who created the category. The answer to that question is very likely the Category Leader. A Category Leader is defined by capturing 70–80% of profits whether or not they have the majority share of the market. That happens because of scale, capability, and knowledge. Being the category creator also means we need to educate the market, but I’d rather educate the market than be a small fish in a very large ocean, which is what everyone else is doing.

RS: I know we’re not supposed to pick favourites, but which feature or part of the product has been the most impactful for you as a business, or which part of the product has surprised you the most in terms of its impact?

SB: The feature that surprised me the most was Go Back In Time. It came about when people would have to pay using their card and they had no battery, no internet connection, they left their phone at home, or they just forgot to change the card in the app. Curve would charge the wrong card, because there is no way to make a change on the card itself — everything is in the app. This created friction and occasional churn, so we decided to give the customer 30 days, 60 days, even 90 days to effectively go back in time and change the card to be charged with one tap. It’s also a delightful experience because when you Go Back In Time, a Flux Capacitor icon appears. For our audience, who grew up watching Back to the Future and Terminator, this has a nostalgic, almost emotional effect that reels people in.

What’s surprising about Go Back In Time is that in addition to being used as we intended, we’re finding new use cases for it, too. As I mentioned earlier, some customers use Go Back In Time to manage their cash flow and get payday loans with zero percent interest by simply moving a previous transaction from their debit card to their credit card. When COVID hit, this came as a big help to many of our users, so we extended the Go Back In Time period from 60 days to 90 days as a result.

RS: It’s a pure delight. I use it to switch between personal and work cards all the time when I’ve used the wrong one. It’s a great example of how a digital product creates a brand new user experience that you couldn’t do before. It feels like magic.

We all know you can’t build amazing products without a number of failures along the way. Have there been any product features you were really excited by but completely flopped or never got released?

SB: One feature I’m eagerly awaiting is Curve Cast.

Curve Cast would allow me to share any of my cards with someone else, without actually sharing sensitive information.

For example, if my wife wants to go shopping, she can use her Curve card but connect it to one of my credit cards. Same with my children or my cleaning lady, if they want to buy groceries or cleaning products. I can use Curve Cast with my employees, so they can connect their own Curve card to the business account with controls and services. There are a lot of ways it can be useful, and that creates a network effect, where the product is even more valuable as a network than individually. It’s also a great example of jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) thinking. Understanding the job on a first principle basis can open up new product experiences: instead of joint accounts, we create flexible and controlled shared access to any individual account. Unfortunately, it’s a feature that’s been pushed to give way to other priorities, but I’m very excited about it.

As for flops, there are many. But I see those as a good thing. To me, beyond being a founder, as a human being, you want to be a professional “failer.” It means you’re going out of your comfort zone and trying things you haven’t done before with the goal of being better. Michael Jordan was a professional “failer,” constantly pushing himself to the limits and failing until he finally achieved his goals. Many athletes actually ambitiously failed until they succeeded. So did many great scientists. Failure is merely the path to success. The same thing happens in companies. The only requirement is you have to be a very fast learner. You need to be agile and adaptive to overcome these failures, otherwise, you won’t be able to evolve in time.

RS: Let’s riff on that a little bit. I’ve heard you talk a lot about company culture, and we’ve seen firsthand that you’re extremely big on learning and growth mindset. Which mistake has taught you the most as a founder, or been most impactful for the company?

SB: I don’t think any company has one big mistake. I think there are many small mistakes, death by a thousand cuts as we call it, which influence the culture. If I flip the question on its head, the most important thing for a company which you cannot compromise on is the culture you want to set, and the people you hire to preserve it. You have to be relentless in fighting for that culture, all the way from the interview down to onboarding and eventually as you retain employees. Some of our mistakes happened when we kept employees who were “smart assholes” — very smart people but extremely challenging to work with and ultimately, cancerous to the organisation. Or when we put the wrong people in a specific function, which created the wrong culture.

The best way to avoid that is to be crystal clear on your idea of culture, overcommunicating it as necessary, and using your position as a founder to make sure it’s there, that it’s authentic, and that it will outlive you when you leave the company.

The second way to avoid mistakes is to be clear and intentional around systems and leadership. In order to do so, as a Founder/CEO, you really have to understand the different operational systems, and which system to apply in different situations: OKRs, values, war mode vs. peace mode, helix vs. matrix, The Flywheel, category creation, JTBD. These are all operating systems which a Founder/CEO must constantly learn how best to utilise, where and when. One example is when Wirecardgate happened earlier last year. When the FCA shut down the Wirecard licence, Curve was directly affected, as our issuing and acquiring activities depended on Wirecard for operational support. This threatened to shut down all our accounts within hours, and we found out about it at 9AM on Friday 26 June. We had no idea when Wirecard would get its licence again, if at all, and we couldn’t afford to leave the business and its customers with such an unknown outcome.

So we decided to do the impossible: reconnect our entire Paytech stack, and get back online before the end of the weekend. And we did it. In under 60 hours over a weekend. That weekend was the culmination of all the things that make Curve great: the people, our systems, our culture of thinking bold, our leadership, our relationships with partners, the evangelism of our customers.

It was an immensely humbling experience to be part of this challenge and seeing my team lead the charge with a “challenge accepted” attitude. In that situation, you have no choice but to enter into war mode, and the CEO needs to understand which frameworks can be used and how to operate them at scale with 300 employees. There’s no time to learn on the job; it’s time to execute. Which brings us back full circle to my view on learning and healthy curiosity.

RS: Let’s talk about what you have coming up. You’ve already mentioned Curve Cast. Which other new product features are you excited about in 2021?

SB: Our plans this year are very ambitious. To me, the two most exciting developments are our expansion to the U.S and the launch of Curve Credit. The U.S. is a huge market and very different to the U.K. and Europe. It requires a lot of heavy lifting, localising the products, the language, the messaging. There are different regulations and compliance questions, and we’re working with networks on a completely new product category for the country. Amanda Orson, an exceptional talent with two exits under her belt, is leading the charge there.

Curve Credit is our first step towards proving what is possible as an over-the-top platform and our first venture towards production in the rebundling framework.

So far, we’ve given users the convenience of having all their cards in one. Now we’re going to show them what that really means. Go Back In Time is just a taste. With Curve Credit, you can swipe now and pay later from any card, any merchant, any geography, any time — bringing the power to the hands of the customer. Instead of using an expensive credit card, you can use a more affordable installment plan. That’s really powerful. Curve Credit also allows you to see all your balances in one place, with recommendations on when to pay your bills to minimise your borrowing costs, and how to refinance one card over another at a lower rate. All you need to do is tap yes or no, and we do the rest. We Go Back In Time, refinance the credit card, and put you on a pre-payment installment plan. It’s next level convenience from the palm of your hand. It’s been in customer beta for the past eight months and we’re preparing to launch in the next six weeks.

RS: I love the way you describe that. You’ve built the new user experience, the over-the-top layer, and now you’re inserting really valuable customer propositions into that layer. Can you tell us more about rebundling? What will Curve look like for the customer in 10 years?

SB: Affirm and Klarna have launched debit cards. Imagine those companies launching their debit cards on Curve. We have the scale and the data to help a partner like Klarna immediately reach the right customers and instantly add them to a user’s (Curve) wallets.

Let’s take this a step further. Curve is really an operating system — the official company name is Curve OS to denote the Operating System purpose. As we progress, we will provide a design interface like the App Store or Play Store, becoming an App Store for Money. Financial apps like You Need a Budget or other budgeting tools could develop their products and services directly on Curve, and their target clients would already be there. All they need to do is create their experience, decide whether or not to charge for it, and launch on our app store .

That’s the ultimate vision. It’s 10PM, you’ve had a long day, you’re sitting on your sofa and you want to check your finances as you’re thinking of a surprise holiday with your partner. You go to Curve, see five budgeting apps, you choose one and connect it to Curve. You don’t need to do anything else; your insights are automatically there.

RS: Wrapping up, you and the team have had so many meaningful milestones, including the Series C. What are you most proud of in the journey so far?

SB: There is a lot to be proud of. I think what I’m most proud of is our ability to attract A-star talent. I can whole-heartedly tell you we have the best leadership team in European Fintech. Each and every one of these talents could have worked anywhere they wanted. We have people like Nathalie Oestmann and Scott Weller. Amanda Orson and Paul Harrald, who have exited their own companies so successfully, they don’t have to work anymore. But they’re working here, and they are working hard for a shared mission we all believe in.

The second point of pride is Wirecardgate. Our response showed the world how Curve could execute as a company. It wasn’t just hard work; it required a very deep, technical understanding of the business as well as strong partner relationships. We couldn’t have done it all by ourselves. Our partners helped us push through over the weekend, and they didn’t do it for money. They did it because they trusted us and felt integral to the journey. It also bonded the team. When the news hit us, literally nobody thought it was possible to turn things around. I got laughed at! But as time passed, things started to look up, and the energy shifted. That weekend, this “anything is possible” mindset was cemented into our organisation.

RS: Anything is possible — what a great way to wrap up. Thank you for your time, Shachar. We are enormously proud of you and the team and extremely excited for what you guys do next. Best of luck!

To get the full scoop and/or experience Shachar’s energy in all its glory, watch the full interview 👇