A chat with Nic Kopp
Nic Kopp is the U.S. CEO at N26 Inc. and has been with the fintech unicorn since its infancy as the Head of Business Development at N26 GmbH in Berlin. Being an avid user of N26 myself, I am excited to have had the chance to sit down with Nic just before their launch in the States. We talked about the right timing to dive into the start-up world, trusting yourself when making decisions without clear guidelines, and ‘T-shaped’ skillsets.
Choosing the first career track
Nic does not have the typical U.S. ‘I did CS at [Insert Name] College, lived in SF for a while and then started my venture’ background. Instead, he began with a more classic career trajectory. Nic started a career in investment banking at Morgan Stanley based out of Hong Kong after having found an interest in economics and corporate finance in his student days. He was genuinely excited to crunch numbers alongside some of the smartest people in the industry and did not select this career track only for prestige or financial reasons. ‘Often, people optimize their career for stamps in their CV, but for me, it was a stamp that I chose out of curiosity’, as Nic phrased it. After five years at Morgan Stanley and an exciting ride, Nic experienced how his learning curve was slowly flattening out. He found himself in a ‘limbo state’ between having understood the main processes in investment banking yet having little budget responsibility that would enable further personal growth.
Taking the plunge
It’s during that time that Nic gradually observed a technological disruption of the finance sector and was seeing vast potential to leverage these shifting forces. As serendipity plays a role in every success story, Nic’s college friend Valentin happened to be starting a company named ‘Number26’ around the same time. After some initial talks, Nic eventually decided to join the team. Vividly depicting how they began their journey by registering their ‘Number26’ domain online, Nic stresses the value of college friends and believes that people generally undervalue this. Back then, the group of friends decided to go all-in for the long shot and even after onboarding over 3.5million customers to its mobile-first platform, Nic still perceives it as slightly surreal to have pulled this off.
Admittedly, his new job as head of business development (in a team of <10 people at that point) had very different demands compared to the required skillset from his former investment banking career. Nevertheless, more general traits such as effective communication, efficient project management, or analytical skills matured in a high-paced environment come in handy at all times. Nic also talks about one trait learned in investment banking that I was not as aware of:
‘An attitude that nothing is impossible. I had to learn that sometimes there is no ‘No’. These situations teach you how far you can push yourself.’
Paul Graham and Y-Combinator depict a similar trait of being ‘relentlessly resourceful’ in start-ups when facing intractable situations. It seems that it is not only an inherent personality trait but more so a skill that can be learned over time.
A world without bright North Stars
‘I don’t think there is any clear way to prepare for running start-ups as much as there are some overarching themes that I would like to share. As ambitious students, you are very much trained to get certain grades on an essay. You are continually trying to solve a puzzle and optimizing within a given framework. However, when engaging with start-ups, these North Stars are abruptly gone. There is no clear guideline.’
N26 itself is an ideal example of having no clear guidelines.
‘Who would have predicted that personal finance will be completely re-invented even a decade ago?
Who would have guessed that we will be handling our money via one app?
We had a hypothesis, but we were not even sure either. We just kept an explorative mindset and even today are figuring it out step-by-step.’
This statement is part of a more general theme that I find eye-opening: Founders and early members of the glamorous unicorn start-ups of our world keep on re-iterating in public that they were also just trying to figure it out and testing hypotheses. It is very rare that a founder enters the field with a clear vision of where their venture will be in 3, 5, or 10 years.
However, this is not to say that they do not believe in themselves. Great founders do have the inner conviction that they are the ones who will find the right path; they just don’t necessarily foresee where the path might lead.
According to Nic, the best way to become comfortable with this lack of clear guidelines can probably best be practiced by working in a high-growth start-up. High-growth start-ups offer a unique combination of being surrounded by people that have far more experience while still receiving huge responsibilities just because there is nobody else to figure it out at that moment. ‘You really can get that growth hockey stick’, as Nic puts it. These companies are also sometimes referred to as breakout companies.
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Furthermore, students should realize that there is no rush. Nic holds that there is slightly too much hype around young founders. Students should not feel bound to start a venture as early as possible even if they have entrepreneurial inklings. ‘This is a longterm game.’ as Nic phrased it and personally considers his combination of career capital, network, and experience as invaluable for his success.
‘Nevertheless, it is equally valid to start your own business early, have great ideas, and bang your head against different walls numerous times. It can also lead to great success.’
Ultimately, the only guideline should be your personality and your perspective on yourself. Have you always been a person that jumps straight into a mess and figures it out or do you prefer to tackle the situation much more strategically?
Building a ‘T- shaped’ skillset
When debating at what age individuals should start narrowing down on particular topics and ideas, Nic voices his opinion about staying broad as long as possible.
‘I think, generally speaking, you should follow your interests. Everybody is talking about it nowadays, but people still do not do it as much as they should. Your interests will connect somehow in the future. This approach is also the best way to eventually have a unique set of experiences and skills that few other people can share.’
Nic thinks that a ‘T-shape’ is an excellent example of how a balanced skillset should look like: A horizontal line filled with the necessary operational skills and a vertical line with experiences and skills that set you apart. In addition to having the right skills and experiences, Nic is a big believer in having the right attitude.
‘Attitude reflects how hard you are willing to work and how far you can push yourself.
Do you want to go the extra mile?
This mindset is essential when building something new from the ground up.’
Below you can find my three main takeaways that I took away from the conversation with Nic
- Your success is determined by aligning your decisions to your personality.
- Use your curiosity and genuine interest as an internal guide.
- Maintain the right attitude as it eventually leads to serendipitous occasions such as Nic joining his college friend Valentin at N26.
What is your take on this perspective?
Happy to discuss via Twitter or LinkedIn — please do reach out!
