nobank: The Venture Leader Fintech simplifying interactions with blockchain assets

An expert jury recently selected ten startups for the Venture Leaders Fintech program who will join the Swiss National Startup Team. In anticipation of the Venture Leaders Fintech roadshow at the end of November, we would like to introduce our community to each of the Venture Leaders Fintech 2022. Meet Kristina Morf, Head of Customer Experience at nobank.

Name: Kristina Morf 
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Nationality: Swiss
Graduated from: Université Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle in 2014 with a Master’s degree
Job title: Head of CX
Team size: 6 people
Money raised: CHF 1.3 million
First touchpoint with Venturelab: 2022, Venture Leaders Fintech

What does your startup do and why?
nobank believes that non-custodial wallets are essential for the future of Web3. Existing wallets are still too complicated to onboard the next billion users, which is why nobank makes Web3 accessible and genuinely useful to everyone by offering the simplest way to directly interact with assets on the blockchain.

How and where was the idea for your startup born?
We have different levels of experience with Web3 and crypto within our team. What we all found, though, was that existing wallets put up too many roadblocks; usually, you need a lot of technical know-how, a lot of Web3 expertise, and most of all, a lot of resilience to deal with inconvenient user experiences. So, from bad experiences with seed phrases, gas fees, and many other issues, grew the shared vision to create a wallet that is simple, intuitive, and makes Web3 truly accessible to everyone. 

What do you expect from the Venture Leaders roadshow, and how do you think it will help you achieve your vision?
Since nobank makes Web3 accessible for everyone, our market is a global one. Even though COVID made connecting remotely much more common, building a network and spreading ideas still has a very different quality when done in person. So, I am very much looking forward to meeting people in London, having conversations, and creating connections. Since our app is publicly available, we are looking to expand our customer base, directly or with partners, wherever a simple and intuitive wallet experience is needed. As we are planning our next funding round, so we're also looking to arrange some meetings.

Who does your product or solution help, and how?
nobank is a great solution for everyone who wants to access Web3 easily and comfortably. The need for such easy access is especially pronounced among the "crypto curious," i.e. people who are interested in blockchain and digital assets and are looking for exposure to it. Smart contracts (self-executing contracts whose terms are written into the code) enable nobank to mask technical complexity for the user without limiting functionalities. This is a challenge that only a few current providers have solved. Using wallet names instead of 40-digit wallet addresses, or the Authenticator app and social recovery instead of complicated 12-word seed phrases are just some of the innovations introduced by nobank.
 

"Even though COVID made connecting remotely much more common, building a network and spreading ideas still has a very different quality when done in person."

What are you most excited about at work right now?
Right now, I am thrilled to go out and show our product to people. Having interactions with existing and potential users, seeing how people are using the app, and receiving feedback is all incredibly valuable. It's also very exciting to see additional use cases for our application open. That our product is embraced by user groups that we initially hadn't considered is amazing. 

How was your team built?
Me and the co-founders, Andras and Mario, grew up in Zug and went to the same high school. The two of them also worked together at the fintech company Avaloq. I was looking for an opportunity to go deeper into tech after working at a digital agency in Zurich, which is how we decided to join forces. Steffi, Raphael, and Oleh are all extremely skilled professionals who we knew through previous collaborations or our network. We are very grateful to have a small but powerful team where everyone contributes both a deep expertise in their field and an exceptional understanding and appreciation of each other’s work. 

Which market are you addressing and what is the potential of your startup?
We're addressing both B2C customers (people who want to get exposure to blockchain and digital assets) and B2B customers who want to start their Web3 journey and need a simple way to deliver it to their customers. For B2C users, nobank lowers the entry barrier to crypto and allows investing, participating, and transacting on the blockchain simply and cheaply. For businesses, nobank offers its wallet platform to partners and companies that require an easy-to-use wallet and Web3 onboarding. Target markets for both models are Europe and North America but can extend to the rest of the world as blockchain and crypto markets are global. 

What are your key achievements to date?
When it comes to the product, there is the public launch of the nobank BETA app, the onboarding of our first 2,000 users, and the shortlist placements for both The Europas and the Best of Swiss App awards. We are also very happy to have forged great partnerships: From B2B partnerships for NFT and token projects to networking partnerships with Swissnex, Venture Lab, and S-GE, who selected nobank for participation in a Market Validation Camp in San Francisco, Fintech Connect in London, and CES 2023 in Las Vegas. The intermediate investment with the Silicon Valley VC Plug and Play Tech Center of over CHF 200,000 marks another recent key achievement.
 

"Creating something from scratch is an amazing challenge—with regard to both the product and the company creating it."

What is one thing not many people know about you?
One thing that often surprises people is that while I usually approach things in a very structured manner, I'm actually quite an erratic thinker. I really appreciate the combination of these two aspects, as they enable me to see things from different perspectives while allowing me to execute them stringently and effectively.

What is your favorite podcast and why?
As I listen to so many of them, it is hard for me to choose only one. But Revisionist History by Malcolm Gladwell is definitely one of my favorites. I love the premise of the show that just because we’re used to looking at things at certain way doesn't mean that this way is true. In general, I love podcasts that challenge my thinking and satisfy my curiosity about all kinds of subjects, from physics to history or business and technology. 

What is the most challenging aspect of working in a startup?
Creating something from scratch is an amazing challenge—with regard to both the product and the company creating it. It is amazing because there is no strict path to follow, and obviously that is also what makes it challenging. At nobank, we're really lucky to have a very well-aligned team—with regard to the product, the way to build it, and the way to share it with people. 

How do you stay on top of industry trends?
I think we all do it in the same way: Meet people, read articles and whitepapers, listen to podcasts, etc. Translating this know-how and including it in our product is what I find much more interesting. To do this, I have a lot of conversations with people from outside of our "bubble"; relating to them and their needs is what allows us to create a great product and keep improving it.

How do you foster creative thinking among your team members?
We do this in a few different ways, the most obvious one being coffee or lunch breaks where brainstorming sessions occur quite naturally. We're a very interdisciplinary team, so when one of us gets stuck somewhere, we usually get the team involved and work through problems together. Just last week, we had an offsite in the Swiss mountains in Davos where we took things offline and worked through ideas on pen and paper. The manual work went as far as making pizza together in a stone oven in the woods!

The Swiss National Startup Team's roadshow in London is organized by Venturelab in partnership with Swissnex and supported by EPFL, ETH Zürich, and Walder Wyss.