Ice Breakers

Ice Breakers with Alexandre Chavotier

February 7, 2024

Alexandre Chavotier is the co-founder and CEO of Upworth, an Australian fintech that’s a one-stop shop for your personal finances. 

Using their platform you can manage your finances and access personalized insights. 

They raised roughly $650K in their first funding round last year.

👋🏼 How would you explain your job to someone outside tech?

My job is about empowering you with your personal financial information and the best insights to fight the villains who thrive out of opacity and fabricated complexity in the finance industry.

🧐 What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?

I juggle work between 3 languages with the consequence—I am told—that I am no longer able to speak any language properly.

🏆 What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far?

This is a very tricky question as there have been many highlights. 

I think a career is nothing but linear and we go through cycles. 

It is all about getting something marvelous out of every cycle and inventing the next one to unlock your true self. 

In that sense, the latest highlight has been my time in the Latin American start-up ecosystem and the energy it gave me.

🔍 What's a startup trend or space you're watching this year?‍

It won´t come across as very exotic but I am watching closely the developments in GenAI. 

More specifically, where differentiation and true customer value are going to come from and under which business models. 

This is going to be fascinating and huge in the financial service space where we are cooking up a few surprises.

💼 What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry? 

Go deep and broad. 

Pick a specialty and go deep into it (whether data science, financial engineering, etc.) to build a point of valuable expertise. 

And at the same time don´t bury yourself and go broad to understand the full landscape and key trends (whether it’s legal, CX, tech, macroeconomics, etc.).

🗣 What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours? 

Classic literature (that can include the intricacies of the open banking regime in Australia).

🎥 What's your favorite movie/TV show? 

The Leopard

🍨 What's your go-to ice cream flavor?‍

Nocciola.

FYI. We've edited this interview for clarity.

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