In Episode 98 of The Product and Growth Show, I sat down with Ivan Vasylchenko, tech entrepreneur and former COO of Trade Republic. Ivan joined the company when it was still called Neon Trading and helped scale it to over 10 million customers across 17 European countries with a $5B valuation. We talked about conviction in early-stage startups, scaling under extreme pressure during COVID, and what founders often get wrong about fintech growth stories.
What did we talk about?
- How Ivan went from finance consulting and hackathons to joining Trade Republic in its earliest days
- The dodgy beginnings of “Neon Trading” and why conviction mattered more than optics
- Building product-market fit through stock market games and waiting lists
- Foundational decisions that shaped Trade Republic: licensing, building tech in-house, and compliance
- Scaling from 10 to nearly 200 people during COVID and surviving explosive customer demand
- Why fintech growth isn’t just “breaking things fast” but about stamina and regulation
- Ivan’s current projects at the intersection of AI and fintech
Ivan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivan-vasylchenko/
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In Episode 98 of The Product and Growth Show, I sat down with Ivan Vasylchenko, tech entrepreneur and former COO of Trade Republic. Ivan joined the company when it was still called Neon Trading and helped scale it to over 10 million customers across 17 European countries with a $5B valuation. We talked about conviction in early-stage startups, scaling under extreme pressure during COVID, and what founders often get wrong about fintech growth stories.
What did we talk about?
- How Ivan went from finance consulting and hackathons to joining Trade Republic in its earliest days
- The dodgy beginnings of “Neon Trading” and why conviction mattered more than optics
- Building product-market fit through stock market games and waiting lists
- Foundational decisions that shaped Trade Republic: licensing, building tech in-house, and compliance
- Scaling from 10 to nearly 200 people during COVID and surviving explosive customer demand
- Why fintech growth isn’t just “breaking things fast” but about stamina and regulation
- Ivan’s current projects at the intersection of AI and fintech
Ivan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivan-vasylchenko/
90 - Thinking visually, building marketplaces, and turning spreadsheets into products with Jonathan Hey, former CPO of ZenEducate
Product&Growth Show
55 minutes 58 seconds
11 months ago
90 - Thinking visually, building marketplaces, and turning spreadsheets into products with Jonathan Hey, former CPO of ZenEducate
Last week I had a chance to chat with Jonathan Hey, former CPO at ZenEducate.
What we discussed:
- Is writing books more exciting than building products?
- Where does Jono’s love for sketching come from?
- How can PMs learn sketching to communicate their ideas more efficiently?
- The power of explaining ideas visually
- ZenEducate and the problem they are trying to solve
- Why building empathy matters, regardless of your domain
- How has ZenEducate’s product organization evolved?
- How do you build a product strategy for a growing startup?
- How do you balance what your investors want with what your customers want?
- How will AI disrupt edtech?
- Pasha is bragging about his experience trying to use AI avatars.
- The hardest problem Jono has had to solve at ZenEducate
- Why building what a spreadsheet does is not a trivial task
Jonathan on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonohey/
Jonathan's book: https://sketchplanations.com/
Product&Growth Show
In Episode 98 of The Product and Growth Show, I sat down with Ivan Vasylchenko, tech entrepreneur and former COO of Trade Republic. Ivan joined the company when it was still called Neon Trading and helped scale it to over 10 million customers across 17 European countries with a $5B valuation. We talked about conviction in early-stage startups, scaling under extreme pressure during COVID, and what founders often get wrong about fintech growth stories.
What did we talk about?
- How Ivan went from finance consulting and hackathons to joining Trade Republic in its earliest days
- The dodgy beginnings of “Neon Trading” and why conviction mattered more than optics
- Building product-market fit through stock market games and waiting lists
- Foundational decisions that shaped Trade Republic: licensing, building tech in-house, and compliance
- Scaling from 10 to nearly 200 people during COVID and surviving explosive customer demand
- Why fintech growth isn’t just “breaking things fast” but about stamina and regulation
- Ivan’s current projects at the intersection of AI and fintech
Ivan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivan-vasylchenko/
