Nik Storonsky, Revolut Founder: What Revolut Needs to Do to Hit $100BN Valuation | E1233

(instrumental music plays) I just don't understand how the product which is being provided by UK can compete with a product provided by US. It is less lucrative, so it's much worse compared to US. Plus, it's much more expensive because you pay stamp duty, right? So, it's like, it's- it's- it's just not rational.

And so you would list in the US?

I consider myself a rational person, right? If I get better product from UK, I will list in UK. But so far, if you just compare those products, I mean, one is far ahead compared to the other.

Ready to go? (instrumental music plays) Nick, I'm so excited to do this. Thank you so much for having us in your office, first.

Thanks for coming.

Not at all. Listen, I was chatting to Klaus Halmos before, and he said, you know, I'm not going to do the German accent because I'm terrible at it. But he said that Revolut is one of the most KPI-led companies. And so I just wanted to start with, how do you approach KPI-based leadership, and what does that actually mean?

Well, basically, so the whole, uh, goal setting, right? So we set up the goals for the company. So usually, we have five, six goals, uh, a year, and then we quantify those goals. So what does it mean to achieve certain goal? Then we cascade these goals on the department level, and then on the team level, and then on individual. So every single, effectively, team, department, and, uh, all the company, we have metrics describing, uh, the performance. And then, uh, all people go through a performance review process, uh, every quarter. Then they're judged based on their metrics, what they delivered, their skills, and then, uh, cultural values.

In terms of the management when you get the metrics, how many of your thoughts are about distributive management? I spoke to a lot of your team, and you have a lot of direct reports.

Yeah.

How many direct reports do you have, and how do you think about distributive management?

So we've got, uh, 40 plus reports. I mean, to be honest with you, I, I built the team already for the last five years. So generally because I don't really work with people who are not excellent. Another way I define, uh, people who are excellent, strong, average or below average, it's pretty simple. So they should be like a self-guided missile, right? So excellent people, they select the goal themselves and they press the button and they reach the goal themselves. Strong people, you need to show them the goal and they reach the goal themselves without you iterating with them. Average people, you need to, on a weekly basis, iterate to reach the goal. And then my below average people, I mean, you iterate with them, but you know, sometimes or very often, they don't reach the goal. So the key is, uh, to select, uh, all your direct reports, either strong or excellent, so they're able to reach the goal themselves without you kind of directing them.