Starling CEO: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Anne Boden | E107

It was humiliating reading in the press what had happened. I got fired twice in six months. Unless we could raise funding- I was never paid. ... there weren't going to be any jobs. And after six months, I just thought, "I can't work with this person." He had a tough time. Really damaging to me and my mental health. Tom didn't think I was capable. And so I resigned. Nothing was gonna stop Starling succeeding. People don't start banks, and if they do start a bank, they are probably a billionaire. When I started talking to people about, "I am gonna start a bank," you know, I could see people thinking I was totally crazy. I hadn't raised a penny. The only money that had gone into the business was my money. And he said, "No, I'm not gonna give you $3 million. I'm gonna give you 48." Now, I have the privilege of running Starling, and it is a privilege, and there's lots of things going wrong, and lots of pressures on me, but it's a great privilege to have.

(Music) If you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you would have heard the episode I did with Tom Blomfield. He was the former CEO and founder of Monzo Bank, one of the big fintech disruptor banks here in the UK. And during that episode, he also tells us the story of his time at Starling Bank, the rival bank that he co-founded with Anne Boden. And that episode is dramatic, it should be a movie. They talk about their fallout. In the episode, Tom claims that Anne fired 16 members of staff in the same day. So in this episode, Anne wanted to come in to tell her side of the story, but also to tell her story. And it's an incredible story, it's an inspiring story, it's a story that doesn't quite make sense in the fact that she's achieved so much in an industry where she was an underdog, at an age when she also admits she is an underdog, confronting stereotypes that make her an underdog. And despite the odds being stacked against her, she's built a multi-billion dollar bank here in the UK. It really is a crazy story, one that I believe one day will be a Netflix show. Think about that, two people came together to take on the banking world, they came together and founded a bank called Starling Bank, they had this major blowup, they separated, Anne starts again, and they both build incredibly successful, multi-billion dollar banks individually. It is one hell of a story. It twists, it turns, and it inspires you. So without further ado, I'm Steven Bartlett, and this is the Diary of a CEO. I hope nobody's listening, but if you are, then please keep this to yourself. (Music) Anne, humble beginnings. Do you think that's a accurate phrase to describe the start of your life?

Yeah, it was humble. Um, my, my father worked in the steelworks. Um, my father came ho- home from work with newspapers under his arm, all greasy from, you know, sort of doing hard work. My mum worked in the local department store, um, and we were happy.