Fintech Start-up CEO
2/18/2020 Case Studies
With a long history in investment banking, the Co-Founder of travel money startup Currensea James Lynn has a keen sense of value. Not only the value of money and currency generally, but also of the industry skills required for his company.
James spent 20 years in foreign exchange in some of the world’s largest banks, including Barclays and Credit Agricole. He is also an entrepreneur who set up two successful payments businesses. The focus of Currensea is at the intersection of these two areas - bringing value and convenience to consumers when spending abroad.
As a Co-Founder, day-to-day James wears many hats. In addition to looking after the product, he handles recruitment, HR, investor relations, compliance and various other aspects of running a fast-paced startup. He’s also serious about creating and maintaining a positive culture for a thriving team.
Naturally, the success of the company depends on the ability to build a highly skilled team with excellent skills and experience. It’s particularly critical for a startup. Recruiting people who are a great cultural fit requires James to keep track of executive and startup compensation trends. After all, the right team needs to have the right compensation.
The Pay Index provides all the analysis he requires on pay and compensation trends – such as the differences between salaries in FX, banking and investments, and in the corporate world versus tech startups. From his very first employee, it has enabled James to make the right offers to the best candidates, to ensure he has the right players on his team, every time.
Reflecting on his transition from a corporate employee to startup founder, James says: “In any startup, it’s essential to make the best use of time and resources, and The Pay Index has definitely helped me to do this. I would not have been able to build the thriving team we have now without their in-depth analysis.
The team quality is fundamental for our success, and this is down to having the right information at my fingertips to offer attractive compensation packages.”
James was provided with the analysis which enabled him to index industry-level compensation to startup stage (ie. multiplied by a certain percentage) and then restructure the package so that the projected value of options and other benefits add up to the appropriate level of the management team compensation.
These days, James is using his knowledge of banking and foreign exchange to help consumers save money and do something good for the planet. Currensea has launched its Plant a Tree feature that lets customers offset carbon from their travels by donating some savings on bank charges to plant trees. For The Pay Index customers, Currensea has a special Plant a Tree offer. Everyone who requests a card following this link will plant 6 trees: 3 on their behalf, matched by 3 trees planted on behalf of Currensea..jpg "01-twitter-post-referral_2-(5).jpg")
James spent 20 years in foreign exchange in some of the world’s largest banks, including Barclays and Credit Agricole. He is also an entrepreneur who set up two successful payments businesses. The focus of Currensea is at the intersection of these two areas - bringing value and convenience to consumers when spending abroad.
As a Co-Founder, day-to-day James wears many hats. In addition to looking after the product, he handles recruitment, HR, investor relations, compliance and various other aspects of running a fast-paced startup. He’s also serious about creating and maintaining a positive culture for a thriving team.
Naturally, the success of the company depends on the ability to build a highly skilled team with excellent skills and experience. It’s particularly critical for a startup. Recruiting people who are a great cultural fit requires James to keep track of executive and startup compensation trends. After all, the right team needs to have the right compensation.
The Pay Index provides all the analysis he requires on pay and compensation trends – such as the differences between salaries in FX, banking and investments, and in the corporate world versus tech startups. From his very first employee, it has enabled James to make the right offers to the best candidates, to ensure he has the right players on his team, every time.
Reflecting on his transition from a corporate employee to startup founder, James says: “In any startup, it’s essential to make the best use of time and resources, and The Pay Index has definitely helped me to do this. I would not have been able to build the thriving team we have now without their in-depth analysis.
The team quality is fundamental for our success, and this is down to having the right information at my fingertips to offer attractive compensation packages.”
James was provided with the analysis which enabled him to index industry-level compensation to startup stage (ie. multiplied by a certain percentage) and then restructure the package so that the projected value of options and other benefits add up to the appropriate level of the management team compensation.
These days, James is using his knowledge of banking and foreign exchange to help consumers save money and do something good for the planet. Currensea has launched its Plant a Tree feature that lets customers offset carbon from their travels by donating some savings on bank charges to plant trees. For The Pay Index customers, Currensea has a special Plant a Tree offer. Everyone who requests a card following this link will plant 6 trees: 3 on their behalf, matched by 3 trees planted on behalf of Currensea.