LEADERSHIP
34
A LEAN, AGILE FINTECH
thing: it clouds your vision. Even
OakNorth has leveraged the latest
though we were cash flow positive
technology in order to provide a
within 11 months of founding this
bespoke service to clients which
business, it didn’t change our
cannot be offered by smaller or
behaviour. Even with several hundred
more corporate lenders. Machine
million from Softbank, that still won’t
learning deals with the unstructured
change. Every decision will be made
data provided by clients. “You need
commercially – is there a business
to be able to take that spreadsheet
case? Is there a return on that money
– SMEs aren’t sophisticated enough
within a timeline we’re happy with?”
to have a big, expensive accounts
For any growing business, Nooriala
package – and structure this
offers the same advice. “Act as if you
information.” The firm then adds
have no money, even if you have
localised market data to this
money. It was that leanness that got
information and uses AI to draw
you there in the first place.”
insights. “That’s then handed to
The company has not only
a human to do analysis on: nobody
remained lean but also humble, keep-
in our company wastes time doing
ing operations and services simple
things that do not add value. They’re
and relevant to customer needs, as
doing deep credit analysis insights
well as retaining an original ethos of
that then lead to underwriting
ensuring employees are valued and
decisions. That’s how we can scale
feel part of the business, often in
and serve these customers in
more ways than one. In fact, Nooriala
a profitable manner.”
himself has invested in the company.
And scale OakNorth has – but
“I got shares when I joined and I’ve
integral to its success has been
bought additional shares since. I
retaining a startup mindset.
believe in the company and I think
“Businesses can get bloated.
that earnest mentality our employees
Having too much funding is a bad
have is a massive advantage.”
APRIL 2019