HYPE New Joiners
Scaling new heights for BCB products
Driving a clear strategy while allowing innovation to flourish are the keys to a successful product department, says BCB’s new Chief Product Officer Valentin Vincendon.
I t could never be said that Valentin Vincendon lacks energy and grit. Over the last 10 years, his career has spanned strategic consulting, financial services and technology groups including some of the biggest names in their respective industries. But his energy is not restricted to work. When not building products and strategy teams, Vincendon is an ambitious mountaineer who is steadily working his way through some of the world’s tallest peaks. Naturally he has scaled Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in his native France. More recent expeditions include Toubkal, the highest peak in North Africa, and earlier this year, Cotopaxi, the still active volcano in Ecuador with a peak of more than 19,000 feet. The role of Chief Product Officer at BCB Group may not involve the same physical endurance, but it is clear that Vincendon brings comparable mental energy and determination to his work as he does to the slopes and crags of the Andes. When not up a mountain, there is nowhere Vincendon would rather be than in the world of digital finance. “Digital assets and payments are among the most revolutionary innovations of the century so far in terms of the scale of decentralisation, impact on society and in the way it brings together a lot of really smart creative people. Once you’ve tried it, it is really hard to go into another industry because you will never find the same drive and creativity anywhere else,” Vincendon declares. “BCB is very much at the interface between digital assets and payments, which is where my own career journey has brought me.” The path to digital assets seems to have been defined early in Vincendon’s career. A student, first of physics and
maths and then economics and finance, led to jobs in consulting at McKinsey and in private banking at JP Morgan. His previous experience also includes roles as VP Strategy at Checkout.com and Head of Product at Dolfin. He has also been an angel investor and adviser to a number of scaleup companies in both technology and financial services. Immediately prior to joining BCB, Vincendon was Chief Product Officer at Copper.co.
Top down and bottom up Despite his eminently relevant experience in tech and finance, Vincendon places his focus firmly on people, teams and culture. “It’s my role in building teams, at both Checkout.com and Copper.co, that I am really proud of,” he says, “At Checkout.com, that was building part of the product team from scratch, then building the whole data team and scaling part of the strategy team.” He also sees his skills as ideally suited to a company at a watershed stage in its growth. “BCB is absolutely the right challenge for me in terms of people – they have hired quality people across the company – and in terms of scale. BCB has always had keen focus on culture, and, in the next stage of its development -- between 150 and 500 people -- has the perfect opportunity to build on its achievements.” he says. “If you scale without getting the culture right it can then be too late.” According to Vincendon, the trick is a combination of top-down and bottom-up management and an unwavering optimism about what can be achieved. “As a manager, you might have the right ideas, but you need to bring people along in the journey and that is something that you can't compress. You have to bring understanding and a framework to people but let them drive that change organically as well. So, there has to be a very deliberate balance between top down and bottom up. Top down is vital, if you don't bring people along with you, you're failing as a leader. But at the same time, if you're telling people exactly how to solve a problem, you can be really destroying the value of the business again, especially in product,” he says.
BCB is very much at the interface between digital assets and payments, which is where my own career journey has brought me. Valentin Vincendon
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