Podcast

Inside Revolut’s Growth Strategy With CEO Matt Baxby.

February 9, 2026 · Hosted by Dexter Cousins

Revolut Australia CEO Matt Baxby just crossed a milestone that most Australian neobanks never reached: 1 million customers and profitability. In the latest Fintech Chatter episode, the Revolut Australia CEO breaks down how they went from three employees in February 2020 to 100 employees, $250 million saved for Australians, and $4.4 million in profit while revenue grew 163%. More importantly, Matt Baxby reveals the hiring philosophy and cultural decisions that made it possible.

How Revolut Australia Reached 1 Million Customers: The Numbers

Revolut Australia’s recent results tell a story most Australian fintech founders wish they could tell:

1 million customers reached in January 2026
$250 million saved in FX fees compared to major banks
$4.4 million profit in 2024 (first profitable year)
$40.8 million revenue (up 163% year-on-year)
235% business transaction growth driven by Revolut Business
100 employees across Australia, all working remotely

While competitors like 86 400, Xinja, and Volt either failed or were acquired before reaching profitability, Revolut cracked the code on sustainable fintech growth in one of the world’s most concentrated banking markets.

Revolut Australia’s Profitable Growth Strategy: Revenue First, Scale Second

The difference between Revolut’s success and the failures of other Australian neobanks comes down to strategy. Matt explains: “Our strategy was fundamentally different from day one. We established a strong foothold in payments and foreign exchange first: areas where we could demonstrate clear value and actually make money. Then we expanded the product offering from that profitable base.”

Most Australian challengers tried to replicate everything the Big Four banks do from day one—massive infrastructure investment before meaningful revenue. “That’s incredibly capital intensive and the unit economics don’t work until you have massive scale,” Matt notes.

Revolut took the opposite approach: build profitable foundations, prove the model works, then scale. The result speaks for itself.

Matt Baxby’s Hiring Philosophy: Problem Solvers Over Perfect CVs

Six years and 100 hires later, Matt has refined Revolut’s hiring philosophy to a sharp edge: problem-solving ability beats credentials every time.

“We’re rigorous about hiring problem solvers: people who can think critically and exhibit a strong bias to action. We assess that through interview scenarios, not just by asking people to talk about their CV.”

The non-negotiables are clear: “I’d rather have someone who can think critically, move fast, and figure things out than someone with a perfect CV who needs to be told exactly what to do. We’re also looking for people who are comfortable with ambiguity.”

This matters because Revolut operates on quarterly cycles, shipping features in months that traditional banks take years to deliver. Finding people who thrive in that environment requires testing for real problem-solving ability, not just impressive previous employers.

It’s a hiring philosophy shaped by Matt’s unique background: 10 years under Richard Branson at Virgin Group learning entrepreneurial culture, plus 7 years at Bank of Queensland as retail banking chief and CFO mastering banking discipline and regulatory compliance.

“At Virgin, I learned what it means to genuinely put customers first and challenge incumbents. At BOQ, I learned the discipline of running a bank, dealing with regulators, managing risk at scale.” That combination became Revolut Australia’s DNA.

Revolut Australia’s Remote Work Culture: 100 Employees, Zero Office

Revolut Australia built all 100 employees on a “work from anywhere” policy, radical in an industry where physical presence has been seen as essential for oversight and culture.

Matt’s logic is straightforward: “The remote working policy works because of the discipline and mindset of the people we hire. We have high expectations for performance, ambitious quarterly KPIs, and structured measurement. There’s a misconception that you need people in an office to have performance oversight. What you actually need is clarity on objectives, rigorous measurement, and people who are self-motivated.”

If you’ve hired true problem solvers with bias to action, location becomes irrelevant. “If you’ve hired properly, it doesn’t matter if they’re working from a Sydney office or a beach in Byron Bay. They’ll deliver. If you haven’t hired properly, having them in an office won’t fix that.”

This approach requires extraordinary discipline in the hiring process. Every person must be someone who can work autonomously, set priorities within broader company objectives, and deliver without constant supervision.

Founder-Led Ambition: Revolut Australia’s Culture Strategy

Revolut is founder-led, and that shapes everything about the culture. Founder and CEO Nik Storonsky sets ambitious goals without caveats: “His goal for us is to be the number one app in the finance category in Australia. Not ‘number one neobank’ or ‘number one among challengers.’ Number one, full stop.”

That level of ambition requires a specific type of person. “You need people who find that energising, not terrifying,” Matt explains.

It’s a useful filter in the hiring process. Some candidates hear that ambition and see an exciting challenge. Others hear unrealistic expectations that will lead to burnout. Revolut wants the former.

Revolut Business Australia: 235% Growth Year-on-Year

While consumer banking gets the headlines, Revolut Business has quietly become a growth engine. Transaction volumes grew 235% year-on-year, and in 2026 Revolut launched Australia’s first 360-degree merchant acquiring platform.

“The opportunity is massive because small businesses have been underserved for years,” Matt notes. The power comes from having both sides of the marketplace: a large consumer base with Revolut on their phones, and a rapidly growing small business base. “When you can connect both sides, you create real network effects.”

It’s another example of Revolut’s strategy: find underserved segments, build profitable solutions, scale from there.

What Revolut Australia’s Success Means for Australian Fintech

Revolut Australia’s success proves a few critical lessons for fintech founders and talent:

Revenue before infrastructure. Don’t try to replicate everything incumbents do from day one. Find your profitable wedge, prove it works, then expand.

Hire for problem-solving, not pedigree. Credentials from brand-name institutions don’t predict success in fast-moving fintech environments. Critical thinking and bias to action do.

Remote work succeeds with the right people. Location independence works when you hire self-motivated problem solvers and create clarity around objectives and measurement.

Founder ambition attracts the right talent. Unreasonably high goals filter for people who find big challenges energising rather than terrifying.

Speed beats perfection. Quarterly execution cycles and rapid pivots beat multi-year planning in fast-moving markets.

Revolut Australia’s Vision: Becoming Australia’s Number One Finance App

As Revolut continues toward becoming Australia’s number one finance app, the hiring discipline that got them from 3 to 100 employees will be tested as they scale further. But with proven processes, clear culture, and strong partnerships, they’ve built a foundation that can support that ambition.

“All our actions, whether it’s our F1 sponsorship, our product development, our marketing, are focused on that number one goal,” Matt says. “We want to be the app Australians open every day to manage their money. All their money.”

Six years ago, Tier One People placed Matt Baxby as Revolut’s founding Australia CEO. Today, that placement has delivered 1 million customers, $250 million in savings for Australians, and a profitable, sustainable fintech business.

That’s what happens when you find the 1% who define what’s possible.

Watch the Full Episode

Building a fintech team that can compete with billion-dollar incumbents? The right founding leader changes everything. Visit tieronepeople.com or connect with Dexter Cousins on LinkedIn.

Links from this episode.

Matt Baxby on Fintech Chatter.

Revolut’s path to 50 million customers (2025), the episode Dexter and Matt refer back to
Matt Baxby on Revolut (2021)
Matt Baxby on scaling Revolut in Australia (2020)

Full transcript.

Lightly edited for readability — filler words removed, wording otherwise unchanged.

Dexter Cousins
Hello and welcome back to Fintech Chatter. I’m Dexter Cousins, founder of Tier One People, where we help outstanding fintechs like Revolut hire outstanding talent like today’s guest, Matt Baxby, who’s here with me for our very first podcast of 2026. It’s a landmark year for me as I celebrate the 10th anniversary of Tier One People and with a decade of experience placing top leaders like Matt into scaling fintechs I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t work. So if you are planning senior fintech hires in the next 6 months then we should definitely chat. You can reach me on LinkedIn or there’s a link in the show notes where you can get in touch. Now let’s get to today’s show. But before we do, make sure if you’re new to us that you follow us, give us a like and subscribe. And if you’re watching on YouTube, make sure you give us a comment.

Well, Matt, welcome back to the show. Can’t believe it’s been another year.

Matt Baxby
Dexter, I can’t either. I think I was doing the body count of how many times we’ve done this now and it’s getting pretty close to five.

Dexter Cousins
Yeah, it is. And now it’s like it would be indulgent of us if it wasn’t for the fact that every time you’re on there’s major news to share. And so I’m not going to kind of keep our listeners and viewers in suspense anymore. Is it a major milestone that you’re here to share with us this time round?

Matt Baxby
Yeah, 100%. And we clicked over this just the end of January, but a million customers in Australia. The reasons that is important, it’s not so much hitting the million mark. It’s the fact that we’ve been able to demonstrate that there’s a real need for what Revolut’s been able to bring into the market. And frankly, we came to save Australians money. We added up how much that’s been over the time we’ve been here against the major banks and yeah, it’s nudging $250 million. And yeah, I think it’s that market impact that is just super motivating.

Dexter Cousins
Yeah, it’s awesome. My sister was out from the UK over Christmas and we must have been worth about a million of that. It’s just like everything, right? Like I checked my phone this morning. My mum’s that sent, he has $30 for the kids to get an ice cream. Now they’re back at school. It’s just stuff like that, right? That 10 years ago we just wouldn’t even have thought about ever doing.

Matt Baxby
No, that’s right. And you’ve seen this proliferation of Aussies travelling. I think it’s just accelerated even more so in the last 12 months. And yeah, I feel like on the personal help desk to about 150 people because I cannot help myself in sitting on a plane and saying to people, you just got to get the product. And then they take that as a personal cue for me to help them out, which I actually love doing.

Dexter Cousins
You’re not going to believe this, right? So, I was in a shopping mall a few weeks back and I walked past and there was a Travel X desk and there was about 10 people lined up and I went and I walked all of them and I said, “You guys not tried Revolut?” I’m like, “Oh, what’s that?” Show them. I couldn’t believe it, right? Like people are still—

Matt Baxby
Yeah. It’s nuts. And I think more and more the awareness is building of, yeah, but there are alternatives out there and that Revolut’s sort of front of that pack and part of our job this year is really kind of continuing to get that message out, really amplifying what we’re doing and enabling more Aussies to take advantage of it.

Dexter Cousins
Yeah. When you kind of consider that we’ve, I mean we’re obviously, we’ve been deep into this space in the last 10 years or so and we just automatically assume that everybody about these types of products and how they can do things a lot easier and when you see things like what I mentioned you realise like we’re just still scratching the surface, right?

Matt Baxby
Exactly, exactly. But I think what’s important in that is how important word of mouth is and referring to friends and family a product that you like is almost like the highest order compliment. Unless the product was great they wouldn’t do it. And it still represents a really large proportion of customers that we’ve brought onto the platform has come from other people recommending it and it’s almost, yeah, as I said, the greatest compliment some of them give you.

Dexter Cousins
Yeah. Now Matt, I’m going to have to correct you here. Sorry to sound pedantic, but you said the product, like you’re now 30 plus products, aren’t you? When’s it going to end?

Matt Baxby
Frankly, Dex, I think it’s the race that never ends. And it sort of takes me back to the first few conversations of these we were having, which was, it was a pretty simple product used for overseas spend, minimal features when we first came to market. And I guess that’s one of the things Revolut’s known for is its ability to ship product and innovate and put new markers down of areas where we see there’s a problem that needs to be solved and go ahead and tackle it.

And that has just come leaps and bounds. So whether that’s building out the small business proposition that we’ve got the market, just launched acquiring as part of that, which we’ll probably talk about, all of the core payment integrations in Australia. So effectively any way people want to transfer money domestically, we really doubled down on that. We have a credit offering in market. And I think the area where Revolut’s really been able to innovate is around our sort of lifestyle products.

So there’s everything from when you’re travelling, being able to automatically activate a eSIM on your mobile via the app, being able to book accommodation using the product, being able to earn points, loyalty points, RevPoints for the first time on a debit product in Australia. So it’s almost like everywhere you look in the app, there’s something new and generally that comes out of customer feedback. Around a problem they have, areas that we can solve it.

Dexter Cousins
Yeah. I don’t know if it’s my kind of eyes and me getting older, but I have to say with all of these products now on the app, I’m starting to find it a bit harder. It was much simpler when all I was doing was sending money. Now I’ve got the two kids accounts. I’m sending them pocket money. They’re getting, I’m getting money sent from the UK for their birthdays and Christmas, mate. So, I think it’s such an almost like bespoke product as well, right? When you talk, you’ve got 30 apps, say, I’ve kind of created my own use cases for the Revolut app where I’ve got it and it’s kind of like my, yeah, kind of ultimate tool for being able to just manage my money.

Matt Baxby
Yeah. Well, that was the proposition when we first sat down and, again, it takes me back, I just clicked over six years with the company, but those early days were three or four of us in the garage of one of the team members, Michael Hendris, our CRO, in town and where we thought the real opportunity in Australia was a place that brought all of those things together in one place. That, yeah, sure there were disparate apps that solved particular use cases. So whether that was transmitting money overseas or splitting a bill or being able to directly P2P transfer to someone, no one had really brought it into the one place.

So I think that was one area that we felt there was real opportunity and then also thinking about how do we really get leverage out of the fact that Revolut had grown so fast in the UK and Europe and I think from a cross-border point of view there’s always been so much friction in that it takes days and money, it costs a lot, being able to transfer any of our currencies directly to another Revolut customer in a different market is still just such a killer feature, but it was also one of the really early ones.

As you say, I think there is no set of use cases for customers that are using Revolut. There’s a need that they might have. In your case, it could be a kids account or it’s taking money from overseas. That’s how you use it. Others may approach things differently. But the idea is try and build that all in in app.

Dexter Cousins
Yeah. And I think that’s the beauty of it, right? Is it’s kind of, you can almost like, it’s like a modular, we talk about this in fintech about businesses building solutions for banks and, oh, a modular platform, but it’s almost like with the Revolut it’s a modular platform for me moving my money, right, and using my money.

Matt Baxby
Yeah, exactly, exactly. No, I think that’s a really good way to sum it up.

Dexter Cousins
Now, I wanted to talk a little bit more, a bit more selfishly, as I’m one of the 2.5 million Australian small business owners who seem to continue to be overlooked by the major banks and even I think kind of fintechs have struggled to really deliver something that is kind of along the lines of what small business owners really need and deserve. So, I’m keen to understand where Revolut Business is at now in Aus. And you mentioned again the kind of merchant acquiring part as well. What’s the thinking now for the business and what is it? Yeah, huge opportunity, right? Like 2.5 million business owners here in, in almost 10% of the population.

Matt Baxby
100%. And in a lot of ways small businesses have been the backbone of the Australian economy. We’re an economy built on that and, yeah, just the dynamics of the country, big import export, a lot of cross-border that comes with that and again we didn’t feel like that were a set of needs that were necessarily being met in the market. Like a lot of major banks are talking about pointing the guns at SME as a target area they want to go after. I think the difference is then executing against that, putting together an offering that actually serves the interests of small businesses.

So since we launched in 23 we’ve seen incredible growth, last 12 months 235% increase in transaction volumes. We’ve continued to build the product out as you said, the merchant acquiring product. It’s the first time we’ve had physical terminals offered in the Australian market but includes payment gateways. We have something called Revolut Pay available. And that is really the strength of a double-sided marketplace that we have, large consumer base. We’re also building the small business space. And so rather than just pay away acquiring fees, there’s a way of connecting those two, enabling Revolut customers to pay directly to merchants who, or customers, small business customers who’ve taken the product.

Dexter Cousins
Not good news for Straight and Square then.

Matt Baxby
Well, no, I, yeah, I think there’s a market there and we think we can drive down costs. We think we can offer a better experience. And yeah, it’s a part of the business I’m just super excited about overall.

Dexter Cousins
Brilliant. Brilliant. Now, we kind of talked as well about being the challenger bank. Last time we spoke, you were in the process of going for a banking licence. Where you at in that process?

Matt Baxby
Yeah, ongoing. Yeah, the reasons it’s important to us haven’t changed. So the central part of that is enabling more services for our customers, ones we know they really want. Things like interest-bearing savings accounts, building our credit products out further. It provides that source of funding that really sets the business up for the long term. And there’s also a trust quotient that comes with becoming a bank. That’s important. Part of our strategy is moving from being something people use when they go on holidays to something that is genuinely relevant to their everyday lives. And people need to feel that their money is safe, that we’re being held to the highest standard. There’s government guarantees attached to the deposits. So all of those things are important elements of it.

So yeah, we’re continuing with that. I don’t speculate on time frames around it. I think one of the key points though, Dexter, it hasn’t slowed us down. And the team’s had a mindset. We’re not going to let that be a constraint. We’re going to continue to deliver products to our customers that we know they want, continue to build the business in terms of getting the brand out there, building scale, the million customers that we’ve just talked about, and standing on our own two feet in the market as well. We just ticked over profitability some time ago now and that’s quite a contrast to the other neobanks that sort of went before us.

Dexter Cousins
I was going to ask you that actually because they’ve either failed or been acquired, most of, or they are part of another bank. So what do you think has set Revolut apart from the others that’s enabled you to, cuz it’s been 6 years, right? Like it’s not like it’s just been an overnight success, it’s been a long lot of patience and investment in, where perhaps there wasn’t I think in some of the other businesses that emerged.

Matt Baxby
Yeah, 100%. I think the strategy was different. I think that business model or approach to market of raising capital, building the tech stack, putting a team together, getting a licence, and then only testing there’s appetite for your product in the market. I just, that’s incredibly hard. And yeah, it’s no discredit to those that have gone before us because doing that from a standing start is difficult.

Our strategy from the start was build the beachhead in payments and foreign exchange. We had good capability in it. We knew there was a deep customer need there. We thought we could do it well. That was really the foothold in the Aussie market. And as you said, we built a much broader range of products around that that we knew customers want.

One of the key measures I look at is, we obviously have a standard product that has a zero cost to get into. We then offer subscription plans that people paid for. And I remember before I took the role a hesitation I had of, are Aussies going to be willing to pay, that they’ve become so used to fee free banking and that was sort of that traditional mindset. I think what we’ve been able to demonstrate is if you put enough value into that, Aussie consumers are savvy and they have been and we’ve seen subscription attachments, the number of our customers that take that, just continue to grow as they’ve seen value in it.

So I think a combination of how we’ve come to market, how we’ve got to this point and also business model diversity across those streams of where money’s made. We’re so much less relying on just standard interest income like banks and I think that’s a really strong position to then become a bank in the future. And yeah, we do want to broaden out the offering and have things like interest-bearing savings and broader range of credit products, but it’s not the only thing we’re reliant on. And I think it’s required that almost rethinking of how should smaller banks approach or neobanks approach market entry.

Dexter Cousins
Yeah. Now, I want to take you back to that point six years ago, specifically to a moment where you and I were in Melbourne having lunch and I remember that we were both that mentally exhausted that we couldn’t even pick anything from the menu and just asked the waitress to choose for us. You used the words, I am drinking from the fire hose. Now, a few weeks later, the world went into lockdown, and I just kind of really want to understand what was going through your mind at that point and like looking back now, six years later, and all that you’ve achieved and everything that Revolut Australia has become. Did you ever think that you were kind of going to be here?

Matt Baxby
Oh, look, they were seminal moments, I got to say. Plans to come to market with a travel oriented FX proposition at the point at which borders shut. Talk about an inflection point. But I genuinely think it was the best thing that happened to us because what it forced us to do was to think more broadly about where other areas of opportunity might be. And I think this is where Revolut has just absolute strength in agility and bias to action, being able to pivot then into a broader range of things.

We knew consumers would become more self-directed around wealth and so we leant really hard into offering US shares and exposure to cryptocurrency. We knew international e-commerce would take off. People will double down on buying and it’s likely to be overseas. That became a really important use case.

But it also reinforced the importance of having a team that could pivot. We’d been brought in to get Revolut to market in the way we had known, travel related proposition. But it did require dexterity in being able to pivot and also cool heads prevail in sort of situations would have been really easy to panic. To our founder’s credit, Nik piled in behind us. Was never a hesitation that he was going to support us in all of that. But I can almost name the day when borders reopen, travel got going, and our businesses took off. Some really interesting stats around sort of year-on-year growth that we’ve seen.

Dexter Cousins
It’s pretty much almost a 20x growth in customers since you started at Revolut and where you are now cuz I think you were what, 4 million customers, 3, 4 million customers thereabouts when you started and that’s globally.

Matt Baxby
Yes.

Dexter Cousins
Now you’ve got 70 plus million.

Matt Baxby
Yeah. Exactly, exactly. Globally. Absolutely. And then—

Dexter Cousins
I think last time you on the show, which was 12 months ago, you were 50 million customers globally.

Matt Baxby
Yeah. Yeah. No, I think it’s about every couple of weeks we put another million customers on. So yeah. Yeah. And I think that’s testament to a combination of product innovation, but also building out markets because again, the easiest thing in the world would have been just to double down on the core markets in the UK and Europe. But to our founders’ credit they’ve stayed the course on expansion being a really important part of what we wanted to be building, this kind of global bank.

Dexter Cousins
With that I guess growth, that focus, there are some I guess, yeah, kind of trade-offs to that as well with particularly when you’re hiring people means that you’ve got a very kind of certain skill set, mentality, behaviour set of people who are going to be successful in this type of environment. It’s not easy. It’s massively rewarding. It’s an incredible growth opportunity, but anybody who thinks they’re going to come in and they’re going to be sitting on bean bags drinking kombucha and kind of whiteboarding all day, it’s the wrong place, right? What are the things that you look for when you’re hiring? What are some of the kind of non-negotiables and what makes somebody successful at Revolut?

Matt Baxby
Yeah. And they’re all things we spend a lot of time at the front end of our recruitment process sort of really understanding. So there’s some functional parts to that. One, we like really good problem solvers. We like people who think critically and we assess for that. We throw problems at people in an interview scenario and see whether they respond there the answer. The point is they ask the right series of questions to get to that in a structured way. So I think that’s really important.

I think there’s a big cultural element around strong bias to action. So people coming out of traditional environments typically struggle with that gear change a little bit. I think it’s easy to get institutionalised in hiding behind governance and accountability not being that clear and not always being the one that needs to pick something up and do something with it. But yeah, I think almost a bedrock of the culture is this bias to action, this idea that we need to turn ideas into action and make things, I think sharing the ambition, feeling like they’re part of the mission is really important, has been important to building the culture.

And I think we brought the best of both worlds around some of those parts that have made Revolut really successful globally. Bias to action, very structured, heavily data oriented, very factual in how we think about decision-making, but also bringing the Aussie insight to that. So really deeply understanding what we think is going to resonate in the local market. What do consumers want? How are we making a difference? And that’s the real emotional part for me that gets me out of bed every morning is to feel like you’re having an impact, that you’re making a difference in the market. And yeah, it’s been incredibly satisfying to blend those two things, getting that authentic Aussie culture at the same time as staying true to what’s made Revolut successful and bringing those to Australia. But absolutely, they feature through our recruitment process.

Dexter Cousins
Yeah. It’s really interesting hearing that because I’ve been a big advocate for the Revolut recruitment process since I was involved in it. And I think last year for me was kind of a really telling year where I noticed kind of one of the paradoxes that you have is that you mentioned corporates before and they tend to be the environments I think where, if anywhere, you can work from home, you not be in the office, that’s the best, right? And ironically the type of person that is required to work from home has to have all of those things that you talked about, right? The discipline, the context switching, right? Like one minute you’re doing one thing, the next you’re doing the, to something totally different and that drains you mentally.

And I think it’s kind of real testament, obviously we’ve got the big headlines around million customers, 250 million saved in fees, 70 million customers worldwide, but I think for me the kind of discipline around the recruitment process when there’s a lot of noise externally around, yeah, and I’m sure you still had people complain about the intensity of the process and the thoroughness of it. I think where you guys are at now should really be kind of benchmark and a blueprint for anybody who’s aspiring to build an international business that’s as successful as yours, is that there’s a reason why you have that thoroughness and that kind of attention to detail and challenge in a recruitment process, right? Because that’s what the environment’s going to be like when you’re there.

Matt Baxby
Exactly. And I think right at the heart of that remote working debate is a misconception I think that you need to be in an office in a controlled environment to see a performance lift. I.e. I’m going to be looking over the shoulders of people to see what they output. Whereas we’re almost the antithesis of that. You can work wherever you want. But yeah, we have expectations around performance. They’re built into everything. We have quarterly KPIs and pretty ambitious goals because we’re all on a mission to want to try and achieve something.

So in a way all of those things need to go hand in hand. There needs to be a flexible policy that enables people to do their best work wherever they are, a mindset of those people that actually, I do want to make a personal difference and have impact. Yeah. And then a performance system that ensures that there are ambitious goals and that they’re measured. So absolutely it’s not a case of people work from home so they can sit on the bean bag. It’s, they work from home because we’re confident they’ll do their best work.

And by the same token we also make offices available because yeah, there’s a cohort of people who absolutely love coming in. I know whenever I’m in Sydney and Melbourne it’s the thing I enjoy the most is coming in the office and seeing everyone. But the rest of the time I’m in Brisbane and yeah, I feel like I’m still really really present in the business. We have lots of interactions during a week. We then have times during the year where we all do come together as a group. And I can tell you, Dexter, they’ve just got so much energy about them when we do. It’s almost this buildup of having all seen each other for a little while in one place. Yeah, that’s just absolutely worth investment as well.

Dexter Cousins
And I think what you’ve summed up, Matt, is kind of something that’s, this was in existence way before COVID hit, right? I remember in 2005 having the ability to work from home with a VPN and I could log in anywhere and be at the beach. But if I wasn’t making money for the business, was in the office, right? I chose in the office otherwise I wouldn’t have a job. I think then the trade-off is, hey, you’re fully committed to the business, you’re fully committed to delivering, then it’s not a problem. And I think if you’re not and it’s a lifestyle thing, well, kind of that’s where I think it doesn’t work. And Revolut’s, if you want a certain lifestyle, I think, hey, look, that’s, and you’re about excellence and exceptionalism, then, and that’s your lifestyle, then I think absolutely the place you need to be.

Matt Baxby
Yeah. Yeah. I still think back on the decision we made because we started out of Melbourne. I started doing commuting down there and all sorts of things thinking that was important. But that call we made of, and it was partly COVID driven, of we’re just going to go where the talent is and make sure we find the right people that are going to be a fit with our culture and what we want to try and achieve. I reckon that was another inflection point of, like, as a result built an amazing bench. And yeah, as I say, the rest is history in terms of what we’ve been able to share.

Dexter Cousins
Yeah. Now mate, we’re coming to a wrap, but before I do, I’ve got to ask you this question. Six years in, where you going to be in six years from here?

Matt Baxby
Oh god. Six years. That’s a lifetime.

Dexter Cousins
Yeah. Would you, actually a good way to frame this is six years ago if I’d have said to you, hey, you’re going to be 70 million customers, over a million customers in Aus, you’re going to have 30 plus products. What would you have said?

Matt Baxby
It is really lined up with the plans we had at the time. So, that was the pitch. Yeah, I wouldn’t have given you a really factual answer. And I’ll give you—

Dexter Cousins
The only thing I did caveat to you was the six years at this place be like your whole career. If you’re there for two, three years, you’re probably going to experience more than two to three years. So, mate, you are an absolute veteran now.

Matt Baxby
Yeah, it has, as you say, we often talk about dog years of time at Revolut. It’s a multiple. But our ambition is to be number one in the market. I remember having that conversation with Nik when I first joined Revolut. And he didn’t put caveats on that. He didn’t say, “Wow, outside the majors or anything like that. We want to be the fastest growing app in the finance category.” We want to win more customers. We want to continue to launch great products that actually meet as a consumer’s needs and bring some competition to this market that just hasn’t been there. It’s been challenging for others that have gone before us but I genuinely feel like the space is wide open for Revolut to come in and continue to build from where we are today. So yeah, I’m just super excited about that day.

Dexter Cousins
You mentioned Nik, you’ve worked with Richard Branson as well. And I think kind of Nik is the very rare founder certainly that I’ve ever met that when he says something like what he said to you, you totally believe him. You go like, yeah, this guy’s, there’s no platitudes, there’s no, like, just saying it to raise and get investors excited. It’s like, no, this is, he is absolutely dialled in to this and you kind of believe it with every single kind of ounce of his, that’s coming across you. It’s kind of one of the I think real rarities in entrepreneurship.

Matt Baxby
Yeah, 100%. I think what you see is what you get and yeah, it’s one of the things I’ve enjoyed the most actually soundantic but spending time with Nik understanding how he thinks, passion in building out this truly global bank, not being constrained though, I’ve had to rewire myself in terms of thinking that this is how something needs to be done versus taking it back to first principles, how could we approach that differently and yeah, setting really bold ambitions.

Did I hesitate when he said I want you to be number one in the Australian market, of course, but that features in every catch up I then have with him is what are all the things we’re doing to try and build towards that, whether it’s the F1 sponsorship or taking over travel bridges in Brisbane and Melbourne which we’ve just done. All of those things go to just building the awareness of the product, building the product itself, continuing to serve customers really well. They’re the things that are focused in our conversations rather than politics.

Dexter Cousins
So now 100 people here on Aus, if anybody wants to join, probably the most talented 100 people in fintech in Australia, where do they go and find out about careers?

Matt Baxby
Yeah, revolut.com, we’ve got a big career section. All of the live jobs in Australia, there’s lots going at the moment, continue to throw the hat in the ring. I think if nothing else it’s a really interesting process to go through. We dearly like more Aussie fintech participants to get involved and come and talk to us. So yeah, that’s the best avenue.

Dexter Cousins
And also if anybody wants to join the 1 million plus Aussies who collectively have saved over $250 million in fees, where do they download the app?

Matt Baxby
Yeah. So, App Store, Google Play as well. Jump on, download the app. Again, really easy onboarding process. Always open for feedback, though. So, if anyone goes through it and doesn’t like it, let me know. But yeah, we’d love more customers as well.

Dexter Cousins
Mark. Brilliant to catch up again. Congratulations on everything that you and the team have achieved. It’s like, it really is phenomenal.

Matt Baxby
Awesome, Dex. So great to see you as well. Thanks.

Dexter Cousins
You too, mate.

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