Guste Sadaunykaite

Brand and Marketing Communications Manager at TransferGo

London, United Kingdom

@Guste_FlaGeolet | LinkedIn Profile

You grew up in Lithuania yet went to university in York, England and San Diego. Is this approach to ‘world studies’ one you would recommend for others?

Short answer would be – yes, absolutely! At the same time I understand that studying and/or living abroad is not necessarily for everyone, as it requires a certain level of maturity and confidence. When I moved to the University of York, it was my very first time visiting the UK. I probably didn’t even know what to expect, so everything was just new and exciting. America – again was the whole new story. That’s where I learned the real meaning of word opportunity, where I had my first job, internship, as well as my wildest encounter with the diversity from a capital D.

All those experiences definitely broaden my horizons, and not only in the sense that now I can understand all cultural references in Hollywood films or hip-hop songs, but actually taught me many very valuable life lessons and formed my character. Thus, now I’m curious, positive, adventurous and dedicated to my goals. Finally, I consider myself a citizen of the world, as cheesy as it may sound. I think it’s important to live in cosmopolitan societies, where everyone feels welcome and can play an equal part in the fabric of social living.

Your early professional career was in politics. What led you to focus on technology and FinTech in particular?

I worked in a public sector for one year. It was a very challenging and interesting year, which definitely helped me to understand, where my strengths lie and where my efforts and hard work can bring the most value. One of the projects I was responsible for was creating Women Entrepreneurship Academy, which aimed to increase women entrepreneurship and engagement, especially in the technology sector. That’s when I realised how underserved this area is, especially in regard of women’s involvement.

Moreover, I realised that after studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics, I actually have a fairly good understanding of business, tech world and even coding (which basically is a logic – my favourite part of philosophy!). While organising start-up fair for biggest tech conference in Baltics LOGIN, I’ve met CEO of TransferGo and then I realised that technology, if smarty applied to finance can make a major difference not only for the industry itself, but also for actual end-users.

The Baltic region has really embraced technology when it comes to multiple industries. Why do you believe this is the case?

I believe, paradoxically, the part of why it is so has to do something with long years of occupation and the Soviet regime that all these nations were exposed to. After being oppressed and stagnated for year, Baltic States stated their independence and made huge efforts to become modern and forward thinking. Together with hard working people and well-rooted heritage of great quality higher education in science (in 18^th century, Vilnius had the fourth observatory in Europe!), technology became one of the driving forces for progress. The support for technology as an industry can be felt on many levels, from policy making to NGOs and schools trying to engage the younger audience to the IT sector, which is amazing, I think.

Also the greatest assets that we have in Lithuania (clearly it’s not a huge manufacturing country) are our talent and dedication of many university educated people with a huge ambition and passion for innovation. Now it’s obviously become a very profitable career choice as well, which is very attractive for many people.

What led to your interest in TransferGo instead of a traditional banking career?

Obviously, TransferGo is a young company and one thing that was very appealing to me was the fact that I can sort of define my own role in it. I knew that I will be definitely able apply my diverse experience to what the needs of the company and together explore a new area myself and flourish in it. Working for a start-up also allows one to be more flexible with your time, which I like. Finally, people and the way of thinking - I love that everywhere we see opportunities instead of obstacles (quite a change after public sector) and that we’re aiming high, sometimes that might seem a bit naïve, but at the same time, when if not now?!

Another very appealing thing about TransferGo is that the company actually solves a very important problem and helps people to save up to 90% on their international money transfers together enabling the same day purchasing power. I think after working in a public sector, one always looks for some kind of career that one way or another serves a ‘greater good’. Thus, once I’ve learned that one average one transfer can add up to 20% of monthly income on the recipient’s end, which sometimes means helping the family to reach middle class or at least make the ends meet.

Can you please provide an overview of your role at TransferGo.

Since we’re young company, I’m kind of wearing two hats at the moment that are of course interlinking. I’m the Head of Brand and Communication for the fastest growing fintech company in Europe – TransferGo. TransferGo is a pure-play digital remittance service that enables international money transfers amongst 40+ countries worldwide for only 99p with a same-day money delivery guarantee. A big part of my role is relationship management with journalists, industry experts, organizations, charities and other companies that we partner with for various events, campaigns or advertising opportunities. I believe effective communications and the ability to maintain valuable relationships is very important for any young business, which needs to establish itself in the market. I’m glad to be doing this job.

As a Head of Brand, I am responsible for the way TransferGo is seen within the team and how that translates into the perception of the company in the eyes of the users as well as industry experts. Branding is a complex area of business. Opposite to the common belief, branding is not only about the logo or the colour pallet (though it becomes important, as we will always associate McDonalds with red and yellow, despite their desperate attempts to go more ‘natural’ and literally forest green). Facilitating a real brand is delivering brand promise, while assuring aligned brand voice, identity and experience. It’s not easy, that’s why it is important to start from owning and cultivating the brand within your own team first.

TransferGo was one of the original members of Level39 and has grown hand-in-hand with the organization. What has this experience been like and would you recommend this experience to other start-up companies?

As it’s nicely put in a question, indeed TransferGo grew hand-in-hand with Level39. Started from one hot desk, now we’re based in the High Growth Space: 42 with two private meeting rooms. That shows not only growth of TransferGo as a company, but also the opportunities that Level39 provides for its members. Most importantly, it’s the great community, where we’re encouraged to cooperate, learn from each other and share our expertise. Networking is a major advantage of Level39 as well. During our time here we had many great opportunities to meet very interesting, influential and respected industry people, VCs, journalists. That’s very valuable for any young company and we’re very happy and proud to one of the first members of Level39.

International remittance has become a hot spot for FinTech. What makes TransferGo unique as compared to companies such as TranfersWise for example?

First of all TransferGo uses a digital account-to-account business model. Funds are paid in locally and then paid out locally. This innovative system means TransferGo does not have to send money across borders. The sender makes a local payment to TransferGo, which then makes a local payment to the recipient, from any account to any account. That’s very a unique value proposition in the industry. To facilitate such a system, we needed to build more than 30 banking partnerships and ensure institutional grade security for our systems.

That has become very important task for our team, because in order to maintain that kind of banking relationships in the de-risking environment, is quite a challenge. Our unique infrastructure allows us to ensure the lowest cost, speed, highest security and guaranteed destination amounts. We’ve managed to grow 100k user base and save £7m for our customers on their money transfers and I believe it’s quite a significant achievement given that we’ve just raised a seed round and up until mid-2015 had maybe 15 people on board.

The article you authored, “Be Your Own Champion” (link available in our blog), is quite insightful and telling of the current FinTech environment. What motivated you to publish the piece?

I guess it all started while working as a consultant at the Enterprise Lithuania, where a huge part of what I worked on was dedicated to the need of greater engagement of women in the technological science, degrees and coding courses. The greatest difficulty I encountered while carrying out this proposal was that the Ministry of Economy found it difficult to accept that the lack of women in entrepreneurial roles was even a problem.

To convince them to finally take action, I had to carry out extensive local research and finally propose the issue, not only as a feminist one (i.e., only affecting women), but as an economic issue with widespread societal ramifications. In other words, I showed how smart, well-educated women were an untapped potential that were severely lacking in support. By looking towards global models, both in the UK and the US, I was able to show that there are solutions to such gender gaps, and that their results - women flourishing in their communities - could be radical for society and the economy.

Once I’ve started working in the fintech startup myself, I myself was exposed the finance and technology industries, which are both very much historically male populated. I’ve realised how important is the topic and how many people that I work with needs to be more exposed to very important data (one thing all tech kids appreciate!) on gender (in)equality and prospects. I am always the one tweeting about the ratio of women on stage during all the conferences or events – I believe some people just have to be reminded of that, because of our social capital and heritage as well as education, we sometimes do not even realise such facts that there are more CEOs named John than women in the world. And that’s just one example amongst many.

The situation is changing though, I believe, though I’ve just read another article that 2016 could be worse for women than 2015. One reason being, that only one-in-twenty tech job applicants were women, which is part, the result of off-putting job descriptions, some of which needlessly ask for 20 years of experience, obviously shrinking the pool of female candidates. Small things like that actually have a huge impact, as according to some studies gender gap costs around £2.6 billion every year. Crazy, right?! However, not everyone realised that early one. Well, I guess only when one puts it in numbers, it’s easier to comprehend it, isn’t it?

Who(m) do you believe has had the most influence with respect to your own career?

I guess I would have to say analyst and author Clarissa Pinkola Estes. Her book “Women Who Run With Wolves” has left a huge imprint on my life. Maybe it’s not necessarily that she influenced my career, but her writing definitely shaped the way I think and see certain things in life. Another person then would be philosopher L. Wittgenstein and then my mum, who is the most loving person that always encourages all three of her kids reach for more in life, but never forget to appreciate what we already have. Of course, more techy people would be all the women that are listed below.

Who do you consider to be strong women leaders in the tech space?

One of them is definitely Eileen Burbidge. She is super bright, broad-minded and well-spoken. Also, she took FinTech to another level, becoming “special envoy” for FinTech for the British Treasury. I think it’s very important to do the ground work and align the policies as such, so this industry can flourish and offer more breakthrough innovation to the consumers. Finally, she’s a great example of influential women in the tough world of tech-VCs and even politics.

I personally admire the founder of organization “Girls Who Code” Reshma Saujani. I like her projects, her work and her attitude. “There’s never been a better time to be a woman.” - but why we don’t utilise this opportunity to break the mould? I’d like to discuss that with he one day!

There are many more women that could be listed here, such as Elizabeth Lumley, Sheryl Sandberg, Claire Cockerton, Ursula Burns, Duena Blomstrom (who I personally like for her straight to the point attitude and sharp opinions, even though I might not always agree with her), Marissa Mayer and many more. I probably should write another article on this.

What do you see as the 3 leading future trends for FinTech?

Apart from continuous improvements in payments and travel money, which I’m sure will still be happening, clearly everyone is buzzing about crypto currencies and blockchain. However, from experience I can say that cyber security should be a big and important fish to fry for everyone in the industry. I think it’ll become increasingly crucial for FinTech, because usually hackers are a few steps ahead, so just wait and see, or rather don’t wait to see, but start working from your end, because too soon it might be too late.

Finally, wherever the trends might start trending, I think it’s very important that all the new value offerings are breakthrough innovation tailored to the consumers and preferably by working along with the established banks and financial organisations, to ensure the longevity of innovation and progress.