Angela Biener

Chief Operating Officer at nTrust

Vancouver, Canada

@Ang_Biener | LinkedIn Profile

Please describe your a typical work day.

 

As Chief Operating Officer, I have my hands in pretty much everything. I oversee the day-to-day global operations, business development and compliance regime efforts in existing and emerging jurisdictions.

You originally worked in the on-line fraud security space. What has the transition been like to nTrust? What experiences did you draw on?

When we started out, we knew that the space we were getting into was heavily regulated and prone to online fraud or malicious consumer activity. We faced a huge challenge of building the compliance regime and risk-mitigating modules into the platform – but this was our priority before hitting the market. Working in the online fraud security space had provided me the necessary exposure to online fraud, ecommerce fraud, and money laundering trends. Using this experience I worked with my team, also from the same space, to build out all the use cases we could potentially encounter. From there, we built a system to mitigate, report and/or stop this type of activity in real time.

What was your decision making process you underwent when you decided to work for a startup?

In most cases, like my own, the Founder of the startup is incredibly passionate and hyper focused on what they want to accomplish and how they are going to get there. When I heard why and what we could do with the nTrust platform, I was hooked. I was also excited to be part of something from the very beginning, knowing that each internal process had to be created, people needed to be hired, partners needed to be found…Opportunities like this do not come around that often, so I assessed the risks (pay structure, longevity/security, etc) and jumped in.

We are seeing more and more startups in the Vancouver tech space. Why do you think this is?

Vancouver is an attractive city to settle in, with an international community and a diverse culture. There are many gaming firms, design, marketing and development houses in the city – just a great amount of talented people. In addition to all these creative minds, we have a strong startup scene and support network within Vancouver. This network is formed by either individuals that have interest in the space, or by larger groups like BCTIA, who are committed to growing the tech industry and put on a number of membership-based events for its support networks.

Now that you’ve worked for a startup would you ever be tempted to return to corporate life?

No. Startups are addicting – you work with a team of highly focused individuals that are all out to hustle and chase new business or opportunities. At a startup, you can be fully invested in all aspects of the company and the product for the earliest conception; you can see the lifecycle of a customer’s idea all the way through to becoming a new feature or product in weeks… From my experience, you can’t get this type of experience in a corporate, big box, environment.

How important is culture with respect to nTrust? What type of people do you look to bring on to your team?

Maintaining culture is incredibly important to the team here at nTrust. We search our networks for people that enjoy what they do, who strive to exceed expectations and have an intellectual curiosity. While specific skills are necessary in some positions, we balance this with the candidate’s ability to fit in with the company – we have a unique culture at nTrust, and we want to make sure new employees can work happily amongst this quirky group.

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

My boss prior to working for nTrust really provided me the type of real world guidance that you are not going to get from school. He told me to always anticipate the next step; that you will need to learn to negotiate more than just dollars, but also people’s expectations; and that while you can’t be the expert in everything (regarding the business), you have to know enough to be able to be present at the table and hold your own.

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

• Digitization of cash.
• Social profiling tools for businesses (such as Hello Soda)
• Partnerships/acquisitions by large banks to convert over to a digital user experience.

 

About nTrust:

nTrust is an online and mobile money transfer platform that helps people around the world access, move and use their money instantly. We have two business divisions:

• Peer to peer payments and,
• Merchant payments.

Because our focus is on both ends of the transaction, we have created a closed loop economy where we can control the fees our members and merchants pay, and the transactions are simple and cost effective. Our goal is to eliminate all fees, becoming the Skype of Money.