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Two things we’ve learned in the time it took us to turn two

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3 min
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By Birdee
This week Birdee turns two. Birthdays can be a funny moment: funny-haha-certainly, and also funny-strange. It can be time that divides our reactions. Some of us delight in the celebration and attention, while others of us cringe at the thought of growing older. In any case, birthdays can represent a point for reflection. A moment where we can equally begin sentences with ‘I remember this time last year I was..’ and ‘this time next year I hope to..’ A moment caught between times gone by and times yet to come where a short pause button can be pressed. Though still young in years, what does turning two mean to us? I press pause with Director Gaël Minon and CEO Geoffroy de Schrevel and ask them to share the thing or two they’ve learned since Birdee’s inception.

Gaël

Data privacy or "privacy by design" is paramount. He smiles and begins by saying: “I’ve learned more than two things,…but to focus on two I would say: firstly, that the market overall is changing. Data privacy is being viewed as more and more important. It is essential for our clients. Therefore, Birdee, has made it our number 1 priority.” Robo advisors need to be more tailor made to customers’ needs. “One more thing I have learned is due to another change in the market. The functionality of the robo advisor is expanding. The robo advisor of 2016/17 was just digitalising existing investment services. However, the fact of digitalising investments alone does not create much meaning to your proposal and therefore does not bring people to invest. Now, robo-advisors are hyper-personalised. They are tailor-made, meeting peoples’ needs providing recommendations based on individuals’ circumstances, hopes and personalities. This supports habit-forming behaviours, by doing so we’re creating an opening and an entrance for the first-time clients. Birdee is at the frontline of this personalisation technology.”

Geoffroy

Change is relative. “Understanding customer behaviour and anticipating its changes are as fascinating as difficult. Namely, we usually over-estimate short-term changes. People don’t tend to change either their habits or their relationships with an emotional subject such as money easily. These behaviours are so in-grained, that to make such changes take time. On the other hand, we usually under-estimate changes in the long-term, I mean, it took years and years to go from cash to cheque to cards and to contactless, that was a long process. Therefore, the adoption of new technology, can take time as well and it goes through various phases, some pretty slow and others very fast. So you need to be ready to accelerate but always remain patient." Financial technology should be simple and fun. “So I’ve learned it’s important to make these changes simple, and it must be enjoyable. We’re not there yet but this is our aim.” So, two years or 24 months or 730 days, at Birdee have flown by. We’re looking forward to this birthday year and all that it will bring. And right now, to blowing out two candles, cake over some shared memories.

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