François is the Co-Founder and CEO of Monito and has more than six years of experience in the FinTech and Money Transfer industry. A keynote speaker at the Global Money Transfer Summit, at the International Money Transfer Conference, the Transparency in the Remittances Industry Conference at the Swiss Embassy in London, and the Fintech 2.0 conference, François has been quoted as an expert in the Money Transfer industry by various prestigious media outlets, including Forbes, TechCrunch, Business Insider, Le Monde, Le Temps, 20 Minutes, Money International, and the Swiss National Television (RTS).
François has received numerous awards for his work, including the best Swiss Fintech Pitch in New York and the Top 100 young personalities shaping the future of Switzerland.
François loves helping consumers navigate the jungle of money transfer fees and exchange rates in a fun and transparent way, with the ultimate goal of saving on unfair transfer fees.
François holds a Master’s degree (MSc) in Information Systems and a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Business Administration and Management from HEC Lausanne and the Freie Universität Berlin.
What is Monito all about?
Monito is a financial portal that transcends frontiers by helping people find, compare and review different ways to exchange, send and spend money internationally. We believe that sending money abroad should be cheap, fast, secure and convenient, and we’re on a mission to save the world $28 billion saved on hidden transfer fees and bad exchange rates each year.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
I have always been interested in Fintech and the Money Transfer Industry, and after finishing my Master’s degree in Information Systems and my Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Management, I decided to attend a Start-up Weekend in Lausanne with my brother Pascal Briod and Laurent Oberholzer. The three of us realised that we were losing big amounts of money when making international transfers and we wanted to find a solution. This solution was Monito, which we founded just a few months later in 2013. We started with a website that allowed people to compare money transfer providers so they could choose the one that best suited their needs. However, we are so much more right now — we have grown our team and Monito has evolved into a portal for money across borders, where our users can find and compare services, read reviews and learn everything there is to know about international money transfers.
What was the biggest problem you encountered with your business and how did you overcome it?
Hiring the best talent. We’ve spent a lot of time designing the company we wanted to work for in the first place as founders. Our culture centers around high-impact ambitions coupled with a high level of autonomy and flexibility to find the best way to achieve them. We worked on all the aspects that make for a great work environment and designed our mission offer to cover all the perks of working at Monito, from a professional development budget to epic offsites in the Swiss Alps.
What were the top mistakes you made starting your business and what did you learn from it?
In terms of marketing, we made a couple of mistakes in the beginning, but not focusing on SEO from Day One as a digital marketplace might be the biggest. This is a long-term investment that takes time to realize but generates the best returns. What I’ve learned is that, instead of focusing all our energy on building a product first (i.e. our comparison engine), we could have launched a blog reviewing money transfer operators and generating static rankings in parallel to building our product vision.
Another mistake was believing that “If you build it, they’ll come.” “Launching on Product Hunt” or equivalent is not a marketing strategy. The spike in traffic will fade away as quickly as it came, finding an engine of growth that lasts takes a lot of tests and perseverance.
What is one thing that you do daily to grow as an entrepreneur?
I go for a walk and listen to great podcasts and audiobooks for inspiration and to clear my mind.
What are three books or courses you recommend for new entrepreneurs?
Top three business/start-up books:
- Radical Candor by Kim Scott
- Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller
- Chaos Monkeys by Antonio Garcia Martinez
Top three startup Podcasts:
- This Week In Startup by Jason Calacanis
- Master of Scale by Reid Hoffman
- Startup by Gimlet Media
What is the one thing you wish you knew before starting your business?
Entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a sprint. Of course, sometimes you’ll need to deploy a lot of energy in a short period of time. But making sure that you don’t burn out yourself, your relationships with your co-founders, and your company’s finances are very important.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
SEO: answering user search intent with great quality content and easy-to-use comparison pages.
If you only had $1000 dollars to start a new startup, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
A good domain name, a nice WordPress template, SaaS subscriptions such as Zapier, Canva, Mailerlite, Typeform to augment yourself and start a content-driven product or review site.
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
These are clichés of course, but I believe them to be truly important advice:
- You just need to start somewhere and keep going.
- If you’re not ashamed of the first version of your product one year later, you launched too late.
- Ideas are ubiquitous, execution is what makes the difference.
- The team is everything.
What is your favorite quote?
I’ve already established that I like clichés, so here it is:
“There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way.”
This reminds us to make sure to enjoy the entrepreneurial journey and not focus on the potential outcomes too much.
We’re big fans of software that makes your job easier, faster, or simply possible. I’m sure we’re using more than 50+ SaaS at Monito in all aspects of our business, from engineering to marketing.
Here are my top 3:
- Ahrefs for SEO keyword research & competitor analysis
- Infogram to enrich your content with embeddable data visualizations.
- Clickup for project management
How is running a tech company different than what you thought it would be?
It’s even more awesome than I thought! All kidding aside, we’re so lucky to stand on the shoulders of giants that have made this industry. We are able to reach customers around the world with a small team based in Switzerland with a service that runs 24/7 with minimal infrastructure costs. How awesome is that?!
How can readers get in touch with you?
The best way to get in touch with me is through social media. I am available on Twitter and LinkedIn.
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