This Week in Fintech

Sokin's Blueprint for Global Treasury

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Host Sasha Pilch sits down with Vroon Modgill, Founder & CEO of Sokin, to explore how modern treasury infrastructure is transforming global payments.

From slow settlement windows and fragmented banking relationships to stablecoins and real-time treasury management, Vroon breaks down why traditional treasury workflows are overdue for an upgrade. He shares how Sokin combines global bank accounts, stablecoin wallets, payment capabilities, and ERP integrations into a single platform that helps businesses move money more efficiently across borders.

The conversation covers hybrid payment routing, the role of stablecoins as a treasury tool, the challenges of on- and off-ramping, and why licensing, banking partnerships, and infrastructure have become critical competitive advantages. Vroon also shares insights into Sokin's rapid growth and what enterprise customers are demanding as they expand globally.

Whether you're interested in stablecoins, cross-border payments, embedded finance, or the future of treasury, this episode offers a look at how financial infrastructure is evolving for a more connected world.

Subscribe for more conversations on fintech, payments, stablecoins, and the future of financial infrastructure.

Connect with the Hosts & Guest

Sasha Pilch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sasha-pilch

Vroon Modgill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vroon-modgill/

About This Week in Fintech

This Week in Fintech’s Podcast is where the decision makers shaping the future of finance come to talk candidly about what’s working, what’s breaking, and what’s coming next in fintech. The show goes beyond headlines to unpack the real stories behind product decisions, regulation, and market shifts with leading founders, C-suite execs, and ecosystem veterans. This is your front-row seat to the people and ideas moving money into the future.

Vroon Modgill

Using stablecoin for the treasury is like upgrading from trucks to planes. Right. It's the same package, same destination. It just means it's getting there faster.

Sasha Pilch

Hi everyone. Welcome to the This Week in FinTech podcast. My name is Sasha Pilch. I'm usually the host of the this month in FinTech podcast, but I'm subbing in for Nik today because he's at the Stablecon conference. And I'm super excited to have our guest today. We have Vruend, the CEO of Sokin. So welcome Vroon. How are you doing today?

Vroon Modgill

Yeah, good thanks, Sasha. How are you?

Sasha Pilch

Yeah, really good, thanks. And where in the world are you dialing in from?

Vroon Modgill

So I'm actually in San Francisco, sunny San Francisco today for um the stablecon salon event that Sokin is co-hosting with a TWIF. So yeah, it's good. The weather's nice. Everyone's happy. So yeah, it's great.

Sasha Pilch

Beautiful, yeah. Um last time I went to San Francisco, weather was beautiful and the city was thriving. It feels like there was a bit of a lull during COVID, and now it's very much dark, and I'm so excited about San Francisco these days.

Vroon Modgill

So yeah, we've been back a few, we've been back a few times, and it's great to see actually. It's great to see many of the cities as well getting back to normal. So yeah, very happy to be back in SF.

Sasha Pilch

Awesome. Great. So usually when I interview my guests, I talk a little bit about how you got to where you are. I'm very excited to jump into Soken and what it does, but let's touch on your experience and the path for you to get where you are today. So you have a background in finance and you've been in crypto for a long time. So anything that you can tell us about that journey that led you to where you are today?

Vroon Modgill

Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, I was I was uh part of a crypto company back in uh

Intro

Vroon Modgill

sort of 20 sort of 15 to about 2017 onwards, and and then up to 2019 before I started soaking. So very early stages when there was probably like two, three of us around, and and my job very much was to break down the doors of banks and bin sponsors when we were trying to do card programs, so quite successfully achieved that in the US. I think we were the first company to get a card program going. Um, and really my sort of eyes really opened up within the payment space, the remittance space, the whole idea of settling funds globally in that journey. Um, and yeah, like I said, we were very early adopters, and then in 2019, when I first started Sokin, it was actually as a consumer payment company. Um, and by 2021, 2020, 2021 onwards, we started really pivoting towards the sort of the business business and B2B space. I think I think the consumer model was kind of like slightly breaking. I think it's even now you have the challenges with those like kind of like super super consumer apps who are kind of

From Early Crypto To B2B Pivot

Vroon Modgill

one of another bank. So it it was a bit difficult to kind of break down. And the more we were educating ourselves about the sort of the the business side of things, especially at the enterprise mid-tier level, I think that pivot was only kind of natural. So around 2022, we started really pivoting towards business payments essentially. Um, and yeah, like 90% of my SMT stayed with me, and and yeah, the success is we're seeing the fruits of of all of that sort of uh infrastructure work that we put in in the early days, and and and now we're seeing the rewards of that.

Sasha Pilch

I'm a big fan of B2B. I uh was early at Quovo and Platt and Ramp, um, and went on to Fin Capital to only invest in B2B infrastructure companies. I think that that was definitely an amazing pivot by you guys. It's like the CAC is so much lower when you're not having to spend all this money on Instagram ads to acquire the consumer. So, like, sounds like a very good pivot and evident in your metrics, and really great that you've had 90% retainment of the leadership team, like just really showing the belief in you as a leader. So, congratulations on that. That's awesome. Um, so let's dive in for the listeners about what Sokin actually does. So, can you run us through?

Vroon Modgill

Yeah, absolutely. Look, Sokin helps businesses scale um without friction. Um, essentially, that is the values of the company, that is the motto of the company. That's what everyone that's working at Sokin believes in. Now you can break that down into three product verticals. So one is offering global bank accounts, offering stablecoin wallets, two is offering ERP integrations of those wallets and of those accounts. So this will be into like treasury management platforms and so on. And the third product vertical is payment gateways and e-commerce acceptance. So if businesses are invoicing other businesses or around the world, they can accept money, or equally, if they've got consumers that are buying products off their websites, then they can use our sort of settlement accounts and our infrastructure to be able to do that. And essentially, we've deployed this in two very easy go-to-market strategies as well. That's quite straightforward to understand. So we do direct to enterprise and mid-tier sort of uh businesses. Um, and the second part of that is embedded embedded uh embedded finance and embedded product, where we allow companies who want to scale up globally to write-label our solution and essentially go global from day one. So that's kind of a very high-level summary of uh what we do as a business.

Sasha Pilch

Okay, that's really interesting. So, like just to double-click on that, you're not only offering the internal treasury management services, but then also if a company wanted to extend like their e-commerce services globally, they could do that with Soken as a one-stop shop, not having to use multiple vendors.

Vroon Modgill

Yeah, think of us as one platform,

What Sokin Builds For Global Money

Vroon Modgill

one vendor, um, instead of 10 banking relationships in different stacks, we can provide that one integration. If it's ERP systems around the world where subsidiaries are using different ones, again, we are in that stack. Often what you hear at enterprise level and sort of that mid-tier level when they are trying to go global, you go to some of the guys out there at the moment, and it's kind of, oh, you're gonna have to have another three to six month integration time with someone else, and you're trying to scale up very quickly. With Soakin from day one, you get global access. So if you wanted to pivot towards Asia, if you want to pivot towards Africa or Middle East or wherever it might be in the world, um, as a US company that's growing, it's very easy to do it from our platform and and and it's kind of no fuss. Um, like I said, one one platform, one vendor.

Sasha Pilch

That's excellent. Um, and great that you don't have to switch to a different provider because they're using an ERP in one region that's not popular in another region. So great.

Vroon Modgill

Absolutely, Sasha. And I think I think this is a lot of learning from when we were doing the consumer product, to be honest. I think you know, we we bootstrapped that product for two, three years, and and you know, we wanted to scale up quickly. We had to go to market very quickly to make some money. And often what would happen is you'd speak to providers and you're trying to go go live in Asia, you're trying to go live in the US, you're trying to go live in other places, and six month, nine-month timeline to go live. And yeah, after that point, we were like, no, businesses shouldn't be facing this problem. So we were kind of like, we we need to create something that makes it super fast and super quick. And yeah, luckily we've got a product that's doing that.

Sasha Pilch

Yeah, like you really built this out of the frustration of trying to use the existing infrastructure, like nine months to go live to and generate revenue is ridiculous. So I'm glad that you've come in and fixed that.

Vroon Modgill

Thanks a lot.

Sasha Pilch

Um, so that's probably a good segue to talk about like why treasury is broken today. Like, what are the things that are really ridiculous at this point that should be a lot easier considering the technology that we have?

Vroon Modgill

Yeah, so look, most treasury tools assume sort of one home currency. Um, banking hours settlement Monday to Fridays, team can't wait, you know, they have to wait overnight to reconcile. The reality of a lot of enterprises is like I said, they they're dealing with global subsidiaries, they're in global markets, there's 10, 20 different banking relationships, weekly FX to fund payroll, so you're sending money from one place to the other, it takes two to three days to settle. And then on the treasury side, if you go more on the balance sheet side, when you've got AR and AP, especially on the receivable side, when you've got funds coming in, often at that level they're parked in Nostro accounts, and you've got teams coming in on a Monday and spending three, four days reconciling it. So settlement speed is kind of breakages. I think that's kind of like everyone's kind of aware of how how long it takes, and even Swift sometimes how slow and delays there are and the inherent problems that are existing because of that. I think the multiple relationships that a lot of these enterprises are facing as well. And then also now it's becoming very relevant that you know funding for payroll and doing FX on a Monday when the payrolls are going out on a Friday or a Thursday for a company, you're losing you're losing that money with idle cash just sitting around for like three, four days. Um, and that's a big thing at uh, like I said, the enterprise level material level that

Why Enterprise Treasury Still Breaks

Vroon Modgill

you're kind of dealing with. And then also now with the technology that's kind of out there, there should be some form of sort of routing intelligence, you know, whether it's via stable coins, whereas via fiat, what's the best route, what's the cheapest route, whether it's speed you're after, whether it's cost you're after. And this is where the Sokin solution is really a hybrid between both and gives optionalities to a lot of these customers. And like I said, at the start, with our product and our technology platform, it's it's one integration, so it's kind of like not different teams speaking about stable coins, different teams speaking about fiat. Once you go on our platform, you get access to everything. And then we have the you know, it's our own proprietary tech that has that routing intelligence that if it makes sense to send it via fiat, we'll send it via fiat. If it makes sense to send it via stable coins, we'll do it via stable coins.

Sasha Pilch

I think that's such an interesting point because you know, treasury services is all about making the most of your cash and not having idle cash, but waiting multiple days because of banking hours for settlement is really eating into that value that you could be gaining from making cash work for you. So being able to use Sokin to get the money there faster makes a lot of sense. Um, so stable coins for treasury make like is like seems like the future. Um it doesn't feel like many people are doing this. So great to hear that Sokin is doing it. I know like Airwell X is a big player in the market, doesn't seem like they're doing it yet. So can you double click on that a little bit?

Vroon Modgill

Yeah, look, for us, we're we're a customer-obsessed company, so we're we're more bothered about what our customers want and what their needs are and what their desires are and what we see on the trends with our enterprise clients that are sending money around and how we can make that more efficient. Using stablecoin for treasuries, like upgrading from trucks to planes, right? It's the same package, same destination. It just means it's getting there faster, and that's kind of how we view it. I think a lot of people view it, start going down the whole crypto sort of mindset, etc. But actually, it's an efficiency, it's a rail, it's needed for businesses. It allows for weekend settlements, it allows for post-5 pm settlements, and that's the efficiency that the soaking platform brings to treasury teams around the world. And we've gone in quite deep on this over the last 18 months to two years, so it's not something that's quite new, and this is why our business is doing, you know, we're the fastest growing fintech in the world. We're doing 100% year-on-year growth, uh, and we're accelerating very fast globally because we've put that infrastructure in place so we're not catching up, but more or less setting the trend. And for us, like I said, stable coins from a treasury perspective is vital for our customer base. And like I said, we're a customer that obsessed business, and for us, it works really well.

Sasha Pilch

And can we talk through an example, like just to bring it to life for the users? So let's say you have a big enterprise customer in Germany using token, and they have to send me they have to send money to somewhere else in the world, or let you take it from here. Can you talk about the flow of funds and how it's better than the old way of doing things?

Vroon Modgill

Yeah, so look, like I said, our proprietary tech has created almost like this hybrid sort of bridge of rails.

Stablecoin Rails Without Crypto Headaches

Vroon Modgill

So I can I can give you an example of live customers that are kind of doing it at the moment. So if a customer sends US dollars, for example, um, to make it relevant to the North American market, and the beneficiary is receiving MXN, our algorithms will decide whether in real time whether stable coins are the fastest and the cheapest way to move that value. Neither side touches crypto, but we have that sort of intelligence that can be able to do it. On and off ramping is what's really difficult about stable coins and understanding that. Without local banking partners in sort of destination markets, you're kind of defaulting to using Swift as a rail of payment to the other side. So what we've done is we've spent years building that sort of banking partner network across like 170 countries that makes this kind of real and allows us to do this switch between what's quick and what's not. There are some enterprise level customers where when we speak to them, you know, what's more important for them, price or speed. Um, and there are some that speed is more important for them because of the way that their businesses move. And in that manner, if stable coins typically will be used because of the fact that you can do this post-5 pm, you can send it over weekends and so on. But yeah, look, US to Latam, US to Southeast Asia, cross-border payroll in markets, you know, this is where the bridging of stable coins works really well. And using the Soking platform really helps um companies do that.

Sasha Pilch

And just from my own understanding, when wouldn't stablecoin win? Because it seems like the most efficient and cost-effective path every time. So just like from my own understanding, and to educate some of the listeners that may have the same question.

Vroon Modgill

Yeah, of course. Uh yeah, absolutely. Look, we did we did a uh we're we're part of an RFP at the moment in which um two emerging markets, um Brazil and Nigeria, um, were big topic of conversation in in terms of settlement. One, stable coins was cheaper, one, the fiat route was cheaper. So it it it like I said, it depends on what enterprises want to do, if it's speed of settlement or it's price. And that's the beauty of us as a company, and I keep saying it, because the hybrid solution that we've kind of built, it allows companies to have that flexibility of knowing speed or price, whichever one they want to focus on. But essentially it still goes back to helping the treasury teams within those that those organizations, the CFOs, the reconciliation work that kind of goes on in that. And I think that's been a miss in the industry for quite a while. I don't think, like I said, our platform speaks to Treasury platforms, it speaks to payment gateways, so all of it's kind of interconnected. So if something's settling on a Soken account, it will naturally play a part on the treasury platforms that kind of help these companies. So yeah, it's it's great, but it's still in adoptive phase at the moment. So I think we're very early in that, and that's why some routes tip fiat's better, some routes stable coins are better. But like I said, our responsibility is to give our customers a choice and give them the ability for efficiency. Otherwise, like I said, we've got an infrastructure, it's got local rails, naturally it's got Swift. We've now provided another option on top of all of that that allows companies to move faster.

Sasha Pilch

And it's great to see you've hired some of the top talent in the industry, like in Eccles, who I know back from when he was at Paynear and then Airwolx, and now you have him at Sokan. So um, you know, it's really like evidence to the fact that you guys are the Treasury platform management service of the future. So I'm really excited to see how you expand globally.

Vroon Modgill

Yeah. Yeah, we look we hire best in class. So we're a company that's scaling, like I said, we're we're doing 120% year on year. Um we're probably we're at 100 million in ARR, we'll probably be at 150, 200 quite easily over the next 10 months. Um, so for us, it's important to get the best in each market. Um, and I believe we've got a really strong team globally. Um, not even the guys that we're just hiring, but you know, our attrition rates are less than 4%. So everyone loves working at SoCid, so because everyone has the same vision of what we want to do and we want to help businesses scale without friction.

Sasha Pilch

That's great. And can you talk a little bit about the types of customers that you've been acquiring and where they're headquartered? Is it like truly global? Is it more US heavy considering you're in Miami usually?

Vroon Modgill

Yeah, so so look, 60, 60% of our revenue that we generate is in North America, um, especially in the US market. Um, what we're finding, especially on the embedded product, is a lot of customers are coming to Sokin now because of that, one stack, one integration, one solution, you can go live pretty much. If you have a development team, you could pretty much go live with it on over a weekend. But also what we're finding on the direct side, on the enterprise selling side, is companies are going more global and they are having efficiency issues more than pricing issues, I would say. I think they want to look for solutions that can help archaic systems that they've been using. And look, no one's going to leave their ERP systems that they've been using for like 30, 40 years. So we've been able to almost, you know, like a Chrome plugin, plug into those ERP systems that actually makes it really efficient and really a light lift for a lot of those companies. And I think there's a lot of appreciation for that, at the same time, delivering a global service which has been missing in the market for a very long time.

Sasha Pilch

And um, when I worked at RAMP, we definitely connected with all of the ERPs in the US, like QuickBooks and Zero for the smaller guys, and then Sage Intact, NetSuite, um, SAP for the bigger guys, any other integrations that you can talk through US and externally that you connect with?

Vroon Modgill

Yeah, absolutely. On the enterprise level side, it's Oracle, JD Edwards, SAP, um, NetSuite, as you mentioned, Microsoft Dynamics, Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, pretty pretty pretty much the full suite of ERP platforms. And I think the beauty about Soakin is on the direct side, when we're dealing with enterprise in mid-tier above who might be using Oracle, you know, SAP, um and some of the bigger ERP

ERP Integrations And The Licensing Moat

Vroon Modgill

systems, we've still got an embedded product. So if we are dealing with guys who have got SMB customers who are integrated into Agent Zero, they have access accessibility to those treasury integrations as well. So actually they're helping their end customers with bank accounts that can go the full way. So that's the beauty. We can touch the SMB side as well, although on the direct side we focus more on enterprise and mid-tier. But on the embedded side, we've definitely got a solution that kind of is is favorable for everyone.

Sasha Pilch

And 26 currencies in 170, oh sorry, yeah, 20 in 170 countries. So how did you go about this? Have you got direct deals with all of these different providers?

Vroon Modgill

Yeah, so we've got a really big licensing footprint around the world. Um, and I would say this is becoming a moat for the business versus AI right now. And I think a lot of people, a lot of businesses are looking to scale very quickly and are realizing the licensing and regulatory headaches that it is and the time it takes, more so the time it takes. And we've cited all of these applications four or five years ago. So those EMI licenses, um, the banking licenses that we're going after as well in in a few countries, you know, these are all helping the infrastructure at the end of the day. For us, we want to be closest to the rails so that companies can have full visibility of all of their transactions going through for their business, all the way through to the ERP, all the way to payment acceptance. And that's why licenses for us are really important and we'll we'll always we'll double down on it on it in every market going forward. Um, but allows us to essentially sell the product that we are at at the efficiency that we are as well.

Sasha Pilch

Congrats on that. Like it's so hard to get these licenses and being able to have so many, you know, that has taken four or five years to get is really a true moat compared to other competitors. And I'm sure when you were fundraising, VCs loved that aspect. Um, can you talk a little bit about some of the investors that you have on your cap table that have been helpful in growing SOCAN?

Vroon Modgill

Yeah, I appreciate your comments on that. I think I think a lot of a lot of effort goes goes to the unsung heroes of the business sometimes, you know, the compliance and operations team. I think everyone loves seeing revenue growth and go to market, but sometimes there are other teams in the business as well that are equally contributing for us to be successful on that on that top line. Um look, we've got some amazing, amazing backers, I think, from from Series A, with Morgan Stanley coming in for the business, especially when we were more enterprise and mid-tier focused. I think that that did a lot for our credibility. Um BlackRock were involved from a funding level as well, and then Prism Capital as well in our Series B who who led that. They've been super helpful. And 90% of our cap table is actually based in the US as well. So this is why we have such a big US footprint. And it's almost like we've we're making US our home. Um, and and we have been making our home now, um, especially on the West Coast and the East Coast. So it's great to be you know involved with a lot of the AI businesses, especially in the Valley, um, who are looking at payment and you know, stable coins are basically the find the foundation for like a gen tech treasury. So, and we're at the forefront of that. And we're right in the mix. So yeah, investors have been super, super helpful. And then obviously there's a lot of family offices that have been part of it for make capital and so on. Um, and that have been part of the business and have been driving the growth as well over the last few years.

Sasha Pilch

It's really impressive to hear like Morgan Stanley, BlackRock on your cap table. Um, one of my clients is Turnkey, it's a stablecoin wallet infrastructure provider, and I've been working with them to help them get in front of a lot of traditional financial institutions. And it's exciting that in the like 10 years that I was in banking and the 10 years that I've been in FinTech, finally now it seems like the big financial institutions are really listening to stablecoin and like getting involved. So it feels like the future is like really here, which is exciting.

Vroon Modgill

Yeah, it's great. And we we have great banking relationships with all the banks around the world.

Investors Growth Numbers And Credibility

Vroon Modgill

And I think us having you know a couple on the cap table as well helps. But um, you know, yes, there's challenges from a technology perspective, and I think a lot of the people working at these banks understand those frustrations, but the banks love us, we love the banks, it's working quite well, the relationships and and and our responsibility is to drive as much volume as possible, I guess.

Sasha Pilch

Awesome. Um, well, we're actually nearly at time. This went really fast. So um uh before I ask the last few questions, is there anything that I haven't covered that you really want the listeners to know that token is doing?

Vroon Modgill

Yeah, look, I I think I've talked about it enough over over the over over this chat. But like I said, for us, for yeah, stablecoins is all about treasury modern modernisation. Um sometimes you know people get lost in the idea of stablecoins changing everything. I don't think it's it's quite there yet, but offering another option is is kind of key. And as I said, our platform has been built for scaling up businesses without friction. And on the on the enterprise level side for customers, if they're out there listening, they want an option where you've got a fiat, you've got a stablecoin, you can decide your treasury teams have the knowledge of what they want to do with a go-to platform for that. And if you're an embedded platform that wants to scale up and go global as soon as possible, we can probably get you live over a weekend if you've got the developers in place. So, yeah, it's a it's an exciting business to be part of, and and and we love all the clients that are kind of using Sokin at the moment and onwards and upwards.

Sasha Pilch

Such a fast implementation time, which is such a great thing about new age fintechs compared to the legacy players, and the fact that you're also offering these treasury solutions alongside the e-commerce aspect. What is the split between how many customers like approximately are using you just for treasury versus both Treasury and the e-commerce?

Vroon Modgill

Yeah, so I would I would say 90% of the customers are using us for Treasury. Absolutely. Um we have just announced our partnership with Adian uh in the market um over the last couple of months. So the e-commerce uptake is is kind of growing, but the element of where we do payment acceptance on invoicing and AP, that has been that has been in place for the last two, three years. So all of the customers coming on to Sokin traditionally in the past were coming on for global accounts because they wanted access to be able to accept money and send money. And in the past, I think a lot were pleasantly supplied surprised with the sort of the treasury implementations that we kind of had. Now people are becoming more aware of it. So they're coming to us because they need automation. And you know, we're in a time right now where AI is there, stable coins are there, and we can move at speed because our tech stack has been built that way. Um so we haven't got 15, 16 years of old tech stack that we have to replace you know completely move away from and replace. We we're kind of we're kind of moving with the time. So if something changes tomorrow, you know, I'll bet we could do that within a day or two days or whatever it will be with the technology team that we've got in place. And that's really the most exciting thing. So it like I said, the space is really exciting right now, and I think everyone's appreciating the licensing moat naturally with payment companies. But yeah, we're really looking forward to the future.

Sasha Pilch

And you mentioned, you know, a lot of employees are in the US, it's really the home of Soken on both the East Coast and the West Coast. Are you guys hiring right now? You mentioned like your top talent in the team. Is this one that like when listeners are thinking about their next move, they should be applying it so can yeah, absolutely.

Vroon Modgill

I think you know, obviously, I'm gonna speak well for my company, but you know, I think the attrition rates speak for itself. Like I said, less than like 5% attrition rates within the company. We're at 250 employees right now. We'll probably finish the year at sort of 350. Obviously, AI adoption is changing the operational, you know, operational flow of the business, and it's quite natural. I think everyone's kind of looking at it, but you know, we've got an amazing team in place, like I said, from from the front-end sales guys to all the way through through the operational guys, the compliance guys, even our talent team are recruiting. Everyone is contributing to the growth of uh and the success of the business. And I think, like I said, companies that do well, values kind of resonate from top to bottom, and I think that's kind of where we, me and the SMT make a big effort. And I think the great thing is that a lot of us pivoted or were part of the business that kind of pivoted. Um, so we've seen the ups and downs, and and we we've been there, you know, in the trenches, as they say, um, to get to where we are today.

Sasha Pilch

Great, and I love that you gave the compliance team a shout out, like the you know, there's the unswung heroes a lot of the time in the background, but they've created the moat that got all the VCs excited and set you guys ahead with the competitive advantage. So shout out to the compliance people.

Vroon Modgill

Yeah, absolutely.

Sasha Pilch

Um, usually I ask what is your favorite book, and you can do personal or professional. Um, but you don't have to answer that if you don't want to. I can give you another question. So up to you.

Vroon Modgill

No, no, happy, happy to happy to follow the trend. So um, look, personally, everyone knows, and and we we've done it in the business, but I'm a big um, as they say, America, a soccer fan. So um, you know, I'm a big uh Manchester United fan as well. And naturally, on the personal level, you know, reading books of uh

Hiring Culture And Scaling The Team

Vroon Modgill

Sir Alex Ferguson, who used who was the greatest manager in the Premier League, um, and how his leadership skills and how he went through 25 years or whatever it was at at one of the biggest clubs, is it's always great to hear that management style because obviously we go through different levels of stages as as managers in SMTs. You know, you you go from bootstrapping where you're pretty much doing everything to now having a team of 250 where you can't do everything, so you kind of have to learn very quickly. And I think there's a book that always sticks sticks sticks with me when I you know when I practice as an accountant and I was kind of thinking about the future and the next thing I want to do. And there's a book I read called What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School, um, and it was by Mark McCormack, and and the whole book was around the idea of how business schools teach you about the analytical side of things and and they don't really teach you about how to be street smart and the interpersonal sort of instinct of relationships. And I think the reason why Token does so well is because I think some of that teachings that I have for my for my migrant parents of of you know selling and building those relationships to get things done, I think kind of resonates with our business, and this is why so many enterprises like working with us because they feel like we're truly with them rather than just trying to make you know a spread on an FX rate or something like that. And I think those two books kind of really kind of hit home with me and and and and and kind of have helped me in my sort of business life as well.

Sasha Pilch

Excellent recommendations, and I totally agree with that, like um being a part true partner to your customers rather than like in an ivory tower saying, Oh, this is the

Leadership Lessons And Final Takeaways

Sasha Pilch

the service that we're offering. Um I'm from Australia and I moved to New York as a like foreign person as well, so I totally get the hustle aspect to it. Um when did you move from the UK to the US?

Vroon Modgill

So I moved about four years ago. Um, yeah, so I moved about four years ago. I moved to Toronto actually, so North America, but yeah, yeah, I'm still part of the region. So yeah, it's been a great move.

Sasha Pilch

And with the Sir Alex Ferguson book, anything in particular from his management style that you've taken and implemented into your leadership at Sogan?

Vroon Modgill

I think it's appreciating change. I think when you're when you're kind of as as a manager, he was he managed over like a 25-year period, so and it was going through the acceleration of obviously the Premier League to what it has become now, and you have different characters and different times and trends, and I'm kind of getting a crash course and a real-time version of that. When I started my business, it was all about fintech and payments. Then COVID hit, and everyone was like, the world's going to end, and it didn't quite end, and then it was going through wars, and you know, even us as a business, we you know, we've been going through the AI changes, the stablecoin changes, and being up to date with that. And you know, what's testament to the companies? You know, we raised 150 million last year and with in a year where fintech investments went down 30%. I think great businesses are always going to raise money, and I think we're very much in that category right now. Um, and it's great to see the amount of attention that the company is getting, not only from VCs, but more importantly for us, it's customers, right? So we want the attention with the customers, it helps us grow, it helps us grow as a product, it helps us grow as a company. Um, and that's what's most exciting. It's not, and and we've never been a business that's just gone to market just to raise money. So um it's it's it's a great position to be in.

Sasha Pilch

Awesome, great. Well, we're at time now, so I'll finish. But um, thank you so much, Rune. This was awesome.

Vroon Modgill

Yeah, thank you.

Sasha Pilch

I'm so happy I got to learn more about what you're doing. It's so impressive and looking forward to seeing you continue to thrive.

Vroon Modgill

Amazing, thanks, Sasha. Appreciate it.