"Fintech is Truly Changing the World" Interview with John Hegrenes, Founder of Bueno

HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your background.

I have been an entrepreneur since 1998. More recently I have focused on Fintech and the amazing opportunities we have today to re-invent an outdated financial system. Since August 2020 I have been working on Bueno together with my team of co-founders and advisors.

What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do?

My startup, Bueno, makes it easy for people to manage their property by combining financial services with innovative solutions and cost savings. We focus on the millions of property owners in Europe who own a second home.

What is the origin story?

After living in Spain since 2012 I eventually got fed up by local banks who are 10+ years behind the UK and Scandinavia, I just had to do something. Foreigners in Spain pay 2-300 euro per year for basic poor banking services. Even many Spaniards pay hundreds of euro per year for very little. In Bueno we solve pain points and save people money, what better business can you build?

What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?

We might not be your typical startup as all members of the team have 20-30 years of business experience. But this is what I love with our team, there is no drama, we focus on building our business and everyone knows what their strengths are. Two of my team I have known for a long time, two I found on LinkedIn while looking for someone with a banking background. It turned out to be a great team.

If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?

If I did not work on Bueno I would have worked on another startup. I love being part of the creative process.

At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics?

Our core metrics are customer growth, but since we are not live yet we focus on costs and development progress. Looking forward to going live and starting to track customer onboarding.

What’s most exciting about your traction to date?

It took us a long time to find a financial partner in Spain who could deliver local IBAN accounts with bank functionality. As it seems right now we will be among the very first to launch fully functional IBAN accounts in Spain. Finally people have an option and can choose between Bueno and Spanish banks, knowing that they can pay their utility bills without any hassle.

What technologies are you currently most excited about, and most worried about? And why?

Fintech is truly changing the world, but I am not sure that most people see the major changes taking place. But I guess this is when technology is at its best, when no one notices why things change, they just appreciate that it has changed.

I do not worry much, but while it’s a great time for innovation and many are talking about helping the underbanked it’s worrying that most people are becoming poorer in the world. It doesn’t seem like technology benefits people much financially and that is sad.

What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform?

I wanted to be part of all the great content, if no one publishes there will be no content. So the first step for anyone joining HackerNoon should be to add a short story about themselves.

What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself?

Believe in yourself, there is nothing you cannot do. And support other startups as an angel investor, a few thousand dollars cannot only make you a small fortune, it can help change the world backing something truly unique.

What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing?

Revolut losing hundreds of millions per year and still reaching a 33 billion dollar valuation was a surprise for many. But since their shares are not traded I guess it would not help anyone knowing it :) There have not been many surprises this year.