Founders and banks can leave the same meeting with completely different takeaways — because they're running on different clocks. Founders measure time in runway, payroll, and board pressure. Banks measure it in governance, resilience, and trust. Neither is wrong, but that gap explains why so many enterprise tech deals succeed or fail. To unpack this, joining us now is Michael O'Loughlin, Managing Partner at Argonautic Global and US Ambassador of the MENA Fintech Association. Mike, thanks so much for joining us again.
Great to be back. Good morning.
Last week we argued that banks don't have an innovation shortage. But why do so many fintech-bank relationships still struggle?
I don't think it's because either side is doing anything wrong. What's happening is they're often leaving the exact same meeting with completely different expectations. The founder walks out thinking they found a new customer — this is fantastic. The bank is thinking, well, that's interesting, let's investigate it further. They sound similar but they're completely different stages of the journey. Founders think in terms of sales pipelines and revenue. Banks are focused on day-to-day operational resilience, procurement, cybersecurity, regulatory expectations, and whether this technology will still be needed and supported five years from now. They're not having different conversations — they're interpreting the same conversation through completely different lenses. The demo is just the start.
What exactly creates that disconnect?
It comes down to something we don't talk about enough, which is time. Time has completely different value depending on which side of the table you're on. As a founder, you might have 18 months of runway. Every month represents payroll, investor pressure, board expectations — when are we going to see a return. Meanwhile, banks are thinking about customer deposits, operational resilience, long-term trust. When founders think banks are moving too slowly, banks think founders are moving too quickly. Technology moves at the speed of code. Institutions move at the speed of trust.
Are banks simply too slow compared to founders?
Having been on the bank side as well, I don't think that's a fair criticism. Banks are not designed to be the fastest organisations in an economy — and for good reason. They're designed to be the most trusted. If a social media company gets something wrong, it's embarrassing. If a bank gets something wrong, that can have a knock-on effect on markets, financial stability, economies, and jobs. Caution isn't evidence of failure. Caution is part of the product customers are buying — they're buying into that level of trust. Banks aren't paid to innovate first. They're paid to protect first.
What should founders do differently in this process?
I take my hat off to founders. The biggest mistake I see is founders spending months perfecting the product in a room with no windows, but not spending enough time understanding the institution they're trying to sell into. Technology is only part of an enterprise sale. Know who owns the budget. Know who signs off from procurement before you walk in the door. Know who carries the operational risk. And ask yourself whose life inside this organisation are you genuinely making easier as a result of them buying your product. Those questions take time to answer, but they matter far more than showcasing another product feature. I always encourage founders to pause and stop asking how can I sell software — and instead ask, who's problem inside this organisation am I genuinely solving? Because if you're a startup, you're not selling software. You're selling organisational change.
From an investor standpoint, has this changed how you think about building stronger partnerships between fintechs and banks?
Completely. It's probably made me more sympathetic to both sides, which I never thought I'd say. I understand founders watching their runway get shorter every month. I also understand a bank executive thinking: if this goes wrong, I'm accountable. Every day costs somebody something. The founder loses runway. The bank loses time. And the customer loses the benefit of that innovation arriving sooner. So banks spend time. Founders spend runway. And sooner or later, they're going to collide.
Mike, thank you so much for joining us. Always great to have your perspective from both sides of the equation.
Thank you very much.
