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#198: Thomas Vles - Founder and CEO of GoDutch - building from frustration, transparency in banking, vulnerability, and scaling fast without a marketing budget
Description
Thomas Vles is a serial entrepreneur with a background in e-commerce and startups. He first gained international attention in 2013 with Poopy Cat, a company built around sustainable disposable cardboard litter boxes and modular cat products. In 2015, to mark the UK launch, he cycled from Amsterdam to London with his two cats in a cargo bike, a stunt that drew media attention around the world.
After selling Poopy Cat in 2017, he started investing in and advising startups through BlueBottle Ventures. He later spent a year as Managing Director of the Dutch Startup Association, before moving into fintech in 2021 as CEO of Tellow. From 2023 onwards, he served as Chief Revenue Officer at Shine, formerly known as Ageras.
Since May 2024, he has been building GoDutch. It is not a traditional bank, but a fintech platform that aims to make business banking fairer by sharing part of its income with entrepreneurs, while also taking away much of the administrative hassle.
Thomas first studied Physics and Astrophysics at the University of Amsterdam, before switching to Psychology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where he completed two master’s degrees. He is 41 years old, lives in Amsterdam, is married, and has two children.
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Books mentioned in this episode:
The Daily Stoic, Ryan Holiday
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Previous guests on the Leaders in Finance podcast include: Klaas Knot (President DNB), Frank Elderson (Executive Board, ECB), Roland Boekhout (CEO ASN Bank), Gerrit Zalm (former Minister of Finance and former CEO of ABN AMRO), Ingrid de Swart (member of the Executive Board, a.s.r.), Pinar Abay (Management Board ING, Head of Retail Banking), Robert Swaak (CEO ABN AMRO), Marcel Zuidam (CEO NN Bank), Saul van Beurden (CEO Consumer, Small & Business Banking, Wells Fargo), David Knibbe (CEO NN Group), Janine Vos (Executive Board, Rabobank), Nadine Klokke (CEO Knab), Maarten Edixhoven (CEO Van Lanschot Kempen),