Some of our best meetings don't happen in meeting rooms
People have a fairly fixed idea of what a fintech office looks like: glass walls, big screens, charts on the wall. We have our share of those. But a surprising number of our most useful conversations have taken place elsewhere; around a table in Crete, walking between appointments, over dinner in the Netherlands, on a beach and once on paddleboards. We called that one a board meeting, which was technically accurate.
A team spread across borders
Ypsilon has been international from the start. Our team, partners and projects are spread across several countries, so most days we work together over video. That makes the times we're all in one place especially valuable.
The Mediterranean doesn't improve anyone's slides. What it does is give people room to talk and companies are built through conversation far more than through scheduled calls. Someone raises a question that wasn't on the agenda. A colleague pushes back on an assumption. A technical discussion turns into a commercial idea. A problem that has survived three formal meetings gets sorted out over coffee.
Serious work, informal settings
We take what we're building very seriously. We just don't think that requires everything to be formal. Getting people away from their usual routine changes the kind of discussion you have and makes it easier to step back and ask why we're doing something a particular way.
That question matters in payments more than in most industries. A great deal of today's infrastructure and the thinking around it, was inherited from decades ago. If you want to build something different, you need people who are willing to question it.
How culture shows up in the product
Culture can sound vague and trendy, but you can see its effects. Curious people ask better questions. People from different backgrounds notice different things. Being direct with each other speeds up decisions. So a team that's prepared to challenge complexity tends to end up with simpler technology.
The workshops, dinners, whiteboard sessions, flights and the occasional SUP board are all part of the job, because Ypsilon is built by its people, and you'll be hearing from them on this blog.
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