004 Valentina Kristensen
Corporate Affairs Director, OakNorth
Valentina Kristensen has been with OakNorth for coming up on 10 years, and is currently Corporate Affairs Director and a member of the Bank’s ExCo. She’s a hugely accomplished communications professional and somehow also manages to mentor, advise and volunteer for various organisations. We met at the 11:FS Awards last year where neither of us won.
“At OakNorth, still almost 80% of our new business comes from unpaid referrals through word of mouth.”
The interview
What’s your coffee ritual?
A cup of tea first thing when I wake up (usually made by my husband!), followed by a latte once I get to the office. We’re very lucky to have a barista bar in our London office.
What was your first marketing job?
A Junior Account Exec at Lansons (now Lansons | Team Farner) – an agency based in Farringdon. It was a great place to start my career, and several of my closest friends and mentors are people I met whilst there.
What finance apps do you have on your home screen?
It’s a long list! OakNorth, Monzo, Starling, Chase, Freetrade, American Express, John Lewis & Partners credit card, Royal London, Fidelity International, Nutmeg, Wise, NS&I, Splitwise Inc., and Coinbase.
Which newsletter, podcast, or book do you recommend most?
Newsletter = anything from Bloomberg
Podcast = Fintech Insider
Book = The Hard Thing About Hard Things
What’s an underrated growth channel in fintech?
Word of mouth. It drives trust-based, organic user acquisition, often with higher conversion and retention than paid channels. Satisfied users sharing their experiences will almost certainly lead to exponential growth. At OakNorth, still almost 80% of our new business comes from unpaid referrals through word of mouth.
What keeps you up at night?
I have a two-year-old, so he does a pretty good job! But apart from Leo, I’d say it’s probably waiting for regulatory approval on our recently-announced acquisition of Community Unity Bank in Michigan.
What are the most useful measurement tools you use in your work?
Salesforce: to track where leads have come from and be able to put a tangible, numerical figure next to the activity the team’s done, and demonstrate our value to the bottom line. Also: Meltwater, HubSpot and Google Analytics.
What’s one fintech brand (other than your own) that’s getting marketing right?
11:FS – beyond the awesome content they produce such as the Fintech Insider podcast, they also host some great events (the 11:FS Awards, and live podcast recordings with their After Dark shows). Over the years, they’ve built up a huge following and the podcast will reach 1,000 episodes later this year. I’ve been fortunate to be on it 30 times.
Why is marketing so hard?
If you’ve got good product-market fit, and a team that’s willing to roll their sleeves up, it shouldn’t be hard. What’s harder is being able to demonstrate clear ROI for all the activities you’re doing – often it’s a combination of activities that ultimately gets the customer through the door.