033 Sebastian Neylan
Head of Growth, Up
Sebastian Neylan is Head of Growth at Up, Australia’s first mobile-only digital bank. I first heard about Up thanks to CEO Xavier Shay’s appearance on the Fintech Insider podcast, which you can listen to here (it’s excellent). Sebastian has been with Up for over five years and has helped grow the customer base to over one million Aussies.
“Hard to go past Cash App for how they have nailed embedding themselves into culture.”
The interview
What’s your coffee ritual?
Bialetti stove top, whilst scanning through a few different local news sources: The Daily Aus newsletter, plus The Age and Capital Brief apps. Followed by a feeble attempt to help my four year old get dressed ‘quickly’ for kinder 🫠.
What was your first marketing job?
Graduate position at the Melbourne office for a big Aussie creative agency, called BMF Australia. Met multiple, talented legends there.
What finance apps do you have on your home screen?
Two buckets. Ones I legitimately use as a customer, and ones I have just to play with and spy on 🤫. Outside of Up, which obviously rocks the most, my go to is pearler for shares. I used to use Splitwise Inc. a lot too — until Up recently launched our new Groups feature 😎.
Which newsletter, podcast, or book do you recommend most?
Newsletter: one I just discovered via this newsletter, which is Tom Davies’ Substack Marketing is Hard. Full of heaps of truths and tips!
Podcast: Anything by 11:FS because they are always full of razor sharp industry insights from around the globe.
Book: The Best of Lenny’s Newsletter, because he is the OG product / growth guru and his advice is timeless.
What’s an underrated growth channel in fintech?
PR. Especially as we enter an AI era where SEO is being replaced by ‘GEO’.
What keeps you up at night?
My four year old getting (currently) spooked by the dark 🥱.
What are the most useful measurement tools you use in your work?
Metabase is the core data brain for Up and it’s far more superior and flexible than any other BI or analytics tool I’ve used prior. Kudos to the makers of it over in San Fran! I spend at least 1/3 of my day in there nerding out.
What’s one fintech brand (other than your own) that’s getting marketing right?
Hard to go past Cash App for how they have nailed embedding themselves into culture. Something we admire at Up. I’ve also been intrigued in the past, from afar, by Habito in the UK. They’ve done some really different stuff at times like the Mortgage Kama Sutra 5-6 years ago.
Why is marketing so hard?
Because everyone has an opinion. But that’s also part of the magic 🪄.
Whose answers to the above questions would you most like to read?
There’s a newish crew I’ve been admiring over the pond in NZ called Dosh New Zealand. I’d love for you to hit up someone in their marketing / growth team, and get their insights. NZ is a different market to Aus but there would definitely be some shared similarities.