059 Christian Harinarain
Head of Growth, Tapp
Christian Harinarain leads growth experiments at V7, “the context layer for private markets”. He’s had growth marketing roles at a bunch of fintechs in Canada and the UK including Wealthsimple, Loop Financial, and Tapp.
“In 2026 the best measurement tool is one you build yourself.”
The interview
What’s your coffee ritual?
I wouldn’t call it a ritual exactly, but every morning I walk down to Saint Espresso in Shoreditch before heading into work. Best coffee in London right now and an incredible team. They hold their service to the same standard as the coffee itself, and they’re a fantastic team to work with on partnerships too.
What was your first marketing job?
I became a guerrilla marketer before I even knew what that meant. At 16, I set up a brand activation at a festival for a family member’s personal injury law firm. The centrepiece was a photo booth where members of the public made their best car crash face. It sounds absurd, but it worked and it was a light-hearted way to connect people with the firm and open up real conversations about how we’d helped accident victims navigate insurance claims. I’ve always liked playing around with absurdity and shock-factor.
What finance apps do you have on your home screen?
Every fintech I’ve ever worked for. Which is essentially a record of all my past lives. But the ones I actually use are Wealthsimple, Revolut and Monzo. And my favourite: Claude. I feed it my transaction data and financial goals, and it’s become genuinely useful for thinking through big purchases or decisions about moving money including pros, cons, context. It’s like having one financial advisor sitting across multiple apps.
Which newsletter, podcast, or book do you recommend most?
Blindsight by Matt Johnson, PhD and Prince Ghuman. It’s about how neuroscience explains the subconscious ways marketing shapes consumer behaviour. The real takeaway for me was how shaping and reshaping perception is the fight you should be fighting as a marketer. Not just awareness or not just conversion, but pulling every signal and lever you can on how people perceive the problem they have, and more importantly, the solution you’re offering. Every marketer should read it.
What’s an underrated growth channel in fintech?
Direct mail. Most fintech marketers write it off as expensive or outdated, but per-mailer costs are far more negotiable than people assume. Negotiate with your vendors and your campaign CPA looks very different. The bigger missed opportunity though isn’t acquisition, it’s pipeline. A well-timed mailer between signup and first transaction with clear next steps, a strong incentive, a real CTA, can re-engage people who’ve gone quiet in a way no push notification or email can ever again. Everyone’s fighting for inbox space in 2026. The good marketers will own the mailbox instead. But let’s keep that between us.
What keeps you up at night?
The night terrors of my neighbour’s six-year-old. There’s something about hearing a spine-shivering “DAAAADDDDYYY” at 3am that has a way of putting everything else in perspective.
What are the most useful measurement tools you use in your work?
Dreamdata, GA4, and RB2B are essential starting points. Great for understanding where pipeline is coming from and what’s actually converting. But the most powerful measurement work I’ve done recently has been through custom agents built with Claude. I’ve built one on V7 that pulls data from multiple sources like your CRM, paid channels, product data, and flags attribution gaps at the individual campaign level. It identifies blind spots faster than any off-the-shelf tool I’ve used, especially when the datasets get complex. In 2026 the best measurement tool is one you build yourself.
What’s one fintech brand (other than your own) that’s getting marketing right?
Revolut, and yes, they’re the obvious answer, but they’ve really earned it. What impresses me most isn’t the scale, it’s the context-awareness. They’re genuinely good at surfacing the right product at the right moment. If your income changes, they notice, and they respond in a way that feels relevant rather than intrusive. The Primavera partnership is a good example of them showing up in my life front stage and centred (literally) without it feeling forced. I’m genuinely excited to see what they do with their full banking licence.
Why is marketing so hard?
The “rules” change every day. At this point it’s about endurance. The best marketers aren’t always the most talented or intuitive. I’ve found it comes down to organisation, communication, and managing stress and expectations. Yours and everyone else’s.