060 Lucy Heavens
Chief Marketing Officer, Vixio
Lucy Heavens is Chief Marketing Officer at Vixio, a regtech company providing solutions for the financial services industry. She’s the founder and podcast host of CMO Therapy where many previous guests of this newsletter have featured. She’s also an Advisory Board Member for the Fin.Tech Marketing Community and an Ambassador for Women of FinTech.
“Trying to scale human connection, which by definition, doesn’t scale neatly.”
The interview
What’s your coffee ritual?
No coffee. A cup of Earl Grey tea for me - no milk or sugar.
What was your first marketing job?
The firm had no local marketing (all run from the US) so I saw a gap and jumped in running events and supporting sales for their European division.
What finance apps do you have on your home screen?
I’m a fintech geek - I see a new one, I download it. They range from banking, to investments, to cashback, to money management.
Which newsletter, podcast, or book do you recommend most?
The book I always recommend is Surrounded by Idiots by Thomas Erikson which is about human behaviour; how and why people act differently. It was life changing for me - really helped me to understand how best to work with people that don’t think the same way I do.
What’s an underrated growth channel in fintech?
Good old human contact. People need real interactions to build emotional connection and trust. And that doesn’t just happen at events - there are far more innovative ways to bring the human touch into how we engage.
What keeps you up at night?
Trying to scale human connection, which by definition, doesn’t scale neatly. And growth in general… because it’s messy, unpredictable, and a lot harder than LinkedIn makes it look.
What are the most useful measurement tools you use in your work?
Honestly - AI (ChatGPT, Gemini etc). There are many tools (Dreamdata, Demandbase etc), but there doesn’t seem to be one tool that really brings everything together and presents it in the right way, it’s always part of the story.
What’s one fintech brand (other than your own) that’s getting marketing right?
There are so many! A couple I’ve really noticed recently are Monzo, Financielle, Ecommpay, and Sprive.
Why is marketing so hard?
Because marketing sits in the messiest part of business: human behaviour. It’s hard because you’re trying to make people care, trust, remember and buy… in a world full of noise, short attention spans and internal chaos.