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Building a successful fintech advisory firm without venture capital requires more than industry knowledge. It demands a willingness to sacrifice, a clear understanding of what customers need, and the ability to treat compliance as a commercial function rather than a cost center.

Tedd Huff the Founder & CEO of Voalyre a fintech advisory firm sits down with Jas Randhawa, Founder & CEO of Strategybrix, a compliance consulting firm that serves high-growth fintechs, exchanges, and partner banks. The discussion covers the hard lessons learned from bootstrapping, the common mistakes fintech founders make, and why approaching compliance strategically can unlock growth rather than block it.

Jas spent over 20 years working with major banks like Citibank, JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, and HSBC. His background as a computer science engineer gave him an inside view of how compliance systems work, from KYC and onboarding to transaction monitoring and fraud detection. Working on remediation projects revealed a consistent pattern: when banks faced problems, they threw money at them without addressing root causes.

The traditional banking approach was to hire hundreds of people to manually review alerts or fix broken processes. Jas recalls an HSBC project where executives asked how many people would be needed to clear a backlog of transaction monitoring alerts. The answer was 600 people. The next question was how quickly they could be hired. Nobody questioned whether hiring 600 people was the right solution.

This inefficiency sparked his interest in fintech. While working on a third-party relationship assessment for JP Morgan Chase, Jas encountered companies like Square and Amazon Payments. At the time, Square was just launching its card reader dongle. The bank's compliance team viewed it as a risk, worried that the technology could enable illegal transactions. Jas saw something different: a tool that would make it easier for food cart vendors to accept payments and safer for people selling items on Craigslist to complete transactions without handling cash.

That moment crystallized the difference between traditional banking and fintech. Banks were focused on what could go wrong. Fintechs were solving real problems for real customers.

When Jas decided to start Strategybrix, most of his founder friends told him to pay himself first. He did the opposite. For the first three years, he took no salary. Instead, he reinvested every dollar into hiring talented consultants who could deliver exceptional work.

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The logic was straightforward. The salary he might pay himself could instead hire two experienced professionals who would accelerate growth. That decision gave Strategybrix early momentum but required significant mental toughness. There were days when the pipeline was empty and the future felt uncertain. The key was maintaining confidence that customers would come, the work would be excellent, and repeat business would follow.

Avoiding venture capital was another unconventional choice. Jas knew from experience how to build a book of business. He understood which conferences mattered, what messaging resonated, and how long it would take to establish a steady client base. He estimated it would take 24 months to reach sustainability.

Staying bootstrap meant maintaining control. Today, Strategybrix is investing heavily in AI tools and solutions built for internal use first. If the tools work for the firm's own operations, they'll work for clients. That approach gives a 50-person company the leverage to compete with firms ten times larger.

Loving French food is not the same as running a French restaurant. One requires being a connoisseur. The other requires understanding the economics, operations, and daily grind of running a business. Jas points to this distinction when explaining why many subject matter experts struggle to scale a services business.

Many founders stall after landing their first or second client. Three mistakes drive this stall. First, they don't move fast enough. Second, they try to keep all the revenue for themselves instead of building a team. Third, they lose sight of why they exist: to serve customers.

The early hires are the hardest. The pitch is difficult: join a company with no money, no clients, and no track record, but with a vision to do something remarkable. The first hire is a leap of faith. The second hire sees one other person and starts to believe. By the third and fourth hire, momentum builds. Today, when Strategybrix posts a job opening, the applications max out within an hour.

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Scaling from a handful of people to 40 or 50 requires balance. Over hiring kills cash flow. Underselling limits growth. Overselling without the team to deliver damages client relationships. The solution is to build a team that sees clients as their own business, not just a contract to fulfill.

Finding customers requires hustle. If a customer in New York wants to meet for lunch tomorrow, the answer is yes, even if it means catching a flight in three hours. The services delivered must solve real problems, not create new ones. When those pieces align, customers become advocates. Strategybrix doesn't do outbound sales or cold calling. Referrals from satisfied customers and friendly CCOs drive new business.

Compliance can either multiply growth or block it, depending on how it's approached. The most common mistakes fintech companies make start with hiring the wrong compliance officers or building teams without the right mindset.

First-principles thinking is often missing. Compliance teams need to ask why a policy exists, what the regulation actually requires, and whether there's a less cumbersome way to achieve the same outcome. Creativity doesn't mean saying yes to everything. It means being a mature voice in the room that identifies what guardrails, systems, or investments are needed to support a new product or market.

Technology is the third common gap. The days of throwing hundreds of people at a problem are over. Compliance functions are repetitive, rule-based, and data-intensive, which makes them ideal candidates for automation and AI. Companies that don't have a handle on their systems will struggle to scale.

Jas shares an example of a public company with over 2 million partners that went through vendor selection but experienced massive drop-off during customer onboarding. The compliance team had designed the onboarding flow without sufficient benchmarking or first-principles thinking. The process was clunky and asked for unnecessary information at the wrong times.

When Strategybrix mapped the onboarding process, the chokepoints became clear. The team helped redesign the flow, removed friction, and connected the company with better vendors. In today's world, consumers have options. If an onboarding process takes 15 extra seconds, they'll move to a competitor.

Onboarding is the front line of a business. Compliance is a second-line function. Its job is to write policies that protect the institution while allowing good actors in. The first-line teams, including product and engineering, should design the customer experience. They need to understand the minimum policy requirements and push back when something doesn't make sense.

Budgeting for compliance is another area where CCOs often struggle. The process usually happens during Q3 or Q4. Product teams outline their plans to launch new products and enter new markets. Compliance is asked to estimate costs. CCOs call consultants, gather numbers, and put together a budget presentation.

Then comes the negotiation. The CEO, COO, and CFO challenge every line item. They ask why five people are needed, what they'll do, how much technology will be used, and whether AI can reduce costs. These are reasonable questions, but many CCOs aren't prepared. They lose the negotiation, walk out feeling defeated, and tell their teams that leadership doesn't value compliance.

That's not what happened. The CCO failed to anticipate the questions and articulate a compelling case. The best CCOs treat budgeting as a negotiation. They prepare strong arguments, know what they need, and can explain how each investment mitigates risk and supports growth. When they win, they tell their teams that the company got what it needed and compliance is valued.

Successful CCOs also build trust and respect by being commercially minded. They align with product and sales teams, speak the same language, and act as equal partners. When they say no, it carries weight because they've earned credibility by being rational and reasonable.

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The best compliance teams have embedded members within product teams. These individuals understand policies and serve as early warning systems. When a new product or market creates risk, they raise a flag before it's too late. They don't need to be senior. They need to know the policies and have a seat at the table.

AI is changing compliance faster than any other function. Large language models and generative AI can handle repetitive tasks like alert review, where false positive rates often exceed 95 percent. Machines don't get tired or make inconsistent decisions. They can work around the clock.

Jas's advice to CCOs is simple: roll up your sleeves and treat AI as a friend, not an enemy. Companies will adopt these technologies whether regulators are ready or not because the economic incentive is too strong. Regulators are working to provide guidance that allows companies to use large language models responsibly. Explainability is key. If a company can explain what goes in, how the model works, and why it produces a given output, regulators will accept it.

The challenge is similar to self-driving cars. Complex testing and validation are required, but the models can be explained to examiners. Building relationships with regulators and bringing them up to speed on how these systems work will be critical.

Jas's final advice to fintech founders is unconventional but grounded in reality: focus on profitability. Too many businesses raise capital and build services without knowing how they'll make money. Whether a company has four people powered by AI or 400 people, profitability must be a near-term goal. Businesses that ignore the bottom line don't survive.

The episode offers a comprehensive look at what it takes to build and scale a fintech advisory firm, the role of compliance in enabling growth, and the mindset shifts required to succeed in a competitive, fast-changing industry.

TLDR:

Tedd Huff founder & CEO of Voalyre a Fintech advisory firm sits down with Jas Randhawa, founder and CEO of Strategybrix, a 40-plus person fintech consulting firm built without venture capital. Jas shares how he took no salary for three years to reinvest every dollar into hiring top talent, and why he chose bootstrapping over VC funding. The episode explores common mistakes fintech founders make when scaling advisory firms, why most stall after landing their second client, and how to turn compliance into a growth multiplier instead of a blocker. Jas breaks down why CCOs lose budget negotiations, how to embed compliance into product teams, and why AI will change compliance faster than any other function. He explains why first-principles thinking matters, how to fix customer onboarding drop-off, and why profitability must be a near-term goal for every fintech founder. The episode delivers practical, actionable advice for building teams, finding customers through hustle, and creating a commercially minded compliance function that earns trust and respect.

Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe for more insights from industry leaders!

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Key Highlights:

No Salary for Three Years

Taking no salary for the first three years of building a company might sound extreme, but for one founder, it was the key to gaining control and accelerating growth by reinvesting every dollar into hiring talented people who could deliver exceptional work for clients.

Compliance as Growth Multiplier

Compliance doesn't have to be the department that says no to everything. When done right with first-principles thinking and a commercial mindset, compliance becomes the function that opens doors to new markets and products while protecting the company from real risks.

Hiring Your First Team Members

The first three or four hires are the hardest to make because the pitch requires convincing people to join a company with no money, no clients, and no track record, but once momentum builds, applications can max out within an hour of posting a job.

Banks Throw Money at Problems

Traditional banks have a consistent pattern of throwing bags of money at problems by hiring hundreds of people to manually review alerts instead of asking whether the root cause can be fixed with better systems or smarter processes.

CCOs Lose Budget Negotiations

Many chief compliance officers walk into budget negotiations unprepared and lose because they can't anticipate the tough questions from executives about headcount, technology spend, and how AI could reduce costs, leaving them feeling defeated when they should have been ready to fight.

Embedded Compliance in Product Teams

The best compliance teams have members embedded directly within product teams who understand policies and can raise red flags early when a new product or market creates risk, giving the organization time to build the right guardrails before launch.

AI Changes Compliance Forever

Machines can handle repetitive compliance tasks like alert review without getting tired or making inconsistent decisions, and with false positive rates exceeding 95 percent, the economic case for using AI in compliance is too strong to ignore.

French Restaurant Versus French Food

Loving French food as a connoisseur is completely different from running a French restaurant as a business owner, and many subject matter experts who start consulting firms fail to understand the economics and operations required to scale beyond one or two clients.

Profitability Must Be Near Term

Too many businesses raise capital and build services without knowing how they'll make money, but whether a company has four people powered by AI or 400 people, profitability must be a near-term goal or the business won't survive.

Customer Onboarding Drop Off Fixed

A public company with over 2 million partners experienced massive customer drop-off during onboarding because the compliance team designed a clunky flow without benchmarking competitors, but mapping the process revealed all the chokepoints and allowed the team to redesign for better conversion.

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Takeaways:

1️⃣ Rehearse Budget Questions Before Meeting

Write down every tough question executives will ask about headcount, technology costs, and AI automation, then rehearse your answers with specific numbers and risk mitigation examples so you walk into the budget negotiation ready to win instead of feeling defeated.

2️⃣ Replace No with What We Need

When product teams pitch risky ideas, write down the exact guardrails, systems, or investments required to say yes safely, then present those requirements as conditions for approval instead of blocking the opportunity outright.

3️⃣ Map Every Onboarding Step Today

Open your onboarding flow right now and document every question, screen, and delay customers experience, then compare it against your top three competitors to identify where you're asking for unnecessary information or adding friction that causes drop-off.

4️⃣ Document Your AI Model Logic

Build a one-page explainer that shows regulators what data goes into your AI compliance tools, how the model processes that data, and why it produces each output, making it easy to demonstrate explainability during audits or examinations.

5️⃣ Call Three Advisors This Week

Identify three experienced people outside your company who believe in your vision, schedule calls with them this week, and ask specific questions about whether to hire, spend, or wait when your pipeline feels uncertain or decisions feel too risky to make alone.

Links:

Jas Randhawa

https://www.linkedin.com/in/randhawajas/

Strategybrix

https://www.strategybrix.com

https://www.linkedin.com/company/strategybrix

Fintech Confidential

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Podcast: https://fintechconfidential.com/listen

Notifications: https://fintechconfidential.com/access

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Time Stamps:

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About The Guest:

Jas Randhawa

Jas is the Managing Partner at StrategyBRIX, a boutique Risk and Compliance Consulting firm. Before StrategyBRIX, Jas was the Head of Financial Crimes and Compliance at leading fintechs, including Stripe and Airwallex. In addition, at PwC, Jas built and led the firm’s Financial Crimes (Fintech) practice across the US West Coast.

He has over 18 years of experience with building and managing programs in the Compliance space. Jas works closely with CCOs, CROs, and product leaders to solve complex risk, compliance, and monitoring problems in his role. Additionally, as a part of the Bank Secrecy Act Advisory Group (BSAAG), he advised the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury, in areas of Digital Identity Verification, KYC, and using advanced technologies to solve financial crimes.

Jas is a regular speaker at industry events, an Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) member, and an executive committee member of the West Coast AML Forum (WCAML)

StrategyBRIX

StrategyBRIX is a boutique consulting firm specializing in risk and compliance management for fintechs, crypto platforms, and digital banks. Founded in 2021, the firm helps organizations build sustainable financial crime compliance programs that balance regulatory rigor with operational efficiency.

With deep regulatory expertise and hands-on experience in compliance technology and operations, StrategyBRIX delivers practical solutions instead of slide decks. Its team partners with executives and compliance leaders to design and execute programs that meet global standards for KYC, AML, and sanctions while supporting growth and innovation.

From vendor due diligence and model validation to program audits and technology orchestration, StrategyBRIX provides measurable outcomes that enhance trust, reduce friction, and strengthen financial integrity across the digital finance ecosystem.

About the Host:

Tedd Huff: 

Tedd Huff is the Founder of Voalyre a Fintech professional services and Advisory firm focused on global money movement, payments and banking. He is also the founder host and executive producer of the Fintech Confidential network.

Over the past 25+ years, he has contributed to FinTech startups as an Advisory Board Member, Co-Founder, and Chief Experience Officer, providing strategic and tactical direction for Global Payments OpenEdge, Heartland Payments, Nuvei, and TSYS, among others, focusing on growth while delivering innovation, process improvements and user experience-driven value to simplify the complexity of payments.

DD3, Media: 

DD3 Media is a media creation, management, and production company delivering engaging content globally

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