This month we spoke with The Work Crowd client member Otabek Nuritdinov, CEO and co-founder of StormPay, who have recently worked with a number of our freelancer members to support their launch.

With the Fintech industry moving at a break-neck speed in 2021, we wanted to speak with StormPay about embedded finance, how it’s revolutionising the industry. We also discuss the future of Fintech and get Otabek’s views on the freelancer skills in demand for 2022.  

Can you tell us a little bit about StormPay and what you do?

StormPay is building a unique ecosystem of fintech services for both B2B and B2C accounts with a "Finance as a Lifestyle" philosophy, with an array of features to provide greater ease, greater security, and greater control. We are building a super app that combines financial and lifestyle services in one place to address the general wellness and happiness of GenZ and young millennials.

Businesses can gain access to multi-currency accounts, payment and mobile apps, while personal accounts feature tailored money management based on users' financial goals and habits.

What is embedded finance and how is it revolutionising financial services?

Embedded finance is a very broad term but the goal of it is to make financial services easily integrable to any ecosystem be it financial services or non-financial ones. We believe embedded finance is revolutionising in a way that now customers can use their bank accounts and other financial services in their favourite apps e.g. social media accounts and businesses can maximise customer experience and increase customer satisfaction.

You recently hired a handful of freelancers through The Work Crowd, what triggered your need for freelance support?

We devote endless hours searching for, interviewing, and recruiting the best talent. Sometimes the new hire ends up quitting at the onboarding stage. All our hard work will be totally wasted, and we are back to the starting point again which is not good in terms of business efficiency. Freelancers can help us get through a new project or take up the slack when we need an extra pair of hands on our team that saves our time and money.

What have you been able to achieve with freelancers through the platform to date?

I believe that it is always useful to have an external viewpoint if it is a major launch. We have reached out to Gabriele Jesson, one of the experienced Marketing Communication experts, regarding our overall Go to Market plan. She provided honest feedback and a clear plan on which problematic areas of our internal marketing communication channels should be fixed before going to market. We have worked with experienced copywriter Lala Cooper, who helped us with UX/UI copy for our Waitinglist App. We are currently collaborating with Adam Honeysett-Watts, PR specialist, who is supporting us with the StormPay launch announcement, which will happen soon. 

The pandemic caused a huge shift in remote working, how has your workforce had to adapt to accommodate this change?

We founded StormPay in the midst of a global pandemic in 2020. Our recruitment process and onboarding process was online, so our team didn’t feel that much of a difference. Currently, 80% of our team are still working remotely all around the world. I am not focused on the working hours of my team, or their location (whether remote or in office). I am more interested in their results.

They are given freedom of time management. We have Slack for work communication, Jira, and Confluence project management software to track our team progress.

The fintech industry moved at a break-neck speed in 2021, but what does 2022 have in store for fintech?

We expect the fintech industry to further accelerate in 2022. The next frontier for fintechs would be moving into metaverse, web3.0 and we expect the adoption of the super app model and lifestyle banking by more western companies. Embedded finance could be one of the technologies that would accelerate this shift and enable those companies to create seamless experiences.

What skills do you think will be in demand from marketing, PR and digital freelancers within the fintech space in 2022? 

I think all marketers, not only digital freelancers, shouldn't underestimate the power of data. The data analytics skills will help them to create powerful marketing strategies with hyper-personalised, data-driven experiences that can solve customers’ challenges and fears. Marketing experts need to use data, not just for selling products and services but also for building an interpersonal connection with the audience by addressing their everyday problems.

And finally, what’s next for StormPay? How will you stay competitive in 2022?

We are at a very early stage and our short term goals are to launch our core payment services both for business and end consumers through our mobile applications. Payment services are at the core of our ecosystem. Once we launch these services we will be focusing on non-financial services. We see our competitive advantage at addressing the overall lifestyle needs of customers and delivering happiness.

If you’re a business looking for interim support, The Work Crowd can instantly connect you to the right professional freelancer to best support you and your business.