In episode 193, Dexter Cousins sits down with Co-Founders John Crutchley and Dave Malcolm, the brains behind Mist, an innovative solution helping students organise their new life in Australia. It doesn’t sound glamorous, but it is an untapped market ripe for digital innovation.

Dave and John share their vision for what promises to be a unique Fintech scaleup. Mist stands out as an ambitious concept. Where many Fintech’s have essentially created a business that could easily be a feature in an app, Mist is an app that makes Fintech a feature of their design.

Dave and John share their Mist journey so far and how their contrasting startup experiences at MarleySpoon and Volt Bank are helping them navigate the pitfalls of a Fintech startup.


Key Takeaways:

• Finding the right co-founder
• Making Fintech a feature to solve a bigger problem
• Embedded finance - cutting through the hype
• Building a solution that customers will use for life
• Influencing partners and government to create opportunities
• The HUGE opportunity for Aussie Fintechs in India
• How learning from startup success and failure is shaping Mist’s strategy

About Our Guests:

John Crutchley
John gained extensive experience in various leadership roles in the Banking sector before founding Mist. He specialised in migration and international banking for ANZ and Volt Bank, where he was specifically hired as Head of International Banking to lead their go-to-market strategy in the international student market.

Dave Malcolm
A passionate C-Level executive and entrepreneur with a proven track record of founding, building, and scaling digital ventures across web2 and web3 in Australia.
He pinpoints the co-founding of Marley Spoon & Dinnerly in 2015 as his career highlight, which went on to be listed on the ASX in 2018 (ASX: MMM).


Show Notes:

• [00:57] Dave Malcolm introduces Mist.
• [01:53] John Crutchley shares the genesis for the idea and how he met Dave.
• [04:40] Dave Malcolm on getting into the mindset of a Gen Z customer.
• [08:30] Case studies: Embedded finance done right.
• [13:32] Big wins and successes so far.
• [19:29] Getting the business off the ground, overcoming challenges and obstacles.
• [24:10] Busting Fintech startup myths. Move fast and break things vs slow and deliberate growth
• [34:29] The complexity of Fintech. Why fixing problems is so hard.
• [40:15] Identifying valuable, global, niche markets.

Links & Resources:

• Visit Mist’s website: https://gomist.co/
• Connect with Dave Malcolm on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davemalcolm/
• Connect with John Crutchley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-crutchley-0842827/
• Connect with Dexter Cousins on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dextercousins/
• Learn more about Tier One People: https://tieronepeople.com/

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