The $4 Trillion Business of Financial Crime with Natasha Vernier, Co-founder and CEO of Cable

Sep 26, 2023

Natasha Vernier, Co-founder and CEO of Cable, discusses the $4 trillion market of financial crime, highlighting the prevalence of crime for financial gains and the difficulty in stopping it. She explores the increase in financial crime on crypto rails and the growing synthetic ID fraud. Natasha also shares her experience joining Monzo, building Cable to help regulatory and financial crime teams, and raising funds for the startup.

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Introduction

00:00 • 3min

The Prevalence of Financial Crime

02:45 • 19min

Illicit Activity in the Crypto World

22:05 • 6min

Transitioning from Corporate Finance to the Tech Industry

28:25 • 13min

The Importance of Verifying Customer Information

41:51 • 9min

Functionality of Cable Compliance Software, Getting the First Customer, Pricing, and Fundraising

50:30 • 3min

Building a Team and Raising Seed Funding

53:45 • 8min

Challenges, Inspiration, and Interview Questions

01:01:44 • 4min

Natasha Vernier is the Co-founder and CEO of Cable, the all-in-one effectiveness testing platform for financial services. Prior to Cable, Natasha joined UK neobank Monzo when it had less than 100 customers. She built and led their financial crime team for five years, and is one of the most knowledgeable individuals in the world on financial crime, which amounts to over $4 trillion per year, or 4% of global GDP.

Natasha started Cable in 2020 with her co-founder Katie Savitz, and has since raised over $16 million supported by investors like LocalGlobe, CRV, Stage 2, and Jump Capital.

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Brought to you by Secureframe, the automated compliance platform built by compliance experts: https://bit.ly/3ZyBhWM

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Topics discussed:

• How crime is a $4 trillion market

• Why 80% of crime is carried out for financial gains

• Why the UN estimates we only catch 0.2% of financial crime

• The reason banks are incentivized to stop fraud, but not crime

• Why it's so hard to stop financial crimes

• How $20B in financial crime was committed on crypto rails in 2022

• What “Synthetic ID Fraud” is, and why it's the fastest growing type of fraud in the US

• What Natasha thinks are the new frontiers of fraud

• Joining Monzo as one of the first employees and staying through a $4B valuation

• What it’s like to be fully invested in a startup when you’re not a founder

• Building Cable to enable regulatory and financial crime teams

• Raising a Pre-Seed round and signing the first customer without a product built

• Why compliance officers want to buy complicated products

• How Natasha diversified her cap table, raising a Seed round from CRV and a group of angels with broad skill sets, ethnicity, race, and sexuality

• How she got two funds to pre-empt her Series A

• Why founding a startup means getting punched in the face every day, and her biggest mistake is not enjoying the little things sooner

• The two founders she most looks up to

• The one interview question she asks every candidate at Cable

Referenced:

• Cable’s site: https://cable.tech

• Cable’s Seed round: https://community.cable.tech/weve-raised-5-3m-from-crv-localglobe-and-a-diverse-group-of-exceptional-angels/

• How They Built the Hoover Dam (Part 1): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXFjLaUxpaw

• How Vegas Became VEGAS (Part 2): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QNuYHEzS2o

Where to find Natasha:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/natashavernier

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natashavernier

Where to find Turner:

• Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak

Production and distribution by: https://www.supermix.io

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