Veronique Barbosa is co-founder and COO of Flux, the bank-linked receipts platform.
Veronique was listed as one of Forbes 30 under 30 Europe in 2018.
Tell us a bit about yourself, background and your current role
I’m the Co-Founder and COO of Flux, a digital receipts and rewards platform working with the likes of Just Eat, KFC and Barclays with many more to come soon. We’re solving the problem that in 2019 we have no way as customers to easily track what we buy, we can see the payment but not what we buy. A bit more about me I’m Brazilian, French and American but consider London to be home. Before Flux, I was employee #4 at Revolut and headed up partnerships with a focus on driving user acquisition. I helped take the company to 400,000 users before setting out to start Flux. I was also an investment banker in my previous life at Morgan Stanley in London for several years and very honoured to be named Forbes 30 under 30 in 2018.
Did you ever sit down and plan your career?
Depends how you define career, I’ve never planned the entirety of my career but I have followed some advice given to me a while ago to plan your career like the Chinese plan their economy in five years stints. I’ve found that super helpful and way less overwhelming than thinking about “the rest of your career”.
Have you faced any career challenges along the way and how did you overcome these?
Oh definitely! I whole heartedly believe success is defined by how you handle failure/challenges. It’s part of the life of a startup and fortunately/unfortunately the norm. I think realising it’s how you deal with the obstacles is actually the definition of ultimately how you succeed was key to overcoming those moments.
What has been your biggest career achievement to date?
Deciding to join Matty and Tom to start up Flux!
What one thing do you believe has been a major factor in you achieving success?
I always hesitate when success is attributed to where we are now, it still feels early in our journey to claim that word. A major factor of getting to where we are today has been perseverance.
What top tips would you give to an individual who is trying to excel in their career in technology?
Solve problems from their core elements and break them down to bite size chunks. My cofounder always says there’s only one way to eat a white whale and that’s one piece at a time.
Do you believe there are still barriers for success for women working in tech, if so, how can these barriers be overcome?
Yes depending on the company culture and sector I think there can be. That’s a very tough question and one many women have tried to address! This will sound controversial but I think the first steps is recognising those barriers, understanding them and then working around them is the first step to get to your goals. The next step is working to break down those barriers but so many of them are deep rooted in sub conscious bias of others that it’s a much longer term path.
What do you think companies can do to support to progress the careers of women working in technology?
Encourage and enable flexible working for future parents, not just women, and nip any biases that creep up right in the bud. Shining a light on the incredible diversity you already have in house is also a big plus.
There is currently on 17 per cent of women working in tech, if you could wave a magic wand, what is the one thing you would do to accelerate the pace of change for women in the industry?
If I could wave a magic wand I’d make sure that 70 per cent of computer science classrooms at universities around the world would have women in them. The lack of women in software engineering is really shocking. We’ve come a long way when it comes to business roles in tech but have so far to go in engineering.
What resources do you recommend for women working in tech, eg Podcasts, networking events, books, conferences, websites etc?
Sheryl Sandberg Lean In and the Girlposs podcast/instagram.
