Helming the credit team, Josh Poulton is responsible for all things credit.
With an extensive background in finance focusing on credit, Josh creates due diligence processes that enables Fundsquire to lend responsibly to growing businesses.
Q: Let’s start at the beginning: how did you come to join Fundsquire?
Josh: I first heard about Fundsquire from a friend of mine, who told me about how this small finance company was working with SMEs in an underserved part of the market. The friend mentioned they were looking for someone for their credit team, but at the time I said no. Six month down the line, Fundsquire came up in our conversations again, and this time around, I thought why not, and met up with Rowan and Alex.
That chat helped me understand the vision and goal Fundsquire was looking to accomplish. Soon after, I met Damien, and was sold on how the whole team was really aligned on how they are going to deliver this vision. I also realized how Fundsquire was differentiated in the market and how our product could really help these small, early businesses. It was pretty interesting – I could see the potential. So I bowed out of my corporate job, and here I am.
Q: Tell us a little bit about your journey prior to Fundsquire.
Josh: Before Fundsquire, I was working with a US corporate investment house, managing money in Europe and the UK for multinationals. I enjoyed what I was doing. But in a mature industry market forces change. As businesses and/or industries mature both in terms of revenue and longevity, however, it’s often that much more difficult to change or adapt the strategy of the company, because of various constraints. For me, Fundsquire was the opportunity to be in a business that was adaptive.
Q: Diving into your role a little more, three words that best describe your role?
Josh: Fast-paced, broad and interesting
Q: And what does this fast-paced role entail and how has it grown?
Josh: My role has grown dramatically – I’ve moved from an analyst to running the credit team globally. As we look to scale, I am building out a team locally here in the UK, while helping facilitate change across two other regions. My role is to support my region, and other regions, in creating uniformity, and aligning in what they do to achieve these. This involves having consistency and quality processes in place to deliver a scalable solution as quickly as possible, but as safely as possible. This will enable not just the team, but the entire company, to evolve and introduce projects. For instance, this could be evolving our tech capabilities to allow us to scale quickly and lend to borrowers efficiently, while managing our risks successfully.
As we scale, having consistency and quality processes in place to deliver a scalable solution while trying to balance the implementation of technology and retaining Fundsquire’s core client-first values – that is a project close to my heart.
Q: What is one challenge you are focused on right now?
Josh: As we grow, scaling the business is our biggest challenge. I have a great team who are building out the regions and my role in this is to support the global team in creating uniformity, and aligning in what they do. As we scale, having consistency and quality processes in place to deliver a scalable solution while trying to balance the implementation of technology and retaining Fundsquire’s core client-first values – that is a project close to my heart.
Q: What do you see as a highlight of your job?
Josh: Working with ambitious, hard working, tenacious individuals, and building a clear communication and uniform foundation.
Q: Which Fundsquire value do you see yourself reflected in the most?
Josh: People-first is one that resonates the most with me. Financial services is primarily a people business. The reason why many businesses are underserved is that they’re not understood. And our people-first approach is one where we look to understand them, and by understanding them we can better serve them.
So if you don’t have this approach, you end up eliminating and/or disregarding a big part of the market. It’s an underserved market and that’s where Fundsquire comes in and helps solve these business’ funding challenges.
Over the next 5 years, the credit team is working towards building a company that offers more products and services in a more flexible and convenient way to our clients. This includes creating a strong community that continues to support businesses through connections and networks.
Q: What is on your wishlist for the next 5 years?
Josh: Hah, the Fundsquire ski holiday! But on a more serious note, total automation of our credit decision making process is a key goal of mine.
We aim to impact and change how we consume data to make better decisions quicker for businesses in the SME or early-stage space. It is harder to do due to the lack of maturity of some businesses.
Over the next 5 years, the credit team is working towards building a company that offers more products and services in a more flexible and convenient way to our clients. This includes creating a strong community that continues to support businesses through connections and networks.
Q: Anything you would say to potential candidates about working here?
Josh: Fundsquire will give you the opportunity to grow quickly, let you wear many hats. You will be put in a position where you can make a difference, and ultimately, allow you to grow. But it’s going to require hard work. It requires an ability to learn quickly and adapt, and use those learnings and feedback from this incredible team to continue building things better and more effectively.
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