CASE STUDY

The Situation

A New York-based payments FinTech that had raised $120 million in Series C funding was at a critical inflection point. The founding CEO had built the business from zero to $85 million ARR across five years and was ready to transition into an executive chairman role focused on product vision and investor relationships. The board, which included two leading US venture capital firms, needed to find a successor who could professionalise the organisation, manage the complexity of a banking licence application already in progress, and take the business through a likely Series D and toward a potential IPO or strategic exit within three to four years. The outgoing CEO had tried to run the process informally through his own network for four months without success. By the time Valmont was engaged, the board had a defined timeline and limited patience for further delays.

The Challenge

The brief was demanding in a specific way. The board wanted a CEO who had scaled a regulated FinTech or payments business through at least one major capital raise, had direct experience managing banking regulators or operating within a chartered environment, and could earn the trust of a founder who would remain on the board and remain deeply engaged with the product. That last dimension was the hardest. Several strong operators were ruled out early because the cultural dynamic with the outgoing founder was not right. Experience alone was not sufficient. The chemistry had to work.

The Approach

Valmont began with a structured briefing process that included individual conversations with the CEO, the lead venture capital partner, and two independent board members. The picture that emerged from those conversations was more nuanced than the written brief had suggested. The board needed someone who had operated in a regulated environment but was not institutionalised by it. They needed commercial hunger alongside governance credibility.
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Valmont mapped the talent landscape across payments platforms, Banking-as-a-Service providers, and regulated FinTechs that had successfully navigated the Series C to Series D transition in the United States over the prior five years. The search focused entirely on passive candidates. No advertisement was placed. Forty-three individuals were identified as meeting the core criteria. Nineteen were approached directly. Eleven agreed to a confidential conversation. Six were taken forward for a structured assessment process.

The final shortlist of three candidates was presented to the board at week eleven of the engagement, each accompanied by a detailed candidate report covering career assessment, leadership evaluation, regulatory credibility, and a specific view on founder dynamic compatibility.

The Outcome

The appointed CEO was a former President of a US-regulated Banking-as-a-Service platform who had led that business through its Series D and a subsequent acquisition by a global payments group. She had direct OCC relationship experience and had managed a founding team transition previously. She joined within fourteen weeks of Valmont's engagement and the banking licence application she inherited progressed to conditional approval within her first eight months in post.
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The outgoing founder described the process as the first time an external firm had genuinely understood what the business needed rather than presenting names that looked good on paper.

The Outcome

The appointed CEO was a former President of a US-regulated Banking-as-a-Service platform who had led that business through its Series D and a subsequent acquisition by a global payments group. She had direct OCC relationship experience and had managed a founding team transition previously. She joined within fourteen weeks of Valmont's engagement and the banking licence application she inherited progressed to conditional approval within her first eight months in post.
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The outgoing founder described the process as the first time an external firm had genuinely understood what the business needed rather than presenting names that looked good on paper.