GTM Strategy, International Expansion, Product, Marketing & Analytics | FinTech & Digital Assets | Operator and Advisor
Couldn’t recommend Mikel enough. In our first session together he gave tremendous value, pulling from his industry experience and knowledge - and offering actionable advice on the best next steps. Not only that, he is a super genuine person and a great listener - 6 out of 5 stars on all fronts. If you’re looking for someone with serious growth marketing chops - Mikel is your guy. Look forward to connecting again :)
The mentorship session with Mikel was a perfect blend of mental frameworks, real-life examples, and practical templates around planning for a product launch. He also displayed professionalism by being prepared with pre-session research and showed pure passion for the topics discussed. I'd recommend Mikel, especially if you are doing early stage product launches and need the building blocks set up.
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A single meeting provided an outstanding amount of value, information, and guidance that has helped us progress towards our next goal significantly faster than we would have alone. I would highly recommend this mentor!
Hi, I'm Mikel. I'm General Manager for Europe at Backpack, a global digital assets exchange, securities broker exchange and wallet. I am responsible for go-to-market and business growth in the region. I am responsible for launching and scaling new businesses and commercial initiatives globally. Previously I was the Chief Growth Officer at Atani, a regulated crypto broker in the EU. At Atani I set up the distribution from scratch and successfully scaled it from 0 to hundreds of thousands of users and multi-billion trading volume in just 18 months, being able to raise $+10mn in venture capital. In addition to leading distribution efforts, I partnered with the Board onscompany-wide decision making, fundraising and led the execution of strategic initiatives. Earlier, I was Managing Director at The Cocktail, an international growth studio with 500+ employees and hubs across Europe and Latin America. In addition to leading the Marketing & Data Practices (~100 talented human beings) and being a member of the Executive Committee, I owned multi-million business relationships (+5mn USD annual revenue, +110%YoY growth), provided strategic advice and supported the transformation of leading Financial Institutions and FinTechs. I started my career at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) where I advised global financial institutions on their most critical strategic, commercial and operational challenges. At BCG, I was selected to join BCG Digital Ventures (Los Angeles, USA) to work on FinTech business building. I have a strong background both as executive, operator and as advisor, in a wide variety of contexts ranging from large global corporations to early stage start-ups, and in a mix of growth and turnaround situations. I love getting deep into "discovery mode", scaling processes from scratch, assembling top-performing international & remote teams, building real stuff, making it work and delivering tangible results. In addition to that, I enjoy teaching and sharing my experience with others. I am currently a Visiting Professor of FinTech & Digital Assets at the College of Europe (Bruges, Belgium), a postgraduate school of public policy and the leading institution for European Affairs. Previously, I was a Lead Mentor for MBA students at the Business Impact Lab of IE Business School (Madrid, Spain). 15+ years mixing Finance and Tech across Europe, Latin America and the USA. 10+ years driving business growth and delivering P&L results in executive leadership positions. 10+ years hiring, building and leading global remote teams of tens to hundreds of contributors. 10+ years lecturing on strategy, finance & tech at international postgraduate universities.
Broad experience hiring, building and leading international & remote teams of tens to hundreds of contributors. Expert in both setting up brand new teams from scratch and taking over and revamping large established ones, developing new leaders, assembling large cross-functional teams (business strategy, operations, data & analytics, marketing, sales, product, design, engineering) and enabling them to drive growth and systematically over-achieve business KPIs.
Hands-on experience conducting market discovery, prioritizing and experimenting across channels (BizDev & Partnerships, Affiliate Marketing, Community Marketing, CPC, Content, PR & Events, CRM and Marketing Automation), crafting the go-to-market strategy, building the team, operations & tech infrastructure from scratch and successfully scaling distribution for a global startup.
Hands-on practical experience setting up an experimentation machine from scratch to identify, test, validate the traction and scale sustainable B2C growth engines. Built the team, framework, process and tools from scratch to execute +25 growth experiments per year (with countless variants per experiment).
Deep expertise in building the product intelligence foundation and managing the end-to-end data analytics cycle. From defining the analytics strategy, to detailing the tracking and event taxonomy, choosing and deploying the right quantitative and qualitative analytics tools, automating data analysis, visualization & activation and implementing advanced machine learning models.
Vast experience coordinating both new product and new feature launches across multiple channels (in BizDev & Partnerships, Affiliate Marketing, Community Marketing, CPC, Content, PR & Events, CRM and Marketing Automation) and employing different tactics. Built beta-testing communities, product launch playbooks and product-growth workflows and operational processes from scratch, to support 20+ new product launches per year.
Built multi-million business relationships (+5mn annual revenue) with leading global Financial Institutions. Setup from scratch the Business Development & Partnerships team of an early-stage crypto startup: from 0 to 15+ team members in 12 months, built a network of 400+ KOLs, 100+ Market Makers, OTC Desks and Hedge Funds, and developed partnerships with top-tier exchanges and blockchain ecosystems.
I am a Certified Insights & Analytics Expert in Amplitude. I have hands-on experience setting up Amplitude from scratch across multiple platforms (Web, Mobile, Desktop), and automating data analysis and activation (personalized event-based marketing)
Experience managing the end-to-end lifecycle of Google Analytics (web instrumentation with Tag Manager, data analysis and reporting with Analytics, Data Studio).
Experience managing the end-to-end lifecycle of Google Analytics (web instrumentation with Tag Manager, data analysis and reporting with Analytics, Data Studio).
Leveraged HubSpot Sales Cloud to setup an international and remote Business Development team from scratch, define workflows, implement operational procedures and manage team performance.
Hands-on experience in the implementation of SFDC Sales Cloud and change management in a 500+ employee scale-up. Led a global project to implement SFDC Service Cloud and transform the service processes of an international corporate bank in 10+ countries.
I am a Certified Analytics Expert & Certified Implementation Expert in Segment. I have hands-on experience setting up data strategies, detailing tracking plans and event taxonomies and planning integrations for personalized marketing automation.
8+ years as a CGO/CMO. Set up from scratch the distribution for a B2C early-stage startup. Before, served a scale-up team of ~100 talented human beings working across B2C Acquisition (Search, Social, Display, Programmatic), Engagement (Lifecycle Management, Personalization, Marketing Automation), Brand & Creative, AdTech & MarTech, Analytics, Data Science & Customer Experience Optimization. Expert in driving growth: go-to-market, analytics, experimentation, team building, new product launches.
10+ years of experience working on FinTech, with 6+ years in executive leadership roles at global startups and scaleups. Earlier, built and launched multiple FinTech & Digital Banking value propositions for a Top 5 European Bank (Open & Embedded Finance, P2P Payments or E-commerce Lending), and worked on FinTech business building with BCG Digital Ventures (USA). Also, Visiting Professor of FinTech at the College of Europe (Bruges, Belgium), the leading institution for European public policy.
6+ years working full time in Crypto. I lead the European business at Backpack, a global exchange & wallet, and previously led distribution for Atani, a regulated VASP. I have led relationships with exchanges (Binance, Coinbase, OKX, etc.), market makers and institutional investors. Also, I am an advisor to Web3 startups and protocols, an Ambassador of Solana, and a Visiting Professor of Digital Assets at College of Europe (Bruges, Belgium), the leading institution for European public policy.
10+ years in consulting, digital, growth and venture studios. Owned multi-million business relationships and provided strategic advice to leading Banks and FinTechs. Also, led Marketing & Data practices (~100 team) and was ExCo member at a digital consultancy scaling from 250 to 500+ employees, hubs across Europe & LatAm and part of WPP (world’s largest marketing company). Expert in business scaling: go-to-market, offer definition, practice building, talent management & operating model design.
Helping the Solana ecosystem grow. · Advising entrepreneurs, early-starge startups, institutions and enterprises building on Solana. · Delivering keynotes at industry events and community meetups. · Contributor to the Solana Collective and Superteam, member of La Familia (Solana Hispanic community) and mentor at Solar (Solana Chinese community).
Lecturing on Financial Technology and Digital Assets at The College of Europe, a postgraduate school of public policy and the leading institution for European Affairs. The College (Bruges, Belgium) was founded in 1949 by leading historical figures and founding fathers of the European Union, including Winston Churchill, Salvador de Madariaga, Paul-Henri Spaak and Alcide De Gasperi to train an elite of young executives for Europe and develop a spirit of solidarity and mutual understanding between European nations. Topics: · Innovation and Technology Paradigm Shifts. · Payments and Open Finance. · Crypto Networks, Blockchain Technology and Smart Contracts. · Tokenized Economy, Onchain Finance, Governance and Identity. · Digital Wealth, Social Networks and Meme Investing. · Crypto and Digital Assets Policy.
Leading the charge for Backpack in Europe and supporting Asset Managers, Brokers, Market Makers, VIP Traders, Affiliates and Ecosystem Partners globally. The Backpack ecosystem comprises: · Backpack Exchange, a fully compliant digital asset exchange (operating in the European Economic Area as Backpack EU, a MiFID II Investment Firm, MiCA Crypto Asset Service Provider and Payments Institution). · Backpack Securities, a platform where investors can buy, hold, and sell real stocks backed by regulated U.S. securities infrastructure, and tokenize them for use across blockchain networks. · Backpack Wallet, a multi-chain web3 app and self-custodial wallet. · Mad Lads, the top NFT community on Solana. Backpack currently serves users from more than 150 countries, has surpassed $450 billion in trading volume, and is one of the fastest companies ever to reach $100 million in cumulative revenue.
Member of the founding team at Atani, a regulated European exchange aggregator and digital assets broker. Highlights: · Built and led the commercial engine: business development, partnerships, marketing, and international expansion. · Crafted positioning and built go-to-market strategy, team, operations, and technology stack from scratch. - Scaled the business from 0 to 300k+ users, $500M+ assets and $1.5B+ trading volume in under 18 months. - Developed partnerships with global exchanges, protocols, token projects, and consumer applications. - Created and scaled an affiliate program to 300+ distribution partners, and coordinated PR and media strategy with consistent international coverage. - Built the analytics and experimentation platform, running 25+ structured growth experiments per year and optimizing unit economics. · Partnered with the Board on company-wide decision making, fundraising ($10M+) and strategic initiatives.
Member of the executive leadership team at The Cocktail, a global innovation and digital business studio with 500+ employees, hubs across Europe and Latin America, and part of WPP, the world's largest marketing company. Highlights: · As lead client executive, owned multi-million business relationships ($5M+ annual revenue), provided strategic advice, launched new ventures, and led digital transformation programs for global Financial Institutions. - Became a preferred partner for digital innovation and new ventures of a top 5 European bank. - Led the customer journey transformation program of the leading Spanish P&C insurer. · As leader of the Marketing & Data practices, led a team of 100+ and was responsible for Strategy, Business & Partner Development (Google, Salesforce, Adobe, etc.), Practice Building, Financial Planning, Operations & Control. · As a member of the Executive Committee, supported strategic decision-making and initiatives to enable company growth (from 200 to 500+ employees in less than 3 years), operating within a 100,000+ people global corporate matrix.
Business Impact Lab, International MBA Program Highlights: · Mentored MBA teams and provided hands-on lectures on Entrepreneurship, Business Model Innovation and Strategy Execution in collaboration with global corporate partners like AB InBev, ING Bank, Iberia, or McDonald's.
Extensive experience partnering with global financial institutions (Retail & Business Banking, Consumer Finance, Corporate & Investment Banking, Private Equity) across Europe, Latin America, and the USA to address their most critical strategic, commercial, and operational challenges. Highlights: · Led the transformation of the distribution, service, and operating models of global banks in 10+ countries. · Advised challenger banks and digital finance companies on M&A and business transformation. · Selected for a secondment at BCG Digital Ventures (USA) to work on FinTech business building. · Active contributor to BCG's Recruiting and Learning & Development functions at an international level. · Promoted ahead of schedule in recognition of outstanding performance.
Energy Economics and Regulation Research Group Highlights: · Developed simulation and artificial intelligence models for the optimization of power markets. · Published research at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) conference in the USA.
Investment Banking and Sales, Trading & Research Highlights: · Selected for a highly competitive investment banking and capital markets program, shadowed at the prime brokerage desk, learning about the services provided, roles and trading floor dynamics.
The Wallace Restaurant, Peyton & Byrne Ltd. Highlights: · Provided quality customer service as part of a team of professionals from more than 15 different countries, and led by Michelin-starred chef Thierry Laborde
