This week, we interviewed our Wallet Max Financial Consultant, Ann-Kathrin Dobre.
Ann-Kathrin is a financial consultant for startups. She helps entrepreneurs to put their vision into numbers by forecasting cash flows and funding needs with a financial model. She started her career in corporate finance with various roles in M&A, project finance and wealth management. In her last role - she was the Head of Finance of a plant-based meat startup, raising a large seed round.
Please tell us a little about your professional background.
I am a business strategy and finance professional with more than 7 years of experience in banking, renewables, food tech and fintech. I started my career at one of the most well-known investment banks, where my interest in investing began. I then moved on to a project finance/ M&A role at a solar developer and learned everything about financing options for renewable energy projects while simultaneously becoming an Excel nerd 😉
In the last 3 years, I worked for various startups as a finance expert, helping founders to
forecast and budget their business, set up finance divisions and raise investor funds. I am often the right hand of a founder, crunching numbers, analyzing risks and financial pitfalls, and advising them with financial analytics. The beauty of a finance role is that you get to see and understand every angle of a business, from Sales/Marketing to R&D and Operations, all inflows, and outflows of money merge in a finance team. That’s what I love about my work.
How did you get involved with Wallet Max?
I met Bhuva through the Columbia Venture Community in October 2021. I had published a post in one of the Slack channels and that’s how we connected. When we spoke for the
first time, I immediately felt a positive connection and loved Bhuva’s energy for her
business idea.
Why do you believe in Wallet Max? Who do you think would most benefit from using the Wallet Max app? Why?
I believe in Wallet Max because this application can help millions of credit card users and online shoppers to make better financial decisions at the point of sale. Everyone loves to shop great deals, maximize credit card rewards and have a positive impact with every dollar spent. Wallet Max will make all this possible with an easy-to-use mobile application. As a finance person, I love the idea to empower the consumer, while simultaneously being a resource of financial education and literacy. This is what Wallet Max is all about, and on top of it has a social and sustainable component by focusing on ESG merchants.
People with several credit cards, online shoppers, as well as consumers who are looking to buy from sustainable, socially ethical merchants would benefit the most from using the Wallet Max application. The reason for this is that the credit card rewards and cash back points market is relatively complex. To date, many consumers do not easily know which credit card would be best to use at the point of sale.
What is one piece of advice you would like to give for the Wallet Max founding team members and to Bhuva (CEO) herself?
I would advise Bhuva to grow her digital community, create a hype around Wallet Max and find fans and multipliers for this topic. This will lead to a large fanbase of followers and believers that she will soon need to be successful in the direct-to-consumer world. We are already on a good path, let’s keep growing the brand awareness!
Comments