This month's crypto crash is unlikely to keep graduates, drawn to blockchain, from continuing their careers in crypto. finews.com spoke to two of the sector's recent recruits about turning their backs on traditional finance.
With top-notch master's degrees in banking and finance from the University of St Gallen, Markus Geissler (27) and Bastian Wetzel (26) would be prime catches for a bank or financial institution. However, they rejected offers from major financial establishments, each joining a startup anchored in blockchain technology.
Geissler and Wetzel are part of a shift that has been happening over the last three years. Previously graduates would spend three to five years working with an established financial player before venturing out to fintechs, whereas now, «they are going directly after university,» the head of Page Executive Switzerland, Stephan Surber, said.
A look at other financial hubs shows that Swiss alumni are no exception, with «fnlondon» recently citing career progression, a lack of hierarchy, and token options, with significant upside potential, as crypto bait luring young professionals away from Wall Street. That was before the crash.
Not About Cryptocurrencies
Bastian Wetzel
Yet even this month’s dramatic fall in crypto markets has done little to put Geissler or Wetzel off the companies they work for.
«Blockchain is not just about cryptocurrencies,» Wetzel said. He works at Crypto Valley Venture Capital (CV VC), a young investment company that invests in startups based on blockchain. For so many use cases that CV VC funds, «people wouldn't actually know that they are using Blockchain,» he added.
«Although the crypto market is declining this week. I'm not worried about the discount, because there is a proven benefit of what we do at Daura,» a company specialized in tokenizing shares of unlisted small-to-medium-sized Swiss companies, Geissler said.
Lower salaries aren't a deterrent either. While fintechs might pay less than established institutions, some make up for the fallout with equity in the company, Surber said.
For Geissler, joining Daura didn’t mean taking a significant pay cut in comparison to his peers who joined investment banks, «especially when one takes the hours they work into account,» he said.
Attracted to Technology
In Surber's observation, the trade-off lies in the work that the graduates end up doing: «Young people are attracted by the broad range of responsibilities and by the technology itself,» he said. Adding that «it takes longer for graduates to develop such skills at a bank.»
For Wetzel it is being at the forefront, watching technology evolve in front of him that brought him to CV VC: «As early-stage investors, we see where innovation is heading,» he said. «I really feel like I'm part of the innovation.»
He reckons this wouldn’t be the case had he taken the offer that an established consultancy firm made him last year. The role would have involved advising traditional banks and asset managers on their blockchain technology, helping them «to adapt to innovation that has already happened,» he said.
Driver's Seat
Markus Geissler
Geissler, who previously worked at one of Switzerland’s biggest banks for three years during his studies, swayed between private equity and investment banking roles because those seemed familiar, before finally getting «sucked into this new environment of tokenization, of blockchain technology,» he said.
The allure of assuming a broad range of responsibility was also a hook.
Now, as a part of Daura's three soon to-be-four people strong management team, Geissler finds himself in the driver’s seat: «At a bank, or let's say at a financial institution I would probably also have been the person who is told what to do and when to do it,» he adds.
Risk and Innovation
For Wetzel «taking risk goes hand in hand with innovation,» something he has learned over the 15 investments he has been involved in over the last six months, which he admits is «kinda crazy.»
Besides the vast exposure he gets from his job, Wetzel cherishes the collaborative environment where superiors are keen to share their knowledge, as «in the end, you want to learn from people,» he said.
Considering that the startup CV VC invests in focus on areas including decentralized finance, supply chain solutions, or real estate, there are plenty of topics to get his head around.
Learning from Others
Understanding blockchain technology is an advantage CV VC has over other early-stage investment companies, Wetzel said, as the startups themselves are also looking for investors they can learn from.
When investment companies without the technological knowledge end up making investments, «they don't have the resources or the network to help the startups grow,» he said.
Seeing financial markets become more democratic is a key motivator for Geissler. Daura’s objective to allow individuals to become «the true owner of their shares,» by enabling them to transfer their tokens without a financial intermediary directly and without any cost, is «game-changing» for the industry and something he is proud to be part of.
It's not about the revolution, but «more about the evolution of financial markets in Switzerland,» he said. At some point, there has to be some sort of consolidation as there are so many tokens and so many projects, he said, conceding that «there is a hype around certain projects.»
Back to Banks
Large banks will drive this consolidation, as they buy up fintechs for certain financial products they have fine-tuned. Ironically, this will make them «more interesting to work for again sooner or later, but not for me. At least not now,» Geissler said.
For those who don't know which path to take, «working with a corporate is good because you still learn a lot and you have the opportunity to change your path at any time,» Wetzel said. However, those, who know their future is in crypto, had better «begin building their network soon because the industry is moving fast!» he added.
