Neuroprofiler is a behavioral finance game that helps Financial Advisors assess the Investor Profile of their clients in line with the latest European regulations.
Tiphaine Saltini, CEO, Co-Founder
Name: Neuroprofiler
Location: 125 CHEMIN DES LILAS, 83560 VINON SUR VERDON, FRANCE
Website: http://www.neuroprofiler.com
Product / Service Offering: Behavioral Finance Game
Co-founder Interviewed: Tiphaine Saltini, CEO, co-founder
Other Key Management Team Members: Julien Revelle, CTO, co-founder; Etienne Mallengier, Business Developer in Switzerland
This article is part of our Business Startup Spotlight series featuring entrepreneurs and their companies. We hope that these founders’ interviews will inspire and motivate you as you undertake your own entrepreneurial journey.
Tell us a little about yourself with a focus on what motivates you.
I have been passionate about behavioral economics since high school. Additionally, I have always had an independent and entrepreneurial spirit. These two passions caused me to study both Management and Behavioral Finance, which naturally brought me to build Neuroprofiler.
Are You Prepared for the Entrepreneurial Journey?
When did you establish your company and where did the idea originate?
After graduating in Management (HEC Paris) and in Cognitive Science (ENS Ulm/Harvard University), I worked as a Consultant for several financial institutions where I realized the weaknesses of client suitability assessment.
At that time, I was also beginning my PhD thesis in Behavioral Finance; therefore, I decided to build a business-friendly application based on Nobel Prize winner D. Kahneman’s theories to help Financial Advisors assess their client’s investor profile in line with the latest European regulation.
Later, I met Julien Revelle during a marathon who joined me as a co-founder. Julien has the perfect matching profile with a strong background in machine-learning and Big Data analysis (ranked top 20 in France). He was working at that time as a financial quant. He graduated from Cambridge University and ENSAE.
What need or needs does your company seek to fill for its customers?
Following the 2008 financial crisis, regulators have made it compulsory for Financial Advisors to assess the Investor Profile of their clients.
Based on FCA, Consob, and AMF reports, 50% of the current questionnaires are not compliant with local regulation, less than 10% are digital and less than 10% are based on scientific research.
This represents high legal costs, bad user experience and poor client knowledge for financial institutions.
Based on four years of academic research in machine learning and behavioral finance, Neuroprofiler helps financial advisors assess the investor profile of their clients through a serious, user-friendly game that is scientific and compliant with the latest European regulations.
What is the one thing that sets your company apart from its competitors?
- MiFIDII compliant (supported by KPMG)
- Fully digital and gamified
- Behavioral Finance Research-based
What was the biggest challenge you faced while getting your company up and running, and how did you overcome it?
The selling cycle to large financial institutions is very long. The main challenge for any B2B Fintech Startup is to be able to survive during this selling process.
The Most Essential Tools to Build, Grow, and Fund Your Startup
Are there resources you have utilized that other founders might find compelling or useful?
In order to test some aspects of our product, we used job platforms like AMT. This helped to get quick feedback at a competitive cost on specific aspects of our application from a large and diverse panel of users.
What steps have you taken to secure funding for your company and what, if anything, would you do differently if you had to start over?
We chose to do our first funding round in convertibles rather than in equity. We definitely recommend doing so to other startups, if they have this opportunity, since you get money quickly at an early-stage without dealing with the tricky question of the valorization.
Have there been any questions you have had as an entrepreneur of a fledgling startup that you had a particularly hard time finding the answers to?
How do you find and motivate a good full-stack web developer?
What challenges, if any, are you grappling with?
- Duration of the selling process
- IT integration
- Finding the right talents
What is the most helpful tip or “hack” you’ve ever learned, stumbled across, or been given?
Even if you get a strict “no” from a big corporation, try again.
Are you familiar with other startups you believe should be spotlighted? If so, we would like to hear from you. Tell us about them in the comments below!
Sandra Sloan
Sandra has previous supply chain and business operations experience which she is leveraging as an author with FundingSage focused on spotlighting entrepreneurs and their startup efforts.
