Building The FinTech That Immigrants To The UK Have Needed w/ Nina Mohanty | Bloom Money

Nina Mohanty: [00:00:00] I never thought I would be an entrepreneur and I desperately needed a job. I fell in love with FinTech, chatting with people who worked with the digital giants, like working with Netflix and Amazon and stuff, and trying to understand like what are the payment needs that they have. But what really frustrated me is like, what about everyone else?

Nina Mohanty: It got to the point where I was just so obsessed with the problem. I quit my well-paying job, which my parents were like, what are you doing? So I did 96 interviews across 40 nationalities. And so I am so adamant that we'll succeed because we're building specifically for these communities.

Amardeep Parmar: We're live today. We have with us Nina Mohanty, who's the CEO and founder of Bloom Money, which is the FinTech serving immigrant communities. If you're joining us for the first time, We're The Bay HQ, and I'm Amar, your host. We're all about inspiring, connecting, and guiding the next generation of British Asians.

Amardeep Parmar: So Nina, let's jump into a story right at the start. So when you're growing up, what did you want to be like? What were your dreams? 

Nina Mohanty: What did I want to be when I grew up? I wanted to [00:01:00] be, well as Asian, I think maybe you can appreciate this. There's a difference between what I wanted to be and what I was expected to be.

Nina Mohanty: Um, so I was expected, and I'm half Indian, half Taiwanese. So double Asian. I was expected to be a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, whatever. And both my parents were engineers, software engineers specifically. I wanted to be a ballerina as many young girls want to, and I actually did train in ballet for 17 years.

Amardeep Parmar: 17. Wow. 

Nina Mohanty: Yes. A fun fact. It doesn't look like it now, but I did train in ballet for 17 years. I also wanted to be an astronaut at one point. Very cliche of the time, and you know, it's apt that the Barbie movie has just come out because I was thinking back and reflecting that back when I was younger, actually, my career aspirations kind of just aligned with whatever new Barbie came out.

Nina Mohanty: Oh, so like Ballerina Barbie and Astronaut Barbie. But I think at one point I also very much wanted to be a child or a pediatrician, a children's doctor, [00:02:00] and I love children. I love being around them and playing with them, teaching them, and I thought, okay, well, if I have to be a doctor because my parents say so, then it would be nice to be a pediatrician.

Nina Mohanty: Unfortunately, I did not do very well in AP biology so that was outta the question, but a whole host of things. I'm still figuring it out to be honest.

Amardeep Parmar: So is there now a Barbie that's a FinTech Barbie? Is that why you've now gone down this path?

Nina Mohanty: You know what, I should, I should get what made, you can do like custom Barbies now, can't you?

Nina Mohanty: So, no, I, I guess there's like, there's more STEM barbies now, which I appreciate. 

Amardeep Parmar: What did you study in the end then?

Nina Mohanty: So I went to uni to study international relations. With an emphasis on war and peace studies, a further emphasis on counter-terrorism. 

Amardeep Parmar: Okay. So how did, you said that wasn't part of what you wanted to speak?

Amardeep Parmar: No. Like, oh no, you're from Doctor to Cancer terrorism. What was the slick there? 

Nina Mohanty: So I think because I grew up in, I guess I, I call it a mixed race household. Um, I. I know in the UK, mixed race usually refers to like a black community and then [00:03:00] white of some sort, right? Or maybe brown and white. Rarely is it just, you know, two types of Asian.

Nina Mohanty: I do consider myself mixed race multicultural because even though both parts of me are Asian, I grew up with, you know, a South Indian, or sorry, a South Asian comma Indian father, and then an East Asian Taiwanese mother. And even within that you have two different religions, four different languages, and then me growing up in the us.

Nina Mohanty: So there was a lot of very expectations and tensions and very interesting dynamics in our household. And I think that is where I became very interested in how people communicate with each other in the way that people's differences can cause conflict. Or how you can come towards a resolution. And so I think that's when I decided, okay, well I speak Mandarin.

Nina Mohanty: Sadly I don't speak Hindi or Odia. Sorry everyone that's watching, I have a terrible daisy. I speak French as well, can get by with like very basic Spanish, and I was learning Arabic when I was doing my Masters, [00:04:00] so I love languages and I love how people communicate and if I'm traveling, I will try and pick up the local language.

Nina Mohanty: And so I kind of thought, oh, okay, maybe diplomacy is the way to go. And it seemed acceptable to my parents. It wasn't lawyer or doctor, but it was acceptable. So I went to study that and I think for many people of our generation, having grown up as an American, following the aftermath of nine 11, there was a huge amount of

Nina Mohanty: Patriotism and pride in being American. And so there was a huge pull for me to serve in some way. And I think there was a study done ages ago that actually found that immigrant children have a tendency to go into civil service or do things or have higher rates of Patriotism for their home country as almost a response, a psychological response for.

Nina Mohanty: Thank you for bringing my parents in or letting them be in this country. So I think a big part of wanting to serve in [00:05:00] the US government had to do with that as well. But I ended up, yeah, studying counter-terrorism and that's how I ended up working for the US government initially. 

Amardeep Parmar: It's interesting. I wonder if that holds with the UK as well, because maybe people listening could.. 

Nina Mohanty: Yeah.

Amardeep Parmar: Point out. 'cause you often hear, well, I guess it might be a social media bubble of almost opposite way, right? Of people talking about this that happened and that happened.. So it'd be interesting to see like people in the audience what they think of that too.

Nina Mohanty: I wonder if it's also specific to the time around 9 11 because in the American psyche it holds so much space.

Nina Mohanty: Especially if you were alive during that time. So I wonder if it is biased by that, but yeah. 

Amardeep Parmar: And then it's, okay, so you're working with the US government. And then there's a few steps in between there, what happened now from that to then going into the FinTech world and how did you go down this kind of

Amardeep Parmar: very different path in a way?

Nina Mohanty: Yeah. So I entered civil service working for the US government. Uh, I started working at the US Embassy back when it was in Mayfair in London before they've moved [00:06:00] over to Batter Sea. And I was working in the foreign commercial service under Secretary Penny Pritzker in the Obama administration.

Nina Mohanty: And so it was incredible, you know, like to work in an administration for such an inspirational person. But one of the things that I found very frustrating, was that it was just very formulaic and very bureaucratic there, sorry? 

Amardeep Parmar:  What? Government bureaucratic. No. 

Nina Mohanty: Can you imagine? I, I, I feel really sorry for, you know, no offense to anyone that's working in governments, but it was moving at a pace that I,

Nina Mohanty: I was ready to outrun. And the other thing is, when you work in government, you are part of an institution. And so you very much always tow the party line, regardless of which government is, or in office, right? And so that was something I think my value system is very, very strong. And I thought longer term I would struggle to remain impartial to put it,

Nina Mohanty: to put it nicely. I, I [00:07:00] really felt a lot of pride though, in, in being a civil servant. And I, I have so much respect for civil servants, whether they are teachers or carers, doctors, firefighters, whatever. So I, I kind of did this just completely off the cuff thing and, and applied for a master's program.

Nina Mohanty: Those who don't know what to do apparently go back to school. Uh, which is what I did. And so I, I applied for a master's program. I chose deliberately not to do an M B A shock horror for all the Asians, and I did a Master's in management, so not far off a cousin of the M B A, but I did a Master's in management.

Amardeep Parmar: Do your parents say that you do it in M B A? 

Nina Mohanty: I think they kind of do tell everyone that I, just because more people understand what an M B A is. 

Amardeep Parmar: Yeah

Nina Mohanty: But what I deliberately chose the master's in management because this particular program was very focused on understanding the root causes of things.

Nina Mohanty: In fact, the school's motto is Rear prognosis calls us, which is to know the causes of things. And it was always about, okay, so this thing has happened in a business. It's not just about what do we do, but let's get to the root cause of why [00:08:00] has this happened? And make sure that we can think about how to stop that from happening again or changing the outcome.

Nina Mohanty: And that very much appealed to me. I am very, I think I have a romanticized idea of myself as an academic as well. Really love being in libraries. I love writing long papers. I enjoy all of that. And so it really, it just was like a perfect place for me. And it was during that time. So it was a two year degree and you needed to do like a interim kind of internship M B A associate type thing.

Nina Mohanty: Right. And I desperately needed a job and I applied to every investment bank, every consulting company in this city. I probably have a rejection letter from every single one of them, which I now wear as a badge of honor. But back then it stung, uh, um, and, and they very much like pushed us towards consulting and like..

Amardeep Parmar:  Yeah.

Nina Mohanty: Investment banking back then, private equity wasn't cool yet, but uh, and tech certainly wasn't cool yet, so everyone was like clamoring to go to the big three, you know, like fighting each other to get [00:09:00] into like two spots at McKinsey for the summer. Right. I was just getting rejection letter after rejection letter and I mean, look at the way that I'm dressed.

Nina Mohanty: I think I also just don't.. I'm not a person who conforms very well. 

Amardeep Parmar:  Okay. 

Nina Mohanty: Um, and so I, I now take it as a blessing in disguise. I was presented with this opportunity where someone was like, oh, um, MasterCard are looking for an intern. Would you be interested? And I was like, oh God, another bank, which is hilarious now because obviously now we, I know MasterCard's not a bank.

Nina Mohanty: Uh, but I didn't know that at the time. So I applied for the role and I think I am someone who, I don't, it's my own fault. I just don't come off across very well in a CV. I guess. Like I'm terrible at covering letters. I'm terrible at actually pulling out accomplishments in a CV, but I do very well when you give me a task to do.

Nina Mohanty: And so I was given a task to basically pitch an app, which would integrate the Masterpass API, which was a product that MasterCard was [00:10:00] working on at the time. So I went in and pitched them on it and they loved it. And I'm still in contact with the two people who interviewed me to this day, but that's where I started my career in FinTech.

Nina Mohanty: And it was very formative because it was around the time. I don't know if you can cast your mind back to when Monzo was Mondo. 

Amardeep Parmar: Oh wow. Yeah, I remember that. 

Nina Mohanty Yeah. And Starling was kind of starting from scratch. Revolut was on the MasterCard starred path, which was their incubator. Mon Knees was starting out.

Nina Mohanty: It was just like a very exciting time to be in the center of it all, especially since everyone was issuing on the MasterCard rails. And so I kind of got to be in the middle of it all. I sat back to back with the prepaid team. They were called a prepaid team back then. Now they're called the FinTech and EM I team.

Nina Mohanty: And it's like a whole huge team now, but back then it was just prepaid cards. And I just learned so much, so quickly, and I think I also am very grateful to the fact that everyone on the team where I worked at MasterCard, they were like, this woman is obviously very curious. And so they [00:11:00] kind of gave me free reign to try a lot of things.

Nina Mohanty: So it was kind of, if you get the work done that you're meant to get done, feel free to have conversations with people across the business. So I was like chatting with people who worked with the digital giants, like working with Netflix and Amazon and stuff, and trying to understand like what are the payment needs that they have?

Nina Mohanty: I was speaking to people that were working on public transport and I got to work with a guy who helped, you know, start contactless on T F L, right? So I learned so much and it was very, very rewarding in that way. But also was it, was that in French we say the fu, which means like the lightning struck and uh, I fell in love with FinTech.

Nina Mohanty: Yeah. And here I've been ever since so..  

Amardeep Parmar: Where did the, uh, seeds for Bloom money come from then? 

Nina Mohanty: Ah, very nice pun. Love that. 

Amardeep Parmar: Um, I, I was thinking about that for the last five minutes in my head as like, yeah, you're like waiting to ask the question.

Nina Mohanty: Gotta get the pun in. Yeah. Bloom money's seeds were planted probably just through my own lived experience, but also through my experience [00:12:00] having worked at Starling Bank, launching the current account there.

Nina Mohanty: Um, I worked at an open banking platform called Bud and then Klarna, so, I've been in the FinTech space for a while. I felt that I was building really interesting, innovative products. And you know, especially like at Klarna for example, or Budd, I mean at Budd we were building open banking right after it had effectively gone into legislation through the payment service directive too.

Nina Mohanty: And we were really like truly building the plane as we were trying to fly it for this thing that didn't exist that no one could figure out how to commercialize or anything. At Klarna, it was like, What is buy now, pay later, how are we even gonna, how does that fit in? What's regulated credit? What's not unregular or what's unregulated credit?

Nina Mohanty: So it was a very exciting time to be building innovative things. But one of the things that really frustrated me was that I felt I was constantly building for the same person. Which is [00:13:00] fine. You know, I was building oftentimes for people like us, you know, tech workers, white collar workers with like disposable income and that's fine.

Nina Mohanty: But what really frustrated me is like, what about everyone else? And again, here I am with like my social justice hat on. I've always just had such a strong sense of, well, actually yes. What about everyone else? And growing up in an immigrant household, I, I'm sure it will resonate with quite a few of the listeners.

Nina Mohanty: I, I watched my dad send money home to India, to Western Union my entire life. We still send money home to India and it is part of the immigrant life that you send money home. But one of the things that frustrated me even more about it was when it came to financial services and immigrant communities, the only product where they were very well served was remittances.

Nina Mohanty: And even then it wasn't that great, right? It was like Western Union or MoneyGram. These are your two options. Or like RIA transfer. Nowadays there's so [00:14:00] many new, you know, companies and London is really like, the place to be for remittance companies. But what struck me was no one was actually trying to tackle the rest of it, which is okay, after you've sent your money home and you're effectively providing for two households, one on this continent and one back home, how are you building wealth where you are?

Nina Mohanty: How are you getting to grips with living in a completely new place and giving your family and your community where you are now, the leg up that they need. And I think about my own story where my parents benefited from just basic financial literacy, right? My mother was told from her sister to open what's called a 5 2 9.

Nina Mohanty: It's a tax code for a tax efficient vehicle for investing, which allows you to basically pay for education, which means that my brother and I didn't pay for uni and she knew to invest in that vehicle because her sister had told her that. Not everyone knows that that exists to this day. Like a lot of [00:15:00] people don't know that.

Nina Mohanty: I mean, the states that a 5 2 9 exists and we were lucky that my mother was financially savvy and she was seeking out information. So while yes, they were sending money home, they were also thinking about their wealth in the US and it really frustrated me that the more people I spoke to, it just, there weren't any products actually serving people where they are.

Nina Mohanty: And so it got to the point where I was just so obsessed with the problem and I mean, you get it as an entrepreneur. Well, for me personally, I never, I never wanted to be an entrepreneur. I never saw that path for myself, even though I'm from the Silicon Valley, even though literally I was born and raised there, even though my dad is a many time entrepreneur, I never thought I would be an entrepreneur.

Amardeep Parmar: Why didn't you think that?

Nina Mohanty: I just didn't think it was for me. I dunno. I, I really couldn't tell you, like in hindsight, I've always just felt I was very good at executing to someone else's vision and it's very daunting, I think, to be the one to stand up and say, [00:16:00] Here's this vision of the future that I have.

Nina Mohanty: This is the mission that I'm on. Come join me. And it sounds so like, uh, Touchy feely, like self-help book. But it's drastically different to follow than it is to lead because when you lead, it comes with so much responsibility. Like every day I'm checking that bank account and going, you know, is everyone gonna get paid this month?

Nina Mohanty: You know, I'm thinking about our customers. I'm thinking about every little piece. Are they happy? Do they have dental care? You know, whatever it might be. And I've convinced these people or our mission has convinced these people to come join us and build towards this Vi, vision of a future that I am trying to sell them.

Nina Mohanty: And so there is so much responsibility that comes with it. So I just never thought, I never thought it would be me. And I actually, with Bloom kind of shifted around a bit before I, I left Klarna, I was chatting to people at various like challenger banks and FinTech companies and saying, [00:17:00] Hey, there's this market gap and I really think that we should be building towards it.

Nina Mohanty: I went to remittance company as I was like, Can I come and work with for you and build this with you? And people were just like, Hmm, not interested. Not for us, you know, not a priority. And so it got to the point where I was so, so obsessed with the problem and I had this like blank wall like this. I had just moved back from living in the States doing some work with Klarna.

Nina Mohanty: I'd just moved back to the UK before Covid hit, so I had a blank wall. I had just moved in and it, by the time I left, it was covered in Post-its. It was like the Unabomber and it was like, you know, red string and like it was, it was intense, but it was also my bed was facing that wall. So every morning I would wake up and see it and it got to the point where I just

Nina Mohanty: was dreaming about it and it was like, okay, this is it. We're doing it, and so I quit my well-paying job, which my [00:18:00] parents were like, what are you doing? And set out to be this entrepreneur that I never thought I'd 

Amardeep Parmar: be. You said your dad was an entrepreneur as well. Did he not think when you wanted to? How was that reaction?

Nina Mohanty: You know,  it's so interesting 'cause he was like, are you sure it wasn't, I kind of was like, oh, maybe he'll be proud. You know, like, oh, his daughter's like him has got the entrepreneurial bug. I think parents always want, want what's best for their children and like we as Asian kids kind of, we can be very tongue in cheek about the fact that our parents have very high expectations or they expect to do this or that, but ultimately, and I've done enough therapy to know and understand now that it's because they want what's best for us.

Nina Mohanty: They want us to live an easier life than what they had to go through. And I think so similarly, both my parents were like, are you sure? Do you have the savings? Do you have your own personal runway to get through this? Are you sure that you want to leave a corporate type job? I mean, Klarna, but still do you want to leave a [00:19:00] comfortable job with benefits with private healthcare, with a very generous pension matching to do this because they want you to be..

Nina Mohanty: They want you to live an easy life. Every parent wants their child to live an easy life. And so I think that's why they tried to convince me not to. I don't think it had anything to do with them not believing in me or in the business, but more just, especially with my dad. He knew what I was about to take on.

Nina Mohanty: He knew, and in hindsight, now I think about, I have memories of like the times when my parents would fight, and it was always because, you know, My dad's going, okay, you know, the business is we're getting close to, you know, we have this much runway and maybe we need to take out a loan or whatever, and all of these things, which seemed very distant and scary or not my business back then, I'm like, oh, wow.

Nina Mohanty: Oh, that hits different now. When it's like, oh, how am I gonna make payroll or whatever. Right. So it was not out of a place of malice, [00:20:00] it was a place out of just, are you sure you don't wanna choose the easy option? 

Amardeep Parmar: Yeah. And like, once you actually like quit your job. Right. And like you had this massive wall of ideas.

Amardeep Parmar: But did you have a pathway out of like, these are the first steps I'm gonna take? Or was it more the grand vision? Did you have like both sides ready? Or was it like you said before where you were. Building the plane as yours started to fly?  

Nina Mohanty: I think I am. Uh, well, I can't say I'm risk averse 'cause I've started my own business, a venture backed business, but I am

Nina Mohanty: more risk averse than your average founder, in that I made sure that I had my own personal runway, that I could cover my own rent, that I could cover bills. I even side gigged for a while until like kind of doing bits and pieces of consulting work on the side even after I left Klarna. And you know, I'm very privileged in that the work that I do allowed me to do that I also had already begun validating

Nina Mohanty: Bloom. So by the time I had left Klarna, maybe a few months after I officially hit, so I did [00:21:00] 96 interviews across 40 nationalities. One-on-one interviews with people from immigrant backgrounds in this country. And I mean, I was talking to the bus drivers on a cigarette break. I was talking to cleaners in the offices.

Nina Mohanty: I was talking to people like aunties in Facebook groups. Right. So I had enough conviction there in terms of validation. I then went into building a no code version of Bloom to try to see like, okay, if I build this in a digital way, in a, in a web app, this is like bare bones bootstrapped everything. Is there going to be a response? And

Nina Mohanty: I think one of the things that has always helped me is, uh, my, my father works in product now. He's a very, like, you know, senior product professional. I am very product obsessed, and I think when you're product obsessed, you're ultimately obsessed with the customer. And so it's been ingrained in me from day one that it, it doesn't matter.

Nina Mohanty: And I'm also American. The customer's always right. Uh, and [00:22:00] I've worked a number of service jobs, bartender, server, you know, barista. So the customer is always right, and so I spoke to enough customers that I just had this conviction, was getting the right signals. Then I started putting together a deck and I

Nina Mohanty: I am also very privileged in that I naturally had a network of people who were founders or were investors or knew people in that space because not everyone has that and like I can't even imagine if I went back and just was going in blind, just like I'm a random person who is really obsessed with this problem.

Nina Mohanty: If I didn't have my background in FinTech, if I didn't know FinTech investors already, I really don't know how I would've done it. So I, I am very grateful that I had that in place already there. I guess there was a certain amount of like, how prepared can I be before taking the plunge and making sure I was like padding out.

Nina Mohanty: So I'm like, let's put the trampoline down, everything else and the net so I can bounce back if it all goes wrong. But then at some point you just have to jump, don't you?

Amardeep Parmar: [00:23:00] And what have you enjoyed most about that jump now that you work for yourself and you have that vision, what do you enjoy most about being a founder?

Amardeep Parmar: You said like you, obviously you've got the stresses, right? You've got the stresses of payroll, that kind of stuff. Obviously, hopefully there's, there's some good stuff too, right? 

Nina Mohanty: Yes. No, I wouldn't, I wouldn't trade it for the world. I often, you know, like many founders, you have that feeling of what happens if I fail?

Nina Mohanty: I think even more so. 

Amardeep Parmar: What about if you fly?

Nina Mohanty: Well, if you fly, what if you fly? Yes. Let's, let's be very cheesy and I think I'm just so grateful that every day I get to wake up and do something interesting, something that that fills my soul. And there are days where I'm staring at an Excel spreadsheet and I'm just like, oh my God, I can make it end please.

Nina Mohanty: But there are also days, like just this week I took a bunch of posters. Uh, I live in Lewisham and I went up the main road. And just popped my head into various shops and said, Hey, can I, can I put a poster up and just start talking with a proprietor? And then we have a great conversation and they go, oh yeah, [00:24:00] I love this.

Nina Mohanty: Like, tell me more about the app. And just like speaking to people and being with people. And it's something that, you know, I joked, I posted about on LinkedIn and I joked that sometimes the things that don't scale are the most energizing. And it's something that as we grow, I do realize right now that as we scale, there will be a point where I won't have the time to walk around with posters putting up like by myself on a Monday evening putting posters up.

Nina Mohanty: But I'm so grateful that right now that's my job. I'm also really grateful as well that I get to be an expert in this particular space. Like I would never. I would never dream of telling you how to run your business or like content or know, I don't know anything about content, right? Or what makes good content.

Nina Mohanty: But when it comes to immigration, when it comes to the, the intersection of financial services and immigration, like I'm so obsessed with this and I've read every book, every book I've watched, every movie, every documentary, everything. I know this problem in and out. And so it's also, I feel [00:25:00] very lucky that I get to be the one to educate others, to break down misconceptions to, to point at this massive multi-billion if not trillion opportunity and say, look at this thing that we've been overlooking for so long.

Nina Mohanty: And bring people along for the ride. So it's very, very rewarding as well. I think the other thing is I really enjoy the fluffy bits of business that like a lot of people, you know, like we've seen the headlines where it's like, oh, is the culture at X and Y company going to bring them down? Especially as you near, you know, IPO or some sort of exit event.

Nina Mohanty: You always see that that's when not thinking about culture or not thinking about incentives and all of that comes to bite you in the ass. And these are things that I just, I love and it's so rewarding for me to hire someone like our ops manager, Asha is brilliant. She was a paralegal, she was studying to be a lawyer.

Nina Mohanty: And you know, I remember the first [00:26:00] time on her first day, she's like, I don't really know why I'm here. And to see her just in, she started the beginning of this year, so in eight months she has just completely blossomed into this like kick ass ops manager, like just constantly on it. So organized like she

Nina Mohanty: just keeps everything afloat. And to see her grow into that has been amazing. And, and just like, I love being able to say to someone, let's, let's come to you with a new challenge. And I'm entrusting you with this because it's not always something that I had in my career. And so that's very rewarding 

Amardeep Parmar: as well.

Amardeep Parmar: So it's, it is really nice to hear like that progress you got so far. Like for the audience, could you tell us like, What are some of your biggest wins so far? Like what are some of the highlights along the journey? 

Nina Mohanty: Yeah. I think the things that I'm most proud of is we have become regulated, which is not an easy, I think I forgot to celebrate it.

Nina Mohanty: Um, and not only have we become regulated, we've done it twice, um, with two different partners. But we did that and we've actually even, I'm such a like teacher's pet, we, we [00:27:00] were told by one of our partners that like, you were such a delight to work with. And I was like, oh, yes we were. But it was. Amazing.

Nina Mohanty: Especially in light of, you know, consumer duty coming in for anyone in the financial regulation space. That has been very important and for us to be keeping up on pace with that and just remaining above board from day one is great. And we've also launched in both app stores, which is mad. If you think about the fact that up until recently we were a team of four.

Nina Mohanty: We have two engineers. Like front end backend working on it. And the fact that we've built that and shipped it and have people actively moving money on it is super, super exciting. And I think just for me, like it's just that light. Every day when I tell an Uber driver or I tell a woman in a nail salon about this app and they recognize it immediately, and usually if I know their cultural background, I can tell them what it's called in their language and they know it and they get it immediately.

Nina Mohanty: And then they're like, okay, I'm gonna download the app. I mean, that is, that has been [00:28:00] fantastic. And seeing their eyes light up because they don't expect someone that isn't from their culture to know. That some, something intimate about their life or some behavior that they have, which is exactly why I am so adamant that we'll succeed because we're building specifically for these communities.

Nina Mohanty: Yeah. I'm very, very proud of the team. 

Amardeep Parmar: So in the great chat to you today, we have to move to a quick fire question now. Yes. Let's do it. So first one, who are free British Asians, you'd love to shout out you think people listening right now should be paying attention 

Nina Mohanty: to? Right. So the first would be Asma Khan, who is the founder of the

Nina Mohanty: Darjeeling Express Restaurant, who I believe has the only all female kitchen in London. If not, I don't wanna say the word, but definitely in London and she's just so inspirational. If you ever have a chance to go to one of her Biryani supper clubs, it is worth it. She is phenomenal and I think she understands migration and diaspora and exile and a very deep, deep level, and she's very inspiring to me.

Nina Mohanty: The [00:29:00] second would be Farah Kabir, who is the founder of Hanx, which is a sexual wellness company founded by two women. It's very taboo and groundbreaking. And she's like a Muslim woman building a sexual wellness company. Uh, and she's just an absolute force. And every day I'm just like, I wish I had all the money in the world to invest into your business.

Nina Mohanty: And last but not least, I'll give a shout to my friend Sadiq Dorasat, who is the founder of Muslim Census and he's now working at Wahed Invest as a product manager. But he is someone that I think very much is using technology in very interesting ways, is very much giving voice to communities that don't always get a voice.

Nina Mohanty: And I just love tenacity in people. And all three of these people inspire me every day. There's so many people really, but um, I'm only given three.

Amardeep Parmar: So yeah, those would be here all day, right? 

Nina Mohanty: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. 

Amardeep Parmar: So next question is if people love your story, love what Blue Money [00:30:00] is doing.Where should they go to?

Amardeep Parmar: Where should they follow you, connect, get in, connect 

Nina Mohanty: with you in touch. Please get in touch. Um, you can reach me by email, uh, at nina@bluemoney.co.co. Or you can find us on LinkedIn, on Twitter slash x, um, on Instagram pretty much anywhere. Um, If you email me, I'm pretty quick to respond. Please don't get in touch about recruiting services or marketing agency services.

Amardeep Parmar: developers..

Nina Mohanty:  Or developers.No, thank you. But if you're interested in learning more about what we're doing, if you want to be part of our journey, yeah, like get in touch. I'd love to hear from you. 

Amardeep Parmar: And then is there  anything that maybe somebody listening right now would be able to help you with? That blue money needs or you need.

Nina Mohanty: Yeah, download the app.

Nina Mohanty: Um, we're available in both app stores 

Amardeep Parmar: And leave a five star review. 

Nina Mohanty: Leave a five star review. Oh my gosh. I feel like a content creator. I'm like, like, and subscribe. No, please, please leave review. Actually, no. I'll give you this one. We are looking for people to tell [00:31:00] us their money stories. We have a series that we're launching called Diaspora Talks, and we want people to come and sit with their parents and talk about money, which is a big ask.

Nina Mohanty: I know because we're Asian, but we've had some, a lot of my friends have stepped into the play and brought in their parents and it's been really, it's really cute. Actually, Sadik was one, um, he came in with his mom. It was super, super cute and it's just very interesting to see. Oftentimes immigrant parents and their immigrant children having this really interesting

Nina Mohanty: dialogue about money, about their money mindset, the psychology of all it, and especially my favorite is just how brutal and savage parents can be. When I ask the question, how do you feel about your children's spending habits? Oh, they just go off. It's brilliant. But if you're interested, please get in touch.

Nina Mohanty: We'd love to have you in with your family members to discuss it. 

Amardeep Parmar: So  thanks so much again for coming on. 

Nina Mohanty: Thank you for  having me. 

Amardeep Parmar:Any final words to the audience? 

Nina Mohanty: Migration is the only way we survive. And so that's what we're here to do is make it easier, [00:32:00] make it possible for everyone to have the future that they want.

Amardeep Parmar: Hello. Hello everyone. Thank you so much for listening. It makes a huge amount to us and we don't think you realize how important you are because if you subscribe to our YouTube channel, if you leave us a five star review, it makes the world of difference. And if you believe in what we're trying to do here, tinspire, connect, and guide the next generation of British Asians, 

Amardeep Parmar: If you do those things, you can help us achieve that mission and you can help us make a bigger impact. And by doing that it means we can get bigger guests, we can host more events, we can do more for the community. So you can play a huge part. So thank you so much for supporting us.

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