Our first steps in building the Holvi brand and engaging with our Makers and Doers out there!

1. Don’t Build Your Brand!
Show who you are.

2. Our Roots
Our Pitch
Our Brand Building Activities
Our Holvi Brand
The Illusion of Virality
The Controversy of Building a FinTech Brand
From Brand Building to Customer Acquisition
Lessons learntAgenda

3. Our home is Europe, our roots are Finnish.
Our roots

4. Our roots
Founded in 2011 in Helsinki
Started off by creating a banking service to manage the finances of events and projects
First prototypes built on top of PayPal
After validating the idea started to build a full platform independently from the ground up
Connecting Holvi to the local startup ecosystem since day one - Slush.org

5. Secured seed investment (including Austrian Speedinvest)
Approval of official application of PSP licences at the FIN-FSA, Helsinki
Passporting of our own licence to the EEA under the EU directive
NEW product focus: the era of Makers and Doers
Full localisation for 3 core markets (FI, AT, DE)
The Big Year of 2014

6. Holvi is banking for Makers and Doers.
With Holvi you can send invoices, collect payments or
sell your products online with the built-in online store
and get bank transfers to your Holvi IBAN account. All
in one simple to use offering. Holvi is built by
entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs.

7. How we build our brand.
Telling our story.

8. Brand Building

9. Our Holvi Brand
Holvi means ‘vault’ in Finnish expressing
our highest priority: security.

10. The Holvi Brand
We are not building a brand, we are telling who we are!

11. Nothing happens unless it is REAL.
The Illusion of Virality

12. Brand Building in a Nutshell

13. Process of brand building
Your brand
PRODUCT & SERVICES
OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
DAILY ADMINISTRATION
RECRUITING
PEOPLE
CULTURE
once manifested hard to change
details matter
bigger than its single parts
mind thermodynamics

14. A plan without execution
is just a dream. #Leitmotif
Why?
Purpose
Who?
Target audience
How?
Which platform
What does this mean for Holvi being a fintech startup?
Completely rethink the way we
handle our day to day business
affairs and money transfers.
Momentum - real demand and
no existing value adding service
providers out there!
Makers and Doers are on the
rise all over Europe - they are
independent, educated and
already forming the new
backbone of the European
economy.
Platform does NOT matter! It is
actual value that dialogue with
your customers will bring along.
For example, over 80% of all
people contact us via FB for
support inquiries.

15. Assumptions about branding
that do not apply in FinTech
Better done than perfect!
”Whoops, I sent only 87% of your
money”
It just has to work
Let’s do live testing!
”We tested transferring money to your
account, strangely it did not work.
Maybe next time…”
There are no such thing as test
users in FinTech
The easiest way to learn is to copy!
”Hey we’ll pay you 100 if…”
Applying the same acquisition
strategies like traditional banks
would not work a single day.
Disrupting established industries
will get you attention!
”We are disrupting banking!”
Do not only disrupt - focus on the
value your solution will bring
Customer acquired, product sold. You are finished.
You are never done. Never.

16. From Branding to Customer
Acquisition
Engage. Share. Listen.

17. #1: PR
First publication: WIRED Magazine 2013
Holvi chosen the Hottest Startup in Finland
= lucky coincidence - there was no active approach
know your journalists personally, share thoughts and build a relationship
PR still is effective leverage short time = will generate peak not level
setup of a editor’s plan
recognise all channels, put a focus on those that match your audience’s
behaviour
do not send mass emails to your journalist lists - they won’t be opened

18. #2: Demand First, Product Second
Build the momentum, hype
your service and allow people
to signup and share the news
continuously iterate how you can optimise your lead generation flow
handle this interest with care - nobody likes spam & people forget you
SoMe is the place to be, focus and master the channels you’re in
set up a google analytics workshop each month to measure tracking and
define relevant KPI’s to continuously improve performance at all fronts
Content is king, content distribution King Kong!

19. #3: Co-operate & Co-operate
Your company does not exist in a vacuum
Don’t build networks, build relationship.
Find credible partners that communicate your values (e.g. PR)
What works best? = REFERRAL! aka word-of-mouth
Community approach functions equally well in all markets
there is not such thing as sustainable affiliate programmes
money should not be your primary focus but reward

20. #4: Entering A New Market
Micro Vertical Approach
Dig, Find, Promote and Engage
Exclusive pricing
First Class Support and Services, average
personal response time (weekdays) =
below 3 hours. Consulting included.
Put a face to your company. Nobody will
ever trust their money with an anonymous
internet company.

22. What we did when we didn’t know
anyone and no-one knew us ?
We asked Vienna which exciting ideas are currently cooking,
visited those startups and published a video about them.

23. #5: You should know how!
blog.holvi.com
Blog article of the week
Makers and Doers
profiles, tips & tricks for
business owners and
the self-employed
Building your audience
by building your
expertise

24. #6: Keep in touch - do not spam!
Help Center article of the
week (according to the top
requested support issue)
New feature releases
Makers and Doers insights,
stories and profiles
5-10 times higher openings
and clicks than industry
average, works very well to
engage users

25. #7: Shut up and Tweet!
Nobody cares about your
brand as such. You have to
show it day to day by
sharing valuable insights
and also telling what you
are doing in real-time.
Rise beyond the average
noise! Be faster, wittier and
louder.
Attend events and appeal
to emotions - one way or
another.
TOA BERLIN

26. Lessons Learnt
Make and do!

27. Brand building and customer acquisition
is a dialogue!
NEW approaches can significantly convert into
10 times better results - forget what you know
Don’t create content, tell your story!
Keep costs at bay - also micro budgets need
macro attention

28. Your tone of voice has to be apart of each
and every communication pattern of your
company. It starts with your ads and ends
with your customer support questions.
In between are operations, product, key notes
and lunch conversations.
As cliché as it is - everyone has to walk the
talk at all times.
Help your customers shine and
you will catch some light as well!

29. @Holvi #Holvi #MakersAndDoers
Follow us!