Lobster Money - the financial home of the creator economy

Lobster Money is just one of the incredible Fintech startups that are a part of the Fintech Foundation incubator programme. The young company wowed us with their vision of helping the creator community.

We sat down with co-founder Borislav 'Bobby' Abdullah to ask him about Lobster Money's plans, its challenges, and a little bit about himself.

Lobster Money's elevator pitch

In short, Lobster Money is a B2B financial app for the creator economy.

Regardless of size, content creators don't have an easy way of understanding all of their revenue streams. It's a problem that Lobster Money aims to tackle with the use of APIs for a wide-range of platforms and social media sites.

"What we're trying to do is develop a solution that brings all of these different pieces together."

The startup enables content creators to invoice agencies and clients for different brand deals, as well as taking care of late payments from multiple sources.

"Unlike many other creative financing opportunities out there, we're not focussed on the one per cent; we're actually focussed on everyone. From someone who has five subscribers and followers – all the way to the millions – and we want to help them through that journey."

What are the pain points of launching Lobster Money?

Many startup founders generally have a background in whichever industry they are launching in. However, Bobby is a little different when it comes to experience.

"My background is in neither fintech nor the creator economy. So, the very first challenge I faced was 'where do I start? What is the first step forward?'"

But Bobby's team has over 25 years of experience in the creator economy and a vast network of resources that they could harness for Lobster Money. They can leverage their knowledge and networks for the growth of the startup.

The co-founder has already spent many hours chatting with various people within the creator industry – all at different stages – to collect their feedback and discuss their pain points.

Even with his unconventional background, Bobby still faces the same challenges as the startup founders. At the start of the project, he had to ask "What are we building, how are we going to build it, and which route is the best one to take?"

Even though the world has gone through several years of hardship due to the global pandemic, he does also think that it's the best time to build and launch Lobster Money.

"Proving a model during this time suggests that when the economy is booming once more, and everything is alright or even great, we would be doing even better."

Lobster Money has gone through a few iterations before landing on its current model and goals.

"We have pivoted maybe three times already since the beginning of the idea, which was early 2022 when we had this idea bloom over a dinner and workshop."

A glimpse into the life of a founder

We wanted to know what a single day looks like to Bobby – it's very busy.

"What our day-to-day looks like can be very different. One day, I might be looking into the technical feasibility of achieving our MVP, but also understanding our customers."

Every part of his day is filled with either learning or making connections to further build out the company.

Resilience is his superpower

Bobby's superpower is resilience – the ability to continue moving after an action or event that sets you back. He says it's a blessing because it allows you to realise what the wrong path is for the current situation.

Part of his resilience is due to his education. He didn't have a 'normal' path from education to work as he didn't have the opportunity to attend university.

"If I were to put my highschool education against the things I've learned from travelling and meeting other people, I would probably give it to the travelling side.”

"I've learnt so much about people, how they act, what they do in different locations, and how they go through their own issues and how they celebrate their wins."

Learning from others

The Lobster Money co-founder recommends the book Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company by former Intel CEO Andrew S. Grove.

It has helped him to understand and handle change, while being adaptable to any situation. These are useful skills for any startup founder, especially those launching a brand new company during these unprecedented times.

"Nothing is given in life and you just have to push through, regardless of your situation or what you're trying to achieve."

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