With most consumers having to manage their funds more carefully than ever before, it is becoming increasingly important for brands to maximise efforts to ensure brand loyalty.
Luke Ladyman, co-founder at Cheddar
To find out how Cheddar is helping consumers save money, as well as enabling brands to tailor offerings specifically to each individual, we sat down with its co-founder, Luke Ladyman.
Prior to founding Cheddar, Ladyman’s management consultancy accelerated growth within the consumer electronic sector for a number of globally recognisable brands. He is also a qualified airline pilot, and boasts over 10,000 hours flying large commercial jets.
Here, he offers further insight into Cheddar’s capabilities and discusses his personal and career journey.
Tell us more about your company and its purpose
Cheddar is the UK’s leading bank account-powered rewards app, which I founded alongside Tariq Zaid in 2020. Our purpose is split into two main categories – helping consumers save whilst they spend and helping retailers make sense of data to improve shopper loyalty.
With the cost-of-living crisis putting a strain on consumers’ finances, every penny counts. At Cheddar, we are dedicated to helping to alleviate some of the pressure of the current economic climate by giving consumers what they truly want – pounds, not points, back in their pockets. Users can take advantage of our cashback-generating gift card offering to save money while they spend. It helps people budget more effectively by purchasing cards for a set amount before filling their baskets in-store or online.
We help retailers gain rich insights into their customer’s spending behaviours through open banking technology. Insights are pulled directly from spending data via first-party consent to help personalise cashback offerings. The app also allows retailers to gain insight into where consumers spend and how often to provide tailored money-back offerings to attract new high-intent customers, drive loyalty and re-engage any customers that might have got lost along the way.
What are some of your recent achievements you’d like to highlight?
It’s been an exciting few years at Cheddar and they have been full of achievements that we are really proud of.
Our most recent achievement is winning the ‘Best Newcomer’ award at the British Bank Awards. Our customers are at the heart of everything we do at Cheddar, and as a relatively new company, it was incredible to see how much of an impact we are making on our customers’ lives.
Another achievement is the addition of three retail powerhouses to the Cheddar app. In April, we announced that ASOS, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose & John Lewis have joined Cheddar’s network of over 150 other brands. We’re proud to continue expanding the leading consumer brands available on our network to truly fulfil our mission of helping as many consumers as possible during challenging financial times.
How did you get into the fintech industry?
Before co-founding Cheddar, I ran a management consultancy helping grow consumer brands, including Guess, Moleskine, BMW, Mercedes and Ferrari. Alongside running this consultancy, I continued to be a commercial airline pilot for one of the UK’s largest airlines. I have over 10,000 hours flying large commercial jets, and I still fly a couple times a month with the airline today.
Tariq and I founded Cheddar in 2020. Our initial aim was to develop a frictionless solution to splitting group expenses, but we soon realised that there was a bigger problem to solve. We saw that there was a real need for a platform that helped retailers drive loyalty and unlock new revenue streams while simultaneously rewarding consumers for their loyalty in a way that would help them manage their finances against a backdrop of soaring prices and economic uncertainty – and that’s how I moved into the fintech industry.
What’s the best thing about working in the fintech industry?
I’m in a position to help millions of people with something that’s important to them and impacts their day-to-day – money and financial well-being. Working in an industry that is so dynamic and innovative is something to look forward to every day. From open banking technology to new sophisticated tools available in your back pocket and everything in between, it is incredible to be part of an industry revolutionising how consumers manage their finances and interact with money.
The role that fintechs play in consumers’ lives has grown in importance since the pandemic. I look forward to continuing to create solutions with our talented developers to help consumers manage their finances more effectively.
What frustrates you most about the fintech industry?
The cost of doing business can inhibit innovation. The ‘finance’ or ‘regulated platform’ label usually carries a premium. As a result, we’ve developed most solutions in-house to best position ourselves for scale, at the expense of extended times to market.
Solutions in our roadmap that aren’t just incrementally better, but different and deliver instant and impactful change to the lives of consumers are currently on pause, whilst we focus on bringing new developments to market in a cost-effective way.
How have your previous roles influenced your career?
As a management consultant, I was responsible for the end-to-end delivery of consumer propositions in EMEA retail. The role included understanding consumer pain points across geographies and taking solutions to market through design, manufacturing, shipping, launching, training, marketing and commercial management. My enjoyment of this led me to do the same for start-ups, and I felt compelled to bring these experiences to my own proposition.
Regarding the regulated landscape of finance, this has many similarities to the regulated aviation industry. As a pilot, you’re following processes and procedures within regulatory frameworks to safeguard lives and deliver successful outcomes 100 per cent of the time. Couple this with my passion for technology and previous consultancy experiences – I was well placed to found a fintech app.
What’s the best mistake you’ve ever made?
All my life, no one ever gave me financial advice, which resulted in me maximising all credit offers presented to me, including loan facilities to fund my pilot training. Not understanding or knowing much about credit put me in a difficult position in my early 20s. The experiences ultimately influenced the rest of my life and are impactful lessons I’ll never forget and will always share.
My past experiences set the path to where I am today, including creating a management consultancy out of necessity and delivering a finance app to plug the knowledge and savings gap for the masses. And what’s coming next will further support this narrative.
What has the future got in store for your company?
We are working on some truly innovative product features and tools behind the scenes at Cheddar to launch in the next few months that are fundamentally different to what’s available on the market today. These will build on our commitment to help consumers manage money more responsibly and stretch their money further.
With customer loyalty becoming difficult to obtain and even harder to keep hold of, we look forward to continuing to develop innovative, data-driven solutions to help retailers also, that will ultimately benefit the loyal consumer.
What are the next key talking points or challenges for your industry as a whole?
We operate within the open banking sector, a relatively new and innovative concept when benchmarked against other solutions available. The UK is further ahead than most countries, and continuing this momentum to deliver truly impactful and efficient solutions is essential. Understanding the risks and rewards is important to ensure the future of open banking and finance as a global flag carrier isn’t prohibited by over-consultation and costs.
The post In Profile: Luke Ladyman, co-founder at Cheddar appeared first on The Fintech Times.
