I don't know if it's a culture thing, I don't know what's the problem, but everyone is so tied up and no, it won't work.
It's easier to say no than yes.
There's a certain notion that we can't create these great big things from scratch within the islands.
And that anything of any high significance has to come from outside.
The modern work force or workspace should be flexible.
Yeah.
I'm never going to tell you you need to be here and there and that.
The only thing I'm going to tell you is deliver what you say.
John, how are you doing? How's everything?
I'm good. I'm good. How are you?
Awesome. Great. Great. Happy to be here.
Welcome to St. Martin.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Beautiful island.
And the trip was good?
The flight was good.
Yes, good. Smooth.
That was nice. Yes. Not too long, not too short.
Nice. Yes. Yes.
So you're enjoying the sunset out here?
I am. I am actually. It's beautiful.
Yeah. We got hooked up in this beautiful location to record our podcasting today
at the Sapphire Beach Hotel in Coupecoise in Martin.
So thanks again for that.
And this is another episode of Sunside Kingdom.
And we're going to get into it with Marwan coming straight out of Curacao.
And you'll have to give those details because there's a bit of technicalities there.
There's a lot of technicalities there.
Sanjiv, we'll do a deep dive in a bit.
All right. All right. Looking forward to it.
Let's do it.
People, welcome to the Sunside Kingdom show.
Thank you to Sapphire Beach Club for sponsoring the location of this episode.
With me today is Marwan Rozier.
Correct. Pleasure meeting you.
Rozier?
Rozier. It depends where we are located.
Look, if you're from the French side of Saint Martin, I think it's going to be Rozier.
Yeah.
But considering we are on the Dutch side, I think we are going to mention it.
Rozier.
OK, nice. Welcome. Welcome.
Thank you.
So it's not your first time on Saint Martin, right?
No.
Although it was a long time ago, first time I came here.
So I do consider it my first time because everything changed from the last time I was here.
Well, your first time as an adult.
You can say so.
Yes.
So then that experience will be a lot different.
So let's get a quick little highlight, quick little elevator pitch.
Who is Marwan?
Who's Marwan?
So born and raised in Curacao.
So born and raised in Curacao, did the traditional middle school and Dutch system.
And then also VSBO.
After that, they did my HAVO, finished that, graduated.
And then I went to the United States to study.
So it was a change compared to most of the people from the islands.
They go to Holland.
Yeah.
I've decided to go to the United States, which was I'm really happy I did it
because I saw another part of the educational system, universities.
Long story short, I did my international business in bachelor.
And then I did my master's in finance.
During my master in finance, actually, I was doing a lot of trading research.
I was a junior analyst.
And then I stumbled upon the word fintech.
That's how I was like, what is this?
Because we know banks doing financial things and then fintech.
Tech, okay.
And you know the banks back home, maybe at that time, you're like tech and banks don't really go together.
So what is this fintech stuff?
Exactly.
So then I remember very clearly I was super interested.
I was digging very deep into this topic, understanding.
And all these stories was actually coming up.
I remember the shift while I was in the States where we still had a POS of Bank of America.
And then a random company called Pfizer came along or Stripe came along.
So when we say POS, that's point of sale.
The point of sale.
The terminal you make the payment.
So I saw the switch happening while I was doing all this research.
The word fintech was popping up more and more.
So I was like, okay, this is the next big thing.
What years are these?
This is 2015.
So I decided I'm going to do an internship in a payment company.
I figured out then there is a payment company.
It was funny because my father told me, listen, you want an internship?
Cool.
But this is your allowance and I'm not going to pay more.
Internship at that time, they don't pay.
It's funny because it's unpaid.
You want opportunity, come more, but it's unpaid.
That's actually one of the major differences, I would say, with internships in the Netherlands
versus the States.
Most of the internships in the States are unpaid.
Very exceptional situations where you would get paid for an internship.
So students in the Netherlands, be happy because your internships are paid,
even though it's very low paid.
It's something.
Yes.
So then I decided I got this internship.
Fun enough, I traveled to Croatia.
So I was working.
Yes, I went to Croatia for this internship where I was working for a company that was developing
software for American Express.
Okay.
Very tech, low, low, low tier on the processing side.
But I'm super valuable and happy that I work in this company because I understand the core
value of payments, which it's funny.
People that know payments are going to maybe agree or disagree with me, but the people in
banking industry, they complicate things.
So the people that understand logic cannot understand it.
It's simple.
So essentially things are very simple, but they use all this complicated language to
make things sound way more complex than they are and confuse the people.
Exactly.
Oh, that's payment.
Displaced.
I'm very transparent in that because I'm like, dude, come on.
Now, there is some complexity in terms of security, right?
All these things that you have to give it to them.
But the simple payment is very simple.
If you go back into how payment started, right?
So from Barton, I'm going to give you a pack of cider.
You're going to give me a drink or whatever it is.
Essentially, is that happening all over again?
But just now you just tell me, I'll give you a pack of cigarettes.
I'll give you a drink.
That was a real island example, but probably they were bartering on fish and bread back then.
Well, you know, we are on an island, so I have certain things in my head.
So, yeah, going back, right?
It's a ledger.
It's a wallet.
It's a balance.
You know, I give you this for that.
So it all goes back to the same thing.
So, yeah, going back, Croatia, did my internship, went back to the States.
I knew exactly this is what I wanted to do.
And I was set on payments, anything with regards to payments.
So I finished my university masters and then I started Hirosol.
Going back home, I was, you know, you're basically pitching an illusion.
That's how I felt.
Yeah, because I'm sitting, I literally went to all the banks and they can agree.
All the banks on the islands.
I went and I pitched a product.
Whatever you're pitching, Mr. Uzier, it's not going to happen.
Okay, so I have to fine tune.
But forget about it.
I went and if I tuned the pitch and I went again and I went again and I went again.
Luckily, one bank was like, we won this.
So that was my first product.
Basically, it's a Paga Facil bill payment and product,
which is right now one of the largest bill payments on the island.
It's a closed loop system, right?
Because it's not connected to anything external.
It's literally from operator to the merchant and selling centrally for the bank to do the settlement.
It's the core of payments, but it's very simple.
It's closed loop.
We launched in 2018.
I knew exactly I want to do more because this is step one, but I want to do more.
So when you say closed loop, right?
Well, my profession is a UX designer and I work with a lot of technical people.
And also a lot of the projects that we do are very technical.
So I fully understand what closed loop means.
But break that down a little bit for persons that might not understand.
So closed loop payment right now today, right?
I have a wallet.
We are on the same wallet.
I have 100 guilders, dollars, whatever.
I'm going to send it to you, right?
This closed loop means no one from the outside.
I cannot go pay to any merchant because the merchant is not accepting this closed loop.
It's closed.
It's not an international.
It cannot leave the system.
It can leave the system.
It's internally.
So whatever the system is, the money has to flow with it.
Exactly.
It's a closed loop system.
So open loop is the master card, is the visa, American Express.
Because you can pay anywhere in the world with that.
Exactly.
Most wallets start at closed loop.
And then once they attach a branded card network to it, it becomes open.
Because you can move your money away.
So that's in a nutshell, closed loop, open loop.
So the first project was a closed loop system.
Make a success.
I'm super happy about it.
And good.
It basically made me start or allow Heroes of the Start and then create credential and
allow everyone to see what we are capable of.
And then we went again to all the banks because I told them, OK, I delivered this, but now
I want to attach that.
I want to be able to connect as an open loop.
You want to open the loop now.
It's closed, but let's open it.
So I did the whole thing to all the banks again.
All of them.
I remember I have actually a track record of this, all the presentation, because I was
really mind boggled by.
But you started all this stuff fresh out of college?
Yeah.
OK.
Fresh.
Actually, while I was there, I was working on a project.
While finishing, did that also do you believe that also kind of played a role in the nose
that you got from the banks that they were saying?
Maybe.
OK.
Maybe.
But I honestly think it's nonsense if I can use that word, because those mean when I was
at that age, that's when your brain in my perspective is the freshest.
Yeah.
Brains the best ideas on the table.
Maybe I don't have.
I don't.
It's not perfect.
But with the expertise of the mature ones, which are the banks and the young ones, which
are the entrepreneurs up and coming, they have a bright idea.
I think the bridge and until today, I still say there's no bridge for those people with
great ideas to go and mature into amazing functional work, because we all I don't know
if it's a culture thing.
I don't know what's the problem, but everyone is so tied up and no, it won't work.
It's easier to say no than yes.
Yeah.
Not even give it a try.
Yeah.
Right.
And I experienced this.
I went to all the banks and now I can understand banks are more conservative than others.
Right.
So that's I try to understand for them.
But still, if you could see, for example, in Europe, if you see in America, Latin, North
America, the whole Americas, the banks are the ones supporting all the startup.
Yeah.
They support 10.
Nine will fill.
That one is hit.
Yeah.
In Curacao, I don't know about Samartan, but I want to see how many supportive.
I think the numbers would be similar, maybe even less.
Unfortunately.
So I'm happy about the banks.
But I do believe that that is one part cultural thing.
It's one part island mentality.
It's also.
It's a thing that when it's not invented here or not even the not invented here part,
because technically you are trying to invent it there with their support.
But it's the fact that it's not coming from outside major corporation.
Then we're not.
I want to say they.
Because I don't believe that, but I am an island person, even though I've been living
in the Netherlands for the past 20 years.
So I will still say we that there's a certain notion that we can't create these great big
things from scratch within the islands and that anything of any high significance has
to come from outside that someone from outside has to invent it and then show us how to do
it instead of really supporting our own from the ground up to build that.
So we've got to get past those challenges, guys.
Yes.
And I had this talk the other day with some young, young.
So we had an intern and he was asking me, how do you do it?
And one thing I can tell you is just don't give up because you're not going to be able
to do it.
And I could have said, okay, it's enough.
But I said, no, eventually we need to do it.
So we kept on pushing, kept on pushing, kept on pushing.
And every time one bank and unfortunately, all my clients, they were in need.
They were in it.
It wasn't like, oh, you know, let's I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt.
For example, they were in need.
I need your help.
Can you do this?
Yes, yes, yes.
Okay, do it.
And that's the thing.
Like, there's so much potential and so many people really desperately in need to move
with the innovation curve.
But now the funny thing is going to come, which I laugh about right now.
Those who are in need are those who actually trusted that external company blindly because
they're not from the idea, not local.
And guess what?
It didn't go as expected.
So now I'm in need because I have that I need to deliver.
I have this and I need the product.
Can you do this?
Yes or no?
You have one shot.
It's a different type of negotiation, different type of approach where you said, hey, you
know, I believe in you.
I believe in the concept.
Let's give it a try.
Or I want to do it face out.
Step one, step two, step three, create a plan together.
Just like you create your plan as an institution, help these young dudes that has vision to
create a plan to allow them to try.
So, you know, right now I look back at it and I think it's funny because I learned from
how these things work and maybe it's how the industry works.
Maybe these.
How many years when you say you look back?
18.
I started 18.
Yeah, five years.
Yeah, right now.
And then the pandemic in between.
So the pandemic actually was my where things really kicked off for Hiroso.
Yes, because all my ongoing project was instantly put on hold.
Yeah.
I had a team of payroll after pay.
I already paid.
I've committed.
I can tell them, okay, thank you.
Bye.
Yeah.
Bye.
Okay.
Projects are putting on hold bluntly with no excuses because it's been them.
We don't know what's going to happen.
So we're sitting in just crossing our hands.
So, okay, what now?
Okay.
So I start reaching out to people, just a friend's connection from guys.
I want to do this.
I want to do what can we do?
I have people I have, you know, we're sitting doing nothing.
Yeah, that's just something just doing nothing for me.
You're dying, right?
So that's where everything connected.
We connected actually to MasterCard Labs because we were already working with MasterCard
at this moment to see how we are going to shape
the Caribbean payment ecosystem.
But it was very raw, very from, yeah, you need a bank.
They also tell you, you need to go to a bank.
Yeah, but banks don't want to work with us.
It's okay.
We can do anything about it.
Yeah.
So the pandemic came.
We were working with MasterCard Labs, which is a separate entity that actually developed
things way ahead of time.
So they're kind of like a startup fund.
It's just a team in MasterCard that developed the future.
So for you to understand in 2021, 2020.
So when we started, it was almost 2021, we developed App on Phone, which I can convert
your phone to a point of sale terminal to a set card.
You're only seeing that in the market now being launched, but we developed it a while
ago with them.
Yeah.
One example, there's other track BPS.
They didn't kick off as it's, but there's many different projects we did with them.
Yeah.
And that's how we built the trust, right?
We develop and our work ethic and everything.
And yeah, that's how we actually landed where we are right now with all the licenses and
the system that we have, because we constantly delivered what we promised them.
That was one of the main things I think.
And also, yeah, when we did another funny thing because of the banks, when we developed
all this technology, yeah, right.
You develop the technology.
You have to have a phone.
Okay.
Now you cannot roll it out because you're not a buyer.
You need to go to an acquirer.
So banks are the acquirer.
Okay.
So MasterCard in this case are going to go now and they're going to sell it for you
because they have all the relationship with all the banks.
Yeah.
Not even the bank.
Yeah, not even them.
They were managing or succeeding to launch it, to sell it.
And that's when we said, okay, listen, we are going to launch it.
Okay.
Launch it.
Here's your license.
Go launch it.
So that's how everything connected.
And we became where we are right now as a one-stop shop, processing, acquiring, issuing.
So you know, you want to issue a point of sale or you want to connect your gateway
to process, you can come to us.
We can onboard your merchant or you want to issue a card.
You can come to us.
We will onboard you as an issuer.
If you're a bin, you can basically have your Apple Pay, Google Pay, virtual card, digital
card, physical card.
You can put your logo on it, customize it as you want and we process in-house.
So what do you mean that have your Google, Apple Pay, Google Card?
So you have, so the merchant would have their own card branded.
But then what is it?
It's a MasterCard.
Yes.
Okay.
So you have to understand, it's important to understand the phases, right?
So you have a bank right now.
I'm a finance institution.
I have my clients.
I need to go to MasterCard or Visa for my license.
Yeah, simple.
I need to go to a processor to process all the transaction because a processor just process.
So you need to go independent processor.
Then you need to go to a technology provider that will sell you all these cool gadget like
Apple Pay, Google Pay, whatever you want to do tokenization.
Yeah.
That will then you can compile these two, three components together.
Then you can actually offer a card service in the market.
Okay.
There are three different entities.
When you come to us, I was thinking, no, it's a one-stop shop.
I will provide you all in one component.
Yeah.
So that's what we actually started building since 2022.
And we are rolling it out right now with some clients in the Caribbean.
Oh, nice.
Yes.
So when you say in the Caribbean, in how many islands are you currently active?
Dominic Republic, Curaçao.
We have a potential client in St. Martin.
Those three are the main and then Latin America.
Columbia, we're doing a lot in Columbia.
We actually have a new bank, a teen new bank, very cool stuff.
So it's like a what?
A new bank.
It's like a digital bank, a challenger bank.
Yeah.
So basically, we can offer a bank account, Columbia bank account, a wallet, crypto account,
everything in one package.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
And we focus on teens, teeners.
So from the age of 10 to 18.
Of course, if you're 20 something, you can open that account.
Yeah.
But our marketing concept is on the teen side.
And that's based in Columbia where you guys are all the time.
Yes.
So that's in Columbia, what we're doing in Columbia.
And it's actually really cool.
Finzi, you can look it up.
There's a lot of educational Finzi.
Yeah, like Generation Z.
Oh, Finzi.
Not FinTech.
Finzi.
There's a bunch of educational video about how we spend and how you manage your financials.
We didn't want to do, for example, you have the financials.
We didn't want to do, for example, you have the famous buy now, pay later concept.
So we thought, OK, I don't want to have this kid starting with buy now, pay later at a young age.
So we introduced safe now, buy later.
Oh, OK.
Right.
So you want to buy something.
We can buy it.
But we will generate an automated purchasing plan where you can save money, according to buy it.
So you're not never in debt with yourself.
So then from your, let's say, your current account, your check in account is an automatic payment made to a specific sub account to buy this specific item.
So how many different sub accounts can you make?
You can have as many as you want.
OK, so they can be like, OK, this is for my new iPhone.
This is my vacation.
Yes.
Nice, the different buckets.
So small things that gives value to a financial application.
A bank is a bank gives value to the user.
That's our core thing.
That's the core.
You really studied what the user needs are.
And even some of the needs that they might not know that they need, but knowing that they can run into these traps later.
You're trying to help also coach better financial literacy and a healthy financial balance.
So that's our focus in Colombia.
And then we are, for example, in Uruguay, we're doing it's like an affluent client program.
Very specific. Those clients just want their own brand.
Some people just want their own brand.
For example, you want a John Carr.
We can support a John Carr.
You know, things like that.
So they need a sub site.
For example.
So it goes, it's very broad.
You have the issue in acquiring and the process.
And so it's really a broad aspect of business.
I will say, broader than people think.
Yeah, definitely.
But I enjoy it.
I mean, it's something that I tell people if you don't sleep, dream it, wake up, think about it.
You know, if you don't do that every day on your what you like, which in my case is payments, you're not in the right field.
You need to do.
And it comes down to what are you passionate about?
So that's for me really important to be passionate about the topic that you are interested in.
And payments is something that I think grass me since I was 19.
And until now, I think I'm still in.
So how old are you?
Twenty nine.
Yes.
All right.
So sub 30.
Last year, I just turned 29 in July.
So, yeah.
And how many how many staff do you currently have?
So we have five, four in Brazil.
We have a team in Brazil and some policy as well.
And then we're about 10 in so like 20, I would say.
OK, full time.
There are some part time.
That's a pretty sizable company.
So the Colombian team takes a lot, but they are because of the B2C.
They're the only one that does B2C.
It's our only product that caters directly to consumers.
All our other products are Finsi.
Finsi, correct.
So they're a big team because it no customer support.
It takes a lot.
And the other ones are B2B.
It's more tech or back and support.
So that you can delegate faster between everyone.
So, yeah, I think that's why the main chunk of a big team is from Colombia.
But then we have sales and all over.
Basically, you have a Mexico and Dominican Republic as well.
Just sales.
Yeah, we believe or I believe that the modern work force or workspace should be flexible.
Yeah. Right.
So I'm never going to tell you need to be here and there.
And that's the only thing I'm going to tell you is deliver what you say.
Right.
This you tell me Friday.
I'm going to get it. Make sure you get it Friday.
If you want to work in your course or your terrace or your house or whatever you want to work.
Yeah. Feel free. Right.
You're flexible in that sense.
Yeah. But just be be honest to the company.
Yeah. Right.
Transparent. Transparent.
Transparent. Honest to the company.
We're not going to we don't have really vacation days.
You need to ask for vacation days.
Of course, you need to notify that you're not in office.
Yeah. But just don't abuse it.
You know what the company is doing. We're a startup.
We're a small company and we need to work together to grow and be bigger.
So that's something I really stress about.
But other than that, it's very flexible, very lenient because I believe in that.
Yeah.
I think it increases the productivity in the office and the work culture, especially.
Awesome. Awesome.
So we're in Kurosawa, you guys based.
So our office is in Otrobanda.
Yeah. Yes.
I was just thinking which side is Otrobanda?
It's on the other side.
Yeah. That's literally the translation.
Right.
So it's not on the side with the little famous Kurosawa houses.
No, that's Handelsgarde on the other side.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
And what is what?
No, there's another name for that area as well or the area right behind it.
You have Punda.
Punda is the main downtown where Handelsgarde is, where the beautiful houses are.
Yeah.
After Punda, if you continue, you get Pithermai.
So those are the two districts, Punda and Pithermai.
But then if you cross the bridge in front of Punda, then you go to Otrobanda.
And you go to the other side.
So we are in Otrobanda, a small office.
Again, because we are very flexible, we have a flexible workspace.
We don't get a lot of people that come to the office.
I love going to the office because I'm more productive, but not everyone wants to do that.
But now I'm realizing that I started by saying, let's go with a small introduction.
And we went straight into the story.
So let's rewind a bit.
Let's get in to how little Marwan spent his days.
So where were you born?
Kurosawa.
I was born in Kurosawa.
And parents?
So my mom is a Rubian, but she was born in Kurosawa.
But her parents are a Rubian.
And my dad is Kurosawa.
My dad's dad is a bit more on the Dutch side, though.
And my grandmother from my dad's side is local.
So I can say pretty much Yuli Kurosawa, how you call it.
Born and raised in Kurosawa.
And Yuli Kurosawa is like the youth or the child of Kurosawa, right?
If you translate it literally, yes.
That's for the English listeners.
I know most of us in the Dutch Caribbean know Yuli Kurosawa.
But it's funny because actually, it was about five years ago, I think,
when the last time I might have been in Kurosawa.
And what do you call those people again?
The ones that you meet on the airport when you first get in before you go through customs?
Immigration.
Immigration, yes.
It's been a long day.
So the immigration folks were like, Yuli Kurosawa?
To pick me out of the line, like, don't go in the line with all the international people.
Yuli Kurosawa?
I see Saint Martin.
Oh, oh, bong, bong.
Yes, yes, yes.
But what I wanted to say is, you go to Latin America, you don't say hijo de Kurosawa.
It's Kurosalenho.
Right, but yeah, Yuli Kurosawa, so yeah, born and raised there.
Spent most of my childhood there.
And then the time that you spent in America for your studies, bachelor, master.
Correct.
And you said before you completed your studies, you were already pitching your business idea.
Yes, so my last year, my last year of my master.
So I was doing the accelerated program in one year, so it was full day courses.
My curriculum was really intense, but I was already aware of what I wanted to do.
So I started working, preparing, pitching, and talking to other people in the market to understand, you know, what I need to fine tune.
So I invested a lot of time in my last year of master's actually to prepare for the startup.
Yes, yes.
Awesome, awesome.
So you mentioned July, when in July?
Is that towards the end of July or beginning of July?
Of the third day?
Beginning July 3rd.
July 3rd.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
I won't get into the horoscope talk on the podcast.
Well, I'll cancel my heart.
It's funny, I had someone ask me this today earlier today.
You know any famous cancers?
Oh, no, you're asking too much.
50 Cent is one of them.
Oh, interesting.
Cool.
I'm actually, yeah.
I mean, I said like a smart businessman.
I like it.
You know, he converted the rap game to a businessman.
I like that.
He innovated in the entertainment show business, doing a lot of different things.
No, no, smart.
He did the crazy deal with Smartwater.
Was it Smartwater?
Yeah, that was the first big crazy business deal.
And that was the first hip hop business deal that was not hip hop.
Okay.
Because at that time, so well, I'm about 10 years older.
So I lived through that era as a teenager.
Jay-Z had the record label.
Then Puff Daddy had the record label.
After the record label, then they went into clothing.
So and then you just saw everyone sort of following the same form.
Okay, get the record label, get the clothing company.
And then, but 50 also did that because he had a Doge unit clothing.
He had the record label.
He had the clothing.
And then out of nowhere, he was selling bottled water.
And that was like, what?
But hip hop, we don't do this.
This is not the formula.
But he was like, this is formula 50.
And he definitely did a lot of different moves and always kept it true to himself.
Yes.
That's smart.
No, no, I like this stuff.
I like this stuff.
I mean, we're going a little bit into a change of topic.
But what I like the most was he had a challenge with Kanye to stop rapping.
Kanye won, right?
And he stopped rapping.
But I think he scored bigger than Kanye eventually, if you look at it career-wise.
Right?
Yes, Kanye did score big with Yeezy.
But if you ask me right now, you know, with all the drama and all the chaotic things going around,
I'm leaning towards 50 on that sense a little bit.
So if we look into the crystal ball of the future, what is 39-year-old Marwan doing?
Good one.
I think still in payment, but not how can I explain this?
So right now I'm really paving the way, right?
I'm building the foundation.
You can say so.
I have a lot of ideas and innovative concept that I want to start working on, I think,
in the next year or two, because after this pavement, it's about selling.
It's about the end clients.
Right?
So we work hard on getting all the license needed.
We work hard on preparing the framework on how we're going to sell.
Yeah, what is our value proposition?
That's all being done in the last year and a half.
So I think another year of this to make it really solid.
But then I want to go into more attributive payment solution.
So what I mean by that is...
Attributive payment solution.
Yes.
So you have the core, right?
This is the core.
This is the process.
Alongside, I just explained you have like the card issuing licensing, but you have to acquire in the POS.
But now you can go a step further, right?
Where you like, for example, you're combining two different components and packaging for a very specific niche of people.
Right?
Let's think about for now.
It's a very simple example.
It's things about an airline industry.
Right?
You have all your stewards and stewards.
All you work is people work on the airline.
Okay.
They're from all over the world.
Yeah.
So what if they have a car where they manage essentially for everybody?
Right?
For the airline, it's perfect because now everything is centralized.
And it's an open loop system because that person can actually use the funds anywhere in the world.
Yeah. Right?
Now, that same person or that same platform, right?
You can connect it to a, let's say, lending institution that if that person wants a credit line or wants any type of finance, they can get it also from this system.
Right?
So this is just one example.
Right?
You have, for example, right nowadays, something that's becoming very famous is a payslip model.
I don't know if you know.
Payslip model.
So you have gig economy.
Yeah.
So a bartender working every day in the bar, that bartender is making just assumption here, $10 an hour.
Okay.
What if we can pay him the $10 at the end of his shift and not at the end of the month?
Okay.
Should be possible.
Right?
Because he worked eight hours, $80.
Here you go.
Done.
Yeah.
But it's attribute of it's then constructing it for a specific niche of people.
For a very specific use case, target group, et cetera.
Exactly.
We're working, for example, in Columbia, we're working on a P2P lending.
Right?
You have $1,000.
You don't know what to do with it.
You want to put it on this marketplace where I need $1,000.
Yeah.
Now I connect with you.
I use that term because it's your $1,000 and the platform is just standing in the middle.
Yeah.
Now you need some, it's all payments, but it's so like that I can keep brainstorming a lot
of different things, but the core needs to be set.
Yeah.
So that's where I would go.
And that's the direction I would go eventually.
And apart from that, I think the venture capitalism work also really, I'm really getting into
this right now.
Yeah.
I think understanding these startups, listening to the youth or these guys with great ideas.
Yeah.
I don't have the lump sum of the big checks, but whatever it can help with, we always contribute
and we always push and we help.
I think that's something that I would like to also look into further in the future.
Okay.
Definitely.
Nice.
Well, usually I also ask the question of what advice would you give 18-year-old you?
And 18-year-old you wasn't that far away.
No.
So maybe let me flip the question.
What advice would you give 18 to 25-year-olds?
So those that are now going through their journey, sort of figuring out and discovering
themselves.
And it doesn't matter whether they're trying to get into finance or other avenues, but
what sort of general advice would you give those persons?
Okay.
I'm going to say it study well, but when I mean study well, it's not study in school.
That also, but yeah, study well is like when you have an idea, great.
We all get ideas, right?
I can be walking and an idea pops up in my mind.
Okay.
Assess it, study it.
Don't run away and go tell someone the idea immediately.
Immediately.
Go brainstorm, go in your cave, wherever you're comfortable.
If it's in the park, in your room, doesn't matter.
Go in your comfort zone and work it out.
I hear a lot of stories or ideas or concepts that are pitched to me.
And unfortunately, I don't like to be rude, but I need to tell them guys, sorry, but you
just didn't finish thinking.
You know, you stop thinking.
You're like, okay, I'm done.
I'm going to be a millionaire.
No, it's not going to work like that.
So study the case, work it out.
Invest them in yourself.
Like that's my main thing.
Invest in yourself in all aspects, right?
I believe very strongly in a balance in life.
So you need to go to school, study.
You need to do some type of exercise, right?
If it's a sport, if it's a gym, something, because that's where your muscle, you need
to read a book, right?
It can be a magazine, it can be news.
You have to read something and you need to close your eyes sometimes and just think inside.
You can call it meditate.
You can call it pray.
You can call it whatever.
I believe in these things.
You need to do it to keep your body balanced.
And this is something that you've incorporated in your life from when?
Yeah, good question.
So I will say before I left to the States, so this is like 17.
Oh, wow.
Yes.
That's 17 year old.
That was already pretty thoughtful.
Well, it's I will say life circumstances.
So funny, fun fact.
I have HAD.
I am dyslexic and I have flight autism.
So when I went to school, I remember so in middle school, no one cared about this because
it wasn't famous.
Yeah.
I schooled.
They noticed that I never used to finish my exams.
So they sent me to the old tests, a college, whatever.
So the reports came and guess what?
You know, so they guided me how to work it out.
But for me, it was more like an open mind opening because I came to understand myself
better.
Right.
And yes, sometimes I jump from one to the other because my brain just work like that.
But because I know myself, I can work with my mind to actually go in the direction I
want to go.
So this is where meditation, you know, you call it meditation, you call it yoga.
Just for me, close your eyes, close your eyes, close your mouth, close your mind.
Shut everything down for 15 minutes and extend it for 30 an hour if you can.
Yeah, it helps.
It helps immensely.
People don't understand the power of that.
You go to the gym to work your muscle.
Why don't you work your brain out?
Yeah, that's my philosophy.
So keeping the balance again in this part.
And one other part is your social life.
You know, don't don't.
Yeah, you can stay in your home because you're introvert, which is fine.
But socialize, talk to people, share ideas, you know, have friends like you.
This is a whole part of life.
You need to have the balance to actually in my perception again, I'm not going to tell
you what to do.
But I think to be to be comfortable, to be truly happy, you need to have this complete
balance in life.
And I have implemented this in my life in a very early stage, which allowed me to like
I can easily say I had a very smooth college career.
Right.
I'd never struggled.
I mean, I struggled, but it was smooth because, you know, I knew my friends.
I knew when I was partying or social life, I knew, OK, now it's time to do work.
Now it's time to go to the library.
It's it's it's not mood study mode.
So so so what I'm kind of hearing here is a lot of the early challenges during your teens
forced you to create more structure in order for you to be able to succeed.
And because you created that strong foundation of structure, then it allowed you to to touch
on all those different aspects of your college experience and still have enough energy to
be focused and be successful there as well.
And based on all of that, I'm just hearing that carried on throughout your career as
well.
And mastering, right?
You're trying to master every day.
You want to be better than the day before.
Yeah.
Right.
So so we are not perfect, but you want to be better every day.
So if you have this again, I believe if you have this in your mindset, like at the end
of your life, you can look back and you can say no regrets.
Exactly.
No regrets.
So that's yeah, that's really and funny thing, because a lot of times you are actually thinking
about these things.
Right.
But but we were and you question yourself, is this the right thing?
Right.
Am I actually doing it right?
Or am I wasting my time?
Yeah.
And that's where the social part comes in, because then you talk to other people and
you see their struggle and then you advise them and then they, you know, counter advise
you or whatever.
You have a dialogue about it.
And most of the time you can see that, hey, if you maintain a balance, right, not nothing
too much is good.
Yeah.
Too much.
Anything.
Exactly.
So if you keep a balance in life, I think you will succeed and you will be very comfortable
with yourself.
And that's where everything starts.
Right.
You can be insecure.
You can be.
You don't walk ahead of life.
You're not constantly thinking in the future.
You don't think in the past.
You're thinking not today.
And then that's the key that I carried on.
You can say that I am where I am today.
Let me put it like that.
Awesome.
Marwan, this was an amazing conversation.
Thank you.
Glad to meet you.
Likewise.
Like I mentioned off camera, this is actually the first interview now that I've ever had.
This is the first interview now that I've done where I don't have like a bit of a personal
history with my guests.
So it's been amazing to hear your story.
And I mean, as a young man coming from the Caribbean, already have achieved all that
you've achieved.
And it sounds like there's a lot more in store.
So we look forward to continuing to see how the career progresses.
Any final words for our viewers, folks at home or wherever they are at in the diaspora,
in the States, in the Netherlands?
Honestly, go get it.
Go get it.
Don't be afraid of anything.
Life is very beautiful.
Make the best out of it.
Yeah.
I believe in that.
Right.
If you're working, you're liking your work, do it the best possible.
Just do your best.
Do your best and go get whatever you want to get.
Nothing and going back, no regrets.
No regrets.
You do it.
You do it well.
You can never regret anything you do.
So I think that's the key.
And that's what I will always tell anyone standing in front of me having this type of conversation.
Yeah.
Awesome.
So thank you again.
Thank you.
It was a pleasure and I think great conversation.
Awesome.
Guys at home, that was it.
What another episode in the bag of Sunside Kingdom show.
We would like you to please subscribe, like, share with a friend.
I think that's important to do.
Share with a friend.
These conversations need to be shared amongst our Dutch Caribbean community wherever they are in the world, whether they're on the islands, the beautiful islands that we call home, whether they're somewhere in the diaspora in the Netherlands, in the states, other parts of Europe, in Asia, wherever they are in Africa, wherever you are.
Share with share with the folks and let's get the word out and let's continue to smile.
Have a great time and live life with no regrets.
No regrets.
Thank you, baby.
Bless.