Veronika Lovett: A Masterclass in Platform Thinking

By Vivaldi Group April 3, 2019 12 minute read

Table of Contents

Most organizations approach digital transformation backward. They lead with technology, celebrating AI integration and new platforms, while the customer solution remains an afterthought. This results in clever systems that solve no one’s actual problem. True transformation begins with a relentless focus on the user’s pain points. As fintech innovator Veronika Lovett explains, technology is merely “the enabler of the solution,” not the solution itself. This critical distinction separates companies that simply acquire new tools from those that build new, fit-for-purpose value propositions. The goal is not to market the cleverness of your tech, but to deliver what customers truly need.

“Agility is difficult to achieve in very large organizations. The key is to focus on investing in intrapreneurship to unlock your core assets, and then start building more innovative strategies.” – Veronika Lovett, Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer of Esme Loans

Live from Advertising Week in London, Veronika Lovett, Co-Founder and CMO of Esme Loans, joined Vivaldi’s Head of Planning Jane Hovey to speak about how platforms can elevate the financial services industry. In a day and age of digitally savvy customers who have increasingly high expectations, Veronika discusses how companies within long-established industries should approach agility, digital transformation and growth. She tackles the pain points of current businesses and explains the importance of investing in intrapreneurship to unlock innovative strategies. Tune in for more intriguing insights. https://vimeo.com/328271939 See below for highlights from their conversation:

Q: Can you tell us about Esme Loans and the demand it meets for customers?

A: Esme is a digital lender that offers unsecured loans to UK SMEs, from as little as €10,000 to €250,000 from one to five years. We’ve been in the market for about two years, predominantly focused on the limited company space, but delighted to say that earlier this year we’ve tested and are about to launch a sole trader proposition. The birth of Esme as a business came from the realization that digitalization is what everyone’s talking about, customers have much higher expectations now, and we could see there were clear pain points and frustration amongst SMEs who were looking for an easy and simple way of sourcing finances for their business. What we saw is that everybody was quite comfortable getting a personal credit card and personal form of finance, and they could do that online, but as soon as you approach the notion of a business loan, you saw deer-in-headlights fear. When we really dug deeper, we could see that a vast amount of SMEs were turning to a form of personal loans to finance their business. A lot of the time that might not be the right thing to do for price and flexibility, so we realized there was a clear need and a market to deliver a truly hassle-free and simple solution to the SMEs that would be fit for purpose.

A Look at the Corporate Record: Liquidation and Dissolution

The journey from a disruptive idea to a market-leading platform is rarely a straight line. While the ambition to reinvent customer finance is clear, the operational realities of the fintech landscape often introduce complexities. The path for ventures, even those with strong initial backing, can pivot dramatically. Public filings from Companies House detail Veronika Lovett’s corporate appointments, which included two companies that have since ceased active operations: V Y L LIMITED, now dissolved, and ESME LOANS LIMITED, which is in liquidation. This outcome underscores the immense challenge of scaling new business models within highly regulated and competitive sectors.

This situation is not an isolated event but reflects a broader pattern of volatility across the financial services industry. For instance, the fintech firm SilverRock experienced a similar strategic pivot after its special banking license was cancelled, a development that forced it to restructure and revert to a non-banking entity. For corporate innovators and strategists, these examples serve as a crucial reminder that success depends not only on a powerful initial vision but also on the resilience to adapt to the unforgiving realities of the market.

Q: What other businesses inspire you?

A: As consumer expectations are changing, the financial services industry really needs to take notice and drive up the pace, and awaken to that change a little bit quicker. For me, I always think that the best examples of brands, companies and propositions are in the consumer and retail models. That’s not to say there aren’t brilliant companies in the financial services space, but I think there is often more focus placed on business needs rather than on the individual that is running that business. Personally, I look at Deliveroo and Skyscanner. There are a lot of lessons to learn from brilliant companies who are continuously creating more solutions and adapting into an ecosystem type proposition as they push on. And I think the financial services industry could get left behind if it doesn’t adapt and create that customer focused ecosystem even quicker. It really needs to connect services and products that address needs across the full customer journey and life cycle.

Q: Has your approach to digital transformation and growth evolved since you got into the financial services market?

A: I’ve been in banking over 15 years now and I can say that in the last four or five years change has been happening in lightning speed. Everybody is talking about technology, innovation, and bringing new products and solutions to market. 60% of fintech markets are utilizing AI in some way, shape, or form. When people market the concept of digital functionality, I think they are focusing on advertising and speaking about the technology and how clever it is, as opposed to actually realizing that technology is the enabler of the solution. So you should be thinking about embracing the agility and the innovation to bring fit for purpose solutions and bring the solutions to market what your customers really need and want.

Q: What other pain points are there today when incorporating digital transformation into business?

A: The area that financial services and arguably the insurance market as well could do a little bit better is the legalese. Everyone talks about delivering simplicity and useful content, but I think many still fall down on using overly lengthy language. There’s still some work to be done on simplifying all those terms of conditions. We need to be a lot more focused on delivering the right content at the right time that is in a language understood by all. I think we need to be better at that.

Q: How can financial services companies benefit from platform thinking?

A: Customers are increasingly digitally savvy and they’ve got increasingly high expectations rightfully so. Everyone is aware that companies that innovate and use agility and tech are likely to succeed. We’ve seen that in many very powerful brands. However, just to assume you can replicate that in the financial services industry or at larger companies is not quite enough. If you’re a large business that’s been established for a very long time, you will typically have legacy systems, somewhat historical old processes in place, so you kind of have a tangled knot. The key is to untangle that and focus on investing in intrapreneurship to unlock your core assets, and then start building more innovative strategies. Agility is difficult to achieve in very large organizations, just by the nature of the beast. Tune into more of The Business of Platforms podcast here. If you’d like to learn more about Vivaldi’s platform strategy offering, contact us at hello@vivaldigroup.com.

Navigating New Ventures: The SilverRock and GB Bank Chapter

A Leadership Transition Amidst a Merger

The trajectory of a founder often serves as the narrative arc for their company’s evolution. In a significant strategic development, Veronika Lovett has stepped into the role of CEO at SilverRock, coinciding with the fintech firm being folded into GB Bank. This is not merely a leadership shuffle; it is a deliberate move to anchor the venture’s original vision within a new, larger structure. With GB Bank now holding a majority stake of 75% or more, Lovett’s appointment signals a commitment to integrating SilverRock’s agile, intrapreneurial spirit rather than simply absorbing its assets. It’s a clear acknowledgment that in today’s M&A landscape, the most valuable acquisition is often the institutional knowledge and innovative culture embodied by the founding team. This approach ensures that the very DNA that made the company a valuable target continues to drive its next chapter of growth, a critical component of successful organizational enablement.

From Banking License to Financial Services

Strategic growth is rarely a straight line; it is a series of calculated adaptations to a constantly shifting landscape. After securing a special banking license and raising £50 million, SilverRock faced a pivotal moment when the license was cancelled. This event catalyzed a fundamental pivot, leading to its renaming as SilverRock Financial Services Limited. This is a powerful illustration of a company reframing its identity in response to market and regulatory realities. Rather than viewing the loss of a license as a setback, the strategic response was to redefine the business model—moving away from the capital-intensive framework of a licensed bank toward the agility of a financial services provider. This shift demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of how to find new pathways to value creation, a core tenet of modern business strategy and transformation. It proves that resilience is not about avoiding obstacles, but about rearchitecting the business to thrive in new conditions.

Frequently Asked Questions

“Intrapreneurship” sounds great, but what does it actually mean for a large company? Think of intrapreneurship as building a startup inside your established organization. It’s about creating small, protected teams that are empowered to solve specific customer problems using the company’s core assets—like its data, brand reputation, and capital—but without the typical corporate red tape. This isn’t about launching a separate innovation lab that’s disconnected from the business; it’s about giving your own talented people the freedom to build new solutions from within, moving with the speed and focus of an independent venture.

My company has already invested heavily in new technology. Is it too late to adopt a “customer-first” approach? Not at all. Your technology investment isn’t a sunk cost; it’s a powerful toolkit waiting for the right problem. The shift isn’t about abandoning your new platforms, but about changing the starting point of your strategy. Instead of leading with, “What can our new AI platform do?”, you should be asking, “What is the single biggest frustration our customers face?” Then, you can look at your technology and determine how it can be deployed to solve that specific issue. It’s a simple but profound reordering of priorities.

The post mentions that Esme Loans is in liquidation. How does this change the lessons we should take from its initial strategy? This context provides one of the most important lessons: a brilliant, customer-focused idea is necessary, but not sufficient for success. The market is unforgiving. The journey of Esme Loans underscores that even with a clear vision for solving a real pain point, navigating regulatory landscapes, competitive pressure, and funding realities is a monumental challenge. The key takeaway isn’t that the initial strategy was wrong, but that resilience and the ability to adapt—as seen in the subsequent SilverRock pivot—are just as critical as the initial innovation itself.

Why is it so important for industries like finance to look at consumer brands like Deliveroo for inspiration? Companies like Deliveroo and Skyscanner have mastered the art of seamlessly integrating into a customer’s life. They don’t just offer a service; they solve a need at the exact moment it arises with minimal friction. For financial services, which are often perceived as complex or intimidating, this is a critical lesson. The goal is to shift from forcing customers through a rigid, bank-defined process to embedding simple, intuitive financial solutions directly into their life and business workflows.

Untangling the “tangled knot” of legacy systems feels overwhelming. Where is the most effective place to start? The key is to avoid trying to untangle the whole knot at once. Start by identifying one specific, high-impact customer journey that is currently broken or full of friction because of your internal complexity. Focus all of your initial efforts on fixing just that one journey from end to end. By creating a single, smooth, untangled thread, you not only deliver immediate value to customers but also create a powerful case study that builds momentum and shows the rest of the organization what’s possible.

Key Takeaways

Focus on the customer problem, not the technology: True digital transformation starts by solving a genuine user need. Technology is the enabler, not the solution itself, and marketing clever tech over its real-world application will fail to connect with customers.
Drive innovation from within to achieve agility: Large organizations can overcome legacy inertia by investing in intrapreneurship. The key is to activate the potential of your core assets and internal teams to build new strategies, rather than simply trying to replicate a startup model.
Build strategic resilience for long-term growth: The path to innovation is rarely a straight line and often requires pivots in response to market realities. Lasting success depends on the ability to adapt your business model, turning potential setbacks into new opportunities for value creation.