Avios

The shift from credit utility to lifestyle companion Building a fintech today isn't about moving bits and bytes of money; it's about capturing the imagination of a specific tribe. Tim Chong, Co-Founder and CEO of Yonder, understood this early. While traditional banks compete on interest rates and stagnant rewards programs, Yonder emerged as a lifestyle brand first and a financial tool second. The initial thesis focused on a credit card for expats, leveraging Open Banking to solve the classic "no credit history" trap. However, through aggressive customer discovery, Chong realized that people weren't just looking for credit; they were looking for a way to experience the city. This realization led to a pivot from a niche expat tool to a premium reward card for "young city adventurers." The brand borrows its aesthetic and philosophy not from HSBC or Barclays, but from lifestyle powerhouses like Aesop and Patagonia. Chong envisioned a product so well-designed that users would treat it like a luxury item in their home, transcending the commoditized nature of modern banking. This strategy targets the emotional layer of spending, turning every transaction into a discovery opportunity rather than a mere deduction from a balance. The treasure hunt of customer discovery Most founders treat customer discovery as a box to check. Chong describes it as a relentless treasure hunt. In the first year of building Yonder, the team conducted at least 20 interviews per week, creating a massive library of qualitative data. The goal wasn't to ask a static list of questions but to "find the bone." This level of immersion creates an intuition that data alone cannot provide. When you know the customer’s problem so well that you can predict their answers, you have achieved the depth necessary to build a product they will actually pull out of your hands. Yonder maintains this edge by mandating that every employee—from engineering to legal—has direct customer contact every six weeks. This keeps the entire organization grounded in what Chong calls the "texture" of the problem. While quantitative data shows the patterns, qualitative interviews provide the bumps and seams of the user experience. This obsession with the "why" behind the spend is what allowed Yonder to identify restaurants as the ultimate wedge. Unlike travel, which is infrequent and often solitary, dining is social and high-frequency, creating the perfect habit-forming loop for a primary spending card. Using the points economy to drive primary card status The greatest challenge for any new card issuer is becoming the user's primary choice. Yonder tackles this by applying consumer tech onboarding principles to a financial product. By utilizing the "points economy," they incentivize immediate action. Over half of Yonder customers make a transaction within the first 12 to 24 hours of receiving the card. Small rewards for adding the card to Apple Pay or making a first Transport for London (TfL) transaction build muscle memory. This high-frequency engagement—tracking at a staggering 60% Daily Active Users (DAU)—is bolstered by a unique approach to rewards. Instead of competing with the American Express Avios program, which a startup can never out-negotiate, Yonder focuses on curated, local experiences. They partner with boutique restaurants and travel brands where they can provide a 10x experience through technology. For example, Yonder manages the entire redemption process behind the scenes. A user pays for a date, the bill is covered by points, and there is no awkward coupon-clipping at the table. This seamless integration reinforces the brand's position as a sophisticated companion rather than a discount club. Scaling the organization as a force multiplier As a company grows, the founder’s role must evolve from an individual contributor to a force multiplier. Chong notes that his job has shifted from building the product to building the organization that builds the product. This requires a transition into "Founder Mode," where the focus is on three key buckets: lifting the bar of the team, optimizing organizational design, and diving deep into high-stakes strategic bets. Every small choice a CEO makes at this stage—from the language used in meetings to the physical layout of the office—has a disproportionate impact on productivity. Chong is particularly obsessed with language, believing that the words a company uses create its culture. This intentionality extends to organizational structure, which the team revisits annually. If the work feels like a "grind" rather than a challenge, it’s a signal that the recipe—the structure—is wrong. By constantly questioning the squad structures and communication flows, Yonder aims to remain agile even as it scales. This focus on culture has already turned the company into a talent incubator, with several former employees leaving to start their own successful ventures. The long game and the myth of 3-year success The venture capital world often obsesses over companies that hit $100 million in ARR in three years, but Chong argues that truly generational companies like Nvidia, Google, and Amazon are built over 20 to 30 years. He cites Jensen Huang of Nvidia as a prime example of patience. Huang spent decades advocating for high-performance computing before the world finally caught up with the AI boom. This long-term conviction is essential for navigating the seasonal sentiment of the markets. Funding journeys are rarely linear. Yonder raised capital during the fintech boom but had to navigate the subsequent market collapse, where revenue multiples plummeted. Despite these macro shifts, Chong remains focused on building a durable business rather than just what investors want to see in the short term. The future of Yonder involves moving beyond credit to become a comprehensive "financial lifestyle destination." By integrating generative AI into their rich dataset of spending habits and partner curation, they aim to create an assistant that doesn't just manage money, but actively improves the user's life through personalized discovery. Conclusion Tim Chong and the Yonder team are proving that disruption in fintech isn't just about better interest rates—it's about better experiences. By focusing on high-frequency habits, obsessive customer discovery, and a 30-year horizon, they are building a brand that resonates with a new generation of consumers. The path forward is clear: stay true to the conviction, maintain the quality of the platform, and treat every transaction as a step toward becoming a global lifestyle home for adventurers. The market sentiment will always fluctuate, but a great business built with patience and precision will always find its alpha.