Become your client’s most trusted advisor – how to be a business-minded CTO

The CTO vs Status Quo series studies how CTOs challenge the current state of affairs at their company to push it toward a new height … or to save it from doom.

“I think it’s all going to be driven by the business, so you must understand it.”

What does it take to be a successful CTO in modern fintech? For Yaron Shoshani, the answer lies not in technical expertise alone but in the delicate balance between technology and business acumen.

While many CTOs remain confined to their technical domains, Yaron has discovered a different path. In this discussion, you’ll learn about:

• the evolution from a purely technical CTO to a business partner,
• the critical role of technical expertise in sales,
• the secret to effective collaboration between sales and product,
• practical steps for becoming a more business-minded technical leader.

Yaron’s experience offers valuable lessons on breaking down traditional barriers between technical and business domains. Discover his practical approach to becoming a truly business-minded CTO.

About Yaron & ezbob

ezbob’s vision

Eric Ignasik: Hello Yaron. Congratulations on your Best SaaS Provider of the Year title at this year’s Global BankTech Awards. Can you tell us more about it, and how do you think it fits into ezbob’s strategy?

Yaron Shoshani: Hi, Eric! This is a big achievement for me. It reflects the hard work of our entire team and shows that our technology belongs in the bank ecosystem.

When we talk about big institutes – banks, payment companies, financial service providers – they already have in-house technology. We connect to it, make it more modern, and orchestrate everything together. We adjust our platform to different use cases, different countries, and different challenges.

This is specifically for your work on the UK market, right?

Yes, we’re well-known in the UK because we started there as an alternative lender. We were providing loans to small businesses. You can imagine that at some point we were competing with banks for clients.

We learned a lot and developed a sophisticated AI system. After a bank reached out to us, we decided to join them. We pivoted from a service provider to a technology provider. At some point, the platform became generic enough to be ported to other countries, use cases, and other financial products. Since then, we’ve expanded beyond the UK market. We now have a good reputation across the EU and the US. 

I was a lender. When I talk to a bank, I understand the business side – what works better for conversion or automation, or what the problems are. My discussion with the bank is business-oriented, about how to shift and adapt technology to solve business problems.

Tomer, ezbob’s CEO, said something interesting during Money 2020. He said that financial institutions are now realizing that innovation is about using technology to orchestrate an ecosystem that adapts to customer needs. Is this how you see ezbob’s vision as the CTO? How does this relate to your role?

It’s all about moving from siloed, limited features or products the bank was developing into something much more robust and product-agnostic. They need to be able to develop any product really quickly on their infrastructure now.

Each bank has its own complicated roadmap with many streams running in parallel. The CTO and innovation teams try to synchronize them to bring value to the client. We provide orchestration that can bring them into one unified flow.

In many cases when you offer new technology, you actually tell the bank, “You need to delete all your old things.” We never tell the bank to change anything. 

We say, “Tell us what you want to maintain?” We’ll just deliver the missing components and glue everything together from both the end-user and the back-office perspective. It’s much easier for them to adapt and accept it. It’s more of an evolution than a revolution.

Speaking about revolution, what’s your take on AI, its importance, and its long-term impact?

Depending on what you do with it, AI can be very high-risk or a great opportunity. In my vision, AI is about extracting information, processing it, leading to decisions, and creating a much more natural user experience. 

I don’t see much AI-driven onboarding. AI could create a dynamic conversation, allowing the client to talk to it. The experience would be easier to adopt and more fluent in conversion.

Consider a traditional flow, where the user goes page by page, form by form. At some point, I need to ask the user’s consent for credit bureau information. They must stop, click away to a video tutorial or Q&A section, and then maybe come back.

With an AI-powered flow, it’s all part of the same conversation. The user asks in the same place and continues the flow, which is much more natural and easier to complete.

Cross-functional collaboration in fintech

Your clients, banks, and financial institutions are typically very large, highly regulated organizations – and you’re coming with a complex technical product. Your role in the business development process must be essential. How do you help acquire new clients, how critical is your input, and what’s your experience with closing clients from this sector?

When I talk about what ezbob can do, the inevitable next question is, “Very nice, but how is this going to be connected to my ecosystem?”

As a bank’s CTO or CIO who has spent years installing and implementing services, products, and vendors, they know it’s difficult. They don’t want to know what worked for others because their environment is different, probably more complex, and possibly more legacy.

To answer these types of questions, you need someone with a technical background and experience to really connect with the bank’s technical team. We have ways to make everything work together, but the bank won’t move forward until they check a few boxes: compliance, information security, and architecture.

My role is to make them feel comfortable and show that we have the necessary experience to build on top of their infrastructure, technology, and limitations. I handle objections.

For example, if they ask whether we can work with their proprietary CRM, I can say that we have proven methods of sharing information over both standard CRMs like Salesforce or Dynamics, as well as proprietary ones.

Would you say you spend most of your time working with potential or existing clients? How do you split your time between purely technical stuff, working on the product, and interacting with customers?

I’m still very involved in technology. On the sales side, when the general discussion ends, someone from my team or I comes in and lays out the blueprint for the solution.

For example, a bank can get information from us over API calls, messages and queues, file transfer via FTP or ETL – we make it work for them, select tools that fit their needs, and work together as partners.

Working with clients like Tier 1 and Tier 2 banks across Europe, the sales cycle can take time. It might be a while before I jump in.

In this interview series, we’ve talked a lot about cross-functional teams. I know that you’re interested in this subject. How do you envision the role of a fintech CTO such as yourself in rallying such teams and pursuing new features? How do cross-functional teams work at ezbob?

For me, the teams first need an anchor – an expert within the team that really understands the business. In our case, this has improved performance dramatically. 

In my view, a developer becomes an expert only when they can influence the business – when they can actually translate what they’re doing into better client satisfaction, maybe more revenues.

Second, the team needs to have all the capabilities required to deliver a complete solution but also influence the platform.

Our underlying technology is unified, but each client represents unique problems. Our teams specialize in a specific client, and their mission is to figure out how to turn a unique problem into a generic feature that can fit others.

This is how we cross-check and cross-pollinate features through different clients. We maintain one unified platform for all our clients because we’re developing a product, not a solution for a specific case. 

One thing we still struggle with in our teams is whether we need code sharing or if we can do it based on project teams. 

All driven by the business

Some say, “Build it, and they will come,” but perhaps in fintech, it’s better to build with a specific customer in mind. Would you agree that if you do your homework about your target audience, most of the sales work is done before the actual sales process begins?

You need to learn a lot, but then you must adjust what you pitch to the problem. Beyond the introductory ones, each meeting with a client looks different.

At this stage, your sales work is to listen to the problem. It’s a business development question – try to understand how your technology can solve it.

I find myself in many meetings saying, “To be honest, I don’t think we can improve anything. I don’t see any reason for our technology.” I think it’s important as the CTO to honestly say, “I don’t see that we can improve anything. I don’t think it makes sense to invest in another system here.”

Let’s explore the connection between technical people and the rest of the team in the sales process a bit more. Do you have any advice for interacting, as a CTO, with consultants, salespeople, marketers, and other team members? 

Your sales team needs to understand technology to some degree. They need to be able to talk about our APIs, the architecture, and the solution. So, first, we need to train them.

It’s much easier for them when they have informational materials – basic diagrams, workflows, and simple charts to present. It provides much more value when they come with some knowledge about the technical aspects.

On the other side, feedback from sales helps us define and present the roadmap. “Clients are looking for this feature and asking about these capabilities.” It’s like a two-way discussion. On one hand, you have sales; on the other hand, you have the product. You’re sitting in between, translating because you understand both, and making sure they’re going in the same direction.

I don’t have much time, so I’m usually involved in the strategic decision-making process – future product decisions, feature planning, technology changes, or new challenges like AI.

Thinking about the future, in what direction do you see the role of the CTO evolving, for yourself and in general?

Because SaaS and no-code technologies make entry into different types of technologies and domains easier now, the CTO needs to understand the business and how to bring value. Value comes from buy-versus-build decisions and robust building.

I think it will all be driven by the business, so you must understand it. That’s how you learn what’s important for you, what the company’s IP is, and what’s just a commodity you’re wasting time on.

I think we’ll see CTOs much more involved in sales and business, especially when you talk about enterprise solutions and B2B. SaaS might be different, but in enterprise and B2B, CTOs are becoming much more important.

Becoming a business-minded CTO – general advice

You said quite a lot about the business side of your responsibilities as a CTO – let’s generalize it. What should a business-minded CTO be like? What are the key characteristics they should have?

First of all, someone with enough curiosity to read. You need to understand the value chain of the business, not just the technology behind it. Learn about competition, their advantages and flaws, how they win, and whether you can do something better than them.

Secondly, CTOs feel comfortable with machines, but they need to be more social. Learn from your sales and marketing team how they act at events and how they manage phone calls and face-to-face meetings. It’s important because technology experts sometimes miss the people aspect.

Finally, learn to bring value to your audience. Try a lot. Try to present and lead meetings. Challenge yourself. How can you help their business make them more comfortable? How can you take what they have, add your thing, and make one plus one equal three?

Industry-specific expertise is crucial – it is only because I was a lender that I can bring that much value to ezbob. My audience is trying to do things we did five years ago. That’s why they wanted to hear what I had to say.

Getting that kind of experience is not easy when you don’t start early. What’s more, it seems that many CTOs are narrowly focused on their own domain and don’t interact with the rest of the business. 

Can you learn to be more business-minded, or is it more of a personality thing?

You can probably learn it by attending business or strategy sessions within the company. Put yourself in the right place at the right time and immerse yourself.

Practice, practice, practice. Be more open, talk to more people, and listen to more people, and it will become much easier over time.

Resources

My final question is about books, podcasts, anything for our readers to dig deeper into the things we’ve touched on in this interview – especially related to the business aspects. 

Some of the books I have read and I highly recommend are:

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries – this book feels like a roadmap for innovation – it made me think about how to test ideas faster and smarter in fintech’s fast-paced environment.

Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore – it walks you  through the process of taking your cutting-edge technology and making it resonate with the masses.

Bank 4.0: Banking Everywhere, Never at a Bank” by Brett King – this one is a must for anyone in fintech. It makes you rethink everything about banking – it’s bold, visionary, and perfect for shaping your strategy.

I also enjoy listening to podcasts, whenever I can. There are some that I highly recommended to anyone working with banks who wants to dive into the ecosystem:

Breaking Banks – this podcast provides an insightful conversation with the biggest names in fintech. It’s perfect for staying ahead of industry trends.

Fintech Cowboys – this one brings a unique, down-to-earth perspective on fintech, with very approachable and humorous conversations about complex topics.

The Banker Podcast – it’s a masterclass in banking innovation, with an inside scoop on where the financial world is heading next. Very recommended to anyone who wants to stay ahead of the game.

The Financial Brand Podcast – it focuses more on strategies of customer engagement and how to sharpen your competitive edge in financial services. Each episode is a learning experience of itself, especially about the end user.

Yaron believes that all technical decisions will be driven by the business strategy, especially in the enterprise and B2B space, but most likely in SaaS as well.

If you want to boost business growth, it’s time to evolve into a business-minded CTO. Follow Yaron’s guidance:

• Be curious and read widely – not just about the technology strategy but about the value chain of the business, your competition, markets, and business development.
• Socialize – when you’re solving complex technological problems, don’t miss the people aspect. Learn how to interact with clients from sales or marketing team members, keep practicing and putting yourself in social situations.
• Learn to bring value to your audience – challenge yourself to present and run meetings, and learn how to present your information in a way that’s valuable to your listeners.
• Support sales – educate salespeople about the key nuances of your innovative solutions and create quality informational materials that they can confidently show to clients.
• Connect sales and product – a great business-minded CTO sits between the product and sales departments, translating feedback from salespeople into product roadmap updates and vice-versa.
• Be honest – as the CTO, you’re the one who has to signalize whenever it doesn’t make sense to implement your technology for a client. Don’t promise a digital transformation if you can’t put one into effect!

It seems like you can begin your training from where you are right now.