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Introducing David Linsey, our multidisciplinary investor at BACKED, for the next in our #HumansofBACKED series! Prior to joining BACKED, David co-founded JiPay, a fintech startup, and he now brings that entrepreneurial background and #fintech passion to the fund. When he's not at the latest restaurant hot spot in London, he'll most definitely be in Italy! 🇮🇹 Over to David: Q. Why #VC? "Venture is a role where you are paid to meet interesting people, inform yourself, and allocate capital to founders building the future. That doesn’t sound like work does it? I chose Backed because of our team, and because I was given an incredible amount of freedom to pursue my own investment ideas and theses. Since joining I’ve Backed a B2G Visa OS, a cloud-spend-optimisation platform, and a neobank (details of the last two to come shortly). Q. Which sectors do you find most fascinating? "Fintech is the process of rebuilding our economy’s operating system. With the progress we have achieved in recent years on the infrastructure layer, the opportunity in fintech naturally broadens, as we learn how to connect and integrate the financial tools we have built across industries and workflows. A few holdouts of basic infrastructure still remain undisrupted, and present an enourmous opportunity in the years to come. If you are a founder building in this space, or fintech investor wanting to exchange ideas, please reach out! 💌 Q. What did you do before BACKED? "I was an operator. I cofounded a fintech startup (JiPay) fresh out of university, and moved to Singapore during the height of covid to run it. We were building fintech products for Filipino domestic workers, something which turned out to be a tough game with brutal unit economics. I was fortunate enough to leave that startup with a secondaries exit at the tail end of the fintech boom, and join Backed with a clear idea of which business models do not work! Q. Can you share an insight into your BACKED experience? My highlight is the opportunity for me to constantly improve myself. Venture is truly a craft, and to be great it one must become a master of deciding, sourcing, and fundraising. While I haven’t yet tried my hand at the third, seeing the first two consistently improve with effort over time is immensely rewarding. It’s also addictive - the idea that any conversation or introduction could potentially lead to the next big outcome for the fund is an intoxicating idea that keeps me going. Q. And what about the David outside work? "I run the Amelie and Daniel Linsey Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to the improvement of emergency (trauma) care in Sri Lanka. We’ve raised and deployed hundreds of thousands of dollars to give victims of traumatic accidents the best possible chances of survivals. Outside of this, my two greatest passions are attempting to maintain a very problematic classic car, and pretending to be Italian (as anyone know knows me can testify)...