Even when he was very young, Lance Rubin, founder of financial modelling company Model Citizn “didn’t see technology as a threat.” He saw it as an enabler.
There’s always been a technological element to his career. He’s worked at big names like PwC, Investec Bank and National Australia Bank before founding his FinTech business Model Citizn.
“I managed to keep my fingers in many pies, and still do today.”
Now, he’s ready to launch another financial modelling product… but where did Lance’s journey begin?
How his FinTech interest started
Lance was “thrown into” technology by his father, who brought tech home from his job.
“I used to play on green screens, low resolution DOS games, dial up modems, floppy and stiffy disks and all sorts of techie stuff from an early age.”
“I remember my father working on this green grid.‘ This is Lotus,’ he said, ‘it changes the world’. I didn’t realise until I started at PwC how incredible spreadsheets were – they’re a large portion of what I do today.”
Lance actually started his journey as an auditor, which he calls a great jumping off point – mainly because of the auditor’s “ability to ask any stupid question”.
“As an auditor, you have the right to ask anything, and they have to answer you. It was a great way to learn about business and culture.”
Although his auditing background gave him a great understanding of accounting and finance, it wasn’t for him longer term. Enter financial modelling…
The financial modelling bug
Lance was bitten by the “financial modelling bug” when he had to audit an actuaries model whilst at PwC.
“The actuary made a model that ultimately calculated one plus one equals three, which is quite incredible.”
“It made me realise that this world, that used to be known as financial engineering, was only just starting.”
“There wasn’t even a formal financial modelling division in PwC when I was there. Now, financial modelling is probably the most sought after division for an accounting firm.”
Fast forward to a few years later and his modelling skills were really honed and developed at Investec Bank’s Corporate Finance, Property Advisory and Private Equity divisions. These skills became handy when moving to one of Australia largest banks NAB but the fast paced nature of investment banking was missing.
The rise of fintech disruptors saw him take the opportunity to join the SME cash flow lender Banjo loans as their CFO.