It pays off to be an attentive reader 😊

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: Nik Storonsky's Sharing his Vision for Revolut in 3 Years Time

This time of the year, when most of us reflect on the past and plan forward, "EFI" brings to you how this is done by the most efficient of us. Nik Storonsky, co-founder & CEO of "Revolut" (a neo-bank valued at $75B), shares his 3 year goals with Harry Stebbings from "20VC," one of its investors.

For ~4 minutes, Nik covers such sub-questions as his current market position, US vs Europe priority, Banking consolidation vs fragmentation, plans for IPO, and his listing locations preferences.

Nik, a native Russian speaker, handles these challenging questions in English. How does his fare?

✨ Nik's 3 Year Vision strengths:

🫧Top-notch clarity: he is self-aware of his current market position and has measurable, time-bound goals
"We're number one in 19 or 20 markets"
"We intend to grow our market penetration from 10% to 40% in our top markets in 3 years"

🫧Thorough knowledge of his business: has all key stats & figures at his fingertips
"We're live in 39 markets"

🫧No-bullshit approach: data-driven and precise, Nik comes up confident and doesn't mince his words. He doesn't try to please anyone, only to inform.
"Look, I mean, the problem with the UK is - if you think about UK versus US - the US is much more liquid, right? And then trading in the US is free. If you look at trading in the UK, you always pay stamp duty tax, which is 0.5%."

✨ Nik's 3 Year Vision growth areas:

🫧Poor English: Nik's speaking is at the lower end of B2 Upper-Intermediate / higher end of B1 Intermediate.

- mixes up vocab: 'depends' instead of 'varies' in "Our market penetration depends: from 5% to 70%"
- uses direct calques from Russian: "a similar picture was in the venture business, right" instead of "The VC scene used to look the same"/"The state of the VC market was quite similar"
- makes grammar errors: confuses the adverb "less" with the adjective "lower" in "you'll see much less number of bank"
- overuses Russian flat intonation

🫧Doesn't elaborate: the most annoying thing about Nik's speech is that he only churns out facts. He never attempts to build a story or engage the listener. He doesn't anticipate further related questions and forces his interlocutor to act as an interrogator, always drilling him with follow up questions. Quite exhausting.

To sum up, Nik's business prowess is as overwhelming as his public speaking is underwhelming. Beginner founders cannot afford to keep things this way. To be heard and followed, please, do not just churn out data statements, you're not an ATM! Anticipate further questions and give a fuller answer. Don't wait to be interrogated, lead the narrative.

In "PitchUp" meetings, driven founders, product managers, and top managers construct and present their own mini-speeches following the frameworks of the world's top founders every week.

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⭐️ I am making a plan for 2026
🌷 I am taking it 1 day at a time

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🪴 Thank you for choosing English, communications, and rhetoric growth @EnglishForImpact. Love you all

January, the 1st Around The World

The usual pattern is to get what we see around us for granted, to assume the whole world operates the same. Yet, it doesn't. I love getting a sneak peek around: it cuts the noise and brings clarity to me.

FACTS

🇰🇮 The Pacific island nation of Kiribati (population 133,500) is first to ring in New Year
🇮🇱🇪🇬 About 10% of the world doesn't celebrate January 1 due to religious calendars. Israel follows Jewish calendar falling in September or October. Egypt follows Coptic calendar which places major festivals 12 days later.
🕋 The Islamic calendar year is 14 days shorter than the Gregorian year: 354 days vs. 366 in leap years

IN HISTORY

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 In 1600, Scotland recognized January 1 as the start of the year instead of March 25
🇺🇸 On January 1, 1835, President Andrew Jackson achieved his goal of entirely paying off the US national debt. The ONLY time in history it stood at zero. It precipitated a financial crisis.
🇺🇸Ellis Island opened on Jan, 1, 1892, eventually making possible immigration of over 20M people. ~ 40$ of all Americans have at least 1 ancestor who came through Ellis Island


TRADS

🇮🇹 In Italy, people wear red underwear on New Year's Day for good luck - a tradition from medieval times!
🇬🇱All race horses in the Northern Hemisphere traditionally celebrate their birthday on Jan, 1, regardless of actual birth date.
🔠 Jan, 1 is also "Z Day," when people whose names start with Z get to go first instead of last

SAD BONUS

More marriages end in divorce or separation in January than any other month Medium. Lawyers call it a "divorce month."

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🌸 I love Jan - fresh beginnings

🐷 I hate Jan - too slow, cold, dark

☕️ Jan's just another month

Any part that impressed you the most?

23 overall

Thank you for pinging me with your countries! Some of you have DMed me asking how many countries I’ve been to. I realised I’ve never counted.

So I downloaded this free app “Been” and made the list:

23 countries and territories visited
11% of the world
4 continents

If I inspired you to download “Been” as well, please share your screenshots 💗

"Thx, I'm good" 🧐🤔

Have you ever heard "I'm good" and wondered why the hell the person calls himself/herself a good boy?

This is actually a polite way to decline an offer or indicate that you don't need anything. It's typically used in responses like:

💓When your granny offers you another salad:

"Would you like some Olivier?" → "Thank you, I am good."

💓When someone asks if you need help:

"Do you need any help improving English?" → "Thank you, I am good."


The phrase combines gratitude ("thank you" for the offer) with a decline ("I am good" meaning "I'm fine/satisfied/don't need that"). It's considered more polite than simply saying "no" because it acknowledges the person's kindness in offering.

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🐷 I can't stop eating NYE leftovers
🔪Thank you, I'm good!