by Jost Stollmann

In a recent meeting, I was probed by an interested visitor with the pertinent question of why I and we Tyros get up every morning to give our best to the Tyro endeavour.

While the answers may vary between the co-founders, the individual team members and myself, we do share the essence of them. Tyro is in a great spot, because its endeavour is so rich in purpose, it has so many whys.

Anyone of the answers coming to my mind certainly get me up every morning:

• The angle of the engineering culture is the fascination with resolving really hard problems that seem at the outset impossible. Can an Australian team of originally three co-founding engineers bring credit and debit card acquiring to the internet, obtain a bank license to become a member of Visa and Mastercard^® and the Australian clearing and settlement system and build a sufficiently large merchant base? Can the fast growing team build the next generation banking platform, cloud native, totally mobile and integrated?

• The angle of the Australian work culture is the aspiration to marry the delivery of hard results with the down-under life style. Can the Tyro team build and scale up a high performance organisation where people can enjoy a great quality of life with their friends and families, and that while working and living in their own backyard? Can the team staunch the brain drain to Silicon Valley by making Tyro the centre of financial and banking technology learning and excellence in Australia?

• The angle of the Australian national interest is the ambition to contribute to Australia’s competitiveness and prosperity in the digital century. Can the Tyro team enable Australia’s small-to-medium business community to compete better and grow faster with banking solutions tailored to their specific needs: giving the entrepreneur time back for his business, fair interest on his hard earned money and adequate capital for his growth plans? Can the Tyro story encourage many startup entrepreneurs to give their dreams a go? Can Tyro build a platform on which to build an ecosystem for the businesses of tomorrow?

We here at Tyro are rich in purposes and ideas. But the execution is what makes the real difference. That is why we invest as fast as we can into growing the organisation and its capabilities. We also leverage our resources by supporting the entrepreneurial fintech community through the Tyro Fintech Hub. Because to have a real impact on Australia’s future, we need many more Tyros who dare to think the new ideas and who work hard to bring them to fruition.

It is encouraging to see that the Australian narrative seems to shift from somniferous complacency towards the overdue sense of urgency. If the wake-up call to embrace change and disruption spreads across government, regulators, universities, businesses and society at large, the country will be successful.

_{Mastercard is a registered trademark, and the circles design is a trademark of Mastercard International Incorporated.}