3.8M Users Later: What It Really Took to Build Nomad | Ideas to Scale
What followed was a fintech growth story shaped by timing, partnerships, regulation, customer behavior, and a relentless focus on making a complex financial system feel simple.In this episode of Ideas to Scale, Alejandra Slatapolsky sits down with Caio Fasanella, Head of Investments at Nomad, to unpack how the company grew to nearly 4 million users while building financial products across Brazil and the United States.They get into the decisions behind that growth: why travel influencers became an early acquisition engine, how Nomad connected Brazilian and U.S. financial infrastructure into one customer experience, what started breaking as the company reached millions of users, and why obtaining a U.S. broker-dealer license took 18 months instead of the six they initially expected.The conversation also covers the trade-offs that come with scale: when partnerships help you grow, when it makes sense to bring more infrastructure in-house, how regulation changes product decisions, and where Caio sees fintech heading as stablecoins, blockchain infrastructure, AI, and traditional finance continue to converge.For founders, fintech operators, investors, and leaders building across markets, this is a detailed look inside the decisions that happen after a product starts working — when growth itself becomes the challenge.In this episode:• How Nomad found traction after launching during COVID• The acquisition strategy that helped accelerate adoption• Building a seamless experience across Brazil and the U.S.• What changes when thousands of customers become millions• Scaling customer operations without sacrificing experience• Navigating U.S. regulation, KYC, AML, and broker-dealer requirements• Partnerships as an early-stage scaling strategy• When fintechs begin bringing infrastructure in-house• Stablecoins, blockchain, AI, and the next decade of financial infrastructureAbout Ideas to ScaleIdeas to Scale brings founders, executives, investors, and industry leaders into candid conversations about the decisions behind growth, positioning, innovation, and building companies that last.Subscribe for more conversations from the people building and scaling financial services, fintech, and technology companies across the U.S. and Latin America.Follow us on our social media channels:LinkedIn: / scaltoconsultancy X (Twitter): / scaltoglobal Facebook: / scaltoglobal TikTok: / scaltoglobal Instagram: / scaltoglobal
