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Val Scholz

Head of Growth, Kittl · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

Val Scholz is the Head of Growth at Kittl and the former Head of Growth at Revolut. He helped scale companies including VEED, Simple, and Busuu, assisting Revolut in reaching its first 10 million users.

43statements → 26claims → 13claims resolved → 54%fully supported → 3.63/5average certainty → 2/5average debate potential → 4.3/5argument clarity · the sources →

7 supported 3 partly supported 3 contradicted 1 not yet assessed 12 not checkable as stated how the 26 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

26 assertions · 5 opinions · 6 insights · 6 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 26 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 13 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 12 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Val argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Uber, Airbnb, Meta, and Revolut didn't use event tracking early on
“I actually think that if you look at Uber, Airbnb, Meta, they don't use events, or at least not in the early days. We didn't use events at Revolut.”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 47:03 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Nubank maintains a 90% customer retention rate over 24 months
“They have like a 90% retention rate, like over 24 months.”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 56:25 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
60% certainty 3
69% certainty 4
none yet certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

Argument clarity: do they answer the question? how? →

4.3 / 5 directness 4.7 · coherence 4.5 · precision 4.1 · compression 3.8

redirected or did not address 2 of 29 assessed questions (7%). Watch them ▸

This is a score against a rubric. It is not a rank. Every host question → answer exchange is scored with names hidden on directness, coherence, precision and compression, 1–5 each, on meaning alone: disfluencies are ignored, and only raw unedited episodes count. This is the score that measures thought. Every scored exchange, scores shown → · The rubric and its checks →

How they sound: speaking style how? →

251 words/min while actually speaking · 21.3 um and uh per 1k words · 6.7 false starts per 1k · 22.6% of pauses land inside a clause

English is their second language (first language: German). These numbers measure fluency in English. They do not measure thought; the argument clarity score above is read from substance alone.

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 8,839 words across 1 episode of raw-level tape, transcribed verbatim with every um and uh kept, each one attributed only where the alignment onto our timed stream is unambiguous. These are measurements of speaking style. We do not rank them: across this corpus, fluency and argument quality are nearly uncorrelated (ρ≈0.2), and smooth talking does not signal clear thinking. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 1 rated episode:

host pushback ▾ 1/10
pushed back at the host ▾ 1/10
setup questions received 35%
when Val pushed back ▶ 18:14“We didn't use it.”

Everything Val Scholz said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight
Startups without product-market fit can exit for $400M via traffic arbitrage
“Even if you don't have product market fit, you can sell a business for four hundred million, you know, because if you're just good enough to generate constantly more traffic and it's cheaper to generate or buy traffic than the money you're making, the business…”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 23:31 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
TransferWise couldn't figure out Revolut's free FX cross-selling strategy
“So that was always like the secret sauce, which I think, you know, like for a long time, competitors couldn't really figure out. I think Transwise couldn't really figure out like, how can we give it away for free and still make more money than them?”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 10:48 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Revolut hired young, driven talent over pre-existing skills
“Nick basically looked at, looked for very young people, very driven people, very smart people. That was basically the main requirements, right? The thinking was kind of like, you know, we can teach people skills. We can't teach them the right behaviors or atti…”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 27:37 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Mixpanel and Amplitude create most data issues for tech companies
“Mixpanel, amplitude, didn't really change for like probably 1520 years which usually creates most of the issues in a company.”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 46:49 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Uber, Airbnb, Meta, and Revolut didn't use event tracking early on
“I actually think that if you look at Uber, Airbnb, Meta, they don't use events, or at least not in the early days. We didn't use events at Revolut.”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 47:03 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Building product-led growth starting with paid marketing rarely works
“I don't think you can, it's really hard to build a product led business if you start with paid marketing.”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 50:51 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Revolut grew fastest in Ireland, Romania, and Poland, not the UK
“So if you think about Revolut against Monzo, right, like the markets we grew the fastest wasn't the UK. It was Ireland, it was Romania, Poland.”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 0:04 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Over 90% of Revolut's B2C customers came from referrals
“So for example, like 90% of the customers, B to C customers that Revolut ever acquired came through referrals.”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 2:26 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Revolut achieved a £9 CPA versus £250 for traditional banks
“So I think back in the days we had a CPA of around nine pounds, which was like, compared to banks that had like 250, it was quite low.”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 6:42 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Over-optimizing a single product is the biggest mistake founders make
“I think it's actually the biggest mistake that founders do, that they over optimize their product.”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 9:26 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Revolut reached 10 million users without using paid marketing
“We didn't use it.”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 18:14 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Revolut's growth team avoided hiring traditional marketing majors
“Also like, for example typically in growth, we didn't look for people that studied marketing.”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 32:13 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Managers know if a new hire will fail within a week
“I think you have a gut feeling pretty quickly. Probably a few days. Majority of people after a week, you're basically like, okay, that's not gonna work.”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 34:16 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Revolut belongs in the top 0.01% alongside SpaceX and Meta
“I think what a lot of people forget is that Revolut is like that company that's at the 0.01%. You know, it's like a SpaceX, Facebook Meta. I think all these companies are very similar.”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 35:22 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Revolut CEO Nik Storonsky held 70 to 80 one-on-one meetings weekly
“Nick, for example, had 70, 80 one-on-ones a week. So basically like every product team sync, Nick was it. In it. Every design team think Nick was in it.”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 39:49 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Nik Storonsky's relentless meeting cadence created Revolut's top operator alumni pool
“I think it's the reason why there's so many talented people coming out of Revolut.”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 40:05 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Revolut user surge stretched customer support wait times to four weeks
“Suddenly KYC times, right? Went from three minutes to, or a minute, right, to suddenly like two weeks. Customer support waiting lines went from, I don't know, 10 minutes to four weeks.”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 44:31 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Kittl is looking into automating partnership manager negotiations using AI
“Yeah, I mean, we are thinking, we are looking into, like automating partnership manager negotiations, because suddenly you can scale it up to a million partnerships managers.”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 51:12 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Revolut is a superior product to Monzo
“I think Monzo is just a, it's a more modern bank, like Revolut is a financial ecosystem.”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 51:54 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Revolut had to cap sign-ups due to referral loop speed
“One thing we've done at Revolut was essentially engineer how fast or how short it takes for new people to invite their peers and their friends, which actually worked really well to a point where we had to cap how many people actually Sign up.”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 4:15 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Revolut increased user payment activation rate from 30% to 90%
“In the early days, like we had maybe an activation rate of so basically like new users that actually make a payment, it was maybe like 30, 35%. Like when I left, it was around 90%. So, like, nine out of 10 people actually made a payment.”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 4:47 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Partly supported
Revolut was founded after Nik Storonsky lost 10-15% on exchange fees
“And when he went to Vegas and took some money to play poker they took away around 10 to 15% because of the currency exchange. And because he was like, look, I mean, I trade hundreds of millions of dollars without paying any fees. He was like, hey, maybe there'…”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 8:28 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Canva drives higher web traffic volume than Adobe
“So I think Canva nowadays is much larger in terms of volume generated to the website than Adobe.”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 18:50 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Canva uses massive in-house content teams to dominate SEO topic clusters
“If you look, for example, at Canva, what they've done is they created content. So they, you basically have crazy big in-house teams that generate content for you so that you can create these topic clusters.”
Val Scholz Jun 21, 2024 ▶ 20:08 Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Show 19statements(19 left)

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Val Scholz: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics & Strategies | E1168 Jun 21, 2024 43m
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