20VC: $0-$260M in Revenue in Three Years: How We Did It | You Need to Work Weekends to Win — Most Founders Aren't Ambitious Enough | The Revolut Playbook: Speed, Urgency, Extreme Ownership, and Zero Excuses with Alan Chang @ Fuse Energy

Alan describes his unconventional hiring process at Revolut - applying via a Facebook group, getting a reply in 5 minutes, interviewing the next day with physics questions, and receiving an immediate offer. He joined as the 5th employee when Revolut was just Nick, Vlad, and two engineers hot-desking in Level39.

• •Applied through 'London Startups' Facebook group, Nick replied within 5 minutes
• •Interview consisted of physics questions despite applying for operations analyst role
• •Joined as employee #5 when company was just hot-desking in co-working space
• •First three months were pure customer support work
• •Realized Revolut would be massive when Nick said he wanted to 'beat JPMorgan'

Chang reveals what made Revolut win against Monzo and N26 - not product differentiation, but pure ambition and execution speed. He explains his management philosophy: small independent teams with clear goals, monitoring results not process, and the 'gun to your head' test for maximum effort.

• •Revolut was only team at Level39 working past 7pm on weekdays and on weekends
• •Product roadmaps were identical across competitors - differentiation was execution speed
• •Management approach: give small teams clear goals, monitor results, replace if they fail
• •Three types of people: those who identify and hit targets, those who hit pointed targets, and neither - maximize first two
• •The 'gun to your head' test: if you'd do more with a gun pointed at you, you're not doing enough

Chang unapologetically defends his stance on working weekends and extreme work ethic, arguing it's the only way to build generational companies. He addresses criticism about work-life balance by saying 'don't join Fuse' if that's what you want.

• •Believes working weekends is essential to building generational companies
• •Response to work-life balance concerns: 'Don't join Fuse' - total respect for 9-5 jobs but not for them
• •Cultural value is 'never settle' - the only one that matters from Revolut's six values
• •Offices in Canary Wharf specifically to avoid party distractions of West London
• •Expects team to work weekends to compete against billion-dollar energy incumbents

Chang's biggest disagreement with Nick Storonsky was over-reliance on KPIs. He explains how incentivizing metrics causes teams to game the system, using recruiters lowering hiring bars to hit bonus targets as an example.

• •Main disagreement with Nick: overuse of KPIs leads to gaming the system
• •Example: recruiters incentivized on hires/month convince managers to lower talent bar
• •Not everything should be a KPI - need to consider second-order consequences
• •Identify most important roles and never settle on those, okay to settle on less critical roles
• •Focus on measuring health of teams without creating perverse incentives

Chang explains Revolut's 26 simultaneous product experiments and how diversification saved them during COVID when interchange revenue collapsed but trading revenue surged. He argues Nick should have gotten the banking license earlier despite it enabling diversification.

• •Revolut runs 26 product experiments simultaneously
• •During COVID: interchange revenue went to zero, but trading revenue from stimulus checks offset it
• •Product diversification makes revenue more resilient to market shocks
• •Nick was right that banking license should have come earlier - bigger you get, more scared regulators become
• •Regulators are incentivized to be risk-averse (no upside if you succeed, lose job if you fail) vs risk-neutral

Chang argues the UK is already in an energy crisis - consumption per capita down 25% in 25 years while China's went up 7x. He blames overregulation (wintering bird surveys delaying power plants) and unsophisticated energy companies still using pen and paper.

• •UK energy consumption per capita dropped 25% in 25 years; China's increased 7x in same period
• •Two causes: overregulation making it impossible to build, and low-quality legacy energy companies
• •Example of regulatory absurdity: required to do multi-winter bird surveys before building power plants
• •Energy costs 16% of revenue for data infrastructure in UK vs 3-4% elsewhere
• •Capital is available - problem is regulatory barriers to building physical infrastructure

Chang exposes that no energy company is truly 100% renewable - solar and wind are highly correlated, so even overbuilding can't cover all hours. Companies claiming renewable are just buying certificates. Proof: 'renewable' tariffs went up when Russian gas prices spiked.

• •No such thing as 100% renewable - solar and wind are highly correlated (both produce or both don't)
• •Even overbuilding solar/wind can't cover 100% of time due to correlation
• •Batteries are sub-2 hours and too expensive for days/weeks of storage
• •Companies claiming 100% renewable are buying certificates - complete lie
• •Proof: 'renewable' energy tariffs increased when Russia invaded Ukraine and gas prices spiked

If Chang ran UK energy policy, he'd deregulate all physical building and delete every subsidy. He argues subsidies mean projects aren't actually profitable and burden ratepayers. China is the model - $0.08/kWh vs UK's $0.25-0.30, building everything simultaneously.

• •Policy prescription: deregulate building anything physical, delete all subsidies
• •Subsidies mean projects aren't profitable - burden falls on ratepayers
• •China is exemplary model: $0.08/kWh vs US $0.10-0.15 vs UK $0.25-0.30
• •China deploys more solar, gas, coal, and grid than all Western economies combined
• •China understands importance of low energy costs and just builds everything

Chang's biggest hiring mistake was overvaluing IQ. Now he prioritizes people who deeply care about the mission. His interview process tests for 'leaning in' body language when describing hard work required. No comp bands - pay is based on interview performance grades.

• •Biggest hiring mistake: overvalued IQ, didn't weight 'deeply caring' enough
• •Look for candidates who lean in (not out) when you describe hard work required
• •Ask: 'Are you sure you want to do this? It's going to be very tough' - watch their reaction
• •No comp bands - candidates graded on coding, system design, problem solving, culture fit
• •Straight A's get very high offers (above current salary), straight B's get offers below current pay

Chang shares the Steve Jobs story Nick sent him: if a janitor fails because locks changed, that's acceptable. But somewhere between janitor and VP, reasons stop mattering. Leaders get all praise for success and all blame for failure - excuses are irrelevant.

• •Steve Jobs principle: janitor can have excuses, VP cannot - somewhere in between reasons stop mattering
• •If you're a leader and you fail, excuses don't matter - you get all the blame
• •Doesn't care if people think he's too harsh - top performers internalize negative feedback and improve
• •People who don't take negative feedback well aren't actually top performers
• •Creates culture of truth-seeking even if truth is ugly and hurts feelings

Fuse has 10x'd revenue every year: Year 1 = £2M, Year 2 = £20M, Year 3 = £200M+ ($260M). Built MVP with just $1M by buying a single wind turbine for £750k, license for £75k, getting former Ofgem CEO as equity-only advisor, and co-founder becoming qualified trader and electrician.

• •Revenue trajectory: £2M → £20M → £200M+ (10x growth every year)
• •Built full-stack energy company MVP with only $1M before outside funding
• •Acquired wind turbine (£750k), license (£75k), former Ofgem CEO as advisor (equity only)
• •Co-founder Charles became qualified trader and electrician to save costs
• •Advice: don't need huge seed round to start - acquire skills and assets creatively

Fuse raised $75M at high valuation on $400M revenue. Chang regrets raising first round too cheap at $140M - had oral agreement with Balderton, then got higher offer but honored original commitment. Believes Fuse can be bigger than Shell ($300B+ market cap).

• •Recent round: $75M raised on $400M annualized revenue run rate
• •Regret: first round at $140M was too low - had higher offer but honored Balderton commitment
• •Advice to founders: wait longer for better terms, don't underestimate company value
• •Biggest barrier to hitting $1B revenue: speed of hiring quality engineering talent
• •Believes Fuse can exceed Shell's $300B+ market cap - goal is trillion-dollar company

Leaving Revolut was Chang's hardest career decision. He told Nick on a Friday afternoon in the same room where the podcast was recorded. Nick asked 'Are you sure?' three times with his emotionless reaction. Nick later invested in Fuse's most recent round.

• •Hardest career decision was leaving Revolut - wanted to stay through IPO
• •Told Nick on Friday afternoon in main meeting room (same room as podcast)
• •Nick asked 'Are you sure?' three times with emotionless reaction
• •Nick Storonsky invested in Fuse's most recent funding round
• •Believes Revolut is a trillion-dollar company - won't sell personal shares until then

Chang believes $5M is enough for personal consumption and anything beyond is means to an end. His vision: make power so cheap and abundant that builders (AI or otherwise) don't even think about it, enabling economic growth. Timing beats talent beats luck in importance.

• •Personal consumption threshold: $5M is enough, beyond that money is means to an end
• •Money buys time back - worth spending on assistant, business class travel, not wasting time on admin
• •Vision: power so cheap and abundant that builders don't think about energy costs
• •Importance ranking: Timing > Talent > Luck (Fuse only possible now due to renewable penetration)
• •Would list in US not UK if ever going public, but sees no need with private market liquidity