Thank you so much to Zak Biggs for featuring our co-founder Aditya Mhatre and Stu Szabo and the My Beacon mission! Beacon is proud to partner with Goodlawyer!
Before you nail product-market fit, there's an equally crucial piece of the puzzle: founder-market fit. And My Beacon shines in the FinTech space for having just that. Stu Szabo, the Fin, and Aditya Mhatre, the Tech, combined their diverse expertise and personal experiences to create a company that facilitates global mobility through tailored financial services. Having lived as expats or immigrants a combined ten times, Stu and Aditya are founders with an intimate understanding of the challenges they aim to solve. Their personal and professional history fuels their commitment to Beacon's mission: to empower future Canadians with the right financial services at the right time. Stu's father, an immigrant who survived a war zone, moved to Canada and worked his way up from selling encyclopedias to becoming a university professor. Stu has a robust background in finance, having worked in several senior roles at pension giant PSP Investments, which manages $265 billion of Canadian government assets, where he learned how to balance innovation with regulatory compliance. Aditya has a long track record in building, launching and scaling mobile payments products. Prior to Beacon, he was the VP, Product at Paytm, India’s leading financial super app and employee number one at PayPay, Japan's largest mobile payment company. He also has first-hand experience of the challenges that come with moving to Canada. Building a FinTech platform means navigating complex regulations. So, while Beacon has great external counsel, the recurring and diverse legal work makes external counsel impractical for day-to-day operations. This led Stu to seek an in-house solution that was both embedded and cost-effective. “When building a business, getting good legal help is invaluable. Goodlawyer gives us that confidence and empowerment, and I couldn’t be happier,” said Stu Szabo, CEO and co-founder of Beacon. The impact of having a Fractional GC has been profound. Working with large software and financial companies, international remittance services, and various commercial agreements now goes far smoother. Stu notes that hiring a contractor has gone from taking days to minutes, a testament to the streamlined process Goodlawyer offers. One particularly valuable instance of Goodlawyer's service was navigating the imminent launch of a first-of-its-kind financial product. The product's complexity required not only legal acumen but also business insight to structure the contract effectively. Looking ahead, Stu sees a continual need for innovative legal guidance as Beacon expands its product offerings. "Goodlawyer makes sense, and not just because of the cost savings. You need someone in your corner, and Goodlawyer is in our corner." With the synergy between Stu's financial acumen and Aditya's tech and payments expertise, coupled with support from Goodlawyer, Beacon is well-positioned to continue its mission of empowering global citizens in their financial journeys.