Building the Future of Private Markets Technology With Gareth Lewis
- Quik! News Team
- 6 hours ago
- 29 min read
Gareth Lewis is the Chief Business Officer at Helm, a fintech company providing unified infrastructure and workflow technology for capital raising, investor management, and private markets operations. He co-founded Delio in 2015, growing it into a leading private markets platform used by financial institutions across multiple countries before its acquisition by iAltA Holdings and integration into Helm. A qualified Chartered Accountant, Gareth previously held corporate finance and M&A roles at IBM, Ernst & Young, and Convex Capital. Today, he helps financial firms modernize private markets infrastructure with scalable, AI-enabled technology that improves advisor and investor experiences.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
[2:12] Gareth Lewis discusses how Helm is helping financial firms deliver a better private markets advisor and client experience
[5:50] Solving the infrastructure and client experience challenges in private markets
[7:35] How to build a flexible operating system for private markets workflows
[12:11] Gareth explains why Helm focuses exclusively on B2B white-label infrastructure
[13:39] Staying committed to the pipes and plumbing strategy for long-term growth
[15:35] How to create an always-on implementation model for continuous customer collaboration
[20:13] Leveraging AI to improve internal efficiency and accelerate product development
[25:17] Expanding Helm's enterprise private markets platform following the Delio acquisition
In this episode…
The rapid growth of private markets has exposed outdated systems, fragmented workflows, and inefficient client experiences, making it difficult for financial firms to scale. Many organizations struggle to balance flexibility, compliance, and operational efficiency while also adapting to the growing influence of AI. How can firms modernize their infrastructure without sacrificing the unique needs of their advisors and clients?
Gareth Lewis, a private markets technology and financial infrastructure expert, explains how building configurable operating systems instead of rigid software enables firms to create better advisor and investor experiences. He shares why maintaining a customer-first mindset, embracing continuous collaboration through an always-on implementation approach, and staying focused on core strengths lead to stronger long-term partnerships. Gareth also discusses using AI to accelerate product development, improve internal efficiency, and enhance advisor workflows while allowing firms to maintain control of their customer experience.
In this episode of The Customer Wins, Richard Walker interviews Gareth Lewis, Chief Business Officer at Helm, about transforming private markets infrastructure through customer-focused technology. Gareth discusses the benefits of configurable software platforms, the impact of AI on product development, and the leadership lessons that shaped his entrepreneurial journey.
Resources Mentioned in this episode
Quotable Moments:
“We've really tried to position ourselves as being with a key focus on being like an operating system.”
“You're always building; you're always iterating; you're always improving. You're always helping add new workflows and designing new solution capability.”
“Sometimes you've just got to stick to what you believe in and maybe not get derailed by the new shiny thing.”
“It's not hard to be kind and be polite and respectful irrespective of who you're talking to.”
“You're better than no one and no one's better than you.”
Action Steps:
Build technology around your customers' workflows: Designing flexible, configurable solutions helps customers adopt your platform more easily while improving long-term business outcomes.
Maintain continuous collaboration with customers: Treating implementation as an ongoing partnership creates opportunities to improve workflows, strengthen relationships, and deliver greater value over time.
Stay focused on your core strengths: Resisting distractions from every new market trend allows your business to build deeper expertise and create lasting competitive advantages.
Use AI to improve internal efficiency before customer-facing features: Applying AI to accelerate development and streamline operations delivers immediate value while enabling more thoughtful customer experiences.
Lead with humility and empower your team: Treating people with respect and encouraging initiative fosters a culture where employees are motivated to solve problems and drive innovation.
Sponsor for this episode...
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Episode Transcript:
Intro: 00:02
Welcome to The Customer Wins podcast, where business leaders discuss their secrets and techniques for helping their customers succeed and in turn, grow their business.
Richard Walker: 00:16
Hi, I'm Rich Walker, the host of The Customer Wins, where I talk to business leaders about how they help their customers win and how their focus on customer experience leads to growth. Some of my past guests have included David Reeve, CEO of InvestorCom, Liz Fritz of F2 Strategy, and Eden Ovadia, the CEO of FINNY. Today, I'm speaking with Gareth Lewis, the chief business officer at Helm and the founder at Delio. Today's episode is brought to you by Quik!, the leader in enterprise forms processing. When your business relies upon processing forms, don't waste your team's valuable time manually reviewing the forms.
Instead, get Quik!. Using Quik!. You'll be able to generate completed forms and get back clean. Context-rich data that reduces manual reviews to only one out of 1000 submissions. Visit quickforms.com to get started.
Now, before I fully introduce today's guest, I want to give a big thank you to my friend Tom Weisner for connecting me with Gareth. Tom is an amazing business developer who helps companies build better connections to partner together. All right. My guest today is Gareth Lewis, the chief business officer at Helm and founder of Delio. Over the last decade, Gareth has helped build the infrastructure behind the rapid growth of private markets, leading Delio from startup to a platform used by financial institutions across the globe.
Following its acquisition by Alta, he's now helping shape the next generation of technology powering private market investing. Gareth, welcome to The Customer Wins.
Gareth Lewis: 01:49
Thanks for having me, Rich. It's good to be here. I appreciate it.
Richard Walker: 01:52
Yeah. I'm excited to talk to you and learn more. So for my audience who hasn't heard this podcast before, I talk with business leaders about what they're doing to help their customers win, how they build and deliver a great customer experience. And the challenge is growing their own company. Gareth, I want to understand your business a lot better because honestly, I don't.
How does your company help people?
Gareth Lewis: 02:12
How do we help people? So we effectively help financial firms of all sizes really deliver a better private markets advisor and client experience to their end customer. So we've all seen kind of the, you know, the relentless growth of the private markets as an industry in the past, the past decade or so. And we've tried to position Delio and now Helm as the business that can really help provide the plumbing and the pipes that make that private markets capability a core part of a financial firm's offering to their end customer.
Richard Walker: 02:43
Okay, I always feel naive, like I got my degree in finance, but private markets don't feel like a category we talked about back in the 90s. What is private markets really encompass?
Gareth Lewis: 02:54
I always like to think about it from the perspective of the persona, the typical financial firms trying to serve with incorporating private markets into their offerings. So I like to describe private markets as the investment opportunities that someone can kind of touch, see, understand, feel, and relate to. So everything that sits away from those more traditional asset classes of, you know, previous decades of what a wealth management proposition looked at. So everything from kind of, you know, direct investments in fast growing companies from pre IPO, right the way through to early stage real estate, real estate funds, direct investments, you know, the whole whole spectrum of those, those things that, you know, get a lot of investors excited and interested.
Richard Walker: 03:40
So traditionally, we talked about stocks and bonds and public offerings. And so you're saying the private market is essentially everything that doesn't have a public tag on it yet. And that's early stage stuff. Is it physical? I mean, I remember when we were talking about buying into tractors and all sorts of physical goods.
Is it hard money lending? What else is it?
Gareth Lewis: 04:01
I've seen everything over the years. You know, over the years we've seen everything from your more traditional, more traditional private markets. So you're kind of top tier private equity funds through to your VC. But you know, we've had, we're a B2B white label solution provider. So kind of powering firms really to build what they want in private markets.
And with that, we've kind of seen everything from classic cars to whiskey horses, you know, not saying it will necessarily be use cases that have run through our business, but I've certainly seen it, you know, all sorts of in the industry over the years, that's for sure. So I'd say it's very broad and it tends to expand all the time. And, and pretty interesting to see how it's now converging with, with the public side as well.
Richard Walker: 04:43
Yeah. I mean, I suppose this fits into it. I met a company, gosh, a year and a half, two years ago. I live here in Austin, Texas, and this company was helping in all sorts of different ways with investments. But one of their investments was helping cattle ranchers and brokers buy the cattle and sell the cattle because there was cash up front needed and then the deal might fall through.
But the head of cattle still existed, so you didn't lose value. So it was a really, I don't know, quote unquote safe investment to lend the money and make interest on it. I suppose that falls into this category potentially of private equity.
Gareth Lewis: 05:18
Yeah, yeah. I really like to think about it quite broadly, those kinds of entrepreneurial type investment opportunities. And yeah, it never ceases to amaze me what's going on in the market. But it's also an industry that's moving, moving really quickly. The growth is there, and it's a really exciting space to be part of, that's for sure.
Richard Walker: 05:35
Yeah. Okay. So what is the core problem then? I mean, are the public markets so efficient? I don't mean the trading part, but I mean getting the accounts and moving the money.
But the private markets are not efficient. Is that what you guys are helping with?
Gareth Lewis: 05:50
Yeah, I think so. I think like initially the, the, the business kind of the genesis of what we do really came out of that whole, you know, how do you deliver a client experience in private markets? We actually observed what was going on way back in 2015 in the UK, and we kind of stumbled across these investment clubs. A couple of the larger private banks had them, where they provided, you know, investment opportunities to the more entrepreneurial or high-net-worth clients on their books. And it was I was kind of taken aback by how it was run, you know, versus, you know, more of a traditional digital, how you'd come to expect a digital experience to, to, to be even, even back then, because it was basically a couple of sheets of PowerPoint with a list of deals on that were sent around to advisors and just a lot of different pain points and pinch points that really limited private markets and being a key part of the client proposition, like there's public assets were.
So that was kind of like, I guess the face value. It was really that client experience component being non-existent. But then as you kind of went a bit deeper, you found that it was really due to an operating infrastructure problem. How do you build a private markets capability in a way that is kind of compliant, scalable and efficient? So then that does come into a bit of an efficiency problem.
You know, everything's very manual, typically quite fragmented. Even to this day, there's a number of pinch points that haven't quite yet been solved, which creates opportunity.
Richard Walker: 07:20
Yeah. My friend is my friend. It's always where.
Gareth Lewis: 07:24
You know, what it's like. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. You know what it's like.
Richard Walker: 07:29
Okay, so walk me through what a typical experience is like using your platform then.
Gareth Lewis: 07:35
So we've, we've really tried to position ourselves as being with a key focus on being like an operating system and operating platform that really champions flexibility and configurability. So the system and the technology we've been building, we spent a lot of time And over the years, building for this kind of exact use case. So really like the life cycle of alternative investment products includes, you know, the distribution and the reporting and the ongoing workflows that sit behind those two components. But really the nuances are often firm to firm of how they handle private markets. And that's kind of where what we've built comes in.
It's really about molding the technology around the proposition of our customer rather than the customer's proposition having to be retrofitted into, into the technology. So I would say by default, you have that lifecycle of a product which stays pretty constant. But I think the nuances are really nuanced on a firm to firm basis is really where you need to be able to offer that flexibility. And I think you've probably seen it in your day to day as well. I think rich as well, but it's very difficult to walk into the room of a large enterprise, for example, and say, here's some technology, here's how it works.
Do you want to use it? It's really around that, that flexibility in the configurability. So I would say that the process stays fairly constant, but it's just a little bit of where the different firms are up to in their journey around doing private markets. Some are really at the infancy, some are working on legacy systems, some are kind of semi manual semi point solutions. So our big emphasis has been around meeting that customer where they are and molding the technology for that need.
Richard Walker: 09:13
Yeah. I have a hard time with black box selling, meaning black box works. Just accept it and follow it. And you know, because all of our customers, it fascinated me. I've been in business for 24 years.
How many times customers are like, oh, we're not like anybody else. And I'm like, but fundamentally you are. Your process is not a lot different. But yes, I understand you have a different client experience and type of engagement. You have a different UI, you have a different maybe flow of where the data is going in your system.
So I get the nuance part of it. So how Gareth, how do you guys build such a flexible system then? Is it a lot of integration points? Is it professional services? Is it what.
Gareth Lewis: 09:52
I think it was a lot of like, you know, we, we, we started the business from pretty humble, humble beginnings, but very much kind of enterprise from the outset. So it was a bit of a hard lesson day one that if you walk into the room of a large financial institution, probably coming from the, the background and the beginnings that we came from as a business and said, this is how it needs to work, you probably we probably wouldn't have got very far. You know, we founded the business in Wales, so we were probably already, you know, a little bit of an unknown, an unknown entity in that regard. So I think it was kind of integral to our DNA of the business from day one, which was really helped, how we've thought about product and collaboration with, with customers, I think. So I think that was a key component to it.
I think another one was we've always looked at private markets as an industry from a, from a customer perspective means we've been quite broad. So we've always been kind of agnostic across the type of private market, product, agnostic type of firm, agnostic across the type of customer that they're servicing. So we saw a lot as we touched on it a little bit earlier, but we've just seen a lot of broad use cases and applications over our technology for our technology over the years, which has probably stretched the art of the possible from a capability set. So we've always really built with think of us as like a lot of kind of low code configurable modules that can be kind of tailored and customized either on a self-serve basis, or we're able to handle that for the, for the customer. And, and I think a lot of time, you know, in a number of years now, I very much talk about us more as an operating system than a platform.
And what I mean by that, in simple sense is you have like a self-build at one end of the spectrum and you have an off the shelf SaaS solution at the other end of the spectrum, where probably probably somewhere in between the two.
Richard Walker: 11:39
Yeah, it is a big challenge to try to design software that is just infinitely flexible. Yeah. We chose the API model because it leaves it up to the customer to create the experience they want. And we're just an engine. A power source behind it, so to speak.
So I'm confused about one thing. Is your product just pure tech? Or are you also going out to meet with the private market companies that are trying to earn investments and trying to build that market and draw in all these investment opportunities? Where do you guys draw the boundary?
Gareth Lewis: 12:11
Yeah, we were quite deliberate in always kind of being B2B white label and what we kind of refer to as non-conflicted in inverted commas. So what I mean by that, there's no kind of marketplace component to the business. We're not trying to be the investment product and we're not trying to be the distribution. So we're very much, I think they're very two different things of being that kind of B2B. And what I it's not strictly B2C, but let's say it's B2C would be more of a marketplace type offering.
We've always focused very much on being that behind the scenes partner to, to try and avoid any friction with, with potential clients. And I think they're two, two very different things from from how you approach it from a product perspective as well. We've we've gone, there's probably less of an emphasis on flexibility, etc.. If you're building a marketplace for your own use case, you probably don't have to worry about as many permutations of how things could work because you're probably defining the process a bit more. So I think that two, they're two quite distinct things.
And we very much focused on that B2B white label piece.
Richard Walker: 13:11
I think it's important to be really focused and know what you're good at, because you're right, it's hard to be all things to all people, and you don't want to create this kind of persona or perspective, I guess perceptions, right? That you only work with these types of companies or these types of investment opportunities. So I think that's really smart to be that clear. Is it your customers that have driven you to be that clear, or is it more just scope of work and what you guys are capable of?
Gareth Lewis: 13:39
Honestly, I think I think maybe like in the early days, I think it felt like there were probably. I certainly felt, at least that there was probably other people that were better suited to be more product and distribution focused in the industry than us. I think we always felt like our role was more of an infrastructure provider, and I certainly saw the long term benefit of, of being that I've probably we I think we were quite early to thinking about pipes and plumbing and picks and shovels, as it were, than, than me, but I think it gave us a lot of time to really get that message and thesis right. But it's been quite interesting for me to see. I want to talk operating systems and pipes and plumbing, how that terminology or turn of phrase resonates a lot better than it did when we we first started the business.
But I would say it was something very deliberate from the outset. And we've actually been quite fortunate in having the conviction to stick to, even when there was probably temptations over the years to maybe think of, should we be doing this a little bit differently? When we saw kind of what was going on in the market, but pretty happy we wee stuck to our approach. Now, after all this time, it feels like it was the right thing to do, at least for us.
Richard Walker: 14:51
Well, it only took me 12 years to figure that out.
Gareth Lewis: 14:53
Yeah, it's. Yeah, it's a labor of love, isn't it? But sometimes you just gotta, you know, you just got to stick to stick to what you believe in and, and maybe not get kind of derailed by the, the new shiny thing, right? Sometimes a lot to be said for kind of staying true to what you are.
Richard Walker: 15:08
Yeah, I know for sure. Gareth, I want to probe a little bit because it's really hard to get people to talk directly about how they interact with their customer, to get the feedback, to learn what the product should be, and to be very customer focused and centric. So, and I don't know if you guys do it well or not, I'm assuming you do. How do you engage with customers to learn their needs and how frequently do you do it and how broadly do you do it?
Gareth Lewis: 15:35
It's something that I think about quite a lot. And I think like with any firm that's learning and growing and developing, like, like many of us kind of businesses that have been on this journey are, you know, you probably we probably haven't got it right over the years, every single time. We've probably got a fair few wrong, but it's about kind of learning from that and adapting and trying to do better next time. And it's something that's really front of mind for me as we go into this post-transaction world for this business, we've now got, you know, a lot of infrastructure and capacity to grow around us. Now, as we go on to that and push to that next level of becoming that truly enterprise grade unified infrastructure for private markets.
So I'm really kind of trying to think through ways that we can make our model almost like an always on implementation is how I like to think of it. So I guess that traditional SaaS approach of years back was you kind of do an implementation and then have like a half yearly check in or something like that with, with someone to check everything's as expected, you know, really trying to think through this concept of always on implementation where you're kind of, you're always building, you're always iterating, you're always improving. You're always helping add new workflows, design, new solution capability. And how do you build a model that can make that efficient and scalable to deliver? So you're able to, you know, you're not able to, you don't want to be overpromising and under-delivering, but how can you be that kind of always on partner for the, for the client?
And it really is meeting them where they are with the technology and really trying to be as much or as little of the team that like the supporting team that that customer needs is, is how I'm trying to think about it first. And that kind of filters through into, you know, commercial model resourcing the type of people that you have, liaising with the customer, etc..
Richard Walker: 17:22
You know, I want to share something interesting. Our pricing over the years has been such that it's just kind of automatic. And we had customers that wouldn't talk to us, but once a year, in fact, one customer for for a decade would talk to us for 15 minutes per year, period. And all they would tell us is, we love your service. We're super happy.
Nothing's broken, everything works. So there's nothing to talk about. And we're like, really? Yeah.
Gareth Lewis: 17:48
It's hard. I mean, especially you've probably seen with you as well, right? You've got so many kind of use cases and applications for, for what you've built. It's often very hard to find the one size. It's very difficult to find one size fits all answer when you've got that kind of flexible solution set that can meet different use cases, because everyone has a different ways of working.
So it is a lot about meeting the customer where they are. I mean, if I, you know, I've seen that as well. And it is, it's kind of like, well, this doesn't feel right. You know, I should be, I should be speaking to them every week. I should be speaking to them every month.
But sometimes you've just gotta, you just got to take the lead of the, of the customer. And if they're happy, they're happy.
Richard Walker: 18:24
Yeah. Well, we recently changed our pricing model last year, and it's actually reinforcing the need for us to work closely with the customer more frequently. They have more engagement. And honestly, we changed it based on feedback from the customer. We wanted to give them a model that made more sense to them, was more predictable to them.
And because it's more predictable now, we have a cadence of working more closely with them, and that's starting to take root, which is really exciting because they want to talk to us and they have this reason to do it. But before it was just like, hey, everything's working. There's nothing to talk about.
Gareth Lewis: 18:58
Yeah. And they get, they get and they get the kind of the budget visibility and etc.. Yeah, I can see. Yeah. And how has that affected, how has that affected how you've, you set up your implementation team and things like that.
How has that evolved?
Richard Walker: 19:11
You know, actually really interesting approach to this because a lot of software products out there say, here's our cost plus setup. What we did is said, we know you're going to do setup for the first six months. So the setup fee is really a discounted usage fee for six months. And it gives you all the implementation, a bunch of free forms, you know, all the things that you would need and unlimited usage until that six month ends. And then you go on to your normal cycle.
So it's not additive. It's actually like a contraction of the usage pricing. And I think it's hard to explain to customers, but once they get it, they really, really like that approach. So I think it's actually helping us move forward. Well, look, I think pricing is part of the customer experience, which is why I brought it up.
And I don't need to necessarily ask you about it unless there's a topic in there that you want to talk about around pricing. But I was curious, you know, things keep changing and we're seeing artificial intelligence change everything, which even includes price pressure. How is AI affecting your business?
Gareth Lewis: 20:13
I mean, I think it's it's from all from all angles. It's difficult to it's difficult to give any other answer. That's not that really. You know, I think about in terms of how I able to operate on a day to day, day to day and how I'm able to, you know, build, build new pricing models and using using AI in the background while I'm getting on with getting on with something else and things like that. So I kind of think about it generally in terms of how it enables me to be more efficient and effective.
I try and then think about how I can use it to be a better, you know, better play a better role in the organization more broadly in terms of supporting team members and colleagues and, and things like that. I think from a customer and prospect experience, there's certainly a lot more attention given to can they do. Can can this be done myself? Or at least I certainly probably have much more of a view on what something would look like than I perhaps did historically, because I think now we, you know, the role of artificial intelligence is really put more tools in the hands of more people. I think that's that can't be disputed.
But it's also enabled us to become a lot more effective internally because we've had an engineering team, for example, that have been with us for a long time that were, you know, really well versed in what we are as a business, what we're not, and what we're looking to build for in terms of the North Star. So being able to equip them with tools to be more kind of able to design things themselves. Being able to operate a lot more quickly, we've actually seen a really big uptick in velocity of development as well and, and which has been which has been great. So I think, you know, lots, lots and lots of ways I could probably go on for, for the rest of the, for the rest of the conversation, which is probably probably the answer you'd expect. Yeah.
Richard Walker: 21:56
I know, I know, I should change the show name to something like the AI effect of. But are your customers asking you to put access to AI directly into their workflow, into their product, like maybe to evaluate options and in the investment pool that they're looking at or whatever. Is there anything like that that's coming your way?
Gareth Lewis: 22:18
Yeah. I mean, there's, we're kind of, we've quite, we've obviously got that kind of life cycle and that workflow operating system end to end. So it's really how do we make the lives of our customers easier, give them more insight, make them more efficient, you know, usual kind of stuff. So that was kind of like our first port of call, but we're increasingly seeing the interest and demand in how you can use it. Use. Use the AI to enhance the advisor or enhance the client experience, which I think lots of people again, are are talking about.
I think the little bit of the challenge there is like from us is to think about and we're working on is really, if our customer is the white label, the white label financial institution, they need to be really in control of what that front end AI experience looks like for their advisor or for their client. So how do you kind of navigate those, those different layers there of us delivering the technology it needs to be, and then needed to be in line with kind of that organization and their brand. So I think there's a little bit of figuring out to do, but there's certainly a lot of enablement that we've done for the actual our buyers perspective, as in the internal users within the business to enable them to be more, more efficient.
Richard Walker: 23:24
Yeah. It's a really hard topic because there's not a lot I shouldn't say it this way. Not every software business has a use case to put a large language model on the front end? There may be stuff on the back end, like here at Quik!, we're doing all sorts of stuff on the back end to create metadata, create efficiency in our processes, etc. but I'm pretty adamant. I don't imagine putting AI in the form. Hey, if you're filling out this form, let me read all your data, interpret all your data, and tell you what to do.
No, no, we don't want to do that. But the other idea I have is shouldn't we, as consumers of technology products, use our own LM keys to use AI within that product versus that products keys. Meaning I've I've approved Claude and we have an API component. Why don't I just plug that into whatever software I'm using? I don't I don't know if you've ever heard that or anybody talk about that, because I think that might be one of the ways to secure it in terms of how it's used.
Do you guys have thought about that?
Gareth Lewis: 24:21
I need to check with the team. To be honest with you. I'm not sure where kind of they've got to in their thinking of how it's been been being set up and structured. We're seeing a lot around kind of, you know, control owning, owning data and how they can kind of how it kind of make, make their own and have that layer that sits on top of it. But, but yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's fast moving and evolving and kind of clients wanting to explore clients want to use open AI, being agnostic across models, etc. seems to be, seems to be an ever evolving topic that I'm struggling to keep up with daily.
You know, you can sign up for everything news, news related and still lose track.
Richard Walker: 24:58
I know, I know, there's a new tool every hour of every day.
Gareth Lewis: 25:02
Yeah. And the topic changes, changes faster than you can keep up. So.
Richard Walker: 25:06
Yeah. Gareth, now that you guys have done this, you know, acquisition, you're you're blended, you've got the new company name, etc., what are you most excited about now?
Gareth Lewis: 25:17
I think it was I'm, I'm probably had I was came into the the transaction with more conviction in what we were doing as a business than ever, to be honest with you, I think we were, you know, we were growing, you know, going about our business pretty quietly, but it felt like there was a real opportunity to put the infrastructure around us now after all these years and kind of go for it. So us being able to find a partner that saw the same have the same kind of thesis that I did, I mean, when, when the business got announced and who it was backed by and what they were doing, it was very aligned in message in terms of to what I thought the industry and the market needed, i.e. if you look at private markets, it's it's a thousand points of light. There's a lot of fragmented point solutions and then a lot of kind of space at the enterprise side to really unify that infrastructure and, and deliver something truly enterprise grade. So finding a way to get that infrastructure around me with a business that was still by all, you know, by to many, still kind of a fast moving startup, high growth, high velocity move, Quik! type organization, felt like a really good fit. And I think it's been quite exciting to, to be part of that and, and be kind of enabled with the tools I need to do the things I've always wanted to do with, with with Delio.
But with a lot more weight around me, but also kind of experience and some great people to, to learn from. It's certainly something that's yeah, that's really stood out to me so far. So, so far, so good.
Richard Walker: 26:46
And how has your role changed? Are you going to do more of what you love?
Gareth Lewis: 26:51
I honestly, I'm one of these people that tends to just be like, I like to be involved in, in lots of different things. My, my day tends to look like a lot of very short, short changing of direction continually into various aspects of the day to day. Like anyone, there's certainly things I think I'm, I enjoy and don't enjoy doing. I think that's part of the role. As a founder, you kind of do everything irrespective of that.
I think for me it's more, what am I good at? I think I feel like one, you know, I, I feel like I'm reasonably self aware of what I am and what I'm not. And so I'm certainly trying to focus my time more towards the things that I feel like I can contribute the, the biggest value and make the most impact. So I've certainly that's that's affecting where I'm spent, where I'm trying to avoid and spend time when it comes to when it comes to managing the diary in the day to day. So yeah, I think I'm, I love being out there.
I love trying to make things happen. I love trying to get people, you know, motivated, driven. I love people and, you know, seeing people progress and develop. So anything that touches those aspects is, is probably where I'm most useful.
Richard Walker: 27:56
Yeah. No, I love that man. I love that I, as an entrepreneur, I love to have diversity in what I do. I just can't do the same job over and over and over routinely. I'd have to delegate that immediately.
Yeah. So that's yeah, you're probably used to that too. Like I want to try everything. I want to see everything be part of everything. So I'm also curious about something else.
Chief Business Officer is not a title I'm normally hearing. Is that something that is European and common or is it that.
Gareth Lewis: 28:27
We we're kind of wrestling with with what that looked like. So we merged into IELTS private markets to form kind of the, the technology backbone of what's now called Helm. I alter as a holding company is kind of a buy build partner. Thesis around unifying private markets and where it intersects with wealth, right? So obviously that kind of means obviously, but with that whole build partner, acquire, etc., that means the conversations of can be more beyond just a traditional commercial conversation, I would say.
So I think the role is trying to really encapsulate, trying to drive forward a lot of those kind of buy build partner aspects within Helm, but then also kind of intersect across some of the other business lines that sit within iota. We've got four sister companies. So yeah, so it was, it wasn't the easiest thing to, to do to figure out the title, but it's also not something I wanted to spend too much time thinking about and just kind of focus on actually doing what needs to be done.
Richard Walker: 29:27
Yeah, no, I love that. In my world, it's about empowering people to do their best work. I don't really care about the title. Yeah. The title is for Outside Perceptions, so people can see and relate to it in some way.
It sounds to me like you have the freedom to do what you love to do now. And focus in that way.
Gareth Lewis: 29:45
Yeah, I hope so. I think so, and it's yeah, there's a lot, there's a lot going on here. And there's certainly a lot of we're trying to really even the people that have kind of joined the combined group now as part of Delhi are really trying to push that idea of don't sit there and wait for things to come to you with what to do with your day, be out there, be proactive. There's plenty of things that there's always in any organization, right? Plenty of things that need doing.
So be on the front foot in figuring out what they are and who they are and making and making some positive progress and impact.
Richard Walker: 30:13
Yeah, yeah. Gareth, before I get to my very last question, I want to ask what is the best way for people to find and connect with you?
Gareth Lewis: 30:21
I think probably the obvious answer, but LinkedIn, LinkedIn, I'm on I'm on LinkedIn and pretty active on there. I find I always find myself checking back when I'm switching between the day I pop back. So my profile on LinkedIn is LinkedIn slash Gareth, Gareth Lewis, so that's where you're probably easiest to find me anyway.
Richard Walker: 30:39
Awesome.
Gareth Lewis: 30:39
Oh, in New York or in New York or in New York? Yeah.
Richard Walker: 30:44
Come out to the Big Apple.
Gareth Lewis: 30:46
Yeah, exactly.
Richard Walker: 30:46
All right. I love to ask this question because it changes everything about what we've been talking about. So my question is who has had the biggest impact on your leadership style and how you approach your role today?
Gareth Lewis: 30:59
So I think for me, I don't know if this is kind of a bit of a cliched one, so I apologize if it is, but actually my, my, my dad one 1,000%. It was probably why it was, it was pretty easy one for me to answer like, so, you know, built a, built a company from, from nothing, didn't quite go as successful as he would have hoped in the later years. But I kind of grew up in that entrepreneurial environment. So from where he came from and where he grew up to, like what he did manage to do before things didn't work out with that business. I got to see the full the full life cycle.
You know, I was there from the age of eight, you know, answering phones, sweeping floors in his in his factory and in South Wales. And I think just being, you know, surrounded by that, that culture as a as a kid was probably the biggest impact. And then a lot of what he said, you know, to me over the years really stuck with me from things like that, just in terms of how he managed and how he treated people, you know, always says to me, you know, you're better than no one and no one's better than you. And I think that's something I've always tried to really factor into how I approach things. I think it gives you the the confidence to be in rooms where perhaps you don't.
You have a bit of imposter syndrome. You necessarily don't feel like you maybe were in the room, which for me was, you know, I started this business when I was 25. I wasn't a 20 years of experience in private markets. I hadn't worked at this bank or been to this school or grew up in this in anywhere like New York, where I'm from is very, very different. So I think, you know, it gives you that, you know, confidence and to, to really, you know, put yourself forward and do what needs to be done.
But then similarly, really kind of, I think helps from a leadership perspective. You think with that mindset and that approach. You know, I like to try and instill a cultural approach within my team or business I'm running. Everyone should be able to do what they're asking other people to do for them.
I think if you can kind of take that forward as a principle, and yeah, it's not hard to be kind and be and be polite and respectful irrespective of who you're talking to. Or at least I like to think so. Maybe don't always get it right, but certainly try. Certainly try.
Richard Walker: 33:02
Look, I don't think it's cliche at all because every time somebody says they really admire their father and learned a lot from their father. It just inspires me to think about how I can do that for my kids. How can my boys rise up and see me as the person that helped them get to where they want to be in life? So I find it very inspirational, and I'm so glad that you said so.
Gareth Lewis: 33:22
Thank you, I appreciate that. No, I think it's yeah. And again, it's something to think about it as well. You know, if you can have that, do that for your, for your, for your kids, then you've, you've done something right.
Richard Walker: 33:34
Yeah. All right. I have to wrap up the show. So I want to give a big thank you to Gareth Lewis, chief business officer at Helm, for being on this episode of The Customer Wins. Go check out his website at helm.com.
And don't forget to check out Quik! at quickforms.com, where we make processing forms easy. I hope you enjoyed this discussion. We'll click the like button, share this with someone, and subscribe to our channel for future episodes of The Customer Wins. Garreth, thank you so much for joining me today.
Gareth Lewis: 34:02
Thanks for having me, Rich. I appreciate it.
Outro: 34:05
Thanks for listening to The Customer Wins podcast. We'll see you again next time, and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.
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