Kristjan Kaar has been behind some of Europe’s most important fintech products.

From helping build OakNorth, one of the UK’s most successful AI-driven digital banks, to redefining SME finance at Finom, Kristjan has spent his career operating at the edge of product, regulation, and intelligent finance.

In this episode, we unpack what it really takes to build financial products people trust. Without slowing down.

• How do you move fast in regulated environments?
• Is trust more powerful than speed?
• And will AI replace product managers — or make them indispensable?

Breaking Down Barriers — Hosted by Ricci Putnam, Chief Growth Officer @saltdigital

We cover:

• Building AI-powered financial products that scale trust
• Lessons from OakNorth’s hyper-growth as an “intelligent bank”
• Product–engineering alignment in regulated environments
• What founders get wrong when hiring their first CPO
• Scaling product teams without killing innovation
• AI hype vs reality in fintech today
• How European fintech differs from Silicon Valley models
• The future of AI-powered banking and product leadership

This episode is for founders, CPOs, and product leaders building in complexity. Where speed matters, trust is non-negotiable, and culture decides everything.

Stake has quietly become one of the most powerful fintech + real estate platforms in the world.

• 1M+ users.
• AED 1.3B+ in transactions.
• 250,000+ investments across 500+ properties.
• AED 50M+ in rental income paid out.
• Now expanding across the US, KSA, and beyond.

In this episode, we sit down with Manar Mahmassani, Co-Founder & CEO, and Ricardo Brizido, Co-Founder & CTPO of Stake to unpack how they built a category-defining product, navigated brutal regulation, engineered trust at scale, and are reshaping global real-estate ownership through tokenisation and digital assets.

We go deep on product strategy, liquidity design and what it really takes to scale a regulated platform to millions of users.

Breaking Down Barriers - Hosted by Ricci Putnam, Chief Growth Officer ‪ ⁨@saltdigital⁩

We cover:

• Is real estate finally becoming liquid?
• Can tokenisation unlock global access to institutional assets?
• What does the future of property ownership actually look like?
• How Stake reached AED 1.3B invested and 50M+ in rental payouts.
• Balancing regulation, user experience, and financial reliability.
• What decentralised, global property fintech means for investors and renters.
• Plans, innovations, and what the growth trajectory reveals.
• How scaling fintech with real estate differs from traditional startups.

Subscribe now to hear more stories from founders building at scale, and learn the secrets behind the platforms shaping the future of money and property.

Dr. Bilal Baloch - Previous co-founder of an AI startup and managing a half-billion-dollar fund - is sharing how he’s rewriting the rules of venture capital in MENA.

Breaking Down Barriers - Hosted by Ricci Putnam, Chief Growth Officer
Powered by Salt: ‪@saltdigital‬ | welovesalt.com

In this conversation, Bilal breaks down:

• How sovereign funds and government policy are rewriting the venture playbook
• Why the next global AI companies won’t all come from Silicon Valley.
• How capital, compute, talent, and geopolitics are now inseparable.
• Why the UAE, KSA, and emerging markets are no longer “followers” but shapers.
• What founders need to understand about institutions, not just models.
• The first 90 days with a portfolio company and when to double down
• Why storytelling beats data in pitches and the talent gaps slowing growth
• Where real AI value will accrue: infrastructure, models, or vertical apps
• Quick-fire insights on founders, buzzwords, and risk in today’s markets
• His vision for MENA tech in 2030

Founders, investors, and innovators - get an inside look at the strategies shaping the region’s next unicorns.