In this episode, I welcome Anne Lucas, Founding Partner of Alt-a, for a conversation about executive search, board building, and leadership transitions in tech companies.

We discussed :

• Why finding alignment between founders and investors before a search even starts is the most critical — and most underestimated — part of a headhunter's job, illustrated by a CTO search where both parties said "we want an AI expert" but meant completely different things
• Three recurring hiring mistakes in tech: giving a C-level title prematurely, recruiting from large corporates without assessing context fit, and launching a search too late — given that a full process takes around six months from start to day one
• Why independent board members in Europe are still treated as a "would-be-nice" rather than a strategic lever, and why that is a governance mistake for companies planning an exit
• The four pillars of an effective board according to Anne: the right complementary skill set around the table, a culture of constructive conflict, strong relationships between founders and board members, and adherence to basic best practices like reading the board pack
• Why looking only for candidates who have "already done it" is a mistake — and how the real question should be "can they do it?", which often leads to more creative and better-fit profiles
• The leadership profile shift across growth stages: a zero-to-one builder thrives on chaos and ambiguity, while scaling from ten to a hundred requires structure and process — and the two profiles are rarely the same person
• How AI is reshaping the headhunting profession not by replacing human judgment, but by accelerating the labor-intensive parts of the job — leaving more time for the advisory and relationship work that actually drives results

Anne's perspective challenges the idea that governance and talent strategy are operational afterthoughts. This conversation is a reminder that the decisions made around people and boards shape a company's trajectory for years.

Anne’s recommendation :

• “The Athena Doctrine” by John Gerzema and Michael D'Antonio

Useful links:

Anne Lucas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-lucas-alta/

Alt-a: https://www.alt-a.co/

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Finscale is much more than a podcast.

It’s an ecosystem that connects key players in the financial sector through networking, coaching, and strategic partnerships.

📢 With Finscale Private Talks, I bring together investors, entrepreneurs, and institutions for high-value private exchanges.

🎯 Through my coaching and advisory support, leaders and finance professionals can better structure their vision and accelerate their impact.

🤝 As for partnerships, they create unique opportunities to position yourself at the very heart of the industry’s transformation.

🔗 Discover all the initiatives on the Finscale website : https://finscale.business

Enjoy listening!

Produced by Gokyo Sàrl-S, hosted by Audiomeans©. Visit the Privacy Policy of Finscale and Audiomeans for more information.

This is an excerpt of Solenne's conversation with Anne Lucast, Founding partner at Alta

Finscale is also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@finscale.

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Finscale is much more than a podcast.

It’s an ecosystem that connects key players in the financial sector through networking, coaching, and strategic partnerships.

📢 With Finscale Private Talks, I bring together investors, entrepreneurs, and institutions for high-value private exchanges.

🎯 Through my coaching and advisory support, leaders and finance professionals can better structure their vision and accelerate their impact.

🤝 As for partnerships, they create unique opportunities to position yourself at the very heart of the industry’s transformation.

🔗 Discover all the initiatives on the Finscale website : https://finscale.business

Enjoy listening!

Produced by Gokyo Sàrl-S, hosted by Audiomeans©. Visit the Privacy Policy of Finscale and Audiomeans for more information.

In this episode, I welcome Thomas Restout, Groupe CEO of B2C2, for a rigorous and highly technical conversation on crypto « market making » and the structural differences between traditional finance and blockchain-based markets. Unlike many discussions focused on price or retail narratives, this episode goes deep into balance sheet mechanics, risk management, derivatives infrastructure, and capital efficiency.

We discussed:

• How B2C2 works as a « digital asset securities bank » - providing continuous pricing, OTC execution, and derivatives solutions to institutions, exchanges, and token issuers.
• What market making really means in practice: aggregating fragmented liquidity, holding risk temporarily, and matching client flows / just like in FX, but 24/7.
• The full risk stack behind every trade: credit risk, settlement risk, liquidation risk, regulatory risk and why it's more complex than most people think.
• How B2C2 evolved from cross-exchange arbitrage in 2015 into a regulated OTC model built to compete with the world's top HFT firms.
• Why institutional adoption is « overstated » ETF exposure grew fast, but real on-chain adoption (wallets, stablecoins, infrastructure) is moving much slower than expected.
• Why blockchain settlement is a game changer: near-instant settlement reduces credit risk, speeds up balance sheet rotation, and can dramatically cut margin requirements in derivatives.
• How B2C2's trading engine works in practice: streaming prices via API, internalizing flows, and hedging across 50+ venues including ETFs, spot exchanges, perpetual futures, and DeFi.

A dense and highly educational exchange that connects traditional finance expertise with crypto-native infrastructure, and clarifies what truly changes, and what does not, when markets move on-chain.

Useful links:

Thomas Restout: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-restout-b2c2/

B2C2: http://www.b2c2.com

********************

Finscale is much more than a podcast.

It’s an ecosystem that connects key players in the financial sector through networking, coaching, and strategic partnerships.

📢 With Finscale Private Talks, I bring together investors, entrepreneurs, and institutions for high-value private exchanges.

🎯 Through my coaching and advisory support, leaders and finance professionals can better structure their vision and accelerate their impact.

🤝 As for partnerships, they create unique opportunities to position yourself at the very heart of the industry’s transformation.

🔗 Discover all the initiatives on the Finscale website : https://finscale.business

Enjoy listening!

Produced by Gokyo Sàrl-S, hosted by Audiomeans©. Visit the Privacy Policy of Finscale and Audiomeans for more information.