Fintech founder Adam French: I wish the City would be braver
Each week, we dig into the memory bank of the City’s great and good. Today, Adam French, partner at early-stage VC firm Antler and co-founder of Scalable Capital, takes us through his career in investment in Square Mile and Me
CV
- Name: Adam French
- Job title: Partner at (also non-executive director at Innovate Finance)
- Previous roles: Partner at Houghton Street Ventures, co-founder of Scalable Capital and trader at Goldman Sachs
- Age: 40
- Born: Ashford, Middlesex
- Lives: London Bridge
- Studied: Business, Mathematics and Statistics at the London School of Economics and Political Science
- Talents: Outworking most people through sheer discipline and possibly poor work-life boundaries – my day starts with a 6am gym session and usually ends with ‘just one final check’ of the inbox before bed (which my wife has learnt to tolerate)
- Motto: First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win
- Biggest perk of the job? Getting to work with brilliant founders at the inception stage and watching ideas become category-defining businesses
- Coffee order: Black, strong, no fuss
- Cocktail order: Gin Gimlet
- Book recommendation: Fall In Love with the Problem, Not the Solution by Waze founder Uri Levine, and can’t stop recommending it to entrepreneurs – clearly written by someone who has firsthand experience at building exceptional companies.
What was your first job?
My first job was working for my mother’s field marketing business, which gave me an early and very real look at what it takes to build a company from scratch. I spent late nights licking and sealing envelopes, calling around to find short-term staff, and helping run the monthly payroll and accounts.
What was your first role in the City?
I started my career at Goldman Sachs, working in trading. It was an intense education in markets, pressure and decision-making at speed, and a front-row seat to how global capital really moves.
When did you know you wanted to build a career in investment?
Growing up, I wanted to be an actuary. That took me to the LSE, partly because my course let me skip the first year of actuarial exams. It was there that I first heard about investment banks, became completely obsessed, and ended up joining Goldman Sachs at the start of the global financial crisis. But I was constantly coming up with business ideas with colleagues on the trading floor, and those conversations ultimately led to us leaving to found the fintech business Scalable Capital.
What’s one thing you love about Canada?
The density of ambition. You can have breakfast with a founder building something genuinely world-changing, lunch with a policymaker shaping markets and a drink with an investor backing the next generation of companies, all within a few streets. There are very few places in the world where that still happens so naturally.
And one thing you would change?
We could be braver. The City is brilliant at risk management but less good at risk appetite, particularly when it comes to backing early-stage innovation at scale. If we want to stay globally competitive, we need to be more comfortable supporting ambition before it is fully de-risked.
What’s been your most memorable business lunch or dinner?
Early in the Scalable Capital journey, I was invited to a dinner where Adam Steltzner, GQ’s Spaceman of the Year and one of the key figures behind the Curiosity Mars Rover, gave a talk about being “the right kind of crazy”. His passion, humility and ability to turn extreme technical ambition into a human story were unforgettable. I still think about that evening whenever I meet founders who sound slightly mad in exactly the right way.
And any business faux pas?
I recently had the privilege of attending an investment summit in Edinburgh, where I was due to meet the King and managed to forget my passport, which was required as ID. That resulted in a round trip from Newcastle back to London and then straight up to Edinburgh again, purely to avoid missing the event.
What’s been your proudest moment?
I feel incredibly privileged by the career I’ve had so far, and hopefully, the most meaningful work is still ahead. That said, being awarded the Freedom of the City was a special moment, not least because it meant so much to my mother. I’m also enormously proud of the scale Scalable Capital has reached, and of what my co-founders and the wider team have built it into over time.
And who do you look up to?
I respect founders who combine ambition with resilience and integrity, especially those who keep going when it would be easier to stop. I also look up to people who quietly build institutions over time, rather than chasing headlines.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever been given?
Optimise for learning early on, not titles or money. If you keep compounding skills and judgement, everything else tends to follow.
And the worst?
“Play it safe”. Almost every meaningful opportunity in my career came from doing the opposite, albeit in a thoughtful way. Playing it safe can be far riskier in the long run.
Are you optimistic for the year ahead?
Absolutely. We’re seeing green shoots across the UK ecosystem: pension funds finally starting to allocate to venture, government engaging seriously on growth policy and a new generation of founders who’ve learnt from the excesses of 2021-22. 2026 could be an inflection point for UK innovation if we get the policy fundamentals right and deploy capital intelligently. The talent and ambition are here; we just need the ecosystem to back them properly.
We’re going for lunch, and you’re picking – where are we going?
A lunch outside of my office is a real treat, so it has to be Koya or Sushisamba.
And if we’re grabbing a drink after work?
I love a rooftop bar in the summer, so likely the Wagtail. However, more often than not its a local pub with the team.
Where’s home during the week?
London Bridge – has been since 2009.
And where might we find you at the weekend?
Out with my wife and dog, or disappearing down a rabbit hole with a book, a long walk with a pub lunch, or a slightly over-ambitious fitness plan.
You’ve got a well-deserved two weeks off. Where are you going and who with?
An adventure with my wife somewhere far afield, like Patagonia or Botswana. I admire people who can do two weeks on a beach, but I am not one of them. I need movement, landscapes, and at least a small sense that something could go wrong.