Photography by VICTOR HEEKEREN
“What fascinates me about the capital market is that it is the ultimate marketplace. You can see in real time how assessments are made. And all human emotions are involved: hope, greed, fear, euphoria, panic.” This connection, he says, is crucial for any functioning society. Because without capital, there is no innovation, and without innovation, an economy stagnates.
This is where Scalable Capital, the company Podzuweit co-founded in 2014, comes in. His goal: to make the capital market accessible to everyone and break down existing barriers.
To do this, Podzuweit left the world of Goldman Sachs’ trading floor—a step from a top salary into complete uncertainty—and followed an inner urge to build something of his own. Looking back, he describes the decision as a mixture of courage, obsession, and a good dose of naivety: “For me, obsession stands for a strong intrinsic motivation, which I see not only in our field, but also in sports or art: the people who ultimately show an incredible ease often have a chain of insanely focused work behind them.”
With this mixture of focus and conviction, he is determined to open up a system that has long been considered elitist. Perhaps it is also his infectious humour that shows the financial world from a refreshingly human side.