At the start of the summer, Andres Lehtmets completed the Business Incubator’s 9-month incubation programme. His eponymous consultancy operates at the intersection of financial innovation and regulation. He advises fintech companies, financial institutions and regulators on regulatory strategy, policymaking and supervisory innovation. But what exactly does a company like this do, and how did Lehtmets arrive at this business model?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What does your company do?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I run a consultancy that specialises in the intersection of financial innovation and regulation. Put simply, I help innovators understand regulation and regulators understand innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I work globally with financial sector regulators and supervisory authorities as well as with market participants. Broadly speaking, I advise fintech companies, financial institutions and regulators on regulatory strategy, policymaking and supervisory innovation. On the public sector side, I work on development bank projects: I help regulators and supervisors shape financial innovation policy and innovate supervision itself, known as SupTech. This includes things like SupTech strategy, market analysis and fintech policy design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For private sector clients, I’m primarily a strategic partner who helps them understand where the regulatory framework and policy are heading: regulatory advisory, thought leadership and engagement with the public sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I also run training sessions, speak at conferences, sit on the supervisory board of a fintech company, and work on artificial intelligence at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge, where I’m currently also teaching an AI course for regulators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is your own background?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Before starting my consultancy, I spent nearly 15 years as a financial sector policymaker and supervisor, focusing mainly on financial innovation. I started in the insurance policy department of the Ministry of Finance, where I worked on policymaking and legislation for the insurance sector and the wider financial sector. Even back then, that included a lot of innovation and data protection topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At one point, Estonia took over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, and I was part of that team. As a result, we spent practically half a year in Brussels, and being so immersed in European affairs made me want to do more of it. I applied to EIOPA, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority. It’s the European supervisory authority that coordinates insurance supervision across Europe. On my last evening in Brussels, when the presidency was over and we were getting ready to celebrate with a couple of Leffes, I got a call saying I’d been selected. After that, everything moved fast. By early February, my family and I were already in Frankfurt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At EIOPA, I started working in depth on innovation and coordinating the whole fintech side, which in insurance means insurtech. Essentially, we built the insurtech and innovation supervisory toolkit from scratch. We looked at the impact on consumers, market participants and supervision itself, and at the same time worked closely with the European Commission and Parliament to understand what needed to change on the regulatory side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How easy was the decision to leave salaried employment and start a company?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Easy in one way, very hard in another. For the first few years, the whole family was in Frankfurt, but some time before covid my wife and child moved back to Estonia. Then covid hit and I worked entirely from here in Tallinn for a couple of years, but after that I started commuting between Frankfurt and Tallinn practically every week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The work itself was really great. The chance to have a direct say in innovation policy and supervision, a lot of independence and freedom to make decisions, regular contact with the biggest innovators. We sat at the same table with technology companies, from Google all the way to visiting Amazon’s office in London when we first started looking into cloud computing. And of course the international side: in addition to EIOPA, I was involved in the work of the IAIS FinTech Forum, which looked at the same questions globally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I knew I couldn’t keep commuting back and forth forever. When my older child was starting first grade and the younger one their first year of kindergarten, I decided that this was the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I had no plan. People often say they don’t, but they usually still have some irons in the fire. I genuinely had a blank slate. The only thing I knew was that I wanted to try doing something on my own. Because if I didn’t do it now, I probably never would. Soon to be 40. Or at least that’s how I thought at the time. And that’s how it went.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You worked for a long time in an EU institution. What was the biggest culture shock in going from an institution to being a solo entrepreneur?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The first shock actually came right after leaving. As I said, I had no concrete plan, and at first I just took some time off. And that was surprisingly hard. A huge sense of anxiety, because suddenly there was time. The calendar was empty. I didn’t have to fly anywhere. Before, in addition to Frankfurt and Tallinn, there were frequent business trips abroad. Sometimes I’d only stop by home to pick up clean shirts: the plane lands at 1 a.m., kindergarten drop-off at eight, and off again. That emptiness was hard and unfamiliar at first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Otherwise, there wasn’t really any culture shock. I expected that working for myself would mean doing everything myself, and honestly, that was fun. A huge learning curve every day. In the beginning I did a lot of things myself, simply because I enjoyed it and I had more time. Over time, I’ve been focusing more on my core work and trying to delegate the rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Was pricing your time and expertise difficult at first?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Probably the hardest part, yes. In theory you know everything, but in practice, when you don’t have a single client, you want to land that first one and you don’t quite dare to ask a fair price. Over time, of course, it settled into place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The incubator’s mentors and friends who were fairly generous about sharing real numbers were a big help. Because, well, Estonians don’t like talking about money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today I definitely don’t compete on low prices. My niche is narrow: the intersection of financial innovation and regulation, and the clients looking for that aren’t looking for the cheapest offer. I know my value, client feedback reflects it, and the price follows from that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You find most of your clients on LinkedIn. How have you made it a successful marketing channel for yourself?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I started using LinkedIn fairly by chance. I needed to organise an international roundtable on financial innovation and get C-level fintech speakers for it. I discovered that hardly anyone replied to email, but LinkedIn worked extremely well. Over time I started regularly sharing my thoughts and professional posts there, and today 99% of my clients come to me on their own through LinkedIn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why does it work? B2B sales are ultimately still person-to-person sales, and people prefer those they already know and trust. When I share my thoughts there and consciously build relationships, trust is established before the first meeting even happens. People know how you think, what you value and what you can offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And it’s not just clients. LinkedIn has brought board and advisory roles, co-founder invitations, speaking slots at international conferences, investment offers. It’s also a simple and fast way to test new business ideas. And most importantly: these initially virtual relationships have, over time, turned into real relationships with real people around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In short, today it’s my main sales and marketing channel. Since it works so well for me, I selectively share my experience with a wider audience too. Last year, for example, I spoke about it at two universities, at conferences and directly at companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What have you learned about building a personal brand?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n To be honest, I don’t really think about it much. But yes, today I’m selling myself and my name, which is why I decided to use my own name as the company name too. It’s come about organically and intuitively. I haven’t taken any course or read any book and decided, right, now I’m going to build a personal brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lesson is probably that you can’t be someone else. You can only pretend for a very short time. I am who I am, and I share that fairly openly. I don’t censor my thoughts, statements or behaviour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve noticed that too many people try to be perfect: polished, safe, generic. But it seems that what sets you apart isn’t perfection, it’s precisely the human side. An honest opinion, a real story, a strong position. It means you can be an expert, trustworthy and professional, and still be human. Especially in this AI era, that has become extremely important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You speak at a lot of conferences. Is there a stage that felt like a big achievement to reach?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I do speak at quite a lot of conferences, and hopefully the best is still ahead. For example, just this month I was invited to speak on the main stage at Money20\/20 Middle East, which reportedly draws around 38,000 visitors over three days. For various reasons I had to decline this time, but it was still recognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In general, I take every speaking invitation seriously, and once I’ve accepted, I prepare properly. Speaking is often an opportunity to organise your thoughts and test new ideas. In that sense, the size of the stage doesn’t always matter. For example, I’m very happy that I’m still invited to speak on innovation at events for regulators and policymakers. It’s nice to be back there, knowing that system and background very well, but now also seeing a bit more of the other side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You’ve been named one of the world’s top 25 InsurTech voices. What does that kind of recognition mean for you commercially?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Recognition is always emotionally nice, no point denying it. Commercially, it’s perhaps a kind of supporting quality mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Have you tried building your own product alongside your services? What have you learned from that?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I have, and I have a couple of ideas, but the work is still ongoing. Through this process I’ve learned that validating ideas is very easy nowadays. On the one hand, AI helps with a working prototype or demo; on the other, again, my LinkedIn network. I’ve tested a couple of ideas there very publicly, and the feedback comes practically instantly. You find people who’ve done something similar, but also potential first customers. In that sense, we really are living in interesting times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How do you use AI in your company today? What has it enabled, or how has it helped simplify things?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I certainly use it, and my philosophy has two parts. First, hands-on use and trying out small things yourself (with all due diligence, of course) is the best way to learn. Second, it lets me handle the whole administrative side very efficiently, from supporting bookkeeping to searching for data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, I’ve built myself a proper CRM tailored exactly to my needs. It supports my relationship-building and relationship-maintaining approach to sales, rather than the classic “send a proposal” style. And because it’s so tailored, it saves a huge amount of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In practice, this means that every time I’ve considered hiring an assistant to help with the administrative side, I’ve instead reviewed my processes, simplified them and then automated what I could. And that simplification is crucial: there’s no point automating complexity (something I often tell clients as well). So I’ve kept putting off hiring an assistant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How is AI affecting your field more broadly? What is the one thing AI will change most in your field over the next couple of years?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n These changes are already happening. I’ve just been working on a project with the University of Cambridge where we’re researching the use and supervision of artificial intelligence in the financial sector, and we put together the 2026 global report on AI use in financial services. I’m also a lecturer and mentor there on a course for regulators and central banks. The short answer is that AI is changing the entire value chain, from sales and advice to risk assessment, claims handling and supervision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What I’m following with the most interest is what’s happening in financial advice and how that is changing the whole sector, because people are increasingly turning to various AI solutions for advice. And beyond that, agents that don’t just give a person a recommendation but also make decisions and carry out transactions on their behalf. That raises a lot of questions. How far does autonomy extend? Who is responsible when an agent makes a mistake? What data can an agent access, and whose interests is it really acting in? How should supervision and consumer protection adapt? A very interesting time. And of course I always look at it from the opportunity side too, because financial advice is still very expensive and at times inaccessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What has been the biggest challenge in running the company so far?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Setting priorities, and work-life balance. I’ll say it openly: I’m still learning that. When I started out as an entrepreneur, I wanted more freedom to decide what to do and who to work with, and freedom in terms of time and place. And I wanted to spend more time with my kids, more flexibly, while that’s still possible. Sometimes it’s great to go snowboarding with my child at noon after school when the weather is nice, and then get my work hours done more intensively later that evening or in the morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, I have to admit that sometimes I still feel I should be doing even more, even faster. So that’s something I’m still learning as I go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What has been the biggest success?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Again, hopefully still ahead, but I’d highlight four things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, the fact that a client base has formed, contracts are getting longer and clients come back. That’s the best recognition there can be, and I’m very grateful to all those returning clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, the opportunity to work globally from Estonia with large clients, from big financial institutions and insurers to supervisory authorities. For example, I recently completed a project where we advised the Turkish insurance supervisor on the use of technology in supervision, that is, SupTech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Third, exports. Today 100% of my clients are outside Estonia. Not intentionally, and I’d be glad to work with Estonian financial institutions too. But bringing export revenue home to a small country feels good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fourth, my collaboration network. I’ve built a network of world-class experts who complement my knowledge and skills. This means we can take on very large projects together that require, in addition to my financial sector and innovation expertise, specific competence in areas such as IT, systems architecture, digital identity or cybersecurity. The fact that such a network has come together has been a big sign of trust in itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What are your plans for the future?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A sustainable, global business from Estonia. Growing the client base, credibility and network. And definitely building a product of my own alongside the services, as I mentioned earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How do you relieve stress?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If my working life is technology, then otherwise I really enjoy so-called offline activities. Besides photography, I snowboard and wakeboard, and I started the latter fairly recently, from scratch. The same summer I left my salaried job, I took up wakeboarding, and now I’m finishing my third season training at M\u00e4nniku wake park. Training twice a week, ideally one more session just riding for fun. While people usually ride in summer, training runs from early May to the end of October, which is a fairly long season for our climate. I always prioritise it, even if it sometimes means driving in from the other end of Estonia to be at training by eight in the morning, and I ideally plan business trips so that I don’t miss a training day. For me it’s always a kind of restart, because when you’re wakeboarding it’s impossible to think about anything else, neither work nor answering emails. The other thing is that it requires both the physical and mental side, and the latter is often even more important. I’d recommend that everyone give it a try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you could give one piece of advice to yourself a year ago, what would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Don’t stress so much; things will sort themselves out along the way. You can’t foresee everything, and you don’t have to. Experimenting is okay, more of that start-up mindset. Talk to people, test, ask for help. You don’t have to know everything yourself. The basics that you actually know in theory but don’t always follow yourself in practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You’ve just completed the Business Incubator’s incubation programme. Why did you decide to join, what did you find especially useful, and what do you consider valuable?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I noticed an ad, and several acquaintances had actually gone through it before and praised it. I knew a lot of things already, of course, but the biggest benefit was really taking time systematically and rethinking things. And definitely the community, meaning the other incubatees with whom to share worries and joys. And the mentors. Above all, the practical feedback: a good Excel sheet that I tweaked to my needs and started using for budgeting, or practical advice on pricing. Since I also managed to finish among the top three when graduating from the incubator and received additional mentoring, the process is actually still partly ongoing until the end of the year. I hope to launch my first product by then. I’m saying it out loud here so it’s harder to postpone. But I definitely recommend that everyone join the incubator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More information<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Website: andreslehtmets.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n