The Mandala Group
Growth and Financial Services Advising
About Us
In the early 2000s, two big ideas flipped the world of financial services on its head. PayPal burst on the scene as the first successful alternative payment method. Meanwhile, Visa had woken up from its years as a bank association to transform into an innovation engine that would send card usage skyrocketing. As newcomers into this budding world of "fintech", the two founders of the Mandala Group, Frederick Crosby and Sophie Decker, would enter a time of rapid innovation and changing business models.
Over the next two decades, both would take revenue leadership roles at those companies and Frederick would become CRO at several other financial services that were changing the norms of the day. But one thing always became clear. Innovation changed capabilities quickly, but business habits moved at a slower pace. Somewhere between overhyped exuberance and stubborn denial lies the perfect cosmic unity on how to attack a market.
The Mandala Group believes in the possibility of bringing old and new worlds together. AI and crypto have thrown the doors open to new opportunities and the giant engine of global financial services longs to grow with them. But to do so means a good understanding of how the trillions in volume flow today, the possibilities new technologies bring, and the knowledge and the hands-on experience of overseeing billions in new revenue growth over the years with top GTM teams.
Frederick Crosby
Frederick Crosby has led GTM teams through major growth and expansion periods, helping with global expansion and building new organizations. He always quipped that his CRO title stood for Chief RECIPE Officer - figuring out what blend of sales, marketing, and customer support is needed to attack the opportunity ahead. He believes in the marriage of a well-mapped KPI world and the artistry of properly presenting your services in the language your customers can relate to.
At PayPal and Western Union, he pushed through innovative customer metrics that unlocked acquisition of hundreds of millions of dollars from new customers sending funds globally online. At Nium and Veem, he rebranded the companies, expanded their share of voice with strong content and PR, and built an expanded, metric-driven sales team to push B2B acquisition higher around the world. Now studied in the advantages of stablecoins and AI, Frederick is helping the next generation of fintech leaders create new paths to rapid revenue growth.
Sophie Decker
Sophie Decker has built her career mastering the art of cross-functional operations - from legal operations during Visa's IPO to product portfolio management to global sales enablement. She's the rare executive who's operated at the intersection of strategy, finance, product, marketing, and sales, giving her a unique perspective on how all the pieces or an organiztion fit together to drive growth.
At Visa, Sophie scaled and integrated systems across legal, product, finance, and sales functions in an extremely complex payments ecosystem. Whether optimizing product launches, creating new analytics platforms or driving acceptance strategies across global markets, she knows how to align diverse stakeholders around common growth objectives.
With two decades of payments expertise and a track record of building operational excellence across multiple business functions, Sophie helps early-stage fintech companies establish the cross-functional foundation they need to scale efficiently. She's the operational leader you bring in when you need someone who can see the big picture and make all the moving parts work together.
