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Historically, in order for someone to reach the top of the business ladder, they had to go to university and show on paper that they had both the knowledge and skill to be a leader. However, in the modern day, this no longer feels like a necessity, as Leanne Holder of Giving To Services recounts her experience and how she reached her position.

Giving To Services is a crypto token (SVS) and community-centric staking platform that recognises and rewards public service workers that continue to be under-compensated and undervalued within global societies.

Giving To Services exists to both support and empower public service workers through decentralised finance tools and a strengthening digital currency. The company’s mission and technology position it to lead crypto philanthropy efforts and capture growth in global crypto markets more broadly.

Its staking platform consists of three baskets wBTC, ETH and USDT and has over 1.5 billion tokens staked to date. SVS token purchase and staking generates passive income for individual and institutional investors. Smart Contracts facilitate a continuous giveback of four per cent of staking interest returns to vetted public service workers.

The company has helped over 1000 families. The four per cent pot currently stands at over £100,000 with 1500+ wallets actively staking.

Leanne Holder is one of the very few female CEO’s within the cryptocurrency world, leading an all-male team. She is one of, if not the youngest cryptocurrency CEO in the world at 29. 

Tell us more about your company and its purpose

Giving To Services is a crypto token (SVS) and community-centric staking platform that recognises and rewards public service workers that continue to be under-compensated and undervalued within global societies.

Giving To Services exists to both support and empower public service workers through decentralised finance tools and a strengthening digital currency. The company’s mission and cutting-edge technology position it to lead crypto philanthropy efforts and capture growth in global crypto markets more broadly. SVS token purchase and consequently the staking of the token on our platform generates passive income for individual and institutional investors. Smart Contracts then facilitate a continuous giveback of four per cent of staking interest returns to vetted public service workers.

What are some of your recent achievements you’d like to highlight?

Aside from the company’s achievements such as being awarded the Bronze Award of the Armed Forces Covenant and our shift from ERC-20 to XRPL there have been a few personal achievements. I won the ITV and Chwarae Teg Womanspire Entrepreneur Award which was an amazing feeling and recently was part of the Equal Power Equal Voice programme funded by UK Government which saw me with a mentor from a political background and visits to the Houses of Parliament.

Creating a network to help inform policies within fintech is something that I am looking to pursue and having recently become a member of CryptoUK this will help to inform this. Finally, I have been named a Top 10 Young Entrepreneur To Watch which is fantastic.

How did you get into the fintech industry?

Working in fintech was never actually planned. I was working as a business owner and as someone who was already interested in crypto and investments, I saw Giving To Services in its infinite stages and wanted to know more. I saw that the start-up was giving back to service personnel including those in the military and after serving a few years in the Army Reserves I wanted to see how I could help.

I volunteered my time to help with anything that needed to be done and was consequently offered the position of head of relations. Quite a while later I was then offered head of partnerships and fast forward a few years and I have been appointed CEO. My business experience has proved versatile and extremely useful within the fintech industry.

What’s the best thing about working in the fintech industry?

I love the way people are willing to network and chat. Having previously worked in the automotive industry, the sense of competition amongst others within the industry is strong. There was never any sense of community. With fintech, there is always an event, a community social or simply someone to say hello to on LinkedIn and if there is ever a question people will pull together to help answer it. I have found everyone so far to be really friendly and it’s extremely refreshing.

What frustrates you most about the fintech industry?

The lack of females within the industry is really frustrating and especially the lack of females gaining promotions. According to McKinsey’s 2021 Women in the Workplace report, for every 100 men promoted to manager, only 86 women are promoted. Not only that but reports show that 91.1 per cent of companies pay their male employees more than their female staff. Furthermore, only two per cent of fintechs in Europe this year were founded solely by women and the figure is smaller than last year, and the year before.

How have your previous roles influenced your career?

Working in the business world has really set me up for my career. Having to be organised, have strong leadership and management skills and the confidence to be public facing have all been things the world of entrepreneurship has taught me. Equally being a female in a typically male-dominated industry is something that I am very familiar with having worked for over five years in the automotive industry. Being a woman in these industries has its own challenges and I have been well accustomed.

I also feel that my role within previous business ownership when working with customers has really informed my communication skills. As a CEO communicating with those invested within the company, our token holders, is really important. With many years of dealing with customer enquiries, complaints, suggestions etc I have learnt the correct way to project my thoughts and comments both publicly and privately to people.

What’s the best mistake you’ve ever made?

Going to university was potentially a fantastic mistake. After an undergraduate degree and then a master’s degree I ended up in an industry that was overpopulated, jobs were scarce and although I was headhunted for a fantastic job straight out of university, budgets were cut and I was made redundant. That however led me to start my own business, and I didn’t use anything that either of my degree’s taught me. I could have started that very business straight out of school. Therefore, there are times when I feel like university was a mistake. However, I believe that everything we do leads us a little further down the pathway to success and I wouldn’t have ended up in the position I am in today without it.

What has the future got in store for your company?

We are currently in the process of changing from the ERC-20 blockchain over to XRPL. We are also in a scaling phase where we will be hiring further in the next few months to continue our fast growth.

What are the next key talking points or challenges for your industry as a whole?

I think certainly as I mentioned before, inspiring more women to look at careers within the industry. Furthermore, crypto regulation within the UK is a huge challenge currently that is a topic for the whole industry. Finding the correct way to go about this is a large task and seems time-consuming to date.