Founder’s Code: Shipping Fast, Earning Trust | Warren × In The Pocket

‍Founder’s code provides a playbook for founders who want to focus on their core business while experts build the product behind it, secure, robust, and ready to scale. That’s the balance we, at In The Pocket, strive for: human curiosity driving technology, and technology earning human trust. 

“Go to market as soon as possible. Talk to users and ask for their feedback. Early conversations reveal what matters,” says Cédric De Vleeschauwer (Founder & CEO, Warren).

Warren set out with a clear mission to give people more control over their financial future. In this episode of Founder’s Code, Hannes van de Velde, COO at In The Pocket, sat down with Cédric De Vleeschauwer (Founder & CEO, Warren) and Jos Polfliet (Founder & CTO, Warren).

Democratising Financial Advice

Warren did not wait for perfect conditions. They set a concrete goal and organised the company that will deliver. “We started by saying: we want to have revenue this year. We’ve done a lot of things in parallel, such as licensing, product development, and going to market.” 

The product grew from a real human problem: low financial literacy paralyses action. Belgium is great at saving, yet money often sits idle instead of fuelling companies and jobs. Warren’s answer is education, insight, and timely guidance connected to the world of work. 

“We give every employee a private wealth coach. The AI helps you understand your finances and benefits in your specific context. When needed, you book a video consultation with an expert. Video consults are recorded, transcribed, and fed back to the AI so it improves around each member,” says De Vleeschauwer. 

“The core of AI has become a commodity,” says Jan. “Our differentiation isn’t the model. It’s context engineering, compensation and benefits connected to the real questions employees ask, which also reduces load on HR,” he adds.

Speed and Quality Aren’t Opposites

Why bring in an external product team like In The Pocket so early? “Time to market,” says De Vleeschauwer. “Plugging in a seasoned team let us ship the MVP while we focused on licensing and early sales. For a funded startup, speed to value matters. And speed and quality aren’t opposites: start with the core, make it fit together, and sweat the details, especially the UX.”

What Founders Can Apply Today

1. Pick a hard, human problem. If people feel it, they will act when you help.
2. Parallelise the work. License, build, and sell at the same time.
3. Use hybrid AI. Let AI scale advice and keep experts for nuance and trust.
4. Win with context. Your unique data and integrations beat off-the-shelf smarts.
5. Rent speed, protect focus. Plug in a seasoned product team while you handle regulation and sales.
6. Ship the core well. UX quality and robust architecture pay back as you scale.
7. Decide fast, together. Keep feedback loops short and channels open.

‍