40 Minute Mentor

Episode 297

June 11, 2025

Adriana Restrepo: The Revolut secret sauce & behind the scenes of the fast-growing Crypto wallet startup Deblock

In today’s 40 Minute Mentor episode, we’re joined by Adriana Restrepo, Co-Founder of crypto FinTech, Deblock. 

Before building Deblock, Adriana spent 3 years at Revolut, overseeing People Operations and holding the COO role. 

While she never expected to step into a Founder role, today, Adriana is building the world’s safest account for seamless management and exchange of crypto and cash, ensuring users truly own their money. 

In this episode, you’ll hear more about the significant lessons she learned during her time at Revolut, the secret sauce that’s helping her build and scale Deblock, their impressive funding to date and what the future holds for Deblock and the Web3 space.

40 Minute Mentor: Adriana Restrepo
“Being a great COO all boils down to somebody that’s really structured and is able to put a process in place. When you’re 0 to 1 it’s all rough on the edges but to really scale you need to put processes in place that people are able to follow.”

Adriana Restrepo

Tune in to discover

➡️ From Corporate life to fast-paced Revolut [04:30]
➡️ Fundamental lessons from Revolut [11:30]
➡️ Taking the leap into entrepreneurship [14:00]
➡️ Building Deblock [17:00]
➡️ More about today’s sponsor [20:00]
➡️ Co-Founder dynamics & building a team [22:00]
➡️ Celebrating wins [23:30]
➡️ Fundraising & growing a diverse team [26:20]
➡️ The impact of a great COO [35:00]
➡️ The future of Deblock & Crypto [40:30]

Listen on

Helpful links

🔍 Find out more: 

Connect with Adriana: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianarestrepo 

More about Deblock: https://deblock.com/en-FR 

 

📣Learn more about today’s sponsor: 

Today’s episode is sponsored by Foundation Partners, an Amplified People Group company. 

Foundation Partners is reinventing how ambitious, early-stage companies access People & Talent support. They offer a fully flexible, fractional People & Talent team with specialist skillsets and hands-on delivery that starts driving impact in just 2 weeks. 

As a 40 Minute Mentor listener, you can book a FREE 1-hour advisory call with a Managing Partner. Just head to www.foundationpartners.co.uk/contact and reference 40 Minute Mentor. 

 

🎧 You may also enjoy: 

Zeynep Yavuz: Investing In Fintech, Crypto & Emerging Markets with General Catalyst

Simone Maini: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome & The Future Of Crypto with Elliptic

Scaling Teams & Building a High Performing Culture – A Roundtable Discussion with Amplified Group’s Dr Andy Meikle, Anouk Agussol & Andrew Richardson

Enjoyed this episode?

Keep up to date with all our latest episodes, by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy the most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review.

Explore more episodes

11 Jun, 2025

Adriana Restrepo: The Revolut secret sauce & behind the scenes of the fast-growing Crypto wallet startup Deblock

40 Minute Mentor: Amplified Round Table
04 Jun, 2025

Scaling Teams & Building a High Performing Culture – A Roundtable Discussion with Amplified Group’s Dr Andy Meikle, Anouk Agussol & Andrew Richardson

40 Minute Mentor: Tamara Lohan MBE
28 May, 2025

Tamara Lohan MBE: From idea to exit – the scaling story of the iconic Mr & Mrs Smith travel brand