Ep205 – Damir Cuca (Founder & CEO – Basiq) on building and exiting 2x startups and being a father of six

January 30, 2025
rohitbhargava
Podcast

My guest for Ep205 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Damir Cuca.

From tinkering with toys and electronics and immigrating to Australia as a child without knowing the language to building and exiting two successful businesses, Damir’s career has been a masterclass in determination, resilience and growth.

He’s best known as the Founder & CEO of Basiq, an Open Banking platform that offers secure access to consumer financial data.

Basiq went on to raise several funding rounds from top-tier strategic investors in the space including Salesforce Ventures, NAB Ventures and Westpac’s Reinventure fund before being acquired by payments giant, Cuscal, in 2023.

How to design a company culture that thrives on competitiveness and performance
What the process of acquisition looks like and what it meant for him personally
How he balances having an ambitious career with being a husband and a father to six children
And much more!

Timestamps:

1:28 Damir’s background
10:14 Pivoting from a blue collar path to software engineering
17:49 Building a technical and commercial skill set
25:18 Tips on defining problems to focus on in business
29:34 Moving to Serbia to set up Basiq
37:15 Building the culture at Basiq
41:41 Instilling continuous learning mindset
44:17 When to fight and when to let go
48:56 How he approached fundraising and the acquisition process
54:32 The experience of going through the exit
58:45 How he thinks about raising his 6 kids

Our partners:

A big thank you to Rohen Sood, Jake Osborne, Victor Leung and Elizabeth Cuca for their help with this interview!

Also a big shout out to our partners for the show:

Scendar

Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com

Vanta

Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on.
Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time.
Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vant a.com/playbook to get access to this exclusive discount.

Links mentioned:

Damir’s links:

Damir’s LinkedIn

People mentioned:

Companies mentioned:

Feedback/connect/say hello:

Credits:

Music: Paycheck

Other channels:

Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here

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Insights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors