From Scaling Revolut to $33B to Tackling the Global Energy Crisis: Alan Chang's Next Big Bet

The former Chief Revenue Officer of Revolut shares his journey from fintech to renewable energy, shedding light on first-principles thinking, building from scratch, and breaking the rules in regulated industries.

Before Alan Chang reached 30, he had already achieved what most people could only dream of—helping scale Revolut, a fintech startup, from its early days to a global powerhouse now valued at $45 billion. As Revolut's third employee, Alan played a pivotal role in steering the company to profitability, overseeing its operations and growth across 50 markets. By the time he left in 2022, Revolut was worth $33 billion. But rather than coast on that success, Alan chose a different path. With a relentless hunger for new challenges, Alan set his sights on an even greater problem: the future of energy.

Today, Alan is at the helm of Fuse Energy (Fuse), an energy company focused on transforming how the world generates and consumes power. This is the story of a man who refuses to settle for success, guided by first-principles thinking and driven by an insatiable desire to rewrite the rules of entire industries.

From a "Headless Chicken" to a Relentless Achiever: Early Life

Alan Chang's childhood in Hong Kong was marked by a lack of confidence and direction. Recalling how he was bullied throughout his childhood, Alan humorously describes himself as a "headless chicken" in his younger years—directionless and often too shy to speak up. Far from the academic prodigy, one might expect of someone destined to help scale one of the world's leading fintech companies. Alan struggled in school. "By Year 7, I was a straight-F student," he laughs. "The only subjects I could ace without studying were math and science."

Alan's father, frustrated with his lack of focus, pushed him hard. But it was his mother who refused to give up, sending Alan to the UK for schooling in hopes that a new environment would unlock his potential. The move wasn't easy. Alan was rejected by top private schools, but his knack for math earned him a place at a grammar school. "The town was small and boring, with terrible Wi-Fi," Alan recalls. "So I couldn't even play video games, and that forced me to study."

With fewer distractions, Alan's grades soared, and he developed the work ethic that would shape his future. His father's tough-love approach also played a role in driving him. Alan remembers his father's words clearly: "You can be happy for five minutes, then get back to work." It was the same when he got into Imperial College and even when he earned his first million.

This relentless push to always strive for more became ingrained in Alan. "My dad taught me that you set the bar by yourself. No one else sets it for you," he reflects. It's a philosophy that has fueled Alan's pursuit of improvement and success throughout his life.

A New Beginning in the University: The Seeds of First-Principles Thinking

At university, Alan chose to study physics—not because it was his passion, but because it was the hardest subject. "I love challenges," he says. It was here that he stumbled upon the idea that would shape his career: first-principles thinking. "Physics taught me how to break problems down to their core elements and rebuild solutions from the ground up," Alan explains. This method of problem-solving—tackling everything from its most fundamental truths—became his playbook.

It didn't take long for him to realize that academia wasn't for him. "Within the first two weeks, I realized I didn't want to be in academia—I wanted to build things," he says. His love for entrepreneurship, which had been simmering since his early teens when he started reading TechCrunch, began to take shape.

Alan began experimenting with tech projects. One of his early ventures was a wearable device—an ambitious project that ultimately failed but taught him invaluable lessons. "I followed the trend and built something that technically couldn't work," he recalls. "But I learned two key things: first, don't chase trends, and second, cold emailing works." It was the latter realization that sparked his first foray into real business outreach. Alan emailed the top 10 retailers in the UK to pitch a checkout app he'd built. Much to his surprise, Debenhams' CEO forwarded his email to the CTO, and soon, Alan was sitting in a meeting with the retailer's tech leaders. "That's when I realized I could get access just by asking," he says. It wasn't a startup success story, but it was the beginning of Alan's entrepreneurial journey.

The real turning point came during a university mentorship event when Alan met an alumnus who had raised $10 million for a startup. "He wasn't impressive, and I remember thinking if he can do it, so can I," Alan recalls. That shift—from self-doubt to belief in his potential—was when he stopped seeing limits and started seeing possibilities.

The Serendipitous Start at Revolut: Hustle, Grit, and a Relentless Work Ethic

After graduating, Alan found himself adrift. He had faced rejection from consulting firms and wasn't sure what came next. Then, one day, while browsing a Facebook group, he stumbled upon Revolut, a fintech startup that no one had heard of yet. On impulse, Alan sent a cold email to Revolut's CEO, Nikolay Storonsky. What happened next would change his life forever. "Five minutes later, Nikolay replied," Alan remembers. "He scheduled an interview for the next day."

It was this kind of immediacy and intensity that drew Alan into Revolut's orbit. "I had never seen anything like it," he says. Revolut wasn't just another startup. While other companies wrapped up their workdays at 7 PM, Revolut was still buzzing with activity. "They worked weekends, too," Alan says. "And I liked that."

Alan started in customer service—an entry-level role that, in typical startup fashion, soon morphed into much more. Within two months, Alan had risen to Head of Operations simply by questioning everything and taking on more responsibility. "We worked 98-100 hours a week, but I loved it," he says. "I learned by doing, constantly asking why things were done a certain way and figuring out how to improve them."

Navigating the Pandemic: From Tough Decisions to Profitability

Alan's most significant challenge—and ultimately his greatest achievement at Revolut—came during the COVID-19 pandemic. As Chief Revenue Officer, he was tasked with an almost impossible mission: making Revolut profitable during a global economic downturn.

"We had to make brutal decisions," Alan recalls. "I went through every single expense line by line, deciding what to cut." But cutting costs alone wasn't enough. Alan introduced a more aggressive performance-based pay structure and pushed for stricter KPIs. "It was all about killing or renegotiating," he explains. "People would argue certain things were necessary, but I knew what we really needed and cut the rest."

It wasn't a popular strategy. "People didn't like me at the time," Alan admits. "But I wasn't there to be liked but to get results. You need someone with the balls to say, 'I'm not afraid to be hated.'" The results spoke for themselves. By the time the pandemic subsided, Revolut had turned a profit. "When we announced profitability, suddenly, people thought I was amazing," Alan laughs.

From managing and hiring for Revolut's team of over 8,000 people, Alan emerged with a key insight: today's world has plenty of capital, but time is the real constraint. "There's too much capital and too few great companies. The real challenge is organizing talent efficiently," he reflects. His experience taught him that hiring for intelligence alone wasn't enough. "I used to over-index on intelligence, but I realized it doesn't matter how smart someone is if their heart isn't in the right place. You need people who treat the company like it's their own."

Replacing employees, especially engineers, was a massive time drain. "Firing someone isn't just about the money—it eats up time," Alan explains. "It takes several people to onboard a new hire, and engineers need time to get up to speed on the codebase. In startups, time is your most precious resource. The world is full of capital, but time is what really makes or breaks a company."

Building the Future of Energy: The Birth of Fuse

After achieving enormous success at Revolut, where he helped build a $45 billion fintech giant, Alan Chang felt an insistent pull toward something even bigger. Alongside Charles Orr, another former Revolut employee, Alan began looking at industries ripe for disruption, and one stood out above all: energy.

The breakthrough came when they came across a battery trading company making substantial profits. The discovery led them down a rabbit hole, revealing the vast inefficiencies of the global energy grid. "The deeper we looked, the more we saw how broken the energy industry was—things just didn't add up," Alan recalls. Beyond the inefficiencies, he was struck by how far behind the industry was in meeting net zero goals.

Alan's decision to dive headfirst into energy was fueled by what he calls a "conviction bet." Using a strategy he'd perfected, he identified three essential factors for success: talent arbitrage, with the absence of top engineers in the energy sector; the clear cost advantage of renewable energy over traditional sources; and finally, the sheer size of the global market waiting to be disrupted. "Energy and AI will define the next 30 years," Alan says. He believed the energy sector was at the same inflection point as fintech was when he joined Revolut—a sleeping giant poised for revolution.

"My strength lies in breaking through the status quo in heavily regulated industries," Alan explains. "It's not just something I learned; I think it's what I'm best at." At Revolut, he had seen how entrenched, regulated industries could be overhauled. He faced off against behemoths like HSBC, weighed down by layers of management and outdated systems. "In unregulated industries like AI, your competitors are just as smart and can raise as much money as you can," Alan continues. "But in regulated industries like banking, you're up against slow-moving giants." Revolut had outmaneuvered these sluggish competitors by staying nimble, and Alan believed that the same opportunity existed in energy.

This conviction led Alan and Charles to raise $78 million in Fuse's early stages from top-tier investors before even having a product—just a vision. "It was just a presentation, but the opportunity was enormous, and investors saw that too," Alan says, confident in his bet.

Fuse is not just another energy company. Alan's vision is to create a full-stack solution that encompasses solar, wind, and hydrogen with a direct-to-consumer approach. Fuse's model puts the power, quite literally, in the hands of consumers, allowing them to manage their energy consumption through innovative technology. However, Fuse's true innovation lies in its approach to demand response—a system that allows the company to aggregate consumer behavior and create a virtual power plant, stabilizing the grid without needing to build new infrastructure.

"The grid is inefficient because renewable energy is intermittent," Alan explains. Renewable energy sources like wind and solar are often unpredictable, making it challenging to balance supply and demand. Fuse's platform incentivizes consumers to adjust their energy usage in real time, aligning consumption with periods of high renewable energy availability. This smooths out fluctuations and helps stabilize the grid without costly new infrastructure. "We incentivize consumers through rewards, even incorporating gamification and cryptocurrency-based incentives," Alan adds, showcasing his forward-thinking approach to modern energy solutions.

But that's only one layer of Alan's strategy. Fuse is also building the renewable infrastructure of the future, integrating solar, wind, and hydrogen technologies. Fuse's current pipeline includes over 300 megawatts of renewable energy projects, and it has already generated north of $40 million in revenue within its first year of operation.

"Eventually, renewable energy won't even be called renewable—it'll just be called energy," Alan predicts. His vision for Fuse is not only to make energy cleaner but to revolutionize the entire energy ecosystem, creating a smarter, more efficient grid that's fully powered by renewables.

Leading with Autonomy: Fuse'sthat's Radical Management Model

Alan's leadership style has evolved significantly since his early days at Revolut. "When I started, I was harsh," he admits. "Over time, I learned that wasn't optimal—if people are scared, they won't speak their minds, and that's bad for business. Now, anyone can challenge me on big decisions. I make it clear that everything I say is up for debate."

At Fuse, attention (what to build) and execution (how to build it) are tightly integrated. "Separating those functions is inefficient," Alan explains. "Here, engineers handle both." By giving teams near full autonomy, Fuse accelerates decision-making and execution. "I hire the best, pay top salaries, and expect them to lead as well as build," he adds.

This management model isn't limited to engineering. Whether constructing solar farms or developing apps, Fuse operates without product managers. "We don't need them," Alan says. "Our teams decide what to do and execute it, cutting unnecessary communication and speeding progress."

Alan's strategy also focuses on putting the right people in the right roles. "Our product designer leads marketing because they understand the customer best, and our company lawyer handles HR because they're best equipped to protect the company," he explains.

Independent thinking is core to Alan's leadership. "I'm an independent thinker, and I hire people who also think independently," he says. "Our engineers have strong opinions, and though they're not always right, debate and discussion help us get there." Encouraging debate fuels innovation at Fuse. "Two logical, independent thinkers might start with different opinions, but they always arrive at the same truth," Alan explains.

As CEO, Alan likens his role to that of a coach—constantly monitoring and refining the team's performance. "My job is to swap players when necessary," he says. "I'm building a top football team and want as many self-guiding missiles as possible." This echoes an analogy his former boss at Revolut shared: "There are three types of people. The first is a self-guiding missile that identifies the target and hits it. The second can't self-identify the target but will hit it once told. The third doesn't know how to hit the target, even if shown. You want to maximize the first two types."

For Alan, leadership isn't about mastering everything but understanding the key areas. "You need a deep understanding of product and engineering and enough knowledge of finance, HR, and legal to make informed decisions," he says.

Lessons for Aspiring Founders and Alan's" Vision for the Future

Alan Chang's journey is a testament to the power of challenging norms and embracing discomfort. His advice to aspiring entrepreneurs: "You don't need everything figured out to start. Focus on the fundamentals and solve problems from the ground up." For Alan, it's about building from first principles—breaking down complex systems and rebuilding them better.

What sets Alan apart is his willingness to question everything and his fearlessness of being disliked if it means doing the right thing. His leadership isn't about following the rules; it's about rewriting them. He's an independent thinker, constantly pushing harder, working longer, and still believing he can improve.

Looking ahead, Alan has ambitious goals for Fuse. "In the next ten to fifteen years, we want to be the number one energy company in the world," he says. But for him, it's about more than just success—"I want to make the world a better place."