Employee Spotlight: Kim Raymonde, Director of Partnerships & Integrations

On a regular basis, we talk with our team members about their experience working at Canoe, and their future goals and aspirations. This week, we spoke with Kim Raymonde, Director of Partnerships & Integrations.

Tell us about your career path. How did you become interested in financial technology?

I started out in financial services, working for an asset manager and a custodian bank, before taking a job in the outsourcing services department of a large financial software firm. As a software user, there was a feeling of frustration when the product didn’t work the way you wanted it to. Being on the technology side, and getting to influence the product to make it suit real-life workflows was amazing! I never want to go back to the other side.

What drove your decision to join Canoe?

I have worked with Canoe and other firms in the alternatives data space for a few years now, and of all of them, I was most impressed with Canoe’s technology-based approach. Canoe has dedicated the bulk of its resources to streamlining and automating what has been historically a tedious, manual, and error-prone process. And one of Canoe’s best features is that it gives the client oversight and control throughout the entire process so they don’t have to question whether or not things got done, or got done right. There is such a huge need in the market for exactly what Canoe delivers, it seemed like a great time to join the team and help truly solve the alts problem once and for all.

Director of Partnerships & Integrations is a new role at Canoe. What are some of your key responsibilities?

While forming a Partnerships & Integrations team is new, Canoe is not new to partnerships nor integrations. Canoe is already working with hundreds of firms with whom we source data and documents or deliver data and documents on behalf of our clients. And Canoe technology powers a growing number of firms that are providing an array of managed services for alternative investments. I will be focussing on implementing a more strategic and proactive approach to all of these relationships so Canoe and its partners can work together to better serve our common clients and grow our respective businesses together.

What do you think constitutes a strong partnership program at a financial technology company like Canoe?

Strong partnerships are like any good relationship. They have to be balanced, with mutual benefit, not one-sided. We have to share common goals and values.  There has to be a lot of communication–what’s working, what’s not working–with mutual respect and mutual commitment to growth and success. We have to be able to collaborate and solve problems together.  

For financial technology firms in particular, where we must coordinate our respective product and development roadmaps for what can sometimes be very long integration projects, aligning on goals and milestones, and honoring our commitments to resourcing mutual development projects is crucial. 

Since joining Canoe two months ago, what are some of your initial impressions?

I am inspired by my amazing colleagues every day. There are so many smart people with so much energy and drive here, it reminds me how much I’ve missed that start-up vibe! I recall that saying, “Why don’t you use your powers for good instead of evil,” and that’s exactly what everyone here is doing: lots of good. Everyone genuinely wants to make a better product, solve their clients’ problems, automate the heck out of the alternatives industry, and the feeling is contagious!

Can you share your top three goals for 2022?

I’ll give you two professional and one personal.  

Professionally, I am looking forward to 1) putting internal processes in place so that cross-functional teams will feel informed and supported to go out and do good work with our partners, and 2) launching a formal Canoe Partnerships Program with defined member benefits later this year.  

Personally, I am working on reforming my black thumb, and trying to keep plants alive both inside and outside my house. The outside ones used to have a fighting chance because nature would occasionally water them when I forgot to, but climate conditions where I live in California aren’t helping that much these days.  The inside ones are getting watered fairly regularly and doing OK at the moment thanks to a wonderful little hack I learned called “habit stacking.” Fingers crossed for the ficus!