Central London was buzzing on the 22nd and 23rd November as Revolut and WIRED collaborated to host a unique experience at Outernet London, an iconic venue symbolizing the city’s craving for innovation. Giant screens beamed to the outside world the celebration of The Revolutionaries—twenty “honorees” showcasing their talent to an invited audience inside. Gamers, influencers, and artists rubbed shoulders in a gripping and colorful spectacle that marked Revolut achieving 50 million customers, after a period of robust growth in its business.
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Antoine Le Nel is the Chief Growth & Marketing Officer at Revolut. He explained that, in the past, Revolut expanded mainly by word-of-mouth recommendations. Having grown to 50 million customers, the company wanted to give something back to the vibrant community that has supported Revolut—customers for whom disruption is in their DNA. The result was the Revolutionaries concept.
“What does Revolut stand for? It stands for disruption. Defining a new standard in the way we are managing our finances. Therefore, we decided to bring talent together who have the same mindset but in very different areas. People who are challenging the status quo. Looking at how the world is today and what it needs. So, we have people from business, art, gaming, sports, entertainment, and so on. The central idea is to inspire everyone to be a revolutionary.”
The opening session saw Revolut’s founders, Nik Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko, take to the stage. Storonsky described the dizzying rate of growth that had taken it to the number one slot in the United Kingdom—and other countries—as the most downloaded financial app. The last decade since its founding had been a “very intensive ten years”, Yatsenko added, and with up to thirty “significant projects” in the pipeline, further stunning growth surges are predicted.
Entrepreneur and top podcaster Steven Bartlett joined Revolut founder Nik Storonsky on stage, as the first Revolutionary to be celebrated. Bartlett is best known as the presenter of the podcast, Diary of a CEO, ranked in the top ten global podcasts in 2023. But success was by no means guaranteed. In the first three years, nobody was listening, but then the viewing figures skyrocketed as word got out. Only an unwavering belief in his podcast concept kept Bartlett going. And key to its success was just letting top people talk about themselves in their own words.
“Great ideas need to arrive at the right moment. A good idea can sometimes arrive when the world isn’t ready and it’s not the right moment to disrupt. I never realized the podcast would eventually explode. The bet you must make is on what you’re passionate about—not the outcome. But the outcome can’t always be predicted. Bet on passion and then hope that wave coming into shore will carry you.”
Bartlett and Storonsky then hosted The Growth Tank: an opportunity for entrepreneurs to join them on stage not to pitch their ideas, but to share their challenges—truly a revolutionary event format. The first one was Jules Smith, co-founder of Blend, which is aiming to train the next generation of deskless workers worldwide. She wanted to know how to get in front of the right prospective customers and not waste valuable time. Storonsky fired some helpful points over recommending Blend hires people with experience and contacts in their target industries—such as leisure, for example.
Bartlett chimed in, advising Smith to put LinkedIn at the centre of her marketing and create content that does more than just market the company: it needs to appeal to the interests and passions of their desired audiences. Behave like a media company, and the content will find its way to the top of users’ timelines.
Other businesses came on stage to share their dilemmas, including Cliq, an app that aims to get users offline and back into the physical community. Bartlett thought Cliq’s timing was impeccable as loneliness is reaching epidemic proportions, while Storonsky advised the company to look again at its business model, revenue projections, and the app’s interface. Addressing issues like this would improve Cliq’s chances in a competitive marketplace.
One of the most moving and inspirational moments of The Revolutionaries event was when racing driver, TV presenter, and pundit Billy Monger took to the stage. This truly is a story of overcoming adversity early in life. In 2017, aged just 17, Billy had both his legs amputated after a near-fatal crash while racing at Donington. The sport of racing had been his passion from before the age of ten, but as he regained consciousness in hospital, his career clearly needed a massive rethink.
He told the event audience that as he convalesced, friends mentioned Alex Zanardi, another racing driver involved in a crash who lost both legs. “This became my revolutionary inspiration. We both had similar accidents. Once I heard his story, it made me see the opportunities and how I could get back into sport,” said Monger. Even as he lay in his hospital bed, Billy was figuring out in his head how to drive in his new condition. “Next thing I knew, those brainstorming moments were happening.”
Since then, Monger has broken the Ironman record in Hawaii in 2024, and has become a BBC sports commentator. On Christmas Day 2024, he will be watched by millions as he competes in the Strictly Come Dancing special. Despite the huge battles he has fought, Monger displays enormous humility: “Being a revolutionary is a bit of privilege. It’s nice to think that what I do is being recognized.”
The atmosphere at The Revolutionaries event was spine-tingling as legendary gamer TenZ came on stage. In front of giant video screens, he issued a challenge to beat him at the game of Valorant—of which he is a world champion. It’s a game where guns meet hypernatural powers in a 5v5 match to win.
Several brave youngsters bounded up on stage to take on TenZ. They were introduced by their handles that included such names as Quinntence, Spinglyplonk, and Agent Jade. There were a tense few moments as the players picked which Valorant agent to be, based on the respective roles and functionality. Then it was time to enter the first round. The audience was able to watch the action unfold on the huge screens, while also hearing the players’ deliberations.
TenZ was delighted to be in London meeting fans and to be acknowledged as a Revolutionary in the gaming sphere. The key to his success? “Be unpredictable and work with your teammates.” The most important thing, though, is that the experience is fun: playing Valorant should never be a grind. Thanking Revolut for the opportunity to meet burgeoning talents who dared to imagine they could beat him, TenZ pointed out it was his first time in London, but it was proving to be an “awesome” experience, from which he emerged still the biggest Valorant champ on the planet.
The second day of The Revolutionaries witnessed a catwalk with a difference, celebrating women’s bodies in all shapes, sizes, age, and diversity. These women are the real-life muses of artist Sophie Tea who is revolutionizing the way the female form is regarded through her art. In a feast for the senses, Sophie painted one of her muses on a physical canvas with digital additions layered on with a virtual paint gun. Wearing a VR headset, the audience was able to participate through her eyes in this very 21st century creative process.
Meanwhile, the London Community Gospel Choir filled the auditorium with their angelic voices, while several of the muses paraded down the central aisle. For Sophie, empowering women is about loving their bodies. “I didn’t like my body as a young woman. I hated the way I looked. Painting nude women was a great way to solve that negative relationship with my own body.”
Sophie started her career with a callout to women to share images of their own bodies on Dropbox. She was lost for words when 150 images appeared, including women who had undergone a mastectomy and other operations. As one muse, a great grandmother, said on stage, this artistic revolutionary has created a “beautiful sisterhood”. Or as Sophie put it: “In this magical space, we bear witness to women’s resilience. The most important relationship is the one we have with ourselves.”
Arizona-born Drew Binsky has turned travel into an art form. He has been to all 197 countries in the world, though admitted there were vast stretches of Siberia where he had not set foot—but it’s only a matter of time. It all began as a child, when his parents bought him a light-up globe for his tenth birthday. Soon he was memorizing countries and capital cities. All his friends went off to work in real estate or law firms, but he simply could not compromise his real self. He had a deep yearning to cross borders and encounter other cultures—a desire that could not be suppressed.
A travel blog became a Snapchat account and then migrated on to Facebook and YouTube. He astonished himself by building a community that was 15 million strong, with seven billion views, and a team of 25 people to help create and curate the content. Key to his success, he told the audience, was to step outside his comfort zone. That courage has taken Binsky to some risky places, including Mogadishu, Haiti, and Venezuela. But what he found there were great people—no different from anywhere else. His story echoed that of Revolut—spreading to a growing number of countries, and growing and developing in so many ways through the process.
“What is the body?” With that bold question, de Oliveira Barata held the Revolut audience in the palm of her hand. Her revolution has been about shifting how we perceive disability, and transforming the lives of her clients by creating incredible prosthetics, several of which were on display in glass cases. Her most stunning creation has been The Vine—a tentacle-like limb created for Kelly Knox. It is, as de Oliveira Barata explains, “an otherworldly extension of the self”.
“All my pieces are completely different, completely unique depending on the wearer, what I’m making it for. So, I make prosthetic limbs for amputees, but I’m also known for the more unusual prosthetics.”
De Oliveira Barata made a film for Revolut featuring six prosthetics, demonstrating how they helped explore identity involving different skills and materials. Then Andrew, a client wearing a glittering prosthetic leg, gave a pole-dancing performance that was hypnotic and deeply moving. A display of grace and dexterity that validated Sophie’s work and vision.
The final evening of The Revolutionaries was devoted to music, with The Dare taking to the stage first. An achingly cool figure in a white shirt and thin black tie presided over the proceedings from a turntable at the back of the stage. Los Angeles-born Harrison Patrick Smith is The Dare, generating an energetic sound that exudes revolutionary vibes. The songs are a new take on the so-called “indie sleaze” scene of over a decade ago, which in turn echoed the best of the 1970s. After an hour of heart-pumping mayhem, it was time for the main act. Huge crowds had converged outside the venue in anticipation of what was about to happen.
A sea of smartphoness sprang up in the air for the finale of The Revolutionaries, a celebration of Revolut reaching the 50 million customer mark. How better to conclude this mesmerizing display of talents than with the musical star of the moment, Charli XCX — beginning her UK tour as the last of The Revolutionaries, wowing the audience at Outernet London. The capacity crowd waited with bated breath in anticipation as the music started and the runway-style stage awaited this inspirational Revolutionary’s arrival.
Through the strobe lights and dry ice came a familiar voice: “Wassup London?” Charli XCX was amongst us. The opening number, 365 featuring shygirl, set the venue on fire with the stage bathed in crimson light. Introducing the next number, Von Dutch, she expressed her wonder at playing in “the greatest city on Earth”. If ever there was a fitting end to The Revolutionaries evenT, then this was it—beyond doubt. A musical tribute to innovation, daring, and disruption, best exemplified in the story of Revolut.
