Steven Hunter left JPMorgan aged 23. Now he's 34 and his company is worth $1.3bn

It's been a while since we spoke to ex-JPMorgan analyst Steven Hunter at 9Fin. The intervening years have gone very, very well for him.

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In the midst of the pandemic six years ago, Hunter told us that he felt thankful for having raised seed funding for his London-based fintech before the COVID-time began. 9Fin then employed 12 people and was hiring, but not wildly. "We had some really aggressive expansion plans but we decided to take a breather and see where the world ends up," Hunter told us in May 2020. 

That hiring breather didn't last and although the world has seemingly not ended up in a great place, 9Fin is doing fine. The company now employs 400 people. Last week, it announced the completion of a $170m series C fundraising round at a valuation of $1.3bn. 

War aside, 9Fin is helpfully positioned. It's at the nexus of current obsessions. It's about credit market valuations; it's about AI. "9fin is the intelligence layer for debt markets — combining proprietary data, real-time analysis, and AI-driven workflows into a single platform," goes the tagline. 

Hunter's 400 employees work across engineering, AI, data, editorial, and debt markets. Along with Hunter himself, those who've been there from the early days are presumably on track to become very wealthy. Accounts filed with Companies House in the UK show that 9Fin operates a share option scheme for employees with a four year vesting programme.

Hunter spent two years at JPMorgan in London after graduating with a first class degree in law from the University of Bristol in 2013. He spent another year at Babson Capital Management working on high yield investments. Then he founded 9Fin in 2016.

If you're a JPMorgan analyst with a business idea, Hunter cautions that entrepreneurship is very different to banking. "The same playbook doesn’t translate directly."

"In banking, there’s a well-defined process, whether it’s M&A, debt, or equity. These are transactions that have been executed many times before, with clear steps and resources. If you want to move faster, you can typically add more people or capital," he says. 

By comparison, Hunter says running a business involves uncertainty, urgency, and operating "without a clear playbook." He brushes aside comparisons with Revolut's Nik Storonksy, who once worked as a trader at Credit Suisse, and whose net worth is now over $10bn. 

Storonsky has been described as "obsessed with details and data" by one employee at Revolut. Hunter seems different. He likes high trust and self-sufficiency. "I aim to give our executive team a high degree of autonomy and ownership. Wherever possible, I set clear, high-level objectives and then let the team execute against them." 

If you want to join Hunter at 9Fin, he will be hiring. Headcount will be increased "meaningfully" he tells us. "The focus will primarily be on AI, product, and engineering as we continue to invest in the core platform. We also expect to expand our go-to-market teams, particularly in the US, where we’re seeing the fastest growth.”

What are the habits that have got him this far? Hunter declined to divulge an elite morning routine but says he's "very deliberate" in how he spends his time. "I use two simple filters. First, does this impact the company’s top three priorities? Second, am I uniquely suited to do it compared to anyone else on the team? If the answer to either is no, I probably shouldn’t be doing it."

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