Innovations & Venues

Rethinking Financial Markets: Venue Innovation and the Future of FinTech Talent

In this episode of FinTech Focus TV, host Toby speaks to Krissy Lawler, Business Development specialist at OneChronos, recorded live at the TradingTech Briefing in New York. The conversation brings together two compelling themes that define the modern FinTech landscape: bold innovation in market structure and the rising importance of diverse, interdisciplinary talent. For Harrington Starr, a leading FinTech recruitment business, this discussion offers a valuable lens on the trends shaping hiring needs in 2025 and beyond.

FinTech Recruitment and the Value of Diverse Talent Pathways

Krissy’s entry into the FinTech world is anything but traditional. With a background in applied mathematics and biological research on whooping cranes, she didn’t follow the classic route into trading or financial services. Instead, her path reflects the growing importance of interdisciplinary skills in FinTech. Having considered careers in pastry and social work before joining OneChronos, Krissy exemplifies the type of candidate that modern FinTech companies are increasingly seeking: individuals who bring new perspectives, analytical rigour, and adaptability to fast-evolving challenges.

This story aligns perfectly with what we see every day at Harrington Starr. FinTech firms no longer hire based solely on legacy financial experience. They want problem-solvers, critical thinkers, and technologists who understand complexity from multiple angles. Krissy’s rise at OneChronos proves that diverse academic and career backgrounds are an asset, not a barrier, to success in financial technology.

What OneChronos Is Really Building: A Trading Technology Company First

OneChronos may be described as a trading venue, but Krissy is quick to clarify that it sees itself as a matching engine technology company. Currently operating a dark pool for US equities under a broker-dealer and ATS license, OneChronos facilitates trades not via continuous markets, but through frequent batch auctions that occur around ten times per second.

The real innovation lies in what happens inside each of these auctions. Rather than matching orders on a first-in, first-out basis, OneChronos runs an optimisation model to determine the most efficient and high-quality matches across its order book. This approach allows the firm to avoid segmenting or curating its liquidity. Instead, the technology itself determines the best outcome, balancing quality, impact, and execution across participants.

This model offers a compelling contrast to traditional venues and provides insight into the kind of FinTech talent required to build such systems. From engineers developing the optimisation logic to business developers who can explain these mechanics to institutional clients, the hiring needs are specialised, technical, and highly strategic.

Expanding into FX Trading: The Next Phase of OneChronos

While the US equities dark pool is currently live and operational, Krissy reveals that the company is set to launch a Spot FX trading venue in the coming months. This is a significant development, not just for OneChronos but for the global FinTech trading community.

The FX market is known for its fragmentation, relationship-driven trading, and lack of centralised execution. By applying their auction-based matching and optimisation to Spot FX, OneChronos is aiming to disrupt the status quo. Krissy argues that rather than relying on post-trade analysis to assess counterparty quality, the venue's optimisation model enables a pre-trade solution that eliminates the need for curation or segmentation.

From a FinTech recruitment point of view, this move highlights the growing convergence of skillsets across asset classes. Companies operating in one vertical are now branching into others, creating demand for candidates who understand multiple market structures, regulatory frameworks, and technological paradigms. At Harrington Starr, we see this reflected in the types of cross-asset knowledge employers are prioritising, particularly as more firms look to scale internationally.

The Interdisciplinary Nature of Market Structure Innovation

The venue innovation discussed throughout this FinTech Focus TV episode isn’t isolated to US equities or FX. Krissy shares that OneChronos is also planning to enter European equities, with two MTF (Multilateral Trading Facility) licenses pending approval. This strategic expansion is driven by the belief that the firm’s core architecture, optimisation-based auction technology, is applicable across asset classes and jurisdictions.

What makes this even more interesting is the interdisciplinary thinking that informs these product decisions. Krissy outlines how lessons from the FX market’s fragmentation can help solve challenges in equities, and vice versa. In this way, OneChronos isn’t just expanding its reach; it’s building a more connected, data-driven approach to electronic trading. For hiring managers and business leaders, this reflects a need for talent that can move across verticals, speak multiple "market languages," and think holistically about venue design, execution quality, and regulatory alignment.

Live at the TradingTech Briefing: What the Industry Is Talking About

The conversation between Toby and Krissy was recorded live at the TradingTech Briefing in New York, where Krissy was also a panellist discussing venue innovation across asset classes. One of the key themes she brought to the panel, and reiterates in this episode, is the industry-wide shift toward greater fragmentation and complexity.

In US equities, for example, the proportion of off-exchange trading has grown significantly over the past decade. With over a dozen exchanges, dozens of ATSs, and single-dealer platforms competing for flow, the market is harder to navigate than ever. But instead of seeing this fragmentation as a problem, Krissy views it as an opportunity to build smarter mechanisms for trade execution.

Drawing parallels to the FX market, where fragmentation has long been the norm, she explains how OneChronos is learning from one asset class to improve another. This cross-asset learning loop is not just theoretical, it’s foundational to how OneChronos designs its products. For the FinTech industry, this kind of thinking demands professionals who understand nuance, who are open to experimentation, and who can translate complex systems into actionable strategies. It’s also why recruitment strategies must now prioritise adaptability and depth of knowledge across multiple domains.

Why Purpose Matters in Financial Technology

Toward the end of the episode, Krissy and Toby discuss the importance of purpose in FinTech innovation. OneChronos isn’t just building advanced trading infrastructure for the sake of it, it’s doing so with the clear aim of improving execution quality and market fairness. Krissy notes that each optimisation within their auction process is run with a specific objective: to maximise price improvement and reduce market impact.

This sense of mission is central to what makes modern FinTech companies attractive to both clients and candidates. At Harrington Starr, we find that the best talent is drawn to firms with a clear, purpose-driven ethos, especially when it comes to complex domains like electronic trading and venue architecture. Companies that articulate not just what they do but why they do it are more successful in both attracting and retaining top-tier FinTech professionals.

Hiring in FinTech: What This Episode Tells Us About Talent Trends

There’s a lot to take away from this FinTech Focus TV episode in terms of what it means for FinTech hiring in 2025. First, the era of narrow, single-discipline talent is over. Employers now need professionals who are comfortable navigating the intersections of technology, strategy, regulation, and sales. Whether it’s building optimisation algorithms, explaining them to institutional investors, or shaping go-to-market strategies, the roles are more integrated than ever.

Second, interdisciplinary backgrounds are no longer a "nice-to-have." They’re essential. Krissy’s journey from maths bio research to high-performance trading technology is a case study in the kind of adaptability and cognitive diversity that drives modern FinTech innovation. The future belongs to those who can combine deep analytical skills with flexible, systems-level thinking.

Third, geographic and product expansion is accelerating. Firms like OneChronos are moving quickly into new markets, Spot FX, European equities, and beyond. That means hiring strategies must be agile, global, and future-proofed. At Harrington Starr, we work with clients who are planning their talent needs two, even five years ahead. And the most successful among them are the ones who invest in talent with a growth mindset and a global view.

The Buzz Around OneChronos and What Comes Next

Toby closes the episode by highlighting the growing buzz around OneChronos. Following a previous episode with Scott Bradley, the firm has been the subject of much discussion in the trading community. And it’s easy to see why. From US equities to FX and European markets, OneChronos is offering a new way to think about execution quality, one rooted in technology, optimisation, and market structure design.

For candidates, this episode offers a window into the kinds of companies that will define the next decade of FinTech. For hiring managers, it provides a blueprint for what modern FinTech talent looks like: diverse, analytical, purpose-driven, and excited by complexity.

Krissy Lawler is not just a guest on FinTech Focus TV, she’s a voice for the new era of FinTech professionals. And for a recruitment business like Harrington Starr, that’s the kind of leadership we aim to champion and support every day.

Harrington Starr is a leading global FinTech recruitment company, dedicated to connecting top talent with the most innovative firms across financial technology. With offices in London, New York, and Belfast, we specialise in placing professionals across a wide range of roles including software engineering, infrastructure support, cloud and DevOps, data, cyber security, quantitative finance, sales, product management, and marketing. Our deep industry expertise, expansive network, and consultative approach make us trusted advisors to both clients and candidates. At Harrington Starr, we don’t just fill jobs, we partner with businesses to build teams that drive transformation, and we support individuals in finding roles that shape meaningful, long-term careers in FinTech.