Building an offshore entity, from scratch, in the Seychelles

SFM Offshore sold offshore companies with various associated services, and opened bank accounts — at the time mainly in Switzerland — for an international clientele.

The company worked with about fifteen jurisdictions for incorporating companies, mainly in the Seychelles, and relied on a network of Swiss banks to open accounts. Sandro Medina was hired there as Estate Planning Executive, based in Geneva — but was sent to the Seychelles from the very start to incorporate the local structure and build the team on the ground, which he went on to lead until his departure.

From two to fifteen

The Seychelles team started out at two people. Sandro Medina grew it to about fifteen, with responsibilities spanning sales, managing a portfolio of several hundred international clients, and the relationship with the partner bank network. The pace of incorporation rose from about ten to about a hundred companies a month — the statistic he remains proudest of from that period.

What this experience taught him

It was there that he first saw how far an online business — at the time driven mainly by Google advertising — could reach across the world, and how attractive the margins could be. It was also within this structure that he trained in depth in the world of trusts, often linked to offshore companies: company law, trust law, estate planning and investment.