Now tell the truth, have you ever said that after a Banking/FinTech conference? But I heard a banker say it at the 2022 FedFis Roundup. The Roundup is a different event–limited to 200 or so, and completely focused on intimate, round table conversations, rather than vendor booths and canned speeches to mass audiences. What made it so exciting? The focus on BaaS banks. Fully 50% of the BaaS banks in the country were in attendance, […]
FinTechs are a major business opportunity for Bankers!
I was honored to co-author an article with Jill Homan, President, DeepTarget for this year’s edition. Many thanks to William Mills Agency for including us. You can download a copy here.
Bankers have a huge asset on their balance sheet that they are not managing: the traffic that flows daily to desktop and mobile Digital banking platforms. Non-bank Digital marketers spend fortunes to generate “organic traffic”—meaning people who come to their platforms because they are interested in the content, rather than arriving after clicking on an ad. Bankers have that built-in traffic due to their trusted position in the community. Why don’t we manage it as intensely as any […]
After 20+ years of selling Digital Banking tech, I’ve reached the conclusion that no vendor will give your bank or credit union a decisive edge. But your connection to your community will. Last week, I had a long conversation with two analysts at a leading tech research firm. They kept wanting to steer the conversation to which vendor had killer functionality today. I told them that it didn’t matter, because all the other vendors would have the same […]
I’ve been heads down for quite some time managing the ecosystem at Malauzai, and so have been away from my blog. I’ve taken a new position at Finastra, should have interesting things to report going forward. Please stay tuned…..
This week, I met a prospective customer who was interested in our Apps, but had a real problem. “What happens to me when you get acquired?” he demanded angrily. It was a fair question. There are many cases where a young tech company gets acquired, the founders ride off into the sunset, and service goes to hell as the company is absorbed by a large acquiror. Customers buy innovation from young companies, but worry that that […]
How many Angels do you want in your cap table? Mark Suster wrote a great piece in July giving his answer: “If all else fails, angel-load away! If you can’t raise from a few strong angels, from seed funds or from a VC then raising from a ton (let’s say 20+) angels is a perfectly acceptable strategy. There. I said it. It’s not terrible, it’s just not ideal if you can avoid it. ” Well said, Mark. […]
There is a conflict in many startups that no one seems to write about–the clash that can occur between the founder and the professionals they bring in to help build their companies. It was highlighted for me by a conversation with a friend this week who had just joined a young company in the Bay Area as as a CFO. He remarked that with just a few tweaks in the business model, he thought the […]
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