This week we hit an exciting milestone — our 100th newsletter! It’s not an easy task to produce resource-filled content week-in and week-out, but we made it. I wanted to take a pause and reflect back on how we started this whole journey and give context on where we want to go with future content. our vision at the BEGinning 6 years is a long time to be writing on the same topic. I started this website back in 2017 to serve as a helpful resource for the industry’s early adopters & enthusiasts to learn about the financial services innovation. At that time, there was minimal awareness of Fin ..read more

The fintech landscape is more challenging than ever is the understatement of the year. The shift from a period of easy capital raising to a fickle funding environment forced founders and leadership teams to hit the ‘RESET’ button on current business operations and growth initiatives. Rising interest rates, increasing regulation, and turbulent economic headwinds altered the landscape for financial institutions, fintech platforms, and infrastructure partners. The new focus on profitability puts pressure on execs to make strategic changes soon to avoid being shut down in 2024. A New Mindset Play ..read more

(Image — SS’s Unsp) The end of the year is a great time for reflection. 2023 was a year of industry ‘firsts’ and full shifts in sectors that had been trending up. There was so much to process from the last 12 months that we forget key developments that took place. This post archives the year’s dynamics and puts into perspective what happened now that the industry has had time to digest it all. Crypto Winter The winter firmly set in by the end of 2022. From the end of 2021 to early 2023, many established companies (such as lenders and exchanges) shut down — due to regulatory pressure or lack o ..read more

Desktop & Mobile App (Image - SSB) As we get ready to start the final month of the year, we look ahead at 2024 and what’s in store for the financial services industry. Reflecting back at 2023, companies of all sizes faced economic challenges from the current market downturn. Tough decisions needed to be made in response to minimal investor funding, slow revenue growth, and increasing regulatory pressure. Innovation is still on the horizon as the industry awaits a leap forward with AI (artificial intelligence) and new developments from account-to-account (A2A) payments, digital wallets, an ..read more

GTM Meeting (Image - LI) Many infrastructure providers and vendors are moving upstream in terms of target segment, no longer relying on startup customers. There’s a substantial lift in revenue from 1-2 enterprise clients that outweighs the need to service various smaller customers that are struggling to scale transaction activity. We previously shared a Go-to-Market (GTM) Playbook for revenue, sales, and strategy teams from B2B fintechs selling into enterprises and financial institutions. Before launching a GTM effort for enterprise, it’s critical to put the properly planning in place — espec ..read more

Breakdown of Go-To-Market areas (Image - NoGood) As funding from VCs slowed down in the last 18 months, more B2B (Business-to-Business) fintech companies focused on selling into enterprise firms (mass market brands with 1M+ active users) and financial institutions (FIs), instead of startup clients. For growing fintechs, this as a natural progression — going upstream towards larger, established customers that can deliver substantial revenue activity in one relationship. These public or private companies (in/out of the financial services sector) and FIs are interested in improving their tech ca ..read more

Neobank All-time List (Image - LI) We first wrote about neobanks (a digital, branchless alternative to traditional banks) back in February 2020. It was a different era in which financial service apps were in high demand and the open supply of funding capital (from venture capital investors) helped propel numerous founders to build everything. Add to this mix the enhanced user experience from fintechs, and you had the majority of consumers & businesses opening a new account with a nonbank. Neobanks competed for the same monthly spend and wallet share from end-users who ended up with multip ..read more

Meeting (Image - TransUnion) The initial vision for financial technology (aka FinTech) in the aftermath of the Financial Crisis (2008 -2009) was to provide alternative paths to traditional banking. Established financial institutions were seen as a the main driver in poor economic conditions at the time. Many charged $100s in overdraft fees to their clients. Not all US individuals qualified for a traditional banking account or credit, which meant they had to use check cashing stores and payday loans. Early fintech startups took on the banner of expanding access to banking by opening services t ..read more

Trend Downward (Image - News24) It took a struggling economy, the collapse of regional banks, minimal funding from investors & VCs (venture capitalists), and increasing pressure from regulators to knock down the Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) sector in the US. Few platforms are launching new products in 2023 as partner banks are extremely cautious in working with fintechs & non-fintechs. In lieu of interest rate and business continuity risk, all financial institutions are preparing for the worst when it comes to their next regulatory audit and potential enforcement. The regional, mid-siz ..read more

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies continue to be admired by both investors and businesses (of all sizes). Enterprise companies first got on the SaaS train in the early 2000s as they looked for tech solutions that automated tasks and improved operations. These large, institutional players appreciated the horizontal, broad approach of solutions that applied to various needs (regardless of a company’s industry). Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) require a more customized path to solving their painpoints. This where Vertical SaaS first arrived — platforms focused on a specific industr ..read more