Ben Webster, founder of Agile Underwriting Services, joins Dexter Cousins to discuss his journey as an entrepreneur in the insurtech space.

With a passion for developing innovative insurance platforms, Ben has successfully built and scaled multiple bootstrapped insurtech startups from the ground up, turning them into profitable businesses.

His extensive experience spans over 15 years, making him a true veteran in the industry. His deep understanding of the insurance landscape, combined with his technical expertise, enables him to drive transformative change and create meaningful value for both insurers and policyholders.

"The hardest problem is distribution. You can launch a product after 18 to 24 months of development, and then it's tumbleweeds." - Ben Webster

About AGILE Underwriting
Insurance brokers are being asked to do more with less with a range of tasks that drain time and eat profit.  With AGILE, brokers are discovering a more profitable way to sell insurance. AGILE Underwriting Services is a Lloyd’s cover holder and insurtech MGA specialising in Casualty, Construction, Cyber, Financial Lines, Retail Travel, Wholesale and more. Find out more - https://www.agileunderwriting.com/

About Todays show
We reflect on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Ben's previous venture, Insured By Us, and the hard lessons he learned from that experience. Ben explains the success of the AGILE model focusing on niche insurance products and the benefits of having a diverse portfolio as he struggled to keep Insured By Us alive.
Ben also shares insights into the challenges of finding the right people, navigating distribution and dealing with regulation in the insurance space.

Some founder insights Ben shares in this episode:
- Agile's diverse portfolio has helped the business ride the wave of market fluctuations.
- The insurance industry is highly siloed, making it challenging to find people with expertise in specific niches who can be successful in a startup.
- Distribution is the most difficult aspect of launching an insurance product, and AGILE has developed strategies to validate products early on.
- Ben emphasises the importance of a growth mindset and the need for entrepreneurs to be comfortable with uncertainty and feeling uncomfortable.
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"The writing was on the wall, and I knew that I was going to have to make redundancies. I wanted to do it as early as possible to make sure that people got a good payout." - Ben Webster

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Toby Norton Smith is the head of x15ventures, the venture arm of Commonwealth Bank. x15ventures builds, buys, and invests in ventures to help them scale.

In this episode of Fintech Chatter, Dexter interviews Toby Norton Smith of x15ventures. They discuss the xccelerate program, which is designed to help early-stage ventures explore the potential for partnership with CommBank.

This year's program focuses on climate tech and helping advance Australia's transition to net zero. Toby explains the benefits and challenges of partnering with a bank and sets realistic expectations for founders seeking partnerships.

Toby highlights some of the challenges they are looking to address including measurement, traceability, and other tools in the climate tech space. Toby shares the success of previous program participants and reiterates x15 ventures' commitment to supporting the fintech community in Australia.

Apply to this years xccelerate program
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**Key Takeaways:**
- x15ventures is a venture scaler that helps fintech startups scale through access to the CommBank divisions and customer network.
- The xccelerate program is for earlier stage ventures exploring partnership opportunities with CommBank.
- Partnership with a bank comes with trade-offs, including increased regulatory scrutiny and a shift in mindset around risk management and compliance.
- Climate tech startups need investment and customers, and corporates, including banks, can help with both.
- x15ventures is committed to supporting the fintech community in Australia and has seen success with previous program participants.

"There's a tremendous amount of help corporates need if they're going to lean into the climate tech space with any authenticity." - Toby Norton Smith

"We're certainly invested for the long term. We've definitely got the backing of ComBank." - Toby Norton Smith

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Dexter welcomes renowned Author, Advisor and commentator on digital finance, David Birch back to Australia.

"The metaverse is going to be built with an identity layer and a value layer, making it a safer and more secure place to do business." - David Birch

David is on a tour down under and will be making appearances at Intersekt and a number of exclusive events (details below)

Tune in for what is a bookmark episode of Fintech Chatter, an episode where we say goodbye to Fintech and hello to the new world of Open Finance!

"Tokenization is going to be much bigger than Blockchain." - David Birch

David shares new research along with Victoria Richardson on the Metaverse (or Metaverses). In this fascinating discussion David explains a template for the future of Fintech, a world where Digital ID, Digital Wallets and tokenisation enable the world to exchange value in a safe, secure, fair and efficient way.

Thanks to PayEd https://payed.biz/ for bringing you this podcast. You can catch David Birch in person at the following events:

• 17/8 Fintech Australia / ConnectID Pre-Intersekt Registration Link https://events.humanitix.com/pre-intersekt-2023-event
• Join Dexter! 20/8 Fintech Cruise [2-5pm], Newcastle Harbour NSW  Email [email protected] for more details
• 22/8 Executive Workshop Au10Tix, Sydney Email [email protected] for more details
• 30/8 Fintech Australia Intersekt Conference, Melbourne https://www.intersektfestival.com/registration/

You can follow David's work -
visit www.dgwbirch.com
writing David's Books/Magazines/Articles
twitter David Birch

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Dexter is joined by Vishal Dalal, CEO International Business for Pismo. Pismo hit the headlines recently after it was announced Visa were acquiring the business for US $1bn.

Pismo offers Next-gen banking and cards technology through a truly cloud-native API platform. Vishal shares Pismo's plans for the region after they recently announced details of a partnership with Grow Finance.

Dexter and Vishal also discuss:

- Pismo's rapid growth 🚀
- The rise of Brazilian Fintech 🇧🇷
- The attraction of Australia to Fintechs like Pismo 🤝
- How Australia is perceived as a Fintech nation 🇦🇺
- Does Australia have the best coffee in the world ☕️

For more information https://www.pismo.io/

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Dexter chats to Patrick Connolly, the founder and CEO of  Anility, an innovative SaaS business helping procurement and contract managers to evaluate the financial health and corporate structure of third-party service providers.

About Anility
Anility is a software-as-a-service company that is innovating in the financial viability space. We produce reports that are used by procurement and contract managers to assess the financial health and corporate structure of third-party service providers that tender on public and private works.

Financial viability assessments are a mandatory part of most procurement processes. Our value proposition is to levearge technology to offer a faster, affordable and more user friendly solution than our competitors.

Find out more - https://www.anility.io/

About Patrick Connolly
With 10 years of experience in the financial viability space and 5 years as CEO of Anility, Patrick Connolly is a seasoned professional in the industry and a thought leader within the space. In his free time, Patrick challenges himself with ultra endurance events that test his mental toughness and help strengthen his entrepreneurial mindset.

Patrick sees a parallel between the sacrifice, resilience, and determination needed to succeed in these events and the qualities required to succeed as an entrepreneur. He combines his financial expertise with his well-rounded perspective to bring a unique approach to financial viability.

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Simone Joyce CEO of Paypa Plane joins Dexter to share the good news of their US expansion.

In this chat we uncover:

• The challenges facing Aussie founders looking to launch in the US
• The opportunities for Aussie payments Fintechs in North America
• The US approach to regulation and how it fosters growth
• Getting the balance right between entrepreneurship, innovation and regulation in Aus
• Funding landscape down under
• Intersekt 2023

Find out more about Paypa Plane

** A call to arms.**

 Recent data shows the amount of Fintech funding in aus fell to 90% last quarter compared to the previous year.

I created this podcast to give a platform to Fintech founders to help promote their story to the world. Whilst we haven’t seen a 90% drop in listeners we have seen a drop. 

Fintech Chatter is in the top 1% of  downloaded podcasts in the world and one of the most shared podcasts on Spotify, so you’re already doing an amazing job, but if you could help us out just a little more I’d be forever grateful.

Please give us a share on your social media platforms. 

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Dexter Cousins  chats to Giuseppe Porcelli, the CEO and Co-Founder of Lakeba, a successful Fintech venture studio based out of Sydney.

Giuseppe founded Lakeba with a mission to conceive, create, and commercialise transformative ventures that reshape the future. Under his leadership, Lakeba offers a unique approach to technology investment, fostering disruptive ideas and turning them into profitable businesses.

Giuseppe's shares Lakeba's secret to spotting untapped opportunities which has led to the incubation and scaling of successful startups, across AI, blockchain, IoT, and other emerging technologies.

Dexter explores the Lakeba model from a B2B and B2C perspective and their approach to partnerships with major Australian corporations like Woolworths and Mirvac.

Find out more about Lakeba: https://lakeba.com/

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In today's Fintech Shot of positivity and good news, Dexter chats to Yanir Yakutiel to get his secrets behind the recent fundraising success of fintech company Loomi.

Hear how Yenir and his team managed to raise $15 million in their Series C round, even in the face of global economic uncertainty.

Learn about the determined approach of building a platform from scratch, prioritising profitability and cost control from day one. Discover the unique strategies that brought in new investors and enabled Lumi to close a round when many others are struggling.

Find out more - https://www.lumi.com.au/careers

Make sure to follow Dexter for his daily job-hunting tips on LinkedIn.

Dexter is also your gateway to top-tier talent if you're looking to grow or transform your fintech venture.

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Dexter Cousins is joined by Claire Alexander, founder of  Coach Claire. She's here to share her secrets on how to navigate the fintech job market.  

About Claire Alexander
Claire is a Global HR and Tech Talent Executive, Career Coach and ex-Employment Lawyer. She's also the founder of Thinktechstartup, an HR advisory business supporting tech startups turning into tech scaleups. Claire was previously Global Head of talent for Fintech unicorn Zip.

 About today's show
Claire shares her top tips on how to stand out in the job hunt, from engaging with potential employers online to the power of networking. We'll also be breaking down the pros and cons of LinkedIn's 'Open to Work' badges, the role of recruiters, and the art of approaching companies strategically. 

But that's not all. We're also addressing the tricky path of job applications and interviews. How do you follow-up without annoying recruiters? How do you handle rejection? And, most importantly, how do you determine your worth when evaluating a job offer? 

With Claire's expert advice, we discuss how understanding your motivations for wanting a job can aid in salary negotiation. This episode is an absolute treasure trove of practical, actionable advice – don't miss out!

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"Our success is defined by what we decide not to do because there are so many opportunities." - James Foster

It's been two years since James Foster last appeared on Fintech Chatter. And it has been an incredible two years for Ezypay with 50% year on year revenue growth, going from 60-100 people and now operating in 9 countries across APAC.

Summary:

In this episode, Dexter chats with James about the challenges and opportunities of being a profitable business in the fintech industry. James highlights importance of focusing on solving customer pain points and making money, rather than chasing funding and growth for the sake of it.

James also shares insights on the impact of Payto, a real-time account-to-account payment platform, and how Ezypay is leveraging this innovation to improve collection rates and enhance the customer experience. He highlights the need for businesses to adapt and innovate while staying true to their core values and profitability goals.

About James Foster and Ezypay
James Foster is the CEO of Ezypay, a payment solutions company that specialises in supporting businesses with recurring customer payments. With over 27 years of experience, Ezypay helps merchants optimise collection rates, improve the customer experience, and enhance cash flow. 

James has led the company through significant growth and profitability, navigating the challenges of the fintech industry while staying focused on solving customer pain points.

Follow Ezypay: https://www.ezypay.com/

Key Takeaways:

1. Being profitable and solving customer pain points should be the primary focus for businesses, rather than chasing funding and growth.
2. Payto is a game-changer in the payment industry, offering real-time account-to-account payments and improved customer protection.
3. Ezypay's success is attributed to its ability to focus on its niche market, make data-driven decisions, and adapt to the evolving payment landscape.
4. Doing business in Asia requires understanding the unique cultural and regulatory differences in each country, as well as being open to learning from failures and making course corrections.

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