Fintech Takes

Simon’s out on paternity leave (don’t worry—it’s not like he’s catching up on any lost sleep), but thankfully, we’ve found an awesome substitute — the man, the myth, the early-stage investor extraordinaire, Jared Franklin, who’s helping Alex to break down some interesting fintech startups.

First up, they explore Wellahead (https://www.wellahead.co/), which is focused on helping older consumers (and their families) pay for care and other services by leveraging the equity in their homes.

Next, they dive into a BaaS platform founded by an early Stripe employee. Can Increase (https://increase.com/) outcompete Column and Lead Bank and everyone else in the exciting (and risky) world of BaaS?

Then they discuss Ribbon (https://www.trustribbon.com/), a digital estate services provider focused on helping banks and credit unions retain the next generation of customers and navigate the difficult financial processes after a loved one passes.

And finally, Jared and Alex take a long look at Conduiit (https://conduiit.app/), a financial management platform focused on the film and television industry. What does Conduiit’s product and GTM strategy tell us about what it takes to succeed in vertical B2B fintech?

The guys also spend a few minutes at the end trying to manifest some fintech (and social good) ideas that they’d like to see in the world.

00:01:18 - Jared Franklin: Fintech Expert and Investor

00:03:39 - Solving the Aging Care Affordability Issue with Wellahead

00:11:38 - Increase’s BaaS Platform

00:21:07 - Solving Difficult Estate Planning Solutions with Ribbon 

00:29:24 - Conduiit: Financial Management for the Entertainment Industry

00:38:11 - Manifesting Fintech Ideas

Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/

And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.

Follow Jared:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredfranklin/

Follow Alex: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Alex is joined by the one and only, Kiah Haslett to break down another month of bank and fintech news.

They discuss when, if ever, SoFi will finally be forced to report their earnings like a bank and dissect the weird sub-cult of SoFi bros who are willing to defend the company to the ends of the Twitter universe and back. 

And later, with the CFPB’s new proposed rules allowing them to oversee big tech companies and digital payment providers, what’s the foreseeable impact on the fintech industry?

Plus, Alex and Kiah debate whether or not fintech has a savior complex problem and Kiah explains how her hatred of hoodies landed her in a hotspot this past weekend (prepare for the full history lesson of the hoodie you never expected to get!) before dishing out her juiciest hot takes on the Christmas classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/

And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.

Follow Kiah:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khaslett/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/khaslett

Follow Alex: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Thanksgiving’s over and Christmas is almost here… so you know what that means! We’re checking our credit account once, checking it twice, and we’re gonna find out if Alex can stand to talk about credit building nice.

In this week’s fintech recap, our favorite breaker of fintech news, Jason Mikula, is back in the studio to break down the important topics in fintech, like whether green bean casserole is gross (it is) and if the entirety of the Twitterverse really needs to weigh in on the Sam Altman situation.

Then, Jason and Alex dive into the recent handful of consumer-facing fintechs, like HMBradley, Mint, and Ness, who have shut down or pivoted to infrastructure plays. Is the worst behind, or is there more pain ahead? 

And later, credit building can be a predatory business area. So what’s the deal with the credit-building app Tomo Boost? Is it a legitimate ploy or an intentional attempt to defraud credit bureaus? Plus, the guys dissect Plaid’s recent foray into becoming a consumer reporting agency, the sexual harassment scandal at the FDIC, and the wild NFT party in Hong Kong that we wish we could say shocked us.

00:00:02 - Twitter Erupts Over OpenAI Situation

00:03:09 - Green Bean Casserole: The Worst? Or the Worst?

00:06:43 - Consumer Facing Fintechs: What's Next?

00:14:45 - Partner Banks Pulling Back from Fintech Partnerships

00:24:49 - Exploring the Emerging Landscape of Credit Building in Fintech

00:32:09 - Making Sense of Tomo Boost

00:41:57 - Proposed Lowering of Debit Card Swipe Fees for Covered Institutions

00:46:45 - Plaid Transforms into Consumer Reporting Agency

00:52:26 - Sexual Harassment Scandal at the FDIC

00:55:02 - The Dark Side of NFTs

Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/

And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.

Follow Jason:

Newsletter: https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmikula/

Follow Alex: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

With the smell of turkey, thanks, and pumpkin spice filling the air, what better way to celebrate the holiday season than having a candid sit-down conversation with the one man responsible for sparking Alex’s journey to fintech fanaticism? 

That’s right—meet doting dad and OG fintech obsessive himself, Tom Johnson. A fintech maestro with 30 years of industry prowess, Tom's wisdom, acquired through decades of navigating the fintech landscape, is nothing short of gold. 

He and Alex have a candid conversation about the biggest fintech lessons they’ve learned throughout their tenured careers, including the challenges and opportunities in building fintech infrastructure, the importance of listening to customer pain points, and why building best-of-breed solutions with a long-term strategy in mind is the key to surviving in a rapidly evolving fintech market. 

Plus, find out why that one banker looking to carve out his career might just be your ticket to fintech glory. 

00:01:34 - 30 Years of Fintech Experience

00:04:14 - You’re Just Gonna Have to Trust Me

00:06:36 - Building Configurable Fintech Infrastructure Services

00:14:48 - Selling to Fintech vs. Banks

00:23:59 - Listen to Your Customers

00:31:43 - The Evolution of Infrastructure Orchestration

00:40:44 - When to Start Playing Three-Dimensional Chess in Business

00:43:48 - Transitioning to an Orchestration Role

00:46:08 - Breaking Down Fintech Silos

Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/

And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.

Follow Tom: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomjohnsonzoot/

Follow Alex: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Sure Clippy may have died over a decade ago (RIP, little buddy), but some things in Microsoft Office just can’t seem to be killed off, no matter how hard fintech tries (*cough* Excel *cough*). Are spreadsheets simply too sticky to die? And who’s the new fintech company trying to make them marketable again? 

It’s time for another round of “Not Fintech Investment Advice,” and Alex is joined by the man, the myth, the legend himself, Simon Taylor. 

This week, they’re breaking down Aleph’s bold plan to revitalize spreadsheets. With major companies like Notion and Zapier adopting Aleph, they must be on to something… right? 

Then, Alex and Simon dissect the app that’s helping musicians and artists bring predictability to their cash flow using biweekly payment options. With the rise of fractured income streams and the growing creator economy, can we expect fintech to find a product wedge here?

Plus, stay tuned to hear Alex and Simon’s hot takes on Cloverly’s climate tech solution, Hypercard’s employer-sponsored credit card gambit, and their predictions for how the open banking tech stack will shape up in the coming years. 

Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/

And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.

00:06:16 - The Future of Spreadsheets: Aleph

00:13:28 - HiFi Cracks Open the Data for Musicians' Royalty Streams

00:24:44 - Cloverly’s Climate Financing Solutions

00:32:34 - Hypercard’s Consumer Credit Card Powered by Employers

00:42:21 - Manifesting Fintech Ideas: The Evolution of Open Banking

Follow Simon:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sytaylor/

Substack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sytaylor/

This week we’re back with the fabulous Kiah Haslett for another round of Bank Nerd Corner.

Alex and Kiah catch up on their recent conference experiences (pickup basketball! Bank nerd celebrity sightings!) before diving into the proposed changes from the Fed to the debit interchange cap. With the new interchange fee going from 24 cents to 17 cents per transaction, Alex can’t wait for the savings to hit his daughter's college tuition fund any day now. Just er… um… who’s gonna tell him the bad news? Someone’s gonna tell him, right?

Then, Alex and Kiah discuss some hot scuttlebutt from Money 20/20, including section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which gives the CFPB the authority to regulate consumer-permissioned data-sharing. Will this open sharing of pricing information drive more competitive price shopping behaviors?

And stay tuned, as Kiah and Alex debate whether or not anyone still knows how to use checks, if stock prices (and the valuation of fintech and banking companies) are simply based on vibes, and if coins are truly dead.

00:03:33 - Kiah Meets Fed Governor Michelle Bowman

00:07:25 - Federal Reserve Proposes Lowering Debit Card Fees

00:22:26 - CFPB Proposes Rules for Open Banking

00:27:15 - The Power of Open Banking: Account-to-Account Payments

00:31:20 - Financial Services Providers Share Pricing Information

00:38:21 - The Decline of Check Writing in America

00:54:17 – Wait… But Why?

00:59:27 - The Unique Funding Structure of Tech Banks

01:06:16 - The Unhealthy Obsession with Stock Prices on Twitter

01:08:40 – Go Off Kiah! 

Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/

And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.

Follow Kiah:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khaslett/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/khaslett

Follow Alex: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Live from Money 20/20 in Las Vegas, Alex is joined by co-host Jason Mikula for a special episode of Fintech Recap. They discuss the latest trends and developments in the fintech industry, including compliance and regulation, generative AI, and the impact of government regulations on banking and fintech.  

They also share their impressions of the event and highlight key takeaways from Money 20/20. What does the future of AI look like for Fintech? Where is all the crypto? And what did Alex learn from hosting the cannabis banking summit?  

Plus, will BaaS ever not be a headache for regulators?  

Tune in to get a behind-the-scenes look at one of the biggest fintech conferences of the year!

00:00:00 - Live Recap of Money 20/20 in Las Vegas

00:00:43 - The Rise of Crypto at Money 20/20

00:01:34 - Hot Buzzwords at Money 20/20: Compliance, Regulation, and Generative AI

00:03:05 - Navigating the AI Hype Cycle

00:08:10 - Insights from the Cannabis Banking Summit

00:10:22 - The Influence of Washington on Fintech

00:13:17 - Regulators Face Challenges in Banking

00:15:55 - The Rising Cost of Compliance in Banking as a Service

00:18:48 - Fintech Companies Wary of Open Banking Rules

00:23:28 - Recapping the Fintech Craziness at Money 20/20 

Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/

And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.

Follow Jason:

Newsletter: https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmikula/

Follow Alex: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

This week, Alex chats with Scott Sanborn, the CEO of Lending Club, to discuss the ever-evolving relationship between banks and consumers.

Why are over half of Americans still paying off credit card debt? Does higher income lead to lower debt? 

With so many Americans living paycheck to paycheck, and with inflation outpacing wage growth for higher earners, Scott paints a concerning picture of the rapidly changing picture of the post-pandemic financial landscape—is there a way that fintech can solve these problems? 

Scott and Alex discuss why loyalty, great pricing, and customer service are inversely correlated at most banks and how a more customer-centric approach is becoming necessary in today’s increasingly competitive market.

00:00:43 - Lending Club: Revolutionizing Financial Services

00:09:14 - Unlocking Opportunities for High-Income, High-Debt Consumers

00:12:19 - The Impact of Rising Interest Rates on Savings Accounts

00:15:26 - Disrupting the Banking System: Fair Rates for All

00:24:53 - Lowering Customer Acquisition Costs for Lending Club

00:29:38 - The Power of Data-Driven Banking

00:31:20 - Building a Winning Bank Experience

00:35:36 - The Benefits and Risks of Open Banking

00:41:40 - Exploring the Potential of Generative AI

Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/

And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.

Learn More About Lending Club:

Website: https://www.lendingclub.com

Follow Scott:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottsanborn/

Follow Alex: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson  

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson   

It’s time for another episode of “Not Fintech Advice” with the inestimable, Simon Taylor! Or errr…. Whatever, that word actually means. 

Alex and Simon break down the latest in fintech news starting with Galleon, an off-market real estate platform that allows sellers to scope out the market and exert a greater degree of control over their pricing. Is this simply a byproduct of the state of the real estate market, or will Galleon have actual staying power? 

Then, get ready to dive into the gamified world of savings with Layup as Simon and Alex discuss how the app is using behavioral psychology to incentivize saving. Can it compete with the sports betting industry? Should it even want to exist in such a high-risk space? 

Plus, the guys get into how Moment is allowing fintech companies to offer credit similarly to stocks, before diving into the deets of Series' plans to compete with major ERP companies like Oracle and NetSuite. Is it worth it to even try? 

And don’t miss out on why Alex and Simon want to hear a little less talk about language learning AI models, and see a lot more action when it comes to machine learning technology!

  2:12 Galleon

12:10 Layup’s Prize-Linked Savings Account

29:00 Moment

38:50 Series’ ERP Ambitions

46:49 Manifesting Fintech

Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/

And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.

Follow Simon:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sytaylor/

Substack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sytaylor/

Follow Alex: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson

Twitter: twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

All rights reserved. Crowe LLP, a member of Crowe Global, a Swiss verein. For more information, please visit www.crowe.com/fintech

Conference season is here and Kiah Haslett is here to break down all the latest news and events in banking and fintech, including all the hot conference goss and Alex’s big plans for coming out of an early retirement to play one last game of pickup basketball at Money 20/20.

Then, Alex and Kiah dive into the intricacies of the OCC’s 2024 Bank Supervision Operation Plan, outlining priorities for bank supervisors. How, exactly, can we expect supervisors to monitor all of the different areas they're being tasked with managing? And, as the role of the OCC shifts, will they be able to effectively balance familiarity with objectivity in examinations? 

Later, Alex and Kiah discuss the implications of the new CFPB guidelines, commiserating over whether or not there’s a way to dispense adverse action notices without having it undermine the underwriting process. Then, they ask another unanswerable question – what is the right way to build a personal financial management app? 

Also, stay tuned to find out why Alex’s head might explode if he hears one more founder refer to their child as a seed fund…

00:05:03 - Fintech Conference Organizes Pickup Basketball

00:11:24 - Regulators' Plan to Supervise Fintech-Bank Partnerships

00:14:35 - OCC Collaborates with Banks on Fintech Partnerships

00:24:43 - New Guidance on Declined Credit Applications

00:32:29 - CFPB's Role in Overdraft Fee Disclosures and AI Underwriting

00:39:22 - How Banks Can Cultivate Better Customers

00:44:50 – Wait… BUT WHY???

00:50:12 – An Unanswerable Question

00:58:31 - Budgeting Apps that Analyze Spending

01:05:55 - Why Banks Need Personal Financial Apps

01:09:49 - How Personal Finance Tools Benefit Banks

Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/

And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.

Follow Kiah:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khaslett/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/khaslett

Follow Alex: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson

Twitter: twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

All rights reserved. Crowe LLP, a member of Crowe Global, a Swiss verein. For more information, please visit www.crowe.com/fintech