Summary:

In this 98th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host welcomes Toan Huynh, from the VC firm Information Venture Partners, to talk about automation, what an “early stage” company means to IVP, and how to explain venture capital to a five-year-old. 

Episode Highlights: 

● 00:42: – Information Venture Partners is a venture fund that focuses on enterprise SaaS in the financial services market. 

● 01:02: – Research confirms that the spend by financial services SaaS companies will triple every year of the millennium. 

● 01:20: – They are an early stage investor that works to help scale a company. 

● 04:52: – The company Toan worked for became partners with Salesforce early in its life. 

● 08:33: – IVP is interested in piping and helping banks and other companies digitize their back end and digitize the user experience and employee experience. 

● 09:28: – Online SaaS platforms are more flexible than downloadable software; it turns a fixed cost into a variable cost. 

● 13:14: – When talking to entrepreneurs, Toan reminds them that they are solving a problem in a way of doing things that a company has been entrenched in for many years, so you can’t just march in and say stop what you’re doing. 

● 13:35: – The sales cycle in these scenarios isn’t quick as a result. 

● 14:50: – Automation isn’t scary, it’s necessary. 

● 15:38: – True automation isn’t here yet. 

● 17:02: – YayPay is a company in their portfolio that automates accounts receivable to free up CFOs to manage financial planning and strategy instead of collections. 

● 18:37: – Another company in their portfolio is Procurify, which provides insights on expense management. 

● 20:05: – Knowtions Research uses natural language processing and AI to improve health insurance for people with preexisting conditions or terminal illness, and how to use the same systems to help insurance companies combat fraud and abuse. 

● 21:10: – Start your business where you can test your model and troubleshoot. 

● 22:45: – To Toan, funding eligibility for IVP means being a fintech company aiming to solve a problem in the financial services or healthcare space. 

● 23:37: – Companies they fund are “early stage” companies, which means different things to different funders and depends upon whether your clients are individuals or enterprise. 

● 25:47: – If Toan could change one thing about her industry, it would be to improve gender parity. 

● 27:50: – Try not to make the excuse of a pipeline issue for not hiring diversely; instead, take a risk on somebody. 

● 28:17: – Toan advocates for bringing back the apprenticeship model. 

● 28:52: – Entrepreneurs should take a long view of their partnerships; money is only half the equation, and the other half is growing a team. 

● 31:05: – One of IVP’s biggest challenges has been marketing. 

● 32:40: – Toan explains venture capital to her five year old as “growing baby companies.” 

3 Key Points 

1. Companies that IVP funds are ones that are working to solve a problem in the financial 

services or healthcare industries, mainly by digitizing and automating processes that improve user experience. 

2. Automation isn’t a threat, it’s necessary for the industry to stay competitive. 

3. Citing a pipeline issue is no excuse for lack of diversity in hiring. 

Tweetable Quotes: 

● “Automation is a necessity for us to compete globally.” –Toan Huynh 

● “Founders become funders... We need to be consciously investing in non-traditional founders and diverse founders so we can spread the pool of potential wealth accumulation a little bit better. And that’ll create better opportunities for everybody.” –Toan Huynh 

Resources Mentioned: 

● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook 

● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn 

● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact 

● https://www.informationvp.com/ 

● https://www.linkedin.com/in/toanhuynh 

● https://www.yaypay.com/ 

● https://www.procurify.com/ 

● https://www.knowtions.com/ 

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