Fintech Labs Insights
Techniques, Trends & Examples
Watch 28 InsurTech Pitches at Plug and Play’s Virtual Summer Summit (June 2020)
Last month (18 June 2020), 30 insurtech startups graduated from Plug and Play’s 8th insurtech batch. At the final virtual Summer Summit, 28 of the 30 each pitched for 4 minutes. Watch all 28 below in one session (start time = 55:25) or choose individual pitches from...
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Watch 27 Fintech Demos Named “Best of Show” at Finovate in the Past Year (June 2020)
Launched in 2007 in NYC, Finovate* now organizes 4+ shows annually where fintech startups (as well as a few bigger companies mixed in) show their technology in no-Powerpoint 7-min demos. In total, 2,544 demos in 12+ years, all available in the Finovate archives. But...
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Fintech Seeds: Watch Cash Coach (UK) pitch subscription-based personal financial management at Pioneer Demo Day (June 2020)
San Francisco-based Pioneer is an incubator that puts pre-seed/bootstrapped companies through a series of challenges to ready them for launch. The company was founded in 2018 by YC alum Daniel Gross. For more info on the company listen (or watch) Jason Calacanis...
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Watch 10 Fintech Startups Pitch at Fintech Innovation Lab’s Demo Day (June 2020)
Launched in 2010, New York City's Fintech Innovation Lab is the longest-running fintech-only accelerator. In those 10 years, 79 companies have graduated from the 12-week program. Collectively raising $1.2B and creating 1,200 jobs. The 10 startups delivered...
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Watch 21 Fintech Startups Pitch at Plug and Play’s Virtual Summer Summit (June 2020)
Last week (17 June 2020), 27 fintech startups graduated from Plug and Play's 11th fintech batch. At the final virtual Summer Summit, 21 of the 27 each pitched for 4 minutes. Watch all 21 below (start time = 42:00) or choose individual pitches from the list below....
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WSECU Website Rewrite Addresses COVID-19 Reality
When I wrote my first pandemic-era post in April, I looked around for financial institution examples that illustrated the much-needed empathy as well as clear discussion of issues customers were facing such as where their stimulus check might be. That was still early...
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Banking, Trust & Black Swans
As usual, I've been listening to my favorite podcasts (Finovate of course, go Greg!, Breaking Banks, Jim Marous, 11:FS, and Bank On It to name a few) and there has been much talk about the covid crisis and what it means for digital banking and the fintech challengers....
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First Look: LA-Based Neobank HMBradley Braves the Pandemic with March 30 Launch
The latest USA challenger bank, with the odd, albeit memorable name, HMBradley, launched the first phase of its banking product line March 30. The Sant Monica, CA-based neobank offers a high-yield consumer checking account with a unique twist: tiered rates depending...
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Fintech’s Third Crisis is Tipping Point to a Digital-Only Future
In my 25 years in the fintech space, I've had the misfortune to experience three massive ecosystem shocks. And they seem to be getting worse each time: Dot-com crash (and 9/11) Financial crisis Coronavirus crisis The three downturns are very different, but all are...
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Top U.S. Digital Banks for Small Businesses
The first pure-play digital bank Security First Network Bank (SFNB) launched in 1995, just a year after Amazon.com. But unlike ecommerce, digital-only banking was slow to catch on. The legacy players held onto their market share by providing digital services that were...
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Student Banking UX: BankMobile Passport Program Encourages Digital Banking + Academic Achievement
Consumers love games of chance, discounts, and limited-time promos (e.g., Black Friday). Financial institutions are in an enviable position to profit from this consumer behavior by gamifying debit/credit cards and mobile app usage. While MasterCard and Visa have run...
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Checking Profits: Snagging the Paycheck Direct Deposit
There is little dispute that the primary financial relationship follows the paycheck. If you can snag the weekly/biweekly direct deposit, you have a very sticky customer. You have to really let them down to lose them at that point. Traditionally, banks have dangled...
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Wells Fargo’s Greenhouse has UX issues to overcome ahead of national rollout
Wells Fargo announced its Greenhouse mobile bank/app in late 2017 (press release). The bank began limited trials a year later and is expected to make it available nationwide by the end of this year. It's similar to Chase's ill-fated Finn, in that it's trying to be a...
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UX Tips: U.S. Bank Offers Option to Show Password at Login
For much of the Internet era, users had no way to check their password data entry before hitting login. A few companies, notably Apple, were the exception. Fast-forward to 2019. Many secure sites now offer an option to see your password before logging in. It's an...
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How Should Banks Respond to Facebook’s Libra Coin?
I've read as much as I can take for now about Facebook's Libra crypto coin and Calibra digital wallet announcement. Most observers are skeptical given the many hurdles. But analysts like the upside if Facebook successfully gains adoption among its 2.7 billion users....
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