Tech Tuesday: The Remote Employee & The Future of Hiring

In the new world we are collectively facing, many are analyzing how best to utilize the remote workforce and what the future of hiring will look like.

As such, I thought now would be a good time to sit down with a long time friend in Ashish Kaushal, one of the individuals who is an expert in hiring practices, especially diverse and remote talent.

While much of the online conversation from firms have been focused on adapting to a remote workforce and ensuring that their team members are productive from home, Ashish’s research and experience has shown that remote work actually has people working longer hours and working smarter. Not only is productivity increasing but, historically, working remotely has reduced anxiety in people as they aren’t stressed with the daily challenges of commuting.

Tune in below to hear more about the case for a remote workforce and how technology can impact the future of work as we know it.

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Tech Tuesday: The Reinvention of Brand Identity

Branding has never been more important than it is today.

In a time when people want to feel connected to the companies they support, branding is everything. Across industries, we've seen the evolution of the brand identity, with examples like KFC and Popeyes engaging in twitter battles and, in the process, creating a unique, human-like voice.

As the financial services industry continues to evolve, I am often asked how to reinvent a brand in order to attract new demographics, primarily millennials and Gen Z. I have seen plenty of quick fixes from updated logos and color schemes to the jump to use new social platforms - and many of these have been met with limited success.

In order for financial service companies to stay current and to connect with new audiences, branding must be a top priority. I sat down with branding expert Kat Araujo who is the founder and creative director of Afternoon Culture to discuss how to leverage design and professional branding in order to launch or reinvent a business.

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Tech Tuesday: The Importance of Cross-Industry Innovation

Meet Omar Hatamleh: the former Executive Director at the International Space University, and the former Chief Innovation Officer of Engineering at NASA.

Prior to these positions, Omar was the Deputy Chief Scientist at NASA ARC. He was responsible for identifying new and promising areas of scientific research and supporting technologies that can be integrated into the center’s capabilities. Omar has twenty-three years of aerospace and industry experience and has published over 33 international journal articles.

As a Chief Innovation Officer myself, innovation and technology are always top of mind. I welcome the chance to talk to people outside of the financial services industry because no matter what the technology is that is being developed, people are people. How we interact with each other doesn’t change much, no matter what the industry is.

Omar and I have been friends for a long time and are both strong proponents of collaboration across industries. No matter how curious you are, it’s hard not to get siloed working within one industry. Cross-industry collaboration is a great way to prevent this and keep our thinking innovative and fresh.

During our talk, Omar discussed the concept of exaptation -- when something created for one use ends up being used for something completely different. He described a company that builds toll roads who were having difficulty anticipating the flow of traffic. They borrowed a pricing concept from the airline industry to raise prices as usage increases, to limit the number of cars entering the roadways.

I can already think of many examples of this concept in the world of banking and fintech!

Omar is also helping develop an event called Ecosystems 2030 -- June 3-5 in Granada, Spain -- that explores cross-industry collaboration and what experts in various technological fields who do not often have a chance to meet can teach each other.

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Tech Tuesday: A 2020 Look At the Consolidation of Financial Services

This week, I am re-highlighting Ramona Ortega, a woman on a mission to close the wealth gap.

Just a few years ago, the story of fintech was the unbundling of the bank – a famous graphic showing a big bank homepage and all the fintech startups reproducing its services was a longtime staple of slide decks. But the conversation has now evolved to rebundling. Well-funded fintechs are expanding their offerings to services previously only available from banks. 

Even the large acquisitions of 2020 speak to this – Intuit plans to acquire Credit Karma and expand its consumer-facing services and its trove of valuable consumer data. Lending Club, with the acquisition of Radius Bank, moves from being a marketplace lender to a full-service bank. 

The wave of consolidation is a good thing -- as long as the consumer remains the focus. I caught up with Ramona a year later and asked for her take on the acquisitions shaking up the fintech universe lately:

"2020 is going to see more consolidation and payouts for the early Fintech players, for example, with Visa acquiring Plaid for $5.3 billion and the promise of Credit Karma to Intuit for $7 billion. I think we are also going to see consolidation of some of the roboadvisors, there is a lot of competition going after the same customer. Challenger banks are still a wait and see but frankly there are a lot of players and not a lot of differentiators. All in all, I am excited to see more focus on consumer needs, I think fintech is realizing that you have to be more than just a single transaction app to capture a market.

My Money My Future has always focused on the long-term value of our customers and building that relationship by creating content around an all-in-one platform to help people make the best financial decisions and I think more millennials are looking for that 360 approach."

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Tech Tuesday: The Impact of Design on User Experience

Meet Madi McGinnis: Media & Digital Marketing Associate for CCG Catalyst, a consultancy serving banks, credit unions, and fintechs and partner of tech Tuesday. 

Prior to CCG Catalyst, Madi worked both freelance and for a publication, focusing mainly on printed media and packaging design. Her academic background is in graphic design, and her focus has now shifted toward digital design and brand identity.

There is a growing awareness that design is crucially important, and was perhaps overlooked, in financial services. Capital One signaled this to the industry, acquiring design firms in both 2014 and 2015. Financial institutions of all sizes have learned that design is a crucial piece of the user experience. Companies that design beautiful products and superior user experiences will earn and keep loyal customers.

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Tech Tuesday: Year 2020 - The Move From Geographies to Demographics

Meet Edwina Johnson: Chief Operating Officer at Alloy and a great friend of mine. 

Prior to her time at Alloy, Edwina was Program Director at Startupbootcamp Fintech here in New York, and even put in some time in consulting.

Alloy offers APIs for identity verification and risk decisioning, and is very much at the forefront of online customer acquisition and onboarding. Alloy is able to tap many data sources for identity verification to help banks make better decisions with regard to customers.

Customers have become more knowledgeable about where their data is and how it may be used these days, but fraud continues to rise. Mastercard announced in November that nearly half of all login attempts in financial services are fraudulent. This is a huge burden to place on banks and their vendors – which is where Alloy comes in.

Johnson comments that fintechs, by opening financial services up to new potential customers, has broadened the conversation around identity verification. Alloy is helping. 

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Tech Tuesday: The Evolution of the Canadian Tech Landscape

Reintroducing Peggy Van De Plassche: an experienced technology, operations, strategy and finance executive. 

Peggy is a great friend of mine and was also the very first Tech Tuesday guest back in December 2018 (here's her first interview). The conversation about Canadian tech is just as relevant today as it was then.

The Canadian fintech market mirrors the U.S., with a mix of companies across payments, lending, and challenger banks. Canada’s banking sector is far more consolidated than the U.S. with just a few institutions dominating the consumer market. While Canadian consumers are only slightly more advanced in their use of fintech than their U.S. counterparts, the government and regulatory agencies are more forward-looking and are moving ahead with an ambitious open banking initiative.

A finance professional by trade, Peggy started working in technology 15 years ago, before fintech was a word. She is a founding partner at Roar VC, which invests in Canadian Data AI startups catering to the financial services industry. Prior to launching Roar VC, she was senior advisor at Portag3 Ventures as well as VP Innovation at CIBC. Peggy has also worked at CGI and BMO, founded 113 Ventures, invested in tech companies, and consulted for large organizations and startups.

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Tech Tuesday: SMBs-The Next Wave of Digital Banking Transformation

This episode of Tech Tuesday was produced as part of The Money Experience Series by MX. This 8 minute clip is part of a longer discussion with more insight into the digital-banking ecosystem. To watch the full discussion go to mx.com/mxs

For years now as I speak with peers and the broader financial services industry, the topic of digital banking is front and center. The consumer side is more mature as we have seen our share of exits (Simple to BBVA) and mega raises (Chime, N26, etc) but the commercial and small business side is just getting started. I have talked to banks and fintechs alike who were waiting for the day when SMB banking would become a reality. Well, that day has finally come and in a big way. Meet Judith Erwin, President & CEO of Grasshopper Bank, the first digital commercial bank in the US.

Judith’s career journey began in 1982, a time of deep recession. At that time, this recession was the worst downturn since the depression. Interest rates were at a record high level, peaking at 21.5%, and banking was in very bad shape. Taking a job in a branch, Judith started at the very bottom of the hierarchy. Over the years to come, Judith took on new opportunities whenever they were presented and began the course of building a career. 

 In early 2016, Judith was approached to start a new venture bank based in NYC. Judith agreed with one caveat: it needed to have a differentiated technology strategy. After 35 years in banking, she knew exactly what was broken in commercial banking and knew it was time to make significant changes in the industry that had served her so well. 

 After raising an initial seed round of $15MM, the bank successfully closed on its capital round with more than $116MM, quietly opening its virtual doors in May 2019. The strategy was to build a bank from “scratch” providing a superior user experience with the most current technologies available. Judith and her fellow Grasshoppers are seeking a number of firsts: first US digital commercial bank, first new bank in NY in ten years, record-breaking bank fundraise.   

Grasshopper ultimately seeks to democratize access to high-quality financial services while greatly improving the client experience. The bank’s focus is on small businesses and entrepreneurs. This historically under served segment has seen innovations roll out to consumer accounts and is hungry for a modern experience in business banking. Small businesses are also historically reliant on branches for face-to-face interactions, but Grasshopper has a plan for this -- an individualized service channel where the customer and banker are on a first-name basis.

There is much more of the Grasshopper, and the larger digital commercial story, to be told. For now, I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I enjoyed making it.

Click here to read the full article on LinkedIn…

Tech Tuesday: Point-of-Sale Financing and the Future of Credit Cards

Meet Luan Cox: founder and CEO of FinMkt, a best-in-class multi-lender platform and point of sale solutions provider that has processed billions of dollars in loan application volume.

Point-of-sale financing is an old-fashioned form of credit that is finding fans among younger consumers. Millennials appreciate the transparent rates (nearly half of millennials say they do not know what interest rates their credit cards charge) and fixed terms, while merchants appreciate higher sales and greater customer loyalty. Investors have warmed up to the space as well.

A pioneer in fintech before the word “fintech” existed, Luan helped build Quote.com and Stockpoint in Silicon Valley during the 1990s when few companies were leveraging technology in the financial sector. Quote.com (with Stockpoint quickly following) was the first to put stock quotes on the internet, effectively revolutionizing how financial data was accessed. Both platforms grew to include financial research, investment analytics and portfolio applications before being acquired by Interactive Data Corporation (now, part of the Intercontinental Stock Exchange/NYSE).

Luan is intensely passionate about fintech and leading the development of a new generation of innovative financial technologies. As a successful entrepreneur in a male-dominated field, Luan understands the importance of having the support of peers. For the past several years, Luan has shared her expertise through Techstars, a global network of entrepreneurs, experts, mentors, alumni, investors, and community leaders to help entrepreneurs succeed. In 2019, Ms. Cox was named to NYC FinTech Women’s Inspiring Fintech Females list in recognition of her outstanding leadership and support of the community of women in financial technology. 

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Tech Tuesday: The Impact of Communication on Organizational Effectiveness

Meet Leah Bonvissuto: Workplace Communication Consultant and founder of PresentVoices. She helps people talk to each other and have more meaningful conversations at work.

Raised by a Broadway musician and a mime-turned-magician, Leah spent many years as a theater director and started doing this work in public hospitals. Today, her work is living theater—she has helped thousands of people talk to each other at companies including LinkedIn, Facebook, Google, AIG, Robin Hood, and New York-Presbyterian.

Effective communication is key to the success of every business. In order to have a culture of innovation, employees must feel safe and empowered to share their ideas and struggles. Communication problems have been called “the silent killer” of companies by the Harvard Business Review.

Leah does this work not because it comes naturally to her but because it doesn’t. She developed a system of tangible tools that has helped her and thousands of people manage speaking nerves, prepare for spontaneous speaking, have challenging conversations, think on their feet, and be more present. Leah has built data assessments that show the need for this work and the impact of it.

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Tech Tuesday: Social Media

Meet Shelby Lawson: Social media expert and founder of BloomSocial and BloomFit Training. Shelby works with female entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and small businesses to build their online presence and connect with their audience through engaging content.

Social media has become a key part of almost every business’ marketing strategy in 2019. With nearly half the world's population on at least one social networking site, it has transformed how we interact with friends, family, and brands. Evolving technology has played a big role in the integration of social media into our everyday lives; the average person spends nearly four hours a day on their smartphone and around two of those hours scrolling social media.

In addition to her role as a social media strategist, Shelby is also working to advance diversity and inclusion in the fitness and wellness space. She educates fitness professionals and gym owners on body positivity and consults with fitness companies on their D&I initiatives - including how they represent those values online.

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Tech Tuesday: Women in Tech

Meet Monica Murthy, Co-Founder of #HowSheWorks, an inclusive grass-roots community of women and allies - entrepreneurs, executives, and professionals at all stages of their careers and industries. #HowSheWorks is a new community for women in tech. One focused on amplifying the voices of female industry leaders and bringing allies into the conversation.

It’s well known that women are under-represented in tech. And while the situation is slowly improving -- more capital was invested in companies founded or co-founded by women in the fourth quarter of 2018 than any previous quarter in the past decade -- female entrepreneurs face an uphill battle when they seek venture funding. This has to change, and how that starts is women and allies working together, supporting and elevating women in the critical early stages.

Monica is a connector in the FinTech ecosystem. She hosts community events and works with startups and financial institutions to find innovative solutions to bridge gaps in the industry. Monica has worked in several different tech verticals, from defense technology to advertising technology, and now financial technology. 

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Tech Tuesday: The Future of the Core for Community Banks

Meet Kelsey Weaver, expert connector and co-founder and Chief Business Development Officer of cloud-based banking platform, Neocova. Kelsey co-founded Neocova in April 2019, and just a few months later the company is already in conversation with dozens of banks and is poised to disrupt traditional core providers.

Prior to Neocova, Kelsey was founder of Empact Innovation, a company offering strategic business development for innovators. She is also an advisor to the financial wellness firm Marstone Inc., helping the company develop relationships with community financial institutions. Kelsey's passion and work with community institutions continues today. Neocova itself is backed by two such banks, State Bank Group in Wonder Lake, Ill., and Provident Bank in Amesbury, Mass.

Neocova’s success is proof that setbacks haven’t dampened banks’ enthusiasm for the cloud, and Kelsey's experience with community banks has helped Neocova build up a robust pipeline of clients. I sat down with Kelsey at Neocova's NY office to discuss further.

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Tech Tuesday: 2019 Canadian Fintech & AI Awards

Last night I had the pleasure of presenting at the 5th Annual Canadian Fintech & AI Awards.

Started in 2015 by the Digital Finance Institute, this event recognizes and celebrates Canadian innovation in financial technology and artificial intelligence. The Awards bring together Canada’s leaders in finance to celebrate and support Canadian technology from coast to coast.

Canada has yet to produce a fintech unicorn, but is a leader in the identity and fraud prevention fields, with notable startups such as Vancouver, B.C.-based Trulioo, and Verafin, based in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

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Tech Tuesday: The Fintech Landscape in India

Meet Melissa Frakman: an expert on the fintech landscape in India.

Melissa has spent over 15 years in India, leading investments and strategies for companies including Amazon, Citi, Remitly, Visa, Uber, MoneyGram, NYSE, and Mastercard. She speaks Hindi and is a sought-after advisor for Indian founders interested in going global. Her current role is Founder & Managing Partner at the venture capital fund EMVC.

EMVC invests in breakthrough fintech and insurtech in India, supporting local entrepreneurs with global connectivity, capital, and industry expertise. EMVC backs early-stage innovation that is scaling rapidly in its local market and has relevance globally. EMVC’s cross-border fund is led by a team of passionate investors and financial services industry leaders, bridging some of the largest and best-known fintech names in Silicon Valley and Wall Street with Digital India.

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Tech Tuesday: The Role of a Bank CEO

Meet Javier Rodriguez Soler: President and CEO of BBVA USA and U.S. country manager for the BBVA Group.

Rodríguez Soler joined BBVA in 2008 as a managing director for Corporate & Investment Banking. He also served as BBVA Group's global head of Strategy and M&A, where his corporate development functions included setting the strategy at both the Group and country-level, giving him extensive exposure to the U.S. 

Since arriving in the U.S., BBVA has been notable for being a first-mover in multiple areas of digital banking. The bank completed a core conversion with Accenture in 2013, and acquired the challenger bank Simple in 2014. It was one of the first banks in the U.S. to offer real-time payments via its partnership with Dwolla. BBVA is also a leader in working with startups, having been involved in multiple bank-fintech partnerships, and spun off a venture arm, now known as Propel Venture Partners.

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Tech Tuesday: Financial Freedom

Meet Greg Johnson: Executive Vice President and General Manager of Intuit's Consumer Group. We caught up at #Money2020 before our talk on the mainstage tonight (10/29) at 5:30pm (with a very special guest!)

Greg leads an organization that offers a suite of consumer tax and financial products and services in the U.S. and Canada, including TurboTax®, TurboTax Live, Turbo and Mint.

An executive and marketing professional with more than 20 years’ experience, Greg’s expertise spans consumer packaged goods, retail, and international and emerging markets. Prior to joining Intuit, he worked for world-class organizations, including Kraft Foods, SC Johnson, Kodak, Gillette, Best Buy, and the United States Air Force. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Operations Research from the United States Air Force Academy.

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Tech Tuesday: Financial Crime

With previous roles such as Head of AML, EMEA, for Citi's Trade and Treasury Solutions, Head of Financial Crime at ComplyAdvantage, and Global Risk and Control Manager at BBVA, Livia has worked to redesign the due diligence and ongoing monitoring process for correspondent banking, money service businesses and diplomatic missions.

The financial services industry is the favorite target of fraudsters for obvious reasons. This affects everyone, from customers to businesses to vendors, but banks bear the ultimate responsibility. Bank security is a byword, but banks are being attacked constantly, and a surprising number are successful. Central banks and governments face near-constant attacks. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said earlier this year that the Internal Revenue Service in the U.S. faces millions of attacks per day. In 2016, fraudsters were successful in stealing more than $100 million from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which was holding funds for the central bank of Bangladesh. The move to real-time settlement of payments makes this risk even more pressing.

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Tech Tuesday: The Role of Trust in Financial Services

Meet Ghela Boskovich a self-proclaimed Fintech fanatic and Founder of FemTechGlobal™, a network dedicated to challenging the status quo, and improving the inclusiveness and diversity in Financial Services.

A frequent keynote speaker and editorial contributor, Ghela focuses on how to fast-track internal innovation, specifically on the practical application and commercialization of fintech/bank collaboration. She has a distinct preoccupation with modernizing legacy banking systems, disruptive business models, and facilitating banks’ emerging technology consumption. Her primary focus and expertise is in constructing Proof of Concept/Proof of Value scenarios and experiment design, including tech sprint mapping and process solutions for commercial pilot programs. 

Boskovich’s regulatory background makes her a careful observer of regulatory changes in the industry. According to Continuity’s Banking Compliance Index, the second quarter of 2019 saw 56 regulatory changes for the financial services industry in the U.S. But as Boskovich notes, administrations in both the U.S. and Europe are seeking to roll back certain regulations, such as portions of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010. These are not just esoteric details -- regulation can play a crucial role in fostering -- or stymying -- bank-fintech collaboration.

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Tech Tuesday: Ethical AI in Financial Services

Meet Clara Durodié: A technology strategist specializing in ethical artificial intelligence (AI) for business growth and profitability in financial services.

Clara is internationally recognized for her expertise in corporate governance of AI, strategy, business performance, digital transformation, and strategic use of data. She is an adviser to corporate boards, investment funds, and governments. She is also a mentor, investor, and non-executive director of AI and fintech companies.

In 2015, Clara started scoping the research for her PhD, which sits at the intersection of neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and wealth management. Clara recently authored “Decoding AI in Financial Services” the first book on strategy with AI for boards in financial services. Her focus is on how episodic memory informs how people save and invest and has direct application in AI design in retail banking and wealth management.

Click here to read the full article on LinkedIn…