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Fintech Impact

Fintech Impact

429 episodes — Page 6 of 9

Ep 179Neo Financial with Andrew Chau | E179

Host Jason Pereira talks to Andrew Chau, CEO, and Co-founder of Neo Financial. It is a technology company that is building a better financial experience for all Canadians. Episode Highlights: 0.42: Andrew explains that Neo Financial is a Fintech company, reimagining the everyday banking experience for Canadians. The company provides a seamless consumer experience.     1.25: Andrew talks about his history. His entrepreneurship journey started when he was quite young. 04.20: Andrew shares that Neo is a credit card and bank account as well. 04.28: The bank account and the credit card connect with a network of local businesses and large national brands where Neo powers the rewards and loyalty programs.04.37: Once a user gets the Neo credit card, they get access to 1000 multiple different cashback programs. 05.10: People often ask Andrew about Neo’s chain between food delivery and banking. He says that it is a consumer-focused business.07.13: Andrew talks about the 3-minute on-boarding process that one has to go through when signing-up in Neo.07.20: The sign-up starts with downloading the app, filling out few basic information, take a selfie and picture of your ID and hit submit.09.16: With one Neo card, consumers can access all different merchants’ and partners and get cashback on them.09.22: Andres points out that typically with credit card one gets points, a person never really uses them or redeem them at the end of the year. But it is not the same with Neo.10.38: Jason inquiries about the level of engagement and how Andrew reached out to the companies. 14.01: The short-term goal of Neo is building the merchant network, helping retailers, and adding value. 17.00: Andrew and Jason discuss the competition surrounding the banking and financial sector in Canada. 18.27: Andrew talks about competing with Big 5 companies. Their business focus is “How do we create our own category and not be in the same category?”19.50: Jason is really impressed by the genius of Neo’s partnership model.21.00: Jason gives insights on small business banking in Canada.23.09: Andrew shares how with Neo they are putting the power back to consumer’s hands and freeing them from the shackles of one institution.24.31: Andrew talks about the biggest challenge he has faced to bring his company today.27.50: Andrew gives credit to his team members and says that everybody has joined Neo to make a difference.  3 Key Points:When launching Neo Financial, Andrew brainstormed, “How can we bring tech experience around banking with a bit of innovation?” Andrew shares his insights on customer experience and on-boarding at Neo.Andrew talks about Hudson’s Bay Mastercard®—powered by Neo. Tweetable Quotes: “In most cases, the top 5 apps on a person’s phone are not a banking app.” - Andrew Chau“Through Neo, we are trying to add value to Canadian’s life.” - Andrew Chau“Nobody wants to carry a bunch of cards normally for the place they eat or drink, so Neo is a good solution.” - Jason Pereira“We are looking to build the largest financial institution in Canada.” - Andrew Chau“If your business owners love the bank, they will get along.” - Jason Pereira Resources Mentioned:Neo Financial: WebsiteFacebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInWoodgate.com – SponsorLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInPodcast Editing Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jun 22, 202129 min

Ep 178Nebeus with Michael Stroev | E178

Host Jason Pereira talks to Michael Stroev. He is the COO and Head of Products for Nebeus. The company is an online platform that allows people to borrow, transfer and rent cryptocurrencies.Episode Highlights:00.35: Michael introduces Nebeus as a learning platform that allows people to earn cryptocurrencies and get loans.2.14: Michel says he works on every single aspect of the company in terms of a COO.  3.55: Jason inquires, “What is the core value-proposition of Nebeus?”4.04: Michael explains Nebeus is an ecosystem of products. He adds “Our main products are launched, we have all the other products that are gone with launch, allowing our users to not leave Nebeus from any of their needs.” 4.48: Michael shares they have also added crypto-insurance to Nebeus where people can insure their cryptocurrencies with a $100 million insurance policy from Lloyd London.6.00: Jason explains “Nebeus crypto-insurance is not like protecting you from market loss but protecting from things that can go wrong with the institutions you are dealing with.”9.50: Michael says, “Our goal is to help users to keep their cryptocurrencies and their investments and not get margin calls and not get their assets liquidated, but it may happen.”10.30 Michael says it’s on users to choose what they want, and it’s on us to educate users to make the right choices and understand what they are doing.11.15: Jason asks, “How crypto renting works?” 11.20: Michael answers, “Crypto-renting is similar to crypto-savings account. People can deposit funds in crypto-renting programs, and they earn a certain percentage for APY per year.”14.10: Michael points out “Revolut allows you to send money to friends and colleagues for free, and we are doing the same with crypto.”14.31: Jason is curious to know “What Nebeus is doing on the Fintech side?”15.45: Michael says, “We have supercharged transfers technology that requires technical partnership with a company called Wolves. Here people can top-up and add funds to their new basic accounts by technology that cash directly from the bank account and transfer it to Nebeus.”16.27: Jason affirms, “You are doing everything that a bank does, in the Crypto realm.”17.45: Michael adds, “We are launching Nebeus for institutions; so, it’s the same product crypto collateralized lending for institutions, and one can get a loan for primarily reinvesting purpose.” 19.00: Michael says, “We don’t have iOS and Android apps. We started with the desktop dashboard functionality first, and I will probably do it the other way around. Internet is primarily a mobile today, so it makes sense to build app first and do the stuff.”20.30: Michael reiterates “Building trust is the key at financial sector and that in return will bring us more users.” 22.12: Michael loves building products. He says that “I love clearing concepts, I love seeing those things come to life, I like forecasting and strategizing the future of all these things.” 3 Key Points:Michael says he joined Nebeus as the Head of Products; Sergey Raomanovskiy was the founder of Nebeus back in 2014. When Nebeus was founded, it was a PHP learning platform and went through multiple alterations to become what it is today.Jason and Michael talk about Nebeus banking facilities, its costs to the consumer, and general structure. Nebeus have two loan options one is a quick loan, and the second is a flexible loan.Jason and Michael discuss about transfers. Jason asks, “Is it a standard paper crypto wallet or is it beyond crypto wallet?” Michael answers, “It is a standard type of crypto wallet although we do have a whole variety and fintech service associated with that crypto transfer can easily send, receive, deposit and stock funds.”Tweetable Quotes:“Building trust is the key at the financial sector, and that in return will bring us more users.” – Michael Stroev“Nebeus for institutions is a same product crypto collateralized lending for institutions and one can get loan for primarily reinvesting purpose.” - Michael Stroev“We have supercharged transfers technology that requires technical partnership with a company called Wolves.” - Michael Stroev“You are providing a point of sales solution, which makes a lot of sense.” - Jason Pereira“Everything is Crypto is for exchange.” - Jason PereiraResources Mentioned:https://nebeus.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/mstroev/https://uk.advfn.com/crypto/Wolves-Of-Wall-Street-WOWSFacebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInWoodgate.com – SponsorLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInPodcast Editing Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jun 15, 202123 min

Ep 177fpPathfinder with Michael Lecours | E177

Host, Jason Pereira, talks to Michael Lecours. He is the Co-Founder of fpPathfinder. It is a flow-charting tool for advisors so that they can make better and consistent decisions. Episode Highlights:0.40: Jason is a fan of fpPathfinder, because of its sheer simplicity.1.28: Michael talks and fpPathfinder, and how it helps advisors to make informed decisions using different formats of checklists.1.57: Flow charts provided by fpPathfinder, helps on the decision-making front.2.54: Jason is impressed by fpPathfinder, and he says that an advisor who sign-up with the company can really count on it.3.32: Jason and Michael talk about the constantly changing regulations in the United States.4.03: While talking about Michael’s company, Jason points out that “The fact that we are outsourcing the cognitive decision making is just remarkable.”04.14: Jason is curious to know about the creation and story of fpPathfinder.05.00: For Michael it all started with simple errors and how to provide some clarity to a client; he made a flowchart, which was widely loved and appreciated amidst the Financial Advisors. 07.24: Michael shares how his company constantly updates the checklists, and then they try to add one or two resources every month.08.14: Michael gives insights on the background research that they do. Inevitably fpPathfinder has 3000 Financial Advisors who use its services. 10.25: Jason inquiries about the order of decision points in a flowchart.10.51: As the first step of creating a flowchart, Michael or his team members come up with the issues. Then they step back and think about the unintended effect of the flow. 11.21: Michael talks about the challenges that he faces while building up flow charts in a computer or software. He prefers to build flowcharts on a piece of paper with sticky notes.12.04: fpPathfinder was launched as a grand experiment, and one of the biggest pieces of feedback that they got early on was - “We like the flowcharts and the checklists but get your fpPathfinder off there and let me put my logo instead.” 12.23: Financial advisors did not want their clients to see fpPathfinder’s logo in the flowcharts; so one of the biggest improvements that Michael did was allow for white labelling. One was not able to change the content but was able to change the colors.13.05: A year ago, Michael and other decision-makers of fpPathfinder took a big step; a lot of their resources started interacting with the CRM systems. 15.57: Michael says that they don’t get a lot of push backs from the compliance department. 16:14: Michael says that they don’t give any recommendations to Financial Advisors; they simply say to their clients that “Consider doing this.”18.21: Jason talks about Michael’s book and the interesting stories it has. 20.30: Michael talks about his future aspirations with fpPathfinder. There are several resources that Michael and his team are planning to work on.21.33: Michael talks about tailored checklists that they are going to introduce in the future. Depending on a client’s situation, there will be a checklist that makes more sense. 21.52: Another aspect that Michael will be looking at is making the user experience more easier. 24.25: As a Financial Advisor, Michael’s biggest wish is for the industry to integrate at a higher level. 25.02: Michael reveals the one biggest challenge that he has faced to bring the company to where it is today.27.24: All day long Michael and his team focuses on what they do best. There is no project in a team where they are dragging their feet. 3 Key Points:Michael explains that fpPathfinder makes checklists and flowcharts to help advisors be more diligent in the planning process and have more diligent conversations about financial planning topics with their clients.Michael talks about “How what started as a simple PDF of a flowchart, fpPathfinder now uses various technologies. It is also integrating with different partners. Jason asks Michael, “You have got this far with what you have done. What are your future aspirations for fpPathfinder?”Tweetable Quotes:“In financial planning, things that were earlier very popular are now critical to review.” - Michael Lecours“Some of the most brilliant ideas are the simplest.” - Jason Pereira“Setting-up a flowchart is a lot more difficult than it appears.” - Jason Pereira“Reverse mortgages can make or break somebody’s retirement.” - Michael LecoursResources Mentioned:fpPathfinder: https://www.fppathfinder.com/about-us/Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInWoodgate.com – SponsorLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInPodcast Editing Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jun 8, 202129 min

Ep 176WP Wealthtech Summit 2021 | E176

Host, Jason Pereira, talks to panelists gathered at the WP Wealthtech Summit. The topic of discussion was “How the wealth industry is adapting to technology and revolutionizing the future of advice.” Episode Highlights:  1.18: Kendra Thompson is associated as a partner in Deloitte consulting practice. She leads the business called future of advice in investing, which focuses on what Canadian families care about as related to their investments? What are they willing to pay for? and How the industry is transforming to deliver that at a scale of profit?1.55: Joseph Lo, Vice President for Wealth Product Innovation for Broadridge. It is a global fintech company focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make the wealth management lifecycle better.2.05: Robert Smuk, President & CEO, Agora Dealer Services Corp. It is a B2B trading dealer created to help advisors and dealerships provide advice to all of their clients.2.33: Tom Burmeister, Vice President of Financial Planning with Naviplan and now happy to be a part of the InvestCloud family. 2.55: Jason’s first question is, “As per your experience in the fintech world, what is the most troubling trend you see happening and what are risks and opportunities coming from that?”3.25: Tom talks about e-based models that are getting more focus. The risk with that is – it is a massive change.4.13: Robert says the trend he sees right now is the client’s desire to have everything at their fingertips. “The financial services industry has been behind other industries, and our clients are now expecting what they get from other industries to be from this industry, and it is a real risk if we don’t move further.”5.12: Joseph says we need to be more open and have more APIs that enable prime ecosystems to provide choice for advisors and can use to provide the service need for clients.5.35: Kendra says she sees an acceleration in the pace of modernization and feels out differently whether you are sitting with regulators and the challenges they are going to have to deal with innovation and simplification.7.25: Jason says that the focus of fintech is often on the investment side. He inquires, “How do you see technology is used to support other areas of financial planning?”7.48: Kendra says we focus a considerable amount of our energy on the front end of value change, and that’s where a lot of noise and energy around fintech is heard.09.05: Joseph says the definition of advice is so much beyond investments now whether the advice is helping clients landing their insurance. 9.50: Robert says if we think about the expectations and if we think about the advisor’s ability to provide that meaningful advice, then, in that case, pieces of advice are much broader scope than it was in the past. You need to spend more time with the client and understand them.11.14: Jason says if you want to maintain margin, you don’t do that on the volume; you maintain base margin with volume. If you want to maintain margin, you have to be deep in that offering.12.04: Tom says we expect technology to come and transform. We need to work with stats, partners, and everybody else to make sure that when onboarding a client, we should personalize to what that client needs so that they can scale across the rest of your client base efficiently.12.20: Jason asks “How fintech influences vital space in traditional channels called banker and independent channels?”13.44: Robert says technology is at a point where the challenge in human nature is resistance to change. As people are willing to make several changes and we need to modernize our business, and so the role of fintech continues to guide us.14.16: Joseph agrees with Robert that advisors need to have a blueprint for what technology they introduce. He says fintech influence for independence is hunger for aggregation.15.45: Kendra says the most significant shift she sees, should benefit the independence is essentially recontamination of neighbor’s end from the outside.17.36: Kendra says for bank’s big challenge will be, they have a month of a merger of everything, and so for that, it must be like an internal merger about their platform and bringing all that to a single platform.18.48: Jason asks what should be the first step in terms of digitization? Joseph says the first step should be to focus on the things that are taking up the time you want to do, and secondly is really streamlining the conversations you have with clients and digitizing them.19.35: Robert says you need to understand your client’s willingness to do and willing to use.21.05: Tom affirms “You should always start with the process first, not necessarily what gets technology in reforms over process around that. You have to do several book works to find out techniques which can help you to make better from better you are.”21.30: Kendra says she will highly encourage the identification of the right partner. Added to that she will encourage a small group of individuals not to ove

Jun 1, 202134 min

Ep 175Envestnet | Yodlee with Brandon Rembe | E175

In this episode of ‘Fintech Impact’ podcast, host Jason Pereira talks to Brandon Rembe, the Chief Product Officer of Envestnet, which encompasses his role overseeing product for Envestnet | Yodlee, the data & analytics arm of Envestnet. Jason & Brandon talk about every aspect of investment and share some great ways to make people’s financial life better. Episode Highlights:00.34: Brandon states that Envestnet is a large Wealth Tech and Fintech Ecosystem that is been around the business for over 20 years with a net worth of over $4 trillion. 01.32: Envestnet has acquired a lot of start-ups and the founders are still with the organization as they continue to innovate.02.13: Jason asks Brandon about the history of Envestnet and his role in the company.03.31: As per Brandon, they worked really hard to grow the business from the breadth of what’ they’re doing and are now focused on integrating all the components. 05.50: Brandon mentions that Envestnet as a company is the glue behind all those making sure that data flows seamlessly. 07:00: To apply any intelligence to the stuff, you need to have the right data.10.01: Legacy PFM applications and personal financial management applications, were really good at telling what happened in the past and what’s happening in your account currently. 12.20: If you want to hit your financial goals, here is the thing is that you need to do, you should spend less on entertainments and you should save more.14.25: Brandon tells that they want people to feel like they have control over their financial life and they understand their financials life.18.20: People also need to keep a check on how much they spent over the last year on an average and if the expenses were meaningful?20.08: They have just launched their new trust exchange as well where people can come in and get access to trust services. 25.30: We need to empower the advisor with one allowing them to collect all the information about their clients so that they can provide the right advice.26.14: We’re also trying to centralize / decentralize through this ecosystem to reach out and get the advice from both from investor and advisor standpoint.28.16: It’s also very important for advisors now to have the conversation of you client to say, well, what’s important to you in how you get to that outcome? Do you care about your carbon footprint? Do you care about taxes? 30.05: We’re trying to help every retail customer out there to start to create that intelligent financial life through micro saving and investing.32.04: Jason asks Brandon, “If you had one wish for something changed in your company or the industry as a whole?”35.02: It’s a problem that we can solve and reduce the money and finance fences that are causing so much stress to people.3 Key Points:Financial lives are probably very different from one another and are different from others; we need to understand the complete ecosystems, make the right advice or provide the right insights to them.When you take any technology, whether that’s machine learning, or that’s a new cool app, you have to pair that with a human to get the best outcome. We can all innovate faster and provide better outcomes for clients.When people go to talk to an advisor, they expect them to be the genius on everything, but they’re also not meant to be an expert on every single financial instrument that’s out there.Tweetable Quotes:“Trying to make people’s financial lives better throughout that entire lifecycle”- Brandon Rembe“You guys are like the granddaddies of data aggregation, really are like the first major Big E myth in that space.”- Jason Pereira“Hey I want to get you on the phone right away and talk about what I need to do to provide the best outcome for me. So that type of seamless handoff between the machines is incredibly important for us”. – Brandon Rembe“Here is why I am asking all of these questions because they do have a real outcomes, what their needs are for healthcare and everything else” – Jason Pereira“It’s not only plugging them into that network, it’s then facilitating that network as well”. - Brandon Rembe“We’re really bringing some of those things down market so that people do understand how much they’re saving, spending, if they should be saving more, etc.” - Brandon RembeResources / Links:Leave your review at Apple PodcastsJason Pereira Podcasts Fintech Impact PodcastsJason Pereira WebsitePodcast Editing Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 25, 202136 min

Ep 174Dataswift with Shawn Yeager | E174

Host Jason Pereira talks to Shawn Yeager, Vice President – Sales at Dataswift, a vanguard provider of infrastructure that delivers personal data access, storage, and portability. In this episode, Shawn talks about solutions and the issues around identity rights and access to those identities.   Episode Highlights:0.30: Shawn explains what does it mean by “Infrastructure that delivers personal data access, storage, and portability?”0.47: It means that for individuals, they get the security ownership and control of their private personal data.01.02: For enterprises such as Fintech, the ability to securely in a compliant fashion transact customer data without the liability of holding all of the data.  01.05: Dataswift also provides developers, open-source tools to readily built compliance, authentication, and data storage. 02.04: Shawn has 20+ years of experience in business development and sales of infrastructure software, digital media, emerging technologies, and much more. 03.00: Dataswift emerged from a multi-university research project conducted in the UK.03.03: The problem faced to solve was “How does one delivers grant and have legal ownership of data?”05.06: Jason talks about the paradigm of the market and what data looks like.06.33: Jason highlights that data rights around the world are a mess; instead of solving the problem, few countries said one could own a bucket or container of data.08.01: Shawn points out that centralized data is a liability, and it is important for enterprises to figure out how much data they want to retain?08.31: There is a calculus of determining how much data should be retained. 08.49: Shawn gives a classic example of two Dataswift’s clients: Fintech and the other from Health Tech. The clients simply wanted the score and not the underlying data. 11.37: Shawn talks from a consumer point about how does Dataswift’s product work?12.23: When logging and signing up in Dataswift, consumers gain the legal entity to own their data. 13.24: Unlike Facebook, Google, Twitter, or any other such platform, one gives access to the enterprises to own their data.13.30: When it comes to Dataswift an individual owns their own personal data lockers.16.43: Shawn talks about the hackathons organized by Dataswift. 21.06: While talking about legal ownership of data, Shawn exemplifies that Dataswift is not a company that will tell its users what should or should not be kept personal rather, the company creates standardized data conducts.22.21: Shaws talks about the pricing models of Dataswift.22.53: Jason and Shawn discuss how data is most stumbled upon in the marketplace.   3 Key Points:Shawn Yeager talks about his history, the origin of Dataswift, and the gap in the market that led to its creation?Jason and Shawn talk about data rights worldwide and how using containers to store data is considered legal.From a consumer standpoint Dataswift communicates to its users “Why,” “What,” “When,” and “How.” The idea is to take informed consent. Tweetable Quotes:“We cannot own data, but we can own the container.” - Shawn Yeager“People’s information is of value.” - Jason Pereira“Data rights around the world are a mess.” - Jason Pereira“Most individuals would give all of their personal data for a slice of pizza.” - Jason Pereira“Centralised data is a liability.” - Shawn Yeager“With Dataswift you are not tying back to someone else’s access to your data, you are tying back to your own personal data lockers.” - Jason Pereira“Both parties benefits when each knows what they are doing.” - Shawn YeagerResources Mentioned:Dataswift: Website | Pricing Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInWoodgate.com – SponsorLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInPodcast Editing Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 18, 202135 min

Ep 173Leveraging Networks with Gil Petersil | E173

In this episode host, Jason Pereira talks to Gil Petersil. He talks about how editing and auditing your networks, both online and offline, have massive impacts on your business.  Episode Highlights:0.36: Gil talks about his years of experience in networking. He has set up few businesses around them. 01.32: Gil gives a little background of his career journey. He has handled various jobs with large and small brands.02.41: He adds that he has gained the required experience as a sales manager, waiter, executive, and many more; now, he can give back as a coach and teacher.05.01: Gil shares few recent examples of brands approaching him during the pandemic since people are not buying many products or services. 06.00: Gil doesn’t believe in time-consuming all-day training instead he prefers experimenting and then later sees how it works. 07.29: Gil talks about ethical deals and organizing the network effectively.11.00: Gil talks about “If I want to develop my business from 100 a month to million a month or billion in a year, it ultimately comes down to how do I transform my network.”12.58: Jason says, “At the end of the end, it comes down to relationship.13.40: Gil stresses the importance of networking and how business gets affected by poor choices. 17.56: Gil shares that he has learned some life hacks, tips, tricks, methodologies, and formulas that he has not perfected yet, but they are working very well. 19.35: For the digital marketing realm, COVID 19 was a gift for them. 20.29: Gil shares his love for those companies that decided to change their vision and mission during COVID19. 21.11: COVID19 pushed people to innovate. A classic example is Zoom calls and meetings.23.21: Jason asks Gil to share his inputs on what a financial advisor can do to strengthen their referral business. 25.36: Gil points out that it is specific to per person, industry or organization what approach they are taking. Still, he shares few impactful points. 28.23: Jason agrees to the points shared by Gil and adds that the referral business that he gets from his colleagues or competitors.30:39: Gil shares that following people, but not adding any value, disconnecting people, it is excruciating in most cases. 31.46: He adds that if we make mistakes in networking and follow those mistakes, you can do better and better every time. Make sure your networking is healthy. 3 Key Points:Jason Pereira asks Gil what is it that you do to help business?Jason Pereira and Gil discuss given the current situation organization across the globe has to strengthen their digital presence, as there is no other way around it.Gil shares that knowledge should be free. As a financial planner, if you are not giving all your knowledge for free, you are doing something wrong.  Tweetable Quotes:“When talking about networking, it always comes down to the people who are around you.” - Gil Petersil“When it comes to your business, your network is everything.” - Jason Pereira“Networking is not an act of maliciousness, but an act of mutual benefit.” - Jason Pereira“During the COVID19, it is important more than ever to build a network.” - Gil Petersil“Networking is extremely painful.” - Gil PetersilResources Mentioned:Gil Petersil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gilpetersil/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 11, 202137 min

Ep 172FP Alpha with Andrew Altfest | E172

In this episode, host Jason Pereira talks to Andrew Altfest - Founder and CEO of FP Alpha, CFP and President of Altfest Personal Wealth Management. FP Alpha is an AI-driven comprehensive wealth management solution that helps advisors identify actionable recommendations to clients in a scalable, intelligent, and cost-efficient manner.Episode Highlights:01.16: Andrew Altfest talks about his inspiration to launch FP Alpha. In 2015 one of his advisors was asked this question “How are you different than a Robo-Advisor?”02.11: FP Alpha provides a premium wealth management experience to clients; the fee justifies the value-add service that they provide. 05.01: Andrew worked closely with his CTO, who has a background in Tech Development, and they built the first beta version of FP Alpha. It was used in his wealth management firm since 2018. Finally, in 2020 it launched it at the T3 conference. 06.27: Andrew is focused on providing financial planning for the future. He is trying to evolve financial planning to Ver 2.0.07.11: Jason talks about the other AI financial planning software that he has seen that are good. But with FP Alpha covers the semi-obvious gaps in the market. 09.44: Jason enquires about “How the tax snapshot works?”12.05: Jason and Andrew discuss how Investment is one thing, but taxation is entirely different. He is impressed by how Andrew has done extensive due diligence, and FP Alpha covers those points which can be easily missed. 16.29: Jason and Andrew talk about the pricing structures. He points out Andrew has created a very differentiated service that provides tremendous value. 18.15: Jason is really impressed by FP Alpha and asks to share Andrew about the roadmap.19.50: Andrew talks about the first-of-its-kind holistic tool that they are going to launch. 24.27: Jason talks about the reality that even if the system does all the work the level of knowledge, you have to have in order to understand why the system did what it did.25.09: Andrew reveals the biggest challenge that he has faced to bring the company where it is today. 28.50: Jason says that advisors can be indispensable at the end of the day if they provide greater and greater value to their clients. 3 Key Points:Andrew talks about his vision to help clients handle their financial issues with minimal time using advanced technology. Andrew explains, “FP Alpha extracts information using AI from documents and understands what that information is, that is then combined with algorithms and recommendations around planning opportunities are provided to advisors.”Jason talks about how he is excited about the new platform. He inquiries about the modules Andrew has built so far and the value proposition.Tweetable Quotes:“As much as we do today there is so much more that we are adding to the software.” - Andrew Altfest“I am truly excited with all this new stuff, because it is going to liberate so much more time, it is ultimately going to better client’s life.” - Jason Pereira“The best way to win pricing against commodity is not to be a commodity.” - Jason Pereira“We as an industry need our own propriety technology to showcase our value.” - Andrew Altfest“A consumer will never understand the level of complexities that a trained professional will. - Jason PereiraResources MentionedFacebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInWoodgate.com – SponsorLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFP AlphaPodcast Editing Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 4, 202129 min

Ep 171The Genie with Scott Plaskett | E171

In this episode, host Jason Pereira talks to Scott Plaskett. As a financial planner, he is in the business since 1993. As a financial planner, he was looking for systems and technologies that would support the need to run the practice.  Episode Highlights:01.08: Scott shares how he realized there is the ability to create processes and workflow within the systems.01.39: After facing several crashes in the system, Scott was told to put a system in place that is running on its own server. 02.16: Scott gives a piece of insightful information that his firm was one of the first firms to embrace cloud-based technology.02:30: Scott took the help of salesforce.com, which is the apple of all programs. 03:49: Jason shares his preference for salesforce and how people often think it is a CRM platform with giant data on top. It is almost like AWS of CRM.04:35: Jason is curious to know “What does Genie deliver to an advisor who is looking to automate their process better?”04:45: Scott talks about the four components in Genie: The Marketing, Sales, Process / Fulfilment, and Profit Genie. 04:55: Scott also gives insights about the phases and automation that one would go through. 07:26: Most financial advisors grow their business with referrals, and this is extremely important. 08:48: Scott talks about the education-based marketing program of Genie and how it taps the invisible market.09:58: Jason stresses the importance of putting some valuable offer or product in the bang-on impactful market.10:38: Jason asks, “How are you going to articulate your value properly so that clients say wow.”12:15: Scott explains the entire process and emphasizes that they are already overloaded with work as a financial planner, so it is extremely important to keep track of all the work. This is where the sales genie comes into the picture. 12:50: Jason agrees that he has never seen an organization succeed without a proper process. 14:12: Scott discusses the importance of fulfillment in a business. If you don’t deliver on the promise, the entire business is going to fall.17:40: Jason and Scott discuss the importance of maintaining a uniform process. 19:31: Scott tells the listeners about the profit genie, which is more about running a better business.21:56: Scott also guides the listeners that people need to put it in their hat when it comes to building a business. The only way to do that is via information. 23:48: Jason asks what is giving the users of Genie confidence?25:02: Scott explains the importance of confidence and how it helps to improve the process and generate profitable revenue. 27:04: Scott guides his clients to implement the fulfillment genie at first then worry about leads.29:03: Scott’s vision is to remove malpractice from the advised-based industry. 30:00: Jason inquires, “What is the biggest challenge while implementing Genie?”3 Key Points:Scott throws light on visible and invisible markets. For example, if you are a real-estate agent and you want a property with a waterfront area. The problem is who are the people who want to buy that property, so this comes under the invisible market.It is important to know that you have a workflow managed by a system so that you and your people always know where people are in the process. Jason enquires about those people who have used the Genie platform and how they have benefitted from it?Tweetable Quotes:“If you are a financial advisor and you don’t have leads coming in then it is not good; it’s kind of like air is to humans as leads is to financial advisors.” - Scott Plaskett“Marketing is all about building rapport.” - Scott Plaskett“Client is paying you for the process.” - Scott Plaskett“Each of the opportunities we identify have different workflows.” - Scott Plaskett“If you want to build a business you got to have a platform in place.” - Scott Plaskett“The perfect sales is when you show the people this is what you need.” - Jason PereiraResources MentionedFacebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInWoodgate.com – SponsorLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInPodcast Editing Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Apr 27, 202136 min

Ep 170Fully Vested with Binna Kim | E170

In this episode host, Jason Pereira talks to Binna Kim founder of Vested. The company is an integrated agency of Fintech and Financial Services Firm. She jokes about her Jerry Maguire moment when she decided to quit and start her firm.Episode Highlights:02.00 – Binna talks about how brands needed to speak to their clients. Vested wants to work with the best brand in the Financial sector.03:50 – Jason talks about his personal opinion while sharing an example of his friend who is an art director at a media company and how terrible marketing he has seen.04:55 – Jason continues to share that at times how boring and repetitive few ads are.05:06 – Pointing towards the current awareness, Jason asks, “You must be seeing a lot more willingness from tech-start-ups to be different than before?”05:16 – Binna confirms that more regulations are coming into the picture for Fintech companies. 07:17 – Binna shares from her experience that not only the big firms, even the independent firms or small boutiques, come to them and say, “We want our brand to be different; we want to tell a different story.”09:41 – Jason highlights if part of your value proposition is passing on the cost-saving using digital technologies and trying to undercut the competition. 09:50 – The reality is you just destroyed the economics of that business to some degree, and you need massive volume to do that, so it’s not surprising that you will have to play sophisticated games. 11:44 – Jason enquires, “ On the start-up side when they are coming to you and saying you got the millennials now, how can we appeal those people?”12:45 – Binna shares, “They have a much stronger idea about their brand and the kind of brand that they want.” “It is about the tone that they use for branding.”14:49 – Jason raises a concern that when you are marketing one type of consumer and then you raise the bar and going beyond that, how do you help them navigate that?”15:20 – Binna highlights everybody wants to find out their competitive wedge. During such a situation, understanding your “WHY” is essential. 17: 57 – Jason adds that “Lots of companies are now changing their tone and figuring out how to enable relationships.” 19:00 – Binna shares there are so much data available, companies are using AI, ML, Data Science to know their customer20:52 – Binna answers a critical question on diversity and inclusion. When it comes to Fintech companies, the change can happen quickly, but it is not happening.22:04 – Many firms are implementing policies and including women in leadership positions, but there is still a stigma. 24:58 – Binna shares about the one thing that has come out positively in the pandemic. It has virtually connected people. 3 Key Points:Binna and Jason discuss about acquisitions; more traditional financial companies swallowing small Fintech companies; therefor enabling them to serve more affluent customers as big brands back them. Binna talks how they have created a brand that is different from the rest. We challenge people to think differently.It is essential to ask yourself, “Am I putting my money behind the right kind of company?” Even for Fintech companies, they had to take cold hard look on their “Why”?Tweetable Quotes:“Fintech companies will now have to look more grown-up” - Binna Kim“Start-ups are getting more matured in their marketing.” - Jason Pereira“If it does not cross the threshold of comfort, you have probably not reached there.” - Jason Pereira“More customers are getting to choose who they are going to work with?”  - Binna KimResources MentionedFacebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInWoodgate.com – SponsorLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInhttps://fullyvested.com/Podcast Editing Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Apr 20, 202130 min

Ep 169Metaco with Adrien Treccani | E169

In this 169th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award–winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Adrien Treccani, Founder and CEO of Metaco, a company that enables traditional financial institutions to offer their clients blockchain solutions!Episode Highlights:0:29 – Adrien Treccani introduces Metaco.1:06 – What brought about the genesis of Metaco?3:24 – How did Metaco solve the frictions of cryptocurrency mass adoption?6:15 – What does the client process look like with Metaco?9:16 – Is Adrien seeing a willingness to adopt blockchain solutions out of fear of future regulation?12:14 – How does Metaco’s system of hierarchies and permissions work?14:10 – Adrien breaks down the book on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology that he is currently writing.15:57 – Where does Adrien see Metaco going in the future?17:32 – What is Adrien seeing as the primary reason for purchasing crypto?20:03 – If Adrien could change one thing in his industry, what would it be?21:50 – What has been the biggest challenge in getting Metaco to where it is today?25:43 – Adrien shares what excites him the most about what he is working on.3 Key PointsRegulations, infrastructure, and a lack of market demand were the main frictions preventing institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies.Metaco has taken the best and largest traditional bank models and adjusted them for the age of digital assets.At this stage, Adrien is not seeing massive adoption of cryptocurrencies as payment options, rather as an investment. Tweetable Quotes:“Governance we think is really where we find is in pretty much everything on the market today.” – Adrien Treccani“The fact of the matter is having some degree of optional socialization is a comfort that most investors will ask for.” – Adrien Treccani“Having one person with control over the keys is not a smart thing because what happens if that one person goes?” – Jason Pereira“Anyone who laughed at the concept of tokenizing asset classes just didn’t understand.” – Jason Pereira Resources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialMetaco.com – Website for Metaco Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Apr 13, 202129 min

Ep 168Cinchy with Dan DeMers | E168

In this 168th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award–winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Dan DeMers, CEO and Cofounder of Cinchy, a next–generation data–management platform that utilizes data fabric with the end goal of data autonomy!Episode Highlights:0:43 – Dan DeMers introduces himself and Cinchy.2:27 – What was the problem that Dan was trying to solve when he started Cinchy?5:05 – Dan and Jason discuss the nature of code and the realization of data as a core asset.6:56 – Jason and Dan explain why the silo system is not scalable.10:09 – What are the hurdles and limitations of data lakes?11:48 – Dan explains “data fabric” and what problems it solves.15:21 – Jason and Dan discuss the relation of Metcalfe's Law to data fabric.17:33 – Dan and Jason explain the value of data and what it means to every individual.22:14 – What kind of reception has Cinchy gotten from the major institutions that it works with?26:52 – Jason and Dan explain why we are on the cusp of a generation of people who all do some form of coding.29:31 – If Dan could change one thing in his industry, what would it be?31:29 – What has been the biggest challenge of getting Cinchy to where it is today?32:29 – Dan explains what excites him the most about his work.3 Key PointsRoughly 50% of all IT budgets go to integration and data management, including APIs and all the byproducts of data being fragmented.Data lakes are filled with fragmented and unorganized data with quality issues that allow you to do analytics at best because it is all just a copy.Acceleration of low–code and no–code has put the world on the cusp of a generation of which everyone knows how to code to some degree. Tweetable Quotes:“We’re so used to a world where data is siloed and it’s subservient to an application.” – Dan DeMers“If you ever have to rekey something into two different systems, it’s a failure.” – Jason Pereira“If I have to pay my vendor to access my data, is it really my data?” – Jason Pereira“You have to take the action. It’s not going to fix itself. The data is not going to self–repair, sadly.” – Den DeMers Resources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialCinchy.com – Website for Cinchy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Apr 6, 202134 min

Ep 167Epilogue Wills with Arin Klug | E167

In this 167th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Arin Klug, Cofounder of Epilogue, an online will kit that helps people leave behind a legacy that does not bring their loved ones massive pain by enabling them to take control of their will!Episode Highlights:0:32 – Arin Klug introduces Epilogue and how it helps people.1:06 – How did Epilogue come to fruition and what motivated its creation?3:38 – What is the average situation that Epilogue applies to?5:10 – Where is the line drawn for Epilogue when it comes to whose will it can help create?10:23 – Jason and Arin discuss the value of lawyers in the will process.11:50 – What does the Epilogue client experience look like?14:26 – Arin explains what happens when there are changes in estate law.16:50 – Jason and Arin discuss how the costs of lawyers interrupt changes to the will.20:17 – Does everyone really need to pay for the premium financial planning services?21:23 – Arin breaks down the four documents that are included in Epilogue’s process.24:27 – Where does Arin see Epilogue going from here?27:51 – If Arin could change one thing in his industry, what would it be?28:15 – What has been the biggest challenge of getting Epilogue to where it is today?29:53 – Arin explains what excites him the most about his work.3 Key PointsEpilogue helps people create a legally binding will in as little as twenty minutes online, a far cry from the months–long process for a typical will.Arin and his business partner started Epilogue with the thought of how many people they could disqualify from the process because they know that no system is right for everyone.Funeral instructions included in the will are not legally binding, so Arin advises his clients to put those in a separate document and share those with family members to make sure that they are carried out. Tweetable Quotes:“If you want your family to hate you after you’re gone, go ahead and die without a will.” – Jason Pereira“You can’t write a will that’s against public policy and public policy is always changing.” – Arin Klug“The perception of cost often leads to conversations not even happening in the first place.” – Jason Pereira“Death hurts the living as much as it hurts the dead.” – Jason Pereira Resources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialEpiloguewills.com – Website for Epilogue Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mar 30, 202132 min

Ep 166Timeline with Abraham Okusanya | E166

In this 166th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Abraham Okusanya, CEO and Founder of Timeline. Timeline is an online platform that allows people to stress test the decumulation phase of their life and come up with a plan to deal with it!Episode Highlights:0:34 – Abraham Okusanya introduces Timeline.1:18 – Jason discusses the conflicting aspects and uncertainty of decumulation.1:52 – What was Abraham’s journey that led him to start Timeline?5:47 – Jason explains his biggest problems with financial plans.6:27 – What are the client inputs and outputs involved when working with Timeline?10:36 – Abraham explains how Timeline compares client expectations to reality.12:31 – What are the various spending rules that Timeline uses to adjust based on reality?16:54 – How does Timeline’s Floor and Ceiling rule work?18:39 – Abraham compares Timeline’s Floor and Ceiling rule to Michael Kitces’s Ratcheting rule.22:13 – Jason and Abraham discuss the benefits of discussing the realities of volatility with the client.23:02 – What is a withdrawal policy statement and what does it tell people?25:42 – If Abraham could change one thing about his industry, what would it be?26:32 – What has been the biggest challenge in getting Timeline to where it is today?27:51 – Abraham shares what excites him the most about his industry.3 Key PointsTimeline is a retirement income platform that helps financial planners and enterprises create simple withdrawal strategies for their clients by applying extensive data.Right now, most people are expected to run out of money ten years short of the average life expectancy.Timeline’s Floor and Ceiling rule affects how you increase your withdrawal based on inflation and portfolio performance.Tweetable Quotes:“Ultimately, our mission is to create retirement income plans where the money outlives the people.” – Abraham Okusanya“The Law of Gravity is a law because it’s an observed law and we know it’s going to work. The 4% rule is not a law, it’s an observation.” – Jason Pereira“That’s the worst thing, an academic or a researcher will create something that a marketing department will run rampant with.” – Jason Pereira“All we can do is to bring the reality of volatility straight in front of them because they are far better prepared for it.” – Abraham Okusanya Resources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialTimelineapp.com – Website for TimelineKitces.com – Website for Michael Kitces Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mar 23, 202130 min

Ep 165Zafin with Meenaz Sunderji | E165

In this 165th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award–winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Meenaz Sunderji, the Executive VP at Zafin. Zafin is a banking software platform that helps financial institutions personalize their services for their customers!Episode Highlights:0:31 – Meenaz Sunderji introduces Zafin and its services.1:32 – What led to the creation of Zafin?4:31 – Meenaz and Jason dive into what Zafin does for its clients.6:11 – How many different Legacy COBOL systems was Zafin dealing with to create a unified view?8:33 – Did any financial institutions come up with a long–term strategy before Zafin came into the picture?9:50 – Jason and Meenaz explain the difficulties of putting multiple product lines into one framework.15:00 – How has Zafin dealt with financial restrictions and regulations around the world?18:19 – Meenaz breaks down how a large publicly-traded company re-engineers its incentive program for the longer term.20:43 – Jason and Meenaz discuss the opportunities and worries for banks and fintech companies.23:30 – Meenaz explains how focusing on the customer can build lifelong relationships.24:27  – Jason and Meenaz dive into infrastructure and the future of embedded finance.27:19 – What would Meenaz change about the banking industry?28:00 – Meenaz shares Zafin’s biggest challenge to getting where it is today.28:37 – What excites Meenaz about his work today and in the future?3 Key PointsZafin monitors a variety of financial information to personalize customer pricing and create customized incentive programs.Silos of customer incentive programs are breaking because banks realize that they are going to lose money if they continue to group customers like that.Jason and Meenaz believe that old institutions will provide the infrastructure for new financial institutions to move into the future of embedded finance.Tweetable Quotes:“You are a next–best–action engine that sits over top of their banking system in between the client and their offering.” – Jason Pereira“With competition, like we have in our space, it drives to become better, otherwise you won’t survive.” – Meenaz Sunderji“The traditional banks stand a chance of losing the customer relationship but still handling the plumbing.” – Jason PereiraResources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialZafin.com – Website for Zafin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mar 16, 202130 min

Ep 164Unison with Thomas Sponholtz | E164

In this 164th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Thomas Sponholtz, CEO of Unison, a company that enables equity financing of residential real estate and gives institutional investors access to the world’s largest asset class!Episode Highlights:0:33 – Thomas Sponholtz introduces Unison.3:16 – What was the impedance for the creation of Unison?6:06 – Thomas explains the consumer experience when working with Unison.7:37 – To what degree is Unison participating in the change in the value of the house?8:44 – What happens if the homeowner sells the property at a loss?9:36 – How long do these deals take to get closed?11:10 – Thomas discusses the return expectations by investors.13:24 – How much attention is paid to regional diversification?16:00 – Jason and Thomas discuss the potential risk for residential homeowners.19:28 – Thomas discusses Unison’s goal of giving people the experience of having a home without the financial commitment of owning.20:25 – What kind of feedback has Unison gotten back from its clients?23:28 – If Thomas could change something about his company and his industry, what would he change?26:09 – What has been the biggest challenge in getting Unison to where it is today?27:24 – Thomas shares the motivations that get him up every morning.3 Key PointsUnison introduced equity financing to residential homeowners while also enabling institutional investors to get access to the world’s largest asset class.By bearing a high percentage of risk than the homeowner, Unison bears a disproportionate percentage of both gains and losses.Investing in a single home brings as much volatility as investing in the stock market while diversifying your portfolio with thousands of properties across the country can lower volatility from 15% to 5%. Tweetable Quotes:“When you retire, your biggest expense is most likely to be housing but you could not invest in housing as an asset class as an institution.” – Thomas Sponholtz“Theoretically, this could be closed in a week, in practice because of that coordination between the homeowner and appraiser, it typically takes about 2 or 3 weeks.” – Thomas Sponholtz“To date, the only option for investment in residential real estate has largely been residential REITs, in which case you’re dealing with a renter environment, not an ownership environment.” – Jason Pereira“A single home has the same volatility as the stock market.” – Thomas Sponholtz“Communicating directly to the consumer is a lot easier sometimes than through an intermediary.” – Thomas Sponholtz Resources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialUnison.com – Website for Unison Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mar 9, 202129 min

Ep 163Open Banking 5: Wrap Up with Clayton Feick | E163

In this 163rd episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Clayton Feick (Flinks) to go over the fundamental concepts of Open Banking!Episode Highlights:1:33 – Clayton Feick gives an update on his role at Flinks.3:07 – Jason and Clayton discuss the leveraging of data with Open Banking.4:01 – What is Open Banking in layman's terms?5:22 – Clayton explains screen scraping as a way to access data.6:45 – Jason and Clayton break down the current barriers to user data.11:10 – Clayton discusses the banks’ struggles to adapt to a new environment.14:01 – Was there anything of note that came up during Clayton’s global panel?16:15 – Jason and Clayton discuss innovation and regulation coming together on a global scale.20:34 – Jayson and Clayton dive into the responsibilities of regulators and legislators surrounding data rights.22:31 – How does the Open Banking framework go about its security?25:54 – If Clayton could change one thing about the industry, what would it be?27:37 – What has been the biggest challenge in getting Flinks to where it is today?28:52 – What excites Clayton the most about what he is working on?3 Key PointsIn laymen’s terms, Open Banking gives individuals the ability to access and share their financial data for their own benefit.Over the past 12 months, the pace of change in the Canadian banking system has sped up, forcing banks to rethink their business models.Regulators and legislators around the world must focus on staying patriotic and doing what is right for the data rights of their citizens.Tweetable Quotes:“The industry just wants good clean reliable data that they can work with to power new use cases and drive innovation.” – Clayton Feick“There’s really a lot of value in moving good clean reliable data from one place to another to eliminate some of those paper processes.” – Clayton Feick“I think the innovative banks will start to see themselves more and more as a platform and start to think about their customer base and the services they provide in that way in order to be competitive in this new environment.” – Clayton Feick“Innovation has not arisen from legislation; it’s arisen from startups and innovators that are trying to do things differently with tech that’s available today.” – Clayton Feick Resources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialFlinks.io – Website for Flinks Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mar 2, 202131 min

Ep 162Open Banking 4: Global Contrast with Edward Berks, Davyde Wachell, & Chad Davis | E162

In this 162nd episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Edward Berks (Xero), Davyde Wachell (Responsive AI), and Chad Davis (LiveCA) on what works and doesn’t work with Open Banking in different countries around the world!Episode Highlights:1:03 – Everyone introduces themselves and their companies.4:06 – What market has done the best job of moving Open Banking forward?8:44 – Where have we seen the biggest struggles throughout the world?13:40 – David explains how North American banks are actively slowing down the process of Open Banking.17:00 – Everyone weighs in on TD’s current lawsuit against Plaid.21:05 – What is the correlation between market competition and outcomes?27:00 – Jason compares the American financial psyche with the Candian one.28:03 – Everyone discusses streamlining access to capital during COVID in Canada.33:30 – Why does the Canadian government continue to push timelines for Open Banking?37:30 – David discusses the opportunity that exists for financial regulators in Canada.39:30 – What is the timeline in Canada for the next thing that financial institutions should be excited about?41:10 – What would each guest change in the world of Open Banking?3 Key PointsThough Canada has PIPEDA, which guarantees people’s right to their data upon request, the banks have made the process a nightmare for the requester. Canadian banks colluded to ban Apple Pay in Canada in a manner that would be considered illegal in other countries.In Canada, Fintech was completely boxed out of the situation of providing relief during COVID, something it could have done much quicker than the major banks.Tweetable Quotes:“Australia has always been a little further along on the accounting and banking spectrum than Canadians and Americans and the UK. I think they’re going to be pretty well positioned to roll this out right as well.” – Chad Davis“Every time we give a password, we’re violating our fraud protection. That’s just a nonsensical stance to take.” – Jason Pereira“Whether or not you’re China or whether or not you’re a Canadian bank, the more you try to stop the flow of information, the more that information is going to flow.” – David Watchel“I think that there’s a herd instinct in well–established banks in most jurisdictions, and once you get that first domino toppling, it’s difficult for the other banks not to follow.” – Edward BurkeResources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialXero.com – Website for XeroLiveCA.ca – Website for LiveCAResponsive.ai - Website for Responsive AI Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Feb 23, 202146 min

Ep 161Open Banking 3: Canada with Ben Harrison, Andrew Moor, & Daniel Eberhard | E161

In this 161st episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host is joined by Ben Harrison (Portag3 Ventures), Andrew Moor (EQ Bank), & Daniel Eberhard (KOHO) for part 3 of his series on Open Banking. This one is all about Canada!Episode Highlights:0:57 – Andrew Moor introduces himself and EQ Bank.2:25 – Ben Harrison gives insight into his role at Portag3.3:58 – Daniel Eberhard introduces himself and CoHo’s mission.6:15 – What is the current state of Open Banking in Canada?9:00 – How does this round of conversations surrounding Open Banking differ from conversations in the past?12:49 – Jason discusses the unprecedented urgency around regulatory reforms in Canada right now.14:19 – What kind of consideration is Canada’s advisory committee taking from markets that have already implemented Open Banking?18:12 – Everyone discusses the lack of data rights for consumers in Canada.23:28 – What does Open Banking mean to the future of KOHO, EQ Bank, and Portag3?30:39 – Who will be making the decisions for consumers’ financial lives with Open Banking?32:39 – Is there a concern about focusing on solely quantitative data and ignoring qualitative data surrounding consumer lives?38:30 – Jason explains how quality goes down every time a company adds a new product.40:48 – What is the one thing that everyone needs to know about why we need Open Banking?3 Key PointsCurrently, Canada’s 5 largest banks have the largest revenue to population ratio in the world, largely due to a sheer lack of competition.Unlike past conversations around Open Banking with the Canadian Minister of Finance, this time around there is an actual proposal.The fundamental push for Open Banking has been fueled by a lack of engagement by consumers. The hope is that Open Banking makes financial transactions and banking transparent and simple. Tweetable Quotes:“This is a way to unplug the power of some very large institutions and deliver more value to the entrepreneurial community...everyone should be aligned on this kind of thing.” – Andrew Moor“The message that I take from the advisory committee’s work is they strongly believe that government absolutely needs to play an important role in designing the framework from a legislative standpoint.” – Ben Harrison“The real gating factor is actually the approval and I think that’s always been the biggest risk to this process. And now we have a framework through which to shape the discussion.” – Daniel Eberhard“The general how we’re going to do this hasn’t necessarily been fully addressed yet. It’s more so we need to do this.” – Jason Pereira“It is really hard to be good at tons of things.” – Jason Pereira Resources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialPortag3 Ventures – Website for Portag3 VenturesEQ Bank – Website for EQ BankKOHO – Website for KOHO Financial Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Feb 16, 202145 min

Ep 160Open Banking 2: U.S. with Frederik Mennes, John Pitts, & Yoseph West | E160

In this 160th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Frederik Mennes (OneSpan), John Pitts (Plaid), & Yoseph West (Relay) to discuss the state of Open Banking in the United States! Episode Highlights: ● 0:50 – John Pitts introduces himself and Plaid. ● 1:32 – Yoseph West introduces himself and Relay. ● 2:08 – Frederik Mennes introduces himself and OneSpan. ● 3:22 – What is the state of affairs in the US for Open Banking right now? ● 5:52 – Frederik addresses the fundamental differences between the US and Europe in their approaches to Open Banking. ● 7:00 – How has the state of regulations in the US impacted Relay’s growth? ● 8:30 – What are the incentives and motivations for Plaid’s clients on the bank side? ● 11:34 – Frederick shares about OneSpan’s client education around security in Open Banking. ● 13:30 – John explains why he thinks that regulations are not as vital as some might think. ● 16:47 – What is going right and what needs to be fixed in the US situation? ● 24:49 – How do US companies regulate the risk of moving to APIs? ● 27:46 – Is it reasonable to draw a compliance line for customers with a certain value of assets? ● 29:48 – Jason and Frederick weigh the risk vs. reward of Open Banking for smaller banks. ● 31:39 – How much pushback does John see from Plaid’s screen scraping guidelines? ● 36:08 – Where does Yoseph feel constrained in the current system? ● 41:00 – Everyone shares the one key thing that they believe the US Open Banking system should focus on moving forward. 3 Key Points 1. While the US finds itself years ahead of Europe on the practice of Open Banking, it finds itself an equal amount behind Europe on regulations. 2. Open Banking companies in the US face the challenge of switching over to Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) without risking data and client rights. 3. Screen scraping, or consumer data extraction for automation of previously-manual actions, is still allowed under PSD2. It has actually been updated in its security measures. Tweetable Quotes: ● “It’s no secret that Europe has been pretty much at the forefront of the Open Banking initiatives around the world through initiatives such as PSD1 and PSD2.” – Jason Pereira ● “To actually deliver true open banking, the dream that we all think of...I think that’s a dream that will only exist as a result of Challenger or Neobanks.” – Yoseph West● “At this point, regulation is actually very helpful to create a level playing field for security. Regulation can help to make sure that all the players in the ecosystem...implement the right security technology.” – Frederik Mennes ● “The key thing that makes the US market special is that it is being driven by consumer demand.” – John Pitts Resources Mentioned: ● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook ● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn ● JasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletter ● Woodgate.com – Website for Woodgate Financial ● Plaid – Website for Plaid ● OneSpan – Website for OneSpan ● Relay – Website for Relay Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Feb 9, 202147 min

Ep 159Open Banking 1: Europe with Hesus Inoma & Daniel Döderlein | E159

In this 159th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Hesus Inoma and Daniel Döderlein. As 2 pioneers of Open Banking in Europe, Daniel and Hesus are here to discuss the current movements and innovations of world leaders in European Banking!Episode Highlights:0:18 – Jason explains why he is hosting a 5–part series on Open Banking.1:41 – Daniel Döderlein introduces himself and what he does.2:29 – Hesus Inoma introduces himself and his professional experience.3:32 – Daniel defines Open Banking for the layperson.9:16 – What is PSD2 and what was its impact?12:20 – Jason and Hesus break down how banks will win or lose with Open Banking.15:36 – Daniel explains how banks have been rotten and spoiled for so long.19:39 – What will happen to big banks in the future with Open Banking?26:46 – Jason, Hesus, and Daniel discuss the shift in innovation that is happening in banking right now.32:52 – What does the customer really want and where does the business lie?37:00 – Jason breaks down the varying bank concentrations in different parts of the world.39:45 – Hesus and Daniel share their thoughts on the Visa–Plaid deal and the recent antitrust lawsuit surrounding it.47:22 – What is not working and what needs to change?53:28 – Daniel lays out a concerning future dilemma and question.55:00 – Hesus shares his final thoughts on the future of Open Banking.3 Key PointsAccepting card payments comes at a cost, either handled by the business or a service provider, presenting a problem for businesses that operate outside of Open Banking.PSD2, a regulation for electronic payment services in Europe, is putting the banking system in its place while also assisting banks in adapting to new Open Banking technologies.Over 50% of countries have 3 banks controlling more than 66% of the entire country’s banking deposits. Tweetable Quotes:“For us, Open Banking is a journey that will lead from Open Banking to Open Finance to open the economy.” – Hesus Inoma“When you really think about it, banking is a highly–commoditized business.” – Jason Pereira“The smaller players have always been reliant on the large players in terms of infrastructure, access, and service rendering.” – Daniel Döderlein“Everyone hates at least one of the banks that we deal with in this country, loves to buy the stocks to get the dividends, but also thinks we need them because they’re safe.” – Jason Pereira Resources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialBbvausa.com/ – Website for BBVAVisa–Plaid Deal – Article Discussing the Visa–Plaid DealDoderlein.com/ – Daniel Döderlein’s WebsiteLinkedIn – Hesus Inoma’s LinkedIn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Feb 2, 202158 min

Ep 158Upside Foundation with Jennifer Couldrey | E158

In this 158th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Jennifer Couldrey, the Executive Director of The Upside Foundation of Canada, an organization that enables equity donations by Canadian business founders who wish to make a positive impact on the future of their communities!Episode Highlights:1:20 – Jennifer Couldrey introduces The Upside Foundation.2:14 – How did Jennifer get into this business and how did The Upside Foundation get its start?3:52 – Jennifer breaks down The Upside model.5:56 – Why are these Canadian founders interested in donating equity?8:05 – Jason and Jennifer talk about how The Upside Foundation thrives in the long-game.9:07 – What does a typical deal look like and what factors play into these parameters?10:59 – Where are the donations being directed?13:01 – Is this a one-time donation or a continuously-managed fund?14:59 – Jason and Jennifer discuss how people view different charities.21:12 – What is the feedback that The Upside Foundation is receiving both before and after their clients’ exit events?25:57 – If Jennifer could change one thing in her industry, what would it be?29:12 – What has been the biggest challenge of getting The Upside Foundation to where it is today?30:25 – What motivates Jennifer to get up every day and push forward with The Upside Foundation’s mission?3 Key PointsCanadian founders use The Upside Foundation as a way to make a palpable impact in their communities.Companies are presented with the option of donating via stock options or personal proceeds to the cause of their choice.90% of charitable donations are donated to elite donations such as universities, hospitals, and larger organizations that decide where the money should be allocated. Tweetable Quotes:“It’s a way of embedding this charitable impact into your business from day one.” – Jennifer Couldrey“Part of the reason we have the flexibility to give through stock options or to give through personal proceeds is just to make that decision really easy for people.” – Jennifer Couldrey“Having the ability to course correct is a valuable luxury that I think that is afforded through having these endowments paying out small amounts over large amounts.” – Jason Pereira“When people think about charity, they usually think about helping the poor...but if you actually look at where charitable dollars go, 90% of charitable dollars are going to help elite institutions.” – Jennifer Couldrey“When you have something, it’s hard to give it up. The bigger that number is, the harder it is to cut that check.” – Jason Pereira Resources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialLinkedIn – Jennifer Couldrey’s LinkedInThe Upside Foundation – Website for The UpsideUncharitable – BookBillion Dollar Loser – BookThis Could Be Our Future – Book Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jan 26, 202132 min

Ep 157Xendoo with Lil Roberts | E157

In this 157th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Lil Roberts, CEO of Xendoo, an online accounting firm that aims to serve small businesses by simplifying the bookkeeping process!Episode Highlights:0:32 – Lil Roberts introduces Xendoo and its mission.0:56 – What was the inspiration behind the creation of Xendoo?1:36 – Lil shares her journey that led to the creation of Xendoo.3:22 – Jason and Lil talk about the importance of knowing your numbers when it comes time to scale.5:56 – Lil and Jason discuss the competition in the accounting industry.8:28 – Jason and Lil dive into the low bar of understanding for what people should expect from their accountant.11:40 – Lil explains why the concept of dropping off your paperwork is one of the past.13:48 – What tools are in Xendoo’s tech stack and why were those chosen?17:00 – Jason and Lil talk about the importance of being organized with your tax paperwork.18:45 – How much fun is it to make these tools work together nicely?20:42 – Jason discusses the digital lessons that have been taught by COVID.22:03 – What kind of feedback is Lil hearing from Xendoo’s clients?23:47 – If Lil could change one thing about the accounting industry, what would it be?26:22 – What has been Xendoo’s biggest challenge during its growth?27:04 – Lil discusses what motivates her to get up every day.3 Key PointsAs a serial entrepreneur, Lil Roberts hated that bookkeeping and accounting services were slow, expensive, and provided little transparency.Online bookkeeping and accounting services account for less than 1% of the industry as a whole.The days of dropping off your paperwork to your accountant are over. Everything is done online now and this helps business owners Tweetable Quotes:“No one gets in the business to do your bookkeeping unless you’re a bookkeeping business.” – Jason Pereira“I’m not concerned about the people that are doing the exact same thing that I’m doing; I’m concerned about the person doing something different that I’m not directly benefitting from.” – Jason Pereira“The magic does not happen after the year is over; the magic happens through the year.” – Jason Pereira“I can’t tell you how many times that we have seen somebody transpose numbers.” – Lil Roberts Resources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialXendoo.com – Website for XendooXeroQuickBooksThe Coming of The Human Knowledge – Work Cloud – Article by Sam Lessin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jan 19, 202128 min

Ep 156Act Analytics with Zachary Dan | E156

In this 156th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Zachary Dan, CoFounder and CTO of Act Analytics, a platform that helps financial advisors make better decisions around environmental, social, and governmental factors!Episode Highlights: 0:41 – Zachary Dan introduces Act Analytics.1:04 – What led Zachary to create Act Analytics.2:14 – Jason discusses the issues that exist in the ESG area.4:12 – How does Zachary score industries with ESG factors?8:09 – Zachary discusses the challenges presented by a high–level of customization in regard to customer experience.9:12 – What does the user experience look like from start to finish?11:14 – How often is the data updated?11:38 – Zachary dives into the sources of data that Act Analytics utilizes.14:01 – What has the feedback been like from Act Analytics’s earliest users?16:00 – Zachary shares his thoughts on future innovations for the platform.17:49 – If Zachary could change one thing about his industry, what would it be?19:17 – What has been the biggest challenge for Act Analytics during its growth?22:46 – Zachary explains what excites him about natural language processing.3 Key PointsZachary saw that neither the data nor the ratings were constructed in a way that served most people, so he created a tool that utilizes both in a way that translates to the end-user.At the moment, Act Analytics has about 20 paying clients with most logging on every day and utilizing the news–analytics feature of the platform.Zachary hopes to see the commoditization of ESG and financial data, making it widely available for everyone to choose how to use that information for themselves.Tweetable Quotes:“If companies in all sectors are being pressured to change over time and everyone’s doing this, that’s one way to change the world.” – Zachary Dan“I think one of the mistakes of what’s out there is this idea that you can become the standard scoring methodology for ESG because...it’s different for everybody.” – Zachary Dan“There’s lots of opportunities to include more built–out portfolio construction and AI that helps people build portfolios using both ESG and financial considerations.” – Zachary Dan“You can’t fully fit on a spreadsheet about just how ethical a company is but you have to figure out how to measure that in real-time.” – Jason Pereira“If someone doesn’t have a belief in something, why are you forcing it on them?” – Jason Pereira Resources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialAct-analytics.com – Website for Act AnalyticsTruvaluelabs.com/ – Website for Truvalue Labs Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jan 12, 202128 min

Ep 155Billd with Christopher Doyle | E155

In this 155th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Christopher Doyle, the CEO of Billd, a vendor–financing company that allows contractors to purchase materials via credit so they can take on bigger projects!Episode Highlights:0:32 – Christopher Doyle introduces Billd and its role in the construction industry.1:17 – How did Billd get started and what motivated it?3:47 – What were the challenges of trying to make this platform work with being able to profile the clients accurately?6:27 – Why is commercial construction way worse than individual contractors?9:00 – Jason and Christopher discuss the risks involved in this business.10:55 – What does the process look like for contractors looking to work with Billd?13:06 – Where is the money coming from when it’s time to get paid back?14:23 – What kind of feedback is Billd getting from its clients?15:44 – Christopher discusses what has surprised him the most.18:15 – Jason and Christopher discuss the innovative tech that is being deployed in the construction industry.19:48 – What change would Christopher make in his business right now?22:00 – Christopher dives into the biggest growth problems that Billd has faced.24:11 – What excites Christopher the most about what he is working on?3 Key PointsBy providing a system of material credits, Billd allows contractors to pay for their materials upfront, allowing them to take on projects that would otherwise be too large to bid on.Most of the time, when Billd has to get involved for payment, it’s because they haven’t been paid for the work. In this case, Billd gets to act as the bad guy for the contractor.Even with a slow adoption curve, more and more innovative technology is being used in the construction industry, such as robot learning and 360-degree job site digital views. Tweetable Quotes:“In construction, contractors rely so much on those upfront payments and often times it’s a limiter to growth and starting the business altogether.” – Christopher Doyle“What we’re really talking about here is the reduction of burden for working capital within a business.” – Jason Pereira“If we’re going to burden someone in that process, it’s the supplier...We try to keep our contractor doing what they do best.” – Christopher Doyle“When you have a small group of people working tightly to build something from scratch, those little things actually will annoy the heck out of you.” – Jason PereiraResources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialBilld.com/ – Website for Billd Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jan 5, 202126 min

Ep 1542020 Year In Review with Jason Pereira | E154

In this 154th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host is interviewed by Guy Anderson about what has been going on for the last 12 months!Episode Highlights:0:57 – Guy and Jason touch on Jason’s podcast rankings and success in 2020.2:40 – There are many subcategories in the Fintech industry.3:24 – What episodes did people like the most this year?5:48 – Are there any past guests that have made changes that Jason wants to have back on?7:12 – What are some exciting new technologies in the Fintech space?9:20 – Jason breaks down Cinchy’s strategies for connecting data with bilateral communication.10:37 – What is Jason looking forward to in 2021?11:40 – Jason dives into no-code platforms that are changing tech.14:28 – Would you spend $120/year for software that would save you 1 minute every day?17:25 – Jason discusses how automated software is benefiting businesses everywhere.19:48 – Guy and Jason talk about the painful process that used to be required to sign up for financial software.20:42 – What does the future relationship look like between the stock exchange and blockchain technology?21:57 – Is there anything coming down the pipe for the podcast that excites Jason? 3 Key PointsIn 2020, Fintech Impact has become #2 on Apple and #1 on Spotify for podcasts in the Fintech category.Crypto and blockchain technologies have gone from speculation and hype to large applications that have begun to deliver.Automated software provides the opportunity for exponential gains by saving users time.Tweetable Quotes:“Each day is the same...This is the year of groundhog days.” – Guy Anderson“Now we’re starting to see real applications of blockchain, and it’s exciting to actually start to see this stuff that had so much promise actually start to deliver.” – Jason Pereira“Once you wrap around what you can do, the number of problems in your life you can start to solve with these platforms is just nuts.” – Jason Pereira“The stuff that used to take a team of 5 can now probably be done by 2 in the same amount of time.” – Jason PereiraResources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialFpalpha.com/ – Website for FP AlphaCinchy.com/ – Website for Cinchy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dec 29, 202024 min

Ep 153Canaree with Sara Green Broderson | E153

In this 153rd episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Sara Green Broderson from Canaree, an online projection tool that holds the hands of startups by building their financial model and providing financial advice!Episode Highlights:0:36 – Sara Green Broderson introduces Canaree.1:38 – What is Sara’s history before and with Canaree?4:31 – How does the Canaree end-user experience look from start to finish?6:06 – Has Canaree involved API connections to accounting software or data aggregation?6:50 – Jason vents about his frustration with Canada’s lack of an open–banking policy.7:46 – What drives fundraising? Choice or demand?10:02 – What are the plans for further development of Canaree?11:17 – Where does Canaree get its current benchmark data?12:03 – What is the early feedback from Canaree’s clients?14:09 – Jason and Sara discuss what it’s like being a female founder in the Fintech industry.22:01 – How would Sara change the financial industry as a whole?23:10 – What has been the biggest challenge for Canaree during its growth?24:40 – Why does Sara get out of bed every morning?3 Key PointsLess than 10% of Excel’s functionalities are commonly utilized, making it an ineffective tool to make financial projections and giving way to companies like Canaree.One of the biggest pain points for startups is not having their finances planned out, thus driving the need for fundraising and projections.Though there is a lack of gender diversity amongst female founders in the Fintech industry, Sara has found that being one of the few has been a positive experience and the industry is moving in the right direction. Tweetable Quotes:“The time to model out your business is now because you’re probably facing unprecedented financial stress.” – Jason Pereira“Anyone would think that when you start a company the first thing you would do is sit down and make a budget or a plan for your cost, but people don’t.” – Sara Green Broderson“When we started out we thought it would be founders and non–finance people coming on board, but we’re actually seeing quite a lot of finance individuals signing up.” – Sara Green Broderson“Never discount simplicity and the value of it even to the most complex users.” – Jason Pereira“A worthy cause, entrepreneurship is the lifeblood of any economy.” – Jason Pereira Resources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialCanaree.co – Canaree’s WebsiteLinkedIn – Sara Green Broderson’s LinkedIn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dec 22, 202027 min

Ep 152Ortec with Richard Owen | E152

In this 152nd episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Richard Owen, VP of Sales for Retail Wealth Management in North America for Ortec, a company that projects out returns for a variety of asset classes through the use of sophisticated econometric models! Episode Highlights: ● 0:39 – Richard Owen introduces Ortec and the services it provides. ● 3:02 – How did Richard come to be involved with Ortec? ● 4:32 – Jason and Richard compare Monte Carlo analysis and Ortec’s analytical strategy. ● 7:28 – Richard and Jason break down the differences between financial projection companies in Canada and Ortec. ● 11:17 – Jason and Richard discuss Ortec’s core capability of providing a realistic view of the future. ● 16:06 – How often do Ortec’s algorithms shift and adjust with the market? ● 18:18 – Richard breaks down just how specific of information their models bring to advisors. ● 20:11 – How do Ortec’s clients feel about its methods and projections? ● 22:02 – What are the real-life deployment cases for Ortec’s software on a retail level? ● 24:53 – What kind of feedback does Ortec get from institutions and advisors? ● 28:30 – Jason and Richard discuss the tendency for businesses and individuals to have the wrong goals. ● 30:06 – What would Richard change in the financial planning industry? ● 31:08 – Richard explains the biggest challenge for Ortec in North America. ● 32:07 – What excites Richard the most about what he is doing? 3 Key Points 1. Ortec creates large economic models, up to 40 years out, for both companies and individuals throughout the European and North American markets. 2. Most large financial institutions make the mistake of solely looking backward to historical data to project for the future, while Ortec uses historical data and current trends to make its projections. 3. Ortec deploys its software in 3 different ways: client-facing API, integration with existing systems, and integration with Salesforce. Tweetable Quotes: ● “Historical data has biases...it doesn’t necessarily give you a good view of what the future looks like.” – Richard Owen● “It’s very very hard to operationalize those capital market models...The assumptions that you’ve built into the plan then need to change because the portfolio has changed.” – Richard Owen ● “Really, a lot of this is about driving what is the next best action for the advisor.” – Jason Pereira ● “You tell us the asset allocation and portfolio value, we’ll project out that future returns. What you do with that really depends on the use case.” – Richard Owen Resources Mentioned: ● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook ● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn ● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact ● JasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletter ● Woodgate.com – Website for Woodgate Financial ● Ortecfinance.com – Website for Ortec Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dec 15, 202034 min

Ep 151iComply with Matthew Unger | E151

In this 151st episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Matthew Unger, the CEO of iComply, a company that deploys intelligent compliance management services! Episode Highlights: ● 0:35 – Matthew Unger introduces iComply. ● 1:18 – What was the origin of iComply and why did Matthew create it? ● 5:21 – How is iComply different from its competition? ● 8:49 – Jason translates iComply’s platform into layman’s terms. ● 10:15 – Matthew discusses the growing possibilities of client-side processing. ● 15:10 – How does iComply protect the user experience? ● 17:00 – Matthew breaks down the validation problems of current API–based KYC data services. ● 20:57 – What would Matthew change about his industry as a whole? ● 23:08 – Matthew discusses the biggest challenge in getting iComply to where it is today. ● 25:02 – What excites Matthew the most about what he does? 3 Key Points 1. COVID has forced people and businesses out of brick–and–mortar services and into the future of financial tech. 2. iComply sends verification programming to the devices of the end-users rather than having them come into a store to do facial verification. 3. API–based KYC workflows have taken the human element out of the data input process, allowing users to make it to the end of the process before informing them that there is a problem. Tweetable Quotes: ● “Things like KYC, things like compliance need to have a fresh look at how we handle user data and user privacy, and that’s really what led us down this path.” – Matthew Unger ● “What we actually do is we send the verification program into the browser of the client, so all of their data stays on their device.” – Matthew Unger ● “At the end of the day, you’re still pushing some form of data into the cloud to feedback something to verify.” – Jason Pereira ● “We can perform initial validation on the date the user’s inputting, and when the user inputs data that doesn’t seem to check out, we can immediately ask the user to correct it while they’re sitting at that form field.” – Matthew UngerResources Mentioned: ● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook ● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn ● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact ● JasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletter ● Woodgate.com – Website for Woodgate Financial ● iComplyis.com – Website for iComply Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dec 8, 202029 min

Ep 150FP Pad with Bill Winterberg | E150

In this 150th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Bill Winterberg, Founder of FP Pad, a source of educational content on tech for financial advising and forecasting. Bill is here to have a friendly chat about the current state of affairs as well as the future of tech in the world of financial advising!Episode Highlights:0:38 – Bill Winterberg introduces his website, FP Pad.3:04 – What did Bill do before he founded FP Pad?5:14 – Ted shares his dream before he went to college.9:35 – How painful was the state of affairs of technology when Bill got into financial advising?11:52 – Jason and Bill dive into the effects that AWS played on the cloud technology boom.15:42 – What are Bill’s best practices when he takes on a new client?20:53 – How much of an obstacle does changing the behavior of people in the firm represent?24:30 – Jason and Bill break down how to scale without integrating more than a firm can handle.28:08 – Where does Bill see the biggest changes in the future for the day–to–day life of financial advisors?32:50 – Jason and Bill discuss the tendency of financial advisors to believe bad advice.35:41 – How should advisors be spending their time these days?40:04 – What would Bill change about his industry as a whole?42:05 – What has been the biggest challenge for Bill to get to where he is today?45:10 – Bill talks about what excites him for the future.3 Key PointsFP Pad has evolved from a website and blog to a YouTube channel, podcast, activity highlights, and a plethora of other content and resources to improve Fintech practices.When taking on a new client, Bill hopes that the person or small group of people in charge of transition are focused on adding value to the company while helping everyone grow.Bill hopes that in 5 years, financial advisors will go from storing financial plans in silos to utilizing financial software that allows them to communicate with each other. Tweetable Quotes:“The movers and shakers have origins in Electric Avenue.” – Bill Winterberg“If you’re paying on a monthly basis, now you’re not worried about large–scale deployments, you’re worried about constant improvement. And now we all benefit from multiple upgrades per year.” – Jason Pereira“I am very receptive to legacy solutions and what exists in the business.” – Bill Winterberg“Focus on scaling the business with a couple of tools to leverage before you go building this massive platform.” – Jason Pereira“I think advisors should be spending their time figuring out how they’re going to grow their business or engage clients and engage prospects very effectively.” – Bill Winterberg Resources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialXY Planning NetworkGarrett Planning NetworkFPPad.com – Website for FP PAdLinkedIn – Bill Winterberg’s LinkedIn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dec 1, 202048 min

Ep 149Eq Bank with Mahima Poddar | E149

In this 149th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Mahima Poddar, the Senior Vice President of Digital Banking Strategy at Equitable Bank and head of EQ Bank!Episode Highlights:0:40 – Mahima Poddar introduces Equitable Bank and EQ Bank.1:15 – How did Mahima get to her current career?2:10 – What was the genesis of the decision to move to a Challenger bank?5:05 – Jason breaks down the banking system in Canada.6:55 – Mahima discusses the problems with lending/depositing with big banks.10:15 – Jason and Mahima vent about the dark patterns that big banks have with their accounts.15:30 – Challenger banks could have made the COVID-loan processes much simpler.17:02 – How does EQ collaborate with other players in the Challenger space?21:07 – Jason and Mahima dive into the willingness of the Canadian people to make a banking change.24:08 – What are the biggest concerns with open banking in different countries?29:37 – Mahima talks about EQ Bank’s efforts to cause changes within the big banks.33:12 – What are all the ways that EQ Bank provides great value to its customers?33:43 – If Mahima could change one thing in banking, what would it be?35:25 – What has been the biggest challenge in EQ Bank’s growth?38:30 – What motivates Mahima to battle the glaring issues of big banking?3 Key PointsEquitable Bank chose to never be a brick-and-mortar organization and to go the route of a digitized Challenger bank.EQ Bank offers zero monthly fees, free check deposits, bill-pay, interest-earning checking accounts, and more as ways to differentiate itself from the big banks.For the benefit of the Canadian people, EQ Bank aims to go beyond bringing people to its doors and cause real change in the banking system. Tweetable Quotes:“We are trying to develop lending products that are serving needs that are underserved by the big banks.” – Mahima Poddar“They don’t make it easy. They don’t understand it, but Equitable does.” – Mahima Poddar“There’s no business account that doesn’t have a larger-than-life fee attached to it.” – Jason Pereira“Friction is not a way to keep your clients. Friction is a way to piss them off and guarantee that when they see a better way, they’re going to leave.” – Jason Pereira“Canadians are starting to become more value-conscious and realize that there are better options available.” – Mahima PoddarResources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialEqbank.ca – Website for EQ BankLinkedIn – Mahima Poddar’s LinkedIn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nov 24, 202040 min

Ep 148Peernova with Gangesh Ganesan| E148

In this 148th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Gangesh Ganesan, the Founder and CEO of PeerNova, a data management company that helps companies get control of their data to empower growth!Episode Highlights:0:32 – Gangesh Ganesan introduces PeerNova and its services.3:01 – How badly does it look when a company comes to PeerNova?5:10 – How do companies get onboarded and work with PeerNova?7:03 – Jason breaks down what a data lake is for those who don’t know.7:47 – What answers do clients get when they finish the onboarding process?10:20 – What are the biggest challenges that lead to data being inaccurate?15:00 – Do clients give positive feedback once they are onboarded with Peernova?18:47 – How does getting the data situation under control empower future innovation within these companies?20:54 – Jason explains the concept of low-code and no-code platforms.21:45 – Gangesh and Jason talk about the next level of AI and trends in the industry.23:52 – How much more innovation will we see in the next decade now that we have auto-generated code?24:45 – What would Gangesh change in the financial services industry?27:10 – What has been the biggest challenge during PeerNova’s growth?29:42 – Gangesh shares what excites him the most about his job.3 Key PointsPeernova is an operating system for data, helping companies manage and clean up their data, something that strangles many companies to death.Companies that come to PeerNova are not required to onboard all of their data onto PeerNova’s platform but can work side-by-side with PeerNova’s servers as they act as a data lake.Once companies have their data cleaned up and under organized management, their IT-centric work becomes automated while also empowering their business users.Tweetable Quotes:“We run both data quality and process integrity checks on the data and then we allow you to take actions on the results of that data quality and process checks.” – Gangesh Ganesan“Data quality is the albatross around the neck of every company and it is not great.” – Jason Pereira“Trying to find data quality and process issues and trying to make data available to downstream users is looking for a needle in a haystack, and the haystack itself is spread over a huge farm.” – Gangesh Ganesan“Humans are always the weakest link.” – Jason Pereira“The trend in the industry is to automatically start writing software itself for you. Instead of having to write code, you use tools that can write software for you now.” – Gangesh Ganesan Resources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialPeernova.com – PeerNova’s WebsiteLinkedIn – Gangesh Ganesan’s LinkedIn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nov 17, 202032 min

Ep 147Ava Labs with John Wu | E147

In this 147th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews John Wu, CEO of Ava Labs, a blockchain company focused on financial institutions!Episode Highlights:0:33 – John Wu introduces Ava Labs.1:07 – John dives into his storied career in emerging technologies.5:38 – How did John dive into the world of blockchain?7:20 – The owner of Ava Labs reached out to join forces with John.8:00 – How does Ava Labs solve many of the problems that others do not?9:57 – Jason and John dive into the problems with crypto exchanges that exist today.13:50 – John breaks down the reason that blockchain integration will take a long time.16:28 – Jason and John talk about the evolution of banking and plastic payments.21:47 – How does the blockchain scale without forgetting about the libertarians that have helped build it?24:50 – Jason and John look 10 years into the future of blockchain.27:19 – If John could change one thing about his industry, what would it be?29:02 – What are the biggest problems that Ava Labs has right now?30:55 – What inspires John to get jazzed up every day?3 Key PointsJohn began a software company that automated many of the backend tasks and gave access to crypto in an attempt to help individuals and small businesses.In today’s world of crypto exchanges, everything has been made for crypto users by crypto users, making it difficult for new users to enter the market. Ava Labs hopes to fix that problem.Eventually, end users will think of blockchain on the same level as using AWS. Even though they won’t understand how it works, it will just be a part of life. Tweetable Quotes:“Once you start investing for yourself, you realize this stuff is really hard for individuals and small businesses to get involved with.” – John Wu“The attention really comes when people think about it as the value that’s being transferred away from traditional finance to somewhere in the ether.” – John Wu“It’s the adoption cycle of any technology, right?... I’m starting to see the promise of blockchain finally come to fruition.” – Jason Pereira“The concept of a consensus protocol has been around for a long time.” – John Wu“There are so many applications for blockchain in so many niche spaces that you can have many different companies and protocols winning.” – John Wu Resources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialLinkedIn – John Wu’s LinkedInAvalabs.org – Ava Lab’s Website Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nov 10, 202032 min

Ep 146Auka with Daniel Döderlein | E146

In this 146th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Daniel Döderlein, the Founder and CEO of Auka, the tech company that helped pioneer mobile-cash transfers in Europe!Episode Highlights:0:37 – Daniel introduces Auka and its journey.1:26 – Daniel talks about his history as an entrepreneur.6:15 – Jason and Daniel dive into the regulations that technology companies face and how they are used as a cop-out.11:03 – What was the genesis of Auka?19:20 – Daniel talks about the introduction of the smartphone and how that changed the mobile-finance game.22:32 – mCash lost its patent protection, leading to banks launching their own mobile-payment systems.24:10 – Daniel talks about his decision to take their mobile-payment system to the international market.27:02 – What does Settle, the next leg of the journey, look like?31:57 – What is one thing that Daniel would change in the ecosystem of his industry?33:53 – What was the biggest challenge for Daniel to get where he is today?35:40 – What excited Daniel the most about what he is working on?3 Key PointsDaniel began his entrepreneurial journey selling ice cream on a boat during summers in Norway, which led him to his entry into the world of technology.Daniel designed a brand-new payment system from the ground up, using Python to write the first mobile-payment system in Norway, mCash.Settle was designed as a mobile-payment business model to interconnect the #1 mobile-payment schemes in individual markets.Tweetable Quotes:“There are so many firsts that we have done in Auka. We wouldn’t be able to pull that off unless we had a vision, some really talented and dedicated people, and some hustling skills.” – Daniel Döderlein“Move fast and break things does not work well in highly regulated markets, quite honestly.” – Jason Pereira“There needs to be some tech involved in moving this money. Let’s replace this freight train with some fiber optics.” – Daniel Döderlein“We believed firmly there would only be one domestic winner in the mobile-payment space in every individual market.” – Daniel DöderleinResources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialLinkedIn – Daniel Döderlein’s LinkedIn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nov 3, 202038 min

Ep 145OneSpan with Sam Bakken | E145

In this 145th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Sam Bakken, the Senior Product Marketing Manager at OneSpan. OneSpan is a cybersecurity technology company that works to improve customer experience by improving security systems using things such as biometrics. Sam is here to talk about biometrics and the role that it will play in the future of technological security!Episode Highlights:0:36 – Sam introduces OneSpan and the services that it provides.1:40 – Diving into the history of OneSpan and how Sam got involved.3:41 – Sam defines biometrics and how they are built.4:59 – Where does Sam see biometrics going in the future?7:15 – How much of a challenge is it for security-minded companies competing with the likes of Apple?10:28 – In what fashion are we using biometrics today without knowing?12:55 – Sam breaks down the multitude of biometrics information that comes together in technological security systems.14:20 – Mike and Sam discuss the outdated practice of giving a written signature and how COVID has affected that.17:20 – How does Sam see the gamut of biometrics evolving concerning how we want to interface with our tech?23:57 – What is the craziest use of biometrics that Sam has seen?25:31 – What are the reactions of financial institutions to new biometrics-based technology?30:42 – What is the one thing that Sam would change in his industry?32:08 – What has been the biggest challenge with taking biometrics-based technology to market?34:10 – What excites Sam the most about what he is working on right now?3 Key PointsBiometrics are the biological traits that can be used to identify humans, such as fingerprint, facial recognition, etc., and are being used more and more in technological security today.People have come a long way from being reluctant to put their information out on the internet to trusting technology enough to store personal information on their phones.Financial institutions are reluctant to adopt new biometrics-based technology due to cases of bias in the systems and also because a lot of tech allows multiple registered identities.Tweetable Quotes:“Solving the problem, selling the security controls that can help solve those weaknesses that are identified, that really appealed to me at OneSpan.” – Sam Bakken“It’s always a balance between convenience and security.” – Sam Bakken“You can’t always deliver a consistent user experience across all devices...but there are options to still offer those biometrics across devices in a consistent manner.” – Sam Bakken“A good user experience is a secure one.” – Sam Bakken“I just know that a lot of people are reporting on digital fraud, so to start to dive a little bit deeper into web vs. mobile I think would be helpful...so that we can take mobile-app security a little more seriously.” – Sam BakkenResources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletteronespan.com/ – Website for OneSpanLinkedIn – Sam Bakken’s LinkedIn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oct 27, 202038 min

Ep 144Hydrogen Platform with Michael Kane | E144

In this 144th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Michael Kane, co-founder of Hydrogen Platform, a fintech company working to build seamless financial platforms in an attempt to digitize the world financial system. Episode Highlights: ● 0:38 – Michael Kane introduces Hydrogen Platform. ● 1:22 – How did Hydrogen come to be? ● 3:22 – What is it like for Michael running a company with his twin brother? ● 4:55 – Michael breaks down the different fintech solutions that Hydrogen Platform offers to end-users. ● 12:20 – Explain the concept of high-code, low-code, and no-code programming. ● 18:03 – How does Michael see the end-vision for other brands and companies leveraging Hydrogen Platform and other platforms like it? ● 24:44 – Collaboration between the financial and tech industries will only grow in the future. ● 27:43 – Michael believes that pricing is far too high in his industry. ● 29:52 – What has been the biggest challenge for Hydrogen Platform to get where it is today? ● 32:00 – What excites Michael the most about what he is doing right now? 3 Key Points 1. Hydrogen Platform has made financial-technology integration easy by layering no-code and low-code applications on top of it. 2. Most vendors usually stick to their specialty silo and that’s where Hydrogen comes in, putting together all the pieces in an open banking platform. 3. In the future, companies all over the world will be integrating the different financial platforms that can be found with Hydrogen Platform. Tweetable Quotes: ● “Why can’t we just take our expertise, put it into a platform and then allow all these companies to use the technology that we had built in a more B2B enterprise application layer?” – Michael Kane ● “Applying for loans, it’s very painful. What if you could pull that in without any integration work...so the end user doesn’t know that they’re using Hydrogen.” – Michael Kane ● “You can’t necessarily go to one vendor to do some of these things...a vendor that does payments or cards or banking may not offer KYC.” – Michael Kane ● “The speed at which some of the development I’m seeing get done now is just neck-breaking compared to what it used to be.” – Jason Pereira● “It’s a challenge when you’re doing something new and getting people aligned with what you’re doing, but so far we’ve been successful.” – Michael Kane Resources Mentioned: ● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook ● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn ● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact ● JasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletter ● Hydrogen Platform - Website ● LinkedIn - Michael Kane’s LinkedIn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oct 20, 202036 min

Ep 143Blockchain Valley Ventures with Heinrich Zetlmayer | E143

In this 143rd episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Heinrich Zetlmayer, the Founder and CEO of Blockchain Valley Ventures, a Swiss venture firm that focuses on industry-leading blockchain businesses.Episode Highlights: 0:32 – Heinrich introduces Blockchain Valley Ventures.1:48 – Heinrich left IBM in 2008 to enter the venture capital industry.2:55 – Investments in the blockchain space needed to be separated from the business.4:26 – Blockchain Valley Ventures helps entrepreneurs by taking care of their problems.5:48 – Switzerland is a hotspot in the crypto world because of its unique regulations.7:07 – BVV invests in only two types of sectors.8:18 – With all the remote working brought on by COVID, Keyless has been brought to the forefront.9:32 – Heinrich discusses the multiple clusters in the supply chain management industry.12:03 – How are consumers finding product-market fit right now?17:49 – What excites Heinrich about the blockchain industry in the near future?20:09 – How will gaming play a part in the future of blockchain?21:40 – Coin Source is developing a system of crypto ATMs.24:20 – Why do people fear the volatility of the bitcoin market?26:10 – If Heinrich could change one thing about the blockchain sector, what would it be? 26:44 – What is the biggest challenge in Heinrich’s company today?27:49 – Heinrich discusses what excites him the most about his career.3 Key PointsBlockchain Valley Ventures provides value to entrepreneurs by helping them with their problems.Blockchain is just moving out of its infancy as an industry.People struggle with blockchain because of the volatility of bitcoin, but in reality, world currency is just as volatile. Tweetable Quotes:“We’re fully dedicated to the impact of blockchain technology and blockchain innovation...because it is such a fundamental innovation. It’s so complex in itself as it combines legal, technology, innovation.” - Heinrich Zetlmayer“If you want to be relevant in the blockchain space and deliver value, you cannot be just an investor. You need to add value.” - Heinrich Zetlmayer“The whole industry is moving out of an early-stage industry. It’s moving from proofs-of-concept into pilate projects and rollouts.” - Heinrich Zetlmayer“Value is not in a physical object; it can be abstracted. Just for the sake of convenience, it’s going to continue to grow around the world.” Jason PereiraResources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterLinkedIn – Heinrich Zetlmayer’s LinkedInBvventures.ch – Blockchain Valley Ventures Website Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oct 13, 202029 min

Ep 142Nexj Systems Inc. with Matthew Bogart | E142

In this 142nd episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Matthew Bogart, Vice President of Marketing at NexJ Systems, a financial-specific CRM and data analytics tool. Episode Highlights: ● 00:27 – Matthew Bogart introduces himself and NexJ Systems. ● 01:35 – What is the history of NexJ ? ● 02:30 – How does NexJ go beyond just basic tracking? ● 03:48 – How has NexJ’s customer base evolved? ● 04:42 – What do they offer financial advisors? ● 06:12 – Matthew Bogart discusses the data points that NexJ looks at. ● 10:27 – NexJ has been around since 2004. ● 10:48 – What does Matthew see coming down the pipeline? ● 19:29 – Those that engage the most with their clients drive loyalty and are also usually the higher performing firms. ● 20:19 – What would Matthew Bogart change in his business or industry? ● 21:04 – What have been the biggest challenges Matthew Bogart has faced? ● 23:41 – What keeps Matthew Bogart excited each day about his work? 3 Key Points 1. NexJ looks at about 44 points of data. 2. Machine learning is when the systems analyzes pieces of data, looks for common patterns, and uses that to take action. 3. Exporting data is becoming a greater priority than it has ever been. Tweetable Quotes: ● “NexJ delivers intelligent customer management solutions to the financial industry, focused specifically on wealth management.” – Matthew Bogart ● “Who would have thought back in the year 2000 that a firm like Shopify would be designated as a CRM vendor?” – Matthew Bogart ● (NexJ) “Having thi very vertical-specific product that focuses on really the sales, service, and marketing elements that a financial advisor would need.” – Matthew Bogart Resources Mentioned: ● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn ● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact ● JasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletter ● Linkedin – Matthew Bogart’s Linkedin ● nexj.com – Website for NexJ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oct 6, 202024 min

Ep 141Bambu with Ned Phillips | E141

In this 141st episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Ned Phillips, Founder and CEO of Bambu. Bambu is a digital platform that helps businesses deploy robo advisor solutions quickly, fast, and customized. Episode Highlights: ● 00:56 – Ned Phillips introduces himself and Bambu. ● 02:48 – What led to the creation of Bambu? ● 04:04 – What was it about robo advisors that they gravitated towards? ● 05:50 – What problems did they run into with Bambu? ● 09:15 – When customers want Bambu to build them a robo advisor, what does that experience look like? ● 12:47 – What have been the responses to their robo advisors? ● 16:11 – How far down market in terms of client size or enterprise does Ned see this going? ● 17:48 – What does the pricing look like? ● 22:08 – What has demand been looking like? ● 26:04 – What would Ned Phillips change in his business or industry? ● 27:17 – What have been the biggest challenges Ned has faced? ● 29:32 – What keeps Ned Phillips excited each day about his work? 3 Key Points 1. If you build what everybody wants it becomes a random bunch of codes which isn’t a product. If you build a product and no one buys it, you are out of business. 2. Bambu built up their initial customer base by finding out what problems businesses had that they could solve for them. 3. Bambu can typically have you up and running with a robo advisor in 4-8 weeks if they are willing to go with their fixed version with the front end customized to the client. Tweetable Quotes: ● “We design, build, and integrate robo advisors. So the simplest way I can describe it is that financial institutions say to us, ‘I want a betterment. I want a wealth front. I want my own robo-advisor. We are a pure technology company.” – Ned Phillips ● “We are technology guys, 4-years-old. Yes, we are based in Singapore. But we have been pretty global. We have been really lucky. We have clients in the U.S. We have clients in Europe, and across Asia and in the Middle East.” – Ned Phillips ● “We have built over 20 financial institutions now. Some of the biggest Franklin, Standard Chartered, HSBC.” – Ned Phillips Resources Mentioned: ● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook ● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn ● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact ● JasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletter ● Linkedin – Ned Phillips’s Linkedin ● bambu.co – Website for Bambu Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sep 29, 202031 min

Ep 140Vise with Runik Mehrotra & Samir Vasavada | E140

In this 140th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Samir Vasavada the Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Vise and Runik Mehrotra the Co-Founder & Chief Investment Officer of Vise. Vise is a next generation asset measurement platform that allows for the development, tracking, monitoring, and testing of portfolios made up of individual stocks. Episode Highlights: ● 00:30 – Samir Vasavada and Runik Mehrotra explain Vise. ● 01:40 – What led to the origin of Vise? ● 05:28 – What was the journey to getting Vise started? ● 06:55 – What does the workflow look like and the core data points? ● 08:45 – They talk about employment as a risk factor. ● 11:52 – What does a conventional portfolio look like to them? ● 15:57 – What are their thoughts on direct indexing? ● 19:39 – What has the feedback for Vise been like? ● 24:38 – What would Samir Vasavada and Runik Mehrotra change in their business or industry? ● 27:50 – What have been the biggest challenges Samir Vasavada and Runik Mehrotra have faced? ● 33:23 – What keeps Samir Vasavada and Runik Mehrotra excited each day about their work? 3 Key Points 1. Vise can customize strategies around financial advisors and explains why a portfolio is built the way it was. 2. A portfolio can be as few as 25-30 individual stocks to 100 individual stocks. 3. Vise helps advisers differentiate themselves, giving advisors some of their time back. Tweetable Quotes: ● “Essentially what Vise is, is that we are using AI to automate investment management for financial advisors. The vast majority of financial advisors really struggle to differentiate. They provide their clients the same generic portfolios.” – Samir Vasavad ● “We’ve essentially built this AI where we can analyze clients’ needs, money they have to invest, goals, networth needs, career risks, private holdings, to build a highly personalized portfolio of individual stocks, bonds, other assets. .” – Samir Vasavad ● “The thesis behind the company is the advisor is their relationship with their client, and we do everything else in an automated yet personalized way.” – Samir Vasavad Resources Mentioned: ● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook ● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn ● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact ● JasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletter ● Linkedin – Samir Vasavada’s Linkedin ● Linkedin – Runik Mehrotra● vise.com – Website for Vise AI  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sep 22, 202038 min

Ep 139Framework Venture Partners with Peter Misek | E139

In this episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Peter Misek, Founding Partner of Framework Venture Partners. Framework Venture Partners is a venture capital firm that takes a data-driven approach to investigate and benchmark companies before they even invest in them, and also provide consulting investment feedback before and after the engagement process. Episode Highlights: ● 00:39 – Peter Misek introduces himself and Framework Venture Partners. ● 01:35 – What is the history of Framework? ● 04:04 – How does being data-driven benefit startups? ● 08:08 – What does Framework Venture Partners come back to a startup with after scoring them? ● 10:48 – What types of levels of dropping out have occurred? ● 12:56 – Are their results leading to a more diverse group of founders? ● 18:25 – What is the next step after a company scores well? ● 22:29 – Peter Misek describes the experience of his team. ● 25:21 – What would Peter Misek change in his business or industry? ● 27:02 – What have been the biggest challenges Peter Misek has faced? ● 29:32 – What keeps Peter Misek excited each day about his work? 3 Key Points 1. Founders need advice and mentorship. 2. Framework Venture Partners tracks 15,000-plus startups across North America, which is about 3%. 3. Framework Venture Partners interviews with startups take 15-30 minutes with cursory consulting. Tweetable Quotes: ● “Framework was started with the premise that data can help us both find great startups, but also help our startups know where they need to go on a journey to become a world-class company.” – Peter Misek ● “We layer in operational expertise that we’ve developed over 20-plus years, my partner and I and the team, in very specific areas such as vertical expertise. So think financial services and artificial intelligence, and then think talent.” – Peter Misek● “All of the levels of government across Canada, the average sales cycle...is 24 months. All of the levels of government across the United States, the average sales cycle is below 12 months.” – Peter Misek Resources Mentioned: ● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook ● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn ● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact ● JasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletter ● Linkedin – Peter Misek’s Linkedin ● framework.vc – Website for Framework Venture Partners Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sep 15, 202032 min

Ep 138Cosmos with Ethan Buchman | E138

In this 138th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Ethan Buchman, Co-Founder of Cosmos and CEO of Informal Systems. Cosmos is one of the largest blockchains and one of the most valuable cryptocurrencies in the world, of which Ethan Buchman was an integral part of creating. Episode Highlights: ● 00:32 – Ethan Buchman explains Cosmos. ● 02:53 – What is Ethan Buchman’s history? ● 09:20 – What is the differences between and proof of work and proof of stake? ● 10:10 – Which countries consumed less power than bitcoin? ● 11:09 – Where else can you go besides bitcoin to maximize options? ● 12:00 – They discuss public and private blockchains. ● 16:06 – Where are the limitations with authurium? ● 25:24 – What does Informal Systems do? ● 35:01 – What would Ethan Buchman change in his business or industry? ● 35:49 – What have been the biggest challenges Ethan has faced? ● 36:50 – What keeps Ethan Buchman excited each day about his work? 3 Key Points 1. Blockchain is the evolution of automating human processes, moving from personal computers, to the cloud, and now to the multi-stakeholder operation. 2. In 2019, bitcoin consumed more power than Switzerland. 3. Reducing compliance is an important use case in the blockchain world. Tweetable Quotes: ● “We want to make it as easy as possible for people to build their own blockchains, launch their own blockchains, structure them in the ways that they need to that fit their needs and fit their values, and the values of their community.” – Ethan Buchman ● “In 2013 I programmed my first bitcoin transaction from scratch, which is almost like a religious experience to be able to do that.” – Ethan Buchman ● “The public blockchain becomes this source of truth that you can audit against without necessarily revealing all the information to the whole world. The boutry between public and private becomes significantly blurred .” – Ethan Buchman Resources Mentioned: ● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook ● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn ● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact ● JasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletter ● Linkedin – Ethan Buchman● cosmos.network – Website for Cosmos ● informal.systems – Website for Informal Systems Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sep 8, 202040 min

Ep 137Charitable Impact with John Bromley & Michael Todd | E137

In this 137th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews John Bromley, Founder and CEO of Charitable Impact and Mike Todd, Director of Charitable Investment Programs at Charitable Impact. Charitable Impact is a fintech online platform that enables charitable donations through donor-advised funds. John Bromley and Mike Todd talk about how they are able to get this done and what a donor-advised fund is. Episode Highlights: ● 00:38 – What is Charitable Impact? ● 01:30 – What was the impetus for Charitable Impact getting started? ● 03:44 – What is a donor-advised fund and why do they get used? ● 13:26 – How many people come directly and how many people come from other sources? ● 14:44 – Charitable Impact works with close to 100 investment managers across various firms. ● 16:58 – How does the technology work? ● 23:48 – What would John Bromley and Michael Todd change in their business or industry? ● 32:21 – What have been the biggest challenges John Bromley and Michael Todd has faced? ● 36:52 – What keeps John Bromley and Michael Todd excited each day about their work? 3 Key Points 1. The questions that pushed John Brimley to start Charitable Impact are: Where do you go to get advice in the charitable giving world? How can charitable giving be made possible and fluidly during any translation on a cost-effective basis? 2. There are over 85,000 charities in Canada. 3. Donor-advised funds are like having a bank account for charitable giving. Tweetable Quotes: ● “Charitable Impact asks the questions, who is really there to support the donor who is looking to participate, or who is participating in charitable giving? .” – John Bromley ● “We give people their own individual giving account, it is what is referred to as a donor-advised fund and they take on that account, they can put their charitable donations into it.” – John Bromley ● “We have higher net worth donor, and generally the majority of those people we meet through financial advisors. The majority of our donors, however, are everyday Canadians, I would refer to as grassroots donors.” – John Bromley Resources Mentioned: ● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook ● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn ● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact ● JasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletter ● charitableimpact.com – Website for Charitable Impact ● Linkedin – John Bromley ● Linkedin – Michael Todd’s Linkedin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sep 1, 202040 min

Ep 136Biller Genie with Garima Shah | E136

In this 136th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Garima Shah, President of Biller Genie, a SaaS company that helps companies get paid faster on their accounts payable. Garima Shah explains how Biller Genie got started, how it works for clients, and the benefits of their value proposition. Episode Highlights: ● 00:29 – Garima Shah explains Biller Genie and the origin of the company. ● 02:57 – Which accounting systems does she commonly encounter? ● 05:28 – What was the journey to getting Biller Genie started? ● 06:55 – How does the billing model work for Biller Genie? ● 09:09 – Garima Shah takes us through the Biller Genie process? ● 11:52 – What has been the general feedback they have been getting from most companies? ● 22:06 – They talk about accounts payable automation efficiency. ● 27:04 – What would Garima Shah change in her business or industry? ● 30:39 – What have been the biggest challenges Garima Shah has faced? ● 32:17 – What keeps Garima excited each day about her work? 3 Key Points 1. 90% of businesses in the world handle accounts receivable manually. 2. Biller Genie charges a monthly fee plus a percentage only when they collect on invoices. 3. On average, Biler Genie gets businesses paid 15 days faster, collecting 60% of their outstanding balances no matter what within the first 30 days ,and saves them between 15-20 hours a week in manual labor. Tweetable Quotes: ● “Biller Genie is an automated account receivable software, which is a whole lot of words that don’t mean a lot to most people.” – Garima Shah ● “Our average client does between $70,000-$100,000 a month in revenue or invoicing, and a client that does $100,000 a month would only pay $550 for Biller Genie in the entire month.” – Garima Shah ● “The average cost for an invoice, according to the Wall Street Journal, is between $16-$38 to process a single invoice manually.” – Garima Shah Resources Mentioned: ● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook ● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn ● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact ● JasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletter ● Linkedin – Garima Shah● billergenie.com – Website  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aug 25, 202033 min

Ep 135Conquest Planning with Mark Evans & Brad Joudrie | E135 (corrected)

In this 135th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews two members of senior leadership at Conquest Planning, Mark Evans, President and CEO, and Brad Joudrie, Chief Revenue Officer. Conquest planning is a next generation financial planning software that is bringing in various forms of modern technologies to planning that will help expedite and increase the accuracy and the effectiveness of financial planning. Episode Highlights: ● 00:35 – Mark and Brad explain Conquest Planning. ● 01:12 – How did Conquest Planning get started? ● 05:20 – What were the gaps in the industry that they were looking to fill? ● 16:14 – Why is the API infrastructure so important to customers? ● 21:40 – What has been the response from the potential clients they have spoken to? ● 24:24 – How have they made this easier and more efficient? ● 30:34 – Advisors will be able to learn the nuances of various strategies while they use the service. ● 35:18 – What would Mark Evans and Brad Joudrie change in the business or industry? ● 39:47 – What have been the biggest challenges Mark Evans and Brad Joudrie has faced? ● 45:07 – What keeps Mark Evans and Brad Joudrie excited each day about their work? 3 Key Points 1. Conquest Planning uses 50+ defined financial planning strategies and they can test them all in less than a second against the plan to see which works best and rank the impact. 2. Having a strong API strategy helps with workflow and the power of data. 3. Conquest Planning’s digital stories are like live reports with key performances indicators. Tweetable Quotes: ● “Conquest Planning is coming to the market to really make financial planning more accessible to more Canadians. We feel like there is a huge gap in the industry today with the amount of people that have access to good and sound financial advice.” – Brad Joudrie ● “It’s easier once you have done it to come back and go, ok, I know what I need to build and how I can improve it and I’m starting from scratch and I am not using technology from the 1990s. I’m using today’s technology.” – Mark Evans ● “When something changes, you want to be able to react and see which new strategies might be applicable now that you have modified the plan, using a set of other strategies.” – Mark Evans Resources Mentioned: ● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook ● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn ● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact ● JasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletter ● Linkedin – Hayden James● conquestplanning.com – Website for Conquest Planning ● Linkedin – Mark Evans● Linkedin – Brad Joudrie Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aug 18, 202049 min

Ep 134Quber with Jen Leger & Venky Kulkarni

In this 134th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host, welcomes Jennifer Leger and Venky Kulkarni, co-Founders of Quber. They discuss common barriers to saving money, how Quber works to help its users overcome those barriers, and how they’re planning to grow the company. Episode Highlights: ● 00:41 – Quber is a money-saving app that helps people to save for specific life events and goals. ● 01:02 – Jennifer was inspired to create Quber out of her own personal financial frustration. ● 01:40 – When you download the app and create an account, you’re prompted to create your first savings goal, like an emergency fund. ● 02:06 – Quber stores the money that users are saving in a trust account so they can’t easily spend it. ● 02:38 – This is not investing in the stock market, it is simply setting aside cash to have on hand. ● 03:09 – Quber starts with saving rules, outlining how money will be moved from your bank account into your “savings jar” on the app. ● 03:32 –Quber creates savings goals and challenges for people to participate in within the app. ● 04:17 – Their target market is middle to low income people who have children. ● 06:05 – Quber is for really foundational savings, built for people who think they can’t save their money. ● 07:02 – For every $20 you save in the app, you get an entry into a drawing to win more money, and this attracts and retains users. ● 07:20 – Quber also has business partnerships, which is the primary way they get new users. ● 12:21 – Their next step is outreach to more Canadians through community savings initiatives and more traditional marketing. ● 13:53 – Quber’s monetization is primarily through their B2B partnerships. ● 15:02 – If Jennifer could change one thing within Quber or the industry, it would be to be able to move money faster. ● 16:24 – If Venky could change one thing, it would be to stop fees from disproportionately hitting the financially underserved. ● 18:26 – The biggest challenges for Venky were figuring out regulations and compliance as the company was starting, building partnerships with banks, and getting people to provide their bank account information. ● 21:00 – The biggest challenge for Jennifer is similar, but it’s mainly that growth has been slower than they’d hoped. ● 21:29 – What excites both Jennifer and Venky the most is hearing user testimonials. 3 Key Points 1. People often don’t look at their spending habits to understand where their money goes. 2. Quber has found success by incentivizing people to save through contests and partnerships. 3. Cultures in other parts of the world emphasize community savings and Quber hopes to bring that to North America. Tweetable Quotes: ● “A lot of people have cash but they’re spending it on things that they don’t really need. So what we’re trying to do is help people to save for the things that they want by changing their spending.” –Jennifer Leger ● “Those coffees and those foods really do add up, and people don’t realize it. When you’re spending, you’re not actually looking at it or looking at it in depth. So once they see that they can start cutting back on those things, they really see their savings grow.” –Jennifer Leger Resources Mentioned: ● Website – Jason Pereira’s Website ● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook ● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn ● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact ● Quber Website  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aug 11, 202024 min

Ep 133Fraction with Hayden James | E133

In this 133th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Hayden James, Co-Founder and CEO of Fraction. Fraction is a company that is enabling a new method for getting equity out of your home or providing equity to purchase a home. Episode Highlights: ● 00:50 – Hayden James explains Fraction. ● 01:12 – How did Fraction get started? ● 02:44 – How do they facilitate the transaction of home ownership for the homeowner? ● 05:45 – Does selling a fraction of their home decentivise customers from maintaining their home? ● 06:44 – Where does the money from the interest reserve come from? ● 09:00 – Where are they finding the investors for this? ● 09:58 – What determines the amount of reserve someone would have? ● 12:29 – Where are they sourcing the real estate properties to securitize? ● 15:01 – Why is blockchain the right way to go with Fraction? ● 19:07 – What has been the negative feedback and how have they been combating it? ● 21:21 – What would Hayden James change in his business or industry? ● 22:01 – What have been the biggest challenges Hayden James has faced? ● 22:55 – What keeps Hayden excited each day about his work? 3 Key Points 1. Fraction’s Loan to Value is a maximum of 40%. 2. What determines the amount of reserve some would have is just based on the minimum interest rate that Fraction charges over the 5-year term. 3. Fraction’s mortgage rates are closer to a HELOC rate or a second mortgage. Tweetable Quotes: ● “Fraction is a digital lending platform based in Vancouver. We have the broad vision of transforming homeownership and and how people finance and buy and sell homes with the focus right now on providing liquidity for home equity.” – Hayden James ● “The key piece of us is that It is a debt product that enables homeowners to take a portion of their home equity and put it into alternative investments through a vehicle that hasn’t really been available before.” – Hayden James ● “Because the way we structure there are technically interest payments that don’t come from the homeowner but come from the interest reserve. We are able to claim those. So it is actually very tax efficient” – Hayden James Resources Mentioned: ● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook ● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn ● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact ● JasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletter ● Linkedin – Hayden James● fractionrealestate.co – Website  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aug 4, 202027 min

Ep 132Wagepoint with Shrad Rao | E132

In this 132th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Shrad Rao, CEO of Wagepoint. Wagepoint is an easy to use payroll provider that seeks to compete both on ease of use and friendliness. Episode Highlights: ● 00:38 – Shrad Rao explains Wagepoint. ● 04:37 – How did Wagepoint get started? ● 09:18 – How does Wagepoint make payroll not painful? ● 11:57 – What does their UI look like and what has informed those decisions? ● 14:21 – What are the benefits and the costs? ● 20:51 – What would he change in his business or industry? ● 22:20 – What have been the biggest challenges he has faced? ● 23:43 – What keeps Shrad Rao excited each day about his work? 3 Key Points 1. Wagepoint aims to take the guesswork out of as many things as possible as they pertain to payroll. 2. If there is a payroll in process for a very high amount, they contact the client for proactive fraud prevention. 3. Wagepoint invests very heavily in customer service and they don’t use call centers. Tweetable Quotes: ● “Wagepoint software built just for small businesses and backed by the world’s friendliest team. So essentially it is a combination of research that I’ve done a long time ago, we are talking 7 years minimum.” – Shrad Rao ● “Our NPS score is way over 60, which is very unbelievable for a payroll company and we actually get comments all the time about how friendly we are to work with. How easy we are to work with.” – Shrad Rao ● “When a small business owner calls us, it should feel like they are calling a friend who just happens to know a lot about payroll. That is how the experience should be and it should be across every level of the company.” – Shrad Rao Resources Mentioned: ● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook ● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn ● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact ● JasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletter ● Linkedin – Shrad Rao’s Linkedin ● Twitter – Shrad Rao’s Twitter ● wagepoint.com – Website for Wagepoint  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jul 28, 202025 min

Ep 131Become with Shuli Mantsur | E131

In this 131th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Shuli Mantsur, Director of Partnerships at Become. Become is an aggregation company that provides a single-stop source for business owners to go to one website and potentially apply for multiple lines of business with multiple lenders. Episode Highlights: ● 00:42 – Shuli Mantsur explains Become. ● 02:30 – Become is like Expedia for business lending. ● 05:35 – What kind of businesses are they attracting as borrowers? ● 06:45 – How robust are their risk models at this point? ● 09:21 – How many data points are they taking in? ● 10:59 – Become can analyze why a client didn’t get approved for loans and suggest what they need to do to get funding in the near future. ● 12:05 – What does the customer experience look like? ● 15:27 – Do they provide support after the funding process? ● 16:37 – What has the response from lenders been like when they started? ● 18:35 – What would he change in his business or industry? ● 19:38 – What have been the biggest challenges he has faced? ● 20:39 – What keeps Shuli Mantsur excited each day about his work? 3 Key Points 1. Become started in Australia in 2016 and opened up in the United States as well in 2017. 2. Become is very analytical and creates customized filters. 3. Become is taking in over 50 data points. Tweetable Quotes: ● “We came up with a way for customers to come into a platform and sort of make it a one-stop shop where they can fill in just one application, ours, which is all-encompassing.” – Shuli Mantsur● “You don't need your application filled in as well. Use ours. Everything you ask is in yours, we ask in ours. Within I think 6-7 months, we partnered up with all the biggest lenders in Australia and pretty much took over the market, as far as a marketplace.” – Shuli Mantsur ● “We are partnered up with about 20 different lenders and two microlenders, and basically the main difference between these two is one will look with young businesses and start-ups and the others most likely won’t.” – Shuli Mantsur Resources Mentioned: ● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook ● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn ● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact ● JasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletter ● Become.co – Website Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jul 21, 202022 min

Ep 130Payability with Alex Sklar | E130

In this 130th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews F. Alexander Sklar, Head of Development at Payability. Payability is a company that offers financing to online merchants as a means of shortening their collection cycles. Episode Highlights: ● 00:48 – F. Alexander Sklar explains Payability. ● 01:17 – What is the origin story of Payability? ● 03:30 – How long does it traditionally take sellers to get paid on sales? ● 07:22 – What are the factors to determine how long it takes to traditionally get paid? ● 09:38 – How is Payability able to give sellers money upfront daily? ● 13:10 – Payability’s ideal customer is trying to scale their company. ● 14:57 – F. Alexander Sklar talks about the mechanics of payment. ● 18:04 – How did their fundraising occur? ● 20:49 – What would he change in his business or industry? ● 22:00 – What have been the biggest challenges he has faced? ● 23:54 – What keeps L. Alexander Sklar excited each day about his work? 3 Key Points 1. Selling on Amazon traditionally can take 14 days to get paid. 2. Payability, the can turn a 14 days sales payment turnaround time into a one day turnaround providing daily payments instead of bimonthly payments. 3. Negative working capital is being paid faster than you have to pay up for the goods. Tweetable Quotes: ● “We are a capital service for the modern day supply chain. We provide both payment solutions and cash flow solutions to e-commerce sellers.” – F. Alexander Sklar ● “For those e-commerce sellers selling on marketplaces we are shortening their cash conversion cycle when they are paid on terms. For those selling on their own websites, we’re providing liquidity and financing solutions for them to scale their business.” – F. Alexander Sklar ● “We have been able to deploy a little over $2.5 billion in growth capital.” – F. Alexander Sklar Resources Mentioned: ● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook ● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn ● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact ● JasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletter ● F. Alexander Sklar – F. Alexander Sklar’s Linkedin ● Payability.com – Website for Payability ● F. Alexander Sklar – F. Alexander Sklar’s Linkedin  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jul 14, 202026 min