Fintech Impact

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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.