Fintech Week — It Is Always About The Money

I love money.

I think that is pretty normal.

Scott Galloway says it best here in ‘Yay Capitalism’:

I think a lot about money. I realize how awful that sounds. When I didn’t have much of it, I didn’t track it. And even now, when I know my portfolio has been beaten up, I don’t check my brokerage accounts for a few days, as I don’t want to get bummed out and know that (most of the time) they’ll recover. Like most things in life, your gains and losses in the market are never as good or bad as they seem. I’d much rather work in private equity or venture capital than a hedge fund, as having a scorecard every day is just plain stressful.

Wealthy people claim they don’t think much about money. That’s bullshit; they are obsessed with money. The notion that rich people don’t think about money is an attempt to dampen resentment (e.g., revolution) from the 3.5B people who have fewer assets than the wealthiest 12 individuals. What, like, rich people got there because they are just so benign and talented, it just happened (oops, I’m rich)? People who tell you to follow your passion are already rich. They have doggedly pursued a path and have been obsessed with success for a long time. They want to sound inspirational and give you a sound bite, because the truth that success requires 60–80-hr weeks for several decades doesn’t get applause in graduation speeches.

Every wealthy person I’ve known measures their net worth in frightening detail, and often. You have to stay nimble, or you stand to lose a lot. We live in a capitalist society, and the amount of money you have is a forward-looking indicator of the effectiveness your healthcare, the comfort of your home, the harmony of your marriage, and the quality of your children’s education.

The fintech winners of recent years are winners because they help people move, save, manage, invest and trade money and other assets. They were being built while everyone was licking their wounds after a drunken phase of money and leverage.

In the spring of 2009 few wanted to think about the next era of fintech and money, but the next great fintechs were being started. Bitcoin, Stripe, Robinhood, AngelList, Etoro, Coinbase, Affirm, TransferWise, Square (now public), Venmo (Paypal) came out of the financial crisis.

Now, the next generation is teed up to love money too. Hopefully they won’t piss it all away!

There is already a summer camp for ultra wealthy millennials to teach them how to STAY rich.

This CB Insights research piece on millennials and the future of wealth management is a great way to catch up on what is working now. I am proud that we are early investors in Etoro and Robinhood which are covered in the report.

This chart from the report really caught my attention:

As the new winners grow into their valuations and execute on their grand visions, mistakes will be made and opportunities for fintech start-ups will continue to present themselves.

Areas that matter to my partners and I as we invest out of our third fund at Social Leverage are to get more woman investing, help educate and grow investing in general and to help people in what we call ‘pre-wealth’. We have made one ‘pre-wealth’ investment already in Secfi.com.

With that…fintech week is officially closed.

Have a great week.

Originally published at Howard Lindzon.