Alex Armitage Of Nectarine Credit On The Future of Money and Banking

An Interview With David Liu

Progress. Tradition has its place, but there are times when we should part with the past and look at new and more efficient methods.

The way we bank has changed dramatically over the last decade. It was not too long ago when you had to wait in line in a bank to deposit money. Today things are totally different. You can do your banking without ever walking into a bank. In addition, the whole concept of money has changed. In the recent past, money usually meant bills and coins. But today, the concept of money has expanded to include digital currency and NFTs. What other innovations should we expect to see in banking in the short and medium term?

To address this, we are talking to leaders in the banking, finance, and fintech worlds, to discuss the future of banking and money over the next few years. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alex Armitage.

Alex Armitage is the founder and CEO of Nectarine Credit, a credit application and credit decisioning software platform for small and medium-sized businesses. Nectarine Credit facilitates the flow of vendor financing between companies. Armitage is a serial entrepreneur and Nectarine Credit is his fourth start-up. Prior to entrepreneurial life, Armitage was an award-winning financial journalist.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started in this industry?

We used to own some ecommerce businesses and we saw that the credit application process was broken. Manufacturers and distributors who extended credit to their clients didn’t have a proper workflow and their clients were often denied credit simply because the process was broken. We reached out to those companies to see if we could help. And they all needed our help.

Typically, any industry that still uses fax machines and physical mail is ripe for an upgrade. Manufacturing, distribution and logistics companies are looking to become more efficient, so working with us was a logical step for them.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

Certainly the most exciting thing that’s happened to me was starting this latest company. That feeling of almost uncontrollable excitement and opportunity is empowering. That can quickly fade as reality sets in, and frustration and day-to-day headaches become the new reality. But it’s important to remember how far you’ve come. That can bring back some of that early excitement.

As a side note, in a previous career I was a financial journalist. I was privileged enough to interview some amazing people, including Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett and Richard Branson — and dozens of other high-profile CEOs. Still, being an entrepreneur is orders of magnitude more exciting.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Whatever challenges you’re dealing with in your business today, there was a point in the past where those were your goals and dreams, and now it’s a reality” — Dan Martell, entrepreneur and investor

For me, it’s important to remember that whatever I’m struggling with in the moment, and wherever I’m at today, was something I was dreaming of previously. In other words, remember how far you’ve come and don’t be so hard on yourself in the moment.

Ok wonderful. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Can you tell our readers about the most interesting projects you are working on now?

Nectarine Credit started out as a credit application platform, basically helping companies improve their credit process and workflow. We helped small and medium-sized companies switch from fax and snail mail to digital. But now we’re rapidly moving to a credit decisioning platform, leaning on some of the coolest and most innovative technology in the world — from fintech and AI to machine learning. To an outsider, the idea of extending credit between businesses might seem a bit boring. But we are making credit decisioning sexy. Trust me on this! As they say, “Watch this space.”

How do you think this might change the world?

In our world of credit decisioning, there is nothing short of a revolution taking place. We are utilizing fintech and open banking technology and changing the way companies acquire capital. Open banking is causing a tectonic shift in the way all companies do business now, not just banks and financial institutions.

Because of platforms like Nectarine Credit, capital is more readily available, and users don’t need to utilize traditional banks in the same way. With our connection to more than 10,000 banks as well as other data, our clients can verify bank accounts and cashflow and then offer extended credit terms to their clients. This now takes seconds. Previously, it would take weeks or months. In some cases, credit terms were denied due to the process being broken.

Simply put, what’s happening now in the credit space couldn’t have happened even just a few years ago. The technology didn’t exist.

Vendor credit is on the rise because more accurate data is available. This is changing the way all companies operate in manufacturing, distribution, logistics and the supply chain sector. The end result for our clients, is more orders at a quicker pace. Who would argue with that?

What most excites you about the banking or payments industry as it is today? Can you explain what you mean?

It’s worth understanding that we are not in the banking or payment industry, yet we’re right smack in the middle of lending and payments. What we do at Nectarine Credit is help facilitate the extension of credit between small and medium-sized businesses. That might not seem like a big deal, but at any given time in North America there is more than $3 trillion being lent between companies on any given day.

Previously, some of this money was lent based on the flimsiest of data.

So if you think about it that way, there is more opportunity than we know what to do with.

What most concerns you about the banking or payments industry as it is today? What would you suggest needs to be done to address that?

Simply put, it still amazes us that so much of banking, payments and credit is manual. I wouldn’t say this concerns us. More importantly, this shows us the breadth of opportunity.

How would you articulate how the concept of money has changed in recent times? Is it really a change? How is it still the same? Can you explain what you mean?

We don’t at all see that the concept of money has changed in recent times. That said, technology is changing the way we utilize, access, trade and even view money. But money is still money. In our world, credit is still credit. With us at Nectarine Credit, the way our clients use and access credit is changing at an extremely fast clip, thanks to technology.

Based on your vantage point as an insider in the finance industry, what innovations should we expect to see in banking in the short and medium term?

We are for sure going to see the fintech revolution continue. We’ll see more AI and more machine-learning for more accurate forecasting, lending and payments.

In your particular experience, how has the pandemic changed the way you interact with, and engage your customers?

The pandemic helped validate our platform for our clients. We are a cloud-based secure credit decisioning platform. A lot of companies started working with us during the pandemic because they realized the world was turning digital. We are 100% digital and our clients love this.

In my work in the telecom space, I’m very interested in the importance of user experience. How much of your interactions have moved to digital such as chatbots, encrypted messaging apps, phone, or video calls? How has this shift impacted the user and customer experience? What challenges do these apps present when used as a customer engagement tool?

As mentioned above, our entire platform is digital. So once a prospect or client accepts that this is the future, there is an instant validation for us.

Fantastic. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The Modern Finance, Banking and Fintech industries?

1. Creativity. Banking and finance have a reputation for being boring and serious. These industries are ripe for disruption and the best way to do this is to view them from a new lens with a creative eye. Ask yourself: How can we do this better in a new and creative way?
2. Progress. Tradition has its place, but there are times when we should part with the past and look at new and more efficient methods.
3. Open and Honest Feedback. A lot of industries expect you to follow the norm. We are believers in allowing staff — and clients — to be honest and open with us. Sometimes this will hurt, but you will always come out better on the other side. If the finance industry could use open communication more, they’d be better off.
4. There’s No Such Thing as Failure. Ryan Holiday’s book “The Obstacle is the Way” is our go-to for how we — and you — should view struggles. They are just that, struggles, not failure. Learning resiliency will teach you how to turn adversity into success.
5. Anticipate. Having a crystal ball would help anyone in any business. But, of course, that’s impossible. So what’s the next best option? Anticipating what’s ahead for you, your company and the industry is key to moving forward in your banking and finance career.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I would recommend people travel to some of the far reaches of the world — and far from their homes. A little travel, goes a long way in helping people understand that despite all of our differences, we’re all very similar. I’ve been to more than 60 countries and I’m still amazed at the kindness and openness I’ve experienced from people wh,o by our standards, have so very little.

I’m hoping that as the pandemic comes to an end that my family can start to travel again.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Readers can follow our company on our active blog here, as well as on LinkedIn here.

Thank you so much for the time you spent doing this interview. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success.zxzx