JB Orecchia Of SavvyMoney On 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective C-Level Leader Of A Fintech Company

An Interview With Kieran Powell

Be transparent regarding results, successes, areas to improve, and the why behind it all. Transparency as a leader builds trust and helps the team rally behind goals.

The fintech industry is rapidly evolving, blending technology and finance in innovative ways. This evolution demands leaders who are not only tech-savvy but also adept at navigating the unique challenges of the financial sector. Effective leadership in this dynamic environment is crucial for success. What does it take to excel as a C-Level leader in a fintech company? What are the skills, mindsets, and strategies required to lead a fintech organization to new heights? As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing JB Orecchia.

JB Orecchia is the President and CEO of SavvyMoney. Since 2011, JB and his team have built SavvyMoney into an industry-leading credit and lending tool that today integrates with 35 digital banking platforms and supports nearly 1,100 financial institutions with the goal of providing financial education and personalized lending. JB has more than 34 years of experience in consumer finance, fintech and interactive media.

Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. 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?

I have been in financial services for over 35 years. After graduating college in 1988, I went to work for Household Finance. That experience was invaluable as a base for understanding lending and working closely with consumers on how to manage their finances best. In the early days, having a full P&L responsibility for my branch, loan approval and revenue goals provided me with the valuable foundation of experience I have today.

To expand my experience in marketing, I decided to make a career jump into the credit card division at Household, where I ran our Enhancement Services business. This division included air miles programs, loyalty clubs, insurance products and credit report protection products. My experience with offline credit report products led me to make my next move. After 10 fantastic years at Household, I was ready to move my career forward and join a start-up that would be the first to deliver online credit reports and credit monitoring. As part of the original executive team at FreeCredit Report.com / FreeCreditScore, we pioneered the space and laid the foundation for an entire industry.

Experian ultimately acquired us to run what is now Experian Consumer Services, the largest business unit at Experian — my 10 years in total with FCR / Experian as EVP of Partnership Marketing and Business Development provided the groundwork for what we have achieved at SavvyMoney.

My goal for SavvyMoney was to build a company that not only served the end consumer but accomplished that in partnership with financial institutions. Now, 13 years and 1,260 financial institution partnerships later, we are well on our way to accomplishing that goal. We are a partnership-driven company focusing daily on being a trusted partner and helping financial institutions manage their day-to-day goals and build deeper relationships with their customers.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Over 35 years, many lessons have been learned and funny stories to share. The first is to test and learn and let the data give you the answers to questions. Too often, your success can lead you to believe you are the expert.

The next is being a company that listens to the market and its customers to solve complex problems and challenges they face every day.

The third, stay focused and try not to do everything, but solve the key challenges really well.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

Yes, but we need to be confidential until those products are launched. There are three themes we are leaning in on.

The first is around scaling our Partner Hub so that all of our institutions can leverage the success of their peers.

The second involves marketing automation that leverages our vast amount of customer and consumer intent data.

The third is a revolutionary lending/borrowing tool for consumers that will be the first of its kind in the market.

Thank you for that. Let’s now shift to the central focus of our discussion. The fintech industry is known for its fast-paced and ever-evolving nature. How do you lead your team through periods of significant change or disruption? What strategies do you use to maintain team morale and productivity during such times?

Solve real problems for your clients and make these solutions easy for your partners to deploy and see measurable results.

As I stated earlier, SavvyMoney is a partnership-driven company and the energy to succeed is fueled by the effusive positive feedback we get from our financial institution partners. That success is reinforced with employees and becomes the north star of our company. In addition, passion and teamwork around what we are doing as a company is reinforced in our SavvyMoney seven values:

Love what you do, Think smart, Break barriers, Trust in your team, Live your truth, Listen and Learn, and Be amazing!

How do you come up with goals for your area of responsibility within the organization?

All goals should support the company’s overall objectives, be measurable and consistent, and support our mission and vision.

How do you manage reporting to your board?

We have eight board meetings and board calls per year. It is a combination of long-term financial planning, quarterly financial results, strategic planning and regular review of goals and objectives. Everyone on the board actively participates in meetings. The dialog and engagement in every meeting begin and end with follow-up and action items, respectively.

Do you have any specific strategies that you use to manage your teams?

Lead by example, lead with passion and purpose, listen to the needs of the team and celebrate success.

Fintech companies often disrupt traditional financial services by focusing heavily on customer experience. Can you describe a customer-centric initiative you spearheaded at your company and the impact it had on your business?

Everything we do involves a customer-centric and financial partner-centric approach. We are focused on making the consumer experience more actionable, personalized and frictionless. The same would hold true for the data and tools we provide to our financial institution partners to give them visibility to their success and the success of the platform, as well as enabling functionality to help them execute their business objectives.

Decision-making in fintech involves assessing various risks, including technological, financial, and security risks. How do you approach risk assessment in your role, and can you give an example of a tough decision you made that involved a significant risk?

We have two key tenets that need to be at the top of the list. In addition to great products, delighting the consumer and driving great results for our financial service partners, data security and scalability are paramount for our solution. We have the highest-level certifications around the security of our customer data. In addition, we are an extension of the financial institution brand and have to have a solution that scales and is extremely reliable.

Based on your experience and success, what are the “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective C-Level Leader Of A Fintech Company?” How have these 5 things impacted your work or your career?

1. Clearly communicate your long-term mission and vision for the company. As a leader, it is important to have a clear mission and vision for where you want to take the company long-term. Regularly communicate this vision through company meetings, emails, presentations, etc. so all employees understand the big-picture goals. This gives direction and purpose to everyday work.

2. Be transparent regarding results, successes, areas to improve, and the why behind it all. Transparency as a leader builds trust and helps the team rally behind goals.

3. Adapt communication and motivation to each individual’s styles and strengths. Take time to understand how each person on your team is motivated and how they best receive information.

4. Keep a very close eye on morale. As a leader, you set the tone and culture. Frequently check in on team morale by having open conversations, gauging energy levels during meetings and boosting morale through team-building activities when needed.

5. Continually measure and strive to be the best in your market. Without measurement, there is no improvement. Strive for excellence by examining market leaders, learning best practices and communicating them transparently with your team and board.

Looking ahead, what do you believe are the key trends that will shape the future of the fintech industry? How are you preparing your company to adapt to these trends, and what role do you see your leadership playing in this adaptation?

Key Trends:

• Tools that provide more personalization and recommendations for financial improvement: Marketing Automation, LLM and AI will be key factors in this.
• Advances in underwriting and credit scoring: Cash flow and visibility to alternative payments will advance underwriting effectiveness and help consumers build credit.
• Continued improvement in reducing friction on borrowing, cash movement and payments.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start 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. :-)

Enabling all financial institutions to provide a personalized, dynamic, and actionable financial wellness plan that meets the financial needs and goals of where consumers want to be today and in the future.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

The best way to follow my work is to follow SavvyMoney on LinkedIn or visit www.savvymoney.com.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

About The Interviewer: Kieran is the EVP of Channel V Media, a Public Relations agency based in New York City with a global network of agency partners in over 30 countries. Kieran has advised over 150 companies in the technology, B2B, retail and financial sectors. Previously Kieran worked at Merrill Lynch, PwC, and Ernst & Young. Get in touch with Kieran to discuss how marketing and public relations can help achieve your company’s business goals.