“Top 5 Fintech & Banking Trends” with Ilian Georgiev CEO of Charlie
I had the pleasure of interview CEO Ilian Georgiev CEO of Charlie a text-based AI penguin helping ordinary people who don’t speak finance worry less about money. Prior to founding Charlie, Ilian spent 10+ years in startups helping to launch top-grossing apps that have generated millions of downloads and $100M+ in revenue.
Tell us more about your “backstory”?
Charlie combines two of my deep-seated passions — decision science and saving money.
Prior to founding Charlie in 2016, I was on a decade-long quest to figure out how we can use AI to better make decisions. That behavioral curiosity helped me create incredibly engaging mobile game experiences.
I am also an optimizer, especially when it comes to finances.
When you combine these two passions, you get Charlie — a product that uses the magic of mobile engagement to help people be effortlessly better with their real-world spending.
My co-founders, Ivo Parashkevov and Rob Luedeman, and I all share an ambition and passion for decision science, honing in on the fact that personal finance is harder than it needs to be for the average consumer, and this is only increasing inequality. Humans are simply not built to do all the complicated analysis that is required to stay one step ahead of their spending, but most organizations going after their money are.
We wanted to level the playing field, so we built Charlie.
Can you share what you believe will be the “Top 5 Fintech and Banking Trends Over The Next 3 Years”
1) Managing money is a chore so it will be ultimately automated.
Very few people enjoy looking at their bank statements, running a budget, or figuring out how to refinance their debt. And those who are wealthy already have a solution — they have personal accountants and financial advisors. I believe AI will make it possible to offer the same financial services available for the wealthy to everyone, at virtually no cost. In fact, we are already making that a reality. Charlie can automatically pick up any of your financial opportunity, keep an eye on your spending, flag danger and even find you easy money. It’s also free!
2) Millenials will cause a complete rethinking of financial services. Majority of the financial services available today are built for the Baby Boomers. This is no surprise since Boomers have the most assets. But that’s about to change. Millenials are the biggest and best educated generation yet, and by 2025, they will account for 50% of all economics activity in the US. And they’ll want to be served differently since they also do not trust banks or bankers (74% of Millenials would rather go to the dentist than talk to a banker), and have more trust in technology and transparency (Millennials are 250% more likely to trust a RoboAdvisor than previous generations).
3) People will interact with everything though conversations, including their money — No interface is more intuitive, natural, or older than a conversation. However, because we could not teach computers to understand us, we’ve spent the last 40 years teaching ourselves how to understand computers — through buttons, keyboards, and screens. Today, computers are rapidly learning how to speak. It won’t be long before conversational UIs become ubiquitous. We are at an inflection point — Alexa and the Google Assistant are just the beginning.
4) Technology will shift the balance of power from companies to consumers — Companies right now have the upper hand — they have massive amounts of data and sophisticated teams figuring out how to extract the most value from their customers. Most customers, on the other hand, are on their own, with no one fighting for them. Technologies like Charlie will change that. By making it possible to deliver smart, personalized advice to all people, we will see the playing field levelling.
5) Increased Regulation: The fintech industry is evolving so quickly that regulators are struggling to keep up with it. I believe we will see increased regulation that will make our industry stronger and more secure, and it will assist in increasing boosting confidence
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
My team and I are borderline religious about Costco. When someone joins our team, their welcome lunch is at Costco. That’s right, we pamper our new hires with a lavish welcome meal: a $1.50 hotdog, soda included.
In a way it parallels with our mission for Charlie — sharing the best deals and value for customers.
What advice would you give to other CEOs or founders to help their employees to thrive?
When recruiting team members, look for three things: curiosity, resourcefulness, and most importantly, empathy. When building your company, it’s important to look for people who are not only smarter than you, or bring things to the table that you can’t, but also who care about others.
In addition, prioritize self-care. Encourage your employees to take the time to recharge on the weekends or even during the day. Whatever gives your employees balance and recharges them for the next milestone — make it a priority.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”?
“A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once.”
― William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
Although this quote is a bit grim, it is one I often think about when I face a new challenge. It reminds me that the scarier a task is, the sooner I should take it on — it is better to try sooner and maybe fail, maybe succeed, than to try later and imagine what failure would feel like a thousand times in the meantime.
If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Trust in science and human kindness.
But when it comes to the world of personal finance, I would love to keep people away from predatory lending and help them build up enough emergency savings to cover three months of their expenses.
