Fintechs and Serengeti Watering Holes
Narrow the Hunt
Readers of my Medium B2B Buzz Blog fall into two broad categories:
- Treasury professional, commercial banker or a CFO
- Fintech employee, founder or influencer
This blog is specifically for the second group of folks, my Fintech friends that are looking to engage with Banks and Bankers. I started my Fintech career from the tech side of the equation. I used to work as the Vertical Market overlay for a sales team selling Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) or as we ended up calling it “Pilots Keep Increasing.” It is a very complex technology so I was brought in to help package it as a business solution.
I was asked to figure out how to get our technology to business decision makers instead of CTOs and CIOs, so we could move beyond the pilot stage. We already had some bank customers so that was an obvious first focus.
I started looking at how to reach bankers and my first thought was:
“If you are a Lion and you want to eat Zebra, you should go to the Zebra Watering holes.”
Today we are all spoiled with the amazing Money2020 event that brings together both sides of the Legacy Bank and Fintech “coin” so to speak. It is easy to see the hunted and hunters intermingle at Money2020.
Back in 1998 there was no Finovate, Money2020 or Lendit, so I had to find actual bank events. The first and best was the Association of Finance Professionals (AFP). I attended my first in 1998 in Philadelphia and recall that it was overwhelming with deep bank information. I also came back with a ton of business cards of some of the leading Treasury Bankers.
It is worth noting the audience for the AFP is equal measure
- Bankers from the Treasury or Transaction part of the bank
- CFOs and Treasurers that are the customers of the banks
The first thing I noticed was the tension between these two groups, not unlike my Zebra and Lion metaphor.
In this case the bankers are the Lions at the Treasurer’s watering hole, the AFP event.
The other thing I noticed back then was the thin ranks of technology companies. I did not yet have enough bank business understanding to know how to pitch PKI for securing wire transfers. And the bankers were intimidated by talk of basic technology let alone something as complex as PKI.
Over time I learned how to talk tech and bank business as did everyone else and hence Fintech was “born.” But in these early days the AFP was a valuable place to connect to real bankers and learn about banking from the outside of a bank.
So why write this blog now, we already have Fintech events?
Because I think it is time for Fintechs to re-engage with bankers at their watering holes.
If you are a Fintech founder, head of BD or strategy and want to
- Learn what banks ACTUALLY do
- Sell to the banks
There are few better events to attend than an AFP annual event. By attending you will learn about what is the current agenda for B2B bankers. You are unlikely to hear much blockchain hyperbole but are more likely to hear about the actual daily operations of the Treasury Function. Like all events in 2020, the AFP event is going all virtual this year.
Here are some of the sessions available at the 2020 virtual event in October.
“A Tale of Two Negotiations: How to Strategize Your Bank Fee and Relationship Review”
Susan Colross, Director, Treasury Operations, T-Mobile USA Inc. and Nina Hanselmann, Working Capital Consultant, U.S. Bank
The Top 5 Reasons Your Business Needs Faster Payments Today
Connie Theien, Senior Vice President, Industry Relations, Federal Reserve System
Reed Luhtanen, Executive Director, US Faster Payments Council
Ken Kruszka, CEO, SnapCheck
In researching this I was so thrilled to see Ken Kruszka of SnapCheck on a panel. I have been an advisor to Ken and Snapcheck for years and don’t recall ever talking to Ken about the importance of events beyond M2020, which Ken often speaks at. Here he is with a big platform for his Fintech company.
Fintech CEOs should Be Like Ken
Now imagine your ability to design a cloud based cash management application for a bank after hearing directly from the source. These events can be a like an overwhelming focus group of tens to hundreds of great targets for your current or future platform.
So you wanna connect to a bank to sell them on using your Fintech solution, here are some folks you would connect with at the AFP “watering hole.”
Stacy Rosenthal, Senior Vice President, Head of Payments Product Management, Santander Comercial Banking
Amy Beninato, Director, Global Transaction Banking, Deutsche Bank
Timothy Satterfield, SVP, Senior Manager, Treasury Management, PNC Bank
Or maybe you wanna build your B2B product from the corporate perspective, well good news you could connect with these type of folks
Matthew Allen, VP & Asst Treasurer, Walmart Inc.
Zeke Loretto, Senior Director Investments/Treasury, nVidia
Rene Bustamante, Vice President & Assistant Treasurer, Global Cash Management, FedEx Corporation
I am not associated with the AFP in any way I am however a fan of Fintech leaders engaging bankers on their turf. So maybe you are not looking so specifically at Treasury and Working Capital. Here are some other great bank organizations that have regional, local and national events. There is even an AFP equivalent in the UK called ACT.
BAFT — Bankers Association Finance & Trade https://www.baft.org/
ABA — American Bankers Association https://www.aba.com/
Independent Community Bankers of America https://www.icba.org/
Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT / UK) https://www.treasurers.org/
If you decide to attend a very specific bank or other vertical finance event I do encourage you to do your homework. It is OK to not be an expert, but be open to the dialog and please don’t tell bankers you know exactly what they need to do the job they have been doing for 20 years. However, you will find them more than curious about how to improve what they do.
Attending Bank Events is powerful for:
- Learning what bankers really do
- Networking with bank business leaders, not tech or innovation leaders
- Presenting your new ideas and solutions to a willing audience
You will be amazed at how quickly your knowledge and empathy for what bankers ACTUALLY DO will grow and help you build better Fintech products.
