2024 LA First Look Retreat — Crafting the Keys to Financial Data: Innovations, Challenges, and Opportunities
Fika hosted its 9th annual LA First Look Retreat at the iconic Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in sunny San Marino, CA. The event’s historic setting served as the backdrop to bring together distinguished guests from Los Angeles’ community along with innovators and leaders in tech and investing. The breadth and diversity of First Look has established the event as one of Los Angeles’ premier tech gatherings with attendees flying in from across the country.
The day kicked off with a series of keynote presentations from industry leaders, addressing a variety of noteworthy topics.
Zach Perret, Co-Founder and CEO of Plaid, headlined the closing keynote of the day where he discussed with Fika General Partner, TX Zhuo, the origin of Plaid, its growth and challenges, the failed acquisition by Visa, and current trends in the fintech industry.
Summary
Zach Perret delved into the challenges and potential of the tech scene in Los Angeles. He noted that while LA has amazing founders and companies, there’s remains an opportunity to develop a consistent forum for these players to come together and collaborate.
“LA Tech has incredible founders, incredible companies, great entrepreneurs, a lot of energy, but there’s no point at which they get together,” he said. Perret expressed a desire to see more collaboration and community-building within the LA tech scene. He has personally tried to foster this type of environment, and he hopes that others will follow suit.
Despite the hype around artificial intelligence and other tech sectors, Perret remains optimistic about the potential for fintech startups. He cited ongoing growth and technological progress in the sector as a sign of its continued viability.
“The optimism and the excitement for fintech is coming back. It’s not gonna be in the exact same format that it was before. So there’s not the clone of every product that a bank has a type of opportunity available on the consumer side. There is still that on the B2B side though,” he said.
Perret also noted that the number of startups signing up and getting started on Plaid, his company, is up 65% year-over-year. This indicates a continued interest and momentum in the fintech sector.
Perret shared insights into the journey of Plaid, from its humble beginnings to its current position as a multi-product company. He mentioned that they initially built an API for bank accounts and over time, developed other network-linked products around it.
Perret also reflected on the challenges they faced through rapid growth, such as launching three new business units all at once and expanding internationally. Despite these hurdles, he expressed optimism about Plaid’s trajectory and the potential for future growth.
