3 Lessons From Successful FinTech Entrepreneurs
Intense competition, constant technology changes, increasing regulations, and rising customer expectations are just some of the challenges that FinTech startups face today.
Successful entrepreneurs and leaders in the FinTechs space are always aware of these challenges but still succeed by forming innovative ecosystems to help deliver enhanced and trusted experiences for their customers.
Recently Salesforce hosted a webinar with FinTech industry experts and practitioners: FinTech Entrepreneurial Success: A Platform and Ecosystem to Drive Growth. Helpful discussions took place about major industry trends, how FinTech startups can keep growing and innovating despite challenges, and how Salesforce can help.
Here are three insights from the industry experts on how they achieved entrepreneurial success in the FinTech space.
Build The Right Ecosystem
Customer acquisition is not the primary challenge that FinTech startups are facing today. According to a recent study conducted by the University of Oxford and the SWIFT Institute, the problem comes with “scaling up and breaking even.”
Often, customers who utilize a solution become reluctant to share sensitive information about money and data, directly impacting how much they consume the service.
To help foster security and trust, FinTechs should establish connections with an ecosystem of traditional banks and third-party players. Banks and large financial institutions can play a vital role as managers of customers’ data, assets, and digital identity. Established technology leaders can help form solid relationships and facilitate interactions with these traditional financial institutions.
When defining their ecosystem, FinTechs should also remember to include “Frenemies.” This may seem counterintuitive, however, establishing a fair collaboration with direct and indirect competitors can help drive efficiency. Ultimately, this can deliver better experiences to the customers.
“As an enabler, we are finding a great harmony in connecting merchants to PSPs and payment acquirers so they can improve customer transactions and run their businesses more efficiently,” Ian Parke, CEO of FIN-PAY said.
Bring Innovation and Regulation Together
“We decided to bring regulation and innovation together to give more protection to customers. […] We had to change the way in which we talk to the regulators and government. We used to be the digital disruptors but now we’re holding everyone’s hand and saying “This is what the new world looks like.” It’s a big change for us, in our brand positioning, in the way we operate every day. […] Now we work with some of the largest customers in Australia who are keen to get onto the journey with us,” Michael Rouse, Founder and Executive Chairman of WealthConnect by CreativeMass said.
Many FinTechs ask how they can innovate in an industry that continues to be more and more regulated. According to Simran Singh, Co-Founder and Director of Prizm by Financial Spectra, the answer is to focus on the 3Cs: compliance, configurability, and cost-effectiveness.
Increased regulation in financial services can be seen as an obstacle to innovation, but they don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Improving compliance should be viewed as an opportunity to provide better customer protection and establish stronger customer relationships. Without these foundations in place, successful innovation is impossible.
The second step is ensuring that your solution is easily configurable so it can respond to technology and regulatory changes quickly and easily, as well as provide customizable options for customers.
Finally, making a solution cost-effective is key to success. The ability to decrease costs and increase the bottom line by making processes more efficient, while also growing your customer base, allows you to stay ahead of the competition even in an increasingly regulated market.
Secure Strong Foundations and Scale Globally
Expansion in new regions can be a major challenge for startups, but these new markets can be an effective route to growth if approached correctly. Many of Salesforce ISV partners have experienced the speed and ease at which they can scale internationally. How? By building on the Salesforce platform and leveraging its global network, including access to more than 150,000 Salesforce customers in more than 100 countries, as well as exposure to an ecosystem of partners and Salesforce experts.
“We can pick up the Salesforce model and work with UK’s AEs pretty much in every geography. There’s a great consistency for us as we roll out across the globe. We now have UK and US operations and we’re opening one in Japan soon,” Michael Rouse, Founder and Executive Chairman of WealthConnect by CreativeMass said.
Before scaling it is important to have secure foundations in place to grow from. The core technology must be robust and able to cope with the growth that follows expanding to new geographies. With the Salesforce platform, FinTechs are building on a rock-solid infrastructure, fully integrated with the CRM, that allows them to not only deliver a seamless, integrated and secure experience for their customers but also to create a detailed 360-view of their customers.
“Building our app on the Salesforce platform was the most important and the most wise decision we have taken as a company. The platform comes with a rich set of features like data security, identity management, ability to integrate with other applications […] and moreover, it is fully integrated with the CRM — really enabling a full customer 360-degree view,” Simran Singh, Co-Founder and Director of Prizm by Financial Spectra said.
Conclusion
Whether you’ve been in the market for a long time, or you just have an entrepreneurial idea, we hope that Simran, Michael, and Ian’s stories will inspire your successful journey in the Fintech Industry, and we hope you will count on AppExchange as a trusted partner to accompany you in this journey.
To learn more about FinTech entrepreneurial success, watch the on-demand webinar here. If you are a FinTech entrepreneur, join the AppExchange partner program to learn more about the program and how you can sell into a market of more than 150,000 Salesforce customers.
