Building a Fintech Startup: Top Tips, via Betaworks Panel

Last week I wrote about growth tactics for B2Bs. This week I am following up with a post on how to build a fintech, based on a panel discussion I attended at Betaworks Studios in New York.

Amanda Moskowitz of Stacklist, a directory of business tools for startups, moderated the session, which featured these panelists:

• Erik Akterin, Co-founder & CTO of Qapital
• Matt Harris, founder of Bloom Credit
• Cliff Hazelton, CTO at STASH
• Caroline Hoffman, Sr. Advisor at Republic

It was a super-interesting group of ventures, plus, it was great to hear from Nekesha Woods, who works for one of the giants and also did a fintech stint. Qapital is a money app that encourages savings, Bloom Credit provides companies with credit expertise, STASH makes it easy to invest, and Republic brings startup investing to the masses via crowdfunding (you no longer have to be an accredited investor ).

The brief descriptions are inadequate, as each fintech on the panel seemed to offer a unique take on their space; e.g. STASH automates investing in fractional shares of the stores where you shop. I encourage you to visit the links to learn more about each one.

Over the course of an hour, the panel discussed some of the unique challenges of launching and growing a fintech. VC funding is generally required due to the heavy lifting needed to develop a product that is robust enough to survive in the market and meet regulatory requirements. Forget moving fast and breaking things. You really need to lawyer up, do your homework and invest in dev; lightweight MVPs won’t cut it.

Here are some of the observations and takeaways, regarding marketing, and other aspects of building a fintech:

• Qapital got great results with Product Hunt. They also tapped word of mouth and press coverage. App store and Google reviews helped. As ever, it is important for businesses to know what to do with a negative google review, should they ever get one. Clearly the team behind Qapital knew what to do.
• Caroline Hoffman said that building a marketplace is not easy. Republic had to get creative, tap FOMO, and encouraged featured startups to bring in investors. Republic leveraged their partnership with AngelList, and made it easy for new members to invite their networks via LinkedIn. They used Facebook to test their messaging.
• STASH used Facebook to get feedback, organic referrals, and employed street teams and growth hacks. There was a need for education, as people are more used to traditional banks.
• Bloom is a B2B, but it helped to frame their messaging from an end-user POV.
• Most eschewed paid advertising