1/ We had our Fintech CEO summit last week with with @hansmorris and @nyca. I generally take advantage of the captive audience to ramble about some of the key questions in fintech, which I will summarize in a few tweets:
@HansMorris @nyca 2/ Payments: Are there any break-through innovations coming, now that a)the original disrupters have gotten to scale and b)much of the payments talent has turned their attention to crypto?
@HansMorris @nyca 3/ Lending: The public markets re-rated LC and ONDK down from tech cos to lending cos, as a result of clear-eyed sobriety and because of operational missteps. We now appear to have GreenSky and Funding Circle waiting in the wings … will alt lending cos be re-rated back up?
@HansMorris @nyca 4/ Wealth/Investing: All of the B2C wealth companies are gearing up to launch a full suite of banking products. Finally we will get a pure test of whether the American consumer wants to switch away from their bank to a tech-oriented brand.
@HansMorris @nyca 5/ The irony of this profusion of new checking account options is that it comes just when banks have settled back into complacency about fintech ... "they're all just becoming vendors!". We'll see who is right.
@HansMorris @nyca 6/ Insurance: To full-stack or not full-stack? Becoming a carrier gives an insure-tech company flexibility to innovate in product design and reduce dependency; but the capital requirements are stiff and ongoing, and the RoE profile doesn’t fit with VC requirements.
@HansMorris @nyca 7/ Real estate: Is 6% too much? The avg home sells for $190k; 6% of that is $12k … which pays for 93 days for 1 listing agent (+ team) and many buying agents who engage with the property. Relatively few realtors own yachts! Is there excess spread to fund all the disrupters?
@HansMorris @nyca 8/ Further on real estate, the OpenDoor et al phenomena is the first example of a "flow" brokerage model going "prop" since the financial crisis ... very much against the grain. Can it really be funded at scale when other asset classes can't?
@HansMorris @nyca 9/ Crypto: We generally frame the space in three parts … Crypto investing ecosystem; Enterprise blockchain and Distributed Apps. The investing ecosystem is maturing nicely, with lots of elements of market structure being filled in.
@HansMorris @nyca 10/ Enterprise blockchain is thriving, if you count press releases, and struggling if you go by non proof of concept revenue. Distributed applications are the big prize, and are clearly in the early days, but this is where the talent is heading.
~Fin.
~Fin.
