How Netflix Is Saving Cybersecurity: Embracing the Membership Economy to Advance Innovation

How Netflix Is Saving Cybersecurity: Embracing the Membership Economy to Advance Innovation

This is a sponsored post by Cyvatar, Gold Sponsors of FinovateFall 2021. Written by Craig Goodwin & Corey White.


In case you missed it, we’re losing the battle against hacks and breaches. Even though more and more security tools come online every year, personal information and other sensitive data doesn’t get better protected.

We buy more products. We get breached.

We adhere to compliance standards. We get breached.

Why can’t we do better?

Increasingly sophisticated and relentless attacks and high-profile breaches, like the one at Solarwinds, spur the purchase of more and more tools, but companies rarely (if ever) have the right people and processes in place to ensure the tools they purchase are installed–installed and configured correctly–to say nothing of the ongoing assessments, remediation, and maintenance needed to achieve a solid return on their cyber investments.

The industry’s response has long been to build newer, shinier products, knowing that buyers will come; when the technology fails to defend against a breach, managed services providers step in to remediate after the fact and “manage” the customer’s environment against future incursions.

Then a Solarwinds or an Equifax or a Marriott happens.

It’s a vicious cycle–a cycle companies can break by stepping away from traditional notions of ownership (i.e., buying or “owning” a security tool, platform, or solution) and embracing the Membership Economy.

What is the Membership Economy?

The Membership Economy, coined by Robbie Kellman Baxter in 2015, includes any organization whose members — what another company might call customers or clients — have an “ongoing and formal stake” in that organization.[1] The human desire to belong, to be part of a community or affiliated with an exclusive organization, is fulfilled in the Membership Economy, and Netflix is one of its best-known acolytes.

Key components of the Membership Economy include:

  • Continually focusing on the needs of members
  • Understanding your members’ frustration as well as their satisfaction
  • Embracing a willingness to forge new paths to meet member desires or address their concerns–flexibility, innovation, and evolution are all part of this process
  • Communicating a strong, clear value proposition
  • Investing in the membership experience

Cybersecurity companies, like many technology organizations, still focus on transactional sales. Customers buy a software or services package for a period of time–typically two to three years–and are largely left to fend for themselves until their contract comes up for renewal. Also like other technology deployments, security installations can be complex, costly, and time consuming, often making it difficult for customers to change or add products in their production environments. Even when a customer is unhappy with a product, swapping it out for something new may be more trouble than the customer thinks it’s worth, which leaves little incentive for transaction-driven security companies to foster meaningful innovation in their offerings.

In other words, ownership in cybersecurity is a liability.  The thousands–even millions–of dollars organizations spend on tools and platforms tied to those multiyear licensing agreements effectively hold them hostage regardless of product efficacy. In the event of a breach, they’re still stuck in their contract and may even feel the need to buy more tools to bolster their security posture. Security product companies are hamstrung by the model too: Once they create products to deliver their solutions, they become limited by the scope of their own design, for good or ill, and innovation remains stalled.

Groundbreaking innovation through experimentation, development, and even dumb luck has enabled significant economic growth–and has toppled entire organizations that were upended by the thoughtful and rapid advancement of others,[2] as Blockbuster was by Netflix. As the pace of technological change continues to accelerate with force, so too does the cyber attack surface.

Taking the next step

Membership–the Netflix model–is just such a foundational change. It can be every bit as disruptive and transformational to the cybersecurity industry as Netflix itself was to the movie rental and streaming industries. Here’s how.

Subscriptions alone do not a Membership Economy make.

Subscriptions are a good first step. Subscriptions make it easy for members to select the pricing and options that are best for them, and consistent and predictable revenue streams benefit shareholders and users alike. But subscriptions alone do not a Membership Economy make. It’s important that security companies understand the need behind each package they develop so they can grow members into new offerings and ensure value is continuously delivered.

Additionally, the Membership Economy can’t work without high levels of member engagement, which is why Baxter recommends that a good membership program be beneficial for members as well as the company that serves them. Benefits stemming from loyalty create bonds, even emotional connections, between members and the companies they associate with, which in turn create vibrant communities of influencers and evangelists that become a continual source of innovation for Membership Economy organizations. By staying close to your members and active in the communities you share with them, you’re always a part of the feedback loop, enabling you to continue to evolve your offerings to meet member needs.

Cybersecurity-as-a-service, or CSaaS, brings all of these concepts to life. CSaaS is inherently a member-driven model, allowing providers to focus on access rather than ownership. Instead of selling transactional point solutions or fee-for-services to create what we used to call customer “stickiness,” security companies can use the membership model to level the playing field and democratize cybersecurity, making the best protection accessible and affordable for every size organization, even those with no cybersecurity expertise in house.

The CSaaS membership model offers a new, innovative paradigm for successful protection from today’s advanced cyber-attacks by pairing skilled security advisors with proven processes and best-of-breed technologies to deliver guaranteed business outcomes. Importantly, CSaaS handles the heavy lifting associated with evaluating and recommending solutions from more than 4500 security vendors so that members can focus on scaling their businesses without worrying about securing the sensitive data and information that make those businesses successful.

CSaaS also ensures that recommended solutions are installed and configured completely–and correctly–in addition to providing ongoing remediation of cyber threats and vulnerabilities and regular maintenance of security tools. By selling membership rather than ownership in the CSaaS model, members can achieve faster compliance to standards like NIST CSF, SOC 2, PCI, and HIPAA.

The CSaaS membership model is Netflix for cybersecurity: inherent innovation and bespoke solutions at scale. Begin your free CSaaS membership and start your journey to cybersecurity confidence today.


[1] Baxter, Robbie Kellman. “The Membership Economy: Find Your Superusers, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue.” McGraw-Hill Education. 2015, p. 26.

[2] Harkins, Malcolm, et.al. “The R(e)volution of Web Application Security.” Cymatic, Inc. 2021.


Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

Data-Driven Decision-Making with InterSystems

Data-Driven Decision-Making with InterSystems

This is a sponsored post from InterSystems, Gold Sponsor of FinovateFall 2021. By Carmen Logue, Product Manager, InterSystems; commentary on survey report Embracing embedded analytics and a comprehensive data analytics platform >>

Data-driven decision-making is something most businesses aspire to. However, for the majority, significant data silos across the enterprise often means that the data they are using is delayed and inconsistent – resulting in decisions that are neither timely nor accurate. Instead, what organizations need is real-time access to their data and a consistent enterprise view. Fortunately, this is where a data fabric with both embedded analytics and self-service business intelligence (BI) can be extremely powerful.

The use of embedded analytics and self-service BI in combination with a data fabric allows organizations to give a wider range of users the ability to visualize and explore data more freely, empowering employees, partners, and customers with accurate information. Yet, while most organizations recognize the value of actionable analytics, currently most struggle to provide critical metrics and access to ad hoc analysis. In fact, our research shows that only 7% of organizations say more than half of their employees have access to a data analytics platform.

With a staggering 93% of organizations revealing that the majority of their employees don’t have access to analytics, let’s look at how they can set themselves up to become a more data-driven organization.

Bridging data silos with embedded analytics tools

To gain the most benefit from their data and analytics platform, businesses should look to start prioritizing and bridging data within their organization. While they are likely to be faced with a large number of silos, prioritizing key metrics and iteratively connecting data sources will allow companies to reduce redundant data and provide a common language across data sources.

Implementing a smart data fabric, a new architectural approach, will also help to remove silos and help organizations to gain a common semantic view of the data, even if that data remains distributed. Businesses that have grown through mergers, acquisitions or organic expansions benefit from both local and organization-wide visibility. A common semantic view will also enable performance comparisons over time – day to day or year over year, and allow for analysis of patterns and trends.

Vitally, this enterprise view will give businesses a firm foundation to introduce analytics capabilities.

Figure out what needs to be measured

Once they have started taking incremental steps to unify their data, organizations should seek to understand where the real business problems lie and the questions they need to answer. As part of this, they should consider what issues or challenges their CEO and business counterparts, such as the CIO and COO, currently face and what will help them characterize and measure improvements.

Using this as a starting point and working back will allow the IT teams who will be undertaking the implementation to understand what data and insights they need to provide to answer the questions those leading the business have. It is also important to leave capacity for additional metrics because once they are being used effectively, there will be a need for future measurements and answers.

This approach will ensure the organization is clear about where to apply analytics to derive the most value and to impact the most change. Following this method, they can then build out the capabilities across different parts of the organization.

Success lies in collaboration

While likely to be driven by IT teams, implementing analytics platforms isn’t just an IT initiative. Instead, it requires collaboration from individuals across the organization.

To guarantee success, different teams should work together iteratively and constantly assess the contributions being made by the introduction of analytics platforms and continue to refine the use cases and required metrics to understand whether they are providing value and what changes might be needed to measure progress.

Taking this approach will help to iron out any issues as they occur and ensure that all users are extracting real value from the platform.

Simplifying the complex

For most businesses, obtaining a single source of truth from which they can gain insights can be extremely complex. Not only do organizations tend to have a large number of data silos, but they already have a range of different technology in place, from data warehouses, data lakes and data marts, to integration platforms and BI tools. As such, the majority are ideally looking to simplify their technology infrastructure, but without having to rip and replace.

Smart data fabrics make this possible, helping businesses to unlock the true potential of their data by speeding up and simplifying access to data assets across the entire business. This is all while allowing existing legacy applications and data to remain in place, to enable organizations to maximize the value from their previous technology investments.

Realizing the value of embedded analytics

The benefits of embedded analytics capabilities span across all industries, allowing businesses to make more informed decisions and enabling a variety of business users to have access to actionable insights. A data platform like InterSystems IRIS which includes embedded analytics and ad hoc analysis tools, also forms an integral part of a smart data fabric architecture. InterSystems IRIS can provide organizations with access to live data on-demand, integrated from multiple applications such as trades, equity and fixed income positions, or treasury.

This technology ensures that businesses are able to make decisions on current data, including live transactional data, and eliminates latency from source systems. Additionally, it supports business user self-service analytics, enabling drill down and ad hoc capabilities and can also help to automate time consuming tasks such as ongoing integration and interoperability – freeing up the IT team to focus on more value-adding tasks.

With access to more comprehensive, accurate, and timely information, employees across businesses will be better placed to make informed decisions and measure the success of new initiatives needed to drive their organization forward.


Photo by Norbert Kundrak on Unsplash

Bringing Financial Services into the 21st Century: A Conversation with N26’s Stephanie Balint

Bringing Financial Services into the 21st Century: A Conversation with N26’s Stephanie Balint

We sat down with Stephanie Balint, Head of U.S. Strategy & Operations with N26 Inc. in New York, to talk about her experience in the fintech industry, and the continued evolution of technology to solve old and new problems for consumers, and create new opportunities we have yet to think of.

How you get involved in fintech?

Stephanie Balint: I got involved with fintech very early on in my career. Right out of college, I started working in investment banking, and one of my first areas of coverage was fintech, which included players within market structure, exchanges, trading, and technology platforms. By covering that space, I learned a lot about the industry, and eventually moved on to work for a fintech company because I wanted an opportunity to have direct impact in day-to-day operations and scaling fintech businesses. One of the reasons this industry stood out to me is because of the unique aspects of the business models; unlike consumer retail businesses, fintechs are less subject to short-term trends and the whims of consumer demand, and have higher margins and therefore more scalable and profitable economics.

How have you seen the industry change across your career?

Balint: I have seen the industry change immensely over the past 10+ years. When I was first getting started in 2009, there was much more of a focus on established and mature companies who were utilizing older, legacy tech stacks and serving traditional financial institutions, but starting to do so in more tech-forward ways. Over time, I saw an evolution begin to take place with lots of new entrants in the space trying to better serve retail and commercial customer needs by replacing legacy tech. It was incredible to see so many talented people, who had previously worked at older financial institutions, come back to identify a problem in the space and propose new solutions that would eventually improve financial services as a whole and bring it into the modern age.

There have been so many interesting companies founded over the past 10+ years. Many of the small fintech concepts I was watching during my banking career have grown significantly, including neobanking. This was a category that was barely considered or on the radar, and now is its own massive category within fintech – with no signs of slowing down. Q2 2021 was the largest quarter on record for fintech with nearly $31B invested worldwide across 657 deals.

Some of the innovations I’m most excited about are around what I call the “plumbing” of financial services. Things like enabling faster payments, like ACH payments, foreign money transfer, and trade settlements. A lot of companies – like Plaid, Orum, or Wise – have already brought forth incredible solutions. Behind the scenes, as a consumer, you would never know what is driving your ability to get money faster or facilitate complex transactions.

Can you tell us a bit about your current role?  How is your company impacting the future of fintech?

Balint: In my current role, I am the interim GM of N26 US. With that, I oversee our operations in the U.S. market, focusing primarily on the strategic and operational side of things. This includes working closely with our legal and compliance team to manage critical business partners, selecting new partners, and overseeing customer service and banking operations. A large part of my role is creating a shared strategic vision for the entity to work towards, as well as developing roadmaps and long, medium, and short term goals to achieve our vision in the U.S. 

Where do you see fintech heading in the next 12 months?

Balint: There is a very strong appetite from investors who are trying to find the interesting companies that will rise to the top. I believe there is still a huge opportunity in the “plumbing” side of financial services, particularly with B2B businesses who are working to do things like speed up payments, improve infrastructure, and provide solutions to help globalize money movement. Generally, these businesses are working to bring financial services into the 21st century and it’s fascinating to be a part of this evolution.

What more do you think can be done to support women in fintech?

Balint: At an entrepreneurial level, I think foundational change needs to occur. Encouraging female founders by providing access to capital is essential to helping generate a more diverse fintech startup economy. The issue is that historically women have been underrepresented within VC investing. There are generally not many women in VC investing, compounded by not enough representation and funding of women at a founding level, which in turn leads to underrepresentation of women in fintech across all levels over time. 

Within startups, I think it’s important that leaders take steps early on to build out a team that ensures diversity across all facets of the business. Seeking individuals with various social and economic backgrounds will ultimately contribute to a stronger and more inclusive product and diversity of thought within and across teams.

For individuals, I think having strong mentorship from other influential leaders is key to building a strong supportive network that will pay dividends throughout your career.

Where did you find support in the fintech world?

Balint: I had a lot of support early on in banking. As the only revenue-generating female senior managing director, and the only one in an advisory role leading fintech as a practice, my mentor in investment banking took a keen interest in me and helped me to build my network and coverage area to do things earlier in my career than I would have been able to on my own.

Once I moved directly into fintech, I found most of my support from other peers, not necessarily women. Especially at N26, many of the early employees at the company were like-minded and we found similar comradery in terms of drive, motivation, intellect, and general interest in how to navigate a small and growing organization, think critically about things, handle tough negotiations, optimize contracts for best possible terms, and build the team. I found that support from early employees who had gone through it together with me incredibly valuable as I grew in my own career.

What advice would you give to women starting their careers in the industry now?

Balint: First, know your worth. Figure it out early and don’t be afraid to ask other people you know in the industry for comparisons/benchmarks. Demand the pay you deserve and don’t be afraid to negotiate.

Second, invest your money early and often. You may make the same salary as your peers, but if you don’t put your money to work, you’ll be left behind in the long term in terms of wealth creation.

Last, don’t be afraid to ask for things you want. I feel strongly about the “don’t ask don’t get” approach. Ask for a seat at the table, to be included in meetings, for someone to mentor you … what’s the worst that can happen? You can always move on from a rejection but you can never get back a missed opportunity.


Photo by Christina Morillo from Pexels

Fresh Off the Stage: The Finovate Demo Experience

Fresh Off the Stage: The Finovate Demo Experience

FinovateFall returned to America’s financial capital last month, and was able to put the live demos back on the main stage. Over 75 companies took their chance to present their latest innovations to the audience, competing for the coveted Best of Show awards (find out who took home the hardware here).

The demo timer runs down quickly with only 7-minutes on the clock, so we sat down with several demoing companies to hear a little more about their origin story, overcoming the challenges of the past year and their experience as a Finovate demoer. Check out the conversations below!


Marc Corbett, Senior Solutions Engineer, Backbase


Ryan Ruff, Head of Fintech Relationships, ASA Technology


Bolun Li, Founder & CEO, Zogo Finance

Find out more about FinovateFall and stay up-to-date with the latest announcements about 2022!

Leading Transformative and Innovative Change in Fintech: A Conversation with Karen G. Mills

Leading Transformative and Innovative Change in Fintech: A Conversation with Karen G. Mills

As part of our #womeninfintech series, we spoke with Karen Gordon Mills, a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Business School and a leading authority on U.S. competitiveness, entrepreneurship, and innovation. She details her perspective and experience with small businesses and lending, and highlights several other women leading the charge to create a better future with fintech.

How did you become interested in fintech?

Karen Mills: My interest in fintech grew out of my work with small businesses.

As Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) from 2009 to 2013, I had a front-row seat to the challenges that small businesses face when accessing bank capital. Getting a loan is an onerous process even for the most creditworthy small business owners. It often involves carrying stacks of paperwork to a local bank and waiting months for a decision. That’s because for banks, lending to small businesses is actually pretty hard. They tend to lack complete information about the business that would allow them to determine profitability or cash flow, and since small businesses are such a heterogenous group, it’s difficult for loan officers to develop expertise in a specific sector. These frictions have led to a credit gap, especially among the smallest and most vulnerable businesses.  

The traditional lending process wasn’t working for this critical part of our economy. Yet it had been this way for decades and only started to change in the late 2000s, around the time I was at the SBA. That’s when a wave of new fintechs entered the market. The fintechs gathered nontraditional data streams from their small business customers (like daily transactions) to get around the lack of information, integrated them using application programming interfaces (APIs), and deployed machine learning tools to quickly generate insights about the business and automate loan decisioning. All of a sudden, small businesses could submit applications, receive decisions, and find new funds in their accounts in a matter of days.

I thought fintech’s potential to transform small business lending was so transformational that I wrote a book describing its evolution and possible outcomes: Fintech, Small Business & the American Dream. I’ve continued to speak about and research fintech developments in my current role as a Senior Fellow at Harvard Business School.

How have you seen the industry change across your career?

Mills: Lots of people initially thought the fintechs would knock traditional banks off the map. But that hasn’t happened. Although banks might be less nimble or tech-savvy, they have established customer bases and low-cost capital—which most fintechs don’t. One big change we have seen in recent years is a rise in bank-fintech partnerships, with each seeking to benefit from the other’s strengths. Another important development is the presence of Big Tech companies, like Apple and Amazon, whose wide reach and ability to create seamless user experiences allow them to make rapid and large-scale inroads with small businesses.

The pandemic has obviously brought massive change over the last year, and accelerated the uptake of digital technologies for both lenders and borrowers. The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) played a key role, pushing banks to overhaul their systems and get money out the door at an unprecedented pace. Fintechs were especially important in distributing aid dollars to the smallest businesses, and they may be able to leverage that success into new customer relationships. Meanwhile, with more and more activity occurring online, small businesses will likely adopt new digital tools to serve their various needs—in everything from lending to advertising.

How have you seen female leadership influence the fintech space, particularly around small businesses?

Mills: Women have developed some of the most transformative and innovative fintech solutions that I’ve seen for small businesses. For example, Kathryn Petralia co-founded Kabbage, a company that pioneered the use of alternative data and machine learning to automate small business lending. As the head of Square Capital, Jackie Reses built out Square’s similarly data- and technology-driven strategy for providing small business loans. Both of these women, and many others like them, have created crucial new opportunities for small businesses to grow and thrive.  

Women’s leadership has also been influential in other, related spaces. In traditional banking, women like Jill Castilla, the CEO of Citizens Bank of Edmond, a community bank in Oklahoma, are spearheading digital transformations intended to provide better service for small businesses. In academia, female economists like Professor Sabrina Howell of NYU are doing crucial research around fintech’s impact on small businesses—including demonstrating how fintechs like Kabbage and Square played an outsize role in delivering PPP funds to minority-owned businesses during the pandemic. 

What more do you think can be done to support women in fintech?

Mills: First and foremost, we need more women in fintechs, in banks, and in the research and policy areas too. There are talented women coming up in banking and in other areas of finance who will push the industry to adopt more innovative solutions.

And, yes, there are things we can do to help. Investors need to funnel more money to female founders in fintech, and established companies and organizations need to implement better recruitment and selection strategies. There are brilliant, highly-qualified women out there who may well have the next big idea or innovation for small business customers. We just need to be more deliberate about bringing them on board and promoting them to the highest leadership levels – in ways that account for the biases and obstacles that women often face.   

We also need to be aware that simply recruiting more women isn’t good enough. It’s crucial to actively foster cultures of diversity, equity, and inclusion that provide women—and all underrepresented groups—with the resources and opportunities they need, and with an environment in which their contributions are valued. Organizations that do this well will be more successful in innovating and winning in a rapidly changing environment like the worlds of banking and fintech.

What advice would you give to women starting their careers in the industry now?

Mills: Fintech is a great industry to be in. Traditional banking is being challenged and organizations are more open to innovative thinking – because they have to be. Female leaders are most often excellent problem solvers. The solutions that fintechs put forward are game changing. Better access to capital can have a significant impact on the success and wellbeing of small business customers, and on the American economy.

My advice to women is that this is a critical time to get involved. Work to build a new environment that closes gaps in the market and improves access and opportunity for a more diverse set of small business owners. Get engaged, build relationships (and help each other out), pursue your ideas, and stay committed to your goals.


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FinovateFall eMagazine

FinovateFall eMagazine

The future of finance is being ushered in. And the pioneers of the new era lead the change from the FinovateFall stage this year. 

We can’t tell you how exciting it was to welcome so many people back to Manhattan. It was made even sweeter by the fact that we were able to engage so many digital attendees at the same time. It felt good to be able to bring our community together again!

Following the long-anticipated meeting of minds and ideas, we looked back on the themes that emerged and will steer the industry forward into unchartered territory. It’s impossible, of course, to distill so many conversations down to a few high-level takeaways. However, within these pages are snippets and insights from on-and-off-stage to give you a taste of the action and a spark of the knowledge shared. 

Download the latest Finovate eMagazine from FinovateFall to get access to:

  • Insight from Finovate’s resident analysts on the top trends from the event and beyond
  • Thought leadership from Finovate’s Headline Sponsor, InterSystems 
  • The Best of Show demo videos
  • The Finovate Awards winners
  • Expert opinion on the elements of a super app, consumer risk modeling innovations, and more 

Download now >>

Women in Fintech: Learning to be Nimble in the Face of Uncertain Circumstances

Women in Fintech: Learning to be Nimble in the Face of Uncertain Circumstances

Our Women in Fintech Series continues with an interview featuring Kathryn Petralia, co-founder of Kabbage, an American Express Company.

We caught up with Kathryn Petralia to discuss her journey to success as the co-founder of Kabbage, an American Express Company, how alternative lending is democratizing access to financial services, and the importance of advocating for inclusion for every employee and end user.

Can you tell us how you got involved in fintech?

Kathryn Petralia: I was always interested in technology, its possibilities and impact, but I never considered it a career until much later. I was on track to earn a masters degree in English when a family friend asked me join a tech company he had invested in at the time. I ended up ditching the graduate program to take advantage of the opportunity.

From there I spent close to 15 years working in the credit, payments, and e-commerce industries, leading strategy and corporate development, as well as founding multiple companies. When my co-founder, Rob Frohwein, approached me about the idea of Kabbage, I immediately saw the potential to help small businesses gain access to capital via real-time data.

What drew you to the world of alternative lending? 

Petralia: I’ve been in alternative lending since the late ’90s, and my passion for helping small businesses has always been a driving force.

I was drawn to alternative lending as it’s a very interesting area of financial services that was ripe for disruption as new technologies paved a path to give customers a better experience.

At the time, I could see that automation and access to real-time data could do away with the lengthy, manual processes which were the status quo in the industry, and democratize access to financial services.

Where did you find support as you were starting out? 

Petralia: It’s important to have a strong partner and support system at home and in the office. I’ve been fortunate that my husband has been an at-home dad for our kids. And I’m an advocate of having a co-founder in business, someone that compliments one another’s strengths and weaknesses, and I’ve been lucky to have Rob a part of this journey.

Kabbage has grown into a hugely successful company. Can you share some of the challenges you have faced on your journey? 

Petralia: It was very challenging to raise money when we first launched Kabbage, especially in Atlanta where the venture community was small and there was not a lot of competition at the time. This unfortunately tends to drive down company valuations. It was hard to get Silicon Valley investors behind Atlanta businesses, but we ultimately succeeded and really raised the profile of Atlanta as a fintech and startup hub.

What advice do you have for small businesses coming through the pandemic?  

Petralia: While businesses were forced to adapt their processes to stay afloat during the pandemic, it’s crucial for them to continue evolving for long-term success. According to our Small Business Recovery Report, 77 percent of small businesses agreed they’re more open than ever before to replace old systems and adopt new technologies to run their company more efficiently.

Be nimble in the face of uncertain circumstances and adopt new technologies that will aid in the success of your business.

Where do you see fintech heading in the next 12 months?

Petralia: The pandemic highlighted where small businesses have cash flow gaps and operational blind spots, so fintechs should shift their focus and offer more comprehensive solutions that address these concerns. Offering a full suite of solutions and integrated platforms can provide business owners with the tools they need to solve their immediate needs while instilling more confidence in how they run their company with data.

What more do you think can be done to support women in fintech?

Petralia: There is so much more we can do to create equality in fintech. The gender disparity in fintech is due, in part, to the tendency of white-male-dominated industries to invest in other white-male-dominated businesses (which is of course true for technology companies generally). We can ensure this situation doesn’t endure by building inclusive products and encouraging leaders to make diverse hires. It’s crucial that we continue promoting policies and products that minimize biases and create a more inclusive industry.

What advice would you give to women starting their careers in the industry now?

Petralia: Women in Fintech must advocate for inclusion not just for leadership, but also for every employee and end user. But as for those women—or men, frankly— just joining the industry or pursuing their goals, I always advise to really take the time to be the smartest about your field, job, or industry. That will earn you seats at tables and trust among executive teams that will help propel you and your career.


Photo by Tim Gouw from Pexels

Women in Fintech: Finding Community and Investing in Social Capital

Women in Fintech: Finding Community and Investing in Social Capital

Our Women in Fintech Series continues with an interview featuring Pauline Roteta, Co-Founder and CEO of Pasito.

We spoke with Pauline to discuss the importance of DEI in current fintech trends, the benefits of finding one’s community, and her journey to founding Pasito, the fintech that delivers financial wellness through inclusive employee benefits.

Pauline will be joining our Women In Fintech Power Panel: Paving The Way For The Next Generation Of Female Founders & Executives – How Can We Reach A Gender-Neutral Future In Financial Services? at FinovateFall next month.

Tell us about yourself.

Pauline Roteta: I went to college to be a Civil Engineer. Growing up in a small town in Argentina, I was awestruck by the sheer size of development in New York and wanted to be part of that continuous cycle of growth. While I cherish the process thinking engineering gave me, after a couple of civil and construction internships, I was hired by Goldman Sachs for the summer and have never looked back.

In finance, I found a community of the sharpest minds tackling global challenges and saw the opportunity to effect impact at scale.

Now a decade later, I can safely say that finance has given me the development and growth I was after. I’ve been part of teams that grew multi-billion dollar businesses from scratch, led acquisitions, raised private equity funds, and I have been the most senior female investor of a private markets investment fund. In 2021, with this experience under my belt, I co-founded Pasito, a female-led fintech delivering inclusive benefits for working parents. As a founder and business leader, I am now even more excited than at the start of my career for the tremendous growth opportunity ahead for fintech companies like Pasito.

How have you seen the industry change across your career?

Roteta: So much has changed in 10 years. When I first joined BlackRock, we were focused on the European Debt Crisis and unraveling legacy portfolios from the 2008 Financial Crisis. While technology was important to the business model, most of our analysis and delivery was in person. The active-passive debate was just starting. Fintech wasn’t mainstream and wasn’t seen as a threat by incumbents.

Fast-forward to today: we’ve seen a proliferation of fintech companies that are effectively competing with long-time incumbents in wealth, banking, and payments. In the space where we are building, there has been less disruption. Plan administrators continue their manual processes. Technology looks like it’s from the first days of the internet. Customers haven’t yet been delighted. Pasito is working on changing that.

Where do you see fintech heading in the next 12 months?

Roteta: After the events of 2020, financial health and diversity, equity, and inclusion will remain top of mind for businesses and the government. We’re seeing employers treat financial and mental wellness with the same care that they treat physical health. That’s a huge win for the retail consumer and creates an opening for new business models in fintech to fill in the gap left behind by wealth management.

When it comes to DEI, we see fintech pushing the boundaries of financial product and service personalization.

While we’ve seen an explosion in fintech, it’s important to remember most of the big problems remain without a solution. The U.S. has never been more unequal. The wealthiest families, who are primarily white, own most of the stock market. Black and Latinx families have limited access to financial advice, and their assets amount to a fraction of the average American household wealth. At Pasito, we are working on closing this gap, one product at a time. Our hope is that more fintechs will build with this mission in mind, rather than continuing to develop products that solidify the status quo.

What more do you think can be done to support women in fintech?

Roteta: We have a long way to go in fintech to reap the benefits of a diverse workforce. The easiest way to begin this work is for leaders in the space – both men and women – to first look inward and ask:

  • What am I doing to actively advance women in fintech?
  • How am I contributing to female-founded and women-led companies and initiatives?
  • How many women are working for my company? (if the answer is not many, then ask WHY?)
  • How is my culture inclusive and inviting to women?

The second easiest way to support women in fintech is to simply listen. What do women need to join the industry? If you ask, they will tell you. (Hint: it usually boils down to equal pay, family-friendly benefits, and flexibility.)

Lastly, invest social and financial capital in women. Women with powerful ideas will not only increase the return on your investment, but also the overall positive impact you can have on the world.

Where did you find support in the fintech world?

Roteta: We’ve seen tremendous support from Startup BostonParenthood VenturesThe Capital Network, other fintech founders, and personal mentors. The insight and community from these networks have been invaluable for Pasito’s early growth stage. Our leadership team is now paying it forward to other founders, so we can collectively level the playing field in hiring, building, and fundraising.

What advice would you give to women starting their careers in the industry now?

Roteta: Be confident. Find your community. Listen to founders who have been there before. Conduct market validation before spending your money. Be selective of your investors. Above all else, stay true to your mission and values.


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FinovateFall Returns to New York in 2021!

FinovateFall Returns to New York in 2021!

After a year of hosting our fintech conferences in an all-digital format, FinovateFall 2021 marks our return to in-person events. We’ll be back at the Marriott Marquis Times Square in the heart of New York, from September 13 through 15, 2021. Make sure you check out the agenda and book your ticket!

FinovateFall is your chance reconnect face-to-face with the fintech community and plot your course for the future. With live demos of innovative fintech solutions, expert advice from key influencers, and unparalleled networking opportunities, there’s no better place to find your path forward. It’s up to all of us to define what “normal” is going to look like in the future, so join us next month at FinovateFall and make sure you’re a part of the discussion!


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Making Your Mark: The New Reality of Digital Identity Solutions for Financial Services

Making Your Mark: The New Reality of Digital Identity Solutions for Financial Services

Upcoming webinar 
Date: Tuesday, August 17, 2021
Time: 1:30pm Singapore Time
Duration: 1 hour

Digital identity is establishing itself as one of the most significant technology trends, and certainly one to make big waves in the financial services and fintech industry in the years to come.

As the world’s shift toward digitization has accelerated, customers expect faster and better access to virtual onboarding for new brands and services, and the financial industry must now deliver. Plus, a new and significant market demographic – Gen Z and younger Millennials – is emerging for financial services providers. Converting these prospects into customers is essential to long-term success because of the substantial lifetime value they offer your business.

This move to digital does not just open up new worlds of opportunity.  Businesses have also noted increases in the volume of digital transactions and interactions, which fraudsters are quick to take advantage of. According to AITE, attacks manifested as first-party application fraud, third-party application fraud, and synthetic identity fraud, so it is becoming critical for FIs to address this trend and develop their approach before it takes a strong hold on revenues and reputations.

An effective digital identify solution can be the answer, but are FIs and banks fully embracing the technology and leveraging it effectively?

Join this Finovate webinar, in collaboration with Ekata , a Mastercard company, as we explore:

  • Using digital identity solution to strengthen your customer experience journeys and win over new “thin file customers”
  • The new digital reality and the importance of digital identity solutions in tackling and mitigating fraud
  • Your “checklist” when adopting a digital identity verification process
  • The role of ML and AI in identity verification
  • The key digital identity trends set to shape the landscape in 2021 and beyond

Featuring Dan Jiao, Director, Asia Pacific at Ekata; and David Penn, Research Analyst at Finovate.

Register now >>

Keep Your Friends Close and Your Data Closer: How Fintech Teams Grow Engagement and Digital Outcomes

Keep Your Friends Close and Your Data Closer: How Fintech Teams Grow Engagement and Digital Outcomes

Upcoming webinar
Title: Keep your friends close and your data closer: How fintech teams grow engagement and digital outcomes
Date: Tuesday, July 27, 2021
Time: 2:00 PM Singapore Time
Duration: 1 hour

We have moved into a new, digital era in finance and banking. For those businesses that have not pivoted and evolved with the times, it will be an uphill struggle to keep customers happy and engaged. For those businesses that embraced new digital strategies, and upgraded their marketing tech stack, now is the time to reap the rewards of increased growth and customer loyalty. And for those businesses that are somewhere in the middle, it’s becoming ever more important to be bold and experimental when testing and engaging your customers with new services and features. Your business’s future depends on it.

Join the latest Finovate webinar, in collaboration with Braze and Amplitude, as the panel explores:

  • The art of balancing and blending product analytics and customer engagement, and why you need both in your strategy
  • Managing disparate data and leveraging data to inform an event-driven martech strategy
  • Going beyond understanding your customer, and the power of behavioural analytics
  • Future-proofing your finserv brand, and responding to changes in customer demands and tech trends

Featuring Alka Gupta, Director of Data & People, BukaWarung; Chye Yien, Senior Strategic Business Consultant, Braze; Julio Bermúdez, VP APAC & LATAM, Amplitude; and Alex Bird, Product Manager, Openpay. Moderated by David Penn, Research Analyst, Finovate. 

Register now >>


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How Smart Data Drives Agility in Financial Services

How Smart Data Drives Agility in Financial Services

This is a sponsored post in collaboration with InterSystems, Gold Sponsors of FinovateFall


Delivering reliable, clean, timely data into the hands of decision makers is vital for financial institutions. While this has been true for quite some time, data is becoming more important than ever. The events of the past year have irrevocably demonstrated this point, with financial intuitions realizing just how powerful accurate data is when it comes to making pivotal decisions.

Adding to this complexity is the explosion in the amount of data we’re creating. You only need to revisit this mind-bending stat from TechJury to realize just how much we’re producing: “1.7MB of data (was) created every second by every person during 2020. In the last two years alone, an astonishing 90% of the world’s data has been created. 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are produced by humans every day.”

What does this increased focus on data mean for financial institutions?

  1. The cost of managing data is only going to increase: The amount of data is growing, and with that comes growing costs associated with accessing, ingesting, processing, and storing that information. More data means more throughput and more storage, both of which you’ll pay for. And if you haven’t got systems in place to handle the increase in throughput, you’re going to experience delays. This can not only cause reputational damage, but can also have regulatory and compliance impacts if you don’t have appropriate systems in place to meet your obligations.
  2. It’s becoming harder to compete with emerging players: There’s certainly a benefit to having an established business in that you’ve got insights at scale. With that comes the weight of managing legacy systems and architecture. The more information we pour into our systems, the harder we have to work to be agile.
  3. Customers now expect smart insights: We’re all driven by the technology that powers our lives. And today’s customers expect financial institutions to mirror the intelligent insights that our smart watches and apps deliver to us. There’s a growing expectation that if our watches can tell us the how we can improve our health through personalized exercise goals, sleep reminders, and mindfulness breaks, then surely our banks can tell us how and when to optimize our portfolios, how to increase savings, or how to maximize lines of credit.
  4. Data is essential for people to do their job: In the workplace there’s an expectation, particularly among those coming out of business school, that people will have access to the information they need to do their jobs. Data has become an integral part of doing business. We are rapidly moving beyond just making sure we have the data, and it’s now more about how reliable and accessible it is that makes the difference to employees.

Beyond breaking silos

There are many views on how organizations can improve movement and quality of information. However, some of these approaches can create their own issues.

Financial institutions need to move beyond breaking silos and focus on timely, clean, quality, solutions around data catalogues. This will allow them to map out the entire data needs of the organization. In short, they need to consider the connectivity of their information — how their data can be shared seamlessly across the whole data ecosystem. It’s what we refer to as “data fabric”.

What is data fabric?

Data fabric is an architecture and set of data services that provide consistent capabilities across a choice of endpoints spanning multiple on-premises and cloud environments. Gartner describes it as “frictionless access and sharing of data in a distributed network environment.”

How smart data fabric is driving agility in financial services

Implementing a smart data fabric allows financial institutions to make better use of their existing architecture because it allows their existing applications and data to remain in place. It then integrates, harmonizes and analyses the data in flight and on-demand to meet a variety of business objectives.

Having a smart data fabric allows financial institutions to remain agile in a number of ways:

Allows businesses to make smarter decisions faster

Banking is seeing new market entrants like gaming companies, retailers, transports and telcos, all clambering to get in on the financial services game. A well-constructed data fabric empowers executives and lines of business to monitor and anticipate changes, both positive and negative, in internal and external environments.

Helps identify new segment opportunities

One of our customers anticipated the impact of distressed debt amongst their credit card consumers and utilized their data fabric to proactively contact potentially affected clients. By offering extended payment terms they fostered stronger customer loyalty and mitigated a potentially large bad debt situation. This same process of customer segmentation can be used to identify new market opportunities.

Enhances customer experience

A smart data fabric allows faster processing of clean reliable data which financial institutions can use to share insights with their customers. By sharing these insights, financial institutions can foster loyalty and drive spend in a highly competitive environment.

Drives efficiency and cost savings

Finally, making decisions based on timely, accurate data allows financial institutions to reap all the benefits just described. Without the certainty that comes with reliable data, none of these decisions can be made efficiently or cost-effectively because the time and effort associated with managing data simply outweighs the benefits.

Leading financial services organizations are leveraging smart data fabrics to power a wide variety of mission-critical initiatives, from scenario planning, to modelling enterprise risk and liquidity, regulatory compliance, and wealth management.


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