Allison Barr Allen

Sad to hear that Fintech Nexus is shutting down as I’m writing this #Tuesday_alert The industry downturn takes its toll, unfortunately. Last June, the team was forced to sell its events business, and now it's closing all the digital online resource for good. I can only imagine how hard it must be. Thank you, Peter Renton, Bo Brustkern, and the whole team, and I wish you only the best in your new beginnings. I didn’t have the privilege of being a Fintech Nexus contributor, but I’ve been quite a reader there 🙌 ⚡️ Talking about shutdowns, did anyone see the latest updates on the Synapse status? The fintech’s bankruptcy in late April has been a tough blow for customers and end users. The progress of customer funds recovery seems almost stuck, says Synapse trustee Jelena McWilliams, the former chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and current partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. Here are several updates from her latest report: 👍 Good news: - Most end users received funds from demand deposit accounts (DDAs). Evolve Bank & Trust has distributed more than $5M to over 3,000 individuals. - The bank stays determined to continue the cooperation and help more end users. The trustee asked federal banking and securities regulators for assistance in alleviating the situation for the affected customers. - She also obtained administrative access to Synapse’s key database. 👎 Bad news: - Returning funds from “for benefit of” (FBO) accounts remains a challenge as the fintech’s program ledgers do not match the actual fund transfers between Synapse and Evolve. - Evolve says it needs more collaboration and explanations from the Synapse ecosystem to handle the funds reconciliation and distribution. - American Bank, AMG National Trust, and Lineage Bank have shown slower progress than Evolve due to more complexities in returning the funds. - The amount of funds reportedly missing in the Synapse ecosystem is unknown but spans millions in USD. Alas, the funds return process is further complicated by the fact that Synapse held end-user funds in multiple FDIC-insured banks. So, one end user can have $100 in one bank, $1000 in another, and the rest of the funds elsewhere in the ecosystem. Hopefully, the Federal Reserve, FDIC, and OCC will help detangle this funds chain. ❓How much more time will the reconciliation and funds distribution take? What do you think? #fintechnexus #synapsebankruptcy #fundsreconciliation #fundsdistribution #banking #fintech

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Failed payments can significantly impact revenue, customer loyalty, and the lifetime value of customers, all crucial to the long-term financial success of a business. Chargebee's Vice President of GTM, EMEA, recently shared four key ways in which modern technology helps subscription businesses recover lost revenue. Check them out in this article ➡️ https://chrge.be/3y2J9X4 #ChurnManagement #SubscriptionRevenueManagement

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Thoughts on a Money Movement Tracker for RIA firms? 🤔 Three months ago, I made a fun post about the pain RIA firms experience dealing with over 14 different money movement workflows—like New Account Openings, Account Transfers, ACH Instructions, Conversions, etc Since then, I’ve been posting a variety of content, intentionally steering clear of directly mentioning workflows or processes. I believe it’s more important to understand and speak to the the use-cases that need to be tackled with workflows, processes and automations. Interestingly, that money movement post has outperformed any other use-case post in terms of LinkedIn impressions by more than 7X!........Either my hair looked really good in that post, or maybe its because I mentioned ABBA, or there’s a legitimate use case pain point that needs to be solved for money movement tracking 💸 I've been experimenting with different interface designs, pondering how we could evolve Hubly's Money Movement Workflows through an interface that provides more visibility, control, and insights into all the ongoing money movements for a firm. Here’s my draft design mockup, which might be more relevant for Hubly customers, but I’m sure any advisors and back-office teams in my network could resonate with this type of interface for managing the volume of money movements you track. Essentially, you can turn a workflow into a "Money Movement" workflow, which then automatically creates an audit ledger for that workflow. It also provides an insight button where you can "Track Money Movement," displaying a modal that summarizes the money moved through the "Account Opening Workflow" for example. Thoughts or feedback on this? I would love any comments on how firms are currently tracking their money movements. Spreadsheets? Custodian Interface? Hope? #usecases #operatingsystem #riaworkflows #moneymoneymoney #designinspo

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As a product person, I love experiences that just make sense. The new Carta partners dashboard in our Fund Admin product fits that bill. For fund managers, the relationship is the atomic unit of raising capital. However, our partners dashboard perviously displayed metrics by legal entity. Now grouping allows funds managers to view everything my relationship. They also add tags at the group level and the entity level. You can customize this view through filters, sorting, and editable columns. The dashboard will dynamically recalculate metrics for groups, tags, filters and so on. It just makes sense. 🙌

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I recently shared my thoughts on building effective product-technology collaboration in fintech as part of the “CTO vs Status Quo” series by The Software House. From breaking down silos to staying lean and focused, we covered how we approach product and tech alignment at InvestEngine. Thanks for the great conversation, Eric Ignasik! If you’re curious about how product and tech teams can work better together — or want to learn more about InvestEngine’s journey — check out the article here: 👉 https://lnkd.in/dbnhy2cr Would love to hear your thoughts! #Fintech #ProductDevelopment #Collaboration #Leadership

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Really useful data for all start ups

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More news from Socure!

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Exciting to see Adaptive tackling the slow payments issue in construction with innovative financial management tools! 🏗️ It's clear their platform addresses crucial inefficiencies in the payment chain, benefiting small- and medium-sized businesses in the industry. The team has closed their $19 million Series A round—looking forward to seeing how they expand and enhance financial workflows for even more construction companies. 💡 A great example of tech-driven solutions making a big impact where it's needed most! 🚀 #ConstructionTech #FinancialInnovation #SMBs https://lnkd.in/eBJq3Q93

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📈 It's not 100% clear where the economy is headed, but given how busy this summer has been for Cervin Ventures and other investors I talk to, there is momentum building in early-stage B2B tech (and yes, beyond just the AI app companies). Read more about the state of the market in Cervin's Q2 recap -- as well as some recent updates from portfolio companies such as Catch+Release, LaunchDarkly and Anvilogic.

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They say you have product market fit when your customers pull the roadmap out of you. If that’s the case, we have product market fit with Carta + Tactyc. There’s not a single integration I’ve been asked about more than this one. And it makes sense. I’ve gotten to know Anubhav Srivastava over the last three years. He is brilliant. He built a powerful way for funds to model their portfolio and fund forecast. The depth of the tool is impressive. There’s nothing else like it on the market. Now take the best in class fund forecasting/planning tool, Tactyc, and combine it with the system of record that is Carta. I think we have magic in the works  🪄 🪄 🪄.

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Here's a great highlight for today -- fintech companies that are doing good things. Finance and good deeds are not mutually exclusive. These companies are both inspiring and innovative. Perfect for this Monday morning! #Fintech #FinanceTech #Growth

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Growing teams need growing transparency. As teams expand, founders lose direct contact with individual team members. The result? ↳ Miscommunication-driven delays ↳ Misalignment across the departments ↳ Unclear objectives frustrating workflows ↳ Team members grow disconnected from the mission ↳ Leaders spend time patching issues rather than driving growth Here’s how you can bridge the gaps: 1️⃣ Increase Organizational Transparency ↳ Share decisions, goals, and metrics with all teams ↳ Provide visibility into how individual work supports strategy 2️⃣ Define Communication Roles ↳ Assign leaders to cascade updates and decisions ↳ Ensure consistent messaging to reduce confusion 3️⃣ Build Clear Feedback Loops ↳ Use regular check-ins to realign on priorities ↳ Actively seek input to prevent bottlenecks or missteps Scaling your headcount should never mean sacrificing clarity for the team. What will you do to pulse-check and ensure alignment this week?

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Rob's goals and progress on contactout and athena.vc 22nd July 2024 Last week: Monday - meetings Tuesday: QA pricing plans, admin,sign and mail company docs, pay capital call community moderation. Wednesday - Talk with deeptech founders, connect with influencers from alex brogan interviewRead about fusion, longevity and sam altman, peter theil investments Thursday - Read about helion, world coin, other sam altman investments. read btc and eth whitepapers, rain ai , lob, cocorobotics, running tide, hermes, boom Friday - Read fcp docs, eth whitepapers, sam altman peter thiel investments. What did I learn: https://lnkd.in/g3D8__Q2 what are the highest impact industries and technologies? study what top investors like sam altman and peter thiel have invested in: https://lnkd.in/gFeutEcM https://lnkd.in/g_ErBh7k lots of stuff from nuclear fusion, to longevity, to a better GPU than nvidia, universal basic income, growing seaweed to capture carbon, building the next google. https://lnkd.in/gYGjbEF2 should we start on researching how to build a better google especially google scholar for scientists: study futurehouse.org and similar and lots of scientists and deeptech founders about problems they face Jessicia Livingston's started a new podcast "Social Radar" interviewing YC founders. Her old book founders at work is really good too. The old YC content from PG, Sam, Jessica is way better than the current YC content. Going through all the startup school interviews from 2012, 2014, 2016 way better speakers. Next week: continue reading YC content write up founders curriculum

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This is super interesting and the exact problem I've grappled with building fraud tools for payment providers. Most merchants that are interested in a PSP's fraud tool are looking for a for a 'set-it-and-forget-it' type solution with an ML model. It's hard to compete when the data quality isn't there. However collecting more data from merchants can also be sold with an acceptance rate angle to it, which seems to have more success than the fraud angle. Merchants are more inclined to use a pixel to send more data when there's a promise of converting more payments!

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Introducing a New Series from GSD Squad: Unlocking Payment Processing Revenue for SaaS Businesses At GSD Squad, our mission is to help small—to medium-sized SaaS businesses unlock new revenue streams and maximize their profit margins. The world of payment processing and financial services can be complex, and it’s ripe for transformation for those who know how to navigate it effectively. We’re excited to announce a new series of articles that will break down the strategies we use to help SaaS businesses grow and thrive. The series will start with how we help them negotiate or renegotiate payment partnerships, implement white-label payment solutions, and set up Banking as a Service (BaaS) offerings. How GSD Squad Elevates Your SaaS Business Negotiating Payment Partnerships for Higher Revenue Share: Payment processing is a crucial part of any SaaS business that handles transactions on its platform. Many companies leave money on the table, not negotiating the highest revenue share from their payment processors. GSD negotiates these partnerships for you to ensure you receive higher revenue share percentages. With almost 100% gross margin, this additional revenue flows directly to your bottom line, boosting your profitability. Implementing White Label Payment Solutions: We work with you to create white-label payment solutions. Branding your payment processing under your company’s name enhances your brand’s visibility and allows you to recognize the processing fees as revenue. This significantly increases your top-line revenue and EBITDA, as the payments processed through your platform contribute directly to your financial growth. Setting Up Banking as a Service (BaaS) We help design and implement Banking as a Service (BaaS) offerings. BaaS enables you to offer banking services—digital wallets, lending, and payment cards—under your brand. Generating incremental revenue and higher margins further enhances your company’s financial performance. Key Concepts Payment Processing Revenue Share is the percentage of transaction fees your company earns from its payment processor. Negotiating a higher revenue share means a larger portion of each transaction fee goes to your business, increasing your overall income. White Label Payment Solutions allow you to brand payment processing services as your own. Instead of a third-party brand, your branding is front and center. You also recognize the fees as revenue, boosting both visibility and profitability. Banking as a Service (BaaS) enables you to offer services such as branded credit cards, loans, and digital wallets without building them from scratch. Leverage third-party infrastructure to deliver these services under your brand, creating new revenue streams and enhancing customer loyalty. In future articles, we'll explore marketing and partnership strategies. If you want to grow your revenue profitably, get in touch.

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What happens when a Fractional CFO, a Senior Finance & Accounting Manager, a payments expert from Stripe and a couple of Upflow people come together on a New York rooftop? I’ll tell you: A great event featuring an in-depth discussion about the B2B payments and cash collection. We’re hosting an online event next Wednesday, 18 September, with an expert panel to take you deeper into the key findings of our new State of B2B Payments report. The event is going to see this group of experts dive into the analysis of data running through the Upflow platform - to bring you industry benchmarks for DSO (Days Sales Outstanding) and other key metrics for your working capital. Discover how your company stacks up against your peers and identify areas for improvement. Added to that, they’ll discuss which industries tend to see more late payments, helping you to develop targeted collection strategies to optimize your cash flow and mitigate risk. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Join us on Wednesday, September 18th at: - 11.30am-12.30pm ET - 5.30pm-6.30pm CET => Register here: https://lu.ma/vxid4sj3 Who's on the panel? Guru Sivapalan, CPA, CA Senior Finance & Accounting Manager at Regal.io Lauren Elizabeth Pearl, Fractional CFO, 3x Founder & Startup Finance Instructor at NYU Matt Hennessy Head of Growth SaaS Platforms at Stripe Brad Cross, Chief Revenue Officer at Upflow Côme Chevallier, Director of Payments at Upflow #event #payments #b2bfinance

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I recently read a new insightful article (see in comments) by Matt Brown on how Fintech companies with a lending component stand apart from other startups. His motto, "Price and shape risk that others can't or won't," perfectly aligns with what we are trying to do at Aria. At Aria, we often refuse clients for several reasons: - Small volumes: The beauty of embedded financial products lies in the marginal cost of acquiring a final user and operational costs being close to zero. If volumes are not big enough, this rule can't apply, and your fixed costs of onboarding and monitoring at the partner level are not offset by volume. - Bad risk trade-offs: We never enter into price competition against the "YOLO" category Matt mentions. It often happens that a lost client comes back to us a few months later. Understanding and managing different types of risks is crucial at Aria. Let me break down why our approach is unique and essential: - Credit Risk: Probability of default due to financial situation. This is very statistical. - Dispute Risk: Part of an invoice can be disputed for lack of service rendered. This is also statistical and can be mitigated through financial parameters and product development. - Fraud Risk: Financing a fake transaction/invoice. This is a potential business killer. - Operational Risk: Due to our positioning, we depend on the operations of our partners. If something goes wrong, it can impact the other three risks and requires significant attention. The first two risks can be priced, and we strive to find the right balance as Matt explains. The latter two demand zero concessions. Additionally, in a 0% interest rate world with lots of liquidity, differentiating between "YOLO" and the "green rocket" group is tough. Now, with risk and money having a price again, we'll see these groups more clearly.

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I learned the hard way in previous companies. When you’re a SaaS company that has offered a payment product to your customer, they don’t care that your downstream providers, not you, broke down. A year and a half ago Moov was struggling with uptime. I reached out to Ben Horowitz for advice, and he told me. “The Moov payment code path is Mars shit - not like you will die in space but your company will. Infrastructure companies just need to work.” We took “Mars Shit” to heart and killed the entire roadmap to focus on availability and then scalability. Too many payment heads at Vertical SaaS companies delude themselves into thinking the customer understands that legacy infrastructure is what it is. When something goes wrong, the reputational hit is to the company sitting right in front of the customer. You are the endorser of the underpinning tech. Once you understand this dynamic, you’ll truly understand the importance of modern payment infrastructure. To the customer, that’s not their problem. They buy payments from you, full stop, no excuses. It’s Mars shit - it just has to work!

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