Fintech One•On•One Mike Butler, CEO of Grasshopper Bank, on growing a BaaS and digital bank
Every bank that decides to get into the Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) space already has an existing legacy business. Most of those legacy businesses have very little crossover with fintech and BaaS, so internally at the bank, there is a completely new skill set that needs to be developed. But then there are those banks that were born digital and for which BaaS is a natural extension of their existing business.
My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Mike Butler, the CEO of Grasshopper Bank. I first had Mike on the show back in 2019, when he was the CEO of Radius Bank - that was the bank that LendingClub acquired in 2021. So, Mike is back at the helm of another digital bank, bringing his deep experience in BaaS and digital banking. And he has big plans for Grasshopper.
In this podcast you will learn:
- How Mike went from selling Radius Bank to becoming CEO of Grasshopper.
- The core offerings of Grasshopper.
- Why Grasshopper has a "work from away" culture.
- How much they focus on BaaS versus serving customers directly.
- The core learnings he brought from Radius Bank to Grasshopper.
- Who Mike thinks of as his main competitors.
- How the BaaS challenges of 2024 impacted Grasshopper.
- Why you can't dip your toe in the water when it comes to BaaS.
- How the expectations of fintechs have changed.
- The types of fintechs they work with today.
- Why they decided to acquire Auto Club Trust, an insurance company.
- Where Mike sees the future growth for Grasshopper.
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