Fintech Impact

In this 153rd episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Sara Green Broderson from Canaree, an online projection tool that holds the hands of startups by building their financial model and providing financial advice!Episode Highlights:0:36 – Sara Green Broderson introduces Canaree.1:38 – What is Sara’s history before and with Canaree?4:31 – How does the Canaree end-user experience look from start to finish?6:06 – Has Canaree involved API connections to accounting software or data aggregation?6:50 – Jason vents about his frustration with Canada’s lack of an open–banking policy.7:46 – What drives fundraising? Choice or demand?10:02 – What are the plans for further development of Canaree?11:17 – Where does Canaree get its current benchmark data?12:03 – What is the early feedback from Canaree’s clients?14:09 – Jason and Sara discuss what it’s like being a female founder in the Fintech industry.22:01 – How would Sara change the financial industry as a whole?23:10 – What has been the biggest challenge for Canaree during its growth?24:40 – Why does Sara get out of bed every morning?3 Key PointsLess than 10% of Excel’s functionalities are commonly utilized, making it an ineffective tool to make financial projections and giving way to companies like Canaree.One of the biggest pain points for startups is not having their finances planned out, thus driving the need for fundraising and projections.Though there is a lack of gender diversity amongst female founders in the Fintech industry, Sara has found that being one of the few has been a positive experience and the industry is moving in the right direction. Tweetable Quotes:“The time to model out your business is now because you’re probably facing unprecedented financial stress.” – Jason Pereira“Anyone would think that when you start a company the first thing you would do is sit down and make a budget or a plan for your cost, but people don’t.” – Sara Green Broderson“When we started out we thought it would be founders and non–finance people coming on board, but we’re actually seeing quite a lot of finance individuals signing up.” – Sara Green Broderson“Never discount simplicity and the value of it even to the most complex users.” – Jason Pereira“A worthy cause, entrepreneurship is the lifeblood of any economy.” – Jason Pereira Resources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialCanaree.co – Canaree’s WebsiteLinkedIn – Sara Green Broderson’s LinkedIn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 152nd episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Richard Owen, VP of Sales for Retail Wealth Management in North America for Ortec, a company that projects out returns for a variety of asset classes through the use of sophisticated econometric models! Episode Highlights: ● 0:39 – Richard Owen introduces Ortec and the services it provides. ● 3:02 – How did Richard come to be involved with Ortec? ● 4:32 – Jason and Richard compare Monte Carlo analysis and Ortec’s analytical strategy. ● 7:28 – Richard and Jason break down the differences between financial projection companies in Canada and Ortec. ● 11:17 – Jason and Richard discuss Ortec’s core capability of providing a realistic view of the future. ● 16:06 – How often do Ortec’s algorithms shift and adjust with the market? ● 18:18 – Richard breaks down just how specific of information their models bring to advisors. ● 20:11 – How do Ortec’s clients feel about its methods and projections? ● 22:02 – What are the real-life deployment cases for Ortec’s software on a retail level? ● 24:53 – What kind of feedback does Ortec get from institutions and advisors? ● 28:30 – Jason and Richard discuss the tendency for businesses and individuals to have the wrong goals. ● 30:06 – What would Richard change in the financial planning industry? ● 31:08 – Richard explains the biggest challenge for Ortec in North America. ● 32:07 – What excites Richard the most about what he is doing? 3 Key Points 1. Ortec creates large economic models, up to 40 years out, for both companies and individuals throughout the European and North American markets. 2. Most large financial institutions make the mistake of solely looking backward to historical data to project for the future, while Ortec uses historical data and current trends to make its projections. 3. Ortec deploys its software in 3 different ways: client-facing API, integration with existing systems, and integration with Salesforce. Tweetable Quotes: ● “Historical data has biases...it doesn’t necessarily give you a good view of what the future looks like.” – Richard Owen● “It’s very very hard to operationalize those capital market models...The assumptions that you’ve built into the plan then need to change because the portfolio has changed.” – Richard Owen ● “Really, a lot of this is about driving what is the next best action for the advisor.” – Jason Pereira ● “You tell us the asset allocation and portfolio value, we’ll project out that future returns. What you do with that really depends on the use case.” – Richard Owen Resources Mentioned: ● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook ● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn ● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact ● JasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletter ● Woodgate.com – Website for Woodgate Financial ● Ortecfinance.com – Website for Ortec Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 151st episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Matthew Unger, the CEO of iComply, a company that deploys intelligent compliance management services! Episode Highlights: ● 0:35 – Matthew Unger introduces iComply. ● 1:18 – What was the origin of iComply and why did Matthew create it? ● 5:21 – How is iComply different from its competition? ● 8:49 – Jason translates iComply’s platform into layman’s terms. ● 10:15 – Matthew discusses the growing possibilities of client-side processing. ● 15:10 – How does iComply protect the user experience? ● 17:00 – Matthew breaks down the validation problems of current API–based KYC data services. ● 20:57 – What would Matthew change about his industry as a whole? ● 23:08 – Matthew discusses the biggest challenge in getting iComply to where it is today. ● 25:02 – What excites Matthew the most about what he does? 3 Key Points 1. COVID has forced people and businesses out of brick–and–mortar services and into the future of financial tech. 2. iComply sends verification programming to the devices of the end-users rather than having them come into a store to do facial verification. 3. API–based KYC workflows have taken the human element out of the data input process, allowing users to make it to the end of the process before informing them that there is a problem. Tweetable Quotes: ● “Things like KYC, things like compliance need to have a fresh look at how we handle user data and user privacy, and that’s really what led us down this path.” – Matthew Unger ● “What we actually do is we send the verification program into the browser of the client, so all of their data stays on their device.” – Matthew Unger ● “At the end of the day, you’re still pushing some form of data into the cloud to feedback something to verify.” – Jason Pereira ● “We can perform initial validation on the date the user’s inputting, and when the user inputs data that doesn’t seem to check out, we can immediately ask the user to correct it while they’re sitting at that form field.” – Matthew UngerResources Mentioned: ● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook ● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn ● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact ● JasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletter ● Woodgate.com – Website for Woodgate Financial ● iComplyis.com – Website for iComply Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 150th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Bill Winterberg, Founder of FP Pad, a source of educational content on tech for financial advising and forecasting. Bill is here to have a friendly chat about the current state of affairs as well as the future of tech in the world of financial advising!Episode Highlights:0:38 – Bill Winterberg introduces his website, FP Pad.3:04 – What did Bill do before he founded FP Pad?5:14 – Ted shares his dream before he went to college.9:35 – How painful was the state of affairs of technology when Bill got into financial advising?11:52 – Jason and Bill dive into the effects that AWS played on the cloud technology boom.15:42 – What are Bill’s best practices when he takes on a new client?20:53 – How much of an obstacle does changing the behavior of people in the firm represent?24:30 – Jason and Bill break down how to scale without integrating more than a firm can handle.28:08 – Where does Bill see the biggest changes in the future for the day–to–day life of financial advisors?32:50 – Jason and Bill discuss the tendency of financial advisors to believe bad advice.35:41 – How should advisors be spending their time these days?40:04 – What would Bill change about his industry as a whole?42:05 – What has been the biggest challenge for Bill to get to where he is today?45:10 – Bill talks about what excites him for the future.3 Key PointsFP Pad has evolved from a website and blog to a YouTube channel, podcast, activity highlights, and a plethora of other content and resources to improve Fintech practices.When taking on a new client, Bill hopes that the person or small group of people in charge of transition are focused on adding value to the company while helping everyone grow.Bill hopes that in 5 years, financial advisors will go from storing financial plans in silos to utilizing financial software that allows them to communicate with each other. Tweetable Quotes:“The movers and shakers have origins in Electric Avenue.” – Bill Winterberg“If you’re paying on a monthly basis, now you’re not worried about large–scale deployments, you’re worried about constant improvement. And now we all benefit from multiple upgrades per year.” – Jason Pereira“I am very receptive to legacy solutions and what exists in the business.” – Bill Winterberg“Focus on scaling the business with a couple of tools to leverage before you go building this massive platform.” – Jason Pereira“I think advisors should be spending their time figuring out how they’re going to grow their business or engage clients and engage prospects very effectively.” – Bill Winterberg Resources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialXY Planning NetworkGarrett Planning NetworkFPPad.com – Website for FP PAdLinkedIn – Bill Winterberg’s LinkedIn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 149th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Mahima Poddar, the Senior Vice President of Digital Banking Strategy at Equitable Bank and head of EQ Bank!Episode Highlights:0:40 – Mahima Poddar introduces Equitable Bank and EQ Bank.1:15 – How did Mahima get to her current career?2:10 – What was the genesis of the decision to move to a Challenger bank?5:05 – Jason breaks down the banking system in Canada.6:55 – Mahima discusses the problems with lending/depositing with big banks.10:15 – Jason and Mahima vent about the dark patterns that big banks have with their accounts.15:30 – Challenger banks could have made the COVID-loan processes much simpler.17:02 – How does EQ collaborate with other players in the Challenger space?21:07 – Jason and Mahima dive into the willingness of the Canadian people to make a banking change.24:08 – What are the biggest concerns with open banking in different countries?29:37 – Mahima talks about EQ Bank’s efforts to cause changes within the big banks.33:12 – What are all the ways that EQ Bank provides great value to its customers?33:43 – If Mahima could change one thing in banking, what would it be?35:25 – What has been the biggest challenge in EQ Bank’s growth?38:30 – What motivates Mahima to battle the glaring issues of big banking?3 Key PointsEquitable Bank chose to never be a brick-and-mortar organization and to go the route of a digitized Challenger bank.EQ Bank offers zero monthly fees, free check deposits, bill-pay, interest-earning checking accounts, and more as ways to differentiate itself from the big banks.For the benefit of the Canadian people, EQ Bank aims to go beyond bringing people to its doors and cause real change in the banking system. Tweetable Quotes:“We are trying to develop lending products that are serving needs that are underserved by the big banks.” – Mahima Poddar“They don’t make it easy. They don’t understand it, but Equitable does.” – Mahima Poddar“There’s no business account that doesn’t have a larger-than-life fee attached to it.” – Jason Pereira“Friction is not a way to keep your clients. Friction is a way to piss them off and guarantee that when they see a better way, they’re going to leave.” – Jason Pereira“Canadians are starting to become more value-conscious and realize that there are better options available.” – Mahima PoddarResources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialEqbank.ca – Website for EQ BankLinkedIn – Mahima Poddar’s LinkedIn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 148th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Gangesh Ganesan, the Founder and CEO of PeerNova, a data management company that helps companies get control of their data to empower growth!Episode Highlights:0:32 – Gangesh Ganesan introduces PeerNova and its services.3:01 – How badly does it look when a company comes to PeerNova?5:10 – How do companies get onboarded and work with PeerNova?7:03 – Jason breaks down what a data lake is for those who don’t know.7:47 – What answers do clients get when they finish the onboarding process?10:20 – What are the biggest challenges that lead to data being inaccurate?15:00 – Do clients give positive feedback once they are onboarded with Peernova?18:47 – How does getting the data situation under control empower future innovation within these companies?20:54 – Jason explains the concept of low-code and no-code platforms.21:45 – Gangesh and Jason talk about the next level of AI and trends in the industry.23:52 – How much more innovation will we see in the next decade now that we have auto-generated code?24:45 – What would Gangesh change in the financial services industry?27:10 – What has been the biggest challenge during PeerNova’s growth?29:42 – Gangesh shares what excites him the most about his job.3 Key PointsPeernova is an operating system for data, helping companies manage and clean up their data, something that strangles many companies to death.Companies that come to PeerNova are not required to onboard all of their data onto PeerNova’s platform but can work side-by-side with PeerNova’s servers as they act as a data lake.Once companies have their data cleaned up and under organized management, their IT-centric work becomes automated while also empowering their business users.Tweetable Quotes:“We run both data quality and process integrity checks on the data and then we allow you to take actions on the results of that data quality and process checks.” – Gangesh Ganesan“Data quality is the albatross around the neck of every company and it is not great.” – Jason Pereira“Trying to find data quality and process issues and trying to make data available to downstream users is looking for a needle in a haystack, and the haystack itself is spread over a huge farm.” – Gangesh Ganesan“Humans are always the weakest link.” – Jason Pereira“The trend in the industry is to automatically start writing software itself for you. Instead of having to write code, you use tools that can write software for you now.” – Gangesh Ganesan Resources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialPeernova.com – PeerNova’s WebsiteLinkedIn – Gangesh Ganesan’s LinkedIn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 147th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews John Wu, CEO of Ava Labs, a blockchain company focused on financial institutions!Episode Highlights:0:33 – John Wu introduces Ava Labs.1:07 – John dives into his storied career in emerging technologies.5:38 – How did John dive into the world of blockchain?7:20 – The owner of Ava Labs reached out to join forces with John.8:00 – How does Ava Labs solve many of the problems that others do not?9:57 – Jason and John dive into the problems with crypto exchanges that exist today.13:50 – John breaks down the reason that blockchain integration will take a long time.16:28 – Jason and John talk about the evolution of banking and plastic payments.21:47 – How does the blockchain scale without forgetting about the libertarians that have helped build it?24:50 – Jason and John look 10 years into the future of blockchain.27:19 – If John could change one thing about his industry, what would it be?29:02 – What are the biggest problems that Ava Labs has right now?30:55 – What inspires John to get jazzed up every day?3 Key PointsJohn began a software company that automated many of the backend tasks and gave access to crypto in an attempt to help individuals and small businesses.In today’s world of crypto exchanges, everything has been made for crypto users by crypto users, making it difficult for new users to enter the market. Ava Labs hopes to fix that problem.Eventually, end users will think of blockchain on the same level as using AWS. Even though they won’t understand how it works, it will just be a part of life. Tweetable Quotes:“Once you start investing for yourself, you realize this stuff is really hard for individuals and small businesses to get involved with.” – John Wu“The attention really comes when people think about it as the value that’s being transferred away from traditional finance to somewhere in the ether.” – John Wu“It’s the adoption cycle of any technology, right?... I’m starting to see the promise of blockchain finally come to fruition.” – Jason Pereira“The concept of a consensus protocol has been around for a long time.” – John Wu“There are so many applications for blockchain in so many niche spaces that you can have many different companies and protocols winning.” – John Wu Resources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialLinkedIn – John Wu’s LinkedInAvalabs.org – Ava Lab’s Website Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 146th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Daniel Döderlein, the Founder and CEO of Auka, the tech company that helped pioneer mobile-cash transfers in Europe!Episode Highlights:0:37 – Daniel introduces Auka and its journey.1:26 – Daniel talks about his history as an entrepreneur.6:15 – Jason and Daniel dive into the regulations that technology companies face and how they are used as a cop-out.11:03 – What was the genesis of Auka?19:20 – Daniel talks about the introduction of the smartphone and how that changed the mobile-finance game.22:32 – mCash lost its patent protection, leading to banks launching their own mobile-payment systems.24:10 – Daniel talks about his decision to take their mobile-payment system to the international market.27:02 – What does Settle, the next leg of the journey, look like?31:57 – What is one thing that Daniel would change in the ecosystem of his industry?33:53 – What was the biggest challenge for Daniel to get where he is today?35:40 – What excited Daniel the most about what he is working on?3 Key PointsDaniel began his entrepreneurial journey selling ice cream on a boat during summers in Norway, which led him to his entry into the world of technology.Daniel designed a brand-new payment system from the ground up, using Python to write the first mobile-payment system in Norway, mCash.Settle was designed as a mobile-payment business model to interconnect the #1 mobile-payment schemes in individual markets.Tweetable Quotes:“There are so many firsts that we have done in Auka. We wouldn’t be able to pull that off unless we had a vision, some really talented and dedicated people, and some hustling skills.” – Daniel Döderlein“Move fast and break things does not work well in highly regulated markets, quite honestly.” – Jason Pereira“There needs to be some tech involved in moving this money. Let’s replace this freight train with some fiber optics.” – Daniel Döderlein“We believed firmly there would only be one domestic winner in the mobile-payment space in every individual market.” – Daniel DöderleinResources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletterWoodgate.com – Website for Woodgate FinancialLinkedIn – Daniel Döderlein’s LinkedIn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 145th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Sam Bakken, the Senior Product Marketing Manager at OneSpan. OneSpan is a cybersecurity technology company that works to improve customer experience by improving security systems using things such as biometrics. Sam is here to talk about biometrics and the role that it will play in the future of technological security!Episode Highlights:0:36 – Sam introduces OneSpan and the services that it provides.1:40 – Diving into the history of OneSpan and how Sam got involved.3:41 – Sam defines biometrics and how they are built.4:59 – Where does Sam see biometrics going in the future?7:15 – How much of a challenge is it for security-minded companies competing with the likes of Apple?10:28 – In what fashion are we using biometrics today without knowing?12:55 – Sam breaks down the multitude of biometrics information that comes together in technological security systems.14:20 – Mike and Sam discuss the outdated practice of giving a written signature and how COVID has affected that.17:20 – How does Sam see the gamut of biometrics evolving concerning how we want to interface with our tech?23:57 – What is the craziest use of biometrics that Sam has seen?25:31 – What are the reactions of financial institutions to new biometrics-based technology?30:42 – What is the one thing that Sam would change in his industry?32:08 – What has been the biggest challenge with taking biometrics-based technology to market?34:10 – What excites Sam the most about what he is working on right now?3 Key PointsBiometrics are the biological traits that can be used to identify humans, such as fingerprint, facial recognition, etc., and are being used more and more in technological security today.People have come a long way from being reluctant to put their information out on the internet to trusting technology enough to store personal information on their phones.Financial institutions are reluctant to adopt new biometrics-based technology due to cases of bias in the systems and also because a lot of tech allows multiple registered identities.Tweetable Quotes:“Solving the problem, selling the security controls that can help solve those weaknesses that are identified, that really appealed to me at OneSpan.” – Sam Bakken“It’s always a balance between convenience and security.” – Sam Bakken“You can’t always deliver a consistent user experience across all devices...but there are options to still offer those biometrics across devices in a consistent manner.” – Sam Bakken“A good user experience is a secure one.” – Sam Bakken“I just know that a lot of people are reporting on digital fraud, so to start to dive a little bit deeper into web vs. mobile I think would be helpful...so that we can take mobile-app security a little more seriously.” – Sam BakkenResources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInFintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech ImpactJasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletteronespan.com/ – Website for OneSpanLinkedIn – Sam Bakken’s LinkedIn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 144th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Michael Kane, co-founder of Hydrogen Platform, a fintech company working to build seamless financial platforms in an attempt to digitize the world financial system. Episode Highlights: ● 0:38 – Michael Kane introduces Hydrogen Platform. ● 1:22 – How did Hydrogen come to be? ● 3:22 – What is it like for Michael running a company with his twin brother? ● 4:55 – Michael breaks down the different fintech solutions that Hydrogen Platform offers to end-users. ● 12:20 – Explain the concept of high-code, low-code, and no-code programming. ● 18:03 – How does Michael see the end-vision for other brands and companies leveraging Hydrogen Platform and other platforms like it? ● 24:44 – Collaboration between the financial and tech industries will only grow in the future. ● 27:43 – Michael believes that pricing is far too high in his industry. ● 29:52 – What has been the biggest challenge for Hydrogen Platform to get where it is today? ● 32:00 – What excites Michael the most about what he is doing right now? 3 Key Points 1. Hydrogen Platform has made financial-technology integration easy by layering no-code and low-code applications on top of it. 2. Most vendors usually stick to their specialty silo and that’s where Hydrogen comes in, putting together all the pieces in an open banking platform. 3. In the future, companies all over the world will be integrating the different financial platforms that can be found with Hydrogen Platform. Tweetable Quotes: ● “Why can’t we just take our expertise, put it into a platform and then allow all these companies to use the technology that we had built in a more B2B enterprise application layer?” – Michael Kane ● “Applying for loans, it’s very painful. What if you could pull that in without any integration work...so the end user doesn’t know that they’re using Hydrogen.” – Michael Kane ● “You can’t necessarily go to one vendor to do some of these things...a vendor that does payments or cards or banking may not offer KYC.” – Michael Kane ● “The speed at which some of the development I’m seeing get done now is just neck-breaking compared to what it used to be.” – Jason Pereira● “It’s a challenge when you’re doing something new and getting people aligned with what you’re doing, but so far we’ve been successful.” – Michael Kane Resources Mentioned: ● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook ● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn ● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact ● JasonPereira.ca – Sign up for Jason Pereira’s newsletter ● Hydrogen Platform - Website ● LinkedIn - Michael Kane’s LinkedIn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.