Fintech Impact

In this 128th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Sean Brown, President and CEO of YCharts. YCharts is an online next generation platform for charting and displaying various forms of data in easy-to-use and digestible user-friendly ways.  Episode Highlights: ●     00:42 – Sean Brown explains YCharts.●     01:12 – What is the history of YCharts? ●     02:20 – What led to the evolution further away from the consumer market? ●     03:47 – What is the most popular function that people utilize YCharts for?  ●     04:47 – Sean Brown explains YCharts' value proposition. ●     06:58 – Which other forms of data beyond market data does YCharts offer?  ●     09:00 – What are the primary areas for engagement with YCharts? ●     11:08 – How much customization and flexibility can consumers apply? ●     17:53 – What would Sean Brown change in his business or industry?  ●     18:55 – What have been the biggest challenges Sean Brown has faced?●     23:34 – What keeps him excited each day about his work? 3 Key Points1. YCharts has been tailored-made for wealth advisors and asset managers. 2. People typically spend a lot of time on the YCharts dashboard.  3. YCharts' value proposition is that they make the complex easy and the easy quick.   Tweetable Quotes:●  “YCharts is a cloud-based swish army knife that helps you with two things. One is it helps you with making smarter investment decisions, and number two is, it helps you improve communication.” – Sean Brown ●  “We have about 5,500 total clients right now, about 1,000 of them are retail investors. So, we have not in any way turned our back on the retail market.” – Sean Brown●  “We have a great set of capabilities that is really most relevant to RIAs and broker dealers and to asset management wholesalers, and so those are who we create a product road map for. Those are who we market to.” – Sean Brown 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● Linkedin – Sean Brown’s Linkedin● ycharts.com – Website for YCharts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 127th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Andrew D'Souza, Co-Founder and CEO of Clearbanc. Clearbanc is an online lender to businesses that helps them gain access to capital through royalty models that serve as alternatives to lending and venture capital. Episode Highlights: ● 00:42 – Andrew D'Souza explains Clearbanc and the needs that it helps to solve. ● 04:20 – Who much of his time has been spent in just fund-rasing alone. ● 08:57 – What does the lending experience look like? ● 10:50 – Their goal is to fund businesses with less bias. ● 14:11 – What do their offers generally look like? ● 14:58 – Which niches seem to be some of the best fits for Clearbanc? ● 16:16 – What does Clearbanc do to mitigate risk? ● 17:51 – How much do they look at the founders themselves before making a decision? ● 23:17 – How does Clearbanc get their message out there? ● 26:50 – How have their risk models that they have built been holding up? ● 30:05 – How much repeat business are they seeing? ● 32:14 – What would Rob Koyfman change in his business or industry? ● 34:00 – What have been the biggest challenges Rob has faced? ● 35:29 – What keeps him excited each day about his work? 3 Key Points 1. Clearbanc has funded about 2500 businesses globally. 2. Clearbanc has provided over a $1 billion in funding to businesses. 3. Fundraising can take about 3 months and can take about 20% of your time. Tweetable Quotes: ● “Clearbanc, we’re aiming to help more founders access capital across the globe than has ever been possible before, and we do that through non-dilutive revenue share structure.” – Andrew D'Souza ● “We can fund a business to continue to accelerate their online growth in exchange for a fixed portion of revenue until we get our initial revenue back plus a fixed percentage, ranging typically between 6%-12% back.” – Andrew D'Souza ● “Our goal has always been to help founders win, help founders behttps://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewdsouza/?originalSubdomain=ca more successful, tilt that balance of power in favor of founders versus capital providers and banks and other people who may have had different interests.” – Andrew D'Souza 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 ● Linkedin – Andrew D’Souza● Clearbanc – Website for Clearbanc  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 126th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Rob Koyfman, Founder and CEO at Koyfin. Koyfin is an online financial data terminal that aggregates data from various data sources like indexes and funds into an easy-to-use interface. Episode Highlights: ● 00:50 – Rob Koyfman explains Koyfin. ● 01:20 – Where did the idea for Koyfin come from and how did it come to be? ● 04:57 – What is the current price to try out the Koyfin platform? ● 06:36 – What will the future premium plans look like? ● 09:44 – What are the innovations and design elements that went into Koyfin? ● 10:27 – How did they go about finding the right blend of data? ● 16:41 – There are several inspiring products that have added influence to Koyfin. ● 21:36 – What were the surprises that occurred along the way while building Koyfin? ● 24:08 – How does the user experience unfold and what has the feedback been? ● 26:31 – What are the most requested featured that they are working on and looking to launch shortly? ● 28:47 – What would Rob Koyfman change in his business or industry? ● 29:55 – What have been the biggest challenges Rob has faced? ● 30:47 – What keeps him excited each day about his work? 3 Key Points 1. The third sections of Koyfin’s value proposition are professional grade data, analytics and tools to turn data into information, and an accessible and intuitive user interface. 2. In the future Koyfin plans to still offer a free version as well as premium versions with more advanced data and functionality. 3. FInancial advisors have been typically using Koyfin for picking stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, creating watchlists, Tweetable Quotes: ● “Koyfin is a financial data and analytics platform and it allows investors to research stocks, ETS, mutual funds, and understand broader macro trends in the marketplace.” – Rob Koyfman ● “Koyfin is currently free. We don't have any advertising on our system.” – Rob Koyfman ● “At the end of the day, consumers and professionals analyze thoughts or analyze the market in very similar ways.” – Rob Koyfman 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 ● Linkedin – Rob Koyfman’s Linkedin ● koyfin.com – Website Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 125th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Alisha Mawji and Zakir Kanji the founders of AltruWisdom, a light financial planning platform for individuals to understand more about how to better improve their financial lives and also find out back other financial benefits they may be entitled to. Zakir Kanji and Alisha Mawji explain how AltruWisdom works, the value it offers users, and what onboarding looks like. Episode Highlights: ● 00:50 – Alisha Mawji explains AltruWisdom. ● 01:22 – Zakir Kanji shares where the idea of the company came from. ● 03:53 – How does the AltruWisom experience unfold, start to finish? ● 10:06 – What do their more commonly used checklists look like? ● 12:44 – How much human interaction is involved? ● 14:27 – What are people paying when they sign up and who is signing up? ● 16:31 – They discuss the benefits, values, and digitization of AltruWisdom. ● 18:36 – What would they change in their business or industry? ● 19:31 – What have been the biggest challenges they have faced? ● 20:47 – What keeps them excited each day about their work? 3 Key Points 1. When onboarding on AltruWisdom, the four steps you can take are checklists, past story archive, benefit repository, and their document repository where they teach you about the documents. 2. AltruWisom offers a digital filing cabinet system and is passionate about educating users. 3. Their subscription model is currently $9 a month and they have partnered with many start-ups and fintechs. Tweetable Quotes: ● “AltruWisdom is an online platform that provides Canadians with independent financial education and life advice. We have a lot of curated lessons, powerful tools.” – Alisha Mawji ● “AltruWisdom basically aims to get you through life’s unexpected events by sharing the practical wisdom of those that have been there before. We are an online subscription platform. You sign up. You let us know what life events you are going through.” – Alisha Mawji ● “There are a lot of Canadians out there that don’t have such high asset levels, who don’t really get the advice they should be getting. So, we thought in our age, why not use technology to deliver that information to all Canadians, regardless of asset level.” – Zakir Kanji 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 ● Linkedin – Zakir Kanji’s● Linkedin – Alisha Mawji’s● altruwisdom.com – Website Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 124th episode of ​Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Edmond Walters, CEO and Founder of Apprise Labs, and the original Founder of eMoney. Edmond Walters talks about building both services, how Apprise Labs can be a fun tool for clients and advisors to gage financial plans and how spending impacts them, and integration with Invest Net Connect. Episode Highlights: ● 00:15 – Jason Pereira introduces Edmond Walters. ● 00:37 – Edmond Walters explains what Apprise Labs is. ● 01:20 – He shares his career background. ● 04:28 – What does Apprise Labs do differently than what eMoney did? ● 10:49 – What does the process look like to onboard a client from start to finish? ● 13:01 – What is it like to come up with the final plan using the service? ● 16:24 – Edmond talks about the tools that advisors can utilize. ● 19:02 – How does the income studio differ from the lifestyle studio? ● 20:42 – How does the lifestyle studio function? ● 22:02 – Good trust planning is about doing what is right from the family. ● 25:55 – What does the integration of Invest Net Connect with Apprise Labs add? ● 30:45 – What would Edmond Walters change in his business or industry? ● 32:16 – What have been the biggest challenges that Edmond has faced? ● 33:04 – What has kept Edmond Walters excited about the work he is doing? 3 Key Points 1. The purpose of Apprise Labs is to allow the advisor to show their value. 2. Apprise Labs allows clients to ticker around with it at home to try out various spending scenarios to see how they would affect their financial plan. 3. If your portfolio is producing excess income and it is being taxed, you should reposition some assets. Tweetable Quotes: ● “Apprise is all about the experience, all about the advisor and their client, how they are going to co-create and co-design.” – Edmond Walters ● “If you are going to make the advisor into an ‘anchorman’ and he has to read off a script or a canned presentation, no wonder the client wonders why they are paying a fee.” – Edmond Walters ● (Customers) “They’re actually engaged in making changes as it is being designed, they are actually more forthright in getting the documents and others things you need during the process because they feel it’s their plan they’re creating.” – Edmond Walters Resources Mentioned: ●​ ​Facebook​ – Jason Pereira’s  ●​ ​LinkedIn​ – Jason Pereira’s●​ ​FintechImpact.co​ – Website ● ​JasonPereira.ca​ – Sign up for newsletter ● ​Linkedin​ – Edmond Walters’●​ ​Apprise Labs–​appriselabs.com  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 123rd episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Dr. Daniel Crosby, Founder of Tulip, Chief Behavioral Officer at Brinker Capital, and Best-Selling Author. He is known for figuring out ways to take behavioral finance theory and implement in real life. Dr. Daniel Crosby speaks about his new platform, Tulip which puts that process into action. Episode Highlights: ● 00:16 – Jason Pereira introduces Dr. Daniel Crosby. ● 01:03 – Dr. Daniel Crosby explains what Tulip is. ● 01:53 – He shares his career history. ● 05:33 – Where did he start when tasked with this effort with Tulip? ● 09:01 – How does he account for the advisor buffer with Tulip? ● 11:01 – What are the three forms of risk? ● 15:48 – What does the Tulip user experience look like from start to finish? ● 25:42 – Is there any contextual change with Tulip based on dollar amount? ● 30:14 – How does Tulip deal with a differentiating context of risk? ● 33:22 – What does the output to the advisor look like? ● 37:34 – What would Dr. Daniel Crosby change in his business or industry? ● 38:17 – What have been the biggest challenges that Daniel has faced? ● 39:04 – What has kept Dr. Daniel Crosby excited about the work he is doing? 3 Key Points 1. One of the best predictors of future behavior is past behavior. 2. Tulip looks at past behavior, uses a gamified simulation of 30 years of market history that allows the client to sort of pre-experience what markets are like to try out different decisions within 5-6 minutes. 3. Some data points that Tulip looks at include frequency of inbound contact, how often do they log in, and the gamified simulation itself. Tweetable Quotes: ● “Tulip is a behavioral analytics platform for financial advisors. So, it all operates from the premise that the highest value that a financial advisor adds to her or his clients’ lives comes through behavioral coaching.” – Dr. Daniel Crosby ● “One of the first things you learn as a psychologist is that self-reported behavior is a horrible measure of actual behavior.” – Dr. Daniel Crosby ● “One of the critiques of other measures of risk-taking behavior is that they’ll ask questions in a vacuum, like, ‘if you lost $10,000, would that be a big deal or not?’ If you have $10 million, it is not a very big deal.” – Dr. Daniel Crosby 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 ● Linkedin – Dr. Daniel Crosby’s Linkedin ● The Behavioral Investor by Dr. Daniel Crosby – Book by Dr. Daniel Crosby ● The Laws of Wealth by Dr. Daniel Crosby – Book by Dr. Daniel Crosby  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 122nd episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Lisha Davis, Founder of Arable Ventures LLC, an innovation and startup consulting/advisory practice in NYC. Davis is also an investor at 37 Angels, Venture Partner at VU Venture Partners, and Former Head of Innovation at Vanguard. Episode Highlights: ●     00:40 – Lisha Davis introduces herself and her career history. ●     02:28 – Lisha talks about being the Head of Innovation at Vanguard. ●     05:44 – What are some common problems she would come across when                          proposing change at Vanguard?●     07:00 – She talks about staffing talent at Vanguard.  ●     09:00 – What types of projects, categories, and areas she worked to                          improve at Vanguard? ●     15:30 – What drove her transition into her current role? ●     17:47 – She discusses the 37 Angels investment group of women                          investors. ●     21:27 – Women-founded businesses statistically do better in terms of                           growth, traction, and returns. ●     23:44 – What change in her business or industry she would like to see?      ●     25:46 – What has been the biggest challenge that Lisha has faced?●     27:03 – What has kept Lisha Davis excited about the work she is doing?  3 Key Points1. In the innovation space, you have to have a planning mindset. But, there is no fixed plan you are going to execute flawlessly to get to a predetermined outcome.2. Horizons Framework for Innovation is a methodology for the types of innovation that can take place: Horizon 1 is about making the business better/faster/cheaper, Horizon 2 is growth innovation, and Horizon 3 is things that disrupt or create new categories. 3. Generation Z, Generation Y, and Generation Z have an all-time low of mistrust in financial institutions.    Tweetable Quotes:●  “I am interested in identifying the most interesting start-ups to invest in in the early stage, across a variety of verticals, primarily consumer, enterprise SaaS, and within the fintech space.” – Lisha Davis●  “With a lot of success and growth also comes size, operations, policies, procedures, and all of the trappings of what good companies rely on to make their ship run.” – Lisha Davis●  “There is a saying in innovation that we value diversity of the crowd. We actually want people who think differently, have different backgrounds and experiences.” – Lisha Davis 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● Linkedin – Lisha Davis’ Linkedin  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 121st episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Daniel P. Simon, Author of the book The Money Hackers. Daniel P. Simon talks about the different founders and companies that have changed the finance world in the last 10 years. Episode Highlights: ● 00:55 – Daniel P. Simon introduces himself. ● 01:47 – How did his book The Money Hackers come to be? ● 03:44 – What was the biggest surprise Daniel came across while writing the book? ● 06:18 – What made his interview subjects different? ● 10:00 – Teaching financial literacy is a difficult thing. ● 14:21 – What was the craziest story he came across while writing the book? ● 16:48 – Daniel talks about the founders of the robo advisors. ● 23:42 – What are the two types of competition according to Daniel? ● 26:14 – Where will the robo movement most likely lead us? ● 27:23 – Daniel tells the story of Green Dot Banking. ● 32:55 – He shares stories about Margaret Keane from Synchrony and Blythe Masters from JPMorgan. ● 36:00 – What would Daniel P. Simon change in his business or industry? ● 40:05 – Was there a commonality to the people he interviewed that they faced a common challenge? ● 44:57 – What kept Daniel P. Simon excited about working on his book every day? 3 Key Points 1. Over 150 entrepreneurs were interviewed for the book The Money Hackers. 2. Typically, if you don’t implement the learnings of financial literacy within a couple months, it is as if you didn’t learn them at all. 3. Steve Streit, the founder of Green Dot Banking, coined the music genre ‘Soft Rock.’ Tweetable Quotes: ● “I’ve spent most of my career on Wall Street. So, I’m a communications guy. I advise, obviously, some of the largest banks and asset managers and trading companies and technology firms in the world.” – Daniel P. Simon ● “If you add up all of the assets of the robo advisors, they are not even 1% of Vanguard.” – Daniel P. Simon ● “More people in this country (USA) own a cellphone than a bank account, and we don’t see it every day. But a vast amount of this population is woefully underserved by the traditional financial industry.” – Daniel P. Simon 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 ● DanielPSimon.com – Website for Daniel P Simon ● Linkedin – Daniel P. Simon’s Linkedin ● The Money Hackers – The book The Money Hackers  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 120th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Melika Hope, Head of Product for Small Business and Self-Employed Group at Intuit. Intuit is the world’s largest provider of accounting software. Melika Hope talks about how Intuit has managed to, through customer focus, continuously innovate up it’s product. Episode Highlights: ● 00:48 – Melika Hope explains what Intuit is. ● 02:36 – How did Intuit start and develop to where they are today? ● 03:53 – What does Melika Hope do on a day-to-day basis? ● 05:35 – What are some of the bigger product steps that she has taken with Intuit in recent memory? ● 11:23 – How do they gather information from end-users? ● 14:12 – How do their ideas end up getting implemented? ● 16:00 – Average features get built with speed, typically within weeks or months. ● 17:30 – What types of businesses do they consider as ideal candidates? ● 19:45 – Where do the people at the top put their input? ● 21:33 – What is the cloud adoption rate from the desktop products? ● 23:07 – Where does she feel the challenges are in her position and what goes into product decisions? ● 26:09 – What would Melika Hope change in her business or industry? ● 27:44 – What have been the biggest challenges that Melika has faced? ● 29:12 – What gets Melika Hope excited about her work every day? 3 Key Points 1. After the 10% subsidy for payroll taxes that was announced during COVID-19, her payroll team built out the calculations to support all the complex rules that are associated with that and has released it to market. 2. Cash flow management is such a critical area that small businesses are affected by, especially after COVID-19. 3. To gather data and be customer-centric they use their Follow Me Home component, multiple user sessions, and rapid prototyping. Tweetable Quotes: ● (Intuit) “We produce TurboTax. That is a product we build in Canada and the United States. We have professional tax products and we also have QuickBooks, which is our primary product that serves the small business sector.” – Melika Hope ● (QuickBooks) “It covers a number of different components, automates complex tasks, allows people to work together, it allows users to work anywhere and anytime from the cloud.” – Melika Hope ● “My team covers, within Canada, the QuickBooks online platform, the mobile app, the payments platform, the QuickBooks online payroll product, and the self-employed products.” – Melika Hope 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 ● Linkedin – Melika Hope’s ● Intuit – Website for Intuit  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 119th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Alex Lazarow, Venture Capitalist and Investment Director at Cathay Innovation and Author of the book Out-Innovate: How Global Entrepreneurs--from Delhi to Detroit--Are Rewriting the Rules of Silicon Valley. Alex Lazarow talks about how entrepreneurs around the world approach various problems differently in order to achieve success. Episode Highlights: ● 00:24 – Jason Pereira introduces Alex Lazarow. ● 01:21 – Alex Lazarow talks about his book Out Innovate. ● 03:46 – What is a ‘camel’ company? ● 04:58 – Alex talks about what can be learned from Grubhub. ● 06:00 – Alex and Jason talk about the concept of ‘blitz scaling’ and Company types that it is applicable to. ● 09:26 – How many companies did he talk to when writing his book? ● 10:36 – What is going on in North Korea in the fintech scene? ● 12:41 – What is the most unconventional story of how a company grew that Alex heard when writing his book? ● 15:53 – Alex talks about a theme in his book about advantages that emerge from challenges. ● 17:33 – What are recurring themes did Alex notice when working on his Book Out-Innovate? ● 22:29 – North America has a lot of problems that need to be solved by companies with lessons learned from around the world. ● 24:43 – What would Alex Lazarow change in his business or industry? ● 25:34 – What have been the biggest challenges that Alex has faced? ● 27:24 – What kept Alex going and not giving up while writing his book? 3 Key Points 1. Alex Lazarow’s term ‘the camel’ is like the term ‘unicorn,’ but instead it is businesses labeled a ‘real animal’ that can sustain in harshest environments by building a business model that works, managing costs and burn, and by taking a long-term view. 2. Within a context of adversity, there are advantages that come about. 3. The best entrepreneurs are creators, not disruptors. Tweetable Quotes: ● “I work for a firm called Cathay Innovation, a globally-focused venture firm that invests across Asia, Europe, North American, and Africa. But, outside of work, I’ve been teaching an MBA class.” – Alex Lazarow ● “Outside the (Silicon) Valley, I coined the term ‘the camel,’ it is this idea of balanced growth, businesses that still want to grow really fast. But, still infuse their business with sustainability and resilience.” – Alex Lazarow ● (Out-Innovate book) “This is a 2-year effort. I interviewed about 200 entrepreneurs from around the world.” – Alex Lazarow 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 ● Linkedin – Alex Lazarow’s Linkedin ● Cathay Innovation – Website for Cathay Innovation ● Out-Innovate – Alex Lazarow’s Book  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.