Fintech Impact

Summary:During the 40th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, sits with Paul Desmarais III, Chairman of Portag3 Ventures. They discuss the new technology within fintech, how Portag3 is making a difference, and how technology bridges gaps and addresses the pain points of the industry.Show Notes:● 1:00—Introduction of guest Paul Desmarais III, Chairman of Portag3 Ventures.● 1:23— Portag3 is one of the world ́s leading financial services innovation investment funds. Portag3 invests in fintech globally. They focus on direct to consumer and also some B2B markets. Their three vertical focuses are Insure-tech, personal finance, and risk management● 1:55—Financial advising is making a huge impact on Canadians future. Advised clients fair much better than the unadvised, but the majority of Canadians go unadvised.● 3:20—Portag3 is focused on building companies that address the pain points in the financial space.● 4:55—In a  ̈choose-what-you-pay-your-advisor ̈ model, the customer saves money and wins.● 5:20—It is hard for traditional businesses to incubate from external disruption.● 6:00—Power Financial owns the general partnership of Portag3.● 6:34—80% of Canadian assets are controlled by the bank.● 7:28—B2B platform is empowering advisors to serve smaller clients in a more effective way.● 8:43—You have got to be on-top of the technology or else you will be crushed by the competition. You must adapt.● 10:30—Borrowell was started as a B2C lending platform. If you have a low credit score, you can go there to get coaching on your credit score.● 11:10—Another example of a technology tool that is making a difference is the online mortgage tool. It allows people to get mortgages completely online, and it is a very transparent system.● 12:10—Portag3 empowers companies by understanding their pain points and investing in solutions to overcome them.● 14:18—The area of payment in Canada is falling behind other countries very quickly. Does the system make sense? This could be an area of opportunity for fintech.● 15:41—Portag3 has invested in Blockchain, sponsoring a company called EOS. We believe there is an opportunity there, but it is a matter of when. Blockchain is still highly speculative.● 17:00—When a lot of people migrate to a certain system, you get a network effect. If that happens with blockchain, companies need to be cautiously ready for the switch.● 19:50—We need better policy for the banks and the companies involved.● 20:40— Portag3 has made over 30 investments in fintech.● 21:26—Through Coho, you can open an account. This is the first example of how collaboration is on horizon in fintech.● 22:26—Some banks no longer have a brick and mortar foundation allowing them to partner and grow outside of their core geography.● 24:17—In this new virtually based model, there is a huge opportunity to go after new players through collaborating with fintech.● 24:53—Fintech is a generational investment opportunity.● 25:13—Changes in technology are easier to implement today.● 26:20—Being an entrepreneur today is much cheaper than it used to be.● 26:40—Regulators care about the consumers and want them to be advised.● 28:00—M&A is on the horizon for fintech.● 29:00—Paul ́s biggest wish is to have modern back-office systems in every business that we have.● 29:47—The people are what gets Paul motivated. He wants to make a positive impact on their lives.3 Key Points:1. Fintech is allowing more people to have access to financial services. Technology allowsfinancial companies to extend their reach. 2. Keeping-up with current financial technology helps companies adapt and avoid gettingeaten by competitors. 3. Financial technology is disrupting, growing, and making positive impacts on the industry.Tweetable Quotes:- “We are simply growing the size of the population that is being advised. We are notnecessarily disrupting it in an aggressive way.” –Paul.- “We come in as value-adding investors.” – Paul. - “We believe aggregation is the future of financial planning.” – Paul.Resources Mentioned:The Fintech ImpactItunes to access the podcastRefer to Jason Pereira ́s Linkedin for Information about the Fintech eventsWoodgate Financial Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 39witha Panel from the Institute of Advanced Financial Planners Conference Title: Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies, Are They an Investment you should Recommend to your Clients? Summary:During the 39th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, Jason Pereira(award-winning  financial planner, university lecturer,  writer), Kyle J Kemper (Executive Director and Chief Strategy Director of the Blockchain Association of Canada), and David Hayes (Technology Brokers International) discuss the phenomenons of blockchain and cryptocurrency. The three put forth their view of the cutting edge investments and leave us with revolutionary takeaways. The trio help demystify the complexity of both Blockchain and Cryptocurrency.Show Notes:●         00:48—Introduction ofFintech Conference in Ontario--Details are avaiable on Jason´s linkedin profile.●         4:23—Introduction of the panel who will be discussing cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Kyle J Kemper, David Hase, and Jason Pereira speak as part of the panel.●         7:52—To be so sure about whether your coffee is fairtrade, you need data and a secure system to verify it. A solution that can do this is Blockchain. Blockchain can manage all of our data, and it can help keep our information secure.●         10:23—Blockchain fast facts: 1,600 cryptocurrencies already exist. 54th most popular google search this year. One of the most valuable start-ups in Canada is a bitcoin company. The biggest bitcoin story is about the bitcoin bubble.●         11:23—Canada is creating their own national cryptocurrency.●         12:08—The recent cryptocurrency bubble. Cryptocurency breaks Warren´s basic tenenant of investment: Invest in things that have intrinsic value.●         13:20—Problems of cryptocurrency include scalability, huge energy consumption, fraud, money laundering, and security. The number one concern and problem is that people don´t trust the systems.●         14:34—Is now the time to invest in Cryptocurrency?●         14:54—David kicks off the panel.●         15:03—David has a vested interest in the cryptocurrency, and from a technology standpoint, he believes in the future of blockchain. It is a great technology.●         16:30—Blockchain can promote cyber security and will grow to include biometrics--your fingerprint and more. Blockchain is generally trusted.●         17:30—Amazon and IBM are working with blockchain as part of their formula, and they are growing their business nicely.●         17:50—Digressing from Blockchain, Bitcoin is dead. In startk comparison to Blockchain, David doesn´t like bitcoin.●         18:28—Bitcoin is more of a digital trend.●         18:53—Once someone (like the world bank) enters the market and adds stability and credibility to the volatility, digital currencies would be a good investment and that would be a key time to invest in the sector.●         19:50—Shopify allows every single type of bitcoin to be used on their platform.●         20:22—Transition to Kyle Kemper●         20:26—There is actually a website that has bitcoin arbituaries that shows you how many times bitcoin has died. Bitcoin is here and digital currencies are the future.●         21:26—You are taking risk by not having bitcoin in your portfolio. Kyle wouldn´t use it to support his mortgag, but it is an investment worth having.●         22:26—In the past, we needed banks to move the money. With bitcoin, banks do not stifle the transcaction process in terms of supply and inflation. ●         23:26—With bitocoin, you skip the need for interrmediaries like banks.●         24:17—Bitcoin is a currency, a commodity, and a ledger that everyone can witness. ●         24:53—Bitcoin is young but still growing.●         25:25—As big players come into the market, there will be a flip in the market from volatility to stability and credibility.●         25:53—Insure yourself and use Kyle´s formula to invest in Bitocin at a proportion based on your overall global wealth.●         28:00—Bitcoin is fixed at 21,000,000 pieces of Bitcoin.●         28:50—Transition to Jason Pereira.●         29:30—Jason unpacks thoughts around cryptocurrency We have never had anything like this before and that is what makes cryptocurrency difficult.●         30:15—Therise and fall of the bitcoin bubble and the probability that it will be a lasting investment over time.●         30:43—If you are trying to make fast money, bitcoin is a disaster. However, bitcoin is the most revolutionized computer we have seen in the avenue.●         31:03—The entire system for monetization has been flipped with cryptocurrency.●         31:13—All the code and protocols that everything we do is based on--facebook, facetime call, etc. Crypto flipped the protocol. Crypto gets value at the originating protocol level.●         32:17—Three uses that determine if something can be used as a currency: it store value, serves as an even exchange, and measures how much something is worth. Bitcoin does all three.●         33:07— Bitcoin´s other functionality is the utilities side like smart contracts.●         33:24—Smart contracts allow anything in code that has been completed to be compensated accordingly--work gets done, money gets paid. Jason talks about how this affects the efficiency of futures contracts in the natural gas industry.●         35:08—Smart contracts based off of bitcoin can measure the computing that has been completed by employees and promote accountability in coporations. ●         36:00—Smart contracts could also help streamline the process after getting hit by a storm. ●         37:27—Can money be made in Bitcoin? yes, but as an advisor we have to measure the return. Is there a potential for return? yes, but at this stage in the game, there is so much technical jargon that we need to wade through.●         38:19—The Cryptocurrency and Blockchain space is not mature enough to be able to incorporate it into our portfolios today. We have to put our client`s priorities first, many of which are based of off a way of life rather than returns.●         39:01—The floor is open to questions.●         39:32—Is cryptocurrency too volatile to use as currency? This is a western view of currency. If you are in a country where currency is less stable than cryptocurrency, there will be a drive to use crypto.●         42:05—The voltility comes down to your own investment appetite.●         42:51— What is the concept of mining and does it mean anyone can produce more currency?●         44:33— Does cryptocurrency undermine the bank of canada?●         45:46— Any currency undermines the central bank. Rather, it is another venue for purchasing.●         46:33—How close are we to reaching the point of investment? A year away or ten years away? Ask us in ten years.●         48:14—Your cash and credit card are far more vulnerable to security breech than blockchain.●         48:45— The role blockchain will play in patents, copywriting, and owership is important. It will become the underlying infrastructure for ownership and also a way to monetize that ownership.●         51:24—The computing power is not the processing power. ●         53:17—You can increase the number of bits, but people are unlikely to do that as it affects the value of bitcoin negatively.●         55:56—More pepole have lost money with Bitcoin than made money with it.●         56:20—What can you do right now? Download a wallet so you can invest and hold digital currencies.3 Key Points:1.     Blockchain and cryptocurrency´s technical jargon can be convuluted and make it hard to understnad the market in its entireity, but they are considered to be revolutionary advances across several fields including the futures market, utilities--smart contracts, and future corporate accoutability structures.2.      The bitcoin market has been distracted by greed. If you are trying to speculate and make fast money, it is a disaster. However, the truth is that bitcoin is revolutionary, and digital currencies are a market of the future.3.     Bitcoin is a valid form of currency: it can store value, be used as a unit of measure, and be exchanged. However, it still needs maturity, stability, and credibility to beconsidered a part of portfolios. Experiement with it, but don´t bet your house on it. There is a love for Blockchain and a dislike for Bitcoin.Tweetable Quotes:-       “Start experimenting for the love of god. Go open a Robo Account. Go buy bitcoin. Once you see these things, you can start to understand.” –Jason.-       “The realchallenge is that we have never had something like this before” – Jason.-       “Bitcoin is a distraction due to greed. If you are trying to speculate and make fast money, it is a disaster. However, the truth is is that bitcoin is revolutionary.” – Jason.-      “You are taking a risk by not having bitcoin.” – Kyle.-      “ As big players come into the market, there will be a flip in the market.”– Kyle.-      “ More people have lost money on Bitcoin than made money on Bitcoin”– David.Resources Mentioned:●The Fintech Impact●Refer to Jason Pereira´s Linkedinfor Information about the Fintech event hosted by Individual Finance and Decision Center: New Developments in Fintech and their impacts on Society●David Hayes●Kyle Kemper●Woodgate Financial●Itunes, Sticherto access the podcast●Insitute of Advance Financial Planners Confrence●Edge Wallet Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During the 38th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host, interviews Gary Baker, COO of Cannex. Cannex is a one-stop shop for annuity pricing. Jason and Gary delve into the complexities surrounding the annuity industry. From Big Data to global trends, Gary gives an all-encompassing view of annuities and what the industry is up against.Show Notes:1:11—Introduction of Guest, Gary Baker—COO of Cannex, a one-stop shop for annuity pricing1:40—Cannex got started from a couple friends gathered in a small apartment. 2:33—Gary´s experiential background of nearly 30 years within finance including a stint with GE Capital.3:45—There are two different segments within Cannex, annuities and savings products.4:50—The premise of Cannex is to provide a central exchange for brokers to sell third-party products.5:30—Cannex´s largest business investments focus on technology and Research and Development.8:20—Distributors want assurance of the market and Cannex provides value back to them.10:28—The areas the business focuses on includes information security and investment and development.12:20—The complexity of the market can be difficult to overcome while still adding value.13:26— Cannex overcomes the complexity of the market without over-simplifying and still extracting the best value13:30—Cannex´s quantitative perspectives guides them through the complexity of the industry.15:30—The biggest challenges when developing the company occur when trying to develop the right platforms to be more efficient.15:50—Systems and processes are major areas of focus when developing the company.17:07—The financial planning tools´ functionality help give the industry a quantitative perspective.17:30—Essentially an annuities portfolio is a Super Bond.17:54—We use real-time data to optimize our processes.18:58—When working with our data tools we have to be cognizant of the assumptions, blac box and the effects on returns and correlations.21:20—The role of financial advisors in the annuity industry is more process focused than product focused.22:30—Recently, we have seen a movement from a product sale to a process sale in the market.24:00—We do not use ordinary indices to do benchmarking at Cannex.24:08—Gary demystifies the benchmarking they do and the indices they use.25:21—Principal, interest, and longevity28:20—The difficulties of getting their data tools into the market stem from the reality of the modern advisor: 90% psychology, 10% numbers30:00—We want to focus on what is quantitatively the best economic scenario for the client.33:28—There needs to be global trend for professionalizing the annuity industry.33:50—Cannex is dedicated to being a change-agent in the annuity industry.34:00—An independent evaluator can help give the industry a more quantitative outlook.35:12—Price doesn’t correlate with quality--a higher price does not mean better quality.35:40—Cannex is helping to quantify value propositions in the market.36:00—Cannex´s data platform is available to students.3 Key Points:1.    Gary and Jason discuss nature of the annuity market and how Cannex began.2.    The toll complexity takes on the industry and how Cannex relies on Quantitative methods to counter this challenge.3.    The industry needs to move towards professionalism.Tweetable Quotes:-      “There is this tug of war between the market wanting simplicity and traders wanting to deliver value. So, what we do is add analytics on top of our core platform to pull the marketing story off of it.” – Gary.-      “The easy part [of the business] is the methodology and the processes that we put together to deconstruct and then put everything into an apples to apples environment. The tougher part is building the systems and processes that allow us to be more efficient when programming these products into the platform, and most importantly to allow our clients to configure what we provide” – Gary.-      “If you talk to financial advisors themselves, they would tell you my practice is 90% psychology and 10% numbers” – Gary.Resources Mentioned:The Fintech ImpactRefer to Jason Pereira´s Linkedin for Information about the Fintech event hosted by Individual Finance and Decision Center: New Developments in Fintech and their impacts on SocietyCannex Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During this 37th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Thomas Schickler, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer for Liquidity Marketplace. Liquidity Marketplace is a platform that will allow and enable Fortune 1000 businesses to lend to other Fortune 1000 businesses for their liquidity needs—at a lower rate and a more efficient experience.Time Stamped Show Notes:● 00:58 – Clients of Liquidity Marketplace include Fortune 1000 companies, banks,and non-bank financial businesses.● 01:17 – Thomas Schickler spend nearly 30 years in transaction banking at HSBC,JP Morgan, and CITI Bank.● 03:29 – Liquidity Marketplace is launching, first in the United States, the ability forits clients to borrow and lend from each other.● 05:31 – Businesses typically face all-in costs of 15-45 extra base points.● 07:01 – The fourth quarter in 2018 will involve trades with pilot clients.● 07:22 – They have experienced some struggle in getting corporate treasurers to trythe service.● 10:20 – Liquidity Marketplace is launching in the United States in the fourth quarterof 2018.● 12:15 – They will launch in Europe, the UK, and Asia, and will add asset classes.● 15:35 – Liquidity Marketplace is currently a team of seven people.● 18:00 – In the last two years that they have been in business, the main obstaclehas been not being able to move as fast as they would like—withfundraising requiring a lot of time.● 22:23 – Thomas Schickler is most excited about proving a meaningful propositionfor constituents.3 Key Points:1. Liquidity marketplace enables its clients to borrow and lend from each other.2. Liquidity Marketplace makes money by charging the issuers for a corporate-to-corporate transaction in 10 base points range.3. The community of clients at Liquidity Marketplace includes courageous early adoptersand very large companies that are interested but are waiting to see how it works outfor others first.Tweetable Quotes:- “We’ve (Liquidity Marketplace) set out to transform liquidity markets for institutionalclients. By institutional clients I’m referring to Fortune 1000 companies, banks, andnon-bank financial companies.” – Thomas Schickler.- “The institutional liquidity space, from a fintech perspective, is like a sleepybackwater.” – Thomas Schickler.- “It’s the regulatory and legal due-diligence we have to do which will be our primarycosts as we look to expand.” – Thomas Schickler.Resources Mentioned:● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook● Woodgate Financial – Website for Woodgate Financial● Thomas Schickler – LinkedIn for Thomas Schickler● Liquidity Marketplace – Website for Liquidity Marketplace Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During this 36th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, Jason Pereira interviews Ben Harrison, Partner and Head of LPEngagement & Partnerships at Portag3 Ventures, one of the top venture capital firms in thefintech space.● 00:56 – Portag3 is made of two funds that handle areas like blockchain and A.I..● 02:19 – Ben has just over 16 years with Great West Life.● 05:08 – Financial customers want the same user experience that they are familiar with from Amazon and Google.● 10:28 – In order to have a better understanding of the change that is happening, invest in and partner with those that are doing it.● 13:31 – The cost of starting a start-up as dropped dramatically during the last decade.● 16:12 – When start-ups get absorbed by huge institutions, the corporate culture should remain the same to maintain those talented developers.● 20:30 – Success in Asia from an insurance company standpoint success is measured in selling 100s of 1000s or millions of insurance policies in a year.● 23:22 – When there are major investments involved, there are broad power shifts.● 24:40 – What is the platform that is going to streamline blockchain.● 27:00 – Portag3 Ventures invests in great, talented people in the founders and high comfort with the technology, performance, and scalability.● 29:53 – Ben Harrison is most excited about seeing the interest in the bigger companies being willing to have partnerships.3 Key Points:1. Portag3 Ventures’s first fund was made up of Power Financial, Great West Life, andIGM.2. Approximately, 10 years ago the average price of launching a start-up company was $5 million, now it is about $500,000 dollars.3. To adapt to change and stay ahead of the curve—you have to be willing to partner up.Tweetable Quotes:- “Portag3 is an early stage venture fund.” – Ben Harrison.- “Customers just expect now the types of experiences that they receive from Google or Amazon or Netflix.” – Ben Harrison.- “So it’s not so much that fintech is going to topple the business world, it’s now questions about these big platform tech players.” – Ben Harrison.Resources Mentioned:● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook● Woodgate Financial – Website for Woodgate Financial● Ben Harrison – LinkedIn for Ben Harrison● Portag3 Ventures – Website for Portag3 Ventures Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During this 35th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, Jason Pereira interviews Chad Davis, the Co-Founder of LiveCA, which is an accounting firm rather than a fintech. What makes LiveCA an excellent company to talk about on Fintech Impact is that it is a next generation company with no fixed address, it has about 60 employees from all around the world, and it communicates and renders their service offers using a number of technology tools and fintech tools—some that have been featured on previous episodes of this show.●01:31 – LiveCA focuses on providing clients with technology and tax services.●03:01 – Chad, his wife, and their children used to live in the Cayman Islands.●05:51 – LiveCA have about 50-60 people working remotely without any central office.●09:07 – Slack, Zoom, the Google suite of apps, Collage, and Humi are some of the tech tools for communication and human resources.●10:10 – LiveCA offers tax, standard year-end work, United States consulting, mergers, treasury and accounts payable, bookkeeping, and aggregating multiple digital payment services.●14:27 – You have to have key people that believe in what you do.●16:33 – The 80% or 90% of LiveCA ex-employees that have left tend to move on to competitors or start their own firms.●17:27 – You need support and controlled growth to not overextend too fast.●20:00 – Living in an RV with his family and being flexible allows him to “grow smart.”●22:20 – Chad Davis is excited about moving into a trainer role and creating opportunities for the team to try new things in a supported environment.3 Key Points:1. Services that LiveCA Tax, standard year-end work, Unite States consulting, mergers, treasury and accounts payable, bookkeeping, and aggregating multiple digital payment services.2. Xero is an accounting system that LiveCA prefers.3. Controlled growth is important to avoid watering down your services and spreading your value too thin.Tweetable Quotes:-“At the end of the day, we just put ourselves in everybody’s shoes.” – Chad Davis-“We just try to remove the risk of people saying ‘yes’ to working with us. We start removing things like set-up fees and hourly rates, the conversations just start flowing really naturally” – Chad Davis-“For us, that in-person social interaction with cues that you see in body language and tone, you really can’t see when you are working virtually.” – Chad DavisResources Mentioned:●LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn●Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook●Woodgate Financial – Website for Woodgate Financial●Chad Davis – LinkedIn for Chad Davis●LiveCA LLP– Website for LiveCA LLP●@ChadDavis – Twitter for Chad Davis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During this 34th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, Jason Pereira interviews Tea Nicola, CEO, and Co-Founder of Wealth Bar. Wealth Bar is both a robo adviser and robo planner in Canada that works to provide integrated planning and investment solutions to clients. Learn the story behind this fintech company, what they are offering present and future clients, and what it took to bring this company to fruition.●     00:53 – WealthBar doesn’t have physical offices—everything is done online or over the phone.●     01:26 – Tea earned her Electrical Engineering degree and interned at Nicola Wealth Management in Vancouver.●     02:10 – She worked as a financial advisor for several years.●     05:26 – WealthBar’s efficiencies help lower the cost to pass the savings to the consumer.●     08:05 – Clients can onboard themselves and deposit money without an advisor. ●     09:48 – One of the biggest differences between WealthBar and their competitors is the level of financial planning that WealthBar does.●     11:36 – On the accumulation side, WealthBar has a module built into their website where users can enter basic information and see where savings will take them.●     13:26 – There is full inside and outside sales support for financial advisors.●     20:21 – Proper financial advisement takes education on the advisor and client side.●     21:36 – There are still people that want advisement even if they could do it themselves.●     22:06 – WealthBar currently has a team of 30 people based in Vancouver.●     22:48 – Changing the way that advisors work with their clients and represent their professionalism are the opportunities that Tea is most excited about.3 Key Points:1. Clients can onboard themselves and deposit money without an advisor. 2. WealthBar offers a conversation with an advisor within the first five seconds that you are on the website, and again within the first 20 seconds when you sign up.3. All of WealthBar’s client-facing portfolio managers are also CFPs, accommodating areas like retirement planning and estate planning.Tweetable Quotes:-     “WealthBar is one of Canada’s leading robo advisers, and by robo advisor we mean that we do everything a traditional financial adviser would do.” – Tea Nicola.-     “People don’t have a very high understanding of finances at all, and often times they just need that reassurance.” – Tea Nicola.-     “For the more complex financial planning we actually use Snap Projections.” – Tea Nicola.Resources Mentioned:● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook● Woodgate Financial – Website for Woodgate Financial● Tea Nicola – LinkedIn for Tea Nicola● WealthBar – Website for WealthBar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During this 33th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Johnathan Holland, the Founder and CEO of Curexe, that provides tools for enabling online foreign exchange transactions at reasonable rates—including a new product that will allow users to take payment with Interac. Time Stamped Show Notes:●     00:55 – Curexe assists businesses to send and receive money.●     01:34 – Johnathan Holland started Curexe four years ago.●     02:59 – He looked at how Canadian banking hadn’t properly connected to                    technology yet.●     04:33 – He started listening to motivational speeches on YouTube for inspiration.●     05:48 – He began working with his CTO and got into a Canadian entrepreneurial                    leadership program called The Next 36.●     09:16 – Johnathan came to Toronto from St. Catharines.●     10:22 – Curexe only charges a flat rate of 1% to send money out, 2% to accept                    money.●     11:18 – Curexe is targeting small business owners looking to scale globally.●     12:45 – Curexe has a blog with content to capture customers and provide value.●     14:02 – Their new product is a debit card called SmartPay.●     19:17 – Curexe handles about 20 currencies.●     21:43 – The hurdles have been things like it taking 2 and a half years to convince                    a bank to give them a merchant account for a money service business.●     26:05 – You have to be resourceful and hustle.●     28:20 – Have a differentiating product that is valuable to get customers and scale                    up.●     30:38 – The long term vision for Curexe is showing Canadians that businesses can                    scale globally to be the next PayPal.●     33:29 – Johnathan Holland is excited about forcing banking to change to creating                    more value and a smoother experience. 3 Key Points:1. You aren’t going to know looking forward how it is all going to work out…but you can   connect the dots when you look back.2. Research shows the U.S. and Canadian income per capita are constantly diverging   because Canada isn’t building the big YouTubes and Googles of the world in terms of   businesses.3. Your network is the biggest thing. Tweetable Quotes:-     “We (Curexe) help businesses that need to send and receive money.” – Johnathan       Holland.-     “If you are a business owner and you need to send money to a supplier in another       country, we (Curexe) can help you do that right from our online platform, for a        cheaper price tag than what a bank would typically charge.” – Johnathan Holland.-      “Accepting money would be via invoice or in an online checkout, which is       accentually a direct debit way of paying without ever leaving your online store.” –       Johnathan Holland. Resources Mentioned:● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook● Woodgate Financial – Website for Woodgate Financial● Johnathan Holland – LinkedIn for Johnathan Holland● Curexe – Website for Curexe  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During this 32nd episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, Jason Pereira interviews Randy Cass, the CEO, Founder, and Portfolio Manager of Nest Wealth. Nest Wealth is the second largest robo adviser in Canada, and a platform provider of digital solutions for the client onboarding experience in asset management. The conversation digs into what has led Randy Cass to creating Nest Wealth, how the company has evolved and expanded, and how they fit into the financial space in Canada.●01:11 – Nest Wealth helps firms, individuals, even employers move whatever process they’ve been using historically and allows them to run it all digitally in the B2B space.●02:07 – Randy decided he didn’t want to be a lawyer and later started trading currencies derivatives at TDSI.●05:15 – He performed a hosting job on BNN for several years with guests that were CEOs, CFOs, and also the heads of regulatory bodies.●07:00 – Nest Wealth was originally started as a direct-to-consumer robo advisor.●07:47 – When compressed margins arise, it becomes about getting more efficient in your operation and scaling your operations above past levels.●12:00 – All on a single stack, Nest Wealth is a Sass-based company and a licensed product that controls their technology.●14:26 – A large financial institution wanted to by Nest Wealth in the past.●17:58 – The average consumer on the direct-to-consumer side of Nest Wealth:78% of consumers have done multiple transfer-in assets in the first six months.●19:00 – Nest Wealth puts more control of the financial process on consumers.●25:03 – In 2013, Nest Wealth launched in the midst of the media saying there will never be a digital advisor in Canada.●27:39 – The financial advisement space isn’t disappearing because of robo advisors, it just needs to continue to focus on adding value.●34:03 – Customers are generally open to change, especially when it benefits them.●40:14 – Nest Wealth is currently the only direct-to-consumer platform with a flat fixed fee regardless of how much someone puts into their account.●43:01 – Randy Cass is most excited about driving transparency and better creating outcomes for investors.3 Key Points:1. On the direct-to-consumer side of Nest Wealth, 78% of consumers have done multiple transfer-ins of assets in the first six months.2.The average account balance of assets contributed to an account doubles in the first six months from the initial contribution.3.The average client on Nest Wealth has an account of about $175,000.Tweetable Quotes:-“Think of us (Nest Wealth) as an engine that powers digital wealth.” – Randy Cass.-“I left to start Nest Wealth as a direct-to-consumer robo advisor.” – Randy Cass.-“Once there is a substitutable similar product in the marketplace, you’re going tohave price competition and margin compression throughout the entire industry.”– Randy Cass.Resources Mentioned:●LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn●Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook●Woodgate Financial – Website for Woodgate Financial●Randy Cass – LinkedIn for Randy Cass●@Randy_Cass – Twitter for Randy Cass●Nest Wealth – Website for Nest Wealth Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 31st episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira interviews Kesem Frank, Co-Founder, and COO of Nuco, a company that helps implement blockchain technology for financial service companies—in banking and securities. Kesem will speak about his career in Nuco, the effects of the blockchain, and cryptocurrencies, of which he has his own.●     01:00: – Kesem started Nuco with two partners: Matthew Spoke and Jin Tu.●     02:30: – Nuco was faced with the question of serving or building?●     03:24: – He was working in technology, but went to school for law and business.●     08:12: – Blockchain adds a new way to validate data.●     12:09: – Cuts currently take 16-19 days to reconcile where the problem occurred.●     14:19: – Blockchain is like a universal ledger to help stakeholders know the truth of what is happening in the value chain.●     18:30: – The future of blockchain: private stake owners that have skin in the game that are going to run their own blockchain.●     20:50: – Does the fact that I want to do business with you mean I have to blindly trust you?●     23:09: – We have to make sure that capital markets are played fair.●     26:09: – The Canadian Exchange likes what Nuco is doing with natural gas, and wants them to apply that to other areas and wants the inter-blockchain communication issues to be addressed.●     29:09: – The conversation in the blockchain industry is evolving from what is the best blockchain to how do we take these excellent innovations and create one cohesive fabric that works as an ecosystem.●     32:09: – A relay is an intermediary that steps in between two blockchains and mitigates between them—but isn’t a good solution.●     36:40: – Bitcoin has had slow adoption in North American countries.●     39:09: – Aion is a non-for-profit blockchain organization while Nuco has become its own business.●     42:50: – The difference between the current age of platforms is not as fair as decentralization. 3 Key Points:1. The trust engine was most crucial to Kesem Frank with blockchain.2. How do you go to market where you don’t already do business?3. A blockchain should be what goes in between any two blockchains. Tweetable Quotes:           -   “How do you actually bring it (blockchain) to a business and create a return that you                could quantify?” – Kesem Frank.           -   “When a cut happens it takes the exchange 16-19 days to figure and reconcile who                 dropped the ball.” – Kesem Frank.           -   “(Blockchain) Universal ledger that is helping all of these fragmented multitude of                stakeholders kind of know what is true and what’s not.” – Kesem Frank. Resources Mentioned:● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn● https://www.finally.technology/ – Website for Finally Technology● Kesem Frank – LinkedIn for Kesem Frank● Twitter – Kesem Frank’s Twitter  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.