WINSight // WIN NY x Rise, created by Barclays: Innovating for Financial Inclusion in Fintech
On Thursday, March 9, the New York Chapter of WIN partnered with Rise, created by Barclays, to bring together women founders disrupting the fintech space to make it more inclusive. A timely event in light of National Women’s Month, these three women spoke to the moves they’ve made to make the world of financial services more inviting, reducing barriers to entry and allowing more underserved groups to participate in a traditionally male-dominated space. We’ve captured a few gems and insights our speakers shared on how they drive real impact for those that need it most – and how they navigate the tumultuous journey this entails.
Reducing financial, emotional and regulatory barriers to entry into personal wealth management is key.
Amy Schultz, Co-Founder and Head Coach of Bolder Money, a company that provides financial coaching addressing the emotional side of money, makes a conscious effort to reduce financial pressure as much as possible for Bolder Money clients. “Our coaching is as low as 50 dollars a month,” she told us. “People never have to feel like they don’t have the money to get started with us.”
Eve Halimi, co-CEO of Alinea Invest, an investing app created for Gen Z’s to help them invest in what matters to them, works to reduce the intimidation factor of investing. “A big pain point for people is they don’t know how to get started, or what to invest in,” she said. “We help them start managing their money and provide updates along the way.”
Nicole Bayard, Director of Growth at SoLo Funds, a community finance platform where members can fund and request emergency loans, expands access to loans for those without a proud credit history. “Anyone can get the app,” she said. “There’s no credit check. There’s a scoring system based on cash flow, which we feel is more fair – we’re figuring out someone’s future potential to pay, not some antiquated idea of what past history is.”
Empathy for the customer’s perspective is invaluable when growing an impact-driven business.
Employing people who have been in the customer’s shoes amplifies the potential for real impact. “A lot of us joined Solo because we’ve been part of the problem,” Nicole of SoLo Funds told us. “Hiring the people you want to serve makes the biggest difference to building something that matters.”
Amy of Bolder Money has the same empathy for the customer – for the Bolder Money team, as important as hiring trained professionals is ensuring they’re empathetic to their clients’ personal money situations. “We’re compassionate people,” Amy said, “with pain around our own money.”
Despite the empathy you may have for the customer, it’s still important to keep them engaged throughout the design process.
Staying close to your customers is key when building solutions for them. “Talking to customers is so important,” Eve of Alinea Invest told us. “It’s part of Alinea’s DNA – we speak to 10 customers a week, listen to their feedback, and build for them. We have them in a Slack channel, we meet them over zoom, we bring them into the office – we stay close when building for these communities.”
“Don’t get afraid to get out there and talk to people,” Amy of Bolder Money added. “The easy way is not always the right way – the hard way is making sure you talk to a diverse set of customers, reaching people that others aren’t able to reach.” Nicole of SoLo Funds chimed in, too. “Build a user focus,” she said. “You can’t do that if the people in the room aren’t the users.”
Scaling an impact-driven business often means finding investors who get it.
Impact-driven businesses don’t always fit into the mold of what a typical fintech company looks like – which makes getting buy-in all the more difficult. So, finding investors that understand the problem you’re solving is crucial for early growth.
“SoLo has been lucky in that we’ve been able to find investors who get it,” Nicole told us. “Many are black investors who understand the problem because they see it in their communities.” Eve of Alinea echoed a similar sentiment. “Our first investor understood the problem,” she started. “She faced the same issue and believed in Alinea for that reason.” Amy of Bolder Money secured her first investors from a firm looking to invest in underdogs. “We were like, we’re not underdogs!” Amy said with a laugh. “But we know those investors are out there, and that allows us to have more freedom in how we build.”
Naturally, many investors will not “get it” – but leveraging your team’s empathy for the customer can win them over.
It’s tough to grow with the sole support of impact investors, but traditional investors can have trouble understanding the problem at hand. “Many investors don’t know what it’s like to be talking to someone experiencing pain around money,” Amy of Bolder Money told us. “That disconnect is what keeps us from helping spread money.”
A way to win could be weaving a little pathos in your pitch. “We would tell our investors to try to put themselves in their niece’s shoes,” Eve told us, “and that was before we even launched Alinea. That really helped us.” Amy has found success with this strategy, too. “I’m surprised when we meet investors that wouldn’t seem to understand, but then they’ll say their daughter or their friend faced the same thing,” Amy said.
In a powerful close to the evening, Nicole reminded us impact-driven founders shouldn’t have to rely only on impact investors to grow. “Where is everyone else?” she challenged. “Financial inclusion isn’t just charity – it’s good business. If you’re not building inclusively, you’re not a good business.”
Written by Sabrina Romviel, WIN NY Programming and Marketing Lead