On January 17th, members of Holland Fintech joined fellow member SixThirty Ventures at their offices in TQ city to discuss topics that are relevant for founders in the fintech ecosystem and to discuss issues facing startups that are looking to scale – tackling key issues such as USP, funding and partnership with bigger players. Moderated by Don from Holland Fintech, representatives from companies such as Newgen Payments, FIntechChamps, Cobase, Rehive, Bittiq, Storecove and Suburbia.io and SixThirty Ventures weighed in on the discussion. See some key takeaways from the conversation below:
Opportunities
Innovate – Move fast and keep iterating on your product as you receive dynamic feedback from the market.
Use your agility to your advantage – Fintech’s are usually smaller and more agile than their larger competitors. Use this to your advantage – If a startup is able to distribute faster than incumbents can innovate – you’ve won.
Challenges
DMU – Making sure you have a clear and effective decision making unit within your startup environment is a key to success. Many startups have a very flat hierarchy and decision tree claiming that it helps agility. Without focus, the term agility only masks one thing: aimlessness.
Talent – Make sure you’ve got the right people on board – hands on employees who have the right mix of grit and knowledge. It’s important to realize what drives the kind of individuals you’re looking for – and what makes them feel incentivised. Looking at a good mix of cash & equity in your compensation plan is key.
Proof of concept – Lots of startups get off the ground as a result of hard work and enthusiasm– but to be truly successful and to scale, the product needs to fill a gap in the market. Make sure you find a way to measure your impact, that you have a clear vision and maximize exposure opportunities.
Roundtables – trends, challenges and opportunities
Holland Fintech frequently organizes roundtables and other events that enable our members and their guests to discuss market trends, challenges and opportunities. They are hosted at the offices of one of our members and on average allow 25 participants to connect directly with peers and industry specialists. Topics can be industry focused like capital markets, wealth tech, insurance tech, open banking or around themes such as cybersecurity, GDPR and PSD2.
The ultimate mission of Holland Fintech is to incite collaboration, transformation and positive impact. More than 500 members use our knowledge network to work towards a more connected, efficient and self-sustaining financial technology ecosystem. We will start publishing “Roundtable Recaps” after most roundtable events for those persons that weren’t able to attend.
Interested in participating in similar roundtables? Join us
