Thought Leadership Threads

What the heck is going on with the #fintech ecosystem’s obsession with Neo-Banks? Do they actually make sense in the US? Traditional Bankers say “absolutely not”. I say “they can”. Unpacked:

The most commonly debated and IMHO the least grounded topic in early stage VC is “how do you determine what a company is worth?” Recent early stage #fintech and #venturecapital valuations seem to defy gravity but are they justified?

The biggest question coming out of my recent tweet thread about the evaluation of startups is: “How important is the startup’s distribution strategy in your diligence work?” The answer is: “Damn important because the business needs customers to exist!” Unpacked:

Every early stage startup pitch looks the same at a foundational level. This means that the analysis of every early stage startup also looks similar (especially true in #venturecapital and #fintech). Unpacked:

There’s been a lot of talk about how difficult it is to produce great returns in the VC space, and while this is true it suffers from over-simplification. Unpacked:

I pulled a thread together a few weeks ago about how the early stage fintech ecosystem has gotten a bit crazy and overheated. Since then I was asked to comment on the later stage madness.  Unpacked:

‍

The debate rages on about whether @RobinhoodApp is “doing good” or “doing harm”. There is no simple answer to this question so it’s best to frame the conceptual issue and then return to the specifics.

The most disturbing trend I’m seeing in the early stage fintech ecosystem is the raising of 2-3 back-to-back rounds with minimal progress in-between. Unpacked: