SHIFT Community Update #17
London tech/fintech week, breakfast with the Fintech Champions and Doshi x TSB partnership!
Hello, SHIFTers! It's time for your fortnightly dose of all things SHIFT
Lots of events are going on this week and I will try to be at as many as possible so if you are there too then let me know!
The Big Fintech industry party is a must-go, organised by the power rangers (below) it will not disappoint!
Key Updates
✅ FREE and VIP tickets now available for the BIG Fintech Industry party on the 13th of June organised by SHIFT Open Finance Community, Fintech Week London, Fintech Fringe, The Fintech Power 50, and Tech London Advocates & Global Tech Advocates
✅ Events galore in London, with Tech week, Fintech week, FinFest. We have exclusive discounts to all, so make sure to check out the SHIFT slack.
✅ Our Fintech Champions Community hosted a lovely Breakfast for individuals from Financial Institutions passionate about innovation and Fintech to connect.
✅ We launched the Ignite Programme! An incubator that will provide financial support, financial services expertise, and an extensive industry network to anyone who wants to turn a disruptive fintech idea into reality.
Member Updates
➡️ We have welcomed some awesome new SHIFT members including (you can find them in the #introductions channel on Slack):
Benji from Lenvi, on a mission to transform lending working with some of the biggest brands in the UK including Admiral, Barclays, Vodafone, BNP Paribas and a number of smaller more niche lenders.
Fraser founder of Lyfeguard with the aim to simplify life's complexities by centralising personal and financial information by offering powerful tools for document storage, financial insights, legacy planning, and more.
➡️ Doshi officially partner with TSB. A connection that started from a SHIFT+ roundtable a year ago, Doshi and TSB have now officially partnered to launch across thousands of UK students with the vision of making financial education more accessible and rewarding!
➡️ WealthOS raises $4m with Barclays and Main Set. WealthOS, the cloud-native wealth management infrastructure platform provider, has announced the successful closure of its seed round led by Barclays Bank.
➡️ Paypoint invests £1 million into AperiData The investment enhances PayPoint’s offering by adding Open Banking services, delivering improvements to customer experience and making it easier for organisations to access data.
➡️ Applications open to TSB Labs focused on Open Banking. This years lab run by our very own fintech champion Adam Betteridge is looking to work with fintechs that have open banking propositions to deliver money confidence to customers.
➡️ Moneyhub and Teradata launch financial AI solution. Through the partnership, enterprise customers will be able to make the most of each firms specialisms, with the opportunity to create truly personalised products and services for customers across the world.
If you have news that you want to be included here then make sure to post it in the #news-and-views channel on Slack or tag kyle in your posts!
London Events Galore!
Here’s the downlow on all the events happening this week
The Big Fintech Industry Party on the 13th of June, hosted by SHIFT Open Finance Community, The Fintech Power 50, Fintech Week London, Fintech Fringe, Tech London Advocates & Global Tech Advocates. (Now with free or VIP tickets!)
Fintech Week London’s main flagship conference is on 13 June 2024! This year's conference will feature an influential line-up of speakers and exclusive networking opportunities! (15% off code in SHIFT Slack!)
FinFest events are going on all week and bring together all the major FIs and industry-leading practitioners together for Masterclasses in Scaling. (Free tickets in SHIFT Slack!)
SHIFT is proud to partner with the London Venture Capital Network to host the London Venture Capital Summit on the 15th of June for London's premier forum for VCs, operators, and investors. (15% off code in SHIFT Slack!)
Fintech Champions Breakfast
Our Fintech Champions Community hosted a lovely Breakfast for individuals from Financial Institutions passionate about innovation and Fintech to connect.
It was a lovely morning filled with conversations about Open Banking, Fintech Innovation and Judo training!
Thank you to our Fintech Champions that joined us, Grace Sorrell, Jason Wilkinson-Brown, Rachel Tshondo, Andreea Iosub and Bhas Gandham.
Resource Recommendation
The Startup Playbook
The Startup Playbook by Sam Altman and Y Combinator is a brilliant resource for any entrepreneur, founder and intrapreneurs. Here is a very high level summary but it’s definitely worth giving it a good look through.
Firstly, a startup’s goal is to make something users love.
A Great Idea
While it’s important the idea really excites some people the first time they hear it, almost everyone is going to tell you that your idea sucks.
You can’t actively force good ideas, it is best to learn a lot of different things and practice noticing problems.
There are thousands more good ideas than people willing to execute them. So you don’t need to be too secretive with your idea.
How will the company one day be an ethical monopoly - a businesses that gets more powerful with scale and that are difficult to copy.
A Great Team
Good founders have a number of seemingly contradictory traits. One important example is rigidity and flexibility. You want to have strong beliefs about the core of the company and its mission, but still be very flexible and willing to learn new things when it comes to almost everything else.
Cofounder breakups are one of the leading causes of death for early startups, so be careful.
The best founders are unusually responsive. This is an indicator of decisiveness, focus, intensity, and the ability to get things done.
A Great Product
You should talking to users, watch them use your product, figure out what parts are sub-par, and then make your product better. Then do it again. The faster the repeat rate of this cycle, the better the company usually turns out.
“Do things that don’t scale”, you may need to recruit initial users one at a time and then build things they ask for.
“product” includes all interactions a user has with the company. You need to offer great support, great sales interactions, etc.
Great Execution
Growth; Make it the number one priority and talk openly about it
Focus and Intensity; don’t let your company start doing the next thing until you’ve dominated the first thing.
Jobs of the CEO; set the vision and strategy, evangelise the company, hire and manage a team, raise money, set execution quality bar.
Hiring & Managing; Be generous with equity, trust, and responsibility. Remember that the kind of people you want to hire can start their own companies if they want.
Competitors; Henry Ford: "The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time."
Making money; Try to get to “ramen profitability”—i.e., make enough money so that the founders can live on ramen—as quickly as you can.
Fundraising; You should only raise money when you need it or when it’s available on good terms. Not having enough money can be bad, but having too much money is almost always bad.
If there are any resources you find enjoyable, useful, or interesting then let me know :)