SHIFT Community Update #21
Showcases, Strategic Sales and Partnerships!
Hello, SHIFTers! It's time for your fortnightly dose of all things SHIFT
I am sure most of you have seen the Olympic shooting meme so I decided to make my own.
SHIFT Events
✅ Sales Bootcamp webinar run by the amazing James Varga and Charles Talbot was jam packed with useful content on the essential skills of strategic selling. See more below.
✅ Our Fintech showcase was brilliant! Congratulations to three amazing pitches from Olivia (mmob), Daniel (Doshi) and the winner Will (Eliq).
✅ We are updating our website with a new version of our member directory so if you are a SHIFT member please send me (kyle.masterson@shiftopenfinance.com) a high quality file of your logo so it can be added to our website.
Member Updates
➡️ We have welcomed some awesome new SHIFT members including (you can find them in the #introductions channel on Slack):
Lee Ashby the founder of Deli helping businesses manage and prevent problem debt, starting in residential property. They offer an embedded collections and management platform, helping tenants repay. They’re piloting with property managers, portfolio landlords, and others, and we’re keen to speak with more experts in the property space.
➡️ Eliq partners with Woodhurst to enable mortgage lenders to meet their sustainability strategies they aim to do this by reducing financed, or Scope 3, emissions from lenders mortgage book.
➡️ Doshi partners with Yorkshire Building Society to make home-buying accessible for people of any age especially during these challenging times of the cost of living crisis.
➡️ Cogo integrates with SaaScada to drive further progress in helping the banking and finance industry take steps to reduce their carbon impact
➡️ How to source your own talent directly? As part of launching the #talent channel on the SHIFT Slack, our very own people lead Melissa has written an article to help people learn more about finding talent.
➡️ Roostrent looking for a Senior Product Engineer to build a banking experience for housing co-operatives and James Varga is looking for a CTO for a start-up identity company. Reach out if you are interested.
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!
Partner Events
🌟 Nauta Capital are running a fundraising event in September The event will cover key topics in the fundraising process: managing the process (e.g. how to master urgency), what investors are looking for at Seed & Series A (Metrics, Market outlook) and being information ready (Cap table, due diligence and supporting documents).
🌟 Excited to support London’s Largest Demo Day! Founders, apply by 16 Aug 2024 for a chance to pitch to top investors on 14 Oct 2024. Whether you’re Pre-Seed or Series A, this is your chance for massive exposure! Make sure to mention SHIFT to help your application!
🌟 Get over 50% off exhibition stands at Saudi Arabia’s flagship fintech event Fintech 24. We have an exclusive opportunity for SHIFT members to secure exhibition space with the Saudi British Joint Business Council. 24 Fintech is organised by the Kingdom's regulators and scheduled for September 3 – 5, 2024, hosting over 35,000 attendees and 300+ exhibitors. For more information, contact Matt Jones at techhub@sbjbc.org and mention you are from SHIFT!
🌟 We are an official event supporter of Open Banking Expo on 15-16 October. You can claim a 20% discount with code SOF20. Enjoy 150+ show-stopping speakers and network with 1,200+ industry peers. We also might be hosting a panel there (TBC 👀)
Fintech Showcase
Last weeks Fintech Showcase was a great success for three main reasons!
1️⃣ We got to explore the future of finance, that our members are creating
↳ Daniel Rose explained how Doshi is empowering money confidence
↳ Olivia Minnock uncovered how mmob helps fintech integrate faster
↳ Will Ephraim on how Eliq are unleashing the power of open energy data
2️⃣ We got to learn Banks & VC tips for delivering impactful pitches:
↳ Read the room and be willing to adjust on the fly as needed.
↳ Demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of your product and customer base.
↳ Focus on your team. The team is a critical factor in securing early-stage investment.
↳ Thank you to our “Dragons” for the morning Oliver Parsons (Lloyds Banking Group), Charlotte Kanagasabapathy (Barclays), Dan Pandeni Idhenga (London Venture Capital Network), Jay Wilson (AlbionVC), Nitya Gupta (13books Capital) and Bryan Shaw (Fox Williams).
3️⃣ We got to bring people together for interesting conversations
↳ We had the pleasure to bring the SHIFT community together in person for a FULL HOUSE at Rise, created by Barclays
↳ Big thank you so much to our sponsor Fox Williams for providing the winning Fintech with £5,000 in legal services.
↳ The talk and energy around the room was infectious!
Sales Bootcamp Webinar
The Sales Bootcamp and our SHIFT members were put through a drill in Strategic Sales 💼
Thank you so much to our hosts James Varga and Charles Talbot for putting on a brilliant session with such valuable insights into enterprise sales processes.
There was so much strong content but the main points that resonated with us were;
➡️Multi-threading; how you need to reach and nurture multiple contacts at your target clients to build momentum and avoid the risk of your champion leaving!
➡️Consultative selling; don’t sell, ask for advice and deeply learn about the client to identify and solve a real pain. Forcing a sale to someone who doesn’t want it can hurt you in the long term.
➡️Be human; people buy from people and the more you are interested in them the more interested they will be in you. How can your service/product help them, not just the business?
This was a must-see so if you missed it then you can watch the recording on the SHIFT Slack.
Also, the amount of insight we got in these 45 minutes, we can’t imagine how value you would get by spending the day with James and Charles, see their workbook and have access to monthly check-ins.
So make sure to sign-up to their Sales Accelerator for Startups (SAS) Bootcamp; https://bamn.agency/startup-accelerator-for-sales-sas-bootcamp
there are only a few tickets left and SHIFT members can get an exclusive discount!
Resource Recommendation
Visa Commercialising Open Finance
At every open banking-related conference there is always some debate dedicated to whether financial institutions should be allowed to charge for sustaining the open banking infrastructure. Visa believes “the less that open banking is seen by banks as a compliance obligation, and the more it is seen as a commercial opportunity, the more value is delivered.”.
Their June 2024 report discusses the start of play for commercial open finance. In my opinion, there is nothing revolutionary in the white paper, but I agree with the philosophy emphasised; “open banking can seldom be thought of as a discrete revenue opportunity or a standalone future stream. Rather, it is an enabler of a new way of doing business – by delivering new value in new ways to new consumers, often in collaboration with new partners”. Visa does provide a very understandable and coherent linkage of complex ideas (like open banking, BaaS and embedded finance whilst providing tangible examples throughout. What I found most interesting and useful was their
“The strongest, clearest message we want to convey is that the future of financial services is predicated on open banking. We therefore believe that more banks should be actively involved in its evolution, and all banks should be equipped to benefit from its rapidly increasing prevalence.”
If there are any resources you find enjoyable, useful, or interesting then let me know :)