Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m Alex Johnson, joined by Jas Shah, fintech product consultant and author of one of my favorite newsletters, Fintech: Under the Hood, which gets into serious detail from a builder’s perspective.
Jas has built a range of fintech products and consulted for fintech companies and banks, so we spend this episode in the gloriously granular trenches of Fintech Productland.
We cover a lot of ground, like where digital onboarding still falls short after a decade of progress, why personal financial management remains one of the hardest categories in consumer fintech to pull off, and where AI might change that.
Highlights include:
- Why do banks struggle to build onboarding that feels as connected as their customers expect?
- Can an AI buddy that checks in over WhatsApp succeed where, in Jas’s words, “glorified pivot tables” fell short?
- What happens when payment agents spending on your behalf come up against financial management agents?
- If ChatGPT’s personal finance features reach free users, whose interests will the advice serve?
Plus, we close with the most important conversation it’s possible to have in fintech: how to name your fintech company after J.R.R. Tolkien’s oeuvre.
Tune in for a nerdy, practical tour under the hood of fintech product building (with a closing detour through Middle-earth).
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This episode is brought to you by Ocrolus.
Better lending starts with better intelligence. A borrower’s cash flow only tells half the story, so Ocrolus fills in the rest with behavior signals and industry benchmarking.
Visit https://www.ocrolus.com/ for more.
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Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/
And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.
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Follow Alex on:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FintechTakes
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson
X: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson
Follow Jas:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jas-shah/
Fintech: Under the Hood Newsletter: https://jasshah.substack.com/