Wave Hunting

This let a generation of those apps compete on user experience without being crushed by large banks' pricing power. Customer acquisition for fintechs would be difficult if you could walk into any of the top ten banks and walk out with a 1% rewards debit card (which previously existed but don't anymore at large institutions, due to the Durbin amendm... See more

Despite strong technology players like Stripe, Square, PayPal, and Robinhood, traditional banks are still dominant.

Embedded financial products open up entirely new revenue streams to productivity software companies that were previously only accessible by financial institutions. Fintech APIs (like payments from Stripe) allow companies to monetize not with expensive subscriptions but through financial instruments that were previously the purview of banks.

When an industry, technology, or product area feels mature and "settled" (like online payments in 2009 with PayPal and many others, or email clients today), it doesn't mean that its a bad space to build something new. In fact, such inertia or perceived product maturity may be signs of a huge opportunity. In these cases, you should build from the id... See more