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Financial freedom seems to be the ultimate goal for many people. You can read about the blessings of early retirement all over the internet. The motto is: save money for a few years like crazy. Be cheap, invest with a high return, and then give up your hated job. What a dream! Well, there are fewer possibilities until financial independence. But that doesn't matter because consumption doesn’t make you happy anyway. At least, when you listen to those who endeavor an early retirement and financial freedom. Frankly, this hype about early retirement, financial independence, and especially frugality is getting on my nerves. It is time for a counter-speech! The Original Idea Of Retirement At the end of the 19th century, the average life expectancy was only 35 to 38 years. Therefore, people hardly needed to think about retirement. Those, who got significantly older, just continued to work. Or their children took care of them when they could no longer carry on their job. In Europe, the development of a statutory pension system began in the 19th century. In Germany, for example, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck introduced statutory retirement insurance in 1891 in addition to health insurance. It was a modest social net of benefits that Bismarck had created - but it was exemplary in Europe and a novelty at the time. It was more than overdue because industrialization led working people into financial misery. Bismarck recognized the danger. With these first social laws, he attempted to tie workers close to the state and prevent their radicalization. In other words, the social system was based on political calculation rather than charity. This is also reflected in the retirement age: entitlement to a pension was possible from the age of 70 – an age that most workers at the time barely reached. After the First World War, the age limit was lowered to 65 years. But even this age was still difficult to reach at the time. However, this development was very welcome with the industrial revolution. In this way, the factories could elegantly get rid of older workers, whose productivity continued to decline the older they got. To this day, early retirement has remained a popular possibility in business to carry out so-called cost-saving "restructuring.” From 100 to Zero But as great as the idea of retirement sounds nowadays, there is also a downside to this: A found that retirement: study by the Institute of Economic Affairs Decreases the likelihood of 40 percent of people rating their health as very good or excellent. Increases the likelihood of clinical depression by 40 percent. Increases the probability of being diagnosed with at least one physical condition by about 60 percent. Hence, what sense does it make when an arbitrarily chosen age limit is reached to reduce the work from 100 to 0 percent? What are the reasons that motivate people to save money for early retirement voluntarily, considering these facts? Or to ask differently: Why Do People Pursue Financial Freedom? The psychologist presented his theory of the 16 motives in life in the 1990s. These act as a driving force for the human psyche: Steven Reiss The 16 basic needs, according to Steven Reiss: Acceptance: The need to avoid criticism and rejection. Social contact: The need for friendships. Honor: The need to behave with moral integrity among a social (ethnic) group. Romance: The need for sexuality. Eating: The need for food. Family: The need to raise one's own children. Idealism: The need for social justice. Physical Activity: The need to move one's muscles, to exercise. Power: The need to influence other people’s will. Curiosity: The need to learn. Order: The need for structure and stable, predictable environments. Revenge: The need to get even with someone. Calm: The need for inner peace and to be safe. Saving: The need to collect and accumulate material goods (also assets). Status: The need for prestige, for social importance. Independence: The need for self-sufficiency and individuality. What role do these basic psychological needs play in our lives? To simplify it, we feel happy when a basic need is satisfied above average. And we feel unhappy when the same basic need is unmet. So far, so good. The thing is that every person has an individual constellation of basic needs. Someone has an above-average need for physical activity. Without exercise, this person feels bad. Another person has a distinctive need for rest. He or she may go well without sports, but not without reading cozily on the couch. Therefore, anyone who strives for financial freedom or early retirement most likely has an above-average need for independence combined with the urge to save (basic needs 14 and 16). Wow! Do you see where it leads to? Why Don't More People Want to Become Financially Independent? How can it be that some people strive for financial independence, and others do not? Is it because they have not yet found the corresponding financial blogs on the internet? I do not think so. But something else is much more likely: As we have seen above, the basic needs 14 and 16 are not superior psychological motives for everyone! Other needs are more important to them. For some people, the pursuit of power may play a greater role. For others, it may be status considerations that outweigh the need for independence. Those who retire early because of financial freedom would lose these preferred psychological motives. Hence, it’s a question of the individual constellation of basic psychological needs that is behind the pursuit of financial freedom. When the Job Sucks Let's take a closer look at the need for independence. I have spent many hours on financial blogs dealing with financial freedom. I found some statements there that sound something like this: Work. It means spending time on something I only do to make money. Although I enjoy my job, if I didn't have to do it, I probably wouldn't. The system wants you to work until you are 70? "F***ck you!" Your boss sends you to the new subsidiary in the back of beyond? "F*ck you!" Bored with the city you live in? Say “F*ck You!”, and start over somewhere else. Honestly, who doesn't dream about it from time to time? When you get stuck in traffic on the way home in the evening. Or waiting for the bus to work in the drizzle of the winter morning. Then being bawled by the head for trivial things, and having to spend the rest of the day being annoyed by the laziness and stupidity of colleagues. All these impositions will vanish once the promised land of “financial freedom” is reached, right? Therefore, the solution can only be: Suffer at work for a few more years, drastically reduce expenses, and save like a maniac! Anyone who saves 70 percent of the net income can quit the job after 9 years. A great thing, because now you can finally do what you really enjoy. The Question Is: Why Don't You Do it Here and Now? Why are you willing to bear the challenges of this job for another 8, 10, or more years? Are you your own enemy? Do you hate yourself so much that you are willing to torment yourself for many years? What I’m trying to say: Who says that once you've started a job, it's the end of the road? Where is the will for professional development and change? Where is the ambition to try something new in professional life? Becoming self-employed, starting a company? I get the impression that among those people seeking financial freedom are many well-earning academics doing their job without any pleasure. And they seek salvation in financial independence. Of course, you can do it like this. However, I find it quite sad to spend valuable years of life in an unsatisfied situation to be "free" sometime in the future. Consequently, the desire for financial freedom means that you don't feel free today! And I find it whimsical that even younger people who have barely left their teens are already thinking about things like financial independence or "passive income". What kind of impression of work must they have to be seeking an exit before earning any substantial income? 4 Reasons Why Early Financial Independence Is Unimportant to Me The emphasis is on . Of course, it does make sense to become financially independent from a job until old age. This means, around age 60, I want to reach the point where I no longer have to work for money. That's why I build wealth through options trading and investing. early But "early retirement" or even "extreme early retirement" doesn't matter to me for the following reasons: 1. I Don't Like Financial Deprivation I say yes to saving money, investing, and long-term asset accumulation. I pursue financial security and would like to achieve my financial goals. But I definitely say no to frugalism, greed, and penny-pinching. Because that's just not the way I want to live! I don't want to have to ask myself every day what I can live without, like hardcore frugalists. Of course, it’s nonsense to promise happiness from material possessions. And status symbols are more than superfluous. But I don't watch every penny in the supermarket or look for clothes in second-hand shops. And if I feel the need to put money into my hobby or technical gadgets, or visit a fancy restaurant, then that's what I do. 2. I Prefer to Live Here and Now In any case, I want to enjoy my life today and not in the future. Since my work doesn't torture me, it doesn't make me feel unfree or trapped in a hamster wheel. I won't say I love my job more than anything else. But I really like it, and I like to go into the office. The only thing that drives me crazy is when the alarm clock goes off at 6 a.m. But is that the reason for saying I want to be financially independent? Or is it a reason for you? If it’s the case: Do you have any idea when rich people get up? Some at 3 a.m.! You do not believe me? Then look at the daily routine of Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Elon Musk, Marc Zuckerberg, and all the other successful people. My “work-life balance” or rather my “work-leisure balance” is already good today. Why should I change anything about it? And frankly, I can't imagine that being financially independent of employment would make me an even happier person. Especially not if in return, I have to be cheap for several years as a frugalist. 3. Financially, You Are Never Really Free True financial independence (including passive income) is nothing more than an illusion. Because if income from a job no longer finances your life, this "job" must be taken over by capital income like dividends, interest, or rental income. In other words: Even with financial independence, there is a dependency on alternative sources of money. On the one hand, some of them are dependent on market developments. On the other hand, in political decisions, if at some point a socialist-leaning government decides that capital income is an invention of the devil, and must be taxed "more fairly", then the fun will quickly end. Of course, you can still move to another country, provided you didn't focus primarily on real estate. 4. I Would Keep Working Anyway I had a long and challenging career at the beginning. But I have continuously worked to optimize my income situation, workload, and working conditions. By and options trading, I built up a second financial pillar, which gives me an additional, time-independent "passive" income. I don't make any money from my blog right now. But I'm working on building a third source of income with it. It all takes time. investing in stocks Maybe it will take 10 years. But I like writing blog posts, and that's why I keep going. I had to learn it the hard way. But I finally accepted it because one day, I realized I don’t want to retire in the traditional sense. I don't want to be one of those retired people who just languish, get bored on cruises, and then end up dying in an old people’s home. I never will! I would maybe reduce the working time at my regular job to have more free time. But I would still go to work. And if the universe will provide me with a fortune of a millionaire, maybe I will quit my job. However, the reason for quitting my regular job would be to do other work, like getting involved in some projects for environmental protection. And that’s the point. Most people associate financial freedom with quitting a job and then doing nothing, or doing something else but work. This is for sure a pleasure and a lot of fun. But in my opinion, it’s just like eating every day the same food. One day they will get tired of doing nothing. Conclusion If you feel a strong desire for financial freedom, ask yourself first: Do I have a problem with my job? If so, what can I change so I no longer see work as a nuisance? If the job is not your problem: It is, of course, a legitimate goal to achieve financial freedom well before retirement age! It’s as legitimate as running a marathon in under four hours, crossing the desert on foot, or walking the Camino de Santiago. If the idea intrigues you, and you're motivated enough to save more than half of your net income every month: go for it! But don't assume other people will show the same enthusiasm or even want to emulate you. After all, not everyone likes oysters, sushi, or foie gras in the same way. Not everyone has a high priority for Reiss’ needs Nr. 14 and 16! What you should pursue, in any case, is financial independence from employment when you retire. In my opinion, financial freedom is when you go to work because you want to, and not because you have to do it. You can also achieve a fortune with normal savings rates of between 10 and 25 percent and a solid investment strategy. It’s just important that you keep the balance between living in the here and now, and the future.

Financial Freedom Is an Illusion

Web3 companies are driving the use of crypto in B2B payments, not only because counterparts in the web3 economy prefer to pay in their own native tokens. Crypto payments, particularly in stablecoins have proven to be both a faster, and cheaper way to manage B2B payments, especially across countries. The as of Q4 2020, with bank transfers averaging a whopping 11%. Yet in October 2018, a on legacy systems like PayPal, was made with just $0.06 on Ethereum. World Bank estimates the average transaction fee for cross-border payments to be around 6.51% $183 million transaction that would have cost senders over $5 million in commissions An average international payment takes 2-3 days to clear. In contrast, Bitcoin takes an average of 10 minutes to process a new transaction, while Ethereum requires an average of 14 seconds as of today. Newer promise to slash transaction costs and settlement times even further. blockchain payment rails like Arbitrum Apart from crypto being a cheaper, faster means of making cross-border payments, businesses also hold crypto assets on their balance sheet for treasury management purposes. Not only does this apply to volatile cryptocurrencies like BTC or ETH, but also stablecoins which can generate significantly higher yields by being lent out on DeFi platforms, instead of being held in traditional bank accounts. Whether you are managing a play-to-earn crypto gaming guild, launching an NFT project, or overseeing the financial operations of a DAO, crypto payments are likely a core part of your financial operations. But for many finance managers or CFOs at web3 companies, that’s where the problems begin. The Pains of Processing Crypto Payments Invoices are essential in B2B payments, to append metadata to financial transactions. Whether for tax and audit purposes, or simply for companies to analyze patterns in their finances, invoices are key. Web3 companies must rely on invoices to pay for many of their major costs in crypto. This ranges from contracting marketing agencies, to like developers, content creators, and community managers. paying the salaries of a global team of remote workers But keeping records of PDF invoices, and paying invoices in crypto is slow and laborious. A significant amount of time is spent on manual data entry and reconciliation. Crypto finance professionals know the pain of copy-pasting individual wallet addresses, and then sending transaction IDs as proof of payment to each counterparty. “ ”, . “ ”, he added. Paying users with direct wallet transfers made it difficult to track who received how much and for what services explains Robin Lehmann, co-founder & CEO of DataUnion Also the laborious and painstaking process of managing payments meant it was always difficult to remunerate the team in a timely manner The difficulty of bookkeeping with crypto is real. Accountants and CFOs working with crypto-native companies know the hassle of reconciling crypto payments from invoices. Invoices in crypto tend to be sent via PDF files, in different layouts and formats which have to be meticulously stored and organized. That makes it difficult, and time-consuming for non-crypto native accountants to reconcile - . Rudy Kadoch, founder of the crypto social trading platform, Nested Finance To address these challenges, a growing number of  web3 companies like DeFi platforms, DAOs, play-to-earn blockchain games, and NFT projects have turned to Request Finance to automate their B2B payments in crypto. Automating Crypto Payments and Invoicing with Request Finance Since launching in 2021, over 1,400 web3 companies now use Request Finance to automate their crypto payments, and invoicing workstreams. Here’s how: 1. Pre-filled invoice templates Request Finance automatically populates crypto invoices with counterparties’ information, and wallet addresses when receiving or sending an invoice requesting payment in crypto. This eliminates the hassle of having to ask for payment information, or pull data from invoices in different formats when bookkeeping. ‍ Pre-filled invoices also minimize human error and fraud. Wallet addresses are often a string of hexadecimals, making crypto payments particularly prone to costly typos, and more commonly, fraud. When making crypto payments, users must copy a string of 26 to 35 characters which serves as the recipient’s wallet address. Most wallets make sure that this alphanumeric string matches the public key of a cryptocurrency wallet that actually exists. Sending payments to non-existent addresses due to a typo is rare. Far more common, however, is sending crypto payments to the wrong wallet address. A user might, for instance, pay to an address belonging to . a fraudulent actor spoofing a known counterparty rather than the correct wallet address on an outstanding invoice Unlike bank accounts or mobile fiat wallets which show recipient names prior to making payment, it is frightfully easy to mix up the numerous crypto wallet addresses, which can be wrongly labeled on an Excel spreadsheet. “ ”, explains Robin Lehmann, co-founder & CEO of DataUnion. A combination of Metamask and a spreadsheet is certainly not the most efficient way to keep financial records In May 2021, as part of a bungled promotional campaign. In October that same year, , after an upgrade introduced a bug. BlockFi accidentally sent some $20 million in Bitcoin about $90.1 million mistakenly went out to users of popular DeFi staking protocol, Compound With Request Finance, users connect their wallets to their accounts. This ensures that the payments you make to the counterparty you select in the app will always receive the funds in a wallet address they own. “ ” . Winning teams can use Request to send pre-filled invoices with the correct payment information linked to their email accounts. This helps us prevent administrative errors, and save time from not having to retrieve and key in the right payment details explained Frederic Meyer-Scharenberg, organizer of the Swiss Blockchain Hackathon 2021 2. Schedule recurring invoices Recurring payments are common to a number of contractual relationships for businesses. This includes items such as salary payments to team members, or subscription fees to be collected from software users. With just a simple checkbox, users can schedule the automated sending of recurring invoices in Request Finance. This frees up time your finance team spends on collections. For instance, when you onboard a subscriber for your SaaS platform, you can schedule a recurring invoice for the subscription fee to be sent to the subscriber every month, on the anniversary of the subscription contract. , which will open up new pay-as-you-go, or “PAYG” revenue models for your business. Request Finance is also in the process of integrating streaming payments with Superfluid 3. Pay multiple crypto invoices at once Say goodbye to paying individual invoices one-by-one. With Request Finance, you can . This saves a tremendous amount of time, as well as transaction fees. pay multiple invoices, and up to hundreds of different wallet addresses within just a few clicks 4. Real-time payment status updates Ensuring that you pay your bills on time, while also keeping tabs on the outstanding payments due to you is critical to your business’ reputation, and cashflow. With Request Finance, businesses can view all their invoice statuses in real time - all from a single dashboard. The ability to review outstanding invoices not only lets you keep tabs on your accounts. It also automatically provides your counterparties with real-time payment confirmations with on-chain data. No longer do you need to send, or request transaction IDs as proof of payment, or check blockchain explorers. You’ll know exactly when the funds hit your wallet. To learn more about how you can optimize your financial operations in crypto, . see how a growing list of web3 CFOs and finance professionals at companies like The Sandbox, AAVE, and MakerDAO have used Request Finance Interested? with your finance team today. Book a demo ‍ Written by: Ivan, Content Lead at Request Finance Send, receive, and manage your crypto invoices, payroll, and expenses in an easy, secured, and compliant way. New to Request? Join 1,400+ Businesses Using Request 👉 Sign up for free 📅 View demo

How to Automate Crypto Payments and Invoicing for Web3, DeFi, and NFT Projects

Trends to watch out for, the next big year! or its portmanteau ‘ is no longer confined to the dark and dingy corners of back-offices, in fact, it has taken centre stage by making itself indispensable to almost all of the customer-driven processes. Any digital transaction, be it, , is possible at our fingertips thanks to ‘FinTech.’ So, how did FinTech come to play such an essential role in the lives of us consumers? Financial Technology FinTech’ online shopping, foreign currency exchange, stock investments or money transfers As it was rightly said by Mr. White — “ ”. This new explosion in IT is definitely the one that is knocking on every VCs and investors doorstep. This could be precisely said because the overall investment in Financial Technology has . I am the one who knocks already surpassed the 2017 results in mid-year itself Let’s take a look at some of the major breakthroughs that occurred in FinTech this year, WorldPay (now ) was publicly listed which provided online services for accepting electronic transactions by a variety of methods such as credit card, bank based or direct transfer. It also offered a range of merchant services and operated in an extensive demographic (400,000 merchants in 146 countries) across the globe. It was acquired by , a leading provider of payment processing services and related technology solutions for financial institutions. The acquisition came as a significant step forward for the two giants. WorldPay which competes with the likes of and several others gained significant momentum after the acquisition. • The acquisition of WorldPay WorldPay, Inc payment processing platform Vantiv $12.9 billion VeriFone, PayPal, Stripe It didn’t come as a surprise to many when China’s raised about $14 billion in its last seed round. After all, it is backed by one of the biggest names in the industry ( .). • The Funding of Ant Financial Ant Financial Alibaba Group Holding Ltd Image Source: www.ft.com The funding made Ant the world’s leading FinTech firm. The funding undeniably equipped them with enormous resources for expansion. The affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is alreadyChina’s biggest online payments service and even controls the world’s largest money market fund. “ ,” Ant’s CEO Eric Jing said in a statement to Bloomberg. Now, with the help of our partners, we are going to accelerate our strategy Analyzing the above developments we could accurately predict where FinTech is headed in 2019. Let’s take a sneak peek, 1. RegTech is here to stay Compliance, Complexity, Cost and Bureaucratic processes have always stifled the development of the finance industry. The long and tedious processes have proven to be a bane for the industry. This led to the reincarnation of a morbid industry that never saw a significant thrust since the spurt of the . Consequently, we are seeing a lot of financial firms shifting to to bridge those gaps. One must wonder- dot-com bubble Regulatory Technology (RegTech) What exactly is RegTech?? It is essentially such as regulatory compliance. It has a significant impact on financial services. In simpler words, it is a technology that helps financial service firms get better at dealing with regulation. For instance, . But the benefits of RegTech far exceeds than just KYC. As the , technologies such as are enabling companies to gain insights into regulatory practices, automate reporting, carry out a meaningful inspection of critical compliance risk areas and even potentially create an end-to-end view of compliance. Companies are using RegTech to deal with the vast amount of data they are generating. More data handled the right way also means better information.Many VCs and investors have already started riding on the RegTech bandwagon, due to which there has been a significant increase in the investment across this lucrative sector. RegTech has a promising future ahead, and these new-age startups will be the ones to watch out for in the upcoming calendar. Based out of Luxembourg, and founded by brothers Bert and Rob Boerman, this RegTech startup provides smart technology and support services to facilitate the control of regulated companies. They raised their Series A round this year. Governance.io has established itself as a platform for good governance through the use of technology and support. Deployed , the solution allows all stakeholders to collaborate on data, documentation, and workflows. It also provides a white-labelled client portal to exchange data and collaborate on meetings and due diligence questionnaires. . This UK based startup was founded in 2015. Riding on new age technologies, ALA has established a stronghold in the Compliance sector. It offers enterprise-wide for buy and sell-side institutions and other financial firms. Their bring alternative data insights for financial institutions. By using , ALA develops and apply risk calculations. Communications and other source data are scored against a series of to quickly pick up on any issues that could cause problems. the use of technology across financial services functions to ease financial tasks Know Your Customer (KYC) world is moving from big data to ‘smart data’ artificial intelligence and machine learning . There has been an investment of $1.37 billion in the first half of 2018 — more than for all of 2017 1. Governance.io / governance.com: at-premise or in the cloud A network of governance supports clients that can provide hosting, operational support, regulatory advisory, and other support services 2. Advanced logic analytics: big data and financial analytics solutions data science-led business offering and AI driven algorithms machine learning-based analytic techniques Key Risk Indicators (KRIs) RegTech startups that are creating a difference in the Compliance Sector Agreement Express provides for financial services. Their platform allows wealth management and payments companies to deliver customer application, approval, and onboarding services across their offerings. They provide seamless integration to the back-office for compliance and risk workflows which is one of their most sought-after features. 3. Agreement express: onboarding automation software The differentiating factor for this Munich based startup has been the market it caters**.** Alyne offerings include across all industries of all magnitudes. They call themselves “Business focused Software as a Service”. 4. Alyne: cybersecurity, risk management and compliance capabilities Surety caters to a niche segment of Regulatory Technology. They provide technology to protect the integrity of digital information using They are also one of the prominent providers of regulatory services such as . Surety sanctions users to apply to almost any form of electronic information. They are , providing long-term and independent proof with the guarantee that the information hasn’t been tampered since. 5. Surety: cryptographic time-stamping service. IP protection and digital footprint preservation tamper-proof digital “Seals” easily deployable across enterprise or cloud Appzen is an extremely impressive AI platform that utilizes , It integrates with all major ERPs, invoicing software, and expense automation products. This six-year-old startup is and has recently . Appzen enjoys clientele such as , and 650 major organizations. “ ,” AppZen’s Chief Executive Officer, said in a statement. 6. AppZen: machine learning to audit contracts expense reports and invoices. valued at $175 million raised $35 million in its Series B round Airbnb, Amazon, Citi Bank, Salesforce, Intuit The goal is to address all the domains in the CFO organization Anant Kale AQMETRICS provides software for financial services firms trading on the global financial markets. Headquartered in Kildare, Ireland (EU), AQMETRICS has raised almost in investment so far. They specialize in providing and to investment management companies. AQMETRICS serves a suite of cloud-based solutions and supports a full range of global regulatory reporting. Arachnys’ vision is focused on exploiting the evolving markets rather than already lucrative ones because they believe emerging markets, which are often fragmented and poorly organized will see an explosion of business information. Unlike their RegTech counterparts, Arachnys, therefore, targets the Eurasian market more extensively. Their primary emphasis remains attractive markets like . Arachnys domain expertise caters to by using cutting-edge technologies such as . Their products are specifically tailored to serve diverse customer base and are extensively customizable. 7. AQMETRICS: GRC (Governance, Risk & Compliance) $3.3 Million unified market surveillance compliance solutions 8. Arachnys: China, India, Russia, and the Middle East Customer Risk Evaluation lifecycle Robotic Process Automation, Machine Learning, Intelligence, and Natural Language Processing 2. Artificial Intelligence: In the early days of banking, bankers used to have personal connections with their customers. Each step of the banking process involved customer-client interaction. But due to the digitization of the banking process, this personal connection has been lost. So, is it possible to leverage the same technology to get that human interaction back? Image Source: geniusmonkey.com Many believe, . Artificial intelligence (A.I.) will continue to govern FinTech in new ways. . A.I can be leveraged to bring back that connection In 2019, we could see companies use A.I. to develop new commerce interfaces, with the number of companies looking into voice set to increase Let’s delve into the potential use-cases of A.I: : In traditional banking infrastructure, there were a lot of customers who were underserved and ignored. They couldn’t apply for a loan because they didn’t have a credit score. Many startups have stepped up to bridge that crevice. . Many tools and technologies such as are being deployed to ensure a detailed evaluation of the potential borrower. These technologies let banks build a vivid picture that allows them to evaluate whether a candidate is creditworthy. • Credit Scores Various applications are coming up to assist customers who want to apply for a loan but have no credit history for the bank to review Psychometric Analysis, Behavioral Detection, Predictive Analysis, and mining of the borrower’s data through the web, social media, geo-location and even browser history : The banking sector is the single most targeted area by hackers and fraudsters for obvious reasons. This anomaly allows for the development of some of the most innovative and hi-tech solutions in this realm. , and numerous other tools and technologies are being deployed by financial firms and new-age startups to address this issue. Many and issue warnings in case of possible security infringement. Due to these developments, and digital payment gateways to carry out their financial transactions. • Security and Fraud Control Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Optimized Algorithms A.I tools have also come into use to analyze and observe user’s critical behavioral patterns it was observed in the Q3 that consumers are increasingly becoming more at ease at using A.I-driven applications : Time and again it has been witnessed that most of the customer-facing processes are becoming obsolete by every passing day. They are being revolutionized by the advent . It could be easily figured out as to what exactly is driving that trend. Automation of customer-facing services address one problem that has always costed companies in billions of dollar — . • Customer Support Automation of Chabots and Virtual Assistants Human Error Image Source: medium.com/techsee A.I driven platforms with use of Natural Language Processing (NLP) are turning more human than ever. This combined with no possible error in delivery makes it an ideal fit. Chatbots can not only answer customer queries intelligently, but they can also be integrated with social networking sites, and accept requests for applications and orders directly from social media channels. The outcomes clearly surpassed the forecasts. Gartner prediction for 2018, projected more than 2 billion people would be diligently using conversational A.I to interact with virtual assistants on different platforms. 3. Blockchain will venture beyond Bitcoin: The much-hyped technology upon which Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are based — , is all set out to venture beyond Bitcoin and will serve various other markets and domains. Keeping in mind the potential of , several banks and financial firms have planned for considerable investments in the domain. Many companies have rolled out pilot programs across a range of industries, including — . Earlier in 2018, several banks in Asia conducted a pilot in which Blockchain was used to transfer funds across continents in a matter of few seconds. The Blockchain Blockchain financial services, healthcare and even global logistics Image Source: twitter.com/chboursin The following could be the potential use cases that can come into light in 2019, : Blockchain could help tremendously in gun control and weapon accountability. This could easily be one of the single most significant reform that could change the entire state of firearm distribution. And gun control being such a trending topic on almost every new network. Blockchain could create a completely transparent and never-changing registry ledger that allows law enforcement to track down weapons and guns ownership. It could also be utilized to keep a record of weapons sold privately. If you are worried about booth capturing or voter fraud. Then Blockchain will offer you a sigh of relief. Blockchain would offer the ability to vote digitally and at the same time be transparent enough that any regulator could see if any irregularity or fraud transpires. The decentralized nature and its immutability would ensure your vote truly counts. Digital IDs with the help of Blockchain would be a boon for the impoverished and developing nations by giving them access to financial services. Tech giant Microsoft is already planning to venture into the domain by creating digital IDs within its Authenticator app. 1. Weapons Tracking 2. Digital Voting: 3. Digital IDs: Since paper trails are frequently a source of confusion, it is entirely possible that Blockchain will take paper out of the equation. So, if one plans to buy or sell land, a house, or even a car you’ll just require to transfer the title. Thanks to Blockchain these titles will get stored on the network allowing for a crystal clear picture of the legal ownership. 4. Real Estate: Patient privacy would be utterly discreet by the introduction of Blockchain in the pharmaceutical sector. The patients who possess the key to access these records will be in complete ownership of their data and will control who can access or view that data. Thus strengthening the that are designed to protect their privacy. 5. Record keeping of medical records: HIPAA laws Many networking corporations have announced that they are working on a Blockchain based application that will monitor the Internet of Things network. Such an application would help determine the authenticity of the devices on the network and would continuously do so for devices entering and leaving the network. This could drive a significant shift in device-to-device integration. 6. Managing IoT (Internet of Things) networks: 4. Financial Inclusion: In the largest ever gathering of FinTech firms in Singapore, Indian Prime Minister, introduced attractive policies and plans to invite investors to the Indian landscape. “ ,” said Modi, the keynote speaker at the Singapore FinTech Festival. In Nigeria, FinTech startup has come with a solution that provides simple and reliant digital payment system to the consumers. So, consumers of Nigeria who were generally skeptical when it comes to e-commerce, have embraced the platform. Narendra Modi I say this to all the FinTech companies and startups: India is your best destination NetPlus Developments such as these are proving to be an excellent boost for evolving markets such as India, Brazil, Nigeria, Indonesia, and several others. Earlier when the FinTech hubs used to be just San Francisco, Singapore, and London, such developments are driving investors to these huge rewarding markets. This shift in the market will gain significant traction next year and developing nations would possible see tremendous growth in investments across FinTech and RegTech. Also, several financial establishments are planning to open up new premises in these countries which definitely suggests what is expected to come our way in 2019. Wrapping up: My prediction for 2019: It is big, It is growing, and It is disruptive. FinTech would be the second-most significant transformation in Finance, since the first permanent banknotes** **. . I believe, Financial Technology would not only disrupt the way we purchase and invest, but it would also alter the very definition of money itself is upon us and banks, and financial firms will enjoy a roller-coaster ride riding on the FinTech wagon. 2019 will be the year of banks acquiring FinTech firms, or waiting for their slow demise. Those who catch the FinTech train would bolster, and the rest would be gasping for air. FinTech 3.0 After all, it is true what they say — . You snooze, You lose If you have any queries at all, please feel free to drop your comments. Originally Published on by EngineerBabu Blog Saransh Sethi — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — Read My Other Related Articles 1. How to Start a FinTech Company , Also on Hackernoon 2. Top 10 Fintech Companies Transforming Finance in USA 3. Digital Transformation in Finance , Also on Hackernoon 4. How is Blockchain Revolutionizing Banking and Financial Markets , Also on Hackernoon 5. Asking for Blockchain to your Daily Banking Solutions , Also on Hackernoon I am Mayank, Cofounder of EngineerBabu . Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn | mayank@engineerbabu.com (About EngineerBabu — Medium ). In addition Help startups, enterprises, and owners to grow their business by building high class IT solutions. 95% of projects developed by them were completed on-time. , Win most innovative Premier Design Award, selected in Y-Combinator 2016 & 2017. EngineerBabu 30+ funded by VCs

FinTech in 2019

By , Founder and CEO at Washlava (2015-present). on . Todd Belveal Originally published Quora The startup ecosystem has people fixated on this idea of the elevator pitch. To be honest, I’ve never heard of anybody doing a deal in an elevator. The story is probably out there, but you don’t need an elevator pitch to hook an investor. You need a teaser — and you need it for a few reasons. A teaser isn’t a deck. A teaser is a one-page summary that outlines the business opportunity for investors. No more than one page, no less. It’s not a sales pitch or a financial projection — it’s one page that tells investors why they should care about your idea. Whenever an aspiring founder runs me through an intriguing concept, I ask them to write a teaser. I don’t hear back from most of them, because writing one is harder than it seems. I’m not always gunning to invest in the company, but I ask to see if they’re capable of creating one — if they know how to distill their idea into its clearest, most attractive form. Simply putting a one-page constraint on the document makes it a challenge. If entrepreneurs can’t write a teaser, it raises questions on their conviction about the opportunity and the amount of research they’ve done to back up the strategy. Plenty of people talk about doing a startup, but not everyone walks the walk and does the work required to get their idea out there. Why You Need A Teaser It creates your foundation. Think of the teaser as an executive summary written in complete sentences and paragraphs. A teaser forces you to think clearly about your idea and identify why it’s different. It’s a concise expression of your idea that requires proper syntax and grammar, so don’t use bullet points. It doesn’t matter how extraordinary your idea is — fit it onto one page. Squeeze the margins, do whatever you have to, but turn your term paper business plan into a one-page report. It took me several months to get my teaser just the way I wanted. It piques interest in your idea. A lot of entrepreneurs don’t understand what the word “teaser” implies. A teaser is only designed to get you a call. It’s your shot at getting an investor on the phone so you can present your idea in more detail. Think of it like your profile on a dating app. It’s not meant to replace an actual conversation with someone. It provides enough information to make you attractive, without giving every detail. No one wants to hear about all your potential problems — or why you’re so great — before you even have a first date. A teaser is meant to say, “Hey, I’m an attractive venture, and I think you should take a look. If you agree, let’s talk.” You’ve only got one page to get them hooked, so you have to make your idea stand out. What To Put In A Teaser Lead with the opportunity. You should open the teaser with a concise paragraph explaining the opportunity to the investors. That first paragraph should tell them exactly what they’ll be reading about. But you don’t have to immediately tell them what your concept is — a concise explanation of the opportunity may be a better way to hook them. When I was writing the teaser for my first startup, Silvercar, I didn’t lead with a description of my concept. I led with the stagnant business practices in the car rental industry, their poor customer experience, and the overall lack of innovation. The opportunity I laid out was enough to keep investors reading. Share your target market and market size. When putting together your teaser, be sure to talk about where you intend to focus the venture. Don’t say “It’s for everyone.” It’s not for everyone. Include an objective presentation of the market opportunity, the market size, and the company you’re building to capture the opportunity. And be realistic. Many entrepreneurs overestimate the addressable market, but you can avoid that by doing deep research. It should be clear to investors that you’ve done enough of it and have a good grasp of the market. Use objective data. Don’t frame your teaser like a sales pitch. Investors respect objectivity. It’s good to have passion and enthusiasm for what you’re doing, but you want this to be about the quality of the opportunity, not the pitch. And honestly, keep financial details out of your teaser. You want to get the investor fired up about the market opportunity, because that determines if they like the idea or not. All startup pro formas look exactly the same, showing upward growth and breaking even somewhere around year three, so don’t bother putting it in your teaser. Investors know that any financial projections have a lot of forecast error. And if they agree to fund you, they’ll spend plenty of time helping you clean up those numbers. Do You Still Need A Deck? Word on the street is investors don’t read one-page teasers anymore, they only read decks. I’m not exactly sure how true that is or not. But if an investor won’t take the time to read one page, they’re probably not going to be worth much as a partner. Ultimately, you should create both a teaser and a deck — but write the teaser first. It gives you confidence and helps you decide what to put in your deck. It builds the voiceover script behind the bullets. It’s hard to condense all your research onto one page, but trust me, it makes everything else easier. Once you finish your teaser, you’ll have distilled your idea into its clearest, most concise form. You’ll be proud to distribute it. Which is exactly what investors need to get excited about your company. By , Founder and CEO at Washlava (2015-present). on . Todd Belveal Originally published Quora For more trending tech answers from , visit . Quora HackerNoon.com/quora

Why Every Startup Needs a Teaser

America’s vaunted hi tech companies are too important to leave them in the hands of brilliant, but immature neophytes. It’s time to bring in a leader who knows how to run a hi tech meritocracy. The global ride sharing phenom has hit a few speed bumps. With the departure of co-founder and former CEO, Travis Kalanick, the stage is set for a comeback under the right leadership. The time has come for the bro culture — and let’s include the venture capitalists on the boards — to turn the reins over to mature, steady thinking operators, someone like GE’s former chairman and CEO, Jeffrey R. Immelt. This is a CEO who has been trained for 30 years how to run a diverse meritocracy — without inviting a dystopian revolution. And not just at Uber, but I predict, what’s in store for Google, Facebook, Twitter, as well. But at Uber, as a side note, why not hire a non-bro like Sheryl Sandberg? The reason is simple. Neither Sandberg nor Whitman nor any other hi tech star is interested. Meddlesome VC’s on the board are not an attractive setting for successful CEOs. Just ask Carly Fiorina. So why would Immelt want the job? Mainly, he’s retired and he knows he can fix the company because he’s done it before. Silicon Valley’s hi tech companies have rendered entire global industries defunct. Working properly, they are economic forces that enhance life and commerce, but led by misguided if well-meaning managerial neophytes, they are risk prone, as Uber’s and Google’s recent failings show. GE’s Immelt is the antidote to managerial immaturity. He has dealt with anti-globalism, 9/11 (he became CEO 4 days before), billion dollar pivots, and every human strife known to mankind in his successful stewardship of GE. I had the chance to interview Jeff Immelt while he was still in the CEO role at GE and his comments suggest there isn’t a better person to guide Uber into the next phase. (interview link bottom). Diversity is a secret weapon “I’m in my 30th year of being trained how to run a meritocracy, how to be open, how to encourage an open workplace. There’s no excuse for people not to be open — no matter what you’ve done, if you can bring it, if you’ve got merit, if you’re winning, you’re going to get promoted.” 2. The world will surprise you even if you’re a major league CEO “I think the biggest surprise is the world twisted from one of benign growth to high volatility and geo-political risk. In many ways the environment today is nothing like what I thought it would be when I became CEO.” 3. Even with a 100 year success, the company must change “I had a sense we were more well constructed for an American-centric economy, one that was not quite as volatile. We really started thinking the portfolio had to change to our new philosophy — we only wanted to be as broad as we were deep.” 4. You need to discover what you do better “We looked at those businesses where we had an essential competitive advantage. I thought about technology, globalization, installed base revenue as being our core competencies. We wanted to keep financial services to more than a third of the company and the financial crisis more or less took care of that.” 5. You may follow a tough act in your career “When you replace a famous person, you’re always reminded of things he said. I think what really makes great leaders or what made my predecessor great was he really didn’t care too much about history. It’s why today, we think about what’s right for now, not what was right ten, twenty, or thirty years ago.” 6. You may not be good at all things “I think we used to think if you had good leaders you could be in any business. We want to have good leaders, but we now believe deep domain expertise is critically important. Business has no shelf life.” 7. You can learn from Warren Buffett as long as you are yourself “I always look at what Warren Buffett is doing. The thing I admire the most is he never follows a fad. His thesis, what he believes in, how he invests, never changes. That is something I’ve tried to do in my own context at GE, stick to a very disciplined box of what makes a great GE business.” 8. You are competing with Google even if you don’t know it “We’re not going away. We’re paranoid, we’re investing, we’re changing, we’re relevant to our customers and the industries that we serve in. We don’t want to be Microsoft or Google, but we’re inspired by them. We want to be better because of them. I want to be in the top ten most valuable brands. It’s not okay for me to say, ‘Oh gosh, we’re too old.’ That’s not acceptable as a thought for our company.” 9. Hard things are going to be hard “I’ve done this now 14 years. Anyone that says they think these jobs are easy…these are hard jobs and you have to learn every day. What I love about our company and what I try to match myself is resiliency. We’ve been able to change the portfolio, grow earnings, through three recessions and political unrest. In a very volatile world, we’ve stayed focused, accountable to our customers, our investors, and have this this sense that we’re never as good as we want to be and that no matter what happens we can get better.” 10. Experience will make you better if you let it “There’s no doubt in my mind, when I talk to other leaders, you haven’t led until you’ve been through a ‘flying close to the sun’ tail risk. Now your investors don’t love you when that’s happening. When you’re in the middle of the crisis you may not understand you’re getting better, and people that are investing in you are a little bit hacked off.” “You can only tell about people when it’s 15 minutes till midnight and it’s crappy outside and horrible things are happening, then you can tell who’s good, and who can make it and who can’t. I think in my own case, I’ve learned from all the things that have happened over time and hopefully become better.”

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