As the technology sector continues to grow at an incredible rate, new avenues to make our lives easier are opening up in every industry; including finance. Fintech has become the new buzzword, with businesses popping up every day looking to disrupt the notoriously laborious financial sector.
Here, Anna Tsyukpo, CEO of fintech company Paybase, gives her top five tips to making a business in fintech.
1. Maintain focus
There is so much space for innovation in tech, particularly within payments, that it can be very tempting to do too much. The payments industry is very interconnected and involves many different parts and systems, so when working on one aspect, you can see how outdated and inflexible other areas are and think to yourself ‘we can change that too’.
But this is a bad approach, as it will leave you fighting battles in areas you didn’t anticipate being in and detract from your original mission. It’s best to focus your energy on your core offering. Ensure that it’s the best that it can be, then you can start considering expanding and exploring new opportunities.
2. Don’t be afraid to question
In order to iterate what you’re doing, it’s important to regularly question why you’re doing it and whether it’s the best way of doing it. In the early stages of your business there can be a lot of uncertainty and it can feel easiest to cling on to what you know. However, you might end up missing an opportunity to improve.
Changing your approach does not mean the decision you took at the time was wrong; sometimes a better solution emerges. Keep your long-term goals solid, but consistently questioning your methods is a positive way of working. ‘Is our product effectively solving the issue?’, ‘are we using the best and most appropriate tech possible’ and ‘are we positioning our company in the best way possible?’ are just a few of the questions we ask ourselves at Paybase. If the answer isn’t yes to all of these questions, we set about changing it.
3. Be passionate about the problem, not the solution
It’s not enough to be passionate about the solution you’re offering, you need to care about the problem that your business is trying to solve. Centring yourself exclusively around your product/service can make you lose sight of what you’re trying to achieve. Having that passion for fixing the problem is what’s going to spark your creativity when you’re faced with brick wall, and what will inspire your team and create something truly meaningful and innovative.
4. Have a clear monetisation strategy
Whilst a certain amount of flexibility is understandable (and even beneficial), the strategy for getting your product to market and particularly for monetising it needs to be clear. The cost of running a fintech is not insignificant and it is inevitable that there will be unforeseen challenges, so trying to form a monetisation strategy as you go will waste time, resources and leave you regularly straying off course.
5. Assembling the right team
As skilled and qualified as you may be, don’t attempt to be an expert in every field. Take time to hire people who are knowledgeable, experienced and passionate about what they are doing and give them the space to make positive contributions in their own way.
Micro-managing people and being overly prescriptive makes no sense. Instead, it is important to focus on the bigger picture and to set your employees the right tasks – not to worry about the minute details of their processes. A talented team that care about their work is the greatest asset your company can have.
Anna Tsyukpo is CEO of Fintech company Paybase
Further reading on fintech
