Fintech Entrepreneurs Convene in NYC For Curated Industry Tour

Endeavor hosted its second annual New York City Fintech Tour on October 6, 2017, connecting over 20 entrepreneurs from 13 different countries with leading fintech innovators in the city. The event featured sessions with key fintech founders and investors, during which attendees discussed industry trends, opportunities, and exits.

The day kicked off with a look into the emerging market fintech landscape with Jonathan Whittle, Partner at Quona Capital. Jonathan provided insights into new fintech initiatives, from e-invoicing to e-factoring, hailing from emerging markets. The entrepreneurs then visited the Betterment headquarters to hear from Founder and CEO Jon Stein about how he grew the company into the largest independent online financial advisor. Jon walked the audience from Betterment’s early days to its present quest to reinvent the investment industry.

For another investor’s perspective, the group then met with Founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group, Barry Silbert. Barry, an expert, notorious for banking on bitcoin and blockchain, shared how digital currency is disrupting fintech and demystified the concept of ICOs. Afterwards, participants had a session with Stripe’s James Allgrove, who shared how he helped scale the payments giant internationally and the lessons learned along the way. James delved into the do’s and don’t’s of international expansion and made fascinating comparisons of similar companies that succeeded and failed.

In the afternoon, the group traveled downtown to the Bain Capital Ventures office to get longtime fintech investor and Managing Director, Matt Harris’ take on where VCs have been placing their bets within the industry. As someone who was keen on fintech in the early 2000s before it met widespread popularity, Matt shared why he’s forged his own investment path instead of following the trend-seeking crowd.

Entrepreneurs ended the day with a visit to Nasdaq’s MarketSite headquarters with VP Joseph Brantuk to learn how the exchange develops its own fintech products and supports fintech companies going public. The Fintech Tour concluded with an engaging fireside chat with CommonBond CEO and Co-Founder, David Klein. David wrapped up the day with tips on how to build company culture and what entrepreneurs should consider investing in to create a workplace designed for success.

Seven speakers and numerous discussion later, the Fintech Tour ended leaving entrepreneurs with key learnings to bring back to their home countries.