What a trip! These past few weeks have been hectic.
I loved to finally be able to meet people face to face. After months of social distancing and isolation, these in-person events were fantastic. However, it’s also nice to be back home in Amsterdam.
So, the rundown.
Last week was the week of Money2020 in Las Vegas and it was almost like business as usual! Four days of back-to-back meetings and happy hours. Fortunately, I found some time to go to the hockey game of LV Golden Knights vs NY Islanders, in between meetings. So, all in all, my work-life was well balanced!
I finally meet with Railsbank’s COO of North America, Dov Marmor. Last year, we talked a few times about a project I was working on, but now we finally met in person. Dove also invited me to join him for some racing later that week, but I was traveling back early that day, so I couldn’t make it. Nevertheless, looking at the pictures, it seems that they didn’t miss me!
👉 Next time I’ll show off some skills that even my countryman, Max Verstappen, would be jealous of!
I also met with Jason Mikula for a drink at FinTech Meetups “Happy Hour”. It’s funny that we both needed to travel to Las Vegas in order to do this since we both live in The Netherlands 🤷🏻♂️. Check out his first podcast below:
Takeaway
Because of all the meetings, and drinks, I did not have much time to attend panels or keynote talks, but I would like to highlight a panel discussion that caught my interest about neobanks targeting underserved communities.
Affinity neobanks targeting underserved communities have emerged in recent years amid a wider swath of digital banking startups vying for consumers that historically have banked with traditional institutions, or have been left out of the banking system altogether.
But as these startups look to grow their investment dollars, an issue some say, what they often encounter is wealth bias.
"When we go out pitching, every single time we say, ‘This is a new bank for Black America,’ people start talking to me about different charitable foundations that I should go to to ask for money," said First Boulevard COO Asya Bradley, who co-founded the neobank with CEO Donald Hawkins in August 2020.
"Why do you all think it's a charity? This is a bank. We're here to empower Black America, but why are you assuming that that means we're helping poor people?"
Bradley, who spoke this week on a panel at the Money20/20 conference, said wealth bias is also present when some investors consider the needs of women.
There’s an assumption that women are "risk-averse" and "don’t know how to invest," she said.
"So you're going to have to educate them, right? Your products can be all about education only, because women don't have money," said Bradley, highlighting some of the feedback she said she often receives from investors.
"Wealth bias is this assumption that whoever we're helping is going to be poor," she said.
Bradley noted the 2019 New York Times report detailing racial discrimination involving former NFL player Jimmy Kennedy, who was denied private wealth client status by JPMorgan Chase, despite moving $800,000 to the bank.
"With wealth bias, it doesn't even matter how much money you have as a Black person, you're still going to deal with racist people," Bradley said.
I’m very excited about the future of First Boulevard, and I also talked to some VC’s this week who agree.
I was lucky enough to invest in their oversubscribed round and can’t wait to share more about their development in the future. You should all keep a close eye on them anyway 😉.
Now, I didn’t see any rain for over a month so I’m going to enjoy an old school rainy day in Amsterdam today. Enjoy your Sunday and I wish you a great start to the week!
Cheers,
Marcel.