When you think about it, most, if not all, fintech innovation comes via the analysis and application of data. And financial services is more data-dependent now than at any time in its history. But this creates a challenge for brand new startups. How do you get access to data when all you have is an idea? Enter Fintech Sandbox.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Sarah Biller, the co-founder of Fintech Sandbox. This industry non-profit provides free access to financial services data that can be critical for startups as they develop their initial products. As the need for large datasets accelerates an organization like Fintech Sandbox provides ever more critical for the growth of the startup ecosystem.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The driving force in starting Fintech Sandbox.
• How they persuaded their first data providers to provide free access to data.
• Some of the companies providing data for them today.
• How they go about finding new data sources.
• What their Data Access Residency program is and who it is for.
• How the types of companies they see have evolved over the last decade.
• The impact of AI on the demand for data from their new cohorts.
• Some of the companies that have been through their program.
• How open banking is going to impact fintech once the new rules are implemented.
• What is happening at Boston Fintech Week (Oct 14-18) this year.
• Why it is important for Fintech Sandbox to be a non-profit.
• How they are funded.
• How Sarah is thinking about the next 10 years of Fintech Sandbox.

Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

• Tweet me @PeterRenton
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

Today, the back office for many lenders and originators is still very manual and human-intensive. We are talking lots of emails, reading contracts and processing Excel files. In some cases these processes have been in place, pretty much unchanged since the 1990s. That is because there has never been a comprehensive solution available to automate the capital markets process for originators and lenders.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Stu Wall, the CEO and Co-Founder of Setpoint. They call themselves "the operating system for capital markets" because their system can replace the manual processes that have been in place with state of the art technology that takes advantage of automation and standardization. While they started in the real estate space they are now making real inroads into other lending verticals.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The founding story of SetPoint.
• The mission and vision of the company.
• What they mean when they talk about the "operating system for asset-backed lending".
• How they replace the existing processes based on Excel and email.
• How SetPoint has earned the trust of the market.
• Their response to the build-buy-partner conversation.
• The biggest challenges in capital markets for asset-backed lenders and originators today.
• Why they started in the real estate space.
• The different lending verticals where they operate.
• Some of the originators they are working with today.
• Why this will likely be a winner take most market.
• How they were able to get Citi and Wells Fargo to back their company.
• Their biggest challenge in getting deeper market penetration.
• Some of the features that are on their product road map.
• What is involved in onboarding a new lender or originator.
• Stu's vision for the future of SetPoint and the automation of capital markets.

Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

• Tweet me @PeterRenton
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

"AI is probably the most talked about and least understood topic within financial services today," said John Sun, the CEO and Co-Founder of Spring Labs (previously, I had another co-founder of Spring Labs, Adam Jiwan, on the show back in 2020). The company is at the cutting edge of AI innovation in financial services with several interesting use cases in production today.

The Spring Labs team decided that what the industry needed was a new event focused on AI applications beyond just the use of chatbots. So, they created the AI-Native Banking and Fintech Conference, happening in Utah on October 7. Tickets will be available here right up until the show kicks off.

In this podcast you will learn:

• How Spring Labs has evolved since its founding in 2018.
• Where they are focused today.
• What Gen AI applications they have in market today.
• The key markets they are focused on.
• The first use cases they deployed for their Gen AI product.
• How they are inserting AI tools into existing workflows.
• The outputs that come from these tools.
• Why they decided to start an AI-focused fintech conference.
• Why they chose Salt Lake City as the location for this first event.
• Who is attending the event.
• The AI topics they will be covering.
• What John is personally looking forward to on the agenda.
• How people can get tickets to the event.
• John's vision for Spring Labs.

Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

• Tweet me @PeterRenton
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes