John Backus

I remember a person I was interviewing with tell me straight up this is the goal so I’m not sure if it’s disguised

If you're interviewing then you're on the most outside layer of the inside

But yeah, fair, I just mean disguised in that it starts as a totally non-bank product and eventually the scope expands to being a bank

Square. Literally bought a bank.

Insightful POV. But is there something wrong? Humans have always wanted to safely secure their money in a trusted place. (aka bank)

Nailed it. This is how every fintech company ENDS. Every fintech STARTS with a bunch of tech guys around a whiteboard thinking they’ve invented a financial product that’s never been done before. Trust me, some guys on Wall Street have done it. Just not as startup-y.

Well put. A lot of early stage stuff may be reinvention (whether it’s academic ideas, very similar stuff on the market but not by startups, or something else). IMO it’s understated how much of what startups are selling is potential + willingness to competently execute on feedback

Solid insight. I remain cynical of fintech’s reinvention of Wall Street because it’s still Wall Street finance. Finance is zero sum. Finance doesn’t create wealth. It redistributes wealth. Rather have those competent executers on feedback create something truly productive.

That’s a pretty wrong view of finance there, mister. Imagine a world with mortgages and a world without mortgages. If you’re thinking clearly the former has more houses than the latter. What creates that differential? Finance. Finance creates wealth

This is silly there are many parts of the world without mortgages and people are housed. Likewise human existed without mortgages for a long time and would do so again. A mortgage is not a piece of magic without which humans cannot shelter themselves.

I’m not saying people would be homeless, just thatbthe supply would be lower. The toy model is this: a world without finance has 80 houses, the world with finance has 100 houses. Therefore, finance makes 20 houses. If you don’t like this, add “new” in front of “houses”

That is a pop-stat. America has 20 million empty houses. China has entire brand new empty ghost cities. Just because there is more houses now than X years ago does not really mean a thing

I don’t understand how that refutes my point.

*every VC financed, mass market, consumer facing, fintech started since 2008, that holds/moves/lends money

Uhhhh yeah that

A bank with sexier customer acquisition