Last year, I woke up to the sleeping giant of auto finance. Over the last decade, we’ve witnessed an explosion of startups building software that dramatically cuts inefficiencies in the exchange of information, goods, and services – disrupting industry incumbents in the process. In the last year, Silicon Valley is…
Diverse Perspectives
I go to more conferences than are good for me. And if you’re like me, you don’t attend many sessions, and you meet with the same cast of characters. I have two suggestions on breaking those rules. If you read this blog, I’d argue there are two must-do conferences on…
Summary of Arjan’s Subprime Auto Series
One of the biggest financial service disruptions in recent memory has been the transformation of the payday lending industry – originally published on Citizen Tekk. A new breed of technology companies has begun to displace traditional and expensive lenders by using data and technology to build scalable, profitable businesses that…
Auto Lending is the New Payday Lending – and That’s a Good Thing
In my last post, I made the case that the financial product no one talks about – auto finance – is actually the single largest spend category in financial services for the un- and underbanked. (Read it) Today’s subprime customers can pay as much as 10 times more to get…
Subprime Auto Finance: Hidden Giant
No one who reads my blog will be surprised to learn that 1 in 4 Americans are underbanked. But I do see quite a few raised digital eyebrows when I point out that these 80 million consumers spend almost $80 billion on fees and interest for the most basic of…
The Underbanked Mega Challenge is here!
The past two years Core Innovation Capital has issued a national challenge for who makes the most innovative product or service serving the emerging middle class, aka the un- and underbanked, the cash-preferred, the credit underserved. Sign up here at corevc.com/megachallenge. This year, we’re improving and expanding. It’s not just a…
Underbanked Wish List
Goal and resolutions? Too personal. Predictions for this coming year? Too much pressure. Post mortem on last year? Too boring. So, instead, here is my wish list for our industry for the year of the Snake. An Iconic Brand. Confidence in banking is at historic lows. Perception of alternative financial services are…
Let’s Halve the $78b Spent by the Underbanked on Fees and Split the Difference
People generally assume serving the underbanked is a noble thing to do. And it is, if you do it right. You can make an incredible difference in the lives of a quarter of the US population by providing them with better tools with which to spend, borrow, plan and save.…
More than one in four Americans are Unbanked or Underbanked
The FDIC updated its 2009 figures (based on 2008 Census data) of who uses what kind of basic financial services and released them yesterday. It’s not just any four years later, but marks a period that represents significant change in the economy and individual American’s lives. What did we learn?…
Can the Private Sector Bailout Student Borrowers?
Today’s WSJ headlines with a story on how even the mass affluent are struggling with student debt. Our summer associate, Aaron Mercurio, has been working on a private student lending investment thesis for us, and opines the following: We know student loans are important and we’re often reminded that they’re…