At Core we’ve been getting more and more excited about insurance – not too worry, we’re not becoming actuaries anytime soon – and the potential for start-ups to disrupt that incredibly boring, but entirely gigantic whole industry. I owe a special gratitude to Thomas Smyth – who dropped into Core on a lark…
Show me the Money
Everyone in the financial services industry is very excited about the digitization of money. How exciting it would be to forego cash (and those annoying checks), in favor of a more efficient world of commerce and assets. At the hand of Bitcoin, the argument goes, or Apple Pay, or what-not…
It’s not just the Underbanked who are Underbanked
We’re all underbanked. A lion-share of Americans aren’t “making bank.” Most of us simply don’t earn enough to support a basic standard of living. Yes, there is a big part of our population that poorly utilizes banks and therefore over-utilizes expensive solutions that leave most of their customers poorer. The larger reality is that the…
Disrupting Auto Finance
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…
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…
Customers in the Cards for TSYS
Yesterday, back-end processor TSYS and prepaid card proprietor NetSpend announced the former would buy the latter for $1.4 billion. This is not just another acquisition. It’s interesting because it affirms the value of the much beleaguered general purpose reloadable prepaid (GPR) card industry, it concedes value to a much maligned…
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.…
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…
It’s Not Easy Bein’ Green Dot
Kermit is not the only LA-based green creature that feels misunderstood. Just over a week ago, Green Dot Corporation (GDOT) lost over 60% of its value on the news that things weren’t as rosy as expected. This leader of the next generation of companies serving the unbanked and underbanked appears…