Five minutes with Eric Fulwiler of brand consultancy Rival

Eric Fulwiler is the co-founder of the brand consulting firm Rival. He threw himself into the deep end of fintech when he joined 11:FS three years ago, after a decade in digital ad agencies. Here he shares his lessons for fintechs striving to stand out in a saturated market.

Describe your role and your background. How did you get to this point?

It has been a long and winding road. I fell into marketing; I never had an ambition to be a marketer and in many ways I still don’t! I originally worked in the nonprofit world with HIV/AIDS programs in Latin America. New York City was my home at the time, and I ended up meeting the CEO of Forbes.com—back then it was a separate business from the magazine. He was looking for someone to “figure this social media thing out” and I decided to give it a shot. It was the early days of Web 2.0 in New York, and I met some of the people who built the early days of social media, digital marketing and adtech, including a guy named Gary Vaynerchuk, who started an advertising agency. I worked in digital advertising agencies for 10 years, then spent two and a half years as CMO for 11:FS until co-founding Rival late last year.

Who was your childhood hero and why?

Oddly enough, I don’t think I had one. I had people I looked up to, of course, including my mom, but I wouldn’t say I had a hero. That’s not to say I have it all figured out (and I definitely still don’t) – it’s more that I take inspiration and motivation in smaller doses from many people rather than one big dose from one big hero.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

“Always try to include 51% of the value”. This advice is the one that has had the greatest impact on almost every aspect of my life. “Bring 51%” means that you always try to add more value than you receive. If it’s a conversation, you try to listen and respond in a helpful way. If it’s a relationship, you try to find ways to empathize and help someone. If it’s a client or business opportunity, you try to understand their needs and try to help them solve them, whether you get the credit or not.

What inspires you in fintech today?

How many possibilities there are. When I jumped into the deep end of fintech by joining 11:FS three years ago, it was mind boggling how many smart people were working on big ideas. Financial services are the lifeblood of our world in many ways, but so much of it is outdated and broken. Even now, 20 years into fintech, we are still only scratching the surface. There is so much of this industry where more value can be delivered faster and cheaper, and that is what innovation is all about. For those of us on the inside, it can feel like the white space is filling up, but all you have to do is look around at the inefficiencies that still exist and you realize how many opportunities there are.

How do you balance the need to be different versus the expectation to conform to design norms?

There is no balance. Brands should do the minimum they believe is necessary to comply. The rest – the vast majority of time, budget and focus – should be spent on doing something different. Of course I’m exaggerating a bit to make a point. You can’t just design something completely foreign and expect people to accept it. Make sure you understand and are grounded in some sort of acceptable norm. But the biggest risk for most brands is not being rejected, but being completely ignored. The market is so crowded. There is so much noise being pumped out by the modern consumer. Lack of differentiation is a much greater risk to your business than being rejected for not conforming to design norms.

What is the biggest challenge you have faced in fintech?

I will speak from my place in the marketing corner of the industry, because I think there are much bigger issues around D&I or CSR. The biggest challenge I have faced is the basic misunderstanding of what marketing is. Most people and most businesses think of marketing as advertising: the communications and campaigns you deliver to the customer. Yes, it is part of the marketing. But the role of marketing, and the reason you have it in your business, isn’t just to send ads to the customer—it’s to build a bridge between the customer and your product. Good marketing functions (and good marketers, I might add) think of marketing as a way to bring the product to the customer and bring the customer to the product. Marketing is as much an innovation function as a distribution function. I see this as a challenge, but also a major limitation to the growth of many fintechs out there. They don’t realize the full potential of marketing to drive the growth of their business.

What is a fintech that you use yourself on a regular basis?

Wise. As an expat, I have been a Wise user for years for US-UK FX, but we also use Wise as a business account with Rival.

Describe yourself in three words.

Grateful. Hungry. WIP.

Is there a personal achievement from the past 12 months that you are particularly proud of?

Starting rival! I have always worked in startups, but this is the first one I have co-founded. And, man, it’s hard! I don’t think we talk enough about how difficult entrepreneurship is – especially being a founder or co-founder. We love to talk about wins and headlines, but 99% of being an entrepreneur is about struggling, stressing, failing, learning – things that don’t get likes on Instagram and LinkedIn. We need to have a more balanced, honest conversation about that, because I think a lot of people think that they’re not good at what they’re doing or that they’re doing it wrong because all they see are people making it look easy. It is not! And that’s a feature, not a bug, of trying to start your own company.

What was the last book you read and when?

I read a lot – about a book a week. The last book I read was A Gentleman in Moscow. My wife is trying to get me to read more fiction, so I promised I would try. But the last ‘best book’ I read was The Changing World Order by Ray Dalio.