Mark Hartley, BankiFi’s founder and CEO talks about startups
Mark Hartley is the founder and CEO of BankiFi, a technology platform designed to enable banks and financial institutions to offer a set of integrated services – accounting, invoicing and payments. A veteran of the fintech space, he has held global positions in sales, technology, business services and financial services. We caught up with him to talk about the challenges and changes startups face in today’s volatile climate.
Which fintech sectors are seeing the most movement in terms of startups and why?
CBDC, Metaverse, Blockchain, AI, and the list goes on – Hype. It will be interesting to see if that changes given where they all are on the hype cycle curve, versus where the global economy is and how that might shape the investment community’s approach to speculative investing. Perhaps we will see more time and money devoted to the short-term problems that need to be solved rather than technologies looking for a problem to solve?
Investments are tough right now. How can fintech attract investors in this volatile climate?
The economic climate has certainly changed recently, but it is still possible to attract investors now. I am convinced that the fintechs that solve real problems in the here and now are the ones that will continue to attract investment amid the difficult economic outlook. To secure investment, these businesses must be able to clearly prove the solution’s effectiveness, with applications in both the short and long term.
Across the industry, we’ve previously seen headline-grabbing investment numbers generated by forward-thinking fintech innovations, creating solutions for problems that hadn’t quite materialized yet. I think we are already starting to see these types of businesses struggling to attract and maintain the same level of investment as those with the capital shift their focus to proven solutions that make a tangible difference.
What leadership skills are essential to building a successful fintech startup right now?
The most important leadership trait to build a scaling fintech is to be driven by purpose. To build a successful business you need to have a purpose and not just be in it for the money. It’s about solving a problem, having a purpose and doing it for the right reasons, and as a leader it’s crucial to communicate this clearly with the team around you.
What does the future of fintech look like to you?
Partnership and collaboration. Fintech was originally about disruption and disintermediating of banks and FIs. Banks retaliated somewhat and were reluctant to work with Fintechs. Now both have realized that they need each other, and both have strengths and weaknesses that the other can help with. Fintechs generally do not understand and want to work in the highly regulated world of compliance and checks and balances, and banks realize that they may not be the most creative builders of world-class user experiences. Combining the two can provide brilliant products and services for the customer, which is what it should be about.
