AwesomeFinTech

Community of 200K+ FinTechs.

[AwesomeFinTech @AwesomeFinTech]

P2P payments are here #WWDC #Apple #FinTech

[Ai Business Journal @ArchieIntel]

Apple launches “tap to pay” between iPhones. 🔥

[AwesomeFinTech @AwesomeFinTech]

FinTech prevails, this time kudos to @RevolutApp

[Gergely Orosz @GergelyOrosz]

Small touches that banks could/should have made in their mobile apps but most haven’t. Save for newcomers (in this case: Revolut.)

Exhibit #1: telling users about card verifications done by merchants, in a clear and easy-to-understand language.

Small, yet important things.

[AwesomeFinTech @AwesomeFinTech]

Quite accurate!

[Scott L @IamScottlarson]

When I worked in investment banking, there was a funny dynamic with the deal team:

- The lawyers wanted to be the investment bankers.

- The investment bankers wanted to be the private equity buyers.

- The PE buyers wanted to be the founder of the company about to cash in.

[AwesomeFinTech @AwesomeFinTech]

POV: When merchant's POS terminal doesn't support customer's preferred payment method #FinTech

[AwesomeFinTech @AwesomeFinTech]

$6,000,000,000,000 in processed payments by #Apple in 2022 slightly less than #Visa

#FinTech

[AwesomeFinTech @AwesomeFinTech]

This is an opposite way to do #FinTech
"Don't be evil" #Apple

[Tim Sweeney @TimSweeneyEpic]

A quick summary of glaring problems we've found so far:

1) Apple has introduced an anticompetitive new 27% tax on web purchases. Apple has never done this before, and it kills price competition. Developers can't offer digital items more cheaply on the web after paying a third-party payment processor 3-6% and paying this new 27% Apple Tax.

2) Apple dictates all aspects of these links and doesn't allow them in the app's ordinary payment flow. Rather, links must be separated out into a different section of the app, away from places where users actually buy stuff.

3) Apple requires developers to open a generic web browser session, forcing the user to log in to the developer's web site again, to make a purchase. And because of #2, users will have to search all over again for the digital item they wanted to buy.

4) Apple will front-run competing payment processors with their own "scare screen" to disadvantage them.

Epic will contest Apple's bad-faith compliance plan in District Court.

[AwesomeFinTech @AwesomeFinTech]

Getting ready here 🍿

[Rex Salisbury @rexsalisbury]

Bitcoin ETF fee wars commence.

hard to make money in this biz unless you are massive.

- Fidelity: 39 bps
- Ark: 80 bps
- Valkyrie: 80 bps

Fidelity has other equity ETFs that have zero fees.
$FNILX etc

[AwesomeFinTech @AwesomeFinTech]

Do you think 2024 is the year #FinTech will be able to get #IAP and @Apple finally severed?

How about #Banking -> #OpenBanking
and
#IAP -> #OpenIAP

CC @stripe @PaddleHQ @Adyen @recurly @chargebee @braintree @Alipay

[Jason Fried @jasonfried]

Much of the recent discussion around Apple, HEY, In App Purchase (IAP), Subscriptions, the App Store, and the iOS developer community has been about money. Is a 30% cut fair? How about 15%? What if it was 5%?

And some people say “Why not just have a special price in-app that’s 30% more than your usual price? Just pass the Apple tax on to customers?” Because that’s not the point.

I won’t deny that money, or the vig, in this case, is a large part of the story.

But personally, as the owner of a business, this isn’t just about money. Money grabs the headlines, but there’s a far more elemental story here. It’s about the absence of choice, and how Apple forcibly inserts themselves between your company and your customer.

Does the world’s largest company really get to decide how millions of other businesses can interact with their own customers? In fact, Apple’s policy distances you from your customer.

When Apple forces companies to offer In App Purchases in order to be on their platform, they also dictate the limits to which you can help your customer.

This has a detrimental impact on the customer experience, and your relationship with your customer. It can flat out ruin an interaction, damage your reputation, and it can literally cost you customers. It prevents us from providing exceptional customer service when someone who uses our product needs help.

Most people don’t know what happens to your customer relationship when you’re forced to accept In App Payments or offer subscriptions in Apple’s App Store.

1. When someone signs up for your product in the App Store, they aren’t technically your customer anymore — they are essentially Apple’s customer. They pay Apple, and Apple then pays you. So that customer you’ve spent years of time, treasure, and reputation earning, is handed over to Apple. And you have to pay Apple 30% for the privilege of doing so!

2. You can no longer help the customer who’s buying your product with the following requests: Refunds, credit card changes, discounts, trial extensions, hardship exceptions, comps, partial payments, non-profit discounts, educational discounts, downtime credits, tax exceptions, etc. You can’t control any of this when you charge your customers through Apple’s platform. So now you’re forced to sell a product — with your name and reputation on it — to your customers, yet you are helpless and unable to help them if they need a hand with any of the above.

As anyone who runs a subscription company knows, billing issues — whether problems, or kind considerations — are delicate situations where the utmost care and attention is required. At Basecamp, it’s our #1 category of customer service requests every single month — and often by a long shot. And it’s not because our payment system is complicated — it’s very straightforward — it’s because life is complicated.

Billing concerns and account management concerns aren’t just about money, they’re about people, about situations, about context, about humanity.

For example, at Basecamp we help people for all sorts of reasons. We apply credit to accounts for all sorts of reasons. We provide hardship exceptions for all sorts of reasons. We discount our software for teachers. We provide free versions for first responders. We extend trials for those who need more time. We extend payment terms occasionally for those who can’t make ends meet this month. We make exceptions because people are exceptional. We take enormous pride in helping people out. And we’re damn good at it.

If we had to push our customers through Apple’s system, we couldn’t do any of that. Apple’s rules prevent us from servicing our customers, yet Apple gives us no choice but to submit to those onerous rules or not be represented on their platform. That’s flat out hostile — to us, to our customers, and to the community.

Further, like many sophisticated software companies, we already have a centralized billing system which is tied into our own back office systems. Administration, accounting, account management, data lookup, customer support, etc. If one of our customers is forced to pay with Apple’s payment system, we’re blind. We can’t look them up, we can’t help them. Our only answer is “Go ask Apple.” What a terrible, hopeless message to send. Developers who are forced to send this message today are often met with accusations of scamming their customers, stealing their money, etc.

Our customers use Basecamp or HEY every day, we’re here for them 24/7 to help with anything. But when it comes to billing, one of the most sensitive concerns, if you’re forced to pay through Apple’s system, well, we can’t help you anymore. As a business owner who gives a shit, that’s shit.

And with multi-platform products like Basecamp, HEY, and so many others, being forced into using a separate billing system for some of your customers and not others creates significant confusion and complexity for customers.

Let’s say someone signs up for HEY on an iPhone, pays with Apple’s IAP system, and then decides to switch to an Android phone. Billing is entirely messed up now. They can’t update their credit card through the HEY app on Android because their billing info is stored with Apple. And we can’t help them. Who wins there? Apple wins. This creates immense lock-in when all your service subscriptions are tied to a single platform. If you change your phone, do you now also have to change your email address?

This is why we have a universal, non-platform-specific centralized billing system. We make a multi-platform product. Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS. Pay us anywhere, we can help you anywhere. Except Apple won’t permit that — you can’t pay us our way if you’re using the iOS App. You have to pay Apple’s way, and messes everything up for everyone other than, you guessed it, Apple.

Apple’s payment policies create two classes of customers for us: “The can-helps” and “The can’t helps”. Apple has no right to force this on us, on our customers, or on any business — big, small, freelance, independent, whatever.

My loyalty is to my customer, not to a platform. I wake up every day to take care of my customers, not to take care of Apple.

When you think about the big picture of a complete customer relationship, in app purchases are one of the most hostile customer experiences I’ve seen. Sure, the purchase part is relatively easy (most modern purchase flows are these days), but that’s where Apple stops. We end up with our hands tied behind our backs. Unable to help customers to our own high standards because Apple won’t let me, or my employees, do our jobs.

(Republished from my open letter to Apple back in 2020. The same applies today, in 2024).

[AwesomeFinTech @AwesomeFinTech]

#FinTech Mercury tries to get $30M of its own funds from #BaaS provider Synapse that's collapsing as we speak.

[AwesomeFinTech @AwesomeFinTech]

FinTech is at the forefront of last decade's investments according to "FiftyYears Progress"

[AwesomeFinTech @AwesomeFinTech]

OpenAI?

[Sri Batchu🇺🇸 @sri_batchu]

Carta finally released their private stock trading platform (the dream in their original thesis). It's really interesting to see what discounts late stage privates are trading at. There's a handful of companies tho that are actually trading at a premium. Guess which ones? :)

[AwesomeFinTech @AwesomeFinTech]

Who do you think will be the next successor for Apple's Card program after Goldman Sachs announced they'll wind down their part in it?

#FinTech #AppleCard #CFPB

[AwesomeFinTech @AwesomeFinTech]

Come say hi 👋 in Las Vegas #Money2020USA #FinTech

[AwesomeFinTech @AwesomeFinTech]

Oh, look what's happening to #FinTech in 2023

[AwesomeFinTech @AwesomeFinTech]

Neobanks are not cool anymore, people want AI banks 😁

[AwesomeFinTech @AwesomeFinTech]

What's the best SPV alternative for the EU market?

[AwesomeFinTech @AwesomeFinTech]

@niuralHQ Subscribe to get the full episode! https://t.co/WUlZ8T52sZ

[AwesomeFinTech @AwesomeFinTech]

Check this preview of the interview with Nami Baral founder of @niuralHQ and her advice to founders who're in the M&A market right now and want to sell their #FinTech startup.

https://t.co/goK3sz2QL3

[AwesomeFinTech @AwesomeFinTech]

Stripe silently cuts the free plan from their invoicing product.

[AwesomeFinTech @AwesomeFinTech]

Here's a full paper: https://t.co/lQDGQhaQ0Y

[AwesomeFinTech @AwesomeFinTech]

FinTech Lending with LowTech Pricing analysis from 2023 Q2