Summary
Welcome to the Startup Junkies Podcast!
Matthew Ward, Caleb Tally, and Jeff Amerine are joined by Darrin Williams and Vance Smiley this week on this latest episode. Darrin is currently the CEO of Southern Bancorp Inc and has partnered with Vance, a founding member of BankWorx. Together they are seeking to reimagine and reinvent the way banks use and develop core banking systems. Thanks for tuning in!
Shownotes
(1:00) Introducing Darrin Williams and Vance Smiley
(2:14) Southern Bancorp
(13:11) Facing Big Challenges
(16:20) Growth Alongside Coinbase
(19:52) Innovation Driven by Pandemic Impact
(24:23) Do Banking Education Differently
(28:05) Defining Success Down The Line
(30:54) Opportunity Zones and Gentrification
(35:22) What They Wish They Had Known
(39:28) Wrap up
Links
Quotes
“Our work really focuses on building economic opportunity… we really work to increase the net worth of the people that we serve.” (4:14) Darrin Williams
“We don’t exist just to be a bank. We really exist to make a difference. Build communities and change lives.” (6:18) Darrin Williams
“I’m becoming much more interested in the impact of my work…it means something more than a paycheck, more than an equity upside.” (35:57) Vance Smiley
“My parents were so dedicated to being servant leaders. I mean, every day I saw my parents focused on helping other people, it was never about them… so my interest in the law, my interest in politics, all came from this desire to serve.” (37:46) Darrin Williams
Building Communities and Changing Lives featuring Darrin Williams and Vance Smiley
If it’s not broken, don’t fix it, but what about innovating and adapting?
We aren’t getting rid of banking anytime soon, but there is so much potential to innovate, as we learned from this week’s episode!
On this week of the Startup Junkie’s Podcast, our hosts Matthew Ward, Caleb Tally, and Jeff Amerine spoke with Darrin Williams, CEO of Southern Bancorp. Inc, and Vance Smiley, founding member of BankWorx. They have partnered with the mission to create economic opportunity for any and every community through Southern Bancorp.
The Mission
Darrin and Vance joined together with the vision of creating a new kind of bank. They both experienced the rat race of chasing money and climbing the ladder. Like some of the world’s greatest philanthropists and leaders, they decided they wanted their work to have a more significant impact beyond personal gain. The pandemic hit and problems beyond the immediate health crisis became apparent. Financial stress was here before Covid and will be here after, but what if a bank could adapt to the upcoming generation, the underserved, and the small business owners better than ever before? Thus came Southern Bancorp. When Darrin was asked to be CEO, and Vance partnered alongside, they saw their dreams lining up with a corporation that could act on it.
“We all needed to put our heads together and really think critically about how these banks ought to be innovating. And that doesn’t just mean bolting things onto checking accounts and savings accounts. It means really rethinking what a bank was.” (10:25) – Vance Smiley
Daily Challenges
Whether it be opportunity zones, gentrification, or fearing failure, Vance and Darrin have approached each in a way that has driven the success of their vision. With the politically charged atmosphere behind opportunity zones, they have had to push back against the grain of keeping investment out of these seemingly risky zones. This requires looking for places that need development rather than giving money to well-served areas that would already have that opportunity. Telling the story of people within these communities while explaining the lack of opportunity without funding is part of the ongoing mission. With speed bumps left and right, they have used failure to adapt their own best practices and celebrate the wins no matter how small.
“We’re going to try and fail and try and fail a few times. And know that before long, we’ve got to make sure this thing pays for itself and has the kind of impact that [it] requires of us. (30:03) – Vance Smiley
Innovation Driven by Pandemic Impact
The pandemic’s impact on underserved communities keeps Darrin and Vance pushing forward to new heights of innovation. The collective trauma of COVID-19 not only affected health but finances for most of the world. They see this problem as something that should change the way we do banking for good.
Narrowing the gap through technology and innovation is at the heart of Southern Bancorp. COVID deferred payment, payment forgiveness, and the paycheck protection program all have provided a bridge to that gap. Still, it took lobbying and petitioning for these CFI banks to receive the necessary funding. In return, minorities and women would receive access to help like never before. With that access also came the digital bank that expedites creating apps to reach specific people within these disadvantaged groups. Being able to target the needs of each client has been essential in the success of Southern Bancorp.
Banking Education
To make Southern Bancorp approachable to their vast audience, they have curated a banking education initiative. They have been successful in building solutions through behavioral economics. The design is for the product to be created correctly to drive customers to use it intuitively.
Using designs that replicate social media or video games helps reach an audience that typically could be overwhelmed by a traditional banking system.
“It kind of has an alternative underwriting. It doesn’t take that much education to know that when I do these things, my score goes up. And when I do these things, it goes down so that it’s kind of built into the bank.” ( 26:13) – Darrin Williams
Their vision hones in on being a double bottom line company desiring to be a triple bottom line company. Combining a social and financial impact is going to be an ongoing journey for Darrin and Vance. With a ten-year framework to reach goals around helping people obtain and sustain affordable housing, creating and retaining jobs, and empowering people to save and accumulate housing, there are big things ahead for Southern Bancorp.
“I see this as a journey, not a destination.” (28:41) – Darrin Williams
We hope you enjoyed hearing from Darrin and Vance as much as we did! They are making impacts not only inspire but are needed in today’s climate. Keep listening to the latest Startup Junkies episodes to hear more stories of people using their passions, innovations, and talents to change the world.
English 
Spanish 
Korean