Summary:
Welcome to another great episode of Startup Junkies!
On this episode, hosts Davis McEntire, Victoria Dickerson, and Jeff Amerine sit down with Parker Graham, founder and CEO of Finotta, a platform that helps financial institutions personalize their mobile banking. Along with his successful entrepreneurship career, Parker has also played in the NFL as a tackle for the Baltimore Ravens and was named Innovator of the Year by Pipeline in 2022. Throughout the episode, Davis, Victoria, Jeff, and Parker discuss the past, present, and future of Finotta and the intricacies behind funding a startup.
Show Notes:
(1:05) Introduction to Parker
(1:34) About Finotta
(2:38) Finotta’s Journey So Far
(5:09) Who Finotta Caters To
(8:43) How Being an Athlete Influences Entrepreneurship
(13:57) The Ideology behind Finotta
(19:29) Advice to Entrepreneurs
(25:25) Advice to Younger Self
(27:19) Closing Thoughts
Links:
Quotes:
“The mobile app looks similar at every bank and credit union, there’s not a lot of differentiation. So what we build is a technology that gets embedded in the mobile front end and personalizes the user experience.” – Parker Graham, (1:49)
“It’s all about engagement. We improve the times that users are spending on the device with that bank. So the more time the bank has with that customer, the more opportunities they have to sell them a product and generate revenue.” – Parker Graham, (5:46)
“Open banking is the buzzword and what that means is the infrastructure is becoming less siloed where technology’s starting to talk to each other. Technology stacks are becoming more fluid and it allows for companies like us to come in and build and deploy cool stuff quickly.” – Parker Graham, (16:29)
“Be patient and get your metrics in order so that when you want to raise capital, you can. The worst thing you can do is get on a treadmill where you’re constantly consuming and needing more.” – Parker Graham, (21:21)
Changing the Online Banking Game with Finotta
On this episode, hosts Davis McEntire, Victoria Dickerson, and Jeff Amerine sit down with Parker Graham, founder and CEO of Finotta, a platform that helps financial institutions personalize their mobile banking. Along with his successful entrepreneurship career, Parker has also played in the NFL as a tackle for the Baltimore Ravens and was named Innovator of the Year by Pipeline in 2022. Throughout the episode, Davis, Victoria, Jeff, and Parker discuss the past, present, and future of Finotta and the intricacies behind funding a startup.
Finotta’s Methodology and Why It Works
When it comes to the ideology behind Finotta, Parker simply states it as, “Working to improve the digital channel of the banks.” Typically, if the bank has one, Finotta sells to the digital banking manager, however, the end user of their services is the actual customer of the bank. With this method, although nontraditional, Finotta identifies as a business-to-business-to-consumer type of company where they have to perfect their service for the end user, but they are paid by the bank as a middleman.
“It’s all about engagement. We improve the times that users are spending on the device with that bank. So the more time the bank has with that customer, the more opportunities they have to sell them a product and generate revenue.” – Parker Graham, (5:46)
An interesting fact Parker learned in the early stages of Finotta was that almost no financial institutions make money with their mobile app. Because of this, Finotta is one of the first pioneers to generate revenue through that channel. More and more, especially post-pandemic, people are wanting to complete things digitally instead of in person. Therefore, Finotta offers a way for the bank and its customers to have seamless communication using the mechanisms of technology.
Advice to Entrepreneurs
At this point in Parker’s career, he is at a place where he is becoming more of a mentor to entrepreneurs, and the most important thing he emphasizes is that their story is going to be different than his. He can do everything in his power to help them avoid the hurdles he raced into, but ultimately they will have their own obstacles to overcome. His two biggest pieces of advice are that the economy is following the trends of a recession and if you need cash, get it now.
“Be patient and get your metrics in order so that when you want to raise capital, you can. The worst thing you can do is get on a treadmill where you’re constantly consuming and needing more.” – Parker Graham, (21:21)
Currently, it is not a great time to raise capital unless your startup is growing so exponentially that people want to throw money your way. However, Parker advises that if you can weather the storm for the next six months, you will thank yourself later. Lastly, if you choose to obtain cash, just get the amount of cash you need to survive and thrive, and be patient for the rest of the cash to come.
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