Tori VanCura-Rutland and Tyler Brantley Live from AFT Conference

Well, hello out there. This is Sam Kilmer, managing director of Cornerstone Advisors and your host for Fintech Hustle.

I’m coming to you almost live. This is going to be recorded, so it’s not live, but it sounds better to say live from beautiful Lake Tahoe.

We are on the Nevada-California border, live and large here, talking about fintech.

I have a couple of fintech rock stars who have joined me for the conversation, continuing the conversation we’ve had here at the Association for Financial Technology conference in Lake Tahoe.

Let me introduce my rock-star guests, who will be telling us a little bit about some of their perspectives.

First of all, we’ve got Tor Valenza-Rutland, who is the chief growth officer of HC3.

Then we have Tyler Brantley, who is the vice president at Core10.

I’m just pleased as punch to have them.

I should also point out that Tor is a board member of AFT, and Tyler is a first-time attendee at AFT Summits.

I’m sorry, he’s a VIP.

How could I miss that?

They’re going to have some differing perspectives because Tor is obviously a veteran of the cause and Tyler is the resident newbie, one of many resident newbies.

He’s going to be able to tell us a little bit about that.

Why don’t we kick this off by asking you guys to tell us a little bit about your day?

What’s the day in the life of Tor look like?

Back home, when you’re doing what you’re doing, what does it look like in the world of fintech for you?

Well, thank you.

First, I have to thank you for the hat.

I’m a lover of hats, and now I have a Fintech Hustle hat, so thank you.

A day in the life of a growth officer, the shortest person at HC3, by the way, is really understanding what bankers need for their consumers and understanding financial wellness.

HC3 is a statement provider, so we really want to understand how we need to relay that transactional data back to the end user, whether it’s a consumer account or a commercial account.

There are a lot of conversations with clients to understand how we’re performing, what they’re getting out of our tools, and there are a lot of conversations with fintechs to see what we can leverage to add more information about financial wellness and how consumers can better understand their spending habits.

Historically, we didn’t have online banking, right?

Statements were the way you could go, “Here’s my check register. Here’s my bank’s accounting. Does everything line up?”

Today, that’s maybe not the best use of a bank statement.

There’s probably more it can do.

Since it’s a required communication, how can we partner with key fintechs to provide those greater details about wellness, spending habits, categorization and all those things?

We’ve got a lot of great partners that we’ve met here at AFT, so it’s been great.

You do that and take text messages from Kera and Matt, Kera Parkey and Matt Dean, and all the rest of these hooligans.

I know you guys are keeping busy doing all kinds of threads back and forth on your ideas for events, right?

So you have to deal with that every day?

Yes.

It’s actually really fun.

We joked about it.

One of the things you don’t know when you’re running for the board is that there’s a very big board chat, and that starts as soon as your name is called out.

We start adding you to a new chat.

I was on the Kera Bears chat, and before that it was the Golden Board with Jeff Harper as the president.

Now we’re on the Dean’s List since Matt Dean is president.

We do lots of texting back and forth because, just like it’s important for us to understand what bankers want for their consumers, making sure that our AFT attendees and membership are getting what they want out of the association is very important.

This is really driven by the association and the membership.

Good stuff.

What’s a day in the life of Tyler Brantley?

What’s that like, Tyler?

A day in the life of Tyler Brantley, I’m at Core10, and we’re a combination of a product and services team.

I spend a lot of my time talking with our customers, talking with our partners, trying to figure out how we take that intersection of products and the services side of supporting bankers, credit union team members and other fintech partners, and ultimately deliver a unified experience.

I think that’s really where we see our biggest role and biggest way we can contribute to the space, bringing technology into situations and helping connect ecosystems for folks.

Very cool.

You guys are both really busy people.

I’m wondering, among the last two days here at AFT, has anything at the event really popped out at you?

Something you heard somebody say in the hallway, something on stage.

I’m just always interested in what conversationally pops to people.

Tor, anything jump out at you?

Yeah.

It’s a great question because we were all listening to Tom Koulopoulos talk.

He’s a futurist, and he’s talking about AI.

Hearing, in a community of my peers, that we could be a utility, could be seen as something that’s very essential but not a segmented part of our financial community, was really interesting.

I was like, “We’re not a utility. We are so much more than that.”

But I started to question, what will we look like in the next 10 to 15 years?

I think that created some good conversation.

We’re all kind of like, that’s a big question mark.

But I really loved what he said about AI.

AI is going to be what we make of it.

It’s driven by the people behind it.

I think that’s something we have to remember.

We need to understand what consumers need and where the gaps are for financial institutions, and help drive AI in that direction.

I have to say, I’m a huge fan of Greg McKeown and Essentialism.

If you haven’t read any of his books, I’m a big fan.

Come find me.

Excellent.

So one vote for AI, second vote for Essentialism.

Tyler, anything pop out at you?

Yeah.

I’ll build off what Tor said about Essentialism.

Greg McKeown was wonderful.

His concept of focusing on the 10% and saying no to the other 90, I think in fintech you have a lot of problem solvers.

We have people who like to solve puzzles.

We have this tendency to try and step in and be all things to all people, and that can spread us way too thin.

Ultimately, it can set us and our customers up for failure.

That was a really positive and powerful message from him, reminding us, “Focus on the main thing you need to be doing.”

Then some of the other breakout sessions yesterday around partnerships and how do we work together reinforced that.

You don’t need to be all things to all people.

You need to do what you do really well, and then that’s part of the ecosystem.

As a first-timer, I’ve just been amazed here at AFT that they foster this.

Partner with the other people who can fill your gaps.

Find the people who can complement what you do.

Bring them to the table for your customers and your other fintech partners, and solve it that way.

If we can focus on that, that’s what we’re taking home, reinforcing that message.

Good stuff.

I normally don’t go negative early, but I’ll do it.

This is not the body-slam round or anything.

I was just curious, is there one thing in fintech right now that you think is not working particularly well?

Whether it’s market activities, product activities, banks, credit unions, fintechs, anything out there.

Anything come to mind that you think could work better or could be improved?

Tyler, I don’t mean to put you on the spot, but I’ve already gone to Tor first the last couple times, so I’ve given you a little breathing room.

Anything pop out at you?

I keep coming back, and maybe it’s just because it’s so relevant for us right now, to that partnership piece of making sure you’re not trying to be all things to all people.

It’s truly a disease that we have in fintech sometimes.

I think the challenge, when we try to solve problems for financial institutions as fintechs, is that we oftentimes come in and are very prescriptive about our niche piece of what we’re trying to solve without thinking about the bigger picture.

I think that truly sets the financial institution up for failure.

It sets us up for failure as a fintech partner.

I’ve seen a lot of that.

Trying to drive value for the fintech, get a better valuation, get returns for your investors, all that kind of stuff.

Ultimately, at the end of the day, if we really want to change the industry, we need to be thinking more holistically about how we work with each other.

Good stuff.

Tor, what about you?

Anything you think could be better?

Yeah.

I definitely agree on that topic.

There’s a project manager that lives in my heart always.

Understanding what that entire workflow is for data and for the consumer experience is really important.

I’ll also touch on something Liz High said today in our marketing session.

She was focusing on how banks need to think like a brand and not a bank.

Partnerships need to happen.

We need to work through each other.

I think that’s really, really important.

A lot of times we’re carving out our own piece, like, “This is my piece, and that’s your piece.”

But how do we connect?

How can we help these banks think like a brand?

What is their brand experience?

How do they need to leverage us and not be scared of that conversation?

I think it could be very impactful and take us to the next level.

Absolutely.

I’ll go ahead and double your shout-out to Liz High.

I thought she was great.

I also liked her examples of Jill Castilla at Citizens Bank of Edmond and what they’re doing with Roger, meaning the whole niche thing.

I’m still a big believer.

I get it, niches have gone through a down cycle with concentration risk and whatnot, but I’m still a big fan.

Also, her co-author Allison Netzer.

Shout-out to Allison.

She’s actually been a guest on the podcast.

That’s my gratuitous shout-out to a prior guest.

Sorry about that.

To the victor go the spoils.

Okay, so we went negative a little bit.

Let’s go positive.

What do you think is working really well in fintech right now?

Is there anything that pops out at you that you think is firing on almost all cylinders and really rocking?

Tor, I’m going to put you on the spot first this time.

It’s okay if nothing comes to mind.

Let’s just keep it real.

It’s a great question.

I think there are a lot of things.

While there’s a challenge of partnerships and getting all the right connections, I do think we are talking more openly.

Through events like AFT and Bank Director’s AOBA, we’re having these opportunities to talk and think together.

I think that’s going to start progress toward more innovation for bankers.

The more we stay engaged with bankers and each other, and keep those conversations going full circle, we’ll continue to develop.

I think it’s happening.

You can’t say it’s a bad thing.

It’s really great.

There needs to be more out there, I think, for fintechs to come together and talk about this and solution together.

If we want to have a future and we want to drive that future, we need to have those conversations and keep them going.

Tor kind of hit exactly what I was going to say on the head as well.

I’m super encouraged.

Once again, first-timer newbie here.

We are starting to see a trend of intentional interactions between partners.

That’s encouraging to me.

While we might historically have operated in these silos, and we’ve seen the proliferation of tech across all these niches within the space, people are open to conversation.

That’s encouraging to me.

We now see the value of partnerships, see the value of looking at the big picture, the entire workflow.

So I’m super hopeful that we’ve got a great path forward.

I was reminded, I was at lunch today, and I think I was with you, Tyler.

You were chatting with somebody, and I think the term that came up was “friendly overlaps” or something like that.

We were having this discussion.

The point is that, in some ways, it seems like almost everybody is gravitating toward some type of account origination.

It’s like every digital banking provider, core vendor, payments vendor, everybody has a new-account checking origination with debit card onboarding and, hopefully, digital onboarding.

To me, what’s amazing about it is, since everybody’s competing in that one little sliver, it doesn’t mean we all have to be sharpening our knives.

An environment like this proves out to me that people can sit down right next to each other and say, “Yeah, okay, we compete. But you know what? Here are three or four areas where we can still lift each other up as human beings.”

That’s pretty cool.

Not everything renews my faith in humanity, but boy, that does when I see that.

Yeah.

I’ll call out that exact conversation.

I was sitting with Matt and Haley and Trey from Trabian, who directly overlap with some of the services work that we provide at Core10.

But we’re able to have a very open conversation of, “Okay, hey, what are you guys seeing? What are you trying to solve?”

This is a big enough puzzle that no singular company or no singular group of individuals is going to solve this.

The more we can come together, even as competitors in this case, and collectively try to provide a better outcome, I think everyone wins.

Once again, huge plug for AFT.

Obviously, I’m just riding the high the first time.

There’s no plugging on here.

No plugging.

But truly, when we can create more forums like this, when I can sit down with Matt and Haley and Trey and have that kind of open conversation, and we both walk away saying, “Oh, I’ve heard that need recently. We don’t do that piece of it, but you do,” that’s encouraging for me.

Tor, anything else you’d add?

No, I agree.

I think it’s also, and I’ve learned this a lot and I’m still practicing mastering it, just listening to one another.

There are a lot of smart people in the room when you’re at AFT or talking to other fintechs.

Listening to what they’re hearing and that shared knowledge, instead of listening to argue or say, “This is what we’re doing, this is why,” but really going, “Well, what’s the why?” and leaning into that.

I’m learning so much more by that approach with my peers.

I see so many of us doing that with one another.

We really want to understand, “Why are you doing it that way?” or “Why is that your answer to this question?”

I think that’s what’s going to move the needle.

It’ll be really cool to see what’s going on in five, seven, 10 years with fintech.

There’s a lot of variety here.

It’s a little bit reminiscent that the reception is kicking off.

I’m keeping you guys away from very important networking time, so I want to be mindful of your time.

They’ve moved from AC/DC straight into Mirage, Fleetwood Mac, so there’s a lot of variety here in the music as well.

I should also point out before I let our audience go that Jeff Harper has agreed that we’re going to try to put together an AFT Outpost event live from the Bourbon & Beyond music festival next September.

So mark your calendars.

That should be fun.

I ran into Tim Daley from Q2 there at the festival.

Was it last weekend?

It’s all starting to run together, especially when the festival is about bourbon, but it’s mainly music.

I just wanted to say thank you guys for joining me and sharing some of your perspectives on the industry.

Couldn’t thank you enough.

Tor Valenza-Rutland from HC3, chief growth officer, and Tyler Brantley, vice president of Core10.

I just want to thank our audience for joining us on Fintech Hustle.

See you out there on the road.