The Startup Sector That’s Quietly Booming(tomtunguz.com)
tomtunguz.com
The Startup Sector That’s Quietly Booming
http://tomtunguz.com/financial-innovation
12 comments
I don't buy the hype around crowdfunding and its supposed boom.
I think, particularly in the video game space which has seen some of the biggest backings across all industries/verticals, very few successful "crowdfunded" projects hit the market, and those that do generally become available to mainstream consumers with the backers receiving little in the way of truly worthwhile bonuses for fronting the cash.
After being a hugely avid Kickstarter at the get go, I've long since abandoned the site as failed product after lackluster product either died or left much to be desired when it was released. Anything worth owning will eventually be made available for general purchase in a form far superior; it's like someone took the worst parts about buying first-gen, cutting-edge products and exacerbated them.
I think, particularly in the video game space which has seen some of the biggest backings across all industries/verticals, very few successful "crowdfunded" projects hit the market, and those that do generally become available to mainstream consumers with the backers receiving little in the way of truly worthwhile bonuses for fronting the cash.
After being a hugely avid Kickstarter at the get go, I've long since abandoned the site as failed product after lackluster product either died or left much to be desired when it was released. Anything worth owning will eventually be made available for general purchase in a form far superior; it's like someone took the worst parts about buying first-gen, cutting-edge products and exacerbated them.
I've come to be of the opinion that the best position to be in is as an earlier buyer of something funded via Kickstarter. I've yet to back something where my thought has been "I'm so glad I was here for the prototyping and quality assurance phase!"
But Kickstarter themselves are laughing all the way to the bank, are they not?
The beauty of the financial sector, #1 - there's a revenue stream already. You just need to skim a little of it. That's really how virtually all get-rich-big systems work.
Beauty #2 - The scale of existing financial organizations makes them particularly slow and resistant to change. Lots of opportunity for disruption, if you can avoid getting squashed.
Beauty #3 - The sudden reach of mobile devices puts a lot of computing and network power into easy reach of startups.
Between these three things, it is any surprise that the sector is booming?
Beauty #2 - The scale of existing financial organizations makes them particularly slow and resistant to change. Lots of opportunity for disruption, if you can avoid getting squashed.
Beauty #3 - The sudden reach of mobile devices puts a lot of computing and network power into easy reach of startups.
Between these three things, it is any surprise that the sector is booming?
I was thinking that all of these new financial disruptions will lead to a boom in smaller, relatively safer startups as well. Some friends of mine are creating a wonderful little startup in the shadow of Square, solving serious business problems for small, mobile vendors (like artists and flea markets) that didn't really exist before mobile credit card processing - or at least, couldn't be solved before that tech existed. I imagine the new technologies will lead to lots of new niche markets appearing.
Fintech is at an interesting crossroads. One road in the Internet. The other is the need for transparency/security. Since general solicitation is now legal; we'll see all types of programs released. May the best technology win. Dealflow is king. It will be the determining factor.
Perhaps if the VCs, Tom and Redpoint included, lent their weight to combating the protectionist laws that govern the payments sector, we'd have something to show for all of this supposed progress other than more plastic payment cards with magnetic stripes.
Last I heard from Tom was, "The MTL laws are large barriers to entry for startups. I'd love to help but I'm not sure I'm ready to sign my name to a petition without understanding the issue in much greater depth. Given the time constraints, I'm not sure I can sign the document."
It's been about eight months. How about now?
Last I heard from Tom was, "The MTL laws are large barriers to entry for startups. I'd love to help but I'm not sure I'm ready to sign my name to a petition without understanding the issue in much greater depth. Given the time constraints, I'm not sure I can sign the document."
It's been about eight months. How about now?
Which protectionist laws are these?
Flight tracking (e.g., FlightAware) and legal tech (e.g., CS Disco) strike me as fitting the title more accurately.
Given that "No one ever talks about Stripe or Coinbase" is obviously not a good basis for an argument, I assume he means "People don't seem to connect these various businesses and observe that 'financial services' as a whole is having a moment?"
A booming sector in the U.S., a huge opportunity outside the U.S.
Just an unrelated question. What blogging platform is this. I've been seeing a lot of blogs with this same style. Does anyone know.
For some peculiar definition of quietly!
- Bitcoin is all over the news
- Capital Access Network, Kabbage, etc are at multi 100M valuations
- Stripe and Braintree are running around at multi 100M vals.
- Simple and Green Dot / Loopt have done plenty in the PR circuit re their latest banking products.
- Kickstarter / Indiegogo are very much mainstream.
- Square is a PR machine at some 4-8B valuation (AFAIK)