I know people have different levels of what's acceptable on trains but the woman behind me has been humming, badly, to the point I can hear it through my noise cancelling headphones, for 1 hour — there's 3.5 more to go. I think it's worse than the whole watching-tiktok-without-headphones situation.

I've said it before but for the people at the back: If you ask me to speak at your event and I accept, please, please, PLEASE send me a diary invite for the time you want me at the venue and the event details. Otherwise it's highly likely I will forget/book something over the top...

This is fascinating and a brilliant idea. Nevermind how much you upset customers, regulators do NOT like outages either. Plus Monzo has the option to monetise this by white labelling it.

www.finextra.com/newsarticle/....

Another big-bank hire for Starling:

sifted.eu/articles/sta...

Hmm. On one side, automating lead generation is something VCs have been attempting for years so there's definitely a need, and there's a case it could help underrepresented founders. On the other, so much will depend on the quality of data fed in. Also: The photo...
techcrunch.com/2025/01/09/d...

This is just one set of numbers, but it illustrates the trend we're all seeing — VC funding continues to be ever harder to come by for fintechs. It would be interesting to see some data on PE and how the trends compare if anyone has any?

www.innovatefinance.com/capital/fint...

Siemiatkowski's known for giving journos quotes to create clickbait headlines & this is a perfect example. There's so much nuance here but mainly, Klarna overhired post 2021 (like many fintechs) & rather than admitting that, it's diverting attention by talking about AI
techcrunch.com/2024/12/14/k...

It's well known that people find it easier to use cash to budget & I can see why — it's tangible, when it's gone it's gone. But what does that say about financial education and the psychology behind how we think about "money"?

Shoppers increasingly using cash to budget
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Today is our first ever all day conference! We've brought investors and ecosystem supporters from across the UK to Wales to help our founders understand what the most appropriate funding for them is, and how best to get it.

This is an interesting example of "fintech for good". Third party calculators already exist, but you have to have the head space to go and find them. If it's in your banking app, it's in context and therefore may see higher usage.

ffnews.com/newsarticle/...

Right, let's try this again.

You don't try and compete with Nubank, that makes zero business sense.

Given our European friends can't join us on Threads I'm here as well, but how the hell do I find my fintech people?!