Jan 21, 2020 · 19m · a16z
Any Company Can Offer Financial Services
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this a16z Summit keynote, General Partner Angela Strange explains how modern banking-as-a-service infrastructure enables every company to integrate financial products. She details how specialized API layers reduce launch costs, drive high-margin revenue for non-fintech businesses, and democratize access to financial services globally.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →
The host as informed peer 0.0 Guest teaching 0.0 Guest disagreement 0.0 The host pushing back 0.0
speaking balance: gold is the host, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 2:00 Critique of traditional banking state
Angela offers a mild critique of poor customer satisfaction and lack of trust in legacy banks, which serves as the most critical perspective in an otherwise collaborative presentation.
Hardest push from the host ▶ 0:14 No host pushback in monologueSteph Smith is absent throughout this keynote talk, resulting in zero host pushback.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 15:20 Educational breakdown of synthetic fraudAngela clearly educates the audience on how fraudsters create synthetic identities using random social security numbers to build credit profiles.
The host holds their own ▶ 0:14 No host involvement in monologueThe host does not speak during the recorded monologue, preventing any host expertise demonstrations.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The host as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The host pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event Title Card and Legal Disclosures | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Angela Strange delivers an opening keynote monologue explaining how non-financial companies will offer financial services. Steph Smith does not speak, so host metrics remain zero. | |
| Why Financial Innovation Is Hard for Incumbents and Startups | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Angela discusses why banking innovation is hard due to legacy infrastructure and regulatory barriers. As a monologue presentation, there is no host interaction. | |
| Real-World Case Studies: Apple, Uber, Lyft, Shopify, MindBody | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Angela highlights case studies of Apple, Uber, Lyft, Shopify, and MindBody embedding financial services. The host does not participate in this segment. | |
| Core Systems and Account Connections Layer: Plaid | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Angela explains the complex banking stack and how infrastructure providers like Plaid and Synapse simplify account connection. There is no host dialogue. | |
| Regulatory and Anti-Money Laundering Layer: ComplyAdvantage | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Angela details anti-money laundering regulations, smurfing, and how ComplyAdvantage automates compliance. The segment is entirely a solo talk. | |
| Fraud Prevention and Synthetic Identity Protection: SentiLink | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Angela outlines synthetic identity fraud and SentiLink's solution. No host interaction takes place. | |
| Global Opportunities and Keynote Conclusion | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Angela concludes her presentation with global opportunities and final thoughts on financial democratization. Steph Smith does not speak. |
Statements from this episode (16)
Strange: 80% of attendee companies will offer financial services within five years
“I believe that if no one in this room changes jobs five years from now, that number will be closer to 80%.”
Strange: Nearly every company will become a financial services company
“And that's because in the not too distant future, nearly every company will be a financial services company and get a significant portion of their revenue from financial services.”
Strange: Only 28% of Millennials and Gen Z trust their banks
“If you're part of the millennial or Gen Z generation who saw your parents go through the financial crisis, 28% trust their banks to be fair and honest.”
Strange: Large banks spend 75% of IT budgets maintaining legacy products
“At some of the larger banks, 75% of those dollars are spent on maintaining the products that you don't already love.”
Strange: Infrastructure-as-a-service models will reduce fintech cost and complexity
“Now this same monumental as a service change is coming to financial services. And as we'll see shortly, it's not just one company, it's multiple companies, because the infrastructure is so complex. But it'll reduce the cost, it'll reduce the complexity, and im…”
Strange: Most financial innovation will come from non-financial companies
“A great majority of it, I think, will come from companies that are adding financial services for the very first time.”
Strange: Uber and Lyft spend hundreds of dollars to acquire each driver
“Uber and Lyft both spend hundreds of dollars acquiring drivers, and then they have to make up that cost through margin on rides.”
Strange: Shopify and MindBody make almost 50% of revenue from financial services
“Turns out both of these companies make almost 50% of their revenue through financial services.”
Strange: Building a consumer banking stack traditionally takes two years, 12 partnerships
“So now we're looking at probably over a dozen partnerships, close to two years to ink these deals, and you've built absolutely nothing new that you wanted to bring to market.”
Strange: Plaid replaces hundreds of custom bank integrations with a single API
“But now, there's a company like Plaid that provides all of that as a service. Instead of hundreds of integrations, I now just have one. Plaid builds the integrations, it maintains the integrations, and importantly, it translates the data into a usable format.”
Strange: Legacy banking systems from the 1960s require extensive wrapper code
“A lot of these systems were built in the 19 sixties, and so you're writing a whole lot of code to stitch them together”
Strange: Banking-as-a-service shifts founder advantage from payments expertise to customer insight
“What it does is it places a much bigger importance on do you have a deep customer understanding, and hence a really great idea of a product that customers need, and a great idea around distribution, versus do you come from a banking infrastructure payments bac…”
Strange: One major bank employs 30,000 people exclusively in regulatory compliance
“At one of the large banks, 30,000 of 210,000 employees work only in compliance.”
Strange: Bank compliance systems catch less than 3% of money laundering dollars
“Less than three percent of the dollars are actually caught.”