Founders avoid massive fintech simplification opportunities due to operational schlep work
Des Traynor · Be Wary of Solving a Small, Rare Problem - Des Traynor of Intercom · Y Combinator · Dec 13, 2017 · at 1:04:16
Des Traynor, co-founder of Intercom, discusses untapped startup opportunities in financial services, citing Lemonade's conversational insurance model.
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“I think that model, and I'm not saying chatbots aren't the thing here so much as drastic simplification is the thing. The Q and A maybe suggests that a chatbot might be like charming as a way to do it, or like at least unique from a brand perspective. But I think there's a lot of areas like that, you know, where car insurance is another obvious iteration, but like, Anything to do with, like, a mortgage application, like, you know, like, I think there's a lot of areas that are rich for, like, drastic simplification that people turn a little bit away from because of what Paul Graham would call, like, the schlep work side of, like, you know, it's easier to build a recipe up, frankly, than it is to go and talk to banks about saying, I want to reduce mortgage creation to, like, tree taps”
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