Top 5 Takeaways From Fintech Meetup

Fintech Meetup took place this past week, from March 30th to April 1st, in Las Vegas. It's a large conference, thousands of people, among them the who's who in Fintech, which covers lending, banking, payments, digital assets, and more.  I like Vegas, my home for three years, leaving in 2011, so I am always glad to go back, especially for an event like this.

The following are my top takeaways from the conference:

1. The entire conference depends on personal experience. If you didn’t see the lending panels, then you didn’t get some of the conversation. Same for payments and banking.  What stood out to me was the energy everyone has for building products and evolving very quickly, given the technological advancements. One point someone said I agree with is that they don’t even want to use the terms AI or Agentic AI when simply discussing their products or services. He thinks it’s basically a given now that everyone uses it to accomplish something in their product or service or workflow. The thing that matters is the output and results. 

One thing I didn't hear throughout were the dangers that AI brings to all industries, and an example of that is Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refusing to provide certain services to the government.

2. A huge development in business credit reporting is on the horizon for revenue-based financing/MCAs and other financing options that don’t report to credit bureaus. I won’t mention any names, but there is one company getting this going right now. This means the ability for the funder to report the deal to credit bureaus, so the merchant will build business credit. There will be an announcement soon

   
   

3. No one in lending, banking, and payments, or digital services can look too far ahead.  6 months to a year on specific things, but two years is an eternity because of the speed at which things are advancing. The biggest of companies can influence overall movements in technology, but they may have a hard time keeping up with smaller, more nimble companies. 

   
   

4. Fintech Meetup had thousands of attendees, and most took part in the meetings program, which is like speed dating for business networking. Once your meetings are selected and set up, it's just up to the individual to make the most of them. I had many productive meetings, even with people I've already met but haven't sat down with for 15 minutes before, which really helps. Then some people weren't maybe a fit for collaboration immediately, and others were tired by the time they got to my meeting because they had over 10 meetings before me. That's understandable. But like most conferences, the real work starts in the follow-up.

   
   

5. There is still a big gap in SMB financing in the US that many are trying to fill, including embedded lenders like Fundbox or Youlend. This is why some of the biggest and most advanced lenders, funders, and marketplaces were at Fintech Meetup. 

   
   

   Bonus: For those in business financing of any form or loan product, this conference demonstrates the overlap that technology has forced, where almost every funder or lender is a fintech if they are actually growing. That's why this is a really valuable conference for those in that position, and I highly recommend at least going once.