Bootstrap a fintech business as solo? What do you think?
Hi community,
a question has been going in my mind for weeks now:
Is is possible to bootstrap a business in the fintech industry??
what are the challenges? regulation maybe.. licences.. is there any work around?
Depends also a lot about what we define 'fintech company'.. could an analitics app on the top of Stripe be considered a fintech bootstraped thing?
I would love to hear your comments
Hey! I'm building a fintech business using open banking APIs. The barriers to entry differ heavily depending on the nature of the business, but they're not as high as you might think. You can happily become an agent on an existing regulated business's licence.
I believe very strongly that it's possible in the SME or corporate space, less so in retail banking.
WOW can you articulate more this:
it would be super interesting!
Are you bootstrapping?
Oh yeah - so for the PSD2 licences there are lots of aggregators (True Layer, OpenWrks, Banked etc.) who will give you the technical access to the APIs and also provide regulatory cover to do regulated activity. I'm speaking about the UK and European examples - America is a little different.
Happy to chat further if I can be helpful - oli@moneycado.io
you mean that is easier build a B2B than a B2C in the fintech?
It's easier to get paid in B2B fintech. Consumer fintech (except credit) is difficult!
As soon as you start converting anything into fiat currencies, you'll interface with banks and payment processors. There are regulatory requirements per territory where you have customers and the institutions you partner with will probably have certain technical security (and maybe record-keeping) requirements. This is based on a friend's experience building a startup that sold precious metals for cryptocurrency, with the intermediate step of conversion to dollars causing a lot of the trouble. Having said all of that, I think the reluctance of most entrepreneurs / startups to enter regulated industries means there are untapped possibilities for those willing to hire a lawyer and build in compliance.
but there are no indie hackers that try to solve problems like compliance, backoffice or help lawyer to do their job better.. or maybe I just didn/t find them?
There are some startups and established services that do legal and accounting work either on contract or on retainer, but I don't know of any that focus on compliance. It may be that the perceived downside risks (both from giving bad advice or falling short in data security) have been enough to keep people out.
I think there are large barriers to entry if you're going to need to deal with the established banking industry in any way. However, something based on bitcoin/blockchain wouldshouldn't have any artificial barriers.
But I guess there are small niches not regulated where one could create something. Like for example an analytics dashboard for Stripe ( I think has been already done) or a payment app on the top of Stripe etc..
If we can go further I do not see any app for KYC or Compliance doe by indie hackers..
The point I noticed i that there is a lack in this space and I wondering why...
Is it because is harder and require specific knowledge: not just dev but also legislation?
I think you're right - building on top of Stripe means you don't have to deal with the banks as they'll do that.
There are issues on creating a business as a 3rd party app though - you're totally dependent on the company you build on top of. There are loads of cases of apps built on Twitter and Facebook disappearing overnight.
On the specific knowledge of legislation part - if you could team up with someone knowledgeable you'd be in a strong position as it would be harder for any dev to copy your idea.
true. but it is the only starting point that i can think of if you are bootstrapping and do not have funds for dealing with lawyers....
It depends on which kind of financial service you wish to make. What do you have in mind?
Than's the point, I have nothing in mind, and I didn't find any story about bootstrapped fintech, so I was wondering what is the cause.. Big entrance barriers from ttech prospective, from regulatory prospective.. or what?
The industry is big but no indie hackers looks doing anything there..
Hi @alchaest. I'm just 8 days old on IH and this why I'm here - to build a fintech solution as a side hustle and also to show a fintech recruiter as I'm trying to transition to a product manager role in a fintech startup or establishment.
I've been in the banking and finance space for more than 13 years now with the last for 4 years at the bottom of the pyramid space.
I have the domain expertise to bring this business to fruition, but I don't have the development/ coding skills to build the tech solution.
Since you brought it up let's collaborate to create it.
Are you a developer?
Hi @bolaaliu - I'm also an operator in the space with the same question as @alchaest. I'd be curious to know if either of you were ever able to take this further or answer whether or not bootstrapping some sort of saas product in the fintech space is possible. Let me know!
Hey @John_Hammond!
Great to know that you are in the BOP space....
Unfortunately, I didn't get a response from @alchaest so we weren't able to do anything together.
But I'm in a bootcamp right now, learning full stack development. I know at the end of the program, I should be able to build some stuffs I can start with.
I finished the front end technologies last week - HTML, CSS, Bootstrap and Javascript. I'm on Database right now, using SQL to do stuffs.
It's been quite a journey but it's funny how rejection can make you look within for power.