David Ehrich

NY Climate Tech Founders! 1) YES PLEASE save the date to join us at #techweek (6/3!), and 2) YES PLEASE share your top NY resources to complete our NY INSIDER GUIDE, in collab with NYCEDC!

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An important discussion that I see first hand in both my very deep tech focused investing industry in venture capital and as an ethnic minority. The anti-woke discussion MUST not derail critical corporate DEI initiatives but the lesson is we need to more than box tick. Fabric Ventures Money20/20

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With the Synapse story still unfolding, it felt like an apt time to revisit the topic of BaaS and sponsor banking so I spent the weekend getting smarter ... 🚨 I covered some of this in a prior post, but wanted to dive a little deeper and spend time discussing: 🔵 The role that BaaS providers and Sponsor Banks play 🔵 The implications of the Synapse bankruptcy proceeding 🔵 Where I think the market goes from here 🔵 Who I think the winners will be longer term (e.g. infinant Inc + Coastal Community Bank) 🅣🅛🅓🅡: I'm hopeful that this is a wake up call to regulators to modernize the process and requirements associated with obtaining a bank charter. In an ideal world, all fintechs that touch the movement of money should have a clear path to earning a charter; thus ensuring that those same fintechs are held to the same regulatory standards that banks are held to. Read more here 👉 https://lnkd.in/e9FmKNM5 And as always, please share your thoughts or comments below 🗣 Some of these points can be polarizing - but all conjecture is welcome and encouraged - the most effective way forward is one that incorporates diverse perspectives! h/t: Jason Mikula for the great coverage of the unfolding events! cc: BankTech Ventures #BaaS #communitybanking #innovation

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Wendy Xiao, Molly Alter, Aaron Liu, and I recently hosted a dinner with CMIO / CIOs from top NY health systems and execs from startups who are building solutions across the care delivery and back-office billing stack. A few takeaways: - Delivering value-based care at scale changes the incentives for health systems in such a way that they require unique point solutions that can help them triage and manage at-risk patients. - While scribing platforms are certainly powerful in the administrative burden they can take off of doctors, their full value may not be unleashed until they can convert notes into the appropriate fields / codes for billing. - More attention needs to be paid to social determinants of health. For example, certain types of new addiction treatment, like gambling, may soon be covered by insurance if data continues to show that there are serious negative health implications for people affected. Treatments like Ozempic are also showing promise in the field of addiction. In the coming years there will an increasing acknowledgment of how interconnected social factors and medical health are across all patient populations. If you’re a healthcare exec looking to learn more about what the next generation of healthcare IT startups are building, or a healthcare startup looking to get involved, please reach out. cc Northzone

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I am looking to help early startups that need Product help but are not ready for a full-time Head of Product or Director of Product. Companies that are in my sweet spot: 1) Have some funding & initial customers/revenue 2) Looking to implement a cohesive Product strategy and internal infrastructure to support it. 3) Good founding team with a shared purpose/goal, even if you're still unsure what that means. Why me: 1) Experienced Product and Operations founder 2) Strong understanding of difference between initial product development, systematic product development and how to balance the two. 3) My stupid pet trick is simplifying complex systems and tasks into easy-to-understand bites. If your team loses the context of what they are building, your customers have no shot. If you are interested or know of a team that could use help, please reach out either in comments or DM. If you cold DM, please start by telling me your favorite animal and why.

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Great piece by Miriam Cross at American Banker. As I explained to Miriam, smooth wind downs and disbursements require planning ahead: 📣 Banks need unfettered access to critical customer data. Resilience to third-party failures is essential for a solid TPRM program. Ideally, banks should retrieve daily backups of critical customer data and store them internally. "Any time you have data that lives in one place that is critical to a vendor who can't see it somewhere else, you have a choke point." 📣 Banks should include critical third-party vendors in their tabletop exercises. These exercises typically test the bank's internal response, but including third parties ensures better collaboration and consumer protection when it matters most. "Normally, those happen within parties rather than between parties." 📣 Banks should include a tabletop exercise for rapid fund disbursement. Most banks don't consider account offboarding until it's too late. Whether for routine closures or rapid wind downs, banks need a plan to protect consumers. At Eisen, we offer the first Account Offboarding solution. We help banks prepare for and manage account closures, including data backups, direct outreach, managed disbursements, and state-by-state escheatment. https://witheisen.com/ Check out the other great insights from Jason Henrichs, Michele Alt, Teri Hodgett, Jesse Silverman, and Reid Whiting.

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NY friends! Please come see me at Tech Day on my panel discussing the future of the NY tech ecosystem and what I hope to bring to it!

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I'm excited to be leading my third YC demo day fund for the S24 batch! I've been involved with YC since 2015, first going through YC myself, staying closely involved with the community for 7+ years, and culminating in working there as a Visiting Partner, where I invested in over 120 companies and helped them raise over $200M in capital. Over all this time, one thing is clear to me: YC founders are only getting better and better, and YC companies remain the cream of the crop for early stage founders. And it's not because companies come out of YC "fully baked" -- many of the best companies went through Demo Day with no revenue, or even pivoting just a few months afterwards. Yet, over 5% of this batch will likely become unicorns. This batch is appears to be the biggest one since 2021, which will make for the most interesting (and more competitive) cycle in a long time. I have opened this fund up to friends and connections who would like to join me. If you are interested in participating, click the link below for special friends-only terms! https://lnkd.in/eSKEbqQJ

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Catching up on a busy week of fintech news: 1.) Footprint raises a Series A. The combination of identity verification and vaulting/authentication is hard to sell but highly differentiated. 2.) Walmart breaks up with Capital One. The problem with classic co-brand credit card partnerships is the incentive to push cards on every customer, whether or not they are the right fit. Walmart now has an opportunity to take a more tailored approach. 3.) Frich raises a seed round. Social media is wrecking the relationship between money and happiness. Can anonymous financial benchmarking help fix it? https://lnkd.in/gqh9m4y4

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CORRECTION: The 🌊 tides 🌊 are changing-ish! #Fintech and #bank partnerships were addressed today in a joint agency statement *and* an RFI. Phew. The terms #BaaS and embedded finance were used too! But of course, the NCUA is missing from this joint statement... which is confusing because there are several #creditunions in the BaaS space. While the joint statement is run-of-the-mill to their other guidance documents they've published, the RFI could actually shake things up. Hopefully the end result does a few things - 1) defines a fintech (take a look at my post from a few weeks ago... not everything named a fintech is actually a fintech); 2) clearly delineates that *several* fintechs are still without AML regulations; and 3) sets forth the FEDERAL establishment of guidelines so that bank partners are not the bearer of all the risk that is transferred. I like how AUSTRAC does it - if your company does XYZ, then you are ABC. If your company provides the ability to do DEF, then you are ABC. That is how it needs to be here because we have super awesome innovative fintechs solving real problems, but without clear definitions, we can over-regulate some (like middleware companies) and under-regulate others (like #payment processors). The RFI is definitely laser-focused on the recent debacle of Evolve, #Synapse, etc. It sucks that it had to happen at this level to spur this change, but better late than never. Good reminders - 1) the hyper-regulated entity is still responsible for their end fintech (possibly nested fintechs) compliance with #AML and #sanctions. 2) if your bank is looking at scaling quickly, you cannot off set your AML and sanctions compliance burden to a middleware provider. 3) current state - many fintechs are not regulated (loopholes for MSB registration) and therefore your QX function must be even stronger because of the first point above. Pages 11-16 of the RFI describe in great detail some of the innovative ways in which fintechs and #lendtechs operate. I plan on responding to most of the 30 questions posed in the RFI. I'll probably just copy/paste from my litany of posts regarding the issues with the fintech #banking environment. I'm not sure what other hills I will have if this actually gets fixed! It's only been 10 years of training/talking/writing/b*tching about it! 😎 #ifollowdirtymoney

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Access to scaling/ working capital for small to midsize businesses is difficult to come by. Pipe is changing that by embedding their financial solution into the current workflow of small/ midsize businesses. This is literally a game changer. See Luke Voiles' post and the Fintech Nexus article to learn more.

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The opioid crisis was a sad hallmark of my years working for the Baker Administration. In a time of extreme partisanship at the federal level, this was one area where public policy, civil discourse, and private enterprise seemed aligned and sufficiently motivated to find a solution. What we learned, however, is that dollars and access only go so far in combatting a disease that knows no so specific demographic. Instead, it's apparent that a battery of tools is needed to combat and prevent addiction--ranging from strong safety nets, to novel non-addictive pain therapies, and better technology. Introducing Marigold Health. Shrenik Jain, Ravi Shah, Tracey Cohen, MD, FASAM and team have built a proprietary NLP-based platform that--most significantly--improves the lives of those suffering from SUD/SMI. One customer we spoke with noted, "We needed a unique treatment intervention that had supportive research, fit into a CMS established model with a recognized service code, and that would provide positive clinical outcomes in an efficacious and fiscally responsible manner”. Another plainly said: "Marigold is our best hope to reach into the lives and help those who many have already given up on." Honored to join Bill Evans, Sean Day, and the entire syndicate in doing our part to scale a tool we believe will become essential in the fight against addiction. Marigold Health Innospark Ventures Rock Health KdT Ventures Matt Fates Lily Zarrella Venkat Srinivasan

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Another excellent piece from Alex Johnson. He says with the emergence of embedded lending, open banking, and generative AI, investment in a superior servicing experience is not optional—it is a strategic imperative for future success. The TRaiCE proactive portfolio loan monitoring tool for business lenders provides 24x7 monitoring of customers in the 'Pre-Delinquency' stage. It alerts relationship bankers to initiate risk-mitigating conversations and offer expert advice even before the customers realize they are heading into trouble. Thanks to #AI and #LLM, such interventions in servicing are now achievable. #communitybanking #digitalbanking #relationshipbanking

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Next week is NY Tech Week, and I look forward speaking at the Fintech Is Femme Founder Summit on 6/3, hosted by the incredible Nicole Casperson! 💜 I will be joining fellow panelists Frances Zelazny and Fay Vlahu Scott as we talk about developing and executing effective go-to-market strategies, including identifying target markets and optimizing distribution and storytelling channels for a successful product launch. ⚙️ You could have the best product in the universe - the PERFECT product - but if you get GTM wrong, your company will die (thanks James Cho for being my accountability buddy here every day). We'll be covering the hard lessons learned as marketers and founders and sharing some best practices as part of the summit, which is focused around "Building a Resilient Future". As always, we'll be real and bring the hot takes 🌶️. I'm also super excited to hear from fellow Center for Accelerating Financial Equity (CAFE) cohort mate Laura Kornhauser on fundraising strategies - important for everyone, crucial right now in this challenging market. Laura's an amazing leader and I'll be taking lots of notes. 📝 If you haven't got your tickets yet, JOIN US and sign up before it sells out like it did last time! (link in comments ⬇ ) When: Monday, June 3 at 12pm Where: Rise, created by Barclays, NYC See you there! #nytechweek #fintech #womeninfintech #fintechisfemme #femaleCEO #startup #femalefounder #marketing #gotomarket #resilientfuture

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Pleased to share that Fin Capital’s Fintech CEO Pulse Report is out! Fin Capital surveyed over 50 CEOs and C-suite leaders of private companies from our portfolio and the broader fintech industry during June and July 2024 to get a quick pulse on what’s top of mind for fintech’s leaders. Here are some key takeaways: - Optimism in the Air: More than 60% of CEOs reported being bullish or highly bullish on the fintech industry for the second half of 2024. - Regulatory Changes on the Horizon: CEOs identified Cryptocurrency, Open Banking, and Buy Now Pay Later as the top three sectors likely to see increased regulation by the end of 2024. - Headwinds persist. Despite overall bullishness on fintech, CEOs report a weak IPO environment and flag that macroeconomic volatility, regulation, and high interest rates remain top challenges for their companies. However, with abating inflation, CEO’s believe we could see rate cuts begin in September, which could positively affect asset values and market buoyancy, including the IPO window. For more insights, including comments from Logan Allin, Christian Ostberg, Matthew D. Mann, CFA, and Stephanie Perez, check out the full report here: https://lnkd.in/gK6usfwM

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Ever wonder what the inspiration behind compelling startups is? I’m excited to share the first entry in our portfolio spotlight series: HopSkipDrive. At its core, HopSkipDrive is driven by the mission to create opportunities for all by ensuring equitable access to education through reliable transportation. Of her entrepreneurial journey, Joanna says, “No matter how many obstacles you face, how many people tell you ‘no’, every day is a new opportunity to do better, be courageous, and do what it takes to get a ‘yes.’” You can read the full story at the link in the comments. #entrepreneurship #caretech #schooltransportation

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It is no secret that fundraising has been incredibly challenging for founders at all stages. According to Carta’s Q1 2024 State of Private Markets report, Seed stage deal count fell 33% from Q4 2023 and Series A deal count fell 36%. Additionally, total cash raised in the same period was 30% less at each stage suggesting rounds sizes are also getting smaller. In this next edition of Collaborative Fund's Founder Support Series, I get into the details of how to prepare to fundraise in a challenging environment. Have a read and let me know what you think: https://lnkd.in/gJjqhsCd

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NY TECH WEEK by a16z has been incredible. I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to spend this week learning and discussing what needs to happen next to move the needle in women's health, home health, climate change, and other areas. Here are three things I'm thinking about related to Women's Health this morning, and encourage you to spread the word on all of these: 💥 Equal Research Day (Monday, June 10): https://lnkd.in/e3ChZ2R7 Women weren't required in U.S. clinical research until 1993. The ongoing consequences of this are tremendous. Evvy created Equal Research Day to promote inclusive research, tell women's stories, and raise awareness for the gender health gap. Buy the book at the link, which supports Women's Health Access Matters. If you're a clinician, buy it for your office. And tell everyone. 💥 Women's Health PAC: https://lnkd.in/eYCit43g Focused on ensuring women’s whole health is a priority on the national agenda by building a powerful, bipartisan political women’s health movement to influence the political process and support women’s health champions in key elections. (Sign up on the site, and stay in the loop.) 💥 VCsforRepro: https://lnkd.in/erPcWVdi Launched in Nov 2022, VCs for Repro is a coalition of VC firms united to support access to abortion. There are so many VC firms to be added to this list. Share the link with your own investors. Spread the word. #womenshealth #health #healthcare #equalresearchday #clinicalresearch #venturecapital #nytechweek

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