Fintech Impact

Jason Pereira talks to Michael Butler, President & CEO Grasshopper Bank. The company began operations in 2019 & is a client-first digital bank serving small businesses, start-ups, & investors supporting them across the innovation economy.

Episode Highlights

• 1.14: Grasshopper Bank was a digital bank that was formed about 12 months before the pandemic hit with its primary purpose was to deliver digital financial solutions into the business and innovation economy and that was its formation and the primary purpose 
• 4.19: In March, Grasshopper Bank launched a totally digital treasury management solution for small businesses.
• 6.52: One of the biggest, hottest growing parts of ventures fintech and to the extent that we are, we consider ourselves more of a fintech with a bank charter, we think there is a real kind of alignment of mindset as it relates to working with these companies, we have a great deal of knowledge of how FinTech’s work because of using them on platforms or evaluating them for a variety of different purposes.
• 7.27: Business becomes another leg of this stool in which if you are in the venture capital business and you are promoting a fintech, trying to get them aligned to a bank that they have a banking as a service relationship for them is an accelerator to the growth of the portfolio company, which then goes back to the success of the venture firm.
• 16.12: Michael could never get enough of is entrepreneurial thinking and creativity. He thinks that the world becomes a better place when we can manage entrepreneurial thinking and creative thinking and better things come from it.
• 16.49: Michael did a a deep dive evaluation of people and make sure people were enrolled, that they wanted to be in, that they were capable of being in, that they understood the strategy and were excited about executing against it. 

3 Key Points

1. Michael explains how they differ and solve the problem of banking for the small Business Innovation economy. 
2. Michael Butler has got the company website and they have basically resections, banking, lending and fintech in particular.
3. Michael says that they capture the deposits that are leaving the industry by creating relationships with fintech companies and then the other leg of the stool is we want to be involved in other lending activities that are associated with the business and innovation economy, not just venture but.

Tweetable Quotes

• “Banks have a hard time due to its historical kind of tight regulatory environment and its ability to attract top talent on the technology side and to deliver industry-leading technology solutions.” - Michael Butler
• “We have embraced the fintech movement and we use a partnership model to create our platforms and create the experiences that we think we need for our customers.” - Michael Butler 
• “So that's where the demand comes from this, this combination of industries shifting into more of technology-oriented products and services, small business and then the people who are running those businesses and their psychographics related to being technophiles versus not and demanding a digital solution.” - Michael Butler

Resources Mentioned

• Facebook – Jason Pereira's Facebook
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira's LinkedIn
• Woodgate.com – Sponsor