What are the characteristics of an impactful network? How does Belfast fit into the global fintech community? How can the entrepreneurs of Northern Ireland build a lasting social structure that supports their success?

1. Building a Meaningful
Community
Bo Brustkern
June, 2019
@brustkern +1-303-319-6800 bo@lendit.com

2. What are we playing?
“Learn to love the game.”
-- 2018 interview, underdog.nyc
“People appreciate being appreciated.”
-- 2018 interview, Inc. Magazine
@brustkern +1-303-319-6800 bo@lendit.com

3. Why are we playing?
1. What do you want your company to become?
2. How do you define success?
3. Will future financing will be available to you?
4. Will your company be worth much more than it is today?
5. Will you be the best in the world at this one thing?
6. Do you think anyone else can produce a competitive
offering in a reasonable time?

4. I’m an entrepreneur
so I can move the needle
in other people’s lives.

5. 5
“Our mission is to improve
the lives of others by
weaving a stronger economic fabric.
When we succeed,
billions of people’s lives are impacted.”
-- LendIt Fintech’s mission statement
Fintech matters, and we’re doing
something about it.

6. Annual conferences in:
London, New York, Shanghai & Miami
Next up:
LendIt Fintech Europe
Sept 26-27, 2019 in London
Attend an event:
www.lendit.com
Use “Bo15” for 15% off your ticket.
Subscribe to daily news:
http://news.lendit.com

7. Fintech impacts Billions

8. The bank services gap is still vast.

9. Globally, 1.7 billion adults lack a bank account

10. Nearly half of all unbanked adults live in just seven economies

11. 21% of adults in SSA have a mobile money account

12. Trends in Fintech
Innovation & partnership: it’s on.

13. 1. We are re-imagining our relationship w/ money
2. We are deconstructing banking services
3. We are achieving scale
4. Comprehensive financial wellness is the goal
Trends in Fintech

14. 1. In the US, online lenders issued 36% of all
personal loans in 2017 (up from 1% in 2010)
2. Total online US loan balance: $120 billion
3. The monoline offering is just a foot in the door
Online Lending is moving to the 2nd wave

15. 1. Challenger banks are proving the impossible
2. Incumbent banks are mainly failing at digital
Digital Banking is Coming Strong

16. MarketInvoice <> Barclays : One of the largest online invoice financing platform now has a
huge balance sheet to work from.
Ezbob <> RBS(Esme) & Amex : Ezbob’s lending-as-a-service product powering the SME digital
offering for RBS and American Express.
Divido <> Nordea : Divido will be powering point of sale lending for the largest Nordic bank
(30k employees).
Kabbage <> ING and Santander : powering small business loans in Europe. First Spain, then
France & Italy (ING) and UK (Santander).
Raisin > MHB Bank > PBF Solutions of Manchester : this partnership became so important that
Raisin acquired the bank.
Finn by Chase : to shut down in August, after less than two years in business. Will
Greenhouse, Citizens Access, PurePoint and Rising Bank follow?
The fintech <> bank partnership boom is on.

17. Fintech valuations: reaching an extreme

18. VC into Fintech: taking a breath

19. The Belfast community is built by makers
Connections matter.
Culture matters.
Vibe matters.
Failure matters.

20. Connections matter. Build them.

21. Culture matters. Shape it.
For more depth on this topic, watch here.

22. Vibe matters. Amplify it.
Creative classes seek weirdness
All souls respond to beauty
Beauty + weirdness = artists & developers
The radicals on the edges of society challenge the norm;
sometimes this is progressive; sometimes regressive.
Either way, it’s the radicals that matter.
Promote the radical thinkers.

23. Failure matters. Own it.
Consequences of failure
Benefits of success

24. Why Not Belfast?

25. Strengths of NI
1. Easy access to early-stage
funding (< £1m)
2. Lots of startup programmes and
accelerators
3. Lots of co-working space options
4. Deep pool of Tech Dev resources
5. Established clusters of expertise
6. Separated from the madness
7. Less expensive people
8. Hungrier, humble people with
something to prove
1. Lots of 'bad ideas' getting off the
ground
2. Difficult to access later stage
funding (> £1m)
3. Difficult to access true start-up
expertise and mentors
4. Small local addressable market
5. The start-up ecosystem is not
very joined up
Challenges of NI
Address the weaknesses, amplify the strengths.

26. Crunchbase lists 66
fintech companies that
raised less than $5MM
and are generating more
than (est.) $10MM annual
revenue.
A partial list of the cities
that host these
companies is to the right.
Note the geographic
dispersion.
Undercapitalized co’s are crushing. Everywhere.
London 10
New York 6
San Francisco 3
Toronto 3
Atlanta 2
Boulder 2
Mumbai 2
Sao Paolo 2
Salt Lake City 2
Santa Barbara 2
Scottsdale 2
Accra 1
Austin 1
Barcelona 1
Bogota 1
Brooklyn 1
Buenos Aires 1
Burlington 1
Camberley 1
Carrollton 1
Central 1
Charlotte 1
Chennai 1
Chicago 1
Cicero 1
Clinton Township 1
Cork 1
Dublin 1
Durham 1
Eliot 1
Frankfurt 1
Greenville 1
Haidian 1
Hallandale 1
Helsinki 1
Irvine 1
Kirkland 1
Los Angeles 1
Makati 1
Mexico City 1
Minneapolis 1
Montevideo 1

27. Connect. Inspire. Advance.

28. The Happiness Advantage by Achor
5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Lencioni
Essentialism by Greg McKeown
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
Startup Communities by Brad Feld
Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff
Great Reads
The Things They Carried by O’Brien
Endurance by Alfred Lansing
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
Blue Highways by Least-Heat-Moon
Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman
A River Runs Through It by Maclean
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by Wroblewski
The Boys in the Boat by D.J. Brown

29. Appendix:
Loving the Game

30. My story, told nakedly
● This was my experience
● Am I alone?
Gestalt Response
● I’ve had an analogous experience; perhaps it
resonates with you.
● I’ll tell you my story, but I won’t give you advice
My reaction
● I’m not alone
● I got this

31. Forums
Forums are small groups of entrepreneurs who
meet regularly, follow gestalt, and discuss the
“top-and-bottom 5% issues.” Forums are the
strong threads in an entrepreneurial fabric.
1. 6 - 10 entrepreneurs
2. Meet monthly
3. Follow a strict regimen before, during and
after meetings
4. Have a decade-long commitment
Gestalt is a rubric for entrepreneurs to follow
so that they may lead with integrity. Successful
forums follow gestalt in order to maintain
integrity with themselves and the group.
1. Strict Confidentiality
2. Lead with Vulnerability
3. Committed to the Work
4. Approach with Love
5. Curious About Self and Others
6. Speak in the first person
7. Have Fun
Gestalt
My forum is my Rock of Gibraltar

32. I do it because I said so.
That’s good enough.
No one will notice.
I’m too tired.
I can’t figure it out.
Oh well.
I want to do better.
I want to accomplish more.
How can I make your job easier?
Whatever it takes.
I got this.

33. 33
If a company does one big thing better than their
competition, it becomes fairly easy for their competition
to level the playing field: they can just imitate that one
thing. But if a company does thousands of little things
better than anyone else, they become nearly impossible
to imitate. We call those thousands of little things
“inches.” We’d never be able to foresee all the things
that should be noticed or improved. Instead, we drive a
culture that motivates our team members to find the
inches we need all around us. We are all empowered to
find the opportunities to make an impact everywhere;
one inch at a time, these inches all add up to greatness.
-- Quicken Loans
Do thousands of things better.

34. “You need no permission.”
Thank you
Amy, Jack, Ella,
Lily, Eve & Canty