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Money 20/20 — You say

you want a revolution?

This show is famous for its hackathon and for its platform
for startups. Startup Academy is limited to 100 first-time
attendees who have raised less than $3 million in equity
funding and have been incorporated less than three years.
The Pitch Challenge whittles these down to the top 24
startups. On the show floor, Startup City had 58 startups
in booths ready to talk one-on-one with attendees. The
issue for startups is to not run out of cash before getting
traction; the show gives them more visibility to more
investors in one place than anywhere else.
Revolution underway

The theme of the show was The Money Revolution. This
revolution began a while back in payments. Some people
By Brandes Elitch say it started with Square, and that opportunities for
CrossCheck Inc. disruptors to take on the incumbent regulated financial
institutions came about because banks exited the payments
n October I attended the Money 20/20 conference in business in the 1990s (I'm not sure that is altogether true).
Las Vegas, my third time as an attendee. The show There were three motivating factors: mobile ubiquity, API
bills itself as the world's largest marketplace for plugins and open source software. The revolutionaries
I ideas, connections and deals in payments, fintech now are focused in three areas of attack: reshaping
and financial services. Since the attendees include over behavioral change, transforming business and reducing
11,500 industry professionals from 4,500 companies in intermediary costs.
85 countries, 300 journalists, 400 speakers and about 400
startups, that statement rings true. The revolutionaries believe that banks are "dinosaurs" and
the Internet giants will provide the platform ecosystem
According to Medici Research, in the third quarter of 2018, going forward and handle the overall client relationship.
the total value of acquisitions among 62 buyouts of fintechs Survivors will be successful based on their size and
was $11.3 billion; the sum total of investments among 460 efficiency, and technology will change the economics and
deals is $11.39 billion. These staggering numbers explain business models of the financial services industry. As
why the show's attendance is so high. evidence, Gartner said that by 2030, 80 percent of financial
firms will either go out of business or be rendered irrelevant
The conference is held at the Venetian Hotel in downtown by new competition, changing customer behavior and
Las Vegas. Sessions were all in close proximity and limited advances in technology.
to 20 minutes, which is an improvement over the typical Carvana explored
45- to 60-minute conference sessions. It forces presenters
to get their message out quickly and concisely. It was also Let's look at one example from the show, the presentation
helpful to have the sessions organized by track, with the from Carvana, who says they want to fix the process of
subsequent sessions in that track held in the same room. buying a car and make it "invisible." Here at CrossCheck,
Comprehensive offerings our primary business is supporting new car dealers, so I
was interested to hear this talk, from one of the insurgents
Topics covered included artificial intelligence and deep in the revolution. There were some interesting points
learning; regulation and regtech; digital identity and which I had never thought of quite this way before.
biometrics; globalization, cybersecurity and fraud; fintech
for social good; the fintech revolution; banking and For example, they say that a factory franchise new car
personal finance; next gen commerce and retail; blockchain dealer has to invest tens of millions of dollars to buy a huge
and crypto; alternative lending and credit, payments and parcel of real estate and then tens of millions of dollars to
platforms; breaking news and fintech views; and digital build out the showroom and service facility to meet the
marketing. There were, of course, various receptions demands of the factory. And the only real purpose of this
(poolside and exhibit hall) and an "Industry Night" at the is to get the consumer to come in for a test drive.
Omnia.

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