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A chat with Michel Rbeiz, Toast's GM of Fintech
On Toast's product and fintech strategy, how AI complements full stack products, trends in embedded fintech, and more
Mar 27
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Matt Brown
Dangerous language in startups
How we describe something affects how we think about and interact with it. It's especially potent and dangerous in startup descriptions, and worth…
Mar 18
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Matt Brown
February 2024
Payfac in 1,000 words
Payfac is the model behind fintech’s biggest successes, from Stripe and Square, to Shopify, Uber, and more. It's a critical but misunderstood topic, so…
Feb 7
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Matt Brown
January 2024
Dark software
How the SaaS and fintech models are breaking down, why food delivery and dark kitchens provide an alternative model, and what the future of software may…
Jan 23
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Matt Brown
Fintech from first principles
Financial services is one of the oldest, largest, and most complex markets. “Oldest” is measured in millennia: the first coined currency is over 5,000…
Jan 9
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Matt Brown
November 2023
Hedgehogs, foxes, and VCs
What matters in early-stage investing (and why I think "why now" is the most important thing).
Nov 20, 2023
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Matt Brown
B2B payments aren’t payments, they’re workflows
B2B payments is a ghost market because everyone focuses on the “payments” part. The real problem is in the workflows and data that precede the actual…
Nov 6, 2023
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Matt Brown
October 2023
Vertical, horizontal, and ghost markets
Ghost markets seem real. They have an enormous TAM and a clear need for new solutions. So a wave of companies go after the opportunity, and then… it…
Oct 30, 2023
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Matt Brown
Fundraising for fintech infra is different
Fintech infra and embedded fintech are so unique that much of the generalist fundraising advice out there doesn't apply to them. Here's what I've…
Oct 17, 2023
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Matt Brown
July 2023
The iron triangle of embedded fintech
The next big fintechs will win with novel distribution, not novel products. In the 2010s the biggest fintechs were product innovators. They closed the…
Jul 31, 2023
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Matt Brown
Bundling, unbundling, and timing
The tech industry loves bundling and unbundling. There’s been a lot written on how it works, but little on when it works. Here are some factors that may…
Jul 14, 2023
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Matt Brown
April 2023
The best fintechs turn risk into leverage
Fintech startups must grow fast but manage risk. Most fintechs get good enough it by limiting the downside of risk, but cap their upside in doing so…
Apr 17, 2023
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Matt Brown
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