Re X + Visa: Will it go down the path of Apple + GS? As you said, don't bet against EM. Maybe he will bundle X+Starlink+Tesla with the top user getting a seat to the space station ...
Re Wise in LATAM: They have plenty-plenty of GTM experience in Asia and I am sure they can take a look at their India and Indonesia playbooks/learnings as references. And I would advise them to not go after the unbanked segment. (Maybe I should write a post about this)
Re NAB: Interesting NPP take-up is sluggish. Could it be due to the fact that Debit was already "cheap" for merchants and therefore when NPP came online it wasn't as compelling to merchants from the start?
Re Formance: V.Interesting. What I have observed in the market (so far) is that these middleware/orchestrators haven't scaled at all and those who have, evolved their biz models to become something very different. A big constraint is that, after building these connectors you still have to maintain them with the problem scaling with more geographies, use cases etc. Nonetheless, underlying costs are coming down and accessibility has improved so it may be a function of market timing! And VCs are investing in fintech infra in order to unlock upstream opportunities (?)
Re Monzo: Juxtapose that interview with Nik's and observe Harry's approach/energy with both. Lots of takeaways on the different approaches between the two leaders. I suspect investor pressure is going to be N.America; however... the more sensible pathway may be targeting the British diaspora in middle east, AUNZ, or SE Asia (?) Follow your customers they say...and more of them live in AUNZ+SE Asia versus USA. (TS, more than happy to work on your team again)...
The idea of X launching a wallet is hard to imagine working—but that’s also exactly why it might. Sometimes, it’s the completely left-field plays that end up surprising everyone. And we know Elon is the kind of left-field!
I agree that the unbanked segment is tricky to make work - especially if you're not structurally set up to serve them. Moreover, it’s one that Wise has traditionally focused on. However, as they push further into growth markets, their playbook may need to adapt to work in these types of environments.
Going global from a “bank” foundation is incredibly difficult. That’s why the players who have succeeded at scale have tended to be more remittance- or wallet-branded rather than traditionally “bank-coded.” Personally, I think this will be another swift retreat by Monzo back its knitting.
Re X + Visa: Will it go down the path of Apple + GS? As you said, don't bet against EM. Maybe he will bundle X+Starlink+Tesla with the top user getting a seat to the space station ...
Re Wise in LATAM: They have plenty-plenty of GTM experience in Asia and I am sure they can take a look at their India and Indonesia playbooks/learnings as references. And I would advise them to not go after the unbanked segment. (Maybe I should write a post about this)
Re NAB: Interesting NPP take-up is sluggish. Could it be due to the fact that Debit was already "cheap" for merchants and therefore when NPP came online it wasn't as compelling to merchants from the start?
Re Formance: V.Interesting. What I have observed in the market (so far) is that these middleware/orchestrators haven't scaled at all and those who have, evolved their biz models to become something very different. A big constraint is that, after building these connectors you still have to maintain them with the problem scaling with more geographies, use cases etc. Nonetheless, underlying costs are coming down and accessibility has improved so it may be a function of market timing! And VCs are investing in fintech infra in order to unlock upstream opportunities (?)
Re Monzo: Juxtapose that interview with Nik's and observe Harry's approach/energy with both. Lots of takeaways on the different approaches between the two leaders. I suspect investor pressure is going to be N.America; however... the more sensible pathway may be targeting the British diaspora in middle east, AUNZ, or SE Asia (?) Follow your customers they say...and more of them live in AUNZ+SE Asia versus USA. (TS, more than happy to work on your team again)...
As always, lots of great points, Justin!
The idea of X launching a wallet is hard to imagine working—but that’s also exactly why it might. Sometimes, it’s the completely left-field plays that end up surprising everyone. And we know Elon is the kind of left-field!
I agree that the unbanked segment is tricky to make work - especially if you're not structurally set up to serve them. Moreover, it’s one that Wise has traditionally focused on. However, as they push further into growth markets, their playbook may need to adapt to work in these types of environments.
Going global from a “bank” foundation is incredibly difficult. That’s why the players who have succeeded at scale have tended to be more remittance- or wallet-branded rather than traditionally “bank-coded.” Personally, I think this will be another swift retreat by Monzo back its knitting.