The first fintechs: How early online brokers pioneered innovation through financial technology. PERSPECTIVE 1 @investSuite |
[email protected] | www.investsuite.com CONTENTS 1. Introduction 3 2. The importance of technology in the financial industry’s innovation dictionary 5 3. The do-it-yourself (DIY) investor 7 4. The very first FinTechs 8 5. A short history 10 May Day, 1975 – The ‘Big Bang’ of discount brokerage 10 The first online trade 11 The Europeans 13 Non-stop innovation and adaptation machines 16 6. Low prices and the internet behind the rise of the DIY investor 18 7. Embracing new technology – The internet further driving the rise of the DIY investor 21 8. Entrepreneurial inspiration and innovation lessons 22 An innovation-driven, entrepreneurial CEO 22 Culture 23 People 24 Seize opportunities 25 Dealing with ‘no’ 26 Adapt and reinvent 26 Small is beautiful 27 Takeaways 30 1. INTRODUCTION Bart Vanhaeren CEO & Co-founder InvestSuite Radical innovation is about realising an X-fold improvement in something beneficial to a client. That ‘something’ may be a major price reduction, a mind-blowing quality improvement, a much better service, a new business line or model, or any combination of these elements. Whether your definition of ‘X-fold’ is five, ten or a hundred times, this is clearly not about incremental improvements. Although those are also important, radical innovation is different. Acknowledging this difference is important, because a different approach is required. In this Perspective, I argue that some of first real ‘fintech disruptors’ – the (online) discount brokers – as ‘entrepreneur-innovators’, offer valuable lessons for small and large incumbents in the financial industry.