We are inspired every day at Vestigo. We are on the ground floor of the FinTech ecosystem seeing business plans from over 250 entrepreneurs so far. We are having conversations with innovative entrepreneurs that will disrupt the status quo and bring new consumers to the financial services marketplace.

The financial services industry will not change overnight. While we do not see incumbents with their heads in the sand, we do see how hard it is to turn a 10-ton freighter into new opportunities or ways to do business. It’s not sand per se, but the incumbents heads are in silicon of a sort — the start-up world. They want to partner with entrepreneurs to learn and to serve their clients in new and different ways.

What is driving this exploration? Here are a few examples from the institutional visitors who have come to Cambridge to look at the world through our eyes.

Legacy systems — is it easier to work around legacy applications or build beside them then it is to replace them?

Cybersecurity — the safety of data is critical to retaining their brand's strength not to mention their customer's confidence. How can a start-up help create that safe environment? Can the start-up interacting with their client keep their data safe?

Machine Learning/Business Intelligence (BI) — information is everywhere. How can they harness it and use it to help customers see what they want to see, and do what they want to do when they want to do it?

Frictionless interaction— can a start-up make the process needed easier and faster for their clients? This can be as simple as automation of paper processes to communication systems built around specific processes.

What an experience it has been to bring together our first investments, our first LP's and our many, many ideas for investments being sent our way. It's what excites us about the future of our industry and the role of start-ups as innovation centers for their own businesses as well as incumbents. We are here to be their guide.

Ian Sheridan
Co-founder
Managing Director