Laurent Bertrand, Founder and CEO of BetterTradeOff
Health, money, and relationships are the top three things that come to mind when we think of new year resolutions. From millennials to Generation X, baby boomers as well as the sandwich generation, the need to manage finances is compelling enough, whether it is for retirement or having sufficient savings for their children’s education and development needs.
Yet, securing one’s own financial future or helping your loved ones be financially ready has been a prevalent concern, especially with the lack of confidence consumers have towards the financial industry and the perceived complexity of financial planning.
In a move to enable people to plan their future with ease and confidence through better financial decisions, fintech startup BetterTradeOff (BTO) is tapping on advanced analytics and statistics to guide our financial choices. Their web-based tool called ‘Up’ leverages real-time data and analytics to provide consumers with a detailed analysis of their financial needs and goals, and elements impacting their financial situation.
Founded by Laurent Bertrand, with Up he aims to reshape the way financial planning is viewed and allow anyone, regardless of financial literacy or income level, to manage their finances and plan their future with trust and confidence in the process. Along with a wealth of international experience in transforming the financial services and technology industries, Bertrand is an MBA from INSEAD and also holds a degree in Aerospace.
Also Read: Swiss fintech incubator F10 enters Singapore, soon to kick off accelerator programme
e27 spoke to him just in time for my new year’s financial goal planning.
What’s your story?
I’ve spent the past four years turning a passion project into a growing business and an innovative company determined to transform the way people make financial decisions. It’s a topic I know well, and am deeply interested in, as the former Head of Data and Analytics at UBS Wealth Management (APAC).
What motivated you to start this?
I co-founded it with BTO Chairman Robert Lonsdorfer with the belief that we could leverage technology, to provide people with a means of making better decisions regarding their financial future. Making it possible for anyone, regardless of their financial literacy or status, to build a plan for achieving their dreams and goals.
It started as a sort of challenge to ourselves to see if it could actually be done and has now culminated in the launch of Up – our direct-to-consumer solution – a tool that allows people to build their own financial plan online in as little as 15 minutes.
What drives you to do this every single day?
Making it possible for people to not only achieve their dreams but inspiring them to dream bigger, by showing them what’s possible when they have the information and tools they need to make better financial decisions.
What were your initial challenges?
As industry insiders, we knew that bringing financial planning online in an easy yet holistic manner would be challenging. What was difficult was not knowing if and when we would crack the code to make it work with such a broad range of topics to be covered. We found many ways that didn’t work, but to paraphrase Thomas Edison– once feasibility was proven, we still needed to demonstrate that the solution provided the kind of experience end-users expect. Three years before considering commercialisation is a long time, but it also provided a strong technological foundation.
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How is financial planning evolving in the light of fintech?
Financial planning is nothing new and many financial institutions have tried to digitalise the experience to better understand and serve their clients. Similar to payment and robo-advisory before, fintech services such as BTO have been able to leverage technology to address pain points with existing industry practice.
What is unique with our solution is the ability to bring an inherently complex subject in a simple, interactive and educational manner that can help everyone make better decisions. We designed our solution so it incorporates all the rules, taxes, statistics for different countries easily to allow for global deployment. We believe that solutions such as BTO will empower advisors and clients alike to secure their financial future and achieve their dreams.
How do you manage your team?
As the saying goes, there’s no I in the team. From the very beginning, we discussed what kind of culture we wanted for our company: open, supportive, creative, customer-obsessed and outcome-oriented. We apply such principles not only internally but also with our external partners and our clients. The result (hopefully) is an environment where it is easy to work together while retaining the highest level of professionalism. While the company continues to evolve and grow, we make sure that we continue living these values on a day-by-day basis.
Also Read: Meet the 18 original founders of Alibaba
What was your funding strategy?
When we embarked on this journey, we knew it would be a difficult and long one with possibly (and it proved to be rather prescient) a very long time before going to market and monetisation. We decided to focus our resources internally on what was critical (to retain the IP) and externalise everything that others could do better and faster.
Our funding strategy was aligned accordingly, relying on enlightened angels and onboarding an institutional investor who could understand the value (in short, an initial client). Having deployed our solution multiple times in four countries and demonstrated our ability to scale quickly, we are preparing the next rounds with institutional investors who can help us accelerate and establish our solution as the standard of the market where our clients operate.
What are the key fintech trends in 2020?
There is a clear trend that should continue in 2020 to push for more pure digital players with digital licenses becoming available in banking, asset management, and insurance. Without the burden of legacy systems, fintech should enable further customer-friendly solutions. That said, we believe that beyond convenience and cost, providing a differentiated customer experience with seamless online-offline experience will become even more important.
The increased visibility of digital financial planning as a means to deliver consistent, customer-centric advice will grow even more in 2020. While fintech will continue to lower the cost to serve, allowing for greater inclusion and untapped revenue, we have seen strong interest from many players (traditional and purely digital) to differentiate themselves and avoid a race to the bottom.
What advice would you give aspiring founders?
Build the strongest team starting with the co-founders and make sure that you have industry insiders, especially with FinTech were regulatory considerations are critical to operating. Even with a well-identified problem to solve and a clear market, finding the right business model can take time and it will boil down to the ability of your team to deliver.
When working with large institutions, ensure that you jointly define and agree on the specific use cases you want to co-create/work on. It is time well spent to build relationships, focus effort and ultimately ensure a successful outcome.
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Image credit: BetterTradeOff
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