Fintech Insider Podcast by 11:FS
00:34:12 · Matthew Goldman
[00:34:12] S3: Yeah. I think it's it's very interesting because there have been other companies. One that I have to use example is Karat Financial with a k. That's a creator economy kind of focused business card, and we've seen others that have not survived. There have been a number of startups in this space. What was announced or hinted at, right, there is no product yet. There is no launch date. There's no definition. This is a, you know, a partnership is really broad. I think it could be around both consumer and kind of commercial cards. I think, as as Brad said, like Mastercard, you know, they try to be very innovative. They are the number two network. Those are just the facts. And so they're always going to push harder and and I think be more willing to try new things. And there's a new generation of consumers always. Right? There's always new people coming up, and we know we need to market to them in new ways. Right? We don't acquire a cardholder today the way we did thirty years ago. And so I think it's it's really clever to try to learn from what the creator economy can do here and how enforcers operate. There is the corresponding concern. I mean, it's funny Brad mentioned the hamburgers, and, like, that went really poorly. I think the hamburger company, MrBeast, are suing each other now over, like, bad quality hamburgers. So, don't quote me on that. But, you know, basically, like, financial services is really serious, And MrBeast is taking a huge risk here. And I like that he bought Step, which was a well run company, I think. And he's not kind of, like, necessarily gonna figure it all out from scratch. But there is some element of risk of what if these cards don't work, if things don't go well. So I think Mastercard is is willing to take that risk to buy, you know, brand awareness in a segment of consumers that that are still migrating into their core business of credit cards.
00:35:59 · Brad Wiskirchen, Kate Moody
[00:35:59] S4: You know, the creator... I used to run a company as CEO in the creator economy in the early days of that economy, and it's a lot bigger than people realize. This this is a material percentage of the consumers in The United States that are gonna be impacted here. So I think it's a really smart move by both both MrBeast and Mastercard because the ability to market to that particular group and to influence that particular group is different than anything else anybody else has done. You look back on the days where Jerry Seinfeld was still in his gas tank for... On behalf of Mastercard on TV. That's not gonna necessarily resonate with this particular group, although it resonated with me back in the day. Great commercials. But but I think this is a really smart move to attack a a large and growing sector of of not just The US, but the global economy. [00:36:55] S0: Yeah. Dan, obviously, you know, create... I think one of the consistently talked about challenges that creators face is they, you know, we don't have a sort of typical financial life compared to kind of a individual or business. You know, often they have income streams coming from multiple different platforms. Know, their success is being measured by metrics that maybe traditional financial services products haven't been used to adapting to. I'm kind of interested to hear from your perspective kind of where you see kind of the main problems or issues in in this space that maybe someone like MrBeast could could help?
00:37:32 · Daniel Wills
[00:37:32] S2: Yeah. I think in many ways, content creators look like any other self employed individual. I think probably more so, As you say, Kate, I think income can be fantastic one month and then perhaps not so great or very quiet. The next, there's no employer paying them a a consistent, income, neither, are they paying a pension for them. So on top of that, tax doesn't come out automatically. It arrives in big lumps through self assessment, and payments are due in January and July, and that can catch people out if they haven't put money aside. I guess you put that together with the irregular income, and things like getting a mortgage can be harder to come by, and you can't evidence that level of income. So there's... MrBeast is very shrewd. I think we've we've all mentioned that, and there's obviously a massive opportunity here for him. I just hope he does it responsibly, not only for the creators, but also potentially for his audience who are, as Brad says, of perhaps a younger generation, to educate them as much as possible. It's something I'm hugely passionate about individually and at Plum in general. We want to educate the next generation on the proper steps and staircasing in terms of financial planning. So making sure that, you know, particularly if you're self employed, you've got that safety net in place. You're thinking about those steps, like various insurances, not taking out debt, that kind of stuff. I think if he does it responsibly, it's... Yeah. It'll it'll be fantastic.
00:39:08 · Brad Wiskirchen, Kate Moody
[00:39:08] S4: Yeah. I know adding it down. I agree with you. I think adding friction in any transaction is never popular because it obviously reduces conversions. But with this particular audience, I think it's really important to make sure they know what what they're getting into. And and I think it'll it'll pay dividends in the long term if if MrBeast and code do. [00:39:32] S0: Yeah. Matthew, keen to give you the final word on on this one. As you sort of mentioned, in terms of like the actual specifics of this, as you rightly said, there's not a huge amount of detail. I guess, you know, if if you if you could have one thing that you kind of wish this could could change for people in this space, what would you what would you like this partnership to unlock for creators? What do think is the main problem to solve?
00:39:54 · Matthew Goldman
[00:39:54] S3: Yeah. I think creators, as as kind of Dan touched on, there's there's some challenges that we see in the past with underwriting them and helping them build, you know, a regular financial life and plan. And and I think between both AI driven tooling and the most successful creator perhaps in all, you know, all of the world, giving them advice. There's opportunity here. There are some really interesting startups that I've seen. Like, an example would be Beep right here in The US that does underwriting of kind of cash loans for, like, Spotify artists, right, based on streams and what they know Spotify will pay. And and so how can we bring in some, you know, nontraditional underwriting to a space that suffers from that without a classic traditional, you know, paycheck from an employer to really expand access? Right? That would be much more interesting than just, it's a credit card with a MrBeast logo on it. It's like not really that interesting. I call that the slap a logo on it and call it a day approach. And, like, I think what we want to see as a product that, you know, uniquely speaks to the needs of the creators and also if there is a consumer card product to the particular users there, like Step has in terms of trying to help educate teens. And just to put a a extra point on on Dan's mention of they get... They have to do it right, and I think there's been a lot of concerns. We've seen politicians in The US kind of be very concerned about STEP and this acquisition and, you know, making sure that we're not just driving folks into bad behaviors because we need to set up good good habits up front. But I think there's opportunity to really make a positive difference here because whether they should or not, people are actually more likely to listen to someone on on YouTube about financial advice than perhaps someone who has formal training. That's just the world we live in.
00:41:38 · Kate Moody, S5
[00:41:38] S0: Too too true. Okay. Well, as you... As we've all said, we'll need to watch and and see how this unfolds, but a really, really intriguing one to keep your eye on. Okay. On that note, we're gonna take a quick pause here. We'll be back shortly. [00:41:52] S5: Launching innovative payment products is only the beginning. Real progress comes from what happens next. Paymentology fuels continuous compounding momentum as a cloud native issuer processor, helping banks and fintechs grow beyond go live with global reach, local know how, and the power of its Loom platform. Powered by more than 500 paymentologists across 68 countries, they make card programs work naturally across markets. Want to keep the momentum going? Head to paymentology.com.