Financial Technology, commonly shortened to FinTech, is by far one of the most popular tech growth areas of all industries. In fact, it’s projected to be worth $332.5 billion USD by 2028. Riding this wave of growth, there are numerous opportunities to get your foot in the door at a tech company as a Customer Success Manager.
Part of this has been due to the exponential interest in things like cryptocurrency, blockchain and NFTs, but technology is disrupting many older financial areas as well. Neobanks, where there no branches and the entire customer experience is digital, are breaking new ground left, right and center. Digital wallets that have completely self-contained financial ecosystems embedded inside them are also another area where there is a lot of growth. Let’s explore a short list of Aussie FinTech companies and what they’re trying to do.
List of Australian FinTech Start Ups
- Coinbase – they tout themselves as one of the easiest places to buy and sell cryptocurrency.
- SocietyOne – using Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending practices, they help people who need to borrow money quickly find people who are willing to lend money out meet each other.
- Raiz – a platform I also use, Raiz is there to make investing accessible, where you can invest as little as a few dollars into basket ETFs and get a return in the marketplace without the mumbo jumbo.
Industry Considerations
Not all FinTech companies will need CSMs – for the examples of Australian FinTech companies that I listed above, none of them actually require Customer Success Managers. That’s because the customer base is mainly retail and the commercialization model is Business to Consumer, aka B2C. You’ll have a lot more luck with B2B companies, where workflows are a bit more complex and need a human to help with.
There’s A LOT of red tape – like many industries that are in the midst of tech revolutions, finance and the many areas underneath it are wrapped in legality and rules as to how business is conducted. A well known FinTech in Afterpay (similar to Klarna) is in an iffy situation where currently, it’s evading credit and lending policies with its “pay in 4” structure. There are predictions that once Australian legislation catches up, it could severely hinder the saturation Afterpay has in the marketplace.
Having experience working in banking, investments or other finance areas gives you a leg up – this last point is more of a tip than an industry consideration. Being that there are so many FinTech start ups, there’s a good chance that you’ll find one that you can bring your existing experience to. Just keep your eyes peeled, refresh your resume with examples of how you worked on tech projects in your financial area and use it to stand out from the crowd.
The Customers
- Businesses – you’ll be likely spending the majority of your time speaking with other businesses in trying to use your platform to improve how they conduct their business. Having an understanding of how they transact and where the value flow runs will help you configure the tech SaaS to help them get value.
- Individuals – It might be tempting to use corporate speak, since you will be dealing with many corporations, but getting to the point and speaking simply will put you in good stead at being successful as a FinTech CSM. There was a role I held once where the main customers weren’t actually huge companies but Mom and Pop type businesses, who were just trying to do the right thing and submit invoices following their customer’s steps. I had to really speak plainly in order to help them achieve this. Don’t forget that behind every business is a real person. Speaking their language is going to help them – and you – achieve success.
Fintech is a promising area with no shortage of opportunities for a budding Customer Success Manager. If you have experience in the financial industry already, great! If not, bringing your enthusiasm and interest into the game is also going to help. The resources you’ll find on this blog should help you get your CV/resume right and also help you get the foot in the door with impactful cover letters. Let me know how you go!