What Skills Are Needed to be a FinTech Entrepreneur?

FinTech is already disrupting the world of finance at a rapid rate, and it is only going to become more and more entwined into the global ecosystem. Many companies and financial institutions have already noticed the threat that the FinTech entrepreneur and startups pose but have yet to adequately respond with improved operations and offerings. Here are some of the skills that a future FinTech entrepreneur will need within such an environment:

A background in finance

Although this is not strictly true, it certainly helps to have a good understanding of how the industry works to lay the foundation for a future career in FinTech. Working directly in the field will give you a thorough idea of what the shortcomings and problems are within the various verticals.

Marketing

As any entrepreneur will tell you, marketing is half the battle. A common mistake startup founders often make is assuming that the audience will see and recognise the worth of their product. Marketing helps to break down what your product/service is to the masses, which in turn can drive plenty of potential leads to your FinTech startup. If you are not sure how best to position your offerings, you need to find someone that does!

Business development

This is the other half of the hustle for the FinTech entrepreneur. As a startup, you will be pressed for business from the get-go and it is up to you to find these leads and channels and convert them to scale quickly. If your services are better than your competitors, you need to make sure that interested parties know this and close the deal quickly. If your leads are locked into long multi-year contracts with rivals, you will not be securing their business anytime soon, no matter how good your product is.

Soft skills

This is something that can be hard to demonstrate on a resume, but necessary skills such as emotional intelligence, creativity and agile thinking can prove to be priceless when building up a FinTech startup. Imagine a leader with every technical skill in the book but is unable to effectively communicate with the team — a disaster waiting to happen! Similarly, the inability to solve problems on the fly and adapt to the rapid changes within the FinTech industry is a sure-fire recipe for failure.

No one can create a FinTech unicorn on their own; soft skills are essential when establishing FinTech startups from the ground up, before scaling when the service is proven. In addition, soft skills can be key to securing funding from angels and other investors. After all, no one wants to invest in a founder that they dislike.

Innovations and problem-solving

The CFTE Extrapreneurship Programme has been created to respond to this need. The programme allows professionals to experience entrepreneurship by working on a strategic issue of high growth startups (the inaugural edition began on 13 May 2019 with Revolut and Shift Technology — applications currently open).

CFTE is the learning and innovation platform for individuals and organisations to act on the transformation of Finance. Learn what is Fintech, explore the exciting opportunities with our machine learning and Fintech courses, lead AI projects, learn the applications of AI in Finance and develop your career.

CFTE develops leading online courses, Entrepreneur classes online and animate a community of 1000 of alumni and experts.

Start with the foundations with our Fintech Foundations Programme and AI in Finance course where you can achieve Fintech certifications.

Experience starting a Fintech Business with our Entrepreneur classes, the Extrapreneurship Programme.

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