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Sean Murray: So Hello,
everybody. My name is Sean

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Murray with deBanked and I'm
here with Timothy Li, who is the

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CEO of Alchemy. Thank you for
being here.

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Timothy Li: Thank you, Sean.

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Sean Murray: So, Tim, what can
you tell me about Alchemy? What

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is it? And what is your
background in the industry?

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Timothy Li: Sure. Thank you,
Sean. So Alchemy is an

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end-to-end private label lending
platform. It's a software I've

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been building for the past four
years. It is truly end-to-end

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from the web and iOS app, mobile
app experience from the

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customers all the way to the
loan origination systems,

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decision engine, loan payment
systems, and payment gateways.

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Most of the time, our customers
give us a logo, and we build

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everything else out for them. We
also have lending as a service.

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And I'll explain
lending-as-aservice is

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essentially software analytics
and servicing. We have call

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centers. We have an analytics
team that can build models for

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you guys. And as well as a
technology as a centerpiece of

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this whole thing. My background
was engineer by training, I

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worked at Intel Corporation for
a couple of years building

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microprocessors. And then
somehow or another, I landed at

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JPMorgan Chase worked there for
four years right before during,

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after the downturn, consolidated
a lot of their technology from

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watching mutual Bear Stearns,
BNY Mellon into the JPMC family.

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That's where I kind of stuck my
teeth into banking technology,

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right? Back in the days where
there weren't any FinTech, it

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was banking technology. Then I
worked in multiple places,

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consulted different FinTech
companies. And four years ago, I

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realized that, you know, a lot
of these larger or even smaller

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institutions just can't get
their act together to build a

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software that's useful, useful,
you know, building credit risk

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models, that's actually that
works. And of course, keep a

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compliance driven sort of
servicing company as well. So I

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created this four years ago,
getting a lot of traction. And

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then that's where we are today.

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Sean Murray: Yeah, it's quite
fascinating. So I would imagine

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this particular point in
history, that you're probably

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well positioned. Are banks more
receptive because you work with

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banks and FinTech lenders? Am I
right?

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Timothy Li: Yes.

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Sean Murray: Are banks more
receptive to a service like

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yours? Now, perhaps, more than
prior?

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Timothy Li: That's right. So
banks, even before you know

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what's happening today, could be
for COVID, banks, all what you

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know, Lending Club, Prosper,
OnDeck and Kabbage, what these

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guys have done, banks, credit
unions, regionals are all

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scrambling a little bit, right.
And we've seen the partnership

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between JP Morgan Chase, and ODX
or OnDeck a couple of years ago.

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So the banks were, you know,
learning, wondering, right? I

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can't say they're scared, they
have money and technology. But

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what's happening with COVID is
that they there's a new sense of

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urgency. You know, we have
conversations with banks, such

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as, hey, Tim, you know, my
digital strategy was, you know,

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got a 48 month four-year plan
and now I got to accelerate

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everything into a four month
plan. What do we do, right? Do I

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build do I lease? Or do I, you
know, do I just cry? So we see a

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lot of these conversations
happening. And for folks that

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are bound by their brick and
mortar operation, we get calls

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like, Tim, you know, my state
governor, just shut down of my

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stores, because they're deemed
to be non essential. What do I

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do now? I still want to interact
with our customers. Can I go

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online? You know, tomorrow. So
things like that are happening

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on a daily basis.

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Sean Murray: So would that have
something to do with the product

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that came out was recently, I
read an announcement about the

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first hybrid branch and mobile
lending operating system, is

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that related to that?

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Timothy Li: Absolutely is we
were, you know, on a different

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warpath, but we we've gotten a
lot of calls from brick and

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mortar operators saying that,
hey, look, my system is good.

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It's great. It works in the
branch, customer walks, and we

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can take cash checks, we can
print out checks, we can deal

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with the customers, but all the
sudden, customers aren't going

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to my stores anymore for all the
reasons that we know, or my

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store has been shut down by
local jurisdiction, I still want

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to interact back with my
customers, I don't have a

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website, I don't have a loan
origination system. I can't

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deliver cash or needed credit to
my consumers without my store.

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What do we do? So we scrambled,
you know, we took about six

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months to build a hybrid version
of this model where consumers

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can apply online, still go to
the store and enjoy the

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experience if they want to or
stick or start the application

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in their branch and complete it
at home. So we kind of build

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this out for many of the brick
and mortar operations around the

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country to really, you know,
save their business in a sense.

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Sean Murray: So it seems like
you're able to provide a service

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to a pretty wide array of
different companies, when I hear

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like fintech in general, it
could mean a lot of different

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things right So could you you
can work with banks. But could

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you work with, say, a an online
student lender? Or a small

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business lender? Could you? I
mean, what, how? How wide does

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your reach go?

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Timothy Li: That's right. So
I'll give you a couple examples.

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You know, there's the article,
you know, a couple a couple of

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months ago that had a tagline of
every company is becoming a

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fintech company. And that's what
we're doing for all these

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companies, we have, you know,
point of sale, point of sale,

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retail companies, right, that
can't even imagine themselves

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being a fintech company, but
with our software, and now they

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can lease, rent their service or
product, chunk, chunk it up into

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12 payments, or, you know, start
financing to get more whatever

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product and services through the
door. So absolutely, we're

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working with a lot of student
lenders, you know, these online

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coding schools that is super,
super popular, now you can learn

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how to code 12, 18 months, how
did they get their stuff

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financed? right, they can't go
through the traditional way. So

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all these coding schools are,
are getting on the bandwagon.

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And same thing with the home
Improvement companies and all

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that stuff, right? So they look
at what Green Sky has done, what

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LendingPoint has done, sometimes
they want to do it on their own,

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they have the, you know,
capacity or the funding, you

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know, behind them. So they want
to, you know, own that, that

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whole experience is small. So
our private label software comes

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in, and they can act as their
own LendingPoint, they can act

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as their own GreenSkys in the
world. So that's what would be

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named enabling them to do.

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Sean Murray: So everybody,
everybody can be a fin tech

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company.

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Timothy Li: That's actually
right, like, yes.

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Sean Murray: So with that said,
I mean, where do you see FinTech

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going? In general, and I guess,
through the lens of what has

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happened with the pandemic, you
know, where do you, where do you

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see it going as a result of
that?

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Timothy Li: That's right. I
don't have a crystal ball, Sean,

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you know, if I did, we'll be in
a different conversation. But if

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you look at what, you know,
these tech companies, right,

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Microsoft, you know, Facebook,
right? All these guys are

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venturing into, into, into
FinTech as it were because they

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have the market share. They have
the audience. So where FinTech

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is is going is essentially
being, you know, ubiquitous in

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so many ways, right? tech
companies, retail companies, all

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these other companies will
become FinTech companies, or

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FinTech will just be a part of
their strategy. The days of no

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offense to anybody, but the days
of these monolithic LendingClubs

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and the Prospers of the world
might be over, right? It's all

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going to be embedded. Right?
That this type of technology

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will be embedded in everybody's
shop. It wouldn't even be a

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thought, you know, it's like, of
course, we're gonna have to have

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that lending payments,
servicing, you know, credit.

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That's where I see it going.

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Sean Murray: It's pretty mind
blowing stuff. Thank you very

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much, everybody. That was
Timothy Li, CEO of Alchemy.

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Thank you for being here.

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Timothy Li: Thank you. Thank you
very much.