Five Takeaways from Q2’s Helix Launch Event

Q2, a fintech that works to digitize large banks, hosted a launch event at the New York Stock Exchange last week for Helix, the company’s new [Banking as a Service] BaaS platform that intends to humanize fintech by tailoring products to specific user needs. Attended by Q2 clients and employees from across the fintech and crypto space, the event celebrated a legacy financial company making a push into the next dimension of finance.

Below are five initial takeaways from the event-

Finance Needs a Face- Humanizing finance is the focus of Helix’s brand. By creating a human approach in their practices both internally and externally, the company is attempting to tailor financial services and products on an individual basis. The Helix employees deBanked spoke to seemed genuinely invested in defining the line between the human touch and innovating redundancy. Even the innovators themselves believe that a personal touch needs to a part of the marketing, selling and maintaining a service-based financial product.

Big Changes to Banking are Coming- There is an underlying narrative that fintech is building the infrastructure to support different types of value propositions from large financial institutions. As banks can no longer promise interest rates to provide a benefit from holding money in their accounts, many are beginning to get into financial education, guidance, and leveraging data to create personalized budgets, analyze spending habits, and offer money-saving tips. Rather than just be a place where consumers keep their money, look for banks to leverage fintech and data to create different types of services for their customers.

Above: deBanked Reporter Adam Zaki speaks with Jonathan Price, Executive Vice President of Emerging Businesses, Corporate & Business Development at Q2

If You’re not Hybrid, You’re Doomed- Fintech companies as a whole, especially those attended by this event, always speak on the idea of creating a work environment that is as innovative as their products. By allowing employees to work fully remote, hybrid or in office at their own accord, all of the companies there have drastically improved company culture and employee retention. Not only does this open up the hiring pool outside of geographic restrictions, but these fintechs are able to hire experienced employees from around the industry who are leaving jobs they enjoy solely because they work for companies that demand work in the office to be full-time. According to executives of both Helix and Q2, they have seen production, communication, engagement and revenue increase as a result of giving employees a choice on where to work.

One executive actually laughed at the idea of employers demanding employees be in person for any type of job in fintech. “CEOs and executives that make employees show face for the sake of it will never survive in this industry,” said one executive from Helix.

New York Hasn’t Lost its Reputation- As many of the people who attended the event flew in from out of state, it appears that an out-of-towners’ look on New York City hasn’t changed much despite contrary belief since the pandemic. When asked about why the event was being held in Manhattan, those there believed that it was a no-brainer to have it in what they still believed to be the ‘main hub’ of finance. Even when discussing their individual excursion plans with whatever free-time they had left in the area after the event, attendees of the event seemed pumped to be able to checkout whatever spots they could around New York City.

Crypto Needs Regulation before Implementation- The biggest pushback attendees of the event expressed when it came to the crypto space was a lack direction when it comes to regulation. Banks and large financial institutions are aware, educated, and eager to begin widespread implementation of digital assets and financial products that use them, but are waiting for the government to show signs of life when it comes to regulation of the space. Until the government says how crypto will operate, no large scale financial institution will invest both time and money into creating new products around it.