After we began Fintech Nexus in 2013 (referred to as LendIt again then) we didn’t have grand plans. The concept was merely to assemble the mind belief within the newly-emerging on-line lending business so we may study from one another, community, and do enterprise. We figured we might work on a small occasion a couple of months a yr and work on our different companies the remainder of the yr.
It wasn’t lengthy earlier than the neighborhood began rallying to our facet, and our occasions had been full of hundreds of individuals. We took on the US, UK and Europe, then China and Latin America. This enterprise proved to be an extremely satisfying and fascinating journey. Between 2013 and 2023, we executed 31 large-scale occasions world wide, gathering tens of hundreds of pros to advance the fintech business by high-value content material and interactions.
Alongside the way in which, some exterior challenges, together with the pandemic, triggered us to tackle further financing — each debt and fairness — after which in 2023 we suffered from the fintech downturn and had a financially very disappointing end result to our large USA occasion. This led to the sale of our occasions enterprise final June.
For the previous yr, we now have been targeted on our digital media enterprise, which started in earnest throughout the pandemic. We needed to see if we may make it a sustainable enterprise with out the occasions enterprise to assist it. Sadly, we now have not been in a position to make this enterprise worthwhile.
You will have seen the for-sale announcement we posted again in April. Even when we couldn’t create a sustainable digital media enterprise, we thought any person else may need to take over. That didn’t pan out both, and so we now have made the troublesome resolution to shut the enterprise down and file for chapter.
Whereas that is definitely not a cheerful end result, we now have had a incredible trip and I do know it has been probably the most stimulating and pleasant decade of my profession by far.
So, reasonably than dwell on the loss, we need to share a few of the highlights from our journey.
Here’s a farewell video, my accomplice and co-founder, Bo Brustkern and I recorded lately.
The Fintech Nexus retrospective
2013: A brand new occasion known as LendIt, targeted on on-line lending, in New York Metropolis was launched with 350 folks.
2014: Moved the occasion to San Francisco the place we hosted virtually 1,000 folks. Launched the primary UK occasion with 500 folks.
2015: Again to New York with Larry Summers because the big-name keynote: 2,500 folks. Launched in China.
2016: The San Francisco occasion had 3,600 folks and was our final U.S. occasion in a resort. Launched the day by day publication.
2017: Moved to the Javits Middle in New York Metropolis with 5,000 folks. Launched the LendIt Trade Awards.
2018: San Francisco on the Moscone Middle with Michael Lewis because the keynote speaker. Moved past lending to different areas of fintech.
2019: Again to Moscone Middle in San Francisco. Canceled the China occasion, began LatAm occasion in Miami.
2020: Pandemic. Yikes! Needed to cancel the Javits Middle occasion. Held USA, UK and LatAm occasions just about.
2021: One other yr of digital occasions however in December we had a hybrid in-person/digital occasion for LatAm in Miami.
2022: Again to in-person occasions! So thrilling to be again in New York, London and Miami. Rebranded to Fintech Nexus.
2023: The eleventh annual Fintech Nexus USA occasion in New York Metropolis could be our final. We bought the occasions enterprise to Fintech Meetup.
2024: Fintech Nexus shuts down after an 11-year run.
It has been a privilege to be on the helm of LendIt / Fintech Nexus. So many unbelievable highlights as we glance again. However what was at all times most gratifying was after I would discuss with individuals who mentioned they first met at LendIt they usually have a thriving partnership. I’ve heard that story tons of of occasions over the previous decade.
We couldn’t have achieved the whole lot we did with out the assist of the fintech neighborhood. We have now taken this significantly from day one.
I want to thank the tens of hundreds of people that have attended our occasions, each in-person and digital, over time, together with the hundreds of audio system. Your learnings and new enterprise connections helped drive the business ahead.
I already miss the joy of strolling on stage on the opening morning of an occasion, filled with adrenaline.
The podcast will proceed
My favourite a part of what I do proper now could be producing my podcast, Fintech One-on-One. The podcast predates Fintech Nexus and can proceed as regular, with a brand new episode popping out each Thursday afternoon. I’m about to cross episode 500, and I intend to maintain doing this for the foreseeable future. The podcast now has a brand new dwelling on its personal web site, and it’ll proceed to look in your podcast feed as typical.
The Web site
The web site may even stay on-line for at the very least the subsequent few months, topic to the judgment of the Chapter 7 Chapter Trustee. We all know it’s a nice useful resource for tens of hundreds of fintech fanatics. However the day by day publication that we now have produced since 2016 will finish with as we speak’s difficulty.
The Webinars
There can be no extra Fintech Nexus webinars, though our YouTube channel ought to proceed to dwell on for a few years with hundreds of hours of nice content material.
The following chapter
What occurs now? Effectively, a chapter trustee can be taking up and trying to promote our property.
The Fintech Nexus crew are all free brokers now.
I’ve began to tackle a few new fintech tasks. Within the coming months, you will note me at a handful of occasions (I like a superb fintech convention). After a few summer season journeys, I’ll have the bandwidth to tackle extra tasks.
In case you are inquisitive about reaching out to me or others on the Fintech Nexus crew, we could be reached right here:
The fintech business will proceed to thrive
We want to assume we now have performed a significant position in establishing a thriving fintech business. For us, this has at all times been a labor of affection. The fintech house is doing such attention-grabbing and vital work, and it has been the chance of a lifetime to be close to the middle of all of it.
We have now matured as an business and collectively we are actually a driving pressure in monetary companies. Let’s all proceed the nice combat.
