Luvleen was recently Named Winner of Greater Philadelphia Ernst & Young (EY US) Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2022. She’s also one of, probably, the youngest public company CEOs (not just MicroCap) that I’ve interviewed. We discussed all of this, and:
• What “Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS)” means and BMTX’s opportunity here
• T-Mobile Partnership
• Business strategy around BMTX’s announced merger with First Sound Bank expected to close in second half of 2022
“Tough times don’t last, tough people do”: A day in the life of Luvleen Sidhu, CEO and founder of BMTX
The full article can be found at: https://tearsheet.co/day-in-the-life/tough-times-dont-last-tough-people-do-a-day-in-the-life-of-luvleen-sidhu-ceo-and-founder-of-bmtx/
Entrepreneurs play a vital role in transforming our lives by disrupting entire industries and reinventing economies.
It’s an honor to be named an Entrepreneur Of The Year winner. This past year has been pivotal for BMTX as we were one of the first neo banking fintechs to go public last year, are one of the first to have a profitable business model and are now among the first fintechs embracing a bank charter to create an innovative fintech bank for the future. Our mission is to empower entrepreneurs to positively impact the fintech and banking industries and bring innovation and financial inclusion to the market. I am honored to be recognized among such inspirational and mission driven individuals.
The award recognizes leaders who are creating long-term value through entrepreneurial spirit, purpose, growth, and impact. To be eligible for an Entrepreneur Of The Year® Award, the nominee must be the CEO or president of a private or public company and be primarily responsible for the company’s recent performance. The independent judging panel includes previous award winners, leading CEOs, private equity and venture capital investors, and other regional business luminaries.
For this Women of Color Rise episode, we talk with Indian American Luvleen Sidhu, Founder and CEO of BM Technologies. Luvleen checked all the success boxes – graduating from Harvard with her BS and Wharton with her MBA and working at an investment bank and a consulting firm. But instead of checking more and more boxes, Luvleen stopped and made a decision – she would pursue her dream to become an entrepreneur, which eventually led to her becoming the youngest woman to take a company public.
In Women of Color Rise, we talk about aligning with your North Star – your joy, passion, strengths, and values. And the best time to do this is now. Luvleen is a great example of this. She spotted a unique market opportunity and now leads her 300 person company with her values so that people feel cared for and have fun. Luvleen is also mindful of her energy, rekindling her chanting and journaling practice, setting intentions, and using a “flip it” mentality to see tough situations in a positive light.
Analiza and Luvleen discuss:
Luvleen was last on the show back in 2019 and returns to give an update on all things BMTX.
In this podcast you will learn:
• The core business of BM Technologies today.
• Why they decided to spin out from Customers Bank.
• The thinking behind going public via SPAC.
• What has changed now that BM Technologies is a public company.
• Why they decided to acquire a community bank.
• What attracted them to First Sound Bank in Seattle.
• What they will do with the bank once the merger closes.
• The difference in approaches for partnering versus acquiring a bank.
• The highlights from their 2021 earnings report.
• Details of the T-Mobile banking-as-a-service partnership.
• Who banking-as-a-service for brands is best suited for.
• How the branding works in these relationships.
• How they are growing their direct-to-consumer student banking business.
• The opportunity for retention of these consumers post-graduation.
• Their plans for crypto.
• The most exciting opportunity for BMTX going forward.
The original post and podcast can be found at https://www.lendacademy.com/podcast-355-luvleen-sidhu-of-bm-technologies/.
Luvleen Sidhu, Chair, CEO, and Founder of BM Technologies, Inc., talks about FinTech, the economy, and digital banking. Hosted by Paul Sweeney and Matt Miller.
Bloomberg Radio coverage can be heard beginning at 11:58 through the link below:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2022-04-07/markets-inflation-and-golf-podcast
FinTech Magazine caught up with Luvleen to find out which areas of the financial services industry are ripe for reform and how fintech is redressing the balance.
Q: What are the biggest challenges facing women when it comes to wealth management today – and how is fintech addressing these things?
There are three main challenges that need to be overcome. In my opinion, they are:
Fintech trends to make things simpler, easier to access, and provides a better customer experience, all with no to lower fees—especially for complex (or stereotypically complex) realms like wealth management. In the aforementioned ways and others, such as providing advice to meet a customer where they are in their usage journey and helping them build trust in their own literacy around building wealth, fintech is addressing these challenges and helping more consumers, like women, take advantage of products/services in the wealth management space.
Q: Why are there such huge discrepancies between the way men build their wealth, and the way women build theirs?
Women and men want money just the same. However, it’s no surprise that women’s priorities, needs, preferences, and behaviors related to building wealth, as well as their feelings towards money in general, differ in various ways from men. Women are more likely to seek professional advice and tend to underestimate their own knowledge of financial decision-making. They tend to be less risk tolerant and more focused on life goals, like retirement and health-related matters, which lends well to long-term wealth-building strategies.
They also care more about the details around how and where their money is being invested. Additionally, when women have money, more of it tends to go back to their families and communities, which in turn helps build generational wealth and enriches society. The way women feel about money is also different from the male perspective. In general, women tend to have more feelings in the stress and anxiety category related to money. Also, the way in which they feel good about wealth can be satisfied by their ability to align the way they build wealth with their values in life (think: ESG investing, other types of impact investing, and giving back to their communities through donating).
Q: Are these issues exacerbated by the fact that fintech is still a very male-dominated space?
Fintech has the power to help make a real impact in reinventing the way women take ownership of building their wealth, and there are players out there—doing just that as we speak—like Ellevest and BM Technologies (BMTX). Rather, these issues are deep-rooted and have long been a part of the history of the wealth management space, which has carried over to the more specific ‘fintech’ wealth management space. While it has taken some time to begin resolving those issues and creating a full-blown shift, strides have been made with fintech at the forefront of driving the launch of more women-centric offerings out there.
Q: What changes would you like to see happening as soon as possible, to redress the balance?
I’d like to see changes in three key areas. They are:
Q: Women are the market spenders when it comes to household budgets – they have massive purchasing power. Will fintech companies suffer in the future if they don’t acknowledge this huge section of the marketplace?
Yes! Acknowledging women as a huge market opportunity and—this is key—building products and services specifically for women, and marketing them properly to women, based on their unique needs/wants, etc., will be a game-changer for fintechs. Those that don’t focus on this all-important segment will fall behind and miss out on capturing attention in this corner of the market as the rise of the SHEconomy continues. According to McKinsey & Company, “an unprecedented amount of assets will shift into the hands of US women over the next three to five years, representing a $30 trillion opportunity by the end of the decade.” At BMTX, women made up 50% of account holders in our student business vertical in 2021, compared to ~34% of men.
We understand how important it is to have a laser focus on this section of the market and strive to provide wealth-building digital banking through multiple product/service offerings and features, specifically keeping women in mind.
The original article can be found at: https://fintechmagazine.com/financial-services-finserv/luvleen-sidhu-ceo-bm-technologies-on-diversity-in-fntech
Luvleen shares her views on the status of digital finance and how it can be made more fair, secure, safe, and inclusive for the consumers. Luvleen’s interview can be found on pages 34-36.
The Aware Consumer magazine can be found here:
On the show, Luvleen discusses:
• The opportunity for entrepreneurs in fintech.
• How management consulting experience and an MBA from Wharton assisted her in becoming an entrepreneur.
• Founding a fintech company at 28 and taking it public.
• Key opportunities in the crypto space.
And more!
You can find the original podcast at: https://absolutereturn.podbean.com/e/199-leadership-chat-bm-technologies-ceo-luvleen-sidhu/
Out of six finalists, Luvleen was chosen as the winner of this prestigious award from a panel of 35 judges, made up of a diverse group of leaders and experts in the financial services industry from companies such as Andreessen Horowitz, QED Investors, Upgrade, Cornerstone Advisors, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to name a few. The judges worked to give this award to a female senior executive who has demonstrated outstanding leadership, integrity, performance and a commitment to fostering gender diversity within her company and to the industry as a whole. This award is a testament to both Luvleen’s leadership, as well as the continued growth and innovation demonstrated by BMTX, one of the first publicly traded neo banking fintechs in the country.
“I am truly grateful to have been awarded 2022 Fintech Woman of the Year. The last year has been monumental for the company as we became publicly traded, continued to grow our customer base, demonstrated strong profitability, and announced a strategic merger with First Sound Bank to begin our path of becoming a true fintech bank. Additionally, we are proud to share that at BMTX, women make up 50% of account holders in our higher education vertical. We understand how important it is to have a laser-focus on this segment of the market and strive to provide wealth-building digital banking through multiple product offerings and features, specifically keeping women in mind,” said Luvleen Sidhu, CEO and Founder of BM Technologies. “The other women in this category all represent incredible leadership, and it’s an honor to be amongst them.”
The LendIt Fintech Award Ceremony took place in Miami, Florida on February 8th, 2022, where Luvleen was personally presented with this award. LendIt Fintech hosted their 5th annual awards ceremony to honor the world’s leading Fintech influencers and innovators in 14 unique categories. https://www.lendit.com/nexus/2022/awards