An interview series spotlighting global tech influencers, disruptors, visionaries, and of course, innovators.
In short, Boss Insights Co-Founder and CEO Keren Moynihan, MBA/JD is a force. Moynihan leads the “people-first” data platform and its digitized access to business customer information, accelerating all phases of the lending cycle (think acquisition, lending decisions, onboarding, portfolio monitoring and cross selling) to deepen relationships and grow revenues. Boss Insights’ analytics aim to detect early warning signals, allowing lenders to take manual or automated rules-based action in order to counter default risks.
Boss Insights’ API hub enables easy access -in under one minute - to a leading number of APIs bridging data gaps between banks and business customers. With access to real-time data on businesses accounting via Quickbooks, payments via Stripe and sales via SalesForce, Boston and Toronto-based Boss Insights empowers banks to accelerate lending and cross selling from months to minutes and provide personalized service to their business customers.
In an era where tech giants have increased customer expectations, lenders and private capital providers are challenged to offer complete and personalized solutions, Boss Insights’ provides banks and fintechs with Business Data as a Service. Boss Insights’ data platform gives lenders the clearest view of their business customers and accelerates small business and commercial lending from months to minutes while also increasing sales opportunities for other financial products.
Do you want digitized lending functionality in eight weeks? Boss [Back Office Software Systems] Insights partnered with CCBank to show how technology can be utilized during the COVID-19 crisis to help as many business clients as possible in a very short amount of time. Their joint PPP case study “Back to Basics” indicates that Boss Insights provides 80% faster loan processing and 2x more loan approvals than its peers.
Not surprisingly, Boss Insights has racked up accolades including being cited as a “place where roles are fit to people” by CBC, awarded Top 25 Leader by Lending, nominated for Entrepreneur of the Year by CSPN and The Timmy Awards, and AI Disruptor of the Year by IT World Canada.
I had the pleasure to connect with Keren via email to learn more about her thoughts on a variety of topics, including AI, COVID-19, diverse and inclusive teams, networking and entrepreneurship. Our interview follows.
EKMH: How does and can artificial intelligence impact finance?
Keren Moynihan: AI has paved a new way for the financial industry to satisfy customer demands who want smarter, quicker and safer means to access, spend, save, invest and get funding. Banks and fintechs use AI to impact credit decisions, enhance banking experience, manage risks and detect fraud. AI helps banks and lenders make smarter underwriting decisions by using big data about borrowers’ financial background to assess their creditworthiness. We see a trend, more pronounced now than ever, in cases of traditionally underserved populations or considered “at risk.”
Boss Insights recognised that the traditional lending process has checks and balances in place that favour the privileged: people who’ve had the opportunities to build a strong credit history, helping them get easy funding. There are people with talent and grit that are systematically disadvantaged from gathering strong credit. Last year only 28% companies received the support they need due to inefficiencies in the existing lending process. Our platform gathers real-time business information, empowering financiers to evaluate businesses on merit in addition to collateral, making it possible for businesses who may be systematically disadvantaged to obtain loans they deserve. In turn, this will lead to a more diverse and inclusive industry.
EKMH: How have you pivoted Boss Insights during and post-pandemic?
Keren Moynihan: Boss Insights started with a vision to empower lenders to measure businesses on their merit in addition to their personal credit. Our mission is to provide banks and credit unions with a real-time understanding of their business client enabling them to offer customer delight. Boss Insights empowers lenders within weeks so they can support the economic engine of our society: SMBs and Commercial Businesses. This statement could not have been more true, when the unthinkable happened in March 2020.
When the pandemic hit, Boss Insights went through four stages: reaction, listening, partnering and collaboration. The first thing we did was react, ensuring all employees were financially secure for 6 months, to the determinant of the founders. By March 16th Boss Insights went 100% virtual. We then started listening. Early on we predicted a large surge in loan applications were soon to come. We offered part of our technology for free as we wanted to support the businesses being affected by COVID, then our prediction came true. On April 3rd the SBA released a loan offering that would in the coming months amount to a total of $659B. In just 14 days, 14 years’ worth of loan applications flooded the system and many problems for businesses soon arose. The SBA loan portal was crashing, denying access to the available funds, and bias manifested in the form of lenders prioritizing existing customers over new ones just because there was no time for an extensive vetting process. We moved quickly to adapt our platform to the U.S. PPP program, working to automate and eliminate the manual process this program created. Soon, people started to take notice. Our accelerators partnered with us, offering support and access to market, publications such as Forbes covered our solution, then through these partnerships, Boss Insights secured a collaboration with Oracle.
Boss Insights has been working around the clock to provide the latest in digitization accelerated by COVID. The dust is now slowly settling, but will banks and credit unions take the lessons learned and make real changes moving forward? Boss Insights has personally seen Financial Institutions adapt. Sales cycles that could take up to six months to two years were closed in under two weeks. What has really changed in 2020 is that the future has been propelled to the now. The last decade’s attitude of waiting is no longer sustainable as financial institutions now face a reality that is too big to ignore. Boss Insights’ job now is to be relevant to those players who are embracing digitization and partner with them. The biggest impact we have learned through all of this is that digitization is no longer a nice to have, it’s a necessity and part of business continuity. We work long hours so that businesses can have a fair chance at getting the money they so desperately need. At the end of the day, each business is run by people, people with families and lives who depend on access to capital; they are not just numbers on a financial statement and should be represented as such.
EKMH: What is it about business that motivates you to better serve your customers?
Keren Moynihan: As a former commercial banker, Boss Insights was founded to answer the following question: How can lenders be empowered to grow their business clients 10% when inflation is 1-3% and 7 in 10 loan requests are turned away?
I recognized that it’s easy to depersonalize the problem. Each business has a face, a name and a family behind it. The majority of businesses going forward will be small and medium to mid-market businesses rather than large corporations. Lenders - that is to say - banks, credit unions and alternative lenders - must be able to evaluate these businesses on their merit in a responsible and agile way in order to create a sustainable ecosystem.
Boss Insights started with a vision to empower lenders to measure businesses on their merit in addition to their personal credit. Our mission is to provide banks and credit unions with a real-time understanding of their business client enabling them to offer customer delight. Boss Insights empowers lenders within weeks so they can support the economic engine of our society: SMBs and Commercial Businesses. We recognise that the traditional lending process has checks and balances in place that favour the privileged: people who’ve had the opportunities to build a strong credit history, helping them get easy funding.There are people with talent and grit that are systematically disadvantaged from gathering strong credit. In 2019, only 28% companies received the support they need due to inefficiencies in the existing lending process. Our platform gathers real-time business information, empowering financiers to evaluate businesses on merit in addition to collateral, making it possible for businesses who may be systematically disadvantaged to obtain loans they deserve. In turn, this will lead to a more diverse and inclusive industry. When all is taken away at the end of the day, meaning is the most important and this is what motivates me to do what I do.
EKMH: Where is the financial industry headed in 2021?
Keren Moynihan: There will be a divide between financial institutions. Some lenders will want to hold on to the traditional style of banking where it is product-first. Others will want to open access to their platform to attract best in class technology to support their customers."
EKMH: How have you created a workplace “where rules are fit to people”? What positive initiatives have helped you build a stronger community at Boss Insights? Why should companies strive to be more diverse and inclusive?
Keren Moynihan: Hiring talents for add, not fit. It is challenging to attract talents who own an entrepreneurial mindset, are ready, willing and able to get traction as well as add value to the team. CBC highlighted Boss Insights as a great employer as roles are fit to people and not the other way around.
In just a few years, we have created a team of none individuals that is talented, diverse and innovative. This is not a coincidence but a mindful decision to create a respectful, inspirational and multicultural corporate culture. Diverse teams lead to diverse ideas and innovation. Boss Insights has a workplace that represents nine different cultures and it was done by seeking out the best talent.
At Boss Insights the goal is not to agree, but to discuss and collaborate in order to produce the best product with the most impact. Our challenge to hire talents for add, not fit continues as our company grows.
EKMH: What is the value of networking? In the time of COVID-19, what recommendations do you have for jobseekers seeking to expand their professional network?
Keren Moynihan: Since COVID-19 hit Canada in March, three million have lost their jobs and 2.5 million people are working less.
Adapt Expectations
Katherine Judge, an economist with CIBC, says that many will find jobs in new fields and discover that they don’t have the right qualifications or experience, which will take time to address. Jobseekers need to adapt their expectations that this could be the time to look at different roles or industries than they originally planned or were trained for. In between jobs, take a step back and assess all of your skills, abilities and experiences. Look for skill or qualification gaps, and use the time to “update” yourself for the next job, including your ability to work in a virtual environment, which has become the norm for most jobs during the pandemic.
Research Opportunities
Although the pandemic has taken away many jobs, it has also created new demands for job opportunities especially in essential services such as grocery stores, pharmacies and home deliveries. Online companies and tech companies which support remote work capabilities are also hiring. Be actively searching on LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Indeed etc or connect to tech-based social media groups which regularly post about job openings.
Network
Update your LinkedIn profile and resume to reflect your current experience and skill set. Connect with industry leaders and employers to learn about opportunities, and read up about the latest trends or happenings in the company you’re planning to apply to. When you get the chance to chat with your potential employer, present the value you’re able to bring to the company based on what you have read or observed.
EKMH: How have you benefited from failure and/or taking risks?
Keren Moynihan: Entrepreneurship is about failing quickly, learning and moving on to success by incorporating the feedback that people provide along the way with the vision of the company.
EKMH: How do you see yourself championing female entrepreneurship? How have you defined yourself as a fintech thought leader?
Keren Moynihan: Outside of Boss Insights, I also work as an Advisory Member for the Career Foundation’s IT Division committee. The goal is to prepare students, post-graduates and the underemployed for career opportunities. Additionally, I have participated in several diversity panels including Women of Influence alongside other incredible female founders and the Canadian Women’s Chamber of Commerce’s panel on founders and venture capitalists where I moderated the discussion on promoting strategic relationships between the two groups. More ways where I exhibit leadership in advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship is through mentoring at both Futurpreneur Canada and Maple Leaf Angels as well as judging at TiEQuest.
Quoted for saying that “data is the Achilles’ heel of bias,” I have been involved in several diversity programs and initiatives including: Women of Influence, Women in Finance, Tech Undivided and recently winning the 2020 Women In Payments' Unicorn Challenge and Corporate Vision Magazine’s 2020 Most Innovative Leader in Lending Award. Recently, a Tech Undivided video included my statement: "Every women starting a business today is here because of the people who came before us. Now we exist in a time where whatever it is we set our sights on we can go for. Whether we have an equal shot of getting there, remains to be seen.”
In Women of Influence, I was called, “a woman on a mission to help companies predict the future.” There's been a lot of progress over the past two decades, and Boss Insights is grateful for the support. Recently, on a panel at Women In Finance, Senator Colin Deacon stated that Boss Insights was a company to watch.
I have acted as a mentor and advisor to other diverse founders and have spoken on panels regularly stating on the topic of being a female founder that “Being responsible not just for Boss Insights, but for the diverse founders who will follow behind me, it’s my job to demand that we eradicate the unconscious bias that exists. When we can be in a world where people are evaluated on their merit, where people are judged for their achievements and not their packaging, we will have taken a serious step forward.”
To define myself as a thought leader in the fintech industry, I have also written numerous articles, some of which have been featured by:
1. The Financial Brand: Banks Must Adopt APIs for Business Lending or the Fintechs Will Win
2. Bank Innovation: Compound data - The Key To Digitized Lending. “It’s often said that data is the new oil. Today, this is undeniable. Stated more accurately, however, insights are the new oil and Compound Data is the drill.”
3. American Banking Association: Social Collaboration: Banks Key to Servicing PPP Borrowers During COVID
4. The Fintech Times: Compound Data - The Key To Accessing ‘Data-Driven Oil’
EKMH: Please share a few of your favorite books, films and/ or podcast series.
Keren Moynihan: Book: Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Music: Leonard Cohen, Cake, Tegan & Sarah, Elastica, to name a few, anything Dub like Fat Freddy’s Drop
Movie: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Youtube series: Shout out to The Sorry Girls - fellow Canadian Entrepreneurs who have been doing it themselves for a decade.
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