Top 10 Beyond Money Matters by beyond!

TOP 10 BEYOND MONEY MATTERS

BUSINESS

Issue 04 Summer 2018

BUSINESS BOULEVARD Cover Story: A virtual currency player mainstreaming blockchain payments for consumers and businesses

EXCELLENCE CAUSEWAY A world’s leading PFM subscription management solution, building the future of retail banking by intelligent use of transaction data

YOUNICK CORNER

Hans Henrik Hoﬀmeyer Co-founder & Board Member Coinify

A journey of a Singaporebased startup that wants to enable you to get cash wherever you are

OMNISCIENT VOYAGE NEWSMAKERS LOCALE DEFINITIVE DESTINATION

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EDITOR’S COMMENT

t wouldn’t make anyone oblivious who say that FinTech is altering the global financial landscape. In fact, it has quickly changed how people invest, opt for loans, lend, fund startups and even buy insurance. Stating numbers, one in three digitally active users, on an average, use two or more fintech services, which literally is a demonstration of the fact that fintech is getting adopted massively while empowering users to participate and take charge of their financial voyage. Disruptive innovations including, but not limited to machine learning, IoT, blockchain and AI have performed a vital role in advancing the fintech solutions. This has made financial services companies around the globe to understand how important it is to bring fintech opportunities in their services and optimize them. From tech-enabled secure, and convenient payment methods with digital wallets, such as Apple Pay, Android Pay to robo-advisors, financial services companies are comprehending the fintech opportunities to complement the role of traditional financial advisors. Therefore, to highlight the financial solution providers who are on the journey of going beyond the exclamation with the fintech advancements, Beyond Exclamation is coming up with its special journal titled, “Top 10 Beyond Money Matters.”

Editor in Chief CHRISTINE [editor@beyondexclamation.com]

Managing Editor POONAM [poonam@beyondexclamation.com]

As our cover, we have, Coinify – A virtual currency player mainstreaming blockchain payments for consumers and businesses. Founded by Mark Højgaard, Hans Henrik Hoﬀmeyer, Kris Henriksen, and Lasse Olesen, today, Coinify is a very lean company with a strong track record of transactions and sustainable values. Anyone from beginners experimenting with virtual currencies or crypto enthusiasts, to online webshops, as well as large institutional clients can turn to Coinify for the service.

Apart from these, we also have features written by industry leaders explaining everything related to money and money matters. These are 5 Creative Ways To Increase How Much You Earn, 12 LifeChanging Money Lessons I Learned In My 30s, How I Build Wealth In 4 Steps, Libraries Are Not Free, and They’re Worth Every Dollar!, Which Type of Mortgage Should I Choose?, and Who Is Going To Make Money In AI? Let’s get started with the money ride, shall we?

Poonam Yadav

[design@beyondexclamation.com]

Graphic Artist NICK [nick@beyondexclamation.com]

Project Manager JENNIFER [jennifer@beyondexclamation.com]

Development Manager JUSTIN [info@beyondexclamation.com]

CONNECT!

Apart from our cover, we have Governance.com – an instantly deployable platform with the expertise and technology needed to organize and structure any data, documents and controls; i-Pay – a startup attempting to make transactions simpler and more secure to pay by means of EFT when shopping online; Minna Technologies – the world’s leading PFM subscription management solution. Building the future of retail banking by intelligent use of transaction data; and SoCash – a Singapore-based startup that wants to enable you to get cash wherever you are. We also had the pleasure to be “In Conversation” with Zeid Husban, Founder of POSRocket, in which, he took us on the journey of POSRocket and beyond.

Art Director VICTOR

www.beyondexclamation.com BeyondExclamation @BeyondEx Beyond Exclamation beyondexclamation

Business Boulevard A virtual currency player mainstreaming blockchain payments for consumers and businesses. An industry insider explaining creative ways anyone can learn to earn An industry leader illustrating life-changing money lessons she learned in her 30s

08 18 22

Excellence Causeway The worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading PFM subscription management solution, building the future of retail banking by intelligent use of transaction data

A write-up that features four steps with which the he builds his wealth

Younick Corner A Singapore-based startup that wants to enable you to get cash wherever you are

A commentary on why the libraries are not free, and they're worth every dollar

Omniscient Voyage An instantly deployable platform with the expertise and technology needed to organize and structure any data, documents and controls

An insightful article that predicts the future of AI and who will be leading it

Newsmakers Locale A conversation with the founder of an intuitive, reliable, cloud-based, pointof-sale (POS) platform, which empowers merchants and allows them to run smarter businesses by seamlessly monitoring and optimizing operations

DeďŹ nitive Destination

CONTENTS

A startup attempting to make transactions simpler and more secure to pay by means of EFT when shopping online

An answer to your most natural question, which type of mortgage should I choose?

Building a strong virtual currency player

Hans Henrik Hoï¬&#x20AC;meyer Co-founder & Board Member Coinify

he year was 2012 with bitcoin having been around for three years, but, it wasn’t causing any impact to the financial sector. Yet, early thoughtleaders and adopters were convinced that something extraordinary would happen soon. As the cryptocurrency slowly gained momentum, its potential to reinforce or even replace traditional currencies became more evident. The conventional financial sector, while being complex and bureaucratic, lacked capabilities to embrace the cryptocurrency’s opportunities and had limited regulative clarity in the area. This made it difficult for financial institutions to embrace this paradigm shift, even if they wanted to, as regulated and compliant companies were few and far in between. It was these elements that seeded a vision to establish a platform that could support the future of cryptocurrency payments and mainstream this promising technology in a regulated and compliant way for existing professional financial institutions and crypto wallet companies wanting to do things in the right way, and, with that vision was born, Coinify. When Coinify was in its infancy, the founders, Mark Højgaard, Hans Henrik Hoffmeyer, Kris Henriksen, and Lasse Olesen contemplated on the requirements for this paradigm shift to thrive on a global scale and quickly came to the conclusion that it was essential to build a bridge between the old financial industry and the blockchain payment technology. Thus, they decided to take a different approach compared to the other industry players of the

time. Rather than aggressively trying to reinvent the wheel, it seemed to them that the industry would instead require a sober and professional mindset to mainstream bitcoin. Thus, they took a more measured and sustainable route, being proregulation and by adopting the high standards that the professional financial sector adheres to, to build a framework that is both familiar and reliable within the financial industry. In order to establish sustainable competitive advantages, it was also imperative that Coinify built an ecosystem that would nurture this concept. This was done by merging two early stage companies in the industry, which in turn allowed them to carry out both merchant payment processing and the traditional buying and selling of bitcoin. By doing this, they managed to establish an internal market to offset the buying and selling of bitcoin and thereby reduced the amount required to offset on the exchanges. This would later turn out to be a good decision on their part as market volatility hit and with the unexpected events that have shaken the industry over the past few years, which greatly affected the price of the cryptocurrency. Coinify was also founded on strong regulatory compliance principles, not only in terms of organizing and catering for customers, but on values and ethics. Under the guidance of its investor, the Swedish bank, SEB, Coinify was able to effectively drive its compliance, risk and AML agenda, and their investment in Coinify was the first testament to its regulated approach. Coinify is also

proactive in leading policy development. While member states in the European Union all have views on crypto and virtual currencies, most have been reluctant to participate in regulatory processes. Standing by its belief that regulation is vital for the success of the

ecosystem, Coinify pushed for an EU-driven initiative to regulate the industry, with the result steered in the form of the Blockchain and Virtual Currencies working group. This working group aims to provide insights and advisory into the regulatory environment. The group

aﬃliates include representatives from Coinify, alongside other leading virtual currency and blockchain companies, in the eﬀorts of engaging with government bodies and associations like the European Commission, European Parliament, European Central Bank, European

Banking Association and many other stakeholders.

The beginning, the present and beyond! Coinify’s journey has always been about mainstreaming blockchain

payments for consumers and businesses. But as the time grew, Coinify has moved beyond cryptocurrencies as the be-all and end-all for its business goals--today, the company is considered as a virtual currency player. Its services take into account other forms of virtual currencies, like loyalty points and mileage companies looking to engage further with their customer base; here Coinify can enable their ‘currency’ in more than 60 payment service providers worldwide overnight. And this theme is expected to unfold even further when stable coins will allow for consumers to pay in merchants worldwide in their ﬁat currency of choice without the need to exchange.

Pioneering the mobile payment era by being ﬁrst players Fintech has been close to Mark and Hans’ hearts for decades. Twelve years ago, they were both involved in pioneering the mobile payment era by being some of the ﬁrst players to make instant issuing of virtual payment cards available on mobile devices. Hans believes virtual currencies represent such a fundamental transformation in the way we have dealt with money for thousands of years. Most will have acknowledged this shift by now, but we cannot learn anything by being naive observers merely watching from the sidelines. As disruption unfolds before your eyes, the only way to truly understand this paradigm shift is by immersing yourself into the thick of things.

“We have thus plunged head-ﬁrst into this market and it has taught us how this disruption materializes and how to navigate towards opportunities. The journey so far has been extremely challenging, and the process of building our platform has been undeniably diﬃcult - but that’s great! Barriers to entry within our space has never been greater, but it’s only by facing the challenges headon, that you can come out wiser and stronger. In fact, in the time that we have been stable and operating within this industry, we have witnessed a vast number of companies enter the space and exit soon after due to their pressure of these barriers,” Hans explains.

Smooth Seas Do Not Make Skillful Sailors There’s an African proverb that says, “Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.” It’s the hard knocks in life that soften out our rough edges. Shape us into something more refined and resilient. Likewise, Coinify was faced with hard knocks that later shaped the company what we know it today. The biggest challenge for Coinify has undoubtedly been timing. Imagining a future with cashless payments or self-driving cars is an easy thing to do, but how and when these ideas unfold, as well what it will take to make them a reality—that’s difficult to foresee. In 2014, Mark and Hans predicted a future where professional financial services would turn their interests towards virtual currency, and it is only recently that their prediction is proving to be true. But back then, the

duo had no idea if this prediction would become a reality in a year or over 20 years. Nevertheless, they have been patient, proactively maturing the market and positioning Coinify within the financial services industry; and their efforts have proven to be fruitful. Today, Coinify is a very lean company with a strong track record of transactions and sustainable values, which is why the interest – that they predicted from financial institutions which is now being realized – is also being positively directed towards the company.

Services that comprise everything for everyone To explain briefly, Coinify platform offers blockchain currency trading and payment processing services in a several different forms: · Coinify Trade is a service that allows individual traders to buy and sell blockchain currencies simply and securely with their credit card or through bank transfer. ·

Coinify oﬀers brokerage services to facilitate virtual currency conversion for the professional trading community, with its customer portfolio of institutional traders, retail traders, hedge funds, ﬁnancial institutions, and large individual account holders.

Coinify Merchant is a service that gives merchants the option to accept blockchain payments in 15 currencies and receive payouts in ﬁat for their businesses through multiple integration tools.

Coinify Enterprise solution provides trading and payment processing white label solutions for partners via its API integration. Its API opens an array of service opportunities such as blockchain payments for PSPs, in-wallet trading for cryptocurrency wallet providers, blockchain currency as loyalty rewards for loyalty point companies, blockchain currency platform integrations for ﬁnancial institutions, and more.

Ensuring that the customers receive all the help they need!

Coinify proudly serves a varied range of customers. Anyone from beginners experimenting with virtual currencies or crypto enthusiasts, to online webshops, as well as large institutional clients can turn to Coinify for the service. Moreover, Coinify also prioritizes a strong customer support system. Since the environment surrounding crypto and virtual currencies is both novel and volatile, Hans believes it is Coinify’s responsibility to ensure that the customers receive all the help that they need when navigating the platform. “The community we have built around our service is luckily a very vocal one and on average, the feedback we have received is positive, with customers citing trustworthiness and ease-of-use as some of their main experiences on our platform. Of course, there is always room for improvement and we are always taking our customers’ feedback into consideration to constantly develop our platform and oﬀerings,” Hans adds. “We will be increasing our focus on servicing our professional partners as they explore the vast new opportunities within this virtual currency theme. You can expect us to be facilitating transactions with some of the largest ﬁnancial institutions as they start to understand and adopt this technology,” Hans concludes.

Meet the Trailblazers Mark has been on a non-stop entrepreneurial journey since establishing his ﬁrst company at the young age of 19. His began with building media companies, but in 2006, his focus turned towards

fintech and he has been moving fullforce in that direction ever since. Having a deeply-rooted understanding on how financial services are perceived by consumers, he has been able to utilize his years of experience to construct profound financial services that have a true impact on consumers--whether it be user-friendly services for daily transactions, banking the unbanked, or providing big financial institutions access to something as complicated as virtual currencies.

While on the other hand, Hans manages the daily operations of Coinify’s various teams, besides being a co-founder and board member of the company. He has an extensive resume within the global payments industry, including roles at Nets Group, IBM, Pandora and more. He is also a founding member of the Blockchain and Virtual Currency Working Group (BVC WG), as well as an active participant in other regulatory bodies.

5 Creative Ways To Increase How Much You Earn T

here’s an old saying in business that instructs, “You don’t get paid what you deserve. You get paid what you negotiate.”

I believe that wholeheartedly. Over the years, I’ve learned that no matter how hard you work, working hardhas little correlation to how much you earn — or more importantly, what others around you believe you’re worth. Earning potential is related to one thing and one thing only: The value of what it is you do. Let me give you a few business examples: Ÿ What is the value of someone who can scrub toilets? Ÿ What is the value of someone who can neatly organize an oﬃce? Ÿ What is the value of someone who can get people to sign up for your service?

What is the value of someone who can provide assistance in a medical emergency?

In society, we place dollar amounts on everyday tasks, and then oﬀer payment to one another based on who can achieve the desired outcome — related back, of course, to supply and demand. Lots of people can scrub toilets. Not many people can perform emergency surgery. So, what does this mean for your own earning potential? How do you know if you’re being paid too little — and more importantly, how can you increase your value to the point where you are earning more than is considered “normal” for your responsibilities? Here’s how: 1. Do your research and learn what is most valuable about your role. Every industry has fairly established roles, and every role has its own list of responsibilities. If you want to earn more for yourself, do your homework and learn what it is about your role in particular that is valuable — and then look for all the diﬀerent parties that are willing to pay for that role, and in what context. Let me give you an example. I studied creative writing in college. Do you know how many people told me studying creative writing would fast-track me to a minimum wage job? Not very many people make a decent living writing. So, I did my homework. I asked myself, “Who needs a good writer? What would my value potentially be to them?” Turns out, CEOs with powerful messages often struggle to tackle a blank page.

I’ve built a company oﬀ my ability to write and tell personal stories. But that wouldn’t have happened, had I not done my homework. 2. Give up short-term raises for longterm jackpots. For four years, I didn’t make a cent oﬀ my writing.

speaks volumes about who you are and what you do. If you Google my name, my website is the number one search result. The second search result is my About page.

I did everything for free. If someone well-known needed a writer, I jumped at the opportunity.

In fact, the entire ﬁrst three pages on Google, I own — with my website, my columns, podcast features, and my social media accounts.

If a startup needed a copywriter, I took on the challenge.

My social headers, I had designed. My photos, I update regularly.

I wrote every day on Quora for free. I wrote guest blogs for free.

I write a new article somewhere, every single day.

And then once I had proven myself and my abilities, once I had 50,000 followers, once I had thousands of people on my email list, once I had been republished in every major publication on the Internet, it all happened on its own.

All of these things make it very, very easy for someone to look me up, sit back, and think, “Hmmm, I should work with this guy.”

This is the biggest piece of advice I have for anyone who wants to increase their earning potential. Forget the small raises. Forget the, “Hey so I’m going to need you to pay me for the extra hour I spent on this project.” Forget it all. Instead of asking for that hour paid, ask for an introduction to someone else. Ladder up your success to the next project, and the next project. Work with bigger and bigger people, for free. Master for craft. And before you know it, you will be at the top of the pyramid. 3. Don’t just tell people why they should pay you more. Show them. I am a huge advocate for personal branding. And what I mean when I say personal branding is representing yourself on the Internet in a way that

I get about 20 inbound leads per day via email, solely because of my personal brand. No ads. No PR. Nothing else. Which is why I balk at the people who talk and talk and talk about how great they are, meanwhile they’re practically invisible on the Internet. Everything they do is outdated. They don’t share any content that proves they walk the walk. From all the way over here, in front of my laptop, how am I supposed to know they’re someone worth working with? Stop telling. Start showing. And I don’t just mean entrepreneurs. If you are an employee of a company, you will get paid more if you have a strong personal brand. 4. “You can’t rationalize with the customer.” This is something I heard a mentor of

mine say over and over again, and it continues to play in my head constantly.

And what you would get back is a bunch of words on a page, fulﬁlling your rationalized expectation.

The moment you start trying to justify what it is you do and the value you provide by focusing on all the nittygritty things, you’ve lost.

What you won’t get is the conviction, the voice, the tone you want representing you and everything you do. What you won’t get is someone emailing you after saying, “I was extremely impressed with the piece you just published today.”

Sure, you might win their business in the end, but it’s not the win you’re going to want. Rationalizing with people only devalues what it is you do. You have to show them the vision. You have to get them to see emotional impact. This is what people do when I tell them what I charge as a writer. They say, “That’s absurd, I could hire a copywriter for $25 an hour on Craigslist. I pay someone ﬁve cents per word.”

It’s a very, very rare thing for an employer or a client to wake up one morning, call you up (or bring you into their oﬃce), sit you down and say, “You know what, I’m going to pay you more.” It just doesn’t happen that way. Like I said at the start of this article: people don’t earn what they deserve, they earn what they negotiate.

Rationalizing with the customer would be, in this example, focusing on how much they are paying per word or per piece.

If you feel you deserve to be paid more, in whatever context you are working in, it’s your responsibility to ask.

I don’t rationalize. I show them the real value I am providing, which always focuses on a desired outcome.

You have to bring it up with your employer. You have to bring it to the attention of your client.

5. Ask. It’s amazing to me how many people complain about their current situation, but never ask for a diﬀerent result.

And most importantly, you have to be prepared for them to say, “No,” and to then explain what value you provide that warrants an increase in your earnings.

Yes. You absolutely could.

12 Life-Changing Money Lessons I Learned In My 30s

“

Here are the 12 life-changing money lessons I have learned in my 30’s and how they can help you too.

ow, in my 30s, I’ll be like so totally sorted.” I don’t think I actually said it like that as I am from the UK and not one of the Kardashians, but the sentiment was the same.

1. An ‘escape fund’ is the key to your freedom You are likely to be questioning the path you have chosen, the career choices you have made and what you want from life once you reach your 30s.

In my 30s, I’ll have my sh*t together.

Not in an existential crisis kind of way (hopefully) but more a pondering on want you really want to do as you watch your parents get older.

I’ll be on a high rung of the career ladder, have a very stable life and be very clear on the direction I am headed. Bahahahahahaha! Oh sorry, I just fell oﬀ my chair laughing at my naive 20-year-old self.

You see the haunted looks on the more senior people above you at work and really don’t aspire to be like them. You’d rather start a business and work on your own terms.

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that we never know exactly what we want for the rest of our lives, but we need the courage to take risks and see where they go.

Or, you wonder when you are ever going to go on that 6month traveling trip you never took.

Life is too short to stay on one path, always wondering ‘what if?’.

If you spend everything you earn, these will forever be just musings. Whereas if you have built an ‘escape fund’, and have the money to take 6 or 12 months oﬀ, those things you ‘wish’ you could do, suddenly become things you can do.

Being in control of our ﬁnances and having a ‘money cushion’ helps to smooth the ride, to help us take risks when we want to and to rescue us from situations we didn’t see coming.

This is also called ‘F*ck You” money (I can’t take credit for that term as I didn’t come up with it, has a nice ring though).

My 30’s have been a very interesting time as I have spent a big part of it learning about money.

It might be that you are happy with your career and life right now, but if something signiﬁcant happens that changes your situation for the worse, you have the funds to do something about it.

How to invest, what to invest in, how to think about money, what to use it for, and also making mistakes (cryptocurrency anyone?).

So, if your boss suddenly decides to double your duties at work but refuses to give you a pay rise or your partner turns out to be the douche-bag from hell, you have the financial security to give them the finger and leave. My story I used my escape fund to leave work and start IWMLBproject. My work situation was toxic. Constant strategy changes, people ‘disappearing in the night’ — no they weren’t murdered (that would be a little drastic), but one day they were in the office, and the next day they were gone. I was really stressed, unhappy and burned out. Luckily I had been saving towards financial independence for a while so I had a good chunk of change saved up. I handed in my notice and left, it’s been a year since I did that and I can honestly say it’s the best thing I’ve ever done! I now work on IWMLBproject and pick up the odd consultancy project and life is pretty awesome :-) 2. There is a dark side to frugality If you have a type A personality, you might have a tendency to get a little obsessive about things. When it comes to saving money, the temptation might be to see ‘how low you can go’. Trying to save as much as possible, constantly using hacks and coupons, walking an extra 10 minutes to a different shop to save a £1, screaming at your partner for buying a £4 pizza cutter (ahem, I was very stressed at the time and may have been a little irrational). All of these take a serious amount of mental energy and time. There are loads of frugality bloggers

(some of whom are very good) who spend virtually nothing and don’t ﬁnd it a hard thing to do.

Just because something has a discount or looks like a good deal, it doesn’t mean it’s a good option.

Personally, I got completely burnt out and miserable by trying to restrict spending in every area of my life.

Sometimes buying less, but focusing on quality rather than price can be a better option in the long run.

Ironically, once I decided that enough was enough and I was not going to feel guilty about spending anymore, my month to month expenditure didn’t change at all.

This is minimalism, owning less in order to have a less cluttered life.

I already knew what I wanted to spend on and what I didn’t, I just needed to take away the guilt. I will always advocate tracking your spending and seeing where you can save so that you can invest instead. Don’t make your budget so restrictive though that all you do is focus on the future rather than enjoying the present. 3. Spend mindfully Don’t get swayed by ‘spend-shaming’. Everyone has their own opinion about what is a good thing to buy and what is a waste of money. If your gym membership card is well worn and you are on first name terms with all the staff, keep going. If Netflix is the only way you can relax after a hard day at the coalface, don’t cancel it. It’s a bit like Marie Kondo’s The LifeChanging Magic of Tidying Up. You hold (or think about) each thing, ask yourself whether it brings you joy. If it does, keep it, if it doesn’t, stop spending on it. By really thinking about what you spend and what it means to you, you will naturally save money as you won’t be spending mindlessly. 4. Cheap doesn’t always mean good I’ve had a tendency up until recently to buy the absolute cheapest option when I need to buy something. which promptly falls apart about 6 months later.

My partner is more of a minimalist than a frugalist (I don’t think that is a word) and I am slowly coming around to his way of thinking. Although it may pain me not to plunder the depths of the discount websites to ﬁnd what I need, I have to admit that spending a bit more sometimes makes sense (don’t tell him that though!). 5. Slow and steady wins the race We tend to start panicking about not having enough money when we want to make a major life change and we want to make it now! The temptation is to jump on the latest ‘big thing’ and try to ride the wave upwards as quickly as possible (here’s looking at you, Bitcoin) Unfortunately, there is no get rich quick scheme. Yes, I know there are some Bitcoin millionaires, but most of them bought into it years ago, before the tabloid newspapers got hold of it, so they didn’t get rich quick either. Although it’s boring, the best way to grow your wealth is by investing consistently over time into investments that earn interest (such as index funds). That interest then compounds (hence the term ‘compound interest’) which means you earn interest on top of your original investment and the interest that is accumulating. The best way to understand it is to play around with a compound interest calculator so you can visually see the

diﬀerence between if you just invested without interest, or you invested with interest and let it compound.

And by ‘retire’ I mean, stop working in an oﬃce and do something else you like doing.

6. Lifestyle inﬂation now will restrict what you can have later Your 30s can be the age that you start earning a good wage, it’s also the age when friends start to buy bigger houses in nicer areas, better cars and just nicer sh*t in general.

If you have other investments and income streams besides your pension, there is nothing to stop you retiring earlier.

The temptation is to ‘treat’ yourself with nice things because you’ve worked hard, you deserve it and no longer need to exist on a diet of own brand beans and sliced white bread. Sourdough and avocados, get in my mouth! This is called ‘Lifestyle Inflation’. Each pay rise you get, you inflate your lifestyle a little more to match it. But what if you didn’t upgrade all areas of your life, what if you stayed in a smaller flat, kept your crappy car and continued to shop on eBay. You’d be living well below your means and could save a really good chunk o’ change each month. The choices you make now though are crucial to whether you can afford to save your ‘F*ck you’ money or get stuck on the 9–5 treadmill until you are 67 (see point below). In all fairness, eating avocado on toast isn’t going to screw your savings, it’s the big expenses such as house, car, holidays and eating out that will really kill your ability to save. 7. Retiring at 67 sounds sh*t When I was in my 20s, 67 sounded so ancient that I didn’t even think about it. Fast forward to 38 years old and having been in a career for 15 years, there is absolutely NO WAY I want to be working in an office for the next 29 years.

Or starting your own business Or taking a series of ‘mini-retirements’ (like a gap year but with less tequila and nicer beds). 8. Only own a credit card if you can afford what you want in cash I didn’t have a credit card for 10 years because I couldn’t trust myself with it. Then I moved into a new house and needed a sofa, although I didn’t have much cash. I fell in love with a heinously expensive pastel blue one, so got a credit card and bought it — DOH! I promptly cut it up (the card, not the sofa) and made myself a ‘pay debt off’ spreadsheet so that I could get rid of the payments as soon as possible. That was 5 years ago and I only got another credit card about a year ago. And the only reason I use a credit card now is to get air miles so I can get cheaper flights. The golden rules of owning a credit card (according to me) Ÿ Only apply for a credit card if you could pay cash if you wanted to Ÿ Set up a direct debit to pay off the balance in full each month Ÿ Track all of your spendings so you have full visibility and control over what is happening with your finances If you don’t feel in control of your finances and regularly spend above your means, DO NOT have a credit card. The credit card company will be using you (for those lovely interest payments you give them each month) and not the other way around.

Oooh, this was a big learning for me. I entered into a very serious relationship at 34, prior to that I pretty much did what the F I wanted. Once I was in the said relationship, I quickly realised that we did not have the same ideas about money. This led to a lot of disagreements about which supermarket we should shop at or what kind of car we needed. We butted heads on this for a good 3 years but have ﬁnally reached a few compromises that help us live a happy, non-shouty life. We keep our ﬁnances completely separate I realise this may be controversial for some people but it works for us. Ÿ

We use a joint credit card for purchases we make together and we share all bills etc, but aside from that, his money is his and my money is mine and we can spend it (or not) on whatever we want. I’ll admit that for a long time, I still felt the need to give my 2 cents whenever my partner bought something, but I have stopped that now. I’ve learned I can’t control other people and also his ‘wants’ are diﬀerent from mine. As long as we both have enough to pay the bills and have our ‘escape fund’ money then we’re good. Ÿ Agree to meet in the middle One of the big things we used to argue over was where we did our food shopping (seems ridiculous I know). I’m a big fan of buying cheap at Aldi, Lidl, Tescos etc, whereas my partner loves Waitrose and M&S.

Eventually, we agreed on Sainsbury’s (mid-way between my preferred shops and his), as the food quality is good and they send regular discount vouchers, so we are both happy :-) Shared goals are great for getting on the same money page If one of you is a saver and one of you is a spender, having shared goals can Ÿ

Just because retiring at age 67 is the norm, doesn’t mean you can’t retire WAY earlier than that.

9. You might need to compromise if your partner is not on the same money page

really help to align your spending. If you both want to buy a house together, or you dream of a life of travel, suddenly money becomes something to help achieve something you both want, rather than a source of disagreement.

12. Hedging your bets is a good way to sleep at night. ‘Recession imminent!’, ‘Property investment is dead!’, ‘The sky is falling!’. You’ve gotta love those sensationalist headlines. No matter where you stash your cash, if you want to take advantage of compound interest or passive income, there is a risk involved.

10. Educate yourself, but not too much Educating yourself about money is a very smart thing to do and I encourage you to do it.

There is less risk when you spread those investments rather than chucking it all into one company or property.

You may decide that index funds are enough of a hedge as you are buying into such a large spread of the stock market. Personally, I like to spread my investments across index funds, property and a 6-month emergency fund of cash. If the stock market crashes, I still have rental income, if my tenants all move out, I have the stock market.

But at some point you need to put your money where your mouth is and actually do something about it. Ÿ Take the ﬁrst step to creating a budget Ÿ Open an investment account with Vanguard Ÿ Finally, understand what your work pension is and how much you would end up with at retirement (and whether this is enough) Just reading about money is passive action, whereas if you want to change your money situation, you need to take real action.

If the whole lot takes a massive dive, I have enough cash to keep me while I ﬁgure out how the hell to earn some more money. Decide on what your investment vehicles are going to be (by educating yourself as we discussed above) and then work towards building your ﬁnancial stability.

My favourite personal ﬁnance bloggers are below if you want to get started. Most of these are Financial Independence bloggers but their thoughts about money, how it works and how to use it are invaluable. Ÿ Mad Fientist (his podcasts are amazing) Ÿ JL Collins Ÿ Frugalwoods Ÿ Aﬀord Anything Ÿ Mr. Money Mustache 11. Paid ‘educational’ seminars for investing are designed for you to give someone else your money, not invest your own The best information I have found on investing and money has been free or very low cost.

And finally, Your 30’s are the perfect time to get control of your finances. You have probably reached a more senior position at work and earn better money than you did in your 20’s. Mastering your financial situation and having money work for you is the single most important thing you can do (in my humble opinion) as it gives you so many options. You do not have to be ‘stuck’ with your life choices when you hit your 30s. There is still so much awesome stuff to be done and if it requires a major life change, so be it! If you want to take that south-east Asia backpacking trip and you have the money to do so, do it. You’ll always regret it if you don’t.

Books on ﬁnances and money or blog posts or podcasts have been invaluable.

It also means you can start to secure your ﬁnancial future for later down the line.

Paid seminars on property investing or investing in general on the other hand have been badly disguised sales pitches which prey on the needy and desperate.

This will give you enormous peace of mind rather than having this constant nagging thought in the back of your head that you’ll be working till you’re 376 years old.

My general rule is now to never attend paid seminars or meet-ups and avoid anything that promises an ‘easy and quick’ path to riches.

And who wants to do that?! The article is originally published on medium.com by Laura@IWMLBProject and is republished with the author’s permission.

Trust me, I have googled ‘how to get rich quick’ many, manytimes and I’ve ﬁnally made peace with the fact that it takes time and compound interest.

Joakim Sjรถblom Co-founder & CEO Minna Technologies

From Frustration to World Leader

uring the last decade, the subscription economy has drastically changed consumers’ financial needs. Today, an average household pays for 20 different subscription services that include streaming services like Netflix and Spotify, along with the gym membership, cloud software services, telco and utilities etc. One in two consumers claim they lack control over their subscription services, and one in three pays for at least one subscription without knowing it. Moreover, two in three consumers consider canceling a subscription service to be a struggle. In short, subscription management is a frustration many consumers share. Such was the frustration that Joakim Sjöblom faced at the supermarket ICA in a small Swedish town called Skövde. He was about to pay for his groceries when his debit card got rejected due to insufficient funds. While checking his balance, he realized that several subscription services - Netflix, Spotify and his gym membership - had unexpectedly charged his account. At that very moment, he thought; there should be an app for this! Following, Joakim (a.k.a the hustler) pitched the idea of a subscription app to Jonas Karles (the hipster) and Marcus Lönnberg (the hacker), and asked them if they wanted to help him build it. All three of them have had entrepreneurial mindsets, and have been involved in different kinds of ventures during their youth. They share an urge to make a positive difference on a larger

scale, and that’s why they agreed that this was a promising idea, and committed to building it. Today, Minna Technologies is the world’s leading PFM subscription management solution. Building the future of retail banking by intelligent use of transaction data, Minna Technologies’ subscription management platform

currently serves 7 million digital banking customers worldwide. The company’s subscription management platform aims to help retail banking customers to get better control over their subscription ﬁnances. Besides monitoring subscriptions and notifying the user of changes, this leading platform allows the user to cancel any type of subscription with only 1-click. Moreover, it platform also recommends better telco and utility services, and helps the user to either switch or negotiate a better deal.

A world leading solution solving a widespread consumer problem Minna’s world-leading solution solves a widespread consumer problem – managing subscriptions effortlessly and quickly. With Minna, the bank customers can get full control over their subscriptions through an automatically generated overview. Secondly, they can save time and money by canceling any unwanted subscription with just a click. And, finally, they can save time and money by identifying and switching to a better utility supplier in 30 seconds. Minna’s platform applies intelligent algorithms and machine learning on transaction data to make the subscription management experience personal and relevant. By choosing Minna, the bank gets an opportunity to get a head start on PSD2 by offering a personalized service that millions of bank customers use and appreciate along with a GDPRcompliant solution that already has

Therefore, the ﬁrm keeps a close dialog with the bank clients on a daily basis. Furthermore, when this subscription management company enters an agreement with a new retail bank, it always makes sure that the foundation of the relationship is built on shared values. Otherwise, the company won’t do business with them. successfully integrated with Swedbank in Sweden.

Obsessed about offering an essential solution Since the foundation of Minna, the founders and the team have been obsessing about offering a solution to consumer’s subscription management problem. However, it wasn’t as easy as it looks in the beginning. One of founders’ initial challenges was how they could help consumers at the sale. But, then by attending several Fintech events and conferences, they soon realized that many retail banks share our urge to help consumers better their finances. It didn’t take long after meeting Swedbank and Danske Bank, the largest retail banks in Sweden and Denmark respectively, until Minna signed an agreement to implement a native subscription management solution in their respective digital channels. Due to the nature and scale of hosting a native subscription management platform for retail banks with millions of customers, building trust and aligning company’s values with those of its clients is everything for Minna.

At any point, teamwork makes the dream work! The team and the culture at Minna are special, and founders attribute all of their success to the team. The team, culture, and values are always considered as Minna’s greatest advantage. And its mission-driven focus to make a positive diﬀerence in people’s lives makes Minna stand out from competitors. Basically, everyone who visits the oﬃce says something in the lines of; “Wow, what a cozy and familiar atmosphere you have established.” Moreover, the founders have never referred to the company as a workplace, rather, a family. Minna’s employer branding slogan is; “Bring life to work” - meaning that you are encouraged to be the same person at work as you are at home. Talking about the company’s future outlook, the founders say, “You can expect more of what you have seen us do during 2017 and 2018. Our goal is to integrate with several more retail banks in the upcoming year. We are currently growing our organization at a rapid pace in order to be ready to scale.”

Darius Foroux Founder DariusForoux.com

How I Build Wealth In 4 Steps

’m not hungry for money. Compared to several years ago, when I had less money, I still have the same life.

But if we look at Buﬀett’s strategy, we must admit that it works. Enjoy your simple life, save your money, invest it wisely, and don’t lose your money. That’s how you get richer every day.

I wake up, drink my freshly brewed coﬀee, read a good book, and then start working until about 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Then, I put on my shorts and t-shirt and start working out.

In the rest of this article, I explain how I apply this strategy in daily life.

Sometimes I listen to music during my workouts, and sometimes I don’t. After working out, I have dinner with my family. We watch a TV show or movie after we eat. And then, I get back to working or reading. You see, it doesn’t take much money to live a good life. Benjamin Graham, one of the most respected investors of all time, once told his apprentice:

1. Live Lean I keep my expenses as low as possible without sacrificing the quality of life. My apartment isn’t big, my mortgage is low and so are my energy and water costs. I drive a Fiat 500, and my car insurance is €26 a month. And I only fill it up with gas once a month because I live close to my office, friends, and family.

“Money isn’t making that much diﬀerence in how you and I live. We’re both going down to the cafeteria for lunch and working every day and having a good time. So don’t worry about money, because it won’t make much diﬀerence in how you live.”

I stopped buying fashionable items like gadgets and clothes that are “in.” But I must say, I don’t save on my wellbeing. I buy books every month. I eat good food. And I go to a good gym. And I also built a small gym in my oﬃce.

Of course, his apprentice was Warren Buﬀett, who’s one of the wealthiest people of all time. And after reading his biography, Snowball by Alice Schroeder, I’m pretty sure he’s also one of the most frugal people of all time as well. The man was notorious for his spending pattern. That is, he didn’t spend money at all!

You see, I don’t live like Mr. Money Moustache or minimalist folks, I have my own deﬁnition of living lean. That is: Don’t spend your money on things that don’t give you lasting beneﬁts.

For example, healthy food keeps me ﬁt and lean. Books satisfy my thirst for knowledge and thinking. Working out gives me calm. Going on trips and holidays give me inspiration. And so forth.

didn’t spend much money, so I could build up my buffer. And ever since I built up my buffer, I never let it dip below that number. I also don’t invest that money. I don’t care about inflation since I make money in different ways.

But you know why I’m not afraid to spend money? Too often, we despise greed—which is also an extreme state of mind.

My buﬀer is here to keep my mind at peace and helps me to do what I want. To me, that’s the deﬁnition of a rich life.

However, if we don’t spend money at all, we become stingy and fearful—another extreme state of mind. And that’s no good either. Seneca said it best in On The Shortness Of Life:

3. Invest Defensively Look, individuals like you and I never make money with stock trading. What’s more, professionals don’t even make money with trading.

“You can make the same point that rich and poor suﬀer equal distress: for both groups cling to their money and suﬀer if it is torn away from them.”

Just look at the results of fund managers. Almost no one beats the market. And if they do, it’s probably because of luck. At least, that’s what Nassim Nicholas Taleb has been saying for almost two decades.

Strive for balance, my friend.

For the past few years, I’ve become more risk-averse. I stopped investing in individual stocks. It’s too risky. Plus, when I own stocks of a company, I can’t help myself from looking at the performance on a daily basis.

Never spend more than you earn. But remember that life is too short to eat rice and beans. 2. Always Keep A Buﬀer So we all know how to build wealth, right? Save your money and then invest it. That’s the idea. But before you even think about investing, you need a buﬀer. What will you do when your fridge breaks down? Okay, I admit it: that’s a cliché. Let me give you a better example.

That’s why I put my money in index funds—where you’re essentially investing in a whole group of companies, bonds, etc. Of course, there is still risk involved. But at least I’m saving myself time because I’m no longer trying to “pick stocks,” which is a waste of time.

Let’s say you’ve experienced hardship for the past year or so. A family member passes away. You get ill. And you’re having less fun at your job. Things have been tough. If you have a buﬀer, you can say, “fuck it, let’s go on a holiday.”

If you want to learn more about index funds, I recommend reading The Little Book Of Common Sense Investing by Jack Bogle. I also made a booklist with the best personal ﬁnance books that I’ve read. Once a month, I buy more shares of the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF and that’s it. The cost is low, and the risk is also relatively low (when a company that’s on an index goes bust, it gets replaced by another one).

Money buys freedom. We must be honest about that. However, you don’t need a million bucks to be free. Personally, I like to have €10K on my savings account that I can always access.

I don’t trade ETFs, and I don’t look for other “better” index funds. That’s my whole investing strategy. It can

For the ﬁrst few years of my career, I worked hard and

go up, it can go down, but at least I’m not bothered by it. 4. Diversify Income Let’s be realistic, the return I get from the index funds is NOT income. In fact, I don’t try to make money with investing. “Wait, what?! That doesn’t make sense.” Let me ask you this: What’s the purpose of investing? To me, it’s not about making money. It’s about building wealth. And those two things are very different. I invest for my retirement. That’s about my future. I make money by working today. I do that in different ways. I own a software automation company together with my family, I offer online courses, books, coaching, and I own two properties.

So instead of spending hours trying to diversify your investments, diversify your income.

episode about it if you’re interested in blogging as a career). Do what it takes.

That’s the biggest mistake people make. They rely on one income stream. And even if you have a job, there is no excuse to only rely on your employer for 100% of the money you earn.

Generate cash. Then, invest it in assets. Buy real estate. Rent it out. But don’t take it too lightly.

Think about it. Why does your money come from one stream? Is that your strategy? Why? Forget about active investing and diversiﬁcation—that’s for the delusional or the professional. Generate more money. Sell something online. Rent out your apartment on Airbnb and go live with your parents on those days. Provide value in exchange for money (listen to my podcast

“Yeah, I’m going to buy an apartment right now and immediately rent it out!”If it was so easy, everybody would be rich. The world has changed. Banks don’t lend money easily. You need income. Everybody dreams of having passive income but that’s only the second stage of your ﬁnancial strategy. First, you make money, and then, you invest it. And after that, money itself will take care of the rest.

Hari Sivan Founder & CEO SoCash

Shout for Cash

ow regularly do you wind up in critical need of cash but there’ no ATM near you? Quite a few times perhaps. And the solution, obviously, is to find one. In any case, imagine a scenario where you don’t feel like looking. Then, what’s the solution? You’d say there won’t be any except maybe bank. Perhaps not. Enters SoCash, a Singapore-based startup that wants to enable you to get cash wherever you are. Established in late 2016 as an efficient platform for enabling convenient cash access, SoCash taps into the Singapore’s dependence on cash while making the distribution networks of banks more efficient. And the company is doing it by turning ordinary stores and minimarts into cashpoints. This is as SoCash app allows bank customers to withdraw cash from stores as they would at any normal ATM. While countries around the world seemingly gearing towards electronic payments in lieu of cash, the interesting thing is that the utopian cashless vision never really took off despite the millions of dollars being invested into wallets and other alternatives. Even in Singapore, where FinTech solutions are growing every day, cash is still very relevant. This is as there are 20 million cash withdrawals every month worth SGD5 billion taking place on average, despite the many cashless modes of payment now available. The common problems attributed to cash is not because of its capabilities to transmit value but lies with the inefficiency of the cash supply chain

which is expensive and consists of over-engineered hardware. That is when Hari Sivan, soCash’s founder and CEO realized the need to re-engineer the supply chain; namely by converting everyday marts into cash-processing centers that are connected to soCash’s software network.

Converting everyday marts into cash-processing centers As SoCash’s technology plugs directly into a bank’s APIs, users can place a cash order via the app and choose a nearby merchant to pick cash from.

Following that, the app will deduct the selected amount from the customer’s account. This is all done digitally without the need for a card or even a PIN code. For the service, banks pay SoCash a transaction fee that the company then shares with the merchant – thereby promoting a ﬁnancial inclusion within the valuable cash distribution economy. Furthermore, the installation of SoCash in mini-marts provides a marketing platform for these small shops. More people walk in, increasing their productivity. For the economy, SoCash increases access to cash, which can then be lent out for loans and businesses, increasing productivity. It’s also notable that SoCash screens its merchants carefully via a grading system which is not totally unlike those found on ride-sharing apps. If a user keeps cancelling their pick-up points at certain merchants (for reasons such as crumpled or torn banknotes), the merchant’s ratings will take a hit and SoCash will consider relooking into its partnership with the store.

The journey from scratch to cash Before starting SoCash, Hari was previously a banker at Citibank and HSBC, where he always wondered why mobile wallets and payments never really took oﬀ despite the millions of dollars being invested in them. Growing up in India, Hari was accustomed to seeing scores of people forming long lines at the very few ATMs present within a single area. That was never going to be enough to aptly meet the people’s demand for cash. However, the idea

behind starting SoCash came at around 2016 when Hari saw that digital banking transformation would follow the e-commerce trends where O-2-O platforms are essential for flow of value. However, today, as the CEO of SoCash, Hari feels vindicated as the appetite for cash has never been greater. Even in Singapore, cash circulation has grown to 8.8 percent of the national GDP; a staggering increase since his team developed the initial prototype for soCash. “Still, our journey, thankfully, has not been a solitary one. A significant factor to the success of soCash’s rollout is the support from our banking partners such as DBS and Standard Chartered. They realized that cash will be here to stay and rather than going full-steam towards creating their own cashless ecosystem, they would still need to serve the many customers who need cash in their wallets to make everyday purchases,” he affirms.

Converting stores into cashpoints can translate into more footfall for the merchant In the initial phase of the company, the main challenges for Hari and the team came from the ﬁxed mindsets that banks, individuals and some shops still possess towards conventional cash management and distribution. Certain banks and “ﬁrstgeneration” shops were reluctant to adopt Hari’s idea as they were more comfortable with the traditional ATM structure. Fortunately, perceptions have changed. SoCash’s team dedicated

itself to show how cash is paramount in everyday transactions across the world. For banks, it was to show how this solution can help reduce their cash management infrastructure costs and how converting stores into cashpoints can translate into more footfall for the merchant.

Continue to drive positive change and financial inclusion Although, customers were hesitant with SoCash in the beginning, they (namely the banks SoCash worked with) saw the transformational potential the app can have for their business within the current financial climate. While going cashless is still a priority for them, they nevertheless realize that most of their own customers are still accustomed to cash and that their needs still need to be met. SoCash entered into its first partnerships with DBS and POSB, which could leverage on their large country-wide network to better serve their customers. With the company’s reputation growing, SoCash attracted the interest of Standard Chartered and are now partnering with them to accelerate its ambition of bringing greater ease to cash-dependent societies. Going further, SoCash is focusing on building platforms while connecting banks and retailers for user scenarios that intersect physical cash and electronic payments. As the team led by Hari scales beyond Singapore to larger markets in the ASEAN region, it is becoming clear that they are really driving positive change and financial inclusion.

Libraries Are Not Free, and They’re Worth Every Dollar!

I Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ

t’s tiresome. Every time a public library asks voters for a small tax increase, the anti-tax fundamentalists start hollering. I call them fundamentalists because their opposition to taxes is beyond rational; these are people who oppose any tax, no matter what:

Roads full of potholes? No! no! no! Schools dealing with a huge increase in new residents? No! no! no! Firehouse could use some upgrades? No! no! no! 70-year-old library building needs to be replaced? No! no! no!

They’re the people who will tell you, with a straight face, that they shouldn’t have to cover those things because they don’t drive on those roads, have any children in school, haven’t experienced a ﬁre, and don’t use the library. In fact, they’ll look right back at you and declare that, actually, taxes should be lower. It’s astounding! One has to wonder, when the collection basket comes around at church, do they take money out? I mean, well, they gave 10% of their income two weeks ago, but they missed church last Sunday, so aren’t they entitled to a refund? Plus, the church is raising money to replace the pews and, well, they don’t use all of pews, so why should they pay for their replacement? It’s a legitimate question for anti-taxxers: Support the common good of the congregation or buy a new jacuzzi for the master bedroom?

Oleg Kagan Editor EveryLibrary

Libraries are worth every quarter, too!

But maybe I’m going too far. Household budgets are stretched pretty thin for a lot of people. I can understand that; when I was growing up, the majority of our toys came from Goodwill. My parents worked 12-hour days to keep our family in the basics — we weren’t impoverished, but I look back with amazement at what personal sacriﬁces they made to make ends meet. That said, no matter how little we had, my father dutifully wrote checks when the school booster club asked for funds. And he never complained about paying taxes. Did my parents like taxes? Probably not. But they understood the fundamental idea that it was due to

taxes that our weekly trips to the library, school lunches for me and my brother, medical care for my mother’s aging parents, and a myriad other services, were possible. It’s that simple. So when, in my teens, I began working and I noticed a certain amount of my meager paychecks being put aside for taxes, I didn’t complain either. Do I like taxes? Not particularly. But as my parents, and a great deal of other people in the United States, understand: Our country, individual states, and cities work, in part, because we do our part to support the common good. Taxes are an investment in the whole society, not just the rich or the poor, black or

white, native-born or immigrant, old or young. And libraries are the perfect example of how they are a smart investment. You see, those weekly library trips of my youth were only possible thanks to the generosity of the taxpayers in the City of Los Angeles! Yes, it’s true. Libraries are not free. And yet, unlike so many other ways to spend, it’s pretty much impossible to argue against them from a ﬁnancial perspective. I don’t know exactly what percentage of our parent’s tax payments supported the local library, but I am certain that it cannot possibly

(release date: November 20th, 2017), is currently on sale at Amazon for $18.90. That’s more than two months of library service. You may have to wait for the newest Patterson to come to the library, but you have access to thousands of other thrillers in the meantime. And with so many libraries oﬀering e-books, you don’t even have to leave the house to take advantage of what your taxes buy you.

compare to the cost of the piles of books my brother and I went through every week. Nor is it equivalent to the enriching library programs we attended, lessons in responsibility we learned from having our own library cards, or the ultimate pay-oﬀ: That thanks to the library, we became lifelong learners. Talk about longterm investment. The average household in the United States pays $7.50 per month for their library. Is that a lot? It’s hard to tell. So let’s consider it in comparison with services comparable to what the library oﬀers: Books: The next James Patterson hardcover, The People vs. Alex Cross

Music: A single CD, say Taylor Swift’s Reputation, is $12.97 on Amazon. That’s more than a month of a library where you get tons of CDs at your beck and call. Most people, though, subscribe to streaming music services like Spotify (Premium: $9.99), Tidal (basic Premium: $9.99), or Google Play (individual: $9.99) for their music. That’s fine, many libraries offer streaming music through services like Freegal or Hoopla, complete with smartphone apps. Personally, I love Hoopla and use it all the time. Audiobooks: Individual audiobooks on CD are very expensive (think $50–$60 per book) and a basic Audible subscription is $14.95 a month. Libraries have both physical audiobooks and streaming services like Overdrive, Hoopla, RBDigital, and more! For your information, you don’t have to pay extra for any of those — they’re simply available to you as a taxpayer. Movies: A single feature film DVD is anywhere from $10–20, a basic subscription to Netflix is $7.99/month, Hulu is $7.99/month, and don’t even get me started on the monthly cost of cable or satellite for

your TV. Libraries have DVDs, streaming services like Hoopla, Kanopy, Digitalia, and more. Plus, most have monthly feature-film screenings with discussion. Internet Access: Like with cable/satellite service for TV, this is a sore spot for a lot of people. Most people pay anywhere from $20–$140 per month for internet access. Pretty much every library gives you internet access with a library card. Some don’t even require that. Most households pay for one (or more) of these services every single month. Individually, they cost more than the average month of library service, but if you start adding everything up, it quickly becomes obvious that the price of library service is insignificant compared to what most households spend on similar services. This is not even taking into account that libraries increase surrounding property values, are good for economic activity, and serve as a source of pride for communities. They are outstanding for educational attainment, often serve as an archive for local heritage, and are open to all. Multiple studies demonstrate that for every one dollar invested in libraries, there is a returnon-investment (ROI) of four or five dollars. Taking into account everything you get from a tax-supported public library, it is completely obvious to everyone (except maybe the antitaxxers) that libraries are a smart investment.

www.zeneďŹ ts.com

Bert Boerman Co-founder & CEO Governance.com

Intercepting Technology & Support

ause for a moment. Furthermore, pose some basic questions you probably don’t consider every day. Why do we innovate? Why do we build companies? Why do we think about making new inventions, products, and solutions, when we could essentially leave things as they are? At first glance, the appropriate responses may appear to be misleadingly simple. For example, a few people want to make money. Others like the thrill of the chase, similar to a type of legalized betting. What’s more, others like the independence, the freedom. Be that as it may, those answers appear to be deficient. In case you’re an entrepreneur, you definitely know there’s more to it. There are significantly simpler approaches to make money. There are significantly less demanding approaches to get a thrill. And, there are considerably easier approaches to feel independent. Thus, we innovate and build organizations for reasons that are more profound. To contribute our share in making the world a better place. One such company that is contributing its share to the market is Governance.com, which originated from a personal frustration. As a former banker in charge of Alternative funds oversight, Bert Boerman needed an efficient system to connect data and control workflows. A fitting

solution did not exist on the market, so he decided to build it along with his twin brother Rob. Bert’s ﬁrst aim was to provide a solution for fund governance, but today, Governance.com has moved well beyond that. Bert proudly says that he has seen the natural evolution of Governance.com into a solution for regulated clients from multiple industries. What Governance.com does for ﬁnancial institutions applies equally to corporations, ONGs, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, oil companies and other companies dealing with regulatory control.

Connecting data and documentation in a simple and smart way Governance.com is an instantly deployable platform with the expertise and technology needed to organize and structure any data, documents and controls. At the core of the platform sits a technology solution that connects data and documentation from across the organization in a simple and smart way, and that can be deployed onpremise or in any cloud solution. As a result, Governance.com’s clients have instant access to all information and processes instantly. The team at Governance believes it is very important to generate a return of investment of 300 to 600% for their clients. The company was founded in 2011 by the twin brothers, initially as a custom software development business. In 2014 the bothers decided change the direction of the company and start building Governance.com. Bert quit his job as a banker and joined the company full time. Today, the team of Governance.com consists of 22 talented people and is constantly growing. The company’s culture is based on excellence, dedication and passion. And Bert doesn’t hesitate to attribute company’s current success to perfect complementarity of the founders and the superb alchemy within the company’s teams.

Solid motivation and dedication to your idea is vital! Bert says launching a company

from scratch is much harder than what you might think, so you must have a solid motivation and dedication to your project. His motivation was to create a sustainable, flexible, highperforming and user-friendly system to simplify the regulatory burden and costs for his clients. The hard things was that when Governance.com launched in 2014, nobody was looking at this yet, and RegTech wasn’t even a thing yet. But the regulatory burden already existed. As a reader, you’ll be surprised to know that Regulation and Compliance yearly spending exceeds 220 BN USD worldwide? Thus, bringing a quick to implement and cost-effective solution to this issue was a key aim for Governance.com! Governance.com was started with investment funds because that’s where the brothers saw the biggest need for innovation. It’s all spreadsheets. They typically have little technology in place even though there’s an enormous amount of regulation pushing on them. “What we’ve found is that if you want to take people from the Stone Age to something organized, just offering technology is not enough. You also need to provide the regulatory expertise, which is what we have built with our partner network. You can throw technology at a complex problem, but if you don’t have the right processes in place then it’s not going to work. The same is true in reverse,” Bert affirms.

A fully customizable and flexible architecture “We believe each company has a unique way to manage its business. This is why, Governance.com adapts to our clients’ structure and processes thanks to a fully customizable and flexible architecture. Instead of imposing a rigid structure and way of working, we adapt the system to each our clients’ specific needs,” he further adds. Bert also believes the main challenges in the industry are the heavy procurement and lengthy adoption process of financial institutions for Regtech solutions. “We understand however that this is part of their risk management culture as they need to select superior and secure solutions for their organisation. This is why we focus on showing the concrete utility and added-value of our platform quickly,” Bert shares. As a technology company, Governance.com strives to continuously enhance its platform with additional features. Some of their latest developments are Visual workflows & process management and an interactive Meeting management module. Governance.com’s Roadmap is full of exciting new solutions, based on the evolving needs of its clients and the industry. Stay tuned!

Simon Greenman Founder & Partner Best Practice AI

Who Is Going To Make Money In AI?

e are in the midst of a gold rush in AI. But who will reap the economic beneﬁts? The mass of startups who are all gold panning? The corporates who have massive gold mining operations? The technology giants who are supplying the picks and shovels? And which nations have the richest seams of gold?

Welcome to the AI gold rush! We are currently experiencing another gold rush in AI. Billions are being invested in AI startups across every imaginable industry and business function. Google, Amazon, Microsoft and IBM are in a heavyweight ﬁght investing over $20 billion in AI in 2016. Corporates are scrambling to ensure they realise the productivity beneﬁts of AI ahead of their competitors while looking over their shoulders at the startups. China is putting its considerable weight behind AI and the European Union is talking about a $22 billion AI investment as it fears losing ground to China and the US. AI is everywhere. From the 3.5 billion daily searches on Google to the new Apple iPhone X that uses facial recognition to Amazon Alexa that cutely answers our questions. Media headlines tout the stories of how AI is helping doctors diagnose diseases, banks better assess customer loan risks, farmers predict crop yields, marketers target and retain customers, and manufacturers improve quality control. And there are think tanks dedicated to studying the physical, cyber and political risks of AI.

This is an example of an AI value chain. The companies noted are representative of larger players in each category but in no way is this list intended to be comprehensive or predictive. © Best Practice AI Ltd. 1. Who’s got the best AI chips and hardware? Even though the price of computational power has fallen exponentially, demand is rising even faster. AI and machine learning with its massive datasets and its trillions of vector and matrix calculations has a ferocious and insatiable appetite. Bring on the chips.

So who will make the money in AI?

NVIDIA’s stock is up 1500% in the past two years benefiting from the fact that their graphical processing unit (GPU) chips that were historically used to render beautiful high speed flowing games graphics were perfect for machine learning. Google recently launched its second generation of Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). And Microsoft is building its own Brainwave AI machine learning chips. At the same time startups such as Graphcore, who has raised over $110M, is looking to enter the market. Incumbents chip providers such as IBM, Intel, Qualcomm and AMD are not standing still. Even Facebook is rumoured to be building a team to design its own AI chips. And the Chinese are emerging as serious chip players with Cambricon Technology announcing the first cloud AI chip this past week.

AI and machine learning will become ubiquitous and woven into the fabricof society. But as with any gold rush the question is who will ﬁnd gold? Will it just be the brave, the few and the large? Or can the snappy upstarts grab their nuggets? Will those providing the picks and shovel make most of the money? And who will hit pay dirt? So where is the value being created with AI? As I started thinking about who was going to make money in AI I ended up with seven questions. Who will make money across the (1) chip makers, (2) platform and infrastructure providers, (3) enabling models and algorithm providers, (4) enterprise solution providers, (5) industry vertical solution providers, (6) corporate users of AI and (7) nations? While there are many ways to skin the cat of the AI landscape, hopefully below provides a useful explanatory framework — a value chain of sorts. The companies noted are representative of larger players in each category but in no way is this list intended to be comprehensive or predictive.

Who made the money? Levi Strauss and Samuel Brannan didn’t mine for gold themselves but instead made a fortune selling supplies to miners — wheelbarrows, tents, jeans, picks and shovels, etc. Large cloud players are racing to ensure they are positioned for the massive demand that will be driven by AI.

What is clear is that the cost of designing and manufacturing chips then sustaining a position as a global chip leader is very high. It requires extremely deep pockets and a world class team of silicon and software engineers. This means that there will be very few new winners. Just like the gold rush days those that provide the cheapest and most widely used picks and shovels will make a lot of money.

Amazon — Microsoft — Google and IBM are going to continue to duke this one out. And watch out for the massively scaled cloud players from China. The big picks and shovels guys will win again. 3. Who’s got the best enabling algorithms? Today Google is the world’s largest AI company attracting the best AI minds, spending small country size GDP budgets on R&D, and sitting on the best datasets gleamed from the billions of users of their services. AI is powering Google’s search, autonomous vehicles, speech recognition, intelligent reasoning, massive search and even its own work on drug discovery and disease diangosis.

2. Who’s got the best infrastructure and platform clouds for AI? The AI race is now also taking place in the cloud. Amazon realised early that startups would much rather rent computers and software than buy it. And so it launched Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2006. Today AI is demanding so much compute power that companies are increasingly turning to the cloud to rent hardware through Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) oﬀerings.

And the incredible AI machine learning software and algorithms that are powering all of Google’s AI activity — TensorFlow — is now being given away for free. Yes for free! TensorFlow is now an open source software project available to the world. And why are they doing this? As Jeff Dean, head of Google Brain, recently said there are 20 million organisations in the world that could benefit from machine learning today. If millions of companies use this best in class free AI software then they are likely to need lots of computing power. And who is better served to offer that? Well Google Cloud is of course optimised for TensorFlow and related AI services. And once you become reliant on their software and their cloud you become a very sticky customer for many years to come. No wonder it is a brutal race for global AI algorithm dominance with Amazon — Microsoft — IBM also offering their own cheap or free AI software services. We are also seeing a fight for not only machine learning algorithms but cognitive algorithms that offer services for conversational agents and bots, speech, natural language processing (NLP) and semantics, vision, and enhanced core algorithms. One startup in this increasingly contested space is Clarifai who provides advanced image recognition systems for businesses to detect near-duplicates and visual searches. It has raised nearly $40M over the past three years. The market for vision related algorithms and services is estimated to be a cumulative $8 billion in revenue between 2016 and 2025.

Amazon is the leader in cloud services but hot on their tales are Microsoft, IBM, Google and Alibaba. The fight is on among the tech giants. Microsoft is offering their hybrid public and private Azure cloud service that allegedly has over one million computers. And in the past few weeks they announced that their Brainwave hardware solutionsdramatically accelerate machine learning with their own Bing search engine performance improving by a factor of ten. Google is rushing to play catchup with its own GoogleCloud offering. And we are seeing the Chinese Alibaba starting to take global share.

The race is on for the deep learning and cognitive algorithms that will enable and power applied AI solutions.

powered companies just in the recruitment space, many of them AI startups. Cybersecurity leader DarkTrace and RPA leader UiPathhave war chests in the $100 millions. The incumbents also want to make sure their ecosystems stay on the forefront and are investing in startups that enhance their offering. Salesforce has invested in Digital Genius a customer management solution and similarly Unbable that offers enterprise translation services. Incumbents also often have more pressing problems. SAP, for example, is rushing to play catchup in offering a cloud solution, let alone catchup in AI. We are also seeing tools providers trying to simplify the tasks required to create, deploy and manage AI services in the enterprise. Machine learning training, for example, is a messy business where 80% of time can be spent on data wrangling. And an inordinate amount of time is spent on testing and tuning of what is called hyperparameters. Petuum, a tools provider based in Pittsburgh in the US, has raised over $100M to help accelerate and optimise the deployment of machine learning models.

The giants are not standing still. IBM, for example, is offering its Watson cognitive products and services. They have twenty or so APIs for chatbots, vision, speech, language, knowledge management and empathy that can be simply be plugged into corporate software to create AI enabled applications. Cognitive APIs are everywhere. KDnuggets lists here over 50 of the top cognitive services from the giants and startups. These services are being put into the cloud as AI as a Service (AIaaS) to make them more accessible. Just recently Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella claimed that a million developers are using their AI APIs, services and tools for building AI-powered apps and nearly 300,000 developers are using their tools for chatbots. I wouldn’t want to be a startup competing with these Goliaths. The winners in this space are likely to favour the heavyweights again. They can hire the best research and engineering talent, spend the most money, and have access to the largest datasets. To flourish startups are going to have to be really well funded, supported by leading researchers with a whole battery of IP patents and published papers, deep domain expertise, and have access to quality datasets. And they should have excellent navigational skills to sail ahead of the giants or sail different races. There will many startup casualties, but those that can scale will find themselves as global enterprises or quickly acquired by the heavyweights. And even if a startup has not found a path to commercialisation, then they could become acquihires (companies bought for their talent) if they are working on enabling AI algorithms with a strong research oriented team. We saw this in 2014 when DeepMind, a two year old London based company that developed unique reinforcement machine learning algorithms, was acquired by Google for $400M.

Enterprise AI solutions will drive improved customer service and productivity. Many of these enterprise startup providers can have a healthy future if they quickly demonstrate that they are solving and scaling solutions to meet real world enterprise needs. But as always happens in software gold rushes there will be a handful of winners in each category. And for those AI enterprise category winners they are likely to be snapped up, along with the best in-class tool providers, by the giants if they look too threatening. 5. Who’s got the best vertical solutions? AI is driving a race for the best vertical industry solutions. There are a wealth of new AI powered startups providing solutions to corporate use cases in the healthcare, ﬁnancial services, agriculture, automative, legal and industrial sectors. And many startups are taking the ambitious path to disrupt the incumbent corporate players by oﬀering a service directly to the same customers.

4. Who has the best enterprise solutions? Enterprise software has been dominated by giants such as Salesforce, IBM, Oracle and SAP. They all recognise that AI is a tool that needs to be integrated into their enterprise oﬀerings. But many startups are rushing to become the next generation of enterprise services ﬁlling in gaps where the incumbents don’t currently tread or even attempting to disrupt them.

New industry AI solutions will either power or disrupt organisations.

We analysed over two hundred use cases in the enterprise space ranging from customer management to marketing to cybersecurity to intelligence to HR to the hot area of Cognitive Robotic Process Automation (RPA). The enterprise ﬁeld is much more open than previous spaces with a veritable medley of startups providing point solutions for these use cases. Today there are over 200 AI

It is clear that many startups are providing valuable point solutions and can succeed if they have access to (1) large and proprietary data training sets, (2) domain knowledge that gives them deep insights into the opportunities within a

sector, (3) a deep pool of talent around applied AI and (4) deep pockets of capital to fund rapid growth. Those startups that are doing well generally speak the corporate commercial language of customers, business efficiency and ROI in the form of well developed go-to-market plans. For example, ZestFinance has raised nearly $300M to help improve credit decision making that will provide fair and transparent credit to everyone. They claim they have the world’s best data scientists. But they would, wouldn’t they? For those startups that are looking to disrupt existing corporate players they need really deep pockets. For example, Affirm, that offers loans to consumers at the point of sale, has raised over $700M. These companies quickly need to create a defensible moat to ensure they remain competitive. This can come from data network effects where more data begets better AI based services and products that gets more revenue and customers that gets more data. And so the flywheel effect continues.

prices, drive revenues and sell better products and services powered by AI. AI will help the big get bigger often at the expense of smaller companies. But they will need to demonstrate strong visionary leadership, an ability to execute, and a tolerance for not always getting technology enabled projects right on the ﬁrst try. 7. Which countries will see the most beneﬁts from AI? Countries are also also in a battle for AI supremacy. China has not been shy about its call to arms around AI. It is investing massively in growing technical talent and developing startups. Its more lax regulatory environment, especially in data privacy, helps China lead in AI sectors such as security and facial recognition. Just recently there was an example of Chinese police picking out one most wanted face in a crowd of 50,000 at a music concert. And SenseTime Group Ltd, that analyses faces and images on a massive scale, reported it raised $600M becoming the most valuable global AI startup. The Chinese point out that their mobile market is 3x the size of the US and there are 50x more mobile payments taking place — this is a massive data advantage. The European focus on data privacy regulation could put them at a disadvantage in certain areas of AI even if the Union is talking about a $22B investment in AI.

6. Which corporates will capture the value of AI? And while corporates might look to new vendors in their industry for AI solutions that could enhance their top and bottom line, they are not going to sit back and let upstarts muscle in on their customers. And they are not going to sit still and let their corporate competitors gain the ﬁrst advantage through AI. There is currently a massive race for corporate innovation. Large companies have their own venture groups investing in startups, running accelerators and building their own startups to ensure that they are leaders in AI driven innovation.

Will this be the sovereign winners in AI? China? US? Japan? Germany? UK? France? The UK, Germany, France and Japan have all made recent announcements about their nation state AI strategies. For example, President Macron said the French government will spend $1.85 billion over the next ﬁve years to support the AI ecosystem including the creation of large public datasets. Companies such as Google’s DeepMind and Samsung have committed to open new Paris labs and Fujitsu is expanding its Paris research centre. The British just announced a $1.4 billion push into AI including funding of 1000 AI PhDs. But while nations are investing in AI talent and the ecosystem, the question is who will really capture the value. Will France and the UK simply be subsidising PhDs who will be hired by Google? And while payroll and income taxes will be healthy on those six ﬁgure machine learning salaries, the bulk of the economic value created could be with this American company, its shareholders, and the smiling American Treasury.

Corporates are well positioned to capture value from AI in the form of enhanced customer service, increase productivity and improved products and services. Large corporates are in a strong position against the startups and smaller companies due to their data assets. Data is the fuel for AI and machine learning. Who is better placed to take advantage of AI than the insurance company that has reams of historic data on underwriting claims? The ﬁnancial services company that knows everything about consumer ﬁnancial product buying behaviour? Or the search company that sees more user searches for information than any other? Corporates large and small are well positioned to extract value from AI. In fact Gartner research predicts AI-derived business value is projected to reach up to $3.9 trillion by 2022. There are hundreds if not thousands of valuable use cases that AI can addresses across organisations. Corporates can improve their customer experience, save costs, lower

AI will increase productivity and wealth in companies and countries. But how will that wealth be distributed when the headlines suggest that 30 to 40% of our jobs will be taken by the machines? Economists can point to lessons

from hundreds of years of increasing technology automation. Will there be net job creation or net job loss? The public debate often cites Geoffrey Hinton, the godfather of machine learning, who suggested radiologists will lose their jobs by the dozen as machines diagnose diseases from medical images. But then we can look to the Chinese who are using AI to assist radiologists in managing the overwhelming demand to review 1.4 billion CT scans annually for lung cancer. The result is not job losses but an expanded market with more efficient and accurate diagnosis. However there is likely to be a period of upheaval when much of the value will go to those few companies and countries that control AI technology and data. And lower skilled countries whose wealth depends on jobs that are targets of AI automation will likely suffer. AI will favour the large and the technologically skilled.

algorithms than Amazon. Ÿ

So what does this all mean? In examining the landscape of AI it has became clear that we are now entering a truly golden era for AI. And there are few key themes appearing as to where the economic value will migrate: Ÿ Ÿ

The global technology giants are the picks and shovels of this gold rush — powering AI for whoever whats to rush in. Google-AmazonMicrosoft and IBM are in arms race for leadership in AI. They are slugging it out to oﬀer the best chips, cloud and AI algorithms and services. And coming up behind are the Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Baidu. Few startups are going to outspend, outsmart or oﬀer low prices that Microsoft on what is increasingly commodity cloud computing or build a better AI chip than Google’s Tensor Processing Unit or build better object recognition cognitive

AI startups are flocking to offer cognitive algorithms, enterprise solutions and deep industry vertical solutions. To prosper startups will need to have access to unique data sets, deep domain knowledge, deep pockets and an ability to attract and retain the increasingly in-demand AI talent. This is not a case of an app in a garage will change the world. AI startup winners will be those that solve valuable real-world problems, scale their go-to-market quickly and build defensible positions. Startups should focus on enterprise and industry solutions where there are many high value use cases to be tackled. However startup acquihires in the algorithmic space will be somewhat common, for at least the next few years, as the talent war continues. There will be many startup casualties along the way with a handful of winners in each category as is true in any gold rush. And those winners are likely to find themselves being offered tantalising cheques by the giants. Corporates are well positioned to extract substantial, some say in the trillions of dollars, of value from AI. AI will increasingly drive an enhanced customer experience, help drive productivity and cost reduction through the assistance and automation major businesses processes, and improve the competitiveness of product and service offerings. Most value will be obtained from those companies who have scale — the best and biggest datasets, the most customers and the largest distribution. The bigger will likely get bigger. But this will only happen if the corporates demonstrate strong leadership and

execute with a nimbleness that has not typically been their calling card. The corporates that are leading in AI execution are once again the tech giants in Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon who are oﬀering AI powered products and services that are reaching global audiences in the billions. And corporates in industries ranging from retail to healthcare to media are running scared as the tech giants use AI to enter and disrupt new sectors. Ÿ

Nation states are also in an AI race. China has not been shy about its intent to be a world leader in AI by 2030. It believes that it has structural advantages. While many European countries are touting their government backed commitments to AI the risk is that they are simply going to subsidise talent for the global AI giants and accelerate the wealth of other sovereign nations. And will strong data privacy regulations hurt European countries innovate in AI? The wealth from AI is likely to go to those countries and companies who control and leverage the leading AI technology and data — think US and China. And those without will likely be challenged as automation encroaches on increasingly lower paid jobs.

In short it looks like the AI gold rush will favour the companies and countries with control and scale over the best AI tools and technology, the data, the best technical workers, the most customers and the strongest access to capital. Those with scale will capture the lion’s share of the economic value from AI. In some ways ‘plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.’ But there will also be large golden nuggets that will be found by a few choice brave startups. But like any

gold rush many startups will hit pay dirt. And many individuals and societies will likely feel like they have not seen the benefits of the gold rush. This is the first part in a series of articles I intend to write on the topic of the economics of AI. I welcome your feedback. About the Author Simon Greenman has over twenty years of leading digital transformations through technology, data science and AI. He is cofounder and partner in Best Practice AI, a London based AI executive advisory with a leading library of AI use cases and case studies. Earlier in his career Simon was a co-founder of MapQuest.com, one of the first internet brands. He has over ten year as Chief Digital Officer leading transformations of media companies for private equity. He has also consulted or worked for HomeAdvisor Europe, AOL, Bowers & Wilkins, and Accenture. Simon is highly active in the AI startup community. He is AI Entrepreneur in Resident at Seedcamp, Co-President of the Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of London, and an advisor and former venture partner at DN Capital. He holds a MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BA in Computing & Artificial Intelligence from the University of Sussex.

In Conversation with the Newsmaker 60

Zeid Husban Founder POSRocket

OSRocket is an intuitive, reliable, cloud-based, point-of-sale (POS) platform with a customizable interface, which empowers merchants and allows them to run smarter businesses by seamlessly monitoring and optimizing operations – from staffing to inventory regulation to sales reporting – in real time from any device. Within two years, POSRocket has secured more than 350+ clients from various industries. Beyond Exclamation recently had the pleasure to be “In Conversation” with Zeid Husban, Founder of POSRocket, in which, he took us on the journey of POSRocket and beyond. What seeded the vision to start an intuitive, secure, cloud-based point-of-sale system? Tell us the story behind the foundation of POSRocket. Also mention, how did you and Zaid come across to found POSRocket? Zeid: I knew I was going to exit my previous company ifood late 2015, with 8 months to handover the company to the new owners. Therefore, I started thinking on what I could do next. I wanted to stay in the same field - technology - and by working in the same sector (F&B) for almost 5 years, I had good connections and I wanted to leverage my network. I looked at the POS industry in Jordan and the region, which was definitely outdated. Compared to the cloud technology in the POS industry in the States and Europe, where it has been there for the past 8-9 years, it is

gaining huge market share due to its flexibility. Then, I started researching the space and I read a lot of articles. I even flew to Cairo for 1 week to scout the market and talk to business owners over there. I chose Egypt because there is a huge market cap and very controlled risk due to the low salary scheme over there. Finally, I partnered up with a technical accelerator here in Jordan and we hired the first three engineers to start developing the product. So, we wrote the first line of code in April 2016 while I was still at ifood handing over the company. We had our first MVP installed in June at a restaurant in Amman. Then we tested the product for 2 months and my last day at ifood, which was July 31st, was also my first day at POSRocket. I had the office and team ready, and less than a month later, we had our first paying client. Then, we opened our offices in Egypt in December 2016 and we have been expanding since then. Right now, we have more than 350 clients so far, processed over $17 million in sales and more than 700m transactions. How did your Electronics and Communications Engineering degree and past experience in founding an online food ordering company help you grow POSRocket? Tell us how your journey was before and after POSRocket. Zeid: Being an engineer always help you be analytical and it is all about problem solving, having a startup

you face a new challenge every single day. Also in my previous startup, I worked with restaurants for almost 5 years and we really helped them generate extra revenues by bringing new business and orders. So, we built this trust between us and our clients. This really helped me with my current startup as I am leveraging this great network. I have

learnt a lot from my ﬁrst start up, which really accelerated the growth of my second start up. We would like to know more about the team and building-blocks of POSRocket. Zeid: We call our team members astronauts. We started POSrocket

with only 3 engineers and the team grew to become 37 astronauts. We all have one mission and we call our office home, as we spend more time in the offices than we spend in our actual homes. How exactly does POSRocket cater the clients? Tell us about your PoS services and their benefits?

Zeid: Traditional cash registers are a thing of the past. POSRocket modernizes this near-obsolete system by providing business owners with an intuitive, user-friendly, cloudbased point-of-sale (POS) platform. The customizable interface allows merchants to run smarter businesses by seamlessly monitoring and optimizing operations – from staﬃng

to inventory regulation to sales reporting – in real time from any device. The much needed technology has seen significant traction in the MENA region, launching offices in both Jordan and Egypt. In merely 18 months, POSRocket secured 350 clients from various industries. What makes your customer stick to you? How is POSRocket different from its competitors? Zeid: POSRocket differentiates itself in MENA’s increasingly competitive POS market as highly a flexible one-stop shop solution. Purchasing the POSRocket hardware pack, includes iPad, printer, and cash drawer – and one of the three available subscriptions: basic (sales, inventory, basic data reports), Pro (customer profiling, mini CRM, HR solution), or Enterprise (advanced features for larger clients with multiple branches). Clients can track and access their data anytime and anywhere. Through 3rd party API integrations, such as booking applications, the platform can be customized and adapted to better serve different business segments. PocketRocket, the company’s promotions feature, evaluates sales data and recommends and advertises deals for clients to capitalize on low sales periods, increasing sales up to 5%. POSRocket will also allow clients to process PocketRocket orders as well as sell online through its own ecommerce platform, CommerceRocket, for a small commission fee. What can be expected from POSRocket in upcoming years? Zeid: POSRocket’s vision is to become the no.1 point-of-sale solution in the MENA region with its solid core product – POSRocket – and develop an ecosystem with a public API that enhances this solution. Bolstering current functionalities with updates like customer profiling, a mini-CRM system, and advanced inventory features will allow POSRocket to target larger, well-established businesses, multiplying and diversifying its client base. We aim to grow our portfolio to 6,000-7,000 clients and add new markets– within the next five years. Preparing POSRocket for rapid expansion, we intend to digitize the still face-to-face onboarding process. Meet the Newsmaker Zeid Husban is the Co- Founder & Chief Executive Astronaut of POSRocket. Zeid obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the UK in 2008. He then moved back to Jordan and co-founded ifood.jo, an online food ordering platform. ifood.jo attracted the eyes of investors from abroad and in 2013, the company sold a majority stake to the Turkish food ordering company Yemeksipeti. Zeid sold the rest of his shares in ifood.jo in 2016 after a successful acquisition by the global giants “Delivery Hero”. Now with POSRocket, he is hoping to revolutionize the point-of-sale industry in the region.

Thomas Pays Co-founder & CEO i-Pay

Automating Funds Securely

NP fraud is as of now the biggest form of card misrepresentation in South Africa. As indicated by The South African Banking Risk Information Center (SABRIC), CNP fraud represents 66.8% of all fraud cases tracked by them. CNP fraud happens when an illegal exchange happens on the web, without the utilization of a physical card and without the authorization of the card holder. This sort of extortion generally happens through the purchase of products online. Fraudsters gain access to important card related details by means of phishing, malware and breaches of data inside systems that don’t make utilization of 3D-secure. Thus, there are heaps of people who are endeavoring to veer far from credit and would rather bargain in cash, and frequently, the comfort of online shopping turns into a genuine drag when you’re attempting to pay by means of EFT. Enters i-Pay, a startup, which is attempting to change all that by making it simpler and more secure to pay by means of EFT when shopping online. So, what is i-Pay, you ask? i-Pay is a fantastic payment gateway that allows online payments over a variety of channels (like email, SMS, push payments, and QR code) and multiple devices. And because of this versatility, i-Pay is hugely beneﬁcial to both merchants as well as buyers.

i-Pay is the brainchild of the 3 founders - Mitchan Adams, Lyle Eckstein and Thomas Pays. The founders noted a gap in the payments industry that they could solve with their combined institutional knowledge. South Africa has a staggeringly high number of bank accounts – namely 49 million bank account holders, with only 13 million credit card holders. As such, there was a market opportunity to create a simple and eﬃcient bank to bank

payment option that would allow the myriad of bank account holders to transact in a safer and more secure way. And thus, i-Pay was born.

Frictionless payment service at its best! Any disruption needs to gain mass adoption, which is only accomplished through educating the applicable consumer and merchant base. The value of 15 years of experience in scaling various digital businesses has been evident – it has taught i-Pay management how to effectively market an innovative product to millions of people in a costeffective manner, while still achieving a great return on investment. Today, i-Pay allows any merchant to register an account and start accepting payments within one day. As for the clients of the company’s merchants, they do not need to effect any registration or software download to use i-Pay. Consumers simply authenticate their transaction on i-Pay using their online banking credentials and within 10 seconds they are able to initiate a payment without having to manually capture any banking details. The i-Pay payment service is thus frictionless and admin-free – cutting down the normal cumbersome manual bank to bank payment process from 2 minutes to below 10 seconds by simply using i-Pay.

A hunger for innovation is the soul of entrepreneurship. While the African entrepreneurial terrain is intensely risky – if navigated carefully, it will yield abundant successes. The greatest stumbling block is ensuring adequate support from an investment perspective. If an entrepreneur is not able to secure funding from strategic investors, the entrepreneur journey will be a difficult and lonely one. Fortunately, Thomas has had the benefit of over 15 years of experience in knowledge building, networking and scaling various digital businesses. As such, each entrepreneurial effort on his part has grown and benefited from his increasing experience, strategic network and continued creative growth. A good entrepreneur is like an artist, the more experience he gets, the better he becomes at shaping and creating, and i-Pay is the culmination of years of creative shaping and growing.

Simplicity is the key to success! Within just a short span of time, iPay has partnered with some of the biggest players in several sectors, including instant payment services, accounting software, and point-ofsale systems for large retailers. But the one thing that has kept customers stick to them is i-Pay’s simplicity. The i-Pay business is able to retain clients by providing the best payment solution that removes friction, saves clients time

and allows such clients to transact online at a lower cost than other payment services. Moreover, Thomas considers Apple as a great analogy for the future of i-Pay. Because in less than 4 years, i-Pay has only achieved about 1% of what it would want to accomplish as there are many innovative ideas that are being geared to be launched. Similar to the constant innovation that is released from Apple, be it the iPad or constant upgrades to the iPhone, i-Pay will be constantly transforming its payment services. Stay tuned and follow i-Pay on its social media pages to remain up to date with the growth!

Meet a serial entrepreneur Ffrom humble beginnings, Thomas Pays has used his limitless hunger for success and his impressive business acumen to become one of South Africa’s biggest digital players today. With an impressive résumé of past successes to his name, he spends his days as CEO of i-Pay Payment Solutions, an innovative instant EFT start-up which continues to gain momentum throughout Africa. Just Perfect Digital–a fast growing digital marketing agency, in Johannesburg–was one of his previously owned companies which grew under his leadership. Insisting that Africa remains an untouched land of opportunity for ecommerce, he is showing no signs of slowing down in the near future.

Which Type of Mortgage Should I Choose?

Christophe Bassett Marketing Associate RWMI

inancing details are for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon by you. Rates, program terms, fees, and conditions are subject to change without notice. Not all products are available in all states for all amounts. All mortgage applications are subject to underwriting guidelines and approval. This is not an oﬀer of credit or a commitment to lend. Residential Wholesale Mortgage, Inc., dba RWM Home Loans is licensed by the CA Department of Real Estate #01174642 and Department of Business Oversight under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act. NMLS# 79445

The home loan options and details discussed in this article will help you understand some of the most common options available to borrowers. Researching which option works best for you is a great idea, and we are always available to help. Read below for a run down on Fixed-Rate Mortgages, Adjustable-Rate Mortgages (ARM), FHA Loans, VA Loans, and Jumbo Loans. Fixed-Rate Mortgages

When choosing a home loan, you have many options available to you. How do you know which one to choose? The short answer is that it depends on each individual’s circumstances because each option is designed to serve a speciﬁc purpose. Also, some of these home loan options may have less strict qualiﬁcation guidelines.

We will get started with the classic loan option: the ﬁxed-rate mortgage. It is fairly straight-forward: the rate

does not change throughout the entire lifetime of the loan (unless you are able to refinance in the future for a better rate). The most common terms for fixed-rate mortgages are 15 and 30 years, but there are also 25-year, 20-year, and 10-year fixed-rate options available. The number associated with the fixed-rate product is the number of years it will take to pay off the entire loan balance. Choosing a longer term will grant you lower monthly payments, but over the life of that loan you may end up paying more interest compared to other fixed-rate mortgages. When you choose a fixed-rate mortgage with the shorter loan term, your monthly payments will be higher since you will paying off the loan sooner. The benefit to a shorter fixed-rate term is the possibility of a more competitive interest rate. Don’t forget, you always have the option of paying a little extra each month to pay off the loan sooner at your own pace.

Adjustable-Rate Mortgages do have a fixed component which makes them attractive to many homeowners. You may have heard about various options such as the 3/1 ARM, 5/1 ARM, 7/1 ARM, or 10/1 ARM. The fixed-rate component is associated with the first number shown in the loan product. For example, a 5/1 ARM will have a fixed rate for the first five years followed by an annual adjustment until the loan is paid off. What about when rates continue to rise, will my adjusted-rates leave me with a sky-high mortgage payment? Luckily for you, the answer is no. There are rate caps in place that limit how quickly the adjustablerate can change. Adjustment caps come in two forms: the Initial Adjustment Cap and the Lifetime Adjustment Cap. The initial adjustment cap sets the amount that the rate can change on the first adjustment and is commonly set to about 2 percent. The lifetime adjustment cap sets the amount that the rate can change over the whole time period of the loan, and is commonly set at 5 percent but this may also vary.

When is it important to consider a Fixed-Rate Mortgage? Fixed-rate mortgages are often used by people who: Ÿ Value steady and predictable monthly payments Ÿ Would like to lock into a speciﬁc interest rate until the loan is paid in full Ÿ Plan on owning their home for an extended period of time

You may ﬁnd these adjustment caps and how much your highest possible payment would be directly from your lender. More information can be obtained by viewing your Loan Estimate paperwork provided to you by your lender after applying for the loan.

Adjustable-Rate Mortgages (ARM) When is it important to consider an Adjustable-Rate Mortgage? Adjustable-rate mortgages are often used by people who: Ÿ Anticipate declining interest rates Ÿ Want to live in their home for a short period of time Ÿ Expect to pay oﬀ their mortgage at a faster pace FHA Loans

The converse of the fixed-rate mortgage is an Adjustable-Rate Mortgage (ARM), also known as a variable-rate mortgage. For Adjustable-Rate mortgages, the interest rate may change periodically to reflect current financial market rates and may go up or down depending on the current market. The initial loan interest rate is typically more competitive than a fixed-rate mortgage. Because these typically have a more competitive rate, monthly payments may also be lower.

FHA Loans are backed by the Federal Housing Authority and tend to have have less rigid requirements than

conventional loan options. For example, consumers with past late credit payments negatively aﬀecting their score may still be able to qualify for an FHA loan. The FHA also requires that the property has to be owner-occupied as the owner’s primary residence.

VA Loans For most past and current members of the armed forces, the VA loan option is the ideal choice. The VA loan is actually a VA beneﬁt available to active duty military who have been serving for more than 6 months, veterans, retired military, Coast Guard, and reservists/National Guard service members with 6 years or more of service. Spouses of service members who have passed away in or as a result of injuries sustained in the line of duty are also eligible.

This program is a common choice for First Time Home Buyers since FHA loans will allow for 3.5% down payment which may come as a gift from parents. There are some restrictions, however, as loan limits are based on what county the home is located in. For example, a home in San Diego County will have an FHA loan limit of $649,750 dollars for a single family (one unit) home. Other counties, like Fresno, may have 2017 FHA loan limits as low as $294,515 dollars.

The most lucrative part of the VA loan is that there is ZERO (0) down payment required for loans up to $649,750 dollars in San Diego County. VA loans over $1,000,000 are also available, but they require a down payment (contact us for qualiﬁcation and down payment details). There is no Mortgage Insurance requirement for a VA loan, which makes it particularly attractive for ﬁrsttime home buyers who are eligible for the program. These loans often have more competitive rates than other conventional loan options, so make sure to compare both products.

One of the other downsides to an FHA loan option is that a borrower will be required to pay for mortgage insurance. Depending on your loan details and down payment, the FHA Annual Mortgage Insurance Premium may never be removed (unless the loan is paid oﬀ or reﬁnanced). Make sure to ask about this when looking into the FHA loan option.

The only down side to a VA loan is the upfront VA funding fee, which was put in place to help the VA continue with this beneﬁt. Anyone who became disabled during their time on duty may be eligible to have their funding fee waived. Keep in mind that VA loans are only available for a primary home purchase; investment properties or second homes are not eligible. Contact us to receive your Certiﬁcate of Eligibility — we may obtain this for you directly from the VA.

When is it important to consider a FHA loan? FHA loans are often used by people who: Ÿ Need ﬂexibility because of past bankruptcy, foreclosure, or late credit payments Ÿ Would like to purchase a home with a low down payment Ÿ Can not aﬀord a 20% down payment Ÿ Have a debt to income ratio over 45%

been many times that Jumbo interest rates are more competitive than those of conforming loans because of investor demand. Down payments for jumbo loans are typically 20 percent or higher, but some programs will allow 15 percent down or even 10 percent down. Lastly, Jumbo Loans still oﬀer all ﬁxed-rate and adjustable-rate options, as well as some special programs such as Interest Only and Investor Financing.

When is it important to consider a VA loan? VA loans are often used by people who: Ÿ Are eligible for the program Ÿ Would like to buy a home with zero down payment (depending on your county limit) Jumbo Loans

When is it important to consider a Jumbo Loan? Jumbo Loans are often used by people who: Ÿ Need a loan that is over their local conforming loan limit Ÿ Want to buy a high-value home and only put 15 to 20 percent down Ÿ Want to utilize an Interest Only home loan ﬁnanicng Ÿ Need a loan as high as $3,000,000 (loans to $15 Million may be available) So Which Home Loan is the Best Option?

To know whether or not you need a Jumbo Loan, you need to know about conforming loan limits. Conforming loan limits are determined by the Federal Housing Finance Agency based on the national average of home values in the United States. The 2018 conforming loan limit is $453,100 dollars nationwide, but this may change in higher cost areas. For example, the maximum conforming loan limit for San Diego County is $679,650 dollars. Loans between $453,100 and the larger loan limit for higher cost areas are often referred to as “High Balance Conforming Loans”, but what if you need a loan that is even higher than that? That’s where the Jumbo Loan comes in. Jumbo Loans are loans that exceed maximum conforming loan limits, based on your county. The money for these higher loans are provided by private investors, and not by a government-sponsored enterprises such as Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

Your circumstances define when you will be better off with one loan product over the other. In some cases, program guidelines may prevent you from choosing a specific loan, like with Jumbo Loans. Of course, this guide is only the tip of the iceberg, and there are many other loan products available. Get in touch with one of our Loan Officers today to find out which program may be an appropriate option for your needs. If you feel that these programs may not be the best option for your situation, please reach out to us as soon as possible for other special loan program availability.

Jumbo Loans tend to have less ﬁnancing options available and the programs are determined by each private investor who provides the ﬁnancing. Compared to conventional loans, these generally require a better debt to income ratio for qualifying, better credit scores, cash reserves, and more money down. Many people also associate a Jumbo Loan with higher rates, but there have