Zack Miller’s wake-up call to SMB banking realities on the Gusto Podcast
- It's not often that Tearsheet editor Zack Miller finds himself on the other side of the mic.
- Zack was a guest on Gusto's SMB Tech Innovator Podcast this week speaking about the challenges and opportunities to bank SMBs.
Sometimes Tearsheet founder and editor Zack Miller appears on the other side of the mic. On Gusto’s SMB Tech Innovator’s Podcast this week, he shares insights and personal experiences with host Brian Busch, shedding light on the challenges and opportunities within SMB finance.
Zack dives into complexities of SMB banking, exploring the hurdles small businesses face in the financial ecosystem, and considers the solutions shaping the future of fintech.
“For most institutions, small businesses fall in the Neverland/neither here nor there/Goldilocks category. Big banks service big enterprises and individuals — small businesses are neither. They have different needs than both of those. For the most part, SMBs feel invisible within a large banking institution. And so they supplement that by using apps — I think the average SMB uses six to eight apps or something like that,” he said.
“As an SMB owner, myself, I have different apps for everything. I haven’t found one thing to actually rule the roost. And so that’s a challenge right? That also creates the inertia. For me to be able to move that core banking relationship and the way it’s hooked into the embedded financial ecosystem I built for myself would require ripping a lot of things out and changing all the workflows. That’s a really hard thing to do. I think that creates a lot of grass may be greener — I know there are better opportunities and tools out there for me, but I just I’m going to stick with what I know because like I’m doing all I can to keep my business afloat.”
The big ideas
Tearsheet’s evolution and incumbent innovation focus.
- Traditional finance and fintech partnership necessity
- Tearsheet’s audience-centric business and storytelling model
- Regulatory hurdles for fintech entrepreneurs
- SMB hesitance in changing financial providers
- Embedded tools shaping SMB technology’s future
- Intuit and QuickBooks’ ecosystem success
- How partnership skills with fintech is a differentiator
- Value of experienced managers in fintech
- Zack’s view on AI, quantum computing, and crypto in finance
- Banks adapting to new tech and trends
- The state of fintech acquisitions and market challenges
Go listen to the full episode
iTunes
Spotify
The SMB Tech Innovators Podcast – Powered by Gusto