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Sorbet's creative new approach to refinancing employees' paid time off
Employee burnout is costing companies increasingly significant amounts of money. Unused paid time off ends up taking space on company balance sheets as a liability, in addition to the physiological and psychological impact it has on the employees themselves.
Enter Sorbet, a firm that found a solution to that problem on both sides of the equation. Their solution is to track employees' time off and burnout rates in real-time, giving both employers and employees a better understanding of where they stand. Additionally, their solution includes refinancing employees for their unused vacation time, keeping it from reflecting in the company’s balance sheet as a liability.
In a nutshell, Sorbet is helping employees and employers make the most of PTOs by helping them track burnout and well-being levels.
The Acquire Podcast Ep. 12: How Earnin uses organic community building to grow earned wage access
In episode 12 of Acquire, Tearsheet’s Marketing Podcast, host Rebecca Alma Cohen, Head of Tearsheet Studios, speaks with Brittanie Williams, Earnin’s CMO, to talk about building a strong and truly community-based brand, building with customers for customers, and flipping the script on what comes to mind when we talk about the millions of people who live paycheck to paycheck.
Data Snack: SMBs are growing increasingly resilient against macro headwinds
The US small and medium-sized business sector is showing no signs of slowing – even with inflation, supply chain issues, and a potential recession looming, SMBs are confident they can successfully get through another period of economic difficulty, according to a new Kabbage survey.
The small and medium-sized business sector has grown significantly in the US over the past few years. In 2021, 5.4 million new small businesses entered the market, marking a 53% increase from pre-pandemic levels, according to census data. And just in the first quarter of this year, nearly 1.3 million applications were filed.
This shows that more people are reconsidering their careers and finally taking the leap to own and run their own businesses, according to Brett Sussman, CMO at Kabbage.
Read more (exclusive to Outlier members)
The latest briefing
Bankchain Briefing: What can we learn from the Celsius withdrawal freeze?
The crypto winter keeps getting harsher. Just a month after the Terra stablecoin de-peg sent shock waves throughout the industry, a new crisis has been causing panic in the world of digital assets and keeping investors up at night.
On Sunday, June 12, blockchain-based lending platform Celsius Network announced that it would freeze all withdrawals and transfers of digital assets on its platform due to “extreme market conditions”. The news triggered a steep decline in crypto prices, with the global crypto market cap dropping below $1 trillion for the first time since January 2021.
But what does this event really mean for investors and institutions? What can they learn from it, and how should they navigate these complex market conditions?
Read more (exclusive to Outlier members)
Just look at the charts
1. The hunt for super-apps
2. Payment solutions still hold the lion’s share of fintech built with open banking and open finance
Today's stories
Bankman-Fried's FTX seeking a route to buy Robinhood
Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX crypto exchange is deliberating internally on how to buy the app-based brokerage Robinhood, which hasn’t received a formal takeover approach from FTX and no final decision has been made -- which means FTX could opt against pursuing a deal (Bloomberg)
Robinhood almost cratered during the Gamestop meme madness
According to the House Committee on Financial Services report, Robinhood was blindsided by the surge in interest from the first big “meme stock” after Redditors and other retail investors rallied around $GME and sent its price into the stratosphere, during the frenzy last year -- when Robinhood famously froze trades around GameStop and some adjacent hot stocks (TechCrunch)
The CFPB is promising a "close look" at lending partnerships between banks & nonbanks
Consumer groups pushing for banking regulators to crack down on so-called rent-a-bank lending for personal loans may have found a willing watchdog — as consumer advocacy groups say lenders are wrongly dodging state interest rate caps and offering loans with annual interest rates sometimes exceeding 100% through these partnerships (protocol)
Wise CEO faces investigation for defaulting on his taxes
Kristo Kaarmann, CEO of £3.9 billion ($4.8 billion) fintech firm Wise, is being investigated by U.K. regulators after tax authorities found he failed to pay a tax bill worth over £720,000 -- along with a £365,651 fine by U.K. tax officials (CNBC)
Unicorn startup Amount cuts out 18% of staff
Digital banking technology provider Amount is the latest fintech to trim its workforce, reducing its headcount by 18% -- Amount provides retail lending and point-of-sale technology to clients including Banco Popular, HSBC, Regions Bank, and TD Bank, helping them transition to digital financial services (Finextra)
Four big U.S. banks raise dividends after stress tests
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo hiked their dividends after the U.S. banks cleared their annual stress test exercise last week -- as the Fed said that the biggest lenders in the nation could easily weather a severe economic downturn, clearing the path for them to give extra capital to shareholders (Reuters)
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