What are the best resources to learn about fintech?

Fintech is growing quickly. As new technologies, business models, and startups enter the scene, it can get a bit wild keeping up with things. Both new hats and old hats to the space can use some pre-made, piping hot resources that will get you smarter in no time.

The best resources to learn about fintech

Tearsheet's collection of fintech feeds (Feedly) Tearsheet has been tracking fintech since 2009 (not sure it was even called fintech then). To track the trends and the most valuable sources, I've been constantly updating the sites I read daily and pull information from. Instead of making the daily rounds to visit 102 valuable fintech sites, I use feedly as my feed reader to pull articles. This collection of feeds, entitled Finance 2.0, is my collection (and what Tearsheet's correspondents use, as well) of websites that provide valuable coverage of financial technology. Use it wisely, my child. The Periodic Table of Fintech (CB Insights) [caption id="attachment_8006" align="aligncenter" width="648"] CB Insight's Periodic Table of Fin Tech[/caption] If Lumascapes made sector landscapes to help understand industry ecosystems, CB Insights has done something similar with its Periodic Table of Fintech. The provider of private company data created an accessible graphic to help understand the clustering of companies in the financial technology space. The 177 companies on the table were pulled from CB Insight's own dataset as the highest ranking fintech startups when graded for financial health, company momentum, investor quality and M&A/IPO activity. The information was compiled in December of 2014 and could probably use a refresh. CB Insights, in general, publishes some great information on fintech (and other industries) via its newsletter and blog. Top 100 fintech influencers and brands (onalytica) If you're looking to follow the experts, this list of the top 100 fintech brands and influencers is a great place to start. By looking at mentions of fintech related content on Twitter, the social analytics software firm first identified who were most actively participating in these conversations. From there, relationship maps were drawn to see which participants were most connected to others discussing fintech. The end result is a ranked list of the most interconnected people and brands discussing financial technology over Twitter.

Fintech discussions

Fintech discussion threads on Quora (Quora) Quora is a great place to learn about fintech because its Q&A format makes it very interesting to explore topics. There are currently nearly 1000 fintech related questions on Quora, followed by 2500 people. Many of the early questions and answers were done by entrepreneurs, investors, and thought leaders in the fintech space. Reddit's fintech subreddit (Fintech on Reddit) Reddit is also a great place to plug into smart people talking about fintech. The fintech subreddit is a compendium of great links sourced from the community of about 1000 members interested in financial technology. Links get upvoted and make their way to the top of the subreddit. We've even had venture capitalists participate in the subreddit, as a form of potential dealflow for early stage fintech startups. Disclosure: I'm the subreddit's moderator but anyone can share content.

Marketplace lending resources

Online lending ecosystem (Orchard) [caption id="attachment_8010" align="aligncenter" width="650"] Orchard Platform's Lendscape[/caption] The Orchard Platform is a software company that connects up institutional investors to some of the leading marketplace lending platforms. So, as a hub of sorts, Orchard has a good view into the online lending ecosystem. To that end, the software company publishes Lendscape, a graphic depiction of the major players in online lending. Best marketplace lending resources (Tearsheet) While we're on the topic of marketplace lending, we did the research and published a pretty expansive list of marketplace lending resources. From data sources to smart opinion on the industry, there's a lot in here. Marketplace lending has grown massively over the past few years and, in spite of some current challenges, is in the process of maturing into a more significant industry.

Fintech conferences

Fintech conferences spreadsheet (Google Docs) I don't know about you, but it still feels like such a challenge to get an easy view into the year's fintech conference calendar. To that end, I don't remember who put this spreadsheet together but it's a pretty comprehensive list of the year's fintech conferences. It incorporates fintech events from around the world, as well as in the fintech hubs like New York City and San Francisco.

Top fintech investors

61 venture capitalists actively investing in fintech (Let's Talk Payments) Most large venture capital funds have deployed money into a handful of fintech companies. Others, well, they're focused on the space and that's all they do. This list of top venture investors that participate in financial technology is comprised of both types of investors: generalists and specialists. It also lists their noteworthy fintech portfolio companies. So, if you're a startup looking to approach these firms or just doing good research, it's a useful resource. 10 most active fintech investors (Pitchbook) [caption id="attachment_8014" align="aligncenter" width="654"] Pitchbook's VC activity in finance[/caption] Pitchbook, like CB Insights, has a research product that covers private companies. So, it's also tracking the fintech industry and it's ranked the top 10 most active venture capital investors in the space. To get more information on the funds, you'll need to sign up for Pitchbook's research platform.