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The Tearsheet term sheet: The definitive guide to fintech jargon

  • Financial technology need not be an insider's game -- we’ll unpack the terms that are creeping into our daily financial lives.
  • We'll tell you what everything really means.
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The Tearsheet term sheet: The definitive guide to fintech jargon
Financial technology is so riddled with jargon it’s no wonder companies can’t explain what they do or how they’re actually solving the problem they’re trying to solve. And potential customers and buyers of the products and services this industry is building end up feeling a little excluded from this world – kind of like the old finance industry they’re working so hard to make more accessible to the masses. So, we’ve started this Tearsheet term sheet in an attempt to break up the fintech echo chamber. Let us know more ideas by tweeting at us @Tearsheetco. agile: fast accelerators: finishing school for startups AI: "big data," 2017 version API: official permission to use someone else’s work beta: We have no idea what we’re doing big data: so 2012 biometrics: fingerprints bitcoin: you’re kidding blockchain: an Excel sheet chatbot: do I sound human yet? conversational banking: you’re talking to something consumers: people corporate VCs: attention startups: take our money, let us buy you later cryptocurrency: digital currency for anarchists chief culture officer: chief ping-pong table installer DLT: blockchain tech built with banker specs digital ambassadors: bank tellers digital wallet: your wallet on a phone, sans cash and ID disruptors: startups with big egos fail-fast-fail-often: fail fintech: finance today frictionless: easy game changing: hoping you forgot the last time we did this guests: people incubator: boarding school for disruptors incumbents: grownup people innovation lab: adult playground innovative: (see: game changing) insurtech: a bot will soon tell you your medical visit is not covered machine learning: the machine that knows how to react when you yell at it marketplace lending: you're lending to or borrowing from a stranger through a website native: you don’t need Safari or Chrome to use it omnichannel: every channel open banking: banks need to outsource creativity, via APIs PFM (personal finance management): balancing your checkbook pivot: our first idea didn't really pan out post-app world: apps will die proof-of-concept: we’re waiting for the money to make this a thing remittance: money that costs money to send home overseas relationship building: when banks want to stalk you revolutionary: hyped robo-advisers: you’ll end up talking to humans scale: grow solution: experiment sprints: not your average never-ending large-scale tech overhaul surprise and delight: it’s kind of new and customers probably won’t hate it test-and-learn: playtime for focus-groups throughput: when input and output aren't long-enough words ubiquitous: everywhere unicorn: those special startups in the Three Comma Club users: people who downloaded our app once VC: mom and dad Venmo: how you stalk your ex Watson: scary smart supercomputer XaaS (anything as a service): using the Internet

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