Operating fintechs to solve for equity

Building an equity-focused fintech starts from the inside. Without the right talent and structures in place, well-intentioned actors—both internally and externally—will face an uphill battle aligning a fintech’s stated mission with actual outcomes.

Building a team’s operations around the following goals can help solve for equity in the long run, and even cut long-term costs by optimizing how fintechs interface with the communities they serve.

Hiring intentionally

Importing an equity-focused lens to fintech requires bringing on the right team to lead the charge. In part, this involves hiring from within the communities that are the subject of a fintech’s work, ensuring that the perspectives of those who stand to benefit most from a fintech’s products and services are part of ongoing decisions—and not just as the subjects of user research.

Starting with such a foundational step early on in a fintech’s life cycle also presents an opportunity to be more interdisciplinary. Hiring from non-traditional sources of talent and outside existing networks can bring new strategies for growth, product development, communications, operations, and other keystone components of how a fintech functions.

Maximizing compliance—and moving the needle

Equity-focused fintechs understand that consumer trust is hard to regain after it’s lost. Avoiding enforcement actions or other compliance-related violations are therefore a core priority, and are valued at more than the sticker price of a fine.

This may require building out compliance teams that are larger than competitors’. But it also presents an opportunity to become a private-sector leader on issues relevant to the fintech’s key domain. Hiring top talent and prioritizing government relations can help fintechs scale the effects of their work beyond the footprint of their products.

Communicating goals

Solving for equity entails recognizing that transparency is an ongoing process, rather than a destination. While preserving proprietary information, fintechs conducting user research and other studies should state the goals of their work while also building in real-time opportunities for community input.

Doing so can be a cost-cutting measure in the long run, ensuring timely pivots as needed and helping maximize product-market fit in addition to buy-in.