Tommy Nicholas

I love fintech, but fintech got problems. Financial technology has plenty of hype, with many going as far as to say banks are going to have an “Uber Moment” where they are fully disrupted by technology driven companies. This sounds great, but there’s an obvious problem: nobody is actually allowed to compete with banks. There are over 6,000 FDIC insured banks in the US, but only 3 new charters have been issued since 2010. The option to compete with banks directly has been removed by the federal government, and with it the opportunity to build a “Full Stack Startup” like Uber.

I’ve been thinking about fan death a lot lately. Many of the recent news stories I’ve been following have centered around powerful cultural myths and institutions, with defenders of the entrenched cultural forces dismissing the critics outright as... | Tommy Nicholas | Co-founder of knoxpayments.com (Launch Conference 2014 Best Enterprise...

Coffee Talk: Tommy Nicholas | blankslate.io - YouTu...

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Life Stories: how Tommy Nicholas transformed his ca...

Average people do not love fintech. In fact, in many cases they hate it. I’ve seen this first hand since I took the (currently on pause) dive into fintech a little over two years ago, but two posts by Pascal Bouvier of Route 66 Ventures got me thinking about how deep this problem really is.

Alexis Ohanian and Tommy Nicholas on HackCville // ...

The term “Minimum Viable Product” has become almost a religion to the startup community. The idea of a “Lean Startup” is gaining popularity, several high profile companies have exited only after “pivots”, and the “launch fast and iterate” mantra is nearing ubiquity in startup circles. I have noticed, however, that the term is as misunderstood as it is pervasive.

What does my company need to look like to raise X amount of money?

Almost every founder I know has this question. The founders have a vision and some unique knowledge of the market, investors have heuristics derived from the market as a whole that they use to make investment decisions.