Dear Reader,
On 5/5, welcome to the 55th edition of the good reads newsletter by Malpani Ventures. Sharing your weekly dose of articles for this weekend’s reading!
How to be productive at a chaotic startup
How many of you suffer with productivity, especially in a very early-stage startup? Just because a startup is chaotic and runs in multiple directions, doesnt mean you have to. How? By:
Maximizing productivity
Prioritization is key to productivity
Identify the ONE most important thing and focus on it
Controlling your calendar
Control your calendar or it will control you
Block time for thinking, planning, and organizing
Managing change
Be explicit about what is getting de-prioritized
Clear communication of priorities leads to effective change management
Let me know in the comments if you think this will help you!
The death of fintech is greatly exaggerated
Julian Rowe is the GP at Latitude which has invested in fintech startups. He shares why he believes the world is exaggerating the downfall of fintech.
He believes the strongest fintechs will be a profitable mashup of software and financial services. We previously shared Coatue’s whitepaper which said balance sheets are necessary evils. You can read it here. Data-led virtuous loops can drive superior underwriting and personalization, driving down cost of capital when lending from own balance sheet. Profitability will not be evenly distributed across fintechs because size & scale matter.
AI in fintech is THE future because AI can enhance underwriting, product personalization, risk management, treasury and capital management, and reduce customer service costs. Fintechs with large customer bases and data sets will benefit disproportionately.
Fintechs command a disproportionate pull over younger generations. Fintech offers a huge multi-decade wave, particularly in Africa (& we believe Asia & LatAm too) where they represent the first interaction with a non-cash-based economy. The recent mini-banking crisis will most likely accelerate this generational shift to fintechs.
B2B Product-Led Sales Guide
Elena is a pro in B2B PLG. She shares her B2B Product-Led Sales Guide to help SaaS companies accelerate revenue and growth by leveraging the power of a customer-centric, value-driven approach.
She believes there are certain issues with traditional B2B sales funnel:
Traditional top-down sales enterprise motion is losing its effectiveness in B2B sales
Sales funnel performance is deteriorating and marketing teams are struggling with MQLs
The average buyer gets 10+ cold outbounds daily, leading to acquisition channel saturation and increased costs
This means the emergence of product-led sales where
End-users have gained decision-making power in organizations
Companies can now enter organizations through end-users, giving rise to product-led sales
PLS is a customer-centric, value-driven approach that accelerates revenue and growth
Read her guide in detail to know more
Until next week!