Ep. 33: Culture and Customization Lead a Cloud-Based Future

Community banks face obstacles of outdated core technology, big bank competitors and the burden of regulatory costs. In order to help solve a portion of this problem, our latest guest Kelsey Weaver co-founded Neocova. The financial technology firm offers an entirely cloud-based core platform and products that help community banks tackle analytics, customer relationships, financial insights and automation of manual tasks.

On the latest episode of The Financial Experience Podcast, Hunter and Kelsey discuss the transforming relationship between banks and fintechs, as well as what the future holds for the success of these partnerships. She says that fintechs are now being viewed as “Lego blocks,” and serve an important role in the building of a bank. Neocova’s focus is on rebuilding, not replacing, what a bank needs to run efficiently and securely.

When asked what a “winning” bank or fintech looks like in five years, Kelsey believes that the team is truly what makes a company, business or bank. She describes the “banks of the future” as places where there is investment in employee experience and back-end technology, in addition to providing an environment with diversity of thought and collaboration.

More About Kelsey

After graduating with top honors in finance from Belmont University in Nashville, Kelsey began working for a serial entrepreneur who invested in media and banking companies. Kelsey’s first assignment was helping a print dining publication, where she led the transition from print to digital, and ultimately, a Top Paid Dining iPhone app in the iTunes store.

From there Kelsey married her interest in startups and banking, joining Bank Director magazine as it re-invested, re-branded, and launched its new website. Kelsey helped to develop new products for team and as publisher, she worked with all of the company’s corporate clients to design comprehensive content and marketing campaigns, and designed topic-relevant conferences for their audience of bank CEOs and directors.

Recognizing the need for bank executives to learn more about technology and to connect with potential tech partners, Kelsey founded FinXTech in 2016 as a subsidiary of Bank Director. To facilitate the process Kelsey built out an advisory group of thirty ecosystem leaders; it was through this initiative that she met co-founder Sultan Meghji, and the idea that became Neocova was born.

After the successful launch and inaugural FinXTech conference at NASDAQ’s MarketSite, Kelsey found her passion in helping to match banks and technology partners. In 2017, Kelsey moved to NYC and started her own consultancy. Called Empact Innovation, it focused on helping a select few FinTech companies to market and partner with financial institutions. Kelsey still serves as an advisor to Marston, a wealth management fintech, and is an investor in the Shatter Fund, which focuses on supporting women-led technology companies. She is a member of the Astia Network, as an advisor to various startups, and is a frequent industry speaker on the topics of collaboration, innovation, and fintech. Kelsey sits on the board and leads the Technology Committee for SebastianStrong, a non-profit organization focused on raising awareness and funding for children’s cancer research.