Shawn Ward
"Joining AFT was by far the single most important decision that we’ve made, and it has been our most significant channel to reach the partners that we need to grow our business."
Shawn Ward
CEO & Co-founder
Geezeo
Q: How long have you and your company been with AFT?
Geezeo and I have been a member for three years, since we started the company.
Q: When you think of AFT and a company of your size, what is the benefit of AFT? Who benefits from AFT?
Speaking for Geezeo, joining AFT was by far the single most important decision that we’ve made, and it has been our most significant channel to reach the partners that we need to grow our business. Geezeo integrates personal financial management modules – budgeting tools, cash flow tools – inside the online banking mobile experience. Prior to AFT, we were trying to sell directly to financial institutions, and although we had good success and product awareness, the sales and implementation cycle was terribly long, because we weren’t integrated into the core platforms they were using. To put it in context, three years ago – our first year of sales – resulted in three sales. We had a pipeline of over 100 financial institutions, but for most of them, we couldn’t find a path to integrate because we weren’t connected with the technology providers that they use. Once we found AFT, we were able to connect with their larger core processors, online banking and mobile providers. Really, because of those relationships that we established at AFT, we shifted our model from a direct sales model to a channel sales model that allows us to partner with the core and online banking vendors. This provides our customers a better conversion experience, easier integration, and a much richer user experience. And we can take advantage of existing sales teams that have established relationship with their clients. Today, we have 110 financial institutions signed now, and we should end the year around 200-250.
Q: What makes AFT so special?
It is the contacts that make AFT so special. All these financial technology firms truly come to AFT with an open mind to learn more, to discuss partnering opportunities. And it’s a great place to build personal relationships.
Q: You have a lot of resources within your organization and contacts you’ve made throughout your career. How would you rank AFT in terms of viable resources?
Hands down by far, No. 1. And there is not even a close second.
Q: You were a startup company, and now you have a few years under your belt. What would you tell a young company about when is a good time for it to join AFT?
Once you make a commitment to selling to financial institutions. And I have had this conversation with a number of startups: If you intend to sell to this market, you absolutely have to be at AFT. Especially in my business where you are touching data and you want to leverage data. It’s not an open industry. It’s one thing to have a product that you think financial institutions want to buy. But you need to integrate it, be able to play with the larger core processors, and if you don’t have established relationships and you don’t have a forum where you are selling your value, you’ll never get on the radar. AFT really is the place where you can understand the players, and meet the executives and the potential partnering companies that you need. But the content and the forums about what’s going on in our industry are critical too.
Q: Why should another company that is working with financial institutions in the technical space join AFT? What would you tell the CEO of that company about why it should?
AFT sounds almost too good to be true. Speaking from the context of a startup, to establish relationships with the larger vendors is terribly difficult to do cold. Some of my strongest relationships came from AFT, and were some of the same people I was trying to meet before AFT and couldn’t even get a phone call. The reality is that AFT is the perfect setting where people come to network, to establish and make relationships but also have an open mind. There is definitely an opportunity to get business done.