Since the pandemic began, have you been walking more, or do you know someone who bought a new car? Perhaps you ran your first errand on a rented e-bike or scooter?

Over the last year, I’ve experimented with different mobility options to see which ones best suit my needs, as have most people I know. It can be challenging to maintain a recommended physical distance on a bus or subway. (After a decade-plus hiatus, I even briefly considered rejoining the ranks of automobile owners!)

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It took some getting used to, but I now enjoy traveling around San Francisco on a scooter or e-bike. Pre-pandemic, I was leery of riding two-wheeled vehicles in a city with a high rate of injury collisions, but there are fewer cars on the road than there used to be.

COVID-19 has spotlighted many of the weakest points in our transportation system, but some of the rapid shifts in consumer behavior are creating opportunities for tech once considered fanciful, like sidewalk delivery robots and eVTOLs (electric vertical and takeoff vehicles).

Transportation editor Kirsten Korosec reached out to 10 investors to learn more “about the state of mobility, which trends they’re most excited about and what they’re looking for in their next investments.”

Here’s who she interviewed:

Clara Brenner, co-founder and managing partner, Urban Innovation FundShawn Carolan, partner, Menlo VenturesDave Clark, partner, ExpaAbhijit Ganguly, senior manager, Goodyear VenturesRachel Holt, co-founder and general partner, Construct CapitalDavid Lawee, founder and general partner, CapitalGSasha Ostojic, operating partner, Playground GlobalSebastian Peck, managing director, InMotion VenturesNatalia Quintero and Rachel Haot, Transit Innovation Partnership/Transit Tech Lab

Thanks very much for reading Extra Crunch this week!

Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch
@yourprotagonist

A fraction of Robinhood’s users are driving its runaway growth

Yesterday’s House Financial Services Committee hearing on the GameStop short squeeze saga was fairly typical: Most lawmakers used their time to grandstand and little new information was revealed.

But Alex Wilhelm found one tidbit: Much of Robinhood’s revenue is generated from payment for order flow (PFOF). Under the practice, market makers pay the trading platform for executing trades.

To get a sense of how much Robinhood’s high rollers contribute to the company’s general health, he calculated its PFOF revenues for the last three months of 2020.

“Borrowing a term from the casino trade, these whales generate the bulk of the company’s revenue stream.”

Why do SaaS companies with usage-based pricing grow faster?

HubStop introduced usage-based pricing in 2011 to boost its retention rate, then near 70%.

When it went public three years later, its net revenue retention rate was edging close to 100%, “all without hurting the company’s ability to acquire new customers.”

Offering new users frictionless onboarding, customer support and free credits is a proven method for making them more active — and loyal.

So, why do public SaaS firms with usage-based pricing see faster growth?

“Because they’re better at landing new customers, growing with them and keeping them as customers,” says Kyle Powar, VP of growth at OpenView.

Paying $115B for Stripe or $77B for Coinbase might be quite rational

In October 2018, private-market money valued Coinbase at around $8 billion. As of this week, it’s valued at $77 billion.

Similarly, Stripe is valued at $115 billion on secondary markets. In the middle of last year, that figure was closer to $36 billion.

“Would I line up to pay $77 billion for Coinbase?” asked Alex. “Probably not, but that doesn’t mean that the public markets won’t.”

Pandemic-era growth and SPACs are helping edtech startups graduate early

Natasha Mascarenhas reports that some edtech startups are hitching rides with special purpose acquisition vehicles so they can speed up their journey to the public markets.

To learn more, she interviewed Susan Wolford, chairperson of $200 million SPAC Edify Acquisition, and Nerdy CEO Chuck Cohn. Nerdy, parent company of Varsity Tutors, is going through a reverse merger with TPG Pace Tech Opportunities.

“It’s less about going into the public markets and more about that this transaction allows us to take an offensive position and lean into the big opportunities,” Cohn said.

Dear Sophie: Tips for filing for a green card for my soon-to-be spouse

Dear Sophie:

My fiancé is in the U.S. on an H-1B visa, which is set to expire in about a year and a half.

We were originally planning to marry last year, but both he and I want to have a ceremony and party with our families and friends, so we decided to hold off until the pandemic ends. I’m a U.S. citizen and plan to sponsor my fiancé for a green card.

How long does it typically take to get a green card for a spouse? Any tips you can share?

— Sweetheart in San Francisco

Inside Rover and MoneyLion’s SPAC-led public debuts

When I saw that Alex Wilhelm wrote on Tuesday about two more startups that were taking the SPAC route to public markets, I briefly wondered if we’ve been covering special purpose acquisition companies too frequently.

After I read his first sentence, I realized Alex made exactly the right call because the trend that emerged in 2020 may be turning into a actual wave: This week, pet e-commerce company Rover and fintech startup MoneyLion both announced that they’re planning SPAC-led debuts.

On Monday, Alex covered the news that Lerer Hippeau Acquisition Corp. and Khosla Ventures Acquisition Co. I, II and III. filed S-1 filings last week.

“You have to wonder if every VC worth a damn in the future will have their own raft of SPAC offerings,” says Alex.

Wrote Lerer Hippeau Acquisition Corp.:

With our portfolio now maturing to the stage at which many are considering the public markets, we view SPACs as a natural next step in the evolution of our platform.

“If we are not careful, every entry of this column could consist of SPAC news,” writes Alex.

From dorm rooms to board rooms: How universities are promoting entrepreneurship

Fifteen U.S.-based institutions of higher learning have joined forces to create the University Technology Licensing Program LLC (UTLP).

The program makes it easier for entrepreneurs and investors to find IP that can drive their companies forward, but it’s also an attempt to repair what one participant calls “the somewhat broken interface between universities and very large companies in the tech space.”

4 strategies for deep tech companies recruiting top growth marketers

Here’s some real talk for technical founders: if you find it frustrating to work with growth experts and marketing professionals, the feeling’s probably mutual.

“Incredible growth people are independent and creative and are drawn to environments that explicitly value these traits,” says Jessica Li, a content/growth professional who was previously a VC.

To land top talent, “demonstrate that you have a team structure in place where a growth marketer could fit in and thrive.”

9 investors discuss hurdles, opportunities and the impact of cloud vendors in enterprise data lakes

Before my first cup of coffee this morning, I’d already interacted with four different devices that transmitted details about my behavior to a data lake.

Hopefully, the response I sent to an automated text while waiting for the kettle to boil will generate a discount offer in my inbox later today. (And hopefully, the raw data I’m transmitting has been properly secured and cataloged.)

Enterprise reporter Ron Miller interviewed nine investors to learn more about their approach to the lucrative data lake market:

Caryn Marooney, general partner, Coatue ManagementDharmesh Thakker, general partner, Battery VenturesCasey Aylward, principal, Costanoa VenturesDerek Zanutto, general partner, CapitalGNavin Chaddha, managing director, MayfieldJon Lehr, co-founder and general partner, Work-BenchPeter Wagner, founding partner, Wing VenturesNicole Priel, managing director, Ibex VenturesIlya Sukah, partner, Matrix Partners

Felicis’ Aydin Senkut and Guideline’s Kevin Busque on the value of simple pitch decks

When it comes to building a durable relationship between a founder and an investor, “the trust starts in the pitch deck,” says Guideline CEO Kevin Busque.

Busque joined Extra Crunch Live last week with Felicis Ventures’ Aydin Senku to discuss the seed round Senku declined to join — and the Series B he led a short while later.

In keeping with our new format, the pair also offered feedback on pitch decks submitted by members of the audience. Read highlights, or watch a video with the full conversation.

In 2017, Ironclad founder and CEO Jason Boehmig was looking to raise a Series A. As a former lawyer, Boehmig had a specific process for fundraising and an ultimate goal of finding the right investors for his company.

Part of Boehmig’s process was to ask people in the San Francisco Bay Area about their favorite place to work. Many praised RelateIQ, a company founded by Steve Loughlin who had sold it to Salesforce for $390 million and was brand new to venture at the time.

“I wanted to meet Steve and had kind of put two and two together,” said Boehmig. “I was like, ‘There’s this founder I’ve been meaning to connect with anyways, just to pick his brain, about how to build a great company, and he also just became an investor.'”

On this week’s Extra Crunch Live, the duo discussed how the Ironclad pitch excited Loughlin about leading the round. (So excited, in fact, he signed paperwork in the hospital on the same day his child was born.) They also discussed how they’ve managed to build trust by working through disagreements and the challenges of pricing and packaging enterprise products.

As with every episode of Extra Crunch Live, they also gave feedback on pitch decks submitted by the audience. (If you’d like to see your deck featured on a future episode, send it to us using this form.)

We record Extra Crunch Live every Wednesday at 12 p.m. PST/3 p.m. EST/8 p.m. GMT. You can see our past episodes here and check out the March slate right here.

Episode breakdown:

The pitch — 2:30How they operate — 23:00The problem of pricing — 29:00Pitch deck teardown — 35:00

The pitch

When Boehmig came in to pitch Accel, Loughlin remembers feeling ambivalent. He had heard about the company and knew a former lawyer was coming in to pitch a legal tech company. He also trusted the reference who had introduced him to Boehmig, and thought, “I’ll take the meeting.”

Then, Boehmig dove into the pitch. The company had about a dozen customers that were excited about the product, and a few who were expanding use of the product across the organization, but it wasn’t until the ultimate vision of Ironclad was teased that Loughlin perked up.

Loughlin realized that the contract can be seen as a core object that could be used to collaborate horizontally across the enterprise.

“That was when the lightbulb went off and I realized this is actually much bigger,” said Loughlin. “This is not a legal tech company. This is core horizontal enterprise collaboration in one of the areas that has not been solved yet, where there is no great software yet for legal departments to collaborate with their counterparts.”

He listed all the software that those same counterparts had to let them collaborate: Salesforce, Marketo, Zendesk. Any investor would be excited to hear that a potential portfolio company could match the likes of those behemoths. Loughlin was hooked.

“There was a slide that I’m guessing Jason didn’t think much of, as it was just the data around the business, but I got pretty excited about it,” said Loughlin. “It said, for every legal user Ironclad added, they added nine other users from departments like sales, marketing, customer service, etc. It was evidence that this theory of collaboration could be true at scale.”

Tracy Chou’s resume is impressive. She interned at RocketFuel, Google and Facebook before becoming a software engineer at Quora and Pinterest. She is also a major advocate for diversity within the tech industry, launching Project Include in 2016.

Now, she’s the founder and CEO of Block Party, a platform aimed at making people feel safer on social media platforms.

Obviously, we’re absolutely thrilled to announce that we’ll be sitting down with Chou at TechCrunch Sessions: Justice in early March.

Block Party was born specifically out of Chou’s experience working at places like Quora — building a block button was one of the first things she built after being harassed on the platform. As an advocate for diversity, and a big name in the tech sphere in general, Chou has had her fair share of experience with online harassment.

Chou will join us as part of our Founders in Focus series, talking to us about the process of spinning up and launching Block party, as well as her strategies around growing the business. We’ll also talk through how Chou makes product decisions for a platform like Block Party, which tackles sensitive issues of safety and well-being.

Chou joins an outstanding cast of speakers at TC Sessions: Justice, including Arlan Hamilton, Brian Brackeen and a panel that includes the likes of Netflix’s Wade Davis and Uber’s Bo Young Lee.

The event goes down on March 3, and will explore diversity, equity and inclusion in tech, the gig worker experience, the justice system and more in a series of interviews with key figures in the technology community.

You don’t want to miss it. Get a ticket here.

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The last year has been one of financial hardship for billions, and among the specific hardships is the elementary one of paying for utilities, taxes and other government fees — the systems for which are rarely set up for easy or flexible payment. Promise aims to change that by integrating with official payment systems and offering more forgiving terms for fees and debts people can’t handle all at once, and has raised $20 million to do so.

When every penny is going toward rent and food, it can be hard to muster the cash to pay an irregular bill like water or electricity. They’re less likely to be shut off on short notice than a mobile plan, so it’s safer to kick the can down the road… until a few bills add up and suddenly a family is looking at hundreds of dollars of unpaid bills and no way to split them up or pay over time. Same with tickets and other fees and fines.

The CEO and co-founder of Promise, Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, explained that this (among other places) is where current systems fall down. Unlike buying a TV or piece of furniture, where payment plans may be offered in a single click during online checkout, there frequently is no such option for municipal ticket payment sites or utilities.

“We have found that people struggling to pay their bills want to pay and will pay at extremely high rates if you offer them reminders, accessible payment options and flexibility. The systems are the problem — they are not designed for people who don’t always have a surplus of money in their bank accounts,” she told TechCrunch.

“They assume for example that if someone makes their first payment at 10 PM on the 15th, they will have the same amount of money the next month on the 15th at 10 PM,” she continued. “These systems do not recognize that most people are struggling with their basic needs. Payments may need to be weekly or split up into multiple payment types.”

Even those that do offer plans still see many failures to pay, due at least partly to a lack of flexibility on their part, said Ellis-Lamkins — failure to make a payment can lead to the whole plan being cancelled. Furthermore, it may be difficult to get enrolled in the first place.

“Some cities offer payment plans but you have to go in person to sign up, complete a multiple-page form, show proof of income and meet restrictive criteria,” she said. “We have been able to work with our partners to use self-certification to ease the process as opposed to providing tax returns or other documentation. Currently, we have over a 90% repayment rate.”

Promise acts as a sort of middleman, integrating lightly with the agency or utility, which in turn makes anyone owing money aware of the possibility of the different payment system. It’s similar to how you might see various payment options, including installments, when making a purchase at an online shop.

The user enrolls in a payment plan (the service is mobile-friendly because that’s the only form of internet many people have) and Promise handles that end of it, with reminders, receipts and processing, passing on the money to the agency as it comes in — the company doesn’t cover the cost up front and collect on its own terms. Essentially it’s a bolt-on flexible payment mechanism that specializes in government agencies and other public-facing fee collectors.

Promise makes money by subscription fees (i.e. SaaS) and/or through transaction fees, whichever makes more sense for the given customer. As you might imagine, it makes more sense for a utility to pay a couple bucks to be more sure of collecting $500, than to take its chance on getting none of that $500, or having to resort to more heavy-handed and expensive debt collection methods.

Lest you think this is not a big problem (and consequently not a big market), Ellis-Lamkins noted a recent study from the California Water Boards showing there are 1.6 million people with a total of $1 billion in water debt in the state — one in eight households is in arrears to an average of $500.

Those numbers are likely worse than normal, given the immense financial pressure that the pandemic has placed on nearly all households — but like payment plans in other circumstances, households of many incomes and types find their own reason to take advantage of such systems. And pretty much anyone who’s had to deal with an obtusely designed utility payment site would welcome an alternative.

The new round brings the company’s total raised to over $30 million, counting $10 million it raised immediately after leaving Y Combinator in 2018. The funding comes from existing investors Kapor Capital, XYZ, Bronze, First Round, YC, Village, and others.

A lot of clients come to us saying they want to be more respected in their space. They know their competitors are trusted and they want the same recognition, if not more.

This feels even more important now after the absolute disaster that was 2020. Consumers and clients alike just want to be able to count on brands and not stress over whether they’re making the right decision.

Marketers seem to know this. When we teamed up with Semrush to explore keyword search data in 2020 related to marketing goals, brand awareness and authority showed steady upward trends.

If you’re one of these marketers, I have some strategies you can use to improve your brand’s authority this year. It can’t happen overnight, but you can start implementing these strategies now to see results over time.

Strategy #1: Get media coverage

Media coverage can build the authority of your brand in a few ways.

For one, it’s hard for people to trust you if they don’t know you exist. Of course, you can pay for ads or kill it on social to get your name out there, but media coverage has other benefits, as well.

When reputable publications and websites reference your brand and link to your site, they’re sending a signal that they trust what you have to say. It’s third-party confirmation that you know what you’re talking about and/or have something to offer.

For example, for our client Stoneside, we surveyed folks to see how many purchased and cared for houseplants in 2020.

The report got coverage on TreeHugger and Simplemost, but it also served as great context for other articles, like HelloGiggles and The Weather Network.

Of course, getting media coverage isn’t easy. You need newsworthy content or an expert opinion to contribute, and you need to know how to pitch it to writers.

Small budget options

Are there industry blogs you can write a guest post for? Are there peers in your industry who are looking for quotes for their content? Start building connections with other industry experts. Cite their work in your content and build a rapport.

For example, I sometimes work with marketing tool brands like Semrush and BuzzSumo because those brands align well with Fractl, as we all work in the same industry.

You can also sign up for HARO, in which journalists post requests to speak to particular types of experts. However, it’s not often you’ll see relevant requests, and even then it’s a toss up whether they’ll reach out to you specifically.

Larger budget options

If you can afford it, a combination of content marketing and digital PR is the way to go. If you have resources internally — marketing folks who are savvy with data analysis and content creation — you can start by seeing if you have any internal data that would be interesting to a wider audience.

We’re less than two weeks away from TC Sessions: Justice 2021, a day-long deep dive into the state of diversity, inclusion and equity in tech. March 3 is your opportunity to hear from and engage with the people who, through entrepreneurship, venture capital, labor organizing and advocacy, are both using and challenging tech to disrupt the status quo for the betterment of all.

This programming-packed day features presentations, breakout sessions and interactive Q&As with the leading movers, shakers and makers who are laser focused on, well, justice. Peruse the agenda and plan your day accordingly.

We’re stoked about showcasing the participating members of our TC Include Program. Do not miss meeting and connecting with these impressive early-stage founders, nominated by our partner founder organizations, Black Female Founders, Latinx Startup Alliance, Startout and the Female Founders Alliance.

TechCrunch, in collaboration with these organizations and VC firms like Kleiner Perkins, Salesforce Ventures and Initialized Capital, provide these young founders with educational resources and mentorship over the course of a year.

What’s more, the TC Include founders will take the virtual stage for a live pitch feedback session with a TechCrunch staffer during the conference. Tune in a get ready to take notes — the advice you hear could help you improve your pitch deck.

We already turned the spotlight on the startups nominated by Black Female Founders, and today we focus on these awesome, early-stage founders in the Female Founders Alliance cohort.

I-Ally: I-Ally is a community-driven app that saves millennial family caregivers time and enables informed decision-making by providing services that fulfill their unique needs. Founded by Lucinda Koza.

Proneer: Proneer is virtual try-on and size-recommendation software that helps reduce returns in apparel retail. Founded by Nicole Faraji.

Tribute: Tribute is the only mentorship platform that creates a continuous learning and development environment by connecting employees together for mentorship using the power of personal stories. Founded by Sarah Haggard.

Cirkled In: LinkedIn for Gen Z students, Cirkled is a 21st century online profile and portfolio platform connecting Gen Z with best-fit colleges, employers and endless win-win opportunities. Founded by Reetu Gupta.

Datacy: Datacy is a consumer to business insights data marketplace. We connect consumers and businesses to enable high-quality, ethical and transparent data exchange. Founded by Paroma Indilo.

We’ll be highlighting the cohorts from the Latinx Startup Alliance and Startout soon, so stay tuned!

TC Sessions: Justice 2021 takes place on March 3. Join this essential discussion, infuse justice into the DNA of your startup and make tech better for everyone. We can’t wait to get started.

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Just because there are no shortcuts to startup success doesn’t mean you have to reinvent the wheel. At TechCrunch Early Stage 2021, a virtual bootcamp experience in two distinct parts, you’ll learn from leading experts across the startup spectrum — including prominent founders ready to share their personal experiences and hard-won advice to help you avoid costly missteps.

Early-bird pricing for passes to TC Early Stage part one (April 1-2) — or dual-event passes (TC Early Stage part 2 takes place July 8-9) — remains in effect for just one more week. Be a savvy shopper — save up to $250 — beat the deadline and buy your TC Early Stage passes by February 27 at 11:59 p.m. (PT).

While both TC Early Stage bootcamps focus on startups in the very early innings, each event will feature different topics, content and experts. You’ll learn or strengthen the core entrepreneurial skillsets every startup founder needs to master — legal issues, fundraising, marketing, growth, product-market fit, tech stack, recruiting, pitch deck teardowns and more.

What’s more, you’ll learn from the best of the best. Here are just two of the featured speakers ready to download serious knowledge in April. We’ll be adding even more (and posting the agenda) in the weeks to come:

Melissa L. Bradley: Co-founder of venture backed Ureeka (a community where small businesses gain unprecedented access to the expertise needed to grow their business), Melissa is also founder and managing partner of 1863 Ventures. A professor at Georgetown University, she teaches impact investing, social entrepreneurship, P2P economies and innovation.Neal Sáles-Griffin: Managing girector of Techstars Chicago and a venture partner for MATH, Neal is an entrepreneur, investor and teacher. In 2011, he co-founded the first beginner-focused, in-person coding bootcamp. He is active in nonprofit and civic engagement across Chicago and in 2018 he ran for mayor. Neal has an undergraduate degree from Northwestern University, where he is an Adjunct Professor teaching entrepreneurship.

We love highlighting the best startups, and we’re devoting day two to that noble cause in the form of an TC Early Stage Pitch-Off! We’re looking for 10 founders who will pitch live onstage for five minutes followed by a five-minute Q&A with a panel of prominent VC judges. The top three founders pitch yet again to a new set of judges — and engage in a more intensive Q&A. Talk about awesome exposure!

Get the essential Pitch-off 411 here (like who qualifies and what the winner receives). Whatever you do, apply here before the deadline: February 21 at 11:59 p.m.

Don’t grind your gears reinventing the wheel. Join us at TC Early Stage 2021 on April 1-2. You have just one week left to score the best possible price. Buy your early-bird pass before the deal ends on February 27 at 11:59 p.m. (PT).

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TC Early Stage 2021 — Operations & Fundraising? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

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Financial institutions are falling behind the tech curve in delivering on the convenience consumers demand, leaving the door wide open for Big Tech companies like Apple, Amazon and Google to become our bankers. In November, Google redesigned its contactless payments service Google Pay, merging the services of traditional banks with the seamless, convenient experience users expect from the likes of Big Tech.

But there’s a catch.

Despite the elaborate smoke and mirrors that Google has put up, one fact remains: Google is an advertising company with ads representing 71% of its revenue sources in 2019.

One must ask: What happens when an advertising company — armed with the terabytes of data points it has harvested from our personal emails, location data, song preferences and shopping lists — now wants to be our bank? The answer is potentially unsettling, especially considering the extraordinary neglect Big Tech has shown for user privacy, as seen here. And here. And here.

As the marketplace is poked by yet another technocrat tentacle, this time in the heart of financial services, traditional banks that consumers and businesses once relied on find themselves at a crossroads. To retain market share, these institutions will need to continue investing in fintech so they can level up with convenience and personalization provided by new competitors while preserving trust and transparency.

Traditional banks miss the digital mark

Fintech holds the potential to fundamentally transform the financial services industry, enabling financial institutions (FIs) to operate more efficiently and deliver superb user experiences (UX).

But there’s a digital gap holding FIs back, especially small community banks and credit unions. Many have long struggled to compete with the deep pockets of national banks and the tech savvy of neo and challenger banks, like Varo and Monzo. After investing more than $1 trillion in new technology from 2016 through 2019, the majority of banks globally have yet to see any financial boost from digital transformation programs, according to Accenture.

Never before has this gap been more prevalent than amid the pandemic as customers migrated online en masse. In April 2020 alone, there was a 200% uptick in new mobile banking registrations and total mobile banking traffic jumped 85%, according to Fidelity National Information Services (FIS).

Data is the grand prize for Big Tech, not revenue from financial services

Naturally, Big Tech players have recognized the opportunity to foray into financial services and flex their innovation muscles, giving banks and credit unions a strenuous run for their money. Consumers looking to digitize their finances must heed caution before they break up with traditional banks and run into the arms of Big Tech.

It’s important to bear in mind that the venture into payments and financial services is multipronged for Big Tech players. For example, in-house payments capabilities would not just provide companies focused on retail and commerce an additional revenue stream; it promises them more power and control over the shopping process.

Regulations in the U.S. might restrain this invasion to an extent, or at least limit a company’s ability to directly profit. Because let’s face it: the Big Tech players certainly aren’t asking for the regulatory “baggage” that comes with a bank charter.

But tech companies don’t need to profit directly from offerings like payments and wealth management, so long as they can hoard data. Gleaning insights on users’ spending patterns offers companies significant ROI in the long term, informing them how a user spends their money, if they have a mortgage, what credit cards they have, who they bank with, who they transact with, etc.

Financial behavior also potentially includes highly personal purchases, such as medications, insurance policies and even engagement rings.

With this laser sharp view into consumers’ wallets, imagine how much more valuable and domineering Google’s advertising platform will become.

Banks must lead the charge in ethical data

When it comes to the digitization of financial services, the old adage “with great power comes great responsibility” rings true.

Customer data is an incredible tool, allowing banks to cater to all consumers wherever they fall on the financial spectrum. For example, by analyzing a customers’ spending habits, a bank can offer tailored solutions that help them save, invest or spend money more wisely.

However, what if being a customer of these services means you’re then inundated with ads that respond directly to your searches and purchases? Or, even more insidiously, what if your bank now knows you so well that they can create a persona for you and proactively predict your needs and desires before even you can? That’s what the future looks like if you’re a customer of the Bank of Google.

It’s not enough to use customer data to refine product offerings. It must be done in a way that ensures security and privacy. By using data to personalize services, rather than bolster revenue behind the scenes, banks can distinguish a deeper understanding of consumer needs and gain trust.

Trust could become the weapon that banks use to defend their throne, especially as consumers become more aware of how their data is being used and they rebel against it. A Ponemon study on privacy and security found that 86% of adults said they are “very concerned” about how Facebook and Google use their personal information.

In an environment where data collection is necessary but contentious, the main competitive advantage for banks lies in trust and transparency. A report from nCipher Security found that consumers still overwhelmingly trust banks with their personal information more than they do other industries. At the same time, trust is waning for technology, with 36% of consumers reportedly less comfortable sharing information now than a year ago, according to PwC.

Banks are in a prime position to lead the charge on ethical data strategy and the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, while still delivering what consumers need. Doing so will give them a leg up on collecting data over Big Tech in the long term.

Looking toward a customer-centric, win-win future

The financial services industry has reached a pivotal crossroads, with consumers being given the choice to leave traditional banks and hand over their personal data to Big Tech conglomerates so they can enjoy digital experiences, greater convenience and personalization.

But banks can still win back consumers if they take a customer-centric approach to digitization.

While Big Tech collects consumer data to support their advertising revenue, banks can win the hearts of consumers by collecting data to drive personalization and superior UXs. This is especially true for local community banks and credit unions, as their high-touch approach to services has always been their core differentiator. By delivering personalized interactions while ensuring the data collection is secure and transparent, banks can regain market share and win the hearts of customers again.

Big Tech has written the playbook for what not to do with our data, while also laying the framework for how to build exceptional experiences. Even if a bank lacks the technology expertise or the deep-pocket funding of Facebook, Google or Apple, it can partner with responsible fintechs that understand the delicate balance between ethical data usage and superior UXs.

When done right, everybody wins.

We’re excited to announce another terrific panel for our stacked TechCrunch Early Stage event on April 1 & 2. Marlon Nichols will be joining us to discuss securing seed funding.

Nichols is intimately acquainted with the topic — as a founding managing partner of MaC Venture Capital (nee Cross Culture Ventures), he has been involved in helping more than 100 early-stage startups receive seed funding. Previously, Nichols served as a Kauffman Fellow and Investment Director at Intel Capital, focusing on media and entertainment.

He has had a hand in a number of high-profile investments, including Gimlet Media, MongoDB, Thrive Market, PlayVS, Fair, LISNR, Mayvenn, Blavity and Wonderschool. His accolades include the MVMT50 SXSW 2018 Innovator of the Year and Digital Diversity’s Innovation & Inclusion Change Agent awards.

He will be discussing ways to get on investors’ radar and how to raise that early round. Per the panel description:

Right now, there is more seed-stage fundraising than ever before, and Marlon will speak on how to get noticed by investors, how to grow your business and how to survive in the crowded, competitive space of tech startups. He will provide insights on how to network, craft a great pitch and target the best investors for your success.

The panel is part of the two days of events that explore seed and Series A fundraising, recruiting and more for early-stage startups at TC Early Stage – Operations and Fundraising on April 1 & 2. Grab your ticket now before prices increase next week!

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Podcast advertising company Acast is announcing that it has acquired RadioPublic, the startup that spun out of public radio marketplace PRX in 2016.

At first, RadioPublic’s main product was a mobile app for podcast listening, and it still supports the app. But co-founder and Chief Product Officer Matt MacDonald said that over time, the team’s focus shifted to products for podcasters, specifically its Listener Relationship Management Platform, which includes an embeddable web player, custom websites called Podsites and more.

“We had a whole roadmap of things we wanted to build, but we recognized that at our scale, we could be better served by partnering up with bigger organizations,” MacDonald said.

And ultimately, they decided Acast made sense as not just a partner, but an owner. Acast’s business still revolves around podcast advertising, but it’s also expanded with new tools like the Acast Open hosting platform, and it says it now hosts 20,000 podcasts, collectively reaching 300 million monthly listeners.

“The acquisition of RadioPublic is fundamentally a partnership of values,” said Acast’s chief business and strategy officer Leandro Saucedo in a statement. “We both firmly believe in the open ecosystem of podcasting and have a shared commitment to aid listener discovery and support all creators. We’re impressed by what RadioPublic has achieved and we believe that now — as podcasting is gaining more momentum than ever before — is the ideal time to bring RadioPublic’s talented team and company missions into the Acast fold.”

The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but Acast says it will not affect RadioPublic operationally.

MacDonald and his co-founder/CTO Chris Quamme Rhoden are both joining Acast (CEO Jake Shapiro departed last fall to lead creator partnerships for Apple Podcasts), and although they’ll be working to integrate RadioPublic features into the Acast platform, MacDonald said the startup will continue to support its own products and mobile apps for “the foreseeable future.”

He added that as RadioPublic works with Acast, the team will remain focused on “strengthening and deepening that relationship, that bond, that affinity between the podcaster and the listener.” In his view, that’s where RadioPublic’s opportunity lies, even as big platforms like Spotify invest in podcasting.

“How do we enable you, as the creator, to control the relationship you have with your audience?” MacDonald said. “We believe that a podcast’s listeners are the podcast’s listeners. They are not the platform’s customers.”