[INTERVIEW] Alana Levine, Chief Revenue Officer, Fintel Connect

Today, we continue to celebrate the lead up to our 10 year anniversary later this year by featuring Alana Levine, Chief Revenue Officer, at Fintel Connect. We have been working with Fintel Connect quite a number of years now and they have been a major partner to the blog. Alana is going to provide us with some insights on what they are about and what they are working on. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions Alana. Looking forward to the future as we continue to grow together!

1) Please tell us about yourself and your role with Fintel Connect.

I’m originally from Montreal, but now call myself a Vancouverite. I have been in the tech startup scene for eleven years now, and I have worked with our founder, Nicky Senyard, across two businesses now. While I wear many hats as many founders do, my current role is to oversee our company’s growth strategy, which includes all things related to marketing, business development, sales, and partnerships.

2) What has attracted you to the fintech space?

While it may sound cliché, fintech truly does impact every aspect of our lives. It affects how we make purchases, buy homes, conduct day-to-day transactions, and enjoy our everyday lives. I find this industry fascinating because there is so much room for continuous progress and innovation. It’s exciting to be part of a space that is constantly evolving.

Although fintech is a large industry and it feels like the number of players in the space is exponentially multiplying each year, it still remains highly niche. The amount of connectivity between businesses and major influencers is remarkable, and the vision they have for improving the industry is inspiring. It shows if we work together collectively, we can make a significant impact.

3)What is Fintel Connect about? How does it work? And how does your technology work?

At its core, Fintel Connect is all about helping end consumers find the best products that suit their needs. One of the most impactful channels in financial services is the affiliate marketing space, where trusted third parties provide valuable insights and information to consumers regarding product considerations, banking options, credit cards, and more.

Our vision at Fintel Connect is to serve as the hub where brands offering these products can connect with various third-party affiliates to enhance their visibility. Our technology enables us to do all the heavy lifting involved in ensuring meaningful partnerships, effective messaging, and optimized campaigns and placements. This way, we can make the channel work seamlessly and efficiently for all parties involved.

We’ve since evolved our product offering to expand into other areas of marketing – including compliance and attribution.

4)What differentiates Fintel connect from its competitors and how have you leveraged that advantage?

We are the only player in this space that has chosen to specialize in the niche of financial services. This focus has enabled us to refine our product and develop elements of our solution and technology that specifically address the pain points and roadblocks faced by financial brands. Whether it’s about transparency, compliance, or regulation, we have honed our expertise in these areas.

Moreover, we have created a robust platform that caters to affiliates, partners, and brands that operate within the financial services industry. We carefully vet all our partners, and every brand that joins our platform can feel comfortable knowing that they have access to a pool of potential viable partners. Likewise, for publishers that are just starting out, we work hard to support them and provide them with access to brands that they may not have known about or considered as partners.

Overall, our platform is designed to be a secure and reliable space where brands and affiliates can connect and form meaningful partnerships.

5)What is your team working on that we can look forward to with Fintel Connect?

One of the biggest growth barriers that we have found with brands, especially traditional financial institutions, is their concern around compliance. For end consumers, it is critical that financial brands present accurate information about their products and have a clear and complete picture of what they have to offer. Working with third parties is about telling that story, which can be challenging when you have several hundred partners to work with.

Monitoring not only the campaigns but also all the different pages where partners may be discussing a brand or product can be a daunting task. To address this challenge, we have built a tool called Fintel Check that automates the process and saves time, creating a more effective way to monitor and police content related to financial campaigns.

6) We’re closing in on our ten-year anniversary. Do you have any thoughts for us as we embark on our next 10 years?

I believe we have witnessed a lot of evolution in the past 10 years. New platforms for sharing and distributing content have emerged. For instance, TikTok did not exist a decade ago, and Instagram and YouTube were not as widely used as they are now. These platforms have given content curators a voice and a platform to showcase their work.

Looking ahead, I think the next 10 years will be about staying on top of how people consume information. It will be crucial to build bridges and make information and insights as accessible as possible. Although ChatGPT is changing the content game, having real and meaningful conversations with people and hearing insights straight from the source remains vital.

In summary, it is important to keep up with the ever-changing content landscape, anticipate consumers’ needs, and find new ways to connect with them effectively. Building strong relationships and creating engaging content that resonates with audiences will continue to be essential in the years to come.