Timothy bradley

Inside the chaos at Synapse, where questionable management tactics by CEO Sankaet Pathak have left the company with its future in jeopardy. I n July 2019, the 29-year-old CEO of San Francisco financial technology startup Synapse scolded five of his engineers for not making faster progress. “Do you even enjoy this project?” Sankaet Pathak asked. “Not really,” the team’s leader answered. “That’s it, you’re out,” Pathak declared, firing the employee on the spot in front of his colleagues. Synapse’s Human Resources director, Juan Aguayo, confiscated the terminated worker’s key card and computer. But as Aguayo spoke, he received a message on his laptop, and his tone started to change. Minutes later, he said to the engineer, who was now crying, “Don’t worry, you’re not fired.” The dazed, confused employee went back to his desk. Pathak never spoke to him about the incident again, acting like it never happened. The engineer started looking for a new job the following week … [Read more...] about Broken Synapse: Why Employees And Customers Are Fleeing This Andreessen-Backed Fintech Startup

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin OBSERVATIONS FROM THE FINTECH SNARK TANK The Online Bank Insurgency Just 8% of US consumers consider an online bank like Chime or Varo their primary bank . But among consumers with two accounts, digital banks have a 14% market share, and of Americans with three accounts, they’ve captured 17% of the pie. All told, consumers have 27 million accounts opened with online banks . Chime: The 800-Pound Gorilla In Digital Banking Chime, which recently announced a $485 million Series F funding round that valued the company at $14.5 billion, has a 35% share of all digital bank checking accounts . The next biggest competitors are Ally Bank with 9% of the digital banking market, and Varo Money with a 6% share. How Chime has come to dominate digital banking isn’t just a lesson for other challenger banks—it’s a lesson for all banks and credit unions. Chime’s Competitive Weapon: Featurization Challenger banks … [Read more...] about How Chime Is Dominating Digital Banking (And All Of Banking)