Peter Zhou’s Post

Last week, we had an incredible turnout at our Founders & Operators Salon: Building Financial Tools for SMBs event, where we unpacked the next-gen finance tech stack for SMBs. Here's a recap: → Embedded Finance Product Workflows → Customer Pain Points in Vertical SaaS Space → Product Prioritization Framework We hope you'll join us for our next event: NYC Founders & Operators Salon: Building Next-Gen Finance Tech Stack for SMBs 🗓️ Wednesday, July 17 ⏰ 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM EDT What's in it for you? ✅ Networking Connect with peers and executives from top companies like PayPal, Emburse, BILL, Brex, and more. ✅ Expert Insights Learn from executive and product leaders driving the future of finance tech on cutting-edge topics such as unified data sources, AI capabilities, and strategies for integration and efficiency. 📨 Request to join the event at the link below: https://lu.ma/cjg01ra0 Bring your questions, topics, and challenges, and join us in shaping the future of SMB finance. You don't want to miss it!

Our team had a blast hosting over 40 product and engineering leaders from companies such as Novo, Revv, Melio, Vouch Insurance, and many more that are building financial tools for SMBs in NYC. We learned a ton about customer pain points in the Vertical SaaS space and industry trends on the next products companies plan to launch. If you are building products in this space, we'd love to meet you and introduce you to peers to share learnings. Hope to see you at the next event! https://lu.ma/cjg01ra0

What's the difference between a smooth reconciliation process and a disastrous one? Bank feeds ⚡ In short, bank feeds ensure your customers' transaction data automatically flows into their accounting systems. Why is this important? Without bank feeds, B2B Fintechs must manually upload customer transaction data to conduct reconciliations. This can be a significant time investment (even for large finance teams) and drastically increases the chances of human error. So, how can you integrate bank feeds into your expense management or business banking product? Simple, with Rutter's Bank Feeds API Our Bank Feeds API automatically establishes the infrastructure to integrate bank feeds into your platform, saving hours of engineering headaches and manual data entry. Plus, your customers benefit from more accurate and timely reconciliations 🔥 Interested in learning more about Rutter's Bank Feeds API? Check out the product guide below: https://lnkd.in/e5Y9SQ_W

From Neobanks to next-gen lenders, the Modern Lending Tech Stack has single-handedly established a new class of B2B Fintechs. Of the many trends surrounding the Modern Lending Tech Stack, these are the four your team should have on its radar 👇 1️⃣ Alternative business data Fintechs used to rely on banking data from providers like Plaid and MX to underwrite businesses. Today, these same Fintechs obtain more granular data sources from identity and API platforms (like Rutter), including: → KYB state data → Accounting data → Commerce data → Employment data This opens up new underwriting opportunities to serve their clients. 2️⃣ Extensive automation Simplifying banking transactions and underwriting tasks via automation helps Fintechs offer more innovative lending solutions. 3️⃣ Banking as a service Banking as a service makes it even easier for Fintechs to offer loans or credit cards — without additional infrastructure or support services. Meanwhile, orchestration and decision companies offer no-code platforms that use these data sources to create decisioning rules and if-then statements. 4️⃣ Mitigating risk & fraud with AI Like with most industries, the applications of generative AI extend to Fintech as well. To keep an eye on risk and fraud, Fintechs can instantly categorize transactions and analyze trends or discrepancies — saving hours of manual review. Curious how you can apply these insights to your own company? Get the full rundown on the Modern Lending Tech Stack here: https://lnkd.in/eyf4w5Xj

Calling all fintech leaders in the NYC Area 👋 On Thursday, June 27, Rutter is hosting a private Founders & Operators Salon where we’ll discuss the greatest challenges that come with building financial products for SMBs — and share proven solutions. This is a rare opportunity to network and strategize with top industry leaders about the advancements shaping financial operating systems, what revenue models are proving to work right now, and more. (Past events featured execs from PayPal, Pipe, and PNC – as a heads up.) Space is limited, so RSVP now to save your spot: https://lu.ma/667hug1n Hope to see you there! 🤝

Providing working capital lines to high-growth brands requires integrations with multiple e-commerce and accounting platforms. But building these integrations in-house is both resource-intensive and time-consuming — a challenge Uncapped is all too familiar with. As its portfolio grew, Uncapped found itself at a crossroads: 👉 Build each complex integration in-house 👉 Partner with a unified API provider Knowing a universal API would save them engineering headaches (and time), Uncapped partnered with Rutter. Our universal API accelerated Uncapped's deployments for integrations with platforms like PrestaShop, Woo, and Shoper — without additional engineering work. Now, Uncapped deploys integrations 5x faster. Even better, they can easily access the data needed to make loan offers and manage continuous financing. In the words of Rudy Dobrzynski, Director of Engineering at Uncapped: "Rutter is the only provider we've worked with that's given us a 99.999% uptime so far. They're more reliable than the Facebook API." Find out how Uncapped deploys integrations 5x faster in the full case study: https://lnkd.in/eKyW5hvw

Software companies are * constantly * adding new features to drive value for users. But this sets off a chain reaction 👇 🔄 New features frequently involve new APIs. 🔄 Ensuring APIs work together requires effective integration strategies. 🔄 Selecting the optimal integration strategy is crucial for seamless functionality. Here’s a look at 4 different integration strategies your team can leverage: 1) Point-to-point or custom integrations In point-to-point integrations, one system is directly connected to another through APIs. To construct these integrations successfully, developers need deep knowledge of the internal workings of both the source and target systems. This approach is complex, so it should be reserved for needs that standardized products cannot meet and only need a small number of integrations. (And remember, whatever you build, you’ll have to maintain and scale over time.) 2) Workflow automation platforms or iPaaS Workflow automation platforms or iPaaS (like Zapier) operate in the cloud. They’re designed for users to configure and manage integrations between multiple systems. These platforms offer pre-built connectors and a drag-and-drop interface. This strategy works well for rapid deployment of integrations across popular applications, especially when you’re concerned about draining engineering resources with too many custom builds. 3) Embedded iPaaS Embedded iPaaS allows end-users of a product to build their own integrations in the platform. Software providers manage the underlying technical aspects (like updating connectors or ensuring data security) while customers focus on business ops. This strategy is ideal when you want customers to be able to tailor integrations to their preferences. 4) Unified API A unified API (like Rutter) aggregates multiple third-party services into a single, consistent API, simplifying how developers build and manage integrations. It abstracts and standardizes the differences between the APIs of various platforms to reduce the need for separate point-to-point integrations. It’s an ideal way for startups to integrate with multiple platforms and remain flexible so they can add more integrations in the future 📈 Read the full playbook to dive deeper into integration strategies: https://lnkd.in/eYTcVN4u

Mercury's customers can now pay bills, invoice customers, and reimburse employees — all without leaving their digital banking solution. But why is this such a big deal if other solutions (like Ramp and Brex) already offer these functionalities? Because this new functionality gets Mercury one step closer to becoming a financial operating system (the north star for all cutting-edge fintechs and a feat that is easier said than done) ⚡ Building a true financial OS requires fintechs to consolidate their customers' financial solutions. That's why all the best fintech solutions (Mercury included) are highly integrated. To power its new bill pay features, Mercury needed to add lots of accounting integrations to its product. But, building and maintaining these integrations in-house would only slow the launch. So, Mercury turned to Rutter. Leaning on our team's depth of expertise and Accounting API's robust integration capabilities, Mercury built the accounting integrations that power its bank feeds, expense management, and bill pay features. The results? → Got these features to market faster vs. building in-house → Expanded its product's functionality with minimal internal lift → Customers now get more value from Mercury (and need fewer financial solutions) Learn more about how Mercury's new feature is shaking up fintech below 👇 https://lnkd.in/eMYWAYR3

Building an integration with a complex accounting platform, like NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Inc., and Intuit QuickBooks? If so, let's chat about it over lunch! Join me on May 30th at 12 PM EST for Rutter's free Lunch & Learn to hear how the team built robust integrations with all the leading accounting platforms. You'll walk away with proven best practices and relevant resources to make your build process — from scoping and method selection to navigating accounting jargon and data models — a whole lot easier. Save your spot today: https://lnkd.in/eigdWEGf P.S. Can't make lunch on the 30th? No worries — sign up anyway, and we'll email you a recording of the event!