Onist with Brad Kotansky (CEO)| EP04
Enabling the sharing of data with family and professionals.
Summary:
Welcome to the 4th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, where Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews the CEO and Co-founder of Onist Technologies – Brad Kotansky. Onist Technologies is an Arizona-based online platform that allows users to aggregate all of their financial data and to be able to work with multiple professionals. Brad Kotansky breaks down exactly what Onist Technologies is and what they are creating for the financial technologies industry and consumers.
Show Notes
● 01:32 – Onist connects households and family members with their financial data,
accounts, and documents and are allowing granular access. They are sort
of like the company Mint on steroids.
● 03:55 – Seed for Onist began with Brad’s Dad needing him to take care of his
finances.
● 06:04 – The business-to-consumer market is a focus, with 15-18% of current users
not being consumers.
● 06:56 – For financial advisors, it is not about beating the SMP, it is about risk
tolerance – especially with elderly clients that don’t need high risk options.
● 10:10 – Having the client map out who the key stakeholders are in the family offers
optimum insight. Corporate organizational charts can be created within
1-10 minutes that can be updated to save money.
● 11:38 – Onist thinks about collaboration in two parts: connect clients to the platform
and allowing for direct messaging – include clients and professionals.
● 12:52 – CTO has 20 years of machine learning and AI experience.
● 14:28 – One third of the United States population is over 50 years old. 20 million
people are going to be added to that group in the next 10 years.
● 15:08 – The 18-49 demographic will grow by 6 million in the next 10 years.
Fintech’s focus is on millennials who are less intimidated by technology.
The average age of a caregiver in the United States is 49.
● 17:31 – Security and privacy are two separate areas for Onist. Personal data and
asset data are stored in separate data bases.
● 20:23 – Onist isn’t trying to go after the Mint market. Out of the 50+ market, 45%
share their login info.
● 21:14 – Onist tries to prevent elder abuse of accounts by being a read-only site.
● 22:22 – Data access is a tricky topic and a major issue with different countries
trying to push the envelope in that area.
● 27:37 – Blockchain is a paradigm change that is in the process of happening. Chip
technology and tap-to-pay happened earlier in Canada than the United
States.
● 30:52 – Security standards take time to change across the board.
● 34:25 – Onist costs nothing for the platform for the moment, there will be a monthly
subscription and a per-household per month fee. .
3 Key Points:
1 The business-to-consumer market is a focus, with 15-18% of current users
not being consumers.
2. The average age of a caregiver in the United States is 49.
3. Onist costs nothing for the platform for the moment, there will be a monthly subscription and a per-household per month fee.
Tweetable Quotes:
- “Onist, spelled on-ist…we want Onist. Onist advice, Onist opinions, Onist
relationships.“ – Brad Kotansky.
- “The world is connected a million different ways…but when it comes to finance, we
still operate in the dark ages.“ – Brad Kotansky.
- “Approximately 15-18% of our users right now are actually not consumers, they are
enterprise firms.“ – Brad Kotansky.
Resources Mentioned:
● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn
● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook
● Woodgate Financial – Website for Woodgate Financial
● Brad Kotansky – Brad Kotansky's LinkedIn
● Onist Technologies – Website for Onist Technologies