Avi Cohen (2017)

Cryptocurrencies (especially bitcoin) have gotten a lot of media attention recently and so it has been thoroughly exposed to mainstream investors. I think that there is a lot of room for investment and for them to do some great things with innovation but I'm skeptical at best for bitcoin as a long term investment. There are definitely many cryptocurrencies that have more utility than bitcoin, but bitcoin is getting a lot of attention at the moment.

I do definitely think that we will see cryptocurrencies playing a large role in the economy of the future.

Finally, there are definitely some security issues at the moment with some cryptocurrencies but there are also plenty of security issues with banks. I'm confident that, in time, most (if not all) of these issues can be ironed out.

Thanks for the question!

The Floor is choosing to expand internationally, first to HK to be a major player in the Asian fintech ecosystem. Last year investment in fintech in China tripled to $10 billion, representing over 90% of the fintech investment in Asia. There's simply a massive market for us in Asia. With increasing wealth Chinese financial institutions are seeking innovation centers to test new ideas and work with the best fintech startups. This is what The Floor does best.

Thanks for the question! We choose the banks that we partner with on a wide variety of criteria but there are a few things that we want from all of our partners. First of all you might notice we've only got one partner bank in each region. We really don't want to have any competing banks because it hinders the collaboration that goes on at The Floor. Otherwise we're also only really looking for the bigger banks in each market, all our partner banks have at least $1 trillion in assets.

In Israel there is mandatory military service around the ages of ~18-20. I believe that everyone in Israel is influenced a lot by their time in the military, especially because it happens at such a young age. I was part of an elite intelligence unit during my service that is famous for producing very successful entrepreneurs and I think this definitely pushed me towards this career. I was also influenced a lot in by previous jobs where I scouted technology for banks looking to innovate and keep up with the quickly changing world.

The Floor has been a great success for me and just like all start-ups has been incredibly exciting and fast-paced. I think that two particularly important things stand out for me as most important for new start-ups.

The first is having good co-founders that work well together. I've been very lucky with this myself, having two very experienced and brilliant co-founders to work with.

I also believe that it's very important to have a strong vision and focus with your start-up. Many start-ups fall apart when the founders lose track of what they were trying to do.

Thanks for the question and good luck!

We only work with startups selected by our banks, our venture is customer centric - banks set the tone and we deliver the technologies to match their business plans.

We support the journey of our startups through business and tech mentorship as well as opening our ecosystem to bring them industry knowledge and expertise for our mature start-ups.

Hope this answers your question.

I think somewhere in between. There is definitely a very real chance that in the future cryptocurrencies are used as a mainstream currency, but even if they aren't, that doesn't mean they can only be obscure investments. It is very possible that cryptocurrencies are used in niches they best fill.

I answered something similar just before for your first part, make sure you find good co-founders if you're going to start it with someone and make sure that you keep a in mind a good vision of what you want your start-up to do.

For your second question: To some extent but I'd like to think that a new way of thinking or challenging of current models is crucial for innovation in the banking industry (and others). However, having been in the industry for many years myself, I tend to draw a lot from my own experience when evaluating new startups.

Definitely. That is all in the future but there are certainly some markets we plan to expand to in the future.

Sorry! I'm not certain I understand what you mean, could you maybe give me an example of a company that has faced this and I would be happy to answer? Thanks.

Fintech has definitely been growing rapidly since then. Banks are looking for fintech to provide tomorrow's solutions to today's problems. There are some really great innovative ideas coming out of fintech start-ups and banks are looking to utilize the best of them to help them keep up with a rapidly evolving market.