Credit underwriting was once more art than science, with individual bank loan officers examining each application. Today, an ever expanding universe of data feeds sophisticated decisioning models.

“It’s not every day that you get to lean in and help solve the crisis you see flashing across CNN. The stakes were incredibly high for so many businesses. We knew we needed to get creative and act fast to help Evolve and their local businesses,”

— Tommy Nicholas, CEO, Alloy

Finovate, also known as “ the Disneyland of fintech”, is consistently among the most important conferences in the industry. Last week, I spent some time at Finovate Fall 2018 which was — for a fintech novice like me — a crash course on the current industry insights.

There’s a ton of startup advice out here — the revered Paul Graham essays, Eric Ries’ Lean Startup methodology, and Hacker News community discussions, among many others. But it’s not universal, and leaves certain founders with too little guidance.