S7 E8: Not Fintech Investment Advice: Kudos, Azimuth, Layer, and Carputty

Another day, another credit card reward app to unpack. But this time, is it actually possible we’ve found the one reward app to rule them all?  Alex and Simon Taylor discuss the promising rewards optimization app, Kudos, which helps users determine which credit card is optimal for maximizing points on purchases. Will Kudos change the rewards space forever? And if consumers expect points to be optimized at every turn, then what does this mean for the future of the rewards system? Alex and Simon make some predictions on what comes next for the promising company—will they launch their own card with an intelligent interface or sell their tech to neobanks and let them duke it out? Then they break down Azimuth, the compliance effectiveness testing suite for lenders. While automated compliance testing has been the standard in fintech for a while, will moving to a more automated approach be the solve for sampling problems for banks? And can anyone ever disrupt QuickBooks? Unlikely. So how can SaaS companies get a foot in edgewise against the Intuit behemoth? Alex and Simon break down Layer and explain how its embedded software approach might be an adjacent way to compete against QuickBooks. Plus, the guys also discuss the consumer-centric auto financing app that seeks to treat car purchases more like assets, Carputty, before manifesting a few ideas for fintech, including a better cross-selling solution for banks and credit unions and an AI that filters out scam conversations.    TruStage Payment Guard Insurance is a first-of-its-kind insurance solution built for digital lenders, designed to help you attract more borrowers, strengthen your loan portfolio and reduce time spent on collections — all with minimal tech lift needed to go live. To learn more about Payment Guard Insurance, visit https://www.trustage.com/payment-guard.   Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/   And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.   Follow Simon: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sytaylor/ Substack: https://sytaylor.substack.com   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson