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i always hope that new exciting companies will work towards a sustainable business model that can exist without a buyout from some mega. i understand that its difficult to start a business, much less a sustainable one, but its sad to see such promising companies grow into a pitch instead of a business. maybe its a good thing i didn't get hired for their SLC office, because i would have quit over this.
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On the contrary - Banks are falling over themselves to embrace Plaid, Finicity, Decisionlogic, Yodlee and all their ilk because failure to do so will result in the departure of their customers to a bank that supports all the new fintech apps that rely on these API providers.
No, if anything banks have been catching on to Plaid and many have decided to stop supporting it e.g. Capital One has been on/off it for years. Banks aren't exactly happy that their API is basically scraping their website, for very valid reasons, including the customer's own security. If enough of the big banks decided they had enough of Plaid then it would present a massive existential threat to the business. If any…
Have to say I'm not a fan of Plaid at all. Dark patterns galore. Absolutely no indication when you go through a Plaid flow that you're likely giving away much more than just the bare minimum account numbers to push money in/out of your bank account. Often, you're also giving away transaction data, identity, real-time balance, etc. There's no way to know prior to linking your account. I had high hopes that would have…
Visa invested in their Series C[0], so it seems unusual that they'd also acquire the company (why not acquire it back then?). Any ideas why this might have happened? Past examples? [0] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/plaid#section-fundin...
Not unusual at all. Pretty typical for CVC in fact. Couple of factors:
1. CVC (Corporate Venture Capital) typically tries to invest in similar markets of companies that either are competitive or pseduo-competitive (think of it as a hedge). For example, this would be like PayPal investing in Venmo.
2. It's cheaper in the long run for a CVC to make 10 of these bets to find that one that doesn't kill their core business model (usually a cash cow). That's why you see Ford/GM putting money into self-driving car start-ups.
3. They were probably not at the level of scale ready for Visa to take them on at the time of the Series C. This was basically a down-payment for their eventual acquisition. It basically "you're too risky for us to buy, so here's some money that we can write off if you end up failing, but if you do fail, we don't have to deal with all of the crap that goes with a failing bus unit (layoffs, compliance, etc).
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> Any suggestions? Lobby your lawmakers. Banks have no incentive to provide open APIs. For example, in the UK banks did nothing until they were forced to - the market regulator now requires the nine largest banks to provide an open API ( https://www.openbanking.org.uk ).
Open Banking is a sham. It mandates account access for "AISPs" which need to be registered, audited, etc which is unfeasible for a solo developer especially when releasing a free/open-source product. Worse, it doesn't actually mandate your access to your own account, so that still depends on the bank. The modern banks provided APIs even before open banking so we're good, but the legacy ones still don't provide person…
The law doesn't restrict the banks giving access to non-AISPs and, like you say, many of the modern banks do have personal API access, it just sets a minimum bar you have to reach before they're forced to let you in. It seems like a pragmatic middle ground.
What is bad, in my eyes, is the law currently only applies to the CMA9.
As a former Plaid employee with options that vested after I was shitcanned last year, this is some pretty welcome news.
Have to say I'm not a fan of Plaid at all. Dark patterns galore. Absolutely no indication when you go through a Plaid flow that you're likely giving away much more than just the bare minimum account numbers to push money in/out of your bank account. Often, you're also giving away transaction data, identity, real-time balance, etc. There's no way to know prior to linking your account. I had high hopes that would have…
I have been interested in the idea of and open API for banking (one which supports Canadian banks would be preferable, as I am Canadian), and I have had a few ideas for application's to implement with Plaid. I keep reading feedback about Plaid on HN similar to yours though that make me less confident in the product.
i always hope that new exciting companies will work towards a sustainable business model that can exist without a buyout from some mega. i understand that its difficult to start a business, much less a sustainable one, but its sad to see such promising companies grow into a pitch instead of a business. maybe its a good thing i didn't get hired for their SLC office, because i would have quit over this.
Out of curiousity, why would this acquisition be a reason to quit?
i want to be a part of building something that can survive as an independent entity. selling is an admission that this is either not a goal or not possible given the current position of the company. both of these are against my ethics. why should i stay at a company that has openly admitted that they are incapable or unwilling to pursue independence?