“You have to innovate, from a product perspective, whether that’s innovative saving solutions or commission-free stock trading,” Asshoff says. “Whatever you provide, it has to be a better product that attracts customers easier and cheaper than investment advice or investment management.”


5. Eliminate technology debt. If the speed of implementing innovation influences customer acquisition, so does technology debt. It prevents your startup from innovating faster, thus limiting your opportunities. It’s equally difficult to integrate financial institutions because they often have a lot of technology debt.

“There are certain integrations you have to do with 100 people because it’s such a mess internally that you need a lot of more hands,” Asshoff says. “Hiring 100 people now would be a nightmare scenario for me. It’s extremely difficult to find professionals.”

To help with that, Asshoff would like to partner with an integrator company because they have worked with the system they’re going to integrate with before, and they have a lot of experience in that field.

Do Europe and the United States differ in client onboarding?

According to Asshoff, there are different benefits and setbacks for both markets. The U.S. is the world’s largest market for WealthTech; however, from a regulatory perspective it’s a nightmare. Purely technological companies outpace wealth management companies here. Additionally, compliance limits the talent options for those who can’t afford to hire regulatory experts.

In Europe, he says, it really depends on where you go. For example, Nucoro has offices in the United Kingdom and Spain, which are two completely different markets. In Spain, the technology is outdated, which complicates integration and innovation across the market. In the United Kingdom, integration is a lot easier than on continental Europe from a tech perspective in that if you have an open API infrastructure in place, you can easily integrate with some of the players there.

“In Europe, the passporting of the license from the regulatory perspective is a lot easier,” Asshoff explains. “But now there’s Brexit, so you don’t know exactly what is going to happen.”

The European market is quite big, but it’s segmented. If companies want to enter into a new market, they should prepare for a lot of changes and adaptation. It can’t be done as easily as moving inside the same market in the United States. Still, there are ways to eliminate negative aspects and win over customers.

Takeaways

Customer acquisition is expensive and depends on the quality of your product, regardless of what country you operate in. There are factors that can help you resolve many client acquisition issues such as having a mobile-first user experience, inexpensive services and effective partnerships. Having the right focus can also help startups lessen the costs of client onboarding and take their place in WealthTech in whatever market.