Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: Epic River CEO Jeff Grobaski (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: How many community banks are in your customer base?

Jeff Grobaski: We’ve got a little over a thousand community banks now. We are integrated into over 40 bank systems. We are able to speed the time-to-close without increasing the cost. 

Sramana Mitra: How long have you been doing this?

Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: Epic River CEO Jeff Grobaski (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

This interview focuses on an important piece of innovation that has the potential to relieve the financial pain of many consumers who suffer under the pain of high health insurance deductibles.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself as well Epic River.

Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: Karthik Manimozhi, CEO of RentMoola (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: There’s a reason I’m asking you about Seattle. Jeff Bezos has committed some significant amount of money to address homelessness in Seattle. I imagine that is something that is being tapped into to deal with their situation.

Is that a model that can be scaled throughout the country? Given the size and scale of the fortune that Bezos is sitting on, is that something that can be tapped into to bring some relief to this category through FinTech?

Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: Karthik Manimozhi, CEO of RentMoola (Part 5)

Karthik Manimozhi: In many cases, the whole framework is working as designed. The problem is, it leaves too many people outside of the framework. We are looking at our range of landlord portfolios going to affordable housing where we expect a lot more support from local counties.

They also have a responsibility to protect the renters from falling prey to predatory lending practices. Oftentimes, these lenders may blur the line between principal and interest and might set up a no-win situation for these already hurting families.

Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: Karthik Manimozhi, CEO of RentMoola (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: The COVID incidence is not a fault of their own. It’s a market failure. The question is, what happens after January, for instance when the eviction moratorium expires. COVID is not done. The economic impact is pretty dire.

Karthik Manimozhi: It is. This is where different people take different routes. The renters are not a single monolithic group of people. We are talking of people living in large cities, small cities, and small towns. We have people in different age groups.

Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: Karthik Manimozhi, CEO of RentMoola (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: If I understand correctly, what’s happening right now is that the mortgage companies are giving some relief to the property owners and the property owners are giving some relief to the renters.

Then you have all the other factors like credit card payments and deferred payments that are getting saturated in this market. Globally, it’s a pretty dire situation. How long can this go on?

Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: Karthik Manimozhi, CEO of RentMoola (Part 2)

Karthik Manimozhi: COVID has created some real structural and institutional issues. Certain sections of the population are disproportionately affected by COVID than others. What we’ve seen is three waves hitting the rental market.

Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: Karthik Manimozhi, CEO of RentMoola (Part 1)

COVID-19 has disrupted people’s lives in unprecedented ways. The world is facing the prospect of mass homelessness as people have lost their jobs and face eviction by their landlords.

This discussion delves into a powerful opportunity for FinTech to make a difference.