Congrats to #ICBAThinkTech Accelerator Alumni, Invest SouSou, and #FISFintech Accelerator participant, Neener Analytics, for their incredible delivery at Finovate 2019! 

Chris Johnson, Little Rock market president for First Financial Bank, says community banks benefitted from the ICBA Think Tech Accelerator. They got a look at new tools and could form partnerships with the startups that completed the program, and those partnerships could help them better compete.

Omnetrium, an innovative software platform which designs, builds and operates custom prize-linked savings programs, congratulates Centennial Bank on the launch of their Cents To Win Prize Savings Program.  The Cents To Win Program is powered through a technology partnership with Omnetrium.

Under a 12-month pilot program, Veteran Capital will expand its fellowship program to connect service members and their spouses with startups at other Google for Startups partner tech hubs across the country. In turn, Google will leverage its local contacts and offers hands-on support to the company’s fellows.

Golden Spiral, a Nashville-based B2B technology marketing agency, has been named the marketing agency mentor for the Venture Center, a fintech accelerator based in Little Rock, Ark.

"It is our role to help the companies in the Venture Center cohorts tell a clear and compelling story to the market that will speed traction and adoption," says John Farkas, founder and chief executive officer for Golden Spiral. "It's a process that really energizes us, and we're honored to have the Venture Center bring us on board to help."

The Independent Community Bankers of America® (ICBA) and The Venture Center concluded the 2019 ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator this week by hosting the program’s inaugural Demo Day in Little Rock, Ark. on Wednesday. At the event, participating fintech finalists presented their solutions to attending investors, community bankers and other financial industry leaders. Several participating companies also announced collaborations with ICBA community bank members and ICBA Bancard, the payments-services subsidiary of ICBA.

Even though we launched our digital bank right before the tech bubble burst of 2000 ‘and 9/11, by being agile and smart, we managed to survive and grow exponentially while launching innovative digital and FinTech products.

Giving your team the power to do everything related to their function is critical. As a hands-on person who likes to be involved this is very hard to do but critical for success/growth.

 Alto, a technology platform that makes it simple for investors to add alternative assets to their IRAs, today announced that it raised a $2.8 million seed round to expand its offering and integrate additional investment platform partners.

“The 100X exercise helped us put systems in place and prepare for others to run these systems when the time comes.  It’s important to think about this regardless of the stage of business you are in.  If you're not thinking about processes, you're not building a business. You will just end up building a job for yourself.”