Financial technology industry leader Sean Sullivan joins us in this Global FinTech Series interview where he talks about the top factors that will drive demand for new fintech innovations while also sharing his thoughts on what he would have rather been, if not a fintech leader!
Catch the excerpts:
______
Can you tell us a little about yourself Sean (including your hobbies!). We’d love to know what a typical day at work is like for you and what your fintech journey has been like so far.
I’ve been working with start-ups that develop cutting-edge fintech products for more years than I’d care to admit: nearly three decades. In that time, I’ve witnessed a profound shift – buy- and sell-side firms alike are abandoning monolithic, legacy platforms in favor of more agile products. At LiquidityBook, I’m fortunate to work with highly flexible, SaaS-based POEMS products that can be tailored to create bespoke solutions for our clients. A typical day for me involves selling, selling and more selling. Maintaining a full sales pipeline has been integral to our growth, including our record-setting year in 2019. In my spare time, I enjoy playing golf and spending time with family.
Read More: GlobalFintechSeries Interview with Lil Roberts, CEO & Founder at Xendoo
Finance tech is evolving rapidly enough to demand a new skillset from industry executives. What would your top tips be for hiring, upskilling and recruiting in this segment, given these dynamics?
It’s certainly the case that hiring has become more difficult as the pace of innovation accelerates and the needs of our clients become more diverse. We have had a lot of success with hiring developers who are ‘cloud natives’ – that is, professionals who have come up in this evolving landscape and taken steps to prepare themselves, including specialized degree programs and internships. Similarly, we have seen many seasoned fintech professionals leave lucrative jobs in order to make a preemptive jump to SaaS-based providers, simply because they see the writing on the wall and know where the industry is heading. It can be very difficult to predict exactly what the trading technology space will look like in the future, but by targeting professionals who are actively taking steps to prepare themselves and giving them the resources to continue expanding their skill sets, firms can better navigate all these changes.
If not a Fintech entrepreneur, what would you have rather been?!
Probably a legal advocate for those facing challenges in our judicial system – it can be incredibly daunting to navigate without the right person in your corner. I could also see myself as a basketballl coach or teacher – I find mentorship very gratifying!
How have you seen this segment evolve over the years and what are some of your top predictions for this segment in 2020?
The move to the cloud has been a seismic shift within all technology sectors, and the POEMS space is one of the best examples. This is most clearly visible through the lens of economics. Where deployments once began with significant upfront IT costs – data centers, servers, third-party management and the likes – a fully SaaS-based offering bypasses all of that and permits more focus on the product itself. In addition, cloud platforms avoid the costs and complexity associated with software upgrades, so clients always have the latest version of all functionalities. The cloud also offers security benefits – no matter how big your firm is, it’s very difficult to dedicate more resources to cybersecurity than titans like Amazon and Microsoft. In the year ahead, we expect to see continued momentum around these offerings as firms become more educated on the shortcomings of legacy systems.
Read More: GlobalFintechSeries Interview with Raymond Wyand, CEO & Co-founder at gini
What according to you will drive demand for new innovations in fintech and what will the landscape look like in the next few years?
There are so many ongoing issues that could lead to demand for new innovations in fintech in the coming years, but the one that comes to mind immediately is increased regulatory oversight. Since the financial crisis, we have seen a steady drumbeat of new regulations, which have in turn created new inefficiencies to be solved. For example, increased compliance costs have caused many buy-side firms to take a hard look at their balance sheets and farm out any operations that are expensive to undertake in house; this has led to the rise of outsourced trading, a practice virtually unknown to the mainstream just a few years ago. Meanwhile, the regtech space has exploded, and with regulations like the Consolidated Audit Trail and amended Rule 606 still making their impact felt, these firms are poised for future growth as long as the trend of increased oversight continues.
Tag (mention/write about) the one person in the fintech industry whose answers to these questions you would love to read!
Jeff Bezos!
Your favorite FinanceTech quote/Top finance tech books you’d suggest every Fintech industry executive reads at least once.
One quote that I think is incredibly relevant to fintech comes from Jeff Bezos: “I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you’re going to innovate.” It’s a concept that plays out time and time again in my world. When we launched our SaaS-based POEMS in 2013, there was still a lot of anxiety when it came the cloud – perceived risks around data security, reflexive loyalty to providers who had been in the space for years, etcetera – but today, firms are more educated about these offerings and our business has grown accordingly. If you have a truly innovative staff, you’re inevitably going to come up with ideas that consumers aren’t ready for, and that’s ok. You need to stay the course and release the best products you can – and if you’re right, the market will follow.
LiquidityBook is a leading ASP-based provider of buy- and sell-side trading solutions, including order management, portfolio management, trading, FIX network connectivity, compliance and pre- and post-trade processing. Founded in 2005, the LiquidityBook platform is trusted by many of the industry’s most sophisticated buy- and sell-side firms globally.
Sean is a proven financial technology industry leader and Chief Revenue Officer at LiquidityBook
