A Founder’s Perspective: Q&A session with Timothy Strike, Chief Product Officer at Beam South Africa
1. Can you provide a brief overview of your startup and the product or service it offers?
At Beam, we’re leading the charge in transforming how individuals apply for and manage credit. Our goal is to foster an ecosystem that strengthens connections between lenders and borrowers, unlocking financial opportunities and driving upward mobility. We achieve this by building platforms that share up-to-date, high fidelity and consumer-permissioned data.
2. In a crowded market, what sets your product apart and makes it disruptive? How does it address a gap or pain point that existing solutions might overlook?
We are committed to ensuring a seamless implementation of the product for our customers. We adapt our offering to the needs of each customer, thus reducing the risk associated with the introduction of our technology.
3. What challenges did you encounter while developing your product, and how did you overcome them? Were there any pivotal moments that shaped the direction of your startup?
We take pride in developing systems that are both high performing and highly reliable. As an organisation driven by engineering and product excellence, we face challenges daily related to user experience, usability and engineering decisions. We have implemented a robust monitoring toolset to ensure that we can deal with dependencies as and when they arise.
4. How does your product challenge the status quo in your industry?
Our thesis for optimising risk rating in credit applications is based on a person’s:
1. Propensity to repay debt
2. Their ability to pay debt
In order to achieve this we deploy a technique called “cash-flow underwriting” which looks at the affordability and transactional behaviour of an applicant.
We have also spent a lot of time and effort to enhance the overall product experience and design, ensuring that it is both intuitive and trustworthy Every decision we make is aligned with these objectives, providing a refreshing and satisfying experience for our users and customers From a feature perspective, we offer the ability to connect multiple accounts, categorise transactions and identify risky behaviour buried within bank statement. All of this is fed into our machine learning engine to provide forward looking projections and insights.
5. What was the initial spark or idea that led to the creation of your startup? How has this idea evolved since the inception of your company?
The idea for Beam originated from a thought experiment focused on applying a technical and machine learning driven approach to the underserved credit market. This discussion emerged in response to the data published by the regulatory body, which ultimately led to us developing an MVP, the response from stakeholders in the industry revealed that such an approach had not yet been fully explored in the space.
6. How do you envision your product changing the way people or businesses operate in the long term? What impact do you hope it will have on the industry as a whole?
Our goal as a company is straightforward: to enhance people’s financial well-being by expanding their credit opportunities and aiding in assisting them in managing their obligations. Our aim is to offer reassurance to those feeling strain from broader economic factors. We focus on two key areas:
1. At the application stage, by guaranteeing that credit is extended to those who are capable of managing it
2. Equipping individuals with effective tools to manage their financial commitments
7. Startups often pivot or iterate their products based on user feedback. How has customer feedback influenced the development of your product, and what role does user experience play in your ongoing strategy?
We are fortunate enough to have met people along the way who share our sense of frustration about the problem. These discussions have had a crucial role in informing our product roadmap and development. What has been inspiring is the wide range of interest we’ve received, spanning from enterprises with thousands of employees to smaller scale lenders.
8. As founders, what is your vision for the future of your startup? How do you see your product evolving, and what milestones do you hope to achieve in the next few years?
Our goal is to create a positive impact, driven by two core motivations: the passion for the technical challenges that align with our ambitions, and a commitment to making a difference by aiding those who are burdened by an inability to manage their finances effectively. We firmly believe that the application of software and machine learning can produce tangible, real world benefits for both borrowers and lenders.
9. Disruption can sometimes face resistance from established players. How do you navigate challenges with incumbents in your industry, and what strategies do you employ to gain market acceptance for your innovative product?
We do not see ourselves as competitors to the incumbent players, but rather as a complement to a lenders’ toolkit and a guardian for consumers, whether at the point of application or in their ongoing financial journey.
About Beam
Beam is a fintech company founded in South Africa. Our software solution helps organisations make better credit decisions by seamlessly distilling a broad range of data sources in real-time
We enable risk officers to access all the information they need to analyse their customers in one place, and make it easy to make more informed choices throughout the credit and risk lifecycle. Our state-of-the-art software and API-driven model enable better collaboration and visibility between credit professionals, technical teams and management.
