Your Weekly Fintech Sales Intelligence Newsletter | Volume 33

Plus: 🚨 Why 78% of SaaS Reps Missed Quota in H1

Author

Rafe Houston
July 09, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

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Welcome to Sales Intelligence: FinTech, the weekly newsletter for FinTech sales professionals. Now is the time to fine-tune your strategies, leverage cutting-edge insights, and set the tone for a successful year ahead. Ensure your campaigns not only engage but convert, driving growth and impact in this dynamic industry.

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TODAY’S PICK 🎯

A Q&A on What Broke in H1 and How a Sales Operating System Can Fix It in H2

Nearly 50% of SaaS companies missed revenue targets in Q1 2025. And 78% of reps missed quota.

That’s not a rough patch. It’s a system failure. In this Q&A, we unpack:

  • Why data alone isn’t enough to drive action

  • What happens when strategy has no execution layer

  • How companies like Fospha are turning it around with a Sales Operating System

If you’re relying on dashboards and headcount to fix performance, H2 will look like H1.

📣LEADING VOICES 

AI Is A Great Leveller But Only If We Let It Be

Age, race, background, fancy titles.... AI should remove the gatekeepers. The only real barrier I’ve felt? ⏱️ Time

As a CEO, mum of three, mid-renovation and recovering from a health scare, I’ve had to be deliberate about not getting left behind. Here’s how I’m staying in the game (and hopefully ahead of it):

💡 1. Mindset reset
This isn’t a side project. It’s business critical: I block time weekly to experiment with MCP and push myself to apply AI across every part of my role from board prep to sales coaching.
🧠 2. Make it visible: We hold weekly stand-ups where the team shares how they’re using AI from product builds to day-to-day work hacks. We learn faster when we learn together.
 🚀 3. Build in public: Every time I test a prompt, get an output that saves me time, or I hit a wall, I share it with the team. Transparency creates momentum. It also makes it okay to fail fast. 📈 4. Start with the job to be done

There’s too much AI for AI’s sake. I focus on jobs I already do, building decks, researching prospects, coaching reps and ask: how could AI do 80% of this?

If you lead a team, the pace you move is the pace they move. Don’t watch from the side lines. Get your hands dirty.

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS 🌐

Curve Pay's partnership with Thales enhances iPhone wallet security by integrating Thales' D1 platform for secure NFC mobile payments across iOS and Android. This collaboration strengthens Curve's position in digital payments, offering a seamless and secure experience to its six million European users. This partnership emphasizes providing consumers more control over their financial transactions while maintaining stringent security measures.

FinTech Global

Erebor Bank aims to bridge the gap between cryptocurrency innovation and traditional finance by focusing on stablecoin integration and rigorous regulatory compliance, appealing to investors and tech-driven sectors. The bank's leadership, comprising prominent tech figures like Peter Thiel, enhances its credibility, though it operates in a high-risk environment due to regulatory challenges. Investors should consider Erebor's potential to set standards in the regulated crypto space, while monitoring its charter progress and stablecoin adoption for sound financial strategy.

EthCC in Cannes highlights Ethereum's growing influence as it evolves from a blockchain experiment to an institutional backbone for global finance. Ethereum's role in tokenization and decentralized finance, with companies like Robinhood and Deutsche Bank integrating its technology, amplifies its importance in financial systems. This shift underscores Ethereum's stability and dependability, appealing to institutions that value secure and censorship-resistant infrastructures.

CNBC

Alkami Technology is leading digital banking for credit unions by integrating AI and data solutions to enhance user engagement, streamline operations, and drive significant growth. With over 500 credit union partnerships, Alkami's platform supports secure interfaces and advanced functionalities, offering differentiation in a competitive digital landscape. Its SaaS model ensures scalable revenues, addressing a $2 billion market opportunity, though competition and regulatory challenges persist.