Being first to market doesn’t guarantee success.
Actually, very often the companies who are first to market find themselves outpaced by more nimble start-ups who can innovate more quickly without the challenge of having any live customers to serve. It’s also true that many companies are actually just delivering an iteration on something which has already been created - not new, just better.
When we set up incuto, we were definitely going to be first to market with something. Whilst it may be an iteration on something which already existed in other sectors, we wanted our platform to be affordable, accessible and way, way better, built for a sector who needed it more than most.
But we also knew that this was going to be different. It wasn’t about registering trademarks or trying to unseat some incumbents. This mattered.
It mattered because the tools we were building were going to help drive change.
We were going to serve a group of largely ignored and underserved, not-for-profit lenders, who in turn were trying to help a group of largely ignored and financially underserved customers.
So being first here wasn’t a race against a competitor. It was a race against a wicked and pervasive problem that was so big that it costs lives, not just money.
So here’s what we did:
We were the first company to disrupt and democratise the way tech was delivered to the lenders, by offering transaction-based pricing and scrapping license and support fees.
We were the first company to agree ground-breaking commercial contracts with key suppliers (including TransUnion, Clear Bank & Mastercard), leveraging the buying power of the sector, then pass on the significant savings.
We were the first company to connect primary schools with Credit Unions in the LifeSavers project, sponsored by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
We were the first company to launch a Prize Linked Savings product (Prize Savers) spanning multiple Credit Unions, backed by HM Treasury.
We were the first company to enable our customers to offer withdrawals via real-time Faster Payments.
We were the first company to take a regulated position to ensure that real-time payments were available to every lender, no matter how small.
We were the first company to take a regulated position so that the lenders could collect repayments by Direct Debit, sponsored by us.
We were the first company to put a not-for-profit community lender into a mainstream price comparison website, with no upfront costs, ensuring they are always an option when people are searching for the right product.
We were the first company to appoint a Head of Advocacy, whose job is to tell the story of the sector, and the amazing work it does in driving financial inclusion and wellbeing.
And we’re going to continue to be first to market with a whole range of new things to support our customers. In 2024 alone,
we’re going to be offering virtual accounts, allowing end customers to have a “proper” account number, alongside their member number;
we’re going to be offering real-time reconciliation of inbound payments, meaning that money will be available to end-customers within seconds, not days;
we’re going to be connecting more and more Credit Unions and CDFIs into mainstream Price Comparison websites;
we’re going to be taking declined borrowers from mainstream lenders, and ensuring they get access to fair, affordable alternative lenders;
and we’re going to be offering a new way for our lenders to compete with challenges such as Buy Now, Pay Later.
And yes, there are some cool start-ups who will come along, go faster, be better. So, we’ll do all we can to help them succeed too, because the more people trying to help our sector, the better it will become. We didn’t come here to be alone. We’re partnering with some great companies, including Credit Canary and GoodWith to name just two.
When we started this company, we knew it mattered. And it still matters today, more than ever. Right now, 20m people would be refused credit if they applied to a mainstream lender. Many mainstream lenders have invested in technology to say no more quickly, driving up the rate of exclusion.
We’re helping our not-for-profit lenders #GetToYes for more people.
We’re doing that by driving down the cost of lending and driving up the capacity and capability of the lenders we work with.
The lenders we worked with first were pathfinders. We’re so grateful to them for their support and trust. The great news is that many are now more successful and sustainable than ever.
You don’t have to be first. Just don’t get left behind.
Follow our path to success now and help your existing members and prospective customers #GetToYes!