The gulf between building fintech products in 2003 and 2024 is wider than most founders realize. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Finally.com CEO Felix Rodriguez, who has been founding companies since 2003, offers a unique perspective on this evolution – one that carries important lessons for today’s fintech builders.
The Pre-API Era: Building Everything from Scratch
In 2003, the fintech landscape was fundamentally different. “I don’t think people knew what an API was. So if you’re building anything, chances are you’re probably building all of it yourself,” Felix recalls. This meant taking “non technology and archaic ways of doing things and try to build technology on top of it.”
The implications were significant: slower development cycles, higher costs, and fewer developers who knew how to build financial technology. Every component had to be built from the ground up, making innovation both more expensive and more time-consuming.
The Modern Stack Advantage
Today’s founders have access to a radically different development environment. “You got all sorts of APIs and all sorts of fundamental things that allow you to build things,” Felix explains. This transformation has democratized fintech development, making it possible to build sophisticated financial products in fraction of the time it once took.
The AI Layer
The evolution hasn’t stopped with APIs. Finally started incorporating AI five years ago, well before the current AI boom. “When we first started with the company, we launched with AI five years ago and used that to get into 500 startups, but there weren’t transformers and there weren’t LLMs and certainly not accessible,” Felix notes.
Speed vs. Complexity
Despite the advantages of modern development tools, fintech remains a unique challenge. As Felix explains, “If it was just AI and SaaS, you’d go super fast. Super, super fast. But the minute you throw in some fintech stuff, adds complexity and regulatory stuff and compliance things.”
The Strategic Implications
This evolution has led Felix to a counterintuitive piece of advice for modern founders: “I probably just wouldn’t start in fintech. I’d probably start with some kind of software and then figure out how to layer fintech in. Just because fintech, it’s very costly and takes a lot of time, rightfully so.”
Instead, he advocates for a different approach: “What you really should be focused on is ways of getting customers. You can figure out how to get customers… pipeline over everything. Then you can build something long term.”
Key Lessons for Modern Founders:
- Start with Core Software
- Build your foundational product without fintech complexity
- Add financial features gradually as you scale
- Focus on customer acquisition first
- Leverage Modern Tools Strategically
- Use APIs to accelerate development
- Incorporate AI where it adds real value
- Don’t let tool availability drive product decisions
- Understand the True Costs
- Recognize that fintech still requires significant investment
- Plan for regulatory and compliance overhead
- Balance speed with security and reliability
- Build for Scale
- Design systems that can handle regulatory requirements
- Plan for future integrations and capabilities
- Create processes that work at scale
The Platform Vision
Finally’s approach reflects this evolved understanding. Rather than trying to build everything from scratch like in 2003, they’re focusing on becoming what Felix calls a “platform of platforms.” This approach leverages modern development capabilities while acknowledging the unique challenges of financial technology.
Looking Forward
The contrast between building fintech in 2003 and 2024 reveals more than just technological evolution – it shows how the fundamental approach to building financial technology has changed. While modern tools have made development more accessible, the core challenges of building financial technology remain.
For today’s founders, the lesson isn’t just about using modern tools – it’s about understanding how to build strategically in an environment where technical capability often outpaces regulatory and market readiness. As Felix’s journey shows, success in fintech isn’t just about what you can build – it’s about building the right things in the right order.
The story of fintech’s evolution from 2003 to 2024 isn’t just about technological progress – it’s about the growing sophistication in how we approach building financial technology. For modern founders, this means combining the best of both eras: the careful, foundational approach of the past with the powerful, efficient tools of the present.