MPC Interview with Wayne Brown of The Walker Group
Please state your name, title, company, and email address to provide to prospective partners and customers interested in receiving more information.
Wayne Brown, Managing Partner, The Walker Group, wbrown@walkegroupnyc.com. Call me at (347) 546-2481.
How are you different than other brands in your space?
The Walker Group is a business advisory consulting company that focuses at the intersection of FinTechs and financial services. Through a management consultative approach, we work with FinTechs as an extension of their business development resources to introduce them to key decision-makers at banks, payment processors, and large corporations.
The Walker Group provides clients key advantages to participate in RFPs, business opportunities, and strategic conversations that they would not have if not collaborating with The Walker Group.
Unlike companies whose clients are pooled together and managed by a dedicated company resource, our clients are known by the team. Our approach is to develop a partnership rather than a vendor mentality.
How would you describe your value proposition to prospective customers and channel partners?
Many companies approach partnerships as a one-size-fits-all approach. The Walker Group’s approach is to connect partners through networking before identifying the opportunity. Companies still conduct business with people whom they know rather than with strangers.
To accomplish this, The Walker Group has launched a series of assets. One asset is The FinTech Virtual Lunch, a monthly webinar series. Event participants composed of industry FinTech founders, bank executives, industry leaders, and stakeholders are in a strong position, when applicable, to meet the clients of The Walker Group.
What recent challenges have your company’s leadership faced and how did you overcome them?
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic enabled The Walker Group management team to shift the strategy to more virtual events than in-person. As a result of this change in strategy, additional markets were opened in Latin America, Europe, and Asia. The launch of virtual events has contributed to over 300 new executives added and discussions with corporate executives from Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, and Bolivia.
Another challenge faced was balancing the execution of new projects while growing a sales pipeline. In this economic environment, there remains the need to ensure that revenues are balanced through managing expenses. Our focus on carefully managing the revenue and expense process contributes to tracking and positive results.
What recent milestone have you achieved and why is it significant?
The FinTech Virtual Lunch, a division of The Walker Group, held 45 webinars with a cumulative attendance of over 4,000 registrants. The ratio of attendees versus registrants has grown significantly and this has contributed to more people participating and benefiting from the events held. These events not only provide value to the participants, but each session includes a breakout session to allow attendees to meet participants to exchange names and ideas and connect in the future.
What near-term opportunities will 2024 present to you and your team?
The Walker Group is optimistic about opportunities for 2024. A key focus remains on adding new customers to the FinTech Corporate Development Program. Connecting FinTechs to The Walker Group Bank Network continues to grow. Our research reveals FinTech faces challenges in building bank partnerships. We are well-positioned to expand the number of FinTechs partnering with banks.
Our bank partners consist of top-tier banks such as Bank of America, U.S. Bank, First National Bank of Omaha, Avidia Bank, and Comerica. Our strategy for 2024 is to expand our bank partnership to include regional and community banks. Innovation is no longer a strategy just for the larger banks.
What’s a key trend for your industry in 2024, and why do you think it’s important?
The focus of the FinTech industry analyst is that the 2024 forecast is bleak. A number of FinTechs will run out of cash. In view of this, the opportunity for The Walker Group is to focus on building partnerships with FinTech with strong value propositions and financials, solid product offerings, and gaining traction. Our focus for 2024 is to partner with more late-stage companies seeking stronger alliances with banks and financial service providers.
