The turtle’s quest for survival is an apt metaphor for Fintechstartups. Each year, thousands of innovative ideas are hatched. A small percentage gets funded. One VC told me that of 5,000 pitches he receives each year, barely 5 get funded. Of those that do get funding, fewer still launch a viable commercial product. Then most discover that they do not have the field to themselves. There are competing startups pursuing the same market. And if they can reach some stage of viability there are often more substantial predators in the form of the Big Financial Institutions. At various stages along the way, there are demands for increasing scale often pulling the business away from the Founders’ vision.

海龟对生存的追求是对金融科技初创公司的恰当比喻。每年都会有成千上万的创新点子诞生。一小部分人得到资助。一位风投告诉我，在他每年收到的5000个投球中，只有5个得到了资助。在那些获得资金的公司中，很少有公司能推出可行的商业产品。然后大多数人发现他们没有自己的领域。有竞争的初创公司在追求同一个市场。而且，如果它们能够达到生存的某个阶段，往往会有更大的掠夺者以大型金融机构的形式出现。在这一过程中的各个阶段，都有扩大规模的需求，这往往会使企业偏离创始人的愿景。