Elizabeth Warren Is Watching MrBeast's Step Acquisition | Cornerstone's Elizabeth Gujral

MrBeast just acquired Step. Cash App is going after 6-year-olds. The creator economy is colliding with regulated banking — and Senator Elizabeth Warren is putting the whole space on notice.
In this episode, Roland sits down with Elizabeth Gujral, Director in the Research & Fintech Advisory (RAFA) practice at Cornerstone Advisors, to unpack what the MrBeast/Step deal really means for banks, credit unions, and fintechs. We get into who owns the outcome when an influencer-fronted fintech goes sideways, why "we're a community institution" is no longer a differentiator, and the practical playbook financial institutions need to build if they want to compete with SoFi, Chime, Brex, and Mercury for the next generation of customers.
Elizabeth also shares fresh findings from Cornerstone's SoFi research — including the surprising channels SoFi members say they actually heard about the brand from — and explains why short-form content, micro-influencer trust, and a real tech stack now matter more than a logo on the local soccer jersey.

Chapters:
00:00 Cash App targeting 6–12 year olds & the race to the bottom of age
01:40 MrBeast acquires Step — the 8,000-pound elephant in fintech
03:13 Banking-as-a-service meets the creator economy: who owns the bad outcome?
04:06 Elizabeth Warren's letter and putting the creator-fintech stack on notice
05:35 Are banks becoming commoditized rails behind the brands?
07:09 What a sponsor bank actually does (and where it gets messy)
08:42 Elizabeth's role at Cornerstone & the RAFA team
11:44 How banks and credit unions should rethink partnerships and distribution
13:13 Inside the SoFi research: how members actually find them
14:47 The "influencer trust funnel" and why micro-influencers matter for community FIs
16:04 Where the attention is: TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts
17:03 Why social media without the tech stack behind it is "lipstick on a pig"
20:24 The biggest theme in fintech research right now: growth
22:42 Why "our people and our customer service" is no longer a differentiator
23:58 Treasury, small business, and the ERP integration gap
26:50 Fiserv core consolidation — good thing or bad thing?
28:09 Why Cornerstone research isn't a sales fluff piece
28:46 Where to follow Elizabeth, Ron Shevlin, and Cornerstone
Guest
Elizabeth Gujral — Director, Research & Fintech Advisory (RAFA), Cornerstone Advisors
Follow Elizabeth and Ron Shevlin on LinkedIn for Cornerstone's latest research and Forbes columns.
#fintech #banking #MrBeast #creditunions #communitybanking #SoFi #influencermarketing #embeddedfinance #BaaS

Want to work with Propagate Fintech? Fill out a contact form at www.propagatefintech.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

If Mr. Beast can convert only 4% of his YouTube subscribers into customers of Step Financial, the company he just bought, it will make the organization one of the largest banking institutions in the United States. On the show today, I've got Elizabeth Goucherol from Cornerstone Advisors, who is a lead researcher there, and she has a lot of really interesting thoughts on what this means for the industry and what community institutions can do about it. Here's the interview. Well, Elizabeth, thanks so much for coming on the show. It's so nice to have somebody from Cornerstone on the show and so nice to interact with you guys, not through an RFP or presenting like I did so many times in my former life.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Yeah. Well, I'm I'm excited to be here. This is gonna be a really fun topic because it's it's so it's so important right now. I mean, I don't know if you just saw two, because I know that you know we're gonna be talking about Mr. Beast and influencer marketing and all that, but uh if you saw the news the other day about Cash App now is also gonna be targeting like six to 12 year olds. And so people are really starting to figure out how do we target this next generation and the younger folks for engagement.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Wow. Talk about a race to the bottom of age.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

You know, I was looking, I was looking it up and it was, I was like, how are they gonna be supporting six-year-olds? And you know, I don't think that, you know, square uh square uh cash app suddenly cares about the financial well-being of a 10-year-old, but I think it's a really great engagement strategy of, you know, they won't have access to the app, but their parents will. And then they can run like almost like a like a green light or any of those other fintechs or, you know, to do youth banking. So it's a way to one, make the relationships with the parents a lot stronger or establish new ones. And then second, hey, I mean, I my first debit card, I had it through college, and my parents opened up that account for me. So creating those sticky relationships very early on. So we'll see how that works out.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

That's smart. Well, they're definitely skating to where the puck is going. Six is that's really young, but um you know, I'm sure that a slide deck and an analyst somewhere told them that that was the right play.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Probably.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

So I wanna I wanted to talk with you about Mr. Beast. This move with acquiring step is obviously the 800-pound gorilla in the room. Wait, the elephant in the room? There we go. As it relates to, you know, non-traditional players coming in and having a potentially really outsized impact on the industry. Is this like the top of the roller coaster moment for influencers coming into fintech? What's your read on the landscape?

SPEAKER_00 2:41

I think it is. And I think you know, I'm gonna say the 8,000 pound elephant, because it's you know heavier than a gorilla, only because you think about like Mr. Beast has what 400 million subscribers is bigger than the entire US population. They target what, like 12 to 24 year olds, so like that younger Gen Z, early Gen Alpha, like older Gen Alpha. And I mean, if you I mean whether you like Mr. Beast or not as a person, it doesn't really matter because Beast Industries' company is just a beast at marketing. And I think, you know, this is really getting to the top of the roller coaster. And we don't know what that roller coaster is fully gonna look like. Because it is the first time that this creator influencer that has so much weight in people's lives, because people spend their lives on TikTok and online and on YouTube, you know, they're entering financial services and that's gonna carry a ton of weight when we think about how do people hear about fintechs and their and banking services. And if all of a sudden you have an influencer, you know, promoting a product with through Step, you know, that's gonna, you know, I only expect Steph's user base to just boom.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

Yeah. I mean, if he even converts a tiny portion of his subscribers and followers into customers, he you know becomes a huge regional player kind of like overnight or whenever that occurs.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

You know, the the question becomes, because it's still like that banking as a service relationship, is all right, we already we already know about you know the fintech plus bank relationship, but now we're adding another layer of influencers. So to me, the big concern going forward is who owns the outcome, whether that's you know, if it's good, it's gonna be Beast Industries, they own it. Step, yay. But if something's bad, who who owns the bad outcome? Is it when you know when kids start losing money and they don't fully understand the weight of their decisions when they're signing up for these fintechs or like step, you know, is it is it gonna be Mr. Beast? Is he gonna take a brand hit? Is it gonna be step? And or is it gonna be, you know, the sponsor bank at the end?

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Yeah, who's left holding the bag, I guess, is what you're saying.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

Yeah, well, you know, there's some blood in the water, which Elizabeth Warren, I think, is sniffing out. She and she has she's had a lot to say about Mr. Beast. She always does. She always does. Lover or hater, man, she does her thing uh, you know, very very well. What what's your take on her position as it relates to Stub?

SPEAKER_00 5:03

I think for for me, when I was reading through her letter, I mean, the big question for me is is this letter from Warren about really protecting teenagers and younger folks from the banking as a service, you know, that fintech plus influencer kind of stack, or is it more about putting, you know, just it's almost like a warning because we're at the top of that roller coaster and it's putting the whole creator economy on a notice. So if, you know, Mr. Beast does this, just so you know, she's making it clear, hey, by the way, we're watching you. Or if anyone else wants to copy what Mr. Beast is doing, just so you know, we are watching. So that's what I think she's trying to do is just put the whole this creator plus fintech economy on notice. And we're watching you, you can't do anything you want. This is a regulated zone. And I think a lot of fintechs have learned that over the years that they can't just do anything they want when they're when it comes to people's money and they're especially working with banks because they have their own compliance rules. So I think it's gonna be very easy to see how it all works out.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

Very juicy future here indeed. So I I once heard Bill Gates say customers don't need banks, they need banking. And when I try to think about where this is headed, and I try to take it, I guess, to like a logical conclusion, 10 years down the road, 20 years down the road, whatever it may be. Do you think that this moves us in a direction of commoditizing banks and what they do even more so and really just making it rails? It's just rails behind the scenes. Bank brands go away. And do you see kind of where I'm going with this?

SPEAKER_00 6:40

I do. And I think I think you're I think you're right. I don't think it's starting anything. I think it's probably just more accelerating it, right? Because there's this whole embedded finance, you know, model where you know print financial products don't have to live within a bank or marketed by a bank. I mean, they're showing up as buy now pay leader at a checkout, their insurance at a travel booking. It's it's your Home Depot credit card. I mean, I mean, I have I have a few friends I've actually asked, they have the Apple card, and they had no idea that it wasn't Apple issuing the card. They were like Goldman Sachs, really. So I I don't think consumers really care. And it's not maybe they don't care, but they're uneducated about it in you know, in a nice way. Because I mean, you and I and everyone else probably listened to this is we're so embedded in this space that we understand it. And I think, you know, getting back to Warren 2, I think that's one of the reasons why it is good to bring this up and put the this economy on notice because we have to protect consumers who don't fully understand the intricacies of how this is all gonna work.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Yeah. No, I think that I think that really makes a lot of sense. What for those who don't know, which there apparently there's a few people out there who don't understand this, uh what's the role of a sponsor bank in the fintech model traditionally?

SPEAKER_00 7:53

Traditionally, it's just been to, I'm gonna say it very simply, to offer the product. So fintech wants to to offer a debit card, they want to offer offer, you know, a checking account, those checking accounts actually live on the ledger of the bank. So all they have to all they really do is like they're just these big marketing machines. But when you deposit money into you know what you think is your ch what you think is you know your time account, that's actually gonna be money living at the bank. And that can open up a whole, you know, can of worms too when it comes to who owns money, where is it, how are how are all the how's the money stored in like FBO accounts or in individual accounts, and it's it gets messy pretty quick.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

Yeah, absolutely. So I guess the value proposition offered from a bank to a fintech is hey, let us worry about all the not sexy stuff, and you get to do the marketing and the front end and the Mr. Beasts of the world.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

Right. And you know, the banks can make a few bucks from it too. You know, when it's done properly. And if I mean they, you know, they can take a cut of interchange fees, they can charge for, you know, accounts and they pass on some cost to the fintech. So it's not just banks offering their services for free. They do get a little bit of a slice of the pie.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

Absolutely. Ain't nothing in this world for free.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

No, not at all.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

So, Elizabeth, what is w I probably should have started with this, but tell us a little bit about your background and what you do at uh at Cornerstone.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

So I am a director in what we call our RAFA or research and fintech advisory team. And so I work with a guy a lot of people know. So his name's Ron Chevlin, but we we specifically we manage all of Cornerstones commissioned research. So we'll work with fintechs and financial technology, and when I say fintechs, I mean more like financial technology companies that serve, you know, banks and credit unions. And, you know, if there's a topic they're interested in exploring or we want to explore on potentially the, you know, what's the if you're gonna have a growth strategy, what's the tech stack required? You know, what is how do you compete against certain fintechs? What are some what how do you, you know, what are the current operations of small and medium businesses and how do you appropriately go after them? So we are in the business of continuously learning and keeping all of our clients educated as well.

SPEAKER_02 10:09

Got it. And so I assume you have a hand in, you know, issuing the kind of cornerstone State of the Union, if you will, summaries and and communications, newsletters that are going out.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

Oh yes, because they like we like to have an opinion on everything that we put into our newsletters or put out onto social media. So I am one of the people that they'll be like, hey, what do you think of this, X, Y, Z? And then yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

That's awesome. I think that's something you and your team have done really well. You know, cornerstone. I've been in the industry now for 20 plus years, which is insane to say and and and think back on. But you guys have always done a, you know, love cornerstone, hey cornerstone. Who hates you? I don't actually I don't know of anybody who hates you guys. The the only I just have PTSD from the RFPs, you know, when I when I had that when they landed on my desk.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Yeah, the research the research group is uh it's is a significant smaller part of the organization we do. I mean, we do a lot of selections, and as you know, I mean pretty pretty strict RFP process for selections.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

You know, and and where I was getting at with this, sorry, I didn't mean to take in a negative direction. You guys are doing a great job, obviously. You built a great brand. And really the way that you've done this is by being very honest and very candid with uh your takes on things, publications, you know, stuff that you guys put out there in the market. And Chevlin and, you know, the other folks at Cornerstone have just done a really good job building a trustworthy brand. And, you know, I think that's great. And it's hard to do. You know, it's scary. It's kind of scary to do that.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

It's but I mean, that's kind of like what makes Cornerstone cornerstone. And we we do that, and I think is especially more important now than ever, is like we don't want to tell a fintech or a bank or a credit union something that they could just ask Chat GPT or Claude or Perplexity. I mean, we we want to be able to tell them, you know, what's something people aren't thinking about when it comes to whatever the topic is. And I think I I, you know, selfishly, I think we've done that pretty well.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

You guys have. Yeah, you really have. Um so let's bring it back to you know what this all means for banks and I guess, you know, also for credit unions. Credit unions can play, you know, in this space as well. How should they be thinking about partnerships? Because, you know, celebrity endorsements, partnerships have been around forever, even like with STEP, you know, Will Smith was an investor.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

He was.

SPEAKER_02 12:39

You know, Serena Williams has invested in fintech funds. Uh, you know, the Jake Paul's of the world have, but this one feels really different. I guess how should banks be thinking about, and I guess financial institutions be thinking about distribution and partnerships?

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Yeah, I think it's, you know, a number one, it's it's it's should be changing if it already hasn't changed, how people are really starting to think about how they want to go after and market themselves to especially the younger generation, you know, because it's especially it's an i it's an issue for credit unions, it's an issue for community banks, if we're on the consumer side of what, you know, the median ages of their members and their customers. And they need to get a lot better at being where their future and current customers are. And on it, and we all know, like that's online. We've all been online for a while. And it feels like these financial institutions are trying to play catch up to where they should be marketing. They're almost like taking this more old school mentality to marketing when they really need to be thinking more about the future and you know, how do how do people hear about things? So, an interesting tidbit. So, we're currently doing some research right now on how financial institutions can compete against SoFi. And so we so we surveyed thousands of SoFi members. And an interesting thing that came out of it was that the majority of members of SoFi heard about SoFi either from social media or their friends, which is not super surprising. But those friends have also then heard about it from social media. And actually, the third one was uh, you know, the the stadium stadium rights, so they see it on sports. So but you know, you know, most financial institutions, unless you're like maybe Chase, can afford to put your name on an NFL stadium. But that friend piece to me is really, really important because if the source of that is also social media, that tells you that number one, trust is super duper important. Of like we're hearing it from a friend and they're hearing it from social media, and they probably heard about it from an influencer, a Will Smith, or someone like that. And these are figures. I mean, when you think about the influencer economy, like they don't the reason why they're so successful and they can sell products through their TikTok shop and all that is because people trust them. People have, you know, certain levels of trust that when they start engaging with these influencers, and when we think about Mr. Beast too, he has millions of people that he knows. And you know, there's been a lot of research in the past about you know, people tend to view influencers, like people tend to have a closer feeling that, you know, feeling that they're closer to the influencers than the influencers are to them. So they establish these personal relationships that are very one-sided. So when we think about how do other financial institutions, banks, and credit unions, you know, think about this influencer economy, obviously they can't afford a Will Smith. They can't afford a Kim Cushion or a Mr. Beast. But what they can do is think about their own markets, their own communities, and you know, who who are the some of the, you know, maybe like micro influencers in your market? What organizations are big and visible? What are the centers of trust that your that your members and credit and uh customers care about? And then looking at partnerships through them. Because this is almost like the influencer trust funnel, I think is going to become more and more important as we see that's where the uptake of financial services is coming from.

SPEAKER_02 16:03

Very well said. I think that's that is bang on the money. Where should institutions start? Like if they say, okay, this is this is a wake-up call for us, how should they start putting together a playbook? You know, like we don't need details, but like what would the playbook look like in terms of you know, putting their brand or their customers are spending time online? Is it like with is it on Twitch? Is it going after Reddit, subreddits? Like where how should people approach those?

SPEAKER_00 16:33

So when we've done research in the past about how we're uh we're specifically online, people are finding financial services. It tends to yes be TikTok, it's Instagram, and a big one is actually YouTube. So, and not the long form stories, but also but like short form, because that's where a lot of people's attention is. Because we don't, if you want to start getting in and playing in the social media space, you know, we've seen this at Cornerstone too, that our most engaged content is the short form content. Because and it's not just the younger generation that has shorter attention spans now.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

It's we all do.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

It's it's all do. It's it's everything. So you want to keep your social media engagement. I mean, if you're putting out clips, like keep them short, keep them snazzy, keep them engaging, but don't go over like 10 seconds.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

Okay, fair enough. I've noticed with our own content that I mean our short form stuff is consumed at hundreds of percent more than long form content.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Yeah, ours too.

SPEAKER_02 17:32

So yeah, no, that's uh that's an interesting just dynamic years. Do you guys do you guys do commission on behalf of institutions who are saying, okay, you know, we're we're we're happy with the performance of the institution, but we want to grow, we want to grow the institution. You know, where does like the digital advertising, the marketing, the storytelling fit into the growth levers for these institutions?

SPEAKER_00 18:01

So we do full, like a full assessment on their current marketing. So where are they playing? What kind of ROI are they getting as well? And then we also it's also important to evaluate your technology stack to manage all of these things because you can have the best TikTok videos in the world, but if you don't have the technology and the processes to capture people when they finally come to your website or click on that link, I mean, that's where a lot of financial institutions will fail. They will lose people when they get to the website or when they realize that what do you mean it's gonna be a whole 24 hours for my account to be approved? That's a manual process. I mean, I opened up a SoFi account to make a point to a client and I did it on a call in three minutes. Like, I mean, oh my gosh. Oh, I think it was technically three minutes, 21 seconds. But I did it to make a point of wow, you can have the best social media you want, but unless you have the technology and the processes to back it up, then it's just lipstick on a pig.

SPEAKER_02 18:57

Well said, well said. I tried to open up uh a business account with a local institution here in Oregon where I live, and I had to actually schedule an appointment from a drop-down that had all their branches located, like with their street address. I don't understand as impossible. I can't, I have four kids, I'm busy, I'm not gonna do that.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

No. So if you're gonna be online, you have to be online. You have to have the digital strategy, you have to leverage, you know, banners in your in your digital banking, you have to have that social media strategy. You can't rely on physical mailers with no way to track the ROI on whether or not it's working. You have to be able to, you have to be able to track your results.

SPEAKER_02 19:39

Right. What's a piece of research that you've recently conducted or you're you're doing now that you think is really interesting or something that people should should know about?

SPEAKER_00 19:50

Honestly, is the SoFi research. Because I was I was so excited to do it. And yeah, I'm excited for all the research we do. But it really answered a good answering the question for me of like, why do fintechs win relationships? Like, what's the front door? How do they keep them engaged? And you know, SoFi we've found has like not only do they have a great you know online presence, but the one of the key things that people love about SoFi, one of the reasons they recommend it is not only are they also competitive on rates, but they also also offer like the breadth of products. They find SoFi's communication to be, you know, not spammy. It's it's the communications are relevant. They're hitting them with products that are really relevant to their situation. So their members feel like SoFi understands them in their financial and their, you know, their financial lives, which is really important when we think about financial institutions too, of like what's what's the mission to help people with their financial lives? And if you can't do that with the experiences that you're offering, then you're gonna lose a lot of members to fintechs. Or you, I mean, they already are.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

Sure. Sure. Elizabeth, I want to draw you out on some of the research that you guys are conducting most frequently. What are people coming to you wanting help with the most? Is there a trend that you're seeing?

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Yes. So a lot of the, so a lot of like the financial technology firms that are commissioning us to do research right now. There's a huge, big umbrella theme, which is all about growth. Because, you know, they're using and they use these commission research papers to, you know, and you know, help their sales efforts when they're talking to, when they're talking to banks and they're trying to, you know, they're trying to explain, you know, why our technology is great and why, you know, you should invest in this technology because it's solving a problem in the market. And it's the theme for, you know, last year, and we we wrote a quick research recap on it, and for this year, it's all about, you know, things are different. Banking is not the same as it was 20 years ago, and especially not even five years ago. And the status quo of how banks are operating is not gonna either, you know, you're either gonna not fail as a bank, but you're not gonna grow. And that makes you susceptible to potentially being acquired. If you want to stay relevant in your market, you have to think about what is what is our growth strategy? Where do we want to be? Are we a bank and we want to get into consumer lending? Why is that important? Um, we're doing, you know, on the flip side, we're doing some on how do credit unions play in the business space because they're traditionally so much more retail. Uh, we've done a few recently around how do you leverage fintech partnerships to offer these products and services that you don't currently offer because those are the things that your customers want. So it's all about how do you break out of the standard, you know, black and white word community bank mold. I mean, you know.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

I mean, if I if I had a dollar for every time you know a bank or credit union told us that their differentiator is, you know, our people and our customer service, I'd be a very rich person. Just because if everyone says that, then it's not a differentiator. So it's good this year, it was really about how do you leverage fintech partnerships? How should you grow? What are some different ways you should grow? What are the tech stacks behind those to enable that growth? Because otherwise, you know, we're you're losing to the chime to the chimes and the sofis around the business. You're losing to Brex and Mercury. And, you know, it's not, you're not just competing against the big banks anymore. You're competing against fintechs and they have people's attention.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

Right. Right. That is a very interesting point. And yeah, it's such a common narrative where people kind of wrap themselves in the flag of we're a community institution, you know, our logo is our are is on the is on the jersey of the soccer, you know, soccer player. Yeah, yeah, you know, which is which is great and and is a pillar of strength, I think, for these institutions, but there's so much more kind of on the table for them to take advantage of.

SPEAKER_00 23:51

Because it feels like a lot of financial institutions, you know, big banks aside, are are they're standing on that one pillar of work, community institution. That's what we do. It's like, okay, but do you fully understand what your community wants from you? Because, you know, the fact that you can't bank everyone in your community means that, you know, you shouldn't try to, you know, bank everyone. You should really be able to know who you are, who do you serve, what products do you offer, and how you're gonna offer it. So it's Chris the most frictionless experience so that you can stay competitive. It's not just about customer service anymore.

SPEAKER_02 24:27

Absolutely. I just did an interview with uh Christian, I may get his last name wrong, Roop, Rupee. He just joined Zach Forbes' uh new and new organization. Uh it's called Impact Fi Advisors. Anyways, he was a career banker, fintech founder, uh, you know, who had a nice exit. Anyways, he he has a unique perspective, and he was talking about how uh the one thing that a lot of institutions get wrong is treasury and and small business. How do you see the the evolution of small business as a you know a critical component for uh the community institutions?

SPEAKER_00 25:10

So I'm gonna answer this from a perspective just because we we just wrote some research on how do you how do banks you know better offer, you know, offer these the products and services that businesses want. And the topic was called monetizing open open banking because it is a revenue stream for banks to I mean, as an example, um we did some we some of our research showed that you know for comp for small, if you know for small medium businesses and some commercial, they have ERP systems and they want their banks to integrate the a integrate to them, but only like what seems like seven to ten percent of banks under 10 billion actually offer them.

SPEAKER_02 25:51

And when you say ERP, it's kind of l liken it to a Pfizer of Premier Core, but in a non-banking space, it's the core kind of nucleus.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

Yeah, it's the core nucleus of a of a of a business. It's you know, it helps them run their finances and their accounting, and it's so critical. And you know, without these certain integrations for to help, you know, businesses run run their financial lives. You have so many businesses that have so many different financial accounts and that don't speak to each other. So one of the ways that banks can really capture the full business relationship if they're gonna offering these treasury products is think about what do our businesses want, what don't we offer, and how do we get there through open through open banking, through integrations and like real-time APIs.

SPEAKER_02 26:39

And do you think that is the is the onus on the banks to put pressure on their fintech providers to make that happen?

SPEAKER_00 26:47

Yes, because I think as we know that, you know, especially for when it comes to the cores, they're not always the most innovative bunch. So you do have to put it in.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

Hey, come on.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

That's that's a die, that's a hill I'll die on. That's a hill, you know, corner. But but I mean, I know, you know, they do try to be innovative, but you know, banks, if they want to be able to do something, their cores have to be able to offer it. Or at least be willing to build it. Because, you know, if you get dragged down by the capabilities you currently have in your current tech stack, it's gonna keep you from growing.

SPEAKER_02 27:19

Yeah, absolutely. Speaking of cores, kind of off topic. I'm sure you're probably aware of this, but you know, FireServe is consolidating their core lineup. What do you think? Good thing, bad thing?

SPEAKER_00 27:29

Um, I hope a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 27:33

I think it's gonna be good. I feel like, you know, I used to work at work for FireServe. They're amazing in so many ways, but man, that's a lot of products.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

I was yeah, so that way it does, it'll it'll hopefully streamline things. I just hope that they can the operationalize it correctly internally and make the transitions for all their current clients pretty seamless or as easy as it can be.

SPEAKER_02 27:57

Core implementations, no big deal.

SPEAKER_00 28:00

No, big you know, it just it you know, it takes only a couple of weeks, right, to get a new core branch. So it's not an overyear project. So yeah, I mean that's I think it's good that they're consolidating. I just hope that they're doing everything they can to help their clients along the way.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I'm sure, you know, I I heard this uh this saying from one of the executives from back when I worked there, and it's something along the lines of we're not always going to get it right, but we will make a right, which I assume that they will uh they'll do that.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

I think so too.

SPEAKER_02 28:32

Well, Elizabeth, this has been awesome having you on the show. Really interesting to hear your perspective, especially because so much of what you are digging into is done from an objective empirical standpoint as somebody who's doing all this research.

SPEAKER_00 28:47

Well, yes, and one note on that none of our research are fluff pieces. I mean, there have been so many times they'll come back to us after with edits and say, say this about us. And Ron and I are like, no, like this is this is an objective piece, it's not a sales fluff piece for you. So we do we keep it as neutral as possible.

SPEAKER_02 29:04

You know, that's how you that's how you retain your street cred. So I uh I commend you guys on that. So where can people learn about you know the work that you're doing, Elizabeth, and and what's going on with Cornerstone?

SPEAKER_00 29:15

Honestly, it's it's follow us on LinkedIn. It's I'm not as active on social media as I probably should be, but if you want the best impossible resource, follow Ron Chevlin on LinkedIn for for because he's he's quite a prolific writer.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

He really is. I don't know how the guy does it, but he's getting after it and uh he's doing a good job.

SPEAKER_00 29:37

Yeah. But or just contact me directly. We're always happy to have conversations.

SPEAKER_02 29:42

Okay, awesome. Elizabeth, thanks for coming on.

SPEAKER_00 29:44

Yeah, thank you so much, Roland. It was fun.

SPEAKER_02 29:47

Hey, did you know that Propagate FinTech is also an end-to-end marketing and PR firm? If you'd like to explore working with us or coming on a podcast, reach out to us at propagatefintech.com and we can explore whatever you're working on.