Fintech Sales Strategist & Leader → I merge 25 years of Fintech sales + banking to guide founders from chaos to closed revenue | Advice for selling to financial institutions

If you’re building a great product but struggling to get traction with banks, I help you fix that.

From first intro to final contract, I walk alongside founders to shorten sales cycles, navigate complex buying committees, and build deals that don’t rely on deep discounts.

This isn’t just something I coach on.  It’s something I’ve lived for the past 28 years from a career that spans both worlds:

→  Started as a teller at 19 in a town of 7,500 → earned my way into community banking
→  Spent 23 years at a big-three core, mastering complex sales and buyer journeys
→  Fell in love with sales demos, boardrooms, and turning "nos" into long-term "yeses"
→  Grew into quota-carrying sales leadership, built channels, launched fintech verticals
→  Went deep into BaaS and embedded banking → and learned the value of these partnerships

That journey shaped what I now call the Bank-FinTech Partnership Methodology - a practical, hard-won approach I’ve used (and refined) alongside founders to navigate real-life banking sales cycles, complex buying committees, and long timelines.  It’s not theory.  It’s what actually works when you're in the weeds trying to turn conversations into contracts.

Here’s how we build those bridges together:

↳ Diagnose why your fintech isn’t gaining traction with FIs
↳ Develop a GTM strategy tailored to financial institutions
↳ Translate your innovation into boardroom-ready language
↳ Create a sales process that doesn’t rely on deep discounts
↳ Build trust that converts complex conversations into signed partnerships

👩‍👧‍👦 At home, I’m raising three future fintech execs with my husband - a community bank exec and BaaS strategist. Dinner conversations at our house sound like fintech-banking peace negotiations.

🛠️ At work, I serve as a fractional sales strategist, speaker, and ecosystem builder, helping teams go from chaos to closed without burning bridges in the process.

Ready to stop guessing and start growing?

📅 Book a Free 30-Minute Strategy Call (you’ll walk away with one actionable takeaway):
https://calendly.com/stacybishop20/20_intro

 Not quite ready?  

🗞️ Subscribe to Selling Fintech:  https://sellingfintech.kit.com/e1ec3c973c
➕ Follow me here for real stories, frameworks, and founder-first sales advice.

Stacy Bishop

I have closed $100M+ in contracts with banks and credit unions.
I have built sales teams, banking verticals, and strategic partnerships from scratch.
Here are my 5 Core Principles for closing bank deals: 

1. I get to know who I’m selling to as a person: 
Before I talk about product, I learn who they are, their role, pressures, goals, and how they actually work day-to-day. People buy from people they trust, not from feature lists.

2. I make sure I understand their problem:
Real selling starts with listening. I dig into where the pain lives, how it shows up in their workflow, and what it costs them in time, money, and stress. 

3. I don’t overcomplicate communication:
Once I understand their pain, I connect the dots in simple, clear language. No jargon. No buzzwords. I show how my solution fixes the problem, saves time, or reduces friction. If they can’t repeat the value back to me, I haven’t explained it well enough.

4. I sell to the group not the champion:
Big deals never come down to one person. IT, compliance, risk, operations, and leadership all have a vote. So I build trust with the entire committee and speak to what each person cares about.

5. I put risk reduction at the center
Banks don’t buy features. They buy safety, clarity, and control. Always show how the solution lowers risk — operational, compliance, and reputational.

You don’t win enterprise deals with buzzwords and hype.
You win them by knowing the people, naming the problem, and removing every point of hesitation.

#Fintech BaaS #Banking

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Talks about #hr, #banking, #payroll, #partnerships, and #earnedwageaccess

Bank <> FinTech Partnership Broker || Former Revenue Leader at Jack Henry || 🎤Keynote Speaker

I have closed $100M+ in contracts with banks and credit unions because of one thing…  
And it has nothing to do with AI or product. 
I build a relationship with the human first. 

Senior executives in banking don’t make enterprise deal decisions because of feature lists. They make decisions based on trust, clarity, and confidence in the person and team they’re going to partner with.

The holiday season is one of the most effective windows of the year to strengthen that trust if you approach it correctly. 

Here are three ways to do that: 

1. Send a year-end acknowledgment with zero agenda.
Not a pitch. Not a CTA. A simple, intentional note recognizing something meaningful in their year; a leadership move, a strategic shift, an initiative you know took serious effort. Executives remember who pays attention.

2. Ask one strategic question about their upcoming year.
This time of year, leaders are thinking in terms of Q1 priorities and resource allocation. A single question can open a real conversation: “What outcome is non-negotiable for your team in Q1?” It signals that you’re thinking about their world, not your quota.

3. Offer a short, informal year-end industry debrief. 
Not a sales meeting, a conversation between operators. Fifteen minutes to compare observations on risk, regulation, technology shifts, or operational pressure points as they look ahead to 2026. Executives value peers who think at their level.

This is how major B2B deals begin.
Stop leading with product.
Start leading with human connection.

#Fintech #BaaS #Banking

Last week, our kids came home wearing these to celebrate the 67th day of school. If you have young elementary-age kids, or have spent more than five minutes around them, you already know why that number matters. Somewhere along the way, “six, seven” turned into a full-blown phenomenon. And they don’t just say it. There’s flair. There’s tone. There are hand motions. Six. Seven.
It spread through our house earlier this year like wildfire. 
Which led me to a question I can’t get out of my head.
Has anyone successfully worked “six seven” into a business conversation?
I’m talking banker-to-customer. 
Vendor negotiations.
Fintech-to-bank. 

For example:
• “We can offer you 4.67%.”
• “What if we structure this as a six- to seven-year term?”
Ridiculous? Absolutely.
But also… kind of funny.

If you’ve found a way to sneak “six seven” into a serious business discussion, I need to hear about it.

Someone reached out and asked me, “Can you build rapport remotely?”
He’s a founder that doesn’t have the time to go chase every deal in person.
My answer is a resounding ABSOLUTELY and here’s why… 
(listen to the video to hear what I have to say)

Stop discounting your Fintech.

If you're constantly slashing prices, it's a symptom, not a tech problem.

It means you haven't proven your value.

Here's how to differentiate your Fintech product effectively:

𝗡𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿: 
→ Understand how your product is truly different.
→ What unique problems do you solve?
→ How do you package it to make it a 'low lift' for the bank?

𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: 
→ Start with the banker's challenge.
→ Avoid feature-dumping.
→ Use a challenger sales methodology to point them uniquely towards your solution.

𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: 
→ Don't ask, '𝘞𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴?'
That's not a next step. It's an invitation to pause.

→ Instead, proactively book the next meeting.
'𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘱 𝘪𝘴 𝘟, 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦'𝘴 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦, 𝘭𝘦𝘵'𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬 𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘸𝘰.'

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗘𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽: 
→ Provide something impactful at each step to help with the evaluation.
→ Build micro-agreements throughout the process.
→ Showcase your professionalism and authority.

When you get to negotiation, the value should already be undeniable.

Bankers have endless tasks in front of them.

Give them compelling reasons to say YES, not just reasons to discount you (𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵).

Banks exploring embedded finance often reach the same point. 

At some stage, there's a need to understand how to monitor partner activity in a way that supports growth and satisfies exam requirements.

This session takes a practical look at transaction monitoring inside a BaaS environment and the changes that occur when fintech partners and their end-users begin moving money through your charter.  

You will learn how sponsor banks build visibility, stay ahead of suspicious activity, and manage alerts without slowing down innovation.

If you are evaluating BaaS or already onboarding partners, this conversation will help you understand the expectations and the tools that make it manageable.

Katelyn O'Brian, CBAP, Hanna Kness and 322 other attendees

BaaS Layers & Players:  Transaction Monitoring

Wishing great success to each of you as you chase December closings!

For those of you already looking ahead to 2026, here's your guide to selling your Fintech solution to bankers in a new year and ever-changing landscape.

By Stacy Bishop Selling technology to financial institutions is a different kind of sales motion. Over the past 25 years in banking, fintech, and fina

Open article: How to Sell to Banks as a Fintech in 2026: Lessons From $100M+ in Closed Bank Deals by Stacy Bishop • 6 min read

How to Sell to Banks as a Fintech in 2026: Lessons From $100M+ in Closed Bank Deals

Selling to banks and credit unions isn’t about a great product. It’s about proving you can operate in one of the most heavily regulated environments in the world. 
And yet…

I still see founders take a cavalier approach:“We’ll figure it out later.”
“We’ll fix compliance once it becomes a problem.”

That mindset will cost you partnerships and slow down your ability to scale. If you’re a fintech founder trying to scale beyond your first few banking partners, here’s one great piece of advice: 
Let banks do what they do best in a partnership. 
Know what you know and know what you don’t know.

Over the past two years, especially with embedded finance, we’ve watched the same mistakes repeat:
• Fintechs stepping into the bank’s lane
• Banks stepping into the fintech’s lane
• Both sides losing clarity on who owns compliance obligations

The result?
Confusion, risk exposure, delays and in some cases, regulatory scrutiny.

The founders who win share one trait: They stay laser-focused on their core competency and bring in real compliance expertise early. Because in this industry, not taking compliance seriously could very easily cost you everything. 

#Fintech #BaaS #Banking

This time of year is often confused for the "let's wait until January to reach out" season.

Avoid that knee-jerk reaction and begin to form a relationship today with bankers you hope to partner with next year.  

But not with a cold outreach message you are sending to every other banker.  Be smart and strategic.

I get into this further in this week's newsletter.   👇

From Someone Who Has Closed $100M+ With Banks After 28 years working across community banks, a big-three core, and fintech sales leadership, I can tel

5 Ways FinTech Founders Can Build Relationships With Banking Executives During the Holidays

It’s not the banker’s job to tell you their process.
It’s not the banker’s job to follow up.
And it’s definitely not their job to guide your next steps.

That’s on you as a Fintech founder selling to banks.

If you want to win in this market, show up with a plan that proves you’ve done this before, many times.

Lay out the happy path:
👉 Here’s Step 1.
👉 Here’s exactly where we are today.
👉 Here’s what happens next.
👉 And here’s who needs to be in the room — CFO, CRO, and anyone who shapes the decision.

You’re not asking them to figure it out.
You’re leading them through a proven buying journey.

When you set the North Star and drive the process with clarity, nobody wonders what happens next, they follow your lead. 

This is how you shorten cycles, earn respect, and close deals with banks in 2026.

#BaaS #Fintech #Banking #Leadership

When Synapse collapsed, regulators didn’t call the middleware providers.
They didn’t call the fintechs.
They called Evolv, because the bank sponsor is accountable for oversight.

And that’s why your Third-Party Risk Management can’t be “good enough.”
It needs to be airtight.

Because in embedded finance:
• Every partner’s controls are your controls.
• Every oversight gap becomes your exposure.
• Every compliance weakness becomes a future supervisory event.
• Every program requires continuous — not quarterly — monitoring.

TPRM has officially graduated from a “compliance box-checking exercise” to a strategic risk discipline that defines which banks win in the next era of embedded finance.

If you want to understand what airtight TPRM actually looks like, click here to watch the replay from a recent session I hosted with several experts and community banking executives who are building high-performing, high-compliance programs in real time: 

https://lnkd.in/gsy7WBa5

Interested in how my middle school dating life relates to selling your Fintech solution to bankers?  

Including some of the "secrets" inside.  👇

In middle school I “dated” in the most PG-sense of the word. I might sit with someone at lunch, pass a folded note in class, or hold hands on the walk

7 reasons banks don’t “date” fintechs

Do you get a banker on the phone and begin showing your solution shortly after learning their name?

I beg of you... STOP.  

Instead, use the first meeting strategically.  Here's how... 👇

Hi! I’m Stacy. I still remember the first time I landed a meeting with a bank after weeks of chasing. The COO said, “We’d love to see how it works.” M

Don't demo during discovery (unless you want to be ghosted by bankers)

I have closed more than $100 million in contracts with banks and credit unions. 
Here are 5 core principles for closing bank deals: 

1. I get to know who I’m selling to as a person. 
2. I make sure I understand their problem. 
3. I don’t overcomplicate communication. 
4. I sell to the group not the champion
5. I put risk reduction at the center

REMEMBER: Banks buy safety, clarity, and control. 

#Fintech #BaaS #banking

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Fintech Founders:
AI is not your differentiator.
Stop leading with it.

Every banker you’re selling to already assumes your product uses AI. 
It’s the baseline now → and will be even more so in 2026.
It’s not the value prop.

If you want to stand out and close deals with banks:
→ Start with the bank’s real problems.
→ Speak to the pain in their current state.
→ Show the exact outcome your solution unlocks.
→ Then, only then, use AI as the supporting mechanism of your solution, not the headline.

Banks don’t buy “AI.”
They buy reduced risk, speed, compliance, and confidence.
Lead with what matters to them.

It's fun to win.

Showcasing compliance maturity in bank sales may not be your idea of fun.

But it certainly helps you win.

So maybe, just maybe... compliance can be fun after all.

It's normal for Fintech founders to assume that winning a bank partnership is about presenting a superior product, demonstrating their gorgeous UX, or

The Psychology of Selling to Banks: The One Factor That Will Increase Your Odds as a Fintech

There are people, and there are companies that the industry needs to know about.

Sometimes these companies get lumped into categories alongside others, where you have to squint to see the similarities.

Or the people have backgrounds so strong and storied that you marvel at how lucky you are to be on a Google Meet with them.  

These are the companies that I cheer for, and the people I want to work with.  

I can say with absolute certainty that ZorroFi and Sandra Wasicek-Woegenstein | Armin Wasicek, check all of these boxes for me.  

Plus they are genuine and kind people... just trying to make the front-end messy side of lending better.

I'm thrilled to advise the ZorroFi team, and invite you to check them out.  You won't be disappointed.

Founder & CEO, ZorroFi | Turning Risk Management Into Growth Infrastructure for Community Banks, Credit Unions & CDFIs | Berkeley SkyDeck Pad-13

View Sandra Wasicek-Woegenstein’s profile

Gratitude highlight today: Stacy Bishop. 🍁💛

Stacy recently joined us as an advisor to ZorroFi, and we are truly grateful for her support.

She’s one of those rare people who brings clarity, warmth, and decades of real industry experience into every conversation. Stacy has helped me stay focused, grounded, and aligned with what matters most when building for community financial institutions.

I’m thankful for her guidance - and even more thankful for her heart.

Thank you, Stacy. 🙏

As a fintech founder selling to banks, go slow before you go fast.
Here’s what I mean:

Master the fundamentals.
1. The offer: If your offer isn’t precise, bank-ready, and differentiated, you’re already losing. Banks don’t buy vague promises. They buy risk reduction, revenue expansion, or cost efficiency—spelled out in plain language.

2. The ICP: Most founders aim at the CEO. Wrong target. The CEO is influence, not ownership. The real decision-makers live in the buying committee: heads of product, compliance, risk, operations, and sometimes IT. If you can’t name the exact persona who feels the pain you solve, you can’t sell to a bank.

3. The sales cycle: Bank deals don’t “close when they’re impressed.” They close when you understand how the bank actually buys. Map the journey. Know who signs, who blocks, who delays, and who champions. Your messaging must reflect the steps, the risks, and the internal politics of the institution.

When you master the fundamentals, sales accelerate. 

#BaaS #Fintech #Banking

"Fit" may be an "F" word, but one that I highly encourage you to use all the time in your bank.

Welcome to BaaS for Bank Leaders, your weekly guide to making sense of Banking as a Service (BaaS). Here you will get practical insights into the real

BaaS Launchpad Step 5:  The secret to selecting the right fintech partners

It's never too late in the year to kick off your next sales cycle → or as I like to phrase it, "Buying Journey" with bankers.

I've included tips in this week's newsletter, along with a checklist to ensure your time with bank and credit union prospects is never wasted. 👇

Early in my career at Jack Henry, I made a mistake that most green fintech salespeople make. I walked into a meeting with a bank executive armed with 

Fintech Sales Strategy to Win Partnerships with Banks: What I Have Learned from 23+ Years in B2B Sales

I began my career as a Senior Analyst at Shepherd Ventures, a respected team within an institutionally-backed SBIC fund. This role provided my first insight into growth stage investing, as well as fund formation and SBA regulatory level operations. Notably, our portfolio of 18 companies included Specific Media (now Viant), Quickoffice (acquired by Google), Revance (NASDAQ:RVNC), and WiSpry (acquired by AAC).

Before my current position, I assumed pivotal roles at premier US early-stage investment groups such as Tech Coast Angels and Atlanta Technology Angels. My contributions went beyond just capital allocation. From associate to interim COO and board observer, I initiated projects like the member communication portal, a volunteer analyst training and mentorship program and fund (vc) formation. These enhanced our ability to collaborate with capital and entrepreneurial stakeholders across the U.S. Over my tenure at both TCA and ATA, my team and I diligently reviewed over 2100 applications and oversaw 600+ investor presentations from emerging companies. Notable additions to our portfolio during this period include Predikto (sold to United Technologies), OB Medical (sold to Philips Health), Attentive.ly (sold to Blackbaud), Cyber Rain (sold to Galcon), PharmaSecure, Savara (NASDAQ: SVRA), SeniorQuote, Cognition (NASDAQ: CGTX), HitFix (sold to Uproxx), LiquidGrids (sold to FemTech), Gremlin, EcoATM, and GroundMetrics.

In 2017, I had the honor of becoming the first employee at Strandview Capital, a leader in growth-stage private investments focusing on insurtech, fintech, banktech, and mortgage. Select portfolio companies include Silvergate (pre-IPO), Insellerate, The Closing Exchange (ICE), Coverance, DefenseStorm, Portx and others. As a core member of the founding team, my duties encompassed establishing operations, leading the finance efforts along with the fund admin team, fund formation (2 core funds, 4 SPVs), and active participation on investment identification and monitoring. This position provided a comprehensive insight into a venture fund's intricacies, from identifying to executing top-tier investment opportunities from seed stage to pre-IPO to compliance and investor relations. Our latest collaboration with the Bank Technology Consortium, in partnership with Strandview, Elizabeth Park Capital Management, and a collection of tech-savvy community banks in the U.S., enabled me to introduce innovative banking technology strategies. This endeavor has grown into a profound passion, recognizing the vital role our community banks serve to the community

Mark Dewey

God works in mysterious…. 
Pulled into the wrong parking spot tonight at a campground and got absolutely lit up by the owner for it. I just smiled and said, “Fair enough… I actually came back this year to buy the place.” He laughed. I wasn’t really joking. I’ve always…

We got to talking and THEN realized we’d met 15–20 years ago. But not directly! Back then, he was quietly teaching the people who would later become the GPs and mentors of my last fund. 🤯 He knew our GPs, most of our LPs…. Twilight Zone moment. 

Look - I spent the last eight years learning from those at our last firm and now only just discovered the original source had been standing in front of me in a dusty campground where I grew up and Jacqueline Dewey and I fish often.

We sat for two hours talking everything from #mortgage tech, insurance, housing cycles, war wounds from Constellation Software Inc. and Silvergate — to kids and friendships. It felt like finally getting to read the original text of my career instead of all the later translations from those I was in the trenches with at the time. Suddenly, a lot of the gaps in my own thinking and the disagreements with my prior teams about technology, fund structure, AI, etc markets made sense. And I was right!!! Well not always…

What hit me hardest: he agreed that what worked for them back then doesn’t work the same way today. The playbook that built the last generation of winners isn’t guaranteed to build the next one, and the VCs and operators clinging to that old operating system may not realize how fast the ground is shifting under them. Woof boy did we feel that shift quickly in my prior lives. 

The lesson: always look around. The person who might change how you see your entire career, your market, or the next cycle might be the one scolding you for parking in the wrong spot.

Aggressively human.
-Mark

Amit Singh has been a trusted friend for 15+ years. He believed in my #VC dream back in my early days putting in reps at angel groups with Arash Sani, CPCU. For all my #founder friends — see below and let me know your thoughts.

Partner - Emerging Companies, Venture Capital, Mergers & Acquisitions @Mintz

I’m excited to share something new we’ve been working on!
 
Today we’re launching Series SAFE Preferred Stock as an alternative to SAFEs for early stage financings. Series SAFE Preferred Stock combines the ease and economics of a SAFE with the clarity and QSBS tax benefits of preferred stock—giving founders and investors confidence from day one.
 
Curious how it works? Check it out here: www.seriessafe.com or reach out—I’d love to chat.

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