Baselayer

When I left the world of public companies to join Baselayer, I had one big question: 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘱 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘦𝘥? Baselayer was (and still is) growing 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒂𝒏𝒆𝒍𝒚 fast. New clients, new contracts, new complexities almost daily. 𝓑𝓾𝓽 𝓼𝓹𝓮𝓮𝓭 𝔀𝓪𝓼𝓷’𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓵 𝓻𝓲𝓼𝓴. Startups don’t fail because they move too fast. They fail when they lose visibility and focus. 𝐀𝐭 𝐚 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲 --> I had clean systems, tight processes, and a full accounting team behind me. 𝐀𝐭 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩 --> It’s you, a messy balance sheet, and 100 competing priorities. 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 3-𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐰𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐨𝐧𝐞: 1️⃣ 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 We set the bar early: real-time metrics, consistent closes, and confidence in every number. 2️⃣ 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐭𝐲 Accruals, integrations, revenue recognition, tax credits. We handled them early so we weren’t cleaning up later. 3️⃣ 𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐃𝐈𝐘 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 Even with a finance background, I knew we needed outside support that could keep pace. 𝐖𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 Haven (and would 100% recommend them to any startup). Not because we couldn’t figure it out ourselves. But because we couldn’t afford to get it wrong. When your business is scaling fast, the foundation matters more than ever. Not an afterthought. Not a cleanup project. A system that scales with the rest of the company. 𝐓𝐋;𝐃𝐑: If you’re in that “build the plane while flying it” stage, don’t wait to build the cockpit. s/o Cyrus Shirazi, Michael Brod, Taylor Schwarz & Joe Carrothers

Loved seeing Taktile name Baselayer and our products as a Top Voice in Risk! Thank you to ~20 of our amazing customers who nominated us and helped us specifically win the "Top Voice of Progress" category In banking / lending / insurance, "Progress" is both the best and scariest word... so we've been careful about the delicate balance around it That’s how Baselayer builds --> solving "jobs to be done" in risk It's certainly Progress, but mainly it's a lot of the obvious: - Identity network to eliminate fraud and credit losses (~40-50% on avg) - B2B fraud consortium to stop repeat fraud others can't see (#1?) - Market-leading KYB for onboarding 100% of good businesses - AI agents that eliminate simple manual reviews instead of adding noise None of that happens without our CTO Timothy, and our epic engineering team. They’ve made "Progress" for legacy industries feel ~simple~ -- What an amazing list to be on (!!) a lot of amazing teams won an award, and we appreciate Taktile throwing Baselayer into the mix (list below) Shout out to some of the brilliant minds in risk who influenced us: Eric Woodward; Kevin Moss; Alex Johnson; Ishwardeep Singh; Colton Pond; Adrian Rosario; Maik Taro Wehmeyer; Julian Roeoes; Alain Meier; Ian Bradley; Russell Gu; Himal Makwana; Neepa Patel; Gil Rosenthal; Jeff Shultz; Ethan Singleton; Ashwin Chandrasekaran; Marco Ronning; Faraz Sharafi; David DeSisto; Sidhant Bahl; Michael Barbosa; Jason Mikula; Tyler James Zimmerman; Ryan Hunter; Aaron Middleton; Will Messina; Omri Yacubovich; Chris Tremont

Remote work is certainly more convenient... but it’s also quietly stunting your company’s culture We went all-in on 5 days a week in office recently for most of the company and it 10x our momentum & vibes almost immediately We’ve always had amazing remote team members Baselayer - across Spain, Florida, and beyond. But culture-building within a remote team felt difficult Then recently, the NYC crew started coming in 5 days a week and: - Mornings at the gym together (health reimbursement) brought us closer - Context switching between product, sales, eng, ops became so much easier - Ramp time for new hires (especially non-fintech) cut in ~half~ More trust, more speed, and certainly way more fun (!) to be in person It's simply undeniable that being in person wildly compounds - and quickly - especially within teams that have less than 100 people Slack misses nuance. Zoom misses momentum. Nothing replaces the little side convos that unlock a week’s worth of progress in 2 minutes If you’re a company building something that's still early, don’t sleep on the power of showing up together - every. single. day. -- Does anyone else have strong opinions on hybrid vs. mainly in person?

We recently hosted a group of payments and fraud leaders from top banks and fintechs. The energy around AI was palpable—but so was the frustration. Financial services is one of the most data-rich, process-heavy industries out there. AI should be thriving. But full production adoption is slow. For fintechs building here, it’s not just about long sales cycles or conservative buyers. There are major roadblocks you have to overcome:  🤖 Financial services didn’t just start using AI. It’s been using sophisticated machine learning at scale for over a decade — new AI must clearly outperform to justify adoption. ⚙️ Data quality and legacy infrastructure derail AI pilots early. Who’s to blame the model or the underlying infra?  ⚖️ Compliance expectations are high. Organizational culture and regulators oddly prefer human error over machine error.  👥 Replacing humans at scale is just hard. Much easier to avoid hiring. But despite the friction, there’s real momentum. Your AI banker isn’t here yet. But it certainly is on its way! At Scale, we love financial technology and have been lucky to partner with leaders like Socure, Forter, BILL, Monto, Klarity, Sixfold, and Abacum. If you’re building here, give us a shout. https://lnkd.in/ggYdzQSX

JPMorganChase wants to charge for open banking data now. Not a big deal, right? Wrong. The folks who will be most impacted by this are the low-credit-score Americans who can least afford it Here’s the chain reaction that no one else is spelling out clearly: - JPM starts charging bank account aggregators for access - Aggregators (i.e. Plaid, MX, etc.) raise prices to fintechs (obviously) - Fintechs (i.e. Robinhood, Chime, or Cash App) start thinking twice before paying that fee to check a low-credit score user’s bank account The same group fintech is supposedly “financially including” will be the first to get ignored, given they are typically the least profitable / riskiest segment This introduces friction everywhere: account linking, cash flow underwriting, pay-by-bank, neobanks, lending, PFM - all of "money movement" Think I'm off here? It's already ~somewhat happened before When PNC blocked Plaid, it broke user experiences for millions of Americans Now JPM is upping the ante & adding a price tag (!); others will soon follow This isn't just a price change - it's a policy signal. A signal that access to your financial data is no longer a given. Now it’s a privilege that comes at a cost... Bad for fintechs. Much worse for consumers. Especially the ones who’ve already historically been left behind : / -- Curious where others stand on this - what do you think? Comment below even if you think I might be wrong here : )

My Mom told me not to do it After years in fintech - and a great run at Plaid - I was ready to take the safer path Something with a household name. Something that wouldn’t raise eyebrows at Thanksgiving... But Baselayer kept showing up Customers I knew were raving about the product Friends texted me out of the blue: “You’d love this team” Mentors called me about a startup I “had to meet” Everyone said the same thing: Baselayer wins every POC & their infra is F500 battle-tested. The product suite is just… sharp So I called Jonathan Awad & Timothy Hyde Now, the safe path will have to wait First week in, we’ve already: - Thrown an epic networking event with 150+ of the best in fintech - Kicked off POCs with multi-billion dollar fintechs & Tier 1 Banks - Had old friends reach out to join (#hiring!) Special thanks to Ryan Burger, Jenna Goldman, Ed Morris, Xander O'Han, Matt McGowan, Christopher Staronka, Laura Krivisky, Will Thoni, Michael Brevdeh, Christopher Yachouh, Analisa Ruff, Sam Bomes, Anthony Allocco, Brandon B., Jill Murray, Cristina Ciaravalli, Alain C. Glanzman, and Ian Bradley for nudging me in the right direction I’m excited to build again, and grateful to be moving at Baselayer speed P.S. love you, Mom

AI is fundamentally changing credit decisions. Instead of relying on static credit scores, lenders are building real-time, adaptive models that ingest everything from transaction patterns to IoT data streams. Here's why this matters now: Between 2025 and 2029, over $6.3 trillion in U.S. corporate debt will mature—most priced when rates were near zero. As companies refinance at 6% instead of 2%, their risk profiles are changing monthly, not annually. Traditional credit models that update once a year can't keep pace because a borrower that looked safe in January may be distressed by March. Lenders need systems that adapt as fast as market conditions change and they need to move quickly to capture quality borrowers before competitors do. This is creating opportunities across the credit value chain: - Traditional banks modernizing legacy systems for real-time risk assessment. - Embedded finance platforms distributing credit through trusted ecosystems. - AI-native startups building adaptive lending infrastructure. Using our proprietary signal model—which monitors early traction across product, people, and capital—we mapped the top Seed & Series A companies best positioned to become category leaders.   Company profiles + thesis here: https://lnkd.in/eXfMrW9U Building in AI x credit? Would love to hear your approach Noetica Chalk EthosAI CTGT (YC F24) Worth AI Coris Baselayer Casca Friday Harbor Salient OatFi Affiniti

Jonathan Awad (far left) is throwing some of the best Fintech events in NYC right now. Last night, what should have been a slow night leading into 4th of July, was a packed house of 100+ fintech leaders from SMB to Enterprise. Cheers to the Baselayer team for a great night! Check out "Fintech Social Club" on Luma for the next one. Even Uber & Duncan Carey got involved :)

NYC fintech is so back. The energy at the NYC Baselayer Fintech happy hour that Jonathan Awad put together at his go-to-spot Wilfie & Nell (btw it’s West Village best kept secret) was unmatched. I still remember an early catchup with Jonathan in one of the corner tables of this bar and spending 3 hours hearing him talk about his life story and his immigrant parents journey from Egypt to New York. He hadn’t started Baselayer at that point but in that moment I knew that this was a guy you wouldn’t want to bet against. He had a massive chip on his shoulder and you could feel it. I often think about how in order to build a high growth startup, it truly takes a village and the best founders are able to create a movement around them. That’s how I felt yesterday talking to every single person in that happy hour - I felt like I was part of a movement. Every person from customers to partners to prospects to random fintech folks who just moved to New York were all rooting for Jonathan and the Baselayer team. Before I left I had one last convo with someone who had purchased Baselayer for his prior company and he told me, “you’re a lucky man to be invested in this company”. My response, “I know”. Better lucky than good. PS. If you’re in fintech, talk to Baselayer!

I'm starting a basketball league for founders & VCs in NYC! Think: Rho vs Ramp Sitch vs Cerca Cluely vs Series Baselayer vs Knot Perplexity vs OpenAI Y Combinator vs Techstars Corgi Insurance (YC S24) vs Origami Andreessen Horowitz vs Sequoia Capital Brought to you by The Collective NY. Insta: @thecollectiveny_ Join with a team (5 ppl) or build a team in our Slack channel. Comment "HOOPS" and I'll send you the private link to apply ⬇️ UPDATE: sign-up link released -- see comments! #founders #VCs #basketball #hoops #nyc #community