Yours in Finance: Cole Gottlieb

The same questions asked of the people shaping the future of banking and fintech.

Welcome to Yours in Finance, where we are tracking how banking is changing. Once again.

Cole Gottlieb, vice president of business development at Valley Bank, responds to our questionnaire: “I pay off my credit cards every few days even though I know it's not necessarily a rational decision in terms of what's best for getting a 0 percent loan.”

About Cole

Cole Gottlieb serves as Vice President, Business Development at Valley Bank, as a member of the bank's Partner Banking team. Valley Partner Banking partners with fintechs and vertical SaaS companies on payments sponsorship and embedded business banking solutions. He is also the publisher of Fintech Unpacked, a newsletter that covers publicly traded fintech earnings and consumer credit data.

Q&A

The interview is edited for brevity and clarity.

What's difficult about managing money?

I think managing money is hard because we as people don't act perfectly rationally within the financial ecosystem.

People sometimes have a more difficult time figuring out longer-term financial decisions and impact. When I've talked to family members and friends in this space, even those who work adjacent to the financial services space, some things that are difficult for people are APR and lending products.

Of course, we've seen the rise of products, like buy now, pay later, installment loans and cash advances, and I think those have been very popular, especially because they are super transparent, like, you pay $8 for this, or you pay whatever set amount per month. Whereas with credit cards, it's very hard to walk a friend or family member through like, “Okay, if I put it on my credit card, what am I going to pay next month?” For auto loans too, I’ve noticed those have been getting increasingly longer. So, putting the total cost together can be more difficult I think.

What do you like about digital banking?

I like that I can control my entire financial life from my phone or just anywhere in the world pretty much.

What financial habit or behavior are you unwilling to automate?

Okay, so I think one that I do automate, but never gets used, is I put autopay on for all my bills and credit cards.

I like being very on top of my credit card spend, and honestly, I pay off my credit cards every few days even though I know it's not necessarily a rational decision in terms of what's best for getting a 0 percent loan. But I like knowing where my money's going and not having large, outstanding amounts on the cards. So, that's one that is technically automated, but I think I can count on one hand the number of times that any of my accounts have autopaid.

It's probably just growing up and having a relationship with debt where it's like, “Oh, you shouldn't have debt,” even though it's like healthy debt.

What's a financial decision you'd be happy to outsource to an AI agent?

My taxes. I don't even have that complicated of a financial life, but that's something that every year I spend at least a few hours doing. And there has to be a better way nowadays with all the technology there is. But yeah, I think tax filing.

And it seems like [tax software companies are] trying to get better at it. You know, there's more AI integration. Like, you can link your accounts now, which is nice, through things like Plaid, but it's still a process.

What earns the right to be someone's primary financial relationship?

I think, of course, primacy has changed from what it was before the whole fintech boom. Somebody might have their financial life across many different deposit accounts and lending products at different fintechs or banks. But, I think at the end of the day, there still is a value in primacy even if it's a new definition.

A lot of places will give you certain benefits if you put your direct deposit in their account. And, yes, you might have other accounts, and you might hold money in other areas, but it seems like that's something that people in the financial services space still value a lot. I'd say that's kind of an indicator that I would consider to be the primary relationship. But of course, you know, it's harder to win that today, as people have their financial lives in many places, and it can be people holding money across wallets such as Venmo and Cash App in addition to their traditional bank account.

How do you define a bank?

As a banker, and somebody who works at a bank, I'd say it's a regulated financial institution that accepts deposits and lends those out.

From the perspective of a consumer, this has also been broadened, just like the primary relationship. As a consumer, I would consider a bank as somewhere where I store my money. Maybe something like a Starbucks isn’t a bank as people say because you can only spend it there, but there are a lot of the other fintechs and wallets, like Venmo and Cash App, where people can consider that a bank or banking because it's money stored in a place that you can spend at merchants and other vendors and pretty much anywhere.

What's the last thing you bought that you're still thinking about?

Most things I buy are experience-based and I buy a lot of concert tickets. So I definitely think about that. I went to Young the Giant. They were great in the city. I saw Alesso recently too. So, all over. Yeah, that's the kind of thing that a lot of my money goes into, concert tickets and food.

In terms of things, my overpriced neck pillow that I bought at the airport. I'm like, “Do I feel dumb that I spent like $50 on this pillow?” A little bit, but also it's giving me so much value.

Previous Yours in Finance

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