Gabelli alumnus talks fintech and B2B marketing

Graduate | Mar 29, 2017 | Kathleen Clarke

In case you haven’t heard, we’re living in a digital era where big data is king.

The financial industry is no exception.

Graduate students learned about the role of fintech, or financial technology, in business-to-business markets when John Pharr, MBA ’13, visited Peter Johnson’s Customer-Driven Marketing class.

After receiving his MBA in finance and accounting, Pharr worked as a consultant for Acxiom before joining Quovo, a startup that provides data aggregation, analytics, and related services to financial institutions and wealth-management firms.

Quovo’s business model was born when its founders observed a flaw in the wealth-management industry: financial advisors were advising clients based on an incomplete picture of their financial health.

To address this problem, Quovo employed technology to aggregate financial information about customers for a more holistic view. Quovo now sells these data-aggregation products to financial services firms.

Adding to what Johnson’s students already had learned in class about business-to-business markets, Pharr noted that the process of technology sales requires diligence, patience, and, as is often the case with startups, long hours.

For students who may be up for this type of challenge, Pharr offered sound advice: “Be open-minded, ask a million questions, and meet as many people as possible.”