Fintech South 2024: Hillery Champagne with FinTech Atlanta

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program, the accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, broadcasting live from Fintech South 2024 at the Woodruff Arts Center. So excited to be talking to our next guest. Hillery Champagne, Executive Director, Fintech Atlanta. Welcome.

Hillery Champagne: Thank you. Happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Fintech Atlanta.

Hillery Champagne: Well thanks. Yeah. So Fintech Atlanta is a coalition of companies working to advance Atlanta as the recognized global capital of financial technology. I’m our one full time employee and I have the pleasure of reporting up to an incredible board of industry leaders. And really, our priorities are to drive fintech industry growth, talent expansion, innovation acceleration and public policy influence in Atlanta and across the state of Georgia. So really happy to be here. Tag is on our board, one of our founding members of Fintech Atlanta. So always always happy to be here.

Lee Kantor: So what was kind of the genesis of the idea where, you know, people were like, okay, we have to have a special group just focusing on fintech here in Atlanta. Yep.

Hillery Champagne: So back in kind of as the story goes, back in 2017, Governor Deal at the time got together with Tag Technology Association of Georgia, the Metro Atlanta Chamber and Atpc, which is the American Transaction Processors Coalition, and basically said, you know, guys, we’re seeing we’ve always been really strong in payment processing, right? We have Atlanta has a very strong history of that, but we’re starting to see growth and investment in these other subclusters within financial technology. We need to make sure that we’re getting together with the leaders here not taking this for granted, really continuing this momentum. Pull those leaders together and make sure that we’re continuing to make Atlanta a place where where these companies can thrive and do business. And so that’s kind of the origin. Those three founding partners helped us get together. You know, many of our founding board members that are still board members today. You know, we have everyone from big companies like Global Payments and Elavon and NCR and, you know, visa. And I’m leaving a ton out. You know, we have those large guys to the midsize and small as well. And they’re they’re all helping kind of shape our strategy and all of the work that we do on a daily basis. So that’s kind of the origin story. Um.

Lee Kantor: You know, what’s now your kind of day to day? Like, how are you serving this group in today’s world? Because this is the technology obviously is changing. I’m sure there’s more constituents today than there were when it was founded. And the needs change. So how do you serve your your members and how do you make sure that their concerns are being addressed?

Hillery Champagne: Yeah. So from day one we’ve kind of focused on four kind of key buckets that have shaped all our programs and initiatives and events and things like that. The first one is making sure that we have a diverse talent base here, that that we’re really focusing on making sure that this next generation of leaders are trained or connected for internships and jobs. We’re we’re giving them real world experience by working with our large companies. So talent is that first piece. The second piece is innovation. So making sure that our startups and founders are connecting with learning from working with our large corporations here. And so we try to find different ways to bring those two groups together and collaborate and find opportunities for commercial collaboration. The third bucket is telling the story of fintech in Atlanta. So that can be doing things like this and coming to these great shows here in town. It can be going to global shows like Money20 20, your fintech meetup with a Georgia delegation, and also meeting with companies that are looking to perhaps establish a presence in the US and explain why Atlanta is a great spot to be, but we’ll also welcome foreign delegations here, all of that good stuff. And then the last pillar is public policy. So making sure that we as an industry, as a group, are educating our legislators on the impact that we have here in the region. So that’s what we started with. And that’s really what’s still shaping what we do today. We have six programs that we work on on a daily basis, each led by program directors who work full time jobs in the fintech industry and volunteer their time to help us with our programs. So we’re really lucky to have them and their expertise.

Lee Kantor: So is this a group that has membership that you join like it’s you have meetings every quarter a month? Yep. So get togethers in person. Like what is it like to be a member.

Hillery Champagne: So it’s kind of cool. We’re um, well, I guess we’re not that unique, but we have a fantastic board, so we meet quarterly in person board meetings. We actually just had our Q3 one last week at full steam. One of our board member companies offices in Buckhead. Um, so those are fantastic. We typically at those meetings will give an update on all of our programs, kind of put the plan in place for the next couple of months, but also solicit feedback from our board members, making sure that we’re on the right track, that we are kind of focusing on the things that they think, you know, as industry leaders make an impact here in our region. But they were, again, we’re very lucky in that they fund everything that we do. So all of our six programs that I mentioned, whether it be our run it by the buyers events or Ask an Advisor, which is our mentorship program of sorts. All of our programs are completely free to the ecosystem here. So if you’re a startup and you want to pitch it or run it by the buyers event, or if you’re a large corporation and you want to get involved at the event level or, you know, whatever it may be, if any of these programs, it’s completely free. So that’s what I think is pretty cool about it.

Lee Kantor: And so anybody in the ecosystem can connect with Fintech Atlanta and there’s a place to plug in. Exactly.

Hillery Champagne: We’ve got a place for everyone. If you’re a student, if you’re a founder, if you’re a startup, a large company, and there’s plenty of ways to get involved.

Lee Kantor: So what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Hillery Champagne: Oh, that’s a good question. Um, you know, I think the biggest area where we need help is just getting the word out about our programs. Um, as I mentioned, we have we have six of them now, and they’re completely free and open to the ecosystem. But I think people always think there’s a catch, right? And it’s like I used to work at the Metro Atlanta Chamber on their economic development team. And it’s the same thing. Their their job genuinely is to make it easy for someone to do business here and add jobs to the region. And people are always like, okay, what’s the catch? You know, like, where are you going to charge me? And it’s the same thing here. So it’s like, you know, don’t be scared to talk to us, I promise. You know, what we’re trying to do is to build up the ecosystem for everyone. You know, rising tide lifts all ships, right?

Lee Kantor: And it’s frustrating being a best kept secret.

Speaker4: Exactly.

Lee Kantor: I bet you get tired of. Oh, I wish I would have known about you two years ago.

Speaker4: Exactly.

Lee Kantor: Conversations aren’t.

Speaker4: Fun. Yeah, but then.

Hillery Champagne: You know, having things like this today, Atlanta’s great in that we have. So, you know, if you look at every single week, there’s probably five events that you could go to to meet people and help spread the word. So, you know, we’re not lacking opportunities to get together, but I think still just kind of reaching those newer companies are the ones that have just come to Atlanta and explaining to them that this.

Speaker4: Exists and.

Lee Kantor: Letting companies that aren’t in Atlanta know that there’s a tool and a resource like Fintech Atlanta that can really help accelerate their growth.

Speaker4: Right, exactly.

Hillery Champagne: I really do. I think that’s it. People are like, wait, you were willing to connect us to this person? Why? Why what’s the catch?

Lee Kantor: And that’s kind of the secret sauce of Atlanta is the level of collaboration. And a lot of people are kind of surprised by that when they hear about it.

Hillery Champagne: Yeah. And I get asked a lot, are we a part of tag? Are we a part of Mac? Are we a part of Atpc? And while they’re all our founding partners, we’re our own organization. But we work really, really closely with all three of those groups. And I think that’s another thing that another strength of Atlanta is that we really do all work together. You know, Robert Daniel at Atdc and Laura Gibson Lamoth at the Georgia Fintech Academy. You know, we’ll all go to these trade shows together or whatever it may be, and kind of work together as a team because we’re all, you know, we’re all working towards the same goal at the end of the day.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to connect, what’s the best way to do that?

Hillery Champagne: I try to send so a couple things. If you want to kind of keep up to date with everything that we have going on, I try to do a decent job of updating our LinkedIn page. So with our own information, but also things that are going on in Atlanta in the fintech ecosystem. If I ever have any discount codes or passes or things like that, that’s where I’ll share them. Um, so that’s a great place you can reach out to me there. My email is h champagne like the drink c h a m p a g e at Fintech atlanta.org. That’s also a great way to to reach out. And then our website is Fintech Atlanta. Org.

Lee Kantor: Well Hilary thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Hillery Champagne: Thank you guys I really appreciate being here and thank you.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor back in a few at Fintech South 2020 for.