With the Australian Payments Council hackathon coming up in mid-August, we reached out to Danielle Szetho from FinTech Australia to find out why she’s excited about the event.
Why would you encourage participation in this hackathon?
It’s a fantastic opportunity to be surrounded by like minded people. With this many people together, there will be a range of creative ideas to work on.
If you have been sitting on your idea for a while, hackathons are a great opportunity for validation. After spending three days building a prototype, you will get the opportunity to present in front of 12 of the largest financial institutions in Australia. It’s no secret that around 70% of FinTechs seek to partner with much larger financial institutions – so this could be the start of a great partnership.
What benefits do building prototypes in a sandbox offer?
In addition to validating ideas, a sandbox allows budding companies to demonstrate that their product can actually work with that company’s data, and to illustrate their value proposition clearly and more quickly than previously possible. This means potential investors or partners can really get behind the solution sooner rather than wondering how it could work.
Data is more valuable than ever before, and even mocked up data has value. The sandbox being provided for the hackathon can be used to validate ideas early on, encouraging great ideas and letting others fail faster.
The government has commissioned an independent review on Open Banking. Why are you personally interested in the hackathon?
We are on the threshold of implementing an Open Banking regime in Australia, which is in line with the global movement around Open Data. I see the hackathon as an opportunity to help transform the thinking around opportunities and what will be possible as this trend continues.
The Australian Payments Council hackathon will examine how transactional data can improve the lives of Australians. The event will take place simultaneously at Stone & Chalk in Sydney and Cognizant’s Collaboratory in Melbourne from 11 to 13 August. The winners in each city will be awarded with a cash prize of $5,000!
Come along and show us what’s possible – we look forward to seeing you there!
For more information and to sign up click here.
