From BaaS APIs to a business enabler

The situation

Finbed is a Banking-as-a-Service and embedded finance provider that lets businesses integrate financial services into what they already do. The technical foundation was strong and the industry expertise was real. What did not work was explaining it — to financial institutions, to businesses wanting to embed financial services, or to investors. The lack of clarity was costing engagement.

The work ran as a series of online workshops with the Finbed team.

What shifted

The audience was wrong. Finbed assumed its main clients were licensed financial institutions. The Stakeholder canvas showed that many of its prospects were businesses that wanted to offer financial services without becoming a bank at all. That is a different buyer with a different fear.

The question that turned the work: “Are we a bank’s vendor, or are we a business’s strategic enabler?” Once the answer was the second one, the whole narrative had to move — from technical features to ease of integration and regulatory simplification.

The difference had to be argued, not asserted. Against well-known competitors, “we provide BaaS APIs” said nothing. The Organization canvas surfaced the real differentiator: advisory expertise combined with modular technology. Where competitors were tech-first, with regulatory friction and slow time to market, Finbed was business-first, with compliance built in and speed to revenue.

The story got emotional, because buying decisions are. Fear of being stuck with an expensive, rigid solution. Frustration that launching financial services takes years. The aspiration of seizing a market opening while it is still open.

The test

Finbed put both versions in front of real prospects and investors.

The original — “We provide BaaS APIs” — drew little interest. The revised version — “We allow businesses to offer financial services without complexity” — produced immediate follow-up questions. That is the whole measurement: one of them ended the conversation, the other started it.

Compared side by side with competitors, the difference was that most of the category was still speaking in technical jargon.

The outcome

The final story followed Recognition → Perception → Projection:

• Recognition: we help businesses add financial services without becoming a bank.
• Perception: unlike rigid banking systems, our solution integrates seamlessly and grows with your needs.
• Projection: imagine launching embedded payments in weeks instead of years.

With a line short enough to say at a table — “Instant banking, just add Finbed” — and a three-step client process: Discover, Design, Deploy.

The biggest shift was from technical excellence to customer outcomes. The most useful exercise was the Recognition → Perception → Projection structure, which made the story something a listener could act on. And the refinement that paid immediately was the plainest one: business-enabler language in place of jargon, which doubled engagement in pitches.