{ "_meta": { "source": "https://mtb.xyz/posts/year/2023.json", "year": "2023", "generated_at": "2026-05-15T00:18:22.384Z", "count": 10, "parent": "https://mtb.xyz/posts.json", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Matt Brown", "url": "https://mtb.xyz/", "jobTitle": "Investor", "worksFor": "Matrix Partners", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/mattbrown", "https://www.linkedin.com/in/matttb/", "https://github.com/matttbrown", "https://notes.mtb.xyz", "https://www.matrix.vc/people/matt-brown" ] } }, "posts": [ { "title": "Hedgehogs, foxes, and VCs", "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/hedgehog-fox-vc", "year": "2023", "tags": [ "investing", "frameworks" ], "primary_topic": "investing", "isPopular": true, "description": "Two investor archetypes and which one your fund actually needs", "summary": "Isaiah Berlin's hedgehog-vs-fox distinction applied to venture investing. The post walks through what hedgehog and fox investors actually look like in practice, when each archetype outperforms, and the trade-offs funds face when picking their dominant style.", "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz", "is_external": false, "markdown_url": "/posts/hedgehog-fox-vc.md" }, { "title": "B2B payments aren't payments, they're workflows", "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/b2b-payments-workflows", "year": "2023", "tags": [ "payments", "vertical-software", "frameworks", "fintech" ], "primary_topic": "payments", "featured": true, "featured_order": 2, "description": "The real money in B2B payments is in the workflow, not the transaction", "summary": "B2B payments are workflow problems, not transaction-routing problems. The value capture (and the reason vertical software wins) lives in the approval, reconciliation, and AP/AR workflows surrounding a transaction, not in the rails themselves.", "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz", "is_external": false, "markdown_url": "/posts/b2b-payments-workflows.md" }, { "title": "Vertical, horizontal, and ghost markets", "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/ghost-markets", "year": "2023", "tags": [ "frameworks", "vertical-software" ], "primary_topic": "vertical-software", "isPopular": true, "description": "How to tell a real market from a ghost market that disappears under you", "summary": "A framework for distinguishing real markets from \"ghost markets\" that look like categories but don't sustain product-market fit. The post defines vertical and horizontal markets, then introduces the ghost-market concept to describe markets where TAM analysis works but durable willingness to pay does not.", "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz", "is_external": false, "markdown_url": "/posts/ghost-markets.md" }, { "title": "Fundraising for fintech infra is different", "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/fintech-infra-fundraising", "year": "2023", "tags": [ "fintech", "investing", "frameworks" ], "primary_topic": "fintech", "description": "Why fintech infra fundraising plays by different rules than SaaS infra", "summary": "Fintech infrastructure companies face fundraising dynamics that don't map onto generalist SaaS infrastructure patterns. The piece walks through what investors look for differently in fintech infra (regulatory thesis, balance-sheet path, revenue-quality questions) and what founders should adjust in pitch and milestones.", "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz", "is_external": false, "markdown_url": "/posts/fintech-infra-fundraising.md" }, { "title": "The iron triangle of embedded fintech", "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/iron-triangle-embedded-fintech", "year": "2023", "tags": [ "fintech", "frameworks", "vertical-software" ], "primary_topic": "fintech", "description": "The three constraints embedded fintech can't optimize at once", "summary": "Embedded fintech operators face an iron triangle: compliance ownership, unit economics, and customer experience. The piece argues that builders can win on at most two of these simultaneously and that the choice of which to compromise determines the entire shape of the business.", "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz", "is_external": false, "markdown_url": "/posts/iron-triangle-embedded-fintech.md" }, { "title": "Bundling, unbundling, and timing", "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/bundling-unbundling-and-timing", "year": "2023", "tags": [ "frameworks", "fintech" ], "primary_topic": "frameworks", "description": "When bundling beats unbundling and how to read the cycle in fintech", "summary": "A timing-oriented reading of bundling and unbundling cycles in fintech. The post argues that whether bundling or unbundling is the right play depends on where customer attention and trust currently sit, and that the same market can swing between bundled and unbundled equilibria as those underlying conditions shift.", "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz", "is_external": false, "markdown_url": "/posts/bundling-unbundling-and-timing.md" }, { "title": "The best fintechs turn risk into leverage", "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/turning-risk-into-leverage", "year": "2023", "tags": [ "fintech", "frameworks" ], "primary_topic": "fintech", "description": "How the best fintechs convert risk from a cost into compounding leverage", "summary": "An argument that the best fintech businesses don't avoid risk but convert it into a leverageable asset. The post examines how leading fintech companies use accumulated risk experience as a moat, walking through pattern recognition, data-pricing advantages, and balance-sheet flywheels that distinguish risk-leveraging fintechs from risk-avoiding ones.", "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz", "is_external": false, "markdown_url": "/posts/turning-risk-into-leverage.md" }, { "title": "Winner-take-all dynamics in fintech", "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/why-arent-there-more-winner-take", "year": "2023", "tags": [ "fintech", "frameworks" ], "primary_topic": "fintech", "description": "Why most fintech categories aren't winner-take-all, and where they are", "summary": "An examination of when fintech categories tip toward winner-take-all dynamics and when they remain fragmented. The post argues that most fintech subcategories don't actually exhibit winner-take-all behavior the way pure software categories do, and identifies the structural conditions (regulatory choke points, balance-sheet scale, network effects in risk data) under which winner-take-all does emerge.", "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz", "is_external": false, "markdown_url": "/posts/why-arent-there-more-winner-take.md" }, { "title": "Interchange is a burning platform", "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/interchange-is-a-burning-platform", "year": "2023", "tags": [ "payments", "fintech", "frameworks" ], "primary_topic": "payments", "description": "Interchange revenue is in secular decline. Build with that in mind", "summary": "A call to fintech and vertical software builders to stop treating interchange as a permanent revenue stream. The piece lays out the structural forces driving interchange compression and argues that any business model whose unit economics depend on current interchange rates is on a burning platform.", "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz", "is_external": false, "markdown_url": "/posts/interchange-is-a-burning-platform.md" }, { "title": "Interchange in 1,000 words", "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/interchange-in-1000-words", "year": "2023", "tags": [ "payments", "fintech" ], "primary_topic": "payments", "series": "1000-words", "featured": true, "featured_order": 3, "isPopular": true, "description": "How card fees work, who keeps what, and why margins keep compressing", "summary": "A high-level walkthrough of card-payment economics: who the issuer, acquirer, and scheme are, how interchange and acquirer markup split the gross fee, and how software-led acquiring (payfacs, BaaS) and issuing fit into the modern payment stack. Concludes that interchange revenue alone is structurally fragile; smart fintechs use it as a foundation for higher-margin business models, not as the destination.", "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz", "is_external": false, "markdown_url": "/posts/interchange-in-1000-words.md" } ] }