{"id":37705,"date":"2023-10-20T14:51:52","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:51:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/why-financialasks-andrew-lai-had-to-withdraw-from-his-job-at-a-big-bank-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:51:52","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:51:52","slug":"why-financialasks-andrew-lai-had-to-withdraw-from-his-job-at-a-big-bank-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/why-financialasks-andrew-lai-had-to-withdraw-from-his-job-at-a-big-bank-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Why FinancialAsk\u2019s Andrew Lai had to withdraw from his job at a big bank – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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While working at NAB, Andrew Lai made a simple request for a systems change.<\/p>\n

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Six years and several job changes later, it was approved.<\/p>\n

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It was this bureaucracy and lack of control that led Lai to make the big jump from the cushy corporate job to the startup world.<\/p>\n

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He\u2019d been working at NAB for seven years when he finally left to devote all his time to the online platform – FinancialAsk,<\/a> a two-sided platform aiming to \u201cdemocratise\u201d the financial advice process.<\/p>\n

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What used to take six years and several levels of approval now takes mere seconds.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn a bureaucratic organisation you have to get it all analysed and funded, so after a million dollars you might get the change,\u201d Lai says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cCorporate life is so different from the startup world. In corporate life within a big bank there\u2019s a lot of bureaucracy and there\u2019s none of that in startup life.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s all about getting stuff done yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Through the FinancialAsk platform users can post a question relating to any aspect of finance – from superannuation to education trusts – and have it answered by one of the financial professionals that the Melbourne-based startup is also signing up.<\/p>\n

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Lai says it\u2019s about people getting accurate and reliable answers to common questions.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOver 80% of people don\u2019t have a financial adviser,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to get answers to very common problems – the common questions that go unanswered.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re saying it\u2019s like Trip Advisor for financial advice.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The startup has recently become partners with Crowe Horwath, the largest provider of financial advice to individuals and businesses in Australia, and Lai says this is where most of the team\u2019s efforts are being concentrated.<\/p>\n

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\u201cLanding that deal has been major for us, it\u2019s a really big deal,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey have over 70 advisers on the site, with some doing it for over 30 years, and there are a lot of customers.<\/p>\n

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\u201cPeople can get upfront and free advice through it [the site], and then they can pursue it further if they want.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s in it for Crowe Horwath – these are very hot leads that they\u2019re receiving, and they get to build their profile online.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Running a startup is a far cry of the bureaucratic world of a big bank, and Lai says he now has control over his own destiny.<\/p>\n

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\u201cNow if I want a database change I just log in myself and within five minutes it\u2019s done,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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Do you know more on this story or have a tip of your own? Raising capital or launching a startup? Let us know. Follow StartupSmart on <\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/a>, <\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>, and <\/i>LinkedIn<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 While working at NAB, Andrew Lai made a simple request for a systems change. \u00a0 Six years and several<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37705"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}