Disrupting Centralized Financial Services in the Metaverse With Neeraj Satija

Neeraj Satija has been an innovative disruptor for more than 25 years. With extensive startup experience in many countries, including the U.S., New Zealand, Australia, and Saudi Arabia, Satija is a passionate technology leader, constantly looking for ways to push past the status quo. Now, Satija and his co-founders are building financial products people are familiar with, but in the metaverse — powered by both digital assets within and outside of the metaverse. Through this innovative technology, Satija is ultimately on the path to providing financial education to consumers while also offering improved transparency in the management of consumer financial data. 

Key Takeaways 

• One of Satija’s core beliefs around disruptive innovation is that it should be something that propels a space forward while helping humanity. 

• Throughout his career, Satija has been driven by the urge to educate customers by demystifying some of the most complex concepts. 

• The current status quo of financial services is that they are still very centralized. There is usually a middleman — or a number of middlemen — in between the customer and the service provider. 

• Middlemen are sometimes a legal requirement, but most often are simply there to facilitate trade and make it easy for the end customers. Because financial literacy is poor, end users are reliant upon middlemen. 

• Centralized financial services are error-prone and time-consuming. While consumers need to be offered these products and services, the controls remain with centralized entities. This allows these entities to jack up prices when they feel like it and allows them to have access to more of a customer’s data than they need. Additionally, there is a lack of disclosure around how that data is being sold and shared with third parties, including marketing agencies. 

• Control is not with the customer. It’s a lopsided equation. 

• Decentralization of financial services means that there is no centralized entity. Two peers, the customer, and the service provider can now deal with each other directly without needing a middleman. Each person decides who gets to access their data and how much of that data needs to be accessed. 

• Decentralization is at the foundation of the new metaverse. Instead of viewing the internet as a collection of different websites, apps, and micro sites, the metaverse envisions a virtual world which is interactive. It’s 3D and places each user at the center of that universe. Because it’s built on blockchain technology, the metaverse will allow users to take their assets with them wherever they go. 

• He sees the metaverse as the perfect opportunity to create a company where all the financial products and services that he wants to offer to customers are available in a transparent way that simultaneously enables learning. 

Quote of the show: 

42:40 “It’s not like this is something hidden, or this is not a secret sauce, but when you apply those principles of educating your customers of being fair to customers and your partners and your employees and yourself… When you apply those principles, you build a business where your brand represents trust. It represents openness and transparency. And that invariably leads to customers coming along and customers sticking to you. And customers then bring their friends and family into the fold…” 

 

Links: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neerajsatija/ 

Company Website: https://lucrisma.com/ 

 

Ways to Tune In: 

Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/eccda84d-4d5b-4c52-ba54-7fd8af3cbe87/disruption-interruption 

Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disruption-interruption/id1581985755 

Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGlzcnVwdGlvbmludGVycnVwdGlvbi5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw 

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6yGSwcSp8J354awJkCmJlD 

Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/disruption-interruption 

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf2zbLqmHtSHQ7u1V-Is8cA