1. Who are you?

My name is Robert Henker and I am the founder and CEO at CASHBOARD.

2. Which services do you sell and who are your competitors?

• CASHBOARD is a personal online investing platform. We are the only platform which combines the whole world of traditional investments (funds, stocks etc.) AND modern online investments (P2P-Lending, Crowdinvesting, Bitcoins…) in one free account. We offer our clients the following USPs:100% Investing: All products in one platform

• 100% Automated: portfolio, risk and tax management

• 100% Secure: Personal German bank account with state deposit insurance

• 100% Free: We only earn money if you make profit

Since we integrate other platforms and products we welcome all other FinTech products and platforms as potential partners. Same applies for brokers and banks.

Of course clients may choose other platforms like Nutmeg (UK) but usualy they get only one product, typically ETFs. Besides I am convinced the strategic shift from traditional banking in FinTech just started and there is enough growth in the market for all of us FinTech startups to cooperate rather than compete.

3. How did you get your startup idea and how did you finance your startup?

We saw the shift from traditional to online investments but found two things unsatisfactory: From clients perspective you need an additional account for every investment. Furthermore, clients have no transparency on their overall portfolio and 75% are overweighed in sexy, but also risky online investments. With CASHBOARD we deliver the dashboard for all your investments and a scientific proven automated portfolio management, customers can easily use to optimize their return, risk and tax.

We did some very successful crowdfunding and have another successful trading platform www.refinedinvest.com up and running. After bringing CASHBOARD live last month we are now in talks with Angels and some VCs. In case you are interested just contact us.

4. What were the biggest challenges in starting?

Since we could build upon our proven technology from our trading portal refinedinvest.com we were able to start our beta very quickly within only six months. We are also already regulated and have renowned strategic partners. Above all we are a diversified team with own IT.

The probably biggest challenge is to grow the team with the business. We are looking for web designers and web developers – Berliner: you know what I mean…

5. What areas within FinTech do you personally find most interesting and why?

Wealthfront did a great job in the US. Seedmatch and Auxmoney developed a new market in Germany. Personally I am most excited about complete new products and real game changers like Yuebao in China.

6. What opportunities do you see for FinTech startups in the DACH region, and how can we help to accelerate it?

Opportunities are plenty and the market just started to take-off. Platforms and partnerships FinTech internally (e.g. accounts – payments – investing) but also in terms of cooperation with traditional partners such as government, banks and media are just evolving and will definitely boost the whole FinTech industry in the future.

7. What tip would you like to give FinTech entrepreneurs?

Talk, talk, talk – to clients, other FinTechs but also the “old world”. There is pretty much still to learn from banks and fund managers. Personal relationships are still key to build alliances and reliable partnerships, where others just see business or competition. Anybody reading this and we did not meet yet: please contact me.