As a participant in ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator, your company receives brand recognition, awareness, promotional, and exhibiting opportunities only available to ICBA corporate members and Preferred Service Providers.
Get organized! Have a follow up template in place, make a plan for follow-ups, do as much research as possible before each visit to maximize the opportunity.
Prioritize – make time for this
Understand before seeking to be understood - Community bankers want to do business with people they know and trust. Use the time you get via this program to not only scale your revenues, but also to refine your product market fit.
Get to know your audience - Bankers care about their communities, it helps tremendously when you show them that you do as well...the key is you have to mean it. If you don't already know the value of community banks to America, then get yourself enough data (eg. PPP) to get comfortable knowing they really are the backbone of SMB.
Do your research before the meeting - Get to know the banks that you’re meeting, and the people who will be in that meeting. Familiarize yourself with info provided to you by The Venture Center in the data room, poke around the company website and use other resources available to you during this program such as FedFis.
Soft sell – Remember these meetings are your opportunity to build a relationship, showcase your product and hopefully have a follow up call.
Tell your story - positioning is important, understanding the pain points of your audience and then responding appropriately to said pain points with your solution is how you garner clients.
Listen and take notes - you'll get a ton of feedback from this process, if you hear something once, you can write it off, if you hear the same thing from dozens of people, then you should probably listen and adapt to what was said.
Juice = Squeeze - you get in what you put out, this accelerator is trying and the more prepared you are, the more you will get out of it. If you don't put in much work, you can't expect great results...don't ever let us be in a position where we care more about your business than you do, because then it is hard for us to care.
Be responsive – to the accelerator team, to the bankers and others you’ll meet with.
Be on time – 30 minutes, and 12 weeks, isn’t a lot of time.
Follow up!
Send updates! We’ll ask for quarterly reporting to keep up-to-date on your progress after the initial 12 weeks. Add us to your email list for investor/stakeholder updates.
Submit case studies, take advantage of the benefits from your complimentary fintech membership to ICBA, participate in related events, including ICBA LIVE and state association conferences.
Let us know how we can support you.
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ICBA has compiled a 2022 Accelerator cohort badge guidelines document. This document outlines the places you can display your Accelerator badge, guaranteed ICBA-provided exposure, and optional marketing packages available.
Use this customizable press release to tell your community about your participation in the 2022 ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator program.
As a 2022 ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator participant, your company receives free access to ICBA Community Banker University’s Principles of Banking online certificate program.
This coursework is essential for every Accelerator participant to learn about the industry your solutions serve and can be used to train your entire team. To register for complimentary access to Principles of Banking, simply complete the form and Community Banker University’s Cathy Von Wahlde will be in touch with next steps.
Once you are officially enrolled your organization has access to the training for one year.
The Principles of Banking certificate program offers a comprehensive look at the banking industry.
The courses within the program will help your company’s employees understand how a bank makes money, how it is structured, the various products and services a community bank may offer, general federal compliance regulations, security requirements, and types of fraud that occurs in the banking system.
The certificate program is an online, self-paced program that takes approximately 7 hours to complete.
Banking Landscape: A brief history of banking, a review of how a bank works, and discussion of how banks are influenced by its employees, customers, competitors, and regulators.
Bank Structure: Learn about the unique structure of a bank due to its role as a financial intermediary, regulatory requirements, and its role in the community.
Banking Finance: Break down some of the basics of bank financial statements and how a bank balances its role of making money for shareholders, managing risk, and serving the community.
Banking Products & Services: Part 1: Review a variety of deposit and loan products that banks offer and the processes that go into opening these accounts.
Banking Products & Services: Part 2: Look beyond traditional products to learn about electronic and non-electronic banking products and services such as cash management, payment methods, and international banking services.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC): Understand the basic functions of the FDIC, the rules that apply to different types of deposits, and what it means for bank policies and procedures to be in compliance.
