Hey, fintech fam! 💜

Anyone else feeling that end-of-year whiplash — the urge to get everything done before the calendar flips, while also being very ready to mentally check out? I’m doing a million things at once, moving slower than I want, and somehow still making progress. That’s December.

Behind the scenes, we’re deep in planning mode — building out the events, community experiences, and campaigns that will fuel all of 2026 with the best content and connection Fintech Is Femme has ever delivered. And while we’re looking ahead, I’ve also got a few moments coming up very soon.

First up: join us from anywhere in the world as Empire Startups and Fintech Is Femme host the Female Fintech Founder Showcase. We’ve got judges from FIS, Mastercard, Fiserv, and more, and there’s still one last chance to nominate yourself to pitch. 👉 RSVP here. Nominate here.

And during the holidays, I always feel the impact of small businesses even more — from restaurants in my favorite city (New York, obviously) to the vintage and jewelry shops I pop into for gifts… and maybe one for myself. Small businesses don’t just participate in the economy — they are the economy.

Which is why I’ve been wanting to explore today’s column for a while now. It dives into one of the most fundamental, least glamorous problems SMBs face — and how one fintech founder is quietly fixing it.

Let’s get into it.

INNOVATION

Fintech Loves Small Businesses—So Why Is Getting Paid Still Broken?

Small businesses are having a moment—and they’ve been having it for years.

In nearly every VC interview I’ve conducted, partners talk about SMBs. Prominent fintech execs emphasize the importance of “serving Main Street.” Every conference features a panel framing small businesses as the engine of the economy—because they are.

And yet, we’ve been remarkably bad at solving one of the most basic problems they face:

Getting paid. On time.

In the U.S., the average small business waits 47 to 50 days to get paid on an invoice. Nearly two months. Cash flow held hostage by friction, forgetfulness, and systems built for a pre-digital economy—now straining under modern business demands.

That delay isn’t an inconvenience. It’s existential.

Sixty-four percent of small and mid-sized businesses deal with delayed payments, and for many, it’s the difference between surviving and shutting down. Missed payroll. Deferred growth. Lines of credit are used not to expand, but to plug holes that never should have existed in the first place.

And it’s not just the wait.

It’s the fragmentation.

Small business owners don’t deal with one clean, unified way to get paid. They juggle accounting software, invoicing tools, bank portals, payment processors, emails, PDFs, mailed checks, and follow-ups that live in someone’s inbox—or worse, on someone’s desk.

Every customer pays differently. Every platform speaks a different language. And every invoice creates more paperwork to reconcile before the money ever hits an account.

For founders already wearing every hat, getting paid becomes less about revenue and more about administrative survival.

So if fintech has been so obsessed with small businesses, why have we been so bad at serving this most fundamental need?

One reason: solving small-business problems isn’t sexy. It doesn’t sparkle on a pitch deck, trend on social, or headline a funding announcement—until you realize it’s some of the most scalable, durable, and economically meaningful work fintech can do.

Garima Shah figured that out early.

The Unsexy Problem That Changes Everything

When Garima Shah, Co-Founder and President of Biller Genie, joined me live on Fintech Mavericks at Money20/20, she opened with a joke.

“I kind of think we’re sexy,” she said, smiling.

She wasn’t wrong.

Shah built Biller Genie after years in payments, most recently as a Chief Business Development Officer. She founded the company in 2020 to automate accounts receivable for small and mid-sized businesses—landscapers, mechanics, florists, and wholesalers.

The people who keep the economy moving but rarely get the spotlight, or the software built with them in mind.

And the results she shared are hard to ignore.

Using Biller Genie’s platform, businesses cut payment cycles from an industry-standard 47-50 days to about a week.

“That just changes everything,” Shah told me. “It changes everything for small businesses.”

She’s not exaggerating.

Faster payments mean predictable cash flow. Predictable cash flow means fewer emergency loans, fewer layoffs, fewer closures—and more resilience in moments of economic uncertainty.

It also means something less discussed but just as important: flexibility. The ability for an SMB to take smarter risks, invest in growth, and think beyond survival mode.

This matters even more when you look at who’s building these businesses.

Women started 49% of all new businesses in 2024—up from 29% in 2019, according to Gusto’s 2025 New Business Formation Report. That’s a 69% surge in just five years.

This isn’t a trend. It’s a re-architecture of entrepreneurship itself—and one happening at scale.

[Read More: Women Are Behind Nearly 1 in 2 New Businesses — Here’s What That Means for Fintech]

But Biller Genie didn’t begin with a grand vision to “disrupt invoicing.”

Like many of the most enduring fintechs, it started by paying attention.

“We’re payments people,” Shah said. “We were trying to build a payments company. And in building that, we realized this was such a bigger pain point.”

That’s the pattern hype-driven fintech often misses:

The biggest opportunities aren’t always about creating new behaviors. They’re about fixing the broken ones—at scale.

Why Fintech Historically Ignored SMB Reality

There’s a reason invoicing never became fintech’s darling category.

Small businesses don’t resemble enterprise clients. They don’t have procurement teams, CIOs, or multi-quarter buying cycles. They’re owners wearing every hat—sales, operations, finance, customer service—often before lunch.

“If you tell a small business owner, ‘Go learn a whole new software and change your workflow,’” Shah said, “‘That sounds great—let me add it to my hundredth priority.’”

That reality has tripped up fintech for years. Products were designed for ideal users, not real ones.

Instead of forcing behavior change, Biller Genie embedded itself where SMBs already operate: QuickBooks. Xero. Familiar accounting systems.

“Go in, do everything you’ve always done,” Shah explained. “Hit save. We take over.”

The product functions less like a flashy platform and more like an outsourced accounts receivable assistant—handling reminders, follow-ups, payment options, and reconciliation quietly in the background. ​​

For SMBs already buried under fragmented financial tools, fintech doesn’t win by adding another login — it wins by showing up inside the systems users already trust.

Distribution Over Direct-to-Consumer 

Another reason fintech has struggled with SMBs: acquisition economics.

Marketing to millions of fragmented small businesses is expensive and inefficient. Owners don’t have time to browse fintech ads, and many companies burn capital chasing attention that never converts.

Shah made a different bet.

Biller Genie doesn’t sell directly to SMBs at all. Instead, it partners with banks, processors, and financial institutions—embedding the product into systems small businesses already trust. The company now works with the top six U.S. banks, among others.

“We don’t have a cost of acquisition,” Shah said. “We’ve never had a marketing arm.”

That’s not an accident. It’s a distribution strategy.

When a banker or relationship manager offers Biller Genie as part of their toolkit, two things happen at once:

• Small businesses get paid faster

• Banks reduce attrition and deepen customer relationships

The outcome shows up in the numbers: sub-5% annual attrition across most plans.

In an era where fintech often obsesses over CAC optimization, this model reframes the question entirely: What if the best growth lever isn’t acquisition—but alignment?

A $400,000 Lesson in Friction

To understand how broken invoicing systems still are, Shah shared a case study.

An Indigenous reservation utility charged about $8 per power bill. Over time, unpaid invoices piled up—more than 100,000 of them, totaling $800,000 outstanding.

Not because customers were unwilling to pay.

Because paying was difficult.

Checks. Mail. Time. So on.

When Biller Genie went live, the result was immediate.

“In 24 hours,” Shah said, “they collected $400,000.”

Invoices that were one or even two years old were paid almost instantly.

“It wasn’t that people were dodging an $8 bill,” she explained. “They forgot. It wasn’t easy to pay. And when it became easy—they paid.”

The takeaway isn’t about one product. It’s about a broader truth fintech often misses:

Most financial friction isn’t driven by bad behavior. It’s driven by outdated systems.

What Founders Can Actually Learn From This Model

Beyond the product, Shah’s approach offers a playbook other founders—especially in fintech—can learn from.

1. Design for reality, not aspiration.

The fastest path to scale isn’t changing how users behave. It’s fitting into how they already work.

2. Distribution is strategy.

Selling through trusted intermediaries can outperform direct-to-consumer models—especially in fragmented markets like SMBs.

3. Fundraising is a tool, not a milestone.

“If you’re building a company just for an exit, you’re building the wrong company,” Shah told me.

She’s direct about dilution, selective about capital, and clear on its purpose: fuel growth that already works—not validation for an idea that doesn’t.

4. Durability beats hype.

Biller Genie has grown to nearly 80 employees, doubled or tripled revenue annually, and scaled without chasing headlines. That restraint matters in a market where layoffs are rising and margins are thin.

5. Culture requires clarity, not slogans.

Shah emphasizes accountability, fast learning, and ownership—not performative grind culture. Teams are encouraged to surface mistakes quickly, not hide them.

Why This Matters Now

Small businesses aren’t a niche.

They employ nearly half the U.S. workforce. They anchor local economies. They absorb financial shocks long before public markets notice.

When SMBs don’t get paid, the consequences are immediate—missed payroll, delayed hiring, shuttered storefronts.

Fintech doesn’t need another app promising to “reinvent” money. It needs more founders willing to focus on the unglamorous, foundational problems—and solve them with discipline.

As Shah put it:

“You’re the founder for a reason. Stay true to it. Just do the things.”

Sometimes the most meaningful innovation isn’t creating new behavior.

It’s fixing what never worked—and building systems that ensure people get paid, on time, for the work they’ve already done.

Tune into the full interview with Shah here.

WTF ELSE?

• Wealthfront IPO sees modest debut as market volatility dampens investor appetite

• PayPal applies to form bank that can offer small business loans and savings accounts

• Fifth Third signs deal making fintech firm Brex the provider of its commercial cards

• U.S. fintech and data services firm 700Credit suffered a data breach impacting 5.6 million people

I WANT IT, I GOT IT

• 🎧 Today’s Watch: I had big plans for my last Sunday — hot yoga, errands, the whole reset routine — but when I woke up to inches of snow outside my Brooklyn window, I stayed in and put on It’s a Wonderful Life. The film is basically a lesson in community banking: a small-town lender fighting a bank run, reminding customers that their money isn’t sitting in a vault — it’s invested in each other. Homes. Families. Futures. A 1946 reminder that finance, at its best, runs on trust — especially when fear shows up first. Snow day well spent.

• 📚 Today’s Read: At an event today, I met the founder of Brown Girl Magazine — a community-driven media company redefining what representation looks like for South Asians across the diaspora. I love it — proof that when media is built by the community it serves, it doesn’t just inform — it connects, validates, and shapes culture. Exactly the kind of independent media we need more of—very aligned with our community here at FIF.

• 🧘‍♀️Today’s Self-Care: Closing a few open tabs — on my laptop and in my head. Not everything needs to be finished today to be still moving forward.

_FINTUNES

🎶 Destiny's Child - Bills, Bills, Bills

Am I in my annual end-of-year throwback era? Absolutely. And this one happens to fit today’s newsletter theme.

_{LET’S CONNECT}

📰 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.

🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on female leadership.

📚 The holidays are coming, and are you in charge of purchasing office gifts? Grab my book, Fintech Feminists! It looks nice on the coffee table 😉

That wraps up today’s edition—thanks as always for reading! Until next time, keep innovating and challenging the status quo. 

See you Thursday!

Love,

Nicole 💜