In partnership with

Hey, fintech fam 💜

It’s been a busy (and exciting) week over at Fintech Is Femme HQ as we lock in our 2026 calendar — the stories we’re telling, the rooms we’re building, and the community we’re growing.

There’s a lot of noise out there right now. Which is why today’s column is all about fundamentals — what actually keeps companies, founders, and the economy steady when everything else feels loud.

I’ve also got updates on our first in-person gathering of the year, the FEMMY Awards on February 16, plus a new virtual event with Georgetown McDonough School of Business you won’t want to miss.

We’re also building out Fintech Week: our three-part Summit series during New York Fintech Week, April 28-30. More details soon. Early bird tickets are here.

Let’s get into it. 

_{ON SMBs}

The Economy Runs on Small Businesses. Cash Flow Is Their Lifeline.

There’s a particular kind of stress you can’t chart.

It doesn’t show up neatly in GDP. It doesn’t have a ticker symbol. It lives in the space between an invoice sent and money received — in the waiting. In the way a founder checks their bank balance like it’s a pulse.

That stress is everywhere right now. And it’s why, when I think about 2026, I keep coming back to small businesses — not as a “Main Street” talking point, but as economic infrastructure.

Small businesses aren’t adjacent to the economy.

They are the economy.

They employ nearly half the workforce. They anchor local supply chains. And for millions of founders, cash flow — not innovation, not growth, not ambition — is the difference between “we’re fine” and “we’re not making payroll.”

That reality framed my recent conversation with Carolyn Rodz, co-founder and CEO of Hello Alice, a fintech company that has provided more than $60 million in grants and financing to more than 1.5 million small business owners, helping them access funding, networks, and services.

The Post-PPP Hangover — and What It Forced Founders to Face

“We went from a world where everything was about access to capital,” Rodz told me, “to a world where small businesses had to get real about the core fundamentals.”

If you built through 2024 and 2025, you know exactly what she means.

After the pandemic, capital didn’t just become available — it became a survival strategy.

PPP loans, emergency grants, local programs, endless applications. For many, that money was lifesaving. But it also rewired behavior. Founders began building around external capital instead of internal health.

Then the money tightened.

Grant funding slowed. Backstops disappeared. Margins shrank. And small businesses were forced to confront what was actually working — and what wasn’t.

The result was painful. But clarifying.

Rodz believes those years produced healthier companies — businesses that had to understand their cash flow, customer acquisition, and operating realities.

That shift matters because it changes what fintech is supposed to do.

When Cash Flow Becomes the Obsession, Fintech Becomes the Plumbing

As capital got tighter, something else happened: founders stopped chasing any money and started asking which money actually made sense.

The next era of small-business finance isn’t about more capital. It’s about better options—capital that fits the business rather than distorts it.

Secured cards that graduate into real credit. Lines of credit designed for operations, not pitch decks. Products that reduce wasted motion instead of adding complexity.

Small business owners don’t have time to cosplay as venture-backed startups. Too many founders chased VC because fintech blurred the line between “tech company” and “small business.”

They are not the same.

The founders who win in 2026 won’t be the ones who find capital first. They’ll be the ones who understand what kind of capital their business can actually carry without breaking.

Growth at all costs is out.

Endurance is in.

“All the Rest Is Noise”

Rodz told me Hello Alice uses a business health score — based on the same metrics banks, landlords, and procurement offices care about — to help founders focus on what actually matters.

Then she said this:

“If you stay focused on those pieces,” Rodz said, “you eliminate the noise and can actually pay attention to what matters.”

Customer acquisition. Cash flow. Emergency planning.

The fundamentals that don’t trend on social media — but determine whether a business survives a tariff shock, a supplier disruption, a flood, or a random Tuesday when revenue doesn’t show up on time.

This is the quiet divide in fintech right now:

Some products help small businesses manage reality.

Others just help them feel busy.

In 2026, busy will stop selling.

Prepared will win.

The Silver Tsunami No One Is Pricing In

A wave of baby boomer business owners is retiring. Millions of small businesses have no transition plan. Without one, businesses don’t just close. They disintegrate — taking jobs, capital, and community stability with them.

“All of that capital and value disappears,” Rodz warned.

It also creates one of the most important fintech questions of the next decade:

Are we building tools that help businesses transfer — not just start?

Buyers exist. Search funds exist. Micro-PE exists.

But they only show up when the fundamentals are clean.

“If you have a healthy business,” Rodz said, “there’s going to be a buyer. If it’s in shambles, it’s really hard.”

This is fintech as infrastructure — not helping someone raise money, but helping them build something that can outlive them. Long-term thinking.

Technology Lowers Barriers — and Changes the Shape of Work

AI is reducing the cost of starting a business. Rodz noted that you can now “build a team with one person” and that agents can handle core functions.

That’s powerful.

It’s also disruptive.

New businesses may be leaner. Job creation may look different. And founders will be asked to do more with less — longer.

We can celebrate entrepreneurship and ask hard questions about labor. We can build tools that make starting easier and systems that don’t turn workers into shock absorbers for efficiency.

That tension is the economy being rebuilt in real time.

What This Means for 2026

Here’s the lens I’m taking into the year ahead:

Small business fintech is about endurance.

The products that matter most will offer:

• cash flow predictability

• clarity on business health

• systems that reduce noise

• tools that make businesses transferable

• pathways to emergency-ready operations

Because fintech that makes a small business easier to run is fintech that stabilizes the economy.

_{I’D LIKE TO THANK THE ACADEMY}

I’m so excited to officially share this year’s Honorees and Presenters for the Second Annual FEMMY Awards, hosted by The Academy of Fintech — and this room is going to be exceptional.

• Sheila Lirio Marcelo, founder of Care.com and one of only seven women in history to take a company public, returns as our 2024 Innovator of the Year to present the 2025 Innovator Award to Luan Cox, President & CEO of FinMkt — a category-defining builder shaping the infrastructure behind modern fintech.

• Lule Demmissie, former CEO of eToro U.S. and a longtime leader in inclusive investing, returns to present the 2025 Vanguard Award to Asya Bradley, founder, investor, LP at Kinship Ventures, and VC Partnerships Lead at Stripe — honoring leadership that moves capital, power, and opportunity across the industry.

• We’ll also introduce our first-ever MVP Award, presented by Susan Langer, Founder & CEO of Spave and President of the Board of The Academy of Fintech, and awarded to Frances Zelazny, Founder & CEO of Anonybit — recognizing a community leader whose behind-the-scenes impact has materially strengthened the Fintech Is Femme ecosystem.

This is not just an awards night. It’s a rare room — founders, CEOs, investors, and operators who actually shape fintech, gathered to celebrate, connect, and set the tone for the year ahead. Seats are limited, and this one will fill.

_#SPONSORED

Payroll errors cost more than you think

While many businesses are solving problems at lightspeed, their payroll systems seem to stay stuck in the past. Deel's free Payroll Toolkit shows you what's actually changing in payroll this year, which problems hit first, and how to fix them before they cost you. Because new compliance rules, AI automation, and multi-country remote teams are all colliding at once.

Check out the free Deel Payroll Toolkit today and get a step-by-step roadmap to modernize operations, reduce manual work, and build a payroll strategy that scales with confidence.

Download the Toolkit for free today

_{WTF ELSE?}

• The fintech rebundling is already here

• White House move shocks Wall Street's favorite banks

• Betterment confirms data breach after hackers send fake crypto scam notification 

• Global fintech deals over $100M increased by 21% YoY, pushing funding higher in 2025

• Citi moves ahead With 1,000 job cuts as Fraser's overhaul continues

• UAE Fintechs drive next phase of financial inclusion

_{I WANT IT, I GOT IT}

• 😎 Today’s Fit: My stylist just put me onto these sunglasses, and they’ve somehow become my entire personality. Is it just me, or does wearing sunglasses in winter actually make your face feel warmer?

• 🍿 Today’s Watch: Proof that rejection is redirection — Ejae’s Golden Globes acceptance speech after winning Best Song in a Motion Picture for K-Pop Demon Hunters. So good.

• 🌍 Today’s Activity: Handwriting exercises. My handwriting is… a work in progress, but an hour off screens every Tuesday has been surprisingly grounding — and my cortisol agrees.

_FINTUNES

🎵 Bruno Mars - I Just Might

So much swag.

_{LET’S CONNECT}

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

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

🤝 Grow your business through content & community by partnering with me.

📣 Promote yourself to 50,000 subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter.

🎤 Host an epic event by booking me as a speaker, moderator, or emcee.

📚 Increase your expertise by ordering your copy of my book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World.

That’s all for now! See you on Thursday.

Love,

Nicole 💜