Hope for the best, plan for the worst: 11 top fintech investors explain how founders can conserve cash, tap opportunities, and keep customers happy during the downturn

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Hope for the best, plan for the worst: 11 top fintech investors explain how founders can conserve cash, tap opportunities, and keep customers happy during the downturn
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Samantha Lee/Business Insider

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Backers including Bain Capital Ventures, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, JPMorgan, and Goldman Sachs, shared advice they're giving fintech founders.

  • Business Insider reached out to 11 fintech investors to find out what type of advice they were giving founders in their portfolio.
  • Participants included those from Bain Capital Ventures, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, JPMorgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs, among others.
  • They laid out how fintechs should be looking to conserve capital, weighing opportunities against risks, and keeping the human toll of the coronavirus crisis in mind when making decisions.
  • Overall, the message was this: hope for the best, but plan for the worst.
  • Click here for more BI Prime stories.

As volatility continues to plague the markets, young fintechs are facing unprecedented challenges - and another funding round likely isn't just around the corner.

While fintechs have been around for decades, the latest crop all mostly rose following the 2008 financial crisis. As a result, many have only known a financial market in which stock prices continue to climb and investors are eager to fund new companies.

But the impact of the novel coronavirus has brought new circumstances foreign to many founders.

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Business Insider surveyed 11 investors whose portfolios consist of at least some fintechs to get a sense of the type of advice they were giving.

They laid out how fintechs should be looking to conserve capital, weighing opportunities against risks, and keeping the human toll of the coronavirus crisis in mind when making decisions. Overall, the message was this: hope for the best, but plan for the worst.

Here's the advice investors are giving their portfolio companies:

Exclusive FREE Slide Deck: 10 Up and Coming Fintechs by Business Insider Intelligence

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