January 2020 Summaries

Kalee Hasselbach is the head of Workplace at Plaid, responsible for creating platforms and opportunities for employees to connect and build relationships. She believes that cross-functional relationships are crucial in a workplace, allowing for quick decision-making, impactful work, and well-rounded thinking. Kalee's team focuses on designing open spaces, hosting events like Plaiderdays and the annual retreat, and fostering a culture of support, growth, and tenacity. As she navigates her role, Kalee draws from her personal experiences, including being raised with a strong sense of fortitude and passion for purpose, which have shaped her approach to building and growing at Plaid. With a focus on creating exceptional spaces, events, and programs, Kalee's team aims to ensure employees feel connected to the company's mission and values.

The 2019 State of Diversity & Inclusion in Plaid Engineering report highlights the company's progress in building a diverse team and fostering an inclusive culture. Despite improvements, there is still work to be done. Key initiatives for 2020 include enhancing top-of-funnel sourcing diversity, promoting balanced participation in meetings, and establishing ERGs (employee resource groups) for women/non-binary individuals and the LBGTQ+ community. The report emphasizes that a diverse team leads to better products and services for Plaid's customers and users.

Optimize for more user conversions with Plaid Link configurations by creating multiple custom flows that cater to users' specific needs, such as location, language, and features used. Easily customize the account sign-in flow using the Customize menu in the Dashboard, changing institution select pane, color, language, and text fields to fit brand or user preferences. Use the linkCustomizationName parameter to point to a specific configuration, enabling A/B testing of text or background color, localizing Link based on primary language, showing regional institutions, and displaying specific institution types. This feature aims to improve conversion by providing a more relevant experience for users.

Dwolla is a payment solution that enables businesses to accept ACH payments by integrating its white-label API into their websites. Founded in 2008, Dwolla processes over $15 million daily on the ACH Network and offers tailored pricing models based on customer needs, making payment processing fees cost-efficient and predictable. The company's mission is to facilitate money movement so businesses can focus on growth.

Plaid is being acquired by Visa, a move that marks an important milestone for the company and the fintech ecosystem as a whole. The acquisition represents an opportunity to scale products while leveraging Visa's brand, resources, and international footprint. Plaid will operate as an independent business unit, allowing it to continue serving its customers and partners. The deal is seen as a significant development in the growth of the fintech industry, which has improved consumers' financial lives through various digital finance products. With this acquisition, Plaid aims to enhance its product offerings, expand into new geographies, and accelerate the success of the fintech ecosystem.

In 2019, Plaid made significant progress in expanding its services and offerings. Key highlights include launching operations in the UK, France, Spain, and Ireland; enhancing support for Canadian institutions; improving transaction categorization accuracy; introducing new products like Investments and Liabilities; and making improvements to their Plaid Link conversion tool. Additionally, they released new SDKs on Android and React Native, improved their Dashboard tools, and introduced Plaid Direct to increase access to the financial system.