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The very point of sale a feature article, breaking news story, company profile or
The ve
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Smart communities

These days, there's no shortage of extreme home
The gift of time makeovers, agile workflows and faster payments, but it's
worth noting none of these solutions happen overnight.
Supporting frameworks take years to develop, as designers
By Dale S. Laszig seek to understand needs, desires and frustrations of their
target audience and build accordingly. Some innovations
try to avoid giving advice at weddings but recently never make it out of the lab; others fail forward, enabling
made an exception when speaking with a niece and inventors to learn from their mistakes.
nephew about their new home. Take time to find
I the right furniture, I said, the same way you took Obsidian Banking, a Detroit-based neobank startup, is
time searching for a house. Another guest agreed, advising developing a unique methodology for understanding their
them not to furnish the whole home at once. It takes time, Black American audience. They plan to travel the country,
she said, sometimes a year, for a house to speak to you. knocking on doors and bringing not just answers, but
questions, to prospective customers. Years in the making,
This year, our industry has been speaking to me, and it's this uniquely analog approach to a digital-first solution
had a lot to say. I occasionally have to remind myself to is attracting attention and commentary from partnering
slow down when I'm chasing a story, to be thorough and get banks and third-party service providers.
the facts. Covering technology in the fast-paced payments
industry affords little time for self-reflection, but recently, In an interview with The Green Sheet, Damon Kirk, co-founder
on a rainy day in New York City, I discussed how I build and CEO of Obsidian Banking, said he expects Obsidian's
news and feature stories. Million Doors Campaign to further the company's long-
term vision of becoming an all-encompassing bank for
Janine Savarese, CEO at NextTech Communications, Black Americans that offers elite mobile banking, world-
shared pictures from the meeting. "Thank you to Dale class investing and equitable lending options.
Laszig for joining us in our New York office to share her
experiences as a journalist at The Green Sheet," she wrote "Our primary differentiator is that we've built a product
in an Oct. 7, 2022, post on LinkedIn. "We enjoyed hearing and experience with no compromise, a product that we
her perspectives and learning more on the ins and outs of can't wait to use and can't wait for the world to use!" he
being a reporter in today's media climate." said, noting Obsidian users will soon be able to leverage
the platform's data analytics, accessible fintech services and
Smart collaborations array of skill sets to make informed decisions that improve
their financial health and overall quality of life.
As a payments industry veteran, I sometimes feel as if
I'm writing one continuous story about the everchanging Accidental innovations
commerce sphere, from early beginnings to modern-day
solutions. Personal observations and the steady drip of As history has shown, many inventions begin as accidents.
incoming pitches keep me focused on each new chapter. In 1954, Dr. Wilson Greatbatch tried to record heartbeats;
his pulsating creation became the prototype of implantable
NextTech executives asked what qualities I look for in a pacemakers. The story is chronicled in "The Heartbeat of
source and where I find story ideas. I generally look for Invention: How Pacemaker Creator Wilson Greatbatch
sources who are reliable, accessible and passionate about Saved Countless Lives," a Nov. 8, 2016, post on the
their work. My network includes payments analysts, tech Intellectual Ventures website.
leaders, VCs, PR specialists and journalists, all of whom
help stock my idea pipeline. I also peruse The Green "In the barn behind his home, the electrical engineering
Sheet's newswire for newsworthy topics, companies and professor worked to use his inadvertent discovery to
technology trends. create the world's first implantable pacemaker," researchers
wrote. "The first Greatbatch pacemaker was implanted in
As we sat in NextTech's boardroom, exploring ways to a human patient in 1960, and Greatbatch was awarded a
collaborate, I mentioned The Green Sheet Inc.'s numerous patent for the device two years later."
free resources. For example, there is no charge to post press
In 1968, 3M scientist Spencer Silver created a lightweight
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