Today I started digging into Seattle fintech companies, just wanting to get a simple list together. Man, what a headache it turned out to be.
Getting Started (Felt Simple)
Woke up, grabbed some coffee, cracked open the laptop. Thought, “How hard can finding these companies be?” Opened a search engine, typed in “Seattle fintech companies.” Boom – tons of results popped up. Feeling pretty good at this point.
The Mess Begins
Started clicking through lists some websites put together. First site had maybe 20 names. Cool! Copied them into my text file. Went to another site. Wait… only half of the names matched the first list? Where’d XYZ Payments go? Third site had completely different names again. Okay, getting messy.
Figuring Out Who Counts
This is where I got stuck. What exactly is a “fintech” company? Found a company making payment tools – sounds like fintech! But then saw one helping businesses manage money – wait, is that SaaS or fintech? What about that place doing lending stuff? Or the one focused purely on insurance software? Had to stop and think. Decided anything touching money, banking, payments, or finance with tech counted for my list. Rules made by me, right?
Trying to Organize the Chaos
My text file was a mess – duplicates everywhere, some names with websites, some without. Needed order. Made simple headings:
- Payments Stuff: Gateways, processing companies.
- Banking & Lending: Tech for banks, loan platforms.
- Wealth & Investing: Robo-advisors, trading tools.
- Insurance Tech: Software for insurers.
- Analytics & Security: Fraud prevention, data stuff.
Went through the messy list again, sorting names under these buckets. Still found duplicates! Had to go slow, one name at a time, crossing off repeats.
Final Reality Check
Got my list down to what felt manageable, maybe 40-50 names across the buckets. But I gotta say, I know it’s probably missing some companies. New ones pop up all the time in Seattle, and others fade away. Plus, some big finance names have big tech offices here doing parts of fintech. It’s impossible to be perfect unless you live and breathe this scene daily.
Biggest surprise? How many different flavors exist! It’s not just one thing like payment processing. Seattle’s got bits and pieces tackling nearly every corner of finance with tech. Pretty cool. Anyway, my list is done for now. Probably outdated next month, knowing how fast things move!
