{
  "_meta": {
    "source": "https://mtb.xyz/posts/year/2024.json",
    "year": "2024",
    "generated_at": "2026-05-15T00:18:22.383Z",
    "count": 15,
    "parent": "https://mtb.xyz/posts.json",
    "author": {
      "@type": "Person",
      "name": "Matt Brown",
      "url": "https://mtb.xyz/",
      "jobTitle": "Investor",
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  "posts": [
    {
      "title": "Cross-border payments in ~1,000 words",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/cross-border-payments-1000-words",
      "year": "2024",
      "tags": [
        "payments",
        "fintech"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "payments",
      "series": "1000-words",
      "description": "Why cross-border payments are slow and expensive, and what is starting to change",
      "summary": "A short explainer on the structure of cross-border payments: why they remain slow and expensive (correspondent banking, FX layering, settlement friction), what stablecoins and new rails are actually changing, and what isn't moving as fast as the narrative suggests.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/cross-border-payments-1000-words.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "Pricing payments in vertical software",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/secrets-pricing-payments",
      "year": "2024",
      "tags": [
        "payments",
        "vertical-software",
        "fintech",
        "frameworks"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "payments",
      "description": "How to price payments inside vertical software so margins survive",
      "summary": "A practical guide for vertical software companies pricing payments. Covers the difference between rebate-based and markup-based pricing, why the rebate side of the take-rate matters more than the gross interchange figure, and how to align payment pricing with customer segments without leaving margin on the table.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/secrets-pricing-payments.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "verticalsoftware.fyi",
      "url": "https://www.verticalsoftware.fyi",
      "year": "2024",
      "tags": [
        "vertical-software"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "vertical-software",
      "isPopular": true,
      "description": "A reference site cataloging public vertical software companies by category",
      "summary": "A reference website cataloging public vertical software companies organized by category. The site is a research tool for Matt's vertical software investing thesis, exposing the population of category-defining vertical SaaS companies and the data behind them.",
      "platform": "www.verticalsoftware.fyi",
      "is_external": false
    },
    {
      "title": "Invisible asymptotes in vertical software",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/invisible-asymptotes-vertical-software",
      "year": "2024",
      "tags": [
        "vertical-software",
        "frameworks"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "vertical-software",
      "featured": true,
      "featured_order": 8,
      "description": "Every generation of vertical software must solve harder problems to win",
      "summary": "Each successive generation of vertical software has to clear a higher bar to find a defensible wedge. Earlier wins came from digitization and basic workflow. Today's vertical winners must solve harder problems like embedded finance, AI-native workflows, and integrated data layers to break through.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/invisible-asymptotes-vertical-software.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "Price and shape risk that others can't or won't",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/make-money-selling-money",
      "year": "2024",
      "tags": [
        "fintech",
        "frameworks"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "fintech",
      "description": "Fintech's wedge is pricing risk that others can't or won't",
      "summary": "The most durable fintech wedges come from accepting and pricing risks that incumbent institutions can't underwrite or won't bother with. The post argues that what looks like a fintech innovation is often just a willingness to price a previously-unpriced or mispriced risk, and that the right framing for fintech operators is risk-shaping rather than software-building.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/make-money-selling-money.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "The future of interchange",
      "url": "https://sacra.com/research/the-future-of-interchange/",
      "year": "2024",
      "tags": [
        "payments",
        "fintech"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "payments",
      "featured": true,
      "featured_order": 5,
      "isPopular": true,
      "description": "Where payment revenue moves when interchange runs out of room",
      "summary": "An analysis of where payment revenue concentrates as interchange continues its secular decline. Durable payment economics increasingly come from non-interchange sources like risk, lending, FX, and embedded finance, and the shift reshapes what fintech and vertical software builders should optimize for.",
      "platform": "sacra.com",
      "is_external": true
    },
    {
      "title": "Investing in Rainforest",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/rainforest",
      "year": "2024",
      "tags": [
        "investing",
        "payments",
        "fintech",
        "vertical-software"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "investing",
      "description": "Why Matrix invested in Rainforest, a payfac built for vertical software",
      "summary": "Matt's investment memo for Rainforest, a next-generation payment facilitator built for vertical software platforms. Explains why the legacy payfac stack is structurally inadequate for VERPs and how Rainforest's product-led approach repositions payfac infrastructure as a developer experience rather than a sales-driven SaaS sale.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/rainforest.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "Real-time payments in 1,000 words",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/real-time-payments-1000-words",
      "year": "2024",
      "tags": [
        "payments",
        "fintech"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "payments",
      "series": "1000-words",
      "description": "How real-time payment rails work and why their adoption curve is uneven",
      "summary": "A short explainer on real-time payment rails: how they work technically, why adoption has been faster in some geographies and use cases than others, and what the slow parts of the curve reveal about the constraints (interchange substitution, fraud risk, business-model resistance) that block faster uptake.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/real-time-payments-1000-words.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "The new fintech stack is… open source?",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/fintech-stack-open-source",
      "year": "2024",
      "tags": [
        "fintech",
        "frameworks"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "fintech",
      "description": "Why open source is starting to work as fintech infra distribution",
      "summary": "An exploration of why open source is suddenly viable as a distribution and trust-building strategy for fintech infrastructure, where it had previously failed. Covers the maturity of the developer/buyer overlap in fintech, the role of compliance-readable codebases, and the shape of the resulting business models.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/fintech-stack-open-source.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "Data on fintech adoption in vertical software",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/fintech-adoption-vertical-software",
      "year": "2024",
      "tags": [
        "vertical-software",
        "fintech"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "vertical-software",
      "description": "Hard data on how vertical software companies are adopting fintech",
      "summary": "A data-driven look at the adoption of fintech features inside vertical software companies. Walks through the share of vertical SaaS revenue now coming from payments, lending, and other financial products, and what the curve says about which categories are early, mid, and saturated.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/fintech-adoption-vertical-software.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "A chat with Toast's GM of Fintech",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/michel-rbeiz-toast",
      "year": "2024",
      "tags": [
        "fintech",
        "vertical-software",
        "payments"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "fintech",
      "description": "An interview with Toast's fintech GM on building fintech inside vSaaS",
      "summary": "A conversation with Michel Rbeiz, GM of Fintech at Toast, on building a fintech business inside a vertical software company. Covers Toast Capital's underwriting model, the difference between launching payments and launching credit, and what operational muscles vSaaS companies need to build to win at fintech.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/michel-rbeiz-toast.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "Dangerous language in startups",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/dangerous-language",
      "year": "2024",
      "tags": [
        "frameworks"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "frameworks",
      "description": "Phrases founders and investors use that hide real problems",
      "summary": "A short catalog of phrases that founders, operators, and investors use that quietly hide unresolved problems. The piece argues that startup language is downstream of clear thinking, and that watching for specific verbal tells is one of the cheapest ways to spot trouble early in a company or a deal.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/dangerous-language.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "Payfac in 1,000 words",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/payfac-1000-words",
      "year": "2024",
      "tags": [
        "payments",
        "fintech"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "payments",
      "series": "1000-words",
      "featured": true,
      "featured_order": 4,
      "isPopular": true,
      "description": "What payfacs actually do, how they make money, and when to build one",
      "summary": "A short explainer of the payment-facilitator model: what a payfac is, how it differs from a traditional merchant-acquirer setup, the economics of payfac aggregation, and the decision framework for when a vertical software company should build its own payfac vs partner with one.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/payfac-1000-words.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "Dark software",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/dark-software",
      "year": "2024",
      "tags": [
        "vertical-software",
        "frameworks"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "vertical-software",
      "featured": true,
      "featured_order": 11,
      "description": "When software is cheap and distribution is expensive, bundle, don't build",
      "summary": "As building software becomes cheap, distribution becomes the binding constraint. The right strategy in many vertical markets isn't to build a new product but to bundle existing capabilities behind an established distribution channel. \"Dark software\" wins on access, not innovation.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/dark-software.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "Fintech from first principles",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/fintech-first-principles",
      "year": "2024",
      "tags": [
        "fintech",
        "frameworks"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "fintech",
      "isPopular": true,
      "description": "A first-principles framework for thinking about what fintech actually is",
      "summary": "A reset on what \"fintech\" actually is, from first principles. The post argues that most fintech taxonomies start from the wrong place (product categories, customer segments) and proposes a framework built around the underlying functions that financial systems perform, which produces a clearer view of where durable economic value sits.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/fintech-first-principles.md"
    }
  ]
}