Elixir: A Fintech Banking Solution for Millennials

In 2016, Elixir, a financial technology start-up, was developing a social banking application to provide mobile banking to young adults and other underserved banking customers. Elixir had a social finance business model called MillennialMoney, where existing customers had an opportunity to earn referral fees by introducing new customers. For the banks, Elixir provided a novel marketing solution to attract millennial customers. As a technology company in the social finance space, Elixir could use the strategic and operational advice of an experienced banker to help turn this vision into a reality. One such banker had been in discussions with Elixir’s chief executive officer and the chair of the advisory board. The banker had been conducting due diligence of the company all summer of 2016 and had even gone on sales calls in Malaysia to see what banks thought about Elixir. Now it was time to make a decision. Should he join the management team of Elixir and invest in the start-up?