Enterprise fintech deals don't die in the demo. They die in week six of onboarding, while someone re-types the customer's approval rules into a canvas.
I spent two years inside a procurement fintech and the pattern was consistent: the product demos great, the contract gets signed, and then comes the wall. Setup that drags for weeks. Change requests every single week. Users who don't fully understand what was configured for them, so they ask instead of doing.
The three things that cut onboarding time by 90%
Integrating end to end with the systems the client already runs. The ERP connection wasn't a checkbox: granular sync per data type, bulk imports, master data flowing both ways. Every field the client doesn't re-enter is a support ticket that never exists.
Generating a v1 of their approval workflow instead of handing them a blank canvas: business rules and best practices, applied to the real people pulled from their HRIS. The client reviews and adjusts a draft. Nobody designs from zero.
