Fintech veteran gears neobank toward musicians

Fintech veteran John Waupsh has always found a way to feed his passion for music. His latest venture, a neobank called Nerve, combines his expertise in fintech and his love of music into a banking service tailored toward musicians.

Waupsh, along with Ben Morrison, the effort’s co-founder and chief technology officer, plan to launch Austin, Texas-based Nerve next month. The platform, which will onboard a waiting list of customers over the next several months, is partnering with Piermont Bank to offer Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC)-insured business debit and savings accounts.

How it started

After an unsuccessful attempt to pay the bills as a DJ in college, Waupsh eventually turned his passion for music to rare recordings and started searching for music that had never before been released.

« I s​​tarted collecting these acetates or reel-to-reels in the hopes that one day I might be able to kind of piece together these stories and give the musicians the ability to actually release this material and hopefully get them paid, » he said.

Waupsh, who has spent 15 years at fintech service provider Kasasa, where he remains a strategic adviser, continued the hobby throughout his career in fintech, and eventually started the Preservation Project, a boutique label dedicated to releasing rare funk and soul music.

He soon realized the musicians he worked with needed access to a streaming service for audio and video content that paid more than other services.

That led to the creation of Nerve.fm, a streaming service Waupsh launched in beta in 2019.

While the platform was well-received by the artists, Waupsh said he began to notice an additional need in the space.

Source : https://www.bankingdive.com/news/fintech-veteran-gears-neobank-toward-musicians/605573/