2020 Startups to Watch: Destiny drops into debt-laden users’ lives as startup’s dominoes fall

Editor’s note: Startland News selected 10 Kansas City firms to spotlight for its annual Startups to Watch list. The following is one of 2020’s companies. Click here to view the full, ranked list of Startups to Watch.

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The founders behind Destiny owe a debt to the platform’s early adopters, said Parker Graham, eager for the FinTech startup’s efforts to pay off.

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10) Destiny

Elevator pitch: Destiny helps financial institutions bridge the technology gap for their young and debt-laden customers through a personal financial management platform. Our solution increases customer engagement, retention, and uncovers unforeseen loan opportunities with the most valuable demographic in banking.

• Founders: Parker Graham, Jerry Workman, Joseph Krywicki
• Founding year: 2018
• Amount raised to date: $100,000
• Noteworthy investors: nbkc bank, Nex Cubed
• Programs completed: Fountain City Fintech accelerator, Nex Cubed Accelerator, Digital Sandbox KC recipient
• Current employee count: 4

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“This is going to be a game-changing year and we are really excited,” said Graham, CEO of Destiny.

Over the past year, the company has been diligently correcting its software while heeding customers’ feedback on improvement implementations, he said ahead of the release of a completely overhauled user interface for early adopters. 

“Current users are the reason we are where we are today. [Their feedback] molded [the app] into what they wanted and it made us take it to the next level,” Graham added, teasing next steps could shift the early-stage startup well into growth-stage territory in 2020. 

“We are going to get our first big batch of enterprise-level customers. That is the biggest thing that we are looking forward to,” he said, noting the startup’s product is in place and ready for customers, likely to be secured during Destiny’s participation in the San Francisco, California-based, Nex Cubed accelerator. 

“This is in a good spot to take off,” he said optimistic for the months ahead which are expected to include more funding and increased visibility, named one of Heartland Credit Association’s Top Five most innovative companies for Credit Unions.

“We really think it is going to be a growth-minded year … We were awarded a Digital Sandbox grant, which we are deploying to beef up our AI and data mining capabilities for our platform.”

And while Destiny doesn’t boast the sizeable funding of some Kansas City-based startups, it’s all about how a company uses its capital, Graham said, noting the startup’s financials are all but guaranteed to rise in 2020 — in addition to stabilizing revenue and the close of three deals with major U.S. customers. 

“We think 2020 is the year when all the dominos fall for us. We have a lot of work to do, but we have the relationships in place to really make a large impact,” Graham said.

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Startups to Watch in 2020

1) United American Hemp
2) Tesseract Ventures
3)  ELIAS Animal Health
4) Healium
5) Fishtech
6) Draiver
7) Backstitch
8) Stenovate
9) Boddle Learning
10) Destiny

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This story is possible thanks to support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a private, nonpartisan foundation that works together with communities in education and entrepreneurship to create uncommon solutions and empower people to shape their futures and be successful.

For more information, visit www.kauffman.org and connect at www.twitter.com/kauffmanfdn and www.facebook.com/kauffmanfdn