May 13, 2026 | By Laura Kornhauser, Co-Founder and CEO of Stratyfy
This week, Stratyfy turns 10. I can’t believe it.
When we started ten years ago, we saw a fundamental gap between the promise of financial technology and the reality of how risk-based decisions were actually being made. The financial system and current tools were only serving a fraction of the population, and it was clear that technology had finally evolved to a point where we could do better.
At the time, fueled by the successes of deep learning, most machine learning solutions were opaque “black boxes” that were trapped in a loop, able only to mirror the data they were fed. They lacked the critical ingredient for growth and accuracy: the nuanced context that only people can provide.
My co-founder, Dmitry, and I set out to change that.
For us, the right AI solution for financial institutions needed to be transparent. It needed to keep humans in control of decisions. It needed to leverage what data could tell you and combine it with the context that only humans could provide.
So we built Stratyfy: a better way for financial institutions to make more-informed, faster risk-based decisions at scale.
Along the way, I’ve had my assumptions challenged, my resilience tested, and my belief in our mission to serve community-based financial institutions deepened. It’s hard to pick just a few, but here are my top five lessons from the journey (so far).
1. Remember that Humans Will Always Have a Role in AI
Don’t get me wrong, my co-founder Dmitry and I are data nerds (especially Dmitry). And we hire data nerds who believe technology can be used for good. But data alone will not give us all the answers. Data is a mirror of the past, not necessarily a map for what we want in the future.
Since my time at JPMorgan Chase, the phrase “Past performance is not indicative of future returns” has been burned into my brain after almost a decade of seeing it at the bottom of every email I sent. So then why are so many willing to blindly trust what past data is telling them about the future?
If you leave a machine to learn purely from past data without human intervention, it will simply automate yesterday’s mistakes at a much larger scale. Over the past 10 years, I’ve seen the real-world ramifications of this time and time again.
Even as we look at a future dominated by AI, humans will always have a role by contributing the common sense and context that data alone cannot capture. AI is the engine, but humans must always be in the driver’s seat.
2. Meet Your Customers Where They Are – Not Where They Could Be
Early on, it’s tempting to chase every potential lead or investor. I’ve learned that a “no” to the wrong partner is just as valuable as a “yes” to the right one. But it’s the “maybe’s” that have been the most painful, wasting the two most valuable resources for a startup: time and energy.
From these situations, I’ve learned that the best relationships start by meeting the customer where they are, rather than where they think (or you hope) they could be. Leaning into this has allowed us to build bridges that take our customers and partners to the next level in ways that are both tailored to and comfortable for them.
Meaningful change doesn’t happen overnight or in a vacuum, and too much innovation fails because it demands a leap that is simply too large for an organization to take at once. By building for the world our customers actually live in, we empower them to move forward with confidence. This has been essential to our success.
3. Lead with Empathy and Collaboration
B2B tech will always be people-to-people. Our best customer and partner relationships have started from a strong foundation of connection and have evolved into trusting friendships over time. Trust is the secret ingredient that makes the inevitable challenges surmountable.
We’ve been fortunate and deliberate in building an aligned ecosystem of partners, customers, and advisors, our “Stratyfy Family.” They value both our company and our amazing people, and they have been and will continue to be essential to our success.
The same goes for our team. I am deeply grateful for the brilliance and dedication of every individual who has played a part in Stratyfy’s story over the last ten years. Without them, we wouldn’t be celebrating this huge milestone, and the journey here would have been a lot less fun and rewarding.
4. Cultivate Conviction Through the Noise
As a founder, you experience the highest highs and the lowest lows, and you need to find the throughline in it all.
I think this is especially true in AI now, where the hype in the headlines is loud and where the peacocking at fintech cocktail parties is often out of touch with reality. This can create a sense of panic or FOMO, neither of which is a great foundation for investments in AI. Mandates that force the use of AI are counterproductive, and I’ve seen how it has affected financial institutions. The pace of AI advancement, combined with a lack of knowledge or guidance, creates fear and anxiety instead of motivation and curiosity.
The most successful financial institutions are taking a disciplined and methodical approach to AI adoption while celebrating the people within their organizations who are leaning into AI tools responsibly. This is the winning strategy, and it’s our responsibility as fintech partners to make it easier for FIs to cut through the noise, understand the technology, and figure out how it can best serve them and their customers.
5. Stay True to Your Core Principles
In the 2020-2022 era of big Fintech checks (and even bigger inflated valuations), I was often criticized for my burn being too low (yup, you heard that right). But now we get praised for it, and I believe we are a better company for it.
I learned this from my parents: they started a technology business around the time I was born, bootstrapped it, and ran it successfully for decades before selling to a strategic buyer. They accomplished this while building an amazing culture and company that always felt like my extended family. They hosted company picnics in our backyard and offered up a place to stay in times of need. They did whatever they could to put each person who worked for them in a place where they could succeed.
There is no question that these experiences shaped how we’ve built Stratyfy: people-first and collaborative. It may sound basic, but I am a big believer that happy people produce the best work.
By prioritizing sustainable growth over short-term hype, we’ve created a culture where our team feels secure enough to take the creative risks necessary to transform our industry. Ultimately, this approach ensures that as we scale, we remain as committed to our values as we are to our bottom line.
Looking Ahead
Building Stratyfy over the last decade has been defined by the incredible people I’ve had the fortune to collaborate with and the tangible value we’ve unlocked together.
We are at a pivotal moment not just for Stratyfy, but for the entire infrastructure of financial services.
The next 10 years – even the next 10 days, really – won’t look like any stretch in our history, and that is equal parts demanding and defining. While the industry grapples with AI noise, we remain committed to our north star: helping financial institutions combine the power of data-backed insights with the expertise of their people to make better, faster decisions at scale.
Stratyfy was built for this moment. Here’s to the past 10 years and all that is still to come!
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