MAXX 2026: Interview with GoWest’s Lisa Slaymaker
by Steve Jensen
The GoWest Credit Union Association’s six-state region – Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming – gathered in Denver Oct. 6-9 for the MAXX 2026 networking event.
Finopotamus sat down with GoWest’s Lisa Slaymaker, Vice President of Solutions and Partnerships, for a Q&A session.
Q: What were things like when you got started in the credit union industry?
A: “When I started out, we had more single-state associations and leagues. I started as a field rep for the Arizona Credit Union League. I was one of the road warriors who went out and visited all the credit unions in all the remote parts of the state: Tombstone, Willcox, Douglas, right on the border, and all the points north. That was super fun, because I really got to learn about credit unions.
I had not worked in the industry before. It was kind of my entry point. Through the years, I stayed on the partner side, but started focusing more on working with business partners and revenue-type relationships for bringing products and services to credit unions. Then we went through a merger in 2011 with the Wyoming and Colorado credit unions, and we were the Mountain West Credit Union Association. Then in 2022, we merged with the Northwest Credit Union Association. So, we were then six states, and that became GoWest.
And my role changed there. I’m still working on the partner side exclusively, but now with a broader map of bringing together credit unions with fintech providers. We have a business partner program, which is your established companies: TruStage and Velera and the card processors, those kinds of partners.
Q: What programs do you have to help fintechs?
A: We have our new FinXelerator program, which we’re actually debuting here at MAXX this year. That’s an initial cohort of probably between five and eight companies. We already have three that have applied and are moving into it this year. It’s trying to bridge the gap between this need that credit unions have to find fintechs and it being such a noisy space that’s changing so quickly. From a vendor management standpoint, they struggle wading through to get to what they need when there are so many approaching them in so many different ways. On the other side, the fintechs are struggling because they’re resource constrained. They don’t have marketing resources, they are startups or early stage for the most part, and they need access and a way to meaningfully connect with credit unions.
Our CEO, Troy Stang, initially had this brainstorm, and then he and I worked on it together to develop it into the FinXelerator program. We thought, okay, you’ve got fintechs who need to reach credit unions in a more meaningful way, and you’ve got credit unions that need trusted sources to reach the fintechs they need. And GoWest’s superpower is convening credit unions. Troy’s always been a big proponent of that. We’re here at MAXX, one of the biggest credit union events in the West, and it has only grown under his leadership. He’s got this great vision of providing that bridge between the fintechs and the credit unions, and GoWest has the power to do that through this event and others.
Q: What else should people know about the FinXelerator program versus what you’ve had going already?
A: It’s more of a soft launch. Mostly we’re doing it in the trade show. We’ve got signage, and the website is up, so they can go and fill out a form to be considered for it. Realistically, with our marketing engine, that’s why we said five to eight in this initial cohort is all we can take on, because we are so high touch from an advocacy side, from an education side and from a member engagement side. Adding all of these marketing elements for, say, 20 new fintechs in a year would just be too much. So, we really have to keep it muted, at least the first year, and not overload our marketing team from a staffing and resource perspective.
Another component that we bring in is the GoWest Innovation Acceleration Committee, which I head. I have two co-chairs from two of our credit unions, and then another 50 or so credit unions from all different areas, but a lot of IT and risk and marketing. We meet quarterly, virtually, so it brings together credit unions from across our entire footprint. We look at three different fintechs each time, and we’re able to give the fintechs feedback on what they’re doing right and where they can improve. And they do make those improvements based on that feedback. So, it’s huge value for the fintechs, getting in front of that many credit unions and a committee that is engaged and there to give feedback.
It also creates a forum where we’re building trust between all of our six states to talk about issues outside of these specific fintechs. We always leave room at the end to talk about where you’re seeing issues in your tech stack. Who’s harder to implement? Who tells a good story, but was a nightmare when you tried to actually get them up and running? In that way, they’re able to give each other feedback: beware of this, but call me about that. And I connect people all the time through that ecosystem within GoWest, too. So that’s another area where we’re able to really bridge those two entities that are so important to us.
Q: Of all the vendors that pitch GoWest Solutions, how many make it through, and what most often disqualifies one?
A: For the more established partners, we focus more on a sponsorship model. A lot of leagues and associations use a revenue share model, where they do a reseller agreement. We don’t do those as much, mainly because our focus is on advocacy above all, and we don’t have field staff like many of the associations have. Our whole model is slightly different, so it made sense that we could give our business partners those connections with credit unions through our events and programming, and position them as thought leaders: articles and publications, LinkedIn and socials, and coming to our events and speaking from a thought leadership standpoint.
So I thought, well, how can we bring that kind of model when they don’t have the money that other big sponsors would have? How do we still get them that connection, in a way that makes sense for us, for them and for the credit unions? That’s how we came up with this program, where it’s not a high cost for them to get in, and it’s kind of a win-win-win for everybody. We’re in such a great position to be the connector, because we have these convenings that we do all year round anyway. I think it’s working out really well so far. Everybody seems to see the value of it.
And as for what would disqualify them -- mainly if it’s something we already have. We don’t want a whole bunch of products that all do the same thing. Or if they’re too early stage and aren’t quite ready. We want them to have a product that is actually ready to go to market. You see the signs in the trade show: Are you looking to scale? As opposed to, did you just start two months ago, and you’re just trying to get your name out there?
Not that we couldn’t take anybody on like that, but we want to have some amount of vetting, so we know they’re going to make it. We do a due diligence process to make sure they’ve got funding and that all that’s in place.
Q: What specifically are CUs telling you – check fraud, scams, card fraud, disputes?
A: I think fraud risk and cybersecurity are probably the topics that are most top of mind, and then member experience: the whole digital experience, keeping up with what banks are doing and not falling behind when they have so much bigger budgets. These fintechs can really fill that need at a lower cost than credit unions can get anywhere else, at least from what we’ve been seeing so far. The member experience is always in there no matter what, and on the digital part of it, credit unions are, I think, not necessarily struggling, but really trying to keep that journey going. But being a regulated industry, it’s difficult to just throw everything digital and not have the safety, because you don’t want to end up in a situation where you lost member data. So, it’s a balancing act for sure.
It’s trying to navigate through all the different options and some of the dangers of it, everything we hear about with ChatGPT and OpenAI and whether it’s going to end the world. In a regulated industry that is already risk averse by nature, it’s a hard decision. How far do you jump in? How much do you let the agents take over versus always having the human in the loop? I think they’re doing a great job of navigating. And I agree with others who have said that credit unions are in a good position. We’ve always joked that it takes two years for credit unions to make a buying decision. Well, it probably takes banks five years. We may be slow, but they are really slow, just by size and scale.
Q: Is one partner enough, or are credit unions stacking tools?
A: I feel like they’re stacking. Some of the big players, though, are doing their own partnerships with some of the more well-developed fintechs. One that comes to mind: We just recently partnered with Rippleshot, and they handle fraud before it gets to the credit union, mostly card related. But they are also partnered on a different product with FIS, and FIS then white labels that product out to all the credit unions it works with. So it’s coming in from some different angles. But we can, of course, get them a direct connection through the accelerator.
As they get bigger, they have these symbiotic relationships between two or even three companies, so it’s “come get this package deal.” But it does make it confusing, too. Even though that’s all we do all day, we can’t keep track of who’s partnered with who. So imagine what a credit union is getting on a daily basis if they’re trying to put together a strategic plan that includes that. You get down to it, and it’s like, wait, who am I dealing with? You made it sound so perfect when you pitched it to me, but now in practice, I don’t know which one.
Q: How many member CUs are actually deploying AI versus still evaluating it?
A: I think almost everyone is evaluating AI. I don’t have a number for who’s actually implemented, but everybody we talk to, and everybody on the committee, is evaluating it. I think it’s harder for smaller credit unions, because they don’t have full teams that can do vetting or test things out, or they don’t even have the power with their core to make changes that might need to be made. So that’s another thing that we really try to do with the committee. When we choose AI companies or any kind of fintech company to come in, we want to make sure that they’re also addressing smaller credit union needs.
And if they aren’t doing it initially, at least they have it on their roadmap, because small credit unions are such a life force within the credit union movement. We have to make sure we continue to support them and make sure their needs are met, too. They have way more challenges than the larger ones.
Q: With as many as 159 small credit unions in the GoWest footprint, how does a league program make enterprise-grade tech realistic for a $15 million credit union? Does group pricing or the accelerator change the math?
A: Mostly, in the vetting process, we just try to make sure that they are able to do tiered pricing based on asset size or member size or how many members take part in it. Threading that needle, I admit, is not easy. Some of them have thought about it. Many of them have mentorships with other fintechs, so they’ve already heard about it. Others come in to us and just want to get into credit unions, and don’t know anything about the industry or how it works, and don’t understand that the smaller ones have different needs. So, it’s definitely a process to get through all that.
But we’re always taking that into consideration. And with GoWest, we skew toward larger credit unions. We have some of the largest in the country, so they have huge teams to do a lot of this stuff, which is just a completely different selling and implementation situation. So, for a fintech to be able to provide something for the smallest of the small up to the largest is not always going to be possible, at least initially. But we hope that as they scale, they can add different options that will work. And we’ve seen them attempting to do that.
Q: On the vendor’s side, what does a fintech get from partnering with a league, and what does GoWest expect of partners beyond paying a fee?
A: We give them access to providing thought leadership articles for any of our publications and for our socials. We ask for them to be part of MAXX, with either a booth or a sponsorship, to have a presence here so that we can introduce them to people, promote them and give them visibility. Then we give them access to speaking and networking throughout the year, so that they get in front of credit unions.
And most of them, as long as they haven’t already presented in the past, will come in through the Innovation Acceleration Committee. I would typically not bring them into the whole program if the committee said this is not going to work, or if I got negative feedback about them, but that doesn’t really happen much. It’s interesting, because you can get 30 credit unions, and everybody’s got a little bit different take on what their particular needs are. So, 10 of them will love it, 10 will think, yeah, that’s a possibility, but we don’t need it, and then 10 will say, oh, no way.
There’s almost always a market for it. And the tech stack makes a huge difference, too. That’s the other thing that I’m really learning through the committee. Certain digital banking providers especially are harder to get integrations with, and everybody runs around saying, “We have APIs for that.” But implementation is not quite as easy as it sounds. You probably remember, five or 10 years ago, oh, if you have an API, then you’re in. You don’t even need to talk to your core; you just plug it in. Way easier said than done, as it turns out.
Q: With large consolidations happening, such as Digital FCU and First Tech FCU, how does your role change when partner relationships are being consolidated too?
A: I’m not on the credit union side as much. I’m almost 100% partner-facing, other than that committee. So, it would probably be more my colleagues who are dealing with how things change for GoWest on the credit union merger side. On the partner side, it tends to be larger companies swallowing up smaller companies. Most of these fintechs are not at a point yet where they’d be selling or be merged in. They’re still in the scaling process of proving their go-to-market, so I don’t have to deal with that quite as much. Most of the ones we bring into the FinXelerator are going to be five years old or less.
Q: At MAXX this week, what should attendees be looking for in the Solutions Marketplace, and is there a partner announcement or launch timed to the show?
A: FinXelerator is the main thing. I think that attendees should really be looking for new fintechs that can fit their needs, because we really have it all here. We have a strong, strong showing of fintechs this year, I would hope that they’re taking advantage of that. We have a lot of ways to connect with them through the app and, obviously, inside the exhibit hall. There’s just a wealth of knowledge and lots of young energy that is really excited about providing solutions for credit unions that solve problems.
Q: You’ve been in this industry since 2003. What is the biggest change in how CUs buy technology?
A: In 2003, we hardly ever talked about technology. We were talking about statement processing and credit card processing and debit. “Hey, we have rewards on our credit card program.” That was the big thing. We were partnered with FIS and Fiserv, and they were ramping up their rewards programs. Rewards are a given now. You wouldn’t even get a card without a rewards program. And now everything is technology, right? So everybody’s a fintech.
You could be a startup fintech, but you can also be the biggest company in there. If you’re providing technology to the financial services industry, you’re a fintech. So to me, that’s the biggest change. Of course, there was technology involved at the time. You just didn’t have to talk about it, because it was all kind of antiquated compared to now. Nothing was really online. They did batch uploads. That’s really dating myself. But there are a lot of people in the industry who have been around a long time, and 20 years is not that long, right?
Q: What do you love about the credit union industry as it changes?
A: I love it. It’s always exciting. I love working with the younger people who are bringing these fresh ideas, things that I would never think of, and being able to talk to them every day. And then also working with the seasoned credit union people on my committee, who are so helpful in helping me connect the right fintechs to them and solve their problems. It’s like this great ecosystem that comes together and solves a problem for everybody, and we get to be in the middle of that. It’s very, very satisfying. It’s fast-moving, and things are changing all the time. Change is a constant, but I love it.
