Wharton Fintech Podcast

Miguel Armaza sits down with Jackie Reses, former Head of Square Capital, current Chairman of the Economic Development Council of the Federal Reserve of San Francisco, board member of Affirm and Wish (Context Logic), and all-around business and fintech leader. Some of her past roles also include Chief Development Officer at Yahoo and Board member of Alibaba. She’s also a proud alum of our very own Wharton School. We talked about - Jackie’s upbringing and professional background - Why she describes Wharton and the University of Pennsylvania as a place that saved her life - The meaningful lessons she learned while working at Goldman Sachs, Apex Partners, and Yahoo - Key reflections from her experience as an Alibaba board-member and what we can all learn from Chinese entrepreneurs - What drove her decision to join Square and why she fell in love with its culture - The incredibly impactful experience of the Square Capital team navigating COVID and the complex dynamics of launching a PPP product in record-time

Miguel Armaza sits down with Sam Bobley, Co-Founder and CEO of Ocrolus, an infrastructure company that transforms documents into data analytics with incredible accuracy designed to help financial services companies make high quality decisions at unprecedented speed. Sam started building Ocrolus in his parent’s kitchen when he was only 22 and seven years later, the company employs nearly 1,000 people globally and has raised close to $50 million in equity from top VC funds, including Stage 2 Capital, QED, Fintech Collective, Oak HC/FT, and Bullpen Capital. We talked about: - Company origins - Sam’s entrepreneurial journey - Strategies on building and hiring the initial team - Finding product-market fit and how he decided to shift and expand his client base - The fast-changing and fast-moving fintech ecosystem - Entrepreneurial advice - And a whole lot more Sam Bobley Sam started building Ocrolus in his parent’s kitchen when he was 22-years-old. Six years later, the company employs nearly 1,000 people global

Miguel Armaza sits down with Samir Chaibi, investor at Insignia Ventures Partners, a Southeast Asian growth and venture investing fund with over $350 million in assets under management, where he specifically focuses in backing fintech startups. Prior to Insignia, Samir spent many years working around the world and got his MBA at our Wharton School. We discussed: - Samir’s background and his path to venture capital - Company history for Insignia Ventures Partners, their investment thesis, and a bit about the portfolio companies - The evolution and current state of the fintech ecosystem in Southeast Asia - The surprising parallels between fintech in Latin America and Southeast Asia - His outlook of the regional future of the industry - And a lot more! Samir Chaibi Samir Chaibi is a Principal at Insignia Venture Partners (IVP), a Southeast Asia-focused growth and venture investing fund with US $350M+ in AuM. Prior to IVP, Samir was a venture investor at STRIVE, a Tokyo headquartered VC fund deploying capital

Miguel Armaza sits down with Eyal Shinar, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Fundbox, a company focused on disrupting the $21 trillion B2B commerce market by launching the world’s first B2B payments and credit network. Since its inception in 2013, Fundbox has raised more than $300 million dollars from leading investors like Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, Spark Growth Capital, and Jeff Bezos. We talked about - Company origins - Customer acquisition and distribution strategies - Entrepreneurial challenges - Reflections around the PPP loan program in the US and the company’s incredibly meaningful role at the height of COVID to disburse and fund these loans to small businesses. - His thoughts on the key and strategic roles of fintech and tech during the pandemic - Lessons for entrepreneurs - And a whole lot more! Eyal Shinar Eyal Shinar is the Executive Chairman & Co-Founder of Fundbox. Prior to his current role he served as a vice president at Battery Ventures where he led many projects and investme

What happens after you hit “buy” on that $300 order of Shopify stock (worth over $1,100 as of the day of the episode)? Fractional trading has become one of the hottest product features in Fintech, democratizing access to expensive shares (AMZN, BRK-A, CMG, etc.) to everyday investors. In addition, they allow more precise and comfortable investing and budgeting, as people can designate a notional dollar amount toward a purchase. But how exactly do you buy .3 of a share? Enter Apex Clearing, a PEAK6 company, one of the most innovative and digital-first clearing and custody platforms in the world. Apex powers the fractional capabilities of many companies you may use today, including Stash, M1 Finance, broker-dealers, major banks, and RIAs. They also powered Robinhood up until recently. In today’s episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Apex’s Chief Product Officer, Dustin Kirkland, to learn about: - Dustin’s unusual path to FinTech (2:00) - What Apex does (8:00) - What is clearing & custody (9:00) - Clearing & Mark

Miguel Armaza interviews Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner at Core Innovation Capital, a venture capital firm, with offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco, investing in high-growth financial technology companies that can unlock upward mobility for everyday Americans. Kat holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Babson College and an MBA from The Wharton School. We talked about: - Kat’s journey, from family upbringing, schooling, all the way to how she ended up in VC - Why she continues to be excited about Fintech, even after investing in the sector for over a decade - What’s changed in the industry over the past few years - Core’s investment and valuation approach and how they work with portfolio companies to prepare them from seed, to series A, and beyond - Her vision for Core’s future - And a lot more! Kat Utecht Kat Utecht is co-managing partner of Core Innovation Capital, an early stage venture capital fund making mercenary returns through missionary investments in financial services and insurance technology.

Miguel Armaza sits down with Laura González-Estéfani, Founder and CEO of The Venture City, a global accelerator and venture capital fund of emerging ecosystems specialized in growth with the mission to help entrepreneurs from all over the world. Prior to Venture City, Laura spent many years at Facebook, eBay, Siemens, and Ogilvy Group. We talked about - Laura’s career in big tech - Her decision to leave Facebook and launch the Venture City - The challenges of building a fund and why she believes she leads the most diverse VC in the industry - Her decision to base the company in Miami (before the Miami twitter crazy of 2020, I should add) - Her investing and portfolio management approach - What excites her about investing in fintech around the world - And much much more! Laura González-Estéfani Laura spent nearly nine years with Facebook in various roles supporting overall growth strategies. Laura led the Growth, Mobile & Partnerships team for Latin America, spearheading the Internet.org and connectivit

Miguel Armaza sits down with Dan Henry, CEO of Green Dot (NYSE: GDOT), a 20-year-old company focused on making modern banking and money movement accessible for everyone. Green Dot also recently launched Go2Bank a digital bank for Americans living paycheck to paycheck. Green Dot is far from being Dan’s first rodeo. In fact, this is the third publicly listed company he’s led in the last three decades. He previously served as CEO of Netspend, a leading provider of prepaid debit cards, and led the company through its IPO and eventual sale to TSYS Corporation. Prior to Netspend, he co-founded Euronet Worldwide (NASDAQ: EEFT), a leader in secure electronic financial transaction processing, where he served as President and COO from 1994 through 2006. We talked about: - Dan’s entrepreneurial and international fintech journey since the early 90s - What motivates him and why entrepreneurs are his favorite type of folks - Two fundamental things he believes make a business successful - The evolution of fintech - Why h

What do you think of when you hear “stock trading”? For most of us in 2020, we thought of YOLO Calls, Tesla Bulls, Robinhood, Wall Street Bets, and Day Trading. Going back to earlier days, you might think of men in suits on the phone, scrambling to buy & sell stocks. The culture of the market needs to change. Enter Public.Com, the stock investing app with a social, community-based focus making stock trading approachable (and free) for everyday people. On today’s episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Co-Founder Leif Abraham to learn how Public is changing the culture of the market through approachability, community, in-app features, and celebrities like Tony Hawk and Adrian Grenier (netting 40% female users, an industry-high). Public has taken social media and FinTech by storm, and just raised $65M in a Series C backed by A list celebrities (Chainsmokers, Tony Hawk) and VCs (Accel, Greycroft) who are also prominent users of the platform. Lief and Ryan cover a ton in this episode, including - What FinTech mark

Miguel Armaza sits down with Andrew Lerner, Managing Partner of IA Capital Group, a New York-based private investment firm and manager of the Inter-Atlantic funds, that’s dedicated to partnering with innovative entrepreneurs in venture and growth capital across InsurTech and FinTech. Andy has been at the company since 1995 and is responsible for the day-to-day activities of IA Capital, and is a member of its investment committee. He holds a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University and an MBA from our amazing Wharton School We talked about - Andy’s background - What drove him to fintech VC in the mid-1990s - His take on the evolution of the fintech industry - The advantages of being in an industry with meaningful tail winds - Why he’s excited about InsurTech for the foreseeable future - Importance of Financial Empowerment, along with diversity and inclusion - Why he prefers backing young entrepreneurs and thinks experience is overrated - The effects of COVID on th

Miguel Armaza sits down with Dave Unsworth and Kerri Golden from Information Venture Partners, a Canadian Venture Capital firm that primarily invests in early-stage North American B2B FinTech and enterprise software. We talk about: - Dave and Kerri’s transition from operators to investors - IVP’s relationship with the Royal Bank of Canada - Fundraising from institutional LPs - The duo’s strategy to invest in the next generation of leaders - The importance of engineering a culture early on - Interesting fintech trends - The role of a CFO at a Venture Capital firm - And a lot more! Dave Unsworth Dave Unsworth co-founded Information Venture Partners in 2014. Dave has led investments in eSentire (exited, 2017), Verafin, Sensibill, Igloo Software (exited, 2017), Viigo (acquired by BlackBerry), Coconut Software, BigID, Knowtions and LendingFront. Dave is focused on FinTech and Enterprise software and is particularly interested in cybersecurity, mobile, enterprise 2.0 and ventures that create highly valuable dat

Miguel Armaza sits down with Noah Kerner, CEO of Acorns, a mobile savings and investment platform that has raised hundreds of millions of dollars from PayPal, Bain Capital Ventures, DST Global, NBC, Comcast, Greycroft as well as a long list of Hollywood celebrities including The Rock and Jennifer Lopez. Originally from New York City’s East Village, Noah is a 4-time entrepreneur who at one point DJ'ed for Jennifer Lopez, built a creative agency in his 20s, and is also a Co-Founder of the shareholder rights fintech startup Say. We discuss: - Noah’s eclectic background - Why he only pursues projects that make him come alive - His journey at Acorns and the evolution and challenges over the years - Their approach to building company culture, defining corporate values, and recruiting talent - The surprising effects of COVID on their business - Entrepreneurial advice - And a whole lot more! Noah Kerner Born in New York City’s east village, Noah Kerner is the CEO of the micro-investing app Acorns and co-founder

As 2020 comes to a close, we bring you a special episode featuring our hosts, Miguel Armaza and Ryan Zauk. You will finally get to hear from the hosts themselves as they share: - Some of the major trends they've seen after interviewing over 100 FinTech leaders. - Some funny anecdotes & growing pains. - The hyper-growth of Wharton FinTech. - Tips on turning a podcast into a rocketship. - And provide a sneak preview at what's ahead for 2021... Thank you to all of our listeners for your incredible support during this memorable year. We have great plans for 2021 to keep bringing you insights on the companies, founders, investors, and trends shaping financial services.

"The most contrarian take I have is that there is value in working with consumers in debt." Here are a few stats for you: - The average US household as of November pays almost 9% of its income to debt - Total household debt reached $14.35 trillion this fall per the New York Fed - The average person in debt owes money to 4 different lenders The current process for debt collections  --  a highly sensitive, case-by-case, and often life-defining financial situation -- has not evolved much in the last 50 years. The process is still how most would imagine…a collections team is assigned a low-base salary and high-commission, and is tasked with harassing debtors multiple times a day with a one size fits all approach. This process is inflexible, stressful, and borderline inhumane as each person has unique financial needs. Enter Ohad Samet and TrueAccord. After honing his time at companies like Fraud Sciences (acquired by PayPal), Signifyd, and Klarna (as their CRO), Ohad recognized this enormous problem and the nee

Miguel Armaza sits down with Rohit Arora, CEO and Co-Founder of Biz2Credit, a New York based company that offers financing, research, and educational resources to small businesses. Rohit and his brother founded Biz2Credit in 2008 and in the last 13 yrs the firm has arranged $2B in funding and registered over 200,000 clients. They have also raised over $60M in equity and $300M in debt from investors including Westbridge Capital and Nexus Venture Partners. We discussed - Rohit’s journey scaling Biz2Credit - Fundraising challenges as a contrarian entrepreneur - Lessons on resilience and leadership - The perils of a “growth at any cost” business mindset - Biz2Credit’s experience navigating the COVID crisis and what he believes will be the long term effects of the pandemic - And a whole lot more Rohit Arora Rohit Arora, CEO and Co-founder of Biz2Credit is one of America’s top experts in small business finance. He is responsible for driving Biz2Credit to its leadership position in the alternative lending indust

On today’s episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Kathryn Van Nuys, Head of Business Development for AWS FinTech. Kathryn was just named one of the Top 50 Women in FinTech by NYC FinTech Women, highlighted as one of the top network builders in the industry. Most of us know AWS as the cloud storage and computing behemoth, generating over $35B in revenue and the lion’s share of Amazon’s profits. However, AWS is much more than just cloud. It’s a tailored, industry-by-industry solution that is becoming closer and closer to a one-stop-shop for all things technical startups. Kathryn talks about the huge variety of services AWS provides for a who’s who of FinTech, including Chime, Coinbase, Betterment, Nubank, Affirm, and more. AWS served all 50 of Forbes FinTech 50 last year. In today’s episode, Kathryn delves into - The huge range of services AWS offers startups at each stage of their development - Some of their strongest case studies helping clients - What sub-verticals she’s paying special attention to - The exp

In this episode, my guest is Santiago Suarez, Co-Founder & CEO of Addi, the leading POS financing platform in Latin America, backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Foundation, Monashees, Quona, and Village Global. Prior to returning to his native Colombia to launch Addi, Santiago started his career in finance in New York City at JP Morgan, and later moved to Silicon valley for a leadership role at Lending Club. We talk about: - Santiago’s entrepreneurial fintech journey and fundraising experience - Regional market dynamics - The virtues of applying an American credit-scoring approach in Latin America - Navigating an evolving regulatory landscape - The importance of company culture - And a lot more! Listen to the full interview --> Spotify | Soundcloud | Apple About ADDI ADDI was founded in 2018 by co-founders Santiago Suarez, Daniel Vallejo, and Elmer Ortega, to power commerce and make point-of-sale financing accessible to every Latin American merchant and consumer. For more information, visit https://addi.com/

Miguel Armaza sits down with Jan Bellens, Global Head of EY’s Banking & Capital Markets Group. In his role, Jan counsels banks in defining their strategies and supports their implementation with investments, acquisitions, and ambitious organic growth initiatives around the world. He has been supporting banks for the last two decades and has worked with clients in over 20 countries. We talk about: - Jan’s professional journey and what led him to his current role where he oversees 45k people - A few of the trends he’s seeing from banks across different regions - What the impact of COVID really means for banks - The challenges of managing an organization with 45k+ professionals - And much, much more! Jan Bellens As the EY Global Banking & Capital Markets Sector Leader, Jan counsels banks in defining their strategies and supports their implementation with investments, acquisitions and ambitious organic growth initiatives. He has been supporting leading banks’ executive teams with their growth opportunities

In today’s episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Griffith Norville, Managing Director at Hamilton Lane. Over the last decade, the scope of private investments has exploded across products, asset classes, and geographies. LPs, often equipped with just a small investment team, are facing greater difficulty sorting through droves of funds, managers, trends, and data. Hamilton Lane and its cutting-edge product, Cobalt LP, are tackling this problem head-on. Griff is the Head of Cobalt LP, a software solution that helps LPs with portfolio construction, benchmarking, and investment selection focused on the private markets. Cobalt also offers front-office analytics and back-office managed services solutions, all backed by Hamilton Lane’s first-class historical data and insights. In addition to this role, Griff helps run strategic technology investments for the firm. They talk about the state of Private Markets investing and how the explosive growth of private markets has created such a need for Cobalt LP. They close w

In today’s episode, Anchit Gupta (WG’21) is joined by Neeraj Khandelwal, Co-Founder of CoinDCX. Started in 2018, CoinDCX is India’s largest and safest cryptocurrency exchange and liquidity aggregator. CoinDCX offers users single-point access to a diverse suite of crypto-based financial products and services. Neeraj spearheads the technical development of all CoinDCX products. Prior to his role at CoinDCX, he served as Vice President of Engineering at Holachef and Chief Technology Officer at Doormint, leading a team of over 20 talented developers. Neeraj holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. In this interview, Neeraj shares: - CoinDCX’s customer base and their investment preferences - Awareness of crypto in India and CoinDCX’s efforts to increase it - Their competitive landscape and ecosystem in India - His business strategy in response to Crypto’s high volatility and risk - The future of Cryptocurrency in India For more insights and analysis from FinTech l