Wharton Fintech Podcast

Kylie Francis(Wharton MBA'18) chats with Andrew Robinson, Executive in Residence at Oak HC/FT, a premier venture growth equity firm investing in healthcare and financial service technology, where his focus is on Insurtech. In this insightful podcast, Andrew talks about his foray into the insurance industry and shares his perspectives on the most interesting activity in the insurance space today, and where this is scope for further disruption.

Fei Ye (WG '19) speaks with Julien Courbe, Partner and Head of PwC's U.S. Financial Services Advisory practice. Fei and Julien discuss PwC's top 8 digital predictions in financial services for 2018. PwC's trends cover a range of topics including digital banking, insurtech and blockchain. Check out the Wharton FinTech Medium for more details on PwC's report. Julien leads PwC’s US Financial Services Advisory practice, covering banking, capital markets, insurance and asset & wealth management companies. He advises C-suite executives at major financial services institutions on how to address issues related to growth and performance improvement, digital transformation, FinTech, financial crime and regulatory compliance, as well as technology and operations effectiveness.

Brian Shah (WG '18) speaks with Dan Aisen, Co-Founder and Head of Quantitative Strategy at IEX. Dan discusses the founding of IEX and the future of high frequency trading. IEX is the subject of Michael Lewis' bestselling book Flash Boys. As part of the founding team, Dan was responsible for building out the core functionality of IEX as a trading venue. As the company grows and evolves, he continues to develop new products and tactics that IEX can use to protect investors from predatory strategies and build a more sustainable and equitable market. Prior to IEX, Dan worked at RBC Capital Markets.

John Pennington (WG '19) speaks with Jani Valjavec, co-founder and CTO (Trading) of ICONOMI, the world’s first blockchain-based digital asset management platform for the decentralized economy. A well-known member of the blockchain community, Jani is a crypto and app token expert and was an early blockchain enthusiast. In 2013, he co-founded Cashila, the first registered Bitcoin company in Europe to acquire a license for the execution of banking transactions via bitcoin. In 2016 Jani co-founded ICONOMI, the world’s first digital assets management platform, in order to provide access to a variety of digital assets and the ability to combine and trade them. Jani also serves as Chairman of Columbus Capital, ICONOMI’s first partner to serve as a dedicated Digital Asset Array manager.

Elena Gerasimova (Wharton 2018) and Nipun Jasuja (Wharton 2018) chat with Catherine Flax, CEO of Pefin, the world’s AI financial advisor. Established in 2011, Pefin is a fintech company based in New York City. Pefin, which stands for PErsonal Financial INtelligence, uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide fiduciary financial advice at the fraction of a cost of a traditional financial advisor. On the day this podcast was recorded (November 30, 2011), Pefin went live to end consumers! And we couldn’t be more thrilled about that. Tune in to learn how Pefin is different from traditional roboadvisors that we’ve come to know, what really is the “AI” behind Pefin and why it took six years until product launch, and some invaluable nuggets of professional wisdom from Catherine.

David Gogel (WG'18) speaks with Charles Birnbaum (WG'11), Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. BVP is a multi-stage venture capital firm that invests across enterprise, consumer and healthcare. Charles focuses on financial services, consumer and education investments. David and Charles speak about building investment and industry theses, opportunities in the cryptocurrency market, trends in insurtech, and the evolution of the tech-enabled specialty industry. Charles is a partner in Bessemer's New York office. He focuses on financial services, consumer and education investments. Charles is actively involved with many BVP portfolio companies, including Main Street Hub, BrightBytes, Bread Finance, and August Home. He currently serves on the board of Zopa, United Capital, Fabric, Spruce and Eave and was involved in the exits of Yodle, 2U, and Kroll Bond Ratings. Charles’ startup experience has been important to BVP’s early stage financial services portfolio, which includes high-potential companies such as Bette

Brian Shah (WG '18) chats with Amy Nauiokas, Founder and President of Anthemis Group, a leading financial technology investment and advisory firm. In this podcast, Amy discusses why she started Anthemis and the rationale behind providing both investment and strategy capabilities under one roof. She explains her guiding investing philosophy and how the team sources and evaluates new opportunities. At the end, Amy shares her perspective on U.S. vs. European startups and key trends in the financial technology space.

Jess Douglass, Wharton MBA 2018, chats with Sarina Siddhanti, Head of Direct Business, Funding Circle US. Funding Circle is a peer-to-peer lending marketplace that allows investors to lend money directly to small and medium-sized businesses. Funding Circle was the first website to use the process of peer-to-peer lending for business funding in the UK, and now operates in the UK, US, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands. In this exciting podcast, Sarina shares her thoughts on how financial services can be used as a catalyst for small business growth, explains Funding Circle's business models and her journey at this exciting company, and shares some valuable insights on how to think about working in the Fintech space and finding companies whose "heart is in the right place".

Antonio Munoz chats with Bastiaan de Goei, Director of New Ventures at AXA Next. In this informative podcast, Bastiaan demystifies the insurance industry, talking about emerging trends, and the need for using data better and creating simpler risk products. He also discusses strategies for disrupting insurance based on the level of control a firm wishes to have across the value chain. Bastiaan started his career working in strategy consulting and private equity. He then moved to AXA where he has been for the last 6 years. At AXA, Bastiaan has transitioned from a strategy and M&A role into his current position as director new ventures for AXA in San Francisco. Bastiaan received his Masters in Management from the London School of Economics and PhD in Business Economics from the University of Cambridge. He contributes to AXA’s endeavors in developing new business models that provide unique customer experiences that give AXA sustainable competitive advantage. These new business models can leverage new partnersh

Nipun Jasuja (Wharton 2018) chats with Tobin McDaniel, president of Schwab Wealth Investment Advisory, a registered investment advisor and the sponsor of Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, Charles Schwab’s new automated investment advisory service. In this insightful podcast, Tobin shares his views on the evolution of the wealth management landscape in the US, the importance of incorporating the human element when you are responsible for the hard-earned money of your customers, and the thrills of running a venture within one of the most trusted brands in financial services. To top it all, Tobin also gives tangible advice for budding entrepreneurs and MBA students, reflecting on his own experiences and career trajectory.

Antonio Munoz (Wharton MBA’17) chats with Matt Miller, founder and CEO of Embroker, which is a leading tech-enabled commercial insurance broker. Embroker’s new, all-digital approach to business insurance combines the ease of technology with expert advisors to take the pain out of getting the right coverage for your business. In this engaging podcast, Matt talks about what made him change career trajectories and start Embroker, about challenges in insurance and disrupting the insurance industry, how Embroker is creating a new way of buying business insurance, and more broadly about why and how to go behind solving hard problems.

David Gogel chats with Arthur Hayes, CEO and Co-Founder of BitMEX, aka the Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange, a cryptocurrency-based derivatives exchange based in Hong Kong. They discuss Arthur’s background, the launch of BitMEX, Bitcoin, Ethereum, derivatives trading, exchange business models, regulation, security, initial coin offerings, and the future state of cryptocurrencies. BitMEX handles on average $100 million dollars per day in the total value of products traded.

Ruhi Dang (Wharton MBA '18) chats with William Hockey, co-founder and CTO of Plaid. Plaid is the tool that empowers a large number of applications you use today. In very simple terms, Plaid allows a variety of financial-technology startups to access their customers’ bank account information. Tune into this podcast to hear William discuss the story of Plaid, the emerging industry trends and talk about how some out-of-the-box startups are using Plaid today. What’s more you ask? Some xkcd humor and a dive into Plaid’s APIs for the tech geek in you! William hopes to see some of you use Plaid to build groundbreaking applications and transform the industry in the coming years. Check out https://plaid.com today!

Happy Summer! Volunteering, internships, and general travel has taken Wharton students to all corners of the world this summer. Wharton FinTech has also made its first foray into Southeast Asia. Check out this latest podcast, where Kevin Vichyastit (Wharton MBA 2018) chats with Iwan Kurniawan, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Modalku, a P2P lending platform in Indonesia for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Modalku is funded by Sequoia Capital, and founded by locals, hoping to make an impact in Indonesia. In this informative and heartwarming podcast, Iwan talks about the exciting MSME market in Indonesia, describes his startup journey, gives some candid advice on coming down from our ivory towers and watching our blind spots, and makes a passionate plea for MBA students and budding entrepreneurs to look South East! Iwan has been featured in CNN, Jakarta Post, Bisnis Indonesia, Tech in Asia, Metro TV and other major media for the platform’s early successes. Prior to Modalku, Iwan was a man

David Gogel (MBA '18) chats with David Klein, co-founder and CEO of CommonBond. David discusses a wide range of topics in FinTech, student lending, and entrepreneurship. He goes deep on CommonBond’s student loans products, business model, and future prospects. He discusses how the Wharton MBA experience helped him launch CommonBond. We also cover David’s views on the FinTech industry more broadly, blockchain, and advice for student entrepreneurs. David Klein is CommonBond’s co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. Prior to pursuing his Wharton MBA, David worked in consumer finance at American Express, as Director of Strategic Planning and Business Development, where he led a team that managed a $250M annual portfolio. Prior to American Express, he worked at McKinsey & Company, where he advised clients in the financial services industry. David graduated from Brandeis University with a BA in Politics, Economics, and International Business. He is an alumnus of Wharton Business School and served on the Board of

Nipun Jasuja (Wharton MBA 2018) chats with Kaz Nejatian, Co-founder and CEO of Kash, a Y Combinator Summer 2014 payments startup. Kash's mission is to make payments simple by getting rid of interchange, chargebacks, and everything merchants hate. In this fun podcast, Kaz fondly speaks about his memories as an immigrant kid that incepted the seeds of entrepreneurship, his obsession with consumer behavior, the story of Kash, and his insightful perspectives on digital payments, both in the US and internationally. Do not miss this one! #wharton #fintech #kash #payments

Matt Applegate chats with Will Janensch, Co-Founder and COO of Concur Reference Data, about blockchain solutions for capital markets. Will has over 15 years of experience in market and reference data at Thomson Reuters as VP of Strategy and senior roles in Marketing and Operations at Thomson Reuters and First Data. Will led the strategy on multiple $100M+ M&A transactions, including the $625M acquisition of FXAll. He holds a BA from Yale University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. http://concurreferencedata.com http://twitter.com/WJanensch

Christophe Williams (MBA '18) chats with Andy Rachleff, co-founder and CEO of Wealthfront. Andy discusses a wide range of topics in FinTech, investing, and how to grow tech companies. He goes in-depth on Wealthfront's competitive advantages in automated investing and how he approaches product/marketing strategy to grow sustainably. Also covered are Andy's background in venture capital, the process of founding Wealthfront, and how he sees disruptive innovation affecting financial service incumbents. As a bonus, we have a special Wealthfront sign-up link for our listeners. To get your first 15,000 dollars managed for free, sign up using: http://www.wealthfront.com/whartonfintech Andy Rachleff is Wealthfront's co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer. He serves as a member of the board of trustees and vice chairman of the endowment investment committee for University of Pennsylvania and as a member of the faculty at Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he teaches courses on technology entrepren

Brian Shah (MBA '18) chats with Michael Tannenbaum, Chief Revenue Officer of SoFi. As CRO, Michael is responsible for driving successful execution and growth across SoFi’s core lending products. In this podcast, Michael discusses the company's foray into new financial products, its unique membership perks, and its recent acquisition of Zenbanx. He also shares his perspective on the current fundraising environment and the future of financial technology.

Aditya Goel chats with Ram Ahluwalia, Co-founder and CEO, PeerIQ. This New York-based financial information services company is creating tools to analyze, access, and manage risk in the peer-to-peer lending sector. In this podcast, Ram discusses the trends, evolution and future of alternative lending markets and the role of analytics and platforms in this asset space, sharing both his own perspectives and insights from recent industry conferences. Ram also provides precious nuggets of wisdom for future entrepreneurs and MBA students looking to enter FinTech.