Wharton Fintech Podcast

Worlds collide today as the two gold-standards of fintech content come together on the Wharton Fintech Podcast. Ryan Zauk sits down with Simon Taylor, Co-Founder and Head of Ventures at 11:FS, a challenger consultancy and emerging fintech empire. They help the world’s top founders build financial services products, conduct highly customized market research, bring PMs behind the scenes of various fintech applications, and of course have their own media arm. In today’s episode, Simon and Ryan dive into: 7:00 - His journey through fintech and how 11:FS is building the industry's top challenger consultancy 12:00 - The current state of the crypto market and if it has finally 'crossed the chasm’ 17:00 - The power of stablecoins and interest-bearing accounts (BlockFi, Celsius, etc) 22:54 - NFTs, sports memorabilia, and NBA top shot 28:10 - Their thoughts on Clubhouse 31:40 - And a very fun rapid-fire round including his favorite follows on Twitter For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/w

Miguel Armaza is joined by Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell, Managing Directors and Group Partners at Y Combinator (YC). YC is one of the most successful startup accelerators and venture capital funds, and since March 2005 has helped over 5,000 startup founders build and launch companies like Stripe, AirBnB, DoorDash, Dropbox, Reddit, and the list goes on and on… This was a fascinating conversation and Michael and Dalton talked about lessons learned from their years of experience with YC, what they look for in a founding team, and why they are so passionate about helping entrepreneurs. We also touched on their decision to expand beyond the US to back entrepreneurs from all over the world, and the fascinating network effects this has created. Dalton and Michael also shared lessons learned from working with over 200 Fintech companies, including Brex, Stripe, and Coinbase. And some of the Fintech trends they are excited about. Finally, we could not end this conversation without talking about the state o

Miguel Armaza sits down with Manuel Silva, General Partner at Mouro Capital, a venture capital fund with $400m assets under management, looking to back the most innovative fintech innovators and startups across North America, Latin America, and Europe. We talked about: - Manuel’s career path and what led him to venture capital - History of Mouro Capital and why they recently decided to spin out of Santander Bank - Mouro’s investment strategy - Investing in global fintech – regions and markets where they see the biggest opportunities (hint: Latin America) - Navigating COVID - and a lot more! About Mouro Capital Mouro Capital is a venture capital firm with $400M assets under management that targets early to growth fintech investment opportunities across Europe, North America and Latin America.

Miguel Armaza sits down with Dan Rosen, Partner and Founder of Commerce Ventures, a sector-focused VC fund, investing in infrastructure and enablers for the Commerce Continuum Dan is also an alum of our very own, Wharton School. We talked about - Dan’s background and why he decided to build Commerce Ventures - The evolution of the fintech industry over the last 20 years - Commerce Ventures investment process - Their approach to building sector theses - The importance of talent, diversity, and mentoring future generations - And a lot more! About Dan Rosen Dan Rosen Partner Dan has been investing in tech startups for 20 years. He founded Commerce Ventures with the vision of creating a sector-focused firm that demonstrably helps its portfolio companies. At Commerce, Dan focuses on technology innovations in the payments, financial services and insurance fields. He serves on the boards of Blooom, ClickSWITCH, Kin and Socure, and participates as an observer on several other portfolio boards, such as BillGO and

Ryan Zauk sits down with one of the crypto world's most popular figures, Mike Dudas. Mike navigated a long career spanning Disney, Google, Venmo, and Circle before founding The Block, one of the world's premier research and news sources for all things crypto and blockchain. Mike recently stepped back into a Chairman role at The Block, moving to Paxos as their VP of Stable Coin Business Development. The Block: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/ On today's episode, Mike and Ryan discuss: - The Venmo / CashApp battle of the last few years (6:45) - When Mike first learned about Bitcoin and realized its massive potential (10:50) - The new wave of DeFi and how this technology will disrupt incumbents (14:04) - The Block and why its model will be the business model of the future (17:00) - How he went about deciding to build The Block with no journalism experience (22:05) - His passionate, outspoken support for Andrew Yang for Mayor of NYC (24:30) - And a great rapid-fire round (28:30) For more FinTech insights, foll

Miguel Armaza sits down with the talented and energetic Alexa von Tobel, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Inspired Capital, a $200M early-stage venture capital firm based in New York City, focused on backing founders with transformative ideas, brilliant teams, and relentless determination. The firm was founded by Alexa and Penny Pritzker, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce. Prior to Inspired Capital, Alexa founded LearnVest with the goal of helping people make progress on their money and later sold the company to Northwestern Mutual for $375M. We talked about - Alexa’s background & entrepreneurial journey - Why she dropped out of Harvard Business school to build LearnVest - What it really means to be the CEO of a large company and why she decided to sell her business - The reason why she loves hosting her own podcast, The Founders Project, and what led her to write two books - Working with President Obama - The importance of having a supportive spouse - And a whole lot more! Alexa von Tobel Alexa is the

This episode comes from the LendIt Fintech Latam 2020 conference. It features Miguel Armaza’s conversation with Pierpaolo Barbieri, Founder & CEO of Ualá, one of the fastest-growing fintechs in Latin America. We discuss: - Digitization of cash and the incredible progress of mobile wallets in Latin America. - The role of the regulator and why some governments are starting to embrace the fintech industry. - Fueling e-Commerce – how fintech companies are bringing millions of new users to transact online. - Open Banking and the future of fintech in Latam. - And a lot more... About Ualá Ualá is a fintech company whose mission is to bring Latin American financial services into the 21st century. Through an app and an international Mastercard, it offers an innovative and integrated experience. It also brings the unbanked into the financial system by offering cheaper and more convenient services than any other alternative. It was founded by the Argentine entrepreneur Pierpaolo Barbieri and launched in October 201

Welcome to a very special Valentine’s Day episode of the Wharton FinTech Podcast! Today, Ryan Zauk sits down with the always-entertaining NYT Bestseller and Oprah collaborator, Neale Godfrey, to discuss Love and Money. Neale and Ryan dive into: 3:20 - The disasters that can arise from delaying that money conversation until marriage 7:30 - Strategies and tips for having the conversation 9:30 - How to split your finances in single and dual-income couples without building resentment 18:00 - A lot about prenups 27:40 - How to file taxes if one person is an entrepreneur At the end, Ryan shares a few fintech apps tackling this problem as well as the Top 10 Couples Money Tips from Fintech Today's Julie Verhage-Greenberg, who crowdsourced her best nuggets of advice from the FTT community. Links: Deeper breakdown in Ryan's Medium Article: medium.com/wharton-fintech Neale's Previous Episode on Fighting For Financial Literacy: https://tinyurl.com/2uvr47je Mentioned Prenup WSJ Article: https://tinyurl.com/y49nv9zc -

Miguel Armaza sits down with the fascinating Ben Narasin, Venture Partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA), a global venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors, and geographies. Founded in 1977, NEA has received nearly $24 billion in cumulative committed capital since day one. Ben is not only a prolific investor but also a celebrated founder who launched fashionmall.com in 1993 and took the company public six years later. We talked about - Ben’s journey and entrepreneurial ambitions - A deep dive into his experience taking FashionMall public via IPO and the challenges it entails - The transition from entrepreneur to investor - The elements he looks for in every founder and how COVID has influenced his investment process - And plenty of stories and anecdotes from his exciting journey! Ben Narasin Ben Narasin is a Venture Partner at NEA. A prolific entrepreneur and highly regarded early-stage investor with three decades of compan

On today’s episode, WFT covers one of the two certainties of life…and no, we’re not talking about taxes. Ryan Zauk is joined by Dan Garrett, Founder & CEO of Farewill, the UK fintech radically changing the way we deal with death (from the financial side, of course). You might be asking, what does death have to do with fintech? Well, 1 Trillion Pounds of assets will be transferred intergenerationally in the next decade in the UK alone. And wills are the primary method of transfer. Farewill is the first company offering a friendly, simple, D2C website to set up wills, probates, funerals measures, and more for a fraction of the cost of your local lawyer. Farewill has become the largest will-writer in the UK while maintaining an astounding NPS of 85. Last year, Farewill raised 20 million pounds from a top list of investors including Highland Europe, the CEOs of Transferwise and Headspace, and former Wharton FinTech guests Tim Levene of Augmentum Fintech and Michael Sidgmore of Broadhaven. In this fun episode,

In today's episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Erin (Welter) Lyons, W'01, Head of US Investment Grade Credit at CreditSights. Creditsights is one of the top credit research firms in the world serving the world’s top institutions, family offices, and more while producing over 300 research reports a month. Erin and Ryan discuss: - Her journey from Wharton, to Wall Street's top institutions, to landing at CreditSights - What she saw during the COVID crisis, especially March 15 - April 15, how her team tackled the problem, and how the outcomes really surprised her - The incredible power (and transparency) of the Fed's "Bazooka" COVID response, and how it saved the markets - The massive search for yield occurring in the fixed income market - Her approach to analyzing credit products - Her outlook on the coming year for markets, including potential implications of a Biden administration - The reasons they were just bought by Fitch and their own investment in Singapore Fintech "Alphastream" - "Throwing Toast" at Pen

In today’s episode, co-hosts Ryan Zauk and Miguel Armaza sit down with tech’s most beloved politician, Mayor Francis Suarez of Miami. For those not familiar, in 2020 numerous prominent VCs and founders began a great migration to Miami. On Twitter, Founders Fund's Delian Asparouhov tweeted "What if we moved Silicon Valley to Miami?" Mayor Suarez then tweeted 4 now famous words - "How Can I Help?" And the rest is history. Ryan, Miguel, and Mayor Suarez discuss the past, present, and future of Miami, his big ideas for crypto, Softbank's $100M commitment to Miami, how he's been investing in tech long before 2020, and much more. Ryan and Miguel left the episode convinced - Miami is not having a moment, it’s starting a movement. Vamos! For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Ryan's Twitter: twitter.com/RyanZauk LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/

Miguel Armaza sits down with Brian Requarth, a seasoned entrepreneur who in 2009 launched the Brazilian real estate marketplace, Viva Real, successfully grew the business over the following decade, and sold it in 2020 for over half a billion dollars. His recently-published book Viva the Entrepreneur is a fascinating modern guide designed to inspire and inform current and aspiring Latin American entrepreneurs. However, the book is just as applicable to founders from Silicon Valley to rest of the globe. Humble and often funny, Brian’s reflections of his own journey help humanize the perception and mystique behind successful tech entrepreneurs. The book is unequivocally straightforward and Brian is not afraid to celebrate his successes. But perhaps more importantly, he is also willing to reflect on his mistakes. In fact, one of the biggest takeaways from Viva the Entrepreneur is that successful founders use mistakes as learning opportunities and grow from these experiences. Perhaps my favorite aspect of the b

Miguel Armaza sits down with James Paris, CEO of Avant, one of the pioneer in online lending dedicated to providing banking solutions for the US middle. Since 2012, Avant has served over 1.5 million customers with over $6.5 billion in loans and 400,000 credit cards. The company has also raised over $600 million of equity capital from General Atlantic, JP Morgan, Peter Thiel, Ribbit Capital, DFJ, Tiger Global, QED, August Capital, and many more! We talked about: - James’ background as a traditional investment banker - The story behind Avant - Their decision to spin out Amount, a SaaS business - His thoughts on the evolution of the fintech lending and underwriting space - Talent and company culture - Why you should always be nice to your interns and junior employees - And a whole lot more! About Avant Avant is dedicated to building premier digital banking solutions for the middle class through a combination of technology, analytics and superior customer service. Since 2012, Avant has connected over 1.5 mill

Miguel Armaza sits down with Ben Savage and Adriana Saman, from Clocktower Technology Ventures, a fintech-focused venture capital fund that’s also the technology investing affiliate of Clocktower Group, a global macro investment firm. Ben is a fintech entrepreneur turned investor with an MBA from Stanford University and Adriana got her Bachelors from our very own University of Pennsylvania. We discussed: - Their backgrounds and what led them to Venture Capital - Clocktower’s investment strategy and approach - Their decision to focus on fintech and why they are excited about the reinvention of financial services - Why they have invested beyond the United States, with a particular emphasis on Latin America - Navigating COVID - Their outlook for the road ahead of the industry - And a lot more! Ben Savage Ben manages Clocktower Technology Ventures and is responsible for all of Clocktower Group’s private market activities. Ben was previously Director, Investment Associate Program for Bridgewater Associates, wh

Ryan Zauk sits down with NYU Stern's Dr. Sabrina Howell to discuss her most recent paper titled 'Which lenders had the highest minority share among their PPP loans?' Though the answer may not surprise you, the data, methodology, reasoning, and implications might. In the wake of the PPP, there was a lot of scrutiny into who was getting (and not getting) access to crucial government aid. Gatekept by financial institutions, from Wells Fargo to fintechs, small businesses were at the mercy of institutions. So it begged the question, who did these institutions choose to allocate their money to? And did the data differ across institution types and loan applicants? If so, why? Professor Howell, her colleagues, and a consortium of partners set out to dig into the data, with a focus on who was lending to minority-owned businesses. In today’s episode, Ryan and Dr. Howell discuss: 4:40 Her previous research in ICOs and the ‘joke’ ICO she saw that hit $15M in market cap (it's even stranger than Doge Coin) 8:07 The bas

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