This Week in Fintech
This Week in Fintech Podcast features candid conversations with decision makers shaping the future of finance. Hosted by Nik Milanović, founder of This Week in Fintech and General Partner at The Fintech Fund, the show explores product decisions, regulation, and market shifts with leading founders, C-suite executives, and ecosystem veterans. It offers a front-row seat to the people and ideas moving money into the future.
Episodes
How PayJoy Turns Smartphones Into a Path to Credit
In this sponsored episode of This Week in Fintech Partnered, Katie Perry sits down with Doug Ricket, founder and CEO of PayJoy, to talk about how the company is expanding access to credit for people who have historically been left out of the formal financial system.PayJoy began with a simple idea: use the smartphone itself as collateral. Customers can finance a device, build a repayment history, a
Can AI Catch Invoice Fraud? Plus, How Imprint Is Rebuilding Credit Cards
This week on This Week in Fintech, Sasha Pilch sits down with Daragh Murphy, co-founder and CEO of Imprint, to talk about how the company is helping major brands rethink credit cards, rewards, and customer loyalty.Imprint is building financial experiences directly into the brands consumers already know and love, replacing outdated bank-driven credit card programs with modern technology and persona
What Happens to Your Money When an Account Goes Dormant? With Eisen CEO Allen Osgood
In this episode of This Week in Fintech Partnered, Nik Milanovic sits down with Allen Osgood, founder and CEO of Eisen, to unpack one of the seemingly least glamorous but most important parts of financial infrastructure: what happens when customer accounts go dormant.Allen explains the world of escheatment, the process that can require financial institutions to hand abandoned assets over to state
Cute AI Avatars and How Arca Is Reinventing Wealth Management
This week on This Week in Fintech, Sasha Pilch sits down with Rron Rexha, founder and CEO of Arca, to talk about how AI could modernize one of the most traditional corners of financial services.Arca is using AI to take administrative work off financial advisors’ plates, from account opening and money movement to preparing for client conversations, with the goal of giving advisors more time to focu
Can Reusable Identity Fix Fintech’s Verification Problem? - With SOLO Founder Georgina Merhom
In this episode of This Week in Fintech Partnered, Katie Perry sits down with Georgina Merhom, founder and CEO of SOLO, to explore why financial services still asks customers to prove who they are over and over again — and what it would take to make identity verification reusable.Georgina explains how SOLO is building a verification network that allows banks and fintechs to rely on identity checks
How Warp Raised $60M in Six Days - Plus the Kalshi Controversy
This Week in Fintech is back with a new look, a new host and a new weekly format.Hosted by Sasha Pilch, each episode will dig into one of the biggest stories moving fintech before sitting down with a founder, operator or investor helping shape where the industry goes next.For our first episode, Sasha is joined by This Week in Fintech’s Larry DiTore and Amethyst Martinez to unpack the allegations o
Rain is Building Embedded Financial Services for Your Global Brand
Host Justin Friedman sits down with Sophia Goldberg, Rain’s Head of Payments and founder of Ansa, the branded stored value platform acquired by Rain in 2026. They discuss how combining Ansa’s closed-loop, stored value infrastructure with Rain’s stablecoin-powered open-loop payment rails could change the way global brands build wallets, loyalty programs, and embedded payment experiences.Sophia expl
Circle's Arc: The Economic Operating System for the Internet
Host Justin Friedman sits down with Rachel Mayer, VP of Product at Circle and one of the masterminds behind Arc, to unveil Circle’s new layer one blockchain. Drawing on Rachel’s experience trading emerging-markets currencies on Wall Street, they start with the inefficiencies still embedded in traditional cross-border money movement.Rachel explains how Arc is designed as an “economic operating syst
Nico Simko on Building Clair, Embedded Earned Wage Access and the Future of Payroll
Presented by Clair.What if the best financial product is the one users never have to go looking for?In this episode of This Week in Fintech, Clair founder Nico Simko joins us to explain how a personal frustration with the US credit system turned into a profitable earned wage access business serving hundreds of thousands of businesses.Nico talks about Clair’s evolution from digital bank to embedded
Alchemy Is Building the Wallet Layer for Agentic Commerce You Can Trust
Host Justin Friedman interviews Blake Duncan, Alchemy’s Lead Agent Experience Engineer, about what happens when AI agents replace humans as the economic decision-maker. They start with fundamentals: What makes a smart wallet “smart” and how the x402 protocol will enable the pay-per-use Internet as agents increasingly outnumber human visitors.Blake argues that mainstream adoption will accelerate wh
Sokin's Blueprint for Global Treasury
Host Sasha Pilch sits down with Vroon Modgill, Founder & CEO of Sokin, to explore how modern treasury infrastructure is transforming global payments.From slow settlement windows and fragmented banking relationships to stablecoins and real-time treasury management, Vroon breaks down why traditional treasury workflows are overdue for an upgrade. He shares how Sokin combines global bank accounts,
How Pomelo Is Rebuilding Fintech Infrastructure in LATAM
Host Sasha Pilch sits down with Gaston Irigoyen, co-founder and CEO of Pomelo, to unpack why waiting a full year to launch a card program became the startup thesis behind one of Latin America’s fastest-growing fintech infrastructure companies. Drawing from his experience scaling fintech in LATAM, Gaston shares how infrastructure bottlenecks around issuing, processing, and credit card management pu
PayPal’s Stablecoin Playbook
Presented by Rain.Host Justin Friedman sits down with Larry Wade to unpack how PayPal brought PYUSD from concept to real-world payments while balancing innovation, regulation, and consumer trust. The conversation explores PayPal’s early move into crypto, why on-chain transfers became critical for interoperability, and what changes when a global payments company shifts from supporting digital asset
The Fintech OG Series: Shanthi Shanmugam and Natasha Vernier
Powered by Spade.Money moves faster than ever, but the hardest moments in fintech still happen when something goes wrong: a confusing transaction, a disputed charge, a fraud claim, or a control that fails when regulators come calling. Hosts Julie VerHage-Greenberg and Lauren Crossett talk with Shanti Shanmugam, CEO and co-founder of Casap, and Natasha Vernier, CEO and co-founder of Cable, about wh
How MoneyGram Is Modernizing Global Payments with Stablecoins
Host Justin Friedman sits dow with Luke Tuttle, Chief Product and Technology Officer at MoneyGram to talk about the realities of building global payments infrastructure at scale. The conversation explores how stablecoins are changing cross-border settlement, why trust and compliance remain critical in remittances, and what it takes to deliver instant cash pickup across more than 200 countries.Luke
Coinbase Q1 '26 Earnings: A conversation with Coinbase Chief Business Officer Shan Aggarwal
This Week in Fintech’s Nik Milanovic sat down with Coinbase Chief Business Officer Shan Aggarwal to discuss Coinbase’s Q1 2026 earnings following the company’s latest earnings release.• Q1 highlights, including all-time high crypto trading volume market share • USDC growth on-platform and why stablecoin economics matter • How institutional and developer products reinforce retail liquidity • What t
Western Union’s Stablecoin Moment
Presented by Rain.This episode of Crossing the Chasm, host Chiara Munaretto is joined by Malcolm Clarke to discuss how Western Union is bringing stablecoins into the real world with the launch of USDPT. Malcolm explains why Western Union believes the future of digital dollars is not about making consumers learn crypto, but about using blockchain behind the scenes to make cross-border payments fast
Stablecoins Are Going to Main Street
Presented by Rain.In this special series Crossing the Chasm, we explore when stablecoins stop being “crypto” and start functioning like real money, becoming familiar, fast, and cost-efficient. Justin Friedman is joined by Farooq Malik, founder and CEO of Rain, joins us to break down what true adoption looks like across payments, on-chain settlement, and card programs that integrate seamlessly into
BONUS: Reintroducing The Fintech OGs
Powered by Spade.Julie VerHage-Greenberg is back for Season 4 of The Fintech OGs, now joined by co-host Lauren Crossett, to sit down with the pioneers who built and transformed fintech. From the early days of digital finance to the innovations redefining money today, these are the stories behind the people who changed the industry.In episode one we sit down with Angela Hung and Dan Egan, two build
Credit Beyond The Score with Andrew Endicott
Credit scores feel like destiny, but they’re built on a thin record of borrowing and repayment while ignoring income, cash on hand, and real assets. That blind spot blocks credit for immigrants, younger consumers, gig workers, and anyone whose financial life doesn’t fit the classic bureau file. In this episode, Nik sits down with Andrew Endicott, co-founder of Pedal and now co-founder and GP at Gi
Okay, So You've Got a Stablecoin… Bhau Kotecha on What Happens After You Go On-Chain
This week, Stablecon’s Justin Friedman was joined by Bhau Kotecha, co-founder and CEO of Paxos Labs, for a discussion on the transformative potential of stablecoins and tokenization. Bhau and Justin examine how these technologies are redefining the way we think about financial tools, usability, interoperability, privacy, and the economics of stored value. Finally, Bhau offers predictions on whethe
Coinbase Q4 '25 Earnings: A conversation with Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas
This Week in Fintech's Nik Milanovic sat down on February 12th, 2026 to talk with Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas about 2025 year-end earnings.Some topics they covered:Market Expansion: Coinbase doubled trading volume and market share in 2025, diversifying beyond crypto with Deribit acquisition.Revenue Resilience: Despite market softness in Q4, Coinbase showed strength through diversified revenue, s
Revolutionizing Payroll: The Earnin Story with Ram Palanappian
In this episode, Nik Milanovic interviews Ram Palanappian, the CEO and Founder of Earnin, a fintech company that is revolutionizing how employees access their wages. Ram shares the origin story of Earnin, which began when he realized that many employees were struggling with cash flow issues, leading to late fees and overdraft charges. He discusses how he initially provided employees with early acc
Agentic Commerce is here w/ Michelle Gill, PayPal
An agentic future of commerce is coming faster than merchants think—and PayPal wants to make sure small businesses don’t get left behind. In this live Money20/20 2025 episode of This Week in Fintech, hosts Nik Milanović and Jillian Williams sit down with PayPal’s Michelle Gill, EVP and General Manager of Small Business Financial Services, for a deep dive into how AI agents will transform shopping,
How Nubank Rewrote Brazil’s Banking Rules with Cristina Junqueira
We sit down with Nubank co-founder Cristina Junqueira for a candid look at how frustration with fee-first banking led to a product people loved, and how that vision scaled across Brazil. We explore hard-won lessons on leadership, communication, regulation, and why AI plus open finance will reshape money.• leaving an incumbent bank to build customer-first products• forming the founding team and sta
Modern Treasury Unlocking Payment Innovation with Stablecoins
In this conversation, Nik Milanović discusses the evolving landscape of stablecoins and digital payments with Dan Mottice and Matt Marcus from Modern Treasury. They delve into the recent acquisition of Beam by Modern Treasury, the implications for the payments industry, and the potential of stablecoins to enhance financial operations. The discussion highlights the importance of regulatory clarity,
Sierra CEO & OpenAI Chair Bret Taylor - Live at M20/20. AI Bubbles, SaaS Future, and Why Sierra Wins
In today’s episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Bret Taylor, Co-Founder & CEO of Sierra and Chairman of the Board at OpenAI. Bret’s career is the stuff of valley legend…he is the former Co-CEO of Salesforce, former CTO of Facebook, and has been credited with building products like Google Maps and Facebook's 'Like' button. There may not be anyone closer to AI, spanning the app layer
Unlocking Embedded Finance Opportunities with Adyen
In this episode, Nik Milanović hosts Natalie Wexler from Adyen and Jamey Kennedy from Jackrabbit Technologies to discuss the untapped opportunities in embedded finance, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses. They explore how SaaS platforms can leverage embedded finance to enhance customer experiences, the importance of capital products, and the evolving landscape of funding for small
The Evolution of Open Banking: SOLO's Multi Lateral Data Sharing Network
In this conversation, Georgina Merhom, founder of SOLO, discusses the transformative potential of collaborative data sharing in the financial sector. She shares her journey from cybersecurity to fintech, emphasizing the importance of incentives, consumer experience, and the evolving regulatory landscape. Georgina highlights the need for a decentralized approach to data sharing, which fosters trust
Building Monk: Re-Engineering Finance for Growth, Not Compliance
In this episode, Nik Milanović interviews George Kurdin, co-founder of Monk, a company focused on automating accounts receivable processes using AI. George shares his unique career journey from professional poker player to fintech entrepreneur, discussing the lessons learned along the way. He highlights the significant problem of accounts receivable, valued at $3 trillion, and explains how Monk ai
Figure's Blockchain and the Impact on Capital Markets
"Buckle up because...the cuffs are off."In this conversation, Nik Milanović interviews Mike Cagney, co-founder and CEO of Figure, discussing the company's recent IPO, its innovative product Democratized Prime, and the implications of the Genius Act on capital markets. Cagney shares insights on the evolution of Figure, the role of blockchain in financial services, and the potential f
Anthropic's Kate Earle Jensen: Enabling AI in the Enterprise
In today’s episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Kate Earle Jensen, Head of Americas for Anthropic. Kate joined Anthropic in 2023 after 8 years helping scale GTM at Stripe. Over the last 2 years, she has had a front row seat to the AI revolution at one of the fastest-growing companies in history. In this episode, Kate dives into how Claude is being used by major enterprises to revolutionize their busi
Scaling Impact in Emerging Markets: Doug Ricket, PayJoy CEO, on Productivity Finance and Unlocking Credit Access
Hello fintech friends,Last week, I sat down with Doug Rickett, the founder and CEO of Payjoy.If you work in fintech and you don't know Payjoy, well, you should. The company's tagline is "finance for the next billion." And they're well on their way: As of 2025 they have brought 3 billion dollars in credit to 16 million customers, doubling in the last two years while remaini
Figure's Michael Tannenbaum on Market Dynamics and Blockchain Adoption
This episode dives deep into the evolution of blockchain-powered lending and marketplaces in the FinTech sector, with guest Michael Tannenbaum, whose career has spanned senior roles at SoFi, Brex, and now Figure. Host Julie Verhage-Greenberg and Michael discuss how Figure’s vision—originally designed as one company with a strong blockchain backbone—has matured amidst regulatory and market shifts.C
🎧 Mesta CEO Sandeep Pyapali on how stablecoins are already changing the future of payments
This week, Nik Milanovic sits down with Sandeep Pyapali, Founder and CEO of Mesta, a global cross-border payment network combining traditional rails with stablecoin systems.Mesta allows sending USD and stablecoins in over 50 currencies, cutting international payment costs by over 50%. Pyapali, with 17 years in payments – including Uber's $100 billion payment network – founded Mesta in 2024.Py
🎧The Fintech OG Series: Jillian Williams and Dimitri Dadiomov
Welcome back to This Week in Fintech and another episode of the Fintech OGs! Today, I’m joined by two incredible voices who have helped shape the future of financial technology from both the founder and investor perspective.First up, Jillian Williams, co-founder of Field Ventures, a new seed-stage fund focused on vertical software and fintech. Jillian has spent her career investing in the sector,
🎧 The Philosophy of Identity, a conversation with Footprint Co-Founder Eli Wachs
This week, I sat down with Eli Wachs, the Co-Founder and CEO of Footprint, a company building the identity infrastructure of the internet.It was a far-reaching conversation – Eli's an interesting guy – and we touched on everything from his deep-dives into identity in the Stanford library to working with economist Raj Chetty to philosophy and what it means to be authentic to yourself.Footprint
🎧The Fintech OG Series: Jack Zhang and Leif Abraham
Welcome back to another episode of Fintech OGs with This Week In Fintech!Today, I’m joined by two incredible founders who have each redefined their corner of the financial world:Jack Zhang, Co-founder & CEO of Airwallex, the global payments and banking platform powering 150,000+ businessesLeif Abraham, Co-founder & Co-CEO of Public, the next-gen investing platform helping the top 20% of mi
Alesia Haas, Coinbase CFO - On Q2 '25 earnings, stablecoins, and Coinbase's growing derivatives business
Nik sits down for 10 minutes with Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas to talk about the company's 2025 performance and where they are headed.OverviewCoinbase is at inflection point, with strong Q2 performance including custody volumes and derivatives trading hitting all-time highs, and the USDC market cap exceeding $60 billion.Stablecoin revenue of $332 million in Q2 represents 12% growth quarter-over-q
🎧The Fintech OG Series: David Haber and Owen Jennings
Welcome back to FinTech OGs! This week, I’m joined by two leaders whose careers have shaped the evolution of modern financial technology: David Haber, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz and co-lead of their AI Apps Fund, and Owen Jennings, an executive officer and Block’s Business Lead. From early ventures like Bond Street and the first days of Cash App to today’s frontier of AI in finance, Da
🎧PayPal President & CEO Alex Chriss: Agentic Commerce, Stablecoins, AI, and Transforming a Global Tech Giant
In today's episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with PayPal President & CEO Alex Chriss.Alex took over as PayPal CEO in September 2023 after a nearly 20-year run at Intuit. Today, Alex (and PayPal) are at the epicenter of some of the most disruptive trends in global technology & commerce.Since joining PayPal less than two years ago, his tenure has turned several heads in the industry. PayPal
🎧The Fintech OG Series: Charles Birnbaum and Cynthia Loh
Welcome back to this week in FinTech and another episode of the FinTech OGs. This week I'm joined by two guests whose careers have helped shape. The evolution of modern wealth management. We have Charles Birnbaum partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, and Cynthia Loh, who is a senior vice president at Capital One.Charles and Cynthia first crossed paths in the early days of Betterment. This is
🎧FIS CTO Firdaus Bhathena: Closing 'The Harmony Gap' and Fostering Innovation at a Global Fintech Giant
In today's episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Firdaus Bhathena, CTO of FIS.FIS is one of the world's largest financial technology companies, building solutions for leading financial institutions, businesses, and developers. Their scale is incredible...Over $16Tn moves through their systems annually. They process $75 billion of transactions globally, serve tens of thousands of clients, and
🎧The Fintech OG Series: Amit Kumar and Sheel Mohnot
You know you’ve found true fintech OGs when your guests were almost roommates before “fintech” was even a buzzword. That’s exactly the case with today’s guests, Sheel Mohnot and Amit Kumar—two longtime friends and collaborators who’ve not only seen the fintech industry evolve over the last decade-plus, but have helped shape it.In this episode, we dig into their early startup days—FeeFighters, Card
🎧The Fintech OG Series: David Marcus and Daniel Kimerling
🎙️ Welcome back to Season 3 of the Fintech OG series on This Week in Fintech!To kick things off, we’re joined by two of the most influential voices shaping the future of financial infrastructure: David Marcus, CEO of Lightspark and former head of Libra at Facebook, and Dan Kimerling, founding partner at Deciens Capital and early pioneer in banking-as-a-service.We cover everything from the rise—and
🎧Databricks' Global VP Junta Nakai: Transforming Global Finance From Its Core and Mega Trends for the Decade Ahead
"It's going to be a great decade to be a banker. But probably a better decade to be a customer of a bank."In today's episode, Ryan Zauk is joined by Junta Nakai, Global Vice President at Databricks. Junta leads the Financial Services, Cybersecurity, Sustainability, and Public Sector Go-To-Market (GTM) for one of the world's largest and most exciting startups at the beating
🎧 The Fintech and AI Series: Accounting
In the final installment of our AI series, we explore one of the most unexpected yet explosive areas for AI innovation: accounting. Julie and Jillian sit down with Alex Hagerup, CEO and co-founder of Vic.ai, and Chris Sluty, co-founder of FloQast, to discuss how automation is reshaping the finance function—from ERP integrations and auditability to real-time data for CFOs.We unpack why accounting i
🎧Vanta CEO Christina Cacioppo Live at Newcomer's Breaking The Bank Summit: Turning Compliance Into a Competitive Advantage and Learnings From $0 to $100M ARR
In today's episode, Ryan Zauk is joined by Christina Cacioppo, Co-Founder & CEO of Vanta.Ryan and Christina recorded this episode live at Newcomer's Breaking the Bank Summit in San Francisco. The Summit was an invite-only, one-day summit for fintech founders, builders, and investors to explore the future of finance and technology. Breaking the Bank was a phenomenal event, with speake
🎧Automating Everything - How Pontus Wants to Change Enterprise Organizations with AI
Welcome back to our weekly fintech podcast!This week, I had the chance to sit down with Sumant Shringari, the CEO and Co-Founder of Pontus, and Sandeep Sood, the Founder and CEO of Kunai. Pontus was established in 2023 to automate the large, difficult, and often fragmented back-office operations critical to large enterprises – such as the Global 2,000 banks that they count as customers. It was int
🎧 The Fintech and AI Series: KYB
KYB might not be the buzziest acronym in fintech—but maybe it should be. In this episode, we’re joined by Will Lawrence, CEO of Greenlite, and Kurt Ruppel, CTO and Co-founder of Middesk, two leaders rethinking how financial institutions identify and monitor business customers. We cover the evolution from manual checks to AI-powered automation, the difference between KYC and KYB, and why ongoing mo
🎧BaaS and Compliance, a Conversation with Synctera CEO Peter Hazlehurst and Wolf & Company's Matt MacDonald
Welcome back to our weekly fintech podcast! This week, I had the chance to sit down with Peter Hazlehurst, Co-Founder and CEO of Synctera, and Matt MacDonald Financial Technology Service Leader & IT Assurance Senior Manager at Wolf & Company.The conversation was wide-ranging, starting with Wolf & Synctera's partnership to build a compliant bank-fintech partnership model that Synct
🎧 The Fintech and AI Series: Small Business Lending
In this episode, we sit down with Lukas Haffer, CEO and Co-founder of Casca, and Ryan Hildebrand, Chief Innovation Officer at Bankwell, to explore how AI is transforming small business lending—starting with SBA loans. They discuss the challenges of building on top of legacy banking systems, the stress-test of the COVID-19 PPP era, and how a human-in-the-loop approach is key to deploying AI respons
PingPong x This Week In Fintech at New York Fintech Week, 2025 (Full Talk)
We hosted an insightful live conversation and podcast at New York Fintech Week, hosted by This Week in Fintech and PingPong.Key Topics:Real-Time Payment Rails: Exploring the latest innovations in real-time payments and how they’re reshaping cross-border transactions.Cross-Border Money Movement: Analyzing the challenges and opportunities in facilitating smooth cross-border B2B payments.Speakers:
🎧Brex CBO Art Levy: The Partnerships Playbook, How Brex Went Founder Mode, and Why You Always 'Get on the Plane'
In today's episode, Ryan Zauk is joined by Art Levy, Chief Business Officer at Brex.Brex is the modern finance platform that empowers growing companies to spend smarter and move faster in 120+ countries. Brex combines global corporate cards, expense management, banking, and travel. Their platform is trusted by 30k+ companies including ServiceTitan, DoorDash, ScaleAI, and Wiz.In this episode,
🎧 The Fintech and AI Series: The Generalists
In this episode of the This Week in Fintech podcast, hosts Julie and Jillian are joined by Rex Salisbury (Founder of Cambrian Ventures) and Erica Dorfman (Head of Financial Products at Brex) for a wide-ranging conversation that sits at the intersection of AI, fintech innovation, and practical applications across startups and scale-ups.From agentic AI to OCR replacements, from startup go-to-market
🎧 The future of small business lending, with Prashant Fuloria and Anchit Singh of Fundbox
TWIF host Nik Milanovic sat down with Prashant Fuloria, CEO, and Anchit Singh, CBO, of Fundbox, a pioneer in embedded finance for SMBs since 2013.Fundbox has partnered with platforms like QuickBooks and FreshBooks to provide fast access to over $5 billion in capital to 125,000 small businesses.Prashant, Anchit, and Nik discussed the evolution of embedded finance, emphasizing the importance of data
🎧 The Fintech and AI Series: All Things Compliance
Welcome back to the Fintech AI Series! Today’s episode dives deep into one of the most critical topics in both Fintech and AI—Compliance. We’re joined by two amazing guests: Reggie Young, Chief of Staff at Lithic, and Jesse Reiss, CTO and Co-founder of Hummingbird. Between Reggie’s legal background and Jesse’s technical expertise, this episode offers a unique and practical look at how regulated co
🎧 Live from HumanX: Airwallex Head of Product Shannon Scott on Reshaping Global Payments, Building Elite Teams, and How They're Leveraging AI
In March, we traveled to the inaugural HumanX conference in Las Vegas to meet founders, builders, and investors at the bleeding edge of AI. The conference was a great success, and we're excited for it to relocate to San Francisco next April. While at the conference, I had the chance to sit down with Shannon Scott, SVP and Global Head of Product at Airwallex. Airwallex is the global payments a
🎧 Live from HumanX: Writer CEO May Habib on Helping Enterprises Survive the AI Decade, Building Your Own LLMs, and 'Bags of Flesh'
In March, we traveled to the inaugural HumanX conference in Las Vegas to meet founders, builders, and investors at the bleeding edge of AI. The conference was a great gathering of AI leaders, and we're excited for it to relocate to San Francisco next April. While at the conference, I had the chance to sit down with May Habib, Co-Founder and CEO of Writer. If you've been around AI x FS ov
A conversation with Patrick McKenzie
TWIF founder Nik Milanovic talks to Bits About Money writer Patrick McKenzie, on topics ranging from agentic payments, to generative AI-enabled fraud, to deposit insurance and the banking crisis of 2023, to the epistemology of synthetic IDs.
🎧 The Fintech and AI Series: TradFi
The intersection of AI and traditional finance (TradFi) is an angle we haven't explored yet in our AI series. Today, we change that by taking a deep dive into how AI is transforming large financial institutions. Jillian and I are joined by two experts shaping the future of AI in finance:Stevi Petrelli – Head of Blackstone Innovations Investments, where she leads early-stage strategic investme
🎧 Live from Toronto: Brim CEO Rasha Katabi on Scaling Credit Card Infrastructure + Adopting AI
On March 4th, This Week in Fintech had their debut event in Canada, bringing together hundreds of people across the tech ecosystem for an evening of networking, food and drinks, panels from local leaders, and even a magician working the crowd. We had nearly 500 people register when it was all said and done, showing the enthusiasm and depth of the Toronto tech ecosystem. We don’t know how it took u
🎧 Live from Toronto: Adyen's Head of Canada Sander Meijers and Notch's CEO Jordan Huck on Building for Canadian Businesses
On March 4th, This Week in Fintech hosted their debut event in Canada, bringing together 150+ people across the tech ecosystem for an evening of networking, panels from local leaders, and even a magician working the crowd. We had nearly 500 people register, showing the enthusiasm and depth of the Toronto tech ecosystem. We don’t know how it took us this long to get to Canada, but we’re glad we did
🎧North's Preet Patel: Bringing a consumer products focus to merchant payments
In my latest interview, I spent some time with North's SVP of Product, Preet Patel, to talk about his journey from Citi to AmEx to North, what's changed in the company since he joined (hint: they were previously known as NAB), and how he takes a consumer products mentality to his merchant payments product work at North.Preet Patel has served as the Senior Vice President of Product Manage
🎧 The Fintech and AI Series: All Things Lending
In this episode of our Fintech and AI series, Julie and Jillian dive into the evolving world of lending with two industry leaders shaping the space. Tim Li, CEO of LendAPI, and Justin Potts, CTO of Canopy Servicing, break down AI’s impact on everything from underwriting and fraud detection to loan servicing and borrower experience. They explore the regulatory shakeups affecting fintech, the rise o
🎧Oliver Hughes - TBC Bank Exec and Ex-Tinkoff CEO: Bringing 25 Years of Fintech Lessons to Revolutionize Fintech in Central Asia & Beyond
In today's episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with global fintech legend Oliver Hughes, Chief International Growth Officer at TBC Bank Group, a London-listed financial + banking services provider in Georgia in Uzbekistan. Before TBC, Oliver was the CEO of Tinkoff and Head of Russia for Visa. He is also on the Board of Tabby, a leading shopping and financial services player in the Middle East that
🎧 The Fintech and AI Series: All Things Payments
In this episode of our Fintech and AI series, Julie and Jillian sit down with two leading voices in fintech to explore how AI is revolutionizing the payments landscape. Alexis Zhu of Stripe and Yunyu Lin of Ramp break down AI’s role in fraud prevention, workflow automation, and financial decision-making. From personalized checkout experiences to the future of real-time payments, this episode is
🎧Oscilar Founder Neha Narkhede: Eliminating Risk With AI
This week, I managed to grab some time in the (very busy!) schedule ofNeha Narkhede. Neha is an Indian American technology entrepreneur who is the founder & CEO of Oscilar, co-founder and former CTO, and current board member of Confluent (CFLT NASDAQ).As a software engineer atLinkedIn, she helped develop the open-source messaging systemApache Kafka, now used by more than 80% of the Fortune 500
🎧 The Fintech and AI Series: All Things Fraud
Hi everyone! Jillian and I are thrilled to be kicking off our podcast series on all things AI. In our premier episode, we're joined by Naftali Harris, CEO and Founder of Sentilink, a company that stops fraud for over 300 banks and financial institutions, including 10 of the 15 largest in the U.S. as well as Aman Abraham, Co-founder & CEO of DeepTrust, which focuses on protecting voice and
There will be surprises (TWIF 1/31)
Hello Fintech Friends,👋 Welcome to the 1,679+ new readers who’ve joined us since last week. You’re joining 157,000+ other subscribers. Today's newsletter is brought to you by our friends at Fintech Meetup.📢 We're looking for great Fintech Freelance Writers! If you would be interested in writing for TWIF, let me know by replying to this email. This year, we're building up our writing
🎧Nova Credit CEO & Founder Misha Esipov: Building a credit passport for the world
This month, I spent some time with Nova Credit founder and CEO Misha Esipov to talk about his company, one of the original innovators in alternative consumer credit, underwriting, and financial data.Misha has been running Nova Credit since 2016, when he and his co-founders graduated from Stanford Business School. He founded the company predicated on the insight that – even for well-qualified gradu
🎧Upgrade CEO Renaud Laplanche: 20 Years of Fintech Wisdom on Leadership, Managing Debt Financings, Building Winning Platforms, and M&A
In today's episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with fintech pioneer Renaud Laplanche, Upgrade Founder & Former LendingClub CEO.Some say LendingClub kicked off the modern fintech era with its digital lending solution, and Renaud has had a front seat to this industry every step of the way through their IPO in 2014. Renaud has been recognized on Bloomberg Markets’ Most Influential List, won the Eco
🎧 The Fintech OG Series Season Two: Emmalyn Shaw and Satya Patel
Hey everyone! Julie Verhage Greenberg here with the final episode of Season Two of the Fintech OGs series. We’re closing things out with Emmalyn Shaw, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Flourish Ventures, and Satya Patel, Co-Founder and Partner at Homebrew. Together, they’ve helped shape the future of financial technology, investing in companies like Chime, Gusto, and Alloy.In this episode, we div
🎧 The Fintech OG Series Season Two: René Lacerte and Frank Mastrangelo
Hey everyone! Julie Verhage Greenberg here with your final episode of the FinTech OGs of 2024. Today, we have a conversation that dives deep into the origins and evolution of FinTech through the lens of two people that were shaping the space long before FinTech was even a thing. I'm joined René Lacerte, the founder of BILL, and Frank Mastrangelo, co-founder of Bancorp and PayAmigo.We explore
2024 in Review (TWIF 12/20)
Breaking down the biggest headlines from the last year in fintech.
The Fintech OG Series Season Two: Tomer London and Anu Hariharan
In this episode, I talked with Tomer London, Co-Founder and CPO of Gusto, and Anu Hariharan, Co-Founder of Avra and former partner at Y Combinator. Together, we talked about the intersection of their personal passions and their professional innovations, sharing insights from their journeys into fintech and their ongoing efforts to solve complex problems in payments, payroll, and beyond. From Tomer
🎧 Dwolla CEO Dave Glaser: Pay-by-bank, running an Ironman, and where US payments go from here
We're lucky to be joined today by Dave Glaser, CEO of American payments giant Dwolla, one of the first fintechs.Dwolla is a fintech company that provides businesses with a connection to the ACH Network or RTP Network (The Clearing House’s privately-owned real-time payments network).The company was founded in 2008 and launched in the United States in December 2010 to a few small banks and reta
🎧 Ramp VP of Engineering Nik Koblov: How Ramp Crafts a World-Class Eng Org, Hires Outliers, and Ships So Fast - Live at SF Tech Week
Welcome to December's episode of the this Month in Fintech Podcast, recorded live at SF Tech Week with Ramp.TWIF + Ramp hosted a large group of tech builders, founders, and investors for a happy hour at 620 Jones, headlined by a live interview with Nik Koblov, VP of Engineering at Ramp.We had one of the highest insight-to-minute conversations I've had, with Nik taking all of us through:
Would you let an AI agent make payments for you? (TWIF 11/29)
This week's newsletter discusses the emerging trend of AI-powered payment agents, exploring the potential benefits and risks associated with delegating financial decisions to artificial intelligence. Security concerns, such as fraud and liability for disputed transactions, are highlighted alongside authorization challenges. The text also examines how the increasing use of cryptocurrencies cou
🎧The Fintech OG Series Season Two: Tom Brown and Edward Woodford
Hey everyone, Julie here. Welcome back to another episode of the FinTech OG Season 2. Today I had the pleasure of sitting down with Tom Brown of NYCA and Ed Woodford of ZeroHash. In this episode, we get a front row seat to the evolution of fintech from Tom's early days at Visa, where he played a key role in its IPO, and Ed shares his entrepreneurial journey and how it led to him founding Zero
Recommended
Yours Truly Johnny Dollar Collection
Take Back Your Health®
CBS Radio Mystery Theater | Old Time Radio
Solved Murders - True Crime Stories
紐約鳥｜New York Aperture
The Swerve Podcast: Obscure Topics | Conspiracy Theories
The Bread and Banter Podcast
The Church of What's Happening Now: The New Testament
Busted Open
Deadline: White House
Panda Show - Picante
Crickets Corner
