This special episode of Crafted was recorded live at Rise, Created by Barclays, an incubator for fintech startups. In this fireside chat, we speak with Ainslie Simmonds, President of PershingX at Bank of New York Mellon, and D. Orlando Keise, head of Banking Foundational Platform at UBS. Ainslie is building a modern wealth management platform and D. Orlando is building a digital bank from the ground up.  We’ll discuss what it takes to innovate at big financial institutions and hear their advice for fintech startup founders.

On this episode of Crafted: Ainslie and D. Orlando discuss their time at startups, big banks, and “startups inside big banks.” Both are building very ambitious products at very big, very old banks — and we discuss how they’ve challenged the status quo. We also dig into why the data layer and foundational platform on which new products are built are so critical if you want to innovate. Plus, the two share advice for fintech founders who are on a mission to democratize finance, as well as what to know when working with — or after you get acquired by — a big company. 

This is Crafted from Artium: a show about great products, and the people who make them. At Artium, we help startups and enterprises build incredible products, recruit high-performing teams, and achieve the culture of craft they need to build great software long after we’re gone. Check us out at thisisartium.com