[FFL 262] Building a Powerhouse Career in Fintech with Blispay Co-Founders Tonya Flickinger and Christine Poulon

Tonya Flickinger and Christine Poulon are two of the five co-founders of the FinTech startup company, Blispay - a company dedicated to pioneering the next generation of point-of-sale financing solutions for merchants and consumers. As Head of Operations with the company, Tonya is responsible for designing, implementing, and launching consumer lending and merchant financing products as well as building, managing, and developing cross-functional teams and talent. She has been building and managing FinTech products for over 15 years and has held product and operations roles at several well-known companies, including PayPal, Bill Me Later, Bank of America, and IBM.

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Christine has nearly 20 years of experience working in the legal and compliance industry within various law firms and FinTech companies including PayPal and Bill Me Later. In 2015, she became one of the co-founders and the Head of the Legal and Compliance Department at Blispay.

Tonya and Christine join me today to share how Blispay got started, how they help merchants and consumers, and how they grew the company to the success that it is today. They discuss the importance of understanding when to be supportive and when to be challenging while working with others within your organization, why they believe diversity, gender equality, and gender inclusion is critical for shaping the FinTech industry, and the importance of being authentic as a female leader in a male-dominant industry. They also explain the importance of embracing your emotions as a fierce feminine leader and what we can do to encourage more women to achieve leadership roles within STEM industries.

"Don't be afraid of your gender. It really is an asset." - Tonya Flickinger

Today on the Fierce Feminine Leadership Podcast:

• The benefits of having multiple co-founders within your organization.
• The importance of knowing when to be supportive vs. when to challenge a team member.
• How they received venture-backing to start the Blispay.
• The importance of finding the right mentors in the FinTech industry.
• Challenges they faced while seeking female mentors within the FinTech and legal industries.
• Why they believe diversity, gender inclusion, and gender equality is critical for shaping the future of the FinTech industry.
• The importance of being authentic and avoiding the temptation of "being one of the boys" as a female leader in your industry.
• The importance of embracing your emotions.
• How to encourage younger female generations and women in FinTech to pursue leadership roles.
• Why they believe more women are not pursuing or achieving leadership roles in the FinTech industry.
• The importance of maintaining authenticity while being a good female role model.
• The importance of making time to build your network.

Tonya Flickinger's and Christine Poulon's Advice for Fierce Feminine Leaders:

1. Always work with integrity.
2. Don't be afraid to ask for what you believe you deserve - but be sure you are well prepared.
3. Try hard to be self-aware.
4. Make sure you are constantly developing your network.
5. Find your voice. Own it and live it on a daily basis.
6. Understand what you enjoy. Really look at where you are putting your effort.

Fierce Leadership Quotes:

• "Emotion in the form of passion is always great." - Christine Poulon
• "You need to be your authentic self. That doesn't mean that you should never change, but you should be really thoughtful about what you want to change about yourself." - Christine Poulon
• "Make your network relationships strong to begin with." - Tonya Flickinger

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