Wharton FinTech Podcast Stripe's First Employee on Building Modern Banking Infrastructure
Jan 14, 2026
Darragh Buckley, the founder of Increase and Stripe's first business hire, dives into his journey from banking to tech. He shares insights on Stripe's early challenges and the importance of building reliable infrastructure. Darragh discusses how Increase modernizes banking through direct API integrations for seamless transactions. He highlights the significance of trust and uptime in finance, as well as the balance between engineering and banking expertise. The conversation reveals the future of niche banking products enabled by robust technical solutions.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
From Banker To Builder At Stripe
- Darragh Buckley joined Stripe as the first business hire to bring banking knowledge and a willingness to work long hours.
- He quickly shifted into engineering work, implementing bank integrations and shipping code to solve product needs.
Machines Should Talk To Machines
- Early Stripe needed programmatic money movement and deeper technical integrations with banks.
- That pain inspired Darragh to pursue building banking infrastructure that lets machines talk to machines.
Decouple By Dropping A Layer
- Drop down a layer and integrate with networks instead of every bank to decouple technical and business problems.
- Solve the technical integration first so you can independently address compliance and commercial issues.