Wharton FinTech Podcast

Anirudh Singh sits down with Kimwood Mott, project manager at the Central Bank of the Bahamas. In this episode they discuss: - Kimwood's transition to the central bank - The primary goals of the project including: 1. Increasing the efficiency of the Bahamian payments systems through more secure transactions and faster settlement speed. 2. Providing non-discriminatory access to payment systems without regard for age, immigration or residency status. 3. Achieving greater financial inclusion, cost-effectiveness, and access to financial services across all of The Bahamas. 4. Strengthening national defence against money laundering, counterfeiting, and other illicit ends by reducing the ill effects of cash usage. - The impact that Hurrican Dorian and Covid-19 had on the project's rollout And more! Kimwood Mott: Kimwood Mott has spent over 20 years in the banking and finance industries in both the retail and private banking sectors. He has an extensive background and experience in banking, information technology, and project management. As the project manager for digital currency implementation, Kimwood is tasked with improving the domestic digital payments space and driving the national adoption of the Sand Dollar digital currency. In addition to a wealth of knowledge and skills, Kimwood brings a unique perspective to the Sand Dollar project. As a small business owner, he recognizes the difficulties of our financial landscape and sees the potential and benefits of the Sand Dollar digital currency. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/ WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Anirudh's Twitter: twitter.com/avsingh_24

Miguel Armaza sits down with the inspiring Mahmoud Abdelkader, serial entrepreneur and CEO/Co-Founder of Very Good Security, a company that’s on a mission to protect the world’s information by providing essential security and compliance infrastructure for other businesses. In this episode, we talk about: - Mahmoud’s journey – moving from Egypt to New York City and how he found his love for entrepreneurship - Launching Balanced Payments, his first startup over a decade ago, getting into Y Combinator and why every first time founder should try to go to YC - Understanding Very Good Security’s mission to secure the world's information, and why they want to make data useful in the same way as money - Challenges of unintended side effects of financial and privacy regulation and what Very Good Security is doing about it - Getting comfortable with rejection and why you should never underestimate the hunger of immigrant entrepreneurs… And a lot more! Mahmoud Abdelkader Mahmoud Abdelkader is the CEO and co-founder of Very Good Security (VGS). He was previously CTO and co-founder of Balanced Payments (exited to Stripe). Prior to that, Mahmoud designed automated product matching systems at Milo.com (acquired by eBay) and built high-frequency trading systems for Wachovia Securities, now a part of Wells Fargo. With experience ranging from Wall Street to early-stage startups, Mahmoud is passionate about democratizing data security. He started Very Good Security to make best-in-class security and compliance attainable for businesses of all sizes. Very Good Security Very Good Security (VGS) is on a mission to secure the world’s information. Providing essential security and compliance infrastructure, VGS enables startups and enterprises to focus on their core business instead of compliance and regulatory overhead. VGS customers enjoy a Zero Data™ approach to information security, retaining the value of sensitive data without the cost and liability of securing it themselves. VGS Control accelerates compliances such as SOC 2, PCI, ISO 27001, GDPR, and more. For more information, visit verygoodsecurity.com.

Ryan Zauk brings you a great episode today with Chad Byers, Partner & Co-Founder of Susa Ventures. Susa is a sector-agnostic early-stage VC investing in areas like Enterprise Software, Fintech, Logistics, Healthcare, Consumer & Frontier Tech. Notable investments include Robinhood, Fast, Flexport, PolicyGenius, Okra, LendUp, Nova Credit, Railz, Treasury Prime, and Expanse. Chad was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 for VC in 2015. Prior to Susa Ventures, Chad was the senior director of platform at Integrate.com and held various marketing and product roles at Silver Spring Networks, Bloom Energy, and Electronic Arts. They discuss: - His unusual path to venture and the critical tools he used to become an incredible cold-emailer, meeting a16z’s Chris Dixon and BoxGroup’s David Tisch - The wild story of turning a Jon Stewart taping into an internet phenomenon! - Susa Ventures and the exciting, Wharton Fintech exclusive release of their upcoming opportunities fund (15:30) - Critical advice for starting your first fund (or angel investments) - His seed Robinhood investment, including the moment the lightbulb went off - Fintech trends he's most excited ]for - And much more! Mentioned in the Episode: Jon Stewart Tweet Thread: https://twitter.com/chadbyers/status/1273726486973804545?lang=en Robinhood COO: https://bit.ly/3AGEHdi Atom Finance CEO on PFOF: https://bit.ly/3hK0EzI 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/

Ryan Zauk sits down with none other than Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano. Anthony Pompliano is an entrepreneur and investor who has built and sold numerous companies, managing a portfolio valued at more than $500 million in early-stage companies. His investments include Coinbase, eToro, BlockFi, Airbnb, and many more. He has a fantastic newsletter, podcast, and social platform anchored by his 1M+ followers on Twitter. He is known for his extreme passion for bitcoin, having been a major part of the rallying cry of the last year. He has pushed his chips all in, allocating a huge portion of his portfolio to the asset! (or property…) They cover: - His bitcoin thesis, the "super cycle," and the events that got him so bullish - Why Buffet and Munger disagreeing with him gives him more conviction - How he thinks about generating outsized returns & his barbell capital allocation strategy - His investments in startups like Strike and nearly kidnapping a founder - The simple ways he’s grown such a massive following & influence - And much more Enjoy the show! Discussed in the Episode: Website (with most info): https://www.anthonypompliano.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/APompliano?s=20 Newsletter (180k+ subs): https://pomp.substack.com/ Mike Dudas: https://tinyurl.com/4c229whn Simon Taylor: https://tinyurl.com/t994esjk Wharton DeFi Paper: https://wifpr.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/DeFi-Beyond-the-Hype.pdf -- 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 the fascinating Amy Nauiokas, Founder and CEO of Anthemis, a Venture Capital firm founded in 2008 that aims to cultivate change in the financial system by investing in, growing, and sustaining businesses committed to resiliency, transparency, access and equity. Some of their most notable investments include Carta, Betterment, Pipe, Rally Rd, Simple, and Backstage Capital. Amy is also Founder/CEO of Archer Gray, a media production and content company. In this great conversation, we talk about: - Amy’s journey and how she found herself making her first Venture Capital investments in Cameroon in the early 90s. - Navigating Wall Street and why she eventually decided to leave big banks to launch Anthemis - Fundraising from LPs in 2008 – a year when the financial industry collapsed but also a time with major technological innovations. - Bridging the conversation between incumbents and startups. - Backing models that transform and create resiliency inside of the financial system - Their commitment to build the most diverse and inclusive team in Tech and Wall Street - Anthemis’ Venture Studio strategy - Fundraising reflections, leadership lessons as a VC founder… And a lot more! Amy Nauiokas Amy Nauiokas is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Anthemis, the leading digital financial services investment firm, and Founder and CEO of Archer Gray, a media production and content company. She is a visionary executive, investor, producer and a recognized leader in innovation, strategy, and management across a variety of markets and industries. As a venture capitalist, Amy identifies and invests in early stage technology companies focused on the disruption of media, financial services and marketplaces. She has built a strong investment portfolio of best-in-class, high growth companies. Current investments include Betterment, Trov, Happy Money and Currencycloud. Her exits include Flo Technologies, Zoopla, the UK’s leading property research website; Fidor Bank, acquired by BPCE in 2016; Simple, acquired by BBVA in 2014; and The Climate Corporation, acquired by Monsanto in 2013. Amy received a master’s in international business from Columbia University, where she has also served as an Adjunct Professor in the business school, and received her BA in International Studies from Dickinson College. About Anthemis Anthemis cultivates change in our financial system by investing in, growing, and sustaining businesses committed to resiliency, transparency, access and equity. Founded on three guiding principles - authentic collaboration, virtuous cycle outcomes and diversity and inclusivity - our deep understanding of markets and models, passion for emerging technology and values inspire everything we do. By creating fertile ground for a diverse group of startups, investors, entrepreneurs, institutions, academics, and visionaries to converge, we believe we can solve the financial systems most pressing challenges faster, better and for the benefit of all. Visit www.anthemis.com for more information. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Miguel's Twitter: twitter.com/MiguelArmaza Miguel's Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3jWIpqp

Ryan Zauk sits down with Kai Cunningham, the youngest founding General Partner at Limited Ventures. Limited Ventures is a fund created alongside titans of industry like the Forbes & Rockefeller families, and counts numerous athletes and entertainers as LPs. Kai serves two critical roles: 1. Helping family foundations + institutions satisfy their Diversity and Inclusion Mandates without sacrificing returns 2. Bridging the gap between athletes/entertainers and the billionaire families of the world. He has helped over 100 athletes and entertainers participate in deals like Airbnb, SpaceX, Lime, Coinbase, Pinterest, Lyft, DapperLabs, Zilch, Kraken, and many more. They cover: - His wild journey from the DMV area to the trading floor of Goldman Sachs and Limited Ventures - Helping the "99%" of pro athletes invest like the 1% - The future of the athlete investor and why that’s a positive for culture - What fintech marketers need to know when working with celebs - The problem companies will face when deploying their DEI&I funds - His investment in UK BNPL Zilch - and much more Mentioned: Brandon Copeland: https://medium.com/wharton-fintech/nfl-star-penn-professor-brandon-copeland-tackling-financial-education-through-life-101-9482e4d461b8 Harlem Capital: https://medium.com/wharton-fintech/jarrid-tingle-managing-partner-of-harlem-capital-transforming-the-face-of-entrepreneurship-b8d97db9a94a -- 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/

Gabriela Ariana Campoverde sits down with Nathaniel Harley, CEO and Co-Founder of MANTL, a software platform specializing in online account opening and deposit growth strategies for community banks and credit unions. Founded in 2016, MANTL has helped banks raise more than $1 billion in core deposits -- with the highest performing account opening solution on the market. This past spring, this fintech raised $40MM in a Series B round. MANTL is on a mission to expand access to financial services by challenging the cost structures of traditional banks with its robust APIs, conversion best practices, and seamless user experience. In this episode we discuss: - How MANTL’s platform serves thousands of Americans today - The negative impact legacy infrastructure has on the user experience for account holders, banks and credit unions - Why community banks and credit unions matter - Lessons learned from Nathaniel’s career at Spoon University - What’s next in the pipeline for MANTL - And much more! About Nathaniel Harley: Nathaniel Harley is the CEO and Co-Founder of MANTL. Prior to founding MANTL, Nathaniel served as COO of Spoon University, a food publication by and for college students. This was the first start-up which he joined and was backed by Techstars. MANTL is his second company with the accelerator. Before joining the start-up world, Nathaniel was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, where he studied Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences. Nathaniel is passionate about building products that will help people. To follow him on Twitter visit twitter.com/nathanielharley. About MANTL: MANTL helps banks and credit unions grow deposits and streamline back-office tasks with an omni-channel account opening platform that integrates with their cores. For additional information on MANTL, please visit www.mantl.com | Twitter: twitter.com/mantl_tech For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Gabriela’s Twitter: twitter.com/byGabyC Gabriela’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/gcampoverde

In this content-rich episode, Ally McCloskey sits down with Stephany Kirkpatrick, Founder & CEO of Orum. Orum is building new and frictionless financial infrastructure to power smart, real-time, and fully-automated money movement across accounts, products, and financial institutions. Backed by Bain Capital Ventures, Inspired Capital, Homebrew, Acrew, Primary, Clocktower, Box Group, SVB Capital, AmEx Ventures, and an impressive angel network. Orum has 2 signature products in market: 1) Orum’s Foresight product is an ACH risk intelligence tool, which identifies and reduces ACH return risk and fraud before it occurs by pulling in extra data through partnerships with financial institutions. And 2) Orum’s Momentum product, which intelligently routes which payment rails a transaction should travel on given the financial institution’s preferences for speed and cost. Ally and Stephany discuss: - How Stephany’s background as a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and years of working at LearnVest and Northwestern Mutual exposed to her a ubiquitous market challenge - Stephany’s earliest steps when taking the plunge into starting a company - Why Orum started in stealth - The history of payment rails and infrastructure and why there is so much friction in the system - How the burden of ACH risk ultimately lands on the end user via nonsufficient funds and overdraft fees - Stephany’s advice on looking for stage-specific and sector-specific investors, but most importantly screening for good humans - The great recommendation she got from Satya Patel at Homebrew on hiring a Head of People early - Her impressive Whoop record - And a WHOLE lot more Stephany Kirkpatrick Stephany Kirkpatrick is a digital executive and seasoned entrepreneur with over 15 years experience in companies across a variety of industries, from startups to Fortune 100 corporations. Stephany founded Orum in 2019 on the belief that consumers should have immediate access to their money. Stephany is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ who’s spent the last decade building technology to optimize financial outcomes for Americans – first at LearnVest where she helped design its financial planning software and now at Orum. Orum is building new financial infrastructure that allows money to move immediately and automatically across accounts, products, and financial institutions. Stephany leads with strong core values and believes in diversity of thought and people. She is a mother of two young girls and actively participates in building a future that empowers women through her mentorship work. About Orum Orum is building the infrastructure for a frictionless financial system, powering smart, real-time money movement with proprietary intelligence. Enterprises partnered with Orum can stop spending time thinking about how to move money and focus on the simple question: how fast. Learn more at https://orum.io, and check out Orum's inclusion in the 2021 Forbes FinTech 50 list here: https://www.forbes.com/companies/orum/?sh=49118a29712a. -- As always, for more Fintech insights, please follow us below: WFT Blog: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Ally's Twitter: twitter.com/AllyMcCloskey LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/

In today's episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Silicon Valley investor, entrepreneur, angel, community builder, and super-connector Brianne Kimmel. Brianne is the Founder of Worklife Ventures, a future of work-focused fund investing in the tools and services powering the next wave of work. Worklife is backed by a who's who of tech including a16z partners Marc Andreesen and Chris Dixon, Stewart Butterfield of Slack, the CEOs of Zoom and Cameo, the Co-Founder of Twitch, Alexis Ohanian, and many more! Her fund includes 6 unicorns - Webflow, Tonal, Hopin, Clubhouse, and former Wharton Fintech guests Pipe and Public. Business Insider also recently named Brianne a top angel investor that every startup should know. In today's episode, they discuss: - The rise of the 'solo capitalist' model - The transition from angel to VC - The booming creator economy, creator tools, and the future of work - Building "Stay at Home Valley" on Figma, and surprising Figma's CEO with it on a walk - Her investment and sourcing methodology through the lens of Pipe Webflow, and Hopin and much more! Brianne: briannekimmel.com Worklife: worklife.vc Building "Stay at Home Valley: https://wfh.substack.com/p/why-i-built-silicon-valley-in-figma 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 Salim Ramji, BlackRock Senior Managing Director and Global Head of iShares and Index Investments and a member of the firm’s Global Executive Committee. Founded in 1988, BlackRock is a global investment management firm and the world's largest asset manager, with almost $9 trillion dollars in AUM – and iShares is one of the largest ETF providers with almost $3 trillion dollars in AUM. In this episode, we discuss: - Salim’s exciting career. From microfinance in the mountains of Pakistan to the top of Wall Street in New York City. - Joining BlackRock and why he actually rejected Larry Fink’s first offer to join the firm. - The power of ETFs and Index Investing and why he considers Indexing to be one of the original Fintech innovations. - iShares and its incredible reach helping over 100 million investors from around the world. - The rise of robo-advisors and why asset managers should implement guardrails to offer investment products and capabilities that are good for the long term. - The rapid acceleration of ESG, Environmental, Social, and Governance ETFs and why Blackrock considers climate risks are investment risks that should be taken very seriously. - Leadership lessons and the power of leading through influence, collaboration, and forging alliances. - And a lot more! Salim Ramji Salim Ramji, Senior Managing Director, is Global Head of iShares and Index Investments for BlackRock and a member of the firm’s Global Executive Committee. Prior to his appointment to lead the ETF and Index Investments business in 2019, Mr. Ramji was Head of BlackRock's U.S. Wealth Advisory business where he was responsible for leading BlackRock's relationships with wealth management firms and platforms, for distributing BlackRock's alpha-seeking and iShares investment capabilities and for the adoption of BlackRock's portfolio construction and digital wealth technologies to financial advisors. Mr. Ramji joined BlackRock in 2014, serving initially as the Global Head of Corporate Strategy. Before joining BlackRock, he was a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company where he led the Asset & Wealth Management practice areas. He started his career as a corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions lawyer in London and Hong Kong. Mr. Ramji earned a bachelor's degree in economics and politics from University of Toronto, a law degree from Cambridge University and is a CFA charter holder. He is a trustee of Graham Windham, a New York-based child care agency. About iShares iShares unlocks opportunity across markets to meet the evolving needs of investors. With more than twenty years of experience, a global line-up of 900+ exchange traded funds (ETFs) and $2.81 trillion in assets under management as of March 31, 2021, iShares continues to drive progress for the financial industry. iShares funds are powered by the expert portfolio and risk management of BlackRock. About BlackRock BlackRock’s purpose is to help more and more people experience financial well-being. As a fiduciary to investors and a leading provider of financial technology, we help millions of people build savings that serve them throughout their lives by making investing easier and more affordable. For additional information on BlackRock, please visit www.blackrock.com/corporate | Twitter: @blackrock For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Miguel's Twitter: twitter.com/MiguelArmaza Miguel's Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3jWIpqp