Wharton FinTech Podcast

Miguel Armaza sits down with Jason Gross, Co-Founder and CEO of Petal, a new kind of credit card company that has pioneered the Cash Score – an alternative measure of creditworthiness based on income, savings and spending history – to make credit more accessible. Founded in 2016, the company has raised over 100 million equity and close to 500 million in debt from industry leaders including Valar ventures, Third Prime, Afore Capital, Story Ventures, and Jefferies. We discussed: - Jason’s non-traditional startup founder background - The story and inspiration behind Petal - Taking the company from 0 to 1 - The state of consumer credit and open banking and what has changed over the last five years since launching Petal - Why Petal has actively collaborated with the US regulator and why Jason considers this extremely important - Founder advice - And a lot more! Jason Gross Jason Gross (@jasonbgross) is the CEO and co-founder of Petal, a New York-based fintech company on a mission to make credit honest, simple, and accessible. Jason has served as a member of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Consumer Advisory Board, and as a guest lecturer on topics ranging from financial inclusion to A.I. and machine learning in financial services. Previously, Jason practiced law, representing leading technology firms and financial services companies. He holds a JD from Harvard Law School. About Petal Petal is a new kind of credit card company founded to help people financially succeed (http://www.petalcard.com). Petal utilizes the CashScore to make credit more accessible, especially for people just starting out with credit. Petal offers a simple, modern digital experience that encourages members to build credit, avoid debt, and spend responsibly. Petal is located in New York, NY, and Richmond, VA. Petal credit cards are issued by WebBank, Member FDIC. 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 Substack: https://bit.ly/3jWIpqp

Anirudh Singh sits down with Yan Wu, Co Founder of Bond Financial Technologies. In this episode, they discuss: - Yan's career journey - Why all brands will become fintechs - How bond rapidly adjusted to a remote environment - Bond's goal to be the premier BaaS platform and much more! Bond helps brands embed financial services products into their existing offerings, helping brands increase activation, improve retention, and therefore increase customer lifetime value. Their investors include Coatue Management, Canaan Partners, Goldman Sachs, MasterCard, as well as prominent angel investors such as Sarah Friar, Jackie Reses, Steve Freiberg, and Eric Yuan to name a few. Yan Wu Yan Wu is a Co Founder at Bond Financial Technologies, Inc., banking as a service platform that has raised over $42 million from Goldman Sachs, Mastercard, Coatue, and Canaan Partners. Bond seeks to allow any brand to embed financial products to improve their customers' experience. Previously, Yan was Head of Data at SoFi, an $8 billion consumer fintech focused on digital lending. His team of over 60 data scientists and engineers used analytics, data science, and machine learning to improve marketing, underwriting, product, and operations. Prior to fintech, Yan spent 15 years in the investment industry, most notably at BlackRock, where he was Head of Analytics and Portfolio Construction in BlackRock's $400 billion quantitative investment group. Yan earned an MBA from Wharton and a BS in Engineering from UC Berkeley. Yan is a perennial mentor at Data Science 4 All's Women's Summit. Yan was a former board member at WOMAN Inc. and a mentor at Upwardly Global. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: https://medium.com/wharton-fintech LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/ WFT Twitter: https://twitter.com/whartonfintech Anirudh's Twitter: https://twitter.com/avsingh_24

Ryan Zauk sits down with Max Friedrich, Fintech Analyst at ARK Invest! Ryan & Max cover a great deal in today's episode, including: - ARK's 5 "Big Ideas" that they believe future historians will name as big of a disruptor as the computer or electricity (4:45) - Why Tesla was missed by many great analysts (7:25) - The power of Twitter and ARK's open-source research approach (8:30) - The boom in Digital Wallets (18:23) - His Square thesis (23:50) - Current private valuations (33:45) and much more! ARK Invest focuses solely on disruptive innovation and offers investment solutions to investors seeking long-term growth in the public markets. They offer numerous products including ARKF, their Fintech Innovation ETF that Max spends his time on. You can read more about ARK here, including some topics we weren't able to cover: ARK's website: https://ark-invest.com/ ARKF: https://ark-funds.com/fintech-etf?__hstc=84851910.be9763230a0db87d6116b034315ac1e4.1612294925805.1615993803285.1619283124294.5&__hssc=84851910.6.1619283124294&__hsfp=1895777627 ARK Liquidity Commentary: https://www.etftrends.com/ark-coo-tom-staudt-deep-dive-on-liquidity/ ARK Liquidity Commentary II: https://www.etf.com/sections/etf-industry-perspective/investing-innovation-capacity-liquidity-analysis-ark-invest ARK's Big Ideas Report: https://ark-invest.com/big-ideas-2021/ Max's Twitter: https://twitter.com/mfriedrichARK ARK's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ARKInvest -- 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/

In today's special episode, Miguel Armaza and Ryan Zauk are joined by new hosts, Ally McCloskey and Anirudh Singh, to discuss their incredible journey as hosts of the Wharton Fintech Podcast. Over the next few months, you will start to see more episodes from Ally and Anirudh, as they take the reigns of the show. During this episode, they all discuss: - Intro to our new hosts Ally and Anirudh - Lessons learned from the past year of podcasting - Miguel and Ryan's favorite episodes to date - Miguel and Ryan's plans for the future - What Ally and Anirudh are looking forward to most in the year to come - And a lot more! For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: https://medium.com/wharton-fintech LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/ WFT Twitter: https://twitter.com/whartonfintech Ryan's Twitter: https://twitter.com/RyanZauk Miguel's Twitter: https://twitter.com/MiguelArmaza Ally's Twitter: https://twitter.com/fintechery203 Anirudh's Twitter: https://twitter.com/avsingh_24

Miguel Armaza sits down with Alison Lange Engel, Venture Partner at Greycroft, a leading venture capital firm focused on investments in the Internet and mobile markets, with offices in New York City and LA. Greycroft manages over $2 billion and has made over 200 investments, including some leading fintech companies like Acorns, Venmo, Flutterwave, and Public. Alison works across the Greycroft portfolio, advising companies on go-to-market strategy, execution, and sourcing new investments. She’s also a proud MBA alum from our very own Wharton School. We discuss - Her operator background at companies like LinkedIn, Microsoft and Stripe - A deep dive into her experience as Head of Marketing at Stripe - Transitioning to the investing side - Greycroft’s story, investment thesis, and what defines their portfolio companies - Why Alison and Greycroft are bullish on the future of consumer fintech - Inside stories on fast-growing portfolio companies - And a lot more! Alison Lange Engel Alison Lange Engel is a Venture Partner at Greycroft. She works across the Greycroft portfolio, advising companies on go-to-market strategy and execution and sourcing new investments. Alison has 20+ years of experience leading, structuring, and scaling high growth businesses. She’s managed teams throughout North America, Europe, Brazil, and Asia. Prior to Greycroft, Alison was the first CMO at Stripe and worked to establish the marketing function, scaling the team 5x in one year and driving quantified growth. Prior to Stripe, Alison was a Vice President of Marketing at LinkedIn. In her 6 years at LinkedIn, she had a broad impact on LinkedIn’s advertising business strategy and execution, with overall company revenue growing from $200MM at IPO in 2011 to $5Bn+ today. Alison’s early career in technology started with the sale of Massive Incorporated, a venture-backed video game advertising business, to Microsoft in 2006. She held marketing leadership roles at Microsoft Advertising for 3 years. Prior to her career in technology, Alison was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, focused on Media, Entertainment and Consumer sectors. Her media background includes HBO and the CBS Television Network, where she held sales and programming roles. Alison has a BA from UCLA and an MBA from The Wharton School. About Greycroft Greycroft is a seed-to-growth venture capital firm that partners with exceptional entrepreneurs to build transformative companies. The firm has deep experience in both consumer and enterprise technology, with a portfolio that spans the globe. Greycroft values building enduring relationships with founders and understands that they want more from investors than just capital. Greycroft has raised $2 billion in commitments and has over 200 active investments. The portfolio includes Acorns, Anine Bing, App Annie, Axios, Bird, BetterCloud, Braintree, Bright Health, Buddy Media, Bumble, Flutterwave, Goop, Happiest Baby, Huffington Post, Icertis, Lightricks, Maker Studios, Medly, Openpath, Scopely, SEMrush, Shipt, TheRealReal, Thrive Market, Trunk Club, Venmo, and Yeahka. 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 Substack: https://bit.ly/3jWIpqp

"We're in the YOLO era of fintech...it will lower CAC, but also LTV" The always entertaining and insightful Jon Zanoff joins Ryan Zauk on today's fun episode. Jon Zanoff is the Former Mayor of Fintech, founding Empire Startups, an 18,000+ person strong fintech community. Jon now runs Stella Ventures, an early-stage Fintech VC focused on the US & Canada. Jon will join the Wharton Fintech Conference on April 22-23, leading a panel called “Building a Fintech, Lessons Learned” featuring Finch, Pando, Intrinio, Public.com, and MassChallenge Fintech. The conference will include numerous industry CEOs, VCs, founders, and more. Check out the star-studded panel here! whartonfintechconference.com 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/

On today's episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Jane Tran, Head of Solutions at Unqork, one of New York’s newest tech unicorns. Unqork is a completely visual, no-code application platform that helps enterprises build complex + custom software faster, with higher quality, and lower costs, all without a single line of code. Backed by companies like Blackrock, Goldman Sachs, and Google, Unqork is serving some of the world’s top financial institutions as well as numerous healthcare firms, governments, and more. As Head of Solutions, Jane is the youngest member of Unqork’s executive team and has helped supercharge Unqork from nascent platform to billion-dollar company. In today’s episode, they discuss: - The amazing problems Unqork solves for large enterprises - Unqork's most powerful use cases - Their amazing projects during the pandemic with NYC and Washington DC - How she thrives as a young, female exec (and beats imposter syndrome) - And much more. For more fintech insights, check us out below! WFT Conf: whartonfintechconference.com/ 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 Tosin Eniolorunda, Founder and CEO of TeamApt, a financial software company focused on building solutions and running infrastructure for African banks, businesses and people to manage their money. In this episode, we discuss: - Tosin’s background, his journey as an entrepreneur, and why he decided to bootstrap the company for several years before raising any venture dollars. - TeamApt’s impressive growth - Building the company and how they develop the biggest non-bank, mobile money platform in the market. - The amazing Nigerian opportunity and the state of FinTech and the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Africa - And a whole lot more! About TeamApt TeamApt is a financial technology company focused on developing Digital Banking, Digital Business solutions and Payments Infrastructure by rethinking the needs of consumers, businesses and the financial industry. Beginning operations in 2015, TeamApt was borne from a desire to create financial happiness, building solutions and tools for businesses and individuals to happily manage money. 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 Substack: https://bit.ly/3jWIpqp

Miguel Armaza sits down with none other than Anthony Scaramucci, Managing Partner & Founder of SkyBridge, a $10 billion global alternative investments firm specializing in a wide array of investment strategies, including fund of hedge funds products, hedge fund advisory solutions, and a bitcoin-dedicated fund. Prior to SkyBridge, Mr. Scaramucci co-founded Oscar Capital Management, which he later sold to Neuberger Berman in 2001. In this entertaining episode, we discuss - Anthony’s trajectory and entrepreneurial spirit - why he decided to leave big finance to launch his own firm Founder Lessons: 1. The importance of showing up and putting all your time and energy into your business as a founder 2. Resourcefulness and flexibility, why these are some of the most important traits necessary for an entrepreneurial career - All things Bitcoin and why he’s so bullish on it and decided to launch a dedicated Bitcoin fund and strategy at SkyBridge - Reflections on his short stint at the White House as Communications Director under President Trump, and what he learned from this experience - Advice for the younger generation - And a lot more! Anthony Scaramucci Anthony Scaramucci is the Founder and Managing Partner of SkyBridge Capital. He is the author of four books: The Little Book of Hedge Funds, Goodbye Gordon Gekko, Hopping Over the Rabbit Hole (a 2016 Wall Street Journal best seller), and Trump: The Blue-Collar President. Prior to founding SkyBridge in 2005, Scaramucci co-founded investment partnership Oscar Capital Management, which was sold to Neuberger Berman, LLC in 2001. Earlier, he was a vice president in Private Wealth Management at Goldman Sachs & Co. In 2016, Scaramucci was ranked #85 in Worth Magazine’s Power 100: The 100 Most Powerful People in Global Finance. In 2011, he received Ernst & Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year – New York” Award in the Financial Services category. Anthony is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), vice chair of the Kennedy Center Corporate Fund Board, a board member of both The Brain Tumor Foundation and Business Executives for National Security (BENS), and a Trustee of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Foundation. He was a member of the New York City Financial Services Advisory Committee from 2007 to 2012. In November 2016, he was named to President-Elect Trump’s 16-person Presidential Transition Team Executive Committee. In June 2017, he was named the Chief Strategy Officer of the EXIM Bank. He served as the White House Communications Director for a period in July 2017. Scaramucci, a native of Long Island, New York, holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Tufts University and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. About SkyBridge SkyBridge is a global alternative investment manager that provides a range of investment solutions to individuals and institutions. Addressing every type of market participant, SkyBridge's investment offerings include commingled funds of hedge funds products, customized separate account portfolios, hedge fund advisory services, and an Opportunity Zone focused non-traded REIT. The firm is headquartered in New York. For more information, visit: www.skybridge.com. 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 Substack: https://bit.ly/3jWIpqp

In today's episode, the ever-snarky Ron Shevlin, Director of Research at Cornerstone Advisors and frequent columnist at Forbes, sits down with Ryan Zauk. Cornerstone is a leading research platform focused on financial services, where Ron spends his days advising community banks, mid-size institutions, and credit unions on strategy, market research, technology, fintech, and more. He also writes the "Forbes Fintech Snark Tank." With community banks, credit unions, and small to medium financial institutions facing major crossroads over the coming years, advice is more crucial than ever. Thankfully, Ron comes on to talk about how they can fight back, what they can learn from The Grateful Dead (it's actually quite compelling), the current state of neobanks, and more. In today’s episode, they discuss: - How these institutions can “fight back,” especially through the lens of community and affinity - Why community banks need to "find their bullseye" - The tech problems facing these institutions - How Ron is thinking about the neobank space and how the top leaders will play out - and of course a rapid fire round. For more fintech insights, check us out below! WFT Conf: whartonfintechconference.com/ 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/