Wharton FinTech Podcast

On today’s episode, WFT covers one of the two certainties of life…and no, we’re not talking about taxes. Ryan Zauk is joined by Dan Garrett, Founder & CEO of Farewill, the UK fintech radically changing the way we deal with death (from the financial side, of course). You might be asking, what does death have to do with fintech? Well, 1 Trillion Pounds of assets will be transferred intergenerationally in the next decade in the UK alone. And wills are the primary method of transfer. Farewill is the first company offering a friendly, simple, D2C website to set up wills, probates, funerals measures, and more for a fraction of the cost of your local lawyer. Farewill has become the largest will-writer in the UK while maintaining an astounding NPS of 85. Last year, Farewill raised 20 million pounds from a top list of investors including Highland Europe, the CEOs of Transferwise and Headspace, and former Wharton FinTech guests Tim Levene of Augmentum Fintech and Michael Sidgmore of Broadhaven. In this fun episode, Dan and Ryan discuss: - Dan’s inspiring mission to change the way we handle death - The funniest things he’s seen in a will...it involves a Karen (Starts at about 13:30) - Farewill’s core products and why they have been so successful - Marketing a product nobody wants to think about (with the help of rugby legend Gareth Thomas) - Why ‘death tech’ was so ripe for disruption thanks to private equity and a lack of innovation - And the absolutely stunning canary in a coalmine he saw at the start of COVID. 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 episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Erin (Welter) Lyons, W'01, Head of US Investment Grade Credit at CreditSights. Creditsights is one of the top credit research firms in the world serving the world’s top institutions, family offices, and more while producing over 300 research reports a month. Erin and Ryan discuss: - Her journey from Wharton, to Wall Street's top institutions, to landing at CreditSights - What she saw during the COVID crisis, especially March 15 - April 15, how her team tackled the problem, and how the outcomes really surprised her - The incredible power (and transparency) of the Fed's "Bazooka" COVID response, and how it saved the markets - The massive search for yield occurring in the fixed income market - Her approach to analyzing credit products - Her outlook on the coming year for markets, including potential implications of a Biden administration - The reasons they were just bought by Fitch and their own investment in Singapore Fintech "Alphastream" - "Throwing Toast" at Penn and more! 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 episode, co-hosts Ryan Zauk and Miguel Armaza sit down with tech’s most beloved politician, Mayor Francis Suarez of Miami. For those not familiar, in 2020 numerous prominent VCs and founders began a great migration to Miami. On Twitter, Founders Fund's Delian Asparouhov tweeted "What if we moved Silicon Valley to Miami?" Mayor Suarez then tweeted 4 now famous words - "How Can I Help?" And the rest is history. Ryan, Miguel, and Mayor Suarez discuss the past, present, and future of Miami, his big ideas for crypto, Softbank's $100M commitment to Miami, how he's been investing in tech long before 2020, and much more. Ryan and Miguel left the episode convinced - Miami is not having a moment, it’s starting a movement. Vamos! 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 Brian Requarth, a seasoned entrepreneur who in 2009 launched the Brazilian real estate marketplace, Viva Real, successfully grew the business over the following decade, and sold it in 2020 for over half a billion dollars. His recently-published book Viva the Entrepreneur is a fascinating modern guide designed to inspire and inform current and aspiring Latin American entrepreneurs. However, the book is just as applicable to founders from Silicon Valley to rest of the globe. Humble and often funny, Brian’s reflections of his own journey help humanize the perception and mystique behind successful tech entrepreneurs. The book is unequivocally straightforward and Brian is not afraid to celebrate his successes. But perhaps more importantly, he is also willing to reflect on his mistakes. In fact, one of the biggest takeaways from Viva the Entrepreneur is that successful founders use mistakes as learning opportunities and grow from these experiences. Perhaps my favorite aspect of the book is that Brian lays out incredibly important lessons for entrepreneurs, but he doesn’t just teach you the theory, he also illustrates every lesson with countless examples from his own experience. From balancing your personal life, managing your relationship with your co-founders, recruiting a team, building and scaling a product, fundraising and dealing with investors and board members, and even the importance of taking care of your mental and physical health. Finally, Mr. Requarth is putting his money where his mouth is. Because he sees tremendous opportunity in Latin America, Brian recently co-founded Latitud, an accelerator to help Latin America's top thinkers and doers build the next generation of world-class tech companies. If you are even remotely interested in entrepreneurship, I encourage you to take a look at Brian’s book - Viva the Entrepreneur. You can also catch Brian on his own show, Latitud Podcast, where he sits down with the biggest innovators and tech founders in Latin America.

Miguel Armaza sits down with James Paris, CEO of Avant, one of the pioneer in online lending dedicated to providing banking solutions for the US middle. Since 2012, Avant has served over 1.5 million customers with over $6.5 billion in loans and 400,000 credit cards. The company has also raised over $600 million of equity capital from General Atlantic, JP Morgan, Peter Thiel, Ribbit Capital, DFJ, Tiger Global, QED, August Capital, and many more! We talked about: - James’ background as a traditional investment banker - The story behind Avant - Their decision to spin out Amount, a SaaS business - His thoughts on the evolution of the fintech lending and underwriting space - Talent and company culture - Why you should always be nice to your interns and junior employees - And a whole lot more! About Avant Avant is dedicated to building premier digital banking solutions for the middle class through a combination of technology, analytics and superior customer service. Since 2012, Avant has connected over 1.5 million customers to $6.5 billion in loans and to 400,000 credit cards. A high growth financial technology company, Avant has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, TechCrunch, Fortune, Bloomberg, and has raised over $600 million of equity capital. Visit www.avant.com for more information.

Miguel Armaza sits down with Ben Savage and Adriana Saman, from Clocktower Technology Ventures, a fintech-focused venture capital fund that’s also the technology investing affiliate of Clocktower Group, a global macro investment firm. Ben is a fintech entrepreneur turned investor with an MBA from Stanford University and Adriana got her Bachelors from our very own University of Pennsylvania. We discussed: - Their backgrounds and what led them to Venture Capital - Clocktower’s investment strategy and approach - Their decision to focus on fintech and why they are excited about the reinvention of financial services - Why they have invested beyond the United States, with a particular emphasis on Latin America - Navigating COVID - Their outlook for the road ahead of the industry - And a lot more! Ben Savage Ben manages Clocktower Technology Ventures and is responsible for all of Clocktower Group’s private market activities. Ben was previously Director, Investment Associate Program for Bridgewater Associates, where he worked with the firm’s CIOs on strategic priorities, talent development and research. Ben began his career as a VC and private equity investor with Wasserstein Perella. Ben also co-founded Artivest fka Resonance Funds, an online issuer of actively-managed exchange traded vehicles, as well as Waterfall Mobile. Ben holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA in philosophy from Yale University. Ben lives in Bel Air with his wife and two young children. Adriana Saman Adriana focuses on deal sourcing, diligence, and execution. Prior to Clocktower, Adriana was a Strategy Associate in Chase’s Digital Payments team where she worked closely with all consumer-related payment products to develop consolidated roadmaps, business cases, and strategic initiatives. Before joining Digital Payments, she worked at J.P. Morgan as an Investment Banking Analyst focusing on M&A transactions across Latin America. Adriana is originally from Ecuador and holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania. About Clocktower We partner with phenomenal entrepreneurs who have the vision and drive to reinvent financial services, investing from the earliest seeds of startup life to businesses scaling for growth. We support leading companies across all sectors of financial services, including lending, credit & banking, payments, insurance, capital markets & investments, personal finance, enterprise financial stack and real estate finance. Our distinctive approach to fintech venture capital is crafted around a curated network of global macroeconomic thinkers and investors. Launched in 2015, Clocktower Technology Ventures is the technology investing affiliate of Clocktower Group, a global macro investment firm. CTV is based in Santa Monica, CA and invests worldwide.

Ryan Zauk sits down with NYU Stern's Dr. Sabrina Howell to discuss her most recent paper titled 'Which lenders had the highest minority share among their PPP loans?' Though the answer may not surprise you, the data, methodology, reasoning, and implications might. In the wake of the PPP, there was a lot of scrutiny into who was getting (and not getting) access to crucial government aid. Gatekept by financial institutions, from Wells Fargo to fintechs, small businesses were at the mercy of institutions. So it begged the question, who did these institutions choose to allocate their money to? And did the data differ across institution types and loan applicants? If so, why? Professor Howell, her colleagues, and a consortium of partners set out to dig into the data, with a focus on who was lending to minority-owned businesses. In today’s episode, Ryan and Dr. Howell discuss: 4:40 Her previous research in ICOs and the ‘joke’ ICO she saw that hit $15M in market cap (it's even stranger than Doge Coin) 8:07 The basics of the PPP and the abstract of her paper 11:21 Why Fintechs were able to more effectively lend to minority-owned businesses, and why this giant lending gap existed 15:50 What data they used to triangulate the race of business owners 17:48 How the PPP can be a turning point for Fintechs to build relationships with small businesses 21:10 What the government, fintech, and small business should take away from the PPP 25:00 Her two key recommendations for the ‘next PPP’ 28:07 What’s taught in her NYU fintech class The Paper: http://nebula.wsimg.com/c26ae478f12bf4a15666ac250c259240?AccessKeyId=1EB5B81197329425B7C4&disposition=0&alloworigin=1 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 Jackie Reses, former Head of Square Capital, current Chairman of the Economic Development Council of the Federal Reserve of San Francisco, board member of Affirm and Wish (Context Logic), and all-around business and fintech leader. Some of her past roles also include Chief Development Officer at Yahoo and Board member of Alibaba. She’s also a proud alum of our very own Wharton School. We talked about - Jackie’s upbringing and professional background - Why she describes Wharton and the University of Pennsylvania as a place that saved her life - The meaningful lessons she learned while working at Goldman Sachs, Apex Partners, and Yahoo - Key reflections from her experience as an Alibaba board-member and what we can all learn from Chinese entrepreneurs - What drove her decision to join Square and why she fell in love with its culture - The incredibly impactful experience of the Square Capital team navigating COVID and the complex dynamics of launching a PPP product in record-time - Her outlook of the road ahead and what’s next for Jackie - And a whole lot more! Jackie Reses Ms. Reses is the CEO of Post House Capital and Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She previously led Square Capital, part of Square Inc., where she built the business and transformed the ability of small businesses in the US to access credit. She was also the Executive Chairman of Square Financial Services, an approved FDIC-insured bank owned by Square Inc. and the first industrial bank in the US started by a technology company. Prior to Square, Jackie was the Chief Development Officer for Yahoo and the head of the US media group at Apax Partners, one of the largest global private equity firms. Jackie also spent seven years at Goldman Sachs in mergers and acquisitions and the principal investment area. Jackie is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and serves on the Advisory Board of Wharton's Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance, its fintech center, which is chaired by Mr. Stevens. Jackie also serves on the boards of Affirm and Wish (Context Logic). Jackie received a bachelor's degree in economics with honors from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Miguel Armaza sits down with Sam Bobley, Co-Founder and CEO of Ocrolus, an infrastructure company that transforms documents into data analytics with incredible accuracy designed to help financial services companies make high quality decisions at unprecedented speed. Sam started building Ocrolus in his parent’s kitchen when he was only 22 and seven years later, the company employs nearly 1,000 people globally and has raised close to $50 million in equity from top VC funds, including Stage 2 Capital, QED, Fintech Collective, Oak HC/FT, and Bullpen Capital. We talked about: - Company origins - Sam’s entrepreneurial journey - Strategies on building and hiring the initial team - Finding product-market fit and how he decided to shift and expand his client base - The fast-changing and fast-moving fintech ecosystem - Entrepreneurial advice - And a whole lot more Sam Bobley Sam started building Ocrolus in his parent’s kitchen when he was 22-years-old. Six years later, the company employs nearly 1,000 people globally, spread across four offices. As Ocrolus matured, Sam authored a patent application and helped raise more than $30 million in venture capital. He was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in Finance, Class of 2020. About Ocrolus Ocrolus is a human-in-the-loop infrastructure company that transforms documents into data analytics with over 99% accuracy. Ocrolus technology is designed to help financial services companies make high quality decisions with trusted data and unprecedented speed. Inc. Magazine recognized Ocrolus as the #1 fastest-growing fintech nationwide, and the #1 fastest-growing software company in NY. Visit ocrolus.com to learn more.

Miguel Armaza sits down with Samir Chaibi, investor at Insignia Ventures Partners, a Southeast Asian growth and venture investing fund with over $350 million in assets under management, where he specifically focuses in backing fintech startups. Prior to Insignia, Samir spent many years working around the world and got his MBA at our Wharton School. We discussed: - Samir’s background and his path to venture capital - Company history for Insignia Ventures Partners, their investment thesis, and a bit about the portfolio companies - The evolution and current state of the fintech ecosystem in Southeast Asia - The surprising parallels between fintech in Latin America and Southeast Asia - His outlook of the regional future of the industry - And a lot more! Samir Chaibi Samir Chaibi is a Principal at Insignia Venture Partners (IVP), a Southeast Asia-focused growth and venture investing fund with US $350M+ in AuM. Prior to IVP, Samir was a venture investor at STRIVE, a Tokyo headquartered VC fund deploying capital into seed rounds across Japan, Southeast Asia, and India. Samir started his career in investment banking with Lazard (France) and Citigroup (UK) before transitioning to private equity and joining the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), a US $400bn+ sovereign wealth fund. Samir also co-founded DocEx Legal, a legal technology startup, leveraging an experienced team of lawyers based in South Asia to solve the legal talent gap across the Middle East. Samir graduated from a three-year dual-degree MBA/MPA program at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government with a focus on entrepreneurship, finance, and technology policy. About Insignia Ventures Partners Insignia Ventures Partners is an early-stage technology venture capital firm focusing on Southeast Asia since 2017, managing capital from premier institutional investors including sovereign wealth funds, foundations, university endowments and renowned family offices from Asia, Europe and North America.