Fintech Impact

In today’s episode, Jason Pereira talks to Peter Lord - CEO of Codat. It is a platform that is building next-generation products and services for SMEs with easy, real-time data connectivity to their financial software. The company is building smart solutions that save time, money and enhance the customer experience in a matter of hours.Episode Highlights:00.30: Peter explains, “We help our clients who are large financial companies connected to the software used by their small business customers. We connect to accounting software things like Xero, Sage, QuickBooks E-commerce software, payments and marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, etc.” 00.50 Jason affirms, “You are a savior for financial institutions because you built the integration pieces yourself. It’s not a make your integration, but essentially, you’re making it easier for people to access all that through one portal versus multiple different API instances.” 01.50: Peter studied at Southampton University as a software engineer and moved into a product role. Through that personal experience, he saw the need to automate processes.02.10: They built their business where small businesses applying for a loan had to submit financial statements and ledgers in PDF agreements. Peter and his company replaced the manual process of Xero, QuickBooks, and Sage accounting.03.41 Jason inquires,” How many different integrations have you built for different technology?” 04.00 Jason: asks, “Talk to me about some of the challenges of the amount of data you have got to basically make accessible on one platform. Give me one example in accounting software.” 04.18: Peter replies, “We cover everything from high-level financials, digital Ledger, that property loss or balance sheet reports examples right down to the transaction level detail is in the journal.” 07.45 Peter says, “There is a new client finding, new spaces for technology every week.”09.33 Jason inquires, “Codat is just an open API at this point, or are you moving data between different systems; is that something that the end consumer is doing? or is that something that you have actually built; a bunch about the shelf integrations form?”10.35: Peter shares his mission is to make life easier for small businesses, and that’s what drives in right movement.11.54: Jason asks, “Overall, this is not a small piece of work that I am curious about; any statistics on how much data you are actually parsing for people at this point?”12.40 Peter explains they are now introducing elements of lending or capital financing.13.30 Jason reiterates, “You know the value of data, right. I’m sure you thought of the number of ways that you can move it around and basically collected for these people. But small businesses are going to find ways to solve their problems with your solution that you never dreamt of so, that makes a lot of sense.” 17.00 Jason asks Peter, “What’s been the biggest challenge in the company to where it is today?” 17.07: Peter shares the biggest challenge faced by them was to hire the right people.18.05: Peter explains that they are making products, so it’s building something, building our products, continuing to see expanding and budget in the hands of more users and more users for us. 3 Key Points:Peter talks about the creation of Codat. “What leads to its founding, and what problem are they trying to address?” Jason asks Peter, “Talk to me about the different verticals that you are basically involved in. You have over 100 clients at this point around the world. What are the different use cases they have used before?”Peter shares, “What’s the feedback they are getting from the companies that choose to partner with Codat. What are they saying in terms of the amount of time and effort, and development costs? Tweetable Quotes:“For our clients, it’s not just the extraction or pulling of that data, but we also take the push of data back into the software packages to help our clients reconcile what’s going on in their products with business customers and other systems of record.” - Peter Lord“There are all sorts of different ways that small businesses use their accounting software running on.” - Peter Lord“People are so important, and the company is our team, and so we make sure that we have been hiring the best people.” - Peter LordResources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInWoodgate.com – SponsorLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInPeter Lord: Website | LinkedIn Podcast Editing Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today’s episode, Jason Pereira talks to Dr. Stephen Taylor - Assistant Professor of Finance at New Jersey Institute of Technology. He has worked in the financial services industry at Bloomberg, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Morgan Stanley, and Tudor Investment Corporation. In this podcast, they will discuss a couple of emerging trends, specifically in fintech and fintech education.Episode Highlights:00.35: Steven is in the line of teaching for the past four years. He is from a bit of an orthodox ethnic background. He has gained a lot of practical experience in the past while working with Morgan Stanley, Bloomberg etc. 1.09 Jason curiously asks Steven, “What led you to teaching?”1.29: Steven talks about his career journey and shares about his knack for academia from a very early stage in life. 1.57: Jason says, “Today we are going to talk about emerging fintech trends.” He asks Steven to share the three big emerging fintech trends.2.11: Steven shares his insightful views of the big trends in the fintech trends. 2.43: He says peer-to-peer insurance is an area that’s just starting to expand; second on his list is asset management. Third, in his list is digital sharing of training strategies through various platforms.3.10: Steven says his views are more from theoretical design aspects; he does not know much about the regulation side. 3.15: While giving an example, Steven says, “Suppose within your immediate family you implicitly insure yourself. You have an accident, and your father might help you out with $200. This approach is a lot more cost-effective rather than going through the claims process where there are half a dozen people involved and overhead costs.” He shares his concern that “How do you formalize the insurance in a way that it is more than just family and friends’ agreement?”4.06: Jason says, “People are often shocked and amazed by the size of the insurance industry in general. When you think about how many people are employed, by how many people specifically on the distribution side is the actual underwriting, and eventually called reinsurance space.” 4.38: Jason further adds, “Reinsurance space isn’t that big really, but this is a distribution onerous.” He says that “I could see there is a tremendous amount of overhead.” 4.40: Jason asks Steven, “In the theoretical context, how does peer to peer software that is just solely through digital distribution and lack of need for sales agents? and how would this product be discovered and basically applied or opted into by both sides of the transaction?”5.00: Steven says he might like ideal visualization because it won’t manifest itself for decades to come or anything remotely close to it is. He says, “I would like to see it go to more of a setting where you get matched with people, you have similar risk profiles as yourself, and this could be done like pulling out a questionnaire survey.”7.48: Talking about the digital investment side, Jason says, “We have the big waves of the Robo advisors coming in, threatening too deep to destroy the traditional models.” 10.14: Steven says, “I would like to see what institutional hedge fund investor is five years ago to the day where there are certain limitations, but now you’re going to have hundreds of different opportunities to get into eventually, and it’s going to be a better space for everyone.”11.13 Jason inquires, “We are talking about a pile of stock because of XYZ and do the short squeeze. But you’re talking about something far more sophisticated, right? You’re talking about like no is sharing the quantitative algorithms, and what not for trading is that the uppercase?”11.34: Steven affirms, “I think the prototype for this right now is a platform called QuantConnect. they provide data infrastructure they provide back testing infrastructure, and you basically just cut up your algorithm in Python, and they’ll give you performance measures.”12.28: Steven shares the challenges and competition faced by students in the Fintech industry. He says, “By the time you finish school, you should be able to code; knowing excel is just not enough.”15.07: While providing an explanation for what programming is, Steven says, “If you learn to program well, you can automate basically all the tedious aspects of your job and then focus on the ones that really require human and electrical thoughts.”17.18: Steven says the biggest challenge in terms of getting a job for a student is to convince your hiring manager that you’re able to take a deeper dive into ideas, and you’re able to take on projects and ownership around them. 3 Key Points:Jason and Steven are going to talk about emerging fintech trends.  While talking about the challenges in the Fintech industry, Jason inquires, “How is educating people in finance changed in light of the proliferation of fintech? Steven talks in detail about the one thing that he would like to change in the Fintech industry; that is simpler regulation.Tweetable Quotes:“The more transparency you add to any system, the better the overall costs go down.” - Stephen Taylor“Technology and software are eating the world, and they’re slowly starting to eat the world of financial education as well.” - Jason Pereira“I always love people concept of proficiency, and my favorite question in the interview is give me an example of the most complex macro we’ve ever built. I always get a blank stare.” - Jason PereiraResources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInWoodgate.com – SponsorLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInStephen Taylor: Website Podcast Editing Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s episode is slightly different as Jason is not interviewing a Fintech but an artist - Krista Kim. She made global headlines as being the first artist to sell a virtual home via a non-fungible token (NFT). Krista Kim is a contemporary artist and founder of the Techism movement and a global ambassador for the Superworld and creator of the Mars House, and a talented artist. In today’s podcast, they will discuss “How technology is changing both the distribution and implementation of art?”Episode Highlights:1.10: Krista introduces herself as a digital artist, started creating digital artwork in 2013. While using smartphones, Krista observed how people were completely changing the dynamics of their social interactions because of social media platforms and how social media platforms were inferring cultures.1.18: As an artist, she thought, “We need to ensure that people are free thinkers going forward in the 21st century and beyond, but the big question was how do you do that?2.45: Krista says, “We have to have a daily practice of meditation because we have to strengthen our prefrontal cortex. It’s a muscle that actually keeps us as freethinkers so that we’re not perpetually addicted to our phones.”4.45: Jason refers to the filter bubbles that people have created; they only hear what they want to hear. 06.00 Jason says that they are going to discuss NFTS, digital art, and the metaverse in today’s episode. He says that unlike cryptocurrencies, where the entire idea is to make transactions with them potentially, which is something called fungibility, the ability to spend something in one place versus the other. NFT or non-fungible token is a token that denotes value or ownership of something specific, and in this case one of the biggest use cases has been in the art realm.06.44: Jason inquires, “How did you get into NFT? What was the opportunity you saw that you clearly harvested?”7.10: Krista talks about her journey as a digital artist and her research on the blockchain of art. She became whitelisted as it gave power to the digital artist to sell their art properly as a rare piece of work.7.45: Personally, Krista felt that NFT was giving digital artists the power to sell their art properly as a rare piece of work, one or limited series. But an artist can control its rarity, and that is everything for a work of art.10.11: Jason says, “What we’re seeing is just again another technology and especially Internet technology, basically starting to apply itself through yet another medium or another vertical of an industry which is artwork.”11.06: Krista explains the difference between NFT and a copy of the NFT.11.40 Jason denotes that “People have a hard time wrapping their head around digital currencies.” He gives an example of the games like Diablo or World of Warcraft, where even before there were markets that were built into these things, people were selling armor or weapons on eBay and transacting real currency and then meeting virtually to deliver on the actual product sold. 12.36: Krista affirms Jason’s views and asks him to look at Mars house. She shares why Mars houses became such a global story? It is because it really is a marker, overtime, and it is the harbinger for our augmented reality lifestyle that is coming around the corner. XR lifestyle. The Metaverse NFTs are going into the metaverse, and that is the next generation. 17.00: According to Krista XR experience is essential for brands moving forward in order to really connect with this generation and their communities in an authentic and meaningful way. 17.45 Jason says, “Virtual environments are becoming more and more engaging and more and more desired to be participated in, especially amongst young generations.” 19.58 Krista explains, “We are selling virtual plots of land that are basically mapped geographically onto the real world. Then we also have the actual interface that allows people to upload our digital 3D assets into the room space. So, you could imagine what concerts or Disneyland would be like with 3D digital NFT creating an immersive experience for you and your family like you could literally dance with Mickey Mouse or raise a pet Simba and you could wear the Elsa dress right, and they’re all kinds of incredible projects because the apple, the apple glasses, are coming out in a year.21.08: While talking about big events, Krista says, “Many people were making so many wasteful decisions for these events that can easily be a solvable, beautiful, more amazing experience in AR. 22.03: The fact that you can make friends and have playdates and kids in Egypt and visit the pyramids and learn all about it. That’s the future of education and travel, says Krista.27.15 Krista is glad that she found a collector on Super Rare. She says luckily, “In the community, we have a lot of visionaries and futurists, and art on the Internet is a consortium of collectors, and they are investing in the future.” 30.01: According to Krista, “We should have a healthy ecosystem, and that is facilitated through people who support the work. She adds,” I believe that the major change that we are seeing because of the NFT market is that their percentages are being lowered for 50%, maybe 30 to 20%, something a little bit fairer to the Creator and also the resale, royalties, and NFT markets.” 30.08: For super rare, Krista says, “Where I am based, we get a 10% royalty per resale on the secondary market, and I think that tradition and that new system will be also adopted in the traditional art world where it hasn’t.” 32.27: Krista shares, “How as a digital artist, it was kind of difficult to get mainstream art world support of her work.”3 Key Points:Krista shares the importance of discussing arts and humanities in the boardrooms. She points out the value of discussions and collaborations so that companies not only have engineers and entrepreneurs but also people who understand the human touch. Krista talks about the major power shift that NFT gives to the digital artists. They get an opportunity to market their work directly to the buyers and not have intermediaries get the gallery system and the traditional art system.Jason and Krista talk about the next generation technologies and how the world or facilities can be improved using technology. Tweetable Quotes:“Smartphones are addictive devices - We don’t want to be addicted. We want to be free thinkers and sovereigntist human beings.” - Krista Kim“There is an experiential shift going into XR, and that’s where NFTS are going.” - Krista Kim“We actually promote the democratization of ownership of the world, and we actually want people to monetize from the activity on their plots of land that they own because we are selling virtual.” - Krista Kim“It is important to create responsible things that make the world better and more beautiful.” - Krista Kim“You can’t rely on the traditional arts system to actually facilitate any sort of innovation” - Krista KimResources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInWoodgate.com – SponsorLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInKrista Kim: Website Podcast Editing Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Jason Pereira talks to Kevin Lozer - Co-Founder of Holistiplan; it is a financial planning software that focuses specifically on tax planning. It generates a PDF version of your tax return and extracts all the verifiable information and actual data. Episode Highlights:0.52: Kevin explains about Holistiplan – it is tax planning software for advisors built by advisors. It allows an advisor to upload a PDF tax return and get a client deliverable prepopulated scenario and then screen and identify some planning opportunities all again with just uploading a previous year’s tax returns. 1.12: What Holistiplan really does is automate a tax return review. Then all of the work that succeeds that tax return review that advisors do, typically requires a whole lot of data entry. Historically, the company has taken that data entry out of the picture, and now advisors can just spend the time focusing on conversing with the client about their tax situation.1.19: Kevin says the idea to launch the Holistiplan started to percolate years ago. Roger Pine and Kevin had really put pen to paper and came up with the idea of uploading documents, providing an expert system, providing opportunities, and providing observations that many advisors across the country traditionally make.04.43: Jason curiously inquired about the feedback Holistiplan gets from advisors who implemented this type of software, like where they find the most significant benefit.04.52: Kevin shares when it comes to receiving feedback, it really breaks down into two different types of advisors. “One is advisors or firms that haven’t been doing tax planning. Secondly, we see clients wanting more out of the fees they’re paying advisors than investment advice. They are looking for a more robust, comprehensive relationship from advisors.” 05.51: Kevin explains the simple process of Holistiplan, clients can upload their financial data, and within a minute, the software digests all that pulled data, summarizing it in a client deliverable. Tons of firms are using it just for this feature. Upload or return get a client summary that the clients can understand that advisors can review with the clients. The report also provides planning opportunities that the software identified from that tax return. 06.55: Kevin says, “There is a whole other subset of advisors out there that actually do the quantification of planning opportunities like Roth conversion strategies, donor-advised funds, all kinds of different tax planning opportunities that we look at from a planning perspective. 07.05: Holistiplan also provides a forecasting tool - a scenario analysis prepopulated with the previous year’s data. So instead of spending the first 20 to 30 minutes entering data from the tax return into a calculator or tax software, now one can just copy it over from the prior year. Clients can make some edits to the fields and start doing complex strategies like Roth conversions or qualified charitable distributions, all kinds of tens and hundreds of different things that you can do from a tax planning perspective. 10.31: Jason is really impressed with the features of Holistiplan. He says to Kevin that “You are providing information on tax brackets where they are in terms of relative to phaseouts, right? So, because of that, the tools make it so much easier to understand tax planning.”11.11: Kevin says there are 75 to 100 different planning opportunities in the software, and they keep updating the algorithms.11.45: Holistiplan shares a visual report with 8 or 10 or 12 bullet point items based on that specific tax return. With this tool now clients can read through the 100-page document all by themselves12.15: Jason inquires, “What effort did Kevin and Roger put in to launch Holistiplan?”12.30: Kevin explains how friends and advisors in the financial industry helped them with their valuable feedback and improved the end result of the software.13.04: Kevin says, “Our initial prototype was to upload or return and just get the bullet point observations, but all those like visualization things that we talked about earlier, the emoji phaseout and whether they’re over-under or in those phaseouts, all that stuff was from other advisors as we started to roll this out.”13.41: While explaining their roll-out strategy, Kevin says, “We rolled out a product that wasn’t 100% complete; this was intentional. We wanted to get feedback and crowdsource some of the ideas, and now that we’ve got thousands and thousands of advisors using it, the feedback comes in fast and furious.”15.00: One thing that Holistiplan launched early this year was the tax-prepped letter, which is closing the communication loop between advisor, CPA, and client. Kevin shares “Advisors who are doing tax planning with or without holistic plan come up with some good pretty good observations and opportunities and then execute those and get all that work done before December 31st so that it all counts for this tax year it’s called Roth conversion or qualified charitable distributions.18.05: Jason affirms that when launching Holistiplan, Kevin picked a vertical of the financial planning world that has a lot of depth. 20.38: Talking about the unique work that Kevin and his company are doing, Jason remarks, “Taxation is a one-foot-wide spectrum of the entire financial planning spectrum, but you’re going in mile deep on that.”22.00: Kevin shares his vision to reach out to a lot more consumers. He says that it was part of what got him excited about Holistiplan and the software in general.24.40: Kevin says scaling the company has been the biggest challenge that they have faced so far. A year ago, we were 3 people, and now we are 15 people, and all of this during a pandemic.3 Key Points:Kevin shares interesting insights on the history of Holistiplan. Where did this come about? What was the opportunity to sell? Kevin explains how Holistiplan advisors won’t need a checklist anymore with hundreds of different things to look for in the tax return.Jason inquires, “How much of your road map can you share with me at this point?” Kevin says, “We are staying at the tax planning world for the foreseeable future.”Tweetable Quotes:“Holistiplan has taken data entry out of the picture, and now advisors can really just spend the time focusing on conversing with the client about their tax situation.” - Kevin Lozer“When it comes to tax planning visuals are far more effective than communicating in words.”- Jason Pereira“Not only do people not want to code things twice, but advisors also don’t want to enter the same data two or three or four different times into their various software programs either, so removing the extra data entry part was Holistiplan’s initial work.” - Kevin LozerResources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInWoodgate.com – SponsorLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInKevin Lozer – Website | LinkedIn Podcast Editing Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Jason Pereira talks to Atif Saddiqi - Founder/CEO at Branch. It is a fintech that allows employees to access the money they earned before pay-check. Episode Highlights: 0.30: Atif says Branch is a payment platform that helps businesses accelerate payments to the workers to empower them. 1.27: Jason asks Atif to share about the history of Branch and what brings him to launch it?1.40: Atif has founded the company way back in 2016. This was started from his own experience as an hourly worker. 1.59: While working as an hourly worker, Atif found that a common pain point for workers is always looking for ways to earn more income.2.14: Branch was initially launched as a mobile B2B product. Over time they kept improving the process. 4.22: “A lot of employers we work with still cuts paper cheques; they don’t have a reliable way to deposit money,” says Atif. 4.31: Atif explains how Branch helps employers by providing cost-effective solutions.5.59: People can use Branch as a banking service, affirms Atif06.31: Jason inquiries from an employer’s standpoint how does Branch helps in cash flow?7.54: Atif talks about the Digital Tips, Wallets, Reimbursements, and other user-friendly services that Branch offers. 08.29: As per a recent statistic, Atif has read that there are workers who are still living pay-check to pay-check.08.48: Atif talks about the new business models that are being introduced for the benefit of various classes of workers. 10.19: Atif elaborates on the user feedback that his company has received and how its services are used. 12.32: Currently, Atif and his team are looking for saving solutions that are automated. 13.49: Jason asks about the success rate data of “Branch”.14.20: When discussing revenue strategy, Atif says that the company primarily relies on interchange revenue. 17.00: Atif talks about various target sectors and how employers benefit from Branch’s services. 18.39: Jason talks about the cognitive burden of living pay-check to pay-check. 20.11: Atif talks about the most significant challenge that he has faced so far in Branch. 3 Key Points:Atif talks about his company Branch, the reason behind its launch, and how it is benefitting employees as a modernized employer payments technology.Jason curiously inquiries about the user feedback and success story of “Branch.” When talking about their target sectors, Atif says a large staff is operating in restaurants and hospitals. This helps them to tap into a large employee population.Tweetable Quotes: “Assessing your wages should be free.” - Atif Saddiqi“Employers see Branch is a uniform solution to pay all their contractor.” - Atif Saddiqi“We have to do mental aerobics when opening a bank account.” - Jason Pereira Resources Mentioned:Atif Saddiqi: Website Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInWoodgate.com – SponsorLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInPodcast Editing Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Jason Pereira talks to Som Seif – CEO and Founder of Purpose Financial. In today’s episode, Som is going to give his unique perspective on the FinTech industry.  Episode Highlights: 0.50: Som talks about “Purpose” and the idea behind its launch. He adds that they are re-inventing the business in 4 core areas – Asset Management, Retirement, Wealth Management, and Small Business owners.03.04: Jason highlights Som’s venture capital history and success stories. 03.28: Som shares his vision about the FinTech industry. 05.57: Som discusses how he partners with people who have similar visions like him.07.14: “We have a deep understanding of our customers and their journey; this is how we solve their problems,” says Som. 09.17: Som gives detailed insight on how his company solves a customer’s problem. He also discusses the global product that they have created. 11.19: Jason and Som discuss about the regulators. Jason says that the regulators are willing to listen if you are willing to work with them. 13.12: “Innovation is extremely important in the Fintech company,” says Som.14.15: While striving for innovation, Som is constantly searching for an answer to the question – “What is going to be the ETF 2.0?”14.42: At present, Som is learning the Tokenization of things; as per him, this is the next big thing. 17.12: Som talks about a prevalent mindset that “People who have little money, makes no money.” But Som thinks otherwise.18.42: Jason asks the listeners to imagine a universe that has something different. He says one has to come out of past methods of doing business and innovate and chart out new ways.18.59: The problem with the FinTech industry is they think on average economics, says Som.20.57: Jason brings up the topic of non-technology solutions, one that is of monumental importance in the future in the financial ecosystem.23.59: Som talks about the interesting products and processes they have launched. He also talks about the “Mortality Credit” that goes to the beneficiary.26.01: Som talks about his organization’s goal “To create income for an indefinite time period.” 27.01: Som explains how he is a big believer in the advisor’s role. 29.27: The game that big institutions are playing gives advisors the cash flow, says Som.31.01: Jason and Som point out how customers want holistic solutions to their financial problems.32.20: Som advice “If you want to true high-net-worth advisor, you should have a planning mentality to truly engage the entire balance sheet of a customer as opposed to the money that you are managing for them.” 33.23: Som talks about the biggest challenges faced by him.    3 Key Points:Som shares interesting work areas of his business. He also gives insights on his vision and how he likes to connect with like-minded professionals. Jason explains how we are in the early innings of replacing ETFs. Jason and Som discuss the problems that incurred the FinTech industry. They also talk about the wrong assumptions that often circulate regarding small investors.Tweetable Quotes:“Everything looks like an opportunity in retrospect that they are going to bounce back.” - Som Seif “There is a lot to learn if you have a good relationship with the regulators.” - Som Seif“Regulators wants to see innovation and change.” - Jason Pereira“Imagine a universe with something different.” - Jason Pereira“There is a significant amount of people who needs financial advice.” - Som SeifResources Mentioned:Som Seif: Website Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInWoodgate.com – SponsorLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInPodcast Editing Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Jason Pereira talks to Nick Catino, Head of Policy and Campaigns with Wise. It is a London-based financial technology company founded in January 2011 by Estonians Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus. In today’s episode, Nick talks about consumer-facing products used by banks and businesses.  Episode Highlights:0.38: Nick says Wise is a global payment technology company giving the best way to move money worldwide used by people who travel, live, and work internationally. 3.08: Jason asks Nick about the origin of the company, how it came to be? Nick points out Wise was founded in 2011 as Transfer wise in London. 3.10: It has two co-founders Kristo Kaamann and Taavet Hinrikus. 4.01: The company’s idea came from the analysis that consumers are getting ripped off to send abroad, and it is so central to our mission today trying the payments more transparent.5.30: Nick says living and leisure is focused on pricing across portal payments. When he travels, he keeps records of his credit card transaction receipts. When he gets back, he calculates how much he has spent, he does this for a living, and it is a complicated calculation.7.17: Jason points out, “If you are running a company and you have to buy from overseas vendors regularly, you will probably speak to your bank about what can be done, and they will graduate you up to the next level.” 8.33: Nick states, “When you are a multinational corporation or large business, you have a finance desk that is negotiating these rates in the wholesale market. 8.40: As per Mckenzie’s study report, hundred or billion dollars in fees consumers pay in small business pay per year.12.53: Jason asks Nick as a consumer, “If I have to send money somewhere in the world how can he utilize your platform?”13.08: Nick says Wise allows to send money to friends and family members on platform using their name or FI. During traveling, you can use your debit card. It is integrated with apple pay. In small businesses, you can use it for goods and services import and exports, paying workers and freelancers internationally, and combined with several accounting platforms to make easy payments.14.48: Jason asks how you enable business and how is that service different?15.14: Nick says we are making it easy for our customers to move money abroad in the business side. Small businesses are joining our services every month, and not only banks some tech companies are launching platforms that users in the US can pay directly in India or Singapore.16.45: Nick says we tried to make it easier for businesses to use our service. We started a consumer-facing brand, and there are end number of features and excited about market growth in the future by integration between business and banks. 18.15: Jason inquires, “What happens if I transact in Euros, but I don’t want Euros? Nick answers then it will automatically transact the lowest cost conversion related to the product.20.10: Nick says payments amortization has been a huge focus in many countries because it benefits consumers, and the ecosystem is very clear.23.00: Jason asks from an end-user perspective, “Why is payment amortization important?” Nick says it’s about the cost. In the UK, on average, fees are 0.4%, and money is moving instantly, but if you are Canadian or American, it is 1% or more, and money can take days to receive on the other side. 24.52: Jason says friction is in two ways one is speed, and two is basically cost, and both are impactful on the economy.26.35: Nick reiterates that a global payment company being new in the market is certainly difficult, and lack of consumer awareness about how much you are being charged while sending money abroad is a challenge we have to overcome.27.49: Jason asks Nick, “What excites him most about every day when he wakes up in the morning and keeps doing what he is doing?”27.55: Nick replies that so many smart, driven diverse people, 2400 wiser from more than 70 countries, still continue to learn about different markets in culture and take ownership with projects they are working on is the best part of working with Wise.  3 Key Points: Nick talks about the consumer-facing products used by banks and businesses to integrate APIs directly with their platforms.Nick says, “We pay fees to transfer money abroad, but we don’t realize how much we are overcharged, and many consumers and small-scale businesses are unaware of exchange rate markups.”Jason mentions like western union, you need a massive global network of fixed locations that will allocate money on one side of the border to move it to the other side of the border. Tweetable Quotes:“Business doesn’t impact revenue on the way it’s all about living methods of transparency” – Nick Catino“In 2021, sending money is like sending email” - Nick Catino“Many smart-driven diverse people, 2400 wiser from more than 70 countries continues to learn about different markets in culture and take ownership with projects they are working on.” - Nick CatinoResources Mentioned:https://wise.com/in/https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholascatino/https://wise.com/us/blog/author/nicholas-catino/https://www.linkedin.com/in/kkaarmann/?originalSubdomain=ukhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/taavethinrikus/?originalSubdomain=ukPodcast Editing Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today’s episode, Jason talks to Jon Cowley, founder of Whatifi. It is a visual financial planning software and tool that helps people think through various scenarios in different methodologies than people are accustomed to.   Episode Highlights: 1.00: Jon says Whatifi is a highly visual low code financial scenario builder and projection platform, making it easy for professionals to visually create, calculate, present and share multiple financial scenarios to their clients.1.46: Jon doesn’t come from a Fintech background; instead, he runs a VFX company. He has created some of the coolest movies and also some of the biggest duds. A lot of these are leveraging technology workflows for Jon.3.03: Jason points out that most people think spreadsheets are developed for users, but very few people think about using presentation devices.3.48: Considering the fundamental problems, Jon had built a software that connects all the logics and events. 04.01: Because each step is separate, it is very easy to follow along with the history. Utilizing this simple concept as base, Jon thought, why can’t he apply the same logic in Finance? Whatifi uses the same algorithm and calculates all accounting data. 05.13: So far, Jason has not seen any such concept in the Finance Industry. He says that spreadsheets exist for most financial planning software. He appreciates and says that “What Whatifi has done is very simple and logical.”06.41: Jon shares excellent real-live scenarios where Whatifi’s algorithm can be used. 07.02: No, thing in our system is just a number, they are the whole set of metadata that is wrapped around, that allows downstream things to adjust accordingly.08.00: Jon talks about building a roadmap so that every single day the starting point is accurate. 09.14: Jon points out the importance of planning goals. 09.40: Every day at Whatifi Jon’s team updates the baseline to see how they are progressing.11.52: Jon shares Whatifi’s top 3 value propositions. First is with this framework, you can build scenarios far more quickly than the tools currently available. The second is the ultimate scenario. The third is Visualization.13.23: Jason says it is not the Visualization, but the Causality is very transparent. 14.01: People who are indecisive and analytical are going to love Whatifi’s tool.15.07: Jason says so many tools are niche at this moment.17.19: Whatifi is the most unique decision-making software that Jason has seen so far. He is curious to know about the responses that Jon has received so far. 18.35: Jon says that advisors really like the concept of Whatifi.20.53: Jon shares, “While we have calculation engine, we also have trigger roadmaps.”23.30: Jon would like to see more collaboration between FinTech.25.09: For Jon, the biggest challenge is that they are outsiders who are entering the Fintech world.3 Key Points: Jason asks about Jon’s history and how he came across the idea to launch Whatifi.Listeners learn that nothing in our system is just a number; they are a whole set of metadata.Whatifi is a calculation engine, and we are using it to build scenarios for people, says Jon. Tweetable Quotes:“Metadata gets modified day to day and passed down for calculations.”- Jon Cowley“No, thing in our system is just a number.” - Jon Cowley“There has always been a black box aspect to Financial Planning software.” - Jason Pereira“At the end of the day, it is all math.” - Jason PereiraResources Mentioned:LinkedIn - WhatifiLinkedIn - Jon CowleyWhatifi - WebsiteFacebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInWoodgate.com – SponsorPodcast Editing Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Jason Pereira talks to Dennis Gada, Senior Vice President and Industry Head for Financial Service for Infosys. It is a global digital services company that offers end-to-end services to its clients from technology to business operations, consulting and helping them in the digital transformation journey, and helping them run in their existing business and technology operations.Episode Highlights:2.40: Jason inquires, “When companies come to Infosys for support, how do you navigate their digital needs?”4.18: Dennis explains, “We work in three different layers; driving efficiency in running business and technology operations, digital transformation of their end-to-end business process, and helping them to grow the business in a new area for consulting services.”5.10: Dennis affirms that the last 12 months post-Covid has seen significant acceleration of client journey, and we can call it a trigger, but it has been a prominent force of transformation. 5:50: Dennis says there is an enhanced expectation from that banking and financial service. Not just traditional banking but also wealth management. He adds that all of that should be much more digital, and it has forced financial services firms to become more digital than it already was.8.38: Dennis justifies that firms have been forced to drive change at such a rapid pace that decision making has been so much quicker and adopting to new technology has been so ramping.9.30: Jason says, “He wants to know the decision-making mechanism how those are going to adapt?”9.55: Dennis explains business and technology have really come much closer together. These days discussions in financial service firms are much more about - What is the next wave of digital transformation? How much you can change the customer experience? How much you can leverage cloud and AI capabilities?11.35: Dennis reiterates with all the advancement in technology that has happened, on-boarding of new clients still tends to be the most complex process, and regulations also drive it.15.30: Dennis says more and more of a partnership between fintech, and larger bank and financial service organization will help to drive the transformation instead of fintech trying to get into all banking services themself.16.10: Jason asks Dennis, “How you see the development in these institutions to continue or had a lot of change in the post covid world?”16.39: Dennis says now 99% to 100% of the workforces are working remotely and delivering great values; this is the trend that is not going to change.17.35: Dennis says the digital transformation journey that had started is not going to stop in any aspect. 20.59: Dennis says firms have realized that while investing in the cloud they have not compromised in security. Cloud is more secure if not at the same level of security, then their existing data center. That’s the mindset shift that has happened in the last year, and more and more investments are going towards the cloud.21.35: Dennis says as firms invest in the new technology of the future, they also need to re-skill their own workforce as they have already done in Infosys.22.06: Jason is curious to know about the biggest post-pandemic challenge that institutions are going to face.24.20: Dennis says there will be some key challenges to sustain the pace of innovation, manage cybersecurity-related threats and risks. He stresses on the importance of motivating the new workforce to continue to work for large bank vs tech company of fintech and deliver the same kind of productivity.24.42: Jason asks Dennis his one wish for something he wants to change in his company or industry as a whole. Dennis wishes to innovate and scale, thus making that a part of DNA that everybody wakes up every day and comes there to see how you can do things more innovatively.25.30: Jason asks Dennis about digital transformation, the biggest roadblock he had encountered while facing clients he already had. 25.37: Dennis says the biggest roadblock is cultural change. There is a mandate at the board level, CXO level. There is also a push from the market, from the client to drive change. There is a lot of democracy and a lot of constrain internally to enable that change.28.12: Dennis says re-skilling of the workforce or right re-skilling of the workforce is an important factor to balance the understanding of business in domain with the understanding of technology.28.56: Jason asks Dennis “What excites him most about every day when he wakes up in the morning and keeps doing what he is doing?”29.40: Denies replies that the exciting thing is the platform we have and the technology we use really. It helps our clients to be successful and helps their end clients manage financial life better.3 Key Points:Dennis talks about his career journey. He has been associated with Infosys for about sixteen years, and Infosys financial business has been growing significantly over the years.Dennis says digitization was not possible unless there was a new technology intervention that we have brought in; it was the automation of loan process, using AI for underwriting, using machine learning for collections, extracting information from documents so that things can be updated at a much faster rate.Jason explains, “How the countries that are still developing tend to have new and better infrastructure that can help them to adapt to the technological changes what is happening currently.”Tweetable Quotes:“Transformation of experience means a transformation of the process itself” – Dennis Gada“Digitization was not possible unless there was a new technology intervention.” – Dennis Gada“Firms have been forced to drive change at such a rapid pace that decision making has been so much quicker and adopt new technology has been so ramping.” – Dennis Gada“These days, discussions in financial service firms are much more about what is the next wave of digital transformation.” – Dennis GadaResources Mentioned:LinkedIn - Dennis Gada’s LinkedInFacebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInWoodgate.com – SponsorLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInPodcast Editing Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Jason Pereira talks to Andrew Chau, CEO, and Co-founder of Neo Financial. It is a technology company that is building a better financial experience for all Canadians. Episode Highlights: 0.42: Andrew explains that Neo Financial is a Fintech company, reimagining the everyday banking experience for Canadians. The company provides a seamless consumer experience.     1.25: Andrew talks about his history. His entrepreneurship journey started when he was quite young. 04.20: Andrew shares that Neo is a credit card and bank account as well. 04.28: The bank account and the credit card connect with a network of local businesses and large national brands where Neo powers the rewards and loyalty programs.04.37: Once a user gets the Neo credit card, they get access to 1000 multiple different cashback programs. 05.10: People often ask Andrew about Neo’s chain between food delivery and banking. He says that it is a consumer-focused business.07.13: Andrew talks about the 3-minute on-boarding process that one has to go through when signing-up in Neo.07.20: The sign-up starts with downloading the app, filling out few basic information, take a selfie and picture of your ID and hit submit.09.16: With one Neo card, consumers can access all different merchants’ and partners and get cashback on them.09.22: Andres points out that typically with credit card one gets points, a person never really uses them or redeem them at the end of the year. But it is not the same with Neo.10.38: Jason inquiries about the level of engagement and how Andrew reached out to the companies. 14.01: The short-term goal of Neo is building the merchant network, helping retailers, and adding value. 17.00: Andrew and Jason discuss the competition surrounding the banking and financial sector in Canada. 18.27: Andrew talks about competing with Big 5 companies. Their business focus is “How do we create our own category and not be in the same category?”19.50: Jason is really impressed by the genius of Neo’s partnership model.21.00: Jason gives insights on small business banking in Canada.23.09: Andrew shares how with Neo they are putting the power back to consumer’s hands and freeing them from the shackles of one institution.24.31: Andrew talks about the biggest challenge he has faced to bring his company today.27.50: Andrew gives credit to his team members and says that everybody has joined Neo to make a difference.  3 Key Points:When launching Neo Financial, Andrew brainstormed, “How can we bring tech experience around banking with a bit of innovation?” Andrew shares his insights on customer experience and on-boarding at Neo.Andrew talks about Hudson’s Bay Mastercard®—powered by Neo. Tweetable Quotes: “In most cases, the top 5 apps on a person’s phone are not a banking app.” - Andrew Chau“Through Neo, we are trying to add value to Canadian’s life.” - Andrew Chau“Nobody wants to carry a bunch of cards normally for the place they eat or drink, so Neo is a good solution.” - Jason Pereira“We are looking to build the largest financial institution in Canada.” - Andrew Chau“If your business owners love the bank, they will get along.” - Jason Pereira Resources Mentioned:Neo Financial: WebsiteFacebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInWoodgate.com – SponsorLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInPodcast Editing Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.