The Fintech Blueprint

In this conversation, we chat with Trevor Marshall, The Chief Technology Officer at Current, a leading U.S. financial technology company serving Americans working to create a better future for themselves. A graduate of Columbia University with degrees in math and computer science, Trevor worked on automating trading strategies at Morgan Stanley and built applications on distributed ledger technology before creating the foundation for Current. In 2015, he began building the Current Core, Current’s proprietary banking technology, which provides stability, faster money and cost savings that are passed onto customers, and allows Current to provide experiences that cannot exist on traditional banking infrastructures. More specifically, we touch on cryptography, bitcoin arbitrage trading strategies, Web3, Dollar Ledgering, ACH transactions, Influencer marketing, and so so much more!Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD. Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

In this conversation, we chat with Aaron Klein, the co-founder and CEO at Riskalyze. Aaron’s career has largely been at the intersection of finance and technology. As co-founder and CEO at Riskalyze, he led the company to twice being named one of the world’s top 10 most innovative companies in finance by Fast Company Magazine. Today, over 200 Riskalyzers serve thousands of advisors who have aligned the world's investments with millions of investors' Risk Numbers®. Aaron has served as a Sierra College Trustee, and in his spare time, he co-founded a school project for orphans and vulnerable kids in Ethiopia. Investment News has honored him as one of the industry’s top 40 Under 40 executives. More specifically, we touch on the journey of entrepreneurship, Political campaign fintech and website development, roboadvisors vs. automated trading rebalancing, the future of wealth management and financial advice, and so so much more!!Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD. Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

In this conversation, we chat with Dimitri Dadiomov, the CEO and co-founder of San Francisco-based Modern Treasury which is among the Bay Area’s up-and-coming fintech entrepreneurs reshaping how business is done. Modern Treasury’s software automates the processes companies use to move money, from initiating payment, getting approvals and reconciling it all. The company reconciles more than $2 billion in payments every month, up from $1 billion in April 2021. It helps that Modern Treasury has a client roster filled with fast-growing companies, including Marqeta, Side and Gusto — all based in the Bay Area. Modern Treasury’s growth also will be juiced by Plaid, which selected the company as one of about 50 partners globally for its recently created payments ecosystem. More specifically, we touch on the mind and application of a product manager in tech, the journey of how a mortgage business lead Dimitri to founding Modern Treasury, Embedded Finance, and so so much more!Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD. Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

In this conversation, we chat with Ruben Nieto, the managing director at Allfunds Blockchain S.L.U., who has more than 15 years applying technology to the financial services industry. Ruben has been intrumental in building solutions for the institutional fund distribution leading platform in Europe, Allfunds Bank. More specifically, we touch on all things digital asset management, wealth management, Ruben’s, blockchain journey around digital assets in the enterprise space, and so so much more!Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD. Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

In this conversation, we chat with Aaron Schumm, the Founder and CEO of Vestwell, an entirely new kind of digital retirement platform transforming the way plans are offered and administered — for the benefit of advisors, employers, and employees alike. Prior to founding Vestwell, Aaron was a co-founder of FolioDynamix, a wealth management and advisory services company that powered $800 billion in assets for over 100,000 advisors. At FolioDynamix, which was sold to Envestnet in 2017, Aaron oversaw the strategy, revenue, marketing, customers and product. Aaron holds a B.S. degree in finance from the University of Illinois and an M.B.A. degree from Duke University, The Fuqua School of Business. He was named as one of 40-under-40 by InvestmentNews and WealthManagement.com’s “10 to Watch” More specifically, we touch on all things 401ks, IRAs, Portfolio Balancing, Roboadvice in portfolio management, and so so much more!Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD. Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

In this conversation, we chat with Carson Cook – the founder of Tokemak and Fractal. Carson holds his PhD in Physics and Master’s in Electrical Engineering. After completing his PhD, Carson worked at McKinsey for several years, focused on fintech, financial services, and wealth management. He got into the blockchain/crypto space in 2016 and founded Fractal in 2018, focused on market making and providing liquidity. Tokemak is a new product Carson designed based on opportunities he saw in the space. Tokemak is a decentralized liquidity/market making primitive. More specifically, we touch on how decentralized finance has evolved as well as the different threads that have brought all of it together, as well as, magnetohydrodynamics, the similarities between the finance world and theoretical physics, early crypto exchange arbitrage trading, 0x market making, liquidity aggregation, and so so much more!Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD. Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

In this conversation, we chat with Andrei Cherny, Co-Founder & CEO ofAspiration, a budding financial services platform for people who want to save the planet by neutralizing their carbon footprint. Their mission is massive, with ~5 million members making a difference in the fight against climate change. Andrei combines a background as an advisor to some of America’s top companies, the co-founder and president of a media start-up, a financial fraud prosecutor, a historian, a White House aide, a Navy reserve officer, and a nationally-recognized economic policy expert. Andrei has provided strategic counsel to companies such as Intel, Qualcomm, and Bank of America. He has worked with Elizabeth Warren to help start the successful fight for the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A former Clinton White House aide, he was the youngest White House speechwriter in American history. More specifically, we touch on American public policy and politics, speechwriting for Al Gore, The amalgamation of political theory and public legislation and environmental policy and a lack of trust by consumers in financial institutions lead to the founding of Aspiration Bank, and so so much more!Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD. Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

In this conversation, we chat with Michael Godsey – the GM and Head of Product for Infura, previously a Producer and Product Manager in the video game industry working on Call of Duty, Need for Speed, and EA Sports franchises. Michael’s educational background is in Mathematics and Game Design. More specifically, we touch on the idea of games and rendered worlds, the philosophies behind game design, the financial services that are blockchain powered, the solution that Infura solves for so many, and so much more!Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD. Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

In this conversation, we chat with Hany Rashwan – the founder of Amun and 21Shares. Hany built the company that put out the first physically backed crypto Exchange Traded Product (ETP). In simpler terms, he created a vehicle for people to buy crypto assets, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, on the stock market. Alongside Cathie Wood of ARK, 21Shares recently submitted a Bitcoin ETF to the SEC. While he waits for the US to get on board, Hany's products are already offered all over Europe, with more than $3 billion under management. More specifically, we touch on his early entrepreneurial mindset which lead him to building successful businesses, how currency devaluation in Egypt pushed him to create 21Shares, what an Exchange Traded Product (ETP) is and how it related to Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), the regulatory landscape for crypto-backed ETPs, and so so much more!Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD. Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

In this conversation, we chat with Henry Yoshida – Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Rocket Dollar. Prior to Rocket Dollar, Yoshida was the co-founder of Honest Dollar, a robo-advisor retirement platform that was acquired by Goldman Sachs, as well as a founder of MY Group LLC, a $2.5-billion assets under management investment firm. Henry shares his industry expertise as a speaker at several industry conferences, as well as having been featured or quoted in the Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Financial Times. Henry has a passion for helping people be the best that they can be and contributes as a member in several financial and technology industry organizations. He graduated from The University of Texas at Austin and has an MBA from Cornell University. More specifically, we touch on Henry’s career at BoA Merrill Lynch, his role at building a multi-billion dollar RIA business, how he started a digital retirement account platform called Honest Dollar which was sold to Goldman Sach’s neobank Marcus, the inception of Rocket Dollar, we talk IRAs and 401ks and how important these are for the current Gen-Z market, and so so much more!Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD. Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.