Tearsheet Podcast: Exploring Financial Services Together

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet’s editor in chief, Zack Miller. In this episode, we're joined by Everett Cook, the CEO and co-founder of Rho, an all-in-one finance platform for businesses. Rho is changing the game by combining accounts payable, expense management, corporate cards, and commercial banking into a single comprehensive platform designed to empower CFOs and finance teams to achieve more in their day. During our conversation, we dive deep into Rho’s journey, from its inception in 2020 to its remarkable evolution, and how it is redefining the value proposition for businesses of all sizes. Everett discusses Rho’s mission to make finance frictionless for organizations, with a keen focus on helping finance teams save time and streamline their workflows. Everett also unveils one of Rho’s latest offerings, the One-Click AP tool, powered by AI, and explains how it's poised to impact the way companies handle their accounts payable processes. Intrigued by Rho’s approach to addressing the needs of middle-market companies, Everett delves into the nuances of their customer-centric model and how they're continually shaping their products based on direct customer feedback. He highlights the importance of using AI to automate finance tasks, providing finance teams with more time to add strategic value to their organizations. We also touch on the competitive landscape, discussing how Rho is differentiating itself in the market, particularly by emphasizing vertical integration and building products from the ground up. As we explore the evolving financial technology industry, we gain insights into Rho’s strategy to stay competitive in the rapidly changing landscape, how they’re addressing their customers' most pressing challenges, and their vision for the future. So, let's dive into this engaging conversation with Rho’s Everett Cook.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast, I’m editor in chief, Zack MIller. A popular theme for this podcast has been exploring the powerful unlock data has within different financial businesses. That’s particularly true for payroll data which is a more complicated thing to digitze than banking balance sheet and transaction data. For the past few weeks, we’ve heard the impact modern access to payroll data has had on mortgage banker Draper and Kramer, to conducting background checks as part of hiring like Checkr does, to consumer lender, Regional Finance. Each business had access to payroll data in the past but it was laborious to access, bundled together with other things, and wasn’t made an integral part of digital workflows.  Argyle is helping to change all that. As Argyle’s footprint grows, the fintech firm continues to mature its products, processes, and people. Founder and CEO Shmulik Fishman has built a powerful team of GMs to lead each of the verticals the payroll data firm participates in.  And what is fascinating about this conversation about tech- and data-enabled financial services is Shmulik’s focus on the people side of the business. In a market that’s getting frothy in its excitement around generative AI, Argyle has good tech, sure, but it’s the people that are making a difference in its work with clients. It’s what keeps them coming back and giving more volume and products to Argyle to manage. Argyle CEO Shmulik Fishman is my guest on this show. Tearsheet has partnered with Argyle to create a four part podcast series that explores how different parts of the financial industry are using modern technology and access to new forms of data to power their businesses today and into the future.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet’s editor in chief, Zack Miller. This episode with executives from Mastercard and Greenglight on building trust and marketing to Gen Z is part of a special podcast series where we explore the fascinating Gen Z deeper: their relationship with money, how they like to save, spend, and borrow money, their fears and aspirations, and their connections to social issues. Tearsheet thanks our sponsor Publicis Sapient for their support. Read more and download customer research about Gen Z and financial services at www.steezlife.co For this episode, I’m joined by Mastercard’s Sherri Haymond and Greenlight’s Matt Wolf. We’ll put some thought to qualify and quantify the opportunity to better serve the younger generation and how both firms are positioned to do so. We’ll chat about why Gen Z is an important generation and how Greenlight and Mastercard embed this generation into their design and experiences. Financial education and trust building are particularly important to establish to win over Gen Z – we’ll explore those things, too. Here’s my conversation with Matt Wolf and Sherri Haymond.

Launching a card is such a core part of today’s financial services. Whether you’re an incumbent or a fintech, a card is likely a cornerstone product in your portfolio and an important contributor to your revenue. As the space has matured, firms have gotten better at partnering. That’s good, because you’ll need partners to launch a card. As fintech has grown, it’s helped financial services mature overall – the art and science of partnering is definitely improving with time and experience. That’s also good – because choosing the right partners and figuring out how to best leverage both parties’ unique skills and talents is really a big part of the secret sauce here. I’m Tearsheet’s Zack Miller. We wanted to shine some major light on the card launching process making it easier, smoother, and hopefully more successful. This series is sponsored by Galileo. And participation in this series - we have some great executives and companies involved – doesn’t mean an endorsement of Tearsheet or our sponsor. And to do that, we enlisted some of the best fintech and financial services firms out there to talk about what they’ve learned launching and scaling card products. We turned to some of the top brands – like Wise and Dave – with millions of cards in their users’ hands. We also turned to the platforms and banks – firms like Cross River Bank and First National Bank of Omaha. And we talked to Galileo – the technology and processing platform powering many of today’s most popular fintechs. This is the second of a three part series where we focus on the importance of finding the right partners for your card program. To dive even deeper, I encourage you to download the guide we published incorporating all this inside information and more. To download your free guide, go to www.tearsheet.co/cardguide Without further ado, let’s jump into the subject.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. In this episode, I moderated a discussion between Olivia Mikkelsen, lead experience designer at Deloitte, and Ryan Geyer, the Chief Product Officer for Deloitte's Converge Banking suite. Together, we delved deep into the world of UI/UX and its pivotal role within the realm of financial services. Our conversation revolved around the intricate balance between customer experience and technological innovation. Olivia introduced us to Deloitte's "balanced breakthrough method," which provides a structured approach to prioritize desirability, feasibility, and viability when creating new banking experiences. She stressed the importance of truly understanding customer desires, needs, and pain points, offering valuable insights into their methodology. Ryan emphasized that in a rapidly evolving landscape, banks must adapt and integrate with fintech companies rather than compete against them. He discussed the need for enhancing customer service, contextual guidance, and the role of generative AI in taking the customer experience to the next level. We explored the significance of personalized experiences and the bedrock of trust in financial services, concluding that technology, including generative AI, should ultimately serve to make customers feel seen and comfortable within this environment. Overall, our discussion shed light on the ever-changing dynamics of the banking industry and the crucial role of technology in enhancing customer experiences while building and maintaining trust. This is episode 3 in a four part podcast series we’re doing with Deloitte. To get the other episodes in the series or to access a transcript of this one, go to tearsheet.co Here’s my conversation with Ryan and Olivia.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. This conversation with top executives at Bank of America is about building good financial habits for Gen Z, this episode is part of a special podcast series where we explore the fascinating Gen Z deeper: their relationship with money, how they like to save, spend, and borrow money, their fears and aspirations, and their connections to social issues.  Tearsheet thanks our sponsor Publicis Sapient for their support. Read more and download customer research about Gen Z and financial services at Steezlife.co And on this episode, I’m joined by Holly O’Neill, President of Retail Banking at Bank of America. Holly is responsible for the growth of the Retail Banking business, which serves U.S. mass market consumers. She’s also is a member of the company’s executive management team. O’Neill also serves as the bank’s Chief Client Care Officer, overseeing a team that provides financial solutions to nearly 68 million clients each year, with a focus on helping clients wherever and however they prefer to bank, serving diverse communities and supporting financial education.    Also joining us for this discussion is Haim Israel, Head of Global Thematic Research, BofA Securities. For the past two years, Haim and his team have been ranked first in the Thematic Research and ESG –Integrated Climate Change teams in the Institutional Investor Extel Global Survey.  Prior to this, Israel was the head of Bank of America’s EEMEA Technology, Media and Telecommunication Research team.  Here’s my conversation about building good financial habits in younger banking customers with Holly and Haim.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. I’m joined today by the CTOs of Plaid and Brex. The successful fintechs that found early escape velocity did so by rapidly responding to their customers’ needs for complementary products and services. There are just a handful of companies that were able to do this – to go from 0 to 1 in a way that required massive scaling and building product platforms that can support this growth. And a lot of times that required scaffolding, deconstruction, and re-scaffolding while the growth engine is revving. Plaid’s Jean Denis and Brex’s Cos are two of the best in the business. I felt like this discussion was a masterclass in what it takes to lead tech and product teams at the highest level. Having both CTOs on the podcast was also interesting to see where they concurred with one another and where they departed. We discuss the biggest challenges they’ve learned in scaling and the organizational changes they’ve made to support different stages of their growth. We look at the acquisitions both companies made and how Brex and Plaid integrated new teams, technologies, and products. I ask both Cos and Jean Denis about their approach to talent and how their teams are organized to harness their people’s talents. Lastly, we drill down further into how their product planning and product pipelines work, and how both have evolved as their companies have grown. Here’s my conversation with the CTOs of Brex and Plaid. The big points * Lessons learned in scaling the team. * How did the team structure change over time? * Importance of domain expertise. * Integrating new talent into the company. * The evolution of the business model. * Thinking about product surface area. * Turning R&D budget into operating budget. * How far out does product planning go

It’s been a wild ride for mortgage lenders the past few years. With rates high, they’ve been primarily focusing on two things. The first is to cut costs – that can manifest in reduced headcounts, but mortgage lenders are also thinking about using technology smartly to do more with less. And for those lenders who’ve seen a cycle or two, they’re thinking about using technology strategically, too. It’s not just about efficiency – they know the cycle will turn back in their favor at some point, and will they be ready to scale when demand kicks back in? Will they be proactive about growth when things start ramping again? For this episode, I’ll be joined by Courtney Schaefer, COO of Draper and Kramer, a real estate firm that’s over 100 years old and one of the top 30 mortgage banks in the US. She’ll take us through how her firm is positioning itself to be ready for a mortgage rebound. She’s clearly looking at technology and data tactically – to reduce costs and increase efficiency – and strategically – to be able to grow smartly when the market dynamics shift. Also on this episode is John Hardesty, GM of Mortgage at Argyle, a leading provider of income and employment data that does deep work in financial services. I’m Zack Miller, Tearsheet’s editor in chief. Tearsheet has partnered with Argyle to create a four part podcast series that explores how different parts of the financial industry are using modern technology and access to new forms of data to power their businesses today and into the future.

Launching a card is such a core part of today’s financial services. Whether you’re an incumbent or a fintech, a card is likely – or will likely be – a cornerstone product in your portfolio and an important contributor to your revenue. What baffles me is that with all the new technology platforms, banking as s service, and experienced program managers, there’s still a gap for firms and entrepreneurs to really understand what goes into launching and managing a card. We wanted to shine some major light on the card launching process making it easier, smoother, and if things go right, more successful. And to do that, we enlisted some of the best fintech and financial services firms out there to talk about what they’ve learned launching and scaling card products. We turned to some of the top brands – like Wise and Dave – with millions of cards in their users’ hands. We also turned to the platforms and banks – firms like Cross River Bank and First National Bank of Omaha. And we talked to Galileo – the technology and processing platform powering the cards of many of today’s most popular fintechs. Thank you to Galileo, who has supported this project from the beginning. We appreciate your support and the work you do throughout the industry. This podcast mini-series is intended to help get your card launch right. One thing you’ll hear as we speak to some of the best in the industry is the need to plan well. It doesn’t mean you’ll get it right the first time around but at least you’ll have a way forward. We want you to know what’s ahead for you and ultimately to learn from some of the best and brightest around who’ve launched cards ultimately used by millions of people and companies. Learn from their battle scars and successes. This is the first of a three part series. To dive even deeper, I encourage you to download the guide we published incorporating all this inside information and more. To download your free guide, go to www.tearsheet.co/cardguide This first part of the series address all the planning that goes into ideating, creating, and launching a card. We address the following: *Introduction to the importance of launching and managing cards in financial services. *The need for understanding the card launching process and collaborating with partners. *Planning and the "why" behind launching a card, considering customer problems. *Different approaches to launching cards as strategic differentiators or add-ons. *Case studies from Wise, Bluevine, Dave, and their reasons for launching cards. *Understanding the differences between debit and credit cards and their implications. *Planning for the future of card programs and ecosystems. *The importance of testing, not rushing to market, and iterating. *The role of value proposition in connecting with a company's mission. *Differentiation through features surrounding the card and fulfilling customer needs.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet’s editor in chief, Zack Miller. In this podcast, I welcome Jonathan Valenti, a principal with Deloitte Consulting, who leads an offering at Deloitte called Customer, Experience, and Marketing Strategy, particularly in the context of financial services. Jon shares insights on evolving customer expectations, the importance of personalization, and the influence of experiences from other industries on financial services. We discuss the role of technology in meeting customer demands, including faster onboarding and the development of budgeting tools.  Jon also highlights the growing emphasis on equity and inclusion in financial services, addressing how institutions are striving to represent diversity in leadership and design more accessible services. We conclude with a discussion on recent market events and the impact on customer strategies, including the need for diversification and partnerships within the industry. This is part of a four part series we’re doing with Deloitte’s financial services leadership on the trends shaping our industry today and out into the future. Here’s my conversation with Jonathan Valenti.