I’m Zack Miller, editor in chief of Tearsheet. The following was produced by Tearsheet Studios. We worked with employment data platform Argyle to create a podcast series about the rising importance of employment data and how lenders, banks and fintechs are using this data to make financial products available to more people, solving some of the challenges with today’s financial services. The nature of work is changing. People are taking on more gigs, driving for Uber, freelancing on projects. I talk with Argyle CEO and founder Shmulik Fishman about the opportunity to build an employment data ecosystem, connecting employers, payroll providers, and consumers. We discuss his entrepreneurial journey, the technical challenges ahead, and the role of consumer-permissioned data in the financial industry.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. This article was sent out to subscribers to EarlyStage, Tearsheet’s newest newsletter. With EarlyStage, we go deeper on some younger companies that point to trends, products and services, and entrepreneurs that should be on your radar screen. Into a sea of sameness, new challenger banks are launching left and right. More are focusing on demographic needs, like providing banking services to the LGBTQ community or to immigrants. Better Financial, on the other hand, addresses a problem the majority of Americans know well: financial shocks. It could be losing a job or getting sick. Better Financial has embedded insurance products into its banking platform that provide a safety net for when something unexpected happens. It all happens behind the scenes. Thiel fellow and founder Kaushik Tiwari is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. Revenue based financing is quickly becoming a popular route for businesses to tap into needed capital. Structured like a loan and not equity, new financing firms are using this new/old type of financing to help all types of businesses to scale. ClearCo brands itself as the world’s largest ecommerce investor. It’s fresh off of closing its own $100 million equity round, including $250 million debt facility. The company, which rebranded from Clearbanc, has close to a $2 billion valuation and is sharing new data on how Clearco’s proprietary AI is democratizing funding to female founders and people of color. ClearCo’s co-founders, Michele Romanow and Andrew D’Souza, an entrepreneurial couple, join me to discuss their plans for with this new round of funding and why ClearCo is well positioned to fuel entrepreneurship outside of typical venture networks and regions.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. The journey from screen scraping consumer financial data to API, permissioned access continues. U.S. Bank recently announced a partnership with technology partner, Plaid. Gareth Gaston from U.S, Bank and Ginger Baker from Plaid join us to talk about the recently announced integration between the two around consumer financial data. We discuss the nature of the integration and why it’s significant. Both Ginger and Gareth describe the relevance of the US Bank permission hub and Plaid portal synching. We also talk about the impact API deals like this have on consumer behavior and fintech uptake.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. Corporate credit card firm Ramp is hot off a big fundraising making it one of the youngest firms to reach billion dollar valuation status in history having launched in February 2020. Eric Glyman, Ramp’s co-founder and CEO, joins me on the podcast to talk about how Ramp’s positioning to help its business clients spend less has impacted its trajectory. We discuss the most recent fundraising round that saw Stripe, Goldman Sachs, and Thrive participate and what’s interesting investors around Ramp’s software-led model. Eric describes how Ramp’s product is changing, maturing. Ramp’s Eric Glyman is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. Money continues to pour into the space. From IPOs to large venture rounds to SPACs, there’s a lot of liquidity sloshing around. And yet, there are still lots of opportunities. JAM FINTOP Banktech is a $150 million investment fund, looking to deploy capital into tech firms serving community banks around the US. What’s really interesting is all 66 of the fund’s limited partners are community banks, accounting for $600 billion in assets. That would rank as the fifth largest US bank. The fund is a partnership between Fintop Capital and Jacobs Asset Management (which we’ll refer to as JAM.) On today’s show, we have Joe Maxwell of Fintop, joined by Adam Aspes and Ryan Zechariah of Jacobs Asset Management on the show to talk about the fund and its investments, sure. But it’s also a conversation around the future of community banking and what kinds of tools and technologies they’ll need to be competitive in the future.

Hari Gopalkrishnan is the Client Facing Platforms Technology executive for Bank of America Merrill. He’s responsible for leading the development of the next generation of integrated technology solutions for the company’s consumer and wealth management client-facing channels. He also manages the bank’s websites and e-commerce initiatives. Hari joins me on the podcast to talk about Erica — the firm’s AI-driven virtual financial assistant. We talk about where it’s come from and where it’s headed — with an insightful look on how customers used it during the past year. Hari describes some of the important customer-facing initiatives Bank of America has underway. Hari Gopalkrishnan is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

The following was produced by Tearsheet Studios in partnership with small business lender BlueVine. It's Small Business Week, and BlueVine really wanted to highlight how it's helping small businesses, particularly around the paycheck protection program. Today, we're happy to have two guests with us: First, Eyal Lifshitz, CEO of BlueVine. Eyal is a third-generation small business entrepreneur who co-founded BlueVine to build a better financial future for small businesses Eyal is joined by one of his customers, Joy England of Advocates in Action. She talks about her experiences navigating through the pandemic as a small business and how firms like BlueVine helped SMBs with the PPP program, assisting in accessing needed funding during a trying time.

The following was produced by Tearsheet Studios. We worked with Wave, a financial software company for entrepreneurs and small businesses, to create a three part podcast series on what micro businesses and solopreneurs really need now from their banks, financial service providers, and financial software. Personal finance app Mint inspired a lot of things. As an early fintech, it showed users the potential of what it could be like to successfully manage your personal finances. For entrepreneurs, Mint also was inspiring, showing the power a financial services app could have to amass millions of users. Mint inspired other founders to launch their own offerings in the space. It definitely inspired Wave’s Kirk Simpson. He was especially interested in Wave’s pricing model: free.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. Smaller community banks and credit unions have an opportunity to differentiate and compete in payments. Unfortunately, many smaller FIs haven’t formulated a succinct strategy. It’s a good time to do it — there are technologies and tools out there to help them service their customers better. Tede Forman is Jack Henry’s head of consumer and commercial payments. He’s seen upfront the evolution in payments — from bill pay to real time payments — and its impact on bank offerings. He joins me on the podcast to talk about the choices and new opportunities in faster payment options. We talk about advances in bill pay technology and how it’s become table stakes for FIs. We also talk about how smaller banks and credit unions are finding ways to punch above their weight through technology partnerships and collaborations. Tede Forman is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.