Tearsheet Podcast: Exploring Financial Services Together

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m your host, Tearsheet’s editor in chief, Zack Miller. This following is part of a new series we’re running. It’s called the Big Bank Theory, and it’s all about the future of banking. We see three options going forward: in the march towards digital, people will gravitate towards the digital arms of incumbent banks, give their business to new upstart challenger banks, or the biggest opportunity, which is to bank with the brands they love. Through embedded finance, people are increasingly turning to companies they frequent often -- whether it's a big retail player like Walmart or SMB accounting software like QuickBooks -- to plan, store, and move money around. The following series includes content from Tearsheet’s Big Bank Theory Conference, held in November 2021. Green Dot’s an interesting player in the Embedded Finance market. It already powers financial service for firms like Apple, Uber, and Walmart. Combine that with an extensive prepaid business, a direct bank, and its own banking license and you can begin to see where the business is headed. Green Dot already banks tens of millions of customers and you can get a sense of the scale – it almost feels like it’s just getting started. I spoke with Green Dot’s Amit Parikh who heads up the firm’s platform business. He has an extensive payments background, most recently at Apple. We chatted about Green Dot’s platform strategy and the role it plays in brands’ financial ecosystems. Amit shared some of what he saw are the drivers of innovation in embedded financial services and where the opportunities exist for further growth. Here’s my interview with Green Dot’s Amit Parikh.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. 2021 was a year for payroll data. Payroll data continues to open up new possibilities and use cases, tapping into sources of income. While data matters, we’re also seeing payroll providers themselves move into fintech. Gusto services 200,000 businesses and teans with modern payroll, benefits, and HR. Gusto has also moved decidedly into fintech, launching Gusto Wallet. Employees on the Gusto platform get early access to their paychecks, banking, savings, and emergency funds through their payroll provider. Co-founder and CPO Tomer London joins us on the podcast to discuss the increasing importance of modern payroll and the opportunities it opens up for fintech services and products. Gusto’s Tomer London is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Tearsheet's editor in chief, Zack Miller. If data is the underpinning of modern finance, payroll data is expanding the pie. Early data firms like Plaid, MX, and Finicity made it easier for lenders and other fintech apps to access banking data. But now, firms like Pinwheel and Argyle are opening up payroll data. Traditional W2 work is evolving in the gig economy and being able to access payroll data wherever it resides creates new opportunities to serve customers. On today’s podcast, we have Kurt Lin, co-founder and CEO of Pinwheel. Lin’s vision is that over time, lenders will use the firm’s payroll API to track their borrowers’ financial health longitudinally. Fintech firms can assess borrowers’ current income, whether they’re showing up for shifts, whether they’re getting paid consistently. We’re at the beginning stage of payroll connectivity and Lin shares some interesting insights into current use cases, based off of income verification, direct deposit switching and payroll-linked lending. Lastly, we talk about where Pinwheel and payroll connectivity are headed in the future. Kurt Lin is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m your host, Tearsheet’s editor in chief, Zack Miller. This following is part of a new series we’re running. It’s called the Big Bank Theory, and it’s all about the future of banking. We see three options going forward: in the march towards digital, people will gravitate towards the digital arms of incumbent banks, give their business to new upstart challenger banks, or the biggest opportunity, which is to bank with the brands they love. Through embedded finance, people are increasingly turning to companies they frequent often -- whether it's a big retail player like Walmart or SMB accounting software like QuickBooks -- to plan, store, and move money around. The following series includes content from Tearsheet’s Big Bank Theory Conference, held in November 2021. When I give examples of embedded finance, I typically mention Intuit. What the software company has done -- marrying the tracking and forecasting of money together with the actual movement of money, banking, lending -- points to the power of embedded finance. And it’s still early innings for the power of putting banking, payments, and lending where users need it most. For Intuit, the SMB customer is the core focus. I chatted with Rania Succar, svp of the QuickBooks money offerings, about how Intuit builds embedded finance around her customers’ benefits. We dive into why that’s so important, with concrete examples of how Intuit determines what to offer and how it prioritizes its pipeline. We also talk about the opportunities to go deeper and broader in serving the SMB with embedded finance. Here’s my conversation with Rania Succar.

This following is part of a new series we’re running. It’s called the Big Bank Theory, and it’s all about the future of banking. We see three options going forward: in the march towards digital, people will gravitate towards the digital arms of incumbent banks, give their business to new upstart challenger banks, or the biggest opportunity, which is to bank with the brands they love. The following series includes content from Tearsheet’s Big Bank Theory Conference, held in November 2021. Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller. Abhinav Anand was chugging along in senior risk roles at Discover when he received a call 5 years ago. That call, from Goldman Sachs, changed the trajectory of his life and the nature of the bank he would eventually join. As part of the early Marcus team, Abhinav went into startup mode. A consumer lending product would kick off a stream of new financial products for consumers and small businesses. As part of the Marcus distribution plan, the team would pursue a DTC strategy combined with strategic partnerships with top brands like Apple, Amazon, Walmart, and JetBlue. Anand joined us at The Big Bank Theory Conference to discuss the partnership journey Goldman Sachs embarked on to massively ramp Marcus and its transformation to a retail bank. Here’s my conversation with Goldman Sachs managing director, Abhinav Anand.

The following was produced by Tearsheet Studios. We worked with Q2, a digital banking software company, to create a four part podcast series on the interplay between banks and fintechs. The world of embedded finance, and Banking as a Service in particular, are made up of three pillars: banking, product, and platform. To make a truly good BaaS product, each one should be delivered by its own expert: the bank, the fintech, and the technology provider, respectively. When each entity gets to focus on what they’re best at, the fourth and central entity wins: the end-customer. In this episode, Tearsheet's Zack Miller spoke with Ahon Sarkar, who currently serves as the GM of Q2’s Banking as a Service division.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m your host, Tearsheet’s editor in chief, Zack Miller. This following is part of a new series we’re running. It’s called the Big Bank Theory, and it’s all about the future of banking. We see three options going forward: in the march towards digital, people will gravitate towards the digital arms of incumbent banks, give their business to new upstart challenger banks, or the biggest opportunity, which is to bank with the brands they love. Through embedded finance, people are increasingly turning to companies they frequent often -- whether it's a big retail player like Walmart or SMB accounting software like QuickBooks -- to plan, store, and move money around. The following series includes content from Tearsheet’s Big Bank Theory Conference, held in November 2021. We had three full days with the top companies and professionals defining what banking looks like today and into the future. We heard from large incumbents like Bank of America and innovative startups like Current. Behind many of today’s top fintech firms sit important partners. A lot of them are pure technology firms. Other partners hold charters. But Cross River combines both tech and banking to power brands like Affirm, Coinbase, Upstart, Upgrade, and Stripe. The firm’s chief strategy officer, Karan Mehta, joined us at The Big Bank Theory Conference this November to discuss how Cross River’s technology is enabling the delivery of innovative financial solutions to millions of consumers and businesses. We discuss Cross River’s growth, the building of an ecosystem around its proprietary, real-time core, and how fintech partners are plugging into this one-stop-shop to enable payments, banking, and merchant acquiring at scale.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet’s editor in chief, Zack Miller. While we use the term challenger bank to refer to many of today’s top competitors in digital banking, the truth is very few are actually chartered banks. They are a user experience layer on top of an incumbent bank’s infrastructure. Not Piermont Bank. Started in 2019, Piermont is a fully chartered commercial bank. It uses a combination of technology and human interaction to serve businesses founder and CEO Wendy Cai-Lee says still aren’t serviced. These are businesses with more complexity with accounts receivables and payables, with employees, looking for loans of $750,000 to $10 million -- not the solopreneurs and microbusinesses supported by other challenger banks. Wendy Cai-Lee joins me on the podcast to talk about how Piermont uses its hybrid delivery model to serve this market. We also discuss Piermont’s strategy around providing direct to business commercial banking as well as a banking as a service platform targeting fintechs that want to bank a similar customer. Wendy Cai-Lee is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m your host, Tearsheet’s editor in chief, Zack Miller. This following is part of a new series we’re running. It’s called the Big Bank Theory, and it’s all about the future of banking. We see three options going forward: in the march towards digital, people will gravitate towards the digital arms of incumbent banks, give their business to new upstart challenger banks, or the biggest opportunity, which is bank with the brands they love. Through embedded finance, people are increasingly turning to companies they frequent often -- could be a big retail player like Walmart or SMB accounting software like QuickBooks -- to plan, store, and move money around. The following series includes content from Tearsheet’s The Big Bank Theory Conference, held in November 2021. We had three full days with the top companies and professionals defining what banking looks like today and into the future. We heard from large incumbents like Bank of America and startups like Current. Zack 1: Square is one of the next generation technology companies that is absolutely part of the fabric of the future of banking. With a seller ecosystem of millions of merchants and the popularity of its Cash App, Square received a banking license in 2021. I spoke with Luke Voiles, the firm’s newly appointed general manager of banking. I’ve spoken to Luke in the past, where he led Intuit’s foray into embedded finance and lending. We discuss Square’s roots and ethos, diving into the firm’s founding story. Luke shares where the firm sees opportunity to provide financial services for its users -- now and into the future. Here’s my talk with Square’s Luke Voiles.

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