Tearsheet Podcast: Exploring Financial Services Together

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. It’s hard to differentiate between the hype around digital assets and what’s fundamentally changing. Our guest on the podcast today has a foot in both worlds. Rayne Steinberg is co-founder of Arca, a digital asset manager. He was also a co-founder of WisdomTree, a pioneer in the ETF industry. Arca is an institutional grade financial services firm investing in digital assets, as well as building products utilizing blockchain — the firm launched The Arca U.S. Treasury Fund, a closed-end registered fund issuing shares as digital securities that are transferable using blockchain technology. We talk about Steinberg’s journey from running an upstart fund manager in ETFs to the new world of digital assets and how the two experiences parallel and where they diverge. We talk about what institutional and retail investors need when it comes to crypto and where the opportunities are to serve them. Rayne Steinberg is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet Editor in Chief, Zack Miller. Rapyd is a embedded finance platform that has gone global from day 1. The company is expanding rapidly. Joining me on the podcast is co-founder and CEO Arik Shtilman who shares exactly how quickly the firm has been growing and the news that the company has closed a $300 million investment round with its eye on an eventual IPO. Arik Shtilman is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet’s editor in chief, Zack Miller. With all the talk about challenger banks and mega banks, tier 2 financial institutions like community banks and credit unions frequently get lost in the conversation. My guest today on the show is Arcadi Lapiro. His experience building first generation challenger banks has molded his worldview on the banking industry. Now, he’s back with Agora (https://agoraservices.us/), a banking as a service platform targeting tier 2 banks and credit unions. Lapiro joins me on the podcast to discuss the opportunities and challenges for smaller banking institutions facing competition from mega banks and new upstarts. We talk about Agora and why he built a platforms starting with 2 embedded services: SMB banking and teen banking. Arcady Lapiro is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. 2020 was an interesting year for African financial services. We saw Stripe buy Nigeria’s Paystack, its largest acquisition anywhere, and other firms raise significant venture capital. Pngme is one of the firms contributing to the next stage of growth on the continent. Brendan Playford is founder and CEO of the firm which offers a unified financial data API for Africa. As financial services mature, the various platforms, networks and institutional ecosystems need a way to standardize and share their customers’ financial data. Brendan joins us on the podcast to talk about African fintech and what’s been happening there of late. We talk about where the opportunities are and where the market may head over the next few years. Lastly, we drill down into Pngme’s product offering, strategy, and expansion plans. Brendan Playford is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. As a fintech entrepreneur, I co-founded OurCrowd, one of the largest equity crowdfunding platforms in the world. Our back office was always hard to get our hands around. Money in and money out and the timing of that money in motion took a lot of time and effort to manage effectively. Payment flows and tools to integrate have come a long way since we started that business in 2012. Dimiti Dadiomov is co-founder and CEO of Modern Treasury. His firm is a payment operations platform and works with firms to build and manage their money movement without taking hold of the payments. It’s the tech in fintech. Dimitri joins us on the podcast to talk about his firm’s genesis story and the market for payment operations. His firm’s APIs provide workable connections to banks to help with tracking money movement and reconciliation. Dimitri Dadiomov is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor-in-chief, Zack Miller. So much time and money is spent on maintaining technology within incumbent organizations. Instead of calling this tension “technology debt” or even “legacy technology”, JPMorgan Chase CIO for consumer and community banking Rohan Amin likes to call it heritage tech. I like that description as it gives room for the ongoing investment in the tech stack but also in customers and the brand. Rohan joins us on the podcast to discuss his mandate as CIO of the largest US bank with a tech budget of $4 billion and over 12,000 technologists globally. We talk about the balance between maintenance and building and creating new products. He discusses how the pandemic affected the businesses he and his team support. We talk about the bank’s approach to accessibility and APIs. Lastly, Rohan talks about his biggest priorities for 2021 and beyond. Chief information officer for consumer & community banking at JPMorgan Chase, Rohan Amin is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

As more challenger banks launch, we’re seeing the emergence of more and more niche offerings, serving a subset of users with distinct needs. Oxygen Bank, a challenger based in San Francisco, recognized that freelancers aren’t being served well. These people don’t identify as businesses and yet they are in business. Founder and CEO of Oxygen (https://oxygen.us/), Hussein Ahmed is one of the hardest working fintech CEOs. He joins us on the podcast to talk about why Osygen essentially merged a business account with a personal account to serve this demographic. He talks about building and scaling a startup using talent across geographic boundaries and what his plans are next for the upstart banking product. Hussein Ahmed is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. At nearly eight years old, Avant is one of the pioneers in online lending. It has expanded its product set over the years to include banking functions for middle income consumers. James Paris is the CEO of Avant and joins us on the podcast to talk about the growth of the company and the opportunities it has to fill a market gap serving its demographic. James previously led the firm’s creation of the Amount technology platform, which as a B2B lending technology platform, was spun off earlier this year. James Paris is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller, Tearsheet’s editor in chief. On today’s podcast, I’m joined by Will Peterffy and Eddy Soffer of Interactive Brokers. Will, son of Interactive Brokers’ founder, is a new board member of the online brokerage and its ESG Ambassador. Interactive Brokers recently rolled out a portfolio scorecard that grades equity portfolios along several dimensions, like reducing emissions and human rights. The pair join us on the podcast to discuss the new initiative and what customers are asking for when it comes to investing responsibly. We also talk about where this environmental, social, and governance initiative is headed from a product perspective and across the industry.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. Small businesses have a lot to contend with. In addition to the everyday battle around cash flow, many SMBs had to quickly change their business models and payment capabilities during the pandemic. Patrick Smith, the head of small business banking at Santander, joins me on the podcast to talk about Santander’s approach to advice. We discuss the banks evolving products and services aimed at SMBs. Lastly, we delve into the role digital plays in SMB banking in terms of experience and delivery. Patrick Smith is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.