Fintech Leaders

Send us a textMiguel Armaza sits down with fintech legend, Mike Cagney, Founder & CEO of Figure, one of the fastest growing fintech companies in the US, where they are on a mission to transform financial services through blockchain, bringing speed, efficiency and savings to both consumers and institutions.Founded in 2018, Figure has raised almost $500M in equity from top investors, including DST Global, Ribbit, Fin Capital, RPM Ventures, Thomvest, JP Morgan, Apollo, and many more.Prior to Figure, Mike also co-founded SoFi and built the company into a multi-billion-dollar business under his leadership as CEO.In this episode, we discuss:Reflections from his experience launching and building SoFi, why their original idea failed, and how they quickly iterated and found a winning formulaImportance of company culture and why the founding team at Figure spent a couple of months establishing a genuine culture that could scale before doing anything elseHow Figure is already using blockchain technology to disintermediate the financial market to displace trust with truth and go after a $100 billion opportunityTheir strategy to quickly launch an impressive number of products in an empathetic way to the consumer… and a whole lot more!Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 41,000+ readers and listeners around the world!Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp

Send us a textMiguel Armaza sits down with Amanda Abrams, CEO of Fintech Masala, a fintech-focused investment platform and one of the pioneers and most active firms behind several fintech SPACs since 2015. Some of their SPAC transactions, include CardConnect, Payoneer, Paya, and Perella Weinberg Partners.If filing 12 SPACs gets you the title of SPAC King, then Amanda and Fintech Masala Co-Founder, Betsy Cohen, are definitely the SPAC Queens with a total of 11 SPACs filed. The SPAC process and why Amanda suggests CEOs should still consider this route.The SPAC Boom of 2020/2021. What drove the mania some of the mistakes?Key differences between a good SPAC process vs a bad one. How do we know if a company is ready to go public?Lessons from working with dozens of CEOs and boards, the future of fintech… and a lot more!Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 37,000+ readers and listeners around the world!Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp

Send us a textMiguel Armaza sits down with Anthony Scaramucci, Founder & Managing Partner of SkyBridge, a global alternative investment fund with several billion dollars in assets under management. Anthony also founded SALT, one of the premier thought leadership conferences in the world of finance, technology and geopolitics.In this episode, we discuss:Navigating a market downturn. This is Anthony’s ninth bear market – what is different this time and how should fund managers approach their relationship with investors?Inflation, inflation, inflation. How to deal with it and what to expect, particularly when it comes to alternative assets.Anthony’s strong conviction in crypto and why he’s doubling down on the sector and even launching a fintech-focused venture capital fund.The origins of the SALT Conference, main drivers fueling his energy and ambition, family… and a whole lot more!Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 37,000+ readers and listeners around the world!Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp

Send us a textMiguel Armaza sits down with Oded Zehavi, Co-founder & CEO at Mesh Payments, a corporate spend platform that aims to empower finance teams at every company. Founded in 2018 out of New York City and Tel Aviv, Mesh now serves almost 1,000 corporations and has raised more than $60 million dollars in venture funding.In this episode, we discuss:His time at PayPal and what he learned working with great people and many other future global fintech entrepreneursWalking the fine balance of fintech innovation, where you have to build and ship fast in a highly regulated environmentA birds-eye view of the fascinating Israeli fintech ecosystem and some factors driving its tremendous successOded’s vision for Mesh, where they are building a self-driving wallet for corporate CFOs… and a whole lot more!Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 37,000+ readers and listeners around the world!Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp

Send us a textMiguel Armaza sits down with two great Uruguayan entrepreneurs, Sergio Fogel and Gonzalo Strauss. Sergio is a fintech legend, having co-founded and bootstrapped multiple fintechs, including dLocal (NASDAQ: DLO), a company that IPOd on the Nasdaq in 2021 and is currently valued at ~$8 Billion and showing great results. Most recently, Sergio and Gonzalo teamed up to build Datanomik, a B2B open finance enabler that aims to simplify financial data processes for companies and fintechs around the world. They are backed by a16z, Canary, Nazca, Latitud, and many more.In this episode, we discuss:The story of dLocal and how Sergio and team built a global, multibillion-dollar giant with minimal funding. What culture did they create and what was some of their secret sauce?The IPO process. How do you know if a company is ready? Sergio takes us through their decision-making framework and why they listed on the Nasdaq.Working with younger Co-founders. Sergio explains the value of building a multi-generational founding team.Launching Datanomik. Gonzalo built an internal tool at his previous employer and then realized this could be an independent company. How did he end up partnering with Sergio?Is Uruguay the next global tech hub? We explore some of the reasons behind the tremendous success of the country’s tech scene… and a whole lot more!Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 37,000+ readers and listeners around the world!Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp

Join Ankur Sinha, CTO of Remitly, as he shares his journey from tech giants like Google and Microsoft to fintech innovation in remittances. He emphasizes the importance of customer delight and how cultural differences shape enterprise experiences. Ankur discusses cryptocurrency's potential to transform international payments and highlights the keys to effective CTO leadership, including the focus on people and product. He also delves into the evolving remittance landscape and the critical role of mentorship in tech careers.

Send us a textMiguel Armaza sits down with Peter Lord, CEO & Co-Founder of Codat, where they are building a universal API for small business data. Founded in 2017, Codat now has more than 200 corporate clients and has raised over $160 million from JP Morgan, Canapi Ventures, Shopify, Plaid, Tiger Global, PayPal Ventures, Index Ventures, AmEx Ventures, and more.In this episode, we discuss:Leaving his past employer to build Codat and solve some of the technical challenges he was encountering at his old job.His ambitious vision for Codat to become the go-to infrastructure for the small business economy to share data and how Peter plans to get there.International Expansion vs Industry Vertical Expansion. Since launching in 2017, Codat has expanded to several countries and is now serving many industries. Find out which one is harder and why.The future of fraud-fighting and why real-time data can help small businesses get access to credit, especially during a challenging economy… and a whole lot more!Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 36,000+ readers and listeners around the world!Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp

Send us a textMiguel Armaza sits down with Dan Westgarth, COO of Deel, a global payroll platform that helps businesses hire anyone, anywhere. Founded less than four years ago, Deel now serves 8,000 corporate customers in 150+ countries and has raised almost $700 million from a16z, Altimeter Capital, Y Combinator, Coatue, and a long list of great investors.In this episode, we discuss:Joining Revolut in London back when the company had only 10 employees and what Dan learned over the following five years.Leaving the Revolut rocketship to join Deel, yet another 10-person startup, to power the global remote work revolution right at the start of COVID.What it means to be COO at a fast-growing company and why it’s crucial to adapt to change and master hiring strategies.How Deel scaled from $1M to $100M in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) in less than 20 months and why it was crucial to move fast and promote proactivity instead of reactivity to get there… and a whole lot more!Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 34,000+ readers around the world!Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp

Send us a textMiguel Armaza sits down with Sophia Goldberg, entrepreneur and author of the recently published The Field Guide to Global Payments, a great book about the complex and multifaceted payments industry where Sophia gives a great overview of the different payments systems around the world, the players who make this space go round, as well as some of the exciting innovations driving the future of payments.I highly recommend you pick up a copy, especially if you’re a fintech and finance operator, investor, or have aspirations of joining the industry. Every page will make you smarter and you’ll gain a deeper appreciation of the complexity of one of the most important technologies of our economy.In this episode, we discuss:Understanding why there’s only six dominant payment networks (Visa, Mastercard, etc) worldwide and why Square and PayPal might become the next major networks.Real-Time Payments (RTP). Understanding the downsides and opportunities of this technology and why we probably won’t move to a world of full RTP. The world of crypto payments and why Sophia is not ready to endorse it just yet… and a lot more! Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 34,000+ readers around the world!Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp

Send us a textMiguel Armaza sits down with Arjun Sethi, Co-Founder and Partner of Tribe Capital, a firm with over $1.6B in assets under management, focused on using product and data science to engineer N-of-1 companies and investments. They’ve backed some incredible and interesting fintech companies, including Kraken, FTX, Bolt, Carta, Nium, Pipe, and the list goes on.In this episode, we discuss:Tribe Capital’s quantitative diligence process for investing in great companies and the rationale behind their Magic 8-Ball framework.What are N-of-1 startups and why Tribe looks for this kind of company and founder.Arjun’s take on the state of crypto markets, and why he is paying special attention to DeFi innovations and companies that are building rails and infrastructure to make this technology accessible for all consumers.Working with Chamath at Social Capital. What he learned during his years there and why he’s a frequent listener of the All-In Podcast… and a lot more!Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 34,000+ readers around the world!Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter. Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp