Fintech Leaders

Send us a textMiguel Armaza sits down with the very genuine Eric Glyman, Co-Founder & CEO of Ramp, a finance automation platform providing an all-in-one banking solution for businesses.Founded less than three years ago, Ramp has scaled incredibly fast and is now the fastest growing corporate card in the US, having raised almost half a billion dollars from investors like Founders Fund, Coatue, Stripe, Goldman, and more.Eric is a second-time fintech entrepreneur, which made this conversation especially interesting. We discussed:Ramp’s internal process and secret sauce that has allowed them to scale extremely fast, while maintaining product quality and client satisfaction.Leadership lessons. Why startup founders with product market fit should prioritize hiring the highest quality of people and building internal processes.Strength of the Capital One school. Lessons learned from his time at Capital One and why most fintechs want to hire Capital One alums.A window into Eric’s vision of the future of business banking, where most tasks will be automated and companies will spend less money and time managing their banks… 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.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 an absolute legend from the investing world - Martin Escobari, General Atlantic’s Co-President, Chairman of the firm’s Investment Committee, and Head of Latin America.Founded back in 1980, General Atlantic has become one of the premier global growth equity funds and grown to ~$80 billion AUM, with a team of almost 400 employees and 169 active portfolio companies.Over the past 41 years, the GA team has seen it all and, fortunately for all of us, Martin shared an incredible amount of knowledge and lessons, including:Martin’s transition from entrepreneur to investor.Importance of collaboration for young rapidly evolving industries, and what GA looks for in their co-investing partners.Common traits of the best entrepreneurs. Martin shares the top three traits those founders have in common.Ingredients for a successful board. Martin has been a board member of dozens of companies and has learned what a great board looks like.The incredible performance of Latin America tech, despite its macro challenges.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.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 Brian Barnes, Founder & CEO of M1 Finance, one of the fastest growing financial super-apps offering automated investing, borrowing, and banking products in the US.Founded in Chicago just five years ago, M1 currently manages over $6 billion for its clients and has raised over $300 million from top names including Softbank, Coatue, Clocktower, and Left Lane. We cover: M1’s meteoric rise over the past couple of years and why these are the early days for the company.The power of compounding. It took M1 18+ months to reach $100M AUM, but now they’re adding that number weekly!The fascinating and unique story of how Brian, personally bought First National Bank of Buhl, one of the smallest banks in the US. The thought process that drove this transaction and his plans for the future of the bank.Advice and reflections for aspiring entrepreneurs and why he enjoys mentoring up and coming founder 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.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 textToday, we bring you a special episode featuring Miguel Armaza's live conversation at Money2020 with Kristy Kim, Co-Founder & CEO of Tomo Credit, and Justin Howell, Co-Founder & CEO of Rize.To get us started, Miguel sits down with Kristy Kim, where they explore:Building a FICO-free underwriting model and how the challenges of her US immigrant journey drove Kristy to launch Tomo Credit, a next-generation credit card catered to young adults, students, and immigrants.Bridging the gap between crypto lovers and the traditional credit card industry, and why Tomo Credit is launching crypto features using customer crypto wallet data to improve their underwriting decisions and enable clients to build credit.And what Kristy considers to be the hardest part and the most rewarding part of being an entrepreneur. Next up, you’ll hear Miguel's conversation with Justin Howell, where they cover:How building a B2C customer-centric and intuitive financial services solution, eventually led them to pivot to a B2B FinTech infrastructure platform. The importance of providing the modern consumer with seamless interoperability across banking, brokerage, and crypto capabilities in a single platform.Thoughts from their fundraising experience and the importance of finding investors who support, not just the vision of the company, but especially the team.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.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 textWe bring you the second special episode featuring Miguel Armaza's live conversations at Money2020 Las Vegas with Dan Henry, Green Dot CEO, and Jeanniey Walden, DailyPay Chief Innovation and Marketing Officer.First up, Dan Henry and Miguel explore:Going remote-first and what this has meant for a publicly-traded company like Green DotLaunching Go2Bank to serve 100+ million Americans living paycheck to paycheckThree pieces of advice for aspiring leaders and entrepreneursMake sure you’re solving a real problem - don’t create a solution to try finding a problem.Be incredibly passionate about the problem, because whatever you start off doing is going to be 10 times more difficult than you thought. If you're doing it just to get rich, that's not going to get you to the finish line.Build a great team. Surround yourself with the best people and individuals you can trust.... and a lot more!Next, Jeanniey Walden and Miguel discuss:How DailyPay provides its earned wage access to 80% of the Fortune 200 companies, seven out of 10 of the largest fast food companies, and one out of six grocery store workers.The launch of their latest product - DailyPay Marketplace, which will give banks, credit unions, or even retailers, the ability to integrate DailyPay’s product through API's or white labeling.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.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 textIn this Fintech Leaders episode, we bring you a special set of interviews from Money20/20 Las Vegas, one of the largest Fintech Conferences in the world.First, Miguel sits down with Tracey Davies, Money20/20 CEO, and Scarlett Sieber, Money20/20 Chief Strategy & Growth Officer.  We discuss: - Their excitement to bring the event back in person - Some of the key fintech trends from this year, including Crypto,  DeFi, Financial Infrastructure.Next, you will hear a conversation with Immad Akhund, CEO/Founder of Mercury, a US-based challenger bank built for startups and e-commerce companies.Founded less than four years ago, Mercury Bank recently became a unicorn valued at $1.6 billion and has raised $180 million from a long list of investors including Coatue, a16z, and Clocktower.Immad and Miguel explored:- The story and incredible growth of Mercury- Immad’s vision on the future of business banking- Valuable Entrepreneurial advice: 1. Make something people really want2. Have a retentive product3. Focus on good unit economics4. Build a great distribution strategy5. And, most importantly, have a good story that you're genuinely passionate about!Finally, Immad reminded Miguel why his favorite type of people are entrepreneurs. They spent a long time looking for a quiet space to record our episode, and when the only available area was an empty corner with no chairs or tables, Immad didn’t hesitate for a second to just record the episode while sitting on the floor. It was yet another reminder that you don’t need a fancy recording studio or office to get shit done!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. 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 Brynne McNulty Rojas, Co-Founder and CEO of Habi, a PropTech company that is streamlining the traditionally opaque home buying process in Latin America revolutionizing the real estate market in the region.Founded in 2019, Habi has raised over $100 million from investors, including SoftBank, Inspired Capital, Tiger Global, Homebrew, Clocktower, 8VC, and many more.Brynne and Miguel explore:- Building Habi and a deep dive of the exciting PropTech revolution taking place in Latin America.- Their recruiting approach to attract those crucial first employees, developing Habi’s culture, and a rundown of the company’s four key values and why they were written in English, rather than Spanish.- Habi’s secret data analytics machine and how they’ve been able to scale to over 30k real estate pricings per month.- Fundraising lessons for entrepreneurs… 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.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 Austin Woodward, CEO & Co-Founder of TaxBit, the leading US tax software provider for crypto and digital assets.Founded in 2017, TaxBit has now issued tens of millions of tax forms and recently became a unicorn with over $230 million in equity from top investors like IVP, Insight Partners, Tiger Global, Paradigm, and Anthony Pompliano.In this conversation, Austin and Miguel discuss:How his passion for crypto and digital assets led him to launch a billion-dollar businessChallenges and opportunities of working with family and why it made perfect sense to co-found TaxBit with his brother, JustinWorking with US regulators and Austin’s optimistic vision for the US to become a global hub for cryptoLessons and reflections from raising over $200M in less than a year… And a lot more! 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 Oliver Hughes, CEO of Russia’s Tinkoff Bank (LSE: TCS), one of the best fintech companies around the world. Tinkoff went public in the London Stock Exchange in 2013 and has since grown to a $22B market cap with close to 20 million clients. It has also inspired a generation of fintech founders, including David Velez from Nubank.In this episode, we explore:Story behind Tinkoff, challenges that led them to pivot, and how they’ve managed to thrive despite three financial crises since inceptionTinkoff’s internal innovation machine and a deep dive of Oliver’s thought process to making big decisions and rolling out new productsExciting recent developments and what drove them to expand internationally to Southeast AsiaOliver’s take on the future of fintech... And a lot more!Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow 21 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.Miguel Armaza is Host of the 21 Leaders Podcast, Author of the Fintech Leaders Newsletter, and Co-Founder of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas.Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp

Send us a textToday’s episode comes from FINNOSUMMIT Connect, a conference organized by Finnovista on the future of Fintech in Latin America.In this special edition, we bring you a recording from Miguel Armaza's conversation with Angela Strange, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz and Dileep Thazhmon, Co-Founder & CEO at Jeeves, where they discuss: Angela’s take on the fantastic evolution of fintech in Latin America and why these are still the early daysJeeves history and why although they are building a global company, they actually decided to launch their first product in MexicoChallenges and opportunities for the ecosystem in the region… and a whole lot more!  Want more podcast episodes? Join Miguel and follow 21 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.Miguel Armaza is Host of the 21 Leaders Podcast, Author of the Fintech Leaders Newsletter, and Co-Founder of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas.Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp