Fintech Leaders

Stephany Kirkpatrick, CEO/Founder of Orum, discusses the future of real-time payments in the US and Orum's role in increasing adoption for small and mid-sized banks. She shares insights on building an enterprise sales organization, asking for help as a founder, and the importance of creating a personal 9-1-1 call list. They also explore the complexities of B2B sales in the financial sector and strategies for shortening sales cycles in payment integration.

In this engaging discussion, Alexis Pantazis, Co-founder of Hellas Direct, shares his journey in transforming the insurance landscape in Greece, Cyprus, and Romania. He reveals strategies for successfully launching products in challenging markets and the importance of navigating through economic turbulence. Alexis also discusses their approach to tackling fraud with innovative data usage and highlights the critical role of technology in modernizing insurance. Additionally, he emphasizes the need to mentor future entrepreneurs and his commitment to community engagement.

Send us a textMiguel Armaza sits down with Billy Libby, CEO/Co-Founder at Upper90 and Conor Witt, Vice President at Upper90. Upper90 is a hybrid fund that invests credit and equity in early-stage businesses.Launched in 2018, Upper90 has over $1.5B in AUM and has backed fintech companies like Thras.io, Octane Lending, Mundi, and many more.In this episode, we discuss:Combining equity and debt underwriting and how Upper90 has built a team with two different skillsets under the same roofWhat they’ve learned from working with the best credit-driven companies in the market and what great founders have in commonVenturing outside the US and why Upper90 sees a ton of opportunity in places like Latin AmericaHow electronic and quantitative trading in Wall Street led Billy to fintech and venture capital… lots 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 57,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!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 Chris Pento, CEO/Co-Founder of Clear Street, a $2 billion modern financial infrastructure business focused on providing capital markets services including clearing, custody, execution, and prime brokerage service.Launched just five years ago in 2018, Clear Street was recently valued at $2 billion and has raised close to $600 million in equity and debt from Prysm Capital, NextGen Venture Partners, IMC Investments, and many more.We discuss:A brief history of the US Securities and Capital Markets infrastructure and how Clear Street is modernizing 50-year-old technologyHow Chris thinks about strategic-decision making and why they’ve been able to execute and launch so many products in just a few yearsWhy he believes in the concept of a value-add investor, especially in niche and regulated spaces like theirsTransitioning from a Wall Street corner office to scrappy startup founder, competitive ping pong matches at Clear Street… 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 57,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!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 Salman Syed, CEO of Fidel API, a global financial infrastructure platform that helps build programmable experiences at the moment a transaction occurs on any payment card. They are backed by Bain Capital Ventures, Nyca Partners, QED, Citi Ventures, and Commerce Ventures. Prior to Fidel API, Salman spent over a decade in leadership roles at Mastercard and Marqeta.We discuss:How Fidel API is unlocking new products and technologies by accessing and leveraging real-time transaction dataKey trends that are shaping the future of financial servicesChallenges and advantages of building a global firm with employees and customers around the world… 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 57,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!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 Adena Hefets, CEO/Co-Founder of Divvy Homes, one of the most innovative PropTech companies in the US that helps renters transition into homeowners with a rent-to-own model. They are backed by great investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, GGV Capital, GIC, Tiger Global, Caffeinated Capital, and Max Levchin.We discuss:What’s going on in the US commercial and residential real estate markets? Adena gives a deep dive of the tough state of the market.How Divvy’s rent-to-own model is a win-win for consumers, giving them the flexibility to be homeowners without necessarily having a mortgage.Leadership and productivity lessons after six years in the CEO role.Struggles from their early fundraising journey, building company culture… 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 56,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!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

Miguel Armaza interviews 9 founders on their experiences raising venture capital. They discuss the importance of preparation, challenges faced in South Africa, advantages of bootstrapping, and building relationships with investors.

Send us a textMiguel Armaza sits down with Soups Ranjan, CEO/Co-Founder of Sardine, a fraud-prevention company that’s on a mission to make payments instant and risk-free. Sardine enables companies to improve risk management through a single API for fraud detection and compliance within financial services. Founded in 2020, Sardine has raised around $75 million from a16z, NYCA, Activant, FJ Labs, Visa, and a long list of impressive folks.We discuss:What he learned about fraud in his role as Head of Risk at Coinbase, where they had to prevent attacks against the most sophisticated fraudsters and nation-state attackersExamples the most creative fraud attacks they are seeing these days and how Sardine helps fight and prevent themThe urgent need for real-time transaction monitoring in the financial industryWhy fraud and growth are two sides of the same coin … 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 56,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!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 Tommy Nicholas, CEO/Co-Founder at Alloy, a company that gives fintechs and banks a command center to control their fraud-fighting, credit, compliance, risk, and identity-decisioning needs. Founded in 2015, Alloy has raised around $200M from Bessemer, Avenir, Clocktower, Flourish, Lightspeed, Primary, Techstars, and a long list of great fintech investors.We discuss:Early days of Alloy and how they overcame several tough years and finally hit their strideA deep-dive into the complex world of fraud and how Alloy aggregates multiple anti-fraud solutions into their platformSeveral company-building lessons in the context of a tough raising environmentAnd... a reminder from Tommy to tech founders that it’s OK to raise a down round or give the money backWant 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 55,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!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 Trisha Kothari, CEO/Co-Founder of Unit21, a company at the forefront of the fight against financial crimes. Founded in 2018, Unit21 has raised close to $100M from Google, ICONIQ Capital, Tiger Global, Core Innovation, and a number of great angel investors.We discuss:Finding Unit21’s initial design partners and how they eventually landed Coinbase and Intuit as their first and second customersFounder-led sales and common mistakes on building an enterprise sales teamWhat she learned about fraud and company building as a young engineer and product manager at Max Levchin’s AffirmHow financial fraudsters are creative, coordinated, and quick… 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 55,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!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