Wharton Fintech Podcast

Anirudh Singh sits down with Gaurav Sharma, CEO and Co-Founder of Capitalize a venture-backed fintech company in New York focused on the retirement savings market. In today’s episode, they discuss the size of the 401K rollover issue in the United States, Capitalize being listed as one of TIME's best inventions of 2021, the fundraising process, and much more! Gaurav Sharma: Gaurav leads Capitalize's mission to help people save for retirement. Before founding Capitalize, he worked for some of the best-known financial institutions, including JP Morgan, UBS, Morgan Stanley, and as an investor at well-known hedge fund Greenlight Capital. After seeing how hard it is for most people to understand their retirement accounts, he decided to build a company that makes it easier. An Australian by birth, Gaurav lives in New York with his wife and their adopted puppy, Lorenzo. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/ WFT Twitter

Gabriela Ariana Campoverde sits down with Christina Keitt Chaney, Head of Sales and Relationship Management of MoCaFi. MoCaFi is short for Mobility Capital Finance, and today the company helps over 70MM clients across the United States open a bank account, build credit, and support local businesses. The company was founded in 2015 with a mission to address social inequities by closing the racial wealth gap. In this episode, you will learn all about: - The MoCaFi products which help its clients reach financial empowerment - How MoCaFi works with local governments to distribute benefits - MoCaFi’s mission-oriented company culture - Christina’s twenty year career in financial services - And much more! About Christina Keitt Chaney Christina Keitt Chaney is the Head of Sales and Relationship Management of MoCaFi. She has over twenty years of experience in financial services and prior to MoCaFi, she worked at American Express, BNY Mellon, JP Morgan-Chase, Bank of America Merill Lynch, and US Bank across Sales a

Anirudh Singh sits down with Shimon Kogan, Associate Professor of Finance, with positions at Arison School of Business, Reichman University and The Wharton School. The two discuss the shifting perspective around fintech companies after the financial crisis, why fintech is an excellent industry for new graduates to get into, exciting global trends in the industry, and much more! Shimon Kogan: Prof. Kogan is an Associate Professor of Finance, with positions at Arison School of Business, Reichman University and The Wharton School. He was on the faculty at MIT Sloan, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Texas at Austin, and Duke. He held several investment-management positions and board advisory roles. He earned his MBA and PhD from the University of California at Berkeley and his BA from Tel Aviv University. Dr. Kogan’s research focuses on behavioral finance with application to capital markets. He is interested in understanding how information is processed in markets and his approach is interdisciplinary

Anirudh Singh sits down with Sigal Mandelker, General Partner at Ribbit Capital. The two discuss her career in both the public and private sectors, Ribbit’s investment in Chainalysis, cryptocurrencies and anti-money laundering, and much more! Sigal Mandelker: Sigal Mandelker joined Ribbit Capital as a General Partner in April 2020. Ribbit is an investment firm focused on financial services and technology. Prior to Ribbit, she served as Under Secretary of Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. As Under Secretary, Sigal supervised four main components of Treasury (OFAC, FinCEN, the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, and the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes). Before serving as Under Secretary of Treasury, Sigal was a partner at Proskauer in New York. Sigal also previously served in a number of senior positions in the U.S. government, including as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Division of the Justice Department, an AUSA in the Southern District of New York, Cou

Anirudh Singh sits down with Katherine Salisbury, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Qapital. The two discuss Katherine’s early career, co-founding not one but two companies with her partner, Katherine’s views on the fintech industry overall, and much more. Hope you enjoy the show! Katherine Salisbury: Ten years ago, Katherine set out to find a solution to her family’s money management headaches - one that actually aligned with their motivations, goals and lifestyle. A few years later, Qapital was born. Today, Katherine serves as co-founder and co-CEO of Qapital – an app that empowers users by putting their personal goals at the core of the product, and then supercharging their savings, investing, and budgeting efforts with clever tips and tools rooted in behavioral psychology. Katherine brings 20 years of finance, legal, and business experience to Qapital. She graduated from the University of Chicago with honors, studied international business law at Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, and graduated from Cornell Law Sch

Gabriela Ariana Campoverde sits down with Howard Katzenberg, CEO and Founder of Glean, an accounts payable solution that combines smart automation with spend intelligence to drive material savings. Glean supercharges vendor decision making. This platform automatically detects duplicate invoices and overcharges; receives alerts on billing errors, anomalous spend activity, and available vendor savings; and leverages vendor benchmarking to see what other companies are paying. In this episode, you will learn about how: - Howard’s CFO experience inspired Glean - Glean impacts on client’s profit lines - Fintechs can disrupt the enterprise software industry - Howard took his own company from 0 to 1 - And so much more! About Howard Katzenberg Howard Katzenberg is CEO and Founder of Glean. Formerly, Howard served as CFO of OnDeck and Better Mortgage. He earned his MBA degree from The Wharton School, and studied Business while earning his Bachelor’s degree from Cornell University. About Glean Glean unlocks the pow

Anirudh Singh sits down with Amias Gerety, Partner at QED Investors. The two discuss the recent cryptocurrency executive order, QED's success over the past two years, investments into Tint, Atomic, and Ntropy, and much more. Amias Gerety: Amias joined QED as a Partner in 2017 focusing on supporting the portfolio and finding new investment opportunities with a focus on back office technologies and infrastructure companies. Amias brings a deep background in financial markets, compliance, and RegTech to the QED team. Most recently, Amias served as the President’s nominee and as Acting Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In that role, he was the lead advisor to the Secretary on policies affecting financial institutions. He also oversaw a number of programs focused on supporting small business lending and community development. He previously served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Financial Stability Oversight Council, an interagency group of financia

Anirudh Singh sits down with Adam Nash, CEO of Daffy. The two discuss Adam's career at Wealthfront, being a successful product manager, his motivations behind founding Daffy, the importance of choosing the right revenue model for your business, and much more. If you're interested in signing up for Daffy, you can use the below promo code to claim $25 for a charity of your choice. Promo Code: https://daffy.org/adamnash/invite For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/ WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Anirudh's Twitter: twitter.com/avsingh_24

Gabriela Ariana Campoverde sits down with Blair Silverberg, Founder and CEO of Hum Capital, a funding platform connecting great companies with the right capital for their growth. Hum believes that every qualified company should be able to raise the capital they need to flourish without bias or friction. On Hum’s Intelligent Capital Market, companies are evaluated on fundamentals and performance, not on who they know. In this episode, you will learn all about: - The platform that Blair and his team are building - How Hum builds an efficient two-sided marketplace - The current issues companies face when attempting to access capital - Blair’s journey from investor to founder - And much more! About Blair Silverberg Blair Silverberg is the Founder and CEO of Hum Capital. Prior to launching Hum, he was an investor at Draper Fisher Jurvetson. He is passionate about using data to identify great businesses. He studied Product Design at Stanford University. About Hum Capital Launched in 2019, Hum is turning the t

Anirudh Singh sits down with Rishi Khanna, CEO of Stocktwits. The two discuss Rishi's lessons learned as a serial entrepreneur, the benefits of social trading, international expansion at Stocktwits, meme stocks, NFTs, and much more. Rishi Khanna: Rishi Khanna is the CEO of Stocktwits, the original social platform for individual investors and traders with 6M registered members. Before Stocktwits, Rishi was Managing Director at SS&C GlobeOp at SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc, where he had overall responsibility for sales, product, operations and strategic direction of a number of businesses serving the alternative assets industry. In 2007, Rishi co-founded and served as President of Novus, a global portfolio intelligence platform company that invented the art of portfolio intelligence, solving unique data and analytics challenges facing capital allocators and fund managers across liquid and illiquid investments. Prior to co-founding Novus, Rishi was responsible for the development of the technology and product

In today's episode, Ally McCloskey sits down with Ganesh Rao, Managing Director and Head of Financial Technology and Services at Thomas H. Lee Partners ("THL"), the $16B+ private equity firm. THL invests in middle market growth companies exclusively in three sectors: Financial Technology & Services, Healthcare, and Technology & Business Solutions. Since its founding in 1974, THL has raised more than $34 billion of equity capital, invested in over 160 companies, and completed more than 500 add-on acquisitions representing an aggregate enterprise value at acquisition of over $210 billion. Specifically within Financial Technology & Services, THL has invested $5.7 billion in 28 companies. Some notable exits you may know include: BlackKnight, FIS, FirstbanCorp, and MoneyGram, among others. Ganesh, has been with THL for over 20 years, coming from Morgan Stanley's FIG group and after completing his MBA at Harvard Business School. He is currently a director of AbacusNext, Black Knight, Dun & Bradstreet, ServiceLink

Anirudh Singh sits down with Deven Parekh, Managing Director at Insight Partners. The two discuss what makes Insight such a successful investment firm, the evolution of fintech investing over the past 10 years, investments in Slice, GCash, Pomelo, and much more. Deven Parekh: Deven Parekh is a Managing Director at Insight Partners. Since joining Insight in 2000, he has made more than 130 investments in enterprise software, data, and consumer internet businesses globally, including in North America, Europe, India, Israel, China, Africa, Latin America, and Australia. Currently, Deven serves on the Boards of Directors for Appriss, Calm, Candy, Checkout.com, Chrono24, Community Brands, CoreLogic, Diligent, DistroKid, DriveWealth, Ellkay, Fanatics, iad, PDI, TetraScience, Vinted, WeWork, and Within3. Other companies within his portfolio include Chargebee, FTX, Thunes, Splitwise, 1stdibs, Slice, Saks.com and Saks OFF 5th, BharatPe, and Automattic (WordPress). In addition to his work at Insight, D

Anirudh Singh sits down with Greg Schvey, CEO of Axoni. The two discuss Greg’s introduction to bitcoin, the benefits of blockchain technology, public vs. private blockchains, and much more. Greg Schvey: Greg is a repeat entrepreneur and drives Axoni’s strategic execution. He previously co-founded TradeBlock and worked as a fixed income analyst at Citigroup. Greg holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University where he studied finance. Axoni: Axoni was founded in 2013 with the goal of overhauling global capital markets infrastructure. That vision has become a reality through intensive technology development and deep collaboration with the world’s leading financial institutions. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/ WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Anirudh's Twitter: twitter.com/avsingh_24

In today's episode, Ally McCloskey sits down with two-time guest Dan Westgarth, COO at Deel. Deel makes growing remote and international teams effortless by simplifying international hiring, compliance, and payments all on one platform. This means businesses can hire anyone, anywhere as independent contractors or full time employees compliantly, in minutes, and with the ability to pay them in over 120 currencies and cryptos starting with USDC. The company has raised over $631mm from the likes of a16z, Spark Capital, Y Combinator, Coatue, Elad Gil, Nat Friedman, Alexis Ohanian, Daniel Gross, and others, most recently closing their $425mm Series D this past October. Dan joined Deel in 2020, after spending what he calls his "postgraduate education" at Revolut. For more on that chapter of his life, check out the link below to his 2019 WFT Podcast debut. In this conversation, Ally and Dan discuss: • Dan's time at Revolut and his lessons learned leading the early U.S. expansion • Meeting the founders of Deel

Gabriela Ariana Campoverde sits down with Ram Palaniappan, Founder and CEO of Earnin, which gives people access to their pay directly from their smartphones. No hidden fees, no penalties, no waiting—just access to your hard-earned cash right when you need it. With each transaction users are given the opportunity to pay what they believe is fair. In this episode, you will learn all about how: - Ram started Earnin by lending his own money to his colleagues - Earnin addresses the Earned Wage Access gap - 66% of users see an increase in their ability to pay bills with Earnin’ - The lending landscape is changing - And so much more! About Ram Palaniappan Ram Palaniappan, is the Founder and CEO of Earnin. He is passionate about building a financial system for the people, by the people. He is a graduate of the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, where he earned his MMS, and Purdue University Krannert School of Management, where he earned his MBA. About Earnin Earnin gives people access to their pay

In today's episode, Olamide Williams catches up with Professor Chris Brummer of Georgetown Law to discuss fintech regulation, balancing that with innovation, the unique connection between fintech and rap, as well as his top five rap artists of all time. Professor Brummer is the host of the Fintech Beat Podcast, which features the latest trends, movers and shakers, ideas, and policies in fintech. He sits on the boards of Fannie Mae, K2 Integrity, public.com and is the Scholar in Residence at Paradigm, the $2 billion crypto fund. He is also the host and organizer of DC Fintech Week. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/ WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech

Anirudh Singh sits down with Arvind Purushotham, Global Head of Venture Investing at Citi Ventures. The two discuss Arvind's early career at Menlo Ventures, developing partnerships between portfolio companies and Citibank, investments in Doconomy, DriveWealth, and TRM labs, Citi impact fund, and much more. Arvind Purushotham: As Global Head of Venture Investing, Arvind leads Citi’s efforts to identify, invest in, and partner with leading startups as a way to bring cutting-edge technologies and capabilities to Citi’s businesses and functions. Additionally, he serves as a partner to Citi’s business leaders and helps identify market trends based on the 1000+ startups the Venture Investing team meets every year. Under his leadership the group has partnered with category-defining startups such as Square, Plaid, DocuSign, Honey, Betterment, Braze, Netskope, and Tanium. In his capacity as head of venture investing for the company, he also co-leads the Citi Impact Fund. Prior to Citi, Arvind spent nearly a decade as

Gabriela Ariana Campoverde sits down with Mike de Vere, CEO of Zest AI. Zest helps lenders make better credit decisions -- increasing revenue, reducing risk, and automating compliance. The company serves its customers by providing them with custom credit models leveraging more data, better math, and smarter software. Today Mike is leading Zest to fulfill a mission of making fair credit available to everyone. In this episode, you will learn all about: - How it builds more inclusive underwriting models for its clients - The loan decision and funding journey - Zest’s company culture - Insights on how the lending landscape is changing - And so much more! About Mike de Vere Mike is passionate about expanding access to fair credit. He has a rich career in leveraging customer insights given his time at Nielsen, Harris Interactive and JD Power & Associates. He earned his MBA from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and studied Business Administration at the California State Un

Anirudh Singh sits down with Nathan McCauley, Co-Founder and CEO of Anchorage Digital, a leading digital asset platform for institutions. Previously, Nathan worked as an early employee at Square and at Docker. They discuss the lessons Nathan learned from helping scale Square, getting a banking charter at Anchorage Digital, Nathan’s thoughts on key crypto trends moving forward, and much more. Nathan McCauley: Nathan McCauley is the Co-Founder and CEO of Anchorage, the leading digital asset platform for institutions. He started his career at Arxan Technologies, where he worked on anti-reverse engineering and key management for commercial and military applications. As an early employee at Square, he worked on the infrastructure security platform now used to move over $80B in annualized GPV. Later, at Docker, together with Anchorage Co-Founder Diogo Mónica, he built and led the security team, developing code that helps secure containers, one of the core underpinnings of modern infrastructure. For more FinTech i

In today's episode, Anirudh Singh sits down with Christina Melas-Kyriazi, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures. Previously, Christina served as Head of Product for Consumer Foundations at Affirm and Senior Product Manager at GoFundMe. They discuss being at Affirm as the company IPOed, launching her whirlwind career at Bain Capital Ventures, and helping founders go from 0 to 1. Christina Melas-Kyriazi: Christina joined Bain Capital Ventures in 2021, where she focuses on early-stage investments in fintech and commerce. Christina was previously Head of Product for Consumer Foundations at Affirm, where she led a team of product managers to enable a delightful, frictionless customer experience from account creation to loan servicing. Before Affirm, Christina was a Senior Product Manager at GoFundMe, where she worked on growth and new product areas. Earlier in her career, Christina also spent time in business operations at LinkedIn and as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. Christina is an active angel investor a