Wharton FinTech Podcast

Tarang Gupta hosts TX Zhuo, General Partner, and Gabriella Brignardello, Vice President at Fika Ventures, a seed-fund investing in fintech, enterprise software, and marketplaces. In this episode you will hear about: - Fika Ventures' manifesto of "whole stories, not headlines" - How to be an effective investor - Interesting startups that Fika has invested in - Segments that TX and Gabriella believe will drive the growth of fintech And much more! About Gabriella Brignardello Gabriella began her career at EY-Parthenon. After three years in consulting, she transitioned to a venture role at WndrCo, a consumer technology holding company, before joining Fika Ventures in 2021. She is also involved in fundraising and operational initiatives for Mi Casa de Angeles, a nonprofit she founded in 2009. Gabriella holds a BS in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University. About TX Zhuo TX has been involved with startups since his college days where he started and sold an online college textbook marketplace. After a stint at McKinsey, he came back to his roots and served as the CFO for an electric vehicle startup. In 2012, he co-founded Karlin Ventures, based in Los Angeles, where he served as the managing partner for 4 years before co-founding Fika Ventures. TX holds an MBA from Stanford GSB. About Fika Ventures Fika Ventures is an LA-based seed fund that invests in founders solving meaningful, systemic problems through the use of data, related AI-enabled technologies, and automation, especially in the fintech, enterprise software, marketplaces, and digital health sectors. For more FinTech insights, follow us on WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Tarang’s Twitter: twitter.com/tg_tarang Tarang’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/taranggupta100

Vishal Garg, Founder & CEO at Better, shares his belief in credit as a socio-economic equalizer and the inspiration behind Better. They discuss Better's unique marketplace model and Vishal's desire to change one professional decision. Explore the career journey in FinTech, the automation of mortgage approvals, the mortgage industry's overview and key stakeholders, Better's evolving revenue sources and customer segments, and the potential use of data analysis in decision-making processes.

Nihar Bobba hosts Seema Amble, a partner focused on fintech investments at a16z. She primarily focuses on B2B fintech, such as payments, CFO tools, and vertical software, globally. She serves on the boards of Mvmnt and Stoik. Prior to joining Andreessen Horowitz, Seema had been investing in fintech for over a decade. She was a vice president at Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, a venture growth fund, where she focused on leading investments in fintech and Latin America. Previously, she worked at LeapFrog Investments, an emerging markets fund, and at Altamont Capital Partners. She began her career at Blackstone. Seema also worked at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau while in law school. Seema has a BA in Economics, magna cum laude, and a JD/MBA from Harvard University, where she was a Baker Scholar. In this episode you will hear about: - Seema's path into fintech - Her thoughts on fintech business models in emerging markets - Why she's excited about b2b payments, and a whole lot more

Tarang Gupta hosts Alfred Chuang, Founder and General Partner at Race Capital, a venture capital firm that invests, builds, and partners with exceptional founders building the future. In this episode you will hear about: - What Alfred loves about a venture's journey from zero to one - Web3 and its influence on the future of fintech - Achieving repeated success as an entrepreneur - Economic downturns and its hidden opportunities for VCs And much more! About Alfred Chuang Alfred is the Founder and General Partner at Race Capital. Recognized by Andreessen Horowitz as “Silicon Valley CEO’s CEO”, Alfred is an accomplished entrepreneur, having co-founded and taken BEA Systems public. Prior to BEA, Alfred spent eight years and a half years at Sun Microsystems where he led product development and network infrastructure. Alfred received a B.S. in computer science from the University of San Francisco and a Master’s degree in computer science from the University of California, Davis. About Race Capital Based in San Francisco, Race Capital invests in seed, pre-seed, and few idea stage companies and is generally focused on all things B2B/Enterprise on the infrastructure layers of the tech stack. For more FinTech insights, follow us on WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Tarang’s Twitter: twitter.com/tg_tarang Tarang’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/taranggupta100

Tarang Gupta hosts Patrick Gauthier, CEO at Convera, the largest non-bank B2B cross-border payments company in the world. In this episode you will hear about - What makes Convera the dominant player in cross-border payments - Countries that are going to drive the future of fintech - Operational differences in B2B vs B2C financial services organizations - What working with Jeff Bezos is like And much more About Patrick Gauthier Patrick joined as the CEO of Convera in 2021 after having held senior leadership roles at Amazon, PayPal, and Visa. He has deep expertise in developing high-performance teams and building high-growth businesses. Patrick holds several patents related to payment systems and is a recognized thought leader on the future of commerce and payments, with recurring appearances on CNBC and at industry conferences. Patrick holds a master's degree in Computer Science from Telecom SudParis in France. About Convera Convera is the largest non-bank B2B cross-border payments company in the world. Formerly Western Union Business Solutions, Convera leverages decades of industry expertise and technology-led payment solutions to deliver smarter money movements to customers. In 2020, Convera processed over $110 billion in transactions, with a customer base of more than 30,000 small and medium-sized businesses, educational institutions, financial institutions, law firms, and NGOs spanning over 40 countries and territories and 140 currencies. For more FinTech insights, follow us on WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Tarang’s Twitter: twitter.com/tg_tarang Tarang’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/taranggupta100

Tarang Gupta hosts Gayathri Rajan, Chief Product Officer at DriveWeath, a pioneer in fractional investing and brokerage infrastructure. In this episode you will hear about: - Fractional investing and its role in attracting retail investors - Identifying a great product-market fit - Future of embedded finance and its potential to spawn business opportunities - Why building B2B products is exciting And much more! About Gayathri Rajan Gayathri currently serves as DriveWealth’s Chief Product Officer, where she leads the firm’s strategy in developing and launching high-demand financial services products for investors worldwide. Gayathri joined DriveWealth following a 16-year stint as a product leader at Google, where she built the enterprise business for Google Maps and founded Google’s payments platform. Prior to Google, Gayathri held several positions at the Vanguard Group and Financial Engines. Gayathri holds a BA and M.Eng in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge, an MSc in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Stanford University. About DriveWealth DriveWealth is the pioneer of fractional equities trading and embedded investing. It provides solutions that are transforming the investing landscape and powering 100+ fintechs, neobanks, & wallets worldwide. DriveWealth’s consultative support and cloud-based, industrial strength technology platform allow partners to seamlessly offer branded investing experiences to drive customer acquisition, loyalty, retention, and revenue growth. For more FinTech insights, follow us on WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Tarang’s Twitter: twitter.com/tg_tarang Tarang’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/taranggupta100

Tarang Gupta hosts Andy Bromberg, CEO of Eco, a consumer fintech company that lets you spend, send, save, and make money, all in one app. In this episode you will hear about - Building an open rewards system - Working towards maximizing wealth of the community - Navigating market cycles in crypto - Choosing the right investors and colleagues And much more! About Andy Bromberg Prior to joining Eco as the CEO, Andy was Co-founder and President of CoinList, a leading platform for token sales, trading, and other financial services for digital asset projects. Andy is also a founding board member at FreeWorld, a non-profit seeking to end institutionalized poverty in the United States by providing access to living-wage jobs for people with criminal histories. Andy studied Mathematics and Computer Science at Stanford University and co founded the Stanford Bitcoin Group. About Eco Eco is a digital wallet that is replacing checking accounts, credit cards, and more with a single balance that rewards you each time you make a transaction. The app uses Eco Points, a new rewards currency that helps align the interest of everyone in the Eco community. For more FinTech insights, follow us on WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Tarang’s Twitter: twitter.com/tg_tarang Tarang’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/taranggupta100

Andrew Janssens hosts Ashwin Kumar, Head of Startups for Banking-as-a-Service at Stripe. Ashwin is the former CEO and co-founder of Y Combinator-backed Sway Finance, and now helps Stripe's customers to use their BaaS APIs to embed financial products. Ashwin’s startup roots help him guide fintech founders as they work with Stripe to solve complex financial problems. He’s designed products from scratch, taught himself to code, won several hackathons to support his entrepreneurial endeavors, and was part of Y Combinator’s S16 cohort. Prior to joining Stripe in 2021, Ashwin was a data scientist for YC Startup School, a product manager/machine learning engineer at Mythic and a software engineer at Autopilot. In this episode you will hear about: -How Stripe is building the infrastructure for embedded finance -How Ashwin won 30 hackathons in a row by working backwards from the pitch -Why calling your company the Uber for X can backfire -And much, much more For more FinTech insights, follow us below: WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Andrew’s Twitter: twitter.com/Adhjanssens Andrew’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/andrew-p-janssens/

Tarang Gupta hosts Andrew Jamison, the CEO and Co-Founder of Extend, an innovative platform that is redefining how credit cards are issued. In this episode you will hear about: - Leaving leadership positions in corporate and start a venture - Navigating the tricky small and medium business segment - Why building relationships is so important in business - How to assess potential investors And much more! About Andrew Jamison A virtual card expert, Andrew was the head of B2B Corporate Payments Products at American Express with a mandate to drive digital payment innovation and adoption. Prior to American Express, he spent 10 years as an SAP consultant. About Extend Founded in 2016, Extend enables credit card sharing amongst non-cardholders via a simple and ubiquitous P2P platform. Extend helps banks, and their customers to capture more business spend on their existing card accounts by connecting account holders and their workforce. For more FinTech insights, follow us on WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Tarang’s Twitter: twitter.com/tg_tarang Tarang’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/taranggupta100

Andrew Janssens hosts Dimitri Dadiomov, Founder & CEO of Modern Treasury. In this episode we cover topics including: - Dimitri and Modern Treasury's Y combinator journey - Building a culture at a new company - Dimitri's outlook on Real-Time Payments - Modern Treasury's reverse interview of Acquired - And much, much more! About Dimitri Dadiomov: Dimitri founded Modern Treasury in 2018 alongside his co-founders, Matt Marcus and Sam Arons. Prior to Modern Treasury Dimitri was a Principal PM at LendingHome (formerly Kiavi) responsible for building payment operations. About Modern Treasury Modern Treasury is building payment operations solutions to automate the full cycle of money movement and help businesses to implement real-time payments and close their books with continuous accounting. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Andrew’s Twitter: twitter.com/Adhjanssens Andrew’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/andrew-p-janssens/