Wharton FinTech Podcast

Danielle Cohen-Shohet, CEO and Founder of GlossGenius, shares her journey from Goldman Sachs analyst to leading a fintech revolution in the beauty industry. She discusses building user-friendly solutions for salons and spas, emphasizing the importance of simplifying financial workflows. Danielle offers insights into the unique challenges female entrepreneurs face and shares her belief in the value of history for leadership. The conversation also touches on trends in embedded fintech and the critical traits needed for entrepreneurial success.

Tarang Gupta sits down with Latif Peracha, General Partner at M13, a venture capital firm investing in enabling technologies that will power the future of work, health, commerce, and money. In this episode you will hear about - The interesting world of Web3 investing - M13’s unique Propulsion Platform for startups - Exciting Web3 startups backed by M13 - What working with Sir Richard Branson was like And much more! About Latif Peracha Latif manages the overall investing strategy for M13 and has led numerous deals across money and health verticals with a large focus on Web3. He was previously the Managing Director at Virgin Group where he led investing in the Americas including investments in Ring, Slack, Virgin Galactic, and Virgin Orbit. Prior to Virgin, Latif worked at Bear Stearns and Ticketmaster and currently serves on the advisory board at the University of Michigan. About M13 M13 is a VC firm with a portfolio of $137 Billion+, including 15 unicorn startups, which focuses on investing in technologies that will power the future of work, health, commerce, and money. This includes Web3, which M13 defines as a horizontal technology that permeates across these four areas. M13 invests at Seed, Series A, and Series B stages. 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 Nik Milanović, Founder of This Week in Fintech, a digest of global FinTech news, and General Partner of The Fintech Fund. In this episode we cover topics including: - How This Week in Fintech evolved from Nik's weekly updates to his teammates and friends - Nik's early start in microfinance and how it has affected his philosophy on fintech - How we can build more diverse communities in fintech - Nik's love of music (specifically DJ-ing) About Nik Milanović Nik Milanovic, is the Founder of This Week in Fintech, and General Partner of the Fintech Fund. Prior to This Week in Fintech and the Fintech Fund, Nik was hire #1 at Funding Circle, led Strategy at Petal and subsequently led BD and Strategy for Google Pay and Google Finance. About This Week in Fintech This week in Fintech is a digest of all things in global Fintech. From a single weekly newsletter it has grown to coverage of fintech news around the world. 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 has a conversation with Philip Belamant, Co-Founder and CEO of Zilch, a UK-based payment and BNPL provider that is Europe’s fastest-ever company to go from launch to unicorn. In this episode you will hear about - Philip's entrepreneurial journey from Africa to the UK - How Zilch's ad-subsidized payments network is changing the way consumers access credit - Why Zilch decided to take a different approach than conventional “checkout” finance - What it takes to build a 'customer-first' company And much more! About Philip Belamant Philip is a serial entrepreneur who founded fintech companies in developing economies including a mobile payment service and a leading fintech company in Africa, before starting Zilch. Philip graduated Cum Laude from RAU University in South Africa, where he completed both Bsc IT and Bsc IT Honors degrees and he won UK’s Great British Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2021. About Zilch Founded in 2018, Zilch is a UK-based payments and BNPL provider that reached 2 million customers in 18 months, becoming the fastest fintech to achieve double unicorn status. Zilch is on a mission to provide people with the most empowering and value enhancing way to pay for anything while managing their cash flow responsibly. 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 has a conversation with Alex Zinder, Global Head of Ledger Enterprise, the B2B division of Ledger, a leader in crypto-asset management. In this episode you will hear about: - Ledger’s pioneering offerings in Web3 hardware and software - Witnessing the dotcom bubble and the evolution of internet companies - What's it like working at NASDAQ vs at a high-growth startup - How to get involved in Web3 if you are not from a tech background And much more! About Alex Zinder Alex joined Ledger Enterprise in March 2021 after spending almost two decades in capital markets technology. Alex was previously at NASDAQ where he was the Director of Global Software Development and held the role of Assistant Vice President, Enterprise Architecture. Alex has more than 15 years of experience in driving the adoption of emerging technologies in financial services organizations and for the past seven years he has focused on distributed systems and digital assets. About Ledger Enterprise Ledger Enterprise, the B2B division of Ledger, provides a secure hardware-backed platform to protect organizations' digital assets at scale. Ledger also delivers Crypto Treasury Management, Decentralized Finance (DeFi) as a service, NFT, and Token creation capabilities with secure governance and self-custody. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: 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 Mark Higgins, Co-Founder and Chief Analytics Officer of Beacon, an end-to-end development platform for financial markets that allows traders and quants to build and share code and applications across the front and back office. In this episode you will hear about: - How Mark went from his PhD in physics to the world of finance - How Goldman's Sec DB contributed to their trading edge - Whether finance and FinTech are still appealing for today's PhDs - Some of the latest applications of AI and machine learning in modern trading About Mark Higgins Mark Higgins (PhD) is a veteran of the finance industry, and a true technologist with a PhD in astrophysics. Before co-founding Beacon with Kirat Singh in 2014, Mark spent eight years at JP Morgan, launching and delivering the Athena project, and co-heading the quantitative research group for the investment bank. Prior to JP Morgan he spent eight years at Goldman Sachs where he worked on Goldman's legendary SecDB. About Beacon Beacon is a development platform providing quants and programmers the ability to develop, customize and and roll out analytics and applications for public markets trading. Beacon serves a wide range of investors and has offices in New York, London and Tokyo. 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 has a conversation with Robert (Bob) Pitti, Partner at Liquid Stock, an investment firm providing liquidity to employees and stockholders of privately held companies. In this episode you will hear about: - How Liquid Stock is enabling liquidity for shareholders of pre-IPO companies - How companies can leverage tax arbitrage to retain talent - Robert's outlook on the recent economic uncertainty - Liquid Stock’s growth and expansion plans About Robert (Bob) Pitti Robert is a founder of Liquid Stock and possesses more than 25 years of wealth management and advisory experience. Prior to Liquid Stock, Robert was a founder and Managing Partner at VSL Partners and before that he worked at Thomas Weisel Partners. Robert pursued an undergraduate degree in business from George Washington University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. About Liquid Stock Founded in 2019, Liquid Stock is a pioneer in private company liquidity solutions that provides employees with financing to help option exercise, tax plan, and achieve liquidity. Liquid Stock’s mission is to democratize and transform share ownership at privately held companies. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: 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 Joe Robinson, Co-Founder and CEO of Hummingbird, a regtech helping banks and fintechs fight financial crimes with better communications and platforms to investigate Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) incidents. In this episode you will hear about: - How Joe came to found Hummingbird after experiences at Square and Circle - How fintechs can stay ahead of the newest forms of financial crime - How banks and fintechs are navigating the crypto universe and financial crime - Building a distributed team and what's next for Hummingbird About Joe Robinson Joe Robinson is the co-Founder and CEO of Hummingbird. He started his career in product management within FinTech and has held roles including VP of Risk and Data Science at Circle, and Senior Product Lead at Square. About Hummingbird Hummingbird is a platform that enables fintechs and financial institutions to conduct their investigations into potential financial crime. 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 has a conversation with Ben Verschuere, Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Treasure Financial, a cash management platform designed to help businesses transform idle cash into revenue. In this episode you will hear about: - What motivated Ben to launch a fintech startup - How good treasury management can help companies become more profitable - Why banks are disincentivized to offer attractive yields on deposits - His opinion on the next revolution in banking About Ben Verschuere Ben has more than 15 years of experience in the financial services industry, starting his career with Morgan Stanley followed by 10 years at Peter Thiel’s hedge fund and family office, after which he co-founded Treasure. Ben earned a BS in Economics and a MS in Finance from UCL(Belgium), a MS in Statistics from the University of Chicago and was a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto. About Treasure Financial Founded in 2018, Treasure is a platform offering treasury as a service. With the Treasure Reserve account businesses can allocate funds between Treasure Cash and Treasure High Yield based on the cashflow needs, earning up to 100x more revenue on idle cash and turning their finance department into a revenue generator. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: 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 has a conversation with Lizzie Chapman, Co-Founder & CEO of ZestMoney, India’s largest EMI financing and Buy Now, Pay Later Network. In this episode you will hear about: - What fascinates Lizzie about the Indian fintech industry - Her experiences as a female entrepreneur - Her outlook on the future of the global buy now, pay later industry - Why Lizzie is excited about the Global Fintech Fest 2022 And much more! About Lizzie Chapman Lizzie started her career as an equity research analyst with Goldman Sachs in London. After a 5-year stint at Goldman Sachs, she moved to the buy-side as an investor at Wellcome Trust. In 2011, she moved from UK to India to spearhead operations for digital lender Wonga and in 2014, she led the launch of ‘Digibank’, India’s first mobile-app-only bank. She was recognized as among the Top 100 women in fintech globally by the Fintech magazine. About ZestMoney Founded in 2015, ZestMoney is India’s largest and fastest-growing Digital EMI/Checkout Finance platform. ZestMoney is deeply integrated with large merchants in India including Amazon and Flipkart, and brands like Apple and Reliance Digital; increasing the affordability of their products and helping them facilitate frictionless sales. The company has built a platform that integrates mobile technology, digital banking, and AI, enabling people to get a digital credit line within seconds. ZestMoney’s technology and work to make affordable finance accessible led to their selection as a 2020 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum. This episode is brought to you in collaboration with the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2022. To attend the festival please visit https://globalfintechfest.com/ 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