Wharton FinTech Podcast

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 and building conviction that they'd be the team to tackle global hiring and payroll • How Deel replaces long email chains, generic contracts, individual wire transfers, and foreign subsidiaries and instead enables quick and compliant hiring of employees living anywhere in the world • The effects of the pandemic on demand for foreign talent • How Deel thinks about company culture when it has 450 employees working in more than 50 countries • Why Dan values investor diligence as it relates to his own technical operations • And a lot more About Dan (twitter.com/Dan_Westgarth) Fintech enthusiast Dan Westgarth currently serves as Chief Operating Officer at Deel, where he manages Deel's Business, Operations, Legal, and Compliance teams. Before joining Deel, Dan was one of challenger bank Revolut's earliest employees, most recently in the role of General Manager for North America. Outside of his day to day at Deel, Westgarth spends his time making early-stage angel investments into interesting technology companies and helping them scale. Dan's 2019 WFT Podcast debut: https://soundcloud.com/wft/dan-westgarth-north-america-general-manager-for-revolut About Deel Deel is a global payroll solution that helps businesses hire anyone, anywhere. Using a tech-enabled self-serve process, companies can now hire independent contractors or full-time employees in over 150 countries, compliantly and in minutes. Today, Deel serves 6,000+ customers from SMBs to publicly traded companies, including Coinbase, Shopify and Dropbox, among others, and just recently announced that customers can now fund their payroll in crypto. For more on its journey, check out What's the deal with Deel? -- As always, for more Fintech insights and opportunities to collaborate, please find us below: WFT Blog: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Home: www.whartonfintech.org WFT LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/ Suggest a Podcast Guest: airtable.com/shrdbokQPxAJzgVh7 Ally's Twitter: twitter.com/AllyMcCloskey Ally's Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/allyraemccloskey/

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 directly from their smartphones, whenever they need it. Launched in 2014, Earnin is driving consumer-empowered finance through mobile technology by breaking open more than $1 trillion held up in America's pay cycle. Current funding partners include Andreessen Horowitz, Matrix Partners, Ribbit Capital, Felicis Ventures, March Capital Partners, Trinity Ventures, Thrive Capital, and Camp One Ventures. To learn more about Earnin, visit earnin.com. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Gabriela’s Twitter: twitter.com/byGabyC Gabriela’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/gcampoverde

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 a Managing Director at Menlo Ventures, where he was an investor and Board member at companies including Kazeon Systems, Cavium Networks, Solidcore, nCircle Network Security, Intelligent Results, and Vhayu Technologies. Previously, Arvind was a design engineer and a Program Manager at Intel Corporation. Arvind obtained his BSEE from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, an MSEE from Case Western Reserve University, and an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School. He enjoys running, photography, and reading in his spare time. Arvind is passionate about golf—a passion, sadly, that his skill level does not match. He lives in Palo Alto, CA with his wife, two sons, and their black lab Rocky. 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 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 University, Northridge. About Zest AI Zest AI makes the power of machine learning safe to use in credit underwriting. The Zest Model Management System enables lenders to analyze vast amounts of credit data to help increase approval rates and reduce the risk of faulty credit decisions. The platform also provides the ability to explain data modeling results to measure business impact and help comply with regulatory requirements. To learn more about Zest, visit zest.ai. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Gabriela’s Twitter: twitter.com/byGabyC Gabriela’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/gcampoverde

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 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, 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 and an advisor to early-stage companies. She has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from Stanford University. Christina grew up in Los Angeles, CA and now lives in San Francisco with her husband John and son Theo. She loves running in the Presidio and skiing. 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, Anirudh Singh sits down with Liran Zelkha, Co-Founder and CTO of Lili, an all-in-one banking app designed for freelance workers. In this episode, they discuss the thriving startup ecosystem in Israel, why it's so hard to manage your money as a freelance worker, and how Lili hopes to make freelancers' lives easier. Liran Zelkha: Liran Zelkha is Co-Founder and CTO of Lili, the all-in-one banking app designed for over 500K freelance workers. He has over 20 years of tech industry experience, including as a freelancer, which inspired him to create a solution for independent workers’ unique pain points. From strategic management to hands-on coding, Liran specializes in turning lofty ideas into functioning businesses. Prior to founding Lili, Liran served as CTO and VP, Research and Development for Pepper, the first and only challenger bank in Israel. Liran was also CEO and CTO at tech consulting firm Tona and owner / co-CEO of Aluna, Israel’s leading Java and service-oriented architecture (SOA) consulting firm. Liran received bachelor's degrees in computer science from Universitat Ben Gurion Ba-Negav and The Academic College of Tel-Aviv. He is based in Israel.

In today's episode, Ally McCloskey sits down with Jason Wenk, Founder & CEO of Altruist. Altruist is an all-in-one digital platform for Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) and their clients that helps make financial advice more efficient, more affordable, and accessible to more people. Using Altruist, advisors have cutting edge tools on an investment platform that significantly streamlines and reduces their costs, enabling them to serve more people, better. The upstart most recently raised its $50mm Series B led by Insight Partners, with follow-on participation from Series A investors Venrock and Vanguard. Ally and Jason discuss: - How the space has evolved over the decades he's been a founder in financial advice and wealth management, and how he was able to get "more efficient" with each new company - Where he stands on the human advice vs. roboadvisory trade-off and why Altruist only works with RIA firms - How he cold solicited the Top 10 Financial Advisors To Watch on Linkedin as part of customer discovery - Launching the Human Advisor Podcast (https://apple.co/3KMghnX) to elevate the stories of a new breed of modern advisors - Building a "dreamy" group of board members, including Wharton Alumni and Former Chairman and CEO of Vanguard, Bill McNabb, Jonathan Rosenbaum (Insight Partners), Nick Beim (Venrock), and Ryan Barrows (Vanguard) as an observer. - Attracting folks to the challenge of taking on 2 major incumbents controlling 80%+ market share and each with $100 billion dollar valuations - Why Altruist's people quotient centers on kindness, brilliance, and grit - And a WHOLE lot more About Jason Wenk Jason has excelled as a leader in the financial services industry over the past 20 years, working as an advisor, investment systems developer, analyst, and founder of multiple companies. He is dedicated to making finance a collaborative space between advisors and consumers, emphasizing the importance of human connection and interaction to improve financial wellness with affordable and accessible resources for more people. After a number of successful and innovative business concepts including FormulaFolios and Retirement Wealth Advisors, Jason chose to focus on creating meaningful experiences for advisors and their clients with fintech firm, Altruist. Jason was awarded GRBJ Newsmaker of the Year in 2016 and 2017 (finance category) and was named an EY Entrepreneur of the Year in 2018. About Altruist Altruist is a Los Angeles-based company on a mission to make financial advisors more efficient, more affordable, and accessible to more people. The team builds products to provide advisors cutting edge tools, and offers an investment platform that substantially lowers costs. As a completely digital brokerage, Altruist helps advisors provide their clients with a delightful experience with their money. Learn more at altruist.com, follow on Twitter @altruist, and check out the Human Advisor Podcast here: https://grow.altruist.com/introducing-the-human-advisor-podcast. Honorable mentions: - WFT podcast episode with Bill McNabb, Former Vanguard CEO & Chairman: https://medium.com/wharton-fintech/former-vanguard-ceo-chairman-bill-mcnabb-the-future-of-finance-leading-in-crisis-esg-436f1c031907 - WFT podcast episode with Henrique Dubugras, Co-Founder/Co-CEO of Brex: https://medium.com/wharton-fintech/reinventing-financial-systems-henrique-dubugras-co-founder-co-ceo-of-brex-8dc7ab820765 -- As always, for more Fintech insights and opportunities to collaborate, please find us below: WFT Blog: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Ally's Twitter: twitter.com/AllyMcCloskey Wharton FinTech Home: https://www.whartonfintech.org LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/ Suggest a Podcast Guest: https://airtable.com/shrdbokQPxAJzgVh7

In today’s episode, Anirudh Singh sits down with Eddie Serrill, Business Lead for Stripe Capital and the site lead for Stripe’s New York office. In the episode, they discuss what makes Stripe so good at offering products to online businesses, how Stripe leverages banking relationships to bring the best products to the table, the impact that Stripe Capital has had on the small businesses it partners with, and much more. Eddie Serrill: Eddie is the Business Lead for Stripe Capital and the site lead for Stripe’s New York office. Stripe is a technology company that's building economic infrastructure for the internet. Businesses of every size—from new startups to public companies—use Stripe's software to accept payments and manage their businesses online. Stripe Capital provides Stripe users with access to financing, and enables platform partners to offer financing to their customers with an end-to-end lending API. Prior to Stripe, Eddie served as the COO of Bond Street and the VP of Revenue & Operations at TrialPay. He holds a degree in Economics and Philosophy from Duke University and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.