Wharton FinTech Podcast

Miguel Armaza sits down with Noah Kerner, CEO of Acorns, a mobile savings and investment platform that has raised hundreds of millions of dollars from PayPal, Bain Capital Ventures, DST Global, NBC, Comcast, Greycroft as well as a long list of Hollywood celebrities including The Rock and Jennifer Lopez. Originally from New York City’s East Village, Noah is a 4-time entrepreneur who at one point DJ'ed for Jennifer Lopez, built a creative agency in his 20s, and is also a Co-Founder of the shareholder rights fintech startup Say. We discuss: - Noah’s eclectic background - Why he only pursues projects that make him come alive - His journey at Acorns and the evolution and challenges over the years - Their approach to building company culture, defining corporate values, and recruiting talent - The surprising effects of COVID on their business - Entrepreneurial advice - And a whole lot more! Noah Kerner Born in New York City’s east village, Noah Kerner is the CEO of the micro-investing app Acorns and co-founder of the shareholder rights startup Say. His background is colorful: 4X entrepreneur, Co-author of "Chasing Cool” with the former CEO of Barneys, and former DJ for Jennifer Lopez. In his 20s, Noah built the leading creative agency for the young adult market, Noise. Before being acquired by Engine, Noise developed hundreds of products and marketing campaigns for this generation including Facebook’s first application, the first credit card to reward responsibility rather than spending for Chase, Vice's music site Noisey, and the top branded game in the App Store. Noah has been recognized as one of Billboard Magazine’s “Top 30 Under 30,” AdWeek’s “Top 20 Under 40,” Fast Company’s “Innovation Agents” and “Impact Council” members, and as a judge for the Webby Awards. He has also advised and invested in a variety of fast-growing startups, including WeWork, where he served as the first Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer from 2013-2014. Passionate about educating today’s youth, Noah has lectured on entrepreneurialism, fintech, and media at NYU, UCLA, Stanford, and Columbia and currently serves on the Board of VH1's Save The Music Foundation. Noah is a graduate of Cornell University where he studied Psychology and Economics. About Acorns Acorns is the country's fastest-growing saving and investing app helping more than 8.2 million save and invest for the future. Its easy-to-use, mobile-first technology makes it simple for anyone to set aside and invest life's spare money. Acorns allows customers to automatically invest in a low-cost, diversified portfolio of exchange-traded funds offered by some of the world's top asset managers (including Vanguard and BlackRock). Customers grow their wealth in one of five portfolios constructed with help from world-renowned Nobel laureate economist Dr. Harry Markowitz. Acorns' smart portfolio algorithms automatically work in the background of life, helping users build wealth naturally, pennies at a time. From Acorns mighty oaks do grow. Acorns is accessed simply and easily via the app for iPhone, Android, or desktop. Visit Acorns.com for more.

As 2020 comes to a close, we bring you a special episode featuring our hosts, Miguel Armaza and Ryan Zauk. You will finally get to hear from the hosts themselves as they share: - Some of the major trends they've seen after interviewing over 100 FinTech leaders. - Some funny anecdotes & growing pains. - The hyper-growth of Wharton FinTech. - Tips on turning a podcast into a rocketship. - And provide a sneak preview at what's ahead for 2021... Thank you to all of our listeners for your incredible support during this memorable year. We have great plans for 2021 to keep bringing you insights on the companies, founders, investors, and trends shaping financial services.

"The most contrarian take I have is that there is value in working with consumers in debt." Here are a few stats for you: - The average US household as of November pays almost 9% of its income to debt - Total household debt reached $14.35 trillion this fall per the New York Fed - The average person in debt owes money to 4 different lenders The current process for debt collections  --  a highly sensitive, case-by-case, and often life-defining financial situation -- has not evolved much in the last 50 years. The process is still how most would imagine…a collections team is assigned a low-base salary and high-commission, and is tasked with harassing debtors multiple times a day with a one size fits all approach. This process is inflexible, stressful, and borderline inhumane as each person has unique financial needs. Enter Ohad Samet and TrueAccord. After honing his time at companies like Fraud Sciences (acquired by PayPal), Signifyd, and Klarna (as their CRO), Ohad recognized this enormous problem and the need for a better solution. Fast forward to 2020, TrueAccord has built a digital-first, ML-powered, humane debt collection agency that leads with empathy. TrueAccord's successes have been incredible, with collection rates 30–50% higher than industry averages and an NPS of 40 (astoundingly high for a debt collections agency, and higher than a lot of financial institutions). TA's impact on daily lives cannot be understated. One stat I loved - "85% of customers wouldn't have been able to repay their debt without the highly flexible payment plans we offer." In today's episode, Ohad comes on the show to discuss: - The different ways TrueAccord engages with the customer, and how that approach has shifted overtime thanks to Machine Learning - 3 questions about debt that he bets none of our listeners can answer - Why his HQ2 city, Kansas City, is a hidden talent and cost of living gem - The cruciality of mission-alignment in business and at TrueAccord (P.S. they're hiring!) - Navigating FinTech partnerships - A special "rapid-fire" question set …and much more. For more insights and analysis from FinTech leaders, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Ryan's Twitter: twitter.com/RyanZauk LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/whartonfintech/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/whartonfintech/

Miguel Armaza sits down with Rohit Arora, CEO and Co-Founder of Biz2Credit, a New York based company that offers financing, research, and educational resources to small businesses. Rohit and his brother founded Biz2Credit in 2008 and in the last 13 yrs the firm has arranged $2B in funding and registered over 200,000 clients. They have also raised over $60M in equity and $300M in debt from investors including Westbridge Capital and Nexus Venture Partners. We discussed - Rohit’s journey scaling Biz2Credit - Fundraising challenges as a contrarian entrepreneur - Lessons on resilience and leadership - The perils of a “growth at any cost” business mindset - Biz2Credit’s experience navigating the COVID crisis and what he believes will be the long term effects of the pandemic - And a whole lot more Rohit Arora Rohit Arora, CEO and Co-founder of Biz2Credit is one of America’s top experts in small business finance. He is responsible for driving Biz2Credit to its leadership position in the alternative lending industry among Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500. He holds a Masters in International Business from Columbia University and an Engineering degree from Delhi University. Rohit is often quoted about small business lending by major news media outlets, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Entrepreneur, American Banker, CNNMoney, MSNBC, Inc., and the Washington Post. In 2011, he and his brother Ramit were named New York City's “Top Entrepreneurs” by Crain’s New York Business, which also named Biz2Credit among NYC’s “Fast 50” of 2014. Since its inception in 2007, Biz2Credit has arranged $2 billion in funding and now has over 200,000 registered small and mid-sized company clients. About Biz2Credit Biz2Credit was founded in 2007 with one goal: make the business financing process work better for lenders and their customers. The company is focused on funding what’s next for small businesses and leverages data, cash flow insights, and the latest technology to give business owners an automated small business funding platform. Biz2Credit has provided over $3 billion in small business loans and financing. With over 350 employees globally, the team – made up of engineers, marketers and data scientists – is building the next generation in business lending solutions. Biz2Credit is also the company behind the Biz2X Platform. Biz2X is the natural outgrowth of Biz2Credit’s established platform software that brands like HSBC, Oriental Bank, and TATA Capital have chosen to launch new online lending initiatives. Biz2Credit raised $52M Series B in 2019 and is headquartered in New York City. Learn more at www.Biz2Credit.com.

On today’s episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Kathryn Van Nuys, Head of Business Development for AWS FinTech. Kathryn was just named one of the Top 50 Women in FinTech by NYC FinTech Women, highlighted as one of the top network builders in the industry. Most of us know AWS as the cloud storage and computing behemoth, generating over $35B in revenue and the lion’s share of Amazon’s profits. However, AWS is much more than just cloud. It’s a tailored, industry-by-industry solution that is becoming closer and closer to a one-stop-shop for all things technical startups. Kathryn talks about the huge variety of services AWS provides for a who’s who of FinTech, including Chime, Coinbase, Betterment, Nubank, Affirm, and more. AWS served all 50 of Forbes FinTech 50 last year. In today’s episode, Kathryn delves into - The huge range of services AWS offers startups at each stage of their development - Some of their strongest case studies helping clients - What sub-verticals she’s paying special attention to - The explosion in FinTech partnerships ...And much more For more insights and analysis from FinTech leaders, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Ryan's Twitter: twitter.com/RyanZauk LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/whartonfintech/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/whartonfintech/

In this episode, my guest is Santiago Suarez, Co-Founder & CEO of Addi, the leading POS financing platform in Latin America, backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Foundation, Monashees, Quona, and Village Global. Prior to returning to his native Colombia to launch Addi, Santiago started his career in finance in New York City at JP Morgan, and later moved to Silicon valley for a leadership role at Lending Club. We talk about: - Santiago’s entrepreneurial fintech journey and fundraising experience - Regional market dynamics - The virtues of applying an American credit-scoring approach in Latin America - Navigating an evolving regulatory landscape - The importance of company culture - And a lot more! Listen to the full interview --> Spotify | Soundcloud | Apple About ADDI ADDI was founded in 2018 by co-founders Santiago Suarez, Daniel Vallejo, and Elmer Ortega, to power commerce and make point-of-sale financing accessible to every Latin American merchant and consumer. For more information, visit https://addi.com/.

Miguel Armaza sits down with Jan Bellens, Global Head of EY’s Banking & Capital Markets Group. In his role, Jan counsels banks in defining their strategies and supports their implementation with investments, acquisitions, and ambitious organic growth initiatives around the world. He has been supporting banks for the last two decades and has worked with clients in over 20 countries. We talk about: - Jan’s professional journey and what led him to his current role where he oversees 45k people - A few of the trends he’s seeing from banks across different regions - What the impact of COVID really means for banks - The challenges of managing an organization with 45k+ professionals - And much, much more! Jan Bellens As the EY Global Banking & Capital Markets Sector Leader, Jan counsels banks in defining their strategies and supports their implementation with investments, acquisitions and ambitious organic growth initiatives. He has been supporting leading banks’ executive teams with their growth opportunities and multi-year business transformations for the last two decades. He has worked with clients in over 20 countries. Before joining EY, Jan was in management consulting for 17 years. He has an MBA from INSEAD. About EY Banking and Capital Markets EY’s worldwide team of industry-focused assurance, tax, transaction and advisory professionals integrates sector knowledge and technical experience. They work with clients to navigate digital innovation, new business models and ecosystem partnerships, helping banks become the nimble, responsive organizations that customers demand. About EY EY exists to build a better working world, helping create long-term value for clients, people and society and build trust in the capital markets. Enabled by data and technology, diverse EY teams in over 150 countries provide trust through assurance and help clients grow, transform and operate. Working across assurance, consulting, law, strategy, tax and transactions, EY teams ask better questions to find new answers for the complex issues facing our world today. EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. Information about how EY collects and uses personal data and a description of the rights individuals have under data protection legislation are available via ey.com/privacy. EY member firms do not practice law where prohibited by local laws. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.

In today’s episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Griffith Norville, Managing Director at Hamilton Lane. Over the last decade, the scope of private investments has exploded across products, asset classes, and geographies. LPs, often equipped with just a small investment team, are facing greater difficulty sorting through droves of funds, managers, trends, and data. Hamilton Lane and its cutting-edge product, Cobalt LP, are tackling this problem head-on. Griff is the Head of Cobalt LP, a software solution that helps LPs with portfolio construction, benchmarking, and investment selection focused on the private markets. Cobalt also offers front-office analytics and back-office managed services solutions, all backed by Hamilton Lane’s first-class historical data and insights. In addition to this role, Griff helps run strategic technology investments for the firm. They talk about the state of Private Markets investing and how the explosive growth of private markets has created such a need for Cobalt LP. They close with his role in strategic tech investing, including how he sourced a deal from a fishbowl (don’t you miss in-person conferences?). Hamilton Lane is an alternative investment management firm that provides private markets solutions to investors around the world with over $500B total assets under management and supervision as of September 30, 2020 - Inclusive of $73.1B in assets under management and $474.1B in assets under supervision as of September 30, 2020. For more insights and analysis from FinTech leaders, follow us below: Ryan's Twitter: twitter.com/RyanZauk Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/whartonfintech/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/whartonfintech/

In today’s episode, Anchit Gupta (WG’21) is joined by Neeraj Khandelwal, Co-Founder of CoinDCX. Started in 2018, CoinDCX is India’s largest and safest cryptocurrency exchange and liquidity aggregator. CoinDCX offers users single-point access to a diverse suite of crypto-based financial products and services. Neeraj spearheads the technical development of all CoinDCX products. Prior to his role at CoinDCX, he served as Vice President of Engineering at Holachef and Chief Technology Officer at Doormint, leading a team of over 20 talented developers. Neeraj holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. In this interview, Neeraj shares: - CoinDCX’s customer base and their investment preferences - Awareness of crypto in India and CoinDCX’s efforts to increase it - Their competitive landscape and ecosystem in India - His business strategy in response to Crypto’s high volatility and risk - The future of Cryptocurrency in India For more insights and analysis from FinTech leaders, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Ryan's Twitter: twitter.com/RyanZauk LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/whartonfintech/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/whartonfintech/

In this episode, my guest is Henrique Dubugras, Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Brex, a financial operating system for startups and growing companies, with services including a charge card, cash management, and controls in a single account. Originally from Brazil, Henrique built a payments company when he was only sixteen and in just three years grew it to process over $1.5 billion in processed transactions. Shortly thereafter, he co-founded Brex along with Pedro Franceschi. In this interview, we talk about: - Henrique’s story from entrepreneur, to Stanford student, to Stanford dropout and Brex co-founder - How he met his co-founder, Pedro, and their inspiration to launch Brex - Their significant decision to move Brex into a remote-first company and what that means for them - The importance of company culture and some key lessons for fintech founders - And a whole lot more! Henrique Dubugras Henrique Dubugras is Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Brex — the smartest corporate card in the room. A Brazilian entrepreneur, Henrique built payments company Pagar.me — the Stripe of Brazil — when he was sixteen years old. In just three years, Pagar.me grew to US$1.5 billion in volume of transactions processed. In the fall of 2016, Henrique sold Pagar.me and enrolled at Stanford University. After eight months, he left school and founded Brex. About Brex Brex is reimagining financial systems so every growing company can realize its full potential. By rebuilding from scratch the entire technology stack for credit card issuing, storing and transferring money, Brex has designed financial software that avoids previously painful banking problems. Traditional banking systems are broken; previously neither founders nor their businesses had access to great financial perks and benefits that their corporate counterparts enjoyed. Brex created products for fast moving companies that are intuitive, well designed, and have more powerful functionality than anything on the market. At its core, Brex exists to empower every growing company to dream bigger. In June 2018 Brex launched the first corporate card and rewards program designed for Startups. Brex reimagined every aspect of corporate cards, including 10-20x higher limits than traditional cards, tailored rewards with points on every purchase, and no personal guarantee for founders. This is a radically better experience for customers. In Fall 2019, Brex introduced its second product, Brex Cash. A first-of-its-kind cash management account that enables companies to simplify financial operations, pay for expenses and grow their business, all with zero fees. As a unified platform, Brex brings together the ability to store money and pay bills in a single, elegant dashboard replete with integrations to other financial software -- a new vision for the autonomous finance function. Having started as part of the Y Combinator accelerator program in 2017, the team has grown to over 400 people. Based in San Francisco, Brex has raised over US$465 million in venture capital, with support from Kleiner Perkins Growth, YC Continuity Fund, Greenoaks Capital, Ribbit Capital, IVP, DST, as well as fintech insiders like Peter Thiel and Max Levchin. Brex has also raised over $510 million in debt funding from Barclays. As of writing it is worth $3 billion.