Wharton Fintech Podcast

Miguel Armaza is joined by the talented Rob Petrozzo, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Rally, a groundbreaking platform for buying & selling equity shares in collectible assets, that aims to give every investor a 21st Century Portfolio. The company has raised close to $30 million, from top industry investors like Upfront Ventures, Anthemis, Porsche Ventures, Alexis Ohanian, and many more. We discussed: - Rob’s winding road from artist to entrepreneur - Working with his co-founders and why they bring the perfect balance of personalities - Challenges and stories from building Rally and their vision of a 21st century portfolio - Operating with collectible luxury items like cars and art pieces, and the important question of whether they get to test-drive all those incredible cars - The importance of building a community and why most people confuse community and monetization - His vision for the future of Rally - And a lot more! About Rally Rally is a platform for buying & selling equity shares in colle

Miguel Armaza sits down with Elle Bruno, Managing Director of the Techstars & Western Union Accelerator. Armed with 19 years of experience as a founder, startup operator, and angel investor, Elle now leads the Techstars/Western Union accelerator focused on identifying innovative and disruptive startups working on cross border and cross-currency money movement for consumers and commercial businesses. In fact, if you are an entrepreneur in this category or know someone who’d be a good candidate, be it in the US or an emerging market around the world, make sure to apply by April 7, 2021. Apply Here -> https://bit.ly/2QE16FM Company Stage -> MVP+ Categories within fintech: - Alternative Financial Services Offerings (lending, emerging market asset management, P2P lending) - Payments and Remittance - KYC, AML, Compliance - Digital ID, Fraud Detection - Settlement and Transaction Processing - Digital Banking and Neo Banks - SMB emerging market POS Elle Bruno Elle Bruno is the Managing Director of the Techsta

In today's episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Charles Birnbaum, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, one of the world’s oldest & most successful venture capital firms. Charles joins the show fresh off of Bessemer’s $3.3B raise in February across two funds. Charles is a proud Wharton alum, joining the MBA program after a long stint on Wall Street. He then was employee #10 at Foursquare before joining Bessemer. In today’s episode, they cover: - His transitions from sell-side to MBA to startups to VC, and doing “tech” way before it was a normal part of the Wharton path (2:50) - Bessemer's structure & emphasis on thesis-driven investing (8:05) - His focus on fintech infrastructure and embedded finance, how it was shaped by BVP's existing portfolio, and his underestimation of Shopify (10:48) - His missed investment in Plaid’s Series A and why it made him a better investor (13:58) - His investment in Alloy and why it's critical to find companies with 'Pull' in financial services. (15:55) - The current state of we

Today, Ryan Zauk sits down with NFL Player and UPenn Professor Brandon Copeland. Formerly on the Patriots, Jets, and Titans Brandon just signed with the Atlanta Falcons this past Friday! But this episode isn't about football - Brandon is MUCH more than a football player. See below: - Penn Professor where he teaches “Life 101” every spring to educate students about the financial basics of becoming an adult. Think stocks & bonds, buying a home, credit 101, networking/brand-building, taxes, car payments, and more. - He has since made this course available to the public, where he hosts lectures and guest speakers every Tuesday, and fosters an amazing Telegram community. You can learn more and sign up for the course here: life101.io - Forbes 30 under 30 winner, motivational speaker, and noted brand consultant - Columnist at Kiplinger + CNBC and is member of CNBC’s Invest in You Wellness Council with Acorns - Serial private and public investor as well as real estate developer, having worked on 50+ homes Brandon h

Miguel Armaza sits down with Everett Cook, Co-Founder & CEO of Rho Business Banking, a NYC-based company offering banking services to SMBs, including corporate cards, payments and expenses. The company has raised close to $20 million from leading investors, including M13 Ventures, Torch Capital, Inspired Capital, Interplay Ventures, and Mike Vaughan. We talked about - Everett’s journey from hedge fund portfolio manager to startup founder - What inspired him and his co-founders to launch Rho - Why SMB banking in the US needs a refresh - Lessons learned from clients and investors over the past couple of years - And a lot more! Everett Cook - Co-Founder and CEO of Rho Everett Cook is the CEO and co-founder of Rho Business Banking. With over 10 years of experience in finance and investment management, Everett is an expert in financial structuring, macroeconomics and fintech regulations. Everett led research at two $1 billion macro funds, and has worked under leaders like Steve Cohen and Michael Bloomberg. A

In today's episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Jodan Ledford, CEO of Smart USA. Smart is a retirement tech provider and one of the largest global recordkeepers with strategic investors J.P. Morgan, Legal & General, Barclays, the Link Group, and Natixis, today launched in the US. Smart’s enters the US with over 70,000 retirement plans already on its platform -- on par with the US’ second-largest recordkeeper. It is entering the US market in response to the SECURE act. Smart’s recordkeeping and retirement income solutions are purpose-built for the Pooled Employer Plans and the facilitation of lifetime income in retirement plans the SECURE Act Allows. Smart has established its US headquarters in Nashville, a growing Fintech hub, and is primed to help US plan advisors, employers, and participants further close our retirement coverage gap In this episode, Jodan and Ryan cover a number of topics, including: - Why he chose Nashville to locate Smart - The history of US retirement, including pensions, ERISA, The Se

Miguel Armaza is joined by the one and only, Marcelo Claure, CEO of SoftBank Group International, and all-around fascinating business leader and entrepreneur. Born and raised in La Paz, Bolivia, Marcelo immigrated to the US for college and later founded Brightstar, a company he built into a global category leader and also became the largest Hispanic-owned business in US history. Most recently, Marcelo, alongside Softbank Chairman & CEO Masayoshi Son, oversees the strategic direction of Softbank along with a vast portfolio of operating companies and investments, including SoftBank’s $5B dollar Latin America Fund. As a fellow Bolivian, Miguel Armaza has been a longtime admirer of Marcelo so this was a particularly exciting interview where they discussed: - Marcelo’s background from entrepreneur to global business and fintech leader - Challenges of building a company without much access to funding - The story behind building the Softbank Latin America fund and why there’s no doubt this is the golden era of en

Miguel Armaza is joined by the very interesting Gretchen Howard, Chief Operating Officer at Robinhood, one of the most defining fintech companies of 2021, best known for aiming to democratize investing for everyone and popularizing commission-free trades. Founded in 2013 by Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhat, Robinhood has grown to one of my most recognizable household fintech brands over the last few months with more than 13 million clients. However, the company’s journey has not always been easy and without criticism. In this great episode, Gretchen and I explore: - Career trajectory, and what drove her to leave a senior role at CapitalG (Google) and join Robinhood in 2019 - What inspires her about the company and some of their exciting plans for the future - Gretchen’s first-hand account navigating the GameStop debacle in late January 2021 and, more importantly, some of the lessons learned from this experience and why Gretchen, Vlad, and the Robinhood team are now advocating for real-time trade settlement to im

Miguel Armaza is joined by Richard Sarkis, serial entrepreneur, Executive Chair, and Co-Founder of Reonomy, a commercial real estate data and analytics platform. Since inception in 2013, the company has raised over $130 million in equity from leading industry investors like Georgian Partners, Softbank, Citi Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Fintech Collective, and many more... Rich is also a proud graduate of our very own Wharton School In this episode, we discuss: - His journey as a repeat entrepreneur - Exciting stories and challenges of building Reonomy from the ground up - His views on company culture why it is extremely important - Transitioning from CEO to Executive Chairman and what this entails - State of the US commercial real estate market and the impact of COVID - Valuable founder advice and takeaways after almost two decades of entrepreneurship - And a whole lot more! Soundcloud: Spotify: Apple: Full interview --> Spotify | Soundcloud | Apple Richard Sarkis Richard Sarkis is Executive Cha

Former podcast host, Daniel McAuley, is joined by former podcast guest, Andy Rachleff — Co-Founder & CEO of Wealthfront, the only company that integrates banking and investing to automate your savings. We discuss: - Andy’s storied and career as both an investor and entrepreneur - His experience coming out of retirement to found Wealthfront - The ride of day trading app such as Robinhood - Whether payment for order flow is good for retail investors - The current crypto bull run - Market bubbles and what investors can do in today’s environment - Self-Driving Money™ and Wealthfront’s future Andy Rachleff Andy is Wealthfront’s co-founder and CEO. He serves as a member of the board of trustees and chairman of the endowment investment committee for University of Pennsylvania and as a member of the faculty at Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he teaches courses on technology entrepreneurship. Prior to Wealthfront, Andy co-founded and was general partner of Benchmark Capital, where he was responsible fo

In today's episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Eric Shoykhet, Founder & CEO of Atom Finance. Atom Finance is the fastest-growing investment research & portfolio management platform, backed by the likes of Greycroft, General Catalyst, and FlatIron’s Zach Weinberg. Think of it as the "Bloomberg Terminal" for the retail investor and prosumer. Their DAU has grown over 300% since the pandemic. While working on Wall Street, Eric identified the massive information gap between enterprise platforms like CapIQ, and what was available to retail investors. Atom Finance was founded in 2018 to close this gap, empowering any investor with the tools typically reserved for Wall Street professionals. Eric and Ryan discuss: 3:13 - His journey from Wharton to one of the top groups on Wall Street, to investing, to starting his own venture 6:55 - Atom Finance and its key features to equip retail investors with better information 10:40 - How Eric thinks about building products for the many different types of investors 12:50 - Thei

Happy International Women's Day! In today's episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Chi Chi Wu, Attorney at The National Consumer Law Center. Since 1969, the nonprofit National Consumer Law Center has used its expertise in consumer law and energy policy to work for consumer justice and economic security for low-income and other disadvantaged people in the U.S. Chi Chi is a Harvard Law Grad who fights for consumer protections in Massachusetts, Washington DC, and around the country, with a focus on credit reporting, credit bureaus, and medical debt. In today’s episode, Chi Chi and Ryan discuss: - The Fair Credit Reporting Act's strengths and weaknesses - The Big 3 Credit Bureaus...what’s broken, and how we can fix it - Pros and cons of the new alternative data boom - COVID's devastating effects on individual credit - Her hopes for the new CFPB and administration and much more! For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Ryan's Twitter: t

In today's episode of the Wharton Fintech Podcast, Anchit Gupta (WG'21) is joined by Lindsay Holden, Co-Founder & CEO of Long Game. Long Game is a gamified personal finance app for Millenials that encourages saving through fun rewards and cash prizes. Before starting Long Game, Lindsay Holden co-founded the Applicant Auction, the primary auction for Top Level domain names, which held over $500M in auctions before being acquired. Before that, she helped launch Formation 8, a venture capital firm with over $1B under management. Ms. Holden holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and an MBA from the University of Colorado, Boulder. In this interview, Lindsay shares: - Her motivation behind launching Long Game - The many financial planning problems faced by Americans & how Long Game is working to solve these issues - Their typical customers and how Long Game can help them - The toughest parts of being a founder and launching Long Game - The future product pipeline for the company and much more! For more FinTech in

Miguel Armaza is joined by two great guests, Brooks Gibbins and Gareth Jones - Managing Partners and Co-Founders of Fintech Collective, a global early-stage venture capital firm focused on technology startups with the potential to reimagine financial services. We discuss: - Their entrepreneurial background and why they eventually decided to switch from operators to investors - Challenges of launching a Fintech focused fund in 2012 - Their decision to invest beyond the US and why they are excited about fintech in Latin America and other emerging markets - Why they are particularly proud of their weekly newsletter - Their investment strategy and what gets them excited to invest in a startup - And a nice story of how they helped our very own Wharton Fintech Club just as we were getting started almost seven years ago Brooks Gibbins Brooks is a co-founder and Managing Partner of FinTech Collective. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, Brooks had a successful career as an entrepreneur and global operating exe

“If Robinhood exists to democratize markets, Commonstock exists to democratize information.” Ryan Zauk sits down with Commonstock Founder & CEO David Mcdonough to learn how Commonstock is creating a community that amplifies insights from top investors, backed by the performance and portfolio of their linked brokerage accounts. Community members can link their existing brokerage accounts and share their real-time portfolio, performance, and trades (by percent only - $ amount is never shared), while sharing detailed investment theses, industry takedowns, and more. The idea has attracted investors such as Social Capital, Floodgate, and WFT favorite Frank Rotman of QED. The community has exploded over the past year, with professional investors writing highly detailed memos and users heavily engaged. They discuss: - His authentic journey to founding Commonstock and why he was the 'Rudy of Private Equity' - The amazing Commonstock community, its network effects, and growth - The Robinhood and Gamestop fiasco an

Miguel Armaza is joined by the fascinating Milind Mehere, serial entrepreneur, and Founder/CEO of YieldStreet, a digital wealth management platform that aims to transform the investing landscape by enabling individual investors to invest in classes such as Real Estate, Marine Finance, Art Finance, Legal Finance, and Commercial loans. The company has raised over $180M in equity and debt from top VCs including Edison Partners, Greycroft, and Raine Ventures. They discuss: - His successful entrepreneurial journey and the path to Yieldstreet as a second-time founder - Company Culture - Challenges of building an investing platform and disrupting an industry traditionally reserved for the wealthy - Leveraging regulatory opportunities for a new asset class - The incredible impact of COVID on the business - And a lot more! Milind Mehere Milind Mehere is an award-winning entrepreneur with a track record of building large scalable businesses and creating new product categories. He is the founder and CEO of YieldS

Aquiline’s Vincenzo La Ruffa - Driving Value Creation in Financial Services Miguel Armaza sits down with Vincenzo La Ruffa, President of Aquiline Capital Partners and head of their financial technology group. Aquiline was founded in 2005 and is a private investment firm based focused on businesses across the financial services sector with almost $6B in assets under management. Vincenzo is also a proud alum of our amazing Wharton and Penn school. We talked about - Vincenzo’s career path - Fintech trends and exciting opportunities - Their approach to partnering with entrepreneurs - Stories and case studies from some of their exciting portfolio companies - Challenges as an investor during COVID - Identifying Fintech opportunities in a fast moving and fast changing market - Private Equity as a career - And why he still loves reading physical books! Vincenzo La Ruffa Vincenzo is president of Aquiline. Vincenzo also heads the financial technology and services group and serves on the investment committees for

In our latest episode of the Wharton Fintech podcast, Anchit Gupta (WG'21) is joined by Phil Edmundson, CEO & Founder of Corvus Insurance. Founded in 2017, Corvus is a leading provider of smart commercial insurance products powered by AI-driven risk data. Corvus finished 2020 at a $100M annual premium run rate, capping off a year that was marked by meteoric growth for the company. In addition to Corvus, Phil is also the Managing Partner of Edmus Ventures where he invests in InsurTech companies including Verifly/Thimble, Wellthie, Agentero, Cover Wallet, Openly, and CoPatient. In this interview, Phil shares: - The state of the cyber-insurance industry - Corvus's core products and services - Using AI/ML to improve risk management tools - The biggest challenges facing cybersecurity - COVIDs impact on cybersecurity and insurance - Emerging trends in the insurtech industry For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech LinkedIn: www.link

Worlds collide today as the two gold-standards of fintech content come together on the Wharton Fintech Podcast. Ryan Zauk sits down with Simon Taylor, Co-Founder and Head of Ventures at 11:FS, a challenger consultancy and emerging fintech empire. They help the world’s top founders build financial services products, conduct highly customized market research, bring PMs behind the scenes of various fintech applications, and of course have their own media arm. In today’s episode, Simon and Ryan dive into: 7:00 - His journey through fintech and how 11:FS is building the industry's top challenger consultancy 12:00 - The current state of the crypto market and if it has finally 'crossed the chasm’ 17:00 - The power of stablecoins and interest-bearing accounts (BlockFi, Celsius, etc) 22:54 - NFTs, sports memorabilia, and NBA top shot 28:10 - Their thoughts on Clubhouse 31:40 - And a very fun rapid-fire round including his favorite follows on Twitter For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/w

Miguel Armaza is joined by Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell, Managing Directors and Group Partners at Y Combinator (YC). YC is one of the most successful startup accelerators and venture capital funds, and since March 2005 has helped over 5,000 startup founders build and launch companies like Stripe, AirBnB, DoorDash, Dropbox, Reddit, and the list goes on and on… This was a fascinating conversation and Michael and Dalton talked about lessons learned from their years of experience with YC, what they look for in a founding team, and why they are so passionate about helping entrepreneurs. We also touched on their decision to expand beyond the US to back entrepreneurs from all over the world, and the fascinating network effects this has created. Dalton and Michael also shared lessons learned from working with over 200 Fintech companies, including Brex, Stripe, and Coinbase. And some of the Fintech trends they are excited about. Finally, we could not end this conversation without talking about the state o