Tearsheet Podcast: The Business Of Finance

Welcome back to the Power of Payments podcast. I’m your host Ismail Umar, and in today’s episode, we discuss Elon Musk’s payments plans for Twitter, and Cash App’s new savings feature. We also talk about Gen Z’s changing preferences when it comes to sending and receiving money digitally.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Zack Miller, Tearsheet's editor in chief. My guest today is Brett Pharr, CEO of Pathward Financial. You might not have heard of Pathward – it’s more likely you have heard of Meta Bank, which recently rebranded to Pathward. I spoke with Brett about the community bank and payments legacy the firm has and how it impacted the decision to rebrand in 2022. Link to the full transcript: https://tearsheet.co/podcasts/behind-the-pathward-rebranding-with-ceo-brett-pharr/ I always find it interesting and insightful to hear about these stories – about how an established financial institution decides on and aligns around a rebranding. It’s a big deal to change your name – Brett gives us insight into how the firm is positioning itself for future growth. Brett Pharr is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Link to the full transcript: https://tearsheet.co/podcasts/theres-been-a-shift-in-what-banks-want-to-work-on-versus-what-consumers-are-driving-mambus-robin-smith/ Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Zack Miller, Tearsheet's editor in chief. Robin Smith is vice president of North America for banking software provider, Mambu. Robin has been in the fintech space for over 30 years, leading teams at Oracle, FIS, and Fiserv. Robin’s got a wealth of experience and knowledge over what’s happening in the core banking software industry, and at banks in general. Our conversation spans current trends, banks’ challenges and opportunities with going digital, the partner ecosystem Mambu has built in the US to support its customers, and more. Robin Smith is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Link to the full transcript: https://tearsheet.co/payments/power-of-payments-ep-22-frankly-the-most-important-asset-for-smb-owners-is-time-chases-brad-brodigan/ Welcome back to the Power of Payments podcast. I’m your host Ismail Umar, and today, I’m joined by Brad Brodigan, managing director and global head of SMB payments at Chase. Brad says he has a passion for working at the intersection of payments, technology, and small business. He’s spent the last 15 years using innovations in payments technology to provide SMB owners with more efficient ways of running their business. Over the last decade, Brad has held a variety of roles at firms including PayPal, Dosh, and BlueVine. In our conversation today, Brad discusses the most important trends he’s seeing in SMB payments right now, the kinds of attributes that SMBs look for in a payment processor, and how their needs differ from those of enterprises and retail customers. He also talks about how current macroeconomic challenges are affecting the demands and

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Zack Miller, Tearsheet's editor in chief. I don’t know what they serve at the snack bar at Intuit, maker of QuckBooks and the financial ecosystem around it, but when you speak to senior leadership, they seem almost maniacal about serving SMBs. And what the firm has done over the past few years is make its bookkeeping software the center of a financial services ecosystem that includes payments, lending, and banking.  Now, Intuit is looking to take its ecosystem and tools to midmarket and B2B firms with the launch of the QuickBooks Business Network which creates one of the largest B2B networks and automates B2B payments, improving overall cash flow for this particular user set I’m joined by Juliana Berger, the director of payments for QuickBooks. You’ll hear the passion she has for serving SMBs. We talk about the breadth and depth of Intuit’s SMB offering. Juliana shares the pain points SMBs are feeling in this economy and what the software firm is doing to address them.

We’re in a transitional period when it comes to how banks and fintechs partner. If 2022 was the year of launching partnerships between FIs and tech firms, this year is more about fine-tuning them. Partner banks are seeing more scrutiny as more banks have chosen the route of serving fintechs.  At Money 2020 this year, Tearsheet Editor-in-Chief Zack Miller sat with Chafic Haddad, Citi’s global head of fintech within the firm’s transaction bank. When he said that one of the largest international banks was really trying to align and position itself as a global partner bank to top fintechs, Miller told Chafic he had to join us on the podcast to talk about what all that means. Chafic shares the mandate of his new role within the firm and why non-bank partnerships have been the fastest growing segment over the past few years. We discuss what Citi offers fintechs and the challenges and opportunities in providing these firms with global transaction and trade capabilities.

In the fifth and final episode of the Steez podcast, we talk about how Gen Z views sustainable investing. They are not just investing to align with their values. They are actively driving change with every purchasing preference and transaction. Our host, Rebecca Cohen, is joined by Jessica Matthews, Managing Director and Global Head of Sustainable Investing at J.P. Morgan, Jean-Louis Warnholz (CEO and Co-founder), and Eunice Jung (Head of Partnerships) from Future.

Welcome to the first Power of Payments podcast episode of 2023. For our first episode of the year, we’re doing something a little different. Instead of doing a round-up of recent news in the world of payments, this week we’re going to talk about what the near future looks like for the payments industry. To kick off my payments coverage for 2023, I wanted to hear from people in the industry about what they believed would be the most important trends in payments this year. I asked a number of experts from across the payments spectrum to share their thoughts with me and predict what trends we can expect from the industry in the next 12 months. Based on those predictions, I’ve compiled 10 trends that are likely to shape the payments landscape this year. Important themes for 2023 – in no particular order – involve B2B payments, M&A activity, real-time payments, digital wallets, fraud, sustainability, and more.

Today on the Tearsheet Podcast we have Trish Mosconi, chief strategy officer at Synchrony. In addition to strategy for the bank, she also heads up the firm’s venture investing and M&A activities.  We discuss her mandate and how Synchrony looks at investing and partnering with fintech as it continues to invest in its consumer finance platform. I appreciate how Trish and the bank have paired strategy to both investing for the long term and partnering for the present. The deterioration of the investment environment around fintechs can definitely play into Synchrony’s plans.  Trish Mosconi is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

In episode 4, we talk about how Gen Z is changing the financial space in e-commerce. They prefer shopping experiences that are more convenient and spontaneous, seamlessly interwoven with social media. Our host, Rebecca Cohen is joined by Mallory Russell, head of global content at Square, Michael Saadat, head of public policy at Block, and Maran Nalluswami, SVP of diversified and value at Synchrony.

In our journey of reducing our carbon footprint, it turns out that it’s not only what we buy that can make the difference — how we pay for things can play a part, too. According to a GoCardless study, using alternative payment methods like ACH can help consumers lower their carbon footprint by generating zero carbon emissions. This comes in comparison to credit cards, which in 2021 generated an amount of CO2 so high it was the equivalent of driving a diesel car around the Earth approximately 43,000 times. Considering that consumers are actively looking for more ways to reduce their environmental impact, how should we think about payments? How can this sector decarbonize, and what impact can that have? To help us answer these questions, I’ve invited Ben Knight, Head of Environmental Sustainability at GoCardless, a direct bank payment solutions company. Ben’s diverse experience paired with his passion for sustainability and the fact that he’s just a great person to talk to, resulted in a really fun conversa

If you’ve been to Money 20/20 the past couple of years, you’re likely to have encountered Zeta. Maybe you were one of the 10,000 people who attended the Journey and Foreigner concerts the company sponsored. Or maybe you stopped by the firm’s big booth at the center of the floor. That type of marketing – what founder Bhavin Turakhia likes to call ‘nuclear strikes’ – is helping the credit card as a service firm mature in the US. Bhavin shares with us the playbook he’s using to grow Zeta, honed from his experience building and growing three other SaaS firms in his career. We discuss why Zeta targets the largest banks and fintechs and how the firm is landing and expanding via enterprise sales. Talking to Bhavin is like talking to a professor of real life business – he readily shares his experiences and frameworks for how he’s thinking about scaling his fintech firm. Bhavin Turakhia is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

In episode #3 of the Steez podcast, we talk about FinTok, and why Gen Zers are getting their financial education from social media. Our host, Rebecca Cohen is joined by Michael Wang, founder, and CEO of Prometheus, Jeff Frommer, Chief Content Officer at MoneyLion, and Michael Borough founder of Altro.

Welcome back to the Power of Payments podcast. I’m your host Ismail Umar, and in today’s episode, we will discuss Walmart’s growing interest in BNPL and financial services, and Stripe’s new fiat-to-crypto payment offering. We will also talk about Wise and Deel’s new feature for global payroll, and the potential benefits and pitfalls of FedNow for B2B payments.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet’s editor in chief, Zack Miller. I like talking to investors in financial services and fintech. I find that their perspectives, particularly around trends and big picture moves, are helpful in understanding what’s going on. Today’s guest is Rex Salisbury, entrepreneur, investor, and builder. He recently left Andreesen Horowitz to return to his roots, building networks of fintech founders and helping them with connections and expertise. He recently launched a $20 million fund and has made 9 investments so far. I spoke to Rex about his background as a community builder and the impact that has on the companies he invests in. We talk about his time at a16z, which saw massive growth in the team and the space. Rex shares why he looks to invest in ‘deep, boring, and broken’ spaces in the financial technology stack and why ‘fitnech at the intersection of something’ is a good investment strategy. Our broad reaching talk spans mortgage software to fintech community mee

Today, we're talking about artificial intelligence – a tool uniquely positioned to help manage the complex issues presented by climate change. Due to its capacity to gather, complete, and interpret large, complex datasets on emissions, climate impact, and more, it can be used to support all stakeholders in taking a more informed and data-driven approach to combating carbon emissions and building a greener society. To help us understand more about how AI can help us solve the climate crisis, I've invited BCG's leading sustainability expert Mike Lyons to expand upon the real-world, practical applications for climate AI. To read the transcript of our conversation, please visit Tearsheet.co Sign up here for the Green Finance Newsletter: https://tearsheet.co/newsletters/

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet's Editor, Zack Miller. There are a couple of things about advances in financial services that continuously get me juiced – even after a decade of covering the space. One is when new products emerge that just work, whether that’s through integrating into existing platforms or through automation. There’s something almost magical when that happens. Another thing that inspires is inclusiveness – there’s so much being done at incumbents and fintechs that will make financial services more inclusive in the future. SecureSave ticks both of those boxes. It’s trying to popularize the emergency savings account. Haven’t heard of an ESA? That’s OK, I hadn’t either but it functions similar to a Health Savings Account and is intended to help employees save for an emergency. Offered through employers, an ESA is likely to have the same preferred tax treatment an HSA has in the future if Devin Miller has his way. With a strong background in financial software, Devin is a co-fou

Today’s episode is all about the creator economy. Host Rebecca Cohen was joined by Tony Tran, CEO of Lumanu, Blake Michael, Creator with 5M+ followers, actor and entrepreneur, and Julia Montgomery CEO and founder of Influent. The creator economy is an important conversation when capturing and retaining Gen Z for two main reasons. First, the entire line of communication for brands with their audiences must adapt to the channels by which Gen Zers communicate and require work with the creator economy that is already ruling those spaces. Secondly, young people, Gen Zers in particular, are at the forefront of this economy and are operating as one-person businesses. The industry is light years behind conquering the Gen Z mindset. That’s why we’ve partnered with Publicis Sapient to create #STEEZ, a hub for finserv potentials to learn more about Gen Z and what it means to capture and delight them. Download The STEEZ Guide to Gen Z readiness, here: https://steezlife.co/

Whenever I’ve spoken about transformation of traditional banks, I pointed to Goldman Sachs building Marcus, its new mainstreet brand. But look around the industry and there aren’t a lot of good stories of digital transformation. Even Goldman is trying, but it isn’t clear that Marcus is working financially, even though it has attracted a lot of deposits. That’s why stories about a traditional institution evolving into something new are compelling – it’s just really hard to do. Marc Butterfied heads innovation for the First National Bank of Omaha. And he and his team recently launched Bend, a credit card as a service offering that’s competitive to fintechs in the space. Marc shares how he went about creating a startup within the bank that made the most of its resources and institutional knowledge and experience to punch above its weight. We discuss the new product, Bend, and its work with Greenlight to launch a credit card used by families and kids. Marc Butterfield is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome back to the Power of Payments podcast. I’m your host Ismail Umar, and in today’s episode, I’m joined by Josh Ackerman, Product Lead at Stripe. Josh leads a team of product managers that are constantly building and improving Stripe’s core payment products, which include Stripe Checkout, Stripe Payment Links, and Stripe Elements. His team creates APIs that allow startups, growth-stage companies, and larger enterprises to accept online payments. These products are used by millions of merchants and billions of end customers in different parts of the world. Josh joins me today to discuss the key findings from Stripe’s recent State of Checkouts report. He talks about the existing gaps between consumer expectations from online checkout and what most merchants currently offer, as well as how the checkout experience has evolved over the years.