Tearsheet Podcast: The Business Of Finance

Welcome to Tearsheet’s Outlier Briefing. This subscriber-only event is exclusive for our Outlier members. We go deeper with subject matter experts, to take actionable steps that can impact your business and practice. Today’s expert is Ted Brown. He’s co-founder and CEO of a company called Digital Onboarding. He’s been in fintech for his entire career. His first company, Andera, built the first way to open up a bank account online. Now, his firm Digital Onboarding makes sure those people who opened up accounts become engaged, profitable relationships. During this Outlier Briefing, we discuss: why attrition rates of new customers are so stubbornly high in banking what typical onboarding experiences are like at banks and credit unions and why they fail what top FIs are doing to improve onboarding rates how onboarding is evolving and the role of technology to create engaged clients Digital Onboarding’s Ted Brown is our expert on today’s Outlier Briefing. To hear the full audio and to access all of our exclus

FIS accelerator/Stratyfy Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor Zack Miller. We’ve spoken to a lot of innovation program execs on this podcast. From corporate venture investing to accelerator programs, traditional FIs, in various ways, are trying to leverage the innovation that’s happening in fintech. This hasn’t been lost on the providers, either. FIS runs its own accelerator that works gets early-stage fintech firms in front of its clients to help solve their problems. FIS Banking Product Officer Spencer Jones joins me on the podcast along with Laura Kornhauser, CEO and founder of Stratyfy, a fintech company in the current cohort at the accelerator that develops AI-driven predictive-modeling software for FIs.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller, editor at Tearsheet. There’s still significant friction dealing with international transactions. Payoneer is a pioneer in the space of helping people and businesses transact across currencies. Charles Rosenblatt is the firm’s new chief strategy officer. An executive with decades of experience in payments and financial services, Rosenblatt joins us on the podcast to talk about his new role and how Payoneer is positioned for further growth. He describes how the firm’s value proposition is differentiated from the competition and how sitting on both sides of the transaction can propel future opportunities for the payments firm. Charles Rosenblatt is my guest on the Tearsheet Podcast.

The convergence of retail and financial services is being led by large platforms that help merchants seamlessly reach customers online and offline. Indeed, embedding financial services within commerce platforms helps them unlock additional value from seller relationships, and provides a repository of data to personalize product offerings. A major player in this ecosystem is Shopify, a Canada-based company that helps more than a million merchants operate digitally and in-person. On today’s Tearsheet podcast, we speak with Kaz Nejatian, vice president and general manager of Shopify Financial Solutions. Shopify, a 14-year-old company that has a market capitalization of more than $100 billion, began making forays into financial services in 2013, with the launch of Shopify Point of Sale. Three years later, it rolled out Shopify Capital for sellers. The company in recent months made a couple of noteworthy financial product announcements, including the upcoming launch of Shopify Balance, a money management solutio

Welcome to Tearsheet’s Outlier Briefing. This subscriber-only event is exclusive for our Outlier members. We go deeper with subject matter experts, to take actionable steps that can impact your business and practice. Today’s guest is Jay Nair, who leads the financial services business for Infosys in the Americas. He’s responsible for one of the largest units in the company with annual revenues of around $800 million. Jay works increasingly with client CXOs to help them with their transformation journeys. He shares his experiences working with banks, insurance companies, and capital market firms to prepare for the reopening of the physical component of financial services as we think about the day after the pandemic. Jay gives his thoughts on open banking and what he calls the APIfication of financial services. With Infosys’ work across different verticals within financial services, he provides his views on the future of financial services. Here’s our Outlier briefing on financial services the day after the

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller. When the pandemic hit, lending models didn’t catch up quickly enough. Machine learning, like the kind Zest AI has developed, moved quicker, helping lenders to figure out how quickly things were deteriorating and where. ML models also have been instrumental in identifying and avoiding biases in lending practices. Zest AI CEO Mike de Vere joins us on the podcast to discuss his firms go to market strategy and business model and how the two kind of fit nicely. Mike shares his views on how to bring technology to lending and specifically, de-biasing models to approve more minority borrowers. Mike de Vere is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast. Before we jump into our show, I wanted to tell you about Tearsheet’s upcoming Challengers Conference. A first of its kind show, this 2-day online conference is everything about digital banking. We’ll have senior executives from top challenger banks like N26, Revolut, OakNorth, and Betterment as well as new entrants

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller, editor in chief at Tearsheet. Niamh Kristufek is the head of US business banking at BMO Harris Bank. Her team services about 2 million small businesses with products, digital capabilities and experiences to help them reach their financial goals. Niamh joins us to discuss BMO’s support of women via its collaboration with the 1871 Innovation Program. The partnership launched the first cohort of the WMN FINtech program, specifically supporting female entrepreneurs in fintech with resources, programming, and mentorship. Niamh Kristufek is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

For a space as big as commercial cards, there are still so many opportunities to make a difference for startups. This is Tearsheet’s Early Stage podcast and I’m Zack Miller, editor in chief of Tearsheet. Here’s where we drill down on up and coming fintech firms, tackling big problems in large markets. Joining me on the show is PayEm’s (https://www.payemcard.com/index.php/en/) co-founder and CEO Itamar Jobani. PayEm provides a corporate card and management tools for companies to streamline their spending. PayEm’s combination of plastic and software helps company leaders approve, track and manage vendors with rules to manage budgets and projects. Jobani joins us on the podcast to share his vision for smart commercial cards, why he founded the company, and where he plans to lead his firm.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller. Online trading platform Robinhood just raised more money at a valuation over $11 billion. Traditional brokerage firms are keenly aware of what’s going on and they’re also undergoing their own dance with digital. Frank LaQuinta, CIO at Edward Jones, joins me on the podcast to discuss how the brokerage firm is positioning itself to provide more modern experiences in branch and over digital, for its 7 million clients as well as for its financial advisors. Frank has had a 30 year career at bulge-bracket firms, so he’s seen up close the impact technology is having on financial services. Frank LaQuinta is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

In this episode of The Challengers, Josh Liggett and Zack Miller explore what Varo Money getting a national charter might mean for the firm and for the challenger banking industry. We compare Monzo, which recently warned about its survivability, and Starling, which said it expects to break even in 2020 and reach profitability in 2021. Lastly, your hosts discuss the new players in the challenger banking space: Kabbage and Intuit. Both launched accounts recently for SMBs. Before we jump into the podcast, I wanted to introduce you to Outlier, Tearsheet’s leading membership program. It’s designed for top fintech and financial service professionals to stay on top daily of the biggest trends, the top companies, and the leaders of this next generation of finance. Get industry briefings by experts like the ones we’re doing this January on best practices in PR and customer acquisition. Find out more at Tearsheet.co/outlier

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller. We don’t talk enough about community banks on the podcast. Coming in to the COVID crisis, community banks lagged large banks and fintechs in technology. But when you look at what’s happened over the past 6 months, community banks committed acts of heroism to serve their customers during the height of the crisis. Raymond Chandonnet, chief revenue officer at Neocova, joins us on the podcast to talk about the window of opportunity community banks have to compete. He describes the role technology plays in driving innovation for community banks and how smaller FIs are migrating to new core banking tech slowly and as part of a larger journey. Raymond Chandonnet is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller. Consumer behavior was already changing before COVID hit. When you ask financial services executives, may will tell you that COVID is acting to accelerate those trends. Beth Johnson, chief experience officer at Citizens Bank, is studying those trends. Citizens recently published its inaugural Banking Experience Survey, which polled over 10,000 customers and 252 business leaders across the US on their views around digital bank. Beth joins me on the podcast to talk about the importance of marrying human interaction with technology and how changes made in response to COVID will likely have lasting impact on banking and financial services after the pandemic is over. Beth Johnson is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller. WePay provides payment solutions for platforms like marketplaces and software firms. The Chase-owned company provides payment APIs to firms like Eventzilla, Meetup and TouchBistro. Chief revenue officer Jennifer Parker joins us on the podcast to give us an update on the business and to discuss how platforms and their merchants are coping during the current crisis. We hear about how WePay has supported its ecosystem with products and services throughout this tumultuous time. Jennifer also shares with us her biggest priorities heading into the second half of 2020. Jennifer Parker is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Zack Miller. Afterpay is one of the fastest growing buy now, pay later firms in the world. Based out of Australia, the fintech has recently expanded into the US and is planning to expand to Canada soon, as well. Afterpay US CFO Laura Nadler joins us on the podcast to discuss Afterpay’s model and how positioning itself as a partner to retailers has helped it chart a path for growth. Nadler has spent most of her career at traditional financial firms like Visa and we talk about the tailwinds in the business and how COVID is impacting customers and merchants alike. We also discuss Afterpay’s launch of a new loyalty program. Laura Nadler is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

A few weeks back, payments API firm, Galileo launched Instant, which dramatically simplifies and accelerates launching a debit card — taking what can be a multi-month process and turning it into a couple of weeks. Galileo claims it had hundreds of companies signed up for a beta when it went live and the interest is still very strong. Founder and CEO Clay Wilkes talked about Instant when he addressed Tearsheet’s Resilience Conference a couple of weeks ago. Galileo Managing Director Cole Wilkes joins us on the podcast today to talk more about Instant.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller. Student lending is undergoing a significant transformation. Earnest Earnest has refinanced over $10 billion for over 124,000 people, helping them pay off their debt and giving them the financial capital to reach their goals. The company combines design and data to build an innovative model for consumer lending, available through a simple, easy to use mobile application. David Green, chief product officer at Earnest, joins us on the podcast to talk about lending in our economic environment, as well as the firm’s relatively new product, in-school student loans. Lastly, we talk about the lender’s product pipeline. David Green is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to Tearsheet’s Outlier Briefing. This subscriber-only content is exclusive for our Outlier members. We go deeper with subject matter experts, to take actionable steps that can impact your business and practice. Rina Plapler has been working in brand strategy for over 20 years. That means she’s worked with many of today’s top financial brands with market positioning, messaging, and their product portfolios. As a partner at MBLM, she was instrumental in creating her firm’s research on brand intimacy — the emotional science that measures the bonds we form with the brands we use and love. She’s applied this research to the financial industry in an effort to rank the companies and characteristics that make for today’s strongest brands. Rina joins to discuss what makes up brand intimacy and how emotional people feel around financial services. We look at her rankings and the attributes of today’s strongest financial brands. Lastly, she provides advice to companies to make themselves into more intimate bran

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller. Artificial intelligence in finance has long been overhyped, but AI is making an impact in lending decisions. Online lender Upstart exemplifies how the set of technologies can expand lenders’ inclusiveness without necessarily taking on any more risk. Paul Gu, a co-founder at Upstart, joins us on the podcast to talk about his firm’s new AI-powered credit decisioning API that’s letting banks and other lenders deliver instant credit decisions for auto, personal, and student loans. We discuss Upstart’s performance during COVID as well. Paul Gu is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller. SMBs have taken it on the chin during this crisis. Nicole Jass, senior vice president of small business and fraud products at FIS joins us to discuss how small business needs have changed and how FIS has responded with product and an evolving product roadmap. The payments technology firm has rolled out upgrades and new products for customers in the past couple of months and Nicole checks in to describe how they’re using them. Nicole Jass is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

A global perspective on fintech helps Broadhaven Ventures cross-pollinate customer experience best practices from the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Asia. Today’s guest is Michael Sidgmore, who is a partner at Broadhaven Ventures, a venture capital fund affiliated with Broadhaven Capital Partners, an independent fintech investment bank. Broadhaven Ventures has investments in known fintechs like Credijusto, Kyash, MoneyLion, Starship, Liveoak (recently acquired by DocuSign), BioCatch, Harvest Wealth, Kovi and Nowports. Michael is also a venture partner at Goodwater Capital, a consumer tech venture capital firm that’s invested in Toss, Monzo, Stash, Kyash and Tide, among others. Michael joins us to discuss the diversity of pain points fintech companies are solving for globally and the evolution of the embedded finance paradigms among its portfolio companies and beyond.