This Week in Fintech

Credit scores feel like destiny, but they’re built on a thin record of borrowing and repayment while ignoring income, cash on hand, and real assets. That blind spot blocks credit for immigrants, younger consumers, gig workers, and anyone whose financial life doesn’t fit the classic bureau file. In this episode, Nik sits down with Andrew Endicott, co-founder of Pedal and now co-founder and GP at Gi...

This week, Stablecon’s Justin Friedman was joined by Bhau Kotecha, co-founder and CEO of Paxos Labs, for a discussion on the transformative potential of stablecoins and tokenization. Bhau and Justin examine how these technologies are redefining the way we think about financial tools, usability, interoperability, privacy, and the economics of stored value. Finally, Bhau offers predictions on whethe...

This Week in Fintech's Nik Milanovic sat down on February 12th, 2026 to talk with Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas about 2025 year-end earnings. Some topics they covered: Market Expansion:  Coinbase doubled trading volume and market share in 2025, diversifying beyond crypto with Deribit acquisition. Revenue Resilience:  Despite market softness in Q4, Coinbase showed strength through diversified reven...

In this episode, Nik Milanovic interviews Ram Palanappian, the CEO and Founder of Earnin, a fintech company that is revolutionizing how employees access their wages. Ram shares the origin story of Earnin, which began when he realized that many employees were struggling with cash flow issues, leading to late fees and overdraft charges. He discusses how he initially provided employees with early acc...

An agentic future of commerce is coming faster than merchants think—and PayPal wants to make sure small businesses don’t get left behind. In this live Money20/20 2025 episode of This Week in Fintech, hosts Nik Milanović and Jillian Williams sit down with PayPal’s Michelle Gill, EVP and General Manager of Small Business Financial Services, for a deep dive into how AI agents will transform shopping,...

We sit down with Nubank co-founder Cristina Junqueira for a candid look at how frustration with fee-first banking led to a product people loved, and how that vision scaled across Brazil. We explore hard-won lessons on leadership, communication, regulation, and why AI plus open finance will reshape money. • leaving an incumbent bank to build customer-first products • forming the founding team and s...

In this conversation, Nik Milanović discusses the evolving landscape of stablecoins and digital payments with Dan Mottice and Matt Marcus from Modern Treasury. They delve into the recent acquisition of Beam by Modern Treasury, the implications for the payments industry, and the potential of stablecoins to enhance financial operations. The discussion highlights the importance of regulatory clarity,...

In today’s episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Bret Taylor, Co-Founder & CEO of Sierra and Chairman of the Board at OpenAI.  Bret’s career is the stuff of valley legend…he is the former Co-CEO of Salesforce, former CTO of Facebook, and has been credited with building products like Google Maps and Facebook's 'Like' button.  There may not be anyone closer to AI, spanning the app lay...

In this episode, Nik Milanović hosts Natalie Wexler from Adyen and Jamey Kennedy from Jackrabbit Technologies to discuss the untapped opportunities in embedded finance, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses. They explore how SaaS platforms can leverage embedded finance to enhance customer experiences, the importance of capital products, and the evolving landscape of funding for small...

In this conversation, Georgina Merhom, founder of SOLO, discusses the transformative potential of collaborative data sharing in the financial sector. She shares her journey from cybersecurity to fintech, emphasizing the importance of incentives, consumer experience, and the evolving regulatory landscape. Georgina highlights the need for a decentralized approach to data sharing, which fosters trust...

In this episode, Nik Milanović interviews George Kurdin, co-founder of Monk, a company focused on automating accounts receivable processes using AI. George shares his unique career journey from professional poker player to fintech entrepreneur, discussing the lessons learned along the way. He highlights the significant problem of accounts receivable, valued at $3 trillion, and explains how Monk ai...

"Buckle up because...the cuffs are off." In this conversation, Nik Milanović interviews Mike Cagney, co-founder and CEO of Figure, discussing the company's recent IPO, its innovative product Democratized Prime, and the implications of the Genius Act on capital markets. Cagney shares insights on the evolution of Figure, the role of blockchain in financial services, and the potential...

In today’s episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Kate Earle Jensen, Head of Americas for Anthropic. Kate joined Anthropic in 2023 after 8 years helping scale GTM at Stripe. Over the last 2 years, she has had a front row seat to the AI revolution at one of the fastest-growing companies in history. In this episode, Kate dives into how Claude is being used by major enterprises to revolutionize their busi...

Hello fintech friends, Last week, I sat down with Doug Rickett , the founder and CEO of Payjoy . If you work in fintech and you don't know Payjoy , well, you should. The company's tagline is "finance for the next billion." And they're well on their way: As of 2025 they have brought 3 billion dollars in credit to 16 million customers , doubling in the last two years while r...

This episode dives deep into the evolution of blockchain-powered lending and marketplaces in the FinTech sector, with guest Michael Tannenbaum, whose career has spanned senior roles at SoFi, Brex, and now Figure. Host Julie Verhage-Greenberg and Michael discuss how Figure’s vision—originally designed as one company with a strong blockchain backbone—has matured amidst regulatory and market shifts....

This week, Nik Milanovic sits down with Sandeep Pyapali , Founder and CEO of Mesta , a global cross-border payment network combining traditional rails with stablecoin systems. Mesta allows sending USD and stablecoins in over 50 currencies, cutting international payment costs by over 50%. Pyapali, with 17 years in payments – including Uber's $100 billion payment network – founded Mesta in 2024...

Welcome back to  This Week in Fintech  and another episode of the Fintech OGs! Today, I’m joined by two incredible voices who have helped shape the future of financial technology from both the founder and investor perspective. First up, Jillian Williams, co-founder of Field Ventures, a new seed-stage fund focused on vertical software and fintech. Jillian has spent her career investing in the secto...

This week, I sat down with Eli Wachs , the Co-Founder and CEO of Footprint , a company building the identity infrastructure of the internet. It was a far-reaching conversation – Eli's an interesting guy – and we touched on everything from his deep-dives into identity in the Stanford library to working with economist Raj Chetty to philosophy and what it means to be authentic to yourself. Footp...

Welcome back to another episode of Fintech OGs with This Week In Fintech! Today, I’m joined by two incredible founders who have each redefined their corner of the financial world: Jack Zhang , Co-founder & CEO of  Airwallex , the global payments and banking platform powering 150,000+ businesses Leif Abraham , Co-founder & Co-CEO of  Public , the next-gen investing platform helping the top...

Nik sits down for 10 minutes with Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas to talk about the company's 2025 performance and where they are headed. Overview Coinbase is at inflection point, with strong Q2 performance including custody volumes and derivatives trading hitting all-time highs, and the USDC market cap exceeding $60 billion. Stablecoin revenue of $332 million in Q2 represents 12% growth quarter-ove...

Welcome back to  FinTech OGs ! This week, I’m joined by two leaders whose careers have shaped the evolution of modern financial technology:  David Haber , General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz and co-lead of their AI Apps Fund, and  Owen Jennings , an executive officer and Block’s Business Lead. From early ventures like Bond Street and the first days of Cash App to today’s frontier of AI in finan...

In today's episode,  Ryan Zauk  sits down with PayPal President & CEO Alex Chriss . Alex took over as PayPal CEO in September 2023 after a nearly 20-year run at Intuit . Today, Alex (and PayPal) are at the epicenter of some of the most disruptive trends in global technology & commerce. Since joining PayPal less than two years ago, his tenure has turned several heads in the industry. P...

Welcome back to this week in FinTech and another episode of the FinTech OGs. This week I'm joined by two guests whose careers have helped shape. The evolution of modern wealth management. We have Charles Birnbaum partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, and Cynthia Loh, who is a senior vice president at Capital One. Charles and Cynthia first crossed paths in the early days of Betterment. This is...

In today's episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Firdaus Bhathena, CTO of FIS. FIS is one of the world's largest financial technology companies, building solutions for leading financial institutions, businesses, and developers. Their scale is incredible...Over $16Tn moves through their systems annually. They process $75 billion of transactions globally, serve tens of thousands of clients, an...

You know you’ve found true fintech OGs when your guests were almost roommates before “fintech” was even a buzzword. That’s exactly the case with today’s guests, Sheel Mohnot and Amit Kumar—two longtime friends and collaborators who’ve not only seen the fintech industry evolve over the last decade-plus, but have helped shape it. In this episode, we dig into their early startup days—FeeFighters, Car...