Fintech Leaders

Send us Fan Mail This episode was the most popular one of 2023 - it first aired Apr 18, 2023. Enjoy and have a happy new year! Miguel Armaza sits down with Nilan Peiris , Chief Product Officer at Wise (WISE.L) , a global fintech that helps clients move money around the world. Founded in 2011 by Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus, Wise went public on the London Stock Exchange in 2021 and has a cur...

Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Maëlle Gavet , CEO of Techstars , a premier global accelerator and one of the world's most active pre-seed investors. Techstars was founded in 2006 and has backed almost 4000 companies with a combined portfolio market cap of $105B. Some of their invested companies include Remitly, Chainalysis, DataRobot, and Alloy. We discuss: Trends and lessons l...

Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Luis Silva , CEO & Founder of Cloudwalk , where they are building an interplanetary payment network. Headquartered in Brazil, Cloudwalk has now expanded internationally, is profitable, and recently crossed annual revenue of $400 million. They are backed by Valor Capital, Coatue, DST, FIS, Plug and Play, The Hive, and many more. We discuss: Benefits...

Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Sarah Hammer , Executive Director and Professor at the Wharton School . Sarah has a long history of leading multiple fintech and financial institutions at Wharton, in the private sector, and also in the public sector. Additionally, Sarah leads the Cypher accelerator , Wharton’s fully-remote and non-dilutive accelerator program built to launch the world...

Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Ohad Samet , CEO & Co-Founder of TrueML , a leading platform of fintech products to enable intelligent, digital customer communication, which in clues TrueAccord, a leading debt recovery and collections platform with a consumer-friendly digital experience. They are backed by AmEx, Arbor Ventures, BoxGroup, Felicis, Homebrew, Nyca, Max Levchin, and...

Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Jason Guss , CEO & Co-Founder of Octane Lending , the leading software and credit provider for purchases of powersports vehicles, RVs, and outdoor power equipment. Founded in New York City in 2014, Octane now funds over a billion dollars in annual loans and is backed by Valar Ventures, Contour, IA Ventures, Barenson, Third Prime, Fintech Collective...

Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Emmalyn Shaw , Managing Partner at Flourish Ventures , a global fintech-focused fund with over $850 million in assets under management. Flourish Ventures is also a permanent capital vehicle that aims to back companies that can create systemic change and help build a more fair financial system. Some of their investments include Chime, Neon, Alloy, Flutt...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode (originally published Jan 3, 2023), Miguel Armaza brings you a curated selection from the best lessons, reflections, and secrets on how to build and manage an amazing board of directors. Whether you’re a CEO managing a board, an investor who sits on several, an independent board director, or you just want to learn,  we hope you find it helpful. Over the last of las...

Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Stuart Sopp , CEO and Co-Founder at Current , one of the largest New York fintech platforms offering financial services to US consumers. Launched in 2015, Current serves almost four million customers and is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global, TQ Ventures, Avenir, Sapphire Ventures, Foundation Capital, Wellington Management, QED, and many more....

Send us Fan Mail Today we bring you a living legend. Miguel Armaza sits down with Howard Morgan , Chair and General Partner at B Capital , a global investment firm with $6.3 billion in AUM and 160+ portfolio companies. Howard is also a true technology pioneer. He was one of the first people in history to experience the web, and had computer #50 on the ARPANET. His research also contributed to the...

Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Ben Miller , CEO & Co-Founder of Fundrise , the largest direct-to-investor alternative asset manager in the US, that has grown from an idea to a platform with over 2 million active users and $3.3 billion in real estate private equity, private credit, and growth-stage venture capital. We discuss: How a product pivot cost Fundrise half their customer...

Send us Fan Mail In this 100th Fintech Leaders episode, we bring you someone extra special. Miguel Armaza sits down with Josh Reeves , CEO & Co-Founder of Gusto , one of the largest HR & Payroll companies in the US, focused on serving small and medium-sized businesses. In addition to HR, payroll, and benefits, Gusto is a strong player of embedded fintech solutions and recently announced a...

Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Tom Callahan , CEO of Nasdaq Private Market , a secondary marketplace and liquidity provider for private company trading and transactions. NPM recently spun out of Nasdaq is now backed by a consortium of banks and financial institutions, including Nasdaq, Citi, Goldman, Morgan Stanley, and others. We discuss: An update on the state of both primary and...

Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Jean-Denis Greze , CTO at Plaid , a data network and one of the foundational fintech companies that works with thousands of firms, including several Fortune 500s and some of largest banks in the world.  Founded in 2013 by Zach Perret and William Hockey, Plaid’s network covers 12,000+ financial institutions across the US, Canada, UK and Europe. They’ve...

Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Colin Walsh , CEO & Co-Founder of Varo Bank , a neobank and the first consumer fintech to be granted a bank charter in the US. In a past life, Colin held leadership positions at American Express, Lloyds Banking Group, and Visa. Varo has raised close to a billion dollars and is back by Blackrock, David Rubenstein’s Declaration Partners, Warburg Pinc...

Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Ricardo Josua , CEO/Co-Founder of Pismo , a global tech company that builds banking and cards solutions for digital banks and large financial institutions. Headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the company has operations in Latin America, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the US and processes $210 billion dollars in annual transaction volume. Pismo’s investors...

Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Michael Tannenbaum , COO at Brex , a $12 billion global spend platform for finance teams and founders to manage every aspect of global spend. Launched in 2017 Brex was last valued at $12B in January 2022 and has raised over a billion dollars from YC, Ribbit, Human Capital, GFC, DST, Dragoneer, TCV, and a very long list of fintech investors. In this epi...

Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Pedro Conrade , CEO/Founder of Neon , one of the largest digital banks in Brazil and Latin America. We sat down on stage in Sao Paulo at the Gilgamesh Ventures Summit , an annual meeting where we gather Limited Partners, Founders, Co-Investors, and friends for a series of events and discussions about the future of financial services. Serving almost 20...

Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Gary Hoberman , CEO & Founder of Unqork , a revolutionary technology company that has pioneered a Codeless as a Service (CaaS) platform to help eliminate legacy code for enterprises. Launched in 2017, Unqork’s clients include some of the world's largest banks and insurance companies. The company was last valued at $2 billion and has raised ove...

Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Stephany Kirkpatrick , Founder/CEO of Orum , a fintech company that’s built a single API to enable US real-time and fast payments across RTP, FedNow, Same Day ACH, Wires, and more. Launched in 2020, Orum has raised over $80 million from great fintech investors including Inspired Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Clocktower, Acrew, Primary, and Accel. In...

Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Alexis Pantazis Co-Founder of Hellas Direct , a full-stack InsurTech with operations in Greece, Cyprus and Romania. Launched in Athens a decade ago, Hellas Direct now generates over $150 million in annual revenue. The company has raised $56 million of equity and debt from Portag3, Third Point, the World Bank, Endeavor Catalyst, amongst other great inve...

Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Billy Libby , CEO/Co-Founder at Upper90 and Conor Witt , Vice President at Upper90. Upper90 is a hybrid fund that invests credit and equity in early-stage businesses. Launched in 2018, Upper90 has over $1.5B in AUM and has backed fintech companies like Thras.io, Octane Lending, Mundi, and many more. In this episode, we discuss: Combining equity and deb...

Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Chris Pento , CEO/Co-Founder of Clear Street , a $2 billion modern financial infrastructure business focused on providing capital markets services including clearing, custody, execution, and prime brokerage service. Launched just five years ago in 2018, Clear Street was recently valued at $2 billion and has raised close to $600 million in equity and de...

Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Salman Syed , CEO of Fidel API , a global financial infrastructure platform that helps build programmable experiences at the moment a transaction occurs on any payment card. They are backed by Bain Capital Ventures, Nyca Partners, QED, Citi Ventures, and Commerce Ventures. Prior to Fidel API, Salman spent over a decade in leadership roles at Mastercard...

Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Adena Hefets , CEO/Co-Founder of Divvy Homes , one of the most innovative PropTech companies in the US that helps renters transition into homeowners with a rent-to-own model.  They are backed by great investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, GGV Capital, GIC, Tiger Global, Caffeinated Capital, and Max Levchin. We discuss: What’s going on in the US com...