Finovate Podcast

Host Greg Palmer continues his series of conversations with FinovateFall 2026 Best of Show winners, speaking with Monica Marpole-Bird, Head of Growth and Marketing at Young Early Starters. Monica, who joined the company in January after previously working with one of its founders, introduces Young Early Starters as an education-based investing app for kids aged eight to 18, built around two linked...

Host Greg Palmer sits down with Ohad Kotler, CEO and co-founder of Tweezr, fresh off the company's third Best of Show win—a remarkable hat trick spanning FinovateEurope 2025, FinovateEurope 2026, and now FinovateFall 2026 in New York. Ohad shares the origin story behind Tweezr, rooted in his own frustrating experience as a head of product at a large European bank, where a seemingly simple feature...

The Finovate Podcast returns with host Greg Palmer continuing his series of conversations with the FinovateFall 2026 Best of Show winners. In this episode, Cara Oppenheimer and Cary Telander Fortin, co-founders of Goodbuy, share the unconventional origin story behind their company. The two met in Boise in 2017 while touring a daycare, discovered they were both pregnant with their first children, a...

In this episode of the Finovate podcast, host Greg Palmer sits down with Mitch Rutledge (CEO) and Tyler Brantley (Head of Sales and Partnerships) from Vertice AI to discuss their second consecutive Best of Show win at FinovateFall. The conversation explores how Vertice has evolved from their 2025 debut to their 2026 presentation, showcasing their new solution, Vertice Optimize. This innovative pla...

In this episode of the Finovate Podcast, host Greg Palmer sits down with Greg DeVore, CEO of ScreenSteps, a FinovateFall 2026 Best of Show winner. DeVore shares his unconventional journey from the Berklee College of Music and film industry to founding ScreenSteps—a company that began as a means to secure health insurance for his son with cerebral palsy. What started as a simple $20 desktop utility...

In this episode, Greg Palmer sits down with Melissa Solis, CEO of Inbenta, a global AI orchestration platform that enables financial institutions to deploy trusted, self-service AI solutions in days rather than months. Melissa brings her extensive experience from the fraud and risk industry to discuss the evolving landscape of AI adoption in financial services. The conversation explores how the in...

In this episode of the Finovate podcast, host Greg sits down with Luca Terragni, Chief Revenue Officer and co-founder of Prestatech, a finalist in the Risk Management category for the 2026 Finovate Awards. Luca shares his fascinating journey from traditional investment management in New York and London to launching PrestaCap, an alternative lending platform in Europe in 2016. What started as a dir...

In this episode, host Greg sits down with Oban MacTavish, CEO and co-founder of Spade, an intelligence company transforming how financial institutions leverage their payments data. Oban explains how transaction data represents the highest throughput information banks have about their customers, yet remains largely untapped due to poor data quality and outdated payment infrastructure dating back to...

In this engaging episode of the Finovate podcast, host Greg sits down with Derek Corcoran, VP of Strategy at Accutive and author of "Designing for Need: The New Rules of Customer Experience in Banking." Derek shares his remarkable journey from software developer to fintech evangelist, reflecting on his tenure at Avoca, where he helped build the company from employee number eight or nine to its eve...

In this episode of the Finovate podcast, host Greg welcomes back listeners after a summer break and introduces Ning Duong, President and CEO of Financial Center First Credit Union in Indianapolis, Indiana. Ning shares her impressive 25-year journey in financial services, which began unexpectedly when she took a job at a mega bank to pay for nursing school tuition. What started as a temporary posit...

In this episode of the Finovate podcast, host Greg Palmer sits down with Finovate colleague Heather Stowell to discuss an exciting new initiative launching in New York this year. Heather, who has been instrumental in selecting and preparing demoing companies for the Finovate stage for over a decade, shares details about IMPACT Funders and Founders — a dedicated forum running alongside FinovateFall...

In this episode of the Finovate podcast, host Greg Palmer sits down with Caitlyn Truong, CEO and co-founder of Zengines, one of the Best of Show winners from FinovateSpring 2026. Caitlyn shares her journey from software and hardware engineering in the telecom space to consulting in financial services, where she and her co-founders identified a critical gap in data management for legacy systems. Th...

In this episode of the Finovate podcast, host Greg Palmer sits down with Juan Jurado-Blanco, Founder and CEO, and Armando Quintana, Chief Revenue Officer of Clockout, a Best of Show winner at FinovateSpring 2026 in San Diego. The conversation explores Clockout's innovative white-labeled earned wage access (EWA) solution designed specifically for community banks and credit unions. With seven in ten...

In this episode of the Finovate podcast, host Greg speaks with Oren Buskila, CEO and co-founder of Cobalt, a FinovateSpring 2026 Best of Show winner. Cobalt has developed enterprise architectural intelligence specifically designed for financial institutions, addressing a critical challenge in modern banking: the lack of understanding of complex system dependencies. Banks operate on enormously intr...

In this episode of the Finovate Podcast, host Greg Palmer sits down with Craig McLaughlin (CEO) and Baron Conway (Chief Strategy Officer) of Finalytics. AI to discuss their impressive achievement of winning Best of Show at FinovateSpring for two consecutive years (2025 and 2026). The conversation explores how Finalytics. AI is revolutionizing digital banking by solving a critical challenge faced b...

In this episode of the Finovate Podcast, host Greg Palmer sits down with Jensen Coonradt (CEO) and Simmi Sen (Chief Product Officer), the co-founders of Crebit, fresh off their Best of Show win at FinovateSpring 2026 in San Diego. Jensen and Simmi share their remarkable journey from high school friends meeting at a Bank of America scholarship program to leaving college to pursue Crebit full-time....

In this episode, Greg sits down with Melissa Solis, CEO of Inbenta, to discuss the evolving role of artificial intelligence in the banking industry. Melissa shares her impressive personal journey leading to her current role at Inbenta, a company focused on leveraging AI to transform financial services. She highlights the massive investments banks are making in AI, projected to reach $45.6 billion...

In this episode, host Greg Palmer dives into the complexities and opportunities of cannabis banking with guests Stacy Litke, VP of Banking Services at Green Check, and Megan Bennett, Manager of Marijuana Related Business at Wright-Patt Credit Union. The discussion begins with an overview of the challenges financial institutions face when engaging with cannabis-related businesses, particularly the...

In this episode, host Greg Palmer sits down with Debbie Hsu, EVP of Product at Experian, to discuss the company’s innovative approach to empowering consumers through technology. Debbie shares insights into her role at Experian, where she leads product development for North America’s consumer services. She highlights Experian’s mission to bring financial power to all by leveraging data and technolo...

In this episode, Greg sits down with Luz Urrutia, CEO of the Accion Opportunity Fund (AOF), to explore the critical role of small businesses in the economy and the challenges they face in accessing capital. Luz shares her personal journey as a Venezuelan immigrant and her experience with the U.S. banking system, which inspired her to lead AOF in creating economic opportunities for underserved smal...

In this episode of the Finovate podcast, host Greg Palmer sits down with Robert Bueninck, CEO of Unzer, to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing small and medium-sized businesses in the digital payments space. Robert introduces Unzer as a European fintech focused on providing a unified commerce suite for businesses, enabling them to integrate online, in-store, and mobile payments into on...

In this episode of the Finovate podcast, host Greg Palmer wraps up conversations with the FinovateEurope Best of Show winners, featuring Márk Hetényi, CEO of Ready. Márk introduces R34DY’s innovative platform, which specializes in context engineering to create deterministic maps of systems for AI agents. This technology enables reliable answers for tasks such as documentation, bug fixing, data map...

In this episode of the Finovate Podcast, host Greg Palmer interviews Ohad Kotler, co-founder and CEO of Tweezr, one of the Best of Show winners at FinovateEurope. Ohad shares insights into Tweezr’s innovative approach to addressing legacy systems in banking, emphasizing the importance of understanding and reverse-engineering existing systems rather than replacing them outright. He explains how Twe...

In this episode of the Finovate Podcast, host Greg Palmer interviews Savannah Price, founder and CEO of Serene, one of the Best of Show winners at FinovateEurope 2026.

In this episode of the Finovate Podcast, host Greg Palmer sits down with Dor Eligula, co-founder and Chief Business Officer at Bridgewise, to explore how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the investment and wealth management industries. Dor shares insights into his personal journey, the founding of Bridgewise, and the company’s mission to bridge the wisdom gap in financial services. With...