Interviews with Leaders in Fintech & Web3

In his second appearance on the Work in Fintech podcast William Quigley and Matt Cheung discuss career options, education, big companies vs startups and it what it takes to succeed when you start your own company. William Quigley, a long-time VC - he was Paypal's first institutional investor - and entrepreneur, from gaming to blockchain  (he cofounded Tether and WAX) shares his insights on: F...

Rodney Williams, co-founder of SoLo Funds, shares his journey as a serial entrepreneur and fintech innovator. He discusses his first startup, LISNR, which used ultrasonic technology for seamless checkout experiences. Williams, an inspiring black entrepreneur, explains the motivation behind later starting SoLo Funds, a peer-to-peer lending marketplace that provides access to capital and helps indiv...

Summary In this episode, Matt interviews Philippa Poole and Daniel Geller from Revolut, Europe's largest fintech company. They discuss their backgrounds and how they ended up working in the legal department at Revolut. They also talk about the differences between working in a law firm versus a fintech company, the challenges of scaling a legal team in a rapidly growing company, and the import...

Summary William Quigley, a long-time VC and entrepreneur, shares his journey from auditing failing financial institutions to becoming a venture capitalist and co-founding Tether and WAX. He discusses the challenges of investing in the early days of the internet and blockchain, and the creation of Tether as a stablecoin. Quigley also explains the roadmap for NFTs and the evolution of WAX as a platf...

Summary In this conversation, Matt Cheung interviews Sean Forward, the UK CEO of payabl, a fintech company specialising in payments. They discuss the role of payabl in helping merchants accept payments, the concept of omni-channel payments, and Sean's journey in the fintech industry. They also explore the future of payments, including stablecoins and central bank digital currencies. Sean emph...

Summary Javier Rodriguez Alarcon, Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Asset Management at XBTO, discusses the role of XBTO as a full service digital assets provider, focusing on institutional investors. He explains the three main business verticals of XBTO: capital markets, investment management, and a platform business.  Before moving to crypto, Javier was in TradFi at Goldman Sachs as the  Glob...

Alvin Wang Graylin, Global VP of Corporate Development for HTC, discusses the intersection of AI and the metaverse. Alvin shares his background and journey in the tech industry, highlighting the importance of hard work and the value of understanding programming. Alvin explains how AI and XR technologies are coming together to create a transformative metaverse experience, discusses the challenges o...

Matt Ober, General Partner at Social Leverage, delves into the world of data, automation, networking, and early-stage investing. Matt shares his journey from specializing in equity derivatives at Bloomberg to hedge funds and then leveraging his expertise to navigate the complex waters of venture capital. 00:00:52 Matt Ober shares his background from Bloomberg, WorldQuant, Third Point and the journ...

Jonathan Holis is Managing Partner at Mountside Ventures. He joins Work in Fintech's Matthew Cheung to share insights about: -The steps from idea to funding -Breaking down the fundraising process -Tips to close funding quickly and efficiently 1:01 How Jonathan went from PWC to founding a venture company 4:48 What does Mountside Ventures do 5:53 What is a fundraising process 8:00 Looking for t...

Stanfield Gray is the CEO of Dig South: The South's Tech Hub and DIG SOUTH Tech Summit, the first and foremost event dedicated to growing the South’s tech economy, held April 26-27 in Charleston, SC. Visit digsummit.com for details. Stanfield joins Work in Fintech co-founder Ying Cao to talk about:  What is the metaverse, exactly?  The future of storytelling in the Metaverse The importance of...

Vassilis Tziokas, the Global Lead for Web3 Business Development and Strategy at Microsoft joins Work in Fintech co-founder Matthew Cheung to talk about: -Opportunities in web3 for sales and marketing -GTM and sales enablement -Generative AI and how ChatGPT can enhance work -Insights for people looking to get into the industry Highlights: 7:23 Getting ahead in web3 as a non-coder 11:15 What is the...

Does financial regulation always play catch up to the fast moving world of fintech and web3? Does regulation hinder or help cultivate innovation? Dr Iwa Salami, Reader in Financial Law and Regulation, co-director at the Centre of Fintech at the Royal Docks School of Business and Law at University of East London joins Work in Fintech to discuss these topics as well as talk about her career and the...

Robby Young is CEO of Animoca Brands, a $6bln blockchain gaming company and one of the most prolific investors in web3 on the planet. Robby talks about: 0:46 - His journey to being CEO of Animoca 7:23 - Why luck played a part in Animoca's pivot into blockchain games from mobile games 14:08 - Why gaming is an on-ramp into blockchain and the metaverse 15:42 - What is the metaverse and how does...

William Entriken is the lead author of ERC-721, the document that started NFTs as we know them, and changed the digital world. ERC-721 was made famous by CryptoKitties and it is the non-fungible token (“NFT”) standard that powers other blockchain platforms such as Decentraland and OpenSea. William is a blockchain developer who continually contributes to the Ethereum open source project. William’s...

Felicia Meyerowitz Singh is a serial entrepreneur passionate about fintech, wealthtech, innovation and digital change. Her achievements include: - Founder and CEO of Akoni Hub, a UK wealthtech platform, where she recently exited - Co-founder of Hive Founders, a global network of female entrepreneurs, supporting founders at any stage - Managing Director of strategic relationships at leading wealtht...

Doug Thompson has been working in and around the metaverse for the last 15 years. Doug is a serial entrepreneur running a metaverse strategy agency, co-founder of a NFT project called Echocore and is involved in DAOs such as the Open Meta DAO. He is a digital nomad and a true expert in all things related to the metaverse. His newsletter Out of Scope is a must read. Hear Doug's thoughts on: -...

Elena Armijo joins Work in Fintech to discuss her career, DEI initiatives and sense of belonging within organisations. Elena has been in coaching for 8 years now. Previously, she was a professional opera singer and she has recently launched a new platform called C-Suite Collective which encourages DEI initiatives and helps companies create culture from the inside out. Hear Elena's thoughts on...

Joy Macknight is first woman to lead The Banker, a Financial Times publication, in its 95-year history. She is uniquely positioned with a front-row seat of banking, technology and fintech by interviewing CEOs, CFOs and founders about the transformative change and disruption brought on by innovations in fintech and a fundamental generational shift in preferences for managing money. Hear her perspec...

Simon Vans-Colina has been at the forefront of fintech for over 20 years. He started coding at 11, he found working at a bank boring , he was on the founding team of Monzo (the UK neobank unicorn), he is CTO and co-founder of Fronted, Founder of TreeDAO and is now moving to Singapore to join BigPay. He loves defi and web3. Hear Simons thoughts on: - Startups and why you need to be a generalist - H...

Sebastian Widmann, Head of Strategy at Komainu, joins Work in Fintech to discuss how finding a good mentor and manager will help careers, how passion for a subject (blockchain ) gave him an edge and offers graduates some great advice from moving from intern to head of strategy in the space of a few years. With a multi-disciplinary background spanning many languages, banking and blockchain Sebastia...

A new initiative between Goldman Sachs and Warwick University promotes equal access to opportunity and social mobility through a new Masters Degree Apprenticeship. Ayaz Haji, Global Head of Data Products for Core Engineering at Goldman Sachs, is active in championing D&I programmes for GS. In his role, he noticed a skills gap in under-represented students, leading him to initiate the idea of a...

In this episode of our interview series, Ying Cao is joined by Basil Moftah, general partner of Global Ventures and founder member of Reuters Venture Capital group. At Reuters Venture Capital group, he invested in leading global companies such as Yahoo!, Verisign, and Webex. His strategic acquisitions and management of emerging markets for Reuters allowed him to seamlessly grow the $600 million bu...

Michelle Tran, cofounder of NYC Fintech Women, joins Ying Cao to discuss how she pivoted from her traditional finance background to establishing her brand in the fintech space.  Michelle started her career at Blackrock in the ETF businesses before recognizing the bigger opportunity of fintech and joining startups. In the podcast, she talks about what fueled her desire to take an active role in inn...

Anusha Dandapani, Chief Data & Analytics Officer of UNICC joins Ying Cao to discuss her exciting career journey and how she has navigated herself toward her passions. Anusha Dandapani has had a long career in data science inspired by her passion to use it to solve real-world problems. She was the Data Science lead at Barclays where she led several strategic initiatives related to electronic su...

Global Head of Institutional Account Management at Coinbase, Sashi Dias Valtz, joins Ying Cao to discuss her career journey from working at an investment bank to her current position at Coinbase and give advice on how others can pursue their passion in this field or any field in general.  Sashi Dias Valtz has always had many passions starting from an early age, but an interest in entrepreneurship...