The Fintech Blueprint

In this conversation, we chat with Jason Wilk, Co-Founder and CEO of Dave (NASDAQ:DAVE), a US challenger bank that has prevented $1 billion in overdraft fees, and has reached 10 million clients in just four years. Founded in 2017, Dave went public in January 2022 via SPAC that had a market cap of close to $4 billion. As a private company, Dave raised almost $200 million and attracted top investors...

In this conversation, we chat with Kareem Saleh, CEO of Fairplay — FairPlay is the first Fairness-as-a-Service™ solution for financial institutions and a fascinating company.– Kareem has been working on financial inclusion and underwriting hard-to-score borrowers his entire career. At ZestFinance (now Zest.ai) he served as Executive Vice President where he led the go-to-market strategy for the com...

In this conversation, we chat with Mark Aubrey – CEO of Catheon Gaming. Prior to this, Mark was Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific (“APAC”) at Activision Blizzard, the leading gaming developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed games, including Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. Mark has over 19 years of experienc...

In this conversation, we chat with Prashant Fuloria – CEO of Fundbox. With decades of experience in payments and monetization, he has served in a wide variety of leadership, operational, and product roles at prominent technology companies. Prior to Fundbox, Prashant served as SVP of Advertising Products at Yahoo, having joined through the acquisition of Flurry, where he was the Chief Product Offic...

In this conversation, we chat with Chris Brookins – co-founder of RociFi, a new DeFi primitive for under-collateralized lending. Chris is a crypto veteran, having entered the space in 2014, and prior to RociFi, founded Valiendero Digital Assets, a quantitative cryptocurrency investment fund, founded out of Carnegie Mellon University. Valiendero utilized machine learning and data-driven investment...

In this conversation, we chat with Matt Kopko – DailyPay's Vice President of Public Policy, where he manages DailyPay's interactions with regulators, legislators, other government officials and stakeholders. Prior to his role at DailyPay, Matt served in a similar role – Director of Public Policy – at Bird, the micromobility company. Matt was also a senior government official and member of the Seni...

In this conversation, we chat with Jacobc.eth, the now Head of Product Strategy for BitDAO’s Windranger Labs, and Head of Product for the Game7 DAO. Previously, Jacob worked as Lead of Operations at MetaMask, and before that he led product for the Panvala grant funding DAO, one of the earliest grant DAOs in the Web3 ecosystem. Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice an...

Ivan Bakrac - is a Senior DeFi Market Strategist at ConsenSys, as well as Adjunct Professor in Blockchain Technologies & Decentralized Finance at Stevens Institute of Technology, and Adjunct Professor - Global Fintech: AI, Blockchain, Business Data Science at Berkeley College. Ajay Mittal - is a Senior Strategist, Cryptoeconomics at ConsenSys, as well as Co-Lead of Treasury at Friends With Benefit...

In this conversation, we chat with Simon Taylor, the head of strategy and content at Sardine.ai, which is a modern compliance infrastructure. Before this, Simon served as the Co-Founder and Blockchain Practice Lead at 11:FS. Simon has been immersed in the technology of financial services for as long as he’s been working and is consistently voted one of the most influential people in Banking, Insur...

In this conversation, we chat with Meidad Sharon, the CEO and founder of the award-winning retail finance SaaS network platform ChargeAfter, the first global network to provide a complete solution to Point-of-Sale financing from multiple lenders. Meidad is a long-time high-tech industry veteran, with over 15 years of experience scaling global payments and SaaS businesses with a people and customer...

In this conversation, we chat with Ivan Maryasin, the co-founder and CEO of Monite, an embedded finance startup that is automating back-office accounting for SMEs. Earlier this year Monite raised $5M (€4.4M) in a funding round led by Point72 Ventures. Ivan lived for a time in Boston and San Francisco, working for different startups and going to school before settling in Berlin. A natural entrepren...

In this conversation, we chat with Nick Lombardo, co-founder of Arc Technologies. Nick previously worked in private equity in New York where he experienced firsthand the limitations of traditional capital raising. In 2021, Nick and the other co-founders of Arc teamed up with Y Combinator and met with hundreds of software founders in the SF Bay Area and realized that they all shared a common pain p...

In this conversation, we chat with Will Beeson, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer at digital bank BELLA. Previously, Will was a Principal at Rebank, a fintech advisory firm, as well as he co-founded Allica, a digital bank for businesses in the UK. After starting his career at Citigroup in New York, Will spent nearly a decade in Europe working with and managing financial services companies prior t...

In this conversation, we chat with Kurtis Lin, the co-founder & CEO of Pinwheel, a leading payroll connectivity API. The son of two immigrant parents, Kurt saw how the lack of credit history created a greater struggle for them to access and secure financial products. This experience became a driving force for him and his co-founders to create Pinwheel. Kurt has been involved in multiple startup ac...

In this conversation, we chat with Sami Start, the Co-founder and CEO of Transak. Transak is one of the fastest and securest way to buy 100+ cryptocurrencies on 75+ blockchains. Users can pay via Apple Pay, UPI, Bank Transfer or use a credit or debit card. The company is trusted by more than 2 million users globally and empowers wallets, gaming, DeFi. NFTs, Exchanges and DAOs in more than 145 coun...

In this conversation, we chat with Steven Goldfeder, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Offchain Labs – the team building Arbitrum. He holds a PhD from Princeton University, where he worked at the intersection of cryptography and cryptocurrencies. Before Offchain, he attended Princeton as a PhD candidate, where his research explored economics, anonymity, and incentive compatibility of crypt...

In this conversation, we chat with Marieke Flament, CEO of Near Foundation. Marieke is a French-born computer engineer who has worked across the globe in a diverse range of companies that include Boston Consulting Group, LVMH, and Expedia’s Hotels.com. In her previous role, she was Managing Director of Europe and Global CMO for Circle, one of the world’s largest crypto companies. At Circle, she pi...

In this conversation, we chat with Mona El Isa, the co-founder of Enzyme, one of the industry’s leading decentralised asset management protocols, and founder and CEO at Avantgarde Finance. She is also President of MAMA (Multichain Asset Managers Association), and was nominated Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum and Digital Shaper in Bilanz magazine. Mona is a former star-trader at Gold...

In this conversation, we chat with Gene Hoffman, Chief Operations Officer and President at Chia Network. Formerly CEO & co-founder Vindicia, eMusic, PGP, PrivNet. Recognized by the San Francisco Business Times with the “40 under 40 Emerging Leaders Award” in 2012, Gene has deep experience with building companies that disrupt markets. As head of eMusic, Gene was featured on the cover of Forbes Maga...

In this conversation, we chat with Dan Heyman, Co-founder and CEO of Palm NFT Studio and Network. Dan is a blockchain industry leader with experience building and leading organisations through the design, development and implementation of enterprise-grade blockchain protocols. Prior to Palm, Dan was the co-founder and Program Director of PegaSys, focusing on the strategy and operations of the team...

In this conversation, we chat with Sergej Kunz, the co-founder of the 1inch Network, a distributed network of decentralized protocols. From 2015 to 2019, Sergej worked for consulting firm Mimacom, running projects for major customers such as Bosch, Siemens and Porsche. After joining Porsche on a full-time basis, he gradually shifted toward cybersecurity. He also co-hosted the YouTube show CryptoMa...

In this conversation, we chat with Karn Saroya, the co-founder & CEO of Cover, a YC-backed insurance technology company that simplifies the process of getting property insurance and focuses on underserved communities. Karn is responsible for operations, business development, growth and investor relations. To date, Karn has raised $27M for the company through its seed, Series A and Series B rounds....

In this conversation, we chat with Luca Prosperi, is a MakerDAO believer and senior finance professional with 15 years of experience in banking and credit investments. Luca has a wide range of experience ranging from publishing a Substack newsletter on the evolution of banking and DeFi, to working for the likes of Ripplewood Advisors, Partners Capital, Morgan Stanley, Oliver Wyman. Luca holds a Ma...

In this conversation, we chat with Yenwen Feng, co-founder of Perpetual Protocol, a decentralized perpetual contract protocol for every asset, made possible by a Virtual Automated Market Maker, with an aim to create an accessible and secure decentralized derivatives trading platform. Yenwen has over 17 years of various expertise and experience in the financial and tech industry, co-founding busine...

In this conversation, we chat with Edward Woodford, Co-Founder and CEO of Zero Hash. Zero Hash’s mission is to empower innovators by delivering access to the financial system 2.0. Zero Hash provides the complete turnkey solution to allow platforms to launch digital assets and own the client experience, without any regulatory overhead and a light technical lift. Zero Hash’s clients include Neo-bank...