The Human Orbit Podcast

Dennis Gavrilin didn't just build a company, he helped raise $65M at the early stage while architecting the financial and AI systems behind it. In this episode, the Co-Founder & CFO of Comfi breaks down exactly how he did it. We get into the fundraising playbook founders rarely talk about: why misreading your numbers kills deals before they start, why starting your raise 6 months early isn't o...

Most companies treat product and engineering as two separate worlds. What if that’s exactly the problem? Fernando Fanton, CPTO at Property Finder, has spent his career sitting at the intersection of both. In this episode, he gets into why the judgment layer is becoming the real bottleneck as AI agents multiply, how customer support in banking is about to get dramatically better, and what it actual...

What happens when AI gets smarter than all of us combined? And what happens after that? Akshay Chopra, FinTech Leader, Inventor, Investor, and Author of After Us, has thought about this more seriously than most. In this episode, he gets into why the AI arms race isn't just a tech story and where it leads isn't pretty. He talks about superintelligence, the very real possibility of conflict and huma...

Cross-border payments move trillions of dollars. Most of it still runs on infrastructure built in the 1970s. Why? Abdul Naushad, Founder & CEO of Buckzy, has spent his career taking that question seriously. In this episode, he gets into why blockchain won't replace SWIFT entirely, how banks with 100,000+ employees are being forced to change from the inside, and why time-to-market is the variab...

Most companies are running AI pilots. Almost none are seeing real ROI. Why? Ian Wilson, Chief Innovation Officer at N2 Group, has spent years watching enterprises adopt AI the wrong way. He uses JP Morgan as a benchmark: build dedicated AI teams, play the long game, and the returns follow. Most others chased short-term wins by cutting staff and called it transformation. In this episode, he gets in...

Welcome back to another episode of the Human Orbit podcast! In Episode 11, we sit down with Anas Qudah, Founder and CEO of UPFRONT, to answer a fundamental question in today's business landscape: Is Cash Still King? Join us as Anas shares his wealth of knowledge on finance, startup building, and leadership. We dive deep into the realities of being a CFO, the hidden risks of overvaluing your organi...

In Episode 10 of The Human Orbit, we speak with Williem Martiz, Founder and Chairman of NoMoreCourses, about how artificial intelligence is reshaping the future of work. Williem shares his perspective on the massive transformation AI will bring to the job market, why the traditional 9-to-5 model may disappear, and how AI agents will begin operating at scale across industries. We also discuss how i...

In Episode 09 of The Human Orbit, we sit down with Mark Douds, founder and CEO of Responsible, for a candid conversation on entrepreneurship, resilience, and what it really takes to build companies over the long term. Mark shares lessons from starting multiple businesses, navigating exits, and continuing to build after surviving cancer. We explore the mindset required to keep going when things sto...

In Episode 08 of The Human Orbit, we sit down with Othmane Saifaoui, co-founder of Makan, to explore why some of the strongest founders come from management consulting backgrounds and what it really takes to move from structured problem-solving into building real companies. We discuss the shift from consulting frameworks to execution, why selling is a foundational skill for every founder, and how...

In Episode 07 of The Human Orbit, we bring together two very different worlds to explore the future of healthcare innovation. A futurist who advised Obama on FinTech strategy is building an AI-powered smart toothbrush with a dentist. We sit down with Brett King, futurist and co-founder of Luma Brush, and Dr. Julia Michelin, dentist and co-founder of Luma Brush, to discuss how technology, healthcar...

Welcome to the 6th episode of the The Human Orbit podcast where we sit down with Saqr Ereiqat , serial entrepreneur and futurist, for a conversation on crypto-native banking, the future of financial infrastructure, and whether blockchain-enabled banks could challenge digital banking platforms like Revolut. We explore how money, payments, and financial primitives are shifting on-chain, what founder...

Episode 5 of The Human Orbit features Mark Chahwan , founder and CEO of Sarwa , a fintech platform that set out to make investing simple, accessible, and designed for real people rather than finance insiders. We talk about why simplicity is hard to execute in financial services, why profitability has to be intentional from day one, and why selling doesn’t feel like selling when people actually bel...

In this episode of The Human Orbit , we sit down with Michele Ferrario (Co-founder and CEO of StashAway) for an honest conversation on work, money, and building companies in financial services and fintech. We explore how expectations around careers and compensation have shifted, how financial products are built inside regulated environments, and why starting a company in financial services require...

In this episode of The Human Orbit, we explore what it really takes to build companies in a digitally evolving world. The conversation focuses on digitising staff, leading digital transformation beyond tools and buzzwords, and the practical realities of starting and scaling a company. We discuss how organisations enable people through technology, where digital initiatives fail, and what founders o...

In this episode of The Human Orbit , we sit down with Ned Philips , founder of Sales Movement , for an honest conversation on sales, company building, and the realities founders navigate beyond the work. The discussion covers what it takes to build a sales-led business, hire and lead high-performing teams, raise capital, and make decisions that compound over time. Ned also reflects on personal mil...

In this episode of The Human Orbit, we sit down with Coen Jonker, Founder and Group CEO, Tyme Group, to unpack what it really takes to build and scale digital banks. Coen Jonker has a unique perspective on the "yin and yang" of banking innovation, from knowing which rules to follow to knowing exactly when to break them. We dive deep into: ⚖️ The Banker Balance: Why the most successful digital bank...