Wharton FinTech Podcast

In our latest podcast, Keane Ehsani (WG ’20) is joined by Clay Wilkes, the CEO and founder of Galileo Processing. In this extensive interview, Clay dives into Galileo’s sophisticated payments platform and how Galileo inspires and connects the most exciting fintechs and financial institutions via its open APIs and simulator sandbox. We also cover Galileo’s growth since its founding, emerging payment adoption trends, and valuations and consolidation in fintech. Galileo Processing (www.galileoprocessing.com) was founded in 2000 and has grown to become one of the largest payments processors and program managers in North America. Galileo applies technology and engineering capabilities to empower fintechs and financial institutions to unleash their full creativity to achieve their most innovative goals. Galileo leads the industry with superior fraud detection, security, decision-making analytics, and regulatory compliance functionality combined with customized, responsive and flexible programs to accelerate the success of all payments companies and solve tomorrow’s payments challenges today. Under Clay’s leadership, Galileo developed the technology that powers the most successful fintechs, financial institutions and investment firms in North America. His love of technology began early, while hunkered down in high school and university computer labs in his native Oregon. He launched his career developing communications and operating systems for Sperry, IBM, and Novell. In 1994 Clay founded I-Link, which developed Voice Over IP. As CEO, he took I-Link public and authored patents for VOIP. A dedicated humanitarian and environmentalist, Clay says Galileo’s Core Values are the embodiment of what he believes as a business leader.

In our latest podcast, Keane Ehsani (WG ’20) is joined by Braden More, Executive Vice President and Head of Partnerships and Industry Relations at Wells Fargo. In this extensive interview, Braden dives into Wells Fargo’s tech enabled payment offerings and discusses Wells Fargo’s strategy for partnering with and investing in emerging fintech start-ups. We also cover U.S. payment adoption trends, how Wells Fargo is helping consumers manage their digital financial footprint, and Braden’s experience as co-founder of the Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator. Braden More leads business development, partnerships, and industry relations for Wells Fargo’s payments business. He and his team work across the consumer and commercial bank to grow Wells Fargo’s deposit and payment franchise by focusing on customers, partners, and regulators. Before assuming his current role in 2017, Braden was the head of payment strategy at Wells Fargo. He and his team worked across the enterprise to coordinate strategy, incubate new initiatives like Apple Pay, and represent Wells Fargo in the payments industry. He also cofounded the Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator, a venture capital program that mentors and invests in innovative companies. Braden graduated magna cum laude from Bowdoin College with a degree in government and legal studies. He earned his M.B.A. with distinction from NYU’s Stern School of Business and obtained a CPA license in New York. Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator (https://accelerator.wf.com/) Control Tower (https://www.wellsfargo.com/online-banking/manage-accounts/control-tower/) Greenhouse by Wells Fargo (https://www.wellsfargo.com/greenhouse/)

In our latest podcast, Peter Jankovsky (WG'20) is joined by Dan Westgarth, head of Revolut's North America expansion. Revolut is a UK challenger bank that launched in 2015 with the mission to build the world's first truly bank. Today, it supports customers in over 30 countries and has over 4M users. Podcast overview: * How Revolut thinks of a "stack of niches" in building its customer base and creating a ripple effect to grow to 4M+ users * Revolut's planned product expansion, including its new Perks program and wealth/trading product, and how it goes about launching new products * Revolut's plans for international expansion to create the world's first truly global bank * A comparison of the regulatory environment in North America and the UK/EU, and how this affects Revolut's business model * Plans for Revolut's launch in the US, challenges it has had to work through, and how it's adapting to the US consumer * Revolut's culture and what Revolut looks for in potential hires Dan Westgarth is the General Manager for North America at Revolut, currently responsible for local operations across North America. Before taking on his current role, Dan was part of the Revolut international launcher team, which collectively set up local businesses in 8+ international markets. Prior to that, as one of Revolut's early employees, Dan established several early partnerships and business critical deals within the partnerships and business development team which was based in Canary Wharf's Level39 FinTech hub and accelerator.

In our latest podcast, Christian Rolon (WG '19) is joined by Frank Rotman, one of the founding partners of QED Investors. QED Investors invests in early-stage Fintech companies based in the US, UK, and Latin America. Based in Virginia, QED was founded in 2008 by Rotman, Caribou Honig, and Nigel Morris (co-founder of Capital One). QED Investors has invested in Avant, AvidXchange, ClearScore, Credit Karma, Nubank, Remitly, and SoFi. Their exits include Braintree, Klarna, and Orchard. Frank Rotman is a founding partner of QED Investors. Frank's portfolio companies include Avant, Credit Karma, GreenSky, LendUp, Prosper and SoFi. Frank publishes his thoughts on Fintech on his personal blog Confessions of a Fintech Junkie. Frank began his career at Capital One as one of its earliest analysts. At Capital One, Frank spanned a number of roles across subprime and upmarket cards, focusing on managing Capital One's credit exposure and expanding new business lines. After leaving Capital One, Frank created a Student Lending company. Frank received his BS in Applied Mathematics and his MS in Systems Engineering, both from the University of Virginia.

In our latest podcast, Vivek Chauhan (Wharton MBA '19) chats with Michael Tae, Head of Strategy and M&A at Broadridge. Broadridge Financial Solutions, a $4 billion global fintech leader, provides investor communications and technology-driven solutions for broker-dealers, banks, mutual funds and corporate issuers globally. With over 50 years of experience, Broadridge's infrastructure underpins proxy voting services for over 90 percent of public companies and mutual funds in North America and processes more than $5 trillion in fixed income and equity trades per day. Broadridge is part of hyperledger project, a minority investor in the blockchain startup Digital Asset Holding, and has received an award for its blockchain initiatives. Michael is the head of strategy and M&A at Broadridge and leads strategy, acquisitions, partnerships, and other growth-related activities. He began his career at McKinsey where he provided consulting services to the financial services industry before moving to Merrill Lynch where he was the Vice President of their Financial Institutions Group. In 2009, at the height of the financial crisis, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked in the U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Financial Stability as Director of Investments and Senior Policy Advisor. Most recently, he was the Senior Executive Vice President of Worldwide Services for Microstrategy. In this engaging podcast, Michael shares more about Broadridge's industry-leading initiatives using the blockchain technology for proxy voting and talks about opportunities and challenges in the adoption of blockchain technology in capital markets.

In our latest podcast, Keane Ehsani (WG ’20) and Peter Jankovsky (WG ’20) are joined by Brandon Krieg, the CEO and Co-Founder of StashInvest. In this extensive interview, Brandon dives into StashInvest’s offering as an enabler for consumer investing. We also cover Brandon’s experience at EdgeTrade, Knight Capital, and Macquarie, the process of founding Stash, and how Brandon sees disruptive innovation affecting financial services. StashInvest (https://www.stashinvest.com), one of the fastest growing consumer investing apps in the U.S., simplifies the financial services experience, offering education and opportunities that help improve the financial well-being of millions of people across the U.S. By breaking down barriers and building transparent, technology-driven products, Stash helps the 99% build smarter financial habits so they can confidently save more, grow savings, and enjoy life. Stash currently has over 3 million customers.  As Co-founder and CEO, Brandon’s core focus is finding new ways to harness technology to simplify the financial services industry and create opportunities for people of all demographics and financial backgrounds. He has over 20 years of experience in the FinTech industry, most notably as Co-founder of EdgeTrade, one of the first and largest electronic trade execution and software firms (later acquired by Knight Capital Group), and as Head of Electronic Execution at Macquarie Securities Group.

In our latest podcast, Christian Rolon (WG ’19) is joined by Mary-Catherine Lader, the Chief Operating Officer of Digital Wealth at BlackRock. In this expansive interview, Mary-Catherine dives into BlackRock’s digital strategy, technology as an enabler for asset management businesses, and how FinTech startups are partnering with incumbents and expanding their product lines to become the center of consumers’ financial lives. The BlackRock Digital Wealth Group provides software solutions to help retail advisors and institutional investors build better investment portfolios by leveraging the Aladdin operating system. BlackRock has made a number of investments in WealthTech startups and incumbents, including Acorns, Personal Capital, Scalable Capital, Envestnet, and iCapital Network. BlackRock also acquired the robo-advisor FutureAdvisor in 2015. BlackRock has nearly $6 trillion in assets under management, serving retail and institutional investors across the world. Mary-Catherine Lader is the Chief Operating Officer of Digital Wealth at BlackRock where she focuses on improving BlackRock’s product offerings for retail advisors and investors through partnerships, acquisitions, and internal projects. Prior to BlackRock, Mary-Catherine was the co-founder of hiWatson, a Fintech startup managing online benefits for independent contractors. Mary-Catherine also worked in Goldman Sachs’s Special Situations Group as an investment analyst focusing on clean energy. She was also on the Media team for the World Economic Forum. During business school, Mary-Catherine interned at Comcast Ventures. Mary-Catherine Lader received her JD/MBA from Harvard University, and her A.B. from Brown University.

Caroline Kremer (WG '19) speaks with Tom Fortin, the Chief Operating Officer and Managing Partner of iCapital Network. iCapital is an alternative investments technology platform that serves investors, fund managers, and financial advisors. iCapital's platform digitizes the subscription, reporting, and administrative aspects of alternative investments. Additionally, iCapital's platform provides private investment fund due diligence for high-net worth investors and financial advisors. iCapital was named to the 2019 Forbes Fintech 50 list. iCapital recently raised a round of funding from strategic investors including BlackRock, Blackstone, Carlyle Group, BNY Mellon, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, and UBS. Tom Fortin is the Chief Operating Officer at iCapital, responsible for the Administration, Investor Services and Technology departments. Prior to joining iCapital, Tom was a Managing Director at BlackRock from 2001–2017. He was most recently the Global Head of Retail Technology where he was responsible for the strategy, design, and development of BlackRock's retail sales enablement and digital distribution solutions. In addition he was a member of BlackRock's Global Operating Committee, Human Capital Committee and Enterprise Risk Management Committee. Prior to joining BlackRock in 2001, Tom spent ten years with Wall Street Systems in the design, development and implementation of a front-to-back integrated fixed income and FX trading system for global financial institutions. From 1988 to 1991, he traded FX and interest rate derivatives at Chemical Bank (now JP Morgan Chase) in New York. Through a joint engineering program, Tom earned a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University and a BS degree in engineering from Providence College, and an MBA degree in Finance from New York University.

Jeff Leathers (WG ’19) interviews Lowell Putnam, the co-founder and CEO of Quovo, a financial data platform that provides companies with connectivity and insights for millions of consumer financial accounts across more than 14,000 different institutions. In January 2019, Quovo was acquired by Plaid. In this podcast, Lowell covers the recent acquisition, the current and future use cases for account connectivity, the regulatory environment, and his takeaways from his journey as a technology entrepreneur. Prior to founding Quovo, Lowell worked in the Investment Banking Division of Lehman Brothers/Barclays. At Lehman Brothers, Lowell worked in the Financial Institutions Group, specializing in consumer credit companies and structured finance transactions. Lowell has been named to the InvestmentNews 40 under 40 and WealthManagement.com Top Ten to Watch in 2016 lists. He serves on several advisory boards for technology companies and non-profits. Lowell attended Harvard College and lives in New York City with his wife, Brynn, and son, George.

Christian Rolon (WG '19) is joined by Jamie Finn, the co-founder and President of Securitize. Securitize is a platform for digitizing securities, facilitating the issuance of securities for assets including companies, funds, and other equity holdings. Founded in January 2018, Securitize has already helped a number of customers digitize their portfolios and assets on their platform. Securitize raised a Series A from investors including Coinbase Ventures, Ripple, and Blockchain Capital in November 2018. Jamie Finn is the co-founder and President of Securitize. Prior to Securitize, Jamie held leadership roles at helloNetwork, Zingy, Ericsson, Thumbplay, RingRing Media, Telefonica, Kontera, Sansa Security, AT&T, and Aki Technologies. Jamie has his Bachelor's degree from Babson College.

Christian Rolon (WG '19) is joined by Rex Salisbury, the founder of the Fintech Devs and PMs Meetup based in San Francisco. The Fintech Devs and PMs community has roughly 2,000 members, hosting monthly events highlighting many exciting Fintech firms in the Bay Area. Past Meetups have featured speakers from: a16z, Affirm, Branch, EarnIn, Plaid, SoFi, Wealthfront, and many others. Learn more at: https://www.fintechdevsandpms.com/. Rex Salisbury is the founder of the Fintech Devs and PMs Meetup in San Francisco. Rex is a product engineer at Checkr. Prior to Checkr, Rex worked at Sindeo as an engineer, and Merrill Lynch in investment banking on the real estate team. Rex has his BA in Economics and History from Davidson College.

Christian Rolon (WG '19) is joined by Jason Brown, the co-founder and CEO of Tally Technologies. Tally is the first automated debt manager, helping consumers pay down high interest rate credit card debt. Tally was founded in 2015, and was launched on iOS in October 2017. Tally now manages hundreds of millions of dollars in credit card debt and has saved people millions of dollars in interest and late fees since its launch. Tally has raised $42m in total from investors including Kleiner Perkins, Shasta Ventures, and Cowboy Ventures. Jason is the co-founder and CEO of Tally Technologies. Tally is Jason's third startup. His second startup Gen110 was also co-founded with his Tally co-founder Jasper Platz and was invested in by Kleiner Perkins. Gen110 was acquired by Solar Universe in 2013. Jason also worked at Voyager Capital, a VC firm focusing on early-stage software firms. Jason has his MBA from Chicago Booth, where he ran the Venture Capital and Private Equity Club and concentrated in Finance and Entrepreneurship. Jason received his BA from Boston University, graduating summa cum laude.

In our latest podcast, Christian Rolon (WG ‘19) is joined by Nick Shalek, a general partner at Ribbit Capital. Ribbit Capital is a leading venture capital firm focused on early stage firms across fintech verticals such as lending, insurance, wealth management, and blockchain. Ribbit Capital has made a number of investments across the fintech space, including: Affirm, Brex, Coalition, Coinbase, Credit Karma, Funding Circle, Gusto, Nubank, Revolut, Robinhood, Upgrade, and Wealthfront. In this podcast, Nick speaks about his path to venture capital, Ribbit's investment approach, regulation affecting fintech, and his view on the current investing and valuation landscape. Nick is a General Partner at Ribbit Capital, investing and serving on the board of a number of Fintech firms. As a firm, Ribbit Capital has made investments in many of the Fintech space’s leading startups - such as Coinbase, Revolut, and Robinhood. Nick has been at Ribbit Capital since 2012. Prior to Ribbit, Nick worked in Yale’s Investments Office, which manages the Yale University endowment. Nick also has experience as an operator, across Verne Global, Facebook, and Aspire Public Schools. Nick has a BA from Yale University, as well as an MBA and an MA in Education from Stanford University.

In this podcast, Christian Rolon (MBA '19) interviews Garry Reeder, Vice President at the Center for Financial Services Innovation. This episode was recorded live at the Financial Inclusion Summit. Garry leads the Financial Solutions Lab at CFSI. In this podcast, Garry discusses CFSI's mission and investing activities, regulatory developments in fintech, and fintech and blockchain applications for the underbanked. Garry Reeder is the Vice President of Innovation and Policy at the Center for Financial Services Innovation. Garry also leads the Financial Solutions Lab at CFSI. The Financial Solutions Lab is a partnership between CFSI and J.P. Morgan Chase. The Financial Solutions Lab invests in entrepreneurs and startups that are working on improving the financial health of consumers around the world. Past startups that have gone through the program include: Dave, Digit, EarnUp, LendStreet, Nova, Scratch, and WiseBanyan. Prior to his current role at CFSI, Garry had an extensive background in the public and private sector. Within the private sector, Garry has a decade of asset management experience, spanning across Ziff Brothers Investments and Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Garry later went on to co-found Fenway Summer Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in Fintech firms. Garry has also advised a number of financial service institutions around the regulatory landscape, first at BlackRock, where Garry led the Consumer Financial Services Advisory Practice, and then at Chain Bridge Partners, where Garry was a Managing Director. Garry also spent time in the public sector, specifically at the U.S. Treasury. At Treasury, Garry worked on the Auto Team, overseeing TARP's investments in the auto sector, and the General Motors IPO. Garry went on to serve as the Chief of Staff for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, helping to develop Project Catalyst. Garry has his BA from Yale, and his MBA from Columbia Business School. The Financial Inclusion Summit was organized by Rex Salisbury, the founder of Fintech Devs and PMs Meetup. The community has roughly 2,000 members, hosting monthly events highlighting many exciting Fintech firms in the Bay Area. Past Meetups have featured speakers from: a16z, Affirm, Branch, EarnIn, Plaid, SoFi, Wealthfront, and many others. Learn more at: https://www.fintechdevsandpms.com/.

In this podcast, Jacob Decter (Wharton MBA ’19) speaks with Jennifer Fitzgerald, CEO and Co-founder of Policygenius. Policygenius is an online insurance marketplace that aims to streamline and simplify insurance buying for consumers, offering a wide array of insurance products including life insurance, disability insurance, renters insurance, and pet insurance. Beyond its product offering, Policygenius also offers practical financial and insurance advice and information in a digestible way for the average consumer. Policygenius is backed by investors including Norwest Venture Partners, Revolution Ventures, Susa Ventures, and AXA Venture Partners. In this podcast, Jacob and Jennifer explore the founding of Policygenius, the evolving insurance customer, some of the operations and operational challenges of running a start up in the insurance industry and the future of Policygenius and insurance distribution. Jennifer was named one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business for 2018 and is one of only four women founders in Fintech to raise over $50 million in funding. Before starting Policygenius in 2014, she and her co-founder, Francois de Lame, were management consultants at McKinsey & Company. Jennifer has shared insights in major publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and more. Early in her career, she was a Peace Corps volunteer and used to do standup comedy. Jennifer is a graduate of Columbia Law School and Florida State University.