The Fintech Blueprint – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Lex interviews Tom Duff Gordon, the Vice President of International Policy at Coinbase, where he drives the company’s engagement with policymakers in global markets across the UK, Europe, APAC,  LatAm, and the MENA region. Together, Tomm and Lex discuss the importance of policy work in the financial services industry, especially after the 2008 financial crisis, and how policy teams collaborate with regulators to shape the regulatory environment; the reasons why the financial services industry is heavily regulated, including the systemic and interconnected nature of the financial system and the need to protect retail consumers; the regulatory approaches to cryptocurrency and digital assets in different jurisdictions, with Europe (MiCA), the US, and other regions like Asia. The discussion highlights the diverse and evolving nature of crypto regulation globally; the challenges faced by the US in developing a coherent regulatory framework for crypto assets, particularly the jurisdictional tussle between the SEC and CFTC; Coinbase's efforts to advocate for clear and balanced crypto regulation, including through grassroots initiatives like "Stand with Crypto"; and lastly, Coinbase's evolving product strategy, expanding beyond its core exchange business into areas like custody, lending, and infrastructure for the broader crypto ecosystem.

 

MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION

 

Topics: Coinbase, Credit Suisse, SEC, Circle, MiCA, Stand With Crypto, FIT21, financial regulation, financial policy, crypto, exchange, USDC

 

ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT

 

🔥Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2

 

🤝 Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV

 

👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin

 

TIMESTAMPS

 

1’02: Shaping the Future of Finance: Tom Duff Gordon’s career involving Policy, Crypto, and Global Regulation

 

7’30: Preventing Financial Panic: How Regulation Mitigates Systemic Collapse

 

13’12: From Bank Runs to Balance Sheets: Tackling Systemic Risk and Preventing Financial Contagion

 

16’32: Regulating Crypto: Global Progress and Emerging Frameworks

 

19’42: Expanding Crypto Regulation Worldwide: Frameworks, Challenges, and the Road Ahead

 

28’18: Crypto and the SEC: Unpacking America’s Contradictory Approach to Regulation

 

34’30: Crypto Politics: Why the US is Divided While Europe Stays Unified

 

41’30: Scaling Crypto: Coinbase's Multi-Vertical Strategy and Ecosystem Vision

 

45’28: The channels used to connect with Tom & learn more about Coinbase

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

Lex interviews Alessandro Chesser - CEO of Dynasty, a San Jose-based online platform for trust creation and management. In this episode, the key topics discussed include: The importance of aligning business and product teams, and the challenges Chesser faced when this alignment broke down during Carta's unsuccessful foray into the private markets business. Chesser's decision to leave Carta and co-found Dynasty, a startup that aims to simplify the process of creating trusts to avoid probate and  protect assets. Dynasty's go-to-market strategy, which focuses on driving organic growth through short-form video content on platforms like TikTok. And lastly, the technical and legal complexities of automating the trust creation process, and how Dynasty is navigating those challenges.

 

MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION

 

Topics: Dynasty, GetDynasty, Carta, eShares, fintech, trusts, legaltech, private markets, legal, SaaS, social media, TikTok, Instagram, LegalZoom

 

ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT

 

🔥Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2

 

🤝 Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV

 

👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin

 

TIMESTAMPS

 

1’24: From Sales Pioneer to Scaling Success: Alessandro Chesser on Building Carta’s Sales Organization and Transforming the Cap Table Market

 

5’38: Building Carta's Success: Strategic Partnerships, Demand Generation, and Sales-Product Synergy

 

9’57: Navigating Growth and Product Alignment: Carta's Scaling Challenges and the CartaX Experience

 

14’19: The Journey from Carta to Founding Dynasty: The Lessons Learned and Taking the Leap

 

16’55: Democratizing Estate Planning: Dynasty’s Mission to Make Trusts Accessible for Everyone

 

23’11: Unlocking Wealth Protection: Directed Trusts, Asset Security, and Tax Strategies for Founders and Investors

 

26’00: Trusts for the Middle Class: Simple Solutions for Inheritance and Probate Avoidance

 

28’19: Privacy and Protection: Using Trusts to Safeguard Real Estate and Build Awareness Through Organic Growth

 

32’02: Cracking the Viral Code: Leveraging Short-Form Video to Drive Customer Acquisition in Estate Planning

 

35’09: Building a Viral Marketing Team: Crafting Convincing Content for Organic Growth in FinTech

 

39’35: Engineering Simplicity in Legal Tech: Automating Trusts and Navigating Legal Complexities

 

42’52: The channels used to connect with Alessandro & learn more about Dynasty

 

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

Lex chats with Matt Watson, the founder and CEO of Origin, a comprehensive money management platform for the modern workforce. Watson discusses his background as an entrepreneur and his first fintech experience working on Wall Street. He also talks about his previous business in the commercial insurance space and the challenges of building out the go-to-market function for that company. Watson then explains the concept behind Origin and its focus on providing a mass-market private banking experience for the underserved segment of the population with investable assets below $500,000. He discusses the company's go-to-market strategy, its target market, and its monetization strategy. Watson also touches on the collapse of Mint and the opportunity it created for Origin, as well as the role of generative AI in financial planning and guidance. He concludes by discussing the ownership of data and the challenges of accessing and utilizing consumer financial data in the industry.

 

MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION

 

Origin's Website: https://bit.ly/4bJcMvc

Matthew's LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3ym8mMa

 

Topics: fintech, AI, artificial intelligence, PFM, personal financial management, embedded finance

Companies: Origin, Origin Finance, Mint, Mint.com, Plaid, LearnVest, Column Tax, Intuit, Yodlee, ChatGPT

 

ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT

 

🔥Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2

 

🤝 Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV

 

👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin

 

TIMESTAMPS

 

1’07: The Entrepreneurial Journey: From Family Influence to Fintech Ventures

 

3’55: Building the Go-to-Market Function: Penetrating and Innovating in the Insurance Agency Software Market

 

7’55: Challenges in Financial Vertical Software: Entrenched Systems and High Switching Costs

 

10’08: Exploring Origin: Addressing the Financial Services Gap for the Mass Affluent

 

18’16: Evolving Data Aggregation in Fintech: Addressing Costs and Open Banking Trends

 

22’30: Origin’s Business Model and Market Dynamics in Mass Affluent Financial Services: Lessons from Lead Generation Giants

 

26’01: Building Financial Solutions In-House: Origin's Approach to Planning, Investing, and Tax

 

29’24: The Collapse of Mint: Catalyzing Opportunities for Origin in B2B and B2C Markets

 

31’26: Leveraging Generative AI in Financial Planning: Enhancing Guidance and Managing Challenges

 

35’47: Understanding the Demand for AI Financial Planning: Challenges and Consumer Behavior

 

40’22: The Future of Financial Data Control: Consumer-Driven Analysis and Insights in a Tokenized World

 

41’07: The channels used to connect with Matthew & learn more about Origin

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

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-first approach. As well as, demonstrating how simple payment processing and fraud prevention solutions can meet complex needs, and lead to maximum profitability and a seamless end-user experience.Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD. Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

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 entrepreneur, Ivan began his first marketing consultancy at age 16, and he founded Monite after witnessing first-hand the pain points that SMEs are facing with finances, whilst leading growth for Penta, one of the key German B2B neobanks and realized small businesses struggle a lot more with admin and accounting than they do with banking More specifically, we touch on the differences between marketing, advertising, and growth hacking. As well as the lag in fintech expansion in Germany and how starting a fintech there was challenging, and how painpoints from SMEs and retail customers lead to the building of an embedded finance startup, and so so much more!Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD. Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

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 point – startup funding is costly and distracting. Arc was founded to give founders an alternative to the status quo that helps them grow – with technology and without dilution. More specifically, we touch on investment banking vs. private equity, capital raising and the purpose of finance for early stage startups, invoice financing/invoice factoring vs revenue-based funding, embedded finance, and so so much more!Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD. Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

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 to launching Allica. Will holds a BA from Amherst College (USA) and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder. More specifically, we touch on frameworks for navigating down markets, valuations, multiples, why some fintechs have to disclose themselves as tech companies than banks, covid-19 implications, buy now pay later developments, and so so much more!Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD. Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

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 acquisitions, first Idean and later with Luxe. Following Luxe’s acquisition by Volvo, he received an HSA and experienced similar challenges to those of his parents. He realized if you didn’t have money to pre-fund an account - which most Americans don’t - opening an HSA was basically impossible. Kurt and his co-founders set out to create a more automated HSA process and soon realized the key problem was actually inaccessibility to the data and controls in payroll systems. Thus Pinwheel was born with the mission to build a fairer financial system. More specifically, we touch on the journey to building a fintech API infrastructure play, integrating inset payroll systems via APIs, the demise of payday lenders, and so so much more!Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD. Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

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 countries. Sami is based in London and has worked in high frequency trading and B2C fintech – his passion for fiat onboarding arose from his time at Smarkets. He has degrees in Physics from Imperial College and Computer Science from UCL More specifically, we geek out on problem solving philosophies and processes, market makers, building the best Web3 applications involving money, the inception of Transak and how it aims to power all web3 companies to facilitate payments using its developer-friendly infrastructure and easy UX/UI, the future of DeFi and CeFi and their convergence with TradFi, and so so much more!Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD. Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

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 cryptocurrencies. More specifically, we geek out on the heydays of early cryptography and the connection to cryptocurrency, zero-knowledge proofs, the fundamental structure of Ethereum and how this birthed Arbitrum, the application of optimistic roll-ups, the existing data storage issues of Layer 1s and how Arbitrum seek to solve them, and so so much more!Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD. Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.