Explore every episode of the podcast Fintech Leaders
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Title
Pub. Date
Duration
How Deel Built a $17 Billion Company in 7 Years - Dan Westgarth, COO
Miguel Armaza interviews returning guest Dan Westgarth, COO of Deel, the company that's redefining how businesses hire and pay talent anywhere in the world.
Deel has grown into one of the most valuable private tech companies on the planet. In 2025, they crossed one billion dollars in revenue, achieved a $17 billion valuation, and paid out $22 billion in payroll globally. Dan oversees an organization of 3,300 people across more than 100 countries. Before Deel, he was an early operator at Revolut.
Timestamped Overview 00:00 Intro & Dan’s Background 05:51 Expanding products and global reach 06:30 Optimized systems scaling go-to-market 12:55 Begging for Ghostbusters Expertise 13:41 RevOps solved with Ghostbuster 18:05 Building a Streamlined Goal System 20:26 Payroll and Adjacent HR Services 26:09 Keep It Simple Prioritize People 28:15 Morning Routine and Work Prioritization 31:46 Clarifying Communication for Alignment 35:27 Building payroll processing engines
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza recorded this episode at FinTech Nerdcon in Miami with Steve McLaughlin, Founder and CEO of FT Partners, the largest fintech-focused investment bank. Since 2001, Steve has built a 250-person firm that's advised on landmark deals including Coinbase's $4.3 billion Deribit acquisition and Revolut's multi-billion dollar raises. FT Partners works with everyone from early-stage startups to industry giants.
In this conversation, Steve shares his unfiltered views on Fintech's dramatic recovery, the tokenization revolution, and why AI will completely reshape financial services.
Timestamped Overview 00:00 Intro & Steve’s Background 02:18 Fintech thrives with smarter strategies 07:45 Crypto M&A Major Deals Emerging 09:38 Future of Asset Tokenization 12:41 AI transforming digital business 17:45 AI enhances analyst efficiency 21:08 Efficient AI investment insights 25:57 Closed-Loop Ecosystem Dominance 27:42 Building a passionate resilient team 30:07 Subscribe for more interviews
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join ~85,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!
Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza interviews the CEO of Cashea. In a country where credit vanished, Cashea built a new system from scratch. CEO Pedro Vallenilla shares how they scaled BNPL to 3% of Venezuela’s GDP, through trust-based lending, merchant financing, and a bold vision for national impact.
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 80,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!
Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Gary Hoberman, CEO & Founder of Unqork, a revolutionary technology company that has pioneered a Codeless as a Service (CaaS) platform to help eliminate legacy code for enterprises.
Launched in 2017, Unqork’s clients include some of the world's largest banks and insurance companies. The company was last valued at $2 billion and has raised over $350 million from Google, Goldman Sachs, Aquiline, Fin Capital, Blackrock, and many more.
Prior to founding Unqork, Gary was Global CIO for MetLife, where he oversaw technology across 47 countries, and before that, he was one of the youngest Managing Directors in Citi’s history. He holds seven patents, six of which are still in use in the finance industry today.
We discuss:
The crisis in the world of enterprise software and why most of the dollars being spent are making companies worse, not better.
Why Unqork believes that launching software isn't the final goal, but instead we should focus on ensuring software improves businesses and doesn't become a legacy burden.
Challenges with the conventional approach towards cybersecurity and why most companies are not equipped to manage truly secure operations.
Persevering in the face of adversity, turning 300 no’s from Investors into a $2B company… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Stephany Kirkpatrick, Founder/CEO of Orum, a fintech company that’s built a single API to enable US real-time and fast payments across RTP, FedNow, Same Day ACH, Wires, and more.
Launched in 2020, Orum has raised over $80 million from great fintech investors including Inspired Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Clocktower, Acrew, Primary, and Accel.
In this episode, we discuss:
The future of real-time payments in the US and how Orum is helping increase adoption for small and mid-sized banks
Why the risks posed by new technologies should not deter technological innovation
Lessons learned from building an enterprise sales organization
Asking for help and why founders should create a personal 9-1-1 call list… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Alexis Pantazis, Co-Founder of Hellas Direct – A Contrarian Play That Led to $150M Annual Revenue, Mastering Product & Market Launches, The Future of Insurance
Miguel Armaza sits down with Alexis Pantazis Co-Founder of Hellas Direct, a full-stack InsurTech with operations in Greece, Cyprus and Romania. Launched in Athens a decade ago, Hellas Direct now generates over $150 million in annual revenue.
The company has raised $56 million of equity and debt from Portag3, Third Point, the World Bank, Endeavor Catalyst, amongst other great investors.
We discuss:
A masterclass of what they’ve learned from launching new products and countries over the last decade
Their strategy of going after ‘Blindspot Markets’ to increase market dominance and reduce competition
Dealing with fraud with data and underwriting
Why it’s so important to modernize the insurance industry… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Billy Libby, CEO/Co-Founder at Upper90 and Conor Witt, Vice President at Upper90. Upper90 is a hybrid fund that invests credit and equity in early-stage businesses.
Launched in 2018, Upper90 has over $1.5B in AUM and has backed fintech companies like Thras.io, Octane Lending, Mundi, and many more.
In this episode, we discuss:
Combining equity and debt underwriting and how Upper90 has built a team with two different skillsets under the same roof
What they’ve learned from working with the best credit-driven companies in the market and what great founders have in common
Venturing outside the US and why Upper90 sees a ton of opportunity in places like Latin America
How electronic and quantitative trading in Wall Street led Billy to fintech and venture capital… lots more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Chris Pento, CEO/Co-Founder of Clear Street, a $2 billion modern financial infrastructure business focused on providing capital markets services including clearing, custody, execution, and prime brokerage service.
Launched just five years ago in 2018, Clear Street was recently valued at $2 billion and has raised close to $600 million in equity and debt from Prysm Capital, NextGen Venture Partners, IMC Investments, and many more.
We discuss:
A brief history of the US Securities and Capital Markets infrastructure and how Clear Street is modernizing 50-year-old technology
How Chris thinks about strategic-decision making and why they’ve been able to execute and launch so many products in just a few years
Why he believes in the concept of a value-add investor, especially in niche and regulated spaces like theirs
Transitioning from a Wall Street corner office to scrappy startup founder, competitive ping pong matches at Clear Street… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Salman Syed, CEO of Fidel API, a global financial infrastructure platform that helps build programmable experiences at the moment a transaction occurs on any payment card. They are backed by Bain Capital Ventures, Nyca Partners, QED, Citi Ventures, and Commerce Ventures. Prior to Fidel API, Salman spent over a decade in leadership roles at Mastercard and Marqeta.
We discuss:
How Fidel API is unlocking new products and technologies by accessing and leveraging real-time transaction data
Key trends that are shaping the future of financial services
Challenges and advantages of building a global firm with employees and customers around the world… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Adena Hefets, CEO/Co-Founder of Divvy Homes, one of the most innovative PropTech companies in the US that helps renters transition into homeowners with a rent-to-own model.
They are backed by great investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, GGV Capital, GIC, Tiger Global, Caffeinated Capital, and Max Levchin.
We discuss:
What’s going on in the US commercial and residential real estate markets? Adena gives a deep dive of the tough state of the market.
How Divvy’s rent-to-own model is a win-win for consumers, giving them the flexibility to be homeowners without necessarily having a mortgage.
Leadership and productivity lessons after six years in the CEO role.
Struggles from their early fundraising journey, building company culture… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
In this special episode, Miguel Armaza brings you a curated selection of the best lessons, stories, and candid reflections about raising venture capital. You’ll hear directly from some of the strongest fintech entrepreneurs around the world spanning four continents. From the skyscrapers of New York, through the vibrant landscapes of Cape Town, up to the lively streets of Mexico City, over to the cafes of Paris, and all the way to the heart of Bogota.
The founders featured in this episode have built and continue building revolutionary companies. Many of them multi-billion-dollar enterprises. To get there, they’ve successfully raised venture capital from some of the most respected investors in the world.
In this episode, they reveal lessons they’ve learned and pass on valuable insights from their experiences. You’ll hear from nine founders, including:
Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur just starting your journey, or a seasoned founder facing new challenges, we hope you find valuable takeaways in this episode.
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 56,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!
Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Soups Ranjan, CEO/Co-Founder of Sardine, a fraud-prevention company that’s on a mission to make payments instant and risk-free. Sardine enables companies to improve risk management through a single API for fraud detection and compliance within financial services.
Founded in 2020, Sardine has raised around $75 million from a16z, NYCA, Activant, FJ Labs, Visa, and a long list of impressive folks.
We discuss:
What he learned about fraud in his role as Head of Risk at Coinbase, where they had to prevent attacks against the most sophisticated fraudsters and nation-state attackers
Examples the most creative fraud attacks they are seeing these days and how Sardine helps fight and prevent them
The urgent need for real-time transaction monitoring in the financial industry
Why fraud and growth are two sides of the same coin … and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Tommy Nicholas, CEO/Co-Founder at Alloy, a company that gives fintechs and banks a command center to control their fraud-fighting, credit, compliance, risk, and identity-decisioning needs. Founded in 2015, Alloy has raised around $200M from Bessemer, Avenir, Clocktower, Flourish, Lightspeed, Primary, Techstars, and a long list of great fintech investors.
We discuss:
Early days of Alloy and how they overcame several tough years and finally hit their stride
A deep-dive into the complex world of fraud and how Alloy aggregates multiple anti-fraud solutions into their platform
Several company-building lessons in the context of a tough raising environment
And... a reminder from Tommy to tech founders that it’s OK to raise a down round or give the money back
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza interviews Steve Stagner, CEO of Crete, an AI-powered roll-up deploying $500+ million to modernize the accounting industry. Backed by Thrive Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and others, Crete is acquiring US accounting firms and transforming them with OpenAI-powered tools. Steve brings battle-tested insights from building Mattress Firm from a single $1,300 franchise to a $3.8 billion Fortune 500 giant.
In this episode, we discuss (1) Why "People, Process, Technology" - in that exact order - is the only formula that works for AI transformation; (2) How Crete's partner equity model differs from traditional PE roll-ups, letting firms keep their culture while accessing enterprise-grade AI tools; (3) Why firms that don't embrace AI will lose and how Crete has already seen 30-50% efficiency gains through AI-powered trial balance normalization and audit testing... and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 80,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!
Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Trisha Kothari, CEO/Co-Founder of Unit21, a company at the forefront of the fight against financial crimes. Founded in 2018, Unit21 has raised close to $100M from Google, ICONIQ Capital, Tiger Global, Core Innovation, and a number of great angel investors.
We discuss:
Finding Unit21’s initial design partners and how they eventually landed Coinbase and Intuit as their first and second customers
Founder-led sales and common mistakes on building an enterprise sales team
What she learned about fraud and company building as a young engineer and product manager at Max Levchin’s Affirm
How financial fraudsters are creative, coordinated, and quick… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Tidjane Deme, General Partner of Partech Africa, one of the largest Africa-focused venture capital funds with close to $500 million in assets under management. Some of their investments include TradeDepot, Wave, Yoco, Reliance, and Nomba.
We discuss:
A deep dive into the African Fintech landscape and what he’s learned from the most innovative companies and markets in the continent
Fundraising lessons from building one of the first and largest dedicated African VC funds
Important differences between VC investing in Africa vs US/Euope
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 55,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!
Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Luvleen Sidhu, CEO & Founder of BM Technologies (NYSE American: BMTX) a US Banking-as-a-Service platform that provides access to multiple financial services. The company currently serves over two million account-holders and provides disbursement services at approximately 725 colleges and universities.
We discuss:
How they successfully pivoted BM Technologies from a consumer to a B2B model
Building a Banking as a Service company and navigating a highly regulated environment
Pros and cons of going public through a SPAC in 2021 as a profitable company
Putting yourself in the client’s shoes, Leadership lessons… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 55,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!
Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza heads to Mexico City for a conversation with Jorge Combe, CEO & Co-Founder of DD360 and DD3 Capital Partners, one of the leading PropTech and real estate financing groups in Latin America.
Prior to launching the firm, Jorge and his Co-Founder, Martin Werner, were co-heads of Goldman Sachs Mexico and Latin America. They left Goldman six years ago and bootstrapped DD360 into a $91 million Series A in 2022.
We discuss:
Bootstrapping lessons and benefits, and why they set out to build a profitable company from day one
Biggest mistakes since his transition from Goldman to building a scrappy startup
How they built a B2B business and then expanded it into a B2C division
The incredible potential and opportunities Latin America… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 54,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!
Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Daniel Cohen, Co-Founder of Cohen Circle, an investment firm; Cohen & Company, an asset manager with $2.2+ billion AUM; and The Bancorp, a bank specialized in fintech as a service and payments. Notably, Daniel has had a successful career in banking, along with his co-founder and Mother, Betsy Cohen.
We discuss:
Turmoil of US regional banks in 2023 and what it means for the industry
Impact of some of the biggest changes in banking and financial services over the last decades
Why bankers should never overestimate the loyalty of their customers
Opportunities for banks to work closely with fintechs … and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Based in NYC, David focuses exclusively on investing in global fintech. Before a16z, he founded Bond Street, a NY fintech that aimed to transform small business lending in the US. Bond Street was eventually acquired by Goldman Sachs in 2017.
We discuss:
Company building lessons from his experience at Bond Street and why he always looks for people with “humble confidence”
The power of storytelling and why David believes effective storytelling is crucial for entrepreneurs and investors
The future of fintech
Key qualities of a good venture capital investor
A look inside a16z and the vision of Mark and Ben for the firm… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 54,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!
Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Itai Damti, CEO & Co-Founder of Unit, one of the leading banking-as-a-service and embedded finance providers in the US. Launched in 2019, Unit is backed by Accel, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Insight, Flourish Ventures, and many more.
Itai is also a serial entrepreneur, having previously co-founded two companies in the financial industry back in Tel Aviv and Hong Kong.
We discuss:
Learning from successes and failures of building companies around the world
Embracing "atomic" problem-solving and why this is incredibly important in product and company management
What fintech founders should keep in mind when partnering with banks and financial institutions
Fundraising lessons and why you should not ignore investor feedback… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 53,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!
Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Jane Alexander, Chief Marketing Officer at Carta, a platform that helps people and companies manage equity, build businesses, and invest in private companies.
Launched in 2012 by Henry Ward, Carta is used by nearly 30,000 companies and over half a million employees to manage cap tables, compensation, and valuations. Carta also works with over 4,500 funds representing over $92B in assets under administration.
They have raised over a billion dollars from a very long list of investors, including Union Square Ventures, Tribe Capital, Spark Capital, Silver Lake, Lightspeed, a16z, Insight, and many more.
We discuss:
The power of content creation and why it’s been an incredible source for organic growth at Carta
The role of a CMO at companies and how generative AI tools are transforming the job
Navigating the pressures of a more competitive and challenging business environment
Time management and productivity hacks
Importance of customer feedback… lots more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 53,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!
Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Nilan Peiris, Chief Product Officer at Wise (WISE.L), a global fintech that helps clients move money around the world. Founded in 2011 by Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus, Wise went public on the London Stock Exchange in 2021 and has a current market cap of £6 billion, has served 16 million people and businesses, and processes £9 billion in monthly cross-border transactions across 170 countries in 50 currencies.
We discuss:
Building through a mission-driven approach and why it’s crucial for companies to have very clear missions
How Wise turned a consumer product into a B2B offering and an infrastructure business, essentially building three companies inside a single firm.
Building customer trust through transparency and how this can lead to high customer satisfaction and strong referrals
Turning regulatory challenges into opportunities… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 53,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!
Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza stops by Public.com’s TriBeCa headquarters for a conversation with Leif Abraham, Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Public.com, an investing platform for equities, fixed income, and alternative assets.
Founded in 2019, Public now serves 3+ million customers and has raised hundreds of millions of dollars from Greycroft, Accel, Lake, Star, Tiger Global, and many more.
They discuss:
How Leif launched his first internet company as a teenager from his room in Hamburg, Germany
Importance of building a customer fan base and the concept of emotional retention
International expansion and why bonds are definitely back
Building Public’s app as a mainstream window to the markets
Startup founder advice… lots more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 52,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!
Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
[Original air date, April 9, 2024]Miguel Armaza interviews Jack Zhang, CEO & Co-Founder of Airwallex, a global payments and treasury giant that moves $7 billion in monthly transaction volume and serves 100,000+ clients, including Brex, Rippling, and SHEIN.
Founded in Melbourne in 2015, Airwallex was last valued at $6.2 billion and has raised over a billion dollars from Sequoia, DST, Square Peg, Greenoaks, Mastercard, Tencent, Salesforce, and many more.
In this episode, we discuss:
How investing in a coffee shop led him to co-found a global payments network
Why Airwallex prioritizes people with great leadership skills who are also technical
The impact of AI in financial services
New risks of AI-powered financial fraud
Partnering with almost 100 banks around the world… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Alex Prot, CEO & Co-Founder of Qonto, one of the largest fintechs in Europe that helps SMBs simplify their everyday banking and offers a wide range of digital financial services.
Founded in 2017, Qonto serves 350,000 clients across France, Italy, Spain and Germany, and has over 1,000 employees. The company has also raised close to $700 million from Valar, DST, Hedosophia, Insight, KKR, and angels like Taavet Hinrikus, Co-Founder of Wise and Guillaume Pousaz, CEO & Founder of Checkout.com.
We discuss:
Three key focus areas that unlocked Qonto’s success
Challenges of scaling Qonto to over 1,000 employees and 350k customers
How they plan to reach a million clients
Growing through product-led growth
The power of having a strong Co-Founder
Fundraising lessons for entrepreneurs
Europe’s fascinating fintech opportunity… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Mercedes Bent, Partner at Lightspeed, a global venture capital firm founded in the year 2000. Over the last 23 years, they have secured over $18 billion in committed capital and backed over 500 companies, including Snap, Affirm, Faire, Grubhub, Carta, Blend, and a long list of great firms.
In this episode, we discuss:
Investing in marketplaces or credit-driven businesses and what founders and investors should keep in mind when looking at these verticals.
Benefits of having a global investment team how Lightspeed often invests in similar trends and businesses around the world
The Latin American fintech opportunity. Mercedes leads the LatAm practice at Lightspeed – what are some of the biggest ideas taking place in Brazil, Mexico, and beyond?
Potential AI applications in Fintech
Lessons for emerging VCs
Lightspeed’s portfolio construction strategy… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with the great Adam Nash, Co-Founder and CEO of Daffy, a not-for-profit fintech community built around a new, modern platform to teach, help, and encourage charitable giving. In fact, visit Fintech Leaders and sign-up today to get an extra $25 for charity when you join Daffy. Thanks Adam.
In this episode, I sit down with Adam Nash, Co-Founder and CEO of Daffy, a not-for-profit fintech community built around a new, modern platform to teach, help, and encourage charitable giving. Sign-up today to get an extra $25 for charity when you join Daffy. Claim your $25 here! http://bit.ly/42rB5d2 (Thanks Adam)
Adam also sits on the board of Acorns, and in the past was CEO of Wealthfront and held leadership roles at Dropbox, LinkedIn, eBay, and Apple.
In this episode, we discuss:
Adam’s journey at Silicon Valley and what it was like to work with Steve Jobs at Next & Apple
Building the first fully functioning donor-advised fund in the app store and how Daffy is helping people give more to charity
Lessons from the role of the CEO and why it’s the only role that truly understands how a company’s pieces are going to fit together
Why Adam remains excited and bullish on consumer-focused fintech businesses, the importance of building a great team… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Zach Noorani, Partner at Foundation Capital, a 28-year venture capital firm with $3 billion in assets under management, currently investing out of its 10th flagship fund. Foundation has previously backed great companies like Stripe, Solana, Lending Club, Envestnet, Alto, and many more.
In this episode, we discuss:
What Zach learned after spending almost a decade at Capital One and why there’s such a strong fintech alumni network coming out of the bank
Differences and similarities between US-based founders and Latin American entrepreneurs
The importance of specializing in financial services and fintech and how it’s allowed Zach to distinguish fairytales from reality
Transitioning from operator to investor, best practices for board management… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Suni Lobo, Chief HR/People Officer at Marqeta (NASDAQ: MQ), a publicly-traded fintech that helps companies issue cards with flexibility, control, and scale with an open API platform.
Founded in 2010, Marqeta has now issued hundreds of millions of cards across 36 countries and works with customers like Square, Klarna, Uber, Coinbase, and JP Morgan.
We discuss:
Company Culture in a remote world. Has remote work made it easier or harder to build community, increase productivity, and level the playing field?
How to build a culture of innovation and purpose, and why compensation is almost never the main reason people leave companies.
Why is it that at startups the role is called Head of People, but at large companies, we call it Head of Human Resources?
Reflections and lessons for leaders building culture in fast-growing companies… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with the legendary Bruno Balduccini, Partner at Pinheiro Neto, the leading law firm in Brazil where he spearheads the Financial Institutions group and advises domestic and international clients.
If you’ve ever worked in the Brazilian financial and fintech ecosystem, you’ve probably crossed paths with Bruno, since he has worked on the majority of major transactions involving financial incumbents, startups and payment institutions. He’s also actively participated in the drafting and improvement of the rules for the Brazilian financial industry.
We discuss:
A brief history of Brazilian fintech and why Brazil’s Central Bank has been an extraordinary partner to fintech startups
Interesting trends entrepreneurs and investors should be paying attention to, and what Central Banks around the world can learn from Brazil
Why the fintech opportunity in Brazil is so large and special, but why it’s also not a market for beginners
Working with multibillion-dollar companies like Nubank, Stone & PagSeguro from day one
Common traits of successful entrepreneurs… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Denise Thomas, CEO & Co-Founder of ApplePie Capital, a company that offers franchise financing, enabling franchisees to efficiently obtain financing to start or expand their franchise business, while also enabling investors to earn fixed-income returns.
Launched in 2015, ApplePie partners with 60 franchise brands and has facilitated the funding of billions in franchise loans. They’ve also raised capital from QED, Fifth Third Capital, Story Ventures, and more.
In this episode, we discuss:
History of franchising and the main differences between running and financing an independent business vs running a franchise
Why your company strategy should always match your possibilities
How ApplePie has learned to partner with strong franchise brands and their franchisees and leverage their relationship to reduce Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC)
Learnings from some of the most significant challenges ApplePie has faced over the last several years… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 51,000+ readers and listeners worldwide! Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Prajit Nanu, CEO & Co-Founder of Nium, a billion-dollar fintech building global payments infrastructure supporting 100 currencies across 190+ countries.
Founded almost seven years ago in Singapore, Nium has raised ~$300 million from top fintech investors including Riverwood, GFC, Temasek, and Visa amongst others.
We discuss:
Advantages of outsiders. Prior to Nium, Prajit was not a payments guy, so how did his non-payments background actually become a source of strength?
Lessons from hiring 100s of people. What have they learned about startup recruiting over the last several years?
Why it’s crucial to narrow your focus and double down on your strengths as a company.
Building and scaling a B2B Sales organization, board management lessons… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 51,000+ readers and listeners worldwide! Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Peter Hazlehurst, CEO & Co-Founder of Synctera, a Banking as a Service platform powering accounts, cards, payments, lending, and more.
Launched back in 2020, Synctera has raised ~$50 million from FinVC, Lightspeed, Portage, Mastercard, Max Levchin, Alexa von Tobel, and a long list of great fintech minds.
Peter has also built and sold several fintech companies over the past 30 years and also held leadership roles at Uber, Google, and Yodlee.
We discuss:
Banking as a Service: past, present, and future. Where the industry is going and why close attention to compliance is more important than ever.
Lessons for fintech builders. Peter launched his first fintech company in the early 90s and has seen it all.
What company leaders should know when building a client onboarding and sales process for fast-growing companies.
Fraud management, fundraising reflections… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 50,000+ readers and listeners worldwide! Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Bar Geron, CEO & Co-Founder of Balance, a B2B eCommerce payments company offering an online checkout experience built for businesses.
Launched just two years ago in February 2021, Balance now supports hundreds of B2B merchants and marketplaces, and has partnered with large platforms like Shopify, Salesforce, Magento, and BigCommerce. They raised almost $90 million from Forerunner, Ribbit, Lightspeed, Salesforce, and many more.
We discuss:
Learnings from his days at PayPal and why some of the best payments companies and fintech founders have a strong background in fraud management
How Balance aims to transform the Trade Finance space for US and Canadian businesses
The future of B2B marketplaces and what the industry has learned from the B2C World
Founder Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 50,000+ readers and listeners worldwide! Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza interviews Eynat Guez, CEO and Founder of Papaya Global. She has built an HR and payroll platform that has transformed how companies manage and operate global teams across 180 countries. After having faced over 1,000 rejections from VCs, Papaya has now grown to process $34 billion in payments annually and they've raised significant funding from Insight Partners, Bessemer, Greenoaks Capital, and more.
We discuss why brutal honesty and direct leadership creates stronger companies, how founders need to learn "investor language" to sell the company vision rather than the product, the operational complexity of building global from day one across 160 countries, and how being a mother of three shaped her approach to building a hypergrowth company.
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 80,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!
Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with the very genuine Rob Petrozzo, Co-Founder and CPO of Rally, an alternative investing platform for blue-chip and digital collectibles, including classic cars, sports memorabilia, watches, and NFTs, totaling over 400 assets in 19+ different categories.
Founded back in 2016, Rally has grown to half a million users, actively finds, manages, and fractionalizes some of the most important collectibles and museum-grade items in the world, including vintage wine and dinosaur fossils. Although I recorded the interview from Rally’s offices, unfortunately, I could NOT taste some of those top wines! They’re backed by Alexis Ohanian, Anthemis, Porche Ventures, Social Leverage, Upfront and many more.
We discuss:
The fascinating world of collectibles. How does Rally find and secure some of the most incredible items in the world?
Power of community and how Rally actively incorporates client feedback into product design and company strategy
The intersection between collectibles and digital assets like NFTs
Funder mistakes from the early days of Rally… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 50,000+ readers and listeners worldwide! Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza heads down to sunny Miami for the Fintech Nexus LatAm Conference, to sit down with Aron Schwarzkopf, CEO & Co-Founder of Kushki, one of the largest digital payments companies in Latin America that’s helping businesses across the region digitize their payments under a single integration.
Founded in 2017, Kushki now operates across most of Spanish-speaking Latin America, was last valued at $1.5 billion, and has raised almost $200 million in equity capital from Kaszek, Softbank, Clocktower, DILA, and more.
We discuss:
Societal benefits of a digitized economy, and how digital payments can reduce corruption and increase the velocity of a market
Working with financial regulators across the region and why he sees evidence that regulators understand the benefits of fintech and is optimistic for the future of the industry
Growing Kushki from zero to 1,000 people and some of the biggest lessons learned along the way
What it means to be the first Ecuadorian unicorn and why he hopes to inspire more entrepreneurs to follow his path… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 50,000+ readers and listeners worldwide! Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Latif Peracha, General Partner at M13, a venture capital firm with over $900M of Assets Under Management, focused on enabling technologies that power the future of consumer behavior.
Latif is in charge of the investing strategy for M13 and leads the Web3 and fintech verticals, with investments in companies like Rho, Lightning Labs, Solana, Nori, Delphia and many more.
He was previously a Managing Director at Virgin Group where he led investing in the Americas and worked directly with Richard Branson.
We discuss:
Investing in the future of money and how companies at the intersection of financial services and web3 are modernizing established markets, while building industries of the future
How M13 analyzes the long-term potential of a business and looks for visionary leaders in industries with significant tailwinds when making investment decisions
M13 remains bullish on crypto, but it’s gonna take courage for investors to continue backing companies in the category through uncertainty and volatility
What Latif learned working with Richard Branson and whether every entrepreneur should aspire to be like Richard… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 50,000+ readers and listeners worldwide! Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
In this episode, Miguel Armaza brings you a curated selection from the best lessons, reflections, and secrets on how to build and manage an amazing board of directors. Whether you’re a CEO managing a board, an investor who sits on several, an independent board director, or you just want to learn, we hope you find it helpful.
Over the last of last 12 months, one of the common themes across many episodes, has been to learn about the best practices of corporate board management. Several of our guests have sat or currently sit on the board of some of the most incredible firms in the world and they had a lot to say about it.
Collectively, they sit or have sat on the boards of Nubank, Alibaba, Lending Club, dLocal, XP, Upgrade, Incode, VTEX, Affirm, Quinto Andar, Billtrust, Justworks, Creditas, Finix, Acorns, Konfio, and many more.
They discuss three main topics:
Importance of Diversity in The Board Room
Most of the Work is Done Outside the Board Meeting
Build Your Board Early and Make Sure It Feels Like Any Other Great Team at the Company
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 49,000+ readers and listeners around the world! Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
In this episode, Miguel Armaza heads to sunny Miami for a conversation with Steve McLaughlin, Founder of FT Partners, an investment bank focused exclusively on the financial technology sector, launched from Steve’s San Francisco apartment back in 2001.
If you’re in fintech, you definitely know FT Partners and, chances are, you’ve worked with them or have been to one of their amazing Money2020 events over the years.
We discuss:
Making sense of the current fintech market – what was it that led us here?
Steve’s expectations for 2023. Will it be an active year for financing rounds, M&A, and IPO activity?
What the next decade of fintech might look like and some of the trends that could power the future of our industry around the world… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 49,000+ readers and listeners around the world! Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
My guest today is Medha Agarwal, Partner at Redpoint Ventures, a VC with a strong track record in fintech, including portfolio companies like Stripe, Nubank, Ramp, and many more.
In addition, Medha is not only a thoughtful fintech investor, but she’s also a content creator consistently putting out great original content through her newsletter, Make Cents, or Redpoint’s website.
In this episode, we discuss:
The CFO tech stack. How fintech companies are helping the office of the CFO with modern tools and whether a true ‘self-driving’ corporate wallet is possible.
Bundling and Unbundling. The last decade has been about unbundling bank services, but we’ve started to see a shift in the opposite direction – what does this mean for the industry?
What the crypto winter means for Web3 founders and why Redpoint will continue to invest in the category.
Redpoint’s original content strategy, how they became the most popular VC on TikTok (shout out Rashad Assir)… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 48,000+ readers and listeners around the world! Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down live at Money2020 Las Vegas, with Amit Parikh, EVP of BaaS at Green Dot, and Ginger Baker, Head of Financial Access at Plaid.
They discuss:
The evolution of consumer data tech in fintech
Importance of providing transparency to customers around privacy and data-sharing practices
Key technologies that will be absolutely critical to support the growth of fintech into 2023 and beyond
How fintech companies can actually help consumers navigate challenging economic times with expanded access to information and novel financial services
The future of partnerships between fintechs, incumbent banks, and big tech… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 48,000+ readers and listeners around the world! Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza interviews Ben Gleason, Co-Founder of Kamino, a financial hub that powers the operations and growth of Brazilian startups and scale-ups with integrated finance products, services and software. Kamino is backed by Inspired Capital, GFC, Picus, Flourish, QED, and Gilgamesh Ventures among others.
We discuss:
The remarkable positive impact that FinTech in Brazil has had in terms of financial inclusion and customer service, and why there's still a massive opportunity in the region
Ben started building his first startup, GuiaBolso, back in 2012. The Brazilian ecosystem was nascent, and he encountered some crazy challenges, including a lawsuit that reached the Supreme Court. How did they persevere?
The inspiration for Kamino and how they're helping entrepreneurs hit the ground running and start building much faster than ever before
Advice for entrepreneurs navigating a down market
Why he is so passionate to help female and underrepresented founders... and a lot more.
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 48,000+ readers and listeners around the world! Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza interviews Katlego Maphai, CEO & Co-Founder of Yoco, a South African payments company that processes billions of dollars annually, and serves hundreds of thousands of small businesses every day. Founded in 2013, the company has raised $100+ million from great investors, including Quona, Dragoneer, Partech, HOF Capital, and many more.
In this episode, we discuss:
The evolution of fintech in South Africa
Overcoming massive challenges since 2013
Drawing inspiration from companies like Square, but adapting your product to the local market
Yoco’s unique relationship with their customers
Empowering hundreds of thousands of SMBs and helping most of them digitize for the very first time
Advice for international investors backing African startups
Lessons for company founders
Building company culture… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 48,000+ readers and listeners around the world! Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Patricia Kemp, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Oak HC/FT, a VC firm investing in companies driving transformation in healthcare and fintech around the world. Founded in 2014, the firm has over $5 billion in AUM and has back fintech companies like Blend, Ocrolus, ClearCo, Rapyd, Pagaya, Aplazo and many more.
In this episode, we discuss:
Spotting and identifying fintech trends
How to think about the future of the industry
State of crypto and why Tricia believes stronger regulatory frameworks would be beneficial and help foster innovation in the crypto industry
Buy vs Build. 2023 might bring a big wave of Fintech M&A activity for three important reasons.
Building a team of investors – when bringing on new talent, Oak looks at three core requirements.
Importance of over-communicating… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 47,000+ readers and listeners around the world! Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza interviews Chen Amit, CEO and Co-Founder of Tipalti, a global fintech platform processing billions in payments and serving over 4,000 mid-market companies worldwide. By focusing on the underserved mid-sized companies, Tipalti has achieved 99% gross revenue retention over 15 years and secured licenses across 50+ jurisdictions.
We discuss:
Navigating "once-in-a-decade" disruptions that now seem to happen every six months
Why customer intuition can override conflicting data points
How saying "no" to your customers or partners can sometimes be the right strategic move
Why licenses, bank integrations, and data moats matter more than ever in the AI era... and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 75,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!
Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Matt Harris, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures – Lessons From Three Decades of Fintech Investing, What Defines Great Founders, & Embedded Finance’s Massive Potential
Miguel Armaza sits down with Matt Harris, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures and one of the Fintech OG legends who started his investing career back in 1995 and has been working with fintech entrepreneurs throughout several cycles. Some of his investments include GoCardless, Orum, Finix, Acorns, and many more.
In this episode, Miguel stops by the Bain Capital Ventures office in New York City, where they discuss:
Investing through economic cycles. Matt was a fintech VC during the Dot-com bubble - what did he learn once the bubble burst and what should young VCs keep in mind today?
B2B vs B2C Fintech. Matt overwhelmingly prefers backing B2B companies with little to no credit risk. Why is that?
The Future of fintech and why Bain is excited about the potential of embedded finance
What makes a great investor, how founders should think about their board, why NYC is the capital of fintech… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 47,000+ readers and listeners around the world! Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Matan Bar, CEO & Co-Founder of Melio, a B2B payments platform for small businesses. The company has raised over $500 million from a who’s who of fintech investors, including Accel, Coatue, Bessemer, General Catalyst, Thrive, Tiger Global, and more.
In this episode, we discuss:
Understanding your customer. Prior to writing a single line of code, the Melio team setup an old-school bookkeeping business in Manhattan to truly understand the challenges of their future clients. What did they learn?
Importance of velocity to launch products and being comfortable with making mistakes (but correcting them very quickly!).
Matan used to lead peer-to-peer payments at Paypal, but then built a business-to-business payments company. What led him down this path?
Why his biggest mistake was optimizing new hires for skills and not for culture… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 47,000+ readers and listeners around the world! Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Hristo Borisov, CEO and Co-Founder of Payhawk, the first-ever Bulgarian unicorn where they’ve built an all-in-one finance platform serving businesses across 32+ countries in Europe and the US.
Founded just four years ago, Payhawk now enjoys unicorn status and has raised equity from Greenoaks, QED, Lightspeed, Endevor, Hubstpot, and many more.
In this episode, we discuss:
Scaling to unicorn status – Hristo shares hacks and techniques that helped them scale from zero to one
The growing Bulgarian startup ecosystem and why it pushed them to build a global company from day one
Payhawk’s unique model for building and shipping products extremely fast, while keeping everyone at the company laser-focused
Early mistakes and challenges as a fintech founder and why you should always overinvest in talent… and a lot more!
Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.
Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 46,000+ readers and listeners around the world! Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.