Fintech Chatter: Conversations with Fintech Leaders

In episode 101 of Fintech Chatter we look back on 100 episodes as I share some of my highlights from the show.

It’s been an absolute blast producing the show and I never thought it would make it past one episode, never mind 101

First up I want to thank you for listening to the show. It really blows me away when people share feedback, subscribe and give five-star reviews

Lots of experts offer advice on how to monetise the show but it will always be free from paid sponsors and will always be about featuring great guests to a great audience. Our loyal listeners don’t deserve ads!

And with that in mind I’ll be mixing things up in 2022  including video interviews, more features on careers and leadership plus special live shows.

I’d like to thank every guest for making the show what it is, as I’m sure none of you tune in to listen to my dulcet tones every week.

And a special thanks to Fintech Australia who partnered with us on the show for 60 plus episodes

We start off the show with where it all began ep 1 with Anthony Nantes of Wisr.

I recorded this podcast at the Wisr offices on Halloween, Anthony greeted me in a Darth Vader costume. You’ll notice as well that the show was originally called Fintech Game Changers, pretty lame eh!

• Lee Hatton, Afterpay - one of the most energetic people you will ever meet. She remains the only person in 100 episodes to sing on the show.
• Anthony Thomson, 86400 - the Ant and Dec special, a bit odd to have two Geordies on a Fintech Australia Podcast talking about Neo Banks and Will.i.Am
• Domm Holland, Fast - What a guy. This was one of the most inspiring interviews I’ve ever done. 
• Bianca Bates, Cuscal - I find out Cuscal are behind world-leading innovations in payments and digital banking.
• Lizzie Chapman, Zest - One of the main motivations in starting the podcast was to give my network access to the conversations I have with brilliant people every day. Lizzie is one of them.
• Joe McGuire, MyMy - I usually get to catch up with Joe at Intersekt or Mony 2020, but given the world was in Lockdown, we decided to record a podcast instead.
• Caroline Bowler, BTC markets - They say time flies when you are having fun and this recording flew by. It's 30 minutes in before we even mention NFT’s! 
• Gareth Gumbley, Frollo - Recorded at a point in Fintech history, Gareth and his team had just completed the first authorised data exchange on CDR. 
• Marie Steinthaler, TrueLayer - Marie and her dog Hunti join me from Hong Kong to talk about open banking, CDR and how TrueLayer is the LEGO of Fintech
• Neal Cross, Picture Wealth - When you get a guest who has been a computer game designer and a real-life Ninja on the show, how could you not have fun.

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It’s a very special show as we celebrate episode 100 of Fintech Chatter Podcast.

And to commemorate such an occasion Dexter Cousins is joined by the Godfather of Fintech, Brett King.

In today’s show, Brett talks about his new book, Co-Authored with Dr Richard Petty The Rise of Technosocialism

The book examines how the 21st century is going to be the most disruptive, contentious period humanity has ever lived through. 

As our most sacred ideologies around politics, economics and social constructs are challenged, Brett and Richard explore how technology can be a force for good and create an advanced and fair society. 

Tune in for a fascinating discussion on how our careers will evolve in the next decade as AI and blockchain begin to dislodge business models and jobs. What will jobs look like in the future? And how can we evolve to ensure we remain relevant?

Make sure you listen to the end to be in with a chance to win a signed copy of The Rise of Techosocialism.

For more info on the book and to pick up a copy go to - https://riseoftechnosocialism.com/

Author Brett King

Brett King is a world-renowned entrepreneur, futurist, speaker, international bestselling author, and media personality. 

China’s President Xi Jinping cited his book Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane on the topic of Artificial Intelligence in his 2018 national address; the same book that was listed as a Top 10 non-fiction book in North America. 

In 2019 his book Bank 4.0 was awarded the Top Book by a Foreign Author in Russia for that year.

In 2020 King was inducted into the Fintech Hall of Fame by CB Insights. In 2015 he was shortlisted for the Advance Global Australian of the Year Award. 

His books have been released in over a dozen languages. Banking Exchange magazine dubbed him the “King of Disruptors”, while The Australian newspaper in Australia called him the “Godfather of Fintech”

Author Dr Richard Petty

Dr Richard Petty is a government policy advisor, entrepreneur and awarded academic. Based in Hong Kong, Richard has lived and worked in Greater China since the 1990’s. 

He is a past Chairman of the Australian Chamber of Commerce Hong Kong & Macau and CPA Australia, and is founding Vice Chairman, Hong Kong ASEAN Economic Cooperation Foundation.

Richard sits on the board of listed companies in the United States and Australia, has advised on projects with an aggregate economic impact in the hundreds of billions of dollars, and has led reviews of several economies and studies on economic competitiveness in several countries.

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In episode 99 of Fintech Chatter we are going back to the origins of Fintech and bringing you an interview with another Aussie Fintech pioneer.

Dexter Cousins is joined by Andrew Rothwell an original co-founder and ‘chief Tyrant” of Tyro - one of the biggest disruptors and innovators of payments in Australia.

As a Jack of all trades Andrew held many roles in the business, from software engineer to finally heading up sales. 

Andrew sat on various national technical committees that provided the regulation and guidance for the development of Australia's present day payment system.

Tune in as Andrew talks about 

• The Tyro journey from startup to successful exit
• Revolutionising the Australian payments system and creating an interconnected ecosystem
• Making the shift from software engineering to sales
• Being resourceful and making things happen
• When founders should make a graceful exit
• Life after a startup
• The next BIG problem Andrew wants to solve

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In episode 98 of Fintech Chatter Podcast Dexter Cousins is joined by Shadi Haddad of Till Payments.

Till takes the complexity out of payments for merchants so you can get paid anywhere, anytime through a single, simplified platform.

Shadi is the driving force behind Till Payments’ vision to become a global leader in the fast-moving payments sector.

With over 20  years experience advising large corporates and government organisations, Shadi’s tech expertise, leadership, and passion help the Till team to push boundaries every day and reimagine payments.

Since co-founding Till Payments in 2013, Shadi has helped empower hundreds of merchants to take control of payments across 12 countries.

In this interview we cover:

- Tills recent Series C raise of $110m
- The 9 year overnight success of Till
- How Till is catering for the millions of merchants Stripe seems to be ignoring
- The Till culture and hiring
- Shadi's tips for founders on how to raise capital outside of the traditional VC channels

For more info on Till - https://tillpayments.com/

Follow Shadi - LinkedIn Twitter

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In Episode 97 of Fintech Chatter Dexter Cousins talks to Philip Joyce, CEO of Sympli.

Sympli is a next-generation e-settlements solution delivering much-needed competition, reliability, security and value to the property industry.

Sympli entered the e-settlement market in 2018 with a clear purpose of representing industry’s need for a secure, reliable and efficient e-settlements service.

Prior to Sympli's entry, PEXA had a monopoly on the e-settlements market.

I chat to Philip about the challenges of breaking a monopoly, how Sympli is leveraging the support of their JV parents InfoTrack and ASX and what it takes to scale a tech business.

Philip shares his own experience of making the switch from Big 4 Bank to Fintech. And he shares his advice to others wanting to make a similar move.

https://www.sympli.com.au/about-us/

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Episode 96 of Fintech Chatter Podcast and Dexter Cousins is joined by David Hyman, CEO and co-founder of Lendi Group.

David is one of Australia's Fintech pioneers and he kindly shares his experience and wisdom in scaling businesses successfully.

David last appeared on the show in  May 2020 , episode 8. Fast forward to May 2021, Lendi and Aussie Home Loans merged to form the Lendi Group.

The last time David was on the show, Lendi was Australia’s leading home loan platform with a team of 470 people, a loan book of $7.5 billion and a customer base of more than 25,000 Australians who had settled more than $12 billion in home loans.

Today, Lendi Group is home to the industry's leading platform technology, a network of over 1200 brokers, a head office team of 600, a loan book in excess of $80 billion and a retail footprint of more than 225 stores across the country.

Both the Aussie and Lendi brands enjoyed record-breaking performance in FY21.

Dexter chat's to David about Lendi Group’s innovation in proprietary technology and the huge growth opportunities in 2022. 

David also talks about Lendi's approach to a running remote-first business at scale, with the added complexity of retail stores.

For more info on Lendi Group - https://www.lendi.com.au/

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It's episode 95 of Fintech Chatter Podcast with guest Brenton Charnley, Aus/New Zealand CEO for TrueLayer.

Through their open banking platform, Truelayer enables Fintech like Revolut, Stake and Monzo to build better financial experiences

TrueLayer officially launched in Australia last week, announcing a funding round led by Tiger and Stripe which now gives them Unicorn status.

Dexter Cousins chats to Brenton about the plans for Australia, the key differences between open banking and Australia’s CDR and what the latest funding round means for TrueLayer globally.

In part 2 Dexter digs deeper into the TrueLayer culture and Brenton shares some great insights on hiring and building teams for startups.

Brenton also gives outstanding advice for anyone looking to break into Fintech, sharing his thoughts on the qualities leaders look for and how to get their attention.

Reach out to Brenton on LinkedIn

Find out more about TrueLayer

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In episode 94 of Fintech Chatter Podcast Dexter Cousins is joined by Senator Andrew Bragg.

In his first term as an elected official, Senator Bragg was appointed Chair of the Senate Inquiry into Fintech.

As his 18 months in the role comes to a close we look back on his time in Fintech.

The inquiry, one of the first in the world, has been a great success leading to real change. Many recommendations in the report were actioned at the last budget.

The way in which Fintech and Government have worked successfully together is a blueprint for the rest of the startup community in Aus.

Senator Braggs support for the industry during Covid-19, especially his pushing for job keeper saved hundreds of jobs.

He's become a massive advocate and shares Tier One People's own mission of making Australia a world-class Fintech innovation hub. He continues to call out for increased competition, standing in our corner against the big banks and Superannuation funds.

As his time in the role comes to an end, Senator Bragg has tabled a major discussion on digital assets, he's a big believer that Australia can and should lead the way in Blockchain.

Tune in for what turns out to be a really enjoyable chat with a politician who gets stuff done and makes things happen.

To contact Senator Bragg - https://www.andrewbragg.com/

Buy Senator Braggs Book "Bad Egg - How To Fix Super"

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In episode 93 of Fintech Chatter Podcast Dexter Cousins is joined by Caroline Bowler, CEO of BTC Markets,  Australia’s largest and most trusted cryptocurrency exchange.

BTC is Australian-owned and operated. With over 300,000 traders, and more than $16.5 billion traded on the BTC Markets platform.

Caroline joins me to talk about their partnership with Australian NeoBank - Volt Bank.  We dig into the debanking challenges facing Crypto exchanges in Australia and the opportunities we can expect to see in the future.

And no chat on crypto would be complete without delving into the world's of Defi and NFT's

You can connect with Caroline on LinkedIn or go to https://btcmarkets.net

A link to report is here Investor Study Report 2021-2022 | Crypto Investing Australia | BTC Markets

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In episode 92 of Fintech Chatter Dexter Cousins is joined by a very special guest, Simon Monk co-founder of World Nomads, Australia’s first Insurtech.

In this new feature show, Dexter interviews a Fintech pioneer from an era before the word even existed.  Guests share their journey and how they launched, scaled and successfully exited a Fintech business when there were no iPhones, no Stripe, no Facebook, no Twitter and no AWS!

Travel has always been a big part of Simon’s life,  he’s been dreaming about what's over the horizon for as long as he can remember. 

Originally from the UK, he trained in design before getting involved in the very early days of the internet 

As an avid traveller, he ended up in Australia, where he founded World Nomads, an online travel insurance service for people who loved travelling and exploring.

After a successful sale of World Nomads to NIB in 2015, Simon has focussed his time on the energy and renewables sector.

Connect with Simon on LinkedIn

A big thank you for your support.

Tier One People has never been busier and we are super grateful for the calibre of clients and talent who continue to approach us after listening to the show.

If you want to show your support, you can subscribe, leave us a review or just tell your friends.

And if you’re a world-class fintech looking for tier-one people reach out to Dexter on Linkedin or email [email protected] 

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