Fintech Chatter: Conversations with Fintech Leaders

In episode 185 of Fintech Chatter Dexter Cousins is joined by Andrew Ward, CEO and Founder of Liquidise.

Hi, Dexter here with another great episode with another great Aussie Fintech founder. This week I chat with Andrew Ward about the launch of his latest venture, Liquidise. I'm excited to bring you this chat as Andrew has developed a solution that almost all of our listeners will benefit from!

And as this isn't Andrew's first Rodeo, he shares some honest and candid advice for founders who may be a little earlier in the journey.

About Liquidise

Recorded in the week Liquidise launched into the Aussie market, Andrew shares how Liquidise is unlocking private equity for company owners, investors and employees. 

Liquidise is a unique platform, giving shareholders and investors access to guaranteed cash and equity with instant cash settlements.

Company owners retain complete control over their cap table, and can reward employees meaningfully. Investors get access to pre-vetted unlisted company opportunities, with direct ownership on the Liquidise share registry.

Using blockchain technology, Liquidise is revolutionising the way founders and private companies can grow their companies, attract the best talent and keep control of their business.

About Andrew Ward

The inspiration for Liquidise came from Andrew's own experience of launching, growing and listing SelfWealth. 

His shareholders, like those in all unlisted companies, had to wait for either a public listing, company sale or change of control, or transact at a buyer’s set price – if a buyer could be found. 

These options for private shareholders can be expensive and value destroying. In founding Liquidise, Andrew and his team are intent on solving this problem to unlock the value in private companies.

Find out more - https://liquidise.com/

Or watch Andrew tell you all about Liquidise in this promo video - https://youtu.be/QbqOklgComM?si=PWZZ4t2oj_88TxCX

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Meet Australia's newest bank CEO, Peita Piper of Avenue Bank.

Avenue were recently granted a full ADI banking license and Dexter Cousins chats to Peita about their journey.

In this episode Peita shares the strategy of Avenue and their focus on a niche business banking product neglected by banks, the bank guarantee.

Avenue have digitised this paper process which takes up to 60 days to offer a bank guarantee in 24 hours!

We also talk about the challenges of dealing with regulators in the aftermath of failed digital banks Xinja and Volt, while also looking at the big successes like Judo.

Peita also shares her personal experience as we talk about the 'glass cliff'. Peita shares her own inspiring story of backing herself and taking on the CEO role at a very difficult time in the business.

I also get the chance to ask Peita about what I believe is the hardest part of being a scale up CEO, taking the reigns from founders whilst they remain in the business.

Finally I just want to say a MASSIVE well done to everyone involved in the Avenue journey. There is no tougher startup challenge than building a bank - it's the Everest of startup mountains to climb.

You can find out more about Avenue Bank and careers https://www.avenuebank.com.au/careers

Until the next episode, keep well!

Dexter.

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In episode 182 of Fintech Chatter Podcast Dexter Cousins is joined by Pål Krogdahl, Director of Advisory at Samlink and co-host of Fintech Daydreaming Podcast.

In this episode, Dexter chats with Pål Krogdahl about the Fintech scene in the Nordics. They talk through the latest customer trends and research based on 40-plus banks, revealing the key themes and areas for innovation.

Covering everything from AI to Open Banking,  Banking as a Service to Embedded Finance, and everything in between the research reveals where customers are shifting their focus and expectations from their bank.

Pål also shares some key findings on the major issues keeping banking execs awake at night, giving some clear indications on where the next wave of Fintech entrepreneurs should focus their energy.

The Nordics is the birthplace of Fintech OG's like Klarna and Tink. It is a region with a rich history of innovation and Pål gives a rundown on the Fintech scene in his native Finland. There are some startling similarities to the Fintech scene down under and lessons can be learned from our European cousins.


You can follow Pål on LinkedIn  - https://www.linkedin.com/in/krogdahl/

Download the report - https://samlink.fi/news/the-samlink-equation-2024-navigating-the-transformative-trends-in-banking/

Listen to Fintech Daydreaming - https://fintechdaydreaming.com/

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Stake Co-Founders Matt Leibowitz and Dan Silver join Dexter Cousins in episode 182 of Fintech Chatter Podcast.

In another one of our 'Origin Stories' Matt and Dan share their incredible journey from becoming friends to becoming business partners. Stake is one of Australia's most successful Fintech. They have raised US $93.5m to date with Tiger Global investing in their $50m Series A in March 2022.

Their international success and growth has led Matt and Dan to see a much bigger opportunity ahead of them than they first envisaged in 2017 when Stake launched

Entrepreneurs are often known for their adaptability in driving scaleups, but many find it difficult adapting to someone else at the helm. For many scaleups, the CEO shuffle is a key part of long term success, but why?

Stake is the latest scaleup to appoint a new CEO,  Jon Howie, seeing Matt return to his roots in product and business strategy.

But for many founders, the thought of letting go of their baby is unfathomable. Dexter chats to Matt and Dan about their thinking in bringing in Jon and their appointment last year of Chair, Geoff Lloyd. 

Tune in for an honest, thoughtful and candid discussion on life as co-founders and 'letting go of the baby' as we celebrate the first seven years of Stake.

Dan and Matt share lessons they've learned, the decisions they've made and the people they've brought on board as they Stake a market leading position in the next seven years.

Download the Stake App

Find out about Stake careers 

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Dexter Cousins is joined by Chris Jewell, the CEO and Co-Founder of Zepto, one of an emerging number of Fintechs to base themselves from Regional Australia.

Zepto creates real-time, account-to-account [A2A] payment solutions for business. Founded in 2016 and backed by Airtree Ventures, Zepto is one of Australia's fastest growing Fintech.

In this first episode of 2024 Chris chats to Dexter about:

- The opportunities Payto presents emerging Fintech like Zepto to totally redefine the payments landscape
- The origins of Zepto and how a problem in an existing business turned into a whole new opportunity
- Why Australia is perfectly poised to lead global innovation in payments
- The challenges and benefits of being based from Byron Bay
- The pressure of leaving the safety of a banking job and put your life savings into a new business

Make sure to follow us on your favourite podcast player for future episodes and check out our back catalogue of 300 plus episodes on Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Join us for a live recording of Fintech Chatter recorded at the CreditorWatch offices in Sydney.

In part one Dexter Cousins is joined by guests from the podcast to review 2023 as we look back at the key events and share the amazing stories of fintech founders.

Hear from Constantinople, Parpera, LoanOptions, Primer and Prospend.

In part two CreditorWatch CEO, Patrick Coghlan unveils their latest Business Risk Index report and gets expert commentary from Prospa CEO, Greg Moshal and Lendi Group COO, Sebastian Watkins.

Each share their insights on consumer behaviour in small business and the home loan market providing an accurate insight into what we can expect in 2024.

Will there be a rebound or is Fintech in for another tough year? Tune in as we celebrate the year that was 2023 and get set for another rollercoaster ride in 2024!

Check out the CreditorWatch BRI report

Thanks to CreditorWatch for making this live recording possible and a special thanks to the audience for making this such a great event.

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In episode 179 of Fintech Chatter Podcast, Dexter Cousins chats to Honey Insurance CEO Richard Joffe

Making his Fintech Chatter debut Richard is CEO and founder of Honey Insurance, arguably Australia's hottest early-stage Fintech! 

Honey Insurance is the smarter way to protect your home and contents. Backed by RACQ, Honey uses sensors in the home to offer a new type of insurer whose focus is on helping avoid accidents and protect against damage rather than just paying out after events.

Dexter chats to Richard in the week he was awarded CEO Magazines Entrepreneur of the Year and Honey featured at #6 in the Deloitte Fast 50. Expect to see some massive announcements from Honey in 2024!

As a 3x founder, Richard shares his secrets on:

• Building successful tech startups
• The key differences between launching in the US and Aus
• Attracting and retaining the best talent
• Building a high-performance culture
• Winning investment in a down market
• Partnering with incumbents

About Honey Insurance

Honey is Smart Home Insurance, and they are on a mission to eliminate the 50% of avoidable accidents that happen to homes. Honey gives customers free technology and services from day 1 to keep homes safer, then rewards them with a lower price on their insurance.

https://www.honeyinsurance.com/

About Richard Joffe

Richard Joffe is the founder of 3 successful startups, and currently the CEO of Honey Insurance. Previously, Richard founded Park Assist which automated the parking industry, and after expanding to 20 countries was acquired by TKH in 2012. 

Then Stella.ai which automated the recruitment industry using AI, and was acquired as part of a $1.1 billion merger with Trustaff. 

Formerly, Richard was a strategy consultant with McKinsey and an investment banker with Morgan Stanley.

Now with Honey Insurance, Richard has turned his attention to home insurance, where he is on a mission to give Australians free technology and services, to eliminate the 50% of avoidable accidents that happen to homes.

Richard believes technology and automation can make everyone’s lives more efficient, so we can spend more time doing the things that matter most in life.

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In episode 178 of Fintech Chatter Podcast, Dexter Cousins is joined by Ada Guan, CEO and Co-Founder of RDC (Rich Data Co).

About this episode of Fintech Chatter Podcast

Is there a viable use case for AI in banking? 🤔

Making her Fintech Chatter debut Ada Guan CEO of Rich Data Co shares how they are reinventing the way banks assess and provide credit to businesses, using AI.

It's an awesome episode where we talk about:

• Real AI use cases for banking
• Modernising a 70 year old credit model
• Leaving a corporate job to start a business
• Hiring and retaining the best AI and Data engineers
• How rock climbing has helped create a high performance culture
• How to consistently win business with major banks (with only 2 people in sales and marketing)

About RDC

RDC is delivering the future of credit, today!  They believe credit should be accessible, fair, inclusive, and sustainable. By using AI, the team at RDC has developed new techniques that leverage traditional and non-traditional data to get the right decision in a clear and explainable way.

Changing customer expectations means credit needs to be offered & consumed in new and different ways. Global leading financial institutions are leveraging the RDC AI decisioning platform to offer credit in a way that aligns to the customers’ needs and expectations.

RDC's AI Decisioning platform harnesses the incredible potential of AI and combines it with industry expertise to create the ‘AI brain for a bank’. RDC is accelerating innovation in business lending to deliver transformational and sustainable long-term business success for customers.

Find out more https://www.richdataco.com/

Careers: https://careers.richdataco.com/

About Ada

Ada brings over 20 years’ global experience in financial services, software, and retail industries. 

Leading a Global Client Advisor team at Oracle Corporation, she advised board and C-level executives in large global banks on digital disruption and Fintech strategy, and drove Oracle thought leadership in banking digital transformation for Global Key Accounts. 

During her time at Westpac Bank in Australia, Ada implemented a multi-million dollar program to deliver a mission critical services layer for the Bank and formulated the IT strategy that formed the basis of the $800m investment program to transform Westpac’s Product and Operation division, and complete the merger with St. George Bank. 

Ada holds an EMBA from the Australia Graduate School of Management, and a Master of Computer Engineering from the University of New South Wales, Australia.

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Ryan Edwards-Pritchard from Cape joins Dexter as they celebrate the fourth anniversary of the very first episode of Fintech Chatter.

Dexter delves through the archives picking his favourite memories from the podcast. And Ryan does a great job of interviewing dexter about the 4 year journey of Fintech Chatter Podcast.

Thank you to all of our guests, partners and co-hosts past and present.

Almost 500,000 listens
4.9 Star ratings in Apple and Spotify
250 amazing guests
294 shows

Special mention to Fintech Australia, Patona, NAB, Chloe White, Simon Lee, Ben Ford and Joanne Cousins ❤️

And a very BIG thank you to you for listening and supporting the show 🙏❤️

Episode list from Todays show

002: David M Brear
Katherine McConnell Brighte - The Finnies 2020
Rebecca Schott-Guppy Intersekt Afterparty
088: Matt Baxby - Revolut
Business Fintech Special
048: Lee Hatton - Afterpay
025 Anthony Thomson
032 Neal Cross
Simone Joyce Farewell

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Dexter Cousins invites Datamesh CEO Mark Nagy back on the show. Mark made his first appearance 12 months ago as part of our spotlight on the next wave of Aussie Fintech startups. 

One year on from his debut Mark shares his tips on how Datamesh secured $30m Series A funding in the midst of the downturn.

Mark also shares his secrets for winning contracts with global clients like Deutsche Bank and how to expand an Aussie Fintech internationally.

You can check out our original podcast with Mark https://tieronepeople.com/2022/09/16/datamesh-mark-nagy/

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