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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.

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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 on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z

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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 on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z

Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc

Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp

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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 on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z

Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc

Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp

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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 on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z

Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc

Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp

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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 on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z

Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc

Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp

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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 on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z

Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc

Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp

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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.

Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z

Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc

Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp

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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.

In this episode, you will hear from:

• Martin Escobari, Co-President of General Atlantic
• Renaud Laplanche, Co-Founder & CEO of Upgrade
• Paulo Passoni, Investor & former Head of Softbank Latin America 
• Jackie Reses, CEO of Lead Bank and former Head of Square Financial Services
• Matt Harris, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures
• Dave Nangle, CEO of VEF

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:

1. Importance of Diversity in The Board Room
2. Most of the Work is Done Outside the Board Meeting
3. 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.

Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z

Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc

Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp

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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.

Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z

Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc

Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp

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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 on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z

Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc

Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp