Fintech Leaders

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I sat down with Ali Mazanderani, Chairman of Lesaka, a nasdaq traded, leading fintech in Southern Africa with over $400 million in revenue and 2 million active customers. Ali is a fintech veteran investor and builder, who’s been closely involved with several multi-billion dollar fintechs in emerging markets, including Stone, Pine Labs, Kushki, Thunes and is also a co-founder of Teya.
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We discussed why Southern Africa is one of the most exciting fintech opportunities in the world, how Lesaka is turning 120,000 merchants from cash-only to digital, the strategy behind acquiring Bank Zero, and why being a publicly traded company is a feature, not a bug.

Timestamped Overview:
00:00 Intro & Ali’s Background
05:00 Creating positive impact through fintech
09:23 Founding Taya Joy in Building
10:32 Customer first approach to success
14:49 Benefits of Public Market Discipline
18:12 Fintech's Limited Impact in Africa
20:36 South Africa's business opportunities
25:45 Bank Zero Digital Advantage
27:46 Customer-First Mindset & Innovation
32:27 Key Focus Growth and ARPU Trends
33:41 Value Over Price Wins Customers
38:35 Driving Merchant Payment Efficiency
42:52 Digitizing Africa's Future
43:58 Ambition for global excellence
47:14 Authenticity and empathy drive success

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 on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z
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Miguel Armaza interviews George Robson, Partner at Sequoia Capital, one of the most legendary venture firms in the world. Founded in 1972 by Don Valentine, Sequoia has backed some of the most successful tech and fintech companies in history including Nvidia, Apple, Google, Nubank, and Stripe. Sequoia-backed companies make up over 25% of the Nasdaq's market cap, and add up to $13+ trillion in market cap.

George is one of 19 investing partners at Sequoia and was previously a product manager at Revolut. We discuss how Revolut built a multi-product machine by treating every team like a startup, how Sequoia uses storytelling to calibrate its investors on what generational founders look like, and why the next wave of fintech winners will be full stack companies that internalize the technology instead of selling it to incumbents.

Timestamped Overview
00:00 Intro & George’s Background
04:14 Finding My People at Revolut
07:37 Building Self Sufficient Cross Functional Teams
10:57 Focus on Growth and Profitability
14:45 Crucial Decision and Growth
17:49 High-Conviction Investment Strategy
19:07 Parth's Inspiring Entrepreneurial Path
23:38 Entrepreneur Growth and Resilience
28:19 Storytelling Key to Early Success
31:05 Effective Board Dynamics
34:14 Entrepreneurs Investors and Problem Discovery
36:42 Outsiders Tackling Big Markets
40:21 Rewriting Business Laws of Gravity
44:04 Humbling Reads and Insights
46:17 Doug Leone Fierce and Kind

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

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

Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIp

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Miguel Armaza sits down with Michael Calvey, one of the most successful and legendary emerging markets investors of our time. Mike moved to Moscow at age 27 in the early 90s and built Baring Vostok into a powerhouse with $10+ billion invested in Russia. They backed now-decacorns like Yandex, Revolut, Tinkoff, and Kaspi at their earliest stages. Yandex alone was a 450x return for the fund.

Along the way, he survived a 98% market crash, was detained by Russia's secret service, and made billions of dollars for his investors.

He's also incredibly thoughtful about the ingredients of great founders, what separates the ones who win from those just chasing money, how the best companies constantly stack new S curves, and why being a hands-on owner but never a hands-on manager is the key to a great investor-founder partnership.

Timestamped Overview
00:00 From Oklahoma to Russia - Intro & Michael’s Background
10:32 Building an Elite Emerging Markets Team
14:36 Geopolitics, Economics, and Market Resilience
20:25 Fewer Investments, Better Focus
24:08 Successful Entrepreneurs Value Purpose
28:47 Management KPIs and Key Insights
33:45 3 Cs of Ownership Focus
42:53 Marketplace vs. Fintech Growth Dynamics
44:02 Marketplace Dominance and Financial Complexity
52:25 Emerging Markets: Talent vs. Geopolitics
54:51 Emerging Markets and Fintech Ventures
01:00:20 Medici Family: Banking and Intrigue
01:05:59 Starting Over as Entrepreneur

 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 on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z
Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc
Fintech Leaders Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3jWIpqp

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Miguel Armaza welcomes Edward Woodford, founder and CEO of ZeroHash, to Fintech Leaders for a candid, insightful conversation on the future of blockchain infrastructure and the lessons learned from nearly a decade of building in crypto.

Edward offers a unique perspective as a London-born, MIT-educated entrepreneur who’s seen ZeroHash grow into one of the most critical and least visible companies powering the global blockchain ecosystem. He shares his journey— from getting rejected by Oxford and taking the leap to the US, to building his first fintech business and discovering Bitcoin at the MIT bookstore.

Join Miguel and Edward for a conversation packed with actionable insights for fintech founders, builders, and investors aiming to navigate the fast-evolving landscape at the intersection of crypto, infrastructure, and financial innovation.

Timestamped Overview
00:00 Intro & Edward’s Background
05:49 Balancing Business and Personal Life
08:58 MIT Bitcoin and Career Exploration
13:14 Tech-Driven Market Shift Insights
16:07 Tokenization and Global Interoperability
20:08 Impact of the founding team
21:54 Founding team dynamics explored
26:32 Power versus influence in investing
29:25 Effective Infrastructure Pricing Strategy
33:44 Weighted performance-based churn metric
35:00 Founder Mode Intensity Defined

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 on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z
Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc
Fintech Leaders Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3jWIpqp

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Miguel Armaza sits down with Nikolay Seleznev, Co-Founder of Uzum, Uzbekistan’s first tech unicorn rewriting the playbook for e-commerce and fintech in Central Asia. From Moscow to Tashkent, Nikolay Seleznev brings global banking experience and entrepreneurial grit to a country leapfrogging straight into the digital economy.

In this episode, Nikolay Seleznev shares the origin story of Uzum and how a simple, subpar online shopping experience sparked the vision for a super app serving millions. He dives into the challenges of building next-day delivery and financial services from scratch—without warehouses, 3PL infrastructure, or widespread digital adoption. Discover how Uzum managed to issue 4 million debit cards in a single year, reach 20 million monthly active users, and outperform their first-year GMV forecast by 4x, all while driving massive change in a historically cash-based society.

Timestamped Overview
00:00 Intro & Nikolay’s Background
05:45 Building a Super App Ecosystem
08:05 Time as the ultimate resource
10:51 Uzbekistan’s rapid transformation
15:13 Commerce and Fintech Ecosystem Overview
20:12 Building trust through products
23:15 Uzbekistan’s first unicorn funding
26:57 Scaling success and adaptation
28:22 Super app strategy adjustments
32:02 Super Apps and Local Adaptation
35:41 Self-focused entrepreneurial perspective

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 on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z
Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc
Fintech Leaders Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3jWIpqp

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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.

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 on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z
Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc
Fintech Leaders Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3jWIpqp

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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 on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z
Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc
Fintech Leaders Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3jWIpqp

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Miguel Armaza sits down with René Lacerte, founder and CEO of Bill, one of the fintech industry’s most successful and enduring leaders. From building PayCycle in the 1990s to now leading a publicly-traded company powering the “Fortune 5 Million”—the SMBs that are the backbone of America—René brings nearly three decades of hands-on experience in financial operations, product innovation, and organizational culture.

In this episode, René shares his singular journey, starting with childhood influences from a family steeped in entrepreneurship and jazz music, and moving through decades of building for small and mid-sized businesses. He dives deep into why serving SMBs is both uniquely challenging and vital for communities, and reveals how Bill processes over a trillion dollars annually for nearly half a million clients across the US, in partnership with more than 9,000 accounting firms.

René also shares rapid-fire insights on metrics he obsesses over (customer happiness and escalations), the importance of deep networks for founder success, and why investing in culture is the ultimate bet for long-term company excellence.

A must-listen for founders, fintech builders, and anyone passionate about the future of entrepreneurship, financial technology, and the creative power of small businesses.

Timestamped Overview
00:00 Intro & René Lacerte’s Background
04:41 Piano passion and perseverance
07:34 Dreaming of Wyntons Talent
11:52 SMBs community and identity
16:15 Entrepreneurship Requires Growth and Accountability
18:39 Being present and appreciating
20:11 Tech inspiration for SMBs
25:37 Scorecards Over Job Descriptions
29:47 AI Enhancing Creativity and Impact
33:09 Touchless Workflow Automation
35:38 Trust, data, and fintech success
39:07 Financial ecosystem and acquisitions
41:39 Embracing healthy workplace conflict
45:42 The Power of Networking
48:54 Celebration honors collective effort
51:48 The lasting impact of gratitude

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

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

Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIp

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[Original air date, November 19, 2024]  Miguel Armaza travels to Alexandria, Virginia for an in-person interview with a fintech legend: Nigel Morris, Co-Founder of QED and Capital One. 

QED is a global fintech venture capital firm that has backed numerous amazing companies, including Credit Karma, Nubank, Avant, SoFi, and Klarna. They currently have over $4.0 billion in AUM.

Prior to QED, Nigel co-founded Capital One in 1994. The bank today is amongst the 10 largest banks in the US with almost $500 billion in assets. They are also one of the most innovative financial institutions that have inspired countless of entrepreneurs worldwide.

Timestamped Overview
00:00 Intro 
01:25 Nigel’s Background
05:02 Driven by Curiosity and Empiricism
09:03 Banking economics and unsecured credit
10:10 Data economics and scientific method
14:12 Intentional Leadership Shapes Culture
18:25 NuBank exceptional net promoter scores
22:37 Fintech Journey Early Stages
25:06 Financial inclusions global expansion
27:50 Big Tech AI Dominance
33:16 Co-Founder Synergy and Longevity
36:00 Effective board meeting essentials
37:25 Effective Board Meetings Matter
42:09 Climbing a million feet yearly
44:21 Fintech empowering global change

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 ~70,000+ 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 on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z

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

Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIp

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Miguel Armaza sits down with Andrew Wang (CEO) and Linda Du (COO) of Valon, the AI-native infrastructure platform transforming mortgage servicing in America. They have quietly built a top-10 national mortgage servicer with over $100 million in revenue and more than one million loans under management, all while achieving profitability. Valon is now selling their battle-tested platform to the largest servicers in the country. They are backed by a16z, Westcap, Jefferies, and Alleycorp, amongst others.

What makes their story remarkable is how they built it: $100 million in revenue sold entirely through founder-led sales, no marketing team, and a seven-year detour of becoming a servicer themselves just to prove their software works. Their journey from burning $4 million per month to 70% operating margins offers a masterclass in operational discipline and unconventional company building.

Timestamped Overview
00:00 Intro & Valon’s Background
04:14 Finding Trustworthy Growth Partners
07:55 Navigating startup licensing challenges
09:55 Overcoming Loan Licensing Hurdles
15:53 Proving Value Through Integration
18:22 Servicing philosophy shoot higher
21:23 Valenos Success Without Marketing
23:21 Building Two Businesses Two Strategies
27:01 Monetizing operations with efficiency
30:14 Debating AGI's future impact
34:52 Modern CTO Strategies Culture Infrastructure
38:19 LLMs redefining productivity models
41:39 Mentorship sparks business collaboration
44:02 Choosing New York over SF
47:55 Ali's thoughtful guidance and clarity

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

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

Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIp