Fintech Nexus

Making news this week were Coinbase, stablecoins, UPI and PayNow, Green Dot Corporation, fintech valuations, Stripe, bank technology, JPMorgan and more.

This country has a savings problem. We have heard it so many times: the average person cannot afford a $400 emergency expense. While fintech has made some inroads here the problem is worse that it has ever been. What we need is a fintech that is laser-focused on this problem, working to create a simple and effective solution to truly address it.

I am delighted to welcome my next guests on the Fintech One-on-One Podcast. Suze Orman needs no introduction, she has been providing personal finance advice for decades with her own TV show, many bestselling books and more. Devin Miller is the CEO and Co-Founder of SecureSave and he and his co-founder have teamed up with Suze Orman to address the emergency savings problem once and for all.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The sorry state of emergency savings today in the U.S.
• The founding story of SecureSave.
• How Suze came to be involved.
• Why she hates celebrity endorsers and what she is bringing to the table.
• How she helped the company get to the right product market fit.
• How SecureSave is actually changing people's savings habits.
• The level of adoption they are getting with the average company.
• How people are accessing their emergency savings account.
• What people are withdrawing money for.
• Why they focus so much on the emergency part.
• Why they don't really focus on the demographics of their users.
• Their vision for the future of SecureSave.

Connect with Devin on LinkedIn
Connect with Suze on LinkedIn
Connect with SecureSave on LinkedIn
Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

• Tweet me @PeterRenton
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

On today's episode I am joined by Marcos Fernandez, Managing Partner of Fiat Ventures.

Fiat Ventures is an emerging VC focused on supporting and growing the next generation of market leading early-stage companies in the fintech space.

It's a fascinating time in fintech, one one hand, you have a lot of bad news with layoffs happening almost daily, but on the other you also have these incredible stories of growth and excitement. 

Marcos and I delved into where fintech sits today, how early stage founders should think about capital and when to raise, the precarious position crypto is in, the lack of diversity within the ecosystem, operator versus investor, the Las Vegas Raiders, and much more.

A couple of short PSAs:

We are still accepting applications for PitchIt at Fintech Nexus USA 2023; head to https://www.fintechnexus.com/usa/2023/startups/ for details.

If you want to sponsor an episode, come on as a guest, or sponsor one of our many digital or in person offerings, please reach out anytime at [email protected].

Without further ado, Marcos Fernandez, Managing Partner of Fiat Ventures. I hope you enjoy the show.

Session highlights include

• Marcos's journey to Fiat
• Where the name Fiat Ventures came from
• Fiat's investing thesis
• Fiat's portfolio companies
• Fiat's differentiated approach to investing
• The state of fintech today
• The current fundraising environment 
• The lack of diversity in venture capital
• Why crypto and Web3 still have a bright future
• Marcos's love for the Oakland (Las Vegas) Raiders
• Recommended reading
  • The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company by Bob Iger
  • Secrets of Sand Hill Road by Scott Kupor
• And much more…

Connect with Marcos on LinkedIn
Connect with Fiat Ventures on LinkedIn

Connect with PitchIt:

• Tweet me @ToddFintech
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Find previous PitchIt episodes
• Email me at [email protected]

Until next time.

Making news this week was FIS, Worldpay, Stripe, Apple, White House National Economic Council, crypto, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.

We are revisiting the venture capital space today because we are at such an interesting inflection point. Some VC firms took a very cautious approach amid the tumultuous market of 2022 but things might be turning around albeit slowly.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Clara Sieg, a partner at Revolution, the venture capital firm started by AOL founder Steve Case. Clara has been investing in fintech for many years and has an interesting take on the space today.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The origins of Revolution Ventures.
• What attracted Clara to come on board at Revolution.
• Why they actively look to invest outside of the hot tech locations.
• How the geographic shift over the last three years has changed venture capital.
• How Revolution navigated the lofty valuations of 2021 and early 2022.
• Why they didn't do a single deal in 2022.
• The range of check sizes they are doing.
• Why they decided to invest in Sila and Paro.
• The different segments within fintech they are most interested in.
• Clara's perspective on the lack of capital flowing to women-led companies.
• Why she thinks this year will lead to more consolidation in fintech.
• Their expectation to do more deals in 2023.

Connect with Clara on LinkedIn
Connect with Revolution on LinkedIn

Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

• Tweet me @PeterRenton
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

On today’s episode, I’m joined by Patrick Sells, Co-Founder of True Digital Group.

True Digital Group's mission is to help financial institutions embrace digital innovation through investments in culture, capabilities, and capital.

It really is a mission for Patrick and the team at True Digital Group. Over the last few years, he’s had the chance to speak to 1,100 financial institutions. You can say he truly has the pulse of the banking community.

Patrick and I discussed common themes from the 1,100 conversations; the biggest barriers banks still face today, the education gap amongst banks and fintechs, Mindshift, blockchain and crypto, raising capital, and much more.

If you want to sponsor an episode, come on as a guest, or sponsor one of our many digital or in-person offerings, please reach out anytime at [email protected].

Without further ado, Patrick Sells, Co-Founder of True Digital Group. I hope you enjoy the show.

Episode highlights include:

• Patrick’s journey through banking to True Digital Group
• 1,100 bank conversations
• The Mindshift product
• Top impediments banks face today
• The education gap
• Selling to banks vs. credit unions
• Blockchain and crypto
• The impending recession
• Raising capital
• Recommended reading - When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
• And much more…

Connect with Patrick on LinkedIn
Connect with True Digital Group on LinkedIn
Connect with PitchIt:

• Tweet me @ToddFintech
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Find previous PitchIt episodes
• Email me at [email protected]

Until next time.

Making news this week was Affirm, Goldman Sachs, Coinbase, Kraken, Robinhood, Pipe, PayPal, Apple and the UK digital pound.

While there has been a lot of fintech innovation in small business lending, it has mostly been focused on loans of $500,000 or less. When it comes to loans of $1 million to $50 million there has been less innovation and it is still very much a manual, relationship-based process. But that is changing.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Blair Silverberg, the CEO and founder of Hum Capital. He looked at that market and realized a data-driven process could vastly improve efficiency so he has created a platform that intelligently pairs growth companies with investors and lenders. He calls Hum the world's only intelligent capital market.

In this podcast you will learn:

• How Blair started his entrepreneurial journey at the age of six.
• The short term and long term opportunity that Blair saw that led to Hum Capital.
• Examples of how their platform works.
• Why they are focused purely on quantitative data.
• How they meet the demands of different types of investors.
• Why they are focused on private debt over equity.
• The range and average loan sizes
• How they have challenged the relationship-based approach to mid-market lending.
• The compelling pitch they make to businesses seeking capital.
• What types of data they are working with.
• The two simple calculations they use to help businesses compare lending products.
• How they have removed bias from the lending process.
• How Blair feels about the impact of the changing macroeconomic environment.
• The different risk appetites of their investors.
• His vision for the future of Hum Capital.

Connect with Blair on LinkedIn
Connect with Blair on Twitter
Connect with Hum Capital on LinkedIn
Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

• Tweet me @PeterRenton
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes