It is something of a mystery that virtually no fintech entrepreneurs have tackled one of the biggest markets there is: senior citizens collecting social security. Well, until now.

In this episode, I sit down with Kevin Nazemi, CEO and co-founder of Charlie, to explore serving this large market. With over 60 million Americans in this demographic, Kevin explains why traditional banks and fintechs have largely ignored this population despite their significant needs. The conversation dives deep into Charlie's innovative approach to serving customers 62 and above, including their groundbreaking fraud prevention tools like "Speed Bump" that have already documented a significant amount of prevented fraud, and how they're building trust in a market where respect and security are paramount.

In this podcast you will learn:

• His formative interview with a sitting president at the age of 11.
• How he became convinced that seniors needed better financial services.
• Why senior citizens are generally ignored by banks and fintechs.
• How Kevin realized he could build a real business serving this population.
• How they communicated that Charlie works with a partner bank.
• Why it was so important to have their partner bank front and center.
• How Charlie makes money and how it compares to other fintech leaders.
• The obvious product they could expand into.
• What they are doing to protect their customers from fraud.
• How they are combating the rise in AI-driven fraud.
• Kevin’s vision for the future of Charlie.

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Today, I welcome back to the show Arad Levertov, CEO and co-founder of Sunbit (I last had him on the show in 2019), one of the leaders in offline buy-now-pay-later. From 2,000 retail locations in 2019 to nearly 30,000 across verticals like auto repair, dental, and veterinary services, Sunbit has achieved tremendous growth. But what I found most impressive is this: a 90% approval rate combined with low single-digit default rates.

Arad reveals the secret behind these remarkable metrics lies not just in sophisticated AI-powered underwriting, but in their holistic approach that includes strategic merchant selection, gamified associate training, personalized offers, and a customer-first philosophy with zero fees. Now serving over 4.5 million customers and approaching $400 million in revenue while reaching GAAP profitability, Sunbit demonstrates how the right blend of technology and human elements can revolutionize offline lending.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The highlights for Sunbit over the last six years.
• Why they have remained focused on the offline space.
• The different verticals they have targeted.
• How their lending process works.
• How they are able to approve 90% of their borrowers.
• Why the key to their success is the associates in the physical stores.
• Attributes of the 10% of borrowers they decline.
• Their average default rate.
• How they decide which merchants to bring on their platform.
• How Sunbit makes money.
• How they are growing their merchant base.
• What their partnership with Stripe looks like.
• How they are partnering with Checkout.com.
• How Arad views the competitive moat he has built at Sunbit.
• What they are doing differently when it comes to collections.
• Their expansion plans for the future.

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Today, I sit down with Joe Breeden, CEO and founder of Deep Future Analytics (DFA), for what is, in effect, a two-part conversation. First we do a deep dive into credit risk management and where it is falling short today and then we discuss AI monitoring and governance and how it is going to revolutionize software.

The conversation covers why traditional machine learning models are missing critical components for accurate risk assessment and how adverse selection has dramatically impacted loan quality in recent vintages. Then Joe makes a bold prediction that software user interfaces are on the verge of a transformation that will render them unrecognizable from previous versions Curious? All is revealed in this fascinating conversation.

In this podcast you will learn:

• How he got started with Deep Future Analytics
• The state of credit risk management in banking today.
• What is missing, even with fintech lenders, who are using machine learning.
• What lenders get wrong when they focus on credit score.
• Why loans booked since 2022 are lower quality than even 2006-07.
• What kind of lift lenders or investors can see with DFA’s models.
• What Joe sees in the pool of borrowers today.
• Why DFA moved into AI monitoring and governance.
• Who is using these new AI models they have developed.
• Why a “human in the loop” is not an effective monitoring method.
• What their new Strategic Recommendation Agent (SyRA) does.
• How they incorporate Large Language Models to ensure zero hallucinations.
• Why the future of software is dashboards on demand and analytics on demand.
• How Deep Future Analytics is different to others in the market.
• What it is going to take before software moves to a chat-based interface.

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Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) has transformed how consumers approach purchasing, yet adoption in the US still trails markets like Australia and Europe. In this episode, we sit down with Joe Heck, US CEO of Zip, who brings somewhat of a contrarian perspective to the industry. Joe argues that BNPL isn't just another credit product, it's a financial tool designed for what he calls "underestimated Americans," the paycheck-to-paycheck consumers often underserved by traditional banks.

With Zip achieving a 98% payback rate and growing over 40% year-over-year, Joe shares insights on why the credit system is too judgmental, how BNPL provides working capital flexibility, and his vision for autonomous finance powered by AI. Whether you're curious about the future of payments or want to understand how fintech is serving overlooked consumer segments, this conversation offers fresh insights into one of the fastest-growing areas of financial services.

In this podcast you will learn:

• What attracted Joe to take the CEO role at Zip.
• Why BNPL has not taken off as fast in the U.S. as it has in Australia and Europe.
• How Zip’s BNPL product works.
• What Zip’s customers are spending their money on.
• What kind of checks they do for new customers.
• Joe’s view on reporting BNPL transactions to credit bureaus.
• What is driving the growth at Zip over the last year.
• How Joe responds to media criticisms of BNPL and mounting consumer debt.
• How they help their customers smooth out their payments.
• How they partner with Stripe and what it means for Zip’s growth.
• Where Zip is looking to expand.
• How Joe sees the the BNPL sector evolving and the role of AI.

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In this episode, I sit down with Jason Guss, CEO and co-founder of Octane Lending, to discuss how the company became the #1 powersports lender in the country. The conversation covers Octane's early pivot from lender aggregator to direct lender, their dominance in niche markets, and strategies for thriving in challenging interest rate environments.

Jason talked about how their early focus on good unit economics and then profitability put them in a great position during the challenging times of 2022 and 2023, enabling them to gain market share and rebound quicker than their competitors. He also has some interesting things to say about the banks in the market and strong thoughts on the importance of capital markets.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The A-B test that led to the founding of Octane Lending.
• Why they built a loan origination system right off the bat.
• The “burn the ships” moment when they decided to pivot the business.
• How they were able to last sixteen months with very little revenue.
• The different niches within powersports where they provide financing.
• Their typical loan terms.
• The total size of the powersports market and the percentage Octane has.
• The advantages that Octane has competing with banks in this market.
• How their loan application works at the point of sale.
• How their customers are navigating a higher interest rate environment.
• Why an efficient capital markets function is so important.

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Violet Abtahi is the CEO and Founder of Platonic, a company developing blockchain infrastructure to solve counterparty risk and privacy challenges in financial markets. With over a decade of experience in both traditional finance and blockchain technology, Violet transitioned from a mathematics background on Wall Street to building next-generation financial infrastructure.

Violet argues that counterparty risk is the fundamental bottleneck preventing widespread adoption of blockchain-based financial systems. By combining private blockchain technology with automated smart contracts, Platonic aims to create the infrastructure needed for a more efficient, automated, and less risky financial future.

In this podcast you will learn:

• Why she made the move from traditional finance into the blockchain world.
• The founding story of Platonic and the two major challenges she wanted to solve.
• How finance can be autonomous, intelligent, and borderless.
• Who they are targeting with their solutions.
• How instant settlement with smart contracts can remove the counterparty risk.
• The pilot they did with Vanguard, State Street, Citi and Ford.
• What it will take for all real world assets to be tokenized.
• Why automated regulation is a key component for this to happen.
• What asset class will lead the way in tokenization.
• Violet’s priorities for the next 12 months.

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In this episode, I sit down with Tomás Campos, CEO and Co-Founder of Spinwheel, a fintech infrastructure company that's revolutionizing how lenders and financial platforms access consumer credit data. With over 20 years in fintech, Tomás explains how Spinwheel can authenticate users and connect to all their liability accounts—credit cards, loans, mortgages, and more—using just a phone number and date of birth, achieving 95-99% coverage across different debt types.

The conversation explores how this technology is solving critical pain points in debt consolidation lending and how their AI-powered infrastructure orchestrates multiple data sources behind the scenes. Tomás also discusses their Optimize product, which saves users an average of $150 per month by creating personalized debt management plans, and shares his vision for using technology to transform consumer debt from an anchor into a lever for achieving financial goals.

In this podcast you will learn:

• What Tomás saw that led to the founding of Spinwheel.
• Why there is so much friction in connecting liability accounts.
• The different use cases for Spinwheel.
• What is so special about the phone number and date of birth data fields.
• Why passwords are a very bad way to verify a user.
• The coverage of the entire U.S. population that Spinwheel has achieved.
• The data sources that they are still working on connecting with.
• The type of data they are extracting from these data sources.
• Where Spinwheel fits into the flow of a loan application process.
• How they using AI agents and AI in general.
• How Spinwheel Optimize is saving end users $150 per month.
• The long-term vision for Spinwheel.

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In this episode of the Fintech One-on-One podcast, we talk with Paulette Rowe, CEO of Stax, a payments technology company that's making waves in the embedded payments space by taking a fundamentally different approach than many competitors. Rather than simply reselling services from payment processing giants, Stax has built and acquired the technology to own their entire stack, from gateway to clearing and settlement. This strategic decision allows them to move faster, provide better data, and offer more flexibility to their clients, particularly in the vertical SaaS and ISV market where they are seeing rapid growth.

Paulette, who brings a unique perspective from her extensive payments experience across both the UK and US markets, discusses how Stax differentiates itself in the competitive embedded payments landscape, their innovative Stax Connect Plus offering that helps ISVs dramatically improve payment attachment rates, and how AI is already transforming their customer support operations. The conversation also explores the future of payments innovation, including the potential for agentic AI in e-commerce and Stax's international expansion plans.

In this podcast you will learn:

• Paulette’s career arc and the journey to the CEO job at Stax.
• How the US payments landscape differs from the UK and Europe.
• The comprehensive payments solutions provided by Stax.
• How they work with ISVs (independent software providers).
• The two acquisitions they have made in the past two years.
• Why they developed Stax Connect Plus.
• How Stax differentiates itself in the ISV embedded payments market.
• How they compete with the Stripes and Squares of the world.
• What markets Stax operates in today.
• Paulette’s thoughts on the new payments rails being developed.
• How they have been using AI internally and then, Benji for customer support.
• How they are preparing for Agentic AI for e-commerce.
• The biggest opportunities in the future for Stax.

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As long-time listeners will know, I love the consumer lending space. So, I am delighted to welcome back to the podcast Matt Potere, the CEO of Happy Money, a position he has held since September 2024. Previously, Matt served as CEO of Sunlight Financial, which he took public via SPAC in 2021. With decades of experience in consumer finance across multiple asset classes, Matt brings deep expertise in credit cycles, risk management, and building successful lending platforms.

In this episode, we discuss what differentiates Happy Money, their focus on credit unions, how they approach technology and underwriting, their big new forward flow agreement, the state of the consumer today, their use of AI, why culture is so important and much more.

In this podcast you will learn:

• What attracted Matt to the opportunity at Happy Money.
• How he describes Happy Money today.
• What he learned leading Sunlight Financial that helps at Happy Money.
• Why they have focused on partnering with credit unions.
• Who is the typical customer coming to Happy Money.
• How their origination process works with their credit union partners.
• How they are using automation and AI/ML in their underwriting.
• Matt’s perspective on the state of the US consumers.
• The primary use cases for a Happy Money loan.
• How they differentiate themselves from other fintech lenders.
• Matt’s approach to scaling a lending business.
• How they are using AI tools in their operation.
• How the $500 million deal with Fortress and Edge Focus came together.
• What are his thoughts on an IPO.
• Matt thoughts about adding new products to personal loans.
• What they are focused on for the next 12 months.

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In this episode, we are talking personal financial management, but with a human twist. Sam Lewis is the CEO and Founder of Fruitful, a fintech company reimagining financial advice for millennials and Gen Z. Fruitful offers a $98 monthly membership that combines certified financial planners (actual humans) with AI-powered technology to create personalized "money systems" that automatically allocate incoming funds across bills, spending, and goals. Lewis discusses his background at Mastercard and how he witnessed traditional banks underserving younger customers, leading him to launch Fruitful in 2023.

The conversation explores Fruitful's unique approach of maintaining human advisors rather than going fully AI-driven, their focus on "income allocation" over "asset allocation," and their transparent pricing model that forgoes hidden fees and even interchange revenue. Lewis explains how the platform serves mass affluent members who want to automate their financial lives while maintaining the human touch for trust and emotional connection in money management decisions.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The big gap that Sam saw when it came to financial advice.
• The core product offering of Fruitful and what people get for $98/month.
• How their Certified Financial Planners (CFP) help their members build a money system.
• The suite of financial products that is included.
• Who they are working with on the banking side and why it is such an important relationship.
• Why they decided to have a human in the loop to help guide people through this.
• How Sam thinks about AI and its role in helping their members.
• What happens after the money system is set up.
• Who comes to Fruitful for help and what they are looking for.
• How they are getting new customers in the door.
• How they help their members with their investments.
• Why they have decided not pursue any other revenue streams beyond the monthly fee.
• How Sam is thinking about adding complementary financial products.
• What they are focused on for the next 12-18 months.

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