One of the many challenges for low and middle income (LMI) consumers is building wealth. If you are living paycheck to paycheck with no savings you are more focused on financial survival and likely don't feel you have the capacity to build wealth. This is where Stash comes in.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One Podcast is Liza Landsman, the CEO of Stash, a position she has held for around a year now. They are laser-focused on the LMI consumer and have built a suite of tools to help these people save and build wealth. Their Stock-Back Card is truly innovative and is often the first time their customers have ever owned public equities.

In this podcast you will learn:

• What drew her to the CEO role at Stash.
• How Liza describes Stash and its mission.
• Who the typical Stash customer is and how they are using the app.
• Some of the changes she has made at Stash since becoming CEO.
• How their Stock-Back technology works and why it has been groundbreaking.
• The Stash 100 and their approach to financial education.
• What their customer base is focused on when it comes to learning.
• Why they created Stash Core, their back-end infrastructure platform.
• The thinking behind launching a B2B platform.
• What they learned in their Hardworking Americans Survey.
• The scale they are at today.
• How sticky their customers are and what they are doing to reduce churn.
• Liza's vision for the future of Stash.

Connect with Liza on LinkedIn
Connect with Stash on LinkedIn

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The anti-fraud space has really heated up this past 12 months as fraud attempts have been on the rise and bad actors have become more sophisticated. Often, it can feel like an increasingly difficult battle to win, but there is reason for optimism.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Tommy Nicholas, the CEO and Co-Founder of Alloy. Tommy lays out in exceptional detail and with great passion why there is reason for optimism today. He also provides a blueprint for how banks and fintechs should be approaching their anti-fraud efforts. This is the third and final interview in the series I conducted at Fintech Meetup.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The inspiration and motivation for the founding of Alloy.
• A description of their product offerings.
• Why it was so difficult to build their products.
• How fraud attacks have changed over the last 12-18 months.
• How new fintechs develop their fraud protocols.
• How to avoid the death spiral to zero good customers.
• The role social media has had in increasing first-party fraud.
• What is leading to an increase in fraud attempts recently.
• The types of fraud he is seeing today and how it is preventable.
• Details of the newly announced Alloy for Embedded Finance.
• How it will transform bank-fintech partnerships.
• The luck they have had in the timing of this launch.

Connect with Tommy Nicholas on LinkedIn
Connect with Alloy on LinkedIn

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I don't think any fintech company has done more for small business than Square. They started with payment acceptance and have since expanded into many different areas of fintech. In fact, their lending business is now the largest in all of fintech. But it was the addition of Square Banking that has allowed this fintech pioneer to bring it all together.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Christina Riechers, the General Manager of Square Banking. She has been at Square nine years and was one of the architects of Square's push into banking. This is the second podcast in the series that I recorded live at Fintech Meetup in early March.

In this podcast you will learn:

• What first attracted Christina to Square.
• Block's mission and how that resonated with her.
• The origins of Square Banking and Christina's role in it.
• How they built out their banking capabilities.
• The different starting points for small businesses in joining their ecosystem.
• Why established small business switch to Square Banking.
• The scale they are at today for Square Lending.
• How they are underwriting these loans.
• How they are able to see a holistic view of the small business's finances.
• How their customers are using the proceeds from their Square loans.
• The astounding percentage of women-owned business they are serving.
• What is top of mind for Square sellers today.
• How their payroll service works.
• What integration opportunities there are between Cash App, Afterpay and Square Banking.
• What they doing around Generative AI.
• The fintech trends that Christina is paying closest attention to right now.

Connect with Christina on LinkedIn
Connect with Square on LinkedIn

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The area of fintech that has been in the news most so far this year is, without doubt, banking as a service (BaaS). We have seen consent orders, layoffs, banks ending fintech programs, ongoing disputes between BaaS companies and fintechs and there have been pivots from some of the BaaS providers.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Chris Dean, the CEO and Co-Founder of Treasury Prime. They were one of the original BaaS providers and have recently announced a pivot to working directly with banks. This resulted in the layoff of around half of the company. We do a deep dive into this pivot during our conversation, which took place live at the recent Fintech Meetup in Las Vegas.

In this podcast you will learn:

• How his experience at Silicon Valley Bank led to the founding of Treasury Prime.
• Their original three lines of business.
• The driving force behind their pivot to dealing with banks directly.
• The reaction they have received from their fintech clients.
• How their direct service works for banks.
• Why banks will continue to want to partner with fintechs.
• Details of the process they go through when onboarding a new bank.
• The different ways that are working with banks today.
• Why Chris thinks the original banking as a service model is dead.
• Why banks have been universally positive on their recent pivot.
• How involved they are with the fintech sales process at the bank.
• The impact on the fintech startup scene of banks only wanting to work with established fintechs.
• Their approach to compliance automation.
• Why he never sees the alternative core banking providers.
• How Chris sees the bank-fintech partnerships evolving in the long term.
• How he defines success going forward.

Connect with Chris Dean on LinkedIn
Connect with Treasury Prime on LinkedIn

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Until fintech came along, there was a serious catch-22 when it came to establishing credit. There was no easy way to establish your own credit score without first obtaining credit. This became a real problem with Gen-Z and even younger millennials who have avoided credit cards. But for most people, successfully establishing a good credit score opens doors that are otherwise unavailable. Fintech has come up with some creative solutions to help both establish a credit score or reestablish one that has dropped significantly.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Julie Szudarek, the CEO of Self. She has been in this role for almost six months, taking over from founder James Garvey (listen to the episode with James here). Self was the inventor of the credit builder account and the space has grown a lot in the last few years as consumers are more aware than ever of the importance of a good credit score.

In this podcast you will learn:

• What attracted Julie to the CEO role at Self.
• How she describes Self today.
• The different types of people who are coming to Self.
• How their credit builder account works.
• What people do once they have been through their 12-month program.
• What their customers like most about Self.
• How much on average the typical Self customer increases their credit score.
• Details of their new rent and bills reporting product.
• How they approach financial literacy with their customers.
• How she responds to the criticism of credit builder products.
• Why they decided to partner with SpringFour.
• What they do to help their customers when they get into financial difficulty.
• Why they decided to sponsor the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA.
• Where is Self going in the short to medium term.

Connect with Julie on LinkedIn
Connect with Self Financial on LinkedIn

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The secondary loan market has played an important role in the history of fintech lending. It was important for those early loan buyers to know that there was a robust market in place if they needed to sell a loan portfolio. And sometimes platforms would hold the loans on their own balance sheet for a few months before offloading in a secondary loan sale. It was an essential ingredient in the growth of the space.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Dan Arlotta, Senior Vice President at Garnet Capital Advisors. He has been around the fintech lending space almost from the beginning and has been putting together loan portfolio sales across the industry. There are few people who know the ins and outs of the loan buying space better than Dan.

In this podcast you will learn:

• How loan buying in the fintech space has evolved over the past decade.
• How fintech loans compare to banks and credit unions today.
• What Dan he being seen in activity in non-performing loans.
• How tightened credit boxes will impact secondary transactions.
• How high interest rates have impacted buyer activity.
• The types of buyers that Garnet works with on secondary sales.
• What lending platforms they are working with on the fintech side.
• How it was different working with Figure.
• The best practices for lenders looking to do secondary loan transactions.

Connect with Dan on LinkedIn
Connect with Garnet Capital Advisors on LinkedIn

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AI is making its way into many areas of banking and fintech but one area where it already has a strong foothold is detecting financial crime. And there are some companies doing new and innovative things with this AI technology here.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Adam Famularo, the CEO of WorkFusion. His company has created these AI digital workers that are integrated into the workforce of a bank or fintech. These are real digital assistants that have been brought to life by WorkFusion.

In this podcast you will learn:

• What attracted Adam to the CEO role at WorkFusion.
• How he describes the company today.
• How their AI Digital Workers operate and the different job roles they have.
• An explanation of the use cases for these digital workers.
• How they have trained the digital workers.
• How banks are augmenting these digital workers with their workforce.
• What kind of feedback they have received by humanizing their AI models.
• What is involved in the onboarding process.
• Where the AI digital workers fit within their core software.
• The typical organizations using WorkFusion today.
• A couple of case studies from banks using their software.
• How much they are reliant on LLMs and Gen AI.
• How they reduce the risk of errors or hallucinations.
• What this will all look like in five years.
• How this will impact the human workers interacting with the AI workers.

Connect with Adam on LinkedIn
Connect with WorkFusion on LinkedIn

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When FedNow launched last July there was a lot of excitement in the financial community about the first new payments rail from the Fed in fifty years. There was also some trepidation. What would the rollout look like? Would banks take a wait-and-see approach? And how would the presence of RTP affect adoption?

Now, almost eight months later we have answers to many of these questions. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Mark Gould, the Chief Payments Executive at the Federal Reserve Financial Services. He is the head of FedNow and has steered the Fed through its successful launch and now into its growth stage.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The many different roles Mark has held at the Fed.
• What the Fed's role is exactly in the payments system.
• The number of banks that are now on board with FedNow.
• How the FedNow system actually works.
• What Mark's pitch is when talking to prospective banks.
• The difference between signing up for send and receive.
• How fintech companies should think about FedNow.
• The primary use cases that are flowing through FedNow right now.
• How Mark thinks about RTP from The Clearing House.
• The idea of interoperability between RTP and FedNow.
• How Mark expects the mix of payment types to evolve over the next decade.
• The tools that the Fed has in place to prevent fraud.
• The transaction limits that are in place today.
• The short term product roadmap for FedNow.
• When Mark thinks there will be ubiquitous availability of instant payments.
• What it will take for consumers to have an expectation that payments will be instant.

Connect with Mark on LinkedIn
Connect with Federal Reserve Financial Services on LinkedIn

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When it comes to financial health there is still much work to be done. While fintech has certainly made an impact here the average consumer is no more financially healthy than they were a decade ago. This is a problem that fascinates me and I love it when I talk to companies that are making a real difference in this area.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Ana Mahony, the CEO and founder of Addition Wealth. Their financial health platform is targeted at employers to offer as a benefit to their employees but what makes them unique is the human interaction. While they have a lot of digital tools for employees they also offer free one-on-one sessions with CPA and Certified Financial Planners. 

In this podcast you will learn:

• How the idea for Addition Wealth first germinated.
• How the program at First Round Capital really helped launch the company.
• The breadth of their product offerings to enhance financial health.
• Why the human interaction is such a differentiator for Addition.
• How they can scale with a human plus digital approach.
• How they vet these financial advisors and ensure they are providing quality advice.
• How Ana's experience at Uber has helped develop their platform.
• What is involved in implementing Addition Wealth with a new employer.
• Details of their go-to-market strategy.
• The scale they are at today.
• What people care about most when it comes to their financial health.
• The average percentage of employees that engage with their offering.
• Her vision for the future of Addition Wealth.

Connect with Ana on LinkedIn
Connect with Addition Wealth on LinkedIn

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Consider the humble email address. Most of us don't give this part of our identity a second thought but there is a wealth of information that can be gleaned from this one piece of data. And when it comes to fraud the email address is the most consistent predictor, more than any other data point.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Diarmuid Thoma, the head of fraud and data strategy at AtData. He has spent most of his 23-year career focused on fraud prevention and today he leads a team that has built the most extensive email database in the industry.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The history of TowerData and the merger that resulted in the creation of AtData.
• The two areas of the company that Diarmuid leads.
• Why banks and fintech should care about email data.
• Why email is the most consistent fraud predictor.
• What other data points they take into consideration in their fraud models.
• The staggering percentage of every email in existence that are in their database.
• The number of new high risk domains that are being created every day.
• What is returned to the client when they provide an email address to AtData's API.
• How banks and fintechs are using this data today.
• Why they are included very early in the funnel for lenders.
• How the AtData quality score works and what it can tell their clients.
• How they have incorporated AI/ML into their fraud models.
• Details of their recent white paper on balance customer experience and fraud prevention.
• The trends that banks and fintechs should be paying attention to when it comes to email data.

Connect with Diarmuid on LinkedIn
Connect with AtData on LinkedIn

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