While the fintech lending space is maturing with a number of lenders achieving significant scale today, the longevity of most platforms goes back barely more than a decade. But there is one lender today that was already seven or eight years old during the financial crisis of 2008-09. I am not saying the turbulent times we are experiencing today are equivalent to what become known as the Global Financial Crisis, but there are important lessons that can be learned from companies that survived that time.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One Podcast is Al Crawford, the CEO and Co-Founder of BHG Financial. Al founded the company back in 2001 and has been the CEO and Chairman since that time. He has some very interesting lessons to share from running a fintech lender for more than 20 years. I interviewed Al at the recent Fintech Nexus USA event in New York City, where this session led off the Credit and Underwriting track.

In this podcast you will learn:

• Background on the founding of BHG back in 2001.
• The different lending verticals they operate in today.
• What makes their loan funding marketplace unique.
• The recent volume they have seen on their marketplace.
• What they are learning from their borrowers today.
• The lessons they learned from the 2008-09 financial crisis.
• How their bank partners have adjusted their credit boxes.
• How BHG is taking advantage of the pullback in originations from other lenders.
• Details of the ABS deal they closed just after the SVB blowup.
• How BHG runs their credit team.
• Where their borrower demand is coming from.
• How their credit and fraud team helps prevent loan stacking.
• The keys for lenders to survive in turbulent times like we are experiencing now.

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Last month at Fintech Nexus USA in New York City we announced that Fintech Nexus has acquired Fintech Blueprint, one of the leading fintech newsletters. It is led by Lex Sokolin, who is one of the great thinkers in our space, so I used the opportunity of being together in person to record an interview.

The latest episode of the Fintech One-on-One podcast is a discussion with Lex Sokolin (I last had him on the show two years ago) recorded in the podcast theater at the event. While we touch on the acquisition of Fintech Blueprint, most of the episode is spent discussing many of the hottest fintech topics of the day.

In this podcast you will learn:

• A description of his Fintech Blueprint newsletter
• Why he agreed to the partnership with Fintech Nexus.
• Some of the broader platform shifts he is tracking today in fintech.
• How Lex views decentralized finance in the context of today's risk-off environment.
• The two strategies that are bringing traditional finance and crypto together.
• His views on the government crackdown on crypto.
• The different regulatory climates in the US, UK, and Europe.
• How decentralized finance might impact the payments landscape.
• His vision for self-driving money and the role AI will play.
• The technologies Lex is looking at most closely over the next two to three years.

Connect with Lex on LinkedIn
Connect with Fintech Blueprint on LinkedIn

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There is no more hyped technology right now than Generative AI. But what does it really mean for financial services? What is the potential? And what about practical applications?

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Marco Argenti, the Chief Information Officer at Goldman Sachs. This interview was recorded at Fintech Nexus USA in New York City on May 10, Marco was actually our opening keynote speaker. And this ended up being the most talked-about session at the entire event. The keynote was titled, A Revolution of Knowledge: Generative AI, Data & Digital Transformation in Financial Services.

In this podcast you will learn:

• What Marco learned from his time at AWS.
• What is top of mind at Goldman Sachs when it comes to innovation today.
• Why he compares Generative AI to the advent of the printing press.
• The two ways to think about AI today.
• How AI can help bring internal company knowledge to new employees.
• How companies can turn their top performers into "superhumans".
• A practical example of how you can think about the ROI of AI.
• The primary opportunities Marco sees for Generative AI.
• The keys to Goldman's success in their Platform Solutions business.
• Why thinking of developers as their clients is key.

Connect with Marco on LinkedIn
Connect with Goldman Sachs on LinkedIn

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There is no hotter area in technology today than AI. We see articles in the press about it every day but in the fintech lending space using AI in underwriting is something that has been mainstream for some time.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Mike de Vere, the CEO of Zest AI. Zest are pioneers in the field of using AI for underwriting having been working on this for more than a decade (listen to my interview with the former CEO and founder of Zest, Douglas Merrill, here). 

In this podcast you will learn:

• What attracted Mike to Zest AI.
• How he describes Zest today.
• Some of the large lenders they work with.
• What Mike makes of the current AI craze.
• Where we are at today with explainable AI.
• How they are removing bias from underwriting models.
• Details of their different offerings.
• How they customize their offerings for lenders.
• How they use alternative data.
• How their models have improved over time.
• How quickly they can deploy a new credit model.
• What is involved in implementing Zest into a lender.
• Why they build models for new customers at no cost.
• The pushback they receive when talking with new customers.
• How lenders operationalize the Zest models.
• How Zest is engaging with the regulatory bodies in Washington and the states.
• What they are working on now that is most exciting.

Connect with Mike on LinkedIn
Connect with Zest AI on LinkedIn

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Given the environment we are in today I think it is important to hear from leading fintech venture capitalists to get their perspective on the state of fundraising and where the industry is going. This episode continues my semi-regular feature of leading VCs.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Tricia Kemp, a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Oak HC/FT. We cover a lot of territory in this conversation and Tricia provides advice for fintech entrepreneurs throughout the interview.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The founding story of Oak HC/FT.
• Their investment thesis when it comes to fintech.
• Their favorite areas within fintech.
• Why they are stage-agnostic when it comes to writing checks.
• Their geographic focus.
• The total assets they have under management.
• How they invested capital over the last 18-24 months.
• How entrepreneurs should approach raising capital today.
• What the options are for those companies that are struggling.
• How fintech companies can position themselves for M&A today.
• Whether the IPO window will open up any time soon.
• Reflections from her Forbes article on DeFi from last year.
• The types of companies that are having a hard time today.
• How the payments space will evolve over the next few years.
• Why they are bullish on Latin America for fintech.
• What a normal funding environment will look like.
• The most exciting vertical in fintech right now.

Connect with Tricia on LinkedIn
Connect with Oak HC/FT on LinkedIn

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At this time every year, we do the Fintech Nexus USA preview show. Our big annual event is coming up next week on May 10-11. Tickets are still available, you can register here to receive 15% off (discount will be applied automatically).

On this episode of the Fintech One-on-One podcast, I chat with Todd Anderson, Chief Content Officer and Matt Murnane, Chief Experience Officer at Fintech Nexus. We go through all the different components of the show and how you can get the most out of your time there.

In this podcast you will learn:

• What the expo floor at the show will look like.
• How the content will work during the event.
• How people can get involved in one-on-one networking.
• Who gets into the VIP Meetings Lounge.
• Some of the unique experiences available to attendees.
• How the PitchIt contest will work.
• What our Women in Fintech program is all about.
• The different content topics that will be covered this year.
• The layout of the show.
• Highlights on the keynote stage.
• How the Awards Show will work this year.
• What is most exciting about the event.

Connect with Todd on LinkedIn
Connect with Matt on LinkedIn

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One thing that has been driving the fintech industry forward in the last few years has been the growth of infrastructure companies. Building the plumbing for modern finance is one of the hottest areas in all of fintech, particularly when it comes to international finance. This burgeoning fintech-as-a-service subsector has produced some market leaders.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Arik Shtilman, the CEO and Co-Founder of Rapyd. They are a truly global company operating in more than 100 countries around the world with a team also disbursed throughout the world. And they are growing fast.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The pivot they made initially that led to Rapyd.
• How Arik describes the company today.
• The four different components of fintech-as-a-service.
• How their offering differs between geographies.
• Their big competitive differentiator.
• The number of geographies they operate in today.
• How they approach compliance with so many different countries.
• What they are focused on in the U.S. market.
• The different types of companies that are using their infrastructure.
• What they mean by "Build Bold."
• The size of their team and where they are located.
• Why they chose Dubai for their tech hub.
• Where the biggest opportunities are in fintech today.
• Rapyd's strategy when it comes to M&A.
• Where they are on the path to profitability.
• Arik's thoughts on payments rails and where we are heading.
• The biggest challenges and opportunities in cross-border payments.
• Key findings from their report, The State of B2B Cross-Border Payments.
• Where they are focusing their energy right now.

Connect with Arik Shtilman on LinkedIn
Connect with Rapyd on LinkedIn

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The marketplace lending space is now relatively mature, particularly when it comes to consumer loans, with several platforms 10-15 years old. The first public securitization was back in 2013 by SoFi and there have been hundreds of deals closed since then. The unsecured personal loan space now has a long track record with consistent performance.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Gunes Kulaligil. He is the Structured Finance Co-Lead at Stout, an investment bank and advisory firm. He has been advising on the marketplace lending space for many years and he has written for Fintech Nexus News before (see here and here). One of the stories that has received little attention is the stellar year that marketplace lending had last year, so I wanted to dig into that with Gunes.

In this podcast you will learn:

• His core focus at Stout today and their two service offerings.
• The types of companies that hire them for valuation services.
• How Gunes first got interested in marketplace lending.
• The state of the industry today.
• Why 2022 was a record year for marketplace lending.
• Who is buying the senior tranches of prime securitization deals.
• How credit boxes are tightening in 2023 deals.
• Where demand for securitizations will come from later this year.
• Why prepayments are down dramatically.
• How marketplace lending will perform this year and next.

Connect with Gunes on LinkedIn
Connect with Stout on LinkedIn

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The small business lending space has been going through a lot of change since the start of the decade. It basically shut down for anything non-PPP related in 2020 and 2021 but it has now bounced back to a new normal with good companies looking for capital to help them grow. And the role of the SBA loan continues to be very important.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Evan Singer, the CEO of SmartBiz (he was last on the show back in 2016). They are focused on SBA loans of less than $350,000 and work with a large number of banks to fund their loans. Today, there is a lot of demand for these kinds of loans.

In this podcast you will learn:

• How Evan describes SmartBiz today.
• The three main SMB loan products they offer.
• The pricing of these loans.
• How they helped small businesses during the PPP.
• The amount of fraud they caught during PPP.
• The state of small business lending today.
• How they are working with small business owners on Employee Retention Credits.
• The credit performance they are seeing over the past three to six months.
• A profile of their typical small business borrower.
• Evan's thoughts on expanding the SBA 7(a) lending program.
• What SmartBiz does to help make the loan application less onerous.
• How they are partnering with Cross River Bank.
• How they decide where to send successful loan applications.
• What they do with those companies that can't qualify for a bank loan.
• How the mindset of bankers has changed since before the pandemic.
• What Evan is most excited about right now.

Connect with Evan on LinkedIn
Connect with Smartbiz on LinkedIn

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When we have a customer service issue with a bank, credit union, or fintech today, we often approach it with some trepidation. So many organizations provide a poor experience that is painful and frustrating for their customers. But we have the technology now for customer service to be exceptional.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Dan Michaeli, the CEO and Co-Founder of Glia. They have technology that can make customer service extraordinary every time and they are 100% focused on financial services.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The founding story of Glia.
• The three core components of digital customer service.
• What banks and credit unions do well when it comes to digital customer service.
• What they are doing poorly.
• The core piece that fintechs get wrong.
• How Glia's call center offering works.
• How they transition from an online chat to a live person.
• What they are doing with automation.
• Dan's thoughts on ChatGPT and its relevance to what they offer.
• What the early days of the pandemic were like for Glia.
• Why they established a CUSO (Credit Union Service Organization).
• The geographic footprint of Glia.
• The scale they are at today.
• His vision for the future of customer interactions.

Connect with Dan on LinkedIn
Connect with Glia on LinkedIn

Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

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