If you go back just nine months, you will remember a time when fintech founders were raising capital with ease. Nine-figure funding rounds were the norm, and a new fintech unicorn was minted almost every day at ever higher valuations. Today, the pendulum has swung in the completely opposite direction where any funding round is a surprise with down rounds and layoffs now the norm.

To make sense of all this craziness, we invited Logan Allin, the founder and managing partner at Fin Capital, to the podcast. His recent Navigator deck caught my attention, it is packed full of advice for founders and thoughts on the industry, and he has made it publicly available for everyone.

In this podcast you will learn:

• Logan's background and the founding story of Fin Capital.
• How he first got into fintech and what attracted him to it
• The gaps in the industry that were not being addressed by traditional VC.
• What he means when he talks about SaaS Plus businesses.
• A breakdown of their three private funds and their different focuses.
• The six sub-sectors of fintech where they invest.
• The quarterly Navigator deck that they share with their founders and now the industry.
• Logan's specific advice for founders looking to ride out this downturn.
• How founders should think about valuation multiples today.
• When Logan thinks the IPO window for fintech companies will reopen.
• What a normal fintech valuation market looks like and when we will get there.

Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

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• Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

On this week's Fintech Nexus News show we discussed big news stories from Coinbase, BlackRock, Robinhood, PayPal, SoFi, CFTC, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Equifax, #superapps, #consumercredit, #cryptohacks and more.

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When it comes to Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) consumers continue to spend. They love the product in all of its varieties. While those of us in the fintech space lament the huge drop in valuations with many of the BNPL leaders, consumers don't care. They just continue to use the product.

The BNPL pioneers all focused on the merchant model, where they do deals with large brands to offer their BNPL solutions to consumers. But there is more awareness today (thanks to Apple) of the direct to consumer model.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One Podcast is Al Periu, the CEO of Zilch USA. Zilch began in the UK and built a successful direct to consumer BNPL business very quickly and they have recently launched in the US.

In this podcast you will learn:

• How Al first connected with the Zilch team.
• Why his experience at Funding Circle was just what Zilch needed.
• A description of Zilch's UK business.
• How their product works in the US.
• Who their typical customer is.
• How they are trying to get to top of wallet with the consumer.
• Why they decided to go direct to consumer instead of focusing on merchants.
• Al's thoughts on Apple's entry into the BNPL space.
• What the BNPL pioneers provided to the market that helps Zilch.
• Details of their business model.
• Where the capital is coming from to fund the Pay-in-4 loans.
• How lawmakers should be thinking about BNPL.
• His thoughts about Klarna's recent down round.
• How Zilch was able to close a funding round at a flat valuation.
• Where BNPL is going to go over the next decade.
• Their plans for Zilch in the US.

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Those companies that are no longer small businesses but not yet large corporations occupy what is called the "middle market." When it comes to lending to these companies, it is very relationship-driven and not exactly a tech-forward operation. So, this spells an opportunity for a fintech-centered approach to middle market lending.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One Podcast is Meredith Carter, the CEO of Context Business Lending. They are an asset-based lender (ABL), and you can tell they are a little different because they have trademarked the term: Consider ABL Disrupted.

In this podcast you will learn:

• How Meredith became aware of Context Business Lending (CBL).
• The state of the middle market asset-based lending market.
• How transactions get done in this market.
• The different industries they focus on.
• The typical companies that come to CBL for a loan.
• Range of loan terms and interest rates.
• How they are bringing automation to the underwriting process.
• The average length of time from initial contact to funded loan.
• How they fared during the pandemic.
• Why they decided to lean in and continued during that time.
• The capital markets advantage of being backed by a single family office.
• How they work with banks when co-funding the loans.
• What they do to monitor their loan portfolio.
• The scale they are at today.
• Meredith's vision for CBL.

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If you have been following the crypto space for any length of time, you hear the excitement that many people have for the tokenization of assets. They talk about being able to trade any asset globally, doing it instantly and with transparency. But there has always been a missing piece to this puzzle: compliance. How are governments going to get comfortable with this?

Our next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Dan Doney, the CEO and Co-founder of Securrency. They have taken this challenge head-on. You see it right there on their home page: "imagine a world of effortless compliance, borderless transactions and newfound financial fluidity." Now, these words sound idyllic but what is different with Securrency is they have built the technology and capability to make this a reality.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The circuitous route Dan took to become an entrepreneur.
• The broader problem that Securrency is looking to solve.
• Why compliance and liquidity are inextricably linked.
• The services they are providing for financial institutions.
• How and why they first connected with WisdomTree.
• Details of the assets they will be tokenizing for WisdomTree.
• Why globalized distribution is one of the key use cases.
• How they are blending the payments process with the investing process.
• How Securrency has tackled and solved the compliance challenge.
• How they work with new issuers to tokenize their assets.
• An example of how someone will be able to trade tokenized assets.
• Why they are not focused on tokenizing crypto assets at this time.
• Dan's vision for the future of the global financial system.

Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

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On today's show we discussed big news from Celsius, Stripe, Klarna, Three Arrows Capital Pte Ltd, Plaid, OpenSea, The Home Depot, PlayStation, Quadrata, Inc., BNPL and more.

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Tens of millions of people are living and working in a foreign country and sending money to their families back home. They want a remittance service that is convenient, inexpensive and trustworthy. And while the remittance business has been around for more than a century, there are better options today than ever before.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One Podcast is Matt Oppenheimer, the CEO and founder of Remitly. He started the company back in 2011, just as smartphones were getting going, and has built it into one of the world leaders in the space operating in some 135 countries today and sending billions of dollars around the world each year.

In this podcast you will learn:

• How Matt's time in Kenya gave him the idea to start Remitly.
• Why the timing for starting Remitly was one of the keys to his success.
• How he describes Remitly today.
• Where they operate and the main remittance corridors.
• How the remittance process works exactly.
• The prevalence of cash versus electronic transfers.
• Why the complexity is in doing localization at scale.
• What is involved in expanding to a new geography.
• A profile of the typical customer using Remitly.
• What banks are missing by not serving the immigrant population.
• Matt's views on crypto and its role in the remittance space.
• What he is working on today that is most interesting.
• What he finds most exciting in payments and banking today.
• His vision for remittances and where we will be by the of the decade.

Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

• Tweet me @PeterRenton
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On the news show today we discuss big fintech news from Voyager Digital, FTX, Nexo, Vauld, Meta, Klarna, Goldman Sachs, ONE, defi, embedded finance and more.

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There is a massive market that has been all but ignored by fintech founders. I am talking about the senior market. We have tens of millions of people, many with a decent net worth, with few financial services targeting them. This needs to change because the financial needs of this population are only going to become more complex and demanding over time.

Our next guest on the Fintech One-on-One Podcast is Abby Levy, the co-founder and general partner at Primetime Partners. After helping her father who had been retired for 20 years she realized there is very little infrastructure in place to support older adults and she saw that as a real opportunity. So, she started a venture capital firm to help founders looking to provide products for this market.

In this podcast you will learn:

• How her personal experience led to her becoming a venture capitalist.
• How she met her partner, the venture capital legend Alan Patricof.
• The state of the financial wellbeing of seniors in this country.
• Why fintech founders are not focusing enough on this massive market.
• The many categories where there are huge opportunities:
  • Asset decumulation - why we need a plan to tap into liquidity of assets.
  • Pre-retirement or "pretirement" - planning for retirement later in a career.
  • Post-retirement - gig economy opportunities and the off-ramp for retirees.
  • Senior-friendly credit products - we need more creative products to help seniors and their families.
  • Care insurtech - only 7% of Americans have Long Term Care insurance, we need better options.
  • Health-fintech crossovers - hospitals and providers are partnering with fintechs on payment schemes.
• Who the founders are that are coming across Abby's desk.
• What it will take for fintech founders to focus on the senior market.
• What the future might look like for fintechs focused on this population.

Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

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

On the show today we discussed fintech news from FTX, BlockFi, Robinhood, Celsius, OpenSea, Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, Cambridge Judge Business School, Amount, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Apple and more.

Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

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