Technology has impacted so many areas of lending but one niche that has remained a manual, human-powered process is middle market lending, where deals are typically $5 million to $100 million. These deals have been consummated on the golf course or at expensive dinners after often months of analysis and negotiation. That is not an efficient way to do business in 2025. Enter Arc.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Don Muir, the CEO and Co-Founder of Arc. Arc is first and foremost a technology company, providing startups and lenders the tools they need to manage their finances. Where Arc shines is in helping companies raise debt capital, they have built one of the most sophisticated systems on the market today to bring borrowers and lenders together to get deals done quickly and easily, even deals in the tens of millions of dollars.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The aha moment that led to the founding of Arc.
• Why banks are not interested in serving the lower middle market.
• Why they launched with a direct lending model.
• How their two-sided debt marketplace works.
• Details of their commercial banking offering.
• How they make lenders decisions easier.
• The range of deal sizes they are doing today.
• What they offer in their cash management platform.
• How the SVB collapse has impacted their business.
• How Arc Intelligence uses AI to helps lenders make decisions more efficiently.
• Why they have decided to focus exclusively on debt and not do equity.
• Why demand has been so strong for the last year or more.
• How Don is thinking about Arc long term.

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If there is one thing that the last decade of fintech innovation has achieved, it is more awareness around consumer credit scores. The majority of the population know their approximate score and even teenagers are talking about it. For better or worse (I think it almost uniformly positive) consumers look at the score as a measure, maybe even the measure, of their financial health.

My next guest on the Fintech One on One podcast is Adrian Nazari, the CEO and Founder of Credit Sesame. It is companies like Credit Sesame that have been at the forefront of the increased awareness of credit scores. Now, with a new B2B offering they are poised to reach even more consumers than ever before.

In this podcast you will learn:

• Why he decided to start Credit Sesame.
• What is still missing to help consumers manage their credit.
• What Credit Sesame offers for consumers today.
• The various ways they are using AI at Credit Sesame.
• Why they are exclusively focused on credit for financial wellness.
• Why they decided to start a B2B offering.
• Who they are focused on with this product.
• How Adrian is managing both a direct to consumer and a B2B offering.
• Why he thinks the B2B side will be the growth driver moving forward.
• How they are working with lenders to improve the borrower experience.
• How they are different to Credit Karma.
• The state of the US consumer today when it comes to their credit score.
• His vision for Credit Sesame.

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Small business data is very different to consumer data. When a person is born, they don't need to go and open a bank account, obtain a line of credit or apply for some kind of permit. But a business may be three days old and want all those things. This creates a data challenge. This new business has little to no digital footprint and so the available data may be negligible. Which makes it hard and risky for banks and fintechs to work with them. Enter Middesk.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One is Kyle Mack, the CEO and Co-Founder of Middesk. They are focused on business identity data and have spent a great deal of time and effort making it easier for banks and fintech to verify any business, including those that might only be a few days old. How they are able to do that makes for a very interesting discussion.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The idea that led to the founding of Middesk.
• Why solving for business identity is so difficult.
• Middesk's three core product offerings.
• How they moved from fintechs to banks, to the mega-banks.
• The shockingly low percentage of new business bank accounts that are approved automatically at banks.
• The details of the report they send to their customers for each business.
• How they work with the business data they receive from state and local governments.
• The huge challenges of obtaining and working with this data.
• How they interact with those companies helping to create new business entities.
• Why they created their Address Risk Insights Tool and why it is important.
• How one address in Wyoming has 375,000 businesses "operating" there.
• How Middesk is working with lenders today.
• The scale they are at today.
• Why the incumbents have not created an offering like Middesk.
• Kyle's vision for the future of Middesk.

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[Editor's note: This is our last podcast of 2024. We are taking two weeks off and will be back on January 9. Happy Holidays everyone!]

The 20 million college students in the US today, while a vast market that is somewhat homogenous, has not been a focus for many banks or fintechs. Since the Card Act in 2010, credit card issuers have not been able to set up shop on campus trolling their wares. That has left a wide open market that no company has dominated, at least not yet. 

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Carlo Kobe, the CEO and Co-Founder of Fizz. Carlo is a Gen-Z founder with a financial app focused squarely on Gen-Z consumers, specifically college students. He maybe the youngest founder I have ever had on the show, but don't let his youth fool you. He is a deep thinker and quick learner and his thoughtful approach to the market has Fizz well positioned for success.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The formative experience as an international student that sparked the idea for Fizz.
• How prepared college students are for adult financial responsibilities.
• The attitude of college student towards credit cards.
• How Carlo describes Fizz today.
• How they created a debit card that helps build credit.
• How they are underwriting these college students for their line of credit.
• How they are able to empower college students to manage money.
• Where most budgeting tool fall short and how Fizz is different.
• How they calculate their "Available to Spend" number.
• Why they decided to build their own tech stack.
• The two partner banks they are working with today.
• How they were able to raise $14 million from Kleiner Perkins.
• How they are marketing to college students.
• Why they intend to let their customers go after they age out past 25.

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When it comes to embedded lending, point of sale is really where the action is at. We have seen the explosion of BNPL volume over the last decade, but not every point-of-sale transaction is suitable for those platforms. Then we have banks, who have missed out on the credit card volume that has been lost to BNPL. Ideally, they would like to embed a lending solution into the point of sale that they control. This is where our guest today comes in.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Yaacov Martin, the CEO and Co-Founder of Jifiti. Based in Israel, but doing business globally, Jifiti works with large banks to customize embedded lending solutions at the point of sale that they can control. How this technology works and what it means for the future of lending is the focus of this conversation.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The roots of Jifiti and how it began in the gifting business.
• Why IKEA encouraged them to move into lending.
• What they have created in embedded lending that is unique.
• How their technology works on the backend.
• How they work with the credit box of the lender.
• Why they chose to focus on banks in their go to market strategy.
• How they work with Citizens Bank as an example.
• The range of order sizes that they are working with today.
• What Yaacov has learned from working with large banks.
• Why the bank-fintech partnership challenges of 2024 hasn't impacted Jifiti.
• How their recently launched Tap Now Pay Later technology works.
• The beauty of working with digital wallets today.
• How they can power an installment loan through a wallet transaction.
• How they adapted their technology to work in different global markets.
• The scale that Jifiti is at today.
• His vision for the future of embedded finance.

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There is a looming retirement crisis in the US and in many other countries for that matter. A large portion of the population has no retirement savings at all and will have to rely primarily on social security for their retirement income, and the future of that program is shaky at best. 

In fintech, not a lot of attention has been paid to this huge sector of financial services: retirement savings. And yet, there is so much room for digital innovation as much of it is still antiquated and paper-based.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Romi Savova, the CEO and Founder of PensionBee. An established fintech in the UK with a history going back 10 years that included an IPO in 2021, PensionBee is focused on bringing innovation to retirement savings. They have recently launched in the US market.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The frustration that Romi experienced that led to the founding of PensionBee.
• The average number of times people switch jobs in their lifetime.
• How PensionBee helps workers simplify their retirement savings.
• The state of retirement in the UK.
• The traction that PensionBee has made in the UK.
• Why they decided to become a public company in 2021.
• What was behind their decision to expand to the US now.
• How their partnership with State Street works.
• Where they are at with their US rollout.
• The different investment options available for US investors.
• How many workplace retirement accounts have been abandoned in the US.
• The difference between the US and UK when it comes to retirement savings.
• How the PensionBee onboarding process works.
• How Romi views the future of retirement in the US.
• Her goals for PensionBee in the US.

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Welcome to a new occasional series we are doing on the podcast called Fintech Revealed. This is where we take a deep dive into one specific topic with a couple of industry experts.

In our first episode we are focused on one of my favorite topics: cash flow underwriting. I invited two of the leading credit experts, Kevin Moss and Alex Johnson, to provide a well-rounded discussion on this topic highlighting both the benefits and challenges of cash flow underwriting. We covered so much territory in this conversation, so whether you are curious about cash flow underwriting or are a seasoned veteran, I am confident you will learn a great deal.

This episode was sponsored by Prism Data, the modern cash flow underwriting solution.

In this podcast you will learn:

• What cash flow underwriting is exactly.
• Why cash flow underwriting is not captured in the FICO score.
• How Kevin was using transaction data at Wells Fargo in the early 2000s.
• What has happened that has accelerated the use of cash flow data in underwriting.
• Why banks haven't moved more quickly to implement cash flow underwriting.
• How subprime and prime consumers have been segregated in the current credit system.
• How cash flow data is different from alternative data.
• Why cash flow underwriting gets us back to the traditional way we used to be approved for credit.
• The real mission of cash flow underwriting.
• How well cash flow data predicts default risk and where it has the most value.
• What tokenization for connecting bank accounts will look like for borrowers.
• How streamlining the authorization process will supercharge cash flow underwriting.
• The types of lenders and products that are using cash flow underwriting today.
• The most promising use case for cash flow underwriting.
• How it can help the mortgage lending process.
• Kevin's view on how cash flow underwriting will replace debt-to-income.
• Why regulators such as the CFPB like cash flow underwriting so much.
• How cash flow data creates a lending market with more fairness.

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[Editor's note: This interview was recorded on November 13 and in the fast-moving transition to a new administration, some items discussed here as possible or unlikely have already come to pass.]

The new Trump Administration is going to have a dramatic impact on leadership at Federal banking regulators as well as on the new rules impacting fintech. So, I thought it would be useful to bring on an expert to tease out this impact and how fintechs can adapt to the changing of the guard.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Armen Meyer, the Co-Founder of the American Fintech Council, the former head of public policy at LendingClub and a public policy expert. We cover a lot of territory on this show as Armen prognosticates on what the change of administration could mean for fintech.

In this podcast you will learn:

• Armen's history with fintech and forming the American Fintech Council.
• What changes we are likely to see at the top of the regulatory agencies.
• Why the Federal Reserve will see a lot of noise under Trump.
• Why the CFPB will not focus their attention on Section 1033.
• What might happen with the new BNPL rules.
• The future of the credit card late fee rules.
• What might happen with EWA, overdraft rules and regulating big tech.
• The impact on BaaS bank consent orders.
• How the state regulators may react to the changes at Federal agencies.
• How the pendulum swing back and forth between Democrats and Republicans impacts banking and fintech.
• What the end of the Chevron Doctrine might mean for fintech.
• Whether we will see some kind of new limited fintech or payments charter.
• Why Armen is optimistic for the new Trump Administration.

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The consumer lending space has seen a great deal of innovation in the past decade or more. But the number of completely new lending concepts that cross my desk has reduced to a trickle in the past couple of years. That is why I was excited to see an idea that was completely original and compelling.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Veetahl Eilat-Raichel, the CEO and Co-Founder of Sorbet. While you could think about Sorbet as an unsecured consumer lender, because that broadly defines them, they have discovered a completely untapped niche: PTO (Paid Time Off). Most employees accrue PTO that has real value and Sorbet has figured out how to tap into that value to create a lending product.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The founding story of Sorbet.
• The size of the unused PTO marked in this country.
• The percentage of employees that accrue PTO.
• How their PTO advances work.
• How they integrate with payroll systems.
• When the issued their first loan.
• Their unique capabilities to underwrite PTO.
• What they consider to be their technological moat.
• What happens if someone uses all their PTO and then leaves their job.
• The two types of personas that uses Sorbet.
• The average loan size and the range of interest rates charged.
• What they have learned in the data so far.
• How they are going to market.
• How they are educating the market on the concept.
• What they learned from the earned wage access space.
• The three revenue streams they have.
• Their biggest challenge in growing the business today.
• How they are funding their loans.
• The early pivot they made that transformed the company.

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When you have been covering fintech as long as I have you get to know others in the space doing similar things. Zack Miller, the founder and managing editor of Tearsheet, was writing about fintech and interviewing people as I was getting serious about fintech lending back in 2012.

Since I no longer own a fintech media company, we are no longer competitors so I wanted to get him on the show to talk about Tearsheet. He has done a great job building it up into one of the leading media companies in the industry today.

In this podcast you will learn:

• How Tearsheet went from a passion project to a fintech media business.
• How they started doing small-scale high-end events.
• What they found out in their Gen-Z working group.
• The different components of Tearsheet and how they make money.
• How they decide what goes into their content.
• How to build trust with the largest financial institutions.
• The trends that Zack is looking at most closely.
• What banks have learned from their fintech partnerships.
• Why he is still a big fan of blockchain.
• What the future holds for Tearsheet.

Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

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