Fintech Takes

Welcome back to our new miniseries Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts, sponsored by our friends at Pipe.

In episode 4, we attempt to tackle the age-old question: build, buy, or partner? 

Hosts Alex Johnson and Luke Voiles (CEO of Pipe) sit down with A.J. Axelrod, VP Payments & Financial Services at Clio) to explore how Clio’s uniquely designed to handle the unique complexities that lawyers face every day.

Clio is a vSaaS operating system for lawyers, and A.J. (extremely) thoughtfully walks us through how Clio decided what to build, what to buy, and when to partner.

Spoiler: legal-specific finance is a different beast —every transfer has to be auditable, or you’ll have a compliance failure (and lawyers, famously, read the fine print!).

Payments started as integrations and evolved into Clio Payments, now with support for cards, ACH, wallets, QR codes, and text-to-pay, all tied into legal accounting requirements.

This episode is a front-row seat to what fintech strategy really looks like when it’s built for the people doing the work. 

Don’t miss out — subscribe to catch future episodes!

Thanks for listening! 

This episode was brought to you by Pipe. Pipe helps vertical SaaS platforms unlock fast, flexible capital, right inside their product. Learn more at pipe.com/fintechtakes.

Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/

And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.

Follow Alex: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Follow Luke:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-voiles/

Follow A.J.:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajaxelrod/

Learn more about Pipe here.

Welcome back to Fintech Takes. Listeners may remember my first audiobook experiment…well, we’re back, by popular demand! 

In our second ever Fintech Takes audiobook podcast episode, I take on the subject I can’t stop writing, thinking, and podcasting about (if you know, you know): gambling.

In March, I published my deep dive essay on The Biggest Threat to Consumers’ Financial Health, which is gambling. In the piece, I also explored how the rise of what I’ve previously called Speculation-as-a-Service poses a direct threat to banks, credit unions, and consumer-facing fintechs.

By August, the landscape had only accelerated. That’s when I wrote The War That Banks Don’t Know They’re Fighting, a short piece responding to the industry’s shoulder-shrugging (even as Robinhood, Coinbase, DraftKings, and others kept doubling down).

If you haven’t read the essays, you’ll hear both, start to finish (featuring stats you can’t ignore and fintech CEOs sounding more like bookies than bankers).

Plus, fresh updates on what Robinhood, Coinbase, and others are up to now, and what those moves tell us about the future of consumer finance. 

Gambling may be “winning” in the moment, but long-term, financial health is the better business to be in.

Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ 

And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.

Follow Alex: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Welcome back to our new miniseries Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts, sponsored by our friends at Pipe.

In episode 3,  we dig even deeper into the fintech strategy behind embedded finance within vertical SaaS (platforms that are the IDEAL distribution channel for B2B financial products). 

But how does the process of embedding financial products within vertical SaaS platforms actually work? 

How should these platforms define their fintech strategy, sequence their roadmap, and be prepared for…what risks and challenges?

Hosts Alex Johnson and Luke Voiles (CEO of Pipe) sit down with Ethan Senturia, President of Housecall Pro (and former Chief Fintech Officer) — the perfect person to answer these questions.

Housecall Pro began with the essentials (pricing, scheduling, dispatch, invoicing) and grew into a full operating system for professionals across trades like HVAC, plumbing, electrical, cleaning, and more. 

Along the way, Ethan discovered that segmentation isn’t just about industry or company size; it’s about persona. As he learned on day one: “There is no such thing as a pro.” 

A roofer, a cleaner, and a 20-person plumbing shop each need different workflows, pricing logic, and financial tools. The fintech roadmap at Housecall Pro was built around one mantra: all money in, all money out.

Threaded throughout: the gritty reality of 140° attics, wasp nests in walls, and pros spending 80% of their day “under the sink” but 80% of their worry on spreadsheets. 

This episode is a front-row seat to what fintech strategy really looks like when it’s built for the people doing the work. Don’t miss out — and subscribe to catch future episodes.

Thanks for listening! 

This episode was brought to you by Pipe. Pipe helps vertical SaaS platforms unlock fast, flexible capital, right inside their product. Learn more at pipe.com/fintechtakes.

Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/

And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.

Follow Alex: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Follow Luke:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-voiles/

Follow Ethan:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethansenturia/

Learn more about Pipe here.

Welcome back to Fintech Takes. I’m Alex Johnson, joined (as always) by my partner-in-recapping, Jason Mikula. 

First up: the uneasy détente in open banking is over. Jason and I haven’t had a chance to debrief on Plaid’s deal with JPMorgan Chase to pay for API access (so we do). Payments use cases remain the most expensive, Plaid is eating the fees (at least for now), and Chase looks like it’s succeeded in hobbling Pay by Bank. We unpack why Plaid did the deal, what it means for other aggregators. 

Next up, color us nostalgic; back to BaaS Island we go! The FBI is probing Evolve. The scope reportedly extends to board members (including a16z), and new details suggest international money movement in Southeast Asia (tied to a $15M pig-butchering scheme). As the saying goes, bankers almost never go to jail; will this time be any different?

Then, we turn to AI. FICO has announced a new product called a foundation model for financial services. The idea is to build smaller, domain-specific models that are cheaper, faster, and more reliable than generic LLMs, while adding predictive lift on top of existing analytics. The open questions: is this hype dressed up for Wall Street, or a clever way to squeeze extra predictive power out of structured financial datasets? And most of all: who is this really for?

Plus, in our Can’t Let It Go corner, Jason bristles about being labeled as “partisan” (in response to his response about the “Debanking” Executive Order) while I puzzle over Tether reportedly raising at a $500B valuation (the same as OpenAI, except Tether’s core product is…not getting audited and telling everyone to “just trust us.”)

Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ 

And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.

Follow Jason:

Newsletter: https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmikula/

Follow Alex: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Hello, and thanks for joining us for the fourth and final episode of Cash Flow Conversations, a new miniseries sponsored by Nova Credit.

In episode 4, I sit down with Chris Hansen, GM, Cash Atlas Solutions at Nova Credit. 

Chris has probably thought more than anyone I know about how cash flow data is going to reshape the credit data and analytics ecosystem.

Our conversation hinges on a big question: what could a credit bureau built around consumer-permissioned cash flow data look like?

We dig into the three pillars of that vision (infrastructure for persistent access to on-us and off-us data, analytics that convert transaction streams into credit attributes and scores, and compliance that bridges FCRA requirements with Section 1033’s consumer-permission rules).

We also explore how consumer permissioning complicates lender workflows (while empowering consumers), the utility of real-time willingness to pay data across the lending lifecycle, and the opportunities cash flow data opens up far beyond underwriting…

That’s a wrap for Cash Flow Conversations! Thanks for listening; we hope you’ve enjoyed the journey as much as we have.

This miniseries is brought to you by Nova Credit.

Nova Credit is a credit infrastructure and analytics company that enables businesses to grow responsibly by harnessing alternative credit data. 

The company is a CRA that leverages its unique data infrastructure, compliance framework, and credit expertise to help lenders fill in the gaps that exist in traditional credit analytics. 

Deploy cash flow underwriting confidently with Nova Credit's proven platform. Check them out at www.novacredit.com.

Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/

And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.

Follow Alex: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Follow Chris:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrishansen10/

Learn more about Nova Credit here.

Hello, and welcome back to Cash Flow Conversations, a new miniseries sponsored by Nova Credit.

Episode 3 is my conversation with Matt Zalubowski, Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Marketing Officer at Atlanticus, a subprime lender focused on offering credit cards and personal loans. 

The challenge in this market is finding more ways to fairly and responsibly say YES.

Cash flow data is proving to be a natural fit, driving about a 15% lift on top of traditional bureau data while widening the credit box without adding risk (and giving consumers better terms and pricing that go beyond a simple yes/no decision).

We dig into how Atlanticus uses cash flow data to bridge the gap between prime cards and payday-style products, why affiliates like MoneyLion help reduce friction in permissioning, and how cash flow data enables smarter line sizing and pricing. Plus, some early results!

I learned a lot in this conversation, and I trust you will, too.

Subscribe now to catch the rest of Cash Flow Conversations as it comes.

This miniseries is brought to you by Nova Credit.

Nova Credit is a credit infrastructure and analytics company that enables businesses to grow responsibly by harnessing alternative credit data. 

The company is a CRA that leverages its unique data infrastructure, compliance framework, and credit expertise to help lenders fill in the gaps that exist in traditional credit analytics. 

Deploy cash flow underwriting confidently with Nova Credit's proven platform. Check them out at www.novacredit.com.

Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/

And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.

Follow Alex: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Follow Matt:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattzalubowski/

Learn more about Nova Credit here.

Welcome back to our new miniseries, Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts, sponsored by our friends at Pipe.

Vertical SaaS platforms are experiencing major growth; they’ve become the operating system for every industry (with financial products and services baked right into workflows that SMBs already live in every day).

Vertical SaaS wins because no one knows the customer better—every product decision flows from that insight. That’s it. That’s the secret.

In Episode 2, Alex Johnson and Luke Voiles (CEO of Pipe) sit down with Bryan Solar, Chief Product Officer at SpotOn, to talk about what true customer centricity looks like in vertical SaaS.

Bryan shares SpotOn’s journey from loyalty platform to payments … to an all-in-one operating system for restaurants, and why being loved by a subset beats being liked by many; how obsessing over small details (like the wrong button in a bartender’s workflow) can make or break a night, and when to build vs. partner in embedded finance. 

Plus, he shares how tools like Day Check (same-day wage access) and Profit Assist (an AI that once caught an $400-a-day cost error) can make a big impact.

Restaurants run on thin margins, fragile moments, and thousands of micro-decisions — and software that’s built with empathy can literally be the difference between survival and failure.

Don’t miss this conversation on how customer centricity, done right, becomes a right to win. And subscribe to catch future episodes.

Thanks for listening! 

This episode was brought to you by Pipe. Pipe helps vertical SaaS platforms unlock fast, flexible capital, right inside their product. Learn more at pipe.com/fintechtakes.

Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/

And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.

Follow Alex: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Follow Luke:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-voiles/

Follow Bryan:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryansolar/

Learn more about Pipe here.

Hello, and welcome back to Cash Flow Conversations, a new podcast miniseries sponsored by Nova Credit.

We’re exploring how cash flow data moves from theory (“this is intriguing”) to practice (“wow, that worked!”) across the consumer lending lifecycle. 

It’s risky to try something new; especially when said new thing has the potential to increase credit losses, add friction, or create compliance risk.

So, how can we de-risk big change? And how can we design experiments to surface unknowns while keeping credit, compliance, and operational risk in check?

That’s the focus of episode 2, built around a real case study: PayPal’s experiment testing whether cash flow data could strengthen underwriting for its pay-in-4 BNPL product. 

(Spoiler: it did.)

Joining me to unpack the results are: Anand Bhushan, Global Head of Credit, Pay Later Products at PayPal and Nikki Cross, Senior Director of Data Science Solutions at Nova Credit.

We dig into how PayPal built the business case for cash flow underwriting, what they learned from strong consumer uptake, real-time approvals, and scores that beat bureaus – and how Nova Credit helped de-risk the process and scale the data across the credit lifecycle.  

Subscribe now to catch more episodes of Cash Flow Conversations, coming soon!

This miniseries is brought to you by Nova Credit.

Nova Credit is a credit infrastructure and analytics company that enables businesses to grow responsibly by harnessing alternative credit data. 

The company is a CRA that leverages its unique data infrastructure, compliance framework, and credit expertise to help lenders fill in the gaps that exist in traditional credit analytics. 

Deploy cash flow underwriting confidently with Nova Credit's proven platform. Check them out at www.novacredit.com.

Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/

And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.

Follow Alex: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Follow Anand:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/anand-bhushan-60325445/

Follow Nikki:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkicrosspatrick/
Learn more about Nova Credit here.

Hello, and welcome to Cash Flow Conversations, a new podcast miniseries sponsored by Nova Credit.

If you’ve followed my work, you’ll know that I’m obsessed with cash flow data (and underwriting more specifically). That’s because it has enormous potential to positively reshape consumer lending in the U.S.

As banks, credit unions, and fintechs move from theory to practice, this series will chronicle how cash flow data is being put to work across the lending lifecycle.

Episode 1 sets the tone for the series, featuring a live panel I moderated at Nova Credit’s Cash Flow Underwriting Summit earlier this month. Joining me are:

Chris McCall, Head of Consumer Credit and Pricing at Citizens Bank

Bill Garber, SVP, Credit Policy and Analytics at Navy Federal Credit Union

Munish Pahwa, EVP and Chief Risk Officer at Sallie Mae

We dig into how cash flow data stacks up against traditional credit data, what it means for lenders’ models, how it changes the borrower experience, the guardrails around it — and why getting a clearer view of consumers’ financial lives is vital in today’s uncertain environment.

Hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I enjoyed facilitating it!

Subscribe now to catch the rest of Cash Flow Conversations as it comes.

This miniseries is brought to you by Nova Credit.

Nova Credit is a credit infrastructure and analytics company that enables businesses to grow responsibly by harnessing alternative credit data. 

The company is a CRA that leverages its unique data infrastructure, compliance framework, and credit expertise to help lenders fill in the gaps that exist in traditional credit analytics. 

Deploy cash flow underwriting confidently with Nova Credit's proven platform. Check them out at www.novacredit.com.

Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/

And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.

Follow Alex: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Follow Chris:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-mccall-732b6b

Follow Bill:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-garber-611234191/

Follow Munish:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/munish-pahwa-ph-d-2a563210/

Learn more about Nova Credit here.

Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m Alex Johnson, joined by David Roos, Partner at Core Innovation Capital — an early-stage fintech investor (founded in 2010) that backs scalable businesses built to drive financial inclusion for low- and middle-income consumers.

We dig into how Core really sizes up founders and business models, what’s shifted since the 2021 boom-and-bust, and how open banking and AI are reshaping incentives.

Highlights include:

How the venture market split after 2021 (mega-funds tossing out risky option bets vs. specialist funds focused on seed) while the IPO bar climbed to nearly $1B in revenue, keeping exits mostly to M&A

Why JPMC’s push to charge for data access shows the tug-of-war over who controls customer information, and why over time, closed-door banks may end up losing to those that open up

How AI is reshaping startups: small teams can now hit milestones that once took far more people and money, Series A investors expect closer to $3M in revenue, and how trust (earned through workflow integration and human oversight) still rules the day

This episode is a reality check on what it takes to build in fintech today. And it’s a friendly reminder that alignment between founders, investors, and customers is what separates lasting companies from cautionary tales. 

Enjoy! 

Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/

And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.

Follow Dan Roos:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-roos-24632457/

Follow Alex Johnson: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson
X: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson