Fintech Thought Leaders

In this episode of Fintech Thought Leaders, QED's Head of Early Stage Investments Bill Cilluffo speaks with Wagestream CTO and co-founder Portman Wills.

Tune in to learn:

[1:07] An introduction to Wagestream, a super-app for frontline workers.

[2:28] How Portman thinks about his North Star -- the concept of a social enterprise business that helps those who are less fortunate but still pursues a profit.

[6:10] How moving schools 14 times in 12 years helped shaped Portman’s independence and resilience. 

[14:02] The Wagestream origin story – the moment Portman and his co-founder learned about the concept of earned-wage access and why they knew it was a problem they wanted to tackle. 

[20:36] Why Portman’s trip to Notting Hill in 2017 framed his perception of how people change their social calendars based on their pay schedule.

[23:07] Validating Wagestream’s theory that workers would want to be paid on their schedule – at hundreds of restaurants, ice cream trucks and boutiques in the shadow of Windsor Castle.

[27:00] Getting unexpected market research by cold-calling the UK government directly. 

[30:42] Forks in the road – the one thing Portman got 100 percent correct from Day 1.

[33:46] Over-indexing on how popular their product would be at launch. Just because it is a no-brainer, it doesn’t mean every B2B enterprise company will want to sign on the dotted line right away.

[37:49] The ability to take complex problems and distill them down to the one core question. The importance of solving complexity by minimizing inputs. 

[41:18] Get comfortable with failure. The entrepreneurship journey is never easy and never linear. Get knocked off the horse, get back on. 

In this episode of Fintech Thought Leaders by QED Investors, QED Managing Partner Nigel Morris is joined by Wander CEO John Andrew Entwistle, Summer CEO Paul Kromidas and QED Partner and Head of Growth Chuckie Reddy to discuss the future of proptech and short-term rentals.

In this episode of Fintech Thought Leaders by QED Investors, Managing Partner Nigel Morris is joined by Cora CEO Igor Senra, Covalto CEO David Poritz and Nuvocargo CEO Deepak Chhugani.

Tune in to learn:

• [3:45] Why Covalto rebranded from Credijusto 
• [14:22] How to fill the gap between large banks and microfinance companies
• [20:53] How Nuvocargo tackles the complexity of cross-border trucking logistics
• [27:00] Why Cora can out-maneuver the incumbent banks in Brazil
• [35:04] Maintaining focus as you scale a company
• [39:19] Taking a product from 0>1
• [50:32] Why we're only in the second inning of fintech innovation in LatAm

In this episode of Fintech Thought Leaders by QED Investors, Managing Partner Nigel Morris is joined by Caribou CEO Kevin Bennett and QED Investors Partner Matt Risley.

Tune in to learn:

• [2:46] Kevin's personal journey from completing his law degree and serving in the Obama administration to building a leading auto refinance business.
• [6:44] The struggle of educating consumers to the fact that they are able to refinance auto loans, often saving more than $100 each month.
• [16:55] The tipping point in the Caribou distribution model.
• [22:12] What Caribou's $115 million Series C round -- and $1.1 billion valuation -- signals to the ecosystem.
• [24:38] How and why Caribou rebranded from MotoRefi.
• [31:05] How Kevin believes inflation and rising interest rates will impact the business.
• [35:01] The lessons learned as the company has scaled to more than 500 people.
• [40:23] How Caribou can play a part in tackling climate change. 

• [11:25] Why saving small amounts of money, in an automatic way, can be the bedrock of financial health.
• [16:10] How Wagestream's "Save the penny" concept has broken down the barrier for hourly workers to save money through earned-wage access.
• [17:25] The psychology of credit scores among near- and sub-prime customers.
• [23:00] Why main-stream banks have chosen to ignore these customers and how fintechs can fill that need.
• [25:05] The reputational stigma associated with sub-prime lending.
• [27:30] The role of regulators and how they legitimize fintechs while building necessary guardrails.
• [34:16] How to build on a core wedge product with additional services

In this episode of the Fintech Thought Leaders podcast by QED Investors, QED Managing Partner Nigel Morris is joined by Bitso CEO Daniel Vogel, Tribal Credit CEO Amr Shady, Shakepay CEO Jean Amiouny and QED Partner Matt Burton.

Tune in to learn:

• [10:01] Why Bitso CEO Daniel Vogel thinks increased mind share is leading to a plethora of ideas, a ton of collaboration and a magnitude of innovation.
• [14:50] Why crypto and web3 is past the point of no return.
• [16:32] How web3 is going to remove inefficiencies and friction in the current financial systems.
• [23:16] How El Salvador banked the majority of its population with an app that runs on a payment system that is built on open source standards.
• [29:51] Why Shakepay CEO Jean Amiouny believes the crypto dam will break when people stop or start trusting less the institutions around them that support money
• [33:33] Why QED Partner Matt Burton thinks web3 will impact the art, music, fashion and virtual worlds sooner rather than later.
• [37:15} How Tribal Credit is viewing the opportunities in this space.

In this episode of the Fintech Thought Leaders podcast by QED Investors, QED Managing Partner Nigel Morris is joined by Atomic CEO David Dindi and QED Partner Amias Gerety.

Tune in to learn:

• [2:06] David's international background which took him from Kenya, through Europe and eventually to the U.S.
• [7:38] Why QED's excitment in Atomic was grounded in the combination of the most cutting edge wealth management techniques inside of a very customer accessible consumer experience.
• [9:41] Why every company should focus on D&I in the early stages of building a business.
• [12:28] How the simplicity of Atomic helps businesses who desire to offer investing as a value add as opposed to a core competent.
• [15:17] Whether the lines between fintechs, banks and credit unions are being blurred.
• [24:02] How Atomic provides access to investing and ownership where access didn't exist previously.
• [30:02] Why the power of compounding is a key aspect in building wealth.
• [32:42] What is on the roadmap for the next 12 months, starting with a tool for graduates with student loan debt.
• [36:15] The traits in co-founders that can lead to long-term success.
• [42:45] How Atomic approaches international expansion by building the capabilities to be able to actually buy and sell and hold securities in different markets and by providing the regulatory coverage to companies that do not have those regulatory licenses to be able to leverage their infrastructure.
• [46:20] Why fintech has the superpower to be a force for social good.

In this episode of the Fintech Thought Leaders podcast by QED Investors, QED Managing Partner Nigel Morris is joined by Wayflyer CEO Aidan Corbett and QED Partner Yusuf Özdalga.

Tune in to learn:

• [2:28] How Wayflyer  helps e-commerce companies pay for inventory and for marketing spend and solves the struggle of working capital requirements. 
  
  
• [4:59] Why banks have traditionally refused to enter this space, including why e-commerce companies typically don't have many assets that a bank can use as security other than inventory. 
  
  
• [7:17] Why this twist on a vertical banking theme was so appealing to QED and how knowing the return on marketing spend affects loss rates.
  
  
• [8:52] How Wayflyer uses data sources to underpin a merchant cash advance by essentially purchasing future receivables.
   
• [10:59] Why the challenge of using AI in not necessarily in the analysis of the data, it's in cleaning the data and labeling the data effectively, for example in extracting value from bank account data.
  
  
• [16:22] The decisions that led to Wayflyer expanding from Dublin, first to the U.S. and then to Australia, all during COVID-19 pandemic.
  
  
• [21:27] How to maintain a cohesive culture that supports the business strategy, while emphasizing the importance of asynchronous communication.
  
  
• [25:50] How a company needs to think intentionally about its culture once it crosses the Dunbar threshold -- the point where a CEO or manager can no longer remember the names, titles and duties of every person in the company or office because it has grown so much.
  
  
• [30:35] The benefits of having a two- or three-person founding team that covers the full vista of different functional requirements.
  
  
• [36:57] How a company such as Wayflyer thinks about product expansion and the potential for moving beyond e-commerce.