The future of mobility is shared, fast, fluid, and frictionless! Joëlle Stokkel of Shuttel jumps into The Hot Seat for a conversation about optional ownership, commuting as a custom-fit experience, the rise of flexible mobility benefits, how tech, sustainability, and data are reshaping policy, and why mobility might just be your next big recruitment tool.

Key Takeaways.

• [:00] Denise Johansson puts Joëlle Stokkel, Innovation Manager at Shuttel, in the hot seat.
• [2:59] It seems the main hurdle is not the amount of mobility options, but rather their connectivity and personability.
• [3:50] The talent wars are still in full effect, and Shuttel offers a competitive edge when it comes to keeping businesses attractive.
• [5:40] Is commuting still the right term? Joëlle suggests that businesses have to broaden their definition and offer a comprehensive solution.
• [7:09] Mobility as a shared future!
• [8:10] Mobility should be thought of like a menu. Joëlle explains how Shuttel functions in that regard.
• [9:55] Mobility equates to inclusivity, and it also opens up new talent markets.
• [11:29] Joëlle shares her tips for employers looking to rethink their travel policies.
• [12:54] Innovations are great, if they fit with data and compliance!
• [14:20] Employees and clients are demanding sustainable options now, but flexibility is paramount to account for people’s unique circumstances.
• [15:47] Joëlle offers what barriers remain and how to take them down.
• [16:48] Technology is unlocking the mobility space at breakneck speed.
• [18:18] The frequency at which Joëlle expects leaps to occur will be dependent on surrounding industries and mobility partnerships.
• [19:40] Joëlle’s closing statements.
• [19:55] Denise signs out until the next time she puts an industry leader in the hot seat.

People.

• Guest Joëlle Stokkel, Innovation Manager at Shuttel, the Netherlands’ leading provider of smart mobility solutions.
• Host Denise Johansson, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Enfuce, a female-founded fintech helping drive business growth, solve customer challenges, and extend financial inclusion.

Links.

• Shuttel
• Enfuce

Guest Quotes (edited).

• We need to talk about business travel in its broader sense, whether it’s an appointment with a customer, colleagues, or travelling to another country, it’s business travel. The solution needs to be everywhere at any time and always accessible for people to use. — Joëlle Stokkel, Shuttel, InTheHotSeat
• You need to provide a mobility solution, but mobility is not so much the leasing of a car anymore. It’s giving people the opportunity to travel to their local needs, to their personal preferences, when necessary. — Joëlle Stokkel, Shuttel, InTheHotSeat
• When rethinking a mobility policy, start with a pilot, adding micro-mobility into the mix, rethink parking, or your bike allowance, or your work-from-home allowance. — Joëlle Stokkel, Shuttel, InTheHotSeat
• With this new payment technology, we can reach the full potential of the mobility space. And by reaching the full potential of the mobility space, it does not really matter if you’re in a rural area or in an urbanized environment, we can provide you access to anything at any time. — Joëlle Stokkel, Shuttel, InTheHotSeat

Denise Quotes (edited).

• The mobility space is changing fast! From shared cars and e-scooters to EVs and integrated transport solutions. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• With hybrid and remote work becoming a reality across industries, the traditional concept of the daily commute is rapidly evolving. At Enfuce, we have a distributed team across Europe, which means commuting looks different for everyone. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• Mobility often equates to inclusivity. Offering mobility as a benefit opens up new opportunities for talent outside traditional urban centers or for those previously excluded from certain roles and industries. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• Sustainability is no longer just a buzzword. Consumers and employees are actively demanding greener choices. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat

There are no silver bullets, but there is a pattern to success. This episode of In The Hot Seat welcomes back fintech strategist and author Leda Glyptis to unpack what it truly takes to build, lead, and last in an industry where 95% of startups fail. From redefining success as “the art of not dying” to the difficult introspection founders have to do when they hit a wall, Leda and Denise offer up an alternative to toxic hustle culture and break down why experience, boundaries, discipline and leadership are key.

Key Takeaways.

• [0:00] Denise Johansson puts Leda Glyptis, author and fintech strategist, in the hot seat.
• [3:35] The failure rate for digital transformation is enormous. Leda set out to find a pattern.
• [5:06] Resilience as part of a success story is impossible to avoid, and it manifests in two ways.
• [7:28] The art of not dying.
• [9:36] How hustle culture has evolved into an adversarial - and unhealthy - philosophy.
• [12:29] Without ever dismissing youth, experience plays a large role in success stories.
• [14:22] Boundaries are critical for founders. Leda explains how the types of founder relationships can affect working relationships.
• [18:04] Leda touches on the importance of discipline. But not just any old discipline. You have to spend time on the right things.
• [19:24] Leda’s unhelpful advice for leaders who may feel stuck, as well as two possible paths to navigate out of a bind.
• [22:19] An advisory board is precious only if you have time for it. Don’t burn those bridges.
• [24:35] What Beyond Resilience can offer founders to help with their digital transformation.
• [27:26] Leda’s closing words: the work is hard, and it’s not for everyone.
• [28:13] Denise signs out until the next time she puts an industry leader in the hot seat.

People.

• Guest Leda Glyptis, Fintech strategist, Author, and former banker.
• Host Denise Johansson, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Enfuce, a female-founded fintech helping drive business growth, solve customer challenges, and extend financial inclusion.

Links.

• Beyond Resilience: Patterns of Success in Fintech and Digital Transformation
• Enfuce

Guest Quotes (edited).

• 95% of startups fail. Is there a pattern to success? The short answer is: yes, but it's not easy. So on some level, “thanks for nothing.” — Leda Glyptis, InTheHotSeat
• Resilience manifests in two ways. The first is going through a painful process of failure and being the type of lunatic to go again, and the second is the ability to do really hard things when it seems counterintuitive. — Leda Glyptis, InTheHotSeat
• If you have managed to scale your business, get traction in your market, and make money, that is a success story. So the art of not dying is where I set the bar for success. — Leda Glyptis, InTheHotSeat
• In business, you will never have enough money, time and energy to do the things you want. So, trade-offs will be needed daily. Unless you've negotiated your benchmarks, everything becomes the hill you die on. — Leda Glyptis, InTheHotSeat
• If you're hitting a wall, you need to look around you and say, “Have I got the right people around me?” — Leda Glyptis, InTheHotSeat
• One of the phrases that came up a lot in the book is “The version of me that started this can't finish it.” But the reality is that if you're hitting a wall, it's a people question, and the answer might be you. — Leda Glyptis, InTheHotSeat
• But the reality is, your board is always an exam. And it should be. Your advisory board is the place where you can go in and go, “I have no idea what to do now.” — Leda Glyptis, InTheHotSeat

Denise Quotes (edited).

• Just being resilient is not enough. Is there a pattern for success that we can see, knowing that there is no silver bullet for anything in life? — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• We should define our success in its own right, without comparing it to bigger brands or longer success stories. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• 10 years ago, hustle culture defined FinTech founders. So when we launched, people’s reactions were “You look nothing like FinTech founders!”, “How can you succeed unless you go all-in 24/7 for three years in a garage?” And we believed that it couldn’t be the only way. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• It wasn't only about the people on the board. It was our investment in spending time with them, in taking the time to listen to their experience. Because you can't just sit back and relax and hope someone will bring you all the answers. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• Within payments, change won't be overnight; it will evolve. When you look back five, 10 years, that's when you see the big changes that have happened. You never see it overnight. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat

From podiums to businesses. Elite sports and high-performing businesses operate under the same unforgiving principles: driving performance requires inspired leadership, clear goals, strict planning, good team dynamics and a healthy serving of resilience. The question isn’t if you need all this but whether or not you have what it takes to implement it. The hot seat welcomes paralympic powerhouse Birgit Skarstein, Chief Inspiration Officer at Enfuce, to clear a path forward.

Key Takeaways.

• [0:00] Denise Johansson puts Birgit Skarstein, Paralympian gold medallist, world — and European — rowing and cross-country skiing champion, and Chief Inspiration Officer at Enfuce, in the hot seat.
• [3:46] Birgit breaks down how world champion and paralympic performance levels are built, bit by bit, with grit and determination.
• [6:38] Because nobody wants to train every single day, or go to work every single day, finding the strength to overcome your own mental barriers requires a solid plan.
• [9:11] The nordic traits — shared by Denise — that have propelled Birgit’s career!
• [13:20] Birgit explains how she fell in love with Enfuce during a keynote she delivered for the team.
• [16:54] How business and sports intersect in terms of achievement and pragmatic goal-setting.
• [21:59] Birgit speaks to the differences in performance depending on group dynamics and leadership and how leadership quality can affect people far deeper than their level of achievement.
• [27:13] Personal and team resilience work in tandem to promote personal growth and overall group performance.
• [29:08] Birgit’s definition of resilience and what she looks forward to in her role at Enfuce.
• [33:10] Denise signs out until the next time she puts an industry leader in the hot seat.

People.

• Guest Birgit Skarstein, Paralympian medalist, World champion and European champion rower and cross country skier as well as CInO of Enfuce, a female-founded fintech helping drive business growth, solve customer challenges, and extend financial inclusion.
• Host Denise Johansson, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Enfuce, a female-founded fintech helping drive business growth, solve customer challenges, and extend financial inclusion.

Links.

• Enfuce

Guest Quotes (edited).

• Doing a startup and then a scale up is so much hard work. There are so many people willing to tell you that it’s never gonna work out. Why not get a safer, better paid job in a big company. Why would you build it yourself? — Birgit Skarstein, Enfuce, InTheHotSeat
• In many ways, you are a startup as an athlete. You have to do a lot of the groundwork yourself and you really have to step up and get your hands dirty. — Birgit Skarstein, Enfuce, InTheHotSeat
• Reaching those really high performances, making it to the games, to the podium, then to the top of the podium. It requires grit and resilience, and the ability to work really hard. — Birgit Skarstein, Enfuce, InTheHotSeat
• You make the choice to go for those big goals, and then you break it down to what does that mean every quarter? What does it mean every month? What does it mean every week? What about every day? And what about every session? — Birgit Skarstein, Enfuce, InTheHotSeat
• Within the year every quarter would have a plan, and then every month, every week, every day. And then I'd be very honest and non-emotional about myself throughout the way. So I'd evaluate a lot and try to adapt if something came up. And if you'd have to change it, then you have to change it in a way that still is loyal towards the goal. — Birgit Skarstein, Enfuce, InTheHotSeat
• Resilience is about being flexible enough to change and adapt before you are changed. It's about taking control of the things that you can. It's not about not being defeated or not having setbacks or not going through rough times, but being able to stand through them and adapt. — Birgit Skarstein, Enfuce, InTheHotSeat

Denise Quotes (edited).

• We’ve been working with OKRs for a couple of years, but we realised that we really need to break it down further, it needs to go to all the individuals within the company so that they know what they come to do every day. It's taking them and us towards the goal where we wanna be at the end of the year. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• It's not enough to put some values down on paper, you have to talk about what they mean to you and to the team so that they have a chance to show up as you want and give you the results that you expect. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• With Enfuce, we want to challenge the norm of how businesses are being built and how success is being defined. We are daring to test new things and trying to do things differently. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat

Waiting for regulation is boring, you don’t need permission to shake up the world! Marja Innanen, Executive Director of UN Global Compact Network Finland, Monika Liikama, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Enfuce, and Juspal Manic, CRO at Featurespace, sit in the hot seat for a provocative discussion on UN Sustainable Development Goal 16's overlooked challenges of peace, justice, and strong institutions. Listen in for hot takes on impending regulation and what to do about them, why SDGs are only ever an opportunity for growth, and why you should aim for 100% when outsmarting fraudsters.

Key Takeaways.

• [0:00] Denise Johansson puts Marja Innanen, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact Network Finland, Juspal Manic, CRO at Featurespace, and Monika Liikama, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Enfuce, in the hot seat.
• [4:18] Marja introduces the conversation and explains SDG 16 and how it might be turned into a business opportunity.
• [9:17] Monika explains how easily a simple consumer transaction can unknowingly foster a network of unseen illicit activity, from counterfeiting to trafficking.
• [11:36] Forget mission and vision, fraudsters are smart bastards, Juspal - and Featurespace stand fast with a strong mandate instead.
• [14:16] The narrative around SDG 16 mirrors that of the compliance narrative: burden and avoidance!
• [18:10] The regulation storm is coming! Companies should push ahead rather than wait for it to arrive.
• [21:50] Bringing the human aspect of fraud back into the conversation is one way to keep driving innovation and solving problems. Everyone has a child, parent, or grandparent at risk in their interactions with technology today.
• [24:42] On why Nordic countries are so great. Because they really are.
• [26:36] The fortitude pledge according to Denise, Monika, Juspal, and Marja (you CAN be awesome too!).
• [33:16] Monika and Denise drive home the point: why aim for mediocrity? Shoot for 100%, every chance you get.
• [33:36] Juspal explains how compliance sets the foundation for tackling fraud at scale.
• [36:10] The money saved by fully aligning with SDG 16 could be put to tackling SDG 17.
• [37:34] Everything a customer does has an impact; educating and encouraging them to make better decisions should be part of a company’s mandate.
• [38:40] Be better, every day.
• [39:31] Denise signs out until the next time she puts an industry leader in the hot seat.

People.

• Guest Marja Innanen, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact Network Finland, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, improving the collective impact of business with companies that enable change.
• Guest Juspal Manic, Chief Revenue Officer at Featurespace, a fintech dedicated to making the world a safer place by providing the most powerful technology to combat fraud and financial crime.
• Guest Monika Liikama, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Enfuce, a female-founded fintech helping drive business growth, solve customer challenges, and extend financial inclusion.
• Host Denise Johansson, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Enfuce, a female-founded fintech helping drive business growth, solve customer challenges, and extend financial inclusion.

Links.

• UN Global Compact Network Finland
• Featurespace
• Enfuce

Guest Quotes (edited).

• The red line with SDGs is that no one should be left behind. This means reducing corruption, ensuring a legal identity to all, ending violence, exploitation, fraud, human trafficking, fostering transparency and accountability, and finally, respecting human rights. — Marja Innanen, UN Global Compact Network Finland, InTheHotSeat
• EU regulations and legislation are coming like a storm towards companies. — Marja Innanen, UN Global Compact Network Finland, InTheHotSeat
• Citizens of Nordic countries trust in public institutions. It makes society more stable. — Marja Innanen, UN Global Compact Network Finland, InTheHotSeat
• You can't give all the keys of progress to governments only because businesses can make bigger leaps. You have the innovations, you have the ambition, and you have the money. — Marja Innanen, UN Global Compact Network Finland, InTheHotSeat
• Fraud is very consistent across the globe. The approaches they take, the impact they have on people's lives, and more importantly, the sinister behavior they display. Fraudsters spend a lot of time being very innovative, so we have to be more so. — Juspal Manic, Featurespace, InTheHotSeat
• We have to have the courage to say that what we're doing today doesn't solve the problem. But collectively, we've got enough brilliant people to solve it. We have to have the will. — Juspal Manic, Featurespace, InTheHotSeat
• Fortitude is a strength of mind and courage, and you need that when you're growing a business, when you want to solve real-world problems. — Juspal Manic, Featurespace, InTheHotSeat
• If you can help a customer make a better decision, and you take one dollar of fraud out, that's one dollar less that's going and being used elsewhere in a horrific way. — Juspal Manic, Featurespace, InTheHotSeat
• Everywhere we use money, something bad can happen. And if we start to think about where we use it, what we buy with it, we realise that it does make a difference. — Monika Liikama, Enfuce, InTheHotSeat
• If you’re looking for something and it doesn’t exist then f*ck it, do it yourself. The fortitude pledge is about making progress, taking accountability, and leading the way. — Monika Liikama, Enfuce, InTheHotSeat
• We can commit to 100% because lame-ass mediocre targets don’t move the needle. We understand that things can go wrong, but if we actually commit to mediocrity, we can never achieve great things. — Monika Liikama, Enfuce, InTheHotSeat

Denise Quotes (edited).

• Global crime, human trafficking, terrorist financing… We use these big, scary words, and I think for the consumer it can be hard to connect that to the card that they are using every day. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• Fraudsters are smart bastards, and fraud is becoming more and more complex. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• With the political waves we’re seeing at the moment. It might be tempting to stop hoping for progress on SDG 16, but we can't become depressed; we should figure out what more we can do and how we can lead in the tempest. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• The only way forward is a commitment to 100%. How can you commit to allowing 3% of human trafficking to happen? — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat

Wild West or world of opportunity for fintechs? Charles Kerrigan, Partner at CMS London, and Matt Williamson, SVP at Endava jump into the hot seat. Listen in for insights on what the most recent AI revolutions might mean for fintechs, the types of regulations being put forward, the impacts of horizontal versus vertical regulation, why GenAI is an expert tool for experts, and what early-adopting organisations might be doing wrong when it comes to their data.

Key Takeaways.

[0:00] Denise Johansson puts Charles Kerrigan, Partner at CMS London, and Matt Williamson, SVP at Endava, in the hot seat.

[2:22] The pace of change does make it seem like the Wild West, but it really is only as wild as your risk appetite.

[3:56] The first AI wave rippled through financial services years ago, but this recent surge hits differently. Charles explains the two types of regulations — horizontal (EU) vs. vertical (UK) — currently on the horizon.

[7:31] Efficiencies! The biggest wins might not be sexy right now, but they are pushing the wave.

[10:59] Navigating hallucinations is an issue when it remains an expert tool in the hands of experts. Charles explains why he should not use GenAI to build a nuclear power station.

[14:30] Regulators will always pick transparency, especially when the new shiny thing seems too good to be true.

[15:13] Is it the Wild West, or is it FOMO?

[17:36] Let’s talk about data hygiene because we’re all doing it rather poorly.

[19:07] Matt’s predictions for 2025: mind your fraud detection.

[20:04] Charles’ predictions for 2025: watch for oncoming regulation, and he sees an opportunity for fintech to take on a leadership role!

[22:38] Charles shares his advice for companies looking to begin adapting to AI.

[24:16] Matt asks “But will it make the boat go faster”?

[25:28] Denise signs out until the next time she puts an industry leader in the hot seat.

People.

• Guest Charles Kerrigan, Partner in the Finance Team and part of the specialist Crypto and Digital Assets Team at CMS London, a Future Facing organisation taking a bold, dynamic, and agile approach to help clients of every size confidently face the future.
• Guest Matt Williamson, SVP & Industry Principal at Endava, combining world-class engineering with deep industry expertise and a people-centric mindset to drive meaningful change.
• Host Denise Johansson, co-CEO and co-Founder of Enfuce, a female-founded fintech helping drive business growth, solve customer challenges, and extend financial inclusion.

Links.

• CMS London
• Endava
• Enfuce

Guest Quotes (edited).

• There's an expectation that firms will be using AI because their customers are using it. So the regulation can take two forms, vertical or horizontal. — Charles Kerrigan, CMS London, InTheHotSeat
• We've seen some lawyers embarrassed by hallucinations in the press and whenever there's a new technology like this, you always have to hope that you're not the person who learns the lesson publicly. — Charles Kerrigan, CMS London, InTheHotSeat
• I can use GenAI to support my legal work because I ought to know the answers. I shouldn't be using GenAI to build a nuclear power station because I don't know how to do that. — Charles Kerrigan, CMS London, InTheHotSeat
• I've been doing internal research with our AI teams and the term Wild West came up quite a lot as a definition, but it really comes down to if you are risk-averse, or excited about the possibilities. — Matt Williamson, Endava, InTheHotSeat
• There's a balance between optimisation and transparency, and financial regulators will always lean towards transparency, particularly in anything facing customers. —  Matt Williamson, Endava, InTheHotSeat
• We're finding that lots of people are engaging in AI for fear of missing out. —  Matt Williamson, Endava, InTheHotSeat
• When it comes to data hygiene, are we doing the basics right? We're guilty of this in all industries: We get caught up in the shiny new thing and fail at setting up a correct foundation. —  Matt Williamson, Endava, InTheHotSeat

Denise Quotes (edited).

• AI isn't just a buzzword anymore. It's real, just like global warming. It's real and it's happening but is it the Wild West? — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• So if we look at actual regulation the West isn’t as Wild. But are they hindering innovation? — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• Fintechs will be more comfortable with navigating and adopting regulations, and seeing the opportunities. We’ve enough experience with compliance! — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• AML, KYC, and KYB probably have the most to win in adopting AI as much as possible. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat

Ready for a steamy tech love story?. Thorbjørn Fink, COO of Pleo joins Denise for a spicy chat in the hot seat. Learn from Pleo and Enfuce’s love story about building winning partnerships, maintaining great communication, making compromises and navigating the occasional rough patch. Denise and Thorbjørn discuss learning the right love languages, building trust, and dealing with a partner if the shoe doesn’t fit.

Key Takeaways.

[0:00] Denise Johansson puts Thorbjørn Fink, COO of Pleo and longtime business partner, in the hot seat.

[3:42] Being a supplier is one thing, being a partner is another beast. Thorbjørn explains why long-term stability drives that choice.

[5:36] Compromise works when partners can grow together and find their respective wins, but building for the long term is about more than just the tech and the deal.

[9:34] Thorbjørn weighs the pros and cons of building everything yourself rather than taking the time to find the right partner: always focus on your mission!

[13:21] Saying goodbye is always hard. But if the partnership isn’t right, it’s better for all.

[17:10] Looking to become a great partner? Learn to speak the right language!

[20:14] Thorbjørn shares his closing thoughts for listeners.

[21:22] Denise signs out until the next time she puts an industry leader in the hot seat.

People.

• Guest Thorbjørn Fink, COO of Pleo, the spending solution for forward-thinking teams everywhere, making spending management effective and empowering.
• Host Denise Johansson, co-CEO and co-Founder of Enfuce, a female-founded fintech helping drive business growth, solve customer challenges, and extend financial inclusion.

Links.

• Pleo
• Enfuce

Guest Quotes (edited).

• Do the work before you put pen to paper. It's well worth it because you don't want to transplant your lungs and your heart and get something that doesn't match. — Thorbjørn Fink, Pleo, InTheHotSeat
• There's the agreement, there's the tech, but there's also the people behind it. — Thorbjørn Fink, Pleo, InTheHotSeat
• We are not here to build the full stack. We actually care very little about the tech stack. We care about the customer experience. — Thorbjørn Fink, Pleo, InTheHotSeat
• How on earth do I articulate this value to my stakeholders? How do I convince internally? Make sure you put yourself in your stakeholders’ shoes and bring them up to standard so you can have an informed discussion. — Thorbjørn Fink, Pleo, InTheHotSeat

Denise Quotes (edited).

• Business is still done between humans, you need to be able to trust them. Because when things don't go as planned, the relationship will be tested and you want the right partner by your side to fix it. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• Growing the right leaders and cultures internally is the very start of becoming ready for true partnerships. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• Communication is the key to success in private and business partnerships. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• Once you are in a good partnership, you need to challenge each other, learn from each other, and trust that you are talking to smart, and capable people. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat

Are you ready for money in the Metaverse? David Birch, payment industry legend and Author of Money in The Metaverse joins the hot seat to discuss what fintechs need to know about the future of payments in the Metaverse, what exactly the Metaverse is and why it isn’t just a virtual space and how it might help level the playing field when it comes to being more inclusive, and tackling fraud!

Key Takeaways.

• [0:00] Denise Johansson puts David Birch, payment industry legend and Author of Money in The Metaverse, in the hot seat.
• [3:30] David points out the fundamental differences in ownership and identity between other virtual spaces and what the Metaverse offers.
• [6:54] The three aspects of the new financial market infrastructure of the Metaverse, spatial computing, digital assets and digital identity.
• [7:56] Is this a person or not? It seems that for some people, it doesn’t matter.
• [10:24] What fintechs need to know now in order not to be left behind.
• [13:20] Does online connectivity mean less in-person interactions?
• [14:03] While spatial computing and asset tokenization are well on their way, digital identity seems to be lagging behind.
• [15:39] How money is spent in the metaverse and why simpler might be better.
• [16:18] David explains how digital identity can fend off the more insidious possibilities that come along with the metaverse.
• [17:42] How digital identity can serve as an inclusivity multiplier.
• [19:30] David explains how the Metaverse is being built with security first and might provide some measure of protection from online fraud.
• [21:56] The Metaverse is actually a plurality of Metaverses.
• [22:47] David shares a few important things to think about when it comes to the future of this technology.
• [24:10] Getting people educated about new tech is always the best policy.
• [24:55] Denise signs out until the next time she puts an industry leader in the hot seat.

People.

• Guest David Birch, payment industry legend and Author of Money in The Metaverse: Digital Assets, Online Identities, Spatial Computing and Why Virtual Worlds Mean Real Business.
• Host Denise Johansson, co-CEO and co-Founder of Enfuce, a female-founded fintech helping drive business growth, solve customer challenges, and extend financial inclusion.

Links.

• Enfuce

Guest Quotes (edited).

• In the metaverse, your identity, your money, your property is yours. It doesn't belong to the platform and you can take it with you and move it around. — David Birch, Money in The Metaverse, InTheHotSeat
• We really need more focus on the digital identity side of things if we're going to make this happen. If I want to trade securely with you in the metaverse, I don’t need to know your personal information, but I need to know some things about you. — David Birch, Money in The Metaverse, InTheHotSeat
• We want the internet to be inclusive. Obviously, if the goggles are 3000$ and you have to pay 100$ a month, that's not very inclusive. But I'm technologically optimistic. I think those costs can come down over time. — David Birch, Money in The Metaverse, InTheHotSeat

Denise Quotes (edited).

• Younger generations are more adaptive to a Metaverse future than us being a little older and not as connected. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• Will people spend less time interacting in person? And does that mean we will spend less time interacting with the people we want in our lives? — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• The Metaverse is going to be the new normal. Our kids should be aware of how it is to interact online. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• The new frontier of money and identity is in the Metaverse, companies need to look for opportunities to build out a presence in virtual worlds. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat

Financial fraud is a full-blown epidemic. Geoff White, Investigative Journalist and Author of Rinsed jumps in the hot seat to explain the current landscape, what the future might look like, and how getting back to the basics of employee engagement might be the best defense companies have against fraudsters.

Key Takeaways.

• [0:0] Denise Johansson puts Geoff White, Investigative Journalist and Author of Rinsed, in the hot seat.
• [2:24] Social media feeds are feeding the fraud epidemic while a cashless society removes friction for laundering and money routing.
• [4:53] Geoff explains how the layered world of money laundering has evolved with technologies and into unexpected sectors like gaming.
• [7:28] How North Korean money heists led Geoff to write Rinse.
• [9:35] The most astonishingly strange theft Geoff knows about, from billion-dollar salamander video games to totalitarian regimes laundering hundreds of millions of hot crypto.
• [13:47] Is 5 years too much or too little for financial crimes?
• [14:57] Geoff explains who AI is currently benefiting most and why AI battling AI won’t necessarily come to pass.
• [17:26] How defenders can keep the AI advantage over time through auditing.
• [19:51] The current state of action for individual defrauded customers needs to be more cohesive and encouraging both for customers and law enforcement.
• [23:26] Social media platforms and the dilution of responsibility.
• [26:06] Geoff’s 1-2-3 advice for fintechs looking to increase their fraud detection.
• [28:11] Back to the basics: Phishing messages. The future of fraud control is awareness and employee engagement!
• [29:23] How an employee looking for a new job costs a company 625 million dollars.
• [32:11] Denise signs out until the next time she puts an industry leader in the hot seat.

People.

• Guest Geoff White, Investigative Journalist and Author of Rinsed: From Cartels to Crypto: How the Tech Industry Washes Money for the World's Deadliest Crooks.
• Host Denise Johansson, co-CEO and co-Founder of Enfuce, a female-founded fintech helping drive business growth, solve customer challenges, and extend financial inclusion.

Links.

• Rinsed
• Enfuce

Guest Quotes (edited).

• We are now increasingly in a cashless society. That gives more digital routes for stealing people's money or conning them out of it. —  Geoff White, Rinsed, InTheHotSeat
• The public thinks that video games and Bitcoin are not real money. But actually, it is still worth millions and millions of pounds if you can transfer it into usable money. —  Geoff White, Rinsed, InTheHotSeat
• Many people think that cybercriminals are just geniuses: A few lines of code and that's it, your money's gone! Computer hackers are very good at breaking into banks, but what they're not so good at is once they've got in: Taking the money out, washing it, and hiding the traces. —  Geoff White, Rinsed, InTheHotSeat
• Hackers are very good at code, malware, phishing, social engineering, and working out how your servers work. But to transfer the money, you need to know about Swift, IBANs, and MoneyMule accounts. —  Geoff White, Rinsed, InTheHotSeat
• Transferring out the 625 million dollars, in the form of crypto, took one minute 55 seconds. Fastest crime ever, hands down. —  Geoff White, Rinsed, InTheHotSeat
• You have this bizarre situation where there is a video game involving salamanders, half a billion stolen by the most dangerous regime in the world and the crypto and tech community prosecuting the U.S. government when they take action against it! —  Geoff White, Rinsed, InTheHotSea
• Do I have to build an AI system to defraud you? No. What I need to know are the parameters that your AI is sticking to and work around those. I don't have to build my own AI to get around yours. —  Geoff White, Rinsed, InTheHotSeat
• Where there's lots of money sloshing about with lots of values going down, international trade, and lack of regulation, that's where you'll find the money launderers. And cryptocurrency, video gaming, and NFTs. —  Geoff White, Rinsed, InTheHotSeat

Denise Quotes (edited).

• The fraud epidemic is being driven by advances in AI, cryptocurrency, and scamming techniques that are leaving even the most trained detectives scratching their heads. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• For the experts in money laundering and cybercrime, the world they work in is getting more and more interesting, if not more and more disturbing. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• When it comes to fraud detection, we've been talking more about how to detect false positives, but it might be time to identify the false negatives and understand why they went through. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat

Can banks do what needs to be done to stay alive? How can the legacy players stave off the next ice age? Leda Glyptis, recovering banker and author, and Monika Liikamaa Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Enfuce burn up the hot seat with a no-holds-barred discussion on how parasitic relationships, hedging bets, and corporate FOMO killed off countless fintechs with great potential! And, just wait till they dish on why banks need to start moving away from in-house builds and into partnerships to truly succeed in a customer-driven world!

Key Takeaways.

• [0:0] Denise Johansson puts Leda Glyptis, fintech executive and former banker, and Monika Liikamaa, co-CEO and co-Founder of Enfuce, in the hot seat.
• [3:39] Leda and Monika agree. Because of dinosaur mindsets and structures, the banking industry has changed a lot but not enough at all in the current landscape.
• [6:20] Some problems take care of themselves! Although Monika underscores a possible challenge with upcoming mass retirements.
• [8:05] Regulators exert external pressure on banks and they are moving in the right direction. Leda explains what is still missing.
• [11:49] The cost/benefit of digitization is something banks don’t quite understand. Leda argues that this inflationary period is critical to decision-making if banks want to remain alive.
• [12:56] Is innovation really a fridge that runs its own Kubernetes cluster? Monika and Leda offer that true innovation is a little boring and not very sexy.
• [15:40] Have VC’s ruined innovation with zombie parasitic relationships? Monika and Leda roll out a scathing indictment of the fintech petting zoo.
• [18:44] Money is not a dirty word was Leda’s keynote title and where the money comes from (the right money) is important, Enfuce is a testament to that.
• [29:18] Liking and trusting are two very different things. Some fintechs have confused the two and the human ability to forget about past mistakes is driving recurring failures that undermine trust.
• [31:03] Regulators will lead the financial sector into the future. Leda shares some specifics of where the future is taking us, from deepfakes to migration tooling and AML.
• [33:58] Taking your time with real time!
• [36:40] What Leda’s new book has in store.
• [39:49] Denise signs out until the next time she puts an industry leader in the hot seat.

People.

• Guest Leda Glyptis, Strategic Advisor, Board Member, fintech executive, and former banker.
• Guest Monika Liikamaa, co-CEO and co-Founder of Enfuce, a female-founded fintech helping drive business growth, solve customer challenges, and extend financial inclusion.
• Host Denise Johansson, co-CEO and co-Founder of Enfuce, a female-founded fintech helping drive business growth, solve customer challenges, and extend financial inclusion.

Links.

• Enfuce

Guest Quotes (edited).

• When it comes to banking, The unsexy is where it’s at, both in terms of customer adoption and in terms of long-term profitability. So where is true innovation? Where you can't see it. —  Leda Glyptis, InTheHotSeat
• Innovation isn’t spending money on visible things when your API infrastructure is balanced on top of something that plugs into a mainframe from the 60s. —  Leda Glyptis, InTheHotSeat
• So where is true innovation? It's the adoption of scaled technologies to solve customer problems in a way that improves choice, transparency, and stability, and reduces cost. —  Leda Glyptis, InTheHotSeat
• Have banks changed a lot? Yes. Have they changed enough? No. What I think banks haven't done is realise that the world around us is on an irreversible path that is changing much faster than the industry. —  Leda Glyptis, InTheHotSeat
• The bank’s lease-on-life and breathing space of today’s high interest rates should be the time to make decisions. But it won't be for a lot of them. —  Leda Glyptis, InTheHotSeat
• You should talk about your business model before you take money from an investor or a partnership. Most of the relationships I saw at the time in accelerators were zombie parasitic relationships that would never go to market. —  Leda Glyptis, InTheHotSeat
• One of the questions I'm looking into is: What money do you take, and can the money kill you? The answer is yes. But it is hard to do. When you're trying to build something, saying “No” to a check in front of you is extremely hard. —  Leda Glyptis, InTheHotSeat
• To everyone listening, if you're a banker, don't try to build it yourself. Seriously, just partner. Partner, partner, partner! —  Leda Glyptis, InTheHotSeat
• The good news is that the problems in the financial sector will die, or retire. The challenge is that the culture will prevail if the hierarchy is too rigidly systematic. It will be a mindset thing at the incumbent level also. —  Monika Liikamaa, Enfuce, InTheHotSeat
• The words innovation and disruption should be changed to adoption and transformation. For banks, now is the time not to die. —  Monika Liikamaa, Enfuce, InTheHotSeat
• VCs have been pouring money into weird-ass companies offering some weirdo niche products for free and as such, are skewing the real cost of building fintech products. —  Monika Liikamaa, Enfuce, InTheHotSeat
• Being owned by a bank is not a good way to be if you're a tech company. . —  Monika Liikamaa, Enfuce, InTheHotSeat

Denise Quotes (edited).

• Maybe I can try to defend the banks… Despite everything, we love banks! We love and trust banks. Trust is something that many fintechs have yet to crack. — Denise Johansson, Enfuce, InTheHotSeat
• Building successfully in the fintech space entails a lot of failure, and you need to have been around the block. Some day we will share all of ours openly. Maybe post IPO or exit, when we aren’t so connected to it and you have to Google us to see what we did back then. — Denise Johansson, Enfuce, InTheHotSeat

Disrupt the status quo and give power to the people! Felipe Hillard from the Bank of London, jumps in the hot seat to tackle the notion of control (and why sharing is a good thing), how inclusivity helps align payment solutions with customer needs, why choosing value over profit puts you squarely in the eye of the finance revolution, and why honing your purpose and focus in the fintech space can save you from going extinct.

Key Takeaways.

• [0:0] Denise Johansson puts Felipe Hillard, Chief Client Officer at the Bank of London, in the hot seat.
• [2:01] The historical context and current geopolitical aspects of the UK’s powerhouse status in fintech and banking.
• [4:53] Felipe shares how the Bank of London, and Enfuce are focusing on giving power to the people.
• [6:06] Felipe shares what difficult (and scary) thing financial organisations need to give up to be part of the citizen-focused financial revolution.
• [7:39] Being purpose-built isn’t baked-in only at inception, Felipe explains how your purpose can be nourished by enabling your customer’s purposes and disrupting the status quo.
• [10:37] Innovation can be painful! Making it part of your culture from the get-go can make it less so.
• [13:36] Culture is a tricky thing, about rhythms and rituals, how teams function together and come together.
• [17:21] Felipe talks about how to manage sharing control to extend agency to the margins and reframes the discussion away from philanthropy.
• [18:56] Denise signs out until the next time she puts an industry leader in the hot seat.

People.

• Guest Felipe Hillard, Chief Client Officer at the Bank of London, disrupting the fundamentals of banking while prioritising depositor money preservation and market stability.
• Host Denise Johansson, co-CEO and co-Founder of Enfuce, a female-founded fintech helping drive business growth, solve customer challenges, and extend financial inclusion.

Links.

• Bank of London
• Enfuce

Guest Quotes (edited).

• With the Brexit vote, the UK just can't take access to outside markets for granted anymore, there's a need to innovate. —  Felipe Hillard, Bank of London, InTheHotSeat
• Citizen-focused finance means being willing to give up a degree of control, which means a very awkward moment for organisations that are used to having control, giving a piece of it up. —  Felipe Hillard, Bank of London, InTheHotSeat
• Culture comes down to how decisions are made and how decisions are communicated. —  Felipe Hillard, Bank of London, InTheHotSeat
• If innovation is baked in from the start, it won’t be as painful, but it will always be painful. —  Felipe Hillard, Bank of London, InTheHotSeat

Denise Quotes (edited).

• We live in an almost cashless society, except for marginalised communities that can’t access digital payments. We decided there must be a better way and today, more funds are being delivered through cards, through Enfuce. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• In the UK, a place built on tradition and legacy institutions, the banking revolution is driven by purpose-built, citizen-focused fintechs and banks. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• Being purpose-driven is finding a niche where you can make a change, and where you can tackle real challenges. Don't invent challenges, there are enough real ones out there! Find out what they are and how you can add value. Find your purpose, and then weigh all your decisions against that purpose. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• We need to rebuild how banks make decisions and how the operations work so that we can serve the clients that we want to serve.  — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat