This week on the "Austin Tech Connect" podcast we chat with Balazs Barna, Head of US Engineering and Austin Site Lead for Wise.  As Wise continues to grow their US presence, Austin has become a key location for the company.  Since 2017 Wise has grown from 500 people worldwide to over 5500 employees.     In this interview we hear about Mr Barna's career journey (including being a 2x Kick Boxing World Champion), the growth of Wise, and his take on why Austin is such a great place to grow a company and raise a family.   About Balazs BarnaBalazs Barna is the Head of US Engineering and Austin Site Lead at Wise. At Wise, Balazs oversees the US engineering team, which is building the tech and infrastructure needed to facilitate instant, convenient and affordable cross border transactions. He also heads up our newly formed Austin office.   Over his 7 years at Wise, Balazs has led and helped his team build the company’s historic direct access integration to the Hungarian banking sector’s instant payment system, the first of its kind for a company with a payment service license. He also oversaw and built Wise’s core infrastructure that enables the company’s European operations. Prior to joining Wise, Balazs worked at MSCI and Morgan Stanley. He graduated from Corvinus University of Budapest in Business Information Systems (BSc), and Computer Engineering (MSc) from Pannon University.   About Wise Wise is a global technology company, building the best way to move and manage the world’s money. With Wise Account and Wise Business, people and businesses can hold 40 currencies, move money between countries and spend money abroad. Large companies and banks use Wise technology too; an entirely new network for the world’s money. Co-founded by Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus, Wise launched in 2011 under its original name TransferWise. It is one of the world’s fastest growing, profitable tech companies and is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker, WISE. 16 million people and businesses use Wise. In fiscal year 2023, Wise processed approximately £105 billion in cross-border transactions, saving customers around £1.5 billion.