One Vision Podcast — Fintech, Banking, and AI with Theodora Lau

The linguistic world is bewilderingly diverse, with roughly 7177 living languages worldwide, according to the Ethnologue. A language is more than a form of speech that groups of people use to communicate with each other. It embodies a connection to the past — culture and traditions. Any attempt to decipher a language must therefore go beyond the literal meaning of words. With datasets being largely homogeneous, it should come as no surprise then, that the virtual assistants currently in the market still have significant gender and race bias.

In this new episode of One Vision, Theo and Bradley chat with Dr. Joan Palmiter Bajorek, Head of Conversational Research at VERSA, CEO and Founder of Women in Voice, about the promises of voice technology, her passion in democratizing access to voice technology across ecosystems and languages.

One Vision Podcast is a fintech, banking, and AI podcast hosted by Theodora Lau (Founder, Unconventional Ventures; author of Banking on (Artificial) Intelligence). One Vision goes beyond the headlines on AI, agentic commerce, digital banking, financial inclusion, and the future of money — with founders, analysts, venture capitalists, technologists, and operators building the next chapter of financial services. New episodes weekly. Featured guests include leaders from Ant, bunq, J.D. Power, Forrester, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAS, SAP, and Wall Street Journal. Recognized in American Banker's Top 20 Most Influential Women in Fintech.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It was the best of times — then suddenly, it was the worst. Nothing quite like a global pandemic to recast the lives of billions. Yet the money wheel of the financial services industry keeps turning. Q1 2020 saw $10.6 billion of venture funding, according to FT Partners. Megadeals continue, including a Series F round of $280 million for Robinhood and $112 million for Stash.

All around the world, financial institutions — incumbents and startups alike — are making provisions to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that five months after launch, RBS decided to pull the plug on its new digital bank, Bó, once touted as a response to challenger banks Monzo, Revolut, and Starling. Building a greenfield digital bank is never easy — especially given current economic conditions. 

With so much going on in financial services today — amid a pandemic no less — it seems like it might take all four hosts this week to sort it out. Listen to our latest episode of One Vision when Efi, Arun, Bradley, and Theo are reunited - for the first time in the show’s history.

One Vision Podcast is a fintech, banking, and AI podcast hosted by Theodora Lau (Founder, Unconventional Ventures; author of Banking on (Artificial) Intelligence). One Vision goes beyond the headlines on AI, agentic commerce, digital banking, financial inclusion, and the future of money — with founders, analysts, venture capitalists, technologists, and operators building the next chapter of financial services. New episodes weekly. Featured guests include leaders from Ant, bunq, J.D. Power, Forrester, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAS, SAP, and Wall Street Journal. Recognized in American Banker's Top 20 Most Influential Women in Fintech.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dolphins are often thought of as compassionate and loving marine animals. Unlike sharks, which are often depicted as hostile, dolphins are warmer and more enthusiastic. To guard against sharks, dolphins stay together in pods and defend each other.

Same analogy was used by Amy Millman, a passionate advocate for women entrepreneurs, and founder of Springboard Enterprises - the first such organization to identify the opportunity presented by high-potential women entrepreneurs. Its mission is to accelerate the growth of female-owned startups through access to essential resources and a global community of experts. 

As Amy said: It’s not about sharks or piranhas but rather, “How can we help?”

Tune in to this week’s One Vision podcast, where Theo and Bradley chat with Amy, the fairy grandmother, about her journey, and the importance of community.

One Vision Podcast is a fintech, banking, and AI podcast hosted by Theodora Lau (Founder, Unconventional Ventures; author of Banking on (Artificial) Intelligence). One Vision goes beyond the headlines on AI, agentic commerce, digital banking, financial inclusion, and the future of money — with founders, analysts, venture capitalists, technologists, and operators building the next chapter of financial services. New episodes weekly. Featured guests include leaders from Ant, bunq, J.D. Power, Forrester, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAS, SAP, and Wall Street Journal. Recognized in American Banker's Top 20 Most Influential Women in Fintech.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Description: Everything that happens is connected to everything else. There are then, moments in time, that act as triggers toward a series of interconnected events that result in significant human progress. This occurs through periods of transformative societal change — from the initial tools that humans developed through the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages — and through the evolution of ideas during the Classical Era, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment, Industrial Revolution, and beyond — until we arrive to where we are today. 

There is a certain forcefulness around the march of technology as it fuses with prevailing ideas that stem from each iterative step forward. As the modern era developed, the conceptual idea behind a computer became the first machines to use mechanical relays and vacuum tubes, transistors and integrated circuits — advancement fueled by Moore's Law, microprocessors and quantum computers. Interconnected advancements continue to power significant progress. What will the future bring, as new forms of technology impact our society? 

Join Theo and Bradley in conversation with our partner Arunkumar Krishnakumar, as he talks about his new book Quantum Computing and Blockchain in Business: Exploring the applications, challenges and collision of quantum computing and blockchain and explores the progress possible through these interconnected technologies.

One Vision Podcast is a fintech, banking, and AI podcast hosted by Theodora Lau (Founder, Unconventional Ventures; author of Banking on (Artificial) Intelligence). One Vision goes beyond the headlines on AI, agentic commerce, digital banking, financial inclusion, and the future of money — with founders, analysts, venture capitalists, technologists, and operators building the next chapter of financial services. New episodes weekly. Featured guests include leaders from Ant, bunq, J.D. Power, Forrester, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAS, SAP, and Wall Street Journal. Recognized in American Banker's Top 20 Most Influential Women in Fintech.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For all intents and purposes, the venture capital gender gap has improved. In 2019, history was made: 21 women-led companies emerged as unicorns — those earning valuations of $1 billion or more — the highest-ever in a one-year period. Unfortunately, that is just a drop in the bucket compared to what the rest of the ecosystem has raised, according to Crunchbase. 

In 2019, more than 92% of venture capital raised by European tech companies went to all-male founding teams. It's even worse in the U.S. How can we change this narrative? How can we create a more even playing field? What will the current pandemic mean to this funding dynamic? One thing we know for sure, we can’t go back to the old normal. There is too much in too little hands. It is time for a bigger pie - one with more equal slices.

Tune in for a new episode of One Vision with Bridget Greenwood, Founder of The Bigger Pie, as she chats with Theo and Bradley about the need to change the status quo.

One Vision Podcast is a fintech, banking, and AI podcast hosted by Theodora Lau (Founder, Unconventional Ventures; author of Banking on (Artificial) Intelligence). One Vision goes beyond the headlines on AI, agentic commerce, digital banking, financial inclusion, and the future of money — with founders, analysts, venture capitalists, technologists, and operators building the next chapter of financial services. New episodes weekly. Featured guests include leaders from Ant, bunq, J.D. Power, Forrester, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAS, SAP, and Wall Street Journal. Recognized in American Banker's Top 20 Most Influential Women in Fintech.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Talent is equally distributed; opportunities are not. According to the latest Equal Pay Day Report from Women Who Code, while equal pay is an issue for all women, marginalized groups experience different levels of pay inequality. For every dollar that white, non-Hispanic men earn, black women were paid 61 cents, Latina women were paid 53 cents, and Asian women were paid 83 cents. 

The stats look equally dire, if not worse, for venture capital funding, with less than 10% of all venture capital deals going to women, people of color, and LGBTQ founders. Despite increased awareness, we have barely moved the needle for gender equity over the past decades.

It is time to change the narrative - to build a more equitable future for everyone. 

Tune in for an empowering conversation with Arlan Hamilton, as Theo and Bradley chat with the founder of Backstage Capital about her remarkable journey. As she reminded us, we are all here for a reason. We all have a part to play.

One Vision Podcast is a fintech, banking, and AI podcast hosted by Theodora Lau (Founder, Unconventional Ventures; author of Banking on (Artificial) Intelligence). One Vision goes beyond the headlines on AI, agentic commerce, digital banking, financial inclusion, and the future of money — with founders, analysts, venture capitalists, technologists, and operators building the next chapter of financial services. New episodes weekly. Featured guests include leaders from Ant, bunq, J.D. Power, Forrester, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAS, SAP, and Wall Street Journal. Recognized in American Banker's Top 20 Most Influential Women in Fintech.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Talent is equally distributed - opportunities are not. The onus is on all of us, in the innovation economy, to create opportunities for people, so more cities can thrive. The secret, according to Patrick Rivenbark, lies in not trying to recreate the next Silicon Valley or New york, but rather, in recognizing and appreciating the uniqueness of each city, its geography, and its people. Only then can you cater your efforts in developing the workforce - for both essential and core skills, and create pathways to help them succeed. 

Join Theo and Bradley in this new episode of One Vision, where they chat with Patrick Rivenbark on the value of local communities and the power of relationships. We are all indeed, human, first and foremost.

One Vision Podcast is a fintech, banking, and AI podcast hosted by Theodora Lau (Founder, Unconventional Ventures; author of Banking on (Artificial) Intelligence). One Vision goes beyond the headlines on AI, agentic commerce, digital banking, financial inclusion, and the future of money — with founders, analysts, venture capitalists, technologists, and operators building the next chapter of financial services. New episodes weekly. Featured guests include leaders from Ant, bunq, J.D. Power, Forrester, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAS, SAP, and Wall Street Journal. Recognized in American Banker's Top 20 Most Influential Women in Fintech.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We all know the numbers and they are dismal: Even though female founders received a record $3.54 billion in funding in 2019, this represented only 2.7% of the total venture capital investments, according to PitchBook data. As a point of comparison, WeWork garnered more investment than all global female founders combined last year. If not for irony, then for the despair of the missed opportunity.  

Is it possible to change this narrative? Is there a more equitable way of dispersing capital? Victoria Fram of Village Capital certainly thinks so. Among their portfolio companies that span 28 countries, 46% are founded by women; 30% are black or Latinx. For those of us working within the innovation economy, we have a responsibility to make entrepreneurship more inclusive, by extending opportunities to diverse minds and talents in all corners of the society, regardless of their age, ethnicity, backgrounds, and gender.

Tune in for an aspirational podcast episode of One Vision with Victoria Fram, Founding fund manager of VilCap Investments and co-founder of Village Capital.

One Vision Podcast is a fintech, banking, and AI podcast hosted by Theodora Lau (Founder, Unconventional Ventures; author of Banking on (Artificial) Intelligence). One Vision goes beyond the headlines on AI, agentic commerce, digital banking, financial inclusion, and the future of money — with founders, analysts, venture capitalists, technologists, and operators building the next chapter of financial services. New episodes weekly. Featured guests include leaders from Ant, bunq, J.D. Power, Forrester, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAS, SAP, and Wall Street Journal. Recognized in American Banker's Top 20 Most Influential Women in Fintech.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Across the globe, nations are grappling with a crisis brought on by the Corona virus COVID-19. With many schools and businesses closed, daily lives have been disrupted; in so many aspects, our regular lives have ground to a halt, and we are forced to adjust to a new normal. How we respond to the crisis at hand speaks volumes about our values as individuals, as organizations, and as a society. We can either step up to the challenge and weather the storm together with our friends, our families, and our communities, or we can turn a blind eye to those who need us the most in this unprecedented and most uncertain time. 

When this is all over — when we look back at the year that was 2020 — how would we remember the crisis? How will we remember the people who were part of our personal journey? While we might not remember the exact words people said, we will remember how they made us feel. We will remember how their actions impacted our lives and our community. We will remember those who made a difference, and those that made matters worse. It is through leadership that progress endures, that moments of crisis are tempered.

One Vision Podcast is a fintech, banking, and AI podcast hosted by Theodora Lau (Founder, Unconventional Ventures; author of Banking on (Artificial) Intelligence). One Vision goes beyond the headlines on AI, agentic commerce, digital banking, financial inclusion, and the future of money — with founders, analysts, venture capitalists, technologists, and operators building the next chapter of financial services. New episodes weekly. Featured guests include leaders from Ant, bunq, J.D. Power, Forrester, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAS, SAP, and Wall Street Journal. Recognized in American Banker's Top 20 Most Influential Women in Fintech.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Children are our future. In today’s environment, how can we make knowledge more accessible while making learning fun? How can we ensure we are not leaving people behind as we are ushering in a new era? As citizens of the world, we have a collective responsibility to inspire positive actions and channel technology for good. Together, we must build a diverse talent pipeline of the future, a chorus that celebrates diversity of all kinds.

Tune in for an inspirational episode with Sally Eaves, who shares with Bradley and Theo her passionate stories and what motivates her. Their conversation will leave you pondering - if you can do something for your community that truly makes a difference, what will your legacy be?

One Vision Podcast is a fintech, banking, and AI podcast hosted by Theodora Lau (Founder, Unconventional Ventures; author of Banking on (Artificial) Intelligence). One Vision goes beyond the headlines on AI, agentic commerce, digital banking, financial inclusion, and the future of money — with founders, analysts, venture capitalists, technologists, and operators building the next chapter of financial services. New episodes weekly. Featured guests include leaders from Ant, bunq, J.D. Power, Forrester, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAS, SAP, and Wall Street Journal. Recognized in American Banker's Top 20 Most Influential Women in Fintech.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.