In our latest episode of the Wharton Fintech podcast, Miguel Armaza is joined by Laura Spiekerman, She’s the Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer at Alloy, an operating system for identity in financial services, including KYC, AML and fraud.

Laura Spiekerman is a cofounder and CRO at Alloy. Alloy's API enables financial services companies to better manage their digital onboarding and identity requirements, increasing conversion and reducing fraud for banks and fintechs alike. Alloy works with both fintech companies and banks, including Marqeta, Petal, Brex, Radius Bank and others. Alloy was recognized on the recent Forbes' Cloud 100 Rising Stars list and as one to the global Venture Radar Top 10 RegTech Startups. Prior to Alloy, Laura led Business Development & Partnerships at an ACH payments startup and was on the Research & Investment team at Imprint Capital Advisors (acquired by Goldman Sachs). Laura is a proud Barnard College alumna and lives in Oakland, California.

Alloy is an operating system for identity in financial services, including KYC, AML and fraud. The Alloy API allows its clients to customize which data sources they access and the rules applied, to validate an identity in real time so that 98% of users will be automatically decisioned upon onboarding, increasing conversion, lowering fraud, and reducing manual reviews. Alloy has been working with both fintech companies and banks since it launched in 2016, and has a client base of ~80, including institutions like Radius Bank, KeyBank, Brex, Marqeta and others.

In this interview, Laura shares:

- Her background and how she got started in the industry as employee #1 at Kopo Kopo, a Kenyan fintech company.

- What inspired Laura and her co-founders to build Alloy and how they crafted a successful strategy to secure their first customers.

- The strategic reasons why Alloy's products are attractive for fintech startups, community banks, and large banks alike.

- Company Culture. Why it's important to hire people that are different from each other and why Alloy emphasizes celebrating differences and being bold.

- Her experience as a female fintech leader and why men should take on more responsibility to recruit and cultivate women in the industry.

- COVID-19's impact on Alloy and its clients- as fraud and cybersecurity attacks have increased in the last few months, Alloy has taken steps to help their customers combat these attacks.

- Lessons for founders! Why learning how to sell is the most important skill to learn for entrepreneurs.