Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller.

The journey from screen scraping consumer financial data to API, permissioned access continues. U.S. Bank recently announced a partnership with technology partner, Plaid.

Gareth Gaston from U.S, Bank and Ginger Baker from Plaid join us to talk about the recently announced integration between the two around consumer financial data. We discuss the nature of the integration and why it’s significant. Both Ginger and Gareth describe the relevance of the US Bank permission hub and Plaid portal synching. We also talk about the impact API deals like this have on consumer behavior and fintech uptake.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller.

Corporate credit card firm Ramp is hot off a big fundraising making it one of the youngest firms to reach billion dollar valuation status in history having launched in February 2020. Eric Glyman, Ramp’s co-founder and CEO, joins me on the podcast to talk about how Ramp’s positioning to help its business clients spend less has impacted its trajectory. We discuss the most recent fundraising round that saw Stripe, Goldman Sachs, and Thrive participate and what’s interesting investors around Ramp’s software-led model. Eric describes how Ramp’s product is changing, maturing.

Ramp’s Eric Glyman is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller.

Money continues to pour into the space. From IPOs to large venture rounds to SPACs, there’s a lot of liquidity sloshing around. And yet, there are still lots of opportunities.

JAM FINTOP Banktech is a $150 million investment fund, looking to deploy capital into tech firms serving community banks around the US. What’s really interesting is all 66 of the fund’s limited partners are community banks, accounting for $600 billion in assets. That would rank as the fifth largest US bank. The fund is a partnership between Fintop Capital and Jacobs Asset Management (which we’ll refer to as JAM.)

On today’s show, we have Joe Maxwell of Fintop, joined by Adam Aspes and Ryan Zechariah of Jacobs Asset Management on the show to talk about the fund and its investments, sure. But it’s also a conversation around the future of community banking and what kinds of tools and technologies they’ll need to be competitive in the future.

Hari Gopalkrishnan is the Client Facing Platforms Technology executive for Bank of America Merrill. He’s responsible for leading the development of the next generation of integrated technology solutions for the company’s consumer and wealth management client-facing channels. He also manages the bank’s websites and e-commerce initiatives.

Hari joins me on the podcast to talk about Erica — the firm’s AI-driven virtual financial assistant. We talk about where it’s come from and where it’s headed — with an insightful look on how customers used it during the past year. Hari describes some of the important customer-facing initiatives Bank of America has underway.

Hari Gopalkrishnan is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

The following was produced by Tearsheet Studios in partnership with small business lender BlueVine. It's Small Business Week, and BlueVine really wanted to highlight how it's helping small businesses, particularly around the paycheck protection program.

Today, we're happy to have two guests with us: First, Eyal Lifshitz, CEO of BlueVine. Eyal is a third-generation small business entrepreneur who co-founded BlueVine to build a better financial future for small businesses

Eyal is joined by one of his customers, Joy England of Advocates in Action. She talks about her experiences navigating through the pandemic as a small business and how firms like BlueVine helped SMBs with the PPP program, assisting in accessing needed funding during a trying time.

The following was produced by Tearsheet Studios. We worked with Wave, a financial software company for entrepreneurs and small businesses, to create a three part podcast series on what micro businesses and solopreneurs really need now from their banks, financial service providers, and financial software.

Personal finance app Mint inspired a lot of things. As an early fintech, it showed users the potential of what it could be like to successfully manage your personal finances. For entrepreneurs, Mint also was inspiring, showing the power a financial services app could have to amass millions of users. Mint inspired other founders to launch their own offerings in the space. It definitely inspired Wave’s Kirk Simpson. He was especially interested in Wave’s pricing model: free.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller.

Smaller community banks and credit unions have an opportunity to differentiate and compete in payments. Unfortunately, many smaller FIs haven’t formulated a succinct strategy. It’s a good time to do it — there are technologies and tools out there to help them service their customers better.

Tede Forman is Jack Henry’s head of consumer and commercial payments. He’s seen upfront the evolution in payments — from bill pay to real time payments — and its impact on bank offerings. He joins me on the podcast to talk about the choices and new opportunities in faster payment options. We talk about advances in bill pay technology and how it’s become table stakes for FIs. We also talk about how smaller banks and credit unions are finding ways to punch above their weight through technology partnerships and collaborations.

Tede Forman is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

The following was produced by Tearsheet Studios. We worked with Q2, a digital banking software company, to create a four part podcast series on how embedded finance and banking as a service is changing the definition of who is a bank, where customers turn for banking products and services, and how it is helping some of the weakest players in the economy get access to the modern financial industry. 

There’s still almost 20% of the U.S. population that’s underbanked. That’s tens of millions of people who may have access to basic banking but are falling between the cracks. That’s in spite of the fintech bull market we’ve had over the past few years.

I interview Q2's Ahon Sarkar about the impact banking as a service changes the economics of banking. The result is more products and services available for the underbanked. We discuss how this changes the banking industry and the customers it serves.

I’m Zack Miller, editor in chief of Tearsheet. The following was produced by Tearsheet Studios. We worked with Wave, a financial software company for entrepreneurs and small businesses, to create a three part podcast series on what micro businesses and solopreneurs really need now from their banks, financial service providers, and financial software.

It’s never a simple time for small business owners. They live and breathe cashflow. Many function pretty much hand to mouth, so any disruption -- let alone the pandemic we’re navigating through -- any disruption can really challenge an entrepreneur.

I, for one, wouldn’t like to see a world with all big box retailers, faceless corporations, hawking me throwaway stuff and disposable experiences. I think the crisis brought out the fact that small businesses are really important parts of our cities, towns, and communities. If they suffer, we all suffer.

Kirk Simpson, is the CEO of Wave, a provider of free accounting software for entrepreneurs. He lives and breathes what micro businesses deal with -- they’re his customers. So while he tracked the struggles of these folks, he also watched as many survived and thrived. It was also a time that a lot of people set out on their own to follow their own entrepreneurial dreams.

The following was produced by Tearsheet Studios. We worked with Wave, a financial software company for entrepreneurs and small businesses, to create a three part podcast series on what micro businesses and solopreneurs really need now from their banks, financial service providers, and financial software.

One of the things that’s got me really interested in fintech was hearing founders’ own stories. What got them into the business. Why some left high paying jobs to throw their hats in the entrepreneurial ring. A ring that can be really hard, confounding and a roller coaster of emotion. Many of them started their business out of a deep connection to the problem they’re trying to solve. And when you trace back through their stories, you can get some insight and apply it to your own business, practice, or department you’re trying to build.

In 2009, Kirk Simpson founded Wave, accounting software for entrepreneurs, micro businesses and solopreneurs. He didn’t have an accounting background -- his co-founder did -- but he did have experience building and running small businesses. Also, he absolutely wanted to leave working for the man, which helps fire up the motivation to change how things are done. To stir the pot. To mix things up and break through the status quo.