Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller.

On the heels of a closing of a $250 million credit facility, LendingPoint’s Tom Burnside joins us on the show today. The consumer lender has originated $1.4 billion in loans to individuals, targeting an underserved population of people with FICO scores in the range of 580-680. Tom talks about the growth potential in servicing this population. We also discuss the firm’s point of sale loan product and how that’s expanded their reach and broadened the definition of LendingPoint’s target borrower.

Tom Burnside is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller.

Ricky Knox is my guest today on the show . A five time entrepreneur and the founder of international money transfer firm Azimo, Ricky continues to compete in fintech. His latest venture, Tandem, is a strong competitor in the UK challenger banking market.

There aren’t many entrepreneurs who keep coming back to fintech and Ricky describes why he thinks financial services is so ripe for disruption. Tandem’s approach to helping its customers make financial decisions uses AI and we talk about technology’s role in managing money. We discuss how he’s handling growth and scaling and how he’s positioning Tandem — with products and services -- to compete in the future.

Ricky Knox is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller.

There’s an interesting convergence going on right now. Ecommerce platforms like Shopify are getting into retail and payments, while payments firms like Square are going after powering the entire transaction. That’s definitely playing out in the evolution of the firm’s developer platform. Square recently rolled out an Orders API that illustrates the shift towards powering commerce functions for the company.

On the show today, we have Square’s Carl Perry, the head of its developer platform. We discuss where the platform is today and where it’s headed. Carl shares how companies like Shake Shack are developing highly customized seller experiences with Square. Lastly, we chat about where Square’s developer platform fits within the company’s broader product ecosystem.

Carl Perry is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller.

A new study from Escalent, a research consulting firm that does a lot of work in financial services, shows that growth is slowing across the digital ecosystem. It may be easy to wave this off but for fintech firms, this is extremely troubling. Startups that fail to consistently grow frequently pivot away from their original market or product or fade away into the ether.

Chris Barnes, chief product officer and managing director at Escalent, joins us on the podcast to talk about his firm’s findings. Specifically, we discuss growth trends and trajectories in payments, robo-advisers and micro investing, and cryptocurrencies. Chris also shares what he thinks fintech firms competing in these fields need to do to reinvigorate growth.

Chris Barnes is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Zack Miller.

It’s been 5 years since Citizens’ IPO. A lot has happened during that time and the bank continues to evolve and make changes. Today, Citizens is announcing its new “Made Ready” brand platform. As part of the launch, the bank is partnering with eclectic artist and musician Questlove. Behind the message of the brand pivot and all the activities behind the launch is the positioning of Citizens’ commitment to enabling every unique financial journey.

Joining me on the podcast today is Beth Johnson, chief marketing officer and head of virtual channels at the bank. She straddles a range of the bank’s customer-centric initiatives and is driving how Citizens leverages tech, big data, content, design and delivery. We talk about the new branding and what it means for the institution and its customers.

Beth Johnson is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller.

As an early online lender, Avant built a consumer lending business. And as the market evolved, Al Goldstein’s company found itself being better situated to also help banks enter digital lending. So, in addition to Avant, the firm launched a B2B service. Initially called Powered by Avant, Amount works with banks like Regions, HSBC, and TD Bank to handle end to end or modular services for things like personal loans, credit cards, deposit accounts, and point of sale loans.

Al joins us on the podcast to talk about the evolution from B2C lender to B2B service provider. We discuss what he’s hearing from banks about their biggest challenges in digital lending and we hear from Al about his own challenges working with large banks.

Al Goldstein is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast.

Having a kid encourages a lot of families to start thinking differently about their finances. Sure, life insurance is a part of that discussion, but so is creating a will and getting your financial info secured in one place.

Adam Erlebacher is co-founder and CEO of Fabric which provides sort of this organic experience around getting a new family’s finances in order. Adam joins us on the podcast to talk about his own personal experience with life insurance and how that inspired what Fabric is building.

Adam was formerly COO at Simple, an early digital bank, and we discuss how that experience influences the way he looking at fintech and digital finance.

Adam Erlebacher is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Zack Miller.

It feels like everyone is talking about how cool the Apple Card looks. But Apple is just a beautiful example of a new type of credit card. Alongside the evolution of digital payments, something interesting is happening with physical credit and debit cards. From design, orientation, colors, and materials, physical cards are seeing a significant makeover.

Tearsheet's Sara Toth Stub recently wrote a story on the aesthetic innovations in credit and debit cards. It's not just challenger banks coming out with sleek metal cards in lots of new colors, either. Digital payment players like Venmo and PayPal have issued innovative cards. Wells Fargo and Citi are good examples of incumbents that are also pushing the envelope on the physical design of cards.

Sara Toth Stub is my guest today for a deep dive podcast to discuss the innovations happing in the physical world of payments.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller.

In this episode, we’re announcing the winner of our first annual bank - fintech partnership award here at Tearsheet. I’m happy to say that TD Bank and Hydrogen won this year’s award. To talk about the partnership and how the two firms created a solid foundation for collaboration we have Jacob Matthews, AVP head of digital continuum, sales and client engagement and US wealth technology at TD Bank joining us, as well as Mike Kane, co-founder of Hydrogen.

I’ll let them tell the story of the genesis of the partnership, the nature of the collaboration, and the success factors that have both firms looking out into the future with deeper work. I’d like to thank TD and Hydrogen, everyone else who applied for the award, and our industry judges that helped make this happen.

Here’s Jacob and Mike.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller.

One of the themes we’ve explored on Tearsheet and here on the podcast is vertical payments. As tools become more flexible and companies and solutions providers target niche problems, we’re seeing more and more companies focus on payments as a strategic advantage.

That’s definitely happening in travel. And beyond rewards programs, the travel industry has needed to pay particular attention to payments. Global customers expect global options and providing a good payment experience can mean the difference between booking a vacation or not. Ingenico’s head of travel Eric Liebman joins me on the podcast to talk about the travel industry’s specific needs when it comes to payments and the role payments play in a customer centric strategy.

Eric Liebman is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.