Fintech Leaders

Today we bring you a living legend. Miguel Armaza sits down with Howard Morgan, Chair and General Partner at B Capital, a global investment firm with $6.3 billion in AUM and 160+ portfolio companies.

Howard is also a true technology pioneer. He was one of the first people in history to experience the web, and had computer #50 on the ARPANET. His research also contributed to the development of the modern internet.

Howard is also a trailblazer of tech investing, having co-founded firms like Renaissance technologies with Jim Simons, and First Round Capital with Josh Kopelman.

We discuss:

• Bringing the internet to Wharton and sending his first email in the early 70s
• Building Renaissance Technologies, the best-performing fund of all-time
• Lessons for founders and investors after 50 years of investing in tech companies, including the seed rounds of Uber, Square, and Roblox
• Building a truly global investment firm at B Capital
• The impact of GenAI and why every company should be leveraging enterprise AI tools today… and a lot more!

Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.

Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join almost 60,000 readers and listeners worldwide!

Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.

Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z

Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc

Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIp

Miguel Armaza sits down with Ben Miller, CEO & Co-Founder of Fundrise, the largest direct-to-investor alternative asset manager in the US, that has grown from an idea to a platform with over 2 million active users and $3.3 billion in real estate private equity, private credit, and growth-stage venture capital.

We discuss:

• How a product pivot cost Fundrise half their customers, but set them up for future success
• Why he’s not optimistic about many tech companies worth billions and believes they will continue to struggle to turn a profit
• How rapid growth impacts your culture
• Why the best innovation happens at the intersection of multiple specialties
• The importance of staying true to your mission… and a lot more!

Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.

Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join almost 60,000 readers and listeners worldwide!

Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.

Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z

Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc

Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIp

In this 100th Fintech Leaders episode, we bring you someone extra special. Miguel Armaza sits down with Josh Reeves, CEO & Co-Founder of Gusto, one of the largest HR & Payroll companies in the US, focused on serving small and medium-sized businesses. In addition to HR, payroll, and benefits, Gusto is a strong player of embedded fintech solutions and recently announced a very large partnership with JPM Chase.

Founded in 2011, Gusto now serves over 300,000 businesses in the US and in 2022 Gusto had revenues of more than $500 million dollars. They are backed by General Catalyst, YC, Kleiner Perkins, Obvious Ventures, Felicis, Ribbit, CapitalG, Altimeter, and a very long list of fintech investors.

We discuss:

• Finding Product-market fit in the highly complex SMB sector
• Becoming a strategic partner and building the people platform for small businesses
• Lessons from building and launching Gusto’s embedded fintech strategy
• How Gusto built a structured and scalable hiring process
• Insights and learnings from the evolving role of CEO… and a lot more!

Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.

Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join almost 60,000 readers and listeners worldwide!

Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.

Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z

Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc

Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIp

Miguel Armaza sits down with Tom Callahan, CEO of Nasdaq Private Market, a secondary marketplace and liquidity provider for private company trading and transactions. NPM recently spun out of Nasdaq is now backed by a consortium of banks and financial institutions, including Nasdaq, Citi, Goldman, Morgan Stanley, and others.

We discuss:

• An update on the state of both primary and secondary activity in private markets
• A deep dive on how private markets work and why the system is so archaic
• Unintended consequences created by regulation like the US JOBS Act… and a lot more!

Live Recording Alert! Join us for a live Fintech Leaders recording and Happy Hour with Stuart Sopp, CEO & Co-Founder of Current, a multibillion-dollar fintech built in New York City. See you at Barclays Rise New York on Monday, October 16 to kick off New York Tech Week. Register here --> https://bit.ly/3sMaIBj

Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.

Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join almost 60,000 readers and listeners worldwide!

Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.

Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z

Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc

Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIp

NASDAQ PRIVATE MARKET, LLC IS NOT A REGISTERED EXCHANGE UNDER THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934. NASDAQ PRIVATE MARKET IS OPERATIONALLY INDEPENDENT AND DISTINCT FROM THE NASDAQ STOCK MARKET LLC. SECURITIES-RELATED SERVICES ARE OFFERED THROUGH NPM SECURITIES, LLC, A MEMBER OF FINRA AND SIPC. NONE OF THE INFORMATION PROVIDED REPRESENTS AN OFFER TO BUY OR SELL, OR THE SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY OR SELL, ANY SECURITY, NOR DOES IT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO PROVIDE INVESTMENT ADVICE OR SERVICE. INVESTING IN PRIVATE COMPANY SECURITIES IS NOT SUITABLE FOR ALL INVESTORS. IT IS HIGHLY SPECULATIVE AND INVOLVES A HIGH DEGREE OF RISK.

Miguel Armaza sits down with Jean-Denis Greze, CTO at Plaid, a data network and one of the foundational fintech companies that works with thousands of firms, including several Fortune 500s and some of largest banks in the world.

Founded in 2013 by Zach Perret and William Hockey, Plaid’s network covers 12,000+ financial institutions across the US, Canada, UK and Europe. They’ve raised over $700 million from Felicis, Homebrew, NEA, Spark Capital, Citi, Goldman, AmEx, Ribbit, and a long list of great investors.

We discuss:

• How Plaid stays at the forefront of security and privacy
• Thriving in a competitive market and how the only way to win is to play a different game than your competitors
• The future of Open Finance in the US and some regulatory predictions
• How AI LLMs are revolutionizing user interfaces… and a lot more!

Live Recording Alert! Join us for a live Fintech Leaders recording and Happy Hour with Stuart Sopp, CEO & Co-Founder of Current, a multibillion-dollar fintech built in New York City. See you at Barclays Rise New York on Monday, October 16 to kick off New York Tech Week. Register here --> https://bit.ly/3sMaIBj

Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.

Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join almost 60,000 readers and listeners worldwide!

Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.

Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z

Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc

Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIp

Miguel Armaza sits down with Colin Walsh, CEO & Co-Founder of Varo Bank, a neobank and the first consumer fintech to be granted a bank charter in the US. In a past life, Colin held leadership positions at American Express, Lloyds Banking Group, and Visa. Varo has raised close to a billion dollars and is back by Blackrock, David Rubenstein’s Declaration Partners, Warburg Pincus, and a long list of investors.

You can also learn more about Colin and Varo in his own podcast, the Varo Prosperity Podcast.

We discuss:

• Finding Product Market Fit and why this process can often take years
• Advantages and disadvantages of being a regulated institution and why Colin is proud that Varo secured a banking charter
• Making tough decisions and how Varo redefined itself over the last couple of years
• Colin’s take on the big re-bundling of fintech… and a lot more!

Live Recording Alert! Join us for a live Fintech Leaders recording and Happy Hour with Stuart Sopp, CEO & Co-Founder of Current, a multibillion-dollar fintech built in New York City. See you at Barclays Rise New York on Monday, October 16 to kick off New York Tech Week. Register here --> https://bit.ly/3sMaIBj

Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.

Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join almost 60,000 readers and listeners worldwide!

Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.

Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z

Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc

Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIp

Miguel Armaza sits down with Ricardo Josua, CEO/Co-Founder of Pismo, a global tech company that builds banking and cards solutions for digital banks and large financial institutions. Headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the company has operations in Latin America, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the US and processes $210 billion dollars in annual transaction volume. Pismo’s investors include Redpoint Brazil, Softbank, Amazon and Accel.

Importantly, back in June 2023, Visa announced a definitive agreement to acquire Pismo for $1 billion in cash. Making it one of the largest fintech acquisitions announced this year worldwide, and certainly the largest one outside of the US. The transaction is still subject to regulatory approvals so we couldn’t talk that much about it.

In this episode, we discuss:

• From Brazil to the world – the importance of having a global mindset from day one
• Partnering with fintechs and large banks – how Pismo went from mostly fintech clients to selling to some of the largest banks in the world
• Building a modern system while still connecting to legacy technologies
• Advice for company builders and leaders to navigate both great times and choppy weathers… and a lot more!

Live Recording Alert! Join us for a live Fintech Leaders recording and Happy Hour with Stuart Sopp, CEO & Co-Founder of Current, a multibillion-dollar fintech built in New York City. See you at Barclays Rise New York on Monday, October 16 to kick off New York Tech Week.Register here --> https://bit.ly/3sMaIBj

Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.

Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join almost 60,000 readers and listeners worldwide!

Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.

Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z

Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc

Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp

Miguel Armaza sits down with Michael Tannenbaum, COO at Brex, a $12 billion global spend platform for finance teams and founders to manage every aspect of global spend.

Launched in 2017 Brex was last valued at $12B in January 2022 and has raised over a billion dollars from YC, Ribbit, Human Capital, GFC, DST, Dragoneer, TCV, and a very long list of fintech investors.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The implications of a high-interest rate environment for tech and fintech
• Michael’s time at SoFi and what he learned about promoting talent from within
• Reflections from the early days at Brex and what he describes as his favorite role at the company
• The future of Brex, bidding for SVB’s credit card portfolio… and a lot more!

Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.

Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join almost 60,000 readers and listeners worldwide!

Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.

Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z

Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc

Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp

Miguel Armaza sits down with Pedro Conrade, CEO/Founder of Neon, one of the largest digital banks in Brazil and Latin America. We sat down on stage in Sao Paulo at the Gilgamesh Ventures Summit, an annual meeting where we gather Limited Partners, Founders, Co-Investors, and friends for a series of events and discussions about the future of financial services.

Serving almost 20 million clients, Neon is one of the largest fintech companies in the Americas and, without a doubt, Pedro is amongst the most inspiring figures I know. Every time I talk to him, I come out with a shot of motivation and positivity.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How an overdraft fee infuriated Pedro and inspired him to launch Neon
• Why major crises and tough moments helped build a more resilient company
• Neon’s M&A strategy – insights from five company acquisitions
• And many more company building lessons

Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.

Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join almost 60,000 readers and listeners worldwide!

Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.

Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z

Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc

Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp

Miguel Armaza sits down with Gary Hoberman, CEO & Founder of Unqork, a revolutionary technology company that has pioneered a Codeless as a Service (CaaS) platform to help eliminate legacy code for enterprises.

Launched in 2017, Unqork’s clients include some of the world's largest banks and insurance companies. The company was last valued at $2 billion and has raised over $350 million from Google, Goldman Sachs, Aquiline, Fin Capital, Blackrock, and many more.

Prior to founding Unqork, Gary was Global CIO for MetLife, where he oversaw technology across 47 countries, and before that, he was one of the youngest Managing Directors in Citi’s history. He holds seven patents, six of which are still in use in the finance industry today.

We discuss:

• The crisis in the world of enterprise software and why most of the dollars being spent are making companies worse, not better.
• Why Unqork believes that launching software isn't the final goal, but instead we should focus on ensuring software improves businesses and doesn't become a legacy burden.
• Challenges with the conventional approach towards cybersecurity and why most companies are not equipped to manage truly secure operations.
• Persevering in the face of adversity, turning 300 no’s from Investors into a $2B company… and a lot more!

Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.

Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join almost 60,000 readers and listeners worldwide!

Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.

Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z

Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc

Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIpqp