BANK ON IT

Every week the show host John Siracusa talks with amazing fintech leaders and entrepreneurs, through conversation uncovers the amazing stories behind them, their creations and the most important topics in fintech.   You can Subscribe to this podcast and stay up to date on all the stories here on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and iHeartRadio   In this episode the host John Siracusa chats with Phill Rosen, co-founder & CEO at Even Financial.   Phill was previously a co-founder at Orchard Platform, which was acquired by Kabbage in April 2017.  John & Phill discussed raising money for new ventures, company culture, increasing employee interaction and how banking customers won’t use a banking app like BOFA’s (as an example) to find the financial service products that they want.  Instead he feels that financial services products are a transactional thing that people engage with in order to get the things that they want to when and where they want to get it. That ecosystem is the transactional transportati

Every week the show host John Siracusa talks with amazing fintech leaders and entrepreneurs, through conversation uncovers the amazing stories behind them, their creations and the most important topics in fintech.   You can Subscribe to this podcast and stay up to date on all the stories here on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and iHeartRadio   This is an extended interview.   In this episode the host John Siracusa chats with Brett Crosby from PeerStreet and co-founder of Google Analytics. Brett co-founded a company called Urchin software which was acquired in April 2005 by Google and morphed into Google Analytics.   He was on his honeymoon during his first day at google and he talked about how everything in his life changed during the 15 minutes he was about to walk the aisle to do his wedding vows. He talked about google a bit and he discussed in detail how after creating a business case for a two sided mortgage investment platform (soon to be PeerStreet) they went to Michael Burry (Christian Bale’s charact

Every week the show host John Siracusa talks with amazing fintech leaders and entrepreneurs, through conversation uncovers the amazing stories behind them, their creations and the most important topics in fintech. You can Subscribe to this podcast and stay up to date on all the stories here on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and iHeartRadio These interviews took place during Boston fintech week, in this episode we share highlights from a group of speakers from the event.  In this episode are Anders Brownworth from Circle, Devon Sherman from MassChallenge,  Jean Donnelly from Fintech Sandbox, Meredith Moss from Finomial, Monda Webb from Earnup, Chris Albrecht from Openfin, Greg Woolf from Coalesce.ai and Chris Lustrino from KingsCrowd.     Tune in and Listen. Subscribe now to hear Thursday’s interview with Brett Crosby from Peerstreet and co founder of Google Analytics.     About the host: John is the host of the 2x weekly "Bank On It” podcast recorded onsite from the CG offices and a highly sought after finte

Every week the show host John Siracusa talks with amazing fintech leaders and entrepreneurs, through conversation uncovers the amazing stories behind them, their creations and the most important topics in fintech. You can Subscribe to this podcast and stay up to date on all the stories here on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and iHeartRadio These interviews took place during Boston fintech week, in this episode John talks with Ron Shevlin, Christina Qi from Domeyard, Jennifer Lum from Forge.AI and Mario Hernandez from Impesa. Ron has the pulse of banking and fintech partnerships and he feels that bank/fintech partnerships are not the answer to question about fintech.  Instead he feels fintech assimilation is. He feels based on research that people don’t want financial health, they want financial performance. Christina is a brilliant entrepreneur and is currently on the Forbes 30 under 30 list.  John and Christina talk about the lack of speed in AI and the importance of Quant engineering.   Jennifer is on he

Every week the show host John Siracusa talks with amazing fintech leaders and entrepreneurs, through conversation uncovers the amazing stories behind them, their creations and the most important topics in fintech. You can Subscribe to this podcast and stay up to date on all the stories here on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and iHeartRadio In this episode John talks with Fawce, Co Founder & CEO of Quantopian.  This is one of a few interviews that we recorded on site during Boston fintech week.  Fawce talked on how he went from working in his shed to raising $48,000,000 in venture funding.  It all started with a question that he asked himself constantly and couldn’t not answer which was, what if firms could break the 150 Quant limit which seems to be a long lasting self imposed ceiling, instead, what if they could have 10,000?  The implications could change everything. This guiding question if answered could empower firms to get thousands of the smartest people in the world to focus on a particular firms

Every week the show host John Siracusa talks with amazing fintech leaders and entrepreneurs through conversation uncovers the amazing stories behind them, their creations and the most important topics in fintech. You can Subscribe to this podcast and stay up to date on all the stories here on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and iHeartRadio In this episode John talks with Mike Massaro, CEO of Flywire.  This is one of a few interviews that we recorded on site during Boston fintech week.  In this episode Mike shared a story that is basically every business leader’s worst nightmare.  After burning through $6,000,000 and having the company close to bottoming out, Mike was extremely close to relaying that information to one of his most important stakeholders; his wife. Luckily (luck being defined as dedication and focus) and against all odds he was able to raise an A round that kept the company afloat and on track to the giant it is today.  Mike admitted that it was mis-allocation of funds that was the result of cha

Every week the show host John Siracusa talks with amazing fintech leaders and entrepreneurs through conversation uncovers the amazing stories behind them, their creations and the most important topics in fintech. You can Subscribe to this podcast and stay up to date on all the stories here on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and iHeartRadio In this episode, John talks with Mazy Dar from Openfin, Openfin is an operating system for financial desktops.  12 of the top 15 global banks in the world use Openfin today It took 3 years after founding Openfin before they got their first major bank customers. Mazy shared an amazing story on how Openfin started to really come together when he talked with Matt Harris from Bain Capital about the challenge that Mazy and Chuck  faced in order to get the top global banks on the platform.  The advice was spot on, but its Mazy and Chuck’s response to Matt’s point to what makes Openfin great.  Matt came back in 2014 and joined their A round. Mazy added that it was clearly the best

Every week the show host John Siracusa talks with amazing fintech leaders and entrepreneurs through conversation uncovers the amazing stories behind them, their creations and the most important topics in fintech. You can Subscribe to this podcast and stay up to date on all the stories here on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and iHeartRadio In this episode, John talks with James Waldinger, Founder and CEO of Artivest.  James was able to raise a $2,000,000 seed round with a Power Point back in 2012, now Artivest currently has about 100 employees.  Before that he was an analyst on Peter Thiel's initial Facebook investment team and from the research Peter decided to invest $500,000, after the Facebook IPO he sold about 17,000,000 shares grossing $638,000,000.  James was part of that team which put that deal together and he discusses this during the interview in this episode.   James Waldinger LinkedIn - Twitter Artivest LinkedIn - Twitter   Subscribe now to hear Tuesday’s interview with Mazy Dar from Openfin.   A

Every week the show host John Siracusa talks with amazing fintech leaders and entrepreneurs through conversation uncovers the amazing stories behind them, their creations and the most important topics in fintech. You can Subscribe to this podcast and stay up to date on all the stories here on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and iHeartRadio In this episode, John talks with Dhruv Bansal, Co-Founder and CSO of Unchained Capital.  Unchained Capital is a crypto secured loan provider. During the episode Dhruv said “You can't control volatility but you can trade it back and forth with their borrowers”  which is what makes the whole system work. During the interview Dhruv shared an amazing period of time during Unchained Capital's life.  Bitcoin had a 70% draw-down from December 2017 until March 2018 and Unchained Capital had to margin call 90% of their loans but not a single borrower defaulted.  He went on to explain why and it was very interesting.   Dhruv Bansal LinkedIn - Twitter Unchained Capital LinkedIn - Twi

Every week the show host John Siracusa talks with amazing fintech leaders and entrepreneurs through conversation uncovers the amazing stories behind them, their creations and the most important topics in fintech. You can Subscribe to this podcast and stay up to date on all the stories here on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and iHeartRadio In this episode, John talks with Will Rhind, founder and CEO of GraniteShares.  They discuss in detail the nuances of organically growing a fintech from nothing to gaining capital from some amazing investors like, Bain Capital, Clocktower Technology Ventures and LG Capital to name a few.   They also discussed things like crypto etfs and how and when they’ll come about.   William Rhind LinkedIn - Twitter GraniteShares LinkedIn - Twitter   Subscribe now to hear Tuesdays interview with Dhruv Bansal from Unchained Capital.   About the host: John is the host of the 2x weekly "Bank On It” podcast recorded onsite from the CG offices and a highly sought after fintech, VC and financ

Every week the show host John Siracusa talks with amazing fintech leaders and entrepreneurs through conversation uncovers the amazing stories behind them, their creations and the most important topics in fintech. You can Subscribe to this podcast and stay up to date on all the stories here on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and iHeartRadio. In today’s episode, John and his fellow co host, Joy Schwartz from Lendit chat with three women fintech leaders such as Jennifer Barrett from Acorns, Casey Taylor from Digital Currency Group and Andrea Gellert  from Ondeck.   The mission of this episode is to help get the word out and to encourage more women to take on leadership roles at fintechs and help the industry cultivate an environment that supports it.     The average percentage of women in the C-Suite at fintech companies is 19%.  Just last month Lendit released the “‘State of the Women in Fintech’ survey Which reinforced the need for this particular episode. There were practical actions shared during the interv

Every week the show host John Siracusa talks with amazing fintech leaders and entrepreneurs through conversation uncovers the amazing stories behind them and their creations. You can Subscribe to this podcast and stay up to date on all the stories here on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and iHeartRadio. In this episode John chats with Eric Wilson from Better Mortgage. During the interview they discuss the technical feats Better Mortgage had to overcome in order to build a client centric digital mortgage platform and the story behind it all.  Better Mortgage has some amazing investors, Goldman Sachs, Pine Brook Partners, Kleiner Perkins and Moderne Ventures to name a few. Eric Wilson LinkedIn Better Mortgage LinkedIn - Twitter Subscribe now to hear next weeks episode on Women in fintech with Joy Schwartz from Lendit, Jennifer Barrett from Acorns, Andrea Gellert from Ondeck and Casey Taylor from Digital Currency Group.   About the host: John is the host of the 2x weekly "Bank On It” podcast recorded onsite from

Every week the show host John Siracusa talks with amazing fintech leaders and entrepreneurs through conversation, through which uncovers the amazing stories behind them and their creations. You can Subscribe to this podcast and stay up to date on all the stories here on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and iHeartRadio. In this episode John chats with Aaron Schumm from Vestwell. Aaron shares some amazing stories throughout his entrepreneurial career like stressful times of being totally out of cash, to more positive like talking with over 80 VCs of which only 3 said no to funding his company.  He’s been through a lot, yet stayed positive throughout it all. John and Aaron discuss it and laugh a bit. Tune in and learn about the organic progression on why/how Aaron built his recent company, Vestwell.  Vestwell has some amazing VC backers, F-Prime Capital Partners, FinTech Collective, Commerce Ventures and Primary Venture Partners to name a few. Aaron Schumm LinkedIn - Twitter Vestwell LinkedIn - Twitter John is th

You can Subscribe to this podcast iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and iHeartRadio. In this episode the host, John Siracusa interviews Colin Kennedy from Clarity with Marcus by Goldman Sachs.  Colin was the CRO & COO of Clarity during the acquisition from Marcus by Goldman Sachs. They discussed the vision of Clarity and talked a bit about the wild ride Clarity has been through.  It was launched in January 2017 and Acquired April 2018.  Now Clarity enjoys over a million users and they discussed how that happened through their app ecosystem and organic growth. Although the Clarity team didn’t develop the company for acquisition they learned quickly that Marcus had a different idea and it ended up becoming a perfect acquisition. Colin Kennedy, LinkedIn Goldman Sachs, LinkedIn - Twitter Marcus, Twitter Clarity, LinkedIn - Twitter John is the host of the weekly "Bank On It” podcast recorded onsite from the CG offices and a highly sought after fintech, VC and financial services industry enthusiast and connector. H

In this episode the host, John Siracusa has an in depth conversation with Nathan Richardson Co-Founder & CEO at TradeIt.  Nathan shared some amazing stories about selling his company to Yahoo in 1999 for $101,000,000 to being part of the team which created Yahoo Finance!  He’s done humanitarian work in Libya, helping to rebuild the countries education and basic utilities systems. This interview unlocked insights into an amazing individual and entrepreneur.   Listen in if you like to hear about the person behind the results. You can Subscribe to this podcast iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and iHeartRadio. Nathan Richardson LinkedIn - Twitter TradeIT on LinkedIn - Twitter John is the host of the weekly "Bank On It” podcast recorded onsite from the CG offices and a highly sought after fintech, VC and financial services industry enthusiast and connector. He’s in the center of the fintech ecosystem keeping current with the ever - innovating industry.  Follow John on LinkedIn, Twitter or on Medium        

Welcome to the first Thursday morning episode!   In this episode the host, John Siracusa chats with Mike Kane, Co Founder of Hydrogen.     They talk about why Mike created Hydrogen in the first place and the journey that led him and his brother to go from Hedgeable to organically creating Hydrogen, a service that all companies in the financial web 3.0 need.  Hydrogen is not a huge VC backed firm, yet they are able to take on behemoths like Salesforce. Mike feels that web 3.0 needs to be a very open environment, something that large corporate entities can’t do.   The story to why Hydrogen was created rooted from a need they had at an earlier company and with the advent of Blockchain, many companies share the same need. Tune in if you like a great story and how the financial web might be powered.     John is the host of the weekly "Bank On It” podcast recorded onsite from the CG offices and a highly sought after fintech, VC and financial services industry enthusiast and connector. He’s in the center of the fint