Hello FINTECHTALKERS! In this episode, I sat down with Sharon Rodriguez, CEO of HighPeak AI and venture partner at 1843 Capital, to explore how data, AI, and deep insurance insight are transforming long-term care planning. Backed by Prudential and built on three decades of claims and underwriting data, HighPeak is rethinking how Americans plan for healthcare, retirement, and the silver economy. Sharon shares her journey from MetLife’s global IT strategy to startup success, and how HighPeak is cr...
May 30, 2025•42 min
HELLO FINTECHTALKERS! In this episode, I sat down with Sebastien Borget , the visionary co-founder and COO of The Sandbox , a platform that has redefined gaming by turning players into creators, users into owners, and digital assets into economies. Sebastien shares his journey from a teenage gamer to a serial entrepreneur who pioneered one of the most active decentralized gaming platforms in Web 3 — now with over 6 million wallets , major brand partnerships like Jurassic World, Snoop Dogg, Warne...
May 02, 2025•38 min
HELLO FINTECHTALKERS, In this episode, I sat down with Ram Palaniappan , CEO of EarnIn , to discuss something that touches all of us — getting paid . But not in the old way. Ram and his team are flipping the script on payday with Early Pay, a new feature that gets users access to their paycheck two days ahead of time , with zero hassle and maximum flexibility. And what made this episode extra special — we were joined by Madeline and Mike , two longtime EarnIn users who shared, first-hand, the li...
Apr 15, 2025•49 min
HELLO FINTECHTALKERS, In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Veer Gidwaney , founder and CEO of Ansel . With a strong entrepreneurial background and a successful exit from Maxwell Health to Sun Life, Veer’s passion for solving healthcare challenges is evident. Ansel is redefining the world of supplemental insurance by covering 13,000 conditions —far more than traditional offerings—and providing proactive claims payments . That means insured individuals often receive financial suppo...
Apr 02, 2025•38 min
HELLO FINTECHTALKERS, In this episode, I sat down with Chandini Jain , CEO of Auquan , to explore the real-world application of agentic AI in financial services. Auquan is an enterprise AI platform that builds domain-specific agents for capital markets, automating time-consuming workflows like deal screening , credit analysis , due diligence , and compliance reporting . Chandini walks us through her journey from IIT Kanpur to Deutsche Bank , and how her love for math and problem-solving ultimate...
Mar 25, 2025•44 min
HELLO FINTECHTALKERS, In this episode, I sat down with an all-star panel featuring Amy Oldenburg , Managing Director at Morgan Stanley , Lex Sokolin , Managing Partner & Co-Founder of Generative Ventures , Rana Gujaral , CEO of Behavioral Signals , and Dr. Riad Hartani , AI and infrastructure expert, to unpack the rapidly evolving AI landscape. From the rise of DeepSeek and the almost trillion-dollar Stargate Project to the battle for AI supremacy between the U.S., China, and Europe, we dive...
Mar 08, 2025•1 hr 25 min
Welcome FINTECHTALKERS! In this episode, I sat down with Rob Straathof , CEO of Liberis , to explore how embedded finance is reshaping the lending landscape for small businesses. From instant capital access to AI-driven analytics, Liberis is building a small business co-pilot for SMEs worldwide. Rob shares his journey from being raised in a small business family to investment banking to fintech disruption, why traditional banks have missed the mark on SME financing, and how AI and embedded finan...
Feb 19, 2025•49 min
Welcome back and a BIG thank you FINTECHTALKERS! FINTECHTALK: A Top 10% Global Podcast Shaping the Future of Fintech, AI, and Crypto Ranked by ListenNotes Looking to amplify your brand's reach? Partner with our podcast and connect with an engaged and loyal audience. Contact us today to explore sponsorship opportunities and elevate your brand! fintechtalk@substack.com In this episode, I sat down with Steven Woods , founder and CEO of Stirlingshire , to explore how his company is disrupting the we...
Feb 10, 2025•37 min
Welcome back and a big Thank you FINTECHTALKERS! FINTECHTALK: A Top 10% Global Podcast Shaping the Future of Fintech, AI, and Crypto Since its inception, FINTECHTALK has organically risen to rank among the top 10% of podcasts worldwide. It's become the go-to platform for startup CEOs, visionary venture capitalists, and forward-thinking bank innovators to share their stories and insights. With a focus on fintech, AI, and crypto, FINTECHTALK is where the brightest minds come together to shape the ...
Dec 09, 2024•32 min
Hi FINTECHTALKERS, This year’s Money 20/20 was all about AI and generative AI. Last year, I wrote about the shift from "FINTECH" to "FINTEL" —a fusion of financial technology with AI—and, in just a year, we’re seeing that vision come to life. From startup funding trends to major incumbents rolling out AI-driven solutions, the transformation is well underway. On the sidelines of the event, I had the opportunity to sit down with two AI leaders reshaping financial services: Shri Santhanam, EVP and ...
Nov 12, 2024•36 min
Hi FINTECHTALKERS, I sat down with Garnet Heraman Co-founder and Managing Partner at Aperture Venture Capital, and Dave Anderson Founding General Partner at Beat Ventures to talk about the rise of emerging managers and how they differentiate in an increasing crowded venture capitalist space. Garnet and Dave represent a dynamic new breed of emerging managers, bringing a personalized, niche, and highly flexible approach to founders in the venture ecosystem. Unlike many established Silicon Valley V...
Oct 09, 2024•1 hr 4 min
HI FINTECHTALKERS , (opinion below are my own not necessarily of my guests) I sat down with Tom Brown , partner and general counsel at NYCA Partners , and Luke Voiles , a trailblazer in small business fintech and now CEO of Pipe . We explored the evolving landscape of fintech, diving into the shift from traditional financial services to embedded finance, to support vertical SaaS solutions, and the integration of AI agents into business ecosystems. Fintech began its journey of digitizing financia...
Oct 04, 2024•1 hr 17 min
HI FINTECHTALKERS, (follow me on Twitter (X) for lively discussions on these topics @PADDYRAMANATHAN ), I sat down with Frank Desvignes, founding partner of True Global Ventures (or TGV) 4 Plus. We talked about the unique approach of TGV in the venture capital landscape, their global footprint with local presence in all major theatres, and the recently concluded AI startup competition they recently held in San Mateo. TGV's remarkable success underscores the essential need for startups to cultiva...
Jun 14, 2024•40 min
Hi FINTECHTALKERS, (These opinions are mine and not of the guests of my show) It is commonly accepted wisdom in Silicon Valley that venture capital (VC) portfolio, especially early stage, follow the power law and not the normal distribution - a small number of investments make huge returns whereas a large number don’t even return the invested capital. Given this reality, venture capitalists focus on startups with odds of achieving higher-than-average success, a fact they openly acknowledge. It i...
May 23, 2024•1 hr 3 min
Hi FINTECHTALKERS, (follow me on Twitter (X)) for real-time discussions on these topics @PADDYRAMANATHAN ), I sat down with Deep Varma, CTO of Alkami (0-41.20) to talk about Digital Banking Solutions and separately with my good friend Booshan Rengachari, CEO of Finzly (41.30-1.13) to talk about Finzly’s BankOS and how he plans to incorporate AI/GenAI. You don’t want to miss the insights of these technology visionaries building the next generation of technology for financial services. ICYMI, the ...
Feb 15, 2024•1 hr 13 min
Hi FINTECHTALKERS, (follow me on Twitter (X)) for lively discussions on these topics @PADDYRAMANATHAN ), I sat down with Ram Palaniappan, CEO of Earnin, a company that allows workers to access their pay instantly. Lot of folks in the industry like to talk about financial inclusion as it is good for the brand, Palaniappan and Earnin are the real deal. Palaniappan has built a very sucessfull main street fintech and raised around $200 million from prominent VCs like Andreessen Horowitz, Matrix Part...
Feb 01, 2024•33 min
HI FINTECHTALKERS, (follow me on Twitter (X) for lively discussions on these topics @PADDYRAMANATHAN ), Happy New Year! I sat down with Zor Gorelov, CEO of Kasisto, a pioneer in AI. We cover a lot of topics from Artificial Financial Intelligence (AFI before AGI) that Zor passionately talks about, how domain-specific models can win over general-purpose LLMs, and how those capabilities will provide a competitive advantage for future enterprises. Here is the table of timestamps for easy navigation ...
Jan 12, 2024•37 min
HI FINTECHTALKERS, (follow me on Twitter (X) for lively discussions on these topics @PADDYRAMANATHAN ), I sat down with David Nohe, CEO of Fingoal, a Fintel Startup creating hyperpersonalization, and Leslie Gillin, Chief Growth Officer at Pagaya another innovative company applying AI in financial services in credit decisions and financial inclusion. Subscribe to tune into my conversation with Zor Gorelov, CEO of Kasisto, and Deep Varma CTO of Alkami coming up next. Enjoy and always be in the kno...
Dec 07, 2023•57 min
HI FINTECHTALKERS, (follow me on Twitter (X) for lively discussions on these topics @PADDYRAMANATHAN ), I sat down with Ian Horne, author of Why DeFI Matters to discuss his book. This was recorded on the sidelines of Money2020. We talk about how DeFI changes to the financial system factor whereas fintech is essentially a distribution innovation, and how Web3 fundamentally changes the business model of the internet. Ian talks about successful projects in DefI/Crypto that don’t get much attention ...
Nov 22, 2023•44 min
HI FINTECHTALKERS, (follow me on Twitter (X) for lively discussions on these topics @PADDYRAMANATHAN ), I sat down with William Capuzzi, CEO of Apex Fintech Solutions (also a board member at DTCC and a prolific investor) on the sidelines of the Money20/20 show this week in Las Vegas. We covered a lot of topics including why Bill challenges himself to run triathlons, what is his mission at Apex, and how he and his team are enabling average retail investors to invest like hedge fund managers; Apex...
Oct 31, 2023•41 min
HI FINTECHTALKERS, ( follow me on Twitter for lively discussions on these topics @PADDYRAMANATHAN ) Three years ago, in January 2020, we published our top 10 predictions for the decade below. So we wanted to follow up to see where the puck has been and where it will be. Multi-modal AI, which includes text-to-image and text-to-audio capabilities, has arrived, as has quantum computing for cyber-security. TwitterFiles demonstrate that Twitter is more than a social media platform, but a critical tra...
Feb 14, 2023•1 hr 33 min
HI FINTECHTALKERS, This is one of the recordings from the sidelines of Money 2020 earlier this fall in Vegas. It was great to be back at this high energy show sometime back when FTX was just a TLA known to a few. There were several broad themes at the show. Here are my top takeaways. * Modernization of Infrastructure - Digital platforms like Smart Card, BaaS/Embedded Finance, neoCore platforms, and Enterprise DeFI * Fintech explosion in the South - LATAM and beyond (I talk to Jean Mies of PPRO i...
Dec 07, 2022•30 min
HI FINTECHTALKERS, I was at Money 2020 in Vegas. It was great to be back at this high energy show, antithetical in some sense to the Vegas cliché - what happens in Money 2020 is talked about all over the fintech world . There were several broad themes at the show. Here are my top takeaways. * Modernization of Infrastructure - Digital platforms like Smart Card, BaaS/Embedded Finance, neoCore platforms, and Enterprise DeFI - succinctly captured in our editorial info graph at the end. * Fintech exp...
Nov 07, 2022•35 min
HI FINTECHTALKERS, It has been a while. I had some personal situations over summer and beyond for an extended time. Just getting back into rhythm. I sat down a few weeks back with Devon Kinkead (CEO of Micronotes), Patrick Reilly (CEO of Verde International), Naushad Contractor (CEO of Fable Fintech) to talk all things about data, AI/ML in financial services and the still evolving space of cross-border payments. AI is not going to just drive our cars, but manage our finances and will augment the...
Oct 07, 2022•1 hr 1 min
HI FINTECHTALKERS, I sat down with Shamir Karkal (CEO of SilaMoney), Brion Bonkowski (CEO & Founder at Tern) to talk about Fintech, the Equity/Crypto market correction, and the future. We covered a lot of ground and in order to make it easy to navigate the podcast, I have included a table of timestamps and our infographic view of the Payment value chain along with Fintech Elder recap of the podcast. 0.10-7.05 - Introduction 7.05-16.00 Challenger Bank evolution - segment-specific lifestyle ap...
Jun 07, 2022•52 min
HI FINTECHTALKERS, I sat down with Ram Subramaniam (CEO of Guardianlink.io), Prakash Somosundram (CEO of Enjinstarter.com), and Matthew Gunnin (CEO of eSports.one) to talk about all things Metaverse, the rise of the immersive web, NFTs, Digital Assets and more. We covered a lot of ground and in order to make it easy to navigate the podcast, I have included a table of timestamps. Metaverse represents the evolution of the Web, where you are in the Web not just connected to it through a device like...
May 18, 2022•1 hr 5 min
HI FINTECHTALKERS, I sat down with Morgan McKenney, the CEO of Provenance Blockchain Foundation to talk about all things Blockchain, the future of DeFI, and how Provenance and Figure are driving innovation in all domains of financial services - Lending, Payments, Capital Markets. We covered a lot of ground and in order to make it easy to navigate the podcast here is a table of timestamps. 0.10-0.55 - Introduction 1.00-4.45 - Morgan’s background across the years 4.45-5.45 - What made Morgan join ...
Apr 28, 2022•1 hr 1 min
Recording of The FINTECHTALK™ Show on Clubhouse on Nov 18th, 2021. EPILOGUE To join iValley as it sculpts (build, write, and talk) the future of fintech and crypto economy click here . Connect with us! iValley Innovation Center 11040 Bollinger Canyon Rd, E-909San Ramon, CA 94582,The United States. Get full access to FINTECHTALK™ Sculpting the future of fintech, AI, & Crypto at substack.fintechtalk.ivalley.co/subscribe...
Nov 29, 2021•1 hr
Recording of The FINTECHTALK™ Show on Clubhouse on Oct 13th, 2021. Connect with us! iValley Innovation Center 11040 Bollinger Canyon Rd, E-909San Ramon, CA 94582,The United States. Phone: +1 925-575-7832 Get full access to FINTECHTALK™ Sculpting the future of fintech, AI, & Crypto at substack.fintechtalk.ivalley.co/subscribe...
Oct 21, 2021•1 hr 3 min
Recording of the FINTECHTALK(TM) Show on Clubhouse on Aug 25th, 2021. Connect with us! iValley Innovation Center 11040 Bollinger Canyon Rd, E-909San Ramon, CA 94582,The United States. Phone: +1 925-575-7832 Get full access to FINTECHTALK™ Sculpting the future of fintech, AI, & Crypto at substack.fintechtalk.ivalley.co/subscribe...
Sep 09, 2021•1 hr 19 min
