In this conversation, we chat with Yenwen Feng, co-founder of Perpetual Protocol, a decentralized perpetual contract protocol for every asset, made possible by a Virtual Automated Market Maker, with an aim to create an accessible and secure decentralized derivatives trading platform. Yenwen has over 17 years of various expertise and experience in the financial and tech industry, co-founding businesses like Cubie Inc. and Cinch Network. Yenwen also holds an MS degree in computer science from Nati...
Mar 25, 2022•42 min•Ep 56•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Edward Woodford, Co-Founder and CEO of Zero Hash. Zero Hash’s mission is to empower innovators by delivering access to the financial system 2.0. Zero Hash provides the complete turnkey solution to allow platforms to launch digital assets and own the client experience, without any regulatory overhead and a light technical lift. Zero Hash’s clients include Neo-banks, broker dealers and payment groups. Prior to founding Zero Hash, he gained experience at a series ...
Mar 18, 2022•39 min•Ep 55•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Urvashi Barooah, a Principal at Redpoint Ventures. Urvashi holds a B.A. from Middlebury College, has 3 years experience in Mergers & Acquisitions consulting at Ernst & Young’s New York office. Since then she has worked at BCG, Primary Venture Partners, and Redpoint Ventures - where she has been an integral part to investing in high growth startups across Web3 and Fintech. More specifically, we touch on the journey to becoming a venture capitalist, the essential...
Mar 11, 2022•39 min•Ep 54•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with John MacIlwaine, Founder and CEO at HighNote. The former general manager at Paypal Holdings Inc-owned Braintree. Highnote improves embedded payments experiences, reducing speed to market while supporting customer loyalty and engagement. John is a senior business and technology professional with 25 years of experience in executive level GM/CEO and CTO/CPO roles, primarily within the financial services industry, with expertise in technology innovation, strategic ...
Mar 04, 2022•43 min•Ep 53•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Trevor Marshall, The Chief Technology Officer at Current, a leading U.S. financial technology company serving Americans working to create a better future for themselves. A graduate of Columbia University with degrees in math and computer science, Trevor worked on automating trading strategies at Morgan Stanley and built applications on distributed ledger technology before creating the foundation for Current. In 2015, he began building the Current Core, Current’...
Feb 25, 2022•40 min•Ep 52•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Aaron Klein, the co-founder and CEO at Riskalyze. Aaron’s career has largely been at the intersection of finance and technology. As co-founder and CEO at Riskalyze, he led the company to twice being named one of the world’s top 10 most innovative companies in finance by Fast Company Magazine. Today, over 200 Riskalyzers serve thousands of advisors who have aligned the world's investments with millions of investors' Risk Numbers®. Aaron has served as a Sierra Co...
Feb 18, 2022•37 min•Ep 51•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Dimitri Dadiomov, the CEO and co-founder of San Francisco-based Modern Treasury which is among the Bay Area’s up-and-coming fintech entrepreneurs reshaping how business is done. Modern Treasury’s software automates the processes companies use to move money, from initiating payment, getting approvals and reconciling it all. The company reconciles more than $2 billion in payments every month, up from $1 billion in April 2021. It helps that Modern Treasury has a c...
Feb 11, 2022•40 min•Ep 50•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Ruben Nieto, the managing director at Allfunds Blockchain S.L.U., who has more than 15 years applying technology to the financial services industry. Ruben has been intrumental in building solutions for the institutional fund distribution leading platform in Europe, Allfunds Bank. More specifically, we touch on all things digital asset management, wealth management, Ruben’s, blockchain journey around digital assets in the enterprise space, and so so much more!Di...
Feb 04, 2022•45 min•Ep 49•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Aaron Schumm, the Founder and CEO of Vestwell, an entirely new kind of digital retirement platform transforming the way plans are offered and administered — for the benefit of advisors, employers, and employees alike. Prior to founding Vestwell, Aaron was a co-founder of FolioDynamix, a wealth management and advisory services company that powered $800 billion in assets for over 100,000 advisors. At FolioDynamix, which was sold to Envestnet in 2017, Aaron oversa...
Jan 28, 2022•42 min•Ep 48•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Carson Cook – the founder of Tokemak and Fractal. Carson holds his PhD in Physics and Master’s in Electrical Engineering. After completing his PhD, Carson worked at McKinsey for several years, focused on fintech, financial services, and wealth management. He got into the blockchain/crypto space in 2016 and founded Fractal in 2018, focused on market making and providing liquidity. Tokemak is a new product Carson designed based on opportunities he saw in the spac...
Jan 21, 2022•45 min•Ep 47•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Andrei Cherny, Co-Founder & CEO ofAspiration, a budding financial services platform for people who want to save the planet by neutralizing their carbon footprint. Their mission is massive, with ~5 million members making a difference in the fight against climate change. Andrei combines a background as an advisor to some of America’s top companies, the co-founder and president of a media start-up, a financial fraud prosecutor, a historian, a White House aide, a N...
Jan 14, 2022•35 min•Ep 46•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Michael Godsey – the GM and Head of Product for Infura, previously a Producer and Product Manager in the video game industry working on Call of Duty, Need for Speed, and EA Sports franchises. Michael’s educational background is in Mathematics and Game Design. More specifically, we touch on the idea of games and rendered worlds, the philosophies behind game design, the financial services that are blockchain powered, the solution that Infura solves for so many, a...
Jan 09, 2022•39 min•Ep 45•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Hany Rashwan – the founder of Amun and 21Shares. Hany built the company that put out the first physically backed crypto Exchange Traded Product (ETP). In simpler terms, he created a vehicle for people to buy crypto assets, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, on the stock market. Alongside Cathie Wood of ARK, 21Shares recently submitted a Bitcoin ETF to the SEC. While he waits for the US to get on board, Hany's products are already offered all over Europe, with more th...
Dec 17, 2021•43 min•Ep 44•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Henry Yoshida – Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Rocket Dollar. Prior to Rocket Dollar, Yoshida was the co-founder of Honest Dollar, a robo-advisor retirement platform that was acquired by Goldman Sachs, as well as a founder of MY Group LLC, a $2.5-billion assets under management investment firm. Henry shares his industry expertise as a speaker at several industry conferences, as well as having been featured or quoted in the Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch...
Dec 10, 2021•44 min•Ep 43•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Daniel Finlay – a former Apple software developer, co-founder and co-lead developer on MetaMask – a non-custodial Ethereum wallet, allowing users to store Ether and other ERC-20 tokens and make transactions. Further. With the growth of DeFi and NFTs over the past year, MetaMask has increased in prominence as an entry point for novice users. So much so that its user base is now over 20 million monthly active users. More specifically, we touch on how Dan went fro...
Dec 03, 2021•43 min•Ep 42•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Elizabeth Rossiello – the CEO and founder of AZA, an established provider of currency trading solutions which accelerate global access to frontier markets through an innovative infrastructure. Elizabeth founded the company in 2013 in Nairobi, Kenya and has expanded it to 10+ markets across Africa and Europe. Before founding AZA, Elizabeth was a rating analyst for microfinance institutions across sub-Saharan Africa, consulting for Grameen Foundation, Gates Found...
Nov 26, 2021•43 min•Ep 41•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Adam Hughes – the Chief Executive Officer at Amount, a technology company focused on accelerating the world’s transition to digital financial services via its digital retail banking platform, world-class digital authentication & fraud prevention tools, and ecommerce point-of-sale financing technology. Prior to his role at Amount, Adam was President & COO at Avant, an industry-leading digital consumer lending platform. Earlier in his career, Adam was an early em...
Nov 19, 2021•42 min•Ep 40•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Nicholas – an NFT developer and a contributor to Juicebox, which is an awesome DAO enablement software, as well as SharkDAO and PartyDAO. He is very active in the ecosystems, got a solidity podcast called Solidity Galaxy Brain, a collaborator with multiple NFT artists, but I could go on and on. Let me welcome Nicholas to the podcast. More specifically, we touch on the philosophy behind programming and coding, what a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) t...
Nov 16, 2021•49 min•Ep 39•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Rhett Roberts, the Co-Founder and CEO of LoanPro – a new breed of software company that is API-driven, cloud-native and easily scalable. Rhett and his co-founders created the company out of necessity when they ran an auto lending business as they could not find anything flexible enough to suit their own needs. More specifically, we touch on all things around the lending industry, the auto lending industry and how everything there works, and of course, why LoanP...
Nov 05, 2021•44 min•Ep 38•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Sergey Nazarov. Sergey Nazarov is Co-founder of Chainlink, the leading decentralized oracle network used by global enterprises & projects at the forefront of the blockchain space. Chainlink is the industry standard oracle network for powering hybrid smart contracts. Chainlink Decentralized Oracle Networks provide developers with the largest collection of high-quality data sources and secure off-chain computations to expand the capabilities of smart contracts on...
Oct 29, 2021•43 min•Ep 37•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Richard Turrin – an award-winning executive, previously heading FinTech teams at IBM, following a twenty-year career, heading trading teams at global investment banks. He’s also the author of the number one international bestseller, Innovation Lab Excellence. One of his books is Cashless: China’s Digital Currency Revolution, which brings the story of China’s incredible new central bank digital currency to the west. He lives in Shanghai, China, where he’s had th...
Oct 22, 2021•44 min•Ep 36•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Sandeep Nailwal – The Co-Founder & COO at Polygon (previously Matic Network). Sandeep is a long time developer who’s been dabbling in the space since way back in his college days. Originally known as the Matic Network, Polygon rebranded with the aim to reach a global audience and they’ve certainly done just that. More specifically, we touch on Sandeep’s intriguing entrepreneurial journey, developing a blockchain startup in India, DApps, Scalability & Interopera...
Oct 15, 2021•46 min•Ep 35•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Tim Frost, CEO and Co-Founder of Yield App, a fintech app making DeFi accessible to everyone. Prior to founding Yield, Tim helped build 2 previous digital banks, Wirex and EQIBank. Tim has also helped accelerate early-stage blockchain startups QTUM, NEO, Paxful, Polymath, and many others. More specifically, we touch on all things crypto banking and debit cards, crypto onramps, juristictions and regulation, defi banking, yield generation mechanisms, and so much ...
Oct 08, 2021•36 min•Ep 34•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Paul Rowady is the Founder and Director of Research for Alphacution Research Conservatory and a 30-year veteran of proprietary, hedge fund and capital markets research, trading and risk advisory initiatives. Alphacution is a digitally-oriented research and strategic advisory platform focused on modeling and benchmarking the impacts of technology on global financial markets and the businesses of trading, asset management and banking. This data-driven approach al...
Oct 01, 2021•39 min•Ep 33•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Gabriel Anderson – Managing Director at Tachyon, Head of Market Strategy & Business Intelligence at ConsenSys Labs. Former Head of VaynerMedia. Alum of Merrill Lynch. More specifically, we touch on what Tachyon is, how it works, and who it’s for, the growth of crypto, and what needs to come next to allow the widespread adoption of crypto by mainstream society. Gabriel talks about the best projects he has seen so far that combine NFTs with other elements of DeFi...
Sep 24, 2021•50 min•Ep 32•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Kevin Levitt who currently leads global business development for the financial services industry at NVIDIA. He focuses on global trends in accelerated compute and AI for consumer finance – including fintech, retail banking, credit card and insurance. Prior to joining NVIDIA, Kevin served as Vice President of Business Development at Credit Karma, and Vice President of Sales for Roostify. More specifically, we touch on the role data plays in the financial industr...
Sep 17, 2021•44 min•Ep 31•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Erick Calderon is the founder and CEO at Art Blocks, a platform for creating on-demand, generative art pieces. Since its launch a year ago, Art Blocks has garnered the attention of many, including auction house Sotheby’s, which recently sold 19 of the platform’s pieces in a deal totaling $81,000. Calderon, a native Houstonian, uses the online handle Snowfro, which stems from a snow cone stand he used to own. More specifically, we touch on projection mapping, ge...
Sep 10, 2021•45 min•Ep 30•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, Cris Sheridan, who is the Senior Editor of Financial Sense and Host of FS Insider, leads the conversation around the basics to understand the exciting new digital universe, more commonly known as The Metaverse. More specifically, we discuss all things VR & AR including social media’s proliferation into the sector, Millenial vs GenZ behavioural approaches to the metaverse, the creator economy, NFTs, Axie Infinity, Mr Beast, Computational Blockchains, Decentralized Autonomous...
Sep 03, 2021•36 min•Ep 29•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Jason Wenk, who is the Founder & CEO at Altruist. Apart from this Jason is a writer, self-proclaimed math geek, and investment systems developer. He began his career at Morgan Stanley in NYC at age 20, working on investment research and asset management systems development. After this Jason founded FormulaFolios: quantitative, computer-driven investment models based on academic research to help remove emotion from investing. FormulaFolios would later develop in...
Aug 20, 2021•46 min•Ep 28•Transcript available on Metacast In this conversation, we chat with Chris Dean, who is the Founder & CEO at Treasury Prime. Previously, Chris was the CTO & VP of Engineering at Standard Treasury, which was acquired by Silicon Valley Bank for an undisclosed amount. More specifically, we discuss all things banking-as-a-service, FinTech APIs, embedded finance, and the general evolution of the FinTech banking industry over the last decade.Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the...
Aug 13, 2021•35 min•Ep 27•Transcript available on Metacast 
