The Headless Banking Podcast

In this episode of the Headless Banking Podcast, Jeff interviews Kirill, CEO of Conduit, to discuss the company's journey and the evolution of the stablecoin market. Kirill shares his background in financial services and fintech, including his experience and frustrations with outdated banking systems. He details Conduit's pivots, from providing DeFi APIs to focusing on stablecoin payments, particularly in emerging markets. The episode explores the unexpected high adoption of stablecoins for payments, challenges of liquidity, and the shift towards bank partnerships and local stablecoins for smoother cross-border transactions. Kirill also highlights the regulatory landscape and the potential of instant payments to transform trade financing.Chapters:00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome00:32 Krill's Background and Journey01:22 Challenges in Traditional Banking Systems02:34 Entering the Crypto World02:54 Founding Conduit and Initial Product03:28 Market Changes and Pivot to Stablecoins05:11 Adoption and Use Cases of Stablecoins10:38 Liquidity Challenges and Solutions15:47 Future of Stablecoins and Final Thoughts16:52 Regulatory Landscape This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit headlessbanking.substack.com

In this episode of the Headless Banking Podcast, we welcome back Jared Slivers from Fireblocks to discuss the current state and future of global treasury management using crypto and stablecoins. They explore why corporate treasurers have been slow to adopt these technologies, considering factors such as regulatory barriers, technology readiness, and the need for better local liquidity solutions. The conversation also touches on the impact of AI in managing global treasury operations and how the evolving stablecoin infrastructure can facilitate smoother cross-border trade. The episode concludes with a discussion on the potential mainstream adoption of Bitcoin for corporate treasuries and the implications for global trade.00:00 Introduction and Welcome00:24 The Future of Global Treasury: Crypto and Stablecoins01:11 Fire Blocks and the Current State of Blockchain02:27 Stablecoins: Dollar Access and Cross-Border Trade05:33 Stripe Sessions: AI and Stablecoins09:18 Challenges and Opportunities in Adopting Stablecoins10:17 Building a Corporate Treasury with Stablecoins13:27 The Role of Banks and Exchanges20:25 The Potential of Stablecoins and AI in Treasury Management22:55 MicroStrategy's Bitcoin Strategy27:12 Conclusion and Final Thoughts This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit headlessbanking.substack.com

Nico is a wizard when it comes to building fintech solutions, understanding regulation, and navigating difficult partnerships with Sponsor Banks. It was a joy to have him on and to hear how Clair was built from the ground up. Hope you all enjoy the episode. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit headlessbanking.substack.com

In this episode of The Headless Banking Podcast, Chris interviews Bernardo Brites, co-founder and CEO of trace financial, a company that provides international payments, FX, and multiple use bank accounts to help globalize LATAM businesses. Bernardo talks about his journey through FinTech, starting a money transfer business, and the evolution of their products.This episode was recorded at a very interesting time when SVB had sounded the alarm. Bernardo and his team worked around the clock to help businesses that were stuck during this time. Interestingly enough, SVB banked 90% of LATAM businesses holding USD accounts.Tune in to hear how they accomplished this and much more! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit headlessbanking.substack.com

In this episode of The Headless Banking Podcast, Jeff interviews Brian Karimi-Pashaki, Head of Partnerships at Pinwheel, a company that provides income verification, direct deposit switching, and payroll data connectivity for FinTech & banks. Brian talks about his background in FinTech, starting at Goldman Sachs and buying third-party technology to build a Marcus. He also discusses the challenges of building new products inside a larger company, as well as the importance of AI assistants in the future of the financial industry.Diving into Pinwheel, Brian explains that the company is an API layer that sits in front of payroll systems, similar to Twilio and Plaid for telecommunications and banking data, respectively. By making payroll data accessible through their API, Pinwheel enables developers to build products and services that utilize this information. Examples include early access to wages, income and employment verification for loans and apartments, and more efficient and secure data sharing between employers and landlords.Overall, Pinwheel is changing the way payroll data is accessed and utilized, opening up new possibilities for the industry and beyond. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit headlessbanking.substack.com

How do international entities allow their customers to get access to the US market? With the uncertainty of markets and currencies, Alpaca is facilitating the pipes for companies to expand their offerings by stretching out their technology globally to give access as they were located in the US.I sat down with Yoshi Yokokawa, Co-Founder and CEO of Alpaca, to discuss how they set this up and tirelessly on the grind to expand into new markets. We discussed why this is important and their vision of globalizing the US market into new regions. Tune in to also hear about the awesome event they threw down here in Austin that included real life Alpacas!Thanks Yoshi! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit headlessbanking.substack.com

In a world dominated by traditional brokerage firms, eToro stands out as a disruptor in the financial services industry. Founded in 2007, eToro offers a unique social trading platform that has attracted millions of users worldwide. The company's co-founder, Ronen Assia, has been instrumental in shaping eToro's vision and growth. eToro's rise is a testament to the power of disruption and innovation in the financial services industry. By putting the user experience at the forefront and making trading a social experience, eToro has transformed the way people invest and trade. It was a joy to speak with Ronen in this episode, hope you enjoy it! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit headlessbanking.substack.com

I had the pleasure of speaking with Joseph Akintolayo, Founder and CEO of Deposits, the turn key solution for banks and brands to deliver experiences to customers without the need for technological expertise. Building personalized user experiences do not need to be massive cost and take a year to build. Joseph and his team are helping programs and FI’s get to market quick without breaking the bank (pun intended)! We get into how FI’s can leverage Deposits tech stack, brands can get to market with a partner bank, or not, and the path forward for banks to compete with other Fintech competitors.Tune in and enjoy! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit headlessbanking.substack.com

If you haven’t yet heard of Sardine or you have but you aren’t sure what they do then you need to listen to this episode where I chat with Aditya Goel, Co-Founder of Sardine. Essentially Aditya & team have built the one-stop shop for creating the foundation of a Fintech company. They are tackling the most difficult problems that many folks consider boring but are absolutely foundational to the success of a Fintech. The key pillars of any great fintech are Onboarding, Risk, Fraud, and Payments Ops. Rather than building these all yourself or blending together 2, 3, or 4 partners a founder can get a rapid start by just using Sardine.Hope you all enjoy it! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit headlessbanking.substack.com

A good friend and former colleague, Chris D’Antuono, will be hosting new episodes of the Pod. Can’t wait for his interviews with some great thought leaders in the Fintech world! In this episode, we give a brief background on Chris, talk about the stealth fintech he is building, some of the challenges he faced, and how he was able to overcome them. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit headlessbanking.substack.com

Jared Silvers (Fireblocks) & Asaad Faquir (Crowe) both old friends & previous guests on the show join me to unpack what happened with FTX, what it means for the crypto industry in 2023, and why BTC is the only true decentralized currency vs altcoins, CBDCs, etc.. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit headlessbanking.substack.com

I was fortunate to interview Ben Borodach, Co-Founder, of April and I was amazed by what he and the team have created. The company's vision is to democratize access to the tax code, enabling any company to develop and incorporate tax features and filing into their application. The platform today focuses on helping people file their taxes simply & seamlessly with aims to disrupt the biggest players in the space such as TurboTax and TaxAct that have not innovated much over the last 5 to 10 years. However, April plans to go much further in educating employees on how best to fill in their tax forms, specifically the black box that is a W-4, where everyone has anxiety. “Wait do I fill in a 0 or a 1? Maybe I should file my dependents!?! AHHHHH!” We’ve all had this feeling. April will provide tax estimates so that employees will be able to optimize their W-4 withholdings for their situations. Whether that is reducing withholdings so they can keep more money in their pocket or in the odd case maybe they want to increase their withholdings as a savings mechanism. In either case, April is providing a huge leap forward for consumer tax filing experiences. Hope you all enjoy the episode.About Ben:Ben has spent his career working at the intersection of finance and technology. He helped scale Team8 Group into a multi-hundred million AUM fund, and initiated and helped sell several FinTech companies to PayPal and BitSight, among others. During his tenure at Team8, Ben also spearheaded the firm's strategy arm and its US office as well as launched an award-winning cyber ETF and Ph.D. program. He has also been an advisor and contributor to the World Economic Forum on issues relating to central bank digital currencies. Before joining Team8, Ben was a FinTech strategist at Deloitte Consulting, where he advised the largest US banks and insurers on their business, technology, M&A, and venture strategies. . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit headlessbanking.substack.com

Many consumers and small business owners have likely experienced pain and unfair rejections when requesting a line of credit from a traditional bank. Upstart is working to solve this by using machine learning, AI, and tailored risk models that increase loan approval rates. Jeff Keltner & I unpack these issues and what Upstart is doing to solve them.Jeff is SVP of Business Development at Upstart and the fifth employee at the firm. Prior to Upstart, Jeff worked at Google for 6 years. He was the first business person focused on what is now Google Cloud – spending time launching and running the Education business, Global 200 account marketing, and Chrome for Business areas.Upstart is a leading artificial intelligence (AI) lending platform designed to improve access to affordable credit while reducing the risk and costs of lending for our bank partners. By leveraging Upstart’s AI platform, banks can offer higher approval rates and experience lower loss rates, while simultaneously delivering the exceptional digital-first lending experience their customers demand.Enjoy! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit headlessbanking.substack.com

Stephanie Sample is a serial entrepreneur and franchise owner who just recently decided to jump into fintech after experiencing the troubles firsthand. Fundid enables SMBs to get access to business capital, an expense management card to control cash flow, and all the resources you need to make business finance simple.Stef’s first foray into the SMB world happened when she was 22. Stef & her husband suddenly became the owners of a series of Taco Bell franchises in Montana. Stef was thrown into this world and had to figure out how to manage the books, make payroll, hire & fire, etc. I love her story and how she got to where she is today.Hope you all enjoy and learn something new!Best,Jeff This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit headlessbanking.substack.com

We’ve got another great podcast here. I think it’s clear by now if you are listening that I’m a believer in BTC, DeFi, and all of the great innovations that can come from blockchain technology. In this episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing, Patrick Sells, Chief Innovation Officer at NYDIG. NYDIG is a bitcoin company that’s fusing high tech with institutional-grade finance to usher in a new era of financial products. They make it easy for partners to white label NYDIG solutions and create their own products like bitcoin accounts, rewards, and loyalty programs.Patrick first started his endeavor into BTC and crypto while working at Quontic Bank in Queens where he successfully launched the first BTC rewards card at a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) mind you! For those of you who don’t know what a CDFI is you can read more here but these institutions are designed to help low-income, minority, and distressed communities get access to financial services. That speaks to the belief of Patrick and Quontic Bank that BTC is quite possibly the best tool for financial inclusion ever created. We unpack his journey, what qualifies as money and how we should evaluate good money vs bad money.Hope you enjoy it!Jeff This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit headlessbanking.substack.com

I enjoyed this episode with Nikkee Rhody. Nikkee has amazing energy and it’s so exciting to see what Falls Fintech a Central Payments Accelerator has been able to achieve in just the last 2 to 3 years.The big differentiator Falls Fintech has is that they are a bank! Crazy idea, I know! But Falls Fintech has effectively embedded Central Payments bank charter into their own API driven financial technology stack. Falls fintech (Central Payments) is one of the first banks to build their own BaaS infrastructure and cut out the middle man. This can be extremely advantageous in reducing a fintech’s time to market.Nikkee and I get into all the details, hope you enjoy it!Nikkee & Trent Sorbe also host a podcast called Fintech News & Brews. Please go check it out! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit headlessbanking.substack.com

In this episode, Jake P. Vacovec & I spend some time unpacking his almost 7 years at Behalf.com and how he came to found FlyCode.com. Jake’s first job was as an intern at Behalf where he grew to become VP of Product (US) by the end of his time there. Jake recently left to found Flycode.com and has successfully raised a pre-seed round of $2M.FlyCode connects directly to your code to identify parts of the product that can be edited, such as copy, enables customers to see the user flows, and makes technical aspects of your modern stack accessible to non-technical teams. With FlyCode, developers can approve your changes instead of making them themselves.There’s so much to learn from Jake we easily could have gone for another 30 mins just on the B2B BNPL space. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit headlessbanking.substack.com

I always learn something new when I speak to Darren Beyer, Chief Product & Strategy Officer at Qolo. Darren started his career working on space shuttles at NASA for 10 years and then made the totally natural pivot to payment & card processing! Darren launched his first payments business on January 1, 2000, with another NASA engineer. That business was acquired by Wildcard which is where he met the Qolo leadership team.Qolo brought the team back together in 2018 to build the next-generation payments processing platform. The leadership team at Qolo are all true veterans of the card & payment processing industry and have built Qolo with invaluable knowledge that only experience can provide.If you’re looking into payment processing engines this is a must listen!Jeff This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit headlessbanking.substack.com

It feels like the market is missing a Payments & Banking operating system for digital platforms that want to embed financial services into their ecosystems. BaaS companies are looking to solve this but if a digital platform is large they already have multiple banking partners. Further once a platform gets large enough it makes sense to move away from BaaS and go direct to banks to get enhanced pricing from economies of scale. When this happens the platform has to build its own Payments, Banking, and Compliance engines. Do we need an agnostic payment & banking operating system designed for large platforms that wish to embed financial services?Aaron Huang, Head of Commercial at Productfy, & I attempt to unpack this in our conversation.P.S. - this will be the last episode of 2021. Look for a relaunch during the first week of January. Hope everyone enjoys the holidays! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit headlessbanking.substack.com

I really enjoyed this conversation with Jared Silvers from Fireblocks. Hundreds of crypto and digital asset businesses use Fireblocks software and APIs to custody, manage treasury operations, access DeFi, mint & burn tokens, and manage their digital asset operations.Jared & I worked together a Currencycloud for a few years so we really got into the details of how a startup or platform company could leverage Fireblocks or a competitor to launch crypto or digital asset products.If you’re considering adding a crypto product this is one you shouldn’t miss.Enjoy!Jeff This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit headlessbanking.substack.com