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  • Not Fintech Investment Advice: Welcome Tech, Bumper, Scalar Field, & Structify

    Not Fintech Investment Advice: Welcome Tech, Bumper, Scalar Field, & Structify
    2025/09/17
    Welcome back to Not Fintech Investment Advice, where Simon Taylor and I riff about fintech companies we’re absolutely not giving investment advice on. (Speaking of Simon, he’s got a new day job: he’s joining Tempo, a payments-first blockchain incubated by Stripe and Paradigm. Will this lead to spicier payment takes? We shall see!) We kick things off with Welcome Tech, an operating system for immigrants. It’s US-based, all-in-one: education, job placement, embedded healthcare (telemed, dental, vision, Rx), plus financial services (wallet, debit). After big 2020–21 rounds, a recent $7.5M caught Alex’s eye. As for the real wedge? It may be “Help me not only survive but thrive” (that is, paperwork precision, employer integrations, and AI agents as the lawyer you can’t afford. In this category, trust and timing decide outcomes… Next up is Bumper, a UK startup bringing BNPL to car repairs. With 5,000 dealerships already on board, they let customers split repair costs interest-free. Niche BNPL providers like this can thrive by embedding in industries big players overlook, giving businesses a way to keep their customer relationships while solving a very real pain point (not to mention, BNPL has rewired Gen Y and Z’s expectations). Then there’s Scalar Field (which Simon wrote about recently); an AI-powered trading tool that helps traders run strategies on live data and breaking new. By “living in the stream,” its models continuously adapt as it gives traders the ability to backtest in real time (instead of the traditional loop of training, validating, and hoping a model still works once deployed). The real unlock is backtesting against messy, real-world conditions, long an Achilles’ heel in model development…that is, until now or soon?! Finally, Structify tackles the messy prep work before decisions get made. Think PDFs, screenshots, and scattered APIs, all cleaned and structured by an AI data assistant. If the last few decades were about faster decision making, the next decade is about fixing the data pipelines that feed… aforementioned decision making. Plus, some closing manifestations: banks and fintechs need to start treating gambling and speculative investing apps as a genuine competitive threat to deposits! U.S. banks should copy the UK’s strategy of opt-in gambling blocks with cool-off periods to protect customers (and keep deposits from drifting). We’ll be fans of whoever ships it first. Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Simon: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sytaylor/ Substack: https://sytaylor.substack.com Follow Alex: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Companies featured: https://www.welcome.tech/ https://www.bumper.co/ https://www.scalarfield.io/ https://www.structify.ai/
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    58 分
  • Fintech Takes x SOLO Presents Source of Truth Episode 4: Wave a Magic Wand

    Fintech Takes x SOLO Presents Source of Truth Episode 4: Wave a Magic Wand
    2025/09/12
    We’re at the finish line of Source of Truth, the new podcast miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by our friends at SOLO. And much like in a relay race, Eric Woodward (CEO at FinatIQ, who shaped one of the most successful digital payment platforms in the U.S. as the former Group President at Early Warning, the parent of Zelle) is the anchor that’s going to bring us home. In this final episode on information asymmetry in financial services, we zoom out to the system level: who controls financial data, who pays for access, and what a healthier network could look like. If we could wave a magic wand and start with a blank sheet of paper, how would we design data infrastructure (drawing from the lessons learned by credit bureaus, open banking data aggregators, and industry consortiums) to actually work best for the ecosystem? Highlights include: The tradeoffs of three models: credit bureaus, consortiums, and open banking BNPL’s reluctance to furnish data (and what that means for consumers) Why a better framework needs consumer control, broader furnishers, value-based pricing, full-file expectations, and clear network rules Anchor leg, final lap: consumers in control. Furnishers compensated. Shared rules. Game on. Enjoy the finale of Source of Truth! This miniseries is brought to you by SOLO. SOLO resolves and connects customer data across silos — so teams stop rekeying the same customer info for the hundredth time and finally move forward. Break the cycle at SOLO.one - That’s SOLO dot o-n-e. Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Alex: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson   Follow Eric: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericwoodward Learn more about SOLO here.
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    45 分
  • Fintech Takes x SOLO Presents Source of Truth Episode 3: Hard Lessons Learned from the Trenches

    Fintech Takes x SOLO Presents Source of Truth Episode 3: Hard Lessons Learned from the Trenches
    2025/09/11
    Hello, and welcome back to Source of Truth, a new miniseries sponsored by our friends at SOLO. This series is about information asymmetry; the enemy of financial services. Until now, we’ve focused on theory: the broken data infrastructure we’ve inherited. In Episode 3, we move from theory to reality. I ask four veteran founders and operators: What are the most difficult challenges you face when building and scaling up a consumer or small business lending business? What hard lessons can be learned from overcoming or in some cases failing to overcome those challenges? And what do those hard lessons tell us about the future of lending and data infrastructure in the U.S.? These conversations are short but illuminating: expect war stories from the early days of well-known fintechs, insights and creative ideas for scaling up in our heavily regulated industry, and candid admissions about the problems they still haven’t cracked (and why). Guests (in order of appearance):  Luke Voiles: CEO of Pipe; longtime SMB lending operator & executive Rob Frohwein: Co-founder and former CEO of Kabbage Jill Sheckman: former Global Chief Credit Risk Officer at PayPal; longtime credit risk executive at AmEx Brian Hamilton: Co-founder and former CEO of ONE; President at Coastal Episode 3 is your field guide to the real constraints operators face — and the data standards and product choices that actually moved loss curves, conversion, and access. Don’t forget to subscribe and catch more insights in upcoming episodes of Source of Truth! This miniseries is brought to you by SOLO. SOLO resolves and connects customer data across silos — so teams stop rekeying the same customer info for the hundredth time and finally move forward. Break the cycle at SOLO.one - That’s SOLO dot o-n-e. Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Alex: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson   Follow Luke: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-voiles/ Follow Rob: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frohwein/ Follow Jill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillzuckersheckman Follow Brian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bthamilton/ Learn more about SOLO here.
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    1 時間 8 分
  • Bank Nerd Corner: OCC vs. States, NBA Moneyball, and Tokenized Deposits

    Bank Nerd Corner: OCC vs. States, NBA Moneyball, and Tokenized Deposits
    2025/09/10
    Welcome back to Bank Nerd Corner featuring Kiah Haslett (whose inaugural Fintech Takes Banking newsletter is officially live – subscribe here to stay dangerously informed and entertained). First up: big banks are asking the OCC to write one uniform rulebook that overrides conflicting state rules. We unpack OCC vs the state regulators’ group (CSBS), why it’s harder to cut a Fed master account off from payment rails, and how crypto-related trust charters and 50-state licenses tangle the map. Next: a fintech fraud story is embedded within the Aspiration x Kawhi Leonard saga. A bankruptcy filing lists an LLC tied to Kawhi getting a reported $24M in cash for little or no work plus $20M in equity, while Clippers owner Steve Ballmer had invested in Aspiration a year earlier (definitely an awkward look under the NBA’s salary cap). And since we’re already in fraud-land, a quick detour to Lisa Cook: the administration’s attempt to remove a Fed governor over alleged mortgage fraud, an FHFA records sweep of old mortgage files, what counts as “cause,” and why markets barely blinked. And finally: hear Kiah ruminate on tokenized deposits (think regular bank dollars recorded on a blockchain). Banks pitch them for big-company payments and shared visibility; Kiah asks if that’s better than today’s rails or just a faster path for scammers. We separate practical plumbing from analyst bait and who should actually care. Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Kiah: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khaslett/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/khaslett Follow Alex: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson
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    1 時間 31 分
  • Fintech Recap: Open Banking, BaaS Island, and GENIUS Act Updates

    Fintech Recap: Open Banking, BaaS Island, and GENIUS Act Updates
    2025/09/03
    Welcome back to Fintech Takes. I’m Alex Johnson, joined (as always) by my partner-in-recapping, Jason Mikula. First up, the open banking saga continues with a new 13-paged ANPR (Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking) that reopens every fight. From whether “representatives” can access your data, if banks can charge cost-recovery fees, how liability hides under “security,” what counts as privacy vs. secondary use, and whether deadlines can be punted at all. With Chevron overturned and Corner Post wiping out time limits, every rule is now a lawsuit waiting to happen (even Visa has suddenly decided U.S. open banking isn’t worth the headache). From there we head to our old friend BaaS Island, where Synapse’s implosion has left customers stranded. The CFPB’s novel UDAP claim and a symbolic $1 penalty may unlock redress, but only after years (while distressed-debt investors eye Evolve and Mercury). And then it’s on to Congress’s GENIUS Act, which hands stablecoins their first federal framework but also plenty of landmines. We discuss winners and losers, why Section 16(d) supercharges state preemption, and how Wyoming’s state “token” exploits the gap. Plus, in our Can’t Let It Go corner, it’s finance-as-casino: Chamath’s new American Exceptionalism Acquisition Corp SPAC, Robinhood suing Nevada and New Jersey to push prediction markets, and a Polymarket bettor who called Taylor’s engagement early and banked about $3,500 (the kind of thing that’d be called insider trading anywhere else!). Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Jason: Newsletter: https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmikula/ Follow Alex: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnsonTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson
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    1 時間 12 分
  • Fintech Takes x SOLO Presents Source of Truth Episode 2: Context is King

    Fintech Takes x SOLO Presents Source of Truth Episode 2: Context is King
    2025/08/29
    Hello, and welcome back to Source of Truth, the new podcast miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by our friends at SOLO. This series is about information asymmetry (the enemy of financial services; especially lending). In Episode, we tackled truth vs. trust. And in Episode 2, we explore history vs. overconfidence, which goes something like this: In 1995, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac effectively mandated the use of FICO scores in mortgage underwriting. Almost overnight, credit scores went from a niche tool in bankers’ back rooms to the market’s law of the land. Joining me to unpack that history and its consequences is Martin Kleinbard, Founder of Granual Fintech (and author of the great research report How Cashflow Data Can Diffuse the Credit Score Time Bomb, which I was proud to publish at Fintech Takes). Highlights include: What began as an additive tool for underwriting quickly became a substitute for judgment (lenders skipped the W-2s and leaned entirely on the number) The three pillars of credit: Willingness to pay (FICO’s wheelhouse), ability to pay (cash flow, income, assets), and product risk (loan terms that can themselves trigger default) – the financial crisis showed what happens when you ignore the latter two! Second-order risk today. From BNPL quirks to payment hierarchy surprises (why personal loans sometimes get paid before mortgages), context still matters more than any one score This episode explores what happens when we reduce everything to a single number: lenders miss nuance, consumers get misread. A credit score can predict repayment, but only context explains it. And in the end, context is king. Subscribe now and catch the rest of Source of Truth … we’re just getting started! This miniseries is brought to you by SOLO. SOLO resolves and connects customer data across silos — so teams stop rekeying the same customer info for the hundredth time and finally move forward. Break the cycle at SOLO.one - That’s SOLO dot o-n-e. Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Alex: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Martin: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-kleinbard-6122aa1a/ We also chat about his new piece in Open Banker (on AI for consumer bankers), which you can read here: https://openbanker.beehiiv.com/p/aiforconsumerbankers Learn more about SOLO here.
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    57 分
  • Fintech Takes x SOLO Presents Source of Truth. Ep 1: Is Truth Enough to Unlock Trust?

    Fintech Takes x SOLO Presents Source of Truth. Ep 1: Is Truth Enough to Unlock Trust?
    2025/08/28
    Hello, and welcome to Source of Truth, a new podcast miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by our friends at SOLO. This series is about information asymmetry (which is *the* enemy in financial services — especially in lending). Information asymmetry (the gap between what the customer knows and what the financial service provider knows) explains most inefficiencies. It’s the reason why qualified applicants get declined for loans or approved for loans at rates much higher than they should have to pay. And it’s the reason why borrowers and human underwriters spend a mind-numbing number of hours locating, aggregating, and verifying information. We’ve added APIs, alternative data, and automation. Yet, the core process of collecting and trusting information still looks much like it did decades ago. Why is that? And what can be done to reshape that process in a more fundamental way? These are the questions that Source of Truth will explore. In Episode 1, I’m joined by Georgina Merhom, Founder & CEO of SOLO. Georgina, a data scientist by training, unpacks how lending data is collected, verified, and (too rarely) reused. Highlights include: What the old-school branch lending process got right that digital still misses Why banks still burn through $30B each year on manual collection despite APIs The difference between standardized inputs (useful) and standardized outputs (misleading) This opening episode tees up the larger theme of the series: building systems that don’t just capture truth but create trust. Because when information can be reused and verified, lenders and borrowers stop starting from zero. Subscribe now and catch the rest of Source of Truth. This miniseries is brought to you by SOLO. SOLO resolves and connects customer data across silos — so teams stop rekeying the same customer info for the hundredth time and finally move forward. Break the cycle at SOLO.one - That’s SOLO dot o-n-e. Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Alex: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Georgina: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georginamerhom/ Learn more about SOLO here.
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    53 分
  • Bank Nerd Corner: CFPB’s Flip, Crypto’s Endgame, and The Erebor Backdoor

    Bank Nerd Corner: CFPB’s Flip, Crypto’s Endgame, and The Erebor Backdoor
    2025/08/27
    Bank Nerd Corner is back with Kiah Haslett returning … not just as co-host, but as an official member of Fintech Takes! That’s right, big news: Bank Nerd Corner will soon be its own podcast feed, with Kiah hosting (and Alex dropping in monthly as a guest). Kiah’s podcast launches this September alongside her new weekly newsletter, Fintech Takes Banking! If you’re listening to this episode, you basically asked for it (sign up at fintechtakes.com/banking/newsletter-subscription). Now, onto Bank Nerding! First up,  the topic that's going to end up on my tombstone when I die: open banking. We dig into the CFPB’s sudden flip on open banking. JPMorgan Chase tried charging for data access, the Bureau hit pause on litigation, and now an accelerated rulemaking process is underway. Will banks get the green light to price data, or did Chase just overplay its hand? Is this the beginning of monopoly pricing in disguise? Next, Kiah schools Alex (and the rest of us) on why crypto firms are suddenly obsessed with national trust charters (what they are, why they matter, and how they could function as narrow banks in disguise). Stablecoin reserves, custody rules, and OCC oversight are all on the table. And finally, the Palmer Luckey-backed digital bank Erebor enters the chat, promising to be the new Silicon Valley Bank for startups, crypto, and defense companies. Their pitch: political connections will fast-track their national bank charter with the OCC. But can political connections really expedite a de novo charter without wrecking regulators’ credibility? Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Kiah: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khaslett/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/khaslett Follow Alex: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson
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    1 時間 16 分