Voice of FinTech®

Ralph Dangelmaier, CEO and Board member at BlueSnap spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, about providing various businesses with efficient payment capabilities so they can focus on growing their businesses.

Here are the questions they covered:

• Ralph's backstory
• What problem are you solving at BlueSnap, and why is it worth solving? What’s your focus?
• Payment orchestration – are we discussing hardware, software solutions, or both? 
• What is your unique selling point? Accepting payments is just one piece of the puzzle in commerce – how far in the value chain do you extend?
• Who are your key clients? Which industries?
• What’s your technology angle, or do you have more brilliant engineers than other players?
• Do you have any success stories of how you helped your clients grow their businesses thanks to your solutions?
• What’s your business model? How do you make money?
• Favorite business book: Good to Great by Jim Collins
• Best way to reach out: through LinkedIn - Ralph Dangelmaier.

Gustaf Hult, Head of Banking as a Service at Intergiro, spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, about building banking platforms to support the rise of embedded finance.

Here are the questions that Gustaf answered:

• Gustaf –  what is your backstory? How did you get to what you do today?
• What problem are you solving at Intergiro, and why is it worth solving? What’s your focus? 
• How do you solve this problem? What is your unique selling point? 
• Who are your key clients? 
• Why does outsourcing the backend and going for banking as a service to you make sense? What’s left for your clients to do?
• You are a big supporter of embedded finance – where are we in Europe (or Sweden) with this? Are we talking about embedding payments or more?
• What’s your technology angle, or do you have more brilliant engineers than other players?
• What’s your business model? How do you make money?
• What’s your favorite business book? Good to Great by Jim Collins
• What’s the best way to reach out: LinkedIn at Gustaf Hult

Xavier Bellekens, CEO of Lupovis, spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, about his company's unique way of managing cybersecurity threats by using decoys and alert noise detection online.

Here is what they covered:

• Xavier's backstory
• What problem are you solving at Lupovis, and why is it worth solving? What’s your focus? 
• A unique appoach to cybersecurity: using decoys and enhanced scanning for cyber threats online - can you explain?
• How did you come up with a decoy idea?
• How do you detect internet noise from genuine cyber-attacks?
• Who are your key clients? Which industries?
• What’s your technology angle?
• What’s your business model? How do you make money?
• Favorite business book: First, Break All The Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently
• What’s the best way to reach out: through LinkedIn, find Xavier Bellekens and start a conversation!

In another episode of the MENA (the Middle East & North Africa) Series, Dorra Mahbouli, VP of Corporate Strategy at Zitouna Finance, spoke to Dhia Zitouni, co-founder of Petsigo, the first reimbursement-based digital insurance for pets in Tunisia. It is accessible via a user-friendly mobile application that offers services, including locating nearby vets, submitting a claim to receive reimbursement, blog articles, and posts related to pets.

Part of the startup goal is Pet Health Monitoring. It can develop or partner with existing technologies to provide pet health monitoring solutions. This could include wearable devices or smart collars that track a pet's activity levels, vital signs, and location, ensuring their well-being and providing real-time data to pet owners.

Dhia explained that the main challenge for the team was to focus on coping with the local legal framework while finding the right insurance partner that would believe in the project to be fully operational.

The app is now live for the Tunisian market. However, an expansion is expected in other markets such as Morocco, Egypt, or the GCC region.

Yossi Sheffi, Elisha Grey II Professor of Engineering Systems at MIT and LinkedIn's Top Voice, spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, about the role of AI in supply chains, its impact on international trade and finance and his latest book: The Magic Conveyor Belt: Supply Chains, A.I., and the Future of Work. 

• Yossi's backstory
• Supply chains have become a mainstream topic of conversation in the last few years. So, as a recap, what has been happening with supply chains lately? 
• Did the supply chain fail us regarding chips, medicine, and prices?
• Supply chains have become increasingly complex to navigate. Will we see a step back to more local, straightforward supply chains?
• Will it also impact the impact of supply chains on the environment?
• How does digital technology impact supply chain management?
• Specifically, how can AI help?
• Supply chain comprises multiple actors with various budgets. Not everyone can afford SAP. What do you think about connectors developed by various IT consultants that should improve visibility through the supply chain and help AI do its magic?
• Technology is often insufficient–what are automated systems' drawbacks?
• What are key skills to retain employment in a world with growing levels of automation?
• Favorite business book:  The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail 
• The best way to reach out: sheffi@mit.edu

Uku Tomikas, CEO of Messente, spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, about expanding your business abroad and leveraging the power of business messaging.

Here is what they covered:

• Uku's backstory
• Click-through rate on e-mails vs. SMS or messaging apps - which is better?
• How do you solve this problem? What is your unique selling point? 
• Why is a business messaging solution like Messente different from Whatsapp?
• What’s the compliance angle that you need to bear in mind?
• Who are your key clients? 
• Fraudsters are improving each year. What are the latest attacks related to messaging, and how to protect against them?
• What’s your technology angle, or do you have more brilliant engineers than other players?
• Can you tell us some of your new market launch success stories? How to go about it?
• Favorite business books: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahnemann and Measure What Matters by John Doerr
• The best way to reach out is signup@messente.com or the Messente website

Chirag Shah, founder and CEO of Nucleus Commercial Finance, a UK FinTech, spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, about providing credit to businesses quickly, easily, and thoughtfully, leveraging technology.

Here is what they talked about:

• Chirag –  what is your backstory? How did you get to what you do today?
• What problem are you solving at Nucleus, and why is it worth solving? What’s your focus? Customer journey when applying for credit for a small and often new business.
• How do you solve this problem? 
• Are you a bank or P2P business loan provider?
• Who are your key clients? 
• Are B2B marketplaces maturing from nice to have to mainstream?
• Many FinTech founders are young and haven’t experienced a recession yet. So how do you keep on growing your business in a downturn? 
• What’s your technology angle, or do you have more brilliant engineers than other players?
• Favorite business book: Business without boundaries
• The best way to get in touch: contact info on the website Nucleus Commercial Finance 

Nadine Jürgensen, co-Founder and COO of elleXX, spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, about gender gaps, especially in personal finance, investing, legal assistance and more and how to tackle them.

Here are the questions that Nadine answered:

• Introduction: How did you get to do what you do today? 
• What are the main gender gap issues that you try to address? 
• What are the reasons behind gender gap issues? 
• I know also address a wider range of gender stereotypes and issues that touch on product design, innovation, finance, and sustainability. How do you plan to address them? It seems a lot is on your plate!
• What are potential ways to tackle them? 
• ElleXX - what is it, and how does it work? 
• You offer membership on your platform. Who are your target members, and what does the membership include? 
• You also partnered with Migros Bank, Vontobel, and CAP to provide women-focused advisory on investing, pension planning, and legal protection. How does it work from your clients’ perspective?
• What non-fiction book would you take with you on vacation? T. Piketty, A Brief History of Equality and The Double X Economy: The Epic Potential of Empowering Women 
• The best way to reach out and learn more about ElleXX: hello@ellexx.com

 Thank you, Swiss FinTech Ladies, for making it happen! 

Simon Severino, Business Strategy Advisor at Strategy Sprints, Vienna, Austria, spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, about improving B2B sales results.

Here are the questions that Simon answered:

• Simon's journey to improving B2B sales processes
• What problem is Strategy Sprints solving and why is it worth solving?
• How? What is the Strategy Sprints method?
• Who are your key clients? 
• You help your B2B clients improve their marketing skills. What are the key pieces of advice you typically give them?
• Do you adjust your pitch across industries? If yes, what are the nuances to pay attention to in B2B sales? 
• You can claim you can help clients automate 85% of their business. How?
• Success stories: Sani Abdul-Jabbar and VezTek
• Plans for the rest of the year
• What’s your favorite business book? Strategy Sprints: 12 Ways to Accelerate Growth for an Agile Business
• What’s the best way to reach out? Check out the website Strategy Sprints

Nadine Chakar, CEO of Securrency, US FinTech/RegTech building digital asset marketplaces and backed by State Street, spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, about tokenization in financial services with an understanding for the regulatory needs of its clients.

Nadine is American Banker's 2021 No.3 Most Powerful Woman in Finance.  Securrency is a FinTech and RegTech using blockchain to deliver white-labeled, institutional-grade digital asset marketplaces.

Here are the questions that Nadine answered:

• Nadine – tell us, how did you get to what you do these days?
• What problem is Securrency solving and why is it worth solving?
• Tokenization and financial inclusion go hand in hand. What about the suitability, however? Are illiquid assets made more liquid through tokens for everyone?
• Who are your key clients? 
• How was the tokenization market in 2022, and how do you see the outlook for 2023? 
• Which blockchain protocols do you leverage? For example, were you affected by Ethereum Merge?
• Is crypto market volatility affecting your business?
• How do you deal with changing and uncertain regulatory frameworks?
• Can you mention any successful case studies of your work?
• What are your plans for the rest of the year? 
• What’s your favorite business book? Lean Startup and Good to Great
• Another great resource, Citi's 2023 research Money, Tokens, and Games
• What’s the best way to reach out? LinkedIn: Nadine Chakar

Rohini Gupta, Lead Regulatory Advisor at FinregE, London-based, AI-driven RegTech, spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, about helping compliance officers, auditors and management to stay on top of ever-changing rules and regulations using AI.

Here is what they talked about:

• Rohini – tell us, how did you get to what you do these days?
• What problem is FinRegE solving, and why is it worth solving?
• Who are your key clients? 
• Automation sounds appealing, but a good old saying in compliance says you can outsource the work but not the responsibility. So what’s the role of humans when using your tech?
• Is your angle the tech or compliance knowledge?
• Let’s dive into tech – what’s the core value add of your solution? RPA, NLP, or something else?
• How do you find the adoption and training at your clients’? Are they not worried about their jobs and keep finding faults with the system?
• What about the interoperability of your solution? How easy is it to plug into your clients’ enterprise systems?
• Can you mention any successful case studies of your work? E.g., grant from Innovate UK
• What are your plans for the rest of the year? 
• The best way to reach out: contact info on the FinRegE website

Nigel Cannings, CTO at Intelligent Voice, spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, about leveraging AI to ensure banks and others trade responsibly and in line with regulations.

Here is what they talked about:

• Nigel's backstory
• What problem is Intelligent Voice solving and why is it worth solving?
• Key clients
• Tech angle? How does Intelligent Voice (IV) keep improving? Is human monitoring needed?
• Why is this solution better than the competition or incumbent solutions? 
• How IV addresses the privacy concerns of individuals and companies
• How do they ensure their AI is ethical and responsible
• Interoperability of Intelligent Voice - how easy is it to plug into the client´s enterprise systems
• Success stories in Financial Services: e.g., Daiwa
• What are your plans for the rest of the year? Hint: international expansion?
• Recommend info channels: 1. Medium
• What’s the best way to reach out? LinkedIn and website: Nigel Cannings and Intelligent Voice.  

Itamar Novick, Solo Venture Capitalist at Recursive Ventures, spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, about lessons learned from his years of investing in FinTech, especially in challenging times.

Here is what they talked about:

• Itamar's background
• Recursive Ventures - what does it do? Where are you based?
• Are you US-focused or global? How much money have you raised since inception, and for how many start-ups? How many investors?
• What kind of start-ups have you invested in, and what kind of FinTechs have you invested in? 
• What’s your investment approach? 
• What are your best tips for aspiring founders to start and grow their companies?
• What is your view on the immediate and long-term outlook for FinTechs? Where do you see the most promising opportunities?
• Can you share success stories of the start-ups for which you raised funds (exited)? 
• Any lessons learned? What would you have done differently as an investor?
• How do you find them? How do scouting and due diligence work? What are your selection criteria?
• Favorite business book: The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
• The best way to connect

Martin Ondas, founder and CEO at Bizmachine, spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, about using AI to provide better insights and prospecting for B2B sales. 

• Martin – tell us, how did you get to what you do these days?
• What problem is BizMachine solving, and why is it worth solving?
• Key clients?
• Unique selling points of BizMachine vs other B2B business intelligence services
• Many people talk about leveraging Big Data. One of the five Vs of big data, veracity refers to the data quality. What are BizMachine's data sources, and how do they verify their accuracy
• Privacy and confidentiality matters
• Is the information updated in real-time?
• Interoperability of BizMachine solution - how easy is it to plug into CRM or other enterprise systems
• Successful stories in e-commerce
• Expansion plans
• Recommended further resources: Ray Dalio's Principles and Patrick Bet-David's Youtube channel
• The best way to reach out: LinkedIn - Martin Ondas or the company website - Bizmachine. 

Salama Belghali, Global Head of Business Development and Partnerships at BitMEX, spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, about trading crypto and its derivatives and the outlook for the crypto markets.

Here is what they covered in more detail:

• Salama' background and why she joined Bitmex
• What problem is Bitmex solving, and why is it worth solving? What’s their focus?
• Who are Bitmex's key clients?
• What’s your technology angle, or do you have more brilliant engineers than other players?
• How secure is trading at Bitmex?
• Nowadays, trading securities, including crypto, effectively requires leverage and derivatives. How does the market for crypto derivates work?
• How big is the crypto derivatives market vs underlying? What are the key products already available?
• Who are the key crypto derivates players? 
• What's the outlook for the crypto markets this year? 
• Recommended reading: Crypto Trader Digest
• What’s the best way to reach out (and what kind of parties would be most relevant for you)? BitMEX website and Salama's profile on LinkedIn 

Marco Santos, CEO Americas at GFT Group spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, about helping incumbents with their digital transformation efforts, namely transition to the cloud.

Here is what they covered:

• Marco's background
• How do you transform incumbents into data-driven, agile organizations without transition threatening their core business?
• Banks care about their client data – how can you use the cloud, with servers often abroad, in banking?
• Are banks more open to migration to the cloud now than, say five years ago?
• What are the key pros and cons for incumbents considering moving to the cloud?
• How can you switch cloud providers down the line?
• How secure is using the cloud for a large bank?
• How long does it take, and how do you de-risk migration to the cloud?
• Favorite business book: Exponential Organizations by Salim Ismail and others
• The best way to reach out: Marco Santos on LinkedIn

Efi Pylarinou, a global FinTech influencer, spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, about the digitalization of wealth management, wealth management and WealthTech trends and implications for wealth advisors. 

Here is what they discussed:

• Efi´s transformational journey
• Rebranding of private markets - why is it needed? 
• What about risk, aren't private markets labelled as alternatives as they pose a higher risk to investors?
• How do you see the future of asset management?  Why do we still have active asset managers if, for years, we hear that they cannot beat the market and are not cost-effective?
• Passive funds and robo-advisors – are robo-advisors a threat to ETFs?
• What does customer centricity mean for large wealth and asset managers?
• Do you see AI-driven insights as a major competitive capability in the future of wealth management?
• How do you transform incumbents into data-driven, agile organisations without transition threatening their core business?
• When is commission-free trading coming to Switzerland?
• Outlook for crypto this year
• Recommended reading: The People Centered Economy: The New Ecosystem For Work, Business in Personal: Be the Leader of Your Life and Business or Paolo Sironi´s books
• The best way to reach out or get Efi´s content: https://linktr.ee/Efiglobal

Ryan George, CMO of Docupace, spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, about the digitalization of wealth management, wealth management and WealthTech trends and implications for wealth advisors. 

Here is what they discussed in more detail:

• Ryan - how did you get to what you do these days?
• Wealth management in the US – what are the recent trends, and how do you see the outlook for this year?
• What is Docupace – what is the problem you solve, and why is it worth solving?
• What is your solution/services? 
• How do you differ from other solutions in this space?
• Is your solution scalable?
• Who are your key clients?
• What’s your technology angle – is it proprietary tech or do you bundle various technologies together?
• To recap, how do you see the future of financial advisory further down the line?
• Favorite business book: Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions is a 2008 book by Dan Ariely, in which he challenges readers' assumptions about making decisions based on rational thought.
• What’s the best way to reach out: Ryan George on LinkedIn or Docupace website

Chase Harmer, Director at Wishes Inc., spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, about digital transformation in charitable donations. 

Here is what they discussed in more detail:

• Chase's backstory
• Charitable donations – why does the process need a digital upgrade? 
• Wishes to provide transparency and enhancing making connections of donors with causes
• Scalability of Wishes solution
• How can you benefit from credit card rewards for charitable donations?
• Key clients and partners: individual donors, charities, retailers and credit card companies
• Technology angle – a proprietary tech at the heart
• Business model
• What’s your favorite business book? Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (Good to Great Book 2)
• The best way to reach out: Chase Harmer 

Janay Eyo, Director of Financial Policy at the Chamber of Progress spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, about the need for regulatory clarity for crypto and FinTech to achieve a fair playing field internationally and financial inclusion.

Here is what they covered:

• Janay´s journey to financial policy
• What is the Chamber of Progress? What is your mission?
• How do your work with FinTechs?
• How do you see the outlook for crypto this year?
• What went wrong with the FTX?
• How should tech and cryptocurrency leaders prepare for an ever-evolving policy landscape?
• Where cryptocurrency fits into climate change policy and environmental concerns?
• How do US policymakers view cryptos’ function – as a payment mechanism or a commodity? 
• Does tech anti-trust legislation could impact crypto?
• Recommended further reading: Crypto For My People
• The best way to reach out: Janay on Twitter or LinkedIn or the Chamber of Progress website