fintech
(1,030)
Dirk Wakeham and the trouble with a better ledger
His mother kept the apartment books in a green ledger. Decades later, Dirk Wakeham is back at RealPage, confronting a larger version of the same question: can the people running the buildings trust what the system tells them?
Yahav Yulzari and the second life of number 22
Before he co-founded Pagaya, Yahav Yulzari kept goal. His next career took him through London property deals and into American credit, where a useful model still needs someone to bring the team together.
Curtis Campbell and the business of being believed
From Dell desktops to cloud computing to the tax desk, Curtis Campbell has spent his career making complicated systems useful. At H&R Block, his next assignment is earning confidence one conversation at a time.
Gregory Garrabrants and the bank that outgrew its name
An engineer, a lawyer, and an investment banker walk into the same career. At Axos, Gregory Garrabrants has spent nineteen years working out what a bank can become when its delivery system keeps changing.
Keren Danziger and the things a prompt cannot buy
From Israeli investment houses to Pagaya’s AI lending network, Keren Danziger has worked where financial models meet human expectations. Her career puts an old question inside a new machine: how do you earn trust?
Nagesh Devata and the trouble with getting paid
From Mastercard and PayPal to Payoneer, Nagesh Devata has worked on the machinery behind international commerce. His recurring concern is what happens to a small business after someone, somewhere, agrees to buy.
Anthony Hsieh and the trouble with retiring
He built mortgage companies, sold them, and set out to fish the world. Then loanDepot’s founder came back to the desk, with another turnaround to attempt.
Chip Kahn and the trouble between things
Alfred “Chip” Kahn IV built businesses around payments and digital networks. At OvationCXM, he is tackling the awkward handoffs that stand between buying a product and getting it to work.
Callum King and the business of loose ends
Before co-founding Anatomy Financial with his wife, Sasha, Callum King left venture capital to help build Brightside. His career keeps returning to an ordinary question: who finishes the financial jobs everyone else leaves behind?
David Stone and the promise that came before the customers
Before First Rate had a customer, David and Trina Stone promised to give away 10% of its revenue. Thirty-five years later, that decision still shapes the software business they built together in Arlington, Texas.
Domm Holland and the cost of going fast
A forgotten password helped inspire Fast. After $124 million in funding and an abrupt shutdown, its co-founder kept building - from software for tradespeople to a browser-controlled target game.
Bill Deng and the small matter of getting paid
After a decade at Visa and Ant, Bill Deng built XTransfer around a problem small exporters knew too well: making a sale abroad could be easier than collecting the money. His answer brings banks, trade documents and an unusually practical use of AI into the same conversation.
Chris Dean and the retirement that never quite happened
A physicist, programmer and occasional would-be retiree found his next problem inside a bank. Chris Dean’s Treasury Prime is the result - and the work has proved more complicated than a clean line of code.
Vignan Velivela and the cost of standing still
He worked on lunar rovers and self-driving cars. At AtoB, Vignan Velivela turned his attention to another transportation problem: the money that takes too long to arrive.
Tomas Milar and the price of owning something
He built a business helping people start companies, then bought the firm that had turned him down. With Eqvista, Tomas Milar is pursuing a harder question: what is a piece of a private company actually worth?
Mike Zhang and the Art of Choosing Who Gets Your Money
He started by selling video games online to help his parents buy a home. From Airsoft Megastore to Good Money and altHQ, Mike Zhang’s career keeps returning to the people on the other side of a transaction.
Chris Faught and the Business of Being Let In
After years inside payments at Affirm and Apple, Chris Faught returned to a childhood interest with a different question: what would it take for game studios to own the relationship with their players? At Neon, the answer begins at checkout.
David Kang and the art of taking boring seriously
Before he became Keeper’s CEO, David Kang was an options trader with an appetite for difficult details. His next bet was that ordinary people deserved help with the paperwork everyone would rather postpone.
Charles Drucker and the art of coming back
Charles Drucker helped turn a Cincinnati bank division into Worldpay, left after its sale, then came back to run it again. His career offers an unusually practical lesson in what happens after the deal is signed.
Doug Lebda and the price of asking twice
A $55,000 condo sent a young accountant looking for a mortgage. Doug Lebda spent the next three decades asking why the banks weren’t competing for him.
Michael J. Brown put his own money behind the machine
When Euronet needed financial backing for its Hungarian ATM network, Michael J. Brown pledged about $4 million of his own securities. The software entrepreneur’s long career runs through Budapest cash machines, cross-border payments and a science museum back home.
Jon Lerner’s twelve-year detour
A spreadsheet that took two minutes to load became CoinTracker. For co-founder Jon Lerner, it was also a long detour toward a financial assistant he first pitched in 2014.
Victor Fredung and the price of being believed
Payment fraud sent Victor Fredung into identity verification. The Shufti co-founder’s career connects faster customer checks with the harder question of earning trust.
Andrew Kortina and the art of getting sidetracked
A philosophy degree, a forgotten wallet, an assistant service, and a troublesome screenplay. The Venmo and Fin co-founder keeps finding new reasons to make things with his friends.
Shehzan Maredia and the cost of keeping your bitcoin
He watched his parents work hard to earn money, then struggle with how to save it. At Lava, Shehzan Maredia is building a financial life around one conviction: people should be able to use their bitcoin without having to sell it.
Nasir Zubairi and the business of being useful
He left a trading desk to learn something new, then spent nearly a decade building Luxembourg’s fintech meeting place. Now the LHoFT’s founding CEO is back in payments, leading Paytm Europe.
John Rampton and the price of three little letters
Before Due became a business, it was a $130,000 domain name. For John Rampton, the distance between a good address and a useful company has always been measured in people.
Gunnar Lovelace and the price of belonging
A childhood food co-op gave Gunnar Lovelace an idea he kept taking into bigger rooms: people should share in the value they create. From Thrive Market to Good Money and a troupe of corporate pranksters, the experiment has proved harder to scale than the invitation.
Daniel McGurl and the trouble with a perfectly good check
After 26 years at IBM and a stop at State Street, Daniel M. McGurl co-founded Bottomline in 1989. His opportunity was hiding in a familiar office ritual: paying the bills.
Doron Cohen and the customers who changed the plan
He built Covercy to move money across borders. Real estate investors used it to show him a different business - and he followed their lead.