Podcast · Business

Fintech Leaders

by Miguel Armaza · English · Business

Learn from today’s global leaders building the organizations that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.

New episodes: Every two weeks
Typical length: 48 min
Latest: 13 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

13 Oct 2026 · 51 minNew

Nubank’s Co-Founder on Winning 140M Customers & Expanding to the US

Send us Fan Mail I sat down with Cristina Junqueira, co-founder of Nubank and CEO of Nubank’s U.S. operation, one day after Nubank officially launched in the United States. Founded in 2013 in a house in São Paulo, Nubank now serves over 140 million customers, 64% of Brazil’s adult population, and they have just launched their US operations. We talk about why product-led growth is a necessity rather than a strategy, why she would rather have a smaller customer base that loves the product...

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

E208 · 22 Sep 2026 · 55 min
Taktile’s CEO Raised $190M Betting Most Bank Jobs Won't Exist in 10 Years
Send us Fan Mail I sat down with Maik Taro Wehmeyer, co-founder and CEO of Taktile, an agentic decision platform that helps financial services companies automate their highest-stakes decisions: credit underwriting, fraud detection, and compliance. Maik and his co-founder built the company from a failed first product and 99 rejected banks into a business that just closed a $110 million round led by Goldman Sachs. Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on A...
E207 · 10 Sep 2026 · 59 min
Harshil Mathur, Razorpay CEO: Building India's Dominant Payments Company
Send us Fan Mail I sat down with Harshil Mathur, Co-Founder and CEO of Razorpay, one of India’s most important fintech and tech companies. Razorpay moves hundreds of billions of dollars in annual payment volume and powers about 85% of the country’s largest tech companies. They are also reportedly preparing for a large IPO on the Indian Stock Exchange. Harshil started coding at age 12 and began building Razorpay in 2014, only a year after graduating college. Their early days were not easy...
E206 · 11 Aug 2026 · 49 min
Mikhail Lomtadze, Kaspi CEO - From Super App to Everyday AI Assistant
Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza flew to Almaty, Kazakhstan to sit down with Mikhail Lomtadze, CEO and Co-Founder of Kaspi, for their second conversation in two years. It is hard to explain how dominant and loved Kaspi is in this market: in a country of 20 million people, more than 15 million use the app daily, and it handles two thirds of Kazakhstan's e-commerce. What started as a traditional bank is now one of the world's most defining super apps, and it just entered a new chapter, expanding ...
E205 · 7 Jul 2026 · 58 min
Rain, Farooq Malik - The $2Bn Company Building the Infrastructure for Stablecoins and Tokenized Money
Send us Fan Mail I sat down with Farooq Malik, CEO & Co-Founder of Rain, a $2Bn company that’s building infrastructure for Stablecoin-powered products, including card issuing, payments, wallets, and much more for businesses like Western Union, Slash and Nuvei. In 2025 they grew 30x and they recently raised a $250m round led by ICONIQ Capital. Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversation...
E204 · 9 Jun 2026 · 52 min
How Slash Grew From $10 to $300 Million in 2+ Years. Victor Cardenas, CEO & Co-Founder of Slash
Send us Fan Mail I sat down with Victor Cardenas, Co-Founder and CEO of Slash, one of the fastest growing fintechs in America that went from $10M to $300M in annualized revenue in 24 months And just crossed a $1.4 billion valuation after a $100M Series C led by Ribbit Capital, Khosla Ventures and Goodwater Capital. The company powers over $30Bn in annualized payment volume across wires, ACH, stablecoin, and card for over 5,000 businesses. Victor is a Venezuelan immigrant, Stanford dropout, an...
E203 · 26 May 2026 · 55 min
Max Levchin - Building Affirm, PayPal, and Why He Only Starts Network Businesses
Send us Fan Mail I sat down with Max Levchin, Co-Founder and CEO of Affirm and one of the living legends of tech and fintech. He co-founded PayPal with Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, invented anti-fraud technology that's still foundational today, and has spent the last 14 years building Affirm into one of the largest publicly traded fintechs in the world with a mission to replace credit cards with transparent lending. He is one of the most thoughtful and brilliant founders I've spoken with. &nb...
E202 · 13 May 2026 · 53 min
Rob Heyvaert, Motive Partners Founder: Investing Billions to Build the Future of Finance
Send us Fan Mail I sat down with Rob Heyvaert, Founder and Managing Partner of Motive Partners, a fintech-focused private equity firm with over $6Bn in AUM, 80 portfolio companies representing over $15 trillion of assets in the wealth management space. Rob is a serial entrepreneur who started his first company at 24, sold it to IBM, and later founded Capco and sold to FIS to hundreds of millions of dollars, before launching Motive in 2016. He is a true fintech builder and it was inspiring to ...
E201 · 30 Apr 2026 · 41 min
Renaud Laplanche on Building Upgrade to a $7.3Bn Giant, Reinventing the Credit Card, and Shipping AI-Native Products
Send us Fan Mail I sat down with Renaud Laplanche, Co-Founder and CEO of Upgrade, a consumer fintech valued at $7.3 billion. Since 2017, Upgrade has originated over $45 billion in credit to 7.5 million customers, crossed $1 billion in annualized revenue, and has been cash flow positive for years. Renaud also founded Lending Club and took it public in what was the largest US tech IPO of 2014. He is one of the most accomplished entrepreneurs in fintech and someone I personally admire. We discus...
E200 · 14 Apr 2026 · 1 hr
The Trader Who Builds Billion-Dollar Companies: Tom Sosnoff on Thinkorswim, Tasty, and What Comes Next
Send us Fan Mail I sat down with Tom Sosnoff, one of the most successful entrepreneurs in financial services. Tom spent 19 years on Chicago’s CBOE trading floor and then left to build Thinkorswim, the first online broker specialized in options, which he sold to TD Ameritrade for $600 million. He then built Tastytrade and sold it nine years later for a billion dollars to IG Group. He is now building Lossdog, a career optimization platform to help fight wealth inequality. What I enjoyed the mos...
E199 · 31 Mar 2026 · 44 min
Is Finance Technology? How Founders Can Avoid the Mistakes That Kill Fintech Companies
Send us Fan Mail I sat down with Andrew Endicott, fintech entrepreneur and my co-founder at Gilgamesh Ventures. Andrew is also the author of the recent book "Is Finance Technology?", a practical guide for founders, operators, and investors in financial services. The book covers everything. From the common mistakes that kill fintech companies, to how to think about risk, fraud, and regulation across verticals. I highly recommend picking up a copy. Few people have operated across as many roles...
E198 · 24 Mar 2026 · 51 min
Lesaka - Building Africa's Leading Fintech as a Publicly Traded Company, with Ali Mazanderani
Send us Fan Mail I sat down with Ali Mazanderani, Chairman of Lesaka, a nasdaq traded, leading fintech in Southern Africa with over $400 million in revenue and 2 million active customers. Ali is a fintech veteran investor and builder, who’s been closely involved with several multi-billion dollar fintechs in emerging markets, including Stone, Pine Labs, Kushki, Thunes and is also a co-founder of Teya. ‌ We discussed why Southern Africa is one of the most exciting fintech opportunities in the w...
E197 · 10 Mar 2026 · 48 min
Sequoia's George Robson: An Inside Look at Sequoia and What it Takes to Build Generational Companies
Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza interviews George Robson, Partner at Sequoia Capital, one of the most legendary venture firms in the world. Founded in 1972 by Don Valentine, Sequoia has backed some of the most successful tech and fintech companies in history including Nvidia, Apple, Google, Nubank, and Stripe. Sequoia-backed companies make up over 25% of the Nasdaq's market cap, and add up to $13+ trillion in market cap. George is one of 19 investing partners at Sequoia and was previously a p...
E196 · 24 Feb 2026 · 1 hr 8 min
Michael Calvey: The Investor Behind Multiple $20+ Billion Companies
Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Michael Calvey, one of the most successful and legendary emerging markets investors of our time. Mike moved to Moscow at age 27 in the early 90s and built Baring Vostok into a powerhouse with $10+ billion invested in Russia. They backed now-decacorns like Yandex, Revolut, Tinkoff, and Kaspi at their earliest stages. Yandex alone was a 450x return for the fund. Along the way, he survived a 98% market crash, was detained by Russia's secret service,...
E195 · 10 Feb 2026 · 37 min
Why Zero Hash Rejected a $2Bn Offer to Build the Future of Financial Infrastructure - Edward Woodford, CEO
Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza welcomes Edward Woodford, founder and CEO of ZeroHash, to Fintech Leaders for a candid, insightful conversation on the future of blockchain infrastructure and the lessons learned from nearly a decade of building in crypto. Edward offers a unique perspective as a London-born, MIT-educated entrepreneur who’s seen ZeroHash grow into one of the most critical and least visible companies powering the global blockchain ecosystem. He shares his journey— from getting re...
E194 · 28 Jan 2026 · 38 min
Uzum, from 0 to $1.5Bn in Four Years. Building Uzbekistan's First Tech Unicorn. Nikolay Seleznev, Co-Founder
Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Nikolay Seleznev, Co-Founder of Uzum, Uzbekistan’s first tech unicorn rewriting the playbook for e-commerce and fintech in Central Asia. From Moscow to Tashkent, Nikolay Seleznev brings global banking experience and entrepreneurial grit to a country leapfrogging straight into the digital economy. In this episode, Nikolay Seleznev shares the origin story of Uzum and how a simple, subpar online shopping experience sparked the vision for a super app...
E193 · 13 Jan 2026 · 39 min
How Deel Built a $17 Billion Company in 7 Years - Dan Westgarth, COO
Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza interviews returning guest Dan Westgarth, COO of Deel, the company that's redefining how businesses hire and pay talent anywhere in the world. Deel has grown into one of the most valuable private tech companies on the planet. In 2025, they crossed one billion dollars in revenue, achieved a $17 billion valuation, and paid out $22 billion in payroll globally. Dan oversees an organization of 3,300 people across more than 100 countries. Before Deel, he was an early ...
E192 · 9 Dec 2025 · 31 min
FinTech's Multi-Billion Comeback: Steve McLaughlin (FT Partners), From Darkest Days to Record Deals
Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza recorded this episode at FinTech Nerdcon in Miami with Steve McLaughlin, Founder and CEO of FT Partners, the largest fintech-focused investment bank. Since 2001, Steve has built a 250-person firm that's advised on landmark deals including Coinbase's $4.3 billion Deribit acquisition and Revolut's multi-billion dollar raises. FT Partners works with everyone from early-stage startups to industry giants. In this conversation, Steve shares his unfiltered views on Fi...
E191 · 25 Nov 2025 · 53 min
How René Lacerte Built Bill.com into a Multi-Billion FinTech Powerhouse that Processes 1% of US GDP Annually
Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with René Lacerte, founder and CEO of Bill, one of the fintech industry’s most successful and enduring leaders. From building PayCycle in the 1990s to now leading a publicly-traded company powering the “Fortune 5 Million”—the SMBs that are the backbone of America—René brings nearly three decades of hands-on experience in financial operations, product innovation, and organizational culture. In this episode, René shares his singular journey, starting wi...
E190 · 11 Nov 2025 · 46 min
Nigel Morris, Capital One & QED Co-Founder - Transforming Financial Services for a Billion People
Send us Fan Mail [Original air date, November 19, 2024] Miguel Armaza travels to Alexandria, Virginia for an in-person interview with a fintech legend: Nigel Morris, Co-Founder of QED and Capital One. QED is a global fintech venture capital firm that has backed numerous amazing companies, including Credit Karma, Nubank, Avant, SoFi, and Klarna. They currently have over $4.0 billion in AUM. Prior to QED, Nigel co-founded Capital One in 1994. The bank today is amongst the 10 larges...
E189 · 28 Oct 2025 · 51 min
Valon's CEO Sold $100M Without a Sales Team. Now They're Building a Multi-Billion Mortgage Platform
Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Andrew Wang (CEO) and Linda Du (COO) of Valon, the AI-native infrastructure platform transforming mortgage servicing in America. They have quietly built a top-10 national mortgage servicer with over $100 million in revenue and more than one million loans under management, all while achieving profitability. Valon is now selling their battle-tested platform to the largest servicers in the country. They are backed by a16z, Westcap, Jefferies, and All...
E188 · 14 Oct 2025 · 43 min
How Addi Reached $200M ARR with Better Margins Than Nubank, Affirm, and Klarna
Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Santiago Suárez, Co-Founder & CEO of Addi, one of Colombia’s fastest-growing fintech and commerce platforms. With a background that spans global finance and a track record of driving innovation in Latin America, Santiago shares a candid, in-depth look at lessons from scaling Addi to over $1.3 billion in annualized GMV, serving 2.5 million customers, and achieving industry-leading gross margins above 55%. In this episode, Santiago and Miguel d...
E187 · 1 Oct 2025 · 33 min
Clair CEO - From Swiss Fencing Champion to Fintech Founder
Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Nico Simko, CEO and co-founder of Clair, for an inside look at the journey, pivots, and insights behind one of the most innovative companies in earned wage access and embedded fintech. From his early days as a competitive fencer on the Swiss national team—where he learned the mental agility and resilience needed for entrepreneurship—to his high-impact stints at J.P. Morgan, Nico shares how his personal story shaped his approach to building and sca...
E186 · 16 Sep 2025 · 30 min
50 Years Of VC: Lessons From Howard Morgan and Alan Patricof
Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza interviews Alan Patricof and Howard Morgan, two of the most influential figures in the venture capital industry. From the early days of just 50 annual deals to today’s 10,000 opportunities, they’ve helped shape the industry’s explosive growth over the last five decades. In this episode, Alan and Howard share lessons from navigating multiple crises, their vision for the AI revolution and a future with humanoid robots, and why mentorship and legacy matter more tha...
E185 · 2 Sep 2025 · 49 min
The Brex Growth Strategy: From Startup to Multibillion Fintech
Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza interviews Art Levy, Chief Business Officer of Brex. Brex has scaled to over $100 billion in processed transactions while becoming one of the most influential multibillion-dollar fintechs in the world. In this episode, Art shares the strategies behind Brex’s hypergrowth comeback, its extreme focus on three core products, and the culture that continues to produce founders of billion-dollar companies. Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders ...
E184 · 20 Aug 2025 · 45 min
Shift4 CEO on Building an $8B Empire
Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza interviews the CEO of Shift4. Shift4 has been at the forefront of the global payments industry for 26 years—and they’re only getting started. In this episode, CEO Taylor Lauber reveals the strategies that have kept the company ahead in a competitive, fast-moving market. Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21...
E183 · 6 Aug 2025 · 38 min
From Zero to $120M: How Cashea Rebuilt Credit And Trust in Venezuela
Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza interviews the CEO of Cashea. In a country where credit vanished, Cashea built a new system from scratch. CEO Pedro Vallenilla shares how they scaled BNPL to 3% of Venezuela’s GDP, through trust-based lending, merchant financing, and a bold vision for national impact. Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st...
E182 · 24 Jun 2025 · 38 min
Steve Stagner on Building Crete's $500 Million AI Roll-up to Modernize Accounting
Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza interviews Steve Stagner, CEO of Crete, an AI-powered roll-up deploying $500+ million to modernize the accounting industry. Backed by Thrive Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and others, Crete is acquiring US accounting firms and transforming them with OpenAI-powered tools. Steve brings battle-tested insights from building Mattress Firm from a single $1,300 franchise to a $3.8 billion Fortune 500 giant. In this episode, we discuss (1) Why "People, Process, T...
E181 · 10 Jun 2025 · 37 min
Jack Zhang, Airwallex CEO - A $6 Billion Powerhouse Solving Global Payments for Companies
Send us Fan Mail [Original air date, April 9, 2024] Miguel Armaza interviews Jack Zhang, CEO & Co-Founder of Airwallex, a global payments and treasury giant that moves $7 billion in monthly transaction volume and serves 100,000+ clients, including Brex, Rippling, and SHEIN. Founded in Melbourne in 2015, Airwallex was last valued at $6.2 billion and has raised over a billion dollars from Sequoia, DST, Square Peg, Greenoaks, Mastercard, Tencent, Salesforce, and many more. In this ep...
E180 · 3 Jun 2025 · 42 min
Eynat Guez, Papaya Global CEO - From 1,000 Rejections to $34 Billion in Annual Payments
Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza interviews Eynat Guez, CEO and Founder of Papaya Global. She has built an HR and payroll platform that has transformed how companies manage and operate global teams across 180 countries. After having faced over 1,000 rejections from VCs, Papaya has now grown to process $34 billion in payments annually and they've raised significant funding from Insight Partners, Bessemer, Greenoaks Capital, and more. We discuss why brutal honesty and direct leadership creates st...

About Fintech Leaders

Learn from today’s global leaders building the organizations that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.

Fintech Leaders is a English business podcast from Miguel Armaza. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Miguel Armaza
Language: English
Category: Business
New episodes: Every two weeks
Typical length: 48 min
Latest episode: 13 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1579999679

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