Fintech Leaders

Max Levchin - Building Affirm, PayPal, and Why He Only Starts Network Businesses 26.05.2026 55min

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...

Rob Heyvaert, Motive Partners Founder: Investing Billions to Build the Future of Finance 13.05.2026 53min

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 ...

Renaud Laplanche on Building Upgrade to a $7.3Bn Giant, Reinventing the Credit Card, and Shipping AI-Native Products 30.04.2026 41min

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...

The Trader Who Builds Billion-Dollar Companies: Tom Sosnoff on Thinkorswim, Tasty, and What Comes Next 14.04.2026 59min

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...

Is Finance Technology? How Founders Can Avoid the Mistakes That Kill Fintech Companies 31.03.2026 44min

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...

Lesaka - Building Africa's Leading Fintech as a Publicly Traded Company, with Ali Mazanderani 24.03.2026 50min

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...

Sequoia's George Robson: An Inside Look at Sequoia and What it Takes to Build Generational Companies 10.03.2026 47min

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...

Michael Calvey: The Investor Behind Multiple $20+ Billion Companies 24.02.2026 1h 7min

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,...

Why Zero Hash Rejected a $2Bn Offer to Build the Future of Financial Infrastructure - Edward Woodford, CEO 10.02.2026 37min

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...

Uzum, from 0 to $1.5Bn in Four Years. Building Uzbekistan's First Tech Unicorn. Nikolay Seleznev, Co-Founder 27.01.2026 38min

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...

How Deel Built a $17 Billion Company in 7 Years - Dan Westgarth, COO 13.01.2026 38min

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 ...

FinTech's Multi-Billion Comeback: Steve McLaughlin (FT Partners), From Darkest Days to Record Deals 09.12.2025 30min

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...

How René Lacerte Built Bill.com into a Multi-Billion FinTech Powerhouse that Processes 1% of US GDP Annually 25.11.2025 53min

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...

Nigel Morris, Capital One & QED Co-Founder - Transforming Financial Services for a Billion People 11.11.2025 46min

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...

Valon's CEO Sold $100M Without a Sales Team. Now They're Building a Multi-Billion Mortgage Platform 28.10.2025 50min

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...

How Addi Reached $200M ARR with Better Margins Than Nubank, Affirm, and Klarna 14.10.2025 43min

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...

Clair CEO - From Swiss Fencing Champion to Fintech Founder 01.10.2025 33min

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...

50 Years Of VC: Lessons From Howard Morgan and Alan Patricof 16.09.2025 30min

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...

The Brex Growth Strategy: From Startup to Multibillion Fintech 02.09.2025 49min

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 ...

Shift4 CEO on Building an $8B Empire 20.08.2025 45min

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...