Cambrian Fintech with Rex Salisbury

In this episode, I sit down with Jason Gardner, founder and CEO of Marqeta. Jason shares his journey from the early days of San Francisco's tech scene through building a modern card issuing platform that serves companies like Cash App, DoorDash, and Affirm. We dive into the big pivot that almost broke the company, how DoorDash became their defining customer, and the challenges of scaling a fintech business. Jason also discusses his decision to go public in 2021, his biggest repeated mistake as a founder, and why he believes the future of fintech lies in the Middle East.Jason Gardner: / jasonmatthewgardner 00:00:00 - Introduction to Jason and Marqeta's Success00:00:27 - The Big Pivot That Almost Broke the Company00:01:02 - Why Oakland? Building in the Bay Area00:02:21 - San Francisco's Early Tech Scene in the 90s00:04:37 - Starting Marqeta: Why Nobody Believed in 201000:06:03 - Building Card Issuing Infrastructure from Scratch00:06:56 - Facebook's Gift Card Challenge Changes Everything00:08:00 - Finding the First Big Customer That Defined Marqeta00:09:00 - DoorDash: From Veterinarian Office to Partnership00:10:18 - How Marqeta Solved the Prepaid Card Fraud Problem00:11:19 - Cash App: The Consumer Bet That Made or Broke Us00:13:10 - How Do You Know When to Bet on a Customer?00:14:56 - The Hardest Part: Scaling Without Dying00:17:26 - Going Public in 2021: Timing the Perfect Window

In this episode I sit down with Wade Foster, the founder and CEO of Zapier. We explore Zapier's unique path, from building its first integrations on nights and weekends in Missouri to scaling with minimal funding through Y Combinator. Wade shares how “don't hire till it hurts” became a guiding mantra, why Zapier embraced remote work early on, and how the rise of AI is unlocking new automation possibilities through Zapier Agents. Whether you're curious about seedstrapping, enterprise workflows, or the frontier of AI benchmarks, this conversation delivers practical insights for building a lean, innovative company.00:00:00 - “Don't Hire Till It Hurts” Mantra00:01:24 - The First Zap & Early Users00:03:42 - Joining YC & Minimal Funding00:05:09 - Profitability & Lean Hiring00:06:57 - SEO for Marketplace Growth00:08:10 - AI Agents & Unstructured Data00:10:28 - Enterprise Playbook & GTM00:13:14 - ARC Prize & Future of AGI00:17:29 - Remote Culture at Zapier00:20:29 - Seedstrapping Advice in AI00:25:09 - Reimagining Processes w/ AI00:28:54 - Final Insights & Future

In this episode, I sit down with Seema, a partner on the Andreessen Horowitz Fintech Team, to explore how AI is transforming accounting. We uncover why 75% of accountants may retire over the next decade and how AI could relieve shortages by streamlining data ingestion, research, reporting, and client advising. Seema also shares insights from her comprehensive market map on AI in accounting, along with strategies for founders looking to sell either directly to firms or through embedded solutions. Whether you're curious about the future of audit, tax, or month-end close, this conversation reveals how AI can reshape one of the largest professional fields.00:00:00 - Why Accounting Faces a Crisis00:02:06 - Seema's AI & Accounting Market Map00:04:23 - Four Big Jobs for AI in Firms00:06:57 - Data Ingestion & Month-End Close00:09:08 - Research & AI-Driven Judgments00:12:08 - Firms' Excitement, Key Obstacles00:15:08 - Challenges with Trust & Accuracy00:17:27 - Selling AI: Firms vs. Companies00:20:29 - Automation & Billable Hours Shift00:23:38 - Embedded Accounting & Verticalization00:26:52 - Niche Communities & Next Steps00:29:24 - Future Outlook & Conclusion

In this episode, I sit down with Leif, Co-founder and Co-CEO at Public, an investing platform built for people who take investing seriously. We discuss how Public raised $400 million, doubled its user base in just 48 hours, and evolved beyond commission-free trading to offer options, treasuries, bonds, and more. Leif shares their no-payment-for-order-flow approach, emphasizing transparency and trust, and reveals how product velocity and AI integrations are helping them reach the mass-affluent market.We also dive into the importance of keeping teams lean, focusing on discipline over hype, and staying true to the company's mission despite market cycles. From avoiding organizational meltdowns to crafting a long-term product strategy, this conversation sheds light on Public's journey toward becoming a comprehensive fintech powerhouse.00:00:00 - $400M Raise & Doubling Users00:01:31 - Building for Serious Investors00:04:07 - Payment for Order Flow Explained00:06:49 - Public's No-PFOF Decision00:09:01 - GameStop's Impact & Funding Surge00:11:54 - Upgrading Product & Brand Tone00:14:44 - Aiming at Mass-Affluent Clients00:19:06 - Podcast & Media Strategy00:22:15 - AI & Alpha: The New Frontier00:25:20 - Complexities of Fintech Builds00:29:06 - The 2024 Big Product Launch00:34:21 - Org Meltdown & Lessons Learned00:39:16 - Surviving the Fintech Winter00:42:46 - Balancing Discipline & Growth

In this episode I sit down with Peter Walker, head of insights at Carta, to discuss the sweeping changes in how founders are building and funding startups in 2024. Peter shares fresh data on AI's outsized influence across every stage, why more founders are bootstrapping, and the real story behind down rounds and bridge rounds. We also dive into founder ownership trends, vesting schedules, and why hiring has slowed even as dry powder sits on the sidelines. If you're curious about where venture is headed, and how to navigate the current market, this deep dive offers plenty of practical takeaways.00:00:00 - Why 2024 Feels Different00:02:00 - Comparing 2024 to 2021 Boom00:03:58 - Why IPOs and AI Dominate Talk00:06:17 - Stage-by-Stage Funding Trends00:09:09 - Bridge Rounds & Down Rounds Return00:11:24 - Founder Ownership & Vesting00:14:17 - Solo Founders & AI Bootstrapping00:19:35 - Equity for Advisors & Early Hires00:22:50 - Safes, Valuation Caps & Dilution00:30:37 - Major Slowdown in Startup Hiring00:38:10 - Geographic Hubs: SF, NYC & Miami00:43:25 - Venture Funds Struggle With Returns00:59:22 - 2025 Outlook: IPOs & Efficiency01:02:03 - Closing Thoughts___Connect with Rex on social media:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rexsalisbury/Twitter: https://twitter.com/rexsalisburyTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rex.salisburyInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/rexsalisbury/

In this episode Rex chats with Sheel Mohnot from Better Tomorrow Ventures. Sheel shares his journey of living on a dollar a day in India, founding and selling multiple companies (including one sparked by a chance meeting on a train), and even hosting nine weddings—one of them sponsored by Taco Bell in the metaverse. They dive into Sheel's evolving personal finance stack, from traditional banks to Robinhood's gold credit card, and discuss why consumer fintech is suddenly exciting again. Sheel also unpacks how AI-driven solutions are transforming bookkeeping, mortgage operations, and more. From vertical SaaS insights to San Francisco's culture of radical experimentation, this conversation is a whirlwind tour of where fintech is headed.00:00:00 - Introduction00:01:00 - BTV Office & Life Above Work00:02:46 - Microfinance & Typhoid Stories00:04:01 - Half-Billion Domain Startup00:05:13 - Nine Weddings & Taco Bell00:06:28 - Building a Modern Finance Stack00:08:14 - Credit Cards & Margin Lending00:10:24 - Bank Inefficiencies & Chime's IPO00:11:33 - Consumer Fintech: Lessons & LTV00:15:50 - B2B Focus & Early-Stage Strategy00:19:15 - AI in Services: Accounting & Mortgage00:23:07 - Vertical SaaS & Embedded Finance00:31:10 - AI's Impact on Low-Margin Services00:33:34 - Doing More with Less & Moats00:40:01 - Regulatory Shifts & SF's Future

In this episode, we dive into fintech and commerce enablement with Jay Ganatra, one of the founders of Infinity Ventures. Learn how this former PayPal Ventures team brings expertise in payments, lending, risk, and financial infrastructure to back the next generation of startups. We explore the backstory of PayPal Ventures, the challenges and opportunities in fintech investments, and why corporate venture arms play a unique role. Hear insights on the current fintech M&A landscape and how strategic partnerships shape success for founders. Jay also shares his journey in founding Infinity Ventures and their approach to identifying and supporting high-potential fintech companies.If you're a founder or investor looking to better understand the fintech ecosystem, this conversation is packed with valuable advice! I / jayganatra 00:00:00 – Introduction to Infinity Ventures and PayPal's Legacy00:01:30 – Infinity Ventures Investment Focus00:03:00 – PayPal Ventures: Impact and Acquisitions00:05:00 – PayPal's Global Reach and Market Expansion00:07:00 – Challenges and Lessons from Corporate Ventures00:08:30 – Success Stories: Plaid and TRM Labs00:11:00 – Infinity Ventures Founding Journey00:12:30 – Fundraising and Building Infinity Ventures00:15:00 – Key Investments: Vinyl and Transfer Agent Disruption00:18:00 – Navigating Regulation and Market Entry for Vinyl00:24:30 - Exploring Simple Closure: Shutting Down Businesses00:30:15 - Addressing Market Misconceptions

Last week, I had an insightful podcast interview with Hamel Kothari, the co-founder and CTO of Brigit.We discussed how they've grown to over $100M in revenue, 1 million paying subscribers, and stayed profitable for more than two years. Brigit has built one of the top financial apps, ranking above companies like Barclays and Robinhood in the App Store.In the episode, we explore how they thrived in a space many investors were skeptical about.If you're interested in fintech or scaling a business, this podcast offers some valuable lessons on building a successful consumer fintech company.___Connect with Rex on social media:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rexsalisbury/Twitter: https://twitter.com/rexsalisburyTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rex.salisburyInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/rexsalisbury/

In this episode, I sit down with Avlok Kohli, CEO of AngelList, at their San Francisco headquarters. Avlok shares how AngelList responded to the 2022 market crash, shifting from a heavy reliance on SPVs to diversifying their product offerings, including rolling funds and venture fund management tools. He discusses the strategic decisions that led to AngelList's current success, insights on launching new products in competitive markets, and the evolution of AngelList into a comprehensive financial platform. Avlok also reflects on his journey from founder to CEO, providing an insider's view on the future of venture capital and the startup ecosystem.

In this episode, I sit down with James Dyett, head of platform at OpenAI. James discusses how AI is revolutionizing finance, with insights from clients like Morgan Stanley and Klarna.Learn how Morgan Stanley uses AI to improve wealth management and how Klarna has automated two-thirds of its customer service tasks.We also touch on Oscar Health and Nubank, exploring how AI enhances their operations. James shares his strategies for implementing AI solutions and the future of AI in the industry.

In this episode, I sit down with Renaud Laplanche, founder and CEO of Upgrade. Renaud talks about his move from Lending Club to starting Upgrade, focusing on innovation in consumer fintech. He shares insights on the unique features of the Upgrade Card, the strategic partnerships with credit unions, and the future of consumer finance. We dive into his strategies for building successful fintech companies and what sets Upgrade apart in the industry.

Keith Rabois is back at Khosla after leaving Founders Fund. In this episode, Keith discusses his return, why he focuses on seed investing, his most courageous bet, his biggest mistakes (deciding which meetings to take) and more. He also shares insights on evaluating founders, the intricacies of startup success, and his approach to investing.

Find out why Itai Damti (the founder and CEO of Unit) hates the word BAAS. We take a deep dive into his mindset and what got him to where he is today.

Join us for a captivating chat with Zach, Plaid's visionary founder and CEO. Plaid stands at the forefront of fintech innovation, linking financial institutions with apps to revolutionize banking and finance. From its early days in San Francisco to becoming a key player in fintech, Plaid's journey reflects the sector's rapid evolution.Zach guides us through Plaid's milestones—from filling a vital niche, scaling its impact, to navigating the fintech landscape's ups and downs, including the COVID-19 pandemic and banking crises. These moments highlight Plaid's crucial role in stabilizing the fintech ecosystem.Diving into the heart of fintech innovation, Zach discusses the challenges and achievements of building Plaid, a platform essential to fintech's fabric, and shares insights on the future of finance.This conversation sheds light on the innovation and determination driving fintech forward. It's a must-watch for anyone interested in technology's role in reshaping financial services.___Connect with Rex on social media:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rexsalisbury/Twitter: https://twitter.com/rexsalisburyTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rex.salisburyInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/rexsalisbury/

Pete Flint is a prominent figure in the technology and real estate industries, best known for his co-founding role at Trulia and his involvement with NFX, a venture capital firm. As one of the co-founders of Trulia, a real estate platform that gained widespread popularity, Flint played a pivotal role in revolutionizing the way people search for homes online. His entrepreneurial spirit and innovative approach have made him a respected leader in the prop-tech space. Beyond Trulia, Flint has continued to contribute to the startup ecosystem through his association with NFX, a venture capital firm that focuses on investing in seed-stage companies.

Jimmy Chen founded Propel in 2014 with the ambitious vision of improving America's safety net. $65 Billion of government benefits go unclaimed because of cumbersome and opaque processes. Even when those benefits are claimed, the user experience is frustrating. Propel started by making one of America's most important social benefit programs, SNAPs, formerly known as food stamps more user friendly. Propel makes it possible for any of the 42 million Americans on SNAPs to check their balance from their phone instead of having to call a 1-800 number and wade through a cumbersome phone tree. Today, Propel serves over 5 million people in all 50 statesTo share how Propel vision expanded beyond SNAPs to become an all-in-one money app to include mobile banking, benefits info with the goal of patching America's broken safety net, I'm excited to have Jimmy Chen here to share his story. https://www.joinpropel.com/

Today, I'm talking to fintech pioneer, Shamir Karkal, the Founder and CEO of Simple. Founded in 2009, Simple was one of the very first neobanks, meaning they offered banking services, but were not themselves a bank. Simple built the user experience and tech, but partnered with a bank to provide the charter.In 2009, it was not at all obvious this was even possible. Simple helped prove it was and grew a cult-like customer base in the 100s of thousands. It's hard to overstate how important the neobank model has become for fintech in the decade plus. Today, there are 100+ Neobanks and 20+ banking as a service platforms. But the bank-as-a-service model, is not just a story of neobanks. It's been crucial to the growth of fintech, especially embedded fintech, more broadly. So, today, we're going to talk w/ Shamir about what it took build Simple and pioneer a category.But, like any good pioneer, Shamir's not finished. Today, he's founded Sila, a banking-as-a-service platform, informed from his time building Simple. We'll talk cover that as well as what Shamir see's in the future of financial infrastructure.

Incredibly excited for this conversation with Immad Akhund, the Founder of Mercury, a business bank for startups. Mercury was founded in 2017 when almost no on had tried to build to a neobank for business. Today, Mercury has over 100,000 business customers and provides a suite of banking productsChecking and SavingsCredit Cards and expense managementTreasuryVenture DebtIn this conversation, we talk about just how hard, but rewarding the journey has been. Each year has been radically different from previous:2017 how?2018 build!2019 launch!2020 covid2021 ecommerce boom & tech bubble2022 tech crash2023 SVB fails...Most recently, the failure of SVB, their primary incumbent competitor, was a huge accelerant of the business with $2 Billion in deposits flow in a matter of weeks. This is a great story of what it takes to build in fintech.

On this episode, originally recorded in Mar 2022, we dive into the backstory of Chipper Cash, at the time, the most valuable startup in Africa recently valued at just over $2 billion. Chipper provides free and instant cross border money transfers, and has grown to serve over 4 million customers, doing 80,000 transactions.█ GuestsHam Serunjogi, Founder & CEO at Chipper Dan Kimerling, Founder & Managing Partner at Deciens (lead investor in Chipper's Seed & Series A)█ Timeline[Intros] - Ham & Dan[Raising] - How Dan & Ham Met[Crisis] - Responding when shut down in their largest market [Team Building] - How Chipper Built a world class legal and ops teams[Roadmap] - How Chipper prioritizes their product roadmap[Org Structure] - How Chipper built a matrixed org[The Future] - Chipper's Long Term Vision[Advice] - Advice for prospective founders

Today's guest is Laura Speakman, Co-Founder of Alloy. We cover her journey from interning in microfinance to narrowly avoiding becoming a career lawyer to then becoming a fintech founder building crucial infrastructure.Alloy is a global identity decisioning platform that helps banks and fintechs with onboarding, transaction monitoring and credit decisioning. They have 300+ customers and 300+ employees. Their last round value to them at over a billion dollars.But, getting there was by no means easy–building infrastructure in FinTech almost never is. We cover both the successes, but also the bumps in the road. Enjoy!We discuss:1. Her early career from Brooklyn DA's office => Microfinance in Nairobi => Payments in the US2. Why she started Alloy in 2015 and how she met her Co-Founder, Tommy Nichols3. How they closed their early customers (small fintechs) and eventually their first large customer (Ally Bank!)4. How their GTM & Product has changed over time5. Alloy's global expansion, starting w/ a London office6. Advice for new fintech foundersIf you prefer video, find our interviews on YouTube:youtube.com/@cambrianhq

In this episode, I talk to Shuo Wang, the founder of Deel. Deel is an all-in-one HR platform for global teams. They help companies of all sizes, anywhere from a two person startup to publicly traded companies, manage contractors and full-time employees in 150 plus companies or countries around the world. I first met the founders of Shuo and Alex in 2019, shortly after they had graduated YC's winter batch, when they were a small scrappy team, but clearly onto something big. In the 4 years since they have gone on to pay out over $5 billion to 250,000 individuals around the world. So really great team operating a critical piece of infrastructure at scale.In this interview, I cover how Shuo and Alex went from being friends at MIT to scrappy startup founders in YC to eventually building one of the most important companies powering the future of remote work.

In this episode, we are going to talk about how you to stop banks crises forever. That's right, permanently stop bank crises. I know that seems crazy.How? Narrow Banking. It's an idea that's been around since the 1930s. It essentially means that Banks cannot lend out deposits, which is why it's also known as fully reserved banking. If you know anything about Banking you probably think this is absolutely crazy. If Banks can lend out deposits, who will provide credit?There are a lot of objections to Narrow Banking, some very reasonable, some not.My Goal with this conversation is not to convince you that “Narrow Banking is “THE ANSWER.” But invite you to consider that some of the core principles of how our banking system operates are not some sort of divine, natural law, but instead are specific policy choices that we made in a particular historical context and that we could change if we wanted to. So hopefully, you'll find this engaging and thought provoking.And, in case you're thinking, "I don't want to listen to some radical pitch a crazy idea," you should know that John's proposal for how we transition into Narrow Banking is probably the most modest proposal you can think of. It is basically...do nothing! Some people are starting to move their money into accounts that function much like Narrow Banks, money markets backed entirely by treasuries being a prime example. So if it happens, great! That's it, that's his proposal. So hope you enjoy this episode I think you'll learn a lot even if you don't agree with everything. Links Mentioned in EpisodeJohn's Blog Grumpy Economist: https://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/Toward a Run- free Financial System: https://www.hoover.org/sites/default/files/across-the-great-divide-ch10.pdf

Ramp is one of the fastest businesses ever to go from $0 to $100M in revenue and they did it in less than 3 years and their last raise in 2022 valued them at $8 billion. It's a great company in large part because it's a great product. Cambrian runs on Ramp and I never thought I would say this about corporate expense software, but…it's magical!

In 2019, William announced he was stepping down for Plaid. For 3 years he and a small team worked in stealth on a new company, Column. Today we're going to talk about that company. William describes Column as “a nationally chartered bank that has built every facet of the technology from scratch”.We are going to cover what inspired William to start this new venture and why he believes the technology they built will be critical for the fintech ecosystem as it scales.█ GuestWilliam Hockey, Founder & CEOhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/william-h...█ Moderator Rex Salisbury, Founder @ Cambrianhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/rexsalisb...https://twitter.com/rexsalisbury▂▂▂Cambrian is a community for fintech founders and builders. Check out our website to subscribe to our newsletter, join our meetups and check out our other initiatives!https://www.cambrianhq.com/https://www.meetup.com/cambrian/

Building Credit Karma was not easy. Ken raised the company's first major round in 2009 during the Great Recession and in 2020 navigated the sale of the business during the early days of the covid pandemic, during which Credit Karma saw dramatic declines in revenue and faced the prospect of layoffs. But the company has come through those events and more stronger than ever. Despite the pandemic, Intuit closed the acquisition for a record setting $8 billion in late 2020. Since then, Credit Karma has continued to grow and is projected to deliver over $1.5 billion in revenue in FY 2022. Even more importantly, Credit Karma continues to create huge benefits for their 110+ million members by bringing transparency to credit scores, which in turn affords tailored access to the best financial products–across card, mortgage, auto and more–for their unique situation.█ GuestKen Lin, Founder & CEOhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/kennethjlin█ Moderator Rex Salisbury, Founder @ Cambrianhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/rexsalisb...https://twitter.com/rexsalisbury▂▂▂Cambrian is a community for fintech founders and builders. Check out our website to subscribe to our newsletter, join our meetups and check out our other initiatives!https://www.cambrianhq.com/https://www.meetup.com/cambrian/