London Fintech Podcast

Watch the video episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7M7njXxafNgIn this insightful episode of the London Fintech Podcast, we sit down with Nick Rose, CFO of Enable, a pioneering FinTech company revolutionising rebate management. This is an episode for CFOs and deal-makers alike. Whilst rebate management as a concept may not be immediately familiar to all, once we understand that it's any deal structure where money flows back up the deal chain based on hitting thresholds and targets, we can see that Enable is digitising a vast and often overlooked aspect of the market.There is a great story here of transitioning from traditional finance in an established bricks & mortar business, to a scale-up SAAS company backed by Silicon Valley.Nick shares his inspiring journey from a traditional accounting career at EY and Travis Perkins to becoming a key leader in a fast-growing technology company. Drawing on his wealth of experience, he explains the complexities of rebate systems, the importance of collaboration between trading partners, and how Enable's innovative software transforms rebate management, reducing the reliance on spreadsheets.The episode explores Enable's remarkable growth, expanding from just 55 employees to over 650, and the integral role of flexibility and understanding customer needs in the company's success. Nick also discusses how AI-powered analytics are poised to enhance decision-making for their customers, and he offers invaluable advice for aspiring entrepreneurs looking to make an impact in the FinTech space.Topics Covered:• Nick's career journey, from EY to Travis Perkins and Enable• How Enable's software simplifies rebate management• The importance of collaboration in trading relationships• Enable's growth trajectory and scaling challenges• The role of AI in shaping the future of rebate management• Why understanding customer needs drives product development• The significance of a supportive board in achieving growth• Flexibility as a cornerstone of operational success• Insights into the fast-paced, dynamic FinTech environment• Practical advice for entrepreneurs: solve real customer problemsTune in to learn how FinTech innovation can transform complex processes and create value for businesses everywhere.Tony Clark: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-clark-07160b/The London Fintech Podcast: https://londonfintechpodcast.comNick Rose: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-rose-81ba318a/Enable: https://www.enable.com/ 

In this special episode of the London Fintech Podcast, we are privileged to talk with Michael Manelli, the 695th Lord Mayor of London. Michael shares his extraordinary career journey, spanning from his early days in aerospace at Lockheed Martin to becoming a key figure in financial services, fintech, and leading the CIty of London. As a Chartered financial accountant, economist, author, and scientist, Michael discusses the wide-ranging initiatives he championed during his year as Lord Mayor, including mental health research, sustainable finance, Ethical AI, and Space Protection.The episode also dives into the City of London's unique governance structure and its role as a global fintech hub. Michael provides fascinating insights into the integration of finance, science, and technology, as well as the evolving role of the Lord Mayor in shaping the city's future.Topics Covered:• Michael's diverse career and path to becoming Lord Mayor of London• The Lord Mayor's job - Global initiatives, leading the City, pageantry, speeches & costume changes• London's status as a global fintech hub and its governance model• Initiatives Michael made including mental health, sustainability, Ethical AI & Space Protection• The intersection of finance, science, and technology in the City of London• Innovations in environmental sustainability and emissions trading• The role of the Lord Mayor in global leadership and governance• The future of fintech, ethical AI, and environmental responsibility in the financial sectorTune in for an enlightening conversation on leadership, innovation, and the future of fintech in the heart of London.Learn More:Tony Clark: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-clark-07160b/The London Fintech Podcast: https://londonfintechpodcast.nxwave.ukMichael Mainelli: https://www.mainelli.org

Watch the video episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXa2V8bRufAIn this episode of The London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark sits down with Duncan Stevens, Founder of Gretel, to discuss the platform's mission to reconnect individuals with lost financial assets. Duncan shares how his entrepreneurial journey was shaped by his early life experiences and a strong desire to create purpose-driven solutions. He reflects on the challenges of launching Gretel during the COVID-19 pandemic and highlights the platform's unique approach to tackling the issue of stranded financial assets in the UK. The conversation explores the social and financial impact of Gretel, including its inclusive design and success in reuniting consumers with tens of millions of pounds. Duncan delves into the scalability of Gretel's two-sided marketplace model and its focus on fostering trust between financial institutions and consumers. He also provides valuable advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, emphasising the importance of purpose over profit and the need for accessible innovation. Topics Covered:• Duncan's career journey and inspiration for founding Gretel• The problem of stranded financial assets in the UK• Gretel's design principles: inclusivity, accessibility, and ease of use• How Gretel operates as a two-sided marketplace• Growth potential within the financial sector and future expansion plans• Challenges of launching during the pandemic• The role of purpose-driven entrepreneurship• Predictions for the future of asset reunification and financial inclusion Tune in to learn how Gretel is reshaping the financial landscape by addressing a critical problem and empowering consumers to reconnect with their forgotten assets. Learn More: Duncan Stevens: https://www.linkedin.com/in/duncan-stevens/Gretel: https://www.gretel.co.uk/Tony Clark: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-clark-07160b/The London Fintech Podcast: https://londonfintechpodcast.com/

Watch the video version on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgYg4tPP48AIn this episode of The London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark sits down with Aman Ghei to look at the state of Fintech in Europe.Aman shares his journey from M&A banking, working at Accel and Facebook and games development, to building a career in venture capital. Aman reflects on how these experiences have influenced his approach to investing in post-revenue companies across sectors like payments, banking, and insurance technology.The conversation explores the current state of European Fintech, including the growing prominence of local investors, the impact of economic challenges on valuations, and the opportunities emerging in thriving markets like Germany and the Nordics. Aman delves into the complexities of the investment landscape, emphasising the importance of capital efficiency and highlighting trends in mergers and acquisitions.Aman also provides insights into lucrative verticals like payments and the strategic advantage of focusing on the mid-market in Europe. He shares practical advice for navigating the Fintech space, predicting the continued rise of "useful AI" and the shifting dynamics of the market.Topics Covered:Aman's career journey and Finch Capital's focus on post-revenue Fintech investmentsFinch Capital's 9th Annual European Fintech ReportKey investment trends across Europe, including country-specific opportunitiesThe evolving role of local investors in driving growthChallenges and opportunities in the current economic cycleMid-market investment focusInsights into thriving sectors like banking, payments, and insurance technology (BNPL, Stablecoins and InsurTech)Complexities of valuation in Fintech and the importance of capital efficiencyThe strength of the European PE sector (Eur 50-500m)The UK as the major European Fintech hubThe "Rule of 40"German private capital focusThe Nordic & Polish fintech sceneBeing commercial from the startPredictions for the future of European Fintech, including M&A activity and market consolidationTune in to gain a deep understanding of the European Fintech ecosystem and learn how investors like Aman Ghei are shaping its future.Learn More:Aman Ghei: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanghei/Finch Capital: https://www.finchcapital.com/State of European Fintech report: https://finchcapital.com/post/state-of-european-fin-tech-2024Tony Clark: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-clark-07160b/The London Fintech Podcast: https://londonfintechpodcast.com/

Watch the video version on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1M4ODqxthw&t=973sIn this episode of the London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark sits down with Qin En Looi, a leading figure in the Asia fintech space, to explore the future of digital assets and the convergence of fintech and blockchain technology. Qin shares his journey from a traditional Singaporean upbringing to becoming a successful entrepreneur and investor, co-founding Glints and leading Saison Capital. He reflects on how these experiences shaped his understanding of fintech's potential in Southeast Asia. The conversation covers blockchain's evolution, the growing institutional interest in digital assets, and the importance of trust within the crypto space. Qin emphasises the role of tokenisation in the future of finance, particularly in streamlining transactions and overcoming the limitations of traditional systems like SWIFT. They also discuss how fintech innovation is accelerating in Southeast Asia, the challenges of tokenised assets, and the critical importance of choosing the right technology and jurisdiction for protection. Qin also offers practical advice for entrepreneurs in fintech, stressing the importance of learning to sell, building strong distribution networks, and how financial discipline is crucial as the fintech sector undergoes a phase of consolidation. Topics Covered: • Qin's background, dropping out and then completing a Stanford degree in half the time (and achieving top marks!)• The potential of digital assets and blockchain technology in fintech • The rise of tokenisation and its impact on the financial industry • Importance of trust and regulatory clarity for blockchain adoption • Challenges and opportunities for startups in the digital asset space • Insights into fintech's growth in Southeast Asia and global liquidity trends • The convergence of fintech and blockchain technology • Practical advice for entrepreneurs: mastering sales and distribution • The role of institutional finance in the digital asset ecosystem Learn More:  Chinen Lui: https://www.linkedin.com/in/looiqinen/Saison Capital: https://www.saisoncapital.com/ Tony Clark: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-clark-07160b/  NextWave: www.nxwave.com

Watch the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Tk_Qg5Lkiw0 In this episode of the London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark sits down with Jordan Sinclair, President of Robinhood UK, to explore Robinhood's ambitious global expansion, with a particular focus on its UK market entry. Jordan brings a wealth of experience from his diverse career, and is now leading Robinhood's mission to democratise finance by offering commission-free trading, fractional shares, and innovative 24/5 trading access to a broader audience. Jordan shares insights into his unique journey and Robinhood's customer-centric approach, emphasising the importance of financial education, localising products to meet specific needs, and addressing underrepresented groups within the UK market. This conversation delves into Robinhood's strategy for market disruption, its revenue model, and the role technology—especially AI—plays in enabling scalable growth. They also discuss the UK investing environment and Robinhood's financial literacy initiatives, along with the company's approach to diversity and inclusion in shaping its customer base. The episode provides an in-depth look at Robinhood's approach to sustainable growth and how the company uses its technological edge to stand out in a competitive fintech landscape. Jordan also opens up about maintaining a work-life balance, staying informed, and Robinhood's plans for future advancements to continue scaling its operations. Topics Covered: Jordan's career journey and insights into Robinhood's UK market strategy Robinhood's mission to democratise finance and innovative features like 24/5 trading The role of financial education and localisation in product development Strategic approaches to market disruption, marketing, and growth • Robinhood's revenue model, including diverse income streams The importance of technology in Robinhood's expansion and customer engagement • Insights into the UK investing environment and the future of fintech Diversity, inclusion, and broadening financial access Staying ahead with AI-driven solutions and scaling technology Balancing professional growth with personal well-being Robinhood's vision for the future of finance and upcoming advancements Tune in to gain a comprehensive understanding of Robinhood's strategy for global growth and how the company is paving the way for the next generation of fintech innovation. Learn More: Jordan Sinclair: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-sinclair-36827142/ Robinhood UK: https://robinhood.com/gb/en/ Tony Clark: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-clark-07160b/ NextWave: https://www.nxwave.com

Watch the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ny7vDFIVhko In this episode Tony Clark sits down with Paul Caulfield for a deep dive into the troubling world of Financial Crime. Paul is a practising attorney. He's been a chief legal officer and a chief risk officer at major Financial Institutions, and he's worked with pretty much all the market regulators in the sector, including the Department of Justice, the OCC, OFAC, and the Fed. Paul is also an adjunct professor at Fordham Law in New York. This is a ‘must-listen' for anyone in the Risk, Compliance or Legal space. This conversation centres on Money Laundering and Cyber Crime as two key dimensions of the criminal activity challenge that the FS sector faces. In today's market, illegal activity manifests in so many different ways and some surprising places. Paul shares some of his practical stories of the threats, regulations and remedies that firms must pay attention to. Topics covered include: The Growing Threat of Financial Crime Introducing Paul Caulfield: Expert in Financial Crime Regulatory Challenges and Innovations The Role of Technology in Combating Financial Crime Money Laundering innovations in surprising places – diamonds, gaming & crypto The Importance of Collaboration in Financial Security Leveraging AI and Technology for Better Compliance The Future of Financial Crime Prevention Voice & Avatar Synthesis and Cyber Attacks Real-Life Scenarios of Cybercrime The Rise of Romance Scams and Social Engineering Election Security and Media Influence The Dark Web and Cybercrime as a Service Regulations and the Role of Citizen Activism The Future of Cybersecurity and Financial Crime Personal Reflections and the Impact of 9/11 The Importance of Cyber Hygiene and Human Factors Unexpected Inspirations: Japanese Haiku Learn more: Paul Caulfield: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulcaulfieldny/ Tony Clark: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-clark-07160b/ NextWave: https://www.nxwave.com

  Watch the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7NHLjXfhNqQ In this episode of the London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark is joined by Louis Glass, the head of CMS' TMT-sector M&A group in the UK, Managing Partner of the firm's Tel Aviv office, and a member of the management board. Louis brings a wealth of experience as a corporate lawyer with specialist expertise in tech, internet, and e-commerce transactions. His career spans over two decades, including extensive cross-border work for multinationals, startups, and venture capital funds. Louis' journey into the world of law and fintech is as unique as it is impressive. Tech-obsessed from a young age, he was writing database software by the age of 15. Today, his work revolves around complex international transactions, particularly in the tech sector, where he represents clients across 45 countries. This conversation explores the intersection of law, technology, and fintech, focusing on how legal frameworks can support innovation while ensuring compliance in the ever-changing regulatory environment. Louis also opens up on his personal journey, mental wellness and the vital importance of team and company culture. Louis offers key insights into navigating the legal challenges fintech companies face, from securing licenses to managing cross-border transactions, and balancing rapid growth with stringent regulatory standards. Throughout the episode, Louis provides practical advice for fintech leaders, sharing how companies can leverage legal expertise to innovate while staying compliant. He also touches on the future of regulation in fintech and how businesses can anticipate and adapt to evolving legal landscapes. Topics covered include: Louis's journey from writing software to leading M&A transactions in the tech and fintech sectors. The twin ‘fairytales' of company law and money. Resilience, mental health & corporate culture. The critical relationship between legal frameworks and fintech innovation. Balancing regulatory compliance with business growth in a global context. Managing cross-border transactions and securing licenses in different jurisdictions. The future of fintech regulation and how businesses can stay ahead. Aligning legal teams with business objectives to drive long-term success. Louis's experience working across the UK, US, and global markets. Practical strategies for legal professionals in the fintech space. Building trust with regulatory bodies through proactive compliance. Insights from Louis's work across over 45 countries. Interesting reads (and podcasts…) Learn more: Louis Glass: https://cms.law/en/gbr/people/louis-glass CMS: https://cms.law/en/gbr/ Tony Clark: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-clark-07160b/ NextWave: https://www.nxwave.com

Watch the video version on YouTube:  https://youtu.be/go9S3Ta0xtY In this episode of the London Fintech podcast, Tony Clark talks to Sarah Levy. Sarah has over 25 years of experience launching and growing new brands, however Sarah's journey to FS is an unconventional one, having crossed over only 4 years ago from a super successful career with Disney, Nickelodeon and Viacom, to leading one of the fastest growing and most progressive digital wealth management firms in the US.  There are approximately 60,000 wealth firms globally of all sizes offering propositions that span pure advisory, self-directed, robo-advisory and hybrid models in a market characterised by shifting demographics, consolidation and new asset classes.  So how do firms differentiate and get ahead? This conversation explores Betterment's use of technology for competitive advantage and delivering a purpose-led wealth solution to the “zillennial” generation of investors. Sarah shares her unique insights on building targeted consumer brands for specific demographics and customer segments, the power of hyper-personalisation, and the misalignment between traditional firms and the digitally accelerating ecosystem. “If Schwab and Fidelity and Vanguard are my parents brands, Betterment will be the Zillennial wealth brand”. Additionally, she provides some really practical insight for C Suite leaders and fintech entrepreneurs on building a growth company, transitioning to fintech, building customer loyalty, and creating a balanced corporate culture. Moving from big-media to Wealth Management Transforming businesses for the Digital Age The importance of brand in all sectors Solving problems for customers and laser focus The  ‘Zillennial' generation need for technology driven solutions The direction of the Wealth Management sector “Selling eat your vegetables while some of the others were offering candy” during the pandemic How Important is Enterprise scale for Wealth Firms? Betterment's Mission – making people's lives better How Betterment Works Digital vs Real Life advisors Betterment's Portfolio Strategy Betterment's Market Positioning as a FinTech How Betterment Differentiates from Competitors Simplicity and the elegance of the user experience Sarah's Team Building Journey and Betterment's Culture Food as a team-builder.. The Rise of AI in Wealth Management Sarah's Challenges and learning every day Switching from corporate to fintech Future Plans for Betterment Where to Learn More Learn more: Sarah: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-kirshbaum-levy-889881a1/ Betterment: https://www.betterment.com Tony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-clark-07160b/ NextWave: https://www.nxwave.com

Watch the video version on YouTube:  https://youtu.be/-thOpJvMmF8 Which bank was the first UK clearing bank in 250 years, grew income 91%, last year despite the fintech downturn, doubled its deposits and provides banking services to 250 companies, including 16 other banks? In this episode of the London FinTech podcast, Tony Clark is joined by Charles McManus, Founding CEO of ClearBank. Charles is an international banking professional with over 30 years in global investment banking, wealth management and retail. Before ClearBank, he was the group CFO of RBS Ulster Bank and spent 13 years at the Royal Bank of Canada, where he became CFO for Europe and Asia and Global Head of Product Control. This conversation explores ClearBank's pioneering role in embedded banking and its remarkable growth and success. Charles offers deep insights into the firm's journey, its innovative solutions, and its leadership in the fintech sector. Topics include the future of embedded banking, ClearBank's successful navigation of regulatory challenges, and the expansion into Europe post-Brexit. Additionally, Charles shares his personal experiences, stress management strategies, and advice for fintech entrepreneurs. Topics covered include: ClearBank's remarkable journey to-date Charles' background & career Journey Setting up ClearBank in Europe post-Brexit Learning to ride a horse at 50.. The Fintech revolution and the Embedded Banking sector ClearBank's business model Banking for banks Stablecoin and tokenised deposits ClearBank's competitive landscape and differentiators Tech company vs bank Hiring an amazing team & psychometric testing Agile working AI in the Embedded Banking sector Future plans for ClearBank Advice to aspiring entrepreneurs, including those thinking of swapping the corporate world for the fintech world Learn more: Charles: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-mcmanus-/ ClearBank: https://clear.bank Tony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-clark-07160b/ NextWave: https://www.nxwave.com  

Watch the video version on YouTube:  https://youtu.be/j5HZhwSuVy4 In this episode of the London Fintech podcast, Tony Clark talks to Niall Cameron. They explore Niall's journey from heading trading teams to leading digital transformation at HSBC and now building a unique Fintech community through FinTech Connex. There are by some estimates over 26, 000 FinTechs globally. However, as this audience will know, the sector has been on a rollercoaster ride since 2020. Post COVID FinTech funding dropped dramatically in 23 and in investment terms, the first half of last year was down 57 percent year on year versus 2022. Q1 24 this year was the worst performing fintech quarter since the start of 2020. However, it's not all gloom and doom. There is optimism across the sector from both the investment community and the fintechs themselves, particularly for those firms who have a clear niche product, a rapid growth rate and effective partnerships. A lot of this is down to product focus and leveraging the fintech ecosystem, something that Niall is an expert in. Niall shares his insights on achieving product-market fit, staying ahead of trends, and the importance of narrowing focus for deep expertise. Additionally, he provides practical advice for fintech entrepreneurs on making their products more buyable and actionable in a swiftly evolving industry landscape. Niall, not just had a stellar career in trading, rising to the top of his business with several thousand traders reporting to him at one point, but he also made a successful move to digital leadership at one of the world's largest banks and more recently. built a unique fintech community and network business across the sector. Meet Niall Cameron: A Fintech Connector The State of the Fintech Industry Urban art & meeting Banksy (maybe..) Niall's Career Journey and Influences Transition to Digital Leadership The Birth of FinTech Connex Challenges and Opportunities in Fintech Mice dancing with elephants Segmenting and Labeling Products for Different Clients The Role of AI in Transformational Solutions AI's Impact on Various Financial Sectors Challenges and Strategies for FinTech Companies Future Trends and Predictions in FinTech Navigating AI Adoption and Corporate Challenges Final Thoughts and Advice for FinTech Entrepreneurs Where to learn more & Connector invitation… Learn more: Niall: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niall-cameron-8a1aab6/ FintechConnex: https://fintechconnex.com Tony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-clark-07160b/ NextWave: https://www.nxwave.com  

Watch the video version on YouTube:  https://youtu.be/j5HZhwSuVy4 In his inaugural episode of the London Fintech Podcast, host Tony Clark takes over from Mike Baliman and takes a deep dive into the world of AI powered forensic accounting. Research shows that 1 in 10 US firms are cooking the books and that accounting manipulation is a $4.7Tn industry problem, in the US alone.  Transparently has built an AI platform that can detect and score accounting manipulation, often years ahead of corporate collapse! Tony talks with Dr. Hamish Macalister, the founder and CEO of Transparently AI. They discuss the prevalence of accounting manipulation in global markets, the statistical mechanics behind Transparently's AI system, the varied use cases spanning banking, asset management, auditing, and regulation, and touch upon the ethical commitment Transparently has towards transparency and accuracy. Hamish shares his journey, the company's rapid evolution, and exciting future prospects involving generative AI integration. The episode provides deep insights into the significance and mechanics of forensic AI in tackling financial fraud. Meet the New Host: Tony Clark Tony's Background and Vision for the Show Introducing Dr. Hamish McAllister – quant strategist, professor & AI inventor The potential of AI in Finance Transparently AI: Forensic Accounting Time away from the startup – Scuba diving Hamish's Career Journey & asking the Singapore government to reduce their research grant! Founding Transparently AI Building the Transparently AI Team Cooking the books – the $4.7Tn problem (and opportunity..).  Forensic reports in seconds.. 85,000 companies – scoring every listed company since the 80's Predicting corporate collapse – years ahead.. Exploring Corporate Governance and Asset Quality Minimizing False Positives in Financial Systems Client Base and Use Cases Ethical Considerations and Transparency How Transparently AI Works Real-World Applications and Case Studies Investment from Franklin Templeton Transparently 2.0 – Generative AI Integration & Google AI acceleration The world's first AI Forensic accountant that you can actually talk to Advice for FinTech Entrepreneurs Where to Learn More (and free trial offer) More info: Transparently.ai:  https://www.transparently.ai Hamish:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamish-macalister-phd-0b558bb/ Nextwave: https://www.nxwave.com Tony:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-clark-07160b/

This is the 4th and final episode in the mini-series celebrating the LFP's 10th anniversary. Having looked at the past decade in Fintech, dived into how an LLM really works and discussed what risks AI does or doesn't pose to humanity in this episode we cover the macro picture right now as the setting for the outlook for FS and Fintech over the next decade as well as revealing the exciting plans for levelling-up the LFP to go even further and fresher into it's next decade. For sure it is the best of times in terms of technology, even if in terms of “western”/US empire societal and economic situation the worst of times as WEF/2030/Agenda 21 continue to bear down upon the people. But however the macro cookie crumbles with regard to geopolitics for sure FS will be affected significantly either way. Insane money-printing and government debt accumulation in western countries cannot continue for much longer without risking social and economic collapse as we have discussed on the podcast before. On the other hand will we have CBDCs and the State programming your currency? There are many scenarios but the geopolitical changes are already being ushered in with the BIS, the “central banks bank” already well advanced with its mBridge project, a Swift alternative. In this episode I am delighted to be joined once more by Tony Clark former guest and London Head of former brand partner's Synechron as well as founder of Next Wave a digital acceleration consultancy for FS who lives much nearer the coalface of change than I. So check the show out for not just an overview of the dominant geopolitical influences on FS, to which Fintech is simply a subset, but the future and how we see technology changing FS and Fintech in the upcoming decade. And then finally in the show we reveal the exciting plans for levelling-up the LFP and taking it into its second decade – where for sure the pace of change will not, whatever happens, slow down! Share and enjoy!  

In this episode we discuss the super-hot and super-important topic of what Risks AI poses to humanity and society. There is perhaps not a hotter and more misunderstood topic than that of AI and the risks it poses. Many indeed fear that “it” will eliminate humans. The influential Geoffrey Hinton, co-creator of the seminal backpropagation algorithm, has been all over the media saying we need to worry and that there is 50% chance that AI outsmarts humanity and poses an existential risk. Other insiders put that probability at 100%. Should we too worry if the real insiders are sounding the alarm? I think not. But why are the insiders not the people to turn to? If the insiders were say insiders at Boeing who were blowing the whistle about dangerous aircraft manufacture processes then yes we should be concerned. Mind you we might also be concerned that three in a row now, having found their whistles, suddenly died in mysterious circumstances. However if, in simple terms, airplane manufacturing risks are very much in the box, the risks AI poses are very much out of the box that the experts are expert in. Whilst one must listen to their technological concerns, neural net experts are not experts out of the box. And it requires an assessment from outside the box to consider the risks to society as a whole. So lets dive into whether AI is about to decide that their users are useless eaters or will AI be more benign than WEF luminaries and not turn us into slaves but serve us? Or is AI merely the latest in many tools, many changes of technology which fits into a long-established pattern of such over the millennia. Each new technology by definition affecting the world in unique new ways as well as same old patterns. We will have five sections: a brief summary of the prior episode on what an LLM is and a contextualisation in the wider field of AI and why LLMs in particular pose greater concerns than other AI technologies which have been used for a long time. I will briefly summarise LFP200 on the impact of technology on society historically. This new tech isn't humanity's first rodeo. before we assess risk in any domain we need to address biases that people have – linguistic/conceptual, philosophical/metaphysical, sociological and psychological. we will look at four domains that AI may affect in society – the crazy scifi that the robots are taking over, the economic impact, the informational impacts and technological developments. we will address the key point of who controls the technology. This “who controls” is for me the real crux of the matter and right now much of what one hears is propaganda to influence that outcome. To simplify will you end up owning your own super-smart chatbot or at the other will it be centrally-controlled by Big Brother, the corporate-state who will keep you safe and feed you its propaganda? And much much more

LLMs, of which ChatGPT is the most well-known, are perhaps the most awesome tech invention of all time. Even experienced AI folk didn't see this coming. Most if not all of us will have used ChatGPT. However understanding of how they work is for most people either totally missing or totally misled by anthropomorphic language – thinking, learning, hallucinating, learns like a human, is like your brain and so forth. None of which are actually true in the slightest. In this super-special episode I reject all the utterly misleading language that is entirely off the mark and instead focus on what LLMs are schematically two programs that process data like all other programs using no different programming languages or technologies – well other than needing an astronomical computing power which so enriched Nvidia shareholders. I explain using only a simple excel spreadsheet model how both of these programs ~the “training” program and the ~”Chatbot” program and how conceptually one could create one in Excel. Having established that listeners will really know – in ways they can explain to others what LLMs are and not be misled by human terms which the currency of so many LLM descriptions. LLMs appear to be a very recent and overnight success. However like the Beatles there was a long hard slog to get to say the Camp4 on Everest at which point they started to become noticed and from where it appeared to be a relatively short walk to the top of Everest and a mystery about how rapidly someone can get there. But John Lennon and Paul McCartney were playing together in dive bars and village halls from 1957 until they summitted in 1963 with their first Number One. The climbers on Everest may have gone all the way from London on the way to Everest. And for ChatGPT phenomenally the journey started as far back as during World War 2 – an astonishing  81 years ago! The road to ChatGPT was long and winding with all sorts of ups and downs including most of the specialist AI researchers deserting the field in the so-called “AI winter” from 1969 onwards. It is a truly astonishing tale and, fascinatingly to the insanely hyped and utterly misleading human-related vocabulary surrounding LLMs, this dates back to a 1958 press conference (!) showcasing the US Navy's Mark 1 Perceptron machine – a hardware-only machine which was created to aid the navy in image detection where as wikipedia says: “In a 1958 press conference organized by the US Navy, Rosenblatt made statements about the perceptron that caused a heated controversy among the fledgling AI community; based on Rosenblatt's statements, The New York Times reported the perceptron to be “the embryo of an electronic computer that [the Navy] expects will be able to walk, talk, see, write, reproduce itself and be conscious of its existence.” The blurry photo on the left is of the perceptron and unsurprisingly none of it and its successors never did walk, talk, see, write, reproduce itself and be conscious of its existence. Indeed it took perhaps fifty years to develop robots that could walk or computer programs that could see, write and talk but over 70 years to ones that could take or write intelligently as ChatGPT et al do. Even then ChatGPT and other LLMs are like all other programs – they simply take input, do some computations and create output using no different technology from any other computer program. Their awesome abilities rely not on any magic simply the awesome human skill of creating new ideas after new ideas until after 81 years these achieve a critical mass and produce results that no-one expected – even the experts. This Special is Part 1 of 2. In Part 2 we will look at the risks of this new technology – all new technologies come with benefits and problems – nuclear technology can be used to keep us warm or to atom bomb people for instance. However as the world of risks in LLMs and AI in general is dominated by insane sci-fi visions the field is entirely ungrounded. To get to that episode it is necessary to understand the nature of an LLM and how it works. Only then, alongside its abilities as a program, can you start to form an opinion as to what it's consequences are. Will LLMs, as their capabilities and powers grow, decide – like WEF luminaries that the people users are “useless eaters” and start releasing gain of functioned viruses, feed us bugs and bankrupt us with so-called green taxes to funnel ever more money upwards? Or will LLMs not turn into the WEF and instead remain as a powerful tool on your desktop no more threat to you or I than Excel? Or something in between? Tune in to the next episode to find out but first find out what LLMs actually are and the amazing 81yr tale of their creation.

The past decade has seen the most extraordinary innovation in any business sector in the UK and thence world since the industrial revolution . An amazing outburst of creativity and independent players emerged on the oldest and stodgiest sector of all – FS. The LFP was the first, and most blue-chip podcast to cover this scene starting in 2014. This episode is like a mini-documentary that takes us one fast-forward through the development and progress of Fintech as it happened and was perceived at the time. A decade of the LFP represents a unique historical archive, a super-rare window, a time-machine to be able to look back in time and see how things were perceived at the time. However such is the volume of episodes that if you took on, as a full-time job, listening to every episode in order it would take you well over a man-month of full-on 9-5 listening to go through the whole evolution. I thought more preferable would be a one hour review of this exciting decade of innovation and entrepreneurialism instead

This is a super-short extraordinary LFP outside the usual programming schedule to alert listeners to the crime of mugging folks and then getting them to transfer under duress large sums of money to the thieves bank account. This is apparently on the increase in London and is well-known in countries such as Brazil and South Africa where people may routinely take burner phones with them when going into the City. I initially learned about this risk in this Reddit thread. Many people without reflection may in effect carry access to all of their money on a single device. We look at possible simple answers to avoid unnecessary risk. There is also a shoutout for a Q& A in the 10th anniversary episode and instructions as how to send the Qs to me for answering in that episode.

If you invent the world's greatest Fintech App in your garden shed that's impressive – but something only known to you. At which point you need to get the word out to relevant audiences. PR is an essential component in the modern world to help you refine and target that message and to get you and it into the relevant publications/podcasts et al that will reach your target clients and the market in general (think targets for next fund raise perhaps). At a more macro level, the dark side of PR is that it is, as Musk said propaganda, and one often designed not in the recipients' best interest, whether it be Bernays getting women to take up smoking or governments getting people to be injected more recently. However that's way above the Fintech space and in this episode Ben takes a very value-adding practical approach to what PR is, when you need it and when you don't, what the value-add is, how to use it well and what to look out for when hiring a PR firm amongst many other insider-angles. Ben is a long term player in the whole media and Fintech scene including the earliest days of Level39 and working at Balderton Capital VCs and formed his own boutique agency focusing on B2B Fintech and VC PR in 2017. Topics discussed include: Ben's career journey and background working in various angles from working for free in the media to today the importance of not doing PR too soon or inappropriately lest you make things more difficult for yourself using PR along the growth curve and how it changes along with your aims the PR process the super-importance of a collaboration between the firms strategy and its media comms the real value-adding lies in the first stage of the process – as unless your message is spot on you will not be spreading an optimal take for your business quantifying/validating messages audience how to avoid “the tail wagging the dog” the PR model form the perspective of being a recipient of thousands of PR firms communications what goes wrong and what needs to be done two extremes “spam everyone via an intern” to “focus your outreach” ignoring the specific media's pitching notes specialised vs non-specialised PR firms and their respective roles, pros/cons the general large firm pyramidal model of PR implementation local vs global reach the importance of eg the interviewee knowing the context in which they are “media-appearing” speciating the technical media landscape less obvious newsflow for Tech firms hiring a PR firm – how to “be aware of what you don't know and arm yourself against that” leveraging networks and funders to get a better feel when to decide to get PR and when to decide not to know why you are doing PR relevant track record of potential firms boutique, midsize and large firm interviewing and helpfulness of understanding their strong/weak points and use cases the generally useful advice for a new senior/important hire of asking them how they would have approached situation that your firm didn't handle that well in the past discovering how much homework the PR interviewee firms have done on your firm how much do PR firms cost in general and the main kinds of interaction/usage shoutouts for Goldsmith Comms team of five plus resources amongst freelancers And much much more

One major way of innovating is to move into a domain with transferable and out of the box skills/ideas/technology. This presents obvious opportunities  for radical change yet naturally produces equally obvious challenges. In this episode we look at how 4 co-founders created a payments infrastructure Fintech that now connects an amazing 7.5 billion bank accounts, 6 billion cards, connect banks in 144 countries and have 620 employees with offices in 35 countries. Ani came from FS and so understood not just how money currently moved but also the super-importance of understanding that its an incredibly regulated business. The other three co-founders came from the telecoms world and had no idea of how money moved. However they brought in what the telecom industry does very well – namely builds at scale, can process small volume transactions and deliver them instantly. Topics discussed include: moving a family from one country to another importance of getting outside one's comfort zone the value of cross-cultural working in terms of leading to creative and open thinking Ani's daughter can speak 7 languages (!) getting out of the box = getting out of the comfort zone importance of asking dumb questions “we just challenged everything and today that is probably the main reason we are the fastest growing company in this space” the simple Ur-notion behind Terrapay's foundation was that if an SMS can be delivered to anyone in the world instantly why can one not do the same with money? this concept versus the actual time and cost of sending money being waaaay higher than an SMS cashing US cheques in the UK – one would never imagine that Fintech existed transferability of competences – eg Sales in any domain to be done well needs a deep sense of understanding a customers pain and relieving that technology is similar (but different in eg APIs, protocols etc) cross domain – however note various strengths eg of telecoms tech versus FS tech the ever-changing landscape of technologies that customers can use which parts of the organogram are so key one needs either a co-founder or a super-senior C-suite colleague in order to innovate radically the need for confidence to ask “silly questions” answers to “dumb questions” that reveal core beliefs in a vertical rather than actual facts MotoGP and radical innovation as a case study the criticality of binding energy both within the co-founders and within the company culture in re company motto “stay hungry, stay humble” the Navajo and cultural preservation over millennia how does one know whether something that hasn't been done before can be done? budget and timescale, business savvy and feel in re finding problems that will last long enough to make the huge effort to produce a really radical solution worthwhile and long-lasting key takeaways on the experience of doing all this “Be prepared for a rough ride… you will have more tough and bad than good days” “Try to find simple solutions for a larger problem set” WhatsApp as being exemplary of One Great Solution – namely, unlike SMSs, being able to know when your message has been read and this as fundamental to their success shoutouts for Terrapay “no consumer knows us but we are the plumbing behind moving money around the globe” And much much more

The Governance of FS as a whole affects all of our lives as we saw in 2008 let alone in many individual examples of FS/Fintech businesses failing and losing clients money. In our digital age virtually all of our money is digital and next to no-one sees a share certificate any more so all of our investments are digital. Thus what might appear to be a refined topic for a few is at the heart of all of our lives – money being used for roughly everything and savings equating to money saved for tomorrow. As a result of this central role of money in economies, Boards in FS have always had to be – lets put this mildly – “rather more careful” than Boards of companies which if they fell over would “domino” not very far. Not only do many FS/Fintechs “take care of” clients money but money itself in the current financial model is created out of thin air by banks. Add to these long standing issues the ever-increasing burden on Boards as a whole from the always metastasising Regulatory State, ever-greater minutiae in FS per se and the State using companies to enforce social agendas which even a decade ago would have seemed unlikely/bizarre and we have a very challenging cocktail. Neil has 20 years expe4rience on Boards and Chairing sub-committees of FS and Fintech Boards and is thus well-placed to guide us through this labyrinth. Topics discussed include: Scottish and Irish traditional folk music transitioning from classical piano to the accordion interesting anomalies re accordions – not least of which one has to fill in the bass part oneself musical insights into Scottish vs Irish music learning music as “play these notes” vs “play along with us” a lot of folk musicians cannot read music Neil's career journey the long delay between Basel II and Boards getting with it the felt sense of FS Boards vs “normal” companies – cf FS and Sainsburys looking after other peoples money – fiduciary duty even if you are the equivalent of a corner shop in FS/Fintech you have to have as much governance as the equivalent of Sainsburys – which in retail obviously does not apply the need to cope with all that overhead when your Fintech is still very small Case Study of innovation/Fintech/regulation Banking Alchemy – a broken model of money (see eg LFP085, LFP197, LFP220 and LFP231) leads to a broken banking system which cannot be repaired by any governance as have discussed in many episodes a deep dive into unitary Boards vs sub-Committees of Boards what has driven this the strange situation re independent directors and sub committees where excess do most of the talking yet are technically no on the committee – “it is slightly absurd” the volume of “left-brain” stuff heaped upon FS/Fintech Boards absolutely swamps the Board meeting crowding out creativity in governance and business strategy a comparison of FS vs Airline regulation literally no limit to the amount of over-regulation of FS ever-increasing costs to the consumer as a result and higher risk taking as more people in FS/Fintech are doing non-revenue related activities management by walking around starts failing in the larger organisation where one is more dependent on management perception/spin comparison with quantum world – what is observed by the Board changes as a result of being observed the need to get a feel beyond the management information what are the powers of a NED individually or in a committee the challenge of balancing the need to gain insight and challenge yet not annoy/rile the executives the pressure on the Chairman in these circs “poking your nose in but not poking your fingers in” as summing up the role of the NED 21stC challenges from the whole tsunami of Corporate Governance (and the word literally did not exist from Chaucer up to the 1970s) and “ESG” et al the problem of a “free market” solution to governance and the problem of “bureaucratic rules” solution to governance NSDAP (“the Nazis”) as the inventors of Corporate Governance in 1930s Germany again – cf now? – to impose their political agendas upon companies the abuse of Governance Boards and “guidance” re ESG/DIE etc – the huge pressure to conform to something which is not statutory the imposition of groupthink by regulators yet regulators say groupthink is the biggest risk for Boards… the idea of safetyism and “nothing should ever go wrong” “there is no real difference ultimately between corporate control and corporate creativity” [as the longer term risk is the world is changing and the company does not react appropriately] the “war on meritocracy” the major risk of FS/Fintech Boards is groupthink and agreement re the wisdom of the rules/codes/guidance etc which is imposed upon Companies from outside the Boardroom Advisory Boards, Strategy days that are not minuted as important in these circs to have “unruled” conversations “Board Champions” as the latest pressure from regulators which break down the whole idea of collective responsibility and power of sub-committees Neil's overall advice to FS/Fintech Board members especially younger folk embarking upon their first gigs the importance of human dynamics within the Board – key cruxes is it a good trade being an FS/Fintech Director? non-commercial rewards in the role Neil's shoutouts for both folk music-ing and his own NED role portfolio state right now the Mutual Model of FS as an appealing one And much much more

The tech world focuses heavily on the “succeed fast or fail fast” model of tech growth. In part this is as VC firms generally have limited life funds and hence cannot handle slower models but is also as the tech press loves the hype/condemn cycle implicit in this. However generally most businesses do not follow this model. Whilst rapid success comes to a few, for more it takes rather longer and for many its a slow rocky path. After all hottie OpenAI (ClosedAI?) took quite some years to make a noticeable splash. Ruzbeh founded City Falcon a decade ago and whilst, like us all, preferred rapid success, he has moved into the more marathon development model of the business. I was particularly enamoured of his very human/ethical perspective and clarity of the social costs of the “succeed or fail fast” model – namely that it comes at the price of burning your friends and family and employees just so that you can get onto your next gig as fast as possible. With a huge desire worldwide to move on from all business being dominated by neoliberalism – you know, the “humans qua just another resource model” (with some virtue signalling perhaps as perfume to cover the heartlessness of seeing people as resources) – this is a good time to dive into the slower model. This slower model is definitely no picnic – the longer you hang out in business or in life the more tsunamis you will have to face. Topics discussed include: Malta as a tech scene with incentives to attract talent Malta Enterprise & Start in Malta the competition not just for digital nomads but digital business and entrepreneurs in general why Ruzbeh chose to move the business to Malta 300 days of sunshine every year Ruzbeh's career journey through Tech into Fintech Ruzbeh's original intention re the business re timescale pivoting from B2C to B2B and B2B2C “There's no point failing if we have built all this value and have customers coming to us” Strategic investors eg EToro 48 staff today what led Ruzbeh to move on from the failing fast model “Why do I need to fail?” When is it I should fail?” the challenge of clients asking for more versus being clearer on their needs/desires the criticality of cashflow/raises for the slower model of growth importance of aim… to eg raise $300m to become a unicorn or to get to cashflow positive raised $5m over 10 years HT to Seedrs Case Study in mining of dislocation being ever more likely the longer one is carrying on and need to react to massive changes in business environment Two Case Studies for City Falcon of dislocation due to market changes/dislocations is success how much you get when you exit or providing a supportive environment for employees who are loyal, hardworking and delivering or some combination? prioritising people over money as a founder whilst ensuring a profitable firm the pre-neoliberal English model of sacrificing annual p0rofits before you sack people compared to the modern “HR” model of Profits Uber Alles desire to hire people who play sports as a proxy of finding people with grit the many decision points to quit or carry on the importance of being lean but also having staff buy-in to the economics of the business caring in business and especially Family businesses the relevance of the stage of the Fintech consolidation shoutouts of City Falcon their interesting latest product Dynamic Company Sector Classification which uses automation to dynamically classify sectors for companies thus eg no longer “just” Mining sector or FS Sector but Generative AI subsector how this is done And much much more

The Founder(s) is(are) at the heart of creating something new that literally never existed before.  However they very much do not do this in vacuo needing to entice and hire a team below them but also, less well understood, a team around them. The surround will at some point coalesce into a formal Board (as opposed to a pro forma Board for Day0 – and for many days after – NewCos). In this episode experienced NED/Advisor/Mentor/Angel Nic Lenz and I discuss experience in this field with particular reference to formerly senior BigCo folk who wish to get involved in the SmallCo world attracted by the creativity, and let's face it greater fun/thrills&spills but also to educating the first time founder, or potential founder who will naturally realise they need a CTO et al but may think that “the organogram below them and some dosh” is all they need.  It's certainly the minimum viable organisation but is it the optimal organisation for their personal support/challenge as well as the company's future? Both Nic and I have seen countless examples of where the right “grey hair or no hair” experienced folk even though very much part-time contributing to the company can make all the difference between success and failure. We also discuss the challenges of transitioning from BigCo to SmallCo – which applies to both founders and venture accelerators – along with mentoring mentors and the key essences of both sides of the venture creator and the venture accelerator equation. Topics discussed include: Nic's rare furusato and transition to London mysteries of the Netherlands and its history and relevance to London capital markets Nic's 20 years in investment banking early entrepreneurial experiences Nic's career journey into Fintech how to get to understand the very different world of SmallCo after time in BigCo the first attitudinal step that needs to be taken when becoming a mentor relevance of dating and mating and fishing… how to find out what the real needs of a founder are how all these concepts such as advising, mentoring, NEDing et al evolved in Nic's experience the importance of “not knowing”, listening and asking probing questions the most powerful tool for all Venture Accelerant roles never saying “that can't be done” – how do you know it cant? advisors et al need to help illuminate a journey not deny its possibility venturing into the unknown – and it is the founder who is venturing into the unknown the magnitude of founding as a task supporting and challenging visions from a certain perspective helping founders get from A to B what are the core issues? first time founders as special cases what does it take to fund-raise? the problem set after initial commercial success – the important aspects at this point asking dumb questions having startup advisors can be transformational – transition from there to Boards ways not to see Boards the two main practical challenges with being a venture accelerator – Case Study the antidotes to the elephant traps awaiting the unwary structuring remuneration creatively intentionality and aligning interest the caveats for the founder/company in dealing with venture accelerators what should lead you into this world the importance of wanting to help people and businesses go faster “it's extraordinarily rewarding [not necessarily in financial terms]” Nic's personal shoutouts and working in the worlds of Fintech and Cleantech who Nic would like to hear from And much much more

As always there is a fascinating phenomenon when the globalised world of tech meets the localised worlds of custom, people, rules and regulations. As recently as LFP243 we dived in to the world of tech as a whole in Berlin and today we dive into Fintech in France. Needless to say France is a massive market, well banked and a real venue for Fintech. That having been said there are, as always, some downsides. In this episode we have a fascinating historical, philosophical and very practical conversation about the nature of Fintech in France. Louis is well-placed to discuss these matters being not only a co-founder of Hokodo which is based in Paris and has more than 100 staff, most of whom are in London. Furthermore he is very multicultural in a European sense having been brought up as first a German speaker in Champagne and then Strasbourg in Alsace which looks both east and west, not least of which as it has been part of Germany and of France at varying times. He moved from there to Paris and describes the Paris-isation of French students and the de-regionalisation process they go through. Furthermore he has worked in Switzerland – also rather Franco-German as well as the UK. Thus who better to lay out the pros and cons of Fintech in France? Topics discussed include: regional accents and dialects and the trend over time to create one language at the expense of the regional variants comparisons with life in Switzerland and regionalism in the dialects anecdote of going to a Parisian university Louis' career journey starting in London through Australia and Asia the early genesis of the move into Fintech and founding of Hokodo Hokodo is headquartered in the UK despite two of the co-founders being bases in Paris the genesis of Fintech in France the nature of the competitive context in France re existing banks the nature of the French regulatory environment when Big Banks got into innovation regulation and innovation in business lending in France compared to the UK or the Netherlands cost of innovation compared to regulatory climate and the resultant levels of innovation Eurosceloris as, inter alia, being driven by mass regulation favouring incumbents and protecting them from competition John Law and the background to French attitudes to banking, finance and money the split of Catholic attitudes to money and Protestant attitudes the form between common law and the Napoleonic code how the latter started off as A Good Thing but just gets bigger and bigger Case Study of Labour Law – ~4,000pp in France ~200pp in Switzerland the challenge for founders and even their advisers in simple matters like calculating the number of holidays for employees even the accountants get this wrong! the degree of centralisation of Fintech in Paris the impact of c19 on this centralisation trend French history as collapse and rebuild “France does revolutions but England does Evolutions” the good news about being in Paris strong move in France to digitisation the main advantage of being based in France leading in marketplaces along with Germany and the UK falling behind Trade Finance in Europe and France the ecosystem and State approach VC and PE investment trends in France a government body invests in 1 funding round out of 5! comparison with the formation of the East India companies French tech talent market attracting top talent as a startup/scaleup shoutouts for Hokodo's core business products/services an explanation of the many layers of reference contained within the Hokodo name the B2B trade market and changes taking place Hokodo's international expansion plans And much much more

In this episode we take the opportunity to talk to one of the most credit risk experienced men in Fintech who has ranged from a dozen years at seminal Capital One through managing Barclay's £40 bn portfolio, being CRO at Funding Circle to now founding his own Fintech to mechanise further short term SME liquidity financing, Jerome's stats are that banks automate roughly 5% of this type of lending whereas he believes the vast majority to be automatable. We discuss what credit risk is in the age of data, automation and Fintechs and dive into the multiplicity of models used in a credit pipeline not just for risk but for wider business management and portfolio management purposes as well as looking at the parameters of automation versus human input. We also look at Jerome's experience of what is stable about the models value and what is not over significant economic dislocations. Importantly there are a huge range of uses of credit models above and beyond the simple case of credit risk and Jerome gives us a flavour of these across his own career – a fascinating stat being the incarnation which had 25 models in operation :-! Topics discussed include: Jerome's background in the Art world as well as Banking world Jerome's career journey through credit in various incarnations running a team of 1,000 risk metrics folk developing an interest in SMEs 7 years at Funding Circle defining risk, uncertainty and so forth the many different types of risk through the whole lending soup to nuts process the balancing act on decisions at each stage of this process using multiple models and cross testing them against alternatives to gain greater insight – challenger models Barclaycard had about 25 different models for different stages of the credit card process keeping the models fresh and tuned not using “black box” models challenges of models coping with continuous and discontinuous phenomena practical approaches to life's discontinuities in the lending world lending versus trading risk in this context ranking of risk tends to be stable across perturbations even if the level of risk gets well off the commercial importance of  the relative ranking in itself to make the lending decisions within a given risk appetite at any point experience at Barclays and Funding Circle over significant economic dislocations requirements to create a model in the first place the role of human creativity and comparison with human decisions making versus a “computer” Jerome's many tests over his career with automated versus underwriters credit decisions and the results the requriem3ents for automatable credit decisions in the SME sector – where it can and cannot be done well the irony that larger companies have more data but smaller sample size Jerome's motivation in establishing his own firm to do short-term SME cashflow management the business model – API- and partner- centric leveraging external creativity in this model – cf ChatGPT the differing business model viability compared to banks decisions in 2.5 minutes And much much more

This 2024 New Year Special forms the sixth and final in a series of six (there will be no more) about how technology – and in this episode way wider forces – are changing us directly for the better (read huge software upgrades) in order to overcome, in a velvet revolution, empowered tyrants. I said in last years 2023 New Year Special that “It is by far the most ambitious, empowering and positive of all suggesting that we use the insanity as a spur in our sides to seek to flee Plato's cave, escape the Matrix and speed up our path to awakening in search of love, light and healing.” Well this one jumps that shark and sets out to empower us all to not just be in search of “love and laughter, song and dance” but to create it via giving us perhaps the deepest podcast dive ever (from conventional reality to well beyond) into what creativity is and how we can amplify it manyfold. How much of today's, at a narrow level, tech was unknown a century ago? Imagine how much tech in a century from now is unknown today. How do we become explorers of the unknown and make it known? It has seven sections: A Recap of the Series of Six LFP Specials to date The Three Phases of Existence of all Form Creators The Fertile Field The Three keys to Unlocking Infinite Potential Voices in your Head Creating a  New World not a New Order There is a huge shift in consciousness going on now. The old world is dying in front of our eyes. However a new world is arising and there are a phenomenal number of green shoots growing for those who will look and see. Let us take a journey from disenchantment and toxic metapolitics, and a world that was going down not up  way before the globalists started boiling frogs. to a world of re-enchantment and the most noble of missions, playing our part in designing a world that will be a tribute to us and a blessing to not just our offspring but humanity as a whole. To create the New World we need to dive deep into the well of creativity and bring up a bucket of fresh water. May this episode inspire you to understand your innate, your divine if your prefer, powers of creativity and their infinite potential. We all live – or are imprisoned – in the world of the known and the assumed. Creativity and the three tools we examine in this episode (plus for the racey an additional angle to turbocharge personal creativity and life) is the ONLY way in which we ever change anything. Creativity unlocks the door that traps us in the super-finite known, in the matrix, in Plato's Cave and releases us to explore that vaaast world which is the unexplored world of the unknown.  Do not think that, as you are just a drop of water, this means you are of no significance. Rather remember that a bucket of water left out in the rain gets filled by nothing other than drops of rain.  Share and enjoy!

In this Xmas special we zoom out from Fintech to Tech as a whole in one of Europe's coolest capitals – Berlin. Ivan is a great person to guide us through the scene having spent many years in the Ur-tech hub of San Francisco/Silicon Valley. This also means that he understands both the outsiders perspective on Berlin tech as well as now an experienced and well informed insider. Ivan honestly lays out both the highs and the lows of being in Tech in Berlin – the good news and the challenges and the somewhat insane (see below) – that he has encountered with his embedded financial infrastructure startup Monite. A particularly insane quirk of German law is the need to get documents notarised. Ok well so no big deal eh? Well not as such however if you for example do a raise then the notary takes a percentage of the value raised for (a) reading the whole document out to you in German (even if you do not speak German!) and (b) notarising that “yeh he signed it”. Topics discussed include: historical contexts of Germany, a very young country, and Berlin San Francisco pre- and post- covid years Berlin is Berlin and international as well as German is there still a felt sense of former west and east Berlin? What are the differences? district-centric view of Berlin where startups tend to be based Ivan's career in SF and journey to Berlin being in SF during boom times the leading continental tech centres Ivan considered pre-conceptions/understandings of Berlin from America vs the reality what gets taken for granted in SF and what the vibe is different vibes of innovation – SF being in more radical innovation the more positive developments from Berlin – “finally having a life” the major tech sectors in Berlin and particular strength tech scene in Berlin starts in the 90s German regulation – did they get it right? are their actually subsector “scenes” or is entrepreneurial activity centrifugally spread around German tradition of entrepreneurialism what binds tech firms together in Berlin Berlin is roughly 1/3 the population of London comparing via looking at the number/distributions of WeWorks the city/state/country's importance or otherwise in creating a tech scene versus it being entrepreneur-led Germany does a lot of good things for entrepreneurs but also a lot of total passion killers immigration restrictions for talent lower than the US what makes it hard to do business in Germany super-easy to get fined when forming a company the outrageous notarisation fees (as above) and impact on fund-raising the difficulties and paperwork involved in a US investor investing in a German startup – the costs can be higher than the raise :-O challenges of legalities and difficulties there Case Study  of trivial business expenses – state checking down to €3 or 4…! due to the challenges a lot of startups are forming legal entities outside Germany what Germany gets right “some aspects of doing business are just absolutely crazy or unimaginable for 2023” many things are still mailed not emailed – “insane” levels of posted mail well-designed for some activities but not for entrepreneurialism the investment scene in Berlin – angles/desires and presence of VCs.. why German startups never tend to wide-scale success the response of successful businesses as a result what Ivan would look for now if he were starting again global fundraising to overcome local challenges what Monite does and where it is going what embedded workflows are and how they fit in innovating SME finance And much much more

Saudi Arabia is a country that increasingly confounds stereotypes and expectations – an example being a YouTuber who has visited every country in the world choosing it for his honeymoon. At the same time it has undergone a phenomenal journey literally in a lifetime from a very low economic standard of living to super-high. As a result, like China, it shares the “relatively blank canvas from which to start Finteching” but equally has it's own unique issues notably eg in a country with centuries of little wealth and suddenly (on average) excess savings culture and the likes of pension provision are very distinct – or perhaps lacking. Naif has had a wide and varied career before starting Hakbah a collective savings platform Fintech. Interestingly talking about different social models worldwide P2P was focusing in this “modern” “Western” way on the individual as the “unit of social currency” [and in passing re zeitgeist then became institutionalised on one side (the lending side) and then most became banks). Collective savings were A Big Thing in say the UK for some time where regionally folks would pool savings for others to get mortgages in “Building” (sic) societies. They remain A Big Thing in a still at heart traditional Arabian/Islamic culture. In this show we dive into some historical and geographical aspects of Saudi Arabia – the 5th largest by land mass in the world in passing. Thence the unique aspects of Fintech in Saudi – one of which is a very rapid pace of development and another a very government-sponsored approach – and finally collective savings in more depth. Topics discussed include: the geography of Saudi Arabia – unique features and aspects one might not expect tourist aspects and anecdotal reports from visitors 19thC British women travellers to Arabia and the long lasting (and unexpected) consequences of their journeys management of national oil wealth by the government as key to the economic consequences Naif's career journey the influence of encountering 3rd stage cancer on Naif's journey and motivation to start Hakbah the genesis of deciding upon collective savings especially in a country without a savings culture the background to the history of Saudi Arabia and particularly the formation of the country and the central bank the long background in money changing due to centuries of pilgrims to Mecca the Dutch starting the first bank branch the first loan in Riyals the central role of the central bank in all finance to this day the national remittance system and immediate payments system outside of the “western” rails of visa/mastercard the advanced nature of ease of using compared to other countries (UK for example) 2018 as the real start of Fintech in Saudi the central banks sandbox and first cohorts verticals that were established moving beyond batches/cohorts in the sandbox to continuous application the national strategy for Fintech and government departmental support key Fintech verticals with the greatest penetration in 2023 around 130 Fintechs at present target of 525 by 2030 the complex issue of a lack of savings culture the saying ~”spend what is in your pocket and the assistance is from God” “more than 70% of Saudis don't have any emergency savings at all” (!) the State provision of pensions meaning that saving in a pension scheme is not the main modus operendi – enjoy life and spend now year by year rather than saving up to enjoy in the future short-term savings examples in the culture long-term savings culture across the Arab world collective savings being traditional and existing in more than 60 countries around the world at the end of a cycle no one owes anyone anything (cf debt-based systems where due to the interest margin between save and lend there is always increased debt every cycle) how does trust work in the variety of collective savings schemes around the world? what is key to establishing trust? Hakbah's model, key design features and very low default rate over its history (less than 0.7% default) repayment of debts being historically important in England if not now in the “modernised” culture the outlook for Fintech in Saudi Hakbah's plans and future ideas And much much more

Why buy alternative assets? Well in extremis what else would you buy?

Back in the 70s getting mortgages took months – there was a mortgage queue (&before techies get over-excited about how “bad” this was it was one of the factors restraining insane bull markets in residential property). Fast forward and the median mortgage in the UK is granted in 19 business days which is still a long time to wait given the stresses associated with the UK legal structure of buying a house. MPowered Mortgages, a regulated mortgage lender in the UK, have reduced this to a median of 3 days to make a decision and are aiming in the next 18mts to make half of those done in a few hours. Stuart is the CEO of MPowered (and its sister company MQube seller of AI products into regulated industries more globally) and guides us through this astonishing outperformance. Like many a hardcore Fintech founder he has a long history in FS behind him having been CEO of several banks in Asia for Lloyds Bank for many years. Even so this is no mean achievement as Stuart himself found out recently when he needed a mortgage but – under the “rules” – was not allowed to use his own company to borrow from. Topics discussed include: Stuarts recent experience of buying a house and getting a mortgage running banks in Asia and being a nomad the UK Housing market managing banks in a crash period “inventing the motor car and a regulator telling you you must use a horse for travel as you have a vested interest in motor cars”

So rapid is the rate of change in banking and the nature of and control of money right now that today we set a record and have a returning guests a mere 6 months later. Mario (YouTube Channel) first joined us in Feb22 for the gargantuan LFP197 “Money in the 21stC: Ballooning Printing of Fiat/QE/”MMT”/Govt Debt, CBDCs, Crypto, Dedollarisation, Hyperinflation, Gold” and more recently in Feb23 for LFP220 “Has A Century Of The Federal Reserve and 50 Years Off The Gold Standard Directly Led To Monetary and Social Disaster for the West?”. Now we cover the accelerating trends whose tap roots run deep. The first we might call “debanking” – banks debanking themselves by going bust, banks debanking individuals by denying them bank accounts and banks debanking “cash” to ensure  no alternative (&with CBDCs on the horizon to increase their already way too mighty power). Separately as many entirely foresaw “debanking” of Russia (Nazi Germany was not debanked of its reserves even in WW2) and the US having economically “sanctioned” one-third of the countries on the planet the second fruit is a creation of a non-dollar-centric financial system with Gold Repatriation, BRICs planning a gold-backed medium of exchange for trade. As money is not just central to the lives of Financiers and Fintechers but everyone on the planet its the most vital topic to track and so we take stock in mid-2023 of where we are and where we are going. Topics discussed include: the multiple dimensions of dissidence these days against multiple State/Globalists narratives and how to remain cheerful whilst doing so two quotes in re from an obituary of recently-deceased Mila Kundera:       “Kundera denounced the “vandals” in power, living “purely in their own immediate present tense [who] are quite capable of turning their country into a wasteland with no history, no memory, no echo of beauty””        “I could always recognise a person who was not a Stalinist, a person whom I needn't fear, by the way he smiled. A sense of humour was a trustworthy sign of recognition.” how Mario copes with “staring into he darkness” “private dissidence” within even large institutions how this relates to approaching a tipping point when change away from tyranny could flip very rapidly when there is a critical mass of people leaving the official narratives does the truth set you free or make you lonely? what is truth – how to find it, is it hard; the ease of finding falsehoods in comparison US debt payments moving towards a trillion dollars per annum group-think in economic policy and the Bank of England's recent conversion to hyper-wokism comparison with prior decades – the past 15years has been increasingly insane many waves coinciding now – 71 Gold Standard abandonment, postWW2 US hegemony, post GFC money printing (post covid money printing and many more) debanking: at the bank level – bankruptcies, branch closure and “de-cashing” not just Nigel Farage but thousands being denied bank accounts – Financial Exclusion – cf their nicey-nicey narrative of Financial Inclusion the difficulties faced by older people who aren't tech savvy banks being increasingly intrusive in enquiring what people plan to do with their own money when they withdraw it :-O plans for CBDCs to increase their power debanking Russia John Law in France in the 1720s as a precedent (Mario's YouTube episode on this) Max Weber being completely correct a century ago (& cf Star Wars 1) when he foresaw that vast bureaucracies enable tyranny – NB in re Financial regulation and the never ending list of extra-parliamentary rules to be followed Deutsche Bank employs more Laywers and Compliance people than bankers :-! pre 1985 for centuries there had been zero regulation and historically the Police not Banks dealt with catching criminals Gold repatriation and precedents – Venezuela and Germany and the difficulty or impossibility of recovering one's Gold from the Bank of England :-O no limit to rehypothecation of Gold in London – a mechanism to subdue the Gold price and increase price volatility to make traditional money less attractive to people High Court ruling against Venezuela getting all its Gold back (on pretty flimsy grounds) :-O FT/Reuters survey showing that Gold Repatriation is a trend expected to accelerate China's increase in infrastructure including more physical less paper Gold markets the complete loss of the essence of finance – trust – by countries in the US and UK in particular cf LME Nickel trade cancellation Moscow Gold trading plans non-dollar trading on the increase and expectations of how this will be managed going forward BRICs plans for gold-backed currency/trading – recent information from Russia US states legalising more use of Gold in a currency context as bottom-up initiatives within the West Mario's expectations for the rest of the year Maneco's affiliate/sponsor shoutouts: in the UK Use promo code maneco64 to get a 0.5% discount on physical gold and silver bullion purchases at https://www.goldinvestments.co.uk/ currently with the promo code 1 troy ounce gold Krugerrands at only 1% over spot in the US Affiliation with @ITM TRADING, INC.  FREE Gold & Silver Wealth Strategy Call With Lynette's Team https://calendly.com/itmtrading/maneco64 or call 866-989-4368 Use referral code Billy or maneco64 at Miles Franklin Precious Metals Investments: https://www.milesfranklin.com/ And much much more

In this episode we dive not just into the world of Islamic Finance and Fintech but the practical lessons we can learn from the world's oldest “ethical investment” tradition. In particular in an ever-changing world there is always the need to extend and interpret any given set of “ethical finance” guidelines for new circumstances. The Islamic world has had vastly longer to get to grips with managing this confluence of principle and practice in a Heraclitean world of constant change. In LFP223 we heard about Fintech in the Middle East and North Africa in which regions there are varying mixtures of traditional/Islamic/sharia finance and conventional/modern finance. Umer Suleman has worked in the public sector, at Ernst and Young, HSBC and now at Wahed – an ethical and values driven investment platform based in New York – – an ethical and values driven investment platform based in New York who are perhaps the world's largest Islamic Fintech – and so is well-placed to appreciate both conventional and Islamic Finance and their complex relationships and how they have changed over time. He is also a member of the Islamic Finance Council of the UK and so well-immersed in this topic. In this episode we get to understand the challenge and opportunity of serving a specific demographic. Needless to say especially younger demographics around the world in general are becoming ever-more demanding in terms of products and services in the tech age and this too certainly applies to the more religious of the younger Muslim users of FS who may no longer be prepared to accept the inevitable compromises with a world where the Financial System operates almost entirely based on interest that previous generations may have tolerated/had to tolerate. So plenty of education, rich content and lessons to be learned beyond one particular demographic! a World Bank report from 2015 estimated that global Sharia-compliant Finance assets were around $2trn Imam Al Ghazali – an 11thC polymath – theologian, philosopher, economist and much more the highly-recommended film by Salazar about Al Ghazali's life The Alchemist of Happiness  by contrast the modern “anti-polymath”-isation of knowing more and more about less and less Al Ghazali was an influence on Adam Smith Umer's career journey and eventually being able to incorporate his interest in Islamic Finance with his career in finance ethical investment systems of any type need both a basis and a pragmatic way of applying rules made at some point with a different world at a later point; what are the key sources for Islamic Finance? an overview of Islamic Finance principles of investment and banking detailed primary and secondary rules and how they are applied the 5% pragmatic “fall from perfection” realpolitik of permissibility but what needs to be done in those circs what percentages of Finance and Sharia-compliant in the major regions – challenges over lack of data and interesting reasons therefor

The next in our geographic coverage series on global Fintech past present and future with a special bonus of a taste of Fintech in Asia as Michael, a former Fintech founder himself turned VC at Runa Capital had just returned from a three week trip all around the region. Like all regions the US has its peculiarities – not least of which the structure of State and Federal regulation which depending on your vertical can be – as it were – more federal or more confederal in flavour. As in many circs the US can also be a country of extremes on the one hand gestating the likes of Paypal one of the very earliest of Fintechs yet on the other being one of the longest holdouts in the western world for the widespread use of cheques. So in this episode we look at some key themes past, present and future for Fintech and given the US' outsize role in the global ecosystem there are also some generic topics such as the evolution and possible future or not of key Fintech “inventions” such as P2P and Crypto. Topics discussed include: three weeks in Asia and places visited to explore local markets in Fintech in several countries at one extreme a sitrep of Fintech and the market circs in Indonesia at the other FIntech themes/issues in Japan MIchael's career journey from founder through to VC and what he has learned from many different angles on Financial Services Michael's perspective on Fintech and its long term history in the US from transatlantic cables onwards key early Fintechs in the US idiosyncrasies and challenges of doing Fintech across the US the federal-“confederal” axis as affecting different verticals within Fintech on the other hand pretty consistent consumer behaviour across States which is easier getting regulatory federal licenses or state licences? Paypal and Plaid as examples of “having to grow fast” to avoid regulatory challenges Fintech and geography within the US – changes in this pattern in recent years P2P trends in the UK and US compared a deep dive into the many reasons for P2P's success and eventual running into the sand compared to expectations of potential competitiveness versus banks key points the P2P model was missing and need fixing if a huge P2P is ever to emerge the crypto journey in the US and challenges with its business model that need solving to take it to the next level general overview huge success and potential of “Fintech as a tool for services or vertical SAAS businesses” “there are still a ton of markets and verticals that are incredibly inefficient done using paper… poor matching of buyers and sellers” attaching payments to such products is more defensible, more efficient and keep clients for longer based on many types of transaction comparison of this – Fintech moving into unexploited areas by banks as opposed to the P2P/crypto attempt to use a battering ram to knock through the main castle gate for banking which has been fortified over centuries greater success of the Fintechs vertical SAAS B2B+ businesses going forward the huge uncertainties within FS per se and how this affects a VC's approach to investment within Fintech historic precedents for VC investments in difficult times and patterns learned “it's no longer growth at all costs” 6-18mts as the period of great uncertainty shoutouts for Runa Capital who are early stage investors across different geographies and verticals And much much more

Is the structure of regulation in need of refactoring? Do we have a kind of Reg Debt situation – cf Tech Debt – where organic growth has led to complexity, inefficiency and indeed regulations stretched beyond their original purpose? In this episode Alistair and I discuss some specific examples that would indicate that after as much as a decade of evolution it is perhaps time for a rethink or a refactoring of the reg base. Integrated Finance was founded when the co-founders found challenges in scaling their prior Fintech startup. Alistair has worked in FS, founded a Fintech and now a Fintech to help Banks and Fintechs so has experienced the regulatory issue in the round. Topics discussed include: robot vacuum cleaners – good/bad? Use cases. “endless nuance” Alistair's career journey from FX, through building a banking as a service provider and now infrastructure to help Fintechs and others who need to incorporate some elements of finance scale their businesses more easily the challenges that unbundling the banking stack leads to when one needs to recombine it again to deliver a seamless product or service the importance of understanding nuances in an industry when searching for innovative startups reactive regulation always playing catch-up e-money licences as a Case Study of where the explosive growth of the largest Fintechs has outstripped the original intention or envisaged parameters of the regulation Revolut and Wise have around 20 million customers each operating at scale across multiple jurisdictions and multiple regulations really stress tests the regulation and over-/under- laps context of banking regulation and the unbelievable lack of a sustained rise in interests in the Fed's stress tests – so the challenges of regulation go well beyond Fintech into the biggest Banks the “dear CEO” letters from the FCA as a measure of challenges the FS/Fintech industries are facing comingled client funds and treating customers fairly as key examples of barometers of issues the priority of VC investment is always growth rather than making things robust ASAP and the inflow of VC funds as major factors in this context a further context of banks going bust right now Railsbank's challenges as an example of major FinTechs in London running into problems post failed funding raises interest rates as the common factor behind bank problems and a tighter funding environment which segments of tech are finding it less of a challenge to raise right now current focus in Fintechs and how that relates to regulation/compliance regtech as being fine but the challenge of buying more and more computer systems and then having to manage them all the operational overhead of regulation and tis computers even if one is the scale of a Citigroup crypto as another challenge the need for greater collaboration – whether mergers of regtech or of shared data or of enforcing more sharing of data important necessary new directions for regulation – esp. standardisation major example of bad actors where each fintech on its own has to manage the situation but the whole situation would be much easier if the sector shared data in re ~”For Fintechs although they are nominally in Financial Services it's become a compliance game they are in” accept that from Day1 as the major imperative and buy-in the necessary products/services impacts of marketing/client-led business direction the philosophical challenges of linear rules, assumptions and so forth in terms of control mechanism in a world that's deeply non-linear cf the (alleged) attempt in the UK to “level-up” education in the 1970s (via the abolition of grammar schools) ending up with the result being levelling-down too big to understand/manage/regulate organisations along with the way too big/complex organisations the nature of money is at the heart of all the challenges in FS regulators are left to try and manage the mess that cannot be managed from the inside from the outside with linear rules – the cost of compliance with which just further reduce the profitability of the industry and increase commercial pressures will Finance per se itself be refactored? shoutouts for Integrated Finance And much much more

The latest in the LFP's coverage of Fintech in geographical regions and this fascinating balance between the bottom-up and the top-down, between localisation and globalisation of Fintech. As always when covering vast territories containing many nations,  “regions” contain widely differing conditions, not least of which background of FS  structure and infrastructure in the first place. Said, a partner at Global Ventures, is well-placed to give us a tour d'horizon as not just is his day job being a VC specialising in the region but he was previously a CEO, COO and consultant so he is someone who really understands business in the round as well as being born in Jordan and living in Dubai. Topics discussed include: working on a bid for Liverpool Football Club valuing football clubs intangibles and goodwill Said's career journey the Japanese spiral staircase model of career progression where is the Middle East/MENA? Where does it end? geography versus practicality from an investment perspective – the latter often including Turkey and Pakistan eg which is a long way away, whilst eg not including Iran general background to the region/subregions 2022 Tech space VC funding was ~$3.2bn of which just under $1bn went into Fintech historically roots in Levant and Egypt where the older tech companies were born cross-border as an ancient background 400m population in MENA of which 100m in Egypt early stage companies often focus on Egypt/Saudi/UAE as their heartland Etihad and Emirates as GCC exemplars of quality the relevance of geography and historical trading patterns general needs across the region and how they vary Fintech in the GCC trends in the subtypes of Fintech affinity to partner with Fintechs to lower cost to serve GV's Fintech in MENA 2020 Report (main bones of which still apply) when did Fintech take off in the region? a VC community per se in the region emerged roughly 2010 onwards some key regional Fintechs Fintech in the Levant and North America what leads to differences key exemplars the development of Fintech in North Africa is further ahead the further east Fintech and Islamic Banking – some Fintechs offer one or the other or both going forwards unique opportuniti9es in the region and “leapfrogging” shoutouts for Global Ventures what GV are looking for in terms of founders And much much more

The majority of successful exits for companies are via trade sale (not that given the media hype you'd necessarily imagine it was anything but IPOs). Furthermore the percentage of companies that list on an exchange is falling meaning, that along with the economic circumstances, private companies and remaining in the unlisted space is becoming ever more important. In this episode we dive into the whole soup-to-nuts process of how to trade sell oneself, what the stages are, what the obstacles and challenges and what the benefits are. Trade selling a company is an eternally important route to not just realisation but to the growth of the company's vision being realised. Thus this is a reference episode for something that every founder should understand whether they get to this stage and go this route or another. It's one that can't be ignored – least of all perhaps in the current economic climate. Goji were on the LFP way back in the day in LFP047 in 2016 when the founder Jake Wombwell-Povey was discussing the Innovative Finance ISA and David was employee number one. He moved on to become first CTO then CEO and is now at the last stage – regulatory approval – for Goji's merger with the giant Euroclear – such a vital component of the whole global post-trade financial infrastructure. So along the way Goji must have done a thing or two right – IF ISAs hardly being a huge thing these days with so few P2Ps remaining of any stature. Further correlating this is that Euroclear approached them. Topics discussed include: running. A long way. having worked with a former guest on the LFP who also liked running quite some way how best to avoid injuries social company and running, running a hundred miles being a later developer re extreme fitness David's career journey transitioning from being a CTO to CEO Goji's mission to increase access to private markets the IF ISA motivations for realisations as critical for the eventual choice of route of which way one ‘realises' private equity as an exit route changes in the private equity markets and how the firms operate differing motivations between private equity acquisition and incumbent acquisition completing a gap in the coverage of an incumbent as a great trade sale case ability to scale exponentially differs hugely between “just IPOing” and – as in Goji's case becoming part of one of the worlds largest firms moving into their arena dating ,mating and marrying as it applies to looking for a Trade Sale parameter differing paths to finding a Trade Sale buyer grows naturally out of a commercial relationship – banks often use this route – grows more organic — cf after knowing a colleague for years getting into dating and mating – there is a lot of mutual knowledge in the first place marriage brokers – investment banks, consultancies, accountants increasingly incumbents have their own teams scouring for appropriate acquisitions (as in this case with Goji who were approached by Euroclear) planning versus reacting for a Board re exit strategies both happen

It is a well-known trope that although failure is a challenge rapid success, though more desirable lol, can be too.  In this episode we dive into the fascinating Case Study of Ecospend who went from startup to trade sale to world open-banking payments leaders Trustly in five years. Along the way they beat off incumbent competition for one of the UK's largest accounts that of HSBCs self-assessment payments. Which as you might imagine amounts to quite a few transactions. In this show James Hickman, CCO, discusses the journey and the experience thereof along with lessons relevant to all tech firms well outside of Fintech. The journey starts with the build, then the marketing, then astronomical success, then the operational concerns attendant on having your volumes increase astronomically up all the way to the strategic implications for a business with such sudden success – various possibilities for raises to enable continued scaling or a trade sale and Ecospend checked-out both eventually preferring one route over t'other and explain their thinking in their situation, your firms might of course be different. At the end of the day it comes down both to rational business calculation but also to the preferences and long term aims of the founding team. Overall quite some story and a tale that the cliche that massive success can be a right challenge/pain isn't always correct. Topics discussed include: James career in the media including as a media VC experiencing the massive tech disruption in the media world interest in open banking and pivoting from a long media career into Fintech processing £13bn within a few years of founding a firm is it risky having no “physical bank” bank accounts the pivotal role of getting the tech right right from the start in terms of the whole rest of the business chain that flows therefrom “anti-MVP” scaling tech volumes scalability of systems “if you are a small business you should start by servicing a small customer and build from there. We actually did the reverse – we started with possibly the biggest customer we could imagine” one million transactions in January the super-importance of easy scalability in tech success in general for all tech sectors scalability pre the ubiquitous tech infrastructure we have around us today people challenges in a tech business “business is all about the people” operational challenges – making them smoother fears of being over-run by customer service requests need to genuinely deliver value to buyer/seller and leverage existing societal trends “our volumes are growing by 500-1000% per annum and employee base by less than 10% per annum” – an amazing metric for the power of digital if one gets it right key success factors mindset as importance – “walking the walk” is a rapid transition when competing against the big players how easy is it to connect to UK banks in the current schema for open-banking strategic implications of massive increases in volumes management challenge of operational and strategic challenges at the same time central role of the founders vision checking out the VC route and lessons learned/advice no cannibalisation of product with Trustly who are PE backed and in the same space “in these emerging technologies you always see consolidation and smaller players merging with larger ones” – a useful point for many Fintechs (and others) to bear in mind in the current phase of growth/economic climate the media focus on “unicorning” as very misleading re the general path of successful startups/businesses looking for synergies in trade selling cultural aspects of exponential rise in volumes and trade selling – how does one approach these? alignment of objectives and cultural alignment as super-important shared vision and personal relationships Ecospend's products and services “a replacement to cards” – multiple benefits the next generation of payments going live with Hargreaves Landsdown the road goes on forever… And much much more

In this episode we discuss VC early stage investment and whether there is a “VC funding winter” as some have called it or whether just a correction. How should early stage founders who want to raise funds maximise their chances of doing so? Few VCs go down to early stage investing but what factors do they look for? Funding is harder to come by right now but it's still there. What themes and approaches help? Is it indeed a good rather than a bad time to create a startup? Dr Ric Schaefer is a Partner at Target Global which is a pan-European technology investment firm with more than €3 billion in assets under management. Whilst investing across all stages of the startup to realisation  lifecycle they are relatively unique in investing from pre-seed to A rounds. To date via six global offices they have backed 15 unicorns and also have an investment in Revolut who you may have heard of. Topics discussed include: training for a triathlon starting from a standard level of fitness Ric's career journey from tech through the banking crisis to VC-dom ten years of VC and Angel investing the experiential difference between BigCo and SmallCo life what a VC looks for in early stage investment include: people who bring an unfair advantage those who have had a successful venture before the right vision and clear plan those who have the “founder gene” and the drive to solve a problem also like to back operators who have been number two or three in a business that has already scaled success isn‘t just about money but about winning and building a sustainable business examples form people who retire but just wither in absentia a daily challenge the focus of early stage VCs need to be on building a big company, not just optimizing finances different types of founders who can do the ‘zero to one‘ or the scale up from 1 to 10 or growth from 10 to 100 preference for founders who can “go the whole way” VC funds still have a lot of capital available, but it is more competitive for newcomers Non–institutional capital such as crowdfunding and angel investors have pulled back due to more competitive dynamics. It is a good time to start a business – there is a wider pool of talent available and infrastructure has been built to enable businesses to be built far faster Valuations are more reasonable than the last two years and people are looking more at multiples and the fundamentals of the business Ric's expectation of the best sectors for fund-raising and progress Target Global is an early–stage venture capital firm that invests across the lifecycle of businesses, from inception to growth invests in consumer, software, fintech, marketplace, and digital health sectors has offices in Berlin, Tel Aviv, London, and Spain, and has backed over 100 companies VCs invest in relationships and a series of rejections does not mean a no forever  Target Global is looking to invest in founders with a unique advantage. And much much more

Fintech is a Big Thing. India is a vast sub-continent. Naveen Bindal, the co–founder of Enkash which is India‘s largest spend management Fintech, joins us to discuss Fintech in India which was one of the first movers in Fintech worldwide and is now by some measures the world's  third largest Fintech marketplace. Naveen started his career some 23 years ago as a developer in a credit card company working on payment processing and with banks. Having been involved in the Indian FinTech space for some 10 years along with his co-founders who each also have two decades in FS and tech under their belts he is well-placed to guide us through its evolution past, present and future. Topics discussed include: why India‘s timezone is 30 minutes out of phase with almost all other countries Naveen's career journey the move from being a dev to being a CEO Naveen learnt how to be an entrepreneur by working with a startup within an existing organisation the principal FinTech hubs in India are Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore Mumbai is the banking hub of India due to the presence of the Reserve Bank of India,  Bangalore is renowned for its tech talent and New Delhi is an extension of the other two hubs due to its status as the capital Fintechs may start in other cities but almost invariably end up gravitating to one of the big three cities  The Indian fintech industry started to grow following the financial crisis of 2008 and the emergence of e–commerce Payment aggregators, P2P lending, payment gateways, digital marketplaces, prepaid cards, and UPI all emerged between 2010 and 2016 IndiaStack has been hugely influential in Indian Fintech's rapid development it was introduced in 2017-18 to facilitate digitisation and verify the identity of those making transactions Aadhaar was introduced, which provided a unique identifier for every individual, and biometric scans for fingerprint and retina scans were captured the pertinent/ironic etymology of chosing Aadhaar for the state's identification system are privacy concerns an issue in India over a national identification scheme? in 2012, we saw the real growth actually happening where multiple payment instruments, quick checkout experiences sort of emerged, including but not limited to wallets, one-click checkouts, tokenization, and various other faster checkout mechanisms demographically about one billion people in India have access to smartphones with half a billion people living in rural areas around 70 million SMEs exist in India, and between 70–80 billion dollars of volume is processed on UPI each year given the size of the marketplace Indian Fintechs have little reason to expand internationally although different dynamics occur in the pure tech space Consumer payments have been the dominant sector of fintech in India, but insure tech and reg tech are also becoming increasingly prominent reg tech allows fintechs to access the data needed to verify businesses and individuals The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) provides the regulatory framework for fintechs to operate in conjunction with regulated entities embedded finance and open banking will be key areas of disruption in the future in India Enkassh provides a platform for CFOs to automate mundane tasks it has 150 employees and processes between $3.5–4 billion annually for 9000 businesses Enkash is looking for partnerships in other geographies to distribute some of their products And much more

There is a real art to how a founder manages his companies equity. If he gives it, or its derivative, share options, away too fast for too little value – whether funding or staff – he will be giving away his creation on the cheap and losing control fast. Vice versa hoarding it to himself will produce inadequate funding and not top-notch senior staff. If this is the spectrum then there is in addition a whole dimension of the terms and conditions over equity schemes. There are plenty of hidden elephant traps for the unwary even for “Day1 co-founders” (eg a simple 50:50 split yet one co-founder puts most of the work in…). Furthermore we have what was “pre-tech” an administrative nightmare of managing hordes of shareholders and regulations/laws thereto. Vestd who formed in 2014 and have thousands of companies on their platform offer a “guided SAAS” product where the platform is closely allied to tons of experience in re. Founder and CEO Ifty Nasir formed the company in 2014 after a lifetime's international career with BP and considerable experience on the internal corporate finance side of deals and equity including at one point hiring Lord Sumption on a challenging deal. He joins us today to discuss the whole “how hard can it be” (as always “harder” and in this case “quite nuanced”). Topics discussed include: the first Yorkshireman on the show? Lord Sumption's office Ifty's worldwide career in BP founding Vestd experiences with estimating funding costs and how much equity it takes to Angel and to get a business off the ground seeing how many times sweat equity went wrong…  “so many errors are people don't think about it” problems even on day1 of NewCo – case study of a new business and some basic pitfalls “Putting together shareholder agreements is the difficult thing” agile partnerships as a template conditionality as key Case Study of the first company I worked for the fluidity of equity, salary and time in contributing to the growth of the NewCo “there are a lot of really great tools around this – eg Mike Moore's ‘Slicing Pie' “ challenges eve with equity-low, cash-rich NewCos in the consultancy space the experience of many founders in managing the Cap Table that its no big deal, a spreadsheet for a few years and then suddenly a great panic/problem – dynamics that come from not fully understanding a topic and the risks being run and then those risks crystallising the different standards of retaining or not retaining equity when one leaves a company definition of Cap Table does it include Share Options as well as issued capital? fully-diluted Cap Tables clearing up the cap tables and how the importance of this has changed the raise dynamics with the advent of firms like Vestd the role of technology in changing these whole dynamics share option schemes and when one joins the company leading to very variable rewards and management challenges – my experience tiers of management sitting around not trying hard any longer as an outcome of a poorly designed lock-in/vesting scheme good leaver/bad leaver terms the UK's EMI incentives scheme and the tax incentives/benefits thereof 70% of such schemes are “exit only” discussion of the challenges of overly-locking in staff and waiting for exits which in difficult markets may be far far away tailoring schemes per employee and how much easier that is with platforms “guided SAAS” product/service and the regulatory restrictions thereon where and when to use accountants, lawyers and Vestd Vestd's plans for the future And much much more

AI/ML has been around for a long time but recently hit the headlines with ChatGPT which has broken every tech record in the book for a piece of tech that attracts users faster than any other tech ever. If Generative AI is the hot topic of the day though what is happening behind the scenes with more prosaic Fintech use cases. Tristan who is CEO of commodity price predictors and now Insurtech ChAI first joined us in 2016 for an an overview of AI/ML and updated us more recently in 2019 to talk about then hot-topics. What has changed – what is with Generative AI, what are the behind the scenes factors driving change, how are fintechs being invested and indeed how is investment in Fintech being affected by AI? We first heard from Tristan a long-term academic and Fintech-er in the whole AIML realm in 2016 for an overview of the topic which has remained in the top 5 most downloaded episodes of all time. In 2019 re joined us to discuss hot topics in AIML in particular prediction, explicability, alt. Data sources and self learning. Three factors have been driving an astonishing rate of change – computing power (NVIDIA been increasing by a factor of 10 every year in recent years), an abundance of data sources beyond all recognition even a few years ago and advances in computer science – not least of which Transformers (the T in GPT and a leap forward from RNNs), so-called self-attention and RLHF – reinforcement learning from human feedback. In the image space the likes of, GANs (Generative Adversarial Networks), Latent Diffusion Models and the clever use of efficiency gains. Taking the current eye-catcher as a metric GPT1 was released in 2018, GPT2 in 2019 and GPT3 in 2020 with its offshoot ChatGPT in 2022. GPT3 has 176bn parameters compared to GPT2's 1.5bn and was trained on 570GB of data compared to 40GB. Huuuge changes. But this is just the sexiest, most public face of AIML which as a whole has been finally one might say getting somewhere are computing power continues to increase. As we heard in LFP219 the ex-GCHQ-ers at Ripjar have a database of 18bn news articles which they can process. Once one gets to this kind of scale of computing then – even avoiding the unfortunate anthropomorphism implicit in terms like intelligence or learning – if we simply revert to the oldskool term data processing then we are getting to a stage where the results from data processing are truly phenomenal. Even I have shifted to keeping track of the latest developments having been pretty sniffy about the uber-hype of a field that generally failed in most of its initial objectives set out by pioneers in the 60s. Topics discussed include: experiences using ChatGPT – Case Study with monetary policy in economics the need to “learn to dance” with Generative AI systems comparison with the early search engines – cf now there is a verb “to Google” the challenge of tying up Generative AI systems to the real world and hence late to the party and suitable for a subcategory of use cases media hysteria in re as a phenomenon machines making us machines one of the unmentioned reasons behind its success is that much of human thinking/discourse right now is bland and predictable Barnum statements Tristan's overview of AI changes over the past four years way more pervasive field now so broad it's hard to be an expert in all subsilos people no longer afraid of it nor hypnotised by it people less sceptical re fund-raising an rather view it as something that should be using it by default cloud means that everyone can become a data scientist at much lower entry costs Tristan has changed his mind over concern about not sufficiently sophisticated users of cloud AI tools – in particular the leap forwards in user interfaces encapsulation so many people have used them the interface has been perfected the importance however of domain understanding if less so AI understanding explicability remains highly important but quite often you can retrofit explanations to an AI system's output furthermore human understanding is generally limited to “Key factors” and “ranked by importance” rather than anything more complicated hence the need to map onto such a framework when explaining it anyway how retrofitting works the explosion of data sources and the implications – eg satellite data implications of this for the field – excess choice isn't always a good thing even if barriers to entry have been lowered spurious correlations in neural nets cf hallucinations in generative AI notable examples being that the number of Nick Cage films correlates with the number of drownings in US swimming pools autopilot systems cannot be generative systems due to reliability challenges – it doesnt matter if you get a wrong chat response it does if you crash into a tree the artificial media hype cycle as well as emergence thereof in social media future developments hottest tip/best bet – quantum computing + machine learning what would be a huge surprise – sentience (a category error as per 2023 New Year Special) ChAI developments and moves into Insurtech and productisation for producers in hedging real world exposures And much much more

Financial Services is all about Finance which is all about money. However almost all FS employees just accept “money” as a thing in the same way they accept gravity. Which is an odd thing if you think about it. Most of the time this wouldn't matter but at turning points such as we are at now if can be disastrous, What money is and the regimes around it have varied widely over time and space. However it is true to say that Central Banks are a total exception – indeed the ne plus ultra of Big State Centralism (which is leading to so many problems). Most FS-savvy folk know that a dollar when the Fed was created in 1913 is worth a few cents now – not a great testimony to the performance of an institution whose job is to “protect” the dollar. Few appreciate the intimate connection between monetary collapse and societal collapse. Examples however are  legion with perhaps the best known being Rome (see what I did there re legion? :-D) , Revolutionary France or the Weimar Republic. As the fallout from those were respectively a civilisational collapse in the West that literally took centuries to recover from and two brutal dictatorships we would be well advised to pay attention to this otherwise recherché topic. Central Banks are profoundly antidemocratic and as we saw in 2008 in the US and the UK chose – unlike Iceland – to bankrupt their people in order to preserve the wealth of banks and bankers bonuses. Prima facie they seem to correlate to the greatest frequency of wars ever, higher inflation and government spending and a de facto tax on savers and the elderly. At a minimum there is a difficult charge sheet for them to address. Mario who runs the highly successful YouTube Channel maneco64 is a long term student of the history and current practice of monetary policy as well as like me decades ago having worked successfully in the City without having any real understanding of money per se. Mario joined us a year ago in LFP197 to discuss “Money in the 21stC: Ballooning Printing of Fiat/QE/”MMT”/Govt Debt, CBDCs, Crypto, Dedollarisation, Hyperinflation, Gold”. In this episode: Mario updates us on what has happened over the past year re money and multipolarity and where this is all going we dive into an assessment of – simply put whether Central Banks Are A Good Thing Mario outlines what he would do to rebuild society and money if in a parallel universe he was Governor of the Bank of England or indeed if western money and societies collapse and need to be rebuilt Mario looks forward to how Gold is becoming more important in a multipolar World. Central Bank buying of Gold was at its highest level in 2022 since 1967 and China has started releasing its monthly purchases thereof Topics discussed include: Skiing this year in Switzerland the moves in China re money, gold, exchanges over the past year multipolarity growing rapidly – Xi's visit to Saudi Arabia comparisons of the UK losing global dominance of sterling and the US and the dollar right now the catastrophic impact – even to the US – of its freezing of Russian Central Bank reserves in 2023 – a jumping the shark if there ever was one (even in WW2 the Reichsbank Reserves were not frozen…) A thousand years inflation in England and the huge correlation between inflation and war and having Central Banks who controls the Central Banks? The fact that opinions differ widely in itself is a great pointer to a democratic deficit Central Banks and permanent war cf sound money, small government, no wars, peace permacrisis allows ever-more land-grabs by the State the median wage of the bottom 10% in the UK is lower than in Slovakia drilling in to the phrase Central Banks – the Bank of England's role has eg varied hugely since its formation in 1694 – there are many possible roles of a Central Bank the fractional reserve and creating money out of thin air existed vestigially from the start “lumbering the debt from the monarch to the people” – prior to the BoE the monarch was personally responsible for war debts – the BoE was the start of a process of moving war debts from the accounts of the King who started them to the people who didn't monetary policy in Anglo Saxon England – shaving of coins and the role of Kings in producing standardised money William Cobbett (see below) who 200 years ago wrote of how having a Central Bank makes fighting wars much easier AHM Ramsey a critic of the BoE who wrote a critique forecasting doom from the possibility of Private Banks to create money out of thin air in an inverted pyramid the origin of the expression “pay through the nose” what is the opposite of having Central Banks? How would Mario operate as the Governor of the Bank of England? multiple options at a detailed level the opposite of monopoly is competition abolishing legal tender laws challenges of transitions between monetary policy regimes – and in large part hence Napoleon and Hitler 16thC as private money worldwide and the origin of the London money markets comparisons between revolutionary France monetary situation and western economies today Alan Greenspan, future Federal Reserve Chaiman: “An almost hysterical antagonism toward the gold standard is one issue which unitesstatists of all persuasions. They seem to sense-perhaps more clearly and subtly than many consistent defenders of laissez-faire — that gold and economic freedom are inseparable, that the gold standard is an instrument of laissez-faire and that each implies and requires the other.” 1967 Mario's Crystal Ball for 2023 and future trends China and Russians motivation Maneco's sponsor shoutouts: Affiliation with @ITM TRADING, INC.  FREE Gold & Silver Wealth Strategy Call With Lynette's Team https://calendly.com/itmtrading/maneco64 or call 866-989-4368 Use promo code maneco64 to get a 0.5% discount on physical gold and silver bullion purchases at https://www.goldinvestments.co.uk/ Use referral code Billy or maneco64 at Miles Franklin Precious Metals Investments: https://www.milesfranklin.com/ and last but not least we don't even have time to dive into the Bank of England's role in the demise of PM Truss via its announcements and timings and handling of LDI issues for pensions where even US State Federal Reserve officials have commented that this is obvious (see The Critic article for example)!   Recommended books: David Graeber's “Debt – The First 5,000 Years” (amazon.co.uk) especially on the inevitable collapse of fiat monetary schemes going back to the Bible William Cobbett “Paper Against Gold; Containing the History and Mystery of the Bank of England, the Funds, the Debt, the Sinking Fund, the Bank Stoppage, the Lowering and the Raising of the Value of Paper-money” (1815) Cobbett wrote the first volume of 28 Letters while in prison for two years (1810-11) for opposing the flogging of some militia men. It it a history of how Britain funded the war effort against Napoleon by increasing the national debt, suspending the use of gold, and using paper money. Cobbett also chronicles the economic hardships imposed on ordinary working people by the disruption of trade, war taxes, and inflation of the currency.  Two key book references on the connection between monetary policy and social collapse: “Fiat Money Inflation in France” Andrew Dickson White (free pdf) “When Money Dies: The Nightmare of Deficit Spending, Devaluation, and Hyperinflation in Weimar Germany” Adam Ferguson (amazon.co.uk) And much much more

Increasing automation is what the tech revolution is about – by definition. In this episode we dive into this topic starting at the highest levels – Government intelligence community quality tech at GCHQ (where Jeremy and his four co-founders had been long-term employees) and the immense value of technology transfer between state and private sectors. We then move through some of the more challenging questions of definition of terms (super-relevant for computers and their usage by business) and that these terms (eg crime, terrorist et al) vary per location – a real challenge for global enterprises. Finally we move on to a particular speciality of Ripjar (who recently completed a $37m raise) – adverse media screening  – which is not – as it sounded to me – a PR function but rather the automated processing of billions of news articles for credit/regulatory/business relevance re, as it were, early-warning/detection of say credit or regulatory or ethical problems with clients while these are still over the horizon rather than at the front door (or inside it) of the business. Topics discussed include: bearing crosses – jetlag and karaoke/Christmas parties GCHQ roots and centre of the highest levels of technology and smart folks BBC Micro (computer) and Defender GCHQ one of the three intell agencies in the UK the impact of 9/11 and the “war on terror” – esp at a technology level the nature of the hugely challenging questions of automation of intelligence gathering from internet content defining terms – the importance, slipperiness and relative nature around the world – theory and practical impact for clients adding to the above styles of media writing vary per geography as well multiplying the technological challenge major focal points of crime for Ripjar from the hardcore to the softer end like corporate malfeasance which can be much more relative the realpolitik is that companies need to follow local laws and regulations as well as add on their ethical layer (if they have one lol, not all do…) from a practical perspective re solutions Ripjar give the flexibility for clients to define/search as they wish what is like working at an intelligence agency the multiple challenges of transitioning from a government intell agency to a startup/commercial environment the challenges of a life spent focusing on criminals – from Nietzsche's “stare long enough into the void and the void stares back into you” to not implicitly as a person seeing the whole of humanity as potential criminals the value of creating a startup in this context intell agencies culture of spinning-out and being open or not – GCHQ and Israel agencies as Case Studies helping governments understand the spread of ISIS propaganda and giving the ability to take down horrible material tracking the emergence of online extreme behaviour the huge range of industries that Ripjar has worked with and how this broadens their perspective the core relevance of the FS industry in terms of setting good practice/leading edge approaches to data and criminality data siloes as a real issue ransomware – including situations where it has been deployed to hospitals or emergency services :-O the connection between some ransomware activities and State-level players detecting and analysing ransomware how data sharing would make this sphere so much the better adverse media screening wide use cases automated reading of news articles and screening them for risk factors for the business early-warning signals in open-source material the 40 year database of 18 billion news articles the challenge of the narrowing of the overton window on leading topics to – in western media at least – key The Current Topics having no diversity of angle broadening this to a bifurcation – Brexit, Trump etc what percentage of practical issues are grabbed by this phenomenon the ability to potentially measure this change in discourse over recent decades probabilistic measure of what might be “the truth” practically-speaking for lower-level credit-related events say there may not have been a narrowing of the window and indeed eg with reporting of court cases there was not much breadth in the first place as that tends to be factual 0.9% of total news articles in the database have relevance to topics Ripjar's customers care about measuring/modelling a “3D Overton Window” the time-factor in interpreting data and the evolution of data at a practical level for banks fake news Jeremy “fully expects ChatGPT to be used to write media articles in the future” the need to include this in the algorithms/approach and to filter out machines created information commercial shoutouts for RIpjar and Labyrinth their decision-support platform 71% growth in their business in 2022 longer term plans And much much more

This 2023 New Year Special forms the fifth is a series of five about how technology is changing us directly and indirectly by empowering tyrants. It is by far the most ambitious, empowering and positive of all suggesting that we use the insanity as a spur in our sides to seek to flee Plato's cave, escape the Matrix and speed up our path to awakening in search of love, light and healing. Sound like a cool topic, a worthy goal to you? It has five chapters: Metapolitical Awakening Psychological Awakening The Wasteland and the Grail Existential Awakening A Magical New World There is a huge shift in consciousness going on now. The old world is dying in front of our eyes. However a new world is arising and there are a phenomenal number of green shoots growing for those who will look and find. Let's take a journey from understandable disenchantment and toxic metapolitics, through  an examination of the deepest roots and causes of this disenchantment in ourselves, in our civilisation, in our hugely increased use of technology, to a world of re-enchantment. Don't choose the old world, fear and control, choose the new world of love, light and healing… Share and enjoy!  

So yet another fresh topic we haven't covered so far

Ricardo is a Brazilian serial entrepreneur who joins us in this show to give us an overview of the key features of Fintech in Central/Southern (aka Latin) America. The region includes the worlds highest valued neo-bank which has reached an astonishing 65 million client base in less than a decade – most of whom never had […]

What actually is due diligence? How does it work and how should you if you find yourselves approaching one best prepare for it? Barr Blanton CEO of Crosslake Technologies, whose strapline is “private equity and management teams trusted advisor for technology”, and half of whose business is doing due dil joins us to outline what due […]

All sane Fintechs will have a security system to try and keep out as many attacks and fraudulent would be clients. However the nature of the attacks and frauds is getting ever-more hardcore. As Martin says in the show back in the day to rob a bank you would have to take significant personal risk […]

Swiss Kickstart Innovation are highly active in enabling deals between Fintechs and incumbent FS – when we recorded the podcast for example they had facilitated an extraordinary 300 negotiations in the prior 10 days. As we haven't dived for many years into the whole challenge of young Fintechs managing to close deals with incumbents whose […]

Payments orchestration is all the rage. But what is it, and amidst all the hype is it all it's cracked up to be? Good questions and who better to ask than serial entrepreneur Kristian who founded Cellpoint Digital back in 2007 to do precisely what became known today as payments orchestration and indeed their website […]

Africa in general narratives is all too often treated – like many matters – as a super-low-res jpeg, more as if it were a place, one which is complex and widely misunderstood, or not even understood. Africa is, of course, in reality it is a vast continent of a billion people, over 50 countries and […]

Incumbent banks – as Fintech has found in the past decade are rather safer from having huge slices of their business nicked than many Fintechs have imagined. However Allica Bank, established by some pretty experienced individuals have a plan. In this episode we dive into that plan along with quizzing Conrad, who was last on […]