THE FinTECHPODCAST
Season 2 · Payments
All episodes

Season 1 · Episode 18 · The Fintech Founders

OurCrowd CEO & Founder, Jon Medved

19 Mar 2021 · 45:00

To paraphrase the opening song in the musical, Avenue Q, what do you do with a BA in History? Become a VC and then a fintech founder, of course! Already well-known as the world’s biggest cheerleader for Israeli tech, Jon Medved set up OurCrowd in 2013 to enable retail investors to get the same kind of access to tech startups that he had as a VC. In this sometimes riotous podcast, he reveals that on one occasion one Marc Benioff offered him the chance to invest in the seed round of a tiny startup called Salesforce. He declined. But as he concludes, with his usual ebullience: "Life is life. It's all good. I'm still in the game."

More from Season 1

S1 · Ep 4524 Dec 202133:13

Credit Kudos Founder & CEO, Freddy Kelly

When he got his first taste of startup life, in San Francisco, freshly-graduated Freddy Kelly did a few months at culinary school on the side. Little did he know that years later, his baking skills would help him blag his way into a conference by virtue of a chocolate cake he'd baked. He met Credit Kudos's first investor there, and his fintech - an open banking credit-reference company - was off to the races. It hasn't stopped running since.

S1 · Ep 4417 Dec 202133:21

Bankin' Co-Founder & CEO, Joan Burkovic

In its early days, banks tried to block Bankin’. Some set up call centres, warning customers of the danger of using the personal finance app, and encouraging them not to use it. On one occasion, they even called Joan, not realising that he was the fintech's co-founder. Nowadays, with open banking, it's a different story; banks, for the most part, are cooperative. And Bankin' is now blossoming into one of Europe’s leading consumer finance apps - with a potential B2B spinoff to boot.

S1 · Ep 4310 Dec 202132:17

Banxware Founder & Co-CEO, Miriam Wohlfarth

Some people thought launching a fintech during a pandemic was crazy. Then Banxware - a Germany-based, white-labelled SME lending platform - saw its banking partner, Wirecard, blow up. Since then, it's been relatively plain sailing!

S1 · Ep 4226 Nov 202136:09

Alpaca Co-Founder & CEO Yoshi Yokokawa

How Yoshi Yokokawa is enabling the world to have Robinhood-style access to financial markets and crypto, and why the Alpaca co-founder & CEO feels the furry camel cousin best symbolises this ambition.