Yoshi Yokokawa, CEO of Alpaca – 5 Million Accounts in 40 Countries, A Vision for Borderless Investing, Decision Frameworks & The API Sandwich Strategy
Send us a textMiguel Armaza stops by the New York Stock Exchange to interview Yoshi Yokokawa, CEO & Co-founder of Alpaca, an API-first brokerage infrastructure company that has raised over $100 million to serve more than 200 financial institutions across 40 countries, with 5 million brokerage accounts on their platform.In this episode, we discuss:Balancing data-driven decisions with entrepreneurial instinctWhy Alpaca's self-clearing model slashes dependencies, cuts costs, and accelerates innovationWhy API-first companies need a sandwich approach: bottom-up developer community and top-down enterprise salesWhy Japan's economic history shaped a generation of domestic entrepreneurs while global founders like Yoshi remain the exception… and lots more!Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.Do you prefer a written summary? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 75,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIp
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Daniel Vogel, CEO of Bitso – Serving 12 Million Customers and Building a Crypto Giant Through Innovation, Transparency, and a Curious Mind
Send us a textMiguel Armaza interviews Daniel Vogel, CEO & Co-Founder of Bitso, one of Latin America's leading cryptocurrency platforms serving over 12 million customers across Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Brazil. Bitso processes over 10% of the remittances flowing from the US to Mexico ($6 - $7 Billion), and is pioneering the use of stablecoins for cross-border transactions throughout Latin America.In this episode, we discuss:Why rate of learning is one of his core principles for company culture and personal growthUsing transparency to drive company performance and employee engagementHow stablecoins are transforming global payments and why Bitso is betting big on this technologyBuilding personal side projects that feed a curious mind and nurture innovation... and a lot more!Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.Do you prefer a written summary? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 75,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIp
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Bam Azizi, CEO of Mesh Connect - From Credit Card Debt to $130M, Building the Rails for a $37T Market, Executing a Wild Pivot
Send us a textMiguel Armaza interviews Bam Azizi, Co-Founder and CEO of Mesh Connect, a fintech infrastructure company that has transformed from a consumer-focus to a fast-growing B2B platform serving hundreds of corporate clients including Revolut, and Coinbase. After raising nearly $130 million, including a Series B closed in just one month, Mesh is now focusing on serving the stablecoin ecosystem.We discuss:The rollercoaster journey from B2C to B2B and the painful but necessary pivot decisionsWhy stablecoins represent a $37 trillion opportunity that's reshaping global financeHow fragmentation across chains, wallets, and currencies creates the perfect infrastructure opportunityThe immigrant mindset needed to survive funding cycles and build through market volatility and a lot more!Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.Do you prefer a written summary? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 75,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIp
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Johnny Ayers, CEO of Socure - Building a Giant that Protects Billions of Identities, and How to Turn a Crisis into an Advantage
Send us a textMiguel Armaza interviews Johnny Ayers, CEO and Co-Founder of Socure, a leader in digital identity verification that has transformed the industry using machine learning and graph databases. From surviving a major risk event in 2014 to becoming a trusted partner for the largest financial institutions, consumer businesses, and government agencies, Socure now processes over 15 billion rows of data weekly and has verified more than 3 billion identities globally.In this episode, we discuss:How Socure rebuilt in 2014 and turned a near disaster into an advantageWhy government fraud prevention lags 15-20 years behind the private sector, costing billions to tax payersJohnny's strategic approach to M&A, including their acquisition of EffectivPreventing $3 billion in fraudulent disaster relief applications in just six weeksThe future of digital identity: from biometrics to tokenized credentials and wearables... and a lot more! Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.Do you prefer a written summary? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 75,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIp
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Shensi Ding, Merge Co-Founder - Lessons for First-Time Founders, $75M to build API Infrastructure in an AI World, The Truth About Fundraising
Send us a textMiguel Armaza interviews Shensi Ding, Co-Founder of Merge, an integrations infrastructure platform that has quickly grown from serving early-stage startups to powering integration layers for some of the largest financial services companies in the world including Revolut, Airwallex, Ramp, Brex and many more. They have raised a total of $75 million from great investors including NEA, Addition, and Accel.In this episode, we discuss:Building credibility with engineers and product teamsUnique advantages of being a first-time founder. Plus some hard lessons learned.How customer obsession and early security investments shaped company strategyWhy fundraising is a game with rules first-time founders need to learn... and a lot more! Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.Do you prefer a written summary? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 75,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIp
Ireland