• Nan Siler, Head of Payment Operations, Finix

    In today’s episode, Tarun Bhasin, CEO of Kunai, gets together with Nan Siler, Head of Payment Operations at Finix. Nan reflects on her initial experience with Finix as a customer and why she was so impressed with their services. Gain special insight into how Finix is structured and how they deliver exceptional payment operations. Next, we take a deeper look at payment operations and why it’s such a challenging part of the payment system to execute seamlessly and effectively. Nan draws on her immense knowledge to explain the technical complexities inherent to payment operations. We also discuss the technological advancements in the field of payments over the past twenty years and how small businesses have gained access to affordable services that were previously limited to large companies. 


    Key Points From This Episode:

    • Get to know today’s guest, Nan Siler, and how she came to be Head of Payment Operations at Finix.
    • How Nan first encountered Finix as a customer.
    • An overview of Finix’s service and operations and why it's a great option for customers.
    • A deeper look at payment operations and why it’s such a challenging part of the payment system to execute seamlessly and effectively.
    • Why it’s necessary to have a payments operations team to optimize your payment system.
    • The role of a payments facilitator in your payments system.
    • Daily transaction-level reconciliations and why it’s an important part of payment operations.
    • How payment operations teams are hampered by a lack of access to data and being bound to antiquated processes.
    • Some of the advancements in payments technology that Nan has noticed from working in the industry for over two decades.
    • How small businesses have gained access to payments technology that was previously unavailable to them.
    • What large companies can learn from leaner startups.
    • How Finix positions itself in an increasingly competitive market.
    • The four primary approaches to payment management and how they differ.
    • Why it’s ideal to do as little migrating as possible.
    • Why platforms are the future for small businesses.
    • Nan’s views on Buy Now, Pay Later and why she defines it as generational.


    Tweetables:

    “I believe that large companies can definitely learn from leaner startups. However, I'm just not sure they can execute at the speed required to keep up.” — Nan Siler [00:12:47]


    “Finix’s mission is to create the most accessible financial services ecosystem in history starting with payments.” — Nan Siler [00:13:39]


    “The good news is at Finix, we're lowering the barrier to entry to most of those controlled payment experiences.” — Nan Siler [0:17:56]


    “Platforms are the future for small businesses. They enable the small business to have that back-office experience of a large ERP system without all the pain and expense associated with those implementations.” — Nan Siler [0:20:46]


    Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

    Nan Siler on LinkedIn

    Kabbage

    Finix

    American Express

    ACI Worldwide

    Tarun Bhasin

    Kunai

    23m | Oct 13, 2021
  • Brad Kelly, Managing Director, Payment Services

    In today’s episode Tarun Bhasin, CEO of Kunai is joined by Brad Kelly, Managing Director at Payment Services. We continue the conversation on the ubiquity of FinTech and discuss various facets of buy now, pay later (BNPL) and how it will affect the current market, both in America and Australia. Brad lends his expertise to the phenomenon of BNPL, interrogates its role in the Australian banking system, and reflects on the regulatory challenges it will likely face with conservative banks in the not too distant future.

    Key Points From This Episode:

    • Introducing today’s guest Brad Kelly, Managing Director of Payment Services, and our host Tarun Bhasin, CEO of Kunai.
    • An overview of the Australian banking and customer market today, and what the future holds.
    • How the Pareto principle is evident in Australian banking.
    • How banks use the data provided by the Australian reserve bank every month.
    • The considerable growth of debit cards in Australia and how citizens are changing their spending habits.
    • How Afterpay works and why it’s not necessarily as profitable as it presents itself to be.
    • A discussion of BNPL and its presence in Sydney, Australia as well as Apple’s potential plans for it in the United States.
    • PayPal’s presence in Australia and how their transaction fees are structured.
    • The strategies that Afterpay is using to target Millennials.
    • Why Qantas is a serious player in the financial services market, and how they demonstrate that credit cards will continue to grow and be popular. 
    • Why Starbucks initially fared very poorly in Australia and how they were eventually able to find a market with American tourists.
    • How digital wallets differ in Australia and America.
    • Why buy now, pay later cards are limited in their revenue potential.
    • How the different regulations around credit in Australia and America affects average spending habits.


    Tweetables:

    “Basically, you can apply this 80-20 Pareto principle to all Australian banking, and they've successfully watered off just about every challenge that's ever come at them. The ones that have, they buy them. That’s pretty much how it works.” — Brad Kelly [0:02:05]


    “Australia has a couple of unique quirks besides killer spiders and snakes and people called Hemsworth. What we've got is a very strong banking system, but we've got this indigenous debit payment network called EFTPOS, and it’s been around for about 45 years.” — Brad Kelly [0:04:14]


    “So the Citibank model, for instance, which is a virtual card in a wallet, and it runs on MasterCard rails. So what that means is it just behaves like a standard card or the point of sale. There's nothing tricky necessarily about it. ” — Brad Kelly [0:11:15]


    “I think the real risk for Afterpay and their cohorts is the risk of regulation.” — Brad Kelly [0:33:52]


    Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:


    Brad Kelly on LinkedIn

    Tarun Bhasin

    Kunai

    Sniip

    AfterPay

    Marqeta

    PayPal

    37m | Sep 22, 2021
  • Siavash Alamouti, EVP, Head of R&D at Wells Fargo

    Episode Outline

    [02:12] Siavash’s education background

    [03:43] Becoming a refugee overnight

    [07:34] Siavash’s initial telecom roles

    [16:10] Decentralizing communications

    [20:03] Cloud

    [24:37] Blockchain

    [29:58] Digital assets versus monetary assets

    [39:47] The mission at Wells Fargo

    [43:00] Determining success

    [46:42] Pushing the boundaries of large organizations


    Connect with Siavash

    LinkedIn

    Website

    Mimik


    Connect with Kunai

    Website

    51m | Sep 7, 2021
  • Bojan Duric, Chief Data Officer at City of Virginia Beach

    Episode Outline

    [01:51] Bojan’s backstory

    [07:50] Being agile and adapting

    [13:43] Big Data

    [18:53] Data engineering in the gym

    [22:55] Data cleansing, grooming, and ethics

    [30:12] Open data, open source

    [38:34] Bojan’s final thoughts


    Connect with Bojan

    LinkedIn

    Website


    Connect with Kunai

    Website

    41m | Aug 11, 2021
  • Charley Ma, GM of Fintech at Alloy

    Episode Outline

    [01:33] Working at Plaid

    [11:10] Expanding the team to NYC

    [13:42] Visa and 2020

    [15:16] Where does the money meet the road?

    [19:16] Blockchain and DeFi

    [23:07] The ultimate goal at Ramp

    [27:52] Alloy and identity


    Connect with Charley

    LinkedIn

    Twitter

    Website

    Alloy.com


    Connect with Kunai

    Website

    31m | Jul 28, 2021
  • Diana Dinis, VP of Product at Mollie

    Episode Outline

    [01:58] Diana’s background

    [04:01] Creativity and FinTech

    [06:40] Diana at Mollie

    [09:32] Identifying the features

    [11:37] APIs or front-end application?

    [13:28] Managing a growing group over time

    [16:55] Was Covid a feature or scalability challenge, or both?

    [22:35] Going forward


    Connect with Diana

    LinkedIn

    Website


    Connect with Kunai

    Website

    29m | Jul 14, 2021
  • Rebecca Macieira-Kaufmann, Founding Member at RMK Group, LLC, Board Member at Revolut USA, Advisory Board Member at DigitalDX, Advisory Council Member at DUCO, Advisor at Notabene

    Podcast Summary

    In this conversation with Rebecca Macieira-Kaufmann, Founding Member of RMK Group, LLC, she talks about making tough decisions, the increasingly rapid change in industries, and the benefits of living in San Francisco. Hear about Rebecca’s experience as a leader, and her new book, Fit CEO.


    Episode Outline

    [01:48] Tough choices

    [08:05] How should banks approach a rapidly changing environment?

    [11:27] The benefits of San Francisco

    [15:35] Rebecca’s Fit CEO book


    Connect with Rebecca

    LinkedIn

    Fit CEO Website

    RMK Group LLC Website


    Connect with Kunai

    Website

    19m | Jun 23, 2021
  • Chad Arroyo, Labs as a Service Head of North America at Mastercard

    Episode Outline

    [01:12] Chad’s background

    [03:34] Getting into startups

    [05:23] Getting into Fintech

    [06:23] Platform-based vs coin cryptocurrency

    [07:47] Shifting from crypto to corporate

    [10:05] LaunchPad

    [11:14] The drive towards platform

    [14:41] Chad’s team successes

    [17:50] Overcoming hurdles

    [20:35] Shaping user engagement

    [26:16] Looking forward

    [27:37] API to platform

    [29:57] How does decentralization play a role with LaaS?

    [32:57] MasterCard partnering with Bahamas Sand Dollar

    [34:53] Digital assets

    [35:59] Shameless plug for Mastercard


    Connect with Chad

    LinkedIn

    Twitter

    Website

    36m | Jun 9, 2021
  • Becky Getz, AWS Head of Customer Experience Operations at Amazon

    Episode Outline

    [01:24] Becky’s background

    [05:03] Capital One business partners

    [06:27] Customer centricity

    [07:51] Thinking about change

    [10:08] Growing a team from 30 to 500

    [13:02] Creating customer alignment

    [17:28] Separating the physical and the digital

    [20:04] Leading UX design teams

    [23:03] How did brand become so important?

    [26:49] Becky’s new role

    [30:17] Closing thoughts


    Connect with Becky

    LinkedIn

    33m | May 26, 2021
  • Banmeet Singh, Director of Product Management, Servicing Capabilities at American Express

    Episode Outline

    [01:56] Banmeet’s career arc

    [12:06] How has servicing changed over time?

    [17:41] Creating relevant experiences for customers

    [21:01] Curating experiences across different technologies

    [24:06] Identifying pain points

    [32:27] Call centers and FinTech


    Connect with Banmeet

    LinkedIn

    Website


    37m | May 12, 2021
  • Omeid Eshraghi, Senior Product Manager at Kunai

    Episode Outline

    [01:21] Introducing the team

    [03:40] Defining a virtual credit card

    [05:43] New and different use cases

    [17:51] Seamlessly adapting a virtual card into existing experiences

    [23:26] Creating a virtual card program


    Connect with the Kunai Team

    Kunai Website

    Tom Baldwin

    Tarun Bhasin

    Omeid Eshraghi

    Kyle Barry

    30m | May 5, 2021
  • Rajil Jain, Data Scientist at Facebook

    Episode Outline

    [01:37] Rajil’s background

    [07:42] The elements of the data process

    [14:06] A day in the life

    [20:30] Determining accuracy

    [24:01] Factoring in “big unknown” events

    [27:39] Interesting, exciting things happening in the data science space

    [32:02] Tips, tricks, and what to look for as a data scientist


    Connect with Rajil

    LinkedIn

    37m | Apr 28, 2021
  • Ofri Rom, Head of Data Science at Zencity

    Episode Outline

    [01:01] Ofri’s background

    [03:47] Getting 21 talented research engineers to join his company

    [05:23] Ofri’s insights on Data Science

    [06:43] Separating product and insight

    [10:48] Challenges with unstructured data

    [14:00] Training an algorithm

    [16:34] Data visualisation

    [18:44] Ofri’s many patents

    [23:33] The GDPR’s impact

    [25:10] Ofri’s advice


    Connect with Ofri

    LinkedIn

    Website


    32m | Apr 14, 2021
  • Emm Pakdee, Director of UX/Product Design at Vitech Systems Group

    Episode Outline

    [01:26] Emm’s background

    [10:41] Emm’s design process

    [20:12] Managing the ‘alpha individual’ notion

    [21:36] Performing user feedback sessions

    [24:08] Receiving customer feedback and continuous improvement

    [29:33] New design trends

    [32:00] Tools for facilitating remote design activities


    Connect with Emm

    LinkedIn

    Website

    38m | Mar 24, 2021
  • Eric Sager, COO at Plaid

    Episode Outline

    [00:56] Eric’s first job at Capital One

    [03:32] Keeping Plaid’s momentum after a huge change

    [06:13] The next steps for Plaid

    [10:06] Unlocking financial freedom for everyone

    [13:33] Discovering and fostering random projects

    [16:48] The possibility of replacing ACH

    [19:11] How does consulting serve Eric in his leadership roles at startups?

     

    Connect with Eric

    LinkedIn

    Website

    22m | Mar 10, 2021
  • Gustavo Cruz, Interaction Designer at Google

    Episode Outline

    [02:10] Gustavo’s background

    [04:00] Coming to the US

    [05:16] Getting into design

    [08:25] Gustavo’s first computer

    [13:40] The road to Citi

    [21:48] Bringing great design to a bank

    [25:34] How did Gustavo build high-performing creative teams?

    [30:33] What trends are Gustavo seeing?


    Connect with Gustavo

    LinkedIn

    Instagram

    Website

    36m | Feb 24, 2021
  • Rob Thacher, Co-Founder and CEO at BankShift

    Episode Outline

    [01:20] About BankShift

    [02:11] Solving the problem of controlling your money between banking institutions

    [05:17] Rob’s work on CreditWise products

    [07:34] CreditWise metrics

    [08:47] BankShift’s launch and what to expect

    [10:31] The BankShift business model

    [13:13] BankShift as the de facto banking app for some banking institutions

    [16:18] Starting a company in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic


    Connect with Rob

    LinkedIn

    BankShift

    20m | Feb 18, 2021
  • Robin Beers, SVP Product Design and Insights Leader at Wells Fargo

    Episode Outline

    [02:45] Robin’s background

    [07:53] Emotion in user-centric design

    [14:39] Constant iteration in design

    [18:10] Processes

    [26:53] The evaluation period

    [28:57] Descaling and empowering individuals

    [32:24] Diversity and inclusion as core values


    Connect with Robin

    LinkedIn 

    Twitter 

    38m | Feb 10, 2021
  • Edward Morabito, Director of Product Management at American Express

    Episode Outline

    [01:14] Edward’s background

    [08:27] Agile

    [12:33] Web to Web Mobile to Omnichannel

    [15:45] What informs Edward’s channel strategy?

    [19:22] Innovation versus enhancing

    [23:42] How does Edward build a high-performing team?

    [27:15] Alignment and diversity of thought

    [28:45] What are some trends Edward is seeing?

    [34:36] Virtual reality


    Connect with Edward

    LinkedIn

    37m | Jan 27, 2021
  • Mark Jamison, Global Head of Innovation at Visa

    Episode Outline

    [01:05] Mark’s background

    [02:08] Maxmiles, Inc.

    [04:15] The technical challenges in 1999

    [06:49] Launching a FinTech now vs in the 90s

    [09:43] The most effective role for a corporate labs division

    [11:34] Mark’s ideation process

    [14:13] What sets apart an executive for labs as opposed to other managerial positions?

    [16:58] The metrics and intangibles

    [20:47] Collaboration and working remotely during the pandemic

    [23:45] The most significant changes to visa in the coming years due to cryptocurrency

    [28:00] How Mark’s diverse education background has helped his business

    [31:00] How music has inspired him and what role it has played in the way he thinks about innovation


    Connect with Mark

    LinkedIn

    33m | Jan 12, 2021
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The Kunai Podcast: Fintech is Eating the World
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