In this episode of The Ensemblex Exchange Podcast, host Shawn Budde sits down with Caitlyn Driehorst, founder and CEO of RightWise Wealth. Caitlyn shares her unique journey from studying Russian literature to becoming a leader in the financial advisory space. Discover how RightWise Wealth is redefining financial planning for high earners through a community-led growth strategy and innovative ambassador program. Tune in for an insightful conversation on the intersection of personal values and financial success.

Peter Renton, co-founder of Renton & Co LLC, is the creator of some of the most popular events and media in the fintech space. His background? Label printing. After building and selling the first digital label business in 2010, Peter fell in love with peer-to-peer lending and what he saw as the coming fintech revolution. He had the gumption and power of personality to found Fintech Nexus (a.k.a. LendIt Fintech), a leading fintech conference, just a few years later in 2013. Peter is a true believer in fintech, but having witnessed the rise and fall of several trends in the industry, he's got critiques and caution, too. Tune in to hear his reflections on the pivotal moments of the last fifteen years, predictions for 2030, and tips for building the necessary momentum to make events successful.

Consultants sometimes get a bad rap, but a good consultant-client partnership can be transformative. What makes the difference? Kellen Smith is the CEO of 8020 Consulting, a finance and accounting firm named after the 80/20 rule for getting outsized results. Kellen and Shawn discuss how curiosity, emotional intelligence, and over-communication make for impactful engagements, how finance and accounting can be a framework for driving change across your business, and the transformation of CFOs into "CFOOs".

Are the "physics" and math of lending universal? Moving to the U.S. from India to join Capital One, Kunal Kaul learned that the rules of the road certainly aren't. After an adjustment period that Kunal calls a dark comedy, Kunal spent 14 years at Capital One learning enduring lessons about the fundamentals of lending and a can-do culture (AKA "possibility-oriented thinking.") He's since applied and adapted those lessons to lend across the spectrum in the U.S., the Philippines, Mexico, Kenya, and India. Kunal's broad experience has given him a great grasp of the immutable truths of credit. Tune in to hear his wisdom, his "dark comedy", and his mission to bring financial products to the Global Majority.

Ualá is on a mission to become the biggest neobank in Spanish-speaking Latin America. Dedicated to that goal, former rugby pro Joaquin Dominguez serves as Ualá's Chief Credit Officer. On today's episode, Joaquin joins Shawn to chat about Ualá's strategy, the peculiarities of the three LatAm countries where they operate, using the “low and grow” strategy in markets with low credit scores and high fraud, and building your team bottom-up instead of top-down.

Rhett Roberts and his brothers started with a car dealership and ended up building software that manages over $22 billion in annual loan repayments. Rhett is cofounder and CEO of LoanPro, a leading loan management software. The story of LoanPro is of discovery and personalization: every step was guided by organic demand, first for individualized loans for their dealership customers, and finally for highly customizable loan management software to support a diverse set of “misfit loans”. Tune in to today's episode to hear the full story, along with Rhett's thoughts on managing complexity while supporting customization and why personalization is the future of lending.

Most fintech founders start out hoping to have big investors, but that’s not always in the cards. Take Nexu, a financing platform for car dealerships in Latin America. With few options for capital, Nexu scraped together modest checks – some so small they financed only one or two cars at a time – to start building its loan portfolio. Nexu’s co-founder, Fernando Gómez Arriola, is grateful for those super-lean days. In fact, he’d rather have no money than have bad investors. He joins Shawn Budde on today’s episode to share how Nexu managed a major pivot, grew to be a success, and some lessons about enjoying life along the way.

Is collections the most neglected part of the loan cycle? Collections is a part of the customer experience, too. And yet, despite some big changes to adapt to (a dramatic shift in oversight after the 2008 financial crisis, more and more ways to reach consumers but fewer and fewer people answering phone calls, recently Regulation F) collections isn't fully modernized. Cody Owens of Equabli and J.D. Rainey of Quanta Credit Services are working hard to change that. They join Shawn to discuss why innovation lags in collections, why regulation is good, and what comes next.

When Frank Rotman helped found QED Investors, the plan was to leverage QED’s financial services expertise to join rounds but trust the underwriting of big-name investors. Then he realized that QED had insights others didn’t. Now, QED is a leading fintech VC with over $4 billion under management and 31 unicorns in its portfolio. Frank's insights on investing are invaluable, but beyond that, his rigorous, sincere analysis is a tutorial for how to think better. Don't miss this episode.

Is there a shortcut to founding a fintech? Chloe Zhu, leader of the Ensemblex Venture Studio and today's guest, believes so. Chloe makes a compelling case for partnering with a venture studio, especially in the challenging financial services industry. If you've ever daydreamed about launching a start-up, or you're wondering why you're struggling to bring your great idea to life, then tune in to hear the criteria studios use to choose champions: both the ideas and the people who build them.

After more than 25 years in consumer finance, Matt Potere, CEO of Happy Money, has plenty of lending know-how to share. But even deeper than his lending experience is his leadership experience. Matt’s business education began in childhood, pitching in to help run the family’s gas station. In today's episode, Matt shares the hands-on leadership strategies he's honed over decades of growing businesses, from last-minute Saturday night shifts pumping gas to manning the phones as a SVP at Bank of America.

Re-listen to Episode 3 with Stephanie Hanson from Gestalt, with an added fundraising Q & A. Start-up life is exciting, demanding, and occasionally bizarre. You may find yourself working from the bathroom or partying with monkeys, lemurs, and camels. So did Stephanie Hansen, today's guest and an indefatigable entrepreneur building her second company, Gestalt. We chat about the challenges of growing a start-up — finances, hiring, and creating a strong culture — and squeezing lots of life in around long work hours.

Cash flow underwriting: it's the next big thing. And so it has been for nearly a decade, admits Nikki Cross. Nikki is the Senior Director of Data Science Solutions at Nova Credit, an alternative credit data platform. She joins Shawn to make the case for cash flow underwriting. Why do lenders struggle with incorporating cash flow data, and how can they speed up the process? Why should lenders make the effort? By the end of the episode, you'll be excited about cash flow underwriting...the next big thing.

Bank sponsorships have powered the proliferation of fintech in the past decade. Now under increasing scrutiny from regulators and in the wake of the Synapse catastrophe, this foundational element of the fintech industry is at a crossroads. On today's episode, Shawn asks Brian Enneking, COO of First Electronic Bank – a leading bank in fintech partnerships – what keeps him up at night. Shawn and Brian discuss the challenges the industry has faced and uncertainty about the future, but also the many positive developments, like AI enabling better oversight, and what makes for a good fintech-bank partnership.

Please, don’t ask ChatGPT to build your credit model. Using machine learning (ML) and AI well is still a struggle for many lenders. Underneath all the buzz about AI, alternative data, and ever-smarter models, there's a lot of hard work and prudence required to implement these techniques safely and to manage the resulting models. Josh Campos, Head of Enterprise Data Science, AI & ML Engineering at DriveTime, is an expert on just that. He joins Shawn to discuss the practical side of ML and AI in credit risk management. They touch on best practices for data science teams, monitoring and updating models, using alternative data, and why LLMs should come with a warning on the label.

Derek Flanzraich, founder of Ness, built an impressive company: a credit card assembled from scratch, partnerships with top health brands, content that reached 150,000 people monthly, $50 million raised, and enthusiastic cardholders. Then he shut it down. This episode is a timely and all-too-rare look at the reality that many start-up founders will face. Sometimes, despite great effort, great ideas fail. On today's episode, we hear Ness's story, which begins with Derek's own health journey. Derek talks about Ness's strategy, successes, challenges, a near save, and unfortunate end.

Every fintech founder knows they have to raise equity. Often overlooked is the true fuel of a lending business: debt. The wrong debt deal can cost millions of dollars, compromise profitability, and thwart growth. On today's episode, Shawn receives a primer on debt deals from Rich Davis, co-chair of the asset-based lending practice at Paul Hastings, and Mike Armstrong, co-founder of Ensemblex. They discuss deal terms to watch out for, deal sizes and different providers, and the state of the market. Lenders and non-lenders alike will also benefit from Paul and Mike's perspective on leadership (stop telling people what to do), tenacity (you mostly survive suffering), and managing business relationships (speak up when it gets sour.)

Fintech's rout has been painful. In 2023, fintech venture funding was down 44% year-over-year, and for many of the fintech giants, stock prices dropped over 80% from their peak. How did we get here, and will investors still touch fintech? On today's episode, Kwesi Acquay of Redpoint Ventures and Noah Breslow of Bain Capital Ventures share their outlook on the fintech hype cycle, what qualities make a fintech investable in today's environment, and their predictions for AI's impacts on the industry (are we at the beginning of another hype cycle?)

A polyglot with a degree in Slavonic Studies, spurred by the 2021 military evacuation of over 100,000 Afghans to the U.S. to streamline SMB access to capital — Alex McLeod's career path isn't traditional. Motivated by a passion for increasing access to resources and a willingness to lose weekends, Alex is a three-time founder. She currently leads Parlay, a software platform that improves SMB lending at community banks and credit unions. She joins Shawn to discuss the inefficiencies and chaos inhibiting SMB access to capital, mission-driven careers, and whether it's ever a good idea to co-found a company with your partner.

Start-up life is exciting, demanding, and occasionally bizarre. You may find yourself working from the bathroom or partying with monkeys, lemurs, and camels. So did Stephanie Hanson, today's guest and an indefatigable entrepreneur building her second company, Gestalt. We chat about the challenges of growing a start-up — finances, hiring, and creating a strong culture — and squeezing lots of life in around long work hours.