Archive
Everything published by Fintech Takes.
December 2025
- DEC 10Where are the biggest trouble spots (and blind spots) in consumer credit?
- DEC 10Facing Credit: Pressure PointsWelcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m Alex Johnson, joined by Dave Wasik (Partner at 2nd Order Solutions) for our new series, Facing Credit, where we unpack what’s happening in lending right now.
- DEC 9Acquisition Requires Attention. Retention Requires Trust.Competition in financial services has always been a function of proximity.
- DEC 9Robinhood Should Not be Allowed Anywhere Near Trump Accounts
- DEC 5Open-loop vs. Closed-loop Credit Scoring
- DEC 3Access, Identity, & the Cost of Complexity
- DEC 3Fintech Recap: Open Banking, Digital IDs, and Green Dot’s SplitWelcome back to Fintech Takes. I’m Alex Johnson, joined (as always) by my Jason Mikula, my partner in recapping — who I’ve been lucky to see a lot of lately, which makes recording this over the internet feel oddly impersonal?
- DEC 1Rebuilding the Warp Core
November 2025
- NOV 28Black Friday
- NOV 28Fintech Takes x Fundbox presents Engineering the SMB Capital Stack Episode 4: The Role of Banks (with Jackie Reses at Lead)Welcome back to our Engineering the SMB Capital Stack , sponsored by our friends at Fundbox.
- NOV 26Surviving the SEO Apocalypse
- NOV 26Facing Credit: When AI Broke the Marketing MachineWelcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m Alex Johnson, joined by Carlos Caro (author of the Free Toaster newsletter and host of the Free Toaster podcast ) for the second episode of Facing Credit, where we unpack what’s really happening in lending right now.
- NOV 25Fintech Takes x Fundbox presents Engineering the SMB Capital Stack Episode 3: Data & Underwriting with Bernardo Martinez (SoFi)Welcome back to our Engineering the SMB Capital Stack , sponsored by our friends at Fundbox.
- NOV 25Sports Betting May Make It Harder for Borrowers to Pay Back Their Loans
- NOV 21And now his watch is (temporarily) ended.
- NOV 20Refactoring Risk Decisioning with Agentic AIAs we near the end of the 2025 fintech conference circuit, I can say with confidence that the most overhyped technology this year was agentic AI. Yet despite the hype (which can, at times, become absolutely overwhelming), agentic AI is much more than a buzzword. It represents a significant change in the capabilities underpinning modern […]
- NOV 19The Complexity of the Modern Payments Stack
- NOV 19The Future of Issuing with Marqeta’s CEOWelcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m Alex Johnson, joined by Mike Milotich, CEO of Marqeta (who stepped into the role after serving as CFO,) and now leads a cloud based issuing platform approaching 400B in annual payment volume.
- NOV 17Honor Some Cards?
- NOV 15Builders Summit, Complete
- NOV 12Friction, The Fine Print, & Faith
- NOV 12The End of the Back OfficeEvery day, small business owners have to act like CFOs, controllers, and procurement managers before they ever get to do … the thing that motivated them to become entrepreneurs in the first place.
- NOV 12The $455B Reality of Financial HealthWelcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m Alex Johnson, joined by Jennifer Tescher, founder and CEO of the Financial Health Network (who’s spent the last two decades measuring, defining, and holding the industry accountable for consumers’ financial well-being).
- NOV 11Fintech Takes x Fundbox presents Engineering the SMB Capital Stack Episode 2: Distribution (with Tanay Jaeel at Stripe)Welcome back to our Engineering the SMB Capital Stack , sponsored by our friends at Fundbox.
- NOV 10Carrington Labs, Zest AI, & Coinbase.
- NOV 8No one is being honest about stablecoins.
- NOV 5Live from Money20/20: AI, Stablecoins, & More!
- NOV 5Fintech Recap: AI, Stablecoins, and Live Money20/20 Energy!Welcome back to Fintech Takes. I’m Alex Johnson, joined (as always) by my Jason Mikula, my partner in recapping, but this time we recorded live from the floor of Money20/20 in Vegas!
- NOV 4Fintech Takes x Fundbox presents Engineering the SMB Capital Stack Episode 1: The State of SMB LendingWelcome to our new miniseries, Engineering the SMB Capital Stack , sponsored by our friends at Fundbox.
- NOV 3Barclays Buys Best Egg
October 2025
- OCT 31Spooky Season
- OCT 29The Biggest Unsolved Problems in Open Banking
- OCT 29Risk, Rules, and the Gaps in Open BankingWelcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m Alex Johnson, joined in this episode by three guests — Steve Smith (Co-founder and CEO of Invela; former Co-founder of Finicity and Founder of the Financial Data Exchange), Todd Taylor (Co-head of Intellectual Property; Co-head of Commercial & Technology Transactions at Moore & Van Allen), and Dan…
- OCT 27Fintech 3-2-1 Goes to Vegas
- OCT 27Fintech Takes x Pipe Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts Episode 6: Scaling UpIn the finale of our new miniseries, Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts (sponsored by our friends at Pipe ) , we confront the biggest questions yet, like:
- OCT 24A Fortress of Distrust
- OCT 23Unlocking Pay by Bank’s PotentialThe last time I wrote about pay by bank, I observed: An easy way to spot emerging trends is to look for examples of market incumbents overreacting. It’s not a common occurrence. Indeed, much of the modern theory of disruption is premised on the idea that market incumbents tend to underreact rather than overreact when […]
- OCT 22Debt, Data, and the New Repayment Hierarchy
- OCT 22The Launch of Facing CreditWelcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m Alex Johnson, joined by Kevin Moss (Senior Advisor at Baselayer, former CRO) to help launch Facing Credit, a new series where we unpack what’s happening in lending right now.
- OCT 20The Open Banking Fight You’re Not Paying Attention To
- OCT 20Fintech Takes x Pipe presents Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts Episode 5: Go To MarketWelcome back to our new miniseries Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts , sponsored by our friends at Pipe .
- OCT 17Neighborhood Networks
- OCT 15EtherFi, Lunos AI, Circuit & Chisel, & Figure
- OCT 15Building Sustainable Bank-Fintech PartnershipsEditor’s Note — We are republishing this deep dive essay, which was initially published in October of 2024. If anything, the topic (the importance of balanced BaaS partnerships) has become even more relevant, and the essay has been updated to reflect this. My thanks to Fifth Third Bank for sponsoring this deep dive essay and […]
- OCT 15Not Fintech Investment Advice: EtherFi, Lunos AI, Circuit & Chisel, & FigureWelcome back to Not Fintech Investment Advice, where Simon Taylor and I do what we do best: talk about fintech startups we’re absolutely not giving investment advice on.
- OCT 13Blocking and Tackling
- OCT 13Fintech Takes x Pipe presents Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts Episode 4: Build, Buy, or Partner?Welcome back to our new miniseries Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts , sponsored by our friends at Pipe .
- OCT 10The Cash Cow is Dead
- OCT 8The Economics of Addiction in 30 Minutes
- OCT 8Fintech Takes: Gambling is the Biggest Threat to Consumers’ Financial HealthWelcome back to Fintech Takes. Listeners may remember my first audiobook experiment …well, we’re back, by popular demand!
- OCT 6FICO Hits Back
- OCT 6Fintech Takes x Pipe presents Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts Episode 3: Fintech StrategyWelcome back to our new miniseries Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts , sponsored by our friends at Pipe .
- OCT 3How OpenAI Can Avoid Google’s Mistake
- OCT 1Open Banking, BaaS Trouble, FICO’s Small Ambitions
- OCT 1Fintech Recap: Plaid Pays Chase, FBI Circles BaaS, and FICO Tries AIWelcome back to Fintech Takes. I’m Alex Johnson, joined (as always) by my partner-in-recapping, Jason Mikula.
September 2025
- SEP 30FT x Nova Credit Fintech Takes x Nova Credit Presents Cash Flow Conversations Episode 4: The Cash Flow Bureau of the FutureHello, and thanks for joining us for the fourth and final episode of Cash Flow Conversations , a new miniseries sponsored by Nova Credit.
- SEP 30A New Roadmap for Building Customer Lifetime ValueI’ll be honest with you. Of all the terms I run across in my job, one of the ones that I understand the least is customer lifetime value, or LTV for short. And yet … the term is essential to understanding the recent past and, more importantly, the future of fintech and banking. Every company […]
- SEP 30Fintech Takes x Nova Credit Presents Cash Flow Conversations Episode 3: Saying “Yes” to More Underserved ConsumersHello, and welcome back to Cash Flow Conversations , a new miniseries sponsored by Nova Credit.
- SEP 29Aim Small, Miss Small
- SEP 29Fintech Takes x Pipe presents Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts Episode 2: Customer CentricityWelcome back to our new miniseries, Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts , sponsored by our friends at Pipe .
- SEP 26Standardizing Fairness and Financial Health
- SEP 26Fintech Takes x Nova Credit Presents Cash Flow Conversations Episode 2: Experimenting With (and Scaling Up the Use of) Cash Flow DataHello, and welcome back to Cash Flow Conversations , a new podcast miniseries sponsored by Nova Credit.
- SEP 26Fintech Takes x Nova Credit Presents Cash Flow Conversations Episode 1: How Do Credit Risk Executives Think About Cash Flow Data?Hello, and welcome to Cash Flow Conversations , a new podcast miniseries sponsored by Nova Credit.
- SEP 24Startup Truths and Venture Realities
- SEP 24Startup Truths and Reality ChecksWelcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m Alex Johnson, joined by David Roos, Partner at Core Innovation Capital — an early-stage fintech investor (founded in 2010) that backs scalable businesses built to drive financial inclusion for low- and middle-income consumers.
- SEP 22Chime’s Tough Choice
- SEP 22How Would You Design a Credit Bureau in 2025?Here’s a question: If you were to sit down and design a credit bureau from scratch, in 2025, what would it look like?
- SEP 22Fintech Takes x Pipe presents Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts Episode 1: A Crash Course in vSaaSWelcome to our new miniseries, Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts , sponsored by our friends at Pipe.
- SEP 19Plaid Defects
- SEP 18Flight to Quality: How To Find the Right Bank PartnerFive years ago, fintech founders treated the search for bank partners the same way that they treated the search for every other piece of infrastructure that they needed to get their product to market. They prioritized speed, cost, and the developer experience. Anything that a bank did (or didn’t do) that impinged on any of…
- SEP 17Welcome Tech, Bumper, Scalar Field, & Structify
- SEP 17Not Fintech Investment Advice: Welcome Tech, Bumper, Scalar Field, & StructifyWelcome back to Not Fintech Investment Advice, where Simon Taylor and I riff about fintech companies we’re absolutely not giving investment advice on. (Speaking of Simon, he’s got a new day job: he’s joining Tempo , a payments-first blockchain incubated by Stripe and Paradigm. Will this lead to spicier payment takes? We shall see!)
- SEP 15Machine Banking
- SEP 12Observations From a Busy Week
- SEP 12Fintech Takes x SOLO Presents Source of Truth Episode 4: Wave a Magic WandWe’re at the finish line of Source of Truth , the new podcast miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by our friends at SOLO.
- SEP 11Fintech Takes x SOLO Presents Source of Truth Episode 3: Hard Lessons Learned from the TrenchesHello, and welcome back to Source of Truth , a new miniseries sponsored by our friends at SOLO. This series is about information asymmetry; the enemy of financial services.
- SEP 10Preemption, Kawhi’s Payday, & Tokenized Confusion
- SEP 8Not Quite My Tempo
- SEP 5Aspiring to Cheat
- SEP 3Lawsuits Forever, $1 Penalties, & The Tokenized Wild West
- SEP 3Fintech Recap: Open Banking, BaaS Island, and GENIUS Act UpdatesWelcome back to Fintech Takes. I’m Alex Johnson, joined (as always) by my partner-in-recapping, Jason Mikula.
- SEP 1Firing On All Pistons
August 2025
- AUG 29The War That Banks Don’t Know They’re Fighting
- AUG 29Fintech Takes x SOLO Presents Source of Truth Episode 2: Context is KingHello, and welcome back to Source of Truth , the new podcast miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by our friends at SOLO.
- AUG 28Building Financial ResiliencyLast month, I spoke at an event hosted by the Federal Reserve. The theme of the event was “Unleashing a Financially Inclusive Future”. Within the first 15 minutes of my panel, we hit upon a key idea: “inclusion” might not be the right word to describe the problem that we are dealing with. After all, […]
- AUG 28Fintech Takes x SOLO Presents Source of Truth. Ep 1: Is Truth Enough to Unlock Trust?Hello, and welcome to Source of Truth , a new podcast miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by our friends at SOLO.
- AUG 27We’re Back!!!!!
- AUG 26The Leap from Payment Acceptance to Payment IssuanceThe interesting thing about embedded finance is that not all aspects of embedded finance are created equal.
- AUG 22A Field Guide to the Next Round of Open Banking Fights
- AUG 20Open Banking in the Upside-Down
- AUG 20Inside Open Banking’s Rule, Reversal, and ResetWelcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m Alex Johnson, joined by Dan Murphy — Founder of Sunset Park Advisors and former CFPB official who helped craft the agency’s open banking rule (finalized last October).
- AUG 18Everyone (but the lawyers) Just Lost
- AUG 15BaaS, Vertical SaaS, and Stablecoins
- AUG 14Fintech Takes x FairPlay Presents Model Citizens: AI Compliance for Banks and Fintech Lenders E6: Crystal Ball – The Future of Financial RegulationIn the finale of Model Citizens: AI Compliance for Banks and Fintech Lenders (a six-part miniseries from the Fintech Takes podcast in partnership with FairPlay), we confront the biggest questions yet:
- AUG 13The Entire History of the CFPB in 50 Minutes
- AUG 13Why Is This Happening? The CFPB’s 14-Year Culture WarI’m Alex Johnson, and today we’re trying something different: a little audiobook experiment.
- AUG 12Fintech Takes x FairPlay Presents Model Citizens: AI Compliance for Banks and Fintech Lenders Title: Episode 5: AI Agents in Financial Services: What Happens When Robots Make the Calls?Welcome back to Model Citizens: AI Compliance for Banks and Fintech Lenders, a six-part miniseries from the Fintech Takes podcast in partnership with FairPlay.
- AUG 11Well, this was predictable.
- AUG 11Fintech Takes x FairPlay Presents Model Citizens: Ep 4: Customer Acquisition in the Age of AIWelcome back to Model Citizens: AI Compliance for Banks and Fintech Lenders , a six-part miniseries from the Fintech Takes podcast in partnership with FairPlay.
- AUG 8Should Banks & Fintechs Work Things Out?
