An Interview With Mrs. Fintech Takes
Happy Boxing Day, Fintech Nerds!
For those who celebrate, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!
Mine was tremendous. Seeing the holiday (which I already loved) through my kids’ eyes is just the best. I’m feeling very thankful.
As promised, I’m not serving up any heavy fintech fare this week. Instead, I have something fun – an interview with my wife!
If you’ve been reading my newsletter intros for any length of time, you’ll likely have gleaned that my wife is an extraordinary partner, mother, and overall person, and I could not come close to doing what I do (professionally or otherwise) without her. She is smart, practical, and has a very healthy disinterest in fintech (though she’s been listening to me prattle on about it for years), so I thought it would be interesting to get her perspective.
I am also tossing in a few podcast recommendations at the end of today’s newsletter in case you’re traveling for the holidays and need something to listen to.
Onward!
An Interview With Mrs. Fintech TakesCopy anchor linkCopied
This interview is a combination of questions from me and questions sourced from the Fintech Takes audience, and all of my wife’s answers were off the cuff (no research allowed!)
First question – what is fintech? How would you define it?
Fintech is financial technology. It covers a broad spectrum of categories in finance.
(That’s the end of what I know, and when I tell people this, they don’t tend to question me further.)
Audience Question – Describe what your husband does in six words.
Alex is a writer and thinker.
(This feels like a cop-out because he does so much research and behind-the-scenes work to publish a high-quality newsletter twice a week. He also stays up late every night after our kids go to bed so that he can come home early and spend the evenings with us.)
I know you have strong feelings about logos. Would you mind looking at this ranking of fintech logos and telling me which are your three favorite and three least favorite (and why)?
Favorites:
- Sundae – It speaks to me; it’s a happy logo. I love a statement red. I’m not sure what the company is, though.
- Hummingbird – I’m a sucker for a simple classy font as I am a simple classy lady. The little bird is cute, black goes with everything.
- Petal – It's lovely, pops of color with a black font. I also like the word association with “petal,” which makes me think this company is doing something nice.
And an honorable mention that wasn’t on your list – Knot. It’s actually my favorite fintech logo. It is *chef’s kiss* perfection.
Least Favorites:
- Klarna – It gives me the ick. I love a pink (have you seen our daughter's room?), but this is not it. The font is also odd, and I don’t like the punctuation.
- Block – Hate it. It reminds me of the 90s movie Flubber.
- Moov – Why does it feel like this logo is yelling at me?
Also, I know you have strong feelings about the Chase logo. This is your opportunity to go off on it!
Bozeman recently got its first Chase Bank branch, and every time I drive by it, I am absolutely disgusted by the shade of blue they chose. There’s something about that particular shade that irks me.
Audience Question – Is it true that Alex tells the kids bedtime fintech stories?
Not yet! He’s still in the midst of trying to get them to care about Greek mythology. I’m sure fintech is coming.
Trivia question – what was the name of the big bank that failed in the spring of this year?
Easy! Silicon Valley Bank.
What caused the bank to fail?
The bank invested a lot of money somewhere else and then didn’t have money in their pockets, then there was a run on the bank, ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ style.
What fintech apps (if any) do you use on a regular basis? What do you like about them?
Literally none? I’m old school and log in on a browser to check banky stuff. I use PayPal and Shop, but I don’t have the apps downloaded.
Audience Question – What is your favorite neobank?
Got me here. I have no clue what this is.
What are some things about the way that money, credit, banking, and commerce work that annoy you? What problems can the Fintech Takes community help solve for you?
Well, as I said before, I’m old school. I keep things simple, including finance stuff. But I do feel like banking is really slow? It’s normally not a huge issue for me (anytime a visit to the branch is required, I make Alex go), but I would think that speeding things up would make it much easier for people who have less time and/or help.
Audience Question – Which fintech product category makes Alex the angriest or most frustrated?
This one is obvious – credit builder products!
Do you think any of our kids will ever need to write a check in their lives?
That’s an interesting thought. We use checks almost exclusively to pay for preschool tuition, but I know one parent uses PayPal. It would not surprise me if they get phased out completely.
Although our kindergartener's school did suggest we could send him with a blank check to the book fair, so you never know.
Audience Question – Why Alex?
[Alex interjects himself into the interview] I’ve spent the last 15 years working really hard to get my wife not to ask herself this question. So let’s not bring her attention to it now! I’ll just say that I ask myself this question every day, and I feel extremely lucky that we found each other.
I get a lot of fintech merch. You tend to steal all the best stuff from me. Which company has the best fintech merch, in your experience?
Oh, MX, for sure. Every time you come back from that conference in Utah, I’m expecting cool merch. We have quite a collection of Cotopaxi things now.
Alloy has given you some really lovely pens, I’m a stationery connoisseur, so I know what I’m talking about.
And the kids love playing with the toy robot with your face on it that you got from Money20/20.
Audience Question – Do you think Alex should explore the fintech implications of the Taylor Swift phenomenon?
Oh my god, yes! I’d actually read his entire newsletter if it was about Taylor Swift!
Fintech Takes Podcast Recommendations – The Best of 2023!Copy anchor linkCopied
I've been podcasting for a couple of years, but 2023 was the year when the podcast really came into its own. We landed on a format and a cadence that works well for me (and hopefully for you!)
I’m looking forward to continuing the podcast in 2024 (and maybe trying a few new things!), but before we get there, I wanted to share a few of my favorite episodes from the last year.
Fintech Recap – My OG podcast, started with the tall and talented Jason Mikula, in which we recap the most interesting stories in fintech on a monthly basis. My favorite 2023 episodes were:
- How FedNow is Revolutionizing the Future of Instant Payments
- Goldman Offloads Apple, The Rise of Fraud Data Consortiums, & Monetizing Outrage
- The Challenges of BaaS, The Drama of Interchange, & The Final Death of NFTs
Not Fintech Investment Advice! – Simon Taylor and I each bring two fintech companies to the table every month and take turns discussing why they’re interesting to us. It’s basically investing but without the checks at the end. My favorite 2023 episodes were:
- AI’s Fintech Footprint, PayPal’s Bold Stablecoin Move, Making Community Banks Profitable
- Generative AI & Compliance, Reinventing the ERP, The Case For CDs
- Spreadsheets Never Say Die, HiFi Unifies Music’s Fractured Income Stream, and Subscription-Based Climate Tech
Bank Nerd Corner – Kiah Haslett, queen of the bank nerds, comes on every month to hash out the most interesting stuff happening in banking. This is routinely the longest and nerdiest podcast I do, and it’s a ton of fun (especially when I can get her all wound up about something). My favorite 2023 episodes were:
- Bank Earnings, Jiko, and Why So Many Banks Have The Same Names
- What Makes a Bank Safe, the Federal Discount Window, and Innovation in Banking
- The Role of Supervisors/Adverse Action Notices/Building a Better PFM
Fintech Takes Special Guests – The last podcast of every month is always an interview that I do with someone from the financial services ecosystem. Some of these folks are very well known. Some of them aren’t (yet), but should be. All of them are smart, passionate, and deeply curious. My favorite 2023 episodes were:
- Cutting Through the Fintech Hype with Frank Rotman
- Fintech’s Biggest Unsolved Problems with Nina Mohanty
- Unpacking the Post-Pandemic Era’s Most Interesting Financial Health Trends, with Scott Sanborn
JOBS
Here are some jobs that I’m curating for fintech operators. You can see the full list of jobs I’ve curated here. If you’re looking to hire, use the promo code FINTECHTAKES to get your first job listing free on my curated job board.
The person in this role will lead prospects through their Identity Management revolution by connecting their needs to Persona's value in order to win new customers and drive revenue growth. They will deliver best in class product demonstrations and use their learnings to help Persona build better and more dynamic demos.
Unit is hiring a CFO to lead its finance function and make it a central driver of Unit’s future success. The position is based in New York and reports directly to the CEO. Unit is looking for a leader who has experience managing finance in complex, high-growth software companies with $50m+ in revenues.
Senior Partner Marketing Manager, Alloy
Alloy is looking for a Senior Partner Marketing Manager to plan and execute a marketing strategy that engages and activates its data and channel partners in order to achieve revenue goals. This person will be part of the marketing team but work closely with Alloy’s partner teams, focused on acquiring new partners, as well as continuing to deepen relationships with existing partners.
Thanks for the read! Let me know what you thought by replying back to this email.
— Alex
