Show notes
On today’s Tank Talk! We welcome Addie Lerner, founder and general manager of Avid Ventures and Charley Ma of Alloy to talk about “The Rise of APIs in Fintech Explosion.”Guests Background:Addie Lerner is the Founder and Managing Partner of New York City-based Avid Ventures, a $68M early stage venture capital firm that has invested in fintech companies including Alloy, Nova Credit, Staircase, Lockstep, and Rapyd. Prior to starting Avid, Addie was a Principal at General Catalyst and before that she was a Senior Associate at General Atlantic in NYC and London. Addie started her career in investing at Goldman Sachs as an Analyst in the Special Situation Group.Charley Ma is currently the GM of Fintech at Alloy the identity operating system for banks and fintechs in NYC. Prior to Alloy, Charley was an early hire at Ramp in the corporate card space and Plaid in the API infrastructure space. Charley started his career at JPMorgan Chase, working across several strategy groups covering payments, APIs, blockchain, and fintech. He is also a somewhat active angel investor, primarily focused on fintech + infrastructure and has invested in companies including Unit, Moov, Finch, Codat, and many more. In this episode we discuss:01:32 The definition of fintech03:19 The difference between tech-enabled and tech-powered04:13 What APIs are and how they are used in fintech06:08 Closed APIs versus Open APIs06:50 The benefits of APIs08:11 The growth of APIs since 201409:56 The explosive growth of Plaid and other Fintech companies11:23 How Covid and other factors are pushing traditional payment processing and alternative payments15:06 How other countries are leapfrogging the US in payments18:49 The growth of fintech for investor and credit platforms21:45 Using APIs to get credit decisions from non-traditional sources25:24 What is white-labelling27:20 Regulations around fintech31:06 The rise of the Neo-Banks33:55 Alloy’s technology around regulations35:48 The importance of data-sharing38:20 The rise of internal regulatory focus at startups40:31 The use of blockchain and cryptocurrency in mainstream financial institutions44:05 Speculation on the Visa/Plaid breakup and a potential Plaid IPO48:30 When will APIs come to insurance49:15 What is the risk associated with relying on another companies API53:30 Open banking and consumer demand and protections55:38 Negotiating fees when starting outBooks Addie Recommends:Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew RobertsBook Charley Recommends:The Anatomy of the Swipe: Making Money Move by Ahmed SiddiquiFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com
