EPISODE · Mar 18, 2026 · 50 MIN
Not Fintech Investment Advice: Rhythmic, AgentCard, Rowspace, & Burst
from Fintech Takes · host Alex Johnson
Welcome 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. First up is Rhythmic, stablecoin-powered embedded wallets for brands (think Ansa but stablecoins). We unpack why payments nerds are now building in stablecoins, what OCC guidance means for yield on stored balances, and why this may be one of the clearest domestic stablecoin use cases yet. Next up is AgentCard, prepaid virtual cards for AI agents. Simon's framing: if Stripe was built for developers, AgentCard is built for agents. We talk about what it means to build for agents as customers, and whether virtual cards are already good enough for a large share of agentic commerce. Then there’s Rowspace, which uses AI to codify institutional knowledge for bespoke risk decisions inside private credit and private equity firms. The pitch is a virtual partner sitting on a junior analyst's shoulder, guiding deal decisions in real time. But when AI starts nudging high-stakes decisions, how do you know when it’s wrong? Could this become the Harvey of financial services? And will firms trust an outsider to live inside their secret sauce? Finally, we close with Burst, an API layer for HSA and FSA reimbursement. Simon's analogy: if Honey and Plaid had a healthcare baby, it would be Burst. We discuss why FSA dollars usually sit there unspent, why the merchant integration is the piece nobody else has cracked, and how consumer permissioning can retrain people to think of that money as theirs. Plus, Simon's manifestation to the universe: simplicity. You've got a new customer. Are you building for them? This episode is brought to you by Plaid. Most lenders see the value of cash flow data. The hard part is getting started—and knowing what to do with it once you have it. Plaid makes it easy to access real-time cash flow and behavioral insights in seconds, through a familiar experience borrowers already trust. No heavy lift. No added friction. Learn more at www.plaid.com/ftt Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Simon: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sytaylor/ Substack: https://sytaylor.substack.com Follow Alex: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Companies featured: https://rhythmic.io/ https://agentcard.sh/ https://www.rowspace.ai/ https://getburst.com/
What this episode covers
Welcome 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. First up is Rhythmic, stablecoin-powered embedded wallets for brands (think Ansa but stablecoins). We unpack why payments nerds are now building in stablecoins, what OCC guidance means for yield on stored balances, and why this may be one of the clearest domestic stablecoin use cases yet. Next up is AgentCard, prepaid virtual cards for AI agents. Simon's framing: if Stripe was built for developers, AgentCard is built for agents. We talk about what it means to build for agents as customers, and whether virtual cards are already good enough for a large share of agentic commerce. Then there’s Rowspace, which uses AI to codify institutional knowledge for bespoke risk decisions inside private credit and private equity firms. The pitch is a virtual partner sitting on a junior analyst's shoulder, guiding deal decisions in real time. But when AI starts nudging high-stakes decisions, how do you know when it’s wrong? Could this become the Harvey of financial services? And will firms trust an outsider to live inside their secret sauce? Finally, we close with Burst, an API layer for HSA and FSA reimbursement. Simon's analogy: if Honey and Plaid had a healthcare baby, it would be Burst. We discuss why FSA dollars usually sit there unspent, why the merchant integration is the piece nobody else has cracked, and how consumer permissioning can retrain people to think of that money as theirs. Plus, Simon's manifestation to the universe: simplicity. You've got a new customer. Are you building for them? This episode is brought to you by Plaid. Most lenders see the value of cash flow data. The hard part is getting started—and knowing what to do with it once you have it. Plaid makes it easy to access real-time cash flow and behavioral insights in seconds, through a familiar experience borrowers already trust. No heavy lift. No added friction. Learn more at www.plaid.com/ftt Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Simon: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sytaylor/ Substack: https://sytaylor.substack.com Follow Alex: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Companies featured: https://rhythmic.io/ https://agentcard.sh/ https://www.rowspace.ai/ https://getburst.com/
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Not Fintech Investment Advice: Rhythmic, AgentCard, Rowspace, & Burst
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