S2:E15 - Inside the Future of FinTech with its #1 Influencer with Spiros Margaris

EPISODE SUMMARY In this episode of Don't Break the Bank, we speak with Spiros Margaris. Spiros is a venture capitalist at Margaris Ventures, a futurist, keynote speaker, and board member. He’s a senior advisor to and investor in several companies in the fintech, insurtech, cybersecurity, health care, and AI sectors. Spiros chatted with us about why embedded finance excites him, the future of banking, why both crypto and cash is here to stay, and how the metaverse will disrupt the financial world as we know it. EPISODE NOTES 3 Takeaways: The future of finance is in the hands of non-financial companies thanks to embedded finance. This enables companies to embrace FinTech solutions for their customers to sell more of their core product. As this is an added service, it can be priced competitively as the margin comes from the core product. It’s up to legacy financial institutions to work out how to aid or compete. Crypto and Cash are both in our future. If you can handle the risk, try putting some of your money in crypto, but be prepared to lose it. Every new opportunity is a little bit scary, but don’t let that put you off learning more about the metaverse. Key Quotes: “As the gold rush...now, we always look at history. Some people found gold, but very few. The ones who always made money are the ones who sold the shuffles. And I'm looking here at the metaverse, who's going to sell the shovels?” - Spiros “We said it here first. I think the game will shift that everyone will try to do everything, but It's easier for non-financial company to provide some financial solutions on top of your core business then for bank to provide something else.” - Spiros “I'm a huge fan of AI, but that doesn't mean I don't have to discuss trying to secure jobs, reskilling people, because at the end of the day, what's the point of all this technology if humans live worse?” - Spiros -- Links Margaris Ventures Spiros Margaris LinkedIn Spiros Margaris Twitter -- About the Hosts Matthew O'Neill is a husband, dad, geek and Industry Managing Director, Advanced Technology Group in the Office of the CTO at VMware. You can find Matthew on LinkedIn and Twitter. Brian Hayes is an audiophile, dad, builder of sheds, maker of mirth, world traveller and EMEA Financial Services Industry Lead at VMware. You can find Brian on LinkedIn.