Fintech: Under the Hood

If you’ve used a fintech app in the last decade, whether it’s for payments, investing, lending, budgeting, or embedded finance, there’s a good chance Plaid was working quietly in the background.It’s the connective tissue between banks, fintechs, and consumers, powering account connectivity, identity, risk, payments, and the broader open finance ecosystem.Will Robinson, the CTO of Plaid, has been at the forefront of financial data innovation. With a background in tech giants like Google and startups like Coinbase, Will brings a wealth of experience to Plaid, where he leads the engineering vision for one of the most important financial data networks in the world that connects thousands of financial institutions to thousands of fintech applications, managing massive volumes of sensitive financial data, while balancing reliability, security, privacy, and performance at scale.In this episode with Will, we get into Plaid’s architecture, how the platform has evolved beyond aggregation, how they think about data quality and intelligence, how AI is reshaping financial infrastructure, as well as:The 2008 crash sparking curiosity in how FS works and how to make it betterLow-coupling, High-Cohesion computer science principles and their importance to fintechWhy brownfield development is a lot harder than greenfield devWhat the Plaid x Perplexity partnership means for consumers, hobbyists, and innovatorsThe tech metrics Will obsesses over and that are key to Plaid continuing to scaleThe now staple AI question which touches on their new transaction and behavioural models, the importance of their MCP server, and how Will thinks about Agents using Plaid’s data and services…and so much more.This episode is for you if you…:You’re curious about a CTO’s journey to a world renowned fintechWant to understand how a fintech CTO thinks about metricsWant to learn about how Plaid is using AI and how it thinks about the futureIf you enjoyed this episode, give it 5 stars, drop a review, and share it with a fintech friend ☺️

Stablecoins are often talked about as the future of money, but very few companies are actually building the infrastructure that makes them usable, scalable, and relevant for real businesses today.BVNK is one of those companies.In a world where cross-border payments are slow, expensive, and stitched together by legacy rails, BVNK is building the stablecoin-powered financial infrastructure that connects traditional finance with digital asset rails enabling businesses to send, receive, store, convert, earn and spend value globally, in real time.In this episode, I speak with Chris Harmse, Co-founder and CBO at BVNK who sits right at the intersection of product, strategy, and go-to-market for one of the most important infrastructure plays in modern fintech, where we cover:Chris’ journey into payments and stablecoin infrastructureObtaining a strong foundations in payments from his years on a FX trading deskStablecoin use cases, including payroll, marketplace payoutsThe partnership with Visa DirectThe role of card issuing in stablecoin adoptionThe significant spending gap in stablecoin usageInteresting insights from BVNK’s latest Stablecoin Utility ReportKey Insights on Blockchain Payments and Compliance…and so much more.This episode is for you if you…:Are curious about a fintech leader’s journey into stablecoinWant to learn about the big unsung use casesAre interested in learning more about the importance of stablecoin infrastructureWant to hear from a leader building the future of moneyIf you enjoyed this episode, give it 5 stars, drop a review, and share it with a fintech friend.☺️

Over the past few years the Middle East has been a hotbed of innovation with fintech at the heart of strategy in the UAE and Saudi.Lean Technologies is a key player in the enablement of innovation in the region and in this episode, I get to speak to someone who has firsthand experience of innovating in the region.In this episode, I speak with Tewfik Cassis, CPO at Lean who spearheads product innovation and strategy for Lean where we cover:Tewfik’s journey from product marketeer to CPO via roles at Rain and MonzoThe important skills from product marketing he still uses todayRegulation and the importance of continuous dialogue with risk, reg and complianceThe importance of full-stack infrastructure to innovation (especially in a fast growth environment)Lean’s product evolution going well beyond Open BankingHow a product leader uses AI in the product-dev lifecycleThe value of stablecoin in the Middle East…and so much more.This episode is for you if you…:Want to learn from a former Monzonaut currently building the future of financial infrastructure in the middle-eastAre interested in product leader’s journey into FintechWant to learn more about the uniqueness of building a fintech in the UAE or SaudiAre in an Open Banking or infrastructure organisation and want to hear from a leader going beyond data and payment initiationIf you enjoyed this episode, give it 5 stars, drop a review, and share it with a fintech friend.☺️

Payment Services Providers are the invisible force that allow us to safely purchase goods & services online and in-person. Checkout.com who process 10s of billions of these payments monthly has embraced this ‘invisible force’ tag head on.In this episode, I speak to Meron Colbeci, CPO at Checkout.com, former PayPal’er, and a supremely experienced fintech product leader where we cover:Meron’s Rockstar background and journey to Checkout.com, including experience at PayPal and his experience as key part of Facebook’s Project LibraAn explainer of Checkout.com’s product stackThe difference between building a consumer app vs a B2B productThe power of a network powered productHow a fintech globalises their productAgentic Commerce and Checkout’s key role in enablement…and so much more.This episode is for you if you:Are curious about how fintechs globalise their productsAre interested in an experienced product leader’s journey into FintechWant to learn more about Checkout.com’s product stack and why their new products matter for consumers and merchants

Hey Fintechers and FIntech Newbies 👋🏽 I’m Jas Shah and I’m really excited to introduce the Fintech: Under the Hood podcast, where I sit down with the people actually building financial services to talk honestly about how fintech really works. Over the next few months I’m releasing one on one interviews with leaders from five major fintechs that power payments, enable stablecoin growth, facilitate global innovation, and much more besides. We get into how they think about the future, how they build and scale products, how they navigate regulation and global expansion, and how they’re approaching the biggest shifts right now: stablecoins and AI.I’m really excited for you to hear these interviews starting with a big one on friday 26th January, so to make sure you get all five episodes, make sure you hit subscribe and drop a like for good measure.