Jess Conroy, CEO of ROH, on Building the Financial Core Hotels Never Had
In this episode, Peter Renton interviews Jess Conroy, CEO and co‑founder of Roe, about the massive gap in financial infrastructure within the hospitality industry. Conroy explains how hotels still rely on manual, error‑prone processes to capture, reconcile, and track payments—from individual room bookings to multi‑million‑dollar events—leading to lost revenue and inefficiency. Roe’s AI‑first platform provides a real‑time financial core that automates both inflows and outflows, delivering a single source of truth for revenue visibility and aligning its transaction‑based model with hotel profitability, now managing over $1 billion in hotel transactions. The discussion also covers Roe’s go‑to‑market strategy in a franchise‑heavy market and the broader opportunity to modernize hotel finance.
Building the First Agentic Brokerage with Leif Abraham, Co-CEO of Public
In this episode, Public’s co‑CEO Leif Abraham explains how the firm is building the first truly agentic brokerage, where AI agents help users construct and manage multi‑asset portfolios, from fractional stocks to bonds, crypto and options. He discusses Public’s shift...
Open Banking, 1033, and the Agentic AI Catalyst - Steve Boms, Executive Director of FDATA
In this episode, Steve Boms, Executive Director of FDATA North America, outlines the current landscape of U.S. open banking, focusing on the pending amendments to the CFPB's Section 1033 rule and FDATA’s position that banks should not charge fees for...
From 70 Hours to Minutes: Vestwell CEO Aaron Schumm on Simplifying and Automating Savings
In this episode, Vestwell CEO Aaron Schumm explains how America's savings system is broken, recounting his own frustrating experience setting up a 401(k) that sparked Vestwell's creation. He details how Vestwell has streamlined retirement plan setup from 40‑70 hours to...
Utah's Hidden Fintech Powerhouse: Ryan Christiansen on Building Bridges Between Academia and Industry
In this episode, Ryan Christiansen recounts his journey from managing credit portfolios during the 2008 crisis to pioneering open‑banking platforms at Finicity and now leading the University of Utah’s Fintech Center. He explains the Center’s multidisciplinary model that blends business,...
The Embedded Tax Revolution: Ben Borodach, CEO of April, on Building Tax Infrastructure From Scratch
In this episode, Ben Borodach, founder and CEO of april, explains how his company built the first nationally licensed tax engine in over 15 years to embed real‑time tax intelligence into banking, fintech, and payroll platforms. He discusses the technical...
Daren Guo, Co-Founder of Reap, on Building Stablecoin-Powered Infrastructure for Global Finance
In this episode, Daren Guo, co‑founder of Reap, discusses how stablecoins are evolving from faster cross‑border payments into the backbone of a tokenized financial system, enabling on‑chain FX, securities, and novel products like payroll streaming. He shares his journey from...
Darragh Buckley, CEO of Increase, on Building the Next Generation of Banking Infrastructure
Darragh Buckley, former Stripe employee #1 and now CEO of Increase, explains how his experience scaling Stripe’s payments infrastructure inspired him to build a new fintech layer that connects directly to the Federal Reserve via its own banking core, exposing...
Jason Lee, Head of Chime Enterprise, on the Transformation of Employee Financial Health
In this episode, fintech veteran Jason Lee discusses how employee financial wellness is becoming as essential as health insurance, emphasizing that it drives productivity and business performance. He explains the evolution from DailyPay to Salt Labs and its acquisition by...
Clive Kinross, CEO of Propel Holdings, on Building a Profitable Fintech Lender with Just $4 Million
Clive Kinross, CEO and co‑founder of Propel Holdings, explains how his accounting background drove a disciplined, unit‑economics focus that enabled the fintech lender to become profitable from its early days with just $4 million in seed capital. He details Propel’s AI‑powered...