This Week in Fintech

Rain is Building Embedded Financial Services for Your Global Brand

Host Justin Friedman sits down with Sophia Goldberg, Rain’s Head of Payments and founder of Ansa, the branded stored value platform acquired by Rain in 2026. They discuss how combining Ansa’s closed-loop, stored value infrastructure with Rain’s stablecoin-powered open-loop payment rails could change the way global brands build wallets, loyalty programs, and embedded payment experiences. Sophia explains why branded payments can be much more than the familiar coffee-shop wallet, from marketplaces retaining seller earnings to hotel and travel rewards that work consistently anywhere you go. She argues that stablecoins can collapse much of the complexity of launching financial products in new markets, allowing brands to create more consistent payment and loyalty experiences around the world. The conversation then turns to agentic commerce and the emergence of AI agents as a new shopper persona. Sophia and Justin unpack the questions this creates around identity, delegated authority, fraud, liability, and payment credentials, and why the payments industry may need to solve them collectively to enable the next era of e-commerce. Sophia explains why competitors are already collaborating on standards through the Agentic Payments Alliance as the industry prepares for the approaching paradigm shift. Learn More Visit Rain Connect with the Host & Guest Justin Friedman Sophia Goldberg Follow Sophia on X Follow Rain on X About Crossing the Chasm Crossing the Chasm is a special series with Rain focused on what it actually takes for stablecoins to become the default for everyday payments. Instead of rehashing benefits or highlighting pilots, the series breaks down the real work behind winning on Main Street, from upgrading payment rails and navigating regulation to embedding stablecoins into products people already use. Through conversations with builders and operators, we explore how tokenized money moves from early adoption to practical, widespread use across businesses and consumers. Subscribe for more conversations on what it actually takes to bring tokenized money into the real world.

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Circle's Arc: The Economic Operating System for the Internet

Host Justin Friedman sits down with Rachel Mayer, VP of Product at Circle and one of the masterminds behind Arc, to unveil Circle’s new layer one blockchain. Drawing on Rachel’s experience trading emerging-markets currencies on Wall Street, they start with the inefficiencies still embedded in traditional cross-border money movement. Rachel explains how Arc is designed as an “economic operating system” for on-chain finance, with stablecoins used for gas, opt-in privacy, and interoperability built into the network from the start. The conversation explores why privacy and auditability need to coexist, how a permissioned validator set including major banks and payments companies changes the model for public blockchain infrastructure, and whether instant settlement should always mean irreversible settlement. They also dig into Circle’s broader strategy for bringing foreign exchange on-chain, including the Circle Payments Network, which enables cost-effective and compliant global payments, StableFX on Arc, which aims to reduce counterparty risk for institutions by settling select stablecoin currency pairs on-chain, and Circle’s support for a growing ecosystem of non-USD stablecoins. Rachel makes the case that local currencies will remain relevant, and explains why deeper on-chain liquidity could eventually reshape cross-border payments and institutional FX. Learn More Visit: Arc.io Visit: Circle.com Connect with the Host & Guest Justin Friedman Rachel Mayer Follow Rachel on X Follow Arc on X About Crossing the Chasm Crossing the Chasm is a special series with Rain focused on what it actually takes for stablecoins to become the default for everyday payments. Instead of rehashing benefits or highlighting pilots, the series breaks down the real work behind winning on Main Street, from upgrading payment rails and navigating regulation to embedding stablecoins into products people already use. Through conversations with builders and operators, we explore how tokenized money moves from early adoption to practical, widespread use across businesses and consumers. Subscribe for more conversations on what it actually takes to bring tokenized money into the real world.

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Nico Simko on Building Clair, Embedded Earned Wage Access and the Future of Payroll

Presented by Clair. What if the best financial product is the one users never have to go looking for? In this episode of This Week in Fintech, Clair founder Nico Simko joins us to explain how a personal frustration with the US credit system turned into a profitable earned wage access business serving hundreds of thousands of businesses. Nico talks about Clair’s evolution from digital bank to embedded financial infrastructure, and why the company ultimately decided to work through payroll and workforce management platforms rather than build another standalone consumer app. The thesis is simple: people do not want another login. They want access to financial tools inside the systems they already use at work. The conversation also goes deep on the less visible work required to make earned wage access function at scale, from bank partnerships and state-by-state licensing to underwriting, repayment infrastructure and the build-versus-buy decisions facing large payroll providers. Nico explains why some of the simplest-looking fintech products can be among the hardest to build. They also discuss the human side of short-term liquidity, Clair’s ambition to help users eventually graduate beyond earned wage access, and why profitability gives fintech companies more freedom to build around real customer problems instead of chasing every new technology trend. A conversation about embedded finance, credit, regulation, payroll, product-market fit and what it takes to build financial infrastructure that actually works. Subscribe for more conversations on fintech, payments, stablecoins, and the future of financial infrastructure. Connect with the Hosts & Guest Nik Milanovic: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikm/ Nico Simko: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nsimko/ About This Week in Fintech This Week in Fintech’s Podcast is where the decision makers shaping the future of finance come to talk candidly about what’s working, what’s breaking, and what’s coming next in fintech. The show goes beyond headlines to unpack the real stories behind product decisions, regulation, and market shifts with leading founders, C-suite execs, and ecosystem veterans. This is your front-row seat to the people and ideas moving money into the future.

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Alchemy Is Building the Wallet Layer for Agentic Commerce You Can Trust

Host Justin Friedman interviews Blake Duncan, Alchemy’s Lead Agent Experience Engineer, about what happens when AI agents replace humans as the economic decision-maker. They start with fundamentals: What makes a smart wallet “smart” and how the x402 protocol will enable the pay-per-use Internet as agents increasingly outnumber human visitors. Blake argues that mainstream adoption will accelerate when wallets and applications turn on smart features and improvements in user experience, such as sponsored gas fees that enable embedded wallets to work seamlessly on-chain. Justin interrogates the potential for micropayments to reinvent the economics of the Internet, where fraction-of-a-cent transactions will fund API calls and research tasks that could never be possible using legacy methods of payment. Blake walks through Alchemy’s suite of solutions for agentic commerce: AgentCard (a payment card for agents); Agent Pay (enabling merchants to accept x402 payments); and Agent Wallet (a developer-facing embedded smart wallet). He articulates a vision for how smart wallets can enhance trust by integrating guardrails to properly scope what an agent is allowed to spend, and how that model can flex when an agent hits constraints on preset limits. They close on the potential for convergence between two parallel paths to crypto adoption: the familiar lane of stablecoin-linked cards and other familiar user experiences; and the AI-native lane, which imagines a future where humans can depend on their agents to perform tasks beyond simply shopping on the Internet, while spending money efficiently and responsibly. Learn More Alchemy: How to Build Onchain Agents: Wallets, Payments, and Real-Time Data - https://www.alchemy.com/blog/how-to-build-onchain-agents The Block: Alchemy and Privy roll out technical integration to smooth pain points of 'onchain finance' - https://www.theblock.co/news/business/2026-04-28-alchemy-and-privy-roll-out-technical-integration-to-smooth-pain-points-of-onchain-finance-399239 Connect with the Host & Guest Justin Friedman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justingfriedman/ Blake Duncan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blake-c-duncan/ Follow Blake on X: @BlakeCDuncan https://x.com/BlakeCDuncan Follow Alchemy on X: @Alchemy https://x.com/alchemy About Crossing the Chasm Crossing the Chasm is a special series with Rain focused on what it actually takes for stablecoins to become the default for everyday payments. Instead of rehashing benefits or highlighting pilots, the series breaks down the real work behind winning on Main Street, from upgrading payment rails and navigating regulation to embedding stablecoins into products people already use. Through conversations with builders and operators, we explore how tokenized money moves from early adoption to practical, widespread use across businesses and consumers. Subscribe for more conversations on what it actually takes to bring tokenized money into the real world.

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Sokin's Blueprint for Global Treasury

Host Sasha Pilch sits down with Vroon Modgill, Founder & CEO of Sokin, to explore how modern treasury infrastructure is transforming global payments. From slow settlement windows and fragmented banking relationships to stablecoins and real-time treasury management, Vroon breaks down why traditional treasury workflows are overdue for an upgrade. He shares how Sokin combines global bank accounts, stablecoin wallets, payment capabilities, and ERP integrations into a single platform that helps businesses move money more efficiently across borders. The conversation covers hybrid payment routing, the role of stablecoins as a treasury tool, the challenges of on- and off-ramping, and why licensing, banking partnerships, and infrastructure have become critical competitive advantages. Vroon also shares insights into Sokin's rapid growth and what enterprise customers are demanding as they expand globally. Whether you're interested in stablecoins, cross-border payments, embedded finance, or the future of treasury, this episode offers a look at how financial infrastructure is evolving for a more connected world. Subscribe for more conversations on fintech, payments, stablecoins, and the future of financial infrastructure. Connect with the Hosts & Guest Sasha Pilch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sasha-pilch Vroon Modgill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vroon-modgill/ About This Week in Fintech This Week in Fintech’s Podcast is where the decision makers shaping the future of finance come to talk candidly about what’s working, what’s breaking, and what’s coming next in fintech. The show goes beyond headlines to unpack the real stories behind product decisions, regulation, and market shifts with leading founders, C-suite execs, and ecosystem veterans. This is your front-row seat to the people and ideas moving money into the future.

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How Pomelo Is Rebuilding Fintech Infrastructure in LATAM

Host Sasha Pilch sits down with Gaston Irigoyen, co-founder and CEO of Pomelo, to unpack why waiting a full year to launch a card program became the startup thesis behind one of Latin America’s fastest-growing fintech infrastructure companies. Drawing from his experience scaling fintech in LATAM, Gaston shares how infrastructure bottlenecks around issuing, processing, and credit card management pushed Pomelo to rethink how modern payments infrastructure should work. The conversation explores how banks and fintechs across the region are racing to launch products faster, from co-branded cards and remittances to crypto-linked offerings, while moving away from legacy providers. Sasha and Gaston also dive into Latin America’s increasingly “multi-rail” payments ecosystem, where cash, cards, real-time payments like Pix, and stablecoins all coexist. They discuss stablecoin settlement, cross-border payments, and what early agentic commerce experiments reveal about the future of tokenized money movement and fraud prevention. Subscribe for more conversations on fintech, payments, stablecoins, and the future of financial infrastructure. Connect with the Hosts & Guest Sasha Pilch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sasha-pilch Gaston Irigoyen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gastonirigoyen/ About This Week in Fintech This Week in Fintech’s Podcast is where the decision makers shaping the future of finance come to talk candidly about what’s working, what’s breaking, and what’s coming next in fintech. The show goes beyond headlines to unpack the real stories behind product decisions, regulation, and market shifts with leading founders, C-suite execs, and ecosystem veterans. This is your front-row seat to the people and ideas moving money into the future.

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PayPal’s Stablecoin Playbook

Presented by Rain. Host Justin Friedman sits down with Larry Wade to unpack how PayPal brought PYUSD from concept to real-world payments while balancing innovation, regulation, and consumer trust. The conversation explores PayPal’s early move into crypto, why on-chain transfers became critical for interoperability, and what changes when a global payments company shifts from supporting digital assets to issuing its own stablecoin. Larry also breaks down the compliance and operational realities behind PYUSD, from regulatory oversight and reserve attestations to product-market fit and cross-border payments. The episode dives into how PayPal is thinking about merchant settlement, payouts, and reducing friction in global money movement, as well as why the company expanded beyond Ethereum to networks like Solana, Stellar, and Arbitrum as it builds toward mainstream stablecoin adoption. Subscribe for more conversations on what it actually takes to bring tokenized money into the real world. Connect with the Hosts & Guest Justin Friedman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justingfriedman/ Larry Wade: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larryswadejr/ About Crossing the Chasm Crossing the Chasm is a special series with Rain focused on what it actually takes for stablecoins to become the default for everyday payments. Instead of rehashing benefits or highlighting pilots, the series breaks down the real work behind winning on Main Street, from upgrading payment rails and navigating regulation to embedding stablecoins into products people already use. Through conversations with builders and operators, we explore how tokenized money moves from early adoption to practical, widespread use across businesses and consumers.

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The Fintech OG Series: Shanthi Shanmugam and Natasha Vernier

Powered by Spade. Money moves faster than ever, but the hardest moments in fintech still happen when something goes wrong: a confusing transaction, a disputed charge, a fraud claim, or a control that fails when regulators come calling. Hosts Julie VerHage-Greenberg and Lauren Crossett talk with Shanti Shanmugam, CEO and co-founder of Casap, and Natasha Vernier, CEO and co-founder of Cable, about what it takes to build trust in those high-stakes edge cases and how modern AI is changing the playbook for banks and fintechs. We also get candid about founder life: the highs, the gut-punch lows, and the practical ways they stay resilient, from building a support network to separating identity from the company. Finally, we debate how agentic AI could drive more niche consumer finance products, what creates real loyalty, and what advice actually helps new grads entering fintech now. Go to https://www.thisweekinfintech.com/the-fintech-ogs to subscribe! And be sure to subscribe to all of the This Week in Fintech podcasts to stay up to date on the latest conversations shaping the future of finance.

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How MoneyGram Is Modernizing Global Payments with Stablecoins

Host Justin Friedman sits dow with Luke Tuttle, Chief Product and Technology Officer at MoneyGram to talk about the realities of building global payments infrastructure at scale. The conversation explores how stablecoins are changing cross-border settlement, why trust and compliance remain critical in remittances, and what it takes to deliver instant cash pickup across more than 200 countries. Luke breaks down the operational side of modern payments, from treasury management and liquidity challenges to cloud infrastructure, AI-native risk systems, KYC, AML, and local regulation. They also discuss why mainstream stablecoin adoption may come less from consumers demanding crypto products and more from institutions quietly upgrading the rails underneath global money movement. Subscribe for more conversations on what it actually takes to bring tokenized money into the real world. Connect with the Hosts & Guest Justin Friedman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justingfriedman/ Luke Tuttle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luketuttle/ About Crossing the Chasm Crossing the Chasm is a special series with Rain focused on what it actually takes for stablecoins to become the default for everyday payments. Instead of rehashing benefits or highlighting pilots, the series breaks down the real work behind winning on Main Street, from upgrading payment rails and navigating regulation to embedding stablecoins into products people already use. Through conversations with builders and operators, we explore how tokenized money moves from early adoption to practical, widespread use across businesses and consumers.

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Coinbase Q1 '26 Earnings: A conversation with Coinbase Chief Business Officer Shan Aggarwal

This Week in Fintech’s Nik Milanovic sat down with Coinbase Chief Business Officer Shan Aggarwal to discuss Coinbase’s Q1 2026 earnings following the company’s latest earnings release. • Q1 highlights, including all-time high crypto trading volume market share • USDC growth on-platform and why stablecoin economics matter • How institutional and developer products reinforce retail liquidity • What the “everything exchange” means for tokenized markets • Early traction in retail derivatives, prediction markets, and integrated DEX trading • Why Base sees a 10x jump in stablecoin transaction volume • Agentic commerce on Base, the X402 protocol, and machine-to-machine payments • What Coinbase is prioritising through 2026

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Western Union’s Stablecoin Moment

Presented by Rain. This episode of Crossing the Chasm, host Chiara Munaretto is joined by Malcolm Clarke to discuss how Western Union is bringing stablecoins into the real world with the launch of USDPT. Malcolm explains why Western Union believes the future of digital dollars is not about making consumers learn crypto, but about using blockchain behind the scenes to make cross-border payments faster, more efficient, and easier to scale. Chiara and Malcolm dig into the infrastructure challenges that still define global remittances, from liquidity and settlement timing to the need for reliable fiat off-ramps, and how USDPT can help reduce that friction. They also explore Western Union’s stablecoin-backed card experience, flexible custody options, interoperability across chains, and why trust and practical utility will be the deciding factors in bringing stablecoins to everyday users. Subscribe for more conversations on what it actually takes to bring tokenized money into the real world. Connect with the Host Chiara Munaretto: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chiaramunaretto/ About Crossing the Chasm Crossing the Chasm is a special series with Rain focused on what it actually takes for stablecoins to become the default for everyday payments. Instead of rehashing benefits or highlighting pilots, the series breaks down the real work behind winning on Main Street, from upgrading payment rails and navigating regulation to embedding stablecoins into products people already use. Through conversations with builders and operators, we explore how tokenized money moves from early adoption to practical, widespread use across businesses and consumers.

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Stablecoins Are Going to Main Street

Presented by Rain. In this special series Crossing the Chasm, we explore when stablecoins stop being “crypto” and start functioning like real money, becoming familiar, fast, and cost-efficient. Justin Friedman is joined by Farooq Malik, founder and CEO of Rain, joins us to break down what true adoption looks like across payments, on-chain settlement, and card programs that integrate seamlessly into existing financial systems. Using a simple lens, technology wins when it improves infrastructure without changing user behavior, we trace the evolution from early experimentation to real-world adoption. Farooq shares how regulatory clarity, institutional demand, and interoperability are moving stablecoins beyond their early phase into mainstream use by banks, payment providers, and merchants. We also dig into what is holding adoption back, from internal inertia to underestimating urgency, and highlight a key insight: many businesses are already interacting with stablecoins without realizing it. Finally, we examine the global access challenge and how compliant stablecoin infrastructure could expand financial inclusion across borders. Subscribe for more conversations on what it actually takes to bring tokenized money into the real world. Connect with the Hosts & Guest Justin Friedman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justingfriedman/ Farooq Malik: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fhmalik/ About Crossing the Chasm Crossing the Chasm is a special series with Rain focused on what it actually takes for stablecoins to become the default for everyday payments. Instead of rehashing benefits or highlighting pilots, the series breaks down the real work behind winning on Main Street, from upgrading payment rails and navigating regulation to embedding stablecoins into products people already use. Through conversations with builders and operators, we explore how tokenized money moves from early adoption to practical, widespread use across businesses and consumers.

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BONUS: Reintroducing The Fintech OGs

Powered by Spade. Julie VerHage-Greenberg is back for Season 4 of The Fintech OGs, now joined by co-host Lauren Crossett, to sit down with the pioneers who built and transformed fintech. From the early days of digital finance to the innovations redefining money today, these are the stories behind the people who changed the industry. In episode one we sit down with Angela Hung and Dan Egan, two builders and researchers whose careers span policy research, Robinhood, Earnin, and Betterment. Together, they have helped shape how modern wealth and financial tools are designed and experienced. Go to https://www.thisweekinfintech.com/the-fintech-ogs to subscribe! And be sure to subscribe to all of the This Week in Fintech podcasts to stay up to date on the latest conversations shaping the future of finance.

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Credit Beyond The Score with Andrew Endicott

Credit scores feel like destiny, but they’re built on a thin record of borrowing and repayment while ignoring income, cash on hand, and real assets. That blind spot blocks credit for immigrants, younger consumers, gig workers, and anyone whose financial life doesn’t fit the classic bureau file. In this episode, Nik sits down with Andrew Endicott, co-founder of Pedal and now co-founder and GP at Gilgamesh Ventures, to talk about how cash flow underwriting and open banking data change the game, and what it takes to build fintech that lasts. Andrew walks through his path from law and investment banking into founding a credit card company, including the post-financial crisis reality where regulation and risk constraints pushed banks to pull back. We unpack why fintech emerged to fill those gaps, what founders often underestimate about finance, and why areas like fraud, compliance, and risk management aren’t “later” problems. We also get into Andrew’s upcoming book, Finance Technology: Insights for Building an Enduring Fintech Company, and the framework he uses to map the ecosystem into four buckets: banking, payments, insurance, and infrastructure. Learn more about the book: https://www.amazon.com/Finance-Technology-Insights-Building-Enduring/dp/1954892225 Subscribe for more founder-grade fintech conversations. Connect with the Hosts & Guest Nik Milanović: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikm Andrew Endicott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewendicott About This Week in Fintech This Week in Fintech’s Podcast is where the decision makers shaping the future of finance come to talk candidly about what’s working, what’s breaking, and what’s coming next in fintech. Hosted by Nik Milanović, founder of This Week in Fintech and General Partner at The Fintech Fund, the show goes beyond headlines to unpack the real stories behind product decisions, regulation, and market shifts with leading founders, C-suite execs, and ecosystem veterans. This is your front-row seat to the people and ideas moving money into the future.

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Okay, So You've Got a Stablecoin… Bhau Kotecha on What Happens After You Go On-Chain

This week, Stablecon’s Justin Friedman was joined by Bhau Kotecha, co-founder and CEO of Paxos Labs, for a discussion on the transformative potential of stablecoins and tokenization. Bhau and Justin examine how these technologies are redefining the way we think about financial tools, usability, interoperability, privacy, and the economics of stored value. Finally, Bhau offers predictions on whether stablecoin liquidity will consolidate into U.S. dollar-denominated assets or grow organically across the world’s currencies.

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Coinbase Q4 '25 Earnings: A conversation with Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas

This Week in Fintech's Nik Milanovic sat down on February 12th, 2026 to talk with Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas about 2025 year-end earnings. Some topics they covered: Market Expansion: Coinbase doubled trading volume and market share in 2025, diversifying beyond crypto with Deribit acquisition. Revenue Resilience: Despite market softness in Q4, Coinbase showed strength through diversified revenue, supported by retail investors’ “buy the dip” behavior. On-Chain Vision: Coinbase aims to lead the shift to on-chain financial services, blending traditional and crypto assets for a tokenized future. Institutional Growth: Thousands of institutional clients are driving increased trading and demand for cross-margining products, with custody for 80% of ETF balances. Stablecoin Strategy: USDC holdings grew to $18 billion, enhancing trading and payment services while driving growth in Coinbase One membership. Future Focus: Heavy investment in derivatives as key growth area, emphasizing diversification to meet evolving customer needs and market trends.

Revolutionizing Payroll: The Earnin Story with Ram Palanappian

In this episode, Nik Milanovic interviews Ram Palanappian, the CEO and Founder of Earnin, a fintech company that is revolutionizing how employees access their wages. Ram shares the origin story of Earnin, which began when he realized that many employees were struggling with cash flow issues, leading to late fees and overdraft charges. He discusses how he initially provided employees with early access to their earned wages, which evolved into a full-fledged product that allows users to access their pay in real-time, thereby reducing financial stress and improving overall financial health. Ram emphasizes the importance of shifting payroll systems from being employer-centric to employee-centric, allowing workers more control over their earnings. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Setup 00:39 Multitasking in Conversations 00:44 Introduction to FinTech Trends 00:44 The Future of Digital Banking 00:47 Introduction to Earnin and Its Mission 04:10 Revolutionizing Payroll: Employee-Centric Solutions 10:36 Adoption Across Industries: Who Benefits Most? 11:50 The Small Business Perspective: Benefits of Earned Wage Access 12:59 How Earnin Works: A User's Journey 14:03 Monetization Strategies: How Earnin Generates Revenue 17:06 Consumer Risks and Mitigation Strategies 20:18 Ensuring Data Accuracy: The Source of Truth 21:54 Employer Customization: Tailoring Earnin to Specific Needs 22:46 Insights from Data: Understanding Consumer Financial Health 23:58 Collaborations and Studies: Researching Labor Dynamics 25:52 Looking Ahead: The Future of Earnin and Payroll 26:36 Cross-Border Challenges in Business Growth 29:57 Future Product Development and Innovations 31:48 Inspiration from Other Industries 34:49 Leveraging AI for Financial Products 37:13 The Role of Stablecoins in Transactions 39:28 Wage Growth vs. Inflation Dynamics 42:32 The Future of Payroll: Continuous Pay 43:44 Team Growth and Hiring Opportunities

Agentic Commerce is here w/ Michelle Gill, PayPal

An agentic future of commerce is coming faster than merchants think—and PayPal wants to make sure small businesses don’t get left behind. In this live Money20/20 2025 episode of This Week in Fintech, hosts Nik Milanović and Jillian Williams sit down with PayPal’s Michelle Gill, EVP and General Manager of Small Business Financial Services, for a deep dive into how AI agents will transform shopping, loyalty, and merchant discovery. They talk about the next phase shift in commerce: a world where over 40% of shopping journeys may start in chat surfaces, and agents—not humans—do the heavy lifting on search, comparison, and even checkout. Michelle explains why this upends traditional ideas about websites, SEO, and brand, and why “discoverability” and rich product descriptions become the new battleground for merchants of all sizes. The trio dig into big questions shaping this new landscape: - How will small businesses compete when shopping begins in agent interfaces instead of on their storefronts? - What new infrastructure and open protocols are needed so merchants can “integrate once and propagate everywhere” across AI surfaces? - Where does loyalty live when consumers no longer visit your website—but still expect rewards, points, and personalized offers to “just work” in their wallet? - How far are consumers willing to let agents spend on their behalf, and what new trust markers will replace today’s checkout experiences? Michelle also offers a small-business lens on AI: where it can save time first (customer service, email, hiring), where it could power new B2B flows like inventory and reordering, and why AI might both compress margins and lower barriers to becoming a proprietor. She argues that the real opportunity is in turning wasted browsing time into higher-value, more delightful discovery and post-purchase experiences. Stay to the end for a rapid-fire round on Michelle’s recent favorite book, her current AI toolkit, and what she thinks the payments and e-commerce landscape could look like a decade from now. If you care about the future of agentic commerce, small business resilience, or how PayPal is positioning itself for the next era of the internet, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.

How Nubank Rewrote Brazil’s Banking Rules with Cristina Junqueira

We sit down with Nubank co-founder Cristina Junqueira for a candid look at how frustration with fee-first banking led to a product people loved, and how that vision scaled across Brazil. We explore hard-won lessons on leadership, communication, regulation, and why AI plus open finance will reshape money. • leaving an incumbent bank to build customer-first products • forming the founding team and starting with nothing • operating through credit cycles, fraud pressure and regulation • leadership growth, emotional intelligence and storytelling • selling the vision internally and externally • customer impact from fair credit and savings features • Brazil’s policy tailwinds with PIX and open finance • AI as a financial co-pilot and US expansion plans

Modern Treasury Unlocking Payment Innovation with Stablecoins

In this conversation, Nik Milanović discusses the evolving landscape of stablecoins and digital payments with Dan Mottice and Matt Marcus from Modern Treasury. They delve into the recent acquisition of Beam by Modern Treasury, the implications for the payments industry, and the potential of stablecoins to enhance financial operations. The discussion highlights the importance of regulatory clarity, the future of payment systems in the U.S., and the innovative capabilities that stablecoins can bring to money movement.