Wharton FinTech Podcast
00:38:25 · Yoonkee Sull
[00:38:25] S2: Definitely. And I, you know, I was talking to one of our other portfolio company CEOs the other week, and he was talking about this exact opportunity. And I won't be able to mention who it is, but they they they have scaled personalization and messaging, you know, to millions of customers, and the only way they could have done this is through AI. And I think the other important thing is we have to remember that you can't just take an AI and say, hey, you know, you know, go do this and expect it to execute on it perfectly. It won't. Mhmm. And so I think another big part of the job is you have to fine tune it, you have to make it so that it resonates, you know, for your product, you have to make sure that the messaging actually makes sense and it's gonna scale in the way that you expect it to, and it actually takes quite a bit of investment from a product perspective in order to, you know, make it look and feel the way that you really want it to be, and so that it's consistent with your brand. But I I I think you're dead on. I think I think I think it's very much more possible today because of these because of these advancements.
00:39:40 · Wesley Aster, Yoonkee Sull, Sabrina Fathi
[00:39:40] S1: Mhmm. And you had also mentioned briefly blockchain earlier in our conversation. Digital assets and tokenization have been gaining traction amongst institutional players. What are your perspectives on on this? And, again, you you mentioned it earlier, but perhaps you could elaborate. Like, do you think this is a fundamental shift in financial infrastructure, or what do you think the role is of blockchain within FinTech and and financial institutions? [00:40:06] S2: I think it'll be more fundamental. I don't think it's a passing trend. You know, I think the question is just how long will it take to get to maturity and to become mass market, and also how will the value ultimately be created? And so but I think there's a lot of reasons to be optimistic for what it could mean for, you know, payments or tokenization or other really interesting use cases. And so I I don't I don't I don't see it as a passing trend, but, you know, there's still a lot of work to do to ensure that it becomes, you know, a more more more present fabric of of the overall of the overall system. [00:40:53] S0: To shift into our final round, which is the Blitz round, it's a rapid fire question round where we're gonna be asking you a couple different questions, basically, like short answer style, and let me know whenever you're ready for those. [00:41:08] S2: I'm ready. [00:41:09] S0: Awesome. Alright. So what is the most underrated skill a FinTech founder should have?
00:41:09 · Sabrina Fathi, Yoonkee Sull
[00:41:09] S0: Awesome. Alright. So what is the most underrated skill a FinTech founder should have? [00:41:15] S2: Obviously, product technology, commercial instincts, these are all super critical, but I think there is something to be said about understanding the balance and managing the balance between compliance and innovation. I think the best have done this exceptionally well. It can take some time to find the right balance as well, but I I I think the other really interesting thing is you do this really well. Not only do you maintain good relationships with regulators, for example, but, you know, you build credibility to push innovation from a policy perspective as well. And so I think I think that's something that comes to mind. [00:41:52] S0: And what is a FinTech company that is outside of Iconiq's portfolio that you admire? [00:41:58] S2: There are many, but I will... It's it's hard not to say Stripe. We are big admirers of of the business. [00:42:06] S0: What is one overhyped trend in FinTech right now?
00:42:06 · Sabrina Fathi, Yoonkee Sull
[00:42:06] S0: What is one overhyped trend in FinTech right now? [00:42:09] S2: I always get a little bit nervous when things get overhyped, and so this has nothing to say about whether I think it's long term really interesting. I do think... But I will pick stablecoins. I think stablecoins are interesting. I think they will have a growing role in global payments. I just wanna make that clear. But it does feel like there was, like, a sudden step function change in hype and excitement recently. I think some of it's very well, you know, very well deserved. It makes sense, but I I might I might mention that just given just given the change in hype more recently. [00:42:44] S0: And what is a book or resource that you would recommend to FinTech entrepreneurs?
00:42:44 · Sabrina Fathi, Yoonkee Sull
[00:42:44] S0: And what is a book or resource that you would recommend to FinTech entrepreneurs? [00:42:48] S2: I'll mention a book that a fantastic portfolio company that I've had the pleasure to work with. Mike Katchen, who's the CEO of Wealthsimple, had recommended a book called Invested by Charles Schwab back in 2022, which is an autobiography of Charles Schwab. I read it. It was a great reminder that in FinTech, especially when there are macro factors out of your control, and there were some dark years at Charles Schwab if you read that book. The thing you can control is to continue to obsess over your customer, over shipping great products, and you do that with great discipline and efficiency, and on the other side of it, you will be well positioned. Good times are coming back. And, you know, great companies are not defined by a bad year here and there. It's rather what they decide to do over decades. And I thought just reading that book in 2022 in particular, I thought was just a really good reminder just to think about think about those aspects. [00:43:55] S0: And finally, if you weren't in venture capital, what industry would you be in or what job would you have right now?
00:43:55 · Sabrina Fathi, Yoonkee Sull, Wesley Aster
[00:43:55] S0: And finally, if you weren't in venture capital, what industry would you be in or what job would you have right now? [00:44:01] S2: So the the sort of cop out answer would be I would probably wanna be on the operating side, and there are certainly a fair number of founders that we've been fortunate to be in business with that I would, in an instance, want to work for. So I think that would be one answer, but, you know, an answer that might be more detached from technology or venture in general. When I have time, I enjoy writing a fair bit, and so something to do with writing is what I would probably consider. [00:44:42] S0: Would you have a newsletter, would you be writing books, what kind of writing would you pursue? [00:44:47] S2: That's a good question. I think I would go the newsletter route. I think there's something, you know, I'm a little bit sad that it feels like long form content is becoming less and less appreciated over time, and so maybe maybe I be... Maybe I strike the balance there, and something on the newsletter side would be more fitting for me. [00:45:10] S1: It it doesn't surprise me that you enjoy writing because I've I've been thinking actually through our conversation that you're very articulate, and and I can see you, like, being very thoughtful before your responses. [00:45:21] S2: That's that's really nice nice of you to say. I don't I don't know if I fully agree with that. I I I appreciate the comments regardless.