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Fintech Leaders

Miguel Armaza

Learn from today’s global leaders building the organizations that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.

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  • 23 episodes
  • fortnightly
  • Avg 48 min
  • English

Episodes 23

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  • #189
    Oct 28, 2025 · 50 min

    Valon's CEO Sold $100M Without a Sales Team. Now They're Building a Multi-Billion Mortgage Platform

    Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Andrew Wang (CEO) and Linda Du (COO) of Valon, the AI-native infrastructure platform transforming mortgage servicing in America. They have quietly built a top-10 national mortgage servicer with over $100 million in revenue and more than one million loans under management, all while achieving profitability. Valon is now selling their battle-tested platform to the largest servicers in the country. They are backed by a16z, Westcap, Jefferies, and Alleycorp, amongst others. What makes their story remarkable is how they built it: $100 million in revenue sold entirely through founder-led sales, no marketing team, and a seven-year detour of becoming a servicer themselves just to prove their software works. Their journey from burning $4 million per month to 70% operating margins offers a masterclass in operational discipline and unconventional company building. Timestamped Overview 00:00 Intro & Valon’s Background 04:14 Finding Trustworthy Growth Partners 07:55 Navigating startup licensing challenges 09:55 Overcoming Loan Licensing Hurdles 15:53 Proving Value Through Integration 18:22 Servicing philosophy shoot higher 21:23 Valenos Success Without Marketing 23:21 Building Two Businesses Two Strategies 27:01 Monetizing operations with efficiency 30:14 Debating AGI's future impact 34:52 Modern CTO Strategies Culture Infrastructure 38:19 LLMs redefining productivity models 41:39 Mentorship sparks business collaboration 44:02 Choosing New York over SF 47:55 Ali's thoughtful guidance and clarity Do you prefer a written summary? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 80,000+ readers and listeners worldwide! Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter. Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIp

  • #188
    Oct 14, 2025 · 43 min

    How Addi Reached $200M ARR with Better Margins Than Nubank, Affirm, and Klarna

    Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Santiago Suárez, Co-Founder & CEO of Addi, one of Colombia’s fastest-growing fintech and commerce platforms. With a background that spans global finance and a track record of driving innovation in Latin America, Santiago shares a candid, in-depth look at lessons from scaling Addi to over $1.3 billion in annualized GMV, serving 2.5 million customers, and achieving industry-leading gross margins above 55%. In this episode, Santiago and Miguel dive deep into Addi’s unique approach to board management—treating every board meeting as a “dirty laundry” session to maximize transparency, trust, and tangible input from world-class investors like Andreessen Horowitz, GIC, and Union Square Ventures. Santiago also unpacks the company’s relentless focus on operational excellence, from shifting to a North Star-driven management style to building a contentious yet high-performing executive team with global talent from Amazon, Capital One, and PayTM. Timestamped Overview 00:00 Intro 03:57 Monthly updates streamline meetings 09:00 Building Success Amid Challenges 13:02 Seamless commerce and finance ecosystem 14:20 Persistent Networking Pays Off 18:49 Marketplace built on consumer demand 21:43 Scaling globally through self-funding 24:00 Show Your Work The Why 27:30 Empowered Customer Service Equity 31:30 AI Agents Powering Transactions 34:10 AI Data and Deployment Nuances 38:30 Building success through early funding 41:30 CEO weekly field day

  • #187
    Oct 1, 2025 · 33 min

    Clair CEO - From Swiss Fencing Champion to Fintech Founder

    Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Nico Simko, CEO and co-founder of Clair, for an inside look at the journey, pivots, and insights behind one of the most innovative companies in earned wage access and embedded fintech. From his early days as a competitive fencer on the Swiss national team—where he learned the mental agility and resilience needed for entrepreneurship—to his high-impact stints at J.P. Morgan, Nico shares how his personal story shaped his approach to building and scaling Clair. He dives into founding Clair and the surprising early missteps around product-market fit, the company’s evolution toward deep partnerships with payroll and workforce management platforms, and why saying “no” is a crucial leadership skill for founders. Timestamped Overview 00:00 Intro 05:31 Entrepreneurship as Mission, Not Title 08:35 Building Empowered Engineering Teams 09:29 Rethinking Direct Deposit Banking 14:22 Transparency in Company Pivot 16:32 AI-Driven Efficiency in Fintech 21:05 Strategic Partnerships with Payroll Firms 24:06 Business Payment and Tip Challenges 27:15 Unique Payroll Underwriting Edge 30:07 Passion Drives Success and Growth 31:27 Startup Reality's Tough Lessons Do you prefer a written summary? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 80,000+ readers and listeners worldwide! Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter. Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4Z Miguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBc Fintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIp

Showing 21–23 of 23 episodes