The Fintech OG Series: Michelle Tran and Sasha Pilch

Hosts Julie VerHage-Greenberg and Lauren Crossett sit down with Michelle Tran and Sasha Pilch, co-founders of NYC FinTech Women, to unpack how a small New York meetup grew into a national fintech community with 16,000 members and chapters across major cities.

From career transitions out of institutions like BlackRock and global banks to founder-led sales, venture capital decision-making, and the realities women founders face in fundraising, the conversation explores what it really takes to build influence and longevity in fintech. They also dive into AI in financial services, compliance automation, stablecoins, and how fintech infrastructure is evolving behind the scenes.

Subscribe for more conversations with operators building the future of financial services.

This episode is sponsored by Granola. Try it free for 3 months at granola.ai/thisweekinfintech using code THISWEEKINFINTECH.

Connect with the Hosts & Guest

Julie VerHage-Greenberg: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-verhage-greenberg-1748801b

Lauren Crossett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-crossett-b3752126

Sasha Pilch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sasha-pilch/

Michelle Tran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellektran/

About The Fintech OGs

Former Bloomberg Fintech reporter Julie VerHage-Greenberg leads panels of the people who’ve taken Fintech from a hashtag to an industry through discussions on where we see the industry moving, what it takes to stay on top of the enormous changes that are still gripping the financial services industry,  and what they have learned as the best leaders in the field.  

Listen for the best up-to-date know-how from leaders in banking, payments, venture capital, fintech entrepreneurs, and all of those that have recreated financial services, and are still at it.

Transcript

Intro

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 1:25

Hey everyone. Even in 2026, when FinTechs can spin up cards and minutes and move money across borders in real time, it's still hard to decipher transactions. That's why financial institutions turn to Spade. Spade is the data and AI platform that turns messy transaction strings into structured, verified records in real time. To learn more, head to spade.com. That's spa-d-e.com. Well, hey guys, thank you so much for joining us for another episode of the FinTech OGs, yet another all-female episode. I think this will be our third one for this season, if I remember correctly. And our final two episodes will have two men on them instead, but also great guests, and I'm super excited for it. Um, but thank you so much for joining us. We have Michelle Tran and Sasha Pilch. If you listen to Twiff and read our content, you have definitely seen Sasha. She does our This Month in FinTech podcast where she gets some amazing guests, um, executives at different fintech companies, investors, etc. Um, and you guys, you started New York City FinTech Women together, right? Is that how you met or how did you guys meet? And give me a little bit more about your background and how that came about too.

Michelle Tran 2:35

Yeah, we um, oh gosh, I don't even know where the year, Sasha. Um nine years.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 2:42

I was gonna say 2017, yeah, yeah. And I remember I did it with you guys in during COVID for FinTech today. I was one of the featured people. So I was like full circle.

Michelle Tran 2:51

Full circle. No, it's definitely come a long way since we met. Um, so Sasha and I met at the very, very first NYC FinTech woman. So, like dialing it back, I was working at BlackRock. I was leading our fintech strategy, but this was like early when robo advisors were still like the hot new thing, and they were getting-cause you were into like ETFs and stuff when you were at BlackRock. And ETF in the iShare's business. And this is when all the robo advisors were using um iShare's ETFs. And so we're like, ooh, we need to get into this business. Um, but I was going to a ton of fintech conferences, a ton of fintech meetups, and you know the story,

How NYC FinTech Women Began

Michelle Tran 3:26

right? It's like full of guys, like there was no one to find. Um, so literally just paid $80 on meetup.com. I don't even know if meetup.com exists anymore, um, but paid $80 on meetup.com. Um, the name Woman in FinTech wasn't available, so I was like, I'll just put NYC in front of it. So that's how it started was NYC FinTech Women, and then um found a bar that would host us, and it started raining in New York, and I was like, oh great, no one's coming. Um, but then magically Sasha walked in the door. Um, and it was uh an amazing union from the very start. But amazing. Wait, was Sasha the only one that came then? We had we had about 16 women, so one out of 16. Um, but it was it was pretty cool.

Sasha Pilch 4:06

Yeah. And I remember meeting Larissa there and like a lot of people that ended up being the committee and like doing a lot of work for the organization and building it to what it is today. And something I don't think I've even told you, Michelle, but when you lived in Hong Kong, did you go to any of these women meetups as well?

Michelle Tran 4:28

No, I never did. I mean, it was Hong Kong's such a different beast from New York. Um, but I never went to any of the it was like never in my purview until I got to New York and was going to all these like fintech because I think being in asset management, you just you just know that it's just very male-heavy, male-dominated. Like in Hong Kong, you're wearing three-piece suits in 90-degree humidity. Yeah.

Sasha Pilch 4:50

Yeah. The reason I bring that up is uh my dad used to live in Hong Kong, and so I was like desperate to like move overseas and expand my career. And when I went there, I went to a women's networking event, and there's a woman, Fran, that ran that, and she knows you as well. I just I've never got around to telling you that.

Michelle Tran 5:09

I know Fran. Yeah, we work together.

Sasha Pilch 5:12

Yeah, she's brilliant. Yeah, very helpful. Yeah, she's great. Awesome.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 5:17

I love that. Well, outside of uh New York City FinTech Women and Sasha, outside of doing This Week in FinTech's podcast, tell me a little bit more about your guys' backgrounds, how you got into fintech, um, and why you're still here today. What's kept you?

Michelle Tran 5:30

Yeah, so I I've been in financial services my entire career. So I started at BlackRock for 10 years. I've been at a number of different Welltech and Financial Services FinTechs. And, you know, how I got into FinTech very specifically. Well, BlackRock will and Larry Fink will say that they had the original fintech with the Aladdin platform way back when before it was called FinTech. And essentially that's true, right? They were providing um a way for data to be collected and all financial transactions, services, data. Um, but you know, I was really fortunate to have a global career with BlackRock, with the icehares business, going from San Francisco to Hong Kong, which took me to New York and which was the fintech start. Um, I remember my boss pulled me aside in Hong Kong and she was like, Look, something's happening in the US. And do you want to go back? I was like, no, not really. I love Hong Kong. I get to go to Vietnam in an hour, I get to go to Tokyo for the weekend, and it's I was there for two years. Um, and it was amazing. Like we'd wake up on a Thursday and be like, should we go to Ho Chi Minh or should we go to Tokyo? I don't know. Um, but it was something told me that this was a really cool start. It was something new and innovative. Um, and so we moved to New York, and that was when we I was more formally into the fintech space. And so we created a group that was 2014, end of 2014, 2015. Um so that was when that really started. That's when I came back. Um, and then have just been part of a number of awesome fintech firms, like Apex Clearing, which you know helped a lot of the robo advisors and digital brokers, um, and was at Vestball, which raised, you know, Series E and taking over their time and space. And now what I'm doing um with my love of startups and fintechs is you know very focused on helping a lot of firms go to market, figuring out what is their commercial strategy and getting them off. You know, I love building. I love working with builders at the end of the day, but really helping them figure out um how to get into market and then also for firms to figure out how to scale, right? A lot of firms have a struggle with that. They think they can take over the world, but it's a lot, it's a lot of a lot of a process and build out. So it's it's been amazing and fortunate that I get to go back to New York on a regular basis. I'm not there anymore, um left during COVID as you know, people shifted around, but I'm in the Bay Area, which is also amazing since we have a lot of women in fintech um activity out here too.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 7:54

Thank you for waking up so early to do this podcast, then I appreciate it. I was wondering that. I was like, okay, it says she lives in the Bay Area, but is she visiting New York or does she like go back and forth between the two places?

Michelle Tran 8:06

Um this week.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 8:08

Yeah, I just got back from New York on Wednesday. So are you still at least slightly on New York time zone then, or no?

Michelle Tran 8:15

You know what? I never know anymore what time zone I'm on. I just keep going. But if you guys did wake me up, a kid would have woken me up. So, you know, someone would have woke up.

Sasha Pilch 8:23

Michelle Michelle is superwoman. She has does all of this and has four kids. So now she sleeps.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 8:30

Get two more, and you can be the next Emmeline Shaw and Matt Harris. You're good. She's they've got a bit like a I told my husband, let's do it. But no, that's that shop has closed. Well, I think Matt Harris, part of the reason they have so many kids, is because I believe they did IVF at some point and with a surrogate, and both his wife and the surrogate got pregnant within like four weeks of each other. It's wild.

Sasha Pilch 8:54

That's happening a lot lately.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 8:56

Crazy, crazy. Sasha, give us more about uh your background as well. What and how did you hear about this event where you're like, you know what, yeah, I'm gonna go to this little happy hour and see what's going on with FinTech women.

Sasha Pilch 9:07

Yeah, so I spent the first 10 years of my career working for big banks, like similar to Michelle. Um I'm Australian, so I worked at CBA and in West Park and lived in London, worked at City and Royal Bank of Scotland. And at the end of a decade of that, I was so ready to not work for a 50,000 plus organization and to work for a fast-moving startup. I was hearing all about fintech and wanted to jump on that wave, but there was like nothing in Australia. Australia's like not really broken. We have like four banks, and so there like wasn't a need, like there is a need in the US. Um and I was on a holiday, a vacation, um, and I was still working at the bank in Australia, and I thought I'm I was in Cuba like so close to New York. So I was like, I may as well stop in New York for a few days. And then I asked my boss in Australia, she's like, yeah, no worries. I got to New York, loved it, realized how huge the fintech opportunity was, and then called my boss back the next day and quit.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 10:08

I thought at first you were gonna say you were literally in New York for four days, heard about this event, met Michelle, and like that's how I asked.

Sasha Pilch 10:15

No, she met me. Yes, similar, honest, honestly. Like I knew I needed to get a job really quickly. I had like 60 days as a tourist, and um I needed someone to sponsor me. And so I went to every networking event that I possibly could, and that's how I met someone that um introduced me to Lauren who would later take a chance on me and hire me at Quovo when she was leading sales.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 10:42

I didn't even know this. Yeah, I love that.

Sasha Pilch 10:44

I love that. Yeah, she basically um has created my life.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 10:48

Lauren is the reason that you're in fintech.

Lauren Crossett 10:51

Amazing. Sasha's the reason she's in fintech. I was lucky enough to get to work with her a gazillion times and still.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 10:57

Well, I guess Lauren's the reason you discovered fintech.

Sasha Pilch 11:00

So yeah, like I was I was very much wanting to get a role in fintech, and I liked Quovo because it was a platform that serviced so many other fintechs. So I was like, this is the best job I can get because their API connects to Bank of America and Wells Fargo and Chase, and then every fintech that needs connectivity to a bank, which is pretty much all of them, would use Quovo. So I was like, this is my dream job. And fortunately, Lauren took a chance on me. I had zero sales experience, never closed a deal in my life, and she said yes, and then I was like, okay, crap, I need to build a network really quickly. And I want

Two Career Paths Into Fintech

Sasha Pilch 11:41

to do that with something that doesn't feel like work because I'm already doing this grinding job working under Lauren and Laurel Punham, who are like very I love Laurel. He's hilarious. He's hilarious, and he's also a very strong leader that pushes you to be your best self, as does Lauren. Um, so I was like, okay, I need to find a way to build a network that is something to do with what I'm passionate about, because then it won't feel like work on top of these 12-hour days that I'm doing already. And when I saw Michelle's meetup, I was like, perfect. Like I'd been to the one in Hong Kong, it was so helpful. I'd worked for big banks for 10 years and saw my male counterparts go on a golf day and get a connection that led to a promotion. So I was like, I want to work with Michelle to build out this FinTech Women Network in New York. And after that first event, I was like, can I work with you? And she said yes, luckily. And it's really grown from there. So now we have 16,000 members across the US, chapters in San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Miami. Um, we've hosted over 200 events in New York. We did one last night.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 12:50

We should do what we should get a chapter in Austin.

Sasha Pilch 12:52

We need a chapter in Austin. We need a chapter in Austin, especially with women like Cameron Peak and at Rest Eve, and like so many great women in Austin.

Michelle Tran 13:00

I will say, I remember when Sasha came up, she's like, Can I help you? And I was like, with what? I don't know what I'm doing. It all started so organically. And I think that that just spoke and it it built up so fast too, because of the need in the market that people really needed to find a community. Um, and so it was just it was such a great time when we we started off and got to work with so many amazing companies too that wanted to help us out.

Sasha Pilch 13:25

And the thing that was like the like most surprising was how many male CEOs wanted to ask to host an event in their office. And we've always from the beginning made this a group that's completely inclusive. We want male allies to be members because Michelle and I truly believe that that's how we're gonna make change and we don't want to be just a bunch of women complaining in the corner because that's not helping anyone.

Lauren Crossett 13:53

It's been such a like absolute pleasure and joy to watch you two, like my friends, build this amazing um community. And you've both been so articulate and thoughtful about trying to really create opportunity for women, community for women. And I would love to hear how you think things have changed um in financial services over these nine years. And yeah, what's where do you think we are now?

Michelle Tran 14:23

Well, I think um so much has changed. And I think one, fintech is when we started, fintech was a nascent term. Um, and it's no longer a nascent term, right? Like fintech really is everything, and I think that's been a major shift in how people view fintech. Um, and it was always there, it just you know had a name and people need to figure out how to use it. Um, and where we are today is that there's been so much advancement, right? Like even in the past year with how everything is deployed using AI. Um, and there's just been a lot of change too in terms of uh support for women in fintech in general. It's been really cool to see, like as Sasha said, all these companies, those are you know founded by male CEOs and others who want to support women in fintech. And it's not just startups, it's you know, the AWSs of the world, it's NASDAQ, it's NICE, it's um, you know, the uh Bank of America. So it's all these major corporations who see the opportunity to bring women in the fold in a more intentional way. Um, I think it's even more important now, right, in the in our current environment where sometimes DEI or women are are not as um is not as out there or not as accepted, perhaps, um, that we put even more effort in really helping to amplify and empower women. Like, so I use the word a lot, amplification. Um, and to me, that is that's part, well, that's like a word, a verb in our mission statement. So, our mission statement um formally is to empower, connect, and promote women in fintech. And so that promotion, that amplification, getting the name out there, shouting the you know, everyone's name out there for everyone to hear is such an important part of how um, you know, how we can help impact this industry. And I think that's changed a lot over time too, is um, you know, how people are are talking about women in fintech. And it's even more important now that women talk more about women in fintech because given everything that's happening with AI. Um, so that's that's you know how I think it's been changing.

Lauren Crossett 16:20

Yeah. I was just gonna say, Sasha, like you took a detour, you know, not a detour necessarily, but like you took a moment and and went into VC because you were so committed to like, you know, yeah, also just like funding female founders. Um I I want your perspective, but also with that lens too, of like it does seem like there's maybe more of us in leadership positions and founder roles.

Sasha Pilch 16:45

Yeah, absolutely. I think that when Michelle and I were forming this group and it was starting to get traction, we would often get asked to speak at conferences that were usually like all men on the panel. So like we'd be a good person to walk in, like and do the MC or whatever. And I did this opening remarks at this fintech retreat in San Francisco that Alex Pellin um put on. And I'd written like what I wanted to say, and he came back to me. He was like, Can you say something more? Like, can you actually say something that is like maybe gonna make a change? And so I was like, okay. And so I really thought about it. And because we had so many members for fintech women, people were always saying to me, like, why is it that we don't have that many women that are venture-backed in fintech? Like, why is the number only 2%? And then it unfortunately went down to 1% a year after that. And there are tot like there are tons of reasons why. Like women have babies that takes us out of the workforce for a significant amount of time. Gender roles, 2,000 years of history, like all the billion-dollar CEOs we've seen are men, and that creates unconscious bias. So those are things that we can't change. But one thing that we have control over is how many women are investing in companies, how many female VCs we have that have authority at the investment committee table, then follows on to more female founders getting venture funding and more women taking board

How Support For Women Evolved

Sasha Pilch 18:26

seats on these companies. And then that trickles down into senior leaders being hired at these companies. And that was the message that I gave at that retreat. And fortunately, it was well received, and FinCapital took a chance on me and hired me as a principal on the investment team, which I'm so grateful for and was incredible experience. And even though that's a B2B FinTech firm investing in anyone that's a great founder that's going to deliver a great return for the LPs, I had a personal mandate to invest in as many women as I could. And during those two years, I did seven deals and had five female co-founders across them. So even though that's like not that many, it still kind of moves the needle a little bit, unfortunately, because the number is so low.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 19:16

Um, so that I actually want to I want to ask you too on that front. I feel like part of it is also imposter syndrome a little bit. Like the way I hear men talk about how good they are at what they do and their job and everything. Like, whereas for me, like my husband will come home and talk about how he's crushing at work, etc. And then I'll be like saying things like, I have no idea why people even pay me to do what I do. Like, I didn't like, am I really qualified to do this? And then I'll talk to a man, tell them what I charge, and you should charge more. Like, what are you doing? And I'm like, this is just like I feel and I'd feel I'm very much not alone as a female doing that. Did you notice that at all in pitches as well?

Sasha Pilch 19:53

Yeah, totally. Like I would see these brilliant women get in front of investment committee and then just freeze up or over-explain was like another common thing that would happen. So much so that I did an event um with Barclays that was focused on how to get VC conviction as a female founder because I felt that it was such a topic that needed to be addressed. And within that, we talked a lot about how like a man pitching will just say, This is the stat or this is what my idea is, and then stop. But then women kind of feel like they have to like keep going to overexplain, which then like puts less confidence in them as a CEO. So like that's definitely one learning that I took away. Um, another key learning was a lot of women were coming to me with a direct consumer idea. And that is great, but you also need to give the VCs what they're looking for if you want to be venture-backed. And so that was like another key part of the message, which was like, look at B2B

VC Funding Gap And Pitching Lessons

Sasha Pilch 21:01

fintech. Like, even if you're drawn to a direct consumer idea, if you can have like a B2B go-to-market strategy, then that's what VCs want to see because the CAC is lower, the scalability is higher, and you're more likely to get investors.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 21:19

That makes sense. Yeah. So talk me through, we've talked um a lot about your guys' past, and there's obviously been, you know, you guys have done very well, gotten leadership positions at a number of companies, um, etc. Talk to me through some career highs and lows. Um, and you know, how you got through those lows, how you used them to help fuel your growth and continue to stay in the space and continue to expand on your career.

Michelle Tran 21:47

Do you want to go first, Michelle? Sure. Um, let's see, career low. You know, we're all a few of us are in, you know, go to market positions where we've been head of sales, head of enterprise. Um, and those are always really hard roles. Um, the average tenure for a startup CRO is 14 months. Because as you think about, you know, someone that goes in who leads sales at a startup, either they're transitioning from founder-led sales. So it's really hard for the founder to let go of you know their baby and that mechanism. Um and, you know, I would have to say, you know, one of my lows that I had was really struggling through some organizations where it was, you know, a founder-led transition. And getting that transition right is always difficult, right? Making sure that you're working with a lean team, there's a lot of expectation, right? You have some big goals to hit because you're VC back, you need to hit, you know, multi-million dollar goal, but there's no infrastructure. And you know, so those are, I think, one of my um, it's just a harder time, just really figuring out, right? Like, how do you make that work? Um, and I'll say, you know, Lauren's like the queen of of making that work. And I I learned from her.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 22:58

I was gonna say, Lauren, I need your thoughts here too.

Lauren Crossett 23:03

15 months, so on borrowed time.

Michelle Tran 23:07

Um, but there's been like so many career highs, too, from winning multi-million dollar deals and helping and really helping people. So, for for you know, a lot of companies I look at, I look at to say, okay, what are they doing at the end of the day? Like, are they are they trying to help people? And and that's kind of like what I've been looking at in financial services. So, like BlackRock at the end of the day, they were really helping, you know, firemen save for retirement, right? Um, when I was at Veswell, we're really helping small businesses create retirement and steady financial features for employees who don't typically have that opportunity. And so for me, that that was a huge high, was one, you know, helping all these individuals really help create more financial stability through a lot of these awesome deals, which you know are always fun to win. Um, but I would also say like another career high is just helping all the like working with such amazing people in my career. And then when we talk about networks and why and we see and why see FinTech Women, you know, continues to help the community, it's because we're so adamant about making sure people build really strong networks and networks that matter, right? So it's not just meeting, you know, everyone that you can meet, but really finding the people that that can help you, finding the people that you connect with, but also staying in touch with them, right? Like you can meet a thousand people, but it's really building these deep relationships. And so that's been a really career high is like how do you build these relationships both internally and then externally, or and then bridging it all together, which I always do, um, which has been a lot of fun.

Sasha Pilch 24:38

Um, I think like a low for me was you know, Quovo was such a fun success, and then getting acquired by Plaid was exciting, and working at Plaid was cool, like it was the it company or kind of still is, um, in a way. Um, and like, you know, they took us to Mexico on a retreat, and there was like true San Francisco, like we got breakfast, lunch, and dinner, like Google-esque type vibes. Um, but after like some of those shiny things wore off a little bit, I was feeling like I wasn't making an impact like I had when I was early at Quovo. And I really missed that like early stage. And so um, even though that was low, it led to a high, which was getting the role at Ramp as the first sales hire and 13th employee. And it was awesome to be part of that early team because Eric's vision was like, I want to be the top fintech company in New York, like this dripe equivalent. And he really delivered on that mission because Ramp is just on fire today, and so happy that it got to be part of that. From a fintech women perspective, it was definitely a high to host our inspiring fintech female awards at IEX and ring the bell there. And Lauren was one of our winners, and Julie too. Um, and then NASDAQ and New York Stock Exchange, seeing the women's photos up where the public companies usually are is just like such a moment. And I'm so happy that these women have uh means to celebrate and promote their professional profile. So that's a real highlight.

Michelle Tran 26:24

Quick example of that. So I was talking to Anna Mahoney with Addition Wealth, and she won Inspiring FinTech Females, I forget which year, but she was one of the faces on top of all the trading stations at the New York Stock Exchange. And I know you guys have been there, but when you walk in, one, it's decorated for the holidays, so there's like goosebumps already, and you're at the most historic institution in New York City, and your face is on top of all the trading stations splashed across the New York Stock Exchange. It is such a moment for these um for these honorees, these recipients of the NYC fintech inspiring ah, I always mess up NYC FinTech women, inspiring fintech females. Um it's a tall, I know, but that's why we call it IFF. Um, but she was that year that she won, she was raising her series A. And she was like, because I was an IFF recipient, I was able to push through Series A. Fast forward a few years later, she's UBS's entrepreneur of the year. And like I just love that story so much because it really speaks to like how important it is that we continue to scream these amazing leaders' names and what they're doing from the rooftop and in any way that we can, because that really is what propels it back to like Sasha's point of how do we get more female founders um funded is that we just we need to know about them and then we also need people to invest in them.

Lauren Crossett 27:49

You both are so incredible and such great community builders. I would love to hear, you know, a tip from each of you on how to really do that. Like Sasha has this encyclopedic memory that I will never gain access to. Um and Michelle, you you do such a good job of telling people like, oh, do these specific things, you know, like ask for something. But like tell me, tell us your one tip if it was just boiled down to one thing that you would do to build community.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 28:20

Who needs HubSpot when you have Sausage Pilts?

Lauren Crossett 28:24

For real.

Sasha Pilch 28:25

Um, I do I do use LinkedIn as my CRM. Um but the way that I do that is like every time I meet someone, when I add them, I'll write like great meeting you at the Stripe event last night or whatever it is. And then that jogs my memory to like as to how I know them. Um but I think like that kind of stems from something Michelle taught me. Um so sorry if this is your um one, Michelle, that I'm taking it, but um, something that she started doing at our events was she would say during the closing remarks, it's our goal for you all to meet at least five new people. And you can blame it

Career Highs Lows And Network Building

Sasha Pilch 29:06

on me or Sasha. And so we would hear people going up to people they didn't know and saying, Oh, you're my second person. Michelle said I need to meet five, so is it okay if I talk to you? And it was like just such a great way of fostering networking.

Michelle Tran 29:21

I mean, it it takes all the pressure off, right? Like, even though if you might be like the most outgoing person, it's exhausting and sometimes scary to meet new people. And so, and so to take the pressure off to be like, look, someone else told me to do it. So I have to do it, and I'm gonna blame them. So, and it's great. Um I think that that's one. I think it's you know, the community piece is all based on continuing to build the relationship over and over again. So it's not just a one-time deal, right? You shake one handshake, you you meet them. Um, it's how do you continue to help each other? And I think one of the things I absolutely love about NYC FinTech Women is that we're all in it for each other. It's it's never um, it's never like we're we're trying to, you know, hurt get someone's back or whatever. We're all trying to be there to help someone either make a connection for a career purpose, to make a connection for a deal purpose. Um, you know, I was just talking to a number of women in San Francisco. They're like, you know, we need to go play golf. I was like, well, why do we need to play golf? They're like, because all the guys do. And so we need to help each other learn how to play golf so we can go spend five hours on the golf course with everyone else. I was like, you know, you're so right. We do need to do that. And I don't I don't play any golf, just you know, like I go to the driving range at best because I have cheap beers. But, you know, it is it's important to like figure out how do we help each other in that. And I mean, that's one of the reasons why like Silicon Valley Bank, when we were talking to them a couple years ago, like they do a lot of golf events now with female founders. And I remember at um we're at a retreat with them, and one of the female founders who's a CEO, she was having her company retreat, and they're like, Oh, yeah, they're all playing golf tomorrow. And we're like, Well, what are you doing? And she's like, Oh, I'm just gonna stay in the hotel and work. We're like, No, even if you don't play, go sit in the cart with them because guaranteed they're gonna talk about work at some point in the day. And you want to be part of that conversation. And so it's continuing to like help each other figure out and navigate essentially life and career, um, and then keep on building those relationships over time. And I would say, like, coming from New York to San Francisco too, you know, I've had to do that a couple of times, and it's just people come out of the woodwork constantly, and they're like, oh my gosh, like this is an amazing community, and we want to help each other.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 31:30

Uh, one question we I don't think Lauren and I have asked this one in the last couple of episodes, but it's one of my favorite ones. And feel free to take a moment to think on this too. Um, what's something? So you both have been in FinTech for around a decade. What's something that you thought would have been accomplished by 2026 but has not? And then what's another thing that's already been accomplished at some point that you thought would have taken longer than what it did?

Michelle Tran 31:54

I would say for me, um, coming from a wealth management and asset management perspective, um, again, back to like to the 2015 when like all the like betterment um and all the robo advisors came out and everyone thought they were gonna take over the world, but really what happened was a more of a hybrid approach. I'm actually surprised that um there hasn't been more um digital financial services out there. Like there is a lot, don't get me wrong, but I would think that Especially in like the 401k space and stuff too.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 32:23

Like unplug like the ones that they give you at large corporates still suck.

Michelle Tran 32:28

They're look I was in that space for almost three years, and they do suck. Um, and that's why you have groups like Vestwell Um guideline, which was acquired by Gusto and Human Interest around, because they just need better technology, but that's all tied to such like a heavy, regulated world.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 32:46

And so I do think at some point, like well, and the other one thing better I remember telling me too about that business is like when they only evaluate their 401k program every few few years at these large companies. So the sales cycle is super long. And then if you just pick the same option that everybody else has gone with, if something's gone wrong, it's like, well, yeah, like Apple uses that one too. Or like, of course, but if you pick a startup and then something goes wrong, it's like, well, wait, you like, why did you pick this person then?

Michelle Tran 33:12

Oh, totally. I mean, there's a lot of bias around the new because there's a lot of old, but the old doesn't mean that it's innovative and new. Um, I think one of the things that well, I think we'll see in the future too, especially with AI, is how people can get more invested sooner and um with more money. And I think that's it's it's always been my mantra, right? Like in order to create a really stable financial future, you need to be invested in a number of different ways. And I speak to people and women too, who are like, you know, at startups, whatever, and they have they're not putting money into their 401k or they're not investing personally. I'm like, that's just a missed opportunity from a compounding perspective. Um, and and so really like I think I want to see that tip more so into getting more um people invested in a in a better way. I think there still is this perception that like, oh, I need to have, you know, $10,000 in order to invest. And like, really, you don't. I my kids have investing accounts and they're required to look at their investing count once a week. Um, and they're like, oh, should I get McDonald's or should I get Disney or should I get Roblox or whatever?

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 34:15

And I'm like Wait, what age did you start doing that? I want to do that at some point. Quinn's three.

Michelle Tran 34:19

So she's not yet that. Uh probably like at six. Lauren, you're fairly close to that then. And I told them they're not allowed to take money out. And whenever they buy something, they have to put 30% into their investing account. And then so I'm also creating them to think about taxes because taxes is you know so much of our lives. Um, but I'm just starting to get them to be like, and they look at their account, and I think Roblox did really well this year. They're like, ooh, I made $10. I was like, yeah, and you only put five in. So look at that. Um, but I I hope that starts more.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 34:52

I love that idea.

Sasha Pilch 34:55

Um, for me, in terms of like what I thought would have been accomplished by now that hasn't, it is really like these really inefficient legacy things. Like, so for example, banks today still have thousands of hours wasted every week with people calling saying, I've had fraud on my card, but it's actually just a weird merchant name that they didn't recognize. So I think like that's very solvable, like companies like Spade that offer that. And I think that's like a no-brainer. Like, why isn't everyone doing that? Because it's such a huge cost to and it's such a waste of people's time calling and being like, it's been fraud, when it's actually just a legitimate transaction, especially as fraud gets worse with AI and deep fakes and things that are actually what the fraud team should be looking at. Um and that's a segue to what I think has happened that I wouldn't have even dreamed would happen by now, which is since the emergence of Gen AI, how incredible things are in like a lot of fintech companies that were the leaders are now obsolete, unfortunately, because Gen AI has just really changed the game. Um, one in particular is a company that I recently Angel invested in called Leela, um, Fantastic Female CEO, and they offer continuous compliance monitoring. So no more uh the compliance team like worrying about, oh, are we still like within the license of all 50 states for money transfer? Like, is our banking 20-page agreement still compliant? Like, there's no need for humans to have to like weed through all of those things when AI can do it on a 24-7 basis. So that's something that I'm excited about.

Lauren Crossett 36:50

Sasha, you got to tell us about these investments. Um, because if there's one thing that I feel like I have really taken from you and Michelle too, is that like we have to talk to each other about these kind of things. Um, I'm not really giving you a hard time about that one in particular. I feel like we're we're heavily invested in a lot of the same things. Um, but to Julie's point about, you know, like the maybe imposter syndrome um being more prevalent amongst women, I think the the great ways that you folks have shown me how to like really deal with that is by talking to your friends and having that group of women that you can call and you can say, like, do you think this is fair? Should I be asking for more? And ideally there's a man or two in that group too that you trust and that that values you um in the way that they would value anyone. And um yeah, I just don't want to not mention that you guys have been such proponents of that. Yeah.

Sasha Pilch 37:44

And it's good, it's a good point. It's like really the the next phase that Michelle and I have been talking about for FinTech Women. You know, like we do the events, we host the awards, we feature a woman every Friday, and helping women become angel investors and be comfortable with sharing deal flow and talking about investments is really the next thing that we're looking to do.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 38:08

And the other thing is like even being even being an LP in a fund, it's not like you need tens of thousands of dollars to do it.

Sasha Pilch 38:15

Yeah, exactly. And there's there's a lot of options as well that we are going to be highlighting soon in terms of our members that do offer ability for women to be LPs and learn from that perspective.

Michelle Tran 38:30

I think women are just afraid to ask sometimes, right? Like they don't want to seem like they don't know.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 38:34

I haven't had I haven't had a single woman ask me for an investment as a Bane Capital Scout either. It's always been men that that ask.

Michelle Tran 38:42

So just it's I think one like the very bot, like foundational step

What Fintech Still Has Not Fixed

Michelle Tran 38:46

is just making awareness and education. So then it's you know, similar to like golf, right? Like you don't want to get out there on the course because you don't know what you're doing. And then you don't want to look like an idiot when you get out there. And so it's just it's really starting with just teaching and like what do you need to know? And then giving them access.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 39:04

Totally. Knowledge and access, very powerful together. I love that. Well, let's end on um uh like prediction type thing. What's most exciting for you in fintech right now? There's so much going on. There's stable coins, there's AI, like all the things happening all at once. You know, over the next 12 to 18 months, what are you most excited about? I know it's hard to pick because we probably have like four that come to mind instantly, but I mean stablecoin is exciting.

Sasha Pilch 39:33

Like I just went to Miami during consensus and hosted a big event for one of my clients, Turnkey, that provides stablecoin wallet infrastructure. Um, they've done obviously really well with the crypto native companies, but now there's so much interest from Goldman, Morgan Stanley, BY. Like it's pretty exciting that finally it's not just this crypto-only people and it's becoming more mainstream. And it makes sense from an efficiency perspective to use stable coins rather than Swift and the traditional inefficient ways of moving money all the around the world from uh FX or um treasury use case. So I feel like that's pretty exciting.

Michelle Tran 40:22

Um mine's gonna be a little bit boring, but I think it's really exciting personally. Is um, and it's it's around AI and finance and wealth tech. I think how AI is gonna transform all different areas of wealth tech from client service to compliance. Um and essentially what that means is just making it easier for people to get good financial advice at the end of the day. Um, so that's what I'm really excited because I've been working with a number of different clients who that's what they're building to, right? There's just so much that you can do now with AI. Um, I think what's to be seen is how it's regulated and how it's checked is kind of the next frontier, especially when it comes to financial services and advisory. But I'm really excited that it's it's helping people get better advice faster.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 41:09

Lauren, what's most exciting to you right now?

Lauren Crossett 41:13

Well, I do love that like I actually think there's like this this

Stablecoins AI And The Next Year

Lauren Crossett 41:16

moment where what Sasha said and what Michelle said is actually gonna come together because like the financial services that you can offer as a first party, you know, like as the actual advisory firm, but with the accounts, um, I think is so much more powerful than like the days of, oh, you're doing this over here, you should do it differently. Um you know, like you can't have an agent go change something in an account that you don't have access to. And so I think, you know, with stable coin infrastructure and the ability to have like flexible accounts set up and creation and compliance, like the the aperture actually just gets so much larger. Um and I'm excited about like bringing context um of like financial data and foundational models to financial services. I think like financial services has been really, really behind even in like BI tool adoption or like being able to answer simple, simple questions or queries. And I really love the work that we're doing at Spade because I feel like we have the context on first party data that is missing and required to build a foundation model. And so, like, all the things that the revolutes of the world are are doing, um, we're helping to empower. And I love being a part of that moment. And I think it will be just like those early quo days of like, you know, this is kind of ubiquitous to create something cool and new in financial services. And uh, those moments are super special.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 42:48

I feel like it's a very exciting time to be where we are in our careers too, just with everything going on. So I feel lucky to be the age I am right now.

Lauren Crossett 42:56

Yeah, to be the age we are and have friends like this.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 42:59

Exactly, exactly. Well, uh, we still need to talk about the um Austin chapter of New York City FinTech Women. I have not made your list before, so I was not invited to the New York Stock Exchange, so I did. So one year when I was a producer, I was able, I got to go down to the New York Stock Exchange and be that producer for two days. And it was around the holidays, too. So I was just like remembering all those things. It was so awesome. Um, but thank you so much for joining us, you guys. This was awesome. Um, and I especially on short notice and everything, too. I I really appreciate it. 7 a.m., now almost 8 a.m. on the West Coast.

Michelle Tran 43:34

The kids are starting to stir. Uh you go.

Julie Verhage-Greenberg 43:36

Mine just got up, so she's running around with a naked butt right now because she took her diapy off.

Michelle Tran 43:40

So well, you have a standing invite to uh any of our our holiday inspiring fintech emotion. We'll see you guys.