

Fintech Takes
Fintech moves fast. But here at Fintech Takes, Alex Johnson and his rotating panel of guests move faster so that you can stay on top of the latest and greatest news in the industry without breaking a sweat. Welcome to Fintech Takes—the place where fintech’s biggest nerds come to sit back, relax, and completely geek out. Join Alex and a lineup of fintech’s brightest minds as they dissect what’s happening in fintech and banking. Each week, Alex and his guests recap the most interesting developments in fintech and explore the industry’s most pressing questions, diving headfirst into the intricate workings of some of the industry’s most ground-breaking business models and unpacking the emerging players that promise to shape fintech’s future. From riveting conversations with fintech’s most relevant operators to comprehensive recaps of the month's most compelling news stories and in-depth analyses of the latest regulatory developments, Fintech Takes is your one-stop-shop for navigating the fintech universe. Subscribe now to join fintech’s nerdiest podcast around!
Episodes


Fintech Recap: The 2025 Themes That Will Define 2026
The Fintech Takes podcast kicks off 2026 with a recap of 2025's major themes in fintech and banking, featuring Jason Mikula of Fintech Business Weekly. The conversation highlights a radically different regulatory landscape, marked by centralized control at the Treasury Department and a weakened CFPB. Stablecoins emerge...

Diving Deep with Max Levchin
In this inaugural "Diving Deep" episode of Fintech Takes, Alex Johnson interviews Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPal and CEO of Affirm, about the history of fintech, product design, and the future of credit. Levchin discusses the importance of solving real problems and understanding customer needs, drawing from his expe...

A Very Die Hard Christmas

Not Fintech Investment Advice: Trudenty, Tidalwave, Kaaj, & FinReach Solutions

Facing Credit: Pressure Points

Fintech Recap: Open Banking, Digital IDs, and Green Dot’s Split

Fintech Takes x Fundbox presents Engineering the SMB Capital Stack Episode 4: The Role of Banks (with Jackie Reses at Lead)

Facing Credit: When AI Broke the Marketing Machine

Fintech Takes x Fundbox presents Engineering the SMB Capital Stack Episode 3: Data & Underwriting with Bernardo Martinez (SoFi)

The Future of Issuing with Marqeta’s CEO

The $455B Reality of Financial Health

Fintech Takes x Fundbox presents Engineering the SMB Capital Stack Episode 2: Distribution (with Tanay Jaeel at Stripe)

Fintech Recap: AI, Stablecoins, and Live Money20/20 Energy!

Fintech Takes x Fundbox presents Engineering the SMB Capital Stack Episode 1: The State of SMB Lending

Risk, Rules, and the Gaps in Open Banking

Fintech Takes x Pipe Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts Episode 6: Scaling Up

The Launch of Facing Credit

Fintech Takes x Pipe presents Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts Episode 5: Go To Market

Not Fintech Investment Advice: EtherFi, Lunos AI, Circuit & Chisel, & Figure
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