Fintech Leaders

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Miguel Armaza sits down with Michael Calvey, one of the most successful and legendary emerging markets investors of our time. Mike moved to Moscow at age 27 in the early 90s and built Baring Vostok into a powerhouse with $10+ billion invested in Russia. They backed now-decacorns like Yandex, Revolut, Tinkoff, and Kaspi at their earliest stages. Yandex alone was a 450x return for the fund.

Along the way, he survived a 98% market crash, was detained by Russia's secret service, and made billions of dollars for his investors.

He's also incredibly thoughtful about the ingredients of great founders, what separates the ones who win from those just chasing money, how the best companies constantly stack new S curves, and why being a hands-on owner but never a hands-on manager is the key to a great investor-founder partnership.

Timestamped Overview
00:00 From Oklahoma to Russia - Intro & Michael’s Background
10:32 Building an Elite Emerging Markets Team
14:36 Geopolitics, Economics, and Market Resilience
20:25 Fewer Investments, Better Focus
24:08 Successful Entrepreneurs Value Purpose
28:47 Management KPIs and Key Insights
33:45 3 Cs of Ownership Focus
42:53 Marketplace vs. Fintech Growth Dynamics
44:02 Marketplace Dominance and Financial Complexity
52:25 Emerging Markets: Talent vs. Geopolitics
54:51 Emerging Markets and Fintech Ventures
01:00:20 Medici Family: Banking and Intrigue
01:05:59 Starting Over as Entrepreneur

 Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.

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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: https://bit.ly/3jWIpqp

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Miguel Armaza welcomes Edward Woodford, founder and CEO of ZeroHash, to Fintech Leaders for a candid, insightful conversation on the future of blockchain infrastructure and the lessons learned from nearly a decade of building in crypto.

Edward offers a unique perspective as a London-born, MIT-educated entrepreneur who’s seen ZeroHash grow into one of the most critical and least visible companies powering the global blockchain ecosystem. He shares his journey— from getting rejected by Oxford and taking the leap to the US, to building his first fintech business and discovering Bitcoin at the MIT bookstore.

Join Miguel and Edward for a conversation packed with actionable insights for fintech founders, builders, and investors aiming to navigate the fast-evolving landscape at the intersection of crypto, infrastructure, and financial innovation.

Timestamped Overview
00:00 Intro & Edward’s Background
05:49 Balancing Business and Personal Life
08:58 MIT Bitcoin and Career Exploration
13:14 Tech-Driven Market Shift Insights
16:07 Tokenization and Global Interoperability
20:08 Impact of the founding team
21:54 Founding team dynamics explored
26:32 Power versus influence in investing
29:25 Effective Infrastructure Pricing Strategy
33:44 Weighted performance-based churn metric
35:00 Founder Mode Intensity Defined

Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.

Do you prefer a written summary? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join ~85,000+ 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: https://bit.ly/3jWIpqp

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Miguel Armaza sits down with Nikolay Seleznev, Co-Founder of Uzum, Uzbekistan’s first tech unicorn rewriting the playbook for e-commerce and fintech in Central Asia. From Moscow to Tashkent, Nikolay Seleznev brings global banking experience and entrepreneurial grit to a country leapfrogging straight into the digital economy.

In this episode, Nikolay Seleznev shares the origin story of Uzum and how a simple, subpar online shopping experience sparked the vision for a super app serving millions. He dives into the challenges of building next-day delivery and financial services from scratch—without warehouses, 3PL infrastructure, or widespread digital adoption. Discover how Uzum managed to issue 4 million debit cards in a single year, reach 20 million monthly active users, and outperform their first-year GMV forecast by 4x, all while driving massive change in a historically cash-based society.

Timestamped Overview
00:00 Intro & Nikolay’s Background
05:45 Building a Super App Ecosystem
08:05 Time as the ultimate resource
10:51 Uzbekistan’s rapid transformation
15:13 Commerce and Fintech Ecosystem Overview
20:12 Building trust through products
23:15 Uzbekistan’s first unicorn funding
26:57 Scaling success and adaptation
28:22 Super app strategy adjustments
32:02 Super Apps and Local Adaptation
35:41 Self-focused entrepreneurial perspective

Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.

Do you prefer a written summary? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join ~85,000+ 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: https://bit.ly/3jWIpqp

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Miguel Armaza interviews returning guest Dan Westgarth, COO of Deel, the company that's redefining how businesses hire and pay talent anywhere in the world.
Deel has grown into one of the most valuable private tech companies on the planet. In 2025, they crossed one billion dollars in revenue, achieved a $17 billion valuation, and paid out $22 billion in payroll globally. Dan oversees an organization of 3,300 people across more than 100 countries. Before Deel, he was an early operator at Revolut.

Timestamped Overview
00:00 Intro & Dan’s Background
05:51 Expanding products and global reach
06:30 Optimized systems scaling go-to-market
12:55 Begging for Ghostbusters Expertise
13:41 RevOps solved with Ghostbuster
18:05 Building a Streamlined Goal System
20:26 Payroll and Adjacent HR Services
26:09 Keep It Simple Prioritize People
28:15 Morning Routine and Work Prioritization
31:46 Clarifying Communication for Alignment
35:27 Building payroll processing engines

Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.

Do you prefer a written summary? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join ~85,000+ 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: https://bit.ly/3jWIpqp

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Miguel Armaza recorded this episode at FinTech Nerdcon in Miami with Steve McLaughlin, Founder and CEO of FT Partners, the largest fintech-focused investment bank. Since 2001, Steve has built a 250-person firm that's advised on landmark deals including Coinbase's $4.3 billion Deribit acquisition and Revolut's multi-billion dollar raises. FT Partners works with everyone from early-stage startups to industry giants.

In this conversation, Steve shares his unfiltered views on Fintech's dramatic recovery, the tokenization revolution, and why AI will completely reshape financial services.

Timestamped Overview
00:00 Intro & Steve’s Background
02:18 Fintech thrives with smarter strategies
07:45 Crypto M&A Major Deals Emerging
09:38 Future of Asset Tokenization
12:41 AI transforming digital business
17:45 AI enhances analyst efficiency
21:08 Efficient AI investment insights
25:57 Closed-Loop Ecosystem Dominance
27:42 Building a passionate resilient team
30:07 Subscribe for more interviews

Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.

Do you prefer a written summary? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join ~85,000+ 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: https://bit.ly/3jWIpqp