Operate Podcast

Zach Duke is the founder and CEO of Finosec, a company that provides a governance automation platform for financial institutions. They offer automated solutions, relentless protection, continuous monitoring, and actionable insights to help financial institutions save time and enhance exam preparedness. Their platform is designed to simplify cybersecurity management and reduce cybersecurity liability. They are passionate about community banking and all of their services are designed to help financial institutions manage evolving threats.

Zach and I had a great conversation that spanned his career and entrepreneurial journey, his love for community banking, bank technology and cyber security, and his advice for other founders out there.

Thanks to show sponsor, BankTech Ventures!

Ian White and I have known each other for nearly 20 years, and intertwined through several parallel entrepreneurial adventures. I was excited to finally record one of our conversations and let him talk about Koffie Financial, the company he co-founded a few years ago, that is disrupting the $100B+ commercial truck insurance market.

We also talked about some of his prior entrepreneurial endeavors, our shared love of data and its value in the world, and one of my favorite stories about how he used Craigslist to recruit for his business and ended up on an FBI list. He has great stories and perspectives, and is the type of entrepreneur I love - obsessive about learning and figuring out how and why things are the way they are, and could be better. 

We always laugh and explore when we're together and he always manages to enlighten me on a new topic or 2. There were many in this episode!

Thanks to show sponsor, BankTech Ventures!

It's been an absolute pleasure to be alongside Jacob Ruytenbeek for his founder's journey since the very early days of SailPlan. His passion for the maritime industry was evident from the moment we met, and then combining that with a curiosity and openness to the customers and their biggest challenges, it was easy to be convinced that he'd find his way.

I'm so glad to be able to record this conversation, which details his journey so far, as well as the progress of the company, so this is instructive for founders, investors, anyone in the maritime industry, as well as those interested in carbon-reducing innovation.

Please reach out to Jacob or me with any follow up questions, comments or thoughts, as this will be a compelling story to watch in the next couple of years!

And thanks to show sponsor, BankTech Ventures

Nicky Senyard takes me on the journey of her career as a successful entrepreneur and how that passion led her to do it again for a new customer segment in the financial services industry. Her company, Fintel Connect, is at the intersection of 2 major trends in the digitization of marketing and banking. 

Since we both work a lot with community banks, we also discuss the state of digital products and marketing there, as they have historically been less advanced in embracing how to meet their current and prospective customers online. Nicky and team are working diligently to help them!

She's a great inspiration for other entrepreneurs as well and shares several great stories in our conversation. 

And thanks to show sponsor, BankTech Ventures

Nathan Baumeister is a co-founder and the CEO of ZSuite, and it was a pleasure to have him on the podcast. We talked about the founding of ZSuite within a community bank, and how it's now working with dozens of banks to help them with commercial escrow accounts, and also expanding bank deposits as a result of it.

It's been a pleasure to get to work with him and his team, and become an investor in the company in the past year.

Nathan is a super talented guy, exceptional leader, and is very experienced in the bank tech industry. We can all learn a lot from his perspectives on the industry, business and life. 

Thanks to show sponsor, BankTech Ventures

It is so fun to get introduced to awesome new people, and I had a strong feeling that Teddy Mitrosilis and I would have a good conversation and connection. We did and I think you'll enjoy his stories and ideas thoroughly. (Thanks for the introduction, Mallory Maske!)

We talked about his journey to becoming an entrepreneur, how the market wanted something different from him than he initially anticipated, and how he's working with a number of people on their personal brands and stories, and challenging them to think about creating value for others in their organizations. We also talked about our shared experiences on LinkedIn, which we both use extensively.

Not surprisingly, Teddy has a strong drive and process, which has served him well in athletics, business and life. Great lessons to learn here.

And thanks to show sponsor, BankTech Ventures.

Rex Salisbury has a great story as his path into venture capital and transition from Andreessen Horowitz to founding Cambrian. It was fun recording our conversation so he could tell that story and inspire others who can now consider other paths to get there. His development of a community of fintech founders was definitely rooted in great timing and his personal passion, and also led him to realize that investing in this community was what he was also meant to do. 

His instincts led him to San Francisco where he thought his community would be, then to A16Z and ultimately to starting his own fund. 

Enjoy this conversation and the many things Rex has learned by serving the community around him.

Thanks to show sponsor, BankTech Ventures.

Charles Potts is my favorite bank technology historian. And he happens to also be my partner in BankTech Ventures. This was a conversation I wanted to have and record for a long time, and I'm excited to share it.

Charles is currently the Chief Innovation Officer of the ICBA (Independent Community Bankers of America) and it is a perfect role for him, as he is part banker, part technologist, part entrepreneur and part futurist. He gives a great history lesson in here on how bank technology has evolved.

We also talked about bankers' priorities in 2023, how the ICBA ThinkTECH accelerator came to be, what's ahead for it, and the questions and advice he finds that he is consistently giving to bankers across the country.

Enjoy this one!

This episode was an absolute treat. Eric Sprink is what I call a human energizer bunny. He demonstrates abundance to his peers in community banking as he’s taught dozens of others how to do banking as a service right, which we talk about in the conversation.

Eric is the CEO of Coastal Community Bank in the greater Seattle area, and yet his community bank now supports millions of customer accounts through some very large partners whose names you’re likely to recognize.  He’s been a banker for most of his career, yet exhibits a growth mindset that is not so common amongst his peers. It's served him well as they've been one of the top performing banks in the country in the last few years.

I’m also fortunate to count Eric as a partner in BankTech Ventures. It’s been an absolute pleasure to know him for the past 5 years. 

It was great to have Wayne Miller on the podcast and record our conversation, which wasn't far from a typical one we have all the time. Wayne recently joined ICBA to continue and expand the great work he's been doing with bank technology innovation and startups, and he's a key enabler of the future of community banking. Wayne and I talked a lot about what is on banks' agendas for the new year and how we're all working together to help them.

I consider Wayne sort of a "founder whisperer" as he's worked with well over 100 of them in the last 6 years through a couple accelerator programs he oversaw. And with a focus on business development for the startups going through the program, it has been true business acceleration for them, and a big reason why it was named the fintech accelerator of the year a couple of years ago.

Enjoy Wayne - some great sound bites, stories and sayings. One of my favorites is "if people aren't buying what you're selling, you don't have a business."

Thanks to show sponsor, BankTech Ventures.