Griffin Uncut | Fintech & Banking Podcast

Griffin Bank
  • 5.0 (3)
  • BUSINESS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Behind the scenes at Griffin: casual conversations with fintech founders, operators, and builders shaping the future of banking and financial services. From embedded finance and API-first infrastructure to regulatory challenges and growth strategies, we talk to the people building financial products about what actually works (and what doesn't). Featuring Griffin team members, customers, partners, and founders we find really interesting. If you're building or scaling in fintech or just curious about how modern banking infrastructure gets built, this is the podcast for you.

  1. 037: Building culture intentionally | David Jarvis, CEO & Jenna Baker, CPO at Griffin

    5 DAYS AGO

    037: Building culture intentionally | David Jarvis, CEO & Jenna Baker, CPO at Griffin

    In this episode of Griffin Uncut, Jenna Baker, Griffin's Chief People Officer, joins David Jarvis to talk about how we're building Griffin's culture intentionally and why that matters more than most founders realise. We discuss why we codified our values before hiring our first employee, how remote-first culture works at scale (nearly 10 years in), and what it means to run a high-trust, high-autonomy organisation where people are treated like adults. This chat also covers face-to-face feedback circles, the keeper test for distinguishing good performance from transformative impact, what happens when you design a company you'd actually want to work for, and why "we're not here to fu*k spiders" (Australian for: we're here to do serious work). What we cover: What culture actually means (who we are + how we work)Why Griffin codified values before hiring anyone Designing culture deliberately vs. ending up with whatever you get Remote-first for 10 years: rituals, off-sites, and all-hands High autonomy, high trust: treating people like adults The expense card test (£2k/month, one rule: justify it) Performance culture: significant, solid, inconsistent, transformative Why transformative impact is nearly impossible to sustainFeedback circles: giving feedback face-to-face in the room Type X vs Type Y companies (distrust vs trust) Why personality hires can also be high performers Culture evolves as the business evolves The keeper test and high performance expectations Griffin Uncut is Griffin's podcast featuring conversations about building in fintech, from founder journeys to the messy reality of scaling regulated businesses. Book recommendations: Essentialism by Greg McKeown Powerful by Patty McCord Crucial conversations by Kerry Patterson et al. Unreasonable hospitality by Will Guidara Too big to fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin Links: Griffin: https://griffin.comGriffin Culture: https://griffin.com/cultureGriffin Careers: https://griffin.com/careers Griffin Uncut: https://griffin.com/podcast #Culture #RemoteWork #HighPerformance #StartupCulture #Griffin #GriffinUncut #PeopleOps #Leadership #FinTech #CompanyCulture

    54 min
  2. 036: CEO Round Treasury, Pac O'Shea on fixing treasury management with AI agents

    14 APR

    036: CEO Round Treasury, Pac O'Shea on fixing treasury management with AI agents

    Pac O'Shea went from selling Vita Coco out of a van (and drinking all the samples) to building Round Treasury, the AI-powered finance operations platform automating treasury management for businesses. In this episode, Pac explains why treasury management is fundamentally broken: CFOs rank yield as a 2 out of 5 priority, but ensuring cash is in the right place for payroll? That's a 5. Missing a drawdown deadline means being four days late for payroll or paying £10k for early release. Round automates all of it. We talk about AI agents that don't hallucinate your finances (deterministic execution for money movement), why 95% of investor advice is bad, and how Pac built 100+ customers with a team of 11 by obsessively talking to customers before writing a single line of code. Plus: dropping out of university with the Provost's written permission, turning down Switzerland because chicken fillets were too expensive, pivoting two weeks before demo day, and why 10% of Round's customers are also investors in the business. What we cover: Why treasury management keeps CFOs up on Sunday nights How Round's AI agents automate liquidity management without hallucinations The Vita Coco van origin story (employee #1 in Ireland) Why deterministic execution matters for finance automation Building with 5-10 customers before launch Getting regulated through creative rev-share deals 95% of investor advice is bad (and why Pac ignored it) Interviewing 180 developers to hire 3 Why customers became investors (10%+ ownership) Expanding to the US and targeting public companies Griffin Uncut is Griffin's podcast featuring conversations with the Griffin team, fintech founders and industry leaders building the future of financial services. Links: Griffin: https://griffin.com Griffin Uncut: https://griffin.com/podcast Griffin Sandbox: https://app.griffin.com/register #TreasuryManagement #AIAgents #FinTech #RoundTreasury #Griffin #Payroll #CFO #GriffinUncut #FinanceAutomation #StartupStories

    36 min
  3. 035: No closing time with stablecoins | Mouloukou Sanoh, CEO Mansa

    12 MAR

    035: No closing time with stablecoins | Mouloukou Sanoh, CEO Mansa

    On this episode of Griffin Uncut, Griffin's fintech and banking podcast, we sit down with Mouloukou Sanoh, founder of Mansa, the stablecoin payments company transforming cross-border money transfers. Mansa has processed over $400 million in stablecoin payments across Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia, making international transfers instant. Mouloukou explains how stablecoins solve the capital problem in cross-border payments and why he raised $100 million in credit facilities to keep liquidity always-on. We discuss the "stablecoin sandwich" (GBP → USDT → local currency), why payments is a capital game, and how Mansa uses stablecoin infrastructure to cut fees from 10% to a fraction. Plus: building during the crypto bear market, getting 100+ VC rejections before Tether invested, and why stablecoins should be called "digital dollars." Mouloukou shares his journey from crypto investment banking in Hong Kong to running a $100 million Web3 fund (AIDAverse) to founding Mansa with co-founder Nkiru, who previously worked at Swift. What we cover: How stablecoins fix broken cross-border payments The stablecoin sandwich: Converting GBP → USDT → local currencies Why Mansa has processed $400M+ across emerging markets The capital problem in international payments explained Stablecoin compliance and AML challenges 100+ VC rejections before Tether backing Why Kenya's M-Pesa beats UK payment systems Digital dollars vs stablecoins: The branding problem Interoperability between stablecoins and local payment rails About Griffin Uncut: Griffin Uncut is the podcast from Griffin, the UK bank for fintechs and platforms. We feature conversations with fintech founders, payments innovators, industry leaders and members of our team as we build the future of financial services. Griffin: https://griffin.com Mansa: https://www.mansafinance.co/ Griffin Uncut podcast: https://griffin.com/podcast #Stablecoins #Mansa #CrossBorderPayments #GriffinUncut #GriffinBank #FinTech #Remittance #USDT #Tether #EmergingMarkets #Payments #BlockchainPayments #DigitalDollars #FintechPodcast #EmbeddedFinance

    25 min
  4. 034: Why wait a year for £50 interest? | Mike Saraswat, CEO & founder Stoa

    26 FEB

    034: Why wait a year for £50 interest? | Mike Saraswat, CEO & founder Stoa

    Mike and the team at Stoa have built a product that is trying to flip traditional savings on its head: instead of waiting for interest after a set period, you get perks upfront. On this episode of Griffin Uncut, Mike shares his journey from film student to LSE law graduate to creative agency founder to fintech entrepreneur. We talk about contrarian thinking, why he interviewed 300 people before building Stoa, the need for instant gratification and how giving people 160 reasons to lock their money can change how they hold cash. Plus: the Samsung pitch story that broke every rule, why activism without solutions is useless, and what it means to live with intensity. Stoa is built on Griffin's banking infrastructure, giving members FSCS-protected accounts. Links: Stoa: https://www.stoa.money/ Griffin: https://griffin.com #FinTech #Savings #Entrepreneurship #Contrarian #Banking #Stoa #Griffin

    40 min
  5. 033: Why Paul Forster (Co-founder, Indeed and Investor) said yes when other investors said no

    19 FEB

    033: Why Paul Forster (Co-founder, Indeed and Investor) said yes when other investors said no

    Paul Forster co-founded Indeed and scaled it from 6 employees to 1,000+ with 100% year-over-year growth before selling. Today he's an active angel investor with 90+ portfolio companies, including Griffin. Paul invested in Griffin twice: at seed when institutional VCs couldn't (or wouldn't) touch a company building a regulated bank, and at Series A when others hesitated about commercial traction. On this episode of Griffin Uncut, Paul sits down with David Jarvis to discuss what made him say yes when the market said no, how he evaluates co-founder dynamics in a few meetings, and why he thinks Griffin's biggest challenge ahead isn't regulatory or technical—it's deciding what NOT to build. Paul also shares the Indeed story: how their wives introduced them as co-founders, why they didn't use recruiters to hire (eating their own dog food), how they built millions of users without paying for marketing, and what he'd do differently if starting Indeed today. This is episode 33 of Griffin Uncut. Learn more about Griffin: https://griffin.com Building something Paul might want to invest in? He's open for business.

    45 min
  6. 032: How wealthtech ignores affluent millennials | Matt Ford, CEO Sidekick Money

    28 JAN

    032: How wealthtech ignores affluent millennials | Matt Ford, CEO Sidekick Money

    If you've got less than £500, robo-advisors will help you. If you've got £1M+, private banks will take you. But if you're a hardworking professional with a quarter million in assets? You're treated like an entry-level investor even though your needs are far more complex.Matt walks through his journey from building PFM apps in 2012 (before realising it's not an exciting space) to founding Parity, becoming CPO at Tandem Bank, spending time as a VC, and finally starting Sidekick to solve the problem he saw from the inside: the mass affluent are completely underserved.We discuss why robo-advisors failed (wrong segment, wrong product, commoditised portfolios), how Sidekick is building private banking for the mass affluent, and the brutal reality of building regulation-forward businesses that take years and massive capital but create genuine moats. Key topics: - The wealth management gap: too rich for robo-advisors, not rich enough for private banks - Why PFM apps are catnip to first-time founders (and why they fail) - How Matt went from VC to founder after seeing the mass affluent problem firsthand - Sidekick's four pillars: cash management, long-term investment, private markets, wealth services - MultiShield: maximising FSCS protection across three banks automaticallyLombard lending: borrowing against your portfolio without creating tax liabilities - Why wealth is a platform play at an individual level - The complexity of building regulated fintech: you need massive footprint from day one - How to acquire mass affluent customers (50%+ organic through search)"House with many doors": solving today problems, not tomorrow problems - UK's risk aversion problem: property still dominates wealth building - Why the cash ISA limit debate matters for the country's future - CAC doesn't matter when customers deposit £100K-£300K (not £2K-£3K) - The business model challenge: need 75+ bips take rate, not 20-30 bips - How to hack trust as a new entrant in wealth management - Why regulation-forward businesses are more immune to AI disruption Griffin is Sidekick's banking partner, powering their embedded bank accounts and a future savings product. Learn more about Griffin: ⁠https://griffin.com ⁠Learn more about Sidekick: ⁠https://sidekick.money⁠

    46 min
  7. 031: Griffin's 2026 outlook - cards, stable coins, and agentic finance with CEO David Jarvis

    21 JAN

    031: Griffin's 2026 outlook - cards, stable coins, and agentic finance with CEO David Jarvis

    Welcome to 2026! Griffin CEO David Jarvis kicks off the year by reflecting on 2025's explosive growth (5x revenue, tier-1 customer wins) and sharing his outlook for 2026. David walks through Griffin's three major investment areas: stablecoins, agentic finance and payments, and card issuing. He explains why cross-border payments are being transformed by stable coins, why e-commerce is the first bet for agentic payments (from Amazon dash buttons to AI planning your entire holiday), and why cards are fundamentally obvious (it's how most people pay for most things). We also discuss building infrastructure in evolving regulatory environments, why Griffin won't hold crypto on balance sheet, why corporate treasury is a slam dunk for AI agents, and David's personal philosophy of making choices he won't regret. Fair warning: If you want David swearing, check out Natasha Vernier's In Control podcast. This one's clean. Key topics: 2025 growth story, revenue doubling in 2026, stablecoins offering superior speed and pricing, agentic payments for e-commerce, card issuing as land and expand, why Griffin wins when consumer behaviour changes, and what success looks like. This is episode 31 of Griffin Uncut and our first of 2026. Learn more: https//griffin.com

    35 min
  8. 030: Saible CEO, Jarvey on fixing the payments problem in the construction industry

    15/12/2025

    030: Saible CEO, Jarvey on fixing the payments problem in the construction industry

    [Trigger Warning - ⚠️ ‼️ Description and video both talk about suicide rates in construction due to financial pressure] Jarvey, CEO of Saible, joins us to discuss one of the most overlooked crises in the UK economy: the construction industry's broken payment system. Construction has the highest insolvency rate of any sector. Construction workers take their own lives every other day in the UK, with financial pressure being a major contributor. The problem? Payments flow through up to seven tiers of supply chain, and when someone in the middle goes bust, entire family businesses collapse overnight. Saible is fixing this with digital parallel payment accounts (DIPAs) built on Griffin's infrastructure. Instead of money flowing tier by tier (where it can be diverted or disappear into insolvency), Saible enables parallel payments so the entire supply chain gets paid at once. The money is ring-fenced in trust, can't be used for other projects, and is protected even if the client goes bankrupt. We all pay too much and wait too long for infrastructure because of these inefficiencies. Jarvey explains the three-legged stool (technology, legal framework, banking infrastructure) needed to solve it, why category creation is brutally hard, and how government and private sector lenders are backing the solution. This is our 30th and final episode of 2025. We're ending the year by showcasing how banking infrastructure can solve problems far beyond traditional finance. Learn more about Griffin: https://griffin.com Learn more about Saible: https://saible.co.uk If you or anyone you know is in a suicidal crisis, please call the emergency services on 999. Learn more about what to do here - https://spuk.org.uk/in-a-crisis/

    35 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Behind the scenes at Griffin: casual conversations with fintech founders, operators, and builders shaping the future of banking and financial services. From embedded finance and API-first infrastructure to regulatory challenges and growth strategies, we talk to the people building financial products about what actually works (and what doesn't). Featuring Griffin team members, customers, partners, and founders we find really interesting. If you're building or scaling in fintech or just curious about how modern banking infrastructure gets built, this is the podcast for you.

Information

  • Creator
    Griffin Bank
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    37
  • Provider
    GRIFFIN BANK LTD