Fintech Chatter: Conversations with Fintech Leaders

Dexter Cousins | Founder, Tier One People
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  • Entrepreneurship
  • Every two weeks

370+ episodes. 40+ countries. The podcast fintech leaders actually listen to. Fintech Chatter is where founders, executives, and investors behind the world's most ambitious fintech companies share their journey. We cover topics like raising capital, scaling internationally, hiring leadership teams, and the challenges of building with emerging technologies across payments, crypto, AI, wealth, insurance. If it's in Fintech we've got you covered. Hosted by Dexter Cousins, founder of Tier One People, Australia's dedicated executive search firm for fintech and and the Digital Economy.  With 200+ executive hires across the sector and a decade of running his own business, Dexter brings an operator's lens to every conversation. New episodes biweekly. If you're building, investing, or leading a fintech company - this is your podcast. Follow Dexter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dextercousins/ Follow Tier One People: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tier-one-people

  1. 13 hr ago

    Creating a Bank People Love: Xavier Shay - Up

    Looking to scale your fintech leadership team? Start at tieronepeople.com Xavier Shay is the CEO of Up, the Australian digital bank that reached a million customers on word of mouth and has been standalone profitable for the last twelve months. He joined as employee 27, was CTO before taking the top job, and explains why Up refused buy now pay later and why it does not try to win on features. About Xavier Shay Xavier Shay is CEO of Up and chief digital officer at Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, having joined Up as a software engineer in 2019 and moved through CTO before taking over as CEO in 2021. Before returning to Melbourne he spent close to seven years at Square in San Francisco, joining at around 150 staff and leaving a listed company of three and a half thousand people. Key talking points 1. Word of mouth does the marketing. About 70% of Up's new customers arrive because a friend told them to, which Xavier traces to features people want to talk about, Save Up $1000, 2Up, and a support team that answers like a mate. 2. The brand decides the roadmap. At the peak of buy now pay later Up said no and shipped Maybuy instead, a savings plan that asks whether you still want the thing. Half the customers walk away with the money. 3. Brand is the moat, not features. Australia has free instant payments and good incumbent apps, so Xavier says Up does not win a feature by feature comparison and never has. It reached standalone profitability on how it makes people feel about money. Chapters [00:00] Introduction [02:50] Why word of mouth works [07:06] Saying no to buy now pay later [18:18] Employee 27 at Ferocia [23:21] Competing in a functional market Links Up: https://up.com.au Careers at Up: https://up.com.au/careers Xavier Shay on LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/xaviershay Tier One People: https://tieronepeople.com This show is brought to you by Tier One People, where we work with CEO's and founders like Xavier to find the 1% who redefine what's possible. If you're scaling your leadership team, start at tieronepeople.com Send us Fan Mail Connect on with Dexter Cousins on Linkedin Hire Exceptional Fintech Talent Subscribe on LinkedIn

    Creating a Bank People Love: Xavier Shay - Up

  2. 4 days ago

    Intersekt Chats: Caroline on HelloClever's remarkable growth across Asia

    If you're looking to scale your executive leadership team - start at tieronepeople.com Welcome to our series recorded live from Interesekt/26. Dexter Cousins catches up with friends of the show at Australia's premiere Fintech event in Melbourne. Hello Clever CEO Caroline Tran gives Dexter Cousins and update of their remarkable growth across Asia, now processing over $2bn through their payments and loyalty platform. Subscribe for weekly insights from the people building the next generation of Fintech solutions and let us know in the comments what you want to hear next. Send us Fan Mail Connect on with Dexter Cousins on Linkedin Hire Exceptional Fintech Talent Subscribe on LinkedIn

  3. 10 Sept

    Intersekt Chats: Piers Cracknell - Banking Circle Australia

    If you're looking to scale your executive leadership team - start at tieronepeople.com Welcome to our series recorded live from Interesekt/26. Dexter Cousins catches up with friends of the show at Australia's premiere Fintech event in Melbourne. Piers Cracknell CEO for Banking Circle Australia joins Dexter COusins to talk through their remarkable growth and success down under. Piers also shares his main takeaways from the event and his optimism for the future of Fintech. Connect with Piers: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pierscracknell/ https://bankingcircle.com.au/  Send us Fan Mail Connect on with Dexter Cousins on Linkedin Hire Exceptional Fintech Talent Subscribe on LinkedIn

  4. 10 Sept

    Intersekt Chats: Ben Ford - MogoPlus

    If you're looking to scale your executive leadership team - start at tieronepeople.com Welcome to our series recorded live from Intersekt. Dexter Cousins catches up with friends of the show at Australia's premiere Fintech event in Melbourne. This chat features Ben Ford aka The Body of Fintech! Ben runs Mogoplus - AI powered credit decision making and has been at the forefront of CDR since inception.  You can connect with Ben - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-ford-142a027/ Insta- https://www.instagram.com/super_fit_dad/ Send us Fan Mail Connect on with Dexter Cousins on Linkedin Hire Exceptional Fintech Talent Subscribe on LinkedIn

  5. 7 Sept

    Aaron Violi - From Fintech startup to Canberra Politician.

    Scaling your Fintech executive team? Start at tieronepeople.com Can Australian startups thrive under current policy? Shadow Minister Aaron Violi discusses the future of our tech sector. In this episode of FinTech Chatter, Dexter Cousins sits down with Aaron Violi, Federal Member for Casey and Shadow Minister for the Digital Economy, Science, Technology and Innovation. They examine how upcoming 2026 budget changes to capital gains and employee equity impact the broader startup ecosystem. Aaron draws on his fifteen years of private sector experience, including his time at Ritual, to explain how government policy can better support innovation and job creation. The conversation covers the practical hurdles facing founders today, from tax policy to attracting global talent. By comparing our approach to international models like Singapore, Aaron provides a clear perspective on the role of government in fostering a robust digital economy. Whether you are an entrepreneur or a policy enthusiast, this breakdown offers insights into the regulatory shifts shaping the future of fintech regulation in Australia. Subscribe to FinTech Chatter for weekly insights on the leaders shaping the Fintech industry. What is the biggest challenge facing your startup right now? Let us know in the comments. 0:00 Introduction 1:02 Aaron Violi background and portfolio 2:19 What the digital economy means 4:39 Lessons from Singapore 9:19 Budget impact on startups 14:33 Challenges facing startups 24:34 The role of government 28:46 Taxation and innovation 30:43 Attracting talent back 36:48 Vision for an innovative Australia 43:49 Connecting with Aaron LINKS Aaron Violi on LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/aaronviolimp Aaron Violi MP website: https://www.aaronvioli.com.au Aaron Violi electorate email: aaron.violi.mp@aph.gov.au Tier One People: https://tieronepeople.com Fintech Chatter: https://fintechchatter.com Dexter Cousins on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dextercousins/ Send us Fan Mail Connect on with Dexter Cousins on Linkedin Hire Exceptional Fintech Talent Subscribe on LinkedIn

  6. 24 Aug

    Stripe Tour Sydney 2026 - Karl Durrance

    If you're scaling a fintech leadership team, start at tieronepeople.com   Karl Durrance is Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand at Stripe, the payments infrastructure company. Australia NZ is Stripes 3rd largest region globally, serving over one million customers and onboards 37,000 new local businesses every month.  In this episode, recorded live at Stripe Tour Sydney, Karl explains how Australia became Stripe's third biggest market in the world, why 23 percent of Stripe's Australian businesses sell cross-border against a national average of 2 percent, and what the AI economy is doing to business formation. He also talks candidly about the country manager role, why he coaches his team to answer for the customer rather than the forecast, and where Stripe is hiring in Australia.     0:00 Introduction 1:24 Stripe Tour Sydney 2:36 One million ANZ customers 3:49 Cracking the Australian market 5:30 Cross-border and global reach 6:24 Solopreneurs and small business 8:08 AI and job creation 9:29 Day 231 of the singularity 11:11 Building the highways 13:05 Growing the GDP of the internet 14:37 Why Karl joined Stripe 18:12 The country manager role 21:36 How founders reach Stripe 22:26 Careers at Stripe   Karl Durrance on LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/karldurrance Stripe: https://stripe.com Stripe Tour Sydney: https://stripetour.com/sydney Stripe Tour Sydney 2026 announcements: https://stripe.com/newsroom/news/tour-sydney-2026 Careers at Stripe: https://stripe.com/jobs Tier One People: https://tieronepeople.com Dexter Cousins on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dextercousins/ Send us Fan Mail Connect on with Dexter Cousins on Linkedin Hire Exceptional Fintech Talent Subscribe on LinkedIn

    Stripe Tour Sydney 2026 - Karl Durrance

  7. 10 Aug

    Exclusive! Constantinople and MOVE Bank Migration

    If you're building an executive team to scale your Fintech, start at tieronepeople.com Move Bank has become the first bank in the world to move its entire operation, technology, product, operations and compliance, onto Constantinople's platform.  In this episode Dexter Cousins is joined by Move Bank CEO Mike Currie and Constantinople co-CEOs Macgregor Duncan and Di Challenor.  They unpack an 18 month migration of around 25,000 members that cut cost to income by roughly 30 percent. It is a story about culture and courage as much as technology, and what it means for every customer owned bank in Australia. Chapters 0:00 Introduction 0:36 Inside Move Bank and how the partnership began 2:48 A banking operating system 4:55 Busting the CEO killer myth 8:26 Fintechs reputation problem 10:26 Why a domestic team mattered 13:12 Challenger culture - Building a true partnership 17:00 Go live - A world first transformation  21:03 Synthetic scale and the problem with mergers 24:35 Going global 31:02 The next decade of AI 31:49 Advice for bank CEOs 39:39 Where to find Move Bank Find out more. Move Bank: https://www.movebank.com.au Constantinople: https://www.cxnpl.com ** Connect With Dexter ** https://www.linkedin.com/in/dextercousins/ Follow us  LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/fintech-chatter-podcast Contact us - https://tieronepeople.com/contact/ Send us Fan Mail Connect on with Dexter Cousins on Linkedin Hire Exceptional Fintech Talent Subscribe on LinkedIn

    Exclusive! Constantinople and MOVE Bank Migration

  8. 26 Jul

    Sam Everington and Mark Bernhardi: How Starling's Tech Now Runs Other Banks

    If you're building a fintech leadership team, start at tieronepeople.com - executive search for Fintech. Sam Everington joined Starling Bank ten years ago as one of its first twenty employees. He led the build of the technology that has made Starling a Fintech giant - 4.5 million customers and a 9% share of UK business banking.  Mark Bernhardi leads Engine's growth across Australia and New Zealand, having previously held technology roles at Atlassian, nCino and Westpac.  Both join Dexter Cousins on a special episode of Fintech Chatter Podcast recorded at the World Credit Union Conference in Sydney July 2026. Engine is the software business Starling spun out four years ago to license its platform to other banks. Sam and Mark explain how Engine gets banks like AMP live on a full core banking platform in under twelve months.  They also discuss the opportunity for mutuals and credit unions to compete with much bigger banks and offer their customers the Starling Bank experience using technology platforms like Engine. Sam Everington LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/sameverington Mark Bernhardi LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/mark-bernhardi Engine by Starling: https://enginebystarling.com Tier One People: https://tieronepeople.com Dexter Cousins LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dextercousins Send us Fan Mail Connect on with Dexter Cousins on Linkedin Hire Exceptional Fintech Talent Subscribe on LinkedIn

    Sam Everington and Mark Bernhardi: How Starling's Tech Now Runs Other Banks
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370+ episodes. 40+ countries. The podcast fintech leaders actually listen to. Fintech Chatter is where founders, executives, and investors behind the world's most ambitious fintech companies share their journey. We cover topics like raising capital, scaling internationally, hiring leadership teams, and the challenges of building with emerging technologies across payments, crypto, AI, wealth, insurance. If it's in Fintech we've got you covered. Hosted by Dexter Cousins, founder of Tier One People, Australia's dedicated executive search firm for fintech and and the Digital Economy.  With 200+ executive hires across the sector and a decade of running his own business, Dexter brings an operator's lens to every conversation. New episodes biweekly. If you're building, investing, or leading a fintech company - this is your podcast. Follow Dexter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dextercousins/ Follow Tier One People: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tier-one-people

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