LendAPI Podcast

Timothy Li
  • 5.0 (2)
  • BUSINESS NEWS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

We dedicate this podcast to the hard working men and women from members on LendAPI's Marketplace.

  1. LendAPI Partner Podcast with Phil Ganz, President at Next Wave Mortgage

    MAR 25

    LendAPI Partner Podcast with Phil Ganz, President at Next Wave Mortgage

    In this episode of the LendAPI Partner Podcast, host Timothy Li, Founder & CEO of LendAPI, sits down with Phil Ganz, President of Next Wave Mortgage, to discuss what it truly takes to build a people-first mortgage brokerage in today's fast-moving lending landscape. Phil brings a rare combination of 26+ years in the mortgage industry, a top 1% originator ranking nationally, and a builder's mindset — having launched Next Wave Mortgage from the ground up to serve borrowers across multiple states with low-rate, low-friction home financing experiences. What You'll Learn: Why mortgage brokers are outpacing retail lenders — and how nimble, client-focused operations like Next Wave Mortgage deliver better rates and service without the overhead of large corporate structures How Phil is using technology and automation to modernize the mortgage origination process — reducing friction for borrowers and improving pull-through rates for the brokerage The story of building Next Wave Mortgage from scratch — what it takes to launch and scale a multi-state brokerage in a high-rate, low-volume market environment Why Phil believes loan officers should have an ownership mentality — and how Next Wave's platform empowers LOs to grow long-term client relationships rather than just close transactions How non-QM and alternative lending programs (bank statement, DSCR, Down Payment Assistance) are unlocking homeownership for borrowers that traditional lenders routinely turn away Why AI and digital tools are transforming lead generation and borrower education — and how mortgage professionals can use content and technology to stay ahead of the competition What the current housing affordability crisis means for lenders and borrowers alike — and how smart mortgage planning can still create viable paths to homeownership About Next Wave Mortgage: Next Wave Mortgage is a multi-state mortgage brokerage headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, dedicated to expanding sustainable homeownership through transparent, technology-forward lending. Founded in 2023, Next Wave gives loan officers the platform to build lasting client relationships by combining broker-model pricing flexibility with strong operational support. Under the leadership of President Phil Ganz — a Certified Mortgage Planning Specialist and nationally recognized top 1% originator — the brokerage specializes in FHA, VA, Conventional, Jumbo, Non-QM, and Down Payment Assistance programs, with a commitment to serving first-time homebuyers and self-employed borrowers who need creative, personalized financing solutions. Next Wave Mortgage is how mortgages should be done. 📢 Explore more on the LendAPI Marketplace Listen now on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

    55 min
  2. LendAPI Partner Podcast with Ryan Hildebrand, EVP & Chief Innovation Officer at Bankwell

    MAR 19

    LendAPI Partner Podcast with Ryan Hildebrand, EVP & Chief Innovation Officer at Bankwell

    In this episode of the LendAPI Partner Podcast, host Timothy Li, Founder & CEO of LendAPI, sits down with Ryan Hildebrand, EVP & Chief Innovation Officer at Bankwell, to discuss what it truly takes to transform a community bank into a fintech-grade institution. Ryan brings a rare perspective as a serial founder, former CPA, and fintech builder who helped launch Simple (the first consumer fintech bank) and Seed (the first business fintech bank), and led landmark fintech partnerships at Cross River Bank with companies like Coinbase, Stripe, and Plaid. Now at Bankwell, a $3B+ commercial bank, Ryan is executing a ground-up technology transformation — starting with SBA lending and expanding to serve the full small business ecosystem with fintech-level speed and service. What You'll Learn: Why technology is the great equalizer for community banks — and how nimble decision-making lets smaller institutions outmaneuver billion-dollar competitors without matching their budgets How Ryan is using AI and modern fintech platforms to modernize SBA and small business lending at Bankwell — reducing friction for borrowers and improving outcomes for the bank The inside story of building Simple and Seed — two fintech firsts — and what those exits taught Ryan about what real banking innovation requires Why Ryan would give back a $100M innovation budget — and how lean, focused teams with the right AI tools consistently outperform large, well-funded innovation departments The hidden systemic risk of legacy core banking infrastructure — why banks feel trapped, why VC funding dries up for alternatives, and what needs to change How AI adoption in banking is a cultural transformation, not a technology project — and why front-line employee buy-in determines whether AI investments succeed or fail What the coming wave of community bank consolidation means for institutions that are innovating versus those that are waiting — and how to end up on the right side of it About Bankwell: Bankwell is a $3B+ commercial bank headquartered in New Canaan, Connecticut, built on a foundation of strong relationships with businesses across the region. Under the leadership of Chief Innovation Officer Ryan Hildebrand, Bankwell is executing a deliberate strategy to deliver fintech-grade technology and service to small and mid-sized businesses — starting with SBA lending and expanding outward. Bankwell was the first bank customer and investor in Casca, a Y Combinator-backed AI-native loan origination platform, underscoring its commitment to partnering with the most innovative builders in the industry. Bankwell's approach to innovation — resourceful, accountable, and customer-focused — reflects the belief that the best community banks can compete with anyone

    27 min
  3. LendAPI Partner Podcast with Carla Canino, Founder & CEO of Kindlee

    MAR 19

    LendAPI Partner Podcast with Carla Canino, Founder & CEO of Kindlee

    In this episode of the LendAPI Partner Podcast, host Timothy Li, Founder & CEO of LendAPI, sits down with Carla Canino, Founder & CEO of Kindlee (Techstars '24), to explore the intersection of responsible AI, financial inclusion, and the future of fair lending. Carla brings over 15 years of experience across global payments, financial services product strategy, and entrepreneurship — from her time as Global Payment Strategy Lead at Blizzard Entertainment to co-authoring inclusion standards with the Federal Reserve and W3C. Today, she is building Kindlee, the first AI fairness intelligence platform for regulated financial institutions, helping lenders detect bias, improve model accuracy, and meet EU AI Act compliance — while unlocking billions in untapped revenue. Why AI bias in lending is costing the industry an estimated $443 billion annually — and how the majority of affected consumers are actually creditworthy customers being misclassified How Kindlee's Kindlee Conversational Trust Index (KCTI) provides the first composite trust score for AI performance across vulnerable populations — with zero PII exposure and zero integration burden Why 65% of loan declines may involve creditworthy customers misclassified by biased AI models, and what lenders can do about it right now The real business case for inclusive AI: a documented 1,578% ROI on remediation over three years, and why fairness is a competitive advantage — not just a compliance checkbox How the EU AI Act's August 2026 deadline is creating urgency for financial institutions to audit their AI systems for high-risk use cases Carla's journey from payments expert at Activision Blizzard to solo founder — and the personal experiences as a disabled immigrant that exposed systemic weaknesses in financial systems and inspired Kindlee Practical advice for any fintech or lender looking to build AI that is explainable, unbiased, accessible, and growth-focused Kindlee is an AI fairness intelligence platform backed by Techstars and J.P. Morgan, purpose-built for regulated financial institutions navigating the EU AI Act and European Accessibility Act. Founded by Carla Canino, Kindlee helps banks, fintechs, and lenders detect bias and operational friction in their deployed AI — including conversational AI, credit decisioning, and KYC systems — and provides a direct path to remediation. Their proprietary KCTI benchmark has audited nine of Europe's largest financial institutions, revealing that 82.7% of AI interactions with disabled, elderly, and immigrant customers result in severe or critical failures. Kindlee makes fairness measurable, profitable, and easy to adopt — without touching a single line of PII. Learn more at www.kindlee.ai. What You’ll Learn:About New Market Growth

    25 min
  4. LendAPI Partner Podcast with Carlos Caro, Managing Partner & Founder of New Market Growth

    MAR 10

    LendAPI Partner Podcast with Carlos Caro, Managing Partner & Founder of New Market Growth

    In this episode of the LendAPI Partner Podcast, host Timothy Li, Founder & CEO of LendAPI, sits down with Carlos Caro, Founder of New Market Growth, to discuss the complex and rapidly evolving landscape of consumer lending. Carlos shares his deep industry expertise, detailing how lenders can successfully navigate the challenges of listing on popular affiliate platforms, the critical importance of balancing lead quality with volume, and the significance of building a strong professional network. What You'll Learn The real challenge of getting listed on major platforms like LendingTree or Credit Karma, and why Carlos often has to turn down 85% of lenders who approach him for placement. Why striking a balance between acquiring a high volume of leads and ensuring those leads are of top quality is essential, especially as platforms prioritize customer welfare and competitive rates. The importance of "Market Fit" and understanding the specific requirements of each platform, tailoring your offerings to match traditional products like mortgages or personal loans. How embracing innovation—such as leveraging blockchain technology for new, high-reward credit cards—can help differentiate your products in a crowded market. Actionable strategies for success, including focusing on customer needs, attending industry events, collaborating with other businesses, and staying ahead of market trends and regulatory shifts. About New Market Growth New Market Growth is a specialized consulting firm that helps lenders connect with powerful affiliate marketing channels to drive customer acquisition. Founded by Carlos Caro, who brings a rich background in lending and marketing from his time working with major financial institutions, the firm assists lenders in navigating the highly competitive consumer finance space. They focus on bridging the gap between innovative lending products and key acquisition platforms, ensuring lenders can effectively reach and serve their target markets. 📢 Explore more on the ⁠LendAPI Marketplace⁠ Listen now on ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠Spotify⁠, or ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠.

    45 min
  5. LendAPI Partner Podcast with Dan Niemiec, Chief Credit & Analytics Officer at 1st Franklin Financial Corporation

    MAR 6

    LendAPI Partner Podcast with Dan Niemiec, Chief Credit & Analytics Officer at 1st Franklin Financial Corporation

    In this episode of the LendAPI Partner Podcast, host Timothy Li, Founder & CEO of LendAPI, sits down with Dan Neimiec, Chief Credit Risk and Analytics Officer at 1sr Franklin Financial, to discuss the company's unique approach to consumer lending. Dan shares how his team is using internal performance data and AI tools to enhance predictive modeling, while still ensuring the human element and personal branch-customer relationships remain the core of their operation. What You’ll Learn: Dan’s experience managing risk at JP Morgan Chase during the 2008-2009 housing downturn, which highlighted the limitations of "backwards looking" credit models.How an 85-year-old company like First Franklin strategically shifted to making data-driven decisions while maintaining its crucial community and branch-based customer relationships.Why the company uses their lending models as "guard rails and guidelines" rather than a fully automated decision engine, emphasizing that humans make the ultimate lending decisions.The primary product offerings and how the company uses direct mail models to target new customers.How First Franklin uses "live checks" (or convenience checks) via direct mail to pre-qualified customers, followed by personal branch outreach to solidify the customer relationship.Advice for aspiring credit risk analysts: focus on "business knowledge and the business intuition" because artificial intelligence now handles much of the data assembly and manipulation. About First Franklin Financial First Franklin Financial is an 85-year-old, privately owned financial services company that started in the early 1940s. The company operates nearly 400 branches and serves almost 400,000 customers, with approximately $1.2 billion in receivables. First Franklin primarily serves subprime consumers with credit scores in the 550 to 700 range. While maintaining a strong community presence with personal branch relationships, the company has recently implemented a strategic initiative to incorporate data-driven decisions and modern analytic models. 📢 Explore more on the LendAPI Marketplace Listen now on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

    28 min
  6. LendAPI Partner Podcast with Debra LeJeune, Founder & CEO at Integrity Payments Group

    MAR 6

    LendAPI Partner Podcast with Debra LeJeune, Founder & CEO at Integrity Payments Group

    In this episode of the LendAPI Partner Podcast, host Timothy Li, Co-Founder and CEO of LendAPI, sits down with Debra LeJeune, a special friend of LendAPI. Debra, whose background originated in banking, is a former commercial banking officer. She discusses the formation of her company, Integrity, and how it focuses on a payment strategy to improve the lending and payment process.What You’ll Learn:- How Debra's background in banking and as president of multiple companies led her to found Integrity.- Why Integrity was formed to combat the payments industry missing the mark on putting the customer first, locking clients into long-term contracts, and not having the customer's best interest in mind.- How Integrity provides agnostic advice and representation, ensuring the recommended technology stack is specific to the client and focused on their integrity.- Integrity's approach to payments, which involves taking the payment process across the entire life cycle, including infrastructure, onboarding new borrowers, and payment success.- How Integrity might set up a client with five, six, or seven different solutions to create the perfect waterfall, minimize issuer declines, and achieve a 10% to 30% lift in authorization approvals.- The importance of clients owning their payment data, utilizing network or universal tokens for validation, and having the infrastructure to waterfall onto other solutions with no downtime.- How a forensic analysis of a client's payment and authorization data can lead to advice on qualifying for lower interchange and having fewer false declines.About Integrity Payments Group (IPG):Integrity Payments Group (IPG) positions itself as more of a payment strategy firm than a payment placement or bank-pushing firm. They focus on putting the client's needs first across the life cycle, which contrasts with traditional payments companies that might focus on locking people into a singular payment provider. Integrity uses its strategy to help clients with everything from infrastructure to collection 📢 Explore more on the LendAPI Marketplace Listen now on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

    30 min
  7. LendAPI Partner Podcast with Steven Ma, Founder & CEO at Pony Money

    MAR 2

    LendAPI Partner Podcast with Steven Ma, Founder & CEO at Pony Money

    In this episode of the LendAPI Partner Podcast, host Timothy Li, Founder & CEO of LendAPI, sits down with Steven Ma, Founder & CEO of PonyMoney, a Texas‑based personal lending company focused on delivering fast, hassle‑free installment loans. Steven shares how PonyMoney built a modern lending operation around flexibility, rapid experimentation, and borrower‑friendly experiences—and why they chose LendAPI as their core lending technology partner.What You’ll Learn:- Why Steven founded PonyMoney and the specific gaps he saw in traditional personal lending around speed, transparency, and product flexibility.- The challenges PonyMoney faced with legacy loan origination systems and decision engines, from rigid integrations to limited control over underwriting rules and pricing.​- How PonyMoney uses LendAPI’s flexible, API‑driven platform to run A/B tests on underwriting strategies, plug into cash‑flow data providers, and update rules in real time—without vendor tickets or long release cycles.- The impact of this setup on approval rates, portfolio performance, and operational efficiency, including faster launch of new products and smoother borrower journeys.About PonyMoneyPonyMoney is a consumer lending operator dedicated to providing individuals with simple, transparent, and quickly funded installment loans. By combining data‑driven underwriting with a digital‑first experience, PonyMoney helps borrowers access credit with less friction while giving its team full control over product design, risk strategies, and pricing. Powered by LendAPI’s integrated LOS and decision engine, PonyMoney can test, iterate, and scale new lending programs at startup speed without sacrificing compliance or control.

    25 min
  8. LendAPI Partner Podcast with Jospeh Huch, Vice President of Sales at USIO

    FEB 28

    LendAPI Partner Podcast with Jospeh Huch, Vice President of Sales at USIO

    This week on the LendAPI Partner Podcast, host Rutger Van Faassen sits down with Joseph Huch, Vice President of Sales at USIO, a leading, tech-forward payments provider helping lenders, fintechs, and SaaS platforms modernize how they move money. Together, they unpack how integrated payments, real-time funding, and smarter disbursement workflows are reshaping the economics and customer experience of lending. How Joseph’s background in payments and financial technology shapes his approach to helping lenders deliver faster, more reliable funding experiences.​ Why embedded payments and payouts are becoming a core competitive edge for digital lenders and vertical SaaS platforms.​ The current USIO offering for lenders and fintechs today—and the future vision for deeper, API-first integration across onboarding, servicing, and collections. How USIO’s platform enables instant or same‑day disbursements, card and ACH rails, and configurable workflows that reduce friction for both borrowers and operations teams.​ A real‑world example of a lender that streamlined its funding process, cut manual work, and improved conversion by delivering a more seamless payment and payout experience. Explore more partners and episodes on the LendAPI Marketplace.

    26 min
See All (39)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

We dedicate this podcast to the hard working men and women from members on LendAPI's Marketplace.

Information

  • Creator
    Timothy Li
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    39
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Timothy Li
  • Show Website
    LendAPI Podcast

You Might Also Like