Fintech moves fast. But here at Fintech Takes, Alex Johnson and his rotating panel of guests move faster so that you can stay on top of the latest and greatest news in the industry without breaking a sweat.
Welcome to Fintech Takes—the place where fintech’s biggest nerds come to sit back, relax, and completely geek out.
Join Alex and a lineup of fintech’s brightest minds as they dissect what’s happening in fintech and banking.
Each week, Alex and his guests recap the most interesting developments in fintech and explore the industry’s most pressing questions, diving headfirst into the intricate workings of some of the industry’s most ground-breaking business models and unpacking the emerging players that promise to shape fintech’s future.
From riveting conversations with fintech’s most relevant operators to comprehensive recaps of the month's most compelling news stories and in-depth analyses of the latest regulatory developments, Fintech Takes is your one-stop-shop for navigating the fintech universe.
Subscribe now to join fintech’s nerdiest podcast around!
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Fintech moves fast. But here at Fintech Takes, Alex Johnson and his rotating panel of guests move faster so that you can stay on top of the latest and greatest news in the industry without breaking a sweat.
Welcome to Fintech Takes—the place where fintech’s biggest nerds come to sit back, relax, and completely geek out.
Join Alex and a lineup of fintech’s brightest minds as they dissect what’s happening in fintech and banking.
Each week, Alex and his guests recap the most interesting developments in fintech and explore the industry’s most pressing questions, diving headfirst into the intricate workings of some of the industry’s most ground-breaking business models and unpacking the emerging players that promise to shape fintech’s future.
From riveting conversations with fintech’s most relevant operators to comprehensive recaps of the month's most compelling news stories and in-depth analyses of the latest regulatory developments, Fintech Takes is your one-stop-shop for navigating the fintech universe.
Subscribe now to join fintech’s nerdiest podcast around!
Fintech Takes x Fundbox presents Engineering the SMB Capital Stack Episode 4: The Role of Banks (with Jackie Reses at Lead)
Fintech Takes
51 minutes
1 month ago
Fintech Takes x Fundbox presents Engineering the SMB Capital Stack Episode 4: The Role of Banks (with Jackie Reses at Lead)
Welcome back to our Engineering the SMB Capital Stack, sponsored by our friends at Fundbox.
In this four-part series, we’re exploring small businesses, small business lending, and the forces shaping how small businesses access capital. I’m joined by Prashant Fuloria, CEO of Fundbox, as cohost.
In Episode 4 (our finale!), we turn to the role of banks (and how they fit into an increasingly unbundled lending ecosystem), and what collaboration between banks and fintechs really looks like in 2025.
To unpack it all, we’re joined by Jackie Reses, CEO of Lead Bank (and former Head of Square Capital, a pioneer in embedded capital for SMBs, particularly for B2C SMBs).
Highlights include:
How Square Capital redefined micro-lending, serving millions of U.S. businesses under traditional bank thresholds
Why embedding loans in software (not branches) rewrote the risk model for SMB credit
The rise of unbundled lending: fintechs, balance-sheet partners, and the capital markets “maturity curve”
How banks like Lead are re-bundling infrastructure to power fintech lending safely and at scale
The regulatory horizon (from agentic commerce to stablecoins and the next wave of small-business oversight)
From unserved salon owners to national infrastructure shifts, Jackie reminds us why access to capital is still deeply human, and why technology wins when it’s built with empathy for the entrepreneur.
If you want to understand where banks truly fit in the future of SMB lending, this finale is essential listening.
This episode was brought to you by Fundbox.
As a leading capital infrastructure provider behind the digital SMB economy, Fundbox is focused on enabling platforms to embed financial tools directly into their user experiences. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/4o1cWVG
Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/
And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.
Follow Alex:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson
Follow Prashant:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/fuloria/
Follow Jackie:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqueline-reses-938b7850/Learn more about Fundbox here: https://bit.ly/4o1cWVG
Fintech Takes
Fintech moves fast. But here at Fintech Takes, Alex Johnson and his rotating panel of guests move faster so that you can stay on top of the latest and greatest news in the industry without breaking a sweat.
Welcome to Fintech Takes—the place where fintech’s biggest nerds come to sit back, relax, and completely geek out.
Join Alex and a lineup of fintech’s brightest minds as they dissect what’s happening in fintech and banking.
Each week, Alex and his guests recap the most interesting developments in fintech and explore the industry’s most pressing questions, diving headfirst into the intricate workings of some of the industry’s most ground-breaking business models and unpacking the emerging players that promise to shape fintech’s future.
From riveting conversations with fintech’s most relevant operators to comprehensive recaps of the month's most compelling news stories and in-depth analyses of the latest regulatory developments, Fintech Takes is your one-stop-shop for navigating the fintech universe.
Subscribe now to join fintech’s nerdiest podcast around!
