Although every company is becoming a fintech now, Wix didn’t set out to do so – the firm’s entry into financial services started from observing what millions of small business owners actually needed when building their online presence. 

For Amit Sagiv and Volodymyr Tsukur, co-heads of payments at Wix, the path to serving these SMB customers well was paved through financial products: Wix had to take the payment infrastructure it had built for itself and transform it into tools that could help merchants manage their businesses. 

The foundation was already there. Wix had developed sophisticated billing systems to support its freemium model, accumulating deep expertise in payment routing, risk management, and global processing. "We built tremendous payment capabilities," Sagiv explained. "The billing manager of Wix wanted to take that offering and build a service for our users."

What started as a small project evolved into a comprehensive financial platform serving businesses across the globe. The company now processes over $3 billion per quarter with a team of 160 people, covering payments, checking accounts, and capital lending. 
Listen to the podcast to hear how a chance collaboration between Wix's billing team and gateway developers turned into a fintech operation processing billions quarterly. 

Sagiv and Tsukur discuss why they deliberately avoided becoming a full-fledged bank, and how website data reveals creditworthiness before transaction history does. It’s a conversation that dives deep into what it means to be serving SMB customers digitally and how firms can do embedded finance right. 


How Wix built payments, checking, and capital for 293 million users

E573 | Comparisons are everywhere in American discussions of Middle East politics. As our guest, Perin Gürel, argues in a new book, this cultural impulse has political roots in the Cold War period. In this episode, we explore the origins of comparitivism through the lens of America's evolving relationship with Turkey and Iran over the course of the 20th century, focusing on how gender and race shaped the terms of the assymetrical relations between the US and other countries in the region. We discuss the "daddy issues" reflected in comparisons between the founding figures of the Republic of Turkey and Iran's monarchy, the changing image of Iran's empress on the global stage, and the ambivalent claims to whiteness and anti-imperialism that took shape in both countries over the course of the Cold War. Throughout the conversation, we return to a critique of comparison as a placeholder for knowledge and a political instrument wielded with varying degrees of success to further American foreign policy goals, and we reflect on how this American project has shaped how all of us conceptualize the region's major social and political questions today.

More at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2025/10/gurel.html

	Perin Gürel is an associate professor of American Studies and the director of Gender Studies at the University of Notre Dame. She's the author of Türkiye, Iran, and the Politics of Comparison: America's Wife, America's Concubine (Cambridge University Press, 2025); The Limits of Westernization: A Cultural History of America in Turkey (Columbia University Press, 2017); and the forthcoming ecofantasy novel, Laleh and the Language of the Birds (Wildling Press, 2026).

Chris Gratien is Associate Professor of History at University of Virginia, where he teaches classes on global environmental history and the Middle East. His first book, The Unsettled Plain: An Environmental History of the Late Ottoman Frontier, explores the social and environmental transformation of the Adana region of Southern Turkey during the 19th and 20th century.

CREDITS

Episode No. 573
Release Date: 31 October 2025
Recording Location: University of Virginia
Sound production and music by Chris Gratien
Bibliography and images courtesy of Perin Gürel available at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2025/10/gurel.html

Türkiye, Iran, and the Politics of Comparison | Perin Gürel

Bax and Nagle 10-31-25

No episódio desta semana, nosso convidado é o advogado e pesquisador
André Bergamaschi, sócio da Bergamaschi e Bozzo Sociedade de Advogados.
A atuação de Bergamaschi se concentra em torno da utilização do processo
civil como instrumento para efetiva resolução de conflitos de outras
áreas, congregando conhecimentos interdisciplinares, o que também se reflete
em sua pesquisa acadêmica. Na entrevista que concede ao nosso Podcast,
além de resgatar sua trajetória profissional, o advogado fala a respeito do
impacto do tarifaço, discutindo, assim, qual deve ser o plano de ação das
empresas a partir das medidas anunciadas pelo governo norte-americano. Será
que empresas que estão prestes a buscar reestruturação de suas dívidas
devem tomar crédito? André Bergamaschi responde essa e outras questões no
Podcast que começa logo a seguir.

Podcast 878 | André Bergamaschi | O que as empresas brasileiras devem fazer após o tarifaço dos EUA

Baxie talks to Rock & Roll Hall of Famer John McFee of the Doobie Bros! Despite being the Doobie’s lead guitar player for the last 46 years, John McFee’s amazing career has taken him from playing with Van Morrison, Steve Miller, Nick Lowe, Rick James, and many others. He was also in the band Clover which not only backed up Elvis Costello on his first album—the band would eventually become Huey Lewis & The News. In 1990 John started a project with Keith Knudsen from the Doobie Bros and Stu Cook from CCR.  Together they recorded an album under the name Jackdawg. Unfortunately, that was shelved before it got released following the death of their manager. The record would go unreleased for 18 years. This year the record is being given a proper reissue on Liberation Hall Records. An amazing story! Listen on Apple, Spotify and YouTube.

Brought to you by Metro Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram of Chicopee!

Baxie's Musical Podcast: John McFee (Doobie Brothers, Jackdawg)

In this episode, Ricardo explains why executives need to understand the logic of project management to make informed strategic decisions. Projects drive organizational changes, such as digital transformation, new products, entry into new markets, and mergers. Without understanding how projects add value and manage risk, leaders may fail to connect strategy to execution. Many focus only on "normal functioning," but the future depends on "business as change." By understanding the dynamics of projects, executives ask better questions, support teams effectively, and build a results-oriented culture. This knowledge helps them keep pace with the organization, prioritize efficiently, and see failures as learning opportunities. True leadership requires learning to think like a project, not like tools, but like governance, critical thinking, and value creation.
Listen to the podcast to learn more!


Executives Who Don’t Understand Projects Can’t Deliver Results

Neste episódio, Ricardo explica por que os executivos precisam entender a lógica da gestão de projetos para tomar decisões estratégicas embasadas. Projetos impulsionam mudanças organizacionais, como transformação digital, novos produtos, entrada em novos mercados e fusões. Sem entender como os projetos agregam valor e gerenciam riscos, os líderes podem não conseguir conectar a estratégia à execução. Muitos se concentram apenas no "funcionamento normal", mas o futuro depende de "negócios como mudança". Ao compreender a dinâmica dos projetos, os executivos fazem perguntas melhores, apoiam as equipes de forma eficaz e constroem uma cultura orientada a resultados. Esse conhecimento os ajuda a acompanhar o ritmo da organização, priorizar com eficiência e enxergar as falhas como oportunidades de aprendizado. A verdadeira liderança exige aprender a pensar como um projeto,  não como ferramentas, mas como governança, pensamento crítico e criação de valor.
Escute o podcast para saber mais.


Executivos que não entendem projetos, não entregam resultados

Bax and Nagle 11-03-25

Bax and Nagle 11-04-25

Ep0003 - Duskers

Core Loop is a podcast about video games and more. A bunch of guys that work in a game studio together take a break from work periodically to talk through the latest games they are playing. Most episodes are about a single game, but we'll change it up from time to time.

