Tearsheet is a leading modern media publication, a daily must-read among influencers obsessed with the future of money.

Based in New York City, Tearsheet has deep experience identifying and analyzing existing and future trends, in its coverage of rising startups raising new capital to the digital moves of the largest players in finance and investing.

Tearsheet was launched as Tradestreaming in 2007 and has been an active participant in the rise of the global fintech industry. In 2016, it was acquired and relaunched by Digiday Media. In 2017, it was rebranded to Tearsheet.

Tearsheet Podcast: Exploring financial services together

The GENIUS Act brings regulatory clarity to stablecoins, but Conduit CEO Kirill Gertman argues that clarity alone won't guarantee success. Banks face a choice between building their own infrastructure or becoming the pipes for others.

Kirill Gertman has watched the stablecoin industry evolve from multiple angles. He spent nearly two decades in financial services before founding Conduit in 2021, including six years in crypto and a stint as VP of product at BRD, which became Coinbase Wallet. His company grew 16x in 2024 by solving a practical problem: businesses in emerging markets were accumulating stablecoins to hedge against local currency volatility but couldn't use those balances in their day-to-day operations. Conduit now works with tier-one banks and multinational corporations, processing billions in cross-border payments. And with the GENIUS Act bringing the first comprehensive regulatory framework for stablecoins in the United States, Gertman argues the legislation's passage raises as many strategic questions as it answers—particularly for banks that have been sitting on the sidelines.

Today, we'll explore why the GENIUS Act matters, the critical difference between stablecoins and deposit tokens, what strategy banks should actually pursue, and where Gertman sees the industry heading as major players race to build vertically integrated stacks.

Why every bank now needs a stablecoin strategy (whether they like it or not)

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller.

SMBs have taken it on the chin during this crisis.

Nicole Jass, senior vice president of small business and fraud products at FIS joins us to discuss how small business needs have changed and how FIS has responded with product and an evolving product roadmap. The payments technology firm has rolled out upgrades and new products for customers in the past couple of months and Nicole checks in to describe how they’re using them.

Nicole Jass is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

FIS' Nicole Jass on helping SMBs with new products during this crisis

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller.

Artificial intelligence in finance has long been overhyped, but AI is making an impact in lending decisions. Online lender Upstart exemplifies how the set of technologies can expand lenders’ inclusiveness without necessarily taking on any more risk.

Paul Gu, a co-founder at Upstart, joins us on the podcast to talk about his firm’s new AI-powered credit decisioning API that’s letting banks and other lenders deliver instant credit decisions for auto, personal, and student loans. We discuss Upstart’s performance during COVID as well.

Paul Gu is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast

Upstart's Paul Gu: 'AI is a mindboggling change in the economics of lending'

Welcome to Tearsheet’s Outlier Briefing. This subscriber-only content is exclusive for our Outlier members. We go deeper with subject matter experts, to take actionable steps that can impact your business and practice.

Rina Plapler has been working in brand strategy for over 20 years. That means she’s worked with many of today’s top financial brands with market positioning, messaging, and their product portfolios. As a partner at MBLM, she was instrumental in creating her firm’s research on brand intimacy — the emotional science that measures the bonds we form with the brands we use and love. She’s applied this research to the financial industry in an effort to rank the companies and characteristics that make for today’s strongest brands.

Rina joins to discuss what makes up brand intimacy and how emotional people feel around financial services. We look at her rankings and the attributes of today’s strongest financial brands. Lastly, she provides advice to companies to make themselves into more intimate brands.

To hear the full audio and to access all of our exclusive, member-only material, head on over to Tearsheet.co/outlier

Outlier Briefing: MBLM's Rina Plapler on improving brand intimacy in financial services

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller.

Student lending is undergoing a significant transformation. Earnest 

Earnest has refinanced over $10 billion for over 124,000 people, helping them pay off their debt and giving them the financial capital to reach their goals.

The company combines design and data to build an innovative model for consumer lending, available through a simple, easy to use mobile application. David Green, chief product officer at Earnest, joins us on the podcast to talk about lending in our economic environment, as well as the firm’s relatively new product, in-school student loans. Lastly, we talk about the lender’s product pipeline.

David Green is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Earnest's David Green on student lending in the current economic environment

A few weeks back, payments API firm, Galileo launched Instant, which dramatically simplifies and accelerates launching a debit card — taking what can be a multi-month process and turning it into a couple of weeks. Galileo claims it had hundreds of companies signed up for a beta when it went live and the interest is still very strong. Founder and CEO Clay Wilkes talked about Instant when he addressed Tearsheet’s Resilience Conference a couple of weeks ago. 

Galileo Managing Director Cole Wilkes joins us on the podcast today to talk more about Instant.

Galileo's Clay Wilkes on launching Galileo Instant

Tearsheet is news, opinion, and analysis on the business of finance.

Candid conversations with senior executives, fintech entrepreneurs, investors, industry experts -- all weigh in on the trends impacting the industry and the disruptive impact technology is having on the business.

Where social media, technology and finance intersect.