Welcome to The AFT Podcast!

Episodes

Infrastructure so reliable, our customers forget it exists - Joel Tosi on building payments tech.
May 6, 2026

Infrastructure so reliable, our customers forget it exists - Joel Tosi on building payments tech.

Joel Tosi , the CTO at Moov Financial in this episode talks about the importance of building sustainable payments infrastructure, the future of PSPs, implications of being a tech-first PSP and more! Documentation MCP server (for AI to ingest): https://docs.moov.io/guides/developer-tools/mcp-ai/docs-mcp/ Follow our Substack: https://aftfinance.substack.com/
$1 Trillion in transactions: Notabene, a Swift for crypto solution with Pelle Braendgaard
April 3, 2026

$1 Trillion in transactions: Notabene, a Swift for crypto solution with Pelle Braendgaard

Pelle Braendgaard CEO of Notabene in this episode talks about their solution and how do communication protocols really look like. Notabene allows crypto transactions to carry the information required by the regulators across the globe, making crypto more accessible for business use-cases. Follow my substack with in-depth articles on payments infrastructure! https://aftfinance.substack.com/
Direct TCH and Fed connection: connecting to the metal with Adam Shannon
March 17, 2026

Direct TCH and Fed connection: connecting to the metal with Adam Shannon

In this episode, Adam Shannon , a Founding Engineer at Moov Financial talks about direct integrations with The Clearing House and the Fed. What are the implications of such connections, how do they benefit the end user, improve the flow of funds and who should concern themselves with such connections. Clarification regarding our comments about settlement delays: we talk about payment infrastructure at a high level in this episode, and some examples of settlement timing are simplified. Payments a...
PSP VS a Processor VS Core: covering the basics
Feb. 17, 2026

PSP VS a Processor VS Core: covering the basics

In this episode, I spoke with ⁠ Johnny Moreland ⁠ who covers the core topics that serve as the introduction to the 9-episode long in-depth dive into the payments ecosystem. We will heavily focus on ⁠ Moov Financial ⁠ as the case-study since it has accomplished a lot in this sector (like direct connections to Fed and TCH) and because I now work at Moov:) Clarification: during this interview it was mentioned that Stripe doesn't connect directly to the card networks. This information is outdated an...
Reg E, AML and other compliance requirements explained by Keith Raphael, Founder and CEO of Straddle
Nov. 14, 2025

Reg E, AML and other compliance requirements explained by Keith Raphael, Founder and CEO of Straddle

Keith Raphael , Found and CEO of Straddle in this episode talks about compliance requirements for organizations that move money. We go over the specific examples and go in-depth into each scenario that triggers specific compliance requirements. Key takeaways from the episode: Reg E only applies to consumer transactions Reg Z is applied to debt instruments belonging to the individual consumer. Reg E is applied any time the consumer account is debited electronically. Reg E is the safety net that m...
RTP covered by Cheryl Gurz
Oct. 22, 2025

RTP covered by Cheryl Gurz

Cheryl Gurz Product Manager with RTP at The Clearing House in this episode is explaining the key functionality of RTP and the backend. Here are the key takeaways from the interview: TCH basically works to recoup the losses - they are not for profit. Zelle does instant clearing but not settlement, while RTP is the first network in the US where clearing and settlement are done together on the good funds model. Majority of payments are executed in 3.5 seconds. 5 million of RFPs were processed last ...
Guest: Cheryl Gurz
Money movement behind charity, by Sonia Nigam
Sept. 8, 2025

Money movement behind charity, by Sonia Nigam

Sonia Nigam - Founder and CEO at Change in this episode talks about the money movement behind the scenes of charities. Especially the ones organized and led by corporations. If you have ever wondered what happens when the grocery store asks you to round up your purchase for charity - you'll find answers in this interview! P.S. Apologies for the sound on my side, my computer connected to the wrong microphone. Find our articles covering payment rails in-depth on our Substack: https://aftfinance.su...
Guest: Sonia Nigam
Declined transactions explained + Disputes covered. By Rehman Baig with FlexFactor
Aug. 7, 2025

Declined transactions explained + Disputes covered. By Rehman Baig with FlexFactor

Rehman Baig , CPO at FlexFactor in this episode talks about combating transaction declines and disputes. How the process of underwriting looks like, how are funds reclaimed, what the end-user sees and how it all operates under the hood. Follow us on Substack here for more in-depth coverage of interesting topics like OCT, Pre-Debiting, ACH disputes and much more: https://aftfinance.substack.com/ Rehman's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rehmanb/
Guest: Rehman Baig
Fund collections getting creative: Michael Kaplan with PayNearMe
July 15, 2025

Fund collections getting creative: Michael Kaplan with PayNearMe

In this episode we cover exactly what the title suggests: pay-ins. Specifically focusing on the use-cases like repayment of outstanding debts such as tolls due, phone bills overdue etc. Covering a wide array of pay-in options and explaining how they operate, how the funds get attributed to each user and how the backend of the operations looks like. Michael Kaplan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelkaplan2/ PayNearMe: https://home.paynearme.com/ AFT Substack: https://aftfinance.substa...
Buy Now Pay Later - how does it work and what happens behind the scenes? By Jiakai Guo, VP at Sound Point Capital Management
June 17, 2025

Buy Now Pay Later - how does it work and what happens behind the scenes? By Jiakai Guo, VP at Sound Point Capital Management

Jiakai Guo - Vice President at Sound Point Capital Management in this episode goes in-depth on how Buy Now Pay Later system operates. How does the capital flow look like, how is this form of debt being treated, what are the delinquency rates and of course, can this serve as an indicator of the country's economic health. P.S. Apologies for the quality of sound on my side, the system defaulted to the wrong microphone and I've missed it. Find us on Substack: https://aftfinance.substack.com/ Our off...
Guest: Jiakai Guo
Building the payment system with Casey Hingtgen
June 3, 2025

Building the payment system with Casey Hingtgen

Casey Hingtgen⁠ - COO of ⁠Whale⁠ in this episode talks about the process of building a system of pulling and pushing without inter-mingling the funds.Goal of the system in question:- making sure that money is guaranteed to the landlords. Ability to lock the funds in the FDIC-insured funds.- for the renter (user): easy to fund the account. As frictionless as possible.Find us on Substack and join 7k+ people who read about payments' intricacies every month! ⁠https://aftfinance.substack.com/
How do credit card points work? By Troy Dennis
May 12, 2025

How do credit card points work? By Troy Dennis

It's exactly how it sounds like - read the title:) Here are some of the specific questions we've covered during the interview: - Travel cards, let's start with the definition here - what is it and how is it different from a regular credit card? - How do the reward points work? Who offers them and why? - What actually happens when you click "redeem points" to, say, book a rental car for your trip? How do these funds settle on the backend? - If the cash equivalent is sent to the provider (car rent...
Guest: Troy Dennis
Stock voting rights and fund settlement for buying stocks. By Spencer Hurst of MercuryVote
April 18, 2025

Stock voting rights and fund settlement for buying stocks. By Spencer Hurst of MercuryVote

Spencer Hurst, Founder of MercuryVote in this episode explains how stock voting rights operate, how they can be bought and sold (rented) and how the funds flow when a stock or a share of a mutual fund is purchased.Brace yourselves for a deep dive into the confusing space of STONKS.Spencer's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencerhhurst/MercuryVote website: https://www.mercuryvote.com/AFT's website: https://www.aft.finance/AFT's substack: https://aftfinance.substack.com/
Credit Unions explained. By Wesley Walton
March 27, 2025

Credit Unions explained. By Wesley Walton

Wesley Walton - CEO of Glendale Area Schools Credit Union [GASCU] in this episode takes a deep dive into the structure and operations of credit unions. GASCU's website: https://gascu.org/ Our substack: https://aftfinance.substack.com/ Our website: https://www.aft.finance/ How do credit unions make decisions, what are the key differences between commercial banks and credit unions, who should consider joining a CU and much more. Key notes that I took during the interview: Glendale Area Schools Cre...
How does Card processing work? With Marshall Greenwald, Founder of Ionia
March 10, 2025

How does Card processing work? With Marshall Greenwald, Founder of Ionia

Marshall Greenwald , the Founder of Ionia in this episode digs deep into the souls (backend) of card processing. Marshall's LinkedIn for those who don't know how to use hyperlinks: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marshall-greenwald-9480351/ Ionia's website: https://www.ioniapay.com/ AFT's Substack: https://aftfinance.substack.com/ AFT's website: https://www.aft.finance/ Here are the questions we've covered during the interview: - tell us the rough outline of how the current credit/debit card process...
Building early sales team: Pt 2. By Terry Husayn
Nov. 21, 2023

Building early sales team: Pt 2. By Terry Husayn

Terry Husayn (Talha), VP of Technical engagement and a member of the founding team at Orum . In this part Terry spoke about the process of building an early stage sales team - from the ground up. Specifically we focused on hiring, training and creating compensation plans for BDRs and SDRs. Some mentions from the episode: Winning an SDR interview, Terry's blog Betts recruiting - recruiting AlwaysHired - SDR school Shift Group - shiftgroup.io - recruiting Terry's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com...
Cold Calling done right: Pt1. By Terry Husayn
Oct. 26, 2023

Cold Calling done right: Pt1. By Terry Husayn

Terry Husayn (Talha), VP of Technical engagement and a member of the founding team at Orum in this episode talks about the following: - intro to cold-calling, who needs to do it and why - testing of the outreach strategy - specifics of outreach Databases of emails/phone numbers: Zoominfo Apollo LeadIQ Lusha Intent based signals tracking can be done here: Sixth Sense Tool to capture your website visitors: Warmly Terry's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/talhahusayn/ Link to Orum: https://www....
Creating drip campaigns and running proof of concept - Territory Planning Pt. 2 with Amjed Aboukhadijeh
June 12, 2023

Creating drip campaigns and running proof of concept - Territory Planning Pt. 2 with Amjed Aboukhadijeh

Amjed Aboukhadijeh - head of sales at Socket. In this part he takes a deeper dive into the specific strategies included in the territory planning, more specifically - creating drip campaigns and running a POC (Proof Of Concept) that has a much greater success rate.Here is the link to a spreadsheet template that you can use to run your Proof Of Concept: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16RFCe-VnSILzZerdbdPsajKSsfNQHzbKxcVIG48ngYk/edit?usp=sharingThis is the second episode of two that we've had with Amjed, you can listen to part 1 here.
Territory planning Pt 1. With Amjed Aboukhadijeh
May 31, 2023

Territory planning Pt 1. With Amjed Aboukhadijeh

Amjed Aboukhadijeh - head of sales at Socket, talks about the importance of territory planning in the sales process. He explains what steps does territory planning consist of and how you should work on each step.This is the first episode of two that we'll have with Amjed - part 2 will be focused on very specific strategies that were mentioned in Pt 1 (this episode) so stay tuned!
Identifying Sales Talent the right way. By Lucas Price
May 16, 2023

Identifying Sales Talent the right way. By Lucas Price

Lucas Price , Founder and CEO at Yardstick in this episode talks about asking the right questions, using structured interviews and scorecards to identify sales talent. Who by Geoff Smart and Randy Street https://a.co/d/fBJf66l A VP of Sales Hiring Scorecard For Startups…Get it Right the First Time https://avenuetalentpartners.com/2021/06/27/vp-sales-hiring-scorecard-startups/ What to Know Before You Interview Your Next Sales Candidate https://www.yardstick.team/post/what-to-know-before-you-inter...
Guest: Lucas Price
Selling early - 1st episode of the new season of Fundraising Radio!
1
May 4, 2023

Selling early - 1st episode of the new season of Fundraising Radio!

For our long-standing followers asking if we haven't released any new episodes in the past 8 months because we died - no we haven't, still kicking it! This new season of Fundraising Radio will be still catered to our old listeners but this time the focus will be on sales for early stage startups that have nothing to their name. Why? Because with the ongoing recession and great fears for the future of the US economy, more and more investors become conservative and want to see sales before they in...
Guest: Lisa Falzone
Equity crowdfunding explained by VP at Community Round Fundraising (Wefunder), Jonny Price
June 26, 2022

Equity crowdfunding explained by VP at Community Round Fundraising (Wefunder), Jonny Price

Jonny Price , VP of Fundraising at Community Round Fundraising ( Wefunder ) in this episode talks about equity crowdfunding, process that founders need to undergo to have a successful crowd-funded round and more. We've also talked about the major pitfalls in said process and how to prepare for those. Jonny's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonnyprice/ Community Round Fundraising's site: https://wefunder.com/ SPVs (Special Purpose Vehicles) explained by the CEO of Assure: https://www.fundra...
Guest: Jonny Price
Hiring fundraising advisors. By Martin Hall, TEN Capital Network
June 12, 2022

Hiring fundraising advisors. By Martin Hall, TEN Capital Network

Hall Martin , Founder and CEO at TEN Capital Network that raised over $900 million for its clients, in this episode talks about hiring fundraising advisors who can connect you to the right capital. We spoke about different regulations around fundraising and of course, about hiring experts for your fundraising round and whether it's worth it or not. Hall's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/halltmartin/ TEN Capital Network - connecting investors with startups: https://tencapital.group/
Guest: Hall Martin
Running a company out of Ukraine and preparing to raise. By Alyona Mysko
May 20, 2022

Running a company out of Ukraine and preparing to raise. By Alyona Mysko

Alyona Mysko, CEO & Founder at Fuelfinance in this episode talks about the story of her company and the effects that the war has on it and its future plans. Hint: no giving up in sight and Fuelfinance is preparing to raise soon while expanding!
Guest: Alyona Mysko