Hey, fintech fam! 💜

Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating this week! Whether you’re enjoying time with family, catching up on rest, or indulging in some well-earned pie, I hope you’re surrounded by loved ones and finding a moment to recharge.

I’m ready to close my laptop shut and take a breather until Monday. But before we all lean fully into holiday mode, let’s talk about two incredible leaders in fintech who are making waves in the industry.

Two women. Two industries that weren’t built for them. Two leaders who decided to rebuild them anyway.

These trailblazers will share their wisdom as keynote speakers at the inaugural Femmy Awards on December 9 in New York City. (You’re coming, right? You’ve got plans with us, don’t forget).

Now, let’s dive into the insights.

LEADERSHIP

There’s something inherently magnetic about people who solve problems the world pretends don’t exist. 

Take Sheila Lirio Marcelo. 

She had a hunch about the enormous significance of the care economy before it became a massive $6 trillion industry.

As a young mother, she needed caregiving solutions for her family. Did she settle for the same endless loops of dead-end Yellow Pages? No.

Instead, she built Care.com in 2007—a successful platform that solved her problem and created a $500 million company that serves as a marketplace for families worldwide.

When she first started building Care.com, Lirio Marcelo admits to being initially insecure about being judged as a female founder and a business founder who solved a predominately female pain point.

With a boost of confidence from mentors, the decision to start Care.com was influenced by three key factors:

Oh, and she did it while making history. Lirio Marcelo became the first Asian-American woman to take a company public and only the seventh woman in history to achieve this milestone. In 2020, Lirio Marcelo oversaw the acquisition of the platform by IAC.

When Lirio Marcelo created Care.com, she wasn’t just building a business but solving a deeply personal problem. It's the kind of problem that keeps you up at 3 a.m., searching for the “emergency nanny near me.”

Lirio Marcelo realized that caregiving was a universal need—yet no one was tackling it with the scale or sophistication required. So she went all in. The result? Care.com grew to 14 million members in 16 countries and became the largest online care marketplace in the world.

Her leadership didn’t stop there. After Care.com’s $500 million acquisition, Lirio Marcelo launched Ohai.ai this year, a platform using AI to transform family care coordination.

Because apparently, one game-changing company isn’t enough for Lirio Marcelo.

According to a 2020 study by Oxfam, as reported by The New York Times, women would have collectively earned a staggering $10.9 trillion in one year if their unpaid caregiving work—averaging four hours daily—were compensated at minimum wage.

Ohai.ai, Lirio Marcelo’s latest venture, is designed to tackle this imbalance head-on.

By giving time back to the “Chief Household Officer”—often women managing caregiving responsibilities—Ohai.ai not only saves precious hours but also empowers women economically, creating more opportunities to put money back into their hands.

It’s a step toward valuing the unseen labor that drives households—and the world—forward.

As a leader, I’ve noticed Lirio Marcelo doesn’t just solve problems; she gets granular.

When launching Ohai.ai, she didn’t rely on intuition alone—she interviewed 200 families to understand their pain points and tested her product with real-world data.

Her secret? A mix of curiosity, grit, and a willingness to embrace the chaos of startup life.

And let’s not forget—she did all this while blazing a trail for women in tech, becoming a pioneer for underrepresented leaders in the public markets.

“I don’t want to be a unicorn; I want to be a farm horse,” Lule Demmissie told me. It’s an analogy as refreshing as it is profound—emphasizing steady, purposeful progress over flash-in-the-pan achievements.

As former CEO of eToro US and a trailblazer in the fintech space, Demmissie has consistently demonstrated that leadership isn’t about speed—it’s about building systems and cultures that stand the test of time.

For founders and CEOs, her philosophy is a masterclass in navigating complexity, creating meaningful change, and leading with authenticity.

For Demmissie, diversity isn’t a feel-good buzzword—it’s a business imperative.

“Homogeneous teams share the same blind spots,” she says. “When you embrace diversity, you mitigate those blind spots and enrich decision-making processes.”

The data backs her up. Research by Boston Consulting Group shows companies with diverse leadership teams generate nearly double the revenue from innovation compared to their less diverse counterparts. However, achieving this diversity requires intentionality.

As a leader, Demmissie ensures that hiring practices, networks, and leadership teams reflect a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. She challenges CEOs to do the same, emphasizing that diversity and merit are not in conflict.

“Only a lazy mind sees them as mutually exclusive,” she explains. “It takes intention and effort, but the results are worth it.”

Demmissie’s multicultural upbringing taught her to see the world through multiple lenses, and she credits her “third eye”—her heightened emotional intelligence—for much of her leadership success.

For fintech founders navigating the high-stakes world of banking, crypto, and innovation, this insight is gold: connect with people where they are, and they’ll go further with you.

Demmissie’s approach to emotional intelligence isn’t abstract—it’s tactical:

The takeaway for CEOs? You don’t have to know everything, but you do need to connect. Start by actively listening to your team—and watch how it transforms your company culture.

As someone who’s weathered three major market crashes—the dot-com bubble, the Global Financial Crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic—Demmissie knows that resilience isn’t about avoiding challenges. It’s about methodically overcoming them.

“As the saying goes, you don’t eat an elephant all at once; you take one bite at a time,” she explains.

For CEOs grappling with the chaos of a rapidly changing fintech landscape, Demmissie’s advice is clear: plan strategically but act incrementally.

This deliberate yet impatient mindset has allowed her to lead with purpose through crises and turn disruption into opportunity. Her advice to leaders:

Demmissie describes herself as a “happy warrior”—someone who combines high-performance leadership with humility and joy. She believes that building a company isn’t just about hitting KPIs; it’s about ensuring that your people find meaning and value in their work.

“To create a high-performing company, you need the sticky glue of a cohesive culture,” she says. And that glue starts with the leader.

Her philosophy is rooted in rejecting false binaries. “We live in an era of ‘and,’” she explains. “Social investing and traditional investing can coexist. Innovation and responsibility can coexist. Inclusivity and merit can coexist.”

For fintech founders navigating an industry at a crossroads—where disruption meets scrutiny—this perspective is critical. By embracing complexity, leaders can innovate responsibly and scale sustainably.

Her challenge to leaders: Are you adaptable enough to harness change, or will it sweep you away?

For those ready to embrace disruption and build something that lasts: take one bite at a time.

Here’s the thing about both powerhouses: their journeys aren’t just about personal success. They’re about creating systems that work for everyone, not just a few.

Lirio Marcelo took the chaos of family care and turned it into a scalable business that now helps millions. Demmissie took the exclusivity of Wall Street and said, “No thanks. Let’s open this up to everyone.”

Both remind us that leadership isn’t about maintaining the status quo. It’s about questioning, challenging, and rebuilding it so that more people can thrive.

And yet, their stories also show us the cost of that kind of leadership. Breaking barriers isn’t glamorous—it’s exhausting. It’s facing rejection after rejection, navigating systemic bias, and showing up daily knowing that the odds aren’t in your favor.

But we do it anyway.

If you’re a founder or just someone trying to figure out how to navigate your career, here’s what Sheila and Lule taught me (and can teach you):

Want to hear Sheila and Lule’s insights firsthand? Join us on Dec 9 at the Femmy Awards, where these two powerhouses will take the stage as our keynote speakers.

Seats are limited, so don’t wait. Come for the inspiration, stay for the community, and leave ready to take on anything. Tickets are here.

See you there.

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Listening to this powerhouse song is an experience like no other. The vocals are incredible, and the music and lyrics are perfectly crafted. As an entrepreneur who faced a challenging—yet fruitful—year while taking ownership of my company, I deeply connect with Elphaba's journey. I’ve had to change—a lot and trust my instincts. It's a sentiment that resonates with all of us, isn't it?

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That’s all for now! See you Thursday!

Love,

Nicole 💜