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Hey, fintech fam 💜

Before we get into today’s column, I have something fun to share: I just finished my final stand-up comedy class. Yes, really.

For the past seven weeks, I’ve been secretly taking stand-up classes here in NYC — partly to sharpen my storytelling and stage presence, partly to force myself to have a hobby as a founder (which, let me tell you, is much easier said than done).

Maybe one day I’ll write about how stand-up comedy is basically B2B sales with better lighting. (Kidding. Sort of.)

But for now, there’s plenty happening in fintech — and two powerhouse interviews from the past have been top of mind as I think about where this industry is headed next.

Let’s get into it ✨

_#SPONSORED

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✍🏽 _{ON LEADERSHIP}

Stripe’s Asya Bradley and Candidly’s Laurel Taylor Are Building Fintech’s Third Era

Before fintech had multi-billion dollar exits and Super Bowl ads, it had a core mission.

Access.

Then it had a second act: scale. Embedded finance. Infrastructure. APIs as the new oil.

Now we’re in something different. A third era.

And if you want to understand where it’s going, watch the women building it.

In October, I interviewed Asya Bradley on stage in San Francisco.

Bradley has spent two decades inside fintech’s engine room. She helped architect early banking-as-a-service models. She co-founded neobank Kinly. Today, she leads venture capital partnerships at Stripe — arguably one of the most consequential infrastructure companies in modern fintech.

From that vantage point, she sees hundreds of companies claiming to “do AI.”

During our interview, she leaned forward and said something that hasn’t left me:

“If we don’t take a strong leading role in AI, we’ll end up doing what fintech did in the beginning — building things we didn’t necessarily need, and then trying to catch up.”

It wasn’t dramatic. It was matter-of-fact.

We’ve seen this movie before.

Phase One: Access

The first era of fintech cracked open the system.

According to data from Plaid’s Fintech Effect report, fintech adoption has helped increase access to financial services by double digits across underserved communities over the last decade. 

Millions of Americans who were once unbanked or underbanked now use digital tools to move money, save, invest, and build credit.

That mattered. It still does.

But access alone doesn’t build wealth.

Phase Two: Scale

The second era was about infrastructure.

APIs. Banking-as-a-Service. Real-time payments. Platforms powering platforms. Stripe became the rails for global entrepreneurship. Fintech companies stopped asking, “Can we build this?” and started asking, “How fast can we scale it?”

Efficiency became the metric.

Speed became the culture.

Which brings us to now.

Phase Three: Intelligence

Bradley’s point wasn’t that AI is dangerous. It’s that AI is decisive.

“If you can’t explain what AI does in your product in one sentence,” she told me, “you’re probably not using it.”

That line has become my personal litmus test.

At Stripe, Bradley works with founders integrating AI not as a marketing term, but as infrastructure — underwriting, fraud prevention, onboarding, compliance. Not replacing humans. Augmenting them.

“I don’t believe in using AI to replace humanity,” she said. “AI is here to amplify it.”

Amplification is different from automation.

And that’s where Laurel Taylor comes in.

Taylor didn’t enter fintech because it was trendy. She entered because she saw a clear business model to solve the $1.8 trillion student debt burden, shaping an entire generation’s financial trajectory.

What she understood early — and what too few people talk about — is that student debt isn’t just a monthly payment problem. It’s a compounding problem. Years of missed investing. Missed retirement growth. Missed wealth.

So she built Candidly.

Rather than chasing direct-to-consumer downloads, she embedded Candidly into employers, retirement platforms, and financial institutions. She built distribution into infrastructure.

And now she’s applying AI to one of the most consequential personal finance problems of our time.

Candidly’s AI-powered tool, Cait, doesn’t trade stocks or generate headlines. It analyzes repayment plans, retirement match provisions under SECURE 2.0, tax-advantaged savings vehicles, and guides borrowers toward decisions that could change the arc of their financial lives.

This year, Candidly released its 2025 Annual Impact Report. The gains:

• $2.3 billion in projected student debt impact

• $66 million in projected additional retirement savings

• A 121% increase in new employers offering the platform

What’s also notable is how it’s used:

• 71% of users click through to relevant next steps when prompted by Cait — materially higher than traditional product exploration rates, according to the company’s 2025 Annual Impact Report. 

• 61% of returning users explore new financial topics through it, suggesting that guidance, when contextual and continuous, actually changes behavior.

That’s the difference between adding “AI as chatbot” and building financial agency.

When Taylor told me, “AI doesn’t just need to be embedded in products — it needs to be embedded in the boardroom,” she wasn’t talking about tech stacks. She was talking about governance. Responsibility. Alignment.

Because this third era isn’t about adding AI.

It’s about deciding what we want AI to do.

If the first era was about inclusion and the second was about scale, this third era is about intentional intelligence.

Fintech no longer sits at the edge of finance. It is finance.

Which means the stakes are higher.

The question isn’t: Can we build it?

It’s: Should we build it this way?

Bradley is asking that from inside Stripe’s global infrastructure machine.

Taylor is answering it from inside employer-sponsored wealth ecosystems.

Both are building companies that don’t treat AI as spectacle — but as leverage in service of real financial outcomes.

And both will be in the room on March 2 in New York City at the second-annual FEMMY Awards.

Not as honorees alone — though Asya is receiving the Vanguard Award this year — but as co-builders of the room.

Why the Room Matters

Over the past two years, building Fintech Is Femme and The Academy of Fintech, I’ve watched this dynamic unfold in real time. Partnerships move faster when trust is built face-to-face. Capital allocators commit with greater conviction when relationships are formed offline. 

Operators share the insights that never make it to a public stage — the real lessons, the real numbers, the real strategy.

Content may spark the right attention.

Community builds the right deal flow.

Nothing meaningful in fintech happens alone. It happens in rooms — rooms where partnerships are negotiated, revenue pipelines are accelerated, and influence compounds quietly but powerfully.

That’s why we built The Academy of Fintech. And it’s why the FEMMYs are not only an awards ceremony — they are a convening of the leaders shaping fintech’s third era in real time.

This year’s co-hosts and their networks include:

• Laurel Taylor (Candidly)

• Asya Bradley (Stripe)

• Kay Koplovitz (Springboard Enterprises)

• Susan Langer (Spave)

• Allie Coleman (Aprio)

They aren’t just attending.

They’re building the stage.

We have a few tables left for March 2.

If you want to be in the room where fintech’s third era is being built — not just observed — now’s the moment.

Because access was step one. Scale was step two.

Intelligence — applied with intention — is next.

And the leaders shaping it are already in the room.

Join us – let’s build. 

🎤_{ON HUMANS OF FINTECH}

The App That’s Delivered $1 Billion in Student Loan Savings

Throwback episode of Humans of Fintech featuring Laurel Taylor.

🎥 Watch the full episode here.

_{NEW YORK FINTECH WEEK 2026}

Haven’t you heard? Finech Is Femme, Fiat Growth, and Identity Strategies are producing this year’s official New York Fintech Week Conference.

Introducing, FTW: NYC, a three-day, targeted conference experience bringing fintech’s most influential brands and leaders together across innovation, leadership, and security — in the global center of financial innovation.

Interested in sponsoring? I’m already in conversations with iconic brands to shape this stage. Reply to this email and let’s make sure your company has a standout presence at New York Fintech Week. We’re running low on inventory — now’s the time to chat!

Interested in speaking? I love hearing smart, compelling content pitches. We design each stage in close collaboration with our core partners, then thoughtfully expand the lineup with voices that bring fresh perspectives, credibility, and substance to the conversation.

_{I WANT IT, I GOT IT}

• 📚 Today’s Read: My colleague keeps leaving book recommendations at my apartment — and one I fully intend to read (someday, when I come up for air) is The Wedding People by Alison Espach. Which feels especially on-theme considering I’m also planning my own wedding this year. Timing? Impeccable. Bandwidth? Questionable.

• 🎬 Today’s Watch: I finally watched Marcello Hernandez’s Netflix special — and it’s so good. Smart, sharp, culturally on point. Sharing a clip I found online below, but I highly recommend watching the full set if you need a laugh this week.

• 💫 Today’s Activity: Speaking of stand-up… I’ve been quietly taking comedy classes here in NYC for the past seven weeks 👀 And this Saturday, I might be performing for the first time. If you’re around and want to see me attempt jokes instead of fintech analysis, reply to this email and I’ll send you the details.

_FINTUNES

🎵 Victoria Monét - Stop

_{LET’S CONNECT}

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📣 Promote yourself to 50,000 subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter or the Humans of Fintech podcast.

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📚 Increase your expertise by ordering your copy of my book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World.

That’s all for now! See you on Thursday.

Love,

Nicole 💜