S5: Episode 1: Driving Growth and Innovation in Fintech with Cyrus Taheri

In this engaging episode of the Georgia Fintech Academy Podcast, Executive Director Laura Gibson-Lamothe and guest co-host Didier Lopez-Presiga, a recent graduate of Kennesaw State University and current Acuity Brands intern, are joined by Cyrus Taheri, Chief Growth Officer at True North. Together, they explore the dynamic world of fintech, delving into Cyrus's professional journey, the innovative strategies driving growth at True North, and the key industry trends. From market expansion to customer-centric growth, this episode is packed with insights for aspiring fintech professionals and industry veterans alike. Tune in for a deep dive into the future of fintech and the leadership that propels it forward.

Georgia Fintech Academy
https://www.georgiafintechacademy.org/

LinkedIn (Georgia Fintech Academy)
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Transcript

Driving Growth and Innovation in Fintech with Cyrus Taheri_08232024

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Georgia FinTech Academy podcast. The Georgia FinTech Academy is a collaboration between Georgia's FinTech industry and the University System of Georgia. This talent development initiative addresses a massive demand for FinTech professionals and gives learners the specialized education experiences needed to enter the FinTech sector.

Welcome back to another episode of the Georgia Fintech Academy podcast. Today we have an exciting duo here with us for the conversation around driving growth and innovation in fintech. We are really looking forward to having a series of content this fall semester. Which really highlights the variety of functions and roles in the fintech industry, but then dives deeply into some emerging trends that we're seeing in the [00:01:00] industry as well.

And so I'm really excited to have today on the call Cyrus Tahiri, who I met through our ICBA friends and have, continue to see the moves that he's making with True North and just as an industry leader in this segment we'll cover a couple of topics that I think really are relevant for our student community but complementing that, we also have Didlier Lopez Presiga, who is a recent graduate from KSU and also acquainted with the Georgia FinTech Academy as well he will be doing a lot of heavy lifting in this particular conversation.

And so I'm just really excited to have the both of you on the call today. And thought we'll start off with Delia, just you doing an introduction of yourself and your background story. Thank you, Laura. I'm excited to be here. So as you mentioned, I just graduated from Kennesaw State University with a master's in fintech back in May.

And I'm currently pursuing my [00:02:00] MBA as well with University of Florida. And I, I, before getting into fintech, I was in the healthcare field. And then I found out about being pin tech and I love it. Had a lot of experience working at F I S and now I'm working with the Q 80 brands as a technical product manager intern, which hopefully will turn into a full time job starting in September.

So I'm very excited. That's exciting. There's so much going on with you. It's just thinking about, some of the conversations we've had offline. The time management piece and how you're able to navigate, facilitating all of these, different pieces. How do you remain sane?

 Have to do list for everything I write everything down. I have a to do list on my co and I have a calendar. I have to do list on my computer. I feel like that's the only way I know how to manage my time correctly and just jotting down things and checking off things at the end of the day.

Like inspiring and relieving at the same [00:03:00] time to know that I did all that. But I'm like you. I'm always trying to do everything that I can and put a lot of my plate, but I enjoy the process and actually enjoy doing them. I love to hear that. Yeah, I think that's a key insight to take for our students.

As we jump into this podcast today. Your ability to network and to gain exposure through a lot of the work that you're doing is really effective. I think we constantly try to pass that message along to our students who are also looking to engage with the industry and to build a network as well.

Yeah. Yeah, you do a great job at that. So I'll turn it over to you to set the stage for our introduction for Cyrus. Sure. Cyrus, we're very thankful to have you here with us. I know you have an array of experience in the FinTech industry. Can you share a bit about your early career and what were some pivotal moments That led you to your current role as the chief growth [00:04:00] officer at true north.

Yeah, of course. Hey, so thank you for having me number one. I think and I love the comment about time management because I just adopted a puppy. And I think my time management do I completely out of whack. I'm trying to get it back into it. I think. And I agree, to do lists and so forth.

For me, it's all calendar based and also ignoring and trying to prioritize, right? You pick, you have to pick your battles, right? What matters, what would make the, what would make the difference versus what would not, right? And sometimes we have to. But anyway, so my name is Sarah. I live in Charlotte, North Carolina.

And I'm, I grew up in Venezuela. So I'm originally from Venezuela. And and I started my career. I studied production engineering in Venezuela. And but I never really. Worked as an engineer per se. Being able to solve problems and being able to tackle things and break things down into smaller problems are things you learn as an engineer in a lot of processes and or, how you [00:05:00] organize how you tackle problems.

I think that's the most I probably got out of being an engineer. I never. Necessarily coded, even though I understand it. I did coding the beginning when, you know, but very lightweight because basically it was something you needed to do. But I went straight into consulting when I got out of school, actually before school, I did my internship in Accenture, a consulting company.

And I grew up a lot in there. So I got a lot of learnings there. That when you're in your early careers in a consulting organization, they usually. Basically, try to get you exposed to many things. And so you do a little bit of everything, whether it's business requirements, whether it's understanding a business, whether it is asking questions, questionnaires, interviewing clients.

And so with through that, you learn a lot. You learn a lot about people, you learn about how to work with people, how to get information, how to consume that, how to present it, right? A lot of pressure in cleaning up, presenting data, trying to [00:06:00] be factual basis, trying to be to the point. So I learned a lot through that.

I worked a lot in, I was not in the financial services industry back then in 2000 and five. No, actually, two thousand and three. And but I was doing M and a work. Mergers and acquisitions work, helping clients integrate process systems, people. And so I did that for about three years or so, and then I ended up doing my masters in University of South Carolina in in Columbia.

And that's when, after I finished my MBA I went back into Accenture, but in this time, I joined their financial services firm or side of the business. And in there, I was not in the strategy and consulting where I used to be, I was more in the system integration. And technology work.

So I was definitely then exposed to business transformation. From a technology perspective, I worked in big [00:07:00] banks, right? Mostly doing different parts of modernization programs. I was also more in the ERP world back in the day was quite popular, being able to automate things and then little by little, what happens is you grow.

And you're exposed to all these little pieces of technology. And one thing led to another, and I ended up leading the banking ecosystem for Accenture globally, it was a large business, but a lot of it was, how do you solution or bring value to our customers from the ecosystem? And that's when I started getting into FinTech, right?

That's when you start meeting all these FinTech providers, large and small. All sorts of sizes, big established firms or startups. And that's the trick was. When and how you introduce those to the right customers, how can they get the value, when would they get the value? And so that exposed me to a very different world that I ended up living in forever, right?

That's the world I live in the ecosystem. And that's how I ended up, I guess I ended up by, [00:08:00] by chance, right? But I, once you get exposed to this world and you really like it, it's very hard to get out of it because you really enjoy, it's one of those things. So anyway, that's how I ended up, I guess where I ended up.

I'll just add to that that's fascinating because I'm like a lot of students and you probably have this experience as well, speaking to other students, they figured at graduation, they have it all figured out. I'm graduating with this degree. This is the opportunity in the market.

And this is the role or the function or what my career path looks like, but you've, you've had to make pivots and adjustments along the way. And it's exposed you to more opportunities too, is what I'm hearing as well, Cyrus. A hundred percent. I think I definitely had no idea what I was going to do, or I thought I was going to, follow these linear career paths that everybody thinks especially when you're young.

Yeah. And then. Little by little, you learn that you, you learn to learn, right? You start getting curious and also I had, I was one of the biggest things for me and still is that I [00:09:00] always surround myself with mentors, right? Whether, and these are not necessarily Only experience in the I was lucky to have probably amazing guidance bosses, mentors, but I also had good peers, and even younger individuals that you just need to learn from too.

So then is when you start pivoting, right? Because, it exposes you to all these different opportunities and then you can then, hopefully follow your own, your own path or carve your own path. Yes, I love that you mentioned the mentorship side. I'm also huge on finding a mentor and because it helps with networking opportunities and also helps you guide your career path.

One of the things I'm actually going to start soon with KSU is a alumni mentorship program within the fintech masters. So for us who have graduated, we can mentor current students and also we can bring some industry leaders as well to mentor alumni and the current students as well.

So it's in the works. So I think it'll happen. Oh, that's [00:10:00] so cool. And by the way, you mentioned you're from Venezuela from Colombia. So very cool. Figured. I figured I could tell a little bit. I gave it away. A little bit of the name, the accent. I always say that, I don't think I have an accent just to let you know.

You spoke about your career path and now how you're at True North and now you're the chief growth officer. So I guess I have a two part question. So what are your primary responsibilities as the chief growth officer? And can you walk us through how you contribute to driving growth and innovation within the company?

Because, as True North, it's a very innovative company within the fintech industry. So how do you contribute to that? Awesome. So I appreciate the question. I joined true north maybe about three years back as I was just I was in my previous role. I was working in a in a in a progressive fintech and true north became my [00:11:00] delivery partner then.

And we had joint clients and I was, I started gravitating towards them. I really like their culture, like their people qualities phenomenal, very that, that geeky type culture, that they are more rolling their sleeves and getting things done type people very smart and very sharp.

About three years back I got pretty close to their leadership team and they invited me to join as an advisor to their board. And so I was on the outside looking in and I was always trying to. It's easy that it's easier than actually, being in a company's being outside looking in because you say a couple of things and then you walk away.

But with them, I think it was really, it started to, I started to get more and more involved. I got closer and closer to that executive team and their culture. Actually, delivery and a lot of the team members in Argentina also. And then they called me about a year ago and said, Hey, the we're looking to, inject some investment into the company.

We want to grow. We need somebody that, maybe can help us out. And that one thing led to another. And I ended [00:12:00] up in this role, right? The. I think one of the things that the way I approach the role and I explain what the role entails, right? But is that you got to be very clear on what are your strengths and weaknesses, right?

So I do believe that among many other things, I can bring a lot of network into this organization. So I've been around for, I'm old. I'm very old and so I have a lot of people I know, but through my career, one thing I learned is that this world is very small and so and I enjoy working with these people.

And at the end of the day, it's a people business. So once you go to these fintech events, I know these people they know me and there is a reputation that I'm trying to maintain and as well. I try to help everybody and they help me. So I always say that my superpower is that I have a network, but the network, my network is rooting for me, right?

That's what I say. I always think that I got people in places in many places that would go out of their way to make sure that. [00:13:00] I'm successful and they know I will do the same for them. And so great. So I think that I can bring that value to true north and I explain how, but I also knew that I'm not like super organized person.

I'm not like a program manager and, execution of things. I need help with. And you know what that I want, you got to pick your battles. And in this one I just have people around me or, that, that are way better than me on those things. And if you are able to supplement yourself with that, then you don't have to be perfect in every single thing that you do, right?

You just need to have the perfect team or the perfect mix of people. So with that, in true North I came in. And usually the way I approach growth is through, basically through partnerships. I do believe that organizations obviously will always have a direct business and but that direct business is always going to be.

Constrained by the size of that business and the reach of that business. So if I have two salespeople and three business [00:14:00] development, that's about it. Five people. But if I have partner one that has 10 people, then I have partner two that has 20, then I have partner three in the right places with the right relationships.

Then you're. Amplifying your network significantly, and it's not just the network, but the reach you start getting into people understanding what you do. People almost becoming your evangelizing the organization that you work in and you start reaching places that you would probably never being able to reach in a meaningful way.

So for me, partnerships and, you can call them alliances, partnerships or, channels. All that for me is critical in almost any organization. I don't know anyone that would not have a, any successful organization that hasn't really work on these channel partnership world.

I think that's key. So that's one. The other one is, grow as a growth officer. My agenda is that true north. Originated the work of true North originated in [00:15:00] FinTech. So true North was the organization that built lending club and upgrade and many other FinTechs. And these are FinTech unicorns today, right?

They are over a billion dollar valuation. Lending club already acquired a bank. That's how big they are, right? They're quite radius bank upgrade, massive growth in. And with that, we, true North went and built, from a technology delivery perspective. So they were able to build soup to nuts.

They build these organizations as fintechs. They build many other lender technology banks or lender technology fintechs, and over time, what happens is all these lend lenders and fintechs wanted to provide some sort of embedded banking or banking as a service type. And so true north, then Started to add that to our repertoire, right?

We started adding how do we connect to the ecosystem to activate banking as a service? How do we glue the different fintechs to provide neobanks with a better experience? And with that, we started launching. We launched about [00:16:00] 11 neobanks in the United States with the past. Or four or five years into the point that these companies has a very strong, let's say, muscle memory on how to build these things.

A lot of reusable assets, a lot of accelerators. We learn for every implementation and in that implementation, the next one should be shorter, faster, et cetera. And but then, as you probably know the fintech world is now in a bit of a, Let's say in a constraining environment, right?

There is less funding. There is less money out there for people to just build things or do things. So everything became a little bit harder, right? From a business perspective, and that impacted a little bit of true north. They're looking at the future, right? They see a few years down the road.

And so true north main objective today is to diversify a bit. Mhm. On our only on fintech focus, but not getting away from fintech. And so what our strategy and our go to market is today is we're now working with traditional banks and [00:17:00] traditional, community banks, credit unions who really want to consume the fintech experience.

And so we believe that because we build the fintech. We can integrate the fintechs, we build next generation lending, next generation, neobanks or digital banks. That's exactly who they, these institutions want to become or at least want to consume those capabilities. So now TrueNorth is not that we're pivoting away from fintech, but our fintechs became our partners now.

Versus our clients. So our fintechs became our partners and our fintechs now are getting connected to banks via TrueNorth, basically, we're the system integrator. And so for me, my job as a growth officer is how do I amplify that? How do I get to that banking world? How do I create the brand and the trust in the banking institutions that we already have in fintech?

And so as a growth officer, you're looking at brand or marketing, you're looking at partnerships, you're looking at obviously a revenue, you're looking at MNA, you're looking at any type of like [00:18:00] the relationship with the ICBA, that for us, again, these are very meaningful, very strong relationships we're building that we believe They see our commitment to these segments and hopefully, for true north.

He means that we would eventually grow in this space. So forgive you a little bit of an idea of my agenda as growth officer for true north. That's amazing. It seems it looks like you need to know pretty much a little bit about everything from marketing to program management. To like you say, mergers and acquisitions.

So I'm sure this role comes with its own challenges. So can you tell us about some of the biggest challenges you face at True North and how you managed to turn those into successes? Sure, I agree, right? So that every everyone has challenges, right? But I think the, one of the key things is that we could have, I could start tomorrow with 35.

It's strategic initiatives in then if you have 35 strategic initiatives, you just have 35 initiatives. [00:19:00]None of them are strategic, right. And you probably will fail. 34 out of 35, right? And it's very hard because what happens is different parts of the org may have different priorities, or, they're trying to solve for their different areas of their or piece of the organization.

So one of the biggest things about in the role that we play is that we have to really. Orchestrate and work with delivery from our side, right? The delivery organization at the end is true Norse muscle. But if they're not aligned with my growth agenda, they don't have the right people. I need then I'm going to fail, right?

Or vice versa. I may put delivery in a very bad spot. I would put him in a project. They cannot deliver and he's worse because he will create. A failure in the market, and that's something true north would never want to do. And so orchestrating and being able to align the organization, even though it sounds simple is quite challenging, and it all has to do with communication cadence, having clear plans, clear visions, where are you going to [00:20:00] go?

How are you going to go? Who are the parties that you need help with in making sure that they're coming with you in the journey? I know you're not the only one. Because if you're the only one, then things may slow down or not happen at all. So that's one. And those are more internal, right? I think that you got internal challenges, right?

That were more aligning the organic, especially if you're switching from a. This is the way we did business. And this is the segment we did business at for 10 years. And now these are the two segments we're going to attack and we add new culture, new type of clients, new type of, ecosystem, et cetera.

And so that, that requires quite a bit of work internally to make sure that people are buying into it. You also, hopefully they are, they're pitching into it too, right? They're contributing. Then it becomes. Easier for, for anyone to execute. So that's one externally.

These past couple of years, we had a lot of things thrown at us, as a, as an industry. So between, the [00:21:00] whole interest rate going, up. And the funds coming into fintechs or anyone, becoming more scarce people becoming more careful about investments and growth, right?

And a lot of it being trying to find faster margins and less about really, revenue and growth more about if you're growing, make sure you're growing profitable that the fundamentals are there. So that's a big change for Fintech and that's a big change for most people.

In that on top of that, you get regulation pressures and other things, right? All that are things that I cannot control, right? That those are things that are out there. And so is how you digest it and pick your battles within that. That would be my two cents, right? It's a, I'm not going to change interest rates, but then do I need to find a clients that are benefited from it?

Or at least are less impacted on it. Do I get impacted by regulations? Not necessarily, but my clients are. [00:22:00] So how am I going to bake in. Compliance things into true north to help, alleviate that friction, right? And so those are the things and those changes every day today. I can tell you this tomorrow.

Something else happens. We have other things happening in the horizons, right? Elections, many other things that you have to as growth officer. And I think any anyone in any role should be looking 6 to 12 months out minimum and try to figure out what you think could happen. And what would you do?

That would be My two cents doesn't mean that I'm going to be right. But at least imagine two or three scenarios, it's hard to it's hard to get it right. But if you get into that mindset of not thinking just about today, but start, what's it going to happen? If this happens or that happens, it gives you a little bit of, sense of planning and maybe some continuous as you can take.

And I think that's a great advice, for anyone in any role like you mentioned, or for someone like me starting in a career in product management and within things like to plan ahead and see what could happen [00:23:00] to leverage those, challenges. And by the way, this is where the mentors and there is, I am surrounded by people way smarter than me.

And I think that's and I ask them, what do you think could happen? Maybe one is more of a lender guy. Maybe the other one's more of deposits. Maybe the other one is more, not maybe more political, I don't know. Yeah. But just be curious. Ask questions. They, especially if you surround yourself with people that are in the know, or they're also curious then you learn a lot just by talking to this mentor group or your network, yeah. Yeah. The answers don't need to come directly by you. Obviously, you can do your own research and read, but also talk to your network and absolutely agree. Yeah I think this is a great opportunity for us to segue into kind of the leadership aspect of this conversation and then also, advice for the community of young people.

aspiring fintech professionals that we're engaging with from the fintech academy's perspective. And Cyrus, as [00:24:00] you have, grown and evolved in your career and also the scope has continued to grow and increase as well, how do you maintain up to speed and inform and educate yourself on, industry trends to best practices and services and, supporting your function as chief growth officer at True North.

Appreciate it. I think think you probably sense this from the discussion, right? I do. Rely a lot of on people, right? And I surround myself with people. I have advisors in true North has advisors that are, amazing individuals, right? That I can bring in and ask any question, right?

Um, and they know I would ask from the silliest question all the way to maybe the most complex, right? Not being afraid of asking questions is key. Now the for me is about, keeping a hand on the industry [00:25:00] is key. So a lot of reading, right? You I'm always trying to track the news.

I'm always trying to be, in discussions, et cetera, right? I think that's Almost everyone in our industry needs to be doing because our industry changes quite a bit. And so for me, it's all about, being able to learn and do not think that you that, everything because I have learned that I don't know much.

And it is how fast you can adapt. And then how you check. Some of the information you have with smart people or organizations. And then, as you plan your strategies, hopefully that you're incorporating those new thoughts that are coming in. For me, is, surround yourself with people that are supplemental to what you do to find people that not always agree with you is also something I learned because otherwise you're just validating yourself without.

Challenging, right? It doesn't mean that [00:26:00] you have to have people always challenging you because you'll get tired over time. But, people that can give you a perspective. And then that's very valuable, right? You may be thinking an angle and these other individuals may be thinking a complete different angle.

And it's probably all, maybe all the angles are right. And you're just looking at from one vintage point, right? So surrounding yourself for people that are opinionated that are. Also in the know that are smart and then they're not trying to just be friendly with you, even though you're always going to be friendly, but they're just trying to be, to give you the facts and to give you the information.

That's very valuable these days. So I think that for me is key. And as you create this, even every strategy I do, I actually present my decks to these people and I ask questions and a lot of it, may come from them. As an idea, so be open and don't be so defensive about your positions and your ideas.

Obviously, if you believe in something, you should believe in it and you should defend it, but be open to be able [00:27:00] to improve it. So that's my two cents. And I agree with, what you said of staying ahead of the FinTech industry by reading and, for me, LinkedIn has been such an amazing platform where I have to actually learn stuff from because I follow a lot of different FinTech leaders.

So I read their posts or I read the news about what's going on within the payments industry and all that. So I agree. With like doing your own research, that's a big part of enhancing your career as well.

100 percent. 100 percent. I think there is so much content out there that is up to us to filter, right? And you would, then you start gravitating to different people and you start following, right? Maybe you start commenting and, one thing lead to another, and maybe you're the one providing content too, right?

To, to that industry. I agree 100 percent. And I know earlier you mentioned about, [00:28:00] true north getting into embedded finance and stuff like that. So with this new trends in fintech, digital payment platforms, AI, machine learning, open banking, some of the key trends, can you tell us which trends do you see shaping the future of fintech, particularly in the context of growth and innovation?

And I am it's what is a tough question, right? Because but I think I think there, there's a few clear trends, right? I first would say that I run into a lot of clients, right? When you go into a client that wants to do modernization, wants to do innovation, right? They just go.

I want AI, right? Or I want blockchain, or I want, and then you, we, what we would do is we would say they take three steps back and say, what's the problem you're trying to solve, right? You start with that. And hey, maybe the problem is that they have spreadsheets and they just need to automate two things, right?

They don't need it. So so one of the biggest [00:29:00] challenges is there is a lot of buzzwords, and there is a lot of a lot of what seemed to be silver bullets, right? So I would be more focused on problem solving than the tool you're going to use for the problem solving, right? Let's find the problems and then match that to any of these things that are amazing, right?

That they all definitely have a place in time, but they need to be solved. Carefully evaluated and put it right. So that's one. But I think, for me, there is no escaping. I think. I is real. It's been around for a while, right? You can call it many different things, right? At the day, how do you consume this data?

How do you cleanse that data? And how do you use that data? Some of it may use the eye. Some of it may not. Somebody use Jenny. I so many may not, and but I believe that's gonna be. Change is already changing the way we do everything. So AI, if I want to write a podcast or if I want to write a blog, AI is already being used.

So it's already changing [00:30:00] all the industries. So I think it's real, right? It's definitely real. And it's something every, everybody should be using AI for something today. And in this case, gen AI, right? They should be. They should be playing with it. Try to book your vacation with it.

Whatever it is, right? Doesn't need to be exact on your industry, but just get acquainted with that tool and see what he can do. And the more you play with it, the more creative you may get. So I do believe is not escaping, but. It needs to be, especially for a regulated institution or for fintechs or for banks, it needs to be carefully analyzed and deployed, right?

And it has to be, explainable, right? You cannot just throw an AI in there and start approving loans or, underwriting loans, right? But you could use AI to, as a copilot, as an aid to start with, right? Make sure you understand the impacts of it. And then over time, you start. Basically, it [00:31:00] becomes a systematic tool you use for many other things.

I think AI is definitely already impacting many industries and it will continue to do that. Even if you think about TrueNorth before delivery companies consulting companies would say we do XYZ and we have 500, 000 people. And that was a sense of how big the company was and so forth.

I think it's going to change that. I think organizations that have hundreds of thousands of people would not matter. We probably would be seen less productive, right? It's about productivity. And I think it's going to change that. Yeah, it's going to say you only need. X many developers, but they know how to use the eyes so well or copilots or any type of aids or automation that those 500, 000.

I'm exaggerating on the numbers, right? But those 500, 000 people may turn into 300, 000 people, but highly efficient 300, 000 people. And I think that would be my business, right? My business is definitely impacted by [00:32:00] AI. And by we're taking it as it's great. We can accelerate things. We can deploy faster.

We can, we can do many things with AI, obviously carefully deployed. So that's one. In the other one is just, I think what's happening is. And for Fintech is less of a thing, right? But APIs, the world of the economy, the API economy and how you work with either you can call them many variations of it, right?

Embedded banking as a service you call it open banking, right? The end of the day, it's about being open, about being able to integrate. It's about being able to be safely moving data or information one way or the other. That's just going to be it. It's gonna happen more and more. Today there are institutions that have limited API access or they're working through that.

So I see a lot of work in that space, integration layers and how do you connect things quickly, et cetera, et cetera, how you orchestrate them. So I think the API economy is still even though it sounds pretty ubiquitous is [00:33:00] unless. Less new for fintechs. It's still for banks and credit unions, an area that they're investing and they need to invest quite a bit to get that middle layer or to get their institution ready to consume innovation.

So if they don't have any APIs or integration layers, it doesn't matter what kind of thing that you have, you won't be able to talk to it, see a lot of that, at least from Turner's perspective, yeah, I completely agree. And even I, as a new product manager, I use AI a lot to aid me in the role to help me come up with questions that I need to do during my user interviews.

And even during my time at, Kennesaw or my MBA, they've been Schools, educational schools have started to integrate AI as well within the curriculum, which is great. So it's definitely one of those key trends that will shape the future of fintech. And I guess, just lastly what advice would you offer students and young professionals like myself, aiming to build a career in fintech?

And what skills or mindsets do you think are most important for success in the fintech [00:34:00]industry? Yeah, that's a tricky one, right? But I think what you guys, what you're doing, for example, I think is key, right? You're not just, you could be, you don't need to be here today. For example, you don't need to be interviewing people.

You don't need to be connecting, creating network of mentors. Yeah. So what's that gonna do for individuals like you or, individuals that are curious is that you're gonna learn you're gonna meet people. And like I said, this industry is very small. And so I think take any opportunity, without looking too much into how much am I going to gain?

Is there money at the end? Sometimes if you can take the opportunity to do something. Different new or additive to your role. I think I believe that kind of fills your toolbox with stuff, right? You start getting either smarter about talking about something or you your network growth or you just running to an opportunity.

Somebody may maybe looking for something or etcetera. [00:35:00] So I think you're very open to have those. Opportunities and conversations. Obviously, you got a balance with your career and your life and all that. You cannot take everything, but I do believe that supplement your life with a lot of things that are related, connected because that also brings a lot of value.

That's one. The second one is just be. Be, learn, be able to continue to learn. I do know everybody. I know that are super smart. They're just, they're learners of this industry. So they, we believe that we are all contributing, but we are also all learning from each other.

If people think that you do a degree and then you're done. No, but that degree gets you definitely helps you a lot, but it's how you continue to consume information. How do you continue to, to learn? And then the last one is be very flexible, right? I think in FinTech, particularly.

Okay, so I think other industries that are [00:36:00] established and, you is grown 5 percent year over year. If you're working in a retail organization that works, there's been there around forever. They're disruptive, right? But fintech is very disruptive. And so I think some things in fintech fail.

Very quickly. So it should be okay for people to fail. It's just that how much you learn and how you avoid that failing point the next time. And that happens in FinTech. A lot, right? There is a lot of successes, but it's there's tons of failures and people learn from the failures. And then, hopefully they achieve many successes.

So be flexible. Don't be afraid to fail. Fintech is all about innovation and in innovation, there's things that work and things that don't work. Just make sure that if it doesn't work, don't stay for don't stay with it for too long and shift or people and pick on your strength and apply those for the next one.

Yeah, that's great advice. I completely agree with everything you said. And, I'm a big believer of taking any opportunity that [00:37:00] comes to you and just like system moment, just go for it and just learn from every experience that you can take. Yeah, what an awesome way to close out.

Our podcast today with some really useful takeaways and insights. Cyrus, really appreciate you, your guidance and insights on that. Did there, is there anything that you want to close out with reflecting on the conversation today? Yeah, I learned a lot from you Cyrus. I appreciate.

You know your honesty with answering all the questions and giving some advice for us, young professionals. I would love to stay connected. Just continue to learn from you. I'll probably add your LinkedIn as well. Here we go. 100%. 100%. Anytime, man. And whenever I'm in Atlanta, I'll, I'm sure we connect.

So we'll be there. Thank you. Perfect. Perfect. And for all our listeners, thank you so much for listening to another Georgia FinTech Academy podcast. Be sure to follow us out on LinkedIn for [00:38:00]future podcast recordings, as well as our website, which we have our fall semester, which is just officially kicking off in the past semester.

A couple of weeks. So on our website, we have a very long list of events coming up this fall, so be sure to connect with us there. We're signing off, ending the podcast but look forward to listening into a future podcast recording from us soon. Thank you all. The Georgia FinTech Academy podcasts are available on iTunes and Spotify.

To obtain additional information about the Georgia FinTech Academy, please visit our website@georgiafintechacademy.org.