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Leaders In Payments
Leaders In Payments
Scarlett Sieber, Chief Strategy & Growth Officer for Money 2020 | Episode 360
Scarlett Sieber, the dynamic Chief Strategy and Growth Officer at Money 2020, takes us through the fascinating transformation of the event from its humble beginnings in Las Vegas to becoming a global powerhouse in the fintech ecosystem. She shares her journey from the scenic landscapes of Durango, Colorado, to the energetic cityscape of New York City, detailing how her diverse experiences have shaped her professional path. Listeners will gain a unique perspective on Money 2020's strategic pivot towards a fintech-centric approach and its role in fostering the complexity and collaboration that define today’s financial services industry. As we prepare for the next Money 2020 event in the US, Scarlett offers an insider's peek into the innovative themes and engaging experiences that await attendees.
Beyond the evolution of Money 2020, Scarlett recounts her professional growth, emphasizing the importance of networking and diverse professional experiences, whether through co-founding a startup or advising NASA on cross-industry innovation. She provides practical advice for making the most of fintech conferences, underscoring the importance of strategic preparation and the power of personalized follow-ups. Discover the varied session formats at Money 2020, such as the interactive briefing stage and Off the Record sessions, designed to cater to all learning levels and promote community building. Whether you're new to fintech or a seasoned veteran, this conversation offers valuable insights and inspiration on navigating the future of financial technology.
Welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast, where we talk to C-level leaders from across the payments landscape. We'll be discussing the products and services that impact the payment space today, as well as trends and predictions for the future of payments. We will also hear stories from our guests about their journeys to the top.
Greg Myers:Hello everyone, this is Greg Myers, the host of the Leaders in Payments podcast, and on today's show we have a very special guest, scarlett Sieber, the Chief Strategy and Growth Officer at Money 2020. So, Scarlett, welcome to the show and thank you so much for being here.
Scarlett Sieber:Thanks for having me, Greg. It's a real pleasure.
Greg Myers:Great. So let's start out just talking a little bit about you. Maybe tell our audience where you're from, where you grew up, where you went to school, maybe a few things like that.
Scarlett Sieber:Where you went to school, maybe a few things like that? Sure, so this is a three-hour podcast, right? No, so I grew up in Colorado, a small town in the Southwest Corridor called Durango. For any avid skiers, Purgatory was 10 minutes from my house, although I'm not a great skier, so sorry to disappoint, but I was an athlete all of my life, a basketball player. I'm quite tall, but in any case. So I grew up, born and raised in Colorado, but my mother was from Sweden, so spent a lot and she was a flight attendant when I was younger, so spent a lot of time traveling, which was incredible, and I then moved to New York and I've been in New York now for almost 20 years and I went to university here and I went to Fordham University in the Bronx, which was a really nice combination of secure, safe space but also super close to the city, but didn't walk into the largest, most competitive city in the world, coming from a town of 15,000 people. So that's the short version of my background.
Greg Myers:Okay, great, and I lived in Longmont, colorado, by the way, so I was recently back in Boulder, about two weeks ago. So Colorado is a great, beautiful place, that's for sure. Well, let's talk about Money 2020. So I think most of the audience will know what Money 2020 is, but I think, for some of us who've been in the industry a long time ago, money 2020 started out as one event in Las Vegas, and now it is much, much, much bigger than just one event in Las Vegas. So maybe, in your own words, sort of describe what Money 2020 is today.
Scarlett Sieber:Yeah, absolutely. As you said, man, looking back 12 years ago, it has certainly shifted quite a lot. So, to put it simply, money 2020 is the largest global independent platform bringing the fintech community together. So, as you mentioned, the event started off in Las Vegas 12 years ago. That event still exists and is still the staple in terms of the size and the duration of the event, where we have 10,000 plus people. But we also now have a show in Europe every year in June that has 8,000 plus people, and then actually this year, we just launched a show in Asia and Bangkok, which had 3,000 people.
Scarlett Sieber:So when we started, at our core, it was really focused around payments, and payments is still a very central piece of the ecosystem that comes to money 2020. But over the last decade plus, it really has turned into an ecosystem play. So the collective world of money comes as well as adjacent industries who are interested in money. So we've got all the big banks, we've got the regulators, we've got the VCs, we've got the startups, that whole ecosystem coming together to really have those conversations that basically shape the future of the industry.
Greg Myers:Okay and you know you mentioned something there that I wanted to touch on is, you know it used to be payments before the word fintech existed. Now fintech and it seems like you've kind of positioned it as fintech. I mean, was that a conscious decision to use the word fintech versus payments? Or maybe talk about what you see is the difference and why fintech.
Scarlett Sieber:Yeah, I think when you sit back and look at the world of financial services and money, it's quite a complex ecosystem and there are a lot of geographical nuances, and so, even when you think about one of the core tenants being payments cross-border, all of the different people and companies that need to be involved require collaboration, and so that's really how it started.
Scarlett Sieber:So naturally this was almost done to us back in the day, where the original focus was really focused around payments, but then all these other areas started coming in naturally. It was really great, because we have a lot of examples where there'll be a fintech and a bank who, at one part of their business, are competing and, on the other side, the fintech is working with the bank. There's a lot of that, I think, because of the complexity of the ecosystem and the industry that we serve, all of the industry coming together really starts making sense. So it was a bit done to us in the beginning, but then we were quite conscious in making sure that we wanted to represent the collective, and what's really interesting about that is that as the industry shifts, as does the demographic of our attendees, and there are consistencies that happen and that stay the same year on year. Then there are pieces that move, which is really exciting because that's the way that the world of money is shifting and moving.
Greg Myers:Sure, sure. So we're recording this mid-October. It's going to run next week, which will be right before the US Money 2020. So maybe talk a little bit about the themes, what people should be looking out for, what are things you're excited about about the show that's coming up? Maybe talk through some of those if you don't mind.
Scarlett Sieber:Yeah, absolutely, it's kind of like being asked to pick your favorite kid, but we'll certainly highlight a few things because so one of the things that we do, so we have really invested and doubled down from a talent perspective on bringing in FinTech expertise in-house. From a talent perspective, on bringing in FinTech expertise in-house. So the content team is comprised of individuals who are ex-operators, analysts, vcs, journalists who really live, breathe, sleep FinTech. So we spend a lot of time when we think about any of the respective shows, kind of setting the agenda, but then we also go and do the external validation. So one of the things that happened is we have a process called a call for content where anyone in the industry can submit to speak on the stage validation. So one of the things that happened is we have a process called a call for content where anyone in the industry can submit to speak on the stage and we get 2000 roughly submissions for the US show.
Scarlett Sieber:One of the things that you know again was an area that we were going to cover, but we were a bit surprised by how important it was. Roughly 20% of all of those submissions had a combination of AI and fraud. So we were definitely going to be talking about AI. You can't not. We were going to be talking about fraud, but the combination of the two was quite powerful. And those submissions came from the banks, it came from the companies like NYKYC, it came from the regulars you name it. They were all in there submitting this topic. So AI is definitely going to be in center, and we do that in a few different ways. So one of the things that we do is we actually have a deep dive summit on Gen AI in partnership with NVIDIA and NVIDIA being one of the most NVIDIA and Oracle, in this case NVIDIA is being one of the most highly valued companies in the world. They've actually been working with us for the last two years to talk about AI and FinTech and Gen AI and financial services. So that's really exciting. But outside of that, there's going to be a sprinkling of AI throughout all of the show and all of the different contents, and so one of the things for us, too, is we want to make sure that we set the stage for the future. So there will be some of that theory and future looking, but then there is also, like, the real world applications of this stuff. So if you think about, like Klarna as an example. They've been in the news a lot for their use, you know, kicking out Salesforce and a few others and their use of AI. So we're actually bringing their CTO and the architect behind OpenAI, who is responsible for this, to come and have that conversation of exactly how they did that. So we do things like that a lot, and then, of course, we've got some quite large regulators in the building to have a totally different perspective. So AI is a piece of it.
Scarlett Sieber:I would say, as you mentioned, we're in October Next month. For those of us in the US we have quite an important election coming, so the show actually happens six days before the election and there's a lot of talk from a macro perspective and a macro political perspective around what the future may hold. So we're making sure that we're going to be having conversations around that. So we have Gary Gensler who's going to be speaking with us, and then we also just announced a few days ago that Director Chopra from the CFPB is going to be coming and talking about the future of open banking. So regulation is going to be another kind of one of those key things, and then everything in between, we've seen a lot of interesting things from a geographical perspective, we got some really interesting companies and speakers coming from Latin America.
Scarlett Sieber:So the CEO of Revolut Mexico is coming. Mexico Revolut is the first that we are aware of Neobank to get a banking license in Mexico, so they're going to come talk about that experience. So there's something for everyone. We got covering all of the areas there, but lots of exciting stuff. And the last thing I would say is the final day of the show on Wednesday. We've actually really focused and dedicated on marketing, so it's going to be it's called Marketing Wednesday, and so we're thinking about all of the applications as it relates to to marketing. So that's going to be a lot of fun as well.
Greg Myers:Okay, great, that was a great overview. So leaving that, you know it's coming up. Everyone's excited about it. I know a lot of people that I know are going to be there. A lot of people that I interview CEOs and such on my show have already said you know that they will be there. So obviously it's the biggest event in the industry, but it's not the only event in the industry. So when you look at sort of your competitors out there, which can range from large shows to small regional shows, what do you feel differentiates you from sort of your competitors out there?
Scarlett Sieber:It's a great question. So the first thing and it's something that we think a lot about, right, I would say, when I spend time speaking with the team globally, I think about our biggest competitors as ourself, and how do we be better versions of who we were in the past? But when you think about our competitive differentiation in the industry, it is a few things. It is the global platform that we have, it is the independent nature that we have where we operate as an independent company and we have access and exposure to the world of money, which I think is really important. And then back to that ecosystem place. So, as you said, there are large events, there are small events, there are people who, if you look at a pie, are doing one specific part of it, focusing just on wealth advisors or just on marketers or whatever, but the fact that the collective comes is really what the secret sauce is, and that as an ecosystem.
Scarlett Sieber:Back to what I was saying to you before. We live in such a complex world where you need all those pieces, so the ability to not only be efficient in the amount of things that happen in the course of a few days, but not just about the efficiency, because everyone is there, but about the effectiveness, because it's the right people are there. It's not that I've had 10 meetings, 30 meetings, 40 meetings. That's great, and there is ways that we measure the ROI, but we also really focus on the quality and caliber of the attendance, with 35%, roughly across the board, being C-suite, so those decision makers are there, so a CEO could be there. Like you said, some of your guests could go and have one meeting with a partner, the next one with an M&A opportunity, the next one they could be selling to someone else, and so all this is happening in one place. It's not the traditional buyer-seller, because a lot of these buyers are also sellers and sellers are buyers, and so, to us, that's really how we think about, how we differentiate.
Greg Myers:Okay, okay. So you mentioned the ecosystem and kind of what you know Money 2020 has built and where it's come from. Let's talk about the future a little. Where do you see it heading in the next say, maybe three to five years?
Scarlett Sieber:Yeah, there's a. It's what's really interesting. Having been in this in the fintech space for a decade plus, now there's a lot that is very similar than what it was 10 years ago. Like you said, maybe the word fintech wasn't as much of a thing, but a lot of the conversations that we were having are quite the same now. The whole build, buy, partner, collaborate or compete all of that is still going on. So if I look at three to five years, I do see that some of this stuff, some of these big techs at this point there are some real use and real life applications, but we're still quite early in the process. So I'd say, if we look three to five years from now, there will be a lot more real life, real use applications of this stuff to actually have an impact. So that's what I'm really excited about.
Scarlett Sieber:From the space perspective and for Money 2020, we have so much opportunity to grow. We have opportunity to grow again from a geographic perspective, but then also from penetration within the existing organizations, because we might have one of the largest banks and a really, really strong contingency from a specific part of the bank, but we're now seeing more and more opportunity and exposure from other sides. So, as an example, the head of retail for Citi, gonzalo Lucetti, is coming and speaking. So that's an area where historically we haven't had a ton of the consumer retail side and we're getting more and more of that Same thing. We've got the president of the Capital One Retail Bank coming and speaking as well. So lots of upside from here.
Greg Myers:Gotcha, gotcha. Well, let's switch gears a little bit and talk about you, so maybe walk us through your professional journey, maybe where you started and how you got to your role there at Money 2020.
Scarlett Sieber:Yeah, happy to. So we talked about the Colorado roots. As I said, you have been in New York for 20 years. I'm a very competitive person and I want to be in the most competitive city, but one of the hard things about being in the most competitive city is the importance and power of network, and I am the first person in my family to go to college. And to say that I had a network is laughable, because I definitely did not. I didn't really know what I was getting into.
Scarlett Sieber:So, long story short, I was an accounting major in school, figuring out what the right path was and what I wanted to do. I thought that was a really nice, solid foundation. We had a really high recruitment rate to the big four, which was like hey, job placement, great. And I ended up falling in love with and joining an early stage startup called Infamous, which was a data visualization platform, and over the course of three plus years I ended up getting brought on board as a co-founder, got co-founder status and equity, and we had a lot of amazing amazing things happen during that time and we had a B2B and a B2C play and on the B2C play, a bunch of different industries were reaching out and utilizing our technology to visualize data, which, again, funny, because now you're looking 15 years and this is a big thing again, but in any case. So one of those industries is banking and BBVA had reached out and said we love your tech, you should apply for our startup competition. We did, we were a finalist, we got flown down to Mexico CDMX and had a great experience. We did not win SoCure actually won. So again, another full circle moment. I think they made the right choice there. We know what SoCure is valued at these days, but in any case, I stayed in touch with the bank and then we ended up finding a way to collaborate and I got brought on as the SVP of innovation, really helping to build out their digital strategy for North America, and so did a bunch of other stints within financial services.
Scarlett Sieber:I was CIO of a public bank out on the West Coast which no longer exists and got acquired, as also happens in financial services, and then did a lot of consulting for the banks in 2 to 20 billion AUM, really looking at those digital strategies and thinking about digital transformation my first client when I took on that role and I've been a big fan of Money 2020 for a long time.
Scarlett Sieber:So I've been a speaker, a sponsor, an attendee. I've kind of seen the product from every angle and there was always something special about it. So I got in touch and I stayed in touch with our president, who is my boss now, tracy and they became my first client when I was at the consultancy and so I ran the main stage for Vegas back in 2019. And Tracy and I stayed in touch and then I've been in this role now as Chief Strategy and Growth Officer, running the product essentially for the last three and a half years, which is a lot of fun and a lot of work, but it's a great place to be and, like I said earlier, we get to help shape the future of the industry and be the platform where these conversations are happening.
Greg Myers:And that's a great privilege, but it's also a great responsibility, so we spent a lot of time thinking about how to do that even better, and I heard this rumor, or maybe I read it on your bio that you are an advisor to NASA.
Scarlett Sieber:So innovation is what maybe seems like and it's not as popular of a title anymore, but it was then.
Scarlett Sieber:It can be quite lonely because everyone thinks from the outside it's the fun, edgy, cool things that are doing all the amazing things, which is true, and you get to work on fun stuff, but it's also really hard and it's really hard to measure, and there's a lot of internal especially in large incumbents skepticism around this, and so I had always found the most useful time for me when I was in those roles spending time with my peers, who might even be competitors of mine, to hear and think about how they get measured and what their KPIs are and things like that get measured and what their KPIs are, and things like that.
Scarlett Sieber:So, in any case, long story short, the CTO of NASA, who is now the chief AI officer again, the world continues to go in all similar directions started putting that he saw the same thing because he was looking at innovation at NASA and he was thinking about how do we combine public and private and how do we take learnings from some of the largest industries in the world and do things together. So I was lucky enough to be invited to one of the cross-industry innovation summits that he hosted and had a great time and we just got along really well and I was like, hey, I think if we did XYZ, he's like why don't you come and be an advisor? So that's how it started and helped to reshape and redefine some of the work that he's doing and he's continued to build that out now globally and has a really great thing for people who are changing the world to come together almost as like a therapy session, but then also like a measurement of how this works and what success looks like.
Greg Myers:So right, great Well, thanks for sharing that. I've always been like, interested in space, so when I saw that I had to ask the question what are some things you're passionate about? So, maybe one work-related passion and one personal passion.
Scarlett Sieber:My team that's where I spend most of my energy at this point is thinking about how to unlock the talent of the people that we have and allowing them to do their best work.
Scarlett Sieber:So I'm super passionate about that and it also is what keeps me up at night the most. On the personal side, I am a mom to two young boys, so I don't have much time for personal passion anymore. I would say, historically it'd be like you know, going out, getting outside, playing sports, but that doesn't. I still do that, but it's definitely not the way that it was five years ago. So getting out with them and seeing them because you know, like I said to you earlier, I'm quite a competitive person and there is nothing that will bring some humility to your life besides having kids who you cannot control and you think that you've got them and then they change again, and so there's, you know, a constant learning. So just making sure that I am equipping them and setting them up for a life where they are well-rounded, healthy, happy individuals is where my personal passion is right now, and I don't have much else between those two my home life and my work life.
Greg Myers:For sharing that. So I typically ask a question about someone building a career in payments, but I'm going to switch it up a little bit. What would you tell someone that's coming to the show next or in two weeks, I guess it is what would you tell them they should do so that, when they leave, they feel like it's been a successful event for them?
Scarlett Sieber:It's a really good question Prepare. So ideally, this is before the time, and even if it's while, if you're hearing this while it's happening or afterwards. I think with anything, this is not just about money 2020, but it's definitely about money 2020. Back to the fact that the power of our industry is in one place. How you leverage that is up to you, and so the more work that you do on the front end of it and have those right conversations, book those right meetings, and then also, like we spent a lot of time thinking about the formal meetings and the connections lounge and all that great stuff and we're doing some, we're testing a lot with new meeting technology and things like that but then also bringing together people on human levels, like you've just done with me, and getting to know me as a human I didn't expect to be talking about my kids on this podcast, but I'm happy to, so like there's that whole element there. So we try to incorporate that throughout the day, throughout our evening events, where you get to connect on a human level on similar topics or interests. So we really focus on that.
Scarlett Sieber:So I'd say the two things are do the prep work ahead of time, because it's up to you to get the most out of this. And then the other side is the follow-up, because and I am probably the worst example of this at times where I'll go to an event, I'll go to something like this, where everyone is there and I'll meet 30, 40, 50 amazing people, but they've also met 30, 50, 40 amazing people. So doing that like personalized follow up and saying, hey, greg, it was so great to chat, love, that you spent time in Colorado and you know, next time you're here, you should, next time you're there, you should go to da, da, da, da, da. Like that's the stuff that I think. This is about technology, this is about the future of financial services, but it's also a human business, and that human element is what's going to differentiate you from everyone else who's following up. So that's what I would say Do the prep work ahead of time, and then you got to close the deal at the end. So that's my advice.
Greg Myers:I think that's a great advice. It's a great advice. So obviously we've already talked a lot about you, about Money 2020, about the future. I just wanted to kind of open it up, see if there's anything else you want to cover before we wrap up the show. Kind of a broad you know, tell me anything on your mind. You want people to know either about you or about Money 2020, and then we'll wrap up after that.
Scarlett Sieber:Yeah, thank you. That's a great question, coming up with some great ones. So I would say, okay, two things about the show specifically. One of the things that we try to do is back to how diverse the people who come are is make sure that there's different formats for people. So, as an example, if you are there to learn, we got a space for you. If you are already an expert and you want to dive into the depth, we got a space for you. So, example, on Sunday we have an open banking summit and we have it as 101, 201, 301, depending on your level of experience and expertise, so that there's something for all.
Scarlett Sieber:We also do that from a stage perspective. So one of the stages that we have this year is called the briefing stage, because this is what we hear a lot and it is frustrating for me and for everyone. So you go there and the big, big speakers are there, but you and the audience are like, oh, I wish I could have asked them this, or they didn't go enough into that, or whatever else. We have a stage dedicated to that. So the briefing stage is about deep dive conversations, and any speaker who goes on that stage is aware of that. They could be asked a question from anyone in the crowd. So that's a really important thing to us and I'd say, on the complete opposite side of that, the other thing that's hard when you're thinking about putting the best content together is, even though people have these great things, they can't always say it because they have their PR and comms teams here who are making sure that they're saying the right things. So we have a stage called Off the Record, where press and PR and people like that are not allowed, where we can really dive into the depth and get some really great chats. And I'm actually this will be a little bit shameless plug, but less for me because I'm just the conduit of it for Yelena McWilliams, the former chairman of the FDIC. She was also appointed trustee for the Evolve Synapse situation and so she's going to come and do an off-the-record session with me moderating and basically talk to I mean, anyone is welcome to come to this.
Scarlett Sieber:It's small, so there's, you know, not everyone can get in, but it's not, you know, it's not for any specific person, but really like geared towards startups to come and learn. Like here's what actually happened, here's, let's think about how we go from here. So that's super exciting. Like I said, we're definitely testing new ways and trying some new tech and ways for people to meet. So we have curated meeting program that's happening on Sunday, where everyone's focused on the meetings. Anyone can do free flow, go on our app and meet whoever they want whenever they want as well. And then we have things like credit unions or LATAM or women in fintechs. We have meetups around that as well to kind of bring the community together. So that wasn't one thing, it was three, but that was the top of my mind things.
Greg Myers:No, that's great. That's great. I'm glad you shared all those. So, scarlett, this has been a great conversation. I'm looking forward to the show. I know a lot of people are. So thank you so much for being on today. I really appreciate it. I know you're busy, so thank you so much for being on the show.
Scarlett Sieber:Thank you. I really appreciate you taking the time as well. It's always fun to talk FinTech.
Greg Myers:Yes, it is so, also to all you listeners out there. I thank you for your time as well, and until the next story.
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