Advocating for Your Career: Graduate Advice from Cofounder of NYC Fintech Women Michelle Tran

Michelle Tran, cofounder of NYC Fintech Women, joins Ying Cao to discuss how she pivoted from her traditional finance background to establishing her brand in the fintech space. 

Michelle started her career at Blackrock in the ETF businesses before recognizing the bigger opportunity of fintech and joining startups. In the podcast, she talks about what fueled her desire to take an active role in innovative technologies for asset management or investment and ultimately, how this fueled her transition to startups. As the cofounder of a community, she is passionate about raising the visibility and empowering of women in the fintech industry. 

In this exclusive interview, we touch upon a variety of topics, ranging from navigating the transition from corporate to a startup, the importance of gender diversity, and emerging trends in wealthtech. Michelle also shares best practices and advice on how college graduates and aspiring fintech professionals can advocate for themselves in a rapidly changing field. 

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Ying: Hello, everyone. Welcome to Work in Fintech. My name is Ying Cao. I'm the co-founder at Work in Fintech and today I'm so excited to be joining with me for Michelle and Meng. So Meng is an intern at Work in Fintech. Meng, can you quickly introduce yourself to the [00:00:20] audience? 

[00:00:20] Meng: Thank you so much for the introduction. My name is Meng. I am one of the digital media interns here at Work in FinTech. I'm a junior at Baruch. I'm studying marketing and it's so great to be here. 

[00:00:32] Ying: And then we wanted to really welcome our speakers today, Michelle. Michelle, do you want to quickly introduce yourself and [00:00:40] tell us a little bit about you and your career and your story to our audience?

[00:00:44] Michelle: Yes. Thank you guys so much for having me. I'm super excited for our discussion today about everything FinTech. My name is Michelle Tran. I am the co-founder of NYC FinTech woman. I also advise with a number of companies and have been a seasoned sales business [00:01:00] development and partnership leader in the FinTech industry. But in terms of my career really started in financial services more in the traditional sense of financial services with an asset manager named BlackRock, which is one of the largest in this space. And I have gradually gotten up and went through a journey of really establishing myself within the fintech by going from BlackRock all the way [00:01:20] to a start-up. So I've done everything from tens of thousands of people to working with a team that's about four or five. So I have had a great run there. 

[00:01:29] Meng: Throughout your time at BlackRock, you expanded into so many different roles, such as client strategy and business, and so much more. So what drew you to the FinTech industry and what [00:01:40] makes it so fascinating for you? 

[00:01:41] Michelle: I was fortunate. You know, one, I just loved my time at BlackRock. I was there for many, many years. They took me on a global tour. So I was in our San Francisco office or Hong Kong office and also our New York office. And it was my last role at Blackrock that really introduced me to really, what, what is FinTech in general? [00:02:00] This was in 2015. When FinTech as a phrase was still relatively new in the news. All we heard was all about robo-advisors. So the investment space, you heard that rebel advisors, the betterments, the wealth funds, personal capitals of the world were going to take over all of investments. So from BlackRock's perspective, we were really interested in one understanding where do our [00:02:20] products play? I worked primarily for our ETF business that I shares business, but for, for us, where do I shares and ETS fit within these robo-advisors. But we also recognized that there was a bigger and greater opportunity to establish BlackRock as a partner in the FinTech space. And that's when I got a little bit of that, that introduction to FinTech, I started [00:02:40] working with. These great startups that moved really fast and we're doing some really new and interesting things. And, that's really what peaked my interest as much as I, you know, really love my BlackRock days, you know, was really interested in joining something that moved a little bit faster, was super innovative in this space and wanting to be part of that next wave of innovation within [00:03:00] financial services. And so that's really what introduced me to FinTech was my last role at BlackRock and really grateful for them. From there I joined an organization called Apex, so alot of people may be familiar with them that they are the infrastructure that some of the robo-advisors and digital brokers like Robinhood and stash sit on top [00:03:20] of. And so they were doing some really cool and interesting things by providing these technologies that allow people to open accounts in five, six seconds, and to be able to fund account and start trading within minutes. That's usually unheard of, usually you have to go into an office or fill out a PDF and send it in and get it. Well, now you can open it on Robinhood account and start [00:03:40] trading, whatever you want within minutes, which is really democratizing access to investing. 

[00:03:45] Meng: Thank you for sharing that, you know, at your time at BlackRock, it seemed like you stayed there for so many different years and you dabbled into different roles as well. So what types of projects did you do with BlackRock and how do you think it impacted the FinTech industry? [00:04:00] 

[00:04:00] Michelle: Yeah, my roles have always centered around sales distribution and product. So when I say product is it's primarily investment product in the BlackRock sense, so really understanding how our clients using our products and how can we make sure that, you know, they're using the right products and getting more use out of it. So that's really what I really love to do. [00:04:20] I love to be able to work with our partners. So I worked with, when I was at BlackRock, part of my time, I've worked with the Morgan Stanleys and the Merrill Lynch's and help them understand how do they use ETS for them. What's the benefit of using ETS or their clients and how do we partner with them to perhaps get better education to the advisors, get better education to the users. So [00:04:40] I really love that part of my roles at BlackRock was really helping people get more involved in ETFs and being able to use ETFs as a more efficient tool for their clients. And so that's really, I think, you know, kind of started what some of the things I'm doing now in terms of partnership sense, really understanding how you create these really big partnerships and complex [00:05:00] with larger entities. I think now what you're seeing is that you're seeing a lot of the BlackRocks and the Goldmans, the JP Morgan's really interested in tapping into, you know, kind of what I call the startup space. And, you know, smaller companies are a little bit more innovative that can, you know, provide them with a tool or resource to help them be more innovative themselves internally [00:05:20] without them having to build it. So it's that build, borrow, or buy conversation. So it's really great, you know, kind of set me for really understanding how to create those types of partnerships. 

[00:05:31] Meng: And you touched upon your shifts earlier from BlackRock into a smaller FinTech solutions company. So why did you make that transition and [00:05:40] what was the change like?

[00:05:40] Michelle: The whole reason for me to, to make the switch was really getting into and being more active in the conversation about innovative technology for asset management or investment and want it to be really kind of just right and deep into that story and then helping that story come along. All of it, the transition was hard. So when you, we spent a lot of time at a [00:06:00] BlackRock, it's a fantastic firm and you have your marketing teams and you have your HR teams and you have all these great people and resources. And then when you go to a smaller organization, you don't have that. You know, you don't have necessarily a marketing team that can whip around a deck for you in two seconds. Now I'm not so bad at [00:06:20] decks, but there are people that are better at it. And I always relied on those better people up. So I had to quickly learn. Okay, how am I telling the story? So I had to put my marketing hat on, or I had to, you know, kind of chase things more so than I would have at BlackRock. I also though discovered on the upside though that, you know, sometimes things can move a little bit faster, [00:06:40] right. Just because you're not part of a much bigger organization, you can move conversations faster. Decision-making is a little bit faster and you have direct access. You know, I worked really closely with our CEO at Apex for a number of times. And so, you know, I would still say so after Apex actually went to a smaller firm that was a seed stage [00:07:00] firm. So they raised 4 million in their seed and I joined as head of business development at Harness Wealth to build out their marketplace. And so when I talk about no resources, you know, I was at, so I had to learn, you know, how do I, how do I create this infrastructure? I remember one of the very first things I had to do is I had to get us. So you have to think about some of those things, you know, [00:07:20] when you're building and working as part of a startup, you really have to roll up your sleeves, and that can be a big transition from someone coming from a big entity.

[00:07:27] Ying: But you shared really resonated, right? Because it's a very similar story to what I've been through right. I spent the last 15 years, all large organizations, right at Barclays and this stuff, right. There's all of these support systems. And then [00:07:40] jump right into the startup where you have to wear so many hats and almost do everything. As you're recruiting a great team like others. Right. But just interesting. But I think, you know, one thing when you said resonate and make me really curious, right. Because in the sense that what makes you want to take the risk, right? [00:08:00] Or even like, you know, lead you to this place and what the upside that you really feel like, or like, you know, future that you're really imagining for yourself and in terms of your career?

[00:08:09] Michelle: One of the trends that I saw in myself, when I was at BlackRock actually was I always joined. So I joined teams that were looking into a Greenfield that we needed to set up infrastructure, or that [00:08:20] really wanted, that saw commercial value and that we're trying to figure out how to, how to penetrate that market. And that's really, what I love to do was, you know, kind of these new green operations. And how do we, how do we work with the partners in that space and how do we build that? And so I think it really speaks well to then joining firms that do that. So it's a little bit of a different [00:08:40] scale, but joining firms and I, it was a big risk, right? It is, you know, there's a lot of differences when it comes to working for a big entity versus a startup, the pay is different. So let's, you know, be very transparent about that. The pay structure of what you're expecting is very different. There is less stability in it, right. There is a little bit of a risk and it's not, you know, Not [00:09:00] every startup to is going to result in an Uber IPO. So you have to realize and be very realistic that just because you are getting a little bit of a difference in terms of your compensation, in terms of cash versus equity, you're not going to buy a mansion in three years, potentially. You know, a lot of, a lot of [00:09:20] startups don't necessarily IPO or do extremely well. So you have to make a really good and educated decision to join a startup. But I really love it. I mean I love the fact that I'm in there. I'm rolling up my sleeves and I am building from day one. And that's exciting to me is how do I build and, and [00:09:40] get that conversation in the marketplace and how do I help people understand that there's some really interesting innovations happening for that firm. It's not an easy road, I'll have to say, but I think it's very rewarding. 

[00:09:51] Ying: I think a lot of our conversations so far has been centered on this work. And you founded, I see NYC FinTech Women, [00:10:00] which is an awesome organization that brings all the women together, right for the FinTech industry. So maybe tell us a little bit more what makes you want it to found NYC FinTech women and who you are, right, like the organization does, and then what you see for the future of NYC Fintech Women. 

[00:10:17] Michelle: Yeah, it's, it's been so amazing to be [00:10:20] part of this community and to help build it. The reason why I started was really no one after being at BlackRock and be part of FinTech and then joining Apex, I realized that there wasn't that easy to find community for me to speak to women in FinTech to either help with my career or help with business opportunities. What was happening was I was going to so many women in [00:10:40] tech conferences or events and I'd have. No chat everyone up and find the woman FinTech for it to be very super relevant to what I was doing. Um, or it'd be going to a lot of FinTech specific events. And there would be, you know, 95% male and 5% female, and where, you know, I'm happy to talk to males - that's not the issue. It's more of, I [00:11:00] think there there's more that we can do as a collective community to really elevate the conversation. So NYC FinTech Women, you know, really how it started was I paid my $80 fee to meet up. And I, I came up with a name and I said, great, on this Tuesday in New York, this is what we're all meeting at a bar. And it was a [00:11:20] rainy Tuesday in New York and as many people know, we live in New York note, when it's rainy, you usually don't go out. So I was actually really happy that we got 16 women at a bar on a Tuesday at the Flat Iron, which is Silicon Alley. And from there I met my co-founder Sasha Piltch and so she came up to me. She just moved from Australia. She worked for Quovo now. And she was [00:11:40] really interested also in helping me build out this community. So her and I, you know, continue to have meetups. So our end goal was every month, we're going to just put it out there and see who shows up. And it's amazing that people showed up time and time again. And we had to find new venues because there's so many people and what we started doing, she was working with companies to help [00:12:00] us, you know, with the venues and help us with the conversation. So it was great to have that support the FinTech community. And now, you know, we're 8,000 members across us and globally 70% of our members are based in New York. And our mission is really to connect, empower and promote women in FinTech. And those three actions [00:12:20] items are really important to us. So making sure we connect by putting people together and the networking piece we empower by giving them resources and then promote in a promoted thing is my actual, my favorite and the one that I feel most strongly about. We need to raise the visibility of ourselves in order to really accomplish what we want in our career and our [00:12:40] businesses and because there's just not enough of it done. So how do you speak about yourself? How do you speak about others? And so we put a lot of programs in place to make sure that we, you talk about people and what they're doing, and it's not necessarily their journey as a female in FinTech, but it's them. And it's also, so then the subject matter expert. What do they know? Tell us, you know, [00:13:00] why you're so awesome and yes, because you're female, but you know, you're awesome because you know everything about crypto or you know everything about wealth tech and so that's what we're really excited to be out there. And we have a great team that helps run NYC Fintech Women-we've got 20 people helping us out. 

[00:13:15] Ying: Oh, that's really interesting because I was talking to a reporter almost a month [00:13:20] ago. Right. And she said, you know, oh, well now you're a CEO and founder, but she said, you are a female CEO and founder. And I said, no, I'm a CEO and founder of the female CEO. So sometimes it's quite interesting. I mean, like, it's interesting to identify as a woman, right. And then if I ask that as a kind of a class care or like a group, so we kind of support [00:13:40] and build the communities, but sometimes I really love what you shared. Right? It's like you already the first, right. You're yourself. You're not just women doing amazing things. You're amazing yourself. Right.

[00:13:51] Michelle: I think the other piece of that too, is making sure that we show diversity in the type of woman. Right. So it's not just, you know, a single female. [00:14:00] Late twenties who are killing and rocking the FinTech space. It's also, you know, the, the mom who has a bunch of kids running and bursting into meetings on zoom meetings, that's running FinTech and, or you have, you know, the junior analyst who's really starting FinTech, but really coming up with some great ideas or you have that seasoned executive who [00:14:20] FinTech for her is the, you know, third career that she's had. So it's comes in all different shapes and sizes and sleeves. Yeah. The other thing that we're trying to do too, is to showcase that it's not just one type of person. It is, you know, of the learn a lot of different versions of someone who can succeed in FinTech.

[00:14:37] Ying: And then we talked about the word FinTech [00:14:40] a lot, right? So what is your definition of FinTech? 

[00:14:42] Michelle: So very clearly financial technology is FinTech and I do love it. So when I, when I was leaving BlackRock, I remember there was an article there I think was quoted. And Larry Fink is the CEO of, of BlackRock. And he said, you know what? BlackRock is the original FinTech. And, you know, I can't, he's not wrong. Right. So they built [00:15:00] a lot in the 1980s, I think it was. And that is, you know, a financial technology tool that a lot of people use it to this day so I think it's really interesting how FinTech has kind of taken a life on its own to mean, you know, startup FinTech to now JP Morgan and Citi and Goldman are all FinTech versions of themselves. [00:15:20] 

[00:15:20] Ying: Definitely, you know, why not? The thing when love to say at work in FinTech is every company is becoming a FinTech company. So it's really a combination of all. And I think it just embodies innovation. Right. And then just stepping into the unknown, because most of the work that the FinTech company galvanize has never was deal with before, [00:15:40] right, which I think it has actually the amazing kind of power, why people wanted to dive into this space, right. Because there's so much to explore so much stability. 

[00:15:50] Michelle: Yeah. There's so much more innovation to come to, you know. There's efficiency; there's access to markets. That's the piece that I'm really interested in it too, is how, how do you [00:16:00] all these FinTech firms are creating basically channels into accessing capital for different communities of people. So everything from the underserved and underbanked to those who want to access digital currency so it's really providing really interesting and cool ways for people to get access to capital. 

[00:16:19] Ying: And, you [00:16:20] know, Meng, along with some of our interns, right, and our participants are university students and they are just to peeling down the onion, started to understand what is fintech, right? What are all these amazing opportunities and et cetera? So what will be your advice right for people who are still in [00:16:40] universities or school, but wanting to dive into the world of FinTech?

[00:16:43] Michelle: I would say a couple of things. One is to, you know, as people are going back in person and doing more networking events, a hundred percent is going to these networking events. But I think that is the best way to really want to establish relationships with people in FinTech and to really learn about what [00:17:00] people are doing in FinTech that's interesting, you know, there's not only the networking, but being able to hear from the experts in this space in terms of what are the new trends that they're seeing. What are these new ideas that they're coming? I think that from a college student perspective, I think that's where, you know, something that I think back to myself when I was in college way too long ago is I was dead set. I was joining a [00:17:20] big firm. It had to have a big name. You know, my parents said I had to, so I did, but I didn't know what else there was out there. And, you know, in hindsight it was great that I had joined these companies and it gave me a foundation to take the next. But I also do wish I had peeled back that onion a little bit more and dig a little bit digging in terms of, hey, there's also really cool smaller [00:17:40] companies out there that don't necessarily, you know, they're not the Goldmans, but they're really doing something super interesting. And they're working with the Goldmans and they're doing something special and working with the big entities and so to be okay with taking the leap of faith with some of these firms.

[00:17:54] Ying: And I think exactly what you said, right? I felt like you and I are a similar age, right? So we're a similar [00:18:00] generation and I felt like one way graduated from school. The information about career, or even just about the choices are very limited, right? You still primarily rely on your network on people, right. People who, you know, But now with the explosion of the internet, you can get access to so many information. And I think, you [00:18:20] know, that's something that when we meet with students in general, what we find that they haven't really taken advantage of all of these resources and connections and information out there to think about their career path, right, and they still like laser-focused on the schoolwork. It's not saying schoolwork is not good- they should [00:18:40] focus on it, but I think what you raised is a really good point, right? In terms of get connected with people and then just to ask what people are doing, which kind of opened a lot of doors for you by wishing you mind never thought of.

[00:18:53] Michelle: I would say just to know too, it takes practice. It takes practice going out there and networking and, and [00:19:00] meeting people. It's, you know, I know for a lot of people it's not easy and it's not the first thing that they want to do, but it's one that just pays dividends in terms of your career. You know, after a while, when you think about your career projection and kind of, you know, where you and I are, are you in terms of how do we, how do we find those roles? How do people really kind of [00:19:20] elevate their careers? And it's never really, because you submitted something online or some LinkedIn, you know, it's usually through a strong connection that you have in the marketplace. As you're building your brand and you're building your reputation, so definitely would advocate. I also would say if there's someone that you're really interested in talking to in the market, it never hurts to reach out. So one thing that I continue to do to this day [00:19:40] too, is that there's someone really interesting that I want to hear from, or have a question for. I just do sometimes a cold reach out, and part of that, and the worst thing they can do is not respond or say. But you never know the great conversations that you might have just reaching out to people. 

[00:19:53] Ying: One of the trend that we noticed, right, similar to you at me who made the jump from traditional finance to [00:20:00] Fintech, or just to, you know, our own endeavor, what are some of the advice you have for not only women, but just in general when people are in their mid-career and looking for a transition or pivot their career to the next step?

[00:20:13] Michelle: I think that the biggest advice I'd have there is really to understand. One recognizes that, you know, [00:20:20] careers are not linear, right, careers are, you know, and I think people sometimes struggle with that. It's like, oh, if I join this firm, what's the next role I'm going to have? What's the next role I should have after that? I think the biggest advice I would have is really to understand, you know, what, what gets you up in the day? Right, so for me, you know, I'm really interested in helping [00:20:40] firms established commercial success in scaled ways. So like, how do we build these great big partnerships? How do we big sales efforts? And that's really, interesting to me. I know what I don't like to do. And so really having a clear understanding of, you know, what really gets you up in the morning. What gets you excited at the end of the day is a great start, [00:21:00] but then also then taking the next step to identify really interesting companies that also help provide a little bit more of that passion component for what you want to accomplish. For me, I have always enjoyed being in financial services, but my vertical that I tend to stay in is a WealthTech. And the reason why is that I'm really helping [00:21:20] to not only provide access to capital for certain people, but helping people understand how to, how to create better wealth for themselves and better wealth for themselves then will enable them to do more with their lives in general. And so I'm actually just, you know, very passionate about making sure that that conversation has and that's the type of firms that I tend to look at. Even as you know, now, as I'm kind of [00:21:40] looking at some other firms, I'm looking in the crypto space because I think the crypto space can do that for people. A lot of the conversations now are, you know, the conversation between crypto and immigrants is really interesting, you know, how can crypto really help elevate that generational wealth that people need to obtain in order to take the next step? And so that's what I would advise is one to understand exactly from [00:22:00] a role perspective, what gets you really interested? And then two, what are some of these really interesting companies that fill that kind of passion need that you have.

[00:22:07] Ying: And you mentioned about wealth tech, right, and then maybe tell us a little bit about what you see in the new trend and what's going on in the industry, right, probably for the next five to 10 years?

[00:22:19] Michelle: Yeah. So I think [00:22:20] the trend is going to be more digitization of wealth in general. It's actually kind of surprising. So some firms still do paper forms. They still, you know, print out things and highlight things and make. Sign and then send it back, which is completely inefficient and so I do think you're going to see more of the online mechanisms and it's [00:22:40] already in place, right? A lot of firms already do that or require that from a risk perspective as well. But I think that's going to be more and more. So I think there's going to be the intersection between wealth and income is very interesting. So from a financial services point, you have, you know, within the wealth management. Crypto is right now about, say 3% to [00:23:00] 5% of investment portfolios. I think that's going to continue to increase over time with retail investors, also institutional investors. You're going to see more use of digital currency, in general, so the use of say stable coin will be used as kind of a cash component versus, you know, Bitcoin, which is more volatile and that might be more used for a smaller [00:23:20] allocation. So I think you're going to see more and more of that. And then you're going to see more technologies that support those currencies as well from a reporting standpoint, portfolio management record keeping tax. You know, one of the biggest series that we've had this year is raised by a firm that has a tax technology for [00:23:40] crypto. So they do taxes for crypto. They're not even in crypto space, they do taxes for crypto and they raised a hundred million dollars in their series A, which is unheard of. I guess now we're moving towards a hundred million dollar series A. It’s so crazy as you see it, year after year bigger and bigger and bigger. Before you knew it is going to be like a billion dollar series E, but  I think there's a [00:24:00] lot of talk and it comes innovation in that space too. 

[00:24:03] Ying: Thank you so much for not only sharing with us your career and NYC FinTech Women, but also your view in the wealth tech space which is really fascinating.

[00:24:11] Michelle: Thank you guys so much for having me. It [00:24:37] was so fun to chat.