From Physicist to $750M Fintech Founder | Sahil Poddar, CEO of Parafin

​Sahill Poddar is the co-founder and CEO of Parafin, a financial infrastructure startup established in 2020 that provides embedded financial products for small businesses. Under his leadership, Parafin has extended over $8 billion in financing offers to small businesses through partnerships with platforms like Amazon and Walmart. Prior to founding Parafin, Sahill served as Head of Machine Learning Engineering at Robinhood and worked as a Data Scientist at Facebook. His journey reflects a commitment to leveraging technology to democratize financial services for small businesses.​

00:00 - Top Moments
01:16 - Intro
04:15 - Sahill's key influences during early years
05:57 - Sahill's transition from a PhD at CERN to a career in tech and the path to Meta
07:40 - Sahill's journey to Meta in the UK
08:54 - Opportunity and transition to Robinhood
10:37 - Key factor that led to being chosen for pivotal roles for Sahill
11:58 - Sahill's contributions and impact at Robinhood
19:32 - Market gap that inspired the founding of Parafin
23:16 - Customer success story showcasing Parafin’s impact on business growth
25:57 - Strategies for companies to support small businesses in scaling and thriving
29:19 - Growth and scale achieved by Parafin in five years
30:22 - Key inflection points that shaped Sahill's professional trajectory
33:47 - Sahill's mindset shifts resulting from key career turning points
35:57 - Emerging and less discussed technological shifts shaping fintech
41:44 - Sahill's perspectives on the Indian technology ecosystem
46:17 - Sahill's current personal interests and obsessions outside of work
47:57 - Ideal dinner guests, dead or alive, and reasons for selection
50:52 - Common misconceptions and misunderstandings about Sahill


🔗 CONNECT WITH Sahill Poddar
👥 Linkedin -   / sahill-poddar-57302461  
🐦 Twitter - https://x.com/llihas

🔗 CONNECT WITH SHIVA
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🎥 YouTube Channel -    / @1947rise  
🐦 Twitter -   / shivassangwan  
🐦 Twitter -   / 1947rise  
👥 Linkedin -   / shiva-singh-sangwan  

🎙 ABOUT THE PODCAST
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