Welcome to December's episode of the this Month in Fintech Podcast, recorded live at SF Tech Week with Ramp.

TWIF + Ramp hosted a large group of tech builders, founders, and investors for a happy hour at 620 Jones, headlined by a live interview with Nik Koblov, VP of Engineering at Ramp.

We had one of the highest insight-to-minute conversations I've had, with Nik taking all of us through:

• How Ramp crafted their org structure, product philosophy, and launch sequence to ship product so fast
• How they have become a talent hotbed with folks from so many crazy backgrounds like Minecraft and high school dropouts
• Balancing shipping speed and UX in fintech
• How an ex-Ramp founder got them serious about GenAI
• How to hire your Head of Engineering, and more.

Enjoy the show!

🎧 Ramp VP of Engineering Nik Koblov: How Ramp Crafts a World-Class Eng Org, Hires Outliers, and Ships So Fast - Live at SF Tech Week

This Week in Fintech’s Podcast · Episode

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🎧 Ramp VP of Engineering Nik Koblov: How Ramp Crafts a World-Class Eng Org, Hires Outliers, and Ships So Fast - Live at SF Tech Week

Podcast Episode · This Week in Fintech’s Podcast · 12/02/2024 · 35m

Apple Podcasts

Ramp needs no introduction if you're listening to fintech podcasts, but Ramp is the ultimate platform for modern finance teams, combining corporate cards with travel, expense management, bill pay, procurement, accounting, automation, and more. Ramp's all in one solution is designed to help customers save their most valuable resources - time and money.

Nik Koblov is VP of Engineering at Ramp. Nik has been at the intersection of finance and technology for over 20 years, and has established himself as a leader in the field. Prior to joining Ramp in January 2020, he was Head of Bank and New Markets Engineering at Affirm, and before that had a long run at Goldman Sachs across many parts of the organization - building Private Wealth + Asset Management systems, CTO of Credit Technology, CTO of Institutional Client Services, and more.

Nik holds a BS in Theoretical Physics from Perm State University in Russia and a BA in Computer Science from NYU (completed in 2.5 years). You can find Nik on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Ryan Zauk is the Host of the This Month in Fintech Podcast and Bay Area lead for the broader This Week in Fintech platform. In his day job, Ryan is an investor on the Ventures team at OMERS, the direct investing arm of one of the world’s largest pension plans with over $130Bn in net assets. Prior to OMERS, he worked in Morgan Stanley’s Tech Investment Banking team focused on M&A and capital markets. He is based in the Bay Area.

You can find him on Linkedin or Twitter.

Episode Highlights

2:37 - What drew Nik to Ramp from Affirm

7:01 - Ramp's growth and product expansion to date

12:50 - Ramp's talent philosophy, how they've attracted outliers, and the most unique Ramp employee backgrounds

17:44 - How to ship product so fast while balancing customer happiness, UX balance, and release quality

21:08 - How an ex-Ramp founder got Ramp serious about GenAI

28:13 - Why Ramp tries to prioritize young, unproven, nontraditional talent and foster a robust intern program

30:52 - What to look for when hiring a Head of Engineering

Transcript

[00:00:00] Ryan Zauk - Host: The views expressed in this podcast are the speaker's own and are not the views of This Week in FinTech or any other person or entity. The content provided in this podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or a recommendation, solicitation, endorsement, or offering by me or anyone else for the sale, subscription, or purchase of securities or for investment advisory services of any kind.