Episode 16

The journey to becoming a FinTech Unicorn - with female Co-Founders | Daniela Binatti, Co-Founder and CTO at Pismo

My guest today is Daniela Binnati, Co-founder and CTO at Pismo. Pismo is global leader in cloud-native core banking and a card issuing platform and Daniela to me is one of the most inspirational women in FinTech. Earlier this year Visa signed an agreement to acquire Pismo for USD $1 Billion.

In today’s episode, we go through Daniela’s journey. It was not easy. From working 45 days Sunday to Sunday, juggling being a mom, self shame of not being there for the kids, getting started investing her life savings, to selling the car to pay for school fees…

Daniela and the team went from struggle to struggle, and built a Unicorn. We talked about how she reinvent herself, designed a strength based org design and created a people centric company culture.

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👉 You can find Daniela here

👉 And you can find Monica here:

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In this episode we cover:


(0:00:00) Financial struggles and sacrifices made to launch Pismo

(0:02:47) Success and resilience

(0:05:08) Advice on embracing change and leaving comfort zones

(0:07:36) Building purposeful FinTechs by providing access to financial services

(0:09:32) Daniela's motivation to start Pismo and its legacy

(0:11:34)Overview of Pismo's services for banks and FinTechs

(0:12:24) Acquisition by Visa for $1 billion and future plans

(0:14:21) Mission to lead the transformation in payments and banking

(0:15:37) Daniela's inspiring background and upbringing in Brazil

(0:19:00) Secret to Daniela's success: Going above and beyond

(0:21:27) Balancing work and motherhood

(0:24:30) Coping with feelings of not being good enough

(0:32:21) Overcoming panic attacks and anxiety disorder

(0:34:11) Investing everything and struggling financially

(0:35:00) Series B fundraising round brought stability and growth

(0:36:36) Lessons in reinventing oneself and not feeling inferior to others

(0:38:20) It's all about people

(0:43:56) Creating a good culture and onboarding remotely during the pandemic

(0:47:59) Message to women: overcome obstacles, believe in yourself


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Production and marketing by Monica Millares. For inquiries about coaching, collabs, sponsoring the podcast or creating or editing your podcast email fintechwithmoni@gmail.com


Disclaimer: This episode does not constitute professional nor financial advice and does not represent the opinion nor views of my current, past or future employers. The guest has agreed to record and release our conversation for the use of this podcast and promotion in social media.

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About the Podcast

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Purpose Driven FinTech
Building & Growing FinTech Products With Customer & Commercial Impact

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About your host

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Monica Millares

Monica advocates for financial safety for all. She is the Product Principal at BigPay, where she leads Product and Design. As part of the founding team, Monica led building BigPay’s product from zero to one, to multi product line, and international expansion. Her leadership shaped the culture and ways of working to grow from startup to scaleup. BigPay has over 1.4 million customers, and has presence in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Monica has almost 20 years’ experience in Financial Services. Prior to BigPay, she was one of the first joiners in UK’s challenger Tandem Bank, where she focused on building credit cards from scratch. Previously she worked in leading Financial Services brands like Visa, Barclays, and a Mexican Development Bank.

She sits on the Board of PayEd, and is recognised as Singapore’s #Fintech65 Product Leaders and Women in FinTech. She’s been multiple times speaker at the prestigious conference Money2020 and shared stage with JP Morgan, Standard Chartered Bank, Konsentus, and Money2020’s Rise Up. Her commitment to innovation and financial inclusion resonates in her podcast “Purpose Driven FinTech” where she explores how FinTech’s can have 10x more impact.

Monica has a background in Engineering and a Master’s Degree on Analysis, Design, and Management of Information Systems from the London School of Economics.