Sasha Pilch, connecting and empowering women in fintech
Sasha Pilch is the Principal at Fin Capital. She is involved in helping the firm source promising early-stage fintech founders and closely collaborates with those entrepreneurs after investment.
Previously, she served as Sales Lead at Pinwheel, an NYC-based start-up working to create a fairer financial system by providing an API that makes it easy for businesses to securely connect payroll accounts to their applications with consumer permission. She is also the co-founder of NYC FinTech Women, a community that connects, promotes, and empowers women within the FinTech industry, and has held positions at Ramp, Plaid, and Quovo. We caught up with her to find out more.
Tell us about your journey into fintech. Is there a story there?
My journey in fintech started nearly a decade ago and from there I’ve worked at a variety of successful companies from banks, large credit/credit card companies, emerging fintechs, and disruptors, and now have found myself on the Venture side of the business. Through these vast experiences, I’ve really found a home in fintech, but more importantly my passion. Seeing the industry from all sides, one thing always stuck out to me – the lack of diversity across the industry, specifically the disparity of women in fintech.
I realised I could help change this, by creating a space for women in fintech to network and uplift each other through mentorship and sharing industry experiences. A little more than five years ago, I co-founded NYC Fintech Women, an organisation that now reaches more than 8,000 women in the industry and hosts monthly events in collaboration with Fintechs such as Stash, Adyen, Plaid as well as traditional enterprises such as Google, SVB and Nasdaq.
You’ve specialised in asset management. What is it about the sector that attracts you?
Following my work on NYC Fintech Women, I realised I could do even more to help elevate diverse female executives looking to break through in the fintech space. During my tenure at various fintech firms and banks, I realized I could have a greater impact by entering the asset management/venture capital side. Not only do I get to help bring more diverse founders to the forefront, but also identify the next wave of tech transforming the industry.
Marketplace volatility is rife in all areas, it seems. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel - and what would your advice to investors be at this time?
Avoiding the hype is more important than ever, one of the biggest contributors to the current volatility we’re currently seeing was the long-running trend of investors overvaluing startups right before the economy got turbulent. Once inflation and other elements started to hit society, investors became more selective and the overvalued startups saw their momentum slowdown.
What emerging trends do you think are most significant in terms of fintech/crypto and VCs?
One of the trends that continues to interest me and the rest of the partners is the ever-fluctuating BNPL space, due to the struggles of companies like Klarna and Affirm but now we’re seeing a subtle revival as momentum is increasing for B2B tailored BNPL. Ironically the drop in consumer BNPL could be a factor in this; struggling consumers lead to struggling businesses that are beginning to look for expense adaptability to offset the drop in income.
What inspires you in fintech today - especially within the asset management space?
Fintech is evolving every day at a rapid pace. Yesterday's trends are not the same as today's and there will always be an innovative startup arriving on the scene to answer the demands of those new trends. When working in asset management, you get an overview of the spaces that are gaining and losing momentum, see how impactful the current trends are, and get the best insight on what’s happening next.
