The Know Who Drives Return Podcast

Sonder’s Francis Davidson on Re-Designing Hospitality and Merger with GMII

For the latest Know Who Drives Return episode, we sat down with Francis Davidson, the founder and CEO of Sonder, a hospitality company that leases and manages travel properties. Sonder is valued at nearly $2B and is going public through Gores Metropolous II. Francis, at just 29 years old, has been able to rapidly scale the company that he founded 8 years ago as a student at McGill University in Quebec. Will Sonder succeed in grabbing a larger share of the lodging space? Have a listen and read our full report on the Sonder deal.

Amy Nauiokas on FinTech VC, SPACs, Diversity, and Anthemis Digital (ADAL)

We were fortunate to sit down with Amy Nauiokas, the Co-Founder, Co-Chair, and Co-CIO of fintech investing platform Anthemis ($1.2B in AUM), who has been a leading fintech investor for nearly 15 years. Though she has a career that us regular folks might find astounding given she also runs a film and television production company, Archer Gray, which promotes story telling from diverse individuals.

Greenbox POS Talking Blockchain and Stablecoin Coyni

Greenbox POS (GBOX), a fintech that utilizes block chain technology to create custom payment solutions co-founded by Ben Errez. The company up-listed to Nasdaq earlier this year, and its newly created stablecoin, Coyni, will be a separately publicly traded entity led by Paul Levine.

SPAC Sponsor Spotlight: Live Oak Merchant Partners

Investment firm Live Oak Merchant Partners is one of the leading “serial” SPAC sponsors, with views of maintaining a long term presence in the asset class. Led by Rick Hendrix and Gary Wunderlich, Live Oak brings both extensive capital markets and advisory experience with an investment track record. 

BM Technologies’ (BMTX) Luvleen Sidhu on Becoming a Bank and FinTech Evolution

BM Technologies (BMTX) is a digital, mobile-first FinTech that was born out of BankMobile and boasts ~2M accounts. BankMobile was originally founded by Luvleen Sidhu and developed at parent Customers Bank (CUBI), before ultimately separating and going public via SPAC Megalith Financial Acquisition in January 2021. BMTX recently announced a strategic merger with First Sound Bank and now has plans to become a FinTech bank.

Is Planet Labs (PL) Ready for Primetime as it Goes Public via DMYQ?

Earth Data company Planet Labs is going public thru dMY Technology IV (DMYQ) via a SPAC transaction. Founder and CEO Will Marshall, CFO Ashley Johnson, and dMY CEO Niccolo de Masi join us on the podcast to discuss Planet’s prospects and the SPAC transaction.