Fintech
Foundations
The course we wish we had when we started. A clear map of what fintech actually is — the products, the players, the regulators, and the teams that make it work — without assuming any technical background.
The Fintech Stack
05 LayersEnd User
End-to-End Experience
FinTech
Financial Products & Financial Services
Infrastructure
Processors · BaaS · KYC
Banks & Networks
Partner banks · Visa · Mastercard
Regulators
OCC · FDIC · CFPB · FinCEN · FINRA
Curriculum Details
What Fintech Actually Is
The line between financial products and financial services, why both exist, and how the industry organizes itself around that distinction.
The Fintech Stack
The five layers of the modern stack — end users, fintech, infrastructure, banks & networks, and regulators. Partner banks, card networks (Visa, Mastercard), processors (Stripe, Adyen), issuer-processors (Marqeta, Galileo), BaaS providers (Unit, Synctera), KYC vendors (Persona, Alloy). Who does what.
Business Models & Unit Economics
Interchange, float, SaaS, lending margins, FX. CAC and LTV. What separates a fintech that compounds from one that burns runway.
Money Movement & Settlement
Where money sits and how it moves. ACH, Wire, RTP, and SWIFT compared. Authorization vs. posting. Reconciliation in plain language.
Risk Taxonomy
Fraud, credit, compliance/AML, operational, third-party. The same word means five different things in five different rooms — learn to distinguish them.
Regulators & Compliance Landscape
OCC, FDIC, CFPB, FinCEN, FINRA, and state regulators. KYC/AML/BSA, PCI-DSS, SOC 2, GDPR/CCPA. What each one actually requires of a product team.
The Customer Journey, End-to-End
Onboarding and KYC → underwriting → activation → transaction monitoring → disputes and chargebacks. How every internal team plugs into this flow.
Teams & Cross-Functional Collaboration
Product, Risk, Compliance, Data, Engineering, Ops, Strategy. What each does day-to-day, where the friction lives, and how decisions actually get made.
Career Role Map
Skills to develop based on the role you're targeting — analyst, PM, risk strategist, compliance officer, data scientist. How people move between tracks.
Case Studies — What Worked, What Didn't
Short post-mortems on Square, Stripe, and Brex on the upside; FTX, SVB, and Synapse on the downside. Concrete patterns over abstract theory.
How to Stay Current
The newsletters, conferences, podcasts, and 10-K reading habits that keep practitioners ahead. Build the muscle, not just the snapshot.
Course Info
Format
11 Conceptual Modules
Audience
No Technical Background Required
Best For
Career Switchers & New Entrants
Best For
- 01Students sketching a fintech-shaped career.
- 02Career switchers coming from consulting, accounting, banking, or SaaS.
Pairs Well With
Bundled into the Data + Foundation Track, or pair with AI Strategy for Fintech. Build the mental map first, then the technical fluency.