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WSO Podcast | E74: Partner in FinTech VC and the 30 Year Relationship

WSO Podcast

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In this episode, @DSICA shares his path starting out as a financial advisor for Merrill Lynch back in 2006 to transitioning twice internally with a critical mentor connection. Learn how he pivoted to VISA, got promoted to Director and eventually helped co-found his own FinTech venture capital fund. He also shares one piece of advice he gives to younger folk graduating today to build meaningful connections.

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WSO Podcast (Episode 74) Transcript:

 

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:00:06] Hello and welcome. I'm Patrick Curtis. Your host and chief monkey, and this is the Wall Street Oasis podcast. Join me as I talk to some of the community's most successful and inspirational members to gain valuable insight into different career paths and life in general. Let's get to it. In this episode, Member De Sica shares his path starting out as a financial advisor for Merrill Lynch back in 2006 to transitioning twice internally with a critical mentor connection. Learn how he pivoted to Visa, got promoted to director and eventually helped co-found his own fintech venture capital fund. He also shares one piece of advice he gives to younger folk, graduating today to build meaningful connections. Enjoy. All right, David, thanks so much for joining the Wall Street Voices podcast.

DSICA: [00:01:03] My pleasure

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:01:04] Having me. It'd be great if you could give the listeners a short bio.

DSICA: [00:01:09] Yeah, so my name is David CECA, I'm a partner at Nyika Partners, which is a fintech focused firm here in New York City. We've. We're currently investing out of our third fund. My background is I started my career at Merrill Lynch in two thousand and six actually into a financial advisor training program and then broke into an investment banking analyst class where I worked on CNBC's Origination and securitization. Spend some time briefly in emerging market equity research sales covering Russia, Middle East Africa and then in 2008 met the. Uh, the guy that was taking Visa public, Hans Morris, and was joining US president, and I moved to go work for Visa in in San Francisco. And at that point really got interested in what was happening in the payment space and payments became a it was kind of the early first wave of what was going to going to be happening in fintech and in late 2013 teamed back up with Hans. And he was thinking about starting a starting a fintech focused firm to really fill this white space in the market, which, you know, there were a lot of a lot of talent, a lot of capital entering, entering fintech across all these different product lines. But there were really there's really no firm that specialized in connecting entrepreneurs to the existing financial system. So that's what we set out to build with Nick.

Patrick (CEO of WSO):  [00:02:55] And I've been here six years. Yeah, six years. So you were one of the founding partners.

DSICA: [00:03:00] He has on the family team.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:03:02] Right, so let's go all the way back to undergrad. So you kind of you said you joined Merrill almost in their in their financial advisory group. Is that correct? Yeah. So was there when you were back in undergrad, were you always thinking finances for me, this is what I know, what I want to do. I know you majored in finance, but what was the when was the kind of decision made and that was it since you were in your family and finance? Is there kind of a history there?

DSICA: [00:03:31] No, I mean, my dad owns a construction owned the construction company. My mom was a school principal. You know, I was interested in business. I think from a young age like growing up in a. In a home where. You know, was there was a family business attached to it? Mm hmm. So I. You know, I remember my sister telling me she was like, you know, she encouraged me to go into either finance or accounting. And so I really didn't have, you know, I mean, I'd say. A great knowledge of like what that path would look like or what the different options were and sort of started figuring out while I was at school and the idea that

Patrick (CEO of WSO):  [00:04:18] You have internships there while you were in school or did you kind of just come into senior year and we're still looking for a full time gig?

DSICA: [00:04:26] Um, no, I work all throughout school, I. I interned well, actually during the summers, I would do a combination of, you know, working at my father's construction company, interning at Merrill Lynch and then during the year I worked, I interned for Senator Corzine for probably three years. And then I also sold watches at a lot of store in Washington, DC.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:04:55] So you were hustling the whole time to help pay for college.

DSICA: [00:04:59] Um, no, it wasn't. I was I mean, it was, you know, spending money at school and, you know, I was just interested in different things and I thought it was a great it was a great city to be into, you know, kind of get that experience of learning a little bit about government and then the watch thing, I guess I sort of fell into.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:20] So were your junior summer. How did you end up in the financial advisory side of Merrill? How did that kind of process take place?

DSICA: [00:05:28] Yeah. I mean, I think what I realized early on at GW was a non recruited school, and these, you know, in my, you know, kind of selection of a. You know, my selection of a college, it was, you know, I really didn't appreciate how important that was going to be if you wanted a career in finance.

Patrick (CEO of WSO):  [00:05:52] And so tell me how you like, ended up at Merrill, did you just get an internship junior year? Was it senior year that you kind of started doing the advisory, the financial advisory side or how did you get recruited? Was it on campus? Did they come or you said there is no on campus presence?

DSICA: [00:06:09] No, I actually met a someone I went to high school with, introduced me to their cousin who worked there, and I had interned in their group and it was actually a very sophisticated. It was a very sophisticated group effort at Merrill and then. One of the these two brothers that were on the team sort of split off and asked me to join them upon graduation and truthfully, I didn't really want to go into being an FE, but I sort of felt that if I could get my foot. In the door at Merrill in New York. It would at least put me in a place where I could potentially, you know, transition to another group, so I kind of went in knowing that I had. I didn't want to do that forever.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:07:02] So you knew you didn't want to do it forever, but you saw it as kind of a foot in the door because you weren't able to. Had you tried to apply to like investment banking internships, I assume that's what you ended up doing right or you ended up on the CMBS desk.

DSICA: [00:07:14] Yeah, I mean, I actually leveraged contacts I had made in Corzine's office to get, you know, to get a whole bunch of interviews at a Super Day. That didn't pan out.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:07:27] And do you any advice specifically looking back on those in terms of why you don't think they panned out or do you feel like it was just too much of an uphill battle and really competitive?

DSICA: [00:07:37] I mean, again, this is this is a long time ago when this happened, but you know, my feeling was that. I had asked like I had called in a favor and the recruiting, you know, the on campus recruiting programs in the Suber days are, you know, really such a set channel for how, you know, for how folks make their way into it. I don't think it was the best setup in terms of like in terms of, you know, just kind of showing up at the APA Super Day with, you know, literally everybody in the room sort of like wondering

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:08:12] Why you're there, like, who's this guy?

DSICA: [00:08:14] Yeah. Like, how did he get this interview? Why is he here? Got it.

Patrick (CEO of WSO):  [00:08:20] So you don't feel like you had built up the rapport or the contacts? It wasn't. It wasn't like a. At least through the rounds, you hadn't put in the work. It was kind of more like they slotted you in as a favor, but you didn't really have a fair shot in the same way, either.

DSICA: [00:08:34] I think so. Ok. Yeah. Had you met people through the process or been in relationships,

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:08:39] Had you been doing some networking in terms of so, did you know what investment banking was? Because you said, I knew I didn't want to do a financial advisory like long term, so you kind of did you know that Target was a mess in banking in undergrad? I was like your first or one of your first jumps out of undergrad? Or was it kind of? Yeah. Was it more murky? Um, what

DSICA: [00:09:01] I mean, it was it was more on the I wanted to be on the institutional side of the business. Mm hmm. Yeah, I really didn't have many really didn't have many, many options. You know, I was I was trying to network the best, best I could. I was trying to. Find people who knew people to, you know, get sort of coffee meetings, and I think through that work and through that journey, I I started putting the pieces together of what each job entails and got it.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:09:32] You know, how long and so how long are you an admiral before you're kind of able to make that jump and tell me a little bit about that transition, was it tricky or did it piss off you?

DSICA: [00:09:42] Yeah, it was. Incredibly, it was incredibly tricky.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): 00:09:44] So tell me a little bit about that. Like, how did you even have that conversation with your boss? And like, Oh, sorry, I'm gone after a year or what, however long it was?

DSICA: [00:09:53] Well, I didn't I? I ended up. I knew better for my roommate in college that he knew what I was trying to do, and he came to me and he said, Listen, if there's any chance that you're going to pull this off, there's one person I've met and he was working at Goldman at the time. He goes, There's one person I've met who's an MD here who would sort of appreciate, would appreciate your story and you should meet them. And so when I met with, you know, I met with I met with this, with this guy and he wasn't convinced that, you know, I think he was convinced I wanted to not be in Fe, but I don't think he was convinced that I really wanted this job. So he put me through. You gave me a, you know, a bunch of stuff to read, a bunch of research reports, books and said, Hey, go take a look, read through all of this stuff, work with work with your friend when you have questions, and then let's meet up at a month and come and revisit this. And I think that went on for about four meetings where. You know, and it was it was sort of like a real estate. He's like, you know, kind of like real estate, university like, you know, you need to demonstrate to me that you really understand what this industry is. Bill East, you've done the research from the outside to like to describe to me that this is what you want

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:11:24] When you say this. Are you specifically referring to like Foreign Office investment banking? Are you referring to like trade sales and trading or just all of it?

DSICA: [00:11:32] Front office, yeah. Front office investment banking.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:11:35] So like sales and trading side or more

DSICA: [00:11:38] Like it was just it was mostly it was just at this point, it was just on the real estate side and the, you know, the groups, the groups were organized a little differently, like at Merrill, we were we had all real estate on one floor where you'd have advisory, you'd have a private equity group, which was an LP and funds CMBS securitization. And then, you know, that would that would like closely match to the trading, to the trading function or the sales and trading function and. So I kept going through these meetings and I kept doing the research, and I kept having conversations, and it lasted for a few months and I really, I mean, I'd say towards the end of it, I was I didn't have much hope. That this was going to work out, but I figured I would see it through.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:12:26] Why do you say that? Just because he he kept kind of forcing you to go back and learn more.

DSICA: [00:12:30] He didn't seem convinced. He didn't seem convinced. He seemed he was still a little skeptical.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:12:35] And do you think that was because you said something early on about Fay not quite being the spot for you? And so he thought that was why, or do you think it was something else? Some of the reason why you couldn't convince him.

DSICA: [00:12:49] I think it was probably the former, I think it was like. You know, I think he could believe I didn't want to be in that area, but I don't. I think he fully believed I wanted to be in this in his, you know, in his industry. Got it. And yes, I kept I kind of kept doing the work and kept going to be with him. And then eventually he came he sends me an email one day with, I think I had about 15 names on it. And he said, here's group heads and MDS. I've given them a call. I've given them sort of the background on. I've given them your background. I've told them about the work we've done and they would be interested in meeting with you. So I called the first person on the list who was at Merrill Lynch and got right into an interview process.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:13:44] Wow. So you somehow so your friend that told you about this MD at Goldman, how did he know that this MD would kind of take you under his wing because you became basically a mentee, right? Like he was your mentor, right for how many? Four months, five months? Yeah, it's about that. so. Why did why did your friend think that your story would resonate with specifically with this M.D.? Was he an alum from George Washington? Was he just?

DSICA: [00:14:13] No, I think he was. How did you know how to sort of. He's from New Jersey at a blue collar background. Sort of understood the challenges of like switching from a blue collar to a white collar mind set and world fair and. Yeah, I just think he's like he would he would appreciate that. What was really what he was getting at. He'd appreciate kind of what you're doing and some of the challenges and could be, if you know, if he takes a liking to you, he could be a big supporter of yours.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:14:48] That's great. So you? Was that a shock when you got that email with the 15 names? Were you? Yeah, we're excited.

DSICA: [00:14:54] I was like, over the Moon. I couldn't, because at that point, I mean, it's one of the things I've also realized in. In my in my career is that it's. When I'm. Confident I'm sort of doing the right work and. Providing the right inputs, and I feel like I'm doing all the right things, but it's just not happening, it's usually at that point that something is about to change. Hmm. And I don't think I realized it early on, but through my experience and having it happen over and over again, it's sort of when you're in that. This is never going to happen phase, why am I still doing it? It's probably when you're going to want, it's going to when you have a chance of it happening.

Patrick (CEO of WSO):  [00:15:46] So it's kind of like in the back end, right, when you're starting to have some despair and losing hope, that's about what it's going to change.

DSICA: [00:15:53] Yeah, it's like when you start having some, when you start losing some hope, you're kind of in the point where you're getting closer.

Patrick (CEO of WSO):  [00:16:01] Interesting. So you're your admiral for how long, as if far before this whole transition happens in a year?

DSICA: [00:16:09] I was probably there for a year and a half

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:16:10] Year and a half, OK, so you immediately get into an interview.

DSICA: [00:16:13] Because the program I was in was called poha and. It was a formal sales training program, and it was really hard like we would have to. You know, get up in front of a room of 50 people and run through a pitch, and they really taught. They really taught people how to how to how to work with clients.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:16:42] It's a little boiler room esque where you're like, Sell me this pen kind of thing.

DSICA: [00:16:46] No, it wasn't. Yeah, it was. It was way more sophisticated. It was. It was tough. It was, you know, describe these complicated products and write, you know, sort of how do you how do you work with a retail investor to try to help them understand how they could be writing covered calls on their portfolios? Or, you know, doing? Pledging assets to get mortgages, and it was it was looking back on, it was pretty sophisticated stuff and the. But it really it came in that training has come in very, very handy throughout through out my career in terms of.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:17:25] Being able to tell

DSICA: [00:17:27] Being able to sell and sort of understanding. Understanding the playbook and the and the framework for how you do it

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:17:37] Now, I can see that I think people under think oftentimes when people get stuck in those, whether it's a cold call, FAA role or it's a heavy sales role, they often it's often extremely difficult, but it's often they look back on it later in their career and say, Wow, that was actually really useful.

DSICA: [00:17:53] Yeah, yeah. I would say the same.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:17:55] Yeah. So you're a year and a half and you get this interview through this. I'll call it the golden email from your from your mentor. Do you feel like if you had emailed any of those 15 people, you would have been in an interview process? Probably, right? So is there a reason you just started from the top or did you actually look through all the 15 people before you decided, Hey, I'm going to choose this top one?

DSICA: [00:18:17] To. I've looked through all of them, I kind of felt that. I was already at Admiral, I I liked. You know, I liked Meryl quite a bit, so. Yeah, that's why. So it's also I mean, at that point, I was just assuming they were going to be a whole bunch of no's, so I was like, I'll start at the top and start at the top.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:18:41] Of fair, OK, so you started, you got into an interview process right away. This is for the CMBS desk. Mm hmm. And you. Was it a tough interview? Was it super easy because you had that recommendation from a higher up? What was it like? Was it technical? Was it mental math? Do you remember anything about that interview?

DSICA: [00:19:01] Um. It wasn't I mean, it wasn't. It wasn't super easy. I wouldn't say it was a technical like going into a Super Day or going into something, you know, that was that was really that structured. Um, and it was also at a time where there was. You know, the group was. Doing a tremendous amount of volume, and I think they needed they needed focus to help out.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:19:33] So it was like the right time they were growing, I mean, yeah, I mean, it makes sense. It was timing, timing. Was late of six, early 07. There's the cracks hadn't kind of started showing yet, right? Yep. So you get to the desk and how long before you're going to do you feel like things started to shift in terms of? Just I mean, you were there till June, right, so tell me, like, did you start kind of getting a bad feeling where you I should start looking or what was the whole process from going from Merrill to Vista? Can you talk to me a little bit about that? I mean, I know what happened

DSICA: [00:20:09] To

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:20:09] To visa.

DSICA: [00:20:12] As well, there was another step in there where things were going well. Know, I really. Love the group, love the work, things were. Not couldn't have been happier and then. You know, it was it was really abrupt where it was we had a securitization and market that sold in. And then it was just sort of we're done like we're not we're not doing another. And Merrill. He was like they gave us our bonus. And then said, and this was kind of ironic, but I was lumped into the second year analysts. Ok, so they sound like you're because what happened in 1998 is my understanding wasn't around. But you know, there were Wall Street laid off a bunch of a bunch of people that were recruited from recruited schools. And then there was the backlash from the colleges to say, You know, you're you recruited these people. And then however, many months later, you laid them off. So I got put into this like protected group. At Merrill, where we were being redeployed, so it was you don't have any work in your current group. Um. You know, you're eligible to go and find other jobs. Within, you know, within the, you know, within the company. Mm hmm. And H.R. will be calling you. So kind of ironic, right, because now I'm being protected by the analyst class that I wasn't eligible to go, you know, to get into the proper way. And we never got calls from H.R., so we started figuring out who other people were around the bank and started figuring out who the HR people were and, you know, reaching out and having conversations and then realize that, you know, let's say there's like 70 people that fall into this criteria, that they're in affected areas, they're in the analyst program. People that were above would have been laid off in this in this moment. Yeah, but there were like two front office jobs available. In that mix, the rest were sort of middle office back office functions.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:22:33] So you basically the writing was on the wall, like, hey, I'm not going to get one of those two out of the 70 people they're looking that are protected. So you started looking elsewhere outside the firm or tell me

DSICA: [00:22:43] What was, you know, I went and got one of the two.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): 00:22:45] Oh, you did OK. So yeah,

DSICA: [00:22:47] So I I interviewed for this. It was an emerging market equity research sales desk. Ok, tell me about that. Totally different. It was super. It was. It was super interesting. It was a, you know, very international group on the trading floor. We were working on. You're basically doing road shows for research analysts and selling equities and. You know, with foreign IPOs to U.S. institutional investors.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:23:21] So were you actually helping prepare the reports themselves or were you doing, were you more on the sales side where you're

DSICA: [00:23:26] Kind of more on the sales

Patrick (CEO of WSO):  [00:23:27] Side, the sales side? Ok.

DSICA: [00:23:30] And you know that when? That was also very, very interesting, it was hours were crazy because we'd have a morning conference call with all the offices around the world and we would often. Also be the last off the off the trading floor at night, but it was, you know, it was pretty. I thought it was fascinating. I thought the, you know, learning about new markets, you're learning about new and new business names and. And then one day and then through like kind of in while this process of going for this job was going on, I started interviewing with Visa.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:24:12] Got it, and so you ended up getting one of the few front office jobs that was available, yet you had already kind of started some outside discussions. And what prompted you to jump like? What was the final thing of like, Hey. Well, I got laid off.

DSICA: [00:24:28] I mean, I ended up getting laid off from the. From the sales task, what I had negotiated was the real estate group would lend my head count to the trading group and then. Actually, the head of the desk didn't know I was being laid off. Until I called him and said, hey, I called to H.R.. And it turns out what happened was they further reduce the real estate group I'd come from.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:24:59] Got it. So you were still under technically under that head count? Yeah. And so that can.

DSICA: [00:25:06] And then I remember calling everybody I knew through everything we just talked about and the general, the general message was. I can't help at all, I'm pretty sure I'll be laid off at any time. And. And I had this great opportunity to go to Visa and. So I thought it would be a. I thought it would be a pretty interesting move at that point.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:25:34] So tell me a little bit about, but you know, you had an interesting opportunity. How did that opportunity present itself? I mean, this is the this is the now the worst possible time to be looking for a job. Right, it's the middle of the night.

DSICA: [00:25:47] It was it was so unique, it came in through Merrill's air and during the road show had asked. You know, the book runners on the deal that you wanted to, you know, wanted to start a program where Visa would hire seven people who are sort of around that who were sort of around that point in their career to move out to California and. Create kind of a first, you know, the first wave of. Yeah, it's a junior to mid-level lower mid-level talent, you know, with a finance background.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:26:32] And what specific condition like what were you doing specifically for them?

DSICA: [00:26:37] Well, the way it worked is we each person was placed into was placed into a different business unit, so there was one person in finance. There's one person in. Marketing product, et cetera. I ended up being the last into that program and the only open seat was in sales, so sort of sales and but in Visa's terms, that's kind of managing f.i banks as well as managing, you know, merchants and acquirers that accept these. So it was a. It's a really interesting way to learn the business, because that's where those are the two main parties that connect into the visa system.

Patrick (CEO of WSO):  [00:27:24] Ok, and so you're there brought into the sales desk as kind of this new program and you eventually get promoted, you know, you're there for four from 08 to 2013, right? So almost five and a half years and you as you're going through there, are you getting promoted? What's the I mean, it's kind of a new program. So what was the what was the process like and what was the visibility? What was your thought process as you're going through that?

DSICA: [00:27:49] Yeah, I mean, I. And I started to realize, like it was, it was an interesting situation because we were the first, you know, we were sort of coming into the company where most of the people around had been there for 15 or 20 years and. Um, I change my perspective quite a bit where at that point I had abandoned, you know, ever going back to like a finance role and became pretty excited about what was going on. And what I liked about the payments industry in 08 is that it was very small. You know, you could you could walk into the person's office who was responsible for sort of, you know, building helping build out the network, helping do these key deals throughout, you know, throughout the last ten or twenty years, that kind of shaped the industry we'd known at that point and. It was a big industry, right, it was, you know, payments touched many things and it was a great company and a great culture. So I I really sort of shifted and went as deep as I could to build out and meet as many people as I could in the industry to learn as much as I could. And I'd say the one thing I do differently was spend a lot of time with the people who were who had been at Visa for a long time to understand the history and to understand like, you know, to put things in context as to why they. While they were a certain way and yeah, and I was getting promoted and there were a bunch of records and ultimately helped create this analytics team that was working on global acceptance strategy. So helping make decisions like which country should we should we focus on when we enter the country? What segments within that country are? You know, our our top priority, and then once we choose a segment, what are the what are the key deals we could do? You know, actual commercial agreements that we can put in place to convert cash and check to electronic payments on the visa system?

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:30:04] And that was kind of near the end of year. You had kind of almost been promoted to the point where you were almost like an internal consultant, data analytics creating that team, right? But what was the progression from when you got there in sales like your day to day versus what it was at the end? Obviously, at the end, you're probably managing some people, right?

DSICA: [00:30:22] Well, that actually happened early on, Earthlings are creating the team, OK? And then it progressed to being out in front of actually executing the deals that we. You know that we were.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:30:35] Can you give me an example like a deal that you were executing? Like what? Like how would I think about that? Because I know very I know very little about the payment space or like what goes on at these.

DSICA: [00:30:45] At these companies, yeah, so a common deal I was doing at the end was what had happened was you had the Durbin amendment, which put a put an interchange cap on debit transactions, and it was part of Dodd-Frank. And also had a routing provision where there needed to be multiple options for merchants to route pin transactions. So when you think when you open up, when you turn over the back of your debit card and there's like interlink maestro Shazam, these types of names, you couldn't just have Visa and Interlink, which are the same company or MasterCard and Maestro, which are the same company. So that sort of happened. There's this lawsuit settlement that had been going on in terms of interchange fees that was won by the merchants. And then while this was, you know, so these were two monumental changes in the industry, sort of this new regulation as well as the settlement. And then and then while all this was happening, all these new ideas started popping up, you know, mobile wallets using transaction data to present customers with coupons on their mobile phones. Mm hmm. And a common deal that I would do would be to engage with the merchant and basically put an incentive agreement in place where they would commit. You know, a portion of those transactions because they know how to choice as to where a transaction can be routed. So I worked on a lot of routing agreements with retailers and then simultaneously getting them to pilot and try new. You know, some of the new ideas that were popping up.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:32:30] Got it. Ok, fair enough.

DSICA: [00:32:32]. So it's pretty sophisticated because you're it was pretty tough because you were dealing with essentially a client that was, you know, had been part of a class action lawsuit. This new regulation and helping them understand. You know, helping them understand how this would be interpreted and what decisions they would have to make, and then ultimately the decision they should make is, you know, working with us. And then on top of that, you know, kind of layering in new. You know, new pilots on new technology at that time, they were very unfamiliar with it.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:33:11] Got it. So tell me why, why leave? It sounds like you're getting promoted. You're doing interesting, challenging but interesting work at Visa y kind of go out and start your own thing. It's just the opportunity was too good to pass up or tell me a little bit about your partner and kind of the discussions that kind of led to NYC.

DSICA: [00:33:30] Yeah. I mean, I moved back to New York and. I had helped start this, this networking group in New York, and we were basically hosting these. Discussion panels, and you would have a little networking afterwards, and it was pretty small, and I started meeting people from all the other companies, so they started meeting people from Amex and MasterCard and started meeting start ups and. You know, I just. I guess it sort of clicked for me that there really weren't that many people in this industry that we're doing what we were doing. And then you're sort of reading and this is again my perspective not, you know, sort of how I got there, not how. How hands? You know, got interested in it, but I was. Looking at what was going on in the start up world, and I became. And I'm, you know, I remember looking at Uber and Airbnb, and I'm like, That's exactly what we do, right, where we understand sort of the, you know, all the rules and the way a payment transaction flows and how to optimize for lower costs and higher approvals. And I had, you know, I remember going back and forth and just sort of had this sense that there was a bigger opportunity there in that.

DSICA: [00:34:59] My group was pretty well positioned. The people that were doing what I was doing, visa were pretty well positioned to work to work for these types of companies and but it took a little while to get there. And, you know, so I just continued, you know, sort of doing my role of visa. I continued doing this networking event. And then eventually. Eventually. She, you know, was meeting with, you know, who's the head of the firm now. And I was describing and he goes, I think you should go work for one of those companies. So I went and interviewed a brain tree and that Klarna? Ok. And so at the time, Braintree was doing the card processing for Airbnb and Uber. And I think Stripe had just been started. And then Klarna was sort of a point of sale financing based in Sweden and. And then, yeah, that's what I was going to do, so I was going to go into a senior BD, you know, sales role at Braintree or Klarna, and I got very close to going to Klarna and. Is what we do in I was going to have

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:36:15] What stopped you from doing it? From politics.

DSICA:00:36:20] I felt that. The way e-commerce transactions worked in Sweden were just very different from the rest of the world, and the company have been incredibly successful and you know, I just got a sense through the process that. It was going to be a tough it was going be a very tough mission to expand this. My role is going to be expanding acceptance into the UK.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:36:46] It'll be tough to get that

DSICA: [00:36:47] And to do that. Yeah, and I just didn't. And I probably would have I probably would have taken it if if management recognized how hard it was going to be, if there was sort of this appreciation for we know this is a tough task, but their attitude was more. Now we're pretty confident this is going to go. This is going to go. You know, this is going to go pretty easily, so it was. So you didn't try ultimately, I got right to the finish line. I was right about the sign and I decided not to. And then a few weeks later, I got a phone call from Homs who said he was at General Atlantic and he was looking at a lot of earlier stage. He became interested in earlier stage companies and said, I'm thinking about starting this new type of firm. Would you would you be interested in if you're going to move to Sweden, if you're definitely going to, you know, if you're up to doing something a little crazy? Would you be interested in coming with me to help figure this out? And it was a minute and a half long conversation. I said yes.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:37:56] Interesting. So was the idea that you come in and kind of be one of the founding partners. How did you know how much you're willing to disclose in terms of like the initial you guys, you said you're on your fourth fund raise now our fourth fund. After third, so you're in your third fund and was the initial fund, was it mostly friends and family or through your own funds personally where you had to kind of just scrap it together to get that first one off the ground or how? Well, I

DSICA: [00:38:26] Think the idea was that the idea for Nike was that we felt there was white space in the start up market and. There was a need for a firm who could help, you know, if you're. If you're building enterprise software and you want to sell it to banks and insurance companies, there weren't many options at that time for you as an entrepreneur or even for you as a lead investor, so. The idea was what we think there's room for a new type of firm. The other idea we had was let's curate our LP base, let's curate our LP base so that. So that we have experts in our. You know, that are investing their own capital, but can also help the portfolio, so it can also kind of roll their sleeves up and. You know, help create value within that portfolio. Was there any sort of. So those are the two ideas which was like, you know. You know, kind of some whitespace in the market and a new approach to raising a fund where. In order to have that expertise at the at the company, you don't need to keep expanding and hiring more people into the into the general partnership.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:39:52] Got it. So tell me, how has that? I mean, you've been there for now. You've been running this for six years. How is it evolved? I mean, obviously of you're investing out of your third funds that things have gone well. Tell me a little bit about. How you know, the types of firms you're looking for, and then before we wrap up, I'd love to talk a little bit about any advice you'd give to your younger self.

DSICA: [00:40:13] Yeah. No, things are working. You know, I think we've built a very unique, unique firm in that. Um. You know, we really want to work within, you know, within the. Within the existing industry, so we think there's a lot of value in. You know, lead investors who are great, great at helping companies scale a venture backed company and being a coach to the CEO and, you know, helping recruit early employees and tech founders. And in fintech, that's not enough, right? You're going to need a partner who can help you sell into enterprise, who can help you structure a balance sheet if it's the lending business who can help you, you know, work with regulators and a kind of proactive way. And yeah, it's been. It's been an incredible journey and it's working. It's working really well in our first fund. That was really could we get? Could we get access to those great deals we were seeing from the. You know, for, you know, from the side lines or to speak. And then, you know, over time, it's well, if we're adding value, can we increase our ownership and deals and. You know, our third funds, now 211 million. And it's going it's going really well, I mean, in terms of what we look, what we look at are. We cover four themes, throws up themes, so pretty much everything within fintech is inbounds. Mm hmm. You know, and then there's, you know, obviously subthemes that are. You know, kind of. Near some things that are. You know, get hotter than others at certain times, and of course, yeah, you know, really looking for where is, you know, where are the most talented teams deciding to spend their time and then, you know, we kind of evaluate and come in with our with our thesis and see if it if it fits at that point.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:42:18] Perfect. So before we call the pod anything you'd any advice you'd give to your younger self. Looking back now coming out of school and you know, you made several small jumps all at Merrill and then. And I've quickly got promoted. So any advice you'd give to your younger self knowing what you know now?

DSICA: [00:42:38] Yeah, I would. I'd probably say, you know, doing. Doing some more research and having a better idea. At an earlier age of what? Of what these different. Industries look like and what the what the what the work. What the work entailed, it's hard to say, like when you're to your 18 year old self, but you know, I'd say the the other thing too is, you know, just sort of. Embracing your strengths. And, you know, kind of. Finding something that. Fit your skill set and fit your personality and how

Patrick (CEO of WSO): 00:43:23] How can kids do that? How do kids know what their strengths are at 18 or 19? Is it just kind of or how do they even find? How do they do this research and besides the Wall Street Oasis and other Googling? Is there other ways should they be meeting as many people as possible at that young age?

DSICA: [00:43:39] Oh, I think so, I mean, I think, you know, the one. The one advice, the one thing I tell everybody that ever asked me is, you know, view relationships as. You know, when somebody introduces you to someone or if you meet someone, kind of view that as the first meeting for a 30 year relationship and, you know, take a perspective that you're going to have and maintain relationships long term. I think the earlier you can do that. The better it'll suit you. You know, it's pretty obvious when people are transactional. You know, so it's there's no secret to it, but it's just. Right. That's always the perspective I take in relationship is this is somebody I'm going to know for the rest of my career, right to treat them as such and, you know, handle follow ups and, you know, find ways to explore whether or not you can work together. So I think that I think that holds true for. Even at a younger age,

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:44:40] And so kids that are coming to a mentor and they're maybe a little intimidated when speaking to someone like you. How should they come across that way besides following up, should they follow? Is there a certain cadence that you would suggest in terms of them following up with you so that they don't feel like they're bothering you too much, but at the same time, they're developing that relationship?

DSICA: [00:45:01] Yeah, I mean, I think the you know, coming in. With a product like coming in with an agenda of items that they want feedback on or that they're helping that they that they're thinking about. I always like to even to this day, like in meetings, you know, coming away with one to do for myself, right? Because it's a way where you can demonstrate that. You know, you're you have the ability to kind of sit in a meeting, drive it to an actionable step and then complete it. And I think that that's always served me well, right? Like. Even in a meeting where you're like, I'm not sure what the point of this was coming out with something. Yeah. You know, some sort of task that you can that you can you can complete.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:45:50] Great. Well, anything else you'd like to share before we call it?

DSICA: [00:45:55] No, that was great, and thanks so much for again for reaching out and

Patrick (CEO of WSO):  [00:46:00] Yeah, David, I appreciate it. See you soon. I appreciate you taking the time. Thank you. Okay, thank you. And thanks to you, my listeners at Wall Street Oasis. If you have any suggestions whatsoever, please don't hesitate to send them my way. Patrick at Wall Street Oasis. And till next time.

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