Fintech Today (FTT) is a research firm focused on creating high-quality, actionable, and reliable content for fintech professionals. Via Fintech Today (FTT), Julie VerHage-Greenberg, the Co-Founder, has helped create a platform that improves accessibility to FinTech news and networks as it serves as a media outlet and community platform for investors, entrepreneurs, and operators in the financial technology space.
Full name: Julie VerHage-Greenberg
Current job title: Co-Founder
Current company: Fintech Today
Current location: Austin, TX
"There isn’t a single place where people can go to find out about everything happening in fintech and connect with others in the space. Fintech Today wants to change that."
Despite receiving offers in consulting, Julie decided to become a business journalist in New York after graduating from Michigan State University with a degree in Finance. Julie worked in journalism for about seven years before making the entrepreneurial jump. Prior to the peak of the pandemic last year, Julie made a momentous decision of quitting her full-time job covering FinTech for Bloomberg on March 3, 2020, with no other full-time offer lined up. “I wanted to take some time and look for something new while consulting and freelancing.” Within a couple weeks of freelance consulting, Julie went on to start Fintech Today’s premium newsletter. Soon after, in August, she quit her consulting engagements to join Fintech Today (FTT) full-time as a Co-Founder.
Being a part of a weekly newsletter that is focused on explaining product development & strategy in FinTech, Julie is helping empower professionals to become more aware and agile, providing them with a competitive advantage in the FinTech industry. “There isn’t a single place where people can go to find out about everything happening in fintech and connect with others in the space. Fintech Today wants to change that.”
Through Fintech Today, Julie gets to interview a diverse group of people from all around the world. She is excited to see the new and upcoming trends in FinTech across the globe. “I’ve recently interviewed people in fintech from other countries and I’ve loved learning more about what’s going on in places like Africa!” Currently, Julie is focused on building out Fintech Today Media which comprises multiple newsletters (both free and paid), a podcast, research reports, and more. “Our website is finally up and we’re just getting started, so stay tuned for updates on both the media and community side.”
Julie further emphasized the importance of setting a schedule as she transitioned into her full-time role at Fintech Today. “My remote work life has been exceptionally weird. When I left my full-time job at Bloomberg, I spent the first few weeks hustling to find consulting work. Consulting from home was a struggle at times with a bunch of different things going on. I’ve found it much easier to set a bit of a schedule in a full-time role at Fintech Today. The thing that helps me the most is taking small breaks throughout the day to go for a walk, get groceries, or even take a 30-minute power nap.”
Mentors and networks play a crucial role, especially in business and journalism. From Julie’s first boss in NY, Charlie Gasparino, to incredible VCs like Matt Harris, Satya Patel, Mark Goldberg and Frank Rotman to her friends and colleagues - Charley Ma, Sarah Frier, Jenny Surane, and Sonali Basak, Julie has had support and guidance through her career. “One of the reasons I loved journalism was all of the connections I was able to make. Not only did I find many of these people inspiring, but they were so generous with their time whether it be for a story I was working on or personal career questions. Several of the above even attended my small Zoom wedding in December!”
More on Julie
Currently live: was NYC until April...now Austin!
Living arrangement: bought her first home.
Family at home: Husband and 2 amazing dogs! :)
Hometown: Allegan, Michigan.
Favorite hobby: Working out (running, weight training, pilates, cycling, etc).
Favorite part of your day: Mornings...coffee, workouts, and breakfast! :)
Favorite show to binge: Succession, Yellowstone...anything in this genre of tv shows is destined to pull me in. Currently watching FBoy Island which is terrible yet great all at once.
Daily Diary
Day One
5:30 am: My body clock wakes me up. I quietly get out of bed and head into the kitchen to get water, coffee and check emails while watching the news.
6:00 am - 8:00 am: I’ll do a workout at some point during this time frame. Today was a run and core workout on Peloton.
8:00 am: Shower and breakfast, which was a small bagel sandwich and a protein bar (Built is my favorite).
9:00 am - 10:00 am: Finish editing a piece from FTT Expert Charley Ma. Send it over to Charley for one final look.
10:30 am: Got to meet up with Jack Randall, former head of comms at Robinhood, while he was in town. I hadn’t seen him in something like 2 years so it was great to catch up! He was one of the first people I met in this space.
11:30 am: Get home and make lunch before another meeting.
1:00 pm: Have a meeting with a company that I am working with as an advisor.
2:00 pm: While I was in meetings, Charley approved the final version of the newsletter, so I scheduled to publish it at 5ET for our premium subscribers.
2:30 pm: We published a podcast today with Stuart Sopp of Current, so I check the stats on how it’s doing. I also ask my Twitter feed what I should ask my next podcast guests, Ken Lin of Credit Karma and Frank Rotman of QED.
3 pm: I try to continuously add fintech news to a Google Doc that my husband and I share for our Fintech Update Newsletters so that we don’t have to do a bunch of searching for news on the days that we publish. There’s been a fair amount of that today so I add a few in.
3:30 pm: It’s almost the end of the month, so I log on to Gusto to run payroll. This only takes a few minutes, so I then sit down on the couch to relax for a bit.
4:30 pm: Send out a few emails to promote the corporate subscriptions we have at fintech today.
5:00 pm: We’re launching a Fintech job board in the next couple of days, so I chat with the team on how that’s going and see if there is anything I can do to help.
5:30 pm: Mostly done! I’ll keep checking emails to make sure nothing pops up, but no meetings or anything scheduled for the rest of the day. Time to relax with the fam! :)
Day Two
5:00 am: My body clock wakes me up a bit earlier this time. I check emails and Slack and see some stuff from one of our writers based in the UK so I respond to him and work on the report we’re doing together for about 60 mins.
6:30 am: Workout time. 45 min bootcamp with Jess Sims on Peloton. Used to take her classes before she was even at Peloton and she’s amazing. Highly recommend it!
8:00 am: Shower and breakfast. Do some more writing for the report mentioned at 5 am. Get an invoice from our podcast producer so I pay him through Gusto.
9:00 am: Grab groceries and give our dog Tux a bath. He’s not a fan.
10:00 am -11:30 am: Responding to emails and putting the finishing touches on a new post going out later in the day on open banking in Latin America.
11:30 am: Lunch.
12 pm: Working on some new subscriber payment stuff. Not fun.
12:30 pm: I literally take a nap. Yes, I am admitting that I took a nap in the middle of the day. I didn’t have any meetings, stuff could wait, and I basically got no sleep on Saturday because our dog got super sick and had to go to the hospital.
1:30 pm: Wake up and respond to some emails.
2:00 pm: Take Tux for a walk.
3:30 pm: Answer questions from the new payment provider and our website developers.
4:00 pm: Send out the newsletter on Latin American by Jenny Johnston.
5:00 pm: Respond to more emails, watch some news, check the Fintech Today Community Slack.
6:00 pm: Write this post! ;)
Reach Out to Julie on LinkedIn