Peggy Mangot

CEO at SparkGift

San Francisco, California

@peggymangot | LinkedInProfile

You’ve worked for one of the largest global networks at Visa and with the largest tech firm, Google. How would you describe the culture differences between the two companies? What did they have in common?

• Cultural differences: At Visa, I worked on US consumer products, which included consumer credit, debit and prepaid payments. These products are well-established products with broad adoption, awareness and brand recognition. Paying with your plastic card is the preferred method of payment in the U.S. In contrast, at Google I worked on emerging products, including Google Wallet. The major innovations that changed the industry in my tenure with Visa were brilliant rule-change innovations (i.e., small ticket interchange). Whereas at Google, innovation was firmly based on product and technology breakthroughs (i.e., Google Wallet NFC, Android Pay). My experience at Google was incredibly fast-paced, iterative and scrappy – much more similar to a startup than a large company.

• Commonalities: Visa and Google are the most fascinating companies in the world when you consider the amount of data they control. Google knows where I search, while Visa knows where buy. When you look at the opportunities surrounding commerce, these companies have a lot in common.

Have you personally experienced roadblocks or the proverbial ‘glass ceiling’ in your previous work experience?

Yes, of course. In my career, as in life, there is a lot of unconscious bias. People tend to hire people that look like them and have similar interests. Left unchecked, this is one reason that there are less women executives in large companies. And this is where the FinTech startups can help. The executives running these growing and disruptive FinTech startups often look very different from the executives of the established companies. So, it’s likely that the leaders that will scale these FinTech startups will bring more diversity to the industry.

FinTech conferences tend to be male-dominated, from the speakers/panelists through to the attendees. Have you seen this change over the past few years?

Over the past year, some of the most prominent FinTech conferences have made more of an effort to recruit greater numbers of women speakers and panelists.

During our interview call Peggy did note attending a large FinTech conference a few years back. She was greeted by ‘booth girls’ as she walked into the vendor booth area. Peggy recalled thinking “Seriously?” and commenting as such on Twitter. To which we applaud her actions.

Do you believe FinTech can be a catalyst for change within banking, not just from a technology perspective but also in addressing gender diversity?

Yes, absolutely. New FinTech entrants are changing long-held notions of what a financial services company should look like, including UX, customer experience, brand, service and fees. Over time, as these FinTech entrants grow and scale, they will change what a financial services management team looks like – which will include more gender and racial diversity.

What have you learned in your own personal experience as the CEO of a start-up in Silicon Valley? What has surprised you?

There is a strong culture in Silicon Valley to give back and help new founders. There are a lot of incredibly influential people in Silicon Valley that have helped us – and continue to help us – as we navigate our startup journey. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how many people want to help, will go out of their way to help and genuinely want you to be successful.

What do you see as the 3 leading future trends for FinTech? What impact will CX have with respect to these?

The democratization of financial services will continue to be a strong trend. FinTech innovation is bringing costs down and younger generations are much more willing to adopt financial products from non-bank brands. You will see more financial products designed and marketed to the masses.

 

About SparkGift:

SparkGift is a Y Combinator backed micro-investing platform that makes it easy to give investments (stocks and index funds) as gifts. We support small-dollar gifts and fractional shares, so you can give someone the gift of Apple stock or a Vanguard index fund for as low as $20. The founders came together with a common vision that it should be as easy to give someone an investment in the future as it is to give someone a retail gift card. SparkGift is democratizing equity ownership and creating products that make investing simple, enjoyable and accessible to the masses. Our mission is to use gifts to create new savers and investors at scale.