July 24, 2025 • 23 mins
Aglika Dotcheva's journey from organizing student strikes in post-communist Bulgaria to becoming CFO of Riskified is a masterclass in resilience and adaptive leadership. With just $3,000 in her pocket and dreams of a better future, Agi arrived in New York, eventually studying at Columbia University before finding her path in fintech.
What makes Agi's story particularly compelling is how she transformed setbacks into stepping stones. When her investment banking offer disappeared during an economic downturn, she pivoted to a tech company project that unexpectedly revealed her passion for the intersection of finance and technology. Nearly a decade ago, she joined Riskified as their first finance hire, building their financial infrastructure from scratch and guiding them through multiple funding rounds to a successful IPO in 2021 – remarkably accomplished during the height of the COVID pandemic.
Throughout our conversation, Agi shares profound insights on modern leadership, emphasizing that while strategic vision remains essential, adaptability has become increasingly crucial in today's rapidly changing business landscape. "Effective leaders must be able to adapt their strategies and remain flexible," she notes, reflecting on how Riskified has navigated various growth cycles. She also highlights the unique strengths women bring to the payments industry, including heightened resilience from overcoming biases, greater empathy, and superior collaborative skills – all vital for innovation in tech environments.
For those aspiring to leadership in finance or fintech, Agi offers golden advice: don't be just a "numbers person." She emphasizes that true strategic leadership comes from understanding the business fundamentally, maintaining a continuous learning mindset, and – perhaps most importantly – viewing challenges as opportunities for growth. As she beautifully summarizes: "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Listen now to discover how this philosophy has shaped one of the most dynamic leaders in fraud prevention technology.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast,
where we talk to C-level leadersfrom across the payments
landscape.
We'll be discussing theproducts and services that
impact the payment space today,as well as trends and
predictions for the future ofpayments.
We will also hear stories fromour guests about their journeys
to the top.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hello everyone and welcome to the Leaders in
Payments podcast.
I'm your host, greg Myers, andthis episode is part of our
Women Leaders in Payments month,something we do every year in
the month of July, and it's oneof my favorite times of the year
.
This year's theme is redefiningleadership, influence, impact
and innovation, so those aresome of the things you're going
to be hearing about during themonth of July.
So, first, a special thank youto our sponsors.
(00:41):
Our title sponsor is WorldPay,our participating sponsors are
VisiPay and Payrock, and ourepisode sponsors are the
Clearinghouse and Genico andPaySafe.
So special thanks to thosecompanies.
Today, our special guest isAggie Dachiva, the CFO of
Riskified.
So, aggie, thank you so muchfor being here and welcome to
the show.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Thank you for having me, Greg.
It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Great, let's start out with just a little
icebreaker kind of thing, if youdon't mind.
So if you could have dinnerwith any woman in history, past
or present, who would that beand why and what kind of
restaurant would you go to?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
There are so many inspiring women it's really hard
to choose just one, but onethat stands out for me is Ruth
Bader Ginsburg.
She was a Supreme Court justice, brilliant lawyer, a feminist
icon.
She fought all her life,throughout her career, for
women's and gender rights.
She argued and won so manycases that changed the life of
(01:39):
people and the way the lawtreated women and minorities.
But what made her truly specialwasn't just her brilliance, it
was the ability to reach acrossthe aisle and to make people
that even disagreed with herrespect her, and I think that
(02:03):
this is a true quality andleadership, that it's rare, and
I wish we had more of that todayin the society.
So truly amazing women.
I would have loved to be ableto meet her, but as for where we
would go, since we both studiedin Columbia University, I would
probably choose a book fieldcafe near campus somewhere, and
(02:26):
I'm sure we'll be able toreminisce about our time we
spent there and I'm sure theconversation would be very
interesting.
I'd love to hear her wisdom andstories.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Great, great Thanks for sharing that.
I've asked that questionobviously for each one of these
episodes, and I think I've hadone or two that had that named
the same woman, but most of thetime is different, so that's
definitely another different one, so that's really unique.
I appreciate that.
So let's start off talking alittle bit about your background
and your career.
Maybe tell us where you're born, where you studied, kind of
(02:59):
what led you into payments.
Studied kind of what led youinto payments.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Of course.
So I was born and raised inSofia, bulgaria.
I grew up in the 90s inBulgaria, during very turbulent
years when communism fell, andit was a time characteristic
with a very difficult economy.
Money was tight and the countrywas shifting from a state-run
(03:25):
economy to a very chaotic way ofprivatization.
I went to an English-speakinghigh school.
This was kind of late in myteenagehood and that really kind
of helped me develop anaffinity for English-speaking
cultures.
Later on I studied law.
I followed in the footsteps ofmy father and sister, both
lawyers, but my passion hasalways been in economics Since
(03:48):
early on I loved readingeconomics books and I was always
interested in how governmentswork, how money moves and how
policy affects people's lives.
So 1997 was a memorable year forme and in that year I was a law
student.
The economy was very turbulentand disastrous from some of the
(04:11):
recent policy of the governmentat the time and I helped
organize with other law students, colleagues of mine.
I helped organize a strikeagainst the government.
So that was quite a memorableexperience.
And around the same time I alsoapplied for for US Green Card
Diversity Lottery and,unexpectedly for me, I won.
(04:31):
So this illusion with some ofthe reality in Bulgaria at this
time.
I packed my bags and came toNew York with $3,000 in my
pockets.
After I came to New York it waslate back in the 90s I worked
for a year in a tech company.
After a year I applied and Itransferred to study in Columbia
University.
(04:52):
So this is how I came to NewYork and then from there just
thinking through my path topayments.
It wasn't exactly linear, butjust thinking back, you know
things all connect at the end.
So at Columbia University Iworked on a project that was
sponsored by Bear Stearns.
It was a fixed income projectwhere we created a historical
(05:16):
database for all the bonds thathad defaulted in the last
century and it helped me developexpertise and domain expertise
in fixed income at the time,which later on helped me apply
and get an offer from anotherinvestment bank in that capital
market.
But the economy, just as I wasgraduating, the economy
(05:36):
deteriorated again, so the joboffer got pulled and I ended up
graduating without a job offer.
So that was quite a wrinkle.
I ended up taking a short-termproject.
I worked for a CEO where Ihelped him fundraise.
I developed a model for him.
I worked with him and his CTOand other product people in the
(05:57):
company and I helped develop afinancial model that would take
the assumptions and the strategythat they had and really
translate it into numbers.
So that was a very interestingexperience and it appeared to be
pivotal for me.
It's kind of opened the way forme to understand what it is to
work in tech from finance side,and from there I moved on.
(06:20):
I got a few kind of progressingroles in fixed income analytics.
Again, this was something thatI felt comfortable with, but I
realized that the experience ofthe tech company was much more
motivating and fulfilling.
So I pursued different roles inFP&A.
I kind of moved direction.
I pursued different roles inFP&A and, after kind of gaining
(06:44):
a solid experience in FP&A andgetting my MBA at the same time
I was working and studying atthe same time I had a chance to
join Riskified as the firstfinance hire as a VP finance.
That was almost 10 years agoand at Riskified we focus on
preventing e-commerce fraud.
(07:05):
We help merchants approve moretransaction legitimate
transaction while we'reprotecting them against fraud,
and this is closely tied topayments.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
So I have to ask the question so how does dad and
sister feel that you kind ofleft the being a lawyer kind of
pursuit that you were after atfirst?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
My father was very supporting.
He was the one who used to buyme the books economics books.
Earlier on he was a voraciousreader.
We had this big library in ourhouse and for him it was
important when I come here inthe States, when I left, that I
continue my studies.
So he said, if you're not goingto be a lawyer, at least go
back to school and finish whatyou do.
(07:44):
So I'm grateful.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Great, great.
So another quick kind of funquestion If you're at a
conference, you're going to be aspeaker, which I know you've
done.
Before You're called up onstage, you have a hype song.
What would that hype song be?
Speaker 3 (07:58):
For me, that would be Lose Yourself from Eminem, and
I truly believe that you have togive your everything when you
have an opportunity.
And this song, this name,resonates with me.
The lyrics are all aboutpressure, the chance, the
urgency, and it's really allabout going away, no holding
(08:20):
back.
So you might only get one shotand it's up for you to take it
or miss it.
And this resonates how I feelwhen I'm working on an
opportunity or pursuing apassionate project.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Okay, okay, again another question that I've asked
every time and it's beendifferent.
So I've yet to have two guestssay the same exact hype song, so
that's kind of cool.
So tell us a little bit moreabout what you do on a daily
basis and maybe what excites youabout your role there at
Riskified.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
So my role has evolved.
As I said, I was the firstfinance hire at Risky Fight and
in the beginning it was allabout building our financial
infrastructure from scratch,building the first finance model
, figuring out the drivers,really managing even the cash
runway, which is very importantfor an early stage company.
So I joined right after SeriesA and since then we've gone
(09:11):
through a lot of transformation.
They were a public company, soit means that we had a long way
to come here.
We went through a couple ofdifferent stages, a few
different rounds of fundraising,and each stage had its own
requirements and challenges.
As I said, in the beginning itwas more about being a builder.
Later on it was more aboutworking with other executive
(09:34):
leaders across the organizationto optimize for scale and growth
.
And then the IPO followed.
So it was all about scalingyour team and building and
preparing the company for beingpublic ready.
And today, just as a publiccompany CFO, a significant
portion of my time isinvestor-driven.
I spend a lot of time justpreparing for quarterly earnings
(09:56):
which are incrediblychallenging but also can be
hugely rewarding and reallyinvesting with our investor
community, kind of creating thedialogue and continuing to share
Riskified's story, but beyondthe numbers on a day-to-day like
what really excites me, seeingthe tangible impact we're making
.
2024 was a record year for usin terms of revenue and GMV and
(10:22):
I'm very grateful to the teamand proud of the team for being
able to execute on the backdropof a tough macroeconomic
environment.
And beyond, that is also justseeing our advancements in AI,
in our tech, and how oursolutions, our products, are
continuing to deliver a lot ofvalue for major brands across
(10:46):
more than 185 countries, so Ifind this truly motivating.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Great.
Well, let's switch gears alittle bit and talk about
leadership and lessons learned.
So, as you well know and haveexperienced it, leadership has
changed over the last 10, 15years, as it always does.
But how would you define modernleadership and how do you
embody that on a daily basis?
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Leadership is evolving, but some traits remain
universal.
Leaders must have a clearstrategic vision and ability to
motivate and lead others At thesame time.
Adaptability is just asimportant, and I think that's
something that has evolved asthe priorities and challenges
are shifting as there are moreexternal, uncontrollable events
(11:31):
that affect companies.
Effective leaders must be ableto really be with their
strategies and being adaptableand being able to remain
flexible.
If I think about Riskified, ourstrategy has changed through
various growth cycles and everyperiod had very specific needs
and required for us to be ableto be flexible and reinvest in
(11:54):
the right areas for growth.
Another factor is that it'simportant is that leaders can do
it by themselves.
They motivate and inspire peoplearound them, but it's also very
important to be able todelegate and to empower the
people on your team so that theycan execute without you
micromanaging them all the time.
Your team so that they canexecute without you
micromanaging them all the time.
(12:15):
So this has been very crucialfor me to be able to delegate
and to scale our team in a waythat they're able to execute,
and it's been like a verycollaborative type of work as we
continue to grow as a company,and you asked me about embodying
it.
How do we embody leadership?
I think it's important to beable to execute adult type of
environments.
Not everything is smooth, asalways, but being resilient,
(12:38):
being able to focus and executeis key.
And if I think about our IPO,we became a public company in
2021, just right in the midst ofCOVID so being able to execute
in a very challengingenvironment where everything was
very different was also key,and I'm proud of the team that
were able to do it and have asuccessful IPO.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Well, when you step back and look at your career in
life, have there been certaindefining moments.
I call them sort of aha moments, but moments that definitely
defined kind of your career andwho you are.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Definitely I think that two come to mind.
They were both linked to mekind of shifting in a different
direction.
The first one was deciding notto pursue my law career and to
kind of move into finance.
So this is when I came to theUS.
And the second one was when Ientered into tech finance.
This was just right after Igraduated and my offer got
(13:33):
pulled and I had to kind ofthink rapidly on the ground and
shift direction.
So I'm happy the way it workedout.
But yeah, things don't alwayswork as planned and you just
have to be adaptable and takeadvantage of the situation.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
What do you think is something that women bring to
the table that our industryneeds more of?
Speaker 3 (13:53):
I believe there's still a lot of bias women have
to push through when they'regoing through what they want
professionally, and ourexperiences make us more
resilient.
That's the flip side of that.
It helps us develop a long-termkind of a big picture view, and
that's really helpful whenyou're working in a company and
(14:16):
that it's in a very vastchanging environment and you're
helping it grow.
Going through so manychallenges actually has a
positive side effect.
You persevere and you becomestronger.
Another important trait forwomen is, I believe, we have
more empathy and we're bettercollaborators.
We can be better collaborators,so this is something that we
(14:37):
can bring to the table and it'sespecially important when you're
solving the problems andinnovative and in tech.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Well, that's a good segue.
Let's talk about innovation andimpact.
So, as you well know, havingbeen in this industry for many
years, it's a fast changing.
The innovation is alwaysevolving, so how do you stay
innovative as a leader?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
As a CFO, I make sure we're always putting money
behind what really matters,which is our core innovation,
our machine learning models, ourtech.
We're proud to have some of thesmartest tech out there and my
role as a CFO is to make surethat it continues to be this way
, and part of it is continue tohave a flexible financial
(15:19):
strategy to make sure that wecan tackle new markets and new
challenges, new market shifts,but also continue to develop our
platform by adding productsthat resonates with what our
customers need and solve a realproblem that they face.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Well, what's one kind of change or trend in the
industry that you're reallykeeping a close eye on?
Speaker 3 (15:42):
When you look at how e-commerce has evolved, it's
clear that fraudsters havebecome more sophisticated and
watching closely how, as fraudkind of evolves, it's also kind
of extending beyond the checkoutto every touchpoint across the
entire customer journey.
So for us, it's important tocontinue to innovate, continue
(16:03):
to be as accurate as possibleand to provide more value for
our customers.
And another key trend is theindustry's focus on increasing
legitimate authorization ratesand reducing false declines.
If we think about it, billionsare lost there and our products,
especially our newest product,adaptive Checkout, directly
(16:25):
addresses this, and we arefocused on ensuring that more
legitimate transactions areapproved that more legitimate
transactions are approved.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
I would assume one of your biggest challenges as a
company is keeping up with AIand how the fraudsters are using
AI in an unfortunately negativeway to try to steal money from
people, whether that's fraud ontransactions or other kind of
cybercrimes.
But it just seems like as muchas we want to use AI as positive
, there are people out therethat are using it for a negative
(16:55):
reason as well.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Absolutely.
There are so many differentways that AI is helping me being
a good and efficient in what Ido to every day, but I can
imagine fraudsters are justbecoming just as efficient as
well, and if you think aboutsome of the AI agent shopping
that you can do, I mean it'sjust poses so many different
challenges that we'll have totackle as we continue to as well
.
And if you think about some ofthe AI agent shopping that you
can do, I mean it just poses somany different challenges that
we'll have to tackle as wecontinue to work with our
(17:18):
customers and approve moretransactions.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
How do you think women leaders can influence the
future direction of payments infintech?
Speaker 3 (17:25):
I think that, as new technologies are developed, and
women can help and emphasizeresponsible innovation,
especially when everythingbecoming more AI prevalent and
there's a lot of conversationtoday about that.
But I believe that technologyshould be developed with
fairness, with consumerprotection in mind as core
(17:48):
principles, and women candefinitely help in that area.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Let's talk about mentorship and impact.
So have you, over your career,had female mentors, or even male
mentors, and what has thatmeant to you and how they kind
of helped shape your career?
Speaker 3 (18:04):
That's an interesting question.
I haven't had a traditionalmentor in a way, but at the same
time there's so many peoplethroughout that have helped me
in so many different ways.
Probably the first one was theprofessor at Columbia University
back in the day when I was acollege student that kind of
helped me think through some ofthe career opportunities that
were in front of me.
He was in fixed incomeanalytics and he was kind of
(18:26):
helping me, pushing me in thatway.
It appeared that my heart wassomewhere else, but that's how
you may have many influencesaround you, but at the end of
the day, it's important toreally think through what
resonates with you and to pursueyour own dreams.
If I think of other mentors thathave affected me, I'm inspired
by strong, resilient women whocan help not just execute but
(18:48):
also kind of shape strategy inthe company that they work for,
and if I think of one suchexample, this is Sarah Fryer.
She was previously the CFO atSquare and I remember this is
like when I was just starting asa CFO.
She was definitely a role modelto look up to, and partly what
kind of was inspiring about heris that she wasn't just a CFO
(19:12):
but she was also influencingproduct growth culture, and now
she was seen as one of theserare CFOs that can actually walk
the line and become a CEO oneday, and that is a prediction
that became true when she becameCEO of Nextdoor.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Yeah, and I think we've had this discussion in
several of these episodes, andit seems like the days and maybe
this is part of just theevolving leadership, but the
days of old of having thesestructured mentorship programs
where you as an employee areassigned to a person and you
have this agenda and you meetonce a month, and it seems like
sort of that mentorship is kindof faded to where it's more,
(19:52):
kind of like how you describedit, these people have influenced
you, even though it's not likethis formal mentorship type
program.
So just interested on yourthoughts on that, I completely
agree.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
As I said in the beginning, you can have many
people around you that canmentor you because they've just
kind of succeeded in what theydo, but it doesn't necessarily
mean that that's your path.
So I feel that, especially intoday's you know digital age,
when there's so many resourcesavailable there, it is important
for everybody to continue toeducate themselves, to kind of
(20:25):
truly understand what resonateswith them and to look at
different opportunities and notto follow necessarily just one
mentor, because it's hard tofind that somebody has just
exactly walked this path thatyou're going to go through.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
So if you had to give just one piece of advice let's
say, females coming out ofcollege, maybe they're changing
careers and they want to moveinto payments or fintech, and
you had to give them one pieceof advice to help them be
successful what would you tellthem?
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Oh, it's hard to just give one.
I have so many.
Well, I would say, I thinkdon't be a numbers person or
just a numbers person.
I think for me, when I came outof college, it was all about
building the right model andgetting to something very
precise, but I realized thatwhat really matters is that you
need to dig in and understandthe business inside out, and
(21:19):
that's how you become a trulystrategic leader.
And the other one is probablyalso to adopt a learning mindset
.
You can learn a lot in schooland schools are great, but I
believe that that's just notenough, and real, real, real
growth comes from curiosity,from self-direction, from being
(21:39):
able to kind of pursue theknowledge and being constantly
on top of the most updatedtrends.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
So one final kind of fun question.
So when you look at your phone,what is the most popular
non-business app that you useand what does that say about you
?
Speaker 3 (22:03):
I would say for me this is probably Audible and
Spotify.
I do listen to a lot ofpodcasts.
I love reading books.
I don't have a lot of time, I'malways on the go, so just
listening through Spotify orAudible helps me keep up to date
.
I listen to them when I'mworking to work, when I'm going
to the gym, when I'm in thebackyard doing some gardening or
when I'm just cooking, and Ifeel more productive doing that.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Okay, great.
Well, this has been a greatepisode.
I really appreciate it and justwant to kind of open the floor,
see if there's any finalthoughts, anything else you
wanted to discuss before we wrapup the show.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Of course.
Actually, one more piece ofadvice comes to mind.
I think that it's important toview challenges as opportunities
.
One of the kind of the bestexperiences of learning is when
things get tough and you trulyunderstand what you're capable
of.
So I've had this experiencemany times in my life, when the
(22:54):
situation is difficult and,looking back, it is probably one
of the more valuableexperiences out there.
So, in simple words, when lifegives you lemons, make lemonade.
Stay up to the challenges andgo with them.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Great.
I think that's a great way toclose out the show.
So, aggie, thank you so muchfor being on the show.
I know your time is veryvaluable, so again, thank you so
much for being here today.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Thank you for having me, greg, it was a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Great, and to all you listeners out there, I thank
you for your time as well, anduntil the next story.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Thank you for joining us this week Payments podcast.
Make sure you visit our websiteat leadersinpaymentscom, where
you can subscribe to the showand where you'll find our show
notes.
If you enjoyed listening,please share on your social
(23:42):
channels as well.
Welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast,
where we talk to C-level leadersfrom across the payments
landscape.
We'll be discussing theproducts and services that
impact the payment space today,as well as trends and
predictions for the future ofpayments.
We will also hear stories fromour guests about their journeys
to the top.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hello everyone and welcome to the Leaders in
Payments podcast.
I'm your host, greg Myers, andthis episode is part of our
Women Leaders in Payments month,something we do every year in
the month of July, and it's oneof my favorite times of the year
.
This year's theme is redefiningleadership, influence, impact
and innovation, so those aresome of the things you're going
to be hearing about during themonth of July.
So, first, a special thank youto our sponsors.
(00:41):
Our title sponsor is WorldPay,our participating sponsors are
VisiPay and Payrock, and ourepisode sponsors are the
Clearinghouse and Genico andPaySafe.
So special thanks to thosecompanies.
Today, our special guest isAggie Dachiva, the CFO of
Riskified.
So, aggie, thank you so muchfor being here and welcome to
the show.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Thank you for having me, Greg.
It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Great, let's start out with just a little
icebreaker kind of thing, if youdon't mind.
So if you could have dinnerwith any woman in history, past
or present, who would that beand why and what kind of
restaurant would you go to?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
There are so many inspiring women it's really hard
to choose just one, but onethat stands out for me is Ruth
Bader Ginsburg.
She was a Supreme Court justice, brilliant lawyer, a feminist
icon.
She fought all her life,throughout her career, for
women's and gender rights.
She argued and won so manycases that changed the life of
(01:39):
people and the way the lawtreated women and minorities.
But what made her truly specialwasn't just her brilliance, it
was the ability to reach acrossthe aisle and to make people
that even disagreed with herrespect her, and I think that
(02:03):
this is a true quality andleadership, that it's rare, and
I wish we had more of that todayin the society.
So truly amazing women.
I would have loved to be ableto meet her, but as for where we
would go, since we both studiedin Columbia University, I would
probably choose a book fieldcafe near campus somewhere, and
(02:26):
I'm sure we'll be able toreminisce about our time we
spent there and I'm sure theconversation would be very
interesting.
I'd love to hear her wisdom andstories.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Great, great Thanks for sharing that.
I've asked that questionobviously for each one of these
episodes, and I think I've hadone or two that had that named
the same woman, but most of thetime is different, so that's
definitely another different one, so that's really unique.
I appreciate that.
So let's start off talking alittle bit about your background
and your career.
Maybe tell us where you're born, where you studied, kind of
(02:59):
what led you into payments.
Studied kind of what led youinto payments.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Of course.
So I was born and raised inSofia, bulgaria.
I grew up in the 90s inBulgaria, during very turbulent
years when communism fell, andit was a time characteristic
with a very difficult economy.
Money was tight and the countrywas shifting from a state-run
(03:25):
economy to a very chaotic way ofprivatization.
I went to an English-speakinghigh school.
This was kind of late in myteenagehood and that really kind
of helped me develop anaffinity for English-speaking
cultures.
Later on I studied law.
I followed in the footsteps ofmy father and sister, both
lawyers, but my passion hasalways been in economics Since
(03:48):
early on I loved readingeconomics books and I was always
interested in how governmentswork, how money moves and how
policy affects people's lives.
So 1997 was a memorable year forme and in that year I was a law
student.
The economy was very turbulentand disastrous from some of the
(04:11):
recent policy of the governmentat the time and I helped
organize with other law students, colleagues of mine.
I helped organize a strikeagainst the government.
So that was quite a memorableexperience.
And around the same time I alsoapplied for for US Green Card
Diversity Lottery and,unexpectedly for me, I won.
(04:31):
So this illusion with some ofthe reality in Bulgaria at this
time.
I packed my bags and came toNew York with $3,000 in my
pockets.
After I came to New York it waslate back in the 90s I worked
for a year in a tech company.
After a year I applied and Itransferred to study in Columbia
University.
(04:52):
So this is how I came to NewYork and then from there just
thinking through my path topayments.
It wasn't exactly linear, butjust thinking back, you know
things all connect at the end.
So at Columbia University Iworked on a project that was
sponsored by Bear Stearns.
It was a fixed income projectwhere we created a historical
(05:16):
database for all the bonds thathad defaulted in the last
century and it helped me developexpertise and domain expertise
in fixed income at the time,which later on helped me apply
and get an offer from anotherinvestment bank in that capital
market.
But the economy, just as I wasgraduating, the economy
(05:36):
deteriorated again, so the joboffer got pulled and I ended up
graduating without a job offer.
So that was quite a wrinkle.
I ended up taking a short-termproject.
I worked for a CEO where Ihelped him fundraise.
I developed a model for him.
I worked with him and his CTOand other product people in the
(05:57):
company and I helped develop afinancial model that would take
the assumptions and the strategythat they had and really
translate it into numbers.
So that was a very interestingexperience and it appeared to be
pivotal for me.
It's kind of opened the way forme to understand what it is to
work in tech from finance side,and from there I moved on.
(06:20):
I got a few kind of progressingroles in fixed income analytics.
Again, this was something thatI felt comfortable with, but I
realized that the experience ofthe tech company was much more
motivating and fulfilling.
So I pursued different roles inFP&A.
I kind of moved direction.
I pursued different roles inFP&A and, after kind of gaining
(06:44):
a solid experience in FP&A andgetting my MBA at the same time
I was working and studying atthe same time I had a chance to
join Riskified as the firstfinance hire as a VP finance.
That was almost 10 years agoand at Riskified we focus on
preventing e-commerce fraud.
(07:05):
We help merchants approve moretransaction legitimate
transaction while we'reprotecting them against fraud,
and this is closely tied topayments.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
So I have to ask the question so how does dad and
sister feel that you kind ofleft the being a lawyer kind of
pursuit that you were after atfirst?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
My father was very supporting.
He was the one who used to buyme the books economics books.
Earlier on he was a voraciousreader.
We had this big library in ourhouse and for him it was
important when I come here inthe States, when I left, that I
continue my studies.
So he said, if you're not goingto be a lawyer, at least go
back to school and finish whatyou do.
(07:44):
So I'm grateful.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Great, great.
So another quick kind of funquestion If you're at a
conference, you're going to be aspeaker, which I know you've
done.
Before You're called up onstage, you have a hype song.
What would that hype song be?
Speaker 3 (07:58):
For me, that would be Lose Yourself from Eminem, and
I truly believe that you have togive your everything when you
have an opportunity.
And this song, this name,resonates with me.
The lyrics are all aboutpressure, the chance, the
urgency, and it's really allabout going away, no holding
(08:20):
back.
So you might only get one shotand it's up for you to take it
or miss it.
And this resonates how I feelwhen I'm working on an
opportunity or pursuing apassionate project.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Okay, okay, again another question that I've asked
every time and it's beendifferent.
So I've yet to have two guestssay the same exact hype song, so
that's kind of cool.
So tell us a little bit moreabout what you do on a daily
basis and maybe what excites youabout your role there at
Riskified.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
So my role has evolved.
As I said, I was the firstfinance hire at Risky Fight and
in the beginning it was allabout building our financial
infrastructure from scratch,building the first finance model
, figuring out the drivers,really managing even the cash
runway, which is very importantfor an early stage company.
So I joined right after SeriesA and since then we've gone
(09:11):
through a lot of transformation.
They were a public company, soit means that we had a long way
to come here.
We went through a couple ofdifferent stages, a few
different rounds of fundraising,and each stage had its own
requirements and challenges.
As I said, in the beginning itwas more about being a builder.
Later on it was more aboutworking with other executive
(09:34):
leaders across the organizationto optimize for scale and growth
.
And then the IPO followed.
So it was all about scalingyour team and building and
preparing the company for beingpublic ready.
And today, just as a publiccompany CFO, a significant
portion of my time isinvestor-driven.
I spend a lot of time justpreparing for quarterly earnings
(09:56):
which are incrediblychallenging but also can be
hugely rewarding and reallyinvesting with our investor
community, kind of creating thedialogue and continuing to share
Riskified's story, but beyondthe numbers on a day-to-day like
what really excites me, seeingthe tangible impact we're making
.
2024 was a record year for usin terms of revenue and GMV and
(10:22):
I'm very grateful to the teamand proud of the team for being
able to execute on the backdropof a tough macroeconomic
environment.
And beyond, that is also justseeing our advancements in AI,
in our tech, and how oursolutions, our products, are
continuing to deliver a lot ofvalue for major brands across
(10:46):
more than 185 countries, so Ifind this truly motivating.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Great.
Well, let's switch gears alittle bit and talk about
leadership and lessons learned.
So, as you well know and haveexperienced it, leadership has
changed over the last 10, 15years, as it always does.
But how would you define modernleadership and how do you
embody that on a daily basis?
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Leadership is evolving, but some traits remain
universal.
Leaders must have a clearstrategic vision and ability to
motivate and lead others At thesame time.
Adaptability is just asimportant, and I think that's
something that has evolved asthe priorities and challenges
are shifting as there are moreexternal, uncontrollable events
(11:31):
that affect companies.
Effective leaders must be ableto really be with their
strategies and being adaptableand being able to remain
flexible.
If I think about Riskified, ourstrategy has changed through
various growth cycles and everyperiod had very specific needs
and required for us to be ableto be flexible and reinvest in
(11:54):
the right areas for growth.
Another factor is that it'simportant is that leaders can do
it by themselves.
They motivate and inspire peoplearound them, but it's also very
important to be able todelegate and to empower the
people on your team so that theycan execute without you
micromanaging them all the time.
Your team so that they canexecute without you
micromanaging them all the time.
(12:15):
So this has been very crucialfor me to be able to delegate
and to scale our team in a waythat they're able to execute,
and it's been like a verycollaborative type of work as we
continue to grow as a company,and you asked me about embodying
it.
How do we embody leadership?
I think it's important to beable to execute adult type of
environments.
Not everything is smooth, asalways, but being resilient,
(12:38):
being able to focus and executeis key.
And if I think about our IPO,we became a public company in
2021, just right in the midst ofCOVID so being able to execute
in a very challengingenvironment where everything was
very different was also key,and I'm proud of the team that
were able to do it and have asuccessful IPO.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Well, when you step back and look at your career in
life, have there been certaindefining moments.
I call them sort of aha moments, but moments that definitely
defined kind of your career andwho you are.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Definitely I think that two come to mind.
They were both linked to mekind of shifting in a different
direction.
The first one was deciding notto pursue my law career and to
kind of move into finance.
So this is when I came to theUS.
And the second one was when Ientered into tech finance.
This was just right after Igraduated and my offer got
(13:33):
pulled and I had to kind ofthink rapidly on the ground and
shift direction.
So I'm happy the way it workedout.
But yeah, things don't alwayswork as planned and you just
have to be adaptable and takeadvantage of the situation.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
What do you think is something that women bring to
the table that our industryneeds more of?
Speaker 3 (13:53):
I believe there's still a lot of bias women have
to push through when they'regoing through what they want
professionally, and ourexperiences make us more
resilient.
That's the flip side of that.
It helps us develop a long-termkind of a big picture view, and
that's really helpful whenyou're working in a company and
(14:16):
that it's in a very vastchanging environment and you're
helping it grow.
Going through so manychallenges actually has a
positive side effect.
You persevere and you becomestronger.
Another important trait forwomen is, I believe, we have
more empathy and we're bettercollaborators.
We can be better collaborators,so this is something that we
(14:37):
can bring to the table and it'sespecially important when you're
solving the problems andinnovative and in tech.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Well, that's a good segue.
Let's talk about innovation andimpact.
So, as you well know, havingbeen in this industry for many
years, it's a fast changing.
The innovation is alwaysevolving, so how do you stay
innovative as a leader?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
As a CFO, I make sure we're always putting money
behind what really matters,which is our core innovation,
our machine learning models, ourtech.
We're proud to have some of thesmartest tech out there and my
role as a CFO is to make surethat it continues to be this way
, and part of it is continue tohave a flexible financial
(15:19):
strategy to make sure that wecan tackle new markets and new
challenges, new market shifts,but also continue to develop our
platform by adding productsthat resonates with what our
customers need and solve a realproblem that they face.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Well, what's one kind of change or trend in the
industry that you're reallykeeping a close eye on?
Speaker 3 (15:42):
When you look at how e-commerce has evolved, it's
clear that fraudsters havebecome more sophisticated and
watching closely how, as fraudkind of evolves, it's also kind
of extending beyond the checkoutto every touchpoint across the
entire customer journey.
So for us, it's important tocontinue to innovate, continue
(16:03):
to be as accurate as possibleand to provide more value for
our customers.
And another key trend is theindustry's focus on increasing
legitimate authorization ratesand reducing false declines.
If we think about it, billionsare lost there and our products,
especially our newest product,adaptive Checkout, directly
(16:25):
addresses this, and we arefocused on ensuring that more
legitimate transactions areapproved that more legitimate
transactions are approved.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
I would assume one of your biggest challenges as a
company is keeping up with AIand how the fraudsters are using
AI in an unfortunately negativeway to try to steal money from
people, whether that's fraud ontransactions or other kind of
cybercrimes.
But it just seems like as muchas we want to use AI as positive
, there are people out therethat are using it for a negative
(16:55):
reason as well.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Absolutely.
There are so many differentways that AI is helping me being
a good and efficient in what Ido to every day, but I can
imagine fraudsters are justbecoming just as efficient as
well, and if you think aboutsome of the AI agent shopping
that you can do, I mean it'sjust poses so many different
challenges that we'll have totackle as we continue to as well
.
And if you think about some ofthe AI agent shopping that you
can do, I mean it just poses somany different challenges that
we'll have to tackle as wecontinue to work with our
(17:18):
customers and approve moretransactions.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
How do you think women leaders can influence the
future direction of payments infintech?
Speaker 3 (17:25):
I think that, as new technologies are developed, and
women can help and emphasizeresponsible innovation,
especially when everythingbecoming more AI prevalent and
there's a lot of conversationtoday about that.
But I believe that technologyshould be developed with
fairness, with consumerprotection in mind as core
(17:48):
principles, and women candefinitely help in that area.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Let's talk about mentorship and impact.
So have you, over your career,had female mentors, or even male
mentors, and what has thatmeant to you and how they kind
of helped shape your career?
Speaker 3 (18:04):
That's an interesting question.
I haven't had a traditionalmentor in a way, but at the same
time there's so many peoplethroughout that have helped me
in so many different ways.
Probably the first one was theprofessor at Columbia University
back in the day when I was acollege student that kind of
helped me think through some ofthe career opportunities that
were in front of me.
He was in fixed incomeanalytics and he was kind of
(18:26):
helping me, pushing me in thatway.
It appeared that my heart wassomewhere else, but that's how
you may have many influencesaround you, but at the end of
the day, it's important toreally think through what
resonates with you and to pursueyour own dreams.
If I think of other mentors thathave affected me, I'm inspired
by strong, resilient women whocan help not just execute but
(18:48):
also kind of shape strategy inthe company that they work for,
and if I think of one suchexample, this is Sarah Fryer.
She was previously the CFO atSquare and I remember this is
like when I was just starting asa CFO.
She was definitely a role modelto look up to, and partly what
kind of was inspiring about heris that she wasn't just a CFO
(19:12):
but she was also influencingproduct growth culture, and now
she was seen as one of theserare CFOs that can actually walk
the line and become a CEO oneday, and that is a prediction
that became true when she becameCEO of Nextdoor.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Yeah, and I think we've had this discussion in
several of these episodes, andit seems like the days and maybe
this is part of just theevolving leadership, but the
days of old of having thesestructured mentorship programs
where you as an employee areassigned to a person and you
have this agenda and you meetonce a month, and it seems like
sort of that mentorship is kindof faded to where it's more,
(19:52):
kind of like how you describedit, these people have influenced
you, even though it's not likethis formal mentorship type
program.
So just interested on yourthoughts on that, I completely
agree.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
As I said in the beginning, you can have many
people around you that canmentor you because they've just
kind of succeeded in what theydo, but it doesn't necessarily
mean that that's your path.
So I feel that, especially intoday's you know digital age,
when there's so many resourcesavailable there, it is important
for everybody to continue toeducate themselves, to kind of
(20:25):
truly understand what resonateswith them and to look at
different opportunities and notto follow necessarily just one
mentor, because it's hard tofind that somebody has just
exactly walked this path thatyou're going to go through.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
So if you had to give just one piece of advice let's
say, females coming out ofcollege, maybe they're changing
careers and they want to moveinto payments or fintech, and
you had to give them one pieceof advice to help them be
successful what would you tellthem?
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Oh, it's hard to just give one.
I have so many.
Well, I would say, I thinkdon't be a numbers person or
just a numbers person.
I think for me, when I came outof college, it was all about
building the right model andgetting to something very
precise, but I realized thatwhat really matters is that you
need to dig in and understandthe business inside out, and
(21:19):
that's how you become a trulystrategic leader.
And the other one is probablyalso to adopt a learning mindset
.
You can learn a lot in schooland schools are great, but I
believe that that's just notenough, and real, real, real
growth comes from curiosity,from self-direction, from being
(21:39):
able to kind of pursue theknowledge and being constantly
on top of the most updatedtrends.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
So one final kind of fun question.
So when you look at your phone,what is the most popular
non-business app that you useand what does that say about you
?
Speaker 3 (22:03):
I would say for me this is probably Audible and
Spotify.
I do listen to a lot ofpodcasts.
I love reading books.
I don't have a lot of time, I'malways on the go, so just
listening through Spotify orAudible helps me keep up to date
.
I listen to them when I'mworking to work, when I'm going
to the gym, when I'm in thebackyard doing some gardening or
when I'm just cooking, and Ifeel more productive doing that.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Okay, great.
Well, this has been a greatepisode.
I really appreciate it and justwant to kind of open the floor,
see if there's any finalthoughts, anything else you
wanted to discuss before we wrapup the show.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Of course.
Actually, one more piece ofadvice comes to mind.
I think that it's important toview challenges as opportunities
.
One of the kind of the bestexperiences of learning is when
things get tough and you trulyunderstand what you're capable
of.
So I've had this experiencemany times in my life, when the
(22:54):
situation is difficult and,looking back, it is probably one
of the more valuableexperiences out there.
So, in simple words, when lifegives you lemons, make lemonade.
Stay up to the challenges andgo with them.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Great.
I think that's a great way toclose out the show.
So, aggie, thank you so muchfor being on the show.
I know your time is veryvaluable, so again, thank you so
much for being here today.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Thank you for having me, greg, it was a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Great, and to all you listeners out there, I thank
you for your time as well, anduntil the next story.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Thank you for joining us this week Payments podcast.
Make sure you visit our websiteat leadersinpaymentscom, where
you can subscribe to the showand where you'll find our show
notes.
If you enjoyed listening,please share on your social
(23:42):
channels as well.
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