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Demystifying the conversations we're already here at RRE and with our portfolio companies. In each episode, your hosts, Will Porteous, Raju Rishi, and Jason Black will dive deeply into topics that are shaping the future, from satellite technology to digital health, to venture investing, and much more.
Raju: Rumor has it you’re a pretty good singer, particularly around musicals. I mean, so how did that happen? How did you get into that field?
Meghan: Probably way too many times going karaoke and trying to mandate after every event that I have that everyone goes to karaoke, just because it’s the only chance I get to sing. So, it’s a lot of practice. And I’m not that great, especially after a few glasses of wine, but I still enjoy it.
Raju: All right, can we get ten seconds of you singing?
Meghan: Um… oh my God, that’s a lot.
Jason: [laugh]. Raj—
Meghan: I mean, if I have to [laugh].
Jason: —putting you on the spot.
Meghan: I mean, this is—
Jason: Damn.
Meghan: I’ve sang in worse places, so I guess I could.
Everyone: [laugh].
Will: Welcome to RRE POV—
Raju: —a show in which we record the conversations we’re already having amongst ourselves—
Jason: —our entrepreneurs, and industry leaders for you to listen in on.
Raju: Welcome to our RRE POV listeners. I’m Raju Rishi, hosting with my partners Jason Black and Will Porteous, and today we are joined by a special guest, Meghan Curtin McKenna, founder and CEO of FIF Collective and managing director of Venture and Fund Banking at Stifel. Welcome, Meghan.
Meghan: Thank you for having me. Happy to be here.
Raju: All right. Thank you. So, you’ve been working in the financing sector for most, if not all of your working career, from M&T Bank to J.P. Morgan to HSBC, and now at Stifel. So, just an off the cuff question: like, what got you excited about this field?
Meghan: Well, to start, I had graduated from Colgate. A good friend of mine, who is my basketball teammate, ended up going through the management development program over at M&T. I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do for a living at the time. The last time that I was asked what I wanted to be, I was probably six years old and wanted to be a singing-basketball-playing lawyer. So, once my good friend Emily took the job over there and loved it, we were very similar in wanting to be in something that was client-facing, outgoing personalities, and I just decided to give it a shot. After she was there for a year, I took the same plunge.
Raju: That’s awesome. I’m going to hold you to this singing-basketball-lawyer thing one of these days [laugh]. I feel like I got to get you—
Meghan: You know, it would have been a great career for me, I think.
Raju: I know. I’m going to get you on a court, ask you just sing while you’re shooting hoops. It might distract you enough that I can actually get a point in [laugh], and ask you some legal questions.
Meghan: Love it. Awesome.
Raju: So, you know, individuals sometimes have inflection points that change the direction of their careers, you know, a life event, people they’ve met, individuals they’ve worked for. It sounds like Emily was one of those for you. Any others in your life that kind of moved you from one side of the thing, spectrum to another, or just somebody you’ve met that kind of said, “Hey, man, I”—or, “Hey, people, this is the way I want to, you know, live my life or not live my life.” Anything like that?
Meghan: Well, present company excluded, I assume because obviously meeting Raju and Jason and Will has dramatically changed my life and career, and RRE has been a great partner in every place that I’ve worked. But I would also say back in 2021, during Covid, I actually lost my mother to depression. We weren’t able to see her for three months in a row, she was going through a lot of health issues at the time, and just continued to downgrade. But having gone through that, having lost a father 20 years prior, it really gave me a new passion for life is short, and figure out what you want to do and make sure that you’re passionate about it, which I think ultimately led to me starting my own company back last June. So, I give kind of props to my mom for pushing me in that direction.
Raju: Yeah, that’s a great story. And I can attest—so for those of you who don't know Meghan—which is probably, like, 0.2% of the world; I mean, she’s like hyper-connected—[laugh] she’s a force of nature, and wonderful to be around. So, appreciate it. And, you know, it’s a great story, thanks. So, you’ve been in the sector for almost 20 years now. I’m not trying to give away ages here, Meghan, but—
Meghan: I was going to say, depressed after that comment, but okay [laugh].
Raju: I know, I know. You got a birthday recently, I think. So, 29? 29, was it?
Meghan: You know, a great answer. Let’s go back to my favorite people, Raju, again [laugh].
Raju: Okay [laugh]. All right. So, you’ve been in the sector now for almost 20 years, Meghan, particularly in venture banking. So, what do you think have been the biggest changes over that time, aside from the most recent venture bank collapses, which we’ll touch on in a second?
Meghan: Sure. I think that, you know, new entrants to the space within venture and fund banking is something that has really changed over the course of time. I think in 2021, when the equity markets were kind of in the position they were in, and we went into 22, debt became something that a lot of companies were looking for in order to have the opportunity to elongate when they were going to raise next, not to have to deal with a down valuation. And I think every couple of years that there’s something that does happen that changes the markets dramatically, whether it’s 2008, and it was the, you know, the crash back then, the subprime crisis, everything that went on kind of recently in March, but at the end of the day, I think, you know, a lot of really high quality bankers are at multiple institutions, and come together and kind of figure out how to make it keep working and bank startups from kind of the ground up through the—until they go public, and thereafter.
Raju: You mentioned interest rates. Any prediction there on what’s going to happen?
Meghan: I’m going to have to plead the FIF on that, since I am definitely not a crystal ball in that regard. I can tell you what [People’s 00:05:48] Equity Research team says, but [laugh] I think I’ll leave that up to them.
Raju: Okay.
Jason: There you go. But throughout the 20 years, I mean, you’ve been, like, dedicated to venture through that entire time, right? So, that’s a number of crashes to go through. Like, maybe you can walk us through a little bit of, like, you know, how the larger banks that you’ve been a part of are thinking about that arm, and making sure that, you know, the riskiest area of capital allocation still is able to be supported through those shocks? Like, that’s not always—you know, you kind of alluded to it a little bit, but—
Meghan: Yeah, I think, you know, it’s all about understanding risk, and making sure that we understand, kind of, what’s the risk of every company that we’re talking to, right? I think venture lending in itself is very reliant on the quality of the venture capital firms that are backing a lot of these organizations, and that is part of the reason I think a lot of banks get comfortable with specific profiles that historically, back when we were just looking at cash-flow positive companies, would be a very different way to, kind of, underwrite credit. So, I think it comes from having to know the market, know the VCs intimately, be able to kind of tap them on the shoulder if something comes up, and we need to kind of work through something, but at the end of the day, I think it comes back to the kind of root of things, which is trust.
Raju: That’s awesome. So, we had [SVB 00:07:09], PacWest, [Signature 00:07:11], and others sort of [laugh] implode, this seismic event, I guess, other than the minor earthquake we had recently in New York.
Meghan: Survivors.
Raju: Do you think there’ll be other banks that collapse over the next few years?
Jason: [laugh].
Meghan: Honestly. I would say I do not have a crystal ball, but I do think that the banks have really learned to acknowledge risks, to know where we need to be comfortable, where we need to focus in terms of the balance sheet to keep ourselves safe, or safer, I would say. Is there always a possibility for acquisition, and M&A and for banks to expand in different markets that they weren’t previously in? Sure. But I do think with FDIC insurance suite products, and having, you know, seen what SVB went through, I think there’s a lot of really solid bankers and compliance folks, and the KYC process in itself has been so developed versus what it was back in 2008, that banks are really trying to kind of plan for the future and make sure that we do keep customers safe.
Raju: Yeah. Stifel has been really good, I got to be honest. I mean, your bank has had a really good reputation of being prudent, I guess, is the best way to say it, you know? They just don’t, weren’t over their skis, even during what happened a couple of years ago, or you know, just recently, actually. So, it’s good to see that.
And do you think… I’m always curious, like, in our firm, when, you know, Silicon Valley Bank sort of was imploding, I mean, we had daily calls. And I basically talked to every one of my founders and companies kind of twice a day to figure out, kind of, what’s going on, how do they stabilize, is there another bank going to be folding? I mean, you must have been in the throes of that. I know, you got 240 emails and whatnot. Any interesting stories—and if none come to mind, that’s fine—but any interesting stories that you can share about that era [laugh] that timeframe?
Meghan: Yeah, I mean, it’s kind of ironic because I was in London at the time for our venture debt offsite, and we had an event scheduled for all of founders, funders, and finance execs in the London market that were either, you know, venture debt targets or folks that we were working with, and it was planned before anything, kind of, went down. Turns out, you know, when SVB went under, we were still over there, and that event was already pre-scheduled. So, we showed up, and it ended up that Erin Platts, SVB UK’s CEO and our CEO, Ian Stewart, ended up coming and making it more of the coming together of the two new brands, and making it more of a celebration of how HSBC came in and really kind of saved the day, I think, on that front.
Raju: Ah. That’s a great story.
Will: You know, Meghan, I would love it if you could talk to some of our entrepreneurs in the audience about, kind of, the underwriting process, and how you guys at Stifel think about lending to new companies?
Meghan: Yeah absolutely. I would say, you know, coming from an era when, at HSBC, we were really focused on, you know, larger companies that were probably 20 million ARR and above, highly scaling internationally, that was our primary focus from 2019 until about March. So, that focal point was very different than when I came over here to Stifel and found that we were working with companies, really from Series A upward, whether it’s for a runway extension, to have a safety net on a revolver, just to ensure that again, if they don’t want to have to go to the markets to raise equity, we have the ability to give them a little bit of cushion. And now with the addition of so many of our SVB—previous SVB cohort on the West Coast, we’re doing a lot of exciting stuff within frontier tech. I think the best part of kind of everything that happened—and obviously, it was really tough for the majority of SVB employees, nobody ever wants to see anybody go through that—the benefit of it to so many of these other banking institutions is that we did end up with a lot of really great people with a long track record and a very different line of sight into the venture ecosystem.
So, I think we’ve been able to navigate and go from more of a Series B plus mindset in our lending aperture, if you will, and now are going way, way further down the road to, kind of, help startups from inception. So, when we look at metrics that we’re excited about within the debt front, I think again, it comes down to, A, the quality of the venture partners that have backed them, B, you know, your typical growth year-over-year, making sure that churn is pretty mitigated. I think I’ve spent the majority of my career looking mainly at enterprise software. So previously, we were looking at 70-plus percent year-over-year growth. Now, with the transition to more of breakeven and trying to get towards cashflow positive, I think that number is roughly you know, 30 percent plus is what a lot of banks and companies are feeling a little bit better about.
And then one other thing I would add, I think—the other thing that came from the SVB shakeout is I think with all of these new bankers in different institutions, I think we’re playing a lot better in the sandbox together as well, where there are, you know, a lot of cases where Stifel won’t do the, you know, the full check size of what we’re looking to get, but a company is scaling internationally, and we still need to open accounts in different countries, so I’ll loop HSBC on that type of a deal. And then you have, you know, the Herculeses and the TriplePoints of the world that are able to kind of write much bigger checks and come in from a second position. So, I just think the shakeup did kind of help make it a more friendly environment from a bank and competitive standpoint.
Raju: Yeah.
Will: That’s fascinating because from the capital structure standpoint, we all kind of rise and fall together. And while the equity players may be sort of first in and maybe last out, the whole stack, both equity and the credit side has to work together. So, thanks for that. Very helpful.
Raju: I’d like to see that, actually. In venture back in the day, you know, when it first originated, no VC could really write the entirety of a round, so it was a very collaborative process. And kind of get away from that in the last couple of dozen years, unfortunately because, you know, you’re trying to get as much of a deal as possible. But I think collaboration is actually quite important. You want to put the best minds to work together, as opposed to in an isolated way. But anyway, all right, so I’m going to shift gears a bit to the other major part of your professional career: FIF. So, for our listeners, can you just tell us what FIF stands for, and what’s the focus?
Meghan: So, FIF stands for Females In Finance Collective. We are a group of female founders, CEOs, CFOs, VPs of finance, anyone that really touches the finance side within tech or healthcare, and then venture capital partners. We started in June of last year, so we’re coming up on our one-year anniversary in the next couple of months, and we’re up to 875 women globally that are part of it.
Raju: Wow. That’s unbelievable. So, there are a number of female career organizations. What makes FIF different? What’s unique about it relative to the other—other than the finance aspect, which I mean, I think there are a few in finance, but not a whole lot. But just what makes it, you know, sort of different?
Meghan: Yeah. You know, I mean, I started it with the thesis of curated networking events as kind of the backbone, but since then, as the community has continued to grow at a clip that I was not necessarily expecting, we’ve also launched into job placement, board seat advocacy, we will do an educational series. And I think the one thing that makes us very different is that we do not currently charge membership fees. The only way we’re monetizing is through sponsorship and partnership revenue from a lot of the players that want to have a part of FIF and get exposure to the women that are in the collective, so it enables I think a lot of folks that don’t necessarily need to pay for a network but want to be surrounded by a lot of other like-minded females that are in the same kind of arena within their career. It allows us to, kind of, get together. There’s a WhatsApp group, everyone can chat on and paying each other for advice as CFOs.
We do specific industry-related dinners where it’s just late-stage CFOs, or its early-stage CFOs, and founders therapy, we do a lot of stuff like that. So, I think it’s just about having something that you really are passionate about, without having to necessarily pay for it is kind of where I came up with the idea.
Raju: Yeah. That’s awesome. I’m so glad you started it. So, I know for hyperscalers in this country, it’s what, like, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meghan.
Meghan: I would love to be looped in with that and get the money associated with it.
Raju: Okay, you’re a hyperscaler. So, you went from zero to 800 people, okay, kind of overnight. I mean, every time I talk to you, it’s like, “Hey, we just got another 100 people.” “Oh, got another 50 people.” And I’m just, like, mind blown. How do you scale so quickly? How has this gone so fast?
Meghan: I think it’s just a need that nobody really realized was necessarily there. It’s as soon as you know, the word of mouth kind of spreads it, and every time we launch in a different city, it amazes me that by the time we end the event, I’ll have, like, another 100 members that have heard about it and want to be a part of it. So, I think it’s really just been, the need was there, it wasn’t necessarily solved for, and I think women are finding a lot of value out of the community, out of the events that we host, and honestly, the sponsors and the partners have been fabulous. Like, the New York Stock Exchange is where we had our first launch party, and now we’re going back there one year later. We’ve had CrossCountry Consulting, Davis Polk, Ramp, a bunch of other folks, [BBG FX 00:17:13] in from the very beginning. And now we’re doing all of the board seat placement for the [Gaingels 00:17:15] portfolio, and we’re going to keep launching other VCs in that light where they don’t have a talent function, to make sure that we’re helping get a lot of these boards more diversified.
Raju: And so, what are the long-term objectives here? Maybe it’s sort of… to be determined, but, you know, do you have any sort of vision of where you want to be in five years?
Meghan: I would say that, I think it’s ever evolving, and I think I come up, or our team even, comes up with a ton of new ideas all the time. And the thing is, we don’t even have, really, real employees, right now. We just have folks that are passionate about the mission, want to be a part of it, and have become mainly, like, the leadership team, which is a combination of previous investors, CFOs, folks that are still doing those full-time jobs. And obviously, I’m here at Stifel and wanting to continue to have that be a huge part of my identity. And Chris Reichert as a CEO has really empowered me within, you know, FIF to continue doing this and making sure that Stifel is a part of it.
So, I think it’s just been a lot of hustle to this point, and we just got to keep kind of scaling and growing and figure out other ways to kind of monetize it beyond membership fees for the women in it. I think that’s kind of the biggest next step is to really figure out all right, how else can we monetize this so that we’re not really chasing for sponsorship and partnership revenue out the gate, and we have enough money to kind of do what we need to do as we launch different cities and ultimately different countries?
Raju: Yeah, that’s awesome.
Jason: What cities are you in?
Meghan: Right now, we’ve done launches in New York, San Francisco, DC, we’re doing our next one in Boston in May, and then I think—and the main driver is attendance, so if we have over 60 members, we’ll do an official launch party in a city. So, we’re pretty close in London and Israel as well. So, I think those are probably be the next ones to pop. But we also have a ton of virtual events for folks that are joining in from some other areas of the country that, you know, we don’t have necessarily the numbers, but we want to make sure that everyone’s included, and is able to kind of join in on some of the stuff that we’re doing.
Will: Well, so Meghan, I’m curious if you guys at FIF Collective have any, sort of, messages or guidelines for the financial services institutions that you’re a part of, be they banks, venture capital firms, lending firms, et cetera? What should those institutions be doing to better support women in their career journey?
Meghan: It’s a good question. I think, you know, really, the numbers kind of say a lot. I think there was something that came two weeks ago that the CEO seats for females in a lot of these large organ organizations is at the lowest point it’s been in two years. So, I think it’s really just about realizing that, recognizing it, and figuring out how these institutions can elevate the women that they have to the seats that kind of matter and make decisions. I think the big thing about FIF and where we found a lot of strength in just the community itself is, a lot of the women that are part of us, you know, are at a lot of these big institutions like an Amazon, or a Google, a Microsoft.
So, if we all band together and kind of do the same thing in order to try to figure out how to even the playing field, I think the advice of all of the ladies in this cohort can really help make changes. And I was actually at John Chambers’ house for a JC2 Day, and one of the things that he said at dinner really resonated with the group of predominantly men that were sitting around the table that, you know, women can’t do this alone. It has to come from the top, and folks like us that are in the seats to make sure that we are empowering the women that are part of our organizations and giving them a shot at some of the bigger job opportunities as they continue in their career.
Raju: Yeah. I love this mission. I really do.
Meghan: Thank you. That’s why you’re going to be probably on the board someday, Raju [laugh].
Raju: I know, I know. I really want to be on the board. I want to be the first nail in the board.
Meghan: [crosstalk 00:21:12] before it, but we’ll see [laugh].
Raju: People may rebel, and I understand if you don’t want to make it happen, but this is a great organization.
Jason: And they should. That’s the right response.
Meghan: [laugh].
Raju: Bring your pitchforks.
Jason: What’s the criteria? You know, like, there’s—I’m sure there’s some form of, like, filter or not just, like, literally anybody. What does the criteria look like, and kind of like, how deliberately are you launching cities? Or is it, you know, at this early stage, just want to just capitalize on the momentum and make sure that there’s just, like, you know, FIF, kind of I know, you’ve been handing out, like, [laugh] those little cards holders—
Meghan: I have a big merch [laugh].
Jason: —and hats, and sleep masks [laugh] and so you’ve always got some swag on you. But yeah, like, talk us through a little bit about, like, who should be applying, I guess? And like, how are you evaluating people are coming in?
Meghan: And the way that I started evaluating was literally through LinkedIn. So, as people will apply through the website, well, I’ll go in, take a look at the LinkedIn, understand kind of where they’ve been in their career. For the most part, as long as it’s someone that is within tech or venture in a partner seat, CEO, founder, or CFO seat, I would say those are kind of the primary criteria. There are no service providers today. The service providers are the ones that will end up being partners or sponsors for the events.
So, mainly accountants, lawyers, bankers, at this point in time are unable to join, but who knows down the road? I think, right now, it’s really about quality and quantity simultaneously. So, we do want to make sure that, you know, we have folks in the group that are kind of relevant that want to be a part of it, but also have, you know, the background or the job titles, quite candidly, to fit in.
Jason: That makes sense. Besides sponsorship, how can other firms help FIF?
Meghan: I think, you know, there’s a couple of different ways that we’ve changed things a bit, right? So, on the VC side, since we’re doing all of the sourcing for Gaingels portfolio whenever there’s a board seat that is open—we would love to do that with every VC, we’d love to do that with RRE as you guys are coming across a need for board seats. Same thing with job placement. If one of your portfolio companies loses a CFO, and you guys are going out to either do a search or do a confidential search, you know, we would love to have our ladies as a partner there and be able to elevate them for some of those roles that you guys are sourcing for. And then I think, you know, just finding other members that make sense, whether it’s a founder, a CEO, a CFO, a Chief of Staff, FPNA, controller, treasurer, anyone that really fits the remit that has a decision-making position within a tech or healthcare organization, I would say those are the folks that we are targeting and really want to have in our network. And then yeah, I think the only last thing I would say is we always want to use space that is cost-effective. So, if any of the venture firms or partners have rooftops and space that we can host physical events in different cities, we would love to also have that as an option for the folks that we work with.
Jason: Fantastic.
Raju: Okay, so I’ve known you for a number of years now [laugh]. And [been great 00:24:23] years, actually—right before—I met you right before Covid. You remember that?
Meghan: Yeah.
Raju: Like a week before Covid or something. Two weeks before Covid. And I meet a lot of people in the industry, but you’re probably top five in terms of energy, responsiveness, and drive. I kind of got to get the secret. Is it, like, a pomegranate paste or something? Is there something that you eat that you can share?
Meghan: It could be, yeah. It could be a lot of espresso, or an anxiety disorder, or both, but I think that [laugh] at the end of the day, you know, I really do have a very strong passion for meeting people, knowing people. I love my job. I love both of my jobs. So, I think just being excited to go to work and being excited to go to events and stuff really does make an impact on whether or not you are coming to work present, if you’re going to enjoy what it is that you’re doing, and I don’t know, I try to just reflect that and then come home and binge-watch Netflix whenever I’m by myself. So [laugh].
Jason: There you go.
Raju: I have to concur with that because I do get texts from Meghan periodically with some Broadway shows on the television, and Dear Evan Hanson and a few others.
Meghan: That is one of my favorite Broadway shows.
Raju: I know. At weird times of night. That’s awesome. And I love your husband. He’s a great guy. So anyway, rumor has it you’re a pretty good singer, particularly around musicals. I mean, so how did that happen? How did you get into that field?
Meghan: Probably way too many times going to karaoke and trying to mandate after every event that I have that everyone goes to karaoke, just because it’s the only chance I get to sing. So, it’s a lot of practice. And I’m not that great, especially after a few glasses of wine, but I still enjoy it.
Raju: All right, can we get ten seconds of you singing?
Meghan: Um… oh my God, that’s a lot.
Jason: [laugh]. Raj—
Meghan: I mean, if I have to [laugh].
Jason: —putting you on the spot.
Meghan: I mean, this is—
Jason: Damn.
Meghan: I’ve sang in worse places, so I guess I could.
Everyone: [laugh].
Meghan: [singing] “Look at this stuff. Isn’t it neat? Wouldn’t you think my collection’s complete? Or did you think I’m the girl, the girl who has everything?” That’s all I got [laugh].
Raju: [crosstalk 00:26:31] fantastic.
Jason: That’s great.
Raju: Clap, clap, clap, clap.
Jason: That was awesome.
Raju: I love that.
Jason: Now, I can tell, Raju, why your kids are just like, “Ah, Dad.” Because you’re like, “Oh, yeah. Just sing. Just sing. You’re a great singer. Go ahead, sing in front of all these people. Spontaneously.”
Meghan: Thank you. Thank you.
Raju: I know. That was awesome.
Will: That was wonderful, Meghan. Thank you.
Jason: Yeah, you actually—that was fantastic. That was fantastic. Great job.
Meghan: I was a little nervous. I’m usually better, but it’s okay.
Raju: That was really good. Okay, so this is the Gatling gun section of the podcast: fun, random questions, some open-ended, some multiple choice. Just give us what first comes to mind. You know what I mean? It’s going to be—it’ll be fun. Okay, so this is multiple choice, but you can answer with a different answer if you want. So, best finance movie ever: Wolf of Wall Street, The Big Short, or just something else?
Meghan: I think I’m going to go with The Big Short.
Raju: It’s a good one.
Jason: Love The Big Short.
Raju: It’s a good one. Okay—
Meghan: It’s really good.
Raju: Worst Ponzi scheme: Bernie Madoff or Sam Bankman-Fried?
Meghan: Madoff, but that’s a valid question.
Raju: Yeah [laugh]. Okay. This is your personal preference: Venmo, PayPal, or Apple Pay?
Meghan: Venmo.
Raju: Do you ever use Apple Pay?
Meghan: Yes.
Raju: Okay, fine. I use Apple.
Meghan: But I just have not, uh I haven’t set it up properly, so I always have to double-click on my phone. So, it’s probably more my fault than anything. But yes, it would be convenient if I didn’t have to double-click every time.
Raju: You would think Apple Pay would have more share than it apparently has.
Will: You would think it would be easier to set up [laugh].
Raju: Yeah.
Meghan: So, [difficult 00:28:03].
Raju: Okay. So, what year do you think we eliminate penny production?
Meghan: That’s a valid—wow, that’s a tough question. I didn’t know.
Raju: Just take a guess.
Meghan: 2075.
Raju: 2075?
Jason: Raju, you hit her with, like, chill question, chill question, then, like, a McKinsey interview question. Like, “How many ping pong balls fit into a 747? Go.”
Meghan: Literally.
Raju: No, penny production?
Jason: Yeah, no, I get it.
Raju: Does anybody on this call use pennies?
Jason: No.
Meghan: My dad, like, collected them forever. I feel like there’s still a jar somewhere in my house [laugh].
Raju: Yeah, they’re going to collector’s items.
Jason: In Manhattan, it’s just, like, a cash-free thing, anyway, so—
Raju: Yeah. So, you say 2075. I’m going to go a little early. I think, like, in the next ten years we’re done with pennies.
Meghan: Wow. All right.
Raju: How about nickels?
Everyone: [laugh].
Jason: Okay, Raju, you don’t have to tell your joke at the end. That was a really good one.
Meghan: Yeah, that was very good. I’m going to go 2075 [give or take 00:29:01]. We’re going to get rid of all change at the same time.
Jason: Just, elimination of all cash.
Raju: I’m not going to ask the next one.
Jason: [laugh].
Raju: I was going to ask quarters, but I’m going to skip it. Okay, okay.
Meghan: [laugh].
Jason: Dimes? Not dimes? All right.
Meghan: Oh yeah, that’s rude.
Raju: Okay, here’s a crazy one. Instead of ATMs, do we ever print money on demand—
Meghan: Ohh—
Raju: —in this country?
Jason: We already have, Raju. We do it daily.
Meghan: Oh, a trick question.
Raju: like printing a dollar bill or a ten dollar, hundred dollar bill. Do we print it on demand? Ever?
Meghan: I’d would say, yeah, I think so.
Raju: Okay.
Will: You mean consumers and not the Fed?
Raju: Yeah, consumers. Consumers.
Meghan: Well, I think there’s a lot of people that are printing fake ones [laugh] [already 00:29:41].
Raju: Okay. I love it. All right. First finance job that AI replaces.
Meghan: Ohh. Not me, hopefully [laugh]. I don’t know if it’s necessarily replaces but adds value to the call centers. I think that’s already happening.
Raju: I think maybe bank teller? What do you think, bank tellers at some point?
Meghan: I don’t want to say that [laugh].
Raju: [laugh]. Talk to a robot.
Jason: I mean, that’s literally what an ATM is.
Will: An ATM is just a cash robot.
Meghan: Yeah. Or even, like, the personnel, kind of, that are working a lot of the check printing stuff, and lock boxes, and things of that nature, it could be [automated 00:30:20].
Raju: Okay. So, shifting gears now we’re going to go to female rock stars. So, of these two—or someone else—who do you think is the bigger Rockstar: Sheryl Sandberg, who was the former CEO of Facebook or Mary Barra, who’s the current CEO of General Motors, or someone else?
Meghan: Let’s go with Cheryl. I think Cheryl is a badass. I appreciate her.
Raju: She’s kind of a badass. She’s kind of a badass. Okay, actually—
Meghan: She can [join FIF 00:30:46] if she wants.
Raju: [laugh]. I’ll tell her. We’ll reach out to her and tell her she can be FIF.
Meghan: Yes, let her know we’d love to have her.
Raju: You’ll put some scrutiny around that one, but you’ll let her in [laugh].
Meghan: [laugh].
Raju: Okay, okay, best actual female Rockstar: Joan Jett, Stevie Nicks or someone else?
Meghan: I’m going to say Stevie Nicks because I do love Stevie Nicks. I also love Sheryl Crow, and Shanaya Twain, so there’s quite a few I would, kind of, add in there.
Raju: Oh, that’s right. You have this country vibe too, Meghan.
Meghan: I do. I’m [a lot country 00:31:18].
Raju: It’s the only thing. It’s the only downside [laugh].
Meghan: [laugh].
Raju: Although I’ll tell you, my wife loves country music, so I go to country line dancing. You’re going to come with us one of these times.
Meghan: Oh, that sounds like a blast.
Raju: It’s fun.
Meghan: I would love to see you line dance.
Raju: Oh, it’s so fun. I love dancing. You know, I love dancing.
Meghan: Look at Jason’s face [laugh].
Jason: Just like, of course, Raju does country line dancing on the weekends with Patti.
Raju: I like all kinds of dancing.
Meghan: [laugh].
Raju: All kinds of dancing.
Meghan: He does like dancing. Raju is a good dancer.
Raju: All right, so general—these are last two.
Meghan: Okay.
Raju: Besides me, of course, if you could have dinner with one person, who would it be?
Meghan: Dead or alive?
Raju: Dead or alive? Yeah. Go with dead or alive.
Meghan: Elvis.
Raju: Elvis.
Jason: Oh, so you need the uncertainty principle because he could still be alive.
Raju: He could be. He could be.
Meghan: That’s true with Tupac.
Jason: But he might be dead.
Will: Late night peanut butter and banana sandwiches with Elvis in the jungle room.
Jason: Oh, yeah.
Meghan: Exactly. That’s what I need.
Raju: All right, if you could do a duet with one person, who would it be?
Meghan: Uh. Ryan Reynolds.
Raju: Ohh. He’s actually pretty good.
Jason: Wow. Off the del—like, immediate answer, too.
Meghan: He’s very good.
Jason: You’ve been thinking about that a lot.
Meghan: Yes, I love him, and he hasn’t responded to any of my requests for sponsoring FIF. So, Ryan, if you’re listening, we’d love to do a duet and have you be a sponsor of FIF.
Jason: Ryan’s a huge fan. He’s written in multiple times.
Meghan: [laugh].
Raju: Wait, when you were saying, “Ruh—” I thought Raju Rishi was going to come out, with a duet. But it came out Ryan Reynolds. I get it because you know, we both have double-R, right.
Jason: Double-R, yeah.
Meghan: Yes.
Raju: It’s a double-R thing.
Jason: And he’s also a fantastic investor.
Meghan: He’s a very good investor. I love—everything he’s in, I love, so. I am a little bit of a fan of Ryan Reynolds.
Raju: All right. That’s a wrap. Unless there’s any other comments, questions, comedic routines, singing?
Jason: [laugh]. I’m going to—we got to drop this before we start singing.
Raju: at singing. All right, really appreciate it, Meghan.
Jason: Thank you so much for coming up on the pod, Meghan.
Meghan: Thank you guys so much. This was fun.
Will: Thank you, Meghan. This was great.
Raju: Awesome. I really appreciate it. Thank you listeners. We will be back with another one next week. Thanks.
Meghan: Bye, guys.
Will: Thank you for listening to RRE POV.
Raju: You can keep up with the latest on the podcast at @RRE on Twitter—or shall I say X—
Jason: —or rre.com, and on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts—
Raju: —or wherever fine podcasts are distributed. We’ll see you next time.