Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: Sankaet Pathak, CEO of Synapse (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Given your vantage point, what open problems do you see out there? Not just ones you are working on but things that other entrepreneurs can work on.

Sankaet Pathak: There are a couple of problems that are infrastructure-focused. Then there is one thing that is more consumer-focused that I feel somebody should work on. On the infrastructure side, getting really good at risk and credit underwriting at a global scale is an open opportunity. Nobody is doing a phenomenal job on that.

Synapse has started doing global cash, but the problem is not fully-solved yet. We provide custody in the US, but we don’t provide multi-currency custody. Over time, the ecosystem should have local payment. There are tons of people doing a good job with money out, but not a lot of people do a good job with money in. Building a comprehensive money-in platform would be a big opportunity.

I do what I do because I love products. I love products more so from the vantage point of how people use them. How does it benefit people positively? One thing that I think we’re still behind on is building out a bank for consumers that has their default set on healthy behavior. My money comes into my checking account. Automatically a portion of it goes into my savings account depending if I have three to four months of disposable income.

For everything else, you got to invest intelligently. Maybe in 401k. If you have enough income, you can put some of it into more high-risk things like private stocks or crypto. There’s no platform that says, “Once your money shows up, we’ll figure out everything else for you.” I do find that missing.

Sramana Mitra: What is your background?

Sankaet Pathak: I’ve been in finance for seven years now. I got my undergrad in computer engineering and math, and my masters in computer engineering.

Sramana Mitra: What is the genesis of the company? You are in San Francisco?

Sankaet Pathak: I’m in San Francisco now. When I moved from India, I went to the University of Memphis. I love computers from the get-go. I got really fascinated with programming generally. I was participating in hackathons and building products. I had another product before Synapse. I was at a hackathon once and I was trying to take inspiration for a mobile app. It was a proximity-based application for contact-sharing and networking. It’s like LinkedIn but geo-fenced.

I downloaded this app called Simple, which used to be online FinTech but you now call a neobank. I tried to open a bank account. Simple denied me a bank account because they couldn’t find my credit history. I got fixated on that. Initially, I started building a competitor to Simple. I realized that the infrastructure didn’t exist. I decided to attack that space.

Sramana Mitra: Are you a funded company?

Sankaet Pathak: We raised up to Series B in 2019 with Andreesen Horowitz.

Sramana Mitra: Very good. You are in San Francisco, but do you have developers in Memphis?

Sankaet Pathak: I have a couple of employees in Memphis, not developers though.

Sramana Mitra: You started the company in Memphis?

Sankaet Pathak: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: Excellent. Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: Sankaet Pathak, CEO of Synapse
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