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In today's episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Charles Birnbaum, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, one of the world\u2019s oldest & most successful venture capital firms. Charles joins the show fresh off of Bessemer\u2019s $3.3B raise in February across two funds.\n\nCharles is a proud Wharton alum, joining the MBA program after a long stint on Wall Street. He then was employee #10 at Foursquare before joining Bessemer.\n\nIn today\u2019s episode, they cover:\n- His transitions from sell-side to MBA to startups to VC, and doing \u201ctech\u201d way before it was a normal part of the Wharton path (2:50)\n- Bessemer's structure & emphasis on thesis-driven investing (8:05)\n- His focus on fintech infrastructure and embedded finance, how it was shaped by BVP's existing portfolio, and his underestimation of Shopify (10:48)\n- His missed investment in Plaid\u2019s Series A and why it made him a better investor (13:58)\n- His investment in Alloy and why it's critical to find companies with 'Pull' in financial services. (15:55)\n- The current state of wealth management, how he thinks about segmenting the market, and the sale of United Capital (BVP portco) to Goldman Sachs (19:51)\n- The fundraising process, portco management, and where you can get creative in hiring (24:40)\n- And a Rapid fire round including his fintech hero and Wharton classmates in fintech he most admires (31:43)\n\nReferenced in the episode:\n\n- PFOF Debate with Atom Finance CEO Eric Shoykhet\nhttps://medium.com/wharton-fintech/atom-finance-founder-eric-shoykhet-building-for-the-retail-investor-and-debating-pfof-a3156bd79bc\n\n- Robinhood COO Gretchen Howard \nhttps://medium.com/wharton-fintech/robinhoods-coo-gretchen-howard-democratizing-finance-navigating-a-crisis-embracing-change-d6b293c39e8e\n\nFor more Fintech insights, follow us below:\n\nMedium: medium.com/wharton-fintech\n\nWFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech\n\nRyan's Twitter: twitter.com/RyanZauk\n\nLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/