Intro: Broadcasting live from Fintech South 2025 at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio. Now. Here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here broadcasting live from Fintech South 2025. So excited to be talking to my next guest, Ania Lackey with Fintech Atlanta. Welcome.

Ania Lackey: Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: Well, for those who aren’t familiar, tell us a little bit about Fintech Atlanta. How are you serving folks?

Ania Lackey: We have been around for almost ten years working to advance, um, the fintech ecosystem in Atlanta by working with many, many companies in this space. We focus on four major areas. Um, one is just the general industry growth. Um, another one, talent expansion, uh, making sure that we influence the public policy and then also innovation acceleration. We’ve got a ton of companies that work with us to make that happen.

Lee Kantor: So what was kind of the start? How did this begin? Fintech Atlanta.

Ania Lackey: Listen, I am brand new to this wall. And one of the very surprising things to someone like me was the fact that this ecosystem has been around for decades. I mean, we’re going back to the 50s and 60s. So Atlanta has been always positioned to be the capital for payments and transactions. Um, so ten years ago, a group of organizations and people in the industry, including Metro Atlanta Chamber Technology Association of Georgia at EPC, decided that it’s time to have a common voice, one organization speaking for the industry to make sure that it’s, uh, the well-known fact for them, which is we process a ton of payments that are US payments going through a node in Atlanta. That’s a fact that’s known not just in Atlanta, but also in the United States and globally.

Lee Kantor: So what kind of is your role? What’s your day to day look like?

Ania Lackey: Ah, every day is different, as they say. Um. I mean, first of all, you know, it’s been an easy transition. Thank you to my predecessor, Hilary Champagne. Um, so I focused on that for the last few months, but now it’s really a deep dive into the programing and things that we have done very, very well and then things we have committed to doing even better in the future. So we focus on scaling startups and companies in Atlanta, giving them an opportunity to get in front of enterprise companies for potential future pilots and opportunities to work together. Uh, we work alongside Laura Gibson, la mothe with the Georgia Fintech Academy to make sure that, um, the talent pipeline for fintech, uh, is is healthy and ripe with opportunities. As I talked to companies here at Fintech South this year. Talent, as always, is top of mind. Um, so we tried to focus on those things with our partners and companies.

Lee Kantor: So how do you kind of marry the challenge of dealing with enterprise level organizations that have certain needs and then kind of brand new startups that have a totally different set of needs and try to satisfy each one of those constituents.

Ania Lackey: That’s a great question. But honestly, in Atlanta, it’s not as difficult as it may seem. As you probably know, Atlanta has a ton of enterprise presence. We rank number 3 or 4 in the United States as far as the number of fortune 501,000 companies. Plus, we have this history of of business community engaging heavily and collaborating across the board. So for those enterprise partners, working with scaling companies is nothing new. They see a lot of benefit and sort of uplifting others coming behind them. So it’s a culture. And so that makes it much easier. But then on, on on the side of our company, on our organization, um, we have a program called Run It by the Buyers. And that’s sort of the vehicle and how we get those scaling companies in front of the enterprise partners, we get them on stage. It’s a pitch event. Um, they have an opportunity to tell your banks and payments companies why they could be great in their ecosystem and sort of their infrastructure. And we tracked what happens after that. That’s the success for us.

Lee Kantor: So, um, what are the activities or what are the wins for you where you’re high fiving your team at the end of the week? What what are kind of those key, um, metrics for you that you’re looking at?

Ania Lackey: That’s another great question. You know, for us, five months in, in this role, um, any new company that’s a payments fintech, um, coming to Atlanta, whether from another part of the US or from another country, that’s a huge win. And it’s not just fintech Atlanta to do that. We collaborate with economic development organizations with others in the ecosystem. So it’s always a big high five moment for for many partners. Um, from the fintech Atlanta’s perspective, you know, we want to grow. That’s my big goal for the next few years. Um, so adding new members, making sure that when they join and they commit to support, you know, we keep them busy and they see the ROI on their end. So not only signing up new members, but then taking the time to develop, plug them in and potentially develop new opportunities for them. Um, that’s that’s where when we get excited.

Lee Kantor: So a new member for you, like, say an enterprise organization joins. Does that mean all their employees join or is I mean, the one leader joins, like, what is a member? Uh, you know, how are you defining the.

Ania Lackey: Company joins, and we typically want one rep for the board. But really, the reason why they join is because that second, third layer of their colleagues wants to be involved, wants to be plugged in. And that’s who I want to work with.

Lee Kantor: So you want them as members to. Right? Those are the people who are kind of boots on the ground.

Ania Lackey: That is.

Lee Kantor: Correct.

Ania Lackey: But they don’t pay the membership fees at that point. They they come with the company. And then I will take anybody who wants to be involved and don’t promise if you don’t meet.

Lee Kantor: It, but you don’t want to. I mean, you’ll take anybody, but you want them to be active and engaged, not just to sign the and just have a line on their LinkedIn that says.

Ania Lackey: That is correct. Listen, I spend the last three and a half years at the Atlanta Tech Village, and I’m sure you’re familiar with Ali Merritt and the great work that she does. And one thing that she often says is rising tide raises old boats. And then we also talk a lot about serendipity and serendipitous interactions. So for me, creating opportunities to sort of put people in one room and give them an opportunity to talk and figure it out, that’s another success, right?

Lee Kantor: Creating those collisions.

Ania Lackey: 100% collision was the word I was looking.

Speaker1: For.

Lee Kantor: And so more of those the better. So, um, so how are you finding this event? Is it what you expected? Are you looking for more collisions yourself? Like, what would you consider a win at the end of this event?

Ania Lackey: You know, for us, the goal was to show up as fintech Atlanta here in Support Technology Association of Georgia. Larry Williams is on my executive committee. And we want to make sure that he and Tag are successful. So showing up um, again, rising tide, uh, along those lines. Um, we also wanted to give some exposure to our board members. So we were holding, um, a small content studio here at the event and gathering a little bit of content that we then post on LinkedIn. So giving them a little bit more visibility, telling the story of the ecosystem, uh, sharing that story to make sure more people are aware. Um, the panels and content, uh, have been great. Um, and then really just gospel of Fintech Atlanta, making sure people know who we are now.

Lee Kantor: Um, we were talking to Larry earlier. There was a mention of maybe, um, the footprint of Tag expanding beyond not physically expanding beyond, uh, in Georgia, but touching maybe the southeast as a region and looking at kind of the, the whole of the region rather than just Georgia. How do you see that fitting into your mission and what you’re trying to accomplish?

Ania Lackey: Fintech Atlanta is focused on Atlanta. So I would love to work on the community level with the idea that we want to tell that story globally. So there’s definitely sort of this tug and pull between local and global, but we have so much work that needs to be done here. I mean, there are new companies joining this ecosystem literally every day and big names. You know, we all know about stripe opening in the office. So it’s building connections takes time. Um, you know, I definitely avoid the surface level connection. Um, so, so and that takes time. People do business with people that they like and enjoy, and that’s sort of what I live by.

Lee Kantor: And then for folks who want to learn more, what is the best way to connect the website? What’s the best? That’s correct.

Ania Lackey: So our website is Fintech Atlanta. Org. You’re going to find the basic information about our programing and how to find me. You can find us on LinkedIn. We try to push a lot of content through LinkedIn.

Lee Kantor: All right. Well Ania, thank you so much for sharing your story, doing such important work. And we appreciate you.

Ania Lackey: I appreciate you guys. Thank you so much for having me.

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program, the accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, broadcasting live from Fintech South 2024 at the Woodruff Arts Center. So excited to be talking to our next guest. Hillery Champagne, Executive Director, Fintech Atlanta. Welcome.

Hillery Champagne: Thank you. Happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Fintech Atlanta.

Hillery Champagne: Well thanks. Yeah. So Fintech Atlanta is a coalition of companies working to advance Atlanta as the recognized global capital of financial technology. I’m our one full time employee and I have the pleasure of reporting up to an incredible board of industry leaders. And really, our priorities are to drive fintech industry growth, talent expansion, innovation acceleration and public policy influence in Atlanta and across the state of Georgia. So really happy to be here. Tag is on our board, one of our founding members of Fintech Atlanta. So always always happy to be here.

Lee Kantor: So what was kind of the genesis of the idea where, you know, people were like, okay, we have to have a special group just focusing on fintech here in Atlanta. Yep.

Hillery Champagne: So back in kind of as the story goes, back in 2017, Governor Deal at the time got together with Tag Technology Association of Georgia, the Metro Atlanta Chamber and Atpc, which is the American Transaction Processors Coalition, and basically said, you know, guys, we’re seeing we’ve always been really strong in payment processing, right? We have Atlanta has a very strong history of that, but we’re starting to see growth and investment in these other subclusters within financial technology. We need to make sure that we’re getting together with the leaders here not taking this for granted, really continuing this momentum. Pull those leaders together and make sure that we’re continuing to make Atlanta a place where where these companies can thrive and do business. And so that’s kind of the origin. Those three founding partners helped us get together. You know, many of our founding board members that are still board members today. You know, we have everyone from big companies like Global Payments and Elavon and NCR and, you know, visa. And I’m leaving a ton out. You know, we have those large guys to the midsize and small as well. And they’re they’re all helping kind of shape our strategy and all of the work that we do on a daily basis. So that’s kind of the origin story. Um.

Lee Kantor: You know, what’s now your kind of day to day? Like, how are you serving this group in today’s world? Because this is the technology obviously is changing. I’m sure there’s more constituents today than there were when it was founded. And the needs change. So how do you serve your your members and how do you make sure that their concerns are being addressed?

Hillery Champagne: Yeah. So from day one we’ve kind of focused on four kind of key buckets that have shaped all our programs and initiatives and events and things like that. The first one is making sure that we have a diverse talent base here, that that we’re really focusing on making sure that this next generation of leaders are trained or connected for internships and jobs. We’re we’re giving them real world experience by working with our large companies. So talent is that first piece. The second piece is innovation. So making sure that our startups and founders are connecting with learning from working with our large corporations here. And so we try to find different ways to bring those two groups together and collaborate and find opportunities for commercial collaboration. The third bucket is telling the story of fintech in Atlanta. So that can be doing things like this and coming to these great shows here in town. It can be going to global shows like Money20 20, your fintech meetup with a Georgia delegation, and also meeting with companies that are looking to perhaps establish a presence in the US and explain why Atlanta is a great spot to be, but we’ll also welcome foreign delegations here, all of that good stuff. And then the last pillar is public policy. So making sure that we as an industry, as a group, are educating our legislators on the impact that we have here in the region. So that’s what we started with. And that’s really what’s still shaping what we do today. We have six programs that we work on on a daily basis, each led by program directors who work full time jobs in the fintech industry and volunteer their time to help us with our programs. So we’re really lucky to have them and their expertise.

Lee Kantor: So is this a group that has membership that you join like it’s you have meetings every quarter a month? Yep. So get togethers in person. Like what is it like to be a member.

Hillery Champagne: So it’s kind of cool. We’re um, well, I guess we’re not that unique, but we have a fantastic board, so we meet quarterly in person board meetings. We actually just had our Q3 one last week at full steam. One of our board member companies offices in Buckhead. Um, so those are fantastic. We typically at those meetings will give an update on all of our programs, kind of put the plan in place for the next couple of months, but also solicit feedback from our board members, making sure that we’re on the right track, that we are kind of focusing on the things that they think, you know, as industry leaders make an impact here in our region. But they were, again, we’re very lucky in that they fund everything that we do. So all of our six programs that I mentioned, whether it be our run it by the buyers events or Ask an Advisor, which is our mentorship program of sorts. All of our programs are completely free to the ecosystem here. So if you’re a startup and you want to pitch it or run it by the buyers event, or if you’re a large corporation and you want to get involved at the event level or, you know, whatever it may be, if any of these programs, it’s completely free. So that’s what I think is pretty cool about it.

Lee Kantor: And so anybody in the ecosystem can connect with Fintech Atlanta and there’s a place to plug in. Exactly.

Hillery Champagne: We’ve got a place for everyone. If you’re a student, if you’re a founder, if you’re a startup, a large company, and there’s plenty of ways to get involved.

Lee Kantor: So what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Hillery Champagne: Oh, that’s a good question. Um, you know, I think the biggest area where we need help is just getting the word out about our programs. Um, as I mentioned, we have we have six of them now, and they’re completely free and open to the ecosystem. But I think people always think there’s a catch, right? And it’s like I used to work at the Metro Atlanta Chamber on their economic development team. And it’s the same thing. Their their job genuinely is to make it easy for someone to do business here and add jobs to the region. And people are always like, okay, what’s the catch? You know, like, where are you going to charge me? And it’s the same thing here. So it’s like, you know, don’t be scared to talk to us, I promise. You know, what we’re trying to do is to build up the ecosystem for everyone. You know, rising tide lifts all ships, right?

Lee Kantor: And it’s frustrating being a best kept secret.

Speaker4: Exactly.

Lee Kantor: I bet you get tired of. Oh, I wish I would have known about you two years ago.

Speaker4: Exactly.

Lee Kantor: Conversations aren’t.

Speaker4: Fun. Yeah, but then.

Hillery Champagne: You know, having things like this today, Atlanta’s great in that we have. So, you know, if you look at every single week, there’s probably five events that you could go to to meet people and help spread the word. So, you know, we’re not lacking opportunities to get together, but I think still just kind of reaching those newer companies are the ones that have just come to Atlanta and explaining to them that this.

Speaker4: Exists and.

Lee Kantor: Letting companies that aren’t in Atlanta know that there’s a tool and a resource like Fintech Atlanta that can really help accelerate their growth.

Speaker4: Right, exactly.

Hillery Champagne: I really do. I think that’s it. People are like, wait, you were willing to connect us to this person? Why? Why what’s the catch?

Lee Kantor: And that’s kind of the secret sauce of Atlanta is the level of collaboration. And a lot of people are kind of surprised by that when they hear about it.

Hillery Champagne: Yeah. And I get asked a lot, are we a part of tag? Are we a part of Mac? Are we a part of Atpc? And while they’re all our founding partners, we’re our own organization. But we work really, really closely with all three of those groups. And I think that’s another thing that another strength of Atlanta is that we really do all work together. You know, Robert Daniel at Atdc and Laura Gibson Lamoth at the Georgia Fintech Academy. You know, we’ll all go to these trade shows together or whatever it may be, and kind of work together as a team because we’re all, you know, we’re all working towards the same goal at the end of the day.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to connect, what’s the best way to do that?

Hillery Champagne: I try to send so a couple things. If you want to kind of keep up to date with everything that we have going on, I try to do a decent job of updating our LinkedIn page. So with our own information, but also things that are going on in Atlanta in the fintech ecosystem. If I ever have any discount codes or passes or things like that, that’s where I’ll share them. Um, so that’s a great place you can reach out to me there. My email is h champagne like the drink c h a m p a g e at Fintech atlanta.org. That’s also a great way to to reach out. And then our website is Fintech Atlanta. Org.

Lee Kantor: Well Hilary thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Hillery Champagne: Thank you guys I really appreciate being here and thank you.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor back in a few at Fintech South 2020 for.