A trip to India early in her career was a revelation for Sophie Schulman, who gained perspective on her work in finance — and her photography.
"I've been doing photography since high school and did landscapes until moving to Mumbai with Visa for six months in 2017. In India, I moved to portraits. When you do portraiture, you get to know the person and get to know their stories," said Schulman, senior director of business development for Visa. Schulman is also one of American Banker's
Schulman's ability to learn people's stories, and to tell her own, has been invaluable in her current role at Visa. Schulman leads a team that co-builds products with fintech partners.
These partnerships are a major part of
"She stretches the vision for our business development team and consistently executes on 'the what' and 'the how,'" said Marie-Elisa Droga, senior vice president and head of fintech partnerships for Visa. "She's a strong storyteller, articulating Visa's vision and mission, which is critical to bringing in new business and identifying the right partners for our work."
Visa frequently works through third parties as part of this long-term initiative and relies on executives like Schulman who can forge collaborative relationships with other companies.
"Our responsibilities are highly cross-functional and complex because we work with fintechs who create competition, demand global solutions, and set the industry pace of innovation," said Schulman.
The fintechs Schulman works with are often different from traditional payment companies, operating in the face of uncertain or ambiguous regulations, such as cryptocurrency firms. Other partners operate in an underserved but fast-growing niche, such as content creation. One of Schulman's responsibilities is ensuring these creators get reliably compensated through the
Social commerce, which includes content creators, is expected to reach $1.2 trillion by 2025, according to Accenture. The creator economy is attracting payment firms such as
Cash flow can be a problem for these businesses. Sixty-nine percent of creators say waiting for payments slows their momentum and 88% would engage more with a platform that offers payouts, according to Visa's internal research. Visa's creator commerce program connects creators to the Visa Direct payment system, which enables real-time access to funds from gifts, tips and donations from fans, among other sources. Visa' partners in the commerce program include Linktree, Marqeta, Rutter and SamCart.
Early this month, the card network entered a partnership with Karat Financial, a platform for creators. Visa and Karat are helping creators build a personal credit history and improve access to capital. Karat also offers a card that features simplified tax services, purchase protections and access to events and collaborations in the content community.
"The world of commerce is changing by the day, and that presents new challenges and opportunities," Schulman said. "In our economy, content creators are the next generation of small businesses. I'm excited to be working with these creators … to give them the tools they need to be paid to be successful."
Learning the stories of creators and other new entrepreneurs draws on Schulman's past, such as her work at a technology incubator earlier in her career. She also spent two years in a Visa program for recent college graduates that rotated newcomers to different parts of the company. That's how Schulman got to India just two years after graduating from Stanford.
In Mumbai, Schulman worked on the product team that launched Google Pay in collaboration with Google's Next Billion Users team. It was an early taste of partnership work for Schulman, who helped Visa team up with the search giant, playing a major role in India's payments market as users of the country's digital payment rail.
"I had never visited India and knew little about the country, its culture and the languages," Schulman said. "But exotic experiences force empathy and challenge, which teach you about yourself."
Schulman spent her weekends in Mumbai snapping photos, capturing the stories of the people she met. The experience improved how she connects with people — whether taking a photo or helping a young content creator set up a payments rail. "You connect with people visually and also verbally. There's always a human side, if you're working with someone or negotiating."
