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Women Leaders in Payments: The Future is Human with Alexandra Dolia, Akurateco | Episode 503 · Leaders In Payments

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Women Leaders in Payments Month, where we highlight and celebrate the women shaping the future of payments in FinTech through their leadership, insight, and impact.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: A special thank you to Payrock for sponsoring this year's series and for powering the continued advancement of women across our industry.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Now, on to the show.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, everyone, and welcome to this Women Leaders in Payments Month episode.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: Today I'm honored to have as our special guest Alexandra Dolia, the co-founder and chief operations officer at Acuteco.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: So, Alex, thank you so much for being here and welcome to the show.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you a lot, Greg.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I am really glad to be here today, and I'm especially glad to be the part of this for the Women Leaders in Payments Months.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: I've been in payments for more than a decade, and I'm really looking forward to sharing some of my journey today here on this podcast.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let's start with a little icebreaker.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: If you could instantly become an expert in one non-work-related skill or hobby, what would it be and why?
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's an easy question.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Since I was the child, my dream was to become the doctor, the heart surgeon, to be precise.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: I really dreamed of becoming the doctor since the very early childhood and uh almost until the high school, and the biology was my favorite subject, and I even won some regional contest in biology.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: I seriously considered entering medical university, but it didn't happen because medicine also required me to study physics and chemistry, and these two I really did not like.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I entered another university and I connected my life with the payments later.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: But still, this is my passion.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Medicine is still my passion, and I constantly read the news and their recent researches, and I'm the one in my family to know all the details of everyone's health.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it also even shows in some funny ways.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: For example, I recently had to take my cat to the vet, and I was describing the symptoms and the history so precisely that the vet actually thought that I have the medical background.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, if uh the life just went slightly differently and I wouldn't find myself in payments, probably I would make quite a good doctor.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk about your background and your career journey.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: So if you don't mind, give us a quick snapshot of your background, where you grew up, what you studied, and what led you into the world of payments.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I grew up in Ukraine, and the very first turning point came when I was 15, and I went to the US for one year to live by myself as an exchange student in the host family.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Being a teenager and living abroad alone and having to adapt to the new culture and make your own decisions, this really makes you grow very fast and take the responsibility.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: And when I came back, I already knew that I want to become independent as soon as possible and that I want to build my own path.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I decided to study marketing despite the fact that my parents suggested me to proceed with the linguistics because I was good in languages.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: But on the third year of my study, I started to understand that I do not really like marketing, but I'm actually more interested in banking and in finance.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And looking back right now, this makes sense because my family had the background in finance, and this is something that I saw them doing since I was very little.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: And when I was in the university, I started to work from the very first year, and those were mostly administrative jobs and translation and waitressing.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: But on the third year of my education, I decided to find something more stable, and I applied for several contact center positions.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: And this is how I ended up in Port Monet, which is one of the very first Ukraine payments companies.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: That was completely by accident because back then I didn't know anything about online payments, and I even didn't know that they exist.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: But once I was there, I became very curious about all these payments magics, like how systems interact, why transactions fail, how merchants and banks are connected.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And this curiosity actually brought me from the customer support position to the B2B role where I was working with the banks and integrations.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I entered payments by accident, but I stayed there deliberately because I really liked it.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: Well, was there a person or an opportunity or an unexpected moment that helped shape the direction of your career?
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: There were a lot of things that I did not expect and did not plan during my career, but they actually became formative for me.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: First, the whole career in Port Monet was an unexpected thing because I treated, I will be honest, I treated it as the temporary job because I thought that once I graduate, I would proceed with my marketing career.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: But people in Port Monet were the biggest factor why I actually decided to stay and who actually made me what I am today.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because I was very surprised to see this approach that they treated the knowledge as something that has to be shared but not guarded.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And my managers, all my managers, would always explain me everything in details and with the examples, and I never heard any question like, why do you need to know that?
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: And this really shaped my approach, and this really shaped my philosophy that the knowledge has to be shared but not guarded.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: The second moment was my first leadership position, my first leadership career, the one I was not prepared for because I thought that I am joining the account manager position, but it appeared that I have the team reporting to me, and I'm 24, and they are all older, and they are mostly men, and uh it took me time to build my authority and to find my own leadership style, also through mistakes, and this also shaped me as the leader, as the professional that I am today.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: Well, tell us about your role today at AcuroTechco and what part of your work are you most excited about?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm chief operating officer in AcuraTeco, and this position, I'd say that operations manager and operations officer can do a lot of things, and in different companies, this position includes different uh opportunities and different responsibilities.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: But my role has evolved and has changed during last year because I came back from the maternity leave and had to basically redefine it.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And right now, two things that excite me the most in my role.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is strategic sales.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: These are complex long-term projects like tenders, like working with banks, enterprise-level merchants, all the projects that require very deep understanding of payments, including the technical side and also understanding of the customer's business model.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the whole different level of engagement, but once you reach the result, it's very rewarding.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: And the second, and this is actually my very long-term passion, is developing people.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Payments can be rather a non-transparent industry and the black box for people who are just entering it.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: And to make things easier for people who are joining Accoratecos team and to make the shortcut for these people, I have created the internal structured online course that explains how payments work end-to-end.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because I truly believe that the more people know, the more they understand, the better decisions they make, and the better they serve our customers.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, well, let's pivot a little bit and talk about leadership and perspective.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: So this year's theme is the future is human.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: So when you hear that phrase, what does it mean to you as a leader in payments?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I fully support this theme, and I think that it matters even more right now with all this fear around AI pushing humans out and taking people's jobs and so on.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that this fear actually misreads what technology is meant for, because it's the tool and it's there to do the heavy lifting and to allow people to stay human and to do what only people can do the best, like to share knowledge and to help each other grow.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: And Akuratek's case is literally an example of this statement that the future is human, because our whole go-to-market strategy actually was built around it.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: And in the field, in the industry that is heavily obsessed with uh technologies, we consciously made our decision to focus on people and to differentiate ourselves through people, through the way we partner with our customers, through the knowledge and through trust.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because back in 2020, when we just entered the market, there were already some very strong platforms with the great technologies, and we understood that we could not compete with them on their product side immediately.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: So we differentiated ourselves through people and through the way that we support our customers.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because at the end, the human is the real asset.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Our creativity, our judgments, our empathy, and the relationships to build, this is the most important thing.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: And technology doesn't change that.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Technology is meant to assist in that.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: And in payments and also in any industry, technology and innovations are only done for us to feel better and to have the easier life.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: So to me, the future is human isn't the contrast to the technology.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually the reminder of what technology is meant for.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, as you well know, payments is becoming more digital, more embedded, and more intelligent.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: So what do you think leaders need to keep front and center as the industry keeps evolving?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think that first uh leader has to have the deep understanding of roots and causes.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Payments become more embedded, payments become more automated, and there's the temptation to treat them as the black box that just works.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that is very dangerous to approach because you always have to have the person who understands the roots and the causes and who does not stop at the very first explanation on the surface.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: The second thing is trusting your own expertise.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: For leaders, it is still very important to stand their ground when their understanding tells something that the dashboard does not tell.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because technology should sharpen the judgment but not replace it.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the third, which is very easy to lose when payments become more digital and more embedded, is the human side, the human relationship underneath the technology.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because embedded payments may feel frictionless, they're invisible, but there is always the business or the person underneath on the other side who is trusting you with something critical.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: And in Accorateco, we build our whole company around the idea that we are not just delivering the technology.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: We stand next to our customers as partners.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: And no matter how industry, how intelligent industry becomes, the trust is the real currency.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what is something that you've learned about leadership that you wish you had understood earlier in your career?
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that being indispensable is a failure, not an advantage.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: In my very first leadership position, I thought that I need to earn my authority by knowing the most and solving all the problems by myself.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: I was working late shifts, I was working 24-7, jumping into every problem by myself, and it worked in a sense, but it also led to the massive burnout.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: The real lesson was that if the team performs well only when the leader is there, that is the sign of very poor leadership.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: And when we started at Kurateco, this was the lesson that I applied from the day one, and we would refine the ideas together with the team.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I saw them growing, I saw them taking more responsibility and becoming more confident decision makers.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I really wish that I understood this when I was 24 and I just start my management career.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let's talk about the human side of payments.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: So behind every payment or behind every transaction is a person or a business or a need.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: So how do you think about the human side of payments in the work that you do?
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, what I understood from my contact center position is that the failed transaction is never a technical event.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's, for example, the person, the actual customer who is left on the checkout, or the merchant who is losing revenue, or even a small business owner whose whole evening is ruined because of that.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: And working late shifts in the contact center, when I was alone, I heard this personally from people on this other side of the failed payment, and this perspective never left me.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: So it's also why customer support in Akurateco is so much important.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: And we work with our customers as partners, not just as vendors who deliver technology and then disappear.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: All these integration processes, checklists, communications, we constantly redefine and refine these operational details because actually these details are the real experience that our customers have from cooperation.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you mentioned the word trust, and trust is such a critical part of payments in fintech.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: So how do you think companies can build and maintain trust as the industry becomes even more automated and more technology driven?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: The trust in payments is built based on transparency.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: People stop trusting you when they do not understand what is happening, when something does not work, and they do not get any actual responses that does not really explain anything.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: So the way we approach this in Acorateco has few sides.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: The first, people who actually understand what is happening.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: And they are investing a lot in educating people so that people could understand how payments are working.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: And when the client reaches out, I think that this is very important for him to talk with a person who actually understands what is happening and not just pushes the ticket further.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: The second is being honest when something goes wrong.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: In any industry, things might happen, but it is very important to not to pretend that everything is perfect, but to acknowledge and to deal with it.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: And it's very important how you deal and how quickly you deal with this.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the third is consistency, because trust is not built over one evening.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's the constant process that is built ticket by ticket, conversation by conversation over years.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: And there is no shortcut to it.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what is one trend or change in payments that you believe will have the biggest impact on people and businesses over the next few years?
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think that most people hearing this question right now would start talking about AI, right?
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: But I would deliberately like to avoid this because for me, talking about AI in 2026 is something like about talking about electricity because it's already everywhere.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: And it's trendy, yes, but for me it's not the trend anymore.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's the must-have.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's something that you have in your industry already.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd rather point to something more specific and something that I have witnessed with my own eyes during these years in payments.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the move from the card-only card-based payments on the checkout to a much broader mix of different alternative payment methods.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: For years, like paying online would have meant that you are typing in the card details on the checkout, right?
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: But right now, there are so many alternative payment methods, like QR payments, account to account payments, local payment methods, anything that is considered to be normal in a particular region in a particular country.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: It does not mean that card payments are dying.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: It rather means that they are going to the background because a lot of these digital wallets they are still powered by card payments.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: But the digital wallets and the account to account payments are actually becoming this phase of the checkout.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, this is something that I have seen with my own eyes, because when I came to Akurateco in 2020, only one out of ten connectors that we built was for alternative payment methods.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: All rest were card connectors, like you just do the integration for the Visa Mastercard mostly.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, nearly half of all connectors are for the alternative payment methods.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: This number is only growing, and I see this connector by connector with my own eyes.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: And for the people, like for actual payers, this is mostly invisible because for them this means that they're just paying with something that they trust and they are used to.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: But for business, it has a bigger impact because any connector that they are building is that completely new flow that you have to build and to maintain.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: And offering only card payments on the checkout is not enough anymore.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you are working online in different countries, if you do not offer the particular payment method, it's likely that you are losing the customer right on the checkout.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: But this is also the challenge.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like keeping all these methods arranged and maintaining them is a huge work, and not each business is ready to do that.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the huge effort if you do this on your own.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the real thing is not only to have as many payment methods as possible, but also to align them, to orchestrate them and to manage them properly through a single point.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that this is where a lot of value lies, and this is the big part of what we are doing in AcuraTeco.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm glad you skipped AI, because that has been and probably will be a lot of the answers, but I loved your answer to that.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let's talk about mentorship impact and sort of what's coming next.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: So, who has influenced you along the way, whether directly or indirectly, and what did you learn from them?
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: I've been very lucky to be influenced by some great professionals in payments who actually built my foundation in payments.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Early in my career, I also had some great mentors, for example, uh, ex CEO and founder of CourtMoneet, and also my co-founder Andrew, who you mentioned was uh on the podcast.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: But I've talked about them a lot and I would not like to repeat myself again.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the more I think about this question, the more I realize that some of the biggest influence also came from my teammates, from the people with whom I work on a daily basis.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because my team has shaped me as much as my mentors did.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: And when you build a team where people are thinking independently and when they take the responsibility, you start learning from them as well, from the way they approach the problem, from the way they handle the pressure, and so on.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that this is a very good way to become the leader by learning from people who are next to you, who work with you as well.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: And also the moment that I would like to specifically underline in Accorateco, the big part of my team is women, very strong and bright women, and uh actually almost half of our C level is women.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: And in uh payments, this is not something that you would see, and uh, I find this really inspiring.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: And these strong and bright women, they challenge me, they push me, and uh they help me grow as well.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what advice would you give to the next generation of women that are entering payments in fintech right now?
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: First, not to wait to be ready and to take the opportunity if you have the ambition and the drive for it.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Even if it feels terrifying, because, for example, I was not ready for my leadership position, but the truth is that nobody is ready.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: You become ready by working every day on it and earning your expertise.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: And expertise is the best equalizer in any industry because when you know how things work, everybody will listen to you in the room regardless of who you are.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: The second is to find the environment where the knowledge is shared but not guarded.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: And once you grow to become such an environment by yourself for others, the most probably one of the most proudest moments in my career was to see how these great women in my team are growing into great leaders and professionals.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the last, which is also very important, is to understand that career is not linear and it's fine.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: After the maternity leave, I had to redefine my position almost from scratch, and it was very uncomfortable.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: But it also became one of the most productive periods that I ever had in my professional life.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let's wrap up the show with one final fun question.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: So, what is one app or podcast or book, TV show, hobby, or maybe favorite way to unwind that gives us a glimpse into who you are outside of work?
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: You need to understand who you are asking because I'm the mother of a young child.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: She's like only a year and a half old.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: My life right now is the constant balance between family and work, and my my interests are very biased, I'd say.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I could name you like dozens of different podcasts and books all on toddler theme that has nothing in common with payments.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: But I also can give you the real one.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: Recently I have read the book by Amy Cua, The Battle Hymn by Mother Tiger.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the memoirs of uh about very strict and demanding parenting style.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: And what I really loved about this is that it made me think about the fundamental question when to push and when not to push.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: How much pressure helps someone to grow and where does it start to do the opposite?
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the funny thing is that I actually started to read it as the parent, but ended up thinking about it as the leader because at the end of the day, these are the questions that leaders always see on the daily basis.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: When you need to push your team for the results and when you need to stop, when the high expectations bring the best out of people and when they don't.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: So basically, the book that I chose to think about the parenting style and to how to raise my daughter actually became the book about management.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: So this is probably something that can tell you more about who I am at this point of my life.
• 22:37
  unknown: Okay.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Alex, I think that's a great way to wrap up the show.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: I know your time is very valuable, so I really appreciate you being here today.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Greg.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: It was a great opportunity for me and a truly enjoyable conversation.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm really grateful for you having me today.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: And for everybody who listened, and especially for women in payments who are just starting their career in payments and fintech, I really hope that they have heard something valuable for them.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you again.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thank you.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure there was a lot of great nuggets of value in that conversation for sure.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you again.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: And to all you listeners out there, I thank you for your time as well.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: And until the next story,