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I help fintech startups accelerate their go-to-market, design fraud strategies, and solve difficult early-stage growth challenges.

Prior Roles

Xendit (Co-Founder), 2014-2015

Affirm (Head of Merchant Risk and Virtual Card Fraud), 2015-2018

Marqeta (Fraud Analytics and Product Management), 2018-2019

SentiLink (first product/sales/growth hire -> Revenue Leadership), 2019-2025

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About Me

I’m Vivek Ahuja, a fintech operator with 10+ years of experience helping companies scale revenue, manage fraud and credit risk, and win in competitive markets.

I’ve worked at the intersection of product, risk, and go-to-market at companies like SentiLink, Affirm, Marqeta, and Xendit. Before Fintech, I was a nuclear submarine officer, which shapes my views on leadership and the need to train and develop teams.

What I love about early and growth stage startups is the ability to be hands-on with execution. That includes everything from figuring out early sales and product positioning strategies, to writing SQL queries and diving into analytics to break down problems and surface insights.

When I’m not immersed in fintech I can be found trail running, mountain biking, or functional fitness-ing in the East Bay, or spending time with my two daughters.

Where I like to help

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GTM and Sales

  • Craft and coach enterprise sales narratives for technical, data-heavy products — especially when selling into risk, fraud, and compliance teams

  • Structuring early partnerships and channel strategy

  • Sparring partner on roadmap, pricing, GTM priorities

  • Build the foundation for scaling beyond founder-led sales

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Risk & Fraud

  • Fraud vendor landscape (especially application fraud, ID verification, KYC, issuer-side transaction fraud, merchant risk)

  • Build vs. buy decisions for fraud tooling when launching new fintech products or entering new markets

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Leading in High-Growth

  • Empathetic guidance for any early-stage decision-making

  • Sounding board for leaders navigating team dynamics, scale, and managing transitions

  • Expert network, operating partner, or advisory support for investors and incubators with portcos in Fintech or risk/fraud products

Let’s Connect

I typically respond within 1 business day