Best Startup
At Best Startup US we track over 1,000,000 US startups and over 3 million people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United States based Founder operating in the FinTech space. If you think a Founder is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.us.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Wayne Chang
Co-Founder of Digits
Wayne Chang (born August 3, 1983) is an American entrepreneur, angel investor, film producer, and philanthropist. He is best known for founding Crashlytics, which in little over a year was acquired by Twitter for over $100 million in 2013 (later valued at $259.5 million at Twitter’s IPO), creating i2hub, a popular filesharing network, his seed investments that include companies like JetSmarter, Draftkings, and Gusto, and his lawsuit against the Winklevoss brothers, who were famously depicted in The Social Network movie.
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About Digits: Digits is building financial technology so powerful.. you’ll think they stole it from the future
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Jeff Seibert
Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Digits
As Senior Director of Product at Twitter, Jeff has led the company’s consumer, developer, and publisher facing products, including Twitter for iOS, Android, and the Web, Fabric, Crashlytics, Answers, Digits, Twitter Kit, TweetDeck, Twitter’s Publisher Platform, and Gnip. Previously, Seibert was Twitter’s Director of Developer Platform where he led Fabric, the company’s suite of mobile developer tools, as well as its enterprise Data Platform and Content Syndication efforts. Seibert was the co-founder and CEO of Crashlytics, an award-winning crash analysis service for iOS and Android apps. Crashlytics was acquired by Twitter in 2013 and has become an essential piece of the mobile developer toolchain – today powering over a million apps across well over two billion devices worldwide. Seibert co-founded Increo in 2007 and served as its COO and lead architect until its acquisition by Box in 2009. He subsequently oversaw the integration of Increo’s document preview and annotation technologies into Box’s cloud content platform. Seibert gained experience at Apple in both marketing and engineering capacities and led Stanford University’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders seminar series as Co-Coordinator. He was selected as a Mayfield Fellow in 2007 and received a B.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University in 2008. Seibert is a frequent presenter on both entrepreneurship and technical topics and has lectured at Stanford, Harvard, MIT, and Tufts, as well as keynoted Twitter Flight, AppsWorld, AnDevCon, EclipseCon, and others. Find him on Twitter at @JeffSeibert.
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About Digits: Digits is building financial technology so powerful.. you’ll think they stole it from the future
Doug Ludlow
Co-Founder and CEO of MainStreet
Doug is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of MainStreet, a company creating jobs in rural and suburban communities. Previously, Doug was the Founder of Hipster, which was acquired by AOL in March of 2012. Hipster had raised $1M from Google Ventures, BoxGroup, CRV, Lerer Hippeau, Ludlow Ventures, Techstars, 500 Startups, Mitch Kapor, David Tisch, and other distinguished angels. In addition, Doug is a 2007 alumni of TechStars Boulder, having founded madKast (acquired by ShareThis.com in 2008).
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About MainStreet: MainStreet is a financial platform that helps startups and small businesses discover and claim tax credits and government incentives.
Dan Lindquist
CPO and Co-Founder of MainStreet
Dan Lindquist is the Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of MainStreet.
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About MainStreet: MainStreet is a financial platform that helps startups and small businesses discover and claim tax credits and government incentives.
Daniel Griffin
Co-Founder and CTO of MainStreet
Daniel Griffin is the Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of MainStreet. Prior to that, he was the Founder of Peak Podcasting.
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About MainStreet: MainStreet is a financial platform that helps startups and small businesses discover and claim tax credits and government incentives.
Raj Chowdhury
Co-Founder and CEO of HashCash Consultants
Raj Chowdhury is the CEO of HashCash Consultants and a Blockchain pioneer. He is the author of the book The Dark Secret of the Silicon Valley. He is the co-founder of several high tech and web based companies. Chowdhury is an eminent voice in Blockchain and cryptocurrencies globally. He is a contributor to Economic Times, Business World and advises industry leaders in adoption of Blockchain. He is a member of Asha Silicon Valley chapter, a non-profit committed to the spread of education for children in emerging countries.
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About Bitrump, HashCash Consultants, Satoshi Angels: HashCash Consultants is a software company offering Blockchain, AI, Big Data and IoT products, platforms and services.
Tim Draper
Founder and Managing Partner of Draper Associates
Timothy Draper is founding partner of leading venture capital firms Draper Associates and DFJ. Tim’s original suggestion to use “viral marketing” in web-based e-mail to geometrically spread an Internet product to its market was instrumental to the successes of Hotmail and other web-based email providers and has been adopted as a standard marketing technique by hundreds of businesses. Tim launched the DFJ Global Network, an international network of early-stage venture capital funds with offices in over 30 cities around the globe. Tim founded or co-founded DFJ ePlanet (global), Draper Fisher Jurvetson Gotham (NYC), Zone Ventures (LA), Epic Ventures (Salt Lake City), Draper Atlantic (Reston), Draper Triangle (Pittsburg), Timberline Ventures (Portland), Polaris Fund (Anchorage), DFJ Frontier (Sacramento and Santa Barbara), DFJ Vina Capital (Vietnam), Draper Nexus (Tokyo), and DFJ DragonFund (Shanghai). Tim recently launched “Six Californias,” a statewide initiative to create six new states and dissolve a failed one in California. Previously, Tim served on the California State Board of Education. In November of 2000, Tim launched a statewide cyber-initiative on school choice for the California General Election. Tim was a Member of Singapore’s International Economic Council and Ukraine’s Orange Circle. Tim was on the Board of U.C. Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Tim was ranked 52 on the list of the 100 most influential Harvard Alumni, and seven on the Forbes Midas List. Tim was named Always-On #1 top venture capital deal maker. Tim was awarded the Commonwealth Club’s Distinguished Citizen Award for achievements in green and sustainable energy. To further encourage entrepreneurship, Tim started BizWorld.org, a non-profit for children to learn entrepreneurship, Draper University of Heroes, a school for entrepreneurs 18-28 and he leads SixCalifornias, an initiative to improve the governance of California. Tim has a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
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About Bancor, DDF, DFJ DragonFund, DFJ VinaCapital, Draper Associates, Draper Athena, Draper Dragon, Draper University Ventures, ePlanet Capital, Gotham Ventures, SpeedUPAfrica, Threshold, VenturesLab, Zone Ventures: Draper Associates is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in industry-transforming companies.
Shuo Wang
Co-Founder & CRO of Deel
Shuo Wang co-founded Deel in 2018. Most recently, Shuo was a co-founder and CTO of Aeris Cleantec. Shuo holds a BS degree in Robotics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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About Deel: Deel is a payroll and compliance platform for international employees and contractors.
Vlad Tenev
Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Robinhood
Vlad Tenev is the co-founder and co-CEO of Robinhood. A first-generation immigrant from Bulgaria, Tenev earned his B.S. in Mathematics at Stanford University before starting two finance companies in New York City, selling trading software to hedge funds. In 2013, Tenev and longtime friend Baiju Bhatt co-founded Robinhood, a zero commission brokerage dedicated to democratizing the finance system. The company has millions of users across the country and is currently valued at $5.6 billion.
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About Robinhood: Robinhood is a stock brokerage that allows customers to buy and sell stocks, options, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies with zero commission.
Baiju Bhatt
Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Robinhood
Baiju Bhatt is the co-founder and co-CEO of Robinhood, the fastest growing brokerage in the world. Bhatt earned his B.S. in Physics and M.S. in Mathematics at Stanford University before starting two finance companies in New York City. In 2015, Bhatt co-founded Robinhood with Vlad Tenev, aiming to democratize the financial system. The company has millions of users across the country and is currently valued at $5.6 billion.
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About Robinhood: Robinhood is a stock brokerage that allows customers to buy and sell stocks, options, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies with zero commission.
Siqi Chen
Co-Founder of Runway Financial
Siqi Chen is the Co-Founder of Runway and a Member Board Of Directors at Sandbox VR. Siqi holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics from the University of California, San Diego.
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About Newco, Runway Financial: Runway is a ground up rethink of the role of financial data inside modern businesses.
Henry Ward
Founder & CEO of Carta
Henry Ward is the CEO and co-founder of Carta (formerly eShares), With a background in finance and technology. Prior to eShares, Henry was the Founder and CEO of Secondsight, a portfolio optimization platform for retail investors. Mr. Ward received a BGS in Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Michigan and an MSC in Market Finance at EDHEC Business School.
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About Carta: Carta is a global ownership management platform that helps companies, investors, and employees manage equity and ownership.
Immad Akhund
CEO & Founder of Mercury Technologies
Immad Akhund is the CEO and Founder of Mercury.
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About Mercury Technologies: Mercury is the banking stack for startups.* FDIC-insured accounts, debit cards, currency exchange, APIs, 3rd party integrations & more.
Robert Leshner
Founder and CEO of Compound
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About Citywide Special, Compound, Robot Ventures, Safe Shepherd: Compound is an open-source interest rate protocol that unlocks new financial applications.
Geoffrey Hayes
CTO and Founder of Compound
Maintainer of Exthereum, technology founder of two startups, led Core Services at Postmates
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About Compound: Compound is an open-source interest rate protocol that unlocks new financial applications.
Jesse Powell
Co-Founder and CEO of Kraken
Jesse Powell is an expert in virtual currencies, online/international payments and fraud, as well as co-founder and CEO of Kraken, the most trusted and one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges in the world with no.1 EUR market share. He is a 15-year veteran of the virtual currency industry.
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About Kraken: Kraken is a cryptocurrency exchange that provides spot and futures trading between Bitcoin, Ethereum, and 40+ other digital assets.
Andrew Adams
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Oak HC/FT
Andrew joined Oak Investment Partners in 2003. He currently serves as General Partner of Oak Investment Partners, and General Partner of Oak HC/FT. Andrew currently serves on the Boards of Limeade, Maestro Healthcare Technologies, One Medical Group, Radisphere National Radiology Group, and xG Health Solutions. Andrew is also actively involved with Benefitfocus, Independent Living Systems, and Precision for Medicine Holdings. Prior investment activity includes American Esoteric Laboratories (acquired by Sonic Healthcare Limited), Argus Information & Advisory Services (acquired by Verisk Analytics), CareMedic Systems (acquired by Ingenix), CLARiENT (acquired by GE Healthcare), Harbor Payments (acquired by American Express), Health Dialog (acquired by British United Provident Association), iHealth Technologies (merged with Connolly), NetSpend Corporation (acquired by TSYS), PayFlex Systems (acquired by Aetna), PharMEDium Healthcare (acquired by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice) and United BioSource (acquired by Medco Health Solutions). Prior to joining Oak Investment Partners, Andrew was a Senior Associate with Capital Resource Partners, a mezzanine capital firm, where he focused on investments in healthcare and business services companies. Andrew was also a Financial Analyst in the media and communications group of Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. Andrew graduated from Princeton University with a BA in History.
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About Oak HC/FT: Oak HC/FT is a venture and growth equity investment firm that focuses on healthcare information services and financial service technology.
Patricia Kemp
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Oak HC/FT
Patricia joined Oak Investment Partners in 2002. She currently serves as Venture Partner of Oak Investment Partners, and General Partner of Oak HC/FT. Patricia currently serves on the Boards of Kuaipay, Duedil, and Vesta, and she is a Board Observer at Acculynk. Some of Patricia’s past portfolio activity includes Argus Information & Advisory Services (acquired by Verisk Analytics), Harbor Payments (acquired by American Express), NetSpend (acquired by TSYS), Point Carbon (acquired by Thomson Reuters), and TxVia (acquired by Google). Prior to joining Oak Investment Partners, Patricia’s history includes over 11 years of senior management experience at Cendant (formerly CUC International). At various times she was responsible for the marketing, operations, or general management of a variety of direct marketed products and memberships in the auto, shopping or merchant services space.
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About Oak HC/FT: Oak HC/FT is a venture and growth equity investment firm that focuses on healthcare information services and financial service technology.
Max Levchin
Founder & CEO of Affirm
Max Levchin is an investor and advisor to emerging technology companies. He was previously the chairman and chief executive officer of HVF, a startup lab focused on extracting insights from recordable information. Levchin co-founded Confinity Inc. in December 1998, and served as the Chief Technology Officer and a director. He also founded NetMeridian Software, a developer of early Internet applications Levchin also serves as chairman of the boards of directors of Yelp Inc. and Kaggle Inc., and as a director of Evernote Corporation.
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About Affirm, Glow, HVF Labs, SciFi VC: Affirm is a financial technology services company that offers installment loans to consumers at the point of sale.
Eric Ries
Founder & CEO of Long-Term Stock Exchange
Eric is the author of New York Times bestseller The Lean Startup, The Startup Way, and The Leaders Guide (funded by one of the top Kickstarter book campaigns of all time). He’s also the creator of the Lean Startup methodology, practiced by individuals and companies around the world and the inspiration behind the LTSE. He has founded a number of startups, including IMVU, where he served as CTO, and has advised on business and product strategy for startups, venture capital firms, and large companies across many industries.
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About IDEO, Long-Term Stock Exchange, Pivotal: The Long-Term Stock Exchange designs an SEC-regulated national securities exchange that aligns great companies and long-term investors.
Matt Kennedy
Co-Founder & Customer Success of Public.com
Matt Kennedy is the Co-Founder at Public.com
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About Public.com: Public.com is the fractional investing platform where members build a modern portfolio of stocks & ETFs, crypto & NFTs, and collectibles.
Raj Ganguly
Co-Founder and Partner of B Capital Group
Raj Ganguly is a Founding Partner of B Capital Group where he focuses on creating exponential growth by bringing together thought leaders, technology and capital. With 18 years of deep industry knowledge, Mr. Ganguly has earned a reputation for building businesses and driving growth. Previously, he co-founded and served as a Managing Partner at Velos Partners, a venture capital firm with offices in Los Angeles, Singapore and London. At Velos, he led numerous venture investments and served on the boards of Surf Air, Silvercar and Pong. Prior to founding Velos, Mr. Ganguly spent six years at Bain Capital investing and driving operational excellence in consumer-focused companies across the U.S. and Asia. Earlier in his career, he was with McKinsey & Company, Diageo plc. and Miradiant, one of the first internet payment startups. Currently, Mr. Ganguly serves as an external consultant (‘Senior Advisor”) to The Boston Consulting Group.
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About B Capital Group: B Capital Group is a venture capital firm that backs global entrepreneurs in the field of information technology.
Yahya Mokhtarzada
Co-Founder & CRO of Truebill
Prior to cofounding Truebill Yahya served as VP of Business Development at Nanigans, an advertising technology platform focused on social and mobile channels. At Nanigans, Yahya executed platform licencing agreements with enterprise advertisers including Ebay, Zappos, EA, Zynga, Amazon and Wayfair. Prior to Nanigans, Yahya held business development roles at SGN and Webs.com. Yahya is also a mentor at 500 Startups and has instructed at the Startup Institute.
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About Truebill: Truebill is a personal finance app that utilizes AI to enable users to manage their personal finances and improve their financial health.
Idris Mokhtarzada
Founder, CTO of Truebill
He is the Founder & CTO at Truebill.
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About Truebill: Truebill is a personal finance app that utilizes AI to enable users to manage their personal finances and improve their financial health.
Geoffrey Arone
Co-Founder & Limited Partner of Arrington XRP Capital
Geoffrey Arone is an established entrepreneur who has focused primarily on the “social web” and “social media” since before they were media buzz terms. Geoffrey is currently a GM & VP of [SafetyWeb](/organization/safetyweb), which was acquired by Experian in May 2011. SafetyWeb is a cloud-based personal security company whose products include SafetyWeb Family and myID. Geoffrey co-founded SafetyWeb in June 2009 and raised ~ $8 million from Battery Ventures and First Round Capital. Prior to SafetyWeb, Geoffrey was the CEO and co-founder of A Large Corporation AKA [DanceJam](/organization/dancejam) with MC Hammer and Flock co-founder Anthony Young. While running DanceJam, Geoffrey raised two rounds of venture capital and sold the company to Grind Networks in 2009. In late 2004, Geoffrey co-founded [Flock](/organization/flock), the first web browser with social network integration, with Bart Decrem and Anthony Young. In all, Flock raised ~ $28 million from Bessemer Venture Partners, Shasta Ventures, & Fidelity Ventures. Nearly 6 years and 14 million downloads later, Flock was acquired by [Zynga](/organization/zynga). Geoffrey has also held Product positions at Real Networks, Informatica and Oracle. Geoffrey holds a Sc.B. in Neural Science from Brown University and his PhD work was also in Neural Science. He earned an MBA from M.I.T.
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About Arrington XRP Capital: Arrington XRP Capital is a digital asset management firm in blockchain-based capital markets.
Brian Matthews
Co-Founder & General Partner of Cultivation Capital
Brian Matthews is a Co-founder and a General Partner at Cultivation Capital. In addition, he is a General Partner and mentor at SixThirty FinTech accelerator, as well as, a founder of River City Internet Group (www.rcig.net). River City Internet Group is an Internet holding company that focuses on software, Internet access, and hosting products. Brian is a serial entrepreneur having co-founded and assisted in the sale of the following technology companies: Primary Network to Mpower Communications (MPWR) in 2000, Primary Webworks to Perficient (PRFT) in 2001, CDM Fantasy Sports to Liberty Media (LCAPA) in 2006, and IntraISP to Clearwire Communications (CLWR) in 2007. Brian continues to focus on investments in early stage companies and sits on the boards of Perficient, LockerDome, NoonLight, S4, SimpleRose, TopOpps, Aisle411, Hatchbuck, Tunespeak, SixThirty, Hostirian, and non-profit boards GlobalHack, Givable, Friends of T-REX.
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About Cultivation Capital, River City Internet Group: Cultivation Capital is a venture capital firm managing funds focused on software, agriculture, geospatial, and health tech startups.
Kyle Welborn
Co-Founder & General Partner of Cultivation Capital
Kyle is a co-founder and General Partner at Cultivation Capital where he focuses on making AgriFood Tech investments through the Yield Lab. He serves as the board chair at NanoGuard Technologies, and a board member at Eiwa Ag and Ascribe Bioscience. He is also a board observer representing the firm’s investments in Notch and Hydrosat. Prior portfolio board service includes Label Insight which was sold to NielsenIQ in 2021. Before joining the AgriFood Tech investment team, Kyle led Cultivation’s operations team. In 2012, he founded an angel investment group in St. Louis called FinServe Tech Angels, which later became a part of the St. Louis Arch Angels. Kyle graduated from Loyola University Chicago where he studied political science.
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About Cultivation Capital, The Yield Lab: Cultivation Capital is a venture capital firm managing funds focused on software, agriculture, geospatial, and health tech startups.
Peter Esparrago
General Partner and Co-Founder of Cultivation Capital
Peter Esparrago co-founded Cultivation Capital. and Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of FinLocker in 2001
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About Cultivation Capital: Cultivation Capital is a venture capital firm managing funds focused on software, agriculture, geospatial, and health tech startups.
Jack Dorsey
Co-Founder & CEO of Square
Jack Dorsey is the Co-Founder & CEO of Twitter Ventures
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About Cash App, Square, Twitter Ventures: Block is a merchant services aggregator and mobile payment company that aims to simplify commerce through technology.
Jojo Flores
Co-Founder & Vice President of Operations of Plug and Play Tech Center
Jojo is currently involved in the overall strategic planning and prioritizing of Plug and Play. Jojo’s immediate focus is on building strategic alliances in the Philippines and other reigns of South East Asia.
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About Launchgarage, Plug & Play, Plug and Play Brand & Retail, Plug and Play Tech Center: Plug and Play is an innovation platform bringing together startups and large corporations.
Wade Bitaraf
Founder and Director of Plug and Play Energy & Sustainability of Plug and Play Tech Center
Wade is the head of Energy & Sustainability practice at Plug and Play, an active early stage investor and global corporate innovation center. Wade holds master degrees in Chemical Engineering and Petroleum and Natural Gas engineering. His mission at Plug and Play is to bring innovation into the energy industry by bridging large corporations to the startup ecosystem. In the past 3 years, Wade has worked closely with the entrepreneurs that are building innovative products and solutions for the electric Utilities and Oil and Gas companies.
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About Plug and Play Tech Center: Plug and Play is an innovation platform bringing together startups and large corporations.
Ron Hose
Founder and CEO of Coins.ph
Ron Hose CEO of Coins.ph, a company that delivers financial services over mobile to people in Southeast Asia. Prior to coins.ph, Ron was the CTO of the video communication service [TokBox](/organization/tokbox). He co-founded the company with Serge Faguet in 2007. Most recently, Ron was a founding partner at Innovation Endeavors, an early stage venture capital fund backed by [Eric Schmidt](/person/eric-schmidt). Ron graduated from Cornell University with a Masters degree in Computer Science.
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About Coins.ph: Coins.ph delivers financial services over mobile to people who are currently unserved by traditional banks.
Matt Humphrey
Co-Founder & CEO of LendingHome
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About LendingHome, Quiet Capital: LendingHome offers fix-and-flip bridge loans and rental loans for real estate investors.
James Herbert
Co-Founder, Board Member of LendingHome
Current: Co-Founder, Board Member of LendingHome; SVP at First Republic Bank. Previous: Founder of Two Bridges Real Estate; Co-Founder and EVP of Colony American Homes; VP at Colony Capital; VP in Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley. BA and MBA from Stanford. Investor in / advisor to seed to Series C companies
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About First Republic Bank, First Republic Bank, LendingHome: LendingHome offers fix-and-flip bridge loans and rental loans for real estate investors.
Blake Murray
Co-Founder and CEO of Divvy
Blake Murray is the founder and CEO of Divvy.He was the owner and CEO of MRC and VP of Business Development at Weave Communications.
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About Divvy: Divvy is a platform that helps businesses manage payments and subscriptions, build strategic budgets, and eliminate expense reports.
Alex Bean
Co-Founder & CBO of Divvy
I’m into Sports, Seattle, Salt Lake, Skiing, and Start-ups. I get to build a cutting edge fin-tech platform that will literally change the way businesses spend their money.
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About Divvy: Divvy is a platform that helps businesses manage payments and subscriptions, build strategic budgets, and eliminate expense reports.
Jed McCaleb
Co-Founder of Stellar Development Foundation
Jed McCaleb, Stellar cofounder, believes in consciously leveraging technology to reduce inefficiency and improve the human condition. He created eDonkey, one of the largest file-sharing networks of its time, as well as Mt. Gox, the first bitcoin exchange. In 2011, Jed founded Ripple. Recognizing that the world’s financial infrastructure is broken and that too many people are left without resources, he cofounded Stellar in 2014. Jed leads technical development of Stellar, a universal financial network that aims to increase economic participation for all individuals. The Stellar network is supported by Stellar.org, a nonprofit that couples technology with digital financial literacy and contributes to open-source software. Jed is also an advisor to MIRI, which researches artificial intelligence for positive impact.
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About Pantera Capital, Stellar Development Foundation: Stellar Development Foundation supports the development and growth of Stellar, a blockchain network that connects financial infrastructure.
Scott Hartley
Co-Founder & Partner of The Fund
Scott Hartley is co-founder of The Fund and Two Culture Capital and author of the best-selling book, “The Fuzzy and the Techie,” a Financial Times Business Book of the Month. A former partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures, Hartley has worked for Google, Facebook, Harvard, and the White House. He holds three degrees from Stanford and Columbia and is a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations.
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About The Fund: A community-driven venture fund comprised of leading global founders & operators
Howard Lindzon
Founder & General Partner of Social Leverage
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About 140Labs, Knight’s Bridge Capital Partners, Marketbright, Social Leverage: Social Leverage is a Venture Capital firm which specializes in early-stage investments in the Software, Consumer, and Fintech industries.
Tom Peterson
Co-Founder & General Partner of Social Leverage
Tom is a General Partner and Co-Founder of Social Leverage. Tom and Howard were recognized by Institutional Investor as one of the “super angels,” where they were depicted as helping to reorganize early-stage investing with disciplined capital, uniform investing rules, and a sense of community that traditional venture capital took notice of. As an angel investor and fund manager for over a decade, Peterson has closed 100+ investments. He manages the day-to-day business of Social Leverage and assists portfolio companies in need with operational and corporate development expertise. He has a strong fiduciary presence with experience as President & COO of NASDAQ ($NTRL) prior to leading the privatization of the company.
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About Social Leverage: Social Leverage is a Venture Capital firm which specializes in early-stage investments in the Software, Consumer, and Fintech industries.
Paul J. Ferri
Founder & Partner Emeritus of Matrix Partners
Paul Ferri is the Founder of Matrix Partners, and one of the most respected investors in the venture capital industry. Like many of the entrepreneurs with whom he has worked over the years, Paul was born in another country and built his legacy from scratch, persevering through adverse conditions and making the best of the opportunity and luck that came his way. Born in Rome, Italy, Paul immigrated to the U.S. at the age of seven. It was 1944, the height of World War II, and neither Paul nor anyone in his family spoke English. His family settled in Virginia where his father worked for the government as an aeronautics engineer. They ultimately moved to the suburbs of New York, where Paul grew up. Paul studied engineering at Cornell University and the Polytechnic Institute of New York, and business at Columbia University. In 1977 Paul and Warren Hellman co-founded Hellman Ferri Investment Associates. The duo initially invested across multiple stages and in multiple sectors, and after five years Paul and Warren decided the best approach would be to develop distinct areas of expertise. Warren started a late stage private equity fund in San Francisco, which became Hellman & Friedman; Paul focused on early stage deals and established Matrix Partners in 1982. Over the next few years, Paul began to direct the firm’s investments toward information technology start-ups. One of the most significant companies Paul supported was Cascade Communications. The company, founded by Desh Deshpande and run by Dan Smith, became an industry leader that spawned new innovations. The company sold to Ascend, which was later bought by Lucent. Cascade’s founders and employees went on to found some of the most significant companies of the era, including ArrowPoint, Sonus Networks and Sycamore Networks—all of which were Matrix portfolio companies. Paul has led more than twenty portfolio companies to the public markets, and another twenty to profitable acquisitions. He continues to invest on behalf of the firm and guide his entrepreneurs through the ups and downs of start-up life on the path to success. Education: Cornell University, B.S. Electrical Engineering Polytechnic Institute of New York, M.S. Electrical Engineering Columbia University, MBA
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About Matrix Partners: Matrix Partners is a venture capital firm that focuses on seed and early-stage investments.
Nicole Stata
Founder and Managing Director of Boston Seed Capital
Ms. Stata is the Founder and Managing Director of Boston Seed Capital, LLC. From 2007 to 2010, Ms. Stata worked as an angel investor, advisor and start-up executive. Ms. Stata founded Deploy Solutions in 1996, an award-winning leading provider of SAAS Human Capital Management. As CEO and President, she led Deploy for eleven years through its sale to Kronos in 2007. Deploy was widely recognized as a national best place to work and was the recipient of Deloitte and Touche’s Fast 50 award in 2006. Before Deploy, Ms. Stata managed the global service center for Restrac (Webhire) and started her career with Lotus Development Corporation. Nicole serves as an advisor and board member for several companies and non-profit organizations.
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About Boston Seed Capital: Boston Seed Capital provides seed stage funding for internet-enabled businesses.
Dileep Thazhmon
Co-Founder & CEO of Jeeves
Dileep Thazhmon is the Co-Founder and CEO at Jeeves.
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About Jeeves: Jeeves is a fintech company that brings financial solutions to businesses globally.
Max Simkoff
Founder & CEO of Doma
Max started States Title in 2016 after personally experiencing the friction and labor caused by title insurance in the homebuying process. Since then he has worked to provide an innovative solution to homeowners, brokers, and mortgage bankers. Max is an entrepreneur with experience founding and operating technology companies. Prior to States Title, Max was Founder and CEO of Evolv, Inc., an enterprise predictive analytics software company, which he led through their acquisition by Cornerstone (NASDAQ: CSOD) in 2014 where he served for two years on the senior executive team post-acquisition as the Vice President of Strategic Initiatives.
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About Doma: Doma is an insurtech platform that uses machine intelligence to remove friction from residential real estate transactions.
Michael Gronager
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Chainalysis
Michael Gronager PhD in Quantum Mechanics, MSc in Chemical Engineering is CEO and Co-Founder of Chainalysis Inc., the leading company in investigation and compliance services for distributed value transfer, with customers from international banks, leading law enforcement agencies and fintech companies. Prior to founding Chainalysis Michael was the COO of Payward Inc., the leading euro to bitcoin exchange where he was in charge of banking relations, overseeing the global engineering team, and crypto currency expert. Before entering the bitcoin scene in 2011 Michael was running international research infrastructure projects, latest as CEO for the Nordic DataGrid Facility at that time the biggest distributed storage installation world wide. Michael has served as member of the research infrastructure EGI Project Management Board, the EGI Technical Collaboration Board and at present he is member of the Board of the Swedish National Supercomputer Center, NSC. Michael is also Co-Founder of Kraken in San Francisco.
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About Chainalysis: Chainalysis provides blockchain data and analysis to governments, banks, and businesses worldwide.
Jonathan Levin
Co-Founder & CSO of Chainalysis
Jonathan Levin is a Co-Founder of Chainalysis, the leading provider of AML solutions to Bitcoin companies, banks and government agencies. He was previously CEO at Coinometrics, where he led a team of data scientists to measure the activity and health of the Bitcoin network. Levin was a Postgraduate Economist at the University of Oxford where his research focused on virtual currencies, creating one of the first statistical models of Bitcoin transaction fees. He regularly consults governments, top-tier banks and payment companies on the future of digital currencies.
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About Chainalysis: Chainalysis provides blockchain data and analysis to governments, banks, and businesses worldwide.
Yuval Ariav
Founder and Advisor of Fundbox
Yuval Ariav is a financial technology and data science entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience operating large, complex, cross-geo operations in both startup and corporate environments. He is currently a General Partner at LionBird Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm investing in digital health and digital business services. Yuval is the Founder of Fundbox, one of the most successful Fintech startups to emerge in recent years, and was the head of its operations office in Tel Aviv. Before Fundbox, Yuval was a founding team member and Director of Product at Onavo, a mobile analytics company acquired by Facebook. Yuval is a Professor at Columbia Business School in New York City.
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About Fundbox: Fundbox is an AI-powered financial platform for small businesses.
Eyal Shinar
Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Fundbox
Founder and Executive Chairman of Fundbox, Eyal is an expert in financial technology, AI and technology management. Prior to Fundbox, Eyal served as VP at Battery Ventures, leading projects and investments in finance, machine learning and SaaS. Notable examples are IDI Direct Insurance, Istra Research, Cortera, cVidya, Leadspace, Champions Oncology, Relay Foods, and Sportority. Prior to his work in Battery Ventures, Eyal was one of the first employees of Old Lane, a $5.5B NYC-based global hedge fund (later acquired by Citigroup) and also worked for Castle Harlan, a leading $6B NYC-based buyout firm. Eyal graduated from the special program for outstanding students at the Hebrew University with an LLB in Law and advanced degree in Finance. He earned his MBA from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Eyal was recently recognized by Goldman Sachs as one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2016 at its Builders + Innovators Summit.
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About Fundbox: Fundbox is an AI-powered financial platform for small businesses.
Michael Chetrit
Co-Founder of Chetrit Ventures
Michael Chetrit is the Co-Founder at Chetrit Ventures.
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About Chetrit Ventures, ChetritGroup: is a family operated venture firm focused on early and growth-stage investments.
William Hsu
Co-Founder & Partner of Mucker Capital
William Hsu is the Co-Founder & Partner at Mucker Capital.
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About Mucker Capital: MuckerLab is a venture capital firm specializing in incubation, pre-seed, seed, startup, early-stage, and Series A investments.
Erik Rannala
Co-Founder & Partner of Mucker Capital
Erik Rannala is the Co-Founder & Partner at Mucker Capital.
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About Mucker Capital: MuckerLab is a venture capital firm specializing in incubation, pre-seed, seed, startup, early-stage, and Series A investments.
Thaddeus Dryja
Founder and Developer of Lightning Network
Thaddeus Dryja is the founder and developer of Lightning Netwok.
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About Lightning Network: Bitcoin Lightning Network is built upon bitcoin’s blockchain technology, making peer to peer micropayment transactions through off-chain.
Aydin Senkut
Founder & Managing Partner of Felicis Ventures
Aydin Senkut is the Founder and Managing Partner of Felicis Ventures. An original super angel turned multi-stage investor, he has been named on the Forbes Midas List for the past seven years (2014-2020) as well as the New York Times Top 20 Venture Capitalists list for the past four years (2016-2019). His recent focus areas include consumerization of enterprise, security, cloud optimization, and longevity. He is well-known as an early backer of a number of iconic companies including Shopify (NYSE:SHOP), Fitbit (NYSE:FIT), Rovio (HEL:ROVIO), Adyen (AMS: ADYEN), Pluralsight (NASDAQ:PS), Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH), Credit Karma (acquired by Intuit), SoundHound & Vicarious. Prior to starting Felicis Ventures, Aydin was a Senior Manager at Google responsible for strategic partner development and account management in Asia Pacific, including Japan. Aydin joined Google in 1999 as its first Product Manager to launch Google’s first 10 international sites, its first online search licensing products, and its first Safe Search. He then became the first International Sales Manager at Google, responsible for worldwide licensing deals. Before joining Google, Aydin was the Product Manager for Data Visualization and Data Mining software MineSet at SGI. He received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with Honors from Boston University. He also earned an MBA in Marketing from the Wharton School and a master’s degree in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. He is an avid pilot, loves playing tennis, and speaks five languages: English, German, French, Portuguese, and Turkish.
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About Felicis Ventures, Guideline, Paravision: Felicis invests in seed through Series C stage companies across multiple sectors, industries, and frontier tech.
Dasha Maggio
Partner & Head of Founder Success of Felicis Ventures
Dasha Maggio is the Partner and Head of Founder Success at Felicis Ventures.
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About Felicis Ventures: Felicis invests in seed through Series C stage companies across multiple sectors, industries, and frontier tech.
Ilya Golubovich
Founder, Managing Partner of I2BF Global Ventures
Ilya has been a partner since the fall of 2005. He is a member of the Board of Directors of JSC Russian Investors, a private equity group with $200 million under management, and Linxlogic, a business software corporation in Los Angeles. Ilya formerly worked in the Energy Department of the London office of Louis Dreyfus in commodity trading and as a project manager at the Siberian Internet Company (Sibintek) at both their Novosibirsk and Moscow offices. Mr. Golubovich has an industrial engineering degree from Stanford University.
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About Aeroxo, Buzzoola, Enki.com, I2BF Global Ventures, Octi, Presto, Primus Power, ServiceTitan: I2BF is a venture capital firm that focuses on early stage technology companies.
Andrew Gazdecki
Founder and CEO of MicroAcquire
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About Altcoin.io, Bizness Apps, MicroAcquire: MicroAcquire is a startup acquisition marketplace that helps startups find buyers and get acquired.
Daniel Friedland
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Goldcrest Capital
Daniel Friedland is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Goldcrest Capital.
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About Goldcrest Capital: Goldcrest is a venture capital fund that invests in private technology companies.
Al Goldstein
Executive Chairman, Founder of Avant
Al is the co-founder and CEO of Avant, an online marketplace lending platform. Avant was named to Forbes America’s Most Promising Companies list for 2015 as well as Forbes Next Billion Dollar Startups list for 2015. Prior to Avant, Al co-founded Pangea Properties, a private REIT invested in distressed and value-add multi-family properties. Al was co-founder, President and CEO of CashNetUSA, now Enova International, from 2004 until 2008. Prior to that, he was part of Deutsche Bank’s Leveraged Finance practice. Al is an active member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and mentors young entrepreneurs.
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About Amount, Avant, Pangea Properties, Spring Labs: Avant is an online lending platform that offers alternatives to its clients with safe financial products.
Assaf Wand
CEO & Co-Founder of Hippo Insurance
Assaf Wand is the CEO & Co-Founder at Hippo Insurance.
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About Hippo Insurance: Hippo Insurance is an InsurTech company that uses technology to help homeowners maintain their properties.
Miriam Rivera
CEO, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Ulu Ventures
Miriam co-founded Ulu Ventures, where she is the Managing Partner. Ulu is an early stage angel fund focused on IT investments and has made 30 investments in the last three years. She is also the co-founder and co-president of Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs.
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About Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs, Ulu Ventures: Ulu Ventures provides early-stage investments to enterprise cloud and smart data companies.
Clint Korver
Co-Founder & Managing Director of Ulu Ventures
Clint is a co-founding partner at Ulu Ventures where his investment interests include technology-enabled services, educational technology, and companies that turn data into actionable information. Along with Miriam, Clint is the co-founder and co-president of Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs a Stanford University alumni organization helping to build and connect Stanford’s entrepreneurial community. Prior to becoming a full-time investor, he co-founded and led four companies including Outcome Software, where he raised $10 million in venture capital to build web-based decision tools for large enterprises and was granted multiple patents in web-based decision analytics. He also co-founded Decision Quality International which trained over 1000 Fortune 500 executives in the principles of decision quality, licensed decision training programs to over 10,000 end users, and consulted to six of the largest financial institutions in the US. He also co-founded and led the consumer internet company, DecisionStreet and the analytics consulting firm, The Decision Company. Clint has a passion for teaching and regularly guest lectures at Stanford on entrepreneurship, decision-making, and ethics. He has taught courses in ethical decision-making at both Stanford and Grinnell College, and co-authored Ethics for the Real World (Harvard Business Press 2008) with Stanford professor Ron Howard. Clint is a Kauffman Fellow and Venture Partner at Crescendo Ventures and an advisory board member at the Decision Education Foundation. He holds a PhD and MS degree from Stanford University in Management Science and Engineering with an emphasis in decision analysis and a BA with honors in mathematics from Grinnell College where he currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees.
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About Ulu Ventures: Ulu Ventures provides early-stage investments to enterprise cloud and smart data companies.
Adolfo Babatz
Co-Founder & CEO of Clip
Adolfo Babatz is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of PayClip Inc., a mobile payments platform for Emerging Markets. The company is based in Redwood City, California and Mexico City. Before Clip, Adolfo was responsible for Customer Engagement for PayPal LatinAmerica. Before moving into the product team Adolfo led the team that opened PayPal in Mexico. Right before PayPal, Adolfo studied his MBA at MIT where he specialized in Entrepreneurship & Economics of Information. Prior to MIT, Adolfo was part of the founding team at The Carlyle Group Mexico where he worked as an Analyst. Before joining Carlyle, Adolfo worked as an Advisor for the Executive VicePresident of GrupoDesc, one of Mexico’s largest industrial conglomerates.
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About Clip: Clip is the leading digital payments and commerce enablement platform in Mexico.
Brandon Krieg
CEO and Co-Founder of Stash Financial
Brandon Krieg is the Co-Founder of Collective Returns, Inc. and has been its Chief Executive Officer since July 11, 2016. Brandon Krieg served as the President of Collective Returns, Inc. until July 11, 2016 and serves as its Executive Director.
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About Stash Financial: Stash is a personal finance app that combines banking, investing, and advice into one platform.
Scott Wolfe
Founder & CEO of Levelset
Scott is a husband, dad, and entrepreneur in New Orleans. Bothered as a lawyer at the unfairness for the little guys, Scott founded zlien to even the $1 trillion construction playing field. He’s on a mission to kill liens, fix slow payment, and eliminate bad outcomes in construction payment. Headquartered in New Orleans, zlien now has more than 90 employees and is used by thousands of contractors and suppliers nationwide to make payments easier on billions in contract value each year. Scott has led zlien through two rounds of venture capital financing, raising over $16 million in outside investment from national venture capital firms like S3 Ventures, Altos Ventures and Brick & Mortar Ventures. Recognized by New Orleans City Business as an “Innovator of the Year” and part of their “Leadership in Law Hall of Fame,” Scott has been on the Silicon Bayou 100 list every year since 2014, is a winner of Idea Village & Jim Coulter’s IDEAPitch, is the ACG’s reigning Emerging Growth Company, and is a Junior Achievement Rising Star. Scott is a graduate of Brother Martin High School, Southern Methodist University (B.A.), and Loyola University New Orleans College of Law (J.D.).
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About Levelset: Levelset is a platform that helps contractors get paid faster and more efficiently.
Howard Katzenberg
Founder & CEO of Glean analytics
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About Glean analytics: Glean unlocks the powerful data detailed in vendor invoices/receipts to surface relevant spend insights and drive spend accountability
Michael Reitblat
CEO & Co-Founder of Forter
Michael is the Co-Founder and CEO of Forter, the leading payment fraud prevention solution. Prior to founding Forter, Michael was the VP Product & International Operations at Pango Parking where he was in charge of the deployment and adoption of Mobile Wallet technologies worldwide. In 2008, before its acquisition by PayPal, Michael led Product at Fraud Sciences, where he faced some of the most challenging questions in the cyber security ecosystem. Michael’s fascination with online fraudsters began following a successful “self experimentation with the Internet” phase as a teenager and an even more successful period of service as an intelligence officer in the early days of the Israeli Cyber Command.
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About Forter: Forter offers a fraud solution that helps retailers grow sales, lower costs, and improve customer experience via its Decision as Service.
Alon Shemesh
Co-Founder & Chief Analyst of Forter
Alon is an experienced Big Data Expert. He leads Forter’s Risk Analysis Division and proprietary know-how. Alon co-founded Forter after leading the integration of Fraud Sciences’ solution for PayPal, after they were acquired in 2008. He served as the head of Automation Analytics, creating a cutting edge,scalable fraud decision-making system for Fraud Sciences and PayPal. Alon received his bachelor’s degree in business and economics from The Open University in Tel Aviv.
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About Forter: Forter offers a fraud solution that helps retailers grow sales, lower costs, and improve customer experience via its Decision as Service.
Liron Damri
President and Co-Founder of Forter
Liron is an experienced Fraud Prevention professional. He heads Forter’s overall Product and Business Operations.Liron co-founded Forter after serving at the leadership of PayPal’s risk organization in Tel Aviv. Prior to that he was the head of operations at Fraud Sciences,where he was responsible for behavioral analytics, taking an active role in building one of the most robust fraud detection systems in the world. Liron received his MBA from Tel Aviv University.
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About Forter: Forter offers a fraud solution that helps retailers grow sales, lower costs, and improve customer experience via its Decision as Service.
Eric Bahn
General Partner & Co-Founder of Hustle Fund
Eric Bahn is a Co-Founder and General Partner at Hustle Fund, an early-stage venture capital firm based in San Francisco. Hustle Fund invests in software startups at the pre-seed and seed stages, backing founders who exhibit great execution and high velocity (aka, hustle). Previous to Hustle Fund, Eric was an angel investor and partner at 500 Startups. And prior to becoming a professional investor, he spent over a decade as an operator (Facebook, Instagram) and entrepreneur (Beat The GMAT, The Hustle). Eric draws from his product and growth experience to advise his founders in scaling their own enterprises. Eric is a native of Detroit, Michigan and first arrived to Silicon Valley to attend Stanford University (BA, MA), which launched his career into software and startups. Eric is happily married with two kids.
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About Hustle Con, Hustle Fund: Hustle Fund is a seed fund that seeks to invest in early-stage startups.
Elizabeth Yin
Co-Founder & General Partner of Hustle Fund
Elizabeth Yin is co-founder and CEO of LaunchBit. She frequently speaks at conferences and events and has previously spoken at Women 2.0 partner events, Web 2.0, Lean Startup events, TechStars, MIT, Stanford, Yale, and Babson among others. Prior to LaunchBit, she built profitable niche websites and previously worked as a product marketing manager at Google. She holds a BS in electrical engineering from Stanford and an MBA from MIT Sloan.
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About Hustle Fund: Hustle Fund is a seed fund that seeks to invest in early-stage startups.
Cathy Han
Founder and CEO of Levro
Cathy Han is Founder & CEO of 42 Technologies. She also the founder and CEO at Levro.
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About Levro: Levro is a financial technology company.
Kevin Gosschalk
Founder & CEO of Arkose Labs
Kevin Gosschalk is the founder of Arkose Labs.
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About Arkose Labs, Forbes Technology Council: Arkose Labs provides fraud prevention, anti-spam, and abuse analysis for businesses, companies, and industries.
Jessica McKellar
Founder and CTO of Pilot
Jessica McKellar is a founder and the CTO of Pilot, a bookkeeping firm powered by software. Previously, she was a founder and the VP of Engineering for a real-time collaboration startup acquired by Dropbox, where she then served as a Director of Engineering. Before that, she was a computer nerd at MIT who joined her friends at Ksplice, a company building a service for rebootless kernel updates on Linux that was acquired by Oracle. Jessica is also a former Director for the Python Software Foundation and PyCon North America’s Diversity Outreach Chair. For her outreach efforts in the Python community, she was awarded the O’Reilly Open Source Award in 2013.
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About Pilot: Pilot is a platform that offers bookkeeping, tax, and CFO services for growing businesses.
Waseem Daher
Founder & CEO of Pilot
Waseem Daher is a Founder and CEO at Pilot.
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About Pilot: Pilot is a platform that offers bookkeeping, tax, and CFO services for growing businesses.
Jeff Arnold
COO & Founder of Pilot
Jeff Arnold is a Past Founder & CEO at Ksplice.
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About Pilot: Pilot is a platform that offers bookkeeping, tax, and CFO services for growing businesses.
Tammy Camp
Founder & CEO of Stronghold
Tammy is the CEO of Stronghold, an API platform that creates virtual payment networks that enable instant settlement and interoperability between legacy and new payment networks. Tammy served as the first Head of Growth at Stellar, helping the network grow to 4 million users in its first two months. A former partner at accelerator 500 Startups, she invested in portfolio companies and ran the growth and marketing curriculum for its flagship Silicon Valley location. She is a graduate of Singularity University’s GSP11 in Exponential Technologies at NASA Ames where she first learned about Bitcoin from legendary cryptographer Ralph Merkle.
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About Action Factory, Stronghold: Stronghold creates virtual payment networks that give developers access legacy and next-generation payment networks through a simple API.
Deepak Rao
Co-Founder and CEO of X1 Card
Deepak Rao is a Co-Founder and CEO at X1 Card. He was the Group Product Manager at Twitter before that.
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About ThriveCash, X1 Card: The smartest credit card ever made.
Siddharth Batra
Co-Founder of X1 Card
Siddharth Batra is a Co-Founder at X1 Card. He was Twitter’s Director of Engineering before that.
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About ThriveCash, X1 Card: The smartest credit card ever made.
Kenneth Lin
Founder and CEO of Credit Karma
Kenneth started Credit Karma in 2007 to offer free credit scores and bring transparency and simplicity to the credit industry – an industry that was built around and had long prioritized banks above consumers. He has guided the company from a small team of three to a team of several hundred employees who are disrupting consumer finance, serving millions of people. Kenneth spent his early career working with mission-driven businesses like Upromise and Eloan, and he was inspired to build Credit Karma – a platform where consumers can manage their full financial lives with more certainty, supported by a unique business model that creates genuine, organic value by reducing marketing inefficiency for banks and empowering consumers with information. Like LinkedIn has done for professional identity and Facebook for social lives, Kenneth’s vision is that one day Credit Karma can create a simple way for Americans to manage their financial identities. Kenneth also founded Multilytics Marketing in 2006 and has a B.A. in mathematics and economics from Boston University.
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About Credit Karma: Credit Karma offers a range of tools and personalized recommendations designed to help customers make the most of their money.
Prince Boakye Boampong
Founder of Dash
Prince Boakye Boampong is the Founder and CEO of Dash.
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About Dash: Dash builds an alternative payment app where users can send, spend, and receive money, pay for goods and services, save, and invest.
Asya Bradley
Founder & COO of First Boulevard
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About First Boulevard: First Boulevard is a fintech startup that aims to address the generational wealth gap for Black Americans.
Donald Hawkins
Founder & CEO of First Boulevard
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About First Boulevard: First Boulevard is a fintech startup that aims to address the generational wealth gap for Black Americans.
David Tisch
Founder & Managing Partner of BoxGroup
David Tisch is the Managing Partner of BoxGroup, a New York City-based early stage investment fund. BoxGroup is an investor in over 200 seed-stage companies, including Vine, Blue Apron, Sunrise, Warby Parker, Harry’s, Oscar, Behance, Handy and more. David is also the co-founder and Chairman of Spring, a mobile marketplace where customers shop directly within the app from a curated community of brands. Spring was named by Apple as one of the Best Apps of 2014. In 2014, David was named Head of Startup Studio at Cornell Tech, the University’s New York City-based graduate campus focused on digital technologies and the information economy. He is also Entrepreneur in Residence for Wharton’s Entrepreneurship Program. David is the co-founder of TechStars NYC and has served on numerous boards, including Mayor Bloomberg’s Advisory Council on Technology, the Investor Board of Venture for America, and the Entrepreneurship board at NYU. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and New York University School of Law, and currently lives in New York City
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About BoxGroup, Cornell Tech, Techstars: BoxGroup is an early-stage investment fund that invests in technology companies.
Amir Goldman
Founder / Investor of Susquehanna Growth Equity
Amir founded Susquehanna Growth Equity in 2006 with the owners of SIG. He focuses on investments in software and financial technology, and currently serves on the boards of B-Stock, iCIMS, PaySimple, Payoneer and Zyme. He previously served on the boards of CashEdge (acquired by Fiserv), Plimus (acquired by Bluesnap Technologies), ESP Technologies (acquired by ITG), Kashya (acquired by EMC), and Prosight (acquired by Primavera/Oracle) and was involved in investments in ClariFI (Standard & Poor’s), Whale Communications (Microsoft), Paradigm Geophysical (NASDAQ, then acquired by Apax) and Crossworlds (NASDAQ, then acquired by IBM). He was previously a venture capitalist at TL Ventures and BRM Capital, and was also an investment banker at Robertson Stephens. Amir grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico and attended La Cueva High School. Although he doesn’t watch Breaking Bad, he is fairly certain that Walter White is modeled after his 7th grade physics teacher. In high school, Amir made a valiant attempt to be a wrestler, but moved on after a 4-4 season (three of his wins by forfeit). Instead, he became a coder in Assembler Language, Pascal and Basic, and was particularly adept on the Apple III computing platform. When Apple discontinued its then most disastrous commercial product line, he gave up his programming aspirations and took up the study of finance. He is the proud father of five charming and bright boys. Yes, his wife is a saint. Although five boys naturally suggests a basketball team, their athletic abilities have led them to favor the Reading Olympics. Amir received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. He taught entrepreneurial management to second year MBA candidates at the Wharton School from 2005-2010 and is a frequent guest lecturer at the school.
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About Susquehanna Growth Equity, Susquehanna Private Capital: Susquehanna Growth Equity invests in growth stage technology companies in the software, information services, and internet.
Yves Sisteron
Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Upfront Ventures
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About Upfront Ventures: Upfront Ventures is the venture capital firm focusing on early-stage technology companies.
Jeffrey Byun
CEO, Co-Founder of BLADE
Jeffrey Byun is the CEO of BLADE – a new cryptocurrency derivatives exchange. Previously, he was the CEO of OrderAhead – a mobile ordering/payments startup that was acquired by Square. Prior to that, Jeffrey was a fixed income trader at Morgan Stanley and BofA Merrill Lynch. Jeffrey is a graduate of MIT and Penn.
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About BLADE: BLADE is a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange
Valery Vavilov
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Bitfury Group
Seasoned entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in information technology and business management. Original founding member of BitFury. Assumed the role of BitFury CEO in 2011. Prior to that, held numerous technology and business leadership positions. MS in Computer Science, Riga Transport & Telecommunication University.
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About Bitfury Group: Bitfury is the leading full service bitcoin and blockchain technology company.
Valery Nebesny
Founder and CTO of Bitfury Group
Founder and CTO of BitFury Group.
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About Bitfury Group: Bitfury is the leading full service bitcoin and blockchain technology company.
Jon Lerner
Co-Founder and CEO of CoinTracker
Co-Founder and CEO of CoinTracker.
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About CoinTracker: CoinTracker is a portfolio and tax manager for cryptocurrency that enables seamless cryptocurrency portfolio tracking and tax compliance.
Chandan Lodha
Co-Founder of CoinTracker
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About CoinTracker: CoinTracker is a portfolio and tax manager for cryptocurrency that enables seamless cryptocurrency portfolio tracking and tax compliance.
Roger Lee
Co-Founder of Human Interest
Roger Lee is the co-founder/CEO of Human Interest, a modern, paperless 401(k) provider with automated investment advice built in. Businesses of any size can set up a 401(k) plan entirely online in a matter of minutes, and ongoing administration is completely automated. Previously, Roger was the co-founder/president of Thunder, a startup that automates and scales online advertising across devices, formats, and volume. Thunder works with over 100 media companies and agencies and has been used to design over 100,000 ads to date. The company was named one of the Forbes’ 100 Most Promising Companies in America and was described as “An Ad Engine to Put Mad Men Out of Business” by the New York Times.
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About Human Interest: Human Interest helps employees of small and medium-sized businesses save for retirement.
Jeffrey S. Skoll
Founder of Capricorn Investment Group
Jeff Skoll is a philanthropist and social entrepreneur, working to bring life to his vision of a sustainable world of peace and prosperity. As the first full-time employee and President of eBay, Jeff developed the company’s inaugural business plan and helped lead its successful initial public offering and the creation of the eBay Foundation. Over the last 15 years, Jeff has created an innovative portfolio of philanthropic and commercial enterprises, each a distinctive social catalyst. Together, these organizations galvanize public will and mobilize critical resources to accelerate large-scale social impact. His approach is unique: driving social impact by investing in a range of efforts that integrate powerful stories and data with entrepreneurial approaches. The Jeff Skoll Group supports his organizations, which include the Skoll Foundation, the Capricorn Investment Group, Participant Media and the Skoll Global Threats Fund. Jeff created the Skoll Foundation in 1999 to pursue his vision of a more peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. The Foundation drives large-scale change by investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs and the innovators who help them solve the world’s most pressing problems. Capricorn Investment Group was created in 2000 to demonstrate that it is possible to invest profitably while driving sustainable, positive change. Capricorn manages the assets for Jeff Skoll, the Skoll Foundation and others who strive for extraordinary investment results by leveraging market forces to accelerate impact. Jeff founded Participant Media in 2004 with the belief that a story well told has the power to inspire and accelerate social change. Participant’s 50+ films to date have collectively received a total of 7 Academy Awards® and 35 nominations, and include The Help, Contagion, Good Night, and Good Luck, Syriana, An Inconvenient Truth, Waiting for “Superman”, and Food, Inc. In 2008, Participant launched its digital hub TakePart.com, a leading source of socially relevant news, opinion and entertainment. In August 2013, Participant expanded into television with its new network, Pivot, targeting the millennial audience, available to 45 million U.S. households. For each of its films and TV shows, Participant creates a unique social action campaign designed to give audiences specific actions they can take on the issue illuminated in the project. He founded the Skoll Global Threats Fund in 2009, whose initial focus is on five global issues that, if unchecked, could bring the world to its knees: climate change, water security, pandemics, nuclear proliferation and Middle East conflict. Jeff holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2012. Jeff’s other recent honors include a career tribute at the Gotham Independent Film Awards (2012) and the John W. Gardner Leadership Award (2012).
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About Capricorn Investment Group, Jeff Skoll Group, Participant Media, Skoll Foundation: Capricorn Investment Group invests in the public equity, fixed income, private equity, and real assets markets.
Ion Yadigaroglu
Co-Founder & Managing Principal of Direct Investments of Capricorn Investment Group
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About Capricorn Investment Group: Capricorn Investment Group invests in the public equity, fixed income, private equity, and real assets markets.
Sam Strasser
Founder of Treasure Financial
Sam Strasser is the CEO and founder of Treasure Financial.
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About Treasure Financial: Using automation and machine learning to help companies identify, manage and monetize their idle cash
J. Todd Morley
Co-Founder of Y2X
Prior to founding Y2x and DIATOMS, J. Todd Morley co-founded investment firm Guggenheim Partners LLC, which now has over $310 billion in assets under management. Todd also co-founded G2 Investment Group and i(X) Investments, the first investment platform dedicated to social impact. Previously, Todd was CEO of Links Holdings LLC, founded Mortgages PLC, a London-based sub-prime mortgage lender, managing Director in mortgage sales at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, and Vice President in Lehman Brothers’ Taxable Fixed-Income Department. Todd is a lead investor and sits on the Advisory Board of a variety of e-commerce, blockchain, AI, infrastructure, biotech and media companies. He is a Board member and architect of Delaware Life, Rising Holdings, Forbes Private Capital Group, and the Newport Development Company, an organization focused in resilient infrastructure. He is also the author of several Op-Ed articles and academic white papers focused on structured finance, technology and “Peopleism,” and is publishing his first book, to be released in 2019, based on his new theory of financial return.
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About Y2X: Bridging the gap between the emerging digital economy and the regulated global financial markets.
Bill Elmore
General Partner and Founder of Foundation Capital
With a combinationof venture and operating experience that cultivated a deep understanding about the challenges an organization faces on a daily basis, Bill founded Foundation Capital in 1995 with the purpose of helping entrepreneurs build strong organizations from the ground up. He has always operated on the belief that substantial, sustainable companies are the result of matching insight—whether about technology or market opportunity—with the right entrepreneurand management team. Prior to Foundation, Bill spent eight years as a General Partner at Inman & Bowman. Previous roles include president of Visual Engineering, as well as a variety of marketing management positions, at Hewlett-Packard. As former director and past presidentof the Western Association for Venture Capitalists, and past director of the National Venture Capital Association, Bill continues to be actively involved in defining, serving, and representing the interests of the venture capital and private equity industries. Equally passionate about his philanthropy work, Bill serves on the Advisory Council at Stanford Business School and is a board member of the Eastside College Preparatory School. Bill currently sits on the board ofdirectors of Biz360, CloudShield, Helpstream, Quartics, SpringCM, TeaLeaf Technology, Venafi, and XMOS Semiconductor, and was previously on the boards of Atheros Communications and WindRiver Systems. Bill holds a BSEEand MSEE from Purdue University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
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About Foundation Capital: Foundation Capital is a venture capital firm made up of former entrepreneurs and helps companies and businesses grow.
David J. La Placa
Chief Executive Officer & Founder of Intellectus Partners, LLC
David J. La Placa is the Chief Executive Officer | Founder at Intellectus Partners, LLC.
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About Forbes San Francisco Business Council, HintBox.ai, Intellectus Partners, LLC, Orbital Insight: Intellectus is an exclusive, private MFO for Entrepreneurs offering Wealth Creation&Preservation,Investment Mgmt, Venture & startup Advisory
Jay Casey
President & Co-Founder of Intellectus Partners, LLC
Experienced investor and financial professional working in various roles; including Venture & Private Equity investing, Portfolio Management, Trading, and Client Relationship Management. Experienced investor in Fixed Income, Equities, Commodities, Hedge Funds, Private Equity, and Private companies. Previous experience with First Union, Manulife Financial, Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown, and currently Intellectus Partners.
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About Intellectus Partners, LLC: Intellectus is an exclusive, private MFO for Entrepreneurs offering Wealth Creation&Preservation,Investment Mgmt, Venture & startup Advisory
Rafay Farooqui
Founder & CEO of +SUBSCRIBE®
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About +SUBSCRIBE®: Powering alternative investments® with the leading electronic subscription document technology.
Chase Gilbert
Co-Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer of Built Technologies
Chase Gilbert is the CEO at Built Technologies, Inc.
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About Built Technologies: Built Technologies is an enterprise technology company that provides cloud-based construction lending software.
Andrew Sohr
Co-Founder – Director of Enterprise Accounts of Built Technologies
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About Built Technologies: Built Technologies is an enterprise technology company that provides cloud-based construction lending software.
