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 California based CEO’ operating in the Financial Services space. If you think a CEO’ 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.
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).
Follow Doug Ludlow:
About MainStreet: MainStreet is a financial platform that helps startups and small businesses discover and claim tax credits and government incentives.
_______
Immad Akhund
CEO & Founder of Mercury Technologies
Immad Akhund is the CEO and Founder of Mercury.
Follow Immad Akhund:
About Mercury Technologies: Mercury is the banking stack for startups.* FDIC-insured accounts, debit cards, currency exchange, APIs, 3rd party integrations & more.
Zachary Perret
CEO of Plaid
Zachary Perret is a Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Plaid.
Follow Zachary Perret:
About Plaid: Plaid provides companies with the tools and access needed for the development of a digitally-enabled financial system.
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.
Follow Max Levchin:
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.
Sergey Nazarov
Co-Founder and CEO of SmartContract
Sergey Nazarov began his career building peer-to-peer marketplaces, going on to the investment team at FirstMark Capital. He joined the cryptocurrency revolution in 2011, and believes it has the ability to change the way societies distribute wealth, enforce contracts, and share critical information with their citizens.
Follow Sergey Nazarov:
About Bring Me That, Chainlink, SmartContract: Smart Contracts verify an execute themselves by monitoring external data sources.
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.
Follow Eric Ries:
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.
George R Roberts
Co-Chairman and Co-CEO of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
George R. Roberts (Menlo Park) co-founded KKR in 1976 and is Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer. He is actively involved in managing the Firm and serves on regional Private Equity Investment and Portfolio Management Committees. Mr. Roberts has served as a director or trustee of several cultural and educational institutions, including Claremont McKenna College. He is also founder and Chairman of the board of directors of REDF, a San Francisco nonprofit organization. He earned a B.A. from Claremont McKenna College in 1966 and a J.D. from the University of California (Hastings) Law School in 1969. Mr. Roberts has more than four decades of experience financing, analyzing, and investing in public and private companies, as well as serving on the boards of a number of KKR portfolio companies.
Follow George R Roberts:
About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, REDF: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Timi Ajiboye
CEO & CTO of Buycoins
Follow Timi Ajiboye:
About Buycoins: Buycoins is a cryptocurrency exchange that allows Africans buy and sell cryptocurrencies instantly using their local currency.
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.
Follow Ron Hose:
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
Follow Matt Humphrey:
About LendingHome, Quiet Capital: LendingHome offers fix-and-flip bridge loans and rental loans for real estate investors.
Tim Chen
Founder and CEO of NerdWallet
Tim Chen is the founder and CEO of NerdWallet. A former hedge fund equity analyst specializing in payment processing companies, credit card networks, and technology companies, Tim also worked as an equity research analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston. He is a graduate of Stanford University with a degree in economics. In addition to writing for NerdWallet, Tim regularly contributes to several major personal finance publications.
Follow Tim Chen:
About NerdWallet: NerdWallet develops a financial platform to help people find the right credit cards and mortgage rates.
Prashant Fuloria
Chief Executive Officer of Fundbox
A seasoned internet technology executive, Prashant was most recently SVP of Advertising Products at Yahoo, joining the Yahoo team through their acquisition of Flurry, where he was the Chief Product Officer. Prior to Yahoo, Prashant was Senior Director of Product Management at Facebook and Product Director at Google. Prashant received a B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. He also holds an MA in Business research; an MS in Statistics; a PhD minor in Engineering Economic Systems & Operations Research; and a PhD in Business, all from Stanford University.
Follow Prashant Fuloria:
About Fundbox: Fundbox is an AI-powered financial platform for small businesses.
David Krane
CEO & Managing Partner of GV
David is the CEO & Managing Partner at GV and oversees the fund’s global activities. He invests in a wide range of technology companies including Uber, Nest, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Urban Engines. David’s Google career began more than 17 years ago, as director of Global Communications and Public Affairs. In this role, David oversaw the company’s strategic communications programs worldwide, and worked as a member of the senior leadership team to grow Google from a small startup to a multi-billion dollar global enterprise. David’s prior professional experience spanned both startup and public companies, including Apple Computer, QUALCOMM, Four11 (now Yahoo! Mail), and two computer security software developers. David is also on the board of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. (MGM), a member of Young President’s Organization (YPO), a trustee of San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum of Art, and a Menlo/Atherton Little League baseball coach. David received his Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Indiana University Bloomington. As a proud Hoosier alumnus, he serves on the Dean’s advisory board for the IU School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering. David resides in the Bay Area with his wife, three children, and their labradoodle.
Follow David Krane:
About Google, GV: GV provides venture capital funding to bold new companies.
Patrick Bet-David
Founder & CEO of PHP Agency
Follow Patrick Bet-David:
About PHP Agency: PHP Agency is a national, financial services company that offers clients personally suitable life insurance and annuity products.
Assaf Wand
CEO & Co-Founder of Hippo Insurance
Assaf Wand is the CEO & Co-Founder at Hippo Insurance.
Follow Assaf Wand:
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.
Follow Miriam Rivera:
About Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs, Ulu Ventures: Ulu Ventures provides early-stage investments to enterprise cloud and smart data companies.
Adena Hefets
Co-founder & CEO of Divvy
Adena is the Cofounder & COO, of Divvy Homes, a fractional homeownership platform with the mission of giving access to homeownership to everyone. Prior to founding Divvy Homes, Adena invested in early stage companies at DFJ, where she led their fintech investing practice. Adena started her career as an operator, being one of the early Product Managers at Square, where she helped build and grow Square Capital, a merchant cash advance platform with over $2.5B in loans outstanding. Before becoming a Product Manager, she was part of the Strategy & Finance team at Square which focused on corporate planning. Prior to joining Square, Adena was part of the large-cap buyout team at TPG, a private equity firm, where she helped diligence and purchase companies in the real estate sector. Adena started her career as an investment banker in the Technology, Media, and Telecom group at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Adena holds a BS in policy analysis and management from Cornell University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Follow Adena Hefets:
About Divvy: Divvy Homes is a tech-enabled real estate platform that facilitates rent-to-own home purchases.
Eric Poirier
CEO of Addepar
As Addepar’s CEO, Eric continues his career trajectory of solving intractable data and scale challenges in the financial sector with innovative technology. Prior to joining Addepar, Eric spent nearly 7 years at Palantir Technologies, a multi-billion dollar software company that allows organizations to make sense of large, disparate datasets. He joined the company in 2006 as one of its first 20 employees, and continually shaped the core technology there while building the finance business, which now represents half of the company’s revenue base. Before Palantir, Eric worked in Lehman Brothers’ Fixed Income Analytics group where he focused on modeling, simulating and visualizing data across a broad range of debt and credit instruments. It was here that Eric first became passionate about solving the industry’s massive data integration challenges by re-imagining large-scale technology and infrastructure solutions. Eric co-founded his first technology business when he was 15, scaling mission-critical websites with high performance requirements, winning eBay, Priceline and Novartis as customers. Eric graduated from Columbia University with a B.S. in Computer Science.
Follow Eric Poirier:
About Addepar: Addepar is a wealth management platform that provides tools for data analytics and portfolio visuals.
Cathy Han
Founder and CEO of Levro
Cathy Han is Founder & CEO of 42 Technologies. She also the founder and CEO at Levro.
Follow Cathy Han:
About Levro: Levro is a financial technology company.
Waseem Daher
Founder & CEO of Pilot
Waseem Daher is a Founder and CEO at Pilot.
Follow Waseem Daher:
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.
Follow Tammy Camp:
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.
Follow Deepak Rao:
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.
Follow Kenneth Lin:
About Credit Karma: Credit Karma offers a range of tools and personalized recommendations designed to help customers make the most of their money.
Denis Barrier
Co-founder and CEO of Cathay Innovation
Denis is co-founder and CEO of Cathay Innovation. He is also a Managing Partner of Cathay Capital Private Equity. Prior to Cathay, he was at Iris Capital where he managed the international activities of the Orange/Publicis fund. He has also been the Head of Corporate Venture at Orange Telecom, and a Managing Director at Innovacom. He has also worked as an Officer at the French Treasury Department, in charge of all the Sovereign holdings in Aerospace, Defense, and Media companies. Denis has a deep technical background and started as a Researcher in the laboratories of Orange Telecom, working mainly on semiconductor quantum dots. He holds a Ph.D. in solid state Physics, is a graduate of Ecole Normale Supérieure, and is an engineer of Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications. He has also been a Member of the French Council for Entrepreneurship and of Corps des Mines.
Follow Denis Barrier:
About Cathay Innovation: Cathay Innovation is a global multi-stage venture capital firm investing in startups impacting the world.
Michael Jones
Co-Founder, CEO & Managing Director of Science
Mike Jones is an internet executive, investor, and strategic advisor. A long-time entrepreneur, Mike founded his first successful company in college and since then has founded, built, and sold numerous online and mobile businesses. As the co-founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based Science, Inc., Mike brings together the best talent, resources, and financing through a centralized platform to build and invest in technology businesses. In 2016 alone, three of Science’s portfolio companies saw big exits — HelloSociety was acquired by The New York Times, Dollar Shave Club was acquired by Unilever, and FameBit was acquired by Google. His experience and expertise in both large and small companies focuses on strategy, growth, and operational efficiency, resulting in over $2.6B in successful investor outcomes. Prior to Science, Mike Jones served as the CEO of Myspace. In this role, Mike oversaw global business strategy and operations for Myspace, Myspace Music, and Myspace Mobile, which included board and strategic roles with joint venture partners in Myspace China and Myspace Japan / Softbank. During his tenure, he was responsible for the relaunch of Myspace, one of the most high-profile turn-around challenges in the industry
Follow Michael Jones:
About Science: Science partners with founders to develop and fund disruptive tech-based companies.
Jilliene Helman
CEO of RealtyMogul
Jilliene Helman is the CEO and Founder of RealtyMogul.com. She is a Certified Wealth Strategist and holds Series 7, 24 and 63 investment licenses. Previously, Jilliene was a Vice President at Union Bank, a subsidiary of one of the largest financial institutions in the world, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ. After exposure to corporate finance, marketing, and strategy, the majority of Jilliene’s time with Union Bank was spent working in Wealth Markets as the Sales Development Manager for The Private Bank. Jilliene led a team of Sales Development Specialists and coordinated sales efforts between the broker-dealer, registered investment advisor, lenders, trust advisors, and wealth planners and worked on investment accounts up to $300 million. Jilliene has underwritten over $5 billion of real estate ranging from retail, multifamily, office, residential, mobile home parks, and self-storage. She holds a degree in Business Administration from Georgetown University. She has been featured in countless publications including Forbes, Entrepreneur, NYT, and Bloomberg, and is a frequent speaker on the subjects of crowdfunding, real estate finance, and entrepreneurship.
Follow Jilliene Helman:
About RealtyMogul: RealtyMogul is a marketplace for real estate investing, connecting borrowers, and sponsors to individual and institutional investors.
Jon Lerner
Co-Founder and CEO of CoinTracker
Co-Founder and CEO of CoinTracker.
Follow Jon Lerner:
About CoinTracker: CoinTracker is a portfolio and tax manager for cryptocurrency that enables seamless cryptocurrency portfolio tracking and tax compliance.
Adrian Sanders
Chief Executive Officer of Chargehound
Adrian works on Backspaces.
Follow Adrian Sanders:
About Chargehound: Chargehound is a comprehensive chargeback solution that makes handling disputes easy.
Jeff Schneble
CEO of Human Interest
Jeff Schneble is a Partner at Wing. He has worked with multiple entrepreneurs and teams to build successful technology companies. These companies include GoDaddy, Mercury Payment Systems, Vantage Data Centers, and Fathom. Jeff was an operating executive at Silver Lake Partners from 2011-2015. Prior to joining Silver Lake Partners, Jeff founded multiple seed-stage companies. Jeff also worked as a technology consultant, focused on mobile and semiconductors. Jeff holds a BS in Physics from the University of Washington, a PhD in Semiconductor Physics from the University of Cambridge, and an MBA from Harvard University. Jeff’s PhD thesis was on quantum computation using electrons as quantum bits. Jeff has published nine academic papers, and has contributed to four books.
Follow Jeff Schneble:
About Human Interest: Human Interest helps employees of small and medium-sized businesses save for retirement.
David Vivero
Co-Founder & CEO of Amino
David Vivero is co-founder and CEO at Amino, guiding the vision and direction of the company and its personalized, consumer-centric, and data-driven approach to health care. Previously, David was VP of Rentals at Zillow, responsible for the world’s largest online rental marketplace. He arrived at Zillow after the company acquired RentJuice, which he cofounded in 2008. David is also a General Partner at Red Swan Ventures, a seed investment fund that has supported Warby Parker, Birchbox, AltSchool, and dozens of other high growth companies. A Forbes “30 under 30” entrepreneur, David has a BA and MBA from Harvard University.
Follow David Vivero:
About Amino, Red Swan Ventures: Amino is an all-in-one healthcare financial wellness platform for employees.
Alan Lane
CEO of Silvergate Bank
Alan J. Lane joined Silvergate Bank in December 2008 as director and chief executive officer. He is also director, president and chief executive officer of the Bank’s holding company, Silvergate Capital Corporation. With over thirty years of corporate and financial institution leadership experience, he formerly held the positions of director, president and chief operating officer of Southwest Community Bancorp; vice-chairman and chief executive officer of Financial Data Solutions, Inc.; and president and chief executive officer of Business Bank of California, a commercial bank with fifteen branches in northern and southern California. In addition to his financial institution experience, Mr. Lane has served as president/CEO or chief financial officer of both manufacturing and retail companies, ranging in size from $10 million to $50 million in annual revenues. Mr. Lane serves on the board of directors of Natural Alternatives International, Inc. He earned his BA in Economics from San Diego State University.
Follow Alan Lane:
About Silvergate Bank: Silvergate is the leading provider of innovative financial services to the digital currency industry.
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.
Follow David J. La Placa:
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
Michael Cagney
Co-Founder & CEO of Figure
As the CEO, Chairman and co-founder of SoFi, Mike Cagney leads corporate strategy and development at SoFi—bringing decades of experience in the financial industry to his leadership of the company. He’s held a Senior Vice President role at Wells Fargo, where he was head trader for the proprietary trading and financial products group. Mike is also co-founder and a managing member of Cabezon Investment Group, a global macro hedge fund, in addition to serving as a non-executive Chairman of ReFlow. Before Cabezon, Mike founded, was CEO and then Vice Chairman and Chief Architect, of Finaplex, a leader in wealth management software that was sold to Broadridge (NYSE: BR). While overseeing SoFi’s overall direction, Mike makes a daily point to interact with SoFi’s member base, now more than 260,000 members. In addition to reading and responding to member feedback, he hosts SoFi member dinners at his San Francisco home to better know our customers and understand their financial goals. Mike holds an M.S., Management degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was a Sloan Fellow. He also holds a MS in applied economics from UC Santa Cruz.
Follow Michael Cagney:
About Figure, Provenance Blockchain: Figure is a financial services company leveraging blockchain technology.
Fujimoto Shigeo
CEO of Synapse
Fujimoto Shigeo is the CEO at Synapse.
Follow Fujimoto Shigeo:
About Synapse: Synapse is a banking platform that enables companies to provide financial products to their customers.
Parul Gujral
Founder and CEO of Snowball Money
Parul Gujral is the founder and CEO of Snowball Money.
Follow Parul Gujral:
About Snowball Money: Snowball Money operates as a crypto investment automation platform that provides access to professionally curated portfolios.
Armaan Ali
Co-Founder & CEO of Human Capital
Follow Armaan Ali:
About Human Capital: Human Capital is a venture firm for engineers.
Dennis J. Gilmore
CEO of First American
Dennis J. Gilmore is chief executive officer of First American Financial Corporation and also serves as president of the company’s largest subsidiary, First American Title Insurance Company. Prior to the company’s spin-off from The First American Corporation, Gilmore served as chief operating officer for that company and was responsible for helping to establish the course of its operating and technology initiatives and managing its offshore operations. Following the announcement of First American’s planned spin-off in January of 2008, his duties shifted to focus on running the company’s Financial Services businesses, and he was named to his current position as chief executive officer of the resulting entity upon completion of the spin-off in June 2010. After beginning his career in the lending industry in 1985, Gilmore joined TRTS Data Services in 1988. First American acquired that company in 1991 and Gilmore was named vice president and area manager, and was then promoted to regional vice president two years later. In 1993, he moved to First American’s title division to pioneer the Lenders Advantage program, the company’s entry into centralized title and closing services. After his promotion to regional vice president and national director in 1996, Gilmore coordinated the expansion of the Lenders Advantage concept throughout the United States to create a uniform, nationwide title and escrow product. When First American and Experian joined forces in 1998, Gilmore became the first president of the resulting joint venture, First American Real Estate Solutions LLC. Gilmore, who holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from San Diego State University and a master’s degree in business administration from Loyola Marymount University, currently serves on the advisory board of San Diego State University’s College of Business Administration. He also is a member of the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Residential Board of Governors, which is responsible for establishing legislative and regulatory policies and positions on single-family residential lending issues.
Follow Dennis J. Gilmore:
About First American: First American provides financial services through its Title Insurance and Services segment and its Specialty Insurance segment.
Emily Kirsch
Founder, Managing Partner & CEO of Powerhouse Ventures
Follow Emily Kirsch:
About Powerhouse, Powerhouse Ventures: Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems.
Nino Marakovic
CEO & Partner of Sapphire
Nino Marakovic serves as an CEO & Partner at Sapphire Ventures.
Follow Nino Marakovic:
About Sapphire: Sapphire is a venture capital firm that partners with visionary teams and venture funds to build companies.
Ken Moelis
Chairman & CEO of Moelis & Company
Ken Moelis is Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Moelis & Company, a global independent investment bank that provides innovative strategic advice and solutions to a diverse client base, including corporations, governments and financial sponsors. Mr. Moelis has over 30 years of investment banking experience. Prior to founding Moelis & Company, he worked at UBS from 2001 to 2007, where he was most recently President of UBS Investment Bank and previously Joint Global Head of Investment Banking. Before joining UBS, Mr. Moelis was Head of Corporate Finance at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, where he worked from 1990 through 2000. Mr. Moelis serves on the University of Pennsylvania Board of Trustees, the Wharton Board of Overseers, the Board of the Tourette Syndrome Association, and the Board of Governors of Cedars Sinai Hospital. He holds an undergraduate degree and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Follow Ken Moelis:
About Moelis & Company, Moelis & Company: Moelis & Company is an investment bank that provides innovative strategic advice and solutions to a diverse client base.
Peter Y. Chung
CEO and Managing Director of Summit Partners
Peter Y. Chung joined Summit Partners in 1994. Prior to Summit, he worked in the Mergers & Acquisitions department of Goldman, Sachs & Co. Based in Summit’s Menlo Park office, Peter is active in the firm’s investment activities in North America, Europe and Asia. During his 19 years with Summit Partners, Peter has invested in more than 25 companies including 13 currently or formerly publicly-traded companies. His prior board seats and investment experience include E-TEK Dynamics (NASDAQ: ETEK, later merged with JDS Uniphase in a transaction valued at over $18 billion), AltoCom (acquired by Broadcom), Card Capture Services (acquired by E*Trade), Ditech Networks (NASDAQ: DITC, later acquired by Nuance Communications), Finisar (NASDAQ: FNSR), GoldenGate Software (acquired by Oracle Corporation), iPayment (NASDAQ: IPMT), NightHawk Radiology Holdings (NASDAQ: NHWK, later acquired by Virtual Radiologic), SeaBright Insurance Holdings (NYSE: SBX, later acquired by Enstar Group Limited), Sirenza Microdevices (NASDAQ: SMDI, later acquired by RF Micro Devices), Splash Technology Holdings (NASDAQ: SPLH, later acquired by Electronics for Imaging) and Winshuttle Holdings. He is currently a director of Acacia Communications, Empower RF Systems, M/A-COM Technology Solutions Holdings (NASDAQ: MTSI), Trident University International, Ubiquiti Networks (NASDAQ: UBNT) and WebAction. Peter holds an AB in economics, magna cum laude, from Harvard University and an MBA from Stanford University. He is currently a trustee of the California Academy of Sciences and a director of the Asian Pacific Fund. In addition, he serves on the Advisory Boards of the Friends of Harvard Football and the Salvation Army’s Golden State Division.
Follow Peter Y. Chung:
About Asian Pacific Fund, California Academy of Sciences, Summit Partners: Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities.
Scott Beiser
CEO of Houlihan Lokey
Mr. Beiser is Houlihan Lokey’s Chief Executive Officer and a member of the firm’s Board of Directors. His responsibilities include managing Houlihan Lokey’s operations, identifying and developing new strategic opportunities, and pursuing and managing new and existing client relationships. Mr. Beiser previously led Houlihan Lokey’s Infrastructure Services and Materials practice and has specialized expertise in investment banking services for engineering and construction businesses, including ownership and management transition programs, corporate acquisitions, divestitures, leveraged recapitalizations, and ESOP transactions. Mr. Beiser serves on the Board of Directors of FNF Construction and is an advisor to several boards and executives in the engineering and construction industry. Before joining Houlihan Lokey, Mr. Beiser was a Senior Financial Analyst at Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Co., where he supervised the budget and forecasting department. Mr. Beiser earned both a B.S. and an M.S. in Finance from the College of Business and Economics at California State University, Northridge.
Follow Scott Beiser:
About Houlihan Lokey: Houlihan Lokey is a global investment bank that focuses on capital markets, financial restructuring, valuation, and strategic consulting.
Prasad Ramani
Founder & CEO of Syntoniq
Follow Prasad Ramani:
About London Business School, Pascal WealthTech, Syntoniq: Behavioral Economics in Action
J. P. McNeill
CEO of Ando Money
Mr. McNeill has 17 years of senior executive experience as at four early stage companies. Most recently, Mr. McNeill co-founded Renovate America, the leading provider of a new innovative financing product (Property Tax Financing) used by homeowners and businesses to finance energy products. The Harvard Business Review listed Property Tax Financing as a Top 10 Breakthrough Idea in 2010. Prior to co-founding Renovate America, Mr. McNeill held a number of senior level positions including Chief Financial Officer of two venture capital (VC) backed companies and Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Sales of a third VC backed company. Two of the three VC backed companies went public on the NASDAQ stock market and the third was sold to a public entity. In addition to serving on the board of Renovate America, Mr. McNeill serves on the board of San Diego Coastkeeper and Quality Home Maintenance, Inc.
Follow J. P. McNeill:
About Ando Money: Ando Money enables customers to join and drive a transformative movement to combat the climate crisis through carbon-reducing banking.
Mingzhe Ma
Chairman and CEO of Ping An
Mingzhe Ma is the founder of the Company. Mingzhe Ma founded Ping An Insurance Company in March 1988, and is the current Chairman and CEO of the Company. Since the establishment of the Company, Mingzhe Ma has served as President, Director, Chairman and CEO of the Company, and has been in charge of operations and management of the Company. Before establishing the Company, Mingzhe Ma was Deputy Manager of China Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone Social Insurance Company. Mingzhe Ma has a doctor’s degree in money and banking from Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (previously Zhongnan University of Economics).
Follow Mingzhe Ma:
About Ping An, Ping An Healthcare Management: Ping An Insurance Company is a holding company deals with insurance, banking, and financial service.
Richie Serna
Chief Executive Officer of Finix Payments
Richie Serna serves as the CEO and co-founder at Finix.
Follow Richie Serna:
About Finix Payments: Finix Payments is a fintech company that develops a payment processing platform for businesses.
Al Burgio
Founder & CEO of Zytara
As founder and CEO of Zytara, Al Burgio leads the development and strategic direction of the company. Al also founded Console Connect in 2011, the pioneer of software-defined interconnection. He has been a serial entrepreneur for over 20 years with diverse experience across various industries including the financial industry and multiple areas of technology. During his time with Console as CEO, he raised in excess of $60 Million in capital from leading Silicon Valley venture capital firms, secured multiple Fortune 500 companies as customers, expanded the company’s platform into over 20 countries and was a recognized innovator with patents granted in the areas of Internet Architecture and Routing. In 2017, Console was acquired by PCCW and the platform continues to win awards globally. Al re-entered the financial technology industry in 2017 by initially founding DigitalBits, an open-source blockchain project and protocol with a primary focus on supporting branded currencies, inclusive of the emerging category of branded stablecoins. Al has been an active public speaker on an array of topics including Internet architecture and financial technology, having also been interviewed by Larry King discussing the mass adoption of blockchain technology. Al is also a member of the board of directors of Innovate Niagara, a non-profit innovation center helping entrepreneurs with leading-edge ideas to start, grow and succeed.
Follow Al Burgio:
About DigitalBits Project, Zytara: Zytara is a financial technology company focused on supporting Millennial and Gen Z gamers and esports enthusiasts.
Timothy Li
Founder and CEO of Fluid Credit
Timothy has been working in FinTech and Marketplace Lending industry for the past decade. He has launched various marketplace lending platforms and held c-level positions at RealtyMogul.com, loanDepot.com, Quick Bridge Funding, Think Finance and JPMorgan Chase. Timothy also co-founded LendFoundry.com, KuberFinancial.com MaxDecision.com. He also sits on various advisory boards such as Ziero Finance, Solar Mosaic, Blinker Inc., Docitt and CreditExchange.in. Timothy holds various degrees from Harvard Business School, University of Southern California and San Jose State University.
Follow Timothy Li:
About Alchemy, Fluid Credit, kuber, MaxDecisions, University of Southern California: Fluid Credit provides university students with credit and personal finance education.
Samir Vasavada
Co-Founder & CEO of Vise
Samir Vasavada is the Co-Founder & CEO of Vise. Vise is a venture-backed startup using Artificial Intelligence to revolutionize Portfolio Construction and Management for RIAs and Family Offices. Vise allows investment advisors the ability to provide tailored financial advice to each of their clients powered by proprietary Portfolio Intelligence making them smarter and more efficient. Vise AI is backed by Peter Thiel’s Founder’s Fund, Bling Capital, Great Oaks Ventures, and the Wharton School of Business amongst other investors. In his respective position, Samir is responsible for Operations, Business Development and managing a team of Engineers and Ph.D. AI and Quantitative Finance Researchers. Prior to Vise AI, Samir founded NYX Group, a technologies firm specializing in Marketing and Software Development. He oversaw an international team of developers and projects. Samir sits on advisory boards for several SaaS startups as well as a fellow at Lightspeed Venture Partners. He is also a consultant with GLG and Coleman Research amongst his own personal portfolio. He has consulted with firms such as UBS, BCG, Mass Mutual, Deutsche Bank and others on Artificial Intelligence in Portfolio Management and Infrastructure in the AI space. Alongside consulting, Samir actively speaks on AI & Fintech at conferences around the globe such as Money20/20, InVest, Raymond James Institutional Investors, AI World and more.
Follow Samir Vasavada:
About Vise: Vise is an AI-driven portfolio management platform for financial advisors.
CJ MacDonald
Founder & CEO of Step
CJ is a serial entrepreneur and has over 15 years experience launching early stage startups across multiple industries. He has demonstrated an exceptional ability throughout his career to bring innovative products to market, attract large clients and deliver rapid sales expansion in emerging technology verticals. Currently CJ is the Founder and CEO Step, a next generation banking platform. Prior to Step, CJ was the co-founder of Gyft (Acquired by First Data), led Sales and Business Development initiatives at Luminate (Acquired by Yahoo) and was an early executive at Liveops. CJ is a graduate from Wesleyan University and lives in the Bay Area.
Follow CJ MacDonald:
About Step: Step is a financial services company that builds mobile-based banking for teenagers.
Colin Walsh
CEO and Co-Founder of Varo Money
Colin Walsh is the brainchild behind Varo and its mission to revolutionize banking. Colin and his team founded Varo to create a better way of banking that empowers consumers to be more in control of their financial lives. He believes too many people are not well served by the big banks, which have created a significant opportunity for innovators. Varo is building a seamless retail banking solution that addresses big pain points for the ~20 million millennial Americans (ages 22-36) who are creditworthy yet still manage their money on a month-to-month basis. These Americans are often one unexpected event away from running into financial trouble, which can prevent them from building savings and investing their money around longer-term goals. Varo has designed a product that allows its customers to see their full financial picture, understand how they’re spending, and access lending and savings products to smooth cash flow and build wealth over time. Varo’s frictionless, mobile-first banking solution does not charge overdraft fees or punitive interest rates, thereby eliminating the harmful fees traditional banks rely on to make money from this large segment of consumers. As proven in other industries, innovators who introduce products people love at lower cost often create massive disruption. We believe the time for such a change in retail banking has arrived. Understanding banking and how people manage their money is a vital part of developing such a new mobile banking platform. Walsh is perfectly positioned to do this with more than 25 years of retail financial services industry experience. His knowledge and expertise is guiding the Varo team to deliver a platform that allows users to effortlessly cover their expenses and build their wealth, so they can get on with their lives.
Follow Colin Walsh:
About Varo Money: Varo is a digital bank that offers innovative, premium banking services wrapped in inclusive design.
Alex Cyriac
Cofounder & CEO of Lively
Alex Cyriacis the co-founder and CEO of Lively – a modern HSA platform for individuals and employers.Previously, Alex was the Head of Operations at JustworksInc., a payroll, benefits, and compliance tech company in New York City (who over $50M raised in venture capital). Alex led all of Justworks’ operations from day 1including state licensing, regulatory compliance, benefits infrastructure, workers compensation management and underwriting, accounting & finance, and legal. Alex holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Alex Lives in San Mateo, CA with his wife Jenita.
Follow Alex Cyriac:
About Lively: Lively is a modern Health Savings Account (HSA) platform for employers and individuals.
Will Kim
Co-founder & Co-CEO of Karat Financial
Will Kim is a co-founder and co-CEO at Karat.
Follow Will Kim:
About Karat Financial: Karat Financial offers business credit cards tailored to the needs of digital creators and influencers.
Ekechi Nwokah
Co-Founder and CEO of Migo
Ekechi Nwokah has 20 years of experience building distributed systems and data center infrastructure. He was a visiting professor at Purdue University before leaving academia to join SGI and NASA, where he built large parallel Altix and Origin machines, and was tech lead on COLUMBIA, the fastest supercomputer in the world in 2004. He is also an expert in cloud infrastructure and security, having spent several years at Amazon AWS building cloud services. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Purdue University.
Follow Ekechi Nwokah:
About Migo: Migo is a cloud-based platform that allows customers to use loans, make purchases, and withdraw cash without the need for plastic cards.
Russell Krauss
co-Chief Executive Officer of China Rapid Finance
Russell Krauss has served as co-Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman since September 2018. Prior to taking on the current co-CEO position, Mr. Krauss has served on the XRF Board since 2016 as an independent non-executive director. Mr. Krauss was Senior Vice President and Managing Director at Hewlett-Packard (“HP”, then “Hewlett Packard Enterprise”), where he oversaw business operations for one of HP’s largest businesses and drove significant value for both clients and shareholders through major transformation initiatives. He also served as Senior Vice President, overseeing Accounts and Business Operations for DXC Technology, where he led the enterprise-wide client operations, and oversaw top accounts for the $20 billion business. Previously, Mr. Krauss was the Chief Information Officer and Vice President for the New York Power Authority, the largest non-federal utility in the U.S., where he was a leader of one of the nation’s “Top 10 Critical Infrastructure” entities and led the $1.4 billion divestiture of the Nuclear Generation business—the largest transaction of its kind in U.S. history. Mr. Krauss also served as a CIO both at Westinghouse Electric Corporation and United Technologies Corporation divisions. He received his MBA from University of New Haven and his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the State University of New York (SUNY).
Follow Russell Krauss:
About China Rapid Finance: China Rapid Finance is an online consumer lending marketplace serving online users and China’s emerging middle class.
Laurence D. Fink
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BlackRock
Laurence D. Fink, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BlackRock, also leads the Global Executive Committee. Mr. Fink has led the firm since its founding in 1988, keeping client centric solutions and innovation at the forefront of his leadership. He was named “CEO of the Decade” by Financial News in 2011 and has been named one of the “World’s Best CEO’s” by Barron’s for seven consecutive years. Prior to founding BlackRock in 1988, Mr. Fink was a member of the Management Committee and a Managing Director of The First Boston Corporation. Mr. Fink joined First Boston in 1976 and quickly became one of the first mortgage-backed securities traders on Wall Street. During his tenure at First Boston, Mr. Fink was co-head of the Taxable Fixed Income Division, which was responsible for trading and distribution of all government, mortgage and corporate securities. Mr. Fink also started the Financial Futures and Options Department and headed the Mortgage and Real Estate Products Group. Mr. Fink serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of New York University and is Co-Chairman of the NYU Langone Medical Center Board of Trustees. Mr. Fink also serves on the Boards of The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Council on Foreign Relations and Robin Hood, the New York City charitable organization. He is also Co-Chairman of The Partnership for New York City, which works to engage the business community in efforts to advance the City’s economy and maintain its position as the center of world commerce, finance and innovation. Mr. Fink earned an MBA degree with a concentration in real estate from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1976 and a BA degree in political science from UCLA in 1974.
Follow Laurence D. Fink:
About BlackRock: BlackRock is an investment company that offers its services to institutions, intermediaries, foundations, and individual investors.
Alfred Kelly
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Visa
Alfred F. Kelly, Jr. was the President and Chief Executive Officer of the 2014 NY/NJ Super Bowl Host Company, the entity created to raise funds for and host Super Bowl XLVIII, from April 2011 to August 2014. Previously, Alfred Kelly held senior positions at the American Express Company, a global financial services company, for 23 years, including serving as President from July 2007 to April 2010, Group President, Consumer, Small Business and Merchant Services from June 2005 to July 2007, and Group President, U.S. Consumer and Small Business Services from June 2000 to June 2005. Prior to joining American Express, Alfred Kelly was the head of information systems at the White House from 1985 to 1987. Mr. Kelly also held various positions in information systems and financial planning at PepsiCo Inc. from 1981 to 1985. Alfred Kelly currently serves on the board of directors of MetLife Inc, and previously was a director of Affinion Group.
Follow Alfred Kelly:
About NY / NJ Super Bowl, Visa: Visa is a multinational financial services company that facilitates electronic payment systems throughout the world.
Jamie Hale
Co-Founder & CEO of Ladder
Jamie is Ladder’s CEO and chief evangelist. He believes life insurance is a fundamentally great product for families and communities and so built Ladder to be the smart, modern way to insure your life. Prior to cofounding Ladder, Jamie was Partner at Aldenwood Capital and at Oak Hill Investment Management, a premier family office with over $12 billion in assets. Jamie also worked at NextCard, pioneering instant credit and the first ‘internet enabled’ Visa card. Jamie is a graduate of Bowdoin College and Harvard Business School.
Follow Jamie Hale:
About Ladder: Ladder is a digital life insurance company that offers flexible term coverage in minutes saving policyholders up to 40%.
Jon Carr-Harris
CEO of CRED Investments
Jon is a leading innovator in technology. As the founder of Swish Labs he’s built the largest distributed ecosystem spanning 30+ countries. Jon’s consulted with many of the top fortune 500 on innovative product opportunities and strategy. Jon has advised top startups including Airbnb, Kik and Khan Academy. Jon studied at McGill & Stanford university and has a deep background in product, economics and psychology.
Follow Jon Carr-Harris:
About CRED Investments, Swish: CRED uses artificial intelligence to invest in the future of talent. Helping realize the commercial & financial potential of talent.
David McDonough
Founder, Chief Executive Officer & Board Member of CommonStock
David McDonough is the Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Board Member at CommonStock.
Follow David McDonough:
About CommonStock: CommonStock is a developer of a group chat platform that is designed to share investment knowledge and decisions.
Philipp Pieper
CEO & Co-Founder of Swarm Fund
Philipp Pieper is co-founder at Swarm Capital.
Follow Philipp Pieper:
About Lighthouse Interactive, Loop Media, Singularity University, StartX (Stanford-StartX Fund), Swarm Fund: Swarm Fund is the blockchain for private equity, opening up access to the new digital economy.
Oz Alon
Co-Founder and CEO of HoneyBook
Oz Alon is Co-Founder & CEO at HoneyBook.
Follow Oz Alon:
About HoneyBook: HoneyBook is a business management platform creating tools to help creative entrepreneurs run their business on their own terms.
Andrei Cherny
CEO and Co-Founder of Aspiration
Andrei Cherny has spent nearly twenty years working to make the financial system more open and fair. He combines a background as an advisor to some of America’s top companies, the co-founder and president of a media start-up, a financial fraud prosecutor, a historian, a White House aide, a Navy reserve officer, and a nationally-recognized economic policy expert. Andrei has provided strategic counsel to companies such as Intel, Qualcomm, and Bank of America. He launched and grew Democracy Journal to one of the most widely read idea journals in America. There, he helped start the successful fight for the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A former Clinton White House aide, he was the youngest White House speechwriter in American history. His 2000 book, The Next Deal, showed how business and government would be transformed by people’s demands for more and better choices. He is also the author of the The Candy Bombers. He graduated from Harvard University and from the University of California Berkeley law school. Source: https://www.aspiration.com/team
Follow Andrei Cherny:
About Aspiration: Aspiration offers retail banking and investing services that enable customers to spend and save their money in ways that protect the planet.
Anthony Citrano
Founder & CEO of Acquicent
Citrano is founder & CEO of [Acquicent](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/acquicent) and a mentor at [Amplify](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/amplify-la), a startup accelerator and multi-faceted entrepreneurial campus in Los Angeles. He is also an angel investor and photographer. He was VP Communications & Chief Evangelist for Verizon’s digital unit, a position created when [Verizon acquired EdgeCast Networks](https://techcrunch.com/2013/12/07/verizon-edgecast/), where he was a key executive. He co-founded fama PR, a Boston-based communications agency. He served as chief technology advisor to Maine Governor Angus King (now US Senator) and was a member of Barack Obama’s 2008 finance committee.
Follow Anthony Citrano:
About Acquicent: Acquicent provides a marketplace for investing in digital and real-world collectibles via NFTs.
Eric White
Chief Executive Officer of Dividend Finance
Seasoned distributed energy resources / energy transition and fintech entrepreneur with a passion for conceptualizing and designing innovative financial structures, products and business strategies that breakdown capital barriers and empower underserved markets.
Follow Eric White:
About Dividend Finance: Dividend Finance is a Technology-enabled finance platform supporting the energy transition with lending and other financial solutions.
James H. Herbert
Chairman and CEO of First Republic Bank
Herbert founded First Republic Bank as CEO in 1985. Previously, he was the Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of San Francisco Bancorp from 1980-1985. Mr. Herbert currently serves as the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s Twelfth District member for the Federal Advisory Council and holds board/trustee positions with Babson College; the San Francisco Ballet Association (Chair and Co-Chair, 2002-2008); Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York; and The BASIC Fund. B.S., 1966, Babson College; M.B.A., 1969, New York University; Harvard Business School CEO Presidents’ Seminar Graduate.
Follow James H. Herbert:
About First Republic Bank: First Republic offers banking for individuals and businesses, wealth management and more with a focus on tailored services and solutions.
Anderson Sumarli
Co-Founder and CEO of Ajaib
Anderson Sumarli is the Co-Founder and CEO at Ajaib.
Follow Anderson Sumarli:
About Ajaib: Ajaib is an investing platform that allows Indonesians to buy and sell stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds.
John Keatley
CEO, Co-Founder of Scratchpay
John Keatley is a Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Scratchpay.
Follow John Keatley:
About Pasadena Angels, Scratchpay: Scratchpay is a patient financing solution for veterinary care.
Chase Harmer
Chief Executive Officer of PayCertify
Integrity, honesty, and longevity. Those are the qualities that have shaped Chase Harmer, a successful entrepreneur, leader, speaker, and innovator. For 15 years, Chase has built businesses, led companies, created products, and helped bring the best out of his employees. As a merchant services professional, Chase has launched several companies and products—such as MLS Hotel, Power Payments, Payment Reservations, and Pay Certify—that focus on hotel and e-commerce verticals. His companies process transactions and create software products that help increase cash flow and longevity of merchant accounts in those industries.
Follow Chase Harmer:
About PayCertify: The PayCertify Companies Inc. is an All-In-One payments co and digital wallet with a family of brands and services in the US, EU and CA.
Alex Mittal
Co-Founder & CEO of FundersClub
Co-Founder and CEO at FundersClub. He is also the Co-Founder of Crederity Info Services.
Follow Alex Mittal:
About Crederity Info Services, FundersClub: FundersClub is an online venture capital firm that focuses on Seed and early stage investments.
Joshua Seims
CEO of TrustedCoin
After earning a Bachelors in Computer Science from Harvard, Joshua worked with Industrial Light and Magic and Seven. He then founded Hitplay, a platform for large-scale video distribution. He lives in San Francisco, with his wife and two daughters.
Follow Joshua Seims:
About MetaStable Capital, TrustedCoin: TrustedCoin provides foundational APIs that make it easy to build higher-level services on top of the Bitcoin protocol.
Sasan Goodarzi
CEO of Intuit
Sasan Goodarzi is the CEO of Intuit. Prior to becoming the CEO, he served as the executive vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Small Business Group. Goodarzi has held multiple general management positions during two separate stints at Intuit. From 2013-2016 he led Intuit’s Consumer Tax Group, which offers the company’s flagship TurboTax products. Under his leadership, TurboTax reinvented itself and delivered breakthrough innovations which resulted in double-digit customer growth for three consecutive years. From 2011 to 2013, he served as the company’s chief information officer, successfully leading Intuit’s transition to the cloud. During his previous time at Intuit, from 2004-2010, he was senior vice president and general manager for the company’s professional tax division and Intuit Financial Services. He has also led several acquired software companies in addition to Intuit’s operations in Canada and the United Kingdom. Before coming to Intuit, Goodarzi worked for Invensys, a global provider of industrial automation, transportation and controls technology, serving as global president of the products group. He also held a number of senior leadership roles in the automation control division at Honeywell and served as the chief executive officer and co-founder of a technology startup, Lazer Cables Inc. Goodarzi earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at the University of Central Florida and a master’s in business administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Follow Sasan Goodarzi:
About Intuit: Intuit offers business and financial management solutions for SMBs, financial institutions, consumers, and accounting professionals.
Wayne Slavin
Co-Founder & CEO of Sure
Wayne Slavin is the CEO and Co-Founder of Sure, a VC backed insurtech startup. Prior to Sure he was the VP of Product Management at Tapingo, TechCrunch’s Most Innovative Company of 2013. His other past projects and companies include NetStumbler, a consumer app with more than 1,500,000,000+ billion downloads, the Barnes & Noble Nook eBook reader, Buddy Media (now part of salesforce), and BackupRight the enterprise SaaS company he sold in 2012. He has a Masters Degree from Columbia University.
Follow Wayne Slavin:
About Sure: Sure is an insurance technology company that powers API-based digital insurance programs for brands and carriers.
Chris Farmer
Partner, Venture & CEO of SignalFire
Chris is the Founder & CEO of SignalFire, an early stage venture capital fund. He focuses on investments in consumer Internet, software and mobile with particular emphasis on seed stage investments and working with Entrepreneurs-In-Residence to launch new businesses. Previously, Chris was a Partner with General Catalyst Partners where he led the firm’s successful seed investment activities and served as a Venture Partner on the firm’s main fund. Previously, Chris was a Vice President with Bessemer Venture Partners where he led investments in digital media & mobile companies. Prior to BVP, he was a consultant with Bain & Co where he advised on large scale technology buyouts. Prior to Bain, Chris spearheaded the successful turnaround of Skybitz, a wireless enabled SaaS company, where he led Product Management, Finance & Business Development. Earlier in his career, Chris founded an investment advisory firm for angel investors & private equity funds and served as a Venture Advisor to an early stage venture capital fund where he led investments in SkyBitz and Applied Semantics (acquired by Google). He started his career on Wall Street in the private equity group of Cowen & Company. Chris received a BA in International Relations & Business from Tufts University & the Fletcher School of Diplomacy. He has been published in Harvard Business Review, Institutional Investor, The Journal of Private Equity and other leading publications.
Follow Chris Farmer:
About SignalFire: SignalFire is a venture capital firm that invests in seed stage companies and breakout companies.
Manuel A. Henriquez
Founder, and Former Chairman, President & CEO of Hercules Capital
Manuel A. Henriquez is the co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Hercules Technology Growth Capital. Henriquez is a 25-year veteran of the venture capital and financing community. Under his leadership, the firm has completed investments of more than $3.6 billion to over 230 companies. Prior to co-founding the Company, Henriquez was a Managing Director at VantagePoint Venture Partners from August 2000 through July 2003 where he focused on technology investments. He is also the former president and chief investment officer of Comdisco Ventures, a division of Comdisco, Inc., a leading technology and financial services company, from November 1999 to March 2000. Prior to that, from March 1997 to November 1999, Henriquez was a Managing Director of Comdisco Ventures and a senior member of the investment team that originated over $2.0 billion of equipment lease, debt and equity transactions from 1997 to 2000. Henriquez received a B.S. in Business Administration from Northeastern University and is a member of the University’s Board of Directors. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Lucile Packard Foundation as well as the Children’s Health Council and is a long time advocate for children’s health and education. He also previously served on the Board of Directors for Charles Armstrong School, an independent elementary and middle school that serves students with language-based learning differences.
Follow Manuel A. Henriquez:
About Hercules Capital: Hercules Capital is a capital market company that lends to technology, life sciences, and sustainable technology companies.
Ham Serunjogi
Co-Founder & CEO of Chipper Cash
Ham Serunjogi is a co-founder and CEO at Chipper Cash.
Follow Ham Serunjogi:
About Chipper Cash: Chipper Cash is a fintech platform that offers mobile, cross-border money transfer services.
Bobby Srinivasan
Co-Founder, Board Member & CEO of Mobileum
Bobby is the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Roamware. His earlier assignments with the company include CEO and President from 2006 to 2011, and Executive Vice President – Global Sales and Chief Operating Officer from 2001 to 2005. Over the last seven years he has been instrumental in transforming the company from a startup into a global leader in roaming and value added solutions. During his tenure as a CEO, the company received several industry recognitions. Most recently Roamware was named a Top 50 Startup in the 2011 Tie50 Awards. Earlier recognitions include the Frost & Sullivan Technology Innovation Award, Deloitte Technology Fast 50 and Deloitte Technology Fast 500 in 2006. In 2007, Roamware won the Red Herring 100 Most Promising Private North American Technology Companies in 2007. Roamware also won the Deloitte’s 2007 Wireless Fast 50. Bobby Srinivasan was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year, 2010 Award Finalist for Northern California.
Follow Bobby Srinivasan:
About Mobileum: Mobileum provides voice and data roaming solutions and mobile financial services.
Anthony Ghosn
Co-Founder & CEO of Hearth
Follow Anthony Ghosn:
About Hearth: Financial Technology for built for the Home Improvement industry
Isaac Silverman
CEO & Founder of Daydream
Follow Isaac Silverman:
About Daydream: Democratizing the financial model. Stealth.
Ennie Lim
Co-Founder & CEO of HoneyBee
Empathy is underrated in today’s demanding world. We’re often too busy with our Instagram accounts to reflect the lives we *wish* we led to be present in the one we’re living now, one where compassion for the people around us is in short supply. My life after divorce wasn’t a pretty picture. I struggled mightily — my self esteem took a big hit, as did my finances and credit. But going through all that made me see how important it is to feel in control of your financial life, and it made me want to help others take control of theirs. HoneyBee empowers hundreds of HR leaders to provide their employees with the tools to help cover their bills, expenses and financial emergencies without relying on high interest credit cards, payday loans or raiding their retirement savings. It’s a compassionate solution offered by caring employers who want to see their employees thrive without the distraction of financial distress. I wish a solution like this had been available when I was in the depths of financial distress, and it’s a source of great pride to me now to be part of a solution that so many have come to rely on to improve their financial health. Because I’ve been there, too.
Follow Ennie Lim:
About HoneyBee: B2B Fintech, Insurtech
Adam Zbar
CEO of HamsaPay
Adam Zbar works as a Chief Executive Officer at HamsaPay from June 2020.
Follow Adam Zbar:
About HamsaPay, SunBasket: HamsaPay is the world’s first Smart, X-Border Trade DeFi Network
Tess Michaels
Founder & CEO of Stride Funding
Tess Michaels is a serial entrepreneur with experiences from Goldman Sachs and Vista Equity. She is a recipient of the Wharton Deans Award for Innovation and the Penn Alumni Award of Merit. At Harvard Business School she served as a trustee of the Harbus Foundation and as a Senator. Tess was named as a Woman to Watch by the UN Foundation in 2015; she won the Grand Prize at MIT FinTech Competition in 2019, and was honored as a Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2020.
Follow Tess Michaels:
About Stride Funding: Stride Funding is an outcomes-driven company that provides Income Share Agreements to supplement student loans.
Donna Wells
Founder and CEO of Valencia Ventures
A nationally-recognized technology executive with an exceptional track record in driving strategic innovation and rapid growth in Fortune 500 and start-up environments. Ms. Wells is a former software company CEO and led US marketing for two Fortune 500 companies. She holds degrees from Wharton and Stanford and teaches entrepreneurship at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Ms. Wells is an Audit Committee Financial Expert and has served on public, private and SPAC boards since 2010. She was named Board Director of the Year by the Women in Information Technology organization in 2021.
Follow Donna Wells:
About Stanford Graduate School of Business, Valencia Ventures: Valencia Ventures offers strategic board, investment and advisory aervices for companies seeking to define and hold the leading edge.
Shola Akinlade
Co-Founder and CEO of Paystack
Shola Akinlade is the Co-founder and CEO at Paystack.
Follow Shola Akinlade:
About Paystack: Paystack lets businesses accept payments via credit card, debit card, money transfer and mobile money on their websites or mobile apps.
Afnan Rahman
CEO of OpenNode
Follow Afnan Rahman:
About OpenNode: OpenNode offers accessible way for e-commerce businesses to process bitcoin payments.
Joe DiPasquale
CEO of BitBull Capital
Joe DiPasquale is the founder and CEO of Regroup, recognized through industry awards as the leading mass notifications company. He completed his MBA at Stanford University and his BA at Harvard University. Previous experience includes Deutsche Bank’s Technology Investment Banking Group, General Motors’ Strategic Initiatives Group, venture capital at HighBAR Partners, and strategy consulting at Bain and McKinsey.
Follow Joe DiPasquale:
About BitBull Capital, Regroup Mass Notification, StartOut: BitBull Capital is the first cryptocurrency fund of hedge funds.
Brendan Playford
CEO of Pngme
Follow Brendan Playford:
About Pngme: Pngme, they believe everyone deserves equal access to finance.
Tomas Campos
CEO and Co-Founder of Spinwheel
Tomás Campos is the CEO and Co-Founder of Spinwheel.
Follow Tomas Campos:
About Spinwheel: Transform how your business and your customers see, understand, and act on debt with our industry-leading debt APIs and drop-in modules.
Michael Bunning
CEO – Managing Partner of XFO Partners
Michael is the CEO – Managing Partner at XFO Partners, a strategic financial services company focused on assisting Venture Capital, Private Equity & Real Estate Funds with CFO|COO|Controller service including: formation, fundraising advice, comprehensive accounting services, and online accounting and financial reporting tools. Prior to founding XFO, Michael was a partner with Aduro Advisors, a leading micro venture fund administrator located in the Bay Area. In addition; Michael formerly was the founding CFO for Social Capital in Palo Alto. Michael brings 20+ years of industry and technical experience and has held several senior financial positions with various Silicon Valley companies such as the Mayfield Fund, Synopsys and Arthur Andersen. He is a California CPA, a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA), a California Licensed Real Estate Broker and graduated cum laude from California Polytechnic at San Luis Obispo with a B.S. in Business Administration.
Follow Michael Bunning:
About XFO Partners: Strategic financial services company providing Venture Capital, PE,, Real Estate and Family Office Funds with CFO|COO|Controller operations.
Casey Fenton
CEO of Upstock
Fenton is currently the founder and CEO of Upstock, Inc., a worker equity management as a service online platform. Fenton created the online social hospitality network, the Couchsurfing Project which he began working on in 1999. Couchsurfing currently has over 15 million members worldwide. Fenton served as executive director of Couchsurfing until 2012 and the founding chairman of the board. Since exiting his position as CEO of Couchsurfing, he has also been a part of multiple startups including Sovolve (Wonder App) and Upstock. Fenton has spoken on the subject of trust at TEDxBologna, and on human ego.
Follow Casey Fenton:
About Couchsurfing, Sovolve, Upstock: Worker equity management as a service, Founder Equity, Performance Based Equity, Saas, Legal Services, Membership
Bill Clerico
CEO, Co-Founder of WePay
Bill drives the company’s vision, strategy, and growth. Before joining WePay, Bill worked in technology investment banking at Jefferies & Company, where he advised enterprise software, digital media, and financial technology companies on M&A and capital market transactions. Previously, he worked for the U.S. Army’s Communications Engineering Research Command and in electronic trading at Goldman Sachs.
Follow Bill Clerico:
About WePay: WePay is an online payment service company that provides secure and comprehensive APIs designed for ISVs and SaaS providers.
Evan Singer
CEO of SmartBiz Loans
Evan Singer is President and CEO of SmartBiz Loans and leads the strategic, operational and tactical activities of the company. He has broad experience in both financial services and consumer industries. Evan has held leadership positions as Chief Revenue Officer at Milton’s Baking, President at Purity Organic, and General Manager at Align Technology. He started his career at Procter & Gamble and holds a B.A. in Public Policy, graduating with honors from Stanford University.
Follow Evan Singer:
About SmartBiz Loans: SmartBiz Loans is a unique combination of an online SBA loan marketplace and a bank enabling technology platform.
Dan Burkhart
CEO & Co-Founder of Recurly
Dan co-founded Recurly with a deep appreciation for the combination of commerce, marketing, business analytics and good user experience design. Dan brings extensive experience from his background of 14 years in roles spanning internet marketing, product marketing, strategic partnerships, business development and corporate development for eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY), and NBC Internet. While at eBay, Dan led the Global Buyer Engagement team, the eBay Global Affiliate Program and the eBay Portal and Partner organization. Prior to eBay, Dan was a Sr. Director of Business Development for NBC Internet, where he played a key role in building the company from $20MM in revenue to $120MM. Dan attended the University of Pennsylvania’s, Wharton School for his undergraduate degree in economics and received his MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA. He currently lives in San Francisco with his wife and two children. Outside of the office, Dan enjoys being a dad, and taking full advantage of the many benefits of living in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Follow Dan Burkhart:
About Recurly: Subscription billing management SaaS platform powering 2,000+ brands including Sling TV, BarkBox, Asana, FabFitFun, Cinemark & Twitch
Gen Isayama
Co-Founder & CEO of World Innovation Lab
Gen Isayama is the Co-Founder and CEO of WiL LLC. He was a Member of the Board of Directors of Stepdays and Ghelia before that.
Follow Gen Isayama:
About Intertrust, World Innovation Lab: World Innovation Lab is a venture capital from governments and global corporations.
Jessica Mah
Founder/CEO of inDinero
Jessica started her first internet company at the age of 13, finished high school at the age of 15, and studied computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. As Product Architect and CEO of Indinero.com, Jessica drives the development of Indinero’s product strategy, product development and design efforts. She designed Indinero for the typical small business owner, knowing that its usefulness and simplicity would change the way business owners look at money. Founders Jessica Mah and Andy Su built the core product over the Summer of 2009, and the company has since won grant awards from Lightspeed Venture Partners in the Summer of 2009, and from U.C. Berkeley’s CET Venture Lab in the Fall of 2009. Prior to founding Indinero, Jessica was the founder and technical lead at internshipIN.com, which has since helped thousands of college students find their first internships. Jessica studied computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, where she and co-founder Andy Su built Indinero’s first prototype. Jessica has been mentioned in publications ranging from Inc. magazine to the Wall Street Journal, and has been featured on PBS to encourage students to pursue science and entrepreneurship.
Follow Jessica Mah:
About inDinero, XFactor Ventures: inDinero develops software that assists its users in tracking and managing their finance.
Arup Banerjee
CEO & Co-founder of Windfall
Arup is the CEO and Co-founder of Windfall Data. Arup is a product enthusiast. Prior to Windfall he defined and implemented product strategy at companies like Radius, GoodData and Box. Arup holds degrees in Computer Science and Economics from Duke University and an MBA from the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley.
Follow Arup Banerjee:
About Windfall: Windfall Data is on a mission to help organizations make better informed data-driven decisions.
James T. Morris
Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer of Pacific Life
Mr. Morris is chairman, president and chief executive officer of Pacific Life Insurance Company, and its parent companies Pacific Mutual Holding Company and Pacific LifeCorp. He is only the 14th chief executive officer in the company’s 145-year history. Mr. Morris was a summer actuarial student from 1981 to 1982 with Transamerica Occidental prior to joining Pacific Life in 1982 as assistant actuary, Special Marketing. He progressed through a series of management positions within the Life Insurance Division and was elected senior vice president, M-Operations in 1996. He was responsible for business relations with M Financial Group, a leading life insurance producer group that designs and markets individual life insurance products to the upscale market in collaboration with Pacific Life. In 2002, he was promoted to executive vice president, heading up the Life Insurance Division of Pacific Life. In April 2005, Mr. Morris was promoted to executive vice president and chief insurance officer. His role was expanded to include the Annuities & Mutual Funds Division and Pacific Select Group, in addition to the Life Insurance Division. Mr. Morris was promoted to chief operating officer in January 2006. On April 2, 2007, Mr. Morris became Pacific Life’s president and chief executive officer.
Follow James T. Morris:
About Pacific Life: Pacific Life Insurance is an American insurance company that provides life insurance products, annuities, and mutual funds.
David Howell
Chief Executive Officer of Pacific Life
Follow David Howell:
About Pacific Life: Pacific Life Insurance is an American insurance company that provides life insurance products, annuities, and mutual funds.
John Hall
CEO of Intapp
John Hall is the CEO of Intapp. Since joining the company in 2004, he has built Intapp into a global leader in business applications and services for professional services firms, serving 700 organizations. He is a regular presenter at industry events, covering topics such as technology and law firm innovation, and how innovation can enable client success. Prior to joining Intapp, John co-founded VA Linux Systems and helped lead the company from its start-up phase to its IPO. He is based in Palo Alto, California.
Follow John Hall:
About Intapp: Intapp is a provider of industry-specific, cloud-based software solutions that enable connected professional and financial services.
Callum King
President & Co-Founder (Founding CEO) of Brightside
Follow Callum King:
About Brightside: Brightside is an employer-based financial health solution that combines personal assistants and an innovative partner platform.
Joe Dallago
Co-founder and CEO of Rain
Joseph Dallago is the Co-founder and CEO at Rain.
Follow Joe Dallago:
About Rain: Rain is an operator and custodian of digital currency exchange intended to make digital transactions.
