Earlier this year we hosted a panel at Rise about payments. Stacked with voices from all sides of transactions - from point of service to mobile payments to rails - we had a great time agreeing and sparring all about of that stuff we love to spend: money. This panel, moderated by Kate Christensen, features Karl Kilb, CEO of Boloro; Norm Merritt, former CEO of ShopKeep; David True, GM of Seqr and Hassan Ahmed, Strategy and Operations Manager at Venmo.
R3 is a technology company out to establish a blockchain database upon which the financial system can rely and build. They lead a consortium of 70+ financial institutions - including Barclays. In this episode you'll learn the difference between a distributed ledger and a blockchain, what the global trading system could look like if it were blockchain-based, and how smart contracts work.
Have you ever found yourself on a retailer’s website, eyeing a new tennis racquet or pair of headphones then the next day been reading another website and seen that same exact tennis racket or pair of headphones advertised to you? Well, that’s what Magnetic does - they harness big data and digital behavior to personalize the customer browsing experience, including retargeting and predictive marketing.
James, their CEO, has a lot to say in this interview about big data from ethics and advertising to cultural differences and how those dictate legislation between countries and continents. We get a little political, a little philosophical, and you, listeners, will get very informed and up-to-speed on what’s happening at the intersection of data, marketing and machine learning.
In this interview, Lowell Putnam, CEO and Founder of Quovo, postulates that startups will increase their advantage over banks as customers increasingly trust individual products over legacy institutions. What about human nature deters individuals from investing and what about it incites competition and risk-taking? Quovo is taking a data-driven approach to customize the experience of users in all sorts of fintech products in the wealth sphere and beyond.
Mid-economic crisis did not strike many as the time to start a company, but after years of running Amex’s innovation fund, Anand Sanwal and his co-founders were ready to strike out on their own. Initially funded by National Science Foundation grants, they built CB Insights into one of the most trusted resources for research and data on emerging technologies and companies across the globe. Listen to hear his thoughts on quarterly reporting, data-driven vs. decibel-driven decision making, and how banks are already beginning to unbundle.
In our first ever episode recorded in front of a live audience, Kate sits down with Jon Stein, Founder and CEO of Betterment. With this hour-long feature, Jon discusses how Betterment interprets and applies principles of behavioral economics to their product. What does investor behavior tell them about the current political climate? Who does Betterment see as their competition, and what role do they see themselves taking in the unbundling of banks? How do you scale a digital business that has historically been rooted in offline human relationships and interaction? What is Jon’s home wifi network called? Tune in as we discuss these questions and more in this special edition of Rise Radio.
There are nearly two million nonprofits in the United States, yet the options of not-for-profit-focused financial services remain minimal. After spending over 15 years with various Wall Street firms - many of those spent also serving on nonprofit boards - Sharon Liebowitz set out to create a product to help nonprofits be more productive with their money. With the rise of roboadvisors and robust fintech tools, her idea is coming of age at the perfect time.
Keith Mestrich, CEO of Amalgamated Bank, does not have the traditional rap sheet of your typical bank exec - he came from the worlds of organized labor and community organizing. Amalgamated is a small, privately-held bank, and are among the most radical financial institutions in the United States – they’re not shy about pursuing their agenda of social progressivism and untraditional transparency. They're in an interesting position at this point in history – their small size and private ownership means they’re much nimbler than the big banks, but they also carry with them nearly a century of legacy that they’re trying to figure out how to use in a way that propels them forward, rather than weighs them down, into this increasingly virtual and digital financial era.