Ben Narasin Partner Canvas, focused on early-stage venture investments in mobile, fintech, and marketplaces/eCommerce as well as exciting new categories. Ben was an active institutional seed investor for eight years before joining Canvas, during which he personally invested in 75 companies including Lending Club, Check, Kabbage, Realty Mogul, Dropcam, Zenefits, and many more world-class startups. Half of the companies he seeded went on to raise follow-on venture capital. An entrepreneur since the age of twelve, Ben ran startups through high school and college before founding Boston Prepatory Company, a menswear company. He then founded Fashionmall.com in 1993, one of the first e-commerce companies on the Web and the first cost-per-click based business, which he took public in 1999 on the NASDAQ. In the moments when Ben is not spending time with his entrepreneurs and family, he is also a professional freelance writer on food and wine for various print publications as well as writing online about technology and entrepreneurship. His work has appeared in The SF Chronicle, Wine Enthusiast, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Venture Beat, Gentry Wealth, SV and many other consumer and trade publications. Read Ben’s writings at Venture & Venison. Ben earned a B.A. in Entrepreneurial Studies from Babson College
FinTech Business
Success in FinTech: Investor & Founder panel #fintechsuccess
This discussion with FinTech investors & founders enlightens us as to the key points to achieve success in FinTech companies!
DISCUSSION: Ben Narasin Partner Canvas; Thomas France CoFounder Ledger; Laura Cain Associate Thomvest Ventures; Nadim Homsany, CoFounder EarnUp; Dan Macklin, CoFounder SoFi; MODERATOR: Pierre-R. Wolff Managing Director ExecConnect
Dion Lisle, Vice President, Head FinTech Capgemini #fintechB2B
Dion Lisle, VP/Head FinTech Capgemini is a seasoned FinTech executive that has been in the space since before it was called FinTech. Lisle started working with banks by developing Go To Market plans for complex security solutions that allowed e-signatures on wholesale bank transactions. Dion has been on both sides of the table and has worked for the largest bank and the largest payment processor in the world, Citibank and First Data respectively. In both companies he was an early member of their Venture and Innovation teams and has evaluated over 500 startups in the past 8 years. He has also invested in about 20 startups almost exclusively in the FinTech arena. Lisle has also been in FinTech startups and was involved in the earliest mobile payment efforts through Obopay. Dion leads the newly formed FinTech business unit at Capgemini where he is working to connect Silicon Valley’s best FinTech startups to Capgemini’s largest bank and FI clients to deliver innovative solutions.
Ken Kruszka, CEO SnapCheck #fintechB2B
Ken Kruszka, CEO SnapCheck, is a FinTech and Mobile Payments pioneer, who holds the distinction of being the first person to send $1 around the world by mobile. In addition to being an accomplished executive, leader, and entrepreneur, Ken also advises early-stage companies looking to establish product-market fit and accelerate growth on a global scale. Ken leads SnapCheck in revolutionizing business-to-business payments: eliminating $50 Billion in costs, removing $20 Billion in fraud. Previously, as EVP of Product and Service Delivery, Ken Kruszka drove Boom’s strategic product vision and roadmap, as well as their realization through the creation of industry-leading mobile financial products and services. In his role, Ken led the product management, product development, service delivery, and information technology organizations.