Michael Sidgmore, Venture Partner Broadhaven Capital Partners Michael invests in early-stage FinTech companies. He is on the Board of Liveoak Technologies and Credijusto and on the Advisory Board at Trizic. Michael is also the Founder of Let’s Humanize Finance, a podcast that interviews FinTech innovators who are changing how we interact with money. Prior to Broadhaven, Michael was a pre-product employee and Senior Vice President at iCapital Network, a financial technology company that provides simplified and tech-enabled access to alternative investments at lower costs and lower minimums. Michael helped build the family office and RIA networks and helped grow the platform to over $2.1 billion of assets. Prior to iCapital Network, Michael was the first sales hire and the Director of Institutional Investments at Mosaic, a financing platform for affordable home solar loans that has surpassed $1 billion of loans originated and has received a $200 million equity investment from Warburg Pincus. Michael started his career as an Analyst at Goldman Sachs’ Principal Strategic Investments team in London, a direct investing team focused on market structure and FinTech investing. Michael is an Advisory Board Member for Village Capital’s US FinTech Program and a Special Advisor to Panorama Point Partners.
Michael Gilroy, Principal Canaan Partners. Michael invests in entrepreneurs building enterprise software and fintech companies. He is interested in talking to founders building the next generation enterprise tools and fintechs solving the structural issues in finance. Deeply passionate about building the entrepreneurial community in fintech, Michael launched Canaan’s FinTech Central in 2015, a quarterly event series covering trends in fintech. Previously, Michael advised technology companies with GCA Savvian and Matrix Capital. He received a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
Alex Davidov, Principal Core Innovation Capital. Alex invests in founders who are solving problems that impact financial services, healthcare access, and the future of work. His career spans financial services and technology, as an investor and an operator. Alex co-founded two companies, Intellitoys (an interactive children’s toy) and SkillSlate (a labor marketplace that was acquired by TaskRabbit). He spent six years in financial services, working to scale a wealth manager and informing trading strategies for Bridgewater Associates. Alex earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science and an MBA from Columbia University.
MODERATOR: Tess Hatch, Investor Bessemer Venture Partners Menlo Park office. She is focused on frontier tech, specifically commercial space, machine/deep/reinforcement learning, blockchain, and quantum computing. She currently serves as board observer for Rocket Lab, Spire, Auth0, Endgame, Distil Networks, Team8, Virtru, Claroty, CyberGRX, and Illusive Networks. She holds a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan (go blue!) and a master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics engineering from Stanford (go trees!). She was a mission manager at SpaceX where she worked with the government on integrating their payloads with the Falcon9 rocket. She also worked at Fictiv, a startup using 3D printing and CNC machining to democratize access to manufacturing. Tess writes a space comic, Ada Ride, which you should check out for a good laugh. Don’t be surprised if Tess asks you to go on a hike or walk rather than a typical coffee meeting – being a SoCal native she loves the sun.