Description Portland Startup Week begins April 1 (no joke!), and Sila will be hosting a conference in the middle of all the events.

Finnovation PDX is a chance for the FinTech community - its leaders, employees, investors, supporters, and customers - to come together, deepen connections, celebrate wins, and share lessons and insights.

The event will be broken up into 4 thought-provoking segments:

VC & Investment - How are VCs viewing the rise of FinTech startups, especially blockchain and crypto-specific businesses?

Consumers - With pioneering companies like Simple leading the way, how has the consumer experience around banking, finance, and FinTech evolved?

Product + Engineering - What kinds of tools and resources are changing how FinTech products get made?

Founders - The experience of building and scaling a FinTech company is radically different than it was 10 years ago. How are founders changing their approach?

Following the event please join us at the Portland City Grill (30th Floor of the U.S. Bancorp Tower) for Happy Hour, and Sila's Beta Launch!

Agenda:

11:30 - Lunch, mingle, grab a seat

12:00 - Kick off keynote with Matt Compton

12:20 - VC & Investment Panel: The Investor’s Perspective. Featuring moderator Matt Compton & panelists Hope Cochran, Geoff Harris, & Stephen Green

1:10 - Consumer Panel: Evolution of the Consumer Experience. Featuring moderator Josh Reich & panelists Randy Fernando, Melissa Geyer, Andy Van Oostrum, & Amy Pearl

2:00 - Grab a snack and check out the demo of Sila’s brand spanking new beta!

2:15 - Product Panel: FinTech Product Innovation. Featuring moderator Shamir Karkal & panelists Ian Collins, Laura Spiekerman & Angela Angelovska-Wilson

3:05 - Founders Panel: Scaling a Fintech Company. Featuring moderator Kasey Jones & panelists David Nelsen, Alexandra Horrigan, & Isaac Hines

4:10 - Final Talk with David Nelsen

5pm - Finnovation Happy Hour & Sila Beta Launch Party!!!

Meet the Speakers & Panelists:

David Nelsen Bumped

David Nelsen: Founder & CEO at Bumped, David leads the first ever FinTech company to leverage stock ownership to build one-to-one relationships between brands and their customers. Prior to Bumped, David was CEO and co-founder of Giftango, a digital payments company that brought the digital gift card to market for many of the largest global brands.

Laura Spiekerman Alloy

Laura Spiekerman: Co-founder & CRO at Alloy, where she builds APIs for financial services to manage identity verification from signup through the life of the customer. Laura also has over 8 years of experience in the financial world, including advanced work with mobile payments at Knox Payments & Kopo Kopo.

Andy Van Oostrum Cognigy

Andy Van Oostrum: VP of North American Sales at Cognigy, a conversational AI platform, Andy enables the partner ecosystem and drives client engagement in the categories of both voice and text virtual assistants. Andy is also a digital strategist, and largely sits at the intersection of marketing and technology. He worked in the Sitecore ecosystem for 10 years, and has held board positions at the American Marketing Association, Portland Advertising Federation, and SOLVE.

Melissa Geyer Seed

Melissa Geyer: CXO at Seed, a business banking startup based in Portland, Melissa builds and scales customer experience-driven FinTech support teams. She also worked previously at consumer bank Simple, where she served as Director of Customer Relations for the startup as it launched.

Geoff Harris Flying Fish

Geoff Harris: Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Flying Fish, a Venture Capital firm based in Seattle. Geoff also serves on the Seattle Angel Board of Directors, a non-profit with a mission of educating both entrepreneurs and potential angel investors, and is heavily involved in promoting angel investing within Seattle in an effort to grow the funding ecosystem for local startups. Prior to his work in investing Geoff spent 15 years at Microsoft in Engineering Leadership and Executive Leadership positions.

Alexandra Horigan Aspiration

Alexandra Horigan: Founding team member & VP of Strategic Initiatives at Aspiration, a socially conscious financial firm. Prior to Aspiration, Alexandra spent half a decade on Wall Street in sales, and as a broker for Intercontinental Exchange and Cantor Fitzgerald. Alexandra is a graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder, a former competitive skier, and most importantly, a mom to two boys.

Amy Pearl seedpay

Amy Pearl: Director of Community Develpment at seedpay, a financial services social enterprise that leverages blockchain technology to strengthen communities. Previously Amy was founder and CEO of Hatch Innovation, where she helped launch new local investing laws to promote community capital. She believes in working upstream to develop new tools for positive disruption.

Matt Compton Oregon Venture Fund

Matt Compton: General Partner at Oregon Venture Fund, Matt's been an active startup investor and advisor in Oregon for the past decade. Previously he held various product, partnership, and marketing leadership roles at Yahoo! during their rapid growth period from 2002 to 2007. In 2008, he began investing with the Oregon Angel Fund, and has also served on the boards of several early and growth stage companies, including Jama and Simple Financial - currently Matt is on the board of REI.

Isaac Hines Sila

Isaac Hines: Co-founder & COO at Sila, Isaac also has 20 years of experience in the energy sector, where Isaac served as finance director and general manager and oversaw upwards of $200m in projects.

Angela Angelovska-Wilson Sila

Angela Angelovska-Wilson: Co-founder & CLO at Sila, Angela also plays a major role in the world of blockchain technology regulations as a lawyer at DLx Law in New York City. She has an extensive wealth of experience in law, and serves as a CCO for Digital Asset Holdings LLC.

Shamir Karkal Sila

Shamir Karkal: Co-founder & CEO at Sila, Shamir was also co-founder of Simple, a Portland-based bank that is digital-only, with no physical branches. He also managed the development of Open APIs at BBVA and was an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Omidyar Network.

Kasey Jones BetterGrowth

Kasey Jones: Founding partner at BetterGrowth, a growth strategy agency that helps early-stage B2B companies accelerate revenue growth. Kasey also has extensive experience in sales and marketing in Portland, having worked at Keboola, Postano, and Good Data.

Randy Fernando: Managing Director at Acorns

Hope Cochran: Managing Director at Madrona Venture Group

Ian Collins: Senior Product Designer at Acorns

Josh Reich: Co-Founder & former CEO at Simple

Stephen Green: Director of Operations at PENSOLE

Registration through Zoom is required to gain entry to this virtual event

A new year is upon us and with that often comes a financial check in. Join PDXWIT, Simple X, and First Tech Federal Credit Union for industry tips exploring the basics of getting your finances in order.

During the first half of the presentation, we’ll share how to build a plan for getting out of debt and how to save in ways that fit your budget. . The second half of the presentation will focus on ways to secure your financial future that go beyond saving a little bit every month.

We recognize that not everyone has had the opportunity or means to save, and that the financial sector has historically been set up to benefit existing racial and class hierarchies. We will spend some time touching on these important themes, and the myths that back them, during the event.

Agenda: 12:00 p.m. - Event opens/networking 12:05 p.m. - Introductions 12:10 p.m. - Presentation begins 12:50 p.m. - Q&A 1:00 p.m. - Event ends

Purpose: PDXWIT is building a better tech industry by creating access, dismantling inequities and fueling belonging. Our events are inclusive. ALL people who support our purpose are welcome.