Fintech Impact

Jason talks to Ashley Aydin, Principal at Vamos Ventures. It is a venture capital firm that not only makes investments in various areas, including fintech but has taken a keen eye toward increasing diversity within their founder.

Episode Highlights:

• 01:41: Ashley explains how they only invest in the next and diverse founding teams. They also focus on impact-oriented companies. 
• 01:47: Ashley mentioned diversity, but it also means equity, community, product, and environment on the equity front, it's about wealth agency created for founders, teams, and communities and access to funding and growth that facilitates social mobility in the Community front, it's creating a diverse pipeline of Angel investors of VC investors of role models for future generations.
• 03:29: 60% of population growth is going to be fueled by that next immigrant chic right in the coming years.
• 03:48: The world is changing fast as what we are seeing, and it's increasingly marked by Latin X and diverse entrepreneurial influence.
• 05:29: Ashley explains how there is a demand for more financial education and literacy.
• 06:49: As per stats, less than 3% of funding goes to diverse entrepreneurs, whether women, Black, Latino, or any underserved overlooked founder category or demo figure.
• 08:37: As per Ashley there needs to be education early on as to what these careers are, whether it's building, operating, or investing, and that we need diversity in those spaces and different experiences.
• 11:15: Ashley is building sort of outside of the venture partnership and advisor staff off deep functional experts in health and Wellness and sustainability and future work in fintech that either have had exits or have been in an executive position.
• 13:21: The more LP capital that you have that believes in these missions, that gives emerging managers a chance, the better the VC landscapers and the startup landscape.
• 15:30: The founding journey isn't just this glamorous thing; it's also caring about an aging parent and building a company at the same time.
• 17:35: Emerging fund managers aren't so much emerging anymore that they are the standard right and that they have unique insight into investing and building funds.
• 18:22: At the end of the day, the opportunities between success and failure in life often come down to a couple of serendipitous choices made by others that give us opportunities where they could have just as easily turned away and done nothing.

3 Key Points:

1. Ashley explains how diversity is important to them and how they use it to build technology.
2. Ashley shares examples and instances how they promote diversity.
3. Ashley talks about the venture partner program. How people could sign up to be a venture partner, come on as a venture partner and help advise companies about market strategy or how to fundraise etc.

Tweetable Quotes:

• "There are a few different things we look at in Fintech, but I think the overall theme is empowerment and education." - Ashley
• "When we look at the sub-sectors and fintech and what is most interesting in that connection, it's things like alternative business lending, new payment structures platforms that focus on wealth generation and wealth building and access and education." - Ashley
• "We have seen that people are privileged, are coming to coming to the VCs end up not necessarily staying on the right side of the law either." - Ashley

Resources Mentioned:

• Facebook – Jason Pereira's Facebook
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira's LinkedIn