events
Michele Romanow to Keynote deBanked CONNECT Toronto
June 18, 2019Michele Romanow, a TV star on Dragon’s Den and Co-founder of Clearbanc, will be the keynote speaker at deBanked CONNECT Toronto on July 25th. She joins other industry executives speaking at the event from across the business finance industry in Canada.
Tech titan Michele Romanow is an engineer and a serial entrepreneur who started five companies before her 33rd birthday. A “Dragon” on CBC’s hit show Dragons’ Den, Michele is the co-founder of Clearbanc, which in 2018 gave entrepreneurs more than $100 million in funding; SnapSave, which was acquired by Groupon; and Buytopia.ca, ranked #3 on the Profit Hot 50 list of fastest growing companies. Named in WXN’s “100 Most Powerful in Canada” and listed as the only Canadian on Forbes’ “Millennial on a Mission” list, Michele brings her incredible entrepreneurial savvy to every stage.
Michele has driven new digital solutions to many of the world’s leading brands, including P&G, Netflix, Starbucks, and Cirque du Soleil, and she has advised Fortune 100s and governments on innovation, AI, blockchain, and the new economy. She was a finalist for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award; the RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards; and was a Cartier Women’s Initiative Award global finalist.
Awarded Angel Investor of the Year by the Canadian Innovation Awards, Michele is a prolific angel investor who has also co-founded the Canadian Entrepreneurship Initiative with Richard Branson to encourage more women entrepreneurs. Michele In the media, Michele’s work has been profiled in Forbes, The New York Times, Entrepreneur, The Globe and Mail, and Chatelaine.
During her Civil Engineering undergrad at Queen’s University, Michele founded The Tea Room, the first zero-consumer-waste coffee shop. She was also given the Queen’s Tricolour — the highest honour awarded by the university — and, after completing her Queen’s MBA, she founded Evandale Caviar, a vertically integrated commercial fishery.
Michele is currently a director for Vail Resorts, Freshii, League of Innovators, Queen’s Business School and Shad Valley, a transformational program that develops the entrepreneurial potential of exceptional Canadian youth.
Other great executives speaking at deBanked CONNECT Toronto:
Lawyers: Earn CLE Credits While Learning About Alternative Finance
May 23, 2019
| June 13 Sessions | June 14 Sessions |
| Case Law Updates | Regulatory Download: The Complete Picture |
| TCPA: Defining ATDS, Exploring the TCPA and How Emails are Covered | Legislation, Business and Lobbying: How does it work and Does it work at all? |
| Bankruptcy Updates | Future Invoice Factoring and Traditional Factoring: Can’t We All Just Get Along? |
| Securities: A Lesson from Bitcoin and Recent Industry Case Law | Clean Contracts: Merchant Agreements, Inter-Creditor Agreements and ISO Agreements: What you MUST know to keep up with the times |
| Inside the UCC with Bob Zadek | |
| Collections in a Post Bloomberg World | |
| Ethics: Conflicts of Interest | |
| *Evening Social event at Lucky Strike in Manhattan Food, drinks and bowling! 7:00pm – 9:00pm* | *Rooftop Cocktail Reception, Castell Rooftop Lounge 3:00pm – 5:00pm* |
Admission Price List:
Admission for Members: $75
2-Day Ticket Includes:
- Day One: breakfast and lunch during the full day of panels. Evening at Lucky Strike with food and drinks.
- Day Two : Three panel discussions, lunch and cocktail hour immediately to follow.
Non-Member Attorneys $250.00 for the 2 day ticket
Non-Member Attorneys $150.00 for a 1 day ticket
(may only attend one of the two days.)
Corporate Guests (Day Two only) $150.00
Featuring the Following Speakers:
- Christopher Murray, Esq.
- Patrick Siegfried, Esq.
- William Molinski, Esq.
- Natalie Nahabet, Esq.
- David Fuad, Esq.
- Kate Fisher, Esq.
- Jamie Polon, Esq.
- Thomas Telesca, Esq.
- Richard J. Zack, Esq.
- Robert Zadek, Esq.
- Richard Simon, Esq.
- Anthony Giuliano, Esq.
- Mark Dabertin, Esq.
- Gregory Nowak, Esq.
Email Lindsey Rohan: lindsey@lrohanlaw.com
Small Business Finance Broker Wins Entrepreneur Of The Year
May 17, 2019
Sonia Alvelo, CEO of Newington, CT-based Latin Financial LLC, has been awarded Entrepreneur of The Year by the Latinas & Power Symposium. The event, incubated in Hartford, Connecticut in 2004, is the largest of its kind in New England and has reached upwards of 8,000+ women since its inception.
Alvelo’s company markets and brokers business loans and merchant cash advances throughout the mainland United States and Puerto Rico.
Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill presented the award to Alvelo, who referenced the moment on social media by writing, “I was deeply honored to present the Entrepreneur of the Year Award to Sonia Alvelo at the 16th Annual Latinas & Power symposium today. Her small business is bolstering the Newington economy and her leadership serves as an example for women across the state.”
Alvelo has been an oft-quoted source in deBanked on the state of the small business finance market in Puerto Rico, most recently in the May/June 2018 magazine edition.
“I’m here today because of the merchants and clients from Puerto Rico and the US,” she told deBanked on Thursday, adding that this is just the beginning for what she and her company will accomplish.
I was deeply honored to present the Entrepreneur of the Year Award to Sonia Alvelo at the 16th Annual Latinas & Power symposium today. Her small business is bolstering the Newington economy and her leadership serves as an example for women across the state. pic.twitter.com/POwlvx0XkA
— Denise Merrill (@SOTSMerrill) May 16, 2019
Broker Fair 2019 Makes Major Splash in the Heart of Manhattan
May 10, 2019
If a tiny ray of light were created from every conversation about small business financing, then the Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan would have been tantamount to the sun on May 6th. It was the site of deBanked’s 2nd annual Broker Fair and the grand old lobby was abuzz with brokers, funders and vendors from across the industry. And it wasn’t only the lobby. The hallways and ball rooms and bathrooms were filled with people in jackets or dresses with colorful conference badges hanging from their necks. You could not open your eyes without seeing a Broker Fair attendee.
The day kicked off with an address to the crowd by deBanked’s founder and president Sean Murray.
He spoke to a packed audience in one of the hotel ballrooms that was actually the site of a famous scene in the 1987 movie, “Wall Street,” starring Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas. It was in this scene where one of the most well-known lines, “Greed is good,” was delivered in a speech by the character Gordon Gekko, a ruthless businessman played by Michael Douglas.
In Murray’s speech, he acknowledged the classic financial thriller, but gave it a twist.
“Funding small business is good,” Murray said. “It’s not greed that’s good. Aligned interests are good.”
This very room was a marriage of old and new. The 1924 room with soaring ceilings and crystal chandeliers was packed with mostly young faces in a still relatively new industry. The stage was simple, the chairs sleek, and colored strobe lights circled the ceiling in what created a fresh energy.
The first panel of the day, called “The Great Debate,” was dominated by discussion of technology among the CEOs of some of the largest companies in the small business funding industry: National Funding, Rapid Finance, BFS Capital, and Kapitus.
“Technology is an inevitability and a powerful way for brokers to stay relevant,” BFS CEO Mark Ruddock told deBanked. “The question is, ‘Does that preclude the small [brokers] who don’t have the money to invest in technology?’”
He sees great opportunity for software platforms that can connect an individual broker to lenders, similar to how Shopify connects small mom and pop retailers to a wider consumer audience.
One of the other CEOs on the panel said he was bullish on digitally savvy brokers and all of them seemed to agree that brokers should offer more products.
“Having a broader set of products benefits brokers because they become the go-to person for merchants rather than simply serve a transactional function,” Chairman of RapidAdvance Jeremy Brown told deBanked.
For brokers looking to expand their product offerings, there was a well-attended session called “Commissions with Factoring and Leasing” that was led by factoring and leasing professionals, Phil Dushey and Edward Kaye, respectively.
Meanwhile, the co-founders of the successful brokerage Everlasting Capital, led a session called “How to Scale Your Broker Shop” which included advice on everything from hiring to customer acquisition and social media marketing. One of the founders, Josh Feinberg, had his marketing person follow him around with a video camera throughout the day.
There were also sessions on regulations affecting the industry, plus a session called “Operating with Integrity: Why Ethics Matter.”
“The speakers are very relevant,” said Dexter Bataille, a broker at Pivotal Funding in Florida who attended Broker Fair. “And the panels are really good too.”
“deBanked always finds ways to make the shows more professional,” said Senior Sales Leader at Reliant Funding Nicolas Marr, who flew in from California to attend the conference. “The details really count.”
In another hotel ballroom, Broker Fair attendees meandered around high tables where event sponsors had representatives talking about their products and handing out free t-shirts and pens. As the day wound down and Broker Fair’s “networking happy hour” approached its end at 6 p.m., the figurative sun (created by small business finance conversations) began to set at the Roosevelt Hotel. But a crowd of about 100 lingered at the hotel bar, buzzing away, eager to make just a few more connections.
The small business financing sun will rise again on July 25 at deBank’s next event, deBanked CONNECT in Toronto. Tickets are already available.
Broker Fair 2019 Photos
May 10, 2019If you share any of these on social media, please remember to include #brokerfair
Enjoy!
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Broker Fair 2019 Speaker Lineup
May 5, 2019Broker Fair 2019 check-in begins at 7:30 am on Monday morning. With nearly 700 people registered to attend, it’s going to be a packed event! If you’ve got a ticket, here’s who you can expect to hear from:
Top Minds in Fintech Came Together in Manhattan Last Night
April 3, 2019
More than 200 people packed into a Manhattan office last night to hear panelists from top fintech companies discuss everything from Artificial Intelligence (AI) in fintech to U.S. regulations to diversity. The event, called Disruption Forum Fintech NYC, was organized remotely by a Poland-based software and technology consulting company called Netguru. This was their third event, following one in Berlin and another in London.
The event took place at the office of Work-Bench, a VC firm, and most panelists during the four panel event discussed regulations in some form or another.
“We have a conversation with customers before thinking about regulations,” said Katherine Kornas, Senior Director of Product at Betterment, an online financial advice company. “I try to free my team of constraints.”
Afterwards, they address constraints and work creatively with them, she said. But at least they know that they started off from a place of trying to solve a problem for the customer.
“Hire a really fun and creative Chief Compliance Officer,” said Melissa Cullens, Chief Design Officer at Ellevest, which provides investing advice geared towards women. “We wanted to create profiles with people’s faces and she said “No.” But then we ended up coming up with a different idea that was also really great.”
Melissa Cullens, Chief Design Officer at Ellevest, Katherine Kornas, Senior Director of Product at Betterment, Sudev Balakrishnan, Chief Product Officer at Stash
One theme was how U.S. regulations have made it difficult for fintech companies to enter the highly coveted U.S. market, particularly when compared to Europe.
“Regulators in the U.S. decided to go after the banks after the [financial crisis in 2008,]” said Arshi Singh, North America Head of Product at Currencycloud, a London-based company that improves B2B payments. “The UK went the opposite way and made it very lax for fintechs so they could compete with banks.”
In the U.S., fintechs must partner with banks to carry out many services and some banks are friendlier to fintechs than others.
Charley Ma, NYC Growth Manager at Plaid, Jody Perla, MD of Global Banking & Payment Infrastructure at Payoneer
Andrew Boyajian, Head of Banking, North America at Transferwise, which makes it cheaper to send money across country borders, said that part of his job is to find U.S. banks that are willing to work with them. He said that some of them are, but other banks still have policies against working with companies like his that deliver bank-like services.
Nicolas Kopp, U.S. CEO at N26, Dan Westgarth, North America General Manager at Revolut, Arshi Singh, North America Head of Product at Currencycloud, Andrew Boyajian, Head of Banking, North America at Transferwise
One panel focused on AI in fintech.
“All the data is useless if you’re not getting insights from it,” said Farrah Lakhani, Director of Growth and Operations for OakNorth Analytical Intelligence, which analyzes data to fund business loans. “I ask ‘How are we doing this faster with this data?’ How does this add to our value proposition? This helps me get through the wall of lingo.”
With regard to the notion of AI replacing human beings altogether, Lakhani said she thinks we all need to get that idea out of our heads.
“You do need human beings to think and reason,” she said.
Regarding the fear that robots may become as human-like as humans, AI specialist and panelist Alex Jaimes joked that he’s met some humans who he could have sworn were robots.
Farrah Lakhani, Director of Growth and Operations at OakNorth Analytical Intelligence, Alex Jaimes, SVP AI & Data Science at Dataminr
With seven offices in Poland, Netguru employs 600 people, a quarter of whom work remotely. They company was founded in 2008 and more than 90% of its business comes from the U.S., the UK and Germany.
Storytelling Sales Expert Kindra Hall to Keynote Broker Fair 2019
March 7, 2019
Sales expert Kindra Hall will present at Broker Fair 2019 to teach attendees about the irresistible power of strategic storytelling. If you want to learn to sell differently and use the power of storytelling, her keynote is something you won’t want to miss!
According to Hall, the shift from a transactional economy to a connected one has people scrambling; when surveyed, companies admit they believe a substantial portion of their revenue is under threat as a result. Businesses, brands, sales forces, marketing teams and leaders at all levels are desperately trying to capture attention and resonate with consumers who expect more. Is there a secret weapon? A silver bullet to humanize and connect? Yes. The answer is strategic storytelling.
The problem? In its rapid rise in popularity, “storytelling” has been reduced to in-actionable jargon. Every day businesses and individuals miss critical opportunities to connect with their elusive audiences in powerful and profitable ways because they lack a storytelling skill. Until now.
About Kindra Hall
Kindra Hall is President and Chief Storytelling Officer at Steller Collective, a consulting firm focused on the strategic application of storytelling to today’s communication challenges. Kindra is one of the most sought after keynote speakers trusted by global brands to deliver presentations and trainings that inspire teams and individuals to better communicate the value of their company, their products and their individuality through strategic storytelling.
What began as a storytelling assignment in 5th grade, grew into a passion for not only telling stories, but a mastery for teaching others the methods and science of storytelling so they can better tell their own.
She was a National Champion storyteller (yes, they have those), member of the Board of Directors of the National Storytelling Network and has her master’s degree in communications where she conducted original research studying the role of storytelling in defining and revealing organizational culture.
Kindra is a former Director of Marketing and VP of Sales. Today, Kindra’s work can be seen at Inc.com, Entrepreneur.com and as a contributing editor for SUCCESS Magazine. Kindra’s message spans all industries and her clients include Facebook, Hilton Hotels, Tyson Foods, Target, Berkshire Hathaway and the Harvard Medical School. Her much anticipated book will be released by Harper Leadership in the fall of 2019.
