Launching Companies in Regulated Industries
Technology startups are beginning to focus on traditional, regulated industries that until now haven’t seen many startup entrants. But taking on archaic, multi-billion-dollar industries isn’t easy. Startups face a variety of issues, from thorny regulations to apathetic customers demoralized by poor experiences, and competition from name-brand, established competitors. Building a new company in a regulated industry is a daunting task, but it holds the potential to transform an industry and dramatically improve the status quo.
Presenters
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Jessica co-founded Getaround, a SF startup that is pioneering the concept of peer-to-peer car sharing using mobile technology. Prior to launching Getaround, she completed the Graduate Studies Program at Singularity University, a new graduate program launched by Ray Kurzweil, Peter Diamandis, NASA, and Google that focuses on accelerating technology and inspiring a cadre of leaders to address humanity's grand challenges. Jessica is also the founder of IDEAL, a non-profit focused on connecting young leaders with seasoned experts, and previously worked in the Canadian Prime-Minister’s office as a writer and brand marketer.
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Matt Harris is the co-founder and Managing General Partner of Village Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm with over $175MM under management. Village Ventures is focused on seed and early stage investing in the media and financial services sectors.
Harris began his career as a consultant at Bain & Company, and subsequently joined Bain Capital. At Bain Capital, Harris’ most notable transactions included the $1.1 billion purchase and subsequent sale of a credit-reporting agency, and the $90MM purchase of a medical products distributor. Harris left Bain Capital in 1997 to become the founding Managing Director of The Berkshires Capital Investors, a venture capital fund associated with Williams College. Under Harris’ leadership, BCI’s first fund of $5MM invested in 12 companies, with eight successful exits to date. The BCI organization, now a Village Ventures affiliate, has gone on to raise an additional $60MM.
Harris graduated from Williams College in 1994, and now lives in New York, NY. Harris is a member of the NYC Seed Advisory Board, Chairman of the Board of the Williamstown Theatre Festival and was a founding Board Member and Treasurer of Camp Starfish, a camp for troubled and disadvantaged youth outside Boston, MA. He also sits on numerous corporate boards, including BankSimple, Bluetarp Financial, Consumer United, iSend, MetaMarkets, OnDeck Capital, TxVia and Vico Software.
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Entrepreneur at the intersection of banking, payments, and technology. Co-founder of Simple.