Join us on the first Monday of the month as we build Houston’s FinTech community at the Ion!

Fintech describes various financial activities, including money transfers, depositing a check with your smartphone, bypassing a bank branch to apply for credit, raising money for a business startup, personal finance, and more!

This community is for all who are interested in FinTech, including FinTech entrepreneurs, thought leaders interested in FinTech innovation, vendors and funders seeking to work with financial services and technology sector startups, FinTech investors, compliance and legal professionals wanting to share their FinTech knowledge, and more!

To join the Ion’s Funded Founder Community, apply HERE. To pitch at Poptarts and Pitches, upload your pitch deck HERE.

About the Speakers

June Speaker: Mahesh Sashital is the co-founder and CTO of Lucrisma, a cutting-edge Web3 company that offers financial data privacy and portability solutions to users.

Mahesh’s passion for the blockchain industry led him to found the Houston Blockchain Alliance in 2018. He has advocated for and spoken about blockchain with organizations in Houston, including the City, University of Houston, Rice University, startups, and Fortune 500 companies.

Mahesh has over 20 years of experience in software engineering, enterprise architecture, and product management. He has held various positions at companies like J.P. Morgan, Ford, and Chrysler. He has also co-founded multiple startups and served as the CTO for each of them.

Mahesh is originally from Mumbai, India, but has been a Houstonian for 17 years. He earned his Bachelor’s in Engineering from India and his MBA from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas – Austin.

May 2023 Speaker: Robert M Franklin III, Venture Partner at the Sybilla Mastersfund and Lecturer at Rice University Jones School of Business 

April 2023 Speakers: Manolo Sánchez, Director, Fannie Mae, Adjunct Professor, Jones Graduate School of Business; Vincent Bradley Castellanos, CEO of Claimkey and Eddie Arroyo, CFO of Claimkey

March 2023 Speaker: Bobby Bryant, Founder/CEO DOSS

February 2023 Speakers: Isaiah Studivent, CEO/Head of Growth, Evron; Chalique Seabron, COO, Evron

About the hosts

Norman Pappous has degrees in Economics (BS) and Financial Markets & Trading (MSc.). He has worked in the UK and USA for various financial services firms, including ABN Amro, UBS, Close Bros. Merchant Bank, Rydex Series Trust, and Merrill Lynch. He has also consulted hedge funds and corporate treasury operations. In 2022 Norman authored the book Wall Street’s Grand Deception. Norman is Quora.com’s “Most viewed writer” for asset management, financial advisors, and passive/index investing. The Structured Products Association of America gave Norman the “Leading Edge Advisor” award for his work in derivatives pricing. He’s been featured in The New York Post, Forbes, Investment News, Registered Rep, TheStreet.com, and Frontline on PBS. Norman also founded a FinTech start-up that raised seed and angel funding close to $1 million.

Kiley Summers is the Founder of Spendebt. Shortly after college graduation, Kiley and TyLisha found themselves in over $100,000 of consumer debt. Growing up, finances weren’t discussed in their households. No one told them that only making minimum payments on their debt would likely have them in debt for the rest of their lives. The couple decided to hire a financial advisor to help them improve their financial situation. After becoming debt free, they began sharing their story with family and friends, realizing there were so many people caught in the never-ending debt spiral without a plan to get out, and SpenDebt was born.

Phillip Yates is the co-founder of Equiliberty, a technology company designed to help build diversity in property ownership and support minority businesses and neighborhoods by linking people to information, capital, and markets, with a mission to transition the wealth of talent and genius in underserved communities into a treasure of communal wealth, anchored by communal ownership.