Description

This Fundamentals for Startups featured Gilad Berenstein, Founder, Brook Bay Capital, LLC (http://brookbaycapital.com/), who spoke about how fintech, DeFi, super-apps, and aggregation came together to power the correct fintech revolution. Until recently finance and financial services were not a topic of popular conversation and were spheres of our economy reserved for the very wealthy and the highly educated. So why is it that DeFi, financial services, and an endless number of novel financial products are appearing in every direction? Why is it that banking was such a closed-off industry but now we see new neoBanks launching by the dozen? In this talk we will explore the changes brought about by AI, aggregation, and big data which are fueling the wave of new startups in the fintech sector.

Presenter Bio

Gilad Berenstein is an Israeli born entrepreneur based in Seattle. Gilad began his entrepreneurial career early. While at the University of Washington, he was involved in several startups, including serving as the VP of business development at Watch2Help, a social cause marketing platform company. After college, Gilad was a consultant at PwC prior to founding Utrip, an artificial intelligence (AI) startup that he led for 7 years as CEO. Gilad was honored by PhocusWright and named to their Class of 35 Under 35, was awarded Geekwire’s Seattle Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and is a frequent keynote speaker at major industry conferences. Throughout that time, Gilad was also a board member and advisor to numerous companies including Vibby, Spree, and others.

After Utrip, Gilad spent a year as the entrepreneur-in-residence at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2), where he worked with the over 100 Ph.D.’s conducting breakthrough AI research. While at AI2, Gilad engaged with leaders from prominent businesses, venture funds, and academia, learning from them and helping to problem solve and innovate through the adoption of AI and personalization.

Today, Gilad leads Brook Bay Capital, a small fund doing early stage venture investing. In addition, Gilad serves on the board of directors of Virtuoso, the world’s preeminent luxury travel network, and several other businesses that focus on utilizing smart technology to delight customers. He is also a board director and corporate advisor to numerous technology startups and large ventures adopting AI or Personalization in the US, Israel, UK, Australia, and others. Gilad is proud to be a startup advisor and CEO mentor through a number of leading incubators and accelerators in the US and beyond.

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