Josh Liggett
Fintech Lead, OurCrowd
Josh Liggett works on the Investments team at OurCrowd, focusing on Fintech and Blockchain. His first exposure to the pain points fintech companies solve was dealing with traditional factors in the mid 2000’s while running an e-commerce clothing company. Soon after moving to Israel, Josh got involved in the Israeli Fintech scene. He started writing for the fintech media site Tearsheet in early 2016, where he covered payments and blockchain, joining OurCrowd a year later. Since then he has been investing in the blockchain space, speaking at events, and helping early stage blockchain companies grow. He has a true entrepreneurial spirit, and has made angel investments, sat on the board of financial institutions, and coordinated business development strategies to help his investments grow. Other roles include mentor at the Barclays Accelerator Powered by Techstars in Tel Aviv, Barclays Rise Ambassador, and Board Advisor & Mentor at Blockchain Israel.
- Posted on: 07/16/2020Unconventional Ventures’ Theodora Lau: ‘We can do better and we have the technology to do it”
I thought colored credit cards were innovation ;-). You could argue that many of the "Challenger Banks" aren't just digital versions of banks and not "challengers" in the typical startup sense of trying to break the wheel. Obviously regulations and other factors may prevent massive changes, but we definitely need to do better. Agree with Theodora on Aspiration in terms of trying to do something "different" than the rest.
- Posted on: 07/16/2020As the effects of COVID-19 continue to rise in the U.S., so does the use of contactless payments
This is something we've been waiting for years for (even before Apple Pay came out), and there is still a ways to go for large-scale adoption of contactless payments as the POS. I think it's 2 main issues for the consumer: Behavior and Convenience. A founder of a payments startup I spoke to a few years ago put it perfectly (for a TS article): "Until I know I can go to the gym without my wallet, and know I can buy a bottle of water on my way home, people are still going to use cash/card." That plus people naturally reaching for their wallets instead of the phone to pay show we're still not there yet, but def a compelling idea that hygiene may push adoption.
- Posted on: 06/03/2020Ally summer internships go virtual in wake of coronavirus pandemic
I actually have a college student remotely interning for me right now, and there are def pros and cons to it. We have daily zoom meetings, use google docs to collaborate, and chat over slack/what'sapp, so no shortage in terms of tools to work together. At the same time, you def loose a bit of that "personal" touch since we've never met f2f, along with the experience (in my intern's case) of working in a different city/state/country. But since we're in different zip codes, I have him work on things while I'm asleep and then can review them in the morning. It just makes it even more important to provide clear directions since I may not be accessible to answer questions during all his working hours. At the end of the day, I think it's def doable to have internships remote, but believe you do lose out on a lot of the "soft skills/experience" that would've come with it. To me, these skills may be even more essential than the hard skill experience interns come away with at the end of an internship.