Virtual Banking: A Guide to Innovation and Partnering

Acknowledgments

The original inspiration for this book really came as a result of my experience with the founding financial innovations team at PayPal—the most innovative, passionate, unstoppable folks out there who exemplify talent and teamwork: Arkady Fridman, Mamta Narain, Peter Amalraj, Katherine Wilson, Kareem Al-Bassam, Jeroen Van Son, Jonathan Knoll, Fred Alexander, and Maksim Rohkline. Thank you all for proving that a small group of people can make a huge impact in shaping the financial services landscape and demonstrating to banks that technology companies make worthy partners.

The latest and continued inspiration for this book has come from my partners at Stockpile, Inc., an exceptional group of people who are building the first ever “PayPal” for stock. A sincere thanks to Avi Lele and Sanjeev Kulkarni for their pioneering work in this area. It will most definitely have a significant impact on global financial inclusion.

I’ve been very fortunate to have numerous mentors along the way that without whom this book would not have been possible. A very big thank you to Scott Thompson, former president of PayPal. Scott is one of the best leaders I’ve had the pleasure to work with, a friend, a mentor, and a real innovator responsible for PayPal’s largest innovations to date. Thank you to Alenka Grealish, who is responsible for my becoming an industry analyst with Celent, for helping me develop those analyst skills necessary to go below the surface and dig out those valuable ...