Motivating people and finding ways for them to start investing earlier makes a huge difference, which is where Voleo comes in. I used to be an investment banker and after consulting to startups for several years, I saw a prototype of Voleo. It was exactly what I needed when I was younger, with a fun twist we call DROID (definitive return on investment decisions), so we took the concept and developed a social trading platform that makes it easy for anyone to start investing by pooling their money and building teams with friends and family.

My brother Nick and I were born two years apart, and were raised in Chicago. Our mom was a hardworking single mom who had her own cleaning business. We grew up understanding what it was like to work, to really work. At ten years old, we learned to shovel lots of snowy Chicago driveways to earn money. Later we started a landscape business, and Nick even started an e-commerce business. We’ve always built businesses together, and have relied on each other as all around trusted partners.

The Venture Center is dedicated to helping professionals in all stages of their careers grow. As we have already kicked off the 2019 program, and are hearing great feedback from those who were accepted this year, we thought we’d share the top questions that have been most helpful. Although you might not be participating in our program this year, we highly encourage finding mentors for your professional and personal growth. Here are a few questions we’ve borrowed from Forbes that our mentees have found helpful when meeting with theirs.

Little Rock, Ark.  (May 30, 2019)—The Independent Community Bankers of America® (ICBA) and The Venture Center celebrate this year’s Finovate Best of Show winner, Invest Sou Sou. Finovate is a demo-focused conference series focused exclusively on showcasing the best and most innovative new financial and banking technologies, attracting large, high-impact audiences of senior financial and banking executives, fintech leaders and investors. Invest Sou Sou was a member of the inaugural ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator cohort and won the program’s MVP award.

Would you believe I’ve never had a “real” job? The emphasis on “real” is because as soon as I could, I started my own company. Part of what’s influenced me to work this way is the mentorship I received from a number of people in my life, namely my father. The dinner table was my nightly mentor session. My father, his friends, business associates and family ate together and I listened. I was always a good listener, and I’m glad I was because I have relied upon their advice, especially while starting FinTech companies like Neener Analytics. The biggest piece of advice I got from my mentors was, “Never quit.” Who knows who really said it first, but when you quit you just don’t know how close you were to success, so I just never quit.

“There is not a more worthy mission than creating and improving quality of life for every person around the world. This is the mission that drives me every day of my life, and is what led me to create the FinTech startup, Sendmi. Sendmi’s mission is simply to improve financial infrastructure so that people can send money to their family members without high fees and with the protection that transparency brings.”

Congrats to #ICBAThinkTech Accelerator Alumni, Invest SouSou, and #FISFintech Accelerator participant, Neener Analytics, for their incredible delivery at Finovate 2019! 

Chris Johnson, Little Rock market president for First Financial Bank, says community banks benefitted from the ICBA Think Tech Accelerator. They got a look at new tools and could form partnerships with the startups that completed the program, and those partnerships could help them better compete.

Omnetrium, an innovative software platform which designs, builds and operates custom prize-linked savings programs, congratulates Centennial Bank on the launch of their Cents To Win Prize Savings Program.  The Cents To Win Program is powered through a technology partnership with Omnetrium.

Under a 12-month pilot program, Veteran Capital will expand its fellowship program to connect service members and their spouses with startups at other Google for Startups partner tech hubs across the country. In turn, Google will leverage its local contacts and offers hands-on support to the company’s fellows.