Seven Innovators. One Mission: Financial Security for All

Millions of workers across the United States are affected by financial vulnerability. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, about 4.5% of U.S. households (approximately 5.9 million) were “unbanked” in 2021, meaning no one in the household had a checking or savings account at a bank or credit union.  

Lack of access to financial services can limit the ability of people in low-wage jobs to securely manage their finances and build wealth, but at JFFLabs, we’re optimistic that a new generation of tech-based financial products and services can enable people of all backgrounds to achieve long-term financial success and build secure financial futures for themselves and their families. 

That’s why we’re excited to introduce our Personal Financial Success Entrepreneurs in Residence cohort, a group of visionary leaders of six businesses who are dedicated to transforming the financial services landscape and making personal financial success accessible to people who have been underserved by traditional banks and lending institutions.  

These newest members of the JFFLabs Entrepreneurs in Residence incubator program play leading roles at startups that are reshaping money management and professional success, offering products and services designed to promote financial inclusion, expand access to micropayment solutions, foster employee well-being and career advancement opportunities, and more. Their offerings range from daily payroll solutions to career readiness programs for people interested in jobs in the Web3 market.  

Read on to meet each member and learn about the tools and solutions they’re developing.

Current Innovators

Nina Blankenship is the CEO of Crypto Tutors, an online platform that offers education and training programs on topics such as cryptocurrency and other technologies associated with Web3, which Wired describes as “a decentralized online ecosystem based on the blockchain.”   

Driven by a passion for financial inclusion and the promise of Web3, she founded Crypto Tutors in 2020 with Lisa Francoeur and Moeti Ncube, who had been Blankenship’s statistics tutor at the University of West Florida.

Francoeur is the chief revenue officer at Crypto Tutors. A proud Haitian American with 20 years of experience in technology, she is recognized as a top blockchain technologist. She has spoken at prestigious venues like the Harvard Kennedy School and Carnegie Hall, and in 2023, she was named “One to Watch” by the Haitian Roundtable 1804 list. 

Blankenship and Francoeur share a goal to create opportunities for people of all backgrounds—especially those who have been underrepresented in tech—to learn about careers in Web3 and can gain the qualifications needed to become blockchain developers. They’re currently in the final stages of building out a resource they call the Web3 Career Assessment platform, which is designed to help students and professionals find out about Web3 career pathways.

Matt Dicou is cofounder and CEO of Reset Financial Technologies, which offers a solution called the Reset Financial Companion that people can use to track their income, bills, and spending all in one place, enabling them to make more informed financial decisions and improve their financial well-being.  

A social entrepreneur with a rich background in small business and tech, Dicou holds an MBA from Stanford Business School, where he received a Miller Social Change Leadership Award in 2023 and was awarded an Impact Design Immersion Fellowship in 2022. He also spent five years working at Visa, where he led the on-demand payroll vertical, and in 2022, was an entrepreneur in residence at the Financial Health Network.  

Dashell Laryea is cofounder and CEO of Ezra Financial, which works with employers to set up emergency savings accounts for workers in low-wage hourly jobs. Ezra believes that company-sponsored savings plans can improve employee engagement and reduce turnover because they put employees in a better position to handle unexpected expenses like car repairs, which might otherwise cause them to miss work.  

Before founding Ezra, Laryea worked as a financial analyst at Eventide Asset Management, held leadership roles in strategy and operations at Google, and served as a management consultant at FSG. In 2017, he co-authored a Harvard Business Review article about strategies for engaging and retaining young hourly workers. He holds a degree in humanities from Yale and has a keen interest in financial technologies, software-as-a-service, and marketplaces. 

Benjamin Maldonado is an operations leader at Backrs, a free social networking platform that students from populations that are underrepresented in quality jobs can use to build professional social capital by making connections with experienced professionals in careers that interest them.  

Maldonado began his career as a teacher and then transitioned to consulting and tech. With recent experience at LinkedIn, Facebook, and Kraken, he specializes in business operations and enterprise planning, with a focus on creating opportunities for financial advancement and empowering members of communities that are underserved by public and private institutions.

Kiley Summers is the founder of SpenDebt, a company whose mission is to promote financial wellness by helping people pay off debt via micropayments. After overcoming significant consumer debt himself, Summers founded SpenDebt to help others achieve financial stability. His company offers a solution that enables users to pay down their debt by making micropayments of a predetermined amount every time they swipe their debit cards.  

Summers has secured substantial support from industry leaders. His goal is to help 1 million families overcome financial hardships. He holds a degree in electrical engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology. 

Kelsey Willock is the cofounder and CEO of Aura Finance, an investment advisory firm whose mission is to help people overcome financial anxiety and achieve financial wellness. Recognizing that finance can be intimidating, Aura provides personalized support and expert guidance to create accessible investment opportunities. Among other things, the firm offers direct indexing, meaning individuals directly hold shares of the stocks in their portfolios—a feature typically only available to those who can make minimum investments of six figures.  

Willock co-founded Aura after paying off significant student debt and overcoming financial anxiety. Her goal is to support investors who are members of populations that are underrepresented in the securities industry. Her background includes a successful career at Goldman Sachs, where she was a vice president in the Prime Brokerage group. She is an active member of various financial and investment communities and frequently speaks on financial literacy topics. 

The members of the JFFLabs Personal Financial Success Entrepreneurs in Residence cohort are driving a new wave of financial innovation. Each of their companies brings a unique solution that advances financial resilience and inclusion and has the capacity to evolve in response to ongoing transformations in our economy, including those that could result in higher-wage, quality jobs opportunities in fields like green energy and electrification. Together, the innovators in this cohort can help fulfill the needs of people who have lacked access to traditional financial institutions and expand the range and availability of quality financial products and services. In the JFFLabs Entrepreneurs in Residence program, they will work together to create a brighter and more secure financial future for all.

This new cohort is supported by the Ares Charitable Foundation through the Climate-Resilient Employees for a Sustainable Tomorrow (CREST) initiative. CREST is a five-year, $25 million career preparation and reskilling initiative of the Ares Charitable Foundation (the Ares Foundation) that aims to help close the gap between the demand for a skilled workforce for green jobs and the number of people prepared for these opportunities.