Carey Ransom

Carey Ransom is an SaaS entrepreneur, executive, investor and advisor, and has started, grown and/or led 8 B2B and consumer SaaS companies during startup and growth phases. He is currently President of Operate and the Managing Director of BankTech Ventures, a newly-launched strategic investment fund focused on compelling technologies for community banks, and founded and funded by leaders in the community bank ecosystem. With full support and endorsement by the ICBA (Independent Community Bankers of America) and The Venture Center, Finovate’s 2020 Accelerator of the Year, the fund serves the community banking ecosystem through strategic investments, education and collaboration with its limited partners. Prior to Operate he was COO at Aspiration, the leading “consumer financial firm with a conscience,” where he led the firm’s growth from 20 to 200 people and the build out of infrastructure and approval as a FINRA-regulated broker-dealer. He was also CEO of RealPractice, a venture-backed SaaS company, which he sold to ReachLocal (RLOC); Chief Product & Innovation Officer of Experian Consumer Services; and founding CMO of Happy Money, a venture-backed consumer fintech company (and unicorn) that innovated in lending and financial health. Carey's 25-year career spans executive roles in product, marketing, business development, strategy and corporate development. He was VP Business Development at Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT), an Internet advertising and celebrity endorsement business; VP Marketing and Corporate Development at WebVisible, where he forged new partnerships with AT&T, American Express and Microsoft and led them to nearly 10X revenue growth; VP Sales and Marketing at MessageRite, security compliance SaaS business acquired by Frontbridge Technologies, and then Microsoft. Carey is active in the SoCal startup and investment community - OCTANe, CEO Leadership Alliance of Orange County (CLA-OC), and has been an instructor or guest lecturer at numerous schools including UCLA, USC, UC Irvine, Chapman, Cal State Fullerton, Biola and Vanguard. He has recruited and hired nearly 1000 people in the last 20 years, and passionately believes in purpose, culture and team as key ingredients to successful companies. He has frequently spoken at financial, software and other conferences such as SaaStock, Recurring Revenue, Lendit, AltFI, Innovation Project, Frost & Sullivan and IMA. Carey is an entrepreneur with a passion for sharing and discussing ideas while learning and teaching along the way. Carey is a husband and a father who loves to act like a kid because he’s truly a kid at heart. In his free time he enjoys spending time with his family and traveling. You’ll often find Carey on the sidelines of one of his children's sporting games cheering them on.