Fintech First Network

A private network of VCs

A think tank backing emerging trends

Mission

Building synergies across enterprises, funds and startups by connecting digital capabilties to enterprise roadmap

Strategic Roundtables

Financial executives meet investors and founders on specific themes

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Invited.
Selected based on expertise and goals
Focused.
A small curated group (12-20) maximizing synergies on a theme
Cadenced.
Engage on relevant themes over multiple dinners
Jumpstart.
Compress serendipity for syerngies: customers, partnerships, and investments

Our Network

Curated for high quality engagement, we've gathered leaders driving innovation forward

Industry Leaders.

Capped to 50 leaders, our expert-in-residents have deep fintech expertise scaling fintechs. They are heads of product or partnerships, founders, exited executives, venture partners and scouts.

VCs.

Gathered across NYC, SF, and LA with different fintech focuses across Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A.

Founders.

Invited through the funds or industry leader portfolio to attend our discussions.

Financial Execs.

Leverage our network of funds and leaders to access emerging startups for thought leadership, market research, and strategic partnerships, product adoption, and investment.

Key Networks

Hosting events across multiple cities and centralize networking through closed loop in-person discussions

San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge

San Francisco

San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge

New York

San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge

London

San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge

Los Angeles

Our Mission

We bring founders to a network of leading operators, investors and resources to support startup building, while driving individual brand development and investment optionality for XIRs and VCs

The mission was born out of experiences from VCs, angels, advisors and founders looking for a better way to scale innovation. Through the community, we aim to help the lonely journey of being a founder, increase knowledge transfer, and build relationships amongst founders, operators and investors excited about Fintech.

Traditional accelerator models have two flaws that lead to low impact: unscalable and lack of domain focus. The typical accelerator model is focused on generalized classrooms, while The Collective focuses on impactful guidance by leveraging an XIR network to create a customized experience across mentorship, networking, and fundraising - similar to having your own personal advisory board.

We incentivize XIRs to be involved by providing opportunities to add value at the forefront of innovation, driving impactful advise during key periods of scale.

We are building a platform that drives collaboration amongst founders, VCs, XIRs, angels, and ecosystem leaders, where personal brand development, fairer equity distribution and economics, and value-add drive innovation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why should I participate in this network?

The cadence, curation, and strategic goals of our roundtables brings together digital enterprise strategy with emerging technologies.

Funds look to build a consistent relationship with enterprises on key thesis areas for thought leadership and portfolio value creation. Yet, time to plan and map enterprises limits relationships.  

Financial executives have specific digital roadmap goals, and they consider leading startups as digital enablers. Mapping and accessing all the relevant startups takes time, while existing funds in our network have pre-vetted a layer of the market.

We match access, curation, and cadence between both ecosystems, reducing the ecosystem mapping and planning hurdle to engage.

We break down our strategic roundtables into a series across current thesis areas disclosed to our members.

What does it cost?

Each dinner series will be covered by the participants involved.  

We fractionalize large one-off events into consistent, curated dinners, so our pricing per dinner is a fraction of the cost of conferences. We deliver more strategic synergies with relevant decision makers and innovators in the space.

How do I know what gatherings are happening?

Sign up to our Friends list below if loosely interested to follow or apply to be a member.

Who runs The Collective?

Christian Vela built The Collective after leading investments at American Express Ventures and advising multiple fintech startups at incubation and growth. After building strategic synergies through investments and partnerships within the American Express ecosystem, he found the broader ecosystem to miss a consistent touchpoint between innovation and enterprise strategy. The Collective's mission is to provide a structure between funds and their respective portfolio and enterprises.

Interested to collaborate through partnerships?

We are always evolving the network and working on partnerships with external parties as we centralize nodes of innovation.

I'm a founder and I would like to join the dinners?

We aren't focused on founders but your investors may be part of the network already! Shoot them a message. Otherwise, feel free to send an email to us found at the bottom of this page.