Last June, payment processing company Marqeta made its debut on the market when shares of its Class A Common Stock began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. Two months later, when the company issued its first earnings report as a public company, they showed net revenue of $122 million, up 76 percent year-over-year, with 76 percent growth in total processing volume and a 70 percent increase in gross profit
Since then, Marqeta has continued to grow. In June, the company announced Marqeta was being integrated into Western Union’s digital bank platform in Europe. And later that month, the company announced a significant expansion of its credit platform with a new, intuitive dashboard and over 40 new credit APIs that enable customers to design, test, and launch differentiated credit card experiences
On August 17, 2022 Marqeta Founder and CEO Jason Gardner will share his founder’s journey with Founders Network members during our August keynote presentation. As part of the event, he’ll detail the process, build up, and experience of going public
In his keynote Gardner will also cover:
Opening Remarks & Chapter Launch @ 9:30am PT
Join us for opening remarks with Kevin Holmes, Founder & CEO @ Founders Network, to get the latest updates from the Network and opportunities for getting involved.
Keynote Speaker @ 9:40am PT
Jason Gardner is a serial entrepreneur with a deep love of technology. He has been a member of Founders Network’s Membership Committee since October 2019.
Jason Gardner is the founder and chief executive officer of Marqeta, Inc. Under his leadership Marqeta has defined the global standard for modern card issuing, developing an industry-leading issuer processor platform that now powers the world’s most innovative companies.
Prior to Marqeta, Jason co-founded PropertyBridge, which became the leading rent and lease-related payment and transaction integration platform for multifamily real estate. PropertyBridge was acquired by MoneyGram International (MGI) in 2007. Before PropertyBridge he founded Vertical Think, an IT management company that worked with start-ups and larger organizations.
Jason grew up in New Jersey where he had numerous businesses that included making and selling tie-dyed T-shirts. He was a G.O. at Club Med in Paradise Island, Bahamas and a constituent liaison for Senator John McCain in Arizona, primarily working as a contact between McCain’s constituents and the Armed Services and IRS. After attending Arizona State University Jason made it to California where he began to pursue his passion for technology.
Jason holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Arizona State University.
Stage-Based Roundtables @ 10:30 am PT
Community Partners:
Dec’13 Cohort Blake Caldwell is the CEO & Founder of FoundersBoost. He has 350 alumni, 100 new startups a year, 8k newsletter readers. He’s driven by his passions to create and build community. He’s also the founder of 2332 Collective (music production & festivals with the goal of bringing music to West LA) & The MoGuard (consumer product cup attachment protecting glorious mustaches).
FoundersBoost is a free pre-seed & seed stage mentorship driven pre-accelerator helping promising tech-startups with accelerators, investment, and revenue.
Max Shapiro founded PeopleConnect in 2000 to help early-stage high-tech companies find the talent they need to succeed. PeopleConnect’s clients are in technology, biotech, cleantech, apps, services, medical devices, and consumer products.
Their team of outstanding recruiters finds C-level executives, talented managers and experienced leaders who will bring their client companies to the next level. They provide traditional contingency searches as well as their one-of-a-kind ‘Employees Without Paychecks’ program, which he created after the dotcom bust to help promising companies find top-level talent willing to work for equity only until the company gets their funding.
As you can tell by the name of his company, Max likes to connect people and would love to know if there is any way that he and his team can help you add some fantastic, startup experienced people to your team, like PeopleConnect has been doing for 20 years.
Jeff leads the Partnerships Team at Forecastr — a leading FP&A software company that helps startups create kick-butt financial models to impress investors, confidently raise capital, and effectively run their businesses better.
Jeff serves on the advisory boards of several startup companies and is an active angel investor. He’s passionate about startups and enjoys working with founders and mentoring entrepreneurs.
Jeff is an experienced entrepreneur and was the founder and CEO of a successful consumer goods company that he rapidly grew from $1M in sales its first year to over $40M in annual revenue in its fourth year of operations and was ranked #138 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies.
Prior to founding his own company, Jeff was a partner at Beanstalk Partners where he led the sales and business development activities. He also served as the National Sales Director for a venture-backed tech startup where he generated over $45M in client contracts and developed the company’s channel partner program.
Jeff has a degree in accounting and graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Utah. After receiving his MBA in Finance from the University of Utah he served as the Vice President of Investments for Sentry Financial Corporation.
Cathy is the Managing Partner at FullScope Growth, a global consortium of elite Fractional Executives and Business Acceleration Partners that provide the exact combination of experts that organizations require.
She has cross-functional experience in sales, management, marketing and business planning, client services, network development and operations. Delivers strong results within highly competitive markets.
Are you a full-time tech founder? Be our guest! During COVID, we’re making our events available to tech founders everywhere. Enjoy a complimentary ticket to come learn from fellow tech founders, partners and investors. Already used your complimentary guest pass? Request an invite to see if you qualify for membership.
About Founders Network:
Founded in 2011, Founders Network offers lifelong peer mentorship to over 600 tech startup founders globally. Our platform, programs and high-touch service facilitate authentic experience sharing, warm introductions and long-term professional relationships. Additional benefits include over $500k in startup discounts and promotion to 2,000 newsletter readers. Members are located in San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Toronto, London and other tech hubs. Each month our Membership Committee admits a new cohort of full-time tech founders who are nominated by an existing member. Learn more about us here
Confidentiality Policy
All information shared within Founders Network is strictly confidential. We are built on a foundation of trust, and the community takes confidentiality seriously. Investors, members, and staff all share experiences and opinions off the record. In this roundtable forum, we continue to model our fnValues of Reciprocity, Humility, Authenticity and Inclusivity. Read more about our Privacy Policy here.
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