Ballooning Nest Eggs was founded by a devoted aunt and digital media executive who noticed an opportunity. So many friends and family – from the moment their youngsters enter the world – seek to secure their financial futures. Yet they mostly all seem to be going it alone by squirreling away paychecks into various investments. And, oh yes, often counting on (and secretly praying) the grandparents were doing the same.
Our founder recognized that all the celebrations in youngsters' lives offer a myriad of opportunities for their biggest champions – family and friends who adore those kids – to pitch in. Yet most are standing on the sidelines because asking for, and even giving, financial gifts can make even the most socially-conscious adults cringe.
Ballooning Nest Eggs transforms financial gifting by providing parents with a thoroughly tasteful and modern way to corral their "personal village" and together to reach a meaningful common goal: securing and growing kids' long-term wealth. We're the first platform to truly "take the funny out money" and turn the awwwkward into memorable awww moments for everyone.
Amy has spent over 20 years in media and entertainment at the intersection of consumer engagement and revenue optimization. Before this venture, she founded a boutique business development firm focused on driving incremental revenue for major TV networks and digital brands.
Amy also headed up Turner Broadcasting’s largest ad sales marketing and sponsorship department (TBS), increasing annual revenue 25-fold to over $200 million annually. While there, she pioneered a branded entertainment model that today remains an industry standard.
Amy is the doting aunt to five spirited nieces and nephews. She seeks to inspire them to one day take the leap into the madcap startup world.
MBA, Columbia Business School; BA, Cornell University
Kent has an extensive background delivering complex cross-functional technology projects in wealth management and digital transformation for top-tier global financial services firms and startups, including robo-advisors and payments/remittances with Bitcoin. He's immersed in UBS’ launch of its robo-advisory platform. At Morgan Stanley, Kent focused on branch applications for client/account onboarding and financial advisor workstations.
MBA, MIT Sloan School of Management; MS, Chalmers University of Technology
Alpa brings 15 years of extensive consumer marketing and analytics experience, including across the Technology, Market Research, and Media & Entertainment industries. Most recently, she led marketing efforts to launch and scale launch Kidz Central Station, a breakthrough digital platform for busy parents to access, plan and coordinate their kids' in-person activities in the NYC metro area. Alpa developed and ran customer acquisition, engagement and retention initiatives, building the parent user base from scratch to 35,000. Prior to that, she helped create the Digital Research team at ESPN.
MBA, Columbia Business School; BA, Brown University
Miguel Oviedo, Senior Software Engineer
Miguel enters the startup world after several decades developing large-scale trading systems for leaders in the financial industry, such as J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Salomon Brothers. From being hands-on with writing code from the ground up to leading large, globally distributed teams of developers and business analysts, Miguel brings an all-round depth of knowledge and experience to our development team.
B.A. Computer Science, New York University; In Progress: M.S. Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, California Institute of Technology.
Bruce Loeb, Director of Marketing
Bruce has most of his career developing and marketing exciting brands. For almost 7 years, as VP of Marketing for Pokemon USA, he drove marketing and brand strategies for the ground-breaking and now iconic Pokemon franchise. Additionally, Bruce managed the entire US business for World Cyber Games, the Samsung-owned company responsible for the world championships of video games, and held marketing roles at various consumer product companies including Colgate-Palmolive and Techno Source.
MBA, Columbia Business School; BSE, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Startup Strategy, Fundraising and Regulatory
Rebekka brings deep expertise in financial services and a proven track record in managing and growing global organizations. She’s mentored numerous startups, building products and teams, while advising on regulatory compliance, credit unions and startup fundraising. Earlier in her career, Rebekka served as Assistant General Counsel for Goldman Sachs and Press Secretary for President Joe Biden when he served at Senator from Delaware. Rebekka holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a JD from Yale Law School.
Financial Services - Strategy and Operations
Bernie co-founded and runs Madison Consulting, a boutique firm specializing in operations, innovation and risk management for leading financial firms, such as Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan, UBS and Morgan Stanley. Before that, Bernie held strategic positions in Global Investment Management and Retirement Services for Bankers Trust. Bernie holds an MBA from Columbia Business School (full scholarship) and a BS and MS in Engineering from MIT.
Acting CTO
Warren has been working with technology for over 25 years and in digital startups since the late 1990s. He has been CTO for four innovative tech startups (Everplans, XGraph, Fotolog, Solbright), three with highly successful exits. From 2008 to 2011, Warren was SVP, head of Online Platform Development, at MTV Networks, overseeing more than 400 websites and apps. Warren holds an MA from Columbia University and a BA from Stanford University.
FinTech Innovation and Operations
Until recently, Philip headed up Cisco’s global financial services consulting practice to optimize and transform the tech-based performance of leading financial firms. Currently, he is head of Financial Services Consulting for Worldwide Technology. Previously, he was a Senior Managing Partner at Gartner, Director at Capital One Financial and a consultant at McKinsey.
Startup Operations and Digital Communications
Howard is an operations and marketing technology specialist for companies and non-profits seeking to scale and ramp up their online communities, social and content. He runs the Harbooke Group and teaches at Columbia University. Previously, Howard was the COO of Domainskate.com, a digital services company that helps businesses protect their brands online.
FinTech Innovation
Ken is a leader in consumer-facing tech innovation in the Financial Services sector. He formerly served as SVP, Head of Customer Innovation, for Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, where he covered all brands and channels within the firm. Currently, Ken is Executive in Residence/Research Affiliate at the Center for Future Banking at the MIT Media Lab.
Software Development
Nate has extensive product development and General Manager experience at numerous NYC-based media companies and startups. Currently he’s Chief Digital Officer at New York Public Radio. He co-founded and sold the acclaimed FoodRepublic.com, a content site for adventurous, discerning and passionate eaters. Nate was also Vice President of Product Development for Univision, responsible for all digital and interactive products.
Payments and Operations
Kivanc is an accomplished international strategy and business development leader with cross-functional know-how and hands-on experience in go-to-market, scaling and full P&L ownership of financial services and payments productss. He’s Head of Payments and Financial Products Strategy for Alibaba (B2B, North America). Earlier, Kivanc was Managing Director and General Manager at PayPal for Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa, leading the company’s expansion into the region. Kivanc holds an from MBA, Columbia Business School and B Eng from Istanbul Technical University.