Leo is a management consultant and business executive in financial services. Vas is a physicist turned hedge fund manager. They both earned degrees from Harvard and agreed not to hold it against each other. They like strong coffee and solving problems. Naturally they met in a coffee shop. They found a common interest in expanding access to our financial system to people who really need it. Leo said I’m starting this venture in a technology incubator at Queens College. Vas said I’ve got a 14-year old prodigy nephew you can take on as an intern. Leo agreed as long as Vas signed up too.
We got help from an army of collaborators. There were lawyers, technology architects, designers, software engineers, an ex-Navy officer, data scientists, a few Wall Street types and two dogs. We paid the ones that needed to eat, which included the dogs.
We outgrew the Queens College technology incubator. We moved to midtown Manhattan. Then Coronavirus struck. Now we all work from home. Extra hard. We’re taking it personally. Queens College is less than a mile from some of the hardest hit areas of New York City. If New York is the melting pot of America, Queens College is the forge. Our team has included Queens College students and graduates from every corner of the world.
We didn’t set out to launch LiftRocket in the middle of a global pandemic and economic catastrophe, but now there are more people than ever that need help. We’re not on the medical frontlines, but we are equipped to provide financial relief. If we can get you to join LiftRocket, we’ll be doing our job.
