Meet Secfi’s newest senior leadership hires
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Secfi has already helped thousands of people in the startup community, currently representing $19 billion on our platform. And we’ve barely even scratched the surface.
That’s why we’re welcoming new senior leaders to the team. Jaime Moreno de los Rios joins us as our new COO and will be focusing, at least initially, on the capital markets side of Secfi’s business. For our clients, this means streamlining Secfi’s financing products. Jaime joins us from Flexport, where he was previously VP of Corporate Development & Investor relations. Before that, he spent over a decade in investment banking at J.P. Morgan, where he advised tech startups on more than $20 billion worth of capital raisings, M&A, debt offerings and IPOs.
Neha Bhatia Ramdas is also joining us as our new VP of Sales. She also has deep experience in the financial industry, with a specialized focus in building successful, customer-focused sales teams. She’ll be leading our Equity Strategy team to help people working in the startup community navigate life-changing financial decisions. Prior to joining Secfi, she was VP of Sales at OpenInvest, which was recently acquired by J.P. Morgan.
Read the full announcement here. Instead of sharing all their credentials, we thought it would be more fun to let them introduce themselves.
Share a bit about your professional background
I actually have a somewhat unconventional background for a sales leader, at least compared to most others that I’ve worked with! I received a Masters in Mathematics of Finance from Columbia University and a Masters in Mathematics from Oxford University. So I’ve been working in the financial industry for my entire career. I was actually more interested in financial analytics, which is what I did for quite a few years. I started my career as an Analyst at BlackRock and even worked as an Investment Advisor at Fisher Investments.
To be honest, sales never even crossed my mind! But I was offered a great opportunity to lead sales management for a large financial company. To my surprise, I loved it! And I haven’t looked back. Leading effective sales teams comes down to three main things: process, structure and predictability. And those are actually similar principles I lived by as an analyst.
Not many people would see the link between a math major and sales, but sales is all about numbers. It’s about hitting quotas, it’s about predicting outcomes and it’s about building reports on progress. Plus, I love the people aspect of it. Building a team, growing their careers and the actual customers I get to interact with. And that is not what I expected when I was imagining a career in math.
Why did you want to join Secfi?
Definitely the mission. Equity at startups is not only very misunderstood, but it’s also the biggest missed opportunity — for both employees and executives. Secfi is really changing that. But it’s not just through their financing to help clients get the cash they need to cover the cost of exercising their stock options. It’s also the education they provide along the way. I was blown away by the knowledge and expertise the equity strategy team has, but also how they work with clients to help them understand their personal situation. Why it can be so expensive to exercise but also the benefits of doing so, and doing it early. We’re offering more than just a product, we’re offering our clients an experience. Because for many of them, this is the biggest financial decision they’ve made in their lives so far. And it can also be life changing.
What excites you the most about your role at Secfi?
Getting to help startup employees see their years of hard work building a company pay off. But it’s also about where Secfi is as a business. It’s just such an exciting time to join a company that, while still in the early stages, is on such a quick trajectory upwards. The equity strategy team is already top notch. In fact, they are a huge reason clients work with Secfi. They appreciate the breadth of knowledge they have and how each strategist personally guides them through every step of the process. Getting to build on what they’re already doing is thrilling but it’s also about helping the team do what they do best: Helping startup employees own their options.
What hobby or activity have you picked up during the last year at home?
I have successfully committed to daily exercising during the pandemic thanks to our Peloton bike. We have a 3 year old girl and a 6 year old boy so needless to say the last year was both challenging and incredibly rewarding. We baked lots of cookies and pancakes (and ate loads of baked goods)! Uno & Monopoly are crowd pleasers in our home. My husband has learned to make delicious cocktails while I have enjoyed being the taste tester :).
Share a bit about your professional background
In summary, I’ve done about 10 years in Investment Banking and 5 years working in and around startups.
I started my career doing a bunch of internships for J.P. Morgan. I ended up getting a full-time job and did well enough not to get fired during the 2008-2009 recession. That was already a huge success to me. In total, I worked around 5 years at J.P. Morgan between London and a bit of time in Hong Kong.
I always wanted to have more direct impact and really liked startups and the perfect opportunity came. That’s why I joined Rocket Internet, a German venture builder that replicated startups and became very famous for it. They hired me to be Managing Director and Co-founder for Rocket Internet Spain. I was launching the local operations in Spain for any startup that Rocket wanted to replicate. It was literally like an MBA in startups and entrepreneurship on steroids.
After Rocket Internet, despite thinking that I would never come back to banking, I had an amazing opportunity to rejoin J.P. Morgan in San Francisco helping Tech startups on their IPOs, acquisitions or mergers, etc. So I took it. It was an amazing period in my life where I was exposed to the most innovative startups in the U.S.
However, I always craved going back to the operational side. I used to sit across the table from startup CEOs and founders and always wanted to be on the other side of the table, with them actively building their company.
After another 5 years in banking, I left to join one of my clients, Flexport, as VP of Corp Dev & Investor Relations and, eventually, VP of Flexport Capital as well.
Why did you want to join Secfi?
I empathize with our customer. After leaving Flexport, I had to drain my savings to exercise my options. It was a very tough decision, for myself and for my family. I know how other startup employees feel, and I want to help them.
At the same time, I wanted to work with incredible humans. Putting the two together, plus a growing market opportunity, is a pretty powerful combination.
What excites you most about your role at Secfi?
Again, working with amazing people and helping startup employees go through situations I have been in the past.
As COO, in particular, I’m wearing different hats to help in the most impactful areas for Secfi, whether Capital Markets, New Business Development, or Go-to-Market. I like to spend time where I can deliver the most value.
What hobby or activity have you picked up during the last year at home?
I have tried so many things. Daily exercise, meditation, breathing techniques, yoga, stretching, and keeping a journal. Nothing has really stuck yet. Something will.