JC Bahr-de Stefano

CEO

New York, New York, United States8 yrs 10 mos experience
Most Likely To Switch

Key Highlights

  • Expertise in early-stage fintech investments.
  • Strong background in financial partnerships and corporate strategy.
  • Contributing author for a leading fintech newsletter.
Stackforce AI infers this person is a Fintech investment expert with a strong strategic and analytical background.

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Skills

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LeadershipPowerPointMicrosoft ExcelMicrosoft OfficeTeamworkEditingData AnalysisTeachingResearchPoliticsDebateFundraisingSocial MediaOutlookSalesforce.com

About

JC Bahr-de Stefano is a venture capital investor at Better Tomorrow Ventures, an early-stage fintech focused fund, backing incredible founders building the next generation of financial services. Prior to joining Better Tomorrow Ventures, he spent a year and a half at Affirm in two roles. His first role was on the Financial Partnerships team, where he lived at the intersection of Product Partnerships and Strategic Procurement and was responsible for loan-related partnerships across the following areas: credit decisioning, fraud detection and prevention, identity verification and authentication, and SMS communications. His second role was on the Corporate Development and Strategy team, where he conducted qualitative and quantitative analysis to inform strategic decisions for the company and diligence on M&A and venture investment opportunities. Prior to joining Affirm, he spent a little over 3 years at financial services strategy and risk management consulting firm Promontory Financial Group. He was internally recruited as the 3rd member of the firm's Strategy and Optimization practice and worked closely with ex McKinsey and Bain senior advisors to build the offering, which focused on advising financial institutions as they undertook transformation, operational improvement, and cost saving initiatives. JC has a keen interest in financial services innovation, and has spent significant time over the last few years focused on fintech. In addition to his work at BTV, Affirm and Promontory, he spent over 6 years as a contributing author for The Fintech Update, a weekly fintech newsletter that includes curated summaries of major fintech developments and original content and analysis. JC graduated from Williams College in 2017 with a degree in Political Economy.

Experience

8 yrs 10 mos
Total Experience
2 yrs 8 mos
Average Tenure
3 yrs 10 mos
Current Experience

Better tomorrow ventures

2 roles

Principal

Promoted

Jan 2025Present · 1 yr 4 mos

  • Companies sourced + led investment in:
  • Trebol (seed)
  • LogRock (seed +)
  • Portao (seed)
  • Ethos (pre-seed)
  • InScope (pre-seed)
  • Permanent (seed)
  • Deck (seed)
  • Kaaj (pre-seed)
  • Palm (pre-seed)
  • Notes (pre-seed)
  • Treasury Path (pre-seed)
  • Sticker (pre-seed)

Senior Associate

Apr 2022Dec 2024 · 2 yrs 8 mos

  • Better Tomorrow Ventures (btv.vc) is an early-stage fintech focused fund, backing incredible founders building the next generation of financial services. If you're an early stage fintech company, we'd love to chat! Feel free to email me at jc@btv.vc

Palm

Investor (pre-seed)

Jul 2024Present · 1 yr 10 mos

Deck

Investor (seed)

Jun 2024Present · 1 yr 11 mos

Inscope

Investor (pre-seed)

Jul 2023Present · 2 yrs 10 mos

Logrock

Investor (seed)

Jul 2022Present · 3 yrs 10 mos

Affirm

2 roles

Corporate Development and Strategy Lead

Nov 2021Mar 2022 · 4 mos

  • In this role, I conducted qualitative and quantitative analysis to inform strategic decisions for the company and diligence on M&A and venture investment opportunities.

Finance Partnerships Lead

Dec 2020Nov 2021 · 11 mos

  • I primarily focused on managing and sourcing new partnerships to power our consumer and merchant underwriting stack, spanning across several areas, including credit decisioning, fraud detection and prevention, identity verification and authentication, bank account authentication, and SMS communications. This role served as an amazing education of our business, specifically how Affirm makes intelligent, sophisticated, and risk-weighted decisions regarding consumers and merchants in real time, and offered me visibility all the way up to our c suite. Furthermore, in this role, I was afforded the opportunity to partner with some of the brightest minds in the industry across credit risk and analytics, merchant risk, fraud strategy, engineering, machine learning, product, and even our internal incubator on several strategic initiatives here at Affirm. Some highlights include: driving improvements to our underlying unit economics, supporting international expansion, identifying and executing M&A integration synergies, and expanding access to credit to better serve the credit invisible population.

On deck

Fintech Fellow

Oct 2021Dec 2021 · 2 mos

  • ODFintech Fellowship cohort #2
  • On Deck Fintech is an invite-only network of top experts, leaders, advisors, and investors across the fintech ecosystem with a focus on catalyzing global solutions in financial services. Founders get access once accepted to ODX, OD's community-backed accelerator.

Promontory financial group, an ibm company

3 roles

Associate, Strategy and Optimization

Apr 2019Dec 2020 · 1 yr 8 mos

  • Promontory Financial Group, an IBM Company, is a leading management consulting firm specializing in strategic, risk management, and compliance matters in the financial services industry.
  • I was the third member of the firm's Strategy and Optimization Practice when we had no concrete service offering. I worked closely with ex McKinsey and Bain senior advisors to build the offering, which focuses on advising financial institutions as they undertake transformation, operational improvement, and cost saving initiatives. After leaving, the practice had 20 members, was projected for $20M in annual revenue, and was integral in the company's broader strategy.
  • To deliver to our clients, our resources leveraged a number of levers including organizational design, process re-engineering, shared service utilities, automation, data management enhancement, and systems design thinking. I supported several business development initiatives and the end-to-end lifecycle of new engagements for the practice, including by drafting proposals in response to inbound RfPs, pricing engagements, developing and monitoring project plans, driving interviews, analysis, and deliverable drafting, and presenting findings to executive senior clients.
  • Representative engagements include process optimization for a payments company, target operating model development and implementation for a foreign banking organization, and efficacy assessment for a financial market utility.

Analyst, Strategy and Optimization

Apr 2018Mar 2019 · 11 mos

Analyst, Risk

Jul 2017Mar 2018 · 8 mos

  • As a member of various engagement teams within Promontory’s Risk Practice, provided solutions to complex strategic, risk management, and operational issues for the world’s top tier banks, regulatory agencies, and other financial institutions. Representative engagements include enhancing enterprise risk management frameworks, designing compliance functions, and supporting responses to supervisory letters and regulatory matters requiring attention.

The fintech update

Author and Editor

Jan 2018Apr 2024 · 6 yrs 3 mos · New York, New York, United States

  • The Fintech Update is managed by a small team of experienced financial services professionals based in Europe and the United States dedicated to providing weekly updates and analysis in the rapidly developing world of fintech.
  • We have a weekly email distribution, which will deliver our latest updates and periodic original thought and analysis pieces, what we call Big Ideas, directly to your inbox — we’d love for you to sign up (https://thefintechupdate.substack.com/)!
  • Otherwise, check us out every week for our latest updates and analysis.
  • Also, feel free to drop us a line at fintechupdate@gmail.com — we’d love to hear from you!

Photoshelter

Business Development Intern

Jun 2016Aug 2016 · 2 mos · 33 Union Square West

  • Audited the company’s ~300 existing contracts to identify inconsistencies with the standard contract.
  • Presented audit results to CEO, CFO, legal counsel, and Head of marketing and developed a new standard contract
  • Researched competitors and the market to drive improvements to company’s product offerings, sales channels, customer acquisition strategy, and competitive pricing.
  • Streamlined collection and retention of client communications to allow account executives to better manage client relationships and generate additional organic and inorganic revenue opportunities.
  • Used Salesforce and ZenProspect to manage sales leads for prospective clients.

Wachtell, lipton, rosen & katz

2 roles

Litigation Paralegal, Summer Intern

Jun 2015Aug 2015 · 2 mos · 51 West 52nd street

  • Assisted with ongoing litigation in various banking matters by performing document reviews and researching applicable case law.
  • Collaborated with other paralegal,s associates, and partners to compile and organize client documents by jurisdiction and subject matter, allowing for easy and accurate document retrieval.
  • Drafted and edited various legal documents, including memorandums of laws, briefs, complaints, and motions.

Information Technology, Summer Intern

Jun 2014Aug 2014 · 2 mos · 51 West 52nd

  • Performed floor support everyday and answered associates with any technological questions.
  • Performed computer maintenance and helped lead IT training courses, offered to associates and paralegals.

Education

Williams College

Bachelor’s Degree

Jan 2013Jan 2017

The Bronx High School of Science

High School

Jan 2009Jan 2013

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