Adam Nash Launches New Fintech Startup

Adam Nash, a seasoned operator and investor originating from Silicon Valley, is embarking on a new venture.

He recently announced on his personal blog the launch of a new consumer fintech company, which has already secured initial investment from Ribbit Capital, alongside contributions from other investors, including Box CEO Aaron Levie, Mighty Networks founder Gina Bianchini, Superhuman founder Rahul Vohra, and Amy Chang, whose startup Accompany was acquired by Cisco in 2018.

Nash has been reserved with specifics in his initial announcements, both in his blog post and on Twitter, stating he will share further details closer to the company’s launch. However, a recent SEC filing indicates the company is named Silverback Ventures and has currently raised $4.85 million. Nash is co-founding the company with Alejandro Crosa, a software engineer from Argentina who previously worked at Slack for five months, and before that, spent over three years at both Twitter and LinkedIn.

Nash revealed on Twitter that he and Crosa first connected at LinkedIn, where Nash served as VP of product management for four years starting in 2007. This is a relevant detail given Nash’s extensive experience across numerous tech companies, making it challenging to determine his network and its origins.

A Stanford University graduate with both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in computer science, Nash began his career with internships at NASA, HP, and Trilogy before accepting a software engineering position at Apple in 1996, during John Sculley’s tenure as CEO.

Following his time at a now-defunct company from the dot-com era, Nash ventured into venture capital as an associate at Atlas Venture. Seeking further operational experience, he then joined eBay as a director, followed by LinkedIn where he met Crosa, and subsequently Greylock, where he spent a little over a year as an entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR) before becoming president and CEO of the wealth-management startup Wealthfront.

Just over four years later, in 2016, Wealthfront’s original CEO and founder, Andy Rachleff, resumed the CEO role. Nash, however, remained active in the tech world, rejoining Greylock as an EIR for another year before taking on the role of VP of product and growth at Dropbox after its public offering in 2018. He departed from Dropbox in February to pursue his own entrepreneurial endeavors.

It’s not unexpected that Nash is launching a fintech company, considering his involvement with Wealthfront and his recent personal investments in the sector.

For instance, in 2018, he invested in LearnLux, a Boston-based educational startup focused on helping employees understand their 401(k), health savings accounts, and stock options. He is also an investor in Human Interest, a San Francisco-based startup that provides automated, paperless 401(k) plans.

Nash is capitalizing on a significant trend. According to PitchBook, consumer fintech is projected to receive a record amount of venture funding in 2020, particularly in North America and Europe.

Notably, this marks Nash’s first time starting a company from the ground up, and we will provide updates on his new venture as soon as more information becomes available.

Currently, Nash and Crosa have publicly stated their belief that there are still substantial opportunities within consumer fintech, and they aim to leverage software to enhance the way individuals manage their financial lives.