Dr. Hu has extensive start-up experience for both profits and non-profits.  He founded a FinTech company Ellie Mae, Inc. in 1988, focusing on a SaaS and cloud solution to automate the US mortgage industry. Ellie Mae went public in 2011 (NYSE: ELLI), and was named the best performing IPO of a US technology company since the financial crisis by Wall Street Journal in 2016.  Ellie Mae has more than 1,000 employees today and processes one-third of mortgage volume in the US.

In 2001, Dr. Hu led a fundraising effort to raise $3M to build an FCSN (Friend of Children with Special Needs) Center in Bay Area, and became the first Chairman when it started operation. FCSN now has more than 100 employees, and serves hundreds of children and adults with Autism, Down syndrome, etc. in two centers.

Abstract

I will start with sharing my perspective of some characteristics of FinTech industry.  There is often a phenomena of “winner takes all” in the financial industry, and therefore, many FinTech startups will encounter the typical Chicken-and-Egg problem.  I will use our Ellie Mae experience to share with the audience our strategies and possible ways to build a successful FinTech company