Karen Hsu

Founder, Blockchain by Women

I have spent decades working in software, and I helped companies
around the world move their data around and analyze it. What I found was how inefficient these organizations were with data and why they could charge so much for moving funds or goods. I saw these once powerful, highly centralized organizations like SWIFT were waning in the early 2000s. Others collapsed soon after. After first learning about the blockchain, I fell down a rabbit hole. I saw how multiple industries can be transformed. The belief in that transformation has led me to work at one of the first blockchain infrastructure companies and advise on the boards of others.

With a passion for finding and scaling product/market fit, I love to
learn and learn by doing. I’ve been fortunate to work with and support thousands of companies who have pioneered these early days of the blockchain. Looking forward to progressing on this journey with you.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-hsu/

Karen is co-inventor of 5 patents and for over 25 years has built and taken to market software for financial institutions and fintechs to better manage and serve their customers. She worked with financial standards organizations including SWIFT and ACORD to create global standards for exchanging data on financial transactions among financial institutions, companies, agents and other stakeholders.

Karen co-founded BlockchainIntel to prevent fraud in blockchain, ACH and credit card transactions and transitioned the company to become part of Appdome to expand the mission of protecting everyone using mobile apps. At Appdome, Karen works with Devops vendors to create product integrations that make it easier for developers to build and test secure mobile apps. She also works with Fintechs that process trillions of dollars in payments annually to protect their mobile apps for financial institutions. Outside of Appdome, Karen partners with law enforcement agencies around the world such as the FBI to identify and stop bad actors who have stolen digital assets from individuals. Partnering with professional organizations such as ACAMS, she has shared the work she and her teams have done so they can better combat money laundering and terrorist financing.

Karen co-founded and has been on the advisory board of BASES (Business Association for Stanford Entrepreneurial Students), one of the largest student run organizations that hosts an annual business plan contest, educational series and workshops for students. BASES students and alumni have founded fintechs and other companies. Karen co-founded Blockchain by Women to create a platform for innovation and security for everyone interested in Web3.

About

Blockchain by Women was born to create awareness, educate and connect people involved in this rocketing space. The focus is not a single meetup but a movement in the blockchain field to break down barriers and increase diversity. We want to build a community for everyone that leads and empowers, supports a network that shares knowledge, resources, the latest trends and foster relationships that lead to lasting companies, including:

• Showcasing the amazing work and expertise through curated panels

• Providing resources on how people can protect themselves and their assets

• Investigating/assessing potential fraud

Our sponsors:

Sponsors

Highlight your company on our Sponsors page. Before the event, share your company via our email and social channels. You can share particular links you want us to point people to (e.g. let people know you're hiring).

At an event, sponsor a table where you can provide materials from your company and have a dedicated space to speak to people.

During an event, speak about your company’s goals and value in the blockchain industry. Each event is live streamed and recorded.

Send updates to the thousands in our community about your company's hiring needs, new product development, and new announcements.

Founding Team members

Marzanne DeLoof

I was introduced to Bitcoin early in 2017 and started investing small amounts in various exchanges to follow and learn the market. Through osmosis learning about more use cases, reading Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper, and understating the power of the technology behind Bitcoin I quickly realized that distributed ledger technology resolves one of our biggest concerns with technology – TRUST. With this realization, I joined a rapidly growing Blockchain based startup to take advantage of these world-changing developments.

Early in my career, I worked in financial auditing and later led Customer Success with a SaaS platform company which was acquired. With this experience, I immediately grasped and appreciated some of the most important features blockchain technology brings: transparency, immutability, and auditability. I believe in the near future we will be using software with blockchain and smart contract technology without even realizing it.

Being born and raised in South Africa, a 1st world country on a 3rd world continent, I appreciate the social impact that blockchain brings to underserved and developing markets. With no prerequisites or arbitrary limits, Blockchain technology brings democratization to lower income and underserved markets.

I enjoy building early-stage technology companies to scale and collaborating with others in the ecosystem.

Marina wolters

I am the Co-Producer of the Global Blockchain Forum - a successful Investor and Enterprise Blockchain community event that gathered 6,000 attendees across 3 forums in Santa Clara, San Francisco, and Seoul, Korea. 

Before that, I led FinTech and Blockchain practice at innovation consultancy, SVIC, working with Bradesco, Canada Payments, and Toyota on blockchain initiatives. Prior to that I headed Business Development and Product Strategy at a European hyper-growth payments startup, ECommPay.

I am a passionate advocate for women in blockchain and diversity.