Jon Blackwell

Jon has dedicated his life towards helping entrepreneurs across the globe. He started out at Silicon Valley Bank working with early stage technology startups but his passion quickly lead him to leave banking behind and move to Kenya where he worked in microfinance. After returning to the US, he co-founded Tala, a mobile credit scoring and lending company. He’s spent 7 years as Chief Product Officer where he lead all product development, strategic partnerships, and expanding the business throughout Eastern Africa, Latin America, and Asia. He then continued his work with entrepreneurs by mentoring founders through Social Venture Partners, a non-profit accelerator. He is currently the CPO at SoLo Funds (Techstars ’18). Jon holds a MPP from the University of Southern California and a B.A. in Economics from Virginia Tech.