Who Am I?

Christopher Beltran is a successful energized entrepreneur with a particular passion for working with amazing people, while building great experiences at high-impact companies that move the world forward in a positive way.

I love experiences that make dreams come true for those around me, whether it’s the wonder of technology that never quits, the company of authentic friends, or a golden passport to all the world has to offer. – Christopher Beltran

Christopher Beltran is a successful serial entrepreneur in financial services software, board governance software, and leadership & executive coaching in over 7 countries.  In addition to his personal consulting and ventures, he serves as Managing Partner and co-founder of Syntrina Leadership bringing world class coaching talent to leaders.  

Christopher started his first software company serving financial institutions, out of his dorm room in college.  He spent his twenties growing the company profitably to serve over 7 countries, and eventually exited successfully.  In addition to building other startups in board governance and compliance, he has served as a technical and strategic advisor on a variety of ventures and helped them get acquired or grow in a profitable way.  Christopher is a founding member of the Silicon Valley Blockchain Society, an invitation-only group of passionate investors, entrepreneurs, developers and others who care deeply about how to make the world a better place using blockchain technologies.  The society represents $1 Trillion+.

Christopher was recently invited to be part of a group of 30 global socially minded entrepreneurs to Necker Island, Richard Branson’s personal island to spend time with Sir Richard and learn from each other while building relationships to change the world in positive and loving ways.  

He also serves on the Dean’s Board at Butler’s Jordan College of the Arts where he helps shape fine arts programs for students in ballet, dance, orchestra, and music.  He is actively involved with wildlife conservation through the Tusk and WildAid organizations.  He is also an active mentor for high school kids at the Purdue Entrepreneurship Academy and at the MIT/Harvard Summer Launch Program and has taught at Purdue University graduate-level entrepreneurship.

He received the Governor’s Award for Tomorrow’s Leaders by the Indiana Humanities Council and serves on the Dean’s Board at Butler’s Jordan College of the Arts.  Christopher was an organizer of the inaugural TEDxPurdueU & TEDxIndianapolis events.  He is also the most tenured mentor for entrepreneurship high school kids at the Purdue Entrepreneurship Academy and has taught at Purdue University graduate-level entrepreneurship.

Christopher splits his time on Belvedere Island, California in the San Francisco Bay Area, Henderson Nevada, and Carmel Indiana.

 

 

 

 

 

Past Experiences

  • Active member of Change Makers Rule Breakers, 1 of 30 socially minded global entrepreneurs invited to Necker Island, Sir Richard Branson’s personal island to learn and build relationships to change the world in a positive and loving way.
  • Created, managed and sold a successful industry-leading software company from his dorm room to financial institutions in over 6 countries, Passageways (www.passageways.com).
  • Designed and led the development of the profitable Fiserv/Open Solutions Client Association Community Portal serving over 10,000 financial institution employees nationwide (www.ficommunity.com)
  • Facilitated the strategic direction, development, and launch of the Credit Union National Association’s Online Network serving over 50,000 financial institution managers, CIOs, CFOs, Marketing Professionals, and CEOs. (community.cuna.org)
  • Winning the Inc. 500 award in 2008, for being one of the 500 fastest growing companies in America including an impressive 27th fastest growing software company in the country.
  • Governor’s Award for Tomorrow’s Leaders , Indiana Humanities Council
  • Longest tenured mentor for Purdue Entrepreneurship Academy for High School Kids
  • Founding Organizing Team for the 1st ever TEDxPurdueU and TEDxIndianapolis events (Speaker Coaching Lead in addition to organizing)
  • Winner of Indiana Companies to Watch – Fifty of the top second-stage companies in Indiana were recognized last week as part of the Indiana Companies to Watch awards. The nominees represent high growing companies both in revenue and in job creation. More than 500 nominations were received from companies in 66 Indiana counties. Passageways was among the fifty companies honored in 2009.
  • Winner of 2006 BAI Retail Delivery Conference and Expo, Best of Show Award
  • Winner of 2006 Credit Union Journal Best Practices Award.
  • Top 40 Under 40 Business Professionals, 2007 (Tippy Connect Young Professionals )
  • Burton D. Morgan Competition Winner at Purdue University, 2002
  • Venture Challenge, San Diego State University Finalist, 2002

 

Startups

Founder / CEO, Vendorcamp

  • Vendor Relationship Management and Community Ratings Platform for Financial Institutions.
  • Profitable in it’s 1st year
  • Customers over $500M in size

Co-founder / CTO, Rake Digital Media

  • Digital Media Company specializing in production management and large-scale display of media (hashtag-based photos, videos, and more).
  • Founded in Nashville, TN with a team of 5

Strategic Advisor

  • Strategic Advisor for FoundOps, an online service delivery facilitation startup.  Top Startup of the Year in 2012, Startup Bowl, for the State of Indiana.  IP and Team was integrated into Angie’s List (NASDAQ: ANGI) in early 2013.

Co-founder / VP Product Development, Passageways (2003-Present)

  • Created, managed, and sold a successful industry-leading software company from his dorm room to financial institutions in over 6 countries, Passageways (www.passageways.com).
  • Design, Architected, and built the Passageways Corporate Portal Collaboration Platform which grew to serve financial institutions profitably and globally over 10 years.
  • Initial investment of $100,000, profitable within 3 years and remained profitable for 10+ years till exiting
  • Grew Passageways from its establishment in 2003 to over 450 banks and credit unions in 6 countries, reaching profitability in the first year.  Customers range in size from $100 million in assets to many over $1 billion, including 40 of the largest 300 institutions in the United States.
  • Passageways’ mission is to provide enterprise collaboration solutions, helping their employees and partners become more efficient in collaboration and interaction with different systems.
  • Successfully exited

Technical Experience in Product Development

  • Introduced Agile Software Development practices to entire organization including business development, customer support, and product development.
  • Grew product development organization from 0-25+ employees including software developers, architects, engineers in test, product managers, and user experience professionals
  • Designed and built large-scale deployment system from delivering all Passageways Collaboration software to all clients within their internal networks securely
  • Designed and built first Client Community Platform incorporating idea sharing, best practice aggregation, gamification, and service-based integration into product line
  • Designed, architected, and built first editions of Passageways Help Desk Module, Passageways Expense Reporting Module, Passageways Assigned Tasks Workflow Module, Passageways Products & Services Mgmt Module, Passageways Forms Module, Passageways Discussions Module, Passageways Rich Announcements Module.
  • Implemented strict C# Code Implementation Standards, enforced by gated check-ins and Continuous Integration Build Systems to constantly ensure the highest quality software

Associations

Speaking Experiences

  • Rose Hulman RISE Entrepeneurship Series 2013 – Featured Speaker
  • Startup Lafayette, Purdue University – Keynote Speaker
  • Verge Indianapolis 2013 – Keynote Speaker
  • Credit Union National Association National HR Conference
  • MatchBox Startup Coworking Studio – Keynote Speaker

Community & Educational Experiences

  • Board Member – Startup America, Indiana
  • Instructor at Purdue University for Graduate-level Entrepreneurship
  • Longest Tenured Mentor for Purdue University Entrepreneurship Academy, 2007 – 2015
  • Mentor for Launch Summer, Entrepreneurship Summer Camp for High School kids at Harvard/MIT