About Us

Gaurav Sharma

Co-Founder & CEO

Gaurav leads our mission to help people save for retirement. Before founding Capitalize, he worked for some of the best-known financial institutions, including JP Morgan, UBS, Morgan Stanley, and as an investor at well-known hedge fund Greenlight Capital. After seeing how hard it is for most people to understand their retirement accounts, he decided to build a company that makes it easier. An Australian by birth, Gaurav lives in New York with his wife and their adopted puppy, Lorenzo.

Chris Phillips

Co-Founder & CTO

Chris drives our technology team to build financial services that are easy-to-use and scalable. Prior to Capitalize, Chris served as CTO for several large technology companies, including a long career at publicly-listed IAC (NYSE: IAC) where he was CTO of the Applications division. He was inspired to help build a better way to manage retirement accounts after helping his own parents deal with their finances. Chris lives in New York with his wife, two kids, and many computers.

Alissa Cappello

Customer Service & Operations Manager

Alissa works with our customers to make the rollover process easy. Before Capitalize, Alissa led teams in the Service and Operations divisions of the Vanguard Group and Edward Jones & Co. Alissa is a Philly native and in her free time likes to chow down on cheesesteaks and hang out with her two dogs, Ace and Birdie.

Emily Lounsbury

Lead Product Designer

Emily designs user flows and product features for Capitalize. Before Capitalize, she was the lead product designer at Even Financial where she also led growth efforts across key verticals. A Florida native, Emily loves playing volleyball, watching comedy, and doing just about anything with her dog.

Barry Liang

Head of Strategy & Operations

Barry leads the strategy and operations team, spearheading business development, go-to-market, and product expansion initiatives. Prior to Capitalize, he spent 5 years at Two Sigma expanding the company’s capabilities into the insurance industry and enterprise software. Previously, Barry also worked as a VC, founder of a hospitality software company, and a management consultant. Ask him about the trials and tribulations as a Knicks fan, his latest travels and join him for a run on Strava.

Abdullah Soliman

Senior Software Engineer

Abdullah ensures everything on our platform is running smoothly. Prior to Capitalize, Abdullah worked in the engineering divisions of several well-known organizations including WeWork, Ipreo, and Thomson Reuters. Abdullah lives in New Jersey with his wife, three kids, and spends his weekends watching absolutely any sport on TV​.

Aditi Bhatia

Chief of Staff

Aditi wears many hats at Capitalize, tackling projects across strategy, biz ops, finance, and recruiting. She was previously one of the first employees at Otis, a platform for fractionalized investments in art and collectibles, where she set up the investment strategy and led expansion into new categories. Aditi lives in New York and in her free time likes to go to museums and experiment with new recipes.

Brianna LaCanfora

Customer Relations Specialist

Brianna helps clients take control of their retirement savings by assisting them in the rollover process. Before Capitalize, Brianna worked in the Client Service division of the Vanguard Group. A SoCal native currently residing in Arizona, she’s a fan of West Coast weather and enjoys the outdoors with her spouse and trifecta of dogs: Ghost, Coco, and Motley Crue.

Ernst Ducena

Customer Service & Operations Senior Associate

Ernst helps clients organize their retirement savings by helping them through the rollover process. Before Capitalize, Ernst was a Financial Advisor Associate at Janney Montgomery Scott and previously worked at JP Morgan. A Brooklyn native, Ernst is a diehard (and forever hopeful) Knicks fan and enjoys spending time with his wife and precocious daughter.

Mike Mumma

Strategy & Operations Associate

Mike helps drive a variety of initiatives across the strategy and operations space. Prior to joining Capitalize, Mike was a consultant at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where he helped clients address their long and short term strategic priorities. Mike lives in New York where he enjoys watching Yankees games and planning last minute weekend trips.

Ben Warburton

Senior Software Engineer

Ben brings years of customer facing fintech experience and most recently was at a leading no-code startup. Ben lives in NJ with his wife and daughter, and you can usually find him yoyoing or renovating his Victorian home.

Kelsey Hand

Growth Marketing Manager

Kelsey grows, builds, and scales customer-first marketing initiatives. Prior to Capitalize, she worked at leading startups like Maven Clinic, Dandelion Energy, and SoFi. She currently lives, works, and (most importantly) eats in Brooklyn, where she lives with her husband and majestic cat. Ask her for horror movie recommendations or where to find the best chicken fingers.

Will Folsom

Senior Software Engineer

Will is a full stack engineer with plenty of experience wearing multiple hats at startups. Motivated by anything related to financial technology, Will comes from a digital payments company, and previously worked at an online lender. He has mentored new coders throughout his career, and spends his free time biking through Atlanta and raising his puppy, Wylie.

Kathleen Hayes

Customer Service & Operations Senior Associate

Kathleen helps clients simplify their retirement accounts by assisting in the rollover process. Before joining Capitalize, Kathleen was the Investor Operations Analyst at Otis and held client-facing roles at luxury e-commerce companies. Originally from Colorado, Kathleen lives in New York where she enjoys going to art galleries, concerts, and searching for the best vintage fashion in the city.

Lauren Pastore

Customer Service and Operations Senior Associate

Lauren helps simplify the rollover process for clients. She brings with her a mix of finance, tech, and startup experience. She worked at Fidelity Investments, where she helped clients with retirement planning and then as an Investor Relations Associate for a CRE debt fund. Prior to Capitalize, Lauren held client facing roles and launched strategic initiatives to drive client success for a luxury ecommerce site. An avid reader, Lauren loves getting book recommendations and discovering new reading spots!

Jackie Barrett

VP, New Initiatives

Jackie joins Capitalize after nearly 5 years at SoFi, where she served as Business Lead for SoFi at Work, SoFi’s enterprise solution, and previously managed its business development team. Prior to joining SoFi in 2016, she managed corporate relations for IIE, a 501(c) organization, and spent several years as a member of the Client and Partner Group at KKR, where she supported institutional fundraises across asset classes. When she’s not at work, you can usually find Jackie with her English bulldog Ruby or hiking with her husband (or both!).

Jason Simon

Head of Product

Jason leads the Product team at Capitalize where he and his team obsess over improving the way people save and invest for retirement! Prior to joining Capitalize, Jason served as Vice President of Product at LendingTree, where he built and oversaw the rapid growth of the financial wellness platform My LendingTree to almost 19 million members. Before LendingTree, Jason served as the Vice President of Product at data intelligence firm, Q-Sensei, and previously held roles at Red Ventures. Jason lives in Charlotte with his family and his doberman, Dante.

Bhavesh Shah

Head of Marketing

Bhavesh leads marketing at Capitalize. His team's mission is to help an ever increasing number of people discover and benefit from our services and put their old 401ks to work. Bhavesh comes to Capitalize with a track record in driving step growth, scaling marketing capabilities and building world class teams at Charles Schwab, Kaiser Permanente and Capital One. As a Bay Area resident, Bhavesh is always up for a good hike, good food and good wine - in any order! Weekends usually involve youth sport or travel with his wife, 2 kids and their Shih Tzu, Kiwi.

Lauren Pey

Senior Product Manager

Lauren joins the Capitalize product team after completing her MBA at Wharton. Prior to Wharton, Lauren worked in product at E*TRADE and in fintech product consulting. Originally from the Bay Area, Lauren now lives in New York, where she enjoys spending her time trying as many fitness classes and restaurants as she can.

Daniel Murphy

Senior Software Engineer

Daniel is a full stack engineer that has experience working with a broad array of programming languages, though recently has been focused more on front end web development using React. Daniel has previously worked at a mix of startup companies and government contractors over the course of his career. A Maryland native and now Texas resident, Daniel enjoys anything outdoors, as well as anything that involves standing on a board (especially surfing and snowboarding).

Cormick Barnes

Strategy & Operations Lead

Cormick drives a number of strategic initiatives, with a particular focus on creating operational efficiencies within and across functions. Prior to Capitalize, he spent 4.5 years helping to build out SoFi's enterprise business, specializing in creating durable and scalable processes. Outside of work, Cormick is an avid music collector and has more than 1,100 vinyl records.

Julia Reese

Customer Service & Operations Senior Associate

Julia helps clients consolidate their retirement savings by assisting them in the rollover process. Before Capitalize, Julia worked in the Client Service and Client Onboarding division of The Vanguard Group. An Arizona native, she loves spending time with her husband and dogs in the National Forests, and working on their cabin.