Juan Montoya

Chief Executive Officer

Juan is a founder and current Chief Executive Officer at Rokk3r. In partnership with this Cobuild team, portfolio entrepreneurs, corporate partners, and investors he ultimately seeks to leverage this infrastructure and network to generate exponential value across the Rokk3r portfolio. Juan has worked on over 200 projects and helped Cobuild over over 50 companies within this ecosystem where he continues to play a part as an advisor and board member. Juan oversaw the initial operational growth and expansion of Rokk3r in the U.S. and internationally and was instrumental in establishing the infrastructure that supports products and companies at Rokk3r today.

Previously as an economist and management consultant Juan specialized in helping large private and public institutions transform themselves through the use of data and manage complex programs supporting public and private institutions in the financial, healthcare, and Government/Economic development sectors. In this capacity he traveled the world and worked for some of the world’s leading institutions including the World Bank/IFC, US Treasury, US Department of Agriculture, US Small Business Administration and many others.

Personal MTP

Unleash the power of the crowd.

Do you have a favorite quote that inspires and guides your journey?

A favorite quote that inspires my journey: "Because it is there", George Mallory's simple and unpoetic response when posed the question of why he would climb Mount Everest. While perhaps not as eloquent or poetic as others, this simple and likely not entirely serious response always resonated with me in that perhaps sometimes the insurmountability of a challenge is the most important reason to want to conquer it. To further the thought, Sir Edmund Hillary, another legendary mountaineer would say that "it is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves" and perhaps that is truly the only goal. By conquering ourselves we unleash our true transformative power and truly contribute to society. I believe this is all in the journey and the route we take, problem we tackle or proverbial mountain we chose to climb.

What are some of the technology, business or macroeconomic trends you see that are particularly important as we look to the future?

I'm a big believer in the impact that widespread access to financial services can have on economic growth and prosperity. During my early career I was able to see this first hand working with Federal Government Agencies and the World Bank/IFC in the management of transformative financial programs across the world and in all sectors of the economy. While at Rokk3r I've been able to see first hand how mobile technologies and increased connectivity have changed the landscape, enabling new entrants and non-financial institutions to offer financial services to the unbanked in more relevant and efficient ways. I often say that it is no longer the transition from "unbanked" to "banked" that will transform access to finance, but rather digital and mobile connectivity. I expect to see this trend continue as regulatory barriers come down and financial products continue to become more intermingled with the rest of our digital lives. I'm excited about its role as an enabler for growth of small businesses and individuals across the world. However, the latest and perhaps most exciting developments affecting financial markets is the advent of blockchain-based technologies and specifically decentralized finance (DeFi) which now offer the promise of completely deconstructing the way we understand and provide financial services, enabling what I would call the atomization of the financial sector. Imagine any company or individual being able to offer financial products and services and entire parallel economies being created online, defined by mutual interests rather than arbitrary geographic and political boundaries! This to me is incredibly exciting.

What key qualities do you keep an eye out for when building strong teams that can succeed?

Increasingly, the success of a team is strongly tied to qualities that go beyond technical skills and work experience. While these are still important depending on the role, I find that the best team members combine empathy and a shared sense of purpose with more pragmatic characteristics such as the ability to quickly identify and focus on root problems and a bias to action (not to be confused with carelessness). At Rokk3r in particular, we look for people who are self-reliant and excited by the prospect of helping create and shape something, even if it means operating with high degrees of uncertainty and ambiguity. Finally, in a world where knowledge and information are instantaneously at the disposal of those who know how to seek them, a "constant learner" mindset can be as important as past education or experience.