Ali Ghoraishi
Los Angeles,CA
Summary
Dynamic product and strategy leader with over 10 years of experience in building and scaling regulated financial and infrastructure platforms across fintech, banking, and embedded finance sectors. Demonstrated expertise in driving growth for complex financial products, including product economics, pricing strategy, and go-to-market execution. Strong ability to deliver GM-level ownership focused on enhancing customer value while effectively managing risk and ensuring operational scalability. Committed to leveraging deep industry insights to foster innovation and achieve strategic objectives.
Overview
13
13
years of professional experience
Work History
Founder & CEO
Kaian
Los Angeles, CA
07.2021 - 10.2025
- Led product and business strategy for a fintech platform focused on cash-flow smoothing and short-term liquidity for paycheck-to-paycheck consumers, sold to credit unions and community banks.
- Defined product vision, pricing strategy, and unit economics, driving ~4x customer lifetime value
- Launched nationally with six credit unions, supporting thousands of consumers
- Navigated bank risk approval cycles and credit union change-management constraints
- Operated as GM and Head of Product, leading a distributed team of ~20
- Positioned the platform for acquisition by an AI company entering the credit union market
Head of Banking Product
Aspiration
Marina Del Rey, CA
09.2019 - 06.2020
- Owned checking and savings products with GM-level authority, accountable for deposit growth, transactions, and customer lifetime value.
- Increased assets under management by ~5x through direct deposit and top-of-wallet incentives
- Launched Premium Checking and Plant Your Change sustainability features
- Partnered with marketing, compliance, and legal teams to prioritize growth within program-bank constraints
- Worked with data science teams to double email open rates and reduce support volume via self-service tooling
Digital Banking Product Manager
City National Bank (RBC)
Los Angeles, CA
03.2018 - 09.2019
- Led backend and data capabilities for online banking and mobile platforms within a highly regulated financial institution.
- Owned prioritization across three scrum teams supporting shared digital dependencies
- Delivered automated onboarding and mobile access on time and within budget
- Enabled centralized data models to support customer-facing insights and reporting
- Onboarded millions of customers ahead of City National’s acquisition by RBC
Platform Product Manager
Green Dot Corporation
Los Angeles, CA
07.2015 - 12.2017
- Led platform-level data and communications capabilities supporting embedded banking and payments partners.
- Consolidated fragmented messaging systems into an omnichannel platform, saving ~$3M annually
- Helped launch prize-linked savings programs driving ~$3B in customer savings
- Supported early tax refund access enabling billions in deposits
- Enabled Banking-as-a-Service partnerships with Uber, Intuit, Apple, and Walmart
Technical Project Manager
DIRECTV
El Segundo, CA
06.2013 - 05.2015
- Led large-scale delivery and agile transformation initiatives across consumer billing and subscription platforms.
- Drove cloud migration and CI/CD adoption to improve scalability and deployment velocity
- Served as Scrum Master and agile coach during hybrid waterfall-to-agile transition
- Enabled big data and reinforcement learning capabilities for personalized recommendations
- Contributed to platform modernization ahead of AT&T’s $45B acquisition
Project Analyst
Southern California Edison
Brea, CA
08.2012 - 05.2013
- Supported capital-intensive, regulated infrastructure programs advancing California’s renewable energy goals.
- Worked within the Major Projects Organization overseeing ~$2B in substation and transmission investments
- Contributed to financial analysis, ROI tracking, budgeting, and regulatory reporting
- Partnered with engineering and operations teams to evaluate cost and risk tradeoffs
Education
B.A. - Business Economics
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA01.2012
Certificate - Project Management
University of California, Riverside
Irvine, CA01.2010
Skills
- Product strategy development
- Executive product ownership
- Embedded finance expertise
- Pricing strategy development
- Product development with risk management
- Managed financial and infrastructure products
- Ecosystem partnership management
- Market entry strategy
- Executive leadership across functions
- Marketing
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP & INDUSTRY ENGAGEMENT
- Author & host, Money Infrastructure (Substack podcast)
- Partner, America’s Credit Union Innovation
- Regular participant and presenter at credit union and fintech industry events
Timeline
Founder & CEO
Kaian
07.2021 - 10.2025
Head of Banking Product
Aspiration
09.2019 - 06.2020
Digital Banking Product Manager
City National Bank (RBC)
03.2018 - 09.2019
Platform Product Manager
Green Dot Corporation
07.2015 - 12.2017
Technical Project Manager
DIRECTV
06.2013 - 05.2015
Project Analyst
Southern California Edison
08.2012 - 05.2013
B.A. - Business Economics
University of California, Riverside
Certificate - Project Management
University of California, Riverside