Our Next Speaker

Mike Vandenbos

Mike Vandenbos is an entrepreneur who enjoys helping others take risks. Mike played college golf and started his first company, a golf event consulting firm, in 1993 that hosted over 100 golf events around the country. In 2010, after taking a long sabbatical, Mike decided to invest his time and energy in the tech industry in Seattle, helping build a tech incubator that graduated 80 founders. Mike has also served as an Entrepreneur in Residence for several Seattle-based tech companies recently acquired.

One of Mike’s hobbies has been researching monetary policy and complementary (local) money systems. One of the Seattle companies he worked within 2019 was the largest Bitcoin ATM network in the country. This experience of interviewing customers purchasing Bitcoin at ATMs sparked curiosity around the history of money, the advent of blockchain technology, why people trust it, and the importance of free-market economies. Mike’s presentation today is titled, “Local Money, Then and Now (1776 to 2021).”
Mike recently moved from Seattle and is grateful to be a resident of Richmond and neighbors with Will Schroeder who invited him to speak to us.