Community Spotlight: Joe Alie, Director of Business Development
For this week’s Community Spotlight, we’re joined by our Director of Business Development, Joe Alie. Joe brings financial analysis and business development expertise from his time in the mergers & acquisitions group at Evercore and private equity group at Audax. It was exciting to hear how he made the transition from private equity to blockchain and why he believes the cryptocurrency industry can move from speculation to mainstream adoption.
Hi Joe! Thanks for joining us today. Could you give the readers some background on yourself?
Great to be here! My professional experience from the mergers & acquisitions group at Evercore and private equity group at Audax includes financial analysis, investing, and business development. As an investment associate at Audax, I led diligence processes for platform investments and add-on acquisitions across multiple asset classes and industry sectors. In this capacity, I also worked hand-in-hand with portfolio company executives to evaluate market opportunities, monitor financial performance, and execute on strategic initiatives.
Prior to entering the workforce, I received a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University, where I was a member of the wrestling team and actively involved in several finance organizations on campus.
What got you into blockchain technology, and, more importantly, what excited you about Logos?
I began researching blockchain technology more closely during the bull run in 2017, but was hesitant to enter the industry full time as the existing decentralized networks were unable to compete with centralized networks in terms of transaction capacity, speed, and cost.
However, when Logos’ founder and a classmate of mine at Harvard, Michael Zochowski, introduced me to his project, I was blown away by the initial test results of the prototype and its potential to outperform existing credit card networks. Out of the many projects that crossed my desk, this was the first that I believed would gain real-world traction as a payments network and transaction infrastructure for the future. Given all this, I couldn’t wait to jump on board!
As you are coming from a more traditional finance background, could you speak to how cryptocurrency and blockchain technology is viewed within that industry, and do you think those views are evolving?
As an alternative payment solution, a network like Logos can save businesses 1–3% in credit card fees. Putting on my private equity lens, this translates to a massive improvement in margin and cash flow profiles, which is an attractive value-add to any active investor.
Achieving these savings is as simple as adding Logos as a payment option with a few lines of website code and transacting with digital U.S. dollars (i.e. stablecoins). It should really be a seamless user experience where folks are abstracted from the underlying blockchain technology but are still able to reap its benefits. The cost to implement is low and the upside in savings, efficiency, and security is high, which I believe will drive widespread adoption among PE-backed businesses in the near future.
How do you think your previous private equity skills will transfer to a relatively new industry that is encompassed in speculation and help drive mainstream adoption for Logos?
Translating an investment thesis into real-world growth requires a holistic understanding of a company’s go-to-market strategy, including product differentiation, addressable markets, value chain dynamics, competitive landscape, and consumer preferences. Private equity does an exceptional job of evaluating these key components to growth via a comprehensive diligence process, and then providing ongoing support for their portfolio companies in order to drive these goals to fruition.
A similar degree of financial and business sophistication is required to advance the cryptocurrency industry from one of speculation to mainstream adoption. I hope to bring this same approach to Logos where we will actively support our strategic partners and users so that they can finally realize the value-add economics and operational efficiencies of this distributed ledger technology.
Lastly, any advice for someone trying to get into the field from a traditional finance background?
Blockchain is an attractive and growing industry that has historically focused on the technology/engineering but is actively transitioning to a more business-minded model in order to drive adoption and strategic partnerships. I think people with traditional finance backgrounds can play a critical role in driving this transition and increasing the level of sophistication within the crypto world.
In fact, The Block has done a great job of documenting employees who have left Wall Street jobs at Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan for the crypto world, so the transition is well underway!
Within Logos: Joe is the Director of Business Development overseeing Logos’ strategic partnerships, go-to-market strategy and other functional departments, including FP&A, investor relations and content development. He is also in a leading role in enabling a stablecoin platform on top of the Logos Network in order to facilitate many of the initial use cases.
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