Tariq Bokhari discusses his journey from Fintech to nonprofits and public service

Nobody reads the books written by Horatio Alger anymore, but his stories of poor boys (all his heroes were boys) working their way into middle-class prosperity have shaped their American mythology of success since the late 1800s. Tariq Bokhari has lived that life. He grew up in poverty and has lived on his own since he was 16. But instead of lecturing people about self-reliance, he is dedicated to helping others born into similar circumstances escape poverty.

Bokhari worked his way through Radford University and graduated in 2003, eventually moving to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he worked to redesign and implement risk and cybersecurity programs for various Fortune 500 companies, including GE, Wells Fargo and Wachovia. He credits learning risk management as a formative experience that taught him to quantify and control risk, giving him the confidence to take risks as an entrepreneur. He eventually became head of innovation and investment at FIS Global, a $9B+ Fintech company.

Bokhari launched his first startup, RaaS (Risk as a Service), in 2015. It was an immediate success and grew to serve hundreds of banks with its risk and cybersecurity managed services and software.

A serial entrepreneur, Bokhari launched the Carolina Fintech Hub in October 2017 to foster collaboration between the world’s leading financial services firms and innovative startups in the industry. Recently, he launched Meta Lab to reinvent the current approach to technology accelerators by focusing on solving specific problems and making deals between startups and incumbents. The Carolina Fintech Hub has partnered with Boston’s Mass Challenge to launch the Meta Lab Startup Challenge.

Bokhari was elected to the Charlotte City Council in November 2017, and remains on the council. We asked him about growing up poor, why he started nonprofits, and the difference between running a company and serving in government.

Grit Daily: Among other initiatives, you are the founder of The Meta Lab, which promotes collaboration between leaders in fintech and health technology, specifically in Charlotte. Why the two industries?

Tariq Bokhari: Charlotte has been built on a foundation of banking for the past 50 years. I founded the Carolina Fintech Hub as a nonprofit joint venture between these heavy banks (Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Ally, Truist, US Bank, Barings, etc.) to lean into the high-growth fintech space, and provide jobs and innovation to Charlotte. Over the years, this has developed into a program we now refer to as Meta Lab. As we developed our recruiting capabilities on the banking-to-fintech side, we decided to expand into our second largest power industry, healthcare, and partner with Atrium Health in the same way. Being able to not only win on the talent front when it comes to recruiting companies to Charlotte, but also tee up game-changing “deal making” opportunities between startups and our incumbents proved to be highly effective. Because of this approach, we have directly initiated the recruitment of more than 2,000 new jobs to Charlotte, and assisted in the recruitment of 10,000 over the past 5 years to Charlotte.

Grit Daily: Meta Lab is trying to reinvent the current approach to technology accelerators. How?

Tariq Bokhari: The big accelerators today have evolved into a place I like to refer to as “for the few”. The few top-level accelerators accept the few startups that make it possible to get to know the few big companies they are trying to get deals with and get capital from the few VCs. The space is ripe for disruption. Meta Lab is designed to attract and support many through a platform-based approach, and one centered around deal-making.

Grit Daily: I always hear from entrepreneurs who aim to “change the world,” which I generally view as hyperbole at best and delusional at worst. You are particularly focused on your hometown. Why?

Tariq Bokhari: Man, I couldn’t agree more with this statement. Everyone wants to be Steve Jobs. Even if they are smart enough to try, the odds are not in their favor. But I really feel looking at a “change the world” vision into something more achievable – like changing a city in the top 20 – is the way to actually have a chance.

Grit Daily: You grew up poor and moved out when you were just 16, which is not usually a great start to financial success in life, despite our rags-to-riches mythology. What can you tell us about your early life and how it influenced the choices you have made?

Tariq Bokhari: It’s a deep one, but I’ll just give a simple answer for now: my upbringing put a chip on my shoulder that has never left me. That piece made me never want to go back to where I came from. Over time, I was able to use it to help pay it forward in a positive way for those who need upward mobility – but it’s still a double-edged sword. The “never satisfied with anything” mindset keeps me driving forward, but as I get older it’s challenging to sit back and just be happy.

Grit Daily: You are a member of the Charlotte City Council. I started my journalism career covering local government. Many successful business people will tell you that government should run more like a business, which I think is like saying a train should run more like a truck. The two things have some similarities but fundamental differences. What have you learned from your experience in politics and government?

Tariq Bokhari: So true. For a long time I was in a ‘problem solving’ mindset, as I always was in business. Aside from running at a different pace, I quickly realized that the big visions needed a more collaborative approach, and they would take much longer than I was comfortable with. So some patience (I’m still working on it, LOL), along with building out the teams on staff needed to get things done. I like to pick topics that others aren’t buzzing about (eg digital divide and 5G, blockchain for efficiency, etc.) and still work on them in my usual way as an individual contributor, but it’s not viable across the board.

Grit Daily: You have founded two organizations with the aim of teaching technology skills to disadvantaged people, one for young people and the other for adults. Tell us about these and have they been successful?

Tariq Bokhari: We’ve built an adult learning program designed to teach those in need with the skills, but perhaps no social capital, to become full-stack developers. 159 have graduated from that program to date, with an average of >80% people of color, >50% women, and an average salary of <$20K. Vi spunnet det av til ungdom for å møte dem tidligere og få dem interessert i teknologi, og har brakt >1,800 high school students through the program, using eSports to meet them where they are, and Epic Games’ Unreal Engine as a bridge to STEM. It developed into internships, where 60 interns have worked for 8 companies.

Grit Daily: You advocate “Social Impact By Design”. What does that mean?

Tariq Bokhari: Simply put, it takes the old model of making a bunch of money and then settling down to do charity work at the end of your career and throwing it upside down. How can one launch a company or an innovation that – at first design – can create a meaningful social impact. In my mind, that’s the only way these things can become truly scalable at the levels we’re going to need.