Ashley is a two-time former fintech/regtech founder and corporate and securities lawyer specializing in startup and venture capital law for emerging technologies and industries. She has deep expertise in financial business law and operations, including in payments, banking, fund management, securities, financial regulation, and emerging asset classes on blockchain. She advises companies from formation to exit on a range of matters including formation, corporate governance, venture capital financings, and M&A. Prior to joining Inventus Law, Ashley practiced for Rise Attorneys (fka Arvelo, PLLC), a boutique startup law firm in Austin, Texas.
Ashley was the Founder and COO of Artery Pay, a payment processing system with integrated banking compliance built for the cannabis industry which was a 2020 Benzinga Listmaker for both Best Payments App and Best Use of Blockchain and one of Exeleon Magazine's 100 Best Companies to Watch in 2020. Ashley was also awarded Top Payments Leader at the PBC Conference 2021.
Prior to Artery Pay, Ashley cofounded and was Vice President of Operations for Greenshoe Asset Management, an online hedge fund investment platform. She managed the investment process and regulatory compliance of $600M+ transactions for Bessemer Venture Partners in their legal and operations group, including interests and responsibilities in LinkedIn’s IPO and Amazon’s acquisition of Diapers.com, among many other exits, and developing investment processes for India’s foreign investment laws. She spent 4 years as a legal assistant in the financial regulatory group of Sidley Austin LLP in New York, NY, where, in addition to managing SEC and state regulatory compliance for its top-ranked fund services team for 800+ hedge funds and 6 publicly traded companies, she assisted in managing a year-long internal regulatory audit of an international investment bank.
Ashley holds a B.A. with majors in Political Science and Classics from Yale College and a J.D.M.B.A from Northwestern School of Law focused on the intersection of Law and Economics and Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management majoring in Finance. Ashley is admitted to practice in California and Georgia.
In Ashley’s spare time, she enjoys mentoring founders, cooking, yoga, spending time with her dog/spiritual advisor, Keanu, and reminiscing about her NYC days performing stand-up comedy as a regular at Caroline’s on Broadway, Gotham Comedy Club, New York Comedy Club, and the Comedy Cellar.