Some Things Come Full Circle

Before I was Natasha Barber, I was Natasha Ponticelli.

In the late 1800s, the Ponticelli family left Italy and landed in Johnston, Rhode Island, a small town that would become the most Italian municipality in America. Around that same time, a bank founded in 1828 as High Street Bank was growing into what we now know as Citizens Bank, and would eventually build its massive corporate campus in that very same town: Johnston.

Four generations later, I’m proud to announce that Citizens Bank has become Pistachio Pay’s official banking partner!

We’ve been accepted into Citizens for Startups, a program through Citizens Private Bank designed specifically for early-stage founders. It comes with a dedicated relationship management team, three years of fee-free business banking, startup expense credits, networking opportunities, and support from inception to exit. This isn’t a generic small business account. This is a nearly 200-year-old, $226 billion institution choosing to invest in what we’re building.

I’m so grateful to Laurel Mintz and the Fabric VC team for creating the stage where this connection was made. Thank you for building spaces where founders and institutions can find each other.

I also want to extend a huge thank you to Michele Piccirillo, Sarah Perahia, and Jocelyn Diosomito-Mather for their incredibly warm welcome into the Citizens family. From our very first conversation, it felt aligned. There’s something special about connecting over shared New England roots, and a mutual love for New England sports. 🏈 The warmth, thoughtfulness, and genuine care they’ve shown is exactly the kind of partnership we value as we build. We’re grateful to be working alongside a team that truly gets it.

We are building the first trauma-informed financial automation platform for neurodivergent adults. And we’re doing it backed by a bank that’s been rooted in the same soil as my family for over a century.

Some things come full circle. 💚