Best Startup
At Best Startup US we track over 1,000,000 US startups and over 3 million people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top California based CEO’ operating in the Mobile Apps space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.us.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Paul Davison
Co-Founder and CEO of Clubhouse
Paul Davison is the Co-Founder and CEO of Clubhouse. Davison is a San Diego native who graduated from Stanford and then earned his MBA from Stanford Business School. He had an internship at Google between degrees. Davison worked at consulting firm Bain and Co. before joining database startup Metaweb, which was acquired by Google in 2010. Previously he was an entrepreneur in residence at Benchmark Capital.
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About Clubhouse, Clubhouse: Clubhouse is an audio-based social app that allows users to spontaneously join group chats.
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Abraham Shafi
Founder and CEO of IRL
Abe attended UC Berkeley and studied the intersection of computer engineering, business, cultural anthropology and sociology before starting his first company, getTalent, a highly acclaimed social recruiting platform, prompting him to leave school. The platform was born of out a personal experience while job hunting and realizing there was improvements to be made with the resume-sorting process. The platform leveraged data science to take away the biases from the hiring process, thus helping organizations hire the best talent. getTalent had global clients including Walmart, JetBlue and Viacom, and was later sold to Dice in 2013. In 2018, Abe founded IRL because he was personally driven to build an app that would bring people together. He found his addiction to social media was related to his own depression and left him close to quitting social media all together. This propelled him to make a social product that could help people feel connected in a way that felt healthier and less addictive. Since inception, the app has brought friends together over 600M times. IRL has eleven employees and is based in San Francisco, California. In Abe’s spare time, he likes playing piano and composing music. Currently, he is most interested in merging electronic music with classical leveraging deep folkloric music from around the world, blending with archeologic tunes of humankind’s musical history.
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About IRL: Groups, Chats, Events
Brad Bao
Co-founder & CEO of Lime
Brad Bao is a Co-Founder and CEO at Lime (formerly LimeBike), the largest and leading micromobility company. He also currently serves as the Managing Director of Kinzon Capital (Fosun Group), a cross-border fund that investing in early-stage technology companies in both US and China, focusing on mobile and internet-related investments. Believing in the synergy between the two largest market and innovation of US and China, Kinzon Capital is positioned to bridge the gap and bring them together. Investments include: Volta Discord Doc.ai AirMart Alcove Cabana Circle (smart gym) ePal Firefly Flex (Female product) Founders Suite Zero & (Zero And, previous EnjoyFuji.com) Gotit Kiwi Drop Lyte (powerbank sharing) Made Renovation On Deck Shackle Spout Clinic TellUs (real-estate investing & saving) Velo Bikes (adam’s startup) Visdom (financial planning saas) WorkStream Prior to joining Kinzon Capital, Brad served as the General Manager of Tencent America, and VP of BD of Tencent Games for over 8 years, during that time Brad built the Tencent US branch from scratch, and was responsible for the overall P&L including investments, strategy, globalization, BD, and overall operation. He led and participated in investments including Hi-Rez, Fireforge, Zam, and more, and served as board member of several. Brad obtained bachelor degree in International Marketing from Wuhan University, and received his MBA from Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
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About Lime: Lime helps people move around their cities in an affordable and convenient way while eliminating their carbon footprint.
Wayne Ting
Chief Executive Officer of Lime
Wayne Ting is Lime’s Chief Executive Officer. Wayne joined Lime in October 2018 as Global Head of Operations and Strategy and has been instrumental in the company’s drive towards operational excellence and path to profitability. Before joining Lime, Wayne spent more than four years at Uber, serving in various roles including Chief of Staff to CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, and General Manager of Uber’s Northern California business. Wayne previously served as a Senior Policy Advisor on the White House’s National Economic Council under President Obama where he focused on housing finance reform. Prior to the White House, Wayne worked at Bain Capital and at McKinsey & Company. Before that, he co-founded CampusNetwork.com, the first college-based social networking site (started close to 6 months before Facebook). Wayne is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Business School.
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About Lime: Lime helps people move around their cities in an affordable and convenient way while eliminating their carbon footprint.
Toby Sun
Co-Founder and CEO of Lime
Toby Sun is the CEO and Co-founder of Lime, the leading global micromobility company that has revolutionized the first and last-mile transportation challenge. Lime has raised $777 million and is backed by world-leading investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, GGV, IDG, DCM, Franklin Templeton, Section 32, AME Cloud Ventures, Stanford Start-X, Kevin Durant, etc. Prior to Lime (formerly LimeBike), Toby was an investment director at Fosun Kinzon Capital, a $400M US-China cross-border venture fund backed by Fosun Group, focusing on early and growth-stage investment in consumer internet and IoT space. Toby invested in Tapingo, Grubmarket, Usens, Ding’Ding Smart Lock, and was involved in the board duties. Prior to Fosun, Toby was a Product and Marketing Manager at PepsiCo and managed a large US-China cross-border team, where he launched Gatorade in China and managed 7UP ($300M annual sales). Toby also worked as a management consultant at Monitor Group and Deloitte Consulting’s San Francisco office. Toby holds an MBA from Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley, and is a frequent guest speaker.
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About Lime, Lime: Lime helps people move around their cities in an affordable and convenient way while eliminating their carbon footprint.
Timi Ajiboye
CEO & CTO of Buycoins
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About Buycoins: Buycoins is a cryptocurrency exchange that allows Africans buy and sell cryptocurrencies instantly using their local currency.
Arsen Tomsky
CEO & Founder of inDriver
Arsen Tomsky is the founder and CEO of inDriver. He leads the company’s global team of more than 1500 employees and over 100 million-user inDriver ecosystem in 34 countries around the world. Arsen founded inDriver in 2013 and developed the business into the world’s fastest growing ride-hailing services. Arsen grew up in Yakutsk, Russia, and received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Yakutsk State University. He is a passionate runner and finisher of the Chicago and Tokyo Marathons.
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About inDriver: inDriver is the world’s fastest-growing ride-hailing service.
Sunmeet Jolly
Founder & CEO of GROTU
Founder and Patent holder – GROTU mobile app @ 101 Islands LLC. Angel investor in 40 pre-IPO technology startups. Frequently invited by accelerators and angel forums to Judge startup competitions and discuss technology innovation. Former IT Consulting industry executive who sold hundreds of millions of dollars in consulting services to Fortune 500 companies working for Cap Gemini, HCL, L&T, NTT data.
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About GROTU: Patented GROTU app provides a much needed “private” collection of productivity and communication tools for friends and family social groups
Greg Kidd
Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer of GlobaliD
Believer that ones identity credentials should be truly portable and owned by individuals themselves rather than corporations or governments. The trade-off between security and privacy can meet the needs of both traditional institutions worried about compliance and risk, but also consumer protection advocates who care about the underserved and underbanked. Adviser/Investor via hardyaka.com for numerous startups in the exchange space including Shift, Ripple and 3taps, and previously Square and Twitter. Previously a director at Promontory Financial and a senior analyst for payments at The Board of Governor of the Federal Reserve. Senior Associate at Booz Allen. Founded and took Dispatch Management Services Corp public on the NASDAQ. Have worked as an instructor/leader for Outward Bound and the National Outdoor Leadership School. Specialties: Portable identity, digital currencies and exchange markets for goods, services, and information with functional emphasis on messaging, payments, and reputation/trust/risk. Well versed in visualizations for risk reporting and controls.
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About Apto Payments, GlobaliD, Hard Yaka: Create and manage your own portable, digital identity with globaliD.
David and Daniil Liberman
CEO of Product Science
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About Brothers Ventures, Product Science: Performance management platform for mobile
John Riccitiello
CEO of Unity Technologies
Since joining Unity as CEO in 2014, John Riccitiello has been a driving force in the successful launch of Unity 5 – the company’s next-generation multiplatform engine and development tools. Previously serving as CEO of Electronic Arts, John played a critical role in the company’s transformation into a mobile, online, and digital gaming leader, with subsequent revenue growth exceeding $1.6 billion during that time. John is also an active private investor, serving on Unity’s board since 2013 as well as Syntertainment, Telltale Games, and a few other higher-ed and non-profit boards. In addition, he was an investor and advisor to Oculus.
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About Unity Technologies: Unity provides multiplatform tools and services to developers of interactive content.
David Ko
Co-founder and CEO of Ripple Health Group
David Ko is the Co-founder and CEO of Ripple Health Group (RHG), an early stage healthtech startup focused on helping people experience healthier lives by connecting them to the care, support, and community they need. Prior to RHG, David was the President, COO and Board Member of Rally Health, a digital health company that develops online and mobile solutions that make it easy for consumers to take charge of their health and health care. Rally’s solutions are currently available to nearly 55 million people through health plans, care providers, and more than 200,000 employers. Prior to joining Rally, David oversaw all strategy, planning and operations as COO at Zynga, which he helped take public in December 2011. At the time of its IPO, Zynga was the largest social gaming company in the world with over 100 million daily active users. Prior to his work at Zynga, he spent 10 years at Yahoo! in various senior executive roles, including SVP of Yahoo!’s audience, mobile, and local businesses. David serves on the board of overseers at his alma mater New York University Stern School of Business where in 2016 he established the NYU Stern Venture Fellows program for aspiring entrepreneurs. He also works as an advisor and investor to a number of companies in Silicon Valley including Calm, the number one app for Sleep, Meditation and Relaxation.
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About Audax Health Solutions, Calm, Ripple Health Group: Ripple Health Group is a platform for the world’s most trusted healthcare solutions.
Alessandra Lezama
CEO of TOOTRiS
Alessandra Lezama is an entrepreneur and PE backed CEO, advocate for women pursuing careers in tech and other STEM fields, angel investor to San Diego-based early-stage companies and Founder and CEO of TOOTRiS, an on-demand Child Care technology platform that is reinventing how parents access and pay for affordable, high-quality Child Care. Passionate about technology, Alessandra has enjoyed an illustrious career of taking underperforming tech companies and turning them into scalable, high-performance powerhouses. Prior to founding TOOTRiS, Alessandra was the CEO for multiple technology companies, including AbacusNext, a San Diego-based company she stepped into with 29 employees and, in less than four years, transformed into a disruptive global technology organization with more than 500 employees across San Diego, Canada and the United Kingdom. Companies under Alessandra’s leadership have been recognized in Forbes and Inc., and in 2016 and 2017 she was named “Women Who Mean Business,” in 2018 as “Most Admired CEO of the Year” and in 2019 as “Most Influential” by the San Diego Business Journal. Alessandra is a member of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, serving on its board and management council. She serves on the board of Doors of Change, a non-profit that is helping to break the cycle and save the lives of runaway, homeless, and trafficked young people. She is a member of the California Preschool Business Advisory Council, supporting efforts to produce viable policy for high quality early education that gives a competitive edge for California’s businesses, both immediately and the future.
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About TOOTRiS: TOOTRiS is a technology platform that allows parents affordable access to high-quality Child Care, anytime, anywhere.
Prerna Gupta
Founder & CEO of HOOKED
Prerna Gupta is the Founder & CEO at HOOKED.
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About HOOKED: HOOKED is redefining entertainment for the Snapchat generation.
Tracy Chou
Founder & CEO of Block Party
Tracy Chou is an entrepreneur, software engineer, and diversity advocate. She spent five years at Pinterest as an engineer and tech lead and was an early engineer at Quora prior to that. She is a co-founder of Project Include, a non-profit working with tech startups on diversity and inclusion, and #MovingForward, a movement working with VC firms to establish and publish anti-harassment policies; and an investment scout and advisor for several Bay Area VC firms. In her latest venture she is CEO of Block Party, with a mission to solve online harassment and abuse.
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About Block Party, Pinterest, Project Include: Block Party is a consumer app that tackles online harassment and puts you back in control.
Walter Driver
Co-Founder, Chairman & Co-CEO of Scopely
Walter Driver is the co-founder, Chairman and co-Chief Executive Officer of Scopely, one of the fastest-growing mobile-first video game companies. Scopely creates and publishes a highly-diverse portfolio of top-grossing, immersive game experiences, including: the award-winning ”MARVEL Strike Force,” “Scrabble® GO,” “Star Trek™ Fleet Command” and”Yahtzee® With Buddies,” among others, which are played by hundreds of millions of players worldwide. Fueled by a world-class team, Scopely leverages its proprietary technology platform Playgami to bring directed-by-consumer, interactive experiences to audiences around the globe. Under Walter’s leadership, the company has achieved billions of dollars in lifetime revenue and attracted more than $1 billion in financing from leading venture capital firms, tech luminaries and cultural icons.
Walter has been recognized as one of the “100 Most Influential Young Executives” by The Business Journal, “Visionary of the Year” by C-Suite Quarterly, “Entrepreneur of the Year” by Ernst & Young, a “Young Global Shaper” by the World Economic Forum, one of the “100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs” by Goldman Sachs and a “Dealmaker of the Year” by Variety. Under Walter’s leadership, Scopely has also received many recognitions, including: “Best-led Company” in 2021 by Inc. magazine, “Private Company of the Year” in 2021 by Los Angeles Business Journal, a four time “Best Places to Work” winner by Built In LA, and a two time “World’s Most Innovative Companies” winner by Fast Company. Scopely has also been recognized on top charts such as Deloitte’s “Technology Fast 500,” being named the second fastest-growing technology company in North America and in the Top 10 mobile app charts for consumer spend.
Walter is an investor and advisor to many private technology companies as well as a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization and Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Los Angeles Technology & Innovation Council. Prior to Scopely, Walter founded and served as CEO of O Negative Media where he developed online social games. Before O Negative, he co-founded Ignition Interactive, one of the first developers of third-party applications for Facebook.
Walter holds a B.A. in English Literature from Brown University.
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About Scopely: Scopely is a global leader in interactive entertainment and mobile-first video games.
Javier Ferreira
Co-CEO & Board Member of Scopely
Javier Ferreira is the co-CEO of Scopely, one of the fastest-growing mobile games companies in the West. A longtime digital media and technology executive with 15+ years of experience in gaming, Javier joined Scopely in 2014 as Chief Operating Officer to expand its business operations, strategy, slate and partnerships. In 2016, he became President, overseeing all aspects of day-to-day operations and joined the Scopely Board. In 2019, he became co-CEO with co-founder Walter Driver. Since Javier joined the business in 2014, Scopely has scaled 35x with a highly-diverse, top-grossing games slate, including the award-winning MARVEL Strike Force, Scrabble® GO, Star Trek™ Fleet Command and YAHTZEE® With Buddies, among many others. Javier’s leadership has helped Scopely achieve accolades such as recognition in Fast Company’s “World’s Most Innovative Companies” and Entrepreneur’s “30 Startups to Watch” as well as ranking #2 on Deloitte’s “Technology Fast 500” and #9 on Inc. magazine’s “Inc. 5000” as one of the fastest-growing companies in North America. In 2019, Javier was also recognized by Variety as a “Dealmaker of the Year.” Prior to Scopely, Javier served as Senior Vice President of Games Publishing at Disney Interactive, where he oversaw a large slate of mobile, console and online digital properties—helping establish the brand as a world-class publisher with over 500 million downloads and $1 billion in revenue during his tenure. Earlier in his career, Javier served as Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Europe at JAMDAT Mobile, which was acquired by Electronic Arts during his tenure for $680 million. Javier helped build the JAMDAT business into a top mobile games publisher in Europe. Following the company’s exit, Javier served as Vice President of Publishing at EA where he drove the brand’s global strategy and technology investments across the EMEA region, as well as expanded international distribution and closed a wide range of strategic partnerships with major IP holders. Javier began his career in gaming at Telefónica Mobile as Head of Product, Games. Javier holds a B.S. in Economics from the University of Warwick and a M.S. in Social Anthropology from the University of Oxford.
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About Scopely: Scopely is a global leader in interactive entertainment and mobile-first video games.
Jesse Pickard
CEO of Elevate Labs
Jesse Pickard is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Elevate.
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About Elevate Labs: Elevate is a cognitive training tool designed to build communication and analytical skills.
Michael Heyward
CEO of medialab
Serial entrepreneur Michael Heyward co-founded Whisper with Brad Brooks in 2012 with the mission of giving people a place to freely and authentically express themselves. Whisper is one of the fastest-growing media companies, generating over 17 billion content views per month. Prior to Whisper, the LA native worked in different roles related to consumer-based marketing at startup TigerText. As a teenager, Michael was an avid Formula One Racing fan and secured the United States commercial rights for the sport. In 2016, Michael was named one of AdWeek’s “Young Influentials”. In 2014, he was named one of Forbes Magazine’s “30 Under 30” and one of Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business.” Michael is a frequent keynote speaker and has spoken at a number of prominent conferences, including WSJ D, Fortune Tech Brainstorm, TechCrunch Disrupt, and Business Insider Ignition.
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About medialab: medialab is a media & technology company that engages in acquiring and growing internet brands.
Hamza Zia
Founder & CEO of GitStart
Founder and CEO at GitStart (YC S19) Y Combinator-backed startup that helps engineering-focused companies be more agile, scale feature deployment faster, and reduce management complexity. Passionate about technology and programming from a very young age, I have built technology-based businesses globally and scaled high-performance teams across San Francisco, Zurich, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. Worked closely on the core Microsoft Azure team at Shanghai, helping improve their cloud platform, and was recognized as an outstanding individual contributor.
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About GitStart: The modern way to scale your tech team
Torri Shack
CEO / Co-Founder of Twella
Energetic and innovative Business Development Executive with more than 10 + years of experience in building and managing highly motivated sales and delivery teams. Flair for developing and growing market penetration through strategic partnerships, creative marketing and sales campaigns. Track record of building substantial sales and marketing teams and systems. PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY • Strong leadership skills with a proven history of building motivated and focused teams by investing in people through listening, coaching, training and mentoring. • 15 years’ experience in selling across a variety of platforms including outbound phone sales, cold calling, qualifying and converting leads, presentations, networking and managing a geographically distributed sales force. • Broad sales and business development experience across various industries including: property, mortgage, real estate, wellness, and technology. • Experienced in designing and implementing targeted focused sales and marketing campaigns with a track record of rapidly growing and maintaining market share. • Well-developed analytical and problem-solving skills. • Broad social media and technology experience with an innate understanding of what will work best on which platform. • Managed and exceeded KPI’s across various and diverse industries. • Strong financial management, budgeting and forecasting skills. • Highly organized with great time managements skills with the ability to focus on detail without losing sight of the bigger picture.
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About Tangible Movement, Twella: A mindful approach to mental wellness
Michael Ritter
Founder & CEO of Maple Media
Michael Ritter is the Founder and CEO of Maple Media, a mobile apps and games company backed by private equity firm Shamrock Capital. Maple Media is a mobile media, advertising and technology company that acquires, manages and operates mobile applications focused on the utility, productivity, games and entertainment verticals. Popular titles include Snowboard Party: World Tour, Skateboard Party, Minesweeper Classic, Sudoku 🙂 and CalConvert. Previously he was SVP of Business & Corporate Development for Jam City, a large social and mobile game company based in Los Angeles where he oversaw mergers & acquisition activities, publishing, licensing, distribution, sales, legal and partnerships for social and mobile games. Michael was also the Founder and Publisher of Saturday Night Magazine, which at the time, he built into the largest circulated monthly collegiate lifestyle and entertainment magazine in the country.
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About Fantasy Baseball Arbitration, Maple Media: Maple Media is a mobile media, advertising, and technology company that acquires and operates category-leading, consumer apps.
Allen Chen
CEO & Co-Founder of Fitbod
Allen is the Co-founder & CEO of Fitbod.
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About Fitbod: Fitbod allows users to maximize the use of indoor gym equipment and confidence to train effectively for strength.
Joshua Gordon
President and CEO of Red Pocket Mobile
Joshua Gordon is the president and CEO of Red Pocket Mobile.
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About Democracy Council, Red Pocket Mobile: Red Pocket Mobile is a different kind of wireless company.
Brad Griffith
Chief Executive Officer of Gametime
Brad Griffith After nearly missing a San Francisco Giants NLCS game because he didn’t have access to print his tickets, Brad Griffith reimagined a simpler process for buying tickets on the go. Focusing completely on the mobile experience, Brad wrote v1.0 of the Gametime iOS application in 2012 and now leads a passionate team focused on mobilizing the ticket buying process for fans. He’s fascinated with fan experience – answering the question: How can we make it faster and easier to attend games? Brad is a Santa Cruz native and huge S.F. Giants, Golden State Warriors and 49ers fan. After earning an Engineering degree from Stanford, he followed his dreams to work in sports by helping the Colorado Rockies and Chicago White Sox (2005 World Series Champs!) build statistical infrastructure to analyze player value. In 2010, he helped launch Zappedy, which delivered customer analytics for local businesses (sold to Groupon in 2011). At Gametime, he’s able to combine his love of sports and analytics to help fans attend more games and connect with their communities.
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About Gametime: Gametime sells last-minute tickets to the most popular events in sports, music, and theater.
Timothy Li
Founder and CEO of Fluid Credit
Timothy has been working in FinTech and Marketplace Lending industry for the past decade. He has launched various marketplace lending platforms and held c-level positions at RealtyMogul.com, loanDepot.com, Quick Bridge Funding, Think Finance and JPMorgan Chase. Timothy also co-founded LendFoundry.com, KuberFinancial.com MaxDecision.com. He also sits on various advisory boards such as Ziero Finance, Solar Mosaic, Blinker Inc., Docitt and CreditExchange.in. Timothy holds various degrees from Harvard Business School, University of Southern California and San Jose State University.
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About Alchemy, Fluid Credit, kuber, MaxDecisions, University of Southern California: Fluid Credit provides university students with credit and personal finance education.
Sanchali Pal
Founder & CEO of Joro
Sanchali Pal currently works as the Founder and CEO for Joro App. She previously worked at Tesla as the Market Access Intern.
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About Joro: Joro is an app that tracks the users’ carbon footprint and develops a climate action practice.
Derek Collison
Founder & CEO of Synadia Communications
Derek Collison is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Synadia Communications. An industry veteran and pioneer in large-scale distributed systems and enterprise computing, Derek founded Apcera and has held executive positions at VMware, Google and TIBCO Software. Derek created NATS.io and CloudFoundry as well as TIBCO’s messaging systems. As Chief Technology Officer and Chief Architect of Cloud Application Platforms at VMware, he co-founded the cloud computing group and designed and architected Cloud Foundry, the industry’s first open PaaS. During Derek’s time at Google, he co-founded the AJAX APIs group. Prior to Google, Derek spent more than a decade at TIBCO, where he designed and implemented a wide range of messaging products, including Rendezvous and EMS. As TIBCO’s Senior Vice President and Chief Architect, Derek led technical and strategic product direction and delivery. Derek is a sought after speaker and collaborator. Derek holds more than 20 software patents and is a recognized leader in distributed systems design and architecture, as well as emerging cloud platforms. Derek earned a Bachelor’s degree with honors in Computer Science from the University of Maryland.
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About Covaxx, Heavybit, NATS, Savonix, Synadia Communications, Vicarious, Xperiel: Powering the secure connective technologies to drive cloud and edge native
Hao Li
CEO & Co-Founder of Pinscreen
Hao Li is Founder and CEO of Pinscreen, Inc., and Distinguished Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. He was previously Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southern California, Director of the USC Institute for Creative Technologies, a visiting professor at Weta Digital and a research lead at Industrial Light & Magic / Lucasfilm. For his contributions in non-rigid shape registration, human digitization, and real-time facial performance capture, Hao received the TR35 Award in 2013, recognizing him as one of the top 35 innovators under the age of 35, from the MIT Technology Review. He was named Andrew and Erna Viterbi Early Career Chair in 2015, and was awarded the Google Faculty Research Award and the Okawa Foundation Research Grant the same year. He won the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Award in 2018. He is best known for his work on dynamic geometry processing, facial animation, and data-driven techniques for making 3D human digitization and facial animation accessible to the masses. During his PhD, Hao co-created the first real-time and markerless system for performance-driven facial animation based on depth sensors. The team later commercialized a variant of this technology as the facial animation software Faceshift (acquired by Apple Inc. in 2015 and incorporated into the iPhone X in 2017). He was brought on as visiting professor at Weta Digital to build the high-fidelity facial performance capture pipeline for reenacting the deceased actor Paul Walker in the movie Furious 7 (2015). His recent research focuses on combining techniques in Deep Learning and Computer Graphics to facilitate the creation of 3D avatars and to enable true immersive face-to-face communication and telepresence in Virtual Reality.
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About Pinscreen, University of California Berkeley: Revolutionizing digital communication and online human interactions with user-generated and personalized 3D virtual avatars.
David Siegel
Co-Founder and CEO of Glide
David Siegel is the co-founder and CEO of Glide. He previously worked at Microsoft. He also held positions at Xamarin, Futureproof, and X1 Technologies. David holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and computer science engineering.
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About Glide: Build powerful apps from spreadsheets without code, in minutes.
Srinivas Balasubramanian
CEO of Photon
Srinivas Balasubramanian is Founder, Chairman and CEO of Photon, the leading Cloud to Consumer UX™ Company. Srinivas Balasubramanian has a track record of building category dominating, highly profitable companies with significant market value. Since 2007 when he took over as full time CEO at Photon, the company has worked with hundreds of customers including a significant percentage of the Fortune 100 and generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Prior to taking over as CEO of Photon Infotech, Srinivas Balasubramanian was a Senior Vice President at webMethods, a Nasdaq listed middleware technology company reporting to the CEO. Prior to that, Srinivas Balasubramanian was Founder, President and CEO of Infravio Inc, a Cupertino, CA based company which was a leading provider of Web Services and SOA infrastructure software that coined the term and created the category “SOA Governance”. Infravio was acquired by webMethods for $38mn in cash in 2006. Srinivas Balasubramanian served in various capacities at Infravio – initially as founding CEO responsible for raising the initial institutional Venture capital round in 2000. Thereafter, he served as Chief Strategist of the company between 2001 and January 2005 where he was responsible for closing a strategic financing round from NetIQ Corp and for closing a large number of the early customers. In January 2005, Srinivas Balasubramanian took over as CEO of Infravio. As CEO, he replaced the executive management team and drove the company to a thought and customer leadership position in the emerging Web Services and SOA market until its ultimate sale to webMethods in September 2006, which he architected. Srinivas was earlier an equity and derivatives trader at JP Morgan and Credit Lyonnais Securities at Mumbai, India. At Credit Lyonnais, he headed the largest institutional trading in the country that won almost every award on offer at the time he ran it. Srinivas has an MBA from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta and is a graduate from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani.
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About Photon: Photon is a technology corporation that provides Strategy Consulting, Creative Design, and Technology Services to global enterprise.
Chase Harmer
Chief Executive Officer of PayCertify
Integrity, honesty, and longevity. Those are the qualities that have shaped Chase Harmer, a successful entrepreneur, leader, speaker, and innovator. For 15 years, Chase has built businesses, led companies, created products, and helped bring the best out of his employees. As a merchant services professional, Chase has launched several companies and products—such as MLS Hotel, Power Payments, Payment Reservations, and Pay Certify—that focus on hotel and e-commerce verticals. His companies process transactions and create software products that help increase cash flow and longevity of merchant accounts in those industries.
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About PayCertify: The PayCertify Companies Inc. is an All-In-One payments co and digital wallet with a family of brands and services in the US, EU and CA.
Vitaly Alexandrov
CEO & Founder of Food Rocket
Currently nominated for Forbes 30 under 30, two-time winner of the Oxford’s Fund scholarship. In 2019, together with partners, Vitaly launched the Foody startup to optimize the restaurant procurement process in the U.S. Three months later, Foody was showing a monthly growth of 20%. In 2021 due to the pandemic, the startup pivoted and launched San Francisco’s first 10-15-minute grocery delivery service called Food Rocket. Previously, Vitaly was the CEO and founder of the international CRM marketing agency Out of Cloud that provides consumer data analysis and helps companies build personalized marketing. The agency’s clients include Puma, Panasonic, Nikon, Alfa Bank and Pfizer. The agency won the Best Use of eCRM category at Tagline Awards in 2017 and Best Use of Analytics in Loyalty Programs at Loyalty Awards in 2018. At 27, Vitaliy wrote the Email Marketing Strategy book that was a bestseller at Ozon.
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About Food Rocket: Food Rocket is an application that provides customers with on-demand 10-15 minute free grocery delivery.
Ham Serunjogi
Co-Founder & CEO of Chipper Cash
Ham Serunjogi is a co-founder and CEO at Chipper Cash.
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About Chipper Cash: Chipper Cash is a fintech platform that offers mobile, cross-border money transfer services.
Michael Boswell
Co-Founder, CEO of Cue
Co-Founder and CEO of Cue. Previously an Entrepreneur in Residence at Khosla Ventures; Design Lead at Facebook, Google and Coatue. Founding member of several products with successful exits including Jobr, Pagemodo, and ContactMe.
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About Cue: The world’s first social calendar
Chris Hulls
Cofounder / CEO of Life360
Chris is the cofounder and CEO of Life360. Before doing the whole startup thing, he did a stint in banking at Goldman Sachs and spent a few years in the Air Force. He went to college at UC Berkeley, and was about to start class at Harvard Business School when he had a last minute change of heart and decided to pioneer the trend of being an ivy league pre-dropout. In his time off, Chris likes to do anything that involves machines that move–like building drones, driving cars, flying planes, and piloting hovercraft. He is also widely credited with coining the term App Store Optimization.
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About Life360: Life360 creates a mobile app for families that helps families feel closer together.
Kartik Chandrayana
CEO / Co-Founder of Twin Prime
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About Twin Prime: Twin Prime, a company that came out of stealth this week
Cristiano Oliveira
Founder + CEO of Olivia
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About Olivia: Olivia is an AI financial assistant that learns your spending patterns, predict your purchases and recommend ways to get more for your money
Jonathan Gray
CEO and Co-Founder of Encore Music Technologies
Jonathan Gray, founder and CEO of Cask, is an entrepreneur and software engineer with a background in startups, open source, and all things data. Prior to founding Cask, Jonathan was a software engineer at Facebook where he drove HBase engineering efforts, including Facebook Messages and several other large-scale projects, from inception to production. An open source evangelist, Jonathan was responsible for helping build the Facebook engineering brand through developer outreach and refocusing the open source strategy of the company. Prior to Facebook, Jonathan founded Streamy.com, where he became an early adopter of Hadoop and HBase and is now a core contributor and active committer in the community. Jonathan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Business Administration from Carnegie Mellon University.
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About Encore Music Technologies, Orcada, The Apache Software Foundation: Encore is an interactive live music mobile-based platform aiming to help artists monetize their connections with fans.
Deborah Kilpatrick
Chief Executive Officer of Evidation Health
Deborah Kilpatrick is the Chief Executive Officer of Evidation Health.Prior to this role, she served as the Chief Commercial Officer of genomic diagnostics company CardioDx. Earlier in her career, Deborah held multiple leadership roles at Guidant Corporation, including Research Fellow, Director of R&D, and Director of New Ventures in the Vascular Intervention Division. She serves on the Georgia Tech Advisory Board and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering. Deborah is a co-founder of the MedtechVision Conference, now held annually in Silicon Valley. She holds BS, MS and PhD degrees in mechanical engineering with a bioengineering focus from Georgia Tech.
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About Evidation Health, MedTech Women: We enable and empower everyone to participate in better health outcomes.
Derrick Ko
CEO & Co-founder of Spin
Derrick Ko is co-founder at Skinny Labs, also known as Spin. Prior to this, he was a product manager at Lyft and the first employee at Kicksend.
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About Spin: Spin is a stationless electric scooter company that provides dockless mobility systems.
Gerard Cunningham
Founder & CEO of Winistry
Gerard is a Blue Chip & Startup CEO, Board Member, Adviser and Investor. He is a former CMO, with expertise in strategy, operations, Big Data, AI, Digital Transformation, Mobile.
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About Winistry: The Intelligent Mobile App Platform: “WordPress for Mobile Apps, plus AI”
Jordan Brown
Founder, CEO of Lugg
Jordan Brown is the Founder, CEO at Lugg
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About Lugg: Lugg provides anything moved with the push of a button. Download Lugg on the App store and instantly get connected to a truck and 2 movers.
Joel Simkhai
Founder and CEO of Blendr
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About Blendr: Blendr is a geo-social networking application and social discovery platform for Android, iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Facebook.
Rahul Chabukswar
Founder & CEO of Homesome
Rahul Chabukswar is the Founder & CEO of Homesome, e-commerce platform for grocery stores and supermarkets, think of us as Shopify for Groderies! He previously held Engineering Management positions on Windows Azure & Windows Server teams at Microsoft.
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About Homesome: Homesome is an e-commerce platform for grocery stores and supermarkets, think of us as Shopify for Groceries!
Sean Li
CEO & Co-founder of Magic
CEO @ Magic
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About Magic: Plug and play auth that grows with you
Chris DeWolfe
CEO & Co-Founder of Jam City
Chris DeWolfe is co-founder and CEO of Jam City, a global leader in mobile entertainment that provides social gaming experiences for millions of players around the world. Prior to Jam City, Chris co-founded and served as CEO of MySpace, where he popularized social networking and revolutionized the music industry. The site, formed in 2004, became the most visited in the U.S. by 2006 with 90 million members. When Chris left the company in 2009, MySpace had more than 130 million monthly active users around the world. Chris received Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2015 and the Producers Guild of America’s Vanguard award in 2009. TIME included him among its 2006 list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and Barbara Walters named him one of her 10 Most Fascinating People in 2007. He studied finance at the University of Washington and attended the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, which honored him in 2006 with its Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year award. Chris is an advisor at USC’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and a board member of Uproxx Media Group. He lives in Los Angeles with his family and actively participates in animal rescue operations.
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About Jam City: Jam City is a mobile entertainment company, connecting the world through technology, creativity, and play.
Matt Ivester
Co-Founder & CEO of Hotshot
Matt Ivester is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, author and speaker. He is currently CEO of Kindr Inc., a company dedicated to making online kindness fun and easy. In 2011, through Serra Knight Publishing, he published lol…OMG!: What Every Student Needs to Know About Online Reputation Management, Digital Citizenship and Cyberbullying. And in 2012, he published the high school edition of the same. Since its release, lol…OMG! has become Amazon’s top-selling book on the topics of digital citizenship and cyberbullying. He has spoken at various institutions around the country on these topics. Prior to writing lol…OMG! he started several companies, including a concert ticket auction site, a multi-million dollar investment fund, and a college gossip site. In 2005, Ivester graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor of Science double majoring in Economics and Computer Science. In 2012, he graduated from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business with an MBA.
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About Hotshot: Screenshot technology
Selcuk Atli
Co-founder and CEO of Bunch
Selcuk Atli is Founder and CEO of Bunch; a group video chat app designed for live mobile games. Selcuk is a graduate of YCombinator (W14), an Endeavor entrepreneur, a Fulbright Scholar. Before Bunch, he was a Venture Partner at 500 Startups. Prior to that that he co-founded Boostable (acquired by Metric Collective) and before that he founded Manifest Commerce (acquired by Rakuten). Mr. Atli is also Co-founder of Nomadic Minds, a non-profit that connects top mentors in silicon valley with founders in emerging tech hubs around the world (acquired by TheFamily). Selcuk was recognized by Endeavor as a global high-impact entrepreneur and was the recipient of an innovation award from the World Bank. He advises several startups including StackShare, Fetcher.ai and Mobile Action. He’s also the lead singer and songwriter for The HMMS, a recording indie rock band based in New York City.
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About Bunch, Z1.VC: Bunch is the first app that allows its users to play their favorite games with friends over video chat.
Manish Rathi
Dreamer, Doer, Founder & CEO of JoyRun
Manish Rathi joined JoyRun as Dreamer, Doer, Founder, CEO in 2014.
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About JoyRun: JoyRun is a community based delivery company.
Simon Biddiscombe
President and CEO of MobileIron
Simon Biddiscombe is the president and CEO of MobileIron. Prior to becoming the CEO, Simon served as the CFO of the company.
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About MobileIron: MobileIron offers a mobile-centric, zero trust security approach that verifies user, device, application, network, and security threat.
Crystal Rose
Founder and CEO of Make Sense Labs
Crystal Rose is the CEO and Founder of Sensay Inc, DBA Make Sense Labs. Full biography can be found at http://crystalrose.me
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About DeFiance Media, Make Sense Labs: Make Sense Labs Secure Messaging with Blockchain Technology
Renee Wang
Founder & CEO of Castbox
Renee Wang is the CEO and Founder of Castbox, an award-winning global podcast platform that enables anyone to easily find, access, create and enjoy spoken audio content. Prior to founding Castbox, Renee was a global app monetization expert at Google in user acquisition, optimization, and publisher engagement where she contributed to 42% of Google’s new app revenue. Renee holds a BS degree from Peking University, with a double major in Psychology and Mathematical Statistics.
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About Castbox: Castbox is a global podcast platform that enables anyone to easily find, access, create and enjoy spoken audio content.
Niccolo De Masi
CEO of Dmy Technology Group
Niccolo de Masi joined Glu as its President and Chief Executive Officer in January 2010 and brings to Glu a strong background of senior management and executive experience in the mobile gaming and content sectors. Prior to joining Glu, Niccolo was the Chief Executive Officer and President of Hands-On Mobile, a mobile technology company and developer and publisher of mobile entertainment, since October 2009, and previously served as the President of Hands-On Mobile from March 2008 to October 2009. Niccolo was previously the Chief Executive Officer of the London-listed mobile entertainment company Monstermob Group PLC from June 2006 to February 2007. Mr. de Masi joined Monstermob in 2004 and, prior to becoming its Chief Executive Officer, held positions as its Managing Director and as its Chief Operating Officer where he was responsible for formulating and implementing Monstermob’s growth and product strategy. Prior to joining Monstermob, Mr. de Masi worked in a variety of corporate finance and operational roles within the technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) sector, beginning his career with JP Morgan on both the TMT debt capital markets and mergers and acquisitions teams in London. He has also worked as a physicist with Siemens Solar and within the Strategic Planning and Development divisions of Technicolor. Mr. de Masi holds an M.A. degree in Physics and an MSci. degree in Electronic Engineering—both from Cambridge University.
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About Dmy Technology Group, University of California, Los Angeles: Dmy Technology Group is a special purpose acquisition company focused on the mobile app ecosystem.
Alex Ma
CEO & Co-founder of Poparazzi
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About Poparazzi: Poparazzi is a photo sharing app where users can create social profiles of their friends.
AF_initDataCallback({key: \’ds:1\'” alt=”” class=”wp-image-14850″ width=”154″ height=”152″/>Michael Golomb
Founder and CEO of FanVestor
A hands-on company builder, Michael’s background as an entrepreneurial CFO with three exits behind him, is the culmination of twenty years of senior management experience across a broad spectrum of industries. His expertise has been successfully applied across verticals ranging from startups to large public corporations including Blockchain, manufacturing, digital health & medical devices, consumer electronics & hardware, software/SaaS, and real estate. In addition to Michael’s global experience in raising equity though variety of public and private equity/debt instruments, as well as experience in handling complex M&A transactions, he also brings exceptional knowhow of Blockchain technology to DASAN Zhone Solutions. Earlier in 2017, (prior to joining DASAN) together with the other Blockchain industry veterans, Michael co-founded the ICO Governance Foundation, a non-profit decentralized global organization with a protocol-based global community mission that performs a self-regulatory function for ICOs in decentralized capital markets. In Oct 2016, Michael founded EdenCoin – a global cryptocurrency quantitative market-maker start-up with offices in San Francisco and New York: a proprietary liquidity aggregation platform to consolidate trading volume and data from major cryptocurrency market sources to run algorithmic market-making and liquidity provisioning, as well as other, quantitative strategies. From June 2015 to May 2017, while CFO at Breathometer, a hyper-growth digital health and medical device company, he helped take that company from pre-revenue to shipping in the FDA regulated space, forming OEM partnership with Philips, raising capital from venture capital firms and global strategic investors, as well as successfully achieving the ISO13485:2003 Certification milestone. Prior to Breathometer, Michael was the first employee (CFO, Board Member, and Head of SF Office) at BitFury, and helped build the market leading full-service Blockchain technology company, and one of the largest private infrastructure providers in the Blockchain ecosystem, taking it from zero to over $500M valuation and from 3 to over 120 employees in 7 countries between December 2013 through April 2015. Other notable roles include: ” Co-Founder and Co-President at Mayak RE, where he led the formation of JV with Morgan Stanley and MCP Private Equity Fund in Europe. ” CFO of Sistema Hals, he directed a highly successful London/LSE IPO with market capitalization at $2.7B. ” Head of Compliance / Sr. Finance Manager at Trimble, he effectively implemented global Sarbanes-Oxley compliance program, participated in private debt placement, as well as acquired/integrated several international technology companies. Michael received MSc in Management from Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2013, his MBA from Santa Clara University in 2000, and his B.A. with double major in Economics and Diplomacy & World Affairs from Occidental College in 1996. He is also a CPA (inactive) in California.
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About FanVestor: FanVestor is a FINRA-regulated crowdfunding platform that enables entertainment and sports celebrities to capitalize on their fanbases.
Eugene Park
CEO & Founder of Honeydue
Eugene Park is the CEO and co-founder of Honeydue. He used to be the VP engineering – applications at Flixster. Eugene earned his bachelor’s degree at University of California at Berkeley.
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About Honeydue: Honeydue is a mobile app for couples that offers tools to share information on respective account balances and spending.
Christof Wittig
Founder and CEO of Hornet
Christof Wittig is a serial software entrepreneur and investor. He is Founder and CEO at Hornet Networks, the world’s queer social network, and Managing Partner at Strive Capital, based in San Francisco, CA. Prior to Hornet, Christof was founder and CEO at LiquidM, the first mobile DSP provided as a SaaS platform, which he formed in 2013 when restructuring Madvertise, Europe’s largest mobile ad network. Previously he was the founder and CEO of Servo Software, the world’s first Android middleware company, which merged with Synclore to form Kii in 2010, today a leading player in the IoT space based in Tokyo. He was also founder and CEO at db4objects, an open source, “no sql” database company, which he sold to Versant in December 2008. Before that he was the founder and CEO of Apsis Software to revolutionize real estate cost management with software and led the company through its sale to Nemetschek in 1999 and its merger with conject in 2002. Christof is an investor and/or board member in various companies, including Enish (TYO:3667), Metago, KeepSafe, VirtaHealth, Cerebral, and App Annie. He has been active in the US, Germany, and throughout Asia. Christof holds a Master of Science in Management from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, where he was a Sloan Fellow in the Class of 2004 and author of the case studies on MySQL and Google’s Android. He also holds a Dipl.Ing. from Technical University Munich.
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About GAY GAMES 11 HONG KONG 2022, Hornet: Hornet is the world’s gay social network with 30 million members worldwide
Denis Mars
Co-founder and CEO of Proxy
Denis Mars, CEO & Co-Founder Before Proxy, Mars was the Director of Admissions at Y Combinator, responsible for initiating programs to help discover and evaluate the most promising founders and ideas that could change the world for the better. Prior to Y Combinator, Mars founded Meetings.io, which was acquired by Jive, founded an automotive startup, and was a chief engineer for the champion winning Formula 3 race team. Mars has a B.S. in Physics and a B.E. Honors in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Sydney. Startup founder, YC alum. Physics, Mech Engineering, Code, Design, UI/UX, Products. Likes to engineer the impossible and disrupt the status quo. Tech Startups: •Y Combinator Alum – Embedster Inc W2010 •Y Combinator Alum – Bitplay Inc (Meetings.io) W2011 •Meetings.io acquired by Jive (NASDAQ:JIVE) in 2012 Other accomplishments: •Modena Inc – Acquired by Auto Group in 2005 •3Jive Inc – Music Platform Technology •Roxentric – Indie Record Label •Formula 3 Racing – Chief Engineer 2x championship wins •Formula SAE – Team Lead 2001 winning team
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About Proxy: Access More, Share Less. Proxy designs and builds privacy-first, human-led, identity technologies. With Proxy ID, your world is now open.
Lukens Orthwein
Co-founder, CEO of Lynk Messenger
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About Lynk Messenger, Sochat: Lynk Messenger is a hyper-local messaging application that lets its users to chat with friends nearby for free.
Moustafa Mahmoud
Founder & CEO of Camlist
Building a better world.
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About Camlist, Cognitev, MENA Commerce: Camlist is a mobile app that allows user to buy and sell anything related to pets, pet services, and pet accessories.
Jeff Smith
CEO & Co – Founder of Smule
Jeff Smith is the CEO & Co-Founder of Smule. CEO Jeff Smith previously co-founded and ran Tumbleweed, an email security software company which he took public on the Nasdaq and grew to $50M in sales before stepping down as CEO. Jeff is currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Music at Stanford University. He previously received a BS in Computer Science at Stanford University. In between Stanford and Stanford, Jeff co-founded and ran an email security software company which he took public on the Nasdaq and grew to $50M in sales before stepping down as CEO. Jeff is the Co – Author of sixteen patents in the field of email security.
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About MonsterPreps, Ryan Companies, Smule: Smule develops music-making apps that connect people online.
Mary Yang
Advisor to CEO of Smule
As CPO of Smule, Mary Yang has led the company’s product and engineering teams, focusing on strategy, design, and innovation. Since Mary joined Smule, she has helped define the company’s vision and set the roadmap for Smule’s platform and portfolio, re-organized the development team into squads focusing on different business areas, and doubled the size of Smule’s global community to 50 million monthly active users. She is a seasoned product leader and entrepreneur in the global mobile consumer market space. Prior to Smule, Mary co-founded the U.S. incubator of Renren and built the firm’s international product line. Under her leadership, two mobile social applications targeting global markets were launched and acquired later. She continues to mentor multiple startups and is an advisor to the Chinese Entrepreneurs Organization. Mary holds a M.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University and a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Tsinghua University.
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About Smule: Smule develops music-making apps that connect people online.
Fahad Jalal
Founder & CEO of SitterFriends
Fahad studied Computer Science at Stanford, and got an MBA from the Wharton school of business. Over the last decade, Fahad has been involved with several startups and established companies in the capacity of founder, executive leader and investor. Fahad is involved with 3 charities that focus on child education, and development. In one word he describes himself as “human”, and his life-long goal is to help make care, and education accessible to all children across the world.
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About SitterFriends: Book your community’s most trusted babysitters, in a second, for free
Stefan Batory
Cofounder & CEO of Booksy
Stefan Batory is a Co-Founder & CEO at Booksy.
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About Booksy: Booksy is an online platform for finding and booking beauty and wellness appointments.
Sara Mauskopf
Co-Founder and CEO of Winnie
Sara Mauskopf is the CEO and Co-founder of Winnie, a marketplace for daycare and preschool helping over 4M parents across the United States. Sara has a background in consumer technology and product management. Prior to founding Winnie she was the Director of Product at Postmates, and prior to that held product leadership roles at Twitter, YouTube, and Google. She graduated with a Computer Science and Engineering degree from MIT. She’s also a mom of 2, soon to be 3, young children.
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About Winnie: Winnie is a marketplace for child care built on powerful data systems and backed by a trusted community of parents and providers.
Alex Krailo
CEO of Datamart
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About Datamart: Datamart is a global full-service software development company that offers technical consulting and software engineering services.
Jacob Eiting
CEO and Co-Founder of RevenueCat
Jacob Eiting is the CEO and Co-Founder of RevenueCat.
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About RevenueCat: RevenueCat is a mobile subscription toolkit that makes it easy to build and manage in-app purchases and subscriptions.
Vlada Bortnik
CEO & Co-Founder of Marco Polo
Vlada Bortnik is the Founder at Joya Communications.He is Co-Founder & CPO at Happy Bits Company.
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About Happy Bits Company, Marco Polo, YPO: Marco Polo is a video communication application designed to help foster closeness between friends and family.
Sumeet Bhatia
Founder and CEO of Aiva Health
Sumeet has over 17 years of experience building and deploying large scale web and mobile applications covering a broad spectrum of fields including health care, media, real estate and automotive. Most recently, Sumeet served as VP of Product for Slingshot Labs where he was responsible for social media and mobile app development. Sumeet spent four years managing a SaaS healthcare platform for Specialty Laboratories (now part of Quest Diagnostics). Sumeet received his BS, Computer Science and Engineering from UCLA.
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About Aiva Health: Aiva Health offers a voice-powered healthcare assistant for patient care.
Jason Brown
Founder & CEO of Tally
Jason Brown is the CEO and co-founder of Tally, an AI-powered consumer fintech company making it easier for people to achieve their financial goals. Growing up in a family that struggled financially, Jason started Tally to democratize financial services and put billions of dollars back in people’s pockets. As a repeat entrepreneur, Jason previously co-founded venture-backed consumer solar finance company Gen110 and subscription-based tech support company Bask.com. Jason holds a BS from Boston University and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
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About Tally: Tally is a financial automation company that helps members payoff credit card debt.
Tuan Ma
Founder & CEO of PlayersOnly
A entrepreneur, computer scientist and Founder of PlayersOnly. He holds a M.S. in Computer Science from DePaul University, and a M.B.A. from Durham University (UK).
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About PlayersOnly: PlayersOnly is a sports social network focused on athletes.
Heini Zachariassen
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Vivino
Heini is Vivino’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Credited with bringing a technology revolution to the wine industry, Heini founded Vivino because he was frustrated by not knowing which wine to buy. It’s been his passion project ever since. During his tenure, Vivino has grown into a community of 46 million users, raised $72 million in funding, and rolled out a worldwide wine marketplace. Before starting Vivino, Heini co-founded several startups, including global internet and mobile security company BullGuard. Heini leads the team from Vivino’s European headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. Heini and Vivino’s story is featured in an independent documentary, “Disrupting Wine, The Life of an Entrepreneur.” Heini also hosts the YouTube series Raw Startup, which offers candid advice for entrepreneurs and startups.
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About Vivino: Vivino is a wine app and online wine marketplace that provides users tools to buy better wine based on their unique tastes.
Daniel Singer
Founder and CEO of Panda
Daniel Singer is the Founder & CEO of Panda.
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About Panda: Panda is a camera that augments users’ conversations with friends.
Noosheen Hashemi
Founder & CEO of January
Noosheen Hashemi is the Founder & CEO, January.ai.
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About Council on Foreign Relations, Hand Capital, January, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, The HAND Foundation, The HAND Foundation: January is a mobile app that combines AI with science to provide personalized health insights and recommendations.
Winter Wong
Founder and CEO of Tapatalk
Winter Wong is the founder and CEO of Tapatalk.
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About Tapatalk: Tapatalk is a social app that aggregates discussions from forums all over the internet
Stephen Forte
Chief Scientist, Founder and CEO of The BuildClub
Stephen Forte lived in China for 10 years, and is a software architect and entrepreneur, with a special focus artificial intelligence and computer vision. Mr. Forte is an expert in mobile apps and software with 28 patents filed with 14 awarded, and has deep insight into Asia tech. Mr. Forte has founded and exited multiple tech startups, been CEO of public and private companies, managed operations in 63 countries, and led P&Ls from startups to over $1 billion.
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About Ascendent Systems, Bixby Creek Capital, LLC, Chief Executives Organization, GLG, The BuildClub, Third Bridge Group, YPO: Mobile App – Building materials delivered in about an hour
Carter Russ
Founder & CEO of Champions Round
I am an entrepreneur with a passion for creating exceptional products and building fantastic working cultures. I am the founder and CEO at Champions Round. I’m interested by sports tech, cryptocurrencies and blockchain, physics, investing, art and music, and pretty much anything nerdy or cool under the sun.
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About Champions Round: Fantasy & sports betting operator offering hyper casual skill based contests.
Azhar Khan
Founder and CEO of Agnitus
CEO at PhotoGAUGE.
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About Agnitus, Cornell University, PhotoGAUGE: Agnitus is a developer of touch-enabled learning applications.
George Bolanos
Founder & CEO of InsideMaps
Over the last 10 years, George has been a technology director, business development executive and a startup founder & CEO of Wanadu, a successful web conferencing company that was sold to Latitude/Cisco. With a background at Netscape, Nokia and Sony mobile, he has led teams focused on the development and marketing of mobile innovations. In his last 3 year role at Sony Mobile as Director of Technology, George led development teams that focused on the development of mobile services for Sony Mobile devices.George is currently focused on a stealth startup project stretching the limits of what a smartphone can do in computer vision. Earlier in his career, George worked in Europe, helping establish Netscape in Europe among other high tech companies. While at Stanford, George globe trotted the world and is now fluent in French, Spanish and Italian.
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About InsideMaps: InsideMaps is a smartphone and tablet app that enables anyone to easily create photorealistic 3D models and virtual tours of their homes.
Terren Klein
CEO & Co-Founder of College Pulse
Terren Klein is the CEO & Co-Founder at College Pulse.
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About College Pulse: College Pulse is a polling platform designed to aggregate and share student public opinion on college campuses.
Grant Pierce
President, Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO of Sonics
Grant A Pierce co-founded Sonics in September 1996 and has served as Chief Executive Officer and President since March 1997 and as chairman of the board of directors since February 1997. From 1990 to 1996, Mr. Pierce served as Chief Financial Officer, Vice President and General Manager for MicroUnity Systems Engineering, Inc., a digital media and communications devices company. From 1988 to 1990, Mr. Pierce was Chief Financial Officer at ParcPlace Systems, a company selling object-oriented software development environments. From 1984 to 1988, Mr. Pierce served as corporate controller for MIPS Computer Systems, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company. Mr. Pierce’s extensive experience also includes work at Convergent Technologies, Inc., ITT Qume, and Arthur Andersen and Co. Mr. Pierce received a B.S. in Business Administration-Accounting from California State University, Hayward and is a former certified public accountant.
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About Sonics: Sonics supplies on-chip communications solutions for home entertainment, wireless, networking and mobile devices.
Amir Dan Rubin
Chair & CEO & President of One Medical
Amir Dan Rubin is President & CEO at One Medical. As president and chief executive officer, Amir is focused on delivering better health through outstanding, coordinated clinical care; innovative digital technology; and the highest levels of service, access, and engagement. Previously, as EVP and divisional CEO of UnitedHealth Group’s Optum division, he oversaw a number of business lines focused on helping to make the health system work better for everyone. Prior to Optum, Amir was president and CEO of Stanford Health Care where he helped raise patient experience and quality scores to the highest levels in the nation, grow a regional network of care settings, and advance digital health and corporate partnerships in the heart of Silicon Valley. Amir also previously served as COO for the UCLA Health System, and has been awarded the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Northern California in recognition of his role in innovation and industry transformation. He holds MBA and MHSA degrees from the University of Michigan.
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About One Medical: One Medical is a members-only technology platform offering an array of concierge medical services.
Joe Martin
Founder and CEO of Snatch
Forensic scientist turned entrepreneur and tech company founder. Joe has used his background in to behavioral psychology to take the unlikely step into brand and mobile marketing to huge effect. His first venture ‘Snatch’ – a mobile marketing platform packaged as augmented reality treasure hunt hit the #1 spot on the UK app stores in 2017 and fast became the #1 customer acquisition platform for the majority of over 200 brand partners thanks to the productization of his deeper level understanding of consumer behaviour that resulted in average offer redemptions of 34% (industry average 2%-5%) across a 9 month test period that accumulated over 1 million active users and resulted in Joe being invited to speak at some of the worlds most prestigious tech and marketing events from SXSW, CES, Founders Forum and Cannes Lion. He now returns with his second venture ‘Tickle’ to once again challenge the stat quo and to once again prove that advertising can and should entertain and reward.
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About Snatch, Tickle Global: Snatch is a computer game development company that provides a radical reinvention of the brand experience.
Jack Moses
Co-Founder & CEO of LevelChanger
Jack Moses is a tech entrepreneur and angel investor. He is the Co-Founder and VP Marketing of Grand Junction Networks (the pioneer of “Fast Ethernet”), which was acquired by Cisco in 1995 for $348 million. Prior to leading Grand Junction Network’s marketing efforts, Jack worked as a Marketing Executive at 3Com where he oversaw product and marketing for the company’s core computer networking and ethernet technologies. Jack attended Yale University for his undergraduate studies, where he received his B.S. in Economics, and Stanford’s Graduate School of Business (GSB), where he received his MBA in Marketing.
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About LevelChanger: Real-time scoring, stats, and analytics for wrestling teams.
Han Jin
Cofounder & CEO of Lucid
Han is the founder/CEO of Lucid, an AI startup building a deep learning platform to generate 3D data in images/videos. Their product LucidPix allows consumers to transform photos into multi-dimensional masterpieces and share them anywhere. Jin was named by Business Journal as one of the 40 Under 40 in 2019, he received the global Lumiere and Golden Stevie Award for Best Entrepreneur of the year 2018, and is one of the Forbes 30 Under 30 in consumer electronics. Inc Magazine featured him on its May 2017 cover as one of America’s 30 rising stars.
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About Lucid: AI platform extracting insights out of images and videos to serve the best content to convert users
Arun Saigal
Cofounder and CEO of Thunkable
Arun Saigal is the Co-founder and CEO of Thunkable, a Y Combinator-backed startup where anyone can build their own mobile apps. Thunkable is based on Arun’s work with MIT App Inventor, which he worked on during his SB and MEng at MIT. Recently named to Forbes 30 Under 30, Arun has held a variety of leading roles at technology companies, including Quizlet, Khan Academy, Aspiring Minds, and Google. Outside of the office, Arun conducts orchestras and plays viola and mridangam in several SF-based music groups.
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About PJC, San Francisco Civic Music Association, Thunkable: Thunkable makes a drag-and-drop programming tool to allow anyone to make beautiful, native mobile apps.
Jen Grant
CEO of Appify
Jen Grant is the Vice President of Marketing at Box.net, where she is responsible for leading brand strategy, sales marketing, public relations, and product marketing. Prior to Box.net, Jen spent four years at Google where she was head of marketing for the Apps team responsible for marketing Gmail, Calendar, Talk, Blogger, Reader, Picasa, Orkut, and OpenSocial. In addition, she built out the Google Apps Education Edition marketing team to support sales to CIOs at universities and reach out directly to students. Earlier, Jen developed the marketing, education, and outreach strategy for Google Book Search and led the marketing team in successfully swaying public opinion and improving relations with publishers. In 2007, she received a Google Founders Award – the most prestigious award offered at Google. Prior to Google, Jen was a Product Manager at Stata Labs, which was acquired by Yahoo in 2004, Director of Marketing at Thin Multimedia and a co-founder at DealMaven, which was acquired by FactSet. Most of Jen’s free time is spent chasing her twin girls around the house and curling up with her son to eat cookies and watch Ben 10. She received her MBA from Wharton and earned her bachelor’s degree from Princeton.
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About Appify: Appify is a no-code business apps platform for the modern workforce.
Hill Ferguson
CEO of Doctor On Demand
Hill Ferguson is the CEO of Doctor On Demand. He is a former executive in residence at Social Capital LP and served as the vice president of global product at PayPal. Prior to PayPal, Hill was the Vice President of Product and Marketing at Zong, where he led product management and marketing functions. Hill has also previously served as GM at Yodlee, where he helped develop and market personal management (PFM) and consumer payments products used by top-tier Financial Institutions. At Yahoo!, Hill was part of the product team that produced the award-winning Yahoo! Finance website. Hill also founded LoanBack, a leading peer-to-peer loan management service which has helped consumers manage over $1.5B in “friends and family” loans. Hill received a Bachelors of Science in Political Science with a minor in Spanish and holds an MBA with a Marketing Concentration from Vanderbilt University.
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About Doctor On Demand: Doctor On Demand is a mobile app that provides on-demand and scheduled visits with U.S.-licensed health care providers.
Esther Crawford
Co-founder/CEO of Squad
Esther is an award-winning pioneer in Millennial marketing who spearheaded groundbreaking digital campaigns in social and video for Fortune 500 companies. She previously led product marketing for Silicon Valley startups including Coach.me and Stride. After finding early success on YouTube, Esther started a social marketing agency whose clients included Weight Watchers, Sears Holdings and more. She was an on-air contributor to CNN, Fox News, and iVillage. Esther holds a Master’s of Arts in International Relations from Durham University in England, an Arabic language certificate from Jordan University and a Bachelors of Science in Philosophy from Oregon State University.
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About Squad: Acquired by Twitter in 2020. Hang out with friends in audio and video rooms.
Paul Puey
CEO & Co-Founder of Edge
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About Edge: Edge is a complete self custody solution that allows users to buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies.
Corey Brundage
CEO, Founder of HONK
Serial entrepreneur. Founder at HONK, betterSHIFT, KorMethod, SendLove.to and Sentient Systems. Investor and startup advisor.
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About HONK: HONK is an innovative roadside assistance platform that uses both technology and a unique business model.
Jim Long
CEO of Didja
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About Didja, HP: A mobile app that allows users to clip the best stuff on TV .
Akash Takyar
CEO of LeewayHertz Technologies
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About LeewayHertz Technologies: LeewayHertz is a blockchain development company, providing scalable and robust blockchain solutions to enterprises and startups.
Sam Osman
Founder & CEO of Playas Play
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About Playas Play, SocialVenu: Playas Play is a new mobile app that rewards sports fans for doing what they love — betting and talking trash.
Yi Shi
CEO & Founder of Dotc United Group
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About Avazu, Dotc United Group, Net Impact: DotC United Group creates and architects internet platforms to simplify globalization complexities
Vaibhav Verma
CEO and Co-Founder of Simmer
Vaibhav Verma is the CEO of Simmer.
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About Simmer: Simmer is a food review app that aims to bring high quality reviews for every dish on the menu.
Arpit Jain
Founder & CEO of SplashLearn
Arpit Jain is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at SplashLearn.
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About SplashLearn: SplashLearn is an EdTech startup company providing game-based math and reading courses to students in pre-kindergarten to grade five.
Yunha Kim
Founder & CEO of Simple Habit
Simple Habit was founded by Yunha Kim in Spring 2016.A former investment banker on Wall Street, Yunha quit her job to build her first startup, raising over $3M from prominent investors. Yunha was desperate to manage the extreme stress of her startup, so, she turned to meditation. She began to meditate a few minutes a day and saw dramatic improvements in the quality of her work, relationships and life. She decided to build Simple Habit to help busy people, like herself, experience the benefits mindfulness.
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About Simple Habit: Simple Habit is a meditation app designed to drive a healthy lifestyle.
Ashish Toshniwal
CEO of Y Media Labs
Ashish Toshniwal is CEO and co-founder of Y Media Labs, an investor in numerous mobile-first technology companies, and a frequent speaker on the future of mobile, emerging technologies and business transformation in the digital age. At a time when mobile was just taking off, Ashish and co-founder Sumit Mehra moved to Silicon Valley to start Y Media Labs. Carving a niche as an agency that could deliver both excellent design as well as the creative technology to successfully execute transformational experiences, they caught the attention of Steve Jobs and several top-tier companies around the world. Y Media Labs has since grown to a 250+ size global agency and has helped dozens of Fortune 500 companies successfully transition to the digital landscape. Recently partnered with MDC, Y Media Labs was selected by Forbes as one of the most promising companies in 2015. Other recent acknowledgements include Most Forward Thinking Company from Entrepreneur and Top 10 Fastest Growing Company in Silicon Valley by Business Journal. Ashish’s greatest strength as a CEO is building strong teams and empowering them to succeed. He truly enjoys mentoring employees and other bright minds in the mobile space and is always looking to connect with other in the community. “I believe that anyone can build a successful company if they believe in themselves, put the work in and invest in their own future.” – Ashish Toshniwal
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About Y Media Labs: An award-winning digital product and design agency. We create digital products and experiences that export Silicon Valley to the world.
Andreas Homer
Co-Founder, CEO of Aerial
Entrepreneur based in San Francisco. Passionate about running, climate, and building products that people love. Previously Director of Business Development at Microsoft via the Acompli acquisition (now Outlook on iOS, Android, and Mac). Formerly at Path, acquired by KakaoTalk. Studied / NCAA D1 Track at USC • Dual Citizen of U.S. & France (bilingual) • Runner-Cyclist-Squash at The Olympic Club
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About Aerial: Climate action for everyone.
