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 Retail 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.
Katrina Lake
Founder and CEO of Stitch Fix
Katrina is passionate about helping women achieve everyday confidence. She founded Stitch Fix to help women everywhere discover and explore their style through a truly client-focused shopping experience. Prior to founding Stitch Fix, Katrina developed extensive experience at the intersection of fashion, retail, and technology. She managed the blogger platform at venture-backed social commerce company Polyvore and consulted with a variety of e-commerce and traditional retailers during her time at The Parthenon Group. Additionally, she has invested in and worked with dozens of entrepreneurs and start-ups at Leader Ventures. Katrina holds a B.S. in Economics from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
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About Grubhub, Stitch Fix: Stitch Fix is a personal styling platform that delivers curated and personalized apparel and accessory items for women.
Jack Dorsey
Co-Founder & CEO of Square
Jack Dorsey is the Co-Founder & CEO of Twitter Ventures
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About Cash App, Square, Twitter Ventures: Block is a merchant services aggregator and mobile payment company that aims to simplify commerce through technology.
Tracey Laden
Executive Assistant to the CEO of Plug and Play Tech Center
Tracey Laden is Executive Assistant to Saeed Amidi, CEO of Plug and Play Tech Center.
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About Plug and Play Tech Center: Plug and Play is an innovation platform bringing together startups and large corporations.
Saeed Amidi
CEO and Founder of Plug and Play Brand & Retail
Saeed has been a technology investor since 1996 and co-founded Amidzad with Pejman and Rahim in 1999. He is a serial entrepreneur and a seasoned executive with over 25 years of experience in founding, operating, and growing successful companies. He has been closely involved with more than twenty new emerging growth companies, of which 2 became public companies (PayPal (acquired by eBay) and Preview Systems). His investment includes Paypal ( acquired by eBay), Preview systems, Lending Club, Zoosk, Flipora, Affinity Circles, Techdirt, Sigmaquest, Scanscout, NextBio, Webs to name a few. Saeed co-founded the Amidi Group in 1980, a conglomerate of privately-held business enterprises consisting of several domestic and international entities with significant manufacturing, distribution, trading, retail, and real estate holdings. For the past 25 years, he has chaired and spearheaded the operations and management of a number of the Amidi Group entities, growing the aggregate value of its assets under management to over $250m. Saeed is an active member of the technology community and a frequent contributor to numerous charitable foundations. He is also an active member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), a world-class network of Fortune 500 CEOs, accomplished serial entrepreneurs, and veteran financial executives.
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About Amidzad Partners, Augmented Pixels, Mobilbank, Plug & Play, Plug and Play Brand & Retail, Plug and Play Spain, Plug and Play Tech Center, Young Presidents Organization (YPO): Solving the biggest problems top brands, retailers, and industry players face today.
Steven Yang
Founder & CEO of Anker
Steven Yang is the Founder and CEO of Anker Innovations. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Peking University and a master’s in computer science from the University of Texas – Austin. He was a senior engineer at Google in California before leaving to found Anker in 2011.
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About Anker, Hunan Ocean Wing: Anker is a multinational team of techies that provides a range of products from batteries and chargers to hubs and readers, and more.
Adam Goldenberg
Co-founder & Co-CEO of TechStyle Fashion Group
Adam Goldenberg has evolved from entrepreneurial prodigy to eCommerce industry thought leader. While still in high school, Adam founded his first company, Gamer’s Alliance, which he then sold to Intermix Media. The birthplace of MySpace, Intermix named Adam its Chief Operating Officer when Adam was just 19 – making him the youngest COO of a public company in history. At Intermix, Adam co-founded Alena Media – a first-of-its-kind eCommerce platform that would go on to serve as the template for TechStyle – with future TechStyle co-CEO Don Ressler. Adam and Don further cemented their burgeoning partnership by shepherding Intermix to a successful exit, selling Intermix to Fox News Corp. for $670 million dollars. In 2006, Don and Adam launched Intelligent Beauty, a vertically integrated beauty brand incubator. Intelligent Beauty scored a major success selling it’s flagship property Dermstore.com and portfolio of beauty brands to Target in 2013. In 2010, Don and Adam founded TechStyle Fashion Group. TechStyle’s mission: reimagine the fashion industry by creating the world’s most innovative, digitally native fashion brands. To date, TechStyle has launched successful, category-redefining fashion brands such as JustFab, Shoedazzle, FabKids, Savage X Fenty, and Fabletics. As of 2020, Don and Adam’s roster of brands have generated over $8 billion dollars in sales.
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About Fabletics, TechStyle Fashion Group: TechStyle is a global membership fashion commerce company focused on reimagining the global fashion business.
Andy Ruben
Founder & CEO of Trove
Andy Ruben is the CEO and Founder of Trove. The world’s most innovative brands trust Trove to run their resale platforms. Andy left his executive role at Walmart to pursue his dream of building the next generation of retail. Andy was hired by Walmart to work with the Board of Directors and build a strategy department for Walmart. He led a number of transformational efforts over his tenure, including launching Walmart’s heralded sustainability effort, re-imagining Walmart’s $20 Billion private brands business, and integrating online and stores.
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About Trove: Trove builds white-label technology and end-to-end operations that power circular shopping for premium and luxury brands.
Michael Amar
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Ifeelgoods
Seasoned entrepreneur with solid experience in global alliances, business development, executive management, channel development and organizational leadership. Business expertise across the worldwide marketplace including US, France, Israel, and Japan. Prior to founding Ifeelgoods, Michael founded and successfully sold DAOODA, a thriving ad network in the EU, and AGORAD, which was the number one independent French media company at the time he sold it in 2007. As CEO of Ifeelgoods, a U.S company he started in 2010, Michael is leveraging his leadership, experience and insights in e-commerce and online advertising to disrupt the promotion, advertising and loyalty industries. Michael is an Operating Partner at Cathay Innovation, a VC fund based in China, US and Europe, a Board Member of StationF – the largest incubator in the world – and Ambassador for La French Tech in San Francisco. Michael is a graduate of Institut Superieur de Gestion business school. Michael lives with his family in Palo Alto, California.
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About Chain Accelerator, Ifeelgoods, Paris Blockchain Week Summit: Ifeelgoods is a digital promotions platform helping marketers incent, convert and reward their audiences with desirable gifts in real-time.
Todd Dipaola
CEO and Cofounder of InMarket
Veteran entrepreneur Todd Dipaola co-founded inMarket in 2010 to bring the performance and accountability of digital marketing to the realm of retail . inMarket’s platform, including apps such as CheckPoints, List Bliss, and Extra Extra, reach consumers on their smartphones as they made critical purchase decisions. In 2011, inMarket announced the world’s largest mobile shopper network reaching over 20 million consumers. Under Todd’s leadership inMarket has partnered with brands including Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever, among others. Todd previously co-founded and bootstrapped digital marketing agency Vantage Media at the inception of search advertising. Vantage ranked 31 on the Inc 500 and earned “The Fastest Growing Technology Company in Los Angeles” honors by Deloitte’s Fast50. In 2007, Todd exited the company at a valuation north of $100MM. Todd is also the CEO of Forefund Capital. Todd’s entrepreneurial experience is also rooted in philanthropy. In 2007, he created the Dipaola Foundation, which was featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, to work on environmental and systemic societal issues. He sits on several boards including UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy and California Common Cause. As Chairman of Common Cause, the organization succeeded in reforming redistricting to eliminate gerrymandering and activating online voter registration for the first time in history. Todd graduated as a Regents Scholar from UC Berkeley in Molecular and Cell Biology with emphasis in Immunology.
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About ForeFund Capital, InMarket, The Dipaola Foundation: InMarket offers a self-service location-based platform that captures accurate consumer location data, which drives campaign performance.
Max Rhodes
Co-Founder and CEO of Faire
Prior to starting Faire, Max was the first product manager for several key initiatives at Square, including Square Capital ($1Bn+ deployed) and Square Cash (Square’s only Top 50-ranked app in the iOS App Store). He first came up with the idea for Faire while introducing the Blunt Umbrella to the United States.
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About Faire: Faire is a company that helps retailers find and buy wholesale merchandise for their stores.
Jaxon Klein
CEO, Co-Founder of Keyo
Jaxon Klein is an American businessman, entrepreneur, investor and startup advisor. Klein is currently CEO of Keyo, Inc., where he is a co-founder and former CTO. Prior to his role at Keyo, Klein founded two companies in hosting technology and web services.
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About Keyo: We place people’s identities in the palm of their hands.
Diishan Imira
Founder & CEO of Mayvenn
Diishan Imira is the founder and CEO of Mayvenn, a technology company that re-shapes how sale retail products are distributed. Graduating from Georgia State’s business school in 2010, Imira has a vast background in international trade, logistics, and investment. Straight out of college, Imira lived in China for two years and built a successful import/export company, running it profitably for about four years. Imira has lived and worked in several countries, including China, France, Brazil, and Ethiopia. Imira also speaks conversational Mandarin. Imira founded Mayvenn in 2012 with co-founder Taylor Wang. The company empowers the 95 percent of African American salons that do not retail products. Their commerce solution eliminates a salon’s inventory cost and opens a new revenue stream for their business. In April 2013, Mayvenn was accepted into the 500 Startups accelerator program. When they got to the program, other entrepreneurs were confused — questioning the probable success of the startup in Silicon Valley. It was unlike anything they had seen before. But that was only half the battle for the startup geared predominantly towards black consumers. During the summer of 2013, Imira and Wang stayed in Mountain View, Calif. where they immersed themselves into the cut-throat culture of the Valley and introduced their product to several investors. By August, they had raised $750,000 in investment funding and in October 2013, Mayvenn was officially launched. As of 2015, the company had raised $3 million in venture capital funding and has a network of over 25,000 stylists. With the continued mission to involve hair stylists in the process of buying and selling products, Imira and Wang’s goal is to eventually expand Mayvenn into an online platform that sells not only hair extensions but other hair care products, as well.
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About Mayvenn: Mayvenn enables Stylists to sell products directly to their clients without the upfront costs and burdens of holding inventory.
Don Kingsborough
CEO&Founder of OneMarket
Don has been a serial entrepreneur for 30+ years and is Managing Director GM/VP Payments & Ventures at Capital One. He was formerly Head of Retail at PayPal, CEO of Worlds of Wonder and President of Atari. He was also the Founder and former CEO of Blackhawk Network. Don lives in Silicon Valley and likes to vacation in Hawaii.
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About OneMarket: OneMarket offers customer data management and activation that empowers mid-sized and emerging retailers to acquire new customers.
Shawn Dougherty
Founder, CEO of EXOIO
Shawn co-founded mophie in June 2005, just prior to the release of the first iPhone. It grew to become the #1 selling battery case manufacturer for mobile devices in North America. Working as a founder, COO, President & Board Member, mophie created the first juice pack battery case for the first-generation iPhone in North America and built an exclusive partnership with Apple. I led a team which built a solid business structure at mophie, allowing the company to thrive and withstand rapid growth, both in the U.S. and internationally. Shawn became a skilled operator and raised millions of dollars in multiple rounds of capital and debt facilities. Under Shawn’s guidance and strategic vision, the company grew from 3 employees in her barn in Kalamazoo, Michigan to a multimillion dollar business, mophie sold products into 38,000 retailer partners in 130 countries with 300+ employees with facilities in California, Michigan, China, Hong Kong and Amsterdam. As a leader, I established longstanding relationships with national and global retail partnerships and collaborations with top industry icons including Apple, Amazon, Verizon, AT&T, Best Buy, Product Red, Valentino, and Supreme. I am passionate about developing products and growing a business from the ground up was one of the most challenging yet satisfying experience of my life. By 2015, mophie revenue has reached $250+ million, and resulted in company being sold in February of 2016 to a strategic acquirer. Shawn was also a seed investor, Board Member, and Co-founder of Paw Paw Brewing company in Paw Paw, Michigan. The company was originated in 2010 and Shawn exited in March 2017. Since the sale of mophie Shawn has catching her breath, tending to personal relationships, and has also started a new company called EXOIO that allows her to spend time networking, consulting, and acting as an advisor to company of all sizes.
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About EXOIO: We help accelerate growth.
Francois Chaubard
CEO of Focal Systems
CEO at Focal Systems.
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About Focal Systems: Automate and optimize retail through the use of deep learning computer vision. With focalOS, Focal provides the operating system of retail.
Greg Fleishman
Co-Founder & CEO + Board Member of Foodstirs
Greg Fleishman is the Co-Founder and CEO at Foodstirs.
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About Fata & Fleishman Mentorship, Foodstirs, Modern Alkeme, Purely Righteous Brands LLC, Springdale Ventures: Foodstirs is an omni-channel junk-free baking brand that helps people connect through the power of better-for-you sweet baked goods.
Alex Mehr
CEO, Co-Founder of Retail Ecommerce Ventures
Alex Mehr is the co-founder and co-CEO of Zoosk.com.
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About Mentorbox, Retail Ecommerce Ventures, Zoosk: Retail Ecommerce Ventures create thriving online stores where physical-first operations previously struggled.
Kim Stiefel
CEO & Co-Founder of Repeat
Kim Stiefel is the CEO and Co-Founder of PRZM.
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About Repeat: Repeat is a SaaS platform that enables consumer-packaged-goods brands to turn one-time buyers into repeat customers.
Michael Preysman
Founder and CEO of Everlane
Michael Preysman is the founder and CEO of Everlane. Prior to starting Everlane, he was an investor at Elevation Partners for both their New York and Menlo Park offices investing in media and entertainment companies. Michael enjoys sitting at the intersection of design and technology. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon with degrees in Computer Engineering and Economics.
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About Everlane: Everlane designs, manufactures, and sells clothing items for men and women via online e-commerce website.
George Ruan
Co-founder and CEO of Honey
George Ruan is the co-founder and chief executive officer at Honey.
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About Honey, Karmarama: Honey is a shopping platform that provides access to exclusive savings, deals, rewards, and discovery.
Michia Rohrssen
Co-Founder, CEO of Prodigy
Michia Rohrssen is CEO at Prodigy, a growing Auto Startup.
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About Prodigy, Upstart: Prodigy digitizes the process to save customers’ time while improving trust and satisfaction.
Elise Polezel
Chief Executive Officer of HigherMe
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About HigherMe: HigherMe uses data and video to help retail and service employers find, screen, and hire better employees faster.
Stuart Landesberg
Co-Founder & CEO of Grove Collaborative
Stuart Landesberg is the Co-Founder & CEO of Grove Collaborative, the leading digital-first brand & ecommerce platform for natural home and personal care. Stu has long been passionate about sustainability. He founded Grove, which has been a Certified B Corp since its founding, after learning that offline distribution meant that just a small percentage of families were choosing healthy, sustainable home care products. Grove now serves hundreds of thousands of households in the U.S. every month and has raised over $100 million in total capital. Stu was previously an investor at TPG Growth, where he was involved in over $400 million in consumer and technology investments. Stu and his wife Caitlin live in San Francisco with their daughter and dog, and spend as much time outside as possible.
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About Grove Collaborative: Grove creates and curates high-performing, planet-first home and personal care products and is the leader in zero-plastic CPG.
Ashvin Kumar
Co-Founder & CEO of Tophatter
Ashvin Kumar Co-founded Blippy Inc. in 2009 and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Ashvin Kumar served as the Vice President of Engineering at Affinity Circles, where he managed an engineering team across Development & QA, Operations, and Technical Support. Ashvin Kumar graduated from Stanford in 2005 with a degree in computer science.
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About Tophatter: Tophatter is revolutionizing the e-commerce landscape with a discovery shopping app that’s truly one-of-a-kind.
Jonathan Shokrian
Founder & CEO of MeUndies
Jonathan Shokrian was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA.
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About MeUndies: MeUndies brings together sustainable fabric and innovative design to make soft underwear and loungewear for its customers.
Amrita Saigal
CEO & Founder of Kudos
Amrita Saigal is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kudos.
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About Kudos, Zera Life: Kudos is a retail company that offers natural disposable baby diapers with cotton liners.
Christiana Chen
CEO & Co-Founder of Pathover
This year, I was selected as one of the 40 Under 40 Women in Tech 2016. I am very excited that more and more girls are exposed to and excelled in the field of technology. I am passionate about using technologies to improve everyday life and experiences.
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About Pathover: Pathover is an API-based intelligent optimization and logistics solution for the last mile.
David Nussbaum
Founder and CEO of PORTL Hologram
David Nussbaum is the Founder and CEO at PORTL Inc.
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About PORTL Hologram: PORTL Hologram offers at-home hologram machines.
Gower Smith
CEO & Co-Founder of Swyft
Gower Smith is the founder of ZoomSystems and Co-Chairman of the Board. Prior to starting the company in 2002, Gower founded and led several other successful technology startups, including ComputerLand (a retailer of PC and technology products, acquired by Random Access), CGF Electronics (Australian distributor for Apple computer products), Archives Computers (a networking and software company, acquired by Impact Systems), and Boomerang Imaging Supplies (a leading printing supplies business, acquired by TCR). Gower completed his radio technician certificate with the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation, and studied microprocessors at the Melbourne Institute of Technology and Caulfield Institute of Technology.
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About Swyft: Swyft sells great products from leading brands in strategic high profile locations, serving customers.
Daniel Chu
CEO and Co-Founder of MakersPlace
Daniel Chu is the CEO and co-founder at MakersPlace. He is a product and engineering leader with a passion for applying technologies to drive real-world change.
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About MakersPlace: MakersPlace is an authentic and unique digital creation platform powered by blockchain technology for digital creators.
Arvind Patel
CEO and Co-Founder of Rowzzy
Seasoned Silicon Valley executive and CEO with direct experience in managing multi-million dollar companies. Wide range of experience in tech management, raising capital, revenue growth and M&A. Tenure in technology has spread across many verticals to include Hardware, Contract Manufacturing and Software. His multilingual skills leverage his wide network. Current activity is to lead a next-gen AI platform to funding, product launch and rapid growth.
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About Rowzzy: Innovators of NVU™ a PaaS /A.I. Voice-to-Display solutions for eCommerce and beyond.
Andy Moss
Founder and CEO of Roadster
Andy Moss is CEO at Fabkids.
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About Roadster: Roadster provides consumer-driven commerce solutions for today’s modern dealership.
Nathan Kondamuri
Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Pair Eyewear
Nathan Kondamuri currently works as the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Pair Eyewear.
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About Pair Eyewear: Pair Eyewear is an eyewear brand designed and made specifically for children.
Ariel Kaye
Founder & CEO of Parachute Home
Ariel Kaye is the Founder and CEO of Parachute, the fast-growing home essentials brand based in Venice Beach. Long intrigued by the interplay of design and wellness, Ariel established Parachute to fulfill consumers’ needs for high quality bedding and a good night’s sleep. Forbes declared that “Parachute Wins Over Millennials Tired Of Chain Store Bedding.” The brand has been called one of the “25 Hot Los Angeles Startups to Watch” by Business Insider, and has been featured in notable publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Architectural Digest and ELLE DECOR. Since it’s launch, Parachute has expanded into bath, Tabletop Linens, two storefronts (Venice Beach and Portland), The Parachute Hotel, as well as Baby. The brand’s has a projection of $30M for 2017. Prior to launching Parachute, Ariel spent ten years working in brand development and advertising in New York. Her experience yielded invaluable insight to consumer purchase behavior and the public’s growing interest in quality, craftsmanship and social responsibility – now tenets of the Parachute brand. Ariel earned a Master’s Degree in Media Studies from the New School, a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the Gallatin School at NYU. She is also a certified yoga instructor and aspiring surfer.
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About Parachute Home: Parachute Home engages in the production of modern bedding and bath essentials for a more comfortable home.
Gabrielle Chou
CEO & Co-Founder of Allure Systems
Gabrielle Chou is founder & CEO at Allure Systems.
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About Allure Systems, New York University Shanghai: Allure Systems uses AI to produce apparel images for eCommerce.
John Tabis
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of The Bouqs Company
John is passionate about disruptive businesses, cool brands, and showing love to the important people in his life. The Bouqs Company is a combination of those things, and he is thrilled to bring it to you and yours. Prior to Founding The Bouqs Company, John worked in strategy consulting at Bain & Company, followed by marketing & brand strategy for Disney, ESPN, ABC, Marvel, ShoeDazzle and Gerber Baby. John received his BS in Finance from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA from UCLA Anderson.
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About The Bouqs Company: The Bouqs Company is a cut-to-order online flower delivery service.
Aleksandar Cabrilo
CEO of HTEC Group
Aleksandar is an entrepreneur by passion. He is the founder and CEO of HTEC Group, a consulting and technology R&D services company, founded in Serbia and grown internationally, headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Serbia, Scandinavia, and the UK, servicing its clients and partners globally in various verticals. Aleksandar has a special interest in business digitalization, corporate innovation, and venture acceleration and in HTEC he makes sure that technology excellence of its engineering teams meets relevant industry domain expertise to create the disrupting digital products that support innovative business models. Aleksandar is also a partner, advisor or investor with several technology startups.
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About HTEC Group: HTEC Group is a consulting, product development and digital platform engineering company.
Donny Hall
Co-Founder & CEO of SureSale
Donny helped build successful SoCal tech companies including LowerMyBills.com, HomeLoanCenter.com and Leadpoint.com prior to building one of the largest DTC auto warranty sellers in the US which he sold to Innovative Aftermarket Systems.
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About SureSale: SureSale’s Certification as a Service platform and marketplace allow dealers and private sellers to certify and market used vehicles.
Amy Errett
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Madison Reed
Amy is a partner at True Ventures. With years of experience as a senior executive, venture capitalist, and social-mission visionary, she founded the hair color company Madison Reed in 2013. Before Madison Reed, Amy was general partner for venture capital firm Maveron where she ran the company’s Bay Area office and focused on consumer-facing companies. While CEO at Olivia, Amy was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Northern California. She founded and served as chair and CEO of The Spectrem Group, which was acquired by an IPG subsidiary, NFO Worldwide (NYSE:NFO). After the sale, she joined E*Trade where she diversified the company’s business beyond brokerage and ran a $200 million wing of the business. A passionate humanitarian, Amy is a member of San Francisco’s Barbary Coast chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization. She serves on the boards of non-profits Common Sense Media, Glide, and the University of Connecticut Foundation, in addition to several startups. A New York native, Amy earned an MBA in finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from the University of Connecticut. She is a former student athlete and fanatical UCONN Huskies fan. She and her wife, Clare, live in San Francisco with their daughter, Madison.
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About Madison Reed, True Ventures: Madison Reed is a beauty company revolutionizing the way women color their hair.
Mark Lovas
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Trumaker
Mark Lovas serves as Executive Director, Co-Founder, and Chief Executive Officer at Trumaker, Inc.
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About Trumaker: Trumaker is a new kind of men’s apparel brand where every guy gets a client
Chai Mishra
CEO & Founder of The Essential
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About The Essential: The Essential creates an altogether new grocery store for a new era.
Charles Bergh
President & CEO of Levi Strauss & Co.
Chip Bergh is the president & chief executive officer of Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&Co.). He is also on the company’s board of directors.LS&Co. is one of the world’s leading apparel companies with sales of approximately $5 billion and business in more than 110 countries. The company operates more than 2,800 retail stores and has more than 50,000 wholesale doors globally for its two main brands: Levi’s® and Dockers®. Prior to joining LS&Co. in September 2011, Bergh retired from Procter & Gamble (P&G) after a 28-year career. Bergh grew up in brand management and served in a number of leadership positions with progressively increasing levels of complexity and scope. His last assignment before joining LS&Co. was group president, global male grooming. He was the first P&G employee assigned to the Gillette business following P&G’s $57 billion acquisition of Gillette in 2005. He led the integration and then ran the Gillette Blades & Razors business along with all of P&G’s male grooming brands (Gillette, Old Spice and The Art of Shaving). Bergh is a strategic leader with a proven ability to build and grow brand powerhouses, bring new products to the market and develop innovative marketing campaigns. He was the driving force behind a number of successful product launches and multi-platform media campaigns, including the launch of Gillette Fusion and Fusion Pro-Glide, the revitalization and dramatic growth of the Old Spice brand, the revival of the Clean brand and the creation and test market launch of Swiffer – P&G’s most successful new brand in the last two decades. Bergh has lived and worked in Europe and Asia during his career and has run large, global brands and businesses. He is married to another former P&Ger, who is from China, and they have a six-year-old daughter. He also has two grown sons.Bergh has previously served on the board of directors for VF Corporation and the Economic Development Board of Singapore and was a member of the US-ASEAN Business Council.
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About HP, Levi Strauss & Co., Levi’s: Levi Strauss & Co. is a brand-name apparel company designs, markets, and sells jeans, casual and dress pants, jackets, skirts, and more.
Michael Quoc
CEO and Founder of Demand.io
Michael Quoc is the founder and CEO of Demand.io, a media lab based in Santa Monica operating a network of social commerce applications built on top of a proprietary affiliate monetization platform. The company partners with over 10,000 retailers and helps to connect them with customers who are interested in purchasing their products. Two of the company’s flagship services include Dealspotr (http://dealspotr.com), a community for finding, curating and sharing deals and coupons, and StyleSpotter (https://www.stylespotter.com) a fashion shopping community and search engine built around fashion influencers. Prior to founding ZipfWorks, Michael was the Director of Product Management at Yahoo’s media lab, also known as Brickhouse. While at Yahoo, Michael designed and launched new services including Yahoo! Live, a live video community service, and Mix’d a mobile social networking service. Prior to joining Yahoo, Michael worked at Desktop.com, an Accel, Sequoia and KKR-funded startup focused on web developer tools. Michael previously held positions at Pequot Ventures and Broadview Jefferies.
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About Dealspotr, Demand.io: Demand.io is a network of shopping platforms & experiences that create greater alignment between brands, consumers and creators.
Vivian Wang
Co-founder and CEO of Friendshop
Vivian Wang is the co-founder and CEO of Friendshop.
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About Friendshop, Landed: Snag deals on the best in beauty when you shop with your friends.
Larry Liu
Founder & CEO of Weee!
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About Weee!: Weee! is an online grocery delivery platform that offers Hispanic and Asian foods specialty products and everyday staples.
Bryan Meehan
Chief Executive Officer of Blue Bottle Coffee
Bryan Meehan CEO at Blue Bottle Coffee. Previously, I co-founded Nude Skincare (acquired by LVMH) and Fresh & Wild in London (acquired by Whole Foods). I’m an advocate of socially responsible investing and co-founded Greenmont Capital, a venture firm focused on investing in people who are primarily interested in creating environmentally friendly products. Investments include IZZE soda line and Mary’s Gone Crackers. I get very excited about great founders and have recently invested in Slack, Hampton Creek, and of course, Blue Bottle Coffee where I spend most of my time working with James Freeman and the Blue Bottle team. I’m also a very active real estate investor. I grew up in Dublin. Since, I’ve lived in London, Boston and San Francisco. I love music, hiking, travel, art, organic food and coffee. I’m on the Board of Trustees at De Young and Legion of Honor museums in San Francisco. I hate GMOs and campaigning hard to have food properly labelled.
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About Blue Bottle Coffee: Blue Bottle Coffee is a coffee roaster and retailer platform that delivers coffee subscriptions to doorsteps nationwide.
James Freeman
Founder & CEO of Blue Bottle Coffee
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About Blue Bottle Coffee: Blue Bottle Coffee is a coffee roaster and retailer platform that delivers coffee subscriptions to doorsteps nationwide.
Tristan Walker
Founder & CEO of Walker & Company Brands
Tristan Walker is the Founder and CEO Walker and Company Brands.
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About Walker & Company Brands: We make health and beauty simple for people of color.
Woodrow H. Levin
Co-Founder and CEO of Extend
Woodrow H. Levin is the Co-founder and CEO of Extend. He was the vice president for growth at DocuSign. He is also a board member at DraftKings. Previously, he served as the founder and chief executive officer of Estate Assist and BringIt. Levin holds a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Wisconsin and Juris doctorate in law from Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology. Levin lives in San Francisco, California, United States.
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About Extend: Extend provides extended warranties as a service to merchants and innovates the broken customer experience associated with them.
Eric Allen
CEO & President of LISNR
Eric Allen President former CTO (Japanese conglomerate), CEO (2 Exits);former Gracenote GM running $250M business unit in audio fingerprinting.
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About LISNR, LISNR: LISNR enables secure and seamless data transmission using the most advanced ultrasonic data technology
Curtiss Pope
Founder & CEO of AisleFinder
Curtiss Pope is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer at AisleFinder LLC. As a teenager, Curtiss Pope worked as a clerk at Food 4 Less in east San Jose, Calif., gathering up shopping carts and helping customers find grocery items. He got the job to help his single mother of nine pay the bills, but it also seeded the idea for a start-up he’s launched while helping to buck a well-documented Silicon Valley trend. Pope, an 29-year-old African-American, goes up against some tough stats as he seeks funding for his company, AisleFinder, which aims to help people find items in grocery stores.
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About AisleFinder, ComicBlitz LLC, DoubleScreen: AisleFinder is the the simplest App for finding products within the supermarket.
Kimball Thomas
Co-CEO/Founder of Baby
Kimball Thomas is the Co – CEO & Founder at Baby.com.br . He earned his MBA from, Harvard Business School. His B.S. (Finance) from University of Utah.
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About Baby, Walrus Health: Baby is an e-commerce retailer of baby products in Brazil.
Coral Chung
Founder & CEO of Senreve
Coral Chen Chung is an entrepreneur, former strategy consultant and tech executive. Coral is currently the Co-Founder and CEO of SENREVE, a luxury brand for the millennial professional woman. SENREVE launched in November 2016 to focus on developing beautiful and versatile products that address that “wants” and “needs” of the modern woman. The company has experienced significant growth over the past 3 years and recently closed on a $16.75M Series A investment. Coral has always had a strong passion for luxury retail and consumer brands, which led her to work with the Global COO as well as the CEO of Americas for Prada on marketing, commercialization, distribution related special projects prior to the company’s IPO. Coral started her career at Bain & Company in Hong Kong where she covered the Greater China and South East Asia markets. She advised Fortune 500 companies and global private equity firms on M&A, market entry strategy, and operational improvements. She then moved to Silicon Valley, where she developed a focus on consumer brands, retail and technology. Coral also worked in corporate development at Solazyme (dba TerraVia), and was involved in developing its popular Algenist product, a top performing beauty brand currently sold at Sephora and other luxury cosmetics retailers. Coral was most recently a Principal at Medallia and helped lead the company’s retail vertical. Medallia is a big data analytics and customer experience SaaS company that last summer had a successful IPO valued at ~$4.4B. While at Medallia, she worked with leading luxury and global retail brands like Apple, Nike, Sephora, Tory Burch, and Nordstrom. She is also a supporter of the arts including the San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco Opera, the Asian Art Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. Coral is a graduate of University of Pennsylvania and The Wharton School; BA in International Studies, BS in Economics magna cum laude. Coral received her MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. She currently lives in the SF Bay Area with her husband and seven-year-old daughter. She was born in China and moved to Southern California as a child when her parents pursued their graduate studies in the US. Coral speaks Mandarin Chinese with native fluency.
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About Senreve: Senreve is a luxury handbag company for the multifaceted modern woman.
Keith Belling
Founder & CEO of Right Rice
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About popchips, Right Rice: RightRice provides a tasty rice grain that’s made from vegetables.
Bradley Bogolea
Co-Founder & CEO of Simbe Robotics
Bradley Bogolea, also known as Brad, is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Simbe Robotics.
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About Simbe Robotics: Simbe Robotics builds automation solutions for shelf auditing and analytics.
Brian Ree
Founder and CEO of DAILYLOOK
Brian Ree, is an entrepreneur who has established a number of consumer online businesses. Brian started his career as an entrepreneur when he launched a business named GoldMine.com, which specialized in selling fine gold jewelry and wedding bands. After gaining experience in online marketing, Brian then launched a network of other online content properties.
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About DAILYLOOK: DAILYLOOK is a premium styling experience that delivers a personalized box of style for women.
Mike Melby
Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FITLAB
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About ELECTRIC, FITLAB, FITLAB, FITLAB, Mayweather Boxing & Fitness, XPT: FitLab powers experiences that inspire you to move.
Adriel Darvish
Co-Founder & CEO of Switch
Co-Founder and CEO at Switch.
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About Switch: Unlimited access to luxury, designer jewelry.
Scott Swanson
CEO & Founder of Bonder, Inc.
Scott Swanson has an extensive background in consultative sales to some of the largest corporations and retail distributors in the world. With over 18 years in Global Infrastructure, Advanced Security and Platfrom Development Scott has become a trusted advisor in the design, development and implementation of cutting edge platforms and technology that engage the masses, consumers and exponentially drive revenue. “We have 90+ variations of this post a picture or video and make a statement platform. It’s boring and isolating. My vision is to evolve our current platform to improve how we Interact with each other, Connect and Socialize through yet beyond the device.” ~ Scott
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About Bonder, Inc.: The Worlds First Location Based Communication Platfrom (LBCP)
Selene Cruz
Founder & CEO of Re:Store
Selene Cruz is the founder and CEO at RE:STORE.
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About Knocknock.TV, Re:Store: Re:Store is a co-working and retail space for cult-favorite online brands.
Ashley Crowder
CEO & Co-Founder of VNTANA
Ashley Crowder is the co-founder and CEO of VNTANA, an industry leading augmented reality platform for creating and distributing premium mixed reality experiences. Prior to co-founding VNTANA she graduated from USC with a bachelors and masters in engineering and gained valuable manufacturing experience at Gulfstream, Northrop Grumman and BP. She leverages her engineering background to guide VNTANA’s overall direction and technology development. Ashley was featured as one of USC’s leading engineering CEOs of 2016. Ashley is a part of the Microsoft Early Developer Program along with the Microsoft Bizspark Plus program. Ashley has been a speaker at SXSW, Digital Summit, Internet Summit, Augmented World Expo, TEDx Venice, the World Economic Forum’s Global Growth Companies & Technology Pioneers, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, The Montgomery Summit, Siemer Summit, Digital LA, and others.
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About VNTANA: Democratizing 3D for the world through the only automated 3D Collaboration Platform.
Vibhu Norby
CEO of b8ta
Founder/CEO of Origami Labs (FKA Everyme) and b8ta. Previously at MySpace and Threadbox.
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About b8ta: B8ta is a software-powered retailer designed to make physical retail accessible for all.
James Reinhart
CEO of ThredUp
James is the co-founder and CEO of thredUP.com, the world’s largest online marketplace for secondhand clothing. thredUP’s mission is to “inspire a new generation of consumers to think secondhand first.”James is passionate about public education and the role it plays in our communities. Prior to thredUP, he helped develop one of the nation’s premier public schools, Pacific Collegiate School. James is a graduate of the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School where he earned a joint degree in public policy and business. In his free time, he is an avid golfer, cyclist and whiskey drinker – just not all at the same time. While a proud New Jersey native and diehard Bruce Springsteen fan, he lives with his wife Michele and three children in Oakland, California.
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About ThredUp: ThredUp is a fashion resale marketplace that enables individuals to buy and sell clothing for women and children.
Melissa Wong
CEO & Co-Founder of Zipline
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About Zipline: Zipline is the operations platform that powers retail’s most complex work.
Tony Drockton
Founder/CEO/Chief Cheerleader/Executive Creative Director of Hammitt
Tony is the creative genius behind Hammitt handbags and accessories. After growing up in Ohio, earnestly manning his father’s grocery store, Tony earned his MBA from Bowling Green University. After early success with start-ups in construction and finance, he felt called to the artistic world of fashion, where he dreamed of building a succesful American brand inspired by the European model that prioritizes craftsmanship and lifelong quality.
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About Hammitt: Hammitt is a luxury accessory brand from Los Angeles with handbags at it’s heart.
Justin Yoshimura
Founder, Chairman and CEO of CSC Generation
Justin Yoshimura is an entrepreneur and investor. He is currently the CEO of CSC Generation, backed by China Science & Merchants Investment Group (China’s 2nd largest PE fund), Khosla Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Maveron, and Quest Venture Partners. Prior to this, he was SVP at Merkle (acquired by Dentsu for ~$2B) via the acquisition of his company 500friends, a provider of SaaS loyalty marketing solutions backed by $12M+ from Crosslink Capital, Quest Venture Partners, Intel Capital, Silicon Valley Bank, and YCombinator. He is also the founder and General Partner of RGF, whose publicly announced investments include, Dropoff (seed), First Opinion (seed, former member of the BOD), Next Force Technology (seed), Gigster (seed) Witlee (seed), Dave (seed), Macro Ventures (seed), Imperfect Produce (seed), Firebase (seed – acquired by GOOG), Zencoder (seed – acquired by BCOV), ifeelgoods (seed), Ownlocal (seed), Bounce Exchange (seed, co-lead Series A), Bright Funnel (seed), Mux (seed), BigFinite (seed). Justin began his career when he dropped out of high school to found his first company, which was acquired when he was 19, after exceeding $10M in revenues. Besides entrepreneurship, Justin is passionate about animals, especially dogs, most but not all cats, dolphins, and sea turtles.
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About CSC Generation, ice, One Kings Lane, Sur La Table, San Francisco, Z Gallerie: CSC Generation develops a proprietary technology platform designed to save brands from liquidating.
Patrick Herning
CEO & Founder of 11 Honore
Patrick Herning is a leading executive in brand marketing and influencer engagement, and co-founder and CEO of 11 Honoré, the first size-inclusive shopping site to offer women luxury fashion straight from the runway. His impressive background spans from business development during the initial tech boom of Silicon Valley to fashion, lifestyle and philanthropic clients, projects and major marketing initiatives throughout the country. Patrick was one of the first 50 employees at Cybersource in Silicon Valley responsible for business development for their partner channels. After the company he helped build and grow IPO’d, he held two other business development positions at leading technology companies in Silicon Valley, ultimately culminating in VeriSign’s Payment Services division acquisition to PayPal. From there he relocated to Los Angeles where he formed Fathom Event Strategy, a marketing and communications agency, which was eventually acquired by global communications agency HL Group. After leading business development efforts on the West Coast at HL Group for 5 years, Patrick combined his vast experience, talent for business development and extensive client and influencer relationships to form PMH partners, before teaming up with co-founder Kathryn Retzer to start 11 Honoré.
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About 11 Honore, Thirteen lune: 11Honoré a size-inclusive shopping site that for the first time ever, gives more women the option to experience the best designer clothing
Krishna Motukuri
CEO & Co-Founder of Zippin
Krishna Motukuri is the CEO of Zippin, drawing on his deep retail technology, ecommerce and startup experience to lead Zippin. Most recently, he was a portfolio company CEO at Naspers Group, where he built and grew multiple e-commerce businesses in India and South Africa. Earlier in his career, Krishna spent seven years at Amazon leading teams in search, marketing, global expansion and supply chain. In 2006 he left Amazon to start Ugenie, a next-gen comparison shopping site that was acquired in 2008 by Lulu.com. Post-acquisition, Krishna assumed the role of SVP, Business Development at Lulu and established key partnerships with Apple, McGraw Hill, Google and others. Krishna has a Master’s degree from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a Bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. In his spare time, he enjoys travel and spending time outdoors with his family.
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About Zippin: Zippin is the next generation of checkout-free technology enabling retailers to quickly deploy frictionless shopping in their stores.
Dan Fishback
President & CEO of DemandTec
Dan Fishback has led several highly successful software startups which specialized in applying analytics to solve complex business problems (including DemandTec, Ariba, Trading Dynamics, Hyperion Software, Arbor Software, and Unisys). In addition to Moogsoft, Dan also serves on the Board of Quantum Retail Technology, Qumu and DemandHope.
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About DemandTec, UserZoom: DemandTec is an optimization app for retailers and companies providing cloud-based price, promotion and merchandizing analytics.
Amit RG
CEO and Founder of Richpanel
Amit RG is the founder of Richpanel.
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About Richpanel: Richpanel is the Customer Support and Experience Platform for Ecommerce.
Bianca Gates
CEO & Co-Founder of Birdies
Bianca Gates is the slipper obsessed CEO and Co-Founder of Birdies, the company that is disrupting the slipper market and creating a new category of footwear. Prior to Birdies, Bianca was a Sales Executive at Facebook/Instagram leading retail partnerships. During her time at Facebook, Bianca launched the first Lean In Circle with Sheryl Sandberg and is passionate about bringing women together to support each-others dreams. Bianca is a graduate from the University of California at Irvine and lives in San Francisco with her husband and two kids.
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About Birdies: Direct-to-consumer brand that designs stylish flats that feel like slippers thanks to their exclusive cloud-like comfort technology.
Chia-Lin Simmons
Founder/CEO of LookyLoo
Chia-Lin Simmons is the CEO of LookyLoo, a technology startup that brings together social, big data and machine learning AI to help identify fit in apparel, increase conversion, increase customer confidence and drive down return rates for apparel and online retailers. Chia-Lin is active in the automotive, transportation, digital media and e-commerce technology space as a consultant and advisory board member for a number of companies in the space. Her interest and expertise in the automotive technology space stems from her role as the former VP of Marketing & Content for Harman International’s (NASDAQ: HAR, now a Samsung business) Connected Car business. Chia-Lin helped build and launch Harman’s Connected Car service Aha which is featured in Honda, Subaru, Porsche and other automotive partners and availability in millions of vehicles and more than 50+ countries worldwide. Prior to her starting her own company, Chia-Lin was an executive at a number of high visibility technology companies. She was the former Head of Global Partner Marketing for Google’s digital business Google Play Music and the Google Play Store, the VP of Marketing and General Manager of Playphone North America, a senior business development executive at Time Warner/ AOL, as well as the VP of Strategic Alliances at Audible (an Amazon company). Chia-Lin serves on the Board of Directors for Servco Pacific, a $1.3B global automotive / goods company, and recently gave presentations on Autonomous Vehicles and legal concerns to more than 400+ autonomous car experts in Silicon Valley. In her free time, Chia-Lin founded the #bindersproject, which helps connected women tech founders with global funders looking to accelerate female founded startups. Chia-Lin graduated Magna cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from U.C. San Diego and received her MBA from Cornell University, where she was a Park Leadership Fellow. Chia-Lin is a licensed New York State attorney and earned her JD from George Mason University School of Law.
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About LookyLoo, NXT-ID, Servco Pacific: Reshaping Retail Therapy – AI – powered stylist & social commerce platform
David Hua
Co-Founder & CEO of Meadow
David Hua is the CEO and Co-Founder of Meadow, a software company specializing in California cannabis, and Y-Combinator’s first start-up to operate in the cannabis space. Hua has dedicated the last 4 years to bridging the divide between cannabis and technology. He has partnered with dispensaries and delivery services of all sizes across California, utilizing technology to scale with demand from legalization, maintain compliance with local and state regulations, and create operational efficiencies to thrive in the regulated industry. He has also collaborated with California’s cannabis community and California regulators to draft, implement, and provide stakeholder feedback of medical and Adult-Use regulations. Prior to founding Meadow, Hua was Head of Platform at Sincerely, Head of Content and Contributors at Healthcentral, co-founded startups GotGame and HippoBird, and traded Foreign Exchange and Latin American Equities at Citigroup.
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About Meadow: Meadow builds connected cannabis retail, delivery, eCommerce, CRM, and marketing software for California’s legal cannabis industry.
Thatcher Spring
Founder & CEO of GearLaunch
Thatcher Spring is the CEO & Founder of GearLaunch, which offers a sophisticated platform for E2E commerce, a rapidly emerging category that focuses on the full e-commerce value chain. Thatcher’s experience with merchandising and supply chains began when he founded a nationally distributed wholesale apparel company shortly after graduating Georgetown University. Thatcher then went on to receive his MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler and briefly worked at J.P. Morgan and Mars before his entrepreneurial drive led him to founding GearLaunch. Outside of work, Thatcher is an avid sailor, and helped lead the Georgetown University sailing team to a national championship. He also serves as a Director of the Cape Eleuthera Foundation, Class Ambassador for Georgetown University, and an Associate for the Nantucket Conservation Foundation.
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About GearLaunch: GearLaunch offers a sophisticated platform for E2E commerce, a rapidly emerging category that focuses on the full e-commerce value chain.
Isabella Sun
Founder and CEO of Short Story
Isabella Sun is the Founder and CEO of Short Story.
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About Short Story: Short Story is the first online retailer and top rated personal styling service focused exclusively on petite women’s sizing.
Kate Endress Doerksen
CEO, Cofounder of Ditto
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About Ditto: Ditto licenses virtual try-on and frame recommendation technology to the world’s best eyewear retailers.
Samuel Jurist
Co-Founder & CEO of SHO Products
Samuel Jurist is the CEO of SHO Products, an international ancillary product distributor for the cannabis industry housing the brands Rosin Tech Products, Dab Nation and Masterminded Distribution.
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About SHO Products: SHO Products is the leading equipment and technology provider in the world for solventless agricultural equipment
Isaac Scharf
Founder & CEO of Pillow Guy
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About Pillow Guy: Pillow Guy is bringing lifestyle fashion into the “Man’s Home” starting with our line of luxury bedding
Manish Goyal
Founder & CEO of friendbuy
Manish is founder & CEO of Friendbuy, where his deep e-commerce experience is put to good use. Prior to Friendbuy, Manish managed behavioral targeting solutions for Zappos, Ticketmaster and AT&T U-verse. A serial entrepreneur, Manish was also Founder & VP of Isovia, a provider of mobile solutions to large enterprises. When he’s not starting companies, Manish acts, writes and produces independent films such as the festival darling Kissing Cousins and the short-film comedy Call Center. Manish graduated from MIT with a Bachelors & Masters of Engineering in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.
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About friendbuy: Powering referral marketing for the hottest companies in e-commerce.
Stephen Ready
Founder & CEO of Inspired
Stephen Ready is the CEO and Founder of Inspired. He is a former Co-Founder of Synergy and CEO & Founder of VCT – Member Experience Advisors. Stephen received a bachelor’s degree in Finance at Lehigh University.
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About Inspired: Anti-status quo social impact.
David Sobie
Co-Founder/CEO of Happy Returns
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About Happy Returns: Happy Returns provides comprehensive return solutions for leading online and omni-channel retailers and their customers.
Ali Ahmed
Founder & CEO of Robomart
Serial entrepreneur voted one of the ‘Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech’ by KPMG and endorsed by TechCity UK and the UK Government as an exceptional talent in technology, with over a decade of experience in on-demand delivery, communications and retail tech. Previously founded on-demand delivery startup Dispatch, and Lutebox, and worked at Groupon, Unilever, GSK.
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About GlaxoSmithKline, Groupon, Robomart, RSM International: On-Demand Mobile Stores
Howard Rosenberg
Founder & CEO of B-Stock Solutions
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About B-Stock Solutions: B-Stock Solutions offers liquidation sales management solutions for companies.
Yuliya Raquel
CEO & Co-Founder of Tailornova (powered by Mylinego, Inc) of TAILORNOVA
Yuliya Raquel is a celebrity designer and founder of fashion startups such as the COUTURME and Tailornova.
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About COUTURME, TAILORNOVA: TAILORNOVA is a web-based 3D Fashion Design SaaS, enabling automation of apparel design, development, and on-demand manufacturing.
Jill Sherman
Chief Executive Officer of Modalyst
Jill Sherman, CEO and Co-Founder of Modalyst, an automated dropshipping platform, co-founded the company after managing the buying team at Harvey Nichols where she learned the inefficiencies of sourcing and selling physical inventory, while realizing the potential of a zero-inventory model for e-commerce. With over 16 years of industry experience, Jill has worked at Prada USA and Asia Pacific, where she managed the Miu Miu Visual Department, as well as worked at American Vogue and Italian Vogue for 5 years. With 5 years of working in China under her belt, Jill has mastered the art of eating a soup dumpling. She holds an MBA from MIT Sloan and a BA from Tufts University. Jill was honored by Crain’s as a Woman to Watch in NY Tech and presented at TEDx on “The Rise of the Independents.”
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About Modalyst: Modalyst is a dropshipping platform for e-commerce businesses.
Stephen Russell
CEO & Founder of Prism Skylabs
Steve Russell is a Silicon Valley veteran with 15 years of experience in building and managing disruptive content networking, video search, and video intelligence technology companies. Steve is CEO and Founder of Prism Skylabs, the global leader in visually understanding and optimizing offline commerce. Its unique cloud service transforms any video camera into a visual merchandising, auditing, and business intelligence tool that can be accessed from any device. Prior to Prism Skylabs, Steve served as the CEO and Chairman of 3VR, the world’s leading video intelligence company, which he founded in 2002. In less than 10 years, Steve took 3VR from a small group of engineers working in his basement to an industry leader serving global customers including Wells Fargo, T-Mobile, GAP, Hilton, and many more of the world’s leading brands. Before 3VR, Steve was VP and GM of the Content Networking group at Internet search giant Inktomi. In 2000, Inktomi Acquired eScene Networks, a consumer video management platform company he founded. In addition, he also served as managing partner at USWeb/CKS (later marchFIRST) and President of a pioneering Silicon Valley ISP. Steve is an early investor and advisor to a number of companies across the video intelligence, social media and analytics spaces, including StumbleUpon, LongTail Video, MesmoTV, Qumu, OpenDNS and UberCab, among others. He also sits on the Board of the Center for Secure Information Technologies and is an active speaker and writer, posting frequently on his blog, InHardFocus.com, which explores the many intersections of technology and society. Steve holds 11 patents and was named #8 in the American Venture’s Top 40 under 40™ list. He Studied Economics and Computer Science at Stanford University, where he graduated with honors and distinction and was the recipient of the university’s Anna Laura Meyers prize for outstanding research.
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About InHardFocus.com, Prism Insights Fund, Prism Skylabs: Prism is a cloud-based video intelligence platform that transforms video cameras into powerful business tools.
Romesh Wadhwani
Chairman and CEO of SymphonyAI
Romesh Wadhwani founded Symphony Technology Group in 2002 for one reason: he is passionate about building companies. After a 30-year career as an entrepreneur in the enterprise software sector, Romesh launched STG to lend his expertise and passion to investing. Before starting STG, Romesh was the founder, chairman and CEO of Aspect Development, Inc. until 1999, when the company was acquired by i2 Technologies. For nearly a decade, Romesh grew Aspect Development into a leader in business-to-business commerce software, which culminated in the merger of Aspect with supply chain software company i2 Technologies. At that time, this combination was one of the largest enterprise software mergers.
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About ConcertAI, National Entrepreneurship Network, Symphony RetailAI, Symphony Summit, Symphony Technology Group, Symphony Technology Group, SymphonyAI, Terarecon, Wadhwani AI, Wadhwani Foundation: SymphonyAI is an enterprise AI company focused on delivering AI solutions for vertical sectors
Evan Horowitz
Founder and CEO of WeedClub
Technology Founder, Entrepreneur and Investor based at Runway Incubator in the Twitter Building. Being the CEO and Co-Founder at WeedClub.com Platform, the @420 Pitch and @420 on Twitter, gives me a unique eco-system to play in. The Blockchain will cut out all of the creepy mainstream service provider middlemen that plague the cannabis industry, so WeedClub is going all in!
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About WeedClub: WeedClub is a fast and accurate way to discover local dispensaries and retailers.
Arad Levertov
CEO (Co-founder) of Sunbit
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About Sunbit: Sunbit is a buy now, pay later technology of local service providers and retailers.
Roger Casals
Co Founder & CEO of Plazah
Currently, co-Founder and CEO of Plazah
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About Plazah: Plazah is the One-on-One Sales Marketplace where anyone can make money recommending the products they love
Christine Moseley
Founder & CEO of Full Harvest
Christine Moseley, Full Harvest Founder + CEO, is a passionate serial social entrepreneur. At age 17, she started a music education non-profit, which is still growing 14 years later. Currently, at Full Harvest, she is solving the food waste problem at the farm level. Full Harvest is the first institutional B2B platform connecting large farms to food companies to sell surplus and imperfect produce. Christine has over 10 years of experience in the logistics and food industries at both Fortune 100 companies (P&G, Maersk- world’s largest logistics company) as well as high-growth food start-ups. In her last corporate role, she assisted Organic Avenue, a NYC healthy food + juice start-up, double in size as Head of Strategic Projects and Business Development. Christine holds an MBA from Wharton Business School and BA from the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill.
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About Full Harvest: Full Harvest is the first B2B marketplace for ugly and surplus produce.
Cory Ondrejka
Co-Founder & CEO of Mori
Cory Ondrejka is the CEO and co-founder of mori, inc. (formerly Overlook Research), a stealth, venture-funded startup in Los Gatos, CA. Prior to mori, Ondrejka led the Mobile Product group at Facebook and was responsible for Facebook’s mobile turnaround and delivering Facebook to over a billion mobile customers worldwide. Ondrejka also led Facebook’s multi-billion dollar acquisition and integration of Oculus VR. Before Facebook, Ondrejka was the co-founder of Walletin, a startup focused on high-performance javascript and Web rendering acquired by Facebook in 2010. He was the Chief Technology Officer of Linden Lab, where he co-created the award-winning virtual world Second Life. He has served as Executive Vice President for Global Digital Marketing at EMI Music, and has been a visiting professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California where he gave classes on online communities. Ondrejka began his career in game development startups, shipping arcade and console video game titles. He holds a bachelor’s of science degree in Weapons and Systems Engineering from the United States Naval Academy and was an officer in the US Navy. Ondrejka also advises several early-state technology companies.
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About Mori: Mori is a branded food company with quality products.
Amar Chokhawala
Founder & CEO of Reflektion
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About Reflektion: Reflektion understands the individual intent and preferences of each customer and intelligently responds in real time.
Mary Jimenez
Chief Executive Officer of ModCloth
Mary Jimenez is the Chief Executive Officer at ModCloth.
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About ModCloth: ModCloth is an online clothing, accessories, and decor retailer that aims to provide an engaging shopping atmosphere for the user.
Honghao Deng
Chief Executive Officer of Butlr
Honghao Deng (zh:邓鸿浩) is an award-winning innovator and computational designer creating the field of responsive context-aware architecture with the integration of IoT and AI. He holds a Master of Design Technology with Distinction at Harvard GSD. He is the Co-founder and CEO of Butlr Technologies Inc. He formerly was a researcher at City Science Group, MIT Media Lab. Honghao has won multiple awards in the field of smart city technology, including Architizer A+ Award in Smart Building Technology, Time Magazine 100 Best Inventions, Red Dot Best of Best, Core77 Award, Gold and Platinum A’ Design Award, iF Design Award, Fast Compay Innovation by Design, World-Changing Ideas, and 1st Prize Future Cities Contest. His research is published on UIST, SIGGRAPH, CHI, TEI, DIS, and ISWC. His works have been covered by Financial Times, TechCrunch, World Economic Forum, Domus, CCTV, Wallpaper, and the National. He is recognized on Forbes 30 Under 30 List 2022. https://www.forbes.com/profile/butlr/?list=30under30-manufacturing-industry&sh=1c1cf30c68e7
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About Butlr: AIoT intelligence Platform for People Sensing
Nick Green
Co-Founder & CEO of Thrive Market
Nick Green is the Co-Founder and CEO of Thrive Market, a membership-based market that makes high-quality, healthy, and sustainable products available for every budget, lifestyle, and geography. For $60/year, members unlock wholesale prices on top natural and organic products, and Thrive Market matches every paid membership with a free one for a family or individual in need. A serial social impact entrepreneur, Nick began in the education space with his first business, Ivy Insiders, a college test prep and mentorship program that made tutoring more affordable and helped over 20,000 students get into better colleges. Outside of work, Nick loves traveling, investing, reading biographies, and spending time with his wife and 2-year old daughter. He originally hails from Minneapolis, MN and earned his B.A. in Economics from Harvard.
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About Thrive Market: Thrive Market is a membership-based online company that offers natural and organic food products.
Brad Kriser
CEO of Kriser’s Natural Pet
In 1998, Brad Kriser was introduced to all-natural pet food by his cousin in Boulder, CO. He soon saw the difference it made on Maggie, who is 16 years old and still runs up the stairs. Seeing how the natural lifestyle helped pets, Brad opened a store dedicated to natural pet food and supplies – Kriser’s.
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About Kriser’s Natural Pet: Kriser’s Natural Pet is a retail store that provides owners with pet education and supplies.
Socrates Rosenfeld
Co-Founder & CEO of Jane Technologies
Socrates Rosenfeld is the Chief Executive Officer at Jane Technologies, Inc. He is a former Summer Associate/Associate at McKinsey & Company. Rosenfeld graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point with a bachelor of science in Leadership and Management Studies.
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About Jane Technologies: Jane Technologies is a cannabis retail tech company that provides its consumers with an online experience for shopping and reviews.
Harindar Keer
CEO & Founder of Flixstock
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About Flixstock: FlixStock enables fashion houses to create on model images quickly and at a fraction of the conventional costs.
Erik Allen Ford
Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Buck Mason
Erik Allen Ford is Buck Mason’s CEO. Buck Mason designs updated, modern American classics.
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About Buck Mason: Buck Mason designs modern American classic clothing.
John Yang
CEO and Founder of Treez
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About Treez: The leading enterprise cloud commerce platform that streamlines retail and supply chain operations within the cannabis market.
