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 Director operating in the Social space. If you think a Director 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.
Hema Raghavan
Senior Director Of Engineering of LinkedIn
Senior Director Of Engineering at LinkedIn.
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About LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a professional networking site that allows its members to create business connections, search jobs, and find potential clients.
Stan Meresman
Member of the Board of Directors of LinkedIn
Stan is a board member, audit committee chair and an advisor to high-growth technology companies. He advises companies on preparing to be a public reporting company, going through the IPO process, operating as a public reporting company, and scaling the company for rapid growth. He is considered a financial expert. Stan has served in that capacity at four companies. He currently serves as a Board Member and Chair of the Audit Committee at both LinkedIn (LNKD) and Zynga (ZNGA), and previously at Riverbed Technology (RVBD) and Polycom (PLCM). He is also a member of the compensation and governance/nominating committees of LinkedIn, and member of the governance/nominating committee of Zynga. Stan is also a Board Member of private companies ModCloth and HyTrust. Earlier in his career, Stan was SVP & CFO for eight years at Silicon Graphics (SGI-NYSE) whose revenue growth approached $4 billion, and previously VP, Finance & Administration and CFO of Cypress Semiconductor (CY-NYSE) for which he took public. Stan earned his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the University of California, Berkeley. He has attended Stanford Law School Directors’ College corporate governance program.
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About : LinkedIn is a professional networking site that allows its members to create business connections, search jobs, and find potential clients.
Adeline Chan
Sr Director, Business Operations | LinkedIn Learning of LinkedIn
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About LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a professional networking site that allows its members to create business connections, search jobs, and find potential clients.
Shalini Agarwal
Director, Engineering for Sales Solutions Core of LinkedIn
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About LinkedIn, LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a professional networking site that allows its members to create business connections, search jobs, and find potential clients.
Shawn Zandi
Director of Engineering of LinkedIn
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About IDCA – International Data Center Authority, LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a professional networking site that allows its members to create business connections, search jobs, and find potential clients.
Artem Grigoryan
Director Of Engineering of LinkedIn
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About LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a professional networking site that allows its members to create business connections, search jobs, and find potential clients.
Mitali Pattnaik
Senior Director of Product Management – Sales Navigator of LinkedIn
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About LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a professional networking site that allows its members to create business connections, search jobs, and find potential clients.
Dan Brodnitz
Sr. Director of Global Content Strategy of LinkedIn
Dan Brodnitz is the senior director of global content strategy at Linkedin.
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About LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a professional networking site that allows its members to create business connections, search jobs, and find potential clients.
Neha Ajmani
Director-Head of Enterprise Product Marketing of LinkedIn
Neha Ajmani is the Director-Head of Enterprise Product Marketing at LinkedIn.
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About LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a professional networking site that allows its members to create business connections, search jobs, and find potential clients.
Conway Chen
Senior Director, Business Development of LinkedIn
Conway Chen is a senior director of consumer product partnerships and strategic partnerships at [LinkedIn](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/linkedin). He is the former business development director at [Twitter, Inc.](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/twitter). Chen was also employed as a senior manager of new business development at Google Inc. and as an associate at Cooley Godward LLP before moving on to Striiv as its head of business strategy and general counsel. Chen obtained a bachelor’s degree in economics from [Northwestern University](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/northwestern-university). He also studied at The London School of Economics and Political Science, and the Duke University School of Law.
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About LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a professional networking site that allows its members to create business connections, search jobs, and find potential clients.
James Raybould
Senior Director of Product, Learning Solutions & Glint of LinkedIn
Sr Director of Product, LinkedIn Learning & Glint.
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About LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a professional networking site that allows its members to create business connections, search jobs, and find potential clients.
Greg Bayer
Director of Engineering of LinkedIn
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About LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a professional networking site that allows its members to create business connections, search jobs, and find potential clients.
Amy Borsetti
Director of Sales, Linkedin Learning Solutions of LinkedIn
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About LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a professional networking site that allows its members to create business connections, search jobs, and find potential clients.
Daniel Reid
Director of Product Management of LinkedIn
Daniel Reid is the director of product management of LinkedIn.
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About LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a professional networking site that allows its members to create business connections, search jobs, and find potential clients.
Miju Han
Director of Product Management of Twitter
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About Twitter: Twitter is a social networking platform that allows its users to send and read micro-blogs of up to 280-characters known as tweets.
Gina Ballenger
Director, Creative Strategy of Twitter
Gina Ballenger is the West Coast Lead of Content Planning at Twitter. Peer-to-peer influencer and social ecosystem architect, Donnetta has fueled over 500 top global leaders and earned influencers. She offers clients a strategic and influential reach into key social networks. Her agency has disrupted social models and generated over 9 billion hashtag impressions to date for over 500 personal brands, social media campaigns and over 450 events since 2014.
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About Twitter, Walmart Connect: Twitter is a social networking platform that allows its users to send and read micro-blogs of up to 280-characters known as tweets.
Paul Howe
Director of Product, Search of Twitter
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About Twitter: Twitter is a social networking platform that allows its users to send and read micro-blogs of up to 280-characters known as tweets.
Zach Hofer-Shall
Senior Director, Twitter Ecosystem of Twitter
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About Twitter: Twitter is a social networking platform that allows its users to send and read micro-blogs of up to 280-characters known as tweets.
Kade Speiser
Director of Content of TeamDom
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About TeamDom: TeamDom is a media conglomerate that builds brands, stories, celebrities, and businesses around teen entertainment and media.
Yurii Monastyrshyn
Sr. Director of Engineering of Snap
ACM ICPC 2014 World finalist
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About Snap: Snap operates as a privately-owned multinational camera company focusing on multinational technology and social media.
Tammarrian Rogers
Director Of Engineering – QA, Release Management, IT and Localization of Snap
Tammarrian brings nearly 30 years of engineering leadership experience in both hardware and software at Microsoft, Apple, and General Motors. She is currently Director of Engineering at Snap.Inc in Santa Monica, CA leading the Quality Assurance, Release management, Localization, and IT teams. Prior to joining Snap, Tammarrian enjoyed her 23-year career at Microsoft leading teams in the Office, Online Services, and Windows Divisions. Tammarrian mentors and serves on several Boards including Ada Developer’s Academy, Northwest Tech Equity Initiative (NWTEI) and OPTYVA. She was recently named one of Forbes 2018 Top 50 Women in Tech. Tammarrian also enjoys the outdoors, spending time with family and friends including her standard poodle, traveling and exploring her new city, Los Angeles.
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About Snap: Snap operates as a privately-owned multinational camera company focusing on multinational technology and social media.
Nikao Yang
Director, Global Business Solutions of TikTok
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About Opera Mediaworks, TikTok: TikTok is a short-video sharing app and social network platform that develops a lip-syncing video application to create videos.
Catherine J. Friedman
Board of Director of Yahoo
Catherine J. Friedman has served as an independent consultant serving public and private growth companies since 2006. Prior to that, Ms. Friedman held the position of Managing Director at Morgan Stanley from 1997 to 2006 and Head of West Coast Healthcare and Co-Head of the Biotechnology Practice at Morgan Stanley from 1993 to 2006. Ms. Friedman has been a director of Board of XenoPort Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company, since 2007 and also serves on its Audit and Governance Committees. Ms. Friedman joined the Board of Enteromedics, a publicly traded medical device company in 2007 and also serves as the Chair of its Audit Committee. She has been a Board member of the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula for seven years, where she serves on the Executive and Program committees.
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About : Yahoo is a technology and media company that serves users through its portfolio of digital platforms, products, and services.
Eric Brandt
Board of Director of Yahoo
Eric Brandt has served as a member of their Board since March 2016. Mr. Brandt served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Broadcom Corporation (“Broadcom”), a global supplier of semiconductor devices, from February 2010 until February 2016, and he served as Broadcom’s Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer from March 2007 until February 2010. From September 2005 until March 2007, Mr. Brandt served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Beginning in 1999, he held various positions at Allergan, Inc., a global specialty pharmaceutical company, including Executive Vice President of Finance and Technical Operations and Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining Allergan, Mr. Brandt spent ten years with The Boston Consulting Group, a privately-held global business consulting firm, most recently serving as Vice President and Partner. Mr. Brandt is a director of Lam Research Corporation, a wafer fabrication equipment company, and Dentsply Sirona Inc., a dental products company.
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About : Yahoo is a technology and media company that serves users through its portfolio of digital platforms, products, and services.
Mike Shebanek
Sr. Director, Accessibility of Yahoo
Mike Shebanek is the Head of Accessibility at Facebook.
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About Meta, Yahoo: Yahoo is a technology and media company that serves users through its portfolio of digital platforms, products, and services.
Cecile Lal
Snr. Director, Business Operations and Strategy of Yahoo
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About Yahoo: Yahoo is a technology and media company that serves users through its portfolio of digital platforms, products, and services.
Michael Natkovich
Director Engineering/Senior Principal Engineer of Yahoo
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About Yahoo: Yahoo is a technology and media company that serves users through its portfolio of digital platforms, products, and services.
Shira Kates
Director of Product Design, Yahoo Ad Products of Yahoo
Shira Kates has worked in tech since 1998, but can sometimes pass for a millennial. She leads design on Yahoo’s ad management platform. Previously, she was a content strategist for Google. She has held a variety of other exciting jobs including running covered-wagon cookout tours in Yellowstone Park. Shira has an MBA in Design Thinking and loves designing experiences that improve life. You should check out Shira’s talk because she can show you how to run your own design sprints, contribute to product vision without stepping on your project manager’s toes, and win a hackathon, even if you were an English major.
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About Yahoo: Yahoo is a technology and media company that serves users through its portfolio of digital platforms, products, and services.
Niklas de Besche
Executive Director, Product of Meltwater
Niklas de Besche is the Executive Director of Meltwater’s Products. He oversees product strategy and the continuous evolution of Meltwater media intelligence platform. Niklas has risen through the Meltwater ranks, opening the company’s first international office in Stockholm and playing an integral role in building the Nordic operations. He spent several years in the U.S., setting up offices all over the country as an area director while simultaneously managing the Nordic region.
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About Meltwater: Meltwater is a media Intelligence & social listening tools for measuring, managing and magnifying corporate reputation.
Albert Pereta
Executive Creative Director of Pinterest
Albert Pereta is a Creative Director of product design at Pinterest and a Creative Advisor for a few startups. He oversees design quality and leads innovation initiatives within the company. He’s originally from the beautiful town of Barcelona where he studied design and bounce between design studios and advertising agencies. He moved to New York to get his MFA Design as Entrepreneur at SVA. After returning to his hometown he founded UnitCo: a product design agency consulting for companies between NY and BCN. After a couple of years, he founded Icebergs: a visual organization app for creatives. Icebergs got acquired by Pinterest in 2014 and he moved to San Francisco to join the Product Design team. When he’s not working you can find him in the woods, baking bread or cooking a mean paella.
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About Pinterest: Pinterest is a visual bookmarking tool for saving and discovering creative ideas.
Tim Belonax
Design Director of Pinterest
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About Double Issue, Pinterest: Pinterest is a visual bookmarking tool for saving and discovering creative ideas.
Othniel McLean
Creative Director & Cofounder of CarNinja, Inc
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About CarNinja, Inc: CarNinja is a software company led by enthusiasts that are passionate about connecting all things automotive.
Alexei Ilinykh
Director Product & Engineering of VentureBeat
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About Condorly, VentureBeat: VentureBeat is an online technology news platform that is engaged in technology publication and events business.
Lenny Shteynberg
Director of Sales of Open Influence
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About Open Influence: Open Influence is a marketing company that helps brands and advertisers engage and grow their desired audiences through social media.
Tina Frank
Strategic Director of Hub Culture
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About Hub Culture: Hub Culture is a global collaboration platform focused on digital currency and identity, knowledge brokerage and community services.
Andrew Swerdlow
Director of Engineering of Instagram
Director of software engineering @ Google
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About Instagram: Instagram is a free photo-sharing application that enables its users to take photos, apply filters, and share them on social networks.
Susan Buckner Rose
Director, Head of Business and Creator Product Marketing of Instagram
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About Instagram: Instagram is a free photo-sharing application that enables its users to take photos, apply filters, and share them on social networks.
Rob Sloan
Research Director, WSJ Pro of Dow Jones
Research Director, WSJ Pro at Dow Jones.
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About Dow Jones: Dow Jones is a news and business information provider that delivers content to consumers and organizations via newspapers and more.
Rob Sloan
Research Director, WSJ Pro of Dow Jones
Research Director, WSJ Pro at Dow Jones.
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About Dow Jones: Dow Jones is a news and business information provider that delivers content to consumers and organizations via newspapers and more.
Jordan Gilbert
Director, Digital Programming of Lionsgate
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About Lionsgate: Lionsgate is a premier next generation global content leader.
Jamie Fiore
Sr. Director, Marketing of Match Group
Jamie Fiore is the Sr. Director of Marketing at Match.com.
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About Match Group: Match Group is a division of IAC & online dating portfolio that comprises over forty brands around the world.
Ramanand Reddi
Senior Director of Product Management of Match Group
Ramanand Reddi is the Senior Director of Product Management at Match.com.
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About Match Group: Match Group is a division of IAC & online dating portfolio that comprises over forty brands around the world.
Raffi Krikorian
Managing Director of Emerson Collective
Raffi Krikorian was, until August 2014, Twitter’s VP of Engineering in charge of the Platform – the core infrastructure of Twitter. During his tenure, Platform Engineering was primarily responsible for the scalability, efficiency, reliability, and performance of Twitter, as well as the developer productivity of all software engineers at Twitter. He lead the Twitter’s transition from a Ruby on Rails web site, to a JVM-powered services oriented architecture which currently serves about 250 million monthly active users who send about 500 million tweets daily. He also created and used to chair Twitter’s Architecture Group, the team of senior software engineers in charge of Twitter’s overall technology portfolio as well as ensuring that software got written to the same consistent standards across its entire global development team.
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About Emerson Collective, WattzOn: Emerson Collective strengthens schools, secures rights for immigrants, and restores relationship between humanity and nature.
Stacey Rubin
Managing Director, Strategy of Emerson Collective
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About Emerson Collective: Emerson Collective strengthens schools, secures rights for immigrants, and restores relationship between humanity and nature.
Brad Powell
Managing Director, Investments of Emerson Collective
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About Emerson Collective: Emerson Collective strengthens schools, secures rights for immigrants, and restores relationship between humanity and nature.
Sarah A. Pinto Peyronel
Partner (Senior Director) of Emerson Collective
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About Emerson Collective: Emerson Collective strengthens schools, secures rights for immigrants, and restores relationship between humanity and nature.
Amy Low
Managing Director, Communications of Emerson Collective
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About Emerson Collective: Emerson Collective strengthens schools, secures rights for immigrants, and restores relationship between humanity and nature.
Ariane Bertrand
Director, Thriving Communities of Emerson Collective
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About Emerson Collective: Emerson Collective strengthens schools, secures rights for immigrants, and restores relationship between humanity and nature.
Ross Jensen
Senior Director, Strategy & Innovation of Emerson Collective
Senior Director, Strategy & Innovation at Emerson Collective.
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About Emerson Collective: Emerson Collective strengthens schools, secures rights for immigrants, and restores relationship between humanity and nature.
Anne Marie Burgoyne
Managing Director, Social Innovation of Emerson Collective
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About Emerson Collective: Emerson Collective strengthens schools, secures rights for immigrants, and restores relationship between humanity and nature.
Jonny Dorsey
Director, Innovation and Policy of Emerson Collective
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About Emerson Collective: Emerson Collective strengthens schools, secures rights for immigrants, and restores relationship between humanity and nature.
Arianne Nichol
Director, Special Events of Emerson Collective
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About Emerson Collective: Emerson Collective strengthens schools, secures rights for immigrants, and restores relationship between humanity and nature.
Kavitha Sreeharsha
Senior Director, Immigration Portfolio of Emerson Collective
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About Emerson Collective: Emerson Collective strengthens schools, secures rights for immigrants, and restores relationship between humanity and nature.
Yan Li
Director Of Engineering of Conviva
Yan is an Engineering Manager at Conviva, where she has been working on various projects in the area of Internet video streaming, and has built several products used by content publishers and ecosystem partners to monitor and optimize the experience of millions of end viewers. Yan holds a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the University of Connecticut.
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About Conviva: Conviva is the continuous measurement and engagement platform for streaming media.
James Barrese
Member of the Board of Directors of Marin Software
Barrese is a technologist with more than 25 years of experience spanning the military, the academic world, business consulting, and enterprise platforms and infrastructure. He currently serves as CTO of PayPal, and previously spent nearly 10 years in executive technology roles at eBay, where he was most recently VP of Technology. Earlier in his career, he was VP of engineering at Charitableway, a manager at Andersen Consulting, and programmer in the Materials Science Department at Stanford University. He got his start in technology with the Signal Corps in the U.S. Army. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.
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About : Marin Software Incorporated (NYSE:MRIN) provides a leading cross-channel performance advertising platform used by advertisers and agencies.
Donald Hutchison
Member of the Board of Directors of Marin Software
Since 2002, Don’s principal employment has been as an angel investor in start-up technology companies. From June 2006 to July 2008, Don was the Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Recurrent Energy, a solar energy provider. Prior to that, Don served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of work.com, a joint venture established by Dow Jones and Excite@Home. Don previously served in senior positions at Excite@Home and Netcom Communications. Don has previously served as a member of the board of directors of many privately-held companies, including, W&W Communications, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, which was acquired by Cavium, Inc. Don holds a B.A. in Economics from University of California, Santa Barbara, and an M.B.A. in Finance and Organizational Development from Loyola Marymount University. Don brings to our board of directors significant experience analyzing and investing in other technology companies, as well as management and leadership experience as a former founder and executive of technology companies.
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About : Marin Software Incorporated (NYSE:MRIN) provides a leading cross-channel performance advertising platform used by advertisers and agencies.
Sarah Zapp
Director of Strategic Partnerships of IVY
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About IVY: IVY is a Social University that provides a lifetime of new experiences, friendships, and inspiration.
Titus Capilnean
Director, Corporate Marketing of Appen
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About Appen: Appen offers a wide variety of services to technology companies seeking to compete and expand in the global marketplace.
Nick Venezia
Managing Director of Social Outlier
Nick has worked with clients from a multitude of industries–including finance, government, technology, entertainment, non-profit, luxury, Fortune 500, Global 100, and many more–building digital assets that convert directly into increased profit margins. He has generated over 130% engagement on ads with over 20,000 engagement on Twitter. He spent under $49 to garner $21,000 in tickets sales for a local event in 3 days. @socialoutlier
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About Social Outlier: Social Outlier is unique we have a refined acumen, a scientific numerical approach.
Ian Crossland
Director of Minds
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About Minds: Minds is a crypto social network and secure messaging app that rewards users with crypto for their efforts online.
Brooke Stafford-Brizard
Director of Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
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About Chan Zuckerberg Initiative: Chan Zuckerberg Initiative supports community-driven solutions to accelerate progress in science, education, and justice.
Dan Bomze
Managing Director of Double Crown Gaming Co.
Dan Bomze and Chuck Dietrich founded MileIQ in September 2013, from which Dan served as its chief product officer until January 2019.
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About Double Crown Gaming Co., MileIQ: Purveyors of Friendly Competition
Jennifer Piña
Director of Brand Partnerships of MagicLinks
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About MagicLinks: The leader in social commerce for video influencers and the world’s top brands
Ryan Gushue
Marketing Director of Enplug
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About Enplug: Enplug is a software company that built the first open platform for digital displays everywhere.
Malia Supe
Senior Partner, Global Managing Director, WPP Team Lead of Ogilvy
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About Ogilvy, Ogilvy, WPP: Global brand Strategy, Advertising, Customer Engagement and Commerce, PR and Influence, Digital Transformation, and Partnerships.
Steve Bennet
Founder and Managing Director of Bodega
Steve Bennet is the founder and managing director of Bodega Partners and is an active participant in the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial ecosystem as start-up CFO, Angel Investor, and Professor. Over the past 20 years, he has been CFO, investor, and/or board member of over 50 technology start-ups, primarily in the software, Internet, and mobile sectors. CFO roles include Revel Systems, iControl Networks, Appstores (acquired by InMobi), Greystripe (acquired by ValueClick), Fliqz (acquired by VBrick Systems), Valchemy (acquired by IBM), GolfWeb (acquired by CBS Sportsline), Orbital Data (acquired by Citrix), TextDigger (acquired by Federated Media), and Pharmacy TV Network (acquired by RMG Networks). Some of these resulted in excellent financial returns to founders and investors, while others did not. Steve has a passion for both entrepreneurship and education. He has taught entrepreneurial finance since 1995 and is currently adjunct faculty at San Jose State University. Previously, he was a lecturer at U.C. Berkeley. His focus is on experiential education and has developed new courses at SJSU, including the Entrepreneurship Lab (ELAB), Venture Lab (VLAB), and the Silicon Valley Experience. He is also on the Steering Committee for the Silicon Valley Center for Entrepreneurship and UCLA Venture Capital Fund. Prior to and concurrent with Bodega, Steve was a Venture Partner at Outlook Ventures, Board Member of Sand Hill Angels, Partner at Menlo Incubator and held various financial and management positions at Bay Logics, Digital Microwave, and Arthur Andersen. Steve earned an undergraduate degree in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA. He blogs at www.professorvc.com and tweets @ProfessorVC.
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About Bodega, Qvivr, San Jose State University, Sand Hill Angels, Xenio Systems: Bodega is the world’s first virtual goods marketplace, which bridges the gap between diverse social networks and creates a synthesized
Salim Ismail
Global Ambassador & Founding Executive Director of Singularity University
Salim Ismail is the Chairman and Co-Founder of OpenExo. He is also the Global Ambassador at Singularity University focusing on its global presence. Salim spent two years as Singularity University’s founding Executive Director and currently serves as its Global Ambassador focusing on its global presence. Salim is a sought after speaker, strategist and entrepreneur – his last company, Angstro, was acquired by Google in August 2010. Prior to that, Salim was a Vice President at Yahoo and the Head of Brickhouse, Yahoo’s internal ‘ideas factory’ where game-changing ideas were brought in, built and launched. Salim also serves as Co-Founder and Chairman of Confabb.com, co-founded PubSub Concepts and is also on the board of Breakthrough, a global human rights organization focused on violence against women, racial justice and immigrant rights. Salim earned his B.Sc. in Physics from the University of Waterloo in 1989.
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About EXO Foundation, OpenExo, Rokk3r, Singularity University: Singularity University is a benefit corporation that provides educational programs, innovative partnerships, and a startup accelerator.
Lajuanda Asemota
Director, Diversity and Inclusion of Singularity University
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About Singularity University: Singularity University is a benefit corporation that provides educational programs, innovative partnerships, and a startup accelerator.
Lajuanda Asemota
Director, Diversity and Inclusion of Singularity University
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About Singularity University: Singularity University is a benefit corporation that provides educational programs, innovative partnerships, and a startup accelerator.
Lisa Solomon
Principal Faculty and Managing Director, Transformational Practices of Singularity University
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About Singularity University: Singularity University is a benefit corporation that provides educational programs, innovative partnerships, and a startup accelerator.
Jared Kopf
Member of Board of Directors of Bazaarvoice
Jared Kopf has served as a member of our board of directors since May 2015 and has been a private investor in technology companies since 2009. Previously he was the Vice President in Product Innovation and Corporate Strategy for Rearden Commerce, Inc., a provider of online consumer and business-oriented commerce services, from September 2011 to May 2012 and the Founder and CEO of HomeRun.com, a members-only online social buying club, from November 2009 through August 2011. Prior to founding HomeRun.com, Kopf co-founded AdRoll, Inc., an advertising technology company, in 2006, where he served as CEO from March 2006 to March 2009 and President from March 2009 to January 2010. Kopf also served as a co-founder of Slide, Inc., a social media application developer, from 2005 to 2006. Kopf received a B.A. from Stanford University. He currently serves on the board and is Chairman of AdRoll.
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About : Bazaarvoice helps brands capture, analyze and act upon social data, and enables authentic customer-powered marketing.
Laura Ruiz
Director of Marketing of Famous Birthdays
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About Famous Birthdays: Famous Birthdays is a media and entertainment platform that provides celebrity profiles.
Amanda Toney
Managing Director of Stage 32
As Managing Director for Stage 32, Amanda oversees operations and business development for the global business. She has curated over 1,200 hours of online education created exclusively for Stage 32, and works with hundreds of entertainment industry executives from around the world to serve as educators and mentors. She has spearheaded partnerships with such prestigious organizations as the Cannes Film Festival Marché du Film, American Film Market, SXSW, Austin Film Festival, Raindance Film Festival, Hollyshorts Film Festival, PGA, WGA and DGA, as well as brands such as AT&T, Peerspace, Pond5, Mandy, Bondit Media Capital and her personal favorite partnership, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, which is the official vodka of Stage 32. As a producer, Amanda has worked on the psychological thriller What Lies Ahead starring Rumer Willis and Emma Dumont; Chick Fight, starring Malin Akerman, Alec Baldwin and Bella Thorne, Metaphorms, a Hungarian film, which premiered at the Raindance Film Festival and Dolphin Girl, an entire Stage 32 production in conjunction with the St. Petersburg Film Commission. She recently sold an unscripted show to a major US network . Amanda has spoken all over the world at the Cannes Film Festival (France), Hollyshorts Film Festival (US), Raindance Film Festival (UK), Hamburg Film Fest (Germany), Trinidad & Tobago Film Commission (Trinidad), Fest Festival (Portugal) and Harvard (US) on the business of the entertainment industry.
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About Stage 32: Stage 32 is the world’s largest online platform connecting and educating the global entertainment industry.
Karen Edwards
Member of the Board of Directors of IMVU
Karen serves as an independent director of the IMVU board, and brings a wealth of experience marketing consumer brands. She was the 17th employee and the head of marketing for Yahoo for about six years, and the founding CMO for Glam Inc. and Common Sense Media. Currently, she serves on the board of the Institute for the Future; her prior board experience includes 2Wire, RedEnvelope (when public), Our Pictures and several non-profit boards. Earlier in her career, she held management roles at Twentieth Century Fox, Clorox and BBDO Advertising for Apple Computer. She earned her BA at Stanford University and MBA at Harvard. She enjoys social networking, paddleboarding, and DIY projects.
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About : IMVU is a social entertainment website where members use 3D avatars to meet new people, play games, and develop online communities.
Reed Bennett
Director of Manufacturing Partnerships of Angaza
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About Angaza: Angaza provides a technology that enables businesses to provide affordable life-changing products to people in emerging markets.
Guy Finley
Executive Director of Media & Entertainment Services Alliance – MESA
Guy started his career in the entertainment industry as a successful performer and producer, making music with industry giants such as Phil Ramone, Elliott Scheiner, and Dave Grusin, among others. His New York City based group was signed to Larry Rosen’s N2K Encoded Music, the first record company to distribute music via digital downloads. He joined the home entertainment industry as President of LFA, Inc., providing home video brand and business consulting services for a worldwide clientele. His firm represented JVC in North America, licensing the loading and duplication of VHS videocassettes bearing the VHS Logo Trademark. In 2005 he joined the Content Delivery and Security Association (then IRMA, International Recording Media Association) where he pioneered the CDSA Daily News Portal and co-chaired the accountability sub-committee of the EPCglobal Item Level Tagging Public Policy Steering Committee. CDSA is currently managed by MESA. In 2008 he founded MESA as a coalition of service providers to the Hollywood studios, independent content holders, video game publishers, software publishers and music labels. Through MESA’s media, events, special interest groups and association management, MESA facilitates ongoing discussions about collaboration and innovation in the entertainment industry along four key verticals: physical and digital supply chain, content security, information technology and 2nd screen technologies. With over 100 member companies and branches in the U.S. and Europe, MESA is a leading voice in the global media & entertainment industry.
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About Media & Entertainment Services Alliance – MESA: Building efficiencies in the creation, production and distribution of physical and digital media and entertainment.
Samuel Bretzfield
Managing Director/CEO of bGlobal
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About 6Beyond, AIM STEPs, bGlobal: bGlobal offers economical and tailored fit programming services.
Angel Grablev
CEO & Director of Sales of Freedcamp
Angel is a web developer that started his first web start-up at age 17. Angel has worked for famous musicians including Jack Johnson and The Wailers. His expertise include design, coding, and programming. He is well versed in coding professional html and css pages, and designing high end templates using photoshop. Angel’s first start-up was exfrag, a social network for gamers. Funding reached was $5000 from anonymous investors. The website was fully developed and functional within 6 months, it raised a good traffic flow and it gained some valuable members. Unfortunately the online gaming platform Steam came out with their own social network that had less features, but they had already possessed the database of millions of gamers. His first real job in the web development industry was for a company named Oniracom who develop high end websites for musicians. Oniracom took Angel under their wing and taught him skills and techniques that help him deal with various web development issues every day and create cutting edge websites. Currently Angel is the CEO of Freedcamp, the revolutionary Project Management and Collaboration platform. He is in charge of managing a team of 5 people while still being responsible for all Front-End interface design and implementation of the Application.
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About Freedcamp, Freedcamp, UCSB Professional and Continuing Education: We are building the first truly intelligent project management system.
Allison Duettmann
President & Executive Director of Foresight Institute
Allison conducts research and coordinates the technical programs. Her research focus is on the reduction of existential risks, especially from Artificial General Intelligence. At Existentialhope.com she keeps an index of readings, podcasts, organizations, and people that inspire an optimistic long-term vision for humanity. The index is collaborative and for everyone who wants to improve the world but doesn’t know where to start. Allison speaks and moderates panels on existential risks & existential hope, AI safety, longevity, blockchains, ethics in technology, and more. Prior to Foresight she hosted and planned TEDx, panels, workshops, debates, and conferences for governments, companies, think tanks, NGOs and the public in Germany, France, Colombia, the UK, and the US. Allison holds a Summa Cum Laude MS in Philosophy & Public Policy from the London School of Economics, where she developed a moral framework for Artificial General Intelligence that relies on natural language processing.
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About Foresight Institute: Foresight Institute is a think tank and public interest organization focused on transformative future technologies.
Oscar Garza
Global Director of Programmatic of Essence
Oscar is the Global Head of Media Activation for Essence, a global digital agency that is part of GroupM. In this role, he is responsible for the overseeing all buying and optimization of the agency’s media, which includes biddable, programmatic and reservation. He was formerly the agency’s Global Director of Programmatic. Prior to joining Essence, Oscar spent his career developing in-house media capabilities on the client side. Most recently, he was Director of Acquisition for Electronic Arts. There, he was charged with the design and development of EA’s performance advertising tracking, data housing and analysis. At Essence, Oscar has taken this custom, specialized approach and is applying it to clients desiring cutting-edge media capabilities.
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About Essence: Essence, part of GroupM, is a global data and measurement-driven agency whose mission is to make advertising more valuable to the world.
Zak Williams
Director of Business Development of Condé Nast
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About Condé Nast: Condé Nast publishes magazines, websites, and tablet and smartphone applications.
Gregory Strompolos
Director of Business Development of YouNow
Gregory Strompolos is the Director of Business Development at YouNow, a live social network that enables audiences and performers to connect in real time. The interactive entertainment platform has over 100 million user sessions a month and live-streams 50,000 hours of new video content every day. Gregory heads up the LA office for YouNow, where he works with MCNs, agencies and management companies to help talent strengthen bonds with their fans and generate revenue from broadcasting through its partner program. Previously, Gregory was one of the founding members of Fullscreen, a global youth media company that develops online creators and programs for multi-platform entertainment experiences. Gregory was a co-creator of Fullscreen’s first brand solutions service business called Channel Plus. Channel Plus powers over 60 of the world’s largest brands and media companies’ YouTube channels with industry-leading technology and custom-tailored strategy built to maximize owned, earned, and paid view strategies. Some clients consist of NBCU, GE, Turner Entertainment, Mattel, and Toyota. At Fullscreen, Gregory also lead the expansion of Fullscreen’s international networks into Brazil, France, Japan, Russia, and Canada as the Director of International Business Development. Before Fullscreen, Gregory ran Sales and Marketing for the international trade intelligence startup Import Genius. Gregory is a polyglot and chess enthusiast. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Economics from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and currently resides in Santa Monica, California.
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About YouNow: YouNow is the world’s first live social network, empowering users to broadcast themselves from anywhere in real time.
Tiffani Bell
Founder & Executive Director of The Human Utility
Tiffani Ashley Bell is the Founder and Executive Director of The Human Utility, a platform bringing people together from around the world to help people in the United States with their water bills. Since its founding in July 2014, The Human Utility has helped over 3,000 people and is a Y Combinator-backed not-for-profit. Tiffani was a 2017 Technology & Democracy Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She was a 2014 Code for America Fellow and previously, was the CEO & Founder of Pencil You In, enabling over 2,000 local businesses to accept appointments online, bringing many of them online for the first time. In 2015, she was nominated and voted as one of The Root’s 100 Most Influential African Americans for her work protecting the right to water. She was also named to the inaugural Mic 50 class celebrating impactful leaders, cultural influencers, and breakthrough innovators. In 2016, she was named as an inaugural Grist 50 awardee as an innovator working toward a more sustainable future. Tiffani is a programmer who earned a Bachelor of Science in Systems & Computer Science from Howard University. In 2021, Tiffani will start a one-year Master of Science in Management program as a Sloan Fellow at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Tiffani invests.
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About The Human Utility: The Human Utility helps low income and elderly families with their water bills.
Alex Roizen
Managing Director of Vator
Alex Roizen Prior to Ackrell Capital, Alex founded and managed Equity Funding Enterprises, a private real estate investment fund. Prior to EFE, Alex co-founded La Jolla Wealth Management, an investment firm specializing in the financing and structuring of real estate transactions, sales, and private equity investments. Alex also co-founded SFiNX, an entertainment and marketing company which was acquired. Alex holds a B.A. from University of California, San Diego.
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About Ackrell Capital, LLC, Vator: Vator, Inc. is the professional resource marketplace that aims to be the premiere knowledge sharing community for entrepreneurship
Clint Walden
Executive Creative Director of Mindgruve
Clint is Cofounder and Executive Creative Director of Mindgruve where he leads the creative vision for the agency’s brand and plays a strategic role in defining how clients can best position their brand and customer experience for success. Over the past decade, he has led creative projects for some of the top consumer and B2B brands in America such as Procter & Gamble, Live Nation, Oracle and Qualcomm. Prior to Mindgruve, Clint spent more than a decade as founder of a leading design and brand consultancy shop. He also serves on several boards in the consumer, technology and B2B space. Clint is considered one of the top creative executives in the industry, with numerous industry awards spanning two decades of work.
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About Mindgruve: A Modern Marketing Agency. Ideas connecting brands to people.
Michael Garten
Managing Director of Mindgruve
Michael is the Managing Director of Mindgruve Los Angeles and San Francisco. He is the lead for the agency’s client engagements as well as the Managing Director of Mindgruve’s client services capability on the west coast. Prior to Mindgruve, Michael was Director, Special Events at the NBA where he oversaw all global brand events namely the NBA All-Star Weekend and McDonald’s All American Championship games. Most recently he spent 10 years as Executive Director at the PGA Tour managing the west coast World Golf Championships. With over 20 years of marketing experience across advertising, media, marketing, and technology, Mike has successfully led teams where he drove strategy and value proposition development for several global brands. Specialties: Business Modeling Digital Marketing Event Management Event Marketing Ecommerce Social Media Marketing Mix Strategy Search Engine Optimization Sponsorships Sports Marketing Website Strategy, Design & Development
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About Mindgruve: A Modern Marketing Agency. Ideas connecting brands to people.
Gilbert Manorek
Director, Engineering of One Planet Group
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About One Planet Group: One Planet consists of several successful operating technology companies, an angel fund and a startup incubator.
Armita Rostamian
Director, Finance of One Planet Group
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About One Planet Group: One Planet consists of several successful operating technology companies, an angel fund and a startup incubator.
Straith Schreder
Director of Brand Marketing of BitTorrent
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About BitTorrent, VICE Media Group: BitTorrent is a protocol that creates advanced technologies to efficiently move large files across the internet.
Rory Partalis
Sr. Director, Product of TuneIn
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About TuneIn: From live sports & local radio to news, music & podcasts, TuneIn is one of the most widely used streaming audio platforms in the world.
Carol Genis
Managing Director of Relativity Media
As Managing Director of Relativity Media, Carol Genis oversees the day-to-day operations of Relativity, directly managing corporate legal, business affairs and finance. Prior to Relativity, Genis was an Equity Partner at K&L Gates for more than 20 years where she specialized in entertainment and intellectual property law, representing several major motion picture and television studios (including Relativity), distribution companies, authors, screenwriters and talent in connection with a variety of complex issues. She has represented clients in some of the industry’s largest financing transactions, as well as mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances. A highly skilled litigator, Genis has successfully tried high profile commercial cases in state and federal courts throughout the United States. Genis has consistently been named an Illinois “Super Lawyer” by “Chicago Magazine.” She earned both her undergraduate and law degrees from Northwestern University.
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About Relativity Media: Relativity Media is focused on producing and distributing content in the United States and internationally.
Lauren Hahn
Director of Marketing of UrbanSitter
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About UrbanSitter: UrbanSitter is an online hub connecting families with babysitters through social networks.
Stender Sweeney
Director Emeritus of Pasadena Angels
Mr. Sweeney has been a financial advisor and equity investor in several privately held enterprises since 1998. In 1997, Mr. Sweeney served in a senior financial and operating capacity for a joint venture between DreamWorks SKG and Pacific Data Images. From 1995 to 1996, Mr. Sweeney was the Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Vehicle Information Network, a database management and marketing company. From 1994 to 1995, Mr. Sweeney was the Chief Financial Officer and Principal of The Onyx Group, a shopping center development and management company. From 1968 to 1994, Mr. Sweeney served in various positions at The Times Mirror Company, the last eight years as Vice President, Finance. Mr. Sweeney serves on the board of the Payden & Rygel Investment Group, which files reports pursuant to the Exchange Act.
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About Pasadena Angels: The Pasadena Angels, ranked a Top Ten angel group by Forbes, has invested $65+ million in over 175 companies.
Dale Okuno
Director of Ubiquity
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About Pasadena Angels, Ubiquity: Ubiquity is focused on delivering next generation IP-based content and services for mobile, tablet, and professional/lifestyle screens.
Timophey Zaitsev
Director of Engineering of The League
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About The League: The league is a dating applications that matches users based on similarities.
Keshav Amla
Member of the Board of Directors of ROVR
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About : Whether you’re looking for friendship or romance, ROVR is the only app you’ll need to find what you desire.
Huayan Wang
Director of Kuaishou Silicon Valley Lab of Kuaishou Technology
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About Kuaishou Technology: Kuaishou is an online video platform that allows its users to broadcast daily activities, habits, and more online.
Allen Morgan
Managing Director, New Ventures Group of Idealab
After 12 years as a General Partner/Managing Director/Venture Partner at Mayfield Fund, I’m now fully-engaged in two pursuits: (1) as an active venture “Sherpa” and early-stage Angel investor and (2) as a Board Member and Managing Director, New Ventures Group, at Idealab in Pasadena, California (www.idealab.com). I’m also remaining as a Venture Advisor at Mayfield. Allen Morgan was a Managing Director at Mayfield Fund from 1999 until 2010, focusing on investments in Consumer Internet. Notable investments included Jotspot (acquired by Google), PlanetOut (acquired by HereMedia), Pluck (acquired by Demand Media), Slide (acquired by Google) and Varsity Group (acquired by Follett Corp). He currently represents Mayfield Fund on the boards of BlackArrow, DECA and Tagged. He is also on the board of Idealab.
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About Idealab: Idealab is a technology incubator that provides resources to allow start-ups to rapidly introduce innovative products and services.
Tom McGovern
Managing Director of Idealab
STARTUPS| ENTREPRENEUR| LA Tom is a Managing Director of Idealab where he focuses on new company creation and early stage investments. Prior to this role, Tom founded Snap Technologies which was contextual advertising and content distribution (Snap Shots) Company. In 1999, Tom founded a successful e-commerce company with Idealab, which was acquired by PETsMART, Inc. a leading multi-channel marketer. Tom served as President and CEO of the division of PETsMART managing the Internet and traditional direct marketing businesses. Tom returned to Idealab in 2003 to explore new internet marketing and search opportunities. Prior to his Idealab group endeavors, Tom was a Senior Vice President of Warner Bros. and a management consultant. While at Warner Bros. he co-founded the Internet mall which was one of the earliest online marketplaces. Tom started his career at Price Waterhouse and is a CPA. Tom serves on a number of private company boards and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School and earned his B.S. from the University of Colorado.
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About Crashworks, Idealab, Sellbrite, UCode: Idealab is a technology incubator that provides resources to allow start-ups to rapidly introduce innovative products and services.
Ross Greenberg
Director of Business Development of Status Labs
I help individuals and companies to develop an online strategy to better increase, promote, or repair their online presence. Contact me for a free consultation and/or if you are interested in becoming an affiliate partner: ross@statuslabs.com
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About Status Labs: The Premier Online Reputation Management Firm
Spencer Blye
Business Development Director of Status Labs
Spencer is a Business Development Director at Status Labs and heads up the company’s west coast operations from Los Angeles. Prior to joining Status Labs, he was a Digital Strategist at Weber Shandwick in New York where he guided the strategic development and planning of campaigns for brands such as Unilever, Fisher Price, Sonos and Bank of America. Spencer graduated from Vanderbilt University with a BS in Human and Organizational Development, and a Master’s in Organizational Leadership.
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About Status Labs: The Premier Online Reputation Management Firm
