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 Founder operating in the Communities space. If you think a Founder 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.
Steve Gatena
Founder & CEO of Pray.com
Steve is the founder of pray.com, the digital destination for faith. Steve is an American Entrepreneur, Media Producer, and NCAA Champion. In 2019, Steve was honored as a CSQ 40 Under 40 Visionary. Steve has also received an Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the United Nations in a program sponsored by Dell & Intel, and been named #8 on the Forbes list of Famous Multi-Generational Entrepreneurs.
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About Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Pray.com: Pray.com is the #1 app for daily prayer & faith-based audio content
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Michael Lynn
Founder & CFO of Pray.com
Michael is the founder of pray.com, a social impact company for Non-Profits and Faith Organizations. Pray.com’s vision is to create a world where everyone leaves a legacy of helping others. Pray.com’s private social network gives Faith Organizations and Non-Profits the ability to organize their membership, run small groups & events, and raise funds for causes they care about most.
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About Pray.com: Pray.com is the #1 app for daily prayer & faith-based audio content
Sergey Brin
Co-Founder & President of The Brin Wojcicki Foundation
Sergey Brin, President of Alphabet and one of Google’s founders, has served as a member of Alphabet’s board of directors since October 2015. He has served as a member of Google’s board of directors since its inception in September 1998. From July 2001 to April 2011, Sergey served as Google’s President, Technology. In addition, from September 1998 to July 2001, Sergey served as Google’s President and chairman of Google’s board of directors. Sergey holds a Master of Science degree in computer science from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Science degree with high honors in mathematics and computer science from the University of Maryland at College Park.
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About Google Launchpad Accelerator, The Brin Wojcicki Foundation: The Brin Wojcicki Foundation was founded by Sergey Brin & Anne Wojcicki. (formerly The Brin Foundation)
Cory Levy
Founder of NextGen Conference
Cory Levy was born and raised in Houston, Texas. Cory is currently a student studying Computer Science at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Cory is the COO of One Inc. He focuses mostly on a mobile application called “1”. Prior to One Inc., he started several companies including an educational startup with a Professor at Duke University, a t-shirt printing company, and a sports memorabilia company. Over the last few years he has interned at: TechStars, Union Square Ventures, The Founders Fund, and DFJ Mercury. He has also guest lectured several times at Duke University and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Cory is the Creator of the NextGen Conference, a conference which brings together young, rockstar entrepreneurs with more experienced entrepreneurs. NextGen Conference is hosted annually at Stanford University.
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About AfterSchool, NextGen Conference, One Inc., Union Square Ventures: The NextGen Conference is an initiative of Levant Ministries to connect like-minded people and equip them with excellent resources.
Tracy Chou
Founder & CEO of Block Party
Tracy Chou is an entrepreneur, software engineer, and diversity advocate. She spent five years at Pinterest as an engineer and tech lead and was an early engineer at Quora prior to that. She is a co-founder of Project Include, a non-profit working with tech startups on diversity and inclusion, and #MovingForward, a movement working with VC firms to establish and publish anti-harassment policies; and an investment scout and advisor for several Bay Area VC firms. In her latest venture she is CEO of Block Party, with a mission to solve online harassment and abuse.
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About Block Party, Pinterest, Project Include: Block Party is a consumer app that tackles online harassment and puts you back in control.
Nick Bilogorskiy
Founder and Co-Chairman of Nova Ukraine
Nick Bilogorskiy is a founding team member at Cyphort, a next-generation anti-malware startup, and is currently leading security research there. He came to Cyphort from Facebook where he was the chief malware expert and a security spokesperson for the company, keeping 1 billion active users safe and secure. His Facebook focus was on annihilating botnets that targeted Facebook (e.g., Koobface) by developing countermeasures, remediating victims and working with law enforcement agencies on bad actor attribution and enforcement. Prior to joining Facebook, Nick managed virus research teams at SonicWALL and Fortinet. Nick is skilled in reverse engineering, analysis, writing patterns and tracking malware, frequently quoted in the media. He presented and published research papers at major security conferences. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computing science and philosophy from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and a GIAC Reverse Engineering Malware (GREM) certification. He holds several patents in computer security. Nick has been an angel investor since 2012, investing into 2-3 seed stage companies per year, focusing on cybersecurity, AI and IOT. He invested in Petcube, Cymmetria and Uber, among others. Nick Bilogorskiy is also the founder and a Director of the largest Ukrainian charity in California, Nova Ukraine, helping Ukraine by fighting corruption, providing humanitarian aid, and increasing awareness about Ukrainian culture in the US.
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About 408 Ventures, Alchemist Accelerator, Google, Nova Ukraine: Nova Ukraine is a non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening civil society in Ukraine.
Eric Grossberg
Co-CEO & Co-Founder of Brilliant Earth
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About Brilliant Earth: Brilliant Earth is a luxury jewelry company that offers ethically sourced jewelry.
Beth Gerstein
Co-CEO & Co-Founder of Brilliant Earth
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About Brilliant Earth: Brilliant Earth is a luxury jewelry company that offers ethically sourced jewelry.
Donghao Li
Founder & CEO of Tripalink
Donghao Li is the CEO of Tripalink.
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About Tripalink: Tripalink is a residential brand for student and working professionals driven by technologies.
Sunguk Moon
Founder & Ceo of Blind
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About Blind: Blind is an anonymous workplace network where verified professionals connect to discuss what matters most.
Candice O’Denver
Founder and President of Balanced View
Candice O’Denver is an innovator in the practical application of philosophy as a means to benefit all. She is the inventor and founder of Balanced View, a standardized education in the nature of mind used throughout the world. Balanced View’s unique methodology applies algorithms to reach the consistent result of the beneficial empowerment of mind, speech, body, qualities and activities. Comprehensive order becomes spontaneously obvious through recognizing intelligence as inexhaustibly open in a vast space that is not restricted by the body. When Candice O’Denver was 7, a Bermuda neighbor read her “Awareness Nakedly Seeing” from the Oxford University translation of “The Tibetan Book of the Dead.” The clear perspective of mind as an inexhaustible open intelligence was newly invigorated in within her upon hearing this important text. It gave Candice O’Denver the courage to continue in her firmly held belief that everything is beneficial by nature. Candice found no distinction between Tibetan timeless awareness and the Christian God that was so important to her family. She learned that each culture has its own system for bringing out the best in people, and that each system is a perfect fit for that particular culture. Candice O’Denver felt a strong urgency to bring unity to the people of the world through a standardized means of bringing out the best in people which is Balanced View In Bermuda, European Catholic pageantry and British royals were blended with celebratory Caribbean Christianity and early steel drum music — the roots of reggae, rapped out on large discarded oil cans. Every night, the sound filled the air from nightfall to 2am, becoming the vibration of the Caribbean countries and their people, including Candice. Although the 50s occured after World War II, Jewish people were not permitted entry to the country or its lodging through a variety of devious means. Candice O’Denver’s parents gave refuge to visitors and immigrants who were not allowed in Bermuda, giving all 6 of their children a rich background in international community and friendship. Candice O’Denver studied in a Yale mathematics program for gifted children. At the age of 18, she attended a UCLA international program for young philosophers where she focused on the pragmatic application of philosophy to be of immediate, permanent benefit. Bypassing undergraduate school, Candice was accepted into and completed graduate school, studying both critical theory and fine arts with a variety of professors at California College of the Arts, Stanford, and UC Berkeley. Early in childhood, Candice O’Denver was introduced to computer science and the use of original algorithms to reach consistent results. In the seminal years of computer history, her father began the high level design of the first international computer network for food distribution. He later led the team that developed and implemented this system when technological innovations matched his aspirations. Inspired by her father’s drawings of bar codes and stories about a future of food distribution to everyone in the world based on the bar code, reducibility became Candice O’Denver’s innate way of problem-solving. Candice O’Denver is particularly interested in utilizing the philosophy and mathematics of computer science as the basis for a revolution in social science, particularly philosophy of mind, which always has been left to vague levels of abstraction with no result of permanent benefit. Candice applies precise levels of organization and explanation used in computer science to arrive at specific results in the philosophy of mind. Advancing theories of information, reducibility, organization, and explanation, Candice has developed a comparative analysis and then a comprehensive map of all known systems of education in the nature of mind and in human nature. Candice O’Denver is very involved in the Massive Vibe Project. The lyrics that we’re putting out there in the Massive Vibe project are very special lyrics and will the very core of people. We want these lyrics always to be very, very special direct communications of open intelligence. Nature’s vast, open intelligence speaking to everyone everywhere so that everyone everywhere is very simply, yet radically, developing a universal revolutionary language that has never existed before between beings of all kinds.
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About Balanced View: A global grassroots movement empowering people to use their innate power for the benefit of all.
Josh Rosenheck
Founder, Chief Product Officer of Community
Josh Rosenheck is the Founder and Chief Product Officer of Community. Over his career he has founded and led a number of startups. Prior to founding Community, Josh ran product at Shimmur, a Sony Ventures, Greycroft and Techstars-backed company that built tools to help artists, influencers, and celebrities engage with their audience at scale. Shimmur pivoted into Community. Before Shimmur, Josh co-founded Tag, a social passport app backed by investors including Mark Cuban, Eduardo Saverin, and Tim Draper. Tag was acquired by Cyber Dust. Josh’s first venture was an app to encourage responsible alcohol consumption. The app, Shots iGot, was widely adopted by substance abuse orientation programs and reached Top 10 Paid Entertainment Apps in the iOS app store.
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About Community: Community is an app that solves communication and engagement problems.
Matthew Peltier
Founder, CEO of Community
Matthew Peltier is the Founder, CEO at community.com
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About Community: Community is an app that solves communication and engagement problems.
Sumit Gupta
Co-Founder & CEO of Boom.tv
Sumit Gupta is an Advisor at Boom Fantasy and Founder & CEO at Boom.tv. He is a 3x Entrepreneur (multiple exits), Angel Investor and Mentor. Founded 3 companies. Invested in 50+ startups including Discord, G2 eSports, BlockChain Capital, Blockstream, Blockcypher, Filecoin, Wag, Classpass, OpenDoor, HoneyBook, Managed-by-Q, Dishcraft Robotics. Mr. Gupta also runs Piazza eSports Ventures with pa articular focus on investments and incubating startups Infusing tech into eSports and Game Streaming. Investments include Discord, Vulcun/StreamLabs, BitKraft, G2 Esports. Startup Portfolio includes DrDisRespect stream team, Boom.tv, Rolocule Games, Boom Fantasy Previously, He served as a Founder & CEO of Bash Gaming, took the mobile gaming company to annual revenue of $75M, profitable and sold it to GSN for $170M. Previously as founder CEO of BitRhymes Apps, top 10 app developers in social space. Before that, I was part of founding team at Business Signatures that was sold to Entrust for $55M
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About afkVR, Boom.tv: BoomTV is an Esports entertainment platform that provides tools to automate score tracking, streaming, and generating event hubs.
Ellen Pao
Co-Founder & CEO of Project Include
One of Silicon Valley’s leading advocates for diversity and inclusion, Ellen K. Pao is not only a long-time entrepreneur and tech investor, but her landmark gender discrimination case against venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, propelled her to the front of the fight — years before the Times Up movement. Her 2012 lawsuit helped encourage other women, people of color and especially women of color to stand-up against harassment and discrimination in tech in what has been called the “Pao Effect.” Currently, Ellen serves as CEO and co-founder of nonprofit Project Include, where she works closely with tech leaders to bring fairness to all tech workers, using data-based, practical solutions and recommendations. As interim CEO of reddit, she was the first leader of a large social media company to ban revenge porn and unauthorized nude photos as part of her broader efforts to curtail harassment on the site. Before reddit, she spent seven years as a investment partner at Kleiner Perkins. During her two decades in Silicon Valley, she has also served as a board member, engineering manager, software programmer, and business development executive. She received her BSE in electrical engineering and public policy certificate from Princeton University, her JD from Harvard Law School, and her MBA from Harvard Business School.
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About Project Include: Project Include promotes diversity and inclusion through research and advocacy. We are a non-profit, and we are hiring.
Jack Herrick
Founder and CEO of wikiHow
Jack Herrick is a serial entrepreneur and current CEO and Founder of wikiHow. Jack founded wikiHow, which is like Wikipedia for how-to. Jack started and self financed wikiHow from inception to it’s current position as one of the most popular sites on the web receiving over 25 million unique visitors per month. Prior to wikiHow, Jack was co-CEO of eHow. With Josh Hannah, Jack purchased eHow in 2004. Between 2004 and 2006 eHow grew 30x in traffic and revenue and became the largest pure play how-to site on the web. Demand Media acquired eHow in 2006. In 2002 Jack co-founded Luminescent Technologies with Dan Abrams, Eli Yablonovitch, and Stan Osher. Luminescent is a computational semiconductor lithography company that has raised over $25 MM in venture capital. From 1999-2001 Jack was CEO and co-founder at BigTray, a Sequoia funded e-commerce company. BigTray was sold in 2001 and remains the largest online vendor of restaurant equipment and supplies.
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About Signpost, wikiHow, wikiHow: wikiHow is a web- and wiki-based community that provides its users with a database of how-to guides.
Ruchi Sanghvi
Founder of South Park Commons
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About FWD.us, South Park Commons: South Park Commons brings together talented people to share ideas, explore directions, and realize the opportunities that’ll get you there.
Winston Ibrahim
Co-Founder & CEO of Hydros water Bottle
Winston is tasked with taking the lead on crafting the company’s overall growth strategy, pursuing new business opportunities, exploring ways to ensure long-term financial stability, managing investor relations, and ensuring strong corporate governance with close oversight over the rest of management. Winston first started at Hydros as an Advisor and Board member in late 2009. Later he served as EVP of Business Development, taking the lead raising the company’s seed, Series A, and follow on rounds of financing. Winston has already been responsible for the recruitment of the majority of the company’s Board of Directors including renowned Entrepreneur Shazi Visram, Founder & CEO of Happy Family Brands, and Adnan Durrani, Founder & CEO of American Halal Corporation. He assumed overall leadership in his current position as part of a corporate restructure in January 2012. Ibrahim also serves as Executive Director of Operation Hydros, with overall strategic and operational responsibility of the company’s social mission to address the Global Water Crisis by financing clean water infrastructure projects in the developing world. Winston is also Co-founder of the Ibrahim Leadership and Dialogue Project in the Middle East, a pioneering effort to develop a generation of U.S. leaders sensitive to inter-cultural understanding. He serves on several boards including Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), anorganization that works to engage religious diversity by building interfaith cooperation oncollege and university campuses, and ThinkImpact, a leading social entrepreneurship education company. Prior to Hydros, Winston worked as an investment banking analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia. He received his Bachelor of Art degree in Political Science from the Johns Hopkins University in 2009.
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About Hydros water Bottle, Institute of International Education: Hydros makes water bottles with built-in filters to eliminate the need for bottled water. a movement to fight the water crisis worldwide.
Anastasia Sartan
Co-Founder and CEO of Maison Me
Anastasia Sartan is a Founder at Trends Brands.
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About Maison Me, StyleHacks, Trends Brands: Maison Me is a startup that has built a platform that lets people provide either a few clues.
Derek Andersen
CEO and Co-Founder of Bevy
Derek Andersen is the founder of Startup Grind, a 50+ cities community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs. In 2013 Startup Grind will host 20,000 entrepreneurs at 300 events in 20 countries. After founding Vaporware Labs in 2009, he incubated many products (most of which failed spectacularly) including Startup Grind and professional social network Commonred. In 2012 Commonred was sold to Income.com. He is also Ex-Electronic Arts where he worked on games like Burnout, Mirror’s Edge, The Sims, and Need For Speed. Having spent 8-years living outside the United States, he currently lives in Palo Alto California with his wife and two children.
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About Bevy, Startup Grind: Bevy is an enterprise-grade virtual conference and community events platform designed to build, grow, and scale global communities.
La Mer Walker
Co-Founder and CCO of Valence Community
La Mer Walker is the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Valence Community.
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About ORIGYN Foundation, Valence Community: Valence is an internet company that connects, showcases, and empowers the global black professional community.
Fahad Jalal
Founder & CEO of SitterFriends
Fahad studied Computer Science at Stanford, and got an MBA from the Wharton school of business. Over the last decade, Fahad has been involved with several startups and established companies in the capacity of founder, executive leader and investor. Fahad is involved with 3 charities that focus on child education, and development. In one word he describes himself as “human”, and his life-long goal is to help make care, and education accessible to all children across the world.
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About SitterFriends: Book your community’s most trusted babysitters, in a second, for free
Liron Shapira
Co-Founder & CEO of Relationship Hero
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About Relationship Hero: Relationship Hero connects people with a relationship expert in a private chatroom or over the phone.
Lior Gotesman
Founder & COO of Relationship Hero
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About Relationship Hero: Relationship Hero connects people with a relationship expert in a private chatroom or over the phone.
Lisa Marrone
Co-Founder of Revel
Lisa Marrone joined August Capital in August of 2017. Lisa had previously worked with August Capital during the Summer of 2016 while completing her JD/MBA. Prior to joining August Capital, Lisa worked short stints at the White House for President Obama’s National Economic Council, and as director of strategic marketing for Lyndra, a biotechnology company in Massachusetts. Earlier in her career, she spent three years at Bain & Company in New York City.
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About Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), Revel: Revel is a marketplace for women over 50 to host and attend small, local gatherings on topics of their choice.
Alexa Wahr
Co-Founder of Revel
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About Revel: Revel is a marketplace for women over 50 to host and attend small, local gatherings on topics of their choice.
Jean-Francois Gauthier
Founder and CEO of Startup Genome
Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur and Founder & CEO of Startup Genome. He is the world’s leading voice in innovation ecosystem development, having advised more than 100 governments and private-public partnerships across 35 countries.
He has founded five businesses and led others across two continents and three sectors (Tech, Life Sciences and Cleantech), achieving two exits plus one at scaleup stage. He is also an active angel investor and previously worked in corporate innovation, advising IBM, Cisco, Agilent/HP, J&J, and Abbott for the firm of Kim Clark (former dean of Harvard Business School) alongside Clayton Christensen and other thought leaders. Harvard MBA.
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About Exit Reality, Startup Genome: Startup Genome is a research and policy advisory organization for governments that helps accelerates the success of their startup ecosystem.
Marc Penzel
Founder and President of Startup Genome
Marc is Founder and President, leading global growth and impact. Prior to founding Startup Genome, he co-led the startup ecosystem development unit at Silicon Valley-based Startup Compass. At PwC, KPMG, and Bayer Group’s internal management consultancy, Marc advised top executives across various sectors.
He also founded a nonprofit organization to catalyze social innovation and was appointed Expert in Entrepreneurship, IT and Future of Economic Progress by the World Economic Forum. In 2017, his work to develop startup ecosystems everywhere has led him to receive a U.S. Visa for Individuals with Extraordinary Ability.
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About Startup Genome: Startup Genome is a research and policy advisory organization for governments that helps accelerates the success of their startup ecosystem.
Cadran Cowansage
CEO & Founder of Elpha
Cadran Cowansage is the CEO and Co-Founder of Elpha.
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About Elpha: Where women in tech talk candidly online
Heini Zachariassen
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Vivino
Heini is Vivino’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Credited with bringing a technology revolution to the wine industry, Heini founded Vivino because he was frustrated by not knowing which wine to buy. It’s been his passion project ever since. During his tenure, Vivino has grown into a community of 46 million users, raised $72 million in funding, and rolled out a worldwide wine marketplace. Before starting Vivino, Heini co-founded several startups, including global internet and mobile security company BullGuard. Heini leads the team from Vivino’s European headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. Heini and Vivino’s story is featured in an independent documentary, “Disrupting Wine, The Life of an Entrepreneur.” Heini also hosts the YouTube series Raw Startup, which offers candid advice for entrepreneurs and startups.
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About Vivino: Vivino is a wine app and online wine marketplace that provides users tools to buy better wine based on their unique tastes.
Daniel Gendelman
Founder of Raya
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About Raya: Raya is an online membership-based community for dating, networking, and making new friends.
Terren Klein
CEO & Co-Founder of College Pulse
Terren Klein is the CEO & Co-Founder at College Pulse.
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About College Pulse: College Pulse is a polling platform designed to aggregate and share student public opinion on college campuses.
Shaan Hathiramani
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Flockjay
Shaan Hathiramani is a Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Flockjay. He is a former CXO at Thistle and Portfolio Manager at Balyasny Asset Management L.P. and Alyeska Investment Group. Mr. Hathiramani graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor of arts in Applied Mathematics.
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About Flockjay: Flockjay is an online academy that empowers job seekers with the tools and training they need to break into tech.
Michael Ellison
Founder and CEO of CodePath
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About CodePath: CodePath is a nonprofit increasing diversity in tech by transforming CS college education.
Ben Goldhirsh
Founder of GOOD
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About GOOD: GOOD is an integrated media platform for pragmatic idealists working towards individual and collective progress.
Bernard Xavier
Founder, Board Member of Sentab Ltd
Bernard Xavier is a seasoned technology executive, with over 13 years of specialized radio frequency (RF) and baseband design expertise with companies such as National Semiconductor, Texas Instruments, Philips, and LSI Logic. Xavier is the founder, CEO and President at Quorum Systems, a San Diego-based start-up developing multi-mode RF devices for next generation cellular handsets that was acquired by Spreadtrum, a China-based wireless semiconductor company. Prior to launching Quorum, Xavier founded InnoCOMM Wireless, a Formative Ventures portfolio company and fabless semiconductor start-up specializing in wireless access ICs in February 1998, and was responsible for business development, engineering, finance and sales. He generated over $7M of sales for InnoCOMM, and funded some of the company’s operating expenses. During his tenure, Xavier initiated and developed strategic alliances with several large and small companies and negotiated all contracts and business deals, including the Series A and B financing rounds. Xavier grew the InnoCOMM team from its initial three-person team to a total of fifty-eight employees, developing the largest RF IC team outside of Qualcomm in San Diego. Xavier navigated the negotiation of the $130M acquisition of InnoCOMM by National Semiconductor, who outbid several other corporate suitors. Upon acquisition, Xavier assumed the role of Director of Wireless Data at National Semiconductor. In this new role, he managed several satellite design teams in Sweden, Scotland, Santa Clara, Germany and San Diego. The overall headcount with either direct or dotted line responsibility to Xavier was in excess of seventy engineers. Xavier received his PhD in microwave circuits from Brunel University in the UK. He has published some thirty papers in radio frequency IC design and is currently serving on the technical program committee of the MTT-S RFIC conference. He has filed several patents in the area of semiconductor circuits and systems.
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About Formative Ventures, Sentab Ltd, Summitview Capital: Sentab is an entertainment and communication system running on TV.
Kai Buehler
Founder & CEO of KarmaKarma
Kai Buehler is Quake Europe’s co-founder and managing partner. He is also the CEO and founder of KARMAKARMA, a marketing platform to reward and engage consumers through social impacts. Kai has successfully started, managed and sold a number of businesses in the mobile application, loyalty and interactive TV space. In 2011, Kai sold Watchpoints, the first app that rewarded viewers for watching television, to Viggle (VGGL). Before joining Viggle, Kai was the CEO of Mobile Messaging Solutions (mms), a leading iTV and mobile engagement provider that divested out of VeriSign in 2009 (VRSN). He was also the CEO of Mindmatics USA, which he merged with mms Inc. In 2000, he co-founded plan_b media and successfully grew the company to a leader in the production and distribution of mobile entertainment content with offices in Cologne (Germany), New York, London and Vienna. The company was acquired by Mindmatics, a T-Mobile Venture, in 2005.
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About KarmaKarma, Quake Capital Europe: KarmaKarma is a social impact community where users can see and track their impact on the world.
Lucian Tarnowski
CEO & Founder of BraveNew
Lucian is Founder and CEO of BraveNew.com, the enterprise platform for knowledge sharing communities. BraveNew ‘Communities of Purpose’ enable organisations such as Lockheed Martin, Mercer, Manpower and the Collaborative Health Network to use curated content to connect, engage and develop stakeholders inside and outside of the company around any initiative such as Veterans, STEM, Women, Diversity, Health, Sustainability and Leadership development. BraveNew is creating the ‘Knowledge Graph’ by mapping members informal learning. Through peer-to-peer learning communities BraveNew is helping its client break down the knowledge silos that exist everywhere and over time identify collective intelligence of communities. The company has been awarded the Best Advance in Social Learning Technology by Brandon Hall Group. Lucian lives with his wife in San Francisco. He has been honoured as a Young Global Leader (YGL) by the World Economic Forum and is winner of the Global Enterprising Young Brit. He has served on the Steering Board for a World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Talent Mobility and has been Topic Champion for Employment and Skills. He obsesses over the social science behind communities and believes communities give humans both meaning and context in increasingly complex world. Lucian is passionate about using technology and communities to disrupt the way people learn and has worked in vocational education from the age of 9. In his spare time he runs Take Heart India, a 50 year old no overheads charity started by his father that provides blind and handicapped people in rural India with the vocational employment skills to required to get lifelong employment or start a small business. He sits on the Board of Innovate Educate, a US Foundation that aims to bridge the skills gap with a demand driven approach to jobs. He has spoken at gatherings such as Davos, TEDx, The China Digital Summit and for companies such as Coca-Cola, Oracle, Pearson, IBM and PWC. He speaks to audiences around the world about the convergence of talent and technology and its impact on the future of the global workforce and learning.
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About BraveNew, Civana, The World Economic Forum: BraveNew enables collaborative learning by creating engaging online spaces for professional communities to share knowledge.
Justin McCarty
COO & Co-Founder of Bungalow
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About Bungalow: Bungalow provides home rental services.
Gina Bianchini
Co-Founder & CEO of Mighty Networks
Gina Bianchini is the CEO & founder of Mighty Networks. Her mission at Mighty Networks is to usher in a new era of digital businesses built on the power of community. With a Mighty Network, a brand or creator brings their content, community, online courses, and digital subscriptions together to build a network that gets more valuable to every member with each new person who joins. Before Mighty Networks, Gina was the first entrepreneur-in-residence at Andreessen Horowitz. Prior to A16Z, she was the CEO and co-founder of Ning, a pioneering global platform for creating niche social networks she started with Marc Andreessen in 2004. Under her leadership, Ning grew to ~100 million active users across 300,000 social networks led by brands and creators across subcultures, professional networks, entertainment, politics, and education. The company was sold for $150M in 2011. In addition to Mighty Networks, Gina serves as a board director of TEGNA (NYSE: TGNA), a $3.4 billion dollar broadcast and digital media company, and served as a board director of Scripps Networks (NASDAQ: SNI), a $14.6 billion dollar public company owner of HGTV, The Food Network, and The Travel Channel purchased by Discovery Communications in 2018. Gina and Mighty Networks have been featured in Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Wired, Vanity Fair, Bloomberg, and The New York Times. She has appeared on Charlie Rose, CNBC, and CNN. She grew up in Cupertino, California, graduated with honors from Stanford University, started her career in the nascent High Technology Group at Goldman, Sachs & Co., and received her M.B.A from Stanford Business School.
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About Lean In, Mighty Networks: Mighty Networks is an online platform for creators and brands to build communities.
Tim Herby
CTO, Chief Architect & Co-Founder of Mighty Networks
Tim Herby is the Co-Founder, CTO, and Chief Architect of Mighty Networks.
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About Mighty Networks: Mighty Networks is an online platform for creators and brands to build communities.
Kevin Jennison
Co-Founder & CTO of Tab for a Cause
Kevin Jennison is the Co-Founder & CTO at Tab for a Cause.
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About Gladly, Tab for a Cause: Save the world, one tab at a time.
Richard Walden
Founder, President & CEO of Operation USA
For 35 years, I have run Operation USA, an international relief and development nonprofit based in Los Angeles, CA. Operation USA has sent over $450 million in aid to 100 countries. We are currently active in California with material aid to community clinics, the Oklahoma City tornado disaster, the Hurricane Katrina-affected areas of the US Gulf Coast, the Pine Ridge S.D. Native American Reservation,Cuba, China, Haiti, Japan, Chile, Nicaragua, East Africa, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, The Philippines, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. In China, we built 2 primary schools and 5 health clinics in Sichuan Province following the earthquake of May 2008. A large Operation USA-built primary school has opened in Jacmel, Haiti. In a tsunami-affected port town, a Seniors Community Center project was opened in Ofunato, Japan. We combine agile and rapid response to disasters with long term recovery projects. Specialties: international conflict resolution & mediation; international development strategies, microfinance, water resources, public health
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About Operation USA: OpUSA helps communities overcome the effects of disasters, disease and endemic poverty by providing privately-funded relief and development.
Gregory Koberger
Founder & CEO of ReadMe
Gregory Koberger is the Founder at ReadMe.io
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About Phileas & Fogg, ReadMe: ReadMe provides every company the ability to quickly create beautiful documentation, and build loyal, productive developer communities.
Emmanuel Guisset
Founder of Outsite
Emmanuel Guisset is the Founder at Outsite
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About Outsite: A collection of unique work+play accommodations that cater to the growing community of entrepreneurs, business travelers.
Farzal Dojki
CoFounder & CEO of The DotZero
Known for his innovative ideas and commitment to social responsibility, Farzal Dojki is Founder & CEO of Next Generation Innovations, a software development, IT support and consulting firm specializing in new ventures. The company is working to establish a paradigm that focuses on “doing good for the society in which it operates” and encourages its employees to dedicate 5% of their billable hours to community service projects. Prior to that, Farzal worked at 3 start-ups in Pakistan, as well as 3 years at Merrill Lynch & BearingPoint in the US.
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About The DotZero: DotZero is a space made for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs.
Steve El-Hage
Founder & CEO of Drop
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About Drop: Drop is a product company that uniquely uses data and insights from enthusiasts to create and curate innovative products that fuel passion.
Nelson Wu
Co-Founder of Drop
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About Drop: Drop is a product company that uniquely uses data and insights from enthusiasts to create and curate innovative products that fuel passion.
Mike Porath
Founder & CEO of The Mighty
Mike is the founder and CEO of The Mighty. He has held a variety of writing, editing, producing and executive roles at media companies including ABC News, NBC News, The New York Times and AOL. He serves on several non-profit boards that help people with rare diseases and was named one of the world’s top 50 philanthropists by Town & Country in 2017.
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About The Mighty: The Mighty is a digital health community created to empower and connect people facing health challenges and disabilities.
D’Arcy Coolican
Co-Founder and CEO of Frank
D’Arcy is an investor at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). He founded Frank, a social lending platform, to create an alternative to banks. Previously, D’Arcy worked at McKinsey & Company in the financial services, technology, and media practices division. He’s a graduate of Columbia Law School, Stanford University, and McGill University.
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About Andreessen Horowitz, Frank: Mixing money and friends doesn’t have to be weird
Lane Kasselman
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Greenbrier
Lane Kasselman is a nationally recognized expert in crisis and public affairs. He ran communications and public affairs for Uber, navigating regulations in the new shared economy and playing a crucial role in creating the company’s permanent regulatory frameworks in states and cities around the world. Previously he also served as Director of Communications for AT&T where he built the national model for regulatory success, and led Kasselman LLC, where he worked with companies like BP during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the American Foundation for Equal Rights during the same-sex marriage court decision. He attended California State University Sacramento where he was offered his first communications job with Governor Gray Davis. Kasselman went on to specialize in public interest law at Golden Gate University and was recruited out of law school to help lead policy for Mayor Gavin Newsom.
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About Blockchain.com, Greenbrier, The Messina Group: Game-changing consultancy for some of the hottest companies, orgs & people in the world to quickly recover from crises.
Neville Spiteri
Co-Founder and CEO of WEVR
Neville Spiteri is co-founder and CEO of Wevr, the leading virtual reality studio and distributor. As one of the top software engineers and creative executives in the industry, Neville has been at the forefront of interactive storytelling for two decades, from his time at Electronic Arts to his early days at Digital Domain. Under Neville’s leadership, Wevr produced the award winning virtual ocean experience theBlu: Encounter, which earned partnerships with the Smithsonian, OceanElders, Samsung and HTC. Neville read his first book on Virtual Reality in 1991.
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About WEVR: WEVR is a developer of a technology platform used to offer virtual reality content.
Ori Sagie
Founder / Exec. Chairman / President of Envoy Technologies
24 years being in the forefront of real estate and technology and the merge between both. I have been creating successful companies and constantly gaining a deep understanding and passion for next generation solutions in CRE tech. Envoy is the next generation solution for personal mobility. Cars as an amenity where you live, work and stay.
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About Envoy Technologies: Envoy provides onsite mobility services which includes electric car-sharing and EV charging for apartments, offices, and hotels.
Francis Pollara
Co-Founder, Operations of TheFutureParty
I am a life-long entrepreneur, business operator and product builder. Founded Luma Launch in 2015, a uniquely positioned $20 million-dollar venture fund, backed by Luma, one of the world’s most successful independent creative studios. Launch has invested in 20+ seed and early-stage technology companies such as Revl, TheWaveVR, Retina, Donut Media, Wavedash Games and Tapcart. Created and ran as successful startup accelerator and other innovation programs.
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About TheFutureParty: A community-based media platform built for the next generation of creative leaders.
Lauren Barnard
Founder + CEO of Wine + Moxxi
Lauren is the founder and CEO of Wine + Moxxi. She is also the founder and CEO of Kampala Wines, an online wine club and wine shop platform. Earlier in life, she worked for Fluxx as partnerships manager and senior project manager. She has 2 years and 6 months experience as grants manager in Campaign for Female Education. Lauren attended University of Wisconsin-Madison and studied journalism.
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About Booz Allen Hamilton, Wine + Moxxi: Wine + Moxxi engages in delivering monthly wine subscription for customers.
Tim Rout
CEO & Founder of AccessParks
Seasoned executive, experienced in founding, leading and growing technology ventures, with successful outcomes & exits.
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About AccessParks, Connect, EvoNexus, Tech Coast Angels: AccessParks is a specialized Internet Service Provider to stakeholders within National and State parks, and surrounding rural communities.
Bret Cox
Founder, Chairman & CEO of TRUE
Bret Cox is Founder and CEO at True.
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About TRUE: Private Group Sharing
Andy Walshe
Partner, Co Founder of Liminal Collective
Dr. Andy Walshe came to Red Bull Stratos as director of high performance for Red Bull’s global athlete development program, where he works with hundreds of international athletes; supervises a team of industry-leading sports scientists, nutritionists, biomechanics experts and sports psychologists; and develops elite sports performance models. As performance manager for Red Bull Stratos, Andy and his team help Felix Baumgartner execute a performance plan by encompassing both physical and psychological readiness, and provide high performance direction and support for the entire mission team. Andy’s professional interests are focused on delivering pragmatic solutions to explore all kinds of human potential; he is a consultant for business, sports and military organizations worldwide. With a Ph.D. in Applied Biomechanics (the science of movement) and applied coaching expertise in performance training, the Australian native designed a highly successful performance program for the U.S. Olympic ski and snowboard teams, guiding their athletes to victories on the world stage.
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About Liminal Collective: Liminal Collective is a worldwide group of people that share a passion for human performance.
Kyle Bragger
Co-Founder of Exposure
Kyle is currently the co-founder of Exposure, the best way on the internet to publish beautiful photo stories. Prior to that, he founded the developer and designer community Forrst, which was later sold to Creative Market.
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About Elepath, Exposure: Exposure is a web tool and a community of passionate photographers and storytellers that allows users to create photo narratives.
Brian Acton
Founder & Executive Chairman of Signal Technology Foundation
Brian Acton is Founder and Executive Chairman of Signal Technology Foundation whose mission is to develop open source privacy technology that protects free expression and enables secure global communication. As more and more of our lives happen online, data protection and privacy have become critical. Signal Technology Foundation is the parent company of Signal Messenger, a fast, simple and secure messaging app. At his core, Brian is a software builder. He’s also a Silicon Valley veteran having worked at Apple, Adobe, and Yahoo before embarking on his adventure with WhatsApp. In 2009, Brian cofounded WhatsApp and grew the service to over a billion users worldwide. Brian grew up in Central Florida and holds a BS in Computer Science from Stanford University. He lives in the SF Bay Area with his wife and two rugrats, I mean kids. In his free time, he builds Lego and plays ultimate frisbee.
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About Signal Technology Foundation: A non-profit organization founded in 2018 by Moxie Marlinspike and Brian Acton
Bart Myers
CEO and Founder of Countable
Founder, advisor and investor in early stage technology companies in the Bay Area. Current project is Countable, a consumer focused, political site and app. Countable will launch in early 2014. Prior to Countable, Bart founded SideReel.com which was acquired by Rovi in 2011, and later re-acquired under All Media Network. Before SideReel, Bart worked in numerous startups and now advises several.
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About Countable, Guba, Rovi Corporation, SFAdPub: Countable is a community engagement platform that powers virtual communities for large and small organizations.
Terence Huang
Co-Founder of sndbx
Terence Huang is a co-founder at sndbx. Prior to that he was a business development manager at LiveRamp and throughout his career; an equity tech analyst at BTIG and Nuveen Investments. Terence obtained a degree in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. He currently lives in San Francisco, California.
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About sndbx: New event based dating app that leads users to actual meetups. People want dates NOT penpals!
Luke Iseman
Co-Founder of Boxouse
Luke Iseman is the Co-Founder at Boxouse.
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About Boxouse, Edyn: Boxouse converts shipping containers into tiny off grid houses and promotes sustainable communities.
Mike Downey
Founder of Five Hype
A long-time veteran of IT, project management and sales, Mike has international business experience from Latin America and Europe to Asia Pacific and Australia. In the mid-90’s, he started Tilson as a technology training company and then spent the next eight years directing technology operations for Cianbro Construction, one of the largest construction companies in the Northeast. Now, Mike brings his expertise to bear on identifying leading technologies, qualifying vendors and buyers and negotiating win-win technology deals for customers. He’s taken on the role of interim CIO and IT Director for a number of companies, ranging from banking and construction to distribution. Some of Mike’s other core competencies include budget analysis, team performance evaluations, strategic planning and return on investment analysis.
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About 4G Vision, Five Hype, Tilson: Five Hype is a lifestyle, marketing, PR, and talent management agency offering solutions focused on the matching of consumers to brands.
Lauris Liberts
CEO & Founder of Draugiem
Lauris Liberts is Founder and Co-Owner at Draugiem Group.
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About Behappy, DeskTime.com, Draugiem, Draugiem Group, Printful, Vendon: Draugiem offers a social network that enables businesses to connect with their customers in Latvia.
Julianna Rapu Leong
Co-Founder of Kupu Hawaii
Julianna was born and raised in Rapa Nui, Chile. Her family immigrated to Hau’ula, Oahu, in pursuit of educational opportunities for herself and her younger brother in the 1990s. After graduating from Punahou School, Julianna earned a BA in Biology from Scripps College, CA. She is married to John Leong and together are blessed with three children: TeAraMa’eha, Heikura Hererangi, and Mataora Taharoa. Julianna feels blessed to be able to invest time in both the Hawaii and Rapa Nui communities.Julianna has a deep love of open spaces and nature. She is a founding member and current Vice President of Pono Pacific Land Management, which in 2001 began providing land owners and conservation agencies with cost-effective land management services. Pono Pacific currently works on/manages over 45,000 acres statewide with offices on Oahu, Hawaii Island, and Molokai.Julianna is also passionate about education and encouraging individuals and communities to thrive. She is a founding member of Kupu, a Hawaii based non-profit whose mission is to “empower youth to serve their communities through character-building, service-learning, and environmental stewardship opportunities that encourage integrity (pono) with God, self, and others.” Kupu partners with over 80 organizations throughout Hawaii. In 2012, Kupu programs provided an average of $2.8 dollars in community benefit for every $1 in cost. The same year, Kupu volunteers logged over 250,000 volunteer hours and provided a total benefit to Hawaii of $8.8 million dollars.
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About Kupu Hawaii: Kupu, based in Hawaii, aims to empower the youth to serve the community through character building and environmental stewardship.
Eric Ly
Founder & CEO of Hub
Eric Ly is the founder and CEO at Presdo, a web application that helps people find the best time for getting together. Prior to that, Eric was a co-founder at LinkedIn, where he was the founding CTO and a VP. At LinkedIn, Eric helped create some of its core product features, which enabled the company to reach profitability and a quickly growing user base. You can find Eric’s profile at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ericly. Before that, Eric co-founded two other Internet companies in the time management, collaboration, and mobile areas. He enjoys working at the intersection of products, technologies and business models to create highly successful companies. Eric serves on the advisory board of Movoto.com, an online real estate company.
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About Hub, KarmaCheck: Hub is a blockchain based trust protocol that allows people to earn and carry their reputation data across Internet.
Elliott Lui
Founder of Travelnuts
Elliott Lui is Founder at Travelnuts.
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About Travelnuts: Comprehensive m-commerce suite for hotel owners to offer extras to their guests.
Nancy Chen-Salgado
Co Founder of OfficeNinjas
Co-Founder of OfficeNinjas.
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About OfficeNinjas: Publication, Marketplace and Community for Office Managers & Assistants
Edwin Salgado
Co Founder of OfficeNinjas
Co Founder of OfficeNinjas.
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About OfficeNinjas: Publication, Marketplace and Community for Office Managers & Assistants
Pouria Mojabi
Co-Founder of Supportiv
Pouria Mojabi was inspired to co-create Supportiv after seeing a friend hide his suffering and struggle to get stigma-free mental health support. He is the former technical co-founder of Vitagene which uses DNA, blood tests and lifestyle data to determine needed nutrients and personalize a supplement package. The company raised a $5.6m seed round and is now the second best selling health and ancestry DNA test on Amazon. Previously, he was employee #1 and algorithm manager at Basehealth, an AI-driven predictive platform to identify emerging health and disease risk more accurately, which has raised $21m in VC funding. Basehealth was among the first digital health platforms to combine genetics and lifestyle data for comprehensive risk-assessment of cancers and chronic diseases. Pouria was also an early team member at UCSF & the SF VA Hospital that identified biomarkers to predict Alzheimer’s disease. He has co-authored papers on Alzheimer’s, Dementia, the aging brain, and perfusion-weighted MRI technology. He’s also worked at Apple, Visa, and Medidata and given talks internationally about digital consumer health. Pouria holds an M.Sc in Electrical Engineering from USC.
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About Paralign, Supportiv: The Support Network delivers AI/NLP-driven precision peer support + hyper-targeted resource recommendations for mental wellness.
Helena Plater-Zyberk
Co-Founder & CEO of Supportiv
Helena co-created Supportiv after identifying a market need between therapy and mindfulness offerings, and envisioning a pennies-per-minute business model that could make mental wellness affordable for just about everyone. She is the former CEO of SimpleTherapy, who led the AI-driven digital musculoskeletal health company from pre-product to its first $5MM in commercial contracting from five Fortune 50 clients including Aetna and Humana. Previously, she was Executive Director for Scholastic’s $500MM ed-tech and services division, a business unit of 400+ sales, marketing, product, and implementation employees, acquired by Houghton Mifflin. Prior to that, Helena was Director of Strategy and Consumer Insights at Condé Nast, the media behemoth that publishes over 20 name brands including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Wired. She is a former Rotary Scholar who has worked, studied, and traveled in over 60 countries, including hiking Everest Base Camp (17,600 ft) and Kilimanjaro (19,341 ft). She is also an independent Board Member of the Austin, TX legal SaaS startup Liquid Litigation Management. Helena holds an MBA from Columbia University
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About Supportiv: The Support Network delivers AI/NLP-driven precision peer support + hyper-targeted resource recommendations for mental wellness.
Itziar Diez-Canedo
Co-Founder of Via.work
Itziar Diez-Canedo is the co-founder of Via. Before that, Itziar was the senior vice president and head of strategy for Citi FinTech Acceleration. She was responsible for defining Citi’s open innovation strategy and developing new digital businesses by partnering with the financial technology ecosystem globally. Itziar designed and led high-impact initiatives, including an incubation program to implement selected solutions across the organization, and a global financial-technology accelerator program for startups to reinvent how the world interacts with money. She developed a methodology through which organizations can source, accelerate, and launch new solutions to market effectively by leveraging crowdsourcing and agile practices. Previously, Itziar held roles in digital product development, strategic communications, data analytics, and business development.
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About Via.work: Via.work is a marketplace that connects professionals to short-term onsite work at companies around the world.
Jill Koziol
Co-Founder + CEO of Motherly
Jill Koziol is the co-founder and CEO of Motherly a modern lifestyle brand redefining motherhood with it’s 30M+ monthly audience. She is also the co-author of “This Is Motherhood: A Motherly Collection of Reflections and Practices” and the forthcoming book, “The Motherly Guide to Becoming Mama: Redefining the Pregnancy, Birth, and Postpartum Journey”. Jill is passionate about serving and empowering women and mothers because when mamas are successful, everyone wins. She is an advocate for families, female founders, and how to thrive with multiple sclerosis. Jill lives in Menlo Park with her husband and two daughters.
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About Motherly: Motherly is a community-driven lifestyle brand redefining motherhood.
Elizabeth Tenety
Co-Founder & Chief Digital Officer of Motherly
Elizabeth Tenety is a co-founder and chief digital officer at Motherly.
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About Motherly: Motherly is a community-driven lifestyle brand redefining motherhood.
Andrew Tan
Founder & CEO of Ladder
Andrew Tan is the Founder & CEO of Ladder.
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About Goodpoint, Ladder: Ladder is a next-gen professional community platform.
Barbara Bickham
Co-Founder and Managing Director of WIF AX, LLC.
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About CinemaDraft, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, LA CTO Forum, Waggit, WIF AX, LLC.: Funding growth through equality and sustainability.
Joe Nuzzolo
Founder / Owner of The Salvador Dali Society
Joe Nuzzolo has spent several decades developing a reputation as an expert in the art of Salvador Dali. Since 1993, he has sold more than 11,000 Dali pieces in his capacity as a dealer. Also an authenticator, he has leveraged his Dali expertise to provide authentication services that have resulted in collectors receiving nearly $1 million in refunds for forgeries of the Spanish artist. A collector himself, Joe Nuzzolo owns one of the world’s largest collections of Dali art. Joe Nuzzolo continues to sell, authenticate, and acquire Dali pieces through the Salvador Dali Society®, a Torrance, California, organization that he founded and owns. Through the Salvador Dali Society®, Mr. Nuzzolo maintains additional focuses on educating collectors and consulting with museums. His experience in the latter capacity includes work with such institutions as the National Museum of Fine Arts in Cuba and Centre Pompidou Paris in France. Joe Nuzzolo plans to share his extensive Dali knowledge through the forthcoming two-volume reference set Salvador Dali Prints: The Catalogue Raisonne. Already a published writer, he stands out as the author and editor of the 2001 book Salvador Dali: A Fifty-Year Retrospective.
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About The Salvador Dali Society: The Salvador Dali Society was founded with the intention of establishing transparency in the Dali art world.
Andy White
Founder of Millennial Technology
Andy White Bio: I most recently lead the VegasTechFund to become the 5th most active Micro VC firm in 2014. The focus was to empower amazing founders and startups passionate about building a community-focused ecosystem in downtown Las Vegas. I’m currently exploring how the City as a Startup process can lead to more tightly unified communities that encourage traditional investors to invest in early stage startups. This will then help entrepreneurs bridge the gap between seed capital and additional funding. This process builds a @CityAsAStartup through Learners, Doers and Connectors in the community.
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About Millennial Technology: Investing to build community with the people who make it happen.
Doug Davenport
Founder & CEO of Prospect Silicon Valley
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About Prospect Silicon Valley: ProspectSV is a nonprofit urbantech innovation hub focused on solutions for sustainable, smart cities.
Crimson Rose
Co-Founder & Head- Art Department – Burning Man Project of Burning Man Project
Crimson Rose is the Founding Board Member and Board Secretary of Burning Man Project. As a co-founder of Burning Man, the Black Rock Arts Foundation and Burning Man Project, Crimson Rose’s life passion and work have focused on the arts and artistic expression. Crimson began participating in the Burning Man event in 1991, and developed the organization’s Art Department, including the infrastructure, financial and other support services that make possible the large-scale participatory art works that Burning Man is renowned for. With Crimson’s guidance, Burning Man serves as an inspirational limitless canvas, the works of which now find public placement in cities around the world and serve as catalytic sparks for community collaboration.
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About Burning Man Project: Facilitating and extending the culture that has issued from the Burning Man event into the larger world.
Larry Harvey
Founder & Chief Philosophic Officer – Burning Man Project of Burning Man Project
In 1986, Larry Harvey founded Burning Man on Baker Beach in San Francisco. Nearly three decades later, this manifestation of a creative impulse, and the annual event that it has become, has made its mark on history: Burning Man is now a global force for creative culture on six continents, and in more than 50 countries, and growing. Larry has steered the growth of Burning Man since its beginning. In 1997 he became a co-founder of Black Rock City, LLC, the event’s managing organization, and served as its Executive Director. Larry later went on to co-found and serve as the Chairman of the Board of the Black Rock Arts Foundation. In 2013, he co-founded Burning Man Project, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with a year-round staff of more than 70 employees and an annual operating budget of approximately $30 million. He currently serves as its Board President and Chief Philosophic Officer. Larry scripts and produces the Burning Man event’s annual art theme, supervises the design of the iconic Man sculpture and its infrastructure, and is Co-Chair of its Art Department. As a recognized visionary and steward of a unique creative culture, Larry speaks frequently around the world at renowned institutes of higher learning, museums, and other cultural crossroads. He has spoken at Harvard University, Columbia University, Walker Art Center, The Commonwealth Club of California,The Economist World In Conference, the Oxford Student Union, London’s Southbank Centre, Austin’s South by Southwest conference, and was interviewed on Charlie Rose in 2014.
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About Black Rock Arts Foundation, Burning Man Project: Facilitating and extending the culture that has issued from the Burning Man event into the larger world.
Will Paterson
Co-Founder of Burning Man Project
Will Roger discovered Burning Man in 1994, through his life partner Crimson Rose. Together and with several others, they co-founded Black Rock City, LLC, which has overseen the Burning Man event for nearly twenty years. Will founded and managed the Black Rock City Department of Public Works — a team of several hundred people responsible for the pre-event and post-event construction logistics and production. He is a founding board member of Burning Man Project, and is the Vice-President of Friends of the Black Rock/High Rock. Will is heavily involved in conservation efforts of the Black Rock Desert, which is the United State’s largest National Conservation Area, and which is home to the Burning Man event. Will served as Chairman of the Sierra Front – North Western Great Basin – Resource Advisory Council (RAC), and is currently a member of the RAC NCA Subgroup. Will is also an accomplished photographer, and worked nearly 20 years at the Rochester Institute of Technology as a photo chemist, administrator, associate professor, and Assistant Director.
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About Burning Man Project: Facilitating and extending the culture that has issued from the Burning Man event into the larger world.
Jerome Naidoo
CEO, Founder of THINK thenlive
Jerome Naidoo’s entrepreneurial mindset and the technological knowhow to envision new ideas and steer them from concept to delivery have been nurtured and refined through a multi-disciplined approach to business. Equipped with a big picture vision and a sharp eye for detail, Jerome transforms business concepts from ideas to reality — accommodating budget limitations, tight time frameworks, and critical business image. His career has spanned the successful development of four thriving start-up companies across four diverse industries, with two emerging from out-of-the box thinking and a creative approach to problem solving, need, and demand. Jerome has more than 15 years in the technology and startup space, with an extensive background in physics, computer science, and business development. Jerome founded THINKthenlive (beta: Saybubble) in 2014 and has invested more than two years of his time in personally developing its revolutionary AI architecture based on Python — the same AI software used by Amazon and Netflix. Not only has Jerome created this technology from the ground up, he also singlehandedly manages all facets of the company. From recruiting employees, training staff, and leading team meetings to assisting in the development of the app, building the website, and creating stunning graphics, Jerome successfully executes all of these duties. Before founding THINKthenlive, Jerome was the CEO of Solarworld WA — the fastest growing solar company in Western Australia. In 2013, Jerome led the company to produce a turnover of $2 million dollars in the first year of trading. At Solarworld WA, Jerome supported the local community by focusing on hiring local employees instead of outsourcing the work to offshore call centers. From 2010 to 2013, Jerome was the CEO and Managing Director of FBM R9 Building Material — the world’s strongest insulated building material. At FBM, Jerome was responsible for inventing the industry-changing building material. He used his extensive structural engineering, chemical engineering, and building knowledge to invent, design, test, and certify the product for the building industry. Jerome demonstrated his ability to build strong relationships and develop new partnership and business opportunities in his work at FBM. Jerome’s first startup venture was in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa in 2004 where he was the CEO and Managing Director of KZN Supastraight Panel and Paint. KZN modified factory-produced automobiles to add custom finishes while still maintaining warranty for their customers. This business was centered on a community-focused business model that enabled weekly food and milk donations to be made to homeless children living in the community. Jerome began his professional career as a Computer Network Technician with IPEX Information Technology Group (IPEX ITG) in 2001. IPEX ITG was Australia’s largest Australian-owned Information Technology Computer Systems Company, with 800 staff located worldwide. Jerome left this company to start his own business as a contractor in the Education sector, where IPEX ITG contracted him in 2002. Jerome has a proven track record of startup success, utilizing his entrepreneurial mindset, engineering knowledge, and marketing strategy to take new ideas to market, refine them through a multi-disciplined approach, and steer them from concept to delivery. Over the span of his career, he has proved that his vast skillset and his drive to succeed produces tangible results.
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About THINK thenlive: Location-based social media
Christian Wylonis
Co-Founder & CEO of The Org
Christian is a Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at The Org.
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About The Org: The Org is a professional community to explore organization charts for public and private companies.
Erica Pelavin
Principal and Co-Founder of My Digital TAT2
Erica Pelavin is Co-Founder of My Digital TAT2. She is a family psychologist with over 20 years’ experience. Working from a strength-based perspective, Pelavin specializes in bullying prevention, relational aggression, digital drama, cyber-safety and conflict resolution. Pelavin has a passion for helping children learn the skills to become their own advocates, as well as helping schools become caring communities. For the past eight years, she has been a High School Counselor in East Palo Alto. In addition to her counseling work with adolescents, she facilitates both parenting and teacher seminars in media literacy and 21st Century Learning Skills.
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About My Digital TAT2: My Digital TAT2 is to facilitate conversations that inspire thoughtful and ethical online behavior by teaching educators, parents.
Gloria Moskowitz-Sweet
Co-Founder & Vice President of Program Development and Training of My Digital TAT2
Gloria has been a school social worker, educator, and program developer since 1981. She has served as a lecturer in the Graduate Program of Social Work at San Jose State University for 20 years. Gloria is a strong believer in the importance of working with educators, parents, and students to create safe, inclusive environments online and offline. Gloria has worked in educational settings advocating for children and families throughout her career. Gloria is bicultural and the parent of three sons.
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About My Digital TAT2: My Digital TAT2 is to facilitate conversations that inspire thoughtful and ethical online behavior by teaching educators, parents.
Jukka Valkonen
Chief Health , Innovation Officer & Co-Founder of Jiseki Health
Jukka Valkonen is the Director & Health and Life Sciences Practice Head at West Monroe Partners.
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About Jiseki Health, MindHeartLab, West Monroe Partners: Jiseki provide access and delivery of key advice, help, product and services through SMS, powered by a combination of professionals and AI.
Taj Stansberry
Co-Founder, Branding & Marketing of Communly
Taj Stansberry (born in Oakland, California, United States) is an American director and photographer, known for his music videos with artists such as Rihanna, J Lo, Usher, Ne-Yo, John Legend, Young Jeezy, Ludacris, Keyshia Cole, Swizz Beatz, Eve, Wale and Big Sean.His video for J Lo’s “On the Floor” is the most watched female video of all time on YouTube with over 800,000,000 views. He is currently developing a few feature projects as well, working as the Brand and Marketing Director for Commonly.
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About Communly: Communly is a dedicated place for everyone to connect around the topics they’re most passionate about.
Garrett Johnson
Co-Founder & Chairman of Lincoln Network
Garrett Johnson is the Co-Founder and Chairman of Lincoln Network.
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About Lincoln Network: Lincoln Network provides opportunities for the entrepreneurial community to learn about market-based and tech-powered solutions.
David Miró Llopis
Co-Founder of ManiMe
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About ManiMe: ManiMe is a beauty-tech company that delivers fitted and ready-to-wear manicures made with 3D scanning technology.
Coco Brown
Founder & CEO of Athena Alliance
Coco is the Founder and CEO of The Athena Alliance. Athena is revolutionizing leadership, from senior management to the boardroom. We enable businesses to take on today’s greatest threats and to conquer their most pressing imperatives. And, we empower women to own their value and to step into their most ambitious leadership role yet: in the boardroom, in the C-suite, as a founder, or as an investor. At the heart of our mission: coaching remarkable senior women leaders to fully own their value and to step into bigger roles. We also guide CEOs, venture firms and corporations to evolve their approach to senior leadership development, to strengthen their boards, and to facilitate curated connections to remarkable female leaders. In just two years, Athena has made over 700 key connections between investment firms, CEOs and boards to top women, made over 400 presentations of women to boards, secured over 300 first interviews (many continuing on with over fifty boards actively considering Athena women today), and deeply supported and coached over 300 top women. Prior, Coco served as President, COO and Board Director of Taos, a prominent in IT Services business serving hundreds of F1000 companies such as Apple, Cisco, ebay, Facebook, and Silicon Valley Bank. Coco is an experienced board member having served on the boards of The Athena Alliance, Taos Mountain Software, Inc., and MentorNet. She served as Grace Hopper – ABIE Technology Leadership Award, Nominating Committee Chair 2014-2017 and has received numerous awards and visibility in high-profile publications. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
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About Athena Alliance: Digital Community Platform – Subscription Membership + Executive Development
Payom Niazmandi
Founder & CEO of Unibui, Inc.
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About Unibui, Inc.: Unibui helps local businesses reach and convert students as physical customers with unique QR channels.
Viswa Mani Kiran Peddinti
Co-Founder of Meed
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About Meed: Meed is a platform where young professionals learn, network, and find opportunities to build a career.
Chuck Slaughter
Founder, President of Living Goods
Founder of TravelSmith and Living Goods
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About Living Goods, TravelSite.com: Living Goods is a social enterprise harnessing the power of micro-entrepreneurs to deliver life-changing products.
Kyle Canepa
Founder of Modern Shift
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About Modern Shift: Divorce Resource Marketplace and Community Builder
Randy Paynter
Founder & CEO of Care2
As the founder of Care2, Randy is a pioneer of online advocacy. Randy launched Care2 in 1998 to empower individuals to take collective action in support of social and environmental causes. Today, Care2 is the world’s largest social network for good, with over 40 million standing together, starting petitions and sharing stories that inspire action. People, nonprofits and mission-based brands are making world-changing impact with Care2, helping individuals, animals and the environment. Randy was inspired to start Care2 after receiving email petition-chainletters that filled inboxes in the early days of the Internet. Care2 provided a central platform for thousands of early online petition authors to collect signatures, scoring victories on both local and national levels. Care2 was one of the first online social ventures, innovating an “Engine For Good” model where good actions generate revenues that help fuel more good actions. The Company serves as a matchmaker between Consumer Brands, Nonprofit Organizations and Care2′s influential, 70% female, audience. The Company has recruited more than 50 million donors and advocates for 2,700 nonprofit organizations and mission based brands. Before starting Care2, Randy co-founded one of the web’s first viral apps – electronic greeting card service, eCards.com, in 1995. Randy is a proud composter, avid naturalist, and kiteboarder, and once trekked across Borneo with two Penan tribesmen. Randy loves spending time with his two young children, his wife, Nancy, and a menagerie of pets. Randy holds an AB from Harvard University and an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.
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About Care2: Care2 is the world’s largest social network for good.
TD Lowe
Founder and CEO of EnovationNation
TD Lowe is the founder and CEO of EnovationNation, TD spent 10 years working in Technology, Strategy and Finance at Fortune 100 and small companies alike. TD holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Economics from the University of Alabama and holds a Stanford University Computer Science Masters Certificate.
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About EnovationNation: Innovation for the People By the People.
Siv Watkins
CEO, CSO, Co-Founder of 11 Biomics
Siv is an expert environmental microbiologist, with over 16 years of experience in industry and academia. She holds a Ph.D in wastewater treatment microbiology and to date her career has focused on biocontrol and the microbial ecology of engineered and natural environments. She has secured funding from a variety of sources to support her research, including from the NSF, and various government and private funding initiatives in the US and Europe. Siv became interested in cannabis research as a result of the personal and professional outreach she has performed around mental health in STEM, and has been delivering cannabis-related outreach and education for two years.
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About 11 Biomics: 11 Biomics is an early-stage, community-focused biotech company.
Lauren Vegter
Founder of Bloom
Lauren Vegter is the Founder of Bloom.
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About Bloom: Bloom is a social and dating app that helps people meet around events
Leanne Pittsford
Founder, CEO of Lesbians Who Tech
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About Include, Lesbians Who Tech, Tech Jobs Tour: Lesbian Who Tech is an online community of queer women meeting up on a monthly basis to socialize and discuss popular tech topics.
