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 Content 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.
Sahil Lavingia
Founder & CEO of Gumroad
Sahil is the founder and CEO of Gumroad. Gumroad exists to help every creative earn a living selling the stuff they make directly to their audience. Previously, he was early at Pinterest — a service that lets users collect, organize, and share the things they are into — and worked on turntable’s mobile apps. He designs and builds products for fun and profit.
Follow Sahil Lavingia:
About Crate, Gumroad, shl.vc: Gumroad owns and operates an online service through which users can buy and sell digital goods such as design templates and source codes.
_______
Brian Sugar
Founder of POPSUGAR
Brian Sugar is the President at Group Nine Media.
Follow Brian Sugar:
About Group Nine Media, POPSUGAR, Sugar Capital: PopSugar is an online network of websites that offers updates, trends, and tips in entertainment, fashion, parenting, fitness, and shopping.
Jake Paul
CEO & Founder of TeamDom
Jake Paul is the Founder and CEO at TeamDom. He dropped out of high school and relocated to Los Angeles at 17, without a single meeting lined up. Jake became a Viner before becoming a Vloger. Also Jake has racked up over 15 million social media followers, and 3.5 billion video views, categorizing him as one of the top 20 social media influencers and a leading brand ambassador. Jake also lends his efforts to the acting world — starring as “Dirk” on Disney Channel’s Bizaardvark, “Lance” in the YouTube Red Original Movie Dance Camp and “Dugan” on Fox Digital’s new movie Mono.#Bloodynosegang
Follow Jake Paul:
About TeamDom: TeamDom is a media conglomerate that builds brands, stories, celebrities, and businesses around teen entertainment and media.
Michelle Tandler
Founder and Chief Researcher of Life School
Category Manager at Thumbtack
Follow Michelle Tandler:
About Life School, Parachute Home, Thumbtack: Life School teaches people one new skill at a time by providing lessons structured into short courses.
Parag Chordia
Founder & Chief Technology Officer of HOOKED
Parag Chordia is the director of the Georgia Tech Music Intelligence Lab, and CTO of Khush. Parag is Chief Scientist at Smule. He is the former director of the Georgia Tech Music Intelligence Lab, a research institute funded by the National Science Foundation to build intelligent systems that are musically creative. Parag was recently the recipient of the competitive NSF CAREER Award for his research in music prediction. He received a PhD in artificial intelligence and music at Stanford University and a BS in Mathematics from Yale. He has extensive experience managing commercial software development, and is also the founder of BolRecords, an Indian classical music record label. Parag is an actively performing Indian classical musician and electronic music composer.
Follow Parag Chordia:
About HOOKED, Telepathic: HOOKED is redefining entertainment for the Snapchat generation.
Prerna Gupta
Founder & CEO of HOOKED
Prerna Gupta is the Founder & CEO at HOOKED.
Follow Prerna Gupta:
About HOOKED: HOOKED is redefining entertainment for the Snapchat generation.
Doron Nir
President & Co-Founder of StreamElements
Doron Nir is a serial entrepreneur, gamer and visionary,driven by a passion for product development and the goal of generating revenue.
Follow Doron Nir:
About Happy Sale, StreamElements: StreamElements provides content creators the tools they need to engage, grow, and monetize their audiences.
Gil Hirsch
Co-Founder & CEO of StreamElements
Gil Hirsch is an angel investor. Gil has over ten years of experience in software architecture, product and general management in computer technology. Before co-founding face.com, Gil held multiple R&D, Product and Sales executive roles at Amdocs, Xacct Technologies and Telrad Networks. Gil is also the co-founder of the garage geeks community in Israel to drive non-commercial innovation activities.
Follow Gil Hirsch:
About StreamElements: StreamElements provides content creators the tools they need to engage, grow, and monetize their audiences.
Branko Cerny
Founder of SquareOne
Branko Cerny joined Radical as Founder, CEO in 2017
Follow Branko Cerny:
About Radical, SquareOne, SquareOne Mail, Wasabi Ventures: SquareOne works with the biggest and most established personalities and content creators in gaming.
Tom Impallomeni
Co-Founder of SuperAwesome
Co-founder & CEO, Tribe VR
Follow Tom Impallomeni:
About SuperAwesome, Tribe XR: SuperAwesome offers kid-safe tools and technology for the children’s digital media ecosystem.
David Shadpour
Founder & CEO of Social Native
Follow David Shadpour:
About Social Native: Social Native is a technology platform for creating high performing branded content.
Rich Scudellari
Co-Founder of TROVE
Mr. Scudellari is an Associate based in San Francisco. Mr. Scudellari joined TPG Growth in 2012. Previously, he worked at Morgan Stanley as an Investment Banking Analyst in the Global Technology Group.
Follow Rich Scudellari:
About Penny Jar Capital, TROVE: TROVE connects consumers with the top style content across the world.
Aleesha John
Co-Founder & CTO of Buy Me a Coffee
Follow Aleesha John:
About Buy Me a Coffee: Buy Me a Coffee makes it easy for creators to accept donations and membership from their fans.
Vishal Jain
Founder, CEO of Sunshy Digital Media Agency
Vishal Jain is a serial entrepreneur who has founded multiple successful businesses in the fields of marketing, e-commerce, design, manufacturing, and more. He is known as one of the best branding experts in the world. He is the founder and CEO of Sunshy Digital Media Agency that partners with clients to boost their business outcomes. He also owns two Social media marketing agencies: Social Media Growth Specialist & Realstagram which helps clients build their influence and generate sales through social media. He has also launched a marketplace for social media service re sellers: Grow Social Influence. He also provides consultancy for clients who need help with their branding and social media marketing: Journey To a Million Dollars. He also owns Sunshy Enterprises which specializes in manufacturing and supplying all kinds of Industrial items. He is also the co-founder of a handmade jewelry store Sunshy Jewels and has authored an e-book that helps people start their own Instagram marketing agency: Ultimate Guide To Start Your Own Instagram Agency. He is founder of Sunshy Group Of Companies and Member of Forbes Council. He dropped out of college 4 years back and since then he has started 8 companies. He always had an urge to start a business but he didn’t want to take financial help from anyone to start it. He googled how to make money online and landed on a few freelancing websites. He started selling Virtual Assistant services on a website called Fiverr which provides you a platform to sell almost any kind of services which you are good at. After few months, he discovered few more freelancing sites like People per hour & UP work and started doing any kind of hourly jobs he could, be it data entry, data research, transcribing, or being an hourly virtual assistant. He saw the demand for designing and social media marketing on these platforms and started learning about it. He watched thousands of youtube videos and read hundreds of articles on quora to develop his skills and started providing digital marketing services on those freelance platforms. He learned a lot of things in his freelance career and with the earned knowledge and money started his own digital media agency Sunshy Digital Media Agency. He still remembers that he made $30 the first month when he started providing freelance services on Fiverr and he worked over 20 hrs a day, 7 days a week. Since Sunshy digital media agency, he has started 2 more agencies dedicated to social media marketing, a manufacturing unit that makes industrial goods, an eCommerce business where he sells limited-edition handcrafted jewelry, and has written an eBook to help people make money starting an Instagram agency.
Follow Vishal Jain:
About Sunshy Digital Media Agency: SunShy Digital Media Agency is a leading internet marketing firm built to over-deliver for every client it accepts.
Katherine Power
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Clique
Katherine Power is the Co-Founder and CEO of Clique Media Group (CMG), the parent media company of WhoWhatWear (fashion), MyDomaine (lifestyle) Byrdie (beauty) and Obsessee (new omni-channel platform, specifically targeted at Gen-Z). In 2006, Katherine left her editorial role at ELLE to launch Who What Wear with her co-founder, Hillary Kerr. The goal was to disrupt the DNA of the magazine industry with a simple idea: do it digitally. By bringing print magazine sensibilities to the online space, CMG was born to offer readers elevated and curated access to their core passions: fashion, beauty, home and shopping. At CMG, Katherine drives all business operations, advertising and brand partnerships, along with the development of branded technology products. Just within the last year, Katherine has led the charge on exciting new initiatives for CMG, which include announcing the brand’s first foray into product with the launch of the Who What Wear collection at Target, a Series B round of funding that Amazon participated in, international expansion to the UK and Australia, and the acquisition of Wantering, a Canadian startup and social shopping search engine. Additionally, a third co-authored book, The Career Code, which serves as the modern girl’s guide for creating your own professional success, came out in the spring of 2016. As a leader that constantly innovates about what readers and consumers might want next, Katherine and her CMG team are continuing to enhance their offerings and user experience for the new generation of consumers.
Follow Katherine Power:
About AVALINE, Clique, MERIT Beauty, Sonoma Brands, Versed, Who What Wear: Clique is a media and commerce company
Charu Noheria
Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Practically
Charu Noheria is a Co-founder and Chief Operating Office at 3RDFLIX Visual Effects Pvt. Ltd.
Follow Charu Noheria:
About Practically: Practically is India’s first experiential learning app designed to make learning immersive for students of classes 6-12
Dmitry Shapiro
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Koji
Follow Dmitry Shapiro:
About Koji: Koji is the world’s most powerful link in bio platform, building the app store for the Creator Economy.
Darrell Swain
Founder & CEO of Tiled
Darrell Swain is the founder of Tiled.
Follow Darrell Swain:
About Tiled: Tiled enables non-developers to create rich, interactive content experiences that perform like native apps or fully coded websites.
Jay Peterson
Founder and CEO of Matador
Jay Peterson founded Matador in 2013 and in the past two years has produced a wide range of programming, from Lip Sync Battle on Spike and Nail’d It on Oxygen to the HBO documentary Banksy Does New York and A&E’s Country Buck$. Prior to starting Matador, Jay served as the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Production and Development at Original Media, an Endemol Company. During his tenure at Original, Jay developed and produced several hit television series, including History’s Swamp People, Spike’s Inkmaster, AMC’s Comic Book Men and Discovery’s Dual Survival. He expanded Original’s portfolio into new categories such as sports (MMA Uncensored Live), talk (The Gayle King Show), music (Unplugged) and live television (Nokia’s Rihanna Live for MTV, VH1 and Palladia), and strengthened the franchises and economics of existing shows such as Storm Chasers, LA Ink and The Rachel Zoe Project. Before joining Original, Jay was the President of K2 Pictures, where he served as Executive Producer on numerous projects, including the Showtime feature documentary Same Sex America, the daily ESPN series Classic Now and the Kennedy Center’s 9/11 memorial special, Concert for America (NBC).
Follow Jay Peterson:
About Matador: Matador is a full-service content production company with offices in New York and Los Angeles.
Carlos Watson
Co-Founder & CEO of OZY Media
Carlos Watson co-anchors MSNBC 2 p.m. news program from NBC headquarters at 30 Rock. A Harvard grad, he got his start in politics, serving as campaign manager and chief of staff for Florida Representative Daryl Jones and managing Bill Clintonâs 1992 Election Day effort in Miami-Dade County. While at Harvard, he also worked with Senator Bob Graham, DNC Chair Ron Brown, and Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez. After graduating from Stanford Law, where he edited the Law Review, Watson joined the business world, advising Fortune 500 companies as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company. He later struck out on his own and co-founded Achieva College Prep Services, which helped thousands of high school students prepare for college and was written about in Time and Forbes, among others. Watson sold the firm to the Washington Post/Kaplan in 2002.
Follow Carlos Watson:
About Achieva.com, OZY Media, The Stimulist: OZY Media is a premium media and entertainment for curious people — across TV, events, podcasts and news.
Justin Choi
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Nativo
Justin Choi is a serial entrepreneur and founder of three successful companies across different technology sectors. Justin currently serves as Founder and CEO of Nativo, the most advanced advertising technology platform that helps brands create meaningful connections with consumers and empowers publishers with breakthrough monetization solutions. Prior to Nativo, Justin founded and led two companies to highly successful exits: Cie Games, a mobile app development firm acquired by Glu Mobile for $100M that built two top 25 grossing games, including the #1 mobile racing game, and attracted over 50M players; and Cie Digital Labs (CDL) an interactive agency that provides innovation consulting and custom app development services to major brands. Justin continues to serve as a CDL board member and acts as head of product strategy and development, and is an investor and board member at numerous organizations. A thought leader in digital media, advertising, gamification, and app development, Justin has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, USA Today, Bloomberg West, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, AdWeek and other national publications.
Follow Justin Choi:
About Cie, Nativo: Nativo is an advertising technology platform for brand advertisers and publishers to scale, automate, and measure native ads.
Jeroen Cappaert
CTO & Co-Founder of Spire Global
Mechanical/Electrical/Aerospace engineer, passionate about space and astronautics. Currently Lead satellite payload and avionics engineer and co-founder at Spire Global Inc. in San Francisco. Previous work and research includes high-enthalpy flow simulation, computational mechanics and fluid dynamics, spacecraft avionics and payload design, geo-engineering, and low-thrust astrodynamics at institutions such as NASA Ames, Von Karman Institute, International Space University.
Follow Jeroen Cappaert:
About NASA Ames Research Center, Spire Global: Spire Global is a space to cloud data analytics company utilizing satellites to provide maritime, aviation, and weather tracking.
Neha Sampat
Founder and CEO of Contentstack
Neha Sampat (@nehasf) is Founder and CEO at Contentstack™ – a leading Content Management System (CMS) and Content Experience Platform (CXP), adopted by brands including Best Buy, Chase, Holiday Inn, Icelandair, Morningstar, Express, Miami HEAT, Shell, and Walmart. Previously, Neha was Founder and CEO of Digital Experience Platform (DXP) Built.io®, which was acquired by German software powerhouse Software AG in September 2018. Neha is a recognized industry leader, a proponent of diversity, and an outspoken advocate for women in leadership. She can be found appearing on keynote stages or expert panels discussing her experiences as an entrepreneur, a female leader, or her company’s role in the future of technology. Neha raised a Series A funding round of $31.5M USD for Contentstack, one of the largest for enterprise SaaS software companies. She was one of “50 Women in Tech Dominating Silicon Valley” in 2015, was named in “San Francisco Business Times Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business” in 2017, and is a “San Francisco Business Times 40 under 40” honoree. Neha was also honored as “CEO of the Year” by Aragon Research in December 2018 and Female Tech Trailblazer of the Year in 2020. Most recently, she was recognized as “Best CEO for Diversity” and “Best CEO for Women” in the 2020 Comparably Best Places to Work Awards.
Follow Neha Sampat:
About Built.io, Contentstack, KurbKarma, raw engineering: Contentstack develops a cloud based content management system intended to power omnichannel content.
Jim Yu
Founder & CEO of BrightEdge
Jim Yu is the Founder & CEO of BrightEdge, the leading enterprise SEO Platform. He combines in-depth expertise in developing and marketing large on-demand software platforms with hands-on experience in advanced SEO practices. Prior to founding BrightEdge, Jim was at Salesforce.com where he led a core part of the platform products team that delivered the industry’s first cloud computing platform. At Aether Systems, Jim ran the Product Management Team responsible for the product strategy, roadmap, and delivery of the innovative Scoutware line of wireless products. At Mercator Software (now IBM), Jim directed the development of Mercator Integration Broker, an industry leading enterprise software product, generating over $100 million in revenue. Jim holds an MBA from Stanford University. Master’s of Engineering from the University of Virginia. Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Science from the University of South Dakota.
Follow Jim Yu:
About BrightEdge: BrightEdge, an SEO platform delivering an uplifted ROI, enables marketers to increase revenue from organic search.
Deboshree Dutta
Founder & CEO of Criya
Deb is a Tech entrepreneur & Product Management Leader with over a decade of experience leading global Product, UX & Engineering teams at companies like PayPal, Microsoft, Cisco etc. She is also invited to the FORBES leadership council and co-leads the Women in Product Bay area chapter. Deb is the Founder & CEO of Criya- a platform with a mission to empowers creatives to launch their virtual design studio in minutes and start working with clients instantly. Criya is a YCombinator W22 company. At PayPal, Deb was Head of Product leading a global team of product managers responsible for driving PayPal’s AI powered Customer Success experiences. Prior to joining PayPal, Deb was Head of Product at Hitachi’s smart city IoT group. Deb is also the Founder of Deesignplay blog – with a global following over 150,000 and has been featured on Apartment Therapy, Kitchn, Omysa etc. Visit Deb’s blog on Instagram (@deesignplay) and website (www.deesignplay.com) Deb was awarded the EB-1 (A) Green Card by the US Govt for her contributions in the Product Management space in the industry. This category of Green Card is reserved for individuals that the US Govt deems has demonstrated Extraordinary abilities and has generated significant value (through revenue and impact) in the related field. Deb is a strong Advocate for Women in Tech & Leadership and is a Featured Speaker at several events – ProductCon2019, Product Event 2019, – keynote speaker at UC Berkeley, Santa Clara business school, HPE panelist – Product School instructor – TV interview at RegalixTV – Won Expat Women’s hackathon in “Girls in STEM” track – Launched the Women in tech platform at Hitachi Data Systems Bay Area chapter
Follow Deboshree Dutta:
About Criya, PayPal: Empowering creators and enabling their business
Casey Adams
Co-Founder and Co-CEO of MediaKits
Casey Adams is founder of PodSwipe, and the host of the business podcast “Rise of The Young”. Casey has interviewed world class individuals such as the broadcasting legend Larry King, the owner of the National Basketball Association’s Houston Rockets Tilman J. Fertitta, Billionaire founder of Shutterstock Jon Oringer, record executive Rick Ross, author Robert Greene, former Federal Bureau of Investigation hostage negotiator Christopher Voss, Maye Musk, among many other notable figures. Over the past three years Casey has traveled all over the United States sitting down with high level entrepreneurs, executives, and musicians.
Follow Casey Adams:
About MediaKits: A simple and easy to use platform for influencers to create a custom media kit online with real-time data and analytics
Alyssa Ravasio
Founder and CEO of Hipcamp
Alyssa Ravasio is the founder and CEO of Hipcamp. Prior to joining Hipcamp, Alyssa spent more than nine years with the Outdoor Industry Association as a recreation advisory council. Alyssa also worked with Xola as the director of operations.
Follow Alyssa Ravasio:
About Hipcamp: Hipcamp unlocks access to private land for camping and outdoor recreation.
Akhil Bhiwal
Co-Founder & CEO of Phyllo
Follow Akhil Bhiwal:
About Phyllo: APIs to access creator economy platform data
Mark Fleming
Co-Founder of Creator Nova
Follow Mark Fleming:
About Creator Nova: Creator Nova is a B2B marketplace that turns complicated business operations into inspiring beauty brands
James Tong
Co-Founder of Creator Nova
James Tong is a Co-Founder at Creator Nova
Follow James Tong:
About Creator Nova: Creator Nova is a B2B marketplace that turns complicated business operations into inspiring beauty brands
Jesse Zhang
Co-Founder of Beacons
Jesse Zhang is the co-founder of Beacons AI.
Follow Jesse Zhang:
About Beacons: Beacons is a link-in-bio website builder for creators.
David Zeng
Co-Founder of Beacons
David Zeng is the Co-Founder of Beacons.
Follow David Zeng:
About Beacons: Beacons is a link-in-bio website builder for creators.
Ashley Crowder
CEO & Co-Founder of VNTANA
Ashley Crowder is the co-founder and CEO of VNTANA, an industry leading augmented reality platform for creating and distributing premium mixed reality experiences. Prior to co-founding VNTANA she graduated from USC with a bachelors and masters in engineering and gained valuable manufacturing experience at Gulfstream, Northrop Grumman and BP. She leverages her engineering background to guide VNTANA’s overall direction and technology development. Ashley was featured as one of USC’s leading engineering CEOs of 2016. Ashley is a part of the Microsoft Early Developer Program along with the Microsoft Bizspark Plus program. Ashley has been a speaker at SXSW, Digital Summit, Internet Summit, Augmented World Expo, TEDx Venice, the World Economic Forum’s Global Growth Companies & Technology Pioneers, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, The Montgomery Summit, Siemer Summit, Digital LA, and others.
Follow Ashley Crowder:
About VNTANA: Democratizing 3D for the world through the only automated 3D Collaboration Platform.
Ben Conway
COO/Co-Founder of VNTANA
Follow Ben Conway:
About VNTANA: Democratizing 3D for the world through the only automated 3D Collaboration Platform.
Atul Phadnis
Founder and CEO of Vitrina A.I.
As Chief Content Officer, Atul leads the company’s global content and editorial teams across Video, Music and Sports to develop global content strategies and expand on the company’s existing content and data offerings. Previously, Atul founded and was CEO of What’s-ON, the largest video data provider for India and the Middle East, which was acquired by Gracenote in 2014. In this role, he successfully raised funding from Sequoia Capital and Intel Capital and helped the company achieve market leader status in Electronic Program Guides (EPG) and TV search. Before launching What’s-ON, Atul served as Vice President for Television Audience Measurement (TAM) Media Research, a joint venture between Nielsen India and Kantar Media Research created to quantify TV viewership. Atul currently sits on the TV Ratings Technical Committee for the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) in India.
Follow Atul Phadnis:
About SRI International, Vitrina, Vitrina A.I.: Vitrina A.I. is a SaaS platform for the video content industry to facilitate and enable cross-border transactions.
Julia Enthoven
Co-Founder and CEO of Kapwing
Julia Enthoven is the Founder of Kapwing.
Follow Julia Enthoven:
About Kapwing: Online editor for modern videos, GIFs, and images
Mark Fidelman
Founder & CEO of Raynforest
Mr. Fidelman is currently eVP of Sales at MindTouch the leading open source collaborative networking company. He was a former eVP of Sales at TASER (Nasdaq: TASR). He spent 6 years at A.T. Kearney as a Director.
Follow Mark Fidelman:
About Fanatics Media, Raynforest: Raynforest provides solutions that enable brands to connect with influential people to promote their products, services or causes.
Rory Cutaia
Founder, Chairman, Pres. & CEO of VERB Technology Company
Rory originated the concept of bBooth and the idea that it could be used as a revenue-generating casting vehicle for TV shows. Rory created the Company’s business plan and marketing strategies, financed its start-up costs, including all research and development, then assembled a world-class management team of successful Hollywood, entertainment, and technology veterans to execute his vision to disrupt the talent discovery and fan engagement industries. Keenly focused on building shareholder value, Rory provides the vision and leadership for his management team and sets the goals and objectives for the Company’s growth and expansion. A successful serial entrepreneur, Rory’s previous endeavors include Founder, Chairman and CEO of telecom technology icon, The Telx Group, which he built and sold in 6 years for approx. $250M, returning 18x invested capital to early investors; and Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Allied Fiber, a new nationwide fiber-optic network, being deployed along railroad rights-of-way; among other successful endeavors.
Follow Rory Cutaia:
About VERB Technology Company: VERB Technology Company specializes in business-focused interactive video webinars, CRM, sales, and marketing applications.
Maria Sipka
Co-Founder, VP Brand Strategy and Chief Evangelist of Linqia
Maria is the Co-Founder and Chief Evangelist at Linqia, the first performance-based influencer marketing platform whose turnkey programs are guaranteed to deliver concrete business results. Prior to Linqia, Maria was part of the founding team and COO at XING, Europe’s leading business network, where she led XING’s communities and premium group offerings, exiting shortly after its IPO. Maria also founded the content marketing agency Cherry Communications at age 18 and grew the agency to be one of the most respected consultancies in Australia. Additionally, Maria has been recognized as one of the leading women in technology by Forbes.
Follow Maria Sipka:
About Linqia: Linqia is the only influencer marketing company that delivers guaranteed influencer ROI for the enterprise.
Luke McDonough
Founder, CEO of AIR.TV
Luke McDonough is Founder & CEO at AIR.TV.
Follow Luke McDonough:
About AIR.TV, IFILM: AIR.TV enables the distribution and monetization of viral videos on websites.
Eytan Elbaz
Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer of Afterparty
Follow Eytan Elbaz:
About Afterparty, Persona, Render Media, Scopely, Social Native, TenOneTen Ventures: Afterparty is a technology company that enables creators to directly monetize and manage NFT collector relationships.
David Fields
Founder & CEO of Afterparty
Follow David Fields:
About Afterparty: Afterparty is a technology company that enables creators to directly monetize and manage NFT collector relationships.
Wared Seger
CEO & Co-Founder of Parrot Analytics
Operating at the intersection of science, technology and entrepreneurship. Author of the world’s first quantitative thesis on founder succession in technology firms. 2017 Variety 30 Under 30 Hollywood Leaders. 2018 Broadcasting & Cable 40 Under 40 Media Execs / 2018 NYC TV Week Awards. Bringing to life The Wisdom of Crowds.
Follow Wared Seger:
About Parrot Analytics: Parrot Analytics is a data science company that measures and predicts global demand for content, across all platforms, around the world.
Alok Bhat
Founder & CEO of ADVIDS
Founder & CEO at advids.co
Follow Alok Bhat:
About ADVIDS, COVOCO: ADVIDS is an online platform and concierge service to produce web videos.
Michael Wayne
Co-Founder & CEO of Kin Community
Michael Wayne As co-founder and CEO of Kin Community, Michael Wayne heads the global leader in women’s lifestyle content and community. Kin Community, YouTube’s #1 multi-channel network for women, brings together the world’s best lifestyle creators to deliver high-quality, female-focused video content across lifestyle verticals including food, fashion, beauty, DIY, home, wellness and entertainment. In addition, Kin Community incubates new online video talent and produces custom content programs with major brand advertisers. Before founding Kin Community, Michael served as Vice President of Strategic Alliances for Sony Pictures. Prior to joining Sony, Michael served as Vice President, Business Development for Launch Media. He was part of the core team that grew the online music media company from start-up through IPO and ultimately to its acquisition by Yahoo! Prior to Launch, he was a Marketing Manager for The ABC Television Network. In 1995, he started his career as an entrepreneur in Prague, Czech Republic, where he founded Velvet Magazine, the first English-language city magazine in Central & Eastern Europe. Michael received his Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from The University of the South, Sewanee, TN. During his time at Kin Community, Michael has lectured at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication at Syracuse University, USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism and UCLA Anderson School of Business. He has been featured in numerous publications including Business Week, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
Follow Michael Wayne:
About DECA, Kin Community: Kin is a lifestyle entertainment company.
Erik Huberman
Founder and CEO of Hawke Media
Forbes 30 Under 30. Erik Huberman is a brand marketing expert, serial entrepreneur and founder of Hawke Media, a full-service outsourced CMO for brands like Red Bull, Verizon, Evite and Eddie Bauer. Prior to Hawke, Erik founded, grew and sold Swag of the Month, and grew Ellie.com’s sales to $1 million in four months. Erik is also an Inc. Top 25 Marketing Influencer and received a 2016 Telly Award.
Follow Erik Huberman:
About Hawke Media, Hawke Ventures: Hawke Media provides a host of services that help businesses strategize and realize their potential.
Ameesh Divatia
Co-Founder & CEO of Baffle
Ameesh Divatia is CEO & co-founder of Baffle, Inc., which provides an advanced data protection solution for databases. He has a proven track record of turning technologies that are difficult to build into successful businesses, selling three companies for more than $425 million combined in the service provider and enterprise data center infrastructure market. Baffle is Ameesh’s third startup dealing with how data is stored and used in IT. Prior to starting Baffle, he led a premier CMOS photonics innovator (Lightwire Inc.) from technology development into product development leading up to an acquisition by Cisco Systems, Inc. for $271M within a timespan of 29 months. He has also founded two venture-funded startups: Aarohi Communications (Storage Virtualization, acquired by Emulex Corporation for $39M) and PipeLinks Inc. (Optical Networking, acquired by Cisco Systems for $126M).
Follow Ameesh Divatia:
About Baffle: Baffle protects data in the cloud by securing the data analytics pipeline for modern enterprises without any code changes or disruption.
Priyadarshan Kolte
Co-Founder & CTO of Baffle
Priyadarshan Kolte is the CTO at Baffle
Follow Priyadarshan Kolte:
About Baffle: Baffle protects data in the cloud by securing the data analytics pipeline for modern enterprises without any code changes or disruption.
Dedric Reid
Founder of HelloVR
Dedric Reid is Founder @ HelloVR
Follow Dedric Reid:
About HelloVR, MetaWorld: A digital content studio creating shared immersive experiences.
Douglas Colbeth
Founder & CEO of MedCircle
Douglas Colbeth became president and chief executive officer of Kinaxis in March 2003. As one of the true visionaries of the Internet explosion in the mid 1990’s, he envisioned the opportunity to be a leader in delivering an on-demand supply chain management service. He then came across what he describes as a “gang of supply chain geniuses” in Canada, who had already developed very powerful modeling and collaboration technology. After going public in 2014 – Kinaxis has a market capitalization of approximately $2 Billion. Doug understood what the Internet’s influence on consumer behavior would be and how it would dramatically increase demand volatility. The problem of effectively responding to consumer demand would be further exacerbated by the dramatic market shift of outsourced manufacturing operations. Under Doug’s leadership, Kinaxis developed a world-class offering which enables companies to build better supply chain plans and quickly respond to constant changes in demand, supply and product — driving breakthroughs in customer service and operations performance. Today, the Kinaxis RapidResponse® cloud service empowers front-line decision makers at brand name companies and contract manufacturers with multi-enterprise visibility and collaborative analysis tools to effectively respond to change across an entire distributed supply chain. Prior to Kinaxis, Doug was chief executive officer of Spyglass Inc., a leading provider of Internet software technologies. Spyglass technologies are utilized inside millions of products including PCs, televisions, telephones, and other hand-held devices. Most notably, Spyglass technology is the foundation of the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. In June 1995, Spyglass became the first Internet software company to conduct a successful Initial Public Offering. In March 2000, Doug negotiated its merger with OpenTV Inc., at a value of $2.4 Billion. Outside of his work with Kinaxis, Doug and his wife Margaret are pioneer philanthropists in the area of juvenile brain diseases. Established in 2000, the Colbeth Clinic is operated by the University of Illinois Medical Center and serves inner city children in the Chicago area. This state of the art clinic employs a multidisciplinary approach to treating a wide range of brain diseases including: autism, depression, bipolar, OCD, ADHD, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Doug holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Siena College in Loudonville, New York, and studied Quantitative Economics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (R.P.I.) in Troy, New York. While attending R.P.I., Doug was awarded a research grant from Texas Instruments Inc. to develop modeling software for various Texas Instruments products.
Follow Douglas Colbeth:
About MedCircle: MedCircle is a San Diego based company redefining the mental health care market
Michael Elhadad
R&D Director and Co-Founder of Dalet
Michael Elhadad works as R and D Director and Co-Founder at Dalet.
Follow Michael Elhadad:
About Dalet: Dalete is a leading media technology and service provider with over three decades of innovation.
David Garrett
Co-Founder of CELLAR
Dave is an experienced entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience in technology and wine businesses all around the world. In the 90s he was the co-founder and CEO of IntraACTIVE, building the first intranet for the US Navy. Later, he co-founded the ground- breaking Vines of Mendoza Wine Resort in Argentina, and the Sant Marcell Vineyard & Winery in Spain. He sits on boards and advises wine-related businesses on three continents, ranging from producers to retailers to wine tourism, and spent several years developing the Entaste iPad wine list platform in Hong Kong. As EVP and head of business development for CELLAR, Dave brings a wealth of relationships in the wine industry around the world, and deep knowledge and experience in the sometimes-complicated workings of the International wine trade.
Follow David Garrett:
About CELLAR: Through cinematic TV storytelling, Cellar is the agent of discovery and affinity for the best and most interesting winemakers in the world.
Ben Goldhirsh
Founder of GOOD
Follow Ben Goldhirsh:
About GOOD: GOOD is an integrated media platform for pragmatic idealists working towards individual and collective progress.
Casin Ward
Co-Founder, Chief Marketing Officer, and COO of Hoo.be
Casin Ward is the COO, CMO, and co-founder of hoo.be.
Follow Casin Ward:
About Hoo.be: Hoo.be is a social media platform allowing users to filter their favorite content in one place.
Tony Mugavero
Co-Founder & CEO of Rad
Tony Mugavero is an experienced tech entrepreneur and executive with a media, business, blockchain, and computer engineering background. He is the Founder and CEO of Littlstar, a premium immersive network putting viewers at the center of experiences, and creator of the blockchain platform Ara. Ara is a distributed and decentralized system for all digital content and assets to be made available for sale on the blockchain.. Littlstar leverages this technology, and has the best content in the world from companies like NBCU, Warner Brothers, Universal Music, Showtime, Nat Geo, Discovery, PBS, Red Bull, Virgin, Disney, and more. He was a Co-founder and CTO at Galvanize, Inc., having co-founded and launched the 6-month gSchool engineering program, the co-working space, and Galvanize Venture Fund I focusing on early stage venture capital. In addition, he evaluated tech and media investments, raised money for Galvanize, and mentored startups on a daily basis. His work there won awards and countless features in the press. While at Galvanize his efforts took the company from $0 to $200k per month recurring revenue, sold out classes at Galvanize University with all graduates getting $60k per year jobs or better, and multiple investments in companies like Keen.io, Dabble, Pangea Organics, and more. Prior to building Galvanize, he was the Founder/CEO of MoovAtom, a simple API for providing cloud-based media encoding and delivery, which was successfully acquired in 2012. MoovAtom had clients like American Airlines, Pepsi, MEC Global, and TriNet. He was a Co-Founder of the music discovery app GigBeat, which was a Google MWC/IO Partner and AppCircus winner with over 1 Million users.
Follow Tony Mugavero:
About ARA Blocks, Rad: Rad is the Netflix of Blockchain, with NFTs, Crypto Rewards, and tokenized subscriptions.
Stanley Yuan
CEO & Co-Founder of Otto Radio, Inc.
CEO of Otto Radio. Strategist by day, mathematician and economist by training, humanitarian at heart. Love productizing & building. Previous @GoldmanSachs @Columbia
Follow Stanley Yuan:
About hibooks, Otto Radio, Inc.: Transform the time on everyday tasks into opportunities to be entertained and stay informed about the things they care about most
Yu Wang
CTO & Co-Founder of Otto Radio, Inc.
Follow Yu Wang:
About Himalaya Media, Otto Radio, Inc.: Transform the time on everyday tasks into opportunities to be entertained and stay informed about the things they care about most
David Fink
VP of Engineering & Co-Founder of Otto Radio, Inc.
Follow David Fink:
About hibooks, Otto Radio, Inc.: Transform the time on everyday tasks into opportunities to be entertained and stay informed about the things they care about most
Joe Perez
Founder of Tastemade
Joe Perez is the co-founder of Tastemade.
Follow Joe Perez:
About Day-J, Tastemade: Tastemade is a media company that engages a global audience on all major digital, mobile, and streaming television platforms.
Larry Fitzgibbon
Founder of Tastemade
Larry Fitzgibbon is the co-founder of Tastemade.
Follow Larry Fitzgibbon:
About Tastemade: Tastemade is a media company that engages a global audience on all major digital, mobile, and streaming television platforms.
Steven Kydd
Founder of Tastemade
Steven Kydd is the co-founder of Tastemade.
Follow Steven Kydd:
About Tastemade: Tastemade is a media company that engages a global audience on all major digital, mobile, and streaming television platforms.
Eugene Lee
Founder and CEO of Creator Cash
Eugene Lee is a Founder and CEO of Creator Cash.
Follow Eugene Lee:
About ChannelMeter, Creator Cash: Creator Cash provides insights on earnings and revenue and helps creators manage their youtube channels.
Andy Sparks
Co-Founder & CEO of Holloway
Andy Sparks is the Co-Founder & CEO of Holloway, a publishing and technology company in San Francisco that publishes reliable frameworks for solving complex practical problems. Prior to Holloway, he co-founded Mattermark. He lives in San Francisco, CA and graduated from The Ohio State University.
Follow Andy Sparks:
About Holloway: Holloway publishes comprehensive practical Guides, each researched, written, and refined by experts.
Bill Simmons
CEO and Founder of The Ringer
Follow Bill Simmons:
About The Ringer: The Ringer is a digital platform that covers pop culture, technology, and sports.
Clarence Chui
CEO & Founder of Outward
Clarence Chui is CEO & Co-Founder of Outward Inc., a San Jose, CA-based enterprise technology company focused specifically on the home furnishing and decorative accessories industry. Clarence has nearly twenty years of technology industry experience. Prior to Co-founding Outward, Clarence was Senior Vice President and General Manager at the MEMS Technologies division of Qualcomm, Inc. (QMT), where he led where he led the technology, engineering, and product development activities. Clarence helped grow the team at Qualcomm from 35 to over a 1500 person operation spanning multiple sites in the US and Asia.
Follow Clarence Chui:
About Outward: Outward develops a digital merchandising platform for the retail industry.
Nagesh Challa
Founder & CEO of Waagu
Follow Nagesh Challa:
About Waagu: Waagu offers a collaborative customer engagement platform for content, web, and mobile customer interactions.
Tim Lenardo
Co-Founder, CEO of Real Labs
Co-creator of Boomerang from Instagram. Formerly Engineering @ Instagram, Facebook, Amazon. Now working on something new 🙃
Follow Tim Lenardo:
About JetFuel, Real Labs: Building the next big thing in social.
Robert Sandie
Co-Founder / CEO of vidIQ
Rob Sandie joined vidIQ as co-founder/CEO in 2012.
Follow Robert Sandie:
About vidIQ: vidIQ is a YouTube audience development and management suite that provides applications and solutions for marketers.
Sylvio Drouin
Founder of 25c
Currently CEO at Bitlogica Previously CTO at Xtranormal, Tiny Pictures, eTV Co-founded XPLR, Maz Laboratories Advisor at Share Practice, Mixamo, Unity3D, Invested in Haricot.ca, Tripstr, Bitlogica Worked with YouTube, Samsung, NYTimes, Air France, Quest, SyFy, Unity3D, France Telecom, Eicon, Toyota, SingTel and many more.
Follow Sylvio Drouin:
About 25c, Bitlogica inc., Unity Technologies, Xplr Software: The Best Way to Tip Online
John Cumbers
Founder & Executive President of SynBioBeta
John Cumbers is the founder of SynBioBeta, an activity hub for synthetic biology startup companies, industry and investors. He received his PhD in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry from Brown University. He has a masters degree in bioinformatics from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and an undergraduate degree in computer science from the University of Hull in England. He founded the iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machines competition) team at Brown University in 2005, was an iGEM ambassador to China in 2006/2007 and has been working in the field of synthetic biology and resource utilization in space at NASA Ames since 2008. John led the Planetary Sustainability Collaboratory at the NASA Ames Space Portal where he worked on partnerships that bring new technologies to bear on sustainability challenges on Earth and in space. In 2010, John was the recipient of a National Academies Keck Futures Initiative award to understand the role that synthetic biology could play in NASA’s missions. He has also been involved in multiple start-ups producing food for space and using microbes to extract lunar and martian resources. He was at NASA for 7 years working on these issues and was instrumental in starting NASA’s program in synthetic biology. Thought leader, and community builder, and consultant for both the public and private sector, John is passionate about using biotechnology to make a better world through sustainable technologies. As an authority on the topic, John has built communities in the space synthetic biology arena, published multiple papers on food production in space, terraforming, and the genetics of extremophiles. Constantly educating and connecting those around him, John is a person to know in the industry. His company, SynBioBeta, brings together the entire community together several times each year and gives anyone the opportunity to meet with the bright minds building and shaping the bioeconomy — from venture capitalists and angel investors to entrepreneurs and industry thought leaders.
Follow John Cumbers:
About SynBioBeta: Leading community of innovators, investors, engineers, and thinkers who share a passion for advancing synthetic biology
Rahul Ranjan
Founder & CEO of Palacio Inc.
Former TP-LINK executive with career built around smart devices, Intelligent systems, Internet of things, smart buildings and industries, AI, computer vision and image processing industry. Prior to TP-LINK, Rahul worked in senior management roles at Qualcomm and Intel silicon valley offices.
Follow Rahul Ranjan:
About Palacio Inc.: Arts, Content platform, Smart home
Matt Dalio
Founder of ENDLESS
After living in China for a year as a child, Matt founded China Care Foundation at the age of 16 to offer orphaned children a brighter future. China Care has since raised over $14 million to provide surgery for over 1,200 special needs children, and has provided nearly 300 financial aid grants and 600 foster placements to children in need. China Care also supports over 60 high school and college clubs where thousands of students have been able to run community service programs, fundraise, and volunteer at the China Care medical home in Beijing, China. Matt was honored as one of Oprah Winfrey’s “People Changing the Lives of Children Around the World”, was one of Teen People’s “20 Teens Who Will Change the World”, and is the youngest recipient of the Fulbright Award for furthering peace and international understanding. In founding China Care, Matt fell in love with the process of building organizations of consequence.
Follow Matt Dalio:
About ENDLESS: Endless purpose is to connect the unconnected, enhancing the development and education of all people in emerging markets.
Alvin Hung
Founder & Executive Chairman of Vyond
Alvin is happiest when he sees people use his products with ease and enthusiasm. A well-rounded serial entrepreneur, you’ll find him going through product designs, digging into usage statistics, architecting scalable systems, experimenting with business models, and driving online marketing for GoAnimate. Alvin is about building companies that transform difficult processes into user-friendly solutions. Prior to GoAnimate, Alvin was the co-founder and CTO of Ascent Technology, a dead-simple CRM system for financial professionals. Before that, he was the co-founder and CTO of Net Strategy, an international domain name technology company. Alvin holds a B.A. from Columbia University where he double majored in Computer Science and Economics. You can follow Alvin on Twitter at @alvinhung
Follow Alvin Hung:
About Vyond: Vyond puts the power of video in the hands of everyone.
Richard B. Hollis
Founder, Chairman and CEO of Holonis
Founder, Chairman and CEO at Holonis
Follow Richard B. Hollis:
About Holonis: Holonis is a social commerce platform that combines website, social, and e-Commerce within a single platform.
Kai Hasson
Co-Founder and Creative Director of Portal A
Kai Hasson is the Creative Director and Co-Founder of Portal A, an award-winning digital studio that creates Branded and Original entertainment for a new generation. Hasson is responsible for leading Portal A’s creative output and creative team of writers and directors, from concept ideation to direction to post-production. In addition to his role as Creative Director, Hasson often directs Portal A’s biggest and most influential projects, including co-creating White Collar Brawler, which started as a digital series and was later brought to TV with multiple seasons on the Esquire Network, and YouTube Rewind, which has been viewed 100 million times annually for the past 4 years. Before Portal A, Hasson worked for Current TV in San Francisco. Portal A is independent, with a team of 50 based in its San Francisco and Los Angeles offices. Portal A works with top global brands such as Clorox, YouTube, Amazon, Google, and Lenovo and develops breakthrough original programming for partners like YouTube Red, Disney Digital, and Hearst. With over one billion views across its work, Portal A was recently named digital studio of the year by Cynopsis and recognized as an industry leading content studio by Digiday and The Drum. Kai grew up in Berkeley, CA and is an alumnus of Yale University.
Follow Kai Hasson:
About Portal A: Portal A develop, produce, and distribute video built for conversation
Zach Blume
Co-Founder, President of Portal A
Zach Blume is the Managing Partner of Portal A, an award-winning content studio that develops, produces, and distributes video built for the digital age. Portal A is independent, with a team of 35 based in its San Francisco and Los Angeles offices. Portal A works closely with top global brands like YouTube, Google, Lenovo, Procter & Gamble, Amazon, NBC Universal, Macy’s Universal Pictures, and develops original entertainment built for digital platforms. Portal A’s work has been seen nearly a billion times, and the company is best known for the annual YouTube Rewind video (which it has produced since 2011) and for its original show, White Collar Brawler, which began as a digital series and ran for multiple seasons on TV with Esquire. Zach is responsible for overall business strategy, growth, company vision, and client and partner relations. Before Portal A, Zach spent five years directing political, nonprofit and corporate communications campaigns in California and nationally. Zach grew up in Berkeley, CA, and is a Phi Beta Kappa and Honors alumnus of the University of Oregon and is a Fellow of the Coro Center for Civic Leadership.
Follow Zach Blume:
About Portal A: Portal A develop, produce, and distribute video built for conversation
Niles Lichtenstein
CEO and Co-Founder of Enwoven
Follow Niles Lichtenstein:
About Alchemist Accelerator, Culture Drawn, Enwoven, Matter, Nestment, Reset Fitness SF: Automating insight collection and knowledge sharing across teams.
Ben Yee
Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer of Enwoven
Follow Ben Yee:
About Enwoven: Automating insight collection and knowledge sharing across teams.
Nicolas Cole
Founder of Digital Press
Nicolas Cole is an author, 4x Top Writer on Quora, and Top 30 Columnist for Inc Magazine, with over 50 million views of his work. His writing has appeared in TIME, Forbes, Fortune, Business Insider, The Chicago Tribune, Apple News, Slate Magazine, and many more.
Follow Nicolas Cole:
About Digital Press: Thought Leadership Content Marketing
Lisa Padilla
Founder and CEO of NewPathVR
Lisa Padilla is the CEO of NewPathVR and has been helping businesses reach customers and partners with integrated marketing and advertising campaigns for more than 20 years. Lisa’s career includes work at the largest advertising agencies in the world (Foote, Cone & Belding, Euro RSCG) and direct consulting with AOL, Apple, BlogTalkRadio, Clorox, Drugstore.com, Experian, eFax, Hewlett-Packard, Intuit, Levis, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Netgear, and Netscape Communications. She is also known for covering Silicon Valley people and happenings, podcasting and video production, startups, social media, advertising, naming rights, software design and user experience. She advises companies about marketing, digital media, contextual marketing strategies and community building.
Follow Lisa Padilla:
About NewPathVR: NewPathVR is a digital therapeutics company forcused on mental and behavioral health.
Evan Asano
Founder and former CEO of Mediakix
Follow Evan Asano:
About Mediakix: Mediakix connects brands and influencers on YouTube, blogs and Instagram. Driving reach, ROI and sales for top brands.
Sarah Peterson
Co-Founder of The Nudge
Marketing at Livday. Formerly Apple.
Follow Sarah Peterson:
About The Nudge: The Nudge is a text-based planning service used to help people explore their city.
John Peterson
Co-Founder & CEO of The Nudge
CEO of The Nudge
Follow John Peterson:
About The Nudge: The Nudge is a text-based planning service used to help people explore their city.
Richard Rosenblatt
Co-Founder & CEO of Whip Media
Richard is Co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Whipclip, an app that enables users to share their favorite TV moments. Prior to Whipclip, Richard co-founded Demand Media and served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. With an intense focus on the consumer, and recognized as a champion for innovation in the media industry, he led Demand Media in its mission to publish what the world wants to know and share. Richard holds a unique vision for the future of online media and was featured in Fortune’s “The 50 Smartest People in Tech” as runner-up for “Smartest CEO” behind Apple’s Steve Jobs. Prior to founding Demand Media, Richard built, operated and sold several high-profile Internet media companies. Most recently, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Intermix Media, Inc., and Chairman of Myspace.com. He joined Intermix in March 2004, and led a successful turnaround of its existing businesses. Specifically, he helped grow Myspace.com from an unknown web site into one of the most popular properties on the Internet, leading to the acquisition of Intermix by News Corporation in 2005. Previously, Richard founded iMALL, one of the first Internet companies to recognize the power of user-generated content, offering users a suite of tools that enabled them to build their own e-commerce stores and conduct transactions online. As Chairman and CEO, he helped orchestrate the sale of iMALL to Excite@Home in 1999. Richard also previously served as chairman of iCrossing, a leading digital marketing firm acquired by Hearst Corporation in 2010. A Southern California native, Richard holds a B.A. from UCLA, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and a J.D. from USC Law School. He has co-lectured a course on new media with Peter Guber at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, and was named “Entrepreneur of the Year” by the USC Marshall School of Business in 2008.
Follow Richard Rosenblatt:
About Whip Media: Whip Media is transforming the global TV and film content licensing ecosystem with a market leading enterprise software platform.
Chris Vaughn
CEO & Founder of Saucey
Chris Vaughn is the CEO & Founder of Saucey. Prior to this, he served as Marketing Director & Head of Partnerships at textPlus. He was the Founder & CEO of Jarvus (acquired by textPlus). He worked as Head of Product at Coupeez Inc. He was the Founder & Digital Marketing Strategist of Varmola.
Follow Chris Vaughn:
About Emjay, Saucey: Saucey is an e-Commerce company which handles the fastest, easiest and most reliable on-demand alcohol delivery service.
Daniel Leeb
Chief Product Officer & Founder of Saucey
Follow Daniel Leeb:
About Saucey: Saucey is an e-Commerce company which handles the fastest, easiest and most reliable on-demand alcohol delivery service.
Andrew Zeck
CTO & Founder of Saucey
Follow Andrew Zeck:
About Saucey: Saucey is an e-Commerce company which handles the fastest, easiest and most reliable on-demand alcohol delivery service.
Anand Kishore
Founder / CEO of Aspire
Follow Anand Kishore:
About Aspire: The influencer marketing platform empowering ecommerce brands to build and cultivate influential communities.
Suhaas Prasad
CTO / Founder of Aspire
Follow Suhaas Prasad:
About Aspire: The influencer marketing platform empowering ecommerce brands to build and cultivate influential communities.
Sean Gourley
CEO and Founder of Primer
Sean Gourley is CEO and Founder of Primer, a leader in machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) solutions for government agencies and Fortune 1000 companies. Primer delivers best-in-class AI tools to the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), U.S. Air Force, and other Government agencies and enterprise organizations to help their analysts and operators make mission-critical decisions. Gourley holds a PhD in physics from Oxford, where his research as a Rhodes Scholar focused on complex systems and the mathematical patterns underlying modern war. He is a TED Fellow.
Follow Sean Gourley:
About Primer: Primer is a leader in machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) solutions for government agencies and Fortune 1000 companies. Primer delivers best-in-class AI tools to the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), U.S. Air Force, and other Government agencies and enterprise organizations to help their analysts and operators make mission-critical decisions.
Alex Davidovich
Founder & CEO (product, UI/UX design) of Squareshot
Follow Alex Davidovich:
About apprvl, Squareshot: We help consumer, fashion and dnvb brands streamline content production and create beautiful product shots to maximize their online sales.
Thomas Graham
Co-Founder & CEO of Metaphysic
Thomas Graham currently works as the Co-Founder and CEO for Metaphysic.ai.
Follow Thomas Graham:
About AIROOM, LLC, Metaphysic: Metaphysic develops artificial intelligence-assisted tools to assist content creators in creating content.
Paul Guillotel
Co-Founder & Creator of Unydom
Follow Paul Guillotel:
About Nexty, Unydom: Unydom helps creators to reach their vision, build large audiences, and entertain the new generation through music, video, and live events.
Jeni Abramson
Founder & CEO of Deep Drawer
With a multidisciplinary career in the realms of real estate development, RegTech and digital media, Jeni Abramson combined her passions and launched Deep Drawer, a digital marketing agency for home remodelers. Jeni started out in digital media in early 2005 at Turner Broadcasting during the launch of online advertising operations for CNN.com. She later joined Reuters Media where she managed digital advertising, online content syndication and the launch Reuters Mobile. Later in her career Jeni ventured into the RegTech and focused on reference data management and process automation for some of the world’s largest financial institutions. Throughout her professional journey Jeni also stayed actively involved with her family’s real estate development business. She has designed and managed numerous residential and commercial construction projects in Washington, DC, New York City and Los Angeles. Jeni holds an MBA from Columbia University.
Follow Jeni Abramson:
About Arachnys, Deep Drawer: Digital Marketing Agency
Eric Lubow
Co-Founder of SimpleReach
I co-wrote Practical Cassandra and was a Datastax MVP for years. If you’re reading this, you probably know me already.
Follow Eric Lubow:
About Mymee, SimpleReach: SimpleReach is a content data cloud for brands to measure and improve content ROI.
Sid Malladi
Founder of Bytte
Founder of Bytte.
Follow Sid Malladi:
About Bytte: Anonymous & Hyperlocal Social Sharing
Ken Leonard
Co-Founder of JoyFLIPS
Ken Leonard joined Nerbio Medical Software Platforms as Co-Founder, CEO in 2020.
Follow Ken Leonard:
About AEA, JoyFLIPS, Nerbio Medical Software Platforms Inc.: JoyFLIPS is the twenty-first century digital family album.
Scott Shebby
CTO, Co-Founder of JoyFLIPS
Over the past 15 years, Scott has worked with companies of all sizes in the concept, design, prototyping and deployment of creative technology solutions. His experience as a military leader, software engineer, and product designer have paved his path to successful technological entrepreneurship.
Follow Scott Shebby:
About JoyFLIPS, Stealth Startup: JoyFLIPS is the twenty-first century digital family album.
Ajay Bam
Founder & CEO of Vyrill
Ajay is an accomplished serial entrepreneur, educator and innovator with 13+ years of experience with building startups with successful exits like Modiv Media and launching products with world class brands like Nokia, Lehman Brothers in areas of e-commerce, digital payments and mobile marketing. He has built and led products teams, has strong cross-functional and international product development experience in Scandinavia, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Solid track record of launching new products in new/emerging markets, product innovation (issued patents), strategy and revenue growth. He was also a lecturer of entrepreneurship at the Haas school of business at U.C.Berkeley. Ajay frequently mentors startup founders and sits on the advisory board of startups. Ajay speaks German, French, and Hindi. Ajay is currently the co-founder and CEO of Vyrill.com, a U.C.Berkeley founded and funded startup, that helps digital marketers make sense of their video content on social media/web and leverage video intelligence for product marketing. Vyrill uses natural language processing, computer vision and machine learning technologies to tag, analyze and provide insights on product videos. The product is an artificial intelligence powered video analytics, video licensing and content marketing platform for user generated video content. Valuable insights can be gained from using Vyrill dashboard and underlying platform to help better understand the video content being published by not only brands, but also their customers, fans, critics, experts, influencers, etc. Vyrill helps convert video insights into product marketing actions with its content marketing tools. Ajay led product management teams at Nokia, where he developed and launched a scalable global card and operator billing solution with 124 mobile operators in 43 countries for Nokia mobile app store, increasing registered users to 70 million with 6 million downloads per day and bringing in $20 million of additional new revenue. Previously, Ajay co-founded, led as CTO and directed “Modiv Media”, an award winning venture capital funded company providing time-tested and customer-embraced mobile shopper marketing mobile app for in-store shopping, integrating personalized promotions, mobile self-scan, and instant checkout on shoppers smartphones. Modiv Media was acquired by Catalina Marketing, a global leader in in-store retail Point of Sale marketing solutions. Ajay pioneered adoption of mobile devices for personalized loyalty, rewards, offers and payments management. He is a recipient of many issued patents in the mobile commerce space. Ajay is alum of University of Mumbai, East Tennessee State University and Babson College with degrees in Computer Science and a MBA.
Follow Ajay Bam:
About Vyrill: Vyrill’s AI platform offers user generated video – discovery, intelligence, licensing, and content marketing tools for social commerce.
Barbara Rosario
Co-Founder and CTO of Vyrill
Barbara Rosario is the Co-Founder and CTO at Vyrill.
Follow Barbara Rosario:
About Vyrill: Vyrill’s AI platform offers user generated video – discovery, intelligence, licensing, and content marketing tools for social commerce.
Chad Newell
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Snapwire
Chad Newell is a stock photography entrepreneur. Chad has worked with photo licensing agencies and photo production companies for 16 years, bringing high production value images to market through direct enterprise and creative buying relationships in an aggregated agency format. More recently, he founded the creative collaboration platform, Snapwire which helps mobile photographers license images to creative buyers. Previously, Chad was the Founder and CEO of Media Bakery (a North American Stock Photography Agency with 10 million images under contract) where he managed daily operations and oversaw 120 international supply relationships. Prior to Media Bakery, Chad worked at Image State, Adventure Photo & Film (acquired by Image State), Image Bank (acquired by Getty Images) and New Line Cinema Distribution.
Follow Chad Newell:
About Snapwire: Snapwire is a platform where talented creators shoot custom visual content for brands and businesses around the world.
