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 Information Technology 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.
Neha Singh
Co-Founder & CEO of Tracxn
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About Tracxn: The largest data platform of Startups
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Immad Akhund
CEO & Founder of Mercury Technologies
Immad Akhund is the CEO and Founder of Mercury.
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About Mercury Technologies: Mercury is the banking stack for startups.* FDIC-insured accounts, debit cards, currency exchange, APIs, 3rd party integrations & more.
Leonardo DiCaprio
Founder of Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation
Leonardo DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and nine Golden Globe Awards. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator (2004), and has been nominated by the Screen Actors Guild, Satellite Awards, and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. A committed environmentalist, DiCaprio has received praise from environmental groups for his activism. At the 2007 Oscar ceremony, DiCaprio and former Vice President Al Gore announced that the Academy Awards had incorporated environmentally intelligent practices throughout the planning and production processes, and on July 7, 2007, DiCaprio presented at the American leg of Live Earth.
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About Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation: Leonard DiCaprio Foundation’s mission is to protect the world’s last wild places.
Kun Gao
Co-Founder, President & COO of GGWP
Kun Gao joined GGWP as Co-Founder, President & COO.
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About Crunchyroll, GGWP: GGWP provides a gaming tool to help reduce toxic and disruptive in the game.
GEORGE NG
Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer of GGWP
George Ng joined GGWP as Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer.
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About GGWP: GGWP provides a gaming tool to help reduce toxic and disruptive in the game.
David Moss
Co-Founder and CEO of StrongBlock
David Moss is a blockchain expert, keynote speaker and strategic advisor. He has the distinction of holding two prominent roles in the creation of EOS, the decentralized blockchain operating system: as SVP of Technology Operations at Block.One leading EOS technology development; and directing the EOS mainnet launch with the worldwide Block Producer community. Previously David was the founder of a technology and management consultancy for Fortune 100 companies, the founder of a predictive crowd analytics platform, the founding CIO of Edmunds.com, and President of an entertainment production company working with top international artists for major label and television networks.
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About StrongBlock: StrongBlock is a team of highly experienced blockchain, governance, security, and database technology experts.
Bryan McCann
CTO and Co-Founder of you.com
Bryan McCann is a Co-Founder and CTO of You.com.
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About you.com: You.com is a search engine that helps users find what they’re looking for by prioritizing real results.
Brien Colwell
CTO & Co-Founder of HeadSpin
Brien previously founded YC-backed Nextop. He worked on mobile architecture at Quora and started and led the Android team through many international launches. He was also an early engineer at Palantir and a lead engineer at a number of data and mobile startups.
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About HeadSpin: HeadSpin is a developer of a digital experience intelligence platform used to provide flawless digital experiences.
Eric Yuan
Founder & CEO of Zoom
Eric Yuan founded Zoom in 2011 to deliver happiness and bring teams together in a frictionless video environment. Zoom’s video-first unified communications platform continues to dramatically transform the way leading global enterprises communicate. Under Eric’s leadership, Zoom was one of the highest-performing tech IPOs of 2019. Prior to founding Zoom, Eric was corporate vice president of engineering at Cisco, where he was responsible for Cisco’s collaboration software development. Eric was one of the founding engineers and vice president of engineering at Webex. Between 1997 and 2011, he grew his team from 10 engineers to more than 800 worldwide and contributed to revenue growth from $0 to more than $800M. Eric has been named one of the Most Powerful People in Enterprise Tech by Business Insider. In 2018, he was named the #1 CEO of a large US company by Glassdoor and EY Entrepreneur of the Year in Northern California (software category). In 2019, he was added to the Bloomberg 50 as a leader who changed the game in global business. Eric is a named inventor on 11 issued and 20 pending patents in real-time collaboration.
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About Zoom: Zoom is a software company that offers a communications platform that connects people through video, voice, chat, and content sharing.
Devon Townsend
Co-Founder & CTO of Cameo
Devon Townsend is a co-founder and CTO at Cameo.
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About Cameo: Cameo is a marketplace where fans can book personalized video shoutouts from their favorite people.
Martin Blencowe
Co-Founder of Cameo
Martin Blencowe is a co-founder and EVP at Cameo.
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About Cameo: Cameo is a marketplace where fans can book personalized video shoutouts from their favorite people.
Jiajun Zhu
Co-Founder and CEO of Nuro
Jiajun Zhu is a co-founder of Nuro. he used to be the principal software engineer of Google. He eraned his master’s degree ta University of Virginia and his bachelor’s degree at Fudan University.
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About Nuro: Nuro develops and operates a fleet of electric self-driving vehicles that are built to deliver assorted local goods.
Josh Felser
Co-Founder of Freestyle
Josh Felser is the Co-Founder of Freestyle.
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About climate, Freestyle: Freestyle is a venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage technology companies.
Markus Levin
Co-Founder of XYO
Markus mined his first Bitcoin in 2013 and has been captivated by blockchain technologies ever since. Markus has over 15 years experience in building, managing and growing companies around the globe. Markus is originally from Germany (with English as his second language), and specializes in getting the most out of companies by implementing data-driven systems and utilizing the key talents of each employee to get the best out of his team. After dropping out of his Ph.D. studies at Bocconi University, Markus began working with companies in hyper-growth industries around the globe. Markus has led cutting-edge technology ventures such as Novacore, “sterkly”, Hive Media and Koiyo.
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About XYO: XYO is a decentralized crypto-location oracle network aiming to provide accurate location data from cars to smartphones.
Arie Trouw
CEO & CTO & Founder of XYO
Ten years before Elon Musk wrote his first line of computer code, another young prodigy from South Africa was busy writing software on his TRS-80 Model I. In 1978, at the age of 10, Arie Trouw started developing software on the TRS-80 Model I, moving on to Atari, Apple, and PC. He then ran a series of bulletin boards centering on game-theory modification. Arie is an accomplished serial entrepreneur with a rich history of technological breakthroughs and business successes involving multiple 8-figure exit events. He is a strong believer in decentralization and the creation of the integrated owner/user model. Arie founded XY in 2012 (incorporated as Ength Degree, LLC before it was converted to a C Corporation in 2016). He currently serves as Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors. Prior to starting XY-The Findables Company, Arie was CEO and Chairman of Pike Holdings Inc and Chief Technology Officer of Tight Line Technologies LLC. He received his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the New York Institute of Technology. Fun Fact: He is a member of one of the first Afrikaans speaking families to emigrate to the US from South Africa in 1976.
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About XY Labs, XY – The Persistent Company, XYO: XYO is a decentralized crypto-location oracle network aiming to provide accurate location data from cars to smartphones.
Scott Scheper
Founder, Vice Chairman & CMO of XYO
Scott has worked on many exciting ventures with exceptionally talented people, including the Co-founder of Uber. Scott’s first “real boss” was Arie Trouw, who hired Scott in 2009 during an economic recession, when very few companies were hiring, and even fewer were starting companies. What began as a Facebook app startup with four guys and a ping pong table, grew to over 200 employees and 9-figures in revenue in less than two years. In 2013 Scott took a break from corporate life to pursue the dream of working remotely on a laptop while sipping tropical drinks on the beaches of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands (U.S.). During this period, Scott launched Greenlamp, a programmatic advertising agency specializing in direct-response media buying. The agency was fully automated; built entirely using algorithms to manage the campaigns. The team was built with project-basis software engineers, and had only one full-time employee: that being Scott. The advertising campaigns were managed by an automated system, nicknamed “Stewie” (Family Guy). 24-hours a day, Stewie managed everything, making automated tweaks to the advertising campaigns. He even emailed Scott to chat about the changes made (Stewie’s emails included signature Stewie lines). In its first year of operation, Greenlamp generated over $12M in revenue. When not working, Scott can be found reading books by his idols, Gary C. Halbert and Charlie Munger, or sometimes even outside with friends and family in San Diego, California.
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About XYO: XYO is a decentralized crypto-location oracle network aiming to provide accurate location data from cars to smartphones.
Ion Stoica
Co-Founder of Anyscale
Ion Stoica is a Co-Founder at Anyscale. he is also the Executive Chairman and co-founder of Databricks. Ion also serves as a professor in the EECS Department at UC Berkeley, and as a co-director of the AMPLab. At AMPLab Ion has been leading the software systems effort, which included the development of Apache Spark, as well as two other high profile open source projects: Apache Mesos and Tachyon. In 2006, he co-founded Conviva, a startup to commercialize technologies for large scale video distribution, where he is serving as a CTO. Ion is an ACM Fellow and has received numerous awards, including the SIGCOMM Test of Time Award (2011), and the ACM doctoral dissertation award (2001). Ion holds a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.S. in Computer Science and Control Engineering from Polytechnic University Bucharest.
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About Anyscale, Conviva, Databricks, Databricks, Opaque: Anyscale accelerates the development and productionization of any AI app, on any cloud, at any scale — with Ray.
Michael I. Jordan
Founder of Anyscale
Michael I. Jordan is the Pehong Chen Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Department of Statistics at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his Masters in Mathematics from Arizona State University, and earned his PhD in Cognitive Science in 1985 from the University of California, San Diego. He was a professor at MIT from 1988 to 1998. His research interests bridge the computational, statistical, cognitive and biological sciences, and have focused in recent years on Bayesian nonparametric analysis, probabilistic graphical models, spectral methods, kernel machines and applications to problems in distributed computing systems, natural language processing, signal processing and statistical genetics. Prof. Jordan is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has been named a Neyman Lecturer and a Medallion Lecturer by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. He received the IJCAI Research Excellence Award in 2016, the David E. Rumelhart Prize in 2015 and the ACM/AAAI Allen Newell Award in 2009. He is a Fellow of the AAAI, ACM, ASA, CSS, IEEE, IMS, ISBA and SIAM.
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About Anyscale: Anyscale accelerates the development and productionization of any AI app, on any cloud, at any scale — with Ray.
Robert Nishihara
Co-Founder and CEO of Anyscale
Robert Nishihara is a fourth-year PhD student working in the UC Berkeley RISELab with Michael Jordan. He works on machine learning, optimization, and artificial intelligence.
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About Anyscale, UC Berkeley College of Engineering: Anyscale accelerates the development and productionization of any AI app, on any cloud, at any scale — with Ray.
Joshua Motta
Co-Founder & CEO of Coalition
Joshua Motta is the CEO and co-founder of Coalition.
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About Coalition: Coalition operates as a cyber insurance and security company that helps businesses manage and mitigate cyber risks.
Miriam Rivera
CEO, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Ulu Ventures
Miriam co-founded Ulu Ventures, where she is the Managing Partner. Ulu is an early stage angel fund focused on IT investments and has made 30 investments in the last three years. She is also the co-founder and co-president of Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs.
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About Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs, Ulu Ventures: Ulu Ventures provides early-stage investments to enterprise cloud and smart data companies.
Clint Korver
Co-Founder & Managing Director of Ulu Ventures
Clint is a co-founding partner at Ulu Ventures where his investment interests include technology-enabled services, educational technology, and companies that turn data into actionable information. Along with Miriam, Clint is the co-founder and co-president of Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs a Stanford University alumni organization helping to build and connect Stanford’s entrepreneurial community. Prior to becoming a full-time investor, he co-founded and led four companies including Outcome Software, where he raised $10 million in venture capital to build web-based decision tools for large enterprises and was granted multiple patents in web-based decision analytics. He also co-founded Decision Quality International which trained over 1000 Fortune 500 executives in the principles of decision quality, licensed decision training programs to over 10,000 end users, and consulted to six of the largest financial institutions in the US. He also co-founded and led the consumer internet company, DecisionStreet and the analytics consulting firm, The Decision Company. Clint has a passion for teaching and regularly guest lectures at Stanford on entrepreneurship, decision-making, and ethics. He has taught courses in ethical decision-making at both Stanford and Grinnell College, and co-authored Ethics for the Real World (Harvard Business Press 2008) with Stanford professor Ron Howard. Clint is a Kauffman Fellow and Venture Partner at Crescendo Ventures and an advisory board member at the Decision Education Foundation. He holds a PhD and MS degree from Stanford University in Management Science and Engineering with an emphasis in decision analysis and a BA with honors in mathematics from Grinnell College where he currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees.
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About Ulu Ventures: Ulu Ventures provides early-stage investments to enterprise cloud and smart data companies.
J.M Sawkat Akbar
Founder and Chairman of BJIT Group
Jem Akbar Shukat is the founder and Chairman of BJIT.
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About BJIT Group: BJIT Group is an information, communications, and ICT company that provides software development and information technology service.
Ashutosh Garg
CEO & Co-Founder of Eightfold
Ashutosh Garg is the CEO and co-founder of eightfold.ai and a true guru of all things AI, with 10 years of information retrieval, machine learning and search experience. Previously, he was Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of BloomReach. Prior to that, he was at IBM research. He is also a prolific publisher/inventor, with a book on machine learning, 30+ papers, and 50+ patents. Ashutosh holds a BTech from IIT-Delhi and a PhD from U of Illinois UC. Ashutosh has numerous awards, including best thesis award at IIT Delhi, IBM Fellowship and outstanding researcher award at UIUC.
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About Eightfold: Eightfold is a developer of a talent intelligence platform used to help companies find, recruit, and retain workers.
Varun Kacholia
CTO and Co-Founder of Eightfold
Varun Kacholia is the Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Eightfold.
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About Eightfold: Eightfold is a developer of a talent intelligence platform used to help companies find, recruit, and retain workers.
Aditya Singh
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Neotribe Ventures
Adit is a hands-on early stage company builder having helped build three startups with an operating career spanning 15 years before entering venture capital. From 2013 to 2017, he led the b2b/enterprise practice at Foundation Capital as a Partner investing across the stack from enterprise applications, cloud infrastructure, analytics and cybersecurity. Adit graduated from University of Illinois (BS/MS in Computer Engineering) and from the University of Chicago (MBA). He started his career as an engineer at Growth Networks (a NEA/Lightspeed company) which was acquired by Cisco for $355m. At Cisco, he led the datacenter infrastructure team as a senior technical leader and delivered several products (converged servers, switches and edge routers) for data center infrastructure. He co-founded a networking appliance company, Bitsplay Systems that streamed video from data centers, out of the EIR program at Foundation Capital. In 2008, he joined Enphase Energy (networked solar microinverters), a Series A startup as their first product manager through IPO on the NASDAQ in 2012. When Enphase went public, Adit was Senior Director of Product Management and responsible for the main microinverter business. He is extremely connected in the the deeply technical circles of silicon valley and has the reputation of building companies from the bottom up by working hand in hand with founders.
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About Bloomreach, Cockroach Labs, Neotribe Ventures, Phantom: Neotribe Ventures is an early stage-venture capital firm which invests in breakthrough technologies that stretch the imagination.
Steven Bragonier
CFO and Co-Founder of Neotribe Ventures
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About Gainspeed, Neotribe Ventures: Neotribe Ventures is an early stage-venture capital firm which invests in breakthrough technologies that stretch the imagination.
Daniel Demetri
Founder & CEO of Trellis Technologies
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About Trellis Technologies: P&C insurance data services
Michael Perone
EVP, Co-Founder of Opensense
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About 345 Partners, Opensense, Switch9, Inc.: Everyday email, evolved.
Amit Gupta
CEO & Founder of Opensense
Amit spent most of his career in high technology, media, and infrastructure. He co-founded SenderGen in 2013, and spearheaded development on the company’s industry-leading enterprise email signature marketing platform. In 2018, SenderGen became Opensense, where Amit serves as co-founder and CEO. Prior to SenderGen, he co-founded Affle Limited which is a mobile media company with extensive operations in the Asia Pacific. While there, he was responsible for driving new product initiatives and helped to source and complete Microsoft’s strategic investment in Affle. Affle’s flagship product and campaigns later won a top global award by the Mobile Marketing Association. Prior to Affle, Amit worked at Bloomberg New York, and subsequently at Bloomberg London helping to plan and implement major new projects such as “Bloomberg Anywhere” that helped to drive $500M+ in new revenues annually. While there, he also designed and implemented highly scalable system architectures that were used to support millions of users. Systems integration is his specialty. He is a technology enthusiast and likes to get his hands dirty with new projects. He also has spent time at various high technology companies developing virtual reality applications, medical imaging algorithms, neural networks and financial trading systems. Amit holds a B.S. in Computer Science (Honors) from the Johns Hopkins University (USA).
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About Opensense: Everyday email, evolved.
Bobby Narang
EVP, Co-Founder of Opensense
Bobby co-founded SenderGen in 2013, where he led sales and marketing for the company’s industry-leading enterprise email signature marketing platform. In 2018, SenderGen became Opensense, where he serves as co-founder and VP, Sales. Prior to SenderGen, Bobby was sales lead at Intralinks (NYSE: IL), where he was responsible for sales to the largest firms in the financial services industry, as well as selling directly into the C-Suite at firms within the Fortune 1000. As a highlight, In 2013, Bobby secured Intralinks first full enterprise agreement at a major investment bank in New York, marking a significant win for the organization. Prior to Intralinks, was in sales at Yext, where he was responsible for generating new business within a dozen different SMB verticals. Additionally, he served in a Business Development role where he successfully spearheaded the launch of six new vertical-focused product lines. Bobby has a passion for evangelizing cutting-edge technology solutions that disrupt “the old way of doing things.” Bobby holds a BSBA with a concentration in Finance from Boston University.
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About Opensense: Everyday email, evolved.
Vinny Smith
Founder of Toba Capital
Vinny Smith is responsible for leading the strategic direction of Quest Software. A major trade magazine dubbed him the “archetypal athlete of the business game,” because of his drive, team spirit, enthusiasm and motivation. Prior to his appointment as President and Chief Executive Officer in 2012, Smith was Executive Chairman from 2008 and was Chief Executive Officer from 1998 to 2008. Under his direction, Quest became a leading enterprise systems management company. When Smith joined Quest as an investor and director in 1995, the company had just 25 employees and $4 million in revenue; today, the company has more than 3,400 employees worldwide and $695 million in revenue. Prior to joining Quest, Smith cofounded Patrol Software. He financed the company, ran North American operations, and directed worldwide sales and marketing. In 1994, BMC Software bought Patrol. After the acquisition, Smith remained at the company for a year to help BMC transition from a mainframe-oriented company to an open systems-solution provider.
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About BMC Software, Toba Capital: Toba Capital is an investment firm committed to helping create incredible technology companies.
Jeffrey Byun
CEO, Co-Founder of BLADE
Jeffrey Byun is the CEO of BLADE – a new cryptocurrency derivatives exchange. Previously, he was the CEO of OrderAhead – a mobile ordering/payments startup that was acquired by Square. Prior to that, Jeffrey was a fixed income trader at Morgan Stanley and BofA Merrill Lynch. Jeffrey is a graduate of MIT and Penn.
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About BLADE: BLADE is a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange
Valery Vavilov
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Bitfury Group
Seasoned entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in information technology and business management. Original founding member of BitFury. Assumed the role of BitFury CEO in 2011. Prior to that, held numerous technology and business leadership positions. MS in Computer Science, Riga Transport & Telecommunication University.
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About Bitfury Group: Bitfury is the leading full service bitcoin and blockchain technology company.
Valery Nebesny
Founder and CTO of Bitfury Group
Founder and CTO of BitFury Group.
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About Bitfury Group: Bitfury is the leading full service bitcoin and blockchain technology company.
Roland Ligtenberg
Co-Founder and SVP Growth & Innovation of Housecall Pro
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About Housecall Pro: Housecall Pro is a developer of a mobile software platform used to connect back-end business operations and homeowners.
Reza Olfat
Co-Founder, VP of Engineering of Housecall Pro
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About Housecall Pro: Housecall Pro is a developer of a mobile software platform used to connect back-end business operations and homeowners.
Sam Strasser
Founder of Treasure Financial
Sam Strasser is the CEO and founder of Treasure Financial.
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About Treasure Financial: Using automation and machine learning to help companies identify, manage and monetize their idle cash
Jeff Miller
Co-Founder of ProKarma
Jeff has held senior positions in IT marketing and sales for over 25 years. He has vast experience in managing, mentoring and building sales and marketing teams. He has ably managed 50+ person sales teams generating over $110 million in revenue for a large private IT consulting firm. He has an extensive background in generating new business, securing customer loyalty and forging strong relationships with business partners. Jeff is responsible for developing the company’s sales plans including objectives, strategy, resources and budget. He ensures that plans match corporate guidelines for target markets, client relevance and ROI. His direct responsibilities include sales management; planning and execution of client specific sales strategies; building of the customer base; managing customer relations, business planning, demand creation and fulfillment.
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About ProKarma: ProKarma is a provider of IT services, business consulting, and enterprise applications harnessing emerging technologies.
Sumant Mandal
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of March Capital
Sumant is Managing Director and cofounder of LA-based March Capital Partners, in addition to being cofounder of two leading technology incubators in the San Francisco Bay Area, The Hive, which focuses on AI and Blockchain driven companies, and The Fabric, which focuses on cloud, IoT and network infrastructure companies. Sumant invests in Cloud Computing, IoT, AI/ML, and Network Infrastructure as well as companies focused on the Indian market. Sumant currently serves on the boards of numerous market leading companies, including BillDesk, The Rubicon Project, CarTrade, IoTium, and Xage Security. In his nearly two decades of venture capital, Sumant has generated multiple meaningful exits in companies he has either incubated or been the first institutional investor. Most recently, Sumant played an integral role in VMWare’s acquisition of cloud networking startup VeloCloud, as well as Cisco’s acquisition of machine-learning startup Perspica, both in late 2017. As an active board member, and investor in both companies, Sumant fostered their development and growth since their formations at The Fabric and The Hive, respectively. Other companies that he has incubated and helped lead to a successful exit include The Rubicon Project (NYSE:RUBI), Kosei (acquired by Pinterest), Appcito (acquired by A10 Networks), Deep Forest Media (acquired by Rakuten), Kazeon Systems (acquired by EMC), Mimosa Systems (acquired by Iron Mountain), Ankeena Networks (acquired by Juniper), Cetas (acquired by VMware), and Apture (acquired by Google). In 2000, Sumant joined Clearstone Venture Partners where he went on to become a Managing Director four years later. In 2014, he cofounded March Capital Partners, which has since grown to $500M under management. Prior to Clearstone, Sumant spent more than eight years as an entrepreneur, starting companies in both India and the United States. Sumant has an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University. He is a Charter Member of TiE.
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About Clearstone Venture Partners, March Capital, The Fabric, The Hive: March is committed to partnering with exceptional entrepreneurs to build great tech companies and scale them globally.
Gregory Milken
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of March Capital
Gregory Milken is Managing Director at March Capital Partners, where he focuses on investments in digital media, gaming and esports. Gregory has led March Capital’s investments in broadcasting solution Genvid Technologies, game mastery platform Dojo Madness, and game developers nWay and Wavedash. Gregory has over 15 years of entrepreneurial and operational experience. He was the co-founder and COO of AltEgo, a cloud-based technology and gaming company. Prior to his work in technology, he worked in strategy and operations for Knowledge Universe Education, new business development at Warner Bros. in Hong Kong and London, and at Twentieth Century Fox. Gregory received his M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and a M.A. in international policy studies from Stanford University. He also received a B.A. in international relations and Asian studies from the University of Pennsylvania.
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About AltEgo, March Capital: March is committed to partnering with exceptional entrepreneurs to build great tech companies and scale them globally.
Jamie Montgomery
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of March Capital
Jamie Montgomery is a Founder and Managing Director of March Capital Partners. Prior he was the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Montgomery & Co, a leading Los Angeles-based investment bank where he advised and financed over 1000 leading technology companies over a 25 year period. He is the founder of The Montgomery Summit, an annual conference that attracts over 1,000 leading entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate executives for a celebration of entrepreneurship and innovation to Santa Monica. Jamie received his M.A. in Economics from the University of Cambridge, and a B.A. from the University of California, San Diego.
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About March Capital: March is committed to partnering with exceptional entrepreneurs to build great tech companies and scale them globally.
Saket Modi
Founder & CEO of Safe Security
Saket Modi is the Co-founder and CEO of Lucideus, an enterprise cybersecurity platforms company. A computer science engineer by education, he founded Lucideus in 2012 while in his final year of engineering. Incubated from IIT Bombay and backed by Cisco’s former Chairman and CEO John Chambers, Lucideus today protects the digital infrastructure of multiple Fortune 500 companies around the world with its cyber risk measurement and mitigation platform called SAFE. Saket is a part of Fortune Magazine’s 40under40, Entrepreneur Magazine’s 35under35, Forbes Magazine’s 30under30 lists among others. The Government of India awarded him with the title of “Champion of Change” in 2017.
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About : Safe Security is a cyber risk management startup that helps organizations mitigate cyber risk in real-time.
Jonathan Hirsch
Founder of Syapse
Jonathan Hirsch is the Founder and President of Syapse, a software company transforming healthcare by bringing omics into routine medical use. At Syapse, Jonathan works closely with diagnostic and healthcare providers, helping translate customer problems into software solutions. Jonathan is an Advisory Board member of the SXSW Accelerator, a mentor for UCSF Lean Launchpad for Healthcare course, and a member of the Steering Committee of Free the Data!, an effort started by Genetic Alliance and UCSF to crowdsource the interpretation of cancer genes. Earlier in his career, Jonathan worked in Neuroscience Commercial Development at Abbott Laboratories, where he developed strategies to fund drug development through partnerships and private equity financing. His research at the Center for Molecular Neurobiology at the University of Chicago helped establish the effect of exercise on promoting hippocampal neurogenesis and combating Alzheimer’s disease. Jonathan received an M.Sci. in Neuroscience from Stanford University, and an A.B. in Biology and Political Philosophy from the University of Chicago.
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About Syapse: Syapse is a real-world evidence company dedicated to extinguishing the fear and burden of serious disease by advancing real-world care
Lily Xu
Underrepresented Founder Startups of Amazon Web Services
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About Amazon Web Services: Amazon Web Services provides information technology infrastructure services to businesses in the form of web services.
E.G. Galano
Co-Founder of Infura
E.G. Galano is the Co-Founder and Chief Infrastructure Engineer of INFURA, a service providing scalable Ethereum infrastructure and developer APIs. He previously was the Director of Site Reliability at Los Angeles based hotel software start-up KEYPR, and an early employee of cloud gaming company Gaikai which was acquired by Sony in 2012.
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About ConsenSys, Infura: We strive to deliver the best infrastructure and tools for developers to build amazing Web 3.0 applications.
Jacob Orrin
Co-Founder and COO of Merit
Jacob Orrin is the COO and Co-founder of Merit. Merit’s verified identity platform brings visibility, liquidity, and trust to people-data, giving organizations the clarity to make better-informed decisions, engage with individuals effectively, and pursue their mission efficiently. Merit works with trusted private, state, and municipal organizations to solve critical real-world problems in sectors such as workforce development, emergency services, licensing, education, and defense readiness.
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About Merit, Merit: Merit develops a verified identity platform to help organizations in managing personnel data.
Derek Belch
Co-Founder and CEO of STRIVR
Derek Belch is a Co-Founder and the Chief Executive Officer of STRIVR.
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About STRIVR: STRIVR is an information technology company that specializes in virtual reality, customer experience, and athlete performance.
Jeremy Bailenson
Co-Founder of STRIVR
Professor at Stanford University, head of Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, and VR expert. Jeremy Bailenson is a Co-founder and the Chief Visionary at STRIVR. He is the founding director of Stanford University’s world-renowned Virtual Human Interaction Lab and a Professor in the Department of Communication at Stanford. He is one of the world’s leading experts in virtual reality. His findings have been published in over 100 academic papers in several fields including communication, computer science, education, law, medicine, and psychology. Bailenson is an author of the book Infinite Reality which was recently quoted by the Supreme Court outlining the effects of immersive media.
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About Cognitive Leap Solutions Inc., Stanford University, STRIVR: STRIVR is an information technology company that specializes in virtual reality, customer experience, and athlete performance.
Trent Edwards
Co-Founder & Sports Training of STRIVR
Trent Edwards is a Co-Founder at STRIVR. He was a Former Stanford and NFL Quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars and Philadelphia Eagles. Trent is a former Stanford and NFL quarterback. He was drafted in the third round by the Buffalo Bills in 2007 and spent three seasons as the team’s starting quarterback. Following his stint with the Bills, Edwards spent a season each with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Philadelphia Eagles and two training camps with the Oakland Raiders. Edwards brings his experience as a quarterback at the professional, collegiate, and high school levels to the development of STRIVR’s products and services.
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About STRIVR: STRIVR is an information technology company that specializes in virtual reality, customer experience, and athlete performance.
Ankur Singla
Founder & CEO of Volterra
Ankur is the founder and CEO of Volterra. Previously, he was the founder and CEO of Contrail Systems, which pioneered telco NFV and SDN technologies and was acquired by Juniper Networks in 2012. Contrail is the most widely deployed networking platform in Tier 1 telco mobile networks (AT&T, DT, Orange, NTT and Reliance JIO), and is used in many SaaS providers’ cloud deployments (Workday, Volkswagen, DirecTV). Prior to Contrail, Ankur was the CTO and VP Engineering at Aruba Networks, a global leader in wireless solutions. He holds an MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California.
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About Volterra: Volterra is a distributed cloud services company.
Kenneth Duda
Founder, Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President, Software Engineering of Arista Networks
Kenneth Duda is a pioneer in high-performance networking software and lead architect of Arista Networks EOS, a stateful modular operating system for all Arista Networks products. He is also the co-author of network virtualization specifications including VXLAN with VMware and NVGRE with Microsoft. From 2005 to 2008, Ken was also the Acting President of Arista Networks. Prior to joining Arista Networks, Ken was the CTO at There.com, where he played a lead role in designing a real-time 3-D distributed system that scaled to thousands of simultaneous users. Ken was also the first employee of Granite Systems and led the software development effort for the Catalyst 4000 product line after the acquisition by Cisco. Ken has 3 simultaneous engineering degrees from MIT and holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University.
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About Arista Networks: Arista Networks is a computer networking firm delivering cloud networking solutions for large data center and computer environments.
Faraz Sayyed
Founder of VIVID Technologies
Omer Khan is one of the co-founders for Vivid technologies. He has over 10 years of experience working with several blue chip telecom companies and banks, including AT&T, Barclays, Telenor, Apple and BNYM. He has been project managing and leading the telephony infrastructure that runs a business of more than $200 M. His last engagement was for Barclays UK where he was leading the Contact Center infrastructure engineering team responsible for implementing speech recognition IVRs. In recent past, Vivid technologies has been incubated by Microsoft Ventures, UK and now a part of acceleration program in Silicon valley (Blackbox). Omer has also published research papers on SIPs weaknesses and how to mitigate them. He has also been a speaker at Black Hat, Chase and HITB Malaysia. Interestingly Omer is not only a techy/co-founder but also a part-time musician who has played with mainstream bands (Noori, MHB, EP) in Pakistan and a half baked writer. He has assisted in scripts for 2 feature films in Pakistan (Khuda key liye, Bol).
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About Living Amsterdam, Living Amsterdam, Notion Technologies, systemini internet technologies, VIVID Technologies: VIVID Technologies are transforming the traditional customer service experience.
Tony Velleca
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of CyberProof
Tony is CyberProof’s CEO and is CISO at UST Global. Tony previously co-founded and was CTO at huddle247.com, rated by PC Magazine as one of the top virtual workspace solutions in 2000. He previously worked for Boeing and Rolls-Royce, Inc. focusing on conceptual design and optimized propulsion systems for next generation aircraft. He holds a BS degree in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA from University of California, Irvine.
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About CyberProof, UST: CyberProof is a security services company that intelligently manages your incident detection and response requirements.
Andrew Ninh
Co-Founder and CSO of Docbot
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About Docbot: Docbot is an AI technology company that offers AI-assisted image analysis solutions to revolutionize gastrointestinal care.
William Karnes
Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Docbot
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About Docbot, UC Irvine Health: Docbot is an AI technology company that offers AI-assisted image analysis solutions to revolutionize gastrointestinal care.
Ross Bundy
Co-Founder, Chief Entrepreneur, Chief Production Office of Cardea Bio
A founding member of Nanomed and the company’s CEO, Ross is a graduate of UCSD with an MBA from SDSU. Ross’s passion is precision execution, and he applies this to driving company direction and operations, developing strategic collaborations and partnerships, and raising capital funding. Ross brings business development, supply chain, finance, and operations expertise from 13 years of experience in industries ranging from consumer goods to defense manufacturing to financial services. At Bumble Bee Foods, Ross created and implemented cross-functional supply chain procedures that reduced processing hours while improving scheduling accuracy and decreasing cost. Prior to Bumble Bee at General Dynamics, Ross identified and negotiated business development projects that gained the company new opportunities in alternative energy, commercial construction, and heavy tool manufacturing. At UBS Financial Services, Ross created financial models to estimate future growth rates. Ross brings a demonstrated track record of successful implementation and a well-rounded background to his role as CEO of Nanomed.
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About Cardea Bio: Cardea is developing a new generation of (bio)technology infrastructure based on proprietary biology-gated transistors.
Kiana Aran
Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer of Cardea Bio
Kiana Aran is a Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Cardea Bio.
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About Cardea Bio: Cardea is developing a new generation of (bio)technology infrastructure based on proprietary biology-gated transistors.
Sunil Dhaliwal
Founder & General Partner of Amplify Partners
Sunil Dhaliwal is a General Partner of Amplify Partners. He has 18 years of experience as an early-stage investor and mentor to entrepreneurs. Sunil backs founders with unique insights into distributed systems, data infrastructure, or information security. He has helped founders build companies from concept to IPO, and his passion lies in defining and positioning winning products. Prior to founding Amplify Partners, Sunil was a General Partner at Battery Ventures where he spent 14 years investing in category-defining IT infrastructure companies such as Chef, Netezza (acquired by IBM), Splunk (NASDAQ: SPLK), CipherTrust (acquired by Secure Computing), and @stake (acquired by Symantec). He has been named to both the Forbes Midas List, which ranks the top 100 venture capitalists around the world, and the AlwaysOn Top 100 list of VCs. Prior to his work as an investor, he was a member of the technology investment banking team at Alex. Brown & Sons, Inc. Sunil graduated from Georgetown University with a B.S. in Finance and International Business.
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About ActionIQ, Amplify Partners, Datadog, Enlitic, InterVenn, mabl, PicnicHealth: Amplify Partners invests in technical founders solving technical problems for the enterprise.
Joseph E. Davis
Co-Founder & Emeritus Board Member of Capella
The 30-year career of Joe Davis is one of combining imaginative technical innovation with sound business practices to set new industry standards. His areas of specialization have included wavelength selective switches, tunable lasers, magnetic and optical disk drives, as well as such related technologies as optical switches, micro-optics, and micro-machining. Prior to his retirement, Joe served as the company’s CEO from 2000-2004, and subsequently as the Chairman. He co-founded Capella in 2000. Preceding that, he was co-founder and interim COO of Iolon, a Seagate spinoff that focused on tunable lasers for telecommunications. In 1996, he co-founded Quinta Corporation and served as its CTO, where he co-invented a multi-disk data-storage architecture that combined the best features of magnetic and optical technologies. Quinta was sold to Seagate in 1997. Joe has also held senior executive positions with several successful public companies including Maxtor, Seagate, and SyQuest. Joe received his MS and Ph.D. degrees in aeronautics, with a Ph.D. minor in business economics, from the California Institute of Technology. He holds 26 patents in the fields of optical subsystems, MEMS devices, and magneto-optical data storage and is the author of publications in several fields.
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About Capella: Capella is a provider of wavelength selective switch technologies for use in ROADM’s and optical cross connects.
Dhaval Chadha
Co-Founder & CEO of Justos
CEO at @Justos • Formerly CEO @Vivo (acquired) • Head of Latam @ClassPass • @Harvard University
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About Justos, NFX, Pipa, Stealth Startup: Justos is disrupting the insurance market in Latin America.
Masha Drokova
Founder and General Partner of Day One Ventures
Masha is the Founder and General Partner at Day One Ventures. Before launching Day One, she was an angel investor and founder of a PR studio that worked with companies like Houzz, HotelTonight, Gett, and Toptal. She was named to the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 List, and as a Top 50 PR Pro in Tech by Business Insider. Masha has a deep love for our earth and serves as an advisor to Oceanic, a non-profit using VR to bring attention to issues impacting our oceans
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About Day One Ventures: Day One Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm that backs customer-obsessed companies and spearheads their communications.
Luke Roush
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Sovereign’s Capital
Luke Roush co-founded 410 Medical alongside Dr. Piehl in 2013. He is currently a Managing Principal of Sovereign’s Capital, the venture capital firm which he co-founded in 2012. Previously, Luke has twelve years of experience in global commercialization and business development at venture-backed and Fortune 500 companies. He was Vice President for Sales, Marketing, and Business Development at TransEnterix, a medical device company that developed and commercialized a minimally invasive surgical system in the US, Europe, and Middle East. Prior to joining TransEnterix, he served as Chief Operating Officer at Liquidia Technologies, a nanotechnology company focused on biopharmaceutical applications. Mr. Roush was also global marketing manager for Boston Scientific’s neurovascular stroke business. Mr. Roush graduated summa cum laude from Duke University, and earned his MBA from The Fuqua School of Business.
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About 410 Medical, Sovereign’s Capital: Sovereign’s Capital provides growth capital for consumer SaaS, B2B tech, healthcare IT, and med devices.
Henry Kaestner
Managing Principal, Co-Founder & Partner of Sovereign’s Capital
Henry Kaestner is the Chairman, Co-Founder and previous CEO of Bandwidth.com, a company that together with his business partner, David Morken, he has grown from $0 to $200 million in revenue. The values of Bandwidth.com have always been: Faith, Family, Work and Fitness (in that order). Bandwidth.com was the 4th fastest growing privately held company in the country from 2003 through 2007, a position it achieved without acquisition or institutional funding. Prior to co-founding Bandwidth.com Mr. Kaestner founded Chapel Hill Brokers (a predecessor to ICAP Energy), an institutional energy derivatives broker that became the top ranked electricity broker in the country. Mr. Kaestner has also been involved in a number of ministry and philanthropic activities. He co-founded and serves as Chairman of the Board of DurhamCares, sits on the Board of Visitors at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Board of Directors of Praxis, an accelerator committed to helping Faith driven entrepreneurs. He serves as an elder in the Presbyterian Church of America and lives in Saratoga, CA with his wife Kimberley and their three sons.
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About Faith Driven Investor, Sovereign’s Capital: Sovereign’s Capital provides growth capital for consumer SaaS, B2B tech, healthcare IT, and med devices.
Brion B. Applegate
Founder of Spectrum Equity
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About Spectrum Equity: Spectrum Equity, a private equity firm, provides capital and strategic support to internet, software, and information services companies.
Ranjan R Reddy
Founder, CEO of Bureau
Ranjan R Reddy is the Founder and CEO of Bureau.
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About Bureau: Bureau secures mobile-first enterprises against new age cyber risks.
Bjoern Zinssmeister
CEO & Founder of Templarbit
Bjoern is the Co-Founder and CTO of Design Inc. He is best known for his work with building community platforms like Match and Synack. Bjoern has spent more than a decade as a software engineer and built two venture backed startups from the ground up. Prior to Design Inc. Bjoern worked as a mobile lead for Match Group (Match, Tinder, OKCupid) and was instrumental in helping Match establish their labs office in San Francisco prior to their IPO and acquisition of OK Cupid. Bjoern went on to lead engineering at YCombinator backed Userfox, which was later acquired by Adroll. In September of 2013 Bjoern joined Synack as their Director of Engineering and helped to build up their engineering team from the ground up, helping the company to grow and raise successful A and B rounds. Originally from Germany, Bjoern graduated from the Trier University of Applied Sciences with a degree in Computer Science before moving out to San Francisco to pursue his work with startups.
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About Templarbit: Templarbit protects applications from malicious activity.
Kevin Leland
Founder & CEO of Halo
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About Halo, Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Village Global: Halo is a market network that moves science forward by connecting companies directly with scientists for research collaborations
Sumir Meghani
Co-Founder & CEO of Instawork
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About Instawork: Instawork is the on-demand staffing app for gig workers and hospitality businesses.
Weiting Liu
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Codementor
Weiting Liu is the founder & CEO of Codementor, a live help marketplace for developers. Weiting is a serial entrepreneur and an alumnus of both Y Combinator (YC ’07 SocialPicks, ’12) and Techstars (Seattle ’13 Codementor).
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About Arc.Dev, Codementor, Global Social, Peeridea: Codementor is an online marketplace connecting developers with experts for on-demand 1:1 help via screen sharing, video, and text chat.
Greg Shenkman
Founder of EIS Group
Greg Shenkman is the founder of EIS Group.
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About EIS Group, Exigen Capital: EIS Group is focused on providing IT solutions that enable companies to convert their technology into strategic assets.
Brad Brooks
Co-Founder, CEO of TigerConnect
Brad is the Co-Founder and CEO of TigerConnect and a Co-Founder of Whisper. He previously ran DIC Entertainment as President for 6 years after working for Donaldson, Lufkin, and Jenrette as an Investment Banker. After acquiring the company with Bain Capital from the Walt Disney Company in 2000, he helped grow the company from less than $10mm of revenues to over $80mm in 2005 when he took the company public on the London Stock Exchange at a $200mm valuation. Brad received his BA from UC Berkeley and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
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About TigerConnect, Whisper: TigerConnect is a healthcare collaboration platform that streamlines clinical workflows and systems.
Andrew Brooks M.D.
Co-Founder/Chief Medical Officer of TigerConnect
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About TigerConnect: TigerConnect is a healthcare collaboration platform that streamlines clinical workflows and systems.
Peter Clark
Co-Founder & CEO of Journey
Peter Clark is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Our Journey Software.
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About Journey, Our Software Journey: Journey provides a sales platform that enables users to engage, close, and onboard customers in one link.
Mehdi Maghsoodnia
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of 1Health
Mr. Maghsoodnia is currently serving as CEO of 1Health.io and Vitagene. He is also on the board of SpineZone and MedCorder. He previously served as CEO of Rafter, BookRenter.com, SVP of products at CafePress, COO at Actiance and SVP at Intellisync. Mr. Maghsoodnia is a industry fellow at UC Berkeley where he teaches innovation and entrepreneurship. He studies EECS in UCB and Stanford with an emphasis in AI and Machine learning.
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About 1Health: 1health’s Testing as a Service (TaaS) Solution empowers precision testing and end-to-end process management in one simple, scalable tool.
Ken Kalopsis
Co-Founder + Vice-Chair of Startech.Com
Ken Kalopsis is co-founder of StarTech.com and as the company’s most senior ambassador, he maintains strong partnerships with key customers. Ken also spearheads StarTech.com’s global customer expansion so you will frequently find him at airports and hotels around the world. As a key member and contributor to the Executive team, Ken provides critical input and direction to StarTech.com. Having been actively involved with all aspects of the company throughout the years, he knows the business inside and out – with a particular focus in sales and operations. As a member of TEC Canada, Ken provides insights into company best practices and continuous improvement. Ken has a longstanding record of community involvement. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Grand Theatre Foundation and the Greater London International Airport. He also served as Executive Director of the Canadian Economic Development Assistance for South Sudan (CEDASS) after serving as a director for the previous five years. Ken earned a degree in History & Political Science from The University of Western Ontario.
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About Startech.Com: StarTech.com operates as a manufacturer of hard-to-find connectivity parts.
Mickey Kertesz
President, CPO & Co-Founder of Karius
Kertesz co-founded Karius in 2014 to bring the pathogen detection technology he and colleagues developed at Stanford closer to the bedside. Prior to that, he was the CEO and co-founder of Moleculo, a long-reads DNA sequencing company, which was acquired by Illumina in late 2012. Dr. Kertesz earned an MS in computer science from Tel Aviv University and a PhD in computational biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science. He went on to complete his postdoctoral work in bioengineering at Stanford University, where he developed novel methods for investigating the genetic diversity of human viruses.
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About Karius: Karius provides genomic insights for infectious diseases to enable clinicians to make life-saving treatment decisions.
Tim Blauwkamp
Chief Scientific Officer, Co-Founder of Karius
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About Karius: Karius provides genomic insights for infectious diseases to enable clinicians to make life-saving treatment decisions.
Carson Kahn
Co-Founder & Board Director of Spindle (www.spindle.app)
Named a Goldman Sachs 100 Entrepreneur for his innovations across AI and Natural Language Processing, Carson Kahn is currently the co-founder of Spindle (www.spindle.app), a no-code AI startup backed by Accel Partners (Slack/Dropbox/Facebook), Caffeinated Capital (IFTTT/Notion/Airtable), and diverse Fortune 100 executives. Previously, he served as President of Brainspace AI (acquired by Reveal with $200 million from K1 Capital), the world’s leading natural language analytics engine, originally backed by the CIA. Mr. Kahn is also a Member of the Board of Advisors for Computer Science at the University of Colorado; Stanford University AII; UC Santa Cruz Center for Excellence in Data Science Research; and Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism (CTEC); and advises venture-backed startups in AI/ML, PaaS, FinTech & InfoSec as a Techstars Mentor and angel investor. Mr. Kahn also invests with the $100 million Pandemic Impact Fund (PIF), Thiel-backed VC firm SI Capital, and Transpire Ventures. His work has been covered in the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Bloomberg, and elsewhere; and he has been tapped for expertise in AI, cybersecurity, and Future of Work by members of the Congressional Caucus on AI & National Economic Council. Previously, Mr. Kahn served as CEO (promoted from CTO) of JPMorgan In–Residence business Volley ML, saving Fortune 500 firms >$52 million in real labor annually with the first fully autonomous training & sales enablement platform for financial & health services. Named a Goldman Sachs 100 Entrepreneur for Volley’s innovations, Mr. Kahn designed, built, and sold Volley’s machine learning platform alongside an NLP team from Google, the NSA/CIA, Carnagie Mellon, and Goldman Sachs, seeded by $10 million from JPMorgan, Silicon Valley Bank, Zuckerberg Ventures, and execs from Goldman, Apple, and Facebook; before being recruited to lead Brainspace AI prior to its acquisition. Formerly, as Head of Product and co-founder at Keystone Learning Systems (KLS), the first LMS to offer cloud-native analytics and ML features for U.S. secondaries supporting >355,000 accounts, Mr. Kahn helped pioneer its now widely-imitated “extended enterprise” deployment model, before co-leading the entity sale to SPPEF Stirup Partners. On the heels of an externship at Google (via the ATLAS Institute), he formerly spanned product & technical marketing on the founding team at Vetica.com, whose real-time collaboration product Draftboard garnered users like Adobe & AOL while generating revenue from day 1. When the product was acquired by UK investors, Vetica launched Chalk.com, today the one of the 10 most popular learning analytics platforms in North America. A Black Belt in Karate and avid sportsman, Mr. Kahn can frequently be found training in a racquetball court or behind the wheel of an ATV. In his spare time, Mr. Kahn also moonlights behind a jazz piano near his home in the East Cut, San Francisco. Media Contact: Stacey Murray (stacey.murray.consulting@gmail.com) Press Kit: carsonkahn.com/press-kit
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About Spindle (www.spindle.app), Stanford University, Techstars, University of Colorado: An intelligent Decision Analytics platform for generating apps that simulate the ROI of business decisions without statistics or code.
Ryan Atallah
Co-Founder & CEO of Spindle (www.spindle.app)
As co-founder and CTO, entrepreneur and engineer Ryan Atallah sold his natural language analytics startup Cleargraph to Tableau for $30 million in 2017; after which Tableau was acquired by Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), where Ryan served as a senior Software Engineer Manager overseeing the NLP-powered Ask Data product now featured in Tableau’s offerings. He departed to co-found intelligent No-Code enterprise data applications platform Spindle (www.spindle.app) with his twice-cofounder Carson Kahn. Spindle is now backed by Accel Partners (Slack, Dropbox, Atlassian, Facebook), Caffeinated Capital (IFTTT, Notion, Airtable, Vercel), and diverse Fortune 100 executives who share in its mission to give teams data superpowers.
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About Spindle (www.spindle.app), Tableau: An intelligent Decision Analytics platform for generating apps that simulate the ROI of business decisions without statistics or code.
Will Laufer
Founder and CEO of Prelude
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Will spent two years leading go-to-market strategy for ePals (School Division), where he guided the business development of a new social LMS. He then became the first sales employee at Clever, where he drives enterprise partnerships with digital learning providers. He’s passionate about building sales teams and employing creative models for scaling innovative products in education.
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About Prelude: Prelude provides a platform designed to streamline recruiting operations.
Ravishankar Gundlapalli
Founder, President & Chief Solutions Officer of MentorCloud
Ravishankar Gundlapalli is the Founder, Executive Chairman, President, and Chief Solutions Officer at MentorCloud.
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About Founder Institute, MentorCloud: MentorCloud is a cloud-based mentoring platform for enterprises to accelerate digital transformation, employee engagement and retention.
Amee Devani
Co-Founder and CEO of WellBeam
Amee Devani is the Co-Founder and CEO at WellBeam.
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About WellBeam: WellBeam is an operator of a connected care platform intended to help hospitals connect with third-party clients.
Wesley Pettit
Co-Founder, Chief Product Officer of Kandji
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About Kandji: Kandji is a management platform for apple devices such as macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS.
Mark Daughters
Co-Founder & VP Operations of Kandji
Founder & Head of Operations of Kandji.
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About Kandji: Kandji is a management platform for apple devices such as macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS.
Adam Pettit
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Kandji
Adam Pettit is the founder and chief executive officer at Kandji.
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About Kandji: Kandji is a management platform for apple devices such as macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS.
Tyler Willis
Co-Founder of Unsupervised
Tyler is the President and Co-Founder of Unsupervised, which helps Fortune 500 companies become more data-driven by allowing them to analyze infinitely complex data and autonomously discover the biggest opportunities that their analysts and teams should be focused on. Tyler is also an angel investor, with investments in companies like Lambda School, Patreon, Lyft (IPO), Loungebuddy (acquired by Amex), and This is L. (acquired by P&G). Prior to Unsupervised, Tyler worked at AngelList, Hired.com, Unified, and Involver.
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About Ditto, Unsupervised: Unsupervised is an automated analytics platform provider that finds hidden insights in complex data.
Noah Horton
CEO & Co-Founder of Unsupervised
Noah Horton is the CEO and Co-Founder at Unsupervised. He is recognized by Inc.com as one of the Top 30 Entrepreneurs under 30, Noah Horton was the CTO and Co-Founder of Involver. He is a seasoned software architect and executive with expertise in marketing, social networking, online video, advertising, and massively distributed systems. After completing a Double Major in Mathematics and Computer Science, he joined Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun Microsystems. He has filed more than 25 patents and published articles on development techniques in widely read publications, including the Java Developer’s Journal. At Microsoft, Noah was a Developer Evangelist for the company’s Fortune 500 accounts. He was later the Program Manager for P2P protocols in Windows, and a member of the 9-person Networking Architecture Committee, which was charged with setting the technical direction of Microsoft’s entire Networking division. Before co-founding Involver, Noah was the software architect at NeoEdge Networks, an in-game advertising business. Among other things, he was responsible for designing many of the company’s ad products.
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About Unsupervised: Unsupervised is an automated analytics platform provider that finds hidden insights in complex data.
Tom Harel
CTO and Co-Founder of Routable
Tom Harel is the CTO and Co-Founder of Routable.
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About Routable: Routable is a B2B payments-based platform that allows its users to send and receive business-to-business payments.
Nuno Sebastiao
Co- Founder, Chairman & CEO of Feedzai
Prior to starting Feedzai, Nuno was an engineer for the European Space Agency, and worked closely with several successful technology startups. In 2011, Nuno, along with his fellow co-founders Paulo Marques and Pedro Bizarro, established Feedzai to fight financial fraud with advanced machine learning technology. Fast forward to today, Nuno has been named the Entrepreneur of the Year by London Business School, shared a stage with tech leaders such as Stephen Hawking and Steve Wozniak, and has been the driving force of Feedzai’s global growth. Under Nuno’s leadership, Feedzai has raised more than $282 million in venture funding, surpassed 500 employees, and continues to keep commerce safe for many of the leading banks, retailers, and payment processors around the globe. Nuno has an MBA from the London Business School.
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About Feedzai: Feedzai develops risk management tools to prevent fraud and money laundering in transactions.
Steve Chew
Co-Founder & COO of BuildOps
Accomplished leader in Entrepreneurship, Product Management, Business Development, and Marketing with over a decade of experience at both Consumer and Enterprise technology companies. Demonstrated versatility in both start-up and corporate environments.Early employee at two Silicon Valley startups that successfully exited through acquisition. Launched the European business for a “unicorn” startup valued at $1.2B+. Led technical product management for two of Microsoft’s largest cloud-first products – Outlook and Exchange Online (Office 365). Proven track record of success in the following areas: Mobile Apps, Cloud Computing, SaaS, Social Networking, Crowdfunding, and eCommerce. Engineering degree from Stanford and MBA from Harvard Business School.
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About BuildOps: Industry leading all-in-one software solution for subcontractors driving profitability through best-in-class technology
Co-Founder & CEO of platform.ai
Arshak is a technology entrepreneur having founded Launchpad.AI, Fellowship.AI, and is a co-founder of Platform.AI. He has delivered AI solutions for some of the largest enterprises in the world as well as multi-billion dollar quantitative hedge funds. Previously Arshak served as the Chief Technology Officer at Sentient Technologies. He has also been in technology leadership roles at Argyle Data, Alpine, Endeca/Oracle.
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About Launchpad.AI, platform.ai, Startup.ML: platform allows domain experts to produce high-quality labels for AI applications in minutes in a visual, interactive fashion.
Iddo Gino
Founder / CEO of RapidAPI
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About RapidAPI: RapidAPI is an API Hub that enables developers to find, manage, and connect to thousands of APIs.
Gary Jinks
Founder, Managing Director and Chairman of the Board of South Valley Angels
Founder, Managing Director and Chairman of the Board at South Valley Angels
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About ScaleUpStream, South Valley Angels, SVI HUB: South Valley Angels is a group of member investors who fund newly starting businesses.
Robert Christopher
Co-Founder, Investor Board Member of South Valley Angels
Robert Christopher is the CEO/Founder of Just Resolve.
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About Christopher Ranch, JustResolve, South Valley Angels, Vistage Worldwide: South Valley Angels is a group of member investors who fund newly starting businesses.
Chris Milk
Co-Founder, CEO and COO of Supernatural
Chris Milk is the Co-Founder, CEO, and COO of Supernatural. He is an artist, director, and technologist.He is the founder and CEO of [Vrse](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/vrse#/entity). Milk has gained recognition as a music video director, working with Arcade Fire, U2, Kanye West, Green Day, Johnny Cash, Gnarls Barkley, Chemical Brothers, John Mellencamp, Courtney Love, and Modest Mouse. He has been honored with the top industry awards for his music video and commercial work, including the Grand Prix Cannes Lion, the D&AD Black Pencil, the Grand Clio, and SXSW’s ’Best of Show’, as well as multiple Grammy nominations, MTV Moon Men, and the UK’s MVA Innovation Award. Milk’s short film, Last Day Dream, played at film festivals around the world, and he directed the second unit of A Mother’s Promise, the film that introduced Barack Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. The Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards recognized his work in design and art in 2011. The Wilderness Downtown was named as one of TIME Magazine’s 30 Best Music Videos of all time, and was exhibited at MoMA in NY for 6 months in 2011. Milk builds multiple projects with Virtual Reality as the canvas. The collaboration with Beck called “Sound & Vision” has been exhibited in an Oculus Rift at the Future of Storytelling Summit, Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, and Tribeca Film Festival. Chris Milk was born in New York.
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About Here Be Dragons, Supernatural, Within (VR/AR): Supernatural is an immersive, virtual reality fitness experience that combines music, coaches, destinations, and movements.
Amir Khan
President , CEO & Founder of Alkira
Amir Khan brings decades of experience in the networking industry and has a proven track record of forming teams to deliver products in both the Enterprise & Service Provider space. Prior to vIPtela, Amir was senior director of product management at Juniper Networks with P&L responsibility for Juniper’s Enterprise routing portfolio comprised of MX & M series. At Juniper, Amir led Juniper’s foray into the Enterprise routing space with focus on Data-Center, Campus and Wide Area. Under Amir’s leadership, Juniper grew its Enterprise business to multiple 100s of millions of dollars in 3 years. Prior to Juniper, Amir was at Cisco and led their IOS routing software, Desktop switching and NG wiring closet strategy. Amir has also held multiple leadership positions in product management and marketing at Procket (core routing), Nortel (Accelar & Passport) and Bay Networks. Amir has a MS degree in Computer Engineering from University of Colorado at Boulder. He is an avid squash player and has completed a Triathlon.
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About Alkira: Alkira offers a hybrid/multi-cloud network with network services, visibility, and governance.
Kaitlyn Knopp
Founder and CEO of Pequity
Creator of systems nuts and bolts, scrubber of process, creative ideator.
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About Pequity: Pequity automates HR workflows from offers to promotions and transfers which helps companies save time, money, and talent.
Nancy Pfund
Founder & Managing Partner of DBL Partners
Nancy E. Pfund is Founder and Managing Partner of DBL Partners, a venture capital firm whose goal is to combine top-tier financial returns with meaningful social, environmental and economic returns in the regions and sectors in which it invests. Nancy is also the Founder of DBL Investors. As a leading player in the growing field of “impact investing”, DBLhas helped to reveal the power of venture capital to promote social change and environmental improvement, and Nancy Pfund writes and speaks frequently on this topic. Nancy Pfund currently sponsors or sits on the board of directors of several companies, including; SolarCity (NASDAQ: SCTY) on both the audit and compensation committees, and is chair of the corporate governance committee; Farmers Business Network, Advanced Microgrid Solutions, Off-Grid Electric, Primus Power, The Muse, and, prior to their public offerings, Tesla Motors and Pandora. Prior to founding DBL Investors, Nancy Pfund was a Managing Director in Venture Capital at JPMorgan, having started her investment career at Hambrecht & Quist in 1984. Previously, Nancy Pfund worked at Intel Corporation, the State of California, Stanford University and the Sierra Club. Nancy Pfund was recently featured in 2016 Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business list; featured #17 in the 2014 FORTUNE Inaugural World’s Top 25 Eco-Innovators; is Chair of the Advisory Council of the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University; a member of the Advisory Board of: the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab); and the UC Davis Center for Energy Efficiency, and a Trustee of the National Geographic Society. She has been a Lecturer in Management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Yale School of Management; and is a C3E Ambassador to the U.S. Clean Energy Education and Empowerment Program, led by the U.S. Department of Energy. She is also a founding officer and director of ABC2, a foundation aimed at accelerating a cure for brain cancer. Nancy Pfund is the author, along with Benjamin Healey of the widely cited report on the history of U.S. energy subsidies entitled, “What Would Jefferson Do? The Historical Role of Federal Subsidies in Shaping America’s Energy Future”, co-authored with Michael Lazar, “Red, White & Green: The True Colors of America’s Clean Tech Jobs”, co-authored with Noah Walker, “Ask Saint Onofrio: Finding What Has Been Lost in A Tale of Two Energy Sources”, co-authored with Anand Chhabra, “Renewables Are Driving Up Electricity Prices: Wait, What?”, and co-authored with Kristofer Holz, “The 2017 Inauguration: Empowering a Clean Energy Nation”. Nancy Pfund received her BA and MA in anthropology from Stanford University, and her MBAfrom the Yale School of Management
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About DBL Partners: DBL Partners is an investment venture focused on companies that deliver high venture capital returns and economic benefits.
Ira Ehrenpreis
Founder and Managing Partner of DBL Partners
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About DBL Partners, National Association of Corporate Directors, Technology Partners, The National Venture Capital Association, Western Association of Venture Capitalists: DBL Partners is an investment venture focused on companies that deliver high venture capital returns and economic benefits.
Aart Geus
Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO of Synopsys
Since co-founding Synopsys in 1986, Aart de Geus has expanded Synopsys from a start-up synthesis enterprise to the world leader in electronic design automation.
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About Synopsys, Tinfoil Security: Synopsys is the Silicon to Software partner for companies that develop electronic products and software applications.
