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 Marketing 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.
Urmas Purde
Co-Founder of Pipedrive
Co-Founder of Pipedrive.
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About Pipedrive: Pipedrive is the global sales-first CRM and revenue platform for small businesses
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Bill Tai
Co-Founder of Treasure Data
Bill Tai started in VC in 1991 and has had 22 IPOs from his early stage investments. He has served a Board Director for 8 publicly listed companies as a result. He is founding investor and Chairman of Treasure Data (acquired by ARM / Softbank in the largest all cash acquisition in their history), Founding Chairman of IPinfusion, Founding Chairman and CEO of iAsiaWorks (listed on NASDAQ through Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs). He is among the original seed investors in Zoom Video, Canva, SafetyCulture, and Wish.com, and early angel in ColorGenomics, Tweetdeck/Twitter. He supports conservation and economic empowerment via ACTAI Global, a 501(c)3 he founded and Chairs. Originally trained as a computer chip designer (BSEE, Honors, Illinois), he joined LSI Logic, a seminal Silicon Valley startup formed by the CEO of Fairchild Semiconductor, then completed an MBA at Harvard. He was was issued badge #A001 at TSMC (NYSE:TSM), now a $250 Billion leader in semiconductors. He also holds a HonD PhD from, and is an Adjunct Professor of ‘Innovation and Economic Development’ at Curtin University in Perth, Australia.
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About Bitfury Group, Canva, CRV, Scribd, Treasure Data, Zoom: Treasure Data is an enterprise customer data platform that offers end-to-end, fully-managed cloud service for big data.
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
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About TeamDom: TeamDom is a media conglomerate that builds brands, stories, celebrities, and businesses around teen entertainment and media.
Kong Pham
CEO & Founder of Jumpcut
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About Jumpcut: Jumpcut creates captivating online courses.
Rob Fan
Founder & CTO/COO of Sharethrough USA
Rob leads all product and technology strategy for the company. He is a practitioner, student and teacher of the “lean startup” methodology. In his spare time, Rob, hacks and plays with new technology and advises early-stage startups about the successes and pitfalls he has learned thus far. Prior to Sharethrough, Rob worked as a technology consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton advising various three-letter government agencies. As an early adopter of the Facebook platform, Rob was one of the teaching assistants for the first-ever “Facebook Class” while at Stanford. Rob holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and a MS in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University.
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About Sharethrough USA: Sharethrough is one of the top global independent omnichannel ad exchanges
Dan Greenberg
Founder & President of Sharethrough USA
Dan Greenberg is the founder and CEO of Sharethrough, a 150+ person SF-based software company that powers in-feed, native ads for premium publishers like Time Inc, Hearst, People and brand marketers like Pepsi and P&G. Dan also acts as the co-chair of the IAB Native Advertising Committee. Dan comes from a research background at Stanford in persuasive technology, and regularly teaches classes in brand content, modern monetization, and viral engineering. Dan was recently named to the Inc “35 Under 35” list, the Forbes “30 Under 30″ list and has been honored as an Ad Age Media Maven. He organizes and hosts the Sharethrough Native Ad Summits, is a regular speaker at advertising and technology conferences, and contributes to industry publications including Forbes, AdAge, and TechCrunch.
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About Sharethrough USA: Sharethrough is one of the top global independent omnichannel ad exchanges
Andrew Gazdecki
Founder and CEO of MicroAcquire
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About Altcoin.io, Bizness Apps, MicroAcquire: MicroAcquire is a startup acquisition marketplace that helps startups find buyers and get acquired.
Rustin Kretz
Founder, Chief Product Officer, Chairman of the Board of Scorpion
Rustin Kretz is the Founder, Chief Product Officer, and Chairman of the Board at Scorpion. Scorpion is the product of Rustin’s vision. His dedication and leadership have been the driving force behind Scorpion and the foundation for its unprecedented growth and innovative approach to digital marketing for local businesses since 2001.
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About Scorpion: Scorpion exists to better local small businesses and the communities they serve.
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.
Afif Khoury
Founder/CEO of SOCi
Afif Khoury has spent the last decade involved in startups and venture capital investments as an attorney, venture capitalist and serial entrepreneur. Afif is a published geneticist who earned his BS in Neuroscience and Physiology from UCSD in 1998, before attending Law School at Northwestern School of Law (JD 2002) and Business School at Kellogg School of Management. Afif started his legal career as a corporate and securities attorney in Silicon Valley at the premier technology law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (WSGR) representing technology companies and venture investors across multiple industries and at all stages. Afif left the Silicon Valley office of WSGR to help start their San Diego office, following which he left to open the San Diego office of Gunderson Dettmer (another Silicon Valley-based premier technology law firm). In 2010 Afif raised a seed and early stage fund named Scatter Ventures, which he continues to manage today. Afif is also the Founder and Managing Partner of Axon Venures, a Biotech focused venture fund in Southern California. Between the two fund, Afif has deployed more than $70 million. Afif is a director of the San Diego Venture Group and also founder and CEO of SOCI, Inc., a social data and intelligence technology startup. He is California Board certified as well as a Registered Attorney with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
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About Aspen Neuroscience, Axon Ventures, Cradle Genomics, Epic Sciences, EvoNexus, EY, Omniome, Oncternal Therapeutics, Singular Genomics, SOCi: SOCi is a centralized platform for multi-location marketers to reach and engage local customers.
Aykut Karaalioglu
Founder & CEO of Mobile Action
Aykut Karaalioglu is the founder of Mobile Action, a company specialized in mobile discovery and optimization. He also co-founded Marro.ws, a clipping tool for intellectual people, and Shoppe, a shopping application. Karaalioglu holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Bilkent University. He obtained his master’s degree from Santa Clara University. Karaalioglu currently lives in San Francisco, California.
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About Mobile Action: Leading mobile intelligence company empowering app marketers to thrive in the market.
Ivan Kan
Founder of Crowdcreate
I am the founder of Crowdcreate, a leading crowdfunding marketing agency specializing in ICO, Blockchain, Kickstarter, and Indiegogo. I have personally been involved on projects raising over $35 million in 2016 /2017 and have been covered by CNBC, CNET, engadget, and many more. Crowdcreate is based in Los Angeles, California and our services range from community engagement, branding, design and video production, earned and paid media management, and PR outreach and influencer marketing. I have been a guest speaker for Global Sources Launch Pad in Hong Kong and contributed as a thought leader on panels and discussions on crowdfunding innovation and blockchain initiatives
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About Crowdcreate: Data Driven Growth Marketing Agency
David Fisch
Co-Founder & President of Turgo
A successful business leader and entrepreneur with 20 years of online, mobile and traditional experience. Expertise in digital media specializing in brand advertising, mobile, business development, marketing and operations. Extensive experiencing in building world-class sales and partnership teams. Strong track record of achievement within both corporate and start-up organizations.
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About Gallo Sales Company, GreenSpring, Mandalay Media, Miller Brewing Company, Miniclip, Shopkick, Turgo: Turgo is a key player in the video advertising and distribution industry.
Michael Ritter
Founder & CEO of Maple Media
Michael Ritter is the Founder and CEO of Maple Media, a mobile apps and games company backed by private equity firm Shamrock Capital. Maple Media is a mobile media, advertising and technology company that acquires, manages and operates mobile applications focused on the utility, productivity, games and entertainment verticals. Popular titles include Snowboard Party: World Tour, Skateboard Party, Minesweeper Classic, Sudoku 🙂 and CalConvert. Previously he was SVP of Business & Corporate Development for Jam City, a large social and mobile game company based in Los Angeles where he oversaw mergers & acquisition activities, publishing, licensing, distribution, sales, legal and partnerships for social and mobile games. Michael was also the Founder and Publisher of Saturday Night Magazine, which at the time, he built into the largest circulated monthly collegiate lifestyle and entertainment magazine in the country.
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About Fantasy Baseball Arbitration, Maple Media: Maple Media is a mobile media, advertising, and technology company that acquires and operates category-leading, consumer apps.
Dave Garr
Co-Founder, SVP of Customer Experience of UserTesting
Specialties:A/B testing, conversion rate optimization, interactive marketing, market research, multivariate testing, product marketing, social networking, usability
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About UserTesting: UserTesting is an on-demand human insight platform designed to improve customer insights.
Tom Impallomeni
Co-Founder of SuperAwesome
Co-founder & CEO, Tribe VR
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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
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About Social Native: Social Native is a technology platform for creating high performing branded content.
Armando Biondi
Co-Founder & CEO of Breadcrumbs.io
Armando Biondi currently works as the Co-Founder and CEO for Breadcrumbs.io. He previously worked at Hootsuite as the global head of growth operations.
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About Breadcrumbs.io: Breadcrumbs.io is a revenue acceleration platform that helps companies in rating and scoring current and potential customers.
Oren Kaniel
Co-Founder and CEO of AppsFlyer
Oren Kaniel is the CEO & co-founder of AppsFlyer, the market leader in Mobile Attribution Analytics. Oren holds a BA in Computer Science, Cum Laude, from the Technion, and an MBA from IDC, as part of an exchange with the Wharton Business School.
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About AppsFlyer: The world’s top brands use AppsFlyer to build great products, create exceptional experiences, and preserve customer privacy.
Reshef Mann
Co-Founder & CTO of AppsFlyer
Reshef Mann is Co-Founder & CTO at AppsFlyer.
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About AppsFlyer: The world’s top brands use AppsFlyer to build great products, create exceptional experiences, and preserve customer privacy.
Amit Agrawal
Founder & Chief Operating Officer of Cyber Infrastructure (p) Ltd
Mr. Amit Agrawal directs CIS’s Operations Quality & Process initiatives that are instrumental in driving major Financial and Operational benefits to CIS and its clients. He plays a vital role in establishing key alliances and building competent teams who are quite adept in using Latest Technology, Frameworks and Techniques; giving CIS a competitive advantage. He is also responsible for providing direction to strategic initiatives at CIS and building up CIS’s technical capabilities.As a technology veteran since 2002, he is leading and managing multiple projects, while maintaining budgets and meeting deadlines. He also steers the development lifecycle of all our web initiatives, mentors the research and implementation of innovative Web/ Mobile & Cloud Solutions. He is responsible for assimilation and adoption of latest technology in the company. Prior to CIS, Mr. Agrawal has served in various managerial roles in global IT companies in the US, Europe, and India. He possesses a number of certificates in Programming Languages, Project Management, Quality Control and Innovation Straategies.He holds a Bachelor’s Degree (BE) in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of RGPV and graduated in 2002 and is an MDP alumnae of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), 2007.
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About Cyber Infrastructure (p) Ltd: Cyber InfraStructure Pvt. Ltd. or CIS is a IT and consulting company in Central India.
Gautham Viswanathan
VP of Product & Co‑Founder of Workato
Gautham created the first integrated middleware platform, BusinessWorks, that became the template for the more cloud integration platforms of today. Gautham was an early employee of TIBCO, where he held several leadership positions – engineering, product marketing & management, and corporate development. BusinessWorks powered TIBCO’s growth from a startup to one of the top names in enterprise software. After TIBCO, Gautham founded and was the CEO of two SaaS startups.
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About Workato: Workato is an enterprise automation platform that helps organizations work faster and smarter without compromising governance and security.
Vijay Tella
CEO & Co‑Founder of Workato
Vijay has led creation of market leading integration technologies for over 25 years. Prior to Workato, he was the CEO of Qik, a consumer video communications company acquired by Skype. Before Qik, he helped create two multi-billion dollar integration products. He was part of the team that created world’s first middleware platform, TIB (The Information Bus) at Teknekron Software Systems, which was acquired by Reuters Plc, in 1994. He was also on the founding team and SVP, Engineering of TIBCO through its IPO. As Chief Strategy Officer, he then helped launch Oracle’s Fusion Middleware platform in 2005.
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About Workato: Workato is an enterprise automation platform that helps organizations work faster and smarter without compromising governance and security.
Harish Shetty
VP of Engineering & Co‑Founder of Workato
Harish has extensive experience leading engineering teams and building highly scalable products. Prior to Workato, he led engineering at two SaaS companies and before that was Director of Engineering and Lead Architect at TIBCO and for products like BusinessWorks, ActiveMatrix and Tibbr.
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About iProfile, Thinkspeed, Workato: Workato is an enterprise automation platform that helps organizations work faster and smarter without compromising governance and security.
Jonathan Downey
Founder, CEO, and Head of Product of Candidate Labs
Jonathan Downey is an experienced technology entrepreneur, CEO, and investor, having founded two companies and invested in more than 40 startups. He is currently the co-founder and CEO of a company at the intersection of talent and data. He has built out high-performing teams across a broad set of skills from hardware engineering through cloud services, analytics, and enterprise sales. Over his career he has raised over $100M from leading investors, including A16Z, KPCB, Signalfire, First Round Capital, GV, and Next World Capital, and has secured 6 and 7-figure enterprise engagements with Fortune 500 enterprises including State Farm and Caterpillar. Jonathan is an electrical engineering and computer science graduate from MIT and holds numerous patents. A YC-Combinator alum, Jonathan was named USA Today’s “Small-Business Innovator of the Year” and MIT Tech Review’s “35 Innovators Under 35”. He is an instrument-rated commercial multi-engine pilot and worked at Boeing as an engineer contributing to the development and flight testing of the A160T Hummingbird, a 6,500 lb fully-autonomous helicopter, which broke the world record for longest helicopter flight. and regularly flew within the National Airspace System (NAS).
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About Candidate Labs, SignalFire: The Modern Search Firm Built as a Technology Company
Alex Dahan
Founder of Open Influence
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About 0x Ventures, Open Influence, The Automation Fund: Open Influence is a marketing company that helps brands and advertisers engage and grow their desired audiences through social media.
Puneet Mehta
Founder / CEO of Netomi
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About Netomi: An AI-first customer service platform that enables companies to deliver the highest quality customer experiences.
Tai Lopez
Co-Founder, Chairman of Retail Ecommerce Ventures
Tai Lopez is an investor, partner, or advisor to over 20 multi-million dollar businesses. Through his popular book club and podcasts Tai shares advice on how to achieve health, wealth, love, and happiness with millions of people worldwide. Over the years, Tai sought out the secrets to the “Good Life” by setting up his life as a series of experiments. He began by reading thousands of books from the most impactful figures in history: Freud, Aristotle, Gandhi, Charlie Munger, Sam Walton, Darwin, Confucius, and countless others. He spent two-and-a-half years living with the Amish, worked at a leper colony in India, and helped Joel Salatin pioneer grass-fed, sustainable agriculture on Polyface Farms. He then joined the long list of entrepreneur college dropouts and ended up completely broke (sleeping on his mom’s couch) until he talked five, multi-millionaire entrepreneurs into mentoring him. Tai went on to work in the world of finance before becoming a founder, investor, advisor, or mentor to more than 20 multi-million dollar businesses while settling in the Hollywood Hills. He appeared on various TV and radio shows, spoke at top global universities like The London Business School and the University of Southern California, and created one of the top downloaded podcasts and YouTube channels, “The Grand Theory of Everything.” In order to get feedback from an even larger audience, Tai started what is now one of the world’s largest book clubs that reaches 1.4 million people in 40 countries with his “Book-Of-The-Day” free email newsletter. Tai recently summarized all he has learned from his mentors and compiled them into a series of ‘mentor shortcuts’ he calls, “The 67 Steps.” He also created an alternative to the traditional business school. This “Business Mentorship” program combines the best of self-learning with the best of a University degree without all the downsides of burdensome costs and inefficient methods.
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About Retail Ecommerce Ventures: Retail Ecommerce Ventures create thriving online stores where physical-first operations previously struggled.
Alex Mehr
CEO, Co-Founder of Retail Ecommerce Ventures
Alex Mehr is the co-founder and co-CEO of Zoosk.com.
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About Mentorbox, Retail Ecommerce Ventures, Zoosk: Retail Ecommerce Ventures create thriving online stores where physical-first operations previously struggled.
Vijay Chattha
Founder and CEO of VSC
Vijay Chattha joined VSC Consulting as Founder / CEO in 2002.
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About BlackMahal, The100kPledge, VSC, Wareness.io: We are a band of strategists, storytellers and data nerds obsessed with helping Davids crush a sea of Goliaths.
Jesse Leimgruber
Co-Founder & CEO of NeoReach
Jesse is a Stanford Alumni, co-founder of NeoReach and Bloom, Thiel Fellow, and angel investor in a dozen startups. Jesse is a partner at the Alchemist Accelerator, mentor at European Innovation Academy. He frequently guest lectures classes at Stanford University and USC.
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About Alchemist Accelerator, Bloom, Bloom, Clash, NeoReach, Rank Executives: Influencer Marketing For Big Brands
Robert Gabel
Founder & CEO of Tubular Labs
Robert (“Rob”) Gabel is the founder and CEO of Tubular Labs, the leading marketing and analytics platform that helps companies grow and engage their online video audience on YouTube. Building a marketing and analytics platform for online video unites two of Rob’s passions – online video and online marketing. Rob became fascinated with the promise and power of online video while serving as SVP of Advertising Performance at Machinima, YouTube’s 2nd largest network. Rob broadened his online video experience by consulting to YouTube-centric media companies DanceOn and AwesomenessTV. Rob’s online marketing experience includes serving as a SVP of Marketing for LowerMyBills and VP Marketing for both Inadco and Netflix. As one of the first employees at LowerMyBills, Rob helped the company grow from pre-revenue to over $200 million organically before being acquired by Experian in 2005 for nearly $400 million. Robert Gabel earned his M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and graduated Magna Cum Laude from The Honors College at the University of Houston with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering.
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About Tubular Labs: Tubular Labs is the global leader in video intelligence for the cross-platform world.
Victor Ho
Co-Founder & CEO of Fivestars
Victor Ho is the CEO and Co-Founder of FiveStars, a venture-backed startup building a consumer identity platform that personalizes commerce in the real world by harnessing the power of big data, predictive analytics, and cloud-based marketing automation. Previously, he was a consultant at McKinsey & Co.in New York, where he helped multiple Fortune 500 companies build and manage their loyalty and customer retention programs. He was recently selected to Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Victor holds three degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and is a Rubik’s cube enthusiast with a personal best of 45 seconds.
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About Fivestars: Fivestars provides a platform that offers loyalty, marketing, payments, and other services to small merchants and businesses.
Mikael Yang
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of ManyChat
Mikael Yang is the Co-Founder and CEO of ManyChat – a platform that helps businesses and professionals engage their audience through messaging apps.
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About ManyChat: ManyChat helps businesses do marketing, sales and support through Facebook Messenger.
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.
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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.
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About AVALINE, Clique, MERIT Beauty, Sonoma Brands, Versed, Who What Wear: Clique is a media and commerce company
Jeremy Bloom
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Integrate
Jeremy Bloom is the only athlete in history to ski in the Olympics and get drafted into the NFL. He is a three-time WorldChampion, two-time Olympian, eleven-time World Cup gold medalist and the youngest member ever inducted into The United States Skiing Hall of Fame. He was also an All-American football player at the University of Colorado and played professional football as a wide receiver and return specialist in the National Football League for the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers. While playing with the NFL in Philadelphia for the Eagles, he completed a business entrepreneurship program at Wharton Business School where he studied real estate and finance. Today, he is Founder/CEO of the Marketing Technology company, Integrate and founder of Wish of a Lifetime, a nonprofit organization that grants lifelong wishes to senior citizens. Through Jeremy’s vision and leadership, Integrate is transforming global marketing. The company has raised over $40M of venture capital from Comcast, Foundry Group and Liberty Global. Integrate was named as the “Best New Company” at the American Business Awards in New York City. Jeremy was named by Forbes as 30 under 30, tech executives under the age of 30 making waves in the technology space and in 2013 Jeremy was a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Outside of business, Jeremy has continued to maintain his name within the sports world. He does commentary for college football and is an Olympic Sports Television Analyst and has worked for ESPN, Fox, NBC, and The Pac-12 Network.
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About Integrate, United States Ski & Snowboard Association, Wish of a Lifetime, Wish of a Lifetime: Integrate provides a hub for managing and measuring demand generation programs.
Doug Barry
Co-Founder, COO and CFO of PORTL Hologram
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About MSMCi, PopJax, PORTL Hologram: PORTL Hologram offers at-home hologram machines.
David Nussbaum
Founder and CEO of PORTL Hologram
David Nussbaum is the Founder and CEO at PORTL Inc.
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About PORTL Hologram: PORTL Hologram offers at-home hologram machines.
Daniel Chu
CEO and Co-Founder of MakersPlace
Daniel Chu is the CEO and co-founder at MakersPlace. He is a product and engineering leader with a passion for applying technologies to drive real-world change.
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About MakersPlace: MakersPlace is an authentic and unique digital creation platform powered by blockchain technology for digital creators.
Matteo Carroll
Co-Founder of Ribbon
Matteo Carroll is a Co-Founder of Ribbon.
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About Ribbon: Ribbon is a one-stop-shop online platform for live and recorded events that provides services such as Zoom integrations and email marketing.
Brian Freeman
Founder and CEO of Heartbeat
Brian Freeman is a Entrepreneur, Consultant & Investor At Present he is Founder of Heartbeat Technologies, Inc of Heartbeat (getheartbeat.co). He also founded Wyldfire, where Ladies are the Gatekeepers. He has been featured for his work in entrepreneurism in Forbes, Business Insider, Huffington Post, Techcrunch, etc. He was Director Channel Partners at MOGL Loyalty, Inc & Investor & Consultant for MobilePay USA an early mobile payments provider.
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About Heartbeat: Heartbeat is a platform for millennial women to join, provide feedback to, and promote brands via their personal networks.
Kate Edwards
Co-Founder and COO of Heartbeat
Kate is the COO and Co-founder of Heartbeat, a Techstars LA company and marketing technology platform that enables brands to connect directly with its 150,000 female millennial brand ambassadors, creating scalable, ROI-focused user-generated content campaigns on social media. She is thrilled to be able to follow her heart and empower the voices of real women at Heartbeat every day. Prior to Heartbeat (http://getheartbeat.co/), Kate worked as the Director of Business Development and Partnerships at innovative matchmaking startup Three Day Rule, which was funded by Match/IAC, and has been featured on numerous podcasts, panels, and tv shows. Prior to working in tech, Kate attended Brown University and worked at top creative advertising agencies JWT and Publicis New York on clients Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson. Kate received her MBA at UCLA Anderson as an Easton Technology Fellow. Kate has also consulted and advised many startups in the Los Angeles area on marketing, operations, strategy, and fundraising.
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About Heartbeat: Heartbeat is a platform for millennial women to join, provide feedback to, and promote brands via their personal networks.
Daniel Negari
CEO and Founder of XYZ
Daniel Negari is ICANN’s youngest registry operator. With offices in Santa Monica and Las Vegas, Daniel and the .xyz team are bringing choice, accessibility, and innovation to the internet with the .xyz and .College domain extensions. As both a veteran and visionary in the domain name industry, Daniel has positioned .xyz as the platform for every website, everywhere, for the next generation of internet users. Since 2008, Daniel has bought and sold over $100 million in premium domain names in the aftermarket. In addition to his domain investing activities, Daniel launched a successful third level domain registry .com.de, in 2010. Daniel has leveraged these experiences and has established .xyz as the largest and fastest growing new domain extension with over 760,000 registrations within six months of launching. Daniel graduated from the University of Southern California, where he received several prestigious distinctions, including the USC Technology Scholar Award and USC Networking Award.
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About XYZ: The go-to ending for your domain. For every website, everywhere.
Luke Swanek
Co-Founder & VP Sales of PartnerStack
Luke Swanek is CoFounder & VP of Sales at GrowSumo.
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About PartnerStack: PartnerStack enables companies to accelerate growth with partnerships
Deepak Anchala
Co-Founder and CEO of Slintel
Deepak Anchala is the Co-Founder and CEO of Slintel.
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About Slintel: Slintel captures technographic-powered buying intent to help companies identify potential buyers in their target market.
Bruce Merrill
CEO and Founder of Cleverly | #1 LinkedIn Lead Generation Agency
Passionate about business, obsessed with progress, and continuously learning. “It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
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About Cleverly | #1 LinkedIn Lead Generation Agency: Scale your leads on LinkedIn and predictably drive more revenue. Check our out client reviews here: https://www.cleverly.co/reviews
Maran Nelson
Founder and Chairperson of Interact
Maran Nelson is the co-founder and CEO of Clara Labs. Prior to launching Clara Labs, Maran serves as founder and chairperson at Interact ATX, Inc.
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About Interact: SaaS zero party data platform: The easiest way to convert curious people into loyal customers and happy clients.
Christopher Wendel
President and Co-Founder of Volta Charging
Chris is a global finance executive with 20 years of experience running large sales teams and raising capital in equity markets. The bulk of this time was with Goldman Sachs in the United States, Germany, and Japan. While on sabbatical in Hawaii, Chris stumbled upon Volta stations at the Kailua Whole Foods. He soon after became an investor and joined Volta as partner and CFO in 2012. Chris lives in Napa with his wife and three children, loves flying, and will challenge you to a tennis match any day of the week. He and his wife each drive a Tesla Model S in fire engine red and metallic blue.
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About Volta Charging: Volta Charging designs, installs, and maintains a network of electric vehicle charging stations.
Scott Mercer
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Volta Charging
Scott Mercer is the founder and CEO of Volta, an electric vehicle charging network with the most-utilized stations in the US. An entrepreneur fascinated by both cars and future-focused technology, Scott founded Volta to bridge the gap between electric vehicles and the mainstream. The network delivers free electric vehicle charging in areas where stations are most needed, as determined by Volta’s proprietary machine learning algorithms. Under Scott’s leadership, Volta is experiencing consecutive 3x year-over-year revenue and footprint growth. Scott launched Volta in 2010 in Hawaii, where he was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Hawaii Venture Capital, 40 Under 40 by Pacific Business News and Hawaii Business’ 20 for the Next 20. Previously, Scott ran a business buying, restoring and selling vintage cars in his early 20s. He sold a restored 1967 Jaguar XKE to seed the beginnings of Volta, which has now raised $62 million in funding. Scott currently rides an electric motorcycle, drives an electric Fiat, and occasionally, a 1971 Alfa Romeo.
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About Volta Charging: Volta Charging designs, installs, and maintains a network of electric vehicle charging stations.
Adam Evans
Co-Founder & CTO of Airkit
Adam Evans is the co-founder and chief technology officer at Airkit.
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About Airkit: Airkit is a customer engagement platform that enables brands to quickly build digital customer experiences.
Stephen Ehikian
Co-Founder & CEO of Airkit
Stephen Ehikian is Co-Founder and CEO at Airkit.
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About Airkit: Airkit is a customer engagement platform that enables brands to quickly build digital customer experiences.
Wicks Walker
Co-Founder of W4
Adam Wicks Walke has founded numerous companies in the internet and media sectors, landing four times among the top 100 of the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing private companies in the U.S, as well as the fastest growing lists of the Los Angeles Business Journal and the Deloitte Technology Fast 50. He plays the role of strategist and deal maker in each company, and has closed more than a dozen corporate finance transactions securing more than $100 million. Before W4, he was a partner in Hydra, which was named the fastest growing internet company in Los Angeles in 2007 while under the management team now running W4. Before exiting Hydra, he sold a minority interest in the company for $30 million. Wicks also has an independent record label and invests in numerous media, technology and entertainment projects. He also serves on the Board of the Downtown LA Art Walk, a monthly art event that draws more than 10,000 people.
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About Division Films, W4: W4 provides business process management solutions through an expansive network of publishers.
Omar Zenhom
Co-Founder of WebinarNinja
Omar Zenhom is the co-founder of The $100 MBA, the largest alternative business education online. He’s also the host of an iTunes Best of 2014 podcast, The $100 MBA Show. The $100 MBA Show has delivered 2,000 lessons and counting to over 120,000 daily listeners. Omar is also the co-founder of WebinarNinja, an all-inclusive, easy-to-use webinar platform that allows you to create a webinar in 10 seconds flat.
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About WebinarNinja: WebinarNinja is the most advanced and complete webinar solution.
Brian Zatulove
Co-Founder & CEO of Emotive
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About Emotive: Emotive is a conversational texting platform for eCommerce brands, enabling two way text message communication at scale.
Zach Wise
Co-Founder of Emotive
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About Emotive: Emotive is a conversational texting platform for eCommerce brands, enabling two way text message communication at scale.
Laduram Vishnoi
CEO & Founder of Acquire
Laduram Vishnoi is the CEO and founder of Acquire.
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About Acquire, Tagove: Acquire is a unified customer engagement platform that brings all communication, interactions, channels, and tools under one roof.
Teju Owoye
Founder & President of Sulte Group
Teju Owoye is the CEO and Founder of the Sulte Group, a growth marketing agency that focuses on helping brands achieve omnipresence among their core group of customers. She is an expert at driving engagement, consumer adoption, and brand loyalty by leveraging behavioral economic principles and consumer psychology.
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About Clean Rebellion, Sulte Group: Sulte Group fueling the next generation of marketing with innovative strategies to drive incredible growth for companies.
Tomas Puig
CEO / Founder of Alembic
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About Alembic, Test Kitchen Capital: SaaS, Marketing, Analytics
Jeff Lo
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Arena Ventures
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About Arena Ventures: Arena Ventures is a founder-focused venture firm making seed and growth investments in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Tim Vanderhook
Co-Founder & CEO of Viant
As the Co-Founder, President and CEO of Viant, Tim sets and drives the overall direction and business strategy for the company and each of its brands. In 1999, Tim, along with brothers Chris and Russ identified the high growth potential of digital advertising and founded the interactive advertising platform Specific Media during those early stages of internet advertising. Tim’s vision led the development of behavioral targeting technology that created ground-breaking interest-based digital advertising practices. He led the company’s evolution from a small family business to an industry-leading multinational corporation.
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About Myspace, Viant, Viant, XUMO: Viant is an advertising software company enabling the execution and measurement of digital advertising through a cloud-based platform.
Robert Gryn
Co-Founder of Voluum
Robert Gryn is the youngest self-made entrepreneur to make the Forbes 100 Richest list in Poland. He’s the former CEO of Codewise, the 2nd fastest growing company in Europe. After selling Codewise he shifted 100% of his attention and focus to crypto. His new mission is to help accelerate the mass adoption of this revolutionary technology. Like many, he believes that blockchain will make the world a better and more equitable place.
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About Metahero, Zeropark: Performance marketing tracking solution
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.
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About Cie, Nativo: Nativo is an advertising technology platform for brand advertisers and publishers to scale, automate, and measure native ads.
Steve Garrity
Founder of Hearsay Systems
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About Hearsay Systems: Hearsay Systems is reinventing the human-client experience in financial services.
Matt Schlicht
CEO and Founder of Octane AI
Matt Schlicht is the founder and editor of Chatbots Magazine, the #1 place to learn about chatbots. He is a YC Alum, a Forbes 30 Under 30 winner, and was also previously a product manager at Ustream as well as an advisor to several other startups. Several months ago, Matt decided to launch a community dedicated to messaging and bots. Chatbots Magazine was born and now reaches over 200,000+ people per month. Matt joins us to share his story, how he got into startups and tech, how he created the opportunity to join the team at uStream, how he approaches building products, why he’s so passionate about bots and messaging, what’s next for Chatbots Magazine.
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About Chatbots Magazine, DominateFund, Hamster Pad, Octane AI, ZapChain: Octane AI provides an all-in-one platform for engaging quizzes, data collection, and personalized Facebook Messenger and SMS automation.
Sebastian Rymarz
CEO and Co-Founder of Heyday
As the Chief Business Officer, Sebastian oversees sales, marketing, business and corporate development. An early U.S. hire, he brings rich experience in financial services and credit risk management. Prior to Fundbox, he was VP at TPG Special Situation Partners and an investment professional at Sageview Capital. Sebastian began his career in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs after graduating with a BS in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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About Heyday: Heyday offers a digital marketplace space built for sellers to accelerate consumer product brands.
Allan Grant
Founder & Executive Chairman of Talkable
Allan Grant is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Talkable. Prior to that, he was the Founder of Hired. He was a graduate of Georgia Institute of Technology.
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About Talkable: Talkable is a technology platform that enables marketers to run customizable Refer A Friend Programs.
Jed Simon
Founder & CEO of FastPay
Jed Simon is the founder and CEO of FastPay, providing liquidity and financial workflow solutions to the digital media industry. Formerly, Simon was an investment banking analyst program at Morgan Stanley & Co. in New York working on IPOs, debt finance transactions, and M&A for media companies. After joining DreamWorks SKG in 1996, Simon managed aspects of its finance, distribution, marketing, and new media businesses, and was a senior executive at DreamWorks Records before assisting in the sale of the company to Universal Music Group. His last position with DreamWorks was Vice President of International Distribution and Marketing for DreamWorks Pictures, based in London.
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About DreamWorks Studios, FastPay: FastPay is the definitive financial platform for digital media.
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.
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About Built.io, Contentstack, KurbKarma, raw engineering: Contentstack develops a cloud based content management system intended to power omnichannel content.
Kimball Thomas
Co-CEO/Founder of Baby
Kimball Thomas is the Co – CEO & Founder at Baby.com.br . He earned his MBA from, Harvard Business School. His B.S. (Finance) from University of Utah.
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About Baby, Walrus Health: Baby is an e-commerce retailer of baby products in Brazil.
Rajeev Goel
Co-Founder & CEO of PubMatic
Rajeev co-founded PubMatic in 2006, based on the belief that publishers are underserved from a technology and services perspective, and set out to build an automation software company focused on publishers. Under his leadership, the company has grown and matured into a major enterprise provider with more than 400 employees and 13 locations around the globe. The high pace of revenue and profit growth, is fueled by Rajeev’s commitment to help publishers protect, monetize and manage their most valuable asset – the relationship between consumers, content and brands. Rajeev is a serial entrepreneur who has raised more than $250 million in funding throughout his career. Rajeev serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the IAB. He holds a master’s degree in Computer & Information Technology from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in economics, political science and Spanish from the Johns Hopkins University.
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About PubMatic: PubMatic is an automation solutions company for an open digital media industry.
Ali Sammour
Founder of FLATLAY
ali sammour joined FLATLAY as founder in 2016.
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About FLATLAY: The end to end social commerce automation platform for brands, customers & creatives.
Raghu Kodige
Founder & Chief Product Officer of Alphonso
Raghu Kodige is the co-founder of Alphonso.
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About Alphonso, LG Ads, Microsoft, Yahoo: Alphonso is a software company that offers TV data and measurement services for brands and agencies.
Ashok Reddy Gudibandla
Founder, CEO of Automate.io
Founder, CEO at Automate.io.
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About Automate.io: Use tens of cloud apps? Connect them the way you want. Sync data, automate workflows – marketing, sales and more.
Josh Curl
Founder & CTO of Hightouch
Josh Curl is the Co-Founder of Hightouch.
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About Hightouch: Hightouch is a data platform that helps sync customer’s data from the data warehouse to their CRM, marketing, and support tools.
Tejas Manohar
Founder of Hightouch
Tejas Manohar is the co-founder of Hightouch.
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About Appupa, Carry, Hightouch: Hightouch is a data platform that helps sync customer’s data from the data warehouse to their CRM, marketing, and support tools.
Kashish Gupta
Founder of Hightouch
Kashish Gupta is the co-founder of Hightouch.
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About Carry, Hightouch: Hightouch is a data platform that helps sync customer’s data from the data warehouse to their CRM, marketing, and support tools.
Kris Rudeegraap
CEO, CoFounder of Sendoso
Kris Rudeegraap is CEO at Sendoso
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About CoffeeSender, Sendoso: Sendoso helps companies connect and drive revenue with personalized gifts, eGifts, virtual experiences, and more.
Diaz Nesamoney
Founder, President & CEO of Jivox
Diaz Nesamoney founder of Jivox has had two prior successful ventures. He was previously co-founder, President and Chief Operating Officer at Informatica (NASDAQ:INFA), which he took from a startup to a publicly Diaz Nesamoney is an accomplished technology entrepreneur who founded three successful technology companies, all harnessing the power of data to power enterprise and consumer applications. Currently Diaz is Founder, President, and CEO of Jivox, a company that provides a technology platform for data-driven personalized advertising and marketing. He was previously Co-founder, President, and Chief Operating Officer at Informatica (NASDAQ:INFA), which he took from a startup to a publicly traded company in 1999. Informatica pioneered data integration software as a category and is now the market leader with more than $1 billion in revenue and a $5 billion market capitalization. Before founding Jivox, he founded Celequest and served as its CEO until early 2007, when the company was acquired by Cognos/IBM. Celequest introduced the market’s first business intelligence and analytics appliance, a disruptive innovation that led to its acquisition. Diaz holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India and is the holder of seven technology patents. Diaz is also the author of the first book on using data and technology to personalize digital advertising.
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About Jivox: Jivox offers a cloud-based, data-driven omnichannel platform that personalizes digital advertising and marketing experiences at scale.
Sunil Thomas
Co-Founder and CEO of CleverTap
Sunil is a technologist and drives CleverTap’s strategic vision while also managing investor relations. He has previously held CTO roles at startups and companies like Network18 and Infospace Inc.
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About CleverTap: CleverTap helps digital brands increase user retention and lifetime value with the help of data, personalization, deep-tech and automation
Jordan Rothstein
Founder, CEO of King Tide Creative
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About Furious M, King Tide Creative, Raziel, TravelZeeky: King Tide is a full-service creative agency specifically and intricately designed to surpass the reach of the modern branding machine.
Jeff Kuei
Founder of Kixie
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About Kixie: The sales engagement platform that boosts sales team performance with ultra-reliable, easily-automated calling & texting for leading CRMs.
Darren Lachtman
Co Founder of Brat
Darren was previously the senior director of business development for Bedrocket Media Ventures. He has an extensive background in digital media and marketing, working alongside brands like ESPN, EA and Google.
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About Brat: Brat is a teen-leaning digital production company.
Alexander Gilkes
Co-Founder of Squared Circles
Alexander Gilkes is the Co-Founder of SQUARED CIRCLES.
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About Squared Circles: Squared Circles is a venture studio that focuses on operations, branding, capital, and talent.
Michael Sharkey
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Autopilot
Michael Sharkey co-founded Autopilot and is the CEO. Prior to founding Autopilot, Michael joined his brother Chris to grow start-up Stayz into a top Australian rental booking site (acquired by FairFax Digital in 2006 and again by HomeAway for $225M in 2013). He also co-founded Sharkey Media with his brother Chris, where he helped grow Australian startups, marketing programs, and websites.
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About Autopilot: Switch ON better marketing for your business. The Best Marketing and Customer Data Platform for Ecommerce
Christopher Lien
Founder & CEO of Marin Software
Mr. Lien is Marin’s founder and Chairman of the Board, and rejoined the Company as Chief Executive Officer in August 2016. From September 2015 to August 2016, Mr. Lien has served on boards of private companies as well as Marin Software. From May 2014 until September 2015, Mr. Lien served as executive chairman of Marin Software, and from the founding of the Company in 2006 to May 2014, he served as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Lien has been a member of the Board since 2006. Previously, Mr. Lien served as Chief Operating Officer of Adteractive, Inc., an online performance marketing company, from 2004 to 2005. In 2001, Mr. Lien co-founded and served as Chairman and Chief Financial Officer of Sugar Media, Inc., a broadband services platform, until its acquisition in 2003 by 2Wire, Inc., a leading supplier of DSL equipment and services, which was subsequently acquired by Pace plc in 2010. Prior to that, Mr. Lien served in various capacities at BlueLight.com, LLC, Kmart Corporation’s ecommerce and Internet service provider subsidiary from 2000 to 2001, including as Chief Financial Officer and acting Chief Executive Officer. Prior to BlueLight.com, Mr. Lien spent 10 years at various investment banks, including Morgan Stanley and Evercore Partners, with his last role as Managing Director. Mr. Lien holds an A.B. from Dartmouth College, where he was elected as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Mr. Lien’s presence as a member of the Board brings his thorough knowledge of the Company into the Board’s strategic and policy-making discussions. He brings his extensive experience in finance, digital marketing and executive roles in the information technology industry into deliberations regarding the Company’s strategy and operations.
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About Heron Partners, Marin Software, Marin Software: Marin Software Incorporated (NYSE:MRIN) provides a leading cross-channel performance advertising platform used by advertisers and agencies.
Scott Swanson
CEO & Founder of Bonder, Inc.
Scott Swanson has an extensive background in consultative sales to some of the largest corporations and retail distributors in the world. With over 18 years in Global Infrastructure, Advanced Security and Platfrom Development Scott has become a trusted advisor in the design, development and implementation of cutting edge platforms and technology that engage the masses, consumers and exponentially drive revenue. “We have 90+ variations of this post a picture or video and make a statement platform. It’s boring and isolating. My vision is to evolve our current platform to improve how we Interact with each other, Connect and Socialize through yet beyond the device.” ~ Scott
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About Bonder, Inc.: The Worlds First Location Based Communication Platfrom (LBCP)
Selene Cruz
Founder & CEO of Re:Store
Selene Cruz is the founder and CEO at RE:STORE.
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About Knocknock.TV, Re:Store: Re:Store is a co-working and retail space for cult-favorite online brands.
Harry Zhang
Co-Founder of Lob
Harry Zhang is the Co-Founder and Board of Directors member for Lob. Harry is responsible for the company’s sales and marketing organizations. He built the first version of Lob’s APIs and launched the initial revenue streams for the company. Prior to Lob, Harry worked at Microsoft where he managed Project and Visio field sales, channel partners, and integrated end-to-end marketing activities across all customer segments in the US. Earlier in his career, he held roles at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and Ford Motor Company. Harry was most recently recognized on Forbes 30 under 30 list and holds two degrees in Informatics and Business Administration from the University of Michigan.
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About Lob: Lob provides direct mail and address verification APIs which allows businesses to send personalized mail to their customers.
Leore Avidar
Co-Founder & CEO of Lob
Leore Avidar serves as Co-Founder at Lob.com, Inc. Prior to Lob, Mr. Avidar worked as a Technical Business Developer at Amazon Web Services and as a Quant/Derivative trader at Citigroup.
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About Alt, Lob: Lob provides direct mail and address verification APIs which allows businesses to send personalized mail to their customers.
Aleks Gollu
Founder & CEO of 11Sight
Aleks Gollu is founder, CEO at 11Sight.
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About 11Sight: Inbound Video Call and Customer Engagement Platform For Revenue Teams
Farokh Eskafi
Founder and President and CTO of 11Sight
Farokh Eskafi is founder, president and CTO at 11Sight.
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About 11Sight, Santa Clara University, TagArray: Inbound Video Call and Customer Engagement Platform For Revenue Teams
Jerry Jao
CEO & Founder of Retention Science
Jerry started his path to entrepreneurship at the age 8, making $3 a day by recycling his classmates’ plastic cans after school. Years later, he moved on to e-Commerce and started selling comic books and video games online. He’s been an online entrepreneur ever since and is now CEO and founder of Retention Science. Prior to founding Retention Science, Jerry founded two other e-Commerce marketing technologies. He was an analyst with Morgan Stanley, and an engagement manager with BearingPoint Management Consulting (KPMG Advisory), where he advised FORTUNE 50 companies. He was most recently an advisor to the CFO of Clear Channel, working on digital sales initiatives and iHeartRadio. Jerry currently serves on the Board of Directors of Penango, an enterprise email & cloud security company. Jerry is a graduate of UC Berkeley, where he received a B.S. in Business Administration and a full-tuition scholarship as an Alumni Scholar, and Yale School of Management.
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About Retention Science: Retention Science is an AI-driven platform designed to engage and retain customers.
Kyle Wong
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Pixlee TurnTo
Kyle Wong is the CEO & Co-Founder of Pixlee, a visual marketing platform that helps brands market and sells with customer photos and videos. The company works with more than 150 brands such as Kenneth Cole, Gaiam, Levi Strauss and Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants to develop a more authentic marketing experience and create stronger relationships with their most passionate customers. Apart from that, he is currently working as a contributor with Forbes magazine and as a leadership council with Ad Council. Kyle attended Stanford University where he studied engineering and co-founded Pixlee out of his dorm room in 2012. He is a mentor for the Stanford Accelerator (StartX) program, where he advises several early-stage VC backed tech startups. Kyle has been featured in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 List and is a regular speaker and domain expert on influencer marketing and driving consumer engagement through social media. He is also an active contributor for Forbes and Fortune Magazine where he writes on digital marketing, entrepreneurship, and various leadership and career topics.
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About Ad Council, Forbes Magazine, Pixlee: Pixlee TurnTo ia a Social UGC, Influencer Marketing, and Ratings & Reviews company.
Franky Bernstein
Founder & CEO of Kickback
Franky Bernstein is Founder & CEO at Markett.
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About Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, InterWallet, Kickback, Markett: Kickback is a social shopping app that gives users exclusive brand discounts, cash back, and significant incentives to recommend friends.
Phaedra Anestassia Randolph
Founder & CEO of Spero Foods
Phaedra Anestassia Randolph founded Spero Foods with the mission to recreate dairy & eggs from plants, making products that are nutritious, scalable, and delicious.
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About Spero Foods: Spero Foods specializes in the fields of big data, food tech, plant-based products, and predictive modeling.
Raju Sagiraju
CEO/Founder of Dime Development
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About Dime Development: Digital Agency to help brands
Thomas Kramer
COO, Co-Founder of Paladin
As Co-Founder and Head of Product at Paladin, Thomas focuses on building enterprise software for next-generation media companies. Prior to Paladin, Thomas served as VP of Product at Bent Pixels and as the Senior Director of Content Strategy and Optimization at Maker Studios (The Walt Disney Company), a top multi-channel network (MCN). At Maker, Thomas led a team focused on audience development strategy consulting for many Disney brands (Marvel, ESPN, Disney Animation, and Disney Parks) and online video creators (PewDiePie, GameGrumps, and the Shaytards). Thomas has rich experience working with brands, agencies, and content creators on multi-platform video strategy. He is a co-founder of Ready Influence, an advisory initiative for content creators, and has spoken at several conferences, including Media Summit New York. Thomas is a graduate of the University of Oregon.
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About Measure Studio, Paladin: Paladin is the essential influencer marketing platform for brands and agencies.
Eric Manlunas
Managing Partner and Founder (US & SE Asia) of Wavemaker Partners
Eric is a co-Founder and Managing Partner with Wavemaker Partners, a cross border early-stage venture capital firm headquartered in Los Angeles and Singapore. He is a two-time start-up entrepreneur turned venture capitalist with a strong passion for early-stage investing. Eric co-founded Wavemaker following its merger with Frontera Group, a prior early-stage boutique venture capital firm he founded in 2003. Eric has a proven track record as an early investor in over 230 early-stage ventures, of which half remain active and growing. Those companies have collectively received over $1B in growth capital. Eric also served in a concurrent capacity as a Partner of a Los Angeles-based value hedge fund from late-2002 until its sale to a San Francisco-based commercial bank in mid-2006. Prior to Frontera, Eric founded Sitestar in mid-1999. Sitestar is an Internet service provider in the rural markets of the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Upon helping steer Sitestar in becoming one of the largest independent ISPs in the region, Eric successfully divested his remaining ownership stake in December 2002. Prior to that, Eric’s first startup was Interfoods, an online specialty foods venture he founded in early 1997. Within 3 years, Interfoods grew to become a mid-sized specialty foods provider in its market and was successfully acquired in late 1999. Eric began his career as a consulting associate with Arthur Andersen’s retail management consulting division from 1991-1995. He earned a B.S. in Communications from Florida International University and an M.B.A from Pepperdine University. Eric is currently a member of the board of a number of emerging companies. He is also a Trustee of the Philippine Development Foundation, an organization committed to social development initiatives in the Philippines, Eric’s country of origin.
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About Wavemaker 360, Wavemaker Partners: Wavemaker is a crossborder early-stage VC firm that focuses on early-stage tech startup opportunities.
