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 Retail 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.
Katrina Lake
Founder and CEO of Stitch Fix
Katrina is passionate about helping women achieve everyday confidence. She founded Stitch Fix to help women everywhere discover and explore their style through a truly client-focused shopping experience. Prior to founding Stitch Fix, Katrina developed extensive experience at the intersection of fashion, retail, and technology. She managed the blogger platform at venture-backed social commerce company Polyvore and consulted with a variety of e-commerce and traditional retailers during her time at The Parthenon Group. Additionally, she has invested in and worked with dozens of entrepreneurs and start-ups at Leader Ventures. Katrina holds a B.S. in Economics from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
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About Grubhub, Stitch Fix: Stitch Fix is a personal styling platform that delivers curated and personalized apparel and accessory items for women.
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Jack Dorsey
Co-Founder & CEO of Square
Jack Dorsey is the Co-Founder & CEO of Twitter Ventures
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About Cash App, Square, Twitter Ventures: Block is a merchant services aggregator and mobile payment company that aims to simplify commerce through technology.
Jojo Flores
Co-Founder & Vice President of Operations of Plug and Play Tech Center
Jojo is currently involved in the overall strategic planning and prioritizing of Plug and Play. Jojo’s immediate focus is on building strategic alliances in the Philippines and other reigns of South East Asia.
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About Launchgarage, Plug & Play, Plug and Play Brand & Retail, Plug and Play Tech Center: Plug and Play is an innovation platform bringing together startups and large corporations.
Wade Bitaraf
Founder and Director of Plug and Play Energy & Sustainability of Plug and Play Tech Center
Wade is the head of Energy & Sustainability practice at Plug and Play, an active early stage investor and global corporate innovation center. Wade holds master degrees in Chemical Engineering and Petroleum and Natural Gas engineering. His mission at Plug and Play is to bring innovation into the energy industry by bridging large corporations to the startup ecosystem. In the past 3 years, Wade has worked closely with the entrepreneurs that are building innovative products and solutions for the electric Utilities and Oil and Gas companies.
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About Plug and Play Tech Center: Plug and Play is an innovation platform bringing together startups and large corporations.
Saeed Amidi
CEO and Founder of Plug and Play Brand & Retail
Saeed has been a technology investor since 1996 and co-founded Amidzad with Pejman and Rahim in 1999. He is a serial entrepreneur and a seasoned executive with over 25 years of experience in founding, operating, and growing successful companies. He has been closely involved with more than twenty new emerging growth companies, of which 2 became public companies (PayPal (acquired by eBay) and Preview Systems). His investment includes Paypal ( acquired by eBay), Preview systems, Lending Club, Zoosk, Flipora, Affinity Circles, Techdirt, Sigmaquest, Scanscout, NextBio, Webs to name a few. Saeed co-founded the Amidi Group in 1980, a conglomerate of privately-held business enterprises consisting of several domestic and international entities with significant manufacturing, distribution, trading, retail, and real estate holdings. For the past 25 years, he has chaired and spearheaded the operations and management of a number of the Amidi Group entities, growing the aggregate value of its assets under management to over $250m. Saeed is an active member of the technology community and a frequent contributor to numerous charitable foundations. He is also an active member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), a world-class network of Fortune 500 CEOs, accomplished serial entrepreneurs, and veteran financial executives.
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About Amidzad Partners, Augmented Pixels, Mobilbank, Plug & Play, Plug and Play Brand & Retail, Plug and Play Spain, Plug and Play Tech Center, Young Presidents Organization (YPO): Solving the biggest problems top brands, retailers, and industry players face today.
Steven Yang
Founder & CEO of Anker
Steven Yang is the Founder and CEO of Anker Innovations. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Peking University and a master’s in computer science from the University of Texas – Austin. He was a senior engineer at Google in California before leaving to found Anker in 2011.
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About Anker, Hunan Ocean Wing: Anker is a multinational team of techies that provides a range of products from batteries and chargers to hubs and readers, and more.
Andy Ruben
Founder & CEO of Trove
Andy Ruben is the CEO and Founder of Trove. The world’s most innovative brands trust Trove to run their resale platforms. Andy left his executive role at Walmart to pursue his dream of building the next generation of retail. Andy was hired by Walmart to work with the Board of Directors and build a strategy department for Walmart. He led a number of transformational efforts over his tenure, including launching Walmart’s heralded sustainability effort, re-imagining Walmart’s $20 Billion private brands business, and integrating online and stores.
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About Trove: Trove builds white-label technology and end-to-end operations that power circular shopping for premium and luxury brands.
Michael Amar
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Ifeelgoods
Seasoned entrepreneur with solid experience in global alliances, business development, executive management, channel development and organizational leadership. Business expertise across the worldwide marketplace including US, France, Israel, and Japan. Prior to founding Ifeelgoods, Michael founded and successfully sold DAOODA, a thriving ad network in the EU, and AGORAD, which was the number one independent French media company at the time he sold it in 2007. As CEO of Ifeelgoods, a U.S company he started in 2010, Michael is leveraging his leadership, experience and insights in e-commerce and online advertising to disrupt the promotion, advertising and loyalty industries. Michael is an Operating Partner at Cathay Innovation, a VC fund based in China, US and Europe, a Board Member of StationF – the largest incubator in the world – and Ambassador for La French Tech in San Francisco. Michael is a graduate of Institut Superieur de Gestion business school. Michael lives with his family in Palo Alto, California.
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About Chain Accelerator, Ifeelgoods, Paris Blockchain Week Summit: Ifeelgoods is a digital promotions platform helping marketers incent, convert and reward their audiences with desirable gifts in real-time.
Jeffrey Kolovson
Co-Founder and COO of Faire
Jeffrey Kolovson is the co-founder and COO of Faire.
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About Faire: Faire is a company that helps retailers find and buy wholesale merchandise for their stores.
Marcelo Cortes
Co-Founder & CTO of Faire
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About Faire: Faire is a company that helps retailers find and buy wholesale merchandise for their stores.
Max Rhodes
Co-Founder and CEO of Faire
Prior to starting Faire, Max was the first product manager for several key initiatives at Square, including Square Capital ($1Bn+ deployed) and Square Cash (Square’s only Top 50-ranked app in the iOS App Store). He first came up with the idea for Faire while introducing the Blunt Umbrella to the United States.
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About Faire: Faire is a company that helps retailers find and buy wholesale merchandise for their stores.
Daniele Perito
Co-Founder and Chief Data Officer of Faire
Prior to starting Faire, Daniele led Risk and Security for Square Cash, where he designed and implemented the anti-abuse and anti-fraud systems that have made Cash possible. He holds a PhD in Computer Science with a focus on security and machine learning.
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About Faire: Faire is a company that helps retailers find and buy wholesale merchandise for their stores.
Martin Gedalin
Founder & Partner of Lumia Capital
Martin is Founder of Lumia Capital, an expansion-stage VC partnering with leading tech companies in under-invested emerging markets and forward-thinking US companies targeting these markets to accelerate growth. Previously, Martin was one of five investment professionals at Focus Ventures, a technology-focused venture capital firm in Palo Alto with ~$850M under management and ~110 expansion-stage investments across three funds. Prior to Focus, Martin was a Product Manager at Oracle Corp., where he was responsible for core components of Fusion CRM, Oracle’s next generation CRM strategy, and a $1B+ product line. Prior to these roles, Martin was a management consultant for both Siebel Systems (Customer Strategy Team) and, post acquisition, Oracle (Insight Group), where he provided strategic recommendations across people, process and technology domains to Oracle/Siebel’s top global customers. Martin began his career in Corporate Strategy at NCR Corporation. Personally, Martin is also an adviser to a number of private companies and funds.
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About Lumia Capital: Expansion-stage VC firm partnering with forward-thinking US and European innovators expanding internationally for breakout growth.
Jonathan Um
Co-Founder, COO of Hollar
Co-Founder & COO at Hollar.
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About Hollar: Hollar is an online dollar store that features toys, apparel, electronics, beauty, accessories, party supplies, to home essentials.
Eddie Rhyu
Co-Founder, Chief Creative Officer of Hollar
Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer at Hollar.
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About Hollar: Hollar is an online dollar store that features toys, apparel, electronics, beauty, accessories, party supplies, to home essentials.
Jaxon Klein
CEO, Co-Founder of Keyo
Jaxon Klein is an American businessman, entrepreneur, investor and startup advisor. Klein is currently CEO of Keyo, Inc., where he is a co-founder and former CTO. Prior to his role at Keyo, Klein founded two companies in hosting technology and web services.
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About Keyo: We place people’s identities in the palm of their hands.
Cayetana Polanco
Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer of Keyo
Cayetana Polanco is the co-founder and chief brand officer at Keyo. Prior to co-founding Keyo, Cayetana was the co-founder and COO of Invento Media. She was also the co-founder and COO of Reneweb Hosting Services. Cayetana holds a bachelor of applied science (B.A.Sc.) in public health from Beloit College.
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About Keyo: We place people’s identities in the palm of their hands.
Nevin Freeman
Co-Founder of Reserve
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About Reserve: Reserve is a universal store of value.
Diishan Imira
Founder & CEO of Mayvenn
Diishan Imira is the founder and CEO of Mayvenn, a technology company that re-shapes how sale retail products are distributed. Graduating from Georgia State’s business school in 2010, Imira has a vast background in international trade, logistics, and investment. Straight out of college, Imira lived in China for two years and built a successful import/export company, running it profitably for about four years. Imira has lived and worked in several countries, including China, France, Brazil, and Ethiopia. Imira also speaks conversational Mandarin. Imira founded Mayvenn in 2012 with co-founder Taylor Wang. The company empowers the 95 percent of African American salons that do not retail products. Their commerce solution eliminates a salon’s inventory cost and opens a new revenue stream for their business. In April 2013, Mayvenn was accepted into the 500 Startups accelerator program. When they got to the program, other entrepreneurs were confused — questioning the probable success of the startup in Silicon Valley. It was unlike anything they had seen before. But that was only half the battle for the startup geared predominantly towards black consumers. During the summer of 2013, Imira and Wang stayed in Mountain View, Calif. where they immersed themselves into the cut-throat culture of the Valley and introduced their product to several investors. By August, they had raised $750,000 in investment funding and in October 2013, Mayvenn was officially launched. As of 2015, the company had raised $3 million in venture capital funding and has a network of over 25,000 stylists. With the continued mission to involve hair stylists in the process of buying and selling products, Imira and Wang’s goal is to eventually expand Mayvenn into an online platform that sells not only hair extensions but other hair care products, as well.
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About Mayvenn: Mayvenn enables Stylists to sell products directly to their clients without the upfront costs and burdens of holding inventory.
Taylor Wang
Founder & COO of Mayvenn
Taylor Wang is Founder at Mayvenn.
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About Groop Swoop, Mayvenn: Mayvenn enables Stylists to sell products directly to their clients without the upfront costs and burdens of holding inventory.
Don Kingsborough
CEO&Founder of OneMarket
Don has been a serial entrepreneur for 30+ years and is Managing Director GM/VP Payments & Ventures at Capital One. He was formerly Head of Retail at PayPal, CEO of Worlds of Wonder and President of Atari. He was also the Founder and former CEO of Blackhawk Network. Don lives in Silicon Valley and likes to vacation in Hawaii.
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About OneMarket: OneMarket offers customer data management and activation that empowers mid-sized and emerging retailers to acquire new customers.
Sam Walton
Founder & Admin of Walmart
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About Sam’s Club, Walmart, Walmart Canada: Walmart is a multinational retail corporation that operates several chains of discount department and warehouse stores.
Shawn Dougherty
Founder, CEO of EXOIO
Shawn co-founded mophie in June 2005, just prior to the release of the first iPhone. It grew to become the #1 selling battery case manufacturer for mobile devices in North America. Working as a founder, COO, President & Board Member, mophie created the first juice pack battery case for the first-generation iPhone in North America and built an exclusive partnership with Apple. I led a team which built a solid business structure at mophie, allowing the company to thrive and withstand rapid growth, both in the U.S. and internationally. Shawn became a skilled operator and raised millions of dollars in multiple rounds of capital and debt facilities. Under Shawn’s guidance and strategic vision, the company grew from 3 employees in her barn in Kalamazoo, Michigan to a multimillion dollar business, mophie sold products into 38,000 retailer partners in 130 countries with 300+ employees with facilities in California, Michigan, China, Hong Kong and Amsterdam. As a leader, I established longstanding relationships with national and global retail partnerships and collaborations with top industry icons including Apple, Amazon, Verizon, AT&T, Best Buy, Product Red, Valentino, and Supreme. I am passionate about developing products and growing a business from the ground up was one of the most challenging yet satisfying experience of my life. By 2015, mophie revenue has reached $250+ million, and resulted in company being sold in February of 2016 to a strategic acquirer. Shawn was also a seed investor, Board Member, and Co-founder of Paw Paw Brewing company in Paw Paw, Michigan. The company was originated in 2010 and Shawn exited in March 2017. Since the sale of mophie Shawn has catching her breath, tending to personal relationships, and has also started a new company called EXOIO that allows her to spend time networking, consulting, and acting as an advisor to company of all sizes.
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About EXOIO: We help accelerate growth.
Greg Fleishman
Co-Founder & CEO + Board Member of Foodstirs
Greg Fleishman is the Co-Founder and CEO at Foodstirs.
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About Fata & Fleishman Mentorship, Foodstirs, Modern Alkeme, Purely Righteous Brands LLC, Springdale Ventures: Foodstirs is an omni-channel junk-free baking brand that helps people connect through the power of better-for-you sweet baked goods.
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer of Foodstirs
Sarah Michelle Prinze (née Gellar; born April 14, 1977) is an American actress, producer, and entrepreneur. After being spotted by an agent at the age of four in New York City, she made her acting debut in the made-for-TV movie An Invasion of Privacy (1983). Gellar went on to make several guest appearances in television series, and play small roles in films such as Funny Farm (1988). Her first leading part was in the 1992 miniseries Swans Crossing, for which she was nominated for two Young Artist Awards. Gellar’s television breakthrough came in 1993 when she originated the role of Kendall Hart on the ABC daytime soap opera All My Children, winning the 1995 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series. Gellar received widespread recognition for her portrayal of Buffy Summers on the WB series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003), which earned her five Teen Choice Awards, a Saturn Award and a Golden Globe Award nomination. The character was widely popular during the airing of the show and became recognized as one of the 100 greatest female characters in U.S. television. Gellar also gained significant attention for her appearances in the slasher movies I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream 2 (1997), and for her portrayal of Kathryn Merteuil in Cruel Intentions (1999). She appeared as Daphne Blake in Scooby-Doo (2002), her biggest live-action commercial success. In 2004, Gellar starred in the sequel Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed and the horror remake The Grudge, both of which grossed more than US$180 million worldwide. She subsequently appeared in smaller scale movies such as The Return (2006) and Southland Tales (2007) and provided her voice for TMNT (2007). Her later film credits include The Air I Breathe (2008), Possession (2009) and Veronika Decides to Die (2009). She headlined the short-lived television series Ringer (2011–2012) and The Crazy Ones (2013–2014), which co-starred Robin Williams. In 2015, she joined the cast of the animated series Star Wars Rebels for season two. In October 2015, Gellar co-founded Foodstirs with entrepreneurs Galit Laibow and Greg Fleishman. Foodstirs is a startup food crafting brand selling via e-commerce and retail easy to make organic baking mixes and kits for families. By the beginning of 2017, Foodstirs products were available in about 400 stores; by the end of the year a surge of interest from retailers increased its distribution to 8,000 stores. In 2018, the brand entered into a deal with Starbucks to carry Foodstirs mug cake mixes across 8,000 of its stores.
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About Foodstirs: Foodstirs is an omni-channel junk-free baking brand that helps people connect through the power of better-for-you sweet baked goods.
Leonard Green
Founder of Leonard Green & Partners
Leonard Green & Partners, L.P. was founded in 1989 by Leonard I. Green. Leonard was a pioneer in the development of the leveraged buyout industry. In 1969, Leonard and two partners established Gibbons, Green van Amerongen (GGvA), one of the first New York-based merchant banking firms whose sole activity was management-led, non-hostile leveraged buyouts. In 1981, Leonard opened GGvA’s Los Angeles office and later that year, helped organize GGvA’s first capital pool that would later serve as a model for our first fund. While at GGvA, Leonard participated in buyouts of 30 firms. Among the transactions he directed were the purchase of Budget Rent-A-Car Corp., Foodmaker, Inc., Horace Mann Educators Corporation, Kash n’ Karry Food Stores, Inc. and Purex Industries. Our founding partner, Leonard I. Green, died in October 2002
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About Leonard Green & Partners: Leonard Green & Partners operates as a private equity firm.
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.
James Bailey
Founder and Managing Partner of Velos Partners
James Bailey is the Founder and Managing Partner at Velos Partners.
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About Velos Partners: Velos Partners is a consumer growth capital firm investing in retail innovation, health & wellness, and luxury & entertainment.
Kim Stiefel
CEO & Co-Founder of Repeat
Kim Stiefel is the CEO and Co-Founder of PRZM.
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About Repeat: Repeat is a SaaS platform that enables consumer-packaged-goods brands to turn one-time buyers into repeat customers.
Michael Preysman
Founder and CEO of Everlane
Michael Preysman is the founder and CEO of Everlane. Prior to starting Everlane, he was an investor at Elevation Partners for both their New York and Menlo Park offices investing in media and entertainment companies. Michael enjoys sitting at the intersection of design and technology. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon with degrees in Computer Engineering and Economics.
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About Everlane: Everlane designs, manufactures, and sells clothing items for men and women via online e-commerce website.
Ryan Hudson
Co-Founder of Honey
Co-founder @ Honey
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About Honey: Honey is a shopping platform that provides access to exclusive savings, deals, rewards, and discovery.
Michia Rohrssen
Co-Founder, CEO of Prodigy
Michia Rohrssen is CEO at Prodigy, a growing Auto Startup.
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About Prodigy, Upstart: Prodigy digitizes the process to save customers’ time while improving trust and satisfaction.
Chris Clark
Co-Founder & CTO of Grove Collaborative
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About Grove Collaborative: Grove creates and curates high-performing, planet-first home and personal care products and is the leader in zero-plastic CPG.
Stuart Landesberg
Co-Founder & CEO of Grove Collaborative
Stuart Landesberg is the Co-Founder & CEO of Grove Collaborative, the leading digital-first brand & ecommerce platform for natural home and personal care. Stu has long been passionate about sustainability. He founded Grove, which has been a Certified B Corp since its founding, after learning that offline distribution meant that just a small percentage of families were choosing healthy, sustainable home care products. Grove now serves hundreds of thousands of households in the U.S. every month and has raised over $100 million in total capital. Stu was previously an investor at TPG Growth, where he was involved in over $400 million in consumer and technology investments. Stu and his wife Caitlin live in San Francisco with their daughter and dog, and spend as much time outside as possible.
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About Grove Collaborative: Grove creates and curates high-performing, planet-first home and personal care products and is the leader in zero-plastic CPG.
Jordan Savage
Co-Founder & VP, Creative of Grove Collaborative
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About Grove Collaborative: Grove creates and curates high-performing, planet-first home and personal care products and is the leader in zero-plastic CPG.
Ashvin Kumar
Co-Founder & CEO of Tophatter
Ashvin Kumar Co-founded Blippy Inc. in 2009 and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Ashvin Kumar served as the Vice President of Engineering at Affinity Circles, where he managed an engineering team across Development & QA, Operations, and Technical Support. Ashvin Kumar graduated from Stanford in 2005 with a degree in computer science.
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About Tophatter: Tophatter is revolutionizing the e-commerce landscape with a discovery shopping app that’s truly one-of-a-kind.
Chris Estreich
Co-Founder & CTO of Tophatter
Chris Estreich Co-founded Blippy Inc. in 2009 and serves as its Chief Technology Officer. Chris Estreich served as a Senior Software Engineer at Oodle helping build the platform that powers MySpace, Walmart, and Facebook Classifieds. He graduated from Stanford in 2005 with a Degree in Computer Science.
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About Tophatter: Tophatter is revolutionizing the e-commerce landscape with a discovery shopping app that’s truly one-of-a-kind.
Jonathan Shokrian
Founder & CEO of MeUndies
Jonathan Shokrian was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA.
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About MeUndies: MeUndies brings together sustainable fabric and innovative design to make soft underwear and loungewear for its customers.
Amrita Saigal
CEO & Founder of Kudos
Amrita Saigal is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kudos.
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About Kudos, Zera Life: Kudos is a retail company that offers natural disposable baby diapers with cotton liners.
Jonathan Chen
CTO & Co-Founder of Pathover
Co-Founder of FiscalNote, Inc., and Pathover. Inc. Specialized in AI & ML. Inc. 30 Under 30. D.C. 25 Under 25. Valedictorian University of Maryland, College Park.
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About FiscalNote, FiscalNote, Pathover: Pathover is an API-based intelligent optimization and logistics solution for the last mile.
Christiana Chen
CEO & Co-Founder of Pathover
This year, I was selected as one of the 40 Under 40 Women in Tech 2016. I am very excited that more and more girls are exposed to and excelled in the field of technology. I am passionate about using technologies to improve everyday life and experiences.
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About Pathover: Pathover is an API-based intelligent optimization and logistics solution for the last mile.
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.
Gower Smith
CEO & Co-Founder of Swyft
Gower Smith is the founder of ZoomSystems and Co-Chairman of the Board. Prior to starting the company in 2002, Gower founded and led several other successful technology startups, including ComputerLand (a retailer of PC and technology products, acquired by Random Access), CGF Electronics (Australian distributor for Apple computer products), Archives Computers (a networking and software company, acquired by Impact Systems), and Boomerang Imaging Supplies (a leading printing supplies business, acquired by TCR). Gower completed his radio technician certificate with the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation, and studied microprocessors at the Melbourne Institute of Technology and Caulfield Institute of Technology.
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About Swyft: Swyft sells great products from leading brands in strategic high profile locations, serving customers.
Lincoln Smith
Swyft President & Co-Founder
Lincoln co-founded Lead Creation an Australian B-B digital marketing agency before co-founding Swyft.
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About Swyft: Swyft sells great products from leading brands in strategic high profile locations, serving customers.
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.
Arvind Patel
CEO and Co-Founder of Rowzzy
Seasoned Silicon Valley executive and CEO with direct experience in managing multi-million dollar companies. Wide range of experience in tech management, raising capital, revenue growth and M&A. Tenure in technology has spread across many verticals to include Hardware, Contract Manufacturing and Software. His multilingual skills leverage his wide network. Current activity is to lead a next-gen AI platform to funding, product launch and rapid growth.
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About Rowzzy: Innovators of NVU™ a PaaS /A.I. Voice-to-Display solutions for eCommerce and beyond.
Andy Moss
Founder and CEO of Roadster
Andy Moss is CEO at Fabkids.
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About Roadster: Roadster provides consumer-driven commerce solutions for today’s modern dealership.
Trey Matteson
Co-Founder of Roadster
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About Roadster: Roadster provides consumer-driven commerce solutions for today’s modern dealership.
Vincent Lo
Co-Founder of Roadster
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About Roadster: Roadster provides consumer-driven commerce solutions for today’s modern dealership.
Mike Lenz
Co-Founder of Roadster
Mike Lenz is Vice President of Engineering at POPSUGAR. In this role, Mike oversees engineering for POPSUGAR’s commerce properties and mobile applications, which include ShopStyle by POPSUGAR and DesignerApparel. Mike was a co-founder of ShopStyle, which POPSUGAR acquired in 2007. Prior to POPSUGAR, Mike held several senior technology and management roles at Netscape, Apple, VeriSign and various startups. Mike holds a bachelor’s degree in symbolic systems and a master’s degree in computer science from Stanford University.
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About Roadster: Roadster provides consumer-driven commerce solutions for today’s modern dealership.
Mika Kozma
Co-Founder of Roadster
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About Roadster: Roadster provides consumer-driven commerce solutions for today’s modern dealership.
Jared Stein
Co-Founder & Partner of Monogram Capital Partners
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About Monogram Capital Partners: Monogram Capital Partners is a private equity investment firm focused exclusively on consumer and retail companies.
Nathan Kondamuri
Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Pair Eyewear
Nathan Kondamuri currently works as the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Pair Eyewear.
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About Pair Eyewear: Pair Eyewear is an eyewear brand designed and made specifically for children.
Lauren Caris Cohan
Co-Founder and Creative Advisor of CUUP
Lauren Caris Cohan is the Co-Founder and Creative Advisor at CUUP.
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About CUUP: CUUP is a direct to consumer startup focused on providing the essential bra for women.
Daria Shapovalova
Co-Founder of DRESSX
Daria Shapovalova is a DressX co-founder with 15+ years of experience in fashion. Called ‘Kiev Fashion’s Queen Bee’ by Vogue UK, Daria is famous for putting Ukraine on the world’s fashion map, establishing Mercedes-Benz Kiev Fashion Days and Paris-based showroom More Dash. Shapovalova merged her work with education and technology industries by founding Kiev Fashion Institute and international tech-conference Fashion Tech Summit, spearheading discussions on bridging fashion with technology. As the next career spin, Daria moved to San Francisco, got an MBA, and undertook her internship at Walmart. Daria is featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe and BOF 500 Most Influential People lists.
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About DRESSX: DRESSX is a fashion startup that offers digital-only collections from brands and 3D designers.
Natalia Modenova
Co-Founder of DRESSX
Natalia Modenova is a DressX co-founder with 10+ years of experience in the fashion industry. Natalia’s main activities include founding the international tech-conference Fashion Tech Summit and Paris-based showroom More Dash alongside Daria Shapovalova, initiating and curating showcases for promotion and sales of the designers’ collections internationally. In 2019 More Dash expanded to the US with Fashion Experience Pop-Up Stores in Los Angeles, which led Natalia and Daria to founding their first tech company DressX in 2020. Natalia dedicates a lot of her time to educational work, previously curating a Fashion Business course at Kiev Fashion Institute, and later becoming a speaker at Google Women Digital Academy.
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About DRESSX: DRESSX is a fashion startup that offers digital-only collections from brands and 3D designers.
Ariel Kaye
Founder & CEO of Parachute Home
Ariel Kaye is the Founder and CEO of Parachute, the fast-growing home essentials brand based in Venice Beach. Long intrigued by the interplay of design and wellness, Ariel established Parachute to fulfill consumers’ needs for high quality bedding and a good night’s sleep. Forbes declared that “Parachute Wins Over Millennials Tired Of Chain Store Bedding.” The brand has been called one of the “25 Hot Los Angeles Startups to Watch” by Business Insider, and has been featured in notable publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Architectural Digest and ELLE DECOR. Since it’s launch, Parachute has expanded into bath, Tabletop Linens, two storefronts (Venice Beach and Portland), The Parachute Hotel, as well as Baby. The brand’s has a projection of $30M for 2017. Prior to launching Parachute, Ariel spent ten years working in brand development and advertising in New York. Her experience yielded invaluable insight to consumer purchase behavior and the public’s growing interest in quality, craftsmanship and social responsibility – now tenets of the Parachute brand. Ariel earned a Master’s Degree in Media Studies from the New School, a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the Gallatin School at NYU. She is also a certified yoga instructor and aspiring surfer.
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About Parachute Home: Parachute Home engages in the production of modern bedding and bath essentials for a more comfortable home.
Alex Becker
Co-Founder & CRO of Amuse
Co-Founder of Amuse, a cannabis delivery company founded by some of the most influential companies in cannabis. Co-Founded Internet marketing company Highly Relevant which was acquired by Wpromote, named the Leading Performance Marketing Agency in the new Forrester Wave.
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About Amuse: Amuse is an online retailer that sells and delivers cannabis at the doorstep.
Gabrielle Chou
CEO & Co-Founder of Allure Systems
Gabrielle Chou is founder & CEO at Allure Systems.
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About Allure Systems, New York University Shanghai: Allure Systems uses AI to produce apparel images for eCommerce.
John Tabis
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of The Bouqs Company
John is passionate about disruptive businesses, cool brands, and showing love to the important people in his life. The Bouqs Company is a combination of those things, and he is thrilled to bring it to you and yours. Prior to Founding The Bouqs Company, John worked in strategy consulting at Bain & Company, followed by marketing & brand strategy for Disney, ESPN, ABC, Marvel, ShoeDazzle and Gerber Baby. John received his BS in Finance from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA from UCLA Anderson.
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About The Bouqs Company: The Bouqs Company is a cut-to-order online flower delivery service.
Zach Rosner
Co-Founder of Our Place
Zach Rosner is the co-founder and chief people officer of Our Place.
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About Our Place: Our Place is a Direct-to-consumer kitchenware company.
Donny Hall
Co-Founder & CEO of SureSale
Donny helped build successful SoCal tech companies including LowerMyBills.com, HomeLoanCenter.com and Leadpoint.com prior to building one of the largest DTC auto warranty sellers in the US which he sold to Innovative Aftermarket Systems.
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About SureSale: SureSale’s Certification as a Service platform and marketplace allow dealers and private sellers to certify and market used vehicles.
Amy Errett
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Madison Reed
Amy is a partner at True Ventures. With years of experience as a senior executive, venture capitalist, and social-mission visionary, she founded the hair color company Madison Reed in 2013. Before Madison Reed, Amy was general partner for venture capital firm Maveron where she ran the company’s Bay Area office and focused on consumer-facing companies. While CEO at Olivia, Amy was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Northern California. She founded and served as chair and CEO of The Spectrem Group, which was acquired by an IPG subsidiary, NFO Worldwide (NYSE:NFO). After the sale, she joined E*Trade where she diversified the company’s business beyond brokerage and ran a $200 million wing of the business. A passionate humanitarian, Amy is a member of San Francisco’s Barbary Coast chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization. She serves on the boards of non-profits Common Sense Media, Glide, and the University of Connecticut Foundation, in addition to several startups. A New York native, Amy earned an MBA in finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from the University of Connecticut. She is a former student athlete and fanatical UCONN Huskies fan. She and her wife, Clare, live in San Francisco with their daughter, Madison.
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About Madison Reed, True Ventures: Madison Reed is a beauty company revolutionizing the way women color their hair.
Mark Lovas
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Trumaker
Mark Lovas serves as Executive Director, Co-Founder, and Chief Executive Officer at Trumaker, Inc.
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About Trumaker: Trumaker is a new kind of men’s apparel brand where every guy gets a client
Chai Mishra
CEO & Founder of The Essential
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About The Essential: The Essential creates an altogether new grocery store for a new era.
Michael Quoc
CEO and Founder of Demand.io
Michael Quoc is the founder and CEO of Demand.io, a media lab based in Santa Monica operating a network of social commerce applications built on top of a proprietary affiliate monetization platform. The company partners with over 10,000 retailers and helps to connect them with customers who are interested in purchasing their products. Two of the company’s flagship services include Dealspotr (http://dealspotr.com), a community for finding, curating and sharing deals and coupons, and StyleSpotter (https://www.stylespotter.com) a fashion shopping community and search engine built around fashion influencers. Prior to founding ZipfWorks, Michael was the Director of Product Management at Yahoo’s media lab, also known as Brickhouse. While at Yahoo, Michael designed and launched new services including Yahoo! Live, a live video community service, and Mix’d a mobile social networking service. Prior to joining Yahoo, Michael worked at Desktop.com, an Accel, Sequoia and KKR-funded startup focused on web developer tools. Michael previously held positions at Pequot Ventures and Broadview Jefferies.
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About Dealspotr, Demand.io: Demand.io is a network of shopping platforms & experiences that create greater alignment between brands, consumers and creators.
Larry Liu
Founder & CEO of Weee!
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About Weee!: Weee! is an online grocery delivery platform that offers Hispanic and Asian foods specialty products and everyday staples.
James Freeman
Founder & CEO of Blue Bottle Coffee
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About Blue Bottle Coffee: Blue Bottle Coffee is a coffee roaster and retailer platform that delivers coffee subscriptions to doorsteps nationwide.
Shiekh Ellahi
Founder & Owner of Sheikh Shoes
Shiekh Ellahi is the Founder and Owner of Sheikh Shoes since 1991.
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About Sheikh Shoes: Shiekh Shoes began its vision of expansion in 1991.
Tristan Walker
Founder & CEO of Walker & Company Brands
Tristan Walker is the Founder and CEO Walker and Company Brands.
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About Walker & Company Brands: We make health and beauty simple for people of color.
Woodrow H. Levin
Co-Founder and CEO of Extend
Woodrow H. Levin is the Co-founder and CEO of Extend. He was the vice president for growth at DocuSign. He is also a board member at DraftKings. Previously, he served as the founder and chief executive officer of Estate Assist and BringIt. Levin holds a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Wisconsin and Juris doctorate in law from Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology. Levin lives in San Francisco, California, United States.
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About Extend: Extend provides extended warranties as a service to merchants and innovates the broken customer experience associated with them.
Joe Moss
Founder and Head of Product of Extend
Joe Moss is the Co-Founder and Head of Product at Extend. He is a former As Senior Director of Growth, Joe Moss taps into his 15+ years of experience as a product leader at early-stage startups to drive product innovation at DocuSign. Previously, Joe was a co-founder and Head of Product for Estate Assist, acquired by DocuSign in 2015. Prior to Estate Assist, he served as Head of Product at BringIt, helping grow the startup to successful acquisition by IGT. At IGT, Joe led the product team tasked with exploring new business opportunities for the Fortune 100 company. Before that, he directed the development of pioneering video game competition and community products at GGL and World Cyber Games USA. Joe earned a BA from Harvard University and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at Berkeley, and remains thrilled that he finally saw a major Cleveland sports championship in his lifetime.
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About Extend: Extend provides extended warranties as a service to merchants and innovates the broken customer experience associated with them.
Rohan Shah
Co-Founder & Head of BD & Partnerships of Extend
Rohan Shah is the Co-Founder and Head of BD & Partnerships at Extend, and an investing partner at Shah Capital Partners. Formerly led product at BCG Digital Ventures and was CEO and founder of Within.
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About Extend: Extend provides extended warranties as a service to merchants and innovates the broken customer experience associated with them.
Michael Darmousseh
Co-Founder, SVP Engineering of Extend
Michael Darmousseh is the Co-Founder and SVP of Engineering at Extend. He was an Engineering Manager and Lead Developer on the new DocuSign Payments product. The team built the DocuSign payments feature from the ground up to be robust and meet the needs of our customers. Prior to joining DocuSign, Michael lead multiple startups in engineering building new products from social video to document storage and management. He also consumed payments products previously and was excited for this opportunity. Aside from making payments successful, Michael enjoys spending time with his wife, three-year old daughter, two-year old twin boys, and one month old son at the park.
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About Extend: Extend provides extended warranties as a service to merchants and innovates the broken customer experience associated with them.
Rodney Williams
Co-Founder | Chairman of LISNR
Rodney Williams is the co-founder of SoLo Funds and LISNR.
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About LISNR, LISNR, SoLo Funds: LISNR enables secure and seamless data transmission using the most advanced ultrasonic data technology
Curtiss Pope
Founder & CEO of AisleFinder
Curtiss Pope is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer at AisleFinder LLC. As a teenager, Curtiss Pope worked as a clerk at Food 4 Less in east San Jose, Calif., gathering up shopping carts and helping customers find grocery items. He got the job to help his single mother of nine pay the bills, but it also seeded the idea for a start-up he’s launched while helping to buck a well-documented Silicon Valley trend. Pope, an 29-year-old African-American, goes up against some tough stats as he seeks funding for his company, AisleFinder, which aims to help people find items in grocery stores.
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About AisleFinder, ComicBlitz LLC, DoubleScreen: AisleFinder is the the simplest App for finding products within the supermarket.
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.
Coral Chung
Founder & CEO of Senreve
Coral Chen Chung is an entrepreneur, former strategy consultant and tech executive. Coral is currently the Co-Founder and CEO of SENREVE, a luxury brand for the millennial professional woman. SENREVE launched in November 2016 to focus on developing beautiful and versatile products that address that “wants” and “needs” of the modern woman. The company has experienced significant growth over the past 3 years and recently closed on a $16.75M Series A investment. Coral has always had a strong passion for luxury retail and consumer brands, which led her to work with the Global COO as well as the CEO of Americas for Prada on marketing, commercialization, distribution related special projects prior to the company’s IPO. Coral started her career at Bain & Company in Hong Kong where she covered the Greater China and South East Asia markets. She advised Fortune 500 companies and global private equity firms on M&A, market entry strategy, and operational improvements. She then moved to Silicon Valley, where she developed a focus on consumer brands, retail and technology. Coral also worked in corporate development at Solazyme (dba TerraVia), and was involved in developing its popular Algenist product, a top performing beauty brand currently sold at Sephora and other luxury cosmetics retailers. Coral was most recently a Principal at Medallia and helped lead the company’s retail vertical. Medallia is a big data analytics and customer experience SaaS company that last summer had a successful IPO valued at ~$4.4B. While at Medallia, she worked with leading luxury and global retail brands like Apple, Nike, Sephora, Tory Burch, and Nordstrom. She is also a supporter of the arts including the San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco Opera, the Asian Art Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. Coral is a graduate of University of Pennsylvania and The Wharton School; BA in International Studies, BS in Economics magna cum laude. Coral received her MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. She currently lives in the SF Bay Area with her husband and seven-year-old daughter. She was born in China and moved to Southern California as a child when her parents pursued their graduate studies in the US. Coral speaks Mandarin Chinese with native fluency.
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About Senreve: Senreve is a luxury handbag company for the multifaceted modern woman.
Wendy Wen
Co-Founder & COO of Senreve
Wendy Wen is a Co-Founder and serves as the Chief Operating Officer at Senreve.
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About Senreve: Senreve is a luxury handbag company for the multifaceted modern woman.
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.
Keith Belling
Founder & CEO of Right Rice
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About popchips, Right Rice: RightRice provides a tasty rice grain that’s made from vegetables.
Bradley Bogolea
Co-Founder & CEO of Simbe Robotics
Bradley Bogolea, also known as Brad, is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Simbe Robotics.
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About Simbe Robotics: Simbe Robotics builds automation solutions for shelf auditing and analytics.
Jeff Gee
Co-Founder and CDO of Simbe Robotics
Jeff Gee is the Co-Founder and Product Designer at Simbe Robotics.
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About Simbe Robotics: Simbe Robotics builds automation solutions for shelf auditing and analytics.
Mirza Shah
Co-Founder & CTO of Simbe Robotics
Mirza Shah is the Co-Founder and CTO at Simbe Robotics.
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About Simbe Robotics: Simbe Robotics builds automation solutions for shelf auditing and analytics.
Brian Ree
Founder and CEO of DAILYLOOK
Brian Ree, is an entrepreneur who has established a number of consumer online businesses. Brian started his career as an entrepreneur when he launched a business named GoldMine.com, which specialized in selling fine gold jewelry and wedding bands. After gaining experience in online marketing, Brian then launched a network of other online content properties.
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About DAILYLOOK: DAILYLOOK is a premium styling experience that delivers a personalized box of style for women.
Mike Melby
Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FITLAB
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About ELECTRIC, FITLAB, FITLAB, FITLAB, Mayweather Boxing & Fitness, XPT: FitLab powers experiences that inspire you to move.
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.
Elliott Darvish
Co-Founder, COO & CFO of Switch
Co-Founder and Co-Ceo of Switch
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About Switch: Unlimited access to luxury, designer jewelry.
Adriel Darvish
Co-Founder & CEO of Switch
Co-Founder and CEO at Switch.
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About Switch: Unlimited access to luxury, designer jewelry.
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.
Sachin Garg
Co-Founder of Saara
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About MintM, Saara: An intelligent returns management platform that uses AI-ML-powered technology to reduce and automate returns for eCommerce businesses.
Ashley Crowder
CEO & Co-Founder of VNTANA
Ashley Crowder is the co-founder and CEO of VNTANA, an industry leading augmented reality platform for creating and distributing premium mixed reality experiences. Prior to co-founding VNTANA she graduated from USC with a bachelors and masters in engineering and gained valuable manufacturing experience at Gulfstream, Northrop Grumman and BP. She leverages her engineering background to guide VNTANA’s overall direction and technology development. Ashley was featured as one of USC’s leading engineering CEOs of 2016. Ashley is a part of the Microsoft Early Developer Program along with the Microsoft Bizspark Plus program. Ashley has been a speaker at SXSW, Digital Summit, Internet Summit, Augmented World Expo, TEDx Venice, the World Economic Forum’s Global Growth Companies & Technology Pioneers, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, The Montgomery Summit, Siemer Summit, Digital LA, and others.
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About VNTANA: Democratizing 3D for the world through the only automated 3D Collaboration Platform.
Ben Conway
COO/Co-Founder of VNTANA
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About VNTANA: Democratizing 3D for the world through the only automated 3D Collaboration Platform.
Phillip Raub
Founder/Board Member of b8ta
Phillip Raub is the CEO of Model No. and also the co-founder and board member at b8ta, a software-powered retailer designed to make physical retail accessible for product makers and exciting for consumers. In his role at b8ta, he oversaw the day to day operations of the company. Previous to b8ta, Phillip held executive roles at Nest/Google, where he led the Global Channel Marketing team. Prior to Nest, Phillip spent six years at Nintendo as the Director of Retail Marketing. In addition to his years of experience at Nest and Nintendo, Phillip held various leadership roles in marketing at Gap Inc.
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About b8ta, Model No.: B8ta is a software-powered retailer designed to make physical retail accessible for all.
William Mintun
Co-Founder, EVP of Operations of b8ta
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About b8ta: B8ta is a software-powered retailer designed to make physical retail accessible for all.
Jeremy Baker
Co-Founder and CTO of Zipline
Jeremy Baker is a developer and entrepreneur who has been involved in web design, online product development, and technology startups since 1997. He has designed and developed a wide range of projects — from small, innovative sites and tools to high-traffic business applications, from the server level all the way up to the business design level. As a Senior Prototyper at Yahoo! Inc., he developed tools and programs across the company, including an innovative Prototyping and Experimentation tool that was subsequently pushed out to nearly every Yahoo! property, and which won him the Yahoo! SuperStar award in 2010. Jeremy was also a regular guest speaker at universities worldwide as part of Yahoo!’s HackU program. Jeremy is a regular speaker on topics surrounding innovation and creativity. And his work and ideas have been featured on TechCrunch.com, Mashable.com, NYTimes.com, and other high profile publications. He is currently a co-founder of a well-funded enterprise software company based in San Francisco, CA. He also runs SupporterWall.com, an innovative online fundraising tool. Jeremy speaks English, French, and Spanish and has lived in Vancouver, San Francisco, Melbourne, and Mexico City. He and his wife currently call Vancouver, Canada home.
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About SupporterWall, Zipline: Zipline is the operations platform that powers retail’s most complex work.
Melissa Wong
CEO & Co-Founder of Zipline
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About Zipline: Zipline is the operations platform that powers retail’s most complex work.
Tony Drockton
Founder/CEO/Chief Cheerleader/Executive Creative Director of Hammitt
Tony is the creative genius behind Hammitt handbags and accessories. After growing up in Ohio, earnestly manning his father’s grocery store, Tony earned his MBA from Bowling Green University. After early success with start-ups in construction and finance, he felt called to the artistic world of fashion, where he dreamed of building a succesful American brand inspired by the European model that prioritizes craftsmanship and lifelong quality.
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About Hammitt: Hammitt is a luxury accessory brand from Los Angeles with handbags at it’s heart.