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 Travel 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.
Duke Chung
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of TravelBank
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About TravelBank: TravelBank is the modern all-in-one business travel and expense management platform.
Reid Williams
Co-Founder & CTO of TravelBank
Reid Williams is CTO at TravelBank. He is an entrepreneur and full stack technologist. Prior to joining TravelBank, Reid worked at Parature as senior software engineer. Reid Williams holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Information Systems specializing in systems integration from DeVry University and a master’s degree in Information Systems Technology from The George Washington University – School of Business.
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About TravelBank: TravelBank is the modern all-in-one business travel and expense management platform.
Gwyneth Paltrow
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Goop
Gwyneth Paltrow is one of today’s most prolific and celebrated actors in both television and film. Additionally, Paltrow continues to develop her lifestle brand: Goop; wellness advice, clean beauty, fashion & home. A testament to her undeniable acting talent is Paltrow’s role in Shakespeare in Love that catapulted her into awards stardom with Best Actress honors at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards, and Academy Awards. In 2011. Gwyneth Paltrow was also honored with an Emmy Award for Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as substitute teacher Holly Holiday on Fox’s smash-hit musical series Glee. In 2013, Paltrow published her second cookbook, It’s All Good, which joined her first-ever cookbook, My Father’s Daughter (published April 2011), on the New York Times Best Sellers list. She first established her credibility in the culinary field when she cowrote Spain, A Culinary Road Trip with acclaimed chef Mario Batali.
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About Goop: Goop is a lifestyle brand providing digital content and commerce.
Shervin Pishevar
Co-Founder of Virgin Hyperloop
Shervin Pishevar is the Co-Founder at Virgin Hyperloop.
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About Airbnb, Cue, Curology, Didi, Doctor On Demand, Dollar Shave Club, Eaze, Fair, ipsy, Lyft, Opendoor, PillPack, Poshmark, Postmates by Uber, quip, Rent the Runway, Robinhood, Slack, Snap, Sofreh Capital, Virgin Hyperloop, Warby Parker: Virgin Hyperloop is a developer of a transportation technology used to deliver fast, direct, and sustainable transportation at scale.
Josh Giegel
CEO & Co-Founder of Virgin Hyperloop
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About Virgin Hyperloop: Virgin Hyperloop is a developer of a transportation technology used to deliver fast, direct, and sustainable transportation at scale.
Sunmeet Jolly
Founder & CEO of GROTU
Founder and Patent holder – GROTU mobile app @ 101 Islands LLC. Angel investor in 40 pre-IPO technology startups. Frequently invited by accelerators and angel forums to Judge startup competitions and discuss technology innovation. Former IT Consulting industry executive who sold hundreds of millions of dollars in consulting services to Fortune 500 companies working for Cap Gemini, HCL, L&T, NTT data.
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About GROTU: Patented GROTU app provides a much needed “private” collection of productivity and communication tools for friends and family social groups
Mohit Saxena
Founder & COO of Rizort
Mohit Saxena is the Founder of Rizort, Rizort is a first of its kind luxury vacation marketplace that enable users to plan and book a memorable vacation, designed and curated around specific intent and experience to create perfect memories. Prior to Rizort Mohit, was the Founder and Chief Technology Officer at InMobi. He oversaw all things tech, including infrastructure, application management, and IT during its growth and scale phase. Before InMobi, Mohit managed technology operations at Virgin Mobile, designing and deploying their post-paid billing system and their pre-paid revenue recognition system. Mohit earlier worked at AT&T and has contributed to many patents filed in the telecommunications area. Fascinated by small ideas that turned into global powerhouses, and innovation, simplicity, and the potential of technology have always been his passions. InMobi is a both a passion and a dream come true for him. Mohit has a bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. Mohit’s passion for technology doesn’t stop at work and is always on the look-out for ways that he can use it to make his life easier.
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About InMobi, Rizort: Rizort is a luxury vacation marketplace that brings immersive vacation planning and booking services for travelers.
Sachin Kanodia
Founder and CEO of Rizort
Founder & CEO at Rizort.com.
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About Rizort: Rizort is a luxury vacation marketplace that brings immersive vacation planning and booking services for travelers.
David J. La Placa
Chief Executive Officer & Founder of Intellectus Partners, LLC
David J. La Placa is the Chief Executive Officer | Founder at Intellectus Partners, LLC.
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About Forbes San Francisco Business Council, HintBox.ai, Intellectus Partners, LLC, Orbital Insight: Intellectus is an exclusive, private MFO for Entrepreneurs offering Wealth Creation&Preservation,Investment Mgmt, Venture & startup Advisory
Jay Casey
President & Co-Founder of Intellectus Partners, LLC
Experienced investor and financial professional working in various roles; including Venture & Private Equity investing, Portfolio Management, Trading, and Client Relationship Management. Experienced investor in Fixed Income, Equities, Commodities, Hedge Funds, Private Equity, and Private companies. Previous experience with First Union, Manulife Financial, Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown, and currently Intellectus Partners.
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About Intellectus Partners, LLC: Intellectus is an exclusive, private MFO for Entrepreneurs offering Wealth Creation&Preservation,Investment Mgmt, Venture & startup Advisory
Ruzwana Bashir
Founder & CEO of Peek
Ruzwana Bashir is Co-founder & CEO of Peek.com. She is a travel junkie, having navigated her way through 40 countries. She previously worked at Gilt Groupe, Art.sy, the Blackstone Group and Goldman Sachs. Ruzwana has an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Fulbright Scholar, and a BA in Economics from Oxford University, where she was President of the Oxford Union.
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About Peek: Peek is a booking software and marketplace for delightful things to do such as wine tours, watersports, skydiving, and art classes.
Rory Felton
Board Member / Co-Founder of Airmule
Rory Felton joined Feltone as Founder & Artist Manager/Partner in 2015.Rory began his career as a founder of a tech-savvy music & media company, The Militia Group, out of his USC dorm room. Within a few short years, utilizing innovative digital strategies and marketing programs, the company signed dozens of artists, grew to a team of ten, and became a partnership with Sony Music. He went on to sell millions of products, received an RIAA Certified Gold Record subsequently leading Sony to acquire the major assets.
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About Airmule, Appr.tv, Feltone: Airmule is an “On-Demand Shipping Platform” that allows users to connect and sell their unused luggage space with express shipping demand.
Mike Macadaan
Co-Founder of Urbandig Inc.
Mike Macadaan is the Product Design Leader at Facebook.
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About Ground Control, Meta, Urbandig Inc.: Off the beaten path experiences.
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.
Poseidon Ho
Founder & General Partner of Outliers Fund
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About Outliers Fund: A collective of joint research initiatives and venture funds turning science fiction into scientific facts.
Laks Srini
Co-Founder and CTO of ZeroDown
Laks Srini is the co-founder and CTO of Zenefits. Since the company’s founding in 2013, Laks has helped expand Zenefits’ business, which now serves tens of thousands of companies in 48 states, disrupting the $18 billion health insurance brokerage industry along the way. Prior to Zenefits, Laks served at SigFig and D. E. Shaw & Co. Laks graduated with a M.Sc. in Software Engineering from PSG College of Technology.
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About ZeroDown: ZeroDown is a real estate startup that focuses on providing an affordable homeownership solution.
Hari Viswanathan
Co-Founder and COO of ZeroDown
Hari Viswanathan is the co-founder and COO of Zerodown. Previously, Hari was a staff software engineer at Zenefits. He holds a PhD. in computer engineering from Rutgers University and a bachelors in electronics and communication engineering from PSG College of Technology.
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About ZeroDown: ZeroDown is a real estate startup that focuses on providing an affordable homeownership solution.
Adam Harris
CEO and Co-Founder of Cloudbeds
Adam Harris is the Co-founder and CEO of Cloudbeds. Together with Co-founder Richard Castle, Adam has led Cloudbeds from a small startup to an award-winning company that powers over 20,000 properties in 135 countries worldwide.I have a diversified finance, transmedia marketing, and web technologies background ranging from being a technology investment banker, a technology consultant to emerging business, and the founder of numerous technology start-ups.
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About Cloudbeds: Cloudbeds is a vertical SaaS business that creates cloud-based hospitality management software.
Jim Hornthal
Founder & Chairman of Triporati
Jim was the founder and chairman of Preview Travel, and served as the founding vice chairman of Travelocity.com from 2000-2002, when Sabre acquired the publicly-traded shares of Travelocity. With over 20 years of marketing and strategy experience in the travel industry, Jim has been instrumental in launching Triporati, and building their world-class management team.
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About GLIDR, Growcentia, LaunchPad Central, M34 Capital, Inc., NeuroTrainer, Revinate, Triporati, Zignal Labs: Triporati, an online travel company, helps clients find their vacation destinations via their “Destination Genome Project” platform’.
Oindril Dutta
Chief Technology Officer and Founder of AreaHype
Oindril Dutta is the Chief Technology Officer and Founder at AreaHype.
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About AreaHype, Tara AI: We connect small businesses with clients.
Jianxiong Xiao
Founder and CEO of AutoX
Jianxiong Xiao (a.k.a., Professor X) is the Founder and CEO of AutoX Inc., a high-tech company working on self-driving vehicles. AutoX’s mission is to democratize autonomy and enable autonomous driving to improve everyone’s life. Dr. Xiao has over ten years of research and engineering experience in Computer Vision, Autonomous Driving, and Robotics. In particular, he is a pioneer in the fields of 3D Deep Learning, RGB-D Recognition and Mapping, Big Data, Large-scale Crowdsourcing, and Deep Learning for Robotics. Jianxiong received a BEng. and MPhil. in Computer Science from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2009. He received his Ph.D. from the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2013. And he was an Assistant Professor at Princeton University and the founding director of the Princeton Computer Vision and Robotics Labs from 2013 to 2016. His work has received the Best Student Paper Award at the European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV) in 2012 and the Google Research Best Papers Award for 2012, and has appeared in the popular press. He was awarded the Google U.S./Canada Fellowship in Computer Vision in 2012, the MIT CSW Best Research Award in 2011, NSF/Intel VEC Research Award in 2016, and two Google Faculty Awards in 2014 and in 2015 respectively. He co-lead the MIT+Princeton joint team to participate in the Amazon Picking Challenge in 2016, and won the 3rd and 4th place worldwide. He was named to be one of the 35 Innovators Under 35 by MIT Technology Review in 2017, and one of the 12 of the most promising entrepreneurs to keep an eye on in 2018 by Next Visionaries.
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About AutoX: AutoX is a self-driving car startup that offers AI drivers to enable universal access to transportation for the people.
Peter Xu
Co-Founder of Wanderlog
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About Wanderlog: Wanderlog allows users to choose, organize, and map places in a Google Doc built just for travel planning.
Harry Yu
Co-Founder of Wanderlog
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About Wanderlog: Wanderlog allows users to choose, organize, and map places in a Google Doc built just for travel planning.
Joe Fraiman
Co-Founder and President of Lyric
Joe is a Founder & President of Lyric. He is a professional nomad, adventure traveler, a certified BBQ judge, and interior design junkie. Over the last 15 years he’s lived in countless apartments across the country — and he obsessively designed each one. Along the way he hiked 1000 miles on the Appalachian Trail, crossed Asia on the Trans-Siberian Railway, and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. Joe has worked in construction in Alaska, developed top-secret defense software in San Diego, and raised money for the world’s largest hedge fund in Connecticut. He studied computer science and philosophy at Dartmouth College and NYU.
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About Lyric: Lyric is a tech and data-powered real estate and lifestyle hospitality company for the modern business traveler.
Andrew Kitchell
CEO & Co-Founder of Lyric
Andrew Kitchell is a Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Lyric and Wheelhouse. He is a former CEO & Founder at Beyond Pricing and Founder, Product Design at 30 Words. Mr. Kitchell studied at Duke University.
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About Lyric, Wheelhouse: Lyric is a tech and data-powered real estate and lifestyle hospitality company for the modern business traveler.
David Kelso
Founder, CTO & Chairman of Beyond (formerly Beyond Pricing)
David is a former YC founder, Ember.js contributor, and experienced developer. He has built & maintained products used by millions of customers daily.
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About Beyond (formerly Beyond Pricing): #1 Revenue Management Solution for Short-Term Rental Managers and Owners to Get, Grow, and Keep Revenue
Dmitry Pistolyako
Founder of LinguaTrip
Founder at LinguaTrip
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About LinguaTrip: LinguaTrip Book language courses and student accommodation worldwide.
Chris Herndon
Co-Founder of The Guild
Chris Herndon is the Co-Founder of The Guild. He is a serial entrepreneur and amateur investor that is jamming on some hare-brained schemes that he hopes will someday dent the universe. Chris was the Co-Founder of Apartment List and served as President from 2011 to 2015. Prior to Apartment List, Chris spent several years as an investor at GTCR Golder Rauner and Goldman Sachs. He is a co-founder of the 40 Acres Group, an Austin-based real estate investment firm. He is also a co-founder of Philanthropedia, an online resource for strategic donors that was acquired by Guidestar in 2011. Chris has an MBA from Stanford University and a bachelors from the University of Texas at Austin. Hook ’em Horns!
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About Homestead Partners, The Guild: The Guild is a hospitality company that offers full-building managements and turns upscale apartments into tech-enabled hotel suites.
Henry Shi
Co-Founder of Snapcommerce
Co-Founder of Snapcommerce. Ex-Googler. Waterloo and GATech Alum
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About Snapcommerce: Snapcommerce is a commerce platform that connects price-conscious consumers to the right product deals.
William Dean Donovan
Co-Founder & Managing Director of DiamondStream Partners
Dean Donovan co-founded Volaris, Mexico’s largest domestic airline, and continues to sit on the Board of Directors, with a focus on technology transformation. The company has been listed on the NYSE since 2013, employs an Ultra Low Cost Carrier (ULCC) business model, and flies in Mexico, Canada, Central America and the US. He also co-founded Casino Marketing Alliance, a provider of marketing and analytics services to the casino industry. He helped form Metropolitan Bankgroup, where he served as Chairman of the Compensation Committee. Metropolitan was sold to Renasant in 2017. Mr. Donovan sits on the board of Stellar Labs, a software company focused on global distribution technologies for private aviation, and is the past Chairman. He also sits on the board of Prophet, a marketing consultancy, and twice served as Chair of the Special Committee during the firm’s recapitalization efforts. Mr. Donovan has also served as COO of Nimblefish Technologies, a micro-marketing technology platform and as CEO of SearchForce, a paid search workflow management and optimization platform. Prior to this, between 1989 and 2003 Mr. Donovan worked with Bain & Company, consulting to executives in the United States, Europe, Africa and Latin America. He was head of Bain’s airline practice and auto practice at various times. Mr. Donovan received his MBA with honors from the Wharton School and his B.A. from University of California Berkeley, where he graduated with Honors in Rhetoric and Economics, Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude.
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About DiamondStream Partners: DiamondStream Partners is a manager that invests in the future of travel and aviation.
Moncef Abbou
Founder of CurbStand
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About CurbStand: Seamless, cashless valet parking in Los Angeles. Pay & tip right from your phone.
Sam Nasserian
Founder & CEO of Cozymeal
Founder & CEO at Cozymeal.
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About Cozymeal: Cozymeal is the #1 marketplace for culinary experiences from cooking classes to team building events with top-rated local chefs.
Saritta Hines
CEO and Founder of TrustaBit
Holding over 13 years of experience in data analytics, Saritta Hines is a trusted leader at bridging strategic business initiatives with expert IT implementation. Saritta has successfully spearheaded projects in the tech world for industry leaders including Cymer, Allergan, Bank of Montreal, Novartis and Dow Agrosciences. Her expertise brings technical innovation and business teams together to transform the customer experience. Saritta is at the forefront of improving operational efficiency and testing new use cases through the use of blockchain technology. As the head of TrustaBit, Saritta has established a key utility for businesses to streamline the delivery of products and services to customers through smart contracts.
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About Cymer, TrustaBit: Flight disruption management solution to automate the notification and compensation process in the airline industry.
Renil Komitla
Founder & CEO of YatraGenie Services
Renil Komitla is a Founder & CEO at YatraGenie Services.
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About Terralogic, YatraGenie Services: Yatragenie.com is a travel portal and also widely called as Rural Travel Partner
Fahim Aziz
Founder & CEO of Backpack
Hacker at Backpack
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About Backpack, Kyokushin Wooster: Backpack is a website that connects travelers and shoppers globally.
Amanda Szabo
Founder & CEO of ResortPass
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About ResortPass: ResortPass is an online booking platform for access to resorts and hotels for the pool, spa, fitness, and amenities.
Chris Kemp
Founder, Chairman and CEO of Astra
Chris is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Astra where he leads the overall company strategy and direction. Previously, Chris founded several tech start-ups and served as the Chief Technology Officer of NASA, where he introduced new technologies into America’s space program and founded OpenStack, the largest and fastest growing open source project in history. While at NASA, Chris worked at the White House to develop the cloud strategy for the United States. Chris has been recognized in the Silicon Valley Business Journal “40 under 40,” the CNBC Disruptor 50 list, and received the prestigious “Federal 100” award for his service at NASA.
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About Astra, OpenStack: Astra is a rocket launch startup that provides satellite delivery and launch services.
Avery Haskell
Founder & CEO of Shuttle
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About Shuttle, TransAstra: Shuttle is an outer space travel company that offers a commercial spaceflight booking platform.
Sascha Mornell
Co-Founder & CEO of GetMyBoat
Sascha Mornell is a serial entrepreneur. He is the Co-Founder of GetMyBoat, ZigAir, and Phacil. Previously, he worked for register.com, where he served as SVP of Sales & Marketing. Mr. Mornell also worked at the National Basketball Association and Dreyer’s, Japan in Tokyo. Mr. Mornell has served as an advisor/investor to several small businesses, including Osmio (acquired by Aramark), Markmonitor, AW Media and others. Mr. Mornell graduated cum laude from UC Berkeley and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
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About GetMyBoat, SaraGEO, ZigAir: GetMyBoat is the marketplace for boat rentals, yacht charters, and on-the-water experiences.
Raf Collado
Co-Founder of GetMyBoat
Rafael Collado is a serial entrepreneur. He is the Co-Founder of GetMyBoat, ZigAir, and Phacil. Mr. Collado has founded, built, managed and sold three companies, including: Inabox, a web-based software company dedicated to web site creation tools acquired by register.com in 2000, BERN Associates, Inc., a company that provided Internet consulting, network services and content development tools to telephone companies that was acquired by Prime Cellular in 1996, and Sigma Research, a software company acquired by FastComm Communications in 1993. Mr. Collado also founded and was CEO of Protocom Devices, which he took public in 1985.Mr. Collado was an Associate Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department of The Cooper Union Institute in New York, and he attended the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn where he majored in Electrical Engineering.
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About GetMyBoat, Protocom Aviation, SaraGEO, ZigAir: GetMyBoat is the marketplace for boat rentals, yacht charters, and on-the-water experiences.
Peter Stridh
Co-Founder & Board Member of Nebula Compute
Peter Stridh is the Co-Founder & Board Member at Nebula Compute. He attended Henley Business School.
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About Nebula Compute, Nebula Compute: Space Technology Company
Mark Roboff
CEO & Co-Founder of SkyThread
As Vice President for Aerospace and Automotive at SparkCognition, Mark Roboff works across both industries to realize the potential of next-generation AI to solve critical problems and unlock new opportunities to save, pivot, and grow business worldwide. Roboff brings over fifteen years of software and AI leadership to SparkCognition, with a career split between startups and technology giants. Prior to joining SparkCognition in October 2017, Roboff was an early leader in IBM Watson Group, serving in global positions across technical sales, business development, and industry solution design. Most recently, Roboff served as IBM’s Global Solution Leader for Aerospace and Automotive, leading the design and go-to-market for transformative cognitive solutions in manufacturing and maintenance optimization. Roboff is a lifelong aviation geek and car lover, and lives to share his joint passions of flying, driving, and delivering next-generation AI.
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About SkyThread: SkyThread is an aviation consortium and technology ecosystem company enabling friction free transactions in the aviation industry.
Jonathan Murray
Co-Founder & CEO of MyVR
Co-Founder/CEO of MyVR. Co-Founder/CEO of Lift Media (acquired). Former GE manager and Six Sigma guru. Stanford MBA.
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About MyVR: MyVR, a Guesty company, is a cloud-based, multi-channel management platform for vacation rental businesses.
Mohak Nahta
Founder & CEO of Atlys
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About Atlys: Atlys makes it fast for anyone to get a visa.
Jeffrey O’Neill
Founder/CEO of Zephyr Aerospace
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About flyClever, Zephyr Aerospace: Zephyr Aerospace designs affordable lie-flat seating solutions for transportation companies.
Tony Tran
Co-Founder, CTO of Beenest
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About Beenest: Beenest is a home sharing platform for hosts to list their homes and for guests to find accommodations.
Sean Breuner
Founder & CEO of AvantStay
Serial entrepreneur, advisor and angel investor. Casper, Latch, Blast, AwayCo, Neighborly, Hippo Insurance, OpenToken, OTG Organics, Text IQ, Starcity, BarBend, Wandering Bear, Abstract VC, Mesh, Raden, OneLog
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About AvantStay: AvantStay is a technology-first hospitality brand for experiential group travel.
Reuben Doetsch
Co-Founder of AvantStay
Reuben Doetsch is the co-founder of AvantStay.
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About AvantStay: AvantStay is a technology-first hospitality brand for experiential group travel.
Jonathan Yaney
Founder & CEO of SpinLaunch
Jonathan Yaney is the founder and CEO of SpinLaunch.
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About SpinLaunch: SpinLaunch develops a kinetic launch system for sending satellites to low-Earth orbit.
Felix Ejeckam
Co-Founder and CEO of Akash Systems
Felix Ejeckam, Ph.D. co-founded Akash Systems in January 2016. Felix is a seasoned entrepreneur, electrical engineer, and venture capitalist. Prior to Akash, Felix invented GaN-on-Diamond technology in 2003 at Group4 Labs, Inc. He was Co-founder/CEO of Group4 Labs until 2013 when he sold the business to a De Beers business unit (Element Six Technologies). Prior to Group4, Felix was co-founder/CEO of venture-backed Nova Crystals, Inc., a developer and maker of next-generation semiconductor lasers and detectors for Telecom/Datacom markets. Felix began his career as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, Inc. in 1997. He has published over 100 journal and conference papers, holding many patents. Felix holds a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University with a minor in Materials Science & Engineering.
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About Akash Systems: Akash Systems is focused on developing and supplying the next generation of communications gear for space satellites.
Nicholas Cooper
Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer of Volato
Nicholas Cooper is the co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer at Volato.
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About Volato, Yoco: Volato is the modern way to buy and own a private jet, focused on 1-4 passenger flights.
Roman Pedan
Founder and CEO of Kasa Living
Roman Pedan is the Founder & CEO of Kasa Living.
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About Kasa Living: Kasa Living is a hospitality company that offers flexible accommodations for business and leisure travelers.
CMO/Co-Founder of SUPER73
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About SUPER73, SUPER73: SUPER73 is an American lifestyle adventure brand fusing motorcycle heritage and youth culture.
Osh. Agabi
Founder & CEO of Koniku
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About : Koniku merges synthetic biology with silicon to build machines that detect smells. We cyborgs capable of detecting smell.
Emmanuel Guisset
Founder of Outsite
Emmanuel Guisset is the Founder at Outsite
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About Outsite: A collection of unique work+play accommodations that cater to the growing community of entrepreneurs, business travelers.
Ondrej Panek
Co-Founder of SmartGuide
Ondrej holds MSc in cybernetics and he was #4 in cybersecurity startup Cognitive Security that got acquired by Cisco. Ondrej saw the full journey from startup inception at the university to growth and merger in a larger corporation. He is passionate about product, data analytics and marketing.
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About SmartGuide: SmartGuide B2B2C platform turns every phone into a personal tour guide that enables safe tourism recovery post-Covid.
Hiral Sanghavi
Co-Founder & CEO of Baubax
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About Baubax, Kellogg School of Management: Built-in Inflatable Neck Pillow that easily hides inside the hood of the jacket.
Daniel Lennon
Founder of Tressd
Daniel Lennon is the co-founder of Begift & Tressd
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About Begift, Natixis, Resonate Labs, Tressd: Travellers’ hair necessities delivered
Brian Nolan
Co-Founder & CEO of BookOutdoors
Brian Nolan is the Co-Founder and CEO at BookOutdoors.
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About BookOutdoors: Outdoor travel, reimagined
Brad Handler
Founder of Inspirato
As one of Inspirato’s founders, Brad focuses on corporate finance and strategic initiatives. For more than 20 years, Brad has worked at some of the world’s most exciting and innovative companies. He started his career at Apple, and later served as eBay’s first attorney during a time of tremendous growth in the online world. In 2002, he founded Exclusive Resorts with his brother Brent and served as the company’s CEO and chairman. Brad continues to bring his passion for entrepreneurship to a number of private companies. He is a lecturer at Stanford Law School and the University of Virginia School of Law. Brad earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a bachelor’s degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and a juris doctorate from the University of Virginia School of Law.
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About Inspirato: Inspirato is an innovative luxury travel and lifestyle subscription company.
Taran Syali
Founder & CEO of Zaldee, Inc
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About Zaldee, Inc: Zaldee® is an online community marketplace which connects travelers and senders. Zaldee is Airbnb of the shipping industry
Marianne Rumantir
CEO & Co-Founder of Member.id
Marianne is an aviation geek and points obsessed traveler with extensive experience working as a senior marketing and loyalty professional in multinational companies in Indonesia (HSBC), Australia (NAB, JLL) and the United States as well as establishing a number of hospitality and an e-commerce business in Australia and the US which has earned her several Awards. Passionate about making a difference, Marianne aims to change the loyalty landscape in Indonesia through innovation and creating valuable reward experiences for members while assisting companies in maximizing profits through a well-designed loyalty program.
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About Member.id: They are avid travelers and consumers.
Michael Chen
Co-Founder & CEO of WanderJaunt
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About WanderJaunt: WanderJaunt offers technology-enabled property management solutions for travelers, homeowners, and accommodations from around the world.
Barrett Glasauer
Co-Founder & CTO of WanderJaunt
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About WanderJaunt: WanderJaunt offers technology-enabled property management solutions for travelers, homeowners, and accommodations from around the world.
Andres Green
Co-Founder & COO of WanderJaunt
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About WanderJaunt: WanderJaunt offers technology-enabled property management solutions for travelers, homeowners, and accommodations from around the world.
Ryan Stobie
CEO & Founder of Adventure Bucket List
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About 500 Startups, Adventure Bucket List: Adventure Bucket List is a SaaS and e-commerce empowering adventure venders.
Blake Pridham
Co-Founder & COO of Adventure Bucket List
Blake Pridham is the Product Manager at Yervana.
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About Adventure Bucket List, Dish Cooking Studio, Yervana Services Inc: Adventure Bucket List is a SaaS and e-commerce empowering adventure venders.
Dirk Ahlborn
CEO & Co-Founder of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies
Dirk Ahlborn is the CEO and co-founder of JumpStartFund, an online crowdsourcing platform for entrepreneurial projects. He is also the CEO of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, a project initiated by Elon Musk and incubated using JumpstartFund’s crowd collaboration process. Dirk Ahlborn started his career in 1993 as an investment specialist in Berlin, Germany. After moving to Italy in 1997, he founded several companies in the alternative energy and interior design space. In 2006, he successfully sold one of these companies to a global alternative energy conglomerate. Since 2009, he is a part of the Girvan Institute of Technology a non-profit business incubator for start-up tech companies. He co-founded and became CEO of Jumpstarter in 2013, the company that developed the crowdsourcing platform JumpStartFund.
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About Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, JumpStartFund: Hyperloop Transportation Technologies is a global team that focuses on removing barriers of speed and congestion in travel.
Bibop Gabriele Gresta
CEO & Founder of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies
Bibop Gabriele Gresta is on a mission to inspire you to change the world. He is a world-renowned speaker, featured at the World Economic Forum, The United Nations, TED Talks, and other global conferences. Gresta is a respeopcted activist in Transhumanism and Ethical Entrepreneurship, specializing in mass market community building and project design, and is currently focused on human mobility. Gresta partnered with Dirk Ahlborn, CEO and co-founder of Jump Starter, Inc. as COO and Chairman and co-founder of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc. Now, as Chairman of HTT, he coordinates a team of 800+ professionals in 40 countries. HTT was the first to begin development of the Hyperloop™, and is the largest company ever built upon a collaborative business ecosystem. Gresta brings to HTT his knowledge as a developer, a venture capitalist, and inspirational business leader. He co-founded the influential startup incubator Digital Magics SPA, responsible for the start-up of more than 70 companies, in 2004 and served as its venture partner. He then pioneered the venture capital market in 2011 with two stock listed companies in U.K. and Germany with investment of more than 70 million pounds (net asset value of more than 100 million). At age 15, Gresta became Software Development Director for the multi-national Alpha Center International (Italy), leading a team that developed a disruptive super-learning system implemented in several nations. While still in his teens Gresta became a formidable producer, host and author of hit TV programs on Italian national television, founding the content production and distribution company Bibop, S.p.A. Within the company’s first two years it reached just under 4.25 million Euro in revenues. In 1999 he sold 40% of Bibop, S.p.A. to Telecom Italia for just under 6 million Euro, creating one of the first successful case histories of Italy’s new media.
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About Digital Magics, Digital Magics, Digital Magics, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Yottio: Hyperloop Transportation Technologies is a global team that focuses on removing barriers of speed and congestion in travel.
Alex Simon
Co-Founder & CEO of Elude
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About Elude: Elude takes a users travel budget and dates they can travel and shows every city in the world they can afford to get to.
Frank Scerbo
Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer of Elude
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About Elude, EON Gaming: Elude takes a users travel budget and dates they can travel and shows every city in the world they can afford to get to.
Daria Rebenok
Co- Founder, Co-CEO of Grabr
Daria Rebenok is the founder & CEO of Grabr.
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About Grabr, myWebRoom: Grabr is a global peer-to-peer shopping and delivery platform.
Jeremy Schiel
Co-Founder & CMO of Orbit Fab
Jeremy Schiel, Co-Founder, and Chief Marketing Officer of Orbit Fab is a forward-thinking international business professional with an unwavering vision and passion for the space industry. Mr. Schiel brings to a young industry his business development experience from tier one automotive manufacturing. He currently sits as Vice-Chairman of CONFERS and DARPA funded consortium establishing best practices for satellite servicing. Mr. Schiel previously worked on new business development at Deep Space Industries and Brand Delta-V. As an advocate for the Space Frontier Foundation, and as former Program Director of the Center for Space Commerce and Finance, Mr. Schiel is working to push the boundaries of the final frontier and contribute to the growth of the industry. Jeremy holds a dual degree in International Business (IB) and Management from Eastern Michigan University. He also founded the International Business Alumni Chapter connecting Eastern IB alumni together from across the globe.
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About Orbit Fab: Orbit Fab offers a supply of satellite propellant in Earth Orbit that expands the operational potential of new and existing space assets.
Anthony Leonardo
Founder & CEO of Hostie
A bootstrapping entrepreneur, Anthony started his first company 9 years ago after being fired and rehired twice by his former employer as a General Manager. Learning from his successes and failures Anthony has continued to develop his companies using his personal funds. In late 2014 Anthony saw an opportunity in home sharing and he started an Airbnb business with only 4 properties. After testing the market, he later founded airpads.com a vacation rental management company that takes the work out of vacation rentals for Airbnb hosts and homeowners. In late 2017 Anthony has been working on developing hostie.com, Hostie focuses on supporting other vacation rental management companies. Anthony has been acknowledged by his peers for his ability to create groundbreaking efforts in driving large-scale cultural change that builds organizational effectiveness and propels revenue and growth. Anthony’s colleagues consider him to be a true visionary in expansions, critical thinker and problem solver, scalability and fast growth due to his out-of-the-box forward thinking. During his free time, Anthony has worked with Protohack helping younger entrepreneurs reach and achieve their goals by hackathon events and offering problem-solving and scalability options. Anthony also enjoys working with high school students. Anthony is open to offers his time speaking and motivating others in Los Angeles and other Southern California areas.
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About Hostie: Hostie takes the work out of hosting your airbnb by providing a professional network of cohosts and software tools to manage your property.
Robbie Bhathal
Co-Founder, Founding CEO, Boardmember of Suiteness
Robbie Bhathal is the CEO and Co-Founder of Suiteness. Robbie has a background in venture finance, online innovation, scaling start-up enterprises, and over a decade of management experience. He’s also held positions at Capital One Innovation Labs, Pubmatic, Lakewood Capital and Indian Creek Capital.
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About Brightflow AI, Suiteness: Suiteness is a free-to-join hotel booking website connecting hotel rooms and suites.
Gillian Morris
Co-Founder and CEO of Hitlist
Gillian Morris is the co-founder and CEO of Hitlist.
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About Hitlist, South Park Commons, TripCommon: Hitlist is a travel app platform that serves up bargain-priced flights and travels deals.
Joost Schreve
Co-Founder & CEO of kimkim
Joost Schreve is co-founder and CEO at kimkim.
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About kimkim: Kimkim streamlines the previously painful process of planning and booking great multi-day travel experiences.
Akobir Azamovich
Co-Founder and CEO of Fourstay
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About Fourstay, Unicoaero: 4stay – SaaS enabled online marketplace for student and intern housing.
Chunbo Huang
CEO, Founder & Chairman of the Board of Citcon
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About Citcon: Citcon is a mobile payment network that enables global merchants to accept payments from consumers.
Fred Perrotta
Co-Founder of Tortuga
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About Tortuga: Carry on luggage for city travel
Fran Maier
Founder and CEO of BabyQuip
Fran Maier is CEO and Founder of BabyQuip, the leading baby gear rental service for traveling families and now offering local baby equipment cleaning services too. BabyQuip’s platform supports over 600 Quality Providers who are independent contractors who deliver and clean the baby equipment.
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About BabyQuip: BabyQuip is the leading baby gear marketplace, providing families with gear when they travel and now cleaning baby gear for local families.
Mike Rothenberg
General Partner & Founder of Rothenberg Ventures
Mike founded Rothenberg Ventures in 2012 to build communities and solve problems while a student at Harvard Business School. Mike couchsurfed across the country to raise $5m from 50 founders & CEOs for the first fund. As a student, Mike ran the fund and led the investments including Robinhood, SpaceX, Matterport, Revel Systems, and Patreon. Today, Rothenberg Ventures manages $50m with more than 100 startup holdings, three unicorns, and at least a dozen exits. In January 2015, Mike launched the River Accelerator program to help build early stage Frontier Technology startups and the Virtual Reality ecosystem. Mike is a globally recognized thought leader in Frontier Technology known for calling the Virtual Reality tipping point, and has keynoted major conferences on Frontier Technology and Virtual Reality on multiple continents. In 2016, Mike founded River Ecosystem LLC with Nick Canafax, which now operates the River Accelerator program for early-stage frontier technology startups, the River Lounge creative space in SOMA, and the River Network. Together, Rothenberg Ventures and River Ecosystem help Frontier Technology startups grow from the R&D stage and mass market adoption. As of 2017, Rothenberg Ventures is the top ranked Venture Capital firm in Frontier Technology and Virtual Reality (according to Goldman Sachs, CB Insights, and Pitchbook).
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About Rothenberg Ventures: Rothenberg Ventures invests in early-stage frontier technology startups.
Jake Teufert
Co-Founder, Chief Engineer & Chief Technology Officer of Tesseract
Jake Teufert is an experienced professional in the field of propulsion and energetic devices. His prior experience includes a diversity of programs including the Space Shuttle, SLS, Ground-based Midcourse Defense, and DARPA’s XS-1. He has worked on flight qualified rocket propulsion systems ranging from pounds to tens of thousands of pounds.
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About Benchmark Space Systems, Tesseract: Tesseract is a provider of cost effective propulsion components and systems for in-space applications.
Jeff Gibson
Founder, COO of Tesseract
Jeff Gibson has a decade of experience in aerospace systems engineering. He first worked as a Senior Engineer at Goodrich corporation on multiple rapid development projects for precision guided munitions. In 2013, he joined Masten Space Systems as the Lead GNC Systems Engineer, where he also served as Technical Lead on the DARPA XS-1 program, and GNC/Avionics/Software Lead for Masten’s effort on the NASA Lunar CATALYST program. Jeff was the pilot/operator for over a hundred VTVL rocket flights and static engine tests. He has extensive experience in design, simulation, integration, testing, and project leadership.
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About Benchmark Space Systems, Tesseract: Tesseract is a provider of cost effective propulsion components and systems for in-space applications.
Matthew Rosenberg
Co-Founder of Welcome: Real time travel plans
Matthew Rosenberg is the Co-Founder at Welcome.
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About Welcome: Real time travel plans: Welcome: Real time travel plans is a real-time travel plans powered by friends & Artificial Intelligence.
Garib Mehdiyev
CTO & Co-Founder of WeTravel
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About Teach For India, WeTravel: WeTravel is an online payment platform that offers organizers with pre-departure tools to collect funds and organize logistics.
Johannes Köppel
CEO & Co-Founder of WeTravel
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About WeTravel: WeTravel is an online payment platform that offers organizers with pre-departure tools to collect funds and organize logistics.
Zaky Prabowo
Co-Founder and CMO of WeTravel
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About Indorelawan, WeTravel: WeTravel is an online payment platform that offers organizers with pre-departure tools to collect funds and organize logistics.
Justin Myers
CEO & Co-Founder of Explorest
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About Explorest: Explorest is an app used by photographers and travelers to promote beautiful locations.
Stephen Grabowski
CEO and Co-Founder of Gordian Software
Stephen Grabowski is the CEO and co-founder of Gordian Software. Prior to that, Stephen worked at Skyscanner. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science.
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About Gordian Software: Gordian Software builds APIs for travel websites, serving over 10m passengers per month two of the three largest travel sites in the world.
Tim Choate
CEO, Founder of RedAwning
Tim Choate is a CEO and co-Founder at RedAwning
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About RedAwning: RedAwning is an online travel agency that enables tourists to search and book vacation homes around the world.
Scott Gatz
CEO, Founder of Q.Digital
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About Q.Digital: Q.Digital is a leading media company for the LGBTQ community, responsible for GayCities, Queerty, LGBTQ Nation and Into
John Ramey
Co-Founder of Nomadic Mentors
John Ramey is a founder, investor, mentor, and product nerd from San Francisco. He was most recently the Founder, CEO, and Chairman of [isocket](http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/isocket) (acquired 2014) and is the Founder of Nomadic Mentors, a nonprofit that connects traveling mentors with developing ecosystems around the world. A three-time successful founder, John was the youngest entrepreneur in the world to raise VC in 2009. In 2012 he was awarded by the White House / US Chamber of Commerce as one of the top entrepreneurs in the US under 30. He previously founded Maven Ventures, Lythargic Media, and electronicfood.com.
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About ADVON Partners, Nomadic Mentors: Non-profit connecting top startup mentors with developing ecosystems
Lola Vega
Co-Founder of GfK
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About GfK: GfK is a market research institute in Germany.
Jordi Torras
Founder & CEO of Inbenta
Jordi started his entrepreneurial career in 1997 (after drinking half a bottle whiskey with his brother, who drank the other half). Together they founded SBD in Barcelona, a professional services firm who had over 200 consultants by 2004 and was acquired by the French firm Alten Technologies. Jordi then founded Inbenta in 2005 to help customers improve online relationships with their customers using revolutionary technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing. The first beta version of the Inbenta Semantic Search Engine was released in 2010, thanks to an awesome team composed of linguists, software architects and customer care specialists. In 2012, Jordi moved to California to continue the growth of Inbenta.
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About Inbenta: Inbenta is a cloud-based, AI-powered Natural Language Search for customer support and E-Commerce.
Ryan Holmes
Founder and CEO of SpaceVR
Ryan Holmes, CEO, SpaceVR is the world’s first virtual reality platform allowing users to #BeAnAstronaut and experience space firsthand from any mobile, desktop or virtual reality device. Through the use of 360-degree cameras, SpaceVR technology feeds footage from low earth orbit back to Earth so consumers can experience space travel in immersive virtual reality.
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About SpaceVR: SpaceVR is a virtual reality (VR) experience in zero gravity floatation, delivering cinematic, virtual space, therapy and super learning.
Ashish Agrawal
Founder & CEO of RoomLion.com
Ashish Agrawal is the Founder, Janitor and everything in between at Scrappy Ventures. Prior to founding Scrappy, Ashish worked with Google where he managed teams ranging from sales & operations to engineering & research – mostly at the California headquarters. Prior to Google, Ashish’s diverse experience includes advising online real estate firms in the US, managing a business in corrugated packaging, providing consulting services to universities in the US, and performing bioinformatics research at Los Alamos National Lab. Ashish obtained his MBA from Carnegie Mellon University, Masters in Computer Science from University of New Mexico and Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pune.
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About RoomLion.com: RoomLion offers an online platform that enables its users to find and book serviced apartments and temporary housings.
Ross Weber
CEO, Co-Founder of ClickTripz
Internet Entrepreneur with focus in the travel vertical.
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About ClickTripz: Travel technology company that builds innovative software solutions to serve the needs of suppliers, publishers, advertisers and travelers.
David Lee
Co-Founder of Globaleur
David Lee is the Co-Founder and CEO at Globaleur.
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About Globaleur: Globaleur provides digital infrastructure driven by AI for companies in Travel & Hospitality and Mobility
Guhan Wang
Co-Founder of Globaleur
Guhan Wang is the Co-Founder at Globaleur.
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About Globaleur: Globaleur provides digital infrastructure driven by AI for companies in Travel & Hospitality and Mobility
