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 New York, New York based CEO’ operating in the Internet space. If you think a CEO’ 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.
Alex Chung
Co-Founder & CEO of Giphy
Alex Chung is currently the founder and CEO of GIPHY. His latest startups include Artspace, a leading ecommerce destination for contemporary art, The Fridge, a private social network acquired by Google, and General Displays a GE venture developing GE’s next generation of HDTVs. He has also directed media technology for MTV, NBC, Comcast, Charter, and managed future technologies for Paul Allen’s R&D lab. He was one of the early architects of interactive television and started his career as a hardware engineer at Intel. He was named on Business Insider’s Top 25 most influential technologists in New York and has degrees in philosophy, electrical/computer engineering, and graphic design.
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About Giphy: Giphy is an online database and search engine that allows users to search, share, and discover GIFs.
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Clark Valberg
Co-Founder & CEO of InVision
Clark Valberg is the CEO and Co-Founder of InVision, the digital product design platform used to make the world’s best customer experiences. InVision is the cornerstone of the product design process for more than 3 million people at tens of thousands of companies, including eighty percent of the Fortune 100 and brands like Airbnb, Amazon, HBO, Netflix, Slack, Starbucks and Uber. He is a former Co-Founder of Epicenter Consulting.
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About InVision: InVision is the visual collaboration platform powering the world’s smartest companies.
Avishai Abrahami
Co-Founder & CEO of Wix
Avishai Abrahami is our Co-Founder, has served as our Chief Executive Officer since September 2010 and was our Co-Chief Executive Officer and a director since October 2006. From 2004 to 2006, Avishai was the Vice President of Strategic Alliances at Arel Communications & Software Ltd., a private Israeli company specializing in communication technology. In 1998 he co-founded Sphera Corporation, a private company which develops software for managing data centers, and he served as its Chief Technology Officer from 1998 until 2000 and its Vice President of Product Marketing from 2000 until 2003. In 1993, he co-founded AIT Ltd., a private Israeli software company, and served as its Chief Technology Officer until the company’s sale in 1997. Avishai served in the Israeli Defense Forces’ elite computer intelligence unit from 1990 until 1992.
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About Utsav Kraft, Wix: Wix provides a platform for the development of cloud data services for millions of registered users worldwide.
Richard Smullen
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Pypestream
Richard is the CEO and founder of Pypestream, a secure mobile messaging platform that uses real-time chat to transform the way brands and businesses connect with customers. Through ‘Pypes’ listed in a searchable catalogue, businesses are provided with a direct connection to their customers for increased engagement, automated customer service, and in-message payment processing. The ultimate customer engagement tool, further loyalty is derived by using proprietary AI and chatbot technology to allow conversations at scale. A serial entrepreneur, Richard previously co-founded Genesis Media LLC, a real-time video advertising platform, and is a board member of SouthWinston LLC, a New York-based, global private equity and VC fund.
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About dhomain llc, Pypestream, SouthWinston: Pypestream is conversational artificial intelligence built for scale.
Rishi Malhotra
Co-Founder & CEO of JioSaavn
Rishi Malhotra is Co-Founder and CEO of Saavn, India’s leading music streaming service. Rishi has led the company through significant and rapid user growth, while helping to secure partnerships with companies like Twitter, Facebook, Google, Shazam, T-Mobile, and Sonos. He is focused on driving the global Saavn team to deliver award-winning mobile products, big data systems for media, and industry-defining business innovation. Saavn is on track to become one of the largest streaming music companies in the world by 2017. Saavn is backed by leading institutional investors including Tiger Global, Bertelsmann Media, Liberty Media, Steadview Capital, and Mousse Partners. Previously, Rishi was VP, HBO On Demand and Multi-Platform for Home Box Office, Inc., where he pioneered HBO’s SVOD products, digital distribution, and original VOD content for many HBO franchises.
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About [212]Media, JioSaavn: Saavn is a music streaming service for Indian, Bollywood, and International content.
Joey Levin
CEO of IAC
Appointed to the position in June 2015, Levin is responsible for the strategic leadership of IAC and its operating businesses. In addition, he serves on the Board of Directors of IAC. Prior to this, Joey Levin was the CEO of IAC Search & Applications, overseeing the desktop software, mobile applications, and media properties that comprise IACs Search & Applications segment and was responsible for setting overall strategy and maximizing opportunities across IACs Search and Applications brands. In November 2009, Levin was appointed as CEO of Mindspark Interactive Network, a consumer software company that builds, markets and delivers a wide range of consumer software products. Prior to this, Levin served as Senior Vice President, Mergers & Acquisitions and Finance for IAC, and has held various roles within IAC since joining the company in 2003.
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About IAC, TurnKey Vacation Rentals: IAC is a media and Internet company with more than 150 brands and products serving consumer audiences.
Bridget Osetinsky
Founder & CEO of Hyperfine
Bridget is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Hyperfine. She earned her Juris Doctor from Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law in 2011 and her Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of Notre Dame in 2007.
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About Hyperfine: Advanced Analytics For Precision Medicine
Alexia Brue
Co-founder & CEO of Wellgood
Alexia Brue is co-founder and CEO of pioneering wellness media company Well+Good. She guides the company’s strategic direction and leads the revenue and business development functions.
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About Leaf Group, Wellgood: Wellgood is an organization that writes articles about exercise and healthy living.
Salah Zalatimo
Chief Executive Officer & Founder of Voice
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About Camerama, Forbes, Voice: Voice is a platform that redefines media by cultivating creation, sharing, discovery and promotion of content by real users.
Chris Beals
CEO and President of Weedmaps
Christopher Beals is the chief executive officer of Weedmaps. Prior to being CEO, he first serves as the company’s president and general counsel from 2015 until his appointment in March 2019.
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About Weedmaps, WM Technology: Weedmaps is the world’s first marijuana technology and media brand.
Colin Darretta
CEO & Co-Founder of Innovation Department
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About DojoMojo, Entrepreneur Media, Fast Company, Finn, Grummies, Innovation Department, Innovation Department, WellPath: Innovation Department is a brand studio dedicated to building great companies that will have a long-lasting impact on the way we live.
Alex Song
CEO/Founder of Innovation Department
Alexander Song is the Founder and CEO of Innovation Department, a technology and investment company that creates and develops E-commerce, Media, and SaaS companies. Based in Soho, New York, Innovation Department both creates companies that solve practical, real-world problems and equips early-stage founders with the capital, people, and resources they need to bring their ideas to life. Alex is also the CEO of DojoMojo, a Partnership Marketing Platform with over 1,400 brands. Alex studied Business Administration at the University of California, Berkeley, graduating with Highest Honors, and moved to New York in 2004. He spent 6 years with Goldman Sachs in the Financial Institutions, Investment Banking Division, and was then promoted to join Goldman’s Principal Investment Area, an $20bn private equity fund. Alex then joined Pershing Square Capital Management, a $15bn long-short equity hedge fund, where he focused on public equity investments. Alex’s background in finance brings a unique perspective as he serves not only as an investor, but as strategic counsel to many of the brands he has invested in. Under Alex’s leadership, Innovation Department has helped build a number of companies including WineAwesomeness, WellPath, DojoMojo, ReBloom, Cinematique, and Valyrian Media. Alex has also invested in Pinterest, Dropbox, Lyft, ClassPass, Rubicon Global, and Aloha. Alex continues to pursue technology and venture opportunities regularly.
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About DojoMojo, Innovation Department: Innovation Department is a brand studio dedicated to building great companies that will have a long-lasting impact on the way we live.
Robert Bowman
CEO & President of MLB Advanced Media
Bob Bowman was appointed President, Business & Media of Major League Baseball by Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr. on December 4, 2014. He directs revenue-generating and media rights activities across all MLB entities while continuing to oversee MLB Advanced Media, LP (MLBAM) and MLB Network. Bowman has been President & Chief Executive Officer of MLBAM, the league’s world-class technology company, since its inception in 2000. Bowman joined MLBAM in 2000 following two years of work in the Internet space. He took on oversight of MLB Network in 2014. MLBAM was created in January 2000, when the owners of the 30 Major League Clubs voted to follow the recommendation of Commissioner Selig and centralize all of Baseball’s Internet and Interactive Media operations under one roof. MLBAM operates the official League site, MLB.com, as well as each of the 30 individual team sites. It also develops, deploys and distributes the highest grossing iOS app, At Bat, as well as manages live video content for dozens of clients. In 2014, MLBAM captured, encoded and distributed 30,000 live video events. MLB.com is an award-winning multimedia business at the forefront of the digital revolution. Prior to joining MLBAM, Mr. Bowman was President and Chief Operating Officer of ITT Corporation, one of the world’s largest and preeminent conglomerates. He joined ITT in 1991 as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of ITT Sheraton, the Boston-based global hotel network. In 1992, he was named Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the parent company before being named President and Chief Operating Officer in 1995. Following the trivestiture of the Company’s business divisions in 1995, Mr. Bowman successfully oversaw the growth and operations of the $8 billion conglomerate until its merger with Starwood Hotels and Resorts in 1998. During his tenure, Mr. Bowman and the senior management team at ITT created more than $25 billion of value for the company’s shareholders. Before joining ITT, Bowman served as Treasurer for the State of Michigan from 1983-1991. The youngest State Treasurer in the nation at the time of his appointment, during his eight-year term, the State’s pension system grew from $6 billion to $19 billion in asset value, and improved the State’s credit rating from BBB to AA. Immediately prior to his appointment in Michigan, Bowman also worked as a municipal finance investment banker with Goldman Sachs & Company, and from 1979 to 1981 he served in the U.S. Department of the Treasury as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Domestic Finance. In that role, he worked on both the New York City Loan Guarantee Act and the Chrysler Loan Guarantee Act. A native of Milwaukee, Bowman graduated from Harvard College in 1977, and received his M.B.A. from The Wharton School in 1979. Bowman serves as President of the Michigan Education Trust and is a member of the Board of Directors of Take-Two Interactive Corp., and ViaSat, Inc.
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About MLB Advanced Media, Openwave Systems: MLB.TV is a website that offers news, schedules, standings, and statistics related to baseball.
Trung Pham
Founder, CEO of RYSE
Co-founder of a rapidly growing entertainment app in Toronto, also part-time stunt double for Elon Musk.
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About RYSE: RYSE is an IoT company that develops smart shade solutions. We are the world’s most intelligent window shade automation platform.
Mrinal Manohar
CEO and Co-founder of ADAPtive Holdings
Mrinal Manohar is a co-founder and CEO at ADAPtive Holdings, the parent company of CasperLabs.
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About ADAPtive Holdings: ADAPtive Holdings the parent company of CasperLabs.
Saagar Govil
CEO & Chairman of Cemtrex
Presently the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cemtrex Inc. (NASDAQ: CETX), a world leading diversified manufacturing and technology company, since December 2011. He has been working at Cemtrex since 2008, initially as a field engineer, subsequently moving into sales and management roles. Under his leadership he has spearheaded the company’s transition into new markets and product lines growing the business from $3M in revenues to over $100M. During his time as a leader at the company, the company earned a spot on the Deloitte Fast 500 Technology companies list in 2012, 2015, and 2016 while growing over 3000% in revenue. Cemtrex has over 550 employees in 8 offices worldwide. His most recent project is the SmartDesk, a breakthrough IoT product thats reinventing the personal workspace.
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About Cemtrex, Vicon Industries: Cemtrex drives innovation in many sectors, including smart tech, VR & AR, advanced electronic systems, and intelligent security systems.
Steven Gottfried
Founder & CEO of Equip ID
Steven Gottfried is a co-founder of ReTool Ventures, and EquipID. He is also the Chairman of UtilizeCore. Prior Steven was the CEO of ServiceChannel, and Executive Managing Director of ServiceChannel Ventures (SCV). Steven has more than three decades of experience in facilities maintenance-focused technology and entrepreneurship. Previous to founding ServiceChannel, Steven founded and sold, ServiceTechnologies Inc., an enterprise resource planning solution designed for service contractors. Steven was also CEO at Capital Electronics, Inc., another company he founded and sold to Emcor in the late 80s. Collaboratively, Steven and Serge have raised 100s of millions in capital from prestigious venture capital firms. Most recently, they raised 54m from Accel to fuel ServiceChannel and EquipID from Contour Ventures.
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About Equip ID, ReTool Ventures: Equip ID connects mechanical equipment to the digital world using NFC tags to deliver equipment-specific data and supportive content.
Tiffany Pham
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mogul
Tiffany Pham is the Founder & CEO of Mogul, an award-winning worldwide platform enabling women to connect, share information, and access knowledge from each other. A coder, she developed the first version of Mogul, which now reaches 18 million women per week from over 196 countries and 30,470 cities worldwide. Mogul was named one of the Most Exciting Startups of 2016 by Business Insider, one of the Top NYC Startups to Watch by Entrepreneur Magazine, named one of the Best Websites for Finding Top Talent by Inc. Magazine, one of the Top Websites for Marketing Your Company Online by Forbes, and has been honored and recognized by Bustle, City of Fort Worth, City of New York, City of Paris, and Harvard Business School. Tiffany was named one of Forbes “30 Under 30” in Media, Business Insider “30 Most Important Women Under 30” in Technology, ELLE Magazine “30 Women Under 30 Who Are Changing the World,” Good Housekeeping “Awesome Women Award” Winner, Alice Paul “Equality Award” Honoree, Cadillac “IVY Innovator” Award Winner, SmartCEO Magazine “Smart CEO Award” Winner, “Innovation & Inclusion Award” Winner for Social Entrepreneurship, NY Business Journal “Woman of Influence” Winner, Tribeca Film Festival “Innovation Award” Fellow, and SE “Top 100 Social Entrepreneur.”
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About Columbia University in the City of New York, Discovery, Macmillan, Mogul, Mogul Global Fund, Simon & Schuster: At Mogul, our vision is to unlock the world’s greatest potential.
Michael Oved
CEO, Co-Founder of Fluidity
Michael Oved is the CEO and Co-Founder at Fluidity and a Co-Founder at AirSwap.
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About AirSwap, Fluidity: Fluidity bridges traditional finance to decentralized infrastructure.
Joy Tang
CEO & Founder of mai (Markable AI)
Joy Tang is the CEO and founder of Markable.ai, the leading AI computer vision company for the retail sector. It has raised over $5.2M and closing another $6M round from tier one global VCs with billion dollar clients on most continents. Before building Markable’s world class team, Joy won a Gold Medal in Math Olympics in China at age 16 and was the TV anchor of a Chinese television program for ten years. Joy then attended MIT on a full scholarship, with majors in math and economics. Joy sold her first start up, a social media platform for international students built together with Berkeley students to a Chinese company in her last year of college. After college, she worked as a lead machine learning quantitative scientist for seven years that built financial high frequency AI trading programs generating a daily six-figure profit while causing traditional wall street to crash in 2008. Joy left high frequency trading to create Markable.ai, upon noticing a huge gap in the market between e-commerce and digital content. This gap inspired her to develop the AI technology to make all forms of visual digital content such as photos, videos and livestream content immediately shoppable. Markable.ai has a goal to deliver the ultimate shopping therapy for consumers; the future of AI driven fast e-commerce; and the future of AI driven green, user-engaged advertising.
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About mai (Markable AI): Mai is the leading AI visual discovery shopping engine that makes any photo or video content shoppable
Anil Dash
Chief Executive Officer of Glitch
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About Glitch, Monegraph, Stack Overflow: Glitch is the friendly community where everyone builds the web.
Brian Berger
Founder & CEO of Mack Weldon
Brian Berger is founder & CEO of Mack Weldon
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About BDB Ventures, Mack Weldon: Mack Weldon is an e-commerce company that sells men’s underwear, t-shirts, and socks.
Liz Wessel
Co-Founder & CEO of WayUp
Liz Wessel loves helping people get hired. She is the Co-Founder and CEO of WayUp, the go-to platform used by millions of early-career professionals to get hired, and by thousands of employers to scale their early career recruiting without scaling their recruiting teams — all with an emphasis on diversity and candidate experience. Founded in July 2014, WayUp is a venture-backed startup based in NYC that has raised over $30M and was named by CNN as one of the 30 most innovative companies changing the world. WayUp has worked with top companies — including Fortune 500s, startups, and nonprofits — to help them reach, recruit, and engage with the next generation of talent. Liz has been featured as one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30, named one of the “18 Coolest Women in Silicon Valley” by Business Insider, and one of New York Business Journal’s “Most Influential Women.” Liz has been a featured speaker at TedX, the Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit, TechCrunch Disrupt, SXSW, and several other notable events. Before founding WayUp, Liz worked at Google as a Product Marketing Manager in California and India.
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About WayUp: WayUp connects students with jobs during and after college — from summer internships to part-time gigs to full-time jobs after graduation.
Rufus Griscom
CEO & Founder of Next Big Idea Club
I am in an immersive period right now, spending a lot of time talking with people doing innovative things in online media … happy to connect.
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About Next Big Idea Club: Next Big Idea Club is a subscription book club.
Howard Yeh
Co-Founder, CEO & Board Director of HealthCare.com
Howard Yeh Online marketing entrepreneur and investor. President and Founder of HealthCare.com (Healthcare, Inc.). Founder of ContactUs.com, Inc. (2012), former co-founder of BrokersWeb (a 2x Inc 500 performance marketing company). Former venture capitalist at VantagePoint Capital Partners. Former investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Howard blogs at www.howardyeh.com.
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About HealthCare.com: HealthCare.com is an insurtech platform that allows users to analyze health insurance options that are available in their area.
Kathryn Minshew
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of The Muse
Kathryn Minshew is the CEO & Founder of The Muse.
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About Penguin Random House, The Muse, XFactor Ventures: The Muse is an internet company that offers an online career platform that provides job listings and advice to people.
Amir Schlachet
Co-founder & CEO of Global-e
Amir Schlachet is Co-founder & CEO at Global-e.
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About Global-e: Global-e is cross-border e-commerce enablement platform that enables brands and retailers to deliver purchase experiences to customers.
Jeremy Levy
Co-Founder & CEO of Indicative
Mr. Jeremy Levy co-founded Indicative, Inc. in 2013 and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Levy co-founded meetMoi, LLC and served as its Chief Technology Officer. Mr. Levy oversaw meetMoi’s technical architecture and engineering. Prior to meetMoi, he worked for Morgan Stanley, where he helped design and build the content management, workflow and trade approval systems. He has over 10 years of experience in the full life-cycle of software development ranging from design to execution. Prior to meetMoi, Mr. Levy served as software architect working in industries ranging from pharmaceuticals to finance. He worked for Pfizer, where he designed and implementED its Intranet portal for its 12,000 person sales force. He began his career as a developer at Joltage, an infrastructure services business. Mr. Levy holds a BS from Syracuse University.
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About Deciding by Data Podcast, Indicative: SaaS company that provides behavioral analytics solutions.
Julie Anne Quay
Founder and CEO of VFILES
Julie Anne Quay is VFILES Founder and CEO and has over 20 years of experience in the fashion and media industries. Quay was Executive Editor for V Magazine before founding VFILES, and has worked for VH1, Vogue Japan and Australia, style.com, Steven Meisel, Richard Avedon, and more leading industry figures.
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About VFILES: VFILES—connect, discover, collaborate, and be a part of what’s next.
John Xie
Co-Founder & CEO of Taskade
John Xie is the Co-Founder & CEO at Taskade.
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About Forem, GitStart, Laserfocus, Outlier, Taskade: Taskade is a real-time organization and collaboration tool for distributed teams.
Tim Armstrong
Founder, CEO of the dtx company
Tim Armstrong is the Founder and CEO of the dtx company, where he is focused on empowering consumers and brands to build direct relationships. Armstrong founded a Boston newspaper after graduating from Connecticut College. In 1995, he moved to Seattle to join Paul Allen’s first internet company, Starwave, which was acquired by Disney. Armstrong moved to New York with Disney and worked at ABC/ESPN Internet Ventures. After Disney, he joined Florida Governor Rick Scott’s health-focused cable and internet company, America’s Health Network, which was later sold to News Corp. Armstrong then went on to be a founding team member of Snowball, which went on to IPO on the Nasdaq. Armstrong left Snowball in 2000 to join Google as its first New York employee; he left Google after almost a decade serving as President of the Americas and as a member of Google’s global executive team. He joined AOL as Chairman and CEO to spin the company out of Time Warner and launch AOL as a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. After turning AOL around and outperforming the S&P 500 during his tenure as CEO, he sold the company to Verizon Communications. Armstrong joined Verizon as CEO of its digital media division, Oath, and served as a member of its executive team. Armstrong serves on the boards of Booking Holdings (NASDAQ), Tech:NYC as co-founder, Greenwich Academy for Girls as Chairman, Connecticut College Athletic Club as co-founder, Waterside School and US Olympic & Paralympic Foundation as trustee. He also serves as a loving husband and dad, as well as lacrosse and basketball coach. Armstrong is an avid New England sports fan and Massachusetts native. He is part Camel (Connecticut College graduate) and part Spartan (Lawrence Academy graduate).
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About AOL, Tech:NYC, the dtx company: Our mission is direct to everything. Our products Flowcode and Flowpage create direct connections between consumers and brands.
Robert LoCascio
Founder & CEO of LivePerson
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About LivePerson: LivePerson provides real-time intelligent customer engagement solutions that help companies enhance the relationship with their customers.
Aaron Schildkrout
Co-CEO & Co-Founder of HowAboutwe
Investor – Bowery Farming, Looker, Forward, … Boards – KeepTruckin’, Noom, Tala, AngelList Talent Advisor – The New York Times, Blink Health, Better Mortage, … Former Uber leader (ran Growth, Marketing, Driver Product, and Data) Former co-CEO/Founder @howaboutwe Former teacher at Codman Academy Charter Public School
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About HowAboutwe: HowAboutWe is an online platform that recommends dating activities for individuals.
Muneeb Ali
CEO & Co-founder of Stacks
Muneeb Ali received his PhD in Computer Science from Princeton University specializing in distributed systems.He went through Y Combinator, worked as a researcher at Princeton and PlanetLab—the world’s first and largest cloud computing testbed. He was awarded a J. William Fulbright Fellowship and gives guest lectures on cloud computing at Princeton.
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About OneName, Stacks: Stacks is an app development company which builds bitcoin app, smart contracts, and digital assets.
Sarita James
CEO of Embark Corporation
Sarita James is Embark’s CEO, responsible for management of the company with a focus on growth. Prior to Embark, Sarita held executive roles at Citigroup, including Chief Operating Officer of Citi Ventures. She has experience building software at Microsoft Corporation where she received two patents and advising technology companies as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. Sarita has a passion for education and the public sector. Under the Obama administration, she served as a White House Fellow and Acting Branch Chief of the Small Business Administration’s Microloan program. During Mayor Bloomberg’s second term, she ran the Strategy and Policy division for New York City Economic Development Corporation. Sarita received a B.A. in Computer Science from Harvard College and her M.B.A. from Oxford University’s Said Business School.
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About Embark Corporation: Embark connects students with educational opportunity. We provide online admissions software and free financial aid assistance for students.
Jonathan Finkelstein
Founder & CEO of Credly
Jonathan Finkelstein is founder and CEO of Credly. The company’s enterprise-class digital credential platforms enable thousands of organizations to recognize, reward and market skills and achievement. As founder of LearningTimes, Jonathan’s work has helped hundreds of mission-driven organizations produce and launch innovative online programs, products and platforms that have impacted the lives of millions of learners. Jonathan is also the founder of the popular open source BadgeOS project. Prior to LearningTimes, Jonathan was co-founder and Sr. Vice President of Product Development at HorizonLive (now Blackboard). Jonathan is author of Learning in Real Time (Wiley), contributing author to The Digital Museum (AAM), and recently co-authored a report for the US Department of Education on the potential for digital badges. Jonathan is a frequent speaker on digital credentials, Open Badges, and the future of learning and workforce development. Jonathan graduated with honors from Harvard University.
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About Credly: Credly is a platform for verifying, sharing, and managing digital badges and credentials.
Eric Berry
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of TripleLift
Eric Berry is a Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of TripleLift, Inc. Eric Berry is building the TripleLift, Inc. to be the leader in social and visual amplification. Prior to TripleLift, he was a Leader on the client services and product architecture teams at AppNexus, and was an Attorney at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. Eric Berry received Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Computer Science from MIT and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.
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About TripleLift: TripleLift is the programmatic technology company for native, branded content and OTT.
Neil Vogel
Chief Executive Officer of Dotdash
Neil Vogel is the CEO Dotdash.
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About Diskbase, Dotdash, FirstMark, The Balance, VeryWell: Dotdash’s vibrant brands help over 100 million users each month find answers, solve problems, and get inspired.
Adam Eskin
Founder & CEO of Dig Inn
Adam Eskin is the Founder & CEO at Dig Inn.
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About Dig Inn: We serve real food—mostly vegetables—that’s grown by farmers, cooked by chefs, and inspired by the seasons. 🥕
John Furneaux
CEO of Hive
John Furneaux is a Co-Founder and serves as the Chief Executive Officer at Hive.
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About Hive: Hive is a productivity platform that drives companies to work forward.
Jamie Davidson
Co-Founder & CEO of Vitally
Jamie Davidson is the Co-Founder & CEO at Vitally.io.
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About Vitally: Vitally is a customer engagement platform for B2B SaaS companies to drive a world-class customer experience and eliminate churn.
Samer Hamadeh
Founder & CEO of Zeel
Samer is an entrepreneur-in-residence at Lightspeed Venture Partners, which he joined in January 2010. Samer is currently founder & CEO of Zeel.com. Relaunched in December 2012, Zeel gives consumers the power to book same-day, in-home massage appointments via app or website in under a minute. Prior to that, Samer Hamadeh was co-founder and CEO of Vault.com, the most trusted name in career information, which was sold in October 2007 to Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a New York-based media-and-communications private-equity firm. Before co-founding Vault, Samer was an associate at the Los Angeles management consulting firm LEK Consulting, where he focused on corporate and business strategy. Prior to that, Samer co-founded and managed a customized-textbook printing company, worked at the Chevron Corporation, and co-authored The Internship Bible and America’s Top Internships (Random House/Princeton Review). Samer sits on the board of the non-profit PeaceWorks Foundation and is a board observer, angel investor, and/or advisor in two dozen early-stage companies, including GrubHub, SalesCrunch, Insidr.com, Splurgy, and PublicStuff. Samer is also a mentor at several accelerators, including Blueprint Health, NYCSeedStart, and First Growth Venture Network, as well as a member of Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and the Georgetown McDonough School’s Entrepreneurship Advisory Board. A David Rockefeller Fellow, Samer holds a BS in chemistry and an MS in chemical engineering from Stanford University.
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About Lightspeed Venture Partners, One Voice Movement, Venture for America, Zeel: Zeel delivers on-demand massage from vetted therapists.
Juney Ham
Co-founder & CEO of Beacon Talent
Juney Ham is currently the co-founder and CEO of Beacon, a vetted community and talent marketplace of forward-thinking recruiters and people operations practitioners. Beacon connects high-intent candidates with opportunities at progressive, high-growth companies. Previously, Ham was the Chief Marketplace Officer of Hired, a career marketplace for the world’s knowledge workers. Within this role, Ham oversaw Hired’s marketing, insights, product, and talent teams. Prior to joining Hired, Ham served as a Senior Vice President at Envestnet, a leading provider of integrated portfolio, practice management, and reporting solutions for financial advisors and institutions. He joined Envestnet through the acquisition of Upside, a financial technology startup providing a robo-advisor for independent financial advisors, where he served as President and co-founder. Prior to Upside, Ham was the Director of Online Marketing for Airbnb, responsible for driving worldwide supply and demand acquisition. His domain of accountability included search engine marketing, search engine optimization, social advertising, email marketing and online partnership operations. Prior to Airbnb, Ham was the Vice President of Global Paid Search for Expedia Worldwide, managing online marketing for Expedia points of sale globally along with product infrastructure, reporting and analytics. Before Expedia, he held engineering, product development and operational roles at Experian Interactive Media and Shopzilla (now Connexity). Ham holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania.
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About Beacon Talent, Envestnet: Beacon is the talent solution provider for the modern era, on a mission to change the way that companies hire.
Christopher F. Schellhorn
CEO & Chairman – Retired of Confirmation
With over 30 years experience managing technology businesses, Chris brings a solid background to lead this business in the rapidly changing regulatory environment created by Sarbanes Oxley. Chris has lead the organization from start-up to its position as the world’s leading provider of electronic confirmations. Prior to working with Capital Confirmation, Chris was the Managing Director of Integrion Financial Network, the online banking platform owned by eighteen of the world’s largest banks, IBM, and VISA International. Prior to Integrion, Chris was the President and CEO of VISA Interactive, VISA International’s wholly-owned online banking and bill payment subsidiary. Chris has extensive experience in commercial banking, online banking and bill payment, and managing technology businesses. Chris is a retired Naval Officer and was an assistant professor at the University of Rochester’s College of Arts and Sciences. Chris completed his MBA at The Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester and received an AB in Economics from the College of the Holy Cross.
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About Confirmation: Confirmation is the leading digital platform and global network for confirming financial data.
Mark Thompson
President & CEO of The New York Times
Mark Thompson became President and Chief Executive Officer of The New York Times Company on November 12, 2012. He is responsible for leading the company’s strategy, operations and business units. Thompson has been instrumental in accelerating the pace of The Times’s digital transformation. Under his leadership, The Times became the first news organization in the world to pass the one million digital-only subscription mark. The company has also introduced a new era of international growth, launched an industry-leading branded content studio and invested in virtual reality, producing some of the most celebrated work in this emerging medium. Before joining the Times Company, Thompson served as Director-General of the BBC from 2004, where he reshaped the organization to meet the challenge of the digital age, ensuring that it remained a leading innovator with the launch of services such as the BBC iPlayer. He also oversaw a transformation of the BBC itself, driving productivity and efficiency through the introduction of new technologies and bold organizational redesign. Thompson joined the BBC in 1979 as a production trainee. He helped launch “Watchdog” and “Breakfast Time,” was an Output Editor on “Newsnight,” and was appointed Editor of the “Nine O’Clock News” in 1988 and of “Panorama” in 1990. He became Controller (programming and scheduling chief) for the TV network BBC2 and Director of Television for the BBC before leaving the BBC in 2002 to become C.E.O. of Channel 4 Television Corporation in the United Kingdom. In the autumn of 2012, he was a visiting professor of rhetoric and the art of public persuasion at the University of Oxford. His book “Enough Said: What’s Gone Wrong with the Language of Politics?,” which is based on the lectures he gave at Oxford, was published in the U.K. and U.S. in September 2016. Thompson was educated at Stonyhurst College and Merton College, Oxford.
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About The New York Times: The New York Times creates, collects, and distributes news, information, and entertainment through a daily newspaper and a website.
Daniel Ruch
Founder & CEO of Rocketrip
Prior to joining Genacast Ventures, Daniel served as Vice President, Europe for Tremor Video, based in London, England. Prior to his European stint, Daniel was Senior Director of Business Development for Tremor Video US. Before Tremor, Daniel held several director and managerial level positions at TACODA where he was responsible for East Coast business development until TACODA’s sale to AOL. In this role, he identified and solicited key strategic publishers to join TACODA’s network. Prior to TACODA, Daniel worked in strategic media planning at GroupM’s agency Mindshare / MAXUS global, allocating spend by medium for brands such as HSBC, Lufthansa, and Church & Dwight. Daniel graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, with a BA in Psychology.
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About Rocketrip: Rocketrip helps businesses reduce travel spend by incentivizing employees to save when they travel for business.
Caroline Ghosn
CEO & Founder of Levo
There is evidence that Caroline’s company Levo quietly closed down operations leaving invoices to vendors and creditors unpaid in 2019. As of 2019 and 2020, the company could not be reached when contacted for payment.
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About Levo: Levo is the largest and fastest-growing professional network for millennials.
Dennis Mortensen
CEO & Founder of x.ai
Mortensen is the CEO and Founder of x.ai, whose artificial intelligence driven personal assistant lets people schedule meetings using plain English and nothing more than a CC to amy@x.ai. He’s a pioneer and expert in the analytics, optimization and big data space and has been since its inception – he is also a fully-fledged entrepreneur and successfully delivered a number of company exits. He’s an accredited Associate Analytics Instructor at the University of British Columbia, the Author of Data Driven Insights from Wiley and a frequent speaker on the subject of Analytics and Data. A native of Denmark, Mortensen currently calls New York City his home.
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About x.ai: x.ai is a tool that helps you and your team share ideal availability and schedule meetings.
Barak Shragai
Co-Founder & CEO of IMGN Media
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About IMGN Media: IMGN is a tech-media company specialized in producing and programming social content for Gen Z audiences.
Samir Arora
Founder and CEO of Sage Digital
Samir Arora is an American entrepreneur, inventor and investor. He is best known as a veteran of Apple Computer and a serial founder, investor and CEO in Silicon Valley with a passion to lead team of incredible people to perform the impossible. He is listed as one of the 100 Internet Pioneers along with Tim Berners-Lee, Marc Andreessen and others, and as the 21 people that shaped the World Wide Web at the 1st Web Innovators Awards by CNET. Samir started his career at Apple, and currently is the founder & Group CEO of Sage Digital Corp and serves as a Managing Partner of the venture firm Information Capital. At Sage, Samir is building a platform for experts, publishers and businesses: Sage Plus for Experts currently is an invite-only platform or experts, talent and celebrities and their teams. He was the CEO of Mode Media /Glam Media and founder and CEO of one of the first web site building platform company NetObjects.
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About Foodie Top 100, Information Capital LLC, Mode Media Japan, Project Bento, Sage Digital, Woodside Incubator: Sage Digital is a AI-driven platform for verified experts to manage their online presence
Jared Hecht
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Fundera
Jared Hecht is a co-founder and the chief executive officer at Fundera, an online marketplace that matches small business owners to the best possible lender. He started Fundera after his cousin experienced the frustration and lack of transparency of applying for a small business loan. Previously, Jared co-founded GroupMe, a group messaging service that in August 2011 was acquired by Skype, which was subsequently acquired by Microsoft in October 2011. Prior to GroupMe, he led Business Development at Tumblr where he focused on international expansion and strategic partnerships. Jared currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Columbia University Entrepreneurship Organization and is an investor and advisor to startups such as Codecademy, SmartThings, and TransferWise. Jared received his BA in Political Science from Columbia University where he served as the publisher and managing director of Inside New York.
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About Fundera: Fundera is a marketplace for small business financial solutions.
Zuben Mathews
CEO & Co-Founder of Brigit
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About Brigit: A financial health app helping every American build a brighter financial future.
Zvika Netter
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Innovid
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About Innovid: Innovid is the only independent omni-channel advertising and analytics platform built for television.
Joseph Fasone
Founder & CEO of Pilot
Joseph is the founder of Pilot, a fiber-optic internet provider for businesses in New York City.Prior to founding Pilot, Joseph was the Director of Information Technology for WeWork from 2010-2014.
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About Pilot: Pilot is a fiber-optic ISP that raises the bar for telecom and provides better business internet.
Liz Young
Founder & CEO of Realm
Founder & CEO, Realm. Previously Reonomy, Groupon & Bloomberg.
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About Realm: All the data you need to navigate complex, expensive home decisions.
Justin David Blau
CEO & Co-Founder of Royal
Justin David Blau, better known by his stage name 3LAU, is an American DJ and electronic dance music producer.
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About Royal: Royal is a developer of an NFT-based music platform used to allow buy ownership in songs.
Scott Kirkpatrick
Chief Executive Officer of BrainPOP
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About BrainPOP: BrainPOP is a digital educational content creator that supports teachers and engages students.
Shan-Lyn Ma
Co-Founder & CEO of Zola
Shan-Lyn Ma is Co-founder and CEO of Zola, the wedding company reinventing the wedding planning and registry experience by combining compassionate customer service with modern tools and technology. Zola launched in 2013 and quickly became the fastest growing wedding company in the country. Today, Zola carries over 500 brands—from registry staples to up-and-coming designers—and over half a million couples have used the platform. The company’s suite of tools includes: the premier all-in-one wedding registry, free wedding websites, a guest-list manager, customizable checklist and beautiful save the dates and wedding invitations. Before starting her company, Shan was Chief Product Officer of Chloe + Isabel. Prior to that, Shan was Gilt Groupe’s first Product Lead where she led key new business launches, including their successful foray into mobile. Additionally, she was Creator and General Manager of Gilt Taste, the brand’s food and wine division. Before her time at Gilt, Shan held product and marketing roles at Yahoo!. She holds a degree in BCommerce with First Class Honours from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and an MBA from Stanford University.
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About Zola: Zola is a wedding company that reinvents the wedding planning and registry experience.
Justin Wohlstadter
Founder & CEO of Wonder
Justin is the Founder and CEO of Wonder (AskWonder.com), an on-demand research service with thousands of analysts around the world. Before founding Wonder, Justin served as the Director of Product Design for Divide (acquired by Google) out of their New York, Hong Kong, and London offices. Prior to that, Justin co-founded BOLDstart Ventures, where he led or co-led investments in Divide, GoInstant (acquired by Salesforce), Klout (acquired by Lithium), Rapportive (acquired by LinkedIn), Blaze (acquired by Akamai), ThinkNear (acquired by Telenav), IndieGoGo, and Yipit, among others. Justin attended Harvard University and Oxford University, writing his master’s dissertation on how the Internet will affect access to higher education.
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About Wonder: Wonder is a research service that provides access to the intellect and fact-finding skills of a network of analysts around the world.
Jason Grad
Co-Founder and CEO of Massive
Jason is the co-founder & CEO of Massive, an SDK that allows partners to offer their users a premium services in exchange for the users’ underutilized CPU. Prior to Massive, he founded Cheerful Giving, a leading fundraising platform for charities, which was acquired by GoodWorld.
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About Massive: Massive is an SDK that allows developers to offer premium content to users in exchange for a little bit of their unused processing power.
Divya Narendra
CEO & Founder of SumZero
Divya Narendra is the CEO & Co – Founder of SumZero. Before founding SumZero, Divya was an Associate at Sowood Capital Management, a $3.5B multi-strategy hedge fund located in Boston, MA. At Sowood, Divya analyzed investment opportunities across the capital structure. Prior to this, he was an analyst in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Credit Suisse Securities in NYC. Divya graduated from Harvard College in 2004 with a Degree in Applied Mathematics. He received a J.D. / MBA from Northwestern.
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About SumZero: SumZero is an investment website helping top tier investors share actionable ideas and grow their professional networks.
Daniel McCarthy
President & Chief Executive Officer of Frontier Communications
Daniel J. McCarthy became President and Chief Executive Officer of Frontier Communications in April 2015. He was elected to the Frontier Board of Directors in May 2014. Prior to becoming President and Chief Executive Officer, he held other positions of increasing responsibility at the Company, including President and Chief Operating Officer (April 2012 to April 2015), Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (January 2006 to April 2012) and Senior Vice President, Field Operations (December 2004 to December 2005). He earned a Bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York Maritime College at Fort Schuyler and an M.B.A. from the University of Phoenix. Mr. McCarthy serves as a Trustee of The Committee for Economic Development of the Conference Board and of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Danbury Hospital and a member of the Business Roundtable. Mr. McCarthy is a member of the Board of Directors of Constellation Brands, Inc.
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About Frontier Communications: Frontier Communications Corporation is an independent provider of telecommunications services that offers voice, data, and video services.
Ganesh Srivats
CEO of Moda Operandi
Ganesh Srivats is the CEO of Moda Operandi, Inc. Prior to joining Moda Operandi, Ganesh served as the vice president at Tesla.
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About Moda Operandi: Moda Operandi is a platform for emerging fashion designers and retailers.
Josh Wexler
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of RevCascade
Josh is responsible for the company’s 49bc unified platform technology, revenue, and strategy. After joining Rubicon Project in May 2008, Josh helped build the company from a start up with 40 employees, to one of the largest independent technology firms focused on the buying and selling of advertising. Previously at Rubicon Project, Josh ran the seller business and most recently was the Head of Buyer Cloud. Josh is considered an industry thought leader and has presented at numerous industry events including ad:tech, Digiday, IAB, and MMA. A seasoned entrepreneur and business leader, Josh loves bringing new ideas to market. Prior to joining Rubicon Project, Josh was a co-founder and CEO of SWMX (SoftWave Media Exchange), a media exchange that automated the radio, cable, and television advertising industry. Earlier in his career, Josh co-founded Hypnotic Hats Ltd., (HYP), a boutique apparel and accessories company popular among celebrities, professional athletes, the fashion elite and music industry icons. HYP became a global brand and was profiled by Esquire Magazine, New York Magazine, ABC TV, and MTV, among others. Josh attended Cornell University where, as a four-year starter on the men’s basketball team, he was a member and captain of Cornell’s 1988 Ivy League Championship team. Additionally, he is a three-time medal winner in the United States Men’s Maccabiah Basketball team. – See more at: http://rubiconproject.com/leadership-team/josh-wexler/#sthash.QL163XyA.dpuf
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About RevCascade: Marketplace automation for brands and retailers
Zack Werner
Co Founder & CEO of Pollen
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About Pollen: Pollen helps small online retailers acquire new users more cheaply and easily than Google or Facebook.
David Klein
Co-Founder & CEO of CommonBond
David is the CEO and Co-Founder of CommonBond, a leading marketplace lender that lowers the cost of student loans for borrowers and provides financial returns to investors. David is responsible for setting strategy on creating a superior borrower experience. Prior to CommonBond, David worked in consumer finance at American Express, as Director of Strategic Planning and Business Development. David started his professional career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company. David graduated from Brandeis University with a BA in Politics, Economics and International Business, and attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
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About CommonBond: CommonBond was founded in 2012 to help relieve the student loan burden, and since then we’ve funded over $4 billion in better loans.
Michael Bloch
CEO & Co-founder of Pillar Life
Michael is the CEO & co-founder of Pillar, a mobile app that helps people manage their student loans. Before Pillar, Michael was an early employee at DoorDash, where he was the General Manager of the New York & California regions. Michael graduated from UC Berkeley and dropped out of Stanford Business School in 2018 to found Pillar.
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About Pillar Life: Pillar is a digital platform that helps families better protect and care for their aging loved ones.
Sloan Gaon
CEO of PulsePoint
Sloan Gaon is the CEO of PulsePoint, leading the company’s vision and mission to deliver integrated, value-based digital marketing solutions for advertisers and publishers. A renowned industry veteran, Gaon has executive management expertise in global digital marketing, content and e-commerce. Prior to joining PulsePoint, Gaon served as CEO of Dotmenu, the leading online food e-commerce company, where he successfully navigated its acquisition by Grubhub. Through Dotmenu’s flagship sites Allmenus and Campusfood, Gaon successfully grew reach and revenue for the biggest network of restaurants across the nation. Prior to Dotmenu, Gaon was General Manager of the Web Content channel of Adknowledge and COO of RegistryPro, Inc., a subsidiary of Register.com.
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About Forward, PulsePoint: PulsePoint is a technology company using data to accelerate healthcare marketing.
Alex Konanykhin
CEO of TransparentBusiness
Konanykhin was a whiz-kid physics student who became a pioneering Russian capitalist in early 1990s, building a banking and investment empire valued at an estimated $300 million, all by his mid-20s. He was a member of President Boris Yeltsin’s inner circle.””- The Wall Street Journal Alex Konanykhin controlled Russia’s largest commercial bank in the 1990s before it was seized by the KGB- CNN
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About Stock4Services, TransparentBusiness: TransparentBusiness is a SaaS platform designed to increase remote workforce and freelancer productivity.
Wil Eyi
Co-founder & CEO of Toolbox
Wil Eyi is the chief executive officer and CEO of Toolbox.
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About Toolbox: Modern financial operating system for construction, maintenance & repair contractors
Rohit Arora
CEO & Co-Founder of Biz2Credit
Rohit Arora is the co-founder and CEO of Biz2Credit. He is known for his immense expertise in the field of small business finance. Under his tutelage, Biz2Credit has witnessed a stupendous growth since its inception. Rohit Arora was named Crain’s NY Business “Entrepreneur of the Year 2011.” due to his pioneering business model and entrepreneurial vision. His expert opinions on small business lending have been covered by major news media that include New York Times, The Wall St. Journal, Bloomberg, Entrepreneur, American Banker, CNNMoney, MSNBC, Inc., and Washington Post. Besides, he is a frequent guest speaker for small business lending seminars and conferences. Rohit’s columns are published on SMB finance for FOX Small Business Center, SmallBizTrends, Franchise Handbook, NewJerseyNewsroom and New York Enterprise Report, just to name a few.
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About Biz2Credit: Biz2Credit is a digital-first provider of small business funding and offers its Biz2X Platform to help financial institutions manage risk.
CJ Follini
Founder & CEO of Welcome to COMPANY
CJ is an entrepreneur and award-winning media producer with a passion for technology that transforms our productivity and workplace culture. CJ’s latest venture – IMMINENT – has created the only holistic employee engagement operating system in existence. Known as Employee360, the big idea for workforce productivity begins with purpose. IMMINENT believes your employees are your first customers and the most authentic brand ambassadors. So it is our mission to create technology and content that harnesses employees’ passion for doing good and help them share their stories. Because happy employees = happy customers. Giving + Habitat + Wellbeing + Social = Inspired™ CJ recently launched the first VR & AR studio dedicated to employee engagement.
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About Golden Seeds, IMMINENT Digital, Noyack Medical Partners, Ten Paces Media, Welcome to COMPANY: Welcome to COMPANY is an online and offline social network connecting collectors of contemporary art.
David Mavashev
President and CEO, Founder of Nastel Technologies
David Mavashev is a leading expert on IT infrastructure, middleware and messaging technologies with over 25 years experience architecting systems and solutions. His areas of expertise encompass implementing middleware-centric architectures and the underlying infrastructure monitoring that is fundamental for its optimal performance, as well as tools and technologies for monitoring and managing integrated application processes and performance across the enterprise, and helping companies achieve business agility through effectively aligning IT with business processes in the real-time enterprise. A successful entrepreneur, David founded Nastel in 1994 and also served as the company’s CTO for many years. Prior to that, he was the technical manager of the messaging group at NYNEX, where he architected and managed the implementation of the first commercial transactional messaging product, which now forms the basis for IBM WebSphere MQ (formerly MQ-Series). A pioneer in the early evolution of messaging technologies, David logged many years as an IT consultant working with some of the world’s foremost banks and financial institutions.
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About Elefund, jKool, Nastel Technologies: Nastel Technologies provides middleware-centric application performance and business transaction management software solutions.
Ajay Kulkarni
Co-Founder/CEO of iobeam
Ajay is the Co-Founder/CEO at iobeam, a data analysis platform for the Internet of Things. His previous startup, Sensobi, was acquired in 2011 by GroupMe/Skype/Microsoft. Ajay led the mobile team at GroupMe, which grew to millions of daily users and billions of monthly messages over a short period of time. His past experience includes roles at Microsoft, Citigroup, and several startups. He holds Bachelors, Masters degrees from MIT in Computer Science, and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
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About iobeam, Timescale: A Data Platform for the Internet of Things
Reuven Moskowitz
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Litify
Reuven Moskowitz is the Founder of Litify.
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About Litify: Litify provides technology solutions for law firms by providing a trusted intelligent platform for practice management.
Michael Kassan
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of MediaLink
Michael E. Kassan helps bridge the gaps between media, marketers, and technologists. Kassan founded MediaLink in 2003 to be a transformational partner to the world’s leading media, marketing, and technology companies. Bringing these groups together while balancing strategic insight with pragmatic execution, MediaLink guides its clients through an increasingly fragmented media landscape. As Chairman and CEO, Kassan has led the firm’s expansion from strategic advisory into multiple business lines including executive search, financial due diligence, agency benchmarking/reviews, and trade marketing. With a culture focused on both confidentiality and transparency, MediaLink now sits at the epicenter of major cross-industry initiatives and legislation helping to build consensus between government, marketers, and publishers. Kassan maintains a deep commitment to advising the media industry’s leadership. He acts as Special Advisor to numerous CEO’s helping them “break through the noise” in today’s marketplace and advising on issues ranging from corporate strategy and partnerships to M&A. Drawing on a combination of experience, relationships, and insights, Kassan writes extensively as a noted blogger and serves frequently as a moderator and keynote speaker at global industry conferences. He has built instrumental partnerships with the Consumer Electronics Show and the Cannes Lions. He also produces and hosts a radio show on WOR 710 AM and Clear Channel’s iHeartRadio, “Medialinked — Inside Advertising and Media with Michael Kassan.” Prior to MediaLink, Kassan led Initiative Media Worldwide as COO and Vice-Chairman from 1994 to 2001. Kassan helped grow the company’s initial $1.5 billion in billings nearly ten-fold. Prior to Initiative, he was President and COO of International Video Entertainment (Artisan Entertainment). In his first career, Kassan spent ten years as a tax lawyer specializing in the entertainment industry. Kassan currently serves as Chair of the UJA-New York Marketing Communications Committee as well as on the Boards of the American Advertising Federation, the Ad Council, and the Hollywood Radio and Television Society. He served as Chairman of the California State Senate Select Committee on the Entertainment Industry.
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About MediaLink: MediaLink is a strategic advisory firm that provides strategic advisory and implementation services to companies at all stages.
Benji Markoff
Co-Founder & CEO of Founder Shield
Benji Markoff is Co Founder & CEO at Founder Shield & ReShield.
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About Founder Shield, Interplay, ReShield: Founder Shield was created with one goal: to take the stress out of buying insurance for venture-backed startup companies.
Justin McLeod
Founder and CEO of Hinge
Founder and CEO of Hinge.
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About Hinge: Hinge is a social discovery network helping users meet new people through an application.
Ronen Lazar
Co-Founder & CEO of INTURN
Ronen Lazar is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of INTURN, a global B2B online software platform innovating the way brands and retailers buy and sell excess inventory. Lazar pioneered several other innovative technology solution systems prior to INTURN. In 2012, Lazar co-founded Social Giving Network, a back office solutions provider for the non-profit industry. In 2008, Lazar co-founded Charity Bids, a software platform which managed and operated branded non-profit auction campaigns on behalf of numerous athletes, celebrities, media companies, retailers and corporations. In 2003, he co-founded LuckyBillion Entertainment, a development company creating innovative programming for reality television. And in 1999, he co-founded two directory sites, SummerCamps.com for the summer camp industry and RetirementHomes.com for the senior care industry.
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About INTURN: INTURN is an enterprise solution providing custom solutions to efficiently convert slow-moving and excess inventory.
Gil Friedrich
CEO and Co-Founder of Avanan
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About Avanan: Avanan uses AI to protect cloud email and collaboration suites from cyber attacks.
Agapitos Diakogiannis
Founder & CEO of Seafair
I’m the founder of Seafair.io, a platform helping shipping companies recruit seafarers from all over the world. We are bringing shipping crewing to today’s era! Previously I worked at BCG, advising companies in financial services and industrial goods. I also have startup experience, working on operations and strategic initiatives at foodpanda (Rocket Internet). I studied mechanical engineering and operations management.
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About Seafair: Seafair connects leading shipping companies with qualified seafarers across the world.
Stefanie Lemcke
Co-Founder and CEO of GoKid
Stefanie Lemcke is a Co-Founder and CEO at GoKid.
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About GoKid: GoKid is a carpool and shared mobility solution for schools, leagues, teams, and active families.
Solomon Liou
Co-Founder & CEO of KidPass
Solomon is the co-founder and CEO at KidPass. Solomon is a serial entrepreneur with a background in product, design, and growth. Solomon started KidPass with a group of friends who came from the tech industry, and saw a need as parents to create a better way to discover kids activities.
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About KidPass: KidPass is the new way for parents to discover and book amazing kids activities.
Michael Oeth
Cofounder & CEO of OnSIP
Mike Oeth is the CEO of OnSIP Business VoIP and winner of the Telecommunications Executive of the Year in the 2013 American Business Awards. Mike graduated from Harvard College in 1991 with a degree in Economics and has since worked for technology companies, cofounding OnSIP in 2004. Mike is an active community member and father, balancing his roles as board member of the local YMCA, member of the father-daughter Y-group Adventure Princesses, and basketball coach for his three daughters’ basketball teams. Mike also enjoys rock climbing with his teenage son.
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About OnSIP, The Un-CEO: OnSIP is a leading provider of real-time communications services to businesses.
Steven Schwartz
Chief Executive Officer of Varfaj Partners
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About Varfaj Partners: Varfaj Partners is a technology & strategy consulting firm based in New York, NY.
Jesse Clemmens
Co-Founder & CEO of HiBeam
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About HiBeam: HiBeam provides creators with productive message management through prioritizing DMs and comments into a single workspace.
Kristin Savilia
CEO of JOOR
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About JOOR: JOOR is an online global fashion marketplace, connecting brands and retailers.
Dave Shor
Founder / CEO of Lynq Technologies
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About Lynq Technologies, Techstars: The network for when failure isn’t an option.
Ang Cui
Founder and CEO of Red Balloon Security
Cui is the founder, CEO and chief scientist of Red Balloon Security, a leading developer of embedded device security solutions. Prior to launching Red Balloon Security, Cui was a prominent security researcher at Columbia University’s Intrusion Detection Systems Lab where he exposed serious vulnerabilities in many widely used commercial products, including IP phones, laser jet printers, routers and networked appliances. His research culminated in the development of Symbiote, an OS agnostic intrusion defense technology which protects embedded devices at the firmware level by blocking unauthorized code and commands from being executed. This patented technology is currently deployed in HP LaserJet printers. Cui’s company has also secured multiple U.S. government contracts to study Symbiote’s effectiveness in military, national security and industrial applications. In 2017, Symbiote for Automotive Defense was announced at the ESCAR Conference. In addition to Symbiote, Cui has developed several other security technologies, including FRAK (firmware vulnerability analysis), Funtenna (covert data exfiltration) and Badfet (secure boot bypass using a targeted electromagnetic pulse). Cui’s research has earned numerous awards and distinctions, including the 2011 Kaspersky Labs American Cup Winner, 2012 Symantec Research Labs Graduate Fellowship, 2015 DARPA Riser and 2017 U.S. Department of Homeland Security “Crossing the Valley of Death” award. Cui holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Columbia University, as well as a Master of Philosophy and a Master of Science in computer science from the same university.
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About Red Balloon Security: Red Balloon Security is an embedded device security research and development firm.
Rui Delgado
Co-Founder and CEO of Berrymetrics
Rui is the Co-Founder of Pathfinder and its head of external relations and marketing. He’s also the Evernote Small Business Ambassador for Spain. He studied Communication Sciences at the external campus of the University of Wales in Seville, Spain. Previously, he has been the Marketing Strategies Manager of the United Nations Association of the Dominican Republic (UNA-DR) and new media consultant for the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (FUNGLODE) in Santo Domingo. Through those two institutions, he has organized conferences, courses, workshops for young people in the Dominican Republic, New York, Washington and Paris, under the programs of the UN, the OAS and the UNESCO.
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About Berrymetrics: A smart analytics dashboard, exclusively tailored for online stores
Joe Zawadzki
Co-Founder & CEO of MediaMath
MediaMath CEO Joe Zawadzki is a respected pioneer in the online marketing industry, known especially for establishing the demand-side platform sector. With his deep experience in audience targeting and optimization, ad networks and exchanges, and real-time bidding Joe is regularly invited to speak at industry conferences, roundtables and major events. After a decade representing buyers at top-tier agencies and Fortune 500 companies, Joe Zawadzki saw the need to reshape the online marketing landscape by integrating technology, data, analytics, and marketing best practices into a single media platform. He founded MediaMath in 2007, launching a technological revolution with the first demand side platform (DSP) and today, the MediaMath Marketing Operating System, TerminalOne, powers the marketing practice of more than 3,500 brands. Previously, Joe was founder, president and chairman of Poindexter Systems / [x+1], incubated Right Media, and as managing member of Occam’s Razor, shaped AOL’s yield management and DoubleClick’s buy-side optimization strategy. His early career was spent as an investment banker, where he developed his expertise in quantitative analysis and market dynamics, and he remains an active New York technology investor whose portfolio includes AppNexus, AdSafe, 33Across, C3Metrics, Hashable, Accordant and Spruce Media. Joe holds several patents in the area of online methods for dynamic segmentation and content presentation. He is a graduate of Harvard University and was a Teaching Fellow in cosmology, set theory and the history of science. He lives in New York City with his wife, Daria, and their children Dune and Jack, born on the summer and winter solstices respectively.
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About MediaMath: MediaMath develops and delivers digital advertising media and data management technology solutions to advertisers worldwide.
Paul Rosenberg
CEO of Def Jam Recordings
Paul Rosenberg is currently the CEO of Def Jam Recordings.
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About Def Jam Recordings: Def Jam Recordings is a music company.
Ryo Kikuchi
Chief Executive Officer of ZeBrand Inc.
Ryo Kikuchi, Founder of ZeBrand A visionary by nature, Ryo Kikuchi embarked on his entrepreneurial journey at Morisawa, the leading typeface foundry in Japan, where he acted as Chief Innovation Director and developed expertise in new business development, customer acquisitions, and intrapreneurship. His drive and passion led him to form MORISAWA BRAND NEW LAB in 2017, an internal team dedicated to exploring new and emerging ideas that inform and challenge the current state of the font industry. His most current brainchild is ZeBrand, a web-based branding tool and the first of its kind. As its director and founder, Ryo has led his team from product conception to development, eventually launching and revealing the new product at SXSW in 2019. Ryo holds an MBA from NUCB Business School in addition to spending time at the Rhode Island School of Design as a research fellow with John Maeda in the US and the EDHEC Business School in France. He has recently been featured in various media outlets including Forbes, A/D/O by MINI, Entrepreneur, Killerstartup, WORK MILL with Forbes Japan and NHK (the sole public broadcaster in Japan). He has got chosen as the Enterprise and smart data alternates for SXSW PITCH 2020.
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About ZeBrand Inc.: ZeBrand is a brand-building platform built to help emerging businesses brand their way to growth.
Sanjay Jalona
Founder, CEO & Managing Director of L&T Infotech
Sanjay Jalona is the CEO and Managing Director of Larsen & Toubro Infotech(LTI). Sanjay joined the company in 2015, and has since led a rapid and comprehensive transformation of LTI into a leading technology consulting and digital solutions company, partnering with some of the most prestigious global enterprises. Sanjay has guided the company through one of the sector’s most successful IPOs in a decade and a rebranding effort that positioned LTI as a leader in the convergence of digital and physical world. Under Sanjay’s leadership, LTI surpassed USD 1 Billion in revenue, and has built a resilient portfolio with consistent growth and profitability. In addition to fast organic growth, the company also developed a strategic acquisition growth strategy to expand the breadth and depth of its services. Key acquisitions under his leadership include – Luxembourg-based Syncordis S.A., a leading core banking implementation services provider; and AugmentIQ Data Sciences Pvt. Ltd., an innovative start-up offering IP-based, big data and analytics solutions. Sanjay’s 25-year career has been marked with effective leadership, and implementation of change strategies that accelerate growth and transform large businesses. Prior to joining LTI, he was the Executive Vice President and Global Head of High-Tech, Manufacturing and Engineering Services business at Infosys. During his 15 years at Infosys, he held several leadership positions across industries such as Banking, Financial Services, and Retail & CPG, in USA, Europe and India. Prior to Infosys, he held leadership roles at Gemplus and Wipro. For his accomplishments, Businessworld magazine selected him as the ‘Exemplary CEO of the Year’ in 2017. Sanjay is a member of the Wall Street Journal CEO Council. He holds a degree in Engineering from BITS Pilani, India.
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About L&T Infotech, Larsen & Toubro Limited: LTI is a global technology consulting and digital solutions company helping more than 250 clients succeed in a converging world.
Jed Kleckner
CEO of delivery.com
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About delivery.com: delivery.com offers an online platform that enables its users to connect and buy from restaurants, groceries, liquor stores, and more.
Georgene Huang
CEO & Co-Founder of Fairygodboss
Georgene Huang is founder of Fairygodboss.com, an employer review site and community for working women.
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About Fairygodboss: Fairygodboss is the largest career community for women. Free for women, we help employers recruit and hire women.
Michelle Bacharach
Founder & CEO of FINDMINE
Michelle Bacharach is CEO and Co-Founder of FINDMINE. As a product and strategy expert, Michelle is experienced in growing startups and large media companies by launching apps and websites to millions of people, putting together joint ventures, and conceiving of new products. Michelle has shared her expertise with thousands of leaders in retail and technology as a speaker at SXSW and NRF Retail’s Big Show. She has an MBA from NYU Stern and a BA from UC Berkeley, where she wrote her honors thesis on managing innovation in multinational organizations.
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About FINDMINE: FINDMINE specializes in using machine learning to automate manual and tedious tasks in the retail industry.
Jamie Rosen
Founder & CEO of WayBetter
Jamie Rosen is Founder & CEO at DietBet. He is Founder & CEO at WayBetter.
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About DietBet, WayBetter: Spreading health and happiness through social games
Sandeep Bhanote
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Radius8
Sandeep Bhanote has over 15 years of experience as a start-up entrepreneur, building strong product, marketing and innovative teams in the retail technology sector and successfully delivering emerging technologies to market in a profitable and scalable way. Prior to founding Radius8, Sandeep was the founder and CEO of Global Bay Mobile Technologies, a pioneer in delivering transactional mobile solutions to emerging Omni and Brick and Mortar retailers and driving the wide adoption of Apple mobile devices in stores. This innovation created the path to closing the gap between digital and brick and mortar channels in retailing. Under Bhanote’s leadership, Global Bay delivered a mobile platform for the retail enterprise which transformed the in-store landscape by delivering integrated MobilePOS, high service-level Clienteling, Inventory Management and other robust omni-channel capabilities. Global Bay was acquired by VeriFone in 2011 and subsequently became part of enterprise omni-channel leader Manhattan Associates in 2014 and serves as the basis for their in-store omni-channel strategy.
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About Commerce Ventures, Radius8: Using Location Context to Create Brand New Commerce Opportunities That Benefit Both In-store & Online Channels
Andre De Castro
Co-Founder, CEO & President of Blockchain of Things
Andre De Castro is the CEO and Co-Founder of Blockchain of Things, Inc. He is a long-time crypto currency specialist who has an expert’s insight as to the field’s potential and is working towards making that potential a reality. Andre has been an active participant in the Bitcoin community and industry since 2010. Andre’s experience includes being a software developer, investor, trader, advisor, and US policy influencer. He is an avid public speaker and panelist for financial technology events including GE Global Research, Perkins Coie, Wedbush, and the NY Bitcoin Center. His early grasp of the unrealized potential of blockchain technology to revolutionize multiple sectors of the industry led him to found Blockchain ofThings in 2014, and drive the development of the Catenis EnterpriseTM platform. Graduating with honors from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Andre earned a B.S. in Computer Science, with concentration in artificial intelligence. A prolific inventor, he is the holder of two U.S. patents that streamline the installation of electronic products in automotive circuits. Most recently, Andre was a keynote speaker at the Blockchain Summit in Beijing), The Blockchain Event in Las Vegas, Canaccord Genuity’s Annual Growth Conference in Boston, and the Blockchain World Congress in NYC.
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About Blockchain of Things: Blockchain of Things created the first globally accessible blockchain enabled device network.
Donald Leka
Founder, Chairman and CEO of Jumptuit
Creator of Jumptuit and the Glide OS Donald Leka, Founder, Chairman and CEO of the Jumptuit Group, is a technology executive with over 15 years of experience creating industry-changing and award-winning cloud and data service technologies including Jumptuit and Glide OS. The ethos underlying Mr. Leka’s career from exploration to innovation to market, from Glide through Jumptuit, has been one of creating value, empowering individuals and protecting the sanctity of data. Mr. Leka’s Jumptuit Data Science and Engineering Teams developed Jumptuit’s Nexus Framework that maintains dynamic awareness of activities and relevant events, understanding the associations between activities and events and the conditions in which they occur, autonomously providing highly nuanced and individualized relevant information, insights and predictions. Mr. Leka also created the Data Rights Matrix that autonomously enforces data privacy and market sector and jurisdictional regulations in data exchange. Mr. Leka led the Glide OS product team, commercializing cloud-based services in 2005 before any of the big tech companies offered such a platform or services with the Glide Operating System and its Productivity App Suite that competed effectively with Google Docs, Gmail and MS Office. Glide received numerous awards including PC World’s Top 100 Products and Laptop Magazine’s Top 50 Web Apps. Mr. Leka and his work have been featured in WSJ, NYT, WaPo, Forbes, CNET, PCWorld, etc., and on CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg, and more. Mr. Leka is the co-author of the Amazon top selling book, “Cloud Computing: The Glide OS Story, Solving the Cross-Platform Puzzle.” Mr. Leka has been a featured speaker at Harvard Business School, MIT, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, TEDx, AllThingsD with Walt Mossberg, NYU, American U, U Miami, and most recently interviewed at Davos 2020 World Economic Forum. Mr. Leka ranked Number 51 In the Top 100 Most Influential Cloud Professionals. (Onalytica, July 2015) Jumptuit ranked Number 29 In the Top 100 Most Influential Cloud Brands. (Onalytica, July 2015)
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About Jumptuit: Tomorrow’s Intelligence Today
