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 based CEO’ operating in the Apps 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.
Chieh Huang
CEO of Boxed
Chieh Huang joined Boxed as CEO in 2013.Director Zynga NY, CEO Astro Ape, Venture for America Entrep. Board Member, NY Mobile Startups Meetup Organizer. Before founding Blackgate Ventures, Chieh was Director of Zynga Mobile NY and CEO of Astro Ape (acquired by Zynga). Originally a corporate attorney at Proskauer, Chieh is currently an Entrepreneur Board Member of Venture for America and can be seen hosting the NY Mobile Startups Meetup. Chieh earned his J.D. from Fordham University and has a Bachelor’s of Economics from The Johns Hopkins University.
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About Blackgate Ventures, Boxed: Boxed is an online bulk grocery retailer used to offer wholesale club experience for modern shoppers.
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Oleg Tscheltzoff
Co-Founder & CEO of Fotolia
Oleg Tscheltzoff is Co-Founder & CEO at Fotolia. Oleg Tscheltzoff is the Investor of LOTS18. Oleg Tscheltzoff is one of the top serial internet entrepreneurs but also a successful angel investor with over 30 investments, board member, serious innovator, provocateur, disruptor, and connector. As an entrepreneur, Oleg has leveraged a global vision and knowledge of international business, management and marketing to develop successful online businesses. In 2004 Oleg co-founded Fotolia.com, the first global online social marketplace for creative digital stock images. As president, he led the company to the world’s largest microstock photography site. Prior to Fotolia, Oleg co-founded Amen, the leading Internet hosting company in France, which was sold in 2004 to Vianetworks (NASDAC Symbol VNWIE).
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About 90 Seconds, Aircall, Birchbox, Bird, Calm, Carta, Customer.io, Dealroom.co, Doctrine, eFounders, Farfetch, Fotolia, Molotov TV, Opendoor, PandaDoc, PayFit, Robinhood, SimpliField, StarOfService, Stash Financial, talent.io, Tempow, WeWork: Fotolia is an image bank that offers a crowdsourced library, which includes royalty-free images, vectors, illustrations and video clips.
Ryan Rzepecki
founder and CEO of Social Bicycles
Ryan Rzepecki was the founder and CEO of NYC-based JUMP Bikes (acquired by Uber in 2018), focused on developing innovative solutions for urban transportation. Early in his career, Rzepecki worked as a planner in the bikes division of New York City’s Department of Transportation. During that time, he worked extensively to bring bike facilities to more New Yorkers. It was this experience that led him to design a high-tech bike share model that he entered in the Copenhagen Design Competition. By 2010, he founded the company under its original name Social Bicycles, and set out to realize his vision of using bicycles as a smarter, cleaner, and more fun mode of urban transportation. His company pioneered “smart bike” technology, allowing bike share to go dockless and become more accessible and convenient for riders. In 2013, Rzepecki was named one of the 100 Coolest People in Tech by Business Insider and one of the Top 100 City Innovators Worldwide by UBM’s Future Cities. He received his master’s degree in urban planning from Hunter College of the City University of New York and his bachelor’s degree in marketing and international business from Pennsylvania State University.
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About Social Bicycles: Social Bicycles provides a scalable bikeshare technology.
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.
Mike Weissman
President & Chief Executive Officer of SoundCloud
Michael Weissman is COO at SoundCloud. Prior to this, Mike worked at Vimeo as COO since 2013.
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About SoundCloud: SoundCloud is a social sound platform where anyone can create and share sounds.
Michał Borkowski
Co-founder & CEO of Brainly
Michał is the CEO and co-founder of Brainly and is responsible for product strategy, company strategy and culture. He and his co-founders established Brainly in 2009 in Kraków, driven by the conviction that collaborative online communities can empower students from around the world with knowledge and information. In a little more than a decade, Brainly has become the world’s largest online learning community for students, parents and teachers. After moving to New York City and living there for 4 years to open and build Brainly’s US office, Michał was only 16 when he started his first company, and he’s been shaking up the internet ever since. He grew up in a small town in Poland before heading to Warsaw to study corporate finance at the acclaimed Warsaw School of Economics. Michał now lives in Kraków with his wife, Kasia.
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About Brainly: Brainly is an online learning platform where students and parents get homework and study help from peers and experts.
Genevieve Ryan Bellaire
Founder & CEO of Realworld
Genevieve Ryan Bellaire is the Founder and CEO of Realworld, a company that provides a simple way to navigate adulthood and its life moments, with help from your community. Genevieve has had a broad array of professional experience across business, law, and government. An attorney by profession, she received her JD/MBA from Georgetown University, and worked on strategic partnerships at Goldman Sachs until leaving to found Real World Playbook. Genevieve received her B.A. in Politics-International Relations from Princeton University, where she held numerous campus leadership roles and graduated with Honors in her department. Beyond her work in the entrepreneurial world, Genevieve is passionate about women’s empowerment, education, and national security. She currently serves as a member of the Pencils of Promise Leadership Council, the Acumen Fund Young Professional Committee, and the Washington Institute for Business, Government, and Society.
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About Realworld: The #1 platform to navigate adulthood
Maurice Harary
Founder and CEO of Fluz
Maurice is a Founder of the Fluz App. He is a serial entrepreneur with a 10-year background in e-commerce. He currently manages over 20 e-commerce sites in the B2B and B2C environment, ranging from interactive learning-based experiences to price-competitive marketplace trading sites. Experience in all areas of e-commerce sites, ranging from custom e-commerce software development to operational planning. He has extensive experience in fashion eCommerce and marketplace selling.
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About Fluz: Reinventing cashback to give you more. Get paid when you shop + when your friends shop. Earn Cashback Forever.
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.
Bradley Miles
CEO and Co-Founder of Roll
Bradley previously led research for CoinDesk, the world leader in news and information on digital currencies, and architected their State of Blockchain report and spotlight study on ICOs. He is the CEO of Turing Advisory Group, a sell-side advisory firm for token sales with an emphasis on research and best practices. Bradley is the best selling author of #BreakIntoVC: How to Break Into Venture Capital and Think Like an Investor and an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Techstars in New York City.
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About Roll, Techstars: Roll is building blockchain infrastructure for social money on Ethereum.
David Politis
Founder and CEO of BetterCloud
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About BetterCloud: The SaaS Operations leader: Transform employee experience, centralize data protection, and maximize operational efficiency.
Oisin Hanrahan
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Handy
Oisin Hanrahan is the CEO and co-founder of Handy, the leading on-demand home services platform. Oisin founded Handy along with Umang Dua, Ignacio Leonhardt and Weina Scott. Oisin’s idea is changing the way people receive and provide home services. Prior to founding Handy, Oisin founded MiCandidate, a service that provided real time political content to media companies in 25 European countries. He also founded Clearwater Group, a real estate development business in Budapest, Hungary. In 2009, Oisin co-founded The Undergraduate Awards, a foundation that supports and celebrates outstanding undergraduate students globally. From day one, Oisin aimed for Handy to revolutionize the way people receive, provide and think about home services, an $400 billion market. Since it launched, nearly 3 million bookings have been made, and the Handy platform has served over 600,000 customers and activated over 80,000 independent professionals. This exceptional growth was made possible by a laser focus on the most innovative technology and service, resulting in Handy successfully expanding to 28 cities across 15 states and three countries. Oisin has deep knowledge of so many of the issues facing startups today, including navigating the regulatory environment. It is his personal mission to move the future of work of forward and find a solution that allows today’s work force to build their own business, work flexibility, but still have access to new types of “portable benefits” that would allow workers to move between workplaces while still maintaining access to benefits like training, health insurance, and disability insurance. Finding a solution to these challenges is a personal priority of Oisin’s – the demographics of the Handy platform make the company uniquely close to these issues in a way other platforms are not. In fact, 90% are women, over 60% are caring for dependents, and nearly 70% serve as the primary income earner for their household. Oisin has been unwilling to sit on the sidelines and become a leading voice in this area: He serves on the U.S. Commerce Department’s Digital Economy Board of Advisors and has written on these issues for Fox Business News and Wired.
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About Angi, ANGI Homeservices, Handy: Handy, formerly Handybook, is an app through which users can book cleaners, plumbers, handymen, and other household service providers.
David S. Shapira
Founder , Chairman & CEO of Giant Eagle
David Shapira is executive chairman of the board of directors of Giant Eagle, Inc. and is president of the David S. and Karen A. Shapira Foundation. In his role at the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and College of Business Administration, he is responsible for enhancing ethics and leadership at the school. He is also responsible for engaging with Katz and CBA students across a spectrum of business areas including entrepreneurship, supply chain management, and organizational behavior. During his thirty-plus years as chairman, chief executive officer and president, David Shapira positioned Giant Eagle, Inc. as an industry leader, and grew the company from a local chain of 50 grocery stores to an organization now employing more than 34,000 with more than 420 locations and $9.5 billion in revenue. A Pittsburgh native with an undergraduate degree from Oberlin College and a Master’s Degree in Economics from Stanford University, Mr. Shapira joined Giant Eagle in 1970, a company founded by his grandfather with four others. Today, the same five families own Giant Eagle, and remain actively involved. Named president and CEO in 1980 and Chairman of the Giant Eagle Board of Directors in 1992, David led the company during its peak years of growth and transformation, which included his application of a world-class customer loyalty program with the development of the Giant Eagle Advantage Card and fuelperks!. Mr. Shapira has implemented numerous industry-leading technologies and marketing concepts, including: gift card development and sales, in-store pharmacy and banking, multi-format retailing, and a truck fleet that is being converted to run on compressed natural gas. Since stepping away from day-to-day operations of Giant Eagle in 2013, David has applied the entrepreneurial approach developed at Giant Eagle to the world of philanthropy. Through the Foundation he leads with his wife Cindy, David has led the development of a number of projects that demonstrate real and meaningful positive impact on civic challenges of our day. These entrepreneurial philanthropic ventures include Onward Israel, which transforms young adults through professional summer internships with Israeli businesses and organizations, and the Comprehensive Excellence initiative at Hillel International. David’s civic involvement reflects his and Giant Eagle’s commitment to advancing and investing in the many communities the company and Foundation serve. David has served on numerous corporate and civic boards, including EQT, Mellon Bank, the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance (Past Chairman). David is the Immediate Past Chairman of Carnegie Mellon University’s Board of Trustees, and the current Chairman of Carnegie Mellon’s Investment Committee, as well as a Trustee at Oberlin College, and a Founding Co-Chairman, along with Cindy, of The Pittsburgh Promise Campaign. David’s philanthropic board service has also included the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh (Past Chairman); Jewish Healthcare Foundation (Past Chairman); United Way of Allegheny County (Past Chairman of the Annual Campaign); Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (Past Chairman); Extra Mile Foundation; and Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. David is currently a member of the Hillel Foundation International Board of Governors.
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About Giant Eagle: Giant Eagle is a national supermarket chain with some of their own brands of products.
Bowie Cheung
Co-founder & CEO of Pepper
Bowie is the co-founder and CEO of Pepper, where he’s partnering with restaurant wholesalers across the country to build a more transparent, technology powered food supply chain. Before co-founding Pepper in 2019, Bowie was the first General Manager for Uber Eats and Director of US & Canada Operations at Uber Technologies, and prior to that a management consultant at Bain & Company. He holds degrees in engineering from the University of Toronto and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Business.
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About Pepper: Building the digital operating system for the food supply chain
Jeff Dachis
Founder, Chairman & CEO of OneDrop
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About OneDrop: One Drop is a diabetes management platform that helps people navigate diabetes together.
Neal Desai
CEO of Kafene
CFO in the consumer lending space. Responsibilities include capital structure design and execution, planning and valuation modeling, loan portfolio risk assessment, loss modeling and provisioning, debt and equity capital partnerships, performance reporting and design, cash flow management and analysis, treasury management, and accounting. Experienced statistical trader with more than 15 years of demonstrated capital markets success. Expertise in futures relative value and systematic trading with advanced proficiency in ETFs and equity derivatives.
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About Kafene: Kafene is a mission driven startup with the goal of empowering flexible ownership.
Chris Stang
Co-Founder & CEO of The Infatuation
Chris Stang is the Co-Founder & CEO of The Infatuation,and also serves as CEO of Zagat. Since its inception in 2009, Stang has been the architect of The Infatuation’s editorial voice, creative vision, and marketing strategy. Today his role still encompasses all those things, but also includes pushing the company forward into new arenas, including the development of The Infatuation’s EEEEEATSCON food festival, and leading the company’s recent acquisition of Zagat from Google. He was nominated in 2015 for a James Beard Award for Humor Writing, and in 2019 the Financial Times called him “arguably the most influential restaurant reviewer in America.” Prior to taking on The Infatuation full time, Chris was the Vice President of Marketing at Atlantic Records, working closely with many of the label’s biggest acts including Coldplay, Bruno Mars, Skrillex, Gnarls Barkley, and the Panic! At The Disco.
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About The Infatuation, Zagat: The Infatuation is a website, app, newsletter, and recommendation platform that helps users find restaurants for every situation.
Oliver Kharraz
CEO & Co-Founder of Zocdoc
Oliver Kharraz, MD, is CEO and founder of Zocdoc. Oliver is the most recent doctor in a 300-year family tradition. Over the course of his wide-ranging career, Oliver has accrued comprehensive experience effecting change and building efficiency in large scale healthcare organizations using information technology. Prior to Zocdoc, Oliver was an Associate Principal at the global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. During his seven-year tenure at McKinsey & Co., Oliver developed and implemented new patient utilization models for the national health services of a number of governments and major hospital chains. In 1994, Oliver built and sold his first business – a forerunner of early internet software. He later became a resident doctor at the clinic of Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, where he earned an MD and a Doctorate in Neuroscience. Oliver also has a Masters Degree in Philosophy from the Jesuit College of Philosophy in Munich. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Born in Germany, Oliver immigrated to the U.S. during his work for McKinsey & Co. He currently resides in Brooklyn, NY, with his wife and their twin daughters.
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About Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), Zocdoc: Zocdoc is a digital marketplace company that connects healthcare patients and doctors.
Ned Kenney
Co-Founder & CEO of Laughable
Finance/biz dev background + tech nerdery + comedy fanaticism + millennial mandate to ‘do what I love’ –> starting Laughable. If you like comedy or podcasts, you should download our iOS app here: laughable.com/download _ _ _ The evidence is building that we’ve built something special: – 92% of our 275+ reviews are for 5 stars — a higher percentage than that of any other app focused on comedy or podcasts. – Our average user spends 3.5 hours per week listening to podcasts and 25 minutes per week directly engaging with our UI (i.e. tapping, typing, swiping, etc.). – Apple has featured us in the App Store multiple times, including in the ‘New Apps We Love’ section of the App Store homepage, an honor reserved for only a few hundred apps each year out of of more 2m+ iOS apps total. _ _ _ Other Links: – Android users can sign up to be notified when we have an app ready for them: laughable.com/android – We recently announced Laughable 2.0, which allows you to subscribe not only to podcast series, but also to individual artists. You can read more about 2.0 here: laughable.com/blog/april2017announcements – More on our long-term vision for Laughable: laughable.com/blog/helloworld – The ‘Unified Theory of Laughable’: laughable.com/blog/unifiedtheory – My thoughts about the future of comedy and podcasting: laughable.com/blog/nkthoughts16 – An FAQ for podcasters and comedians: laughable.com/artist-resources Instagram: @nedkenney Email: n@laughable.com
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About Laughable: A better way to discover comedians and podcasts
David Steinberger
Co-Founder, President & CEO of Comixology
David Steinberger is the co-founder and CEO of comiXology, the revolutionary cloud-based digital comics platform that features content from Marvel, DC and 75 top comic book and graphic novel publishers. The comiXology platform includes a top ten grossing iPad app, as well as iPhone, Android, Kindle Fire and Windows 8 apps, and a web store and reader at www.comixology.com. He designed comiXology’s Guided View, the reading technology that transforms the comic book medium into an immersive and cinematic experience and defines the digital comic experience. A long time comic fan and passionate entrepreneur, David’s inspiration for comiXology was shaped at the NYU – Stern’s 2007 Business Plan competition while he pursued his MBA. David also holds a Masters degree from Manhattan School of Music, and an Advanced Certificate from The Juilliard School. David’s currently reading Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness from IDW Publishing.
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About Amazon, Comixology: Comixology delivers a cloud-based digital comics platform that enables users to discover, buy, and read comics.
Jake Mor
Founder & CEO of FitnessAI
Jake Mor is the founder and CEO of Fitness AI, an app that uses AI to generate personalized weight lifting plans.
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About FitnessAI: Fitness AI is an app that uses AI to generate personalized weight lifting plans.
Corey Weiner
CEO of Jun Group
Corey is one of Jun Group’s founders. He serves as President and Chief Operating Officer, overseeing product development, publisher strategy, finance, business development, and operations. He is also the Chief Executive Officer of Jun Group’s mobile platform subsidiary, HyprMX. Prior to founding Jun Group, Corey consulted for SONY USA and the United States government. Corey holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
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About Jun Group: Jun Group runs advertising for brands and publishers. Our mobile-first approach is powered by opt-in, first-party data generated by our SDK.
Hossein Azari
Founder, CEO of cmorq
My mission is to contribute to leveling the financial playing field. This involves developing financial management tools and novel products for establishing and maintaining ownership for consumers. I have been contributing to this space since 2015. Currently, I am Founder and CEO of cmorq. I was a Senior Research Scientist at Google Research where I initiated and led multiple projects in collaboration with product teams such as Ad-Exchange. I was also a co-founder at Clarity Money (Acquired by Goldman Sachs), building a trusted financial advocate. I have a PhD in Computer Science (EconCS group) from Harvard University, advised by Professor David Parkes, and a Siebel Scholar, Class of 2014. I have an MBA from Columbia University (2016), MA in Statistics from Harvard University (2012) and BS in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology.
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About cmorq: cmorq organizes blockchain data into standard products that empower institutions and individuals.
David Hannes
CEO & Founder of Loved
Founder at Loved.
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About Loved: Loved is the platform that empowers kids to save, invest and learn guided by family & friends
Michael Jaconi
Co-Founder and CEO of Button
Michael Jaconi is the Co-Founder and CEO of Button, the mobile commerce platform that maximizes the value of every tap. Jaconi formerly served as the CEO of Rakuten Loyalty and Executive Officer of parent company Rakuten. Michael helped build Rakuten Loyalty from a fledgling state to a multi-million dollar business in less than two years and led Rakuten’s $100M investment in Pinterest, helping bolster Rakuten’s position as one of the most innovative and aggressive global internet companies. Prior to his tenure at Rakuten, Jaconi co-founded two public affairs companies and has been a lifelong entrepreneur. Prior to his tenure at Rakuten Loyalty, Jaconi co-founded two public affairs companies in Washington, D.C. and served in a variety of capacities within various political campaigns.
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About Button: Button is the mobile commerce technology company that is powering a commerce-driven internet.
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.
Ali Asaria
CEO of Tulip Retail
Ali Asaria was formerly the CEO and founder of Well.ca, Canada’s largest online health, baby and beauty store. Prior to founding Well.ca, Ali worked at Research In Motion (RIM) where he independently developed BrickBreaker, the most popular Blackberry game that is now on more than 15 million devices worldwide. In 2005, Ali was RIM’s youngest patent recipient. Prior to RIM, Ali worked in Microsoft’s Redmond office on the Office 2007 User Interface Team.
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About Tulip Retail: Tulip Retail is a mobile app platform built exclusively for next generation store associates to offer a world-class omnichannel experience.
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.
Ajay Yadav
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Roomi
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About Dada Room, Forbes, Forbes Real Estate Council, Roomi: Roomi is a free mobile platform that helps people find flexible, affordable co-living solutions.
Allon Bloch
Co-Founder and CEO of K Health
Allon Bloch is the CEO and Co-founder of K Health. Previously he served as the CEO of Vroom, the largest online car retailer in the U.S, Co-CEO of Wix, the world’s leading website publishing platform, and CEO of mySupermarket, a digital platform that empowers consumers to find the best prices for their groceries. Allon is also a former venture capitalist, serving as a Venture Partner with Greylock’s Europe/Israel fund and a General Partner at JVP. He holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and is based in New York.
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About K Health: K Health is a data-driven digital primary care system that uses AI to deliver personalized primary care.
Bo Han
CEO of Buzzer
Bo led Twitter’s efforts in Global Live Sports Content Partnerships, and was responsible for driving partnerships with the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, and PGA as well as with broadcasters – Disney/ESPN, FOX, NBC and Turner. Prior to joining Twitter in 2012, Bo started in the industry as a Global Account Director at Microsoft Corporation in New York, working with key and strategic global partners. Bo received his Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and earned his MBA at Columbia Business School in New York, New York.
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About Buzzer: Buzzer is a notification-driven mobile platform for live sports personalized for fans.
Tyler Faux
Co-Founder & CEO of Supergreat
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About Supergreat: Supergreat is a beauty community of real people reviewing the beauty products that work for them.
Jeff Krahel
CEO & Co-Founder of Playbook
Founder at Fitner Media.
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About Playbook: Playbook is the #1 creator economy platform for talent in the fitness & athletic industry.
Alex Adelman
CEO and Co-Founder of Lolli
Alex Adelman is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Lolli. Alex was previously the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Cosmic (acquired by PopSugar, then Ebates). He was born in Charlotte, North Carolina and currently resides in New York, New York. He graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a degree in Economics.
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About Lolli: Lolli is a rewards app that allows users to earn bitcoin when shopping online.
Shawn Melamed
Co-Founder and CEO of Spiral
Shawn Melamed is a serial fintech entrepreneur that founded Spiral. He is the former Managing Director of Morgan Stanley’s Technology Business Development and Innovation Offices. He also founded software company Correlix, which was acquired by TSA, and led StrikeNet to its M&A with TMX Group.
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About Spiral: Spiral is a provider of a banking solution for the charitable sector.
John S. Shriber
Co- Founder & CEO of Roomster
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About Roomster: The leading multi platform roommate matching & shared housing application. IOS, Android & fully responsive design
Aaron Albert
Co-Founder/CEO of Mine’d
Co-Founder/CEO at Mine’d
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About Mine’d: The Emotional Network – Daily, live guided emotional health sessions
Ryan Hungate
CEO & Founder of Simplifeye
CEO & Founder of Simplifeye.
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About Simplifeye: Simplifeye empowers doctors by automating the business of their practice
Julie Hansen
CEO, US of Babbel
Julie Hansen is CEO U.S. at Babbel. Based in the company’s New York office she is leading the US expansion of the world’s top-grossing language learning app. Before joining Babbel, Julie was the COO and President of Business Insider. Under her leadership the news site became the most visited business outlet on the internet. Prior to Business Insider, Hansen held top management roles at sports site NCAA.com, Condé Nast Publications, and Time Inc. Julie has over two decades of experience growing digital media companies, launching interactive web sites, deploying mobile apps, and leading online and offline marketing campaigns. She began her career at Penguin Books, publishing learning software for literature among other products.
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About Babbel: Babbel is the market-leading app for language learning.
Joshua Stern
Co-founder, CEO of Wine n Dine
Joshua Stern is co-founder and CEO of Wine n Dine. Prior to Wine n Dine, Joshua founded I Know The Chef, the first restaurant concierge app.
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About Wine n Dine: Wine n Dine is a Visual Menu company that helps restaurants create & distribute menus online with our many in house tech solutions – SaaS
Matt Bailey
Founder and CEO of GameOn
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About GameOn: The future of engaging superfans. If it’s on, it’s on.
Michael Bramlage
Chief Executive Officer of Quidd
Michael Bramlage is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Quidd, a platform for buying, trading and using premium, rare digital goods. As CEO, he oversees corporate direction and strategy at the company, facilitating company activity in product development, user acquisition, marketing, and partnerships. Prior to Quidd, Bramlage founded the mobile apps division at Topps. As VP & General Manager of the newly formed Topps Digital, he was responsible for the launch of multiple top-grossing apps, growing annual revenue from zero to eight figures during his tenure. Prior to this, he was Head of Product at Nokia. In under three years, he oversaw the conception, design, development, and launch of 18 new versions of the company’s mobile app store, Ovi Store, for Series 40, Symbian and MeeGo devices. Bramlage began his career at Microsoft. While working on Windows Live Messenger (MSN Messenger) he established the industry’s first instant messaging interoperability agreements, brokering and implementing technical and data partnerships with Yahoo!, Facebook and LinkedIn. Bramlage is a native of Detroit, Michigan and a graduate of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. In his spare time, he is an obsessive record collector and proud owner of several extremely rare vinyl pressings.
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About Quidd: Quidd is the marketplace for buying and selling digital collectibles. Over 2.1B assets issued. Backed by Sequoia.
Asmau Ahmed
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Plum Perfect
Asmau Ahmed is the founder of Plum Perfect. Asmau holds an MBA degree in Finance and Entrepreneurship at Columbia Business School.
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About Plum Perfect: Plum Perfect is an app that scans your selfie to find the best makeup shades for skin tone.
Jonathan B. Handler
Founder and CEO of YINC
Jonathan B. Handler is the founder & CEO at YINC.
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About YINC: YINC leverages Blockchain technology to transform the service-to-hire industry for consumers & real estate mgmt companies.
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
Neal Shenoy
Co-Founder & CEO of BEGiN
Neal Shenoy is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at BEGiN. Neal manages BEGiN’s purpose and vision, sets its strategy and execution plan, recruits talent and manages strategic relationships with investors and partners. Neal has built a team with deep industry expertise across organizations such as Nickelodeon, PBS Kids, Scholastic, Barnes & Noble, Pearson and Mattel.He has helped guide BEGiN to be one of the largest, fastest growing and most promising platforms for early childhood literacy and language learning, earning recognition from the Aspen Institute, American Library Association, Education World and National Education Association. Neal is also a Co-Founder of SAAVN, the largest streaming service for South Asian music in the world, and a Founding Partner at [212]MEDIA, which builds consumer media ventures in fragmented markets alongside major media companies. Prior to [212]MEDIA, Neal was Co-Founder and President of Simile, a contextual advertising platform in media and publishing. With a B.S.F.S. in International Relations from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University Neal began his career as an Investment Banker in an upstart unit of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette that advised media & telecom companies.
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About [212]Media, BEGiN, HOMER, Speakaboos: BEGiN is an award-winning company offering best-in-class solutions across digital, physical, and experiential learning to kids globally.
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.
Tiernan Kennedy
CEO of Umba
Tiernan Kennedy is the co-founder and CEO of umba. He has been working in technology firms for the past six years. A graduate of computer and electronic engineering from Trinity College Dublin, Tiernan has worked on a large number of software projects in the cloud and mobile space. Tiernan has worked with companies such as Novo Nordisk, Saatchi and Saatchi and Faberge during his time at Resolute Digital. He then went on to become the Senior Director of Engineering at Canary, managing all of their properties including their iOS, Android and Web Apps.
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About Umba, Umba: Umba is an African digital bank, offering free bank accounts and financial services to our customers
Christopher White
Founder/CEO of Sneakers Apps
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About Forbes New York Business Council, Rad Hires, Sneakers Apps: Sneakers Apps is a full-service digital product development agency focused on helping brands launch and grow their businesses.
Raad Ahmed
Founder and CEO of LawTrades
Raad Ahmed Born in New York City and spent most of my adolescent years in Long Island. At a young age He discovered that he loved music and all things creative. I am naturally an imaginative person -– produce videos, learned guitar and started a website in law school. Currently, I am the Founder/CEO at LawTrades. Our mission to improve access to legal services through really disruptive technology.
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About LawTrades: LawTrades is an online message-based platform that allows anyone to seamlessly find, hire, and work with lawyers.
Tim Attia
CEO of Slice Labs
Tim Attia is the cofounder and CEO of Slice Labs, a technology Startup providing on-demand insurance for the on-demand economy. Slice has reimagined and redesigned insurance by providing a straightforward, cost-effective, easy-to-use solution that provides coverage to on-demand workers on a transactional basis, so they’re only paying for coverage while they’re working. Tim began his career with a large technology and management consulting firm, and has since continued to worked with major global insurance carriers on technology and distribution. He is excited to use his background in insurance and financial technology to apply intelligent design, data and technology to solving the gaps and risks facing the growing on-demand workforce. Tim holds an Electrical Engineering degree from McGill University, and has over 20 years’ experience in the insurance technology industry.
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About Slice Labs: Slice Labs is the first on-demand insurance cloud platform provider, enabling companies to build intuitive digital insurance products.
Adarsh Alphons
Founder and CEO of Wardrobe
Adarsh Alphons is the founder and CEO of Wardrobe. Prior to Wardrobe, Adarsh founded ProjectArt—currently the nation’s largest art school, without owning a single building. Adarsh’s expertise in catalyzing underutilized resources into productivity, building asset-light organizations and ability to bring self-interested partners together for a common cause made ProjectArt a leader in its field and a nationally-scaled enterprise. He is a CNN Hero, Columbia University Community Scholar and a 40 Under 40 in Global Art Business.
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About Wardrobe: Wardrobe is a peer-to-peer luxury clothing rental app focused on sustainability.
Jeremy Friedman
Founder, CEO of Spiral Connect
Jeremy is the Founder and CEO at Spiral Connect. Prior to that, he was the SVP of Schoology at PowerSchool and the Founder and CEO of Schoology. He is a recognized education technology thought leader and frequently sought speaker at industry events. Jeremy was selected as one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Education. He co-founded Schoology while an undergraduate at Washington University in St. Louis earning his BA in Economics.
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About Spiral Connect: Spiral Connect is an app that is useful for stores a person’s personal information.
Thomas Lee
CEO of Galileo
Tom is a board-certified internist who completed training at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He’s interested in improving the quality of care through team-based decision making and an integrative philosophy of care that includes evidence-based medicine and biologic plausibility.
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About Galileo: Galileo — a next-generation health care delivery model designed for the future.
Luke Schoenfelder
CEO & Co-Founder of Latch
Luke is passionate about great products and tough environments. He spent 2011–2013 developing emerging market technology products in Port-au-Prince, Haiti with support from the Clinton Global Initiative, Habitat for Humanity, and the Dell Social Innovation Fund.
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About Latch: Latch specializes in keyless entry security systems to open and manage every door in an apartment building from a smartphone.
Walter Jin
CEO of Pager
Walter Jin is CEO at Pager.
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About Pager, Three Fields Capital: Virtual care technology platform that provides communication, collaboration, navigation, and care coordination solutions.
Sean Engelking
Co-Founder and CEO of Starship
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About Starship: Starship is mobile health savings account (HSA) with automated investing built for humans.
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.
Peter Lehrman
CEO of Axial Networks
Peter is CEO of Axial, responsible for driving the company’s vision to be the trusted platform where private companies connect with capital. Prior to Axial, Peter worked in private equity at SFW Capital Partners and was part of the founding team at Gerson Lehrman Group, where he helped build the company’s dominant global technology platform for on-demand business expertise. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and received his MBA from Stanford Business School.
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About Axial Networks: Axial is a provider of technology-enabled applications used to discreetly connect the participants in the private capital markets.
Rakesh Gupta
Chairman & CEO of KiwiTech
Rakesh is the founder and CEO of Kiwitech, a digital interactive production and publishing house with over 300 APP’s in the companies production portfolio. Prior to founding Kiwitech, Rakesh was the founder and CEO of Aptara Corp, a leading Digital publishing & production company with over 4000 employees. The company was acquired in 2008 and was started from Rakesh’s kitchen table.
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About KiwiTech, KiwiVenture Partners: KiwiTech is a growing innovation ecosystem that’s home to more than 500 portfolio companies and 2000 investors.
Pavel Danilov
CEO and Co-Founder of Fridge No More
Pavel Danilov is the CEO and Co-Founder of Fridge No More.
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About Fridge No More: Fridge No More is an instant food deliverer that offers a 15-minute grocery delivery service.
Shachar Golan
Founder & CEO of Baby Doctor, Inc.
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About Baby Doctor, Inc.: Baby Doctor, Inc. was a healthcare startup that offered pediatric services on demand
Ludovic Huraux
Co-founder & CEO of Shapr
Ludovic Huraux is the Founder of Shapr Inc. and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Ludovic Huraux served as an Associate at Industries & Finances Partenaires SA and joined it in 2005. He served as Investment Professional at Perfectis Private Equity.
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About Shapr: Your daily dose of inspiring people to meet!
Marah Lidey
Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Shine
Marah Lidey is the cofounder of Shine Text, helping people live more intentionally through the power of daily messaging. Her expertise lies at the intersection of millennials and messaging. Lidey previously directed mobile and social for brands like DoSomething.org, American Express, and Viacom. She earned her BA in Journalism at the University of Georgia and currently resides in Brooklyn. A World Economic Forum Global Shaper and one of the “Top 35 People to Watch in NYC Tech” by Built in NYC, Lidey also actively advocates for increasing racial and socioeconomic diversity in technology and entrepreneurship.
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About Shine: Shine is a self-care app and community for people with anxiety and depression.
Naomi Hirabayashi
Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Shine
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About Shine: Shine is a self-care app and community for people with anxiety and depression.
Krystle Mobayeni
Founder & CEO of BentoBox
Krystle Mobayeni, CEO and Founder of BentoBox, knows that today, the restaurant experience starts online. With BentoBox, she helps restaurants engage with their customers online, serving as a real partner and embodying the idea of hospitality every step of the way.
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About BentoBox: BentoBox empowers restaurants to own their presence, profits, and relationships, directly through their website.
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.
Jan Alexander Jedlinski
CEO & Co-Founder of Gustav
Jan Jedlinski is the CEO & Co-Founder at Gustav
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About Gustav, Pioneer Fund, World Staffing Organization: Powering the next‑generation of staffing agencies and recruiters to run their business online.
Jason Saltzman
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Relief App
Jason Saltzman is the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Relief App.
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About Alley, Entrepreneur.com, Relief App: Relief is a mobile app that delivers on debt-elimination commitment.
Daniel Ramot
Co-Founder and CEO of Via
Daniel Ramot is the co-founder and CEO of Via. Prior to Via, Daniel built supercomputers designed to discover new pharmaceutical drugs at D. E. Shaw Research, and developed avionic systems for F-15s and F-16s for the Israeli Air Force. He has a PhD in neuroscience from Stanford University and is a graduate of the Israel Defense Forces’ elite Talpiot program.
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About Via: Via is a re-engineering public transit company that develops and provides on-demand public mobility solutions for commuters.
Nikhil Chandhok
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Bento Labs
Nikhil Chandhok was an Entrepreneur in Residence at GV. Nikhil Chandhok joined GV from YouTube, where he served as Director of Product Management and spent more than six years in a variety of roles. Nikhil Chandhok led YouTube’s music efforts for more than four years and helped make YouTube one of the most prominent destinations for music on the Internet. Under his leadership, many key capabilities were added to the YouTube platform, including mobile and device streaming, paid subscriptions, and live streaming. He also led YouTube’s TV advertising efforts and helped grow the business to be the TV ad network in the U.S. Prior to Google, Nikhil Chandhok helped create the enterprise storage and virtualization businesses as a product manager at Microsoft. Before Microsoft, he co-founded a telecom startup while in graduate school. Nikhil Chandhok has an M.S. in computer science from Ohio State University.
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About Bento Labs, Meta: Bento is an Intelligent Homescreen for Android that knows what you need and when you need it.
Rajesh Cherukuri
Co- founder & CEO of GIN – Get It Now Inc.
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About GIN – Get It Now Inc., REVR – Real VR: GIN is a luxury concierge service for fashion, with great brands and personal curation.
Michael Faye
CEO, Co Founder of Taptap Send
Michael is co-founder of GiveDirectly, Segovia, and Taptap Send. He has worked extensively in enterprise technology as an Associate Partner at McKinsey and Company, with international governments at the United Nations Millennium Project, and operating large-scale field projects while earning his PhD in Business Economics from Harvard. Michael also holds a BA from Harvard in Mathematics and Classics (although he didn’t know Segovia is an aqueduct) and was recognized as a top 100 Global Thinker by Foreign Policy.
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About GiveDirectly, Segovia, Taptap Send: Taptap Send is an app that lets immigrants send money back home.
Franco Gasperoni
Co-Founder & CEO of AdaCore
Franco Gasperoni is a co-founder of AdaCore and has been involved with Ada both commercially and technically since 1991. Franco has an engineering degree from Mines ParisTech, France and a PhD in Computer Science from New York University, USA. While at Mines ParisTech, Franco worked on credit mechanisms and their potential instability with Maurice Allais, the French economics Nobel laureate. Franco has lectured and conducted research in computer science at New York University and Télécom ParisTech.
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About AdaCore: AdaCore is a provider of integrated web application development environment.
Andrew Jarecki
CEO of KnowMe
Andrew Jarecki is an Academy-award nominated filmmaker, musician and entrepreneur. Jarecki graduated from Princeton University in 1985, where he also served as the theatrical director. Currently, Jarecki resides in New York City with wife, Nancy, creator of Betty Beauty, Inc., which sells pubic hair dye. He co-founded Moviefone, a service that provides film schedules over the phone and Internet. Launched in 1989, Jarecki’s company was sold to AOL 1999. Andrew Jarecki is best known for his work in the controversial documentary, “Capturing the Friedmans.” The film focused on the investigation of Arnold and Jesse Friedman who faced accusations of child molestation. The film won eighteen international prizes including a nomination for an Academy Award, amidst scrutiny from the child sex abuse victims who claimed it was not factual. Today, Jarecki continues to advocate for Jesse Friedman, who was convicted of child molestation, and having his conviction overturned.
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About KnowMe: The easiest way to make a video using all the media on your phone.
Frankie Vittorini
CEO of uSTADIUM
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About uSTADIUM: uSTADIUM is a platform for sports fans to engage and make money on their opinions.
Jason Baptiste
CEO of Studio
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About Studio: Studio makes audio based group running classes available live and on-demand to anyone with access to a treadmill.
Ross Clark
CEO & Co-Founder of Sanctuary
Ross Clark currently works as the CEO and Co-Founder for Sanctuary. He previously worked at EPIX as the Senior Vice President.
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About Sanctuary: Sanctuary is a mystical products and services company that provides illuminating experiences to millennials.
Justin Wisz
CEO of Truthify
Justin Wisz is CEO at Truthify, and Venture Partner at RTP Ventures. He was previously Co-Founder at Vestorly, Inc. Justin Wisz was employed at Fisher Investments. He was founder of 2 digital advertising firms.
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About ForwardPro, Truthify: Mobile applications that leverage AI to change the way people communicate and companies advertise and connect with their clients/prospects.
Daniel Clark
CEO of Brain.FM
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About Brain.FM: Brain.FM makes scientifically backed music to empower you to focus on demand.
Marla Gonzalez
Founder & CEO of Humanified
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About Humanified, Raxo, SteelBridge Laboratories: Humanified is the social impact network. The app that #makeschangehappen is coming 2021.
Rahul Tiwari
Co-Founder and CEO of TRILL
Rahul Tiwari is the founder and CEO of TRILL.
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About TRILL: TRILL is an app that allows users to purchase and discover new streetwear items.
Brian Zanghi
President & Chief Executive Officer of Masabi
Brian is Masabi’s Chief Executive Officer and President. Brian is focused on accelerating the company’s growth globally, and scaling the team to serve the evolving mobile ticketing market. He is a software industry veteran who brings 20 years of experience in building software-as-a-service businesses to address the global market. Prior to joining Masabi, Brian was CEO of Awareness, Inc, a provider of social marketing software. Before that he also served as CEO of Kadient and held ‘C’-level positions at a variety of software companies such as SPSS, NetGenesis and eRoom.
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About Masabi: Masabi is the global leader in transport mobile ticketing and payments.
Drew Silverstein
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Amper Music
Drew Silverstein is the co-founder and CEO of Amper Music, Inc., a new music technology venture slated to change the way music is composed and created for video content. He is also currently earning his MBA at Columbia Business School in New York, NY with a focus on finance and entrepreneurship. As a musician, Drew is a composer, arranger, producer, conductor, and songwriter for film, television, recording artists, video games, and performance. From Atlanta, Georgia, Drew studied with Emmy award-winning composer Eddie Horst. Drew continued his studies in Nashville, Tennessee at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music with Michael Rose, Michael Slayton, Michael Kurek, and Stan Link. He has worked with artists including Christopher Lennertz, Timothy Michael Wynn, Philip White, Jim Gray, and Kristin Wilkinson.
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About Amper Music, Shutterstock: Amper is an artificial intelligence composer, performer, and producer that creates unique music, tailored to any content, instantly.
Khajak Keledjian
Founder & CEO of Inscape
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About Inscape, Intermix: Inscape anywhere, anytime. Our app is designed as your companion, empowering you to find balance and calm in our always-on world.
Eric Silverberg
Founder & CEO of SCRUFF
Eric is the founder & CEO of SCRUFF – one of the largest gay social dating apps in the world. Prior to SCRUFF, he was a Software Engineer at Microsoft and a Product Manager at Google. He has a BS in Computer Science from Stanford and an MBA from MIT Sloan.
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About SCRUFF: SCRUFF is the top-rated, safest and most reliable social app for more than 15 million gay, bi and trans and queer men worldwide.
Arianna Huffington
Founder & CEO of Thrive Global
Arianna Huffington is the founder of The Huffington Post, the founder and CEO of Thrive Global, and the author of 15 books, including, most recently, Thrive and The Sleep Revolution. In May 2005, she launched The Huffington Post, a news and blog site that quickly became one of the most widely-read, linked to, and frequently-cited media brands on the Internet, and in 2012 won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. In August 2016, she launched Thrive Global, a corporate and consumer well-being and productivity platform with the mission of changing the way we work and live by ending the collective delusion that burnout is the price we must pay for success. Thrive Global provides trainings, seminars, e-courses, coaching and ongoing support based on the latest scientific findings to improve people’s health and increase productivity for both companies and individuals around the world. She has been named to Time Magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list.
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About Thrive Global: Thrive develops technology that help individuals and companies improve their well-being and performance.
Peter Sullivan
Founder & CEO of Jackpocket
Peter “Pete” Sullivan is the chief executive officer and founder of Jackpocket, a mobile-first startup making the lottery even more accessible and enjoyable for today’s consumers. He was inspired to create the app when he noticed his father, an avid lottery player, playing social games on his smartphone, yet still could not order lottery tickets on it. As CEO, Pete’s focused on securing venture capital to fund the company’s continued product and team growth, as well as working with lottery commissions and state regulators to bring Jackpocket to new jurisdictions across the country. Jackpocket recently closed a series B round of funding, with plans to expand to major U.S. markets in Q1 2019. A venture-backed entrepreneur with a background in interaction design, Pete has served in a variety of roles across project management, web and mobile UI/UX design, product development and more. Prior to founding Jackpocket, he served as a design consultant, a General Assembly course creator, and founded Tripl, one of the first social travel applications to launch using Facebook Connect in 2010. A New Jersey native, Pete holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Rutgers University, and pursued a master’s degree in finance and banking from Stockholm University before founding Tripl.
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About Jackpocket: Jackpocket is a mobile-first startup helping to modernize state lotteries.
Jeff Cripe
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Cargo
After graduating from Yale, Jeff was an early team member at Birchbox, and a founding Ecommerce team member at Christie’s, where he helped build the world’s leading digital art-commerce platform. Jeff has also worked as an Advisor to Loehmann’s and ARTCUBE. Outside of work, Jeff is on the Junior Board of Project Art, enjoys golf, and is an amateur paleontologist credited with the discovery of new species and genuses, including T. cripeosaurus.
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About Cargo: Cargo helps rideshare drivers earn more money and better ratings by providing products to passengers.
Dmitry Rakovitsky
Co-Founder and CEO of ROKO Labs
Dmitry is an entrepreneur who is passionate about mobile, web and cloud technologies and has founded multiple startups. He works with companies in strategic advisory and CTO roles. Dmitry is an industry veteran with 20 years of product and technology leadership experience.
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About Instabot, ROKO Labs: ROKO Mobi is a mobile platform that allows you to add chatbots, deep linking Refer-A-Friend, sharing, and push notifications to your app.
Spencer Richardson
CEO, Co-Founder of DropCar
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About DropCar, RG-Importers: Parking & delivery logistics for consumers and businesses.
Marc Ambrus
CEO of Tradeewatches
Founded TickeTac, later acquired by Group Le Figaro. TickeTac was France’s leader in on-line ticket sales of spectacles.
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About Tradeewatches: The trusted third-party marketplace for all watch lovers.
Christian Brucculeri
Chief Executive Officer of Snaps
Christian Brucculeri is an entrepreneur in web and mobile products involving social media. Christian has worked as a digital strategist, interactive producer and managing director for New York based agencies, and has founded, worked on or advised on a number of startups, including Zen Media Group, YouCast Corp, Static & Noise, Thinklabs Interactive, MindMarkets, Plugd and Crowdstream.
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About Snaps: Snaps is a Conversational Automation Platform for eCommerce.
Ayman Hariri
CEO & Co-Founder of Vero
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About Vero: Vero is an information technology company that specializes in the fields of mobile application, social media, and Online Media.
Jake Poses
Founder & CEO of Jumprope
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About Jumprope: Jumprope is a platform where users can create, discover, and share how-to videos and tutorials.
Peter Korbel
CEO/Founder of StoreMe
StoreMe, Founder Blender Workspace, Co-Founder Fojol Brothers, Co-Founder
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About 135 Madison, StoreMe: StoreMe is a mobile app that enables on-demand storage by the hour or day in retail stores.
Isa Watson
Founder and CEO of Squad
Isa Watson is the Founder and CEO of Squad, the intimate voice-only social experience for you and your people. A 30 under 30 honoree, prior to founding Squad Isa was a VP of Digital Product at JPMorgan Chase. Before that she was a diabetes chemist and data scientist at Pfizer. Isa earned an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a MS in Pharmacology from Cornell University and a BS in Chemistry from Hampton University. She is a classical pianist.
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About Squad: Squad is the intimate voice-only social experience.
Adi Sideman
Co-Founder and CEO of PROPS
YouNow founder and CEO Adi Sideman is a pioneer in participatory media, with more than 20 years of experience creating apps and companies in the user-generated content space. Sideman founded YouNow in 2011 to provide a live social platform for people to connect, interact, and express themselves. YouNow grew to be a global social network with more than 100 million user sessions a month, and creators and audiences now produce more than 50,000 hours of original live content each day. YouNow has been named one of the most innovative companies of 2016 by Fast Company and was a finalist for Fastest Rising Startup of 2016 at the Crunchies Awards. As a developer, Sideman produced the first animated ads on AOL and founded Squeeze, a web development venture that provided services to Fortune 500 companies like Starbucks and Con Edison. He also produced more than 30 online games for major-studio film and TV franchises. In 1999, he founded the interactive marketing firm Oddcast, which continues to develop such groundbreaking apps as “Elf Yourself.” In 2005 he co-founded KSolo, the first online karaoke service (acquired by Fox Interactive/MySpace) and, in 2006, co-founded audio ad network TargetSpot, a joint venture with CBS (acquired by Radionomy). Sideman is a member of the Real-Time Academy of Short Form Arts & Sciences and was named one of 2015’s top 100 most influential and inspiring people in NYC tech by Business Insider. He holds an MPS degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and an undergraduate degree from NYU Film School.
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About PROPS: PROPS creates a decentralized model for digital media that uses blockchain technology to reward the contributors that power the network.
Sharmeen Mitha-Sehgal
Founder and CEO of Appy Couple
Sharmeen Mitha-Sehgal is CEO and co-founder of Appy Couple.
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About Appy Couple: Appy Couple enables users to create and publish personal mobile wedding apps and websites to share details and photos.
Kellee Khalil
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Lover.ly
Kellee Khalil, an Entrepreneurial Studies Graduate from USC, is Lover.ly’s fearless leader. Kellee started the company after realizing firsthand the inefficiencies of the wedding industry. She moved to NYC, invested her post-grad savings and launched Lover.ly in February of 2012. Prior to founding Lover.ly, Kellee ran Business Development at Be Inspired PR, the leading PR firm servicing the luxury wedding market. Kellee brings a high level of leadership, vision, and a strong understanding of the tech industry, while providing the team with instrumental enthusiasm and support.
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About Engage Media Group, Lover.ly: Loverly is an online media platform and free wedding planning newsletter helping savvy couples plan their dream wedding.
