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 Founder operating in the Finance space. If you think a Founder is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.us.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Nasir Jones
Partner and Co-Founder of QueensBridge Venture Partners
Nas, byname of Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, also called Nasty Nas, (born September 14, 1973, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.), American rapper and songwriter who became a dominant voice in 1990s East Coast hip-hop. Nas built a reputation as an expressive chronicler of inner-city street life. Nasir Jones, the son of a jazz musician, grew up in public housing in Queens, New York. He dropped out of school in the eighth grade and searched for a creative outlet, finally settling on hip-hop. His breakthrough came in 1992, when his song “Half Time” (credited to Nasty Nas) appeared on the sound track to the film Zebrahead. Columbia Records soon signed him to a contract. His debut recording as Nas, Illmatic (1994), drew widespread acclaim for its poetic narration of hard-edged inner-city life. The more pop-oriented approach of It Was Written (1996) helped that album reach an even wider audience than its predecessor but ignited a recurring tension in Nas’s career between the appetite of the pop audience and the demands of hip-hop purists. He maintained his commercial appeal with I Am… (1999), although by that time he had also become embroiled in a public feud with fellow rapper Jay-Z over which of the two was the preeminent voice in East Coast hip-hop. The schism inspired Stillmatic (2001), which many fans considered a return to form. The two rappers publicly settled their differences in 2005, and shortly thereafter Nas signed with Def Jam, of which Jay-Z was president at the time. Nas’s penchant for provocation marked Hip Hop Is Dead (2006) and an untitled follow-up (2008), while Life Is Good (2012) struck an introspective tone. He also notably collaborated with reggae musician Damian Marley (the youngest son of Bob Marley) on the album Distant Relatives (2010). Nas also made occasional film appearances, notably in Belly (1998), a crime drama in which he starred opposite rapper DMX, and Black Nativity (2013), an adaptation of Langston Hughes’s gospel play.
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About Emagen Investment Group, Inc., QueensBridge Venture Partners, Uncle Sam Loves Me, LLC: QueensBridge Venture Partners invests in technology companies in highly competitive and visible markets.
Catherine Wood
Founder, CEO & CIO of ARK Investment Management
Cathie registered ARK Investment Management LLC (“ARK”) as an investment adviser with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in January 2014. Prior to ARK, Cathie spent twelve years at AllianceBernstein as Chief Investment Officer of Global Thematic Strategies where she managed $5 billion. Cathie joined Alliance Capital from Tupelo Capital Management, a hedge fund she co-founded which, in 2000, managed $800 million in global thematic strategies. Prior to her tenure at Tupelo Capital, she worked for 18 years with Jennison Associates as Chief Economist, Equity Research Analyst, Portfolio Manager and Director. She started her career in Los Angeles, California at The Capital Group as an Assistant Economist. Cathie received her Bachelor of Science, summa cum laude, in Finance and Economics from the University of Southern California in 1981. In 2016, Cathie received the “Women in Finance – Outstanding Contribution Award” from Market Media.
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About ARK Investment Management: ARK Invest holds a precision lens on thematic investing.
Rich Kleiman
Co-Founder and Business Partner of Thirty Five Ventures
Rich Kleiman is the Kevin Durant’s manager, as well as his co-founder and partner in The Durant Company and Thirty Five Media. With the Durant Company, Kleiman oversees Durant’s investment portfolio, including Postmates, Acorns, The Players’ Tribune, JetSmarter, and many others. The duo’s latest venture, Thirty Five Media, is a media production and creative development company. Their work can be seen on Kevin Durant’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/kevindurant. Previously, Kleiman helped launched Roc Nation Sports, where he served as Vice President of the agency founded by Jay-Z and still works in partnership with the firm. Kleiman started with Roc Nation in 2008 as a music manager representing Solange, Wale, Mark Ronson, & many more. Kleiman has also served as executive producer on HBO’s The Offseason: Kevin Durant and Jay-Z’s Fade To Black.
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About Thirty Five Ventures: Thirty Five Ventures connect established and emerging businesses for meaningful value creation so they can thrive and scale.
Philippe Laffont
Founder & Portfolio Manager of Coatue
Philippe Laffont is the founder and portfolio manager of Coatue Management. Mr. Laffont graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1991 with a B.S. and M.Sc. in Computer Science. He worked as an analyst in management consulting for McKinsey & Co. from 1992 to 1994 in Madrid, Spain. After working as an independent consultant for several years, Mr. Laffont joined Tiger Management LLC as a research analyst in 1996. He focused on telecommunications stocks while at Tiger until he left to found Coatue in 1999.
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About Coatue: Coatue invests in public and private equity markets focusing on the technology, media, and telecommunications industries.
Joshua Kushner
Founder and Managing Partner of Thrive Capital
Joshua Kushner (June 12, 1985) is an American entrepreneur and businessman. He is a co-founder of Vostu, the largest social gaming company in Brazil, where he serves as Chief Strategic Officer. He is also the founder and Managing Partner of Thrive Capital, an early stage venture capital fund. Kushner also serves as a Principal of Kushner Companies, a diversified real estate investment company, whose holdings include The New York Observer, a weekly Manhattan newspaper. Kushner sits on the board of the Observer Media Group. He is the son of businessman Charles Kushner and brother of businessman Jared Kushner.
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About Oscar Health, Thrive Capital: Thrive Capital is a venture capital investment firm that focuses on building and investing in the software and technology-enabled companies.
Harley Miller
Founder and Managing Partner of Left Lane Capital
Harley Miller joined Insight in 2011. He previously worked as an analyst at Lubert Adler Real Estate Funds in Philadelphia, focusing on acquisitions and asset management. Harley graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business with a BS in Economics, with concentrations in both ‘International Venture Capital & Consumer-Facing Industries’ and ‘Information Management’. During his time at Wharton, Harley launched his first startup, MobileEatz – a mobile food ordering portal targeted at college campuses. Harley is fluent in both Spanish and Portuguese.
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About Left Lane Capital, MobileEatz: Left Lane Capital is a venture capital and early-growth equity firm that invests in high-growth internet and consumer technology businesses.
Jordan Nof
Co-Founder, Managing Partner of Tusk Venture Partners
Jordan Nof is a Co-founder and Managing Partner at Tusk Venture Partners L.P. and is a member of the firm’s Investment Committee. He has led many of the firm’s investments including Lemonade, Bird, Coinbase, Alma, Sunday, and Wheel. He currently serves on the board of directors of Wheel, Alma, and Sunday. Prior to Tusk Venture Partners, Jordan was a Director at Blackstone, where he focused on the development of the firm’s corporate venture capital portfolio. During that time, Jordan focused on investing in early-stage technology companies that could accelerate operations across Blackstone and the firm’s underlying portfolio companies. Before joining Blackstone, Jordan was part of the institutional investment management division at AllianceBernstein. During that time, he worked with many of the firm’s largest global institutional sub-advisory relationships. Jordan received an M.B.A. from Rollins Graduate School of Business and is a graduate of Florida State University where he received a B.S. in Finance. He is based out of the firm’s New York office.
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About Tusk Venture Partners: Tusk Venture Partners invests in early-stage technology startups operating in highly-regulated markets.
Alex Zubillaga
Founder of 14W
Alex Zubillaga is the founder of 14W, a New York-based, venture capital firm focused on consumer Mobile, Web, E-commerce, CPG, and Media. Previously, Alex was Executive Vice President, Digital Strategy and Business Development at Warner Music Group (WMG). Prior to WMG, Alex founded Net Uno, a leading Venezuelan cable television and broadband operator where he served as CEO and Chairman.
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About 14W: 14W is a venture capital firm specializing in consumer internet, marketplace, ecommerce, CPG, and media.
Michael Chetrit
Co-Founder of Chetrit Ventures
Michael Chetrit is the Co-Founder at Chetrit Ventures.
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About Chetrit Ventures, ChetritGroup: is a family operated venture firm focused on early and growth-stage investments.
Stephen Schwarzman
Chairman, CEO & Co-Founder of Blackstone Group
Stephen Schwarzman is Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Blackstone. Schwarzman has been involved in all phases of the firm’s development since its founding in 1985. The firm is currently the world’s largest independent alternative asset manager with $218 billion Assets Under Management, as of March 31, 2013. Schwarzman is an active philanthropist with a history of supporting education and schools. Whether in business or in philanthropy, he has always attempted to tackle big problems and find transformative solutions. In 2013, he founded an international scholarship program, “Schwarzman Scholars,” at Tsinghua University in Beijing, to educate future leaders about China. At $300 million, the program is modeled on the Rhodes Scholarship and is the single largest philanthropic effort in China’s history coming largely from international donors. In 2007, Schwarzman donated $100 million to the New York Public Library, on the board of which he serves. Schwarzman is also committed to supporting education locally, sending over two hundred students per year to parochial schools in the New York area. Schwarzman is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations, The Business Council, The Business Roundtable, and The International Business Council of the World Economic Forum. He serves on the boards of The Asia Society, The Board of Directors of The New York City Partnership and The Advisory Board of the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University, Beijing. He is a Trustee of The Frick Collection in New York City and Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In 2007, Schwarzman was included in TIME’s “100 Most Influential People.” In that same year, he was awarded the Légion d’Honneur of France and promoted to Officier in 2010. Schwarzman holds a B.A. from Yale University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He has served as an adjunct professor at the Yale School of Management, is on the Harvard Business School Board of Dean’s Advisors and Harvard University’s Global Advisory Council. In 2012, he was awarded an Honorary Degree from Quinnipiac University.
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About Blackstone Group: Blackstone is an investment and advisory firm providing financial solutions for investors and clients.
Andrew Hunt
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Elephant
Andrew Hunt is a Co-Founder and Director at Warby Parker. He is also Co-Founder and Partner at Elephant, a venture capital firm focused on the enterprise software, consumer internet and mobile markets. Andy has studied eyewear design in more than 40 countries. Rumors that he conceived the idea for Warby Parker while fasting at a temple in the jungle city of Angkor Wat are only somewhat misleading. After working in finance and healthcare, Andy was convinced that there had to be a way to deliver top-quality eyewear for less.
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About Elephant, Warby Parker: Elephant is a venture capital firm focused on the enterprise software, consumer internet, and mobile markets.
Wes Edens
Co-Founder & Chairman of Fortress Investment Group
Chairman and Founder at Fortress Investment Group.
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About Aston Villa, Fortress Investment Group, Milwaukee Bucks Inc., New Fortress Energy: Fortress is an investment management firm that manages alternative assets in private equity, liquid hedge funds, and credit funds.
Ilya Golubovich
Founder, Managing Partner of I2BF Global Ventures
Ilya has been a partner since the fall of 2005. He is a member of the Board of Directors of JSC Russian Investors, a private equity group with $200 million under management, and Linxlogic, a business software corporation in Los Angeles. Ilya formerly worked in the Energy Department of the London office of Louis Dreyfus in commodity trading and as a project manager at the Siberian Internet Company (Sibintek) at both their Novosibirsk and Moscow offices. Mr. Golubovich has an industrial engineering degree from Stanford University.
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About Aeroxo, Buzzoola, Enki.com, I2BF Global Ventures, Octi, Presto, Primus Power, ServiceTitan: I2BF is a venture capital firm that focuses on early stage technology companies.
Howard Morgan
Co-Founder & Special Advisor of First Round Capital
Howard Morgan is currently the Chairman of B Capital. He co-founded First Round Capital with Josh Kopelman as the first professional Seed Stage Fund, where he remains Senior Advisor. Prior to First Round, Howard helped found Idealab with Bill Gross, and served as President of Renaissance Technologies, which he co-founded with Jim Simons. Prior to his move into the business of technology, Howard served as a professor at the Wharton School and the Moore School, both at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as at Cornell University. He is also an Executive Fellow at UC Berkeley. Howard’s research on user interface technology and the optimization of computer networks was critical to bringing the ARPAnet to Philadelphia in the 1970s. Through this early internet participation, he helped corporate and government agencies use technology to improve the efficiency of both large and small organizations. He also has deep experience with very large databases, and served as the first Editor of the ACM Transactions on Database Systems Journal. Throughout his career, Howard has sought out great people and nurtured them so that they could realize their dreams. His mentees have included both PhD students researching a key topic, and early stage entrepreneurs building companies and taking them from seed stage through initial public offerings. He currently serves as a Director of Idealab, and he is on the board of several non-profits including Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories and Math For America. He has also served on a number of public company Boards, including Franklin Electronic Publishers and Internet Brands, Inc. He was CEO of Kentek and Franklin during various turnover or transitional periods and in 1997 he was named Delaware Valley Entrepreneur of the Year. Howard is a respected author and a frequent speaker at major industry conferences. Howard received a PhD in Operations Research from Cornell University in 1968, and a BS in Physics from City College of the City University of New York in 1965.
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About Arca Group Inc, Arca Group Inc, B Capital Group, First Round Capital, Gust, Nacre Capital: First Round is a venture capital firm that specializes in providing seed-stage funding to technology companies.
Stephen Feinberg
Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Cerberus Capital Management
Stephen Feinberg co-founded Cerberus Capital Management in December 1992. He also founded or co-founded the other Cerberus affiliates and Cerberus Funds. Prior to founding Cerberus Capital Management and its affiliates, he managed separate pools of capital for Gruntal & Co. and certain other accounts from 1985 to 1992. He began his career at Drexel Burnham Lambert, where he was actively involved in trading large pools of firm capital. He is a graduate of Princeton University. He is a member of the Firm’s Private Equity Investment Committee, Cerberus Business Finance Investment Committee, Valuation Committee, Real Estate Investment Committee, Allocation Committee, Brokerage Selection Committee, and NPL Committee.
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About Cerberus Capital Management: Cerberus Capital Management is a private investment firm that focuses on operational private equity investments.
Steve Sarracino
Founder and Partner of Activant Capital
Steven Sarracino is the founder of Activant Capital. He has been investing in exciting growth businesses for over a decade. Over his career, Steve has invested more than $2 billion of equity across a broad range of technology companies. Prior to founding Activant, Steve founded a consulting firm focused on commerce technology, where he advised, invested in, and was a member of the board of directors of some of the world’s leading commerce technology companies including hybris and iCongo. Previously Steve helped open the technology investing office at American Capital, Ltd. in Palo Alto, CA. Steve also worked at McKinsey & Co. in their Hong Kong office. He began his career in mergers and acquisitions at Robertson Stephens in San Francisco, CA. Steve has an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He attended Southern Methodist University for his undergraduate degree, where he received a BBA in Finance with a minor in History.
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About Activant Capital: Activant is a global investment firm that partners with high-growth companies that are transforming commerce.
Andrew Mitchell
Founder & General Partner of Brand Foundry Ventures
Andrew Mitchell is a Founder, General Partner at Brand Foundry Ventures.
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About Brand Foundry Ventures: Brand Foundry Ventures is an early-stage VC firm dedicated to accelerating the growth of emerging, innovative consumer-focused brands.
Chris Burch
Founder & CEO of Burch Creative Capital
Christopher Burch is Founder and CEO of Burch Creative Capital. Mr. Burch is an active investor in a variety of businesses spanning a wide range of industries and is the co-founder of the luxury fashion brand, Tory Burch. Mr. Burch has always been devoted to the power of branding, and currently applies his keen sense of marketing and sales to business interests spanning apparel, financial services, hospitality, technology and consumer products.
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About Burch Creative Capital, Nihi Sumba Island: Burch Creative Capital is a Creative Capital Firm with a decidedly different approach to creating value.
Brandon Krieg
CEO and Co-Founder of Stash Financial
Brandon Krieg is the Co-Founder of Collective Returns, Inc. and has been its Chief Executive Officer since July 11, 2016. Brandon Krieg served as the President of Collective Returns, Inc. until July 11, 2016 and serves as its Executive Director.
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About Stash Financial: Stash is a personal finance app that combines banking, investing, and advice into one platform.
Keith McCullough
Founder & CEO of Hedgeye Risk Management
Prior to founding Hedgeye Risk Management, Keith built a track record as a successful hedge fund manager at the Carlyle-Blue Wave Partners hedge fund, Magnetar Capital, Falconhenge Partners, and Dawson-Herman Capital Management. He got his start as an institutional equity sales analyst after earning an economics degree from Yale University, where he captained the hockey team to a Division I Ivy League Championship. Keith regularly appears on financial TV and radio including CNN and Fox Business, and has been a contributor for CNBC and Bloomberg. He writes regularly for Fortune and Forbes and is the author of the popular book, Diary of a Hedge Fund Manager. He is currently co-chair of the NYC Bipartisan Policy Center, the only Washington, D.C.-based think tank actively promoting bipartisanship to address the key challenges facing the U.S.
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About Hedgeye Risk Management: Hedgeye Risk Management is a web-based financial research and media company providing investment information.
Colin Beirne
Founder and Partner of Two Sigma Ventures
Colin Beirne is the founder and partner at Two Sigma. He joined Two Sigma in 2005 to focus on corporate strategy and business development and helped orchestrate the growth of the company’s primary business lines and manage key corporate partnerships. In 2007, he began leading orthogonal investments for the company, in areas including renewable energy, real estate, and real assets. In 2012, Colin, along with the rest of the Two Sigma Ventures leadership and Two Sigma founders, began conceptualizing and building the initiative that became Two Sigma Ventures. A Bay Area native, Colin fondly recalls summer internships in the late 90s dot-com boom, and first was drawn to New York City to work at Doubleclick. He also did a short stint as a technology-focused investment banker. Colin graduated with a dual B.A. in Economics and Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought from Amherst College. He is on the Board of Directors of Harlem Prep Charter School.
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About Two Sigma, Two Sigma Ventures: Two Sigma Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund that invests in companies run by highly driven people.
Richard M. Cashin
Managing Partner, Founder, President and Member of Investment Committee of One Equity Partners
Mr. Cashin is Managing Partner of OEP. Prior to founding One Equity Partners in 2001, Mr. Cashin was President of Citigroup Venture Capital, Ltd. Mr. Cashin is a member of the JPMorgan Chase Executive Committee and sits on the Board of Titan International Inc. He is a Trustee for the American University in Cairo, Boys’ Club of New York, Brooklyn Museum, Central Park Conservancy, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the National Rowing Foundation (Chairman), and TOUCH Foundation. He is Co-Chairman of the New York City Investment Fund and is active in several inner-city educational initiatives as well as Harvard fundraising and has served as Co-Chairman of his Harvard class for over 35 years. Mr. Cashin received his M.B.A. from Harvard University, his A.B. in East Asian Studies from Harvard College, and attended a one-year fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge.
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About One Equity Partners, One Equity Partners: One Equity Partners makes private equity investments behind compelling business ideas and strong management teams.
Joseph Sartre
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Interlace Ventures
Joseph is a Managing Partner at Interlace Ventures and Bleu Capital. He led investments in companies such as Cargo and Fordays. Former operator in the technology and FMCG space, he spent five years in China managing finance for Evian Asia Pacific and then leading sales for Evian China.
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About Bleu Capital, Interlace Ventures: Interlace Ventures is an early-stage and seed-stage fund investing in the Future of Commerce.
David Tisch
Founder & Managing Partner of BoxGroup
David Tisch is the Managing Partner of BoxGroup, a New York City-based early stage investment fund. BoxGroup is an investor in over 200 seed-stage companies, including Vine, Blue Apron, Sunrise, Warby Parker, Harry’s, Oscar, Behance, Handy and more. David is also the co-founder and Chairman of Spring, a mobile marketplace where customers shop directly within the app from a curated community of brands. Spring was named by Apple as one of the Best Apps of 2014. In 2014, David was named Head of Startup Studio at Cornell Tech, the University’s New York City-based graduate campus focused on digital technologies and the information economy. He is also Entrepreneur in Residence for Wharton’s Entrepreneurship Program. David is the co-founder of TechStars NYC and has served on numerous boards, including Mayor Bloomberg’s Advisory Council on Technology, the Investor Board of Venture for America, and the Entrepreneurship board at NYU. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and New York University School of Law, and currently lives in New York City
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About BoxGroup, Cornell Tech, Techstars: BoxGroup is an early-stage investment fund that invests in technology companies.
Amy Nauiokas
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Anthemis Group
Amy Nauiokas is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Anthemis Group.
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About Anthemis Group: Anthemis Group is a global platform that cultivates change in the financial system by investing in, growing, and sustaining businesses.
Ion Yadigaroglu
Co-Founder & Managing Principal of Direct Investments of Capricorn Investment Group
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About Capricorn Investment Group: Capricorn Investment Group invests in the public equity, fixed income, private equity, and real assets markets.
Rafay Farooqui
Founder & CEO of +SUBSCRIBE®
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About +SUBSCRIBE®: Powering alternative investments® with the leading electronic subscription document technology.
Benjamin Levin
Founder, Co-CEO of Level Equity Management
Ben Levin co-founded Level Equity and is a partner and the Co-CEO of Level Equity Management, LLC.
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About Level Equity Management: Level Equity Management is a growth equity firm that focuses on providing capital to software and internet companies.
Matei Zatreanu
Founder of System2
Matei founded System2 on the belief that fundamental investing will be augmented by data-driven technology. He previously played a leading role in the data initiative of a large global hedge fund. There, he sourced alternative data from hundreds of vendors and performed research studies across numerous sectors ranging from retail to energy to real estate. Matei holds an M.A. in Mathematics from Columbia University and B.A.s in Psychology, Mathematics, Government, and Economics from Cornell University.
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About System2: SYSTEM2 helps investors integrate data science into their approach by providing sourcing & analysis of big data as a service.
Neal Moszkowski
Founder and Co-CEO of TowerBrook Capital Partners
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About TowerBrook Capital Partners: TowerBrook Capital Partners is a London-based investment management firm that funds European and North American companies.
Jonathan Nelson
Founder and Executive Chairman of Providence Equity Partners
Jonathan M. Nelson is Providence Equity Partner’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer. He has been a private equity investor for over 30 years. He founded Providence in 1989, pioneering a sector-focused strategy to private equity investing with the vision that a dedicated team of industry experts could build exceptional companies of enduring value. He serves on the Board of Directors of The Chernin Group and Univision Communications. He has also served as a director of numerous other Providence portfolio companies, including Bresnan Communications, Eircom plc, Hulu, Language Line, MetroNet (now AT&T Canada), MLS Media, VoiceStream Wireless (now Deutsche Telekom), Warner Music Group, Western Wireless Corporation (now AT&T Corp.) and Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network (YES). Prior to founding Providence, he was a Managing Director of Narragansett Capital, which he joined in 1983. At Narragansett Capital, Mr. Nelson specialized in private equity investments in the cable television, broadcasting and publishing sectors. He received a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University. He is a Trustee of Brown University and founder of the University’s Jonathan M. Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship, which supports a student-centered and faculty-led initiative that operates in collaboration with various other departments, schools, and centers at Brown to provide students with a strong academic grounding in entrepreneurship, blended with applied experiences and mentorship opportunities. He is also a Trustee of The Rockefeller University and Institute for Advanced Study, a member of the Board of Dean’s Advisors at Harvard Business School and serves on the Board of the Newport Festivals Foundation.
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About Providence Equity Partners: Providence Equity Partners is a private equity firm that focuses on media, entertainment, communications, and information investments.
Daniel Pianko
Co-Founder and Managing Director of University Ventures
Daniel Pianko is the Managing Director at Achieve Partners
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About Achieve Partners, Tiber Health, University Ventures: University Ventures is higher education sector.
Amish Jani
Founder & Partner of FirstMark
Amish Jani is a founder and Managing Director of FirstMark and has been an active venture capitalist for nearly 20 years. He invests broadly across the cloud and Internet landscape, including SaaS applications, ecommerce, infrastructure and more. Amish has been recognized by CB Insights and the New York Times as a Top 100 Venture Capitalist globally. Amish has invested in industry-defining companies that include Shopify (NYSE: SHOP), InVision, Pendo, Starry, Tracelink, Frame.io, Guru, Bluecore, IMImobile (LSE: IMO), Schoology (acquired by PowerSchool), Boomi (acquired by Dell), Aveksa (acquired by EMC), and many more. Prior to founding FirstMark, Amish served as a Partner with Pequot Ventures. Amish holds both a B.S. and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
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About FirstMark: FirstMark Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm that partners with exceptional entrepreneurs.
Rick Heitzmann
Founder, Partner, and Managing Director of FirstMark
Rick Heitzmann is a Founder and Managing Director at FirstMark Capital. Mr. Heitzmann focuses on investments in emerging media, advertising, data, and information services. Rick has led or co-led many investments in market leaders in commerce (StubHub, acquired by eBay), gaming (Riot Games, acquired by Tencent), data services (First Advantage, NASDAQ: FADV; acquired by First American), advertising technology (Tapad), media (Pinterest), and more. Previously, Rick was a Managing Director at Pequot Ventures, and a founding member of the senior management team at First Advantage (NASDAQ: FADV). At US Search, Rick, as the Senior Vice President of corporate development and member of the Board of Directors, led the public company turnaround. Mr. Heitzmann graduated from Georgetown University with a B.S. in Business Administration and earned his M.B.A. from The Harvard Business School. Rick sits on the Board of Directors of Pinterest, Dashlane, Omaze, and Hubble Contacts among others. Rick is also on the Board of Directors of the New York Venture Capital Association.
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About FirstMark: FirstMark Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm that partners with exceptional entrepreneurs.
Daniel S. Loeb
Founder of Third Point Ventures
Daniel Loeb founded Third Point LLC, a $17 billion asset management firm headquartered in New York, in 1995. He leads portfolio management, risk management and research activities. Before founding Third Point, Daniel Loeb worked on both the buy and the sell sides for over a decade, gaining dedicated experience in distressed debt, high-yield bond sales, risk arbitrage and private investments. Immediately before starting Third Point, he was Vice-President of high-yield bond sales at Citigroup. Previously, Daniel Loeb was a Senior Vice-President in the distressed debt department at Jefferies & Co., where he worked as a bankruptcy analyst, bank loan trader and distressed securities salesman. Before Jefferies, Daniel was a risk arbitrage Analyst at Lafer Equity Investors. He began his career as an Associate in private equity at Warburg Pincus. Dan Loeb is a Trustee of the United States Olympic Committee, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Students First New York, and Mt Sinai Hospital, where he established the Ronald M. Loeb Center for the study of Alzheimer’s Disease in memory of his late father. He is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Daniel Loeb is also the Chairman of the Board of Success Academies Charter Schools. Dan Loeb launched and has funded the Human Rights Campaign’s initiative to protect LGBT rights globally in the face of increasing discrimination. Daniel Loeb graduated from Columbia University with an A.B. in economics in 1983. He has endowed the Daniel S. Loeb Scholarship for undergraduate study there and received Columbia’s John Jay Award for distinguished professional achievement
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About Third Point Ventures: Third Point Ventures is an investment firm that focuses on enterprise, fintech, mobile, and healthcare innovation.
Roger Ehrenberg
Founder & Managing Partner of IA Ventures
Roger Ehrenberg is the founder and Managing Partner of IA Ventures, a firm that invests in companies creating competitive advantage through data.
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About IA Ventures, Miami Marlins: IA Ventures is a venture capital firm that specializes in seed-stage and early-stage investments in the fintech sector.
Adam Dell
Founder & CEO of Clarity Money
Adam Dell joined Austin Ventures as Venture Partner in May 2010. Adam has been a successful entrepreneur, academician, and has more than 12 years of experience in the venture capital industry. He focuses purely on early-stage venture investments in the information technology and business services areas. Most recently, Adam was Founder and Managing General Partner of Impact Venture Partners, a venture capital firm focused on information technology investments. Prior to founding Impact, Adam was a partner with Crosspoint Venture Partners in Northern California, and a Senior Associate with Enterprise Partners in Southern California. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, he worked as a corporate attorney in Austin, Texas, with the law firm of Winstead, Sechrest & Minick. His prior investments include OpenTable (OPEN), Buzzsaw (ADSK), Ingenio (T), and Hotjobs (YHOO). Dell founded and served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of MessageOne, which was acquired by Dell, Inc. in 2008. Adam teaches a class on the role of law in innovation at the University of Texas School of Law.
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About Austin Ventures, Clarity Money, SharedEarth.com: Clarity Money empowers and saves you money with transformative financial organization, transparency and advocacy.
Matt Jacobs
Co Founder, CTO of Clarity Money
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About Clarity Money, Goldman Sachs: Clarity Money empowers and saves you money with transformative financial organization, transparency and advocacy.
Seth Harrison
Founder & Managing Partner of Apple Tree Partners
Seth Harrison is the managing partner of Apple Tree Partners and serves as Executive Chairman of Braeburn Pharmaceuticals. He has invested in life sciences since 1991. Seth has served as founding investor, acting CEO or chairman of numerous portfolio companies. He is currently also Chairman of Tokai Pharmaceuticals, Chairman of Aileron Therapeutics and Deputy Chairman of Heartware International, all companies he founded. Prior to founding ATP, Seth was a general partner at Oak Investment Partners and earlier was a venture partner at Sevin Rosen Funds. His prior investments include: ArQule, Coelacanth, Cyrano Sciences, Gloucester Pharmaceuticals, Informed Access, SGX Pharmaceuticals, Ultracision and ViroPharma. Seth received an A.B. from Princeton University, an MD and MBA both from Columbia University and completed a surgery internship at the Presbyterian Hospital in the City of New York. From 2002 – 2010 he served on the board of the International Partnership for Microbicides, a Rockefeller Foundation/Gates Foundation sponsored public-private partnership engaged in the development of anti-HIV microbicides.
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About Apple Tree Partners: Apple Tree Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in pharmaceuticals, biotech, medtech, and healthcare services.
Gal Krubiner
CEO/ Co Founder of Pagaya Investments
Former UBS investments & wealth management professional, UHNW biz dev having raised hundreds of millions of dollars in assets. Specializes in innovative & sophisticated credit structured products (ABS structures).
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About Pagaya Investments: Pagaya is a financial technology company that enables financial institutions to expand access to more customers through its AI network.
Sebastián Ceria
Founder, CEO of Axioma
Sebastian Ceria is Chief Executive Officer of Qontigo. He previously served as the CEO of Axioma, which he founded and led since 1998. Before that, Sebastian was an Associate Professor of Decision, Risk and Operations at Columbia Business School. He has worked extensively in robust optimization and its application to portfolio management, authoring many articles in industry and academic publications. He is a recipient of the Career Award for Operations Research from the National Science Foundation and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Sebastian holds a PhD in Operations Research from Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, and a degree in Applied Math from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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About Axioma, Qontigo: Axioma provides enterprise risk management, portfolio management, and regulatory reporting solutions to financial institutions worldwide.
Hesham El-Nahhas
Founder and CPO of Wrapbook
Hesham El-Nahhas is the Founder and CPO of Wrapbook.
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About Wrapbook: Wrapbook provides digital profiles that facilitate onboarding, paying and insuring project workforces compliantly.
Eric Zinterhofer
Founder of Searchlight Capital Partners
Eric Zinterhofer was elected to the board of directors of Charter on November 30, 2009 and as non-executive Chairman of the board on December 1, 2009. In 2010, Zinterhofer founded Searchlight Capital Partners, LLC, a private equity firm. Previously, he served as a senior partner at Apollo Management, L.P. and was with Apollo from 1998 until May 2010. From 1994 to 1996, Zinterhofer was a member of the Corporate Finance Department at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. From 1993 to 1994, he was a member of the Structured Equity Group at J.P. Morgan Investment Management. Zinterhofer is a director of Dish TV India Ltd., Integra Telecom, Inc., Hunter Boot, Ltd. and Leo Cable, LLC. Previously, Zinterhofer was a director of Central European Media Enterprises, Ltd., iPCS, Inc., Unity Media SCA and Affinion Group, Inc. Zinterhofer received B.A. degrees in Honors Economics and European History from the University of Pennsylvania and received a M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
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About Searchlight Capital Partners: Searchlight Capital Partners is a private investment firm operating in North America and Europe.
Joe Apprendi
Founder & General Partner of Revel Partners
Joe Apprendi is the Founder and General Partner of Revel Partners.
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About Revel Partners: Revel Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on B2B SaaS and marketplaces.
Chris Young
Co-Founder & General Partner of Revel Partners
Chris, a serial entrepreneur and 10-year veteran of the video advertising space, is the Chairman & CEO of Digital Broadcasting Group (DBG), one of the top online video distribution networks that also specializes in the production and distribution of original branded video content across the Web and other emerging platforms. As CEO, Chris oversees the strategic direction and management of DBG’s core business divisions. Under Chris’ leadership, The DBG Video Network has emerged as a comScore-rated top 10 video ad network with 83 million uniques accumulated across 2,600 web properties. Since 2007, DBG has been on the forefront of enabling big-name brands like Ford, Diet Coke, HP, Sprint, Wal-Mart Unilever and Kimberly-Clark among others to advance their brands through branded entertainment and custom video programming. Prior to starting DBG in 2007, Chris Young co-founded online video advertising and management solutions company Klipmart in 1999 and grew it into the nation’s largest video rich media vendor taking advertiser’s TV commercials and putting them online. In 2006, under Chris’ leadership, Klipmart was subsequently sold to now Google-owned DoubleClick. Chris assumed the role of Executive Vice President of Rich Media at DoubleClick, where he worked to accelerate innovation in digital video and emerging advertising formats. Chris began his career as an investment banker at Citibank before founding his first company.
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About Revel Partners, Wider Wake Networks: Revel Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on B2B SaaS and marketplaces.
Kerem Ozmen
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of 8090 Partners
Kerem is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of 8090 Partners. Prior to that, he was the Junior Partner at Kairos and director of the K50. The K50 is an annual recognition of the 50 most innovative seed-stage companies founded by young entrepreneurs from around the world. Kerem is also the current managing director of Ozmen Ventures and has previously held program management roles in various areas including telemedicine and mechanical engineering. He currently advises projects in healthcare, aerospace, and aviation. Kerem graduated from the University of Nevada Reno in 2017 and is originally from Reno, Nevada.
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About 8090 Partners: 8090 Partners is a private partnership of industry-leading families and entrepreneurs focused on direct and opportunistic investments.
Nathan Low
Founder Partner & President of Sunrise Israel Tech
Nathan founded and serves as President of the Sunrise Financial Group, Inc, since August 1991. In 1992, Nathan founded Sunrise Securities Corp., a FINRA registered broker-dealer. In October 2003, Nathan founded and became Managing Partner of Sunrise Equity Partners, L.P., a $174 Million SBIC fund, which made direct investments in public companies. Under Nathan’s leadership, Sunrise has raised in excess of $5 billion for over 60 domestic and international public and private companies, using a variety of financing products including traditional debt and equity as well as innovative equity-related financing instruments. Nathan began his Wall Street career with Salomon Brothers, where he helped develop some of the first mortgage backed derivative securities. Thereafter, he worked at Bear Stearns and Prudential Bache in various trading and arbitrage capacities. Nathan was graduated cum laude from Harvard College in 1982. Nathan serves on a variety of charitable boards for projects involving the developmentally disabled, cancer care, and education.
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About Sunrise Israel Tech: Sunrise Israel Tech is an investment organization that helps to boost growth of small startups based out of and located in Israel.
Stephen D Owens
Managing Director & Founder of Staple Street Capital
Steve is a co-founder and Managing Director at Staple Street Capital where he jointly oversees all aspects of the firm’s investment activities. Prior to founding Staple Street Capital, Mr. Owens was a Managing Director at The Carlyle Group where he was a member of the firm’s U.S. Buyout team. During his tenure at Carlyle, he co-founded the firm’s Global Consumer & Retail Group, was a senior member of the firm’s Global Communications & Media Group, and executed and oversaw investments in the business services and transportation sectors. Mr. Owens was responsible for sourcing, executing, overseeing and exiting investments across a variety of industries and served on the boards of a number of Carlyle portfolio companies. Mr. Owens received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and graduated with distinction from Emory University. Mr. Owens currently serves on the board of directors of Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (NYSE: SIX), Ironline Compression and Aaroma Holdings.
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About Staple Street Capital: Staple Street Capital invests in attractive middle market companies where we can partner with management to create value.
David Whelan
Co-Founder and General Partner of Town Hall Ventures
David runs Oxeon Ventures, the venture start-up studio and investment business at Oxeon Holdings. The ventures studio designs, provides initial capital, incubates, and builds de novo or purpose-built-from-scratch healthcare companies. Our team develops and hones concepts and business plans and then leverages Oxeon Holding’s service lines and vast network of relationships to bring founding leadership, product/market validation, enterprise clients and then secure additional capital for these early stage companies. We build these companies independently or in partnership with entrepreneurs-in-residence or co-developed with outside healthcare companies including leading health systems, health plans or technology or service companies. Companies developed inside of Oxeon Ventures include Docent Health, Risalto and Abaka. Oxeon Ventures also manages a series of Funds investing in growth stage healthcare technology and service companies. Oxeon Ventures has been an early-stage investor in over 70 companies including Evolent Health (NYSE: EVH), Privia (acq. by Brighton Holdings), Liazon (acq. by Towers Watson), Avalon, Bright, Capsule, CIOX, Imagine Health, Iora Health, Landmark, Oak Oncology, Oak Street Health, Pager, Privia, Quartet, VillageMD, WiserCare and others. David Whelan was previously a General Partner of Accretive LLC, a private investment firm with a distinctive track record of creating, funding and building disruptive technology enabled companies. David served as a director on the Accretive portfolio company boards of Arise Virtual Solutions and Insureon. Previously, David was the Chief Executive Officer of the Cloverleaf Group, a private investment group and prior to that Vice President of Corporate Development with the Virgin Group in the US and UK where he led the development and startup of Virgin America, the U.S. based low cost airline. David was also an investment banker in London, England and Sydney, Australia with Goldman Sachs & Company and before that Deutsche Bank. Starting his career at Price Waterhouse in the firm’s Corporate Finance division in Sydney, Australia, David qualified as a Chartered Accountant of Australia. David has a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and Bachelor of Commerce from Bond University in Queensland, Australia. David also serves on the board of Friends of Hudson River Park Trust an independent nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to the completion, care, and enhancement of the HudsonRiver Park, and is the designated fundraising partner of the Hudson River Park Trust. FofHRP creates opportunities for public contributions to and participation in the Park’s operations and growth, to guarantee its future for generations of New Yorkers, Americans and visitors from around the world. David lives in Tribeca and with his wife, Melanie, and his two children, Lachlan and Charlotte.
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About Eleanor Health, Empiric Health, Oxeon Partners, Risalto Health, Strive Health, Town Hall Ventures: Town Hall Ventures is an investment firm aimed at transforming the woefully broken U.S. health care market through technology.
Trevor Price
Co-Founder & General Partner of Town Hall Ventures
Trevor Price is the Co-Founder and General Partner at Town Hall Ventures.
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About Oxeon Partners, Town Hall Ventures: Town Hall Ventures is an investment firm aimed at transforming the woefully broken U.S. health care market through technology.
Benjamin Sun
Co-Founder & General Partner of Primary Venture Partners
Benjamin Sun is the Co-Founder and General Partner at Primary Venture Partners.
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About Ollie, Primary Venture Partners: Primary Venture Partners is a seed stage VC firm focused on ecommerce and enterprise SaaS.
Brad Svrluga
General Partner & Co-Founder of Primary Venture Partners
Brad Svrluga is Founder and General Partner at Primary Venture Partners. He got his start in the venture business in time to see the last 12 months of the bubble, which was not early enough to lead to early retirement. Since then he has led over two-dozen investments across a range of software sectors. Brad co-founded High Peaks Venture Partners in 2004 and reinvented it 8 years later. Prior to his venture career, he was a strategy consultant with Monitor Group, leading projects out of the firm’s Cambridge, South Africa, and Brazil offices. Brad focuses his investing activities on SaaS and enterprise mobile applications, with a particular focus on vertical SaaS applications and the transformational impact of mobile computing on traditional business processes. He has led the firm’s investments in Divide (sold to Google), Savored (sold to Groupon), TxVia (sold to Google), Pump Audio (sold to Getty Images), Threadsmith (sold to Vistaprint), and Allworx (sold to PAETEC). Brad is a graduate of Williams College, where he captained the rugby team and majored in economics. He blogs not nearly enough at www.bradsvrluga.com.
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About Handshake, Healthify, Primary Venture Partners, PublicStuff, WhoSay: Primary Venture Partners is a seed stage VC firm focused on ecommerce and enterprise SaaS.
Marc Lipschultz
Co-Founder, President & Co-Chief Investment Officer of Owl Rock Capital
Marc Lipschultz is a co‐founder and the President of Owl Rock Capital Partners and Co‐Chief Investment Officer of Owl Rock Capital Advisors.
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About Blue Owl, Owl Rock Capital: Owl Rock is an investment firm that aims to meet the distinct and underserved financing needs of middle-market companies.
Geoffrey Bird
Managing Director & Founder of OMERS Private Equity
Geoff is a Managing Director in the New York office of OMERS Private Equity, having joined the team in 2007. Geoff is primarily focused on new investments in the business services and healthcare services sectors. Geoff has been actively involved with, or on the board of, several current and former investments, including Paradigm, Inmar, Epiq, CHG Healthcare, Nordco, Cari-all, and Marketwired. Geoff was previously an Associate with Ernst & Young’s Corporate Finance group in Toronto, where he was involved in a variety of transaction-related advisory services. Geoff has a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from Queen’s University. He holds a CPA and is also a CFA® charterholder.
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About OMERS Private Equity: OMERS Private Equity has been making private equity investments for OMERS, one of Canada’s largest plans with in excess of $50 billion of
Dickson Nsofor
Co-Founder & CEO of Korapay
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About Kora Network, Korapay: Korapay offers a payment engine that enables local and global businesses to send and accept payments.
Bryan Uyanwune
Co-Founder & Chief Innovation Officer of Korapay
Bryan is the co-founder and CIO at Korapay. His 4th startup, born out of a need to solve the problem of a financially fragmented Africa. Korapay is your digital financial service gateway, into, within and out of Africa!
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About Kora Network, Korapay: Korapay offers a payment engine that enables local and global businesses to send and accept payments.
Carl Icahn
Chairman and Founder of Icahn Enterprises
Carl Icahn is best known as an activist investor. He buys large stakes in companies in an attempt to gain seats on the board of directors and increase shareholder value. Some of his more recent moves involved [Yahoo](/organization/yahoo), [Take-Two Interactive](/organization/take-two-interactive-software), [Motorola](/organization/motorola), [Blockbuster](/organization/blockbuster-2) and [Time Warner](/organization/timewarner).
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About Apple, Icahn Enterprises: Icahn Enterprises L.P. (NASDAQ: IEP), a master limited partnership, is a diversified holding company engaged in nine primary business.
Hisham Khan
CEO & Founder of Cryptocurrencies.Ai
Hisham Khan currently works as the CEO and Co-Founder for Cryptocurrencies.Ai. He previously worked at Bloomberg LP as the Project Manager.
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About Aldrin, Cryptocurrencies.Ai: Cryptocurrencies.Ai is a cryptocurrency company that operates a trading platform with both centralized and decentralized components.
Erica Duignan Minnihan
Founder & Managing Partner of Reign Ventures
Erica Duignan Minnihan is a Managing Director for DreamIt Ventures focusing on Community Development in the New York City region. DreamIt Ventures runs programs in Austin, Baltimore, New York City, Philadelphia and Tel Aviv. In the last 5 years, DreamIt has helped 127 companies and over 400 entrepreneurs turn their ideas into business. She is also Managing Partner of seed-stage investment fund Fortuna Ventures, which invests in technology-enabled early stage companies. Prior to her work with DreamIt, Erica was Executive Director and a founder of STAR Angel Network, a membership organization for professional athletes and celebrities making investments in high growth potential, early-stage private companies. Erica was also the first Executive Director of Golden Seeds, a national early-stage investor group, where she managed deal sourcing and screening, due diligence, and investment processes for the group. Prior to joining Golden Seeds, Erica has held a variety of roles in the Investment Banking sector, working for firms including Cantor Fitzgerald, Citigroup and Credit Suisse.
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About One Thousand Angels, Onevest, Reign Ventures, Zairge: Reign Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm that focuses on Seed and Series A stage investment opportunities.
Artur Schaback
COO – Co-Founder of Paxful
A native of Estonia, the land of Skype. Artur earned his stripes building out the tech around financial infrastructure.
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About Paxful: The global peer-to-peer platform building a financial system for the 100%— one Bitcoin at a time.
Ray Youssef
CEO & Co-Founder of Paxful
Ray is the co-founder and CEO of Paxful, the peer-to-peer global finance platform with over seven million users. Ray and his co-founder Artur started Paxful in 2015 to help everyone gain financial freedom through equal access to finance. Ray started out as an entrepreneur in 2001, when he founded a successful ringtone business and then had a series of start-ups before setting up Paxful. At Paxful, Ray is CEO and looks after growth, marketing, customer service and operations. Ray also founded the Built With Bitcoin Foundation that uses Bitcoin to create opportunity and thriving communities by providing access to clean water, quality education, and healthy food and a healthy environment via sustainable farming.
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About Paxful: The global peer-to-peer platform building a financial system for the 100%— one Bitcoin at a time.
Jeremy Abelson
Co-Founder / Principal of Irving Investors
Jeremy Abelson founded Irving Investors in 2009. This came after two successful exits in the digital media space. Abelson combines his experience as an entrepreneur with institutional investing to find long-term sustainable investments in the public and private markets. He has contributed as an expert on Fox Business News, CNN, CNBC, The NYTimes, The WSJ and more. He also speaks at NYU, Columbia Business School and the NY Media Summit. Jeremy is originally from San Mateo, CA and graduated from The University of Michigan.
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About Irving Investors: Irving Investors focuses on disruptive technology and high growth opportunities.
Michael Caso
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Rosecliff Ventures
Michael Caso is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Rosecliff. He was honored with being awarded 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Venture Capital. At Rosecliff, oversees the entire investment team responsible for sourcing, reviewing, researching and structuring new deal flow and investment opportunities for the firm. Michael also manages the fundraising and capital raising efforts for the firm. Prior to launching Rosecliff, Michael worked for Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Michael also worked as an investment banking associate for Rosecliff Capital, where he focused on technology, consumer and software deals. Aside from work, Michael is an avid face in the health and fitness industry. He dedicates a lot of his free time trying to inspire people to live a healthier life through diet, exercise, and cardio vascular activities. Michael is active in the startup community. Michael graduated from Fordham University with a degree in Economics. While attending Fordham, he received multiple academic honors. Michael was honored with a four year academic scholarship. Michael currently resides in NYC’s Battery Park City.
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About Rosecliff Ventures: Rosecliff invests in companies that are making life better, brighter, bolder, and more efficient.
Mike Murphy
Founder and Managing Partner of Rosecliff Ventures
Michael Murphy is Founder and CEO of Rosecliff Ventures. Mr. Murphys career as a financial services entrepreneur began over 20 years ago. Throughout his time in the financial services industry, he has developed insight into fundamental investing, private equity, long/short strategies and macro global economic trends. His past successes include; operating a long/short Hedge Fund, successfully growing a wealth management business, running a broker dealer, and working on various investment banking deals. Mr. Murphys experiences led him to launch the Investment firm, Rosecliff Capital, and most recently the Venture Capital Fund, Rosecliff Ventures. He serves as Founder and CEO of both institutions. Mr. Murphy has been a successful angel investor for the past 7 years. He has played an active role in the success of many startups. It was his experience as an angel investor that lead to the launch of Rosecliff Ventures. Mr. Murphy was a CNBC contributor and has regularly appeared on the networks FastMoney segment, commenting on global macroeconomic trends, equities in the news and the latest market news. Currently, Mr. Murphy appears on FoxBusiness. A native of New York, Mr. Murphy graduated from Hofstra University and the D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University. He currently lives in NYC with his wife and five children. Causes close to his heart include; The Frances Pope Memorial Foundation, the American Heart Association, and NYPD Boxing.
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About Fox Business Network, Rosecliff Ventures: Rosecliff invests in companies that are making life better, brighter, bolder, and more efficient.
Justin Zhen
Co-Founder of Thinknum
Justin Zhen’s mission is to crowd-source the best practices of financial analysis, bringing the tools of Wall Street to the masses and pooling their best insights. He believes that by creating a larger pool of insights, the best ones will get filtered out. The platform – Thinknum – is the brain-child of Justin and his Co-Founder Gregory Ugwi. After graduating from Princeton, Justin went to work at a hedge fund.
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About Thinknum: Thinknum is a web platform that allows investors to get data driven investment ideas by monitoring companies’ websites.
Francisco Alvarez-Demalde
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Riverwood Capital
Francisco Alvarez-Demalde has been a member of the board since 2007. He is a founder and general partner of Riverwood Capital, a leading growth-capital private equity firm focused on the global technology industry, and one of the largest early investors in Globant. From 2005 to 2007, he was an investment executive at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., where he focused on leveraged buyouts in the technology industry and other sectors. Francisco was also an investment professional at Eton Park Capital Management and with Goldman Sachs & Co. Francisco earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina, which included an exchange program at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is director of Globant (NYSE: GLOB), GoIntegro , LAVCA, Navent, Netshoes, and VTEX, and a board advisor and former director of several other companies, including Alog Data Centers do Brasil, Conductor, CloudBlue, Mandic, Pixeon, among others. He is also involved in non-profit projects related to education. We believe that Francisco is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his considerable business experience in the technology industry and his experience serving as a director of other companies.
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About Riverwood Capital: Riverwood Capital invests in technology companies in need of financial and intellectual capital to scale.
Arie Abecassis
Co-Founder of ICONYC labs
Arie Abecassis is the Co-Founder at ICONYC labs.
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About Dreamit Ventures, ICONYC labs: ICONYC is a value-add investor and accelerator focused on helping early stage Israeli startups cut time to the US market.
Aaron Schumm
Founder & CEO of Vestwell
Aaron is the founder & CEO of Vestwell, a digital platform that has re-imaged and redesigned the retirement solutions available to financial advisors, companies, and employees. The firm has created a completely new, independent 401(k) & 403(b) offering, that removes the barriers to saving as an employee in America, while always looking out for the best interests of employees, their employers and financial advisors serving them. Prior to founding Vestwell, Aaron co-founded FolioDynamix, a wealth management and advisory services company powering $800 billion in assets for over 100,000 advisors. At FolioDynamix, Aaron oversaw the strategy, revenue, marketing, customers, and product. FolioDynamix was sold to Actua, (NASDAQ: ACTA) in 2014. Before FolioDynamix, Aaron was a vice president at Citigroup where helped advance the Asset Manager Solutions global strategy efforts. Other past positions include the head of WealthSolutions products at BISYS (now part of Citigroup) and product manager at CheckFree Investment Services (now part of Fiserv) overseeing and the Unified Managed Account (UMA) platform. Outside of Vestwell, Schumm on the board of directors at Chalice Wealth Partners, as well as an advisory board member at Quovo, a financial services data science & performance analytics provider to advisors, Vestorly, an AI financial content marketing platform, and WorthFM, a women-focused financial advice and investment management platform. Aaron was named to the 40 under 40 Class of 2017 by Crain’s InvestmentNews. He holds a B.S. degree in finance from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and an M.B.A. degree from Duke University, The Fuqua School of Business.
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About Vestwell: Vestwell provides underlying infrastructure to power workplace retirement plans.
Satya Pemmaraju
CEO, Founder of Droit
Prior to co-founding Droit, Satya was a Managing Director of FICC Trading at UBS. Post 2008, he was instrumental in helping create UBS’s funding desk focused on aggregating, managing and optimizing secured and unsecured derivatives funding risk across FICC trading. Satya has held various cross-asset derivatives trading roles including structured/contingent repo, Latam derivatives and structured notes. Prior to trading, Satya was a fixed income derivatives quant building pricing and risk management systems. Satya has a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Northwestern University and a B.S. from MIT.
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About Droit: The Operating System for Regulation
Anup Menon
Founder of Droit
Investor in early stage and seed firms backing fantastic teams and firms. Currently Managing Director, Head of Strategy and Emerging Technology @BofA; Founder @Droit Financial Technologies
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About Bank of America, Droit: The Operating System for Regulation
Gautam Ivatury
Founder & Head of Happy
Gautam Ivatury has been a pioneer in expanding financial access using technology for nearly two decades. He has started or led pioneering ventures such as India’s first microfinance institution to IPO (SKS Microfinance), Kenya’s first mobile-based credit provider (Jipange Kusave), India’s first digital micro-lender (ArthImpact/Happy Loans), and the firm that incubated M-Kopa, Africa’s largest pay-go solar financier. Gautam secured the Gates Foundation’s largest-ever grant in financial inclusion ($26m) while at CGAP / World Bank and set up its industry-shaping digital finance program. He has also chaired the global telecom association’s fund for mobile money, advised US-based VC and private equity funds, consulted to Fortune 500 players including Microsoft and Visa, and developed projects in 9 countries. Besides being an entrepreneur, advisor, and funder, Gautam has authored or co-authored groundbreaking work on the impact, business design and regulation of technology-driven financial inclusion. These have been published by the World Bank, CGAP, MIT Press, Springer Verlag, and media including the Banker and Revue Banque. Gautam has been a frequent lecturer at academic and executive programs including at Harvard University, MIT, Johns Hopkins University, the Wharton School and Columbia University business schools, Cambridge University and others. He has delivered dozens of keynote speeches and led discussions at trade conferences on virtually every continent and been a televised speaker on CNBC in the US and in India. Gautam is a Board Director at Vaya Finserv (a leading Indian MFI), an advisor to Encourage Capital, and an investor in multiple fintech startups.
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About Happy: Happy is a digital lending platform offering short term loans using alternate data to micro-enterprises in India
Stuart Ellman
Co-Founder & General Partner of RRE Ventures
Stuart Ellman is Co-Founder & Managing Partner of RRE Ventures. He has been immersed in information technology since the early 1980s when he taught himself computer programming and sold computer hardware and software. Since co-founding RRE in 1994, Stuart has been responsible for over forty technology investments, ranging from incubation-stage to post-revenue companies. He has invested in sectors across information technology, from security to green IT, from consumer-facing web companies to enterprise software. He believes that he is not a technologist but is a business person who utilizes technology to drive competitive advantage. He looks for big markets and superior management and has little interest in “me too” companies or following what is “hot” in the marketplace. He currently serves as a Board Director of Betaworks, Business Insider, Kroll Bond Ratings, Payfone, RecycleBank, SideTour and Tippr. Stuart began his career as a management consultant with McKinsey and Company in Australia. Later, he was a Financial Analyst at Dillon, Read & Co. where he focused on leveraged buyouts and restructurings and an Associate at Morgan Stanley & Co., specializing in fixed income capital markets. After graduating from business school in 1992, Stuart changed his life forever and became an entrepreneur. Stuart was the junior co-founder and Vice President at Advisory Capital Partners, a principal investment and advisory firm. Working nights and weekends, Stuart co-founded InterVideo Response with Jim in early 1994, which attempted to build in-stadium touchscreen ordering systems. They were ten years too early. After deciding against launching a second business plan involving pets and vets, the two decided to start their own investment firm late in 1994. In addition to his work as a venture investor, Stuart has served as an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia Business School since 2002, where he teaches a popular Venture Capital Seminar to MBA students. In 2011, he delivered the Keynote address at the Columbia Business School Private Equity and Venture Capital Conference. In 2009, he taught a graduate seminar at the CDTM in Munich, Germany, a joint program with Technical University and Ludwig Maximilians Universityb. He is the Treasurer/Chairman of the Finance Committee of the 92nd Street Y where he has been on the board since 2001. He is also on the board of The Browning School. Also, Stuart is a member of the New York City Investment Fund’s Clean Tech Sector Group, the VC Advisory Group of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the Economic Club of New York, and the NYC 2020 CEO Roundtable. He is also a TechStars mentor. Stuart holds an MBA with Distinction from Harvard University and a BA in Economics from Wesleyan University where he was a Gilbert Clee Scholar and a Horace White Fellow. Stuart resides in Manhattan with his wife of two decades, two kids and a spoiled black cat.
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About 92nd Street Y, RRE Ventures: RRE Ventures is a venture capital firm that offers early-stage funding to software, internet, and communications companies.
James Robinson
Founder & General Partner of RRE Ventures
Jim serves as a Board Director at On Deck Capital, PrimeRevenue and SkyGrid. Additionally, Jim serves as President, J. D. Robinson, Inc. and was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of American Express Company from 1977 to 1993. Prior to that, Jim held several executive positions within American Express, was a general partner with White Weld & Co., and served as Assistant to the Chairman and President of Morgan Guaranty Trust Company. Jim is a former Director of of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. He is a Director of Coca-Cola Company and Novell, Inc. Jim is a member of the Business Council, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Committee for Economic Development. He is Honorary Chairman of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; an Honorary Trustee of the Brookings Institution; and Chairman Emeritus of the Partnership for New York City and the World Travel and Tourism Council. Jim served as Co-Chairman of the Business Roundtable and as Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations. Jim has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS from Georgia Institute of Technology.
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About J. D. Robinson, Inc., RRE Ventures: RRE Ventures is a venture capital firm that offers early-stage funding to software, internet, and communications companies.
Jim Robinson
Founder & General Partner of RRE Ventures
Jim Robinson is a Founder and Managing Partner at RRE Ventures. He has been active within the technology community for 30 years as an investor, entrepreneur, banker, and futurist. Since becoming a venture capitalist in 1992, Jim has led investments in and served on the boards of more than forty companies, with a focus on the internet, data analysis, and financial services. He often invests in companies that leverage network effects or crowd-intelligence. Jim is currently a Director of Netsertive, Noom, OLO.com, OpenPeak and Quirky, and a board observer at Bitpay. He also advises several seed companies, including Admittedly, Culinary Agents, Gem, itBit, TheSkimm, and Vaurum. Jim has been recognized on the Forbes Midas List Top 100 VC’s. Prior investments include Broadsoft (BSFT), GoldPocket/Wireless (Tandberg/Motricity), iCrossing (Hearst), Metapath (Marconi), Mixed Signals (Tektronix), Orchestria (Computer Associates), Red Brick (REDB), RevolutionMoney (American Express), Rubric (Broadbase), SmartPay (Ping An), SmarterKids (SKDS), Telocity (Hughes), Vastera (VAST), Vocera (VCRA), WeddingChannel (TheKnot.com), and Wisdomtree (WETF). Jim was previously with H&Q Venture Capital in San Francisco, focused on software and communications. In 1994, along with Stuart Ellman, he co-founded InterVideo Response, building in-stadium touchscreen ordering systems. Before that Jim was with JP Morgan, initially developing global risk-management systems, and later as an investment banker. Jim earned an MBA from Harvard in 1992. While earning a double degree in Computer Science and Business Administration at Antioch College during the early 1980’s, Jim worked as an engineering intern in the solar power division at General Electric; as a programmer for Illinois state government; and later as an analyst for the 1984 Reagan-Bush Campaign in Washington, DC. During his third year in college he founded IV Systems, a builder of unix-based applications on Fortune Systems workstations. He also spent six months driving the nightshift in a NYC Taxi during 1982. Jim is a Director of the New York City Partnership Investment Fund, the HBS Alumni Angels VC Advisory Board, and the Harvard Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership. Jim has been in YPO since 1998. He is also an inventor, a father of four, a CERT first-responder, and a dog person.
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About RRE Ventures: RRE Ventures is a venture capital firm that offers early-stage funding to software, internet, and communications companies.
Michael Wong
CEO and Founder of Up&Up
Michael Wong is the Founder and CEO of Up&Up.
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About Up&Up: Up&Up is a tech-enabled real estate platform that allows renters to accumulate fractional ownership of the properties.
Ryan Brown
Head of Sales and Co-Founder of Up&Up
Ryan Brown is a Co-Founder of Up&Up.
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About Up&Up: Up&Up is a tech-enabled real estate platform that allows renters to accumulate fractional ownership of the properties.
Caitlin Long
Co-Founder & CEO of Avanti Financial Group
Caitlin Long is chairman and president of Symbiont, the market-leading smart contracts platform for institutional uses of distributed ledger technology. Caitlin previously spent 22 years on Wall Street in senior roles, working for Morgan Stanley (2007-2016), Credit Suisse (1997-2007) and Salomon Brothers (1994-1997). During her career she started and ran three new businesses, was a top-ranked equity research analyst for the life insurance sector, and worked directly for the co-CEOs on a business restructuring in Zurich. Caitlin has been active in bitcoin since 2012 and blockchains since 2014, and she served on Morgan Stanley’s internal blockchain working group in 2014-16. MarketsMedia awarded Caitlin its 2016 Women in Finance Award for Excellence in Blockchain, and Institutional Investor named Caitlin to its list of the most influential people in pensions during her final 3 years on Wall Street. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School (JD, 1994), the Kennedy School of Government (MPP, 1994) and the University of Wyoming (BA, 1990).
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About Avanti Financial Group: Avanti Financial Group is an operator of a crypto-asset banking company used to focus on providing regulated services for digital assets.
Jeff Stewart
Founder of Lenddo
Jeff Stewart is a serial entrepreneur, inventor and investor specializing in internet-enabled growth businesses. Jeff is the founder an CEO of Lenddo, the world’s first online community that empowers the emerging class to use their online social connections to build their creditworthiness and access local financial services. Jeff is the Founder of Urgent Group, a venture development firm focusing on building innovative technology-enabled businesses, as well as the founder of Urgent Ventures LLC, which co-invests in angel stage technology start-ups. Jeff also founded Urgent Career, a venture-backed recruitment technology and services firm that seeks to improve how growth companies find, screen and assess sales talent. Prior to Urgent Career, Jeff founded Monitor110, which offered internet-based semantic big-data analysis to institutional investors. Jeff is also founder, former CEO, and current chairman of Mimeo.com, a state-of-the-art, Internet-based document production service included in the 2004 and 2005 Inc. 500 lists of the fastest growing companies, the 2005 Red Herring 100 list of private companies that drive technology, and Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500. Mr. Stewart’s entrepreneurial career began in 1995 with his launch of Square Earth, an Internet technology company whose customers included Citibank, Compaq, UPS, Merrill Lynch, Oppenheimer and AIG. Consistently profitable, Square Earth grew at a rate of over 100% per year, merged with Proxicom in January 1998, and successfully completed an IPO as the combined company in 1999.
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About GPO Fund, Lenddo: Lenndo is a technology company that uses non-traditional data to provide credit scoring and verification.
David Beisel
Co-Founder & Partner of NextView Ventures
David Beisel is a co-founder and Partner at NextView Ventures, a seed stage venture capital firm with offices in New York and Boston. The NextView Ventures team are high conviction, hands-on seed investors, championing founders who want to redesign the Everyday Economy. David’s investments include Attentive, TripleLift, Code Climate, Parsec, BookBub, thredUP, MealPal, The Nudge, Hatch, and TapCommerce (acquired by Twitter for $100M). Prior to NextView, David served as a Vice President at Venrock (early stage VC firm originally established as the venture capital arm of the Rockefeller family). Previously, David co-founded Sombasa Media, an e-mail marketing company best known for its flagship property BargainDog.com, which he grew to 5M registered members. Sombasa was successfully acquired by About.com, which was soon after acquired by Primedia (NYSE: PRM), where he was Vice President of Marketing. David’s educational background includes an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and an AB in Economics, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Duke University.
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About NextView Ventures: NextView Ventures invests in companies that use technology to drive a brighter collective future.
William Herrmann
Founder and Managing Partner of Wilshire Phoenix
Prior to establishing Wilshire Phoenix, Bill was with BNY Mellon (BNYM) for 10+ years across several global teams, most recently as Vice President of Dealing and Trading. Throughout Bill’s tenure at BNYM, he managed a credit risk portfolio of over $10Bn and led in the closing of 100+ large-scale corporate deals (structured credit, derivatives, and restructurings). Bill also managed teams, oversaw projects, and led bank-wide initiatives. In addition to his responsibilities at Wilshire Phoenix, Bill advises numerous companies and proudly serves as a Member of the Board of Directors for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS), and as a Director for the Hedge Fund Association (HFA).
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About Wilshire Phoenix: Wilshire bridges the gap by introducing institutional-like investment products to the market and making them available to all investors.
Yaron Ben-Zvi
Co-Founder and CEO of Haven Life
Yaron loves building things that make a difference. That’s how he came to be the co-founder and CEO of Haven Life, MassMutual’s in-house startup that’s setting the pace for innovation in life insurance. Yaron worked with several other startups before launching Haven Life in industries as varied as asset management and media, yet the complexity and opportunity in life insurance kept calling him to the cause. Part entrepreneur, part executive, and part family man, Yaron sometimes struggles to make all these parts work together. A graduate of Wesleyan University and the Wharton School of Business, he believes strongly in the value of a liberal arts education.
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About Haven Life: Haven Life offers an online solution that provides people access to affordable term life insurance products and services.
Mark Peter Davis
Founder & Managing Partner of Interplay
Mark is a venture capitalist and serial founder. As the Managing Partner of Interplay Ventures he has cofounded, incubated and invested in more than 50 companies. Prior, Mark was a VC at High Peaks Venture Partners and DFJ Gotham Ventures. He’s also the * Author of The Fundraising Rules (http://mpd.vc/tfrkindle) and the * Founder of the Columbia Venture Community (http://columbia.vc), the Duke Venture Community and the New York Venture Community.
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About AcedUp, AlphaRoot, Awl & Sundry, Boston Venture Community (BVC), Bristol Palmer, Columbia Venture Community (CVC), Common Legal, Dex Academy, Evolution News, Founder Shield, Fulton Waters, Gone, Harvey Blake, Innovation with Mark Peter Davis, Interplay, Piper Crane, Spark Digital, The Fundraising Rules, Truman James, TwentyPine, Venwise: Interplay is an ecosystem where ideas scale.
Neel Ganu
Co-Founder of Finch
Neel Ganu is the Co-Founder of Finch.
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About Finch: Finch is a seamless, all-in-one account that provides the benefits of investing with the flexibility of checking
Maya Nijhawan
Co-Founder & CMO of Finch
Maya Nijhawan is the Co-Founder and CMO at Finch.
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About Finch: Finch is a seamless, all-in-one account that provides the benefits of investing with the flexibility of checking
Stephen Daffron
Co-Founder / Industry Partner of Motive Partners
Stephen was involved in the creation of the earliest electronic trading systems in the early 1990’s, pioneered the operational processes that allowed an explosive growth in derivatives trading and processing, managed the integration of major acquisitions—including Morgan Stanley’s acquisition of Smith Barney—oversaw the growth of technology and operations that spring-boarded the prime brokerage business, moved to the buy-side to supervise the growth of processing capability at one of the industry’s most successful hedge funds, and moved into private equity where he was CEO of one of the most successful deals of 2015, Interactive Data. Stephen served as Head of Operations, Technology and Data at Morgan Stanley, Chief Operating Officer at Jim Simon’s Renaissance Technologies, Managing Director leading Operations and Technology for Global Custody, Securities Processing, and Asset Management at Goldman Sachs, chaired SIFMA’s Operations and Technology committee and served on the board of DTCC, before becoming Chief Executive Officer at Interactive Data. Before his career on Wall Street, Stephen served in various command and staff positions in the U.S. Army. His education includes a B.S. from USMA, MBA MA, M.Ph. and Ph.D. from Yale.
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About Dun & Bradstreet, Motive Partners: Motive Partners is an investment firm focused on technology-enabled companies that power the financial services industry.
Michael Mann
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Anchor Capital
Michael Mann is the co-founder and managing partner of Anchor Capital GP.
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About Anchor Capital: Co-investment platform
Christian Leone
Founder of Luxor Capital Group
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About Luxor Capital Group: Luxor Capital Group is a New York-based hedge fund focused on equity and fixed income investments across the globe.
Andrew Boszhardt, Jr.
Founder & Managing Partner of Great Oaks Venture Capital
Andy is Managing Partner of Great Oaks Venture Capital, LLC (GOVC). Prior to forming Great Oaks, Andy was a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Neuberger Berman; previously he provided wealth management services at Goldman Sachs from 1980 to 1996, serving as a Vice President starting in 1985. Andy holds an Accounting degree and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Andy is also the Founder and President of Great Oaks Capital Management, which previously managed a long/short equity hedge fund and continues to manage long-only equity portfolios and alternative equity products for high-net-worth individuals, families and institutions since 2003.
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About Great Oaks Venture Capital: Great Oaks is an early-stage venture investment firm that invests in seed and series a investments in tech-based startups.
Suna Said
Founder and CEO of Nima Capital
Suna Said is the Founder and CEO of Nima Capital, a single family office with a flexible mandate to invest across various capital structures, growth stages, and industries. With significant experience and talent in global investment management and social impact, Suna brings her expertise along with an extensive network of investment partners, industry leaders, and world-class entrepreneurs as co-investors, advisors, and drivers of success. Suna spends most of her time on Nima Capital’s Blockchain vertical. She also founded the Suna Said Foundation, which works to support girls throughout the world through Blockchain technology applications. Prior to founding Nima, Suna was an Executive Director and Investment Officer of Unifund, Inc., a multi-billion dollar international investment firm. Suna is an active member of numerous charitable organizations and educational institutions, and was a speaker at the 2015 Milken Institute Global Conference. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Girls Inc., a national organization that inspires all girls to be strong, smart, and bold through direct service and advocacy, and was a 2015 Women of Achievement honoree for uniquely inspiring girls to set goals and achieve their full potential. Suna also serves on the board of directors of the Chopra Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to improving health and well-being, cultivating spiritual knowledge, expanding consciousness, and promoting world peace, as well as Pure Edge, Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to bringing scholars success through focus and mindfulness. Suna was previously a board member of the Harlem Village Academies, where she was honored for creating the Mindfulness program for K-12. Suna is on the Board of Trustees for the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, where she initiated the National Scholarship Program for Muslim Women, and has endowed the Maslin Scholarship Fund at Columbia Business School. Suna holds an undergraduate degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and an MBA from Columbia Business School. She lives in New York City with her husband and two children.
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About Nima Capital: Nima Capital is a single-family office global approach to identifying first mover companies disrupting large industries around the world.
Ken Fox
Founder & Partner of Stripes
Ken Fox is the Founder and a Managing Partner at Stripes Group, LLC. Ken is actively involved with Stripes Group partners Snooze, Blue Apron, Flatiron Health, Udemy, GoFundMe, Stella & Chewy’s, TurtleBeach, The Black Tux, Kareo, Ketra, Sandata and formerly SilverSky (acquired by BAE Systems), Seamless/Grubhub (IPO), and eMarketer (acquired by Axel Springer SE). Ken has been a successful entrepreneur, operator and investor in internet and branded consumer product companies for over 15 years. Ken has started six companies (Internet Capital Group, ICG Asia, Stripes Group, Syndero, A10 Capital and the Sentinel Fund), led investments in over 35 companies and taken two companies he started public. Prior to forming Stripes, Ken was a Managing Director of Internet Capital Group (NASDAQ:ICGE), which he co-founded in 1995. Five years after founding ICG, the company had a market capitalization in excess of $50 billion and included companies such as IBM, General Electric, Comcast and Ford among its numerous strategic investors. In his role as a Managing Director of ICG, Ken was instrumental in building the business: he led many of ICG’s most successful investments, including Matchlogic, SMART Technologies and TradeX. Additionally, he founded and acted as Chairman of ICG Asia, a Hong Kong listed joint venture with Hutchison-Whampoa, recruited many of ICG’s key executives, and was active in ICG’s fund raising efforts. Ken’s role as a leader, operating executive and/or investor of ICG’s high growth companies during one of the most volatile periods in the history of the technology market (1995 to 2002) helped to shape his views of risk management and company operations. These experiences were critical in the development of Stripes’ unique business which is designed to provide an edge to profitable growing companies by helping them maximize their value while limiting operating risk. Prior to forming ICG, Ken was the director of West Coast operations for both Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE: SFE), a $2 billion public corporation, and TL Ventures, a venture capital partnership with more than $500 million under management. Ken is a co-founder and Chairman of Syndero, a co-founder of A-10 Capital and a co-founder of Sentinel Fund. Ken served as Executive Chairman of SmartWool and was the point person for NetQuote during Stripes’ ownership. Ken was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2000 and was a recipient of the “Golden Plate Award” from the American Academy of Achievement, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating and inspiring young people. He led the formation of The Fox Challenge, a program designed to introduce entrepreneurship to students at his alma mater. Ken earned his B.S. in Economics from The Pennsylvania State University. He lives in NYC and enjoys skiing, golf, surfing, mountain biking and spending time with family and friends. He is also a passionate fan of all the Philadelphia sports teams. His philanthropic interests are focused upon charities that try to improve the opportunities available to children in the United States.
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About Stripes, Syndero: Stripes is a growth equity firm that invests in software and consumer businesses.
Pierpaolo Barbieri
Founder of Ualá
Pierpaolo is founder and CEO at Ualá and Executive Director at Greenmantle, a macroeconomic and geopolitical consulting firm and senior associate at the Applied History Center of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He was also Chief Strategist of the Brevan Howard Argentina Fund. Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Pierpaolo studied at Harvard University, where he graduated magna cum laude and his senior honors thesis was awarded the Thomas T. Hoopes ’19 prize. He was elected Lt. Charles Henry Fiske III Harvard-Cambridge scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was awarded an MPhil in Economic and Social History and a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. His first book, Hitler’s Shadow Empire: The Nazis and the Spanish Civil War, was published by Harvard University Press in the USA and UK, Penguin Random House in Spain and Latin America, Mondadori in Italy, and Citic in China. Pierpaolo’s journalism has been featured in The New York Times, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, CNN, and the New Republic. He used to write regularly for El País. Before Greenmantle, Pierpaolo worked for Goldman Sachs, Soros Fund Management, and Bridgewater Associates.
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About Ualá: Ualá is a fintech company that offers a financial ecosystem through an app, linked to a free international Mastercard card.
Constantin Kogan
Co-Founder of GamesPad
Constantin is the Co-founder of BullPerks, a decentralized venture capital platform, and GamesPad, a blockchain gaming company. In addition, he is a Partner at BitBull and the Founder of Adwivo. He is a pioneering entrepreneur who has worked in the crypto and digital asset space since 2012. As a result of his work in the crypto and decentralized venture capital industries, Constantin has received invitations to contribute thought leadership to several media outlets, including Entrepreneur, CoinDesk, CoinTelegraph, Bitcoin Magazine, Tech Radar, Hacker Noon, Benzinga and more. In addition to his work as an entrepreneur, Constantin has a Ph.D. in sociology, has co-authored three academic research papers, and is the host of a podcast on the technical aspects of the crypto industry titled “Holistic Investment with Constantin Kogan.”
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About BitBull Capital, BullPerks, GamesPad: The ultimate gaming, NFT and metaverse ecosystem.
Matthew Harrigan
Co-Founder, Managing Director of Company Ventures
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About Company Ventures, Kauffman Fellows: Company Ventures is an early-stage venture firm that facilitates interactions between peers and delivering a dynamic shared experience.
Everett Cook
Co-Founder / CEO of Rho Business Banking
Everett Cook is a Co-Founder at Rho Business Banking.
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About Rho Business Banking: Rho Business Banking is a digital banking platform for startups and high-growth companies.
Jon Stein
Founder and Chairman of the Board of Betterment
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About Betterment: Betterment is an online investment company that offers investing and retirement solutions for their current clients and clients-to-be.
Amit Baid
Founder and CEO of TradeFin
Amit Baid is the founder and CEO at TradeFin. Prior to joining TradeFin, Amit spent one year at Neuberger Berman as a managing director and Sr. analyst.
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About Coupa Software, MoEngage, TradeFin: TradeFin is a supply chain finance platform and e-invoicing platform for suppliers and corporations.
Barry Volpert
Founder & CEO of Crestview Partners
Barry Volpert is the Co-Founder and CEO at Crestview Partners.
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About Crestview Partners, Oxbow Corporation: Crestview Partners, a private equity firm, focuses on middle-market contrarian and distressed investments, and special situations.
Bharath Krishnamoorthy
Co-Founder & CEO of Axle
As CEO, Bharath applies his entrepreneurial intuition and enterprising spirit to oversee company sales, fundraising, and business expansion. He previously worked as a Mergers & Acquisitions and Investment Funds lawyer at one of the top 10 firms in the world. Bharath led business development for a real estate investment firm, and graduated with honors from both Columbia Law School and James Madison University.
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About Axle, BusBot: Axle helps freight brokers grow faster by automating their back-office and providing fast & affordable working capital.
Shawn Vo
Co-Founder & CTO of Axle
As CTO, Shawn directs Axle’s technology strategy and develops the products that make up the company’s services. Additionally, Shawn is no stranger to working with financial technology. He previously worked for two other fintech startups: one that was acquired for over $1B and another where he reported directly to the CTO. Shawn graduated from the University of Virginia with two majors and three concentrations.
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About Axle, BusBot, Forbes Technology Council: Axle helps freight brokers grow faster by automating their back-office and providing fast & affordable working capital.
Richard Seewald
Founder and Managing Partner of Evolution Equity Partners
Richard is a Founder and Managing Partner at Evolution Equity Partners and is responsible for all aspects of the firm’s global activities and strategic direction. He leads investments in cybersecurity, enterprise software and data analytics and brings over three decades of investment, operational and entrepreneurial experience to his role. Richard is a member of the firm’s investment committee. Prior to establishing Evolution, Richard was a Partner at Alpha Associates, a venture capital and private equity firm where he led investments in software, media and infrastructure companies and was a member of the investment committee overseeing a multi-billion dollar investment program. Previously, he was a founding investor in Sixty-K and NejTV where he held various executive and non-executive roles. He is an investor and board member in category-defining software companies like AVG Technologies, OpenDNS, Cognitive Security, Carbon Black, Security Scorecard, Onapsis, LogPoint, DFLabs, Fortscale and Panaseer. Richard holds an MBA from the University Of Chicago Booth School Of Business, a Juris Doctor from the New York Law School and a B.A. from Pace University. He was awarded a Kauffman Fellowship by the Palo Alto based Society of Kauffman Fellows. He sits on the global advisory board of the University Of Chicago Booth School Of Business.
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About Evolution Equity Partners: Evolution Equity Partners is a venture capital investor helping sector expertise to help entrepreneurs develop market-leading companies.
Raj Patel
Co-Founder, COO & CFO of Mantl
Raj Patel is the Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and Co-Founder of Mantl.
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About Mantl: Mantl is a banking technology company that provides workflow management and automation tools for banks and credit unions.
