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 San Francisco based Founder operating in the Consumer 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.
Edward Lando
Co-Founder & CEO of Goody
Edward Lando is the Managing Partner at Pareto Holdings.
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About Alpha, Catalina Crunch, CodeCombat, Conduit, Goody, Horizons School of Technology, Overtime, Pareto Holdings, Svrf: Goody makes sending gifts as easy as sending a text.
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Larry Marcus
Co-Founder & Managing Director of Marcy Venture Partners
Actively making new investments in consumer and culture with Marcy Venture Partners, a VC firm co-founded with JAY-Z and Jay Brown. Managing Director at Walden Venture Capital Investments include: Savage X Fenty, Pela, Hungry, Wheels, Hipcamp, Partake Foods, Pandora (founding investor – IPO, exit to Sirius XM) , SoundHound, Aarki, goTenna, Hatch Baby, TouchBistro (exit), Robust Wealth (acquired by Principal Financial Group), Terayon (acquired by Motorola). Angel investments: include Netflix (IPO), BandPage (acquired by Google), Maestro, Jukely, LyricFind. Prior to Walden, Larry was a digital media sell-side Equity Research Analyst at Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown. Led IPOs of Terayon, CBS MarketWatch, Netflix (initial S-1 IPO filing), Maxis (acquired by Electronic Arts), Edmark (acquired by IBM) and among other equity and debt financings (Broderbund, Sierra On-line, Excite@Home, Spectrum Holobyte, CBS Sportsline). Prior experience includes Robertson Stephens & Company, Education: Larry received a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley. See the music he loves at www.pandora.com/people/larry. He was named to the Billboard Power 100 in music and the Twitter 140 to follow.
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About Marcy Venture Partners, Scientific Revenue, TouchBistro, Walden Venture Capital: Marcy Venture Partners is a venture capital firm investing on consumer, culture, and mass-market brands.
Shauntel Garvey
Founder & General Partner of Reach Capital
Shauntel Garvey is a Co-Founder and General Partner at Reach Capital, an early stage venture firm, where she provides startup capital and support to education technology companies focused on issues of access and opportunity in education. Prior to Reach, Shauntel was a Partner at NewSchools Venture Fund and invested in over 40 early stage edtech companies through the NewSchools Seed Fund. Shauntel was previously a Senior Engineer at Procter and Gamble where she developed product innovations, designed supply chains, and managed technology partnerships for the global laundry business. She received her BS in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and her MBA and MA in Education from Stanford University.
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About All Raise, Broadway Angels, Procter & Gamble Company, Reach Capital: Reach supports entrepreneurs that develops technology solutions for challenges in education from early childhood through future of work
Greg Kidd
Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer of GlobaliD
Believer that ones identity credentials should be truly portable and owned by individuals themselves rather than corporations or governments. The trade-off between security and privacy can meet the needs of both traditional institutions worried about compliance and risk, but also consumer protection advocates who care about the underserved and underbanked. Adviser/Investor via hardyaka.com for numerous startups in the exchange space including Shift, Ripple and 3taps, and previously Square and Twitter. Previously a director at Promontory Financial and a senior analyst for payments at The Board of Governor of the Federal Reserve. Senior Associate at Booz Allen. Founded and took Dispatch Management Services Corp public on the NASDAQ. Have worked as an instructor/leader for Outward Bound and the National Outdoor Leadership School. Specialties: Portable identity, digital currencies and exchange markets for goods, services, and information with functional emphasis on messaging, payments, and reputation/trust/risk. Well versed in visualizations for risk reporting and controls.
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About Apto Payments, GlobaliD, Hard Yaka: Create and manage your own portable, digital identity with globaliD.
Mitja Simcic
Co-Founder Chief Technology Officer of GlobaliD
Building and empowering people with portable, user controlled identities. Entrepreneur since college. Computer Science and MBA background.
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About GlobaliD, Kupi, Qloud.io: Create and manage your own portable, digital identity with globaliD.
Tim Chen
Founder and CEO of NerdWallet
Tim Chen is the founder and CEO of NerdWallet. A former hedge fund equity analyst specializing in payment processing companies, credit card networks, and technology companies, Tim also worked as an equity research analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston. He is a graduate of Stanford University with a degree in economics. In addition to writing for NerdWallet, Tim regularly contributes to several major personal finance publications.
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About NerdWallet: NerdWallet develops a financial platform to help people find the right credit cards and mortgage rates.
Steven Yang
Founder & CEO of Anker
Steven Yang is the Founder and CEO of Anker Innovations. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Peking University and a master’s in computer science from the University of Texas – Austin. He was a senior engineer at Google in California before leaving to found Anker in 2011.
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About Anker, Hunan Ocean Wing: Anker is a multinational team of techies that provides a range of products from batteries and chargers to hubs and readers, and more.
Michael Leabman
Founder & CTO of Energous Corporation
Mr. Leabman became the Company’s Chief Technology Officer in October 2013. From September 2010 to September 2013, Mr. Leabman served as President of TruePath Wireless, a service provider and equipment provider in the broadband communications industry. From 2008 to 2010, Mr. Leabman served as Chief Technology Officer for DataRunway Inc., a wireless communication company providing broadband internet to airlines. Mr. Leabman received both his Bachelor of Science degree and Master of Engineering degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Leabman’s extensive knowledge of the Company, its technology and the consumer and commercial electronics industry position him well for service on our board of directors.
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About Energous Corporation: Energous Corporation is the creator of WattUp, charging technology for electronic devices.
David Lortscher
Co-Founder & CEO of Curology
David Lortscher, MD, is a licensed physician and a board-certified dermatologist. While working at a small but very busy dermatology practice in New Mexico, Dr. Lortscher saw that there were economic, geographical, and psychological barriers to seeing a dermatologist. He also noticed how changes in a person’s skin can have a tremendous impact on his or her life both socially and emotionally – and that’s when he had the idea to create Curology. Since its launch in 2014, Curology has been dedicated to removing barriers and helping people feel good about their skin. In addition to seeing patients at Curology, Dr. Lortscher serves as a remote dermatology consultant for the American Academy of Dermatology’s AccessDerm program.
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About Curology: Curology is a cosmetic company that provides actual prescription skincare customized for their skin and delivered to their door.
Glenn Lortscher
Co-Founder and CTO of Curology
Co-Founder and CTO @ Curology
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About Curology: Curology is a cosmetic company that provides actual prescription skincare customized for their skin and delivered to their door.
Allen Chen
CEO & Co-Founder of Fitbod
Allen is the Co-founder & CEO of Fitbod.
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About Fitbod: Fitbod allows users to maximize the use of indoor gym equipment and confidence to train effectively for strength.
Jesse Venticinque
Co-Founder, Product Head of Fitbod
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About Fitbod: Fitbod allows users to maximize the use of indoor gym equipment and confidence to train effectively for strength.
Dave Garr
Co-Founder, SVP of Customer Experience of UserTesting
Specialties:A/B testing, conversion rate optimization, interactive marketing, market research, multivariate testing, product marketing, social networking, usability
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About UserTesting: UserTesting is an on-demand human insight platform designed to improve customer insights.
Moawia Eldeeb
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Tempo
Moawia Eldeeb is the co-founder and CEO of Tempo.
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About Tempo: Tempo is a home fitness platform, combining equipment, training guidance, and social motivation with 3D sensors and artificial intelligence.
Chris Clark
Co-Founder & CTO of Grove Collaborative
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About Grove Collaborative: Grove creates and curates high-performing, planet-first home and personal care products and is the leader in zero-plastic CPG.
Stuart Landesberg
Co-Founder & CEO of Grove Collaborative
Stuart Landesberg is the Co-Founder & CEO of Grove Collaborative, the leading digital-first brand & ecommerce platform for natural home and personal care. Stu has long been passionate about sustainability. He founded Grove, which has been a Certified B Corp since its founding, after learning that offline distribution meant that just a small percentage of families were choosing healthy, sustainable home care products. Grove now serves hundreds of thousands of households in the U.S. every month and has raised over $100 million in total capital. Stu was previously an investor at TPG Growth, where he was involved in over $400 million in consumer and technology investments. Stu and his wife Caitlin live in San Francisco with their daughter and dog, and spend as much time outside as possible.
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About Grove Collaborative: Grove creates and curates high-performing, planet-first home and personal care products and is the leader in zero-plastic CPG.
Jordan Savage
Co-Founder & VP, Creative of Grove Collaborative
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About Grove Collaborative: Grove creates and curates high-performing, planet-first home and personal care products and is the leader in zero-plastic CPG.
Amrita Saigal
CEO & Founder of Kudos
Amrita Saigal is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kudos.
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About Kudos, Zera Life: Kudos is a retail company that offers natural disposable baby diapers with cotton liners.
Brian Levin
Co-Founder and VP of Global Sales of Swyft
Brian Levin is the Co-Founder and VP of Global Sales at Swyft
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About Swyft: Swyft sells great products from leading brands in strategic high profile locations, serving customers.
Nicholas Woodman
Owner, CEO & Founder of GoPro
While the eight-person staff of GoPro was enjoying the success of their first HD HERO camera in 2009, founder and CEO Nick Woodman realized one thing: to support his vision, he was going to need a bigger staff. But before Woodman could think bigger, he had to start out small. After receiving a degree in Visual Arts from the University of California, San Diego, Woodman founded an online promotions company, Fun Bug. In 2001, Woodman sold Fun Bug and took off surfing and traveling the world. The decision inspired more than the personal – Woodman’s passion for surfing sparked the idea to create the now-popular wearable and gear mountable camera and in 2002, Woodman founded GoPro. After years of research and planning, the company released its first product, the GoPro HERO, a 35mm film-based camera that was worn on the wrist. Made up of some of Woodman’s friends and family members, the early GoPro team established the company as a true innovator by continually iterating on the product, moving from a film-based camera to a digital still and video camera. A lifetime extreme sports enthusiast, Woodman was learning how to race cars when he was compelled to move the camera from his wrist to the top of his car. This simple idea led to an array of camera mounting devices – for everything from helmets to surfboards, and even dog collars.
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About GoPro: GoPro is a brand of personal cameras used in extreme action video photography.
Brad Eckert
Co-Founder, CEO of Koko
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About Koko: Koko makes a device to monitor the health and safety of older adults in a completely passive way–with no wearables required.
Nick Weaver
Co-Founder and CEO of eero
Nick Weaver is Co-founder of eero inc. and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Nick Weaver is an Associate at Menlo Ventures. Nick Weaver joined Menlo in 2012 and focuses on investments in mobile, consumer internet, digital media, and enterprise software. Prior to this, Nick Weaver worked at McKinsey & Company and advised technology and private equity clients on ecommerce, go-to-market strategy, and acquisitions. While at Stanford, he was involved Stanford Student Enterprises and helped found StartX (formerly, SSE Labs).
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About eero: Eero offers a Wi-Fi system for household use.
Nate Hardison
Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder of eero
Nate is a Preceptor in Computer Science at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He received his B.S. in Symbolic Systems from Stanford in 2010 and his M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford in 2011.
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About eero: Eero offers a Wi-Fi system for household use.
Rob Spiro
Founder of Good Eggs
Rob Spiro is co-founder and CEO of Good Eggs. Before launching Good Eggs,Rob founded the social search engine Aardvark, which was acquired by Google in 2010, and was a product lead on the Google+ project. Prior to joining Aardvark, he worked to revitalize a family farm in upstate New York, helping to raise chickens and harvest tomatoes. It was getting his hands dirty on the farm that sparked his passion for food and sustainability.
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About Good Eggs: Good Eggs is an online grocer and meal kit delivery service with a mission to reinvent the food system, for good.
Vikas Gupta
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Wonder Workshop
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About Wonder Workshop: Wonder Workshop provides a platform that makes programming fun and accessible for children while they play.
Shizu Okusa
Founder & CEO of Apothékary
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About Apothékary: Apothékary is a global plant-based farmacy that offers clean alternatives to over the counter synthetic supplements & beauty products.
Jessica Mah
Founder/CEO of inDinero
Jessica started her first internet company at the age of 13, finished high school at the age of 15, and studied computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. As Product Architect and CEO of Indinero.com, Jessica drives the development of Indinero’s product strategy, product development and design efforts. She designed Indinero for the typical small business owner, knowing that its usefulness and simplicity would change the way business owners look at money. Founders Jessica Mah and Andy Su built the core product over the Summer of 2009, and the company has since won grant awards from Lightspeed Venture Partners in the Summer of 2009, and from U.C. Berkeley’s CET Venture Lab in the Fall of 2009. Prior to founding Indinero, Jessica was the founder and technical lead at internshipIN.com, which has since helped thousands of college students find their first internships. Jessica studied computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, where she and co-founder Andy Su built Indinero’s first prototype. Jessica has been mentioned in publications ranging from Inc. magazine to the Wall Street Journal, and has been featured on PBS to encourage students to pursue science and entrepreneurship.
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About inDinero, XFactor Ventures: inDinero develops software that assists its users in tracking and managing their finance.
Mike Shim
Founder & CEO of True North Cos.
True North Cos. is a private investment and advisory firm building valuable, enduring businesses in technology, financial services and consumer products. Founded in 2012 by Mike Shim, a corporate/M&A lawyer-turned tech executive, entrepreneur and venture investor based in Silicon Valley, True North Cos. works with world-beating leaders at startups and Fortune 500 companies alike to build more purposeful companies. Purposeful companies share a common mission of improving the world through business, while delivering superior long-term returns to their employees, investors and the communities they serve.
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About DigiSure, Nextury Ventures, True North Cos.: Building companies with purpose.
Millie Tadewaldt
Founder & CEO of Brilliant
Millie is an entrepreneur based in San Francisco. She is the founder / CEO of Brilliant, a concierge corporate gifting and branded merchandise company. Previously, she ran Operations for Fundraising Products at AngelList. She was also co-founder and CEO of CakeStyle, a high-touch, high-end personal styling service for professional women, and one of the first “fashion in a box” companies. Prior to that, she ran the Foundry at Sandbox Industries, a venture capital firm and startup incubator based in Chicago, and was a Consultant at the Boston Consulting Group, where she worked with Fortune 500 companies and non-profits to develop new products, set pricing strategies, reduce costs and execute post-merger integrations. Millie holds a B.S. in Design and a B.A. in Communication from UC Davis with Highest Honors and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
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About Brilliant: Brilliant is a branded product and corporate gifting company with a focus on technology, quality, and creativity.
Anna-Katrina Shedletsky
Founder and CEO of Instrumental
I’m the CEO of Instrumental, a company I founded to solve manufacturing’s biggest problem: the 20 to 35 cents of every dollar spent in manufacturing that is wasted. I have two degrees in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and was an Apple Product Design Engineer for six years. I designed mechanical components for three iPods and led system product design for the Apple Watch Series 1. I spent over 300 days in China finding and fixing issues on one of the most admired manufacturing supply chains in the world. I regularly speak about the future of manufacturing and automation and write technical articles at www.instrumental.com/blog. As an advocate for increased diversity in technology, I founded the Women in STEM Mentorship Program WISMP.org in 2013, which has matched hundreds of women university students studying in STEM fields with practicing industry mentors to support their transitions into fulfilling STEM careers.
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About Instrumental: Ship hardware products on time with high-resolution manufacturing data.
Samuel Weiss
Founder & CTO of Instrumental
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About Instrumental: Ship hardware products on time with high-resolution manufacturing data.
Liam Casey
Founder & CEO of PCH International
Liam is the founder and CEO of PCH. He has lived 23 years in China and is recognized as a thought leader in new product introductions, supply chain orchestration, sustainability and startup initiatives. He is on the boards of the California College for the Arts, and UC Berkeley Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation.
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About PCH International: PCH provides a unique, intelligent, end-to-end product development and supply chain orchestration platform for the world’s best brands.
Aayush Phumbhra
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Nectar
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About Nectar: Nectar develops an IoT solution for the hospitality and consumer packaged goods industries.
Jerome Scholler
Co-Founder of Osmo
Jerome Scholler is Co-founder of Osmo, and he is deeply passionate about the intersection of creative design, education and technology. He is a seasoned engineer from the game industry, having previously worked at Lucasarts and Ubisoft and worked on the user interface of Chrome for Android at Google.
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About Osmo: Osmo is an interactive play company bringing harmony between physical and digital.
Nikhil Arora
Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Back to the Roots
Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez are the co-founders of Back to the Roots (Oakland, CA). Back to the Roots is on a mission to reconnect families to food through its innovative and award winning Ready-to-Grow line (Mushroon Mini Farm, Water Garden, Garden-in-a-Can) and a new Ready-to-Eat line (Organic Stoneground Flakes breakfast cereal, Breakfast Toppers). The products are sold in over 8000 stores nationwide, including Whole Foods, Target, The Home Depot, Costco, Nordstrom, Petco, and Amazon. Nikhil & Alejandro have also been recognized for their leadership in social entrepreneurship and food innovation by Forbes 30 Under 30, INC 30 under 30, BusinessWeek’s Top 25 Social Entrepreneurs, INC 500, CNN’s 10 Next Gen Entrepreneurs to Watch, Martha Stewart’s Top 10 American Made, and President Obama’s Champions of Change. The company was founded by the duo during their last semester of college at UC Berkeley.
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About Back to the Roots: Back to the Roots offers gardening kits to grow organic and gourmet mushrooms at homes.
Alejandro Velez
Co-Founder of Back to the Roots
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About Back to the Roots: Back to the Roots offers gardening kits to grow organic and gourmet mushrooms at homes.
Ted Lichtenberger
Co-Founder of FLOWER CO
Ted Lichtenberger is a co-founder of FLOWER CO, a cannabis startup that offers memberships for cheaper weed sales and delivery. Most recently, Ted was the CEO of Humboldt Legends and was an analyst at Mckinsey & Company.
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About FLOWER CO: FLOWER CO is a cannabis wholesale membership club.
Fahim Aziz
Founder & CEO of Backpack
Hacker at Backpack
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About Backpack, Kyokushin Wooster: Backpack is a website that connects travelers and shoppers globally.
Hugo de Gentile
Co-Founder & CEO of Willo
Hugo de Gentile is the Co-Founder and CEO at Willo
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About Willo: Willo develops technology in oral health that automatically empowers everyone to achieve the best at-home clean possible.
Kara Roell
Co-Founder and Managing Director of VMG Partners
Kara Roel is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at VMG Partners.
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About VMG Partners: VMG Partners is a private equity firm that specializes in buyouts and growth capital investments.
Russell Middleton
Co-Founder of Zumper
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About Zumper: Zumper is a software platform that connects people with real estate rental properties.
Taylor Glass-Moore
Co-Founder of Zumper
Taylor Glass-Moore is a Co-Founder of Zumper.
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About Zumper: Zumper is a software platform that connects people with real estate rental properties.
Alvin Yap
Co-Founder & CEO of Airship
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About Airship: Airship is a modern product flagging framework that gives the right people total control over what your customers see and experience.
George Li
Co-Founder of Airship
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About Airship: Airship is a modern product flagging framework that gives the right people total control over what your customers see and experience.
Thomas Smyth
Founder & CEO of Trim
Thomas founded Trim in 2015 to (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ on retail banking and improve Americans’ financial health at scale. Previously, Thomas invested in fintech start-ups in the U.S. and sold solar-powered appliances to rural households in Zambia.
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About Trim: Trim is a financial health company that empowers customers across the United States to improve their financial lives.
Joshua Wyss
Co-Founder & CEO of Inclined Technologies
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About Granite Peak, Inclined Technologies: Inclined pioneers a new form of lending in a large and vastly underserved market.
Mark Shaw
Co-Founder & CTO of Inclined Technologies
Mark Shaw is co-founder & CTO at Strava.
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About Inclined Technologies: Inclined pioneers a new form of lending in a large and vastly underserved market.
Jeff Scheur
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of NoRedInk
Jeff Scheur After teaching high school English for 8 years and grading 15,000 papers, Jeff created NoRedInk to help his students improve their grammar and writing skills. A National Board Certified Teacher, former debate director, and speaker on education innovation, he is intent on improving the feedback loop in classrooms and empowering students to become skilled, creative, and confident writers. He holds an MA in Education from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a BA from Oberlin College.
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About NoRedInk: NoRedInk is a web-based learning platform supporting students to improve their grammar and writing skills.
Ben Lewis
Co-Founder + CEO of Little Spoon
A serial entrepreneur, Ben Lewis’ experience lies at the intersection of brands, technology and food. He has worked extensively in the organic food industry, honing a well-rounded understanding of consumer facing brands and what it takes to build them. Ben has helped pioneer trends like cold-pressed juice and cold-brew coffee, taking them from obscure, emerging concepts to household buzzwords. Ben’s first foray into business was in high school when he founded a charitable bottled water company out of the back of his car. As a student at Wharton, he co-founded The Epic Seed, a Greek yogurt brand with a national footprint and a cult-like following. Most recently, Ben built a national distribution company which acted as an incubator to up-and-coming food and beverage brands. Over the course of four years, Ben grew the company from zero to $25 million in revenue and a team of 75 people, building a nimble just-in-time supply chain spanning eight regions. Ben’s accomplishments are a direct result of his willingness to innovate and use unorthodox solutions to transform businesses. Through his many experiences, Ben has developed a deep understanding of the obstacles and demands unique to modern consumer products marketed to a younger generation—especially those related to food. Today, Ben is the co-founder and CEO of the direct-to-consumer startup Little Spoon, the first company to offer fresh, nutritionally optimized meal plans suited to the evolving needs of growing babies. Ben is passionate about design, healthy living, food of all types, and creating processes that run smoothly.
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About Kairos, Little Spoon: Little Spoon designs products for a child’s most formative years, starting with a baby’s first bites.
Angela Vranich
Co-Founder + Chief Product Officer of Little Spoon
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About Kairos, Little Spoon: Little Spoon designs products for a child’s most formative years, starting with a baby’s first bites.
Pratyush Tiwari
Co-Founder and CIO/CRO of MoneyLion
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About MoneyLion: MoneyLion is a mobile banking platform for borrowing, saving, and investing.
Charles Michael Yim
Founder and CEO of Breathometer
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About Breathometer, CMY Ventures, Cohabit Labs, Inc., Cointopia, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, VitaBowl, Walt Disney Television: Breathometer develops a breath analysis technology that helps people make smarter decisions and improve their lives.
Nate Phillips
Co-Founder & CEO of Nom Nom
Nate is Nom Nom’s co-founder and CEO. A lawyer by training, Nate has held a variety of in-house counsel positions across several investment banks, hedge funds and asset managers. Nate received his BA, summa cum laude, from the University of California, Irvine, and his JD from University of California, Berkeley.
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About Nom Nom: We make real food to support healthier, longer lives for folks with paws. Because what’s good for people is good for pets too.
Wenzhe Gao
Co-Founder & CTO of Nom Nom
Wenzhe is Nom Nom’s co-founder and CTO, leading efforts to build and scale Nom Nom’s technical infrastructure and digital product suite. Prior to Nom Nom, Wenzhe spent 10 years at Google, where he led engineering for various consumer business units. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley.
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About Nom Nom: We make real food to support healthier, longer lives for folks with paws. Because what’s good for people is good for pets too.
Alexandria Jarrell
Co-Founder, Head of Strategic Execution of Nom Nom
Alex is Nom Nom’s co-founder, Head of Strategic Execution and — most proudly — the beating heart of Nom Nom. With a BA from Pepperdine University, she has spent her entire career obsessing over and creating the best experiences possible for users, customers and — most rewardingly — pets. Alex is a loving parent to our company’s original inspiration, Harlee the Aussie Shepherd.
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About Nom Nom: We make real food to support healthier, longer lives for folks with paws. Because what’s good for people is good for pets too.
Stefan Lederer
Co-Founder & CEO of Bitmovin
Stefan Lederer is co-founder and Head of Business of bitmovinin 2012, a company which focuses on products, cloud services and consulting in the area of adaptive HTTP streaming. He received his B.Sc. (Bakk.) in Information Management in Aug’10, his M.Sc. (Dipl.-Ing.) in Computer Science in Mar’12 and his M.Sc. (Mag.) in Marketing and International Management in Jun’13, all with distinction from the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt. He gained practical and international expertise in various companies (IBM, McKinsey&Company, Dolby, Hillside, Ilogs, etc.) and has a strong business focus in marketing and international management. He founded his first company in 2008 and led several IT projects in central and eastern Europe. In his position of an Assistant Professor at the Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt, Institute of Information Technology (ITEC), Multimedia Communication Group he participated in several EC-funded projects (ALICANTE, SocialSensor). His research topics include transport of modern/rich media, multimedia adaptation, QoS/QoE as well as future internet architectures and he has published more than 20 papers in these areas. He participated in the MPEG-DASH standardization, contributed several open source tools (DASHEncoder, DASHoverCCN VLC plugin) and datasets.
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About Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Bitmovin: Bitmovin is a multimedia technology company providing adaptive streaming video infrastructure for global digital media companies.
Christopher Mueller
Co-Founder & CTO of Bitmovin
Christopher Mueller is CEO and Co-founder of bitmovin and Head of Technology. He received his M.Sc (Dipl. Ing.) in Computer Science from the Aplen-Adria University Klagenfurt with distinction. He gained practical expertise in various companies, notably Infineon Semiconductors and Dolby Laboratories Inc. Los Angeles, USA. His main research interests are multimedia streaming, networking, and multimedia adaptation. In his position as an Assistant Professor (Univ. Ass.) at the Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt, Institute of Information Technology (ITEC), Multimedia Communication Group (MMC) he has published more than 20 papers in these areas and currently holds 2 U.S. patents. He participated in the MPEG-DASH standardization and is the author of the MPEG-DASH reference software libdash. He contributed several open source tools, notably MPEG-DASH VLC plugin and libdash, worked in various EC-funded projects, e.g., ALICANTE and SocialSensor, and he is the supervisor and main contributor of the MPEG-DASH ITEC blog (dash.itec.aau.at) with more than 100k views per year.
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About Bitmovin: Bitmovin is a multimedia technology company providing adaptive streaming video infrastructure for global digital media companies.
Zach Supalla
Founder & CEO of Particle
Zach Supalla is the founder and CEO of Particle, an IoT startup that’s making it easier to build, connect and manage internet-connected hardware products deployed at massive scale. Supalla earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and an MEM (masters in engineering management) from the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern. Before Particle, Supalla worked as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, advising Fortune 500 companies on strategy, operations and product development. He is a graduate of HAX, the world’s first, and most prolific hardware accelerator.
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About Particle: Particle provides hardware and software tools to help users prototype, scale, and manage IoT products.
Sarah Hoffman
Co-Founder & CEO of Maker Wine
Sarah Hoffman is the Co-Founder and CEO of Maker Wine.
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About Maker Wine: Maker Wine connects wine lovers to premium canned wines from best-in-class independent producers.
Louis H. Borders
Founder, CEO of Mercury Startups
Mr. Louis H. Borders is a Founder of Mercury Capital Management, LLC. Mr. Borders founded MyWire, Inc. (Keepmedia Inc.) and serves as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. He revolutionized the retail book industry with the founding of Borders, the first book and music superstore chain. Mr. Borders developed the advanced information systems used by the MyWire to manage inventory across diverse geographic and demographic regions. Mr. Borders serves as Principal of Mercury Capital Management, an investment firm. He served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Webvan from December 1996 to September 1999. He founded Borders Books, a retail bookstore chain in 1971 and served as President and Chief Executive Officer until 1983. He has more than 30 years of experience as a successful entrepreneur. Mr. Borders co-founded Synergy Software in November 1989. He founded Mercury Capital Management in 1995 and serves as its Chairman. He serves as Chairman of KeepMedia Inc. He served as Chairman of the Board of Webvan since December 1996. He served as Chairman of Borders Books from 1983 to 1992. He served as director of Synergy Software, a software consulting company from November 1989 to November 1997. He served as a Director of Webvan Group until February 2001. Mr. Borders holds a B.A in Mathematics from the University of Michigan and completed graduate coursework in mathematics at MIT.
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About Home Delivery Service (HDS Global), Mercury Startups: Mercury’s comprehensive approach for large-scale startup development formalizes effective processes employed by successful precedents.
Derrick Xiong
Co-Founder & CMO of Ehang
Yifang (Derrick) Xiong is the Co-Founder of EHang, Inc.Prior to this, he Co-founded theRocketSpace Inc. He worked as Chairman of Student Council at Nanyang Technological University. Before that, he was the Analyst at Credit Suisse.
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About Ehang: Ehang is a technology enterprise focused on R&D and production in airplane and aircraft field.
Ken Goto
Co-Founder and CTO of Level Home
Ken Goto is the co-founder and CTO of Level Home Inc.
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About Level Home: Level Home is a startup that specializes in home automation and smart home control.
Niko Vuori
Founder & CEO of Drivetime
Founder & CEO Drivetime, co-founder & COO of Rocket Games, product at ToyTalk & BranchOut, GM Zynga Poker, founder & CEO Informifi.
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About Drivetime: Drivetime provides an online platform designed to help users play games while they drive.
Rosanna Myers
Co-Founder of Carbon Robotics
Rosanna is the Co-Founder of Carbon Robotics.
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About Carbon Robotics: Carbon Robotics makes advanced robotics dramatically more accessible to help solve some of society’s most intractable problems.
Eric Sanchez
Co-Founder, CEO of Revl
Eric Sanchez is a Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Revl.
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About Revl: AI Powered Video Souvenirs as a Service. Full end to end solution for roller coasters, skydive drop zones, race tracks, and zip lines.
Bruce Pla
Co-Founder & Chief Design Officer of Revl
Bruce Pla is a Co-Founder and Chief Design Officer at Revl.
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About Revl: AI Powered Video Souvenirs as a Service. Full end to end solution for roller coasters, skydive drop zones, race tracks, and zip lines.
Nelson Vazquez
Co-Founder & CTO of Revl
Nelson Vazquez is a Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Revl.
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About Revl: AI Powered Video Souvenirs as a Service. Full end to end solution for roller coasters, skydive drop zones, race tracks, and zip lines.
Zachary Goldstein
Founder & CEO of Thanx
Zach Goldstein is the founder and CEO of Thanx. He is passionate about retail customer retention and satisfaction and the Sacramento Kings. Dartmouth College (BA) and Stanford Graduate School of Business (MBA).
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About Thanx: Guest engagement that delights!
Aaron Newton
Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer of Thanx
Aaron Newton is at his best when he is working on highly technical, user facing challenges that combine numerous technologies to create something novel. He is well versed in agile development concepts, product management, hiring and management. The ideal product is one that enriches my life in some way; I don’t have to be the primary customer, but it’s nice to be one of them.
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About Thanx: Guest engagement that delights!
Darren Cheng
Co-Founder & CTO of Thanx
Darren is a born-and-raised East-Coaster, currently enjoying the West Coast life. He joined Thanx as employee and engineer #1 in 2011 and has enjoyed cultivating the codebase from its inception to what it is now. Darren received his BA in Computer Science from Dartmouth.
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About Thanx: Guest engagement that delights!
Stas Matviyenko
Founder & CEO of Allset
Founder of Allset.
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About Allset: Marketplace for restaurants and local diners. Online ordering and contactless solutions to serve customers commission-free.
Anna Polishchuk
CDO & Co-Founder of Allset
Anna Polishchuk is COO at Advice Wallet.
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About Allset: Marketplace for restaurants and local diners. Online ordering and contactless solutions to serve customers commission-free.
Alexander Rosen
Managing Partner & Co-Founder of Ridge Ventures
Alexander Rosen is the Managing Partner & Co-Founder at Ridge Ventures.
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About Braze, Ridge Ventures, Stanford University Graduate School of Business, ThirdLove: Ridge Ventures is a fast, flexible, and founder-focused early stage venture capital fund.
Shaun Rahimi
Founder and CEO of ENSO
Shaun Rahimi is CEO and founder of Thimble Bioelectronics. An award-winning innovator that has worked on the design and development of over 40 different medical devices at start ups since he was 15 years old. He has also held R&D roles at Neuropace, Sadra Medical, Modified Polymer Components and Abbott Labs where he participated in the design and development of novel polymer-based products and manufacturing processes.
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About ENSO, Innovation Quest: ENSO is a wearable device shown in clinical trials to solve pain better than Vicodin
Cory Ondrejka
Co-Founder & CEO of Mori
Cory Ondrejka is the CEO and co-founder of mori, inc. (formerly Overlook Research), a stealth, venture-funded startup in Los Gatos, CA. Prior to mori, Ondrejka led the Mobile Product group at Facebook and was responsible for Facebook’s mobile turnaround and delivering Facebook to over a billion mobile customers worldwide. Ondrejka also led Facebook’s multi-billion dollar acquisition and integration of Oculus VR. Before Facebook, Ondrejka was the co-founder of Walletin, a startup focused on high-performance javascript and Web rendering acquired by Facebook in 2010. He was the Chief Technology Officer of Linden Lab, where he co-created the award-winning virtual world Second Life. He has served as Executive Vice President for Global Digital Marketing at EMI Music, and has been a visiting professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California where he gave classes on online communities. Ondrejka began his career in game development startups, shipping arcade and console video game titles. He holds a bachelor’s of science degree in Weapons and Systems Engineering from the United States Naval Academy and was an officer in the US Navy. Ondrejka also advises several early-state technology companies.
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About Mori: Mori is a branded food company with quality products.
Alex Czarnecki
Founder and CEO of Cottage
Alex Czarnecki is the Founder and CEO of Cottage.
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About Cottage: Cottage is solving housing affordability by making it easy to build an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU)
Grant Prigge
Founder, CEO & Head Product Design of Mila Cares
Product and UI designer. Design-driven tech entrepreneur and co-founder of 3 startups across the healthcare, enterprise IT, and consumer IoT space.
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About Mila Cares: A refreshingly thoughtful air purifier
Martin Roscheisen
Founder & CEO of Diamond Foundry
The entrepreneur behind eGroups (acquired by Yahoo), FindLaw (acquired by Thomson Reuters), and Nanosolar.
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About Diamond Foundry: Diamond Foundry produces diamonds at mining scale using a proprietary reactor technology.
James Sinka
Co-Founder and CEO of SleepWell.ai
James Sinka is the Co-Founder and CEO of SleepWell.ai. He tested the best science-backed sleep remedies and discovered what’s best using sleep trackers. Mr. Sinka uses his experiences from his lifelong study of biology and chemistry to bring you tried and true results.
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About Hypnos, SleepWell.ai: SleepWell.ai is a technology platform that resolves your sleep issues with research backed science.
Kevin Primat
Founder & CEO of Primed Technologies
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About Primed Technologies: Primed is redefining Conversational AI with the development of a fuzzy, friendly and talkative toy for children.
Jake Miller
Founder of Fellow
Founder of Fellow.
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About Fellow: Fellow specializes in product design and brings ideas from sketchbook to a kitchen table.
Hyungseok Dino Ha
Founder & CEO of Memebox
Dino is co-founder and CEO of Memebox Corporation. Dino grew up fascinated by computers and self-taught himself C+ coding language at a young age. During university, Dino pursued a degree in Environmental Engineering until he joined the Army as a trooper, and volunteered to be deployed to Afghanistan where he worked with over 20 coalition forces. It was there where he encountered his first American and decided to go to New York after he finished serving, to pursue a career in fashion. While attending Parsons School of Design, Dino joined Tom Ford as the first intern, working for 2 years in the PR department until he was asked to return to South Korea and help launch the brand abroad. After Tom Ford, Dino joined Ticket Monster until its acquisition by Living Social (LS Korea) and it was then when he found inspiration to start his own entrepreneurship. With a passion for computer science and a background in fashion design, Dino is building the world’s first tech and trend-driven beauty company, in hopes of bringing a new age of beauty culture to the rest of the world. Dino graduated with a degree in Fashion Market from Parsons School of Design and is currently located in San Francisco, CA.
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About Memebox: Memebox is a consumer company that provides customers with the Asian beauty products, culture, and trends.
Everett Lynn
CEO, Founder of Amenify
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About Amenify, NorCal Cannabis, The Olympic Club: Technology powering services and products in the home
Charlene Consolacion
CEO & Co-Founder of Biig
Charlene Consolacion co-founded the World’s First Smart Lockbox for Cars: The BiigVault, transforming the automotive industry by introducing a secured and smart lockbox into vehicles, enabling a wide-array of on-demand automotive services such as in-car trunk delivery. Charlene is constantly innovating in the dynamic and high-tech sphere. This patented system is easy to install, allowing customers to use their smartphones to control, monitor a wide range of connected car capabilities, and access on-demand services.
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About Biig, Phrame: BiigVault: The Smart Lockbox for Cars
Akshita Iyer
Co-Founder and CEO of Ome
Akshita Iyer is the Co-Founder and CEO of Inirv.
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About Ome: Ome reinvents the way people live through smart home technology.
Chris Kelly
CEO & Co-Founder of Upwave
Chris Kelly is currently the founder of Survata, a startup in Silicon Valley. He previously did marketing and business development for SavvyMoney, a financial service startup. Before SavvyMoney, Chris was an associate in the Silicon Valley office of Matrix Partners. He focused on early stage Internet and mobile companies. Earlier, Chris worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co., where he served media and telecom clients on various strategic, financial, and operational issues. Prior to McKinsey, Chris co-founded multiple web startups, including an online college textbook market and a same-day delivery service for consumer goods. Chris graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in Finance and Economics.
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About Upwave: Upwave is a marketing analytics company providing brand marketing measurement tech to the world’s leading brands, agencies, & publishers.
Sam Purtill
Co-Founder and CTO of Jyve
Sam Purtill is the co-founder and CTO of Jyve, a startup that provides on-demand merchandising services in the consumer packaged goods industry. Prior to Jyve, he was founder and CEO of ClassOwl, an edtech startup that was acquired by Branch Metrics in 2015. Sam was the first employee of the company that went onto become Quid (quid.com) in his two gap years after high school. He started programming at age 12 and studied philosophy at Stanford University.
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About Jyve: Jyve is a tech platform that matches brands’ in-store execution needs with the right skilled labor, at the right time.
Cammy Bergren
Co-Founder and CPO of Jyve
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About Jyve: Jyve is a tech platform that matches brands’ in-store execution needs with the right skilled labor, at the right time.
Carolyn Coquillette
Founder and CEO of Shop-Ware
Carolyn Coquillette is the founder, owner, and lead technician at Luscious Garage. She started the San Francisco-based auto shop in 2007. After seven years, Carolyn founded an online software for auto repair shops called Shop-Ware.
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About Shop-Ware: Shop-Ware offers an enterprise-grade SaaS platform to help the automotive aftermarket thrive and grow.
Joel Ayala
Chairman and Co-Founder of 10club
Joel Ayala is the co-founder of Class 5 Global, a venture fund investing in the next generation of global entrepreneurs. He is also the Chairman and Co-Founder of 10club.
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About 10club, Class 5 Global: 10club acquires, operates, and grows e-commerce businesses.
Hugo Mercier
Founder of Dreem
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About Dreem: Dreem is a neurotechnology company composed of sleep pioneers, a team of experts fascinated by science, technology and design.
Colin Billings
Founder and CEO of Orro
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About Orro: Orro is the world’s first truly responsive lighting system.
Scott Carter
Founder of KILN
Scott Carter is a venture capitalist at [Sequoia Capital](/financial-organization/sequoia-capital) who works with growth stage financial, healthcare and technology companies. Scott currently sits on the board of [Acton](/organization/acton-pharmaceuticals), [Airstrip Technologies](/organization/airstrip-technologies), Ameritox, [eCardio](/organization/ecardio), IPG and Merlin Securities. Prior to joining Sequoia Capital, Scott focused on private equity investments in the financial services and technology sectors at Summit Partners. Previously, he was with JPMorgan and its predecessor entities and served in various staff positions in the United States Senate. Scott has a BA in Political Science from Texas A&M University and an MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. (Source: [Sequoia Capital](http://www.sequoiacap.com/people/scott-carter/))
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About KILN: KKILN launches a contemporary fashion brand for middle-aged consumers.
Max Child
Founder of Volley
Max Child is the Co-Founder of Volley.
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About Volley: Volley builds voice-controlled entertainment experiences for Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and smartphones.
James Wilsterman
Co-Founder and CTO of Volley
James Wilsterman is the Co-Founder and CTO at Volley.
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About Volley: Volley builds voice-controlled entertainment experiences for Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and smartphones.
Anush Elangovan
Founder & CEO of Nod
With over 15 years of experience building innovative products, 30 patents pending or issued, and a couple of legendary mountains climbed, Anush is one of those “impossible is nothing” types. Prior to founding Nod Labs, he was part of the original Chromebooks team at Google, and a lead engineer at Agnilux, FireEye and Cisco.
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About Nod: Nod seamlessly transforms your movements into commands. Nod accurately tracks your body and convey intent and identity to your environment.
Abdur Chowdhury
Co-Founder and CEO of Aura Frames
Abdur Chowdhury was the co-founder of Summize which he sold to Twitter in 2008. He then became Twitter’s Chief Scientist. A few years ago, he left and started a new company called Pushd, which is backed by a couple of million in seed funding from various angels, as well as Betaworks. On September 4, 2014 Pushd, Inc. released an Emoji based mobile app called Steven.
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About Aura Frames: Aura Frames is a smart picture frame designed to fill their home with beautiful photos of their family and friends.
Eric Jensen
Co-Founder & CTO of Aura Frames
Eric Jensen is a chief technology officer at Pushd, Inc. He also co-founded Summize, Inc., which was later acquired by Twitter. Prior to Pushd, Inc., Jensen worked at Twitter as a relevance tech lead. Jensen earned his PhD in computer science from [Illinois Institute of Technology](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/illinois-institute-of-technology-chicago).
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About Aura Frames: Aura Frames is a smart picture frame designed to fill their home with beautiful photos of their family and friends.
Marissa Shipman
Founder and CEO of theBalm Cosmetics
Marissa Shipman is the founder and CEO of theBalm Cosmetics, a firm based in San Francisco. She established the cosmetics company 15 years ago during a transitional period in her life. After years of work in television production, Marissa Shipman quit her job, severed some personal ties, and began a journey west toward California. Along the way, she met a woman who was employed in the cosmetics industry. Marissa Shipman was fascinated with this idea and decided that she, too, would make her living with makeup and related products. Upon her arrival in California, Mrs. Shipman began to apply for positions with cosmetics firms in the area. When her initial efforts did not result in a job offer, she decided to go her own way. After reading book after book on cosmetic formulas, she found a simple recipe for lip balm that launched her current empire. With beeswax, shea butter, and castor oil in hand, she created theBalm, a diverse line of products that is now available in more than 100 nations around the world.
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About theBalm Cosmetics: theBalm Cosmetics is a sassy, classy, SF based company with a line of high-quality makeup for the fun, flirty & fierce!
Momchil Filev
Co Founder & CEO of BestReviews
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About BestReviews: BestReviews is a review website that publishes in-depth reviews of consumer products.
Stephen Dash
Founder & CEO of Credible
Stephen is the Founder and CEO of Credible. He founded Credible because of sheer disbelief at the burden student debt placed on young Americans (a problem that does not exist in his native Australia). Stephen is still recovering from his many years as an investment banker at J.P. Morgan – where he spent his days (and nights) analyzing and advising major international banks on operations, M&A, capital adequacy and funding. More recently he founded QC Media and was an Investment Director at MHC & Co.
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About Credible: Credible is a multi-lender marketplace that allows borrowers to receive competitive loan offers from its vetted lenders.