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 United States based CEO’ operating in the Communities space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.us.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Steve Gatena
Founder & CEO of Pray.com
Steve is the founder of pray.com, the digital destination for faith. Steve is an American Entrepreneur, Media Producer, and NCAA Champion. In 2019, Steve was honored as a CSQ 40 Under 40 Visionary. Steve has also received an Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the United Nations in a program sponsored by Dell & Intel, and been named #8 on the Forbes list of Famous Multi-Generational Entrepreneurs.
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About Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Pray.com: Pray.com is the #1 app for daily prayer & faith-based audio content
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Alex Chung
Co-Founder & CEO of Giphy
Alex Chung is currently the founder and CEO of GIPHY. His latest startups include Artspace, a leading ecommerce destination for contemporary art, The Fridge, a private social network acquired by Google, and General Displays a GE venture developing GE’s next generation of HDTVs. He has also directed media technology for MTV, NBC, Comcast, Charter, and managed future technologies for Paul Allen’s R&D lab. He was one of the early architects of interactive television and started his career as a hardware engineer at Intel. He was named on Business Insider’s Top 25 most influential technologists in New York and has degrees in philosophy, electrical/computer engineering, and graphic design.
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About Giphy: Giphy is an online database and search engine that allows users to search, share, and discover GIFs.
Jager McConnell
Chief Executive Officer of Crunchbase
Jager is the CEO of Crunchbase. He joined the company as it became a venture-backed startup in enterprise data. Prior to joining Crunchbase, Jager spent 11 years at Salesforce in various roles across sales, marketing, and product development.
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About Crunchbase: Crunchbase provides intelligent prospecting software powered by live company data.
Courtney Puckett
Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer of Crunchbase
Courtney served as Office Manager at Crunchbase from September 2017 to February 2019, from which she served as Executive Assistant until August 2019, since which she has been serving as Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer.
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About Crunchbase: Crunchbase provides intelligent prospecting software powered by live company data.
Justin Siegel
Co-Founder & CEO of MocoSpace
Justin Siegel is the CEO & Co-Founder at JNJ Mobile.
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About ATX Angel, Capital Factory, JNJ Mobile, MocoSpace, NextGen Venture Partners, NRG eSports, Techstars, Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies: MocoSpace is a mobile gaming community for playing games, making friends, and staying connected.
Michał Borkowski
Co-founder & CEO of Brainly
Michał is the CEO and co-founder of Brainly and is responsible for product strategy, company strategy and culture. He and his co-founders established Brainly in 2009 in Kraków, driven by the conviction that collaborative online communities can empower students from around the world with knowledge and information. In a little more than a decade, Brainly has become the world’s largest online learning community for students, parents and teachers. After moving to New York City and living there for 4 years to open and build Brainly’s US office, Michał was only 16 when he started his first company, and he’s been shaking up the internet ever since. He grew up in a small town in Poland before heading to Warsaw to study corporate finance at the acclaimed Warsaw School of Economics. Michał now lives in Kraków with his wife, Kasia.
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About Brainly: Brainly is an online learning platform where students and parents get homework and study help from peers and experts.
Tracy Chou
Founder & CEO of Block Party
Tracy Chou is an entrepreneur, software engineer, and diversity advocate. She spent five years at Pinterest as an engineer and tech lead and was an early engineer at Quora prior to that. She is a co-founder of Project Include, a non-profit working with tech startups on diversity and inclusion, and #MovingForward, a movement working with VC firms to establish and publish anti-harassment policies; and an investment scout and advisor for several Bay Area VC firms. In her latest venture she is CEO of Block Party, with a mission to solve online harassment and abuse.
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About Block Party, Pinterest, Project Include: Block Party is a consumer app that tackles online harassment and puts you back in control.
David Siegel
CEO of Meetup
David Siegel is the CEO at Meetup.
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About Columbia University, Meetup: Meetup brings people together in thousands of cities to do more of what they want to do in life.
Genevieve Ryan Bellaire
Founder & CEO of Realworld
Genevieve Ryan Bellaire is the Founder and CEO of Realworld, a company that provides a simple way to navigate adulthood and its life moments, with help from your community. Genevieve has had a broad array of professional experience across business, law, and government. An attorney by profession, she received her JD/MBA from Georgetown University, and worked on strategic partnerships at Goldman Sachs until leaving to found Real World Playbook. Genevieve received her B.A. in Politics-International Relations from Princeton University, where she held numerous campus leadership roles and graduated with Honors in her department. Beyond her work in the entrepreneurial world, Genevieve is passionate about women’s empowerment, education, and national security. She currently serves as a member of the Pencils of Promise Leadership Council, the Acumen Fund Young Professional Committee, and the Washington Institute for Business, Government, and Society.
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About Realworld: The #1 platform to navigate adulthood
Cindy Gallop
Founder & CEO of MakeLoveNotPorn
Cindy Gallop is the Founder and CEO of MakeLoveNotPorn and IfWeRanTheWorld. She is a former Board Advisor at Danoo and The Talent Business. Ms. Gallop received a master of arts in English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford.
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About MakeLoveNotPorn: Pro-sex. Pro-porn. Pro-knowing the difference.
Kevin Long
Co-Founder & CEO of The Dyrt
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About : The Dyrt is consumer subscription software and top ranked camping app, with over 1.5M user-submitted reviews and tips across the U.S.
Anton Bernstein
Co-founder & CEO of Highrise
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About Highrise, Lux Group, Pocket Worlds: Highrise is a creative mobile community where people create avatars, express themselves, and make friends.
Eric Grossberg
Co-CEO & Co-Founder of Brilliant Earth
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About Brilliant Earth: Brilliant Earth is a luxury jewelry company that offers ethically sourced jewelry.
Beth Gerstein
Co-CEO & Co-Founder of Brilliant Earth
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About Brilliant Earth: Brilliant Earth is a luxury jewelry company that offers ethically sourced jewelry.
Jamie Hodari
CEO & Co-Founder of Industrious
Jamie Hodari is the Co-Founder and CEO of Industrious. Prior to Industrious, Jamie was the CEO and Co-Founder of Kepler, a rapidly growing experimental university that Scientific American called a “daring global experiment” to bring “top-tier instruction to the neediest parts of the planet.”Jamie previously ran the education non-profit Generation Rwanda, analyzed investments at the hedge fund Birch Run Capital and was a project finance lawyer at the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. He started his career as a journalist at the Times of India. Jamie holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, an M.P.P. from Harvard University, and a B.A. from Columbia University.
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About Industrious: Industrious is a premium flexible workspace provider that redefines the workplace experience.
Donghao Li
Founder & CEO of Tripalink
Donghao Li is the CEO of Tripalink.
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About Tripalink: Tripalink is a residential brand for student and working professionals driven by technologies.
Dunia Shive
President & CEO of Belo
Dunia Shive was elected to the Dr Pepper Snapple Group board of directors in November 2014 and sits on the Corporate Governance & Nominating Committee. Ms. Shive serves as senior vice president of Gannett Co. Inc. She previously served as president and CEO of Belo Corp. from 2008 to 2013, when it was acquired by Gannett. She joined Belo in 1993 and served in various leadership positions prior to becoming president and CEO. Ms. Shive has served as a director of Trinity Industries, Inc. since March 2014. She also serves as a member of the Associated Press board of directors, where she is the chair of the audit committee, and as a trustee of the Belo Foundation. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in accounting from Texas Tech University and in 2008 was recognized by the university as a Distinguished Alumna.
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About Belo: From its beginnings as a Texas newspaper company in 1842 through the explosive growth of the past 20 years, Belo has prospered because of
Usama Abid
Co-founder & CEO of Inventhub
Usama Abid is a technology entrepreneur. As an engineer-turned-entrepreneur, he has dedicated himself to improving the hardware design process, and is an active contributor to the open-source community. His company, InventHub, Inc., is founded on the idea that innovation can happen at scale if: one, engineers are provided with a new way to collaborate; and two, the open-source community is empowered with resources. Prior to InventHub, Usama founded DIY GEEKS, a startup that focuses on robotics education in his native Pakistan, where Usama helped cultivate the community and ushered in a love of making with his self-learning DIY kits, workshops and seminars. He was recognized by TechJuice in 2018 as one of Pakistan’s “25 Under 25” — an annual list of those helping to change the landscape in the country’s startup ecosystem. His work has been featured in numerous tech blogs and magazines, including TechJuice, StartUp Magazine, Geo TV.
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About Inventhub: Inventhub is an electronics design collaboration and data management platform that helps maximize product quality.
Ben Anderson
Co-Founder and CEO of Amino Apps
Benjamin Anderson is a co-founder and CEO at Amino Apps.
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About Amino Apps: Amino Apps enables people to discover, develop, and express their interests and passions.
Norberto Menendez
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder of LifeWallet
Norberto M. is the Founder at iNewton, LLC.
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About HMBL Health, iNewton, LifeWallet: Provides employers, communities and healthcare professionals with a simple, powerful solution to assess the health of their population.
Norberto Menendez
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder of LifeWallet
Norberto M. is the Founder at iNewton, LLC.
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About HMBL Health, iNewton, LifeWallet: Provides employers, communities and healthcare professionals with a simple, powerful solution to assess the health of their population.
Niel Robertson
Co-Founder, CEO of influence.co
Niel Robertsonm, formally the CEO of Trada, a pay-per-click (PPC) marketplace allowing agencies and in-house advertisers to leverage the skills of hundreds of the best paid search experts in the world. Trada was the third startup that Niel founded including Newmerix, a software company specializing in change management for packaged applications, and Service Metrics, a venture backed startup company focused on providing an end user perspective of website performance. Exodus acquired Niel’s biggest success to date, Service Metrics, in October of 1999. In addition to the previous startups Niel has founded, he has also served as the CTO in Residence at Mobius Venture Capital, as well as a Venture Partner with Fidelity Ventures in Boston.
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About influence.co, Ramen, VigLink: The professional network for the creator economy
Edward Benz
CEO of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Edward Benz, Jr. M.D. is President and Chief Executive Officer of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, CEO of Dana-Farber/Partners Cancer Care as well as Principal Investigator and Director of Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Care and a member of the Governing Board of Dana-Farber/Children’s Hospital Cancer Center. An internationally recognized hematologist, Benz received his training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the National Institutes of Health, and Harvard Medical School. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Hematology. Benz continues to be an active NIH funded investigator. He has authored over 300 peer reviewed articles, reviews, chapters and abstracts. He is a co-editor of Hematology: Principles and Practice and of the Oxford Textbook of Medicine for which he and his colleagues received the Royal Society of Authors Textbook Award. He is an associate editor of the New England Journal of Medicine. Benz’ accomplishments have been recognized by a number of distinctions, including membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Science. He is a past president of the American Society of Hematology, the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Cancer Institutes.
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About Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is a center dedicated to carrying out adult and pediatric cancer treatment activities and advanced research.
Roshawnna Novellus
Founder & CEO of EnrichHER
Dr. Roshawnna Novellus is the Founder and CEO of EnrichHER, a financial technology platform that help women get funding to grow incredible ventures. Dr. Novellus is a gender equality advocate who believes in economic empowerment and inclusive economic growth. Dr. Novellus holds a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering, with a Minor in Finance, a Masters of Science in Information Technology emphasizing Information System Engineering, a Bachelor of Arts in Business Management Economics, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering – achieving Summa Cum Laude in each. Dr. Novellus has been featured in Fast Company, Forbes, and Huffington Post. She has also completed the Pipeline Angels Fellowship, a Kauffman program in angel investing. Roshawnna serves on the Commission on Women for the City of Atlanta, and was honored as one of the Women Who Means Business by the Atlanta Business Chronicle and one of the 40 Under 40 by Georgia Trend. Dr. Novellus was recently selected as a social entrepreneurship fellow in the prestigious Halcyon Incubator in Washington, D.C. You’ll often find Roshawnna at the latest barre, yoga, or bootcamp class.
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About EnrichHER: EnrichHER Funding is a lending platform that provides up to $250k to revenue-generating women-led businesses.
Allison Robinson
CEO & Co-founder of The Mom Project
After having her son Asher in 2015, Allison identified how universally challenging it can be for American mothers to juggle the demands of motherhood with a full-time career and decided to tackle the issue on a national scale. Prior to founding The Mom Project, Allison spent 8 years at Procter and Gamble working on go to market strategies for leading household brands with a special focus on moms during her tenure on the Pampers brand. As CEO, Allison is responsible for delivering on the company’s mission of building a better workplace for women while supporting our customers through innovative talent solutions that help them attract and retain the diversity of backgrounds and perspectives they need to propel their businesses forward.
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About The Mom Project: The Mom Project is a digital talent marketplace helping women remain active in the workforce.
Matthew Peltier
Founder, CEO of Community
Matthew Peltier is the Founder, CEO at community.com
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About Community: Community is an app that solves communication and engagement problems.
Julie Anne Quay
Founder and CEO of VFILES
Julie Anne Quay is VFILES Founder and CEO and has over 20 years of experience in the fashion and media industries. Quay was Executive Editor for V Magazine before founding VFILES, and has worked for VH1, Vogue Japan and Australia, style.com, Steven Meisel, Richard Avedon, and more leading industry figures.
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About VFILES: VFILES—connect, discover, collaborate, and be a part of what’s next.
Sumit Gupta
Co-Founder & CEO of Boom.tv
Sumit Gupta is an Advisor at Boom Fantasy and Founder & CEO at Boom.tv. He is a 3x Entrepreneur (multiple exits), Angel Investor and Mentor. Founded 3 companies. Invested in 50+ startups including Discord, G2 eSports, BlockChain Capital, Blockstream, Blockcypher, Filecoin, Wag, Classpass, OpenDoor, HoneyBook, Managed-by-Q, Dishcraft Robotics. Mr. Gupta also runs Piazza eSports Ventures with pa articular focus on investments and incubating startups Infusing tech into eSports and Game Streaming. Investments include Discord, Vulcun/StreamLabs, BitKraft, G2 Esports. Startup Portfolio includes DrDisRespect stream team, Boom.tv, Rolocule Games, Boom Fantasy Previously, He served as a Founder & CEO of Bash Gaming, took the mobile gaming company to annual revenue of $75M, profitable and sold it to GSN for $170M. Previously as founder CEO of BitRhymes Apps, top 10 app developers in social space. Before that, I was part of founding team at Business Signatures that was sold to Entrust for $55M
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About afkVR, Boom.tv: BoomTV is an Esports entertainment platform that provides tools to automate score tracking, streaming, and generating event hubs.
Ellen Pao
Co-Founder & CEO of Project Include
One of Silicon Valley’s leading advocates for diversity and inclusion, Ellen K. Pao is not only a long-time entrepreneur and tech investor, but her landmark gender discrimination case against venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, propelled her to the front of the fight — years before the Times Up movement. Her 2012 lawsuit helped encourage other women, people of color and especially women of color to stand-up against harassment and discrimination in tech in what has been called the “Pao Effect.” Currently, Ellen serves as CEO and co-founder of nonprofit Project Include, where she works closely with tech leaders to bring fairness to all tech workers, using data-based, practical solutions and recommendations. As interim CEO of reddit, she was the first leader of a large social media company to ban revenge porn and unauthorized nude photos as part of her broader efforts to curtail harassment on the site. Before reddit, she spent seven years as a investment partner at Kleiner Perkins. During her two decades in Silicon Valley, she has also served as a board member, engineering manager, software programmer, and business development executive. She received her BSE in electrical engineering and public policy certificate from Princeton University, her JD from Harvard Law School, and her MBA from Harvard Business School.
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About Project Include: Project Include promotes diversity and inclusion through research and advocacy. We are a non-profit, and we are hiring.
Jack Herrick
Founder and CEO of wikiHow
Jack Herrick is a serial entrepreneur and current CEO and Founder of wikiHow. Jack founded wikiHow, which is like Wikipedia for how-to. Jack started and self financed wikiHow from inception to it’s current position as one of the most popular sites on the web receiving over 25 million unique visitors per month. Prior to wikiHow, Jack was co-CEO of eHow. With Josh Hannah, Jack purchased eHow in 2004. Between 2004 and 2006 eHow grew 30x in traffic and revenue and became the largest pure play how-to site on the web. Demand Media acquired eHow in 2006. In 2002 Jack co-founded Luminescent Technologies with Dan Abrams, Eli Yablonovitch, and Stan Osher. Luminescent is a computational semiconductor lithography company that has raised over $25 MM in venture capital. From 1999-2001 Jack was CEO and co-founder at BigTray, a Sequoia funded e-commerce company. BigTray was sold in 2001 and remains the largest online vendor of restaurant equipment and supplies.
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About Signpost, wikiHow, wikiHow: wikiHow is a web- and wiki-based community that provides its users with a database of how-to guides.
Elizabeth Douglas
CEO of wikiHow
Elizabeth Douglas is currently the CEO of wikiHow.com, the world’s leading how-to website. Driven by wikiHow’s mission to reach everyone on the planet, Elizabeth collaborates with her teams to create innovative solutions for growing and scaling wikiHow. Under Elizabeth’s leadership, wikiHow has grown over 1500%, and today is visited by more than than 150 million people every month across 230 countries. Elizabeth holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Stanford, as well as an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Before business school, Elizabeth worked as a User Experience Engineer at Apple. While working at Apple, she served as the President of Women at Apple, a group dedicated to supporting women in tech. Elizabeth is a strong believer in authentic leadership. Her vulnerable, empathetic, approachable style has led to her being a successful student mentor and speaker. She currently lives in the Bay Area with her husband and two young daughters.
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About wikiHow: wikiHow is a web- and wiki-based community that provides its users with a database of how-to guides.
Dan McCall
CEO of Influitive
Dan McCall is the Chief Executive Officer at Influitive.
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About Influitive: Influitive helps companies mobilize their advocates to provide more referral leads, reference calls, social media advocacy, product reviews.
Winston Ibrahim
Co-Founder & CEO of Hydros water Bottle
Winston is tasked with taking the lead on crafting the company’s overall growth strategy, pursuing new business opportunities, exploring ways to ensure long-term financial stability, managing investor relations, and ensuring strong corporate governance with close oversight over the rest of management. Winston first started at Hydros as an Advisor and Board member in late 2009. Later he served as EVP of Business Development, taking the lead raising the company’s seed, Series A, and follow on rounds of financing. Winston has already been responsible for the recruitment of the majority of the company’s Board of Directors including renowned Entrepreneur Shazi Visram, Founder & CEO of Happy Family Brands, and Adnan Durrani, Founder & CEO of American Halal Corporation. He assumed overall leadership in his current position as part of a corporate restructure in January 2012. Ibrahim also serves as Executive Director of Operation Hydros, with overall strategic and operational responsibility of the company’s social mission to address the Global Water Crisis by financing clean water infrastructure projects in the developing world. Winston is also Co-founder of the Ibrahim Leadership and Dialogue Project in the Middle East, a pioneering effort to develop a generation of U.S. leaders sensitive to inter-cultural understanding. He serves on several boards including Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), anorganization that works to engage religious diversity by building interfaith cooperation oncollege and university campuses, and ThinkImpact, a leading social entrepreneurship education company. Prior to Hydros, Winston worked as an investment banking analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia. He received his Bachelor of Art degree in Political Science from the Johns Hopkins University in 2009.
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About Hydros water Bottle, Institute of International Education: Hydros makes water bottles with built-in filters to eliminate the need for bottled water. a movement to fight the water crisis worldwide.
Anastasia Sartan
Co-Founder and CEO of Maison Me
Anastasia Sartan is a Founder at Trends Brands.
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About Maison Me, StyleHacks, Trends Brands: Maison Me is a startup that has built a platform that lets people provide either a few clues.
Tyler Faux
Co-Founder & CEO of Supergreat
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About Supergreat: Supergreat is a beauty community of real people reviewing the beauty products that work for them.
Neil Vogel
Chief Executive Officer of Dotdash
Neil Vogel is the CEO Dotdash.
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About Diskbase, Dotdash, FirstMark, The Balance, VeryWell: Dotdash’s vibrant brands help over 100 million users each month find answers, solve problems, and get inspired.
Derek Andersen
CEO and Co-Founder of Bevy
Derek Andersen is the founder of Startup Grind, a 50+ cities community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs. In 2013 Startup Grind will host 20,000 entrepreneurs at 300 events in 20 countries. After founding Vaporware Labs in 2009, he incubated many products (most of which failed spectacularly) including Startup Grind and professional social network Commonred. In 2012 Commonred was sold to Income.com. He is also Ex-Electronic Arts where he worked on games like Burnout, Mirror’s Edge, The Sims, and Need For Speed. Having spent 8-years living outside the United States, he currently lives in Palo Alto California with his wife and two children.
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About Bevy, Startup Grind: Bevy is an enterprise-grade virtual conference and community events platform designed to build, grow, and scale global communities.
Gayle Jennings O’Byrne
Founder and CEO of iNTENT Manifesto
20+ years of finance, investment banking, philanthropy and lobbying experience. Previously, executive positions in Mergers and Acquisitions, Global Philanthropy, International Government Relations at JPMorgan Chase. Media Manager at Sun Microsystems. Developed and managed investment strategy and corporate relationships. Enjoys valuation, modeling, due diligence and championing founders and startups. Graduate of Wharton School of Business and the University of Michigan School of Business. Attended National University of Singapore and City of London Polytechnic. Conducted academic consulting project in Israel.
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About iNTENT Manifesto, The Prometheus Exchange, WOCstar Fund: iNTENT Manifesto IS an educational and investment platform.
Iyah Romm
Founder and CEO of Cityblock Health
Iyah Romm is a Founder and CEO at Cityblock Health.
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About Cityblock Health: Cityblock Health is a tech-driven healthcare provider for those in underserved communities.
Deevee Kashi
Founder & CEO of Deed
Deevee Kashi is the CEO and founder of Deed. He previously worked at The Butter Group as a Director of Promotions and Marketing.
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About Deed: Deed provides a social impact platform to connect people with causes and businesses with social impact.
Richard Lefrak
Chairman & CEO of LeFrak
Richard LeFrak has been among the top executives of his family’s LeFrak Organization since 1975, the year he became the real estate concern’s president. He has been CEO and chairman since 2003, the year his father, Samuel LeFrak, died. He joined the company in 1968, shortly after graduating from Columbia Law School. The LeFrak Organization is one of the New York City region’s most prominent real estate ownership and management groups. Its holdings include more than 40 million square feet of residential, commercial and retail holdings nationwide. Locally, these include the office tower at 40 West 57th Street (LeFrak controls seven office towers in Midtown), the massive 20-building LeFrak City in Queens and the Gateway apartment complex in downtown Manhattan. Richard LeFrak has greatly expanded the firm’s holdings. The Newport development in Jersey City, begun in 1986, for instance, added eight office buildings, 13 apartment towers, a mall and two hotels to LeFrak’s portfolio. Richard LeFrak also commenced a major development push in South Florida and has diversified the firm’s holdings into gas and oil investment. LeFrak was born in 1945 in New York City and graduated from Amherst College before going on to Columbia. His wife, Karen Tucker, is a children’s author; they have two sons, Harrison and James, both of whom work at the family firm.
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About LeFrak: LeFrak is a preeminent, family-owned property company committed to community development and long term ownership.
Guy Primus
CEO of Valence Community
Guy Primus is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Virtual Reality Company (VRC), a market leader in the production and distribution of cinematic Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality content. Guy’s co-founders in VRC include two-time Oscar winner Robert Stromberg, who directed Disney’s Maleficent, and Chris Edwards, the CEO of previsualization studio The Third Floor. Prior to co-founding VRC, Guy was Chief Operating Officer at Overbrook Entertainment, the film and television production company founded by actor Will Smith and producer James Lassiter. Before joining Overbrook, Guy served as director of digital media at Starbucks Entertainment, group product marketing manager at Microsoft’s MSN Entertainment, and as vice president of strategy & planning at Blue Flame, the marketing and advertising agency founded by Sean “Diddy” Combs. Guy is chairman emeritus of the advisory board of Georgia Tech’s top-ranked School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and is a member of the Georgia Tech Advisory Board. Guy is also a member of the board of trustees of Southern California Public Radio, Park Century School and The VR Society, and is a voting member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (The Emmys). Guy earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in industrial engineering from Georgia Tech and his MBA from Harvard Business School. Guy, his wife, Heather, their son, Grant, and their daughter, Clarke, reside in the Beachwood Canyon area of Los Angeles.
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About The Virtual Reality Company, Valence Community: Valence is an internet company that connects, showcases, and empowers the global black professional community.
Fahad Jalal
Founder & CEO of SitterFriends
Fahad studied Computer Science at Stanford, and got an MBA from the Wharton school of business. Over the last decade, Fahad has been involved with several startups and established companies in the capacity of founder, executive leader and investor. Fahad is involved with 3 charities that focus on child education, and development. In one word he describes himself as “human”, and his life-long goal is to help make care, and education accessible to all children across the world.
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About SitterFriends: Book your community’s most trusted babysitters, in a second, for free
Liron Shapira
Co-Founder & CEO of Relationship Hero
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About Relationship Hero: Relationship Hero connects people with a relationship expert in a private chatroom or over the phone.
Jacqueline Novogratz
Founder & CEO of Acumen
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About Acumen: Acumen is a non-profit venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty.
Caroline Ghosn
CEO & Founder of Levo
There is evidence that Caroline’s company Levo quietly closed down operations leaving invoices to vendors and creditors unpaid in 2019. As of 2019 and 2020, the company could not be reached when contacted for payment.
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About Levo: Levo is the largest and fastest-growing professional network for millennials.
Ran Harnevo
Co Founder & CEO of Homeis
Ran is a veteran in the media and Internet industry and specializes in managing and deploying content and media assets. Ran is currently the CEO of 5min Media, the online largest video syndication platform, which he founded in 2007. Prior to starting 5min Media, Ran’s experience included working as a deputy editor at Tel-Aviv Magazine, where he managed the website and covered politics and sports. Ran earned his undergraduate degree in Philosophy and Computer Science from Tel Aviv University, after serving as a fighter pilot in the Israeli army. Ran currently resides in New York.
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About Homeis: Homeis develops a software platform that builds a better Internet for immigrants.
Perkins Miller
CEO of Fandom
Perkins Miller is the CEO of Fandom.
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About Fandom: Fandom is a developer of a global entertainment media platform designed for fans to explore, contribute to, and celebrate.
Jean-Francois Gauthier
Founder and CEO of Startup Genome
Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur and Founder & CEO of Startup Genome. He is the world’s leading voice in innovation ecosystem development, having advised more than 100 governments and private-public partnerships across 35 countries.
He has founded five businesses and led others across two continents and three sectors (Tech, Life Sciences and Cleantech), achieving two exits plus one at scaleup stage. He is also an active angel investor and previously worked in corporate innovation, advising IBM, Cisco, Agilent/HP, J&J, and Abbott for the firm of Kim Clark (former dean of Harvard Business School) alongside Clayton Christensen and other thought leaders. Harvard MBA.
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About Exit Reality, Startup Genome: Startup Genome is a research and policy advisory organization for governments that helps accelerates the success of their startup ecosystem.
Cadran Cowansage
CEO & Founder of Elpha
Cadran Cowansage is the CEO and Co-Founder of Elpha.
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About Elpha: Where women in tech talk candidly online
Umber Bawa
CEO of rabble
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About rabble: An impact investing platform that connects people with projects that strengthen communities
Ben Huffman
CEO of Contra
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About Contra: Contra is a networking platform that gives users the freedom and opportunity to work independently.
Scott Owens
Founder / CEO of DoStuff Media
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About DoStuff Media: DoStuff Media is a network of local media properties for people looking to do awesome stuff.
Craig Pishotti
CEO of Finch Living
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About Finch Living: Finch Living offers scalable solution for community building and improved experience in residential buildings across the US.
Heini Zachariassen
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Vivino
Heini is Vivino’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Credited with bringing a technology revolution to the wine industry, Heini founded Vivino because he was frustrated by not knowing which wine to buy. It’s been his passion project ever since. During his tenure, Vivino has grown into a community of 46 million users, raised $72 million in funding, and rolled out a worldwide wine marketplace. Before starting Vivino, Heini co-founded several startups, including global internet and mobile security company BullGuard. Heini leads the team from Vivino’s European headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. Heini and Vivino’s story is featured in an independent documentary, “Disrupting Wine, The Life of an Entrepreneur.” Heini also hosts the YouTube series Raw Startup, which offers candid advice for entrepreneurs and startups.
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About Vivino: Vivino is a wine app and online wine marketplace that provides users tools to buy better wine based on their unique tastes.
Phu Styles
CEO and Head of Influencer & Investor Relations of Blockchain PR
Phu Styles is the Founder of Women in Blockchain Foundation, CEO of Blockchain PR, Venture Partner at Velorum Capital, and the Co-Founder of the co-living/co-working space called Startup Villas. She is also an Advisor for several blockchain companies and is on the Executive Board for the Electronic Music Alliance. She is a serial entrepreneur with formerly founding companies in Virtual & Augmented Reality. She has also been influential for her work as an international award-winning Celebrity Fashion Stylist. As an Asian-American immigrant, Influencer, and Futurist she is on a mission to make the decentralized future be inclusive for everyone. Her work and views on inclusion have been featured in Cointelegraph, BBC News, NBC, Forbes, CNBC, FOX News, and TV shows such as the award-nominated docu-series “I’m Asian American And” to name a few.
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About AllBright, AllBright, Blockchain PR, Healthmatica, Startup Villas, Women In Blockchain Foundation:: Blockchain PR help Blockchain based companies with marketing, PR, and investor relations.
Ryan Deiss
Founder & CEO of DigitalMarketer
Ryan Deiss is the co-founder of Idea Incubator LP and CEO of DigitalMarketer.com. He launched his first web-based business from his college dorm room in 1999, and since that time he’s founded over 40 different businesses in markets such as health and beauty, survival and preparedness, DIY crafts and home improvement, investing and finance, chemical and liquid filter manufacturing, business lending, online skills training and menswear…just to name a few. In addition to operating multiple businesses, Ryan is also a highly sought after author, speaker and consultant whose work has impacted over 250,000 businesses in 68 different countries.
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About DigitalMarketer, Recess.io: DigitalMarketer is an online community providing ideas on driving more traffic, increasing conversion rates, and boosting social engagement.
Terren Klein
CEO & Co-Founder of College Pulse
Terren Klein is the CEO & Co-Founder at College Pulse.
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About College Pulse: College Pulse is a polling platform designed to aggregate and share student public opinion on college campuses.
Shaan Hathiramani
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Flockjay
Shaan Hathiramani is a Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Flockjay. He is a former CXO at Thistle and Portfolio Manager at Balyasny Asset Management L.P. and Alyeska Investment Group. Mr. Hathiramani graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor of arts in Applied Mathematics.
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About Flockjay: Flockjay is an online academy that empowers job seekers with the tools and training they need to break into tech.
Nikita Leonov
CEO of Elmy
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About Elmy, Singularex, Techstars: Elmy is a marketplace for people to discover, book or list services nearby
Michael Ellison
Founder and CEO of CodePath
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About CodePath: CodePath is a nonprofit increasing diversity in tech by transforming CS college education.
JP Rosato
CEO & Founder of Sitehands
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About CS Technology, Sitehands: Sitehands is a global IT marketplace serving the largest global Financial Institutions and Fortune 500 companies.
John Lowery
President and CEO of Wholelife Companies
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About Wholelife Companies: WholeLife Companies is a real estate developer and operator of active adult luxury class A rental communities.
Ronny Sage
Founder & CEO of ShoppingGives
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About ShoppingGives: ShoppingGives encourages consumers to make an impact through its change commerce technology.
Jim Lucchese
CEO of Sofar Sounds
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About Sofar Sounds: Sofar Sounds is a global community hosting curated, secret performances in more than 400 cities around the world.
Bryan MacDonald
Chief Executive Officer of SchoolMint
Bryan MacDonald is the Chief Executive Officer at SchoolMint.
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About SchoolMint: SchoolMint helps schools and families manage the admissions process, simply and cost effectively.
Mukesh Sehgal
Founder, President & CEO of RSG Media
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About RSG Media: RSG Media is a media-tech supplier specializing in rights management, whose customers include industry-leading TV networks, studios.
Nils Johnson
Co-founder,CEO & Chief Merchant of Beautylish
Nils Johnson is the founder of Beautylish. Previously he was the founder of Gorilla Mobile.
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About Beautylish: Beautylish is a social commerce website for the cosmetic industry that enables users to share beauty-related content with other users.
Peer Richelsen
Co-founder & CEO of Mage App
Peer Richelsen is the co-founder and CEO of Mage.
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About Mage App: Mage Market is an marketplace app built specifically for buying and selling cards from Magic using computer vision.
Esther Crawford
Co-founder/CEO of Squad
Esther is an award-winning pioneer in Millennial marketing who spearheaded groundbreaking digital campaigns in social and video for Fortune 500 companies. She previously led product marketing for Silicon Valley startups including Coach.me and Stride. After finding early success on YouTube, Esther started a social marketing agency whose clients included Weight Watchers, Sears Holdings and more. She was an on-air contributor to CNN, Fox News, and iVillage. Esther holds a Master’s of Arts in International Relations from Durham University in England, an Arabic language certificate from Jordan University and a Bachelors of Science in Philosophy from Oregon State University.
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About Squad: Acquired by Twitter in 2020. Hang out with friends in audio and video rooms.
Bill Moore
Founder/CEO of Zello
Bill is CEO of Zello, founder and director of TuneIn, and an early stage angel investor. Zello is social radio with 55 million anonymous users enjoying live public conversations from around the globe. NPR, PBS, BBC, CNN and Fox Business have covered Zello’s role as the most popular app for activists in Turkey, Egypt, Venezuela and Ukraine. While CEO of TuneIn thru 2011 Bill’s team created a platform to organize the worlds radio, created a top 50 overall app across 100 countries and won embedded deals powering BMW, Sonos and product lines across auto, mobile and connected device. Bill closed the funding with Sequoia Capital, moved the team to Palo Alto and returned to Texas.
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About Zello: Frontline workers save the world everyday. We build technology for them.
Kai Buehler
Founder & CEO of KarmaKarma
Kai Buehler is Quake Europe’s co-founder and managing partner. He is also the CEO and founder of KARMAKARMA, a marketing platform to reward and engage consumers through social impacts. Kai has successfully started, managed and sold a number of businesses in the mobile application, loyalty and interactive TV space. In 2011, Kai sold Watchpoints, the first app that rewarded viewers for watching television, to Viggle (VGGL). Before joining Viggle, Kai was the CEO of Mobile Messaging Solutions (mms), a leading iTV and mobile engagement provider that divested out of VeriSign in 2009 (VRSN). He was also the CEO of Mindmatics USA, which he merged with mms Inc. In 2000, he co-founded plan_b media and successfully grew the company to a leader in the production and distribution of mobile entertainment content with offices in Cologne (Germany), New York, London and Vienna. The company was acquired by Mindmatics, a T-Mobile Venture, in 2005.
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About KarmaKarma, Quake Capital Europe: KarmaKarma is a social impact community where users can see and track their impact on the world.
Noah Gottlieb
CEO of X Social Communities
Noah Gottlieb currently works as the CEO of The X Company. He previously worked at Property Markets Group as Principal.
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About X Social Communities: X Social Communities focused on social living and features news, event calendar, Instagram feed, partners, and neighbor profiles.
Tom Burt
President and Chief Executive Officer of ES&S
Tom Burt is President and CEO of ES&S. He became CEO on January 1, 2015, succeeding Aldo Tesi. Mr. Burt joined ES&S in 2008, leading the company’s sales, customer service, operations, and product departments. Before joining ES&S, Mr. Burt developed his general management and sales leadership at McMaster-Carr Supply Company and Andersen Consulting, where he served in executive management roles. More recently, Tom worked as an Associate Partner of Gallup Organization, where he was responsible for managing relationships with multiple Fortune 500 clients. Tom earned Gallup’s Biennial Award for overall client satisfaction ratings. His passion for “Customer Comes First” brought him to ES&S. A native Nebraskan, Tom graduated summa cum laude from Nebraska Wesleyan University with a bachelor’s of science degree in Business Administration.
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About ES&S: ES&S takes great pride in their opportunity to support clients with their election administration needs.
Lindsey Taylor Wood
Founder, CEO & GP of The Helm
Lindsey Taylor Wood is the Founder, CEO & GP at The Helm.
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About The Helm, The Helm: The Helm is an early-stage venture firm investing in game-changing companies founded by women through our fund and investor membership.
Jeremy Frommer
Founder & CEO of Creatd
Jeremy Frommer is an American financier and entrepreneur based in New Jersey. His career includes over two decades on Wall Street, working as a hedge fund and portfolio manager, and on the sell-side of the financial industry, building and selling two financial services companies. He is CEO of Jerrick Ventures Inc., a company that acquires, develops and produces content across all forms of media. Frommer is depicted in Michael Lewis’ novel Flash Boys. In 2012, Frommer discovered the “Guccione Collection,” a large collection of unpublished works and photos owned by Bob Guccione, the founder of the Penthouse empire. Frommer graduated magna cum laude from the State University of New York at Albany, with a B.A. in philosophy, and studied at the London School of Economics.
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About Creatd, Vocal: Creatd is an IT company that provides technologies that solve problems for the creative community.
Lucian Tarnowski
CEO & Founder of BraveNew
Lucian is Founder and CEO of BraveNew.com, the enterprise platform for knowledge sharing communities. BraveNew ‘Communities of Purpose’ enable organisations such as Lockheed Martin, Mercer, Manpower and the Collaborative Health Network to use curated content to connect, engage and develop stakeholders inside and outside of the company around any initiative such as Veterans, STEM, Women, Diversity, Health, Sustainability and Leadership development. BraveNew is creating the ‘Knowledge Graph’ by mapping members informal learning. Through peer-to-peer learning communities BraveNew is helping its client break down the knowledge silos that exist everywhere and over time identify collective intelligence of communities. The company has been awarded the Best Advance in Social Learning Technology by Brandon Hall Group. Lucian lives with his wife in San Francisco. He has been honoured as a Young Global Leader (YGL) by the World Economic Forum and is winner of the Global Enterprising Young Brit. He has served on the Steering Board for a World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Talent Mobility and has been Topic Champion for Employment and Skills. He obsesses over the social science behind communities and believes communities give humans both meaning and context in increasingly complex world. Lucian is passionate about using technology and communities to disrupt the way people learn and has worked in vocational education from the age of 9. In his spare time he runs Take Heart India, a 50 year old no overheads charity started by his father that provides blind and handicapped people in rural India with the vocational employment skills to required to get lifelong employment or start a small business. He sits on the Board of Innovate Educate, a US Foundation that aims to bridge the skills gap with a demand driven approach to jobs. He has spoken at gatherings such as Davos, TEDx, The China Digital Summit and for companies such as Coca-Cola, Oracle, Pearson, IBM and PWC. He speaks to audiences around the world about the convergence of talent and technology and its impact on the future of the global workforce and learning.
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About BraveNew, Civana, The World Economic Forum: BraveNew enables collaborative learning by creating engaging online spaces for professional communities to share knowledge.
Calista Redmond
CEO, RISC-V International of Linux Foundation
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About Linux Foundation: The Linux Foundation builds sustainable ecosystems around open source projects to accelerate technology development and industry adoption.
Andrew Collins
CEO & Co-founder of Bungalow
Andrew Collins is CEO and Co-founder at Bungalow, the largest US co-living company. Bungalow is a residential real estate platform creating a market between millennials who need a great home and baby boomers who own the existing housing supply.
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About Bungalow: Bungalow provides home rental services.
Alex Kehr
CEO of Superlocal
CEO at Superlocal.
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About Science, Superlocal: Superlocal is a social network that makes every day life feel like a fun game.
Gina Bianchini
Co-Founder & CEO of Mighty Networks
Gina Bianchini is the CEO & founder of Mighty Networks. Her mission at Mighty Networks is to usher in a new era of digital businesses built on the power of community. With a Mighty Network, a brand or creator brings their content, community, online courses, and digital subscriptions together to build a network that gets more valuable to every member with each new person who joins. Before Mighty Networks, Gina was the first entrepreneur-in-residence at Andreessen Horowitz. Prior to A16Z, she was the CEO and co-founder of Ning, a pioneering global platform for creating niche social networks she started with Marc Andreessen in 2004. Under her leadership, Ning grew to ~100 million active users across 300,000 social networks led by brands and creators across subcultures, professional networks, entertainment, politics, and education. The company was sold for $150M in 2011. In addition to Mighty Networks, Gina serves as a board director of TEGNA (NYSE: TGNA), a $3.4 billion dollar broadcast and digital media company, and served as a board director of Scripps Networks (NASDAQ: SNI), a $14.6 billion dollar public company owner of HGTV, The Food Network, and The Travel Channel purchased by Discovery Communications in 2018. Gina and Mighty Networks have been featured in Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Wired, Vanity Fair, Bloomberg, and The New York Times. She has appeared on Charlie Rose, CNBC, and CNN. She grew up in Cupertino, California, graduated with honors from Stanford University, started her career in the nascent High Technology Group at Goldman, Sachs & Co., and received her M.B.A from Stanford Business School.
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About Lean In, Mighty Networks: Mighty Networks is an online platform for creators and brands to build communities.
John Carroll
CEO & Founder, Board Member, Investor of The Service Council
John Carroll is an entrepreneurial, marketing and business development executive with a consistent record of growing revenue, market share and business valuation. He founded The Service Council™ in 2009 with a vision to create a platform for innovation sharing, shaping and sharpening; where uncommon service-centric businesses can emulate the strategies deployed by Global Service Leaders. Under Carroll’s direction, The Service Council has grown from a groundbreaking idea to a community that features greater than 150,000 service executives worldwide across 6 continents, with representation in greater than 30 countries. Prior to The Service Council, he served as Vice President of Marketing at Single Source Systems, Inc., a leading provider of service management software. Here he helped grow market share and revenues leading to its eventual acquisition by Infor Global Solutions. Before Single Source Systems, Inc., he was a key member of the management team and was responsible for the successful turnaround and return to profitability of Boston-based IT Analyst firm Aberdeen Group which led to its eventual acquisition by Harte-Hanks, Inc. – HHS (NYSE). During this time, he was responsible for the co-founding and establishment of the Service Chain Management and Customer Management research practices, as well as, the Chief Service Officer Summit Series. John is a frequent author and speaker on the topic of service management and is well-known for his passion for a Smarter Services™ culture.
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About Rainbows Pottery Studio, The Service Council: The Service Council™ is an exclusive community of Services Executives representing global, industry-leading, service-centric businesses.
Alex Groth
CEO & Co-founder of Tab for a Cause
Alex Groth is Cofounder and CEO of Gladly, adtech that’s transforming the Internet experience by improving how online advertising is done. Through its core services, Tab for a Cause and Goodblock, Gladly’s mission is to give users a choice in the ads they view, while protecting their privacy and making sure every ad serves a worthy purpose.
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About Gladly, Tab for a Cause: Save the world, one tab at a time.
Thomas Priselac
CEO & President & Board of Directors of Cedars Sinai Medical Center
Thomas Priselac is President & CEO at Cedars-Sinai. An advocate for improving quality and access in healthcare, Thomas M. Priselac has developed strategic and operational innovations to foster high-quality, safe and efficient care for patients. Under his leadership, Cedars-Sinai has earned an international reputation for quality care, community service, research and education while evolving from a community hospital to a major health system that continues to expand to better serve patients. Priselac, who holds the Warschaw Law Chair in Healthcare Leadership at Cedars-Sinai, first joined Cedars-Sinai in 1979, and has been president and CEO since 1994. Before being appointed to his current role, he was executive vice president of Cedars-Sinai from 1988 to 1993. Earlier in his career, he was on the executive staff of Montefiore Hospital in Pittsburgh. An authority on healthcare delivery and policy, Priselac is a past chair of the American Hospital Association Board of Trustees and a past chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges. When he was chair of the American Hospital Association in 2009, he had an instrumental role in the development of Affordable Care Act. He also formerly chaired the California Hospital Association and the Hospital Association of Southern California. He is a member of the Board of Councilors of the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Civic Alliance, the Los Angeles Coalition for the Economy and Jobs, the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation and he Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. Priselac has received numerous awards for his leadership in healthcare and his commitment to improving the health of the underserved, including the American Hospital Association’s Distinguished Service Award, B’nai Brith International’s National Healthcare Award, the Special Needs Network’s Distinguished Community Champion Corporate Leadership Award and the Charles R. Drew University Board of Trustees Medal of Honor. Priselac writes and speaks on a variety of policy issues related to the delivery and financing of healthcare, healthcare quality and safety, and the adoption and implementation of information technology. He is an adjunct professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, where he teaches principles of organizational leadership. Priselac earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Washington and Jefferson College in Pennsylvania, and a master’s degree in public health, health services administration and planning from the University of Pittsburgh.
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About Cedars Sinai Medical Center: Cedars-Sinai is a non-profit, academic, community-centric medical center in Los Angeles, California.
Richard Walden
Founder, President & CEO of Operation USA
For 35 years, I have run Operation USA, an international relief and development nonprofit based in Los Angeles, CA. Operation USA has sent over $450 million in aid to 100 countries. We are currently active in California with material aid to community clinics, the Oklahoma City tornado disaster, the Hurricane Katrina-affected areas of the US Gulf Coast, the Pine Ridge S.D. Native American Reservation,Cuba, China, Haiti, Japan, Chile, Nicaragua, East Africa, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, The Philippines, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. In China, we built 2 primary schools and 5 health clinics in Sichuan Province following the earthquake of May 2008. A large Operation USA-built primary school has opened in Jacmel, Haiti. In a tsunami-affected port town, a Seniors Community Center project was opened in Ofunato, Japan. We combine agile and rapid response to disasters with long term recovery projects. Specialties: international conflict resolution & mediation; international development strategies, microfinance, water resources, public health
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About Operation USA: OpUSA helps communities overcome the effects of disasters, disease and endemic poverty by providing privately-funded relief and development.
Adam Segal
Co-founder & CEO of Cove
Adam is the founder and CEO of Cove, a DC-based startup on a mission to empower individuals to pursue and achieve when, where, and how they choose through its network of convenient locations. Adam’s vision for Cove is to enable a lifestyle that fits work into your way of life, and not the other way around. He is focused on expanding Cove to new markets with an incredible team of nearly 100 full- and part-time teammates. Adam holds a BA from Amherst College, an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, and an MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. In this interview, Adam shares insightful thoughts about entrepreneurship and running a non-traditional coworking space that promotes flexibility, convenience, and productivity. He also shares about his experience as a business owner and how he handles business mistakes.
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About Cove: We are on a mission to build software and create in-person experiences that transform the way people engage with their physical environment.
George Sard
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sard Verbinnen & Co
George Sard is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sard Verbinnen. Before co-founding the firm in 1992, George was Chairman of the New York office of Ogilvy Adams & Rinehart, a corporate/financial public relations firm. For over 30 years, he has represented Fortune 500 companies and private firms in many industries on long-term investor and media positioning programs and in high-profile crises and special situations. These include mergers and acquisitions, IPOs, restructurings, earnings issues, high-level executive changes, and sensitive legal and regulatory matters.
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About Sard Verbinnen & Co: Sard Verbinnen & Co is a leading strategic corporate and financial communications firm.
Paul Verbinnen
Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Sard Verbinnen & Co
He co-founded Sard Verbinnen in 1992 and is actively involved with many of the firm’s clients, including public corporations, high-profile executives and educational institutions. He has worked on numerous M&A transactions and proxy contests, as well as crisis situations including product recalls, data breaches, litigation, regulatory matters and executive transitions. He works with many companies and boards on corporate positioning, scenario planning and preparedness. Previously, he was executive vice president, International for a major public relations firm and, before that, helped to start a sports marketing firm.
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About Sard Verbinnen & Co: Sard Verbinnen & Co is a leading strategic corporate and financial communications firm.
Ippei Takahashi
President & CEO – Founder of RideGuru
Ippei has worked in web development and sales roles for over 15 years in the high-tech industry. Since founding Unleashed, LLC in 2007, he has designed products, developed strategy for the company, and led various initiatives as a project manager. As a passionate entrepreneur, he continues to build the vision for Unleashed, LLC and its future products.
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About RideGuru: RideGuru is the trusted resource, tool, and community for everyone engaged in ridehails, rideshares, limos, and taxis.
Gregory Koberger
Founder & CEO of ReadMe
Gregory Koberger is the Founder at ReadMe.io
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About Phileas & Fogg, ReadMe: ReadMe provides every company the ability to quickly create beautiful documentation, and build loyal, productive developer communities.
Daniel Blake Saltman
CEO of The Hunt
Dan is a serial entrepreneur and Product Manager with a focus of web applications and SaaS. Recent Techcrunch posts about Dan: * [Workface Acquires My Favorite Online Business Card Creation Service, Card.ly](http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/01/workface-cardly/) * [TinyChat Jumps To 1 Million Users, Adds Broadcast Feature And Facebook Chat](http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/20/tinychat-stats/) * [Tinychat Boasts 500 Million Minutes Of Usage And 300,000 New Users Per Month](http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/28/tinychat/) * [Tinychat Launches Twitter Chatrooms](http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/05/tinychat-launches-twitter-chatrooms/) * [Plank.ly Blends Social Q&A, Videos, And Voting](http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/14/plank-ly-blends-social-qa-videos-and-voting/) * [TinyChat Launches Grouped Version Of Chatroulette](http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/16/tinychat-launches-grouped-version-of-chatroulette/) * [TinyChat Upgrade Brings Etherpad, Whiteboard And YouTube Integrations](http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/02/05/tinychat-upgrade-brings-etherpad-whiteboard-and-youtube-integrations/) * [Congratulations Crunchies Winners!](http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/08/crunchies-winner/) * [Tinychat Launches Live Video Streaming Portal To Take On Ustream And Stickam](http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/16/tinychat-launches-live-video-streaming-portal-to-take-on-ustream-and-stickam/) * [Tinychat Gets A New Look, Adds Facebook Connect, Sees Early Traction](http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/16/tinychat-gets-a-new-look-adds-facebook-connect-sees-early-traction/) * [Skype Sniffing Around Web Chat Startups](http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/17/skype-sniffing-around-web-chat-startups/) * [Card.ly Lets You Create Cool Online Business Cards In A Matter Of Minutes](http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/20/cardly-lets-you-create-cool-online-business-cards-in-a-matter-of-minutes/) * [TinyPetition Aims To Become The Default Petition Engine For Twitter](http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/18/tinypetition-aims-to-become-the-default-petition-engine-for-twitter/) * [TinyChat Adds Video Conferencing](http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/27/virtual-chat-room-tinychat-adds-video-conferencing-and-screen-sharing/) * [Tinychat makes chatting a breeze](http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/18/tinychat-makes-creating-disposable-chat-rooms-a-breeze/) * [Tinypaste is the TinyURL of text](http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/26/tinypaste-like-tinyurlfor-text/) * [FirewallScript Provides PHP Protection](http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/24/firewallscript-provides-php-based-protection/) * [ControlC CopyPaste Service](http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/29/controlc-turning-cut-paste-into-a-web-service/)
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About Everyday Carry, The Hunt: The Hunt provides a community-driven shopping experience that helps consumers find and purchase items.
Farzal Dojki
CoFounder & CEO of The DotZero
Known for his innovative ideas and commitment to social responsibility, Farzal Dojki is Founder & CEO of Next Generation Innovations, a software development, IT support and consulting firm specializing in new ventures. The company is working to establish a paradigm that focuses on “doing good for the society in which it operates” and encourages its employees to dedicate 5% of their billable hours to community service projects. Prior to that, Farzal worked at 3 start-ups in Pakistan, as well as 3 years at Merrill Lynch & BearingPoint in the US.
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About The DotZero: DotZero is a space made for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs.
Steve El-Hage
Founder & CEO of Drop
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About Drop: Drop is a product company that uniquely uses data and insights from enthusiasts to create and curate innovative products that fuel passion.
Liz Pearce
Co-founder & CEO of Fresh Chalk
Liz Pearce is the CEO of Seattle-based Fresh Chalk, a social network that helps you find professionals that your friends recommend. Prior to that, Liz was with LiquidPlanner for 11 years, starting as the company’s marketing contractor and working her way up to COO in 2011 and ultimately to CEO in 2012. Before LiquidPlanner, she held marketing roles at Amazon, Google, and PlayStation and ran an independent marketing consulting business. She holds a B.A. and M.A. from The George Washington University.
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About Fresh Chalk: Fresh Chalk connects you with trusted home improvement, health, and beauty professionals recommended by your personal network.
Chris Sleat
Founder & CEO of Workbench Platform
Christopher Sleat Is The Lead Product Manager at Google.
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About Google, Workbench Platform: The only comprehensive platform for project-based learning.
Manny Khoshbin
CEO of fuzul Inc.
After Arriving in the United Stated at age 14, Manny Khoshbin started selling used goods at the swap meet on the weekends while attending High School. At age 16 started his first real job at Kmart in city of Santa Ana with a wage of $3.15 per hour as a labor clerk mopping and collecting shopping carts in the parking lot. Manny was later promoted to employee of the month 4 times and eventually as Sporting Goods Assistant Manager after just one year. Manny wanted more than just a salary so he started looking for other job opportunities and found a multi-level marketing firm selling bags of Nuts and candies door-to-door. Manny applied for the job and in his first 2 months he become the highest revenue salesman in the company. one day shopping at Price Club (now Costco) with his father, Manny saw that all the goods he selling were sold in bulk and quickly did the math to realize that the cost per bag would be a fraction of what his employer is charging him. He went on started his own business at age 18 while in his last year of High School. He leased a small office, purchased a full pallet of the mixed dried fruits and nuts from Price Club, purchased polyester bags, purchased a scale, purchased a sealer and for labels he used his dads computer. he was officially in business! Manny sold mainly to auto retail/service centers and he did great – until he realized (by notice form health department) he needed to have a approved facility for packaging food products. He was forced to shutdown due to cost of upgrades to satisfy health codes. He was very disappointed to be forced to close down his business, but the manager of one of the stores he sold nuts to, was Winston tire shop liked him so much that he was hired and worked as assistant manager for a year. But as an entrepreneur at heart, he knew that this was only a stepping stone until he found his next venture. In 1991 at age 20 he was approached by his dads friend, a broker, about purchasing a Mobile gas station. He was told he could purchase one with just 10% down and so he jumped at the opportunity investing all his savings and became a Mobile Dealer passing all the requirement and got his Smog License for service shop. well, it turned out that the loan company was a fraud and Manny lost his entire savings! With no money and no job, in 1992 Manny obtained his real estate license and started working for a mortgage company as a loan officer. After 6 months, he started a realty and mortgage company of his own so that he could invest in distressed and bank-owned properties. The rest was history. During the early years Manny had been faced with many challenges, such as a language barrier, being criticized for being middle eastern, etc., but it never stopped him. Instead, it made him work even harder. Today Manny Khoshbin is guiding several companies in all aspects of the business. He is personally involved in all acquisitions, dispositions, other material transactions, and maintains a hands on management of The Khoshbin Company, which has a commercial real estate portfolio in excess of 2,200,000 Sq. ft. in 6 USA states. Although his main trade of business is real estate and he sees that as his backbone, he has ventured off into other business trades. As an entrepreneur, he loves to challenge himself and maintains a dream of having a vast enterprise expanding across many businesses.
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About fuzul Inc.: fuzul is a local, on-demand marketplace of eyes-for-hire. We connect short-term jobs to local communities.
Jim Clark
Executive Chairman/Founder, The Global Partnership for Civic Engagement (including the Better Century Awards)
Jim Clark is a serial entrepreneur, strategy consultant, and catalyst. Prior to founding the Global Partnership for Civic Engagement (which includes the Better Century Awards) and, separately, founding Democracy Dinners, Clark was best known as the Founder/CEO (1997-2021) of the World Technology Network (WTN), a global association of 1,500+ of the world’s top innovators, peer-elected via the annual World Technology Awards in science, technology, and related fields.
Partnered with Fortune, TIME, The Economist, CNN, Science, Nature, NYSE, Microsoft, Nasdaq, Salesforce, among many others, the WTN convened annual World Technology Summits, World Energy Technologies Summits, and the World Summit on Technological Unemployment, as well as co-convened/co-led the International Congress for the Governance of Artificial Intelligence (ICGAI). Clark’s first venture, ACCESS: Networking in the Public Interest, was the first national, nonprofit jobs clearinghouse.
Based at the Harvard Kennedy School (where he was appointed to the faculty at age 22), with satellite offices at UC/Berkeley, University of Chicago, and Duke, ACCESS reached over 150,000 jobseekers a year, in part in partnership with the Wall Street Journal.
ACCESS was also one of the first online companies in the world, piggybacking on donated access to Apple’s earliest online technology. Clark next served as Director for the Non-Profit Sector & National Service for the Clinton/Gore Presidential campaign (1992), as well as co-convener of the Presidential Transition Roundtable Series.
In 1993, he started one of the first Internet companies to bring the “make a difference” world online, in partnership with then start-up, America Online (AOL). Clark was named by New York magazine as one of the “New Media Elite.” Appointed during the 2016 presidential campaign to lead the Democratic Party’s National Task Force for America’s Future, since that election he’s been involved in various pro-democracy efforts, including the New Voter Army in 2018 and Democracy Dinners in 2022, both focused on driving voter registration.
In late 2019, in a high-level meeting held at the UN Office for Partnerships, he launched the non-profit organization, The Global Partnership for Civic Engagement, focused on identifying the best systemic solutions to the world’s greatest challenges and mobilizing support for them.
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About The Global Partnership for Civic Engagement, The World Technology Network: The WTN is a curated membership community comprised of the world’s most innovative individuals and organizations in science, technology,
Georgene Huang
CEO & Co-Founder of Fairygodboss
Georgene Huang is founder of Fairygodboss.com, an employer review site and community for working women.
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About Fairygodboss: Fairygodboss is the largest career community for women. Free for women, we help employers recruit and hire women.
Michael Marra
CEO of Entre
Michael is a former civil engineer and now serial entrepreneur and investor. He is currently the CEO of Entre, a social network and e-learning platform for entrepreneurs. The community consists of over 15,000+ entrepreneurs from all over the world. Entre is designed to help every new, young and growing entrepreneur. We have several divisions that provide individuals with cutting-edge education, shopping, financial and self-development. We have created an all-in-one platform to connect with other like-minded individuals, start their own companies, work in our startups, learn about investing, and develop their own skills to be the best and most true authentic self they can be.
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About Entre, ME Group: Social Network for Entrepreneurs
Emil Pitkin
CEO of GovPredict
Emil Pitkin, PhD founded GovPredict after earning his PhD from Wharton. He has been recognized as a Maverick PAC Under 40 leader, serves on the board of the Government Relations Association, and won the Anvil Award as Wharton’s top instructor. He earned his BA in mathematics from Harvard and has played Carnegie Hall.
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About GovPredict: Research, analytics, and actionable intelligence for winning public affairs campaigns.