Best Startup
At Best Startup US we track over 1,000,000 US startups and over 3 million people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United States based CEO’ operating in the Internet space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.us.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Raj Chowdhury
Co-Founder and CEO of HashCash Consultants
Raj Chowdhury is the CEO of HashCash Consultants and a Blockchain pioneer. He is the author of the book The Dark Secret of the Silicon Valley. He is the co-founder of several high tech and web based companies. Chowdhury is an eminent voice in Blockchain and cryptocurrencies globally. He is a contributor to Economic Times, Business World and advises industry leaders in adoption of Blockchain. He is a member of Asha Silicon Valley chapter, a non-profit committed to the spread of education for children in emerging countries.
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About Bitrump, HashCash Consultants, Satoshi Angels: HashCash Consultants is a software company offering Blockchain, AI, Big Data and IoT products, platforms and services.
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Guillermo Rauch
CEO & Founder of Vercel
Before starting ZEIT in November 2015, Guillermo was the CTO and co-founder of LearnBoost and Cloudup, acquired by Automattic in 2013. He’s the creator of several popular Node.JS open source libraries like socket.io, mongoose and slackin. Prior to Node.JS, he was a core developer of the MooTools frontend toolkit.
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About Vercel: Vercel is a platform that enables users to develop, preview, and ship Jamstack sites.
Joshua Browder
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of DoNotPay
Joshua Browder is the Founder and CEO of DoNotPay.
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About DoNotPay: DoNotPay is an online robot lawyer that allows anyone to automatically claim asylum in the U.S, U.K, and Canada for free.
Omoju Miller
Technical Advisor to the CEO of GitHub
Omoju Miller is the Technical Advisor to the CEO at GitHub.
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About GitHub: GitHub provides code hosting services that allow developers to build software for open-source and private projects in organizations.
Daniel Curran
Founder & CEO of CustEx
57%+ / yr. liquid returns >>> https://danielcurran.substack.com/ Forbes #7 rank: bit.ly/2Oh7XhF **Only interested in start ups OVER $40k MRR w/o competition! Eqvista #5 rank: https://eqvista.com/top-100-active-angel-investors-list-for-startups/ Media/PR: https://billionairechronicle.com/daniel-curran-super-angel/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvAUJzDCa3Q&t=2s https://angelconnect.libsyn.com/investor-connect-episode-122-daniel-curran-of-silicon-valley https://thesyndicate.vc/angel-investor-hit-4-unicorn-companies-using-simple-investment-framework-super-angel-daniel-curran/ https://borsen.dk/soeg/daniel%20curran Bad Ass x-Rocket Scientist Rock Star! Read my 110+ Founder recommendations below. We share deal flow with billionaire Family Offices, Midas List VC’s, and other Forbes superangels. Passions: stopping/reversing human aging/immortality/parabiosis, bci, brain emulation/download, quantum teleportation, & cryonics. CustEx launches website/app soon to help Biden Admin get voters’ demands right. Benefits corp innovation, BLM, prevents civil unrest, as THE place for ads and co-creation. 2020 EBRD-led B round: https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/31/allset-series-b/ 2017 Greycroft deal: bit.ly/2ylWbLB 2016 A16Z deal: bit.ly/2d67xJc Fortune 500 $16B WDC pivot from $2.20 to $114/share! Relentless, visionary Tech entrepreneur builds $B companies that improve world. Founded 14 startups, invested cash in 178+, created 1k+ jobs, personally netted investors $170M in exits. Startups I endorse get oversubscribed by top vc’s fast! As Angel Investor: $1B+ cash exits < 1 year @decacorn Cruise @DollarShaveClub: https://www.crunchbase.com/person/daniel-curran https://angel.co/dcurran-custex-com https://fundersclub.com/danielcurran/ Claims to Fame: -Founder/CEO, USLab NASDAQ IPO in 1998: raised $130M -VP & acting COO@Western Digital Silicon Valley sub [$40M sale to Brocade/PMCS/Snap, 2001], -Founder/CEO of 1st company [AlaStor, 2003] to converge IP+FC SAN, adopted by Cisco Systems [Andiamo], -Founder/CEO of CustEx Internet Platform [2012] Experienced ramping up companies using innate ability to quickly size up a company’s position & execute pro-customer action + cash-flow results. Began career at large companies as a software engineer and morphed into a business entrepreneur/CXO at startups with responsibility for up to 250 teammates Made sales ramp from $2M to $100M in 8 months as VP & acting COO of Western Digital’s Silicon Valley Connex Unit. Earned multiple top eng. school master's degrees (Illinois-PhD dropout, USC-cert, Penn State)
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About CustEx: If Google’s a nice-to-have, CustEx is a must-have. Try living without a voice.
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.
Terry McGinnis
Chief Executive Officer of Online Shop
Terry McGinnis originally born in Lithuania to an American father and Lithuanian mother is a British-American entrepreneur best known for being the founder and CEO of British-based Online Shop, as well as being co-founder of Miami and Los Angeles based venture capital and asset management company, Veriaty.
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About Beyonk, Online Shop: Online Shop offers the recent and innovative items at the most competitive rates from UK and EU-based sellers.
Richard Socher
CEO of you.com
Richard Socher is the CEO and Founder of you.com.
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About you.com: You.com is a search engine that helps users find what they’re looking for by prioritizing real results.
Sam Parr
Co-Founder & CEO of The Hustle
Sam is the founder & CEO of The Hustle – one of America’s fastest-growing media companies with a focus on millennials, tech, and culture. He also runs Hustle Con, an annual conference in San Francisco that showcases non-technical startup founders.
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About Hustle Con, The Hustle: The Hustle is helping young professionals make better decisions throughout their day starting with business news.
Guru Gowrappan
CEO of Verizon Media
Guru Gowrappan is CEO of Verizon Media, a powerhouse of trusted media and technology brands, including Yahoo, HuffPost, and TechCrunch. Prior to this role, he was Global Managing Director of Alibaba where he focused on international expansion and e-commerce for key consumer and enterprise products. Gowrappan began his career co-founding two start-ups in India and has since held multiple leadership roles at Quixey, Zynga, and Overture. He has an M.S. in computer science from the University of Southern California and was in the business bridge program at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
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About Verizon Media, Verizon Media: Verizon Media offers services in content, advertising, and technology with its brands such as Yahoo, TechCrunch, and more.
Gabriel Weinberg
Founder & CEO of DuckDuckGo
Gabriel Weinberg is the CEO & Founder of DuckDuckGo, the Internet privacy company that empowers users take control of their personal information online, without any tradeoffs. DuckDuckGo offers online privacy tools including a non-tracking alternative to Google search, and a mobile privacy browser and desktop browser extension that allows you to search and browse the web without being tracked. Since 2008, Weinberg has grown DuckDuckGo from a self-funded operation out of his basement into a business with over $25 million in revenue and 50 employees across multiple continents. He’s the co-author of Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth and a forthcoming book on mental models. Weinberg has been profiled in The Washington Post and Fast Company, and is routinely quoted in publications such as The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. He holds a B.S. with honors from MIT in Physics and an M.S. from the MIT Technology and Policy Program. He resides with his wife and kids in Valley Forge, PA and is on twitter @yegg.
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About DuckDuckGo: DuckDuckGo is the Internet privacy company for everyone who’s had enough of hidden online tracking.
Ali Partovi
Founder & CEO of Neo
Ali Partovi heads Neo, a mentorship community and VC fund that brings together tech veterans to invest in the diverse leaders of tomorrow. Ali invests in people smarter than himself and has backed Airbnb, Dropbox, Facebook, & Uber. He co-founded Code.org (Hour of Code) to bring Computer Science to classrooms. Ali grew up in Tehran during the Iran-Iraq war, attended Harvard, and sold his first startup, LinkExchange, in 1998. He’s passionate about sustainable food and loves climbing, guitar, puzzles, and family.
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About Code.org, Neo: Neo is a mentorship community and VC fund that brings together a diverse group of tech veterans to accelerate tomorrow’s leaders.
Kong Pham
CEO & Founder of Jumpcut
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About Jumpcut: Jumpcut creates captivating online courses.
Ken Naumann
CEO of Welcome
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About AccessData, Welcome: Welcome converts shoppers into customers by providing them with real-time product expertise.
Sanjit Biswas
CEO of Samsara
Sanjit Biswas is the Founder and CEO at Samsara. He is a former CEO and a co-founder of Meraki, where he managed day-to-day operations from inception through the $1.2 billion acquisition by Cisco in 2012. He now serves as the Vice President and General Manager of the Cisco Cloud Networking Group, headquartered in San Francisco. Sanjit has been recognized as a TR35 honoree by MIT Technology Review, Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum, and has received awards for academic research in computer networking.
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About Samsara: Samsara helps businesses in harnessing IoT data to develop actionable business insights and improve their operations.
Matthew Gould
Co-Founder & CEO of Unstoppable Domains
Matthew is a co-founder of an Ethereum startup working to put domain names on the blockchain. Matthew is a serial entrepreneur building among other things the first consumer rating system on Bitcoin (Forum) and Verified News, an ethereum app to validate the truthfulness of news stories on the blockchain. Matthew is also a alumni from YC startup Talkable, helping grow the company from 5 to 50 people. Recently his company was awarded a grant from the Ethereum Foundation to build a batteries included front end library for ethereum development (Browseth). Additionally Matthew is a mentor with the ENS foundation annual hackathon which is building the protocol layer for blockchain based domain names on Ethereum.
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About BuyETHdomain, Unstoppable Domains: Unstoppable Domains launches domains secured by blockchains and builds uncensorable websites.
Sunmeet Jolly
Founder & CEO of GROTU
Founder and Patent holder – GROTU mobile app @ 101 Islands LLC. Angel investor in 40 pre-IPO technology startups. Frequently invited by accelerators and angel forums to Judge startup competitions and discuss technology innovation. Former IT Consulting industry executive who sold hundreds of millions of dollars in consulting services to Fortune 500 companies working for Cap Gemini, HCL, L&T, NTT data.
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About GROTU: Patented GROTU app provides a much needed “private” collection of productivity and communication tools for friends and family social groups
Garrett Camp
Founder and CEO of Expa
Garrett Camp is the Founder of Aero.
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About Aero, Eco, Expa, Operator, Uber, Uber Eats, Uber India: Expa supports early-stage startups through expertise, access, and funding.
Abraham King
Chairman and CEO of Immortal Machines
Abraham King is a co-Founder and CEO of Immortal Machines, a stealth mode startup headquartered in Palo Alto. Immortal Machines is building the next generation Cloud platform for Fortune 500 enterprises. Earlier, he was an entrepreneur in Aerospace and Defense working in partnership with Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and Raytheon. King’s prior work is used by the U.S. Navy to build mission critical integrity verification platforms in Submarine Combat Systems, and by the U.S. Air Force to build Situational Awareness Systems to autonomously manage real time complex networks of Space based assets and Ground Control Systems. King was one of the creators of CERN’s Planet scale Cloud platforms — the pioneering Cloud fabric behind Large Hadron Collider, spanning across forty nations — usage of which has resulted in multiple Nobel Prizes. He led the international group which created the original technology blueprint in the United States, and later held multiple leadership and executive roles. King began his career with U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratories, Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, and European Organization for Nuclear Research — working on Artificial Intelligence, Planet scale Distributed Computing, Cryptography, and Supercomputing.
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About Immortal Machines: Immortal Machines is building the next generation Cloud platform for large enterprises and Fortune 500 corporations.
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.
Clark Valberg
Co-Founder & CEO of InVision
Clark Valberg is the CEO and Co-Founder of InVision, the digital product design platform used to make the world’s best customer experiences. InVision is the cornerstone of the product design process for more than 3 million people at tens of thousands of companies, including eighty percent of the Fortune 100 and brands like Airbnb, Amazon, HBO, Netflix, Slack, Starbucks and Uber. He is a former Co-Founder of Epicenter Consulting.
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About InVision: InVision is the visual collaboration platform powering the world’s smartest companies.
Stephen Olmstead
VP, Chief of Staff, Office of the CEO of InVision
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About InVision: InVision is the visual collaboration platform powering the world’s smartest companies.
Susan Wojcicki
CEO of YouTube
Susan Wojcicki is the CEO of YouTube. Previously, she was the Senior Vice President of Advertising & Commerce at Google. She oversaw the design, innovation and engineering of Google’s advertising, commerce, and measurement platform products, including AdWords, AdSense, DoubleClick, Offers, and Google Analytics. Susan joined Google in 1999 as the company’s first marketing manager and worked on the initial marketing programs. She also led the initial development of several key successful consumer products including Google Images and Google Books. Before joining Google, Susan worked at Intel, Bain & Company, and several start-ups. She graduated with honors from Harvard University, holds a master’s in economics from the UC Santa Cruz, and an MBA from UCLA.
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About YouTube: YouTube is a video-sharing platform, allows users to upload, view, and share videos, including movie and music clips and amateur content.
Steve Papa
Founder and CEO of Parallel Wireless
Founder and CEO of Endeca building it until it was Oracle’s 6th largest acquisition ever on announcement in 2011. Prior to its acquisition, Endeca had achieved $750M in cumulative worldwide revenue and pioneered Guided Navigation, one of the leading search innovations of the decade and now an industry standard. Before founding Endeca, Steve was part of the original team creating Akamai; a member of the early team at Inktomi in charge of creating the company’s infrastructure caching business; a product manager at Teradata; and a venture associate at Venrock.
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About Andreessen Horowitz, Parallel Wireless, Reflektion: Parallel Wireless designs and maintains cellular networks.
Avishai Abrahami
Co-Founder & CEO of Wix
Avishai Abrahami is our Co-Founder, has served as our Chief Executive Officer since September 2010 and was our Co-Chief Executive Officer and a director since October 2006. From 2004 to 2006, Avishai was the Vice President of Strategic Alliances at Arel Communications & Software Ltd., a private Israeli company specializing in communication technology. In 1998 he co-founded Sphera Corporation, a private company which develops software for managing data centers, and he served as its Chief Technology Officer from 1998 until 2000 and its Vice President of Product Marketing from 2000 until 2003. In 1993, he co-founded AIT Ltd., a private Israeli software company, and served as its Chief Technology Officer until the company’s sale in 1997. Avishai served in the Israeli Defense Forces’ elite computer intelligence unit from 1990 until 1992.
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About Utsav Kraft, Wix: Wix provides a platform for the development of cloud data services for millions of registered users worldwide.
Shawn Fanning
Chief Executive Officer of Rupture
Shawn Fanning is an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, and angel investor. He developed Napster, one of the first popular peer-to-peer (“P2P”) file sharing platforms, in 1999. The popularity of Napster was widespread and Fanning was featured on the cover of Time magazine. The site in its initial free P2P incarnation was shut down in 2001 after the company’s unsuccessful appeal of court orders arising from its encouraging the illegal sharing of copyrighted material. A paid subscription version of the site followed, and was purchased by Rhapsody on December 1, 2011. Following his involvement with Napster, he joined, and invested in, a number of early-stage technology startup companies.
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About Airtime, Electronic Arts, Helium, Rupture: Rupture is an online social network that allows gamers to connect and share with one another.
Marcy Boyle
Co Founder, CEO of Hot Bit VR
Marcy Boyle is the CEO and co-founder of Hot Bit VR, a upcoming webVR marketplace of experiential social shopping. Hot Bit VR has been featured on ZDnet, Entrepreneur, Fox News, and listed as one of the “30 Best Virtual Reality Companies to Change Your World Soon.” She and her co-founder’s VR experiences have been featured in art galleries, universities, conferences, and festivals including FIVARS in Toronto and VRUK in London. Hot Bit VR was selected for the first class of the AR/VR/XR accelerator at the Green Screen Institute, and Silicon Valley’s Women’s Startup Lab. Prior to working in VR, she co-directed the feature film, NOBODY CAN COOL, which was released internationally. Marcy is a graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University and is a member of Women in VR, Women in Film, and on the Board of the Alliance of Women Directors.
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About Hot Bit VR, Oculus: An experiential marketplace in virtual reality.
Arie Trouw
CEO & CTO & Founder of XYO
Ten years before Elon Musk wrote his first line of computer code, another young prodigy from South Africa was busy writing software on his TRS-80 Model I. In 1978, at the age of 10, Arie Trouw started developing software on the TRS-80 Model I, moving on to Atari, Apple, and PC. He then ran a series of bulletin boards centering on game-theory modification. Arie is an accomplished serial entrepreneur with a rich history of technological breakthroughs and business successes involving multiple 8-figure exit events. He is a strong believer in decentralization and the creation of the integrated owner/user model. Arie founded XY in 2012 (incorporated as Ength Degree, LLC before it was converted to a C Corporation in 2016). He currently serves as Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors. Prior to starting XY-The Findables Company, Arie was CEO and Chairman of Pike Holdings Inc and Chief Technology Officer of Tight Line Technologies LLC. He received his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the New York Institute of Technology. Fun Fact: He is a member of one of the first Afrikaans speaking families to emigrate to the US from South Africa in 1976.
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About XY Labs, XY – The Persistent Company, XYO: XYO is a decentralized crypto-location oracle network aiming to provide accurate location data from cars to smartphones.
Robert Nishihara
Co-Founder and CEO of Anyscale
Robert Nishihara is a fourth-year PhD student working in the UC Berkeley RISELab with Michael Jordan. He works on machine learning, optimization, and artificial intelligence.
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About Anyscale, UC Berkeley College of Engineering: Anyscale accelerates the development and productionization of any AI app, on any cloud, at any scale — with Ray.
Richard Smullen
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Pypestream
Richard is the CEO and founder of Pypestream, a secure mobile messaging platform that uses real-time chat to transform the way brands and businesses connect with customers. Through ‘Pypes’ listed in a searchable catalogue, businesses are provided with a direct connection to their customers for increased engagement, automated customer service, and in-message payment processing. The ultimate customer engagement tool, further loyalty is derived by using proprietary AI and chatbot technology to allow conversations at scale. A serial entrepreneur, Richard previously co-founded Genesis Media LLC, a real-time video advertising platform, and is a board member of SouthWinston LLC, a New York-based, global private equity and VC fund.
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About dhomain llc, Pypestream, SouthWinston: Pypestream is conversational artificial intelligence built for scale.
MacLane Wilkison
Co-Founder & CEO of NuCypher
MacLane Wilkison is the cofounder and CEO of NuCypher, a Y Combinator and Polychain Capital-backed company that provides decentralized key management and cryptographic access controls for decentralized applications. He is a software engineer and former investment banker at Morgan Stanley, where he provided M&A and financing services to enterprises in technology, media, and telecommunications. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), and certified Financial Risk Manager.
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About NuCypher: NuCypher is a cryptography company that builds privacy-preserving infrastructure and protocols.
Tom Davidson
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of EVERFI
Tom Davidson picked the “CEO” slip out of the hat at a recent EverFi staff party and has yet to be fired by the Board of Directors. Davidson ran for the Maine State Legislature while a senior at Bowdoin College in 1994 and spent the better part of three terms working to bring education technology to students in the Pine Tree State. As Chairman of the Utilities and Energy Committee, Davidson led a successful effort with Governor Angus King to provide laptops to every Maine seventh grader as well as to create a major expansion of the wiring of schools and libraries across the State. After deciding that he needed to tell his children one day that he actually once earned a paycheck, Davidson left the Legislature in 2000 and began investing in early-stage technology companies in the education and social media spaces. He was a Venture Partner with Village Ventures, a network of venture capital firms across the U.S. Davidson graduated from Bowdoin College devoid of any academic honors of any consequence.
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About EVERFI, GrowthSpur: EVERFI is an education technology company that provides learners of all ages education for the real world.
Christopher Rudy
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Cut.com, Inc.
Christopher Rudy is the CEO, Co-Founder at Cut.com.
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About Cut.com, Inc.: Cut makes little stories of some interest.
Prerna Gupta
Founder & CEO of HOOKED
Prerna Gupta is the Founder & CEO at HOOKED.
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About HOOKED: HOOKED is redefining entertainment for the Snapchat generation.
Todd Dipaola
CEO and Cofounder of InMarket
Veteran entrepreneur Todd Dipaola co-founded inMarket in 2010 to bring the performance and accountability of digital marketing to the realm of retail . inMarket’s platform, including apps such as CheckPoints, List Bliss, and Extra Extra, reach consumers on their smartphones as they made critical purchase decisions. In 2011, inMarket announced the world’s largest mobile shopper network reaching over 20 million consumers. Under Todd’s leadership inMarket has partnered with brands including Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever, among others. Todd previously co-founded and bootstrapped digital marketing agency Vantage Media at the inception of search advertising. Vantage ranked 31 on the Inc 500 and earned “The Fastest Growing Technology Company in Los Angeles” honors by Deloitte’s Fast50. In 2007, Todd exited the company at a valuation north of $100MM. Todd is also the CEO of Forefund Capital. Todd’s entrepreneurial experience is also rooted in philanthropy. In 2007, he created the Dipaola Foundation, which was featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, to work on environmental and systemic societal issues. He sits on several boards including UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy and California Common Cause. As Chairman of Common Cause, the organization succeeded in reforming redistricting to eliminate gerrymandering and activating online voter registration for the first time in history. Todd graduated as a Regents Scholar from UC Berkeley in Molecular and Cell Biology with emphasis in Immunology.
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About ForeFund Capital, InMarket, The Dipaola Foundation: InMarket offers a self-service location-based platform that captures accurate consumer location data, which drives campaign performance.
Mary Biggins
Co-Founder and CEO of MealPal
Mary has over 10 years of marketing, product, and sales experience. She has a unique blend of experience creating marketing strategies for both big brands and micro businesses. She’s built marketing campaigns for big brands like the National Football League, Major League Baseball, and Disney. She’s also helped nearly a million small businesses grow as the manager of Vistaprint’s Canadian site. She has also operated two-sided marketplaces as the co-founder of ClassPass and MealPal.
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About ClassPass, MealPal: MealPal is a subscription service that provides members with affordable daily lunch options from restaurants near where they live or work.
Aakash Kumar
Founder & CEO of Shiftsmart
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About Shiftsmart: Shiftsmart is a labor-management marketplace connecting part-time workers with open shifts across multiple platforms.
Tammy Camp
Founder & CEO of Stronghold
Tammy is the CEO of Stronghold, an API platform that creates virtual payment networks that enable instant settlement and interoperability between legacy and new payment networks. Tammy served as the first Head of Growth at Stellar, helping the network grow to 4 million users in its first two months. A former partner at accelerator 500 Startups, she invested in portfolio companies and ran the growth and marketing curriculum for its flagship Silicon Valley location. She is a graduate of Singularity University’s GSP11 in Exponential Technologies at NASA Ames where she first learned about Bitcoin from legendary cryptographer Ralph Merkle.
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About Action Factory, Stronghold: Stronghold creates virtual payment networks that give developers access legacy and next-generation payment networks through a simple API.
Rishi Malhotra
Co-Founder & CEO of JioSaavn
Rishi Malhotra is Co-Founder and CEO of Saavn, India’s leading music streaming service. Rishi has led the company through significant and rapid user growth, while helping to secure partnerships with companies like Twitter, Facebook, Google, Shazam, T-Mobile, and Sonos. He is focused on driving the global Saavn team to deliver award-winning mobile products, big data systems for media, and industry-defining business innovation. Saavn is on track to become one of the largest streaming music companies in the world by 2017. Saavn is backed by leading institutional investors including Tiger Global, Bertelsmann Media, Liberty Media, Steadview Capital, and Mousse Partners. Previously, Rishi was VP, HBO On Demand and Multi-Platform for Home Box Office, Inc., where he pioneered HBO’s SVOD products, digital distribution, and original VOD content for many HBO franchises.
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About [212]Media, JioSaavn: Saavn is a music streaming service for Indian, Bollywood, and International content.
Richard Bronson
CEO and Founder of 70 Million Jobs
Richard’s story begins on Wall Street, where he worked at several large investment banks. He became a partner at the infamous Wolf of Wall Street firm, Stratton Oakmont, then went on to found his own financial services firm, which he grew to 500 people, generating $100 million in annual revenue. Unfortunately, some of his business practices were outside the law, and despite having paid everyone back, he was convicted of securities fraud, and served two years in a federal prison. Upon release, he was destitute and homeless, but got back on his feet, and became Director of Defy Ventures, a prominent non-profit in the reentry space. In 2016, he left Defy to launch 70MillionJobs, where he serves as CEO.
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About 70 Million Jobs, Commissary Club, The Yard: 70MillionJobs is the first national, for-profit employment platform for people with criminal records.
Jeffrey Byun
CEO, Co-Founder of BLADE
Jeffrey Byun is the CEO of BLADE – a new cryptocurrency derivatives exchange. Previously, he was the CEO of OrderAhead – a mobile ordering/payments startup that was acquired by Square. Prior to that, Jeffrey was a fixed income trader at Morgan Stanley and BofA Merrill Lynch. Jeffrey is a graduate of MIT and Penn.
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About BLADE: BLADE is a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange
Joey Levin
CEO of IAC
Appointed to the position in June 2015, Levin is responsible for the strategic leadership of IAC and its operating businesses. In addition, he serves on the Board of Directors of IAC. Prior to this, Joey Levin was the CEO of IAC Search & Applications, overseeing the desktop software, mobile applications, and media properties that comprise IACs Search & Applications segment and was responsible for setting overall strategy and maximizing opportunities across IACs Search and Applications brands. In November 2009, Levin was appointed as CEO of Mindspark Interactive Network, a consumer software company that builds, markets and delivers a wide range of consumer software products. Prior to this, Levin served as Senior Vice President, Mergers & Acquisitions and Finance for IAC, and has held various roles within IAC since joining the company in 2003.
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About IAC, TurnKey Vacation Rentals: IAC is a media and Internet company with more than 150 brands and products serving consumer audiences.
Adrian Sanders
Chief Executive Officer of Chargehound
Adrian works on Backspaces.
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About Chargehound: Chargehound is a comprehensive chargeback solution that makes handling disputes easy.
Jesse Pickard
CEO of Elevate Labs
Jesse Pickard is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Elevate.
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About Elevate Labs: Elevate is a cognitive training tool designed to build communication and analytical skills.
Michael Heyward
CEO of medialab
Serial entrepreneur Michael Heyward co-founded Whisper with Brad Brooks in 2012 with the mission of giving people a place to freely and authentically express themselves. Whisper is one of the fastest-growing media companies, generating over 17 billion content views per month. Prior to Whisper, the LA native worked in different roles related to consumer-based marketing at startup TigerText. As a teenager, Michael was an avid Formula One Racing fan and secured the United States commercial rights for the sport. In 2016, Michael was named one of AdWeek’s “Young Influentials”. In 2014, he was named one of Forbes Magazine’s “30 Under 30” and one of Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business.” Michael is a frequent keynote speaker and has spoken at a number of prominent conferences, including WSJ D, Fortune Tech Brainstorm, TechCrunch Disrupt, and Business Insider Ignition.
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About medialab: medialab is a media & technology company that engages in acquiring and growing internet brands.
Shreesha Ramdas
CEO & Co-Founder of Strikedeck
Shreesha’s an entrepreneurial executive with a track record of launching and growing products in competitive markets. He has demonstrated experience as a GM in the areas of product conception and development, growth hacking, go-to-market strategy and execution. Shreesha is currently VP of Corp Dev & Partnerships at CallidusCloud. Shreesha Ramdas was the co-founder & COO at LeadFormix, a marketing automation platform, where he raised the initial funding, built the company and contributed to a successful acquisition by CallidusCloud in January 2012. Prior to LeadFormix, Shreesha was a co-founder of OuterJoin, an online marketing services company and an early member at Yodlee, where he held the role of General Manager of Yodlee’s offshore development center in Bangalore, India.
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About Aavenir, AccuKnox, BuyerAssist.io, Cultivate, Enact Systems, Forbes Communications Council, Fullcast.io, Medallia, Metadata, Promethium, Revv, Rocketlane, Strikedeck: Strikedeck is building a revolutionary Customer Success automation solution to deliver an outstanding customer experience.
Jonathan Matus
Founder & CEO of Zendrive
Jonathan Matus Prior to Redpoint, Jonathan Matus spent 6 years at Facebook and Google, where he’s been focused on various mobile and speech-recognition projects. At Google, one of the early Android team members, Jonathan managed product marketing for the platform’s software releases and device launches globally. During his tenure, the OS grew from zero to global best-selling mobile platform. In his role as Head of Product Marketing in Asia Pacific Jonathan lived in Tokyo and jumpstarted regional device launches and relationships all over Asia. Jonathan received the Google Founders Award and Android Founders Award in recognition for his contributions.
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About Zendrive: Zendrive leverages mobile sensor data to provide actionable insights that improve safety for passengers and drivers worldwide.
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.
Edison Chen
Founder and CEO of Clapper
Edison Chen is the founder and CEO of Clapper. He has a master’s degree in Information Technology Management at The University of Texas at Dallas.
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About 5miles, Clapper: Mobile App
George Baker Sr.
Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of ParkHub
Entrepreneurial, practical, and a visionary. These words seem somewhat contradictory, but these words truly describe George’s leadership style. His experience and education have led him to the point where he is today – building his own brand in the parking industry and beyond. Even though he has big ideas, he possesses the pragmatism to see the limitations, challenges and obstacles at hand. He believes in others and enjoys building teams and driving innovation through collaborative effort. This team-first ethos forms the foundation upon which George built ParkHub into the successful and driven organization that it is today. George has nearly 17 years of hands-on experience in the parking realm, focusing on managing the parking operations of class-A office garage facilities and comparable top-tier parking operations across the continental United States. He prides himself on deep domain knowledge of the event parking space and providing a comprehensive suite of services both software and hardware to support his ever-growing clientele therein. In order to consistently exceed customer expectations in the event-parking space, ParkHub provides logistics and occupancy management services, as well as cutting-edge insights into parking management. Truly, George is reshaping the parking universe, one satisfied customer at a time. When he’s not modernizing the parking world, he’s at his home in Dallas, Texas, spending time with his wife Chelsey and their two children, George II and Kuper. George graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor’s of Science in Regional Development | City Planning. George is a proud Eagle Scout, Past Worshipful Master of his Texas Masonic Lodge, winner of the 2016 Greater Dallas Business Ethics Award, multiple recipient of the National Parking Association 40 under 40 award, 2016 finalist of EY Entrepreneur of the Year, and devoted member his local Highland Park United Methodist Church congregation.
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About ParkHub: ParkHub is a technology company that provides software and hardware for the destination industry.
Ben Silbermann
Co-Founder & CEO of Pinterest
Ben (@8en) grew up in Iowa, where he spent a lot of time collecting bugs. Today, he helps millions of people collect and discover the things they love as co-founder and CEO of Pinterest. Before Pinterest, Ben worked at Google on AdSense and studied at Yale. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and two sons. Previously, Silbermann worked at Google in the sales organization; however, after a short time with the company he left and started designing his own iPhone apps with a college friend, Paul Sciarra. After their initial application, Totte, failed to gain significant traction, the cofounders created a pinboard product and Pinterest was born. However, Pinterest saw a low user base and very little engagement in its early stages. Silbermann said the prospect of telling people he failed was too embarrassing so he and Sciarra continued to tinker and improve the site. Today, Pinterest claims over 20 million users.
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About Cold Brew Labs, Pinterest: Pinterest is a visual bookmarking tool for saving and discovering creative ideas.
Ruzwana Bashir
Founder & CEO of Peek
Ruzwana Bashir is Co-founder & CEO of Peek.com. She is a travel junkie, having navigated her way through 40 countries. She previously worked at Gilt Groupe, Art.sy, the Blackstone Group and Goldman Sachs. Ruzwana has an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Fulbright Scholar, and a BA in Economics from Oxford University, where she was President of the Oxford Union.
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About Peek: Peek is a booking software and marketplace for delightful things to do such as wine tours, watersports, skydiving, and art classes.
Rajeev Shah
Founder and CEO of Celona
Rajeev Shah is the Founder/CEO of Celona.
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About Celona: Celona accelerates adoption of digital automation and critical apps on enterprise wireless.
Eric Weaver
CEO of Transparent Path spc
Eric Weaver is a long-time digital disrupter who has been at the leading edge of multiple waves of innovation. Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Eric’s first career began as a software developer for General Motors and Ford Motor Company. In 1990, he became one of the very first digital marketers, walking brands like P&G, Ford and Johnson & Johnson through their very first digital efforts. Over the years, Eric has created marketing strategies and digital presences for nearly 100 global brands, persuading senior executives around the world to embrace e-commerce, webcasting, social content, blockchain, and augmented reality. Eric’s primary role these days is serving as the founder and CEO of Transparent Path. The company’s mission is to tackle the global food waste issue by creating more trust and transparency in our most critical supply chains. The Transparent Path platform uses continuously connected IoT sensors, edge computing and artificial intelligence to create real-time supply chain visibility. Sensors track products in real time, providing instant alerts when something goes wrong, allowing whoever has custody to preserve shipments and prevent waste, fines, and loss. Other projects include the Weaver Company, through which he counsels global brands, and ARCHIVE, an advanced metaverse and extended reality initiative. During his career, Eric has staffed, managed & grown award-winning creative, strategy & production teams in London, New York, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Seattle, Detroit and Cincinnati. His last role prior to launching Transparent Path was to launch the Xerox Customer Experience Practice, where he managed a $550M services book of business. Eric has been quoted in nearly 30 industry publications. With over 15 awards for marketing excellence, he lectures for universities in the US, Canada, Ireland and elsewhere, and speaks globally on topics like transparency, sustainability, and ethics.
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About Transparent Path spc: Real-time, end-to-end visibility for perishables — using IoT sensors, blockchain security, and predictive AI.
Stephen Trundle
President & Chief Executive Officer of Alarm.com
Steve Trundle is the president and chief executive officer of Alarm.com. Previously, he was the chief technology officer of MicroStrategy. Trundle holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering sciences and government from Dartmouth College. He lives in Washington, District of Columbia, United States.
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About Alarm.com: Alarm.com is provides home and business security solutions based on wireless, web and mobile technologies.
Ariel (Xingxin) Liu
CEO of Himalaya Media
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About Himalaya Media: Himalaya builds a podcast platform, audio content network, and original production studio for podcasters.
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.
Yifan Zhang
CEO & Co-Founder of Loftium
Yifan Zhang is the CEO and Co-Founder of Loftium.
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About Loftium: Loftium is a technology startup that offers premium rental experiences at affordable rates with built-in income.
Cory Baldwin
Chief Executive Officer of sensemetrics
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About sensemetrics: sensemetrics is the IIoT company transforming sensor data into real-time business intelligence to enable productivity and safety solutions
Cory Baldwin
Chief Executive Officer of sensemetrics
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About sensemetrics: sensemetrics is the IIoT company transforming sensor data into real-time business intelligence to enable productivity and safety solutions
Jaxon Klein
CEO, Co-Founder of Keyo
Jaxon Klein is an American businessman, entrepreneur, investor and startup advisor. Klein is currently CEO of Keyo, Inc., where he is a co-founder and former CTO. Prior to his role at Keyo, Klein founded two companies in hosting technology and web services.
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About Keyo: We place people’s identities in the palm of their hands.
Bridget Osetinsky
Founder & CEO of Hyperfine
Bridget is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Hyperfine. She earned her Juris Doctor from Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law in 2011 and her Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of Notre Dame in 2007.
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About Hyperfine: Advanced Analytics For Precision Medicine
Jason Baudendistel
CEO, CTO & Content Manager of Wibbets.com
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About Self Employed, Sixy Press, Wibbets.com: Wibbets.com is the ultimate pro privacy shopping platform.
Nicola Munarini
CEO and Co-Founder of PKRS.AI
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About PKRS.AI: The future of personal coaching. AI powered, human enhanced.
Alexia Brue
Co-founder & CEO of Wellgood
Alexia Brue is co-founder and CEO of pioneering wellness media company Well+Good. She guides the company’s strategic direction and leads the revenue and business development functions.
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About Leaf Group, Wellgood: Wellgood is an organization that writes articles about exercise and healthy living.
Albert Liu
CEO & Chairman of Kneron
Albert Liu founded Kneron in 2015 with a vision to bring edge AI and machine learning to mass market consumer devices and usher in the age of AI everywhere. After graduating from Taiwan’s Cheng Kung University, Albert was awarded a scholarship from Raytheon and the University of California to join the UC Berkeley/UCLA/UCSD research program. He eventually received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from UCLA. Albert has worked in R&D and management positions at Qualcomm where he led a team that developed nine patents and won the Qualcomm ImpaQt Research & Development award. He’s also worked in the Samsung Electronics R&D center and for MStar and Wireless Information as a researcher.
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About Kneron: Kneron develops an application-specific integrated circuit and software that offers artificial intelligence-based tools.
Raullen Chai
CEO, Co-Founder of IoTeX
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About IoTeX: IoTeX is the leading decentralized network to power billions of machines at scale, drive the machine economy (machinefi) applications.
Salah Zalatimo
Chief Executive Officer & Founder of Voice
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About Camerama, Forbes, Voice: Voice is a platform that redefines media by cultivating creation, sharing, discovery and promotion of content by real users.
Rahul Gandhi
Cofounder and CEO of MakeSpace
Rahul is a Co-Founder and the CEO at MakeSpace. Previously, he was a Principal at High Peaks Venture Partners based in the firm’s New York City office where he was responsible for sourcing and evaluating investment opportunities across a wide range of sectors and supporting portfolio companies. Prior to joining High Peaks, Rahul was a Senior Manager on AOL’s Corporate Development team where he helped evaluate, manage, and structure numerous high-profile acquisitions and investments for the company. His previous experience also spans across investment banking for Banc of America Securities and venture capital for both Genacast Ventures and Comcast Interactive Capital. Rahul graduated from the George Washington University with high honors and holds both an MS in Accounting from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Columbia Business School. He is an active participant in the Columbia Venture Community (CVC) and serves on the board of the New York Venture Community (NYVC).
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About MakeSpace: MakeSpace is an on-demand storage company that makes it easy to order, store, and retrieve physical belongings.
Chris Beals
CEO and President of Weedmaps
Christopher Beals is the chief executive officer of Weedmaps. Prior to being CEO, he first serves as the company’s president and general counsel from 2015 until his appointment in March 2019.
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About Weedmaps, WM Technology: Weedmaps is the world’s first marijuana technology and media brand.
Anurag Goel
Founder and CEO of Render
Founder and CEO at Render.
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About Render: Render provides a cloud for developers and startups to host all their apps and sites.
Colin Darretta
CEO & Co-Founder of Innovation Department
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About DojoMojo, Entrepreneur Media, Fast Company, Finn, Grummies, Innovation Department, Innovation Department, WellPath: Innovation Department is a brand studio dedicated to building great companies that will have a long-lasting impact on the way we live.
Alex Song
CEO/Founder of Innovation Department
Alexander Song is the Founder and CEO of Innovation Department, a technology and investment company that creates and develops E-commerce, Media, and SaaS companies. Based in Soho, New York, Innovation Department both creates companies that solve practical, real-world problems and equips early-stage founders with the capital, people, and resources they need to bring their ideas to life. Alex is also the CEO of DojoMojo, a Partnership Marketing Platform with over 1,400 brands. Alex studied Business Administration at the University of California, Berkeley, graduating with Highest Honors, and moved to New York in 2004. He spent 6 years with Goldman Sachs in the Financial Institutions, Investment Banking Division, and was then promoted to join Goldman’s Principal Investment Area, an $20bn private equity fund. Alex then joined Pershing Square Capital Management, a $15bn long-short equity hedge fund, where he focused on public equity investments. Alex’s background in finance brings a unique perspective as he serves not only as an investor, but as strategic counsel to many of the brands he has invested in. Under Alex’s leadership, Innovation Department has helped build a number of companies including WineAwesomeness, WellPath, DojoMojo, ReBloom, Cinematique, and Valyrian Media. Alex has also invested in Pinterest, Dropbox, Lyft, ClassPass, Rubicon Global, and Aloha. Alex continues to pursue technology and venture opportunities regularly.
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About DojoMojo, Innovation Department: Innovation Department is a brand studio dedicated to building great companies that will have a long-lasting impact on the way we live.
Kevin Sloan
CEO of MeatEater
Kevin Sloan is the chief executive officer at MeatEater. Previously, Kevin has worked at Sitka Gear as a president for over ten years.
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About MeatEater: MeatEater is an outdoor lifestyle media and commerce company that provides content about the natural world.
Joshua Chodniewicz
Chief Executive Officer & Founder of Fundify
Josh is the co-founder and CEO of Fundify. Most recently, he co-founded and served as CEO of Art.com, Inc., and currently serves on its Board of Directors. Josh has an in-depth knowledge of the Internet and e-commerce and is extremely passionate about building sustainable value by providing vision, direction, and meeting the needs of the customer. One of his greatest accomplishments has been building Art.com and Allposters.com into the world’s largest online consumer marketplace for prints, posters, photographs, and custom frames. He is a firm believer that great companies are built by great people, and he attributes much of Art.com’s success to the combined vision and effort of his co-workers.
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About Art.com, Fundify: Fundify connects startups and investors to each other.
John Tedesco
CEO of Drip
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About Drip: Drip is the CRM Salesforce didn’t build. The first Ecommerce CRM – ECRM – is built to drive sales, not sales teams.
Jay Larson
Chief Executive Officer of Optimizely
Jay Larson is Optimizely’s CEO. Previously, Jay worked as chief executive officer of Birst. Jay holds a BA degree from Harvard University and an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles.
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About Optimizely: Optimizely is a platform that provides digital experience solutions.
Jeff Green
CEO of The Trade Desk
Jeff Green is founder and CEO of The Trade Desk, Inc., a demand-side platform that powers the desks of the world’s most advanced buyers in online advertising. Green built The Trade Desk as second-generation demand-side platform, positioning it at the center of online advertising’s trading future by offering efficient, transparent technology. Since its inception in 2009, the company has grown on pace with the now-$3B RTB industry, having been included as an alpha partner in Facebook’s launch of the Facebook Exchange, and having been recently being named one of OnMedia’s “35 [Private Companies] to Watch.” By focusing on the technology of the buy-side, Green has shaped The Trade Desk into one of the fastest growing companies in ad tech. He was a finalist for the Ernst & Young 2013 Entrepreneur of the Year award for Greater Los Angeles. Prior to The Trade Desk, Green founded AdECN, which he built in 2004 as the world’s first online advertising exchange. As COO, he led all strategy, product, and business development. AdECN was acquired by the Microsoft Corporation within three years of launch. At Microsoft, Green not only oversaw the AdECN exchange business, but also all reseller and channel partner business. Additionally, he advised the all-up strategy for the Online Services Division. In 2009, Green left to launch The Trade Desk. Green has also played a leadership role in the ad tech industry, having served on the Networks and Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines Committee for the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) from 2011-2012. Green led working groups that established rules and best practices for acquiring inventory, and set data transaction standards.
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About The Trade Desk, Trade Desk Inc.: The Trade Desk is an online demand-side platform that provides buying tools for digital media buyers.
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.
Joe Chen
Founder & CEO of Renren
Yizhou Chen is the chairman and CEO of China InterActive Corporation. Chen attended Wuhan University and received his B.Sc degree in Physics in 1987, and his M.Sc in Mechanical Engineering from MIT in 1993. He also went on to receive his MBA and M.S. degree in Electromechanical Engineering from Stanford University in 1997. In 1999 Chen co-founded ChinaRen.com and served as Chairman and CEO of the company. He was later appointed Vice President of Sohu after Sohu acquired ChinaRen in 2000. He also founded China InterActive Corporation in 2002.
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About Renren: Renren.com is an online social network service that offers an extensive interactive communication platform for Chinese users.
Robert Bowman
CEO & President of MLB Advanced Media
Bob Bowman was appointed President, Business & Media of Major League Baseball by Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr. on December 4, 2014. He directs revenue-generating and media rights activities across all MLB entities while continuing to oversee MLB Advanced Media, LP (MLBAM) and MLB Network. Bowman has been President & Chief Executive Officer of MLBAM, the league’s world-class technology company, since its inception in 2000. Bowman joined MLBAM in 2000 following two years of work in the Internet space. He took on oversight of MLB Network in 2014. MLBAM was created in January 2000, when the owners of the 30 Major League Clubs voted to follow the recommendation of Commissioner Selig and centralize all of Baseball’s Internet and Interactive Media operations under one roof. MLBAM operates the official League site, MLB.com, as well as each of the 30 individual team sites. It also develops, deploys and distributes the highest grossing iOS app, At Bat, as well as manages live video content for dozens of clients. In 2014, MLBAM captured, encoded and distributed 30,000 live video events. MLB.com is an award-winning multimedia business at the forefront of the digital revolution. Prior to joining MLBAM, Mr. Bowman was President and Chief Operating Officer of ITT Corporation, one of the world’s largest and preeminent conglomerates. He joined ITT in 1991 as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of ITT Sheraton, the Boston-based global hotel network. In 1992, he was named Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the parent company before being named President and Chief Operating Officer in 1995. Following the trivestiture of the Company’s business divisions in 1995, Mr. Bowman successfully oversaw the growth and operations of the $8 billion conglomerate until its merger with Starwood Hotels and Resorts in 1998. During his tenure, Mr. Bowman and the senior management team at ITT created more than $25 billion of value for the company’s shareholders. Before joining ITT, Bowman served as Treasurer for the State of Michigan from 1983-1991. The youngest State Treasurer in the nation at the time of his appointment, during his eight-year term, the State’s pension system grew from $6 billion to $19 billion in asset value, and improved the State’s credit rating from BBB to AA. Immediately prior to his appointment in Michigan, Bowman also worked as a municipal finance investment banker with Goldman Sachs & Company, and from 1979 to 1981 he served in the U.S. Department of the Treasury as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Domestic Finance. In that role, he worked on both the New York City Loan Guarantee Act and the Chrysler Loan Guarantee Act. A native of Milwaukee, Bowman graduated from Harvard College in 1977, and received his M.B.A. from The Wharton School in 1979. Bowman serves as President of the Michigan Education Trust and is a member of the Board of Directors of Take-Two Interactive Corp., and ViaSat, Inc.
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About MLB Advanced Media, Openwave Systems: MLB.TV is a website that offers news, schedules, standings, and statistics related to baseball.
Trung Pham
Founder, CEO of RYSE
Co-founder of a rapidly growing entertainment app in Toronto, also part-time stunt double for Elon Musk.
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About RYSE: RYSE is an IoT company that develops smart shade solutions. We are the world’s most intelligent window shade automation platform.
Matt Marshall
Founder and CEO of VentureBeat
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded \”Journalist of the Year\” by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
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About VentureBeat: VentureBeat is an online technology news platform that is engaged in technology publication and events business.
Steven K. Sprague
CEO & Co-Founder of Rivetz
Steven Sprague is the CEO of Rivetz Corp. and one of the principle industry evangelists for the application of trusted computing technology. Steven has a strong technical foundation in the principles, capabilities and business models of incorporating trusted hardware into everyday computing, and is skilled at translating these concepts into layman’s terms. Steven is the co-founder of Rivetz Corp. a new company focused on the use of trusted computing and TEE for the consumer market. Rivetz is also playing an important role in providing the key technologies for the protection of private keys and secure instructions for Bitcoin and other crypto currencies. Steven graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in mechanical engineering. He enjoys farming in Western Massachusetts with his wife, two daughters, and a few too many horses.
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About NKrypt, Rivetz: Rivetz is a developer of a hardware-based cyber-security system used to offer a simplified approach to cybersecurity.
Randy Chou
Founder and CEO of Nubeva
Randy Chou is the Founder and CEO of Nubeva. Randy’s experience spans 15 years of technical and management leadership in the security, networking, and application acceleration fields. Prior to co-founding Panzura, Randy was a member of the founding software team at Aruba Networks, where he managed the architecture and development of the company’s security software. The combination of his technical expertise and business acumen helped Aruba become the leader in the enterprise Wi-Fi security market. Prior to Aruba Networks, Randy led the development of SSL security and load balancing software at Alteon WebSystems. Randy holds a degree in computer science from UC Berkeley.
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About Nubeva: Nubeva is a cloud security software company that provides decryption solution for real-time, historical or on-demand decryption.
Ryan Chan
Founder and CEO of UpKeep
Founder @CEO at UpKeep. Angel Investor
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About UpKeep: UpKeep is a platform developed for technicians and maintenance workers that provides them with a computerized maintenance management system.
Mrinal Manohar
CEO and Co-founder of ADAPtive Holdings
Mrinal Manohar is a co-founder and CEO at ADAPtive Holdings, the parent company of CasperLabs.
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About ADAPtive Holdings: ADAPtive Holdings the parent company of CasperLabs.
Joe Zhou
Co-Founder & CEO of FirstBlood
Founder & Chairman at FirstBlood Technologies Inc, Investor at Canary App Inc, One Way Ventures, Aggero, Cointaxes, PickcioChain, NewBlock Capital LLC;
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About Alt-Options LLC, Babson College, FirstBlood, Gigmor, Mana Interactive, NewBlock Capital, One Way Ventures: A platform that lets eSports players challenge each other in the field and win rewards.
Russell Krauss
co-Chief Executive Officer of China Rapid Finance
Russell Krauss has served as co-Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman since September 2018. Prior to taking on the current co-CEO position, Mr. Krauss has served on the XRF Board since 2016 as an independent non-executive director. Mr. Krauss was Senior Vice President and Managing Director at Hewlett-Packard (“HP”, then “Hewlett Packard Enterprise”), where he oversaw business operations for one of HP’s largest businesses and drove significant value for both clients and shareholders through major transformation initiatives. He also served as Senior Vice President, overseeing Accounts and Business Operations for DXC Technology, where he led the enterprise-wide client operations, and oversaw top accounts for the $20 billion business. Previously, Mr. Krauss was the Chief Information Officer and Vice President for the New York Power Authority, the largest non-federal utility in the U.S., where he was a leader of one of the nation’s “Top 10 Critical Infrastructure” entities and led the $1.4 billion divestiture of the Nuclear Generation business—the largest transaction of its kind in U.S. history. Mr. Krauss also served as a CIO both at Westinghouse Electric Corporation and United Technologies Corporation divisions. He received his MBA from University of New Haven and his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the State University of New York (SUNY).
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About China Rapid Finance: China Rapid Finance is an online consumer lending marketplace serving online users and China’s emerging middle class.
Kevin Leland
Founder & CEO of Halo
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About Halo, Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Village Global: Halo is a market network that moves science forward by connecting companies directly with scientists for research collaborations
Shaun Cooley
President & CEO of Mapped
Shaun Cooley is the Founder and CEO of a Mapped, a Los Angeles based startup in the Internet of Things (IoT) space. In his prior role as VP.CTO for Cisco’s Internet of Things (IoT) Business, he was responsible for Cisco’s long-term IoT technology strategy. This included shaping product architecture, security, privacy, and technology partnerships, as implemented by Cisco’s IoT business, advising governments on IoT regulation, driving Cisco’s participation in IoT related standards bodies and consortia, and championing innovation to solve existing or anticipated industry needs. Before taking on the role of CTO for IoT, Shaun was a Distinguished Engineer, responsible for the security of Cisco’s collaboration infrastructure, cloud, and endpoint technologies. Shaun is particularly focused on ensuring security is either transparent or extremely usable – something that is typically overlooked in enterprise products. Prior to joining Cisco, Shaun was a Distinguished Engineer for Norton, by Symantec, where he was a driving force in Norton’s shift from utilities to security. Over his 18-year tenure, Shaun contributed to the creation and advancement of offerings in the Norton portfolio, including Norton Internet Security, Norton 360, Norton One, Norton Antispam, Norton’s cloud management platform, and Norton Home, a consumer IoT security offering – a product portfolio that produces over $2 Billion in annual revenue. Shaun has over 25 years of industry experience, holds a master’s degree in computer science from University of Illinois, and is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP). He is named inventor on 120 issued United States patents with over 100 more pending. He is an active angel investor and a start-up mentor through Acceleprise SF and advisor for Deep Angels. Shaun was previously a director of the Open Connectivity Foundation and former board member of Attivo Networks.
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About Mapped: Data infrastructure for IoT
David Mikkelson
Chief Executive Officer of Snopes.com
David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994 as a creative outgrowth of his wide-ranging interests in a variety of subjects (particularly folklore) and his professional expertise in the computer industry. Handling everything from researching and writing articles about urban legends to managing the site’s technical infrastructure, David saw snopes.com (which antedated the development of automated search engines) quickly become the go-to place for Internet users to query about anything questionable they encountered online, establishing it as the oldest and best known online fact-checking outlet operating today. In additional to his 20+ years experience researching and writing about the facts behind a multitude of topics, David’s educational background includes a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Texas (San Antonio) and about a zillion course hours of post-graduate classes at California State University, Northridge taken with no particular degree program in mind. His previous employment encompassed stints with the News-Chronicle (newspaper), Teledyne Electronics, the U.S. Postal Service, JPL, Digital Equipment Corporation, Rocketdyne, and Health Net (HMO).
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About Snopes.com: Snopes.com is a website for validating or debunking urban legends, internet rumors, and other stories of unknown or questionable origin.
Alex Alpert
Founder & CEO of Shyft
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About NFX, Shyft: Shyft transforms the moving and relocation industry by introducing technology, customer service, and lead management solutions.
Charles Meyers
Chief Executive Officer & President of Equinix
Charles J. Meyers is the President and the Chief Executive officer at Equinix. He joined Equinix in 2010 as President, Equinix Americas, leading the company’s largest P&L through a time of significant growth and strong operating performance. Mr. Meyers then served as the Chief Operating Officer at Equinix, where he led the Global Sales, Marketing, Operations, and Customer Success teams. For the past year, he was President, Strategy, Services, and Innovation (SSI) leading Equinix’s strategic business teams including Corporate Strategy, Technology Innovation, and Product Management and Engineering. Under Mr. Meyers’ leadership, SSI worked to optimize the company’s position as a cloud enabler, identify key growth areas, and evolve our services portfolio in response to market, competitive and technology trends. Mr. Meyers has built a distinguished 25-year career in the high-tech industry. Before joining Equinix, Mr. Meyers served as Group President at Verisign where he led a P&L portfolio including the company’s Security, Communications and Mobile Messaging businesses. Prior to Verisign, Mr. Meyers held various executive positions at Level 3 Communications, including Group Vice President of Global Marketing, President of IP and Data Services, and Senior Vice President, Softswitch Services. During his tenure, Mr. Meyers helped Level 3 emerge as a premier global provider of Internet and VoIP services.
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About Equinix: Equinix is an internet company that provides data center services for companies, businesses, and organizations.
Peter Ferris
Sr. Vice President, Office of the CEO of Equinix
Pete Ferris serves in the Office of the CEO at Equinix. Peter has held several senior-level positions with Equinix since July 1999 and was appointed Sr. Vice President of Global Partner Programs and Strategic Customer Development in 2013. From 2010 to 2013, he served as Chief Sales Officer. From 2007 until 2010, Mr. Ferris served as President, Equinix U.S. where he was responsible for strategy and growth of the company’s operations throughout the region. Prior to that, he served as the Vice President of Sales for Equinix. Mr. Ferris has more than 25 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. Prior to Equinix, he held senior management positions at Frontier Global Center, Genuity and MFS Datanet. Mr. Ferris holds a degree in Economics from Ohio Wesleyan University and lives in San Francisco.
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About Equinix: Equinix is an internet company that provides data center services for companies, businesses, and organizations.
Konrad Feldman
Co-Founder & CEO of Quantcast
Konrad Feldman, CEO, co-founded and launched Quantcast in 2006 along with Paul Sutter to transform the effectiveness of online advertising through the use of science and scalable computing. Prior to co-founding Quantcast, Feldman co-founded Searchspace (now Fortent) the leading provider of terrorist financing detection and anti-money laundering software for the world’s financial services industry. As CEO of Searchspace’s North American business, he established the business in the US and directed its rapid growth to become a market leader. Prior to Searchspace, Feldman was a Research Fellow in the Intelligent Systems Laboratory at University College London. Feldman holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from University College, London.
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About Quantcast: Quantcast helps create a more personalized digital world.
Rob Keve
CEO & co-founder of Flow Commerce
Rob Keve is the CEO & co-founder at Flow Commerce.
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About Flow Commerce: Flow is a platform that enables e-commerce companies to go global.
Weiting Liu
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Codementor
Weiting Liu is the founder & CEO of Codementor, a live help marketplace for developers. Weiting is a serial entrepreneur and an alumnus of both Y Combinator (YC ’07 SocialPicks, ’12) and Techstars (Seattle ’13 Codementor).
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About Arc.Dev, Codementor, Global Social, Peeridea: Codementor is an online marketplace connecting developers with experts for on-demand 1:1 help via screen sharing, video, and text chat.
Saagar Govil
CEO & Chairman of Cemtrex
Presently the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cemtrex Inc. (NASDAQ: CETX), a world leading diversified manufacturing and technology company, since December 2011. He has been working at Cemtrex since 2008, initially as a field engineer, subsequently moving into sales and management roles. Under his leadership he has spearheaded the company’s transition into new markets and product lines growing the business from $3M in revenues to over $100M. During his time as a leader at the company, the company earned a spot on the Deloitte Fast 500 Technology companies list in 2012, 2015, and 2016 while growing over 3000% in revenue. Cemtrex has over 550 employees in 8 offices worldwide. His most recent project is the SmartDesk, a breakthrough IoT product thats reinventing the personal workspace.
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About Cemtrex, Vicon Industries: Cemtrex drives innovation in many sectors, including smart tech, VR & AR, advanced electronic systems, and intelligent security systems.
Ronak Trivedi
Founder & CEO of Pietra
Ronak Trivedi is the founder and CEO of Pietra.
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About Pietra: Pietra is a business-in-a-box platform that provides Creators all the tools they need to build a business.
Natalie Gordon
Founder and CEO of Babylist
Natalie Gordon is the founder and CEO of Babylist.
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About Babylist: Babylist is an online universal baby registry that enables parents discover, request and buy products for newborns.
