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 CTO’ operating in the Consumer space. If you think a CTO’ 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.
Paul Gaffney
EVP & CTO of Dick’s Sporting Goods
Bill Goldberg joined MediMedia as Chief Executive Officer in 2011.
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About Dick’s Sporting Goods, MediMedia, The Aspen Institute: Dick’s Sporting Goods is an authentic full-line sporting goods retailer offering a broad assortment of brand name sporting goods equipment
Vikram Singh
CTO of Mixhalo
Vikram Singh is a lifelong tinkerer and general technology enthusiastic. He began working with MIXhalo in 2016 and, since assuming the role of Chief Technology Officer in late 2017, has been responsible for the company’s engineering arm. Prior to joining MIXhalo, Vikram was the technical product manager for Cisco Meraki’s mobility platform, Systems Manager, where he grew the product from a free service to a multi-million dollar platform. With a degree in chemical engineering and bioinformatics from UC Berkeley, Vikram previously worked on creating the world’s first edible IoT sensor for pharmaceutical drugs, hoping to create the first step in meaningfully personalized medication. True to his tinkering self, Vikram has been involved in a multitude of side projects. From successfully licensing a fashion cataloging AI to selling his own video game startups, Vikram’s passion lies in learning new cutting-edge technologies while having fun.
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About Mixhalo: Mixhalo is a real-time audio platform that delivers an immersive experience for live events.
Mitja Simcic
Co-Founder Chief Technology Officer of GlobaliD
Building and empowering people with portable, user controlled identities. Entrepreneur since college. Computer Science and MBA background.
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About GlobaliD, Kupi, Qloud.io: Create and manage your own portable, digital identity with globaliD.
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.
Paul Zhang
Chief Technology Officer of Avant
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About Avant: Avant is an online lending platform that offers alternatives to its clients with safe financial products.
Michael Leabman
Founder & CTO of Energous Corporation
Mr. Leabman became the Company’s Chief Technology Officer in October 2013. From September 2010 to September 2013, Mr. Leabman served as President of TruePath Wireless, a service provider and equipment provider in the broadband communications industry. From 2008 to 2010, Mr. Leabman served as Chief Technology Officer for DataRunway Inc., a wireless communication company providing broadband internet to airlines. Mr. Leabman received both his Bachelor of Science degree and Master of Engineering degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Leabman’s extensive knowledge of the Company, its technology and the consumer and commercial electronics industry position him well for service on our board of directors.
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About Energous Corporation: Energous Corporation is the creator of WattUp, charging technology for electronic devices.
Jakob Ehrensvard
CTO & Co-Founder of Yubico
Built his first computer at the age of 15, self-employed software and hardware engineer since 19, designed the security system for Sweden’s largest nuclear plant at 25. Leading inventor of the YubiKey and FIDO/WebAuthn standards.
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About Yubico: Yubico offers USB and wireless authentication solutions.
Glenn Lortscher
Co-Founder and CTO of Curology
Co-Founder and CTO @ Curology
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About Curology: Curology is a cosmetic company that provides actual prescription skincare customized for their skin and delivered to their door.
Robert Buckman
Chief Technology Officer of ActiveProtective
Robert F. Buckman, Jr., M.D. is an internationally- known surgeon and inventor of medical technology. Formerly a full professor of surgery in the Temple University School of Medicine, he served for 15 years as the director of the busiest trauma center in the city of Philadelphia. During this period, he won numerous awards for clinical excellence and surgical teaching. He is the author or co-author of approximately 100 surgical publications and 15 United States patents. Dr. Buckman has been an examiner for the American Board of Surgery. He served for more than a decade in the medical corps of the United States Army Reserve achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel. He saw overseas duty with the 300th Field Hospital in Saudi Arabia, during operation Desert Storm. Dr. Buckman is a 1972 graduate of the Duke Medical School, and received his surgical training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Rutgers and the University of Maryland Shock /Trauma Unit. He spent three years as a researcher in the division of Surgery at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
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About ActiveProtective, Operative Experience: ActiveProtective is a consumer device company that produces smart garments to reduce traumatic injury using wearable airbag technology.
Praveen Vishakantaiah
Senior Vice President and CTO, Infrastructure Solutions Group of Dell
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About Dell: Dell transforms computing and provides high quality solutions that empower people to do more all over the world.
Frank Molsberry
Technologist – Office of the CTO of Dell
Frank Molsberry is Technologist – Office of the CTO at Dell.
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About Dell: Dell transforms computing and provides high quality solutions that empower people to do more all over the world.
Udo Gomez
Chief Technology Officer of Bosch
Udo Gomez is Chief Technology Officer at Robert Bosch GmBH.
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About Bosch: The Bosch Group is a global supplier of technology and services.
Joshua Augustin
Chief Technology Officer of Tempo
Joshua Augustin is the CTO of Tempo.
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About Tempo: Tempo is a home fitness platform, combining equipment, training guidance, and social motivation with 3D sensors and artificial intelligence.
Bryan Woods
Co-founder & CTO of Rhino
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About Rhino: Rhino is a licensed insurance agency that gives renters financial alternatives to security deposits.
Chris Clark
Co-Founder & CTO of Grove Collaborative
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About Grove Collaborative: Grove creates and curates high-performing, planet-first home and personal care products and is the leader in zero-plastic CPG.
Amos Schallich
CTO & Co-founder of eero
Amos Schallich is a co-founder of eero inc. and serves as its Vice President of Engineering-Software. Amos Schallich previously worked at Tagged and BigTent, where he focused on backend server development and scaling. He studied large-scale distributed systems at Stanford.
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About eero: Eero offers a Wi-Fi system for household use.
Sven Gerjets
EVP, Chief Technology Officer of Mattel
Sven Gerjets has been Chief Technology Officer of Mattel since July 2017. From January 2017 to July 2017, he served as Chief Product Officer of n.io Innovation. Mr. Gerjets was the Chief Information Officer of Time Warner Cable, Inc., from October 2015 to June 2016. Before joining Time Warner Cable, Inc., he was the Chief Technology Officer of Pearson from July 2014 to October 2015.
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About Mattel: Mattel is the worldwide leader in the design, manufacture, and marketing of toys and family products.
Richard Boylan
Chief Technology Officer of Virgin Pulse
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About Virgin Pulse, Virgin Pulse: Virgin Pulse, part of the famed Virgin Group, is passionate about inspiring and engaging employees to live better every day.
Rong Yan
Chief Technology Officer of Verishop
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About Verishop: Verishop is a premium lifestyle company that offers everyday luxury in fashion, beauty, home, and more.
Steve Grobman
Senior Vice President & Chief Technology Officer of McAfee
Steve Grobman is the Senior Vice President & Chief Technology Officer at McAfee.
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About McAfee: McAfee is an online security company that provides virus alerts and analysis on malware, network security threats, and web vulnerabilities.
Mike Warren
Co-founder & CTO of Descartes Labs
Mike leads the technical team at Descartes Labs as the Co-founder & CTO. His past work spans a wide range of disciplines, with the recurring theme of developing and applying advanced software and computing technology to understand the physical and virtual world. He was a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory for 25 years, and also worked as a Senior Software Engineer at Sandpiper Networks/Digital Island. His work has been recognized on multiple occasions, including the Gordon Bell prize for outstanding achievement in high-performance computing. He has degrees in Physics and Engineering & Applied Science from Caltech, and he received a PhD in Physics from University of California, Santa Barbara.
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About Descartes Labs: Optimizing sustainable sourcing, commodity price forecasting, & mineral exploration through the automated analysis of geospatial data
Paul Pickard
Chief Technology Officer of EcoSense Lighting
Paul Pickard is the Chief Technology Officer of EcoSense Lighting, Inc.Paul has an impressive background including 15 years in the lighting industry. Paul was the Systems Architect for Cree Advanced Lighting Technology (ALT), where he served on the leadership team that developed and launched Cree’s line of consumer light bulbs. Paul’s professional experience includes leadership positions in Operations, Product Development and R&D at LLF/Cree Lighting and New Product Engineering at Acuity Brands Lighting. Paul is a Mechanical Engineering graduate with a B.S. degree from the University of New Mexico and holds 70 US patents.
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About EcoSense Lighting: EcoSense Lighting designs and develops lighting solutions for commercial and residential applications.
David Reiff
CTO of uBreakiFix
David Reiff is the founder and chief technology officer of the international electronics repair franchise uBreakiFix.
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About uBreakiFix: uBreakiFix is an international electronics repair franchise that operates in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico.
Chris Jones
Chief Technology Officer of iRobot
Chris Jones is Vice President of Technology at iRobot Corporation. Chris Jones has over 20 years of experience in robotics research and development across academia, government, and industry. At iRobot his responsibilities are centered on strategic technology planning and development and fostering partnerships to advance the state-of-the-art in practical consumer robotics. Prior to joining iRobot in 2005, he was involved in robotics research and development at the Center for Robotics and Embedded Systems at the University of Southern California, the Artificial Intelligence Lab at the University of Zurich, the Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center at Sandia National Laboratories, and the Robotics Research Lab at Texas A&M University. Chris Jones received his Ph.D. and M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California and his B.S. in Computer Engineering from Texas A&M University
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About iRobot, iRobot Ventures: iRobot is an American technology company that designs and builds behavior-based AI robots.
Prakash Bedapudi
Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer of Lennox International
Prakash Bedapudi became Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer in July 2008. He had previously served as vice president, global engineering and program management for Trane Inc. Commercial Systems from 2006 through 2008, and as vice president, engineering and technology for Trane’s Residential Systems division from 2003 through 2006. Prior to his career at Trane, Mr. Bedapudi served in senior engineering leadership positions for GE Transportation Systems, a division of General Electric Company, and for Cummins Engine Company. He holds a BS in Mechanical/Automotive Engineering from Karnataka University, India and an MS in Mechanical/Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati.
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About Lennox International, The University of Texas At Dallas: Lennox International is a provider of climate control solutions for the heating, air conditioning and refrigeration markets.
Samuel Weiss
Founder & CTO of Instrumental
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About Instrumental: Ship hardware products on time with high-resolution manufacturing data.
Zhen Peng
Founder, CTO of Leia
Zhen has always been enthusiastic in adopting technologies to enrich life, bringing wow moments to the everyday through nano-photonics. At Leia Inc., Zhen is leading the efforts in nano-fabrication to implement it’s core technology in mass production, putting his fingerprint on a product that can truly make an impact in people’s life.
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About Leia: Leia is an experience platform offering 3D Lightfield products and software applications.
Brennal Pierre
Co-Founder and CTO of Ephemeral Tattoos
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About Ephemeral Tattoos: Ephemeral Tattoos is a made-to-fade tattoo creating a world of limitless self-expression, where everybody is a canvas.
Matt Senter
Co-Founder and CTO of Lolli
Matt Senter is the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Lolli. Prior to that, he was the Co-founder and CTO of Cosmic, Founder and CEO of Phream, Co-Founder and CTO of SeedMatrix, Founder and CEO at Kungfuters, and Founder and CEO at Senternet.
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About Lolli: Lolli is a rewards app that allows users to earn bitcoin when shopping online.
Simon Ratner
CTO & Founder of Proxy
Simon Ratner, CTO & Co-Founder Simon Ratner is the co-founder and CTO of Proxy, a company on a mission to empower all people with a digital identity signal that’s universally accessible, secure and private. At Proxy, he strives to create technologies that revolutionize the way we experience the physical world while empowering people to maintain complete control of their identity, data, and privacy. Before Proxy, Ratner was the co-founder of Inporia and Omnisio, which was acquired by Google, and an engineer at Jive Software, Youtube, and Sensory Networks. He holds a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, as well as dual Bachelor’s degrees in Software Engineering and Biochemistry from the University of Sydney.
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About Proxy: Access More, Share Less. Proxy designs and builds privacy-first, human-led, identity technologies. With Proxy ID, your world is now open.
Alec Rooney
CTO and Co-Founder of Minim
Alec Rooney is the Co-founder and CTO at Minim.
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About Minim: Minim (NASDAQ: MINM) was born as a networking company and now delivers intelligent software to protect and improve the WiFi we depend on.
Sandeep Chouksey
CTO of Care/of
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About Care/of: Care/of is a healthcare technology company dedicated to simplifying consumer health, starting with a fully personalized vitamin pack.
Sakib Sauro
CTO of Backpack
Hacker at Backpack
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About Backpack: Backpack is a website that connects travelers and shoppers globally.
France Roy
Chief Technology Officer, Direct-to-Consumer of Anheuser-Busch InBev
As the Chief Technology Officer of Anheuser Busch InBev’s Direct-to-Consumer organization,I lead more than 40 engineering teams that are developing digital products and services that directly impact hundreds of millions of consumer interactions around the world. Together, we created $1 billion in incremental net revenue and are working to create the next billion. Throughout my career, I have steered the strategy, design, and execution of software engineering to drive digital transformation and innovation growth. My expertise lies in partnering closely with the business and powering through roadblocks to deliver disruptive products and capabilities that capture game-changing market results. CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: • Built a new global engineering team within AB InBev’s global growth and innovation arm, ZX Ventures, to disrupt the industry and reach untapped consumer channels/markets. • Influenced a transformation of the American Express technology organization as a contributor to an enterprise initiative involving billions of dollars in technology investments. -Managed organization of 300+ employees that created new revenue-producing platforms and delivered product and platform capabilities to create simple, memorable, and consistent experiences for global users. -Enabled acquisition of millions of new customers by delivering cutting-edge mobile and digital payment products. Underpinning these successes is my commitment to bridging technology and business. I am fascinated with the ever-changing world of web, mobile, and social technology, and I harness the power of these technologies to deliver innovative, game-changing products that advance the business. BOARD & ADVISORY LEADERSHIP: Retail: Modelorama & TiendasYa! E-store: Casa de la Cerveza, Beerhouse & Empório da Cerveja Courier: Zé Delivery, Appbar, Estación & Colmapp Subscription: Siempre Em Casa & Siempre En Casa COMPETENCIES: Executive Technology Leadership, Digital Strategy, Global Team Building & Leadership, Innovation Leadership, Multimillion-dollar Budget Management, M&A Integration, DevOps & SAFe Agile Practices
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About Anheuser-Busch InBev: Anheuser-Busch InBev is a brewer and provider of consumer products that has a strong, balanced portfolio.
Felipe Dutra
CFO & CTO of Anheuser-Busch InBev
Felipe Dutra is our Chief Financial & Technology Officer. Born in 1965, Mr. Dutra is a Brazilian citizen and holds a Degree in Economics from Candido Mendes and an MBA in Controlling from Universidade de São Paulo. He joined Ambev in 1990 from Aracruz Celulose, a major Brazilian manufacturer of pulp and paper. At Ambev he held various positions in Treasury and Finance before being appointed General Manager of one of our beverage subsidiaries. Mr. Dutra was appointed Ambev’s Chief Financial Officer in 1999 and he became our Chief Financial Officer in January 2005. In 2014, Mr. Dutra became our Chief Financial & Technology Officer. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Ambev and Grupo Modelo.
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About Anheuser-Busch InBev: Anheuser-Busch InBev is a brewer and provider of consumer products that has a strong, balanced portfolio.
Yun Fu
Co-Founder, CTO of Otter.ai
Yun is CTO and Co-Founder of Otter.ai. Previously, Yun was Head of Infrastructure in Particle Media Inc, Director Engineering in Alohar Mobile, and Principal Engineer in Yahoo. Yun held a number of patents in mobile technologies, distributed systems and information retrieval. Yun has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Duke University.
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About Otter.ai: Otter.ai improves business team productivity by providing an app to capture, share and recall all of your meeting notes.
Behrooz Abiri
CTO and Co-Founder of GuRu
A hardware hobbyist and International Physics Olympiad gold medalist – Behrooz has always been an avid inventor. He’s spent his life studying, learning, and exploring emerging technologies. His work at GuRu stems from a wish to share miraculous technology with the world at large. At GuRu, Behrooz is responsible for the ongoing development of core technology and system architecture. Under his leadership, GuRu’s millimeter-wave technology has been developed into an accessible consumer product. Before GuRu, Behrooz helped develop system design and architecture in Caltech’s Space Solar Power Initiative. He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Caltech.
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About GuRu: Enables safe, effective and customizable transmission of power over-the-air using proprietary mmWave and Smart RF Lensing technology
Patricia Verduin
Chief Technology Officer of Colgate Palmolive
Patricia D. Verduin, Ph.D., 56, is vice president and chief technology officer of Colgate-Palmolive Company, a global consumer products company. In her role, she leads the development of Colgate’s products and technologies, including responsibility for product safety, quality and regulatory matters. She joined Colgate in 2007, first serving as vice president of global research and development before assuming her current role in 2011. Prior to joining Colgate, Dr. Verduin was senior vice president and chief science officer for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, and senior vice president of product quality and development at ConAgra Foods, Inc.
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About Colgate Palmolive: Colgate-Palmolive is a consumer products company that produces, distributes, and provides household, healthcare, and personal products.
Mark Shaw
Co-Founder & CTO of Inclined Technologies
Mark Shaw is co-founder & CTO at Strava.
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About Inclined Technologies: Inclined pioneers a new form of lending in a large and vastly underserved market.
Emmanuel Miran
Global Chief Technology Officer, Digital Transformation & Innovation of Mondelez International
Emmanuel Miran is Global Chief Digital Officer at International SOS
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About International SOS, Mondelez International: Mondelez International is a branded food and beverage company that specializes in snack foods such as biscuits, chocolate, gum, and candies.
Hoon Joo
CTO of Kashable
Hoon Joo is the CTO at Kashable.
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About Kashable: Socially Responsible Credit for employees
Pamela Rice
Chief Technology Officer of Earnest
Pamela Rice is a dynamic, business-centric technology executive who drives start-ups to Fortune 100 companies to strategically position themselves for success, leveraging emerging technologies and best practices to stay competitive and relevant. She has deep expertise in strategy, payments, blockchain, cyber, emerging technology, innovation and scaling product and technology while also driving appropriate risk management. With a degree in engineering and an MBA, she has been a vital part of the architecture and development of FinTech systems, including one of the first online credit and payment systems. Pamela’s track record and ability to identify underlying issues, ask the right questions and clearly articulate compelling and supported strategies make her a powerful leader and C-level advisor.
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About Earnest: Earnest is a technology-lender that brings low-interest loans to high-potential people.
Robert Kwok
Chief Technology Officer of Tawkify
Robert Kwok is Tawkify’s Chief Technology Officera. Robert graduated with a full scholarship from MIT in 2006 with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and a minor in Comparative Media Studies. While at MIT, Robert developed an interest in educational games through his work on FLOGO at the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. For his undergraduate thesis, Robert worked with Eric Klopfer at the Teacher Education Program (TEP) on mobile apps, including an augmented reality game called “Outbreak @ MIT”. Since graduation, he worked at Hewlett-Packard for three years as a User Interface software developer where he developed and shipped several database monitoring and management tools.
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About Tawkify: Tawkify is a relationship wellness company. We use trained matchmakers & technology find long-term romantic relationships for our clients
Wenzhe Gao
Co-Founder & CTO of Nom Nom
Wenzhe is Nom Nom’s co-founder and CTO, leading efforts to build and scale Nom Nom’s technical infrastructure and digital product suite. Prior to Nom Nom, Wenzhe spent 10 years at Google, where he led engineering for various consumer business units. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley.
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About Nom Nom: We make real food to support healthier, longer lives for folks with paws. Because what’s good for people is good for pets too.
Mark Cutkosky
CO-CTO of Moley Robotics
Mark Cutkosky is CO-CTO at Moley Robotics. He is also a professor at Stanford University. Professor Mark’s specialties are in robotics, rapid prototyping, and haptics.
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About Moley Robotics: Moley Robotics develops robotic kitchen with oven, hob, sink, and two dexterous robotic arms that allow it to cook.
Kushal Dave
Co-Founder & CTO of Scroll
Kushal Dave is the Co-Founder & CTO at Scroll.
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About Scroll: Scroll is creating a sustainable experience that puts amazing content in front of engaged users without all the noise.
Vivek Garud
Co-Founder & CTO of Bidgely
Vivek is leading the technology team which is building the biggest and best energy analytics system yet. Prior to Bidgely, Vivek contributed to building voice recognition technology at Microsoft. He has a B.Tech degree in Computer Science from IIT Bombay. Once done solving the worlds energy problems, he fantasizes of becoming a full time musician and doing big things in Bollywood.
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About Bidgely: Bidgely leverages the power of AI to optimize utility customer engagement and is the choice of leading utilities
Christopher Mueller
Co-Founder & CTO of Bitmovin
Christopher Mueller is CEO and Co-founder of bitmovin and Head of Technology. He received his M.Sc (Dipl. Ing.) in Computer Science from the Aplen-Adria University Klagenfurt with distinction. He gained practical expertise in various companies, notably Infineon Semiconductors and Dolby Laboratories Inc. Los Angeles, USA. His main research interests are multimedia streaming, networking, and multimedia adaptation. In his position as an Assistant Professor (Univ. Ass.) at the Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt, Institute of Information Technology (ITEC), Multimedia Communication Group (MMC) he has published more than 20 papers in these areas and currently holds 2 U.S. patents. He participated in the MPEG-DASH standardization and is the author of the MPEG-DASH reference software libdash. He contributed several open source tools, notably MPEG-DASH VLC plugin and libdash, worked in various EC-funded projects, e.g., ALICANTE and SocialSensor, and he is the supervisor and main contributor of the MPEG-DASH ITEC blog (dash.itec.aau.at) with more than 100k views per year.
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About Bitmovin: Bitmovin is a multimedia technology company providing adaptive streaming video infrastructure for global digital media companies.
Lawrence Kiss
Co-Founder & CTO of SpotHero
After receiving his Master’s in Electrical Engineering at University of Colorado at Boulder, Larry spent a number of years designing Microprocessors for Advanced Micro Devices, and then building mobile devices for Motorola. This experience helped Larry break off from the traditional corporate job, and pursue a lifelong goal of being an entrepreneur. A few iPhone apps later, SpotHero found Larry, and the rest is history.
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About SpotHero: Leading & only independent consumer marketplace for parking in North America.
Simon Weaver
CTO & Co-Founder of HomeX
Simon Weaver is a co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of HomeX. He currently leads the technology innovation efforts of the company, with a determination to build quantifiably better experiences for HomeX customers by solving previously unsolved problems in the engineering and science fields. Simon has been devising and building distributed and autonomous systems for 20 years, solving problems for Salesforce and Microsoft in the fields of big data, lights-out infrastructure, and artificial intelligence. Born and raised in England, Simon moved to the United States in 2004. He now resides in the Bay Area with his wife, three children, and their Siberian Husky. He enjoys serving on the board at his children’s school and advises a number of companies.
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About HomeX: HomeX is a home services platform designed for homeowners and service providers offering virtual solutions with remote assist.
Ken Goto
Co-Founder and CTO of Level Home
Ken Goto is the co-founder and CTO of Level Home Inc.
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About Level Home: Level Home is a startup that specializes in home automation and smart home control.
Jason Kirk
Chief Technology Officer of REPAY
Jason Kirk serves as REPAY’s Chief Technology Officer. Jason has worked in the payments technology industry since 2001 and joined REPAY in 2014 to quickly expand REPAY’s technology products to help Merchants achieve their current and future business goals. Prior to REPAY, Jason led the team that developed the CCBill SaaS payment processing platform including a multitude of products including Credit/Debit card, ACH, and Alternative payment methods as well as Reporting, Access Management, and Business Intelligence toolsets. Jason also participated with the rapid introduction of technologies while serving in the United States Marine Corps and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Management/Computer Information Systems from Park University.
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About REPAY: Realtime Electronic Payments (REPAY) is a full service provider of electronic transaction processing services for retail merchants.
Zack Bomsta
Co-Founder & CTO of Owlet Baby Care
Zack Bomsta is Founder and CTO at Owlet Baby Care.
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About Owlet Baby Care: Owlet Baby Care offers a health monitor that allows parents to view their child’s vital signs in real-time.
Franz Garsombke
Co-founder/CTO of Rachio
Experience in full life cycle system development from startups to enterprise organizations. Expert in agile development methodologies. Job roles have included CTO, enterprise architect, technical lead, software developer, and consultant. Skilled at delivering highly available, scalable, transactional systems. Wide breadth of industry and technological experience. Capable of architecting, designing and implementing flexible solutions to real world business problems. Passionate about delivering quality, timely software. Co-founder of Open Source Java mapping framework Dozer.
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About Rachio: Rachio is a software and hardware company that focuses on improving the water efficiency of homes.
Brent Shields
Co-Founder and CTO of Own Up
Brent is responsible for Own Up’s pioneering technologies. He has worked as a Software Engineer and Technical Lead in a diverse collection of industries. Brent works vigorously to help remove barriers to understanding mortgages.
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About Own Up: Own Up provides a software solution that enables residential lending from various lenders.
Nelson Vazquez
Co-Founder & CTO of Revl
Nelson Vazquez is a Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Revl.
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About Revl: AI Powered Video Souvenirs as a Service. Full end to end solution for roller coasters, skydive drop zones, race tracks, and zip lines.
Scott Hanson
Founder & CTO of Ambiq Micro
Scott Hanson is an expert in ultra-low energy and variation-tolerant circuits. He championed the development of Ambiq Micro’s SPOT Platform at the University of Michigan along with Ambiq Micro co-founders Dennis Sylvester and David Blaauw. Since Ambiq Micro’s inception, Scott has guided Ambiq Micro’s product development efforts and new technology development efforts. He speaks widely on energy-efficient circuits at trade-shows and conferences and has more than 30 publications and 7 patent filings on related topics. He received his Ph.D., Master’s, and Bachelor’s degrees from the University of Michigan.
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About Ambiq Micro: Ambiq Micro is a semiconductor manufacturing company that develops mixed-signal solutions for wireless electronics.
Jonathan Farringdon
CTO & Co-Founder of Bryte
Jonathan Farringdon is the Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Bryte. He was the Director of Informatics at Jawbone and BodyMedia before that.
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About Bryte: Bryte is a sleep technology company that designs and sells restorative intelligence products and services.
Darren Cheng
Co-Founder & CTO of Thanx
Darren is a born-and-raised East-Coaster, currently enjoying the West Coast life. He joined Thanx as employee and engineer #1 in 2011 and has enjoyed cultivating the codebase from its inception to what it is now. Darren received his BA in Computer Science from Dartmouth.
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About Thanx: Guest engagement that delights!
Jason Kruse
Co-founder & CTO of Lithic
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About Lithic: Lithic is a financial technology startup that provides virtual cards and a card issuing platform for businesses and consumers.
Alberto Scicali
Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of SleepWell.ai
Alberto Scicali is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of SleepWell.ai.
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About SleepWell.ai: SleepWell.ai is a technology platform that resolves your sleep issues with research backed science.
Ryan McCaughey
Chief Technology Officer of Antenna79
Dr. Ryan McCaughey joined Pong in June 2011 and is the Chief Technology Officer for the company, where he leads the technical team that designs and tests the Pong technology. He has a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Manchester (UK) for his thesis on Laser Stimulation of Nerves. He also received a Masters in Physics with Technological Physics from the University of Manchester. Dr. McCaughey grew up in Northern Ireland, before moving to the United States in 2007 for a research position at the Beckman Laser Institute, University of California, Irvine, where he researched laser surgery of the bones in the ear. In 2009, Dr. McCaughey joined the International Foundation for Science, Health and the Environment (IFSHE) in Los Angeles, where he worked on development of a plasma centrifuge for isotope separation and the genesis of the technology that became the foundation for Pong Research Corporation. Dr. McCaughey is the author of 4 peer-reviewed journal articles. In his spare time Ryan enjoys playing and watching sports, including soccer, rugby and gaelic football. Ryan’s perspective on what motivates him daily about being part of the Pong team: “Pong is the perfect opportunity for me to use by physics background to develop a technology that has a direct benefit to people’s lives.”
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About Antenna79: Antenna79 is a consumer electronics company that design and market products with built-in antenna technology.
Joe Van Dyk
CTO of Crowd Cow
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About Crowd Cow: Crowd Cow works with small family farms to let users choose their cow and their cut.
Shane Emmons
Chief Technology Officer of TeamSnap
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About TeamSnap: TeamSnap develops a sports management platform designed to simplify communication and coordination between sports members.
James Warner
CTO of Upwave
Jim has over 10 years experience building large-scale systems at companies like Oracle and Amazon and as head of engineering at 3 previous startups. He is the inventor of over 20 issued US patents and has authored 7 peer-reviewed papers. Jim graduated from Johns Hopkins University.
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About Upwave: Upwave is a marketing analytics company providing brand marketing measurement tech to the world’s leading brands, agencies, & publishers.
Sam Purtill
Co-Founder and CTO of Jyve
Sam Purtill is the co-founder and CTO of Jyve, a startup that provides on-demand merchandising services in the consumer packaged goods industry. Prior to Jyve, he was founder and CEO of ClassOwl, an edtech startup that was acquired by Branch Metrics in 2015. Sam was the first employee of the company that went onto become Quid (quid.com) in his two gap years after high school. He started programming at age 12 and studied philosophy at Stanford University.
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About Jyve: Jyve is a tech platform that matches brands’ in-store execution needs with the right skilled labor, at the right time.
James Wilsterman
Co-Founder and CTO of Volley
James Wilsterman is the Co-Founder and CTO at Volley.
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About Volley: Volley builds voice-controlled entertainment experiences for Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and smartphones.
Eric Jensen
Co-Founder & CTO of Aura Frames
Eric Jensen is a chief technology officer at Pushd, Inc. He also co-founded Summize, Inc., which was later acquired by Twitter. Prior to Pushd, Inc., Jensen worked at Twitter as a relevance tech lead. Jensen earned his PhD in computer science from [Illinois Institute of Technology](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/illinois-institute-of-technology-chicago).
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About Aura Frames: Aura Frames is a smart picture frame designed to fill their home with beautiful photos of their family and friends.
Teddy Shalon
Chairman & CTO of WaterGuru
Teddy Shalon is the Founder, Chairman, and CTO at WaterGuru.
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About AirXpanders, Prolog Ventures, Theracrine, ThinOptics, WaterGuru: WaterGuru is a safe and clean water system for pool problems.
William Wismann
Chief Technology Officer of eSurface
Dr. William E. Wismann received his doctorate of science and technology from the International Academy of Sciences in Moscow and has developed, engineered and designed hundreds of products for companies worldwide. He has invented, patented or trade secreted technologies and products in the field of medicine, computers, aerospace, construction materials, automotive, petroleum and chemical industries for over 30 years, and he is the inventor of the eSurface technology. He has successfully licensed and transferred technologies globally for over 15 years.
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About eSurface: EarthOne Circuit Technologies Corporation “dba eSurface ” was established in August, 2010.
Stefan Haney
CTO & Strategic Advisor of Foundry Brands
Stefan was a key leader in building Seller Central and the Amazon Marketplace from $9B to over $160B. He brings a proven track record of launching new technology, delivering business results, mission critical programs, projects, and systems in a variety of industries. Stefan lives in Moscow, ID with his wife and kids. When not shuttling his seven kids to activities, you can often find Stefan adventuring on a bicycle.
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About Foundry Brands: Foundry Brands is a platform that supports and acquires online brands.
Yonatan Feldman
CTO of Earnest Research
Engineering leader who has built highly effective teams and products people love for Instagram, Facebook, Gilt, Greenpeace, MIT, and ArsDigita.
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About Earnest Research: Earnest Research transforms raw data into a source for business and investment professionals to make better decisions.
Greg Phillips
Chief Technology Officer of Houwzer
Greg Phillips is CTO at Houwzer. He is leading the development of our technology platform, and evangelizing data-driven decision making across the organization. He joined the Houwzer team as a real estate startup veteran having co-founded a residential rental property analytics startup. A Philadelphia transplant from California via upstate New York, he currently resides with his wife and daughter in Bella Vista. Greg holds a BA in Philosophy with additional concentrations in Information Science and Cognitive Science from Cornell University.
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About Houwzer: Houwzer is a next-generation real estate brokerage and home services company built around the customer.
Karen Havenstrite
Co-Founder & CTO of Tangible Science
Karen Havenstrite, Ph.D., MBA is a Co-Founder of Tangible Science and serves as Chief Technical Officer. Karen has been with Tangible Science since inception and has led development of the HydraPEG technology from concept to commercialization. Karen received her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University, where her thesis work focused on designing hydrogel materials to improve the regenerative properties of muscle stem cells; she also received her MBA from Stanford University. Karen has authorized multiple research publications, been awarded SBIR grants from the National Science Foundation, and has been recognized by the American Chemical Society as a “Talented 12” young scientist for her novel work on contact lens materials.
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About Life Science Angels, Stanford School of Medicine, Tangible Science: Tangible Science is a developer of contact lenses designed to reduce lens discomfort in dry eye diseases.
Daniel Whatley
Co-founder and CTO of Cresicor
Daniel Whatley is the Co-founder and CTO of Cresicor.
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About Cresicor: Cresicor is a trade promotion management for built for the consumer-packaged goods industry.
Thomas Cheng
Co-Founder & CTO of Brava Home
Thomas Cheng is the co-founder and COO at Brava Home Inc Prior to his current role, he worked as advisor, head of hardware, at August Home, Inc., as technical co-founder at Streetline Networks, and as an engineering consultant at Dust networks. Cheng, through his businesses, has also won various awards including Global Entrepreneur of the year from IBM, Technology innovation award in transportation from the Wall Street Journal, and 10 most innovative companies in transportation from the Fast Company magazine.
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About Brava Home: Brava Home is an IoT and domestic automation company that integrates technology and design to enable joyful experiences in the home.
Vijay Mohan
CTO of PICKL
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About : Hyper-local human brand insights: On demand data from shoppers.
Joseph Armstrong
Founding Member & CTO of Ascent Solar Technologies
Joseph Armstrong served as the Manager of ITN’s Advanced Photovoltaic Division from 1995 until joining Ascent Solar in October 2005.While at ITN, Dr. Armstrong led its advancement into thin-film CIGS flexible Photovoltaic products. Prior to joining ITN, Dr. Armstrong was employed for 10 years by Martin Marietta Corporation (now Lockheed Martin), where he managed Photovoltaic research projects. He is a named inventor on four U.S. patents in areas including shape memory alloys, thin-film PV technology and electronic circuit assembly. Dr. Armstrong holds a B.S. degree in Physics from Lewis University in Illinois and a M.S. degree and Ph.D. in Solid State Physics from the University of Denver.
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About Ascent Solar Technologies: Ascent Solar Technologies is a developer of thin-film photovoltaic modules based on substrate materials.
Safdar Husain
Chief Technology Officer of JULO
Safdar Husain is the Chief Technology Officer at JULO.
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About JULO: JULO is a digital lending company that provides affordable unsecured personal loan for consumers.
Kensuke Numakura
CTO of Genomelink
Kensuke graduated in bioinformatics at Tohoku University, where he developed web-based applications and open-source code for the analysis of personal genomic information. He is also experienced in statistical genetics, genomic data analysis, and web development. Upon graduation, he joined P5 as head of the R&D division. He co-founded Genomelink to accelerate the transition to a society where everyone owns and are empowered by their whole genome data.
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About Genomelink: Genomelink is a platform where people discover more with their DNA data and help businesses build, market, and do research with it.
Scott Novich
Co-Founder & CTO of Neosensory
Scott Novich is the Co-Founder & CTO at Neosensory, Inc.
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About DEF CON, Neosensory: Neosensory gives people new senses via haptic feedback.
John Paul Benini
Co-Founder & CTO of Elemental Path
John Paul (JP) Benini is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Elemental Path — the company making smart toys smarter through its flagship product, the CogniToys Dino.
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About Care.com, Elemental Path, Majestyk Apps, Queerly Health, Velocimetrics: Voice intelligence platform easily customized to quickly launch voice enabled products. Launched CogniToys in 2015.
Chris Parkinson
Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer of RealWear
Co-founder of RealWear inc., a re-launch company bringing years of combined experience in enterprise wearables to the frontline. RealWear is building the world’s first REAL hands-free and fully rugged head-mounted tablet solution for connected industrial workers. Previously the CEO of WearNext, and a founding member and software lead on the Golden-i headset computing program at Kopin Corporation. Responsible for a very extensive patent portfolio around hands-free computing especially focused in the domain of software architecture, application and implementation for voice-driven, gesture-controlled, near-eye, hands-free systems. Board Member and Technical Advisor to a number of Software Startups focused on hands-free computing solutions. Specialties: Wearable Computing – Software and Hardware
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About RealWear: RealWear develops a small screen tablet to be worn with an industrial helmet for workers in the field, factory, or warehouse.
Benjamin Honig
Vice President & CTO of TruckPay
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About iPhonig, TruckPay: A comprehensive technology solution for efficiently managing the logistics of moving materials within or to and from a construction site.
Max Haines-Stiles
Co-Founder, CTO of Galore
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About Galore: Mobile application that allows parents to book activities for their children and empowers local providers to reach new customers.
Nezare Chafni
Founder & CTO of Chui: The World’s Most Intelligent Doorbell
Founder at Chui: The World’s Most Intelligent Doorbell.
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About 500 Startups, Chui: The World’s Most Intelligent Doorbell, Trueface: First product – Intelligent doorbell that uses facial recognition and proprietary tech to make the front door a gateway to a connected home.
Loren Kirkby
CTO & Co-Founder of Fi
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About Fi: Fi is a provider of next Generation of Smart Dog Collars.
Chris Harrison
CTO, co-founder of Qeexo
Chris Harrison is an assistant professor of Human-Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University, directing the Future Interfaces Group. He is focused on creating new sensing and interface technologies that aim to make interactions between humans and computers. He is also a cofounder and CTO of Qeexo, a startup developing rich-touch interactive technologies. Harrison spent two years working at Curtis Instruments as a student researcher. Then he joined IBM Research as an intern in 2005. He served as a research intern at AT&T Labs, developing a novel television application; at Microsoft Research, investigating input mechanisms for on-body and on-environment computing. Harrison was recently named as one of the top 30 scientists under 30 by Forbes, a top 35 innovator under 35 by MIT Technology Review, and one of six innovators to watch in 2013 by Smithsonian. He has been awarded fellowships by Google, Microsoft Research and Qualcomm. Harrison obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and then went on to Carnegie Mellon University to obtain his PhD in computer science.
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About Qeexo, Zensors: Qeexo develops machine learning solutions for edge that generate actionable insights from sensor data.
Erik Fantasia
Co-Founder & CTO of Kindly Care
Erik Fantasia is the Co-Founder & CTO at Kindly Care.
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About Kindly Care: Kindly Care is a company that specializes in non medical home care for the elderly and disabled that require a little extra help.
James Blackwell
Founder & CTO of Roost
James is a wireless industry veteran with over 20 years of leadership experience in the design and manufacturing of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi systems, including CSR and Ozmo Devices.
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About Roost: Roost is a Sunnyvale, CA-based developer of affordable smart home technology.
James Sha
Co-Founder & CTO of Onyx
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About cure.fit, Onyx: We’re building the future of fitness.
Brian Bolze
Co-Founder, CTO / CPO of Core
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About Core: Core provides a meditation experience device that uses haptics and biofeedback to guide progress and personalize techniques.
Daniel Gallagher
Co-Founder & CTO of Datasembly
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About Datasembly: Datasembly collects product data and provides real-time pricing, promotions, assortment and availability data to the clients.
Joe Schmid
Chief Technology Officer of SymphonyRM
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About SymphonyRM: SymphonyRM is a healthcare software platform designed for health CRM and AI for healthcare organizations.
Arie Litovsky
CTO of Airheart
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About Airheart: Airheart is a tool designed specifically for planning itineraries collaboratively with groups.
Geena Kim
Cofounder and CTO of ChemiSense
Geena Kim is Founder at ChemiSense.
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About ChemiSense: ChemiSense manufactures wearable air quality monitors.
Richard Hall
Founder and CTO of Kokoon Technology
Richard Hall is Founder & CTO at Kokoon Technology Ltd.
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About Kokoon Technology: Kokoon Technology is a digital health platform applying data to provide a personalized path to better sleep and mental health
Jing Chang
CTO of ITutorGroup
Mr. Jing Chang is the chief technology officer at TutorGroup. In this role, he is responsible for developing the overall technology vision, establishing the infrastructure that supports the TutorGroup platform and driving technical innovation. In addition, Mr. Chang oversees its engineering organizations, drives engineering initiatives and fosters collaboration. In recent years, Mr. Chang designed and developed key e-learning products, including a video conferencing platform, and mobile products for TutorGroup. Mr. Chang brings over 20 years of enterprise software development experience from the U.S., and a track record of delivering innovation and clear customer focus. Prior to joining TutorGroup, Mr. Chang held various leadership positions at Saba Software, IBM, GL Trade Group, and Comcast. Included amongst Mr. Chang’s broad range of responsibilities whilst at these organizations, he managed Saba’s mobile deliverables and multi-time zone teams; provided the technical leadership for building big data analytics and digital marketing applications at IBM; designed and developed web-based real-time margin trading systems for GL Trade Group; and designed / developed service-provisioning systems to support Comcast HSD (High Speed Data) subscribers. Mr. Chang holds a M.S. in Computer Science from Villanova University.
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About ITutorGroup: ITutorGroup provides individualized and personalized learning experiences to students and business professionals.
Michael Audi
CTO and Founder of Blustream
Michael Audi serves as the Chief Technology Officer and Founder of Blustream.
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About Blustream: Blustream is an after-sale customer engagement platform that connects physical goods companies with customers using product usage data.
Hao-Yen Tang
Co-Founder & CTO of UltraSense Systems
Hao-Yen Tang is a Co-Founder and the Chief Technology Officer at UltraSense Systems.
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About UltraSense Systems: UltraSense Systems offers sensor solutions for smartphones, home appliances, automotive, and medical industries.
Vivek Khandelwal
Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer of Locix
Vivek Khandelwal is the VP of Business Development at Locix. Prior to joining Locix, Vivek served as the VP of Business Development and Marketing at PROWLER.io. He holds an MBA in marketing and entrepreneurship from Santa Clara University.
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About Locix: Locix develops solutions to provide spatial and contextual awareness to buildings, homes, and connected devices.
