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 Founder operating in the Communities space. If you think a Founder is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.us.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Steve Gatena
Founder & CEO of Pray.com
Steve is the founder of pray.com, the digital destination for faith. Steve is an American Entrepreneur, Media Producer, and NCAA Champion. In 2019, Steve was honored as a CSQ 40 Under 40 Visionary. Steve has also received an Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the United Nations in a program sponsored by Dell & Intel, and been named #8 on the Forbes list of Famous Multi-Generational Entrepreneurs.
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About Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Pray.com: Pray.com is the #1 app for daily prayer & faith-based audio content
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Michael Lynn
Founder & CFO of Pray.com
Michael is the founder of pray.com, a social impact company for Non-Profits and Faith Organizations. Pray.com’s vision is to create a world where everyone leaves a legacy of helping others. Pray.com’s private social network gives Faith Organizations and Non-Profits the ability to organize their membership, run small groups & events, and raise funds for causes they care about most.
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About Pray.com: Pray.com is the #1 app for daily prayer & faith-based audio content
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.
Cory Levy
Founder of NextGen Conference
Cory Levy was born and raised in Houston, Texas. Cory is currently a student studying Computer Science at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Cory is the COO of One Inc. He focuses mostly on a mobile application called “1”. Prior to One Inc., he started several companies including an educational startup with a Professor at Duke University, a t-shirt printing company, and a sports memorabilia company. Over the last few years he has interned at: TechStars, Union Square Ventures, The Founders Fund, and DFJ Mercury. He has also guest lectured several times at Duke University and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Cory is the Creator of the NextGen Conference, a conference which brings together young, rockstar entrepreneurs with more experienced entrepreneurs. NextGen Conference is hosted annually at Stanford University.
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About AfterSchool, NextGen Conference, One Inc., Union Square Ventures: The NextGen Conference is an initiative of Levant Ministries to connect like-minded people and equip them with excellent resources.
Justin Siegel
Co-Founder & CEO of MocoSpace
Justin Siegel is the CEO & Co-Founder at JNJ Mobile.
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About ATX Angel, Capital Factory, JNJ Mobile, MocoSpace, NextGen Venture Partners, NRG eSports, Techstars, Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies: MocoSpace is a mobile gaming community for playing games, making friends, and staying connected.
Tracy Chou
Founder & CEO of Block Party
Tracy Chou is an entrepreneur, software engineer, and diversity advocate. She spent five years at Pinterest as an engineer and tech lead and was an early engineer at Quora prior to that. She is a co-founder of Project Include, a non-profit working with tech startups on diversity and inclusion, and #MovingForward, a movement working with VC firms to establish and publish anti-harassment policies; and an investment scout and advisor for several Bay Area VC firms. In her latest venture she is CEO of Block Party, with a mission to solve online harassment and abuse.
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About Block Party, Pinterest, Project Include: Block Party is a consumer app that tackles online harassment and puts you back in control.
Nick Bilogorskiy
Founder and Co-Chairman of Nova Ukraine
Nick Bilogorskiy is a founding team member at Cyphort, a next-generation anti-malware startup, and is currently leading security research there. He came to Cyphort from Facebook where he was the chief malware expert and a security spokesperson for the company, keeping 1 billion active users safe and secure. His Facebook focus was on annihilating botnets that targeted Facebook (e.g., Koobface) by developing countermeasures, remediating victims and working with law enforcement agencies on bad actor attribution and enforcement. Prior to joining Facebook, Nick managed virus research teams at SonicWALL and Fortinet. Nick is skilled in reverse engineering, analysis, writing patterns and tracking malware, frequently quoted in the media. He presented and published research papers at major security conferences. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computing science and philosophy from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and a GIAC Reverse Engineering Malware (GREM) certification. He holds several patents in computer security. Nick has been an angel investor since 2012, investing into 2-3 seed stage companies per year, focusing on cybersecurity, AI and IOT. He invested in Petcube, Cymmetria and Uber, among others. Nick Bilogorskiy is also the founder and a Director of the largest Ukrainian charity in California, Nova Ukraine, helping Ukraine by fighting corruption, providing humanitarian aid, and increasing awareness about Ukrainian culture in the US.
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About 408 Ventures, Alchemist Accelerator, Google, Nova Ukraine: Nova Ukraine is a non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening civil society in Ukraine.
Scott Heiferman
Co-Founder of Meetup
Scott Heiferman is a Co-Founder and CEO of [Meetup](http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/meetup), the world’s largest network of local community groups. Over 50,000 Meetups (self-organized community events) happen each week. Millions of people in over more than 100 countries “use the internet to get off the internet” using Meetup, which is built on the idea that every town needs support groups, playgroups, bookclubs, business circles, running groups, community action groups, etc. Previously, Heiferman co-founded Fotolog, a photo sharing network where over 30 million people have uploaded nearly a billion photos. He also founded i-traffic, a top online ad agency in the 90s. He then fled the ad industry and was influenced by 9/11 to start Meetup. Scott graduated from The University of Iowa. He is an angel investor in Betaworks, Founders Collective, Virgance, 20×200, and others. Scott received the Jane Addams Award from the National Conference on Citizenship and was named an MIT Technology Review “Innovator of the Year”. He’s @heif.
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About Meetup: Meetup brings people together in thousands of cities to do more of what they want to do in life.
Genevieve Ryan Bellaire
Founder & CEO of Realworld
Genevieve Ryan Bellaire is the Founder and CEO of Realworld, a company that provides a simple way to navigate adulthood and its life moments, with help from your community. Genevieve has had a broad array of professional experience across business, law, and government. An attorney by profession, she received her JD/MBA from Georgetown University, and worked on strategic partnerships at Goldman Sachs until leaving to found Real World Playbook. Genevieve received her B.A. in Politics-International Relations from Princeton University, where she held numerous campus leadership roles and graduated with Honors in her department. Beyond her work in the entrepreneurial world, Genevieve is passionate about women’s empowerment, education, and national security. She currently serves as a member of the Pencils of Promise Leadership Council, the Acumen Fund Young Professional Committee, and the Washington Institute for Business, Government, and Society.
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About Realworld: The #1 platform to navigate adulthood
Cindy Gallop
Founder & CEO of MakeLoveNotPorn
Cindy Gallop is the Founder and CEO of MakeLoveNotPorn and IfWeRanTheWorld. She is a former Board Advisor at Danoo and The Talent Business. Ms. Gallop received a master of arts in English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford.
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About MakeLoveNotPorn: Pro-sex. Pro-porn. Pro-knowing the difference.
Kevin Long
Co-Founder & CEO of The Dyrt
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About : The Dyrt is consumer subscription software and top ranked camping app, with over 1.5M user-submitted reviews and tips across the U.S.
Sarah Smith
Founder of The Dyrt
Sarah Smith is Founder at The Dyrt.
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About The Dyrt: The Dyrt is consumer subscription software and top ranked camping app, with over 1.5M user-submitted reviews and tips across the U.S.
Eric Grossberg
Co-CEO & Co-Founder of Brilliant Earth
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About Brilliant Earth: Brilliant Earth is a luxury jewelry company that offers ethically sourced jewelry.
Beth Gerstein
Co-CEO & Co-Founder of Brilliant Earth
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About Brilliant Earth: Brilliant Earth is a luxury jewelry company that offers ethically sourced jewelry.
Jamie Hodari
CEO & Co-Founder of Industrious
Jamie Hodari is the Co-Founder and CEO of Industrious. Prior to Industrious, Jamie was the CEO and Co-Founder of Kepler, a rapidly growing experimental university that Scientific American called a “daring global experiment” to bring “top-tier instruction to the neediest parts of the planet.”Jamie previously ran the education non-profit Generation Rwanda, analyzed investments at the hedge fund Birch Run Capital and was a project finance lawyer at the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. He started his career as a journalist at the Times of India. Jamie holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, an M.P.P. from Harvard University, and a B.A. from Columbia University.
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About Industrious: Industrious is a premium flexible workspace provider that redefines the workplace experience.
Justin Stewart
President & Co-Founder of Industrious
ustin is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Industrious. Previously Justin served as Director of Acquisitions and Operations at Windham Development and Windham China, where he headed their US Real Estate operations. He was previously a Vice President at Madison Realty Capital, but his career highlight will forever be the time he worked for the writing team at the Late Show with his childhood idol, David Letterman. He is the childhood next-door neighbor of Industrious co-founder Jamie Hodari, allowing them an early start dreaming about the future of office space. Justin can be found living with his fiancé in New York’s Lower East Side, along with their dog, confusingly named Chicken. Justin holds a Graduate Certification in Real Estate Finance and Development from NYU and a B.A. from Indiana University.
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About Industrious: Industrious is a premium flexible workspace provider that redefines the workplace experience.
Jared Tate
Founder & Creator of DigiByte
Jared Tate is the founder and creator of the DigiByte blockchain. DigiByte is a public, rapidly growing and highly decentralized 4.5 year-old blockchain. DigiBytes are digital assets that cannot be destroyed, counterfeited or hacked, making them ideal for protecting objects of value like currency, information, property or important digital data. DigiByte is currently the longest, fastest and most secure UTXO blockchain in the world today. Dozens of other leading blockchains now use technology pioneered by DigiByte.
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About DigiByte: DigiByte is a rapidly growing world-wide decentralized payment network, inspired by Bitcoin.
Garland L. McLaughlin
Co Founder & Principal of Exquisite Conglomerate Communications
Founder at Exquisite Conglomerate Communications
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About Aristotle Asset Holding, Exquisite Coffee, Exquisite Conglomerate Communications, Neos Equity Group, RBR WALLSTREET: The Masters of Digital Demonstrations
Leathia S. Hart
Founder of Exquisite Conglomerate Communications
Founder at Exquisite Conglomerate Communications
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About Exquisite Conglomerate Communications: The Masters of Digital Demonstrations
Leathia S. Hart
Founder of Exquisite Conglomerate Communications
Founder at Exquisite Conglomerate Communications
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About Exquisite Conglomerate Communications: The Masters of Digital Demonstrations
Steven Ertelt
Founder and Editor of LifeNews.com
As the founder and Editor of LifeNews.com, Steven Ertelt has provided the pro-life community with news via the Internet since 1993. He also serves as the President of Colorado Citizens for Life, a statewide pro-life group, and a member of the board of directors of the National Right to Life Committee. He is the past president of Right to Life of Wyoming and previously served as the executive director of Montana Right to Life and the public affairs director for Indiana Right to Life. Mr. Ertelt is also a former president of Students for Life of America. A former radio announcer who has been interviewed on dozens of radio and television programs, Mr. Ertelt holds a bachelor’s degree in Politics from Hendrix College.
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About LifeNews.com: LifeNews.com is an independent news agency devoted to reporting news that affects the pro-life community.
Donghao Li
Founder & CEO of Tripalink
Donghao Li is the CEO of Tripalink.
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About Tripalink: Tripalink is a residential brand for student and working professionals driven by technologies.
Sunguk Moon
Founder & Ceo of Blind
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About Blind: Blind is an anonymous workplace network where verified professionals connect to discuss what matters most.
Candice O’Denver
Founder and President of Balanced View
Candice O’Denver is an innovator in the practical application of philosophy as a means to benefit all. She is the inventor and founder of Balanced View, a standardized education in the nature of mind used throughout the world. Balanced View’s unique methodology applies algorithms to reach the consistent result of the beneficial empowerment of mind, speech, body, qualities and activities. Comprehensive order becomes spontaneously obvious through recognizing intelligence as inexhaustibly open in a vast space that is not restricted by the body. When Candice O’Denver was 7, a Bermuda neighbor read her “Awareness Nakedly Seeing” from the Oxford University translation of “The Tibetan Book of the Dead.” The clear perspective of mind as an inexhaustible open intelligence was newly invigorated in within her upon hearing this important text. It gave Candice O’Denver the courage to continue in her firmly held belief that everything is beneficial by nature. Candice found no distinction between Tibetan timeless awareness and the Christian God that was so important to her family. She learned that each culture has its own system for bringing out the best in people, and that each system is a perfect fit for that particular culture. Candice O’Denver felt a strong urgency to bring unity to the people of the world through a standardized means of bringing out the best in people which is Balanced View In Bermuda, European Catholic pageantry and British royals were blended with celebratory Caribbean Christianity and early steel drum music — the roots of reggae, rapped out on large discarded oil cans. Every night, the sound filled the air from nightfall to 2am, becoming the vibration of the Caribbean countries and their people, including Candice. Although the 50s occured after World War II, Jewish people were not permitted entry to the country or its lodging through a variety of devious means. Candice O’Denver’s parents gave refuge to visitors and immigrants who were not allowed in Bermuda, giving all 6 of their children a rich background in international community and friendship. Candice O’Denver studied in a Yale mathematics program for gifted children. At the age of 18, she attended a UCLA international program for young philosophers where she focused on the pragmatic application of philosophy to be of immediate, permanent benefit. Bypassing undergraduate school, Candice was accepted into and completed graduate school, studying both critical theory and fine arts with a variety of professors at California College of the Arts, Stanford, and UC Berkeley. Early in childhood, Candice O’Denver was introduced to computer science and the use of original algorithms to reach consistent results. In the seminal years of computer history, her father began the high level design of the first international computer network for food distribution. He later led the team that developed and implemented this system when technological innovations matched his aspirations. Inspired by her father’s drawings of bar codes and stories about a future of food distribution to everyone in the world based on the bar code, reducibility became Candice O’Denver’s innate way of problem-solving. Candice O’Denver is particularly interested in utilizing the philosophy and mathematics of computer science as the basis for a revolution in social science, particularly philosophy of mind, which always has been left to vague levels of abstraction with no result of permanent benefit. Candice applies precise levels of organization and explanation used in computer science to arrive at specific results in the philosophy of mind. Advancing theories of information, reducibility, organization, and explanation, Candice has developed a comparative analysis and then a comprehensive map of all known systems of education in the nature of mind and in human nature. Candice O’Denver is very involved in the Massive Vibe Project. The lyrics that we’re putting out there in the Massive Vibe project are very special lyrics and will the very core of people. We want these lyrics always to be very, very special direct communications of open intelligence. Nature’s vast, open intelligence speaking to everyone everywhere so that everyone everywhere is very simply, yet radically, developing a universal revolutionary language that has never existed before between beings of all kinds.
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About Balanced View: A global grassroots movement empowering people to use their innate power for the benefit of all.
Gary Tuerack
Founder and Chief Visonary of The National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS)
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About The National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS): The NSLS is the nation’s largest and only accredited leadership honor society with more than 1.5 million members.
Jeff Rosenthal
Co-Founder of Summit Series
Jeff Rosenthal is the Co-Founder of Summit, and is the co-owner, co-developer of Summit Powder Mountain and the Powder Mountain ski resort in Eden, Utah. Jeff is a founding board member of the Summit Institute, the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, and currently serves on the boards of Beyond Conflict and Street Soccer USA, the Leadership Council at Conservation International, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
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About Summit Powder Mountain, Summit Series: Summit connects, educates, and inspires a community of today’s brightest leaders
Elliott Bisnow
Founder of Summit Series
Elliott Bisnow is the Founder of Summit Series. He is also the co-founder of Bisnow Media Corporation and the Get Well Soon Tour; and a founding board member of the United Nations Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurs Council. Bisnow was raised in Washington, D.C. The son of D.C. lawyer, author, political insider, and radio talk show host Mark Bisnow and former federal trade commissioner Margot Bisnow, Elliott Bisnow grew up in Washington, D.C.’s Forest Hills neighborhood and attended the Landon School in Bethesda, Maryland. In 2004 Bisnow attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison on a tennis scholarship. While in school, Bisnow started a T-shirt company and began selling ads for Bisnow Media, a Washington, D.C.-based digital media company his father started that published email newsletters about the D.C. real estate community. By 2007, Bisnow had dropped out of school and joined Bisnow Media full-time to help revamp the publication. After two years, the business had more than 100,000 subscribers and was bringing in an annual revenue of $2 million. It has since blossomed into North America’s largest commercial real estate media company. Bisnow Media now reaches more than 500,000 subscribers, covers 21 U.S. markets and has revenues surpassing $10 million a year. In 2008, Bisnow started Summit Series, an organization that hosts events for young entrepreneurs, artists and activists. In June 2011, after hosting several events — including Summit Series in Mexico, on a Caribbean cruise ship, and in Squaw Valley, California — the organization bought a part of Powder Mountain for a reported $40 million to become its home base, called Summit Powder Mountain. The location will host future Summit events, which now attract thousands of participants and guests, including leaders such as Richard Branson, Bill Clinton, and Ted Turner. Bisnow also oversees the Summit Action Fund, which invests in innovative start-ups whose founders are entrepreneurs with strong morals and values. The companies the fund has invested in include Zaarly, Change.org, Basis, Bre.ad, IDC Elevator, Scopley, LSTN, Warby Parker, Scribd, and Uber. In 2009, Bisnow was recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of “America’s Coolest Young Entrepreneurs” in their 30 Under 30 issue.
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About Powder Mountain Ski Resort, Summit Action, Summit Series: Summit connects, educates, and inspires a community of today’s brightest leaders
Brett Leve
Co-Founder of Summit Series
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About Summit Series: Summit connects, educates, and inspires a community of today’s brightest leaders
Jeremy Schwartz
Co-Founder of Summit Series
Jeremy Schwartz is the Co-Owner of Powder Mountain and Co-Founder & former Creative Director of Summit, an organization dedicated to connecting and fostering a global community of today’s brightest leaders. For more than a decade, Jeremy has driven the creative vision behind the brand; creating and managing all forward-facing assets, marketing strategies, websites, and technologies.
Jeremy is also the Founder & Creative Director of All The Colors, a creative consultancy that helps companies strategize and execute on all of their branding, design, marketing, and technology objectives.
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About Summit Series: Summit connects, educates, and inspires a community of today’s brightest leaders
Ben Anderson
Co-Founder and CEO of Amino Apps
Benjamin Anderson is a co-founder and CEO at Amino Apps.
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About Amino Apps: Amino Apps enables people to discover, develop, and express their interests and passions.
Yin Wang
Co-Founder and CTO of Amino Apps
Yin Wang is a Founder at Amino Apps company.
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About Amino Apps, Narvii: Amino Apps enables people to discover, develop, and express their interests and passions.
Jake Vartanian
Founder of Native
Currently based in Denver, CO, Jake has spent the last few years garnering insights on global economies and emergent communities. A self-taught stock trader in his youth, Jake entered the cryptocurrency arena in early 2011 at age 17, inspired by community currency visionary Robert Swann, the works of counterculturist Hakim Bey and connecting his yoga practice – specifically the cultivation and distribution of attention – to understanding the nature of value. As he observed networks creating value over time through on individual and collective participation and emotional connection, Jake worked as a community evangelist for the Synereo project, which monetizes original content posted on the web. He then led the marketing efforts for the SingularDTV Token Launch, which provides artists applications to manage projects from development to distribution. In 2016, Jake founded Cryptodex, the first ever token launch consulting firm. He was involved in a series of successful cryptocurrency launches and projects including Tokencard and Primalbase. He also supported Bancor, which enables instant liquidity and convertibility for tokens of any size market cap. He currently advises Constellation Labs, Dispatch, Swytch and Electron. With the success of Bancor and its framework opening the doors to new possibilities of marketing making, Jake began to envision Native, which enables emergent communities to express their ethos, make collective decisions and utilize their own currencies.
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About Cryptodex, Native: Blockchain Platform for Community Based DAOs
Norberto Menendez
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder of LifeWallet
Norberto M. is the Founder at iNewton, LLC.
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About HMBL Health, iNewton, LifeWallet: Provides employers, communities and healthcare professionals with a simple, powerful solution to assess the health of their population.
Norberto Menendez
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder of LifeWallet
Norberto M. is the Founder at iNewton, LLC.
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About HMBL Health, iNewton, LifeWallet: Provides employers, communities and healthcare professionals with a simple, powerful solution to assess the health of their population.
Niel Robertson
Co-Founder, CEO of influence.co
Niel Robertsonm, formally the CEO of Trada, a pay-per-click (PPC) marketplace allowing agencies and in-house advertisers to leverage the skills of hundreds of the best paid search experts in the world. Trada was the third startup that Niel founded including Newmerix, a software company specializing in change management for packaged applications, and Service Metrics, a venture backed startup company focused on providing an end user perspective of website performance. Exodus acquired Niel’s biggest success to date, Service Metrics, in October of 1999. In addition to the previous startups Niel has founded, he has also served as the CTO in Residence at Mobius Venture Capital, as well as a Venture Partner with Fidelity Ventures in Boston.
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About influence.co, Ramen, VigLink: The professional network for the creator economy
Alexander Dembitzer
Founder of The Northern Charitable Foundation (NCF)
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About SKY POWER, LLC, SkyREM, The Northern Charitable Foundation (NCF): The Northern Charitable Foundation (NCF) is a tax deductible 501 C3 non-profit organization.
Roshawnna Novellus
Founder & CEO of EnrichHER
Dr. Roshawnna Novellus is the Founder and CEO of EnrichHER, a financial technology platform that help women get funding to grow incredible ventures. Dr. Novellus is a gender equality advocate who believes in economic empowerment and inclusive economic growth. Dr. Novellus holds a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering, with a Minor in Finance, a Masters of Science in Information Technology emphasizing Information System Engineering, a Bachelor of Arts in Business Management Economics, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering – achieving Summa Cum Laude in each. Dr. Novellus has been featured in Fast Company, Forbes, and Huffington Post. She has also completed the Pipeline Angels Fellowship, a Kauffman program in angel investing. Roshawnna serves on the Commission on Women for the City of Atlanta, and was honored as one of the Women Who Means Business by the Atlanta Business Chronicle and one of the 40 Under 40 by Georgia Trend. Dr. Novellus was recently selected as a social entrepreneurship fellow in the prestigious Halcyon Incubator in Washington, D.C. You’ll often find Roshawnna at the latest barre, yoga, or bootcamp class.
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About EnrichHER: EnrichHER Funding is a lending platform that provides up to $250k to revenue-generating women-led businesses.
Josh Rosenheck
Founder, Chief Product Officer of Community
Josh Rosenheck is the Founder and Chief Product Officer of Community. Over his career he has founded and led a number of startups. Prior to founding Community, Josh ran product at Shimmur, a Sony Ventures, Greycroft and Techstars-backed company that built tools to help artists, influencers, and celebrities engage with their audience at scale. Shimmur pivoted into Community. Before Shimmur, Josh co-founded Tag, a social passport app backed by investors including Mark Cuban, Eduardo Saverin, and Tim Draper. Tag was acquired by Cyber Dust. Josh’s first venture was an app to encourage responsible alcohol consumption. The app, Shots iGot, was widely adopted by substance abuse orientation programs and reached Top 10 Paid Entertainment Apps in the iOS app store.
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About Community: Community is an app that solves communication and engagement problems.
Matthew Peltier
Founder, CEO of Community
Matthew Peltier is the Founder, CEO at community.com
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About Community: Community is an app that solves communication and engagement problems.
Julie Anne Quay
Founder and CEO of VFILES
Julie Anne Quay is VFILES Founder and CEO and has over 20 years of experience in the fashion and media industries. Quay was Executive Editor for V Magazine before founding VFILES, and has worked for VH1, Vogue Japan and Australia, style.com, Steven Meisel, Richard Avedon, and more leading industry figures.
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About VFILES: VFILES—connect, discover, collaborate, and be a part of what’s next.
Mario Morino
Founder of Venture Philanthropy Partners
Mario Morino is Founding Chairman of Venture Philanthropy Partners and chairman of the Morino Institute. His career spans more than 45 years as entrepreneur, technologist, and civic and business leader. He also has a long history of civic engagement and philanthropy in the National Capital Region and Northeast Ohio. He is the primary author of the book Leap of Reason: Managing to Outcomes in an Era of Scarcity (2011), which is informing efforts in more than 60 countries to increase the impact of nonprofits, foundations, and public-sector entities. In the early 1970s, Mario co-founded and helped build the Legent Corporation, a software and services firm that became a market leader and one of the industry’s 10 largest firms by the early 1990s. He retired from the private sector in 1992. Since then, he has sought to “level the playing field” for children of low-income families, focusing almost exclusively on economic, social, and educational issues. Mario has benefited from a 25-year relationship with General Atlantic LLC, one of the leading global growth equity firms providing capital for companies in markets with high growth potential, typically driven by globalization, industry consolidation, technology, demographics, liberalized markets, and other transformative factors. After serving as a Special Advisor and a member of its Executive Advisory Board, he continues as an investor in the firm. In his philanthropic work, Mario founded the Morino Institute in 1994 to stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship, advance a more effective philanthropy, close social divides, and understand the relationship and impact of the Internet on our society. In the 1990s, his efforts focused on the application of the Internet in communities and, in particular, opening up new technology-enabled learning opportunities and centers for children and youth of low-income families. Concurrently, he played a leadership role helping the National Capital Region understand and advance its position as a world center in information technology and telecommunications. In 2000, Mario co-founded Venture Philanthropy Partners as a philanthropic investment organization that concentrates investments of money, expertise, and contacts to improve the lives and boost the opportunities of children of low-income families in the National Capital Region. He has been one of the leaders in adapting the relevant principles of venture and growth equity investment firms and applying them for investing in the nonprofit sector to build stronger, high-impact, lasting nonprofit institutions. He also helped bring together and continues to advance a growing community of high net worth families in and around the nation’s capital. Mario serves as an advisor to General Atlantic, LLC; a member of the advisory board of the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Institute; an honorary trustee of The Brookings Institution; an Emeritus Trustee of Case Western Reserve University; and on the boards of the Lawrence School and Saint Joseph Academy. Mario received his B.B.A. from Case Western Reserve University in 1967.
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About Venture Philanthropy Partners: VPP makes the future brighter for youth living in the National Capital Region by tackling the largest barriers
Sumit Gupta
Co-Founder & CEO of Boom.tv
Sumit Gupta is an Advisor at Boom Fantasy and Founder & CEO at Boom.tv. He is a 3x Entrepreneur (multiple exits), Angel Investor and Mentor. Founded 3 companies. Invested in 50+ startups including Discord, G2 eSports, BlockChain Capital, Blockstream, Blockcypher, Filecoin, Wag, Classpass, OpenDoor, HoneyBook, Managed-by-Q, Dishcraft Robotics. Mr. Gupta also runs Piazza eSports Ventures with pa articular focus on investments and incubating startups Infusing tech into eSports and Game Streaming. Investments include Discord, Vulcun/StreamLabs, BitKraft, G2 Esports. Startup Portfolio includes DrDisRespect stream team, Boom.tv, Rolocule Games, Boom Fantasy Previously, He served as a Founder & CEO of Bash Gaming, took the mobile gaming company to annual revenue of $75M, profitable and sold it to GSN for $170M. Previously as founder CEO of BitRhymes Apps, top 10 app developers in social space. Before that, I was part of founding team at Business Signatures that was sold to Entrust for $55M
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About afkVR, Boom.tv: BoomTV is an Esports entertainment platform that provides tools to automate score tracking, streaming, and generating event hubs.
Kimbal Musk
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of Big Green
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About Big Green, Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation, Square Roots Urban Growers, The Kitchen Restaurant Group: The Kitchen Community believes that every child deserves the opportunity to learn, play and grow in a healthy community.
Ellen Pao
Co-Founder & CEO of Project Include
One of Silicon Valley’s leading advocates for diversity and inclusion, Ellen K. Pao is not only a long-time entrepreneur and tech investor, but her landmark gender discrimination case against venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, propelled her to the front of the fight — years before the Times Up movement. Her 2012 lawsuit helped encourage other women, people of color and especially women of color to stand-up against harassment and discrimination in tech in what has been called the “Pao Effect.” Currently, Ellen serves as CEO and co-founder of nonprofit Project Include, where she works closely with tech leaders to bring fairness to all tech workers, using data-based, practical solutions and recommendations. As interim CEO of reddit, she was the first leader of a large social media company to ban revenge porn and unauthorized nude photos as part of her broader efforts to curtail harassment on the site. Before reddit, she spent seven years as a investment partner at Kleiner Perkins. During her two decades in Silicon Valley, she has also served as a board member, engineering manager, software programmer, and business development executive. She received her BSE in electrical engineering and public policy certificate from Princeton University, her JD from Harvard Law School, and her MBA from Harvard Business School.
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About Project Include: Project Include promotes diversity and inclusion through research and advocacy. We are a non-profit, and we are hiring.
Jack Herrick
Founder and CEO of wikiHow
Jack Herrick is a serial entrepreneur and current CEO and Founder of wikiHow. Jack founded wikiHow, which is like Wikipedia for how-to. Jack started and self financed wikiHow from inception to it’s current position as one of the most popular sites on the web receiving over 25 million unique visitors per month. Prior to wikiHow, Jack was co-CEO of eHow. With Josh Hannah, Jack purchased eHow in 2004. Between 2004 and 2006 eHow grew 30x in traffic and revenue and became the largest pure play how-to site on the web. Demand Media acquired eHow in 2006. In 2002 Jack co-founded Luminescent Technologies with Dan Abrams, Eli Yablonovitch, and Stan Osher. Luminescent is a computational semiconductor lithography company that has raised over $25 MM in venture capital. From 1999-2001 Jack was CEO and co-founder at BigTray, a Sequoia funded e-commerce company. BigTray was sold in 2001 and remains the largest online vendor of restaurant equipment and supplies.
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About Signpost, wikiHow, wikiHow: wikiHow is a web- and wiki-based community that provides its users with a database of how-to guides.
David Cummings
Founder of Atlanta Tech Village
David Cummings joined Atlanta Tech Village as Founder in 2012.
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About Atlanta Tech Village, Atlanta Tech Village, Calendly, Dragon Army, Greenzie, Hannon Hill, Kevy, RenterUp, Rigor, Salesloft: Atlanta Tech Village is a tech hub for entrepreneurs that promotes a connection between talent, ideas, and capital.
David Lightburn
Co-Founder, President of Atlanta Tech Village
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About Atlanta Tech Village, Clickscape: Atlanta Tech Village is a tech hub for entrepreneurs that promotes a connection between talent, ideas, and capital.
Ruchi Sanghvi
Founder of South Park Commons
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About FWD.us, South Park Commons: South Park Commons brings together talented people to share ideas, explore directions, and realize the opportunities that’ll get you there.
Winston Ibrahim
Co-Founder & CEO of Hydros water Bottle
Winston is tasked with taking the lead on crafting the company’s overall growth strategy, pursuing new business opportunities, exploring ways to ensure long-term financial stability, managing investor relations, and ensuring strong corporate governance with close oversight over the rest of management. Winston first started at Hydros as an Advisor and Board member in late 2009. Later he served as EVP of Business Development, taking the lead raising the company’s seed, Series A, and follow on rounds of financing. Winston has already been responsible for the recruitment of the majority of the company’s Board of Directors including renowned Entrepreneur Shazi Visram, Founder & CEO of Happy Family Brands, and Adnan Durrani, Founder & CEO of American Halal Corporation. He assumed overall leadership in his current position as part of a corporate restructure in January 2012. Ibrahim also serves as Executive Director of Operation Hydros, with overall strategic and operational responsibility of the company’s social mission to address the Global Water Crisis by financing clean water infrastructure projects in the developing world. Winston is also Co-founder of the Ibrahim Leadership and Dialogue Project in the Middle East, a pioneering effort to develop a generation of U.S. leaders sensitive to inter-cultural understanding. He serves on several boards including Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), anorganization that works to engage religious diversity by building interfaith cooperation oncollege and university campuses, and ThinkImpact, a leading social entrepreneurship education company. Prior to Hydros, Winston worked as an investment banking analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia. He received his Bachelor of Art degree in Political Science from the Johns Hopkins University in 2009.
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About Hydros water Bottle, Institute of International Education: Hydros makes water bottles with built-in filters to eliminate the need for bottled water. a movement to fight the water crisis worldwide.
Anastasia Sartan
Co-Founder and CEO of Maison Me
Anastasia Sartan is a Founder at Trends Brands.
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About Maison Me, StyleHacks, Trends Brands: Maison Me is a startup that has built a platform that lets people provide either a few clues.
Tyler Faux
Co-Founder & CEO of Supergreat
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About Supergreat: Supergreat is a beauty community of real people reviewing the beauty products that work for them.
Dan Blackman
Co-Founder of Supergreat
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About Supergreat: Supergreat is a beauty community of real people reviewing the beauty products that work for them.
Derek Andersen
CEO and Co-Founder of Bevy
Derek Andersen is the founder of Startup Grind, a 50+ cities community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs. In 2013 Startup Grind will host 20,000 entrepreneurs at 300 events in 20 countries. After founding Vaporware Labs in 2009, he incubated many products (most of which failed spectacularly) including Startup Grind and professional social network Commonred. In 2012 Commonred was sold to Income.com. He is also Ex-Electronic Arts where he worked on games like Burnout, Mirror’s Edge, The Sims, and Need For Speed. Having spent 8-years living outside the United States, he currently lives in Palo Alto California with his wife and two children.
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About Bevy, Startup Grind: Bevy is an enterprise-grade virtual conference and community events platform designed to build, grow, and scale global communities.
Lazar Finker
Founder and Executive Director of Finker-Frenkel Family Foundation
Dr. Lazar Finker is the Chairman of the Board at Forum Capital Group, a position he has held since 2012. Forum Capital is a private equity group specializing in real estate and seafood. When not overseeing operations at Forum Capital or servicing their select group of high net-worth individuals, Dr. Finker focuses on philanthropy, primarily through his organization the Finker-Frenkel Family Foundation. Lazar Finker got his start in Russia, where he founded the country’s first community college. He was later invited to teach at Florida Community College. Originally only slated to stay for a semester, he and his family loved Jacksonville so much that they decided to move there. Though they travel often, they have come to be very involved in their community in the United States. The main mission of the Finker-Frenkel Family Foundation is to be a family-run organization of like-minded philanthropists joined in their commitment to improving the lives of others and passing the Foundation’ principles from one generation to the next. The Foundation makes an impact by supporting causes in multiple fields such as medical research, education, religious development, and children’s welfare. By emphasizing the role of family in the Foundation’s efforts, Lazar Finker has passed his passion onto his son, Eugene Frenkel, who is equally committed to making a difference through philanthropy. Over time, as this passion is passed from generation to generation, the Finker-Frenkel Family Foundation will achieve its mission. Since its founding, the Foundation has greatly expanded in scope, encompassing more causes and supporting larger projects in the area. In addition to promoting a myriad of causes through the Foundation, Lazar Finker is also involved with organizations like the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Mount Sinai. Through his connections, he strives to build a better community in southern Florida, supporting his friends and neighbors in their respective missions to improve health, religious groups, and education.
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About Finker-Frenkel Family Foundation, Forum Capital Group: The Finker-Frenkel Family Foundation funds world-changing initiatives both at home and abroad.
Jonathan Ende
Founder of TEDx Wall Street
Jonathan Ende is Founder & CEO at BorrowersFirst.He is also Founder at TEDx Wall Street.
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About TEDx Wall Street: TEDx is part of a revolution in global education made possible by local organizers wanting to engage their communities.
Gayle Jennings O’Byrne
Founder and CEO of iNTENT Manifesto
20+ years of finance, investment banking, philanthropy and lobbying experience. Previously, executive positions in Mergers and Acquisitions, Global Philanthropy, International Government Relations at JPMorgan Chase. Media Manager at Sun Microsystems. Developed and managed investment strategy and corporate relationships. Enjoys valuation, modeling, due diligence and championing founders and startups. Graduate of Wharton School of Business and the University of Michigan School of Business. Attended National University of Singapore and City of London Polytechnic. Conducted academic consulting project in Israel.
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About iNTENT Manifesto, The Prometheus Exchange, WOCstar Fund: iNTENT Manifesto IS an educational and investment platform.
Diane Hessan
Co-Founder & Chairman of Communispace
Diane Hessan is President and CEO of Communispace, one of the fastest growing social networking companies in the country, “with a Blue Chip client list that would make a Madison Avenue giant jealous,” according to Advertising Age. A pioneer in creating online communities to help marketers generate consumer insights, Diane helped found Communispace in 1999 and hasn’t looked back. Today, Diane leads Communispace’s employees in building and managing the more than 600 private online customer communities the company has created for a marquee list of global corporations. Communispace’s revenues have tripled over the last four years, and the company enjoys a 90+ percent client retention rate. Diane has spent her 30-year career helping companies become customer-focused—both as a business executive, and as co-author of the best-selling book Customer-Centered Growth: Five Strategies for Building Competitive Advantage. She has received many awards and citations for her leadership and workplace innovation, including Ernst & Young’s Regional Entrepreneur of the Year, and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneur of the Year. In addition to her professional recognition, Diane is quoted frequently in the business media and is a highly sought-after speaker and expert in the marketing arena. Diane has committed time and energy sitting on the boards of numerous organizations including Tufts University, Panera Bread, Governor Deval Patrick’s Council on Innovation, the Advertising Research Foundation, Horizons for Homeless Children, and The Boston Philharmonic. A summa cum laude graduate of Tufts University, Diane received an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is the mother of two grown daughters and co-founder of The Sound Bytes, an a cappella group that writes lyrics about business and performs at major conferences.
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About C Space, Communispace: Communispace is now C Space.
Iyah Romm
Founder and CEO of Cityblock Health
Iyah Romm is a Founder and CEO at Cityblock Health.
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About Cityblock Health: Cityblock Health is a tech-driven healthcare provider for those in underserved communities.
Bay Gross
Co-Founder, Chief Product Officer & VP Strategy of Cityblock Health
cofounder Cityblock
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About Cityblock Health: Cityblock Health is a tech-driven healthcare provider for those in underserved communities.
Deevee Kashi
Founder & CEO of Deed
Deevee Kashi is the CEO and founder of Deed. He previously worked at The Butter Group as a Director of Promotions and Marketing.
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About Deed: Deed provides a social impact platform to connect people with causes and businesses with social impact.
La Mer Walker
Co-Founder and CCO of Valence Community
La Mer Walker is the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Valence Community.
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About ORIGYN Foundation, Valence Community: Valence is an internet company that connects, showcases, and empowers the global black professional community.
Fahad Jalal
Founder & CEO of SitterFriends
Fahad studied Computer Science at Stanford, and got an MBA from the Wharton school of business. Over the last decade, Fahad has been involved with several startups and established companies in the capacity of founder, executive leader and investor. Fahad is involved with 3 charities that focus on child education, and development. In one word he describes himself as “human”, and his life-long goal is to help make care, and education accessible to all children across the world.
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About SitterFriends: Book your community’s most trusted babysitters, in a second, for free
Liron Shapira
Co-Founder & CEO of Relationship Hero
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About Relationship Hero: Relationship Hero connects people with a relationship expert in a private chatroom or over the phone.
Lior Gotesman
Founder & COO of Relationship Hero
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About Relationship Hero: Relationship Hero connects people with a relationship expert in a private chatroom or over the phone.
Jacqueline Novogratz
Founder & CEO of Acumen
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About Acumen: Acumen is a non-profit venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty.
Caroline Ghosn
CEO & Founder of Levo
There is evidence that Caroline’s company Levo quietly closed down operations leaving invoices to vendors and creditors unpaid in 2019. As of 2019 and 2020, the company could not be reached when contacted for payment.
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About Levo: Levo is the largest and fastest-growing professional network for millennials.
Peter Clay
Co Founder of Force of Nature Clean
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About Force of Nature Clean, LaunchPad Venture Group: Force of Nature is a new to the world product and brand committed to helping keep families well with products
Philip Camilleri
Founder of FoundersList
Philip has been tinkering with gadgets for as long as he can remember, and coding professionally for the last 20 years. He previously cofounded and was CTO at SmartAsset (YC S12, YC Top 100 Companies, $50mm+ in venture capital) before leaving in early 2019 to launch a new startup. Prior to SmartAsset, Philip was at ION Trading for 7 years, managing an international team of developers building trading solutions for top-tier investment banks.
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About FoundersList: FoundersList is a place for founders to connect, launch ideas/products, find recommended service-providers, events, cofounders, and more…
Ran Harnevo
Co Founder & CEO of Homeis
Ran is a veteran in the media and Internet industry and specializes in managing and deploying content and media assets. Ran is currently the CEO of 5min Media, the online largest video syndication platform, which he founded in 2007. Prior to starting 5min Media, Ran’s experience included working as a deputy editor at Tel-Aviv Magazine, where he managed the website and covered politics and sports. Ran earned his undergraduate degree in Philosophy and Computer Science from Tel Aviv University, after serving as a fighter pilot in the Israeli army. Ran currently resides in New York.
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About Homeis: Homeis develops a software platform that builds a better Internet for immigrants.
Lisa Marrone
Co-Founder of Revel
Lisa Marrone joined August Capital in August of 2017. Lisa had previously worked with August Capital during the Summer of 2016 while completing her JD/MBA. Prior to joining August Capital, Lisa worked short stints at the White House for President Obama’s National Economic Council, and as director of strategic marketing for Lyndra, a biotechnology company in Massachusetts. Earlier in her career, she spent three years at Bain & Company in New York City.
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About Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), Revel: Revel is a marketplace for women over 50 to host and attend small, local gatherings on topics of their choice.
Alexa Wahr
Co-Founder of Revel
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About Revel: Revel is a marketplace for women over 50 to host and attend small, local gatherings on topics of their choice.
Jean-Francois Gauthier
Founder and CEO of Startup Genome
Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur and Founder & CEO of Startup Genome. He is the world’s leading voice in innovation ecosystem development, having advised more than 100 governments and private-public partnerships across 35 countries.
He has founded five businesses and led others across two continents and three sectors (Tech, Life Sciences and Cleantech), achieving two exits plus one at scaleup stage. He is also an active angel investor and previously worked in corporate innovation, advising IBM, Cisco, Agilent/HP, J&J, and Abbott for the firm of Kim Clark (former dean of Harvard Business School) alongside Clayton Christensen and other thought leaders. Harvard MBA.
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About Exit Reality, Startup Genome: Startup Genome is a research and policy advisory organization for governments that helps accelerates the success of their startup ecosystem.
Marc Penzel
Founder and President of Startup Genome
Marc is Founder and President, leading global growth and impact. Prior to founding Startup Genome, he co-led the startup ecosystem development unit at Silicon Valley-based Startup Compass. At PwC, KPMG, and Bayer Group’s internal management consultancy, Marc advised top executives across various sectors.
He also founded a nonprofit organization to catalyze social innovation and was appointed Expert in Entrepreneurship, IT and Future of Economic Progress by the World Economic Forum. In 2017, his work to develop startup ecosystems everywhere has led him to receive a U.S. Visa for Individuals with Extraordinary Ability.
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About Startup Genome: Startup Genome is a research and policy advisory organization for governments that helps accelerates the success of their startup ecosystem.
Cadran Cowansage
CEO & Founder of Elpha
Cadran Cowansage is the CEO and Co-Founder of Elpha.
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About Elpha: Where women in tech talk candidly online
George Raptis
Co-Founder of Breef
George is Founder at Curated – where Humans Work Better Together. He was the first team member at Credible, responsible for Operations. He has since transitioned into an advisory role, responsible for legal, strategy and company relationships.
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About Breef: The Only Way to Agency.
Emily Bibb
Co-Founder of Breef
Emily has a history in bringing early-stage startups into culture, and is considered to be a global leader in the digital space. Having been at the forefront of digital marketing & brand strategy, she was instrumental in building several, high-growth startups including POPSUGAR, VSCO, & S’well. Emily’s background sparked her mission to change the future of work. Realizing there was no trusted solution for work ‘outside the walls’ of an organization, she is leading the way in which companies outsource their most important projects on Breef. With a ‘pass-it-on’ mentality, Emily is a strong advocate for mentorship, partnering with both the Wall Street Journal and Bigs & Littles program here in New York City. As a former swimmer — NCAA Champion and USA Olympic Team Trial qualifier — Emily’s spare time is often in a pool.
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About Breef: The Only Way to Agency.
Scott Owens
Founder / CEO of DoStuff Media
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About DoStuff Media: DoStuff Media is a network of local media properties for people looking to do awesome stuff.
Heini Zachariassen
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Vivino
Heini is Vivino’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Credited with bringing a technology revolution to the wine industry, Heini founded Vivino because he was frustrated by not knowing which wine to buy. It’s been his passion project ever since. During his tenure, Vivino has grown into a community of 46 million users, raised $72 million in funding, and rolled out a worldwide wine marketplace. Before starting Vivino, Heini co-founded several startups, including global internet and mobile security company BullGuard. Heini leads the team from Vivino’s European headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. Heini and Vivino’s story is featured in an independent documentary, “Disrupting Wine, The Life of an Entrepreneur.” Heini also hosts the YouTube series Raw Startup, which offers candid advice for entrepreneurs and startups.
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About Vivino: Vivino is a wine app and online wine marketplace that provides users tools to buy better wine based on their unique tastes.
Daniel Gendelman
Founder of Raya
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About Raya: Raya is an online membership-based community for dating, networking, and making new friends.
Ryan Deiss
Founder & CEO of DigitalMarketer
Ryan Deiss is the co-founder of Idea Incubator LP and CEO of DigitalMarketer.com. He launched his first web-based business from his college dorm room in 1999, and since that time he’s founded over 40 different businesses in markets such as health and beauty, survival and preparedness, DIY crafts and home improvement, investing and finance, chemical and liquid filter manufacturing, business lending, online skills training and menswear…just to name a few. In addition to operating multiple businesses, Ryan is also a highly sought after author, speaker and consultant whose work has impacted over 250,000 businesses in 68 different countries.
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About DigitalMarketer, Recess.io: DigitalMarketer is an online community providing ideas on driving more traffic, increasing conversion rates, and boosting social engagement.
Perry Belcher
Co-Founder of DigitalMarketer
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About DigitalMarketer, Native Commerce, Olympus Peak, Traffic & Conversion Summit: DigitalMarketer is an online community providing ideas on driving more traffic, increasing conversion rates, and boosting social engagement.
Terren Klein
CEO & Co-Founder of College Pulse
Terren Klein is the CEO & Co-Founder at College Pulse.
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About College Pulse: College Pulse is a polling platform designed to aggregate and share student public opinion on college campuses.
Jonathan Kola
CTO & Co- Founder of Wecyclers
Olawale is a production supervisor with 9 years of industrial experience at a US Fortune 200 company. He has deep experience in Electric Arc Furnace, Ladle Metallurgy Furnace and Casting Operations. Olawale is experienced in construction and commissioning of multimillion-dollar production facilities. He is a highly motivated individual with a proven ability to lead teams and generate results. Olawale holds an MBA from the Indiana State University, Kelly School of Business and an M.S and B.S in Chemical Engineering from Florida Institute of Technology. Wale is responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the Wecyclers.
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About Wecyclers: Wecyclers offers convenient household recycling service using a fleet of low-cost cargo bikes.
Shaan Hathiramani
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Flockjay
Shaan Hathiramani is a Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Flockjay. He is a former CXO at Thistle and Portfolio Manager at Balyasny Asset Management L.P. and Alyeska Investment Group. Mr. Hathiramani graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor of arts in Applied Mathematics.
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About Flockjay: Flockjay is an online academy that empowers job seekers with the tools and training they need to break into tech.
Michael Ellison
Founder and CEO of CodePath
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About CodePath: CodePath is a nonprofit increasing diversity in tech by transforming CS college education.
JP Rosato
CEO & Founder of Sitehands
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About CS Technology, Sitehands: Sitehands is a global IT marketplace serving the largest global Financial Institutions and Fortune 500 companies.
Phil Kaulfield
Founder & COO of ShoppingGives
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About ShoppingGives: ShoppingGives encourages consumers to make an impact through its change commerce technology.
Ronny Sage
Founder & CEO of ShoppingGives
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About ShoppingGives: ShoppingGives encourages consumers to make an impact through its change commerce technology.
Ryan Jonker
Founder & CFO of ShoppingGives
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About ShoppingGives: ShoppingGives encourages consumers to make an impact through its change commerce technology.
Mukesh Sehgal
Founder, President & CEO of RSG Media
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About RSG Media: RSG Media is a media-tech supplier specializing in rights management, whose customers include industry-leading TV networks, studios.
Ben Goldhirsh
Founder of GOOD
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About GOOD: GOOD is an integrated media platform for pragmatic idealists working towards individual and collective progress.
Bernard Xavier
Founder, Board Member of Sentab Ltd
Bernard Xavier is a seasoned technology executive, with over 13 years of specialized radio frequency (RF) and baseband design expertise with companies such as National Semiconductor, Texas Instruments, Philips, and LSI Logic. Xavier is the founder, CEO and President at Quorum Systems, a San Diego-based start-up developing multi-mode RF devices for next generation cellular handsets that was acquired by Spreadtrum, a China-based wireless semiconductor company. Prior to launching Quorum, Xavier founded InnoCOMM Wireless, a Formative Ventures portfolio company and fabless semiconductor start-up specializing in wireless access ICs in February 1998, and was responsible for business development, engineering, finance and sales. He generated over $7M of sales for InnoCOMM, and funded some of the company’s operating expenses. During his tenure, Xavier initiated and developed strategic alliances with several large and small companies and negotiated all contracts and business deals, including the Series A and B financing rounds. Xavier grew the InnoCOMM team from its initial three-person team to a total of fifty-eight employees, developing the largest RF IC team outside of Qualcomm in San Diego. Xavier navigated the negotiation of the $130M acquisition of InnoCOMM by National Semiconductor, who outbid several other corporate suitors. Upon acquisition, Xavier assumed the role of Director of Wireless Data at National Semiconductor. In this new role, he managed several satellite design teams in Sweden, Scotland, Santa Clara, Germany and San Diego. The overall headcount with either direct or dotted line responsibility to Xavier was in excess of seventy engineers. Xavier received his PhD in microwave circuits from Brunel University in the UK. He has published some thirty papers in radio frequency IC design and is currently serving on the technical program committee of the MTT-S RFIC conference. He has filed several patents in the area of semiconductor circuits and systems.
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About Formative Ventures, Sentab Ltd, Summitview Capital: Sentab is an entertainment and communication system running on TV.
Bill Moore
Founder/CEO of Zello
Bill is CEO of Zello, founder and director of TuneIn, and an early stage angel investor. Zello is social radio with 55 million anonymous users enjoying live public conversations from around the globe. NPR, PBS, BBC, CNN and Fox Business have covered Zello’s role as the most popular app for activists in Turkey, Egypt, Venezuela and Ukraine. While CEO of TuneIn thru 2011 Bill’s team created a platform to organize the worlds radio, created a top 50 overall app across 100 countries and won embedded deals powering BMW, Sonos and product lines across auto, mobile and connected device. Bill closed the funding with Sequoia Capital, moved the team to Palo Alto and returned to Texas.
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About Zello: Frontline workers save the world everyday. We build technology for them.
Josh Sagman
Co-Founder of Boys & Girls Clubs of America
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About Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Tito’s Handmade Vodka: To enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens.
Kai Buehler
Founder & CEO of KarmaKarma
Kai Buehler is Quake Europe’s co-founder and managing partner. He is also the CEO and founder of KARMAKARMA, a marketing platform to reward and engage consumers through social impacts. Kai has successfully started, managed and sold a number of businesses in the mobile application, loyalty and interactive TV space. In 2011, Kai sold Watchpoints, the first app that rewarded viewers for watching television, to Viggle (VGGL). Before joining Viggle, Kai was the CEO of Mobile Messaging Solutions (mms), a leading iTV and mobile engagement provider that divested out of VeriSign in 2009 (VRSN). He was also the CEO of Mindmatics USA, which he merged with mms Inc. In 2000, he co-founded plan_b media and successfully grew the company to a leader in the production and distribution of mobile entertainment content with offices in Cologne (Germany), New York, London and Vienna. The company was acquired by Mindmatics, a T-Mobile Venture, in 2005.
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About KarmaKarma, Quake Capital Europe: KarmaKarma is a social impact community where users can see and track their impact on the world.
Tameika Reed
Founder of Women In Linux
Tameika Reed founded Women In Linux out of frustration that there were no other women or women of color represented at the workplace or tech events. Tameika is a self-taught Linux administrator who has spent countless hours helping others get started in Linux. In conjunction with NAACP, she provides families with basic computer training and life skills. Tameika is also a consultant to the Education Foundation on how to introduce Linux and other tech careers to Florida students.
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About Women In Linux: Women In Linux is a dynamic group who celebrate Linux centric women in technology, exposing women.
Lindsey Taylor Wood
Founder, CEO & GP of The Helm
Lindsey Taylor Wood is the Founder, CEO & GP at The Helm.
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About The Helm, The Helm: The Helm is an early-stage venture firm investing in game-changing companies founded by women through our fund and investor membership.
Jeremy Frommer
Founder & CEO of Creatd
Jeremy Frommer is an American financier and entrepreneur based in New Jersey. His career includes over two decades on Wall Street, working as a hedge fund and portfolio manager, and on the sell-side of the financial industry, building and selling two financial services companies. He is CEO of Jerrick Ventures Inc., a company that acquires, develops and produces content across all forms of media. Frommer is depicted in Michael Lewis’ novel Flash Boys. In 2012, Frommer discovered the “Guccione Collection,” a large collection of unpublished works and photos owned by Bob Guccione, the founder of the Penthouse empire. Frommer graduated magna cum laude from the State University of New York at Albany, with a B.A. in philosophy, and studied at the London School of Economics.
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About Creatd, Vocal: Creatd is an IT company that provides technologies that solve problems for the creative community.
Lucian Tarnowski
CEO & Founder of BraveNew
Lucian is Founder and CEO of BraveNew.com, the enterprise platform for knowledge sharing communities. BraveNew ‘Communities of Purpose’ enable organisations such as Lockheed Martin, Mercer, Manpower and the Collaborative Health Network to use curated content to connect, engage and develop stakeholders inside and outside of the company around any initiative such as Veterans, STEM, Women, Diversity, Health, Sustainability and Leadership development. BraveNew is creating the ‘Knowledge Graph’ by mapping members informal learning. Through peer-to-peer learning communities BraveNew is helping its client break down the knowledge silos that exist everywhere and over time identify collective intelligence of communities. The company has been awarded the Best Advance in Social Learning Technology by Brandon Hall Group. Lucian lives with his wife in San Francisco. He has been honoured as a Young Global Leader (YGL) by the World Economic Forum and is winner of the Global Enterprising Young Brit. He has served on the Steering Board for a World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Talent Mobility and has been Topic Champion for Employment and Skills. He obsesses over the social science behind communities and believes communities give humans both meaning and context in increasingly complex world. Lucian is passionate about using technology and communities to disrupt the way people learn and has worked in vocational education from the age of 9. In his spare time he runs Take Heart India, a 50 year old no overheads charity started by his father that provides blind and handicapped people in rural India with the vocational employment skills to required to get lifelong employment or start a small business. He sits on the Board of Innovate Educate, a US Foundation that aims to bridge the skills gap with a demand driven approach to jobs. He has spoken at gatherings such as Davos, TEDx, The China Digital Summit and for companies such as Coca-Cola, Oracle, Pearson, IBM and PWC. He speaks to audiences around the world about the convergence of talent and technology and its impact on the future of the global workforce and learning.
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About BraveNew, Civana, The World Economic Forum: BraveNew enables collaborative learning by creating engaging online spaces for professional communities to share knowledge.
Brian Timpone
Founder & President of BlockShopper
Brian Timpone, President of BlockShopper, founded the company in May 2006. Formerly a television reporter, Brian is the founding publisher of courthouse legal journals in Southern Illinois, South Texas and Charleston, WV, as well as LegalNewsline.com, a national news service covering state supreme courts and attorneys general. He also serves on the board of directors at Manifest Digital , an interactive web design and development agency based in Chicago. In 2003, he founded Greater Illinois Newsgroup, four community newspaper chain in Central Illinois. It was purchased by the Champaign News-Gazette in 2005. In 2001, Brian founded 1871 Media, a content management software provider for newspapers and associations. Brian is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He lives in Lincoln Park with his wife, Patricia, and three children.
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About BlockShopper: BlockShopper is a local news and market data service for current and seeking homeowners, home buyers, and home sellers.
Justin McCarty
COO & Co-Founder of Bungalow
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About Bungalow: Bungalow provides home rental services.
