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 Events 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.
Kevin Hartz
Co-Founder & Chairman of Eventbrite
Kevin is the Co-Founder & Chairman of Eventbrite and an EIR & Venture Partner at Founders Fund. Prior to joining the firm, Kevin was Co-Founder and CEO of Eventbrite. Kevin was previously Co-Founder and CEO of Xoom Corporation, an international money transfer company servicing more than 30 countries worldwide. Xoom went public in 2012 and was acquired by PayPal in 2015. Kevin has served as an early-stage investor and advisor to successful start-ups including Airbnb, Lookout, PayPal, Pinterest, Skybox Imaging, Trulia, Uber, and Yammer.
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About Eventbrite, Y Ventures: Eventbrite develops an online platform that lets users find and create events.
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Julia Hartz
Co-Founder & President of Eventbrite
Julia Hartz hopes to inspire people to live more by building the world’s largest marketplace of live experiences. Since founding Eventbrite in 2006 with Kevin Hartz and Renaud Visage, the company has generated over $3 billion in gross ticket sales, with more than $200 million tickets processed to events and experiences around the globe. A key to this growth and success is the people of Eventbrite (fondly referred to as The Britelings), which has grown to nearly 400 employees in six offices around the world. Julia cultivates and advocates for Eventbrite’s award-winning culture (voted Best Places to Work in the San Francisco Bay Area five years running). She has been honored as one of Inc.’s 35 under 35 in 2014 and Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs in 2013. Julia is also a frequent speaker on live experiences, consumer trends and entrepreneurship, and has been recently featured in Forbes, Fortune, Bloomberg and Inc. Magazine. Previous to Eventbrite, Julia was a TV development executive at MTV and FX Networks.
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About Eventbrite, Eventbrite, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, The Aspen Institute: Eventbrite develops an online platform that lets users find and create events.
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.
Ryan Simonetti
CEO & Co-Founder of Convene
Ryan is the Co-Founder and CEO of Convene, commercial real estate’s first workplace-as-a-service platform. His unique expertise in real estate acquisitions, development, and structured finance has helped catapult Convene to become a pioneer in the industry.
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About Convene: Convene designs and services premium places to work, meet, and host events.
Candice Peters
CEO and Founder of Hello Parent
Candice is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Hello Parent and Lolihops.
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About Hello Parent: Hello Parent provides parents a convenient way to plan playdates, parties, special events and other activities.
Trisha Bousfield
Founder & CEO of Pozvat
Trisha Bousfield has extensive experience in marketing, event planning, sales, management, and operations. In 2010, Ms. Bousfield combined her passion for event planning with her strong entrepreneurial spirit, and founded Pozvat. Prior to Pozvat, Ms. Bousfield was a Project Manager at Google, where she was specifically credited for the creation and success of the Hardware Depot onsite stores. Ms. Bousfield has spent over a decade in prominent philanthropic roles. She has served in numerous capacities for the Buena Vista Auxiliary, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, and the Junior League.
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About Pozvat: Online invitations, group-funded gifts, and thank you cards wrapped up in a neat little bow.
Tom Shannon
Founder, President & CEO of Bowlmor AMF
CEO Tom Shannon joined Gregg Greenberg of “The Street” to discuss millennials, expansion, and making bowling cool again. “It’s going to be an iconic ad campaign because it’s fresh, unique and legitimate,” said Shannon regarding Bowlmor AMF’s highly-anticipated new ad campaign featuring elite bowler Jason Belmonte.
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About Bowlmor AMF: Bowlmor AMF in bowling and entertainment in North America.
Sonny Ganguly
Co-Founder of WeddingWire
Sonny Ganguly is the Co-founder of WeddingWire Inc. Sonny leads WeddingWire’s marketing strategy, customer acquisition, and business development. Prior to joining WeddingWire, Sonny was in a management program at Wal-Mart where he led marketing, sales, and retail strategy development. Before this experience, Sonny spent four years at Kraft Foods where he managed numerous consumer brands, including the JELL-O business with P&L responsibility for over $800 Million. During his tenure, his brands’ reached record volume, revenue, and profitability levels. Sonny has structured partnerships with companies such as NBC, MTV, Conde Nast (Modern Bride and Brides magazines), Mattel, Universal, Dole, Reynolds, Costco, and Safeway. Sonny holds a B.A. in Economics with a focus in Management and Marketing from The University of Pennsylvania. He attended Harvard Business School for his M.B.A. where he served as President of the Marketing Club.
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About Kraft Heinz, WeddingWire: WeddingWire is an online marketplace to help engaged couples plan their weddings.
Numaan Akram
Founder & CEO of Rally
Numaan is the founder and CEO of Rally Bus, a New Haven startup which combines crowdsourcing and event travel.
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About Rally: Rally is Mass Mobility as a Service: technology and model innovations for the business of buses.
Siheun Song
Co-Founder & President of Rally
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About Rally: Rally is Mass Mobility as a Service: technology and model innovations for the business of buses.
Lee Rubin
Founder & CEO of Confetti
Lee Rubin is the Founder & CEO at Confetti
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About Confetti: Discover unique workplace activities & corporate events that fit your company’s culture, goals & budget.
Jerry Bednyak
Co-Founder of Vivid Seats
Jerry Bednyak is the Co-Founder at Vivid Seats.
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About Vivid Seats: Vivid Seats operates as an online ticket marketplace that connects fans with event ticket sellers.
Eric Vassilatos
Co-Founder of Vivid Seats
Eric Vassilatos is the Co-Founder at Vivid Seats.
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About Skybox Capital, Vivid Seats: Vivid Seats operates as an online ticket marketplace that connects fans with event ticket sellers.
Jonathan Wygant
Founder and CEO of BigSpeak Speakers Bureau
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About BigSpeak Speakers Bureau: BigSpeak is a full-spectrum speakers bureau providing business speakers to corporations, non-profits, and associations.
Matteo Carroll
Co-Founder of Ribbon
Matteo Carroll is a Co-Founder of Ribbon.
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About Ribbon: Ribbon is a one-stop-shop online platform for live and recorded events that provides services such as Zoom integrations and email marketing.
Vojta Drmota
Co-Founder and CEO of Ribbon
Vojta Drmota is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ribbon.
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About Ribbon: Ribbon is a one-stop-shop online platform for live and recorded events that provides services such as Zoom integrations and email marketing.
Reggie Aggarwal (CEO and Founder)
Founder & CEO of Cvent
Reggie Aggarwal is the CEO and Founder of Cvent, the leader in meetings, events and hospitality software. A lawyer by trade, Reggie founded Cvent in 1999 as a two-person startup, with the goal of making meeting planning easier for his peers in the business community. Reggie was named the #1 SaaS CEO by The SaaS Report in their 2019 Top 50 SaaS CEO list and Entrepreneur of the Year for the Washington, DC area by Ernst & Young. He was also named the most admired CEO in the Washington, DC area by the Washington Business Journal, one of the 100 most Intriguing Entrepreneurs by Goldman Sachs, and a rising star by Forbes Magazine. He has been featured in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes and Business Week. He has also been interviewed on CNN, MSNBC, the BBC and several other popular news shows.
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About Cvent: Cvent delivers the most comprehensive event marketing & management platform, maximizing the impact of in-person, virtual, and hybrid events.
Chuck Ghoorah (Co-founder)
Co-Founder & President of Worldwide Sales & Marketing of Cvent
Chuck Ghoorah is the co-founder and President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing at Cvent. Chuck has been instrumental in Cvent’s growth from a two-person startup to an industry-leading global organization. Cvent has helped its more than 30,000 customers manage millions of events.
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About Cvent: Cvent delivers the most comprehensive event marketing & management platform, maximizing the impact of in-person, virtual, and hybrid events.
David Quattrone
Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer of Cvent
David Quattrone has been with Cvent since the company’s founding, bringing a wealth of expertise in designing and developing large-scale Internet applications. David designed and supervised the development of Cvent’s original beta product as well as all of Cvent’s subsequent product releases, upgrades and redesigns. Prior to co-founding Cvent, David worked at First Consulting Group, a leading provider of information-based consulting, integration, and management services. There, David specialized in large-scale custom Internet/Intranet application design and development. David’s clients included BlueCross/BlueShield Association, United States Postal Service, and MCI. He was also a Consultant with E.J. Bell Systems, a software integration and application development firm, where he helped found the company’s Internet/Intranet development practice. Prior to E.J. Bell Systems, David co-founded Network Resources Group, a New York based firm specializing in Internet software integration and application development. At Network Resources Group, David created the Online Gaming Review, an online publication subsequently acquired by Air Age publishing.
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About Cvent: Cvent delivers the most comprehensive event marketing & management platform, maximizing the impact of in-person, virtual, and hybrid events.
Paolo Privitera
Co-Founder and CEO of Evensi
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About Doochoo, Evensi, Lombardstreet Ventures: Evensi is a platform to discover, experience, ideate, and promote events.
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
Carlos Watson
Co-Founder & CEO of OZY Media
Carlos Watson co-anchors MSNBC 2 p.m. news program from NBC headquarters at 30 Rock. A Harvard grad, he got his start in politics, serving as campaign manager and chief of staff for Florida Representative Daryl Jones and managing Bill Clintonâs 1992 Election Day effort in Miami-Dade County. While at Harvard, he also worked with Senator Bob Graham, DNC Chair Ron Brown, and Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez. After graduating from Stanford Law, where he edited the Law Review, Watson joined the business world, advising Fortune 500 companies as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company. He later struck out on his own and co-founded Achieva College Prep Services, which helped thousands of high school students prepare for college and was written about in Time and Forbes, among others. Watson sold the firm to the Washington Post/Kaplan in 2002.
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About Achieva.com, OZY Media, The Stimulist: OZY Media is a premium media and entertainment for curious people — across TV, events, podcasts and news.
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.
Albert Leffler
Co-Founder and VP New Project Development of Ticketmaster
Albert Leffler is the co-founder and VP of new project development at Ticketmaster.
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About Ticketmaster: Ticketmaster is the world’s largest ticket marketplace and the global market leader in live event ticketing.
Jared Augustine
CEO & Co-Founder of Thuzio
Jared is the CEO and Co-Founder of Thuzio, and the Founder of Julius.
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About Julius, Thuzio: Thuzio is a client entertainment platform for b-to-b sales organizations and professionals.
Jerry Shen
President, Head of Sales, and Co-Founder of Welcome
Jerry Shen is the Co-Founder of Welcome. He serves as its President and Head of Sales.
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About Welcome: Welcome creates jaw-dropping virtual events.
Tiger Shen
Co-Founder of Welcome
Tiger Shen is a Co-Founder at Welcome.
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About Welcome: Welcome creates jaw-dropping virtual events.
Roberto Ortiz
CEO and Co-Founder of Welcome
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About Welcome: Welcome creates jaw-dropping virtual events.
Tim O’Reilly
Founder, Chairman & CEO of O’Reilly
Tim O’Reilly is the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media Inc. Considered by many to be the best computer book publisher in the world, O’Reilly Media also hosts conferences on technology topics, including the O’Reilly Open Source Convention, Strata: The Business of Data, the Velocity Conference on Web Performance and Operations, and many others. Tim’s blog, the O’Reilly Radar “watches the alpha geeks” to determine emerging technology trends, and serves as a platform for advocacy about issues of importance to the technical community. Tim is also a partner at O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, O’Reilly’s early stage venture firm, and is on the board of Safari Books Online, PeerJ, Code for America, and Maker Media, which was recently spun out from O’Reilly Media. Maker Media’s Maker Faire has been compared to the West Coast Computer Faire, which launched the personal computer revolution.
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About O’Reilly, Oreilly AlphaTech Ventures, Oreilly AlphaTech Ventures, POPVOX: O’Reilly provides technology and business training, knowledge, and insight to help companies succeed.
Antony Taylor
Founder and CEO of Lyte
Ant Taylor is the founder and CEO of Lyte. Lyte powers mobile ticketing solutions for event owners and fans, providing both a mobile-first alternative to resale websites. Since 2014, Lyte has partnered with over 300 top sports and entertainment brands, including BottleRock Music Festival, Newport Folk Festival, Arkansas Razorbacks Athletics, Mumford & Sons, Stagecoach Music Festival and more. Major ticketing platforms such as Eventbrite, Ticketfly, and Gingerbread Shed, owned by Goldenvoice, have integrated Lyte into their offering. Ant founded Lyte after observing the impact of the secondary ticket market on fans at the London Olympics. Hundreds of thousands of fans have since benefited from the Lyte solution. Before Lyte, Ant was an executive at ad technology pioneer Right Media, acquired by Yahoo in 2007 and ad cofounder of Moat, acquired by Oracle in 2017; two of the top five venture-backed exits in NYC history.
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About Lyte: Lyte is a technology platform that makes it easy for fans to buy, sell, and exchange tickets to live events.
Greg Ramey
Co-Founder & CRO of The Bach
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About Metagood, The Bach: The Bach is an online resource that provides classy bachelorette party ideas, curated venue recommendations.
António Trincão
Co-Founder, CEO, Investor of Youcanevent
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About Youcanevent: Is the first marketplace where you can visualize your next event in VR and book the vendors needed for your real-world event experience.
Bob Bickel
Founder & CEO of GiveSignup | RunSignUp
Bob Bickel is the Founder and CEO at RunSignUp.
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About GiveSignup, GiveSignup | RunSignUp, RedLine13: GiveSignup | RunSignup is the leading endurance and fundraising platform used by more than 25,000 events, supporting over 10,000 nonprofits.
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.
Anjelika Temple
Co-Founder + Chief Creative Officer of Brit + Co
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About Brit + Co: Brit + Co is a media company that inspires, educates, and entertains real women with a creative spirit.
Jason Yanowitz
Co-Founder of Blockworks
Jason Yanowitz is the Co-Founder of BlockWorks Group, an events and media company that sits at the intersection of digital assets and traditional finance. Prior to BlockWorks Group, Jason helped build the business development team at Sisense, a data analytics startup that raised nearly $300M, and worked in Venture Capital at Intuitive Venture Partners.
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About Blockworks: Delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors.
Loic Le Meur
Founder & CEO of Leade.rs
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About Leade.rs: Leade.rs is a speaker and event marketplace that identifies new trends and the intriguing people behind them.
Richy Orozco
Founder of Catholic Connect
Entrepreneur
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About Catholic Connect: A social networking platform designed to connect catholics to their local communities.
Tommaso Trionfi
Co-Founder and CEO of Tocca
Tommaso co-founded Tocca in January 2018 and he is serving as its CEO. Before then Tommaso was the CEO of Monsoon Commerce, a holding company owned by PE firm Oak Hill Capital, between January 2014 and August 2017, when the last of the holding companies was successfully sold. Prior to joining Monsoon Commerce in January 2014, he had joined Merchantry along side investors Greycroftpartners and eVentures. Before then he was the Chief Executive Officer of Wimba from 2000 to 2009. He led the growth of the company from a Research Institute technology to the leading provider of Web-based SaaS collaboration software for the education market. At Wimba, Tommaso built a team of more than 140 people spanning three countries, and organized marketing, sales, business development, product management and finance into a structured organization before the company was sold to Blackboard (BBBB). Prior to Wimba, Tommaso led business development at Omniticket Network, worked as Chief Operating Officer of Southern Europe for Colorlux, a global engineering company, and served as Chief Operating Officer of Fontenay Industries, where he led operations and key acquisitions. Tommaso received his MBA from INSEAD, and master’s degree in Science and Technology with honors from the University of Grenoble. Tommaso is currently a member of the US council of INSEAD and a trustee of the INSEAD foundation.
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About Tocca: A virtual event solution focussed on demand generation for B2B companies that want to engage with prospects and customers.
Todd Cronin
Founder of Bandsintown
Todd is the founder of Bandsintown, Inc. He is an entrepreneur, adviser, and product designer from Boston, MA currently living in San Diego, CA. Today, Bandsintown is the largest concert application on iPhone, Android, and Facebook. The app was acquired in 2011 by Cellfish Media and subsequently in 2014, Cellfish Media rebranded to Bandsintown Group. Previously he was an early employee and the sole designer at The Echo Nest, a music intelligence startup in Boston, MA, which was acquired by Spotify in 2014 for $100M+. He studied at Massachusetts College of Art and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a focus on design and information architecture. He started his first company, Ambient Interactive, while still in college.
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About Bandsintown: Bandsintown is a free concert discovery app for concert-goers and touring artists. It was acquired by Cellfish/Bandsintown Group in 2011.
Nihal Fares
Co-Founder & CPO of Eventtus
Nihal Fares is the co-founder of Eventtus.Passionate about solving problems and building great products.
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About Eventtus: Eventtus is an engagement platform to manage events, sell tickets and build an interactive event app in few minutes.
Julie Roth Novack
CEO & Co-Founder of PartySlate
Julie is the CEO and Co-Founder of PartySlate, a marketplace for party hosts and event professionals. Before founding the company, Julie led the Sales & Service team at Vibes Media – a mobile marketing technology company. Julie brings more than 20 years of digital marketing experience working with leading brands such as State Farm, Kraft, 3M and JC Penney. Prior to Vibes, Julie held a number of leadership positions at Razorfish including the GM of the agency’s Chicago office and then GM of the Experience and Platforms Group for the Central Region. Prior to Razorfish, she served on the executive team of Agency.com for 10 years where she ran its global sales, marketing and corporate strategy organization. Julie received an MBA in marketing and finance from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan. Prior to PartySlate, Julie led the Sales & Service team at Vibes, a mobile marketing SAAS company. Julie also held a number of leadership positions at Razorfish, including the GM of the agency’s Chicago office and Central Region. Prior to Razorfish, she served on the executive team of Agency.com for 10 years where she ran its global sales, marketing, and the P&L for North America.
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About PartySlate, Women Tech Founders: PartySlate is the first digital platform designed specifically for event professionals for a better way to showcase their work.
John Haro
Co-Founder & CTO of PartySlate
John Haro Accomplished senior technology executive with over 20 years of professional experience building agile teams, establishing engineering processes, and creating sophisticated technology solutions. Responsible for the creation, growth, and management of large Product teams and software engineering groups including director level Product Managers, software engineers, DBAs, and QA engineers. A deeply experienced adherent to agile software development methods, with a pragmatic and business value-focused approach to complex problems. An entrepreneur focused on emerging technologies and platforms with specific experience mobile, paid search, natural search, tracking, and social media analytics. Particularly interested and experienced in mobile technology trends and solving “big data” problems. Has led teams to implement reliable and scalable distributed systems (Hadoop, Amazon EC2 and Elastic MapReduce), large massively parallel processing (MPP) data appliances (Netezza), and open source solutions for data warehousing (Pentaho). Prior to PartySlate, John was the Chief Technology Officer at Vibes, a mobile marketing and messaging technology company. Before Vibes, John grew iCrossing’s (Ad-Tech) product engineering and data services teams internationally up through their exit to Hearst Media.
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About PartySlate: PartySlate is the first digital platform designed specifically for event professionals for a better way to showcase their work.
Mitch Thrower
Founder & Chairman of Events.com
He is the Founder and Chairman of Events.com, an innovative cloud-based Event Management Platform provider that provides a state of the art mobile-first SaaS application that enables the full event life-cycle, connecting event organizers and event goers. Events.com enables event organizers to plan, promote, and ticket their events while also providing event goers the tools to discover, register, collaborate, share, and celebrate their experiences. Thrower also serves as Chairman of The La Jolla Foundation, a 501c3 foundation whose primary initiative is Project Active, providing funding, mentoring, encouragement and education to areas of world tension. Specifically — sending sports equipment to children in war zones. Thrower Co-Founded active.com (The Active Network, Inc.). He also launched ActiveEurope.com (Active Europe Network) as Co-Founder and CEO. Active went public before selling to Vista for 1.05 billion. Thrower was the President and Chief Operating Officer of Triathlete Magazine, the world’s largest triathlon magazine where he also served as Chairman. He has also served as the Chief Interactive Officer, Strategist & Senior Correspondent for the Competitor Group (CGI), the active lifestyle industry’s leading media and event entertainment company. Thrower spoke at his university graduation at St. Lawrence University, and has lectured at many colleges such as Stanford University, Anderson School at UCLA, UCSD and the University of San Diego where he served as the “Entrepreneur in Residence” teaching Entrepreneurship. Thrower is an active member of TED.com and the Executive Producer of TEDxLaJolla, an independently organized TED event. He is the Author of “The Attention Deficit Workplace: Winning Strategies for Success in Today’s Fast-Paced Business Environment,” published by Lyons Press and he was author of the popular monthly column, “Starting Lines” in Triathlete Magazine for more than a decade. He was also co-author of the travel guide “The Passport” which, for several years was distributed to 50,000 college students before traveling abroad each year. In 1990, Thrower co-founded his first company and served as CEO of The College/Rail Connection, Inc., serving American Express, AT&T, and Eurail until he sold the venture in 1997. Thrower graduated from the Executive Institute at Stanford University. He holds a MBA from the University of San Diego and a bachelor’s degree from Saint Lawrence University. He has competed in 22 Ironman Triathlons, including 13 World Championships. He is the only photo journalist to ever photograph and film the Ironman Triathlon World Championships while competing in the event. Thrower is an East Coast native whose father, Fred Thrower was a television pioneer as Vice President of NBC, and also as president of WPIX-TV in New York City and is known for his holiday creation of the televised “Yule Log.” Thrower’s mother, Lori, worked as an assistant for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in NYC. Thrower is happily married to his lovely wife Amanda and lives in La Jolla, California.
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About Events.com, La Jolla Foundation, Inc, La Jolla Holding: Events.com is an event management platform that manage, market, and monetize low-key fundraisers, massive festivals, and marathons.
Jack Groetzinger
Founder of SeatGeek
Jack Groetzinger is the co-founder and CEO of SeatGeek. Prior to SeatGeek he specialized in writing code for IE7 compatibility mode, a skill he is sad to observe is no longer valued in the job market. Jack studied math and econ at Dartmouth College.
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About Founder Collective, SeatGeek: SeatGeek operates a mobile-focused ticket platform and search engine that lets fans buy and sell tickets for events.
Russell D’Souza
Co-Founder of SeatGeek
Russell D’Souza is the co-founder of SeatGeek, a venture-backed company started with Jack Groetzinger in September 2009. SeatGeek is the largest ticket search engine and help hundreds of thousands of users each month find the best sports and concert tickets on the Internet. Russell runs SeatGeek’s marketing and user-acquisition efforts including business development partnerships with major media properties like Yahoo! Sports and the Wall Street Journal. In addition, he oversees innovative PR and SEO campaigns and has a strong understanding of how early-stage companies can get traction. Prior to SeatGeek, Russell co-founded Scribnia.com, a company that allowed users to rate and review bloggers and authors. Scribnia used these ratings with complex algorithms to suggest authors to users. Scribnia was acquired in 2009 and has since been rebranded as BlogDash. Russ is a Dartmouth College graduate with a B.A. in History and worked at Monitor Consulting Group prior to SeatGeek. A New Jersey native, Russ has a special place in his heart for the MTV’s Jersey shore.
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About SeatGeek: SeatGeek operates a mobile-focused ticket platform and search engine that lets fans buy and sell tickets for events.
Joseph Terzi
CEO & Co-Founder of Priv
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About Priv: PRIV is a mobile and web platform where clients can book vetted beauty and wellness professionals to their location.
David Cao
Founder & CEO of F50
David is a pioneer and passionate leader of the venture capital ecosystem in Silicon Valley. He has led the evaluation process of selecting 350 startups out of over 5000 startups during his first 2 ½ years at F50. He continued to lead the investment processes for over 30 of the selected startups. David is personally involved in A.I., Robotics, FinTech, and HealthTech. David founded Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs & Startups (the world’s largest entrepreneur community with over 27,000 members), He is also host for the Startup Tea Talk. David Cao was the Founder & CEO of GWC US (Sold to holding company), where he oversaw the CEO clubs and the production of GMIC SV (the leading global mobile conference), and also organized private meetings for top tier investors & founders from USA and China. He is also the founding president of the Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Toastmaster Club, a nonprofit organization for public speaking training.
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About Chushou, F50, F50 Elevate, Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs: POWERING INNOVATION FOR GLOBAL IMPACT
Bruce Shaw
Co-Founder of The Food Loft
Skilled business leader with excellent interpersonal relationship skills, a deep knowledge of business development, and a thorough understanding of the world of food. For the past ten years, Bruce has been an active advisor, mentor and investor to early-stage foodtech companies. Bruce has made a number of investments in foodtech startups, including Yummly.com, an intelligent recipe search engine, Caviar (trycaviar.com), a curated restaurant delivery service, and Crowdly, a social brand management platform that works with large food companies to help them better engage their Facebook users. Bruce is also co-founder of The Food Loft, a collaborative community for food and foodtech entrepreneurs based in Boston. The Food Loft provides a range of mentorship, value-added programming and networking to help food startups build and grow their companies. Bruce continues to actively look for early-stage investments in the foodtech space. Prior to that, Bruce spent over 30 years as the President and Publisher of The Harvard Common Press, one of the leading independent cookbook publishers in the US.
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About BlueTrace, Caraway, Crowdly, Fisherman, Hamama, Noble, The Food Loft: The Food Loft is a collaborative coworking community, providing mentorship and programming to help food entrepreneurs grow their startups.
Adam Salomone
Co-Founder of The Food Loft
Extensive background in early-stage foodtech operations and investing. For the past 10 years, Adam has been an active advisor, mentor and investor to a variety of foodtech startups, including Yummly, an intelligent recipe search engine, Caviar (trycaviar.com), a curated restaurant delivery service, Jobletics, an on-demand food-service staffing platform, and Alchemista, a corporate catering startup. He is a co-founder of The Food Loft, a Boston-based co-working space for food and tech entrepreneurs, that aims to build a stronger ecosystem for food innovation. The Food Loft was founded in 2013 and has grown to become a premier community for food entrepreneurs looking to grow their startups. Adam also serves as Chairman of the Board of The International Association of Culinary Professionals, the leading organization connecting food writers, entrepreneurs and communicators.
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About The Food Loft: The Food Loft is a collaborative coworking community, providing mentorship and programming to help food entrepreneurs grow their startups.
Jennifer Bonine
Co-Founder of RedRex
Jennifer is experienced speaking at both international & US engagements. She has keynoted Testing and Agile Development conferences. You can see her at Google, Agile and Testing conferences. Jennifer Bonine is the CEO of PinkLion AI, a breakout AI company that brings AI to the world’s App teams and delivers AI integration with a human engagement model while educating teams on solving challenges with an AI first strategy. Jennifer believes strongly that we should do what we are passionate about in life and believes in living your passion. She has held executive level positions leading development and quality engineering teams for Fortune 100 companies in several industries. In a recent engagement, Jennifer served as a strategy executive and in corporate marketing for the C-Suite.
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About RedRex: The metaverse for every day use
Andrew Birkholz
Co-Founder & CEO of RedRex
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About RedRex: The metaverse for every day use
Rick Faulise
Co-Founder & President of RedRex
Rick is a multi-dimensional, technology executive and immensely passionate IT professional who holds extensive experience of working in the Software industry. Equipped with a formidable blend of knowledge and understanding of pioneering new automation technologies, he excels in the niches of methodologies and new platforms such as AI, mobile devices, streaming devices, TV’s, and autos. He is motivated and inspired by the drive to contribute to the growth and cultivation of prosperous automation communities. With more than 18 years of experience serving as a management leader and had the honor of serving high-profile companies/organizations as a QA Lead/Manager Role for both automated and manual testing efforts. As a Leader, Rick’s primary objective is to lead implementation of new technologies and expand the training capabilities. He has achieved a great deal of acclamation and recognition for his work, and is always on the lookout for an opportunity to strive for a higher level of professional career success.
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About RedRex: The metaverse for every day use
Allison Magyar
CEO, Founder & President of Hubb
Allie Magyar is a skilled entrepreneur and technology maven with over 15 years of experience driving successful technology enabled service companies. She founded Hubb to build a technology solution that directly addressed the needs of meeting planners as they manage the overload of information for their event content. As CEO of Hubb, she is responsible for directing the company’s strategic direction with an emphasis on key partnerships, integrations, and growth. Allie is also passionate about driving positive corporate culture and her companies have won several regional awards such as “Healthiest Workplace” and “Most Philanthropic”. Allie combines her real-world experience in marketing, sales, partner relationship building, and show production with a strong vision for the technology-enabled future of event management. She is an experienced speaker who has spoken at conferences such as CEMA, Event Tech Live and ACT-W Portland. Allie is CMP certified, a board member for TAO (Technology Association of Oregon), a member of Vistage, a two-time Inc. 5000 award winner, and was listed on the 2013 Collaborate 40 Under 40 in the meetings industry and the 2017 Portland Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. She was named a 2017 Top Woman Entrepreneur by Smart Meetings Magazine and, in 2018 was an EY Pacific NW Entrepreneur of the Year finalist.
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About Hubb: The Hubb Platform makes virtual, in-person and hybrid events with powerful attendee engagement tools that bring brands to life.
Josh Vande Krol
COO & Co-Founder of Hubb
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About Hubb: The Hubb Platform makes virtual, in-person and hybrid events with powerful attendee engagement tools that bring brands to life.
Alex Skatell
Founder and President of Independent Journal Review
While in college at Clemson, Alex developed iPhone applications including a top 25 application featured by Gizmodo and in the “What’s Hot” section of the iTunes app store. 4 years after graduating, Alex founded IJReview in a small apartment in Charleston, South Carolina, investing all his savings and weekly paycheck into one goal: reaching a part of America that next generation media companies miss. Today, IJReview is a top 50 website in the country, reaching over 35 million monthly readers and employing more than 50 reporters and writers covering politics and current events across the country. Adding to the business, Alex co-founded IMGE a full service digital agency in 2013. IMGE is based in Alexandria, VA with a team of over 35 working with some of the world’s largest brands and associations. In early 2014, Alex launched Liftbump.com a lifestyle vertical that today reaches over 10 million monthly readers and followed that in 2015 with the launch of Shuffle News — the winner of Mediaposts 2015’s best news application and reached the #1 most downloaded news app on the iTunes app store. Alex has been dubbed a “wunderkind” by the New York Times but his interest in journalism came from a simple lesson learned from watching his father: no one in the Skatell family was allowed to disturb Dad during the evening news. “Click here to view Alex’s post of 2016 Presidential Candidates Reacting to the ABC News / IJReview Debate Partnership.
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About Independent Journal Review, Independent Journal Review: The Independent Journal Review, an American news platform, provides its users with informative content such as political and cultural news.
Smita Saxena
Founder and CEO of Stanza
Smita Saxena is Co-founder and CEO of Stanza (stanza.co), which was founded in July of 2012. Saxena previously founded Accevia, Inc which was part of StartX’s inaugural class. Accevia was a secure platform for independent financial advisors to communicate with clients. The platform allowed clients to automatically upload their portfolios and receive automated performance reports. Saxena received her Masters in Financial Mathematics from Stanford University and her Bachelors in Mathematics & Economics from the University of Toronto.
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About Stanza: Stanza is an internet company that creates own events calendars, and share with family, friends, and beyond.
Mark Hinkle
CEO and Co-Founder of Triggermesh
Mark has a long history in emerging technologies and open source. Before co-founding TriggerMesh, he was the Executive Director of the Node.js Foundation with membership including Microsoft, IBM, Google, Intel, PayPal, and other industry leaders. Previously he was the VP of Marketing at The Linux Foundation. Mark joined the Linux Foundation from Citrix were he was the Head of the Citrix Open Source Business Office with participation in numerous trade organizations including the Xen Project, Apache CloudStack, and the Open Stack Foundation. Mark joined Citrix as a result of the acquisition of Cloud.com where he was Vice President of Community. Previously he held the position Vice President of Zenoss, an open source enterprise management company and Director of Technical Support for Earthlink. Mark also has extensive publishing experience as the Editor-in-Chief of LinuxWorld and Enterprise Open Source Magazines and as the author of Windows to Linux Business Desktop Migration Thomson (2006).
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About Triggermesh: Triggermesh develops a serverless management platform for managing functions and event triggers
Adam Doppelt
Founder of Fresh Chalk
Entrepreneuer/hacker/investor.
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About Fresh Chalk: Fresh Chalk connects you with trusted home improvement, health, and beauty professionals recommended by your personal network.
Julie Roche
Co-Founder of Burbio.com
Start-up co-founder with years of experience in brand management, market research, and product development. Have led teams on dozens of product launches across a variety of consumer product categories, developed marketing plans, and designed consumer product internet strategies. Also have experience leading community non-profit boards in the education and youth sports fields. Currently leading overall vision, product development and marketing for Burbio.com. Experienced with user interface design and prototyping (Axure), front and back-end application development, Ruby on Rails, and user testing. Practiced in lean start up and agile product development methodologies.
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About Burbio.com: Burbio is specializing in aggregating school, government, library, and community event information
Adam Olalde
CEO and Founder of Xtreme Xperience
After a sales and management stint in the luxury concierge industry it didn’t take Adam long to realize that people everywhere, from all walks of life, wanted the same thing: to experience the adrenaline and allure of the world’s finest automobiles in a setting that was heart-pounding, yet safe, but most of all convenient and affordable. In 2012, with a small team, Adam proved his point and hosted the first Xtreme Xperience event. Each day he uses that same mentality to continually improve the program, lead the best team, provide new experiences and, above all, help each one of Xtreme Xperience’s customers check something off of their bucket list and create memories that will last a lifetime.
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About Xtreme Xperience: Xtreme Xperience makes the world’s best exotic cars accessible for everyone to enjoy on real racetracks.
Xiaoyin Qu
Co-Founder & CEO of Run The World
Xiaoyin Qu is the Founder and CEO at Run The World.
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About Run The World: Run The World is a digital event platform that is designed to host all types of events from cocktail parties to global conferences.
John Cumbers
Founder & Executive President of SynBioBeta
John Cumbers is the founder of SynBioBeta, an activity hub for synthetic biology startup companies, industry and investors. He received his PhD in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry from Brown University. He has a masters degree in bioinformatics from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and an undergraduate degree in computer science from the University of Hull in England. He founded the iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machines competition) team at Brown University in 2005, was an iGEM ambassador to China in 2006/2007 and has been working in the field of synthetic biology and resource utilization in space at NASA Ames since 2008. John led the Planetary Sustainability Collaboratory at the NASA Ames Space Portal where he worked on partnerships that bring new technologies to bear on sustainability challenges on Earth and in space. In 2010, John was the recipient of a National Academies Keck Futures Initiative award to understand the role that synthetic biology could play in NASA’s missions. He has also been involved in multiple start-ups producing food for space and using microbes to extract lunar and martian resources. He was at NASA for 7 years working on these issues and was instrumental in starting NASA’s program in synthetic biology. Thought leader, and community builder, and consultant for both the public and private sector, John is passionate about using biotechnology to make a better world through sustainable technologies. As an authority on the topic, John has built communities in the space synthetic biology arena, published multiple papers on food production in space, terraforming, and the genetics of extremophiles. Constantly educating and connecting those around him, John is a person to know in the industry. His company, SynBioBeta, brings together the entire community together several times each year and gives anyone the opportunity to meet with the bright minds building and shaping the bioeconomy — from venture capitalists and angel investors to entrepreneurs and industry thought leaders.
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About SynBioBeta: Leading community of innovators, investors, engineers, and thinkers who share a passion for advancing synthetic biology
Jason Pratts
Co-Founder, COO & CIO of Appetize
Operations at Appetize
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About Appetize: Appetize develops point-of-sale and payment systems for entertainment, leisure and education enterprise businesses around the world.
Sean Di Ianni
Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of Exhibitions of Meow Wolf
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About Meow Wolf: Meow Wolf creates entertainment that delights audiences through location-based and digital media experiences.
Mareza Larizadeh
Founder & CEO of pulsd
Mareza Larizadeh works as a Founder and CEO at pulsd.
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About pulsd: Pulsd is a personal concierge service for the exclusive events in NYC.
Nate Tepper
CEO & Co-Founder of Set The Set
Mission driven, entrepreneurial minded, sales leader, passionate about music & technology, and inspiring and empowering others to take action and achieve their dreams! Nate first learned about entrepreneurship/sales before he even understood what the words meant! When he was 14, he sold $5000+ of my band’s CDs in the hallways of high school. Since then, he has done sales at LinkedIn, founded TEDxUMassAmherst, started the mobile application company, Unight, did global sales in Israel, India, Singapore, Thailand, and Australia for Taboola, and worked with 125 startup companies from around the world at MassChallenge. He is passionate about music and has played guitar in over 300 gigs across the country. Currently, Nate has combined his passions for music and tech full-time as the CEO & Co-Founder of Set The Set. Their mission is to connect the world’s artists and fans to create better live music experiences!
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About Set The Set, TED: Request songs for your upcoming concerts!
Grant George
CTO & Co-Founder of Set The Set
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About Set The Set, UnitedMasters: Request songs for your upcoming concerts!
Marcus Brauchli
Co-Founder, Managing Partner of North Base Media
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About North Base Media: An operator-led investment firm focused on opportunities in digital media in emerging markets.
Lisa Vann
COO and Founder of MeetingPlay
Lisa Vann is the Co-Founder and COO of MeetingPlay.
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About AppAtlas, MeetingPlay: MeetingPlay – The mobile event app to connect your attendees
Joe Schwinger
Founder of MeetingPlay
Joe Schwinger is the Founder of MeetingPlay. He is an alumnus at George Washington University.
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About AppAtlas, MeetingPlay: MeetingPlay – The mobile event app to connect your attendees
Salvatore Lupoli
Co-Founder of Alchemista
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About Alchemista, Lupoli Companies: Alchemista provides an online catering service to curate the enhanced food experiences for the most intrepid companies.
Chuck Elias
Co-Founder & CEO of 42Chat
As senior vice president, strategy & corporate development, Chuck Elias works with FBHS operating unit leadership on strategies across a wide range of strategic initiatives. He also leads the company’s corporate development activities, including mergers & acquisitions. Prior to joining FBHS, Chuck served in senior leadership roles at Supervalu, a $35 billion grocery retailer/wholesaler. Most recently, he was Supervalu’s senior vice president of retail operations. Prior to joining Supervalu, Elias was a managing director for portfolio operations at Ridgeview Capital, a private equity firm. He also held several leadership positions at The Home Depot. Elias holds a Bachelor’s degree in Management, with honors, from the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in Boston.
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About 42Chat: 42Chat make AI Chatbots that provide instant answers and personalized connection over regular text (and other channels)
Greg Kubin
Co-Founder of HelloSponsor
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About Food-X, HelloSponsor, PsyMed Ventures: HelloSponsor’s cloud-based platform streamlines how sponsors and exhibitors manage events
Ilia Mirkin
Co-Founder & CTO of HelloSponsor
Ilia Mirkin is the CTO at GLMX.
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About GLMX, HelloSponsor: HelloSponsor’s cloud-based platform streamlines how sponsors and exhibitors manage events
Alex Backer
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of QLess
A National Champion of Informatics, Alex holds a degree in Biology and Economics from MIT, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Computation and Neural Systems and Biology from the California Institute of Technology, where he was awarded the Dean’s award for ‘great contributions and outstanding qualities of Leadership and Responsibility’. He has held positions at McKinsey & Co., the Center for Computation, Computers, Information and Mathematics of Sandia National Labs, and Caltech. Alex conceived QLess while standing in line. Prior to starting QLess, Alex was also the founder of a pioneer of search engine marketing technology that has boosted the reach of search engine marketing campaigns by up to 580% while simultaneously reducing their cost per action by up to 78%, the invention factory, a semantic people search engine with machine vision which beat Google and every other search engine tested 3 to 1 or more in results relevance in a blind people search comparison, and the first resume- or file-based search engine. Alex was appointed by the President to serve in the California Institute of Technology’s Information Sciences and Technology Board of Advisors. In 2013, Alex was named the Gold Stevie Winner of IT Executive of the Year and Silver Stevie Winner of Innovator of the Year by the International Business Awards. In 2011, Alex was honored as the keynote speaker at LA County’s Tech Week, an honor that was previously accorded a Nobel Prize winner, the CEO of Cisco, the CEO of Adobe, the Chairman of Deloitte, and an astronaut. In 2010, Alex was honored as one of “40 under 40″ for the inaugural 40 Under 40 M&A Advisor Recognition Awards. Alex’s research on neural coding and artificial intelligence has been published in the world’s leading publications such as Nature and Neural Computation.
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About abInventio, Confidential (In stealth mode), Office of Science and Technology Austria, QLess: QLess is a platform that provides mobile, remote and interactive queueing; analytics; real-time CRM; and marketing.
Tim Angelillo
Founder & CEO of Sourced Craft Cocktails
Tim Angelillo is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sourced Craft Cocktails.
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About Sourced Craft Cocktails: Sourced Craft Cocktails provides a cocktail delivery service intended to serve events.
Jay Manickam
Co-Founder & CEO of Everfest.com
Jay Manickam Co-Founder of Hitch
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About Everfest.com: Everfest is the festival authority and home of the world’s first cross-festival ticketing and rewards program.
Alec Gellis
Co-Founder, President, Chief Innovation Officer of Keanr
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About Keanr: Revolutionary tool to upgrade your social life experience. Discover, share, and purchase the best activities and events
Scott Henderson
Co-Founder, CEO of Keanr
Business development executive, advisor and entrepreneur. Has held senior operating and consulting roles for startups and established Fortune 500 companies. Scott’s background includes deep expertise in business development, sales, marketing, strategic positioning, leadership development, executive counsel and change management. Part of five founding startup teams and continues to be directly involved in the startup ecosystem
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About Keanr: Revolutionary tool to upgrade your social life experience. Discover, share, and purchase the best activities and events
Jaime Siegel
CEO & Co-Founder of FlipTix
Jaime Siegel is the CEO and co-founder of FlipTix, Inc., an early stage technology start-up that is creating a new market in event ticketing with the goal of collecting big data around events and attendees that is not currently collected. Jaime is also CEO of Cerebral Assets, LLC, a multipurpose Global IP and Digital Strategy advisory which provides global IP, digital and business strategy consulting, deal facilitations, brokerage services, as well as expert witness services on patent and technology licensing and damages. Cerebral Assets’ clients cover the spectrum from Fortune Top 10 to early stage start-ups, Private Equity firms and foreign government incubator programs, and technology areas including electronics, consumer products, life sciences, biotechnology and medical devices. Jaime Siegel acts as the Global Director of Licensing for one of his clients, the Open Invention Network (OIN). OIN is the world’s largest patent non-aggression community, creating a collaborative space around the Linux System Definition to promote innovation in Linux. Prior to starting Cerebral Assets, Jaime Siegel was EVP in charge of licensing for Acacia Research Group LLC, one of the largest publicly held patent licensing organizations. Previously he spent over 15 years at Sony Corporation of America as Vice President and Senior IP Counsel, where he was responsible for global patent litigation for Sony family companies and out licensing programs, among other duties, including being the official representative of Sony Corporation of America to Taiwan. He is also a designated Neutral (Mediator/Arbitrator) by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Jaime Siegel served as Chairman of the Board of MPEG LA, the world’s most successful patent licensing pool, for two years. Prior to joining Sony, he was an associate attorney at the leading IP firms of Fish & Neave and Kenyon & Kenyon, and an engineer in the aerospace industry. Jaime Siegel was recently named by WIPR as a 2017 Leader in IP, and has been designated by IAM as one of the World’s Leading IP Strategists for four consecutive years from 2014-2018. He received his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School (night program) and his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Clarkson University.
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About Cerebral Assets, LLC, FlipTix, Open Invention Network, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, University of California, Irvine, World Intellectual Property Organization: Life is Flexible. Events Should be, Too!
Brian Siegel
President & Co-Founder of FlipTix
Brian comes to Fliptix with over 20 years of executive leadership experience in e-Commerce, Consumer Electronics, Sales and Marketing. Under Brian’s leadership, Sony’s e-Commerce business grew to be the 8th largest in the US. He also led Sony’s US Television business operations, as well as heading up all of Lenovo’s North American Consumer Sales efforts. With 17 Patents, Brian is as innovative a thinker, as he is a leader. As an advisory board member for both domestic and global start-ups, Brian has a demonstrated background in creating and scaling ideas into business opportunities
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About FlipTix: Life is Flexible. Events Should be, Too!
Gannon Giguiere
Founder, CEO of Eventure Interactive
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About Eventure Interactive, Separation Degrees: Every day, there are hundreds of millions of events attended, where billions of photos and videos are taken
Stefania Olafsdottir
CEO and Co-Founder of Avo
Stefania Olafsdottir is the co-founder and CEO of Avo.
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About Avo: Avo is a next-gen analytics governance platform for PMs, devs, and data scientists to plan and govern their product analytics.
Sölvi Logason
Co-Founder and CTO of Avo
Sölvi Logason is the co-founder and CTO of Avo.
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About Avo: Avo is a next-gen analytics governance platform for PMs, devs, and data scientists to plan and govern their product analytics.
Michael Balyasny
Co-Founder & CEO of Attendify
Co-Founder of KitApps
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About Attendify: Attendify is a SaaS-based in-person virtual & hybrid event platform, dedicated bridging the gap between event marketing & digital marketing.
Joseph Lau
Co -Founder of Down to Lunch
Joseph Lau is a co-founder and CTO at Alchemy.
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About Alchemy, Down to Lunch: Down to Lunch is a mobile app that enables users to just press one button to get lunch with friends.
Ronn Sussberg
Founder, Clairvoyant Psychic Medium of Michigan Psychics
Ronn Sussberg is one of the best psychics in the Birmingham, Michigan area. Having founded Psychic Readings By Ronn and Michigan Psychics, Ronn has been able to help many people, including celebrities, to navigate through their spirituality and connections to the other side. Ronn’s skills passed down to him from his Great Aunt Clara who was also known for helping Hollywood stars in the 1920s. Ronn has many abilities that he can use to provide insight into the past, the current or even future. He can help one work through any current issues or communicate with those that have passed as well. He uses a variety of methods including tarot. You will not be disappointed after working with Ronn Sussberg of Psychic Readings By Ronn!
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About Michigan Psychics: Michigan Psychics offers psychic services by Ronn Sussberg through Psychic Readings By Ronn.
Paul Guillotel
Co-Founder & Creator of Unydom
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About Nexty, Unydom: Unydom helps creators to reach their vision, build large audiences, and entertain the new generation through music, video, and live events.
Sharmeen Mitha-Sehgal
Founder and CEO of Appy Couple
Sharmeen Mitha-Sehgal is CEO and co-founder of Appy Couple.
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About Appy Couple: Appy Couple enables users to create and publish personal mobile wedding apps and websites to share details and photos.
Alice Rossiter
Founder and CEO of Alice’s Table
Alice is founder and CEO at Alice’s Table. She envisions a world where lifestyle blogs are realized through events. She is building the network of flexible creative talent ready to host fun-filled maker events across the country. Alice surrounds herself with the arts and entrepreneurship. She pursued this intersection at the University of Pennsylvania where she studied Visual Studies and Consumer Psychology. She went on to get her masters degree in Art Business from the Sotheby’s Institute in New York City, before joining the start-up community.
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About Alice’s Table: Alice’s Table brings women together to learn new skills, and live a social and creative lifestyle.
Scot Chisholm
CEO & Co-Founder of Classy
Scot is the CEO & Co-Founder of Classy, a social enterprise that creates world-class online fundraising tools for nonprofits, modernizing the giving experience to accelerate global social impact. When one of the largest cancer organizations refused to accept the money he raised during a pub crawl held to honor his mom, a two-time breast cancer survivor, Scot was inspired to start Classy to make it easier for anyone to support a cause that’s meaningful to them—and just as easy for organizations to make purposeful and lasting connections with their supporters. Since 2011, fundraising on the Classy platform has doubled each year—resulting in thousands of nonprofits collectively raising over half a billion dollars. Classy partners with organizations of all sizes, from the fastest-growing nonprofits such as Team Rubicon and Malala Fund, to some of the world’s largest social organizations, such as Acumen Fund, Oxfam, and Shriners Hospitals for Children. Based in San Diego, CA, Classy has raised $53 million to-date in growth capital and is backed by prominent technology investors including JMI Equity, Mithril, Salesforce Ventures, and Bullpen Capital. Classy was selected by Fast Company as one of “The World’s Most Innovative Companies in Social Good,” and recognized on the “100 Brilliant Companies” list by Entrepreneur Magazine. Most recently, Scot was recognized by Glassdoor as a Highest Rated CEO in 2017. Outside of Classy, Scot is an active advisor and angel investor, investing out of a fund called Mixture that includes investments in Change.org, inDinero, Casetext and FanDuel. He’s also part of the founding investor group and on the Board of Directors at San Francisco City Football Club, the country’s first social enterprise semi-professional soccer club. Previously he served for four years on the founding Board of Directors at Team Rubicon, a veteran-led disaster relief nonprofit. Prior to Classy, Scot was a Senior Consultant and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt at Booz Allen Hamilton. Scot earned a B.S in Mechanical & Industrial Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
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About Classy, Mixture: Classy offers an online and mobile platform that enables socially good organizations to raise funds for various causes.
Marshall Peden
Co-Founder & Director of Customer Success of Classy
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About Classy: Classy offers an online and mobile platform that enables socially good organizations to raise funds for various causes.
Luke Peterson
Co-Founder & President of BuzzCast
Luke Peterson is the Co-Founder and President at BuzzCast.
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About BuzzCast: BuzzCast is a virtual events platform that produces large-scale virtual and hybrid events.
Ryan Byrne
Co-Founder & CEO of BuzzCast
Ryan Byrne is the Co-Founder and CEO at BuzzCast.
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About BuzzCast, The Buzz Lab: BuzzCast is a virtual events platform that produces large-scale virtual and hybrid events.
Brian Dear
Founder/President, Tesla Owners Club of New Mexico of Tesla Motors Club
BRIAN DEAR is a longtime tech-startup entrepreneur and the founder of companies including Coconut Computing, FlatWorks, Eventful, and Nettle. He has also worked at a variety of dot-com companies, including MP3 and eBay, and he worked in computer-based education for eight years, including five on the PLATO system. He has written for Educational Technology, BYTE, IEEE Expert, and San Diego Reader. Dear lives with his wife in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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About Tesla Motors Club: Tesla Motors Club is the official platform of the electric vehicle club and forum for Tesla enthusiasts.
Mark Hodges
Founder and CEO of Hodges Advisory
Mark Hodges joined Baird Capital as an Operating Partner with more than 20 years of experience in business process outsourcing. (BPO). Mark is an acknowledged pioneer of BPO, and was responsible for a research paper which coined the term in 1989. Currently, Mark is the Founder and CEO of Hodges Advisory, LLC, a built-for-purpose advisory firm that counsels founders and their companies on high growth and liquidity alternatives. Mark serves on the board of Myelin and Vitalyst. Prior to Hodges Advisory, Mark served as Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board for EquaTerra, Inc. the global leader in outsourcing and shared services advisory services. Prior to EquaTerra, he served as Managing Partner of Strategy, Corporate Development and BPO Practice for TPI, Inc. Before TPI, Mark was the Vice President of Strategy & Corporate Development at Exult, Inc. Prior to joining Exult, Mark was the Worldwide Director of Gartner’s Dataquest IT Services (ITO and BPO) Vendor Group, and before Gartner, he served as the Chief Operating Officer of G2 Research, Inc. (G2R), where he spent 11 years before it sold to Gartner in January 1999. Mark received his bachelor’s degree in Political Economies of Industrial Societies (Economics and Political Science) from the University of California at Berkeley.
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About Hodges Advisory: Hodges advisory positions themselves for multiple liquidity events in an efficient manner.
Michael Felix
CTO & Co-Founder of Slope.io
Michael Felix is the Co-founder & CTO at Slope.io
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About Slope.io: Slope.io is a provider of a healthcare software designed to offer an easy way to prevent inventory outages.