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 Partner operating in the Marketing space. If you think a Partner 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.
Margo Plotkin
Agent, Digital Media & Partnerships of Creative Artists Agency
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About Creative Artists Agency: Leading entertainment and sports agency
Kegan Kinser
Business Development & Partnerships of Crunchbase
Kegan Kinser has been working in business development, partnerships, sales and customer success at Crunchbase since February 2019.
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About Crunchbase: Crunchbase provides intelligent prospecting software powered by live company data.
Karen Ding
Revenue Partner Manager of Crunchbase
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About Crunchbase: Crunchbase provides intelligent prospecting software powered by live company data.
Anna Kohnen
Strategy & Partnerships of Crunchbase
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About Crunchbase: Crunchbase provides intelligent prospecting software powered by live company data.
Archana Chattha
Partner and VP of Network of VSC
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About VSC: We are a band of strategists, storytellers and data nerds obsessed with helping Davids crush a sea of Goliaths.
Andrew Bolton
SVP, Global Partnerships of Knotch
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About Knotch: Knotch is the content intelligence platform for brands. We pair performance data with consumer sentiment in real time.
Vyoma Kapur
Product Marketing, Business Solutions and Strategic Partnerships of Momentive
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About Momentive: SurveyMonkey is an agile experience management company delivering solutions that help leaders make important decisions.
Jon Cohen
Chief Research Officer and Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships and Business Development of Momentive
Jon joined SurveyMonkey in January 2014. He brings years of research and data expertise to the company’s portfolio of products and solutions, as well as strategic direction for future innovations. Previously, he was Vice President of Research at the Pew Research Center. As Director of Polling and Polling Editor, he also led The Washington Post’s polling operation through two presidential campaigns and four congressional cycles, as well as numerous gubernatorial and mayoral elections. Prior to the Post, he was a polling expert at ABC News and the Public Policy Institute of California. He is an active member of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) and previously served on AAPOR’s Executive Council, as well as the president of its Pacific Chapter, PAPOR. Jon earned an MA in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BA in History from Johns Hopkins University.
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About Momentive: SurveyMonkey is an agile experience management company delivering solutions that help leaders make important decisions.
Eyal Bino
Partner of ICONYC labs
I am a co-founder and Partner at ICONYC labs, a go-to-market acceleration program customized for top early-stage Israeli tech startups looking to become successful global companies via NYC.
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About Forbes, ICONYC labs: ICONYC is a value-add investor and accelerator focused on helping early stage Israeli startups cut time to the US market.
Mike Wingate
Co-Founder, Partner of Integrity Marketing Group
Mike is a Co-Founder and Partner for Integrity Marketing Group and serves on its Board of Directors. Mike is also a Co-Founder and Principal of Premier Companies, Inc. and leads the day-to-day operations of Premier. Mike grew up in the insurance industry where his father, A. M. “Skip” Wingate had owned and operated an insurance agency since 1967. In 1989, after attending college at the University of Nebraska, he started his insurance career with his father’s insurance agency, Midwest Regional Services. Mike was one of the leading field agents, selling Long-Term Care and Medicare Supplements. In 1996, he helped develop an independent recruiting system within the company and started recruiting independent agents throughout the Midwest. This division was so successful that in 1999, Mike purchased his father’s agency in partnership with his brother-in-law, Tom Schueth, and they transformed the company into one of the nation’s leading independent marketing organizations in the insurance industry focused on serving the Senior Market. Mike serves on advisory boards for many of the country’s largest insurance companies and he is considered a thought leader in the Senior Market. He and his family reside in Norfolk, Nebraska.
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About Integrity Marketing Group: Integrity Marketing Group provides product design, marketing systems, and profitability for insurance products.
Bryan Adams
Co-Founder, Managing Partner of Integrity Marketing Group
Bryan is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner for Integrity Marketing Group and leads the day-to-day operations of the company. Bryan also serves on the Board of Directors of Integrity. Bryan is the Founder of Legacy Safeguard, LLC a company dedicated with helping members leave a lasting legacy and being remembered long after they’re gone. Bryan is considered one of the nation’s leading experts in the Senior Market and speaks frequently across the country about the importance of helping families on one of the most difficult days of their lives. He consults with leading insurance companies to help them offer the best products to this market. Prior to Founding Integrity, Bryan was Vice President of Corporate Development at Directors Investment Group, Inc., a financial services company that operates several life insurance companies, a registered investment advisory firm, bank holding company and a mutual fund family. Advancing through a series of leadership roles in sales, marketing and product development, Bryan became the youngest Vice President in the company’s history, where he oversaw all expansion efforts throughout the United States. Bryan has a degree in Business Administration from Texas Tech University. Bryan and his family live in Highland Village, Texas.
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About Integrity Marketing Group: Integrity Marketing Group provides product design, marketing systems, and profitability for insurance products.
Tom Schueth
Co-Founder, Partner of Integrity Marketing Group
Tom is a Co-Founder and Partner for Integrity Marketing Group and serves on its Board of Directors. Tom is also a Co-Founder and Principal of Premier Companies, Inc. and leads the day-to-day operations of Premier. Tom began his career as an adjuster for State Farm. In 1989, he left State Farm to sell Long-Term Care and Medicare Supplements for his father-in-law’s insurance agency, Midwest Regional Services. In 1996, he helped develop an independent recruiting system within the company and started recruiting independent agents throughout the Midwest. This division was so successful that in 1999, Tom purchased his father-in-law’s agency in partnership with his brother-in-law, Mike Wingate, and they transformed the company into one of the nation’s leading independent marketing organizations in the insurance industry focused on serving the Senior Market. Tom serves on advisory boards for many of the country’s largest insurance companies and he is considered a thought leader in the Senior Market. Tom graduated from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln with a degree in Business Administration and Finance. He and his family live in Norfolk, Nebraska.
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About Integrity Marketing Group: Integrity Marketing Group provides product design, marketing systems, and profitability for insurance products.
Gordon Bowman
Client Partner of Liftoff
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About Liftoff: Liftoff is a mobile app marketing and retargeting platform which uses post-install data to run true CPA-optimized campaigns.
Ignacio Vidaguren
Partner and COO of Aleph Holding
Ignacio Vidaguren joins IMS as the new COO, responsible for expanding IMS’ products and services, developing new revenue opportunities and overseeing the company’s day-to-day business operations. Ignacio’s background includes an 11-year career at MercadoLibre (NSDQ: MELI) where he served in several executive positions dedicated to sales, marketing and business development and 5 years at McKinsey and Co. Ignacio holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a dual degree in Business Administration and Accounting from Universidad Catolica Argentina, where he was Summa Cum Laude and Valedictorian of his class. Ignacio is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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About Aleph Holding, IMS Corporate: Aleph is a digital media partner that connects those in digital media with the advertisers that rely on them.
Michele Albanese
Partner Program Manager of Drift
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About Drift: Drift is a Revenue Acceleration platform that uses Conversational Marketing and Conversational Sales to help companies grow revenue.
Rudy Karsan
Managing Partner of Karlani Capital
Rudy Karsan is a technology entrepreneur and investor. Nothing excites him more than a great idea and a stellar team of executors who he can work with to help build a world-changing business. Rudy founded Kenexa, an enterprise SaaS company, and grew it to a billion-dollar enterprise which was acquired by IBM in a record deal. He knows the highs and lows of success and failure (both of which he has had a lot of) and gets his energy from working with fellow risk-takers who appreciate the exhilarating journey of entrepreneurship. A self-confessed geek, Rudy is a numbers guy at heart (Rudy was the youngest barred Actuary in Canada); however, his true passion is working with people. He firmly believes that a lot of focus, a genuine desire to help others, and a little bit of luck is a winning recipe. That philosophy paved the way for Karlani Capital, an operating fund that aims to “enable the growth and success of ideas that are original, interesting and useful to people.” Rudy hates small talk, loves reading, consumes a border-line unhealthy amount of Coca-Cola, and is proud to call his family his greatest achievement. He has been recognized multiple times for his entrepreneurial and humanitarian achievements and is the author of a New York Times bestselling book, We: How to Increase Performance and Profits through Full Engagement.
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About Barsys LLC, Elite HRV, Karlani Capital, Kroo, LOQBOX: Karlani Capital is an operating fund that builds, buys, and invests in fast-growing, technology companies that serve and enrich humanity.
Nyla Koncurat
Managing Partner of Karlani Capital
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About Karlani Capital: Karlani Capital is an operating fund that builds, buys, and invests in fast-growing, technology companies that serve and enrich humanity.
Jason DeLand
Founding Partner of Anomaly
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About Anomaly, Dosist: Anomaly is an advertising agency.
Franke Rodriguez
Partner & CEO of Anomaly
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About Anomaly: Anomaly is an advertising agency.
Paige Craig
Managing Partner of Arena Ventures
Paige Craig Is The Partner at Outlander.
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About AngelList, Arena Ventures, Bird, Gusto, Lyft, Mayhaw Capital, Outlander Labs, Postmates, Wish: Arena Ventures is a founder-focused venture firm making seed and growth investments in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Jeff Lo
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Arena Ventures
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About Arena Ventures: Arena Ventures is a founder-focused venture firm making seed and growth investments in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Matthew Kirschner
Partner and Executive Vice President of Talent Resources
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About Talent Resources: Talent Resources is a social media marketing agency that specializes in connecting brands with top-tier celebrities and influencers.
Alex Morrison
Global Partner of Grey
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About Grey, Grey, Grey West: Grey Group is a global advertising and marketing agency with headquarters in New York City
Matthew Newman
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Growve
Matthew Newman currently works as the Co-Founder and Managing Partner for Growve. He previously worked at Stifel Financial Corp. as the Director.
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About Growve: Growve is a brand aggregator that specializes in the acquisition and management of wellness and beauty brands.
Braydan Young
Chief Partnerships Officer / Cofounder of Sendoso
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About Emerging Leaders Syndicate, Sendoso: Sendoso helps companies connect and drive revenue with personalized gifts, eGifts, virtual experiences, and more.
Will Crocker
Vice President, Customer & Partner Marketing of Braze
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About Braze: Braze is a customer engagement platform that delivers messaging experiences across push, email, in-product, and more.
Eric Manlunas
Managing Partner and Founder (US & SE Asia) of Wavemaker Partners
Eric is a co-Founder and Managing Partner with Wavemaker Partners, a cross border early-stage venture capital firm headquartered in Los Angeles and Singapore. He is a two-time start-up entrepreneur turned venture capitalist with a strong passion for early-stage investing. Eric co-founded Wavemaker following its merger with Frontera Group, a prior early-stage boutique venture capital firm he founded in 2003. Eric has a proven track record as an early investor in over 230 early-stage ventures, of which half remain active and growing. Those companies have collectively received over $1B in growth capital. Eric also served in a concurrent capacity as a Partner of a Los Angeles-based value hedge fund from late-2002 until its sale to a San Francisco-based commercial bank in mid-2006. Prior to Frontera, Eric founded Sitestar in mid-1999. Sitestar is an Internet service provider in the rural markets of the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Upon helping steer Sitestar in becoming one of the largest independent ISPs in the region, Eric successfully divested his remaining ownership stake in December 2002. Prior to that, Eric’s first startup was Interfoods, an online specialty foods venture he founded in early 1997. Within 3 years, Interfoods grew to become a mid-sized specialty foods provider in its market and was successfully acquired in late 1999. Eric began his career as a consulting associate with Arthur Andersen’s retail management consulting division from 1991-1995. He earned a B.S. in Communications from Florida International University and an M.B.A from Pepperdine University. Eric is currently a member of the board of a number of emerging companies. He is also a Trustee of the Philippine Development Foundation, an organization committed to social development initiatives in the Philippines, Eric’s country of origin.
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About Wavemaker 360, Wavemaker Partners: Wavemaker is a crossborder early-stage VC firm that focuses on early-stage tech startup opportunities.
Zach Suchin
Founding Partner & CEO of Brand Knew
Zach is an entrepreneur and investor based out of Los Angeles & New York. Born and raised in Los Angeles to a family deeply immersed in the entertainment industry, he absorbed pop-culture and took great interest in the media and technology sectors. Throughout high school, he worked for executive management at Sony, 20th Century Fox, ICM and The Firm. He earned bachelor degrees in both Political Science and Film at Emory University, while marketing high-profile weekly events for college students, featuring recording artists such as Akon, Jermaine Dupri, Ludacris, Outkast and Jeezy. In 2006, Zach moved back to Los Angeles with an increased knowledge of digital marketing and developed College Tonight with Jason Schutzbank, which in its first 12 months of operation, won the Mashable award for Best Event-Based Social Network and was published in Generation MySpace as one of the top 15 social networking sites on the Internet. What started as a conduit between local businesses and college students, became a more robust collegiate platform. The Quad consisted of a retail outfit, collaborative tools and Greek community features. Suchin led the company through a substantial venture round, eventually taking the small-cap company public in late 2007. This made Suchin the youngest CEO of a publicly-traded company in the United States. With Zach at the helm, the company grew past a market capitalization of over $100 million. He and Jason sold their share of the company in early 2009. The duo then co-founded Brand Knew to help both start-ups and veteran brands better navigate the digital landscape. Suchin is credited with having invented the developmental venture equity model now popularized by boutique digital agencies, guest lectures in new media at UCLA and Boston University, and has been a technology contributor on BloombergTV. Zach sits on the board of directors for several portfolio companies and the steering committees for various non-profit organizations, serving as the Digital Chair for YaLa Academy. He remains intimately involved in the creative direction of Brand Knew’s clients and chairs both the Brand Knew Opportunities conferences and the Causathon event series.
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About Brand Knew: Creative Collective & Strategic Advisory
Roberta Gamble
Partner and VP of Frost & Sullivan
Roberta Gamble has over 17 years expertise consulting Global 1000 companies on market entry and expansion strategy, brand and demand, geographical expansion strategies and new market entry. She oversees a team of analysts and consultants with expertise across the energy and environment value chain, including oil & gas, power generation, power grids, energy storage, buildings, and water infrastructure. Her own research and expertise has focused on: •Thee convergence of IT and OT across oil & gas and power •Digital transformation of power grid and manufacturing •Smarter cities Roberta has headlined numerous key industry events and has been quoted and interviewed in national publications including the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and NPR. She is a Partner and Vice President at Frost & Sullivan, and Global Business Unit Leader for the Energy and Environment team, which has over 100 analysts and consultants worldwide covering global energy, environment and infrastructure markets.
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About Frost & Sullivan: Frost and Sullivan is a business growth consultation company focused on increasing brand demand.
Reenita Das
Partner of Frost & Sullivan
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About Frost & Sullivan, Frost & Sullivan: Frost and Sullivan is a business growth consultation company focused on increasing brand demand.
Joel Jewitt
VP of Strategic Partnerships of LiveRamp
Joel runs strategic partnerships for LiveRamp. He was previously co-founder and VP Business Development of Motorola/Good Technology Inc, and prior to that was EVP of Encompass. Joel was also co-founder of Adaptive Media and was the fourth member in the founding team of Palm Computing. Joel holds a B.A. in Physics from Amherst College and a MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
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About LiveRamp: LiveRamp is the leading data connectivity platform for the safe and effective use of data.
Kaitie Coghlan
VP, Data Partnerships of LiveRamp
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About LiveRamp: LiveRamp is the leading data connectivity platform for the safe and effective use of data.
Kaitie Coghlan
VP, Data Partnerships of LiveRamp
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About LiveRamp: LiveRamp is the leading data connectivity platform for the safe and effective use of data.
John Joe Smith
Sr. Director, Solutions Partnerships of mParticle
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About mParticle: MParticle is a customer data platform for multi channel consumer brands.
Alanna Gregory
Managing Partner & Founder of Constellation
Prior to founding Constellation, Alanna Gregory was the founder and CEO of Vive, a YC-backed technology company with the mission of giving all busy women a faster, easier and more convenient way to maintain great-looking hair. Alanna has led product and growth consulting engagements and coached product and growth teams for venture-backed startups and Fortune 500 companies across NY, SF, LA and Europe. Alanna holds a degree in Operations Research Engineering from Princeton University and, following graduation, worked in Thailand as a consultant where she founded Thailand’s first V-Day campaign.
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About Constellation: Constellation builds products that connect with audiences and implement processes for sustained growth.
Charles Andrew Whatley
SVP, Global Business Development & Partnerships of Instreamatic
Smitten with digital media; engagement, social media amplification, mobile, new thinking on monetization and the connective tissue between traditional media and the changing world of IP delivered content.
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About Instreamatic: Voice Marketing Platform
James Bao
Partner & Product Director of Pixel Digital Agency
James is a partner at Pixel, a digital agency that helps global brands (Heineken, Nerf, Pepsi) create digital experiences that resonate with Millennial consumers. Pixel features a collective of startup founders, engineers, and designers with deep experience in working with many of the world’s leading companies, including Hotmail, Google, Microsoft, Rotten Tomatoes, Yahoo, and the US State Department. James is also the founder of OneConnect, a Ford Foundation-funded startup that partnered with the US State Department to increase diaspora giving. James currently serves on the board of the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), the largest organization dedicated to the advancement of Asian Americans in media.
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About Pixel, Pixel Digital Agency: Pixel helps global brands create digital experiences that resonate with Millennial consumers.
Jamal Omar
Owner/Partner of SPECTER
Partner At SPECTER, LLC
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About SPECTER: SPECTER is a data solutions firm that specializes in political campaigns and business engagement.
Fabrice Sergent
Managing Partner of Bandsintown
A lifelong entrepreneur, Fabrice Sergent is the Co-Founder and CEO of Bandsintown Group. He is a media and Internet entrepreneur with 20 years of experience, having spoken at prominent music events including Midem, REVOLT Music Conference, DLD, MWC’s 4YFN and the Glimpse Social Discovery Conference. Bandsintown improves the concert-going experience for millions of fans around the world and helps thousands of artists of all sizes and genres to better connect with their core audience. Under Fabrice’s leadership, the family of Bandsintown apps has attracted over 19 million concert-goers, reaches a global audience of 120 million music fans through Bandsintown Amplified and powers the tour dates for more than 300K artists around the world. Bandsintown has expanded to become the premiere destination where artists and fans connect. Fabrice also serves as Chair of the Advisory Board for the [Mobile Giving Foundation](http://mobilegiving.org/), and provides the technology platform to the MGF in order to process mobile-giving transactions in the U.S. and Canada. Previously, Sergent was the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Club-Internet, which was purchased by Deutsche Telekom’s T-Online for a historical 1.2 billion euro in 2000.
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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.
Julien Mitelberg
Managing Partner of Bandsintown
Julien Mitelberg is a serial entrepreneur and President / COO of Bandsintown Group. Under Julien, the family of Bandsintown apps has attracted over 19 million concert-goers, reaches a global audience of 120 million music fans through Bandsintown Amplified and powers the tour dates for more than 300K artists around the world. Bandsintown has expanded to become the premiere destination where artists and fans connect. Since 2011, Julien has led Bandsintown’s expansion onto mobile platforms (iOS, Android, Amazon Kindle, Android Wear and Apple Watch) and into new geographic markets (210 countries), with the mission that users never miss another live show. He has spoken at prominent music industry events on fan engagement, music discovery and tour promotion including New Music Seminar, SXSW, Billboard Touring, Digital Entertainment World, Pollstar, IEBA and Amsterdam Dance Event.
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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.
Stefan van de Graaff
President, Partner, and ECD of Chamber.Media
Stefan van de Graaff is the President, Partner, and ECD at Chamber.Media.
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About Chamber.Media, Tangible School: Chamber.Media is the industry leader in data crafted video ads with 3,000 productions/mo and $800M in tracked revenue driven for brands.
Jennifer Piña
Director of Brand Partnerships of MagicLinks
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About MagicLinks: The leader in social commerce for video influencers and the world’s top brands
Nick Coronges
Founding Partner of R/GA Ventures
As Global Chief Technology Officer, Nick leads R/GA’s Technology capability across the agency’s global network. In this connected age, Technology is a critical element of R/GA’s work with clients, infused into business consulting and transformation strategy, product and service development, and communications and campaigns. Nick oversees a global staff of developers and technologists, and works closely with clients such as Samsung, Nike, Beats by Dre, and Google as well as early stage and emerging startups to anticipate and strategically integrate advances in technology. In his nearly 10 years at R/GA, Nick was deeply involved in the Nike and R/GA partnership that resulted in many breakthrough products such as NIKEiD and the Nike+ platform. Nick cofounded the R/GA Accelerator program and built the Technology capability for R/GA in Europe. Nick’s work has been recognized by the industry with many of its most esteemed awards, including the Cannes Integrated Titanium, the D&AD Black Pencil, International Andy Gold, One Show awards, and Adweek’s Campaign of the Decade. Prior to joining R/GA, Nick developed systems for managing Internet-connected hardware at a startup in San Francisco, and early web applications for clients at digital agencies in San Francisco and New York City.
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About Global Sports Venture Studio, R/GA, R/GA, R/GA Connected Commerce Accelerator, R/GA IoT Venture Studio UK, R/GA Marketing Tech Venture Studio, R/GA Ventures: Investment arm of R/GA. We’re helping industry leaders capitalize on disruptive technologies through access to the startup ecosystem.
Jonathan Bradley
Partner of R/GA Ventures
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About R/GA Ventures: Investment arm of R/GA. We’re helping industry leaders capitalize on disruptive technologies through access to the startup ecosystem.
Malia Supe
Senior Partner, Global Managing Director, WPP Team Lead of Ogilvy
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About Ogilvy, Ogilvy, WPP: Global brand Strategy, Advertising, Customer Engagement and Commerce, PR and Influence, Digital Transformation, and Partnerships.
Lauren Crampsie
Executive Partner, President of Ogilvy
Lauren Crampsie As Ogilvy & Mather’s chief brand champion, Lauren is responsible for the direction and reputation of one of the world’s most recognized brands and award-winning creative agencies. She is responsible for overall brand strategy, global communications, social media, and corporate responsibility and leads new business on behalf the agency. Lauren joined Ogilvy & Mather in 2004 as a new business coordinator which led her to become the agency’s youngest director of business development three years later. She was next appointed the agency’s first North American Chief Marketing Officer in 2010 and was elevated, two years later, to worldwide CMO. During her tenure at the agency, Lauren has been instrumental in adding a number of Fortune 500 brands to the agencies client roster. These brands include: Aetna, BlackRock, Citizens Bank, IKEA, InterContinental Hotels Group, NASCAR, Philips, Tiffany & Co., Time Warner Cable, Tiffany & Co. and UPS. As Worldwide CMO, Lauren has implemented a series of initiatives across the network. She focused on internal communications first, relaunching the company’s global intranet along with its most popular series, Miles’ Minute, showcasing the agency’s Global CEO, Miles Young. In 2013, Lauren introduced the official content hub of the agency, ogilvydo.com – the award-winning home for ideas, reporting, debate and analysis – born out of Ogilvy & Mather Asia. In tandem with the launch of ogilvydo.com, Lauren also developed the first-ever agency/publisher content partnership with Fast Company and penned the premier post. Under Lauren’s leadership and guidance, Ogilvy & Mather has been recognized by Advertising Age as an “Agency to Watch” (2011), the magazine’s 2014 “North America BtoB Agency of the Year” and “Stand Out Agency” (2012, 2013 and 2016). In addition, the advertising community has applauded Lauren’s professional accomplishments. Advertising Age listed her as a 2011 “Woman to Watch.” That same year, Adweek named her among the most influential Twitter voices. The DMNews Marketing Hall of Femme inducted her in 2013, and in 2015, Lauren was the only advertising industry representative to make Crain’s New York Business “40 Under 40” list. Additionally, she was named to Adweek’s “The Young Influentials” 2015 list, an honor that is bestowed upon 25 people under the age of 40 who have made achievements beyond their years that redefine ambition and achievement and change the industry. She is an active and dedicated participant in the 4As, Advertising Women of New York, the Direct Marketing Association, the ANA, and the Paley Media Council. Lauren served as a delegate at the 2015 Media for Social Impact Summit held at the United Nations. Additionally, she was appointed to the MAKERS board, an Emmy-winning TV and digital video initiative, that harnesses the power of storytelling to capture and preserve the remarkable achievements of women of yesterday and today to inspire the MAKERS of tomorrow. Lauren’s work to globally transform the agency into a modern and high-quality marketer led to her appointment to Ogilvy’s Worldwide Board in 2016. Lauren lives in New York City with her husband, Jason, son, Drake, and dog, Charlie.
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About Ogilvy: Global brand Strategy, Advertising, Customer Engagement and Commerce, PR and Influence, Digital Transformation, and Partnerships.
Eric Bader
Partner, Global Strategy Consulting of Ogilvy
Eric Bader Partner, Global Digital Transformation Consulting New York, London & San Francisco Eric is a veteran of digital, mobile and programmatic marketing, as well as building venture- backed start-up companies. At Ogilvy Consulting, Eric works with clients to design and implement strategies for building digital businesses through intelligence, content development, program optimization and performance. He has served as a strategy and brand leader atop three of the world’s largest agencies, and started and led digital media companies ranging from digital advertising to subscription-based sports content, mobile and programmatic ad buying. Most recently, Eric was a co-founder and the Chief Marketing Officer of RadiumOne, a leading global programmatic software platform. Other notable roles in which Eric has served include President and Chief Strategy Officer of IPG’s Initiative Media, Co-founder and President of BrandInHand Mobile and Managing Director of Digital at Starcom MediaVest Group. He was also GM at CSTV Networks (now CBS College Sports) and spent seven years as a leader of interactive marketing at Ogilvy. Eric has been an advisor and board member of AdMob (acquired by Google), Quattro Wireless (acquired by Apple), Tru Optik, 4Info, USVP and Airwalk.
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About Ogilvy: Global brand Strategy, Advertising, Customer Engagement and Commerce, PR and Influence, Digital Transformation, and Partnerships.
Eric Stoll
Founding Partner & The Creator of Lifetime Branding
Creative optimist supremely skilled in connecting brands with people. Eric is proudly a lifelong rule-bender and culturally attuned to identify what is next. His natural energy for creativity, authenticity and humor has uniquely influenced his work.
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About Lifetime Branding: Identities, communities and social equity are being rethought daily for a genuine lifetime of substance.
Howard Rubin
Managing Partner of Match Marketing Group
Howard Rubin serves as President of Match Action at Match Marketing Group Inc. Previously, he served as the President of Match Action at Match Marketing Group Inc.
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About Match Marketing Group: Match Marketing Group is an integrated shopper marketing and retail solutions provider.
Richard Thomas
Managing Partner of Match Marketing Group
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About Match Marketing Group: Match Marketing Group is an integrated shopper marketing and retail solutions provider.
Richard Thomas
Managing Partner of Match Marketing Group
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About Match Marketing Group: Match Marketing Group is an integrated shopper marketing and retail solutions provider.
Ronald Croen
Partner of The Brandtech Group
Ron is an entrepreneur, leader and business advisor. Ron was founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Nuance Communications. He advises CEO’s as a CEO buddy on operations, strategy, leadership and management. His experience spans various sectors in information and communications technology such as artificial intelligence, digital media, big data, enterprise software and SaaS. He has been involved with companies across the life-cycle, from start-up, to very early stage angel and venture funded growth businesses, to medium and large public companies. Nuance is the global leader in voice automation technology and applications, providing software and solutions based on the technologies of speech recognition, speech synthesis and speaker verification. Ron earned a J.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a B.A. from Tufts University.
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About Brandtech Ventures, The Brandtech Group: The Brandtech Group (formerly You & Mr Jones) helps brands do their marketing better, faster and cheaper using technology
Chris Poydenis
Chief Revenue Officer and Partner of Influential
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About Influential: Influential is an A.I. social data and conversion platform that partners with IBM Watson for influencer marketing and technology.
Kelly Benish
Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, NA of uberall
Starting in finance and finding her way to the interwebs by chance, Benish has always had a keen eye on networking and learning new business models. Her experience in sales, marketing and business development specialization around media clients spans IYP’s, publishers, newspapers, agencies and vertical industries. Benish has a BA in English and Criminal Justice, graduating with honors from the University of North Carolina. Kelly Benish is a recognized national speaker including engagements through BIA Kelsey, Borrell, Local Media Association, Local Search Association, Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, Association of Directory Publishers, Inland Press Association, SMX & more.
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About uberall: Uberall powers sales through location data, using the innovative location marketing cloud.
Chad Kerby
Director Partner Programs and Partner Sales of Keap
Chad Kerby is Director Partner Programs and Partner Sales at Infusionsoft.
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About Keap: Keap helps small businesses get organized to deliver services and close more business.
Marcus Murphy
Partner Development Manager of Keap
Marcus Murphy is an entrepreneur and small business expert who cares about the flourishing and success of small businesses. Marcus has worked in San Francisco’s booming tech scene with companies that have gone from start-up to multi-billion dollar giants of industry. As a current Partner Development Manager and professional speaker at Infusionsoft, Marcus has developed and broadened new international markets through strategic partnerships. He believes partnerships are the next generation of small business growth. Often referred to as a “relationaire”, Marcus prides himself on his ability to connect with diverse audiences, while captivating their attention with storytelling.
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About heyNOSH, Keap, More Than A Closer, The Five Percent: Keap helps small businesses get organized to deliver services and close more business.
Andrew Lindner
Managing Partner of Frontier Growth
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About Frontier Growth, Frontier Growth: Frontier Growth is a growth equity firm focused on software and technology-enabled business services companies.
Richard Maclean
Managing Partner of Frontier Growth
Richard Maclean is a founding Partner of Frontier Capital.
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About Frontier Growth: Frontier Growth is a growth equity firm focused on software and technology-enabled business services companies.
Scott Hoch
Partner of Frontier Growth
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About Frontier Growth: Frontier Growth is a growth equity firm focused on software and technology-enabled business services companies.
Joel Lanik
Partner of Frontier Growth
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About Frontier Growth: Frontier Growth is a growth equity firm focused on software and technology-enabled business services companies.
Michael Ramich
Partner of Frontier Growth
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About Frontier Growth: Frontier Growth is a growth equity firm focused on software and technology-enabled business services companies.
Alicia Cervini
VP Strategic Partnerships of Meredith
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About Meredith: Meredith Corporation is a media and marketing company, engages in book publishing, television broadcasting and integrated marketing.
John Glennon
SVP of Sales and Strategic Partnerships of Vibes
Having spent over a decade working with the industry’s largest mobile companies, John is one of the industry’s top messaging connectivity experts. John heads up sales, business development and our aggregation division Connect for Vibes. Over the last 17 years, he has run thousands of campaigns across dozens of countries, with everything from Jay Z text to screen in concert, through Frito-Lay on pack sweepstakes and just about every ringtone, video and social networking integration known to man under his belt. Outside of the office, John’s passions include coaching his son’s baseball team (not easy for a British guy!), cheering for Everton, his hometown soccer team and a love of cars after being in the auto industry before mobile, working for Mercedes and Audi.
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About Vibes: Vibes is a mobile marketing software platform.
Jeremy Langevin
Partner and EVP, Staffing Agency of Horizontal
Jeremy Langevin is a partner and EVP of staffing agency at Horizontal Integration.
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About Horizontal: Horizontal designs strategic digital marketing and staffing solutions for Fortune 500 companies.
Natalie Hanson
Principal (Partner), User Experience of ZS Associates
Natalie Hanson serves as principal at ZS, where she leads the User Experience practice.
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About ZS Associates: ZS Associates is a global leader in sales and marketing consulting, outsourcing, technology and software.
Eddie Hartman
Partner of Simon-Kucher & Partners
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About LegalZoom, Simon-Kucher & Partners, Stanford Law School: Simon-Kucher & Partners is a global consulting firm.
Steve Rosen
Senior Partner of Simon-Kucher & Partners
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About Simon-Kucher & Partners: Simon-Kucher & Partners is a global consulting firm.
Wei Ke
Managing Partner of Simon-Kucher & Partners
Wei Ke, Ph.D. is a Partner based in Simon-Kucher & Partners’ New York and Toronto offices. He currently heads the Financial Services Practice in North America and serves as the President of Simon-Kucher Canada. Wei has advised leading financial institutions in North America and Europe on product innovation, pricing strategy, marketing & promotional tactics, customer value management, risk management, value communication, sales effectiveness, consumer behavioral biases, and big data analytics for both sides of the balance sheet. Wei is a frequent speaker at banking and fintech conferences in the US, UK and Canada, and is regularly published in leading financial services journals, including Bank Accounting & Finance, BAI Banking Strategies, American Banker, and Mortgage Finance Gazette, on both sides of the Atlantic. Wei is currently also an adjunct professor for pricing and marketing analytics at Columbia Business School and at Queen’s University Smith School of Business. Wei received a Ph.D. in Decision, Risk, and Operations from Columbia Business School, and a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering & Applied Mathematics, summa cum laude, from Columbia University.
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About Simon-Kucher & Partners: Simon-Kucher & Partners is a global consulting firm.
Jordan Kennedy
VP of Client Partnerships of Wunderkind (formerly BounceX)
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About Botify, Wunderkind (formerly BounceX): Wunderkind enables the world’s top brands to better recognize their customers online, providing 1-to-1 marketing at scale.
Robert Camhe
Senior Vice President – Strategic Partnerships of Digital Media Solutions
Robert Camhe is the Senior Vice President – Strategic Partnerships at Digital Media Solutions Group
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About Digital Media Solutions: Digital Media Solutions is a leading provider of technology-enabled digital performance advertising solutions.
Itzhak Fisher
Managing Partner of Pereg Ventures
Itzhak Fisher serves as Executive Vice President, Global Business Development for Nielsen. Appointed to this role in January 2011, Itzhak holds responsibility for strategic business development initiatives and mergers and acquisitions to benefit clients and their priorities. A prominent entrepreneur in high-technology businesses for three decades, Itzhak has led ventures through mergers, acquisitions and initial public offerings. Previously, he was co-founder and chairman of Trendum, a leader in Internet search and linguistic analysis technologies, which was subsequently acquired by The Nielsen Company. In 2005, he led Trendum’s acquisition of BuzzMetrics, a market leader in online word-of-mouth research, and negotiated its 2006 acquisition of Intelliseek. Itzhak served as chairman of the combined entity, Nielsen BuzzMetrics. Previously, Itzhak founded and served as President and CEO of RSL Communications (NASDAQ: RSLC), a telecommunications firm which operated in 22 countries on four continents with over $1.5 billion in revenues. Itzhak holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in computer science from the New York Institute of Technology, and pursued advanced studies in computer science at New York University.
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About Pereg, Pereg Ventures: Pereg Ventures is a venture capital firm.
Micah Siegel
General Partner of Vanedge Capital
Micah’s passion is helping missionary entrepreneurs, professors and students create the “Next Big Thing” in machine learning, enterprise software, scientific instruments and other technology businesses that generate complex intellectual property. Prior to joining Vanedge Capital, Micah was the Managing Director of C2C Ventures, a venture capital firm that he co-founded in Palo Alto, California in 1999. Previously, Micah was on the faculty of Stanford University for nine years, where he was a Consulting Associate Professor in the School of Engineering.
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About Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), Vanedge Capital: Vanedge Capital focuses on gaming, digital media, and SaaS solutions for small and medium business, enterprise software, and cyber security.
Nick Pastula
Founding Partner of GALORE Media
Nick is one of the founders of iNEED.
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About GALORE Media: A talent driven media company celebrating beauty, femininity, and sex appeal in a fun, unconventional form for generation Y and Z.
Robert Caldwell
Founding Partner of 42Chat
Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Mentor, focused on leveraging the skill sets of all parties in a transaction to drive collective success.
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About 42Chat, The Caldwell Family Foundation: 42Chat make AI Chatbots that provide instant answers and personalized connection over regular text (and other channels)
Marty Cagan
Partner of Silicon Valley Product Group
Marty Cagan is the founding partner of the Silicon Valley Product Group, and was previously an executive at several Silicon Valley technology companies including Hewlett-Packard, Netscape Communications, America Online, and most recently eBay. Before founding the Silicon Valley Product Group to pursue his interests in helping others create successful products through his writing, speaking, and training, Marty was most recently senior vice-president of product management and design for eBay, where he was responsible for defining products and services for the company’s global e-commerce trading site. Marty began his career at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories conducting research on software technology, and building several software products for other software developers. After HP, Marty joined a then young Netscape Communications Corporation, where he had the opportunity to participate in the birth of the Internet industry. Martin worked directly for co-founder Marc Andreessen, where he was vice-president for Netscape’s platform and tools, and later e-commerce applications, and worked to help Internet start-ups and Fortune 500 companies alike to understand and utilize the newly emerging technology. During his career, Marty has personally performed and managed most of the roles of a modern software product organization, including product management, software development, product marketing, user interface design, usability engineering, technical writing, software testing, engineering management, and general management.
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About Silicon Valley Product Group: The Silicon Valley Product Group (SVPG) was created to share senior level experience and best practices with technology companies.
Christopher Jones
Partner of Silicon Valley Product Group
Chris is a product executive with 25 years building and leading product teams that defined new product categories at startups to F500 software companies including Lookout, Symantec, and Vontu. A holder of multiple patents, he has discovered and developed new products in consumer and enterprise mobile, web, and platform services. Before joining Silicon Valley Product Group, Chris was the VP of Product for Lookout and the Senior Director of Product for Vontu (later purchased by Symantec). At both companies, Chris built the product organizations from the ground up and led the effort to discover and deliver multiple category-leading products in Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and consumer mobile security. Earlier, Chris founded and ran Medicineman Product Design, an agency providing product discovery, design and implementation services for nearly 50 consumer and enterprise software companies, including Netscape, Tibco, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, JP Morgan, and Stanford University. Medicineman provided design and discovery for multiple new product initiatives for Netscape’s client and server businesses. The company also designed and implemented nearly a dozen administrative and end-user interfaces for TIBCO’s entire middleware and portal engine product line. Chris started his career as a software developer for Trilogy working on their core sales configurator. Chris graduated from Stanford with a B.S. in Computer Science.
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About Silicon Valley Product Group: The Silicon Valley Product Group (SVPG) was created to share senior level experience and best practices with technology companies.
Kai Tao
Venture Partner of K5 Ventures
Kai Tao is an experienced consumer and technology investor through Park One Capital, his family office, which invests in both private and public equities utilizing a variety of capital structures. Currently, he is the Chairman of Phluant Mobile, a leader in mobile rich media advertising and analytics, as well as Lifetopia Corp, a provider of housing management solutions for Colleges and Universities. Previously, he was the President and Chief Investment Officer of Watson Asset Management, a hedge fund with peak assets of $300 million, specializing in long short US Equities. He holds a BS in Engineering from MIT.
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About K5 Ventures: K5 Ventures is an American early-stage funding platform that hosts, mentors, accelerates, and invests in technology-driven businesses.
Hans Imhof
Partner of K5 Ventures
Hans Imhof holds an Electrical Engineering Degree from the University of in Zurich in Switzerland. Mr. Imhof rose through the ranks at Borg Warner Corporation in the 1960’s to become the Chief Engineer of their Electronics Division in Southern California. Following this, he formed Electrical Power Engineering, EPE, which he successfully grew to become the third largest manufacturer of Uninterruptible Power Supplies in the world. EPE was sold to the Merlin Gerin division of Group Schneider of Paris, France in 1990. Following the successful sale of EPE, Mr. Imhof has continued to be actively involved in a number of successful startup businesses including NetBrowser Communications, and others.
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About K5 Ventures: K5 Ventures is an American early-stage funding platform that hosts, mentors, accelerates, and invests in technology-driven businesses.
Andrew Horowitz
Partner of K5 Ventures
A twenty-year telecommunications entrepreneur and founder of Office Telephone Management (OTM) in 1983, a shared-service provider of integrated voice and data communications products and services to tenants of multi-tenant office buildings in Southern California. Sold business to Intermedia Communications (later acquired by Worldcom) in 1995. Since then, involved in an assortment of domestic and international telecommunications consulting engagements, mentoring activities, and investment opportunities involving local telecom and other startup companies. A member of both the Orange County chapter of the Tech Coast Angels and Investors Circle, Chairman of the the advisory board of the Venture Finance Institute of the Claremont Graduate University, founding partner of the LA Chapter of Social Venture Partners, and board member of the Social Enterprise Institute.
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About K5 Ventures: K5 Ventures is an American early-stage funding platform that hosts, mentors, accelerates, and invests in technology-driven businesses.
Kimberly Salzer
Partner & CMO of Chief Outsiders
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About Chief Outsiders: Chief Outsiders is the United State largest management consulting company providing chief marketing officers services to mid-size companies.
Slade Kobran
Managing Partner of Chief Outsiders
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About AlphaTrust, Chief Outsiders: Chief Outsiders is the United State largest management consulting company providing chief marketing officers services to mid-size companies.
Adrian van Haaften
Partner & Chief Marketing Officer of Chief Outsiders
Tech entrepreneur, marketer and operating executive most associated with leading company growth and go-to-market strategy at both early stage and mid-stage technology companies. A 20-year SaaS background that includes CEO, COO and CMO roles at A(+) round startups as well as more established private and public companies in need of a more aggressive growth strategy. Focus areas are in SaaS / Cloud software, HR tech, Fintech, Internet, Mobile, Loyalty, Travel
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About AvH associates, Chief Outsiders, Paycor: Chief Outsiders is the United State largest management consulting company providing chief marketing officers services to mid-size companies.
Doug Rainbolt
CMO & Partner of Chief Outsiders
Doug Rainbolt joined Alacritech in 2006 as Vice President of Sales and Marketing and is responsible for sales, marketing, and corporate development strategies. Mr. Rainbolt brings nearly 20 years of sales and marketing experience to the role, spending 17 years at Tektronix, where he commanded a number of senior roles in Finance, Sales, and Marketing. He also served as vice president of switch products with McDATA, as vice president and general manager with Brocade Communications, and as a senior director with Exabyte, leading its European business segment. Mr. Rainbolt earned his BS in Business Administration from Portland State University and his MBA from the University of Portland.
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About Chief Outsiders: Chief Outsiders is the United State largest management consulting company providing chief marketing officers services to mid-size companies.
Ravi Amble
Seed Investor and Eco-Partner of ZenIQ.io
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About Suquino, TiE, ZenIQ.io: ZenIQ is an account-centric sales and marketing orchestration platform that delivers Always-on workflows (SmartPlays).
Oded Hermoni
Co Founder, Managing Partner of J-Ventures
Oded Hermoni is the managing partner and co founder of J-Ventures and J-Angels, a Silicon Valley based VC fund, which invested in 38 companies since 2015 (Portfolio includes: UP9, Hourly, ConertIo, Phylagen, Physera, Cabin, Home365, BeeHero, Wevo, Calmigo, MachEye, Adway, Reniac, 8E14, Kameleon, NeuraLegion, BabyAtion. He is the former head of the Israeli VC Association (IVA) and Founded and led HTIA (now IATI), the largest umbrella organization of the Israeli High Tech, and a speaker in many tech conferences (Tiecon, PreMoney, HTIA, TheMarker, SVOD,) and Universities (Stanford, Wharton). Oded is an investor and entrepreneur. Over the past 15 years, Oded has been involved with over 50 tech companies as investor/board member/ advisor, and founded two start ups (one was acquired by Yellow pages (2006). Between 2012 – 2020 Oded served as a partner at Rhodium VC, an Israel/US fund with a single LP, founded by Daniel Recanati. Portfolio includes – Outbrain (Acq by Taboola), Face.com (Facebook), HopStop (Apple), Zooz (Payu), Rounds (Kik), Compass (Sage), Yotpo, Imgn Media, Yieldmo and others. Oded started his investment career at Capital Point Group and Meytag High Tech Ventures, where he served as a VP of investments and BizDev, helping the group and portfolio go grow to become one of Israel’s leading early stage groups. Prior to that. Oded was the leading Tech Journalist and editor in Israel, head of the RedHerring branch in Israel and part of the editorial of Haaretz and TheMarker, where he published thousands of articles and columns. He is also an angel investor – In Hourly, Cognizer, PowerMobility, Swiftmile among others. Oded is active in Non for profit organizations- He was the Co-Chair of Intro, The largest network of Proffesional Israeli in Tech and was on the founding team and steering committee of ICON and sits on the screening committee and is a charter member of TIE angels, one of Silicon Valley strongest entrepreneurs network. Oded also served on the board of the Jewish Federation, JFCS, Executive board of the American Friends of the Hebrew University, and the Shomrim, the center to protect the Israeli Democracy. Oded Holds a BA and MBA degrees – both from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He lives in Los Altos with his wife and two children.
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About J-Angels, J-Ventures, Yotpo: LP Driven Venture Capital Fund
Eli Schwarz
Vice President, Data Strategy & Partnerships of Jornaya
Eli was an early employee at Jornaya and currently serves as Vice President of Data Strategy. His responsibilities include driving the vision and strategy to grow the company’s data assets and developing partnerships that enable new use cases for marketers who leverage Jornaya’s products in their customer acquisition and retention programs. He previously led the enterprise sales and account management team for the Mortgage & Education verticals, and enjoys working closely with customers and partners to uncover new problems that Jornaya’s unique data can solve.
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About Jornaya: Jornaya is a consumer journey insight platform that provides companies with the highest-resolution view of the consumer buying journey.
AnDe Vooght
Global Chief Financial Officer & Partner of The TEAM Companies
As Chief Financial Officer for The TEAM Companies, An De Vooght is responsible for the company’s global financial management and operations. A key player on the company’s executive team, De Vooght brings over 21 years of leadership experience in financial function and performance, corporate governance, and business efficiency management. De Vooght began her career in finance at Price Waterhouse, dividing her time between Los Angeles, CA and Brussels, Belgium as a Senior Auditor responsible for a diverse, multinational client base covering the technology, banking, pharmaceutical, entertainment, and energy industries. This was followed by a three-year stint as CFO/Head of Finance & Operations heading up financial operations for Sony Cinema Products Corporation in Culver City, California. In 1998, De Vooght joined Red Bull where she worked for 16 years, serving first as CFO for Red Bull North America, and then as Vice President of Internal Audit for the parent company, Red Bull GmbH. At Red Bull North America, De Vooght directed the successful implementation of the ERP system (SAP), as well as various programs and applications to streamline financial processes in tandem with the company’s operations and explosive growth. During her tenure with Red Bull GmbH, De Vooght’s portfolio included management of internal audits for all regions, as well as establishing global guidelines for operations and Risk Management and a Global Code of Conduct. Just prior to joining The TEAM Companies, De Vooght served as CFO for Beats Electronics, LLC, where she managed day to day financial operations and oversaw the implementation of enterprise level processes and systems for financial management and strategic planning. Most recently, she was part of the executive team that conducted the due diligence and oversaw the acquisition of Beats by Apple Corporation in May 2014. A native of Belgium, De Vooght is a Certified Internal Auditor and holds an MBA from the University of Antwerp. She has also completed Executive Management programs at Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
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About The TEAM Companies: The TEAM Companies is a leading payroll, business affairs and technology provider.
Patrick Robertson
Founding Partner, Chief Strategy Officer of MTM
I’m inspired by strategic challenges. I’ve built and led teams in the past, and am passionate about developing business solutions to spark organizational transformation, incubate new products, optimize brand performance, drive sales enablement, simplify processes, and deliver efficiencies. As a strategist with experience in various corporate and startup environments, my sweet spot is at the intersection of business strategy, operations, data-driven creative thinking and technology. I’m most comfortable when connecting data and analytical rigor with experience design to develop personalized customer experiences that change how companies do business. I’ve co-founded and sold a startup that delivered consumer intelligence and simplified the process of leveraging big data to transform marketing, digital strategy, operations, and CRM. After being acquired, I served as VP of Strategy at RAPP, working across digital strategy, communication planning, strategic business consulting, user experience design, and technology. In my current role, I lead Annalect’s programmatic creative practice, helping brands and agencies orchestrate leading creative technology for data-driven digital activations. I also provide guidance and consulting to other early-stage startups seeking to develop new and personalized models of engagement through data and design. This varied background allows me to think about and solve business problems from the lens of owning a P&L, managing client expectations, acting like an investor, influencing not owning, focusing on the customer, and executing to plan. Specialties: Digital Strategy, Omnichannel Customer Experience Strategy, Innovation, Marketing Technology, Business Consulting, Data & Analytics, Entrepreneurship, Journey Mapping, Lifecycle Marketing, User Experience, Product Design, Business Model Innovation, Social Media, Management, Strategic Design, Brand Strategy & Planning, Service Design
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About MTM: MTM is an independent global network dedicated to creating value between people and brands at the moments that matter.
Guillermo Garza Malacara
Partner of WCN Television Inc
Guillermo Garza Malacara has decades of experience in owner-operator roles that include a history of working in the building materials industry. Memo is greatly skilled in negotiation, cost analysis, funds allocation, customer service, sales, and strategic planning. Memo completed 3 semesters focused on business development (Universidad Anáhuac del Sur, A.C).
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About WCN Television Inc: WCN is a Digital Broadcast Television Company
Pradeep Bakshi
Managing Partner of ContinuumGlobal
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About ContinuumGlobal, Trantor INC: Digital Marketing ▪ Data & Technology Solutions ▪ Strategic & Outsourcing Services
Jim Goodell
Partner & COO of Astro Studios
Jim Goodell is responsible for determining and overseeing the firm’s long-term strategic direction. Jim employs his many years of brand design agency experience while working with many of today’s leading corporations. He enjoys simplifying complex challenges and applying his personal brand of design methodology as he leads the structuring of multidisciplinary programs. He also shapes the studios’ alternative business models and joint ventures.
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About Astro Studios: They create multi-dimensional brand experiences that define popular culture.
Abtin Buergari
Co-Founder & Partner of Model B
As Co-Founder & Partner at Model B, Abtin Buergari leads day-to-day operations and growth with the goal of creating a platform that supports entrepreneurs, bridges gaps, and drives lasting progress. Abtin has years of experience as a Founder and CEO of successful growth-oriented companies in the legal services industry and has focused his time advising and investing in early-stage, data-oriented technology companies. In 2008, Abtin founded Modus which went on to change how the electronic discovery (“eDiscovery”) industry managed massive-complex litigation. Modus introduced a technological and business model advancement that accelerated the evidence identification process dramatically. Between 2008 and 2013, Modus’ explosive growth landed it on The Inc. 5000 as the 138th fastest growing company in the US and, more specifically, the U.S.’ fastest growing eDiscovery company. Abtin stepped down as CEO of Modus in 2015 after seeing first-hand the power of combining data-analytics and advertising. Growing up in the Washington D.C. area, he worked at the WashingtonPost.com in High School, where he first gained experience managing and creating complex databases. Abtin holds two Bachelor’s Degrees from University of Maryland and attended American University Washington College of Law.
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About Model B: Model B delivers results through omnichannel intelligence and award-winning strategy, media buying, creative and web development.
Dan Bender
Co-Founder & Partner of Model B
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About Bender Financial Group, LLC, Model B, Snowasis Capital, LLC: Model B delivers results through omnichannel intelligence and award-winning strategy, media buying, creative and web development.
Ashtan Moore
Co-Founder & Partner of Model B
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About Model B: Model B delivers results through omnichannel intelligence and award-winning strategy, media buying, creative and web development.
Tom First
Operating Partner of Castanea
Tom First is one of the two Toms who founded Nantucket Nectars in 1989. He was also the founder of Eleven Technologies which was sold to Trimble in 2006. Tom is an Operating Partner at Castanea Partners. Tom was previously the Managing Partner at First Beverage Ventures, a division of First Beverage Group.
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About Castanea, Castanea: Castanea is a private equity firm that invests in consumer brands and marketing services companies.
Jeffrey Rayport
Operating Partner of Castanea
Rayport has been a director of Monster since April 2010. Since August 2009, Dr. Rayport has been an operating partner at Castanea Partners, a private equity firm focused on investments in marketing, retail, and information services. He is now senior advisor to the firm. From October 2003 to May 2009, he was executive chairman of Marketspace LLC, a digital strategy advisory and research business of Monitor Group, and served as chief executive officer of Marketspace from September 1998 to October 2003. From September 1991 through September 1999, Dr. Rayport was a faculty member in the marketing and service management units at the Harvard Business School.
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About Castanea: Castanea is a private equity firm that invests in consumer brands and marketing services companies.
Robert Smith
Managing Partner of Castanea
Robert Smith is a Founding Partner of Castanea Partners and has over 20 years of senior executive management and operating experience in the consumer products, retail, professional publishing, and education sectors. Formerly, Robert was Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Neiman Marcus Group Inc. (NYSE: NMGA) where he was also co-CEO from 1999 to 2001 and had been a member of the Board of Directors since 1997. Previously at the Neiman Marcus Group, he held the positions of President and Chief Operating Officer. Robert received his AB from Harvard College and his MBA from Harvard University. Prior to co-founding Castanea Partners in 2001, Robert was co-CEO of Harcourt General from 1999 until its sale in 2001, and was a director of the company from 1989 to 2001. At Harcourt General, Robert held several management roles, including President and co-Chief Operating Officer. While at Harcourt General, Robert was also President of General Cinema Companies. Before joining General Cinema Corporation (predecessor to Harcourt General), Robert was an associate consultant at Bain & Company, a leading strategy consulting firm. He previously served on the National Retail Federation Board. Robert is a Trustee of the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the Children’s Hospital, Facing History & Ourselves, Pan-Mass Challenge, Jumpstart, and the Harvard Committee on University Resources. He has previously served as Vice Chairman of the Board of Buckingham, Browne & Nichols School and the Institute of Contemporary Art.
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About Castanea: Castanea is a private equity firm that invests in consumer brands and marketing services companies.
Tim Burke
Partner of Castanea
Tim joined Castanea as a Partner in 2014. He has over 16 years of private equity experience in retail, branded consumer products and services. Prior to joining Castanea, Tim was a Co-Founder and Partner with Glenbrook Consumer Partners, a west-coast based private equity firm. While at Glenbrook, Tim was responsible for all aspects of firm and deal team leadership including origination, structuring, and closing investments, as well as active portfolio management. Prior to Glenbrook, Tim was a Partner at Rosewood Capital, a middle market consumer-facing private equity firm focused on investing in consumer products and services, retail, restaurants. As a senior investor Tim led multiple investments includingRent.com, Stir Crazy, 3 Day Blinds, and Alternative Apparel. Tim received an MBA from The Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA in Sociology, cum laude, from Harvard University.
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About Castanea: Castanea is a private equity firm that invests in consumer brands and marketing services companies.
Veronika Sonsev
Partner of Chameleon Collective
Veronika Sonsev is a Partner with Chameleon Collective and also an advisor to a number of startups. She works with B2B clients in retail and digital media to help them accelerate revenue through strategy, marketing and business development. Prior to Chameleon Collective, Veronika founded and ran inSparq (acquired by Adiant Media), a software company that worked with some of the largest retailers and brands to market their trending products in real time. She has also held senior leadership roles at Jumptap (acquired by Millennial Media) and AOL, and has experience launching to international markets, building new business lines, and developing strategic partnerships. Clients rely on Veronika to help them develop strategies for growing their business, tell their story in a way that gets customer attention, and secure those all-important deals to help their businesses scale. Veronika is an active advocate for women in business, and in 2009, she founded the global non-profit Women in Wireless, which now has over 12,000 members and 10 chapters around the world. Recognized as a thought leader and industry expert, Veronika has spoken at dozens of retail conferences, including Shop.org Digital Retail Summit, FashionDigital and Goldman Sachs dotCommerce Day, contributed to a number of business publications, such as Inc., Forbes, Business Insider, and Retail Touchpoints, and been interviewed by NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and TechCrunch. Her success as an entrepreneur combined with her support for women in the digital industry has led Fast Company to include her in its League of Extraordinary Women and TechWeek to name her as one of the Top 100 digital leaders in New York. Veronika holds a B.A. in Economics and Russian Studies from American University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
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About Chameleon Collective, Chief, Clyde, CommerceNext, Forbes, mBolden (formerly known as Women in Wireless): Chameleon is a collective that works together to help business grow and transform from the executive to the executional level.
Chad Issaq
EVP, Business Development & Partnerships of Superfly
Chad joined Superfly in March of 2002. During his 12-year tenure, Chad has been a key stakeholder in Superfly produced events and currently drives business development and strategic partnerships. Chad is focused on leveraging Superfly owned festivals to create brand driven multi-platform partnerships and consulting with Superfly agency clients on strategic entertainment based programs. Through his leadership, Superfly has developed top tier programs for dozens of Fortune 500 companies.
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About Superfly: Superfly is an entertainment company and creative agency with offices in New York City, San Francisco and Chicago.
Christian A. Hendricks
Managing Partner of Extol Digital
Chris Hendricks is is Managing Partner at Extol Digital. He is also President at the Local Media Consortium. Prior to his current roles, Hendricks served in a number of corporate vice-president roles at McClatchy (NYSE:MNI) responsible for digital, audience, product, marketing, corporate communications, innovation, and strategic initiatives. During McClatchy tenure revenue oversight responsibilities exceeded $400 million and equity investment oversight included exits totaling more than $3.5 billion.
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About Extol Digital: Management consultancy firm serving the media and related businesses ecosystem.
