At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 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 York based Founder operating in the Internet space. If you think a Founder is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
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 Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Alex Chung
Co-Founder & CEO of Giphy
Alex Chung is currently the founder and CEO of GIPHY. His latest startups include Artspace, a leading ecommerce destination for contemporary art, The Fridge, a private social network acquired by Google, and General Displays a GE venture developing GE’s next generation of HDTVs. He has also directed media technology for MTV, NBC, Comcast, Charter, and managed future technologies for Paul Allen’s R&D lab. He was one of the early architects of interactive television and started his career as a hardware engineer at Intel. He was named on Business Insider’s Top 25 most influential technologists in New York and has degrees in philosophy, electrical/computer engineering, and graphic design.
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About Giphy: Giphy is an online database and search engine that allows users to search, share, and discover GIFs.
Derek Jeter
Co-Founder of The Players’ Tribune
By the time he stepped away from baseball in 2014 after a historic 20-year career with the New York Yankees, Derek Jeter had established himself as one of the most respected men to ever have played the game. A five-time World Series champion and member of baseball’s exclusive 3,000-hit club, Jeter earned numerous accolades in recognition of both his on-field skill and his commitment to the community, including: World Series MVP (2000); 14-time MLB All-Star; 5-time Gold Glove Award; 5-time Silver Slugger Award; AL Rookie of the Year (1996); Roberto Clemente Award (2009); and Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year Award (2009). His reputation is that of an unmatched leader both on and off the field; his name is synonymous with hard work, dedication and class. In retirement, Jeter now focuses on a variety of successful business ventures and entrepreneurial investments. Most recently, he helped launch The Players’ Tribune, an innovative multimedia company where world-class athletes share their honest and unique perspectives, bringing fans closer to the games they love. In November 2013, Jeter and Simon & Schuster announced the Jeter Publishing imprint, which includes both adult and children’s books verticals. The first booked released, The Contract, debuted at #2 on The New York Times Children’s Middle Grade Best Seller list. In October 2014, a full-color photo book called Jeter Unfiltered was released, providing fans an in-depth look at his life through never-before-published images taken over the course of his final season. He also serves as Partner and Brand Development Officer of Luvo, a transformational lifestyle food brand where he is involved in product development, brand awareness and strategic partnerships. Jeter continues to be the driving force behind the Turn 2 Foundation, which he established in 1996 to give back to the communities with which he has a close connection, including West Michigan, Tampa and New York City. He satisfies his passion for inspiring young people through initiatives – like the Jeter’s Leaders program – that promote academic excellence, leadership development, positive behavior, healthy choices and social change. During Derek’s baseball career, the Turn 2 Foundation has awarded more than $23 million in grants to create and support signature programs that motivate young people to turn away from drugs and alcohol and “Turn 2” healthy lifestyles.
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About The Players’ Tribune: The Players’ Tribune is a content and technology platform developed by athletes for athletes to connect them with fans through storytelling.
Clark Valberg
Co-Founder & CEO of InVision
Clark Valberg is the CEO and Co-Founder of InVision, the digital product design platform used to make the world’s best customer experiences. InVision is the cornerstone of the product design process for more than 3 million people at tens of thousands of companies, including eighty percent of the Fortune 100 and brands like Airbnb, Amazon, HBO, Netflix, Slack, Starbucks and Uber. He is a former Co-Founder of Epicenter Consulting.
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About InVision: InVision is the visual collaboration platform powering the world’s smartest companies.
Avishai Abrahami
Co-Founder & CEO of Wix
Avishai Abrahami is our Co-Founder, has served as our Chief Executive Officer since September 2010 and was our Co-Chief Executive Officer and a director since October 2006. From 2004 to 2006, Avishai was the Vice President of Strategic Alliances at Arel Communications & Software Ltd., a private Israeli company specializing in communication technology. In 1998 he co-founded Sphera Corporation, a private company which develops software for managing data centers, and he served as its Chief Technology Officer from 1998 until 2000 and its Vice President of Product Marketing from 2000 until 2003. In 1993, he co-founded AIT Ltd., a private Israeli software company, and served as its Chief Technology Officer until the company’s sale in 1997. Avishai served in the Israeli Defense Forces’ elite computer intelligence unit from 1990 until 1992.
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About Utsav Kraft, Wix: Wix provides a platform for the development of cloud data services for millions of registered users worldwide.
Richard Smullen
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Pypestream
Richard is the CEO and founder of Pypestream, a secure mobile messaging platform that uses real-time chat to transform the way brands and businesses connect with customers. Through ‘Pypes’ listed in a searchable catalogue, businesses are provided with a direct connection to their customers for increased engagement, automated customer service, and in-message payment processing. The ultimate customer engagement tool, further loyalty is derived by using proprietary AI and chatbot technology to allow conversations at scale. A serial entrepreneur, Richard previously co-founded Genesis Media LLC, a real-time video advertising platform, and is a board member of SouthWinston LLC, a New York-based, global private equity and VC fund.
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About dhomain llc, Pypestream, SouthWinston: Pypestream is conversational artificial intelligence built for scale.
Katie Ghelli
Co-Founder of MealPal
Katie has over 10 years of Marketing and Sales experience. Serving in various positions at Conde Nast and CafeMom, Katie developed robust marketing expertise. Leading Communications at Zocdoc, Katie worked closely with all functional teams. She has also operated two-sided marketplaces as the co-founder of MealPal.
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About MealPal: MealPal is a subscription service that provides members with affordable daily lunch options from restaurants near where they live or work.
Rishi Malhotra
Co-Founder & CEO of JioSaavn
Rishi Malhotra is Co-Founder and CEO of Saavn, India’s leading music streaming service. Rishi has led the company through significant and rapid user growth, while helping to secure partnerships with companies like Twitter, Facebook, Google, Shazam, T-Mobile, and Sonos. He is focused on driving the global Saavn team to deliver award-winning mobile products, big data systems for media, and industry-defining business innovation. Saavn is on track to become one of the largest streaming music companies in the world by 2017. Saavn is backed by leading institutional investors including Tiger Global, Bertelsmann Media, Liberty Media, Steadview Capital, and Mousse Partners. Previously, Rishi was VP, HBO On Demand and Multi-Platform for Home Box Office, Inc., where he pioneered HBO’s SVOD products, digital distribution, and original VOD content for many HBO franchises.
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About [212]Media, JioSaavn: Saavn is a music streaming service for Indian, Bollywood, and International content.
Dmitri Cherniak
Founder and CTO of Chargehound
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About Chargehound: Chargehound is a comprehensive chargeback solution that makes handling disputes easy.
Bill Apfelbaum
Co-Founder of SaysMe.TV
William Apfelbaum as Chairman, effective immediately. Apfelbaum, a renowned leader in the media industry, will be responsible for accelerating the success of Media Ventures Group and its growing client roster. In addition to his recent investment in the company, Apfelbaum has investments and holds board positions in more than 10 media based companies to complement his 30-plus years of high-profile marketing and media experience. “Bill is one of the most dynamic and accomplished leaders in marketing,” said Richard Yaffa, CEO of Media Ventures Group. “Bill brings the experience, strategic insight, value and relationships to take Media Ventures Group and our clients to the next level. We could not be more excited to welcome him to our leadership team and look forward to his contributions.” A media industry legend with an unprecedented record of guiding companies to success, Apfelbaum joins Media Ventures Group from Titan Worldwide, where he served as Chairman after cofounding the company in 2001. During his tenure, Apfelbaum saw the business become the fastest growing out-of-home advertising company in history. Prior to Titan Worldwide, Apfelbaum served as Chairman and CEO of TDI, the country’s largest diversified outdoor media company, which was ultimately acquired by Westinghouse/CBS. “It is an honor for me to contribute to the continued growth and success of Media Ventures Group at this seminal time for the company,” Apfelbaum said. “I look forward to joining the already stellar team that Rich has assembled and capitalizing on the opportunity for Media Ventures Group to become a true leader in the marketing and community-building space.” Active in the philanthropic community, Apfelbaum founded the Apfelbaum Family Foundation, through which he donates time and funds to various charitable organizations. He is also a respected guest lecturer at the Harvard Business School, New York University, Columbia University, and the London Business School. He has been profiled in many leading publications, including Forbes, Advertising Age, and Chief Executive.
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About SaysMe.TV: SaysMe.TV operates as an online platform for people to buy advertising time on cable television.
Scott Heiferman
Co-Founder of Meetup
Scott Heiferman is a Co-Founder and CEO of [Meetup](http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/meetup), the world’s largest network of local community groups. Over 50,000 Meetups (self-organized community events) happen each week. Millions of people in over more than 100 countries “use the internet to get off the internet” using Meetup, which is built on the idea that every town needs support groups, playgroups, bookclubs, business circles, running groups, community action groups, etc. Previously, Heiferman co-founded Fotolog, a photo sharing network where over 30 million people have uploaded nearly a billion photos. He also founded i-traffic, a top online ad agency in the 90s. He then fled the ad industry and was influenced by 9/11 to start Meetup. Scott graduated from The University of Iowa. He is an angel investor in Betaworks, Founders Collective, Virgance, 20×200, and others. Scott received the Jane Addams Award from the National Conference on Citizenship and was named an MIT Technology Review “Innovator of the Year”. He’s @heif.
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About Meetup: Meetup brings people together in thousands of cities to do more of what they want to do in life.
Benedict Dohmen
Co-Founder of Benitago Group
Benedict Dohmen is the Co-Founder at Benitago. He graduated from the University of Cambridge.
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About Benitago Group: Benitago connects with self-starting Amazon business owners who are looking to sell their businesses.
Santiago Nestares
Co-Founder of Benitago Group
Santiago is the Co-Founder of Benitago Group. He earned a degree in Computer Science, Psychology, and Economics at Dartmouth CollegeDartmouth College.
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About Benitago Group: Benitago connects with self-starting Amazon business owners who are looking to sell their businesses.
Michael Blanche
Co-Founder of Surfside
Michael Blanche is the Co-Founder at Surfside.
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About Surfside: An end-to-end marketing platform turning first party customer data into personalized advertising campaigns.
Jon Lowen
Co-Founder of Surfside
Jon Lowen is the Co-Founder at Surfside.
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About Surfside: An end-to-end marketing platform turning first party customer data into personalized advertising campaigns.
Bridget Osetinsky
Founder & CEO of Hyperfine
Bridget is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Hyperfine. She earned her Juris Doctor from Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law in 2011 and her Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of Notre Dame in 2007.
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About Hyperfine: Advanced Analytics For Precision Medicine
Melisse Gelula
Co-Founder of Wellgood
Melisse Gelula is senior vice president of brand for Leaf Group’s fitness and wellness division, overseeing the editorial, brand content, design, and video teams. As co-founder of Well+Good, Gelula was named to “Inc.” magazine’s Most Creative Entrepreneurs of 2018. Previously, Gelula was editor-in-chief of SpaFinderLifestyle.com, beauty director at “Luxury SpaFinder,” and travel editor at Fodor’s.
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About Wellgood: Wellgood is an organization that writes articles about exercise and healthy living.
Salah Zalatimo
Chief Executive Officer & Founder of Voice
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About Camerama, Forbes, Voice: Voice is a platform that redefines media by cultivating creation, sharing, discovery and promotion of content by real users.
Colin Darretta
CEO & Co-Founder of Innovation Department
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About DojoMojo, Entrepreneur Media, Fast Company, Finn, Grummies, Innovation Department, Innovation Department, WellPath: Innovation Department is a brand studio dedicated to building great companies that will have a long-lasting impact on the way we live.
Alex Song
CEO/Founder of Innovation Department
Alexander Song is the Founder and CEO of Innovation Department, a technology and investment company that creates and develops E-commerce, Media, and SaaS companies. Based in Soho, New York, Innovation Department both creates companies that solve practical, real-world problems and equips early-stage founders with the capital, people, and resources they need to bring their ideas to life. Alex is also the CEO of DojoMojo, a Partnership Marketing Platform with over 1,400 brands. Alex studied Business Administration at the University of California, Berkeley, graduating with Highest Honors, and moved to New York in 2004. He spent 6 years with Goldman Sachs in the Financial Institutions, Investment Banking Division, and was then promoted to join Goldman’s Principal Investment Area, an $20bn private equity fund. Alex then joined Pershing Square Capital Management, a $15bn long-short equity hedge fund, where he focused on public equity investments. Alex’s background in finance brings a unique perspective as he serves not only as an investor, but as strategic counsel to many of the brands he has invested in. Under Alex’s leadership, Innovation Department has helped build a number of companies including WineAwesomeness, WellPath, DojoMojo, ReBloom, Cinematique, and Valyrian Media. Alex has also invested in Pinterest, Dropbox, Lyft, ClassPass, Rubicon Global, and Aloha. Alex continues to pursue technology and venture opportunities regularly.
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About DojoMojo, Innovation Department: Innovation Department is a brand studio dedicated to building great companies that will have a long-lasting impact on the way we live.
Jamie Hodari
CEO & Co-Founder of Industrious
Jamie Hodari is the Co-Founder and CEO of Industrious. Prior to Industrious, Jamie was the CEO and Co-Founder of Kepler, a rapidly growing experimental university that Scientific American called a “daring global experiment” to bring “top-tier instruction to the neediest parts of the planet.”Jamie previously ran the education non-profit Generation Rwanda, analyzed investments at the hedge fund Birch Run Capital and was a project finance lawyer at the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. He started his career as a journalist at the Times of India. Jamie holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, an M.P.P. from Harvard University, and a B.A. from Columbia University.
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About Industrious: Industrious is a premium flexible workspace provider that redefines the workplace experience.
Trung Pham
Founder, CEO of RYSE
Co-founder of a rapidly growing entertainment app in Toronto, also part-time stunt double for Elon Musk.
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About RYSE: RYSE is an IoT company that develops smart shade solutions. We are the world’s most intelligent window shade automation platform.
Michael Sprague
CTO & Co-Founder of Rivetz
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About Rivetz: Rivetz is a developer of a hardware-based cyber-security system used to offer a simplified approach to cybersecurity.
Michael Bryzek
Co-Founder / Chairman / CTO of Flow Commerce
Michael Bryzek is the Co-Founder, Chairman, CTO of Flow.io. Prior to that, he was the Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Gilt Groupe. Michael brings to Gilt Groupe extensive experience in developing user-focused Internet software and a deep passion for leveraging technology. Prior to Gilt Groupe, Michael founded Volunteer Solutions, an Internet-application service provider for the philanthropic sector. Volunteer Solutions was acquired by United Way of America in 2001. Michael then served as chief technology officer for United eWay, the United Way of America’s technology subsidiary. He holds a BSc and Masters in computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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About Flow Commerce: Flow is a platform that enables e-commerce companies to go global.
Angela Lee
Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer of Angela Roi
Angela Lee is a young female entrepreneur whose passion for fashion and philanthropy led her to co-found and become Creative Director of Angela&Roi in 2012. Angela&Roi sells vegan leather bags with classic, yet minimalistic designs, and donates $5 of every sale to one of its charity partners. Each handbag features a colored ribbon to increase awareness about a particular cause, known as the Donate by Color mission. Through Angela&Roi, Angela supports a number of non-profit organizations: • Keep a Child Alive • American Childhood Cancer Organization • Living Beyond Breast Cancer, • Lung Cancer Alliance • Colon Cancer Alliance • Joslin Diabetes Center • Melanoma Research Foundation • National Kidney Foundation • Alzheimer’s Foundation of America • Prevent Cancer Foundation • Anxiety and Depression Association of America
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About Angela Roi: Ethical luxury handbag brand, using premium animal-friendly materials and working closely with artisans to craft our handbags
Andy Ellwood
Co-Founder & President of Basket
Andy Ellwood is cofounder and president of Basket, the first ever shopper powered smart shopping list and grocery business intelligence platform. Prior to Basket, Andy ran Business Development for Waze until their acquisition by Google in 2013 and before that, for Gowalla until their acquisition by Facebook in 2011. Andy is also cofounder of Exosphere, a learning and problem solving community headquartered in Catalonia, Spain. Andy is a graduate of Texas A&M University and serves as an officer for the New York Aggies alumni club, most recently as President of the club for the past two years. Andy frequent speaker, contributor, and serves as an advisor to early stage companies around the world. For more of his adventures, follow along on Twitter: @andyellwood.
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About Basket: Basket believes you should never overpay for groceries and is the largest community of Shoppers working together to save time and money.
Steven Gottfried
Founder & CEO of Equip ID
Steven Gottfried is a co-founder of ReTool Ventures, and EquipID. He is also the Chairman of UtilizeCore. Prior Steven was the CEO of ServiceChannel, and Executive Managing Director of ServiceChannel Ventures (SCV). Steven has more than three decades of experience in facilities maintenance-focused technology and entrepreneurship. Previous to founding ServiceChannel, Steven founded and sold, ServiceTechnologies Inc., an enterprise resource planning solution designed for service contractors. Steven was also CEO at Capital Electronics, Inc., another company he founded and sold to Emcor in the late 80s. Collaboratively, Steven and Serge have raised 100s of millions in capital from prestigious venture capital firms. Most recently, they raised 54m from Accel to fuel ServiceChannel and EquipID from Contour Ventures.
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About Equip ID, ReTool Ventures: Equip ID connects mechanical equipment to the digital world using NFC tags to deliver equipment-specific data and supportive content.
Tiffany Pham
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mogul
Tiffany Pham is the Founder & CEO of Mogul, an award-winning worldwide platform enabling women to connect, share information, and access knowledge from each other. A coder, she developed the first version of Mogul, which now reaches 18 million women per week from over 196 countries and 30,470 cities worldwide. Mogul was named one of the Most Exciting Startups of 2016 by Business Insider, one of the Top NYC Startups to Watch by Entrepreneur Magazine, named one of the Best Websites for Finding Top Talent by Inc. Magazine, one of the Top Websites for Marketing Your Company Online by Forbes, and has been honored and recognized by Bustle, City of Fort Worth, City of New York, City of Paris, and Harvard Business School. Tiffany was named one of Forbes “30 Under 30” in Media, Business Insider “30 Most Important Women Under 30” in Technology, ELLE Magazine “30 Women Under 30 Who Are Changing the World,” Good Housekeeping “Awesome Women Award” Winner, Alice Paul “Equality Award” Honoree, Cadillac “IVY Innovator” Award Winner, SmartCEO Magazine “Smart CEO Award” Winner, “Innovation & Inclusion Award” Winner for Social Entrepreneurship, NY Business Journal “Woman of Influence” Winner, Tribeca Film Festival “Innovation Award” Fellow, and SE “Top 100 Social Entrepreneur.”
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About Columbia University in the City of New York, Discovery, Macmillan, Mogul, Mogul Global Fund, Simon & Schuster: At Mogul, our vision is to unlock the world’s greatest potential.
Eric Aroesty
Co-Founder & Director of Steady
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About Steady: Steady removes barriers to earn through its income intelligence that supports hourly, 1099 and mixed-earners in earning more.
Skyler Johnson
Founder of Envy Gaming
Skyler Johnson is the Chief Creative Officer of Gamma Labs and Founder of Envy Gaming.
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About Envy Gaming, G FUEL: Envy Gaming is an Esports entertainment organization that competes, streams, and produces content across multiple online games.
Mitchell Green
Founder and Managing Partner of Lead Edge Capital
Mitchell Green is a Managing Partner and Partner at Lead Edge Capital, LLC. He also founded Lead Edge Capital, LLC. He serves as a Senior Analyst at Eastern Advisors LLC. Mitchell Green primarily invests in public and private companies in the consumer, internet, software, and digital media sectors in Asia and the U.S. He joined Eastern Advisors LLC in 2008. Prior to founding Eastern Advisors Private Investments, Mitchell Green was an investor and Analyst at Bessemer Venture Partners and he worked at UBS Investment Bank in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group. He has a decade of technology and consumer venture capital/ growth equity investing and operating experience. He is a formerly nationally ranked alpine ski racer. Mitchell Green holds an M.B.A. degree in Marketing from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in Economics from Williams College.
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About Lead Edge Capital: Lead Edge Capital is a growth equity and buyout firm focused on software and internet related companies.
Scott Booth
Founder of Lead Edge Capital
Scott V. Booth serves as a Founder and Special Advisor at Lead Edge Capital, LLC. Scott Booth serves as the Founder and Managing Partner for Eastern Advisors, LLC and Managing Partner at Eastern Advisors Capital Group Ltd. He was a Portfolio Manager at Kingdon Capital. Scott Booth serves as an Advisor at Fyrfly Venture Partners. He serves as a Director of OrderGroove, Inc., Banks.com Inc., and fisoc, Inc. He served as the Chairman of Remark Media Inc since December 14, 2011 and its Director since December 17, 2009. He holds M.I.A. in International Economics and Finance from School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University in 1994 and a B.A. in History from Holy Cross College in 1991 where he was awarded a Watson Fellowship.
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About Eastern Advisors, Lead Edge Capital: Lead Edge Capital is a growth equity and buyout firm focused on software and internet related companies.
Marina Hadjipateras
Co-Founder and General Partner of TMV
Marina Hadjipateras is the Co-Founder and General Partner at Trail Mix Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund focussed on the future of living well. Prior to co-founding Trail Mix, Marina was VP of Investor Relations for Dorian LPG and a key figure in taking her family’s 200-year old shipping company public in 2014 (NYSE: LPG). She restructured Dorian and oversaw talent, PR and IR, accepting the Tanker Company of the Year award. Marina serves as vice chair of the INTERTANKO Environmental Committee. In 2018 Marina received the NYOT Innovators and Disruptors award for venture capital.
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About TMV: TMV is an early-stage investment firm that focuses on the future of living well.
Soraya Darabi
Co-Founder and General Partner of TMV
Soraya is a General Partner and founder of TMV, an early-stage venture firm investing in purposeful startups reimagining the future. TMV backs start-up companies focused on ideas that will reshape industries or inspire new ones. Fund I and Fund II investments focus on: frontier health organizations, marketplaces and design-driven technologies. Soraya is also the host of “Business Schooled – a Podcast by Synchrony,” – a “Top 20 Business Podcast” on Apple – for which she travels the United States interviewing persevering founders who have made it past their startup days. Soraya began her career as Manager of Digital Partnerships & Social Media at The New York Times, where she positioned the global news leader on social networks such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, partnered with startups large and small, and established award-winning campaigns. She went on to co-found the application Foodspotting, named by Apple and Wired Magazine as an “App of the Year,” later acquired by OpenTable, then Priceline. Then Poly & Co, a digital growth marketing agency based in Boston and New York. For her work at The Times and startups, Soraya has been featured on the cover of Fast Company Magazine’s “100 Most Creative People in Business” issue and on the cover of Brand Week’s “Digital Best” issue. Soraya was named an Inc. Magazine “30 Under 30” (2012), Fortune Magazine “40 Under 40: Women to Watch” (2015). She sat on the first digital advisory board of General Electric. She is a World Economic Forum “Young Global Leader,” a six-time mentor to TechStars New York – three-times named a “Mentor of the Year.” Soraya graduated with honors from Georgetown University and completed the Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century module at Harvard Kennedy School. She is currently on the board of directors for the non-profit Yamba Malawi, her 12th year advising the organization.
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About TMV, Zady: TMV is an early-stage investment firm that focuses on the future of living well.
Michael Oved
CEO, Co-Founder of Fluidity
Michael Oved is the CEO and Co-Founder at Fluidity and a Co-Founder at AirSwap.
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About AirSwap, Fluidity: Fluidity bridges traditional finance to decentralized infrastructure.
Joy Tang
CEO & Founder of mai (Markable AI)
Joy Tang is the CEO and founder of Markable.ai, the leading AI computer vision company for the retail sector. It has raised over $5.2M and closing another $6M round from tier one global VCs with billion dollar clients on most continents. Before building Markable’s world class team, Joy won a Gold Medal in Math Olympics in China at age 16 and was the TV anchor of a Chinese television program for ten years. Joy then attended MIT on a full scholarship, with majors in math and economics. Joy sold her first start up, a social media platform for international students built together with Berkeley students to a Chinese company in her last year of college. After college, she worked as a lead machine learning quantitative scientist for seven years that built financial high frequency AI trading programs generating a daily six-figure profit while causing traditional wall street to crash in 2008. Joy left high frequency trading to create Markable.ai, upon noticing a huge gap in the market between e-commerce and digital content. This gap inspired her to develop the AI technology to make all forms of visual digital content such as photos, videos and livestream content immediately shoppable. Markable.ai has a goal to deliver the ultimate shopping therapy for consumers; the future of AI driven fast e-commerce; and the future of AI driven green, user-engaged advertising.
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About mai (Markable AI): Mai is the leading AI visual discovery shopping engine that makes any photo or video content shoppable
Anand Gomes
Co-Founder of Paradigm
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About Paradigm: Paradigm automates OTC trading within chat for institutional traders
Michael Pryor
Co-Founder of Glitch
Michael Pryor is CEO of Trello, the tool that helps entrepreneurs organize their businesses and lives. He’s also the cofounder of Fog Creek Software, sits on the board of Stack Exchange, and currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two daughters. When he’s not taking care of the office saltwater aquarium, he’s probably playing Kerbal Space Program.
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About Glitch, Trello: Glitch is the friendly community where everyone builds the web.
Brian Berger
Founder & CEO of Mack Weldon
Brian Berger is founder & CEO of Mack Weldon
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About BDB Ventures, Mack Weldon: Mack Weldon is an e-commerce company that sells men’s underwear, t-shirts, and socks.
Liz Wessel
Co-Founder & CEO of WayUp
Liz Wessel loves helping people get hired. She is the Co-Founder and CEO of WayUp, the go-to platform used by millions of early-career professionals to get hired, and by thousands of employers to scale their early career recruiting without scaling their recruiting teams — all with an emphasis on diversity and candidate experience. Founded in July 2014, WayUp is a venture-backed startup based in NYC that has raised over $30M and was named by CNN as one of the 30 most innovative companies changing the world. WayUp has worked with top companies — including Fortune 500s, startups, and nonprofits — to help them reach, recruit, and engage with the next generation of talent. Liz has been featured as one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30, named one of the “18 Coolest Women in Silicon Valley” by Business Insider, and one of New York Business Journal’s “Most Influential Women.” Liz has been a featured speaker at TedX, the Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit, TechCrunch Disrupt, SXSW, and several other notable events. Before founding WayUp, Liz worked at Google as a Product Marketing Manager in California and India.
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About WayUp: WayUp connects students with jobs during and after college — from summer internships to part-time gigs to full-time jobs after graduation.
JJ Fliegelman
Co-Founder & CTO of WayUp
Co-founder & CTO of WayUp.
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About WayUp: WayUp connects students with jobs during and after college — from summer internships to part-time gigs to full-time jobs after graduation.
Ash Kalb
Co-Founder of HUMAN
Co-Founder @ 1o, Human, Really, Board Member at Gemini, angel investor, advisor, plus a bunch of other stuff.
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About 1o, Inc., HUMAN: HUMAN is a cybersecurity company that protects the internet and enterprises from fraud and sophisticated bot attacks.
Rufus Griscom
CEO & Founder of Next Big Idea Club
I am in an immersive period right now, spending a lot of time talking with people doing innovative things in online media … happy to connect.
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About Next Big Idea Club: Next Big Idea Club is a subscription book club.
Dasha Zhukova
Co-Founder of Artsy
Dasha Zhukova is an entrepreneur and investor whose work is at the intersection of art, architecture, and culture. In 2008, she founded the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow–– an institution committed to providing access to global culture through a rotating exhibition series and creative content production. The iconic Rem Koolhaas-designed structure also acts as a home for Russia’s first and only contemporary art archive. Through the Garage Archive Collection, the museum conducts original research and translation to help create a digital platform for the study of postwar contemporary art. Garage has published 130 books and catalogues by authors ranging from Susan Sontag to Walter Benjamin and has had a print run of more than half a million copies distributed worldwide. With education at its core, Garage acts as vehicle for exploration and discovery for nearly a million visitors annually. Dasha led the strategy for cultural urbanization behind the establishment of New Holland Island as the preeminent public recreation space of St. Petersburg. She stewarded the redevelopment of the historic location, founded by Peter the Great in the early 18th century, and directed the project to completion until it opened its doors to visitors in 2011. New Holland Island acts as a point of convergence, with restored classic architecture in dialogue with modern galleries, parks and playgrounds, seasonal festivals, and public art. Motivated to scale access to contemporary culture, Dasha founded Garage Magazine in 2011. Since acquired by Vice Media, Garage Magazine fosters collaborations between established and emerging artists and serves as mechanism for sparking conversation between art, fashion, current events, and content creation. Published bi-annually, Garage Magazine allows readers to immerse themselves in the values of its eponymous museum in the comforts of their own homes. Dasha is a founder of both Artsy, a digital platform that democratizes the process buying and selling art, as well as the IRIS Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the understanding and development of contemporary culture throughout the world. She serves on the Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Jewish Museum in Moscow, and the Shed, where she is a founding member. Born in Moscow, she was educated in Los Angeles, graduating from UCSB. Dasha lives in New York City with her two children.
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About Artsy, Garage magazine: Artsy is the largest online art marketplace with more than 1 million artworks by over 100,000 artists.
Wendi Murdoch
Co-Founder of Artsy
Wendi Murdoch is a Chinese-American entrepreneur, art collector, film producer, and businesswoman.Born in Jinan, Shandong, she was the third wife of News Corporation chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch. She is the co-founder of Artsy.
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About Artsy: Artsy is the largest online art marketplace with more than 1 million artworks by over 100,000 artists.
Howard Yeh
Co-Founder, CEO & Board Director of HealthCare.com
Howard Yeh Online marketing entrepreneur and investor. President and Founder of HealthCare.com (Healthcare, Inc.). Founder of ContactUs.com, Inc. (2012), former co-founder of BrokersWeb (a 2x Inc 500 performance marketing company). Former venture capitalist at VantagePoint Capital Partners. Former investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Howard blogs at www.howardyeh.com.
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About HealthCare.com: HealthCare.com is an insurtech platform that allows users to analyze health insurance options that are available in their area.
Kathryn Minshew
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of The Muse
Kathryn Minshew is the CEO & Founder of The Muse.
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About Penguin Random House, The Muse, XFactor Ventures: The Muse is an internet company that offers an online career platform that provides job listings and advice to people.
Alex Cavoulacos
Founder & President of The Muse
Alex is the President & Founder of The Muse, where she focuses on the growth and operations of the fast-growing business, and pursuing constant innovation. She is also the co-author of “The New Rules of Work: The Modern Playbook for Navigating Your Career” (Crown Business, April 2017). Alex was named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in Media and INC’s 15 Women to Watch in Tech. She is a frequent keynote on productivity and entrepreneurship, and a champion for women in tech. Prior to founding The Muse, Alex was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. She graduated from Yale University, and is an alumna of Y Combinator.
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About The Muse: The Muse is an internet company that offers an online career platform that provides job listings and advice to people.
Ari S. Goldberg
Founder and Chairman of RNMKR
Ari S. Goldberg is the founder of RNMKR.
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About Barber Surgeons Guild, RNMKR: RNMKR is an investment firm that applies proven business practices multiplied by the scale of the internet.
David Beisel
Co-Founder & Partner of NextView Ventures
David Beisel is a co-founder and Partner at NextView Ventures, a seed stage venture capital firm with offices in New York and Boston. The NextView Ventures team are high conviction, hands-on seed investors, championing founders who want to redesign the Everyday Economy. David’s investments include Attentive, TripleLift, Code Climate, Parsec, BookBub, thredUP, MealPal, The Nudge, Hatch, and TapCommerce (acquired by Twitter for $100M). Prior to NextView, David served as a Vice President at Venrock (early stage VC firm originally established as the venture capital arm of the Rockefeller family). Previously, David co-founded Sombasa Media, an e-mail marketing company best known for its flagship property BargainDog.com, which he grew to 5M registered members. Sombasa was successfully acquired by About.com, which was soon after acquired by Primedia (NYSE: PRM), where he was Vice President of Marketing. David’s educational background includes an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and an AB in Economics, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Duke University.
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About NextView Ventures: NextView Ventures invests in companies that use technology to drive a brighter collective future.
Jeremy Levy
Co-Founder & CEO of Indicative
Mr. Jeremy Levy co-founded Indicative, Inc. in 2013 and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Levy co-founded meetMoi, LLC and served as its Chief Technology Officer. Mr. Levy oversaw meetMoi’s technical architecture and engineering. Prior to meetMoi, he worked for Morgan Stanley, where he helped design and build the content management, workflow and trade approval systems. He has over 10 years of experience in the full life-cycle of software development ranging from design to execution. Prior to meetMoi, Mr. Levy served as software architect working in industries ranging from pharmaceuticals to finance. He worked for Pfizer, where he designed and implementED its Intranet portal for its 12,000 person sales force. He began his career as a developer at Joltage, an infrastructure services business. Mr. Levy holds a BS from Syracuse University.
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About Deciding by Data Podcast, Indicative: SaaS company that provides behavioral analytics solutions.
Julie Anne Quay
Founder and CEO of VFILES
Julie Anne Quay is VFILES Founder and CEO and has over 20 years of experience in the fashion and media industries. Quay was Executive Editor for V Magazine before founding VFILES, and has worked for VH1, Vogue Japan and Australia, style.com, Steven Meisel, Richard Avedon, and more leading industry figures.
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About VFILES: VFILES—connect, discover, collaborate, and be a part of what’s next.
John Xie
Co-Founder & CEO of Taskade
John Xie is the Co-Founder & CEO at Taskade.
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About Forem, GitStart, Laserfocus, Outlier, Taskade: Taskade is a real-time organization and collaboration tool for distributed teams.
Tim Armstrong
Founder, CEO of the dtx company
Tim Armstrong is the Founder and CEO of the dtx company, where he is focused on empowering consumers and brands to build direct relationships. Armstrong founded a Boston newspaper after graduating from Connecticut College. In 1995, he moved to Seattle to join Paul Allen’s first internet company, Starwave, which was acquired by Disney. Armstrong moved to New York with Disney and worked at ABC/ESPN Internet Ventures. After Disney, he joined Florida Governor Rick Scott’s health-focused cable and internet company, America’s Health Network, which was later sold to News Corp. Armstrong then went on to be a founding team member of Snowball, which went on to IPO on the Nasdaq. Armstrong left Snowball in 2000 to join Google as its first New York employee; he left Google after almost a decade serving as President of the Americas and as a member of Google’s global executive team. He joined AOL as Chairman and CEO to spin the company out of Time Warner and launch AOL as a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. After turning AOL around and outperforming the S&P 500 during his tenure as CEO, he sold the company to Verizon Communications. Armstrong joined Verizon as CEO of its digital media division, Oath, and served as a member of its executive team. Armstrong serves on the boards of Booking Holdings (NASDAQ), Tech:NYC as co-founder, Greenwich Academy for Girls as Chairman, Connecticut College Athletic Club as co-founder, Waterside School and US Olympic & Paralympic Foundation as trustee. He also serves as a loving husband and dad, as well as lacrosse and basketball coach. Armstrong is an avid New England sports fan and Massachusetts native. He is part Camel (Connecticut College graduate) and part Spartan (Lawrence Academy graduate).
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About AOL, Tech:NYC, the dtx company: Our mission is direct to everything. Our products Flowcode and Flowpage create direct connections between consumers and brands.
Robert LoCascio
Founder & CEO of LivePerson
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About LivePerson: LivePerson provides real-time intelligent customer engagement solutions that help companies enhance the relationship with their customers.
Aaron Schildkrout
Co-CEO & Co-Founder of HowAboutwe
Investor – Bowery Farming, Looker, Forward, … Boards – KeepTruckin’, Noom, Tala, AngelList Talent Advisor – The New York Times, Blink Health, Better Mortage, … Former Uber leader (ran Growth, Marketing, Driver Product, and Data) Former co-CEO/Founder @howaboutwe Former teacher at Codman Academy Charter Public School
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About HowAboutwe: HowAboutWe is an online platform that recommends dating activities for individuals.
Ben Parr
Co-Founder and President of Octane AI
Ben Parr is a journalist, author, entrepreneur, investor, and expert on attention. Through his experience as a technology writer, venture capitalist, and prolific public speaker, Parr has coached dozens of young startups and Fortune 500 corporations on how to get attention for their products. Parr is a co-founder and managing partner of DominateFund, a venture capital firm that invests in and accelerates the growth of early-stage technology, software, and product startups through its expertise in the press, marketing, customer and user acquisition, viral products, and strategic celebrity partnerships. Previously, Parr was the co-editor and editor-at-Large of Mashable, where he wrote more than 2,400 articles on social media and technology, managed Mashable’s editorial team, and interviewed everyone from Ashton Kutcher to Mark Zuckerberg. He also served as a columnist and commentator for CNET. His work has been featured in a variety of media, including CNBC, CNN, Fox News.
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About DominateFund, Octane AI: Octane AI provides an all-in-one platform for engaging quizzes, data collection, and personalized Facebook Messenger and SMS automation.
Co-Founder of Zapp
Navid Hadzaad Javaherian is the founder of Zapp.
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About The World Economic Forum, Zapp: Zapp is a grocery-delivery startup that provides on-demand delivery services 24/7.
Jonathan Finkelstein
Founder & CEO of Credly
Jonathan Finkelstein is founder and CEO of Credly. The company’s enterprise-class digital credential platforms enable thousands of organizations to recognize, reward and market skills and achievement. As founder of LearningTimes, Jonathan’s work has helped hundreds of mission-driven organizations produce and launch innovative online programs, products and platforms that have impacted the lives of millions of learners. Jonathan is also the founder of the popular open source BadgeOS project. Prior to LearningTimes, Jonathan was co-founder and Sr. Vice President of Product Development at HorizonLive (now Blackboard). Jonathan is author of Learning in Real Time (Wiley), contributing author to The Digital Museum (AAM), and recently co-authored a report for the US Department of Education on the potential for digital badges. Jonathan is a frequent speaker on digital credentials, Open Badges, and the future of learning and workforce development. Jonathan graduated with honors from Harvard University.
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About Credly: Credly is a platform for verifying, sharing, and managing digital badges and credentials.
William McClelland
Co-Founder & Partner of Elizabeth Street Ventures
Co-founder & Partner at Elizabeth Street Ventures, an early stage investment firm focused on the digital consumer and next generation brands Co-founder of Bambike, a bamboo bicycle manufacturer and tour operator with an environmental & social mission based in the Philippines Prior to founding Elizabeth Street, I was a Partner at Grace Beauty Capital, a Managing Director/Portfolio Manager at Ironwood Capital Management and a Tech-Investment Banking Analyst at Lehman Brothers Investor @ Bambike, Birchbox, Costa Brazil, Current, Eloquii, Events.com, Glamsquad, High Court, MM. LaFleur, Parachute Home, Perch Interactive, Pixlee, Primary.com, Ringly, Rothy’s, SKU IQ, Sourceeasy, Supergoop!, ThirdLove, Trendalytics, Vengo. Graduated from Yale University with a BA double major in Economics and Anthropology.
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About Elizabeth Street Ventures: We are an early stage investment firm focused on the digital consumer and next generation brands that improve daily life
Shaun Zacharia
Co-Founder & President of TripleLift
Prior to founding Triple Lift, Shaun led custom engineering solutions at AppNexus for the industry’s largest marketers like eBay and WPP. At AppNexus, Shaun was also critical in consulting the industry’s largest media networks including Collective and Microsoft. Shaun graduated summa cum laude from Georgia Tech with a BS in Computer Engineering.
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About TripleLift: TripleLift is the programmatic technology company for native, branded content and OTT.
Ari Lewine
Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer of TripleLift
Ari Lewine is Co-Founder of TripleLift, Inc. and serves as its Chief Strategy Officer. Ari Lewine leads. He also serves as Co-Chair of the IAB Native, Content & Social Committee at IAB. Most recently, he served as head of the performance sales team at AppNexus. He started his entrepreneurial endeavors at 17 when he purchased University Trucking. He holds a BSBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship from the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis.
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About IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau), TripleLift: TripleLift is the programmatic technology company for native, branded content and OTT.
Eric Berry
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of TripleLift
Eric Berry is a Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of TripleLift, Inc. Eric Berry is building the TripleLift, Inc. to be the leader in social and visual amplification. Prior to TripleLift, he was a Leader on the client services and product architecture teams at AppNexus, and was an Attorney at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. Eric Berry received Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Computer Science from MIT and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.
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About TripleLift: TripleLift is the programmatic technology company for native, branded content and OTT.
Richard Forman
Co-Founder of Sapphire Digital
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About Caring.com, Sapphire Digital, Surround Ventures: Sapphire Digital is a full omnichannel digital engagement and shopping platform for consumers, employers.
Mitch Rothschild
Co-Founder of Sapphire Digital
Mitch brings two decades of entrepreneurial experience to his role as co-founder, Chief Perfectionist & CEO of Vitals. Prompted by personal medical experience that could have turned out badly, Mitch helped found Vitals. He designs and oversees the direction of the company and promulgates the Vitals message to the world. Prior to Vitals, Mitch founded RaspberryRed Marketing, NetWorks, Tuff Rhino, Awards.com, RUSS CandyBears and Time Warner Viewer’s Edge. He has also been involved in the rapid growth of Popcorn Indiana, Blue Moon Mexican Cafe and IT’SUGAR. Mitch has an MBA, with honors, from Columbia University and an MA (Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude) from Queens College.
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About Sapphire Digital: Sapphire Digital is a full omnichannel digital engagement and shopping platform for consumers, employers.
Nicole Zheng
Founder and President of Minim
Nicole Zheng is the Co- founder and CMO of Minim (OTCQB: MINM), the creator of innovative internet access products under the globally-recognized Motorola brand. While at Minim, she has been recognized by Entrepreneur as a Top Female Founder in the United States (2020). Prior to Minim, Nicole held the position of Chief Marketing Officer at cloud software companies Antidote Technologies and OnSIP (ACQ: Intrado). She has served as a board member of Alliance of Channel Women, a nonprofit on a mission to advance careers for women in the communications technology sector through education, community, and advocacy. Nicole holds a B.S. in Materials Science Engineering and B.S. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as business certifications from The Wharton School. She currently resides in Southampton, NY.
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About Minim, Zoom Telephonics (now Minim): Minim (NASDAQ: MINM) was born as a networking company and now delivers intelligent software to protect and improve the WiFi we depend on.
Adam Eskin
Founder & CEO of Dig Inn
Adam Eskin is the Founder & CEO at Dig Inn.
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About Dig Inn: We serve real food—mostly vegetables—that’s grown by farmers, cooked by chefs, and inspired by the seasons. 🥕
Josh Backer
Co Founder – President, Advertising & SVP Operations of Unified
Founded Social Suitcase in 2009 – Boutique business development and sales consulting firm specializing in social media monetization products and brand advertising. – Sold to TrafficMarketplace in March 2010 Founded DankApps in 2008 – Bay Partners funded social network application company – Donated thousands of dollars to cause based charities through the “Social Change” brand of applications Founded Teach the People in 2007 – TechCrunch40 company – fbFund grantee Emory University, Atlanta GA – Graduate Instructor, Dept. of Comparative Literature “Sick Lit.: Literature and Discourses of Illness and Disease” The Padeia School, Atlanta GA – Part-time Faculty “Pollack to Smithson: Modern and Contemporary American and European art from 1935-1975” “Art and Politics in the 20th Century”
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About Unified: Unified equips marketers with information and intelligence they need to make the best decisions about their social advertising investments.
Jason Beckerman
Co-Founder of Unified
Jason oversees all product, technology, and organizational strategy at Unified. Prior to co-founding Unified, Jason was co-founder and CEO of Social Suitcase, an innovator in the brand engagement space that was acquired by Connexus. He has held executive roles at a number of social media companies, including his tenure as co-founder and CEO of Teach The People, a Facebook Fund Grant Company and a TechCrunch 40 Finalist. Jason’s experience also extends to financial services and enterprise software, including positions at Merrill Lynch, Siebel, and Salesforce.com. At Salesforce.com he managed the release process for the largest on-demand CRM rollout in the history of the cloud at the time. Jason received a BS in Entrepreneurship and Information Systems from Quinnipiac University and a Masters in Organizational Leadership from Gonzaga University.
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About Unified, Unified: Unified equips marketers with information and intelligence they need to make the best decisions about their social advertising investments.
Jason Rosenstein
Co-Founder of Portion
Jason Rosenstein: Jason is a blockchain developer who identified the transformative and multifaceted capabilities of blockchain technology in 2011. He began building powerful machines to generate cryptocurrency and produced prototypes demonstrating the capabilities made possible by blockchain. Jason has extensive experience in blockchain development and complex distributed application design. In his previous start-ups, he served as founder and developer. Jason’s areas of expertise also include: system architecture, project management, and financial systems. Jason successfully co-founded two companies where he oversaw and developed technology for efficient mining and internet of things (IoT) capabilities. His step into the world of entrepreneurship began in 2011 where he discovered his passion for innovation and building new technologies. Finishing his education at NYU in 2016, Jason received a degree in computer science. Already with the formation of two companies under his belt, he began Portion, a culmination of his experience to date.
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About Portion: A marketplace for NFTs & art.
Eric Typaldos
Co-Founder & CTO of Hive
Eric Typaldos is a Co-Founder and serves as the Chief Technology Officer at Hive.
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About Hive: Hive is a productivity platform that drives companies to work forward.
Michael Onghai
Founder and Owner of Daily Stocks
Michael Onghai was appointed a director in May 2012.Mr. Onghai has been the CEO of LookSmart (NASDAQ CM: LOOK), since February 2013. He has been the founder and Chairman of AppAddictive, an advertising and social commerce platform since July 2011. Michael Onghai is the President of Snowy August Management LLC, a special situations fund concentrating on the Asian market, spin-offs and event-driven situations.Michael Onghai is the founder of Stock Sheet, Inc., and Daily Stocks, Inc. – the web’s early providers of financial information and search engine related content for financial information. Michael Onghai has founded several other internet technology companies for the last two decades. Michael Onghai is an advisor to several internet incubators and is a panelist who advises FundersClub on which companies to accept for its pioneering venture capital platform. Michael Onghai has earned his designation as a Chartered Financial Analyst (2006) and holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Los Angeles and graduated from the Executive Management Certificate Program in Value Investing (The Heilbrunn Center for Graham & Dodd Investing) Graduate School of Business at Columbia Business School. The board believes that Michael Onghai has the experience, qualifications, attributes and skills necessary to serve as a director and chairman of the Audit Committee because of his years of business experience and financial expertise.
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About Alpha Sigma Capital, AppAddictive, Daily Stocks, IBIS Management, LookSmart, SocialAdMX, Spaarsh, Think Web 3 Plus: free tips for Indian stock market
Tarik Sansal
Founder & CEO of Romio
Tarik Sansal is an internet entrepreneur. He is currently the founder and CEO of Romio, a smart social real estate search engine which leverages neighborhood networks (Romio is going live shortly). Previously, Tarik was the founder of onTargetJobs.com, currently #3 vertical job site behind Dice and Linkedin. Tarik created the original strategy for onTargetJobs.com and assembled the original management team by bringing in Allen Paschal as CEO and Curt Thompson as CFO. onTargetJobs.com is a Warburg Pincus backed company (WarburgPincus.com). Prior, Tarik started InvestmentPositions.com, a job site focused on recruitment of investment professionals which evolved into RecruitmentBox, a multi vertical recruitment technology provider to vertical publishers. Tarik started his careers in investments. He was the 1st investment analyst at Moon Capital (www.MoonCapital.com), the emerging markets hedge fund. He is passionate about leveraging socially conscious internet ventures to make a positive social impact. He also has ideas around new alternative investment models which leverage a socially conscious approach to deliver superior returns to investors. Tarik wrote white papers which were published and reference in financial media such as The Financial Times.
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About Romio: Romio let’s you book “trusted” local services (Housekeeper, Runner, Dog Walker…) through recommendations from local experts and friends
Patrick Vatterott
Co-Founder & CTO of Vitally
Patrick Vatterott serves as Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer at Vitally.
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About Vitally: Vitally is a customer engagement platform for B2B SaaS companies to drive a world-class customer experience and eliminate churn.
Jamie Davidson
Co-Founder & CEO of Vitally
Jamie Davidson is the Co-Founder & CEO at Vitally.io.
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About Vitally: Vitally is a customer engagement platform for B2B SaaS companies to drive a world-class customer experience and eliminate churn.
Samer Hamadeh
Founder & CEO of Zeel
Samer is an entrepreneur-in-residence at Lightspeed Venture Partners, which he joined in January 2010. Samer is currently founder & CEO of Zeel.com. Relaunched in December 2012, Zeel gives consumers the power to book same-day, in-home massage appointments via app or website in under a minute. Prior to that, Samer Hamadeh was co-founder and CEO of Vault.com, the most trusted name in career information, which was sold in October 2007 to Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a New York-based media-and-communications private-equity firm. Before co-founding Vault, Samer was an associate at the Los Angeles management consulting firm LEK Consulting, where he focused on corporate and business strategy. Prior to that, Samer co-founded and managed a customized-textbook printing company, worked at the Chevron Corporation, and co-authored The Internship Bible and America’s Top Internships (Random House/Princeton Review). Samer sits on the board of the non-profit PeaceWorks Foundation and is a board observer, angel investor, and/or advisor in two dozen early-stage companies, including GrubHub, SalesCrunch, Insidr.com, Splurgy, and PublicStuff. Samer is also a mentor at several accelerators, including Blueprint Health, NYCSeedStart, and First Growth Venture Network, as well as a member of Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and the Georgetown McDonough School’s Entrepreneurship Advisory Board. A David Rockefeller Fellow, Samer holds a BS in chemistry and an MS in chemical engineering from Stanford University.
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About Lightspeed Venture Partners, One Voice Movement, Venture for America, Zeel: Zeel delivers on-demand massage from vetted therapists.
Zach Pelka
Co-Founder of Une Femme Wines
Zach previously served as Founder & CEO of Paytronage, a marketplace for income share agreements (ISAs), an equity-based alternative to traditional student loans, which was eventually acquired by a South American fintech conglomerate, Lumni, Inc. After Paytronage, Zach served as the Head of Capital Markets & Investor Relations across 5 countries at Lumni, leading fundraising, capital structuring, and internal financial management. Previously, Zach had worked in the intersection of finance and technology for PJT Partners, Technology Crossover Ventures, Charles Schwab, and LPS Integration.
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About Lumni, Inc., Mineful, Une Femme Wines: Une Femme makes women-made wines for celebrating life’s big wins: the dream job, the IPO, the smashing of yet another glass ceiling.
Brian Pallas
Founder & CEO of Opportunity Network
Brian Pallas is the CEO, Chairman, and Founder of Opportunity Network. Previously, Brian worked at the Boston Consulting Group. He also gained experience in Private Equity and Investment Banking by working for three different funds and managing the sales process of two companies. Brian earned an MBA from Columbia Business School in 2014.
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About Opportunity Network: Opportunity Network (ON) is the community for select CEOs and private investors to grow their businesses worldwide.
Daniel Ruch
Founder & CEO of Rocketrip
Prior to joining Genacast Ventures, Daniel served as Vice President, Europe for Tremor Video, based in London, England. Prior to his European stint, Daniel was Senior Director of Business Development for Tremor Video US. Before Tremor, Daniel held several director and managerial level positions at TACODA where he was responsible for East Coast business development until TACODA’s sale to AOL. In this role, he identified and solicited key strategic publishers to join TACODA’s network. Prior to TACODA, Daniel worked in strategic media planning at GroupM’s agency Mindshare / MAXUS global, allocating spend by medium for brands such as HSBC, Lufthansa, and Church & Dwight. Daniel graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, with a BA in Psychology.
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About Rocketrip: Rocketrip helps businesses reduce travel spend by incentivizing employees to save when they travel for business.
Caroline Ghosn
CEO & Founder of Levo
There is evidence that Caroline’s company Levo quietly closed down operations leaving invoices to vendors and creditors unpaid in 2019. As of 2019 and 2020, the company could not be reached when contacted for payment.
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About Levo: Levo is the largest and fastest-growing professional network for millennials.
Daniel Taylor
COO & Co-Founder of Tipster
Daniel Taylor is the Co-Founder & CEO at AMP.
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About AMP, BlocSide Sports, Dundalk Football Club, Only4stars, Tipster: Tipster gives you personalized style advice from industry experts & tastemakers in fashion, hair, and beauty – anytime, anywhere.
Don Mosites
Co-Founder of AirSwap
Don Mosites is the Lead Product Manage of ConsenSys and Co-founder of AirSwap.
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About AirSwap, ConsenSys: AirSwap is a decentralized trading network powered by Ethereum.
Dennis Mortensen
CEO & Founder of x.ai
Mortensen is the CEO and Founder of x.ai, whose artificial intelligence driven personal assistant lets people schedule meetings using plain English and nothing more than a CC to amy@x.ai. He’s a pioneer and expert in the analytics, optimization and big data space and has been since its inception – he is also a fully-fledged entrepreneur and successfully delivered a number of company exits. He’s an accredited Associate Analytics Instructor at the University of British Columbia, the Author of Data Driven Insights from Wiley and a frequent speaker on the subject of Analytics and Data. A native of Denmark, Mortensen currently calls New York City his home.
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About x.ai: x.ai is a tool that helps you and your team share ideal availability and schedule meetings.
Marcos Jimenez Belenguer
Chief Data Scientist & Co-Founder of x.ai
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About x.ai: x.ai is a tool that helps you and your team share ideal availability and schedule meetings.
Deborah Farrington
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of StarVest Partners
Farrington is a founder and Managing Partner of StarVest Partners, L.P., a New York City-based venture capital firm that invests in software, eCommerce and business services. Founded in 1998, StarVest has invested in many leading software-as-a-service and internet marketing companies. Farrington has over 30 years of private equity and venture investing, finance, and operating experience. Prior to founding StarVest, Farrington held positions including: President and CEO of Victory Ventures, LLC, a New York-based private equity investment firm where she also served as chairman of Staffing Resources, Inc.; and Managing Director of Asian Oceanic Group, a Hong Kong-based merchant bank. Earlier in her career she was in management positions spanning international and domestic investment banking and securities analysis with Merrill Lynch & Co. based in New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo, and was an officer with The Chase Manhattan Bank. Having served on the boards of many private and public companies previously, Farrington currently sits on the Boards of NetSuite (NYSE: N), where she is lead director and chairman of the Compensation Committee, Fieldglass, Insurance.com, Perquest and PivotLink on behalf of StarVest. She is also a director and chairman of the Compensation Committee of Collectors Universe, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLCT). She has been named multiple times to the Forbes Midas 100 List of top venture capitalists in the United States. She is a graduate of Smith College and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she is a member of the Dean’s Visiting Committee.
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About StarVest Partners: StarVest Partners is a venture capital firm specializing in expansion, and growth capital investments.
Laura Sachar
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of StarVest Partners
Laura Sachar is a Founder and Managing Partner of StarVest Partners, a New York City based venture capital firm founded in 1998. StarVest invests in technology-enabled business services companies. StarVest was an early investor in the software-as-a-service trend: in 2000, it invested as the only venture firm in NetSuite -NYSE-listed and subsequently acquired by Oracle for $10 Billion. Laura is an experienced entrepreneur and private equity investor. She was an early identifier of the growth in digital media and has invested for nearly two decades in technology-enabled business services companies. As a founding partner of StarVest, she has been active with StarVest’s investments in Veracode (acq. CA Technologies), MessageOne (acq. by Dell Computer), Connected (acq. by Iron Mountain), iCrossing (acq. by Hearst) and Newgistics (acq. by Littlejohn and subsequently Pitney-Bowes) among others. Laura currently serves on the boards of RetailNext, Vyze, Persado, Transactis and Ceros. Prior to founding StarVest, Laura was responsible for direct private equity investments at Gabelli Securities where she sourced digital media investments including the first institutional round of Digital River (NASDAQ:DRIV). In the early 1990’s, Laura identified digital media as a growth area and founded Sachar Capital, which sourced Redgate Software, founded by Ted Leonsis, (merged into AOL in 1994) as an investment opportunity for its Advisory Counsel. Laura was the Founding Chairman of the New York New Media Association Angels Investors Program (now NY Angels), where she assisted hundreds of early-stage New York area companies in accessing initial capital. Laura has a BA from Barnard College, Columbia University, and an MBA from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. Laura is a former member of the Young President’s Organization and a current member of the World President’s Organization. She is a Private Women’s Investor Network (PEWIN) Steering Committee Member. She has a Professional Director Certification with the American College of Corporate Directors.
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About StarVest Partners: StarVest Partners is a venture capital firm specializing in expansion, and growth capital investments.
Barak Shragai
Co-Founder & CEO of IMGN Media
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About IMGN Media: IMGN is a tech-media company specialized in producing and programming social content for Gen Z audiences.
Samir Arora
Founder and CEO of Sage Digital
Samir Arora is an American entrepreneur, inventor and investor. He is best known as a veteran of Apple Computer and a serial founder, investor and CEO in Silicon Valley with a passion to lead team of incredible people to perform the impossible. He is listed as one of the 100 Internet Pioneers along with Tim Berners-Lee, Marc Andreessen and others, and as the 21 people that shaped the World Wide Web at the 1st Web Innovators Awards by CNET. Samir started his career at Apple, and currently is the founder & Group CEO of Sage Digital Corp and serves as a Managing Partner of the venture firm Information Capital. At Sage, Samir is building a platform for experts, publishers and businesses: Sage Plus for Experts currently is an invite-only platform or experts, talent and celebrities and their teams. He was the CEO of Mode Media /Glam Media and founder and CEO of one of the first web site building platform company NetObjects.
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About Foodie Top 100, Information Capital LLC, Mode Media Japan, Project Bento, Sage Digital, Woodside Incubator: Sage Digital is a AI-driven platform for verified experts to manage their online presence
Jesse Boyes
Co-Founder of Dasher
Jesse Boyes is a co-founder of [Dasher](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/dasher#/entity), a next-generation messaging platform that enables the delivery of interactive and real-time data in group chats. Prior to his current position, he worked at [Gilt Groupe](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/gilt-groupe#/entity) as the director of mobile engineering. In 2013, Boyes filed a patent request for inventing the method and system for trying out a product in relation to a real world environment. He currently resides in New York, United States.
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About Dasher, Outalot: Dasher is building a next-generation messaging platform enabling delivery of rich, interactive, real-time data in 1:1 and group chats.
Jared Hecht
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Fundera
Jared Hecht is a co-founder and the chief executive officer at Fundera, an online marketplace that matches small business owners to the best possible lender. He started Fundera after his cousin experienced the frustration and lack of transparency of applying for a small business loan. Previously, Jared co-founded GroupMe, a group messaging service that in August 2011 was acquired by Skype, which was subsequently acquired by Microsoft in October 2011. Prior to GroupMe, he led Business Development at Tumblr where he focused on international expansion and strategic partnerships. Jared currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Columbia University Entrepreneurship Organization and is an investor and advisor to startups such as Codecademy, SmartThings, and TransferWise. Jared received his BA in Political Science from Columbia University where he served as the publisher and managing director of Inside New York.
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About Fundera: Fundera is a marketplace for small business financial solutions.
Rachel Tipograph
Founder & CEO of MikMak
Rachel Tipograph is the Founder & CEO at MikMak .
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About Brave Commerce, Cleo Capital, MikMak: MikMak is a platform that enables traditional brick-and-mortar brands to gain insights & view the activity of major online retailers.
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.
Aaron Henshaw
CTO & Co-Founder of Bison Trails
Aaron is a Grand St. Co-Founder and application engineer. He handles back-ends and makes the company’s websites look exactly like they’re designed. He always makes my day by saying, “I don’t know whether I’m looking at the test build, or your Illustrator file.” Sailing from Miami, Aaron brought beach chillax and warm sunshine with him. A renowned chef (at least in the office), Aaron hosts numerous dinner feasts for friends and families. He’s good at all sports but pool (Shocking!), and boasts that he could easily beat Dustin at ping pong. He delights in kale juice, Brooklyn Kitchen, and plans parties that the cops even love when they show up
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About Bison Trails: Bison Trails allows the user to run secure infrastructure on multiple blockchains.
Joe Lallouz
CEO & Co-Founder of Bison Trails
Joe Lallouz is the chief executive officer of Bison Trails.
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About Ambush Capital, Bison Trails: Bison Trails allows the user to run secure infrastructure on multiple blockchains.
Dan McArdle
Founder of SABR
Dan McArdle is the Co-Founder at Messari.
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About Digital Currency Council, Messari, SABR, Volara: SABR monitors multiple blockchains to identify and locate criminal activity.
Zuben Mathews
CEO & Co-Founder of Brigit
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About Brigit: A financial health app helping every American build a brighter financial future.
Tal Chalozin
CTO & Co-Founder of Innovid
Tal Chalozin is co-founder and CTO of Innovid, the leading connected TV and video advertising platform for advertisers to engage consumers across all screens and channels. Tal leads Innovid’s long-term technology vision, global product creation and implementation, and business development efforts, as well as identifying and developing emerging trends and opportunities for product innovation and digital TV/OTT collaborations. He has forged partnerships with Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Samsung, Roku and Hulu, amongst others, to help advertisers bring interactive video to viewers everywhere. Tal is a serial entrepreneur and tireless global leader in video technology. In addition to serving as Innovid’s CTO, Tal is a board member for the IAB’s Digital Video Center of Excellence and for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He has been named a 2018 inductee in the American Advertising Federation’s Advertising Hall of Achievement for his significant impact on the industry via mentorship, inspiration, volunteerism and training. Previous accolades include being named a “Technology Pioneer” by the World Economic Forum, one of the “Best Young European Entrepreneurs” by Businessweek, a member of Multichannel News’ “40 Under 40” Class of 2016, and to Cynopsis Digital’s 2016 “It List.” Prior to Innovid, Tal co-founded GarageGeeks – a non-profit organization and one of Israel’s largest hacker spaces and innovation hubs boasting more than 8,000 members. Tal also served as an officer in an elite computer unit in the Israeli Air Force for over eight years where he led the development of several military products with high algorithmic complexity. Tal owns several global patents in digital video technology, and he is a regular speaker at global events, including Cannes Lion, CES, The Drum’s Programmatic Punch, IAB, MWC, NAB, TVOT, AdExchanger’s Programmatic I/O, Broadcasting & Cable’s Advanced TV, Wired Magazine’s NEXTFEST, Le Web’s Digital Innovation Conference, Ars Electronica, and eConsultancy’s Creative Programmatic.
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About Garagegeeks, Innovid: Innovid is the only independent omni-channel advertising and analytics platform built for television.
Zvika Netter
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Innovid
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About Innovid: Innovid is the only independent omni-channel advertising and analytics platform built for television.
Joseph Fasone
Founder & CEO of Pilot
Joseph is the founder of Pilot, a fiber-optic internet provider for businesses in New York City.Prior to founding Pilot, Joseph was the Director of Information Technology for WeWork from 2010-2014.
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About Pilot: Pilot is a fiber-optic ISP that raises the bar for telecom and provides better business internet.
Oleg Tumanov
Founder & CEO of ivi
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About Frontier Ventures, ivi: ivi is a video-on-demand platform that brings the traditional television experience online with a free video player.
Nick Shiftan
Co-Founder & CTO of Curalate
Nick Shiftan is Co-Founder and serves as Chief Technology Officer and Director at Curalate.
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About Curalate: Curalate optimizes digital commerce for discovery.
Joshua Abram
Co-Founder of Dstillery
Joshua Abram is the Co-Founder of Dstillery, Integral Ad Science, and NeueHouse. He is also the Founder & Co-CEO at TMRW Life Sciences, Inc. and Co-Founder, Partner at Coriolis Ventures.
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About Coriolis Ventures, Dstillery, Integral Ad Science, NeueHouse, TMRW Life Sciences: Dstillery is the leading custom audience solutions company, empowering brands and their agencies to maximize the value of customer data.