Best Startup
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 E-Commerce 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.
Nitesh Banta
Co-Founder & CEO of B12
Nitesh Banta is the Co-Founder & CEO at B12.
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About B12, Getaround, Rough Draft Ventures, Stellar Capital: B12 offers website building, contact management, online scheduling, payments, invoicing, and SEO services.
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Adam Marcus
Co-Founder and CTO of B12
Adam is a co-founder and CTO of B12. Previously, he was Director of Data at Locu, a startup that was acquired by GoDaddy. He has written widely on crowdsourcing and data management and processing, including co-authoring a book, “Crowdsourced Data Management: Industry and Academic Perspectives.” Prior to that, he completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science at MIT. His dissertation is on database systems and human computation. He is a recipient of the NSF and NDSEG fellowships, and has previously worked at ITA, Google, IBM, and FactSet. In his free time, he builds course content to get people excited about data and programming.
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About B12: B12 offers website building, contact management, online scheduling, payments, invoicing, and SEO services.
Christopher Cheung
Co-Founder of Boxed
Chris is a Co-Founder at Boxed; an mobile commerce startup focusing on delivering wholesale goods at wholesale prices for smartphones and tablets, as well as a co-founder and managing partner at Blackgate Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in leading-edge, early-stage technology and mobile companies. Prior to forming Boxed and Blackgate Ventures, Chris was Director of Game Design at social gaming giant Zynga and former Co-Founder at Astro Ape SGS (which was subsequently acquired by Zynga). Before pursing his entrepreneurial passions, he worked at a number of Fortune 500 companies in a variety of roles, but most recently at Goldman Sachs, before leaving to pursuing social gaming. Since he never sleeps, he has also pursued side businesses ranging from Korean fashion imports, eBay stores, print-on-demand apparel and web design services; all while maintaining his day job. Chris earned his Bachelor’s of Economics from The Johns Hopkins University. Currently in semi-retirement, his main interest is financing companies that may one day grant him immortality.
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About Blackgate Ventures, Boxed: Boxed is an online bulk grocery retailer used to offer wholesale club experience for modern shoppers.
William Fong
Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer of Boxed
William Fong joined Boxed as CTO in 2013. Having developed an early love of programming, William has been coding since the age of 9. Prior to Blackgate Ventures, William was Co-Founder and CTO of Astro Ape Studios before being acquired by Zynga and becoming CTO of Zynga Mobile NY. William holds a Bachelors of Computer Science from Rutgers University.
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About Blackgate Ventures, Boxed: Boxed is an online bulk grocery retailer used to offer wholesale club experience for modern shoppers.
Jared Yaman
Co-Founder, COO of Boxed
Prior to Blackgate Ventures, Jared was a corporate attorney at Proskauer before becoming a Co-Founder at Astro Ape Studios. Most recently, he was made upper level management at Zynga Mobile NY where he oversaw high profile mobile properties. Jared holds a J.D. from Fordham University and a Bachelor’s in Economics and Business from Michigan State University. Unbeknownst to most, Jared is actually Troy Aikman’s younger, stronger, better looking brother.
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About Blackgate Ventures, Boxed: Boxed is an online bulk grocery retailer used to offer wholesale club experience for modern shoppers.
Neil Blumenthal
Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Warby Parker
Neil Blumenthal is a co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, a transformative lifestyle brand that offers designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially-conscious businesses. Prior to launching Warby Parker in 2010, Neil served as Director of VisionSpring, a non-profit social enterprise that trains low-income women to start their own businesses selling affordable eyeglasses to individuals living on less than $4 per day in developing countries. In 2005, Neil was named a Fellow for Emerging Leaders in Public Service at NYU Robert F. Wagner School for Public Service. In 2012, he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. In 2013, he became a member of the United Nations’ Global Entrepreneurs Council and was named one of Crain’s “40 Under Forty”. In 2013, he received an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. Neil serves on the board of RxArt and on the United Nations Global Entrepreneurs Council. A native of New York City, Neil received his BA from Tufts University and his MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was both a Social Enterprise Fellow and a Leadership Fellow. Neil lives in Greenwich Village with his wife Rachel Leigh, the founder of Cricket’s Circle.
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About Warby Parker: Warby Parker is a lifestyle brand that offers designer eyewear while being a socially conscious business.
David Gilboa
Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Warby Parker
Dave Gilboa is the co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, a transformative lifestyle brand offering designer eyewear at a revolutionary price while leading the way for socially conscious businesses. In 2015, Fast Company named Warby Parker the most innovative company in the world. Prior to Warby Parker, Dave worked at merchant bank Allen & Company and Bain & Company. Dave has worked extensively with non-profit organizations, and serves as a founding member of the Entrepreneur Board of Venture for America, an organization dedicated to mobilizing graduates as entrepreneurs in low-cost cities. He is a member of the Aspen Institute’s 2014 Henry Crown Fellowship class and the Aspen Global Leadership Network, received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, and was recognized as part of “The Next Establishment” by Vanity Fair. Born in Sweden and raised in San Diego, Dave graduated with a BS in Bioengineering with Honors from UC Berkeley and holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. With the ultimate goal of making safe, routine vision tests more accessible and convenient for the millions of adults who wear prescription glasses, Warby Parker introduced Prescription Check in 2017, a mobile refraction service designed in-house that, if you are eligible, allows an eye doctor to assess your vision and provide an updated prescription within 24 hours.
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About Warby Parker: Warby Parker is a lifestyle brand that offers designer eyewear while being a socially conscious business.
Nigel Eccles
Co-Founder & Chairman of StarStock
Nigel Eccles, CEO and co-founder of Flick, an esports/gaming focused screen share application. Previously Nigel was the CEO and co-founder of FanDuel a fantasy sports application.
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About StarStock: StarStock is a marketplace for sports fans and card hobbyists to buy, sell, and invest in their favorite athletes.
Mike Kuchera
Co-Founder & COO of StarStock
Mike Kuchera is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of StarStock.
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About Flick, StarStock: StarStock is a marketplace for sports fans and card hobbyists to buy, sell, and invest in their favorite athletes.
Ari Ojalvo
Co-Founder and CEO of REEF
Ari Ojalvo is the Co-Founder and CEO at REEF Technology.
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About REEF, Thesis Ventures: REEF Technology is a company that transforms urban real estate such as parking facilities into thriving mobility and logistical hubs.
Marc Lore
Founder & CEO of Jet
Marc Lore is the Founder and CEO of Jet. He was previously the Chief Operating Officer of Wizkids, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Topps Company, Inc. (NASD: TOPP) and a leading game manufacturer. Prior to joining Wizkids, Marc was the co-founder and CEO of The Pit, Inc., an Internet market-making collectible company constructed as an alternative to eBay. The Pit, Inc. was successfully sold to the then publicly traded Topps Company in 2001. Prior to ThePit, Marc held various investment banking positions, including as Executive Vice President of Sanwa International Bank in London where he was head of the bank’s Risk Management Division. Before Sanwa, he was Vice President and Global Head of Emerging Markets Risk Department at Credit Suisse First Boston in London. In 2000, he was named by The Sunday Times Magazine of London as one of Britain’s top ten “new high-tech entrepreneurs and whiz kids.” Marc graduated from Bucknell University, where he received a B.A. in Business Management/Economics, cum laude, and is currently on leave from the Wharton University School of Business MBA program. He is also a C.F.A. (Chartered Financial Analyst). Marc has two young daughters, Sierra and Sophia, with his wife, Carolyn.
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About Jet, Walmart: Jet operates an e-commerce platform that allows its member to shop online from various retailers.
Ali Hamed
Founder of CoVenture Holding Company
Ali Hamed is a managing partner and co-founder of CoVenture Holding Company, a firm that invests across the capital stack of tech-enabled companies. CoVenture often provides the first institutional equity and/or debt financing to business operations across financial services, new forms of media, platform economies or industries we are yet to imagine.
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About CoVenture Holding Company, Crossbeam Venture Partners: CoVenture provides equity and/or debt financing to tech-enabled companies in areas such as financial services, media, and platform economies
Rachel Drori
Founder and CEO of Daily Harvest
Rachel Drori is the founder and CEO of Daily Harvest, a platform is serving the needs of modern consumers by turning freezers into personalized pantries stocked with clean food, quickly prepared and replenished as it is consumed. Daily Harvest was launched as a solution to Rachel’s own daily challenge: squeezing in nourishing fruits and vegetables into her busy life. She has built Daily Harvest into one of the fastest-growing consumer brands in the U.S. Prior to starting Daily Harvest, Rachel harnessed her skills as a customer-centric marketing executive, leading teams at Gilt Groupe, American Express, and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. Rachel holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Columbia Business School. She currently resides in New York City with her family
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About Daily Harvest: Daily Harvest is a customer-first platform that provides subscription-based food delivery services to offer healthy frozen foods.
Matt Meeker
Founder and CEO of BarkBox
Mr. Matt Meeker is a Co-Founder of Bark & Co. and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Meeker co-founded Wee Web, Inc. and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. He serves as Vice President of Member Experience at MeetUp, Inc. He co-founded MeetUp, Inc. in 2002 and served as its Advisor. He serves as a Venture Partner of Resolute Ventures, Inc. He served as the President at Bark & Co. He was an Entrepreneur in Residence at DogPatch Labs. He is the Organizer of .
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About BARK, BarkBox, Resolute Ventures: Barkbox is a subscription-based e-commerce and content company for dog lovers.
Ankur Nagpal
Founder & CEO of Teachable
Founder of Fedora.
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About Teachable: Teachable is a venture-backed company that allows anyone to create and sell online courses.
Ryan Babenzien
Founder / CEO / Investor of Greats
Babenzien began his career managing clients at ICM Partners. Towards the end of the 1990s, he began consulting with fashion companies, including Eckō Unltd. and Mecca. He later worked for Puma, eventually landing with K-Swiss. Babenzien served as the director of lifestyle and entertainment marketing for that company, and then the Global Director of Entertainment Marketing. Babenzien became the CEO of Boast in 2010, re-establishing the retail brand that had been founded in 1973. Babenzien worked with Andy Spade to revive the company, and began showing collections for both men and women in advance of the company’s 40th anniversary. In 2013 Babenzien founded the online footwear company Greats Brand with Jon Buscemi. He knew that he wanted to create a high quality footwear brand that was sold direct to the consumer rather than through 3rd party retailers.
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About Greats, Greats: Greats Brands is a men’s footwear brand that offers a wide range of classically-inspired sneakers.
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.
Michael Reitblat
CEO & Co-Founder of Forter
Michael is the Co-Founder and CEO of Forter, the leading payment fraud prevention solution. Prior to founding Forter, Michael was the VP Product & International Operations at Pango Parking where he was in charge of the deployment and adoption of Mobile Wallet technologies worldwide. In 2008, before its acquisition by PayPal, Michael led Product at Fraud Sciences, where he faced some of the most challenging questions in the cyber security ecosystem. Michael’s fascination with online fraudsters began following a successful “self experimentation with the Internet” phase as a teenager and an even more successful period of service as an intelligence officer in the early days of the Israeli Cyber Command.
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About Forter: Forter offers a fraud solution that helps retailers grow sales, lower costs, and improve customer experience via its Decision as Service.
Alon Shemesh
Co-Founder & Chief Analyst of Forter
Alon is an experienced Big Data Expert. He leads Forter’s Risk Analysis Division and proprietary know-how. Alon co-founded Forter after leading the integration of Fraud Sciences’ solution for PayPal, after they were acquired in 2008. He served as the head of Automation Analytics, creating a cutting edge,scalable fraud decision-making system for Fraud Sciences and PayPal. Alon received his bachelor’s degree in business and economics from The Open University in Tel Aviv.
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About Forter: Forter offers a fraud solution that helps retailers grow sales, lower costs, and improve customer experience via its Decision as Service.
Liron Damri
President and Co-Founder of Forter
Liron is an experienced Fraud Prevention professional. He heads Forter’s overall Product and Business Operations.Liron co-founded Forter after serving at the leadership of PayPal’s risk organization in Tel Aviv. Prior to that he was the head of operations at Fraud Sciences,where he was responsible for behavioral analytics, taking an active role in building one of the most robust fraud detection systems in the world. Liron received his MBA from Tel Aviv University.
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About Forter: Forter offers a fraud solution that helps retailers grow sales, lower costs, and improve customer experience via its Decision as Service.
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.
Jonathan Regev
Co-Founder, CEO of The Farmer’s Dog
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About The Farmer’s Dog: A smarter, healthier pet food — delivered. #longlivedogs
Brett Podolsky
Co-Founder of The Farmer’s Dog
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About The Farmer’s Dog: A smarter, healthier pet food — delivered. #longlivedogs
Melanie Travis
Co-Founder and CEO of Andie
Melanie Travis is a Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Andie.
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About Andie: Andie is a designer and manufacturer of one-piece women’s swimsuits and sells them to consumers through its e-commerce platform.
Prashant Kumar
Founder of Unbxd
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About Unbxd: Unbxd is an e-commerce product discovery platform that connects shoppers to the products they are most likely to buy.
James McCann
Founder of 1-800-FLOWERS
Jim McCann is a highly successful entrepreneur whose vision and energy have helped grow 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, the company he founded in 1976, into the world’s leading florist and gift company. McCann’s focus on customer relationships and his willingness to embrace new technologies and business channels helped change the way flowers and other gifts are marketed for birthdays, anniversaries, holidays and special occasions. McCann recognized early on the enormous potential in providing on-the-go consumers with the ability to express themselves and connect with the important people in their lives through top quality floral gifts combined with exemplary, personal service. McCann has also consistently managed to stay ahead of the curve in multi-channel retailing by embracing new technologies, such as 800 phone numbers and the Internet, often long before other retailers recognized the opportunities that these developments would provide both for business and consumers. In addition to being the first company to have its 800-telephone number as its name – a marketing insight that helped solidify the brand in consumer’s minds – McCann was a pioneer in online retailing – seizing the enormous reach of the Internet as early as 1991. Utilizing thorough knowledge of his customer base and market, McCann focused on expanding brand name awareness and instilling a sense of trust and convenience. McCann’s strategy for growth includes an effective combination of birthing new businesses and making acquisitions of businesses and brands that resonate with customers as great sources for exceptional gifts. One such new business is the BloomNet® wire service which provides retail florists with diverse resources such as website hosting, a comprehensive technology platform for retail store management and the industry’s first and only online digital floral directory. On the acquisition front, McCann has expanded his company’s gift offerings, and become a leading player in the Gourmet Food and Gift Baskets business, by acquiring such iconic brands as: Fannie May®, makers of gourmet chocolate and other confections; Cheryl&Co.®, creators of individually-wrapped fresh baked cookies, brownies and cakes; and The Popcorn Factory®, which offers gourmet popcorn and other snacks in exclusively designed collectible tins. McCann attributes much of his success to the lessons he learned in his first career, in the social services. At St. John’s Home for Boys in Rockaway, New York, McCann recalls, he helped underprivileged youths learn how to overcome the many challenges of their environment. His experiences greatly influenced his management style and prepared him to lead 1-800-FLOWERS.COM toward becoming one of the world’s most successful multi-channel retailers. McCann is a published author and award winning public speaker as well as a frequent guest on radio and television programs nationwide. In addition to serving as Chairman of the Board of Directors for 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, McCann is a member of the Board of Directors of Willis Group Holdings Limited and Gruppo Lottomatica.
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About 1-800-FLOWERS: 1-800-FLOWERS.COM is a floral and gift retailer offering fresh flowers, plants, gift baskets, gourmet foods, balloons and plush toys.
Luisana Mendoza de Roccia
COO, Co-Founder & President of Maisonette
Luisana Mendoza de Roccia is the co-founder and COO at Maisonette.
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About Maisonette: Maisonette is a children’s clothing and lifestyle e-commerce site.
Jennifer Hyman
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Rent the Runway
Jennifer Hyman is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rent the Runway, a fashion company with a technology soul that is disrupting the way women get dressed. In her role, she sets the strategic priorities of the business and leads the company in growing all areas of the business, including marketing, technology, product, and analytics. She co-founded Rent the Runway in 2009 with Jennifer Fleiss, and has since raised $126 million in venture capital, growing the business to over 6 million members, 950 employees and 400 designer brands. Jennifer has been honored with numerous recognitions including: Forbes’ “Women Entrepreneurs to Watch”, TriBeCa Film Festival’s “Disruptive Innovation Awards”, Fortune Magazine’s “Trailblazers, 11 People Changing Business in 2013,” “Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs,” and “40 Under 40”; Inc. Magazine’s “30 Under 30”; and Fast Company’s “Most Influential Women in Technology.” She has been a featured speaker at Fortune Brainstorm Tech, the Forbes Women’s Summit, Tech Crunch Disrupt, and Marie Claire’s Power Trip, and has appeared as a guest on NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, and CNN Money, among many others. In 2015, Jennifer launched the Rent the Runway Foundation with Jennifer Fleiss to inspire and ignite the next generation of female entrepreneurs. The foundation’s first initiative, in partnership with UBS, is Project Entrepreneur, a venture competition and educational program designed to provide women entrepreneurs nationwide with the tools to build high-growth, high-impact businesses. Prior to Rent the Runway, Jennifer was the Director of Business Development at IMG where she focused on the creation of new media businesses for IMG’s Fashion Division. She also ran an online advertising sales team at WeddingChannel.com and was an in-house entrepreneur at Starwood Hotels, creating Starwood’s first wedding business which was recognized on the Oprah Winfrey Show for its innovation. She received her BA from Harvard University and MBA from Harvard Business School. Jennifer is a Bloomberg Fellow, a TechStars mentor, and a member of both the Entrepreneurship Board at the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Women in Business Board at Harvard University. She is an investor in and advisor to several high-growth startups throughout the U.S.
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About Brit + Co, Rent the Runway, Zalando: Rent the Runway is an online e-commerce website that allows women to rent designer apparel and accessories.
Jennifer Fleiss
Co-Founder of Rent the Runway
Jennifer Fleiss is the President and co-founder of Rent the Runway, the premier online destination for designer dress and accessory rentals. Jenny and her co-founder, Jennifer Hyman, have built the company to include a revolving roster of over 150 designer brands, 25,000 dresses, 120 employees, and over 2 million members. The company has raised approximately $31 million in venture capital funding from Bain Capital Ventures, Highland Capital, and Kleiner Perkins. In 2007, Jenny began at Harvard Business School where she met Jennifer Hyman. As sectionmates, the two women would meet frequently to discuss entrepreneurial ideas, one of which was Rent the Runway. Designed to solve the common “closet full of clothes but nothing to wear” problem, Jenn and Jenny launched Rent the Runway in November 2009. Prior to Harvard Business School, Jenny worked at Morgan Stanley in the Strategic Planning Group crafting long-term company strategy. She then moved on to Lehman Brothers’ Asset Management Group where she was responsible for analyzing business growth opportunities through acquisitions, international expansion, and new product strategies. Jenny received her Bachelor of Arts from Yale University in 2005 graduating Cum Laude, and her Master’s of Business Administration from Harvard Business School in 2009.
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About Rent the Runway, Volition Capital: Rent the Runway is an online e-commerce website that allows women to rent designer apparel and accessories.
Michael Waxman
Co-Founder & CEO of Sundays for Dogs
Michael was born and raised outside of Cleveland, Ohio, and went to college at Yale. He dropped out after his freshmen year to start a tech company, but returned later and graduated. He now lvies in New York City. Michael has built Grouper (a social club), Biography (“life-graphing”), Qomments (a comments system based on Q&A), Paper Buff (a social news reader), and QNA (a mini Quora for your website).
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About Grouper, Sundays for Dogs: Sundays for Dogs engages in the online retail of dog foods that are made by an air-drying method.
Maurice Harary
Founder and CEO of Fluz
Maurice is a Founder of the Fluz App. He is a serial entrepreneur with a 10-year background in e-commerce. He currently manages over 20 e-commerce sites in the B2B and B2C environment, ranging from interactive learning-based experiences to price-competitive marketplace trading sites. Experience in all areas of e-commerce sites, ranging from custom e-commerce software development to operational planning. He has extensive experience in fashion eCommerce and marketplace selling.
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About Fluz: Reinventing cashback to give you more. Get paid when you shop + when your friends shop. Earn Cashback Forever.
Omar Rada
Founder of Misen
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About Misen: Misen manufactures and sells quality tools that are essential for great cooking.
Bryan Mahoney
Co-Founder, CEO of Chord
Bryan started his career in Montreal, pursuing a degree in Finance and Entrepreneurship at McGill University. In 1998, during his sophomore year, he founded Dynamo, a digital design studio that would later become his full-time job with a team of thirty-five. Over the course of 15 years, Dynamo established itself as a go-to partner for venture-backed startups in the e-commerce space, including brands like Blue Bottle Coffee, Samsung, the Honest Company, and Glossier. After Glossier launched in 2014, Bryan was tasked with helping the New York-based company build out their own in-house tech team. He ended up taking on the job himself and now serves as their Chief Technology Officer. At Glossier, Bryan’s focus has shifted to overseeing an international team of developers and data analysts as they work to create a forward-thinking experience for customers and build a technology infrastructure from the ground up. He lives with his wife and daughter in New York City.
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About Chord: Chord offers a commerce-as-a-service software that provides businesses with technology and products to access meaningful data.
John Fontein
Co-Founder of Sesame
John Fontein is Co-Founder and President at Sesame. Previously, he was the VP of Business Development at GoEuro where he oversaw all revenue functions including sales, marketing and partnerships. John began his career at Goldman Sachs where he worked in both the Investment Banking and Investment Management Divisions of the firm. John is a multi-platinum song-writer, producer, and sound designer. He is the recipient of numerous awards including an MTV Video Music Award, a Berklee Jazz Festival Award and a FringeNYC Award. John attended Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn and graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University with a B.A. in Music and a certificate in Computer Science.
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About Sesame: Sesame is a healthcare superstore, with over 10,000 medical practices offering affordable prices for care in-person or online.
David Goldhill
Co-Founder & CEO of Sesame
David Goldhill is the founder and CEO of Sesame.
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About Game Show Network, Sesame: Sesame is a healthcare superstore, with over 10,000 medical practices offering affordable prices for care in-person or online.
Sebastian Castro
Founder of Kushki
Professional Goals: Develop exciting technologies, services, and products that bridges the gap between online experiences and the offline world Continue to acquire a detailed understanding of technology and energy infrastructure global markets, particularly in Latin America Promote greater investment in renewable and sustainable technologies along with traditional energy sources for profitable ventures, specifically as an intermediary between technical project specifications and its strategic implementation within the larger context of successful company operations
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About Alpha4 Ventures, Alpha4 Ventures, Kushki: Kushki offers clients an integrated payments platform and omnichannel solutions for e-commerce, m-commerce, and physical stores.
Aron Schwarzkopf
Co-Founder & CEO of Kushki
Aron Schwarzkopf is the Co-Founder and CEO at Kushki.
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About Kushki, New York Angels, Techstars: Kushki offers clients an integrated payments platform and omnichannel solutions for e-commerce, m-commerce, and physical stores.
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.
Neha Singh
Founder & CEO of Obsess
Neha Singh is the Founder & CEO of Obsess, a platform for Immersive Mobile Commerce.
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About Obsess: Obsess is a platform for immersive mobile commerce.
Raj Pandey
Co-Founder and CEO of ZopSmart
Raj Pandey is the Co-Founder and CEO at ZopSmart.
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About ZopSmart: ZopSmart is a retail technology that provides tools in building e-commerce business.
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.
Chetan Narain
Co-Founder and Software Engineer of Pepper
Chetan Narain is a Co-Founder and Software Engineer at Pepper. He is also the Group Product Manager at Uber. Mr. Narain previously the Software Engineer / Analyst and Associate Product Manager at Google. Chetan graduated from Princeton University with a BSE in Operations Research and Financial Engineering and Computer Science.
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About Pepper: Building the digital operating system for the food supply chain
Ivana Tesanovic
Co-Founder of Pepper
Ivana Tesanovic is the Co-Founder of Pepper. Previously, She was a Manager of Baker McKenzie and Massive Insights. Ms. Tesanovic received a bachelor of arts at York University.
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About Pepper: Building the digital operating system for the food supply chain
Patrick Freuler
Founder and CEO of Audicus
Patrick Freuler is the founder of Audicus, an internet platform that aims to make hearing aids more affordable. He previously worked at McKinsey and Bain Capital, before co-founding Imperdivel, a leading social e-commerce platform in Brazil. Patrick holds BSc. and MSc. in engineering from MIT.
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About Audicus: Audicus is an e-commerce startup that offers high-tech, affordable hearing aids online.
Eugene Bisovka
Founder of Tiggy
Eugene Bisovka is the founder of Tiggy.
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About Tiggy: 15 minute grocery delivery on a mission to forever change the way we buy everyday essentials. Now live in Vancouver!
Jessie Zeng
Founder & CEO of Choosy
Jessie Zeng is the founder of Choosy.
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About Choosy: Choosy is an on-demand social shopping platform where users influence every collection to match their favorite style inspirations.
Mo Zhou
Co-Founder, President & COO of Choosy
Mo Zhou is a co-founder at Choosy.
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About Choosy: Choosy is an on-demand social shopping platform where users influence every collection to match their favorite style inspirations.
Joe Teplow
Founder of Rebel
Joe Teplow is the founder of Rebel.
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About Good Today, Rebel: Rebel allows users to send interactive emails with no plug-ins required, increasing engagement, conversions, and actions.
Andy Aranda
Founder and CEO of Breazy
Andy Aranda is the Founder and CEO of Breazy, Inc.
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About Breazy: Ecommerce, Alternative Wellness
Benjamin Sun
Co-Founder & General Partner of Primary Venture Partners
Benjamin Sun is the Co-Founder and General Partner at Primary Venture Partners.
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About Ollie, Primary Venture Partners: Primary Venture Partners is a seed stage VC firm focused on ecommerce and enterprise SaaS.
Brad Svrluga
General Partner & Co-Founder of Primary Venture Partners
Brad Svrluga is Founder and General Partner at Primary Venture Partners. He got his start in the venture business in time to see the last 12 months of the bubble, which was not early enough to lead to early retirement. Since then he has led over two-dozen investments across a range of software sectors. Brad co-founded High Peaks Venture Partners in 2004 and reinvented it 8 years later. Prior to his venture career, he was a strategy consultant with Monitor Group, leading projects out of the firm’s Cambridge, South Africa, and Brazil offices. Brad focuses his investing activities on SaaS and enterprise mobile applications, with a particular focus on vertical SaaS applications and the transformational impact of mobile computing on traditional business processes. He has led the firm’s investments in Divide (sold to Google), Savored (sold to Groupon), TxVia (sold to Google), Pump Audio (sold to Getty Images), Threadsmith (sold to Vistaprint), and Allworx (sold to PAETEC). Brad is a graduate of Williams College, where he captained the rugby team and majored in economics. He blogs not nearly enough at www.bradsvrluga.com.
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About Handshake, Healthify, Primary Venture Partners, PublicStuff, WhoSay: Primary Venture Partners is a seed stage VC firm focused on ecommerce and enterprise SaaS.
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
Amish Tolia
Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Leap Services
Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Brand Innovators Labs & Co-Founder & Principal at Viking Investment Management. Co-Founder & Co-CEO at Leap.
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About Brand Accelerator, Brand Innovators Labs, Leap, Leap Services, Viking Investment Management: Leap develops a retail platform that enables brands to deploy stores and accelerate growth.
Raphi Mahgerefteh
Founder and CEO of Allurez
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About Allurez: Expert online jewelry retailers of diamonds and fine jewelry specializing in customized engagement rings, pendants, & earrings. Allurez.com
Sophia Edelstein
Co-Founder & CEO of Pair Eyewear
Sophia Edelstein is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Pair Eyewear.
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About Pair Eyewear: Pair Eyewear is an eyewear brand designed and made specifically for children.
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.
Jack Carlson
Founder, CEO, and Creative Director of Rowing Blazers
Jack Carlson is the Co-Founder, CEO, and Creative Director at Rowing Blazers.
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About Rowing Blazers: Rowing Blazers is a youthful, irreverent menswear label dedicated to the idea that the classics can be cool.
David Rosenzweig
Co-Founder of Rowing Blazers
David Rosenzweig is the Co-Founder at Rowing Blazers.
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About Rowing Blazers: Rowing Blazers is a youthful, irreverent menswear label dedicated to the idea that the classics can be cool.
Tomo Matsuo
Co-Founder, COO & President of Yardline
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About Yardline: Yardline is an offering Capital-as-a-Service technology for e-commerce platforms, marketplaces, and direct capital providers.
Fahim Saleh
Co-Founder of Pathao
Fahim Saleh is a Co-Founder of Pathao and the Co-CEO at Gokada. He is a graduate of Bentley University.
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About Pathao: Pathao is a super-app platform with services in ride-sharing, logistics, e-commerce, food delivery, payments, BNPL, and more.
Max Ritz
Co-Founder, Co-CEO of The Loyalist
Max is an MBA student at Columbia Business School, focusing on investment management and entrepreneurship. He is an InSITE Fellow and was involved in startup and growth-stage companies prior to business school. He has founded and helped lead two successful startups to acquisitions, both with his brother, and worked on the investment team at Innovation Endeavors, a venture capital firm based in Palo Alto and Tel Aviv co-founded by Eric Schmidt. Most recently, Max worked at SoFi, a portfolio company of Innovation Endeavors that blends technology and marketplace lending to intelligently address specific debt and loan sectors. Max holds a BA from The University of Maryland, where he captained the University’s lacrosse team.
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About The Loyalist: End-to-end merchandise platform focused on audience monetization for media companies, entertainers and online-influencers.
Morgan Hirsh
Founder & CEO of Public Goods
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About Public Goods: Making healthy products affordable
Michael Ferchak
Co-Founder & COO of Public Goods
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About Public Goods: Making healthy products affordable
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.
Seph Skerritt
Founder of Proper Cloth
Founder of Proper Cloth.
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About Proper Cloth: A direct-to-consumer menswear brand and ecommerce company specializing in men’s custom dress shirts.
Frederick Smith
CEO & Founder of FedEx
Frederick W. Smith is chairman and chief executive officer of FedEx Corporation, a $45-billion global transportation, business services and logistics company. Smith is responsible for providing strategic direction for all FedEx Corporation operating companies, including FedEx Services, FedEx Express, FedEx Ground and FedEx Freight. FedEx serves more than 220 countries and territories with operations that include 634 aircraft and over 90,000 vehicles. More than 300,000 team members worldwide handle more than 10 million shipments each business day. Since founding FedEx in 1971, Smith has been an active proponent of regulatory reform, free trade and “open skies agreements” for aviation around the world. Most recently, he has advocated for vehicle energy-efficiency standards and a national energy policy. FedEx has continued to strengthen its industry leadership over the past 40 years, and has been widely acknowledged for its commitment to total quality service. FedEx Express was the first service company to win the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1990. FedEx has consistently been ranked on FORTUNE magazine’s industry lists, including “World’s Most Admired Companies,” “100 Best Companies to Work For” and is on FORTUNE’s “Blue Ribbon Companies List. Smith is co-chairman of the Energy Security Leadership Council, a Trustee for the United States Council for International Business and a member of the Business Roundtable. He served as chairman of the U.S.-China Business Council and is co-chairman of the French-American Business Council. Smith has served on the boards of several large public companies and the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Mayo Foundation Boards. He was formerly chairman of the Board of Governors for the International Air Transport Association and the U.S. Air Transport Association. Smith has received numerous civic, academic and business awards including the Global Leadership Award from the U.S—India Business Council, the George C. Marshall Foundation Award; and the Circle of Honor Award from the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. In addition, Smith is a member of the Aviation Hall of Fame, served as co-chairman of both the U.S. World War II Memorial Project and the campaign for the National Museum of the Marine Corps and was named a top CEO by both BARRON’S magazine and CHIEF EXECUTIVE magazine. Born in 1944 in Marks, Miss., Smith attended Yale University, where he earned a B.A. in 1966. Smith served as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1966-1970.
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About FedEx: FedEx provides customers and businesses worldwide with a broad portfolio of transportation, e-commerce, and business services.
Arun Gupta
CEO and Co-Founder of Grailed
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About Grailed: Grailed is a peer-to-peer marketplace company that offers fashion and lifestyle accessories and apparel for men.
Julian Connor
Co-Founder & CTO of Grailed
Julian Connor is the co-founder and CTO at Grailed. He is a former software engineer at Venmo.
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About Grailed: Grailed is a peer-to-peer marketplace company that offers fashion and lifestyle accessories and apparel for men.
Jesse Lawrence
Founder of TicketIQ
Jesse Lawrence is the Founder of TicketIQ and FanIQ. TicketIQ is a leading ticket commerce platform. TicketIQ sells tickets on it’s website, app and across its social and editorial partners network that reaches over 50 million engaged fans. FanIQ works directly with teams in the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLS along with venues and promoters, all with the goal of selling tickets direct-to-fan. Prior to founding TicketIQ, he had 20 years of business and product development experience, launching and running high-growth busnesses at companies like StarMedia, IAC and MediaMath, where he led 3rd party data partners. After graduating from Columbia Business School, he also spent 4 years at Updata Partners, investing in growth stage companies in adtech and enterprise software.
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About TicketIQ: TicketIQ connects ticket buyers and sellers directly and reaches over 25 million ticket buyers each month.
Yonatan Pinhasov
Co-Founder & President of Variety Fun
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About Biohazard Coffee, Variety Fun: Variety Fun is an online a monthly subscription-based snack foods delivery service for business and home.
Ilya Avshalumov
Co-Founder & CEO of Variety Fun
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About Variety Fun: Variety Fun is an online a monthly subscription-based snack foods delivery service for business and home.
Sharron Battle
Founder & CEO of Derbywire
Sharron Battle is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of selfiepay and Derbywire.
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About Derbywire, selfiepay: Derbywire is a mobile social marketplace allowing individuals to store, sell, and buy digital content.
Anthony Girand
CEO, Co-Founder of VoyagerMed
Anthony has over 15 years of experience as a Private Wealth advisor on Wall Street. He left Forbes Family Trust in 2014 to start VoyagerMed and has been spearheading the company’s digital operations ever since. Contact Anthony at anthony@voyagermed.com
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About VoyagerMed: A medical tourism marketplace faciliating access to life changing medical innovations from trusted doctors around the world.
Struan Coleman
Chief Medical Adviser, Co-Founder of VoyagerMed
Struan Coleman MD, PhD, is a world-renowned, board-certified orthopedic surgeon specializing in hip preservation and sports medicine at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City and the Vincera Institute in Philadelphia. Struan Coleman earned a medical degree from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons and holds a D.Phil in Microbiology from Oxford University, England. He completed both his residency in Orthopedic Surgery and a fellowship in Sports Medicine at the Hospital for Special Surgery. During his fellowship, Struan Coleman worked as an assistant physician for the New York Giants football team and is currently the Head Team Physician for the New York Mets baseball team. Struan Coleman focuses on the treatment and management of sports related injuries of the hip, knee, and shoulder, with a particular interest in hip arthroscopy and hip preservation. In his practice, he treats young, athletic patients with hip pathology; in addition, he has performed arthroscopic surgery on many high level athletes with hip problems, including NFL players from the Green Bay Packers, Oakland Raiders, and Washington Red Skins. Struan Coleman also combines his clinical practice with research relating to the fields of hip arthroscopy and sports medicine, and he has published numerous articles and written chapters in those fields. Struan Coleman holds numerous patents for technologies that are utilized by sports medicine physicians and surgeons. Most recently, he patented the technology behind the CyMedica QB1 Rehabilitation System, which is used to treat quadriceps atrophy. Struan Coleman is the founder of CyMedica Orthopedics and he is on the board of the company.
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About CyMedica, New York Mets, VoyagerMed: A medical tourism marketplace faciliating access to life changing medical innovations from trusted doctors around the world.
Court Cunningham
Founder & CEO of Orchard
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About Orchard: Orchard is an online platform for buying and selling residential real estate.
Phil DeGisi
Co-Founder | Chief Product & Marketing Officer of Orchard
Phil DeGisi is the co-founder and Head of Growth & Customer Experience at Perch, the home buying and selling marketplace. Previously, he was Chief Marketing Officer at CommonBond, a leading marketplace lender, where he helped scale the company to over $1B in loans. Prior to joining the CommonBond team, Phil held e-commerce and digital marketing roles spanning startups and large organizations, including Quidsi (a subsidiary of Amazon), littleBits electronics, and Walmart.com. Phil received his M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and his B.A. from Vassar College with a degree in economics.
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About Orchard: Orchard is an online platform for buying and selling residential real estate.
Jeffrey Raider
Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Harry’s
As co-founder of both Harry’s and Warby Parker, Jeff Raider aims to build companies and brands that people like more. Harry’s ambition is to create exceptional shaving and personal care products that better meet the needs of modern men. Prior to Harry’s, Raider co-founded Warby Parker, the transformative lifestyle brand that offers designer eyewear at a revolutionary price while leading the way for socially conscious businesses. In May 2019, Harry’s Inc. announced a combination with Edgewell Personal Care to create a next-generation consumer products platform. Raider will serve as co-president of US operations at Edgewell upon the transaction closing.
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About Harry’s, Warby Parker: Harry is a developer of an online platform used to sell shaving equipment and accessories for men.
Andy Katz-Mayfield
Founder & Co-CEO of Harry’s
Andy Katz-Mayfield is co-founder and co-CEO of Harry’s. Prior to co-founding Harry’s, Andy worked at Brighter.com for business development and strategy position. He holds an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a BA degree in public policy from Duke University.
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About Harry’s: Harry is a developer of an online platform used to sell shaving equipment and accessories for men.
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.
Spencer Hewett
Founder & CEO of RADAR
Founder & CEO at RADAR (formerly Skip)
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About RADAR: RADAR is an RFID and computer vision platform that automates inventory management, analytics and checkout in physical stores.
Adam R. Gerchen
Co-Founder of Heyday
Prior to its acquisition by Burford, Mr. Gerchen co-founded and was CEO of Gerchen Keller Capital, which grew to $1.3 billion in assets under management in three years. Before co-founding Gerchen Keller, Mr. Gerchen was a portfolio manager at Alyeska Investment Group, a Chicago-based market neutral hedge fund, where he specialized in risk arbitrage and event driven investing. He has also worked as an investment banker at Goldman, Sachs & Company in the Industrials and Natural Resources Groups, focusing primarily on the transportation, metals and mining, paper and forest products, and regulated power industries. Mr. Gerchen graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Brown University and received his JD from Harvard Law School, where he was President of the Harvard Association of Law and Business.
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About Burford Capital, Heyday: Heyday offers a digital marketplace space built for sellers to accelerate consumer product brands.
Alban Denoyel
Co-Founder & CEO of Sketchfab
Alban is a 32-year-old French entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of Sketchfab – the #1 platform to publish and explore 3D content online and in VR. Prior to Sketchfab, he launched a low cost web agency, and worked for 4 years in the 2D world of photojournalists. He loves making things (usually with wood or in 3D). He graduated from ESSEC Business School (Paris, France).
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About Sketchfab: Sketchfab provides a platform to publish and find 3D models online
Kalam Dennis
Co Founder of AptDeco
Kalam Dennis is the Founder of AptDeco.
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About AptDeco: AptDeco is a peer to peer marketplace for buying and selling furniture.
Alex Adelman
CEO and Co-Founder of Lolli
Alex Adelman is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Lolli. Alex was previously the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Cosmic (acquired by PopSugar, then Ebates). He was born in Charlotte, North Carolina and currently resides in New York, New York. He graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a degree in Economics.
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About Lolli: Lolli is a rewards app that allows users to earn bitcoin when shopping online.
Andrea Xu
Founder & CEO of Umamicart
Andrea Xu is the Founder and CEO of Umamicart.
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About Umamicart: Umamicart is an online grocery store that focuses on delivering Asian products and groceries.
Adam Berkowitz
Co-Founder/Chief Operating Officer of Pharmapacks
Adam Berkowitz is a Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Pharmapacks.
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About Pharmapacks: Pharmapacks is an e-commerce company that offers products for daily health and wellness needs.
Daniel Berg
Founder of Berg Bites
At age 10, Berg Bites CEO and founder Dan Berg accompanied his father to the gym every week. This exposure to health and fitness was a formative influence over Dan. It didn’t just inspire him to work out. It inspired him to incubate a business idea from the family living room. Preteen Dan began the research and development of Berg Bites in middle school. He taught himself about food and nutrition and purged the family home of junk food. By high school, he was producing the Berg Bites prototype: nutritious and delicious balls of peanut butter, chocolate, oats, and seeds, served to friends and family as the one and only Berg-approved dessert. These crowd-pleasers became the original Chocolate Chip Madness flavor of Berg Bites. Rolled within each bite is the family legacy that nurtured Dan and his vision. Dan’s entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to health food fused in college, where he and his dormmates couldn’t easily find healthy snacks. Dan’s mother shipped the bites to the hungry students, who gratefully devoured them. It was a moment of truth for Dan, who had been thinking about the business angle since high school. It was time to fulfill the call of destiny and transform Berg Bites into the corporation of Dan’s lifelong dream
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About Berg Bites, DRNX, Future Forward Food: Berg Bites provides nutritious, clean label products that consumers can understand and feel good about eating.
Yu Chen
Founder & CEO of PingPong
Robert Chen co-founded PingPong Global Solutions Inc. in 2015 and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. As CEO, Robert is focused on transforming the payment industry to make selling easy everywhere in the world for e-commerce sellers. Prior to co-founding PingPong Global Solutions Inc., Robert’s career included 10 years as a Manager at Deloitte Consulting in New York. Robert holds an M.S. in Mathematics from University of Connecticut and a B.S. in Mathematics from Fudan University in Shanghai.
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About PingPong: The first, and only, international Fintech company to focus exclusively on global eCommerce Marketplace sellers.
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.
Zach Ehrlich
Founder and CEO of Stoop
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About Stoop: Stoop is a marketplace platform for furnished home rentals and urban residential space.
Brian M. Fenty
CEO & Co-Founder of TodayTix
Brian has led and managed varied private investments across a broad range of industries, focusing on product and talent. He is an active adviser to start-ups, growth stage companies and management teams. Previously an MD at Hamilton Investment Partners. Currently, Brian serves on the Board of The Institute for Arts and Humanities at UNC-Chapel Hill, where he received his Bachelors degree in Marketing and Entrepreneurship.
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About TodayTix: TodayTix is the premier digital gateway to shows, arts, and cultural experiences.
Merritt F. Baer
President & Co-Founder of TodayTix
Merritt started his career in mergers and acquisitions at Lazard, before moving to Europe to lead the primary inventory division at viagogo, the world’s largest ticket marketplace. He became a Broadway producer in 2010 (The Merchant of Venice), and later produced Death of a Salesman (Tony Award Winner) and Romeo and Juliet. In 2012, he teamed up with his life-long friend, Brian Fenty, to launch TodayTix.
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About TodayTix: TodayTix is the premier digital gateway to shows, arts, and cultural experiences.
Alpay Koralturk
Founder & CEO of Kaiyo
Alpay Koralturk, founder and CEO of Kaiyo.
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About Kaiyo: Kaiyo is an online marketplace for pre-owned furniture dedicated to great design, exceptional customer care, and a more sustainable planet.
Christian Gheorghe
CEO and co-Founder of Resonance Companies, Inc.
Always seeking to maximize the value to users from technology innovation,Christian Gheorghe has wide-ranging entrepreneurial experience in the design, architecture, development, and deployment of enterprise performance management software. Gheorghe was formerly senior vice president and chief technology officer at SAP, where he drove the technology direction of SAP’s EPM and GRC business units before, during, and after the acquisition of Business Objects. Gheorghe joined SAP from OutlookSoft, where he significantly expanded the vision of OutlookSoft’s unified application platform with the release of OutlookSoft 5 and the subsequent acquisition of OutlookSoft by SAP. His successful track record of building and leading companies led to the sales of Saxe Marketing (marketing analytics), Customer Insight (customer relationship management), TIAN Software (business activity monitoring), and OutlookSoft (corporate performance management).
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About Resonance Companies, Inc.: Resonance builds creation-driven fashion brands that are valuable and sustainable using our proprietary SaaS platform, create.ONE.
Jeff Chen
Co-Founder of Pixlee
Cofounder at Pixlee TurnTo. MIT ’12, Facebook ’12, RSI ’07. Jeff is currently based in the United States.
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About Pixlee: Pixlee is a user-generated content marketing platform that helps brands to market and sell by using real customer photos and videos.
Charles-Albert Gorra
Founder & CEO of Rebag
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About Rebag, Trendlee: Rebag is an e-commerce platform and retail store that buys, sells, and trades second-hand luxury handbags.
Christine Hunsicker
Founder & CEO of CaaStle
Christine Hunsicker is the Founder and CEO of CaaStle, the revolutionary B2B technology platform empowering retailers and fashion brands to strategically participate in a new sharing economy. As consumers have embraced a shared economy in everything from music to transportation, Hunsicker identified an enthusiastic consumer appetite for a new economy for fashion and apparel. One that is access-oriented rather than just ownership-based. In 2011, she founded Gwynnie Bee, the first everyday fashion rental subscription service enabling women to discover and experience great clothing without limitations. By leveraging technology, Hunsicker pioneered the Clothing as a Service (CaaS) model, blending traditional ownership with a new form of access. As Gwynnie Bee shipped millions of boxes to customers, evidence of this consumer appetite for rental was apparent. It was time to roll out the ultimate vision for the company in 2018 with the launch of the CaaStle platform. CaaStle is a proprietary cloud-based, managed service that empowers retailers to provide CaaS to their customers as a complement to their existing retail business. Many retailers from Ann Taylor to Vince to Express to multiple contemporary brands soon to be announced, have already embraced the CaaStle Platform. In six short years, Hunsicker’s vision of creating a new economy for apparel is in full swing. A 1999 graduate of Princeton, Hunsicker quickly rose to a leadership role as the COO of the startup Right Media. Right Media transformed the ad exchange industry, an accomplishment that led Yahoo! to purchase the company and its technologies for $850M in 2007. Hunsicker maintained her entrepreneurial spirit by joining Drop.io as COO. Soon thereafter, Facebook acquired the company. With an outstanding pedigree of leading successful startups, Hunsicker has been recognized in Inc. Magazine’s Most Impressive Women Entrepreneurs, Crain’s 40 Under 40 annual power list as well as the National Retail Federation’s List of People Shaping Retail’s Future.
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About CaaStle, Gwynnie Bee: CaaStle offers a fully managed service that allows retailers to offer Clothing as a Service.
Yaniv Sarig
Co-Founder and CEO of Aterian
Yaniv Sarig is a Co-Founder and CEO at Mohawk Group.
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About Aterian: Aterian is the leading consumer product platform. Formerly Mohawk Group.
