Speakers
Principal Analyst, E-Mobility Guidehouse Insights
Partner Index Ventures
Co-founder & President Cityblock Health
President & CEO Nēsos
Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO Circle
Chief Community Officer Commsor
Founder & CEO Forward
Co-founder & CEO Coinbase
Founder & CEO Calendly
Co-founder & CTO Accion Systems
Co-founder & CEO ExecOnline
Co-founder & CEO rePurpose Global
Co-founder & CEO Carbon Health
Co-founder & Managing Partner January Ventures
Head of Commercial, Diligent Equity Diligent Corporation
Founder & CEO Rocket Lab
Vice President, Finance Diligent Corporation
Partner Lightspeed Venture Partners
Managing Director General Catalyst
Talent Partner Sequoia Capital
Founding General Partner Trucks Venture Capital
Co-founder & CEO Nirmata
Co-founder & CEO By Humankind
Co-founder & CEO Slack
Secretary of Transportation U.S. Department of Transportation
Chief Strategy Officer VCOIN
Partner GV
CTO, Developer Technology Esri
CEO Ford Pro
Founder & CEO Product Stewardship Institute
Founding Partner At One Ventures
CEO, SoftBank Group International COO, SoftBank Group Corp.
Managing Director Madrona Venture Group
Founder & CEO Planet FWD & Moonshot Snacks
Chief Content Officer Peloton
Operating Partner SignalFire
Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer Soul Machines
Founder Mindstrong Health
State Senator Washington State Legislature
Chief Commercial Officer Houseplant
Founder & CEO Daily Harvest
Co-Founder & CEO Clearco
Co-founder & Managing Partner BBG Ventures
Developer Advocacy Lead, AI Google Cloud
Founder & GP Graham & Walker VC
Co-Founder and CEO SeedInvest
Co-Founder & CEO Cruz Foam
Founder Wrike, a Citrix company
Managing Partner Breakout Ventures
CFO Outreach.io
Founder & CEO Peloton
EVP & General Manager, HBO Max WarnerMedia
Co-Head of the Flagship Fund and Senior Managing Director Vista Equity Partners
Founder & General Partner Reach Capital
Comedian Non-Technical Podcast
Founder & CEO Dapper Labs
Founder Form Capital
Co-Founder and Chief Product & Strategy Officer Cyvatar
Managing Director Insight Partners
Co-founder & Managing Partner Construct Capital
Founding Partner Forerunner
Chief Technology Officer Plaid
Partner Mayfield Fund
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Apptio
Solutions Engineer Momentive.ai
Founding Partner & CEO Human Ventures
Founder & CEO Haun Ventures
Partner Bessemer Venture Partners
CEO and Owner Delivery Drivers Inc.
Dynamic Entrepreneur, Business Leader, and Leading Shark on ABC's hit show Shark Tank Herjavec Group
Founding Managing Partner Pear VC
VP, Marketing Elation Health
Founder & CEO Aviron
Founding Partner & Co-CEO iAngels
Partner Greylock
Founding Partner, Seven Seven Six
Co-founder & Co-CEO Pipe
President and CEO The Aerospace Corporation
Co-Founder & CEO Mirvie
Co-founder & CEO Egnyte
Managing Director Dell Technologies Capital
Head of Accelerator Pipeline Techstars
Lean Startup Expert and Co-Founder and CEO of She Matters
Co-founder & CEO Ginkgo Bioworks
Co-founder & General Partner Equal Ventures
Chief Growth & Innovation Officer Connection
General Partner Canaan
Partner NextView Ventures
Co-founder & CEO Grove Collaborative
CEO Yahoo
Chief Executive Officer Evil Geniuses
Co-Founder Premise
President and Co-Founder Remote
EVP of Samsung Electronics & Head of Samsung Next Samsung Next
Chairman & CEO, Sinovation Ventures President, Sinovation Ventures Artificial Intelligence Institute
Co-founder & CEO Twist Bioscience
Co-founder & CEO mmhmm
Principal Insight Partners
Co-Founder / Co-Chief Maker Cedar
Chief Customer Officer Mambu
Founder & General Partner Bling Capital
General Partner Sequoia Capital
Enterprise Account Executive Canva
CEO Foxxum/rlaxx TV
Managing Partner cela
Co-founder & General Partner Canvas Ventures
CEO KuCoin
Relationship Manager – Aerospace, Defense, Government Contracts Bank of America
Co-founder and CEO Sentry Software
Co-Founder & CEO Mammoth Biosciences
Partner Accel
Chief Data Officer Western Union
Chief Executive Officer Gainsight
Co-founder & Managing Partner Threshold
Vice President Product Design InVision
Founder & CEO MagicBell
Founder Bloom Money
Co-founder & CEO Houseplant
Founder & CEO NotCo
Vice President of Corporate Development Intuit
Special Projects Editor Yahoo News
Comedian/Host
Chief People Officer GitLab
Founder & CEO KiwiCo
Founder & CEO Agapé
Product Management Trainer, Consultant and Author Dan Olsen
Managing General Partner SOSV
Partner Venrock
Founder & CEO Social Capital
Partner Mayfield Fund
Co-founder & CEO Canva
Co-founder & CEO D-ID
Managing Partner Harlem Capital
CFO CrowdStrike
SVP and Chief Marketing Officer Ivanti
Lead Product Marketing Manager Momentive.ai
CMO Mayfield
General Partner Spark Capital
Co-Founder & CEO TRIPP
Co-Founder & CSO Endpoint Health
Founder & Co-Owner. Maximum Effort
Investment Committee Co‐Lead, Breakthrough Energy Ventures Co‐founder & Managing Partner Material Impact
Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman Adaptive Biotechnologies
Co-founder Houseplant
Inclusion Engineering Director Snap, Inc.
Co-Founder & President Clearco
Co-founder & Board of Director Grail
Co-founder & CEO Slashtalk
Co-founder & CEO BioNTech
Partner Venrock
VP of Customer Insights Upwork
Co-Head of the Flagship Fund and Senior Managing Director Vista Equity Partners
Vice President of Americas eCommerce Lenovo
Chief Strategy Officer Planet
Regional Director, San Francisco Regional Office United States Securities and Exchange Commission
General Partner Lux Capital
Award winning Producer, Professor and Pundit eshapTV
Founding Partner Twitter
CEO Sharma Brands
Founder & CEO Package Free
Partner Emergence Capital
General Partner Fuel Capital
Executive Vice President of Engineering HashiCorp
CISO Alteryx
Chief Technology Officer Cedar
Co-founder & General Partner The Community Fund
General Partner Benchmark
Co-Founder Sierra
Head of Customer Experience Notion
General Partner Greylock
Principal Precursor Ventures
SVP & Chief Product Officer eBay
Founder EQ Talent Group
General Partner & Managing Director Felicis Ventures
Head of Marketing & Analytics Point
Industry Director, Consumer Electronics Google
Chief Executive Officer Xero
Co-founder & Co-CEO Belvo
Co-founder & CEO Duolingo
Founder & Managing Partner Inspired Capital Partners
Chief Executive Officer Integral Ad Science
Global Sustainability Director Whirlpool, Inc.
Vice President Skynet Labs
Vice President of Engineering Pilot
Co-Founder & CEO Cyvatar
Head of EMEA Business Development & Corporate Sales Udemy
President Foxxum/rlaxx TV
Founder & CEO Velocity Global
Co-Founder and CEO Checkr
General Partner a16z
CEO Mission Bio
Founding Partner Chingona Ventures
Author & President World Chinese Science Fiction Association
Sam Abuelsamid is a principal analyst leading Guidehouse Insights’ E-Mobility Research Service with a focus on transportation electrification, automated driving and mobility services. With Guidehouse, Sam has worked with numerous clients to help them understand emerging technology trends and shape strategies. Sam regularly contributes to a number of publications including Autonomous Vehicle Engineering, Forbes and One Zero and co-hosts the Wheel Bearings podcast. Trained as a mechanical engineer, Sam worked in the automotive industry for more than two decades, developing advanced electronic control systems and embedded software. Prior to joining Guidehouse Insights (formerly Navigant Research) in 2014, Sam worked as an automotive journalist and in product and technology communications at Ford and GM.
Sam's Sessions
Electric Generation: The Next Frontier For American Business
This session will explore the ways in which smart electric mobility impacts businesses, and what a transition to electric will look like for commercial fleets. Host Chuck Nice will be joined by TechCrunch panelist Ted Cannis, CEO of Ford Pro, and Sam Abuelsamid, longtime engineer in the automotive industry-turned auto industry journalist. Nitty-gritty car talk will blend with discussion of sustainability and imagery to elaborate on the future of the topic.
Nina is a partner at Index Ventures, investing across seed, venture, and growth stages in AI, robotics, enterprise software, and vertical SaaS. She is excited by companies that build solutions to automate “forgotten” functions and industries, replacing pen and paper and siloed tools. Nina is inspired by founders who develop empathy for their customers, have an insatiable curiosity, and operate with a growth mindset. Nina currently serves on the boards or works with companies including SeviceTitan, Gong, Vizcom, Intercom, Persona, Motive, Seso, and Transcend, among others. Prior to Index, Nina worked at Google as an FP&A Lead, where she helped build the GTM infrastructure of the AdSense sales organization. She started her career as a bond trader in New York and London and founded HIVE Ventures, the first seed fund focused on Armenian entrepreneurs. Nina was featured on Forbes’ Midas Brink List in 2022, which recognizes up-and-coming leading investors. She graduated from Harvard University with a B.A. in government and is a recipient of the Michael C. Rockefeller Scholarship. Nina currently lives in San Francisco and, in her spare time, can be found watching football and Formula 1.
Nina's Sessions
How to Raise Your First Dollars
Deciding how to go about getting your initial funding is always a tricky subject, as the wrong move could adversely impact your young company. In this session we’ll hear from experts who’ve shepherded multiple companies from the earliest to the latest fundraises.
Dr. Toyin Ajayi is co-founder and CEO of Cityblock Health, a tech-enabled, value-based healthcare provider for Medicaid, dually-eligible and lower-income Medicare beneficiaries in underserved communities. Cityblock’s model of care meets individuals where they are, delivering highly personalized medical care, behavioral health care, and social services to members in neighborhoods where it’s needed most. Prior to Cityblock, Dr. Ajayi served as Chief Medical Officer of Commonwealth Care Alliance, a nationally renowned integrated health plan and care delivery system for individuals eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. In this role, she led clinical operations, spearheaded care delivery innovations, and oversaw multi-disciplinary teams of clinicians, community health workers and administrators. Dr. Ajayi received her undergraduate degree from Stanford University, an MPhil from the University of Cambridge and her medical degree, with Distinction in Clinical Practice, from King’s College London School of Medicine. Board certified in Family Medicine, Dr. Ajayi completed her residency training at Boston Medical Center and continues to practice primary care with a focus on patients with chronic, complex and end-of-life needs. She has published and spoken extensively about her work in caring for populations with complex needs, including at TEDMED, NCQA, and HLTH, and in journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Toyin's Sessions
Democratizing Healthcare
It’s no secret that the current healthcare system in America is broken. Technology stands to make a huge difference, especially in the backdrop of eased regulations due to COVID-19. Hear how startup founders from Forward, Carbon Health and Cityblock Health decided to tackle the behemoth, backward industry of healthcare, as well as talk through their plans to democratize access and digitize the industry.
Konstantinos Alataris
President & CEO, NēsosKonstantinos Alataris PhD is the co-founder and CEO of Nēsos, a clinical stage company developing disease modifying digital therapeutics targeting the autonomic nervous system’s control of the immune response. Nēsos clinical efforts are in inflammatory mediated diseases with a current focus on autoimmune, neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. Konstantinos was the founder and CEO of Nevro (NYSE: NVRO). Under his leadership, Nevro advanced Senza®, its implantable neuromodulator therapeutic, from concept to commercialization for neurological disorders. Dr. Alataris received master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering and Business and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering with focus in Computational Neuroscience from the University of Southern California. He received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece.
Konstantinos's Sessions
Rewiring the Brain to Improve the Quality of Life
TRIPP is a digital psychedelic platform that fully immerses you into alternate realities to improve your mental and emotional well-being. Nēsos’ purpose-built earbuds retrain neural pathways to control inflammation, creating the new category of e-mmunotherapeutics. Mindstrong is transforming mental health through innovations in virtual care, data measurement, and data science. The brain is in a state of constant evolution, responding to new electrical signals from the senses and nerves. Hear from these neuroscientists, physicians, and entrepreneurs about how to build brain-based businesses that improve the quality of life.
Jeremy Allaire is Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Circle, a global financial technology firm that enables businesses of all sizes to harness the power of stablecoins and public blockchains for payments and commerce. Founded in 2013, Circle is the pioneer of USD Coin (USDC), the fastest growing, fully-reserved, and regulated dollar stablecoin. Governed by the Centre Consortium, led by Circle and Coinbase, USDC’s market cap is more than $26 billion with over $800 billion in transaction volume. Previously, Mr. Allaire co-founded and led multiple global internet technology companies with thousands of employees, hundreds of millions of consumers served, and multiple successful public offerings on NASDAQ. He has provided expert testimony on digital assets and monetary policy before the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Government Affairs, US Senate Banking Committee, and he has been named to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) High-Level Advisory Group on FinTech. Mr. Allaire provides perspective and policy recommendations at the highest levels inside financial bodies across the US, UK, and Europe.
Jeremy's Sessions
How Circle’s $4.5B Public Listing Will Change Startup Fundraising
Circle acquired SeedInvest in 2019, as a further step toward realizing its vision of a more open, global, connected, and inclusive financial system. Fast forward to today, Circle recently announced its plans to become a $4.5B public company, with over $1 billion of fresh capital. In this session, Circle CEO and Co-Founder Jeremy Allaire and Ryan Feit, CEO and Co-Founder of SeedInvest, will break down the evolution of the two companies and how Circle and SeedInvest plan to double down on online fundraising to make it faster and easier for entrepreneurs.
Forged in the fires of Community during the early days of Reddit and Product at Nike, Alex now leads community efforts as the Chief Community Officer at Commsor & The Community Club. She’s a big nerd who is very into the “how” behind things, and loves to learn and share that knowledge however she can. When she’s not eyeball deep in niche online communities, she can be found knitting, enjoying obnoxiously hip beers, and cheering on Cleveland sports teams.
Alex's Sessions
How to Cultivate a Community for your Company that Actually Lasts
There’s no doubt about it: the word of the year in startupland is “community.” In this panel, Community Fund’s Lolita Taub, Commsor’s Alex Angel, and Seven Seven Six’s Katelin Holloway will extract buzz from reality and help founders understand the growing importance of chief community officers in startup culture, and ultimately financial success, today.
Adrian Aoun is the founder and CEO of Forward, is an entirely new healthcare system empowering doctors with technology and data to monitor and guide health outcomes. Most recently, he was the head of Special Projects for the CEO of Google/Alphabet, where he founded one of the Alphabet companies Sidewalk Labs. Adrian arrived at Google upon the acquisition of his AI startup Wavii and spent his first year at Google helping to create and build their AI division. Additionally, Adrian is an active angel investor and advisor to a number of technology startups and funds.
Adrian's Sessions
Democratizing Healthcare
It’s no secret that the current healthcare system in America is broken. Technology stands to make a huge difference, especially in the backdrop of eased regulations due to COVID-19. Hear how startup founders from Forward, Carbon Health and Cityblock Health decided to tackle the behemoth, backward industry of healthcare, as well as talk through their plans to democratize access and digitize the industry.
Brian Armstrong is the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Coinbase. Founded in 2012, Coinbase is building the cryptoeconomy – a more fair, accessible, efficient, and transparent financial system enabled by crypto. Coinbase serves over 56 million verified users, 7,000 institutions, and 115,000 ecosystem partners in over 100 countries. Recently, Coinbase listed publicly on NASDAQ as COIN. In April 2020, Brian committed Coinbase to Pledge 1%, dedicating 1% of Coinbase profits, equity, and employee time toward charitable activities that leverage the power of crypto to help people around the world. In June 2018, he founded GiveCrypto.org, a nonprofit with the mission to financially empower people by distributing cryptocurrency globally. Brian also personally signed the Giving Pledge, committing the majority of his wealth to charitable causes throughout his lifetime. Before founding Coinbase, Brian served as a software engineer at Airbnb where he focused on fraud prevention. Before Airbnb, Brian founded and was CEO of Universitytutor.com, an online tutoring directory and a subsidiary of Johnson Educational Technologies LLC. Brian also previously served as a consultant for the enterprise risk management division at Deloitte & Touche LLP. Brian has a B.A. in Computer Science and Economics and an M.S. in Computer Science from Rice University.
Brian's Sessions
Breaking the Bank
Coinbase’s massive direct listing earlier this year couldn’t have come at a better time as peaking crypto enthusiasm reached market exuberance, but now amid a major market correction, CEO Brian Armstrong is once again tasked with building for the future and navigating volatility while fending off global competitors knocking at their door.
Tope Awotona is the founder and CEO of Calendly, the modern scheduling platform for high-performing teams and individuals accelerating business forward. Tope founded Calendly in 2013 with the vision of simplifying scheduling for everyone without the back-and-forth emails. With Tope’s strategic direction, the platform has grown and evolved to over 10 million monthly users. Prior to Calendly, Tope spent the majority of his career in enterprise software sales, working for companies such as IBM, Perceptive Software, and Dell Technologies, in addition to launching a series of startups. He grew up in Lagos, Nigeria and came to the United States in 1996. Tope is on the Board of Directors at SalesLoft. He holds a degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Georgia. He is the recipient of the 2021 Atlanta Business Chronicle Most Admired CEO Award and 2019 Comparably Best CEOs award.
Tope's Sessions
From Bootstrapped to Billions
Dozens have tried to reinvent the calendar, and dozens have failed. Tope Awotona built Calendly not as a way to reinvent the wheel, but to add a layer of simplicity to the chaos of human communication and time management. And boy did it work! The once-bootstrapped company is now worth more than $3 billion, serving individuals and enterprises alike. Hear from the founder and CEO on how he got Calendly off the ground, why he decided to finally take institutional investment, and how the company has changed as it grows.
Natalya Bailey is the CTO and co-founder of Accion Systems, a company providing in-space propulsion for spacecraft. Oregon native, Natalya moved to Cambridge to complete her doctorate in space propulsion at MIT with a focus on a novel ion engine technology. Prior to MIT, she researched a new chemical rocket technology during her MS at Duke University. She is a partner at XFactor Ventures, investing in female-founded companies, and is on the board of Youth CITIES, a non-profit that teaches entrepreneurship and STEM skills to diverse youth cohorts. In her free time she enjoys traveling with her husband and three children and completing Python katas on Codewars.
Natalya's Sessions
So You Want to Build a Space Business?
The space industry is changing faster than ever, with new technologies and lower launch costs democratizing access to space and driving a new era of innovation. The opportunities to build the next great business are seemingly endless, but space can be a difficult and unforgiving place, especially for those new to the domain. This session will feature practical insights and advice from experienced space leaders for entrepreneurs looking to get their business off the ground.
Stephen Bailey
Co-founder & CEO, ExecOnlineStephen Bailey is the founder and CEO of ExecOnline, a leading provider of B2B leadership development solutions through partnerships with the world’s top business schools. Prior to ExecOnline, he served as the CEO of Frontier Strategy Group (FSG), a software and information services business serving Fortune 500 executives who have responsibility for international markets. Stephen grew the business from an early-stage start-up to a company that served nearly half the Fortune 500 across a range of international markets and business functions. Prior to his role as CEO, he was FSG’s first chief product officer, with responsibility for the development and delivery of all products and client-related content. Before joining FSG, Stephen was an associate in the venture capital and private equity group of WilmerHale. Stephen is a Board Director for the Match Group, Board Chair of the Truman Center for National Policy and member of the Board of Prospect Schools, a charter school network in New York City. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from Emory University and holds a JD from the Yale Law School.
Stephen's Sessions
The Path for Underrepresented Entrepreneurs
Being a founder comes with a wide array of challenges, but underrepresented founders unfortunately face an extra layer of bias, both conscious and unconscious. At Disrupt, we’ll sit down with founders who will share their journey through fundraising and scaling, as well as advocates who can offer tactical insights and advice.
Hailing from Oman and India, Svanika Balasubramanian is the Co-Founder & CEO of rePurpose Global, the world’s first Plastic Credit Platform dedicated to making environmental action accessible to people and companies around the world. Her platform accomplishes this by empowering anybody to go Plastic Neutral today by financing innovators on the frontlines of fighting the plastic waste crisis. rePurpose Global is creating environmental impact for people across 26 countries and 150+ purposeful brands, ranging from up-and-coming SMEs to global Fortune 500s. On behalf of their global coalition, rePurpose now recovers over 11 million pounds of plastic waste every year, and in doing so, positively impacts 9,500+ marginalized waste workers across Asia, Africa, and South America. Svanika is a Forbes 30 under 30 honoree, World Economic Forum SDG Champion, One Young World Lead2030 Champion, Halcyon Fellow, and graduate of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She is a frequent commentator on social entrepreneurship and sustainability with appearances on diverse platforms including the Nobel Prize Summit, United Nations, World Economic Forum, Sustainable Brands, and SOCAP. Svanika is fueled by two passions: pushing ahead the charge for our future circular economy and finding new ways to integrate podcasts into her day.
Svanika's Sessions
The Whole Package
In this session, founders of By Humankind, Package Free and rePurpose will “deliver” the insights they’ve learned about growing and succeeding in the sustainable tech space. These founders have experience across all models, from retail to D2C to the enterprise. Hear how they plan on eliminating plastic and creating a valuable business at the same time.
Eren leads the Carbon Health team towards his vision to democratize healthcare and make quality care accessible for everyone. Previously, Eren paved the way to make education accessible by founding Udemy, the world’s largest marketplace for online courses, with over 10 million students worldwide. In his youth, Eren was a star mathematician, winning awards in mathematics, physics, computer science and chess including the International Mathematical Olympiads. He still loves chess today and plays to unwind after a long day at the office.
Eren's Sessions
Democratizing Healthcare
It’s no secret that the current healthcare system in America is broken. Technology stands to make a huge difference, especially in the backdrop of eased regulations due to COVID-19. Hear how startup founders from Forward, Carbon Health and Cityblock Health decided to tackle the behemoth, backward industry of healthcare, as well as talk through their plans to democratize access and digitize the industry.
Maren Bannon is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at January Ventures, a pre-seed firm focused on B2B startups that are digitally transforming traditional industries, including work, health and climate. January Ventures has invested in 60 companies to date, and closed Fund II in March 2022. Maren is an engineer turned operator and entrepreneur. Before co-founding January Ventures, Maren was CEO and co-founder of LittleLane, a mobile marketplace for local experiences. Her operating experience also includes marketing and sales roles at health tech startups as well as leading consumer marketing for a $1B product at Genentech. She is a contributor at Forbes and a Mentor at Stanford StartX and TechStars. She has an MBA from Stanford and an Engineering degree from Dartmouth. Maren is based in London, United Kingdom.
Maren's Sessions
Pitch Deck Teardown
An articulate, alluring pitch presentation is a big part of successfully fundraising, and yet it’s relatively uncommon for founders to get candid feedback on how they communicated the problem, their solution, and their path to success. During the Pitch Deck Teardown, VCs will offer their live feedback on decks submitted by audience members.
Jeremy leads the commercial team for Diligent Equity, which simplifies equity and portfolio management for venture capital, private equity, start-ups and service providers.
Jeremy's Sessions
Securing your journey to IPO from the start
Without the right governance tools in place at a company’s inception, a business becomes susceptible to risks as it scales. Adopting governance practices early in a business’s growth process sets them up for long-term growth and a successful IPO. During this session, attendees will hear leadership perspectives for securing your business growth in a time of rapid change.
Peter Beck is the founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Engineer of Rocket Lab, a Nasdaq-listed leading launch and space systems company opening access to space to improve life on Earth. Rocket Lab’s capabilities span the space economy, including satellite design and manufacture, industry-leading spacecraft software and components, and reliable launch services. Under Mr. Beck’s leadership, Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle has become the most successful small launch vehicle globally and Rocket Lab satellite subsystems have featured on more than 1,700 missions. Rocket Lab technology enables some of humanity’s most ambitious space missions, including complex interplanetary science missions, national security programs, and vast commercial constellations. Since founding the company in 2006, Mr. Beck has grown Rocket Lab into a global organization of 1,800 people across the United States, Canada and New Zealand. Today, Rocket Lab’s launch vehicles, satellites and space systems are relied upon by a range of global mission partners including NASA, the United States Space Force, DARPA, the National Reconnaissance Office, and a broad range of commercial satellite and constellation operators.
Peter's Sessions
Crafting a Lunar Trajectory in Newspace
Rocket Lab has upgraded its ambitions from building a global launch empire to designing its own spacecraft and visiting the Moon and beyond. Founder and CEO Peter Beck will speak to the challenges and opportunities lying ahead for his fast-growing space and tech outfit.
Amy is a finance and strategy professional with 16 years of experience in the technology, finance, media, and telecom sectors and she is currently a VP of Finance at Diligent, the largest GRC SaaS provider. Prior to Diligent, Amy held strategic finance roles at Everly Health, Audible and Shutterstock. She managed functions including FP&A, Strategy, Corporate Development and Investor Relations helping rapidly growing companies scale and improve profitability. She also spent three years as a Management Consultant at Deloitte working with large technology, media and telecom companies. Prior to her MBA, she spent 7 years in investment banking and private equity first at Citigroup and then Apollo Management. Amy holds a B.A in Applied Math and Economics from Brown University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Amy's Sessions
Securing your journey to IPO from the start
Without the right governance tools in place at a company’s inception, a business becomes susceptible to risks as it scales. Adopting governance practices early in a business’s growth process sets them up for long-term growth and a successful IPO. During this session, attendees will hear leadership perspectives for securing your business growth in a time of rapid change.
Mercedes Bent is a partner at Lightspeed where she invests in consumer, edtech and fintech companies.
Mercedes's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield – Session 1
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Crafting a Pitch Deck that Can’t Be Ignored
Investors may be chasing after the hottest deals, but for founders selling their startup’s vision, it’s never been more important to communicate it in the clearest way possible. Our panelists of pitch deck experts are digging into what’s essential, what’s unnecessary and what could just make all the difference in your next deck.
Niko Bonatsos is a managing director at General Catalyst Partners.
Niko's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield – Session 2
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Jaime Bott
Talent Partner, Sequoia CapitalJaime Bott is a Talent Partner at Sequoia Capital, where she has spent over ten years partnering with hundreds of founders and working on more than a thousand executive searches. Currently, Jaime runs Sequoia’s Talent organization that supports early-stage founders with hiring engineering talent as well as growth-stage CEOs building out their executive teams and boards.
Jaime's Sessions
Why You Probably Have Been Screwing Up Your Hiring Process
Distributed workforces have rapidly become the new normal – but chances are that your hiring processes haven’t been re-invented at the same clip. In this panel, a host of experts including EQ Talent Group’s Doris Tong, SignalFire’s Tawni Cranz, and Sequoia’s Jaime Bott – will discuss how to hire with culture and competence at the core of each decision. And, more importantly, what within your process needs to be scrapped and rewritten for the post-pandemic world.
Reilly Brennan is a general partner at Trucks Venture Capital and a lecturer at Stanford.
Reilly's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield – Session 4
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Jim Bugwadia is a co-founder and the CEO of Nirmata, the Day 2 Kubernetes company. Prior to Nirmata, Jim has held various leadership and engineering roles at companies such as Cisco, Pano Logic, Trapeze Networks, Bell Labs/Lucent, and Motorola. Jim is an active contributor in the cloud native community and currently serves as a co-chair of the Kubernetes Policy Working Group. Jim is also a maintainer of Kyverno, the popular Kubernetes policy engine.
Jim's Sessions
You’ve Raised Your Seed Round—Now What? Preparing for Your Series A
The first hurdle has been cleared: initial funding is in the bank. You’re hiring more talent, seeing the beginnings of a finished product with clear evidence of traction, and experiencing the coveted growth that previously felt just out of reach. Before you know it, the decision to raise for what is arguably the most competitive round is staring you in the face. In this panel, join Samsung Next’s David Lee alongside founders Kadie Okwudili (Agapé), Andy Hoang (Aviron), and Jim Bugwadia (Nirmata) as they discuss the learnings and nuances of bridging Seed to Series A.
Brian Bushell
Co-founder & CEO, By HumankindBrian Bushell is Co-founder and CEO of by Humankind. He was the founding CEO of Baked by Melissa, the company that invented the bite-size cupcake and pioneered the concept of a multi-channel CPG foods company, selling fresh cupcakes online and shipping them nationwide. Before founding Baked by Melissa, Brian lead multiple digitally native consumer product companies.
Brian's Sessions
The Whole Package
In this session, founders of By Humankind, Package Free and rePurpose will “deliver” the insights they’ve learned about growing and succeeding in the sustainable tech space. These founders have experience across all models, from retail to D2C to the enterprise. Hear how they plan on eliminating plastic and creating a valuable business at the same time.
Stewart Butterfield is the CEO and co-founder of Slack. For more than 20 years, he has been an entrepreneur, designer, and technology leader, usually all at once. In 2013, Stewart and his team launched Slack, which has transformed business communication. Today, Slack is the leading channel-based messaging platform, used by millions to align their teams, unify their systems, and drive their businesses forward. In 2003, Stewart co-founded Flickr, one of the pioneers of image sharing and the social web. As CEO, he built Flickr into one of the largest web services in the world. Stewart has been regularly recognized for the foresight and innovation that has helped him build two companies that have reimagined the way we use technology to communicate, collaborate, share, and store information. He was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time Magazine, and one of the Top 50 Leaders by BusinessWeek; he has been included on Vanity Fair’s New Establishment List, the Recode 100, Advertising Age’s Creativity 50, and the Technology Innovator of the Year by the Wall Street Journal. Stewart has a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Victoria and a Master of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge.
Stewart's Sessions
An Unstoppable Force and an Immovable Object
Slack and Salesforce are two of the biggest names in all of tech. The communication tool (born from one of the odder pivots in tech history) is commonplace across organizations from almost every industry. It’s an unstoppable force. The sales CRM behemoth is used all over the world by sales teams small and large. An immovable object. In December of 2020, the pair announced a $27.7 billion merger. Hear from Slack co-founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield and Salesforce President and COO Bret Taylor about the future of the combined entity, why the deal made sense, and what it’s like to write down that many 0’s.
Pete Buttigieg took office in January, 2021, as the 19th U.S. Secretary of Transportation. Prior to joining the Biden-Harris Administration, Secretary Buttigieg served two terms as mayor of his hometown of South Bend, Indiana. A graduate of Harvard University and a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, Buttigieg served for seven years as an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, taking a leave of absence from the mayor’s office for a deployment to Afghanistan in 2014. In South Bend, “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg worked across the aisle to transform the city’s future and improve residents’ everyday lives. In 2019, Secretary Buttigieg launched a historic campaign for president, and in 2021 made history as the first openly gay person confirmed to serve in a president’s Cabinet. Secretary Buttigieg lives with his husband Chasten and their rescue dogs, Buddy and Truman.
Secretary Pete's Sessions
Drones, Self-driving Cars, and Everything in Between
Pete Buttigieg first came on the scene as a small town Mayor in Indiana. He launched onto the national stage as a presidential candidate for the Democratic party in 2020. He now serves as Secretary of Transportation under the Biden administration, and oversees everything from public transport to autonomous vehicle regulation. Hear Secretary Buttigieg’s take on micromobility, the future of cities, drone delivery, autonomous vehicles and more in this fireside chat.
John joined IMVU in January 2018 as the Chief Strategy Officer, leading strategic corporate and business development across IMVU’s virtual / social platform. John arrived at IMVU after serving as President of Silver Chalice, a sports digital technology platform where he was also a Founder. John also was an Executive in Residence at Trinity Ventures.
John's Sessions
Revolutionizing the Global Metaverse Economy
Together Labs is leveraging the power of blockchain technology to create the new metaverse economy where users can buy, sell, invest and shape its future. Earlier this year, Together Labs launched VCOIN, the first global, digital currency that can be used in and out of the metaverse. VCOIN makes it possible for users to play to earn real value and then convert that value to cash. Learn about this burgeoning new economy and how it benefits companies, brands and entrepreneurs.
Terri is a partner at GV, focused on investing in consumer companies and the future of work. Her investments include HAGS and Locker room. Terri joined GV in 2017 and was previously an associate product manager at Twitter, focusing on user experience. Terri also worked as a developer evangelist and front-end engineer at Venmo, a mobile payments company. Terri studied computer science at New York University. In her spare time, she speaks and writes on issues related to technology, diversity, and inclusion. Terri is recognized on the Forbes 30 Under 30 2021 list and serves as a Kauffman Fellow. In 2021, Terri was elected to the NYU Board of Trustees, where she serves as the youngest board member in NYU’s history.
Terri's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield – Session 2
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Cameron is responsible for developer technology at Esri and views a well-designed API as valuable as a work of art. His career in geospatial software spans over 30 years.
Euan's Sessions
Special Announcement by Esri
From August 23 to September 13, developers from around the world are joining Esri and TechCrunch for Hack for a Sustainable Future—a hackathon to imagine and build new apps to take on global challenges like climate, equity, and public health. With big ideas and market-leading location services from Esri, participants are creating some truly innovative solutions that highlight the power of mapping technology for purpose-driven problem solving. Tune in to this special announcement to find out who the winner is to the hackathon.
Ted was appointed CEO, Ford Pro, and a corporate officer effective June 1, 2021. In this role, Cannis leads a global team that is redefining customer value through the auto industry’s first standalone commercial-vehicles services and distribution business inside Ford Ford Pro leverages technology to deliver a range of electric and gas commercial vans, trucks, and connected services, helping business and government customers improve productivity lower their total cost of vehicle ownership. Previously, Cannis was general manager, Commercial Vehicles, where he unified dedicated resources needed to drive the commercial vehicle business forward by delivering customer solutions and optimizing operations, including through improved alignment with partners.Cannis was global director, Battery Electric Vehicles, leading strategy and business execution for Team Edison, Ford’s dedicated team for battery electric vehicles that developed the groundbreaking Mustang Mach-E SUV. Cannis began his career at Ford in 1989 as a profit analyst at the company’s headquarters in Dearborn, Mich. He worked 11 years in Finance, including assignments in Brazil and the United States and other various executive positions in Marketing.
Ted's Sessions
Electric Generation: The Next Frontier For American Business
This session will explore the ways in which smart electric mobility impacts businesses, and what a transition to electric will look like for commercial fleets. Host Chuck Nice will be joined by TechCrunch panelist Ted Cannis, CEO of Ford Pro, and Sam Abuelsamid, longtime engineer in the automotive industry-turned auto industry journalist. Nitty-gritty car talk will blend with discussion of sustainability and imagery to elaborate on the future of the topic.
A renowned leader in the U.S. product stewardship movement, Scott Cassel has over 35 years of experience tackling waste management issues in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. He is the founder and CEO of the Product Stewardship Institute (PSI), which brings diverse stakeholders together to research, develop, and implement extended producer responsibility laws.
Scott's Sessions
Eliminating Styrofoam Protective Packaging
Over 380 million tons of plastic are produced every year and 50% of that for single-use purposes such as product packaging. Until now, companies have been hard-pressed to find a replacement for styrofoam for protecting fragile items like electronics and appliances. John Felts of Cruz Foam will discuss the development of bio-benign, compostable alternative materials. Tom Chi of At One Ventures, will talk about the importance of investing in environmental and climate entrepreneurs. Moderator, Scott Cassel of PSI will lead the discussion on how the packaging value chain can create a truly circular economy.
Tom Chi has worked in roles ranging from astrophysical researcher to Fortune 500 consultant to corporate executive developing hardware/software products & services. He pioneered and practices a unique approach to rapid prototyping and leadership that can jumpstart innovative new ideas and move large organizations at unprecedented speeds. He was head of Product Experience and a founding member of Google X, and currently works to accelerate a future where humanity becomes a net positive to nature.
Tom's Sessions
Eliminating Styrofoam Protective Packaging
Over 380 million tons of plastic are produced every year and 50% of that for single-use purposes such as product packaging. Until now, companies have been hard-pressed to find a replacement for styrofoam for protecting fragile items like electronics and appliances. John Felts of Cruz Foam will discuss the development of bio-benign, compostable alternative materials. Tom Chi of At One Ventures, will talk about the importance of investing in environmental and climate entrepreneurs. Moderator, Scott Cassel of PSI will lead the discussion on how the packaging value chain can create a truly circular economy.
Marcelo Claure serves as CEO of SoftBank Group International and COO of SoftBank Group Corp., the world’s largest tech investor. Claure oversees the company’s strategic direction and its portfolio of operating companies, including WeWork, SB Energy, Fortress, Boston Dynamics, as well as SoftBank’s stake in T-Mobile U.S. He also spearheads the SoftBank Latin America Funds, an $8 billion commitment to investing in technology growth opportunities throughout the region, as well as the newly launched SB Opportunity Fund, a $100 million fund dedicated to investing in entrepreneurs of color. Most recently, Claure announced the SoftBank Miami Initiative, a $100 million funding program dedicated to startups based in or relocating to Miami. In addition, Claure serves as Executive Chairman of WeWork, the world’s largest, flexible space-as-a-service company. Previously, Claure served as President and CEO and then as Executive Chairman of Sprint, where he is widely recognized for delivering the best financial results in Sprint’s 120-year history and architecting its $195 billion merger with T-Mobile U.S. Prior to Sprint, Claure founded Brightstar, which he built into the world’s largest global wireless distribution and services company and the largest Hispanic-owned business in U.S. history, with operations in more than 50 countries and revenues exceeding $10 billion. Claure serves as chairman of Fortress and was recently appointed as Vice Chairman of the newly combined Televisa-Univision. Additionally, he serves on the board of directors of Arm. He is also the president of Club Bolívar, Bolivia’s most popular and successful soccer team, and co-owner of Girona FC.
Marcelo's Sessions
Softbank's Next Target
Marcelo Claure wears many hats as the CEO of SoftBank Group International and COO of SoftBank Group Corp., including overseeing the company’s strategic direction of operating companies like WeWork and, more recently, leading an aggressive investing effort in Latin America. We’ll be talking with Claure about why venture capital in Latin America is breaking records this year, which markets are worth watching most closely, and how the region fits into the bigger picture for the Japanese conglomerate.
Hope Cochran is an investor at Madrona Venture Group, where she invests in early-stage fintech and ML/AI applications for the business environment.
Hope's Sessions
So, You Want to Go Public. What’s Next?
The path to your startup’s exit has grown increasingly complex in the last year. Acquisition? SPAC? Traditional IPO. Hear from seasoned tech experts about how to think about your company’s path to going public and weigh the pros and cons of the various routes.
Julia Collins is a serial entrepreneur who spent her career building food companies including Zume Pizza where she became the first Black woman to co-found a unicorn company. Today, Julia leads Planet FWD, a company on a mission to tackle climate change by making it easier to bring climate-friendly products to market. Empowering the next generation of sustainable brands through its proprietary software, Planet FWD’s platform reduces the cost and complexity of creating sustainable and carbon neutral products. The platform is inspired by Planet FWD’s own snack brand, Moonshot, which launched in 2020 as the first climate-friendly snack brand. In addition, Julia sits on the advisory council for Launch with GS and the Food for Climate League board, serves on the All Raise operating committee, and is an EIR for Cleo Capital. She is an active angel investor focused on funding female entrepreneurs and BIPOC founders. Follow Julia: Twitter – @JuliaCollins | Instagram – @JuliaECollins Follow Moonshot: Instagram – @MoonshotSnacks | Twitter – @MoonshotSnacks
Julia's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield – Session 2
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Jennifer (Jen) Cotter
Chief Content Officer, PelotonJennifer (Jen) Cotter joined Peloton as Chief Content Officer in May 2019 and oversees all things content and production for the world’s largest interactive fitness platform. With more than 25 years of experience in the content and television space, Jen oversees a team that produces more than 950 classes monthly across Peloton’s fitness disciplines, including indoor cycling, running, walking, strength, stretching, cardio, yoga and meditation — all streamed live from our broadcast studios in NYC and London. Jen oversees a team that has collectively won 9 Emmys throughout their individual careers, with one coming from her work with HBO and The Late Show with David Letterman. Jen previously founded a branding agency, JJB Collective, and later went on to become the Chief Marketing and Content Officer at Procaps Laboratories. Earlier in her career, she served as EVP of Content, Television and Programming for HSN. Prior to that, she was SVP of Development for Oxygen Media. Jen lives in New Jersey with her husband and two sons.
Jennifer (Jen)'s Sessions
Sweating the Big Stuff
Years from now, the pandemic will be view as the watershed moment for Peloton and the explosion of connected fitness. But the past two years have also brought their share of difficulties for the company. CEO John Foley and Chief Content Officer Jennifer Cotter will join us to discuss how the company managed a roller coaster year and where it goes next.
Tawni L. Nazario-Cranz joined SignalFire in 2017 as a Venture Operating Partner and Strategic Advisor. Tawni is a global business executive with more than two decades of experience working for some of the world’s most innovative companies. As a leading business strategist and culture transformer, she drove Netflix, Bausch & Lomb, FedEx Kinko’s and other top companies to record-breaking success. During Tawni’s decade at Netflix, she built out the company’s operations internationally and drove rapid global growth (#NetflixEverywhere). As a trusted business partner, she ensured Netflix’s systems, people and culture were perfectly aligned so that the company could achieve exemplary execution. Her ability to lead business strategy and drive culture transformation played a key role in Netflix’s ability to sustain unprecedented growth throughout her tenure. Beyond Netflix, Nazario-Cranz scaled and built out the core HR functions at Cruise Automation, Bausch & Lomb and FedEx Kinko’s. She is known for creating and growing differentiated, high performing cultures that are anything but ordinary. Nazario-Cranz believes companies are most successful when they seek to improve their culture year over year; the status quo is never good enough. Nazario-Cranz is known as a trailblazer in the Silicon Valley and business world. She authored Netflix’s Unlimited Maternity & Paternity Leave and co-authored the company’s first culture deck, which Sheryl Sandberg describes as, “the most important document to ever come out of the [Silicon] Valley.” She also contributed to and co-authored Netflix’s most recent culture desk release. When not busy transforming cultures and driving global growth, you will find Nazario-Cranz spending time investing back in her community (she is part of numerous Silicon Valley venture capital firms), building out her family-owned vineyard (Nazario Ranch Vineyards) or hanging out with her daughter Maya and sons Ryan and Hayden. Nazario-Cranz is a graduate of the Drucker Graduate School of Management and University of California, Santa Barbara.
Tawni's Sessions
Why You Probably Have Been Screwing Up Your Hiring Process
Distributed workforces have rapidly become the new normal – but chances are that your hiring processes haven’t been re-invented at the same clip. In this panel, a host of experts including EQ Talent Group’s Doris Tong, SignalFire’s Tawni Cranz, and Sequoia’s Jaime Bott – will discuss how to hire with culture and competence at the core of each decision. And, more importantly, what within your process needs to be scrapped and rewritten for the post-pandemic world.
Greg Cross is one of the original tech nomads, spending his career traveling to and living in every major tech market in the world. He now lives in New Zealand but creates businesses that compete on the international stage. Most recently PowerbyProxi, a wireless charging company he co-founded, was sold to Apple in 2017. In 2016 Greg co-founded Soul Machines to build a HumanOS for Artificial Intelligence and explore the future of human-machine cooperation. Soul Machines is at the cutting edge of AGI research with its unique Digital Brain, based on the latest neuroscience and developmental psychology research. Partnering with innovative people and brands like Carmelo Anthony, Procter & Gamble, NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE®, Maryville University, and The World Health Organization, Soul Machines is re-imagining what is possible in the delivery and underlying economics of empathetic customer experience. Greg holds multiple chair positions, is the Sir John Logan Campbell Executive in Residence at the University of Auckland Business School, and was inducted into the New Zealand Hi-Tech Hall of Fame in 2019.
Greg's Sessions
Humanizing AI: How Brands Are Revolutionizing Customer Experience in an Increasingly Digital World
Empathy deficit is the largest imminent threat to a businesses’ growth, but there’s hope. Humanized AI is allowing brands to create empathetic customer experiences by offering uniquely personal interactions with digital people. But what is empathy, really? And how can it help brands and storytellers better connect with their audiences in a cookie-less world? Soul Machines’ co-founder and CBO Greg Cross explains how embracing AI could be just the competitive advantage your brand needs.
Paul Dagum
Founder, Mindstrong HealthPaul Dagum, MD, PhD is an entrepreneur, physician and computer scientist. Dr. Dagum is the founder of Mindstrong and was its CEO through November 2019. He has an outstanding record of bringing product, technology and business model innovation into healthcare, cybersecurity and supply chain through four successful venture-backed companies as founder, CSO, CTO and CEO. Dr. Dagum’s early research in dynamic Bayesian networks is in use today in many modern-day applications. He further created and patented the first digital biomarkers of brain function from human-computer interactions and built a digital care delivery model for mental health built on a foundation of continuous measurement and AI informed telehealth services. Dr. Dagum led government funded research while at Stanford University and has authored numerous publications and patents. Dr. Dagum received an MSc in theoretical physics, PhD in theoretical computer science both from the University of Toronto and an MD and surgical residency training at Stanford University.
Paul's Sessions
Rewiring the Brain to Improve the Quality of Life
TRIPP is a digital psychedelic platform that fully immerses you into alternate realities to improve your mental and emotional well-being. Nēsos’ purpose-built earbuds retrain neural pathways to control inflammation, creating the new category of e-mmunotherapeutics. Mindstrong is transforming mental health through innovations in virtual care, data measurement, and data science. The brain is in a state of constant evolution, responding to new electrical signals from the senses and nerves. Hear from these neuroscientists, physicians, and entrepreneurs about how to build brain-based businesses that improve the quality of life.
Mona Das
State Senator, Washington State LegislatureElected to the Washington State Senate in 2018, Mona now serves as Caucus Vice Chair, the vice chair of the Senate Housing Affordability & Stability Committee, and as a member of both the Senate Transportation Committee and the Senate Environment, Energy & Technology Committee. During her first two years as an elected official, Mona has worked tirelessly on behalf of the environment, affordable housing, and equity and inclusion. As she enters her third year in 2021, she is continuing her work to make our communities and our planet healthier. She loves the outdoors, hiking, biking, paddle boarding and camping in her free time. Mona also loves to travel, and has visited 37 countries. She is a proud auntie to two nephews.
Mona's Sessions
Eliminating Styrofoam Protective Packaging
Over 380 million tons of plastic are produced every year and 50% of that for single-use purposes such as product packaging. Until now, companies have been hard-pressed to find a replacement for styrofoam for protecting fragile items like electronics and appliances. John Felts of Cruz Foam will discuss the development of bio-benign, compostable alternative materials. Tom Chi of At One Ventures, will talk about the importance of investing in environmental and climate entrepreneurs. Moderator, Scott Cassel of PSI will lead the discussion on how the packaging value chain can create a truly circular economy.
Haneen Davies
Chief Commercial Officer, HouseplantHaneen Davies serves as the chief commercial officer of Houseplant. Based in Toronto, Davies joined the Houseplant team in March 2018 as the company’s first official employee and she built the brand from the ground up. Davies currently oversees global brand marketing and communication strategy as well as management of the Housegoods line and Houseplant’s Canadian operations. Davies is a natural born leader who began her professional journey in investor relations. After spending time with a few highly esteemed firms, she found a knack for helping companies build their brand and honed in on her passion for establishing their narrative. She held several roles in brand development, growth and marketing for companies like Toronto International Film Festival Group (TIFF), Unilever and PepsiCo., before working in agency life at both Edelman and TAXI. She then took an entrepreneurial leap and began consulting during which time she connected with Houseplant. They were looking for someone who had a track record of excellence in brand building, Davies met with the founding team the very next day and the rest is history. Born and raised in Jordan and spending much of her childhood living in the UAE, Davies moved to Toronto in her high school years, where she currently resides with her husband, two daughters and a Goldendoodle. Davies holds a BCom degree from McGill University and is deeply passionate about travel, food and people.
Haneen's Sessions
Pot, Pottery and Beyond
Somehow we live in world where alcohol is sold in grocery stores and weed is considered a gateway drug. But that is rapidly changing. The legalized cannabis industry is estimated to be worth more than $13 billion in 2021, and major players from big food, pharma, etc. all want a slice of the pie. Hear from actor and comedian Seth Rogen on his well-known passion for pot, and how it led him to start Houseplant. Rogen will also be joined by Houseplant chief commercial officer Haneen Davies and co-founder and CEO Michael Mohr.
Rachel Drori created Daily Harvest because she was working hard and though she knew the things she should be eating, she had to settle for things that were convenient. Rachel started investigating why there were no solutions that existed that were clean, convenient and sustainable and realized the problem was larger than she had imagined. There were real systemic reasons why the food she wanted to eat did not exist. The way food is created and produced is the opposite of customer, human, and planet driven. With that, Daily Harvest was born. Daily Harvest is on a mission to take care of food so food can take care of you. Rachel believes in a world well-fed, a world that big food has failed… So, she’s built a platform that makes it easier to eat more real fruits + vegetables every day. After all, they are the foundation of a happier, healthier life and more sustainable future.
Rachel's Sessions
How to Build Brand Buzz and Generate Influence in the Creator Economy
Brands are the lifeblood of startups. The name, the design, the feel, and the emotional connection between customers and company can determine the entire trajectory of a business. It’s a well-trodden field that’s been upended in recent years thanks to the skyrocketing growth of the influencer and creator economies. What does it mean to build a brand in today’s competitive marketplace and how can you assess success? Julia Munslow of Yahoo News and Rachel Drori of Daily Harvest will discuss how they built and reshaped brands for 2021, and what tools founders should consider today in designing a compelling brand.
Andrew D’Souza is the co-founder & CEO of Clearco, the largest e-commerce investor in the world. Andrew has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital and is an adviser and investor to companies such as WealthSimple, Properly, and Tulip Retail. Prior to Clearco, Andrew was the president of Nymi, a wearable platform focussed on identity and security and the COO of the education startup, TopHat. Andrew began his career as a consultant with McKinsey & Company after receiving his degree in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo.
Andrew's Sessions
How to approach fundraising from Corporate VCs
Global CVC funding hit an all-time high of $73B in 2020. Corporations are increasingly investing in the startup community and can be a valuable resource beyond capital. But not all corporate VCs are the same. Understanding a corporate investor’s strategy, mandate and processes can improve how startups successfully fundraise from corporate VCs.Intuit Ventures recently invested in Clearco, a $2B+ startup that is disrupting traditional VC with founder-friendly, equity-free capital. Join Shveta Mujumdar (VP of Corporate Development at Intuit), Andrew D’Souza (Co-founder and CEO at Clearco), and Michele Romanow (Co-founder and President at Clearco) to learn what corporate VCs are looking for in an investment and how to best position your company and showcase how you are solving your customers’ biggest problems.
Nisha Dua is a Managing Partner at BBG Ventures, which she co-founded in 2014. BBGV is an NYC-based, early-stage fund leading investments in companies built by female and diverse founders that are solving the needs of consumers, workers and employers. BBGV invests in big categories that require new thinking such as Health & Wellbeing; The Future of Work & Ed; FinTech; Climate; and solutions for Overlooked Consumers. At BBGV Nisha has invested in over 100 female-led start-ups including Spring Health, Real, Fiveable, KiwiCo, Blueland and The Mom Project. Nisha has spent over a decade working in media, tech, strategy and law. She was the General Manager of AOL’s millennial site, Cambio, which she grew 4X in less than a year. She founded BUILT BY GIRLS, a software platform which has connected over 20,000 girls or non-binary talent with professionals in technology. Nisha was previously Chief of Staff for the AOL Brand Group, working on strategy, operations and special projects. She cut her teeth as a management consultant for Bain & Company and an M&A lawyer at Australian law firm Blake Dawson.
Nisha's Sessions
Where to Cut and Where to Spend in First-Check Fundraising
Every time a founder raises financing, they usually have one goal: growth. But what does that actually mean? And how do you begin divvying up your new capital between the various goals your startup is barreling toward? In this panel, which includes Harlem Capital’s Henri Pierre-Jacques, Equal Ventures’ Richard Kerby, and BBG Ventures’ Nisha Dua, you will learn about how to spend your investment the best way, balancing runway with classic startup rigor.
Dave Elliott
Developer Advocacy Lead, AI, Google CloudDave Elliott leads AI and Machine Learning advocacy for developers at Google Cloud. His team engages communities to inspire them to try new products and technologies, embrace new ideas, and they are the voice of those communities to product development. Prior to Google, Elliott was the Chief Cloud Evangelist at Symantec where he advocated for new architectures in data and storage. Mr. Elliott was an early advocate of cloud computing while at Sun Microsystems in the 1990s and has spent his career helping companies understand and embrace emerging technologies. Prior to Symantec, Elliott served as GM Americas at Arkeia Software, an innovator in data protection for virtual and cloud environments. Earlier, Mr. Elliott was responsible for Strategic Development for Iomega Corporation’s PSS Business Unit, and held management positions at Blue Martini Software and with management consulting firm A.T. Kearney. Mr. Elliott holds an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley and a BA in Quantitative Economics & Decision Sciences from the University of California, San Diego.
Dave's Sessions
Demo Derby – How startups are disrupting the status quo with innovative data analytics, AI and modern app development
Startups need to move quickly and focus limited resources on areas where they can differentiate. In this fast-paced session, learn from startups and Google experts how you can leverage Google technologies to serve customers better and get to market more quickly. In a series of short demos, see how innovative startups and Google experts have used Google compute, storage, networking and AI technologies to ‘disrupt’ the status quo.
Leslie Feinzaig is the Founder and General Partner at Graham & Walker, an early stage venture fund backing extraordinary founders and ideas that break the mold, whose mission is to change the face of public markets by backing a new guard of founders and CEOs. Prior to launching the fund, Ms. Feinzaig was a 2x startup exec with 8- and 10- figure exits who started her career under the tutelage of HBS Professor Clayton Christensen, author of the seminal theory of disruptive innovation. In 2017 Ms. Feinzaig founded the Female Founders Alliance, the largest community of its kind in America, which serves as Graham & Walker’s proprietary deal flow machine. In 2024, she launched VCs for Harris, the viral pledge that united 850 VCs, including a who’s who of Silicon Valley according to NPR. Ms. Feinzaig is also a regular contributor at Fortune Magazine and Fast Company, and publishes the popular Substack, “Blindspots”. Born and raised in Costa Rica, Ms. Feinzaig moved to America with a full scholarship to Harvard Business School. She has been since named one of Forbes Magazine’s Most Powerful Women from Central America, Worth Magazine’s Worthy 100, Puget Sound Business Journal 40 Under 40 and Women of Influence Awards, and Seattle Magazine’s Most Influential People. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two young daughters.
Leslie's Sessions
The Path for Underrepresented Entrepreneurs
Being a founder comes with a wide array of challenges, but underrepresented founders unfortunately face an extra layer of bias, both conscious and unconscious. At Disrupt, we’ll sit down with founders who will share their journey through fundraising and scaling, as well as advocates who can offer tactical insights and advice.
Ryan Feit is the CEO and Co-Founder of SeedInvest. Prior to founding SeedInvest, Ryan worked at Wellspring Capital Management and Lehman Brothers in New York City where he invested in, financed, and managed dozens of private and public businesses. Ryan was instrumental in the passage of the 2012 JOBS Act which changed 80-year-old U.S. securities laws to make it possible for entrepreneurs to raise capital over the Internet. Since 2012, he has worked closely with members of the SEC, FINRA, the White House, and the Treasury Department on the implementation of the JOBS Act. Ryan currently serves on FINRA’s Fintech Committee and previously served as a board member of the Crowdfund Intermediary Regulatory Advocates and the Crowdfunding Professional Association. In addition, he frequently serves as a subject matter expert on startup investing and the JOBS Act for the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, CNBC, FoxBusiness, the Economist, and the New York Times as well as a columnist for Fortune Magazine and Inc. Magazine.
Ryan's Sessions
How Circle’s $4.5B Public Listing Will Change Startup Fundraising
Circle acquired SeedInvest in 2019, as a further step toward realizing its vision of a more open, global, connected, and inclusive financial system. Fast forward to today, Circle recently announced its plans to become a $4.5B public company, with over $1 billion of fresh capital. In this session, Circle CEO and Co-Founder Jeremy Allaire and Ryan Feit, CEO and Co-Founder of SeedInvest, will break down the evolution of the two companies and how Circle and SeedInvest plan to double down on online fundraising to make it faster and easier for entrepreneurs.
John Felts is Co-founder and CEO of Cruz Foam. Cruz Foam produces bio-benign foam and eco-friendly EPS-alternative solutions that power key industry leaders to be the catalyst for a cleaner environment. John holds a BS in chemical engineering from UC Santa Barbara and an MS in materials engineering from the University of Washington. John co-founded Cruz Foam in 2017 with the mission of saving our oceans and helping end the global epidemic of plastic pollution. He is an avid surfer and lives with his family in Santa Cruz, California.
John's Sessions
Eliminating Styrofoam Protective Packaging
Over 380 million tons of plastic are produced every year and 50% of that for single-use purposes such as product packaging. Until now, companies have been hard-pressed to find a replacement for styrofoam for protecting fragile items like electronics and appliances. John Felts of Cruz Foam will discuss the development of bio-benign, compostable alternative materials. Tom Chi of At One Ventures, will talk about the importance of investing in environmental and climate entrepreneurs. Moderator, Scott Cassel of PSI will lead the discussion on how the packaging value chain can create a truly circular economy.
Andrew Filev is the founder of Wrike, a collaborative work management platform that was acquired by Citrix in March 2021. Filev began writing software at a young age and founded his first software consulting company at age 17. As a young entrepreneur with a fast-growing business, he quickly grasped the challenges organizations faced in scaling a successful operation. Frustrated with the limitations of working through email and spreadsheets, Filev founded Wrike in 2006 to focus solely on building collaborative tools that could improve the way businesses work. Under Filev’s leadership, Wrike has been consistently recognized for its excellent product and tremendous growth. In 2020, Wrike was included on Deloitte’s Technology Fast™ 500 list for the sixth consecutive year and was named a Leader in the Forrester Wave on Collaborative Work Management Enterprise Tools for the third time. Filev has more than 15 years of experience in the technology sector and his insights on entrepreneurship, productivity, and the future of work have been featured in leading business publications, including Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc., and The New York Times. He has also led talks at numerous conferences, including Collision Conference, the Project Management Institute Global Conference, SaaStr Annual, CeBIT, Google Cloud Next, and Montgomery Summit.
Andrew's Sessions
The Dark Matter of Workflows: Business Technology’s Big Opportunity
Did you know we’re only familiar with 5% of matter and energy in the universe, according to CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research? The rest is dark. The same can be said about the nature of work. Organizations only have visibility into a small percentage of the actual work taking place because the complexities surrounding it have been growing exponentially. With enormous amounts of data, systems, applications, workflows, and more floating around, leaders and employees feel the gravitational mass of work in their stress levels, yet there’s no clear unified system of record for it. The most successful startups will be the ones that seek to understand, uncover, and harness the dark matter of work now before they launch into hypergrowth mode. Andrew Filev, Founder of a leading collaborative work management platform that went from bootstrapping to billion dollar acquisition, stands by this and can discuss how he’s helping startups bring to light the dark matter of work and harness workflows for operational efficiencies.
Lindy Fishburne is a Managing Partner of Breakout Ventures and the Founder of Breakout Labs, at the Thiel Foundation. For the last 10 years she has been investing at the intersection of technology and biology.
Lindy's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield – Session 3
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Melissa is Chief Financial Officer at Outreach. Previously, Melissa was CFO of Qualys (“QLYS”), a leading provider of cloud-based IT, Security and Compliance SaaS solutions. Prior to Qualys, Melissa served as Head of FP&A, Treasury and Investor Relations at Zynga. Prior to Zynga, Melissa served as Head of Corporate Development, Treasury and Investor Relations at Digital River, an ecommerce SAAS and payments company, until its sale to Siris Capital. Prior to joining Digital River, Melissa spent 15 years as an investment banker advising companies in the technology sector on a range of issues including M&A, valuation, capital allocation and shareholder issues. During her investment banking career, Melissa advised companies on more than $400 billion of transaction volume at major investment banks including Goldman Sachs and Banc of America Securities. Melissa is a Director on the Board of Model N (“MODN”), a publicly-traded company providing revenue management software solutions and is a member of the Audit Committee. Melissa received an A.B. degree in government from Harvard University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School.
Melissa's Sessions
Securing your journey to IPO from the start
Without the right governance tools in place at a company’s inception, a business becomes susceptible to risks as it scales. Adopting governance practices early in a business’s growth process sets them up for long-term growth and a successful IPO. During this session, attendees will hear leadership perspectives for securing your business growth in a time of rapid change.
John Foley is the Founder and CEO of Peloton. As an avid cyclist and boutique fitness addict, John leveraged his tech and business experience to create Peloton, a technology company at the nexus of fitness and media. Prior to founding Peloton, John spent six years in manufacturing leadership with Mars Inc. He also served as a President at Barnes&Noble, CEO and Co-founder of Pronto.com, CEO of Evite.com and an early leader of Citysearch.com starting in 1996. When John’s not brainstorming Peloton’s next big innovation, you can find him training for triathlons, at boutique group fitness classes with his wife Jill, or strolling through the West Village with his two children.
John's Sessions
Sweating the Big Stuff
Years from now, the pandemic will be view as the watershed moment for Peloton and the explosion of connected fitness. But the past two years have also brought their share of difficulties for the company. CEO John Foley and Chief Content Officer Jennifer Cotter will join us to discuss how the company managed a roller coaster year and where it goes next.
Andy Forssell, EVP & GM of Direct-to-Consumer at WarnerMedia, leads the HBO Max operating business unit at WarnerMedia, reporting directly to CEO Jason Kilar. Forssell and his team are responsible for the product, marketing, consumer engagement, and operations of HBO Max, including the recently launched HBO Max ad-supported subscription offering and the platform’s international rollout, which began with Latin America in June and will followed by upgrades of HBO-branded streaming services in Europe. Additionally, Forssell continues to pave the way for future services within WarnerMedia. Prior to this, Forssell helped build the foundation for another WarnerMedia company, Otter Media, where he served as the company’s Chief Operating Officer. He joined Otter from its subsidiary, Fullscreen, where he was president and COO for several years, overseeing the company’s day-to-day operations, as well as leading technology and product development. Before joining the WarnerMedia family, Forssell served as CEO of Showyou, a video aggregation service that was sold to Vevo in 2015. He was also on the ground floor when Hulu was founded in 2007, helping grow the company grow from ten employees to more than 700, from zero revenue to more than $1 billion, and led its push into original programming. As the acting CEO for most of 2013 his leadership helped the streamer exceed EBITDA targets and achieve its first year with more than a billion dollars of revenue. Prior to that, he led the content business, including ownership of content strategy, leading all content acquisition, launching the original content business, and managing content spend of up to $750M per year. He was also responsible for managing software development and operational infrastructure for high volume video encoding and storage to support Hulu on the web and Hulu Plus on a vast array of devices.
Andy's Sessions
Stream On
HBO Max launched in May 2020 – in the early months of the pandemic. As more users have turned to streaming content to fill the hours, the service has grown to a user base of 67.5 million, through a combination of exclusives and original content. EVP & GM of Direct-to-Consumer at WarnerMedia, Andy Forssell will discuss HBO Max’s growth strategy and differentiation in a world full of streaming choices.
Michael Fosnaugh
Co-Head of the Flagship Fund and Senior Managing Director, Vista Equity PartnersMichael Fosnaugh is Co-Head of the Vista Flagship Fund and sits on the fund's Investment Committee. He also serves as a member of Vista’s Executive Committee and Private Equity Management Committee. Michael is a board member of several Vista companies including Integral Ad Science (NASDAQ: IAS), Jamf (NASDAQ: JAMF), Ping Identity (NYSE: PING), SmartBear and TripleLift. Prior to joining Vista, Michael worked in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications Group at SG Cowen & Co., where he focused on the software, services and financial technology sectors. While at SG Cowen, he advised clients on buy-side and sell-side transactions, public and private equity financings, and other strategic advisory initiatives.
Michael's Sessions
Powering What’s Next: Insights from the Enterprise Software Market
Spurred by digital transformation and the recent shift to remote work, the enterprise software industry has gone from strength-to-strength and competition for deals and valuations are at all-time-highs. While investor appetite for enterprise software may be strong, it doesn’t mean that all tech businesses make worthy investments. In this panel, hear from Michael Fosnaugh and Monti Saroya, Co-Heads of Vista’s Flagship investment strategy, and a selection of Vista CEOs on the hallmarks of best-in-class software companies and trends driving the industry.
Shauntel Garvey is a co-founder and general partner at Reach Capital.
Shauntel's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield – Session 1
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Alexis Gay is a comedian, podcast host, and type-A New Yorker trying to make sense of the tech industry, where she’s spent the better part of a decade. You might already know that if you follow her on Twitter, where her short-form comedy videos on the topics of work, tech, San Francisco, and more have been seen over 11 million times. On her podcast, “Non-Technical,” she interviews influential folks from tech, media, business, and beyond about everything except their resumes. Alexis asks venture capitalists, founders, operators, and executives questions like, “do you believe in ghosts?” and “who would play you in a movie?” Past guests include Chetan Puttagunta (Benchmark), Sara Mauskopf (Winnie), Joanna Stern (Wall Street Journal), Casey Newton (Platformer), Helena Price Hambrecht (Haus), Scott Belsky (Adobe), and more. Previously, Alexis led the Creator Partnerships and Business Operations teams at Patreon, a platform serving over 6mm users that enables creators to run their own fan memberships. Before that, she held operational and partnerships positions at Twilio and a small startup in NYC you probably haven’t heard of. Alexis holds a B.A. from The Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University and once got a concussion at SoulCycle.
Alexis's Sessions
How to Build Brand Buzz and Generate Influence in the Creator Economy
Brands are the lifeblood of startups. The name, the design, the feel, and the emotional connection between customers and company can determine the entire trajectory of a business. It’s a well-trodden field that’s been upended in recent years thanks to the skyrocketing growth of the influencer and creator economies. What does it mean to build a brand in today’s competitive marketplace and how can you assess success? Julia Munslow of Yahoo News and Rachel Drori of Daily Harvest will discuss how they built and reshaped brands for 2021, and what tools founders should consider today in designing a compelling brand.
Roham is the CEO of Dapper Labs, the creators of CryptoKitties, Flow and NBA Top Shot. Roham started his first startup at the age of 14 and has since funded and built over a dozen companies. Formed in February 2018, Dapper Labs was spun out of Axiom Zen, the award winning venture studio, to spread the benefits of decentralization through the power of play, fairness, and true ownership. It has raised funding from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, Venrock, Google Ventures, Samsung, and the founders of Dreamworks, Reddit, Coinbase, Zynga, and AngelList, among others. Roham is an occasional angel investor; his portfolio includes SaaS leaders Intercom, toutapp, and teampay, among others. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and dual bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Biological Sciences from Stanford University.
Roham's Sessions
Collecting Crypto Opportunities
Dapper Labs launched the digital collectible craze into the mainstream earlier this year with its smash hit NBA Top Shot but, CEO Roham Gharegozlou has big ambitions for the space. His startup most recently hit a $7.5 billion valuation and has aims to own the NFT ecosystem with their Flow blockchain product.
Bobby is a co-founder of Form Capital, a new seed fund that invests real design expertise alongside seed capital. An angel investor in Coinbase, Envoy, Linear, and over 40 startups, Bobby started his career at Facebook as their first designer on User Growth in 2008. Later he was lead designer for Facebook Photos, one of the most used products on the internet.
Bobby's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield – Session 3
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Craig Goodwin, co-founder of Cyvatar, brings more than 20 years’ experience as an in-house CISO for companies that include Fujitsu, Monster, and CDK. He has spent his career driving real business outcomes by positioning security as an enabler for digital trust and transformation. Throughout his career, Craig has experienced the frustration and challenges that security teams face when it comes to the complexity of the security product and services in most organizations — the lack of integration and the lack of focus on delivering real business outcomes — and he co-founded Cyvatar with the vision of making strong, effective security programs achievable for every organisation. So far, he’s succeeded.
Craig's Sessions
CISO2CISO: On the Wrong Side of Disruption
Disruption isn’t always a good thing. Often, we fear it. We resist prioritizing even necessary change out of fear that the disruption it may bring will be more detrimental than beneficial. Are we wrong? Are we right? Cyvatar Co-Founder and ex-global CISO Craig Goodwin and Alteryx CISO Billy Spears debate both possibilities as they look at the ways we prioritize risk and disruption at work.
Why Can't We Stop Ransomware?
This will be an open discussion with participation from audience members about the challenges and consequences of our current approaches to defending against ransomware attacks. The reemergence of REvil over the Labor Day weekend and the uptick in ransomware attacks on schools and universities remind us that hacks for ransom are still among the most attractive and lucrative threats around. Our open forum will uncover ways to combat malicious actors better and thwart the successful execution of ransomware.
Hilary Gosher is a Managing Director at Insight Venture Partners leading Insight Onsite, the firm’s team of operations and growth experts who help drive scale and growth at Insight’s portfolio companies.
Hilary's Sessions
Scaling Businesses and Creating Value with the Everywhere Workforce
As startup founders scale their companies, increase velocity and eye potential exits, flexibility in talent that can execute a lean, mean go-to-market strategy is quickly becoming not only a necessity but a differentiator. Join Insight Partners’ Hilary Gosher and Ivanti’s Melissa Puls in conversation with Upwork’s Tim Sanders about how hybrid workforces are the new cloud when it comes to accelerating revenue, value creation and businesses overall.
Dayna Grayson is Co-founder and General Partner of Construct Capital, an early stage venture firm that invests in extraordinary founders building technology to transform the most foundational industries of our economy from manufacturing to mobility. Dayna was one of the first venture capitalists to turn her attention to transforming these sectors of our economy through software based models. She backed companies creating new advances in manufacturing, automation, and vertically integrated consumer brands. During her time as a partner at NEA (2012-2020), she was the lead investor from the earliest stages and was on the board of companies including Desktop Metal (2015 – today), Tulip (2017 – 2020), Onshape (acqd by PTC) (2013-2019), and Framebridge (acqd by Graham Holdings) (2014-2020) among others. She also led investments in Guideline, Formlabs, Evenly and Neuralmagic. At Construct, along with her co-founder Rachel Holt, Dayna is exclusively focused on early stage investments and investing behind the accelerating changes in foundational industries that together make up half our economy’s GDP are failing to meet customer expectations. Some of their investments include Copia, Veho, Hadrian, The Rounds, and Verve Motion. Dayna started her career in product development and led design efforts at Blackbaud [BLKB], the leading global provider of software to nonprofit organizations, as the company grew to over $130 million in revenue and completed a successful public offering and was an investor at North Bridge Venture Partners from 2007-2012. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia (Systems Engineering) and Harvard Business School, where she serves as a venture partner today
Dayna's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield – Session 4
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Kirsten Green is the Founder and Managing Partner of Forerunner, the consumer-driven venture capital partnering with ambitious founders and companies redefining industries. Combining an unconventional and powerful blend of professional experiences and acquired investment expertise, Kirsten launched San Francisco-based Forerunner in 2012, and has since led the firm to raise nearly $3 billion in assets under management. Kirsten’s 25+ years of evaluation and investment success stem from a combination of product savvy, consumer insight, research, and a thesis-driven approach that has been the basis of all her investments — from pre-revenue startups to multi-billion-dollar enterprises. Her early investor and board member roles span Faire, Hims&Hers, Chime, Ritual, Daydream, Decagon, Warby Parker, Wonder, and Balance, among others. She is also on the Board of the National Venture Capital Association, and has been part of both the Forbes Midas List and Forbes World’s 100 Most Powerful Women List for the past nine years.
Kirsten's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield – Final Round
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Jean-Denis Greze is Chief Technology Officer at Plaid. He plays a critical role in ensuring that Plaid continues to deliver a platform that is reliable, safe and secure for developers, financial institutions and end-users. He oversees Plaid’s global engineering and security teams with over 250 engineers across North America and Europe, as well as Plaid’s core products. He leads the technical vision and infrastructure of Plaid, with a focus on delivering a secure and reliable platform that enables the fintech ecosystem to unlock financial freedom for everyone. Prior to joining Plaid, Jean-Denis was Director of Engineering at Dropbox. Before that, Jean-Denis worked at a fintech in New York and holds a CS & MS degree from Columbia as well as a JD from Harvard Law School. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and son and has spent time all over the world including: Boston, Chicago, Lausanne (Switzerland), Los Angeles, New York City, Paris (France), Santiago (Chile), and Shanghai (China) over the last four decades.(Chile), and Shanghai (People’s Republic of China) over the last four decades.
Jean-Denis's Sessions
How to Use Customer Feedback and Data Analysis to Iterate Your Product
Everyone has an opinion on product changes. Customers complain, NPS scores are calculated, and internal leaders have their own vision on what comes next. Then there are all the people who are silent — including future customers who may not even know a startup exists yet. How do you find signal from all the noise and build a compelling product roadmap that properly calibrates every tradeoff? Jean-Denis Greze of Plaid, Stephanie Mencarelli of InVision, and Pete Thompson of eBay offer their perspectives as product leaders on how to keep a bold perspective in product while getting the details right.
Arvind Gupta co-leads Mayfield’s engineering biology practice and is founder and venture adviser at IndieBio. He is the co-author of “Decoding the World,” published by Hachette.
Arvind's Sessions
Bioplatforms for Saving the Planet
Twist’s synthetic DNA is re-inventing the fields of medicine, agriculture, industrial chemicals, and data storage. Ginkgo has developed custom strains of organisms to make fragrances, fertilizers, lab-grown meat, hunt for natural antibiotics, and engineer probiotics. Hear about the founder journeys of these two iconic entrepreneurs from inception through IPO and beyond, and how they are changing our world for the better.
The Disrupt Desk: Health and Biotech
Industry experts and TechCrunch editors break down the panels you missed with analysis, insight, and likely a laugh or two.
The New Human and Planetary Health Pioneers
Mammoth Biosciences, co-founded by Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna, is the industry’s first CRISPR platform company. It has already delivered a breakthrough Covid test and has inked partnerships for novel CRISPR diagnostics, therapeutics and biomanufacturing with leading healthcare companies. NotCo is combining artificial intelligence and deep science to re-invent the food industry, starting with a milk alternative product with many more to come. Hear about the founder journey from these breakout companies and tips for scaling your business.
Sunny Gupta is the Co-founder and CEO of Apptio. He is a market and product innovator with a customer obsession that led him to uncover significant untapped demand for an analytics-based business management system for CIOs. Since founding Apptio in 2007, he pioneered a market category (Technology Business Management or TBM) and drove the company to become the market leader in a disruptive industry with significant scale. Gupta led Apptio to an Initial Public Offering in September 2016 (NASDAQ: APTI) as well as its acquisition by Vista Equity Partners in January 2019.
Sunny's Sessions
Powering What’s Next: Insights from the Enterprise Software Market
Spurred by digital transformation and the recent shift to remote work, the enterprise software industry has gone from strength-to-strength and competition for deals and valuations are at all-time-highs. While investor appetite for enterprise software may be strong, it doesn’t mean that all tech businesses make worthy investments. In this panel, hear from Michael Fosnaugh and Monti Saroya, Co-Heads of Vista’s Flagship investment strategy, and a selection of Vista CEOs on the hallmarks of best-in-class software companies and trends driving the industry.
Nancee is a Solutions Engineer at Momentive.ai, with experience leading market research studies for Kantar, Fuel Cycle, Business Insider, and more. Nancee is based in New York, NY.
Nancee's Sessions
Accelerate your growth using agile market research throughout the product lifecycle
Conducting market research at each stage of your product lifecycle is a critical component to a successful product launch and sustained growth in an increasingly competitive market. While traditional market research can be costly and require a specialized team, agile market research software makes it possible for anyone on your team to get the insights you need fast. Join Momentive.ai to learn how to conduct your own market research to identify what kinds of products and features users value most, get insight into the competitive landscape, and track your brand’s awareness and shifting perceptions over time.
Heather Hartnett is general partner and CEO of Human Ventures, an early-stage venture fund and startup studio in New York City.
Heather's Sessions
The Subtle Challenges of Assessing Product-Market Fit
Product-market fit is the holy grail for founders, and the key to unlocking the next phase of a startup’s growth. Behind “product” and “market” though, there are dozens of considerations, from types of users and product offerings to marketing and pricing that determine just how strong a fit a startup has found. Join early-stage investors David Thacker of Greylock, Heather Hartnett of Human Ventures and Victoria Treyger of Felicis as they discuss the subtler challenges in finding and assessing fit.
Katie is the Founder and CEO of Haun Ventures where she and the team raised a $500 million early stage fund and a $1 billion acceleration fund to invest in the future of web3. Previously, Katie was a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) where she co-led the firm’s three crypto funds. She joined in June 2018 as its eleventh general partner and first female general partner. Prior to a16z, Katie spent a decade as a federal prosecutor focusing on fraud, cyber, and corporate crime alongside agencies including the SEC, FBI, and Treasury. She created the government’s first cryptocurrency task force and led investigations into the Mt. Gox hack and the corrupt agents on the Silk Road task force. While with the U.S. Department of Justice, Katie prosecuted RICO murders, organized crime, public corruption, gangs, and money laundering. She also held senior policy positions at Justice Department headquarters in both the National Security Division and Attorney General’s office where her portfolio included antitrust, tax, and national security. While in the private sector, Katie has testified before both the House and Senate on the intersection of technology and regulation. She has taught a course on crypto at Stanford Business School and on cybercrime at Stanford Law School. Katie clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and is an honors graduate of Stanford Law School. She is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Katie also served as a member of the board of directors of Coinbase from 2017 to 2024.
Katie's Sessions
Bankrolling Web 3.0
At $2.2 billion, Andreessen Horowitz’s third crypto-centric fund is their largest vertical-specific bet ever and a signal of just how crucial blockchain tech and decentralized finance is to the firm’s future. General Partner Katie Haun co-leads the crypto team tasked with tracking down the firm’s next Coinbase, which returned billions for the firm.
Tess Hatch hopes to travel to space. In the meantime, she is a venture investor at Bessemer Venture Partners who invests in frontier tech.
Tess's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield – Session 2
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Aaron Hageman is the owner and CEO of Delivery Drivers, Inc. (DDI); a third-party Human Resources and Management that connects tens of thousands of independent contractors with delivery and retail firms nationwide. Aaron and DDI have more than 25 years of experience and leadership in the rapidly growing and changing gig economy.
Aaron's Sessions
Why Employers Are Ignoring a Large Candidate Pool That’s Necessary for Growth Today
Hear directly from Checkr CEO Daniel Yanisse and DDI CEO Aaron Hageman about why this job market is fueling the gig economy growth, how to tap into fair chance hiring and how it will help your employee base, the benefits of fair chance hiring and its impact on your bottom line and organizations and allies that promote fair chance hiring and why this matters to DEI efforts.
Robert Herjavec
Dynamic Entrepreneur, Business Leader, and Leading Shark on ABC's hit show Shark Tank, Herjavec GroupRobert Herjavec is one of North America’s most recognizable business leaders. A dynamic entrepreneur, Robert has built and sold several global IT companies. His company, Herjavec Group, is an international cybersecurity operations leader with locations in the U.S., UK, and Canada.
Robert's Sessions
Thrive with an Untethered Workforce
Shark Tank investor and cybersecurity leader, Robert Herjavec chats with Ben Wright, founder and CEO of Velocity Global, about how to thrive with an untethered workforce. The mindsets of employers and talent has converged to work with anyone, anywhere, anytime, anyhow. Choice is paramount: employers engage all types of talent from full-time to project freelancers; people live anywhere, work for anyone, in a work-life balance. When priorities align, the possibilities are endless.
Mar is Pear’s Founding Managing Partner. After earning a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, Mar developed a groundbreaking technique of optimizing the design of analog semiconductors. Since then, she has accrued over 13 years of founder experience, co-founding three startups in mobile/ecommerce, enterprise software and semiconductor industries and has registered 14 separate patents. As Pear’s co-founder and managing partner, Mar brings operational and technical expertise to the Investment Team. She is in currently a Lecturer for Stanford University, teaching Lean Launchpad, one of the premier entrepreneurship classes at Stanford. Prior to that, she was a Consulting Professor at Stanford teaching the introductory course in Analog Circuit Design for nearly a decade. Mar serves on the board of trustees of Harvey Mudd College and the Advisory Board of the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Carnegie Mellon University. She is a founder of Equity Summit, the premier conference for connecting URM Venture Capital GPs to LPs, and an initial founding member of All Raise. She has been recognized by MIT Technology Review as a Top Innovator Under 35, named a Champion of Innovation by Fast Company, awarded the Digital Automation Conference’s Marie R. Pistil Achievement Award, and recognized on the Forbes Midas List in 2021, 2022, and 2023.
Mar's Sessions
Crafting a Pitch Deck that Can’t Be Ignored
Investors may be chasing after the hottest deals, but for founders selling their startup’s vision, it’s never been more important to communicate it in the clearest way possible. Our panelists of pitch deck experts are digging into what’s essential, what’s unnecessary and what could just make all the difference in your next deck.
Jenifer is marketing leader with over 17 years experience in B2B, B2C and B2B2C marketing. She currently works at Elation Health as the VP of Marketing where her and her team help practices start, grow, communicate, and succeed in delivering the highest-quality personalized care to patients with the most trusted technology platform for independent primary care. Prior to Elation, Jenifer led the Business Growth Marketing team at Lyft and held marketing leadership roles at hyper growth companies including DocuSign and Fastly. Personally, Jenifer is a mom to a 2.5 year old toddler, loves cooking & traveling and helping others through mentorship.
Jenifer's Sessions
How to Accelerate Everything
In the past year, growth marketing exploded as companies doubled down on what’s worked in the past and found new runway inside an increasingly competitive landscape. We brought together some of the best growth marketing minds across verticals to tell you how they conquered growth in 2021.
Andy Hoang is the founder of Aviron, a high intensity connected rowing machine and the first gaming rower in the world. Born to Vietnamese refugee parents in Toronto, Canada, Andy turned to exercise in high school as a way to manage his ADHD, but as he spent more time in the gym, he noticed bored exercisers glued to their phones who were just going through the motions of a workout. He founded Aviron in 2018 as a better way to exercise. Aviron combines the increased confidence, problem solving, and resiliency benefits of gaming with non-impact, high intensity interval training (HIIT) for an engaging, calorie-torching workout that taps into users’ competitive side. Aviron launched their connected rowing machine to the consumer market in 2020 and has seen remarkable growth for a seed stage company, surpassing 2020 revenue in the first quarter of 2021. Aviron is backed by high profile angels like Arjun Sethi as well as Samsung Next and Formic Ventures, a fund created by Oculus co-founder, Michael Antonov. A winter 2021 alumni of Y Combinator, Andy is a graduate of Schulich in Toronto where he received his MBA.
Andy's Sessions
You’ve Raised Your Seed Round—Now What? Preparing for Your Series A
The first hurdle has been cleared: initial funding is in the bank. You’re hiring more talent, seeing the beginnings of a finished product with clear evidence of traction, and experiencing the coveted growth that previously felt just out of reach. Before you know it, the decision to raise for what is arguably the most competitive round is staring you in the face. In this panel, join Samsung Next’s David Lee alongside founders Kadie Okwudili (Agapé), Andy Hoang (Aviron), and Jim Bugwadia (Nirmata) as they discuss the learnings and nuances of bridging Seed to Series A.
Shelly Hod Moyal is the founding partner of iAngels.
Shelly's Sessions
The Disrupt Desk: Impact
Industry experts and TechCrunch editors break down the panels you missed with analysis, insight, and likely a laugh or two.
An accomplished entrepreneur, executive, and investor, Reid Hoffman has played an integral role in building many of today’s leading consumer technology businesses. In 2003 he co-founded LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional networking service.
In 2009 he joined Greylock. He currently serves on the boards of Apollo, Aurora, Coda, Convoy, Entrepreneur First, Microsoft, Nauto, Neeva, Xapo, and a few early stage companies still in stealth. In addition, he serves on a number of not-for-profit boards, including Kiva, Endeavor, CZI Biohub, New America, Berggruen Institute, Opportunity@Work, the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, and the MacArthur Foundation’s Lever for Change.
He is the host of Masters of Scale, an original podcast series and the first American media program to commit to a 50-50 gender balance for featured guests. He is the co-author of three best-selling books: The Start-Up of You, The Alliance, and Blitzscaling. He is an Aspen Institute Crown Fellow, a Marshall Scholar at Oxford, and a graduate of Stanford University.
Katelin Holloway is Founding Partner at Alexis Ohanian’s early-stage venture capital firm, 776. A seasoned investor with over 20 years of operational experience at companies like Pixar and Reddit, Katelin backs transformative startups across diverse sectors. She invests in solutions that push the boundaries of human potential and resilience—advancing health, exploring new frontiers, driving sustainability, fostering creativity, and enriching the human condition. At 776, Katelin combines her operational expertise with a deep commitment to supporting founders as they navigate early-stage challenges and scale their visions. Katelin is dedicated to reshaping venture capital by empowering generational entrepreneurs to tackle humanity’s biggest challenges while driving exceptional returns.
Katelin's Sessions
How to Cultivate a Community for your Company that Actually Lasts
There’s no doubt about it: the word of the year in startupland is “community.” In this panel, Community Fund’s Lolita Taub, Commsor’s Alex Angel, and Seven Seven Six’s Katelin Holloway will extract buzz from reality and help founders understand the growing importance of chief community officers in startup culture, and ultimately financial success, today.
Harry Hurst is the co-founder and co-CEO of Pipe.
Harry's Sessions
How to Ditch Traditional Fundraising
In 2021, venture capital has never been more plentiful, but some founders still can’t break into networks or have found that traditional fundraising isn’t the best route for their business. Fortunately, alternative fundraising techniques are gathering steam as founders find paths to raise cash that diverge from the startup success stories of the past.
Steve Isakowitz is a recognized leader across the government, commercial, space and technology sectors, who has worked tirelessly throughout his career on behalf of the public good in space. He currently serves as the President and CEO of The Aerospace Corporation, a leading architect for the nation’s space programs, where he heads up efforts to outpace threats to the country’s national security while nurturing the innovative technologies needed to further a new era of space commercialization and exploration. With his guidance, Aerospace’s national workforce of more than 4,600 employees provides objective technical expertise and thought leadership to solve the hardest problems in space and assure mission success for space systems and space vehicles. He is also a driving force behind Space Workforce 2030, a collaborative effort launched in 2022 bringing together nearly 30 companies to advance diversity and representation across the space industry. Over the course of his more than 30-year career, Isakowitz has made impactful contributions across a number of prominent roles, including at Virgin Galactic, NASA, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the White House Office of Management and Budget.
Steve's Sessions
So You Want to Build a Space Business?
The space industry is changing faster than ever, with new technologies and lower launch costs democratizing access to space and driving a new era of innovation. The opportunities to build the next great business are seemingly endless, but space can be a difficult and unforgiving place, especially for those new to the domain. This session will feature practical insights and advice from experienced space leaders for entrepreneurs looking to get their business off the ground.
Maneesh Jain, PhD, is CEO and co-founder of Mirvie, a company pioneering the prediction of life-threatening pregnancy complications months in advance.
Maneesh's Sessions
Taking Care of the Next Generation
KiwiCo empowers kids to explore, create and learn with hands-on kits. Mirvie provides a personalized window into pregnancy for early detection and intervention. Grove is committed to a plastic-free future with its line of eco-friendly beauty, home and lifestyle products. Hear from these 3 exceptional entrepreneurs about their mission to create a better world for our generation and the next ones, building movements and communities, and the milestones in getting to escape velocity.
Vineet Jain is the CEO and co-founder of Egnyte, a leading cloud-based collaboration and governance platform. An entrepreneur at heart, prior to Egnyte, Vineet founded Valdero, a supply chain solution provider. Egnyte has grown exponentially, serving more than 22,000 customers globally with more than 1,000 employees worldwide.
Vineet's Sessions
How to Sign Your First Three B2B Customers
The secret to revenue growth is great sales, but the definition of “great” and “sales” has changed dramatically post-COVID. Virtual meetings, simple onboarding, product-led growth, and more have upended the traditional approach to sales for enterprise companies, requiring new tactics for founders to get the kind of skyrocketing growth they desire and lock in those first customers. Join Kate Taylor of Notion, Pablo Viguera of Belvo, and Vineet Jain of Ennyte as we discuss the best practices for handling sales in a re-energized 2021 economy.
Tyler Jewell is the founder and CEO of Codenvy.
Tyler's Sessions
The $49B Developer Landscape
Over the past 20 years, IT has witnessed a power shift from CIOs to developers. Any developer with an idea has been given empowerment and authority to innovate. This has led to the creation of 1000 companies that create products used, influenced, or bought by software development teams. In this session, we’ll discuss the 17 landscape segments, the CIO transition from decision maker to governor, and the developer “pay for value” mentality causing the emergence of Product-Led Growth (PLG) businesses.
Saba Karim is director of the startup pipeline at Techstars.
Saba's Sessions
Crafting a Pitch Deck that Can’t Be Ignored
Investors may be chasing after the hottest deals, but for founders selling their startup’s vision, it’s never been more important to communicate it in the clearest way possible. Our panelists of pitch deck experts are digging into what’s essential, what’s unnecessary and what could just make all the difference in your next deck.
Jade Kearney is a Lean Startup expert and the Co-Founder and CEO of She Matters, a platform designed to improve mental health for Black women through community, culturally competent therapists and culturally relevant resources. Jade is the author of “Lean While Black” A Guide to Black Entrepreneurship and the Entrepreneur in Residence at Digitalundivided. She has a background in diversity and inclusion and a Master’s degree in Digital Media Design from NYU. As a Black female founder and mother her goal is to inspire other women of color to experience their power through entrepreneurship.
Dr. Jason Kelly is the co-founder and CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks. Ginkgo is a synthetic biology company headquartered in Boston, MA that programs cells for customers in the chemical, pharmaceutical, food and energy industries. The company recently raised over $930M in venture capital to expand their automated genetic engineering foundries and is the largest designer of synthetic DNA in the world. Ginkgo is valued at $4.5B and has been listed for the past three years on CNBC’s Disruptor 50 List of fast-growing companies. Prior to Ginkgo, Jason received B.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering and Biology and a PhD in Biological Engineering all from MIT.
Jason's Sessions
Bioplatforms for Saving the Planet
Twist’s synthetic DNA is re-inventing the fields of medicine, agriculture, industrial chemicals, and data storage. Ginkgo has developed custom strains of organisms to make fragrances, fertilizers, lab-grown meat, hunt for natural antibiotics, and engineer probiotics. Hear about the founder journeys of these two iconic entrepreneurs from inception through IPO and beyond, and how they are changing our world for the better.
Richard Kerby is a vice president at Venrock, where he focuses on early stage investments.
Richard's Sessions
Where to Cut and Where to Spend in First-Check Fundraising
Every time a founder raises financing, they usually have one goal: growth. But what does that actually mean? And how do you begin divvying up your new capital between the various goals your startup is barreling toward? In this panel, which includes Harlem Capital’s Henri Pierre-Jacques, Equal Ventures’ Richard Kerby, and BBG Ventures’ Nisha Dua, you will learn about how to spend your investment the best way, balancing runway with classic startup rigor.
As Chief Growth and Innovation Officer, Jamal Khan leads multiple teams across several areas, including: internal efficiencies and automation; new products and services; brand equity, demand generation, and digital engagement; and data and eCommerce. Khan also oversees all aspects of Connection’s international operations. Khan is an industry expert with years of engineering expertise in the areas of Trading Systems, eCommerce, and Cyber Security. He is a Guest Lecturer at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business, on the subject of Artificial Intelligence. He is also an inventor of six approved patents related to human-machine interface design, data orchestration, and machine learning, and has been actively involved in technology startups as both an investor and mentor. Mr. Khan joined Connection through the company’s 2016 acquisition of GlobalServe Inc., where he served as Chief Executive Officer. Prior to GlobalServe, Mr. Khan worked in leadership capacities at Instinet, VeriSign, Arpatech, and Merck Medco.
Jamal's Sessions
The Inaugural Connection I.T. Superheroes Awards category winners, announced live by Jamal Khan, Chief Innovation & Growth Officer
Connection and TechCrunch have teamed up to celebrate and recognize those IT people who have gone the extra mile, with the inaugural Connection I.T. Superhero Awards. Winners of the 5 category awards will be announced live, presented by Connection’s Chief Innovation & Growth Officer, Jamal Khan. These awards are about people, not products for the many out there deserving recognition for their daily efforts. We think some well-earned awards are a great place to start.
Connection IT Super Hero Awards Announcement
To nominate someone you know for the Connection IT Superhero Awards, go to https://www.connection.com/content/it-superhero-awards
Nina Kjellson has been a General Partner at Canaan since 2015 and invests in biopharma and digital health start-ups that serve high unmet needs. She has 20 years of experience funding, growing and transacting early-stage companies. Current Canaan investments include Intrepida, Pact Pharma, Tizona, Tyra and Vineti. She also serves on the board of WellTok and previously served on the boards of Labrys (acquired by Teva), Cidara (CDTX), Trius (TSX, acquired by Cubist), Eiger (EIGR), NovaCardia (acquired by Merck) and co-sponsored investments into Paratek (PRTK), Tesaro (TSRO, acquired by GSK) and Aspreva (ASPV, acquired by Galenia), along with numerous other ventures during her tenure at InterWest Partners. As a leader of Canaan’s Women of Venture program, Nina is a vocal advocate for female entrepreneurs and investors. She serves as an advisor to Springboard Life Sciences, Nina Capital (no relation), The Gates Foundation and serves on the boards of Essential Access Health, Girl Effect and the Oliver Wyman Health Innovation Center. Nina is a 2018 Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellow. Prior to InterWest and Canaan, Nina worked at Bay City Capital, Oracle Partners and the Kaiser Family Foundation. She holds a B.A. in human biology from Stanford University. Nina is an avid reader, is active in nature, runs, skis and loves to travel the world.
Nina's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield – Session 2
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Melody is a Partner at NextView Ventures based in its New York office. Prior to joining NextView, Melody was Head of Product at Blue Apron (NYSE: APRN). Melody joined Blue Apron as the first product hire when the company was 18 months old with 20 HQ employees. She helped scale the business through hyper-growth (25x in 3.5 years) and to its IPO, building and leading a 35-person team across Product Management, Product Design, and Analytics/Data Science. Previously, Melody was a Product Manager at Fab.com leading marketing & analytics products and the founder/CEO of a seed-funded wine subscription e-commerce service. Melody was also a venture investor at Time Warner’s strategic VC group and was a one of six inaugural members of First Round Capital’s Product Co-op initiative. Melody began her career as a tech/media M&A investment banking analyst at Evercore Partners. Melody holds an MBA with Distinction from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Commerce with Distinction from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia.
Stuart Landesberg is the co-founder and CEO of Grove Collaborative, a leading sustainable consumer products company transforming the industry into a force for human and environmental good. Grove creates and curates high-performing, planet-first products across household cleaning, personal care, laundry, clean beauty, and pet. Stu has long been passionate about sustainability. He began building the company that became Grove in 2012 (first under the ePantry name) when he became frustrated that he had to choose between his values and products for his home. He wanted to create a platform that would allow families easy access to healthy, sustainable products. Grove was established in 2016 as a certified B Corp and is now also a public benefit corporation. Grove serves millions of households in the U.S. every year and has raised more than $450 million in total funding to-date. In 2021 alone, Grove’s product innovations are expected to save over 2.3 million pounds of plastic. By 2025, Grove will be 100% plastic-free. Stu was previously with TPG Growth, where he was involved in more than $400 million in consumer and technology investments. Stu and his wife, Caitlin, live in San Francisco with their two children and dog, and spend as much time outside as possible.
Stu's Sessions
Taking Care of the Next Generation
KiwiCo empowers kids to explore, create and learn with hands-on kits. Mirvie provides a personalized window into pregnancy for early detection and intervention. Grove is committed to a plastic-free future with its line of eco-friendly beauty, home and lifestyle products. Hear from these 3 exceptional entrepreneurs about their mission to create a better world for our generation and the next ones, building movements and communities, and the milestones in getting to escape velocity.
As CEO of Yahoo, Jim Lanzone oversees a global media and tech company that reaches nearly 900 million people around the world and is the third largest property on the Internet. He is focused on delivering trusted products, content and tech across finance, sports, news, gaming and e-commerce. Yahoo also provides a full-stack platform for businesses to amplify growth and drive more meaningful connections across advertising, search and media. Jim draws from over 20 years of leadership and entrepreneurial experience in the technology and media space, driving growth and innovation. He is the former CEO of Tinder, the world’s most popular app for meeting new people. Tinder has been downloaded by more than 400 million people and is available in 190 countries and 40+ languages. Prior to Tinder, Jim spent a decade as President and CEO of CBS Interactive, a top 10 global Internet company with brands ranging from CBS All Access to CNET. He joined CBS Interactive in 2011 when CBS Corporation purchased Cicker Media, an Internet video search and programming guide, where he was founder and CEO. Before founding Clicker, Jim served as CEO of Ask.com (formerly Ask Jeeves), a top 10 consumer Internet property and leading search engine owned by IAC/InterActiveC Jim resides in Northern California with his wife and three children. He holds a B.A. from UCLA and a J.D./M.B.A. from Emory University.
Jim's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield – Final Round
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
As the CEO of global esports organization Evil Geniuses (EG), Nicole LaPointe Jameson heads up a legacy sports brand that has helped to define the modern era of competitive gaming and continues to break boundaries today. LaPointe Jameson leads a team across Seattle and LA and oversees strategy and operations around EG’s competitive sports, streaming and entertainment, and merchandise as well as masterminding expansion into new business sectors. Under her leadership, EG has undergone a major brand relaunch and made winning debuts in multiple competitive esports, including a franchise slot in the League Championship Series (LCS), the third most popular overall sport between 18-34 year olds in North America. A statistics graduate of Columbia University, LaPointe Jameson draws from her analytical background to make calculated decisions on business operations and strategic opportunities on behalf of EG. As an associate at PEAK6 Investments, she drove the due diligence assessment prior to the acquisition of EG and ultimately stepping in to lead its revitalization as CEO. With experience in capital allocation through private equity and portfolio company operations, twinned with a deep understanding and affinity for the digital and gaming audiences, LaPointe Jameson brings the worlds of esports and business operations together.
Nicole LaPointe's Sessions
Esports Everywhere
The pandemic not only spurred the growth of gaming as a hobby, but gave an extra boost to the world of esports. Hear Evil Geniuses’ CEO Nicole LaPointe Jameson outline where esports is headed, how data and technology are driving the players, teams, leagues and beyond, and what opportunities lie in this ever-growing industry.
Vanessa Larco is the cofounder of Premise. She is a former partner for the investment firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA) with a background in product management and leadership. She has worked in tech since 2008 and previously worked as the director of product management for mobile and web at Box. Larco specializes in providing strategic guidance to founders and management teams. She holds a bachelor’s in computer science from Georgia Institute of Technology.
Vanessa's Sessions
Pitch Deck Teardown
An articulate, alluring pitch presentation is a big part of successfully fundraising, and yet it’s relatively uncommon for founders to get candid feedback on how they communicated the problem, their solution, and their path to success. During the Pitch Deck Teardown, VCs will offer their live feedback on decks submitted by audience members.
Marcelo is the co-founder and President of Remote. Marcelo was previously VP of Engineering at Unbabel and has held several CTO positions. He frequently speaks at events about leadership and managing remote teams. Marcelo is also a startup advisor and mentor to entrepreneurs. He is a passionate engineer, proud dad, and sci-fi nerd.
Marcelo's Sessions
How to build a remote-first engineering culture
How do you build culture with globally dispersed engineers? Marcelo Lebre, COO and co-founder of Remote and former VP of Engineering at Unbabel, understands better than anyone the challenges of scaling an international workforce of engineers. In this talk, Marcelo will teach you how to adopt a remote-first mindset and how to scale a distributed team of engineers while retaining your culture.
David Lee is the vice president of platform products at RingCentral.
David's Sessions
You’ve Raised Your Seed Round—Now What? Preparing for Your Series A
The first hurdle has been cleared: initial funding is in the bank. You’re hiring more talent, seeing the beginnings of a finished product with clear evidence of traction, and experiencing the coveted growth that previously felt just out of reach. Before you know it, the decision to raise for what is arguably the most competitive round is staring you in the face. In this panel, join Samsung Next’s David Lee alongside founders Kadie Okwudili (Agapé), Andy Hoang (Aviron), and Jim Bugwadia (Nirmata) as they discuss the learnings and nuances of bridging Seed to Series A.
Kai-Fu Lee is a co-author of AI 2041: Ten Visions For Our Future.
Kai-Fu's Sessions
A Fictional Future Built with Real AI
A leading mind in AI research and investment and a bold new voice in science fiction collaborate in “AI 2041,” a remarkable new collection of stories imagining a future shaped by technology being built today. Hear Sinovation Ventures Chairman and CEO Kai-Fu Lee and author Chen Qiufan (AKA Stanley Chan) discuss the tech that inspired their book and the changes they expect over the next two decades.
Emily Leproust is CEO of Twist Bioscience.
Emily's Sessions
Bioplatforms for Saving the Planet
Twist’s synthetic DNA is re-inventing the fields of medicine, agriculture, industrial chemicals, and data storage. Ginkgo has developed custom strains of organisms to make fragrances, fertilizers, lab-grown meat, hunt for natural antibiotics, and engineer probiotics. Hear about the founder journeys of these two iconic entrepreneurs from inception through IPO and beyond, and how they are changing our world for the better.
Phil Libin is co-founder and CEO of All Turtles, a mission-driven product studio, and mmhmm, a new app that makes video communication more clear and compelling. Previously he was Managing Director at General Catalyst, and before that he was co-founder and CEO of Evernote, which he grew to become a beloved product for hundreds of millions of users.
Phil's Sessions
The Pros and Cons (but mostly pros) of a Distributed Workforce
Coronavirus has changed so much, but perhaps nothing about our everyday lives has changed quite as much as the way we work. Corporations and small businesses the world over have moved to remote work, and as per usual in a time of change, startups have the advantage. Hear from leaders who have cultivated fast-moving, highly productive (yet still culture-conscious) distributed workforces and how they’ve managed to do so.
Byron joined Insight in 2015 and is responsible for driving the governance, diligence and preparation for M&A and IPOs. Prior to starting with Insight, he worked as a Consultant with Bain & Company in their New York and Boston offices. His work at Bain focused on advising both public and private companies on long-term product and go-to-market strategy definition, internal process redesign, and supply chain optimization. He also spent significant time in Bain’s private equity due diligence group. Byron has experience across a diverse set of industries including healthcare, retail, financial technology, insurance, and consumer packaged goods. Byron has also spent time working at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Procter & Gamble. At the Gates Foundation, he was part of their Discovery Strategy team concentrating on early-stage technology investments in Malaria and Child Nutrition. At Procter & Gamble, he was an R&D Engineer in their Innovation Lab where he focused on product reformulations. Originally from Berkeley, CA – Byron graduated with honors from Harvard University where he studied Biomedical & Materials Engineering with a secondary degree in Economics. In his spare time he loves cooking with friends, reading design blogs, exploring New York by foot, and singing aloud to himself.
Byron's Sessions
Securing your journey to IPO from the start
Without the right governance tools in place at a company’s inception, a business becomes susceptible to risks as it scales. Adopting governance practices early in a business’s growth process sets them up for long-term growth and a successful IPO. During this session, attendees will hear leadership perspectives for securing your business growth in a time of rapid change.
Arel sets the strategic and technical direction for Cedar's product line and leads the “Makers” team, which includes engineering, product, design and data science. Prior to founding Cedar in 2016, Arel was VP of product at AppNexus where he supervised the development and launch of the company’s flagship products. He was recognized as an honorary founder and received the “Founder Award” for his contributions to the company. Arel began his career as a technology associate at Bridgewater Associates, working on trading systems for the world's largest hedge fund. He graduated from Princeton University with a B.S.E. in electrical engineering and a certificate in finance.
Arel's Sessions
Hacking US Healthcare: How a Simple Platform Can Help Solve Some of America’s Most Complex Healthcare Problems
Few things conjure more negative emotions than navigating medical billing; Americans urgently need solutions that prioritize their needs, decrease costs and elevate the patient journey so they can focus on getting care. Fortunately, digital innovation can provide exceptional patient experiences that remove friction for payers, providers and consumers alike. Hear how digital health unicorn Cedar has engineered a complete consumer-first digital platform that’s revolutionizing the financial experience for the entire healthcare industry.
Elliott Limb is Chief Customer Officer for Mambu. With over 20 years in banking and fintech, Elliott has a deep understanding of the financial sector. He has held senior technology and business roles at large global and regional banks, business head roles within leading fintechs and has also run a global boutique consultancy focused on building digital banks and helping fintechs grow. At Mambu, Elliott has built a customer centric approach focused on working with the extended ecosystem to build flexible and scalable solutions for a broad range of banking customers.
Elliott's Sessions
You Complete Me
In the age of the composable ecosystems, we’re all partners now – from frenemies to pure collaborations. So why is now, more than ever, the right time to invite friends and challengers to the table? The truth is we have to build for an unknown future, with a shared strategy and value outcome. Join us to find out how you can benefit from symbiotic relationships in the platform economy.
Benjamin Ling
Founder & General Partner, Bling CapitalBen is the Founder and General Partner of Bling Capital. He has backed over 15 unicorns from their early stages, with the best yet to come. Ben previously was a GP at Khosla Ventures for 5 years, and prior to that was an executive at Google (founded Commerce team, head of Search Products) and YouTube (head of partnerships and platform), and Facebook’s first Director of Platform. Bling Capital’s differentiation is to help entrepreneurs find product market fit — Bling Capital has over 100 LPs who are the heads of product, engineering, growth, CEOs at the top tech companies — and when the fund is invested, all of them are invested as well, and the company has access to the broad LP base.
Benjamin's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield – Session 4
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Pitch Deck Teardown
An articulate, alluring pitch presentation is a big part of successfully fundraising, and yet it’s relatively uncommon for founders to get candid feedback on how they communicated the problem, their solution, and their path to success. During the Pitch Deck Teardown, VCs will offer their live feedback on decks submitted by audience members.
Luciana Lixandru is a Partner at Sequoia, where she focuses on enterprise and consumer technology companies across Europe and co-leads Sequoia’s early-stage investment business in the US/Europe. She works closely with companies like Pennylane, Veed, Robco and Tacto and is passionate about helping founders unlock their potential and think on a global scale. Prior to becoming Sequoia’s first partner in Europe in 2020, Luciana worked at Accel for eight years, where she led investments in UiPath (PATH), Deliveroo (DROOF), and Miro, among others. Luciana has also held positions at Summit Partners and Morgan Stanley. She has a B.S. in Economics and Mathematics from Georgetown, and resides in London.
Luciana's Sessions
How to Raise Your First Dollars
Deciding how to go about getting your initial funding is always a tricky subject, as the wrong move could adversely impact your young company. In this session we’ll hear from experts who’ve shepherded multiple companies from the earliest to the latest fundraises.
The Startup Battlefield – Final Round
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Spencer Llewellyn serves as part of the founding Enterprise Sales team at Canva. He was among the first hires in the US, and has helped support the company’s rapid growth. Prior to his role at Canva, Spencer spent time at Yelp and Prezi, where he worked with customers like Disney, CVS and the NFL on their visual communication in presentations. He’s now brought that experience to Canva where he’s working to streamline design for new customers on the West Coast. Spencer played D1 basketball in college, but now mostly sticks to golf and pickle ball in his free time.
Spencer's Sessions
Using Visual Communication to Build Your Startup’s Brand
In today’s increasingly visual world, visual communication is the new currency between brands and their customers. So what are the opportunities startups and their clients can use to enhance brand connection? Join Canva’s Strategic Account Executive, Spencer Llewellyn, to learn how the visual economy has transformed the tech industry and powered the evolution of branding and customer experiences.
After gaining first experiences in business development at Elkline GmbH, Ronny Lutzi first set foot in the then still young smart TV industry in 2010 as Project Lead Web Services at EVIADO GmbH. One year later, Lutzi developed his own concept and founded Foxxum GmbH, based in Kiel, Germany, with partners on July 1st, 2011. Foxxum is a white label provider for innovative smart TV solutions and app development. Since 2013, Ronny Lutzi also oversees, and acts as an advisor for his investment company Kielista GmbH. Building on the rich industry experience with Foxxum and Kielista, he founded rlaxx TV, an ad-financed streaming service that focuses on an innovative mix of linear channels and video-on-demand offerings, in 2020 together with his longstanding business partner Dirk Wittenborg.
Ronny's Sessions
Illuminating the Next Great Entertainment Frontier: The Connected TV Metaverse
While the proliferation of operating systems and OTT platforms have made TV more convenient and accessible, the magnitude of players in this ecosystem have also made television more complicated to navigate –for programmers, advertisers, and viewers. We all want our programming in each of its various delivery methods, provided in an easy-to-navigate, fast-to-discover, intuitive interface. Join an in-depth conversation with media industry veteran and technology futurists as they identify the outlook of the CTV world.
John Lynn
Managing Partner, celaThe co-founder of cela Innovation, John is a globally recognized expert and industry leader in startup accelerators. In his work setting up new accelerators and in supporting current accelerators, John has worked with hundreds of founders on every issue pertaining to entrepreneurship, crafting world-class curriculum and content on Lean Startup with some of the field’s other experts along the way. Startups working with John have found first customers, investors, expedited go-to-market, fundraised, grown their teams, and leveraged his perspective on Lean to move forward with resourcefulness and intention.
Rebecca Lynn is co-founder and general partner of Canvas Ventures.
Rebecca's Sessions
How to Raise Your First Dollars
Deciding how to go about getting your initial funding is always a tricky subject, as the wrong move could adversely impact your young company. In this session we’ll hear from experts who’ve shepherded multiple companies from the earliest to the latest fundraises.
Johnny Lyu is the Co-Founder and CEO of KuCoin, a global leading cryptocurrency exchange. Founded in 2017, KuCoin has grown into one of the most popular crypto exchanges and already has over 8 million registered users across 207 countries and regions around the world. In November 2018, KuCoin received $20 million (USD) round A funding from IDG Capital and Matrix Partners. In 2021, Forbes Advisor named KuCoin as one of the Best Crypto Exchanges of 2021. At KuCoin, Johnny leads the company’s day-to-day operations of KuCoin, spot trading, Pool-X, as well as the expansion and prosperity of the KCS ecosystem. He used to lead the listing, business development and investment team, and he is also the main contributor behind Spotlight, Pool-X. Before founding KuCoin, Johnny has accumulated abundant experience in the e-commerce, auto and luxury industry.
Johnny's Sessions
The Missing Block to Bring Crypto to the Masses
With the emergence of concepts such as NFT and GameFi, socialization prosperities are bringing new energy to the crypto world. Known as the People’s Exchange, KuCoin is committed to exploring disruptive technologies and genius ideas to bring crypto closer to the masses. In this session, you will hear from KuCoin CEO Johnny Lyu on what is the outlook of the evolving crypto market and how to achieve better trading experience for cryptocurrency investors.
Hōvig Margōssian
Relationship Manager – Aerospace, Defense, Government Contracts, Bank of AmericaHovig Margossian is a Vice President with Bank of America’s Aerospace & Defense practice. His focus and areas of expertise are providing lending solutions and banking services to middle-market companies in the aerospace, space and defense ecosystem, as well as emerging space and space technology companies throughout Greater Los Angeles and the Pacific Southwest. Prior to his career in banking, Hovig spent 10 years in Marine Corps Aviation as a UH-1N Huey aerial observer, AH-1W Cobra helicopter mechanic and quality assurance supervisor. Hovig received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California Santa Cruz, a Master of Business for Veterans from USC Marshall School of Business, and an Airframe & Powerplant license from the FAA. Hovig is a Los Angeles native and lives in Woodland Hills.
Hōvig's Sessions
So You Want to Build a Space Business?
The space industry is changing faster than ever, with new technologies and lower launch costs democratizing access to space and driving a new era of innovation. The opportunities to build the next great business are seemingly endless, but space can be a difficult and unforgiving place, especially for those new to the domain. This session will feature practical insights and advice from experienced space leaders for entrepreneurs looking to get their business off the ground.
Bertrand Martin is the co-founder and CEO of Sentry Software, a leading player in IT observability. Bertrand founded the company in 2004 introducing the innovative design of a hardware monitoring module that laid the foundation of Sentry Software. He architected a successful business model with BMC Software that made the company a major player in its domain, reaching hundreds of the largest organizations worldwide. Bertrand is a visionary business driver with recognized entrepreneurial instincts. His deep technical knowledge makes him ideally suited to initiate and actively participate in the development of all the company innovative solutions. In the last year, Bertrand's technical breakthroughs allowed Sentry Software to design a pure-software solution to help organizations assess the electricity consumption of any IT equipment and help them minimize their carbon footprint. A dynamic and sought-after public speaker, known for captivating his audience, Bertrand participates in IT conventions, conferences, and business events to develop and promote the company's innovative solutions for sustainable IT.
Bertrand's Sessions
Achieve Sustainable IT with Prometheus, Grafana, and Hardware Sentry
Implementing sustainability initiatives to achieve net-zero carbon emissions in the data center is a vital challenge. Join Bertrand Martin, Sentry Software’s co-founder and CEO, as he presents Hardware Sentry Exporter for Prometheus.Measure the power consumption and temperature of more than 250 platforms with this unique pure-software solution. Report CO₂ emissions, electricity usage and costs of applications and services in Grafana. Reduce the carbon footprint of your datacenter with intelligent optimization of ambient temperature.
Dr. Trevor Martin co-founded Mammoth Biosciences with the mission to enable the next generation of CRISPR-based synthetic biology products across therapeutics and diagnostics. Areas of focus include a novel class of affordable, effective, and rapid CRISPR-enabled molecular diagnostics that allow individuals worldwide to better understand their health and novel families of nano-sized CRISPR proteins including Cas14 and CasPhi that can enable in-vivo editing and permanent genetic cures. Trevor earned his BA from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in Biology from Stanford. His scientific work has been featured in outlets including FiveThirtyEight and The Atlantic. He is the featured healthcare honoree on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, is on Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list, and is a Malaria No More “10 to END” innovator.
Trevor's Sessions
The New Human and Planetary Health Pioneers
Mammoth Biosciences, co-founded by Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna, is the industry’s first CRISPR platform company. It has already delivered a breakthrough Covid test and has inked partnerships for novel CRISPR diagnostics, therapeutics and biomanufacturing with leading healthcare companies. NotCo is combining artificial intelligence and deep science to re-invent the food industry, starting with a milk alternative product with many more to come. Hear about the founder journey from these breakout companies and tips for scaling your business.
Arun Mathew joined Accel in 2009 and leads growth investments in the enterprise, security, and infrastructure markets. Arun works closely with 1Password, BetterCloud, Dealer.com (acquired by DealerTrack), ForgeRock, G2 Crowd, PagerDuty (PD), Qualtrics (acquired by SAP), ServiceChannel, Squarespace, Tenable (TENB) and Webflow. Arun also leads the firm’s Tech Council initiatives and spends time in India, where he is active with Accel’s investments in Flipkart, BookMyShow, Ola, and Freshworks. Arun is from Nashville, Tennessee and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Arun's Sessions
How to Ditch Traditional Fundraising
In 2021, venture capital has never been more plentiful, but some founders still can’t break into networks or have found that traditional fundraising isn’t the best route for their business. Fortunately, alternative fundraising techniques are gathering steam as founders find paths to raise cash that diverge from the startup success stories of the past.
Thomas Mazzaferro joined Western Union in February of 2020 as the Chief Data Officer. Before that he made his mark at HSBC and JP Morgan Chase, spearheading digital initiatives in technology, operations, risk, compliance, and retail banking. At HSBC, Thomas was the Global Head of Retail Stress Testing & Capital Management, and moved on to become the Chief Data Officer of HSBC N.A. While at JP Morgan Chase, Thomas held COO roles in IT, and was Executive Director of Risk Management and a Business Unit CFO.
Thomas's Sessions
You Complete Me
In the age of the composable ecosystems, we’re all partners now – from frenemies to pure collaborations. So why is now, more than ever, the right time to invite friends and challengers to the table? The truth is we have to build for an unknown future, with a shared strategy and value outcome. Join us to find out how you can benefit from symbiotic relationships in the platform economy.
Nick Mehta (he/him), is the CEO of Gainsight, The Customer Success Company—a five time Forbes Cloud 100 recipient. He works with a team of nearly 700 people who together have created the customer success category that’s currently taking over the SaaS business model worldwide. Nick has been named one of the Top SaaS CEOs by the Software Report three years in a row, one of the Top CEOs of 2018 by Comparably, and was named an Entrepreneur Of The Year 2020 Northern California Award winner. On top of all that, he was recently rated the #1 CEO in the world (the award committee was just his mom, but the details are irrelevant). He is a member of the Board of Directors at F5 and has also co-authored two books on the customer success field, Customer Success: How Innovative Companies Are Reducing Churn and Growing Recurring Revenue, and The Customer Success Economy: Why Every Aspect of Your Business Model Needs A Paradigm Shift. He is passionate about family, football, philosophy, physics, fashion, feminism, and SaaS customer success. People told him it’s impossible to combine all of those interests, but Nick has made it his life’s mission to try.
Nick's Sessions
Powering What’s Next: Insights from the Enterprise Software Market
Spurred by digital transformation and the recent shift to remote work, the enterprise software industry has gone from strength-to-strength and competition for deals and valuations are at all-time-highs. While investor appetite for enterprise software may be strong, it doesn’t mean that all tech businesses make worthy investments. In this panel, hear from Michael Fosnaugh and Monti Saroya, Co-Heads of Vista’s Flagship investment strategy, and a selection of Vista CEOs on the hallmarks of best-in-class software companies and trends driving the industry.
Emily is a co-founder of Threshold. She is looking for entrepreneurs who are genuinely excited about being agents of change and have an almost irrational drive to make things better. Her portfolio includes BetterUp, Brightline, Calibrate, Elation Health, Imagen, Livongo (NASDAQ: LVGO), Ooda Health, Redfin (NASDAQ: RDFN), Shift (NASDAQ: SFT), Tia, Verge Genomics, Vineti, Vital, Viz, and Wellframe. In 2019, Forbes recognized Emily on the Midas Brink List as an investor destined for success based on her reputation and momentum in the industry. Emily is an active founding member of All Raise, a non-profit dedicated to improving access for women and others to start and invest in companies. She also serves on the board of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). Early in Emily’s career, she sourced investments in Box (NYSE: BOX), Meebo (Google), Kudo (Google), RichRelevance, and Flux (MTV Networks). She has also invested and advised a number of early-stage companies including Pulse Network (LinkedIn), Notion and Poshmark. A Stanford grad with a BA in political philosophy with honors and an MBA, Emily is drawn to disruptive ideas and technologies that have the potential to radically change consumer, enterprise and healthcare markets.
Emily's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield – Session 3
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Stephanie Mencarelli is the VP of Design at InVision, where her team is focused on building inclusive products that help teams around the world collaborate better. Before InVision, she was a Senior Design Director at Walmart Labs, where she led a team that created innovative products for millions of Americans before and during the pandemic. She also lived and worked in Stockholm, Sweden at the Spotify headquarters and delivered delightful experiences to music and podcast listeners around the globe. Stephanie’s background in advertising makes her passionate about storytelling, strategy, and answering the question, “So what?”. She focuses on helping her team make the complex simple, considers real-world implications with service design, and believes every designer must wear a business hat. When she is not at work, you can find Stephanie outside hiking or playing tennis.
Stephanie's Sessions
How to Use Customer Feedback and Data Analysis to Iterate Your Product
Everyone has an opinion on product changes. Customers complain, NPS scores are calculated, and internal leaders have their own vision on what comes next. Then there are all the people who are silent — including future customers who may not even know a startup exists yet. How do you find signal from all the noise and build a compelling product roadmap that properly calibrates every tradeoff? Jean-Denis Greze of Plaid, Stephanie Mencarelli of InVision, and Pete Thompson of eBay offer their perspectives as product leaders on how to keep a bold perspective in product while getting the details right.
Hana is the co-founder & CEO of MagicBell. She is a proud transgender woman who is passionate about empowering women & other minorities.
Hana's Sessions
The Path for Underrepresented Entrepreneurs
Being a founder comes with a wide array of challenges, but underrepresented founders unfortunately face an extra layer of bias, both conscious and unconscious. At Disrupt, we’ll sit down with founders who will share their journey through fundraising and scaling, as well as advocates who can offer tactical insights and advice.
Nina is a recognised name across the fintech community and an advocate for better financial inclusion and literacy. Nina is the CEO and Founder of Bloom Money, which provides financial services to migrants. Previously, super-unicorn Klarna and Mastercard, and other well-known fintechs such as Starling Bank and Bud.
Nina's Sessions
You Complete Me
In the age of the composable ecosystems, we’re all partners now – from frenemies to pure collaborations. So why is now, more than ever, the right time to invite friends and challengers to the table? The truth is we have to build for an unknown future, with a shared strategy and value outcome. Join us to find out how you can benefit from symbiotic relationships in the platform economy.
Michael “Mikey” Mohr
Co-founder & CEO, HouseplantMichael “Mikey” Mohr is a co-founder and serves as the chief executive officer of Houseplant. Mohr oversees all business operations for the brand including product development and innovation, sales and distribution, marketing strategy, geographic expansion and corporate social responsibility efforts. Mohr began his career in New York in the commercial mortgage backed securities group at Bear Stearns and then moved on to the real estate finance group at Dutch bank ING. After three years in New York, he moved back to Los Angeles where he began privately investing in early stage companies and spent a decade as a partner at MetWest Ventures. Here, Mohr revitalized and operated a number of treasured boutique hospitality properties, which ultimately served as his segue into branding, experience and business operations. During this time, he was also connecting with long time friend Seth Rogen and cousin Evan Goldberg to lay the foundation for a brand that would bring their shared passion for best-in-class cannabis to the forefront of lifestyle and culture. Mohr earned his bachelor’s degree with honors in psychology from the University of Michigan and his master’s degree in real estate finance at New York University. He currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, two children and Bernedoodle. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, cycling, surfing, yoga and practicing meditation.
Michael “Mikey”'s Sessions
Pot, Pottery and Beyond
Somehow we live in world where alcohol is sold in grocery stores and weed is considered a gateway drug. But that is rapidly changing. The legalized cannabis industry is estimated to be worth more than $13 billion in 2021, and major players from big food, pharma, etc. all want a slice of the pie. Hear from actor and comedian Seth Rogen on his well-known passion for pot, and how it led him to start Houseplant. Rogen will also be joined by Houseplant chief commercial officer Haneen Davies and co-founder and CEO Michael Mohr.
Matias is the CEO and Founder at NotCo, the fastest growing food-tech company in LATAM that recently launched NotMilk in the US market nationwide in Wholefoods with outstanding momentum. Having raised $235M USD from investors like Jeff Bezos, Quest Love, Roger Federer, Tiger Management, L-Catterton, Kaszek, 3G Venture arm The Craftory, among others NotCo has become the first Chilean unicorn disrupting the global industry. Matias is a Finance major with postgraduate studies at HBS, UC Berkeley, and Stanford. He worked at JP Morgan Chase in Hong Kong. He is now leading NotCo with a base in New York City.
Matias's Sessions
The New Human and Planetary Health Pioneers
Mammoth Biosciences, co-founded by Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna, is the industry’s first CRISPR platform company. It has already delivered a breakthrough Covid test and has inked partnerships for novel CRISPR diagnostics, therapeutics and biomanufacturing with leading healthcare companies. NotCo is combining artificial intelligence and deep science to re-invent the food industry, starting with a milk alternative product with many more to come. Hear about the founder journey from these breakout companies and tips for scaling your business.
Shveta Mujumdar is the vice president of Corporate Development at Intuit. In her role, she leads the company’s M&A strategy, execution and integration efforts and is also leading Intuit Ventures. Prior to her role at Intuit, she served as Vice President, Corporate Development for Lynda.com, an online learning platform, up until and through the sale to LinkedIn for $1.5B. Additionally, Shveta has held various strategy, corporate development and financial advisory roles at Live Nation/Ticketmaster, Goldman Sachs and Deloitte. She holds a B.A. and M.A. in economics from the University of Southern California and an M.B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business. She also sits on the board of Mr. Cooper Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: COOP) and is on the Board of Trustees for Whittier College, a 4-year private liberal arts college in Southern California.
Shveta's Sessions
How to approach fundraising from Corporate VCs
Global CVC funding hit an all-time high of $73B in 2020. Corporations are increasingly investing in the startup community and can be a valuable resource beyond capital. But not all corporate VCs are the same. Understanding a corporate investor’s strategy, mandate and processes can improve how startups successfully fundraise from corporate VCs.Intuit Ventures recently invested in Clearco, a $2B+ startup that is disrupting traditional VC with founder-friendly, equity-free capital. Join Shveta Mujumdar (VP of Corporate Development at Intuit), Andrew D’Souza (Co-founder and CEO at Clearco), and Michele Romanow (Co-founder and President at Clearco) to learn what corporate VCs are looking for in an investment and how to best position your company and showcase how you are solving your customers’ biggest problems.
Julia Munslow is a special projects editor at Yahoo News, a Verizon Media company. She works on a variety of projects, including Gen Z content strategy, newsletters and audience development. She also launched the Yahoo News TikTok, which grew to 1 million followers in under one year. Julia’s written work is around politics and emerging trends. Previously, she worked on the news programming team for Yahoo News where she focused on breaking news and politics and helped to develop ‘The 360’ series. She completed a Fulbright grant in Malaysia, where she taught English and journalism. Julia has a B.A. in English and creative writing from Emory University.
Julia's Sessions
How to Build Brand Buzz and Generate Influence in the Creator Economy
Brands are the lifeblood of startups. The name, the design, the feel, and the emotional connection between customers and company can determine the entire trajectory of a business. It’s a well-trodden field that’s been upended in recent years thanks to the skyrocketing growth of the influencer and creator economies. What does it mean to build a brand in today’s competitive marketplace and how can you assess success? Julia Munslow of Yahoo News and Rachel Drori of Daily Harvest will discuss how they built and reshaped brands for 2021, and what tools founders should consider today in designing a compelling brand.
Chuck Nice is a Philadelphia native and 18 year veteran of stand-up comedy, with a rich history in television and radio. For eight years he provided comic relief to the Radio Chick show, bringing the funny to New York’s radio air waves. He’s the host of Buy Like A Mega Millionaire on HGTV, The Juice on Veria Living, and The Hot Ten on Centric. Chuck is seen regularly on the Today Show, has guest hosted Joy Behar’s Say Anything, and co-hosted The View. Chuck maintains his radio presence as the co-host of StarTalk with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, where he provides humorous commentary on one of his favorite subjects…science. Speaking of science, Chuck is now the host of NatGeo’s “Brain Games on the Road,” a playful take on brain science. Despite his busy schedule, Chuck still finds time to hit the clubs, delighting audiences with his storytelling brand of stand-up comedy.
Chuck's Sessions
Electric Generation: The Next Frontier For American Business
This session will explore the ways in which smart electric mobility impacts businesses, and what a transition to electric will look like for commercial fleets. Host Chuck Nice will be joined by TechCrunch panelist Ted Cannis, CEO of Ford Pro, and Sam Abuelsamid, longtime engineer in the automotive industry-turned auto industry journalist. Nitty-gritty car talk will blend with discussion of sustainability and imagery to elaborate on the future of the topic.
Wendy Nice Barnes, GitLab’s Chief People Officer, has over 20 years of talent leadership experience in pre-IPO and Fortune 500 companies. As Chief People Officer, Wendy leads GitLab with the members of the executive team and works closely with its DIB (Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging) and remote leaders. Prior to GitLab, she served as CHRO at Palo Alto Networks, where she supported the organization’s growth from 750 employees globally and $255M in revenue to over 5,000 employees globally and an annual run rate of ~$3B. Other previous roles include VP of Human Resources at eHealth and senior HR leadership roles at Netflix and E*TRADE.
Wendy Nice's Sessions
The Pros and Cons (but mostly pros) of a Distributed Workforce
Coronavirus has changed so much, but perhaps nothing about our everyday lives has changed quite as much as the way we work. Corporations and small businesses the world over have moved to remote work, and as per usual in a time of change, startups have the advantage. Hear from leaders who have cultivated fast-moving, highly productive (yet still culture-conscious) distributed workforces and how they’ve managed to do so.
Sandra Oh Lin is the Founder and CEO of KiwiCo. KiwiCo is inspiring the next generation of innovators by designing and delivering seriously fun and enriching hands-on experiences that build creative confidence and problem solving skills. Before starting KiwiCo, Sandra was the GM for eBay Fashion, a founding member of PayPal Mobile, and part of the early team at an online content management startup and a payments startup. Sandra’s career began in R&D at Procter & Gamble. She’s also a mom of 3 kids who are a constant source of inspiration. Sandra graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and has an MBA from Harvard Business School. Before starting KiwiCo, Sandra was the GM for eBay Fashion and a founding member of PayPal Mobile. Additionally, she led product management, marketing, and technology at an online content management startup and a payments startup. Sandra’s early career began in R&D at Procter & Gamble. Sandra graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Sandra's Sessions
Taking Care of the Next Generation
KiwiCo empowers kids to explore, create and learn with hands-on kits. Mirvie provides a personalized window into pregnancy for early detection and intervention. Grove is committed to a plastic-free future with its line of eco-friendly beauty, home and lifestyle products. Hear from these 3 exceptional entrepreneurs about their mission to create a better world for our generation and the next ones, building movements and communities, and the milestones in getting to escape velocity.
Kadie is the founder of Agapé. Three years ago, while pursuing a career as an aspiring physician-scientist, she had several near-death experiences. After being diagnosed with a life-threatening heart condition, she made the difficult decision to walk away from her dream of becoming a surgeon. Around the same time, with the help of a popular dating app, she met the man she would ultimately end up marrying. Once they started dating, Khadesha went to look in the app store for something to nurture this newfound relationship. She was used to using tech to make her life easier and she figured that there was already an app to nurture the most important aspect of human wellness: love. To her surprise, she couldn’t find what she was looking for. Drawing on her research background and incorporating her desire to better humankind – she came up with the idea for Agapé.
Kadie's Sessions
You’ve Raised Your Seed Round—Now What? Preparing for Your Series A
The first hurdle has been cleared: initial funding is in the bank. You’re hiring more talent, seeing the beginnings of a finished product with clear evidence of traction, and experiencing the coveted growth that previously felt just out of reach. Before you know it, the decision to raise for what is arguably the most competitive round is staring you in the face. In this panel, join Samsung Next’s David Lee alongside founders Kadie Okwudili (Agapé), Andy Hoang (Aviron), and Jim Bugwadia (Nirmata) as they discuss the learnings and nuances of bridging Seed to Series A.
Dan Olsen is a product management trainer, consultant, and author. His passion is helping others build successful products that customers love. Dan works closely with CEOs and product leaders to build strong product teams. Dan teaches in-depth, highly interactive private training workshops tailored for each client’s learning objectives. His clients include Google, Facebook, Uber, Amazon, Uber, Box, and Walmart. Dan is the author of the bestseller The Lean Product Playbook, published by Wiley. Prior to consulting, Dan was a product leader at Intuit and several startups. He earned engineering degrees from Northwestern and Virginia Tech and an MBA from Stanford. Dan lives in Silicon Valley, where he founded the monthly Lean Product Meetup in 2014, which has over 10,000 members.
Sean O’Sullivan was a co-founder of MapInfo and is the managing general partner and founder of SOSV, a venture firm that operates the startup accelerators HAX, IndieBio, Chinaccelerator, MOX, and dlab.
Sean's Sessions
The Business of Climate Tech
The frequent and extreme flooding, hurricanes and drought caused by climate change has prompted activists and governments to take action. It’s also spurred a growing number of entrepreneurs to launch technology startups focused on the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. We’ll hear from Carmichael Roberts, who co‐leads the investment committee at Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Sean O’Sullivan, managing general partner at SOSV, about the current state of climate tech, the startups that have promise and the potential risk and opportunities of investing in them.
David Pakman is a partner at venture capital firm Venrock based in New York, where he focuses on early stage internet and digital media companies.
David's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield – Session 1
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
How DAOs Could Shake Up VC
Investment in blockchain startups and tokens exploded in 2021, and some investors are blowing up the idea of a venture capital firm as they look to back more projects in the crypto world. DAOs, or Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, are starting to pop up more and more, turning traditional VC on its head by building investment organizations on the blockchain.
Chamath Palihapitiya is the Founder and CEO of Social Capital – a technology holding company whose mission is to even the starting line. To that aim, Social Capital funds and builds breakthrough businesses across a broad spectrum of sectors, from inequality to climate change. Preceding his focus as an investor, Chamath was the longest tenured member of Facebook’s senior executive team and helped drive its ascension to one of the most important companies in the world. Prior to Facebook, Chamath held leading roles at The Mayfield Fund, AOL, and Winamp. In addition to his focus at the fund, Chamath is Owner and Director of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. Chamath was born in Sri Lanka, grew up in Canada, and graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo.
Chamath's Sessions
The Future of Venture
Chamath Palihapitiya, founder and CEO of Social Capital, is one of the world’s most well-regarded and respected investors, and has been at the forefront of the recent SPAC craze. Hear Palihapitiya’s thoughts on the future of SPACs, what tech sectors are primed for a boom, and what excites him most in terms of future investments.
Ursheet is a Partner at Mayfield and invests in Human & Planetary Health and Infrastructure Software. His investments in human & planetary health include Mammoth Biosciences (CRISPR), Mission Bio (Single Cell Sequencing, Oncology), Qventus (Healthcare AI), Endpoint Health (Precision Immunology), Mirvie (predict and prevent pregnancy complications for moms and babies), GraphWear (Continuous Non-invasive Glucose Monitoring), Chemix (AI-powered next gen EV battery technologies) and Foodsmart (reverse metabolic disease). His investments in the enterprise sector include Versa Networks (Security and SD-WAN), Qwiet (Application Security), Rancher Labs (Cloud Computing platform acquired by SUSE), CloudGenix (SD-WAN platform acquired by Palo Alto Networks) and Netsil (Application Observability platform acquired by Nutanix). Prior to Mayfield, Ursheet had an operating career as a repeat entrepreneur and executive at Cisco and Microsoft. Ursheet was co-founder & CEO of StorSimple – the leading cloud-integrated storage company that was acquired by Microsoft in 2012. Ursheet holds an MBA from the Wharton School and a Bachelors in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai, from which he received the Young Alumni Achiever award in 2015.
Ursheet's Sessions
Saving the World
COVID-19 changed everything. It not only threatened our individual health and well being, but shook industries and economies across the globe. But the same could be said about the COVID-19 vaccines. Hear from BioNTech cofounder and CEO Ugur Sahin on the process of rapidly developing the world’s most sought after vaccine, alongside Pfizer, and the long-term potential of mRNA-based therapies. Sahin will be joined by Ursheet Parikh of Mayfield Fund to discuss what’s next for startups in this rapidly evolving industry.
Saving Lives with Precision Biology
Illumina is the world leader in next-generation sequencing. Adaptive Bio is the leader in immune-driven medicine. Mission Bio pioneered single cell multi-omics for genotype and phenotype. And Endpoint is developing precision therapies for inflammatory illness, sepsis, ARDS and more. Hear from these 4 leaders who are leveraging biology breakthroughs to save lives on a wide range of topics including translating innovation from bench to bedside, aligning incentives with the ecosystem, getting to reimbursement, exploring SPACs and beyond.
Rewiring the Brain to Improve the Quality of Life
TRIPP is a digital psychedelic platform that fully immerses you into alternate realities to improve your mental and emotional well-being. Nēsos’ purpose-built earbuds retrain neural pathways to control inflammation, creating the new category of e-mmunotherapeutics. Mindstrong is transforming mental health through innovations in virtual care, data measurement, and data science. The brain is in a state of constant evolution, responding to new electrical signals from the senses and nerves. Hear from these neuroscientists, physicians, and entrepreneurs about how to build brain-based businesses that improve the quality of life.
Melanie Perkins is the co-founder and CEO of Canva, an online platform making visual communication simple for everyone. Since launching in 2013, Canva has grown from strength to strength and is embraced by more than 55 million users every month, ranging from individual creators to small businesses and Fortune 500 enterprises using the platform to create everything from presentations and videos to t-shirts and social media posts. Today, Canva is valued at US$15 billion and making is one of the fastest-growing technology companies in the world.
Melanie's Sessions
Dogmatic Design
The rapid evolution of the design industry can’t be understated. From better collaboration among designers and other departments, to collaboration among designers themselves, to the democratization of design across an organization, the landscape is changing. Canva has led the charge in this evolution, building one of the simplest (and yet full-featured) tools on the market. Hear cofounder and CEO Melanie Perkins talk about scaling the business to now be worth upwards of $15 billion, and expanding the business from B2C to B2B, all while continuing to iterate the product.
Gil Perry is Chief Executive Officer of D-ID, overseeing the sales, business and marketing teams. Prior to founding D-ID, he served in various technical and business roles in leading global tech companies, including Houseparty, where he was a senior software engineer. Gil holds a B.Sc. degree in Computer Science from Tel Aviv University, with expertise in computer vision, image processing and machine learning.
Gil's Sessions
Disrupt Desk
Industry experts and TechCrunch editors break down the panels you missed with analysis, insight, and likely a laugh or two. Including an interactive demo of an exciting new product from D-ID.
Henri is Managing Partner of Harlem Capital Partners, a venture capital firm changing the face of entrepreneurship. He has led 14 investments and currently sits on 4 boards. Previously, he was a Private Equity Investor at ICV Partners, where he evaluated and conducted due diligence on mid market buy-out opportunities. Prior to ICV, Henri did Investment Banking in the Real Estate Group at Bank of America, where he completed mergers & acquisitions, debt refinances and various strategic alternatives. Henri received the Forbes 30 Under 30, Inc 30 Under 30, EBONY Power 100, The Root 100, Business Insider Rising Star, Crains New York Rising Star and HBCUvc 31 Under 31 awards. He has also been featured in WSJ, CNBC, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Crunchbase, Inc., Black Enterprise and PitchBook. Henri holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and Bachelor of Arts in Economics and minors in Political Science and Business Institutions from Northwestern University.
Henri's Sessions
Where to Cut and Where to Spend in First-Check Fundraising
Every time a founder raises financing, they usually have one goal: growth. But what does that actually mean? And how do you begin divvying up your new capital between the various goals your startup is barreling toward? In this panel, which includes Harlem Capital’s Henri Pierre-Jacques, Equal Ventures’ Richard Kerby, and BBG Ventures’ Nisha Dua, you will learn about how to spend your investment the best way, balancing runway with classic startup rigor.
Burt Podbere
CFO, CrowdStrikeBurt Podbere serves as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for CrowdStrike. Since joining the company, Podbere has been instrumental in establishing the company’s long-term financial management strategy and developing the company’s global expansion strategy. During his five plus year tenure at CrowdStrike he has help secure approximately $1B in equity financing through several funding rounds including its 2019 IPO as well as approximately $1.5B in secured and unsecured debt. Podbere has worked in Canada, Europe, and the U.S. where he has garnered extensive knowledge of both domestic and international finance, SaaS businesses, and international operations.
Burt's Sessions
So, You Want to Go Public. What’s Next?
The path to your startup’s exit has grown increasingly complex in the last year. Acquisition? SPAC? Traditional IPO. Hear from seasoned tech experts about how to think about your company’s path to going public and weigh the pros and cons of the various routes.
Melissa is the Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Ivanti and is responsible for Ivanti’s global marketing and ensuring the Ivanti purpose-driven brand is recognized and understood internally and externally. Melissa brings decades of experience to Ivanti with a strong track record of fueling growth through a customer-centric approach and integrating marketing strategies for acquired companies. She was most recently senior vice president and CMO at Avid. Prior to this role, Melissa also held CMO and marketing leadership positions with Optanix, Progress, Iron Mountain and Infor. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and psychology from Franklin Pierce University.
Melissa's Sessions
Scaling Businesses and Creating Value with the Everywhere Workforce
As startup founders scale their companies, increase velocity and eye potential exits, flexibility in talent that can execute a lean, mean go-to-market strategy is quickly becoming not only a necessity but a differentiator. Join Insight Partners’ Hilary Gosher and Ivanti’s Melissa Puls in conversation with Upwork’s Tim Sanders about how hybrid workforces are the new cloud when it comes to accelerating revenue, value creation and businesses overall.
Stephanie is a product marketing leader at Momentive.ai, the maker of SurveyMonkey and GetFeedback. Stephanie spent over 10 years conducting quantitative research at market research and brand consulting agencies, including Kantar and Hall & Partners, before working in AdTech at Wayfair and CX at Medallia. Stephanie is based in San Francisco, CA.
Stephanie's Sessions
Accelerate your growth using agile market research throughout the product lifecycle
Conducting market research at each stage of your product lifecycle is a critical component to a successful product launch and sustained growth in an increasingly competitive market. While traditional market research can be costly and require a specialized team, agile market research software makes it possible for anyone on your team to get the insights you need fast. Join Momentive.ai to learn how to conduct your own market research to identify what kinds of products and features users value most, get insight into the competitive landscape, and track your brand’s awareness and shifting perceptions over time.
Kamini Ramani’s mission is to deliver on the Mayfield brand promise to entrepreneurs and to provide a range of support to portfolio companies. Prior to Mayfield, she was a messaging and corporate communications counselor to the leaders of emerging and established technology companies in Silicon Valley for three decades. These included companies from the client-server and internet waves, with a highlight of providing public relations counsel to Steve Jobs at NeXT in 1995. She holds a Masters in Communications from Stanford University, a Masters in English Literature from Yale University, and a Bachelors in English Literature from Bombay University.
Kamini's Sessions
Taking Care of the Next Generation
KiwiCo empowers kids to explore, create and learn with hands-on kits. Mirvie provides a personalized window into pregnancy for early detection and intervention. Grove is committed to a plastic-free future with its line of eco-friendly beauty, home and lifestyle products. Hear from these 3 exceptional entrepreneurs about their mission to create a better world for our generation and the next ones, building movements and communities, and the milestones in getting to escape velocity.
Yasmin Razavi is General Partner at Spark Capital, where she invests in growth-stage enterprise, fintech, and developer companies. Since joining the firm in 2017, Yasmin has led investments on behalf of Spark in Marqueta, Deel, Rapyd, Niantic, Capitolis, and Earnin. Before joining Spark, she was a consultant at McKinsey & Company. She later joined Snap Inc. as a product manager to build the technology behind the app’s monetization stack. Yasmin holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Toronto and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
As CEO of TRIPP, the groundbreaking digital psychedelic platform, Nanea has over 15 years experience of tech leadership resulting in over $1.16BN in exits. In addition to running TRIPP, Nanea advises several start-ups and sits on the Board of Directors of Tapjoy. Prior to co-founding TRIPP, Nanea has held senior leadership roles at EA, textPlus, Gaikai, Machinima, and JAMDAT Mobile. Nanea speaks frequently on why girls should play video games as a path to getting more females to work in STEM. She believes her love of video games together with a lifelong meditation practice has changed the course of her life.
Nanea's Sessions
Rewiring the Brain to Improve the Quality of Life
TRIPP is a digital psychedelic platform that fully immerses you into alternate realities to improve your mental and emotional well-being. Nēsos’ purpose-built earbuds retrain neural pathways to control inflammation, creating the new category of e-mmunotherapeutics. Mindstrong is transforming mental health through innovations in virtual care, data measurement, and data science. The brain is in a state of constant evolution, responding to new electrical signals from the senses and nerves. Hear from these neuroscientists, physicians, and entrepreneurs about how to build brain-based businesses that improve the quality of life.
Diego is a co-founder, board member, and Chief Scientific Officer of Endpoint Health, a precision immunology therapeutics company. Prior to co-founding Endpoint Health, Diego invented the core technology and led investigational efforts related to Roche’s antibiotic therapy guidance research and development program. Prior to Roche, Diego co-founded GeneWEAVE, a company that developed rapid tests to detect and guide therapy choice for serious infections, which was acquired by Roche in 2015. After Roche, Diego was a Visiting Partner at Y Combinator which has a portfolio of over 3,000 companies with a combined value of over $400B and includes over 300 life sciences and healthcare companies. Diego received a BS in Electrical Engineering from UC Santa Barbara and an MS and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Cornell University.
Diego's Sessions
Saving Lives with Precision Biology
Illumina is the world leader in next-generation sequencing. Adaptive Bio is the leader in immune-driven medicine. Mission Bio pioneered single cell multi-omics for genotype and phenotype. And Endpoint is developing precision therapies for inflammatory illness, sepsis, ARDS and more. Hear from these 4 leaders who are leveraging biology breakthroughs to save lives on a wide range of topics including translating innovation from bench to bedside, aligning incentives with the ecosystem, getting to reimbursement, exploring SPACs and beyond.
Ryan Reynolds is a Canadian actor, producer, screenwriter and entrepreneur. He has been nominated for Golden Globe and Grammy awards for his work on the record-breaking, billion dollar Deadpool film franchise. Reynolds has been recognized as one of the most creative people in business by both Fast Company, The Hollywood Reporter and AdWeek. After beginning his acting career in 1991, Ryan rose to prominence in comedy series Two Guys, A Girl and a Pizza Place and dozens of films including The Proposal, Definitely, Maybe, Mississippi Grind, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard and more. His current film Free Guy debuted a #1 at the box-office. Up next Reynolds will star in Red Notice and The Adam Project which he also produced, both for Netflix. He is also an award-winning marketer, creating breakthrough campaigns for Deadpool as well Aviation Gin, Mint Mobile and the Match Group. He is an owner of Aviation Gin, Mint Mobile, Wrexham Football Club and a co-founder of Maximum Effort, a production company and marketing firm. He is also the founder of Group Effort Initiative (GEI), an initiative created by him and his wife Blake Lively, to offer more people from under-represented communities employment, training, and mentorship opportunities in the entertainment industry.
Ryan's Sessions
Far From Deadpool
Though he’s never been on the Midas List, everything he touches seems to turn to gold. Famed actor, comedian and investor Ryan Reynolds has been sharpening his entrepreneurial toolkit over the past several years. He took a majority stake in Mint Mobile, bought and sold (for an impressive margin) Aviation Gin, and has run an ultra successful advertising agency all the while. We’ll talk with him about his investment appetite, thesis, and how he’s used fast-vertising to generate brand buzz.
Carmichael co‐leads the investment committee at Breakthrough Energy, a mission‐ oriented group committed to changing the world by creating and building companies that address the threat of climate change and long‐term sustainability of the planet. Carmichael is co-founder and managing partner of Material Impact, a fund that builds resilient technology companies developing products to solve real‐world problems using innovative materials. Material Impact companies collectively have a mission to keep the world healthy, safe, fed, warm, powered, and secure. Carmichael’s strategy as a venture investor is based on his successful career as an entrepreneur in materials innovation, blending a unique business model of licensing university technology and commercializing it through targeted partnerships with Fortune 500 companies. Prior to his career as an investor, Carmichael co‐founded several ventures, in which he served as President and CEO or Chairman. Prior to his entrepreneurial career, Carmichael worked in business development at GelTex Pharmaceuticals, acquired by Genzyme for $1.3 billion, and in new product and business development at Dow Chemical (formerly Union Carbide Corporation). Elected to the Board of Trustees of Duke University in 2013, Carmichael currently serves as Vice Chairman. He was appointed to the Duke University Health System Board of Directors in 2017 and currently serves on the Audit and Compliance Committee. Carmichael also serves on the boards for the Consumer Technology Association, WGBH, and Massachusetts General Hospital Physicians Organization. Carmichael was selected by the Aspen Institute to participate in the Finance Leaders Fellowship program as a senior leader in the venture capital industry. Carmichael received his BS and PhD in organic chemistry from Duke University and completed his postdoctoral National Science Foundation fellowship at Harvard University. Carmichael also has an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.
Carmichael's Sessions
The Business of Climate Tech
The frequent and extreme flooding, hurricanes and drought caused by climate change has prompted activists and governments to take action. It’s also spurred a growing number of entrepreneurs to launch technology startups focused on the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. We’ll hear from Carmichael Roberts, who co‐leads the investment committee at Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Sean O’Sullivan, managing general partner at SOSV, about the current state of climate tech, the startups that have promise and the potential risk and opportunities of investing in them.
Chad Robins is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Adaptive Biotechnologies (Nasdaq: ADPT), a commercial stage biotechnology company that aims to translate the genetics of the adaptive immune system into clinical products to diagnose and treat disease. Since its founding in 2009, Chad has led Adaptive in building a proprietary immune medicine platform that fuels businesses across life sciences research, clinical diagnostics, and drug discovery. Chad is actively engaged in the biotech and health policy communities, serving on the executive board of Life Science Washington and the steering committee of the Coalition for 21st Century Medicine. In addition to serving as Chairman of the Board for Adaptive, he also holds board positions with AltPep, AdvaMedDx, and HeadLight. Chad graduated with honors from Cornell University and obtained his MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to Adaptive, Chad held executive-level positions in real estate, investment banking, private equity, and medical technology.
Chad's Sessions
Saving Lives with Precision Biology
Illumina is the world leader in next-generation sequencing. Adaptive Bio is the leader in immune-driven medicine. Mission Bio pioneered single cell multi-omics for genotype and phenotype. And Endpoint is developing precision therapies for inflammatory illness, sepsis, ARDS and more. Hear from these 4 leaders who are leveraging biology breakthroughs to save lives on a wide range of topics including translating innovation from bench to bedside, aligning incentives with the ecosystem, getting to reimbursement, exploring SPACs and beyond.
Beyond being a leading actor, writer, producer, director and philanthropist, Seth Rogen is a successful entrepreneur and a co-founder of Houseplant. Rogen is highly involved in all aspects of the business — from personally testing hundreds of strains to perfecting final product designs until they are just right. Houseplant is the result of Seth taking his love of cannabis and passion for design and marrying the two. Rogen was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada where he first met his best friend and now business partner, Evan Goldberg. In 2019, Houseplant was launched in Canada where the company quickly became the most sought out cannabis brand on the market. After months of diligent preparation and following the successful Canadian roll out, Houseplant was introduced to the U.S. in March 2021. Rogen has a firm belief that there can be no discussion of cannabis legalization or its sale without also talking about criminal justice reform. Houseplant is committed to ending any and all unjust, racist cannabis laws that still exist today and creating a more diverse and equitable industry. Rogen remains in Los Angeles today with his wife Lauren Miller-Rogen. In 2012, the couple founded HFC, a national non-profit organization whose mission is to care for families impacted by Alzheimer’s disease, inspire the next generation of Alzheimer’s advocates, and be leaders in brain health research and education.
Seth's Sessions
Pot, Pottery and Beyond
Somehow we live in world where alcohol is sold in grocery stores and weed is considered a gateway drug. But that is rapidly changing. The legalized cannabis industry is estimated to be worth more than $13 billion in 2021, and major players from big food, pharma, etc. all want a slice of the pie. Hear from actor and comedian Seth Rogen on his well-known passion for pot, and how it led him to start Houseplant. Rogen will also be joined by Houseplant chief commercial officer Haneen Davies and co-founder and CEO Michael Mohr.
Tammarrian Rogers has over 30 years of experience in both hardware and software development. Currently, as Inclusion Engineering Director at Snap Inc., she oversees the design and improvement of code quality. She’s also responsible for the usability and effectiveness of Snapchat, Spectacles, and Bitmoji. She has paved the way for many other women of color in the industry as one of the first black female employees at tech giants like Microsoft and Apple.
Tammarrian's Sessions
How Do You Select the Right Tech Stack
From day zero, startups have to make dozens of trade-offs when it comes to the infinite variety of tech stacks available to today’s engineers. Choose the wrong combination or direction, and a startup could be left with years of refactoring to fix the legacy damage. What are the best practices for assessing potential stacks, and how can you minimize the risk of a painful mistake? Top technologists will discuss strategies for improving engineering right from the beginning and at every stage of a startup’s journey.
Tech titan Michele Romanow is a serial entrepreneur who started six companies before her 35th birthday. A “Dragon” on the Canadian hit TV show Dragons’ Den (Canada’s Shark Tank), Michele is the co-founder of Clearco, the largest e-commerce investor in the world that’s invested $2 billion into 5500+ ecommerce and SaaS companies to date. She previously co-founded SnapSaves, acquired by Groupon and was Co-Founder of Buytopia.ca. A prolific investor, Michele was recently named Fortune’s 40 under 40, a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women and Canada’s Angel Investor of the Year. Michele is a director for Vail Resorts, BBTV and Queen’s School of Business. Previously she was a director for Freshii, Whistler Blackcomb, SHAD International and League of Innovators.
Michele's Sessions
How to Ditch Traditional Fundraising
In 2021, venture capital has never been more plentiful, but some founders still can’t break into networks or have found that traditional fundraising isn’t the best route for their business. Fortunately, alternative fundraising techniques are gathering steam as founders find paths to raise cash that diverge from the startup success stories of the past.
How to approach fundraising from Corporate VCs
Global CVC funding hit an all-time high of $73B in 2020. Corporations are increasingly investing in the startup community and can be a valuable resource beyond capital. But not all corporate VCs are the same. Understanding a corporate investor’s strategy, mandate and processes can improve how startups successfully fundraise from corporate VCs.Intuit Ventures recently invested in Clearco, a $2B+ startup that is disrupting traditional VC with founder-friendly, equity-free capital. Join Shveta Mujumdar (VP of Corporate Development at Intuit), Andrew D’Souza (Co-founder and CEO at Clearco), and Michele Romanow (Co-founder and President at Clearco) to learn what corporate VCs are looking for in an investment and how to best position your company and showcase how you are solving your customers’ biggest problems.
Mostafa Ronaghi is a scientist-entrepreneur, inventor, investor, company-founder, executive and director. He is currently the chief executive officer & director of Dynamics Special Purpose Corp. Most recently, he was Chief Technology Officer, Senior Vice President and member of the Executive Leadership Team at Illumina (Nasdaq: ILMN) from 2008 to 2021. While at Illumina, in 2016, Dr. Ronaghi co-founded GRAIL, a next-gen liquid biopsy platform for cancer detection where he is a board of director. He also started Illumina’s Research & Technology Development group, and co-founded the Illumina Accelerator Program in 2014, one of the most successful accelerator programs in the industry, which coached and invested in more than 50 start-ups, achieving one of the highest success rates for securing external institutional funding. Prior to Illumina, Dr. Ronaghi was Principal Investigator at the Stanford Genome Technology Center from 1999 to 2008. Throughout his prolific career, Dr. Ronaghi co-founded several other companies, including Pyrosequencing AB (founded in 1997; IPO in 2000 in Stockholm), focused on sequencing-by-synthesis technology (which was the first next-gen sequencing technology, and laid the groundwork for the leading technology developed by Illumina). He then co-founded ParAllele Biosciences in 2001, which was acquired by Affymetrix in 2005, which developed a first-of-its-kind technology for highly multiplex genotyping (used by the international Hapmap project to identify genetic variations across different population and diseases).
Mostafa's Sessions
Saving Lives with Precision Biology
Illumina is the world leader in next-generation sequencing. Adaptive Bio is the leader in immune-driven medicine. Mission Bio pioneered single cell multi-omics for genotype and phenotype. And Endpoint is developing precision therapies for inflammatory illness, sepsis, ARDS and more. Hear from these 4 leaders who are leveraging biology breakthroughs to save lives on a wide range of topics including translating innovation from bench to bedside, aligning incentives with the ecosystem, getting to reimbursement, exploring SPACs and beyond.
Ben Rubin is the CEO and co-founder of Life on Air Inc., which most recently released the popular Meerkat app. Ben works with his team to pioneer “participatory media” through life-streaming communities.
Ben's Sessions
Social Renaissance
The last couple of years have shown that there’s still room for social startups to take a slice of the pie. Hear serial entrepreneur Ben Rubin (founder of Meerkat and then Houseparty, which was acquired by Epic Games) share his thoughts on how Web 3.0 can shape the next year of social startups, what investors are looking for in this space, and tell us about what he’s working on with his newest startup Slashtalk.
Prof. Ugur Sahin, M.D., Co-Founder and CEO of BioNTech, is a physician, immunologist and leader in the development of novel approaches to fight cancer and infectious diseases. Sahin is one of the world’s foremost experts on messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) medicines. He has pioneered several breakthroughs enabling the development of mRNA vaccines and other types of immunotherapies. Sahin initiated and oversees “Project Lightspeed,” the historic development of the first mRNA vaccine for COVID-19, moving from lab and clinical testing to conditional approval within an unprecedented 11-month period. He also leads BioNTech’s research and development of neoantigen specific mRNA cancer vaccines which are individually tailored and produced on demand according to the profile of non-synonymous mutations identified by next-generation sequencing in patients’ tumors. Ugur Sahin is co-inventor of more than 500 filed patents applications and patents. Sahin’s academic credentials include serving as a Full Professor (W3) in Translational Oncology & Immunology at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, where he was the supervisor for more than 50 PhD students. He also holds the role of Chairman of the Scientific Management Board of the Helmholtz Institute for Translational Oncology (HI-TRON), also in Mainz. Based on his contributions to scientific discovery, Dr. Sahin has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the German Sustainability Award, the Mustafa Prize, and the German Cancer Award. He is married to Dr. Özlem Türeci.
Ugur's Sessions
Saving the World
COVID-19 changed everything. It not only threatened our individual health and well being, but shook industries and economies across the globe. But the same could be said about the COVID-19 vaccines. Hear from BioNTech cofounder and CEO Ugur Sahin on the process of rapidly developing the world’s most sought after vaccine, alongside Pfizer, and the long-term potential of mRNA-based therapies. Sahin will be joined by Ursheet Parikh of Mayfield Fund to discuss what’s next for startups in this rapidly evolving industry.
Camille (Cami) Samuels is a Partner at Venrock, focusing on biotech, medical devices, and consumer health. Founded in 1969, Venrock is one of the world’s first venture capital firms, and she was its first female Partner. She currently serves on the board of Iris, Mahzi, Ocelot, Unity (UBX), and XCaliber. She previously served the boards of several exited Venrock portfolio companies, including Corvidia (sold to Novo), RegenXBio (RGNX), and Spirox (now owned by Stryker). Prior to Venrock, Cami was a Managing Director at Versant Ventures where she served on the board (or as a board observer) at many companies including Genomic Health (GHDX), Jazz (JAZZ), Kythera (KYTH/sold to Allergan), Novacardia (sold to Merck), and ParAllele (sold to Affymetrix). During her early career, Cami worked in corporate development at Genzyme, Millennium Predictive Medicine, and Tularik, and she was a management consultant at LEK Consulting. Cami earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Duke University and an MBA from Harvard Business School (HBS), where she graduated as a Baker Scholar. She is a Henry Crown Fellow, serves on the Investment Advisory Committee of Mission Bay Capital, and serves on the HBS Global Advisory Board.
Camille's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield – Session 4
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Tim Sanders (Upwork VP of Customer Insights) is one of the top rated speakers in the world because of his dynamic style and unique ability to deliver actionable insights related to innovation, collaboration and business trends. He’s the author of five books, including the New York Times bestseller Love is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends. Previously, he served as Yahoo’s chief solutions officer and was also an early stage manager at Mark Cuban’s broadcast.com. Tim is a tenacious researcher, knowledge networker and mentor to leaders in multiple industries. He’s appeared on the cover of Fast Company, been interviewed on CNN, CNBC, Fox Business News and featured in countless publications including the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and USA Today.
Tim's Sessions
Scaling Businesses and Creating Value with the Everywhere Workforce
As startup founders scale their companies, increase velocity and eye potential exits, flexibility in talent that can execute a lean, mean go-to-market strategy is quickly becoming not only a necessity but a differentiator. Join Insight Partners’ Hilary Gosher and Ivanti’s Melissa Puls in conversation with Upwork’s Tim Sanders about how hybrid workforces are the new cloud when it comes to accelerating revenue, value creation and businesses overall.
Monti Saroya
Co-Head of the Flagship Fund and Senior Managing Director, Vista Equity PartnersMonti Saroya is Co-Head of the Vista Flagship Fund and sits on the fund's Investment Committee. Additionally, he serves as a member of Vista's Executive Committee and Private Equity Management Committee. Monti is a board member of several Vista companies including Apptio, Datto (NYSE: MSP), Finastra, Gainsight and Pluralsight. Prior to joining Vista, Monti worked as a senior research analyst for JMP Securities, where he provided research for buy-side clients on public on-demand (SaaS) companies. He previously worked as an associate for the enterprise software/applications team. Before his time with JMP, Monti worked for Siebel Systems in a sales capacity for the CRM On Demand division. Prior to Siebel, Monti worked for Cisco Systems in various operations roles.
Monti's Sessions
Powering What’s Next: Insights from the Enterprise Software Market
Spurred by digital transformation and the recent shift to remote work, the enterprise software industry has gone from strength-to-strength and competition for deals and valuations are at all-time-highs. While investor appetite for enterprise software may be strong, it doesn’t mean that all tech businesses make worthy investments. In this panel, hear from Michael Fosnaugh and Monti Saroya, Co-Heads of Vista’s Flagship investment strategy, and a selection of Vista CEOs on the hallmarks of best-in-class software companies and trends driving the industry.
Carlo Savino is Vice President of Americas eCommerce for Lenovo, encompassing North America, Latin America, and Brazil. In this role, he leads the vision, strategy, and execution of next-generation digital commerce capabilities for Lenovo’s online business, including Lenovo.com, mobile commerce, and marketplaces. His team is responsible for sales performance, operations, marketing, merchandising, loyalty & retention, offer creation, pathing and navigation, and content for online consumer and small business transactions. Before joining Lenovo, Carlo led the US Consumer and Small Business online team for dell.com, where he was deeply involved in optimizing the purchase experience, mobile platform, personalization, loyalty and site monetization businesses. He has extensive experience in online marketing and eCommerce, as well as planning, product marketing, product management, business development and sales, and developing and maintaining key talent. Carlo loves building data-driven organizations that define and deliver to KPIs while focusing on features and experiences that center on customers. Carlo holds a bachelor’s degree in zoology from the University of Texas at Austin and is an active volunteer in a variety of animal charities in and around the Raleigh, N.C. area.
Carlo's Sessions
Accelerating your direct-to-consumer business
The direct-to-consumer landscape has radically accelerated over the past few years, becoming an even more critical lever for brands to build relationships with customers than ever before. This is a new era in which brands must understand the shifts in the customer journey to drive transformational business growth to be ready for what’s next. Join Google and Lenovo to understand key strategies to enable business success and delight customers in 2022 and beyond.
Robbie Schingler is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Planet. In the eight years since founding Planet with two former NASA alumni, Robbie has led the company’s long term strategy that has included three acquisitions and business growth that currently serves more than 30,000 users and 500 customers, in over 40 countries. Prior to Planet, Robbie spent nine years at NASA, where he helped build the Small Spacecraft Office at NASA Ames and was Capture Manager for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Robbie later served as NASA’s Open Government Representative to the White House and Chief of Staff for the Office of the Chief Technologist at NASA He received an MBA from Georgetown University, a masters degree in Space Studies from the International Space University, and a B.S. in Physics from Santa Clara University. Robbie was a 2005 Presidential Management Fellow.
Robbie's Sessions
So You Want to Build a Space Business?
The space industry is changing faster than ever, with new technologies and lower launch costs democratizing access to space and driving a new era of innovation. The opportunities to build the next great business are seemingly endless, but space can be a difficult and unforgiving place, especially for those new to the domain. This session will feature practical insights and advice from experienced space leaders for entrepreneurs looking to get their business off the ground.
Erin Schneider
Regional Director, San Francisco Regional Office, United States Securities and Exchange CommissionErin E. Schneider is the Regional Director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s San Francisco Office. The Regional Office has a staff of over 125 people and is responsible for the SEC’s enforcement and examination programs in Northern California, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho and Alaska with over 1,000 investment advisers, almost 50 mutual fund complexes and over 250 broker-dealers located in the region. The public and pre-IPO companies located in the region are among the most dynamic and closely-followed issuers and companies in the country. Ms. Schneider began working in the San Francisco office in 2005 and, before her current role, led the office’s enforcement efforts. Prior to joining the SEC staff, Ms. Schneider worked as a litigation associate in the Washington D.C. and San Francisco offices of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, and as an auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Ms. Schneider earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of California at Berkeley in 1995, and her law degree cum laude from the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law in 2001.
Erin's Sessions
S.E Seen It All
Erin Schneider has spent nearly 17 years with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, where she is currently regional director of the agency’s San Francisco office. Schneider has investigated or supervised dozens of matters, including Elon Musk’s famous tweet debacle and the alleged fraud of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, and Schneider still has her hands full. Indeed, we’ll be talking with Schneider about the many moving pieces the agency is tracking right now, from badly behaving CEOs, to SPACs, to crypto regulation.
Deena’s investments span stages and sectors, and include women’s health, digital health infrastructure, health equity, foodtech, and fintech. Above all, she seeks out extraordinary, often underdog, founders on a mission. Prior to Lux, Deena was a Partner at GV (formerly Google Ventures), led product partnerships at Google for health, search, and AI/ML, and directed social impact investments at Google.org. Deena also served as a Presidential Management Fellow at The U.S. Department of State under Secretary Clinton, where she helped launch President Obama’s first Global Entrepreneurship Summit. Deena self-funded her undergraduate degree at Harvard (Social Studies and Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations) and MA at Georgetown through a variety of merit scholarships and side hustles, including co-founding and selling her first company while in college. She is a Lecturer in Management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a Board Director for the National Venture Capital Association, and a member of Kauffman Fellows, Aspen Finance Fellows, and The Council on Foreign Relations. Deena is a frequent speaker and commentator and has been featured in print and television on Bloomberg, CNBC and NBC, in print in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, Techcrunch, Marie Claire, STAT, and more, and has delivered keynote addresses at major industry conferences. She was named a “Top 30 Under 40 in Healthcare” by Business Insider and “Top Senior Woman to Watch in Venture Capital” by the Wall Street Journal in 2021, “Top 50 in Digital Health” by Rock Health and 40 Under 40 by Fortune Magazine in 2022.
Deena's Sessions
So, You Want to Go Public. What’s Next?
The path to your startup’s exit has grown increasingly complex in the last year. Acquisition? SPAC? Traditional IPO. Hear from seasoned tech experts about how to think about your company’s path to going public and weigh the pros and cons of the various routes.
The Startup Battlefield – Session 4
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Evan Shapiro is a producer, professor of Media and Entertainment at both Fordham University and NYU, an Emmy and Peabody Award winner, and a media pundit known for his maps of the media landscape.
Evan's Sessions
Illuminating the Next Great Entertainment Frontier: The Connected TV Metaverse
While the proliferation of operating systems and OTT platforms have made TV more convenient and accessible, the magnitude of players in this ecosystem have also made television more complicated to navigate –for programmers, advertisers, and viewers. We all want our programming in each of its various delivery methods, provided in an easy-to-navigate, fast-to-discover, intuitive interface. Join an in-depth conversation with media industry veteran and technology futurists as they identify the outlook of the CTV world.
Rinki Sethi is Chief Security Officer at Upwind Security and Founding Partner at Lockstep. She previously served as Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer at Twitter, BILL, and Rubrik and held senior security leadership roles Palo Alto Networks, IBM, eBay and Intuit. Sethi brings deep expertise to both the private sector and corporate boards, shaping security strategy at the highest levels.
Rinki's Sessions
Staying a Step Ahead
In 2020, in the midst of an already-frantic year, Twitter was breached in a very public way. Behind the scenes, Twitter spends a tremendous amount of time, money, and energy on user protection and platform integrity. A big part of that is through information security. CISO Rinki Sethi will join us at Disrupt to talk through how Twitter tries to stay ahead of malicious actors amid the pandemic, and how tech companies large and small can do the same.
Widely known as “The DTC Guy” on the internet, a Forbes 30 Under 30 member, AdWeek’s Young & Influential and a resource brands and investors turn to for growth, Nik is a 24-year old DTC investor, advisor, and operator who has both assisted and led revenue growth at multiple organizations, including hint water and VaynerMedia. Prior to entering the world of commerce, Nik worked on social media campaigns for A-list celebrities including Pitbull, Priyanka Chopra, MAGIC!, to natively increase distribution as well as increase fan interaction and engagement for the purpose of driving album sales. Today, Nik words alongside brands and publishers to execute ROI-positive campaigns through cohesive digital strategies using paid, earned, and owned media properties.
Nik's Sessions
How to Accelerate Everything
In the past year, growth marketing exploded as companies doubled down on what’s worked in the past and found new runway inside an increasingly competitive landscape. We brought together some of the best growth marketing minds across verticals to tell you how they conquered growth in 2021.
Lauren Singer is the Founder & CEO of the world’s first and largest zero-waste lifestyle shop, Package Free, as well as the founder of the internationally-celebrated media platform Trash is for Tossers. She first went viral for fitting all the waste she’s generated (over 8 years now!) into a single Mason jar. Now, through her latest endeavors with Package Free, Lauren is set to bring this movement to the masses. Package Free first launched in 2017 and has already diverted over 100 million units from entering landfill. At just 30 years old, her cross-category sustainability experience (government, CPG, media) has redefined what it means to be a successful CEO; proving it’s possible to build businesses based off of your values. She teaches others that minimizing their environmental footprints is simple, cost-effective, timely, fun, & entirely possible for everyone and anyone. She was featured in Forbes 30 under 30. Her mission has been covered in Harper’s BAZAAR, the NY Times, ABC News, DORÉ, Teen Vogue, and TED.
Lauren's Sessions
The Whole Package
In this session, founders of By Humankind, Package Free and rePurpose will “deliver” the insights they’ve learned about growing and succeeding in the sustainable tech space. These founders have experience across all models, from retail to D2C to the enterprise. Hear how they plan on eliminating plastic and creating a valuable business at the same time.
Carlotta “Lotti” is a Partner at Emergence Capital. She joined the firm in 2018 as a Senior Associate and was named Principal in 2020. Less than a year later, Lotti was promoted to Partner as a result of the extraordinary impact she has had on the firm, the team, and the companies Emergence backs. Lotti’s strong investor acumen and long-term perspective are instrumental in uncovering compelling and unique investment opportunities, and in leading operational change. She has an outstanding ability to understand complex business structures and to apply that knowledge both in her diligence and at the board table. At Emergence, Lotti invests in early stage enterprise software companies. She serves on the Board of Directors of Whistic and of High Alpha, and is a Board Observer at Convex, Talent Hack, and Oyster. Being an immigrant herself (originally from Italy), she is passionate about helping immigrants and other underrepresented founders build iconic technology companies. She is also a fierce advocate for women in the Venture Capital industry. Lotti brings to Emergence a deep understanding of fintech, where she spent several years both as an operator and as an investor. For three years, she was an investor in financial services and financial technology companies at Advent International, a large global private equity fund, where she was also an observer on the Transunion board. She also spent time in the BizOps group at Nerdwallet and was an early stage investor at Ribbit Capital, a fintech-focused VC, where she led diligence on companies in the cyber insurance and 401K space. Lotti began her career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. She received a Bachelor of Science from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated cum laude, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Carlotta (Lotti)'s Sessions
The Disrupt Desk: Enterprise/SaaS
Industry experts and TechCrunch editors break down the panels you missed with analysis, insight, and likely a laugh or two.
Leah Solivan is General Partner at Fuel Capital, where she invests in early-stage companies across consumer technology, hardware, marketplaces, and retail. She’s passionate about supporting teams who are taking on world-changing ideas. Leah relates so well to founders because she is one herself. She created one of the most widely recognized consumer brands of the past decade with TaskRabbit. As TaskRabbit’s CEO for eight years, Leah scaled the company to 44 cities and raised more than $50 million. In 2016, Leah transitioned into the role of executive chairwoman and in 2017, TaskRabbit was acquired by IKEA. Leah has spoken at the World Economic Forum and Tina Brown’s Women in the World Summit and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Wired, and Time. She has also been named one of the “100 Most Creative People in Business” by Fast Company.
Leah's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield – Session 1
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Preeti Somal leads engineering at HashiCorp, building cloud infrastructure automation tools that help organizations provision, secure, connect and run any infrastructure for any application. As EVP of engineering, she also leads and maintains a remote-first engineering culture for HashiCorp’s distributed workforce of engineers. Prior to HashiCorp, Preeti was Yahoo’s VP of Cloud Services where she led a rich portfolio of highly scalable services that power Yahoo’s consumer and advertising business. Preeti began her career at Oracle, where she honed her technical, management, and leadership skills before becoming a VP at VMware where she led a diverse product portfolio within the application and systems management business unit.
Preeti's Sessions
How Do You Select the Right Tech Stack
From day zero, startups have to make dozens of trade-offs when it comes to the infinite variety of tech stacks available to today’s engineers. Choose the wrong combination or direction, and a startup could be left with years of refactoring to fix the legacy damage. What are the best practices for assessing potential stacks, and how can you minimize the risk of a painful mistake? Top technologists will discuss strategies for improving engineering right from the beginning and at every stage of a startup’s journey.
Billy Spears, CISO at Alteryx, influences positive change, advances technical capabilities, and simplifies core security-related risks using forward-thinking techniques. In addition to Alteryx, he serves as adjunct professor and cybersecurity advisory committee member at Webster University, as a member of the NTSC’s board of directors, and as an advisory board member at Cymatic and Venafi. Billy’s 20-year leadership across operations, privacy, risk, compliance, governance, engineering, and security has spanned many roles and organizations including loanDepot, Hyundai Capital America, GE, and Dell. He’s a founding member of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps; and a former advisory board member at IAPP, OpenText, and MediaPRO.
Billy's Sessions
CISO2CISO: On the Wrong Side of Disruption
Disruption isn’t always a good thing. Often, we fear it. We resist prioritizing even necessary change out of fear that the disruption it may bring will be more detrimental than beneficial. Are we wrong? Are we right? Cyvatar Co-Founder and ex-global CISO Craig Goodwin and Alteryx CISO Billy Spears debate both possibilities as they look at the ways we prioritize risk and disruption at work.
Hassan Sultan is Cedar's chief technology officer. His vision informs Cedar's product roadmap and feature functionality while he leads the engineering team responsible for architecting, integrating and implementing Cedar’s platform at health system sites. Prior to joining Cedar, Sultan co-founded Navya, a clinical informatics and cancer patient services company, where he served as CTO. He also occupied a range of technical roles at the investment management firm Bridgewater Associates, where he worked directly with Bridgewater's CTO to build out a new department responsible for core technology products and services. Hassan received a Bachelors, Computer Science from Harvard University in 2005.
Hassan's Sessions
Hacking US Healthcare: How a Simple Platform Can Help Solve Some of America’s Most Complex Healthcare Problems
Few things conjure more negative emotions than navigating medical billing; Americans urgently need solutions that prioritize their needs, decrease costs and elevate the patient journey so they can focus on getting care. Fortunately, digital innovation can provide exceptional patient experiences that remove friction for payers, providers and consumers alike. Hear how digital health unicorn Cedar has engineered a complete consumer-first digital platform that’s revolutionizing the financial experience for the entire healthcare industry.
Lolita Taub
Co-founder & General Partner, The Community FundLolita Taub is interim Head of Sales at Catalyte and the Co-Founder and General Partner at The Community Fund where she invests in community-driven companies. With 15 years working within the Silicon Valley ecosystem, she has accomplished +$70 million in sales and made +70 investments as an angel investor and VC at Backstage Capital and The Community Fund. Lolita is also a Co-Founder of the Startup-Investor Matching Tool, a scout at Lightspeed Venture Partners, and an LP at Operators Collective. Forbes and Inc Magazine have featured her as a woman promoting investment in underestimated founders. She has a BA from the University of Southern California and an MBA from the IE Business School.
Lolita's Sessions
How to Cultivate a Community for your Company that Actually Lasts
There’s no doubt about it: the word of the year in startupland is “community.” In this panel, Community Fund’s Lolita Taub, Commsor’s Alex Angel, and Seven Seven Six’s Katelin Holloway will extract buzz from reality and help founders understand the growing importance of chief community officers in startup culture, and ultimately financial success, today.
Sarah Tavel is a General Partner at Benchmark where she invests in network effect businesses, with a focus on marketplaces and social, as well as cryptocurrency. Sarah led Benchmark’s investments and currently sits on the boards of Chainalysis, Hipcamp, REKKI, Supergreat, Popshop, and Poparazzi, as well as several unannounced companies. She is also a founding member of All Raise, the nonprofit organization working to accelerate the success of women in the venture capital and VC-backed startup ecosystem. Prior to Benchmark, Sarah was a Partner at Greylock Partners, where she led their investment in Sonder and Gixo (acquired by Openfit), and represented Greylock on the board of both companies. Sarah joined Pinterest in 2012 after co-leading the Series A investment while at Bessemer Venture Partners. There she was the product lead for search, recommendations, machine vision, and pin quality at Pinterest. As one of the first 35 employees, her first order of business was to launch Pinterest internationally and close the Series C financing. Sarah then became Pinterest’s founding PM for search and discovery and launched Pinterest’s first search and recommendations features. She also led three acquisitions as she helped the company scale through a period of hyper-growth. Sarah graduated from Harvard College with a degree in Philosophy.
Sarah's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield – Final Round
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Bret is Co-Founder of Sierra. Most recently, he served as Co-CEO of Salesforce. Prior to Salesforce, Bret founded Quip and was CTO of Facebook. He started his career at Google, where he co-created Google Maps. Bret serves on the board of OpenAI.
Bret's Sessions
An Unstoppable Force and an Immovable Object
Slack and Salesforce are two of the biggest names in all of tech. The communication tool (born from one of the odder pivots in tech history) is commonplace across organizations from almost every industry. It’s an unstoppable force. The sales CRM behemoth is used all over the world by sales teams small and large. An immovable object. In December of 2020, the pair announced a $27.7 billion merger. Hear from Slack co-founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield and Salesforce President and COO Bret Taylor about the future of the combined entity, why the deal made sense, and what it’s like to write down that many 0’s.
For the last 10+ years, Kate Taylor has specialized in finding the balance between sales and product, specifically where to add incremental value to a self-serve business with scaled engagement. Previously, she led Dropbox’s SMB revenue and scaled sales operation. Now at Notion owning customer experience, Kate runs the front door experience for our customers. She works across sales orgs, product teams, marketing and finance to scale ROI positive revenue motions.
Kate's Sessions
How to Sign Your First Three B2B Customers
The secret to revenue growth is great sales, but the definition of “great” and “sales” has changed dramatically post-COVID. Virtual meetings, simple onboarding, product-led growth, and more have upended the traditional approach to sales for enterprise companies, requiring new tactics for founders to get the kind of skyrocketing growth they desire and lock in those first customers. Join Kate Taylor of Notion, Pablo Viguera of Belvo, and Vineet Jain of Ennyte as we discuss the best practices for handling sales in a re-energized 2021 economy.
David is an experienced technology leader who has built out new businesses and products for some of the most iconic companies in the world. Immediately prior to joining Greylock, David served as VP of Product Management & User Experience at Google. And before that, David managed products across LinkedIn’s business lines including Premium Subscriptions, Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions and Sales Solutions. At Greylock, he is focused on investing in founders building applications – productivity tools, front office software, and vertical SaaS – along with marketplaces and gaming. His investments include companies like Magical, Instawork, Curated, and Pragma.
David's Sessions
The Subtle Challenges of Assessing Product-Market Fit
Product-market fit is the holy grail for founders, and the key to unlocking the next phase of a startup’s growth. Behind “product” and “market” though, there are dozens of considerations, from types of users and product offerings to marketing and pricing that determine just how strong a fit a startup has found. Join early-stage investors David Thacker of Greylock, Heather Hartnett of Human Ventures and Victoria Treyger of Felicis as they discuss the subtler challenges in finding and assessing fit.
Sydney works at Precursor Ventures where she has check-writing abilities and focuses her time on investing in and supporting Pre-Seed companies that democratize access to products and services for the mass market economy. To increase knowledge of these types of companies, she founded and hosts the Be About It podcast, where she profiles companies that fit this thesis. She also participates in several extracurricular activities to increase diversity in tech and level the playing field more broadly. She is the creator of The Interrupters – a list that highlights investors committed to investing in black and LatinX founders. She serves on the Advisory Board of Invanti – a startup generator in the midwest. She is deeply involved in her community, Longfellow Oakland. In 2020, she was honored to receive the Champion of Justice Award from Esq. Apprentice, an Oakland-based nonprofit she supports that creates alternative pathways to the legal career. She was also appointed by the Mayor to serve as a Commissioner for the City of Oakland’s Public Safety and Services Commission. She is also a member of the 4.0 Angel Syndicate – a community of Black philanthropists.
Sydney's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield – Session 1
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Pete Thompson leads eBay's product experience, where he is focused on making the shopping journey simple, personalized and discovery-based, while providing the enhanced tools and insights that help eBay sellers succeed. He brings more than 20 years of experience in building new products and services across a range of industries and technologies. Before joining eBay, Pete was Vice President of Amazon's Alexa Voice Service where he led the developer business to integrate Alexa on third party devices. Previously, he was Chief Operating Officer of TiVo where he drove the merger and integration between Rovi and TiVo. Prior to joining TiVo, he held executive roles at a variety of companies, including Microsoft, T-Mobile, Ericsson, and Sonos. Pete holds a B.A. in International Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles and an MBA from Northwestern University. He has previously served on the Boards of Sigma Designs (SIGM) and E.W. Scripps (SSP).
Pete's Sessions
How to Use Customer Feedback and Data Analysis to Iterate Your Product
Everyone has an opinion on product changes. Customers complain, NPS scores are calculated, and internal leaders have their own vision on what comes next. Then there are all the people who are silent — including future customers who may not even know a startup exists yet. How do you find signal from all the noise and build a compelling product roadmap that properly calibrates every tradeoff? Jean-Denis Greze of Plaid, Stephanie Mencarelli of InVision, and Pete Thompson of eBay offer their perspectives as product leaders on how to keep a bold perspective in product while getting the details right.
Doris Tong is the Founder of EQ Talent. Doris has been in the talent acquisition space for the last 25 years based in Silicon Valley starting with the first dot com boom. She has experience with both large companies like LinkedIn, KPMG, and Siemens, as well as start ups ranging from Pre- Series A through C. She has run two recruiting practices with the most recent being EQ Talent where they focus on building a company’s talent bench while advising Founders and Hiring Leaders on their talent strategy and helping them establish best practices. The vision of bringing two parties together who otherwise would not have known of one another to create new career and company journies fuels her passion for Talent Acquisition. Outside of work, Doris enjoys reading, cooking, and visiting her hometown of Hawaii.
Doris's Sessions
Why You Probably Have Been Screwing Up Your Hiring Process
Distributed workforces have rapidly become the new normal – but chances are that your hiring processes haven’t been re-invented at the same clip. In this panel, a host of experts including EQ Talent Group’s Doris Tong, SignalFire’s Tawni Cranz, and Sequoia’s Jaime Bott – will discuss how to hire with culture and competence at the core of each decision. And, more importantly, what within your process needs to be scrapped and rewritten for the post-pandemic world.
Victoria Treyger is a managing director at Felicis Ventures.
Victoria's Sessions
The Subtle Challenges of Assessing Product-Market Fit
Product-market fit is the holy grail for founders, and the key to unlocking the next phase of a startup’s growth. Behind “product” and “market” though, there are dozens of considerations, from types of users and product offerings to marketing and pricing that determine just how strong a fit a startup has found. Join early-stage investors David Thacker of Greylock, Heather Hartnett of Human Ventures and Victoria Treyger of Felicis as they discuss the subtler challenges in finding and assessing fit.
Shoji is Head of Marketing and Analytics at Point, a fintech startup that allows homeowners to access home equity wealth without monthly payments while providing investors access to a new asset class: owner-occupied residential real estate. Prior to Point, Shoji was VP of Marketing at Grailed (a peer-to-peer marketplace for men’s clothing) and Sr. Director of Growth Marketing at SeatGeek (a marketplace for tickets to live events). He also led growth and sales at OrderAhead (a food pickup and delivery startup acquired by Square) and led user growth at Kiwi (a mobile gaming startup acquired by Jam City). Earlier in his career, Shoji worked in management consulting at Oliver Wyman and at Bridgewater Associates, a hedge fund.
Shoji's Sessions
How to Accelerate Everything
In the past year, growth marketing exploded as companies doubled down on what’s worked in the past and found new runway inside an increasingly competitive landscape. We brought together some of the best growth marketing minds across verticals to tell you how they conquered growth in 2021.
Since joining Google in 2006, Chris has held various leadership positions within Google’s advertising sales organization, leading some of Google’s largest Retail and Technology partnerships. As the Industry Director for Google’s Consumer Electronics (CE) practice, he oversees the company’s advertising relationships with the largest CE partnerships. His vantage point has given him a unique perspective and understanding of what companies are doing well — or not doing – in order to take advantage of the web as a vehicle to deliver better business outcomes. Chris is based in San Francisco and is also active in Google’s diversity and inclusion efforts in the workplace and in the community. Prior to his 15 years at Google, Valle worked in traditional and digital marketing sales organizations at Yahoo and AOL. Valle started his career in Account Management at various Advertising Agencies in Northern and Southern California, managing some of the largest global brands in CPG, Retail, Travel and Tech. Valle is a graduate of San Jose State University, with degrees in Marketing and Advertising. He currently resides in the SF Bay Area with his wife and 3 young daughters.
Chris's Sessions
Accelerating your direct-to-consumer business
The direct-to-consumer landscape has radically accelerated over the past few years, becoming an even more critical lever for brands to build relationships with customers than ever before. This is a new era in which brands must understand the shifts in the customer journey to drive transformational business growth to be ready for what’s next. Join Google and Lenovo to understand key strategies to enable business success and delight customers in 2022 and beyond.
Steve leads the growth and performance of Xero – a small business platform with over 2.7 million customers in over 180 countries. He is a respected thought leader, who brings more than four decades of experience in global technology to a company that has a purpose to make life better for people in small business, their advisors and communities around the world through cloud-based integrated business solutions. Today, Xero has a set of open APIs which enables over 1000 app partners and more than 300 global financial institutions to collaborate and build affordable solutions for small businesses. With Steve at the helm, Xero has expanded its platform services with the acquisitions of companies including Waddle, Tickstar and Planday, and this year, Xero was certified carbon neutral across its owned and operated businesses. Throughout his career, Steve has been Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Australia and New Zealand, CEO of ninemsn, Vice President of Online Services at Microsoft Corporation and Vice President and Managing Director of Apple Computer Asia Pacific. Steve is passionate about building great teams and a business culture that empowers people to drive innovation.
Steve's Sessions
Powering the Small Business Economy with Cloud Technology
Small business is a critical engine of job creation, economic growth, innovation and a driver in our efforts to recover from a global pandemic. Fifteen years ago a start-up company from New Zealand called Xero was founded with the purpose of making life better for people in small business and their advisors. Xero achieved this by shifting accounting practices to the cloud and providing an open set of APIs which has enabled more than 1000 application partners to build affordable tech solutions connected to the Xero platform. Steve Vamos, CEO will discuss how Xero is revolutionizing the way small businesses do business by using cloud and its platform to connect real-time data, with bespoke business solutions that help small business owners be more successful. Steve will speak to a number of key initiatives that will change the game for startups and entrepreneurs who want to innovate and collaborate on the Xero platform, and he will explain how Xero’s vision extends beyond just technology to galvanizing a global community of support and purpose to help small businesses everywhere.
Pablo is an internet entrepreneur, now focusing on fintech. He is CEO at Belvo, the leading Open Finance platform in Latin America, and he has been General Manager (Spain) at Revolut, one of the fastest-growing fintech startups globally and COO at Verse. Before that Pablo founded various startups, one of which with Rocket Internet in South East Asia. Prior to starting his entrepreneurial career, Pablo was an investment banker with Merrill Lynch, in London, focusing on M&A in the internet sector. Pablo holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BSc in Business Administration from Universidad Pontificia Comillas and The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania). An avid traveler, Pablo has been to over 75 countries and spent 8 months backpacking around the world back in 2011.
Pablo's Sessions
How to Sign Your First Three B2B Customers
The secret to revenue growth is great sales, but the definition of “great” and “sales” has changed dramatically post-COVID. Virtual meetings, simple onboarding, product-led growth, and more have upended the traditional approach to sales for enterprise companies, requiring new tactics for founders to get the kind of skyrocketing growth they desire and lock in those first customers. Join Kate Taylor of Notion, Pablo Viguera of Belvo, and Vineet Jain of Ennyte as we discuss the best practices for handling sales in a re-energized 2021 economy.
Luis von Ahn is an entrepreneur and computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University and is considered one of the pioneers of crowdsourcing. He is known for co-inventing CAPTCHAs, being a MacArthur Fellow and selling two companies to Google in his 20s. He is currently the co-founder and CEO of Duolingo, a language-learning platform created to bring free language education to the world. With over 500 million users, it is the most popular language-learning platform and the most downloaded app in the Education category worldwide on both iTunes and Google Play. Luis has been named one of the 10 Most Brilliant Scientists by Popular Science Magazine, one of the 50 Best Brains in Science by Discover, one of the Top Young Innovators Under 35 by MIT Technology Review, one of the 100 Most Innovative People in Business by Fast Company Magazine, and in 2018 won the Lemelson-MIT prize.
Luis's Sessions
From ABCs to IPO
Language learning company Duolingo was founded in 2011 and has raised more than $183 million in private capital, and recently went public on NASDAQ under the symbol DUOL. Despite avoiding monetization for years, the startup saw revenue growth of 120+ percent in 2020, with continued growth in the first half of 2021. CEO and co-founder Luis Von Ahn will join us on the Disrupt stage to talk about gamifying education, prepping for a public offering, and how he and the team built the anti-Rosetta Stone with an owl as a mascot.
Alexa is the Founder and Managing Partner of Inspired Capital. Prior to Inspired Capital, Alexa founded LearnVest in 2008 with the goal of helping people make progress on their money. After raising nearly $75 million in venture capital, LearnVest was acquired by Northwestern Mutual in May 2015 in one of the biggest fintech acquisitions of the decade. Following the acquisition, von Tobel joined the management team of Northwestern Mutual as the company’s first-ever Chief Digital Officer. She later assumed the role of Chief Innovation Officer through which she oversaw Northwestern Mutual’s venture arm. Alexa, who holds a Certified Financial Planner™ designation, is the New York Times-Bestselling Author of Financially Fearless and Financially Forward. She is also the host of The Founders Project with Alexa von Tobel, a weekly podcast with Inc. that highlights top entrepreneurs. Alexa is a member of the 2016 Class of Henry Crown Fellows and an inaugural member of President Obama’s Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship. She has been honored with numerous recognitions including: a Forbes Magazine cover story, Fortune’s 40 Under 40, Fortune’s Most Powerful Women, Inc. Magazine’s 30 Under 30, and World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leader. Originally from Florida, Alexa attended Harvard College and Harvard Business School before settling in New York City where she currently resides with her husband, Cliff, and three children, Toby, Cashel, and Rosey.
Alexa's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield – Final Round
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Lisa Utzschneider is the CEO of Integral Ad Science, a global leader in digital media quality.
Lisa's Sessions
Powering What’s Next: Insights from the Enterprise Software Market
Spurred by digital transformation and the recent shift to remote work, the enterprise software industry has gone from strength-to-strength and competition for deals and valuations are at all-time-highs. While investor appetite for enterprise software may be strong, it doesn’t mean that all tech businesses make worthy investments. In this panel, hear from Michael Fosnaugh and Monti Saroya, Co-Heads of Vista’s Flagship investment strategy, and a selection of Vista CEOs on the hallmarks of best-in-class software companies and trends driving the industry.
Ron Voglewede leads Whirlpool Corporation’s global sustainability team. Ron is responsible for developing the strategy and execution plans for sustainability within Whirlpool’s branded portfolio by increasing product performance while lowering our footprint, therefore, creating long term sustainable value. Ron is driving Whirlpool’s product and business sustainability approach toward creating positive impacts to improve life at home, in our communities, and for the planet. In addition to his work at Whirlpool, Ron proudly serves as Chair, Board of Directors, for the Alliance for Water Efficiency; as a Governor-Appointed member of the Council on Climate Solutions for the State of Michigan; and as a member of the Industry Advisory Board for the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Notre Dame. Ron is a recognized inventor and innovator, holding 40 U.S. patents with more currently pending. Additionally, Ron is an active volunteer and Board Member with his regional Girl Scouts and in local school education programs. Ron received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 1996 and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1998.
Ron's Sessions
Eliminating Styrofoam Protective Packaging
Over 380 million tons of plastic are produced every year and 50% of that for single-use purposes such as product packaging. Until now, companies have been hard-pressed to find a replacement for styrofoam for protecting fragile items like electronics and appliances. John Felts of Cruz Foam will discuss the development of bio-benign, compostable alternative materials. Tom Chi of At One Ventures, will talk about the importance of investing in environmental and climate entrepreneurs. Moderator, Scott Cassel of PSI will lead the discussion on how the packaging value chain can create a truly circular economy.
Manasi Vora is the VP of Strategy and Operations at Skynet Labs where she focuses on building the infrastructure for a decentralized web. She is also the Founder of Women in Blockchain (WiB), a non-profit whose mission is to increase diversity in the crypto industry. Through WiB, Manasi recently launched an investment fund, Komorebi DAO, to fund female and non-binary founders.
Manasi's Sessions
How DAOs Could Shake Up VC
Investment in blockchain startups and tokens exploded in 2021, and some investors are blowing up the idea of a venture capital firm as they look to back more projects in the crypto world. DAOs, or Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, are starting to pop up more and more, turning traditional VC on its head by building investment organizations on the blockchain.
Jill Wetzler is the Vice President of Engineering at Pilot, which is the largest provider of bookkeeping, tax preparation and CFO services for startups and small businesses. She is passionate about scaling organizations and their technology stacks through periods of high growth. Prior to Pilot, Jill was a Director of Engineering at Lyft since 2015 where she built out their Infrastructure Engineering organization and oversaw efforts to scale out their distributed architecture, including the development and release of Envoy Proxy in 2016. Jill also managed teams of engineers and data scientists in Twitter’s Data Products organization, and she has been both a lead engineer and manager of platform teams at salesforce.com starting in 2006. Jill is a fierce advocate for building diverse technology teams and has authored several talks and articles related to building out inclusive organizational processes that support the development of underrepresented people in technical roles. She has founded and led a number of Employee Resource Groups throughout her tenure and was a founding member of Lyft’s Tech Diversity Working Group, which served to execute on initiatives that increase representation and development opportunities for under-indexed and underestimated employees. She advises a number of senior leaders at companies throughout the US and East Africa, and she is an advisor for Diversity Advocates, a professional learning community sponsored by the Kapor Center for Social Impact in her own city of Oakland. Jill completed her BS in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon in 2005.
Jill's Sessions
How Do You Select the Right Tech Stack
From day zero, startups have to make dozens of trade-offs when it comes to the infinite variety of tech stacks available to today’s engineers. Choose the wrong combination or direction, and a startup could be left with years of refactoring to fix the legacy damage. What are the best practices for assessing potential stacks, and how can you minimize the risk of a painful mistake? Top technologists will discuss strategies for improving engineering right from the beginning and at every stage of a startup’s journey.
Corey White, co-founder and CEO of Cyvatar, is a proven industry veteran with more than 25 years of success managing global security practices and consulting teams. His work encompasses virtually every industry, including government, critical infrastructure, finance, healthcare, and manufacturing. Corey and co-founder Craig Goodwin created Cyvatar to democratize cybersecurity and prove the industry can change by refusing to accept the status quo and building solutions that deliver reliable, repeatable, and measurable business outcomes to customers regardless of company size or budget. Prior to founding Cyvatar, Corey served as SVP of worldwide consulting and chief experience officer at Cylance as well as southwest director of consulting for Foundstone/McAfee/Intel professional services.
Corey's Sessions
How Netflix Saved Cybersecurity
We’ve all heard that membership has its privileges, right? In fact, the membership Economy has forever changed why and what we buy…until we go to work. For many of us, the tools we buy at work are still tied to old-school ownership models: The millions of dollars we spend on technology solutions and services tied to multiyear licensing agreements effectively hold us hostage regardless of product efficacy. In cybersecurity specifically,, the transactional nature of such purchases has not and cannot keep pace with the growing costs of breaches or the ease with which hacks can be executed. We’ll show how membership–the Netflix model–can successfully replace ownership and usher in a whole new taxonomy of cybersecurity defense
Why Can't We Stop Ransomware?
This will be an open discussion with participation from audience members about the challenges and consequences of our current approaches to defending against ransomware attacks. The reemergence of REvil over the Labor Day weekend and the uptick in ransomware attacks on schools and universities remind us that hacks for ransom are still among the most attractive and lucrative threats around. Our open forum will uncover ways to combat malicious actors better and thwart the successful execution of ransomware.
Abi leads the Corporate & Business Development team for EMEA at Udemy. She is passionate about driving positive and sustainable growth in people, businesses and processes. She has spent over 15 years in tech working with organizations such as Oracle, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Pluralsight in a sales and leadership capacity. Abi is also a Founder at Your Life & You, a career and life coaching business focused on Executive, Life, Relationship, and Career Coaching. She is passionate about supporting and empowering small and medium enterprises, women and children. Abi has a Masters in International Business Management and a BSc in Computer Science.
Dirk Wittenborg is a successful entrepreneur who can literally sense potential business ideas. Since completing his studies in Finance & Strategy in Passau, he has worked as a managing director, president and consultant for various global companies. In 2008, Wittenborg began his career in the CTV business with the development of set-up boxes. In 2011, he and his long-time business partner Ronny Lutzi, founded the company Foxxum, which is now an innovator and a global leader in cutting-edge smart TV solutions for international TV manufacturers and content providers. In 2020, Wittenborg and Lutzi created rlaxx TV, an ad-supported streaming service featuring an innovative mix of linear channels and video-on-demand offerings.
Dirk's Sessions
Illuminating the Next Great Entertainment Frontier: The Connected TV Metaverse
While the proliferation of operating systems and OTT platforms have made TV more convenient and accessible, the magnitude of players in this ecosystem have also made television more complicated to navigate –for programmers, advertisers, and viewers. We all want our programming in each of its various delivery methods, provided in an easy-to-navigate, fast-to-discover, intuitive interface. Join an in-depth conversation with media industry veteran and technology futurists as they identify the outlook of the CTV world.
Ben Wright is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Velocity Global. He leads strategy and growth for the company that delivers a global work platform for more than 1,000 brands. Ben leads hundreds of global team members and applies two decades of experience supporting companies’ global business and remote teams.
Ben's Sessions
Thrive with an Untethered Workforce
Shark Tank investor and cybersecurity leader, Robert Herjavec chats with Ben Wright, founder and CEO of Velocity Global, about how to thrive with an untethered workforce. The mindsets of employers and talent has converged to work with anyone, anywhere, anytime, anyhow. Choice is paramount: employers engage all types of talent from full-time to project freelancers; people live anywhere, work for anyone, in a work-life balance. When priorities align, the possibilities are endless.
Daniel Yanisse is the CEO and co-founder of Checkr, the leading technology company in the background check industry. Daniel has grown the company over the last seven years to a $2.2 billion leader in the industry by using AI and technology to streamline and secure the data. The company is also mission-driven believing that every job candidate deserves a fair chance. Checkr unlocked 1.5 million candidates in 2020 and has a goal of unlocking three million this year.
Daniel's Sessions
Why Employers Are Ignoring a Large Candidate Pool That’s Necessary for Growth Today
Hear directly from Checkr CEO Daniel Yanisse and DDI CEO Aaron Hageman about why this job market is fueling the gig economy growth, how to tap into fair chance hiring and how it will help your employee base, the benefits of fair chance hiring and its impact on your bottom line and organizations and allies that promote fair chance hiring and why this matters to DEI efforts.
Julie Yoo is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, leading investments in healthcare technology and focusing on companies that are modernizing how we access, pay for, and experience the healthcare system. Prior to a16z, Julie was the co-founder, chief product officer, and board director at Kyruus, a venture-backed healthtech company recognized as a market leader in patient access. Julie led product management, engineering, and sales and marketing and helped scale the business to reach 20M patients and over 225,000 healthcare providers across the U.S. Julie was previously VP of Product at Generation Health, and was with the company from its inception through acquisition by CVS Health. Julie was also a Product Manager at Knome, the world’s first whole genome sequencing service for private individuals. Julie’s tech career began as an early member of the software engineering team at Endeca Technologies, later acquired by Oracle. Julie studied computer science and pre-medicine as an undergrad at MIT and obtained an MS in genomics from Harvard-MIT HST and an MBA from MIT Sloan. She’s a Young Global Leader with the World Economic Forum and has received numerous awards and honors from Becker’s Hospital Review, Health Data Management, MedTech Boston, and Rock Health.
Julie's Sessions
Hacking US Healthcare: How a Simple Platform Can Help Solve Some of America’s Most Complex Healthcare Problems
Few things conjure more negative emotions than navigating medical billing; Americans urgently need solutions that prioritize their needs, decrease costs and elevate the patient journey so they can focus on getting care. Fortunately, digital innovation can provide exceptional patient experiences that remove friction for payers, providers and consumers alike. Hear how digital health unicorn Cedar has engineered a complete consumer-first digital platform that’s revolutionizing the financial experience for the entire healthcare industry.
Yan is the Chief Executive Officer of Mission Bio. As a veteran of the genomics industry, Yan is passionate about empowering teams to deliver highly differentiated innovative solutions realizing the mission of accelerating their application to improve human health. Before Mission Bio, Yan served executive roles at Thermo Fisher Scientific, where she led commercial teams in China for rapid market success and general management roles for Reproductive Health and Microarray businesses. She also led product management and commercialization efforts for genetic analysis solutions at Affymetrix, NuGEN Technologies, and Molecular Devices. Yan holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Yan's Sessions
Saving Lives with Precision Biology
Illumina is the world leader in next-generation sequencing. Adaptive Bio is the leader in immune-driven medicine. Mission Bio pioneered single cell multi-omics for genotype and phenotype. And Endpoint is developing precision therapies for inflammatory illness, sepsis, ARDS and more. Hear from these 4 leaders who are leveraging biology breakthroughs to save lives on a wide range of topics including translating innovation from bench to bedside, aligning incentives with the ecosystem, getting to reimbursement, exploring SPACs and beyond.
Samara is the Founding Partner of an institutionally backed pre-seed stage fund, Chingona Ventures, focusing on investing in tech and tech-enabled companies across the U.S. The fund has $60MM in AUM and has made over 40 investments across technology sectors in Financial, Food, Future of Learning, and Health/Wellness. Before this, she was an investor at MATH Venture Partners where she led new investment review, diligence, and execution. Samara started her career at Goldman Sachs, where she was continually ranked top 5 in selling financial products, providing market insights, advising on portfolio construction, and consulting business practices. Her career started in the Fixed Income, Currency, and Commodity (FICC) group where she led multiple tech-enhancing projects across global exchanges. She is on the advisory boards for Coolwater, an organization to support the emerging manager community; Camino Financial, a firm helping get loans to Latinx business owners; and VentureFWD, a non-profit working to get more diversity in the venture capital ecosystem. Samara also co-founded the Latinx Founders Collective to bring together Latinx founders, investors, and community leaders to support the entrepreneurial community. Samara earned an Industrial and Operations Engineering degree from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in Business Administration from Northwestern University. Samara is the Founding Partner of an institutionally backed pre-seed stage fund, Chingona Ventures, focusing on investing in tech and tech-enabled companies across the U.S. The fund has $60MM in AUM and has made over 40 investments across technology sectors in Financial, Food, Future of Learning, and Health/Wellness. Before this, she was an investor at MATH Venture Partners where she led new investment review, diligence, and execution. Samara started her career at Goldman Sachs, where she was continually ranked top 5 in selling financial products, providing market insights, advising on portfolio construction, and consulting business practices. Her career started in the Fixed Income, Currency, and Commodity (FICC) group where she led multiple tech-enhancing projects across global exchanges. She is on the advisory boards for Coolwater, an organization to support the emerging manager community; Camino Financial, a firm helping get loans to Latinx business owners; and VentureFWD, a non-profit working to get more diversity in the venture capital ecosystem. Samara also co-founded the Latinx Founders Collective to bring together Latinx founders, investors, and community leaders to support the entrepreneurial community. Samara earned an Industrial and Operations Engineering degree from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in Business Administration from Northwestern University.
Samara's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield – Session 3
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Chen Qiufan (aka Stanley Chan) is an award-winning author, translator, creative producer and curator. He is the president of the World Chinese Science Fiction Association. His works include Waste Tide, Future Disease and The Algorithms for Life. The founder of Thema Mundi, a content development studio, he lives in Beijing and Shanghai.
Stanley's Sessions
A Fictional Future Built with Real AI
A leading mind in AI research and investment and a bold new voice in science fiction collaborate in “AI 2041,” a remarkable new collection of stories imagining a future shaped by technology being built today. Hear Sinovation Ventures Chairman and CEO Kai-Fu Lee and author Chen Qiufan (AKA Stanley Chan) discuss the tech that inspired their book and the changes they expect over the next two decades.
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