Raphael Crawford-Marks, Co-Founder & CEO, Bonusly
Raphael Crawford-Marks is the Cofounder and CEO of Bonusly, an enterprise platform that radically improves and simplifies employee recognition, rewards and bonuses. Prior to founding Bonusly, Raphael was an early hire at two successful startups (SquareTrade and LookSharp), a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras and an instructor for Year Up. Follow him on Twitter @raphaelcm.
Christina d’Avignon, CEO, Ringly
Christina d’Avignon is the founder and CEO of Ringly, a fashion/technology company building smart jewelry and accessories. Their first product is a ring that connects to your phone and provides customized notifications through vibration and light. Since the launch in late 2014, Ringly has been profiled in national and global media as one of the most exciting wearable technology companies to target women. They were named by Forbes as one of the top 25 innovative consumer and retail brands of 2015 and Christina was recently placed on the Business of Fashion’s 500 list, an index of 500 influential people shaping the global fashion industry. Christina’s passion for art and technology started at an early age. She graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with degrees in both Fine Art and Human Computer Interaction. She has a strong interest in user-centered design and its power to enrich both online and offline experiences.
Ryan Fant, Co-Founder, Keen Home
Ryan Fant is the Co-Founder and COO of Keen Home, a NYC-based technology company thatdevelops proactive hardware and software solutions to protect and enhance your home’s core systems. Keen Home’s products provide homeowners with increased comfort, improved efficiency and a better maintained home. Keen Home has participated or been featured on Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt, Techstars, the Google for Entrepreneurs Exchange Program and “Shark Tank.” Prior to founding Keen Home, Ryan worked as a management consultant and Six Sigma Black Belt with multiple Fortune 500 manufacturing companies. He received his MBA from NYU Stern where he guest lectures and continues to mentor student entrepreneurs. Ryan is a performing arts enthusiast, amateur foodie and an unfortunate Chicago Cubs Fan (wait ‘til next year).
Jennifer Fitzgerald, CEO & Co-Founder, PolicyGenius
Jennifer Fitzgerald is the cofounder and CEO of PolicyGenius, a venturebacked fintechcompany modernizing the distribution and operations of consumer insurance in the US. Prior to that, Jennifer was an associate principal at McKinsey & Company, where she spent 5 years advising Fortune 100 financial services companies on growth strategy and operations. Jennifer started her career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras. Jennifer holds a BA from Florida State University and a JD from Columbia University School of Law.
Aileen Gemma Smith, CEO, Vizalytics
Aileen Gemma Smith is CEO and co-founder of Vizalytics Technology, the New Yorkdata company bridging the information access gap between government and citizens, businesses, and communities. A self-styled “content janitor,” Aileen has worked as a content manager, strategist and consultant for Newsweek, the Financial Times and Razorfish. She created Staten Island Counts, which mined publicly-available data to reveal insights about the NYC borough where she grew up. At Vizalytics, she and her team have created apps and solutions to make businesses more competitive, citizens more connected to government, and communities more cohesive and responsive, earning honors from 500 Startups, NYC Big Apps and the Amazon Web Services City on a Cloud competition. Educated at City University of New York, Aileen has two sons and lives in Manhattan, where she is an avid walker.
Jag Gill, Founder, Sundar
Jag Gill is the Founder and CEO of Sundar. Sundar is building the world’slargest curated, business-to-business marketplace for the apparel industry. The Sundar platform brings together textile mills and materials suppliers with clothing manufacturers, fashion brands and designers, facilitating global discovery and sourcing and enabling them to do in minutes what used to take weeks. Sundar was incubated at Techstars and conceived at MIT, where Jag was a graduate student. She has won industry accolades including awards from the CFDA & Conde Nast, and has been featured in Forbes, Women’s Wear Daily and The New York Times. Sundar is institutionally backed by the largest venture fund in the world, and eminent Bay Area, New York and Hong Kong based investors.
Alanna Gregory, CEO, Vive
Alanna Gregory is the founder and CEO of Vive, a membership-based beauty concierge service that, for a flat monthly fee, provides members with a set number (or unlimited!) blowout appointments at pre-vetted, top-rated hair salons around New York and Chicago. Prior to Vive, Alanna worked as a research analyst on Wall Street, where her long hours precluded her from routine trips to the salon. Alanna founded Vive with the mission of giving all busy women a faster, easier and more convenient way to maintain great-looking hair. Alanna holds a degree in Operations Research Engineering from Princeton University, and is a regular yoga and mediation practitioner, and is a proud native NYer.
Alexander H. Shashou, Co-Founder, ALICE
Alexander Shashou is Co-Founder and President of ALICE. He received his Bachelors Degree from The University of Pennsylvania, Wharton Business School with a dual concentration in Finance and Operations and Information Management. After graduation, he took a position with Goldman Sachs in the Equity Sales division in New York, leaving in Sept 2013 to pursue ALICE full-time. He was accepted into the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) and a graduate of Startup Leadership Program (SLP). Born in London, Alex grew up in the hospitality industry with his family operating 90 hotels in the UK across three hotel chains.
Meika Hollender, Co-Founder, Sustain Natural
Meika Hollender is the Co-Founder of Sustain, the first brand of all naturalsexual wellness products marketed first and foremost to women. Meika graduated in the spring of 2013 from New York University’s Stern School of Business, specializing in social impact and strategy. At Stern, she ran the Social Enterprise Association, where she worked closely with the administration and the career development office to help increase the focus on social impact and sustainability in the MBA curriculum and career development process. Prior to graduating from Stern, Meika worked at Sterling Brands, a brand strategy and design firm, where she focused on consumer packaged goods and pharmaceutical projects. During the summer of 2012, Meika worked in Johnson & Johnson’s consumer products division as a Sustainability Summer Associate. Meika is a co-author of the book Naturally Clean.
Jade Huang, CEO, StyleSage
Jade Huang is the CEO and cofounder of StyleSage, a data analytics platform designed to help fashion retailers and brands optimizetheir business. Exfashion designer turned technologist, Jade has 10+ years of awardwinning digital strategy, design and technology experience. She is a frequent industry speaker and mentor. Notably, she was a featured presenter at the 4th annual Financial Times Innovate America Forum, where StyleSage was named a top innovative startup. Jade studied fashion design at Parsons School of Design, and has a Bachelors in International Trade from Fashion Institute of Technology. She also has a MPA in International Economics from Columbia University, and a MBA from INSEAD where she was awarded the L’Oreal Scholarship for Creativity & Entrepreneurship Spirit. StyleSage has had the honor of participating in top accelerators such as New York Fashion Tech Lab and Techstars, as well as being named a top innovator by Google London, W Magazine, Glamour and Financial Times.
Aditya Julka, Co-Founder, Paddle8
Aditya Julka is the co-founder of Paddle8, a global online art marketplace and transaction platform launched in the second quarter of 2011. He is a serial
entrepreneur with a history of successful start-ups, and a graduate of the Harvard Business School, where he obtained his MBA with High Distinction and graduated as a Baker Scholar. Before joining HBS, Aditya was a co-founder of InBioPro, a biotech start-up based in Bangalore, India, and a co-founder of BioAtlantis, an Irish biotech start-up. Before joining BioAtlantis, Aditya was a Consultant with McKinsey & Co. in Asia, where he served clients in the pharmaceutical, banking and public sector spaces. He obtained his undergraduate degree and graduate degree in Biochemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, where he was the recipient of the Director’s Gold Medal for being the best all-round student in the graduating class.
entrepreneur with a history of successful start-ups, and a graduate of the Harvard Business School, where he obtained his MBA with High Distinction and graduated as a Baker Scholar. Before joining HBS, Aditya was a co-founder of InBioPro, a biotech start-up based in Bangalore, India, and a co-founder of BioAtlantis, an Irish biotech start-up. Before joining BioAtlantis, Aditya was a Consultant with McKinsey & Co. in Asia, where he served clients in the pharmaceutical, banking and public sector spaces. He obtained his undergraduate degree and graduate degree in Biochemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, where he was the recipient of the Director’s Gold Medal for being the best all-round student in the graduating class.
Elle Kaplan, CEO, LexION Capital
Elle Kaplan is the Founder and CEO of LexION Capital, one of the only 100% women-owned assetmanagement firms in the country. Elle moved to NYC with $200, no job and a mission to create a feminist Wall Street firm that operated at a fiduciary level. LexION Capital’s mission, offering “financial advice good enough for your mother” with an honest and ethical approach has provided Elle with the privilege of keynote speaking all over the US, including speaking at the Pentagon twice before senior female military leaders. Her story has been featured on various national publications and Elle is a frequent guest on the news. Every day she chips away at demystifying Wall Street and encouraging more women and the families that they love to invest. This message is central to her book and online tribe, Love The Hustle, which is coming out in 2016. Elle holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English and chemistry from the University of Michigan and an Executive MBA in finance from Columbia University.
Anastasia Leng, Founder & CEO, Picasso Labs
Anastasia Leng is the founder & CEO of Picasso Labs. Picasso Labs fosters creativity through data: by using image recognition & machine learning, their tools help others understand what aspects of an image impact its performance. Prior to that, Anastasia co-founded Hatch.co, an ecommerce company that was selected as one of Time Magazine’s Top 10 Startups to Watch in New York, one of TimeOut NY‘s Best New Shopping Sites of 2013, as well as one of the four most innovative retail companies by the National Retail Federation. Prior to startup life, Anastasia spent 5+ years at Google, working in New Business Development and Product Marketing. She led entrepreneurship efforts in Europe, Africa, & the Middle East and was responsible for early-stage partnerships for Google Voice, Chrome and Wallet. Anastasia graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a triple major in Psychology, Sociology and French. She’s been a nomad all her life and has lived in Bahrain, Vietnam, Hungary, Russia, France, England and the US. She remains a mediocre tennis player and an aspiring writer.
Matt Lieber, Co-Founder & President, Gimlet Media
Matt Lieber is cofounder and President of Gimlet Media. In a previous life, Matt produced radio shows (On Point, Fair Game) and podcasts (SlateCulture Gabfest). He also worked as a management consultant at The Boston consulting Group, where he focused on media and digital business. Then he chucked it all for Gimlet. He holds an MBA from MIT Sloan.
Peter Lurie, Co-founder & CBO, Mast Mobile
Peter Lurie is an entrepreneur at the confluence of mobile software, communications and payments. He is the co-founder and chief business officer of Mast, which provides asoftware and communications platform for employees who are mobile both inside and out of the office. In 2000 Peter co-founded Virgin Mobile USA and helped lead it through an entire corporate lifecycle: from planning to an IPO, a strategic acquisition and a merger with Sprint. At the time of the merger in 2009, Virgin Mobile had 5M customers, $1.3B in revenues and 400 employees. Peter joined American Express in 2010 to help launch an alternative mobile and online payments platform to reach underserved segments worldwide. In 2012, Peter co-founded Defense Mobile to provide communications, commerce and community resources to active and retired military personnel and their families, and he serves on the board. The following year he co-founded Mast, and in 2014 Forbes named Peter one of NYC’s top entrepreneurs. He takes his civic obligations seriously, serving as a director and formerly chair of Urban Arts Partnership, which interweaves arts education into the curriculum of underserved public schools.
Andy Moon, CEO, SunFarmer
Andy Moon, is the Co-Founder and CEO of SunFarmer, a Y-Combinator backed social enterprise that provides reliable and affordable solar energy for hospitals, farms and other institutions in developing countries. Previously, Andy led a project finance team at SunEdison Solar and worked as a freelance project finance advisor, closing more than $150 million in solar energy transactions. He started his career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he co-authored widely cited papers on climate change and public health and worked closely with major foundations and multilateral organizations. Andy also has a longstanding interest in public health through his work as a volunteer and energy advisor to the nonprofit Possible, which runs a public-private health system in Nepal. He holds a Phi Beta Kappa honors degree from Stanford University.
Gillian Morris, CEO, Hitlist
Gillian Morris is the co-founder and CEO of Hitlist, a personalized mobiletravel agent. The app has been recognized as a ‘Best New App’ by the app store and was featured as a ‘Best New App’ by Apple in 83+ countries. Investors include the founders of jetBlue and the former Chairman of Orbitz. Gillian has been named one of the Young Leaders to watch in the travel industry by PhoCusWright. Before entering the start-up world, Gillian worked as a consultant, journalist and educator in Turkey, China, the Gulf states and Syria. Her work has appeared in/on The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, CNN, CNBC, TechCrunch, The Next Web and LifeHacker. Gillian’s work in emerging markets has made her a passionate advocate for entrepreneurship and private sector investment in the developing world. She is a proud mentor with the School of Leadership Afghanistan and Gaza Sky Geeks.
Jason Nadaf, Founder + CEO, SureDone, Inc
Jason Nadaf founded SureDone in March of 2012 to help online retailers create and manage products syndicated to marketplaces and shopping carts such as eBay, Amazon, Etsy, Bigcommerce and Google Shopping. He is a self-taught full stack internet developer and entrepreneur that came to NYC with nothing but code and one customer. As Founder and CEO, he built a multichannel e-commerce platform and SaaS business that to date has processed hundreds of millions in order volume and over a billion e-commerce updates monthly for hundreds of customers. Follow him on Twitter @jasonspalace and his blog digitalpyro.com.
Adam Price, CEO and Founder, Homer
Adam Price is the CEO and Founder of Homer. Homer is an outsourced delivery solution for restaurants in urban areas. Homer uses technology to aggregate the delivery demand of multiple restaurants in a geographic area and assign out deliveries to a remote workforce. Homer both creates the logistics software and hires/manages the remote workforce executing the deliveries. Additionally, Homer provides software to the restaurant that streamlines the back-of-house delivery management process.
Adam grew up in a rural area of Texas before moving to California where he completed an undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering. Before starting Homer, Adam worked for an engineering consulting firm in Southern California supporting clients ranging from Disney to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on complex mechanical and aerospace systems. Outside of work, Adam is an avid surfer and enjoys traveling, hiking, running, and eating lots of sugary cereals.
Dan Reich, CEO & Co-Founder, Troops & TULA
Dan Reich has started and been involved with companies that have collectively raised over $100M inventure capital and have exited for about $1B in M&A. He is also a writer for Forbes and Harvard Business Review. Today, Dan is CEO and CoFounder of Troops, a mobile sales assistant powered by artificial intelligence. Dan, along with his CoFounders Scott Britton and Greg Ratner, started Troops to make work easier after experiencing their own frustrations doing business development. Dan also cofounded TULA, the world’s first line of skincare products using probiotic technology and recent recipient of QVC’s 2015 Rising Star Award. Dan holds a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and in 2015 he was selected to receive the Early Career Award from the College of Engineering Leadership Council.
Jennifer Rubio, Co-Founder, Away
Jen Rubio cofounded Away, a premium travel brand that designs special objects that make life easier for those on the move. Jen previously ran social media at Warby Parker, spearheading content, marketing, and partnership efforts before becoming Global Director of Innovation at fashion retailer AllSaints. Jen was named on the 2015 Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Marketing & Advertising and has spoken at TEDx, Women’s Wear Daily Summit, Google Atmosphere, SXSW, Decoded Fashion and more.
Marcela Sapone, Co-Founder & CEO, Hello Alfred
Marcela Sapone is the CoFounder and CEO of Hello Alfred, the home operating system that pairs you with a dedicated butler. Alfred is behind the scenes making sure that when you get home, it’s the home you want. A thought leader in the sharing economy with a deep passion for hospitality and the future of work. She was named one of Goldman Sachs most intriguing entrepreneurs, Forbes 30 under 30, and the 2014 winner of TechCrunch Disrupt SF. She has an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.
Jill Sherman, Co-Founder & CEO, Modalyst
Jill Sherman, Co-Founder and CEO of Modalyst, the technology layer poweringdropshipping, enabling ecommerce retailers to source and sell unique products without the financial risk of purchasing inventory. Prior to Modalyst, Jill spent over 12 years working in luxury fashion, most recently running the Miu Miu Visual Department at Prada USA and Asia Pacific. Prior to Prada, Jill worked at Harvey Nichols managing the Buying Team, at Vogue Magazine as a Fashion Assistant and at Italian Vogue as a Stylist Assistant on the photoshoots. Jill has lived and worked in Asia for 5 years and holds a BA from Tufts University and an MBA from MIT Sloan. Jill was named by Crain‘s as a “Woman to Watch in NY Tech 2014” and presented at TEDx in October 2014 on “The Rise of the Independents.”
Olga Vidisheva, Founder & CEO, Shoptiques
Olga Vidisheva is the founder and CEO of Shoptiques.com, an online destination for thebest local boutiques from Paris to New York. Shoptiques is funded by Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock, Benchmark, William Morris Endeavor Talent Agency among others. Olga is the first single non-technical founder accepted into Y Combinator. Prior to starting Shoptiques, Olga attended Harvard Business School, worked at CHANEL and Goldman, Sachs & Co. in Technology, Media and Telecom Investment Banking in New York and modeled for numerous fashion brands.
Sage Wohns, CEO, Agolo
Sage Wohns is the cofounder and CEO of Agolo, a machine learning company that builds proprietarysummarization technology for analysts that improves accuracy by 4x. Agolo was founded with the mission to simplify the world’s information. Our summarization platform is the first step in our goal of building an AI driven global business intelligence platform. Prior to Agolo, Sage was a lead engineer in Tokyo at Rakuten working in their International Development Group. On his way to Columbia Business School, Sage did a brief stint farming radish in the countryside of Hokkaido. He also holds a Bachelor’s in Political Economics fromUniversity of Chicago. Follow him on Twitter @sagewohns.
Arthur Woods, Co-Founder, Imperative
Arthur Woods is the Cofounder of Imperative, a technology company reshaping the way weempower employees and measure success at work. He is a writer, speaker and consultant for leading brands on the future of work. Arthur previously led operations for YouTube EDU at Google where he led YouTube for Schools. Arthur cofounded the Compass Fellowship, the largest collegiate social enterprise training program and Out in Tech, the leading LGBTQ technology community. Arthur studied Operations and information Management at Georgetown University and Project Management at Stanford University. He is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper and sits on the Boards of the Georgetown Technology Alliance and Compass Partners and Out in Tech.
Suzanne Xie, Founder & CEO, Hullabalu
Suzanne Xie is the Founder and CEO of Hullabalu, a children’s media company reinventing storytelling for the next generation. Her company, launched in 2013, raised over $4M from prominent investors, and their story apps have hit #1 in iTunes Books in over 38 countries. Prior to Hullabalu, Suzanne founded Weardrobe, one of the largest online fashion communities for street style bloggers. Weardrobe was acquired by Like.com and subsequently Google in 2010. Suzanne started her career at Goldman Sachs and UBS, and graduated from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in Economics.