Announcing the Judges for the Seattle Meetup + Pitch Off
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TechCrunch is headed to Seattle this Thursday for the annual Meetup + Pitch Off. And we are ready to announce our esteemed judges.
The pitch-off will consist of 10 startup companies presenting for 60 seconds on stage in front of TechCrunch Editors and tier 1 investors from the Pacific Northwest.
The winning team will get a free table at TechCrunch Disrupt SF Startup Alley this September. Second place gets two free tickets, and audience choice gets one free ticket.
Bummed you missed your chance to apply for the pitch-off? Fear not! TechCrunch has your back. We will randomly select 1 company from the audience to pitch their startup on stage as a part of the competition. So make sure to sign up for the meetup here.
And now for our fantastic judges:
Bill Bryant, DFJ
Linda Lian, Madrona Ventures
“Linda joined Madrona in 2016 and works on identifying new investments and supporting the growth of Madrona’s portfolio companies. Linda loves working with passionate entrepreneurs to solve business challenges, evaluate options and make decisions about the future of their products and services. Prior to Madrona, Linda was at Lookout Mobile Security in San Francisco. Previous to that, she was with Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking group in NYC where she worked on strategic and sponsor-led transactions. Linda graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard concentrating in History & Literature with a secondary in Economics. She is particularly interested in consumerization of enterprise, dev-ops and software-defined infrastructure, security, and new mediums including AR/VR and live media.”
James Newell, Voyager Capital
Prior to joining Voyager, James worked for Institutional Venture Partners (IVP).. While with IVP, James worked on investments in AlienVault, Carbonite , Casper, Checkr, DoubleVerify, General Assembly, Kayak, LegalZoom, Prosper, Sauce Labs, SoFi and Zerto.
James previously worked with Maveron, a leading consumer focused venture firm based in Seattle and San Francisco and in business development for Zulily, a Maveron portfolio company. Earlier in his career, he worked in the Technology Investment Banking group of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
James earned a B.A. in Economics and a B.A. in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from the University of Washington. He has also earned his M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a concentration in entrepreneurial management.”
Jason Stoffer, Maveron
“Jason joined Maveron in 2007 and is now a partner focused on investing in education, e-commerce and web-enabled consumer businesses. He is involved with the firm’s investments in General Assembly, Common, TrueFacet, Everlane, CourseHero, Dolls Kill and Dolly. Prior to joining Maveron, Jason served as senior director of strategic operations for Career Education Corp., where he co-founded and led admissions and marketing for IADT Online, a for-profit design school. He has also served as an associate at Spinnaker Ventures, an expansion-stage venture capital fund. Jason graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in economics from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!), and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.”
Looking forward to seeing you all at the Showbox SoDo. There will be tons of time to connect with TechCrunch staff, the judges, and to grab a drink.
Buy tickets to the Seattle meetup on June 22 right here.
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