Speakers
CEO, TalkMaze
Partner, Bain Capital Ventures
Head of Content, Redpoint
General Manager, Figure Equity Solutions
CEO, Actifai
General Partner & Co-founder, Flybridge
Entrepreneur & Angel investor, Hunt Club
Founder, VentureFizz
Partner, Kleiner Perkins
Partner, General Catalyst
General Partner, NFX
Operating Partner, Sales & Customer Success, Insight Partners
Associate, Latham & Watkins LLP
Creative Director, Koto
Investor in Residence, The Capital Network
Co-founder & Managing Partner, Construct Capital
Partner, Flint Capital
Director, Kubernetes Engineering, MongoDB
Partner, Latham & Watkins LLP
Managing Partner, F-Prime Capital
Chief Revenue Officer, Embroker LLC
Executive Director, Head of Partnerships and Ecosystem, Capital Connect by J.P. Morgan
Co-founder & CEO, stealth technology startup
Senior Strategy Director, Koto
Managing Director, Techstars
Partner, Redpoint
Partner, 1Sharpe Ventures
Managing Director, Koto NY, Koto
Executive Director, Private Capital Markets, Capital Connect by J.P. Morgan
Operating Partner, OpenView
Head of Platform & Operations, BBG Ventures
Partner, Latham & Watkins LLP
Partner, Latham & Watkins
General Partner, Deciens Capital
Founder & CEO, Howdy.com
Bruce & Bridgitt Evans Executive Director, Harvard Innovation Labs
Associate, Latham & Watkins LLP
Senior Community Manager, MassChallenge
Startup Battlefield Editor, Techcrunch
General Partner, Greylock
Founder & CEO, Beyond Trending
Partner, Building Ventures
Partner, Pillar VC
General Partner, SOSV & CTO, IndieBio, SOSV
Ghalia Aamer is the founder of TalkMaze, an edtech company that instills confidence in children globally through public speaking and debate training. Ghalia has been passionate about entrepreneurship since she started her first business in the education sector at 13. Now, as the founder of TalkMaze, Ghalia combines her 8+ years of public speaking and debate experience with her drive for business to empower children around the world. In addition to running her company while being a full-time university student, Ghalia advocates for underrepresented entrepreneurs. She represented Canada as the country’s youngest delegate and policy lead at the G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance Summit, championing recommendations around inclusion. She also sits as the youngest member of both Junior Achievement’s Board of Directors and Edmonton Unlimited’s Innovation Growth Council as a voice for youth, women, and visible minorities. In her free time, Ghalia enjoys traveling and learning new languages. She has visited 17 countries and is currently learning her fourth language, Spanish.
Ajay Agarwal is a managing director at Bain Capital Ventures, where he focuses on early-stage SaaS investing.
Rashad Assir
Head of Content, RedpointRashad is Head of Content at Redpoint Ventures. In 2022, Rashad (@corporayshid) made a hobby into his full time job, observing and commenting on the subtle mundanities of Corporate America, Dating and general social life as a millennial. In December of 2021, Redpoint Ventures found him on IG and recruited him to join and apply the same style of satire / observational comedy to the small but absurd world of VC. Rashad is consistently reposted by some of the largest comedy accounts (@betches, @9gag, etc) and now writes / edits / produces daily shortform sketch videos commenting on all things tech, VC, and corporate culture. Video production has also expanded beyond satire/sketch – Rashad his helping Redpoint investors and portco’s reimagine traditionally boring corporate-y content into something fresh and authentic that cuts through the noise (e.g. our new funding announcement videos). Besides making millions of people on the internet laugh, Rashad is trying to send a message to be more original and stop taking ourselves too seriously.
Jason Brausewetter is the General Manager of Figure Equity Solutions at Figure, a fintech company that leverages blockchain technology to deliver innovative product solutions across several operating business lines. Figure Equity Solutions is a platform that enables companies to raise capital, manage their cap table, and provide liquidity to existing stakeholders. Jason is also the Founder of Gain Advisory, a consulting company that counsels startups on go-to-market, sales, marketing, product development, pricing, and fundraising. He offers a free service to help founders nail their pitch through. He is a serial intrapreneur with his 6th startup and with over 25 years of experience in leadership in the financial services industry. He’s held executive positions at companies such as Nasdaq, Discovery Data, Long-Term Stock Exchange, Q4, LOYAL3, Charles Schwab, and Morgan Stanley. Jason has been involved in every aspect of the capital markets, from equity market-making, traditional and alternative investments, wealth management, investor relations, portfolio and risk analysis, deal syndication, and capital raising. He enjoys biking, carpentry, coaching youth sports, and traveling with his family. He is an angel & seed investor in disruptive startups. He mentors small businesses to help them get off the ground, grow their businesses, and achieve their goals.
Ned Brody
CEO, ActifaiNed currently serves as CEO of Actifai and Partner at Foundry.ai, an incubator of artificial intelligence companies and Actifai’s parent company. He has led and helped shape a variety of technology businesses over the past 20 years, previously serving as Yahoo’s Head of the Americas, CEO of AOL Networks, President & Chief Revenue Officer at AOL Advertising, CFO of LookSmart, Principal at Mercer Management Consulting, Chief Revenue Officer for Verizon Media, and Chairman of The Supervisory Board of ADTECH AG. Ned received his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with concentrations in decision theory and finance.
Jeff Bussgang of Flybridge Capital is a former entrepreneur turned venture capitalist who teaches entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School.
David is GM, Expert Network at Hunt Club and a Founding Member at TBD Angels. As an entrepreneur and angel investor, he has held operating roles at 6 startups and invested in 90 companies. He was recently the CEO of Gradifi, which was acquired by E*TRADE. Previously, he was Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Harvard Business School and Director of the Babson Summer Venture Program. For more info, see www.davidchang.me
Keith is the founder of VentureFizz, the leading hiring and employment branding website focused on the tech industry. He has spent the last 20 years helping grow vibrant technology and startup communities. Prior to VentureFizz, Keith founded Dissero, a progressive recruiting firm focused on early to mid-stage venture-backed technology companies, where he conducted many senior-level searches for high growth tech companies. Keith has contributed to leading publications on topics related to entrepreneurship and recruiting, including Inc., Forbes, Fox Business News, and The Boston Globe.
Josh Coyne is a partner at Kleiner Perkins where he focuses on investments in enterprise software and financial services. Prior to joining Kleiner Perkins, Josh was at Qatalyst Partners, where he helped advise on multi-billion dollar acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, and financings across a variety of technology sectors. Originally from Cleveland, Josh graduated summa cum laude from Boston College with a degree in Information Systems and Finance.
Mark Crane is a partner at General Catalyst, a venture capital firm that works with seed to endurance-stage founders to help build companies that can withstand the test of time. GC is active in multiple sectors including healthcare, fintech, crypto, enterprise, and consumer. Mark has been at GC for the past four years, most recently helping to open the firm’s office and operations in London. General Catalyst also has offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, New York City and Boston. The firm has supported the growth of businesses such as: Airbnb, Deliveroo, Guild, Gusto, Hubspot, Illumio, Lemonade, Livongo, Oscar, Samsara, Snap, Stripe, and Warby Parker. Some of the companies Mark partners closely with include Apiiro, Fivetran, Reslience, and Heyday. Prior to joining General Catalyst, Mark was a vice president at Cove Hill Partners in Massachusetts. Previously, he was a senior associate at JMI Equity and associate at North Bridge Growth Equity. Mark is a graduate of Amherst College, earning a B.A. in History.
James Currier
General Partner, NFXJames Currier is a co-founder and partner of NFX Guild, an early-stage fund with a three-month program for marketplace and network businesses.
Pablo Dominguez joined Insight in 2018 as an Operating Partner. Pablo focuses on partnering with Insight’s portfolio companies to build and scale effective commercial teams through the application of proven and repeatable go-to-market and operational best practices. He brings over 20 years of experience working on Salesforce effectiveness engagements across startups and various global 2000 companies. Prior to Insight, Pablo was the Vice President of Global Business Operations and Customer Experience at NYC-based ad tech startup AppNexus, which was acquired by Xandr (division of AT&T) in 2018 for approximately $2B. Pablo joined AppNexus in 2014 and was responsible for building a Business Operations organization which provided support for Sales, Services, Marketing, and Product Line teams as well as driving annual strategic planning and key initiatives. Previously, Pablo spent four years at ADP, first standing up a Global Sales Compensation function and ultimately running Global Sales Operations across 10 business units. Prior to ADP, Pablo held various leadership roles in sales operations across Avaya, where he led the global sales integration of Avaya’s $1B acquisition of Nortel Enterprise in 2009. Earlier, he began his career in management consulting at The Alexander Group, a boutique consulting firm focused on providing revenue growth solutions. Pablo received a BBA from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas, and his MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business. Originally from Mexico, Pablo grew up in Texas and has spent the last 16 years living in New Jersey with his wife and two sons.
Sophie Duffy is an associate in the Boston office of Latham & Watkins and a member of the firm’s Emerging Companies and Executive Compensation, Employment & Benefits practices. Ms. Duffy represents public and private companies in all aspects of employment law, with a focus on the employment needs of emerging companies and start-ups. She regularly advises clients on the labor and employment aspects of mergers and acquisitions. She also has an extensive counseling practice. This includes advising on discrimination and retaliation claims, executive hiring, terminations, performance plans, leaves of absence, and other policies, as well as restrictive covenants disputes. Ms. Duffy also conducts pay equity audits, workplace trainings, and internal investigations.
Arthur has developed brands for some of the most well known companies in the world, including Airbnb and Venmo. He spent six years working in Koto’s London studio, before relocating to New York in May 2022 to build and lead the agency’s newest office. Arthur frequently appears on many design and branding podcasts, and his work has been featured in leading industry publications including Brand New, and It’s Nice That. He is passionate about fostering talent and is often a guest speaker at colleges and design conferences.
Lisa Frusztajer is an active early stage investor focusing on companies led by under-represented founders. She started investing as a Pipeline Fellow, an LP with Converge Venture Partners and as a Lead Partner with the Portfolia Enterprise Fund. She also invests independently. Lisa is currently Investor in Residence at The Capital Network (TCN), where she built a mentorship program designed to create leadership opportunities for both mentors and mentees, and to address the power dynamic inherent in founder / investor interactions. Lisa speaks frequently on the founder journey and is a certified coach who helps founders to overcome obstacles to growing their businesses and becoming effective leaders. Lisa spent most of her career in technology, working in marketing, finance, engineering and project management. She has served on non-profit boards, mainly for educational institutions, and currently chairs the board for a small Cape Cod library.
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.
Sergey Gribov
Partner, Flint CapitalSergey Gribov is Partner at Flint Capital, an early-stage venture fund that invests across Israel, USA, and Europe. Sergey is an investor and board member at Socure, Cyolo, Sensi.ai, Quantori, and others. Sergey is a technology entrepreneur and investor with more than 20 years of experience. Over the years he participated as a founder or top manager in many startups in USA and Israel. Sergey has a lot of experience in IT, across such sectors as software development, cybersecurity, digital health, fintech, and others. Sergey holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management and B.Sc. in Computer Science, Cum Laude from Beer-Sheva University.
George is a distributed systems expert and a hands-on engineering leader with focus on delivering Enterprise cloud services at scale. He is a Director of Engineering at MongoDB, focusing on implementing cloud native technologies at enterprise scale. He is also a Managing Partner at Algorythm (wearealgorythm.com), a boutique innovation and startup consulting firm, and has led large scale transformation projects for enterprise and government customers. Previously, he was a Director of Cloud Platform Engineering, at Citrix Systems, leading the company’s cloud transition. In 2017 he co-founded Tradeline, a SaaS startup that disrupted the way global commodity trading works and was an innovator in enterprise blockchain technologies. In the past, he has worked as a venture partner for venture capital firms in the United Kingdom and Greece and currently is an advisor to early-stage startups, with a focus on cloud infrastructure products and enterprise SaaS. Most recently, he has been a speaker at global events like OpenSource Summit, Hashiconf, LeadDev, DeveloperWeek, and more, focusing on agile leadership, scaling engineering teams, and entrepreneurship.
Dan Hoffman
Partner, Latham & Watkins LLPDan Hoffman advises emerging and late-stage technology and life sciences companies throughout their life cycle, including on venture financings and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Hoffman advises companies on: • Early-stage formation and strategy • Seed, venture and growth financings • Mergers and acquisitions • Employment matters • Equity incentives • Securities law compliance • Corporate governance matters • University spin-outs He draws on extensive company-side experience and a sophisticated sense of the technology industry landscape to provide founders and management with commercial and actionable advice. Mr. Hoffman ranked best in class for Massachusetts Private Equity: Buyouts & Venture Capital Investment by Chambers USA 2017. Mr. Hoffman was named an Up and Coming Lawyer by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly in 2021, a distinction provided to rising stars of the local legal community. Mr. Hoffman was recognized by Legal 500 in 2021 as “a terrific advisor” and an “unbelievable hard worker [that] understands and simplifies very complex problems.”
David Jegen is managing partner of F-Prime Capital’s Tech Fund.
Ben Jennings is Chief Revenue Officer for Embroker, the leading insurance technology company that’s radically improving the way insurance works for businesses of all types and sizes. A seasoned global technology executive, Ben brings more than 25 years experience in sales, marketing, business development, customer success, alliances and M&A to the role. Ben is responsible for driving the company’s go to market lifecycle from top of funnel build, to new client acquisition, installed base retention, customer success engagement and expansion. Previously, Ben was Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer for ServiceSource (NASDAQ: SREV) responsible for the company’s global Sales, Solution Design and Business Development functions. During his 15+ years at ServiceSource, Ben led the company’s global expansion, founding and managing ServiceSource’s EMEA and APJ operations, and also held a variety of customer success and operational leadership positions in the company. Prior to ServiceSource, Ben held senior leadership positions at Jamcracker, Loudcloud (NASDAQ: LDCL), and Transition Networks. Centered on scaling organizations and driving revenue growth, Ben’s career also includes marketing, go to market strategy, product management, networking, M&A, and managed services.
Patrick Jones
Executive Director, Head of Partnerships and Ecosystem, Capital Connect by J.P. MorganPatrick Jones is Head of Partnerships and Ecosystem for Capital Connect by J.P. Morgan, a digital platform where private companies and investors can network, access proprietary benchmarking data, raise capital, and manage their cap table. Patrick began his career as a consultant and strategic advisor to private equity and venture investors. Prior to his current role, Patrick ran various innovation and FinTech initiatives for J.P. Morgan’s Investment Bank, including the foundational work that led to the creation of Capital Connect.
Meghan Joyce
Co-founder & CEO, stealth technology startupMeghan is the Co-Founder and CEO of a stealth technology startup. She previously served as EVP of Platform at Oscar Health (NYSE: OSCR), where she oversaw engineering, product, data, marketing, clinical, ops, and the company’s enterprise healthtech business. During her tenure, Meghan led a team of over 1,000 through +100% growth and IPO, and expanded access to Oscar tech and services to over 1 million members. Before joining Oscar, Meghan served in several leadership roles at Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: UBER), including the Regional General Manager of the United States & Canada. She formerly served the United States Department of Treasury as Senior Policy Advisor on Domestic Finance. She began her career at Bain Capital and Bain & Company. Meghan serves as Director and Chair of the Nominating and Governance Committee of The Boston Beer Company (NYSE: SAM), and Director of Guardant Health (NASDAQ: GH). She is a Member of the Board Executive Committee and Chair of the Talent & Culture Committee of WBUR, and a Member of the Board of Trustees at UP Education Network. Meghan previously served as Co-chair of the Boston Chapter of the Brookings Society and is a former Member of the Graduate Board of CityStep. Meghan attended Harvard College, graduating with her BA in the history of science in 2006 and her MBA from HBS in 2013.
Simon leads the brand strategy team at Koto’s New York studio, bringing an insight-led approach to every partnership and project. With a background in research and innovation, Simon ensures that we build brands from a place of deep understanding and empathy for both the customer and client. Over his 15 years of experience, he has defined strategy for businesses including Coinbase, Google, DailyPay, Meta, and Samsung.
Kerty Levy has been with Techstars since 2019 and has been the Managing Director of the Techstars Iowa and the Techstars Crypto Boston programs. She comes from a global background in entrepreneurial and intrepreneurial ventures, corporate executive leadership, and management consulting. She is passionate about helping entrepreneurs succeed and about technologies that make the world a better place.
Josh Machiz is a Partner at Redpoint Ventures. Before joining the firm in 2021, Josh was Chief Digital Officer at Nasdaq where he had a front-row seat to the growth and expansion of generation-defining companies.
Ginny oversees venture investing and platform strategies for 1Sharpe Ventures (1SV). Prior to 1SV, Ginny led Ventures at Jamestown, a $12Bn real estate private equity firm. She has also worked on real estate technology initiatives at Apple, Fifth Wall Ventures, and Harvard University after starting her career in product design. Ginny received her MBA from Harvard Business School and studied Engineering at Dartmouth.
Alex is the Managing Director of the brand strategy and design studio, Koto New York. Alex has over fifteen years of experience in brand and advertising in both London and New York. He has led rebranding efforts for some of the biggest and most complex companies in the world, including American Express, Delta Air Lines, Grubhub / Seamless and Wells Fargo. Alex partners closely with all of Koto New York’s clients to ensure that they get the very best of the studio at every turn.
Olga Polunina
Executive Director, Private Capital Markets, Capital Connect by J.P. MorganOlga is a senior member of the Private Capital Markets team at J.P. Morgan based in New York. She has spent her career across Private Capital Markets, Investment Banking Coverage and Equity Capital Markets in London and New York, and has worked on over $100bn in transactions including a number of landmark deals in the industry. Olga started her career in Morgan Stanley’s Equity Capital Markets team and has been with J.P. Morgan since 2010. Olga holds an MA(Hons) in Economics from the University of Cambridge.
Kyle leads OpenView’s Growth Team, responsible for advising portfolio executives on strategies to increase revenue growth and dominate their markets. He specializes in pricing & packaging strategy, which is the most effective yet overlooked growth lever at a SaaS company’s disposal. He’s an expert in product-led growth (PLG), go-to-market strategy, usage-based business models and SaaS benchmarks. Subscribe to his newsletter, Growth Unhinged, at kylepoyar.substack.com.
Amber Quiñones is a former fitness instructor and startup operator turned VC. In her current role as the Head of Platform & Operations at BBG Ventures, Amber is the connective tissue between founders, investors, and senior operators, working to source and grow women- and BIPOC-founded businesses while increasing fund value. Prior to joining BBGV, Amber led Growth & Customer Success on the founding team of the proptech startup, withco — developing the company’s early product and customer journey. As a Stanford d.school grad, Amber cares deeply about user experience and service design; and her personal mission is to elevate diverse leaders creating delightful, need-solving products that support underestimated communities.
Stephen Ranere
Partner, Latham & Watkins LLPStephen Ranere is a partner in the Boston office of Latham & Watkins and a member of the firm’s Emerging Companies & Growth Practice. He represents both public and private companies, along with venture capital firms involved in the technology and life sciences industries. Mr. Ranere’s practice focuses on a broad range of legal representation, including general corporate counseling, early stage company formation and strategy, initial through late stage venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, public securities offerings, and public company representation. Mr. Ranere was a member of the Suffolk University Law Review and was awarded the Daniel J. Fern Award for highest grade point average. Prior to law school, Mr. Ranere held business development positions with Sophos, a provider of network anti-virus solutions, and CipherTrust (later acquired by McAfee), a provider of email and internet security products.
Spencer Ricks
Partner, Latham & WatkinsSpencer Ricks advises entrepreneurs, start-ups, and emerging companies in the technology, life sciences, and clean energy sectors from formation through all stages of growth and beyond. Mr. Ricks advises and guides companies throughout the entire corporate life cycle, including in: • Early-stage formation and strategy • Venture capital financings • Other debt and equity financings • Employment matters • Commercial and strategic transactions • Securities law compliance • Mergers and acquisitions • Public offerings He also regularly represents mature companies in strategic investments and commercial collaborations. In addition to his practice, Mr. Ricks is involved in the local community, including representing, on a pro bono basis, asylum petitioners, U visa applicants, and survivors of domestic violence seeking refuge in the United States. He has also served as Massachusetts Chair of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society and as a member of the Boston Bar Association’s Private Equity & Venture Capital Conference Committee.
Ishan is a General Partner at Deciens Capital. He has worked across financial services & fintech as an investor and operator, and is passionate about finding the next generation of transformative fintech companies. Before joining Deciens, Ishan was a growth equity investor & early member of the portfolio operations team at PSG Equity. He was previously a venture capital investor at Bain Capital Ventures, a proprietary trader at Goldman Sachs, and a co-founder of MIT Alumni Angels, the only angel group affiliated with MIT. He was also an executive at iPay Technologies, a Bain Capital Ventures and Spectrum Equity-backed payments company, playing a key role in its acquisition by Jack Henry & Associates. Ishan received his MBA from Harvard Business School, where he graduated with distinction. While at Harvard, he spent time as a policy advisor in the Office of Capital Markets at the US Department of the Treasury, focusing on topics related to the global financial crisis. Ishan also holds M.Eng. and S.B. degrees from MIT, both in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Jacqueline Samira is the CEO and founder of Howdy. Jacqueline has over 15 years experience driving sales, building great teams, and exponentially increasing revenue across a variety of industries. She has a passion for creating processes that promote efficiency, increase revenue, foster employee happiness, and drive a human-first culture that puts well-being above all else. She previously headed up sales and operation teams for three different YCombinator companies and after making those companies lots of money and identifying many inefficiencies, decided to start Howdy.
Matt Segneri is the Bruce and Bridgitt Evans Executive Director of the Harvard Innovation Labs, which includes the student i-lab, Launch Lab X GEO for alumni, and the Pagliuca Harvard Life Lab. He oversees the i-lab’s strategy and operations and acts as the primary liaison to the i-lab’s key stakeholders and the local, national, and global innovation community. He has 20+ years of leadership experience in organizations of different sizes and stages of development across the private, public, and non-profit sectors. Prior to joining the i-lab, he was the Director of the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative. During that time, he served as co-lead of the HBS New Venture Competition and played a key role in developing the proposal that established the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative. Previously, he was a senior leader on the Government Innovation team at Bloomberg Philanthropies. He co-led the inaugural Mayors Challenge, a $9 million competition to inspire American cities to develop bold solutions to common challenges, and oversaw initiatives on cross-sector collaboration and innovation teams around the world He holds an A.B. in Psychology from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He was recognized by the Boston Business Journal as one of Boston’s “40 Under 40” and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce as one of Boston’s “Ten Outstanding Young Leaders.” He is the Vice Chair of the National Board of Directors for Generation Citizen and serves as an advisor to New Politics and Project 351. He lives in Newton with his wife and three children.
Naomi Smith
Associate, Latham & Watkins LLPNaomi Smith is an associate in the Boston office of Latham & Watkins and a member of the Emerging Companies & Growth Practice. Ms. Smith represents startups and other emerging growth companies at all stages in a broad range of transactions including: • Venture capital financings • General corporate formation and governance matters • Debt and equity securities offerings • Mergers and acquisitions • Private equity investments She advises clients on a variety of transactions within the technology, healthcare, and life sciences industries, in addition to a number of leading venture capital firms. While in law school, Ms. Smith served as managing editor of the Northeastern University Law Review.
Madison Sowards
Senior Community Manager, MassChallengeMadison Sowards, Senior Community Manager at MassChallenge (MC), is dedicated to bridging gaps within the innovation ecosystem by facilitating relationships between entrepreneurs and a global network of experts, mentors, and corporate, governmental, and academic partners.
In her current role, Madison is responsible for cultivating the local MC Boston and Providence innovation community and MC’s global network of innovators through events, mentorship, speaking engagements, judging opportunities, and community partnerships. Madison spearheads MC’s US alumni relations, expert engagement, and ecosystem partner strategy. In her time at MassChallenge, Madison has also been responsible for driving meaningful relationships with the MC Partner network to meet corporate innovation goals and increase revenue growth as Partnership Success Manager. Coming from a background in marketing communications and experience at Glen Raven, Wray Ward, and Elon University’s Global Education Center, Madison is passionate about leveraging the power of community to bolster brand awareness and customer loyalty.
Neesha Tambe
Startup Battlefield Editor, TechcrunchNeesha A. Tambe recruited, sourced, vetted and trained startup founders from across the globe for TechCrunch’s global startup competition, Startup Battlefield. Passionate about scaling products and programs to new markets domestically and internationally, Neesha ran startup programs in Berlin, San Francisco, Latin America, Middle East North Africa and Sub Saharan Africa. Additionally, Neesha managed the Startup Battlefield Alumni Community and founded CrunchMatch, TechCrunch’s investor-startup matching program. Neesha wrote her thesis on Sustainability and has a dual degree in Sociology and Political Science from Georgetown University. She also has an AA from De Anza Community College. She’s passionate about social justice, civic engagement, carbon capture and reformer pilates.
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.
Liza Vilnits is the founder and CEO of Beyond Trending, a boutique public relations agency that specializes in helping startups and VCs increase their exposure through powerful storytelling. The agency’s clients have been featured in TechCrunch, Fortune, Forbes, WSJ and many others. From publicly-traded cybersecurity companies to vegan pet food brands, Liza has led PR campaigns for B2B and B2C clients, large and small, for more than a decade. Prior to founding Beyond Trending in 2020, she honed her communications and media relations skills at agencies including PR Hacker, Momentum Marketing and CHEN PR. She also provided marketing and communications support to nonprofits like The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and The Nature Conservancy. Liza sits on the board of IMPACT, a Charleston nonprofit that mentors youth through exposure and experiences, and she frequently fundraises for local and national organizations. When she’s not working to get her client featured in the press, you can usually find her at the beach with her husband and daughter, enjoying live music or daydreaming about her next international adventure.
As a partner at Building Ventures, Heather Widman spearheads the firm’s investment activities within the real estate and real estate tech community. She utilizes 15+ years of operating experience to advise portfolio companies in go-to-market and product strategy. She is active throughout the ecosystem at organizations, including CREtech, MITdesignX, and AllRaise, and she serves on the advisory committee of Women In PropTech.
Russ Wilcox is a general partner at Pillar, a seed stage VC firm in Boston. Russ comes to VC after a career as a serial entrepreneur. He is an Ernst & Young New England Entrepreneur of the Year, a Mass High Tech All-Star, a Venture Partner at the Harvard Business School, and an instructor on entrepreneurship for Harvard SEAS. He was previously CEO of E Ink, a company he co-founded to commercialize electronic paper materials invented at the MIT Media Lab. E Ink conducted ground-breaking research and shipped tens of millions of displays for the Amazon Kindle, SONY Reader, B&N Nook and other devices. In 2009 he sold the company for $480 million. Russ also co-founded Transatomic Power, a project to develop safer and cleaner nuclear energy, and Piper Therapeutics, pursuing a preclinical target for immuno-oncology. He graduated with honors in Applied Mathematics from Harvard College and was a Baker Scholar at Harvard Business School.
Pae is a General Partner at SOSV and CTO at IndieBio, where she is responsible for portfolio management and technical oversight. Pae has invested in high risk solutions to intractable problems in both government and corporate contexts. She applies rigorous science and engineering to transform emerging technologies into solutions for national defense, humanity, and the planet. She is especially passionate about bridging engineered materials and systems to biology. Prior to joining IndieBio, Pae served as the Scientific Director of Telefónica’s moonshot factory – Alpha (Barcelona), Science Director at the US Office of Naval Research – Global (Singapore), and technical consultant at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). She holds degrees in Electrical Engineering from Duke (PhD) and Princeton (BS).
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