152 Startup Battle in Silicon Valley, July 31 2019

Startup Director and Product Manager at GSVlabs. He leads the company’s development of startup resources and the Passport platform. Additionally, Slater manages GSVlabs Maverick Accelerator, a custom 2-year accelerator that leads to early stage technology companies through major strategic initiatives such as fundraising, go to market strategies and product development. As Startup Director Slater built and launched the GSVlabs Investor Forum, a network of over 450 venture capitalists from all over the world. The network includes investors from A16Z, Battery Ventures, Venrock, Lightspeed and Sequoia. Since its launch in 2016, the Investor Forum has helped facilitate over 150 investor introductions and led to millions in funding for startups in the GSVlabs network. Slater is also an investing partner with the Maverick Fund, an early-stage angel syndicate that partners with audacious early-stage founders taking on big ideas. The fund has made 14 investments over 2 years with 83% of the portfolio companies receiving follow on funding with one exit. Prior to joining GSVlabs, Slater helped run a non-profit accelerator based in San Luis Obispo with the goal of helping Cal Poly students start businesses.

Venture Partner at Network.VC; Partner at Quantum Wave Fund.

Partner, CFO at Hone Capital. Purvi has over 20 years of experience in CFO roles in the international investment management industry, across Silicon Valley and Asia, along with startup company experience. Through her roles as CFO at H&Q Asia Pacific (spin-out from JP Morgan Chase), Taiyo Pacific and Allegis Capital, Purvi was involved in private equity, venture capital, public equities/hedge funds, and distressed assets. As CFO of healthcare informatics start-up MedVantage, she helped lead the company through a Series A round at a valuation of $30M, and scaled it from 12 to 60 employees prior to its acquisition by IMS. Beyond core CFO expertise, Purvi has in-depth experience in capital raising and operational expansion in Asia, and has served as a strategic advisor and board member to startups in the US and Asia. Purvi started her career at Deloitte and also worked at Charles Schwab. Purvi holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from UC Berkeley. She passed the CPA exam in the State of California.

Venture Partner at 500 Startups running the blockchain program, mentor/advisor for Cardinal Ventures, Stanford iFarm, and Stanford's Treehacks program as well as an executive advisor for over 15 funded startups, and previously held the position of Executive in Residence at Quest Venture Partners. Previously Robert was an executive for startups having founded or worked at eight companies with four exits. Robert was CEO for the last two venture-funded start-ups, also maintain a broad domain of expertise, having held leadership positions in products, marketing, and operations. Academic credentials include a BA, BS, MS, and MBA degree from Stanford, Wesleyan, and Santa Clara.

LP in Blumberg Capital Fund III and a Managing Director at Golden Seeds. Marisa is a startup investor in 25 startups including RenovoRx, Merge, Namogoo, Kreditech Holding SSL GambH, FundBox Ltd, FeeX Wisdom of the Crowds, Inc. Trulioo Information Services Ltd., WunderCar Mobility Solutions GabH, Yotpo Ltd, Seek Mobile Ltd., Sqream Technologies Ltd., Seek Mobile Ltd., Roam Analytics, SimplyCredit Inc., Arcadia Data, BioCatch, Ltd, Zibby, Inc. Acquired startups are Cyvera by Palo Alto Networks and Zooz (acquired by PayU). She has an undergraduate degree in Microbiology, a law degree (member of the California State Bar) and a broker’s real estate license (licensed by the California Department of Real Estate).

Venture Partner at Grishin Robotics | Managing Partner, Founder at Strive Capital. Grishin Robotics is a series A and B Sand Hill firm focused on Smart Hardware with investments in companies such as Zume Pizza, Starship, Zipline, Spin, Yellow, Ring and others. He is also the Managing Partner & Founder of Strive Capital, the San Francisco Bay area's first quant micro-VC firm, now focused on "deep" AI and Blockchain, with investments in companies like AppAnnie, KeepSafe and Gusto. He has had a 22 year career in Tech as a Product Manager, Operator, Investor and Board member in the Bay area, Europe and Asia, and was previously a Senior Expert and member of the Asia-Pacific leadership team at McKinsey & Co, based in Beijing. He is a frequent speaker at some of the world’s top Technology and Internet events.

Partner at Tackett Bartlett LLP. Berkeley City Councilmember and Fmr. Vice Mayor Ben Bartlett is a nationally recognized policy leader. Since 2016, Ben has passed more than 60 measures focused on innovation, opportunity, and inclusion, including: - Prefabricated Housing for the Homeless; - Health Innovation Zone; - Electric Vehicle Infrastructure; - Telemedical adoption; - Unionized Jobs in Robotics and Automation. Ben is currently working to integrate government and Blockchain through public finance, currencies, and personal data markets. Ben authored Berkeley’s Tokenized Debt Offering (Berkeley ICO) using blockchain technology to issue bonds. He is author of the Smart Path Blockchain investment and policy thesis. Professionally, Ben is a partner in Tackett Bartlett LLP where he provides counsel for Blockchain entrepreneurs, governments, and venture funds.

Senior Director, KPMG’s Emerging Technology Practice. Jules leads the business development efforts for KPMG’s Emerging Technology Practice in the Bay area and Pacific Northwest, focusing on creating and expanding relationships with VC-backed technology companies. He works closely with early-stage startups as well as mature private companies approaching IPO. He has spent his 20+ year professional career in financial services working for companies such as Bank of America, Robert Half and Textron Financial. Most recently, Jules was a Principal with Ravix Group, providing finance/accounting and HR solutions for early-stage companies. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Connecticut and his MBA from Middlebury College.

Vice President at Fusion Fund. Carol has extensive experience in US and Asian capital markets. Prior to joining Fusion Fund, she was a Senior Investment Banking Associate at Deutsche Bank and CITIC Securities International for a total of over five years. During this time, she participated in or completed more than 15 IPO/M&A/Bond/pre-IPO investment transactions. Carol holds a M.B.A. degree from Columbia Business School, a M.S. in Financial Mathematics and Statistics from HKUST and a B.S. in Mathematics from Peking University.

CEO & Co-Founder at Travonde | Angel Investor and Advisor at Astia. A 15 year Apple Alumnus managing global operations/supply chain launching Apple’s iconic products & services and co-created many groundbreaking Inclusion and Diversity initiatives such as the recently announced Apple Entrepreneur Camp. She is now the Founder of Travonde, a leisure and entertainment platform for baby boomers and their families powered by AI and machine learning. She also acts as an Astia Advisor and Astia Angel investing in women-led ventures targeting above-market investment returns.

Investor. Investment Executive. Advisory Board Member at Main Management, LLC. Advisory Board Member at Cavendish Global. Experienced executive with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services and technology industries. Skilled in Capital Raising, Business Development, Angel Investing, Asset Management, and Hedge Funds. Strong entrepreneurship professional with a B.Eng focused in Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Honors Degree from University of Surrey.

Partner / Chief Marketing Officer at Andra Capital LLC. Nicole DeMeo is an accomplished business launch, growth, scaling and turnaround expert. As a Partner at Andra Capital, fractional CMO (Chief Marketing Officer), go-to-market strategist, and advisor Nicole works closely with executive teams and boards to guide strategy and growth. A Silicon Valley veteran and global citizen leading teams across the world, she has developed strategies and guided companies and funds through multiple phases of their lifecycles for over 20 years. She has provided business strategy, fundraising expertise, brand positioning, messaging, go-to-market strategies and marketing for Fortune 500 companies including Apple, HP and Accenture and has expanded on those roles for many high visibility start-ups and venture capital funds. In her career she has helped to raise over $500MM in private and public markets, as a part of executive teams, an advisor or board member. Her participation in over 50 company launches – including four of her
 own – created significantly increased valuations, acquisitions and IPOs. Nicole has served as brand ambassador and marketing strategist for industry leaders such as Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt and Carly Fiorina (with great stories from those days). A few notable start-up companies she has worked with include Real Names, When.com, Peak Games, EyeEm and as CMO for of Glispa Global Group. Nicole has worked with several venture funds and incubators including Earlybird Venture Capital, Hitfox Group and most recently as the Partner and CMO of Andra Capital ($1B fund democratizing VC late-stage technology investments via the Blockchain.) She is currently advising and providing C-level strategy to high growth funds and startups including i2Chain, Barnraiser and Hannah Systems.\\r\\n\\r\\nFueled by her desires to give back, she has also worked with some major non-profit organizations including The September 11th Fund, New York Community Trust, American Red Cross, and more and has served on the Boards of Chop’s Teen Center and The Sonoma Valley Film Festival. She is a frequent public speaker and has been profiled in the media getting involved with several organizations (e.g. UPWARD, Tech Bay Area Advocates, How Women Lead) that are in support of mentoring, diversity, female founders and investors. \\r\\n\\r\\nShe is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and in all her spare time she delights in making wine and helping people celebrate life as the owner of Media Luna Vineyards (Mendoza, Argentina) with her award-winning, delicious wines distributed in the Bay Area.

Principal at HACK Fund. Civil engineer and Commercial Diver from Venezuela. Relationship in business development in Latam for H/F. Developed my own 100k fund, Capital Kreation, in 2017. Focus in growing Startups Ecosystems in LATAM.

Partner at Emergent Ventures and focuses on seed and early-stage investments in transformative startups in the AI, Data, Cloud and Smart Mobility spaces. Anupam has led or played a substantive role in over 15 successful technology investments globally, ranging from early to expansion stage, and several large exits. Prior to Emergent, Anupam founded NX Partners to help high-potential SaaS companies accelerate growth rates and outcomes, and worked closely with half a dozen startups across the enterprise landscape. Previously, Anupam held investing roles of increasing responsibility at NGP Capital, a global venture firm with $1.2B+ AUM. At NGP Capital, Anupam led the Intelligent Enterprise investing team, identifying and investing in companies at the intersection of data, IoT and machine intelligence. Earlier, he helped drive the firm’s smart mobility and logistics investment practice. Prior to his investing career, Anupam spent several years in the mobile, enterprise and data analytics spaces, bringing to market four new products, setting up a big data analytics stack in a Fortune 100 environment, and authoring five international patents and publications. Anupam holds Computer Science degrees from IIT Delhi and UT Austin, an MBA from The Wharton School, and studied Technology Commercialization at MIT. He can be reached via Twitter at @anupamr.

Managing General Partner at Atheneos Ventures | Executive Chairman at Helios Orion | CEO at Auxesia Orion. Ken is biotech executive with significant experience in successfully setting-up and securing capital for multiple companies from an idea. \r\n\r\nExperience: Start-up, investment + growth, M&A, licensing, business strategy, rapid+capital efficient pharma. R&D, product development, IP, digital systems.

Managing Partner at Bay Angels | Partner at Andra Capital. Jordan partners with startups and investors to grow, scale, fundraise and achieve their objectives through operations, fundraising, business development, product development, and team leadership. As an experienced leader and advisor, he assists or leads in business operations and development, market growth, org transformation, and customer management. As a Partner at Andra Capital, and Bay Angels’ Managing Partner, Jordan has a strong network of resources and SMEs along with a varied portfolio of startups companies. His engagements include VCs, Angels groups, Accelerators, and Corp VC in Silicon Valley, across USA, Korea, Dubai, Brazil, MENA region, and EC. With 20+ years’ hands-on and leadership experience, he is quite skilled in engineering, business, SW development, IT, Hi-Tech, customer management, AI, Big Data/Analytics, Industrial IoT, and manufacturing.

A partner at Mighty Capital where he backs founders who are building products that transform lives and create value at scale. He was previously a a principal at Bradford Equities Management LLC, a middle market private equity firm in New York. Before that, he was a research analyst at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC. When not working with start-ups, Erwin serves as a board member of two education non-profits.

Vice-President of Business Development at TalentSeer - a specialized AI Talent Partner dedicated to building and nurturing AI teams for companies at various growth stages. In her role, Laffan is leading the development of new partnerships to accelerate the expansion of TalentSeer’s AI talent ecosystem. Additionally, Margaret is a Venture Partner with BoomingStart Ventures, a $1.5b fund focused on AI, Robotics and Autonomous Driving early-stage startup companies. Over the course of her expansive career, she has spent 9+ years at Software giant SAP culminating in her role driving Sales and Business Development for SAP\'s AI solutions. More recently Laffan was Client Executive at AllyO, an end-to-end AI recruiter with automated and conversational engagement platform. She holds a Master’s Degree in Political Science from the University of Dublin, and has 15+ years working in Industry, non-profit and start-up sector. Laffan is published on Forbes and contributes to other media.

Manager of Business Development at SoftBank Telecom America Corp.

Community Partner for Fintech Connector. A technology professional working on digital and business transformation projects across a range of technologies to resolve client problems. In her role as Community Partner for Fintech Connector for the San Francisco Bay Area she is vested in connecting professionals, organizations, and entrepreneurs in local communities to collaborate on ideas and bringing fintech innovation to a global audience.

Angel Investor. Ashish has made angel investments in 10+ companies since 2014. IntelliVision, acquired by Nortek. Authy, acquired by Twilio. Cirrosecure, acquired by Palo Alto Networks. Minjar, acquired by Nutanix. MakeLeaps acquired by Ricoh. Strikedeck acquired by Medallia. He is part of Board of Advisors of Joveo as a technical advisor. He was a judge and a panelist at the pitching event at Venture Summit West 2019, Startup Battle 144, Startup Battle 152, Private Investor Summit 2019, and Pitch Global pitching events. He blogs about security, books, and programming at https://ashishb.net.

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Investor, 6X Tech Entrepreneur, Serial Business Builder, Tech Visionary, Inventor, Public Speaker, Author for 19 plus years. Vince is High Impact Super Angel Investor based in Silicon Valley, Global Venture Mentor Maker, Enterprise Blockchain Product Design Development Expert, Enterprise Software Cloud Innovator, Social Enterprise Innovation for Purposeful Community, Tech Startup Hyperscale Advisor, Corporate Startup Scaleup Venture Mentor, Capital Markets, Investor Relations with Multibillions Dollar Funds, High Frequency Trader at Wall Street, Product Strategist, Visionary Design Thinker, Expertise in Innovative Scalable Business Models, Open Systems, Scaling Technology for Social Innovation, Non-profits focused on Social Good, Data Storytelling, and Pilanthropreneurologist. Vince is High Impact Venture Mentor Maker in Silicon Valley for Global StartUps and ScaleUps Ecosystem, SAP recognized and awarded SAP Mentor Award, and Vince Pioneered the first ever Corporate Mentorship Award a Highly Prestigious recognition by Enterprise Software Company, SAP, based in Palo Alto in the Heart of Silicon Valley. Vince is Silicon Valley Inventor of 'Problem Thinking' with proven understanding of Failing Fast vs. Exponential Failure working with Silicon Valley Accelerators, Incubators, Venture Builders, Venture Studios, Enterprise Companies, Corporate Innovation to Empower Corporate Entrepreneurs, and Global Corporate Venture Capital firms. After Extensive Experience working with Early Stage Founders, and Contributing his Time with Deep Silicon Valley Mentorship, Vince has achieved this Revolutionary Rapid Prototyping Investor Pitching Method termed as "Seven Second StartUp and ScaleUp Value Pitch". This New Inventive Transformative Capability is a very promising opportunity to conduct that mission in an affordable, and very scalable manner which courageously contributes to inclusivity for every Builder, Entrepreneur, Creators, Engineer’s, Business Owner, Early Stage Founder and Founders who have previously raised capital, in an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem. Specific to Very Early Stage Tech and Non Tech StartUp Founders Vince has invented 7 Second High Valuable Pitch, a Driving Power for Budding Very Early Stage Founders to Pitch with Investors, with an intelligent framework how Q of Q (Quality of Question) leads to P of P (Prototype to Product) to have a super powerful impatful question of why the StartUp would accelerate and succeed in a very long run and get the valuable return to the Investment. Vince is author of new book - Trillion Dollar Question. In 2016, Vince invented concept of Decentralized Thinking focused on the Blockchain Intelligence and helping venture backed Enterprise Blockchain companies in various verticals like MedTech, AgTech, FinTech, EnergyTech, EdTech, Patent Tech, and SpaceTech. Vince's all round international technology business experience as an execution architect with Accenture, SAP Expert Mentor, three times silicon valley tech founder, serial entrepreneur, social entrepreneurship coach, super angel investor, product designer and corporate strategist makes him a sought after startup business design advisor / mentor at YC (ycombinator.com), Google, Stanford University, Singularity, Launch, IBM, StartX, AngelHack, Google4StartUps, 500 StartUps, Innovation Catalyst at UCSF for digital health + hardware and software design for medical devices, corporate startup innovation at Honda Innovation, Samsung Tech Impact, Corporate Ventures with HP Ventures, and Samsung NEXT Ventures, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Venture Lab - IE Business School, Plug and Play, Silicon Valley. Vince is StartUp Judge at NASA, Google, IBM, Stanford, StartX, Draper University, Founder Institute, Founders Space, California State University, UC Berkeley, and MIT. Vince has BS Information Science with CS major, and MBA from Top Business School in the US, with Investments and Securities at Harvard University. Vince Kohli is life “changing” coach on Big Mission to Impact Billion Entrepreneurs with Global Professional Business Venture Mentorship Maker, and has contributed Mentorship to the community of 5,663 (five thousand six hundred and sixty third team) Silicon Valley Mentoring Mentee Founder’s team at Stanford as on April 2020, and contributed Mentorship to the community totaling to 5,666 (five thousand six hundred and sixty six team) Silicon Valley Mentee Founder’s Team as of April 21, 2020. Vince’s Inspiring Initiative of Massive and Unstoppable Business Creation Platform termed as "Impact Billion Lives" is Silicon Valley High Impact Human Initiative with a Vision of World Impact and Intellectual Curiosity. Impact Billion Lives is a Silicon Valley High Impact Invite-only Mentorship Initiative with an Exponential Vision of World Entrepreneurial Exponential Impact to ScaleUp Entrepreneurial Thinking, Business Entrepreneurship, Corporate Entrepreneurial Thinking, Value Innovation, Impactful Invention, Accelerate Global Expansion for Startup Founders to promote an inclusive future, innovate for human needs, with deep understanding of the emerging dynamics in global markets, to serve ambitious community be able to thrive, and creating an empathetic blueprint for the future of sustainable business growth, with caring culture, to be built on core purpose.

StartersHub US and Startupbootcamp Scale San Francisco Managing Director. Cigdem Toraman has significant experience in entrepreneurship, marketing, sales, technology, media, finance, retail and venture capital. She has consistently played leading roles in eight different corporate companies in her career of 30 years. Currently, Cigdem Toraman also has responsibilities as a business advisor to an executive board member of several startups (Monument, Segmentify, Cabture, Teleporter, Wisboo, Smart Mimic, Sixa, Eventbaxx, Meditopia, Thread In Motion, Poltio, Kimola). She teaches classes on marketing, e-commerce, digital and social media, business development, sales and entrepreneurship at several universities and corporate companies.

Founder at Pitch Global Network of Networks | Mentor at Alchemist Accelerator. Kaustav Chaudhuri (KC) is an author, speaker, advisor, and thought leader. He is the founder of Pitch Globally, with chapters in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and London. KC has a vast and profound knowledge of the ecosystem of startups. He has built a colossal network of key people that spans the entire value chain of startups in the heart of Silicon Valley. KC was part of a team of Silicon Valley experts who wrote “The First Mile” (John Wiley), a book on entrepreneurship commissioned by TIE, largest organization of entrepreneurs in the world. He is also the author of “Design Your Mindset” which is in the editing stage. Prior to the world of startups, he worked for large multinational companies like HCL Technologies, TCG Software ( outsourcing arm of PE& VC Fund affiliated to George Soros) etc. KC is also a long term Executive Committee Member of the Leukemia& Lymphoma Society. Currently he focusing on expanding Pitch Global’s training program and strengthening Pitch Global’s online presence to intensify bootcamp style training program, to streamline the seed/early stage investment process in a more organised manner.

Investor at Infinity Ventures, Cavalry Ventures, Unlock Venture Partners, 500 Startups and Nest Ventures. Founder and CEO of PIABO. PR leader & value-adding investor driving global market ownership for entrepreneurs and challenger brands. At Infinity Ventures, we strive to create venture companies with infinite possibilities. We bridge Japan, the second largest global economy and China, the world's growth engine, to support the birth of new ventures. Cavalry Ventures aims at supporting young companies as well as facilitating their development into global market leaders by connecting the expertise of successful founders, investors and mentors. Unlock Venture Partners is a venture capital firm focused on early-stage technology investments in Seattle and Los Angeles. Specific areas of focus include digital media, SaaS, fintech and video, with particular emphasis on the utilization of ML, AI and data by potential portfolio companies. 500 Startups is a venture capital firm on a mission to discover and back the world’s most talented entrepreneurs, help them create successful companies at scale, and build thriving global ecosystems. Nest Ventures invests in early stage technology startups and founders. We invest in founders who are passionate about challenging the status quo and affecting positive change.