Jean-Pierre launched his first business, Touche de Finesse, when he was only 19. A profitable high-end French catering company that serviced NY Fashion shows, the United Nations, and many more. 

In 2016, he built Wheeli, the leading carpooling network for college students. He took Wheeli through Techstars and received venture backing.

Jon is Co-Founder & Managing Director of Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (ERA), one of the leading technology accelerators and venture capital funds in New York City.

Since launching in 2011, ERA has invested in >200 companies. Jon was previously Co-Founder & Co-CEO of MusicGremlin, a venture-backed startup sold to SanDisk.

Cheryl is a director at Republic, a one-stop-shop for founders to raise capital from both accredited and non-accredited investors. She is focused on introducing underrepresented founders to these alternative funding sources in order to help their startups thrive.

In addition, Cheryl works on partnerships with other venture capital and ecosystem builders while supporting the growing Republic portfolio of 140 companies.

Brad has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur for >30 years. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and founded Intensity Ventures.

Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars. He has written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series and writes the blogs Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals.

Adele is a sought after communications expert and has recently spoken at the UN twice. She is a pioneer in the science of timing for brands and corporate communicators.

Many of Adele's innovative insights are covered in her 2015 book, SPIKE Your Brand ROI. She is a recurring contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Inc. and Forbes.

Nathan Gold, aka The Demo Coach, hails from the San Francisco Bay Area where he spends his days coaching people around the world on how to prepare for high-stakes speaking opportunities and how to harness speaking anxiety. 

He does this through keynotes, workshops, and 1:1 sessions, both in person and online. 

Jared has over a decade of Venture Capital experience. He heads up the institutional sales efforts at AngelList, the leading platform for finding startup jobs, investments, and product launches.

Prior to joining AngelList, Jared led venture investments for one of Canada's largest family offices.

Hadley is a Founding GP at Eniac Ventures. He began his career as an engineer & dev team lead at Pegasystems, and later served as a product manager at Microsoft and strategist at Samsung.

Hadley previously worked on product, strategy & marketing at Vlingo (sold to Nuance for $225m). 

Melody is a Partner at NextView Ventures. She previously served as Head of Product at Blue Apron, which she helped scale through hyper-growth (25x in 3.5 years) to its IPO.

Melody previously was a Product Manager at Fab.com, and founded a wine subscription business. She has an MBA, with distinction, from Harvard Business School.

Denisha joined Grasshopper in 2019 and is a relationship manager in the early stage practice. Prior to joining Grasshopper Bank, Denisha worked at Silicon Valley Bank focused on founders in New York.

Denisha is first-generation Ghanaian American and writes a weekly newsletter on artist/fan relationships called Stan.

As a Partner at 500 Startups (2014-2019), Marvin focused on the company's San Francisco Accelerator and Seed Investment Fund, and sat on the Investment Committee for 500's Main Global Funds 3 and 4.

He currently sits on the Board of numerous AdTech companies around the world. 

Kat is a Partner at Y Combinator where she participates in funding & supporting >400 startups per year. She's been at YC since 2013 and has seen over 1,000 companies go through the program.

Previously, Kat was Chief of Staff to Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of reddit. Prior to that, she was at WIRED Magazine. Kat graduated from Northwestern University.

Chip is a former FBI Special Agent Hostage/Crisis Negotiator and crisis communications subject matter expert with over 22 years of experience. He has a proven skill set derived from the actual high stakes world of crisis negotiations and critical communications.

Chip has trained federal, state and local law enforcement, c-suite executives, and non-profit organizations in these principles.

Slava is Co-founder & Managing Partner at humbition, an early-stage operators venture fund. Slava is also Co-founder of Vincent, an online platform to discover and diligence alternative investments.

Slava previously founded Indiegogo, a leading crowdfunding platform. He represented the crowdfunding industry at the White House during the signing of the JOBS Act & helped bring equity crowdfunding to the US.

Irene Ryabaya is the founder and CEO of Warmintro. Warmintro is a SaaS platform that empowers marketplaces of professional connection. Irene is an expert on community, connection and diversity in tech.

Before Warmintro, Irene started her career at Goldman Sachs and spent a decade on Wall St. before founding the Monarq Incubator for women entrepreneurs.

Jorge is a venture capital investor and attorney who works in higher education at Yale University. He was on the founding team at Silas Capital, where he invested in early-stage consumer brands and completed a Kauffman Fellowship.

Jorge also serves as Chairman of the Board of HBCUvc, a non-profit whose mission is to increase racial and ethnic diversity in venture capital.

Craig is the Chief Executive Officer of Vaughan Capital Advisors. He has spent 19 years executing commercial and strategic transactions at the intersection of media & technology. He has closed >$5bn in transaction volume.

Craig previously worked at Goldman Sachs, Creative Artists Agency, 21st Century Fox and Sony Pictures. He was a founding advisor to the Queens Bridge Fund.

Joey's goal is to positively impact 1 billion people by the year 2039. Part startup coach, part super-connector, he is the Founder of Goodie Nation, Amplify 4 Good, and Co-Founder of the Atlanta Black Tech initiative. 

Joey received his MBA from Florida A&M University in the Spring of 2003. He is Labs Manager for WeWork Labs' Atlanta office.