Alexandra Debow
Alexandra Debow is the Co-Founder/CEO of swsh, the social app that strengthens the relationships that matter to you. She is a Canadian born and raised in Hong Kong. Previously, she worked on GGV Capital's infrastructure investment team. She worked at Alibaba's Entrepreneurial Program in HangZhou. During Covid, she built Alive Vibe, a virtual events marketplace for Gen Zs. In Shanghai, she built Entrepreneurs in Action, a founders’ dinner series, The Entrepre女ers Network, a women entrepreneurs podcast network, and The WHY WAIT? Collective, China’s first Gen-Z led women entrepreneurship conference. Alexandra studied Computer Engineering at NYU Tandon and Data Science at NYU Shanghai.
Amy Levin
Amy Levin is a partner at Breakthrough Campaigns and Benenson Strategy Group, and has been working as a pollster, data, and message consultant for nearly two decades. She is known for her creative messaging experiments, her willingness to ruthlessly root out advocate-speak, and her inability to let assumptions go unchallenged.
Amy is particularly proud of her work on ballot initiative campaigns that have a profound impact on people’s lives and make progressive change possible in purple and red states. After leading the polling on the first ballot initiative to expand Medicaid in 2017, Amy has since helped achieve Medicaid expansion in six deep-red states across the country. She has also been part of winning campaigns that raised the minimum wage in Arkansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, expanded voting rights in Michigan, as well as cracked down on payday lenders and debt collectors in Arizona and Colorado.
This past August, Amy was part of the team that defeated Issue 1 in Ohio. She is currently focused on protecting abortion rights and the ballot initiative process itself against right-wing attempts to dismantle both.
Amy also has been working with Future Forward, the biggest pro-Biden SuperPAC, since 2020. She also leads the polling for Rep. Adam Schiff, Andy Kim, and Josh Harder, and has worked with the DNC, DSCC, DCCC, and Senate Majority PAC.
Bob Shrum
Bob Shrum is the Director of the Center for the Political Future and the Carmen H. and Louis Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics at USC Dornsife. A legendary political Democratic strategist, he was once described as “the most sought-after consultant in the Democratic Party,” by The Atlantic Monthly. He was a speechwriter for Senator George McGovern in the 1972 presidential campaign and for Senator Edward Kennedy in the 1980 presidential campaign. He served as the Senator’s Press Secretary in the early 1980s and as a political consultant and strategist in his subsequent Senate campaigns. He was also the strategist in over 25 other winning U.S. Senate campaigns, eight successful campaigns for governor, successful campaigns for mayors in major American cities, and numerous campaigns for Congress and other statewide offices. His clients included Joe Biden, John Glenn, Barbara Mikulski, David Dinkins, and Tom Bradley – and John Kerry and Al Gore in their presidential races. Overseas his clients included Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, the British Labour Party, the Prime Minister of Ireland, and the Presidents of Colombia and Bolivia.
In 2005 he shifted his attention to the academic world. Professor Shrum teaches several classes at USC on domestic policy, applied politics, and elections. He had previously taught at New York University, was a Silliman Fellow at Yale, and Kennedy Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate.
Blake Griffin
Blake Griffin is a six-time NBA All-Star and 2011 NBA Rookie of the Year who was a major catalyst for multiple playoffs runs with the Los Angeles Clippers and Detroit Pistons. He is currently with the Boston Celtics this season and in his 14th year in the NBA. Off the court, Griffin has cultivated a reputation for his business acumen and investing prowess and appeared on the cover of the 2019 Forbes 30 under 30. One of those endeavors being the establishment of Mortal Media, a Los Angeles-based film and television production company. In a combined effort with his partner, former NFL star Ryan Kalil, the company has set up a number of film and television projects at various studios, networks and streaming services such as Apple, Netflix, Comedy Central, Paramount, 20th Century Studios, and Disney. A recent project of note has Griffin executive producing Hello Tomorrow on Apple+, a retro futuristic drama series starring Billy Crudup. Additionally, Blake has gained respect in the world of comedy with his impressive comedic timing and genuine love of the genre. In addition to his guest appearances on Showtime!s Kidding, Comedy Central!s Broad City, Roast Battle, the Roast of Alec Baldwin, Blake has also appeared in numerous shorts with Funny or Die, and indie film The Female Brain. His annual comedy. by blake charity fundraiser, which he last hosted at the world-renowned Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal, has become known for its dynamic lineup of big name comedians and hilarious up-and-coming young talent. The NBA star is also known for his deep interest and knowledge in the world of health & wellness and recently hosted two seasons of an Audible podcast The Pursuit of Healthiness with an impressive list of guests such as Michael B. Jordan, Deepak Chopra, Kevin Durant and Malcolm Gladwell. Blake’s passion project is Team Griffin Foundation which he founded in 2016 and strives to eliminate the many challenges that youths encounter in disadvantaged and under-resourced communities and inspire these young people to be champions and leaders in their classrooms. TGF works to provide kids with the essential resources to develop and showcase their natural and learned skills.
Cameron Diaz
Cameron Diaz made her feature film debut at age 21 in “The Mask” and has since starred in films that have grossed more than $7 billion worldwide. Highlights of her film career include “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” “There’s Something About Mary” and “Charlie’s Angels,” opposite Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu. She provided the voice of Princess Fiona in DreamWorks’ animated hit “Shrek” and it’s three sequels, which have grossed over $3 billion worldwide. She was nominated for Golden Globe, SAG and BAFTA Awards for her performance in “Being John Malkovich” and was also nominated for Golden Globe and SAG Awards for Cameron Crowe’s “Vanilla Sky,” opposite Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz. She was nominated for another yet Golden Globe for her performance in Martin Scorsese’s Academy Award-nominated “Gangs of New York,” with Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day Lewis. Her films also include “In Her Shoes,” “The Holiday,” “What Happens in Vegas,” “My Sister’s Keeper,” “Knight and Day,” “Bad Teacher,” “The Other Woman,” “Sex Tape,” the movie musical, “Annie,” and the upcoming film “Back in Action” for Netflix. In 2005, Cameron took viewers on a worldwide adventure for MTV’s 10-episode series, “Trippin,’” which she also executive produced. In 2014, she added author to her list of accomplishments with the publication of the #1 New York Times bestseller, The Body Book: The Law of Hunger, the Science of Strength, and Other Ways to Love Your Amazing Body, followed by The Longevity Book: The Science of Aging, the Biology of Strength, and the Privilege of Time in 2017. In June 2020, Cameron and serial entrepreneur Katherine Power (Who What Wear, Versed, MERIT), launched Avaline, a collection of organically farmed wines full of natural goodness and free from unwanted and undisclosed extras.
Chris Dixon
Chris Dixon is a general partner and has been at Andreessen Horowitz since 2013. He founded and leads a16z crypto, which invests in web3 technologies through four dedicated funds with more than $7 billion under management.
Chris is the author of Read Write Own, published by Random House in January 2024.
Previously, Chris was the cofounder and CEO of two startups, SiteAdvisor and Hunch. SiteAdvisor was an internet security company that warned web users of security threats. The company was acquired by McAfee in 2006. Hunch was a recommendation technology company that was acquired by eBay in 2011.
Chris has been a prolific seed investor, cofounding Founder Collective, a seed venture fund, and making a number of personal angel investments in various technology companies.
Chris started programming as a kid, and was a professional programmer after college at the high-speed options trading firm, Arbitrade. He has a BA and MA in Philosophy from Columbia and an MBA from Harvard.
Chris writes about his theories and experiences as an entrepreneur and investor on Mirror, and before that on Medium and at cdixon.org. He is also a frequent guest on the “web3 with a16z” podcast.
Ethan Thornton
Ethan Thornton is the Founder and CEO of Mach Industries. He attended MIT where he majored in Aerospace Engineering before dropping out to pursue Mach full time last January. Since then, Mach has gone on to raise $85 million and is working to deploy their first product, a Supersonic VTOL UAS Bomber. Mach is headquartered in Austin and is standing up their first large-scale manufacturing facility in California this year, where they will be able to build those airframes by the thousands. Ultimately, Ethan and Mach look to become an integral part of the US defense and aerospace manufacturing base, deploying several major platforms, most of them hydrogen powered, in the near future.
Greg Pavlik
Greg Pavlik is senior vice president, AI and Data Management Services for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. In that role he is responsible for strategy, service definition, applied science, and delivery across Oracle’s cloud portfolio. His goal is to provide the most capable and performant AI-centered solutions for the enterprise.Before joining Oracle, Greg was Chief Product Officer for Hortonworks, where he helped create the on-premises big data industry from its early stages.Pavlik has a BSE in materials science and engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
Jim Lanzone
Jim Lanzone is CEO of Yahoo, the trusted digital guide for hundreds of millions of people globally, helping them achieve their goals online through its portfolio of iconic brands, from Yahoo News to Yahoo Finance to Yahoo Sports. With over 25 years of leadership and entrepreneurial experience in technology and media, Jim has a proven track record of driving growth and innovation. Prior to joining Yahoo, Jim was CEO of Tinder, the most popular dating app in the world. Jim joined Tinder after nearly a decade as President and CEO of CBS Interactive, a top 10 global internet company with brands ranging from CBS All Access (now Paramount+) to CNET. Jim was also named the first Chief Digital Officer in the history of CBS Corporation. Jim joined CBS in 2011 when it purchased Clicker Media, an Internet video search and programming guide, where he was founder and CEO. Previously, Jim held several leadership positions, including CEO at Ask.com. He holds a B.A. from UCLA and a J.D./M.B.A. from Emory University.
Joe Lonsdale
Joe Lonsdale is the Founder and Managing Partner at 8VC, an early-stage venture capital firm managing over $6 billion in capital. He has founded over a dozen prominent companies, including Palantir, a leading data analytics company; Addepar, a wealth management platform; and OpenGov, the largest cloud software provider for local governments. He continues to create and scale companies through the 8VC Build program.
As an investor, Joe was an early backer of companies including Anduril, Oculus, Guardant Health, Oscar, Illumio, Wish, JoyTunes, Blend, Flexport, Joby Aviation, Orca Bio, Qualia, Synthego, and Yugabyte, among many others.
Joe and his wife Tayler are active in a variety of philanthropic and institutional pursuits. They founded the non-partisan Cicero Institute in 2018 to promote accountable governance in over a dozen states. In 2021, Joe became the founding chairman of the University of Austin (UATX), a new university dedicated to restoring the pursuit of truth in higher education.
Joe, Tayler, and their four daughters live in Austin, TX.
Katherine Power
Katherine Power is a serial entrepreneur, CEO, and investor focused on building category-leading businesses. With a distinct talent for finding white space, Power has taken age-old industries and reimagined them with data-informed, digital-first business models built for the modern shopper. Power has founded four successful brands (Who What Wear, Versed, Avaline, MERIT), each of which speak to her unique expertise around accessibility and ingredient efficacy. She is also a Partner at the seed-to-growth venture capital firm Greycroft, where she uses her unique insights and abilities to identify the next generation of leading consumer brands. Her groundbreaking approach to commerce and media has earned her recognition on Fortune’s 40 Under 40, Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, Adweek’s Creative 100, and Inc.’s 20 Young Entrepreneurs to Watch lists.
Katy Perry
Katy Perry is the biggest-selling female artist in Capitol Records history and one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having racked up a cumulative 115 billion streams alongside worldwide sales of over 70 million adjusted albums and 140 million tracks. She was the first artist in RIAA history to earn three RIAA Diamond Song Awards – for “Firework,” “Dark Horse” and the now 15x Platinum single “Roar.” “California Gurls” (feat. Snoop Dogg) recently brought Katy her fourth Diamond Song Award. When the official videos for “Dark Horse” and “Roar” each surpassed three billion views, Katy became the first female artist to reach this milestone.
In addition to being a globally successful artist, Katy recently entered the rapidly growing non-alcoholic market by co-founding De Soi, a line of sparkling ready-to-drink non-alcoholic apéritifs with natural adaptogens. De Soi is available in major retailers nationwide including Whole Foods, Sprouts, Target, and Fresh Thyme.
Katy has also focused her entrepreneurial flare towards her eponymous shoe line, Katy Perry Collections, and selective companies working to improve health and wellness. She sits on the Board of Bragg, makers of the celebrated Apple Cider Vinegar, was an early backer of Impossible Foods, the plant-based meat producer, and is an active investor in Apeel Sciences, a company focused on plant-derived shelf-life extension technology for fresh produce that improves quality and reduces food waste, and Samsara, an enviro-tech company creating infinite recycling to end plastic pollution.
Katy is also an active advocate of many philanthropic causes. As a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for over a decade, Katy has used her powerful voice to ensure every child’s right to health, education, equality, and protection. Katy is also a longtime champion for LGBTQ+ equality and has received numerous awards for her work, including the Trevor Project's Hero Award in 2012, UNICEF’s Audrey Hepburn Humanitarian Award in 2016, the Human Rights Campaign's National Equality Award in 2017, amfAR’s Award of Courage in 2018, and Variety’s Power of Women distinction in 2021 for her work with her own foundation, the Firework Foundation, whose mission is to empower children from underserved communities by igniting their inner light through the arts.
Keith Rabois
Keith is a Managing Director at Khosla Ventures. Keith invests across sectors and stages and brings his unparalleled experience as a world-class founder, operator, and investor to the portfolio. Based out of Miami, Florida, he also co-founded and serves as CEO of OpenStore, an e-commerce company backed by Khosla Ventures. Keith has helped build some of the largest, globally-recognized technology companies in his more than 20-year career. At Khosla Ventures, he led the first institutional investments in DoorDash, Affirm, and Faire, invested early in Stripe, and co-founded Opendoor. While a General Partner at Founders Fund, he led investments in Ramp, Trade Republic, and Aven, and before that made early personal investments in YouTube, Airbnb, Palantir, Lyft, Udemy, and Eventbrite. Keith is consistently recognized on the Forbes Midas list, ranking as high as #4 in the U.S. and #8 globally. He has served on multiple Boards, including Reddit's from 2012 to 2019, and on Yelp and Xoom's Boards, guiding them from their early stages through IPOs. Keith currently serves on the Boards of Affirm, Ramp, and Faire. He started his technology career with leadership roles at PayPal, as their EVP of Business Development, Public Affairs & Policy, before joining LinkedIn as VP of Business & Corporate Development, and finally, Block (formerly known as Square), as Chief Operating Officer. Keith Rabois served as a litigator at Sullivan and Cromwell, a prominent law firm, following his clerkship for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Stanford University and earned a juris doctor degree with honors from Harvard University.
Melinda French Gates
Melinda French Gates is a philanthropist, businesswoman, and global advocate for women and girls. As co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, she shapes and approves the foundation’s strategies, reviews results, and sets the organization’s overall direction. She works with grantees and partners to further the foundation’s goal of improving equity in the United States and around the world.
Through her work at the foundation over more than two decades, Melinda has seen firsthand that empowering women and girls can transform the health and prosperity of families, communities, and societies. Her work has led her to focus increasingly on gender equity as a lever for change. In 2015, Melinda founded Pivotal Ventures, a company working to accelerate the pace of social progress in the United States.
She is the author of the bestselling book The Moment of Lift, in which she introduces readers to the inspiring women she has met during her work and travels around the world and shares her own journey to becoming an advocate for women and girls.
The second of four children, Melinda grew up in Dallas, Texas. She earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science and economics and an MBA, both from Duke University. She spent the first decade of her career developing multimedia products at Microsoft before leaving the company to focus on her family and philanthropic work.
She has three children—Jenn, Rory, and Phoebe—and lives in Seattle, Washington.
Mike Murphy
Mike Murphy is one of the Republican Party’s most successful political media consultants, having handled strategy and advertising for more than 26 successful gubernatorial and Senatorial campaigns. He served as a top campaign advisor to John McCain, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with dozens of other GOP Senators, Governors and Members of Congress. Murphy has worked on five GOP Presidential campaigns and has advised foreign leaders in Europe and Latin America. In 2020 he served as a key strategist for Republican Voters Against Trump. Murphy is also a well-known pundit; he wrote the popular “Murphy’s Law” column for TIME and is a longtime senior analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. He co-hosts the popular weekly podcast “Hacks on Tap” with David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs. Murphy currently serves as co-director the University of Southern California’s Center for the Political Future. He serves on the boards of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. He served as a senior fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Murphy also works as a writer and producer in the entertainment industry. Murphy was born in Detroit, Michigan and attended the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He lives with his wife Tiffany and daughter Audrey in Los Angeles.
Nand Mulchandani
Nand Mulchandani joined the CIA as Chief Technology Officer in June 2022. He serves as the D/CIA’s senior advisor on technology issues and plays a strategic role in whole-of-Agency approach to review and advise on emerging technology trends, particularly technologies with potential to threaten U.S. national security and to disrupt or accelerate the Agency’s ability to meet its mission objectives. He previously served as the Chief Technology Officer and Acting Director of the U.S. Department of Defense Joint Artificial Intelligence Center. Mulchandani brings more than 25 years of experience in the technology industry as a serial entrepreneur and senior executive in the enterprise infrastructure and security software industries to his service in the government, and will help drive CIA’s efforts in leveraging cutting-edge innovations and scanning the horizon for tomorrow’s innovations to further CIA’s mission.
Prior to government service, Mulchandani was co-founder and CEO of multiple technology startups in the enterprise infrastructure and security software space, including Oblix (acquired by Oracle), Determina (acquired by VMware), OpenDNS (acquired by Cisco), and ScaleXtreme (acquired by Citrix). He was also a senior executive at VMware and Citrix, and an entrepreneur-in-residence at Accel Partners. Mulchandani started his career at Sun Microsystems as a compiler architect and holds a patent on dynamic code generation.
Mulchandani holds a Bachelor’s degree in computer science and mathematics from Cornell University, a Master in Science degree in management from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and a Master of Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Novak Djokovic
Novak began playing tennis at four years old, now 36 he is the GOAT on a tennis court. Speaking comfortably in Serbian, English, Italian, German and French, Novak credits his family as his inspiration. Novak has won a record 24 Grand Slam singles titles and is the only man in tennis history to be the reigning champion of all four majors at once. He is also the only tennis player to achieve a triple career grand slam by winning all four majors, at least three times and hence is widely regarded to be the greatest tennis player of all time.
Matching his on-court achievements with his philanthropic work, Novak alongside his wife Jelena, founded the Novak Djokovic Foundation in 2007 with the motto "Believe in their Dreams". The NDF helps children from disadvantaged communities gain access to preschool education. This work was recognised in 2012 when Novak received the Centrepoint Premier Award for Contribution to the Lives of Youth, across the world, from HRH the Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, and named UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in August 2015.
Novak is passionate about health and wellness. He shares candidly in his remarkable book, Serve To Win, about his upbringing in war-torn Serbia and how changing his diet led to a transformation in his health and his tennis. Novak’s 360-approach to health and wellness, combining nutrition with rigorous fitness and training sessions, yoga, meditation, and positive thinking, has given him the stamina and strength, extraordinary speed, and flexibility, to be world number one (first achieved in 2011) and to remain World Number One over a decade later.
Off court Novak is applying these learnings - what is takes to perform at the top – to develop several exciting wellness projects.
Photo credit: ATP tour
Rahul Vohra
Rahul is the founder and CEO of Superhuman, the fastest email experience ever made. Designed for high performing teams, Superhuman seamlessly integrates with Gmail and Outlook. Powerful features like AI writing, summarization, and Split Inbox help users fly through their inboxes, spend less time on busywork, and get 4+ hours back each week to focus on what really matters.
Prior to Superhuman, Rahul founded Rapportive, the first Gmail plugin to scale to millions of users, which was acquired by LinkedIn in 2012. He is widely known for his expertise in product strategy and entrepreneurship. His unique approach to finding product-market was the subject of a First Round Review article that went viral, and has since been the topic of dozens of articles, podcasts, talks and business school case studies.
Rahul serves as an advisor at Boldstart Ventures, and is also a prominent angel investor whose fund has invested more than $35M in companies like Classdojo, Clearbit, Alt and Dapper Labs. He holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge.
Rana el Kaliouby
Rana el Kaliouby is an Egyptian-American scientist, entrepreneur, investor and an AI thought leader. She co-founded Affectiva, an MIT spin-out, and was CEO of the company until she sold it to Smart Eye, a publicly traded Swedish company, in 2021. Rana is General Partner at AI Operators Fund, an early stage AI-focused venture fund and a Venture Partner at BOLD Capital. She is also an executive fellow at the Harvard Business School. Her bestselling memoir, Girl Decoded: A Scientist’s Quest to Reclaim Our Humanity by Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology follows her journey as an entrepreneur and Emotion AI pioneer. Rana is a Trustee at the Boston Museum of Science, at Milton Academy as well as the American University in Cairo. Rana is a 2023 Eisenhower Fellow and World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. She is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) where she launched and is Chapter Chair of YPO Boston and organized YPO’s first-ever AI Summit. Rana is also co-chair of the Fortune Brainstorm AI conferences. A TED speaker and co-host of a PBS NOVA series on AI, Rana has been recognized on Entrepreneur’s 100 Women of Influence, Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list, Forbes' Top 50 Women in Tech and Newsweek's top Disruptors and most recently in Boston Globe’s Top 50 Tech Power Players. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and a Post Doctorate from MIT.
Ryan Kalil
Ryan Kalil is a film and television producer and former All-Pro NFL Center who co-founded the Los Angeles-based film and television production company Mortal Media alongside NBA All-Star Blake Griffin. Mortal Media was most recently behind the “White Men Can’t Jump” reboot on Hulu and Apple TV+ sci-fi dramedy “Hello Tomorrow!” Other upcoming work includes a sequel to “The Rocketeer” at Disney, single-camera comedy series “Get Buckets” at Fox, and a feature action comedy with Kevin Hart’s global entertainment company Hartbeat for Netflix. Mortal Media currently has film and television projects in various stages of development across major studios, networks and streaming services including Netflix, Paramount, 20th Century Studios, FX, and Disney. Kalil is also attached as an executive producer for Seven Bucks Productions project 'Son of Shaolin', and co-created the sci-fi graphic novel 'Savage Games', as well as co-authored 'The Rookie Handbook' — a humorous and insightful look at the life of an NFL rookie. In 2022, Ryan, along with Vince Vaughn and Greg Olsen, launched a podcast network and production company called Audiorama. Kalil is an advocate for lupus research and ending homelessness, having started the Kalil Family Foundation with his wife, and is a founding investor in Angel City FC, the Los Angeles franchise in the National Women's Soccer League.
Scout Brisson
Scout Brisson is the CEO of De Soi, a line of sparkling non-alcoholic apéritifs, co-founded by Katy Perry and Morgan McLachlan. She brings a unique blend of entrepreneurial tenacity and industry prowess to the non-alcoholic beverage space. With her leadership marked by passion, extensive brand understanding and a growth mindset, Scout has propelled De Soi to the forefront of the alcohol-free, ready-to-drink market, redefining the ritual of unwinding for the modern millennial consumer.
Prior to spearheading De Soi's launch, Scout forged her path in strategy and operations, as a management consultant at McKinsey, as well as at M13, a consumer venture capital firm, launching companies as part of their in-house incubator. Most recently, Scout co-founded a better-for-you CPG company, DEUX Foods. Scout holds a B.S. in Neuroscience from MIT.
Steven Schwartz
Steven Schwartz is CEO and co-founder at Whop where he is building the future of peer-to-peer commerce, pioneering new ways for creators to connect and transact with consumers. With over $40M raised, Steven's ultimate goal is to help everyone make a sustainable income on the internet. Steven has a background in engineering and has been building internet companies and software products since he was 13 years old. Watch Whop's recent launch video here.
Strauss Zelnick
Strauss Zelnick founded ZMC in 2001. Mr. Zelnick has a long history of leading media and communications enterprises and is deeply involved in originating investments, advising executives and guiding the strategic and operational initiatives across all portfolio company investments. Mr. Zelnick currently represents ZMC on the board of World Choice Investments. He serves as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Previously, Mr. Zelnick was on the boards of Cast & Crew Entertainment Services, L.L.C., Alloy, Inc., Education Networks of America, Inc, and Naylor L.L.C. He also served as Chairman and CEO of Columbia Music Entertainment, Chairman of ITN Networks, Chairman of Direct Holdings Worldwide and OTX.
Prior to forming ZMC, Mr. Zelnick was President and Chief Executive Officer of BMG Entertainment, at that time one of the world’s largest music and entertainment companies with more than 200 record labels and operations in 54 countries.
Before joining BMG Entertainment, Mr. Zelnick was President and Chief Executive Officer of Crystal Dynamics, a producer and distributor of interactive entertainment software. Prior to that, he spent four years as President and Chief Operating Officer of 20th Century Fox, where he managed all aspects of Fox Inc.’s worldwide motion picture production and distribution business.
Previously, Mr. Zelnick spent three years at Vestron Inc., two as the company’s President and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Zelnick also served as Vice President of International Television Sales at Columbia Pictures.
Mr. Zelnick holds a BA from Wesleyan University, as well as an MBA from Harvard Business School and a JD from Harvard Law School.
Tracee Ellis Ross
Tracee Ellis Ross is an award-winning actress, producer, and CEO/Founder. For eight seasons, Ross starred in ABC’s Emmy, Golden Globe, NAACP Image Award and Peabody-winning comedy series black-ish. She currently stars in the Oscar-nominated drama American Fiction, opposite Jeffrey Wright, Sterling K. Brown, and Issa Rae. Ross is also the owner, founder, and co-CEO of PATTERN Beauty, a hair care line she created for the curly, coily & tight-textured community.
Trae Stephens
Trae is a Partner at Founders Fund. He is also Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Anduril Industries, a defense technology company focused on autonomous systems, and Co-founder of Sol, a next generation wearable e-reader.
Previously, Trae was an early employee at Palantir Technologies, where he led teams focused on growth in the intelligence/defense space as well as international expansion, helping large organizations solve their hardest data analysis problems. He was also an integral part of the product team, leading the design and strategy for new product offerings. While at Palantir, Trae also served as an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University.
Prior to Palantir, Trae worked as a computational linguist building enterprise solutions to Arabic/Persian name matching and data enrichment within the United States Intelligence community. He began his career working in the office of then Congressman Rob Portman and in the Political Affairs Office at the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington, D.C. immediately following the installation of Hamid Karzai’s transitional government. Trae graduated from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Alex Konrad
Alex is a Senior Editor at Forbes covering venture capital, startups and tech out of New York. He is the editor of the Midas List, 30 Under 30 List for Venture Capital, and the creator of the Midas List Europe and the Cloud 100 List. He has written numerous cover stories on leaders including Patrick Collison, Satya Nadella and Melanie Perkins, among others. Recently, he’s dived into the world of AI, including Anthropic and OpenAI.
Allie Garfinkle
Allie Garfinkle is a Senior Finance Reporter at Fortune, where she writes the company’s daily private markets newsletter Term Sheet. Previously, Allie covered Big Tech at Yahoo Finance for print and broadcast, and she’s produced several PBS Frontline’s business documentaries, including Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover and The Power of the Fed. She's also moderated at conferences such as SXSW, Collision, and Shoptalk. Allie is a graduate of The University of Chicago and New York University.
Amanda Groves
Amanda is a General Partner at PLUS Capital, a leading venture capital and advisory firm based in Los Angeles. Previously, Amanda worked in both the Los Angeles and San Francisco offices for JPMorgan.
Amanda graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.S. in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business. She was also a Division 1 soccer player with the Cal Bears.
Outside of the office, she serves on the boards of national non-profit Jumpstart’s Southern California Advisory Board and the axeALS Foundation, a California-based nonprofit focused on encouraging research and raising funding and awareness for patient-centric treatment and cure of ALS. Amanda was also named to The Hollywood Reporter’s list Top Dealmakers of 2022, Business Insider’s “30 AND UNDER” list in 2018 and Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list in 2019.
Brian Goldsmith
Brian Goldsmith started a political consulting company, Kona Media. His clients are mainly in tech and national politics. Goldsmith is also the founder and CEO of Scriber, a text basedsubscription service based in Los Angeles.
From 2015 to 2017, he helped lead political coverage at Yahoo News. He also co-hosted and executive produced the Katie Couric podcast and worked on other projects at Katie Couric Media. Before that, Goldsmith was co-head of the US division of Seedrs, a leading equity crowdfunding company based in London. He also co-founded and served as president of Junction Investments, an online investment platform that focused on entertainment assets, and was acquired by Seedrs.
Previously, Goldsmith served in a variety of roles at CBS News, including as political producer at the Evening News. While at CBS, he won a DuPont award for his team’s coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign. Earlier in his career, he was an assistant producer for Jeff Greenfield at CNN, an aide to House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, and a project manager at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy. Goldsmith is a graduate of Harvard College and Stanford Law School.
Cory Levy
Cory Levy is the founder of ZFellows.com – a pre-seed program helping put first-time technical founders into business. Prior to Z Fellows, Cory was the Co-Founder of After School (a teen social network with 20m users). Cory studied Computer Science at the University of Illinois, where he received four engineering scholarships before dropping out. In high school, he worked as an extern at Founders Fund, Union Square Ventures, DFJ Mercury, and TechStars.
Deborah Benton
Deborah is the Founder & General Partner at Willow Growth Partners. Willow provides early growth capital to entrepreneurs building the next generation of transformative consumer brands and the disruptive technologies that power them. Willow currently has 18 companies in the portfolio including brand favorites Coterie, Dae Hair, Bubble Skincare and Goodles healthy mac & cheese! From 2014 to 2019, Deborah launched a family office investment vehicle focused on seed-stage consumer brands and enabling tech companies. From that portfolio, Deborah has already achieved a 2.6x DPI and 10.6 MOIC. During this time, Deborah assumed several Advisory Board and Board of Director roles to support the successful growth and development of a number of her portfolio companies. A critical element of Deborah’s investment thesis is to leverage her 20+ years of operating experience by helping founders rationally, effectively and optimally scale their businesses.
Before investing, Deborah held several executive-level operating roles. From 2012 - 2014, she was President and Chief Operating Officer of Nasty Gal, an online women’s fashion brand, where she led the team that grew annual revenues from $20 M to almost $100 M in two years, and quickly built the infrastructure to support this meteoric growth. Before this role, Deborah was the Chief Operating Officer at ShoeDazzle, an online women’s subscription shoe company, where she and the team built a powerful consumer brand and grew annual revenues to ~$85 M in 2 ½ years. With Kim Kardashian as a founder, ShoeDazzle was one of the original consumer brands to harness and leverage the power of social media and celebrity influencers. Earlier in her career, Deborah was the EVP of Inside Sales and Operations at Teleflora, where she managed a $100 M P&L and drove significant operational and supply chain efficiencies, improving profitability. After business school, Deborah began her career in management consulting, focusing primarily on data-driven strategic sourcing and cost rationalization.
Deborah has held numerous board roles, both public and private, and is passionate about and actively involved in supporting and mentoring women founders.
Deborah earned both Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Arts (Health) degrees from Queen’s University at Kingston, Canada.
Jason Rapp
Jason L. Rapp is an investment banker representing media and technology companies with strategic exits. He is a co-founder of Whisper Advisors, the Los Angeles-based boutique which has represented such firms as Morning Brew, Crooked Media and IAC since its founding in 2018.
As an investor and strategy executive, Jason has executed complex media partnerships and billions of dollars in M&A transactions. Jason was a senior executive in Barry Diller's IAC corporation (Nasdaq:IACI), having run the M&A group and then as CEO of Gifts.com, the leading gift recommendation engine. Before joining IAC, Jason was an executive at The New York Times company (NYSE:NYT).
Jason received an MBA degree from Columbia University and an AB degree from Duke University. A Pittsburgh native (and New Yorker at heart), he lives in Santa Monica and serves on the LA committee of Human Rights Watch.
Jason is a Registered Representative of Finalis Securities, LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC.
Jeff Berman
Jeff Berman has had the kind of career that lends itself to the game Two Truths And A Lie. After starting as a public defender representing children facing life in prison, he moved to Capitol Hill where he served as Chief Counsel to US Senator Chuck Schumer. Jeff entered the private sector at MySpace overseeing policy before moving to the business side where he ultimately led the content, marketing, and sales teams. Jeff has run digital media at the NFL, been part of the first and only team ever to simultaneously chart 7 of the top 10 App Store apps at Whalerock Industries, and serves as a founding partner of Magnet Companies where he helped launch TOGETHXR and LoveSeen along with leading the Series A investment in Dear Media.
After the 2016 election, Jeff was part of the team that started and continues to serve on the board of Protect Democracy, a non-partisan organization whose mission is as urgent as it is self-evident.
He has been CEO and a re-founder of WaitWhat since September 2023.
Jeff has three teenagers and lives in Los Angeles.
Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg is co-founder and managing partner of WndrCo, a holding company that invests in, acquires, develops and operates consumer technology businesses for the long term. Katzenberg draws on more than 40 years of experience as an entertainment industry leader. After serving as President of Production at Paramount Studios, he became Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios. He is a co-founder of DreamWorks SKG where he served as CEO, and in 2016 DreamWorks Animation SKG was sold to Comcast for $3.8 billion. In addition, Jeffrey Katzenberg was the Founder and Chairman of the Board of Quibi.
Katzenberg received an Honorary Palme D’Or from the Cannes Film Festival in recognition of his outstanding achievements in film and he was inducted into the Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur, France’s highest honor. He also received the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Patron of the Artists Award, as well as the Motion Picture Academy’s prestigious Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. In addition to serving as Chairman of the Board for the Motion Picture & Television Fund Foundation, Katzenberg serves on the boards of several cultural, research and educational institutions.
Julia Boorstin
Julia Boorstin is CNBC’s Senior Media & Tech Correspondent based at the network’s Los Angeles Bureau. She is also a contributor to CNBC’s “TechCheck” franchise. Boorstin covers media and tech with a focus on their intersection and technological innovation, and delivers reporting, analysis, and interviews for the network. She joined CNBC in May 2006 as a general assignment reporter and in 2007 moved to Los Angeles to cover media. She is also author of the bestseller, “WHEN WOMEN LEAD: What they achieve, Why they succeed, and How we can learn from them,” a book about female leaders that was published by Simon & Schuster’s Avid Reader Press in October 2022.
In 2013, Boorstin created and launched the CNBC Disruptor 50, an annual list she oversees, highlighting the private companies transforming the economy and challenging companies in established industries. Additionally, she reported a documentary on the future of television for the network, “Stay Tuned…The Future of TV.” She also helped launch CNBC’s ‘Closing the Gap’ initiative covering the people and companies closing gender gaps, and leads CNBC’s coverage of studies on this topic.
She graduated with honors from Princeton University with a B.A. in history. She was also an editor of The Daily Princetonian. Follow Julia Boorstin on X @jboorstin and on LinkedIn.
Michael Broukhim
Michael Broukhim is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FabFitFun, a lifestyle brand that inspires happiness and personal growth through discovery. Backed by Kleiner Perkins, New Enterprise Associates and Upfront Ventures, FabFitFun is best known for its seasonal subscription box that delivers a curation of full-size products ranging from beauty and wellness to home and technology.
Prior to FabFitFun, Brouhim was Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Charlie (formerly, Opera New Media), where he directed digital strategies for celebrities, politicians, Fortune 500 companies, startups, and nonprofits. His clients included Samuel L. Jackson, Tumblr, Rudy Giuliani, Rachel Zoe, Pfizer Inc., and the Golden Globe Awards.
Broukhim was also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, where he taught undergraduate and graduate courses to film and business students. In 2015, USC recognized Broukhim as a finalist for the Steven J. Sample Teaching Award.
Broukhim is an active angel investor with an emphasis on working with Los Angeles based companies during their earliest stages. Broukhim graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, where he served as Editorial Chair of the Harvard Crimson, co-founded the Leadership Institute at Harvard College, and won the Thomas T. Hoopes Prize for his research on ethical consumption. Broukhim continued his education at Stanford Law School earning his J.D. in 2013.
Mike Su
Mike is the CEO and Co-founder of Cooler.fm, the podcast player where creators build thriving communities that connect more deeply with each other. Prior to Cooler, Mike led Snap Inc's Yellow Accelerator, investing in early stage companies that are mission aligned with Snap. In the decade prior to Snap, Mike was a Product exec at some of the fastest growing digital media companies like mitú, Upworthy, and Defy Media. Mike was also the founder of Massive Joe Studios, a mobile gaming company. Mike holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania, and lost all his hair cheering for Philadelphia sports teams.
Aditi Maliwal
Aditi Maliwal is a partner at Upfront Ventures, investing in early stage companies across financial technology and enterprise software. Aditi partners with founders at their earliest stages of inception and supports them throughout the stages of company building. While at Upfront, she has partnered deeply in this way with Arcade, Clair, Renew, Stem, WriterAI and ZestAI amongst others.
Before joining Upfront, Aditi was at Google, first on the Corporate Development team leading acquisitions across various sectors including AI, commerce and fintech, and then on the Next Billion Users team building products for users in emerging markets. Prior to Google she worked in early stage venture at Crosslink Capital where she invested in Chime, BetterUp, and PowerToFly among other companies. She began her career in investment banking at Deutsche Bank, in the technology banking group. She has a B.A. from Stanford University. She has lived between Mumbai, New Delhi, Hong Kong, Singapore and San Francisco.
Mark Suster
Mark Suster has been a Managing Partner at Upfront since 2007, where has led notable investments in companies including Invoca, Density, Nanit, and Maker Studios (acquired by Disney). He previously was the founder & CEO of two successful enterprise software companies, the most recent of which was sold to Salesforce.com where Mark became VP, Products. Prior to being a founder, Mark was a software developer at Accenture where he lived and worked in Europe, Japan and the U.S. Mark is a graduate of UCSD and has an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Kevin Zhang
Kevin Zhang is a partner at Upfront, where he has a focus in healthcare and interactive gaming. Notable investments include Bionaut Labs, Canvas Medical, Pragma, and Seriously (acquired by Playtika). Prior to joining Upfront in 2012, Kevin was at The Boston Consulting Group, where he advised on strategy, M&A and operations for technology, healthcare, and industrial goods clients in the US and Asia. Previously, Kevin worked at Verisk Health (now Cotiviti), a healthcare software startup in Boston, focusing on data analytics product development selling into payers and providers. Kevin studied Biology at Harvard College.
Nick Kim
Nick is a partner at Upfront Ventures, focusing on early-stage investing. Prior to joining Upfront, Nick was at Crosscut, leading seed investments in enterprise, consumer, vertical software and crypto companies. Before Crosscut, Nick was an early employee at Warby Parker, where he was the general manager of the Home Try-On business. Nick also served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Human Ventures and as an investor with the Dorm Room Fund, First Round Capital’s student-run investment fund. Nick graduated with a degree in economics from UC Berkeley and earned his MBA from The Wharton School. He is also a CFA Charterholder and a trained executive coach.
Seksom Suriyapa
Seksom leads the growth investing team at Upfront and focuses on early product-market fit companies, particularly drawing from his operational leadership experiences in cybersecurity, AI, infrastructure and cloud application software.
He joined Upfront as a partner in 2021 from Twitter, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of Corporate Development & Strategy, leading company-wide initiatives to accelerate the Company’s AI capabilities, diversify revenues and broaden creator tools. Prior to Twitter, Suriyapa led strategic, operating, and financial teams at enterprise companies including SuccessFactors, McAfee and Akamai. He has a JD/MBA from Stanford Law School/INSEAD and a BA from Williams College.