Speakers 

Alan J. Patricof is the Co-Founder and Chairperson of Primetime Partners, an early-stage venture capital fund focused on servicing the aging population. A longtime innovator and advocate for venture capital, he entered the industry in its formative days with the creation of Patricof & Co. Ventures Inc., a predecessor to Apax Partners -today, one of the world's leading private equity firms with $75 billion under management. In 2006, he founded Greycroft Partners, a venture capital firm where he is currently Chairman Emeritus, to invest in leading early and expansion stage investments in digital media. With offices in New York and Los Angeles, Greycroft has $2B+under management. With a 50-plus year career in venture capital, Patricof has been instrumental in growing the venture capital field from a base of high net-worth individuals to its position today with broad institutional backing, as well as playing a key role in the essential legislative initiatives that have guided its evolution. He has helped build and foster the growth of numerous major global companies, including, among others, America Online, Office Depot, Cadence Systems, Cellular Communications, Inc., Apple Computer, FORE Systems, NTL, lntraLinks, Audible, Huffington Post and Axios. He was also a founder and Chairman of the Board of New York Magazine, which later acquired the Village Voice and New West magazine. He recently released his memoir, No Red Lights: Reflections on Life, 50 Years in Venture Capital and Never Driving Alone, detailing his life and career in VC, PE, politics, philanthropy and more. He is currently a board member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, the Finance Committee of Northside Center for Child Development in Harlem, The Board of Overseers of Columbia School of Business and The Fortune Society. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Patricof holds a BS in Finance from Ohio State University and an MBA from Columbia University Graduate School of Business.

Bill Gross, the founder and chairman of Idealab, is a lifelong entrepreneur who has started more than 175 groundbreaking companies in the last 50 years. More than 50 of those companies have had successful IPOs or acquisitions. Those companies have also created more than 10,000 jobs and have raised more than $4 Billion.

Among Bill’s transformative changes is the invention of the business model that powers most of the monetization of the internet. Bill invented the “paid click” or CPC (cost-per-click) bidded-keyword model with the company GoTo/Overture, which he founded in 1998. After a successful IPO and becoming the global market leader in paid search, the company was acquired by Yahoo in 2003. Today, Bill’s pioneering idea is used by Google and millions of websites around the world and remains one of his most significantly impactful inventions.

Bill’s dream is to make a positive impact on the world’s most pressing problems with technological and entrepreneurial innovation and helping them spread globally. He is currently focused on climate mitigation technologies and artificial intelligence. Bill has authored more than 100 patents in search, solar, robotics, energy and AI.

In addition to serving as Idealab’s board chairman, Bill is a member of the Board of Trustees at his alma mater, Caltech, and leads the Technology Transfer and Innovation Committee. Bill also serves on the Board of Trustees of the ArtCenter College of Design.

Brian Singerman is a partner at Founders Fund, where he relentlessly seeks out companies that can deliver massive returns to investors while also providing real value to humankind. He invests across sectors and stages, with a passion for companies reinventing huge industries like healthcare, biotechnology and education. Brian is a board director for Affirm, Cloud9, Emerald Therapeutics, The Long-Term Stock Exchange, Oscar and Postmates, and a board observer for Airbnb, Wish, Anduril and Forward. He was a board director for Misfit prior to the company’s acquisition by Fossil in 2015, and Stemcentrx before the company was acquired by AbbVie in 2016 in the largest private biotech acquisition of all time.

Prior to Founders Fund, Brian spent four years as an engineer and executive at Google. During this time Brian began investing through his own angel fund, The XGYC Fund. He began his career as an engineer at a startup, There, Inc. Brian graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Computer Science.

Dan Senor is co-author of The New York Times-bestselling book The Genius of Israel: The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Turbulent World, as well as The New York Times bestseller Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle, which has been translated into more than 30 languages.

He was a senior advisor to former Speaker Paul Ryan’s campaign for vice president and foreign policy advisor to Senator Mitt Romney’s presidential campaigns. A former Defense Department official, Dan was based in Iraq and at U.S. Central Command in Qatar in 2003 and 2004 as chief spokesperson for the U.S.-led coalition. He has written for The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA TODAY, and The Washington Post. In addition, he is also the host of the podcast “Call Me Back” and appears frequently on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” and “CBS Mornings”.

Dan was educated at the University of Western Ontario, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Harvard Business School, and is currently a partner at an investment management firm. He lives in New York City with his wife and two sons.

David is co-founder and Managing Partner of Founder Collective, a seed-stage VC fund. FC's portfolio includes Uber (NYSE: UBER) and TheTradeDesk (NYSE: TTD). Frankel was ranked as the #1 seed investor on the 2022 & 2023 Midas lists. He is the lead investor for Founder Collective in Coupang (NYSE: CPNG), Seatgeek & PillPack (acquired by Amazon). Previously, David was co-founder and CEO of Internet Solutions (IS), the largest ISP in Africa, ultimately acquired by NTT. Before Founder Collective, David provided the first capital for numerous companies including Olo (NYSE: OLO) where David continues to work closely with the company’s founder, Noah Glass. David is the co-founder of NextUp - a youth employment accelerator in South Africa (https://nextup.org.za/about-us/). In 2000, he was voted the South African Technology Achiever of the Century. The World Economic Forum later selected him for the Global Leader of Tomorrow (GLT) program. David holds an honors degree in Electrical Engineering (Wits) and, post selection for the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Program, earned an MBA with distinction from Harvard.

Hemant Taneja is the CEO and Managing Director of the global venture capital firm General Catalyst. He is a multi-year Midas List investor, a best-selling author and a founder. His career includes early investments in market-leading companies like Stripe, Samsara (NYSE: IOT), Snap (NYSE: SNAP), ClassDojo, Grammarly, Gusto, Applied Intuition, and Anduril. He has also hatched numerous companies like Commure, Tendo and Livongo, which was acquired by Teladoc in an $18.5B merger, the largest in digital health history. He is author of the best selling book Intended Consequences and the co-founder of Responsible Innovation Labs, a non-profit aiming to re-center technology as a force for good. Hemant holds five degrees from MIT and serves on the Stanford School of Medicine Board of Fellows, is the co-founder and Chairman of Advanced Energy Economy, and is a founding board member of Khan Lab School.

Hide Kobayashi is Head of Digital Innovation for the Tokio Marine Innovation Lab, based in Silicon Valley, which is part of Tokio Marine Holdings, the parent company of Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance (TMNF). TMNF is the oldest non-life insurance company in Japan, and one of the largest insurance companies in the world. Mr. Kobayashi leads innovation initiatives across the company on a global scale, addressing societal issues that go far beyond insurance. He also oversees the Group’s investment strategy. Before that, he was the General Manager leading strategic planning for the claims department of the property and casualty insurance company, Tokio Marine, overseeing 200 branches and 10,000 employees. There, he promoted digital transformation (DX) within the claims division by leveraging advanced digital technologies and optimizing business processes.

Mr. Kobayashi has a Master’s degree in Economics from Kwansei-Gakuin University.

Howard Lee Morgan is Chair of B Capital Group, a multi stage global fund based in Singapore and Manhattan Beach, CA and Co-Founder of First Round Capital, established in 2004 as an early stage venture fund based in Philadelphia, PA, New York and San Francisco. He is also President of Arca Group Inc. in New York and a Director of Idealab, the Pasadena , CA based creator and operator of internet companies, where he was a founding investor in 1996. He holds a B.S. in Physics from the City College of New York, a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Cornell University, and an M.S.(hc) from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Morgan served as Professor of Decision Sciences at The Wharton School, and Professor of Computer and Information Sciences at The Moore School of the University of Pennsylvania from 1972 through 1985. He started his career as Assistant Professor of Operations Research and Computer Science at Cornell University. He has been a Visiting Professor at the California Institute of Technology and the Harvard Business School. His research on user interface technology and on optimization of computer networks led to his bringing the ARPAnet to Philadelphia in 1974.

From 1982 to 1989, he served as the first President of Renaissance Technologies Corp. in New York, where he supervised venture capital investments in high technology companies. Since 1989, he has been President of the Arca Group, Inc., a consulting and venture capital investment management firm specializing in the area of computer and communications technologies. Arca Group has taken many ventures from seed stage through initial public offerings. He also runs M5Invest LLC and the Morgan Family Common Investment Fund, MFCIF LLC.

He is currently helping to nurture a number of startups in both early stage venture and quantitative investing including Precision Neuroscience, EeroQ, MyndYou and Augury Systems. He worked with numerous Idealab companies, serving on the board of Evolution Robotics (since sold to IRobot) and as Chairman of Internet Brands, the leading internet media company through its public offering and subsequent sale to Hellman Friedman.

Dr. Morgan serves as a Trustee of Cornell University, a Foundation Director of the New York Public Library, Trustee of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, a Director and Executive Committee member of Math for America and as a Chair of the Mabel Mercer Foundation. He was named Delaware Valley Entrepreneur of the Year in the prestigious Ernst & Young competition.

Jonathan Van Ness is an Emmy-winning television personality, 2x New York Times best-selling author, podcaster, comedian, celebrity hairstylist, founder of JVN Hair and Co-Founder of Yummers Pets. He stars on Netflix’s Emmy Award-winning reboot series “Queer Eye,” where he shines as the hair guru and self-care advocate; and he hosts the popular podcast, “Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness.” Jonathan also starred on the Emmy-nominated web series “Gay of Thrones,” a witty social commentary series recapping HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” Launched in 2013, the series garnered three Emmy nominations for ‘Outstanding Short Form Variety Series.’ Fresh off of two successful worldwide comedy tours, Jonathan Van Ness: Road to Beijing and Imaginary Living Room Olympian, which sold out theaters in 40 cities in the US, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, Jonathan is bringing their new show, Fun & Slutty, A Night with Jonathan Van Ness, to cities around the US, Canada and abroad. Unfiltered comedy, wildly entertaining and fun, the show is a celebration of joy and a showcase for all the sides of JVN you have never seen before.

Keisuke Seki is Deputy General Manager of the Development Bank of Japan (DBJ), responsible for VC investments in Japanese start-ups and LP investments to Global/Domestic VC funds. Since Mr. Seki joined DBJ in 2000 he has been focused on the PE/VC area, including direct investments, fund investments, LBO finance, mezzanine finance, distressed finance, etc. From 2016 to 2020, he was the MD in DBJ’s Asset Management, responsible for global PE/PD fund investments for Japanese institutional investors.

From 2014 to 2016, he worked as a Senior Manager for GROHE (DBJ’s investee company), a global sanitary company in Germany.

Mr. Seki has Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Hitotsubashi University, and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Matt is a partner at Menlo Ventures and invests multi-stage across SaaS (AI-first, vertical apps, DevOps, API platforms) and robotics. Since joining Menlo in 2015, Matt has led investments in Airbase, Alloy.AI, Benchling, 6 River Systems (acquired by Shopify), Canvas, Clarifai, Carta, Envoy, Finch, FireHydrant, Harness, Heap Analytics, HOVER, Netlify, Observable, Relyance AI, Scout RFP (acquired by Workday), Sleuth, Usermind (acquired by Qualtrics), Veriflow (acquired by VMware), Vivun, and Zylo. He also serves as a board member at Egnyte and a board observer at Datastax.

Previously, Matt was a general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers for over 15 years. In addition to Egnyte and Datastax, he was also an observer at Google (from initial investment to IPO), launched the iFund in ’08 (a collaborative initiative with Apple to build the defining iOS apps), sourced the firm’s investment in DocuSign, and led investments in Upstart (NASDAQ: UPST), Noom, Puppet (acquired by Perforce in 2022), SessionM (acquired by Mastercard in 2019), Drawbridge (acquired by LinkedIn in 2019), Shazam (acquired by Apple in 2018), AppDynamics (acquired by Cisco for $3.7B in 2017), Simplivity (acquired by HPE for $650M in 2017), PernixData (acquired by Nutanix in 2016), Shopkick (acquired by SK Planet 2014), Aerohive Networks (NASDAQ: HIVE, 2014), Ocarina Networks (acquired by Dell in 2010), and AutoNavi (NASDAQ: AMAP, 2010).

Before joining Kleiner Perkins, Matt worked at data networking startup Netboost (acquired by Intel), where he led product management; and, prior to that, at Sun Microsystems, where he led business development for the Network Systems Group and was a product line manager for networking platforms. Matt holds a bachelor of science in electrical engineering from Tufts University and an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He serves as the vice chairman of the Stanford University Engineering Venture Fund and is co-chair of the computer science committee on the Board of Visitors at Duke University.

Michael joined Lightspeed’s Consumer practice as a Partner in 2022 after most recently serving as Head of Talk for Spotify where he led the podcast, live, and video businesses for the world’s leading audio streaming platform. Michael cofounded Anchor, which was acquired by Spotify in 2019, and is credited for democratizing podcasting globally, transforming it from a small, niche medium into a universal form of creative expression adopted by millions of people worldwide. At Lightspeed, he’s primarily focused on investing in Generative AI and Creator Supply Chain companies, and recent deals include Tome, Circle Labs, Granola and Pika Labs.

Nicole is a General Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, where she focuses on Consumer, FinTech and Health investing. Consumer behavior, founder insights, and company brand are core in Nicole’s mind. She is on the board of beehiiv, Lightyear, Multiverse, Calm, Goop, Cameo and Lady Gaga's Haus Labs. Earlier, she sourced Rothy's and Zola. Prior to joining Lightspeed, Nicole had her own startup in the wearables space and worked at the European FinTech startup Nutmeg. Earlier in her career she was at Morgan Stanley where she worked on the IPOs for Facebook, Pandora and Groupon. Nicole has been featured in The Wall Street Journal's VC Women to Watch, Marie Claire New Guard Awards and The Forbes Midas Brink List.. She is on Lightspeed's Diversity and Inclusion Committee and an advocate for change around diversity. Nicole received a B.A. in Economics and Math from York, England and an MBA from Stanford.

Nina Achadjian is a Partner at Index Ventures where she focuses on venture and growth investments in enterprise SaaS, vertical SaaS, and AI. Some of her investments include ServiceTitan, Gong, DeepScribe, and Class Companion.

Prior to joining Index, Nina was an FP&A Lead for Google’s AdSense team where she managed a multi-billion dollar book of business covering Amazon, IAC, and eBay. Nina started her career as a high-yield bond trader at Citigroup. She also started HIVE Ventures, the first seed venture fund focusing on Armenian entrepreneurs, where she invested in over 30 companies.

Nina graduated from Harvard University with a B.A. in government and is a recipient of the Michael C. Rockefeller Scholarship. Nina currently lives in San Francisco and enjoys watching football and Formula 1.

Olaf Carlson-Wee is the founder and CIO of Polychain Capital. He is the former Head of Risk at Coinbase, the largest digital asset exchange in the United States, where he was hired as the first employee. During his three year tenure at Coinbase, Olaf built a 40 person operations team, conducted agent training on blockchain analysis for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”), and the Treasury Department, and designed fraud protection and account security mechanisms protecting billions of dollars in transactional value occurring in over 30 countries. He received a civilian award from Homeland Security for technical analysis of the blockchain in a $10,000,000 cyber crime case and has a patent pending for the Bitcoin Host Computer System, a multi-authorization bitcoin storage mechanism. Olaf also educated the economic advisor to President Obama on blockchain technology and has given numerous public facing technical talks on private key security and fraud prevention at scale. He received a BA from Vassar College after completing his thesis on distributed networking and financial cryptography.

Ray Lane is a Managing Partner at GreatPoint Ventures, a fund focused on using resources more efficiently (agriculture, water, energy, etc.), living longer and healthier lives (food, biotechnology, and healthcare), and increasing productivity (robotics, software, etc.). Ray is also a strategic advisor for Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, after serving as a managing partner with the firm for 14 years. Since 2000, Ray has focused on helping entrepreneurs with technological and market insight, organizational development, team building, selling and managing growth.

Ray serves on the board of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and was the former Chairman of Hewlett-Packard Inc. He also serves on the board of trustees of Carnegie Mellon University and was its Chairman from 2009 to 2016. He serves as a Vice Chairman of Special Olympics International and just completed eight years of service on the Board of Governors for West Virginia University. Ray dedicated the majority of his time serving on several start-up boards that are associated with GPV investments.

Prior to 2000, Ray was president and chief operating officer of Oracle Corp., one of the world’s largest software companies. During his eight-year tenure, Oracle grew from $800 million to more than $10 billion with a market cap exceeding $200 billion. Earlier in his career, Ray was a senior partner with Booz Allen Hamilton, where he pioneered and led the Information Systems Group, a worldwide technology consulting group for global enterprises. He served on Booz Allen Hamilton’s board of directors and executive management committee.

Ray received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and an honorary Ph.D. in science from West Virginia University. He was elected to the Academy of Distinguished Graduates and the Order of the Vandalia at WVU. The university honored Ray by naming the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering in its College of Engineering. Ray was an active campaigner and planner for Carnegie Mellon’s establishment in 2002 of a Silicon Valley campus. He helped create and fund Carnegie Mellon's Lane Computational Biology Department, one of six permanent degree-granting departments in the School of Computer Science. He was also recognized with an honorary Ph.D. from Golden Gate University in 1995. And in 2011, Ray was honored by TechAmerica as its recipient of the David Packard Medal of Lifetime Achievement Award.

Rebecca Rudisch is a Senior Global Business Leader, business innovator and transformation expert with deep expertise in retail, ecommerce, marketing, brand and product development in the U.S. and internationally. She is valued for decisive leadership, strategic thinking, international perspective, strategy development, P&L and team leadership, and omnichannel merchandising and marketing. She is a visionary with notable accomplishments creating new brands, value propositions, business models, business ventures and partnerships.

Rebecca is CEO of Yummers, a pet food and lifestyle brand that is improving the lives of pets and their parents by making every meal extremely delicious and highly nutritious. Additionally, Rebecca is a Partner in Caravan, a premier brand incubator, founded by Creative Artists Agency (CAA). She serves as Chief Commercial Officer, leads go-to-market strategy for brands in the Pet, Home, Health and Wellness and Beverage sectors. Through her own company, Rebecca advises consumer goods and retail companies ranging from start-ups to $5+ billion in revenue on strategic omnichannel and digital growth opportunities. The companies span functional nutrition, beverages, beauty, baby and pet businesses. She serves as Operating Advisor to Aria Growth Partners, a start-up PE fund focused on small-cap consumer growth companies, and has been active in the Bain expert network.

As Senior Vice President, Head of Own Brand & Selling Experience at H-E-B, a private, omnichannel grocery, health & wellness and general merchandise retailer, Rebecca led all aspects of a $9 billion Private Brand business for stores and digital channels. She grew sales at two-times company rate, share by more than 120 bps and margin by 35 bps, and created and implemented long-range strategies to expand new brands and product lines. She created and launched new brands and products focused on key customer trends around the cooking and culinary experience, convenient meal solutions, sustainability, health, wellness and beauty, and kitchen and home, and built the digital cooking and culinary customer experience platform to enable in-home demonstrations, food and wine events.

At Petco Health & Wellness, Rebecca was promoted to be Executive Vice President, Chief Merchandising & Marketing Officer where she led Merchandising, Marketing, Product Innovation, Design & Development and Sourcing. In this role, she drove growth in the core business, grew private and exclusive brand business by more than 40%, led go-to-market strategy, built a customer-focused marketing strategy, improved profitability and expanded the International Wholesale business of Petco Private Brands into Canada, Europe and Asia.

Prior to this, Rebecca was Senior Vice President of Merchandising at 7-Eleven, Inc., where she led the $11 billion North America Merchandise business, global Private Brands and Field Merchandising organization. Earlier, she held a number of leadership positions at Target Corporation, culminating in Vice President, Divisional Merchandise Manager – Healthcare, where she led all aspects of the $6.5 billion Pharmacy, Over-the-Counter & Optical business. Before this, Rebecca had a number of positions of increasing responsibility at Accenture.

Rebecca brings extensive board experience, and is currently on the Boards of Pet Honesty, a $85M Pet Supplement company, Smart Sweets, a $110M better for you candy brand, and Mikuna, an innovative plant protein company. She also served as a Member of the Outward Hound Board of Directors, the Petco Foundation Board, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) Retail Advisory Board and the Nielsen Retail Advisory Board. She has been Co-Chair of the Network of Executive Women, North Texas, as well as a Member of the Network of Executive Women, Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Rebecca earned a Master of Business Administration, with a concentration in International Marketing and Finance, at Purdue University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Communication at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. She has completed Yale University’s Fostering Inclusion & Diversity, the University of California – Berkeley’s Enterprise Digital Transformation, the Executive Leadership Program at West Point and Target’s Talent Development Program. She has been a sought-after speaker and guest lecturer at the Retail Leaders Forum and MBA courses at the Texas Christian University Neeley School of Business and the University of Indiana Kelley School of Business.

Rebecca enjoys spending time with her husband, Doug, and Goldendoodle, Will. She and Doug are foodies who love to travel, golf and enjoy time with family and friends.

Prior to Allocate, Samir spent nearly 22 years in venture banking between SVB and First Republic Bank and closely worked with and advised over 700 venture capital and private equity firms. During this time, he completed over $12B in structured debt transactions and invested personally in over 60 funds and companies, including early-stage investments into Carta (seed), Side (seed), PolicyGenius (Series A), and FanDuel (Series B) as well as Growth investments into Reddit, Alto Pharmacy, and Carbon Health.

Samir completed a finance undergraduate degree at San Jose State University, an MBA from Santa Clara University, and completed the prestigious Kauffman Fellows venture program.

He is also an active writer on venture capital and is the host of a top venture podcast called Venture Unlocked.

Sassie Duggleby is CEO and co-founder of Venus Aerospace, a deep-tech startup focused on building the fastest, reusable hypersonic aircraft in the world to make one-hour global transport possible.

Their groundbreaking technology, the Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE), boosts engine thrust and efficiency dramatically. This innovation represents a major leap in aerospace, a game changer for national security, and the key to unlocking the hypersonic economy. Under Sassie’s leadership, Venus has raised over $60M in venture capital, achieved a top 20 ranking on the NatSec100, and established partnerships with NASA, DARPA, and the U.S. Air Force.

Sassie's influence extends beyond the confines of her industry, with features in prominent media outlets such as CNN, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, and Gizmodo. She also earned a spot on Inc's 2023 Female Founders 200 list and founded the "Bada$$ Women in Aerospace" networking group to support women in the industry.

An engineer with an MBA, Sassie boasts a diverse background in high-tech startups. Prior to founding Venus, she helped launch rockets off the wing of a 747 at Virgin Orbit and grow businesses in everything from fiber optics and biotech to hazardous trailer manufacturing.

Sassie is responsible for Venus’ commitment to innovation by forging a team that changes the world and yet still gets home for dinner — a core company value. She is a devoted wife (to her co-founder), mother of two, and passionate outdoor enthusiast. Known by the nickname she gave herself at age two (no - Sassie is not her real name), Sassie is beyond honored to be working on this adventure of a lifetime.

Shardul Shah is a Partner at Index Ventures. His primary areas of investestment include security, cloud infrastructure and enterprise software. Shardul is a board member at Wiz, Coalition, Datadog (NASDAQ:DDOG), Expel, and AttackIQ, among others. Shardul was previously a director of Adallom (Microsoft), Sourceclear (CA Technologies), Koality (Docker), Lacoon (Check Point), Base (Zendesk), and an investor in Duo Security (Cisco). After graduating from the University of Chicago, Shardul worked with Summit Partners where he focused on healthcare and internet technologies.

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.