CoRise
A global startup summit focused on learning from Startup Growth Stories from 50+ Countries.
Africa · Europe · MENA · Americas · APAC
March 08th - 13th, 2020
(Mumbai GMT +05:30)
Agenda
Mumbai (GMT +05:30)
(Change)
Day 1 — Mon, Mar 8 (Mumbai GMT+05:30)
Previous Speakers
Sweta Rau
Founder, White Ventures
Singapore
Sweta Rau
Founder, White Ventures
Singapore
More info about Sweta Rau
Angel investing in the start ups and emerging ventures in the areas of FinTech, Block Chain, consumer Internet, consumer brands and Edtech Though Sector agnostic but like companies which uses tech as Growth and efficiency enabler. Invest in passion driven founders with innovative ideas to make people’s life better and being responsible towards their shareholder.
I have Diverse portfolio of 30+ early stage investments. Some of the investments are:
Asia’s largest SME Neobank: Bank Open,
API platform for Banking and Payments products in Asia :Yap(M2P).
Enrichment and skill based learning for young children : Uable
Loyalty and CRM Company :EasyRewardz,
Gaming platform :MPL,
Student and workforce Mentorship :LeverageEdu,
Digital Ledger App for SME : Khatabook
Product framework for intelligent conversational agents without having to learn advanced AI, NLU; Mauna.AI is building the infrastructure to enable machines to talk to people naturally.
Premium Members only Credit card payment company Cred.club
Oprah’s favourite 10 Vahdam tea is disrupting supply chain of tea with sustainable and responsible way, Logistic network company Loadshare which is empowering the regional logistics SMEs with Technology, GramFactory that helps local neighbourhood kirana stores to buy products directly from brands apart from Dunzo, Bira91 and nicer banking Neobank for Retail customer Jupiter are among others
Pre-covid 2020 bets are Video conferencing platform Airmeet Virtual conference solution, Mogul- US based HRtech and a tech platform for women,
Leap.club is Platform for creating powerful women leaders.
I have Diverse portfolio of 30+ early stage investments. Some of the investments are:
Asia’s largest SME Neobank: Bank Open,
API platform for Banking and Payments products in Asia :Yap(M2P).
Enrichment and skill based learning for young children : Uable
Loyalty and CRM Company :EasyRewardz,
Gaming platform :MPL,
Student and workforce Mentorship :LeverageEdu,
Digital Ledger App for SME : Khatabook
Product framework for intelligent conversational agents without having to learn advanced AI, NLU; Mauna.AI is building the infrastructure to enable machines to talk to people naturally.
Premium Members only Credit card payment company Cred.club
Oprah’s favourite 10 Vahdam tea is disrupting supply chain of tea with sustainable and responsible way, Logistic network company Loadshare which is empowering the regional logistics SMEs with Technology, GramFactory that helps local neighbourhood kirana stores to buy products directly from brands apart from Dunzo, Bira91 and nicer banking Neobank for Retail customer Jupiter are among others
Pre-covid 2020 bets are Video conferencing platform Airmeet Virtual conference solution, Mogul- US based HRtech and a tech platform for women,
Leap.club is Platform for creating powerful women leaders.
Yienyee Soh
Co-Founder, AVANA
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Yienyee Soh
Co-Founder, AVANA
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
More info about Yienyee Soh
Yienyee is the cofounder and Group COO at AVANA - a social commerce enabler that empowers more local businesses in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia to bring their products online and scale to compete on a global level Yienyee graduated with a Bachelor of Psychology (Hons) from HELP University College, Malaysia. During her university years, she founded an online fashion aggregator called A Shopaholic’s Den - pioneering a strong community of online sellers in Malaysia.
Yienyee’s passion for helping local businesses to grow has powered her successful career trajectory. The young entrepreneur started organizing offline events to complement the online community. It was during this time that Yienyee discovered the challenges facing online merchants: there was little technology to automate routine tasks such as updating inventories, managing orders, and tracking deliveries.
This was the spark that drove Yienyee to develop a solution to empower small businesses In 2016, Yienyee teamed up with Luqman, to build AVANA as an affordable and scalable end-to-end platform for local businesses to automate their business operations, tap into social media as discovery and sales channels as well as partner with logistic and payment Today, with a team of more than 80, AVANA empowers more than 100,000 businesses of all sizes and KOLs across the region to grow their business and is looking to empower more across Southeast Asia
Yienyee’s passion for helping local businesses to grow has powered her successful career trajectory. The young entrepreneur started organizing offline events to complement the online community. It was during this time that Yienyee discovered the challenges facing online merchants: there was little technology to automate routine tasks such as updating inventories, managing orders, and tracking deliveries.
This was the spark that drove Yienyee to develop a solution to empower small businesses In 2016, Yienyee teamed up with Luqman, to build AVANA as an affordable and scalable end-to-end platform for local businesses to automate their business operations, tap into social media as discovery and sales channels as well as partner with logistic and payment Today, with a team of more than 80, AVANA empowers more than 100,000 businesses of all sizes and KOLs across the region to grow their business and is looking to empower more across Southeast Asia
Sharon Vaswani
CEO, PanOphthalmics
Manila, Philippines
Yeoh Chen Chow
Co-Founder, Fave Group
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Yeoh Chen Chow
Co-Founder, Fave Group
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
More info about Yeoh Chen Chow
Yeoh Chen Chow is the co-founder of Fave, next generation merchant digital platform in South East Asia. Fave helps to digitize tens of thousands of local businesses, from restaurants, cafes, retailers, spas, beauty and wellness studios, service providers, tourist attractions to hotels. Fave helps those businesses in multi payments acceptance, customers acquisition (vouchers/deals, ecards), loyalty, cashback and retention, analytics, customers reviews/ratings, table orderings/takeaways, financing etc. Fave acquired 3 of the Groupon subsidiaries in South East Asia -- Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. He is also the co-founder of KFit, regional fitness sharing platform in South East Asia.
Prior to that, he was the Regional Operations Director for Groupon Asia Pacific, Product Manager for JobStreet.com and Management Consultant for Accenture. He is an Eisenhower Fellow and an alumnus of Cornell University. He is passionate and active in youth/student/entrepreneur empowerment, and he spent quite a bit of his free time in mentoring. He is also an angel investor, who has invested in numerous early stage startups in the region.
Prior to that, he was the Regional Operations Director for Groupon Asia Pacific, Product Manager for JobStreet.com and Management Consultant for Accenture. He is an Eisenhower Fellow and an alumnus of Cornell University. He is passionate and active in youth/student/entrepreneur empowerment, and he spent quite a bit of his free time in mentoring. He is also an angel investor, who has invested in numerous early stage startups in the region.
Angela Oetama
Co-Founder, Gradana
Jakarta, Indonesia
Angela Oetama
Co-Founder, Gradana
Jakarta, Indonesia
More info about Angela Oetama
Seasoned real estate and property professional turned startup warrior. Extensive business development experience specializing in developing, conceptualizing and implementing new business ideas or projects as well as joint venture partnership. All about creating values for property related solutions, problem solving and product development. Currrently busy in property related fintech startup called Gradana - making property more affordable and investable.
Alvin Cai
Acting VP - New Ventures, Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB)
Singapore
Alvin Cai
Acting VP - New Ventures, Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB)
Singapore
More info about Alvin Cai
Venture builder working actively with corporates to create new ventures in Singapore across domains such as consumer, digital, industrial and mobility. Passionate about entrepreneurship and new business models, with the aim of improving lives and driving change.
Adrita Bhattacharya
Product Marketing Lead, Livspace
Bangalore, India
Adrita Bhattacharya
Product Marketing Lead, Livspace
Bangalore, India
More info about Adrita Bhattacharya
Adrita is currently associated with Livspace, solving for its design platform. Previously, was a part of Silicon Valley tech companies at their European HQ : Quantcast - solved for the advertising platform; HubSpot - drove acquisition for their Agency Partner Programme.
Ming Xia HO
Global Project Manager, Draper Startup House
Singapore
Ming Xia HO
Global Project Manager, Draper Startup House
Singapore
More info about Ming Xia HO
Ming Xia Ho is a global project manager at Draper Startup House, leading marcomms, partnerships and community management.
Beyond offering accommodation for travelling entrepreneurs, Draper Startup House is committed to building human connections in the community while providing support in the startup ecosystem, with a mission to enable one million entrepreneurs by 2030. From the inspired community, Draper Startup House strives to pay it forward and drive progress by creating value: launching DSH Ventures, a global syndicate matching startups to investors beyond geographical borders; and offering its nine physical locations as micro-campuses - opening new doors by making Silicon Valley education accessible to all.
Ming Xia is also passionate about community building and bringing greater value through collaborative partnerships that empower. Adopting a ground-up approach in learning, she is curious to broaden perspectives while creating more collisions between the art and entrepreneurial world.
Anupama Singal
Co-Founder, SLICeR
Singapore
Anupama Singal
Co-Founder, SLICeR
Singapore
More info about Anupama Singal
Often referred to as a ‘Fashion & Tech Girl”, Anupama is known for breaking stereotypes. A Chemical Engineer and a Post Graduate in Fashion Marketing, she pursues both the streams of fashion and technology with equal zest. After having worked with Levi Strauss for 14 years, she moved out of the corporate world and jumped into entrepreneurship.
Anupama is a Co- Founder at 3 companies. With a varied work experience spanning almost the entire ‘Go- To-Market’ process in fashion and passionate about putting data to good use, Anupama has redefined business processes in merchandising, product management, demand planning, business intelligence and analytics.
This passion led to her becoming a Co-founder at SLICeR, a data analytics solutions company, focussed on improving decision making at fashion & lifestyle retail companies.
A dreamer, a doer and a connector of people, you will often find her having engaged and authentic conversations. She urges one to see beyond oneself, be unique, live a life filled with purpose, and move forward with enthusiasm.
Monica Mehta
Executive Vice President, Wadhwani Foundation
Mumbai, India
Monica Mehta
Executive Vice President, Wadhwani Foundation
Mumbai, India
More info about Monica Mehta
Monica leads the Wadhwani Entrepreneur Initiative of the Wadhwani Foundation which focuses on the College program in India, South East Asia and MENA. Prior to joining the Foundation, she was a Director at Omidyar Network, where she led the education/skilling investments as well as grants in India. She has also been the Founding Partner at Kaizen Private equity, India’s only private equity fund focussed on Education. Her experience has spanned across strategy, investments and operations over the past 28 years. She enjoys solving complex problems, especially in early stage businesses where obvious solutions are often lacking. She is drawn to leading teams with diverse skill sets, which she has successfully done both as an entrepreneur and investment professional. She has a particular passion for impact investing in the education/future of work segments, but has experience in financial services and emerging technologies as well.
Stanley Ng
Program Director - Southeast Asia, New Energy Nexus
Singapore
Stanley Ng
Program Director - Southeast Asia, New Energy Nexus
Singapore
More info about Stanley Ng
Stanley is the Program Director for New Energy Nexus in Southeast Asia, currently working on building energy startup ecosystems in the region. He works with universities, companies and civil society to support budding entrepreneurs in enabling the transition to a clean energy economy. He has a digital technology and energy innovation background with experience in renewables, cleantech startups, digital media, and IT advisory. He is an advocate of innovation and entrepreneurship’s role in the energy transition.
Stanley is a native of New York City and has spent the last 12 years working in energy startups and digital technology companies in the United States and the Asia Pacific region.
Stanley is a native of New York City and has spent the last 12 years working in energy startups and digital technology companies in the United States and the Asia Pacific region.
Christopher Peralta
Founder, Silicon Valley HQ
Palo Alto, US
Christopher Peralta
Founder, Silicon Valley HQ
Palo Alto, US
More info about Christopher Peralta
Christopher Peralta has over 25+ years Business Development executive experience closing strategic and tactical deals with 50+ tech companies around the world. His passion for innovation is only surpassed for his deep foundation and love of building relationships.
As an entrepreneur, his network exponentially grew after running 100+ Silicon Valley Accelerator and Immersion programs for corporates, investors and startup groups from 20+ countries around the world. This evolved to become SiliconValleyHQ platform offering online mentorship to entrepreneurs all around the world connecting to 150+ mentors and experts in Silicon Valley. Starting with emerging markets,
Christopher has launched Africa Valley, APAC Valley and LATAM Valley. More info at www.siliconvalleyhq.com, www.africa-valley.com, www.apacvalley.com & www.latam-valley.com
Christopher is also no stranger to the Investment landscape, with his last startup investment exiting to Google and personally raising millions of dollars for his own Startups in the Enterprise SaaS, LifeScience and Technology space. Multiple missions of fighting COVID-19 with their patent-pending Alcohol free persistent Sanitizer, supporting Wildlife Conservation using Blockchain to raise money and awareness to bring back species. Checkout www.animalexchange.net & www.clearlakeresearch.com
Christopher has been based in Australia, Singapore, New York and Silicon Valley. Christopher holds a degree in Bachelor of Electrical Engineering, majoring in Telecommunications and sub-major in Computer Systems from the University of Technology, Sydney Australia.
Budi Santoso
Founder, Doclink Indonesia
Jakarta, Indonesia
Budi Santoso
Founder, Doclink Indonesia
Jakarta, Indonesia
More info about Budi Santoso
Helping people accessing good and reliable health services is the silver line of his career. His deep experience as business and product development in various multinational companies, focused on health industry, led Budi to start concepting his own venture in 2018 along with his brother and friends.
After accepted in Indigo creative nation, a Telkom Indonesia owned business incubator, Doclink Indonesia launched in 2019 and rapidly growing its market and gaining trust for partnership from more than 60 major players in the industry. On Nov 2020, Doclink Indonesia selected to represent Indonesia in ASEAN - Korea StartUp Week and achi
After accepted in Indigo creative nation, a Telkom Indonesia owned business incubator, Doclink Indonesia launched in 2019 and rapidly growing its market and gaining trust for partnership from more than 60 major players in the industry. On Nov 2020, Doclink Indonesia selected to represent Indonesia in ASEAN - Korea StartUp Week and achi
Roslyn Teng
VP Growth Marketing, Ampjar
Singapore
Roslyn Teng
VP Growth Marketing, Ampjar
Singapore
More info about Roslyn Teng
Product-centric entrepreneur and digital marketer.
Helping eCommerce brands and content creators grow through an ad community at Ampjar.
Looking to speak to other entrepreneurs, marketers, designers, and product managers at SaaS/AdTech companies for collaborations and learning.
Helping eCommerce brands and content creators grow through an ad community at Ampjar.
Looking to speak to other entrepreneurs, marketers, designers, and product managers at SaaS/AdTech companies for collaborations and learning.
Jazz Tan
CEO, YouthsToday.com
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Jazz Tan
CEO, YouthsToday.com
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
More info about Jazz Tan
Jazz Tan is the CEO and founder of YouthsToday.com and Fuhla.com. Award winner of Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia, Top 40 under 40 Prestige magazine and the Best ICT in ASEAN region. Founder of the largest youth online engagement platform in Malaysia and a personalised app store serving hundred thousand users. Jazz is a social entrepreneur, strategist and an inspirational figure to set course and help young people to thrive at their fullest potential.
Over the years as an entrepreneur, Jazz has successfully launched over 3000 youth development projects across the country and inspired more than 500,000 youths in Malaysia. Looking at the current growth and rate that the platform is growing, Jazz strives to move forward with global expansion and gathering more like-minded entrepreneurs, NGOs and communities to embark on a journey of nation building with the youths.
Jazz believes youths are the backbone of every country's economy, growth and future that will create revolutions and solutions to both the community and the people at large.
Jazz's mission and vision would be expanding to the global region and form strong partnerships with all stakeholders of countries and leaders to create positive change to the society.
Over the years as an entrepreneur, Jazz has successfully launched over 3000 youth development projects across the country and inspired more than 500,000 youths in Malaysia. Looking at the current growth and rate that the platform is growing, Jazz strives to move forward with global expansion and gathering more like-minded entrepreneurs, NGOs and communities to embark on a journey of nation building with the youths.
Jazz believes youths are the backbone of every country's economy, growth and future that will create revolutions and solutions to both the community and the people at large.
Jazz's mission and vision would be expanding to the global region and form strong partnerships with all stakeholders of countries and leaders to create positive change to the society.
Cherry Murillon
Founder, CAWIL.AI
Manila, Philippines
Cherry Murillon
Founder, CAWIL.AI
Manila, Philippines
More info about Cherry Murillon
Founder and Lead Innovator, CAWIL AI Solutions- an AI-enabled solution to preserve biodiversity, livelihood and sustainable environment.
Environmentalist, Feminist, Entrepreneur, Innovator.
It's been my passion to turn technology and innovation viable. I have worked with several startups in business development in the field of edutech and social enterprises. I have been chosen for two consecutive years as one of the Top 10 "Startup Pinay Founders" as one of the Delegate for Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (SWITCH) 2018 & 2019 by the DTI-Export Marketing Bureau. I have extensive experience in launching companies overseas and raised several funding throughout my entrepreneurial journey.
Alumni Startup Founder of Ideaspace Foundation 2017 cohort 5 and a woman technology advocate.
Alumni Startup Founder at PortXL Singapore 2019 cohort, World's First Port, and Maritime Accelerator.
With 12 years of extensive sales and marketing experience which has been her advantage in founding and mentoring technology-driven companies.
I practice a "half-empty, half-full" mantra to be able to stay relevant in Industry 4.0.
Environmentalist, Feminist, Entrepreneur, Innovator.
It's been my passion to turn technology and innovation viable. I have worked with several startups in business development in the field of edutech and social enterprises. I have been chosen for two consecutive years as one of the Top 10 "Startup Pinay Founders" as one of the Delegate for Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (SWITCH) 2018 & 2019 by the DTI-Export Marketing Bureau. I have extensive experience in launching companies overseas and raised several funding throughout my entrepreneurial journey.
Alumni Startup Founder of Ideaspace Foundation 2017 cohort 5 and a woman technology advocate.
Alumni Startup Founder at PortXL Singapore 2019 cohort, World's First Port, and Maritime Accelerator.
With 12 years of extensive sales and marketing experience which has been her advantage in founding and mentoring technology-driven companies.
I practice a "half-empty, half-full" mantra to be able to stay relevant in Industry 4.0.
Aaron Sarma
General Partner, ScaleUp Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Aaron Sarma
General Partner, ScaleUp Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
More info about Aaron Sarma
Aaron is an entrepreneur with experience in technology, digital media and retail. In 2015 he founded Touristly a travel startup that aimed to help tourists discover and book attractions across Asia Pacific. In 2017, the business was acquired by AirAsia to spearhead its digital transformation with the aim of monetising the data from the 100m travellers who fly every year. Touristly was later rebranded to Vidi and has now become AirAsia.com where Aaron remains as a senior advisor.
He currently serves as General Partner at Scaleup Malaysia, an accelerator looking to help start-ups build and scale to the next level. The program has just completed its inaugural cohort wherein it has invested in 10 companies in spite of the challenges posed by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Cohort 2 is currently underway. ScaleUp Malaysia aims to invest and scale 50 companies over the next 3 years.
Aaron is passionate about start-ups and is excited to work with founders who want to use technology to change the world around them.
Johnson Lam
Founder, KakiDIY
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Johnson Lam
Founder, KakiDIY
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
More info about Johnson Lam
Johnson Lam is a community builder who founded KakiDIY. Focuses on DIY education mainly on life-skills and STE(A)M; inspiring makers to be solving problems using resources around us. All these starts from the grass-root of education, current technologies (Robotic, Drones, 3D Printing, AR/VR, IoT), up-cycling and recycling old stuff into something artistic and useful.
Johnson via KakiDIY also inspired and incubated new Makers into enterprising mindset and eventually building their own company selling their products and services internationally. KakiDIY also scouts for talented makers and collaborate them into building solutions for the industry in Malaysia and around neighboring countries. (Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam)
Along with educating the community, Johnson also spreads the DIY and Maker movement via other channels such as online, social media, TV and other printed medias.
Johnson via KakiDIY also inspired and incubated new Makers into enterprising mindset and eventually building their own company selling their products and services internationally. KakiDIY also scouts for talented makers and collaborate them into building solutions for the industry in Malaysia and around neighboring countries. (Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam)
Along with educating the community, Johnson also spreads the DIY and Maker movement via other channels such as online, social media, TV and other printed medias.
Udit Goenka
Founder, PitchGround
Mumbai, India
Udit Goenka
Founder, PitchGround
Mumbai, India
More info about Udit Goenka
Udit Goenka is an entrepreneur and the marketing mastermind behind Power Up Hosting, GoPBN, FunnelBake, PitchGround among other ventures.
While still in his teenage years, Udit began his online career as graphics design, branding consultant, software consultant building a strong customer base in less than a year.
During this time he was able to work with and develop relationships with numerous business owners who found themselves struggling to bring great products into the market.
In 2011, while working as a full-time student at the University of Mumbai, Udit helped bring one product into the mass market and made over $300,000 in less than 5 days.
It was then that Udit realized that his calling was to spearhead product launch and brand awareness.
He then partnered up with an existing friend and fellow entrepreneur, Oscar Hernandez, to form the brain trust that is now Power Up Hosting.
Since 2012, Udit Goenka has been the face of Power Up Hosting, bringing a company from relative anonymity to success with absolutely no marketing budget. Udit was able to navigate the unforgiving waters of the IaaS market to bring afloat a small but very well equipped company to compete with much bigger players in their hometown of Los Angeles.
In 2015, Udit was featured on INC.com’s startup section.
While working on all these years, Udit also started consulting SaaS business as he started working on a side project FunnelBake and PitchGround.
In 2017, he started working on FunnelBake, a Sales CRM engine and launched a small MVP in early 2018 and now has over 900+ customers for FunnelBake.
In October 2018, he launched PitchGround a unique crowdfunding platform for SaaS companies and in just 1 year of its existence, PitchGround has helped companies raise over $1.1 million and has acquired over 10,000+ paying customers.
In 2019, Udit made an exit from Power Up Hosting, Inc. and GoPBN to concentrate fully on FunnelBake and PitchGround.
While still in his teenage years, Udit began his online career as graphics design, branding consultant, software consultant building a strong customer base in less than a year.
During this time he was able to work with and develop relationships with numerous business owners who found themselves struggling to bring great products into the market.
In 2011, while working as a full-time student at the University of Mumbai, Udit helped bring one product into the mass market and made over $300,000 in less than 5 days.
It was then that Udit realized that his calling was to spearhead product launch and brand awareness.
He then partnered up with an existing friend and fellow entrepreneur, Oscar Hernandez, to form the brain trust that is now Power Up Hosting.
Since 2012, Udit Goenka has been the face of Power Up Hosting, bringing a company from relative anonymity to success with absolutely no marketing budget. Udit was able to navigate the unforgiving waters of the IaaS market to bring afloat a small but very well equipped company to compete with much bigger players in their hometown of Los Angeles.
In 2015, Udit was featured on INC.com’s startup section.
While working on all these years, Udit also started consulting SaaS business as he started working on a side project FunnelBake and PitchGround.
In 2017, he started working on FunnelBake, a Sales CRM engine and launched a small MVP in early 2018 and now has over 900+ customers for FunnelBake.
In October 2018, he launched PitchGround a unique crowdfunding platform for SaaS companies and in just 1 year of its existence, PitchGround has helped companies raise over $1.1 million and has acquired over 10,000+ paying customers.
In 2019, Udit made an exit from Power Up Hosting, Inc. and GoPBN to concentrate fully on FunnelBake and PitchGround.
Dhruv Arora
Founder, Syfe
Singapore
Dhruv Arora
Founder, Syfe
Singapore
More info about Dhruv Arora
Dhruv is the Founder & CEO of Syfe, a top tier Digital Wealth Manager offering fully-managed investment portfolios with no minimum entry or lock-in. In just over a year, Syfe has launched 3 products; Global ARI, Equity100, and REIT+, catering to a wide spectrum of investors and their needs. In September, Syfe closed a SGD $25.2 million (USD $18.6 million) Series A led by Valar Ventures, one of the leading fintech-focused investment firms.
Dhruv is a former Director at UBS. He started his career as a Portfolio Trader in Hong Kong and then went to lead UBS’ Asia Pacific Exchange-traded Funds (ETF) distribution efforts. After an extensive career in finance, Dhruv joined Softbank-backed Grofers, a leader in India’ s e-grocery space, as Vice President of Product and Growth.
Dhruv is a former Director at UBS. He started his career as a Portfolio Trader in Hong Kong and then went to lead UBS’ Asia Pacific Exchange-traded Funds (ETF) distribution efforts. After an extensive career in finance, Dhruv joined Softbank-backed Grofers, a leader in India’ s e-grocery space, as Vice President of Product and Growth.
Heera SKV
CEO, Bursa Sajadah
Bandung, Indonesia
Heera SKV
CEO, Bursa Sajadah
Bandung, Indonesia
More info about Heera SKV
Heera SKV, the CEO of Bursa Sajadah. The biggest and the first one stop shopping retail stores that focus in Hajj and Umrah’s Gifts and Amnesties products, with a total of 13 Stores
in 9 big cities in Indonesia.
in 9 big cities in Indonesia.
Shwetank Verma
Co-Founder, Leo Capital
Singapore
Shwetank Verma
Co-Founder, Leo Capital
Singapore
More info about Shwetank Verma
Early-stage venture investor in India and South East Asia with Leo Capital (pitch@leo.capital). Focused on Digital Health, Insurtech and Fintech. Investor in @WayForward , @GetRia, @CoverGenius, @BeatOApp
Previously, Shwetank headed open innovation at MetLife Asia, where he created and led (Collab) - a platform for matching best of class technology (AI, VR/AR, Blockchain etc.) startups to the right problem statement in the enterprise and bringing culture change to the main enterprise. He has been an adviser on open innovation to Fortune 500 companies.
Previously, Shwetank headed open innovation at MetLife Asia, where he created and led (Collab) - a platform for matching best of class technology (AI, VR/AR, Blockchain etc.) startups to the right problem statement in the enterprise and bringing culture change to the main enterprise. He has been an adviser on open innovation to Fortune 500 companies.
Wayne Soh
Director, Investments (Singapore), Plug and Play Tech Center
Singapore
Wayne Soh
Director, Investments (Singapore), Plug and Play Tech Center
Singapore
More info about Wayne Soh
Wayne leads the Plug and Play team in Singapore and oversees Plug and Play's investments in the Southeast Asia region. He has been actively involved with the SEA technology and startup ecosystem for more than 15 years, working with government agencies, corporations, universities and community groups to help promote the adoption of the latest technology and to boost the chances of success of the startups that he works with.
Wayne graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor in Computing, having a major in Computer Science and a minor in Technopreneurship. He was on the NUS Overseas College Silicon Valley program from Jul 2008 to Jul 2009 and worked full-time as a web developer in mobile startup Qik while taking entrepreneurship classes from Stanford University. Most recently, Wayne was the co-founder and CEO of ProperHands, a platform to matchmake home owners and office managers with cleaners.
Wayne graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor in Computing, having a major in Computer Science and a minor in Technopreneurship. He was on the NUS Overseas College Silicon Valley program from Jul 2008 to Jul 2009 and worked full-time as a web developer in mobile startup Qik while taking entrepreneurship classes from Stanford University. Most recently, Wayne was the co-founder and CEO of ProperHands, a platform to matchmake home owners and office managers with cleaners.
Lennise Ng
Co-Founder & CEO, Dropee
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Lennise Ng
Co-Founder & CEO, Dropee
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
More info about Lennise Ng
Lennise Ng is the CEO & Co-Founder of Dropee - a B2B eCommerce platform that enables brands and wholesalers to be closer to their customers, both online and offline. Lennise is passionate about entrepreneurship and innovation. She has previously worked in various local and international organisations across VCs, accelerators, and multinational tech companies prior to Dropee.
Lennise is the 3rd-generation entrepreneur of a family business that manufactures and distributes rubber products. Combining the two worlds, Lennise started Dropee to address the issues of growing and scaling wholesale businesses in the eCommerce era. Up to date, Dropee has helped thousands of brands and wholesale businesses to leverage eCommerce to their growth advantage.
A startup cheerleader by heart, Lennise is currently an active mentor for various startup events and hackathons.
Natasha Dawn Bautista
Operations Head, QBO Innovation Hub
Manila, Philippines
Natasha Dawn Bautista
Operations Head, QBO Innovation Hub
Manila, Philippines
More info about Natasha Dawn Bautista
Natasha heads the Operations of QBO, Philippine’s first innovation hub and startup platform. QBO is the first of its kind public-private partnership initiative in the country specifically geared to provide resources, connections and support to accelerate the growth of Philippine startup companies.
A Bachelor of Science Management graduate in the Ateneo de Manila University, Natasha has been in the startup scene since 2013 when she was only 21 years old. She brought over Grab to the Philippines when she was just an intern and in a span of 3 years, led the company to what it is today with the Head of GrabCar as her last role.
Since then, she has been helping both foreign and local startups start and continue operations in the country. Her passion for development, whether it be as an individual, as a team or company, or as a nation, fuels her drive to empower the people and companies she works with.
Anna Melissa Nava
Co-Founder & CEO, 1Export
Manila, Philippines
Anna Melissa Nava
Co-Founder & CEO, 1Export
Manila, Philippines
More info about Anna Melissa Nava
I am the CEO and co-founder of 1Export. Prior to founding 1Export, I worked in Export Sales Team of a major FMCG company based in the PH.
Milan Reinartz
CEO, iVS
Singapore
Milan Reinartz
CEO, iVS
Singapore
More info about Milan Reinartz
Milan Reinartz, CEO of iVideoSmart, is a Singapore based ad-tech entrepreneur passionate about digital innovation and technology strategy. Over the past 5 years he founded and grew Postr, a leading lock-screen publishing business to 7 markets building partnerships with major telecoms including Telkomsel, Singtel, O2 Germany, Altice Portugal and others. He joined iVS late-2019, taking over the leadership with a focus on people, processes and profitability.
Tulika Tripathi
Founder & CEO, Snaphunt
Singapore
Tulika Tripathi
Founder & CEO, Snaphunt
Singapore
More info about Tulika Tripathi
Tulika Tripathi is the Founder of Snaphunt, a smart hiring platform that helps people find jobs, and employers hire talent, quickly & accurately. Tulika is passionate about making hiring more accurate & transparent and she founded Snaphunt on the back of more than 20 years’ experience in starting up, growing and turning around business in multiple geographies. Tulika has extensive experience within recruitment and has previously held various senior leadership roles in global recruitment firms, including Executive Director of Michael Page Geneva, MD Page Group Singapore and MD Michael Page India as well as MD–Asia for Hudson Global. Tulika is also the author of ‘Alice in Corporateland’, a book on achieving success published by Penguin Portfolio.
John Sharp
Managing Partner, Hatcher+
Singapore
John Sharp
Managing Partner, Hatcher+
Singapore
More info about John Sharp
John is a Partner at Hatcher Plus, the leading data-driven venture capital investment firm. John has extensive commercial experience at the senior management level, having been the Chief Executive Officer of Authentium, Inc. the Managing Director, Asia, of WorldSpace, and CEO of Hatcher, the precursor company to Hatcher+. A tenacious and driven executive with longstanding board-level and C-suite level management experience within high-growth companies, John also brings a strong history of capital raising from an extensive network of investors globally.
As Chairman and CEO of cybersecurity pioneer Authentium (acquired by CYREN in 2010), John co-authored three US patents and developed and sold cybersecurity solutions to some the largest organizations in the world, including the US Department of Commerce, NASA, AOL, British Telecom, Comcast, Cox Communications, Google, McAfee, Microsoft, Symantec, and Telstra. As CTO at Hatcher+, DocDoc, Heardable, and ThoughtRiver, John has designed and developed several highly-innovative technology platforms using cutting-edge approaches to data processing, user interface design, and workflow optimization.
John is a frequent blogger and an in-demand speaker at venture events globally, and has extensive experience implementing ESG solutions as Chairman and/or board member of numerous start-ups, including director roles at trade finance provider ASYX and payment aggregator Mozido, and roles as Chairman of MENA-based financial services pioneer Telr, and the leading Cambridge-based legal services technology company, ThoughtRiver.
As Chairman and CEO of cybersecurity pioneer Authentium (acquired by CYREN in 2010), John co-authored three US patents and developed and sold cybersecurity solutions to some the largest organizations in the world, including the US Department of Commerce, NASA, AOL, British Telecom, Comcast, Cox Communications, Google, McAfee, Microsoft, Symantec, and Telstra. As CTO at Hatcher+, DocDoc, Heardable, and ThoughtRiver, John has designed and developed several highly-innovative technology platforms using cutting-edge approaches to data processing, user interface design, and workflow optimization.
John is a frequent blogger and an in-demand speaker at venture events globally, and has extensive experience implementing ESG solutions as Chairman and/or board member of numerous start-ups, including director roles at trade finance provider ASYX and payment aggregator Mozido, and roles as Chairman of MENA-based financial services pioneer Telr, and the leading Cambridge-based legal services technology company, ThoughtRiver.
Eddie Ler
Partner, Vantage Venture
Singapore
Eddie Ler
Partner, Vantage Venture
Singapore
More info about Eddie Ler
Eddie is an early investor in B2B SaaS founders with unfair advantage and differentiated approach in financial inclusion, lifelong learning and sustainable development across geographies.
His portfolio companies are backed by G7 SWF, Moody's (owned by Berkshire Hathaway), Kingdom Holdings ($100 billion AUM), venture capital firms (GSR, Square Peg, 500 Startups, Seedplus, etc), Enterprise Singapore's venture arm and family offices. Recent exits include the acquisition of an insurtech by an NYSE listed investment bank.
He is a former World Bank consultant in strategy and operations for emerging financial institutions in South East Asia. He has assisted an emerging financial centre to establish a $2 billion fund of fund to seed private equity managers sponsored by a GCC SWF.
He is a panel speaker, judge and mentor at the Draper Startup House, Slingshot, IOT Tribe, Startupbootcamp, Singapore Fintech Association, etc.
He holds a master degree in Applied Statistics from Exeter College, Oxford and has completed an executive program in Strategy from Wharton School.
He is a Singaporean and has lived / worked in over 10 countries across Asia, Europe and the GCC. Outside of work, he is a certified judge for National Open Artistic Swimming Championships at the Sports Hub.
His portfolio companies are backed by G7 SWF, Moody's (owned by Berkshire Hathaway), Kingdom Holdings ($100 billion AUM), venture capital firms (GSR, Square Peg, 500 Startups, Seedplus, etc), Enterprise Singapore's venture arm and family offices. Recent exits include the acquisition of an insurtech by an NYSE listed investment bank.
He is a former World Bank consultant in strategy and operations for emerging financial institutions in South East Asia. He has assisted an emerging financial centre to establish a $2 billion fund of fund to seed private equity managers sponsored by a GCC SWF.
He is a panel speaker, judge and mentor at the Draper Startup House, Slingshot, IOT Tribe, Startupbootcamp, Singapore Fintech Association, etc.
He holds a master degree in Applied Statistics from Exeter College, Oxford and has completed an executive program in Strategy from Wharton School.
He is a Singaporean and has lived / worked in over 10 countries across Asia, Europe and the GCC. Outside of work, he is a certified judge for National Open Artistic Swimming Championships at the Sports Hub.
Trang Tran
Principal, B Capital Group
Singapore
Trang Tran
Principal, B Capital Group
Singapore
More info about Trang Tran
Trang is a Principal at B Capital Group, a global firm specializing in equity investing in venture and growth-stage companies across the US and Asia. Trang is based in Singapore and helps drive the firm’s investment activity in Southeast Asia across key sectors including consumer enablement, fintech, logistics & industrials, and health tech. Prior to B Capital, Trang had close to 10 years of experience across private equity, venture capital investment and M&A advisory in the region, having worked at Temasek, The Abraaj Group and PwC Singapore.
Giulianna Crivello
Head of Ventures, Draper Startup House
Singapore
Ankit Machhar
Program Head – Ecosystem Development, NEN India, Wadhwani Foundation
Mentor – Start-Up India, Mentor of Change – ATL, NITI Aayog
India
Ankit Machhar
Program Head – Ecosystem Development, NEN India, Wadhwani Foundation
Mentor – Start-Up India, Mentor of Change – ATL, NITI Aayog
India
More info about Ankit Machhar
Ankit leads the entrepreneurship ecosystem development vertical for NEN India at Wadhwani
Foundation and works closely with top Institutes, Universities and Incubators across India
with an objective of creating high value jobs by mainstreaming entrepreneurship education
and creating large number of entrepreneurs. He has a significant experience in creating and
supporting technology entrepreneurship ecosystem, fostering startup culture, setting up
incubation spaces and processes, encouraging aspiring entrepreneurs to take up
entrepreneurship and currently mentoring 20+ startups.
Ankit is on-board with several organisations as Mentor and Advisor. He was invited by Invest
India to be on Mentor Board of Startup India Hub. He is also a Mentor of Change at Atal
Innovation Mission for one of the ATLs in Gujarat. He is also on the Mentor Board of CIIE-IIM
Ahmedabad, and several others such as AIC RNTU Bhopal, MIT AoE Pune, IIC - PDPU
Gandhinagar, Swarnim Startup and Innovation University.
In his previous role, Ankit worked as Manager – Ecosystem Development at iCreate (a
Government of Gujarat’s Technology Business Incubator) and was leading the strategic
alliances, partnerships, reach-out programs, scouting startups, branding & promotion of
iCreate.
Ankit was part of Executive Committee at Vibrant Gujarat Startup & Technology Summit
2018 and 2019. Earlier, he was also invited by Government of Gujarat to be part of the CoDesign Team of an Action Seminar on ‘Startups, Innovation and Entrepreneurship’, held
during Vibrant Gujarat Global Investment Summit 2017. He was also the Executive
Committee Member of Vibrant Gujarat Startup Summit 2016 and spearheaded national level
Grand Challenge and conducted 25 roadshows in cities across India.
Ankit is a Gold Medalist in MBA (FB&E) from Nirma University (Ahmedabad) and holds a BE in
Electronics & Tele-Communication from Pune University.
Foundation and works closely with top Institutes, Universities and Incubators across India
with an objective of creating high value jobs by mainstreaming entrepreneurship education
and creating large number of entrepreneurs. He has a significant experience in creating and
supporting technology entrepreneurship ecosystem, fostering startup culture, setting up
incubation spaces and processes, encouraging aspiring entrepreneurs to take up
entrepreneurship and currently mentoring 20+ startups.
Ankit is on-board with several organisations as Mentor and Advisor. He was invited by Invest
India to be on Mentor Board of Startup India Hub. He is also a Mentor of Change at Atal
Innovation Mission for one of the ATLs in Gujarat. He is also on the Mentor Board of CIIE-IIM
Ahmedabad, and several others such as AIC RNTU Bhopal, MIT AoE Pune, IIC - PDPU
Gandhinagar, Swarnim Startup and Innovation University.
In his previous role, Ankit worked as Manager – Ecosystem Development at iCreate (a
Government of Gujarat’s Technology Business Incubator) and was leading the strategic
alliances, partnerships, reach-out programs, scouting startups, branding & promotion of
iCreate.
Ankit was part of Executive Committee at Vibrant Gujarat Startup & Technology Summit
2018 and 2019. Earlier, he was also invited by Government of Gujarat to be part of the CoDesign Team of an Action Seminar on ‘Startups, Innovation and Entrepreneurship’, held
during Vibrant Gujarat Global Investment Summit 2017. He was also the Executive
Committee Member of Vibrant Gujarat Startup Summit 2016 and spearheaded national level
Grand Challenge and conducted 25 roadshows in cities across India.
Ankit is a Gold Medalist in MBA (FB&E) from Nirma University (Ahmedabad) and holds a BE in
Electronics & Tele-Communication from Pune University.
Yagnesh Sanghrajka
Founder and CFO at 100X.VC, a seed stage Fund which uses iSAFE as a unique instrument to invest in startups
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Yagnesh Sanghrajka
Founder and CFO at 100X.VC, a seed stage Fund which uses iSAFE as a unique instrument to invest in startups
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
More info about Yagnesh Sanghrajka
Yagnesh Sanghrajka is a Chartered Accountant (1989 batch). He has had a long and successful career in the corporate world having led Finance, M&A, Strategy and Investor Relations for various organizations, large and medium sized, listed and unlisted.
Yagnesh has worked for Hinduja Group (their IT/ ITES biz, now known as Hinduja Global Solutions - HGS), Entertainment World Developers P Ltd, part of the Atul Ruia led Phoenix Mills Group and MT Educare (brand name - Mahesh Tutorials), a listed education services player, now part of Essel Group. He has also worked as 'India Operating Partner’ for Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP), a top ranked US based Global VC/PE firm.
Yagnesh has been part of the key management team at all the above organizations, and has worked closely with Board of Directors as CFO. He has also been part of due diligence and valuation exercises both from acquirer and target companies’ perspective and hence possesses expert knowledge in these areas.
Yagnesh currently is the Founder and CFO of 100X.VC, India’s first venture capital fund which uses iSAFE notes to fund startups. 100X.VC is promoted by Mehta Ventures, a family office owned by Ace Angel Investor Sanjay Mehta. 100X.VC has already funded 20 companies in Class 01 in 2019.
LinkedIn Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/yagnesh270766
Surabhi Vashisht
Practice head – Startups - Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Surabhi Vashisht
Practice head – Startups - Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
More info about Surabhi Vashisht
Surabhi has 10+ years of diverse experience in Software development (dev-test-ops), business & corporate development for large enterprises. In her current role, she heads the India Startup Business at Hewlett Packard Enterprise(HPE) with a focus on driving deeper engagements with Venture Capital backed startups.
Previously, she was a technology consultant for HPE PointNext Services where she was responsible for business development in verticals which included BFSI, Telecom, Manufacturing, and Retail.
Previously, she was a technology consultant for HPE PointNext Services where she was responsible for business development in verticals which included BFSI, Telecom, Manufacturing, and Retail.
Bridget Harris
Co-Founder, YouCanBook.Me
London, UK
Bridget Harris
Co-Founder, YouCanBook.Me
London, UK
More info about Bridget Harris
co-founder/CEO @youcanbookme, former adviser to UK DPM. Advocate for new political leadership, women in politics in UK and Africa, technology driving change.
Janneke Niessen
Partner, CapitalT
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Janneke Niessen
Partner, CapitalT
Amsterdam, Netherlands
More info about Janneke Niessen
Janneke is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, board member and mentor for startups and co-founder of CapitalT, a VC fund that invests in technology companies using proprietary technology to evaluate entrepreneurial teams.
In the past she has started and exited 2 international tech companies. She is co-initiator of InspiringFifty, an initiative that aims to increase diversity in tech by making female role models more visible. As part of the InspiringFifty initiative, Janneke has published The New Girl Code and Project Prep, a novel for young girls. The goal of the project is to encourage young girls, inspiring them to pursue a career in technology and invest in an educational foundation focusing on math and computer science.
Janneke is member of supervisory board of UNICEF, board member of Codam, advisory board member of FutureNL, member of the investment committee of Innovation Quarter and the supervisory board of NPEX.
Janneke was named 2014 EY Entrepreneur of the Year and Most Innovative Leader in 2016, and one the 10 most prominent angel investors in 2018 and Harper’s Bazaar Women of the Yearin 2019, a few of many in a long list of honours for Janneke.
Janneke did research with Eva de Mol on the investments in female entrepreneurs in the Netherlands. This has led to a lot of media, discussion and questions in parliament. Legislation is prepared now to take action and change the situation. The industry itself has agreed to a quota for their own teams and the teams they invest in. Fun fact: Janneke had her picture taken by Annie Leibovitz and has been appearing in a campaign for UBS that was shown in e.g. WSJ Magazine, The Economist, Wallpaper but also on billboards at London City Airport, NY JFK and the airport of Frankfurt.
In the past she has started and exited 2 international tech companies. She is co-initiator of InspiringFifty, an initiative that aims to increase diversity in tech by making female role models more visible. As part of the InspiringFifty initiative, Janneke has published The New Girl Code and Project Prep, a novel for young girls. The goal of the project is to encourage young girls, inspiring them to pursue a career in technology and invest in an educational foundation focusing on math and computer science.
Janneke is member of supervisory board of UNICEF, board member of Codam, advisory board member of FutureNL, member of the investment committee of Innovation Quarter and the supervisory board of NPEX.
Janneke was named 2014 EY Entrepreneur of the Year and Most Innovative Leader in 2016, and one the 10 most prominent angel investors in 2018 and Harper’s Bazaar Women of the Yearin 2019, a few of many in a long list of honours for Janneke.
Janneke did research with Eva de Mol on the investments in female entrepreneurs in the Netherlands. This has led to a lot of media, discussion and questions in parliament. Legislation is prepared now to take action and change the situation. The industry itself has agreed to a quota for their own teams and the teams they invest in. Fun fact: Janneke had her picture taken by Annie Leibovitz and has been appearing in a campaign for UBS that was shown in e.g. WSJ Magazine, The Economist, Wallpaper but also on billboards at London City Airport, NY JFK and the airport of Frankfurt.
Beatrice Dixon
Co-Founder & CEO, The Honey Pot Company
Atlanta, US
Beatrice Dixon
Co-Founder & CEO, The Honey Pot Company
Atlanta, US
More info about Beatrice Dixon
When she was younger, Beatrice Dixon suffered with bacterial vaginosis for eight months. One night, an ancestor gave her the ingredients to heal herself in a dream. From that insightful dream, she created the formula for a healthy, clean feminine wash.
In 2014, Dixon launched The Honey Pot Company, a plant-based feminine hygiene line created with a goal to provide women with a healthy alternative to feminine care that is free of chemicals, parabens, carcinogens and sulfates. The rest is history.
With experience in pharmaceuticals, retail and natural foods, Dixon has the insight and expertise to bring the innovative concept of a plant-based feminine care system to the marketplace. Unlike mass market and conventional feminine care brands, consumers will be able to get all of their feminine care needs met under one brand as The Honey Pot Company currently offers feminine washes, wipes, tampons, pads, mommy-to-be products, and soon-to-be additional offerings in both the feminine hygiene and feminine care segments.
Today, The Honey Pot Company’s products can be found online and in stores nationwide at Target, Walmart, Urban Outfitters, Walgreens, Bed Bath and Beyond, Wegmans and Whole Foods, among other retailers.
An empowering African American female entrepreneur, Dixon has been a recipient of the Sundial and Unilever’s multimillion-dollar New Voices fund; was 1 of the first 40 women of color to raise one million in venture capital; and has been featured in T-Pain's School of Business, BuzzFeed's Ladylike series, Today Show, The New York Times, Entrepreneur, ELLE, ESSENCE and Forbes, to name a few.
Most recently, she was named one of Entrepreneur's top 100 groundbreaking women entrepreneurs of 2019; her company won a 2020 ESSENCE Best in Black Beauty Award; and she received a CEW Indie 65 Award in 2019, honoring beauty’s independent companies.
Through her diverse background and experience, Dixon continues to make a mark in the world of natural health and retail with a truly revolutionary approach to feminine health and sexual wellness.
In 2014, Dixon launched The Honey Pot Company, a plant-based feminine hygiene line created with a goal to provide women with a healthy alternative to feminine care that is free of chemicals, parabens, carcinogens and sulfates. The rest is history.
With experience in pharmaceuticals, retail and natural foods, Dixon has the insight and expertise to bring the innovative concept of a plant-based feminine care system to the marketplace. Unlike mass market and conventional feminine care brands, consumers will be able to get all of their feminine care needs met under one brand as The Honey Pot Company currently offers feminine washes, wipes, tampons, pads, mommy-to-be products, and soon-to-be additional offerings in both the feminine hygiene and feminine care segments.
Today, The Honey Pot Company’s products can be found online and in stores nationwide at Target, Walmart, Urban Outfitters, Walgreens, Bed Bath and Beyond, Wegmans and Whole Foods, among other retailers.
An empowering African American female entrepreneur, Dixon has been a recipient of the Sundial and Unilever’s multimillion-dollar New Voices fund; was 1 of the first 40 women of color to raise one million in venture capital; and has been featured in T-Pain's School of Business, BuzzFeed's Ladylike series, Today Show, The New York Times, Entrepreneur, ELLE, ESSENCE and Forbes, to name a few.
Most recently, she was named one of Entrepreneur's top 100 groundbreaking women entrepreneurs of 2019; her company won a 2020 ESSENCE Best in Black Beauty Award; and she received a CEW Indie 65 Award in 2019, honoring beauty’s independent companies.
Through her diverse background and experience, Dixon continues to make a mark in the world of natural health and retail with a truly revolutionary approach to feminine health and sexual wellness.
Kathryn Petralia
President & Co-Founder, Kabbage
Atlanata, US
Kathryn Petralia
President & Co-Founder, Kabbage
Atlanata, US
More info about Kathryn Petralia
Kathryn Petralia is the President and Co-Founder of Kabbage, a leading global financial services, cash-flow technology and data platform for small businesses.
Before co-founding Kabbage, Kathryn spent nearly 15 years with fintech and ecommerce startups. After graduating from Furman University with an English degree, Kathryn pursued her interest in technology to launch a number of successful startups. She also served as Vice President of Strategy for Revolution Money, which was acquired by American Express, and was the director of corporate development for CompuCredit.
In 2017, she was named to Forbes’ 2017 list of the World’s Most Powerful Women. Kathryn recently co-founded Drum, a platform reinventing sales infrastructure by connecting businesses to their ideal customers through an infinitely scalable sales force. Kathryn serves on the boards of CARE USA, Fannie Mae Advisory Board, The Woodruff Arts Center, Padsplit, Rented.com, and the Atlanta Chamber Music Festival.
Before co-founding Kabbage, Kathryn spent nearly 15 years with fintech and ecommerce startups. After graduating from Furman University with an English degree, Kathryn pursued her interest in technology to launch a number of successful startups. She also served as Vice President of Strategy for Revolution Money, which was acquired by American Express, and was the director of corporate development for CompuCredit.
In 2017, she was named to Forbes’ 2017 list of the World’s Most Powerful Women. Kathryn recently co-founded Drum, a platform reinventing sales infrastructure by connecting businesses to their ideal customers through an infinitely scalable sales force. Kathryn serves on the boards of CARE USA, Fannie Mae Advisory Board, The Woodruff Arts Center, Padsplit, Rented.com, and the Atlanta Chamber Music Festival.
Anna Gong
Founder & CEO, Perx Technologies
Singapore
Anna Gong
Founder & CEO, Perx Technologies
Singapore
More info about Anna Gong
I’ve had the privilege of experiencing the best of both worlds, 5 startups and 3 MNCs in the last 20 years in the enterprise software space solving mission critical business problems. After 12 years in San Francisco and working with some of the brightest entrepreneurs, engineers, VCs, and tech leaders, I transitioned what a 2 year contract to Asia has now turned into 10 years, having mostly based in Singapore and Japan.
The excitement continues, especially now that I’m leading my own startup in Singapore and expanding rapidly across geographies. Currently, we are experiencing pent up demand for consumer engagement and loyalty solutions from SMEs to large enterprises, trying to meet their customers' rising digital expectations and also to solve their direct to consumer data play.
Perx Technologies is addressing the B2B2C space where the business stakeholders are more pressured to deliver revenue than ever before. I’ve worked with traditional IT leaders and stakeholders for many years and now we see a trend where business stakeholders are driving more tech spend with new SaaS and agile plug n play data platforms to help transform revenue models to differentiate their journeys to become lifestyle and content rich companies, improve customer experience and real time engagements, measure marketing spend with real ROI, and can rapidly go-live with zero to little integration.
Perx is regarded as Asia's first fully integrated AI enabled customer engagement & loyalty SaaS platform. Our configurable dashboard unifies real time customer data and interaction and empowers marketers to manage loyalty, campaigns and rewards in a much more dynamic and automated manner, producing rich analytics and real time insights on campaign performance. By gamifying the experience for end users and powered by the personalization engine that delivers smart products and offers to smart customers, businesses can see an immediate increase on conversion and retention rates. We have re-defined what next generation of loyalty means in the digital economy!
The excitement continues, especially now that I’m leading my own startup in Singapore and expanding rapidly across geographies. Currently, we are experiencing pent up demand for consumer engagement and loyalty solutions from SMEs to large enterprises, trying to meet their customers' rising digital expectations and also to solve their direct to consumer data play.
Perx Technologies is addressing the B2B2C space where the business stakeholders are more pressured to deliver revenue than ever before. I’ve worked with traditional IT leaders and stakeholders for many years and now we see a trend where business stakeholders are driving more tech spend with new SaaS and agile plug n play data platforms to help transform revenue models to differentiate their journeys to become lifestyle and content rich companies, improve customer experience and real time engagements, measure marketing spend with real ROI, and can rapidly go-live with zero to little integration.
Perx is regarded as Asia's first fully integrated AI enabled customer engagement & loyalty SaaS platform. Our configurable dashboard unifies real time customer data and interaction and empowers marketers to manage loyalty, campaigns and rewards in a much more dynamic and automated manner, producing rich analytics and real time insights on campaign performance. By gamifying the experience for end users and powered by the personalization engine that delivers smart products and offers to smart customers, businesses can see an immediate increase on conversion and retention rates. We have re-defined what next generation of loyalty means in the digital economy!
Ani Oganesyan
Ani Oganesyan, Ph.D., International projects lead at GenerationS corporate accelerator.
Moscow, Russia
Ani Oganesyan
Ani Oganesyan, Ph.D., International projects lead at GenerationS corporate accelerator.
Moscow, Russia
More info about Ani Oganesyan
Ani is in charge of international projects, global scouting and international network development for GenerationS corporate accelerator by Russian Venture Company. In 2018 GenerationS became the best corporate accelerator in Europe according to Corporate Startup Summit. In 2019 it was selected as TOP-5 public business accelerators by UBI Global.
Ani holds Ph.D. in Economics and Management sciences in France and Russia, she did research in innovative healthcare management, and developed number of internationalization strategies for Russian universities.
Ani combines the role at GenerationS with associate professor position at RUDN University, she has more than 7 years of experience in designing and providing higher education programs. She also developed and realized a number of MOOCs on institutional and health economics for Ph.D. students.
Nadia Fonny
Vice President, Gobi Partners
Jakarta, Indonesia
Nadia Fonny
Vice President, Gobi Partners
Jakarta, Indonesia
More info about Nadia Fonny
Nadia joined Gobi as the first hire for the Indonesia office back in 2016. With her Biochemistry and Biomolecular Engineering background from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Trinity College, University of Cambridge, she joined Citibank as Project Manager to implement FATCA for Citibank’s SME clients in CitiBusiness and led the department’s operational audit, Manager’s Control Assessment, followed by a stint in RuangGuru where she helps with their Business Development projects while cultivating her passion in EduTech.
Nadia is passionate about EduTech and believes in meritocracy in education. She likes looking at companies that are also focuses on social impact, dedicated to solving deeply rooted mass market problems for middle class population.
She enjoys intellectual conversation with strangers about cultural, socioeconomic trends, intentional consumptive behavior, meditating and working out. She’s a netflix-amazonprime-appletv-hbogo binge watcher and read 24 books a year, while learning ukulele in her free time. Nadia is in currently heading the Indonesia operation for Gobi Partners.
Deborah Madelaine
Global Community Builder, Mars Inc
London, UK
Deborah Madelaine
Global Community Builder, Mars Inc
London, UK
More info about Deborah Madelaine
Deborah Madelaine works at Mars Inc. building an internal movement to foster a User Centric (UC) mindset globally. After just 2 years, the Mars #UCmovement is 15,000 members strong with a community of 700 champions. Deborah is also an author and TEDx speaker. Originally from France, she currently lives in London.
Bee Law
Founder & CEO, Quirktastic
Concord, North Carolina, US
Bee Law
Founder & CEO, Quirktastic
Concord, North Carolina, US
More info about Bee Law
Bee Law is a former cytogenetic scientist turned entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of Quirktastic, a group live-streaming and networking platform for geeks and gamers.
Since launching the company, she has helped grow Quirktastic to 200K online followers and the app has amassed 50,000 users since its March 2019 beta launch. Quirktastic has been featured in Essence Magazine, TechCrunch and has been named by Forbes as the “home for geeks”.
The company has raised $250,000 from investors including SoGal Ventures, Snap Inc.. Law was also an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at digitalundivided, the incubator for Black & Latinx women and participated in the second cohort of Snap Inc's Yellow Accelerator.
Anna Danes
Founder, Ricaris
Barcelona, Spain
Anna Danes
Founder, Ricaris
Barcelona, Spain
More info about Anna Danes
I worked with several internet start-ups before founding Ricaris in 2009, a successful Multilingual Internet Services Company. Now it is time to take Ricaris to the next level: business is growing, and technology is bringing AI into the future of Multilingual Content Management, Validation, Customer Service and Localization.
Having worked and studied in different European countries, Asia, and the USA, I have a multicultural take on business so I understand your need to grow internationally.
On top of Ricaris and with my experience managing distributed teams and my firm beliefs that enterprises are responsible for creating a better world and work environment, I am part of Managing Virtual Teams, an experienced company offering help for companies dealing with remote environments.
Having worked and studied in different European countries, Asia, and the USA, I have a multicultural take on business so I understand your need to grow internationally.
On top of Ricaris and with my experience managing distributed teams and my firm beliefs that enterprises are responsible for creating a better world and work environment, I am part of Managing Virtual Teams, an experienced company offering help for companies dealing with remote environments.
Alex West Steinman
Co-Founder & CEO, The Coven
Minneapolis, Minnesota, US
Alex West Steinman
Co-Founder & CEO, The Coven
Minneapolis, Minnesota, US
More info about Alex West Steinman
Alex is a Swiss Army Knife who knows how to raise humans and build Public Relations strategies for businesses, politicians, startups, and non-profits. The co-founder and CEO of The Coven, a community and work space for women and non-binary folks, Alex is dedicated to the economic empowerment and advancement of women in the Twin Cities.
Prior to co-founding The Coven, Alex held the positions of Communications Director for advertising agency Fallon, Minneapolis City Council candidate Jillia Pessenda, and Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges. Leading PR and communications strategy and execution, she gets joy from telling stories from underestimated communities. She’s been recognized for her inclusive economy work both locally and nationally, receiving the University of Minnesota Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication Above the Fold Award, AdFed’s 32 Under 32 Award, Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Award, and City Pages Best Entrepreneur Award. She’s also a 2019 Bush Fellow and one of Inc Magazine’s 100 Female Founders.
Kelly Watters
Founder & CEO, Western Rise
Telluride, Colorado, US
Kelly Watters
Founder & CEO, Western Rise
Telluride, Colorado, US
More info about Kelly Watters
I am passionate about the outdoors, and building efficient systems bring ideas to life. I love creating and collaborating with people to help implement new ideas and support and build organizations that benefit the community.
Laurel Farrer
Founder & CEO, Distribute Consulting
Greater Hartford, US
Laurel Farrer
Founder & CEO, Distribute Consulting
Greater Hartford, US
More info about Laurel Farrer
As the Founder of Distribute Consulting and the Remote Work Association, Laurel Farrer starts, strengthens, and leverages virtual workforces to solve corporate and socioeconomic concerns. A global thought leader on the topic of remote work, Laurel collaborates with the world's leading businesses and governments to eliminate virtual worker discrimination, prevent policy retraction, increase remote job accessibility, train distributed leaders, and design economic initiatives. Additionally, she also shares her expertise as a Forbes contributor, subject matter expert for business education curriculum, and virtual software product advisor.
Fida Taher
Managing Partner, Amam Ventures
Jordan
Fida Taher
Managing Partner, Amam Ventures
Jordan
More info about Fida Taher
Fida founded Zaytouneh.com in 2011, and Atbaki 2014; creating the largest digital recipe platform in Arabic, used by millions.
Fida was selected as E&Y emerging entrepreneur for the year 2013 for her work with Zaytouneh. Taher has also been appointed as Jordan’s Ambassador for Women Entrepreneurship Day (WED) for the years 2015-2019. Taher is the co-founder of the fast-growing “Women in Business Arabia” network, board member at the Micro Fund for Women, Goldman Sachs 10k women Alumni 2015, BPWA member, served on several advisory boards of startups as well as actively engaged with a number of NGOs and initiatives that aim to empower women & youth.
For the past 2 years, Fida has been working closely with leading angel investors essentially managing their investment portfolios including activities such as opportunity identification, deal structuring, operational assistance at the portfolio company level as well as board representation. Fida is now working full time as a Managing Partner at Amam Ventures; an impact gender lens fund that caters to businesses that are committed to equality, those that put women at the front and focus on specifically serving women in Jordan & the Levant .
Fida was selected as E&Y emerging entrepreneur for the year 2013 for her work with Zaytouneh. Taher has also been appointed as Jordan’s Ambassador for Women Entrepreneurship Day (WED) for the years 2015-2019. Taher is the co-founder of the fast-growing “Women in Business Arabia” network, board member at the Micro Fund for Women, Goldman Sachs 10k women Alumni 2015, BPWA member, served on several advisory boards of startups as well as actively engaged with a number of NGOs and initiatives that aim to empower women & youth.
For the past 2 years, Fida has been working closely with leading angel investors essentially managing their investment portfolios including activities such as opportunity identification, deal structuring, operational assistance at the portfolio company level as well as board representation. Fida is now working full time as a Managing Partner at Amam Ventures; an impact gender lens fund that caters to businesses that are committed to equality, those that put women at the front and focus on specifically serving women in Jordan & the Levant .
Stephanie Sarka
Co-Founder & CEO, 1 Atelier
New York, US
Stephanie Sarka
Co-Founder & CEO, 1 Atelier
New York, US
More info about Stephanie Sarka
Seasoned, results-oriented start-up and turn-around executive with deep consumer brand, Internet and entrepreneurial experience. Strong track record of building successful businesses, large and small, by attracting talent and delivering results based on Leadership, Strategy and Execution.
Maree Beare
Founder & CEO, Wanngi
Brisbane, Australia
Maree Beare
Founder & CEO, Wanngi
Brisbane, Australia
More info about Maree Beare
Maree Beare is the founder and CEO of Wanngi, a health management app for people with chronic conditions who see multiple doctors who feel vulnerable, out of control and helpless in managing their health.
Maree is passionate about using innovative technology to positively impact the lives of others. She is renowned as a forward-thinking leader in the technology sector, with extensive experience advising leading organizations in transforming their businesses and delivering high-profile technology programs.
In early 2017 Maree realized that people are disconnected from their health information, and a mobile application that champions the best health treatment for people by empowering them and their doctor to make informed decisions about their wellbeing was desperately needed in the market. Maree’s company has invested in three years of research, working in conjunction with the medical fraternity and government, to better understand the problems people are facing when they have a medical condition and the treatments they receive.
Maree believes people need to be educated to the opportunity to easily start collecting their own health information, so it prompts curiosity about their symptoms, medications and treatment so they can better communicate to their health care providers to make informed decisions to better engage in and manage their health. Her work with Wanngi has been recognized by Forbes in the top 50 women-led startups disrupting HealthTech and CNET, showing the Australian company is becoming a growing influence in the digital health sector.
She was also named in the top 100 Women in Wearables for 2019. With Wanngi you can track and manage your symptoms, injuries, medications, allergies, immunizations and fitness progress and goals. You can upload and store medical documents such as scripts, pathology and referrals and share your health history during a Telehealth Consult
Maree is passionate about using innovative technology to positively impact the lives of others. She is renowned as a forward-thinking leader in the technology sector, with extensive experience advising leading organizations in transforming their businesses and delivering high-profile technology programs.
In early 2017 Maree realized that people are disconnected from their health information, and a mobile application that champions the best health treatment for people by empowering them and their doctor to make informed decisions about their wellbeing was desperately needed in the market. Maree’s company has invested in three years of research, working in conjunction with the medical fraternity and government, to better understand the problems people are facing when they have a medical condition and the treatments they receive.
Maree believes people need to be educated to the opportunity to easily start collecting their own health information, so it prompts curiosity about their symptoms, medications and treatment so they can better communicate to their health care providers to make informed decisions to better engage in and manage their health. Her work with Wanngi has been recognized by Forbes in the top 50 women-led startups disrupting HealthTech and CNET, showing the Australian company is becoming a growing influence in the digital health sector.
She was also named in the top 100 Women in Wearables for 2019. With Wanngi you can track and manage your symptoms, injuries, medications, allergies, immunizations and fitness progress and goals. You can upload and store medical documents such as scripts, pathology and referrals and share your health history during a Telehealth Consult
Lise Pape
Founder, Walk With Path
London, UK
Lise Pape
Founder, Walk With Path
London, UK
More info about Lise Pape
Lise is responsible for strategy and partnerships at Walk With Path, leading the team of 10; overseeing marketing, clinical collaboration and design. She holds a Double Masters in Innovation Design Engineering from the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London, and a Bachelors in Human Biology from King's College London.
Lise previously worked as an Investment Manager within life sciences and clean tech at the Royal Danish Embassy in London, in online advertising for AOL's Advertising.com, and in finance for J.P. Morgan.
Lise previously worked as an Investment Manager within life sciences and clean tech at the Royal Danish Embassy in London, in online advertising for AOL's Advertising.com, and in finance for J.P. Morgan.
Fei Yao
Founder and COO, NewCampus
Singapore
Fei Yao
Founder and COO, NewCampus
Singapore
More info about Fei Yao
Fei Yao is an edtech startup entrepreneur based in Singapore. She is the founder and COO of NewCampus, a modern digital business school. Her mission is to help busy professionals prepare for a rapidly changing world by integrating future-focused learning into modern lifestyles.
NewCampus hosts daily classes in “learning gyms” in Singapore and around Asia, allowing people to continuously access the skills, ideas and connections needed to grow. Before her startup journey, she worked on water purification innovation in Cambodia with Engineers without Borders, and was previously a management consultant at Accenture in Australia.
Fei was recently named Forbes 30 under 30 in education.
NewCampus hosts daily classes in “learning gyms” in Singapore and around Asia, allowing people to continuously access the skills, ideas and connections needed to grow. Before her startup journey, she worked on water purification innovation in Cambodia with Engineers without Borders, and was previously a management consultant at Accenture in Australia.
Fei was recently named Forbes 30 under 30 in education.
Diane Janknegt
Founder, WizeNoze
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Diane Janknegt
Founder, WizeNoze
Amsterdam, Netherlands
More info about Diane Janknegt
Diane Janknegt, founder of Wizenoze, has been selected by Forbes for the ‘100 Women Founders In Europe To Follow in 2019’, got listed in Nov 2019 on the “WW Meaningful Business Leaders 100’, is mentioned as ‘The 20 Most Successful Businesswoman to Watch 2018’ by Insight Magazine, is a member of the Inspiring Fifty Group - a group of 50 Female leaders in the IT sector, won the title ‘Bad-Ass Female Entrepreneur 2018’ of Silicon Canals.
Her company Wizenoze was featured as the only Dutch/British company in The Disrupt 100 list, is recently selected as “The top 10 Dutch companies to Watch in 2019” by Business Insider and was a finalist for ‘The Next Billion Edtech Prize’ at the Global Education Skills Forum in Dubai in 2019. Diane Janknegt is an ex-Microsoft executive who worked for Microsoft Netherlands between 1997 - 2012. In 2013 she founded the AI scale-up Wizenoze.
Based on years of academic research, Wizenoze gives students across the world access to an ‘internet for education’. With their AI technology - called the Web for Classrooms or Web for Professionals - WizeNoze discloses relevant, reliable and readable content to students of all ages. Wizenoze has offices in Amsterdam and London, has a strong focus on India and aims to be the global market leader in this area.
She loves working with young, passionate and inspiring people, has a proven track record in building strong and successful teams and with her positive attitude she knows how to motivate other people. She has an extensive network in the IT and Education industry and beyond. She is happily married and proud mother of 3 kids, aged 15-14-11.
Her company Wizenoze was featured as the only Dutch/British company in The Disrupt 100 list, is recently selected as “The top 10 Dutch companies to Watch in 2019” by Business Insider and was a finalist for ‘The Next Billion Edtech Prize’ at the Global Education Skills Forum in Dubai in 2019. Diane Janknegt is an ex-Microsoft executive who worked for Microsoft Netherlands between 1997 - 2012. In 2013 she founded the AI scale-up Wizenoze.
Based on years of academic research, Wizenoze gives students across the world access to an ‘internet for education’. With their AI technology - called the Web for Classrooms or Web for Professionals - WizeNoze discloses relevant, reliable and readable content to students of all ages. Wizenoze has offices in Amsterdam and London, has a strong focus on India and aims to be the global market leader in this area.
She loves working with young, passionate and inspiring people, has a proven track record in building strong and successful teams and with her positive attitude she knows how to motivate other people. She has an extensive network in the IT and Education industry and beyond. She is happily married and proud mother of 3 kids, aged 15-14-11.
Irina Joanna Gebauer
Head of Product, sennder
Berlin, Germany
Irina Joanna Gebauer
Head of Product, sennder
Berlin, Germany
More info about Irina Joanna Gebauer
Creative, open minded, amicable, and goal oriented professional, with a background in product management, film & theatre productions, with international experience and outstanding communication skills.
Highly skilled in successfully leading multidisciplinary teams across different locations and various levels of expertise. Huge fan of agile methodologies and certified scrum product owner.
Experienced in bringing new products to market while continuously improving the core product along side. Strong focus on the customer, UX and the overall business value a new product and feature brings.
Valentina Thörner
Empress of Product, Klaus
Mataró, Spain
Valentina Thörner
Empress of Product, Klaus
Mataró, Spain
More info about Valentina Thörner
Author of the remote leadership bible “From a Distance”, Valentina Thörner is the Empress of Product at Klaus, a conversation review tool for support teams. A decade of working and leading fully distributed and hybrid remote/co-located teams means she knows first-hand the challenges and advantages of work from home/on the road/at a coworking space/when schools are closed. As a system thinker and process nerd, she uses this experience to create tools and frameworks that escape the "one-size-fits-all" remote myth, on all levels.
Kinga Stanislawska
General Partner, Experior VC
Warsaw, Poland
Kinga Stanislawska
General Partner, Experior VC
Warsaw, Poland
More info about Kinga Stanislawska
Kinga has nearly 20 years of experience in investments and finance. She is founder of Experior VC, investing in scale ups and growth, pure software with strong ML/AI in SaaS, including software deep tech, ecommerce, big data driven companies across all verticals.
Kinga sits on the boards of Tylko, Cosmose and Tourmedica. She is Vice President of the Polish PE/VC Funds Association (PSIK).
She is active in supporting women-led companies as mentor and investor. She established the European Women in VC platform with the aim of increasing the number of female partners at venture funds across Europe from the current low single digit percentage number it is today. The platform boasts 19 country ambassadors in Europe and Israel.
Kinga is advisor to European Innovation Council. She is named one of the TOP 50 of Europe’s most influential women in the start-up and venture capital space by EU Startups and top 50 women in tech in Europe by Forbes.
Ashlee Ammons
President, Mixtroz
Birmingham, Alabama, US
Ashlee Ammons
President, Mixtroz
Birmingham, Alabama, US
More info about Ashlee Ammons
Ashlee Ammons holds a BA in Mass Communications and Public Relations from Baldwin Wallace University. She is the 38th Black Female to raise over $1M in pre-seed funding.
Prior to co-founding Mixtroz with her mother, Kerry Schrader, Ashlee established a career as an Events Producer working with an impressive list of A-listers including Oprah Winfrey, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jay-Z, as well as legacy brands like Moet Hennessy and Coca-Cola.
Ashlee serves on the Executive Board of Tech Birmingham and is an Advisor to the Nashville Entrepreneur Center following her time on the NEC’s Board. Ashlee is a 2019 Birmingham Business Journal 40 Under 40 recipient as well as Birmingham 40 Under 40 of the decade and Business Journals National Rising Star. Ashlee and her mother were named “Powerful Women” by Entrepreneur Magazine on their inaugural list in November, 2019. In addition, Ashlee is a proud member of Delta Zeta Sorority where she was named to their first-ever 35 Under 35 in 2018.
Prior to co-founding Mixtroz with her mother, Kerry Schrader, Ashlee established a career as an Events Producer working with an impressive list of A-listers including Oprah Winfrey, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jay-Z, as well as legacy brands like Moet Hennessy and Coca-Cola.
Ashlee serves on the Executive Board of Tech Birmingham and is an Advisor to the Nashville Entrepreneur Center following her time on the NEC’s Board. Ashlee is a 2019 Birmingham Business Journal 40 Under 40 recipient as well as Birmingham 40 Under 40 of the decade and Business Journals National Rising Star. Ashlee and her mother were named “Powerful Women” by Entrepreneur Magazine on their inaugural list in November, 2019. In addition, Ashlee is a proud member of Delta Zeta Sorority where she was named to their first-ever 35 Under 35 in 2018.
Jatin Chaudhary
Co-Founder & Salesman, eChai.Network
Ahmedabad, India
Jatin Chaudhary
Co-Founder & Salesman, eChai.Network
Ahmedabad, India
More info about Jatin Chaudhary
Salesman @eChaiNetwork l Good at managing WhatsApp groups n organizing high quality large gatherings at low cost :-) l Observerl Former Global Shaper at World Economic Forum
Simran Suri
Global Shaper, World Economic Forum
London, UK
Simran Suri
Global Shaper, World Economic Forum
London, UK
More info about Simran Suri
Simran is a socio-economic entrepreneur & motivational speaker & currently pursuing Masters of Science in Marketing & Technology from Goldsmiths, University of London.
She considers this statement of Margaret J. Wheatley-“"There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about." as the main ingredient of her core value system. With this ideology in mind, she has recruited, on-boarded & trained change makers & transformed them into community ambassadors to lead & implement social development initiatives.
Throughout her career, Simran has blended entrepreneurship with social development initiatives & used innovation & creativity to develop products & solutions that aimed at creating revenue generating -impact across various socio-economic communities globally.
She has ideated, ventured & scaled up enterprise & customer focussed technology business-in Indian beverage space & is the brain child behind developing a community of mompreneur to nurture go for chai as a women welfare brand.
She has worn multiple hats right from business development, digital & social media marketing, customer success, growth hacking, business strategy, community development & stakeholder relationships. Leveraging her client relationship & marketing skills, she devised & implemented go to market strategy & led brand & promotion campaigns to increase daily tea sales by 5X.
She is passionate about social entrepreneurship & has volunteered & led various social development projects as a part of Global Shapers Community(GSC).
She has also been mentoring start-ups with focus on creating socio- economic responsible leadership & income generating opportunities for Bottom of Pyramid.
Some of her proud recognitions include:
1)Featured as “ leaders of tomorrow” in a leading business newspaper.
2)Received CEOs in 20 & Young Entrepreneur Award. 3)Nominated for NARISHAKTI Award, 2017
She considers this statement of Margaret J. Wheatley-“"There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about." as the main ingredient of her core value system. With this ideology in mind, she has recruited, on-boarded & trained change makers & transformed them into community ambassadors to lead & implement social development initiatives.
Throughout her career, Simran has blended entrepreneurship with social development initiatives & used innovation & creativity to develop products & solutions that aimed at creating revenue generating -impact across various socio-economic communities globally.
She has ideated, ventured & scaled up enterprise & customer focussed technology business-in Indian beverage space & is the brain child behind developing a community of mompreneur to nurture go for chai as a women welfare brand.
She has worn multiple hats right from business development, digital & social media marketing, customer success, growth hacking, business strategy, community development & stakeholder relationships. Leveraging her client relationship & marketing skills, she devised & implemented go to market strategy & led brand & promotion campaigns to increase daily tea sales by 5X.
She is passionate about social entrepreneurship & has volunteered & led various social development projects as a part of Global Shapers Community(GSC).
She has also been mentoring start-ups with focus on creating socio- economic responsible leadership & income generating opportunities for Bottom of Pyramid.
Some of her proud recognitions include:
1)Featured as “ leaders of tomorrow” in a leading business newspaper.
2)Received CEOs in 20 & Young Entrepreneur Award. 3)Nominated for NARISHAKTI Award, 2017
Aditi Chopra
Growth, FamPay
Bengaluru, India
Aditi Chopra
Growth, FamPay
Bengaluru, India
More info about Aditi Chopra
Joel Spolsky, co-founder of Stack Overflow, famously said, "Nothing works better than just improving your product.” And I, live by it.
Brainstorming, Innovating, Problem-Saving are not just business verbs for me, but the essence and inspiration of what I do and want to get better at.
After two years of work experience, I've now found strengths in the broad domain of Growth and am striving to be better at it everyday. Circular Economy is another subject area I enjoy taking deep dives in.
When I’m not working, I love hiking to rather less explored terrains in the outskirts of my city, play a game or two of football and/or make another attempt at finishing the comic set I've been writing for weeks now!
Meeting new people and learning new things is second nature to me, so please feel free to drop a hello and share your story.
Brainstorming, Innovating, Problem-Saving are not just business verbs for me, but the essence and inspiration of what I do and want to get better at.
After two years of work experience, I've now found strengths in the broad domain of Growth and am striving to be better at it everyday. Circular Economy is another subject area I enjoy taking deep dives in.
When I’m not working, I love hiking to rather less explored terrains in the outskirts of my city, play a game or two of football and/or make another attempt at finishing the comic set I've been writing for weeks now!
Meeting new people and learning new things is second nature to me, so please feel free to drop a hello and share your story.
Janet Machuka
Founder, ATC Digital Academy
Nairobi, Kenya
Janet Machuka
Founder, ATC Digital Academy
Nairobi, Kenya
More info about Janet Machuka
Janet Machuka, a graduate from Moi University with a Bachelor of Media Science degree, is a leading authority in helping businesses through their digital transformation of sales and marketing through consulting, digital training, and helping enterprises large and small develop and execute on social media marketing strategy.
Founder of ATC Digital Academy Janet also conducts digital media chats on #AfricaTweetChat and corporate training. Janet is a popular social media speaker and has been invited to speak about digital marketing on podcasts, webinars and physical workshops.
So far, she has been featured on platforms such as Talkwalker, Social Pilot among others. Janet has also been named as one of the Top 25 Digital Marketing’s Women in Kenya. In addition to that, she has been recognized as Kenya’s Top 50 Social Media Power Influencer and Top 34 Digital Marketing Experts to follow as per Social Pilot.
Founder of ATC Digital Academy Janet also conducts digital media chats on #AfricaTweetChat and corporate training. Janet is a popular social media speaker and has been invited to speak about digital marketing on podcasts, webinars and physical workshops.
So far, she has been featured on platforms such as Talkwalker, Social Pilot among others. Janet has also been named as one of the Top 25 Digital Marketing’s Women in Kenya. In addition to that, she has been recognized as Kenya’s Top 50 Social Media Power Influencer and Top 34 Digital Marketing Experts to follow as per Social Pilot.
Kumar Manish
Chief Communicator, Communicate Karo
Ahmedabad, India
Kumar Manish
Chief Communicator, Communicate Karo
Ahmedabad, India
More info about Kumar Manish
Communications & Social Media Strategist, Youth Advocacy, Urbvan Advocacy for sustainable transport initiatives, Creative thinking, branding strategy, writing, event ideation, planning & execution, public & media outreach activities, strategic communications design & plan for not for profit organisations, documentation, Content creation(print, and web), managing internal communication within and external communications for the organisation, online campaigner, independent contributor on traffic & transportation issues, freelance journalist.
Bhavini Mehta
Founder & CEO, Outliers Publishing
Ahmedabad, India
Bhavini Mehta
Founder & CEO, Outliers Publishing
Ahmedabad, India
More info about Bhavini Mehta
Bhavini Mehta is a new generation entrepreneur who believes in empowering and lifting people around her. She started her career at a very young age tasting the corporate culture, soon to realise that she was not made for it.
Bhavini is born in India. She received her bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Christ College in 2004 and an MBA (Finance) from AESPG Institute of Management Ahmedabad in 2006 . She began her career in banking with HDFC Bank Ltd. A serial entrepreneur, Bhavini has founded multiple businesses including a loan channel partner company with HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank. She has recently founded a full-service publishing company – Outliers Publishing
She firmly believes that women can achieve all that a man can and much more, however, there exists a difficult phase in every woman’s professional life when she decides to plan a family. Bhavini faced it herself too and that acted as a motivating factor for her to create a workspace that is conducive to all the women in that special phase of their lives. Her business focuses on employing work from home mothers and women students who need support in their further studies. “There is opportunity for everyone, you must be vigilant to grab those” is her mantra for life and her advice for all.
Bhavini is born in India. She received her bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Christ College in 2004 and an MBA (Finance) from AESPG Institute of Management Ahmedabad in 2006 . She began her career in banking with HDFC Bank Ltd. A serial entrepreneur, Bhavini has founded multiple businesses including a loan channel partner company with HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank. She has recently founded a full-service publishing company – Outliers Publishing
She firmly believes that women can achieve all that a man can and much more, however, there exists a difficult phase in every woman’s professional life when she decides to plan a family. Bhavini faced it herself too and that acted as a motivating factor for her to create a workspace that is conducive to all the women in that special phase of their lives. Her business focuses on employing work from home mothers and women students who need support in their further studies. “There is opportunity for everyone, you must be vigilant to grab those” is her mantra for life and her advice for all.
Shrijay Sheth
Co-Founder, LegalWiz.in
Ahmedabad, India
Shrijay Sheth
Co-Founder, LegalWiz.in
Ahmedabad, India
More info about Shrijay Sheth
Shrijay is an entrepreneur with excellent business acumen. He has years of business analytics and strategy experience ranging across companies of varied scales, industries, geographies, and cultures. He is best known for -
* People Skills and Team Play
* Can-do Attitude
* Analytics and Problem Solving
* Business Acumen
* People Skills and Team Play
* Can-do Attitude
* Analytics and Problem Solving
* Business Acumen
Rapti Gupta
Content Marketing Head, Instamojo
Bengaluru, India
Rapti Gupta
Content Marketing Head, Instamojo
Bengaluru, India
More info about Rapti Gupta
A hands-on marketer, I love helping B2B businesses grow with content, video, emails, and more.
I specialise in content execution and strategy. I believe in delivering high performance, while also having fun at it!
Right from covering news, social media, email marketing, demand generation, PR and analytics, I am building a complete package to take businesses from 0 to 100.
I currently manage all forms of content @Instamojo. Let’s chat to discuss all things content, design, and marketing.
I specialise in content execution and strategy. I believe in delivering high performance, while also having fun at it!
Right from covering news, social media, email marketing, demand generation, PR and analytics, I am building a complete package to take businesses from 0 to 100.
I currently manage all forms of content @Instamojo. Let’s chat to discuss all things content, design, and marketing.
Nikita Maheshwari
Co-Founder, Tatkalorry.com
Ahmedabad, India
Nikita Maheshwari
Co-Founder, Tatkalorry.com
Ahmedabad, India
More info about Nikita Maheshwari
Ms. Nikita Maheshwari a graduate from Gujarat National University is a risk-taker who has made her space in a male-dominated Logistics Industry. While pursuing her MBA from the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India she cofounded Tilebazzar and Tatkalorry. Despite her failures and struggles she has kept Tilebazzar operational and Tatkalorry is booming in the Ceramic Tiles industry having operation 13 major cities.
Nikita has been a proud recipient of the National Entrepreneurship Award 2019, SSIP Prashansha Award 2019, and was amongst the top 200 finalists of Women Transforming India 2018. With the knowledge she has acquired with her startling experience, she now travels places to motivate and mentor young entrepreneurs to outperform themselves, not repeat the mistakes she made and achieve their dreams. She is now a Business Research Speaker and Mentor at various prestigious Institutes like IBS, IEEE and Icreate.
Ashish Taneja
Partner, growX Ventures
New Delhi, India
Ashish Taneja
Partner, growX Ventures
New Delhi, India
More info about Ashish Taneja
Chartered Accountant. Consultant at Andersen Consulting / Accenture. Former India CEO of UK’s second-largest BPO firm – Vertex. Now MD at growx.
Donald Doane
Co-Founder, ConnectYard
New York, US
Donald Doane
Co-Founder, ConnectYard
New York, US
More info about Donald Doane
Donald Doane is the CEO of ConnectYard. Founded in 2007, ConnectYard specializes in helping colleges and universities tap the power of social media for student recruitment, retention and alumni re-engagement.
Previously, Doane founded OpenDemand in early 2000 and served as the Company's President and Chief Executive Officer. Doane has been involved with testing and analyzing the performance of Web sites and applications since the first commercial Web load/stress testing tools were introduced on the market and was one of the early visionaries to recognize the business need for companies to quickly adapt to the "open", or unlimited, demand of the Internet.
Prior to OpenDemand, Doane held various senior-level and key management positions with companies including Ovid Technologies, Qwest Communications, Icon CMT Corp. and Interworld Technology Ventures, and has provided consulting services to large accounts such as UBS, CBS, CitiCorp, Bear Stearns, US Clearing Corp., and PR Newswire.
Donald Doane received a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from the Cornell University, College of Engineering.
CA Priyal Shah
Director, Peseko Solutions
Mumbai, India
CA Priyal Shah
Director, Peseko Solutions
Mumbai, India
More info about CA Priyal Shah
I am a Chartered Accountant with strong technical prowess and entrepreneurial experience. Currently, I am one of two Directors of Peseko Solutions — a leading accounting and tax consultancy based in Mumbai, and head the operations at the firm.
I bring a good balance of strategic and tactical expertise in conceiving solutions for my clients’ financial needs. Thanks to my rigorous professional training, I have closely seen the challenges businesses face in managing their finances. I approach problem-solving with an analytical mindset, believe in getting down to the root of the problem and provide solutions that are holistic, permanent, and cost-effective.
My experience spans multiple sectors and industries and businesses of all types and sizes. At Peseko, we are growing at a tremendous pace, have built lasting business relationships with most of our clients many of whom are among the reputed businesses in their respective industries.
I bring a good balance of strategic and tactical expertise in conceiving solutions for my clients’ financial needs. Thanks to my rigorous professional training, I have closely seen the challenges businesses face in managing their finances. I approach problem-solving with an analytical mindset, believe in getting down to the root of the problem and provide solutions that are holistic, permanent, and cost-effective.
My experience spans multiple sectors and industries and businesses of all types and sizes. At Peseko, we are growing at a tremendous pace, have built lasting business relationships with most of our clients many of whom are among the reputed businesses in their respective industries.
Vishakha Phatnani Joshi
Advocate - Corporate & Commercial Laws
Mumbai, India
Vishakha Phatnani Joshi
Advocate - Corporate & Commercial Laws
Mumbai, India
More info about Vishakha Phatnani Joshi
Vishakha is a Corporate Lawyer who specializes in Commercial laws, Corporate law, Transactions, and Drafting of deeds and documents. She is proficient in business structuring, evolving corporate plans and their implementation through drafting and execution of the right documents, negotiating terms with various parties and formulating workable business models along with generally required compliances.
Goda Raghavan
Partner, AK Law Chambers
Chennai, India
Goda Raghavan
Partner, AK Law Chambers
Chennai, India
More info about Goda Raghavan
With a masters in law from the London School of Economics, UK, Goda has anchored the corporate-commercial vertical at AK Law Chambers, India. She brings to the table a rich and varied experience of over 10 years across sectors of software, automobiles technology, ed-tech, fintech, ports, NBFCs, healthcare, shipping, ecommerce and manufacturing. Goda advises early stage startups, growth companies, angel investors, HNIs and funds on several corporate-commercial issues. She prides herself in providing quality yet affordable legal advisory and support.
Goda has a strong market understanding and is able to navigate through complex legal issues of equity-debt financing, exit strategies for investors, transaction structuring which includes foreign parties and FEMA compliances, general contract negotiation, founder compensation and setting up of employee stock options, etc. In addition to this, she specialises in general corporate advisory, mergers & acquisitions and joint ventures in addition to advisory on insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings.
She has several publications to her credit, for The Hindu, The Economic Times, etc, in these areas of practice. Goda is also a qualified Company Secretary. She was awarded the first rank in the Institute of Company Secretaries foundation exam for securing the highest in the State of Karnataka.
Goda has a strong market understanding and is able to navigate through complex legal issues of equity-debt financing, exit strategies for investors, transaction structuring which includes foreign parties and FEMA compliances, general contract negotiation, founder compensation and setting up of employee stock options, etc. In addition to this, she specialises in general corporate advisory, mergers & acquisitions and joint ventures in addition to advisory on insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings.
She has several publications to her credit, for The Hindu, The Economic Times, etc, in these areas of practice. Goda is also a qualified Company Secretary. She was awarded the first rank in the Institute of Company Secretaries foundation exam for securing the highest in the State of Karnataka.
Naz Parveen
HR Business Partner, Xoxoday
Bengaluru, India
Naz Parveen
HR Business Partner, Xoxoday
Bengaluru, India
More info about Naz Parveen
Naz is a seasoned story-teller, people's person with extensive experience in the area of Human Resources, which spans across Employee Relations, Employee Engagement, Content Creation & Employer Branding. What she loves about her trajectory in Human Resources is that each day is an opportunity to explore her creativity, to keep employees engaged and business thriving. She is also a sought-after corporate emcee, speaker, and a travel enthusiast. This has truly helped her develop an appreciation for the cultures around the globe.
Anurag Jain
Founder, KredX
Bengaluru, India
Anurag Jain
Founder, KredX
Bengaluru, India
More info about Anurag Jain
Anurag Jain is the Founder & Executive Director at KredX – India's leading cash flow solutions provider to large Corporates and SMEs in India. An IIT Kanpur alumnus and a techie-turned-entrepreneur with 16+ years of experience in the financial services sector, he has vast experience in driving business growth in companies like HSBC, Oracle, and Tavant Technologies, before co-founding KredX, in 2015.
Anurag's in-depth knowledge of trade finance and innovative business model approach has positioned KredX as a reputable and trusted brand in the Fintech landscape. He is a firm believer of the philosophy 'Think Global, Act Local' and believes in implementing the same strategy in spearheading KredX. He is a programmer by heart and banker by profession!
A seasoned finance professional, Anurag is passionate about solving complex issues and disrupting the status quo in the supply chain finance ecosystem in India. He has also been involved in policy advocacy for fintech lending ecosystem by being a founding member of Digital Lenders Association of India (DLAI), a unified platform to drive key policy initiatives in the digital credit industry, escalating and recommending solutions for burning issues to the regulators, government authorities and other key industry stakeholders.
Anurag's in-depth knowledge of trade finance and innovative business model approach has positioned KredX as a reputable and trusted brand in the Fintech landscape. He is a firm believer of the philosophy 'Think Global, Act Local' and believes in implementing the same strategy in spearheading KredX. He is a programmer by heart and banker by profession!
A seasoned finance professional, Anurag is passionate about solving complex issues and disrupting the status quo in the supply chain finance ecosystem in India. He has also been involved in policy advocacy for fintech lending ecosystem by being a founding member of Digital Lenders Association of India (DLAI), a unified platform to drive key policy initiatives in the digital credit industry, escalating and recommending solutions for burning issues to the regulators, government authorities and other key industry stakeholders.
Mahua Mukherjee
Co-Founder, The star in me
Bengaluru, India
Mahua Mukherjee
Co-Founder, The star in me
Bengaluru, India
More info about Mahua Mukherjee
19+ years general management experience spread across IT Delivery, BPS Operations, ITIS Service Management, Chief of Staff to BPS Global Delivery Head and Business Process Consulting.
Co-founded a venture "The Star in Me" under Femmevista Tech Pvt Ltd - with a mission to reduce the gender pay gap, solve the mystery of missing pipeline and improve leadership representation of women professionals in corporate organizations and business ecosystem with help of a marketplace solution cum career advancement platform.
In my last role with Cognizant, I led offshore delivery for Cognizant's Business Process Consulting practice primarily responsible for APAC and India Revenue growth, Solution support, Supply enablement and Practice development supporting all geographies. Building service offering and capability of Robotics Process Automation was additional responsibility.
Designing, spearheading and executing large scale global strategic programs, driving change management and collaborating and working with cross functional teams to drive a shared goal has been my area of expertise before transitioning into consulting role.
* In aegis of NASSCOM have been part of India delegation team to build upcoming version of ISO 20000
* I have published 2 articles in Cognizant Annual Innovation Series books in 2009 and 2010
* In ISB during PGPMAX convocation was awarded being in Deans' List
Co-founded a venture "The Star in Me" under Femmevista Tech Pvt Ltd - with a mission to reduce the gender pay gap, solve the mystery of missing pipeline and improve leadership representation of women professionals in corporate organizations and business ecosystem with help of a marketplace solution cum career advancement platform.
In my last role with Cognizant, I led offshore delivery for Cognizant's Business Process Consulting practice primarily responsible for APAC and India Revenue growth, Solution support, Supply enablement and Practice development supporting all geographies. Building service offering and capability of Robotics Process Automation was additional responsibility.
Designing, spearheading and executing large scale global strategic programs, driving change management and collaborating and working with cross functional teams to drive a shared goal has been my area of expertise before transitioning into consulting role.
* In aegis of NASSCOM have been part of India delegation team to build upcoming version of ISO 20000
* I have published 2 articles in Cognizant Annual Innovation Series books in 2009 and 2010
* In ISB during PGPMAX convocation was awarded being in Deans' List
Susan Kabani
CEO, Ugenie
London, UK
Susan Kabani
CEO, Ugenie
London, UK
More info about Susan Kabani
Upon graduation from law school with a speciality in intellectual property law, Susan accepted a role as Legal Affairs for a growing laser manufacturing company. Within the first 2 years, she moved to Director of Business Development, which included overseeing sales and marketing, customer engagement and operations, and was integral in growing sales by 300% and adding a new product to the company's portfolio.
In 2016, Susan founded Ugenie, which provides organisations with tailored digital platforms to engage their memberships or online communities. Ugenie has won numerous awards including New Business of the Year for 2019 at the Women's Business Conference and Best Woman-led SME Community Platform by the Influential Business Women Awards 2020.
In addition to Ugenie, Susan is co-chair of the London board of GroYourBiz, a female advisory board for women, chair of the Westminster group of The Athena Women's Networking Group and a London Fellow for the Start-up Leadership Program. She was also a finalist for the Venus Women's Awards in 2018 for the Small Business of the Year Category and finalist for the Digital Communication Award for the Successful Women in Business 2019.
Kunal Varma
Co-Founder, MoneyTap
Bengaluru, India
Kunal Varma
Co-Founder, MoneyTap
Bengaluru, India
More info about Kunal Varma
Kunal is the Co-founder & CBO of MoneyTap - India’s first Credit Line app. He is a serial entrepreneur and has founded two other companies before MoneyTap.
In his previous avatar, Kunal was the Co-founder and CEO of Tapstart (formerly Skillwiz), a job discovery platform for consumers. It touched the lives of more than 300K consumers in less than two years of launch and exited in 2015.
Kunal bootstrapped and started Aspirare around 2010 as a services business in the learning and assessments space, which eventually moulded into Tapstart. Before that, his venture was offering other Marketing Services for SMEs. Both these ventures were profitable with positive cash flows.
Kunal has gotten his hands dirty on every aspect of building a business - right from product development, engineering, inbound marketing, sales and business development, customer service, operations and fundraising.
Before starting his entrepreneurial journey, he spent more than seven years in the field of technology and R&D, building next-gen semiconductor products for wireless and handheld devices. He worked in engineering management positions at Texas Instruments. Kunal did his B. Tech in Computer Science from IIT Roorkee and holds an MBA in Marketing & Strategy from ISB, Hyderabad. He is a restless soul, a fitness buff and a foodie.
Chad Hall
Founder & CEO, remodelmate
Washington DC, US
Chad Hall
Founder & CEO, remodelmate
Washington DC, US
More info about Chad Hall
Chad Hall is the Founder and CEO of Remodelmate, an innovative company that completely renovate your bathroom for $12K in 3 weeks. Remodelmate aims to use technology and transparency to save homeowners time and money while simultaneously allowing contractors to grow their businesses efficiently.
Now in its third year of operation, Remodelmate has made major updates to its online platform and launched partnerships with interior design service Havenly for templated kitchen renovations and online personal finance company SoFi for project loans up to $100,000 with monthly repayments.
Remodelmate just finished a successful seed round of $525,000 led by CoVenture with participation from MIT Alumni Angels of Washington, D.C., Dorm Room Fund and TEDCO. Hall studied International Business at Robert H. Smith Business School while at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Now in its third year of operation, Remodelmate has made major updates to its online platform and launched partnerships with interior design service Havenly for templated kitchen renovations and online personal finance company SoFi for project loans up to $100,000 with monthly repayments.
Remodelmate just finished a successful seed round of $525,000 led by CoVenture with participation from MIT Alumni Angels of Washington, D.C., Dorm Room Fund and TEDCO. Hall studied International Business at Robert H. Smith Business School while at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Chrissa McFarlane
Founder & CEO, Patientory, Inc.
Atlanata, US
Chrissa McFarlane
Founder & CEO, Patientory, Inc.
Atlanata, US
More info about Chrissa McFarlane
Named as one of the top women, “leaving their mark on the MedTech field in health IT,” by Beckers Hospital Review, Chrissa McFarlane is the Founder and CEO of Patientory, Inc., headquartered in Atlanta and a contributor for Forbes on Healthcare and Blockchain topics. McFarlane founded Patientory in December 2015 after seeing the need in the market for more personalized and secure consumer-driven health information management solutions. McFarlane has published international healthcare research, created and deployed the first global healthcare crypto currency and helped to create breakthrough digital health companies that have provided services to companies such as Tumblr, Blue Apron, Casper, and Meetup. Patientory is part of the Startup Health portfolio, a global organization leading the movement to transform health. To learn more visit patientory.com.
Rob Frohwein
CEO & Co-Founder, Kabbage
Atlanata, US
Rob Frohwein
CEO & Co-Founder, Kabbage
Atlanata, US
More info about Rob Frohwein
In 2008, Rob Frohwein recognized that companies like eBay offered automated access to small business transaction data via APIs. Rob realized small businesses can simply share this data to allow underwriters to make better, faster credit decisions and provide a great user experience.
He co-founded Kabbage in Atlanta, Georgia to leverage this power of real-time data automation through technology and has since expanded the business to serve all small businesses throughout the U.S. through a suite of cash flow solution products.
Rob has since also founded Drum Technologies, also based in Atlanta, an automated sales and referral solution for businesses. Rob holds a law degree from Villanova University, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.
He is the listed inventor on ten United States Patents, a co-author of three books on intellectual property and has been recognized four times as one of the top 300 intellectual property strategists globally by Intellectual Asset Magazine.
He co-founded Kabbage in Atlanta, Georgia to leverage this power of real-time data automation through technology and has since expanded the business to serve all small businesses throughout the U.S. through a suite of cash flow solution products.
Rob has since also founded Drum Technologies, also based in Atlanta, an automated sales and referral solution for businesses. Rob holds a law degree from Villanova University, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.
He is the listed inventor on ten United States Patents, a co-author of three books on intellectual property and has been recognized four times as one of the top 300 intellectual property strategists globally by Intellectual Asset Magazine.
Evgeniya Kazina
Head of Product, Platinumlist
Moscow, Russia
Krutika Katrat
Co-Founder, OoWomaniya.com
Ahmedabad, India
Vanipriya Jayaraman
Director - Product Management, Full Potential Solutions
Chennai, India
Vanipriya Jayaraman
Director - Product Management, Full Potential Solutions
Chennai, India
More info about Vanipriya Jayaraman
Full-Stack Polyglot Technology Architect and Entrepreneur- Vast technology experience of building ground-up applications through the past decade from web, mobile, multi-channel, omni-channel and cloud.
Natural servant leader, extremely passionate and driven to ensure teams get what they need to perform their best - this has enabled in starting, buidling and sustaining high performance teams at a lot of organisations and mainly start-ups.
Social hiring expert. Diversity and Inclusion Champion. Public Speaker.
Natural servant leader, extremely passionate and driven to ensure teams get what they need to perform their best - this has enabled in starting, buidling and sustaining high performance teams at a lot of organisations and mainly start-ups.
Social hiring expert. Diversity and Inclusion Champion. Public Speaker.
Ketevan Meparishvili
Regional Manager, Asia, TWINO
Georgia
Ketevan Meparishvili
Regional Manager, Asia, TWINO
Georgia
More info about Ketevan Meparishvili
Executive business development and marketing professional with 15 years of international experience from Fintech to Fortune 500 companies.
Ritu Kedia
Founder, Cubane Experiential Education
Mumbai, India
Ritu Kedia
Founder, Cubane Experiential Education
Mumbai, India
More info about Ritu Kedia
At heart, I am a strategist and like to apply skills and energy for commercializing functional solutions to real world problems. I am a multipotentialite and have broad interests in sustainability, nation building and youth development which have led me to pursue a venture in experiential education. I hope to grow Cubane Solutions in spheres of Empathy, Emotional Quotient, Sustainability Education and Conscious Capitalism.
I am also an international long distance ocean swimmer and recipient of the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award (equivalent to Arjuna Award) by the Govt. of India. Love to travel, read and practice mixed media art.
I am also an international long distance ocean swimmer and recipient of the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award (equivalent to Arjuna Award) by the Govt. of India. Love to travel, read and practice mixed media art.
Michelle Perez Patel
Founder, SatisFIND
Hyderabad, India
Michelle Perez Patel
Founder, SatisFIND
Hyderabad, India
More info about Michelle Perez Patel
Michelle Perez Patel is the founder of SatisFIND®, a platform powered by real customers, enabling better business performance at the frontline transforming insights from customers and employees into store-level SatisACTION plans and on-demand upskilling to accelerate results.
Over the last 15 years leading SatisFIND®, Michelle has worked with small and large businesses in the service industry to improve their understanding of their customer and frontline experiences.
Michelle has been a true advocate of leadership and service excellence, and her vision of giving both customers and employees the voice to help businesses grow led to SatisFIND evolving into an expert platform for businesses and frontliners, powered by real customers.
Michelle served as a consultant to the Department of Tourism in the Philippines for the milestone project that launched the Star Accreditation system to rate hotels and resorts across the country. She is a prolific public speaker on customer service and employee engagement topics.
Over the last 15 years leading SatisFIND®, Michelle has worked with small and large businesses in the service industry to improve their understanding of their customer and frontline experiences.
Michelle has been a true advocate of leadership and service excellence, and her vision of giving both customers and employees the voice to help businesses grow led to SatisFIND evolving into an expert platform for businesses and frontliners, powered by real customers.
Michelle served as a consultant to the Department of Tourism in the Philippines for the milestone project that launched the Star Accreditation system to rate hotels and resorts across the country. She is a prolific public speaker on customer service and employee engagement topics.
Sharmin Ali
Founder & CEO, Instoried
Bengaluru, India
Sharmin Ali
Founder & CEO, Instoried
Bengaluru, India
More info about Sharmin Ali
I am an entrepreneur, author and speaker. I have authored two books, the first one 'Y.O.U' has been announced a best-seller by the New Indian Express & the Oxford bookstores. My second book, titled 'How I was forced to become a staunch RACIST' has been recently published. After exiting from my first startup (Art-Right-Is productions), I have now ventured into an artificial intelligence based startup.
Shweta Doshi
Co-Founder, GreyAtom
Mumbai, India
Shweta Doshi
Co-Founder, GreyAtom
Mumbai, India
More info about Shweta Doshi
I am a passionate Tech Educator, first-time entrepreneur, and an accidental Product Owner. An unapologetic idealist, I firmly believe that to gain quality education, we need to transform the way we teach & learn.
We founded GreyAtom to bridge the gap between the skills learners have and what the industry needs by bringing them together on our learning platform, GLabs, which provides hands-on coding experience, mentorship from top practitioners globally, and access to a huge peer community.
We strongly believe that pure online, self-paced learning doesn’t work. So we devised a hybrid approach, where there is a balanced mix of online learning and offline community interactions and that works the best! GreyAtom has presence in India, Canada and Sweden.
I also advise early-stage EdTech startups, mentor founders and help them through their product-market fit discovery journey.
Kate Fairhurst
CEO, GrowthMinds
London, UK
Kate Fairhurst
CEO, GrowthMinds
London, UK
More info about Kate Fairhurst
For start ups and scale ups, it's all about growth. If you want to get past the painful stage of development, you need to be able to build your audiences and your revenues quickly and effectively. I help businesses with this challenge.
For much of my time this is as a co-founder of growth agency, GrowthMinds. We solve a core business challenge for scale ups: how to execute on the many technical components to digital marketing without the budget to hire huge teams of specialists. GrowthMinds plugs in as an external marketing department, wrapping our arms around everything from CMO strategy to campaign execution and data analysis.
The rest of my time is all about giving back. I mentor businesses on their growth strategies and help companies who need to find the right message, channel and tactics to succeed. From fintech scale ups to social enterprise start ups, I support leadership teams with advice and encouragement to get where they are going. It's lots of fun and is really quite rewarding too.
For much of my time this is as a co-founder of growth agency, GrowthMinds. We solve a core business challenge for scale ups: how to execute on the many technical components to digital marketing without the budget to hire huge teams of specialists. GrowthMinds plugs in as an external marketing department, wrapping our arms around everything from CMO strategy to campaign execution and data analysis.
The rest of my time is all about giving back. I mentor businesses on their growth strategies and help companies who need to find the right message, channel and tactics to succeed. From fintech scale ups to social enterprise start ups, I support leadership teams with advice and encouragement to get where they are going. It's lots of fun and is really quite rewarding too.
Caroline Hughes
CEO, Lifetise
London, UK
Caroline Hughes
CEO, Lifetise
London, UK
More info about Caroline Hughes
FinTech founder | tech lawyer | Innovate Finance Standout 35 Rising Star
Maria Perillo
Learning Innovation, IESE Business School
Barcelona, Spain
Maria Perillo
Learning Innovation, IESE Business School
Barcelona, Spain
More info about Maria Perillo
LX Designer, e-learning expert and computational linguist with extensive experience conceptualizing, creating, and updating e-learning products in several source languages, including the innovative ABA English Campus, ABA’s mobile applications versions 1.0 and 2.0, and IESE Online Programs.
Under the Language Lab research center she directed in ABA, she led the development of a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence skill for the Alexa virtual assistant, in a joint project with the Auto-Id Lab at the MIT.
Strong project and team management skills, with deep knowledge of Internet and mobile technologies after directing the localization for Spain of Google and Nokia products at Treeloc. Excellent writing and verbal skills in several languages, especially in English, Spanish and Italian. Amateur musician with a degree in classical piano.
Under the Language Lab research center she directed in ABA, she led the development of a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence skill for the Alexa virtual assistant, in a joint project with the Auto-Id Lab at the MIT.
Strong project and team management skills, with deep knowledge of Internet and mobile technologies after directing the localization for Spain of Google and Nokia products at Treeloc. Excellent writing and verbal skills in several languages, especially in English, Spanish and Italian. Amateur musician with a degree in classical piano.
Niharika Singh
Head of Product & Tech, One Championship
Singapore
Niharika Singh
Head of Product & Tech, One Championship
Singapore
More info about Niharika Singh
Niharika is the Head of Product and Tech at ONE Championship where she leads the digital strategy for the company across its owned and operated assets. An ex-McKinsey consultant, she found her true calling in building and scaling businesses when she joined Treebo, a travel tech startup, in 2015. She has worked across strategy, revenue and product in her previous stints and is excited by the possibilities that technology and digital platforms bring to all three of those verticals. At ONE Championship, she is leading the charge on revolutionizing the way fans interact with the company and helping build the ONE Super App into the most loved sports App in the world.
Fiona Boyd
Co-Founder & CEO, EdSmart
Melbourne, Australia
Fiona Boyd
Co-Founder & CEO, EdSmart
Melbourne, Australia
More info about Fiona Boyd
As Co-Founder and CEO of EdSmart, Fiona is passionate about using technology to empower relationships and a greater good, with a focus on helping educators, parents and students worldwide. She began her career as a radio broadcaster and was Co-Founder of ArtsHub, the leading online home for arts and cultural workers in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. She was featured in the book 50 Great eBusinesses and the Minds Behind Them (Random House 2007). Fiona is also a long-time runner and mother of three.
Vaijayanthi Narasimhan
Product Marketing Manager, Zoho
Chennai, India
Vaijayanthi Narasimhan
Product Marketing Manager, Zoho
Chennai, India
More info about Vaijayanthi Narasimhan
Vaijayanthi Narasimhan is a passionate marketer and an advocate of customer-centric and no-fluff marketing. She has 7 years of experience in marketing and is currently leading product marketing efforts for a conversion optimization platform at Zoho.
Apart from work, she’s a trained Carnatic musician and a Glossophile.
She likes to call herself a 'Learner of life; Learner for life.' You can connect with her on Twitter and LinkedIn
Apart from work, she’s a trained Carnatic musician and a Glossophile.
She likes to call herself a 'Learner of life; Learner for life.' You can connect with her on Twitter and LinkedIn
Anna Rehermann
Head of Education, Elemental Academy
Singapore
Anna Rehermann
Head of Education, Elemental Academy
Singapore
More info about Anna Rehermann
Anna is a passionate serial entrepreneur with a strong background in launching and growing businesses across APAC.
She worked with Rocket Internet and Team Europe Ventures, two leading global venture builders, to set up and maintain the complete range of growth marketing activities for some of their ventures. Anna then founded Growth Hacking Asia, a regional training and consulting company with offices in 6 countries, focusing on product-led and data driven growth strategies for businesses.
She is passionate about sharing her experience and skills, which led her to develop and conduct training programs for startups, MNCs, government agencies and universities across Southeast Asia including Google, Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre and The National University of Singapore (NUS). Further, Anna works as consultant and mentor focusing on launch and growth strategies for startups and SMEs.
She worked with Rocket Internet and Team Europe Ventures, two leading global venture builders, to set up and maintain the complete range of growth marketing activities for some of their ventures. Anna then founded Growth Hacking Asia, a regional training and consulting company with offices in 6 countries, focusing on product-led and data driven growth strategies for businesses.
She is passionate about sharing her experience and skills, which led her to develop and conduct training programs for startups, MNCs, government agencies and universities across Southeast Asia including Google, Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre and The National University of Singapore (NUS). Further, Anna works as consultant and mentor focusing on launch and growth strategies for startups and SMEs.
Rachana Gupta
Co-Founder, Gynoveda
Mumbai, India
Neha Bahl
CEO, Toronto Business Development Centre
Toronto, Canada
Vaishnavi Ketharnathan
Product Marketing, Chargebee
Chennai, India
Vaishnavi Ketharnathan
Product Marketing, Chargebee
Chennai, India
More info about Vaishnavi Ketharnathan
Product Marketer by profession. Storyteller by passion.
Currently trying to solve for:
🛠 Product Onboarding for a sales driven product.
💰 How to enable the Sales and Success teams to Always Be Closing.
📈 Tracking metrics that help weave customer stories.
Currently trying to solve for:
🛠 Product Onboarding for a sales driven product.
💰 How to enable the Sales and Success teams to Always Be Closing.
📈 Tracking metrics that help weave customer stories.
Yulia Aslamova
Co-Founder, MakeSuccess
Bengaluru, India
Yulia Aslamova
Co-Founder, MakeSuccess
Bengaluru, India
More info about Yulia Aslamova
“Always do what you love” is the life credo of Yulia Aslamova.
Having been thrown into digital marketing five years ago, she successfully combined her previous entrepreneurial experience and applied it in her current career. She is inspired by opportunities in online marketing and strongly believes in data-driven marketing decisions.
Living in Namma Bengaluru, Yulia is well-known in the startup community and heads up marketing in India for the USA brand SEMrush. Previously, Yulia led marketing for BHiVE, the biggest co-working network in Bangalore.
For the last four years, Yulia has worked remotely (only!) and specialized in marketing, events and branding. The freedom of remote work allows her to live her dream life and constantly travel (to 20+ countries), balance her family life (she has a one-year-old baby) and have a successful career.
Having been thrown into digital marketing five years ago, she successfully combined her previous entrepreneurial experience and applied it in her current career. She is inspired by opportunities in online marketing and strongly believes in data-driven marketing decisions.
Living in Namma Bengaluru, Yulia is well-known in the startup community and heads up marketing in India for the USA brand SEMrush. Previously, Yulia led marketing for BHiVE, the biggest co-working network in Bangalore.
For the last four years, Yulia has worked remotely (only!) and specialized in marketing, events and branding. The freedom of remote work allows her to live her dream life and constantly travel (to 20+ countries), balance her family life (she has a one-year-old baby) and have a successful career.
Riddhi Doda
Content Strategist, Peel-Works
Bengaluru, India
Riddhi Doda
Content Strategist, Peel-Works
Bengaluru, India
More info about Riddhi Doda
Riddhi comes with over a decade of experience in leading strategic content creation for brands like Zivame, Melorra, HomeShop18 and OnMobile Global Ltd. She was chosen as LinkedIn’s Top 50 Content Marketing Leaders in India (2018). She is also an independent content consultant for brands like Asian Paints, Kurl-on mattresses and StoreKing. Riddhi focuses on blending creativity with analytics to deliver effective content, aligned with business goals.
Saumya Gupta
Founder, Ten on Ten
New York, US
Saumya Gupta
Founder, Ten on Ten
New York, US
More info about Saumya Gupta
Pilot by profession, Entrepreneur by Choice.
Top 100 Most Talented Retail Professionals of India, Mentor at The Cherie Blair Foundation.
NYC/Mumbai.
Top 100 Most Talented Retail Professionals of India, Mentor at The Cherie Blair Foundation.
NYC/Mumbai.
Vanshika Mehta
Brand Storyteller and Communications Consultant
Delhi-NCR, India
Vanshika Mehta
Brand Storyteller and Communications Consultant
Delhi-NCR, India
More info about Vanshika Mehta
Vanshika is a brand storyteller and communications consultant, currently enabling SMB's to communicate clearly and crisply. Vanshika graduated from Northeastern in Boston, USA with a BSc. in Marketing and Management and has since been heavily involved in multi-domain marketing. Throughout her professional journey, she has been a community-builder, helper and a friend to everyone that has crossed her path.
Today, she has a 55K+ wide global audience of entrepreneurs and community builders on her Linkedin who she very actively converses with via her daily musings. She has been featured on websites such as TapChief, Talkwalker, Vaizle and more. Apart from that, she's featured on podcasts and live webinars on platforms such as upGrad, IMACX, Pushstart and a few more. Last but not least, she's reachable via her website www.vanshichats.com
Today, she has a 55K+ wide global audience of entrepreneurs and community builders on her Linkedin who she very actively converses with via her daily musings. She has been featured on websites such as TapChief, Talkwalker, Vaizle and more. Apart from that, she's featured on podcasts and live webinars on platforms such as upGrad, IMACX, Pushstart and a few more. Last but not least, she's reachable via her website www.vanshichats.com
Pilar Orti
Director, Virtual Not Distant
London, UK
Pilar Orti
Director, Virtual Not Distant
London, UK
More info about Pilar Orti
Pilar’s journey in leadership training and team development started at the beginning of the century. Having worked as a theatre practitioner and director of an independent theatre company, she discovered that many of the exercises used to build theatre ensembles were perfect for helping teams and managers reflect on their current practices and identify new ways of working together. Pilar set up Virtual not Distant in 2016, in order to facilitate the journey for managers, teams and organisations towards “office optional”. She has worked with small teams helping them set up their online ecosystems, delivered training both online and off, and piloted new ways of working.
Pilar is the host of the podcast “21st Century Work Life”, and co-host of “My Pocket Psych”. She is an Affiliate Member of the CIPD, a member of the International Association of Facilitators, and and alumnus of London’s Imperial College. She is also the voice of the Vroomster pilot Xuli in the BBC’s GoJetters.
Tina Hedges
Co-Founder & CEO, LOLI Beauty Inc.
New York, US
Tina Hedges
Co-Founder & CEO, LOLI Beauty Inc.
New York, US
More info about Tina Hedges
A brand alchemist with a decade or two in worldwide brand management roles at L’OREAL, The Estee Lauder Companies, Halston Borghese and LVMH. Spent the last few years at start-ups or advising clients redefine + reinvent their future in categories like baby bottles, biotech & personal care. At the moment, you will find me whipping up a new recipe for how we experience and shop DIY natural beauty.
Chirutha Dalal
Co-Founder & COO, Pay1
Mumbai, India
Chirutha Dalal
Co-Founder & COO, Pay1
Mumbai, India
More info about Chirutha Dalal
With a decade of experiences ranging from UI/UX designing to co-founding and managing multiple startups. I am currently heading the operations at Pay1 as a COO and Co-founder. Product development, strategising and conceptualisation and executing ideas for the retail tech platform is at the core of my responsibilities. I also ensure smooth flow of operations and services within the company.
For me learning is unending. Upgrading myself constantly through knowledge and experiences, developing efficient internal processes within the organisation is what I strive to achieve. Apart from extensive experience with regards to company operations, I am an adept web designer and have crafted user centered design solutions for products such as Flora2000, YO4yA and Remindo as a senior product manager.
For me learning is unending. Upgrading myself constantly through knowledge and experiences, developing efficient internal processes within the organisation is what I strive to achieve. Apart from extensive experience with regards to company operations, I am an adept web designer and have crafted user centered design solutions for products such as Flora2000, YO4yA and Remindo as a senior product manager.
Nour Atrissi
Founder & CEO, TeensWhoCode
Beirut, Lebanon
Nour Atrissi
Founder & CEO, TeensWhoCode
Beirut, Lebanon
More info about Nour Atrissi
Growth, operations and product management at the intersection of technology and education.
Radhika Mohta
Championing remote work
Bengaluru, India
Radhika Mohta
Championing remote work
Bengaluru, India
More info about Radhika Mohta
Radhika Mohta fuses her love for Community, Curation and Creation. She is recreating a sense of belonging in a digital-first way by hosting Remote Games. "These are cyber celebrations for conversations and connections", say her clients.
Radhika is also a Matchmaker turned Relationship Coach for independent singles. She is enabling working professionals to find a life partner. You can schedule a call with her here: https://calendly.com/radhikamohta
Anubha Maneshwar
Founder, GirlScript Foundation
Nagpur, India
Anubha Maneshwar
Founder, GirlScript Foundation
Nagpur, India
More info about Anubha Maneshwar
Anubha Maneshwar founded a non-profit company called GirlScript Foundation to help beginners in technology. Currently, her organization is working in 56 cities of India and has impacted over 40000 beginners. She has been featured in Forbes Under 30 Asia List of 2020 under the Social Entrepreneurs category and in Top 8 of Technology Playmaker Award by Booking.com at London UK. She is the winner of the Indian Women Leadership Excellence Award, 35 Under 35 Awards in Best Startup for Education Category and India's Top 100 Young Leaders Award. A mentor at Mozilla Open Leaders Program, Learn IT Girl and speaker at Tedx, PyCon North America. She loves to help people and wants to transform how the education system works in India via tech and communities.
Sonal Singh
Co-Founder & Director, Fittr
Delhi-NCR, India
Sonal Singh
Co-Founder & Director, Fittr
Delhi-NCR, India
More info about Sonal Singh
I learned early on that when you value courage over comfort, great things happen. As the daughter of a first-generation immigrant family in Canada, my parents instilled the value of financial independence & hard-work from day one! I started working at the age of 11 years helping my parents’ afterschool and on summer holidays. Throughout high school & then university I did every odd job I could find from watering plants, to photocopying books to taking notes for other people. When I graduated from UBC, I realized 2 things: I loved helping people & I wanted to experience doing as many different things as possible in as many places as possible.
Over the past 10 years I have worked in the UK, Brazil, India and Canada. I’ve worked on projects ranging from women’s access to healthcare in rural communities in India to HIV/AIDS financing in Brazil to interviewing senior ministers in the UK about improving cost efficiencies in public office. In 2009 I graduated from the London School of Economics with a degree in Public & Economic Policy. Though it was the worst financial climate in a century, I stuck around to get a job. I gave myself 30 days & knocked door-to-door on my professor’s offices until I landed a paid project. One paid project led to another, & finally I ended up with a permanent job at Deloitte as a Strategy & Operations consultant.
I spent 4 years working at Deloitte learning how to help businesses do all sorts of things, namely work better & faster. But then I realized it was time to move on. Without a plan I moved to India, because I strongly felt my purpose would be fulfilled there. As a child, I would often visit India and felt a deep connection to the place of my roots & an even stronger desire to contribute.
I began helping MSMEs to expand their business online & was then hired by Forever New to tackle their employee attrition rates & customer feedback. I devised a training strategy across all 22 locations within India focusing on improving customer love. I delivered this training myself across all locations.
In 2016, on a whim I took part in a competition and competed against 70 other delegates in China to win the title of Ms. Asia Universe. Jitendra Chouksey, founder of Fittr had helped me get fit online (though we never met face-to-face). When I was a guest speaker at Fittr’s event, I met the team & was inspired by the mission and community approach. I joined forces to help build Fittr, an online fitness community. I lead Strategic Initiatives at Fittr and have onboarded key partners such as Infosys, Philips India, Reliance, Pidilite & HDFC.
I also led the fundraising initiative & helped raise $2 million in funding from Sequoia's Surge. Through various workshops & speaker engagements, my personal mission has been to help inspire people to overcome their challenges to pursue professional & personal growth by leading healthier lives. I write about this regularly on my page Fit Mind | Fit Body
Over the past 10 years I have worked in the UK, Brazil, India and Canada. I’ve worked on projects ranging from women’s access to healthcare in rural communities in India to HIV/AIDS financing in Brazil to interviewing senior ministers in the UK about improving cost efficiencies in public office. In 2009 I graduated from the London School of Economics with a degree in Public & Economic Policy. Though it was the worst financial climate in a century, I stuck around to get a job. I gave myself 30 days & knocked door-to-door on my professor’s offices until I landed a paid project. One paid project led to another, & finally I ended up with a permanent job at Deloitte as a Strategy & Operations consultant.
I spent 4 years working at Deloitte learning how to help businesses do all sorts of things, namely work better & faster. But then I realized it was time to move on. Without a plan I moved to India, because I strongly felt my purpose would be fulfilled there. As a child, I would often visit India and felt a deep connection to the place of my roots & an even stronger desire to contribute.
I began helping MSMEs to expand their business online & was then hired by Forever New to tackle their employee attrition rates & customer feedback. I devised a training strategy across all 22 locations within India focusing on improving customer love. I delivered this training myself across all locations.
In 2016, on a whim I took part in a competition and competed against 70 other delegates in China to win the title of Ms. Asia Universe. Jitendra Chouksey, founder of Fittr had helped me get fit online (though we never met face-to-face). When I was a guest speaker at Fittr’s event, I met the team & was inspired by the mission and community approach. I joined forces to help build Fittr, an online fitness community. I lead Strategic Initiatives at Fittr and have onboarded key partners such as Infosys, Philips India, Reliance, Pidilite & HDFC.
I also led the fundraising initiative & helped raise $2 million in funding from Sequoia's Surge. Through various workshops & speaker engagements, my personal mission has been to help inspire people to overcome their challenges to pursue professional & personal growth by leading healthier lives. I write about this regularly on my page Fit Mind | Fit Body
Radhesh Kanumury
Managing Partner, Arka Venture Labs
Mumbai, India
Radhesh Kanumury
Managing Partner, Arka Venture Labs
Mumbai, India
More info about Radhesh Kanumury
Radhesh is Managing Partner of Arka Venture Labs. Arka Venture Labs assists Indian B2B Startups foray into US by providing a combination of Funds, Mentoring and access to Silicon Valley Ecosystem. Arka Venture Labs has been formed with three Anchor Venture Funds, Blume, BGV and Emergent.
Prior to starting Arka, Radhesh was Venture Advisor to Blume Ventures, focusing on early stage B2B Startups investments.
Before this he was leading the Global Entrepreneur Program, for IBM India and South Asia.
He exhibited strong leadership in steering the Startup initiative of IBM from scratch to one of the companies to be reckoned by the Startup ecosystem in India and generating strong revenues for IBM India Cloud business. Has helped many B2B startups scale in their journey by mentoring them, facilitating access to funds and customers.
Has core competency in evaluating startups leveraging technology and advising them on areas of improvement from business and technology standpoint.
He conceptualized IBM India`s Startup challenge called IBM India Smartcamp and successfully executed the same. Personally curated the Startups for the finals, many of whom got funding either for the first time or for their subsequent rounds.
He also worked with Large Enterprises in assisting them in identifying the next generation innovations through joint Hackathons and Startup challenges.
Prior to to this role in IBM he was working as a Software Architect where he was designing Software solutions for Enterprise Clients, ISVs and System Integrators.
Created many First of its kind solutions and led several key Sales wins for IBM.
He has strong skills in building strategic relationships with Partner organizations.
Radhesh is self driven professional ready to take up challenges. Successful at achieving turnaround growth and position organization for long-term profitability.
Radhesh also writes articles on technologies which are published in YourStory and Swarajya Magazines.
Prior to starting Arka, Radhesh was Venture Advisor to Blume Ventures, focusing on early stage B2B Startups investments.
Before this he was leading the Global Entrepreneur Program, for IBM India and South Asia.
He exhibited strong leadership in steering the Startup initiative of IBM from scratch to one of the companies to be reckoned by the Startup ecosystem in India and generating strong revenues for IBM India Cloud business. Has helped many B2B startups scale in their journey by mentoring them, facilitating access to funds and customers.
Has core competency in evaluating startups leveraging technology and advising them on areas of improvement from business and technology standpoint.
He conceptualized IBM India`s Startup challenge called IBM India Smartcamp and successfully executed the same. Personally curated the Startups for the finals, many of whom got funding either for the first time or for their subsequent rounds.
He also worked with Large Enterprises in assisting them in identifying the next generation innovations through joint Hackathons and Startup challenges.
Prior to to this role in IBM he was working as a Software Architect where he was designing Software solutions for Enterprise Clients, ISVs and System Integrators.
Created many First of its kind solutions and led several key Sales wins for IBM.
He has strong skills in building strategic relationships with Partner organizations.
Radhesh is self driven professional ready to take up challenges. Successful at achieving turnaround growth and position organization for long-term profitability.
Radhesh also writes articles on technologies which are published in YourStory and Swarajya Magazines.
Nidhi Pathak
Founder, Momzspace
Bengaluru, India
Johan Janssens
Chief Innovator, Timble
Diest, Belgium
Johan Janssens
Chief Innovator, Timble
Diest, Belgium
More info about Johan Janssens
Johan is a passionate digital serial entrepreneur, product developer and business strategist. He is driven to create through building, connecting, and automating "things" to design fun powerful new digital experiences using open technologies.
In the past 15 years Johan has spent most his time creating and advocating free and open source software and helping evolve the world wide web. He is most known as co-founder and lead developer of Joomla, an open source content management system used by more than 3% of all the sites on the internet.
Johan is a firm believer in sharing and collaboration, in spreading good ideas and in the power of technology to make the world a better place. He continually pushes the people around him to be creative and connect the dots and he loves to push startups forward either as co-founder, CTO or as startup mentor and advisor.
Johan is CEO of Timble, co-founder at Joomlatools and Foliolabs and advise various startups.
In the past 15 years Johan has spent most his time creating and advocating free and open source software and helping evolve the world wide web. He is most known as co-founder and lead developer of Joomla, an open source content management system used by more than 3% of all the sites on the internet.
Johan is a firm believer in sharing and collaboration, in spreading good ideas and in the power of technology to make the world a better place. He continually pushes the people around him to be creative and connect the dots and he loves to push startups forward either as co-founder, CTO or as startup mentor and advisor.
Johan is CEO of Timble, co-founder at Joomlatools and Foliolabs and advise various startups.
Shruti Kushwah
Founder, Crealoons Innovations
Ahmedabad, India
Shruti Kushwah
Founder, Crealoons Innovations
Ahmedabad, India
More info about Shruti Kushwah
Shruti Kushwah is a serial entrepreneur, strategist and writer. She started her entrepreneurial career after dropping out from an IVY league school from United States with aspirations of doing business in india.
Shruti runs a product engineering service company that develops your innovation through engineering and industrial design and makes it manufacturable. Along with her service company with a presence in US & India, she’s also launching company’s first product line with thermal sensing device and bar accessories to strengthen the service operations.
She is also expanding her business portfolio to industries like alcohol and spirits, FMCG & fashion e-commerce. For her zeal and contribution, she’s been awarded with Karamveer Chakra supported by Rex Foundation & UN.
Shruti is a dynamic networker, mentor to few growing startups, strategist to businesses in the aforesaid industries and is an active part of communities like Echai, Tie, IVY university.
Shruti runs a product engineering service company that develops your innovation through engineering and industrial design and makes it manufacturable. Along with her service company with a presence in US & India, she’s also launching company’s first product line with thermal sensing device and bar accessories to strengthen the service operations.
She is also expanding her business portfolio to industries like alcohol and spirits, FMCG & fashion e-commerce. For her zeal and contribution, she’s been awarded with Karamveer Chakra supported by Rex Foundation & UN.
Shruti is a dynamic networker, mentor to few growing startups, strategist to businesses in the aforesaid industries and is an active part of communities like Echai, Tie, IVY university.
Smita Murarka
VP - Marketing & Ecom, Duroflex
Bengaluru, India
Smita Murarka
VP - Marketing & Ecom, Duroflex
Bengaluru, India
More info about Smita Murarka
Women Super Achiever Award (World Women Leadership) I Star Youth Achiever Award (CMO Asia) I Paul writer LinkedIn Top 50 Content Marketer| Social Media Superwomen Award (Social Samosa)
Result driven International Brand Marketer with over 16 years of experience building brands in the fashion and lifestyle industry. Diversified expertise in managing functions of Marketing, Business Strategy, E-commerce, Product & Range Management, Sales & Operations and Business Development.
• Proven track record in working with Global Brands across categories of Apparel, Accessories, Footwear, Handbags, Beauty, Perfumes, Watches and more, having steered their launch and growth in India, with travels to International markets extensively for collaborating with the parent teams.
• An undying passion for performance, being adept at identifying opportunities, building strategic plans and transforming it to tactical initiatives.
• An effective thought leader with an ability to question status quo and reinvent.
• Leadership ability to build motivated teams for driving results towards a unified vision.
Result driven International Brand Marketer with over 16 years of experience building brands in the fashion and lifestyle industry. Diversified expertise in managing functions of Marketing, Business Strategy, E-commerce, Product & Range Management, Sales & Operations and Business Development.
• Proven track record in working with Global Brands across categories of Apparel, Accessories, Footwear, Handbags, Beauty, Perfumes, Watches and more, having steered their launch and growth in India, with travels to International markets extensively for collaborating with the parent teams.
• An undying passion for performance, being adept at identifying opportunities, building strategic plans and transforming it to tactical initiatives.
• An effective thought leader with an ability to question status quo and reinvent.
• Leadership ability to build motivated teams for driving results towards a unified vision.
Anju Gupta
Co-Founder & President, IvyCamp
Bengaluru, India
Kuppulakshmi Krishnamoorthy
Global Head, Zoho For Startups
Chennai, India
Kuppulakshmi Krishnamoorthy
Global Head, Zoho For Startups
Chennai, India
More info about Kuppulakshmi Krishnamoorthy
Kuppulakshmi, fondly known as Kuppu, heads the Zoho for Startups program globally. She has been part of Zoho's growth story for about a decade, and bridging the gap between businesses and technology has been her core area of work. She focuses on strategic alliances between Zoho and various startup bodies such as State Governments, Incubators, Accelerators, and other stakeholders. She is a mentor to various startups and guides them on pitching, design thinking, and on using EQ while hiring new talents while setting up the vision and culture of the startup. Is a sought-after keynote speaker on topics like future skills, emotional intelligence, and human element of technology.
Her extensive experience of being a softskills and communication trainer and a voice&accent specialist, strengthen her expertise in story telling, and she is a great fan of "explain-it-like-I am-five" concept.
Kuppu believes that the best way to live life is to be useful to others, and she strives to find a balance between giving and taking. She is an active volunteer with various socially-impacting projects, and is a chief trainer and mentor for Project PUTHRI - that intends to empower 10,000 girl children from underprivileged background, every year.
She is also a mentor-volunteer at Team Everest NGO, YSEALI (Young SouthEast Asian Leaders Initiative), and Wedu.
She is an ambivert, reads a lot of non-fiction, writes, sings, paints, dances, practices sustainable living, and is also a foodie who can cook. Is a hands-on mom to a super-active 8-year-old, and has plants for pets.
Recently, her life-journey has been featured in Makers India - Women Who Make India.
Stephanie Kazalac
Senior Product Manager, Delivery Hero for Q-Commerce
Berlin, Germany
Vinutha Rallapalli
Director of Ecosystem Office, T-Hub
Hyderabad, India
Vinutha Rallapalli
Director of Ecosystem Office, T-Hub
Hyderabad, India
More info about Vinutha Rallapalli
Currently the Director of Ecosystem Office at T-Hub, Hyderabad, Vinutha Rallapalli is a Chartered Accountant by qualification and a startup enthusiast by choice. She has been actively working in the Indian startup scene for the last decade across various domains. She has the experience of running angel networks, growth stage accelerators and was part of a VC fund. Working with US and UK based Investment support networks, she has enabled many Indian entrepreneurs to explore global markets and vice versa. For the past 4 years she has been passionately working towards strengthening the Startup Ecosystem by designing effective programs for startups and Startup Enablers. At T-Hub she is spearheading many initiatives to bring the Telangana Ecosystem together to support the startups in the state.
Madhav Tandan
Director - Investments, Omidyar Network India
Mumbai, India
Jheal Shah
Founder & CEO, The Stylease
Mumbai, India
Jheal Shah
Founder & CEO, The Stylease
Mumbai, India
More info about Jheal Shah
Jheal has done her BSc (Hons) in Biology from University of Warwick, UK, AAS in Fashion Marketing from Parsons the New School for Design, New York, USA, International Marketing from Harvard Business School (summer course), Boston, USA and Executive Education from IIM, Ahmedabad, India.
She has also had the opportunity of working with Vera Wang, Tommy Hilfiger, Armani Exchange, Bank of America and Times of India and therefore brings forth tremendous work experience from several sectors prior to successfully launching her current start up - The Stylease.
The Stylease is a high end fashion rental company based in India. They rent high end designer garments and accessories for men and women at 10% of retail price. The store is based in Mumbai though clients can order garments from the website and ship it anywhere in India for free.
Jheal has been featured in Entrepreneur magazine, YourStory.com, Mid Day, Economic Times, The Times of India and ET Panache to name some print interviews and has also done several TV/video interviews for ET Now, IIM Ahmedabad and Her Story to name a few.
She loves to learn new things and is currently doing classes in Forensic Science, learning to code in Python and basics of Machine Learning. Her goal for this year is to learn something new every single day and make meditation and journaling a daily practice.
She has also had the opportunity of working with Vera Wang, Tommy Hilfiger, Armani Exchange, Bank of America and Times of India and therefore brings forth tremendous work experience from several sectors prior to successfully launching her current start up - The Stylease.
The Stylease is a high end fashion rental company based in India. They rent high end designer garments and accessories for men and women at 10% of retail price. The store is based in Mumbai though clients can order garments from the website and ship it anywhere in India for free.
Jheal has been featured in Entrepreneur magazine, YourStory.com, Mid Day, Economic Times, The Times of India and ET Panache to name some print interviews and has also done several TV/video interviews for ET Now, IIM Ahmedabad and Her Story to name a few.
She loves to learn new things and is currently doing classes in Forensic Science, learning to code in Python and basics of Machine Learning. Her goal for this year is to learn something new every single day and make meditation and journaling a daily practice.
John Eckman
CEO, 10up
Salem, Massachusetts, US
John Eckman
CEO, 10up
Salem, Massachusetts, US
More info about John Eckman
John has been the CEO of 10up since 2014. He brings 20+ years experience to the role, having served previously as Managing Director at ISITE Design, Senior Director at Optaros, Director of Application Development at PixelMEDIA, and Director / Principal Consultant at Molecular.
He has worked with a wide range of clients: from early-stage startups and the Fortune 50 to higher ed and non-profits. As one of the co-founders of WordCamp Boston, John has been focused on open source since 2006, and is a well-known speaker at WordCamp, DrupalCamp, and numerous content management and digital strategy conferences.
Sujata Biswas
Co-Founder, Suta
Mumbai, India
Sujata Biswas
Co-Founder, Suta
Mumbai, India
More info about Sujata Biswas
An alumnus of IIFT Delhi, I always felt something was missing in my job. Whenever I went back to visit my parents, I came across a lot of traditional weavers with whom I used to end up chatting and they used to pour their hearts out about lack of work and menial wages. Their amazing skills were awe-inspiring but I came to know that their livelihoods were a question mark in many cases. These conversations were etched deeply in my heart and prodded me on to a path of working to improve the livelihood of these disempowered communities. Taking a plunge into an industry with no prior experience or knowledge was one of the biggest risks I took in my career. Passion and belief in the weavers and the urge to make a difference in the lives of many such communities across India is what drove me to take the plunge. ‘The idea isn’t about working with a single weaver or a couple of weavers but adopting the entire family of weaver and empowering them. Thereby, making our own family bigger, one weaver at a time’.
Neha Katta
Co-Founder, Codesign Labs
Jaipur, India
Neha Katta
Co-Founder, Codesign Labs
Jaipur, India
More info about Neha Katta
Having spent 3 years overseeing the business development functions in financial services industry, I found my deep grown love and passion for digital designs and how it enhances the customer experience for companies. Hence I co-founded Codesign Labs where I oversee the overall business functions and client servicing.
After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, I joined the financial industry and worked there for almost 3 years as Head Business Development at SLA Financial Solutions. My primary responsibilities comprised of strategies for customer acquisitions, optimising business operations and marketing strategies and improving the brand positioning.
My quest to seek perfection in what I do helps me to fight the challenges and explore the new ways to do the usual. In my personal and professional life, failure has always motivated me to rise again and strive for what I lost. I believe determination and will power can help overcome all odds of life provided WE DON'T GIVE UP.
After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, I joined the financial industry and worked there for almost 3 years as Head Business Development at SLA Financial Solutions. My primary responsibilities comprised of strategies for customer acquisitions, optimising business operations and marketing strategies and improving the brand positioning.
My quest to seek perfection in what I do helps me to fight the challenges and explore the new ways to do the usual. In my personal and professional life, failure has always motivated me to rise again and strive for what I lost. I believe determination and will power can help overcome all odds of life provided WE DON'T GIVE UP.
Sahil Shah
Founder, Hungrito & Netsavvies Media Co.
Ahmedabad, India