Mentors

Fashion executive with global supply chain, operations, corporate finance background and experience creating innovative consumer brands and services.

Based in New York City, USA, I am currently focused on building CARAA as the leading luxury accessories brand within the Athleisure market.

I am also spending time with Terracotta Partners, a boutique design, development and production firm based across New York City, Shanghai and Guangzhou, China specialized primarily in managing production for fashion apparel and accessory brands both in the US and overseas. We chartered our company in NYC with the mission of helping emerging and growing fashion labels to gain production scalability.

Previously, I had the pleasure of working at General Electric Company (GE) for almost a decade, where I had the opportunity to work with and learn from some of the best world class leaders in multiple businesses across the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Asia.

NYC tech veteran Aaron Cohen is Fueled’s resident startup expert and venture director. A three-time cofounder, he is both an alumnus and former staff of DreamIt Ventures, the third best VC accelerator in the world according to Forbes. A passionate advocate for technology’s empowerment potential, he was the C4Q 2014 Volunteer of the Year.

Aaron is a partner at Quiet Ventures, who design useful products worth talking about and build apps for fellow founders who are almost ready to quit their day jobs.

Aaron has a lot of experience and has built: a slackbot to make teams more fulfilled at work; an SMS-based laundry startup that sends you puppy pictures; Founders Friday, a weekly meetup and community; the NYC Salon, a bi-weekly "TED, with friends"; and The Annual "Friends Rent a Ski Mountain" event, where 125+ friends rent a mountain in Upstate NY.

Aaron Dubin (New York, NY) is a member of the Firm’s Investment Team focused on venture investments. Before that he was an Investment and Portfolio Management Analyst at Pitango Venture Capital, an Israeli venture firm. He holds a BA in Business Administration (cum laude) with Specializations in Finance and Entrepreneurship from the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya. He is a graduate of the Zell Entrepreneurship Program at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya where he is currently a Visiting Lecturer. He is also a Teaching Assistant in the Johnson-Cornell Tech MBA program.

Aaron Jacobson joined NEA as an Associate in 2011 and is focused on information and energy technology investments. Prior to joining NEA, Aaron spent two years at Qatalyst Partners in San Francisco. At Qatalyst, Aaron worked as an Analyst engaged in various M&A transactions which included the sale of PopCap Games to Electronic Arts, the sale of Riot Games to Tencent, the strategic investment in Go Daddy from KKR / Silver Lake / TCV, the sale of Palm to HP and Conexant's sale to Golden Gate Capital, among others.  Aaron held summer positions at Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs (including with their internal Ventures Group) in Murray HillNew Jersey, as well as at Lehman Brothers’ Investment Banking Division in New York City. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Economics and Electrical Engineering and carried a minor in Math.

Abby Lyall manages the cohort operations for Quake's New York office, as well as organizing Quake's UIS, CVP and internship programs for university students.

She brings her entrepreneurial spirit to the Quake team, having founded startups in the ed-tech and media spaces and qualifying as a finalist in the NYU Berkley Center’s $200K Entrepreneurs Challenge.

She previously worked for Morgan Stanley’s private wealth management group, Blackrock's Aladdin technology division and the aviation startup BLADE.

Ada joined AXA Venture Partners as an associate in 2020, focused on growth equity investments within enterprise, consumer, digital health, and financial technology. Before joining AVP, Ada was a Senior Associate at Parthenon, where she focused on corporate strategy projects across the consumer, TMT, and healthcare industries. Ada graduated from Princeton University in 2017 with a degree in international relations, where she conducted research on trade and conflict. Before starting at Princeton, she spent time living in India, and is fluent in Urdu. In her free time, she enjoys running in Central Park, traveling and ambitious baking projects.

I lead business development and investor relations for AngelList. It's the most rewarding and enjoyable job I've ever had. I connect family offices, venture funds, startups and tech entrepreneurs to support projects that can change the world. I'm also an angel investor and co-founder of The Fund, an NYC pre-seed VC comprised of founders and senior operators or NY venture-backed companies. Contact me to talk startups or other fun ideas.
Adventure beckons.

Adam has positioned himself as an innovations leader - embracing and encouraging the development of educational technologies. He is deeply committed to improving learning experiences through radical learning culture transformation. As a pedagogical leader, district superintendent, college instructor, and noted speaker and presenter, Adam has received numerous awards for his creativity and innovation. He serves on several academic boards and is deeply passionate about mentoring EdTech startups in their development process. Adam also has international recognition as a speaker and presenter, along with numerous education and technology publication credits to his name, including conferences and webinars.

Prior to joining Dreamit, Adam has held various senior management roles in sales, marketing, product development, clinical affairs, operations, and general management. His career has focused exclusively on building early stage venture-backed health tech companies. He has co-founded five health technology companies which have raised over $60M in early-stage capital.

Adam invests at the intersection of biology, healthcare, technology and data. He is interested in the digitization of healthcare; genomics; coding biology; the microbiome; bionics and cyborgs; brain-computer interfaces; regenerative medicine; synthetic biology; human performance; and other deep sciences.

Prior to joining Lux in 2011, Adam was a Postdoctoral Fellow of Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College, researching regenerative stem cell medicine in association with brain disorders such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease. Originally from Australia, Adam has dual undergraduate degrees in Business and Science and a PhD from the Australian Stem Cell Centre, where he was a Premier Scholar. He has been published in numerous peer-reviewed, scientific journals.

Published stories in Fast Company, Forbes, Forbes.com, Wired, TechCrunch, the Economist, the New York Times, Washington Post, and Mother Jones, among others. Wrote a weekly media column for Wired News and covered technology for Slate. Currently a contributing writer to Fast Company magazine and He also writes columns for fastcompany.com. Tragic Indifference: One Man's Battle With the Auto Industry Over the Dangers of SUVs (HarperBusiness, 2003) was optioned for the movies while a chapter of Spooked: Espionage in Corporate America (Perseus, 2000) was excerpted in The Sunday New York Times Magazine. Latest book is Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today's Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves, which was excerpted in five publications including Fast Company, Wired UK and the Financial Times, and published in the U.S., U.K., Brazil, Japan, Korea and soon coming out in China. Garnered national attention in 1998 for unmasking serial fabricator Stephen Glass of The New Republic, which was a watershed for online journalism and portrayed in the film "Shattered Glass" (Steve Zahn plays Adam Penenberg).

Adam Plotkin is a Partner at ff Venture Capital. In this capacity, he provides targeted strategic counsel to a range of ffVC investments, with a focus on technological innovation in logistics and manufacturing, insurance-commerce, financial services and media. Adam has experience serving on the boards of CardFlightDrop, LoyaltyFour Mine, and Sure, to name a few.

Prior to ffVC, Adam spent several years in business development, advisory and operational roles with several startups in New York and Los Angeles. Adam was the first hire at Lake Baldwin Management, a Princeton, New Jersey, opportunistic hedge fund, where he was a generalist investor, managing an array of public and private market investments.

Adam Smith is currently a Venture Partner at Bowery Capital. Previously he was a partner and West Coast Lead of AOL Ventures. Adam's passion for combining Art and Technology began with his first career as a Toy Designer. With degrees in both Physics and Sculpture combined with his enjoyment of design. Adam was accepted into MIT Media Lab Program where he helped create and complete the Toys of Tomorrow Program. Adam's adventures then sent him overseas where he took a position with Telecom Italia in both RomeItaly and Helsinki, Finland before moving back to the States for the the challenging and rewarding position of Product Manager at Google. Adam enjoyed 7 years at Google before joining AOL Ventures.

Adelyn Zhou is a business leader and bestselling author who is passionate about the intersection of marketing, automation, and the future of independent work. She has worked with some of the world's top companies and fastest growing startups on growth, blockchain applications, and applied artificial intelligence. She is recognized as a top influencer by Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc., Wired, Hubspot and many others. She started her career at the Boston Consulting Group and later led growth efforts at Amazon (Quidsi), Nextdoor, and Eventbrite. She is an internationally recognized speaker at conferences such as SXSW, CES, Inbound, and DLD.

An operator, investor and mentor. Adi has been actively involved in global startup and venture capital ecosystems for over 10 years, with a myriad of experience on both the investment side along with business and legal operations. Utilizing her experience investing in, and working with startups based in Israel, New York, Los Angeles and the Silicon Valley, she helps entrepreneurs reach product-market fit; maximizing her network and understanding of various technologies, together with business development strategies to identify and secure partnerships. Adi is passionate about disruptive technologies, is constantly curious and loves working with game-changing businesses.

Adrian Rosenkranz is a director of small business growth initiatives at Salesforce.coma customer success platform helping companies connect with customerspartners and employees. Adrian Rosenkranz received his B.S. from Stanford in International Relations."

Adriel Bercow is an investor at Kairos K50 Venture Fund, an early stage venture fund investing across all companies accepted to the Kairos K50 program. The K50 program is a global recognition of the 50 most-innovative startups from around the world, with young founders tackling global challenges.

While Kairos invests across a range of categories, Adriel's two interest areas are the Future of Work and Future of Living.

Adrien Colombié is a French award-winning creative designer raised in France & currently living in New York City. After several years working in the best advertising companies in ParisBarcelona and New-York City he quite to travel the world with his backpack for 12 months. He is now back in the Big Apple as a Freelancer and ready to rule the city. Founder of Creatives Without BordersDesign teacherStartups mentorInternational Consultanthe is also a 7 summits climber whenever he is not running a Marathon or writing articles. He has climbed the highest mountainscrossed the driest desertsand ran marathons along the most beautiful beaches. – this is where he finds his inspiration and greatest ideas. And this is what makes his approach to his creative work truly unique…his world is limitless."

Ahmet is the Founder of Poltio, the worlds biggest social polling network for content creators, publishers, brands, and users. You can create any type of interactive Poll, Quiz or Test in seconds to get immediate feedback from thousands and make your own site more interactive.

Prior to founding Poltio, Ahmet worked with the TIMwe Group for just under 10 years. TIMwe is a global provider of mobile engagement solutions. In 2009, he received his B.S. in Manufacturing Systems Engineering.

Senior university administrator, professor, and senior corporate executive, charting the course forward for America's top universities as they fully embrace the online world, while maintaining - and enhancing - the beauty and power of on-campus life.

With almost two decades of experience in the collaboration software industry, Lepofsky helps organizations improve the way their employees work together to get their jobs done. Lepofsky’s primary research area The Future of Work, focuses on: integrating collaboration and business processes (Purposeful Collaboration), structuring work via Social Task Management, leveraging analytics and digital assistants to work more productively, the strategic impact of mobile computing on business transformation, and measuring workforce culture based on Digital Proficiency instead of age.

Alana Tung is an Associate at Time Warner Investmentswhere she focuses on digital media investments that have the potential to develop strong operating partnerships with Time Warner's divisions (HBOWB & Turner) or disrupt the status quo. Her particular areas of focus include ad-techsocial mediaentertainment and gaming. Prior to joining Time WarnerAlana was an Investment Banking Analyst in Peter J. Solomon Company’s M&A Group. Alana is a graduate of Columbia Universitywhere she received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics."

Albert Wenger is a partner at Union Square Ventures. Before joining USVAlbert was the president of del.icio.us through the company’s sale to Yahoo and an angel investor (EtsyTumblr). He previously founded or co-founded several companiesincluding a management consulting firm and an early hosted data analytics company. Albert graduated from Harvard College in economics and computer science and holds a Ph.D. in Information Technology from MIT."

Alberto Payoworking as an Editor in Chief at ITespresso.es has a decade of experience in different areas of the mediaincluding radiotelevision and print media."

Alberto Pepe is the founder of Authorea which is the place to write scientificacademicand technical documents in collaboration. He graduated from the University of CaliforniaLos Angeles with a doctorate degree and majored in Information and Data Science."

In 2010Alejandro Cremades founded with Tanya Privethe startup investing marketplace Onevest (formerly RockThePost) where they connect early stage startups with investors. After one year of development they were able to launch the platform to the public on November 232011. In less than a yearthe platform was already mentioned by TIME as one of the best crowdfunding platforms in the worldas one of the top 10 digital tools for entrepreneurs by Forbes and as one of the hottest startups to watch by Business Insider. Cremades joined officially as CEO of Onevest on May 12012. Prior to OnevestCremades worked as a lawyer at King & Spalding where he was involved in one of the biggest investment arbitration cases in history which was Chevron v. Ecuador ($113 billion at stake). Cremades is an active speaker and has given guest lectures at the Wharton School of Business and at NYU Stern School of Business. Cremades was ranked number one on Vanity Fair's 30 Under 30 for 2014."

Alessandro has been involved in the technology industry for over 30 years, first as a software developer, then as a marketing and business development executive both in a large corporation and in a startup, and finally as a venture capitalist. As a VC, Alessandro has invested in software, new media, communications technologies, and infrastructure. He still gets excited about new technologies and ideas and he is always looking forward to learn and contribute to every project he gets involved in. And he is an even greater fan of working with brilliant engineers and talented managers. He is an angel investor, a mentor and an advisor to a number of companies in the New York area. He also co-authored the book "Tech and the City: The Making of New York's Startup Community”. Recently, he started a new firm, AlphaPrime Ventures, investing in technologies that protect people and assets.

Alessandro was born in Milan. He founded his first venture at the age of 18 and scaled it to market-leader before selling it. He launched eight more companies (five of them in the United States)sold three. He spent four years as Investment Manager in private equitymanaging over $2B in transactions. Owns an angel-investment funda quality-certification firmand a corporate-development consulting firm. He received his Master’s of Business Administration from Cornell University; before that he earned a Master’s in Real Estate Finance and a Master’s of Science in Economics. Before coming to the USA on an Investor VISAAlessandro worked in BrazilFranceRomaniaHolland UKFinland and Italy.

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Alex has over 7 years of professional experience across corporate strategy, enterprise sales and digital marketing in Sydney, Australia. Throughout his professional journey, Alex discovered his passion for digital marketing and start-ups and is excited to continue this journey with Ladder!

Crossed-trained in conference center operations as flexibility and coverage is needed to maintain successful operation of delivering expert customer service to high profile clientele in a fast-paced result-driven environment.

Alex is a Principal at the NYC office. Prior to joining JVP, Alex was part of the leadership development program at Amazon in Seattle and held positions of senior product and marketing manager. Before joining Amazon, Alex was an associate at Poalim Capital Markets, the private investment arm of the largest bank in Israel. There, he focused on direct investments in companies across multiple sectors and investments in VC & PE funds. Alex also served as a team leader in the Israeli Prime Minister Office. Alex holds an MBA from Columbia University and a B.Sc. in Economics, Statistics, and Operation Research from Tel-Aviv University.

Alex is currently a Research Associate at Placeholder, he previously studied Economics and Politcal science at the University of Virginia. Before his time at Placeholder, Alex spent two years studying early stage investments with Lowe's Ventures. On his spare time he enjoys reading and publishing literature on crypto currency. In addition to this, in his list of skills and endorsements, Alex has financial modeling, venture capital and public speaking.

Alex developed a leading healthcare innovation focused crowdfunding site and created a healthcare CrowdChallenge model to help partners and investors crowdsource and market test the best ideas in healthcare. He leads a team of up to 35 professionals in open innovation, product development, and business development programs for clients and sponsors including GE, Pfizer, Takeda, J & J, HHS, Aetna, the American Heart Association, the American Medical Association and over 70 more.

Since co-founding Flocabulary in 2004, Alex has been responsible for defining the company's strategic vision and building the business from the ground up. A musician by training, Alex has bootstrapped Flocabulary into a rapidly-growing, mission-driven edtech company that now reaches millions of students.

Named one of Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business in 2018, Alex is a regular author and speaker on education and entrepreneurship. His articles have appeared in The Hill, Entrepreneur and EdSurge, and he has spoken at conferences and events including Smart Cities, Creative Mornings, TedX and The Yidan Prize Summit in Hong Kong. Alex is a member of the Nationswell Council and has served as a mentor for 4.0 Schools and the StartEd Accelerator. He is also the creator of Big Idea Week, a community-driven entrepreneurship program for elementary and middle schools. Alex graduated from Tufts University and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Alex Trotta is Vice President of Fintech Acceleration at Citi Bank. His goal is bringing Citi FinTech's mantra of Open Innovation to the world and in doing so, inviting cutting-edge technologies into a Fortune 50 company that is poised to evolve with the new technological climate. Citi's mission is to serve as a trusted partner to our clients by responsibly providing financial services that enable growth and economic progress.

Alex enjoys working with technology companies to help them better articulate the problem that they are solving and the target market they are solving it for. His ability to easily work with different types of people, from multiple backgrounds, and across various industries has allowed him to provide value in sales, strategy, marketing, and operations.

Alexa is a strategic marketer with 5 years of experience vetting early-stage startups and managing client relations with Fortune 500 brands. She has a passion for creating connections between people and businesses and is very well-immersed in the NYC tech scene.

Alexa is now a VP at Grey Group. Grey ranks among the world's top advertising and marketing organizations, serving one-fifth of the FORTUNE 500, in 96 countries.

Born in Valhalla, New York, Alexander G. Rojas received his B.A. from Tufts University and his J.D. from the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law. Mr. Rojas is admitted to practice in New York, Connecticut, the Southern, Eastern, and Northern New York Districts of the U.S. District Court, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Mr. Rojas is a member of the New York State and American Bar Associations, and served on the New York State Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Section. He is an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (ALIA), serving on the Corporate Committee, EOIR Liaison Committee, District Director Committee, National Waivers Committee, National Removal Detention Committee, and as Co-Chair of the Pro Bono Committee in 2006 and 2007. Mr. Rojas’s public service experience also extends to his work with the Putnam Hospital Foundation Center, where he serves as Secretary.

Fluent in Spanish, Mr. Rojas often speaks on immigration and nationality law at conventions and other industry events. The legal community has recognized his work with listings in Who’s Who in American Law and New York Super Lawyers.

Alex has over 25 years of experience in Immigration and Nationality Law.
He represents multinational corporations involved in a wide range of industries including transportation, entertainment, publishing, financial services, media and technology. Alex also heads up the firm’s litigation and removal practice, I-9 compliance, EB-5, and Arts and Entertainment unit. Alex is a frequent speaker before immigration and human resource organizations.

Alexander Gredysa is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Bridgewater Environmental. His schooling and work experience in finance, technology and entrepreneurship have positioned him as a thought-leader and industry expert featured by the Wall Street Journal, Real Estate Weekly, BizNow, Million Dollar Listing, The Real Deal, Siggraph, Stohler Report, CIO Review Magazine, BGW Strategy, and various Startup Leadership Programs

Alexander Miles is Founder & CEO  at SportsHi which is an app for high school sports focusing on communication, content and college opportunities.

At SportsHi, their mission is to encourage high school students to play sports by creating a community where all student-athletes can grow. 

Alex has over a decade of experience in advising and investing in early and growth stage software startups. At ScaleAlex focuses on opportunities in business software (marketingsalesHRfinance) and vertical software (financial servicescommerceetc). He has been involved with the firm's investments in Bill.comDemandbasePeopleMatterand Sailthru.

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Alexander C. Opaschowski is an EY Assurance Partner with a focus on the national and international retail and consumer product industry for more than 23 years. He knows very well about the disrupting environment we are operating in and supports clients in understanding current developments, assessing the impact on their businesses, identifying promising opportunities and laying the foundation for sustainable growth. Alexander is currently based in New York and Leader of the German Business Network for North America and Mexico. He is a German Certified Public Accountant and Certified Tax Advisor.

Alexander is the Director of fischerAppelt's New York office. He has an expertise in market entry consulting, international campaign management, and brand strategy. He is also a Young Professional Ambassador for the German-American Chamber of Commerce.