Brian is the CEO and founder of VentureOut, which he launched in 2012 while working at Gotham Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund. He started VentureOut as a vehicle to help bridge the gap between the innovators around the world and the opportunities available to them in the New York and San Francisco technology ecosystems.

Brian is also a proud advocate of the New York City's vibrant technology community, a role he plays as a speaker, a mentor, on the Board of Directors of the NYC Innovation Collective, Founding Member of NYC Tech International, a member of the FWD.us Innovation Council and as the Founder of the Chaminade Alumni Entrepreneurs Association.

Prior to VentureOut, Brian’s career has spanned venture, at Gotham Ventures, consulting, supporting early-stage tech startups in NYC, business development, at OTR Global, and sales, as the youngest institutional salesperson globally at Standard & Poor's. Brian received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Richmond.

Susanne Gellert has been working for the German American Chamber of Commerce, Inc. for more than ten years. She is the Director of the Legal and Business Development Consulting Department. As of January 2018, she holds the position of Vice President.Susanne Gellert has been working for the German American Chamber of Commerce, Inc. for more than ten years. She is the Director of the Legal and Business Development Consulting Department. As of January 2018, she holds the position of Vice President.
The Legal & Consulting Department advises, supports and represents German companies that wish to develop or expand their business activities in the United States by providing market entry services and legal advice and support.
Susanne Gellert studied law at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Universidad de Sevilla (Spain) and Fordham Law School (New York). She is admitted to the bar in Germany and New York

Paul founded Graphite Financial, as an internal service for (nearly 50%) of Venture Capital’s ("ffVC") portfolio of early-stage technology companies since 2008. In 2016, while continuing to serve ffVC's portfolio, Paul oversaw Graphite Financial's transition to operating as an independent company to serve the broader startup community.

He is an expert in helping startups and other young ventures with strategy, financial modeling, fully outsourced or augmented bookkeeping & accounting, tax, compliance and interim CFO work.

Lexie Kier is a Principal Strategist and Founder of AOK Group, a growth consultancy for startups. She advises bold brands and startups on fundraising, customer insights, branding and marketing and often takes on interim leadership roles to help with periods of intense change, entry into new markets, and expansion.

Previously, Lexie founded Cuurio, an index of startups and innovation platform helping bold brands find clarity, context, and connection. ​Cuurio helped a growing number of innovative brands and agencies (including Warner Brother, Johnson & Johnson, L'Oreal, and J. Walter Thompson) to create vibrant native mobile partnerships that activated consumers in new channels.

Josh Rochlin was an early pioneer in the New York Internet venture community, founding MyCalendar.com and serving as its CEO before selling it to Sports Huddle in 2001 (now owned by CBS).

Josh then led business development and strategy at GoAmerica (GOAM), the first wireless internet service provider (now Purple Communications). Prior to IBM's acquisition of Xtify, josh served as its founding CEO.

Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Josh practiced law at international law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf, LLP. Josh serves on the board of directors of AVTV Networks and has previously served on the boards of Al Ahram Beverages and Hydron Technologies.

Luke is an investor and advisor for early stage ventures, PE and corporate media clients. Luke was formerly the market lead for McKinsey’s Fast Growth Tech practice serving consumer clients on a variety of growth and operational strategies. As an Engagement Manager he has experience leading digital strategy and transformation projects for consumer finance, media and telecom clients.

Prior to McKinsey, Luke ran the digital media division of a Hollywood literary agency, consulting on digital video content, organization and advertising strategy for publishers and television networks in addition to representing IP for film/TV. Luke is a Feldberg Fellow of Columbia Business School and a Scholar of Merton College, Oxford.

Edwin is the Director of Growth at Ladder.io, a growth technology and services agency that uses proprietary technology and data-driven strategy to increase your ROI.

Edwin grows businesses with impactful analysis + tech-infused creativity, as an ROI-Driven Growth Strategy Architect and Director, Transforming Performance Marketing Into Systemized Solutions/Processes.

Charles Smith has been an active NY angel investor since the mid2000s who has invested in more than a dozen companies, and has worked for and sat on the boards of ten more. He founded Extension Entertainment, a social music discovery platform. He is the owner of The Ineo Group LLC. Charles spent three years as the Vice President of Etsy Inc., was Vice President of Sales at Tacoda and Executive Vice President of Corporate Development and Planning at RealMedia.

Matt Listro brings extensive experience in business development and sales. Prior to founding Harbinger, he helped build the business development and strategy team at Crowdtap, a venture-backed brand content platform that’s consistently recognized by Inc., Fortune, and others as one of the fastest growing firms in America. Matt brought on and managed partnerships with 50+ top brands including GE, J&J, P&G, Sony Pictures, and Kraft.
Prior to Crowdtap, he managed business development initiatives for MAXIMUS, a publicly-traded program management and consulting firm, helping MAXIMUS expand into Europe. Matt also teaches at General Assembly. He graduated from Brown University and Columbia Business School with Dean’s Honors.

As a startup founder with multiple exits, He thinks there are a lot of things broken with the way that entrepreneurs approach sales and marketing in today’s complex market. His team’s focus in 2018 is to make sure they can help as many people as they can scale their businesses without running out of money. He has knowledge of various fields that is helpful for startups and also can provide insight into many areas such as Team Building & Strategic Planning, Corporate Innovation & Partnerships, Growth Hacking & Lead Generation, Marketing & Community Engagement, Seed & Venture Capital, Emerging Trends & Digital Technology.

Marcos Dinnerstein is Executive Council Member at NYVC

After being an editor at Digital.com, Marcos is now an Executive Council Member at New York Venture Council, with experience at establishing processes and continually improving them. He is an effective Product Management team member, possessing a ‘Figure it out and get it done’ attitude. New York Venture Council members are leading NYC-area venture capitalists, family offices, angels, entrepreneurs, universities, media and professional advisors, all dedicated to increasing deal flow and ecosystem cooperation in the world's financial capital.

Maximilian is co-founder at Kisi, which develops cloud technology to build secure access control systems that use a combination of sensors and mobile devices to grant facility access to authorized personnel. Designed for commercial and enterprise applications, the Kisi system provides an added layer of intelligence and enhanced experience at all access points of the facility. Since 2012, Kisi has been installed in hundreds of modern offices, campuses, data centers, and high-traffic.

Chris Errico is Co-Chair of the firm's US Startup Program and member of the Venture Technology and Emerging Growth Companies practice at Dentons. Chris is actively engaged in a diverse corporate practice, working with a wide range of fast-growing technology, software, digital media and life science companies at every stage of their development.

Chris regularly counsels emerging growth companies on transactional matters, including venture capital, seed/angel financings; public and private offerings; asset and stock acquisitions; debt financings and mergers and acquisitions. Chris also advises his clients on a daily basis regarding complex securities matters, corporate governance matters, joint ventures, strategic transactions, and general legal issues.

Joel is a leading technology attorney working with fortune 500, emerging growth and venture-backed companies, universities, and entrepreneurs. He assists companies with technology transactions, patent litigation, and patent prosecution. Mr. Bock also assists life sciences companies with licensing and development agreements and patent prosecution. He also assists clients with Intellectual Property strategy, including open source issues, trademark prosecution and copyright protection and enforcement issues.

Growing up in Berlin, Germany, he was surrounded by graffiti, artists and a vibrant community of creatives in general. Starting out as a paid graffiti artist and product designer, he got to earn his first money while learning basic business skills that still serve him today. In 2014, he found a way to not only link his interests in design and business, but to also combine the virtual and the real world. MyPostcard was born. A physical product, created in a virtual sphere – accessible to everyone, everywhere at any time. A way to bring joy to people all over the globe and – most importantly – give them the opportunity to make a true connection in a modern world, that seemed to make everyone feel more detached than ever before.

The German Accelerator supports German tech startups to enter the U.S. market, accelerate their growth and to develop into internationally recognized and successful ventures. Select startups participate in a three to six month accelerator program in Silicon Valley or New York. We are always looking for qualified and dedicated mentors to help our startups achieve success! If you're interested in mentoring with GA, please send me a message.

Ihar is an Engineering Manager at Facebook and Angel Investor at Empire Angels.

As an Engineering Manager at Facebook, he manages a team building a Facebook Local Discovery product, that helps Facebook users to find great local businesses, has overseen the launch of the "Local" bookmark in Facebook iOS & Android apps - which made the Facebook app one of the best tools to discover places nearby, and facilitated the launch of food ordering utility on the Facebook iOS & Android apps. 

As an Angel Investor at Empire Angels, for the last 6 years Ihar has invested in early stage startups that solve old problems in new ways and has an investment portfolio that includes companies such as Instacart, and Meldium and Screenhero which were both acquired.

Irene worked with more than 150 German startups in the past 3 years on their US market entry strategy and runs the STEP Program in New York – a 5 day intensive business program for German startups to explore and experience New York’s tech scene, meet potential business partners, clients and investors. Before working for the German American Chamber of Commerce she worked for a startup herself, helping the founders to set up the office, enter the US market and to grow the company from 2 to 40 people in 2 years. After finishing her studies in business economics and multiple stays abroad in Sydney, Madrid and Los Angeles she worked as project manager for a leading hidden champion in Germany highly involved in international projects involving 46 subsidiaries and topics as transfer pricing, M&A, CRM and sales.

Lisa is the Founder and CEO of AccentC3. At AccentC3 the accent is on communication with their desired audience, clarity in their speech, and confidence communicating in a new cultural landscape. They have worked with people in several industries, from technology to finance, "big law" and healthcare. They also work with a global clientele from countries such as Brazil, Russia, China, France, and Italy.

Lisa also has a lot of experience in this field. She graduated from The University of Cambridge with an ESOL Certificate in English Teaching to Adults. Lisa has been a Speech and Language Pathologist for many companies, even as an independent consultant.

Logan is a driven professional with majors of finance and international business with a certificate in international bank management. She is Currently leveraging skills from business education to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors. She is Co-Founder & Co-CEO of KUDZOO, an app that connects brands with Gen. Z through an educational lens. KUDZOO works with students, schools, and businesses to improve student engagement in & out of the classroom.

Ramphis focuses on very early stage of science investing. (AIroboticssynBiomedtechdiagnosticsetc) He syndicates some of our closing deals through www.sciencevest.com/weekly_deal.

He is the co-founder of ScienceVest (YC F3)a fund and platform for hard-tech and life science companies and Impact Science Angels an angel group focused on investing in companies that can impact 1MM+ lives. He is a Kauffman Fellow and co-Chair the NYC chapter of the Society. As a Fellow, he focused his research on the funding gaps for radical science companies in the U.S.collecting interviews of over 200 stakeholders across the research & commercialization ecosystem in the U.S.

Andy is the Director of Operations for NY Tech Alliance (formerly NY Tech Meetup), a non-profit organization that runs the largest Meetup group in the world with over 55000 members and a mission to build a more sustainable and diverse technology industry for all New Yorkers.

Overall, justice and diversity is a huge passion for him and he is a clear advocates for the importance of diversity in the tech community and business culture.

A specialist in storytelling across platforms, Lars has covered Artificial Intelligence, the future of HR and data-driven innovation for years as a writer and television reporter before taking his skills to stage as moderator and keynote-speaker. At Work Awesome, Lars curates the Awesome conferences in Europe and produces tailor-made innovation journeys, in-house events and workshops. He has moderated and curated conferences for WIRED, Telefonica, ADC and many others. In 2017, Lars got married twice on two continents – to the same woman.

Eric Wollberg is the Business Development at Gnowbe

Prior to Gnowbe, Eric was Director of Business Development at VentureOut, Eric sourced the world-class startups that populate our programs. Additionally, he helped develop and run our accelerators, so that our participants have a flawless and fruitful experience.

Eric was also an Israel Government Fellow, working at the Israel Innovation Authority. There he helped bring companies totaling $1.5 trillion in market capitalization to engage with Israeli startups. Eric studied innovation economics at Sogang University and graduated with a degree in economics from New York State’s Public Honors College at Geneseo.

Christopher is a Senior Manager for the German American Chamber of Commerce. At 120 locations in 80 countries around the world, the German Chamber Network (AHK) offers experience, connections, and services to German and foreign companies. The service portfolio of the AHKs was unified worldwide under the brand name DEinternational. DEinternational simplifies the international comparison of the different AHK services, especially for medium-sized companies.

Before working with the GACC, Christopher worked with the French-American Chamber of Commerce in New York. He also graduated from St. Joseph's with an M.B.A.

Scott Galea is an entrepreneur with a passion for helping people with good ideas connect with the resources that they need to achieve their goals.

A chance conversation on a bus while he was a backpacker in his early 20’s inspired him to go into the business world. He continues to be fascinated by how an interconnected world has changed peoples’ lives. More recently, He became interested in harnessing the power of technology to build community.

He spent 12 years working in financial services before career transformation in technology. He is currently with SpringML - a Google and Salesforce partner helping bring machine learning to the enterprise. At SpringML, he is privileged to have the opportunity every day to leverage great technology and diverse experience to help his clients tackle their toughest data analytics and machine learning challenges.

Sumay Parikh has experience in distressed business turn around, marketing, strategic partnerships, product development, and operations. Previously, Sumay bootstrapped a Real Estate Investment Fund in the Midwest, constructing High-End hotels. He has experience leading strategy and growth at several velocity stage startups. He is also the host of The Unsexy Startup podcast.

Mitchell Kleinhandler is a Venture Partner and Advisor at Scout Ventures, LLC, an early stage technology venture capital fund located in New York City. He is also an investor, advisor, and consultant to startups and has extensive expertise in the financing, development, and management of early stage and growth companies across diverse industry verticals.
Prior to Scout Mitchell was a serial entrepreneur with a record of success as a founding partner and senior level executive of numerous startup and growth businesses in both the United States and Europe.

His expertise extends also to acquisitions, financing, management, marketing, consolidation, restructuring, integration, reorganization, and the sale of existing operating businesses. His primary focus remains in subscription-based recurring revenue business models, building off of an expertise in the telecom, media, and digital sectors.

For 25 years, he was the founder and chief executive of several cable television companies in New York, New Jersey, Indiana, Michigan, West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, Wisconsin, and California, two of which ranked amongst the largest suburban cable systems in the United States.

Experienced Chief Investment Officer and builder of large and successful asset management businesses. Demonstrated record of thought leadership, innovation, and forging teams to serve high net-worth, retail, and large institutional clients. Angel Investor, Advisor and Mentor for early stage companies which apply Artificial Intelligence, Machine/Deep Learning, Big Data, and other enabling technologies to solve real problems. Passionate about engineering better outcomes for investors by combining a strategic vision about what’s possible with a pragmatic understanding of what’s feasible.