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Jon has been advising and investing in emerging growth software, media and ad tech companies for more than 20 years. He is currently MD at Madison Park Group, an investment banking firm he co-founded in 2004.  Jon was co-founder of GlobalNet Partners, where he invested in several early stage companies, including Medidata, OnlineBenefits and FanBuzz.

FinTech and MarTech Investor at Edison Partners. Previously at BFS Capital, CFS2, Sevin Rosen, and The Oklahoma Life Science Fund. Both sides of the table; helped raise ~$15M in venture capital as an operator and deployed more than $25M as an investor.

Ryan Armbrust is a Managing Director at ff Venture Capital. In this role he focuses on investment opportunities across a range of emerging industries, including UAVs, machine learning, and broader consumer technologies. Ryan has experience providing targeted growth guidance to ffVC investments including Plated, GoSkip, Wade & Wendy, Adcade, and Top Flight Technologies. Prior to joining ffVC, Ryan spent seven years at Columbia Technology Ventures, where he commercialized the early-stage technology developed within the research labs of Columbia University.

Martijn Atell is a free thinking adventurer, an Amazon Jungle survivor who believes in diversity and being resilient. He has over 13 years of experience in software tech and global business. His strengths are multilingual communication, creating compelling pitches, business modeling and branding. Martijn has been advising several start-ups and went through multiple accelerator programs himself. He currently is the CEO and founder of VoteBash.com, a new space of engagement and an emerging global digital marketing research platform that provides brands, businesses and organizations real-time feedback and it creates, through social media, viral brand ambassadors out of voters who can be re-targeted with future advertising based out of their own opinions. With VoteBash, Martijn has won the Red Herring Top 100 North America Award, the Collision ALPHA 2016 listing, and the Collision PITCH Top Startup 2016 listing. VoteBash is now on the shortlist of Red Herring’s Top 100 Global upcoming tech companies and has been selected as a 2016 Web Summit BETA in Lisbon. Prior to VoteBash, Martijn was at the BMW Group where he held operational and executive roles in Germany, the United States and the Netherlands for MINI, BMW and Rolls Royce projects, such as business process improvements or alignments, organizational developments, quality management, process planning and development of worldwide production systems for all BMW vehicle product lines. Before that Martijn interned for a data security software start-up in Silicon Valley. Martijn is a citizen of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and holds a Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Degree with honors from Rotterdam University.

Marc Baskin, a Finance & Operations professional currently consulting as Digikist Strategy, has been working in web/mobile technology and digital media companies since 1999. Previously Marc co-founded inControl Ads which allowed users to control their digital experience by replacing ads with their preferences. Since 1999, he has helped several startups grow from a handful of people through M&A exits to public companies, including to About.com and Buy.com. Before the first Internet Bubble of the late 90s, Marc started his career as a CPA in NJ and as an investment analyst for Prudential Real Estate Investors.

Greg is the founder and CEO of CultureIQ. He is also an Adjunct Professor at NYU Stern School of Business. Prior to launching CultureIQ, Greg was the CFO of SecondMarket and the founder and CEO of Computershare Executive Services (formerly known as Restricted Stock Systems, Inc.). During his tenure as CEO of RSS, Greg was named the EY 2003 Entrepreneur of the Year in New Jersey. Greg is an investor and Board member for numerous companies. Of note, he was an active investor and consultant for Zappos.com until the company’s sale to Amazon.com.

Jay has over 20 years of experience building and managing Internet businesses and brings broad consumer and tech expertise to his portfolio companies at BrandProject and Connected Jersey.  Prior to his venture career, Jay was the co-founder of spock.com, the world’s leading people search engine. In 6 short months after launch, it became one of the top 1000 sites on the Internet and was covered by publications including The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, Forbes, Newsweek, ABC News, NBC, and the Financial Times. Spock was sold in May of 2009 at which time it was generating over 50 million monthly searches. Prior to Spock, Jay was a product manager at Microsoft, managing Global server marketing and service support. Earlier in his career, while at Accenture, Jay built trading systems for the major trading firms on Wall Street. Most recently, Jay has recently been angel investing, advising startups in New York City and working with large retailers to develop their e-commerce strategies and plans. Jay has an MBA from the Wharton School and an Engineering Degree with highest honors from Rutgers University.

Entrepreneurship Director at MSU; Telecom Executive; Making & Innovating for X (MIX Lab); Evangelist for Design Thinking; Technology Executive Coach.

Skip has over 30 years of experience, primarily providing professional services to both public and private companies of all sizes as well as significant IPO and private financing experience. Skip has been involved in hundreds of public company filings with the SEC. He is the local assurance leader of Deloitte's Growth Enterprise Services practice and Deloitte's New Jersey leader of venture capital practice with extensive technology, life science, cleantech, manufacturing and services experience.

Lou Bucelli has thirty-five years experience launching high growth businesses. He is managing partner in LimeBox Networks, VoIP software developer.

He is consultant to Temple University’s Blackstone LaunchPad— a co-curricular, experiential, campus program designed to introduce entrepreneurship as a viable career path, and served as Entrepreneur-in-Residence to the Science Center, and Drexel University’s ACIN Camden Center—America’s first business accelerator dedicated to serving the Department of Defense

Bucelli lectures internationally on entrepreneurship. He is a mentor in the National Science Foundation, I-Corp—Lean Startup.

Bucelli was CEO of CMECourses.com — an e-commerce continuing medical education site, which was later acquired by a publicly traded company.

He served as President/CEO of CME Information Services, a company he co-founded. CME was a high growth, distance medical education company that partnered with Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, UCLA, and Harvard, among others leading medical institutions, and was ranked on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growth companies, Philly Top 100, and E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year.

Bucelli has an MBA, Drexel University; attended U of Penn, and Temple University, and is a Board Member of the National Aerospace Training and Research Center (NASTAR) Foundation.

Alex is a CPA and partner with CohnReznick.  With more than 25 years of experience, Alex serves as CohnReznick’s National Technology and Life Sciences Industry Practice Leader.  Additionally, he is Co-Leader of the Firm’s National Liquidity and Capital Formation Advisory Group and a member of the Firm’s Public Companies Group.  

Meir Cohen is the Co-Founder and President of TelTech Systems, Inc. Meir leads the business and operating strategies, and oversees daily operations of the company. Meir has over eight years of telecom experience, with a focus on product and business development, strategic marketing, and operations. Meir leads TelTech with an intense focus on building a culture of innovation throughout the team and is passionate about privacy, telecom and cloud-based disruptive technologies. Meir also co-founded TelAPI, Inc., which he also co-founded and was acquired by a leading provider of business communication solutions. Before co-founding TelTech, Meir was a professional locksmith. When a customer made a habit of not picking up his calls, TelTech’s first hit product, SpoofCard, was born.

Seth Cohen is the Managing Partner of Eleven Canterbury, an advisory firm that offers clients access to recently retired or in between C-Suite executives and seasoned professionals on a project basis. Prior to founding Eleven Canterbury in 2009, Seth was a member of the Group Managing Board at UBS AG. Seth holds a BA in Economics from Brandeis University.

Devin Dixon is a technologist and a serial entrepreneur. In 8th grade, he taught himself how to program in C++, started his first business while in college, and majored with a computer science and business degree. Today Devin is the CEO and Founder of Sprout Connections, a social lead generation platform. While pioneering his own business, he likes to help many other entrepreneurs with their technical needs and give back to the community that has supported him. Outside of business, Devin is an avid runner. After running D1 Track in College, he loves to compete in Spartan Races and Tough Mudders. He also likes to watch Anime and read Japanese Mangas.

Cofounder of Vi Collaboration Hubs and a Marketing and Sales Account Manager at Wisdom+Craft, a UX Marketing and Design Consultancy. Sean is involved in New Business Strategy+Development in both companies. His goal is to help open doors for entrepreneurs and startups to connect through promotion of collaboration and the sharing of ideas. He is a Rider University Alumni, and a former NCAA Division I Cross Country and Track and Field athlete. He was recognized every year of his undergraduate studies by the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference for both his performances in sport and the classroom.

Partner at McCarter & English, LLP.  Joe's practice includes all areas of transactional and securities law, with particular emphasis on representing early stage and emerging growth tech and tech-enabled companies and the investors who support them. Joe counsels clients on a diverse range of corporate matters, including entity formation, venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance. Joe has been recognized as one of New Jersey's Rising Stars, an honor that recognizes the top up-and-coming attorneys in the state.

Eli Finkelman is the Co-Founder and CTO of TelTech Systems, Inc. Eli is responsible for the technical direction and development of the company’s products and services. Eli has over a decade of experience in software and web development technology, and drives the engineering efforts at TelTech. Eli also co-founded TelAPI, Inc., which was acquired by a leading provider of business communication solutions. Eli leads the TelTech team in efforts to find new and innovative ways for people to maintain their mobile privacy, leverage the power of telecom, and use cloud-based services in their daily communications.

Named one of the “25 Angel Investors in New York You Need to Know” by AlleyWatch, Jeff has been a venture investor for ten years, an angel investor for five years, and an operating executive for 18 years. Jeff presently serves as Chairman of the Evaluation Committee and Treasurer of the ARC Angel Fund and is Co-Director of the Reitler Advisory Group , which provides mentoring and advisory services to early stage technology companies and venture fund administration services to general partners of micro VC funds. Jeff also served as Chairman of Servicechannel.com until its acquisition by Bayard Capital in July 2014. He is a frequent panelist, speaker, and judge on venture investing and pitch competitions in NY. Jeff also guest lectures and holds office hours for many incubators/accelerators including Start Up Leadership Program, 37 Angels, NYU Polytech Incubator (New York City and Brooklyn), DreamIT Ventures, and FashInvest and now entreprenYOURS. Prior to his work with Angel and Seed groups, Jeff was a Partner of Odeon Capital Partners, an early stage venture capital fund. Prior to Odeon, Jeff was an operating executive at CA, Inc., and Cheyenne Software, Inc., where he served as GM of the Unix Division, VP of Corporate Development, VP of Corporate Marketing, and Director of Product Management. Jeff also serves as Chairman of the Board of Promoting Specialized Care and Health (PSCH), a not-for-profit offering residential, clinical, and day programs to 9,000 individuals with developmental, psychological, and behavioral disabilities in NYC’s five boroughs and Long Island.

Katie Frankel joined ff Venture Capital in March of 2010, and serves as ffVC’s Director of Community. In this role, Katie is responsible for facilitating relationships among the ffVC portfolio community, along with also overseeing the firm’s social media, special events, and ad-hoc projects.

Prior to joining ffVC, Katie worked at Quigo Technologies, AOL, and founded The Trifecta Platform. Katie holds a BA in History from Quinnipiac University.

Elizabeth Gearhart, a patent agent with Gearhart Law, focuses her practice on patent prosecution, including drafting and prosecuting patents in the areas of green technologies, chemistry, mechanical, and consumer products. Having gone through the invention process herself, receiving a patent and having had her own company, Elizabeth understands what you’re going through. Applying for the patent is one of the first steps in the long road of successful entrepreneurship. Elizabeth has spent the last few years honing her patent drafting and prosecution skills, working to draft patents for the USPTO and drafting arguments that the USPTO examiners accept and that have resulted in the issuance of patents for clients.

Richard Gearhart is the founder of Gearhart Law, a boutique Intellectual Property firm specializing in domestic and international patent, trademark and copyright law.  Richard commands a breadth of experience that comes from twenty-five years of practice in all aspects of IP Law, both proviate and corporate. Richard started his practice in 2006 to provide IP services to entrepreneurs and start-ups while also working with his larger corporate clients. Prior to forming Gearhart Law, Richard was the Head of the U.S. area Patent and Trademark group for Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation.

Lindsey Gray is the Senior Director of the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute, where she advises startups and develops and manages entrepreneurship programs to educate, accelerate, connect, and fund entrepreneurs across NYU. Lindsey is also a member of the Teaching Team for the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program. Prior to joining NYU, Lindsey worked for Innosight, an innovation firm founded by Clayton Christensen where she worked with Fortune 100 companies to help them identify strategic growth opportunities and build and invest in new businesses. She has worked with companies across a wide range of industries, and has helped clients establish a number of new high growth ventures.

Before joining Innosight, Lindsey was a Director for the marketing analytics consulting firm, Kantar Retail, where she helped develop and sell new technology solutions for the consumer packaged goods industry. Lindsey also worked at CVS /Caremark in the pharmacy retailer’s strategic product development group. Lindsey received a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude from Connecticut College.

Daniel J. Gross is an intellectual property attorney at Myers Wolin. He brings experience from his work as in-house counsel at a financial startup, where he built and maintained patent and trademark portfolios. He has also worked with a wide variety of clients to develop patent and trademark strategies for diverse technologies. Daniel’s engineering background and wide variety of legal experience give him a unique perspective on the technical and strategic aspects of invention and innovation.

Jim has 20+ years experience investing in the NJ region as venture capitalist. He co-founded and leads the NJTC Venture Fund.  Earlier, he lived and worked in the Silicon Valley.

Matt Hornbuckle is the founder and CEO of Stantt, which uses body-scan data to create men's shirts for every body type. With 50 different sizes modeled after body scans, Stantt provides a quicker and more cost-effective alternative to custom-tailored clothing.

Jason (Jay) is a co-founder of the Brooklyn Tech Meetup and a Mobile Product Manager at Harry's. He has created EdTech apps that earned App Store Best of 2014 & 2015 awards and built multiple startup teams from the ground up.

Bob Johnston is executive director of the New York Venture Capital Association, which promotes innovation, job growth and economic development in the greater New York region. He also is founder & CEO of the Executive Council. Most recently, Bob served as co-Founder and CEO of SponsorHub, a SaaS marketing platform that provides advertisers with precise metrics for their big ticket sports and entertainment partnerships. SponsorHub was acquired by comScore in 2015. Bob also worked at Apple for seven years in various sales and marketing roles. Johnston serves on the advisory board of American Express OPEN, the Business Council for the United Nations (BCUN) and the Robert F. Kennedy Center. 

Justin Kamine is managing member of Kamine Development Corporation and has been at the forefront of sustainable technologies.  Justin is a member of the CREO – Cleantech Syndicate which is comprised of 12 family offices focused on deploying over $1 billion into sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, and energy efficiency technologies.  Currently, Justin is on the Board of California Safe Soil, a patented food waste conversion company; advisor to LoliWare (as seen on Shark Tank), the world’s first 100% biodegradable and edible material; and advisor to ZabCab, a unique patented transportation app, plus other ventures such as KDC Solar, Aerofarms and Emogi.  

An event sales and sponsorship expert; Andrew has experience coordinating event marketing activations for businesses of all sizes. Working most recently at Reed Exhibitions, the world’s largest trade-show and event organizer.

Andrew now oversees sales and partnerships at Sprout Connections - a social lead generation platform.

Andrew especially enjoys helping businesses connect with their audience via podcasts and other intimate communication channels.

An innovative and intrapreneurial mindset have made him a firm believer and advocate of The Lean Startup Methodology: BUILD-MEASURE-LEARN (repeat!).

Alex Katz is a partner and the Chief Financial Officer at ff Venture Capital one of the most active early stage venture funds in New York. He has been working with seed-, early-stage and growth companies for over 30 years. Alex also manages the firm's Finance Acceleration Suite, which provides ff Venture Capital's portfolio companies with a broad range of financial services, including: management reporting; FP&A services; annual tax and financial reporting; payroll; general ledger; accounts payable/expenses tracking; and accounts receivable/revenue tracking.

Jared Kleinert is an Entrepreneur, TED and keynote speaker, and award-winning author who’s become sought after for his work identifying and connecting hundreds of the world's smartest and most talented members of his generation. His book 2 Billion Under 20 was voted the #1 entrepreneurship and small business book of 2015 and he's become a go-to marketing and business development consultant, working with everyone from the United Nations to the World Future Society, various Fortune 500s, New York Times bestselling authors, Forbes 30 Under 30 honorees, and others. Check out his free #MillennialToWatch newsletter at jaredkleinert.com/millennialtowatch or say hi at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Jay runs Theorem, a digital marketing services company and ooluroo, a technology startup that bridges the digital physical divide using a combination of IoT, software and media. He started at DoubleClick, building their technology products. He is active in mentoring organizations for the social good, students, and is an angel investor. 

Bernie is an accounting and consulting partner in WithumSmith+Brown’s New York City and Morristown, NJ, offices. He is a CPA with over 35 years of experience working with a diverse group of entrepreneurial companies, CEOs and business owners in a broad range of industries. Bernie has provided these companies and their owners with assistance on such matters as strategic and transaction advice, financing, cost control, productivity and profitability improvement, management succession and IPOs.

Andrew Levine is an entrepreneurial executive with extensive operating experience building and running profitable businesses in the financial and securities industries. He has held senior management positions in the U.S. and abroad and received a patent for ADR DIRECT®, a conversion trading platform he created to address trading limitations in the marketplace. Mr.Levine is the Chief Revenue Officer at SpeedRoute and t0,majority owned subsidiaries of Overstock.com. SpeedRoute is a technology leader in US equity order routing for broker dealers and t0 is a Fintech startup focused on blockchain technology. Mr. Levine leads strategic relationships and new product development across capital markets and the vendor community with an emphasis in developing trade and settlement efficiencies in the pre-ipo and private issuer marketplace.Prior to joining Overstock.com, Mr. Levine was Managing Director and CEO of American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) and part of the Executive Management team at Convergex, a global institutional agency brokerage firm with 3,000 clients and access to 100 global markets. Mr. Levine was responsible for managing all aspects of Convergex’s ADR business and his leadership positions included the Company’s Executive, New Product and 401K Committees.

David Matlin is a corporate attorney at McCarter & English, LLP, and a member of the Venture Capital and Emerging Companies Practice.

Justin is a CPA and Manager with CohnReznick.  He is a member of CohnReznick’s Technology and Life Sciences Industry Practice with 10 years of diversified public accounting and tax experience.

Marc McCabe is an Executive Director in Crystal & Company’s National Sales & Marketing team. Crystal & Company is a leading strategic risk and insurance advisor, addressing clients’ risk management, insurance brokerage, and employee benefits consulting needs. Marc has over 30 years of experience in the insurance industry with a focus on venture capital for technology and emerging growth companies and private equity M&A.  Prior to joining Crystal & Company, Marc served as a Senior Vice President and Global Account Executive leader at Aon Risk Solutions in the financial services and general industry group. Marc also held a senior role as Managing Director of the AIG/Nasdaq joint venture that provided D&O, E&O, and Cyber insurance solutions for the Nasdaq IPO’s and publicly traded issuers prior to the Aon acquisition of his Nasdaq insurance team.  Throughout his career, Marc’s responsibilities have included senior management relationships with clients and facilitating engagements between his clients and the insurance companies. He is adept at managing teams and resources that effect best practices, risk management strategies, and stewardship planning.  Marc received his Bachelor of Science from Seton Hall University in Economics and is a member in good standing of ‘The Society of Certified Insurance Counselors’ where he holds the CIC designation.

Asael is a CPA and partner with CohnReznick.  He has over 15 years of experience and leads CohnReznick’s Technology and Life Sciences Industry Practice in the Firm’s New York offices.  

Brian is a CPA and Senior Manager with CohnReznick.  He is a member of CohnReznick’s Technology and Life Sciences Industry Practice with over 10 years of diversified accounting experience. He is responsible for overseeing all stages of the audit process.

Simeon Nestorov is a Managing Partner of Connected Venture Capital, a hybrid equity and venture debt fund focused on investing in high growth early stage companies in the technology and consumer space. Previously, Mr. Nestorov oversaw assets under management in excess of $5 billion, consisting of loans and leveraged credit exposures across a wide variety of lending and corporate structures. Mr. Nestorov was a member of the UBS Leveraged Finance team in New York and Morgan Stanley’s Corporate Finance and Technology team in Los Angeles, and over his 20+ year career in finance has helped originate and/or underwrite leveraged and corporate credit exposure in excess of $30 billion.

Mr. Nestorov holds an MBA degree with High Distinction from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and is a Fellow of the Henry Kravis Leadership Institute.

Award winning International Entrepreneur, keynote speaker, avid runner, philosopher and chief motivator. Starting as European Controller in 1998, Simon worked his way up to become Chairman and CEO of Wayside Technology Group, Inc. in 2006.  Prior to that worked at Ernst & Young in Amsterdam. Mr. Nynens is former Chairman of the Board of the New Jersey Technology Council (NJTC), and former chair of the New Jersey Chapter of the Young Presidents Organization. Mr. Nynens received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2011 New Jersey Award in the Technology Services category and is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Bob Olanoff is a senior executive at an emerging technology company.  Previously, he was the CFO of Systech International from 2008 to 2013. Bob served as a financial consultant during 2006 and 2007 and since 2013. From 1983 through 2005, he was the Chief Financial Officer of a number of software and IT service companies. Most notably in that period, he was the CFO of Intelligroup, Inc., computer consulting and system integration services provider, quarterbacking its 1996 IPO, and the CFO of Beechwood Data Systems, Inc., a provider of software solutions and services to the telecommunications industry, handling its 1999 salw to Cap Gemini.  Prior to that, he was in public accounting. He also has served on the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Technology Council was an inductee of the NJTC CFO Hall of Fame.  

Greg Olsen was the 3rd private citizen to travel to the International Space Station. Greg is now president of GHO Ventures in Princeton, NJ, an “angel” investments firm.  He received his BS Physics (1966), BSEE and MS Physics (1968) from Fairleigh Dickinson University, then was awarded a Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of Virginia (1971).  Greg founded EPITAXX, a fiber-optic detector manufacturer in 1984 and it was sold in 1990 for $12 million.  He then founded Sensors Unlimited, a near-infrared camera manufacturer in 1992 with Marshall Cohen.  Sensors was sold to Finisar Corp. for $600 million in 2000, repurchased by the management team in 2002 for $6 million, and then sold again to Goodrich, Corp. in 2005 for $60 million.

Katherine is the Executive Director and investor with JumpStart New Jersey Angel Network, a member led angel investor group that invests in early stage high growth companies in the Mid-Atlantic region, and an investor in technology businesses.  She currently serves on the Board of the Angel Capital Association, the national organization representing angel investor groups in North America.

Chris Pallé, Founder and Lead UX Strategist at Wisdom + Craft, with over 19 years of strategic, creative, and analytical User Experiencerelated practice. He has served in a variety of institutions ranging from small boutiques and startups to enterprise such as Merck, McGrawHill, EMC, Merrill Lynch, CBS, TribalDDB, and GeometryGlobal – he gets the Bootstrappers and The Powers the Be. Chris also founded Vi Collaboration Hubs, as a coworkingincubation space focused on teaching and mentoring members on incorporating design disciplines into their business models. His goal is to drive collaboration and alignment between crossfunctional teams to extract, explore, and create innovative solutions for clients’ toughest Customer Experience problems. In addition to his UX work, Chris lectures and mentors on UX best practices, strategic design, and content strategy to groups including MediaBistro.com , NYU, General Assembly, and as an adjunct professor at Parsons The New School for Design.

Chip Parmele is a Limited Partner in six venture capital Limited Partnerships and a strategic insurance advisor to approximately fifty others. He is a mentor to the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator and a Charter Member of the Indus Entrepreneurs, a global network of entrepreneurs and professionals established to foster entrepreneurship.  He also is a Founder of teq.Konnect, an invitation only networking group for technology companies in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Jim Parmele has been in the employee benefits consulting business for over thirty years, working with Information Technology and Life Science companies in a variety of capacities. A Limited Partner in six Venture Capital Funds, he is a mentor to the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator in New York City.  Additionally, he is a Charter Member of the New Jersey Technology Council, the Indus Entrepreneurs, and a cofounder of teq.Konnect, an invitation only peer networking group for technology companies, angel investors and venture capitalists in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Jigar is a VP in Silicon Valley Bank's early-stage banking group in NYC, where he helps entrepreneurs with advice and resources necessary to grow their businesses and raise capital. Prior to SVB, he spent two years founding a fitness technology startup and a financial recruiting platform while pursuing his MBA at Columbia Business School. At CBS, he was the President of the Columbia Entrepreneurs Organization (CEO) and interned at AOL Ventures and NYC Seed as a VC associate. He spent the previous 5 years developing and managing technology products for several Department of Defense and Intelligence agencies. Jigar also holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from University of Akron.

Kevin is a Partner with BDO USA LLP and is a member of the Firm’s Technology Practice.  Kevin is an audit partner and performs audits of public and private companies and assists them with the financial and operational aspects of their business. He helps clients obtain sources of capital and provides merger and acquisitions, and strategic alliance analysis. Kevin has industry expertise in numerous sectors including technology, private equity and venture capital, life sciences, manufacturing and distribution, professional services, and financial services.  Kevin has extensive experience in working with private equity and venture capital entities at the Fund level and the portfolio company level.  He is an Angel investor with the Angel Round Capital Fund and a member of the Executive Committee.

CEO & Co-Founder Phone.com Inc., an expansion stage, venture capital-backed company committed to the SoHo (small office, home office) marketplace, providing large company telecommunications services to entrepreneurial companies.  Ari is a Board Member of the NJ Tech Council and serves as a mentor to numerous startups. Ari received his MBA from Carnegie Mellon as well as law and economics degrees from Tel Aviv University.

Ravi is a CPA and partner with CohnReznick.  He has over 20 years of experience and leads the efforts of CohnReznick’s Technology and Life Sciences Industry Practice in their New Jersey offices. 

Frank runs the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute and manages the NYU Innovation Venture Fund, a $20 million venture fund providing seed capital to startups founded by and/or commercializing technologies developed by the students, faculty & researchers at NYU. Previously, Frank co-founded New Venture Partners, a VC fund focused on spinouts based on corporate innovations. Before that he brought new products and technologies to market for Lucent/Bell Labs, Sun Microsystems/JavaSoft and Apple.

Morgan is a General Partner with Milestone Venture Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm. Morgan has worked in the technology industry for over 25 years as an investment banker, corporate development executive and venture capitalist.  Currently, Morgan focuses on cloud technologies, cybersecurity, data analytics and digital healthcare.

Sam Rubenstein is the Founder and President of Panacea Capital Advisors, Inc., a venture capital and strategic advisory firm located in Bethesda, Maryland.  In this capacity, he regularly serves as a strategic advisor, mentor, counselor, coach and confidant for entrepreneurs and senior management as well as a trusted partner to owners and investors.  Mr. Rubenstein has served, and continues to serve, as an investor-sponsored director and as an independent director for dozens of U.S. private businesses.

Mr. Rubenstein has more than 25 years of experience advising financial services companies, investors, entrepreneurs and U.S. middle-market businesses with identifying, structuring, negotiating, documenting and executing M&A and other corporate development transactions, debt and equity financing transactions, strategic alliances and distressed investment transactions.  In total, he has negotiated and managed more than 600 separate financing transactions with an aggregate transaction value exceeding $6 billion.

Prior to forming Panacea Capital Advisors in 2011, Mr. Rubenstein served for more than a decade as a senior executive officer and the general counsel of MCG Capital Corporation, a publicly traded investment company.  During his tenure at MCG Capital, its portfolio grew from about $300 million to nearly $2 billion.  At MCG Capital, Mr. Rubenstein’s responsibilities included structuring, documenting and negotiating financing and fund raising transactions as well as corporate governance matters with respect to MCG Capital and its portfolio of controlled companies.

Joe Rubin is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of FundingPost.com. FundingPost has been introducing entrepreneurs to investors nationwide for 14 years through its Online Venture Exchange, Dealflow Magazine and organizes Venture Capital and Angel Investor Conferences in 23 cities nationwide. Joe has also invested in dozens of seed deals over the past 12 years as an Angel and Fund manager, including Sticky, Inc. (acquired by Splashtop, Inc.), Senscient, appMobi (acquired by Intel), Giftworks (acquired by Frontstream Payments) & CIMA Systems. Joe was an investor and on the advisory board of Offermobi (acquired by Moko.mobi), Human Demand (acquired by Ignition One) and Gozaik (acquired by Monster) and a current advisor and investor in Augmate. Joe spends most of his time working with investors and helping early-stage entrepreneurs, and speaks at events on topics such as early-stage investing, crowdfunding, and pitching to investors; and has spoken at events such as the NYC Economic Development Corporation's Jumpstart and Fasttrac Programs, Early-Stage-East, FashInvest, The Open Source Fashion Conference and Connecticut's CTech. He is a speaker at and sponsor of the UCLA Private Equity Club and Disruptive Technologists in NYC, and a Mentor to Angel Groups such as 37 Angels, TopStone Angels and Accel Foods. 

Joe is also a Co-Founder and General Partner of ARC Angel Fund I & II, a seed tech fund based in NYC, which has invested in over 20 companies, including: Upnext (Acquired by Amazon), Medivo, Sidecar, Careerminds, Kanvas, Moviepass, Benestream, Offermobi and Human Demand. He is a prior board member of the Crowdfund Intermediary Regulatory Advocates (CFIRA) and a founder of FP Angels, a national Angel Investor Group.

Shaune Scutellaro, CPA, is a senior manager at CohnReznick with 11 years of diversified public accounting experience and a member of the Firm’s Technology and Life Sciences Industry Practice and National Tax Practice.  He has a background in corporate, partnership, and individual tax planning and compliance, including multi-state and international companies.  Shaune’s experience working with small start-up entrepreneurs includes setting up accounting methods, standards and procedures, state registration, and employment issues.  Shaune has also worked closely with public entities and large public affiliated corporate groups, providing services that include partnership tax and ASC 740 work. Shaune has a great amount of knowledge and experience in both inbound and outbound international tax issues.  In addition to providing US tax consulting and compliance services for multi-national corporations and partnerships, he has worked on nearly 20 submissions to the IRS Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program, which have included procedures for nonresident US citizens.  His experience includes navigating and interpreting a number of US tax treaties; reporting on foreign investment for US residents; and completing any necessary compliance for US citizens living abroad, US resident aliens, and nonresident aliens with U.S. taxable income and FACTA reporting requirements.

Scott is a Vice President at Silicon Valley Bank’s New York office with a focus on early-stage tech in and around NYC. In life before SVB, Scott was an early hire at two venture backed startups: LevelUp, one of the first mobile-payment platforms, and Hatch.co in the ecommerce space. Scott also teaches at General Assembly, primarily around startup tactics and marketing. He loves meeting great founders and teams who are building amazing products that change industry landscapes. In his spare time you can find him rowing crew, biking, and running. Scott holds a BBA from George Washington University with a concentration in economics and a minor in music.

Paul Silverstein is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of global experience building technology firms. As the current CEO & Founder of Talentrackr, Paul lived in India for 4 years while launching his Global Talent Acquisition Technology Company. Previously he managed a conglomerate of recruitment consultancies in the United States for five years. As an expert in AML (Anti-Money Laundering), Paul addressed the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia in which a white paper was subsequently published.  Lastly he founded, grew and led GTS, one of the pioneer prepaid telecommunication companies in the USA, public on NASDAQ within 3 years of inception while in his 20’s.

Emil Skandul is the Founder and Principal of Capitol Foundry, a design-driven development shop. Capitol Foundry has worked with brands such as Nike and Autodesk as well as with startups, nonprofits, and venture capital firms to design and build high-performance websites and web applications. The firm's area of expertise includes UI/UX for mobile and web, Ruby on Rails development, and Wordpress customization. Emil leads Capitol Foundry as a technical user interface and experience designer. He embraces design as a solution to both experiential and technical challenges. 

Scott Smedresman is an attorney with McCarter & English LLP. He primarily represents early and growth stage technology companies in structuring, formation, financing, intellectual property, licensing, technology and data matters, and exits. In addition, Scott represents clients in disputes regarding technology and IP, both in and out of court.  Scott works with companies through the full technology lifecycle, from structuring early stage companies, closing financings, planning IP strategy, developing and launching products, building customers and scale, acquiring technology assets and ultimately through exit. He is experienced in working with startups as they scale, routinely negotiating customer deals and strategic partnerships on behalf of these companies opposite Fortune 500 companies.

Brian Smiga is the co-founder and operating partner of Alpha Venture Partners, an innovative late-stage venture fund that provides follow-on capital to category-leading technology companies sourced from a national network of early stage venture investors. Brian also serves as an advisor to Pritzker Group Venture Capital, a twenty-year old venture firm that’s made 155 tech investments.

Prior to Alpha Venture Partners, Brian was the CEO and founder of Preclick, (sold to Smilebox), where he developed popular photo software licensed worldwide by HP, 3M, Sandisk, Walmart, Costco, CVS, and Walgreens. Prior to Preclick, Brian was CEO at 3Path, (sold to Cadmus), an Intel and Goldman-Sachs backed early “Dropbox”, and the SVP of Marketing at 1ClickCharge, where his product leadership resulted in a profitable exit to CMGi.

Brian began his career as a developer at Booz & Co, was cofounder and President of both Portfolio Software and Actioneer, co-authored six collaboration software patents and licensed top-rated software to Apple, IBM, Lotus, Microsoft, AOL, 3Com, Acco, Mastercard, and others. Brian received a BA in Liberal Arts from Swarthmore College, and graduated first with a Masters of Philosophy in Literature from Trinity College, University of Dublin, Ireland. Brian is founder and director of TEDxNavesink, the largest TEDx on the east coast, hosted at Monmouth University.

Dave Sorin is a partner at McCarter & English and Chair of its Venture Capital & Emerging Growth Companies practice. He focuses his practice primarily on privately- and publicly-owned startup, early stage, emerging growth, and middle market technology, tech-enabled and life science enterprises, as well as the investors, executives, and boards of directors who support and lead them. Dave has a long track record of successful representation of growth companies, having been repeatedly recognized by well-known periodicals for a unique combination of legal acumen and sound business judgment. He was recognized as a finalist in the EY Entrepreneur of the Year program and as the New York region's leading lawyer in the representation of emerging growth companies by SmartCEO.  Dave brings to bear his broad range of knowledge and experience in counseling enterprises and investors in diverse emerging growth markets, technology industries (including software, information technology, e-commerce, cybersecurity and communications), and life sciences. Many of the companies he represents are well-known names throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.

Jared Sorin is an attorney with McCarter & English. He concentrates his practice on advising entrepreneurial clients from the pre-formation stage through exit (from ideation to IPO) in a broad range of technology-driven industries in the areas of general corporate, transactional and securities law matters. Jared drafts and negotiates documents for, and counsels with respect to, choice of business entity, public and private equity financing transactions, securities law compliance, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, debt financings for private and public companies, business formation, consulting agreements and due diligence on transactional matters.

Lindsay M. Sorin, an attorney with Littler Mendelson, represents founders and employers in all aspects of employment and labor law. She also counsels clients on a broad range of employment law matters, including compliance with federal, state and local laws. Lindsay has particular expertise in advising on the employment law issues unique to tech and tech-enabled enterprises.

Chris Swensen, CPA, supports the financial reporting and technical accounting departments at the rapidly growing coworking space company called WeWork. Chris is the Director of External Reporting. Previously, Chris was a Senior Manager with Deloitte, and specialized in providing audit services to startup companies within technology, SAAS, real estate, and telecommunications industries. He also has significant experience with large multinational corporations and has the knowledge and resources to scale along with emerging growth companies.

Brett is a Managing Director with MentorTech Ventures, a Philadelphia-based VC fund.  MentorTech is a seed- and early-stage fund investing in companies with ties to the University of Pennsylvania ecosystem. Brett was previously a member of the Fund Investments Team at Hamilton Lane Advisors, a fund-of-funds manager and private equity investment consultant. Prior to working for Hamilton Lane, Mr. Topche was an Associate with NJTC Venture Fund, where he focused on investments in early-stage companies in the software, Internet and communications sectors.

Matt Uretsky is an attorney with McCarter & English.  He represents entrepreneurs and early and growth stage companies in a variety of technology-driven industries in general corporate, transactional and securities law matters.  Matt counsels clients with respect to, and drafts and negotiates documents for, choice of business entity and business formation, public and private debt and equity financing transactions, securities law compliance, mergers and acquisitions, and employment and consulting arrangements.  Matt works with clients through the full business lifecycle, from pre-formation through exit event.

Terry Williams is a company builder, serial entrepreneur, investor and venture capitalist. Having led company growth and successful exits, Terry currently is CEO & Co-Founder of ORS Partners, CXP and Managing Partner of NextStage Capital. Terry also is an investor and Strategic Board Advisor in companies such as NetNanny and the Sixers Innovation Lab.

Ziv is an entrepreneur, angel investor and a startup lawyer. Ziv co-founded Monthly Ventures, a seed fund; Startup Socials, a global network of 70k+ entrepreneurs, mentors and investors; and Veritamo, a SaaS platform and marketplace of high-end service providers.