Venture with Grace

Retired Amazon Vice President, LinkedIn Top Voice, 70+ patents; led global teams of 800+, now Executive Coach and course creator focused on helping leaders grow to true executives.

Ron Levin is a Managing Partner and Head of AV Super Angel Partner Program. He has spent his career in a variety of entrepreneurial, leadership, and business development roles. He has been an angel investor and advisor to over a dozen technology startups. Ron was Co-Founder and CEO of TravelPerk, a VC-backed travel management platform that is now a “unicorn” company with thousands of employees and customers across the globe. Prior to TravelPerk, he started the B2B division of Booking.com and before that was a consultant with McKinsey & Co. Ron began his career at Lycos, one of the web’s pioneer search engine and web portals. Ron graduated from Babson College and received his MBA from Harvard Business School. He is the author of the impact-focused Higher Purpose Venture Capital Blog.

David Hornik is a Founding Partner with Lobby Capital. For more than 25 years, David has helped technology entrepreneurs build transformative businesses. Prior to founding Lobby Capital, he spent 20 years as a general partner at August Capital. David invests in a broad range of software companies, including enterprise application, infrastructure, and SaaS businesses (Splunk, Fastly, GitLab), financial technology companies (Bill.com, WePay, PayNearMe), and consumer services (Evite, Ebates, Remix AI).

Vivek Ramaswami is a Partner at Madrona. He joined Madrona in 2022. As part of the Madrona investment team based in California, Vivek partners with ambitious founders across enterprise software, cloud infrastructure, data tools, intelligent applications, and fintech. He focuses on helping founders who have achieved product-market fit scale to the next level.

John Simon is the Co-Founder and Board Chair of GreenLight Fund and

Managing Director of Sigma Prime Ventures. John is an active entrepreneur, creator and investor in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. He is currently a managing director at Sigma Prime Ventures where he focuses on software-based businesses and disruptive technology businesses, often getting involved in businesses at their formation or earliest stages. Prior to joining Sigma Prime, John was a co-founder and managing director of General Catalyst Partners, where he was responsible for investments in both new and existing technology businesses.

Before co-founding General Catalyst Partners, John was founder, chairman and CEO of UroMed Corporation. UroMed completed its initial public offering in 1994 and was subsequently merged to form Alliant Medical Technologies. While at General Catalyst Partners, portfolio companies of General Catalyst Partners for which John served on the board of directors or that John was otherwise involved with include: Jumptap, Paydiant, OwnCloud, SignalDemand, BetterLesson, Mocospace, Thumb, Swirl, Swoop, CyPhy Works, iWalk, Aidin, Tear Science, Fractyl, DC Devices, and OvaScience (OTC BB:OVSC), Taleo (NASDAQ:TLEO, acquired by Oracle), m-Qube (acquired by VeriSign), ProfitLogic (acquired by Oracle), Maven Networks (acquired by Yahoo!), Bullhorn Software (acquired by Vista Equity), Quickplay Media (acquired by Madison Dearborn), BzzAgent (acquired by Dunn Humby/Tesco), and Outstart (acquired by Kenexa/IBM).

In addition, John co-founded the GreenLight Fund and serves as Board Chair of the organization. GreenLight Fund partners with local communities to match unmet needs for individuals and families navigating barriers to economic mobility with innovative nonprofits that have a track record of success elsewhere. The national organization is scaling measurable impact in 12 sites across the country including Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Kansas City, Greater Newark, Philadelphia, San Francisco Bay Area, and the Twin Cities.

John is a member of the World Presidents’ Organization (WPO). He’s a co-founder and current trustee of The Steppingstone Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides educational opportunities to deserving inner-city students. John was honored with the 2015 Lewis Family Foundation CEO Social Leadership Award at the Boston Business Journal’s annual Corporate Citizenship Summit. John is a graduate of Harvard University, earning a BA in History and Science and Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar and received his MA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics.

Topics:

1. The evolution of venture capital

2. Early-stage investing strategies

3. Impact investing: measuring social impact alongside financial returns

#VentureCapital #TechInvesting #StartupLife #ImpactInvesting #InnovationInsights

Megh Gautam if the Chief Product Officer at Crunchbase. Prior to that he was the head of product at Twilio, where he ran the Editions line of business for Twilio, owned P&L, roadmap and strategy working across the Communication businesses (SMS mostly) and Segment.

Topics:

- Challenges and opportunities in managing a data-centric product like Crunchbase

- The role of AI and machine learning in modern product development

- The future of business intelligence and data platforms

#ProductLeadership #TechInnovation #DataDriven #SaaS #B2B #ProductStrategy

Ian Wang is a dynamic product leader currently serving as the Vice President and Head of Product for Adobe Express. Adobe Express empowers everyone to create standout content, including social media posts, videos, images, flyers, logos, and more.

Sydney Paige Thomas is the Founding General Partner of Symphonic Capital, a venture capital fund focused on empowering early-stage entrepreneurs. As the leader of Symphonic, Sydney embraces a unique philosophy of leadership, likening her role to that of an orchestra conductor whose power lies not in making sound, but in amplifying the talents of others.With nearly 15 years of diverse industry experience, including a decade working closely with founders, Sydney specializes in nurturing Pre-Seed stage startups. Her approach is hands-on and founder-centric, working alongside entrepreneurs to help them achieve their goals and realize their vision.

Vivin Hegde is the Founding Partner at Zacua Ventures, which invests in the next generation of entrepreneurs shaping the Built World. The firm focuses on core themes of productivity, sustainability, and urbanization within the Built Environment and maintains a global presence.

Ajay Prakash is the Co-Founder & CEO of Rinse, a company that is making trips to the dry cleaner and the washer / dryer obsolete while building the first national brand in dry cleaning and laundry. Prior to Rinse, Ajay was the COO and CFO of humble Brands, a consumer product startup in San Francisco. He also has experience at Bonobos, Berkshire Partners, the NBA, and Bain & Company. Ajay received his BA from Dartmouth College and his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.