WE: STARTUP HACKS

Deborah is the Founder & General Partner at Willow Growth Partners. Willow provides early growth capital to entrepreneurs building the next generation of transformative consumer brands and the disruptive technologies that power them. In 2014, Deborah launched a family office investment vehicle focused on seed stage consumer brands and enabling tech companies. 

Website: WillowGrowth.com

Valarie J. McCall is Chief of Communications, Government & International Affairs for the City of Cleveland. She is a sought-after speaker, panelist, political strategist, and legislative expert who has garnered countless accolades for her work. From around the globe to the neighborhoods of Cleveland, McCall lends her expertise to affect change and improve quality of life for all people.

Website: www.cleveland-oh.gov

Jemie is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Psychable, the #1 trusted and comprehensive online community dedicated to connecting those interested in legally exploring psychedelic-assisted therapy with practitioners who can support them. Psychable is now transitioning to a telehealth platform where they connect individuals to ketamine therapy. 

Website: www.psychable.com

FB: https://www.facebook.com/PsychableDotCom 

Kimberly Brooks is a contemporary American Artist and author of The New Oil Painting by Chronicle Books. A prolific painter, known for her portraits and landscape series, Kimberly explores identity and memory in her work. As an Artist, Hacks take the form of developing your own creative process that works for you. Tapping into her own creativity is a process that she describes as starting with a Vision, having Hope, finally Diving In, and then is followed by a combination of emotions; Excitement, Doubt, Clarity, and Obsession, on the heels of which follows, Discipline, Faith and Resolution.

Shivani Dallas, a successful owner of a top ranked mortgage company, has set her sights on the Cannabis startup world in Massachusetts. Hub Craft is a vertically integrated Cannabis company with several celebrity products launching this year. A successful salesperson with a strong strategic bent, Shivani values relationships, authenticity and providing value in business. A strong network is the biggest hack any business person can leverage and when you mix a history of authentic and value driven transactions, it’s a secret capital that greatly returns.

Katherine McKee is the founder of Morphology Consulting, a digital commerce consultancy that uses algorithms to optimize a company’s GTM for exponential growth. Katherine’s own hacks that have fueled the growth of her business were driven by an acute self-awareness of what living your best life means. A fact many busy founders forget as their company drives their lives. Katherine feels goal setting plays a big factor in that and being clear on what KPI’s and personas make sense for your business.

Filipa Carvalho is a Lisbon-based attorney and co-founder of Moss & Cooper, a consulting firm aimed at assisting startups by providing strategic and financial consulting to Portugal-based startups and as well as to those considering moving to Portugal. Filipa's top business hacks are the importance of building, nurturing and connecting your network to clients to facilitate deal flow. Partnership building is another key hack she feels has a big impact on the growth of your company. Above all however, finding balance between work and your social life, she states, is critical to maintaining a positive and productive mindset in business.

Kate Miller’s career spanned bud-tending in College to developing entertainment company brand partnership deals before she set off to turn a side hustle into a fulltime career as the founder of Miss Grass, a cannabis products platform for consumers. Kate’s bootstrapping hacks are inspired by her early days where brand partnership and affiliate marketing deal-making, accelerated growth, exposure and reach.