STARTUP MENTORS

Christine has been a part of the Atlanta technology scene for three decades where she has helped create, grow and scale many B2B software companies. She lives in NW Atlanta with her family and rescue critters and has a love of volunteering with animal rescue organizations. Christine’s home away from home is Truist Park where you can often find her (emphatically) cheering on the Braves.

With an education and early career rooted in technology and software development, Christine has a passion for creating, growing and scaling B2B technology and SaaS companies with a unique focus on client and delivery operations. Throughout her career, she has worked in many different industries including Healthcare, Security, Financial, Intelligent Power and Non-Profit and has held positions as a SaaS executive in development, product and client service areas of the business. Christine has been a key part of 5 various stage startups across Atlanta and has helped several founder based SaaS companies grow, scale and sell. She has a background working with PE and has been part of 10 different M&A events over the past few years. Additionally, Christine has worked as a professional and executive mentor, board advisor and female entrepreneur coach. Currently, she is the Founder and Managing Partner of Service@Scale where she helps fast growing SaaS companies create, grow and scale their product and client operations.

Aaron is a proud father of three who loves spending time with family, cooking and watching Pittsburgh and Georgia Tech sports.

Aaron enjoys helping founders unlock the most effective levers for growth as the Managing Director of Endeavor Atlanta, a global non-profit that selects and supports founders of the fastest growing companies in the Southeast. He has deep technology experience with strengths in strategy, product development, finance and operations.

Adam is a father, husband, avid golfer and huge Georgia Bulldog fan.

Adam is the Managing Director of Phoenix Capital Ventures (PCV), an early-stage VC firm partnering with companies in the sports, gaming, human performance, and immersive media industries. He has deep experience founding, scaling and now investing in early-stage ventures. Prior to joining PCV, he helped launch Endeavor Atlanta, a global non-profit that selects and supports founders of the fastest growing companies in the Southeast. Fun fact: Adam was actually one of the very first tenants at ATV as part of the founding team of Insightpool!

Currently, Bahadir is the Founder and COO of Cognira, located in Atlanta Tech Village. Baha brings together expertise in building scalable, data-driven technology solutions to retail problems.

Bahadir has a proven track record of designing, configuring, customizing, implementing and delivering complex enterprise class planning, forecasting and replenishment software for Fortune 100 Retailers. Prior to Cognira he has served leadership roles in multiple organizations in retail technology; Director of Product Strategy at Manhattan Associates, Senior Managing Consultant at IBM, Director of Program Management at Predictix (now Infor)

I’m an Atlanta native (not many of us around!). Enjoy spending time with his adult daughters, occasional workouts (let’s not go overboard here), and college football season.

Bill is a VP at TechOperators Venture Capital. Spent 10 years doing product management and UX in the early days of Windows and spent another 10 innovating in mobile technologies. Through 4 successful exits, both products he led had more than 20M users worldwide. Ran a mobile marketing software company, founded his own startup, and has run a food cost management software company too.

Brennen enjoys being back in Atlanta, spending time with family, following his beloved fighting Irish of Notre Dame, and enjoying a good Kentucky bourbon.

Brennen is the Chief Revenue Officer at Axes.ai a Fintech providing solutions to the global gaming industry and has 25 years of experience scaling tech centric businesses. Having scaled his start-up from 1 employee to a global leader with thousands of employees and a $2B acquisition.

Cameron is originally from Massachusetts and moved to Atlanta to be with a girl (now they’re married). When he was a kid he didn’t accessorize with the normal safety blanket or teddy bear; he was a super-nerd carrying around a 14-gauge electrical wire with alligator clips on either end. Learning to code as a kid and getting “Hello World!” to pop up on the screen has given him an insatiable curiosity about how (and why) the world works and how to make it better. On the weekends you can find him doing home improvement projects or trying to convince his wife he needs to buy more expensive tools to complete them.

Cameron Abt is the CEO of Atlas Bay VR, a B2B proptech startup providing visualization tools to real estate clients. He is passionate about operational efficiency, continuous improvement, and building stuff. As a broadly trained engineer turned CEO he has a unique startup perspective, focusing on streamlining production and removing operational friction instead of growth at all costs. Under his leadership, Atlas Bay VR has grown from a 2-person operation in a 1-bedroom apartment to a corner suite at the Atlanta Tech Village. With his first 7 years of full-time entrepreneurship under his belt, Cameron is excited to pay it forward to newcomers looking for where and how to start.

Chelsea is a founder, coach, and community builder. She lives in East Atlanta Village where she loves to garden and explore the Atlanta neighborhoods with her husband, two year old son, and two dogs.

Chelsea is the founder, chief consultant and coach at Talent Praxis where she helps people turn ideas into action with 1:1 coaching, consulting and training. In addition to coaching Chelsea has 15 years of experience managing and leading teams; leading business operations and strategy; and leading HR, talent development, and talent acquisition across a variety of industries. Chelsea was the 16th hire at Patreon, a creator payment platform, managing business operations as the company scaled to 100FTEs and raised their series B and the People Operations Lead at Clara, a mortgage bank startup, acquired by SoFi. Chelsea has five years of experience as the COO and co-founder of a venture-backed startup, Marlow, building scalable coaching processes, platforms, and curriculum for managers. While at Marlow with her co-founder the two participated in Jason Calacanis’ launch incubator and Village Capital founder program, raised a pre-seed, successfully built their coaching platform and scalable coaching services, and increased revenue to $60k in MRR.

I am a serial entrepreneur with a passion for sports and data. I love city life, dogs, Dawgs, and entrepreneurship.

Diane is a serial entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience in the technology industry, including a successful startup launch and subsequent acquisition. She has in-depth experience in analytics, software development, and process improvement through her past roles at IBM and as a consultant. Diane is the founder of scoutSMART, a leading provider of predictive sports analytics. scoutSMART helps college football coaches find recruits that fit their program. Diane is considered a thought leader in sports analytics and has spoken at several sports analytics’ conferences including the Titans of Sports Tech Roundtable and the Georgia Tech Big Analytics Forum.

Ellen moved to Atlanta this summer and works at the ATV. She’s a mom of five (yes 5!) beautiful children ages 15 – 2 and she moved to Atlanta this summer after a long stint in Raleigh-Durham. She’s from Detroit and has also lived in Connecticut, Washington DC and Chicago. She is not running from the law, her husband Kevin and her just believe in growth and stretching yourself and sometimes that means changing your environment. She has an undergraduate degree in Computer Science and a Masters Degree in Learning, Design and Technology from Purdue (Boiler Up!). She’s worked as a coach, a teacher, a technologist and a founder. Ellen is passionate about helping your startup succeed.

Ellen Twomey serves as the Managing Director of Fugitive Labs where they launch ventures, ship products, and invest in startups. Fugitive has a decade of experience helping founders with product strategy through full stack development through a business needs first lens. Ellen has a heart for serving underrepresented founders and has lived that mission through her You are techY podcast helping moms gain the skills and confidence to get hired in their tech dream job.

Jake is a father of two and married to his college sweetheart, Erin. Outside of work, Jake is passionate about spending time with his family and all things fly fishing, whether that’s stalking trout through the North GA mountains or poling through flats for bonefish.

Jake Hadden co-founded and managed DigitalCrafts, a top-rated software development bootcamp, for 6 years before exiting to Perdoceo (NASDAQ: PRDO) in 2021. Jake continues to manage and oversee all DigitalCrafts operations. Prior to DigitalCrafts, Jake worked for the world’s largest manufacturing of modular carpet, Interface, as head of their internal innovation pipeline (think “Shark Tank”). In this role, Jake reported directly to the Chief Innovations Officer and gained working experience in Europe, Asia and Australia. Prior to Interface, Jake worked as a Management Consultant at Accenture and a Sales Rep in various roles after graduating from the University of Georgia with a degree in Banking and Finance.

James is an Atlanta native who enjoys spending time with his wife, daughter and 3 rescue dogs. He also enjoys running, an occasional backpacking trip and rooting for all of our Atlanta sports teams. He is passionate about serving others.

James is a Managing Director at EY and has over 30 years of experience working with a variety of business. He assists organization in thinking through their most strategic issues, developing solutions and connecting with other people with the right experiences. He loves growing revenues, solving problems, and building strong client relationships.

Jeff Goldblatt has been involved with startups of many shapes/sizes (including: VC-funded, Angel-funded, Bootstrapped… successes, failures, and that subjective gray area between) for ~20 years and has served as Advisor/Mentor/Coach to 100+ young founders. Originally from Framingham, MA, he has an MBA from Emory University and a PhD from The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry.

As creator of the original “Rejection Hotline” – a satirical phone service that grew into a 7-figure VIRAL *P.A.C.A.S.M. company (*Products As Content As Social Marketing) with 300+ “Humor Hotlines” engaging millions of fans – Jeff became a nationally-recognized expert on VIRALITY (in Products/Content/Marketing). He feels awkward writing in the 3rd-person, so he will now switch to 1st-person (and so will I). #BeReal – Like MOST entrepreneurs, I put “CEO” on my first business card. Also like most entrepreneurs, I once believed in The Tooth Fairy. In BOTH cases, it took YEARS to realize I WAS WRONG. My #IamNOTaCEO epiphany was undoubtedly the catalyst for my first startup success. – [3 months after replacing myself as CEO of my own company, we raised $1 MILLION in funding; 9 months later we were a PROFITABLE 7-figure company – after YEARS struggling as a solo founder wearing all the hats)] – And it began my fascination (obsession?!) with #SelfAwareness and the MANY related problems that young founders are OFTEN blind to (until YEARS LATER – often lamenting: “I Wish I Knew THEN, What I Know NOW!”) Full-Disclosure: Yes, I’ve occasionally been called a “Negative Nancy” – but I believe “Realistic Rick” is much more accurate AND much more helpful to young/future founders because… “Negative / Pessimistic (BAD?)” vs. “Positive / Optimistic (GOOD?)” creates a Dangerous False Dichotomy! [Spoiler Alert] “Objective / Realistic (GAME-CHANGER!)”

Jermaine is an avid reader, loves working out and roots for LSU and the Saints during football season.

Jermaine is the Founder and CEO of CCAW Automotive Group, a bootstrapped B2C ecommerce company in the automotive space. Jermaine is a leader with experience in building scalable teams, systems and processes. He has experience leading growth initiatives across functions that include Customer Service, Operations, Accounting/Finance and Engineering.

Kim is a journalist turned entrepreneur who successfully founded, grew and sold her startup – AND had three babies – all within the past few (chaotic) years. Her husband Geoff is an ATV Mentor too!

Kim is an experienced Founder and CEO, having successfully exited her most recent start-up: Social News Desk (SND). As a former-journalist, Kim saw a problem in her own industry and solved it by creating a SaaS company which would go on to become the worldwide leader in social media solutions for local news. In 2014, Kim led Social News Desk through an acquisition by Graham Holdings (NYSE:GHC); a public company which was founded by Katharine Graham, the first female Fortune 500 CEO. Today, Kim remains at the helm of Social News Desk, overseeing an entirely remote team and supporting more than 30,000 journalists worldwide.

Mike is a musician, Braves fan and father of 3 daughters. His wife and he are avid cyclists and like to tour the U.S. in their RV.

Mike is a serial entrepreneur in B2B SaaS healthcare technology/patient experience. He founded Dialog Medical - the leading provider of Informed Consent systems - and sold it to Standard Register (NYSE: SR) in July 2011. He founded Clockwise.MD -the leading virtual queue for healthcare - and sold it to Warburg Pincus/DocuTAP in April 2017. He is currently founder and CEO of Copient Health.

I arrived in the US with a backpack and $267 in cash after traveling around the world. I love mountain biking and follow an unglamorous Premier League soccer team.

My experience spans 25 years of leadership in technology and nonprofits. I have co-founded, run, and exited multiple technology start-ups in telco, music, and education. I’ve overseen award-winning social innovation projects that have brought new opportunities to thousands of kids. My belief: give people access to opportunities, and they will thrive.

Dr. Shade' Reid (she/her) is UK-born, Atlanta raised with strong British Jamaican roots. She loves basketball and played collegiate basketball on scholarship at UNC-Wilmington. She is a wife, mom, lover of all food and cultures, world traveler, hanging with friends and family, and helping with her husband's basketball coaching business.

Shade' is a seasoned Healthcare provider/Nurse Practitioner, healthcare consultant, nurse entrepreneur, innovator, program manager, and emerging capital entrepreneur. She is the founder of HealthCares Group, a mobile simulation center implementing e-gaming, VR, AR, and hologram technology clinical education for healthcare providers, but had to pivot and is now offering her expertise as a consultant, advisor, and Fractional Chief Clinical Officer for health tech startups seeking clinical expertise. She is also now the co-founder of Frontline HLTH Innovation, a startup school and venture studio focused on building groundbreaking health tech startups led by nursing and allied health professionals. Her previous work in healthcare spanned behavioral health, childhood development, neurological disorders, maternal health, and emergency services. She has over a decade in healthcare and 5+ years of experience in the tech industry and startup ecosystem. She is passionate about supporting underrepresented startup founders, building equitable, sustainable communities, and democratizing fundraising.

A.T. enjoys spending time playing sports with his wife and three boys.

A.T. Gimbel is a partner with Atlanta Ventures, focused on helping entrepreneurs find community, content, and capital to successfully grow their business.  Previously, A.T. led product and go-to-market functions for the Healthcare division of LexisNexis, as well as leading roles in corporate strategy and mergers & acquisitions. Prior to that, he was in consulting with Bain & Company serving clients across multiple industries with a focus on growth strategy, process improvement, and customer loyalty. He has also worked for several startup companies in sales and operations roles.

Alex is an expert problem-solver, hustling to help humans live better, and companies grow and scale accountability for better culture and People Ops outcomes.

Alex (she/her) is the founder and CEO of Laurl, an HRtech SaaS for employee relations, helping HR and People teams track and manage employee concerns that affect workplace culture and inclusion. Alex is an experienced leader across employee relations, investigations, conflict resolution, diversity, accessibility, and inclusion. Alex has led over 300 EEOC and ADA harassment and discrimination investigations and mediations to date, and delivered 400+ trainings and keynotes for domestic and international tech, medical, legal, higher ed, government, and fortune 500 audiences. Alex has applied her deep knowledge in facilitation and policy development to strengthen workplace and equity accountability and investigations programs for 200+ organizations.

With my 20+ years of experience in software development, serving as a CEO of software development shop and CTO of startups, I specialise on helping non-tech startup founders build their MVPs fast and on low budget.

Antoine is an investor at BRONZE a San Francisco based venture capital firm focused on profitably moving social disparity to prosperity.

In short, Antoine started as a programmer, became an entrepreneur, grew into venture capital and now leverages social capital for others. He is a proud husband, father of two, and avid sports fan (Go Vols!).

Benjamin is a volunteer for the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, for which he has managed a Google Grant since 2010. He usually is found drinking iced coffee, even in cold months.

Benjamin is the President & CEO of Relevance Advisors with expertise in Digital Marketing. He helps companies drive traffic to their websites, measure results, and optimize performance.

Brian is a seasoned Engineering, Product, and Operations Executive with experience scaling small teams into fast-growth startup organizations.

Brian has lived in Atlanta most of his life. After graduating from Georgia Tech he was lucky enough to get on board with two early stage high growth startups (Vitrue and Salesloft). He has two beautiful children (Harrison & Amelia) with his wife April.

Originally from Cameroon, Africa, Brice has settled in Atlanta after living in DE, TX, and MA. He believes in Atlanta becoming the new Silicon Valley :). He is also a big fan of Formula 1

Brice is the founder of Reserved, LLC, and has over 18 years of experience in IT, with 14 years at PwC in IT Consulting. Brice is passionate about Data but has also dabbled with Web Development. He has helped multiple startups go from ideation to live as a part-time CTO. Brice has been certified in the top 3 major Cloud providers: Google Cloud Platform (2 certifications), Amazon Web Services (2), and Microsoft Azure (1)

I am a Southerner … I grew up in Southern California. I went to UCLA undergrad and to Columbia University for graduate school. I have been married for 29 years and I have three almost grown up children, two boys and a girl. Connor, 23 a Clemson grad. Jordan, 18 who is going to university in the Netherlands this fall and Sofia, who is a junior at Atlanta International School. My hobbies are travel; this year I have been to Italy, New York, Maine, Paris, Munich, and the Netherlands … and it is only July!!! I enjoy wine tasting and a little fun fact is I am a certified sommelier. Lastly, I love popular culture, so I read; I mostly read books about business and entrepreneurship. I enjoy sci-movies, period pieces and romantic comedies. One of my favorite comedies is “Super Bad.” Favorite Sci Fi are the “Aliens“ movies and the first Matrix movie. My favorite favorite period piece is any version of “Pride and Prejudice.” Lastly, I love a good action film and Game of Thrones is my all time favorite TV show … I have watched it 4 times from beginning to end!!!!

Chantel Cohen is the Founder and CEO of CWC Coaching & Therapy, which provides therapy and coaching services to entrepreneurs and professionals alike. In particular, Chantel is on a mission to empower entrepreneurs of color, women business owners and founding duos to create the lives they always imagined for themselves. CWC Coaching & Therapy’s unique approach has caught the eye of many corporations interested in providing mental health and self-development support for their teams and accelerator programs. As such, the Atlanta-based company has hosted individual and group coaching sessions and workshops for clients such as Google, Coco-Cola, Discovery Channel, Lenovo, Coursera and more."

Chris is an early stage Real Estate & PropTech investor and advisor. His wife and 2 kids relocated to Chastain Park from the SF Bay Area in 2020. Chris loves sports (golf, tennis, cycling), the outdoors, and jamming with founders on startups, Real Estate, Proptech, and Logistics.

Chris is currently an early stage investor & advisor at On Deck. Chris scaled 3 startups to successful exits in proptech, logistics, and consumer spaces. He has deep expertise in Real Estate, PropTech and Logistics. Chris has taken companies from 0 to 1 and has helped founders with initial GTM strategies, hiring, contracts, new business lines, along with channel/distribution partnerships. He’s been fortunate to work closely with Proctor & Gamble, Greystar, Brookfield, Amazon, The Home Depot, UPS and more.

David is a PhD scientist (biophysics) turned IP lawyer, who focuses on helping use IP as a key strategic asset to further business goals. He is a co-founder at Catalyze Advisors, a startup investment and advisory firm he created with 5 former Stripe colleagues. Prior to Catalyze he served as Head of IP at Stripe and as Managing Director, Global Head of IP at BlackRock, roles in which he helped build IP strategies and programs from the ground up. He’s proudly an inventor himself (24+ issued US patents), and a lawyer who still writes code. When not working, he loves spending time with his family, training for his next running race, roasting coffee, or going for a Sunday drive around the North Georgia mountains.

David has deep experience in all facets of IP. He previously served as Managing Director, Global Head of IP at BlackRock, where he led a global team that provided legal support and strategy for BlackRock’s IP development, acquisition and protection, IP disputes and litigation, open source initiatives and compliance, and IP diligence for investments and acquisitions. Before joining BlackRock, David was a relatively early employee at Stripe and was Stripe’s first Head of IP, where he led all aspects of Stripe’s IP development, acquisition and protection. Prior to Stripe, David was Innovation and IP counsel at PayPal and held roles at the IP boutique law firm Bozicevic, Field & Francis LLP, and at the University of California. He now uses the knowledge gained from these varied experiences to help startup companies navigate their IP challenges.

David is a 35-year sales veteran with success both as a quota carrying rep and sales leader in companies like BellSouth and CareerBuilder. An engineer by education, David sought after and discovered the secrets to his success by exploring behavioral psychology and understanding the science of human decision making. In 2012, he founded MasterMessaging to help clients increase their revenue by mastering the ability to elevate their value.

Elissa is a single mother of two teenagers, and enjoys supporting her daughter at horse eventing shows, and fostering her son’s dedication to personal fitness.

Elissa has been in product management over 25 years. During her 20 years predominately in the Fortune 500 space, the products she brought to market cumulatively have generated close to $1B. Over the last 5 years, she has been advising startups, and most recently has published a book titled, “The Profitable Startup”, where she outlines her unique methodology, the Profitable Method, that both engineers failure out of the equation, and hunts for explosive revenue opportunities.

Erich loves to learn as evidenced by his 4 college degrees (1 bachelor’s and 3 master’s degrees). And he is working on his 5th degree and 4th master’s. Erich does stand-up comedy in open mics around the city of Atlanta and is a certified EMT. He enjoys volunteer work in free clinics, Hack-A-Thon competitions, and with the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office. He has lived in the biggest cities in the U.S. (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles) and is an avid gym goer. He is an Advisor at the University of South Florida, Digital Marketing Program.

Erich is Acting General Manager for Configuration Module at GainWell Technologies. An accomplished professional who built two successful start-ups, he owns a consulting WellWater Capital Consulting a Health IT consulting company and Atlanta Vacay a real holding and management company. Erich consults in I.T. strategy, Gamification, and organization changes. Erich has 21 years of I.T. experience. Erich is an avid learner and holds a Bachelor’s and Master of Science in Computer Science from Clark Atlanta University, an M.B.A. from Yale University, and a Master’s in Applied Psychology from the University of Southern California. Erich has been studying the impact of technology, interpersonal communication, and motivation/behavior modification for 6 years. He has also been studying Gamification for 4 years.

Hernando moved to Atlanta in the late Spring 2022 after living in New York for the prior two years and Europe the last 11 years. He enjoys working with founders and gives back as a mentor at several accelerators. He and his wife look forward to exploring more of Atlanta in 2023.

Hernando Bunuan is the Founder and Managing Partner of Z2Sixty Ventures, a US venture capital firm focused on pre-seed to Series A investments in four markets: Climate Tech/Smart Cities, Fintech, Digital Health, and Edtech. He has over 20 years experience advising and investing across the technology landscape in the US and Europe. As a former senior technology banker with experience in major M&A and IPO exits, he originated, executed and advised on over 35 landmark deals worth over $45 billion. Hernando has an MBA from Chicago Booth and Bachelor’s from Washington University.

When I’m not crunching numbers and strategizing, you’ll likely find me outdoors, enjoying some fresh hair and staying active.

Hilda brings a 20-year track record of financial leadership, fundraising, and accelerating growth in the corporate world, and with startups ready to scale. Her expertise in business planning, fundraising strategies, financial modeling, management, and strategic planning position her as an asset to startups. With Hilda’s guidance, tech ventures can navigate financial complexities and chart a path toward sustainable success.

Jacey is a community builder with a desire to cultivate empowered groups of people. She uses her positive energy and supportive attitude to build up and train those around her.

She’s currently doing this as the VP of Marketing & Community at Atlanta Ventures. They empower entrepreneurs to start, grow, and learn and co-found companies with driven founders in a collaborative environment, fund founders, and equip entrepreneurs. With 10+ years of industry experience, she’s started or launched marketing initiatives for over 18 companies. She also runs Pitch Practice, a meetup for Atlanta entrepreneurs to practice their 30-second, 3-minute or 5+ min. investor pitch. They meet Fridays at 1pm at Atlanta Tech Village.

John Dwyer currently leads AT&T’s Prepaid Wireless Portfolio, consisting of Cricket Wireless and AT&T PREPAID. John earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing at the University of Wisconsin and a master’s degree in finance at the University of Chicago. In addition to being President of AT&T Prepaid & Cricket Wireless, he serves on the executive board of directors for Junior Achievement of Georgia, the Board of Directors for 3DE, the executive committee for the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and the board of the Boy Scouts Atlanta area council. A proud resident of Atlanta, John enjoys spending time with his wife and two children.

John was named president of Cricket Wireless in 2015, a subsidiary of AT&T Inc. Two years later, his role was expanded to include AT&T PREPAID, the company’s first prepaid wireless offering. John’s leadership of both Cricket and AT&T PREPAID continues to show great results with the combined portfolio consistently leading the prepaid industry in operational performance and customer experience. In fact, as of Q3 2021, the AT&T Prepaid Portfolio was the fastest growing prepaid carrier in the U.S. and has been for the past three years. Currently serving more than 19 million prepaid wireless subscribers, John and the prepaid team are committed to delivering an easy, high-quality and affordable wireless experience. Additionally, Cricket reached a big milestone as of Q3 2021, reaching 12.4 million subscribers. That’s an increase of more than 2 million customers over the past two years. Prior to leading the prepaid business, John led the customer experience effort for AT&T Mobile and Business Solutions. He also led the retail sales operations team and served in several sales and customer service leadership roles at AT&T, Cingular Wireless and Pacific Bell Mobile Services.

Josh is a brand builder and growth marketing leader with a mission to bring light into the world by helping early-stage companies build brand equity, grow sales, and spread their ideas to the communities they serve.

Josh has deep roots in the Atlanta startup scene and has helped launch, accelerate, and grow multiple early-stage companies including Patientco, Juvare, Relatient, Savista, Spring Health, NanoLumens, and more. He currently serves as a Fractional CMO to companies such as ATV member, Copient Health.

Joy is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Founder, and mother of 2. She enjoys exploring Atlanta and making new connections.

Founder & CEO of Build In Public Fellowship, GTM expert, no-code and Product Hunt specialist.

"I'm Karthik Puvvada, often called 'KP' by friends and my audience on the Internet. I’m the founder & CEO of Build In Public Fellowship, an online program and community to help founders and creators put themselves out there and build in public fearlessly. I also run a SaaS startup “LeaderBird” which helps people be more consistent on Twitter by gamifying the journey. I’m one of the strongest evangelists of the “building in public” movement that is helping founders attract early customers & investors by sharing their journey online as it unfolds. Previously, I helped over 500 founders globally take a shot on their dreams and kickstart businesses through education programs and communities resulting in $1.25m in revenue. Led high-profile positions as a director at startups like On Deck (funded by Founders Fund) and Day One (funded by Gary Vee). Since 2018, I have also launched 15+ businesses and side-projects using no-code tools and had multiple small exits. I’ve cultivated an audience of over 43,000 on Twitter and 7,000 on email by building my career in public. On the side, I’ve been an angel investor and advisor/coach to world-class startup founders. "

Kelly Anne is a native Atlantan, mom to 2 adventurous kiddos and 2 furr babies, wife to the biggest UGA fan there is, and alumni of University of Alabama. Outside of work, you can find her jogging around the city, dining on a patio, or on the lake during any season.

Currently, Kelly Anne is the Senior Director for Growth at Dualboot Partners, a custom software and business development firm. Prior to DBP, she started her professional career in non-profits then moved to clinical healthcare as a Certified Child Life Specialist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. In 2016, she made a career pivot and joined the wild world of tech startups at Atlanta Tech Village. For 5.5 years, she had the privilege of building programs to serve entrepreneurs and bringing in strategic partners such as Invesco, Truist, and Coke.

Kerry is a corporate hippy that loves hiking, meditation, yoga, making kombucha and natural, healthy stuff.

Kerry has been in marketing for over 20 years from startups to Fortune 50 companies. She specializes in marketing strategies.

Kim is an investor in early-stage technology, health care, consumer product, and media companies. The JumpFund has invested in more than 25 Southeast based companies since 2013, across our two venture capital funds.

Kim has more than twenty-five years of global expertise in human resource consulting, corporate and leadership roles. Kim’s experience includes leading M&A transactions, service delivery transformation, talent, compensation, benefits and recruiting program design, as well as technology development, selection and implementations. Kim most recently was a Senior Partner with Mercer, responsible for leading their overall go-to-market strategies in Atlanta. Kim received a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Louisiana State University.

Landon helps early-stage startups establish foundational growth, marketing, and operations. It’s all fun and games until a Series B.

Landon has led growth, marketing, and ops at Plastiq (Forbes FinTech 50), Fancred (Entrepreneur Magazine’s 100 Brilliant Companies), and is an advisor to MaxRewards (Techstars ’19) and Poppy (Techstars ’20). He’s the Head of Marketing at Rocketplace, a digital assets management platform.

Leila has lived in Atlanta for the past 10 years and is a proud pet parent to an adorable 5-pound poodle mix. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and several certifications under her belt because she believes formal education is just where you learn how to learn. She’s worked in Enterprise sales for the past 5 years but also has a background in corporate training and tutoring, and as an active member of the Atlanta writing community, she works with other writers to help them refine their voice and style.

Leila works in Enterprise Sales as a Senior Solution Engineer, and she specializes in selling to new markets. Her expertise is in storytelling, from crafting demos for prospective customers to delivering presentations at industry events. Her passion is helping startups translate their idea into a hook for investors and customers.

Li-Ming is an executive coach and HR consultant who helps founders, leaders, and organizations drive change. She's got 20+ years of experience in the trenches, including time as an Analyst on Wall Street, so she knows first hand that a focus on people is critical for success. Today, Li-Ming works at Google as a Director of People Operations but she’s an entrepreneur at heart. She started selling origami earrings at age 10 and saved enough in high school to put herself through her first year of college. When she's not working, she loves spending time with her family, doing pilates, walking, and drinking coffee.

Li-Ming’s passion is helping leaders and managers. She has created work from ideas to execution in Fortune 500 companies, across sectors, and is a recognized HR thought leader. She currently holds a leadership position at Google as a Director of People Operations, advising and driving talent and HR strategy for c-suite members. She also has her own coaching and consulting practice and is a founding member of the Asian Women’s Coaching Collective. Li-Ming has worked with people and organizations as an executive coach, HR generalist, people development leader, diversity and inclusion advocate, and as an organizational development consultant. Li-Ming is focused on helping individuals, teams, and organizations drive meaningful change. Li-Ming received her Master of Science in Organization Development from the University of San Francisco and holds her BA from Brown University. She was raised in Vermont between farms, but has spent her working years across Melbourne, Beijing, Washington, DC, New York, and San Francisco Bay Area.

Margaret works with individuals and organizations to build solid foundations that serve as a springboard and accelerant to achieving their definition of great success. She coaches founders on how to focus on three key areas: People, Process, and Performance.

Margaret is a seasoned GTM leader who spent 12 years building, scaling, and leading high growth sales organizations from teams of 2 to 115. She grew the sales development team 3X at Salesloft in 2015 and led the North American sales organization of 100+ account executives and account managers for Mindbody. Today she helps startups build scalable foundations that enable teams and future sales hires to consistently deliver high caliber customer interactions and performance. She also empowers founders to confidently transition away from the tactical day to day, freeing them up to focus on the strategic direction of their company.

Megan resides in Atlanta with her husband and their dog, Kevin. She is an avid reader, amateur chef and plays the drums in her spare time.

Megan is a Technical Program & Business Development Manager at Amazon Web Services, working across a global team of solution architects to build out strong partner practices. She has held roles at AWS on teams spanning project management, sales and most recently, technical. Prior to AWS, she worked on an agile team inside The Washington Post to productize and sell their publishing platform to other global entities and started her career in technical sales at IBM (here in Atlanta!). She is passionate about helping organizations and teams build their technical strategy, create their own brand and incorporating technical thinking into all areas of sales.

Michael is an Atlanta native, a Georgia Tech grad, and is constantly looking for the best Asian restaurant on Buford Highway.

Michael started his professional career over 10 years ago working in engineering & data analytics at Walt Disney World. Since then, he has held several technical and managerial roles across a wide range of companies, from big 4 consulting to technology startups (including several based out of the ATV!). He has always had a passion for sports – though his playing career never advanced past little league – and has performed research with medical professionals on predicting injuries in professional athletes. Outside of work, he enjoys running, playing tennis and spending time with his five little nieces and nephew.

Mike is passionate about cooking, fitness, college football (Go Auburn), and March Madness. He’s the only person we’ve ever met who once sold billion-dollar jet fighter aircraft for a living!

Mike is founder of Allegro Consulting , a business growth specialty advisory firm. He’s been helping metro-Atlanta private business owners and start-up founders build and execute growth strategies for 18 years. His focus is on strategy creation and sales process.  Prior to Allegro he was an international sales campaign leader and program manager for aerospace giants Boeing and Lockheed. Disciplined adherence to sound business practices and utilizing a replicable sales process are his passions.

As an advisor, colleague, and collaborator, Molly helps fellow entrepreneurs and unconventional creators put brand-building, business-enhancing, audience-enchanting ideas to work for their organizations.

Molly Dickinson is the founder and creative director of Banner Day®, the words-first* naming and branding company created by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. (*Not a typo.) She’s also co-founder of INVINCIBLE INC.®, a one-of-a-kind partnership with Atlanta intellectual property law firm, Vivid IP®, offering all-in-one creative branding + legal trademarking packages for a single, flat fee. A versatile, award-winning writer, Molly studied creative writing and literature and wrote her honors thesis in original poetry at Elon University. (Turns out, being able to pack maximum meaning into minimal space—a line, a logo—is a branding superpower.) After landing her first freelance brand-writing gig over a decade ago, she never stopped working for herself. Even while serving full-time as the first and (then) only messaging lead for a top local brand experience agency, she kept partnering with entrepreneurs to pursue the work she loves most: Helping fellow self-starters, startups, and upstarts create brands worth celebrating.

Patrick is a hopeless optimist with a thirst for technology and how it can improve every facet of our lives, allowing us all to focus on those things that really matter.

As an audit principal with Windham Brannon LLC, a top Atlanta public accounting firm, Patrick leads their technology practice with a focus on wholistic objectives for businesses and its owners. Leveraging the experience of client’s success and failures, Patrick helps remove potential obstacles to enable greater success.

Former It Takes a Village startup founder and current product management professional who enjoys all things health and fitness, playing the piano, and traveling.

Rich is a Senior Technical Product Manager for Amazon working on the Alexa on Fire TV team. He’s also a Board Member for the Startup Runway Foundation, which is a non-profit that connects early-stage investors to underrepresented startup founders. Rich’s previous experiences include the founding of a health and fitness technology startup, product management in the cybersecurity and audio entertainment industries, business operations and corporate finance at Intel, and software engineering and technology research at Vanguard. While his hometown is New York City, Rich is currently based in Atlanta, GA. He holds a B.S. in computer engineering technology from the Rochester Institute of Technology, and he received his M.B.A. from the University of Rochester, Simon Business School.

Scott is a father of two boys under two, so you may see him snagging a nap in the lobby at any time. He loves coffee, cocktails, and anything with a good story behind it.

Scott is the Principal at Tech Square Ventures, an early stage venture firm in Atlanta. He sources, conducts diligence, and invests in leading high growth tech companies in the Southeast. He knows how to clarify business milestones and line up funding accordingly. He is focused on helping founders find a repeatable and scalable go-to-market strategy.

Stefanie is a boy-mom who loves dance, yoga, travel and personal finance. She is passionate about women’s issues, bravely living from your intuition, and anything that takes her back to her homeland of Puerto Rico.

Stefanie is the Founder & CEO of Powered by Verve, an investor relations firm focused on helping companies engage their existing and potential investors. She is Founder & Host of the She Conquers Capital Podcast and WOE | The Women Only Experience Atlanta-based event series. Contact Stefanie for advice on raising capital, crafting your pitch, connecting with investors, building community, public speaking, hosting events and anything to do with overcoming doubts and fears.

Susanne and her husband enjoy exploring new restaurants, farmer's markets, hiking, boating, and playing pickleball with their two teenagers. Susanne also loves solving problems, both big and small. Ask her about Ikigai, keeping a sourdough bread starter alive, or her Velvet Elvis story to get things started.

Susanne is a sales and marketing expert with over 20+ years leading customer teams. While managing multi million-dollar clients for Coca-Cola, she gained a deep understanding of how global brands innovate. Susanne founded MARNI&CO to share her knowledge and give early-stage companies a competitive edge. She specializes in teaching founders how to expand their network, develop sales and marketing plans, and navigate corporate partnerships.

Tim is a technical founder of numerous startups, including SalesLoft, Showcase IDX, and Spaceship. He also apparently likes the letter "S" a lot.

Tim is a co-founder of SalesLoft, former Entrepreneur in Residence at Georgia Tech's ATDC, CTO and CEO of several startups, a participant in the Flashpoint accelerator at Georgia Tech, and founded and sold his first company in his 20s. He is currently working on a new startup, Spaceship, in the DevOps/DevTools space.

Wayt is a life-long ATLien, is the father of 5 kids, and spends time on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.

Wayt is a startup lawyer who loves helping early-stage SaaS and software entrepreneurs. He’s been a software entrepreneur and an angel investor, and is known for keeping the legal stuff as simple as possible.

Will Grossenbacher is corporate attorney based in the Atlanta office of Greenberg Traurig. Will’s practice focuses on transactional matters for companies in technology, life sciences, and other high growth industries. He has experience with all aspects of the corporate life cycle—from formation and funding, to day-to-day commercial contracting and licensing, to acquisitions and exits. Will received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, and his B.A. from the University of Mississippi.

I’m enthusiastic about helping founders plan their corporate structure and equity issuances to get it right the first time. I work with companies across industries: video game publishers, financial services providers, drug manufacturers, payment processors, app developers—and love it. Seeing new ideas and challenges on a day-to-day basis is why I became a lawyer. I’ve worked on numerous M&A transactions, both for buyers and sellers, and know the things you should do now—making sure you have a clean cap table and clear IP ownership, among others—that will make that process much smoother down the road.

Yusuf is an experienced leader, in-house attorney, angel investor, non-profit board member, amateur race car driver, and basement guitarist. Yusuf, his wife, and two children live in Alpharetta.

Yusuf was most recently Deputy General Counsel at Tesla, Inc., where he spent seven years building one of its legal teams from one person to 29. Prior to that, he handled virtually every type of legal issue facing his employer while working for a poultry company in North Georgia. He began his career with the federal government where he trained as a trial lawyer. Yusuf invests in purpose driven technology companies that use modern tools to solve old problems. In 2022, he was named to The 100 Influential Georgia Muslims by the Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta.