GET INSIGHTS & CONNECTIONS FROM INDUSTRY EXPERTS
MANAGEMENT TEAM
Our managing directors and mentors are active participants and focused on your success.
MENTORS
David Dowling
David has over 20 years experience building high growth, profitable tech companies. He founded media.com, an award winning digital marketing agency that pioneered the cost-per-click buying model and became a subsidiary of Grey Group. He was part of the leadership team at NetZero from their days as a startup, through an IPO, to becoming a $1 billion global public company. David is a mentor to many startup companies and accelerators.
Gene Swank
Gene is a serial entrepreneur who bootstrapped his first venture with less than $100 initial investment into a multi million dollar global corporation. He has been responsible for successful ventures in the manufacturing, technology, fashion, real estate and education verticals. Prior to his work as an entrepreneur, Gene spent 15 years in the high tech industry where he lead projects in aerospace, telecom and is recognized as an early pioneer of WiMAX technology. Gene is also on the board of Springs Charter Schools, the largest private charter school network in America. He is a contributor to Forbes.com, a mentor for a variety of companies from computer vision to a professional sports league and is a respected thought leader in crypto and blockchain.
Dan
Kirk
Experienced Founder, Investor, and Advisor for almost 20 years with experience in bringing novel and emerging tech to market. In 2007, Dan led an engineering team in developing a patentable process for deriving fuel from algae, a process now identified as a long-term sustainable solution for energy production.
After exiting that project, Dan worked with a boutique management consulting firm focused on a project in Texas’ newly deregulated energy market.
Dan is passionate about the creative process and the power of technology to solve humanity’s foundational challenges (e.g., in education, energy, telecommunications, transportation, finance, healthcare, agriculture, and real estate), believing that tech-enabled, “Smart Cities” can ensure the planet peacefully sustains its growing populations.
Wade Eyerly
Wade is a serial entrepreneur who has founded companies that have ultimately raised hundred of millions of dollars in venture capital. He is the Founder/CEO of the Education Insurance Corporation. He invented the subscription aviation model as CEO and founder of both Surf Air and Beacon. Wade has been a part of three presidential campaigns, worked at the White House and as an economist. His specialties include startups, technology, venture capital, political campaigns, media interaction, aviation, insurance and higher education.
Klyn Elsbury
Klyn is a best selling author and the CEO of Landmark Makers, where she's helped thousands of HR managers, recruiters, and interviewers prevent costly mis hires! Her specialties include: Sourcing basics, understanding the candidate, identifying resume red flags, uncovering resume green lights, creating an effective interview processes, best interview questions to ask & what to listen for, presenting an offer, negotiating offers, following-up on candidate satisfaction and top behavioral traits of great candidates. Klyn has also won multiple awards as a Keynote Inspirational Speaker on subjects such as entrepreneurship and overcoming adversity.
Shahriar Sikder
Shahriar is a brilliant CEO, technologist, angel investor & member of a venture capitalist firm that has built, scaled and invested in some of the fastest growing technology startups. Shah is an expert in artificial intelligence, computer vision, cloud computing and blockchain. His software firm provides fractional CTO & project based technology offerings for startups and fortune 500 companies alike. He is part of an AI & blockchain focus venture fund in the UAE & is a member of an angel syndication network. Shah enjoys working with early stage companies that are focused on innovation & technology.
Lisa Song Sutton
Lisa Song Sutton is a real estate investor and entrepreneur, holding ownership interests in several companies in the real estate, tech, retail and food & beverage industries, including Las Vegas’ #1 alcohol-infused cupcake company: Sin City Cupcakes. Her work has been seen in Forbes, Inc. Magazine, Fast Company and on the TEDx stage. Lisa also sits on the advisory boards for several companies including Bitcoin Nevada, and Youngry. In addition to her professional careers, Lisa is actively involved in her community as a former Miss Las Vegas (2014), Miss Nevada (2014) and serves on the executive board of the Asian Community Development Council. Lisa was selected as a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum and was named a Top 10 Social Entrepreneur to Watch.
William Van Vleet
William is a talented and seasoned executive with over 35 years of experience in technology product development for commercial and defense markets. He was the founder and CEO of an analytics and cyber security firm, Haystax Technologies, which he led to over $100 million in revenue in just three years. William brings a wealth of expertise with strengths in areas such as business strategy, strategic planning, operational management, program management, business development, sales and marketing, M&A and integration.
Andrew Rossow
Andrew is an Internet Attorney, Author, Adjunct Law Professor, Forbes Contributor & Media Consultant for ABC, FOX, & NBC in Dayton, Ohio. As a millennial, he is able to provide a unique perspective on new, emerging technologies, social media crimes, privacy implications, and digital currencies. He has traveled to over 12 countries, including Brazil, Ghana, South Africa, India, Vietnam, China and Taiwan, studying how technology affects children and young teens in these countries in comparison to the U.S. For more information, follow his #CYBERBYTE series on social media.
Ali Mirza
Ali is CEO of Rose Garden Consulting, where he helps businesses systematize their sales process and create peace of mind with consistent cash flow. His company has developed, documented & implemented scalable sales for clients including: General Assembly, Yellow Pages, Richemont Group and Linux Academy. Ali was named the 2016 Sales POP Blogger of The Year.
James Sowers
James was recently named one of the top 50 angel investors by Forbes Magazine. James is a featured speaker at MIT Media labs, a mentor at Alchemist, an Accelerator Director at Greater Good Society and a Mentor at Stanford University, designing decentralized applications on blockchain. James believes in joining the best founders in projects that are creating the future as we know it.
Ken Cauley
Ken is a widely celebrated entrepreneur and angel investor with a wide array of professional experiences and accomplishments. Ken built, scaled and successfully exited one of the internet’s largest video game media voices. He has been recognized for his ability to quickly scale companies and has developed a winning formula for success. Ken built multiple, multi-million dollar companies before the age of 30. His most recent success, Konnected, landed him the #91 spot on the INC 500 list. Ken has an endless love for entrepreneurship and is currently an active founder and/or angel investor in a variety of companies spanning several industries; including but not limited to, clinical laboratory testing, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, automotive, television production, ecommerce, shipping and logistics technology, amongst several others.
Charlie Lambropoulos
Charlie has over 10 years of experience as an entrepreneur and early employee in the technology industry including 3 acquisitions and 1 IPO. His background is primarily in product development, managing distributed teams, online marketing and sales. He is currently Co-Founder of ScrumLaunch, a product development company focused on helping startups build great software. He also serves as Head of Product & Revenue at WingWarp, the leader in NCAA official instant replay and livestreaming technology.
Krish Chopra
Krish Chopra is the Founder and CEO of NPHub. He believes in two truths: everything is a learnable skill and real leadership involves caring for others. Krish’s mission is to empower underserved communities and currently he is developing a platform in the nursing industry to help Nurse Practitioners graduate on-time. Recognized by Medium as a top writer in Leadership, he also regularly contributes to major publications such as Forbes, Fast Company, Thrive Global, Huffington Post, and Inc.
Zach Zelner
Zach Zelner is a leader in the world of startups and entrepreneurship with over $50M in sales in 5 years. His pursuits have involved industries ranging from tech to cannabis. In 2012, Zach launched a cookie delivery operation out of his college apartment and subsequently scaled it to 3 brick-and-mortar locations with over 100 employees. Soon after, he founded a tech company, Penny Logistics, which scaled to a $15M company in 5 months. Zach then started DocMJ, a physician’s practice offering medical cannabis cards to qualified patients in Florida. This business expanded to 15 clinics around the state. Most recently, Zach started PupSocks, an e-commerce company producing custom socks with customer-submitted pet photos. PupSocks quickly scaled to $8M revenue in 30 days and became one of the fastest-growing e-commerce stores ever.
Alex Prasad
Alex is a business and M&A attorney that has dedicated his practice to the intersection of sport and the law, focusing on navigating the legal obstacles that often present themselves to early-stage companies in youth sports and sports technology. A firm believer in the power of participation in athletics, his primary goal is to be a trusted advisor of his clients – informing them of the legal ramifications of their actions and triangulating the business, legal and other considerations required to arrive at the best possible outcome. Before becoming an attorney, Alex was a producer with Big Ten Network. Alex is an avid marathoner and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with his wife, Olivia.
Kumar Arora
Kumar Arora is the former star and investor “shark” on Lebron James’ hit TV show: “Cleveland Hustle”. Cleveland Hustle was the #2 rated show on CNBC when it aired. Kumar is a serial entrepreneur & angel investor behind many notable startups & brands. His concentration
lies in a variety of industries including
fashion, tech, nano-science,
entertainment, marketing, & design. Kumar has taken his vision and expertise to lead the way with strategic investments and growth opportunities withhis parent company, Aroridex Ltd. Kumar is the first Indian American investor to ever be featured on CNBC.Collectively to date,
Aroridex assets and ventures have yielded over $30 million across industries with annual sales over $8 million per year. He boasts an impressive roster of clients ranging from Fortune 500s, startups, to celebrities & athletes.