Cohort 2 included 23 investors (selected out of 4,000+ applications, ~0.5% acceptance rate) that formed five deal sourcing teams: Consumer, FinTech, Healthcare, HighTech, and Impact.
Cohort 2 Deal Sourcing Teams
Consumer Team
Aakash Jain
- Previously Venture Fellow at Jump Capital, Growth-Equity Advisor at FinTech Partners, and Algorithmic Trader (coding + markets junkie) at Morgan Stanley
- MBA, University of Chicago (Booth); Co-Founder & Membership Lead at Booth Bay Area Angel Network (Booth BAAN)
- Built a world championship winning formula-style 600cc race car on the FSAE car-team while studying Computer Science at Cornell University
Kiyoko Osone
- Associate at Morgan Stanley
- Research Study Coordinator at UCLA Heath
- UCLA - English Literature & Neuroscience
Brian Kelley
- Angel Investor and Real Estate Capital Raiser
- Previously Institutional Sales & Trading Director at R.W. Pressprich & Co. Inc. and Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.
- Assistant Controller at GoldenTree Asset Management L.P.
- Assurance Senior Associate at PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP.
- CFA Charterholder and CPA (NY)
- Lehigh University - BS Finance & Accounting
Karishma Patel
- Platform Specialist at LiveIntent
- Strategy & Operations at ClassPass
- Digital Marketing at Columbia Records
- Masters in Social Entrepreneurship at USC Marshall
- Harvard Business School, HBX, Business Analytics, Economics, & Financial Accounting
- NYU (BA), Music Industry Management & Media & Technology
Wayne Lim
- Involved with four startups, co-founded three of them
- Work experience at Bain & Company, W.R. Hambrecht & Company, SynerAsia Venture Capital, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle and Infosys
- Harvard (MBA) and Case Western Universities (Doctoral degree)
- Board of Directors, Harvard Business School Newspaper
- Author of Prentice-Hall Software Management book, Managing Software Reuse
FinTech Team
Elias Can
- Formerly a Portfolio Management Associate at Harding Loevner
- The College of New Jersey - BS Finance
- Die-hard NBA fan, Fintech & Blockchain enthusiast
Yan Mu
- Asset Servicing at BNY Mellon
- Senior Operations Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch
- Senior Portfolio Manager at AuRui Chemical Corp
- Shanghai Finance & Economics University, Masters in Financial Engineering
- Liverpool John Moores University, Masters in International Banking & Finance
Ben York
- Formerly an Account Executive at Remedly Inc and an Analyst at Citigroup in Equity Derivatives and Mortgage Backed Securities
- Studied Economics with a concentration in Financial Markets at Colby College
- Sneaker collector and investor and avid Arsenal FC fan
Jeff Piltch
Sold family-owned business ARS Restoration Specialists to The RESCON Group in June of 2018, a strategic buyer financed by PNC Mezzanine Capital
Jeff stayed on as Director of Corporate Development before pursuing a career in VC
Active member of Beacon Angels and SideCar Angels in Boston
Founder and Manager of R&J RE LLC, a real estate investment and management group based in Boston
CFA Charterholder and Massachusetts Licensed Construction Supervisor
Healthcare Team
JJ Fang
- Previously Investment Manager @TTVC
- Previously at New Deantronics, Quanta and Innolux
- Masters in Applied Mechanics at Taiwan University
Margaret Quigley
- Investment Manager, Managing Personal Investment Portfolio
- Director of Institutional Equity Trading, Telsey Advisory Group
- Director of Institutional Equity Trading, JMP Group
- Director of Institutional Equity Trading, Bank of America
- Hackbright Academy, Python Coding
Joe Harris
- Skilled at strategic management and practices for formulating, implementing, and evaluating strategies in organizations under conditions of disruptive technological change and uncertainty
- Designed, implemented, and back tested algorithmic (IPython) Forex trading strategies at Quantopian
- Master of Science degree in Organizational Management from Eastern Connecticut State University
Vitor Lima
- Blockchain & Crytpocurrency Hedge Fund Manager
- 5x Entrepreneur
- College Dropout To Do VC
HighTech Team
Grant Kendall-Bell
- Interests in new platform technologies: Space Tech, AI, Blockchain & Robotics
- Business Development Research Analyst, Booz Allen Hamilton
- American University, Finance & Entrepreneurship
- The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Business & Finance
Jagruti Bhikha
- Angel Investor, 38+ portfolio companies
- Senior Innovation Consultant, Institute of Food Technologists (IFT)
- Founding Partner, Wingpact
- Tech Mentor, Singularity University
- Global Account Manager, Cisco
- MS, Project Management, George Washington University
- NYU - Polytechnic School of Engineering & Computer Science
Ben Steven
- CFO, Bipronum, a Silicon Valley company developing the first-ever cloud-based DIY workflow solution
- Co-CEO / Owner, Steven GmbH, Modernized a 170-yr old business and reinforced global leadership position
- Senior Portfolio Manager, ABP Investments, world’s 3rd-largest managed pension fund
Rohit Gupta
- Product Manager, ShieldX Networks
- Investment Banking Summer Analyst, Credit Suisse
- Investment Banking Analyst, Bridge Street Advisors
- Business Technology Analyst, Deloitte
- UC Berkeley, Business Administration
Impact Team
Stefan Arteaga
- Innovation & Entrepreneurship minded professional with experience in both nanotechnology and marketing
- Cross-cultural experience in Latin America and Europe.
- IP Portfolio Manager, Capacitor Sciences
- Production Chemist & Marketing, Polypure AS
- University of Olso, MS, Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Alina Tioupikova
- Experience ranging from startups, large enterprise, and government, dabbling in product, engineering and Ops.
- Knowledge in leading and empowering teams to create innovative products that disrupt at scale
- Led new technology initiatives on Pearson’s Global Product team, introducing VR and AI capabilities, delivering next-gen digital learning experience
- Previously, co-founded an incubator in Australia that focused on helping non-technical entrepreneurs build and launch MVPs in the consumer facing tech space
- Has a background in Entrepreneurship and Computer Science and thrives in conversations that intersect the two
Yvonne Okafor
- Born in Nigeria, raised in Argentina, Nigeria and the United States
- Previously a Venture Fellow at Score 3 Angel Network and Operations Intern at United Way Worldwide
- Passionate about investing to developed emerging markets, especially Sub-Sahara Africa
- American University - Masters of Science in Finance; CAIA candidate
Christopher Tarika
- Experienced and licensed financial adviser at Fidelity Investments
- History of social impact community service in Latin America
- Economics Major at Hobart College with a focus in portfolio design
