Axel Tillmann is Managing Partner at Alpha-Consult, a going to market and business strategy consulting firm and is alsoCEO of Pitch Global Innovation Capital.Be it transitioning to a new market, brand, strategy, or partnership, Mr.TIllmannhelps clients design understandable plans, and innovate meaningful solutions. Mr. Tillmann brings close tothree decades of leadership experience to the table, having directed numerous startups to and through successfulexits, which also allowed him to gain a wealth of experience dealing with publicly held firms. Known as a serialentrepreneur, Mr. Tillmann is a well-known, well-connected expert involving start-ups, entrepreneurship andenterprise endorsement. In the last 5 years Mr. Tillmann consulted with 100s of firms from a wide range of technologyand industry sectors (Communication, Internet Security, IoT, Travel Industry, Life Sciences, Renewable Energy andGreen Technologies) Prior positions were with RVC-USA, $1B Fund of Funds, and a Going-To-Market strategy firmfor foreign companies that wanted to enter the US market, Alpha Consult (among many projects lead a team ofGerman Energy developers to work on the opportunity for 300 MW wind power in New Hampshire cooperatingwiththe then Governor of NH), Arcsight (acquired by HP), Azure Technologies (acquired by GN), ENIRA Technology(acquired by ArcSight) and GBS Laboratories. In 1998 he founded NOVILIT, Inc., a firm specializing in the design ofelectronic automation products and protocols. At NOVILIT, Mr. Tillmann oversaw and successfully ran the funding,market strategy all product development and R&D for the firm. An accomplished speaker and author well known forhis technical expertise, Mr. Tillmann advises numerous industry organizations and served as Chairman of the Boardof Alion Energy, Chairman of the Board of Appnow, Past Member of the BoD of SMI (before recent M&A), and is inthe BoA of more than 10 other companies. He holds degrees in Bachelor of Science in EE from the University ofWuppertal in Germany and a Bachelor of Science in BA from Luebeck.
2019
Ari pioneered instant video messaging with Glide, a company he co-founded in 2012 that attracted millions of active users and 10s of millions of investment dollars from VCs. In 2015, Ari teamed up with an original member of the Apple Watch engineering team to pioneer the camera for Apple Watch.
Ari was included in MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35, and has persisted through many ups and downs in his entrepreneurial journey.
He is a dedicated family man passionate about helping others whenever he can.His new product is set to debut later this year.
Ken Elefant is Managing Director at Sorenson Capital. Ken joined Sorenson Capital in 2017 and leads the firm’s early-stage technology practice. Prior to Sorenson Capital, Ken spent more than 20 years in Silicon Valley at leading venture capital firms including Battery Ventures, Lightspeed and Intel Capital. Ken enjoys working closely with entrepreneurs to help them attack new market opportunities and gain access to key initial customers and partners. His efforts have led to recognition as one of the most connected names in tech. Before joining Sorenson, Ken was Managing Director at Intel Capital and VP at Intel Corporation. Leading the software and security groups at Intel Capital, Ken invested in several market-leading companies including AtHoc (Blackberry), Prolexic (Akamai), DocuSign, Forescout, AlienVault (AT&T), Venafi, Vectra Networks, Gigya (SAP), BrightEdge, among many others. Prior to Intel Capital, Ken was a founding general partner at Opus Capital. While at Opus, he served on the boards of Spock Networks (Intelius), Transpond (Webtrends), Supersecret (Knowledge Adventure), Alert Enterprise, Jivox, and TrustedID (Equifax). Previously, Ken was a Senior Associate at both Lightspeed Venture Partners and Battery Ventures. Before business school, Ken worked at Radius, Claris Corporation (the software subsidiary of Apple), and RealNetworks, where he held various sales, marketing, finance, and business development positions. Ken received an MBA from Harvard Business School and holds a Bachelor of Science in economics from the Wharton School of Business. He is a Kauffman Fellow.
Nuno is Grishin Robotics’ Venture Partner. Grishin Robotics is a series A and B Sand Hill Rd firm focused on Smart Hardware with investments in companies such as Zume Pizza, Starship, Zipline, Spin, Yellow, Ring, eero and others. He is also the Managing Partner & Founder of Strive Capital, the San Francisco Bay area’s first quant micro-VC firm, now focused on “deep” AI and Blockchain, with investments in companies like AppAnnie, KeepSafe, Gusto and Rubrik. He has had a 22 year career in Tech as a Product Manager, Operator, Investor and Board member in the Bay area, Europe and Asia, and was previously a Senior Expert and member of the Asia-Pacific leadership team at McKinsey & Co, based in Beijing.
Justin Kan is the co-founder and CEO of Atrium, a full-service corporate law firm that uses modern technology to provide startups a legal experience that is fast, transparent, and price-predictable. Having been a repeat founder and investor both personally and as a Partner at Y Combinator for many years, Justin coins himself an involuntary user of legal services. With countless legal frustrations under his belt, he sought out to redefine the industry by removing the unknown barriers with transparency and operational efficiency to improve the delivery of services and inherently also the client-attorney relationship.
Justin previously founded many companies including:
Kiko, the first AJAX web calendar;
Justin.tv which later became Twitch, a video game streaming platform (acquired for $970mm by Amazon in 2014) and Socialcam, a mobile video sharing app (acquired for $60mm by Autodesk in 2012);
Exec, an on-demand maid service (acquired by Handybook in 2014).
He’s personally invested in over 100 companies, including Zenefits, Ginkgo Bioworks, Cruise, and Alto Pharmacy. Justin graduated from Yale University with a degree in Physics and Philosophy.
Tadas Jucikas is a Founder and CEO of Genus AI, a next generation artificial intelligence platform rooted in neuroscience and behavioural psychology. Genus AI is an off-the-shelf Enterprise AI platform for deep customer understanding and next best action recommendation. Genus AI works with companies in financial services, insurance, fashion & luxury e-commerce and entertainment space. Tadas completed his PhD in Computational Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge. Since then he has built and managed data science teams and pioneered applications of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning algorithms for both the private and public sector.
Prior to joining Greylock, Seth worked as a Product Manager at Facebook where he led initiatives for the Messenger Developer Platform. He oversaw the transition from Facebook to a standalone Messaging app, managed integrations with key partners, such as Uber, Lyft and KLM, and launched the open developer platform, with over 30,000 developers. In just two years, Messenger went from 200 million users to 1 billion users.
Before Facebook, Seth worked at Goldman Sachs in New York doing tech & media investment banking. At Goldman, Seth helped take companies public, including RetailMeNot and Intelsat, worked on financings for AT&T, and helped with the sale of Tekelec to Oracle. Seth received a Bachelor of Commerce with Honors from Queen’s University.
Seth is originally from Winnipeg, Canada and is a West Coast transplant.
Harshitha directs investment research and helps shape the overall strategy of the firm. She’s particularly intrigued by the multidisciplinary nature of the blockchain space and enjoys exploring its intersection between economics, finance, and technological innovation.
Prior to Decipher, she did a stint as the CFO of an edtech startup and spent three years in the prestigious TAP program at Capital Group.
She holds a B.A. in Economics-Mathematics from Columbia University, which she completed in 3 years.
Steffen Bartschat is a member of Sand Hill Angels, one of the most active angel groups in the world. During his day job as CEO of Hill88, Steffen helps large corporates engage with the Silicon Valley ecosystem. He has held senior management positions ranging from early stage startups (Lumo BodyTech) to Fortune 50 corporations (IBM) in the consumer, automotive, and enterprise software sectors.
Steffen holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University and an M.S. in Business Management from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Ravi Mulugu is a Partner with UL Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Underwriters Laboratories. He focuses on early stage venture investments related to Cybersecurity, Autonomous Systems and Digital Manufacturing. Before joining UL Ventures, Ravi was a Principal at Next47 (Siemens Venture Capital) where he invested in growth stage startups in Smart Grid, Industrial IoT and Analytics. Ravi received a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.