Our mentor network

Aaron Alpeter

Aaron Alpeter is a graduate of Unilever's prestigious Supply Chain Management Program where he spent 5 years gaining direct experience working in planning, manufacturing, international logistics, and continuous improvement. He was brought on as the Chief Supply Chain Officer at Hubble Contacts to design an international supply chain from the ground up and run the customer service teams. Aaron was also COO at Sustain Natural where he redesigned their operations for e-commerce while significantly improving Gross Margin. Aaron recently founded Izba which is a Supply Chain Management consulting firm with an innovative approach for startups between their seed round and Series B. Izba helps founders build scalable supply chains through standard project work and/or running the day to day operations so they can focus on growing their business. Their fractional model gives companies access to Fortune 500 and COO level talent for the cost of a Junior Operations person until the workload justifies bringing a full-time person in house. Aaron's passion is in building companies and teams, and he is always open to sharing experiences and helping others. Mentoring style: The best experiences I've had is when the company has very specific and targeted questions or a problem they want to discuss and set the agenda accordingly. The most difficult ones are when the company isn't super organized and expects me to just do things for them.

Adam Weiss

Adam Weiss has more than 20 years of successful leadership experience in various forms of online marketing & advertising with a focus on the Affiliate & Performance channel. Adam is the former SVP/GM of the Rakuten Affiliate Network and currently runs his own consulting practice where he helps a wide variety of Publishers & Technology solutions in the Affiliate Marketing space with strategic direction, partnership development & monetization strategies. Mentoring style: Listen first, build trust, encourage discussion, provide guidance where needed.

Aja Singer

Aja Singer has spent the last 10+ years as an entrepreneur mastering brand creative, and now works with mission-driven startups on brand & creative strategy. Previously, she was Of Mercer's founding Creative Director. Aja loves uncovering what drives consumer behavior and creating products and content that inspires community and drives revenue. Mentoring style: I am a goal oriented mentor and I enjoy with working with founders, especially women (most of my mentoring in the past has been through women's groups)

Akta Mehta

Akta Mehta is a start-up advisor and growth strategy leader Google. She is currently leading growth strategy for Google Workspace - a subscription product including apps like Gmail, Meet, Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc. Her expertise is on the D2C, e-commerce direct business side - focused on customer acquisition and lifecycle strategies to acquire, onboard, nuture, retain, and create loyal paying users to drive revenue. She has deep understanding of business metrics for evaluating, running, and operating an efficient business. Akta's previous experience includes working in consumer subscription at Microsoft and getting her MBA at Michigan Ross School of Business. Her early career was spent at Starcom, a top tier media planning and buying agency. Akta thrives in scrappy, lean, and "figure it out" environments. She's launched new products with extremely lean teams and limited resourcing and through that realized her entrepreneurial side and started working with start-ups to share best practices, learnings, and help with their growth strategy. Unique experiences: She also participated in a highly coveted design thinking program in Italy working on a luxury goods fashion brand, consulted at Facebook working on internet connectivity solutions, worked on big CPG/retail brands at Starcom, and has in depth knowledge of the MarTech space built throughout her career. Mentoring style: Dependable, honest, thoughtful

Alain Groenendaal

Alain Groenendaal is an innovative senior marketing executive with proven U.S., international and global experience in new business development, brand strategy, integrated multi-channel campaigns, client partnership, cross-market team building, and overall P&L leadership. Mentoring style: Collaborative, socratic method

Alan Katz

Alan Katz is currently Head of Business Development at XGen, an AI Personalization for E-Commerce. He is senior media executive with over 20 years experience generating revenue, developing and operating multi-platform businesses, brand extensions, and sales and marketing strategies for major consumer magazines, websites, sponsored live events and e-commerce brands. Mentoring style: I work to get to the core of what the founders are trying to communicate and help them focus and present their message in the clearest format for sales and investment.

Alan Krantzler

Alan Krantzler is an insights-based brand leader with a rich understanding of product and brand management applying innovate targeted marketing to grow businesses. Alan has a proven track record of repositioning brands using traditional and digital marketing campaigns. He is top and bottom line oriented to drive growth as well as increase profitability. Alan is a highly respected leader who excels at integrating cross-functional teams, and experienced in international multi-channel corporate structures as well as start-up and entrepreneurial environments. Mentoring style: Board /Advisory board member, Brand development committees, market research/consumer development and insights committee/team. I want to work with people who are over 40 and have some prior experience in the business world.

Alberta Yan

For the past seven years, Alberta Yan has advised high-growth startups in connection with planning and executing a variety of corporate transactions. Mentoring style: Listen and provide advice.

Alex Hornick

Alex is a slidedeck enthusiast and die-hard New Yorker She runs the investment team at Purple Sage Ventures and responsible for finding changemakers, selecting new investment opportunities and establishing the firm’s partnerships across the ecosystem. Alex wore the operator hat as the Chief of Staff at HiredScore, an innovative AI-based HR Tech startup, where she was responsible for strategy and operational excellence, as well as with her own ventures. Alex graduated with honors from Georgetown University’s undergraduate McDonough School of Business while also earning a certificate from theWalsh School of Foreign Service.

Alex Levin

Alex Levin is the Founding Partner and Director of Strategy of L+R, an international Strategy Consultancy and Design Technology Studio. He spearheads the firm's award-winning end-to-end consulting covering research and analysis, to design strategy and digital production. A graduate of Parsons' School of Design Strategies, Levin leverages his expertise in branding and customer experience to craft complex digital solutions for companies such as Global Citizen, Amazon Web Service, Louis Vuitton, and Estée Lauder Companies. Alex also owns Desgin Gin, an American Modern Gin, with a mission to unite the design community with the spirit industry. Mentoring style: Collaborative, hands-on dynamic, non-linear. I like working with knowledgable and passionate founders.

Alexander Sova

Alexander Sova successfully grew a business from the ground up to an international firm with two offices and 100 employees. Presently, his consulting company has been servicing more than 80 clients, businesses ranging from early-stage startups to Fortune 500 companies. Alexander is also serving as a CTO of StyleHacks.ai - Google and FounderFund-backed fashion-tech startup. Specialties: software development, consulting, outsourcing, AI, machine learning, voice interfaces, conversational software Mentoring style: I'm happy to provide guidance to founders who are not familiar with ML/AI field and are not sure how AI could be applied to their domain. I also can help to set up and build an engineering team from scratch for non-technical founders.

Alexandria Carroll

Alexandria Carroll is the Founder and CEO of License to Drift, an early stage leisure travel startup. Alex's career spans over a decade in tech, consumer retail and finance. She has extensive experience in merchandise planning and operations, and has taught in the graduate and undergraduate fashion programs at FIT and Berkeley College, respectively. Alex developed processes to drive sales and profitability with major retail and e-commerce accounts during her time at Global Brands Group and Perry Ellis International. As a Director with planning oversight of the Character Licensing Group, she was selected for Global Brands' G3 Leadership Program and was a trusted partner to senior sales, production and design staff. Prior to her career in retail, she worked in equity research at Goldman Sachs. Alex holds a bachelor's degree in engineering from Stanford University and an MBA with Honors from Wharton. Mentoring style: In general, I like work that is creative problem solving, which is very suited to startups that have to maximize output with limited resources. In the past, I have helped founders figure out strategic next steps through white boarding exercises, helped with B2B sales, helped with competitive analysis, etc. It's not a necessity, but I have a personal interest in environmental protection and corporate social responsibility, and the retail industry has a lot of opportunity to improve on those fronts, so founding teams that are addressing some of those issues would be interesting.

Andrea Wasserman

Andrea Wasserman is a consumer sector leader with a background in both stores and E-commerce. An evangelist of the intersection of physical and digital retail, Andrea's writing at CaptainCustomer.com also spans brand and customer experience. Her weekly newsletter counts senior leaders at top retailers among its subscribers. Much of what Andrea loved about leading businesses at Nordstrom, Sole Society, Hudson's Bay, Lord & Taylor and Nine West was connecting companies with each other. She led teams in testing creative marketing partnerships, exploring corporate development relationships, adopting the latest technology, and introducing emerging fashion brands into merchandise assortments that needed them. Finding the “new” was key to driving sales and building long-term brands; Andrea brought a start-up mentality to her work leading high-growth divisions of large companies. In her corporate roles, Andrea was known as the MBA who liked to work with customers in stores, climb stock room ladders, learn the latest digital marketing tactics from the most junior people on her team, and sit on the floor playing with fabric swatches with the designers. After leaving her most recent corporate leadership position at the end of 2015, Andrea founded CAPTAIN CUSTOMER, LLC. Today, Andrea spends most of her time working with B2B companies, primarily in retail tech.

Andy Oshrin

After working in a family business for 10+yrs, Andrew Oshrin co-founded Milly, a contemporary women's clothing and accessories brand in 2000. As CEO, he set and oversaw business processes, HR, sales management, business operations, team building, strategic planning, IP, and overall executive management. Mentoring style: I am a hands on experienced manager and enjoy passing on my knowledge and working on strategy. I enjoy working with learners who are highly motivated.

Aneeka Sajid

Aneeka Sajid is a Seasoned banker with extensive business origination, deal execution and relationship management experience. Sector expertise in consumer-retail sector and fintech. Aneeka is an investor at 37 Angels. Mentoring style: Hands on with frequent dialogue, debates, thought exercises and of course encouragement! Building relationships is important to me so I enjoy working with founders who employ open communication and apply an inquisitive and flexible approach to challenges/issues.

Ankur Patel

Ankur Patel is currently the co-founder and managing partner at River AI Consulting, a boutique AI consulting practice to help organizations design and execute data strategies involving data science, machine learning, and data engineering. The portfolio includes work in computer vision, natural language processing, data normalization, anomaly detection, clustering, recommender systems, and predictive modeling. Mentoring style: I love working with founders that love data and machine learning and want to build companies that are data-centric. These founders could be product-focused or technical. I'm a laid back mentor, preferring mentoring that resembles coffee chats.

Anna Andreeva

Anna Andreeva has spent 15 years focusing on the consumer space, as an Equity Research Analyst and Investment Banker. Anna is also passionate about up and coming brands in the Consumer space Strong modeling and presentation skills. Mentoring style: supportive and organized; creative people with a vision. Enjoy being a sounding board for founders strategically and with fund raise

April Henry

April Henry is a co-founder and General Partner of Defiance Capital, an early stage venture capital fund focused on backing "Defiant" founders in B2B and B2B2C across FinTech, Health Tech and Enterprise software. Given her leadership experiences in corporate development, business development and strategy for various media verticals, April also serves as a startup consultant, advisor, strategist and investor. With 11 years at Morgan Stanley, 2 years at Index Ventures and 5 years at News Corporation, April also has public and private market experience on the Board of Directors across technology sectors including mobile, retail, consumer, AI, Blockchain, events, growth marketing, digital advertising, media and entertainment. As a Mentor at XRC Labs, April enjoys supporting entrepreneurs especially in providing direction in crafting their fundraising pitch, expanding their investor network through warm introductions, evaluating their financial outlook and assisting in refining their assumptions, supporting their vision and mental outlook and attracting and retaining talent.

Asher von Stein

Ashli Weiss

Ashli worked with Benefit Cosmetics, Western Digital, Tory Burch and Louis Vuitton, prior to launching her own firm. She advises as part of a team of several innovative businesses that bring amazing products and services to the market. Ashli enjoys mentoring startups, because it's inspiring to support entrepreneurs building a world-class tech ecosystem. Mentoring style: I try to be understanding and supportive with startups. Generally, startups seek legal support when they are in a stressful situation. I try to develop relationships with honesty and trust, which are critical to helping solve a legal issue. I enjoy working with founders that are open to learning and growth.

Austin Cohen

Austin is an entrepreneur and innovator who has helped build market-leading franchises in the private aviation and health & wellness sectors. He has drawn upon broad based skills and experience in strategy, business development, finance and capital raising to create strong consumer demand for participants in the health & wellness, sports, entertainment and technology verticals. Austin is the Founder & CEO of FlexIt Inc. (founded in 2018), whose mission is to create exceptionally flexible and empowering fitness experiences for consumers and businesses around the world. FlexIt is designed to deliver unparalleled convenience, accessibility, accountability & customization. From a product and delivery perspective, FlexIt provides access to live 2-way private wellness and fitness sessions to consumers and enterprises -- all sessions are led by certified personal trainers, nutritionists, physical therapists and coaches from a variety of modalities, accessible from any device, wherever the customer is. Earlier in his career, Austin was a Founding Team member and Chief of Staff at industry-leading private aviation unicorn, Wheels Up (NYSE: UP), which went public in July 2021. In 2020 he was named a IHRSA Rising Star -- an accolade that recognizes the top talent under 35 years in the fitness industry. He frequently represents and advocates on behalf of the fitness industry as a featured guest speaker and is sought after by fitness and business-oriented media for his insights on developments in the fast-changing world of fitness and wellness. Austin is very active at Columbia. Business School; he is an adjunct Professor and teaches for the marketing department on Partnerships; he is also advisor and coach at Columbia Business School's Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center, and a board member of the Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center. He is also a Columbia Business School Startup Track Advisor and a frequent guest lecturer at Columbia Business School. Austin is a widely-regarded media personality, as he regularly lectures at a number of universities, writes/contributes for Forbes, is a recurring guest for Cheddar TV, is host of the podcast Just FlexIt and the fitness video interview series The Morning Flex, and is regularly featured in NBC, ABC, Entrepreneur and others.

Barbara Kahn

Barbara Kahn is an internationally recognized scholar on retailing, variety seeking, brand loyalty, product assortment and design, and consumer and patient decision-making. She has published more than 75 articles in leading academic journals. She co-authored Grocery Revolution: The New Focus on the Consumer, and authored Global Brand Power and The Shopping Revolution. Mentoring style: not sure how to define it

Barry Lowenthal

Senior Marketing Executive, Advisor and Industry Thought Leader with 30+ years of experience in media planning and buying, management, operations and strategy. Served 16 years as the CEO of Media Kitchen, an acclaimed media agency with a strong digital core. Skilled in attracting, building and training global, diverse and curious teams by leading with empathy and listening deeply. Strategically consult with clients on ways to transform customer reach and engagement through modern, tech-driven platforms and partners. Expert in overseeing P&L, driving profitability, and synthesizing information to make quick decisions. ​​Specialties: Media planning and buying, media management and operations, advertising, branding, programmatic, SEM, social media, creative collaboration, content creation, training and nurturing fantastic talent Mentoring style: Collaborative and I hope, helpful.

Ben Yehooda

Ben Yehooda is a Technology Executive with 15+ years of progressive experience in management, strategy, product design, and development. Focused on solution architecture, processes and policies best practices, and taking POC from R&D to MVP CI in DevOps. Driven by efficiency, for a continued and compounding improvements of profits and processes, implemented best-in-class technologies. Experienced and passionate about AI and cutting-edge innovation, Ben has led and founded several startups. An emotionally intelligent leader who motivates by the guidance of mastery, autonomy, and purpose. Develops professionals and leaders for successful and engaging careers. Ben holds a B.S. and an MBA from Cornell. Mentoring style: Productive

Bob Dakin

Bob Dakin is a highly accomplished, multi-channel, international, senior level retail leader. He is the founder and principal of BD Consulting.He had direct responsibility at Calvin Klein for a $725 million global retail business trading in over 40 countries with over 1,450 retail locations. Mentoring style: colaberative and engaged ... founders that are all in

Bob Hayes

Robert P Hayes has more than 30 years of product and operating experience in both digital and retail management. His vision and dynamic personality sets him apart.Bob's experience was built on improving processes and streamlining procedures across start-ups and Fortune 500 companies while building high-performance teams. Primarily in E-Commerce and Merchandising. Mentoring style: Collaborative and curious. Commerce personalization

Bobby Palmieri

Bobby Palmieri is the CEO of Lilo Social, a Brooklyn based digital growth agency. Specializing in social content, Bobby has worked with companies like Microsoft, Under Armour, Foot Locker, Kjaer Weis, PEZ, and Live Nation on growth campaigns. Mentoring style: Hands on, tactical

Brian Tunick

Mentoring style: Am currently working with both Cherry Pick.ai and Swivel Beauty. Enjoy strategy, business development and fund raising.

Bryan Harris

Bryan Harris has spent more than 40 years in the marketing communications industry and has inspired a generation of professionals with his insight, strategic counsel and thought leadership. He joined Taylor, a leader in sports, entertainment and lifestyle PR, in 1989 and managed a wide variety of accounts for leading global brands such as Bristol-Myers, GSK, Gillette, MasterCard, Pitney Bowes, Fox Sports and Panini America.From 2004 to 2022, Bryan served as the agency’s Chief Operating Officer and Managing Partner. During a period of significant growth and evolution for Taylor, he oversaw the development and transformation of the agency’s core operations functions, including finance, IT, and HR. He also managed agency marketing initiatives, which included all aspects of branding, owned social media channels, and awards and recognition, and played a pivotal role in business development. Today, he remains a shareholder, consultant and advisor to Taylor.From 2013-2016, Bryan served as a director and treasurer for the PR Council, where he founded and chaired the Council’s COO Group, a peer network of senior operations executives at leading agencies across North America.Since 2019, Bryan has been and investor/advisor with FlexIt, a New York based company that is disrupting the connected fitness space.Bryan graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania (College ’83), where he was an award-winning sports editor and columnist for The Daily Pennsylvanian. His devotion to his alma mater and dual passion for anthropology and sports never waned as evidenced by Bryan’s ongoing consultative and philanthropic efforts for the Penn Museum, which boasts one of the world’s great collections of antiquity. He is also a supporter, advisor and mentor to The Daily Pennsylvanian as well as to Penn’s department of intercollegiate athletics.Since 2016, Bryan has been active with Garner Arts Center in Garnerville, NY. He helped found the Ned Harris Education Studio, named in honor of his father, who was a revered presence at the arts institution and has provided funding for the development of Garner Arts’ expansive new gallery space, Gallery 35, which officially opened in March 2023. Mentoring style: Active listener, teacher/coach, highly accessible

Caroline Palmer

Caroline was the director of editorial, video, and social media at Amazon fashion until 2019. Prior to her tenure at Amazon, Palmer spent seven years as the Editor of Vogue.com, working directly with Anna Wintour on translating the brand's business for a new digitally-engaged audience. An inductee to the Digital Hall of Fame, and a three-time Webby Award winner, she also sits on the Foundation Board at FIT and is the chairperson of the fashion department advisory council at University of Delaware. Most recently she was the CMO and Head of Brands of VC-backed fashion start-up Resonance in New York, and she currently advises several start-ups in the fashion and e-commerce space. Mentoring style: I am a good listener and strategic thinker, but I am straight-forward in my advice so I like working with founders who are truly open to feedback and have backbone in their convictions. My areas of expertise are in brand building and messaging and cross-channel strategy and content creation that supports those original messages. Big plus: Fashion, sustainability, supply chain infrastructure.

Catherine Mirenda

Catherine Mirenda is currently a retail strategist consultant and educator for Fashion Institute of Technology. Undergraduates & Professional Studies Center for Fashion Merchandising, Omni-Channel Sales. Prior, Group Vice President, Divisional Planning Manager for Macy's. At Macy's held leadership roles in the store's organization , including Store Manager Herald Square Woman's Apparel and Nanuet and in Merchant Planning for Apparel, Shoes , Location Planning as a National Planning Manager for Ready to Wear. Specialties are Leadership, Talent Development, Building High Performing Teams, Merchant Planning (Assortment, Financial, Location, Allocation Strategy), Process Efficiencies, Store Operations (Merchandising, Day to Day Operation, People), Strong Analytical Skills, Ability to see he big picture, with the right level of detail to ensure strong execution. Collaborative partner used to working with multiple stakeholders to get accomplish objectives. Mentoring style: Coaching, Collaborative. Founders who need focus, may be overwhelmed, boost confidence. They are looking for expertise they lack.

Cathy Glosser

Cathy Glosser is an accomplished brand and business development executive with proven sales and product development experience. For over 25 years, Glosser has successfully worked with corporate, celebrity and entertainment brands, unlocking and driving revenue. She has specific skills and strengths in licensing, sales, strategic planning, brand management, marketing, client relationships, retail relationships and distribution strategies. Throughout her career, Glosser has a track record of building sustainable brand licensing and partnership programs. Mentoring style: I would describe my style as collaborative. I am a good listener, understanding objectives and goals to achieve and focused on the end result. Having a targeted approach to drive a business is critical to its success. I work well with founders who are passionate and engaged in what they are doing, as well as driven by success.

Chris Chew

Chris Chew is a technology driven entrepreneur and investor with experience in the development and retailing of cutting edge premium consumer products. As an awarded innovator, he has established his career building venture backed consumer technologies in the lifestyle, fashion, and apparel sectors. Christopher's background consists of venture capital, material science, and business strategy.

Chris Gorges

Chris Gorges is an independent brand strategy and design consultant, and the founder / CEO of Thompson & Prince and Everharbor. Chris mentors, advises, and consults for startup clients primarily related to naming, logo design, visual identity, positioning, messaging, marketing collateral, pitch decks, and website design & development. Chris also has previous experience across advertising, brand strategy consultancies, and management consulting. Select clients include Google, IBM, Spotify, TIAA, Amtrak, Wiley, NYCEDC and the US Department of Defense. Chris holds an MBA from NYU Stern, where he specialized in Strategy, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, and Finance, and an undergraduate business degree from UNC-Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Christine Fu

Christine Fu is an executive skilled in business development and partner strategy for high growth companies and companies experiencing significant business model transformation. Strong relationships with key decision makers at both Fortune 500 and early stage growth companies across categories. MBA from Harvard Business School and BS from University of California, Berkeley. Mentoring style: I like to work with founders who have a strong point of view, but are also willing to ask for help. I gravitate towards high energy, enthusiastic and tenacious folks who are open to creatively problem solving and out of the box thinking. My mentoring style is laid back as I like to let folks set the tone, and serve more as a sounding board to bounce ideas off of, as opposed to a more directive approach.

Christine Park

Christine Park has been a leader in New York City's fashion and charitable communities by developing brands such as Time's Arrow, Steven Alan, Rogan, Loomstate and Housing Works. She has served as a mentor through the CFDA's Fashion Incubator Pro¬gram and Business Mentor Network. With management experience in operations, sales, merchandising, marketing, retail and e-commerce, Christine brings keen eye to design and sharp business acumen with a deep understanding of the intersection of creative and commerce. Currently, Christine is a partner in Ready Go Brands, creative investment agency focused on talent brand development.

Claudia Strauss

Claudia Strauss is an award winning integrated marketing executive known for delivering and executing big ideas. Claudia has an expertise in activations, partnerships, grassroots campaigns, public relations and experiential marketing — all digitally and IRL. A former agency executive, Claudia now consults for brands, organizations and agencies. Mentoring style: I take great pleasure in mentoring and I believe it comes through. I love to help female founders, and am open to any category of product/project if I have the right background to provide value

Crystal Ung

Crystal Ung is an entrepreneur and consultant with 12+ years experience in marketing and retail/fashion, innovation, and startups (DTC fashion-tech and CPG). She is a strategist and operator with diverse skills ranging from content creation and brand strategy to financial modeling. Crystal has an MBA from NYU Stern and formerly worked at the CFDA, Saks, J.Crew, Amazon, Chanel, and Disney. Mentoring style: As an entrepreneur, I understand first-hand the challenges founders experience and, therefore, my mentoring style leads with empathy. The way I mentor also mirrors the work I do as a consultant - I solve problems; I address the big picture with strategy but also get granular so there are clear action steps and a path to measurable results. I enjoy working with passionate founders who have clear values and are eager to build a business around solving a problem.

Crystal Zhang

Crystal is a Business Strategy and Operations Manager at Autodesk, a seed stage venture investor, angel investor and a Board Member at Kellogg Alumni Club (SF). Specialized in business model, operations, pricing and monetization strategy, corporate finance, financial analysis and forecasting, fund raising and data analytics. She previously worked at HSBC Investment Banking, World Bank private equity, BGV(VC), OCA(VC), Amazon and the Bay area startup eco-system. Mentoring style: Ask questions to help founders get clarity themselves. Open to all kinds of founders

Dave Aronson

Dave Aronson has over fifteen years experience in the technology industry, with focus on design, sales and implementation, as well as supervision of all company-wide management operations. A proven track record of successfully managing company resources and staff to maximize productivity and profit.

Dave Weiner

CFO/COO | Venture Advisor | Entrepreneur | Investor: I’m an experienced early-stage operator, having worked as the CFO/COO at startups in the EdTech and PropTech spaces. My areas of focus are investment raises, originating/implementing strategic financial and operational initiatives, helping scale growth, and team management/builds. I’m also an investor/advisor to technology companies, particularly in the Consumer space. In addition, I am a committee member of the University of Chicago Booth Angels Network (New York) and a NYC co-chair of the University Of Chicago Polsky Center Alumni New Venture Challenge. Previously, I was Deutsche Bank’s lead consumer discretionary global apparel/footwear/luxury brand analyst within equity research. Mentoring style: Hands-on, in-the-weeds style. Enjoy working with founders who are open to hearing candid advice.

David Chitayat

David Chitayat has 17 years of experience setting up and managing contract manufacturing for consumer products in Asia. David has managed product development teams responsible for bringing hundreds of new products to market. David is the Group CEO of Genimex Group and a principle at SOMA and Full Circle brands. Mentoring style: I prefer more informal interactions either in person or on the phone. I enjoy working with founders that are problem solvers and inquisitive.

David Neff

David J. Neff has 19 years of creating experiences that impact people's lives. From his work in eCommerce, Marketing, and Digital Strategy with the American Cancer Society, and foundingHelpAttack! Which was one of the first social media fundraising plays for nonprofits, to his work consulting Fortune 500 companies like Southwest Airlines, Hulu, Verizon, Pepsi, Lululemon, Dell, Discover Card, Kingfisher, and Tesco. He currently works as the VP of the data-driven consulting practice at Clearhead (acquired by Accenture Interactive), where he was able to create, market, build a team, scope and sell the first consulting products at the company. He currently works with Fortune 500 brands on their eCommerce strategy and building test and learn culture. He is the author of three books including IGNITE: Setting your Organization's Culture on Fire with Innovation (IdeaPress, 2016).

David Polinchock

For 30+ years, David has explored emerging technologies that can help brands tell better stories. He is the President of the Unified Brand Experience Lab, a new retail lab, designed to give companies in the retail, VR/AR and OOH industries a place to work, showcase and demo the technologies they’re creating. He was an early pioneer in the use of virtual reality for advertising and marketing, having started experiential advertising using VR in 1991. Since then, he has run his own lab, was the Director of the 1stAT&T AdWorks Lab and worked at the PwC Experience Center. He has worked on a variety of emerging technology launches, including the award-winning AudienceGames cinema AR program. He was also a parade perfomer in the WDW Tencennial Parade back in 1981! In those many years, David has covered a lot of ground, but one thing has remained consistent: He’s looked for innovative ways to create compelling, authentic and relevant brand experiences. He’s been very fortunate to have the chance to travel with his daughter Sydney, who helps him remember that the most important experiences are the ones you share with people you love. Mentoring style: I'm pretty relaxed and enjoy working with founders who are truly passionate. I do a lot of storytelling exercises to help people understand what makes them different and unique.

Debbie Halpern

Debbie Halpern is a strategic business developer, marketer and creative problem-solver with a track record of successful new product launches, established business results and demonstrated leadership. Has worked in for profit and non-profit, in start-up, established and turnaround environments, in corporate and consulting roles. Most recently, worked at a foundation and social impact organization building and growing a digital resource aimed at helping people who learn and think differently to thrive.

Denise Debaun

Denise DeBaun is the President of DeBaun Development, Inc. where she specializes in branding and product development for start-ups, applying her 20+ years of industry experience and knowledge. From leading an internal ad agency for Calvin Klein to pioneering retail concepts and distribution trends for Limited Brands (Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works, Henri Baudel, and Abercrombie Fitch), Denise also serves as a Mentor at XRC Labs, specializing especially in brand, product and intellectual property development. While her primary area of expertise consists of CPG (Personal Care) such as beauty, cosmetics, fragrances, supplement, and wellness, she has a past of leading key business strategies in Spirituality, Metaphysics, Health, Extracts, Nutraceuticals, Consumer Products, Luxury Goods, Food and Beverage, Natural Products, Sustainability, Invention, Patents, Branding, Business Development, Strategic Development, Product Development and Licensing. Mentoring style: From their mouths: ""Very gifted. Able to process and distill immaculately. Articulate and frame ineffable parts of a clear vision.A joy to work with - very clear and direct but with the intention of collaboration vs ego/aggression of personality. I find Denise to be supportive, kind, inspiring and talented. It's been a real pleasure to get to know her, work with her and have her join ,,,"" ""You see things that others don?t see and you process them in ways that others can?t process."" ""Denise is an invaluable asset to our business and we're incredibly grateful to have her as an advisor, dealmaker, mentor and friend. She has helped us in so many way with her unique ability to identify opportunities, problem solve and follow through. Denise focuses on the positive that can come from any situation and is a very thoughtful and thorough businesswoman who believes the best deals are those that will make everybody involved happy. We trust her advice and that she has our best interests at heart. We value the analytical approach she takes to back up her advice. She truly goes the extra mile.Plus, while being an amazing boss lady she's also FUN with a wonderful sense of humor. We adore her and are lucky she puts up with us. """"She definitively plays the melody within our separated chords"" ""Words cannot express what a joy it has been to work with Denise Denise has been a mentor and joy to work with. What I love about working with Denise is that she is incredibly intuitive and has another way of looking at things that most people would never see. It's always a win-win. She finds ways to make it work whatever the situation or difficulty might be."" Denise is an absolute joy to work with and the consummate professional. Her patience, creativity and attention to detail make all the difference in every project we do."" ""Fully-committed exemplifies what I think of when I think of working with Denise. If the intention, mission, and ultimate impact of the project aligns for her, once she is signed up, I have full faith and unwavering belief that she will get the job done the utmost. That's a rare quality that I can't say about many people that I've worked with in the past and something I deeply admire about her"" "" Denise is exactly who you said you were.

Derek Monson

Derek Monson has spent his career providing go-to-market solutions for companies of all sizes within the CPG and health fields. From beauty to health, Derek has helped his clients tackle business problems by providing actionable and accountable marketing and communications plans to provide business growth and expansion. Mentoring style: I believe in a highly collaborative and open style of mentoring. It should feel like a partnership where my knowledge and expertise can help fill the gaps that they feel their needs.

Devon Safran

Devon Safran has always had a passion for helping businesses transform and adapt in an ever-changing landscape. She is dedicated to helping organizations reimagine their organizations and leadership for a tech-driven future. She began her career in the exclusive executive training program at Ralph Lauren before transitioning into the merchandising office where she helped launch several key digital initiatives. Bitten by the startup bug, she took her retail and business development expertise to Silicon Valley, leading the sales efforts for Prism Skylabs, an AI business intelligence company backed by leading VC Andreessen Horowitz, before joining retail analytics company Upstream Commerce (acquired by Flipkart). Prior to joining Leading Edge Forum, she was VP of Sales for FINDMINE, a machine learning product recommendation tool for retailers. She continues to serve as an advisor to XRC labs, a startup accelerator for the next generation of disruptors in the retail and consumer goods sectors. Devon graduated Magna Cum Laude from Rutgers University. She is an accomplished equestrian, who enjoys spending time on her family's farm with her horses and miniature donkey, Coco. Mentoring style: Mentoring style: Honest and encouraging; Types of Founders: Hard working, open minded, flexible

Donna Halperin

Donna Halperin is an entrepreneur/founder, start-up advisor, corporate intrapreneur and retail store owner. She is a strategic leader focused on commercialization, sustainability and engagement. Donna is a design thinker who takes businesses to greater levels of competitive success. She has experience launching game-changing programs, products, partnerships and initiatives that drive mission and revenue. Her background is focused on strategy, business development, partnerships and brand growth of both B2B and DTC businesses. Mentoring style: Guidance and collaboration. Encouraging thought and decision making. Deadline oriented for task completion and next steps for moving business forward.

Donny Askin

Mentoring style: Style: supportive, constructive, enabling. Founders: Open-minded, driven, strategic thinkers with an execution bias

Doug Weich

Doug Weich helps people solve complex problems by thinking differently. An accomplished retail and management consulting executive, professional speaker, and iconoclast with extensive retail, Internet and general business expertise. Doug has helped guide many leading national retailers innovate to create compelling customer experiences in stores, online, and at all touch points. Doug works with founders of early-stage retailers, direct-to-consumer brands, and solution proviers to those spaces on fundraising, product/market fit, messaging, and go to market strategy. Called upon for his retail expertise by national media outlets, including ABC World News and The Wall Street Journal, and a speaker at retail’s largest conferences, Doug’s thought leadership covers omnichannel retailing and retail innovation. Doug also served as Chair of the National Retail Federation’s Associate Member Council. Prior to Sophelle, Doug co-founded and served as CTO for RetailExchange.com, an innovative leader in excess inventory solutions for manufacturers and retailers. As IT Specialist in the Retail and Direct Marketing practice for EDS Management Consulting Services/A.T. Kearney, he advised leading national and international retailers on best practices. Doug also served as VP of IS at Wholesale Depot, where he implemented leading-edge point-of-sale, merchandising, warehouse, distribution, financial and database marketing systems. He began his career at Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers). Doug earned his MBA from Northeastern University and his B.S. in Computer and Management Science from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Specialties: Innovation, Retail Strategy, Customer Experience, Omnichannel Capabilities, Stores, Digital Commerce, Information Technology, Management Consulting, Fundraising, Product/Market Fit, Messaging, Go To Market Mentoring style: Collaborative

Drew Silverstein

Drew Silverstein is an entrepreneur who served as the VP of Music at Shutterstock and was previously the CEO and co-founder of Amper Music before its acquisition by Shutterstock in November 2020. Founded in 2014, Amper Music combined the highest levels of artistry with groundbreaking technology to empower anyone to create unique, professional music, instantly. He is part of the Forbes class of 2018 "30 Under 30" list for music. Prior to Amper Music, Drew was an award-winning composer, producer, and songwriter for film, television, and video games in Los Angeles at Sonic Fuel Studios. Drew graduated from Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music, where he studied Music Composition and Italian, and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Dustin Duane

Dustin Duane is a startup/SMB advisor and mentor specializing in scalability and change management. Dustin's background ranges from commodity goods, software (SaaS and DevOps) to robotics and medical technology. Mentoring style: I have worked with a wide variety of founders over many industries. I enjoy working with early stage ventures seeking product market fit.

Edward Cardimona

Edward Cardimona is a founder and creative director, and SPRQ Innovation Lab instructor and curriculum designer, School of Design Strategies BBA & MS, The New School Open Campus and Summer Intensive Studies. Through design leadership and strategic methodologies, he is a futurist with the keen ability to connect creative and business strategies that engage in all channels. His current research interest has a focus on design leadership and soft skills in the techno-human centered workplace. Mentoring style: I have a collaborative mentoring, advising, and management style. I'm interested in learning from founders as much as providing an outside perspective to the problems and pain points of the moment. I love working with founders who are experts in their lane, but are looking for ways to grow and built in an inclusive and thoughtful fashion. While profits are important, relationships and integrity are priceless.

Emily Wasserman

Emily Wasserman is a leading member of the Digital Innovation team at COTY Inc., overseeing a portfolio of over 72 international cosmetics and fragrance brands including Marc Jacobs, Burberry, Tiffany, Gucci, and Covergirl. She drives revenue through smart implementation of emerging technology, strategic partnerships, and innovative business models. Prior to COTY, Emily worked at Grey Group, where she ran the digital businesses of Procter & Gamble beauty brands, overseeing new technology platforms and launching award winning products. In her spare time, Emily teaches a course at Parsons School of Design on retail technology and digital disruption in fashion and beauty. Mentoring style: I am a collaborative worker, and I like working with people are are innovators

Eric Chan

Design entrepreneur and CEO of EccoX in NYC, Eric Chan has years of international experience in product innovation. He has worked with global tech companies and startups including LG, MagicLeap, Herman Miller, Panasonic, Samsung, GE, Lenovo, Audi and Toyota. He established EccoX, exploring and pushing for product design seamless integration with digital/ virtual technology from wearable tech, IoT, to smart appliances. EccoX supports the fast-evolving technology cycle with fast prototyping and experience simulation to accelerate the innovation process, fundraising strategy, production strategy, and manufacturing sourcing in Asia, for tech start-ups and entrepreneurs. Top 3 Areas of Expertise: Product Innovation, Industrial Design, Fundraising Strategy Mentor Style: Interactive online or in-person mentoring or coaching, Weekly or bi-weekly update. Affiliation with other startup programs: As an active member of the New York Angels, Eric acts as an advisor and mentor for many young tech startups: the NY Angels Investor Group, the XRC of Parson, ERA, NYU, Columbia U. Mentoring style: Interactive online or in-person mentoring or coaching, Weekly or bi-weekly update.

Evan Kraut

Evan Kraut is Head of Sales at Suzy, Inc., a consumer insights/research platform that works with over 200 companies from startups to many Fortune 100 companies. Prior to Suzy, Evan was Managing Director of Grey Adventures, an innovation division of Grey Group. Prior to Grey, Evan was Chief Growth Officer and part of the Executive team at MRY, a Publicis agency, known for their social media, digital, and innovation work. Evan is also Founding Partner at Milkbox Partners, an active angel investing & advisory firm with investment. Mentoring style: Action-oriented - I like to first understand the founder and the business and then start making introductions and recommendations of experts and/or approaches that can help drive business. I generally work best with founders who are clear on what they need help with.

Gab Baiter

Gabriela Baiter is the founder of Whereabout Studio, an experiential retail studio based out of Los Angeles, CA. For the last decade, her passion for physical experiences has manifested itself into leading dozens of experiential projects for major brands and retailers. Prior to founding the studio, Gabriela crafted brand strategy for tech giants such as Facebook (while at Wieden & Kennedy) and Uber, where she grew their last major market in the U.S. to one million trips in under 2 years. She now consults part-time on space design and programming for the company's 650 driver hubs, a global retail footprint larger than that of H&M. A Retail Wire contributor, Gabriela is known as a "retail futurist" often challenging her clients to create thoughtful experiences that speak to the ever-changing consumer. While working with founders is her first love, Gabriela has also founded retail concepts of her own including Dozy Rex, a DTC pet brand, and Homemade Society, a wandering restaurant concept in Portland, OR.

George Eberstadt

Grant Brown

Grant Brown is an entrepreneur, executive, board member, advisor and speaker with a history of success in digital media, advertising, content marketing, content syndication, social media and business development/sales. As founder and owner of GRB Digital Wave, the company has worked with a select handful of clients since its inception in 2017. In the first two years of business, GRB Digital Wave generated over $4,000,000 in new revenue from strategic partnerships, digital marketing, advertising, distribution deals and eCommerce for its clients. Grant is the co-founder of Rant, Inc., a successful digital media company launched in February 2010 and sold to Function X, Inc in July 2016. Over the 6+ years, Grant oversaw the direction of the company from several roles, including Co-CEO, Chief Revenue Officer and Chief Strategy Officer. As Chief Revenue Officer, Grant lead Rant to over $17 million in annual revenue across its 12 owned and operated web properties. Rants impressive growth lead to the following accolades: - Inc 5000s #18 Fastest Growing Company in America in 2015 - Forbes #31 Most Promising Company in America in 2015 Mentoring style: Not sure to be honest

Graziano de Boni

Graziano de Boni Graziano is a highly regarded executive with over 25+ years of senior leadership in the fashion, luxury and retail industry. A forward thinker, Graziano brings deep knowledge on both the sales, marketing and branding side of the business, as well as the operational and financial side. Having managed diverse businesses, both small and big, in a growth trajectory or in need of a turn around, Graziano has always been focused on people, product, the consumer and technology. A builder by nature, he has operated at the crossroad of customer experience and market awareness, leveraging the brand/company culture, history and values. With a vision and passion for early-stage new developments, while CEO of Valentino USA, Graziano launched Valentino.com ecommerce in 2003 in partnership with Yoox, one of the very first luxury brands to embrace the digital world. As CEO of Prada America, he continued this direct-to-consumer vision for the brand. At Armani as its CEO for the Americas, while working on creating a true omnichannel, simplified brand strategy, he applied his early-adopter instinct to introduce new technology. Analytics and the beginning of predictive analytics were set up in support to more insightful decision making. Sales associates were provided with the tech tools needed to communicate and interact with a new generation of consumers. The first social media and digital department was established to address the nascent digital revolution. Since starting his own consulting and advisory practice, Graziano has been involved in diverse industries: technology, fashion, beauty, packaging, logistics, etc. Working directly with founders/owners, senior management or private equity, he has been sharing his entrepreneurial and leadership spirit in support and contribution to their success. Mentoring style: I am a very curious and inquisitive person, always willing to listen and getting excited about new ideas. I enjoy people that are passionate and driven to achieve their goal(s).

Heather Mee

Heather Mee leads global strategic and creative marketing for Delta Galil Premium brands. Current brand initiatives include 7 For All Mankind, Splendid, Adidas underwear, and Polo Ralph Lauren underwear. Prior to joining Delta Galil, Heather led strategic marketing for Global Brands Group's portfolio of apparel, accessories and footwear brands including Frye, Aquatalia, Spyder, Katy Perry Collections and Sean John. Her focus is on driving growth through creative innovation‚ innovative marketing, digital transformation, design collaborations, consumer-centric solutions, and global market expansion. She is an active mentor of startups in the beauty, circular economy, intimate apparel and wellness areas. She has been a mentor at XRC for over four years and has worked with Nuudii Systems, Recurate, Creator Nova, SoWell Health and YouMeCare. Mentoring style: I would describe my mentoring style as collaborative, encouraging and empowering. I am a good listener and problem solver. I enjoy working with creative innovators.

Helaine Suval

Helaine Suval is a trusted C-suite advisor and board member to businesses focused on transforming their business model, working with them to fuel strong and sustainable growth trajectories. She brings a strong history across all facets of retail, and experience in advising companies with transformation, technology, merchandising and marketing. Helaine is at her best when driving sustainable growth by developing game-changing omni-channel performance and customer-centric strategies. She works with businesses to create progressive business strategies focused on the customer experience. Her expertise includes retail and omni-channel digital business strategy and development, social and digital marketing, general management, merchandising, creative, website strategies and financial planning. Mentoring style: My mentoring style is supportive; understanding the business model and plan, providing guidance, making introductions, sharing examples. I enjoy working with founders who are open to feedback, flexible, and

Holly Soroca

Holly Soroca most recently served as President of Sales for all Dutch, LLC brands, including Joie, Current/ Elliott and Equipment. Ms. Soroca began her fashion career in buying at Saks Fifth Avenue. Her interest in fashion combined with her education in Economics and long family history in independent retail led her to spend six years at Saks Fifth Avenue. As a buyer of Women's Contemporary she was exposed to incredible emerging brands and decided to make the move to the wholesale business, joining Theory and working her way up to Vice President of Domestic Sales. In 2006, Holly came to Joie as Vice President of Sales. After three years of overseeing sales and implementing merchandising and planning organizations, Holly was promoted to President of Sales. Throughout a difficult economic climate, Holly was able to lead the brand to double-digit increases year after year, launch the company's retail division in 2010 and help establish Joie as a lifestyle brand in the forefront of the contemporary industry. Holly graduated from Hamilton College with a degree in Economics. As a buyer of Women's Contemporary, she was exposed to incredible emerging brands and decided to make the move to the wholesale business, joining Theory and working her way up to Vice President of Domestic Sales. In 2006, Holly came to Joie as Vice President of Sales. After three years of overseeing sales and implementing merchandising and planning organizations, Holly was promoted to President of Sales. Throughout a difficult economic climate, Holly was able to lead the brand to double-digit increases year after year, launch the company's retail division in 2010 and help establish Joie as a lifestyle brand in the forefront of the contemporary industry. Holly graduated from Hamilton College with a degree in Economics.

Holly Stevenson

Holly Stevenson is an accomplished creative director with two decades of experience in brand development. She creates integrated, cross-channel content, and has significant experience with new or novel product launches for clients including J.Crew (repositioning from fledgling catalogue brand to influential industry leader), Lou & Grey (start-up to market), and Teen Vogue (launch to profitability). An expert synthesizer of the cultural landscape, she crafts authentic and aesthetically sophisticated brand communications that meaningfully connect with audiences. Holly has served on the faculty of Parson's School of Design and her work has been exhibited internationally. She lives in New York City. Mentoring style: I am a teacher at heart and am interested in working with visionary people and brands.

Howard Meitiner

Howard Meitiner is an experienced President and CEO in both retail and healthcare fields with an impressive global and domestic record of increasing revenues and profits through new business development strategies with the world's largest retailer to the traveling public, the world's largest luxury brand company and one of the largest substance abuse treatment providers in the USA. Provided effective leadership skills and business development prowess in organizational turnarounds, market share analytics, and start-ups. Accomplished in crisis management, driving growth and strategic planning, by establishing motivated senior executive teams.

Ilan Tito

llan Tito spent the past 17 years focused on retail innovation, with an emphasis on merchandising and ecommerce. In the early online days, he launched and managed ecommerce for many leading fashion and luxury brands at Neiman Marcus Direct including Michael Kors, Valentino, Salvatore Ferragamo, David Yurman and Juicy Couture. He later joined YOOX to start and run their Monobrand Division globally. Ilan's consulting work is focused on interim head of ecommerce positions, merchandising strategy & execution. He has held interim leadership roles for clients including Theory, Robert Graham and John Hardy. Past merchandising projects include a global ecommerce assortment strategy for Baccarat, a third party brand curation strategy for Bonobos and a digital assortment strategy and line plan architecture for Frank & Oak. He has also been an advisor to a number of startups and digitally native brands including Stantt, Snowe, MouthMedia Network, LiveStory and Refinery29. Ilan excels at helping brands tell a unique and compelling story through their product and content. Mentoring style: Informal, very direct, like balance between creative and analytical

Ivan Leider

Ivan Leider is a creative technologist, entrepreneur, and software engineer. He has crafted many award-winning mobile apps and websites. Ivan is currently Director of Engineering at L+R, an international Strategy Consultancy and Design Technology Studio, and Founder & CEO of Talent Garden Spain, part of the largest European co-working network. He also teaches Mobile Game Development at ENTI, University of Barcelona. Mentoring style: My main background is in software engineering, with a broad range of areas of expertise: infrastructure, architecture, security, and development. As a Founder and CEO, I understand the balance between the priorities for a startup. My mentoring style sits between advisory and cooperative. If we're discussing technical matters, I will probably need to have some strategy background to make sure all of the pieces fit correctly. My interests are broad, I enjoy cracking hard problems from a Deep Tech context, but also finding the leanest possible infrastructure to test a business case.

James Gundell

Jim D. Gundell possesses a merchant-driven mentality that embraces brand equity while instilling innovation and newness to ensure future success. Jim most recently held the role of Co-Chief Operating Officer and Facilitating Leader at EILEEN FISHER, Inc., a socially conscious, triple-bottom line women's clothing brand with a global online presence and retail locations in the United States, Canada and the UK.

Jason Smith

Jason Smith is an entrepreneur and an innovator. He spent 10 years in medical device start-up companies developing biologic and medical device technologies. He taught product development and innovation at Carnegie Mellon University for the last 2 years. Now he is back in industry as a Sr Health Innovator using human-centered design to innovate products and services to improve healthcare for patients and providers. Mentoring style: I do my best to match my mentoring style to those I am mentoring. Mentoring is a 2-way street. We are going to educate each other and challenge each other. That's the only way we're going to find the best direction.

Jeremy Kagan

Mentoring style: Active

Jessica Dvorett

Jessica Kanan Dvorett is an SVP at CaaStle and the General Manager for Gwynnie Bee, an online clothing subscription rental service. CaaStle is a fully managed service that allows retailers to offer fully branded subscription rental offerings to their customers. Gwynnie Bee serves as the anchor tenant on the CaaStle platform. At Gynnie Bee, Jessica drives the ambitious use of data and technology to create a disruptive consumer experience in the retail industry that separates the experience of clothing from the ownership of it. Prior to joining Gwynnie Bee, Jessica was the Head of Global Merchandising at Cole Haan. Earlier in her career, Jessica led strategy, consumer insights, and analytics for the North America and Merchandising organizations at Coach, Inc. She has also held positions of increasing responsibility at McKinsey & Co., Richard Branson's Virgin Group, and Apple. Jessica holds an MBA from Harvard Business School (where she was a Baker Scholar) and a BA in Economics Magna Cum Laude from Harvard College.

Jinal Shah

Jinal Shah is a bold and fearless marketing leader with a 15+ year career building brand and driving revenue growth across wide variety of industries: traditional CPG, DTC, and subscription/reverse logistics. She has held senior leadership roles at Swell, Newell Brands, and J. Walter Thompson (part of WPP agency family). Mentoring style: I am straightforward; accessible and a good listener with a firm belief that there is no one size fits all solution. I am generous with my time, advice and connections. The types of founders I enjoy working with the most are the ones who are open, humble, and who WANT the mentorship.

Jinny Uppal

Jinny Uppal is a growth-oriented technology and business strategist. Jinny creates strong operating and measurement frameworks to articulate a clear set of priorities for growth, enroll the organization into strategic roadmaps and influence large cross-functional teams towards successful execution of strategic initiatives. With experience building digital and physical retail experiences in mid-sized and large retailers (Macys.com, Kohl's and Bed Bath & Beyond), Jinny serves as a Mentor and Board Advisor to startups serving the consumer and retail sectors (b2c and b2b). Jinny focuses mentoring startups on selling to enterprises, product positioning, pricing, trend assessment, identifying value prop, product development. Mentoring style: The more specific the founder is in their questions, the more successful the first meeting will be. As I get to know the founder and their style, I can guide and support them by getting involved more deeply over a series of engagements.

Joe Cavalcante

Joe Cavalcante is a CEO and General Manager in the luxury and retail sectors with strong prowess in merchandising, marketing and sales. With nearly 20 years of total experience, Joe began his career in investment banking and corporate development before transitioning into an operator in the consumer space. He spent 10 years at fine jewelry brand Ippolita where he was promoted to CEO after having grown the brand's revenue by a multiple of 15x and advised its founder on the sale of the business to a private equity firm. Joe has also held senior leadership positions at luxury ready-to-wear brand St. John and fashion jewelry brand gorjana and currently serves as SVP of Marketing & Sales for Temple St. Clair, a NY-based heritage fine jewelry brand. Joe is a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn with his husband. Mentoring style: Solution-based. I enjoy working with founders to understand goals and obstacles and thinking through big picture strategies as well as tactical strategies. I love working with creative founders.

John Sencion

John Sencion is a global-brand builder and creative leader with a diverse background in brand strategy and marketing, product development, merchandising, company culture, retail branded strategy, intellectual property portfolio-building and international licensing. A passionate and empowering executive who creates lovebrands‚Ñ¢ through immersive environments, product and brand messaging. Mentoring style: I'm an optimist who thinks anything is possible...a deal maker not a deal breaker. I'm also a good listener who believes that asking better questions gets you better answers and results. I like working with founders that are open and curious.

Johnnie Yu

I’m Johnnie Yu, a twenty-something year old consumer investor, brand nerd, and futurist currently living and working in New York City. My (investing-related) interests are in early-stage consumer brands that redefine category boundaries and rewrite conventional playbooks, especially brands that create products and services for previously underrepresented demographics. Outside of investing, you can find my alter ego photographing and creating with emerging artists and fashion labels. I also mentor consumer brands on creative production and content strategy through Techstars and XRC Labs.

Jonathan Drennan

Sales, account management, customer success and operations leader for SaaS and all things digital. Proven expertise in creating, leading and scaling new business and client success teams to generate, maintain and grow revenue. Results-driven with a passion for products that solve real problems and deliver strong ROI. Vertical experience across CPG, Beauty, Fashion, Tech, D2C, eCommerce, Healthcare and Non-Profit.

Jonathan Jonas

Jonathan Sagot

Jonathan Sagot is a corporate attorney who represents emerging growth companies and investors in complex corporate matters including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, investments and financings. He advises early and late stage companies through their growth lifecycle, from their formation to series financings to exit. In his varied background, Jonathan has represented companies and acted as general outside counsel for clients in the technology, advertising, communications, media, blockchain, e-commerce, food and beverage, fashion and beauty industries. Mentoring style: It varies depending on what I think the founder needs. Generally, I'm here to be a resource, educator and connector - there's no legal question too elementary - and I adapt based on the experience of the founder. I enjoy working with founders who want to understand the ""why"" not just the ""how"".

Jordan Hopson

Jordan is a Product & Innovation Leader, Venture Builder, and an award-winning designer with more than 10 years of experience which has enabled him to launch ventures in the consumer, mobility, and social impact space. He currently serves as a Lead Strategic Designer at BCG X, the tech build & design unit of Boston Consulting Group, where he helps corporations innovate and launch disruptive businesses.

Kara Ladd

Kara Ladd is the CEO of Boundless Creatives, a freelance journalist and conscious content curator of Boundless by Kara, a destination for all-encompassing mindful living, from wellness and spirituality to sustainability and clean beauty. Ladd has an accomplished background in marketing, digital media, reporting and luxury consulting, working at Hearst Digital Media, Condé Nast and Julie Gilhart Consulting giving her an elevated executional edge and keen eye for aesthetics. On a personal note, Ladd is a one-in-a-million cancer survivor and is an inspiring, influential voice in the cancer community. Mentoring style: I prefer working with brands/founders that are aligned with extensive passion and purpose ? sustainable brands, clean beauty brands, wellness/spiritual etc. My mentoring style is a mix between cheerleader/educator.

Kareen Mallet

Kareen Mallet is a global executive with extensive experience in fashion, retail, luxury, tech and digital marketing in both corporate and start-up environments. A seventeen years veteran of The Neiman Marcus Group, Ms. Mallet ran the New York Fashion Office. She played a critical role in fashion direction as the RTW Senior Fashion Director with both Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman. In 2012, she joined and launched Zindigo, an innovative social commerce platform where she led business development and oversaw all aspects of design, global marketing and communications. Kareen is a Strategic Advisor to Targeted Social, a digital marketing agency, where she heads up the fashion and retail division. She also consults for several companies. In 2016, Kareen founded a software company, Replika Software LLC (www.replikasoftware.com) and has developed a solution to enable brands to power up their sales associates and influencers into social and digital revenue generators. Kareen is a French native and New York City resident.

Katya Constantine

Katya Constantine runs an online marketing agency that focuses on paid user acquisition for consumer brands and DTC startups. They provide services ranging from outsourced digital CMO leadership to campaign execution to cross-channel reporting and analytics. Her agency works across all major platforms, including Google / FB / Bing / Pinterest / Snapchat / Tiktok / email. Mentoring style: I adapt to the situation very well, but also be efficient and to the point

Kelly Specht

Kelly Specht is a marketing leader and brand builder with deep experience in marketplaces and ecommerce. As the Head of Integrated Seller Marketing for Commerce at Facebook, Kelly markets new products and strategies to commerce businesses of all sizes from enterprise to DTC start ups to grow their businesses across the Facebook family of apps. Kelly has also worked for Affirm, eBay, and McCann and consulted for seed stage start ups as well as Google. She has her BA from UC San Diego, and MBA from USC Marshall School of Business. Mentoring style: I enjoy taking a coaching approach, and my sweet spot is working with founders to articulate their marketing strategy and execution plans.

Kerstin Dorst

Kerstin Dorst built her career studying and experimenting in the space where technical function and high fashion can be forced to intersect. Kerstin's work asks how fashion can be made functional and how technical can be elevated to haute-couture. Kerstin began her career at Adidas, where she helped build their diffusion line business. In 2013, Kerstin was entrusted to build and launch Tory Sport, an athletic clothing diffusion line of Tory Burch. Today, she puts her experience to work serving as the Vice President Design for Tory Sport, where she works still to marry fashion and function. Mentoring style: Being a partner and help guide through the upcoming challenges.

Kofi Ampadu

Kofi Ampadu has co-founded two businesses: the first was H2Melon, a health and wellness beverage company that he grew into 75 accounts in NYC and the second was Par, a marketplace for airline miles that listed over 17 million airline miles. He currently runs WeWork Labs' Soho West location as an advisor and connector to the startups. He also serves on the leadership team of Startup Leadership Program (NYC Chapter), and as a CPG & Retail Venture Scout for Prototype Capital, a seed stage fund. Before embarking on his entrepreneurship journey, Kofi was a management consultant at Accenture and independently. Kofi has expertise in strategic planning, general management, operations, vendor management and process improvement. Mentoring style: I like to mentor one on one and I enjoy working with founders who can quickly iterate and are receptive to feedback.

Kyle Andrew

Kyle Andrew is a globally experienced executive with an 18+ year history of multi-channel marketing innovation and exceptional brand leadership. Kyle has a unique blend of success in launching brands from the ground up and reinvigorating iconic brands, including Kate Spade, Gap, AEO, and Kenneth Cole. Mentoring style: I am a brand marketer and I enjoy helping founders clearly articulate what their brand stands for in order to further differentiate it from competitive brands.

Lara Hejtmanek

Lara Hejtmanek is an early stage investor and founder/partner of Glowstone Consulting, which provides marketing strategy for startups. She has experience in many sectors including retail, luxury goods, beauty & fashion, CPG and pharmaceuticals. Prior to Glowstone, she held various strategy roles in digital marketing on the agency side. Most recently, she founded and led the Insights & Planning practice for 360i, working with major CPG brands such as Coca-Cola, Kraft and Estee Lauder. Lara has also worked in retail marketing for Hermes of Paris and Coach. She holds an MBA from Columbia University and a BA in Art History from Vassar College.

Larry Reiner

Larry Reiner is a fashion, E-commerce, and technology entrepreneur involved in helping companies find the right technologies that will help them scale their businesses and become more efficient. Larry has started fashion businesses within large corporations as well as an independent entrepreneur that have scaled successfully. For the last several years Larry has been immersed in the “startup world” as a board advisor and as an operating officer and he is excited to share these experiences. Mentoring style: I always try to understand how a company fits into the market they want to compete in and help uncover where the opportunities are.

Lee Rafkin

Lee Rafkin is President of Rafkin & Company, an independent brand consulting firm founded in 2002 and based in New York City. Lee has over twenty-five years of experience as a brand consultant, a market researcher, a chief marketing officer, a start-up entrepreneur, and a classically trained CPG brand manager. He specializes in consumer and customer insight, branding, strategy, naming, brand identity, and brand management. Lee brings expertise, passion, and trusted advisor skills to every project. He loves to strategize, design, write, teach, and sell ideas. He is comfortable in the boardroom, in the conference room, and out in the field. Previously, Lee was managing director of Consumer Dynamics, an insight-driven brand consulting firm based in New York City, where he led a wide range of global insight, strategy, and branding projects for Estée Lauder, MAC Cosmetics, Tom Ford Beauty, Johnson & Johnson, Nestle, Novartis, Medtronic, PepsiCo, Starbucks, and others. Prior to this, Lee was a global director and practice leader at the branding firm Siegel+Gale, and an executive director and head of Latin American brand consulting at FutureBrand, where he oversaw offices in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Chile. Lee delivers global experience, innovative thinking, bold creativity, and exceptional client service on every project. He is a business-building generalist who strongly believes in cross-pollinating insights and best practices from seemingly unrelated categories. Lee has worked with a wide range of Fortune 100 to start-up clients in media, advertising, entertainment, technology, retail, health care, financial services, consumer products, fashion & beauty, spirits, non-profits, and government. He has led engagements throughout Europe, Latin America, Asia, and North America. Lee speaks conversational Portuguese and Spanish. He earned a B.A. magna cum laude from Brown University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Mentoring style: Lee brings expertise, passion, and trusted advisor skills to every project. He loves to strategize, design, write, teach, and sell ideas. He is comfortable in the boardroom, in the conference room, and out in the field.

Leila Nosrati

Leia Nosrati is an experienced merchandising and marketing leader in the children's and juvenile consumer products market. She specializes in consumer and market trend analysis, retail strategy, open innovation programs management, and product assortment development and promotions. Mentoring style: I like to learn what the founders' knowledge and connection gaps are and guide them toward filling these gaps and/or simplifying what might be a complicated process. In terms of knowledge, I'd offer my own experience and perspective, or I'd introduce them to others who might have an even more specific focus on the issue at hand. For connection gaps, my relationships are yours -- I love connecting people. The types of founders I'd enjoy working with are those who are not too proud to ask for help or advice and ones who listen.

Lexie Kier

Lexie Kier is Principal Strategist and Founder of AOK Group, which has been building startups for the past six years. Before AOK Group, Lexie launched German fintech startup LaterPay in the USA as their Managing Director. Before LaterPay, Lexie founded her own tech startup, Cuurio – a strategic partnerships marketplace that connected large brands with emerging technology. Lexie kicked off her career with a decade of building digital strategy for S&P 500 brands at Omnicom agencies Ketchum & TBWA WorldHealth, followed by Dentsu's 360i and then Gary Vaynerchuk's Vayner Media. Today she serves as a startup adviser, venture partner / scout, accelerator mentor, and board member. She is proud to have helped AOK clients raise over $200M in funding. Lexie lives and works in Manhattan with her daughter, husband, and house plants, and cares deeply about helping female & minority founders get access to capital.

Lisa Gralnek

An expert brand builder and changemaker, Lisa Gralnek has spent more than twenty years creating and executing growth strategies for leading fashion, retail, and CPG brands, along with diverse start-ups, SMEs and nonprofits. Dedicated to helping values-led brands grow and innovate, she believes fundamentally in the power and responsibility of each of us to do better- for ourselves and the world we share. Lisa holds an MBA from INSEAD and a BA in Political Science and French. Mentoring style: 1-2 companies per cohort as a brand and business strategy advisor - how to bring brand and innovation to market for growth. Anything around identifying mission and values and integrating that to the brief.

Livia Marotta

Livia Marotta is a luxury and consumer goods brand-builder. She has experience re-positioning, revitalizing and growing brands. Livia has experience working with both domestic and European companies. She is an expert at bridging cultural gaps to advance business agendas. She was born in the U.S. and raised in Europe. She was educated in the USA and Italy, and is multilingual.

Lorenzo Benazzo

Lorenzo Benazzo is CEO at Clientela Inc, a Retail Tech Innovation platform based in New York City. For the last decade, he has collaborated with global brands and retail executives on large-scale, international digital transformation projects. His company's client portfolio includes Dyson, Cartier, Gucci, Benefit Cosmetics, Diptyque Paris and others. He started his career as an engineer and joined one of the first invite-only social networks in 2004 to run product and sales. After building a large network of CEOs and VPs at global retail brands he was hired by Cartier's CEO to work as an advisor in cutting-edge digital transformation projects. As a consultant, he worked closely with brands from LVMH, Richemont and Kering. In 2010, he co-founded a tech incubator and development agency specialized in retail solutions and built the first Clienteling applications for Gucci, Marc Jacobs and Cartier between 2012 and 2016. In 2017, he and his co-founders launched Clientela, a PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) business. Clientela is considered one of the most cutting edge and innovative retail transformation platforms and its portfolio continues to grow in multiple verticals. As a retail and technology Product expert, Lorenzo mentors entrepreneurs and companies on designing and implementing product/market fit, selling innovation to large companies and building a state-of-the-art consumer experiences that drives acquisition, engagement and sales.

Lori Marcus

Lori Tauber Marcus is a Direct-to-Consumer Workstream Chair at HBS Kraft Precision Medicine Accelerator. Lori has brand and consumer marketing expertise and a background is CPG marketing at PepsiCo. She has served as the chief marketing officer for direct-to-consumer companies in multiple sectors: retail (The Children's Place), technology/appliances (Keurig Green Mountain) and fitness/recurring revenue (Peloton). Mentoring style: I enjoy the group mentoring process (like we did with Terra Kaffe). it allows us to build off each other's ideas and get to BETTER answers. I enjoy working with founders who are very open to discussion/debate but who aren't asking you to come in and do their work for them.

Louis Monoyudis

Louis is a seasoned fashion and luxury goods executive with a successful background building and managing teams for high-growth private equity, venture capital and family office e-commerce companies. He oversaw 5x growth in under 18 months in his most recent role as Chief Marketing Officer at a direct to consumer CPG company. In addition to graduating from Harvard, he also has a second degree in fashion from Parsons School of Design, giving him the dexterity to toggle effortlessly between left and right brain thinking. His career started in brand strategy at Leo Burnett working on brands like Coca-Cola, Morgan Stanley and Motorola, and he then spent several years launching new divisions at Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and John Varvatos. His past 10 years have been in the early-stage e-commerce space at a variety of companies focusing on building community and virality while maintaining brand equity and championing the voice of the customer. Mentoring style: Supportive

Lucie Claire Vincent

Lucie Claire is a consumer goods leader who has grown businesses, delivered transformation, and inspired innovations in products, processes, and people around the world. Most recently, she was the Managing Director (President) for the Andean Cluster at Philip Morris International. Previously, she was Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the Home Care category at Colgate-Palmolive headquarters in New York. Lucie Claire spent seven years in Asia as Vice President and General Manager, and earlier in Latin America as General Manager. Lucie Claire has extensive background in international marketing, transformation, global operations, emerging markets, growth and innovation, business strategy and management, and expansion and transition. She has vast track record of successfully developing, launching, building, and growing multiple brands, categories and businesses, and engaging consumers in different stages of the journey through digital, e-commerce, CRM and offline. She has also led restructuring projects, participated in divestment and acquisition due diligence processes, and has worked with joint ventures. Lucie Claire is a Startups Mentor at XRC Labs NYC, Board Co-President at the International Women’s Forum–Connecticut (IWFCT), and Board Secretary at GallopNYC. Previously she was Board Member at Club 30% Ecuador. Lucie Claire earned a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Marketing from Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey. She completed a Women on Boards Succeeding as Corporate Director Program at Harvard Business School, an Executive Education Business Program at Stanford University Graduate School of Business and has a Digital Marketing Certificate from Cornell University. She speaks Spanish, English, and French. Mentoring style: Coaching

Magnus Eliasson

Magnus Eliasson is an experienced sales and business development professional leveraging 20+ years of sales success, selling complex enterprise marketing software and services solutions to Fortune 1000 brands. As a Mentor at XRC Labs, Magnus works with start-ups to deliver results given his expertise in enterprise SaaS sales and strategies in B2B Business Development. Through a consultative oriented selling approach, Magnus has closed multi-year, multi-million dollar deals with brands including: Marvel/Disney, P&G COVERGIRL, Steve Madden, Charlotte Tilbury, Gatorade, Frito-Lay, COTY/philosophy, 1-800-Flowers, and Ralph Lauren, among others. A natural player and coach, Magnus has built and managed teams, overseen sales operations, pipeline strategy, KPI-setting and outbound processes. Born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden, Magnus spent seven years with retail giant ICA in Sweden, in such diverse capacities as CRM/Loyalty Manager and Manager of Business Development & Corporate Strategy. In 1998, he moved to the U.S. to join RMS, a CRM Software Company, as Director of Sales, South America. Magnus holds an MBA and an MSc from The Stockholm School of Economics. Mentoring style: Coaching style - like ""Guardiola"" - finding the right approach and ""spot"" for the right ""player"".

Marie Driscoll

Marie Driscoll is Managing Director Luxury & Fashion at Coresight Research. Marie joined the Coresight Research team in 2014. Previously, she was a Senior Director-Retail in the Equity Research department of Standard & Poors. Marie teaches Funding Beauty & Fashion at Parsons, Global Fashion Marketing at FIT and Equity Analysis at CUNY's Zicklin School of Business. She was recognized three times in The Wall Street Journal's “Best on the Street” analyst survey. In addition to mentoring at XRC Labs and New York Fashion Tech Labs, Marie is an advisor at Fabulyst and Genostyle. Mentoring style: flexible, available, constructive

Mario Ciampi

Mario Ciampi has over 30 years experience in the consumer/retail world. His career has included exerpeience as an operator, investor and consultant. Operating experience includes 11 years as a senior operating executive at The Childrens Place, where he had oversight responsibilities for Store development, ecommerce, logistics, IT and store operations. During his tenure at TCP, the company grew from $80m in sales to $1.5B, opening over 1,000 stores in 3 countries, developing multiple distribution centers and starting the company's ecommerce initiative. Mr. Ciampi was also the President of the Disney Stores North America and led the turnaround of that business. As an equity investor, Mr. Ciampi led the investment team at Prentice Capital, focusing on high growth investments in the consumer space. Investments and successful exits included Le Pain Quotidien, IT'Sugar, Gaiam, and Blueport Commerce. As a consultant, Mr. Ciampi has helped companies experiencing dynamic change in their business models, either through rapid growth or through a turnaround or change in their business model. Clients have included a large international apparel retailer, a franchised vitamin and mineral retailer, and several smaller start up businesses. Helping entrepreneurs and guiding them through the early growth cycle is a strength and one of his most desirable interests.

Mark Friedman

Mark Friedman is the President of Details Interactive, LLC and has been involved with XRC Labs for four years. Mark has participated as a mentor on a number of different companies. He has spent 30 years in the direct marketing space focused on catalog and digital marketing initiatives. Mentoring style: Collaborative. Best fit are for companies that are helping retailers drive sales

Maryam Daryabegi

Maryam is a creative problem solver and agile leader with deep expertise in Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Creative Leadership. With an international career spanning the U.S., Mexico, the UK, the Middle East, and Asia, Maryam partners with organizations to design and implement strategic innovation initiatives that drive measurable business outcomes. She has successfully collaborated with clients across industries, including consumer goods, retail technology, financial services, higher education, and healthcare. An accomplished educator, Maryam teaches courses in technological innovation, entrepreneurship, and business administration, preparing future leaders to thrive in a rapidly evolving global economy. She currently teaches at Columbia University, Stevens Institute of Technology, and 2U in partnership with MIT Sloan, and has previously taught at NYU and EGADE Business School. A frequent speaker at conferences, panel host, podcast guest, and judge at hackathons, Maryam is also a member of the prestigious Forbes Coaches Council, sharing insights on business, leadership, and employee engagement. As a member of the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council, she contributes perspectives that shape HBR content on management and leadership. As the founder of a boutique consultancy in NYC, Maryam helps organizations achieve innovation and growth through tailored consulting, training, and executive coaching. She holds an M.S. in Integrated Marketing from New York University and a B.S. in English from the University of Azad in Tehran. Based in NYC, Maryam enjoys traveling, reading, running, and photography. Mentoring style: I enjoy working with founders from different background. As people have different personality types and learning styles, I like to use a combination of mentoring styles, to ensure my mentees are engaged and find value in my mentorship. From challenging them to stay focused on details, process and goals to inspiring my mentees to stay positive?to educating them on innovative solutions so they can excel at what they do?.and brainstorming with my mentees and enabling them to see the possibilities and think out of the box?.last but not least, to connect them with my network online and in person.

Mathew Bernhardt

Mathew Bernhardt specializes in strategy and operations for the luxury and retail industries. Mathew is currently the VP of Omnichannel and Operations for The Webster. Previously he was the Chief of Staff to the former CEO of LVMH North America and former COO of Richemont North America. Mentoring style: I have worked with a number of XRC companies in the past. Happy to provide direction and constructive recommendations. I have made a number of introductions for investments and new businesses when founders have proven they are ready.

Matt Kaden

Matt Kaden is a Managing Director at MMG Advisors, a leading investment bank for middle-market consumer product, retail and fashion companies. Matt offers executive and strategic advisory expertise in the fashion and retail industries with a particular focus on the confluence of fashion and technology. Prior to joining MMG Advisors in 2016, Matt co-founded and served as Partner of Matter Strategic Advisors, which focused on growth and exit strategies as well as strategic partnerships, including M&A, joint venture and creative licensing. Prior to that, he was a Director at Avalon Net Worth, where he advised consumer product companies on sell-side M&A, strategic partnerships and licensing transactions. Matt's earlier experience includes finance, strategic management and business planning roles at Kellwood Company and Jones Apparel Group. He began his career in the Macy's East Executive Training Program. Mentoring style: It's all about working with the founders to critically think to solve whatever challenges they face. The answers lie within, I try to extract them and act as a guide, not a micromanager.

Max Bidna

After spending a couple years bouncing around the NYC Finance World (including stints in VC & I Banking), Max Bidna realized digital advertising and growth optimization got him closer to the action. Max quickly taught myself Facebook & Google Ads and convinced some of the clients at his old firms to let him run ad campaigns for them. It turned out his way of doing digital advertising delivered much better results than any other agency or in-house team so he quit finance and started an agency helping early stage companies scale on the back of digital ads. To date, his agency has helped more than 80 companies scale and his NYC offices on Madison Avenue have grown to six full-time members. Mentoring style: I would enjoy working with any entrepreneur that is looking tactical ways to grow quickly.

Maxine Clark

Maxine Clark has been in the retail business for over 40 years and has acquired a unique ability to spot emerging retail and merchandising trends gain early insights into the desires of the American consumer. This has allowed her to generate growth for retail leaders, including department stores, discount and specialty stores and now DTC companies. In 1997, Maxine founded Build-A-Bear Workshop®, a teddy-bear themed retail-entertainment experience and in 2004 took it public. She now works with entrepreneurs in the for and nonprofit space, young activists and political candidates working for a better community and country. Mentoring style: I enjoy working with women and minorities, usually first time entrepreneurs in the retail and CPG space but have helped tech and healthcare companies as well.

Meghan Bush

Meghan Bush has worked with some of the world's biggest companies to bring impactful services, products, and experiences to life. Her expertise lies at the intersection of human centered design, technology, and brand. She currently leads business development for Method NY, where she works with internal design and client teams to challenge expectations and achieve strategic objectives through carefully planned engagements. Mentoring style: Collaborative and consultative. I'm interested in working with founders who are curious, open to strategic guidance, and obsessed with creating a product/service/offering of significant value for their users/buyers.

Meka Millstone-Shroff

Meka is an entrepreneurial C-suite executive with 25+ years of experience growing consumer-facing businesses. Throughout her career, she has helpedcompanies refine their business models, forge strategic partnerships, build deeper customer relationships, and create aligned organizations to optimizeoperational results. Meka served as President & COO of Buy Buy Baby, a specialty omni-channel retailer of gear, clothing, and other supplies for infants and young children. Duringher tenure, Meka grew the concept from 8 stores at the time of the company’s acquisition by Bed Bath & Beyond, to the leading retailer in the space with morethan 135 locations employing more than 5,000 associates across North America. There, she rallied the organization around a common strategic vision, builthigh-performing teams able to adjust / scale in a rapidly-changing environment, created and continually strengthened the company’s key market differentiators,and translated all of it into the digital sphere. During her time with Buy Buy Baby, Meka concurrently served as Chief Customer Experience Officer for Bed Bath & Beyond, creating and guidingcross-functional teams to grow the business by embracing innovation and improving customer experience across physical / digital channels, multiple life stages,and multiple retail concepts. Meka started her career with McKinsey & Company, where she led project teams as a Junior Engagement Manager. She now sits on the Boards of Neiman Marcus Group; Public Storage; Party City; Athletico, a provider of outpatient physical therapy; Nanit, a leadingAI-computer-vision company; and InMarket, a digital marketing solutions company. Meka holds an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School, and a dual-degree BA / BS Summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania / TheWharton School.

Melani Flanagan

Melani Flanagan is a former start-up founder with a background in digital media, gaming and operations currently working in innovation in media. Mentoring style: I have a varied background, when it comes to mentoring I have historically helped start ups with their pitch deck, strategies/vision, design thinking methods to tackle new features, overall advice on operations and HR>

Michael Archer

Michael Archer is a fintech, consumer products and marketing innovator, a leader with deep experience in all phases of the business lifecycle including strategy and planning, implementation and launch, sales and development, as well as growth and restructuring. He blends traditional methodologies with innovative techniques to rebuild existing business models, establish new consumer use cases, and form strategic alliances. Michael's diverse experience assessing and investing in early-stage companies cuts across financial technology, digital currency, and entertainment tech. Mentoring style: I am most effective and prefer to engage with a limited number of early-stage founders (one to two) and am equally comfortable addressing issues and opportunities from a strategic or tactical level. Founders who can dream while leveraging quantitative facts and data to divine a path forward for their business will gain the most from my mentorship and will likely find the experience beneficial and enjoyable.

Michael Concannon

Michael Concannon is Vice President of Technology at American Express, where he oversees Blockchain and Robotics Process Automation. A technologist at heart, Michael has a history in digital media, e-commerce, and emerging tech. Before American Express, he served as CTO with the video-sharing website Vimeo and the Amazon subsidiary, Quidsi. Michael holds both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University. Mentoring style: Hands on tech knowledge, critical feedback on implementation details, customer centric viewpoints.

Michael Law

Michael Law has 30+ years of CPG experience in sales and marketing leadership roles. Michael has experience in top tier companies like Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare and Edgewell Personal Care. He has also done diverse international work experience including living in Canada, Brazil and the U.S. Start up experience through mentorship and development of own CBD brand. Mentoring style: My style is collaborative, candid, ambitious. I like to work with bright, ambitious, thoughtful entrepreneurs that are seeking diverse perspectives.

Michael Offerman

Michael served as a product and brand strategy director at Redscout. He had the opportunity to shape brands from small start-ups to large brands, such as Allbirds, Uber, Walgreens, and Hilton. In 2020, he designed and built a caregiving non-profit website called Caregather, and will be starting as the Director of Brand at Ergatta in October. He is passionate about the intersection of brand and product and finding an expressive voice for exciting new companies. Mentoring style: I would like to work closely to understand their challenges, offer helpful frameworks and guidances along the way. Brand is something that needs to be felt internally, so helping their team adopt and feel confident with the brand is important.

Michael Roderick

Michael Roderick is the CEO of Small Pond Enterprises which helps thoughtful givers become thought leaders by making their brands referable, their messaging memorable, and their ideas unforgettable. He is also the host of the podcast Access to Anyone which shows how you can get to know anyone you want in business and in life using time tested relationship-building principles. Michael's unique methodology comes from his own experience of going from being a Highschool English teacher to a Broadway Producer in under two years. Mentoring style: I've done a lot of group presentations and teaching. I enjoy founders who are curious and are interested in topics like branding and relationship building.

Michelle Horowitz

Digital Innovator. Brand builder. Team Leader. Movement maker. Thought leader. Michelle Horowitz is currently challenging conventional fitness stereotypes celebrating how exercise makes you feel versus how it makes you look at a premium but affordable fitness brand. Michelle previously made LOFT shine brighter and brought Lou & Grey to life and is in brand Innovator's “Top 50 Women in Brand Marketing” Mentoring style: I would say evenly weighted between these three: Challenger - Strong and challenges the mentee's ideas. Cheerleader - Positive and supportive, finds the good even in difficult situations. Educator - Trains and educates the mentee, while trying to figure out where the mentee is weak so the training can be tailored to their specific needs

Nancy Finnegan

Nancy Finnegan is a career sales executive with a focus on practical sales acceleration techniques. Topics include pipeline management, deal strategies, presentation approaches, contract negotiations, and more... Mentoring style: I enjoy engaging the team so that we work through the best approach based on the companies stage of maturity. It typically is about understanding the current process and then making recommendations on improvements to be more effective at closing business.

Nancy Sommer

Nancy Sommer has 20+ years of design and merchandising experience, and private label & branded specializing in childrenswear. She launched Juicy Couture's baby line and continued to manage the division for 8 years. She is a former entrepreneur. Nancy is the Divisional Manager of Product Development for TJX Companies, managing a $50M business. Mentoring style: Informal and transparent.

Nidhi Chadda

Nidhi Chadda is a seasoned generalist growth investor across both public and private markets and board advisor to early stage companies. She is the Founder and CEO of Enzo Advisors, a boutique global advisory firm focused on early stage growth companies. Nidhi serves on several advisory boards and investment committees at angel associations and venture Funds (Wharton Alumni Angels, Chestnut Street Ventures). She is also a sector lead at Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of Greater NY and mentor at tech accelerators (ERA, XRC Labs, NY Fashion Tech Lab, Columbia Ventures). She was previously a portfolio manager at RBC Global Asset Management and has 20+ years of experience as an investment banker, strategic consultant, and investor. She earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Economics from Wharton, University of Pennsylvania. Mentoring style: Collaborative approach. Like to work with someone eager for feedback and is ""coachable""

Nisa Amoils

Nisa Amoils is an active angel investor, Board advisor and entrepreneur. She is a member of New York Angels where she invests in a variety of technology and is the co-chair of the frontier technology committee which encompasses AR/VR, robotics, drones, AI, driverless cars, autonomous innovations, cybersecurity, remote sensing and other cutting edge technology. She also has sector and investment expertise in entertainment, beauty, marketplaces and digital media. She has startup operational experience in areas such as strategic and digital marketing, business development, product and package development, distribution, staffing, fundraising, management and legal. She is a regular judge/panelist on CNBC, MSNBC and Fox and does podcasts on investing. Prior to this, she spent many years at media companies, including Time Warner and NBC Universal, looking at Internet 1.0 deals and executing strategic partnerships with film and television on behalf of Fortune 500 brands. She holds a BBA (business) degree from the University of Michigan and a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where she serves on the Board of the Design School. Given her specialty in blockchain and tech vc, she serves as a mentor at the Wharton Entrepreneurship Program, judging student competitions, and as a Mentor at XRC Labs. Mentoring style: Easy

Olga Orda

Olga Orda is a former tech startup CEO / angel and senior PR advisor with over thirteen years of experience growing and scaling tech companies in NYC and the Bay Area. Mentoring style: Highly engaged, active and focused mentoring style. I always bring it back to the business objectives and thinking big (no limitations). I'm results oriented. Love working with all types of founders!

Olga Yermolenko

Olga Yermolenko is a broadly experienced venture investor and startup operator, working at the intersection of strategy, technology and impact. Her passion is helping businesses and entrepreneurs reach their maximum potential and create a positive change. Currently Olga works with family office clients on social impact and venture investments, offering venture strategy, dealflow curation and on-demand institutional-quality due diligence services. Olga has diligenced over $1.2B worth of early and growth stage deals across various industries in the past six years. In addition, Olga has advised 80+ startups to date. Mentoring style: I love working with technical founders who need help with business strategy and fundraising

Patti Phillips

Patti Phillips is a strategy and transformation senior executive and consultant with several years' experience identifying, designing and leading substantive business change. She has helped companies of all sizes define and drive market and operational responses related to strategic redirection and redesign, turnaround and restructuring, corporate development and start-up strategy. Many of Patti's efforts have focused on rethinking and optimizing revenue generation and target operating models from the customer (internal and external) point of view. She has spanned both strategy and execution roles, holding senior operational leadership positions within several areas including marketing, finance, project and portfolio management, customer experience and HR/L&D. Her work in a range of industries and disciplines has repeatedly resulted in multimillion-dollar financial impact. Mentoring style: I feel I can provide the most value to founders focused on optimizing their overall business strategy, market approach and operational models.

Paul Cohen

Paul Cohen is the Principal at PRC Enterprises, since September 2010. He is a senior business leader and strategist in the fashion and apparel industry, with deep knowledge of marketing, business development, supply chains. Paul has led the US Marketing at Tefron, the successful start-ups and growth of both the licensed Ralph Lauren Intimates business at HanesBrands/Sara Lee Branded Apparel and the licensed Fruit of the Loom business at PVH/Warnaco Inc. Paul's other experience includes the President of the Hampton Industries and the Senior Vice President of the Keds brand. He has consulted with Li and Fung, Mast Global Industries, Textile Apparel Federation of Singapore, Reitman's Canada. And also apparel technology companies Noble Biomaterials X-Static, Suresource.com, Brayola.com, along with a number of other emerging apparel and fashion businesses. He has also been an advisor to Private Equity firms in the fashion and apparel space. Mentoring style: I am a positive ,always curious, encouraging, consultative mentor . I enjoy working with people who have great energy ad from whom I can learn.

Pialy Aditya

Pialy Aditya is an investor and operator. She is currently the Chief Strategy Officer of Republic, the investment platform for pre-seed to pre-IPO companies. She worked in venture capital for 5 years before taking on senior operating roles within two publicly traded companies: ShopYourWay (division of Sears Holdings) and Donna Karan (division of LVMH). Pialy is the Founder of Mintbox, a data analytics platform impacting revenue drivers for fashion & beauty retailers. She is an active startup investor and advisor. Pialy holds a BS from NYU Stern and a MBA from Harvard. Mentoring style: Tough love. Coupled with strategy & intros around operations, pipeline and financing

Pierre Bessez

Pierre Bessez's top areas of expertise include: sales and marketing, operations, licensing, EBITDA, luxury and designer brands, ROI, wholesale, retail, talent recruitment and development, global campaigns, and corporate initiatives. Pierre establishes business models to handle a wide range of business functions, including branding strategies, financing acquisition, sourcing, and image consulting for international companies. Mentoring style: Creative and long term goal orientated. Hands on.

Rachel Rubenstein

Rachel Rubenstein inspires and empowers individuals and teams to lead and communicate with greater clarity, confidence, and connection. She helps clients strengthen communication and presentation skills, develop self-awareness, build productive networks, boost confidence, and enhance the overall quality of personal and professional endeavors. Rachel's background in the performing arts coupled with her experience serving a wide array of cross-industry clientele, contributes to her unique coaching style. Relying on strategic process combined with intuitive insight, acting methods, and a strong academic foundation, Rachel offers her clients a highly personalized approach to enhance learning, insight and clarity in a safe environment. Mentoring style: I can adapt my style to meet the needs of any individual, which means I can be as hands on or off as need be. I enjoy working with people who are willing to take risks by employing creative tactics to address challenges.

Rafael Hines

Rafael Hines is an experienced vice president of strategy with a demonstrated history of working in the retail industry. Rafael is highly skilled in trend analysis, sales, product assortment planning, international expansion, and merchandise planning. He is a strong business development professional and graduated from Harvard Business School. Mentoring style: Outgoing and fun, with a focus on data and strategy

Rahul Brahmbhatt

Rahul Brahmbhatt is an entrepreneurial fundraising executive with nearly 20 years of diverse cross-sector experience that brings an innovative perspective to leadership teams and key strategic decisions. He has served in senior-level roles at early-stage growth organizations in both the public and social sectors. Rahul has raised nearly $15m for education and gender equality programs in the US, India, China, and Kenya. He has technical background in sectors from process engineering to energy and non-profit background in international education. Mentoring style: I like to understand the big picture/strategy and work backwards to see what the Founders sees and what they may not see on that roadmap. Working together we tighten their strengths and help identify and develop areas where they may not be strong. Communication and team-building are areas where I like to focus. I like working with founders who are strong, optimistic, and resilient. The road is primarily filled with challenges and outlook and attitude are key. For those that don't have this outlook, I make it my primary focus to help evolve their mindset.

Raj Adhav

Raj is a founder of Designial, a product design studio based in the San Francisco bay area. He advises about 50 startups each year.Over 20+ yrs of experience and launched 200+ mobile products on iOS and Android and 400+ on the Web for 100+ companies like Kohl's, Riteaid, Moody's, JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, Boston Scientific, J&J, and GE Healthcare.Raj earned a master's in Communication & Media Engineering from FH-Offenburg, Germany. Complete Profile- https://hubs.ly/Q01c3FZX0 Expertise- User/Customer Research, Product Strategy, Design & Development, Pilots/POC, User/Customer Testing, Feedback, and Pitch Decks. Mentoring style: Long-term, results-driven

Rashida Morisset

Rashida Morisset's career blends global politics, trade, people and fashion! For over 20 years, she has helped retailers in every sector along the maturity spectrum (from emerging to legacy) define, transform and enhance their global logistics strategies and capabilities. As the retail SME for Expeditors International, Rashida helps retailers design and develop innovative and responsive supply chain solutions to navigate the pace of disruption. Mentoring style: I cater my mentoring styles to the needs of the mentee. It is always my intent to provide candid feedback, challenge assumptions and provide real case studies. I am interested in founders who are interested in learning from me as much as I am interested in learning from them

Rashmi Patil

Rashmi Patil is an agile influencer with 12+ years experience in developing strategies, launching products and implementing transformation solutions to increase revenue, drive innovation agenda and accelerate time to market by >30%. Rashmi developed Thought Leadership and led Product Development for initiatives worth $5 - $200M. She launched GTM Strategy for new products with inbuilt competitive advantage and high top line growth. Rashmi includes strategy, talent development and process enablement across the analytics spectrum: auto data reconciliation to predictive analysis. Wharton MBA and BS in Engineering from U. of Illinois. Mentoring style: I like to think not only in terms of where the puck is but where it is going to be. My mentoring style focuses on advising on current needs to acquire and retain customers, and also embed scalability for Digital Marketing and Data Analytics to rapidly scale and drive customer lifetime value. I enjoy working with founders who are inspired and relish the yin-yang and excitement of the growth phase.

Reid Jackson

Reid Jackson has spent the majority of his professional career in sales or corporate development for leading IT companies (Cisco Systems, Splunk, Motorola, Xerox). He lead sales in the northeast for two startup companies. He bootstrapped and started his own Executive Search firm and ran that for 8 years. Selling products and solutions in net new markets is a specialty. Mentoring style: My style is more of a coach. Share experiences from my past and give my opinion but allow others to make their own decisions

Ricardo Lajoie

Ricardo Lajoie is an experienced executive with a demonstrated history of achieving results in dynamic onmi-channel retail environments. Ricardo is the Vice President of Merchandising at Foot Locker, where he leverages his expertise in omni-channel retail buying, planning and managing production. Prior to his current role, he served as the VP of Global Merchandising at GAP inc., helping lead the iconic global retailer in transforming its operating model. Before that, Ricardo was General Merchandising Manager at Urban Outfitters. He has a strong ability to lead a team in translating customer and competitive information, along with fashion and cultural trends, into action that drives growth and profitability. Ricardo has extensive experience at a regional and global scale in organizational transformation, digital innovation, and capability building. Mentoring style: Collaborative

Richard Jaffe

Richard Jaffe is a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY. Richard has an extensive background operating businesses in men's and women's fashion apparel retail. He has a comprehensive and insightful perspective on the sector, its disruptors and successes and a deep understanding of the sector with experience in capital tasing public and private markets. Mentoring style: thoughtful, and willing to challenge. I enjoy working with smart, ambitious, eager founders who are open to listening and learning.

Richard Sunderland

Richard Sunderland is the founder of Heavenly Group, a creative consultancy with offices in London, New York City and Cardiff. Heavenly helps organizations position themselves to grow, focusing on strategy, identity and entrepreneurial routes-to-market. Specializing in technology, media, start-ups, non-profit and real estate, we create ideas that capture the imagination of the impatient world. Mentoring style: I am collaborative and constructive'y critical and enjoy working with bold, open-minded and ambitious founders.

Rick Watson

Rick Watson is the founder of RMW Commerce Consulting a boutique consultancy specializing in the eCommerce industry. With over two decades of experience sharpening his operating skills in executive roles at industry leading firms, he is now advising eCommerce companies of all sizes in overcoming their roadblocks to growth. Rick was one of the first employees at ChannelAdvisor (NYSE:ECOM) where he spent 10 years launching several of the company's most innovative flagship services to accelerate sales for retailers and brands on eBay and Amazon. Rick was then recruited to initiate the third-party marketplace at Barnes & Noble.com, expanding the company's product catalog by over 1M items. After the successful marketplace launch, Rick became CEO of Merchantry, a leading provider of product information management software, which he led to a $30M exit through acquisition by Tradeshift. Most recently, Rick directed the cross-border product strategy of Pitney Bowes, a $450M business, comprised of Borderfree and eBay Global Shipping Program. Rick has been a featured speaker on Bloomberg, several global eCommerce industry events, and a contributor to the Wall Street Journal. He holds a M.S and B.S. from Vanderbilt University in Electrical Engineering. Mentoring style: Very open and collaborative.

Robin Albin

Robin Albin is a serial brand innovator, strategist and virtual Swiss Army Knife of creative with an insatiable curiosity about people and culture. She founded INSURGENTS with the goal of partnering with brave business leaders who want to break through barriers and bureaucracy to uncover new worlds of opportunity. Over her career, Robin has helped invent and reinvent over 50 brands. Some of the original brands she has helped create and steer to success include: Origins Natural Resources, Lucidity Lighting, Léman Manhattan Preparatory School, DrinkLavit, Stetson Bourbon, Voli Vodka, Jane Cosmetics and GeoGirl Cosmetics. Robin has also helped mature brands such as Alpha-H, Estée Lauder, Darphin, Keepsake Engagement Rings, Champion Jogbra, Playtex Apparel and Klinger Advanced Aesthetics find their "mojo" again by guiding them to their "True North" in a modern, relevant way. Mentoring style: I am very honest and forthright - I enjoy working with founders who are open minded and curious.

Rocky Lachman

Rocky is Head of Marketing at Tribeca Venture Partners where she leads marketing for the firm and advises portfolio companies on marketing and branding. She is a brand leader with experience in financial services, health & wellness and lifestyle brand marketing in Fortune 500, startup and entrepreneurial companies. Rocky has led marketing at early and mid-stage startups, focusing on brand and digital marketing, innovation, retail strategy, experiential, partnerships and pr & communications. She lives and breathes brands and has spent time at The Coca-Cola Company, American Express, S'well, Walker & Co (acquired by P&G), and BlackRock. Rocky graduated cum laude from Harvard with a B.A. in economics and Spanish. She received her MBA from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. She was awarded the Kellogg Dean's Distinguished Service Award for her efforts in women's leadership. Rocky is a Trustee of the Dana Hall School and she has previously served on the boards of Girls Inc. NYC and Girls for Gender Equity. She is passionate about fitness, women's leadership and startup marketing.

Sajid Sindha

Sajid Sindha has more than 20 years of consulting, strategy and health care administration experience with prior organizations such as Accenture, United Health Group, DaVita, and Kaiser Permanente. In his current role at Providence, Sajid has responsibility over strategy and business development for three hospitals in the Los Angeles service area that serve over 1M patients. Sajid obtained his BA in Economics from UC Irvine and his Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA. He is passionate about the mentorship of youth and has been a past mentor for 1st generation college students as well as the past Chief Mentorship Officer for the Healthcare Alumni of Anderson at UCLA. Sajid is an avid basketball fan, national parks hiker (Yosemite, Grand Canyon and Zion among his favorites) and global traveler. Sajid has visited 15 countries including Bali, Malaysia, Costa Rica, Morocco, and Turkey.

Samantha Trinh

Samantha Trinh is a brand builder, startup advisor and founding partner at NYC based strategy consultancy Ennovae where she leads marketing, partnerships, M&A and joint ventures with entrepreneurs, executives and investors. She works with global brands, agencies and private equity groups and has a track record of innovation, leading high performing product launch teams and strategic growth initiatives for Fortune 500 companies, startups and social enterprises. After beginning her career at Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Samantha joined the management team at Verizon responsible for the national launch of Fios. She has built and scaled industry leading products and services, and elevated global activations to achieve billions in record reach and relevancy. Samantha grew Ennovae over 11 years to serve 25+ corporate clients, advising 15+ high growth startups across multiple industries and supporting accelerators helping hundreds of startups to scale. She leverages a global network to invest in the next generation of entrepreneurs. Mentoring style: Highly collaborative, Strategic and Results Driven

Sara Gable

Sara Gable has 15 years of CPG brand management experience in food, personal care, home care, and alcoholic beverage. Mentoring style: consultative - I'm happy to be a sounding board to noodle ideas! I love to talk commercial strategy as well as brand positioning!

Scott Crawford

I have been in a leadership role for over 30 years and have always worked in high quality sectors of the industires and best in class employers. I started my carrer in the Culinary industry and graduted from the Culinary Institiue of America. I went on to be a Excutive Chef for Hyatt Hotel and later owned my own resturants before joining Whole Foods Market. I was in Three regions over a 10 year span and particpated in design, open and buidling over 35 stores. I then joined FreshDirect and worked in multiple catagories and was the Chief Merchant my last 4 years during my tenure. I was responsbile for the Merchandise Team, Supply Chain, Demand Planning, B2b and Customer Service. I am currently with Baldor Foods and look forward to helping others gain the knowledge they need to be succesfull. Mentoring style: I love to solve challanges through questions, answers and connecting resources across my network

Scott Grisanti

Scott Grisanti has served as an executive who has been instrumental in driving growth and profitability for enterprise technology companies for more than 25 years. Currently, Scott is Managing Partner of Lenox-Monmouth Advisors, which works with senior management and boards at emerging growth organizations to design and implement comprehensive go-to-market strategies that scale revenue and profit. Prior, he served as Chief Operating Officer at Prometheus Group, an enterprise asset optimization application solution provider. Previously, Scott served as Senior Vice President, Consumer Industries Sales at Kony Solutions, provider of a mobile/multi-channel application development platform. Prior to Kony, Scott was an active investor, Member of the Board of Directors, Chairman, and President and CEO of MedClean Technologies, a clean technology company serving healthcare providers. Earlier, Scott served as Executive Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Professional Services at Primavera Systems, which offered enterprise application software to capital intensive industries for project, program and portfolio management. Prior, Scott was Executive Vice President, responsible for sales, marketing and alliances, at eResearchTechnology, a provider of software and technology-based services for the life sciences industry. Scott graduated with High Honors from Rutgers University, where he was named to Phi Beta Kappa. As a Mentor at XRC Labs, Scott leverages his leadership background in enterprise software sales, marketing and overall go-to-market strategies for service and process industry segments when working with start-ups. Mentoring style: hands out focused on specific actions & outcomes with respect to revenue generating activities, which works best with commercially oriented founders

Scott Kubie

A leading voice in digital strategy and UX design, Scott Kubie is an inventive, systems-minded design leader with deep experience in all things content.He’s been a staff content strategist at Mailchimp, content strategy practice lead at Brain Traffic, and the first UX content strategist at Wolfram Research. Scott wrote the seminal design writing text Writing for Designers. He teaches content strategy at the School of Visual Concepts, UX writing at the School of Visual Arts, and organizes Content.Events and the Content Career Accelerator. Scott is an "Oregon Trail generation" millenial who still remembers the sound of a 9600 baud modem, and has been extremely online since ~1995. Through his own company and prior agency work, Scott has led projects or trainings for clients as diverse as Capital One, Schibsted, Culture Amp, Optum, The Getty Institute, American Physical Society, the College of American Pathologists, United Educators, SmartyPig, Breaking News Online (BNO), and many others. Scott is a popular international speaker on topics including content design, UX writing, content strategy, information architecture, and user-centered design. Mentoring style: Leadership coaching, UX strategy consulting, expert analysis (UX/UI teardowns), UX team mentorship/coaching

Scott Lux

Scott Lux is an executive with over 20 years of experience leading e-commerce, digital strategy, marketing, and analytics from both the brand side and agency perspective. He currently serves as the SVP Customer Experience and Digital Commerce (Consultant) at Alice and Olivia, as an adjunct professor at both Columbia University and Fashion Institute of Technology, and as an advisor. Prior to his current role at Alice and Olivia, Scott developed digital strategies at Theory and Helmut Lang as the Vice President of Ecommerce & Digital. Scott initially began his digital career in Seattle as a VP of Online Product Development for Chase. From there he moved to the Global Digital Agency Possible. While at Possible, he led digital strategy and e-commerce for Faconnable, Entertainment Weekly, Motorola, and REI. After five years with the agency, he moved back to the brand side leading e-commerce and digital initiatives for Kiehls, AmEx, Morgans Hotel Group, and Diesel. He continued his works as an industry leader as Vice President of Ecommerce and Digital Marketing at John Varvatos Enterprises and then Vice President of Ecommerce and Performance Marketing at INTERMIX. Throughout his career, he has designed and implemented solutions around customer acquisition, personalization, campaign management, and membership/loyalty programs designed to deliver an inspiring customer experience. Mentoring style: Founders that are open to leveraging expertise to make their company better

Shani Syphrett

Shani Syphrett is a multidisciplinary strategist, marketer & community builder. She brings over 12 years of field-tested brand strategy, experience design, brand marketing, creative advertising, and product innovation strategies to B2C brands who want to keep up with their rapidly evolving audiences. She has worked in consumer product, eCommerce, media, tech, and consumer services with a variety of companies from Fortune 500 to start-ups. Mentoring style: I am both a coach and a teacher and enjoy working with founders who have a clear vision of their product and purpose and just need help executing.

Shannan Humes

Shannon Humes is a Senior Innovation Leader and Brand Strategist with deep experience in CPG and durable goods across food, electronics, and packaged goods. She is passionate about "better-for-you" product innovation and enriching the lives of consumers. Mentoring style: First seek to understand - a. the business/product/reason, b. the core issue (if any), c. goals, d. timing. It all boils down to understanding, rapport and building trust. I have found value and great partnerships with various types of founders. I provide perspective, guidance and expertise.

Sharon Harsa

Sharon Harsa is a New York-based retail and wholesale executive focusing on luxury fashion, beauty and home goods. She has worked with a varied mix of companies ranging from established brands to startups including Hugo Boss, La Perla, Vintage & Modern and Reed Krakoff. Sharon has overseen accounting/finance, supply chain, marketing, merchandising, creative and sales/retail teams. In her roles she has driven business profitability through marketing and operational initiatives and business development. Currently Sharon is CFO of Assembled Brands. Mentoring style: I like to be a thought partner to the founders as well as provide more specific guidance based on my experiences.

Shirin Ahmed

Shirin Ahmed for the past 10 years has served as a strategic advisor, researcher, investor, and policy analyst professional driving population health management, new business development and optimization as well aligning organizations with the evolving regulatory landscape. Shirin is founder friendly and mentors seed/early stage startups. She works with SMEs across the globe to develop thought leadership on health systems transitioning to value based care. Her other areas of expertise include: Fashion Apparel, Buying and Merchandising, and Business Strategy. Mentoring style: I work one on one with my mentees, creating a safe environment for them to express their thoughts, ideas and challenges. I want to gauge who they are at the core and harness them to unleash their full potential. I love Passionate, Creative, Visionary, Idealist entrepreneurs.

Simon Collins

Simon Collins is a creative seditionary, design thinker, speaker, writer, designer and advisor. Following a career as fashion designer then creative director for some of the world's leading brands including Nike, Polo and Zegna he recently served 7 years as Dean of the School of Fashion at Parsons School of Design where he successfully brought together creativity, communication, business and innovation. He now spends his time advising brands, companies, fashion weeks and governments. He hosts the Fashion Garage advice salon series with Julie Gilhart and he travels the world speaking about his adventures. Identified as one of the essential voices of global fashion by The Business of Fashion 500 and listed as one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. He is a staple in the New York Times, Vogue, WWD, Style.com, CNN, NPR, the Wall Street Journal and of course Page Six. His 5 season show on Chinese TV had 5m weekly viewers and in 2014 he published his first book; ‘The School Of Fashion'. His live conversation interview series includes guests; Victoria Beckham, Francois-Henri Pinault and Proenza Schouler. He has spoken at many notable fashion, tech and design conferences including Cannes Lions and the YPO conference. Simon Collins is the former dean of fashion at Parsons School of Design and the founder of Fashion Culture Design – The Unconference.

Sophie Lefebvre

Sophie Lefebvre is a strategic, creative product leader who is experienced in taking products from ideation to commercialization across categories, industries, and geographies. With over 13+ years in the industry, Sophie has extensive experience in developing and executing scalable product strategies for Fortune 500, medium-size companies, and startups. While a Mentor for XRC Labs, Sophie continues her work as a Strategy and Innovation Consultant as well as an advisor for companies like nuutok and Move38, Inc. Prior, she was the Head of Marketing and Strategic Planning at COSMO, and she also spearheaded international marketing initiatives as well as designing strategies and roadmaps for product development. Given her extensive industry knowledge, she specializes in business strategies as well as non-technical and technical product development. Mentoring style: I enjoy working with founders who engage in constructive conversations, being able to uncover the pain points, and blind spots. My mentoring style consists of a pragmatic approach as I find fulfillment in solving problems methodically. The time is used wisely.

Stacy Berns

With more than 25 years of experience in marketing and communications, Stacy Berns founded Berns Communications Group, LLC (BCG) in 2002 to answer the need for a sophisticated boutique corporate communications firm in the consumer, retail and fashion space. Numerous strong and long-lasting relationships with the fashion and retail industry's top executives and CEOs are what set Stacy apart. Her track record demonstrates a unique ability to match the news and feature requirements of the press with the complex messaging needs of her clients. Stacy has created PR strategies around events such as company launches, store openings, and new product/service announcements, and she actively advises many of the retail and fashion industry's most high-profile thought leaders, including Li & Fung, Financo, Telsey Advisory Group, The Doneger Group, and many others. Her transactional work includes M&A deals, private equity investments, IPO work and other financial announcements. She has an innate sense of what the story is. Her particular strength lies in consistently presenting a well-defined position and unified messages to each corporate constituency, be they clients, investors or other key audiences. With deep expertise in the consumer and business services industries, this award-winning communications executive has developed and implemented strategic corporate communcation programs for such high-profile brands as Donna Karan, Saks, and Gucci, among others. Stay has developed and executed corporate visibility campaigns for more than 200 public and private companies, all the while building solid and long-standing relationships with the national business media. Throughout the years, Stacy has played an instrumental role in some of the most significant CEO events in fashion and retail, such as the World Retail Congress, The Financo Forum, and several FIT programs, including its student competition at the WRC. She has spearheaded industry events for Financo, Mother's Day Council and Father's Day Council, and collaborated on major fundraisers for Fashion Delivers and K.I.D.S. In 1999, Ms. Berns was honored with the Silver Anvil Award for excellence in investor relations media relations for her work on The Children's Place Retail Stores account. Prior to founding BCG, Stacy was a principal at Morgen-Walke Associates for almost 10 years, where she was responsible for overseeing the corporate media relations department of this leading investor relations firm. Stacy has written articles for The Boston Globe and holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Northeastern University. Stacy is a lover of fashion and has a passion for yoga and holistic health. Two years ago, she founded Beauty Foundation Friends with her two teenage daughters. The non-profit empowers teens with cancer, promoting friendship and encouraging teen participants to raise money and volunteer. Mentoring style: one on one relationship, connector

Steven Dennis

Steve Dennis serves as the President of SageBerry Consulting, where he consults a wide range of retail and consumer brands from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups. He also shares his 35+ years of industry expertise as Keynote speaker, growth strategy & innovation advisor, Board member, Forbes senior retail contributor, and Best-selling author of "Remarkable Retail: How to Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Digital Disruption." As a former C-level executive, his expertise spans wide from driving business strategies, marketing, and direct to consumer sales. With his passion for the retail sector, he has worked with dozens of consumer, luxury and social impact brands to catalyze and design their successful journeys. As a Mentor, he is open to communicating with founders about their visions. Mentoring style: I like teaching and coaching based upon my many years of industry experience. I enjoy founders that are passionate, committed and accountable, with a good sense of humor.

Steven Zerneri

Steven Zerneri specializes in growth and early-stage startups in D2C and Marketplace. Prior to his current role as Head of Growth at Bark Eats, he pursued his entrepreneurial spirit and founded Spaw, a marketplace catered for a less stressful in-home growing experience for pets, which was acquired by Groomit, the largest in-home pet grooming platform. Prior to that, Steven also launched UberX in Los Angeles, Utah, Santa Barbara, Palm Springs, and other cities. With his expertise in growth and go-to-market strategies, he mentors startups to help them strategize growth hacking, customer acquisition and fundraising.

Susan Naci

Most recently, Susan Naci was an executive at Amazon working in the CPG and beauty sectors. Susan has a background that spans leadership roles across business development, capital investment and digital advertising within media organizations, VC/PE firms, e-commerce startups, and big tech. Susan has been an entrepreneur and investor, startup CEO and corporate executive, creative marketer/brand builder and business analyst. Mentoring style: '- Collaborative, open, creative - Founders who are structured and thoughtful, enthusiastic and driven

Sydney Price

Sydney Price is an award-winning executive and the Founder and CEO of The Knew Purpose, a conscious leadership company focused on leadership development, business sustainability, and social impact. She is a dynamic force at designing, developing, and implementing social impact and sustainability programs while creating new revenue channels and profitability for companies. Sydney is recognized as a catalyst in business transformation for her abilities to intertwine purpose, business, and social impact and, as a result, has been awarded “Most Influential Women” by CEO Connection, 2015. As an ICF certified coach and inspirational facilitator, Sydney continues to take her experiences to the next level by empowering other leaders, businesses, universities, non-profits, and social entrepreneurs. Previously, as SVP of Social Impact and Innovation at Kate Spade & Company (KSC), Sydney strategically developed, implemented, and led a new, profitable commercial channel within KSC value chain and built a women-focused international Social Enterprise Supplier Model in Rwanda. Sydney's innovative model was awarded “Best Economic Empowerment Program” from the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation in 2015 and was studied and endorsed by Georgetown University in 2017. Prior to this role, she was SVP of Direct to Consumer and Global Merchandising at KSC and held multiple leadership positions at Neiman Marcus Group. Through The Knew Purpose, Sydney works with leaders, companies and communities to create a better world. Mentoring style: No-nonsense, personalized, and aspirational - with the goal of delivering concrete results.

Tad Shepperd

Tad Shepperd has 40+ years of experience in technology and services businesses including as a founder and CEO. Proven expertise in bringing solutions to market and has helped businesses assemble leadership teams, create powerful sales organizations and finally help build an efficient supply chain and customer focused delivery process. He has appeared as a subject matter expert on television networks including CNN International, Bloomberg Television and NBC's Today Show. Mentoring style: Guiding but not overbearing. I like founders who recognize that they DON'T know everything already.

Tara Levy

Focused on brand growth, Tara Levy is a highly-accomplished marketing executive with well-rounded acumen in marketing, communications, luxury, and sustainability. Tara employs this skillset, coupled with goal-driven leadership and excellent relationship building skills, to generate sustained impact in fashion, jewelry, and philanthropy industries. Mentoring style: I enjoy working with founders who are motivated and interested in hearing feedback and ready to question their plans and determine the best way forward. I am happy to share and give advice but believe that founders must also arrive at their correct answer on their own.

Tom Eckrich

Tom Eckrich is a data driven retail and wholesale executive with experience in merchandising, marketing and omni-channel buying operations for stores in the USA and Canada. He uses data to find opportunities and drive results. An inspirational leader who's able to attract, develop and retain world-class teams focused on sales growth, brand acquisition, profit improvement and fashion leadership. Mentoring style: Making myself available to answer questions related to my areas of expertise.

Ujjwal Dhoot

Ujjwal Dhoot is obsessed with influencing the optimal customer journey and building engaging customer platforms. Having successfully grown eCommerce companies' many-fold & managed $10's of millions in marketing budgets, he strives to keep building fast-growing marketing and product driven organizations. From when a customer first experiences a brand to re-engaging lapsed customers, he loves to emphasize behavioral change to increase customer lifetime value. He has diverse experience in aspects of direct & digital marketing, retail, eCommerce, business development & analytics. He is currently Chief Marketing Officer at DXL Group, the largest retailer of men's apparel in Big + Tall sizes XL and up. Ujjwal manages all aspects of DXL's brand positioning, performance marketing, creative strategy and all elements of lifecycle marketing across the DXL.com business, DXL's mobile app and across its more than 320 stores. He was previously CMO/CPO at Health E-Commerce (FSAStore), a hyper growth eCommerce company that was acquired by Beecken Petty O'Keefe & Company. Prior to FSAStore, he was VP Marketing & eCommerce at Charming Charlie, an Omni-channel retailer with over 350 stores. Here he oversaw the overall marketing and eCommerce strategy including Digital, CRM, Customer Insight, eCommerce and PR functions. Ujjwal has also been VP of Marketing at 20x200, an online retailer for limited edition art, where he oversaw all aspects of marketing. While he was VP of Marketing at PetCareRx.com, a fast-growing omni-channel retailer for pet medications, he managed the entire direct and digital marketing portfolio, along with business development and customer insight functions. He also successfully led the A/B and multivariate testing program to double eCommerce conversion to over 10% Mentoring style: digital businesses, open to trying new things, product market defined and ready to launch

Valerie Toscano

Valerie Toscano is a collaborative customer and market-focused strategist who leverages metrics, customer insights and market trends to define innovative products and services, delivery roadmaps, budgets and go-to-market plans aimed at achieving profitable revenue growth. Valerie has over 15 years of experience in Financial Services and 5 years of consulting with small businesses in start ups the digital, ecomm, and retail tech space. Mentoring style: I like to brainstorm and ask thought provoking questions to help align on a solution. I like to work with founders who can appreciate structure and process to assist with, not hinder, innovation.

Vasileios Stoidis

Vasileios is a four-time Founder, CEO of 7L International and MassiveGRID.A lifelong learner and mentor, uses the engineering mindset to understand "how things work" in life, in science, technology and business.As a mentor loves to analyze, innovate and optimize go to market strategies and market segmentation, product market fit and business models. He's committed to help Startups become Enterprises and accelerate Enterprises like Startups.Fascinated by the ways technology assists in the advancements of society, entertains new technological ideas starting from human needs.

Waleed Nasir

Waleed Nasir is diversely skilled in product development, recruiting and managing global teams, driving enterprise sales, and building strategic partnerships. He is currently a board member at Yale Science & Engineering Association. Waleed has led several startups in the past, leading to acquisition and successful exits. He is also the CTO and Head of Products at Virtual Force, an engineering firm that helps enterprises build and scale next generation solutions at rapid speed and quality. As an experienced Software Engineer, Waleed has worked as a Senior Product Manager and Director prior to his current roles. With his extensive industry experience in design thinking, product design, and technical product development, Waleed helps founders leverage state-of-the-art technology stacks, tools, processes, and talent, essentially putting their venture on a path to success. Mentoring style: Mentor Style

Wayne Chan

Wayne Chan is an engineer with a track record of launching new products and companies that span many industries: emergency management, finance services, subscription e-commerce, media and publishing. He is passionate about understanding customer motivations, and building products that solve their needs. Mentoring style: My approach to mentoring is to ask questions to make sure the mentee fully understands the problem they are solving. I then help them create a plan of action to find their own solution. I enjoy working with founders (people in general) who are driven by a sense of service to others, who understand their values, and have the integrity to stay true to those values.

Wesley Chiang

Wesley Chiang's career has been focused on sales and driving revenue with a concentration on retail and digital technologies. Wesley recently started a sales consultancy to work with startups to help launch their enterprise sales organization. Prior to starting his consultancy, Wesley spent the last 13 years in enterprise sales with leading technology companies. Wesley was an Account Executive at Mirakl (the leading SaaS marketplace platform). Vice President of Sales at GPShopper (the leading mobile app platform for retailers, acquired by Synchrony Financial in 2017), and led sales and strategic partnerships at GlobalBay (Acquired by VeriFone in 2011). In between his sales career, Wesley co-founded Holi, a dog food and treat company that was part of XRC Labs Cohort 6, and was Chief Revenue Officer.

Wilson Lin

Wilson Lin is currently a VC Fellow at Chesnut Street Ventures, supporting fundraising, deal sourcing, and due diligence. He is also a Managing Director at Cyber NYC, building out a tech ecosystem including an early stage incubator, a growth stage accelerator, and corporate innovation programs. Before impact investing, Wilson was a management consultant at Deloitte and IBM and worked in internal strategy at UBS. He received his MBA from the University of Michigan and BA in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. Mentoring style: Built on a strong foundation of trust and understanding - both personally and professionally. I let to set expectations upfront regarding ways of working, communicating, and goals/objectives so that I uncover the most helpful ways to support founders. I like founders who are open-minded about approaches and advice, yet single-minded in their ability to focus on what's most important. I'm happy to provide insight based on experiences, research, etc. but make it clear the decision and implementation is up to the founders.

Zach Warren

Zach Warren is an investment professional with a focus on public retail and consumer companies globally. He has conducted industry research for over seven years including retailer, brand and consumer analysis. In addition, Zach has engaged with numerous management teams to assess underlying business strategy. He is also an angel investor in early stage consumer businesses. Mentoring style: I like learning with mentees and pushing them to think about problems in unique ways. Enjoy working with passionate founders that have self awareness and are willing to adjust as necessary.