Based in New York City, Brian has a decade of experience working in the financial services industry, holding positions leading teams in businesses spanning across fixed income, operations, risk management, finance and investment banking.

Prior to joining Barclays to lead the firm's fintech engagement platform in North America, Rise New York, Brian solidified operating experience working at a late stage start-up to support the founding team and executive leadership on a highly anticipated IPO.

For Rise, Brian leads engagement efforts with early and growth stage start-ups to leverage emerging technologies and support Barclays’ open innovation strategy.

His additional responsibilities at Barclays include business development; deal sourcing, lifecycle management and closing; facilitating network based activities for the firm's global fintech accelerator program; and the Female Innovators Lab venture studio by Barclays and Anthemis.

A technologist and social entrepreneur from the age of 19, Shana has built businesses designed to positively impact people’s lives through access to disruptive technologies.

With a mission to break barriers between corporate powerhouses, reputable educational institutions, and resource-hungry entrepreneurs, Shana founded Upward Hartford in 2017 as a centralized ecosystem for technology, art and community ventures to transpire. In 2018 she launched Upward Labs in partnership with fortune companies as an engine to help global PropTech and Healthtech startups fast track their growth into the US by collaborating correctly with the large enterprises.

In January 2022, Upward launched its Net Zero Lab in partnership with multiple commercial and residential building owners that are committed to achieving Carbon Reduction and Net Zero in their properties. The Lab will accelerate and invest in promising technologies from around the world that are working to decarbonize the real estate market.

Chris has been working with global startups for the past ten years.

He is experienced in working with startups from different sectors: Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, Data Science, Blockchain Technologies, Cloud Infrastructure, and more.

As the Inception Program Partner Manager at Nvidia, Chris supports startups through access to Nvidia resources, go-to-market support, investor relationships, and ecosystem connections.

In addition, he brings experience in mentoring and advising startups on lean business, pitch training, and business development, as well as finding and leading investment opportunities in pre-seed and seed companies, developing corporate innovation and acceleration programs, in companies such as 500 Startups, PWC, IBM, and have worked with startups across Europe and the US.

Dr. Maria Blekher, is a startup value accelerator, advisor, and behavioral scientist in NYC.

Using data driven holistic approach, Maria supports early-stage startups in entering US markets.

She incorporates behavioral research into strategic processes, business development, marketing research, and a vast global network, to help startups develop market research plans, go-to-market strategies, and actionable road maps to achieve their business goals.

Maria is also the Founding Director of YU Innovation Lab, and a Clinical Professor, at the Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University, NYC.

Terrance is a dynamic operator, startup coach, and early-stage investor with expertise in venture building, product management, fundraising, and business development across both startups and large corporations.

Propelled by his passion for mentoring entrepreneurs, Terrance brings energy and focus to the teams he leads as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Mach49 — a venture builder helping global businesses build a portfolio of new ventures and design corporate venture groups.

He is an active advisor at multiple venture firms, studios, and accelerators, including Antler, Visible Hands, and High Alpha Innovation. He is also a Venture Partner at NextGen Venture Partners, Startup Mentor at Forum Ventures and WEVE Acceleration, and an emerging leader in venture capital as recognized by HBCUvc.

Prior to joining Mach49, Terrance spent time as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at SAP.iO — SAP’s venture fund and studio — where he developed solutions for enterprise software pains related to supply chain and logistics. He also served as a Venture Partner at Republic, the full-stack investment platform spun out of AngelList, and advised early-stage companies on business development and growth at seed accelerator Techstars Chicago.

Before he worked with founders, Terrance was known as an intrapreneur at Dell Technologies, where he helped launch new business functions and conceptualize novel business models, and drove post-merger integration projects during the largest technology acquisition in history (between Dell and EMC).

Terrance is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law, Johnson & Wales University, and Claflin University.

As the Founder Operations Manager at Primary, Emma partners closely with existing portfolio companies to drive value and helps run Primary's NYC Founders Fellowship program.

Emma has experience working with early-stage (pre-seed and seed) entrepreneurs across different verticals. She can be particularly helpful in crafting their story and refining their investor pitch.

She has spent her early career supporting startup founders in a variety of roles, and believes that entrepreneurs are agents of change.

After graduating from Tufts University with a BA in Political Science and Entrepreneurship, Emma joined Venture for America (VFA), a two-year entrepreneurial fellowship that serves to create economic opportunity in American cities. Through VFA, she took on a Program Manager role, building entrepreneurial communities in Charlotte, NC.

Most recently, Emma helped run programs at Techstars, a leading seed-stage accelerator.

Outside of work, Emma can be found running, hosting dinner parties, and baking her “famous” chocolate chip cookies.

Gil is the Managing Partner of Stardust Ventures, which works with consumer focused technology companies.

Gil mentors early stage startups for Techstars, Silvertech and Sapir Venture Partners about marketing, business strategy and working with celebrities and influencers

He also works closely with the CEO and CINO of Silverstein Properties on the future of real estate in a post Covid-19 world. As an active entrepreneur, he was an early adopter of crypto and is continuing to invest in the sector.

Gil was President and Founder of HYPR, the market leader in data-driven influencer marketing automation solutions, which was sold to Juliusworks in 2020. Under his leadership, HYPR won multiple awards, such as: Best Content Marketing Tech Platform, Best Influencer Marketing Platform awards, the International Performance Marketing award for Best Saas/Tracking Platform, the MarCom Award for excellence in Print Media, and the Martech award for Best Influencer Marketing Platform.

Gil has revolutionized the way many of the world’s biggest agencies and brands are running influencer marketing by focusing on the same data, analytics and audience demographic information relevant to traditional digital marketing.

A veteran of over 200 celebrity endorsement deals, Gil has worked with many of the biggest names in music, film and sports including Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Pitbull, Lance Armstrong, Lil Wayne, Zendaya, Stephen Curry and Serena Williams.

Gil was ranked #30 in the list of most influential people in Influencer Marketing. Nathan Latka crowned Gil as the "New King of Influencer Marketing" on his popular podcast.

He has delivered keynotes at notable influencer marketing conferences, including Influencer Marketing Days in NYC, and Influencer Marketing Hub in London.

Gil was the recipient of the 2017 Digiday Top Boss award in the technology industry, Gil is an expert operator, team builder and marketing strategist. Gil is also a two-time winner of the MarCom award for Excellence in Marketing and Communications from Adweek.

Gil has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Holly is a serial entrepreneur and female founder advocate whose mission is to change the founder experience through connection and access to resources.

Holly supports early-stage startups through data-driven decision making and actionable road maps to achieve their growth goals.

In addition, she brings experience in mentoring and advising startups on lean business, pitch training, and business strategy.

As a local leader for Founder Insititute Dallas, Holly supports startups through access to resources, strategic planning, investor readiness, and ecosystem connections.

In 2020 she launched EqALL, an advisory and consultancy space to support startups and the spaces that grow them. EqALL supports incubator and accelerator programs through collaborative design and facilitation.