Listen to best practices and lessons learned from unicorn founders. Techstars Alumni ($99B in valuations, 19+ graduate unicorns), is a private alumni founder community that has access to exclusive chats with unicorn founders. Our community is made of venture-backed Techstars alumni across industries and geographies. If you want to connect with fellow founder alumni, to be there for one another, register at our website and stay tuned for upcoming meetups: www.techstarsalumni.org/join * not affiliated/run by Techstars.
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June 5, 202452 min
Kris Bliesner - CEO of Vega Cloud (orchestrated a $150 million+ Cloud exit)
Kris Bliesner, is the CEO of Vega Cloud, with 27 years of technology leadership as a CEO, CIO, and CTO. With a 15-year background in Public Cloud infrastructure, Kris orchestrated a $150 million+ Cloud exit, delivering an outstanding return for investors. Kris's leadership was instrumental in scaling 2nd Watch from $0 to $40 million in revenue with 250 employees.
At Vega Cloud, Kris is on a mission to offer industry-leading soluQons that provide users with more control over their cloud services, translaQng to significant Qme and cost savings.
Join our host Alejandro, co-host Ricardo and the Techstars alumni tech founder community at this Web Series conversation with our special guest Kris Bliesner
May 9, 202455 min
Trevor Koverko - Founder of Sapien (Raised over $105M)
Trevor Koverko is prominent Web3 founder and NHL draft pick of the New York Rangers (2005). Trevor became an early leader in the blockchain community, funding first-generation blockchain projects like Ethereum, Block.One and Hive - the first public market blockchain company. In 2017, after predicting the mega-trend of financial securities migrating to the blockchain, Trevor founded Polymath a leading security token blockchain project, and later on, its layer 1 blockchain counterpart: Polymesh. Prior to Polymath, Trevor’s Oculus Rift-based project became one of the world's first VR exits. Trevor is also the founder of several now public Web3 companies: Tokens.com (COIN.NE), First Carbon (MKT.V) and Matador. In his spare time, Trevor enjoys jiu jitsu, chess, squash and is a proud sponsor of important charitable organizations like The Africa Inland Mission, Brynn Children Home of India and Capes For Kids.
Join our host Alejandro, co-host Ricardo and the Techstars alumni tech founder community at this Web Series conversation with our special guest Trevor Koverko
April 19, 202449 min
Deborah Kilpatrick - Executive Chair and former CEO of Evidation Health
Deb Kilpatrick is the Executive Chair and former CEO of Evidation Health in San Mateo, California. The Evidation tech platform characterizes health in everyday life through the use of person-generated health data (PGHD) at scale, enabling individuals to participate in the world's most advanced decentralized research and personalized health programs. She began her medtech career at Guidant Corporation in multiple leadership roles that included Research Fellow, Director of R&D, and Director of New Ventures in its Vascular Intervention Division prior to its acquisition by Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX). Deb is currently on the board of directors of Sleep Number (NASDAQ: SNBR) as well as Sutter Health, a large not-for-profit integrated healthcare system in California. She is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and was the first woman to chair the advisory board for Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering, the largest producer of engineering degrees in the US. In 2021, Deb was named to the Digital Health Hall of Fame by the University of California-San Francisco, and she is the co-founder of Silicon Valley's annual MedtechVision Conference. Deb has been named to the San Francisco Business Times’ 100 Most Influential Women in Business, the Silicon Valley Business Journal’s 100 Women of Influence, FierceMedicalDevice’s Top Women in Medtech, and Forbes 50 Over 50. She holds B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in engineering, with a doctorate minor in applied mathematics and statistics, from Georgia Tech.
Join our host Alejandro, co-host Ricardo and the Techstars alumni tech founder community at this Web Series conversation with our special guest Deborah Kilpatrick
April 16, 202446 min
Eric Mignot - Founder of +Simple (Raised over €120.8M)
Eric Mignot joined Suez in 1994 as international controller before becoming CFO of Lyonnaise des Eaux Latin America in Argentina. After graduating from INSEAD MBA in 98, he co-founded Certant, a digital consulting firm in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico after raising 3 M USD from leading US private equity firms. Back to France, he headed the development of CaixaBank in France before merging it with Boursorama. He was MD of Boursorama France for the successful launch of the digital banking activity in 2005. In 2010 he became MD of Hiscox Insurance company for 5 years before founding +Simple, 1st digital insurance broker for SMEs, professionals and sole traders.
Join our host Alejandro, co-host Ricardo and the Techstars alumni tech founder community at this Web Series conversation with our special guest Eric Mignot
April 5, 202444 min
Kashish Gupta - Founder of Hightouch (raised $54 Million to help companies realize the full value of their data)
Kashish Gupta is the co-founder and co-CEO of Hightouch.io, the leader in Data Activation. He spends every day helping companies realize the full value of their data and their data teams.
He’s been working on startups for the last 4 years, was part of Y-Combinator, and loves working on both product and go to market.
A fan of racquet sports and karaoke, he’s passionate about using reverse ETL to make data warehouses actionable. Kashish attended the University of Pennsylvania where he earned an MSE in Robotics and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School.
Join our host Alejandro, co-host Ricardo and the Techstars alumni tech founder community at this Web Series conversation with our special guest Kashish Gupta.
March 29, 202449 min
Nadia Boujarwah - Founder of Dia & Co (raised over $120M to build the leading fashion marketplace for sizes 10-32)
Nadia Boujarwah is the Co-Founder & CEO of Dia & Co.
Growing up, Boujarwah struggled to find stylish clothing in her size. She knew she wasn’t alone, so she teamed up with her Harvard Business School classmate Lydia Gilbert with a mission to bring true style freedom to women of all sizes. Dia&Co has partnered with major designers and celebrities to launch dozens of limited edition collections including Betsy Johnson, Rebel Wilson, Venus Williams, Lenna Dunham and Danielle Brooks.
Prior to founding Dia & Co, Boujarwah worked as an investment banker at Perella Weinberg Partners, and most recently served as COO and CFO of New York-based jewelry brand Frieda and Nellie. With a Cuban mother and a Kuwaiti father, Boujarwah hails from both Miami and the Middle East and is currently based in New York.
Our conversations take place over a Zoom call, not a webinar, so there is space to share experiences and ask for advice. The event will be carried out as a fireside chat for 30 minutes plus a 20 minute Q&A.
Join our host Alejandro, co-host Ricardo and the Techstars alumni tech founder community at this Web Series conversation with our special guest Nadia Boujarwah.
March 22, 202452 min
Hani Goldstein - Founder of Snappy (raised over $125M to build the leading gifting company)
Hani Goldstein is the co-founder and CEO of Snappy, the leading gifting company spreading joy through the power of giving and gratitude. Snappy offers a seamless gifting platform that combines fun, personal experiences with advanced marketplace technology to take the guesswork out of gifting.
Snappy serves over 7,500 enterprise customers including Microsoft, Comcast & Uber. The company has been named the fastest-growing company in the NY region for 2 consecutive years and the 15th fastest-growing company in America by Inc. Magazine.
Join our host Alejandro, co-host Ricardo and the Techstars alumni tech founder community at this Web Series conversation with our special guest Hani Goldstein.
March 22, 202451 min
Ola Sars - Founder of Soundtrack Your Brand (raised over $64M to disrupt the background music market)
Ola Sars is a Stockholm based serial entrepreneur active in the music-tech space.
He is the Founder, CEO & Chairman of Soundtrack Your Brand, the world's fastest growing music-platform for B2B.
Before Soundtrack, he co-founded Spotify Businesses together with Spotify, a stand-alone effort to expand Spotify’s reach into B2B-streaming. In 2018, he pivoted Spotify Business into Soundtrack as a fully independent brand and business.
Previous to co-founding Spotify Business, he was the co-founder and COO of Beats Music, acquired by Apple and transformed into Apple Music, as well as the co-founder of Pacemaker, the world's first DJ driven music platform.
Ola’s driving force behind his repeated efforts in transforming the music market comes from his conviction that music is undervalued as an art-form and that the music industry offers significant opportunity for value improvement and growth. Through his multiple start-ups in the music-space, he has focused on unlocking that intrinsic VALUE, both in B2C and now in B2B.
Ola has been featured in Rolling Stone, Billboard, Bloomberg and is a regular in music and technology publications. Ola was also selected as Billboard International Power Player in 2021.
Soundtrack Your Brand
Soundtrack Your Brand, co-founded with Spotify, is the world leading music-streaming-service for businesses. Soundtrack is disrupting the global background music market, unlocking a $40-50 Billion incremental opportunity for the music industry.
96% of 128 million addressable businesses already play music in stores today, but up until Soundtracks launch 2018, they have been limited to legacy solutions like CD and Satellite.
Soundtrack has rolled out its pioneering service in 75 markets worldwide, offering up a fully licensed commercial catalog of 98 million tracks, providing a market leading solution for all businesses wanting to leverage music when improving customer experience.
Join our host Alejandro, co-host Ricardo and the Techstars alumni tech founder community at this Web Series conversation with our special guest Ola Sars.
March 14, 202437 min
Jeff Seibert - Founder of Digits (raised $97.5M to create an AI accounting platform).
Jeff Seibert is the co-founder and CEO of Digits, where he's building the first automated, AI accounting platform for startups and small businesses. He previously served as Twitter's Head of Consumer Product and starred in Netflix's Emmy Award-winning documentary The Social Dilemma.
Jeff was the co-founder and CEO of Crashlytics, which was acquired by Twitter and then re-acquired by Google in 2017. Today, Crashlytics runs on over 6 Billion monthly-active smartphones worldwide and is the industry-leading crash reporting solution for both iOS and Android.
A self-taught programmer, Seibert released his first app at the age of thirteen and went on to graduate from Stanford University with a B.S. in Computer Science. He's angel-invested in 95+ startups and was recently named one of Insider’s Top 100 Seed VCs.
Join our host Alejandro , co-host Ricardo and the Techstars alumni tech founder community at this Web Series conversation with our special guest Jason Smith.
March 14, 202443 min
Jason Smith - Founder and CEO of Klue. 5x startup entrepreneur
Jason is a 5x startup entrepreneur and currently CEO and Cofounder of Klue, a 250 person competitive enablement platform serving 500+ global clients. Prior to Klue, Jason was President of Alida, a customer intelligence company he helped grow from startup to 500 person market leader. He was Vice President of Electronic Arts, and cofounder of Columbus Group, a web applications pioneer acquired by TELUS (NYSE:TU). Jason has raised $100m+ in venture capital, invested and advised more than a dozen startups, received EY’s and BDC’s Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year award, and graduated with distinction from the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business.
Join our host Alejandro , co-host Ricardo and the Techstars alumni tech founder community at this Web Series conversation with our special guest Jason Smith.
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