Gil Beyda is a seasoned entrepreneur & technologist turned venture capitalist. Gil launched his first company Mind Games in 1982 to develop games for the original Apple II. Gil then started a software consulting firm with Fortune 100 clients in the U.S., Asia and Europe.

In 1995, Gil helped pioneer Internet advertising by founding Real Media, the first online ad network and ad server company. After Real Media was acquired in 2001, Gil pioneered the next wave of online advertising as CTO of TACODA, the first behavioral targeting, ad network. Following AOL’s acquisition of TACODA in 2007, Gil founded Genacast Ventures in partnership with Comcast Ventures to invest in seed-stage, B2B technology start-ups. In 2017, Gil joined Comcast Ventures as Managing Director to invest in companies at all stages.

Gil has a MBA and BS in Computer Science from California State University. He lives with his wife and four daughters in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Leo de Luna- educated at The University of Texas, Austin as well as The University of California, Berkeley- is currently the Managing director of M12 (Microsoft Ventures), where he focuses on early-stage investments in cloud based companies, shaping investment strategy for future innovative companies.

His previous experience includes investor roles for Split Rock Partners, St. Paul Venture Capital and Saints Capital. Also, he has worked with Lehman Brothers as an investment banker, showing a wealth of experience which he directs towards supporting entrepreneurship.

chairman of EDventure Holdings. Her primary activity is investing in and nurturing start-ups, with a recent focus on health care, human capital and aerospace. Overall, she is fascinated by new business models, new technologies and new markets (both economically and politically). From October 2008 to March of 2009, she lived in Star City outside Moscow, Russia, training as a backup cosmonaut. Apart from this brief sabbatical, she is an active board member for a variety of startups and supports several Non-Profits.

She has a BA in economics from Harvard and was founding chairman of ICANN from 1998 to 2000. In addition, she wrote the best-selling, widely translated book Release 2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital Age, published by Broadway Books in 1997.

Jenny Fielding is the Managing Director of Techstars New York where she leads the program. She is also the founder and General Partner at The Fund, a first check fund investing exclusively in New York based companies. Her portfolio includes more than 110+ tech enabled companies.

Previously, Jenny headed up Corporate Venture and Digital Innovation at BBC Worldwide where she made strategic investments and led business development deals. She has also started several tech companies, most notably Switch-Mobile, a mobile VoIP company that was acquired in 2009. Jenny began her career as a lawyer, spent time at JP Morgan and is a graduate of Columbia University where she is an Adjunct Professor.

Darcy Frisch is managing director and vice president of Hearst Ventures, where she makes investments in early stage digital media and information businesses. Since joining Hearst Ventures in 2000, Frisch has been involved with many investments including drugstore.com, XM Satellite Radio, Circles and MobiTV. She currently serves on the boards of Zinc, Via, Power To Fly, and Ramp. She previously served on the boards of Nexage (sold to Millennial Media in 2014), Sphere (sold to AOL in 2008) and Voxpop.tv (sold to IAC in 2011).

Prior to Hearst, Frisch held positions as a tax analyst at KPMG and as the legislative assistant for tax for U.S. Senator David Boren of Oklahoma. She received her undergraduate degree from Yale University and earned her MBA at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business.

Teddy is a Vice President at SoftBank Group International, where he works on direct investing, M&A, and funds based out of New York City. He previously worked at SoftBank Capital in Silicon Valley and Jakarta, Indonesia where he co-founded and oversaw a set of SoftBank venture funds dedicated to early-stage Internet leaders throughout Southeast Asia. Teddy previously worked at Comcast Ventures in New York City, where he led investments in eCommerce and Media.

He also worked as an analyst for Goldman Sachs’ Technology, Media and Telecom Investment Banking group in San Francisco advising on M&A and financing transactions across the technology landscape. He graduated with a B.A. in government and economics from Harvard.

SoftBank Investments include: Tokopedia: Indonesian eCommerce leader Dialpad: Unified communications suite Qerja: Indonesian jobs portal Cybereason: Endpoint Security, board observer Berkshire Grey: warehouse automation leader Housing.com, board member Airspan, board member CaliBurger, board observer

Comcast Investments include: Zola: online wedding registry and services Cheddar: Post-cable network, sold to Altice USA PetCoach: Omni-channel vet service, sold to Petco Retina.ai: Data science-as-a-service, board observer Earny: Price protection service Madison Reed: Subscription D2C hair-color service YouNow: Decentralized live-streaming Nextdoor: Local social network Basis: Stable Cryptocurrency

Personal investments include: Bureau: B2B Furniture ABL Space: Space launch vehicles KindBody: Women's health

David Horowitz founded Touchdown Ventures in 2014 after spending 14 years in corporate venture capital with Comcast Ventures. David joined Comcast Ventures in 2000 as one of the first employees of the venture capital group. At Comcast Ventures, David focused on investments in digital media, advertising technology, digital home, education and financial technology.

David led and managed investments in BlackArrow (acquired by CrossMediaWorks), Entropic (NASDAQ: ENTR), Intellon (NASDAQ: ITLN), Invite Media (acquired by Google), LinkShare (acquired by Rakuten), Nuera Communications (acquired by Audicodes), Rubicon Project (NYSE: RUBI), Visible World (acquired by Comcast), and XOS Digital (acquired by JumpTV/Neulion.) David also led investments in several prominent privately-held companies including Ninth Decimal, SnagFilms, UberMedia, Videology, and Zero Fox. David also helped start and was a partner at Genacast Ventures, a seed stage venture capital fund affiliated with Comcast Ventures.

Chieh co-founded Boxed in 2013, a company that offers the delivery of large packages through the use of its app or website. He is also Director of Zynga NY, CEO of Astro Ape, Venture for America Entrep and a Board Member, NY Mobile Startups Meetup Organizer.

Susan has had a long career in media, commerce and consumer products. She has held leadership positions at companies of all sizes and stages, from startups to public companies, often during periods of internal or external change.

She began her career in the magazine industry, where she founded and led Premiere Magazine. She spent almost a decade at Disney, rising to President of Entertainment at ABC. She was the CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia; CEO and then Chair of Gilt.com; and she led AOL’s Brand Group, overseeing such brands as TechCrunch, Engadget and Moviefone, immediately before launching BBG Ventures.

She has four daughters, three sisters, and a wide circle of entrepreneur-advisees who give as much as they get. Her biggest wins have all come from listening to, building for and betting on women.

Brad is Co-founder and Managing Director of AWS’s Startup Business Development organization, a large, global business unit consisting of former entrepreneurs, startup founders/CXOs, tech executives and VCs focused on discovering and engaging with the world’s best and highest potential entrepreneurs and technology startups, and helping them build great businesses on the AWS platform.

He also has experience at Hughes Energy Group as an advisor, as well as Senior Vice President roles at MMV Financial, Technology Venture Bank and Comercia Bank.

Gus Warren has 20+ years of experience as a venture capitalist and operating executive for start-ups and Fortune 500 companies. He is currently Managing Director of Samsung NEXT.

Prior to Samsung, Gus was a Venture Partner at FirstMark Capital and Co-Founder and COO of Disconnect, a leading consumer privacy software company backed by FirstMark Capital, Highland Capital Partners, and Charles River Ventures. Prior to FirstMark and Disconnect, Gus spent 4 years as a VP, SVP, and GM at Spot Runner, a digital video advertising platform whose investors included Battery Ventures, Index Ventures, WPP, IPG, and CBS. Prior to Spot Runner, Gus was a venture capitalist at Granite Ventures and Time Warner Ventures, where his portfolio included InfoGear (acquired by Cisco), Speakeasy (acquired by BestBuy), Digital Fountain (acquired by Qualcomm), Arroyo Video Solutions (acquired by Cisco), BigBand Networks (acquired by Arris Corporation), and SkyStream Networks (acquired by Ericsson Television).

Jaidev is a founding member of Capital One Growth Ventures and currently leads its efforts. Jaidev sees a big opportunity in the changing landscape of fintech, particularly in the role of data, security, and other technologies enabling the change.

Jaidev started his career in financial services and has held leadership roles across different companies including President of Citi Ventures, Investment Banking at Credit Suisse First Boston, and several roles at Capital One. In 2009, Jaidev started Bundle.com, a data-driven small business rating service that was acquired by Capital One.

Outside of work, Jaidev enjoys squash and golf (though he will admit that while he enjoys golf, it is not his forte!). He spends his time between New York and San Francisco.

Bimal Mehta currently leads Corporate Innovation at Schneider Electric, driving and incubating both internal and external innovation.

Bimal is an experienced executive successful at building high performance, culturally diverse, team centered units, with excellent business process and strategy development skills. Proven ability to lead, innovate, and launch products that outperform the competition, win markets, and drive revenue. Customer centric with the ability to initiate profitable alliances with global partners.

Ian Goldstein is a business lawyer with more than 20 years of experience advising emerging growth companies in the technology and life sciences industries as well as the venture capital firms and strategic investors that finance, partner with and acquire these companies. He also advi​ses companies and institutions that are adapting to a technology-driven world on complex financial and strategic transactions and other initiatives designed to accelerate innovation and growth. Ian’s practice is based in the growing and dynamic technology and venture market of the greater New York City region and leverages the knowledge, insights and connections of the firm’s deep roots in Silicon Valley.

Evan has handled and negotiated hundreds of venture capital and private equity financings for those providing and seeking capital. In addition, he is well-versed in corporate governance, securities laws and mergers and acquisitions, and regularly advises clients through complex exit transactions. And with a home in Brooklyn's DUMBO neighbourhood (a nexus for many tech startups), Evan’s roots are firmly planted in the New York City startup community.

In addition to his work for the firm, Evan often serves as a mentor to the startup community, writing, speaking and leading seminars on legal and business issues for various groups, incubators and accelerators in and around NYC. He is co-author of Fenwick’s Convertible Debt Terms - Survey of Market Trends 2019, a report that provides insight into what is market in convertible note terms of interest to founders, board members and investors.

Prior to joining Fenwick & West, Evan was a partner in the New York office of a major national law firm.

As a former securities attorney, Ken saw the compliance exposures of existing investment management systems. Drawing upon his experience as in-house counsel for a tech-driven proprietary trading firm, Ken launched ProSeeder to improve operational processes and reduce compliance risks so that the private investment community can confidently expand their funding reach. A serial entrepreneur, Ken previously founded and managed Bioreclamation (now BIO-IVT), a life-science research tools company that he grew into a $26 million in revenue business. Ken bootstrapped the business and exited twice to private equity firms.

James was editor of Private Equity News, part of Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal in London, for nearly four years until May, 2010 when he launched Global Corporate Venturing as an independent title from his own publishing company. This was followed by the launch of the second publication, Global University Venturing, in January 2012 to help students and faculty and academia more broadly launch or develop their entrepreneurial businesses and work with external peers. The company, Mawsonia’s, third title, Global Government Venturing, was launched in May 2014, and rebranded to Global Impact Venturing in February 2019.

Previously, James had freelanced for a host of national and trade media titles, including the BBC, Financial Times, Economist, Independent on Sunday, Sunday Express and Dow Jones Newswires; provided research for Nick Davies’s book, Flat Earth News; was a foreign correspondent in central and eastern Europe; and was international editor for FT Business.

After graduating from King’s College, London, James’s first job was working at technology publishing house ComputerWire.

He is also a director of the London Press Club and has acted as a pro bono editor for the European Venture Philanthropy Association’s monthly newsletter.