Guests

Teena Piccione

Teena Piccione

C-Suite Executive

Teena has always excelled at rising to a challenge and thinking outside the box. At 18, she struck out on her own, working her way through high school and college. She supported herself by working at UPS at 3 am every morning. Teena also concurrently excelled in music and technology — both taught her the importance of knowing your work inside and out.

Geoff Parker

Dr. Geoff Parker

Professor of Engineering at Dartmouth College

Dr. Parker is a professor of engineering at the Thayer School at Dartmouth College. He also serves as Director of the Master of Engineering Management Program. In addition, he is a visiting scholar and research fellow at the MIT Sloan School’s Initiative for the Digital Economy, where he lead platform industry research studies and co-chair the annual MIT Platform Strategy Summit.

Mike Fulton

Head of Innovation and Product Strategy at Expedient

Mike Fulton is an award-winning senior technology executive with global experience within several multi-billion-dollar institutions; offers corporate leadership, innovative mindset, strategic viewpoint, strong network, and deep understanding of every aspect of a digital operating model backed by a proven track record demonstrating technology strategic planning, enterprise architecture, team building proficiencies and the ability to deliver rapid adoption of technology that matters.

Dr. Marta Meana

Dr. Marta Meana

Professor of Psychology at UNLV

Marta Meana is a licensed clinical psychologist whose groundbreaking research has reshaped clinical approaches to the field of women’s health and human sexuality. She has published two books and close to 80 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. Her expertise has been sought by media nationwide, including the New York Times and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Meana is also a respected administrator, teacher, advisor, and mentor. A professor of psychology at UNLV since 1997, Meana was named dean of UNLV’s Honors College in 2012

Renee Pearson

Enterprise Executive

Renee Pearson is an executive with over 20 years of experience leading teams, cultivating change, and executing strategies to achieve business and enterprise goals. She has proven success in creating new products, services, and business models via technology by leveraging a strong background in strategy, innovation, and data and analytics. A transformational leader consistently sought out to define and execute first-of-a-kind practices, teams, and projects enterprise-wide.

Kim Sinatra

CxO, Lawyer, and Board Member

Kim Sinatra is a board director and strategist who empowers organizations to scale great ideas into bold businesses, brands, and cultures. As general counsel to both public and private companies, Kim has employed extensive business strategy, compliance, and governance expertise to grow early-stage companies into recognizable global brands. She is a lawyer who understands complex businesses and financial statements and works as a bridge between brilliant founders and their boards, regulators, and other stakeholders.

Jenn Pitts

Executive Coach and Business Advisor

Jenn Pitts brings a background in Big 4 management and strategy consulting, human resources, various operational roles, and C-suite coaching to connect with clients to help them realize their goals and objectives. Jenn has a deep passion for and expertise in the healthcare industry but has also been very engaged with technology companies and executives throughout her career.

Jan Jones Blackhurst

Executive Vice President

Jan Jones Blackhurst is an experienced Executive Vice President with extensive government relations background exhibiting a demonstrated history of working in the gaming & casinos industry worldwide. Skilled in Corporate Social Responsibility, Brand Loyalty, Customer Acquisition, Government, Hospitality, and Gaming Industries. Strong business development professional with a BS focused in English Language and Literature from Stanford University.

Heather Creran

CEO, President, and COO OncoLens

Heather Creran serves in CEO, President, and COO roles, and with experience as a Board Director and Advisor, Heather is a leader with extensive strategic, commercial, and operational success driving growth in diverse healthcare enterprises, including startup, joint venture, privately-held, and public companies. Heather joined OncoLens, a venture-backed, cancer care and treatment management solutions platform company, as Chief Operating Officer, right before COVID hit, after serving as its Interim Strategy Officer. Heather serves as a Georgia Research Alliance Senior Advisor, and on advisory boards and committees with industry, non-profit, and government organizations.

Amit Singh

President of Palo Santo Networks

Amit Singh is responsible for all go-to-market functions, including sales, support, consulting, business development, partnerships, and enablement. Before joining Palo Alto Networks, Amit held several roles at Google, including founding and building Google’s Cloud business. In this capacity, he worked to help companies move to Cloud-based services like Gmail, Google Docs, and the entire Cloud platform suite. He also led business and operations for Google’s AR and VR efforts. Before Google, Amit spent 20 years at Oracle in various product, engineering, sales, and strategy roles.

Nicholas Thompson

CEO of The Atlantic

Nicholas Thompson is the CEO of The Atlantic, a position he has held since February 2021. He was previously the editor-in-chief of WIRED. Under his leadership, WIRED broke massive, and much-lauded, stories about Facebook, cyber-warfare, the Robert Mueller investigation, and numerous other topics. During Thompson’s tenure, WIRED’s digital subscriptions climbed almost 300 percent. The magazine won a National Magazine Award for design and photography and been named a finalist for General Excellence. WIRED was also named one of Ad Age’s A-List digital publishers and won numerous honors from The Webby Awards, The Shorty Awards, and The Society of Publication Designers. Thompson’s most recent story about Facebook was a finalist for a Loeb Award.

Tim Wise

Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Advocate

Tim Wise is responsible for overall business strategy and operations for Advocate. He provides vision and inspires innovation in the Advocate team to continue to drive growth and meaningful results for Advocate clients. Advocate helps IT leaders do what matters more by speeding the shift from a cost center to a strategic partner. As the premier TBM services company with more than 600 enterprise clients, Advocate uncovers more savings to invest, enables more business outcomes, and creates more influence overall. Just show Advocate your data — and they’ll show you exactly where you can free up the working capital to do what matters more.

Marcus Curley

Founder of Curley Entreprises LLC and Creator of FrostyFlake

Marcus Curley is a culture-first executive leader who drives company and technology transformation. Providing value through strong partnerships with executive counterparts, and execution of team, department, and technology improvements. Experienced in leading diverse teams, working with various staffing models, building competent and high-performing teams with sound cultures, and motivating and inspiring others to execute both strategic and tactical plans. Passionate in building high-value foundations that scale, to exponentially increase the overall value of the enterprise.

Sanjay Pal

Global VP and GM, Head of CX and Cloud Operations at IBM

Sanjay Pal has a track record to deliver a trendsetting portfolio of services, groundbreaking business strategies, and technical innovations, Sanjay is exceptionally well-versed in all aspects of strategic business development with an impressive track record of generating remarkable growth for multi-billion-dollar businesses, building robust partner ecosystems, and dominating global markets. Sanjay is known for leveraging emerging technologies and customer insights to pioneer a game-changing portfolio of services and business models, and he is respected for demonstrating high levels of integrity while providing authentic, purposeful leadership. Sanjay offers extensive experience in the development, coaching, and leadership of global teams. In addition, he has led and executed six major Transformation initiatives and created market-leading organizations to enhance Customer Experiences.

Ross Woodley

Colonel (Retired) USAF and Chief Programs Officer at Red River

Ross Woodley is a seasoned leader with extensive global knowledge of all facets of the USAF, Department of Defense, and Congressional committees. He has an ability to analyze complex problems, and design, plan, and implement complex strategy solutions, assemble and motivate teams, and interact with partners to accomplish stellar results.  Ross has been recognized for superior leadership both within the Government and industry.  Red River has made a positive impact on our employees, customers, and communities for 25 years.

David Gardner

Founder at Cofounders Capital

David Gardner is a serial entrepreneur, writer, adviser, and early-stage fund manager with over thirty years of experience in creating and building software technology companies. As an entrepreneur, David was the founder or co-founder of seven companies including PeopleClick (purchased for $100 million) and Report2Web, which sold for $12M in less than eleven months from inception. He has demonstrated a record for consistency across multiple industries with six successful exits in a row… and one he refuses to talk about.

Jay Chaudhry

CEO of Zscaler

Jay Chaudhry is the CEO, chairman, and founder of Zscaler. An industry innovator and entrepreneur, Jay’s expertise spans engineering, sales, marketing, and management. His considerable work in the security sector has made him a trusted advisor for many enterprise CIOs and CISOs.Zscaler enables the world’s leading organizations to securely transform their networks and applications for a mobile and cloud-first world. Its flagship services, Zscaler Internet Access, and Zscaler Private Access create fast, secure connections between users and applications, regardless of device, location, or network. Zscaler services are 100% cloud-delivered and offer the simplicity, enhanced security, and improved user experience that traditional appliances or hybrid solutions are unable to match. Used in more than 185 countries, Zscaler operates the world’s largest cloud security platform, protecting thousands of enterprises

Mike Burgett

Founder at CIO Partners

Mike Burgett is the Founder and Executive Advisor of CIO Partners®, a technology services company specializing in Executive Search and Recruitment Strategies for the Fortune 1000. He also serves in a similar role for Talentric®, an On-Demand Talent Acquisition Partner that operates with NO placement fees. Burgett founded CIO Partners in 2001 with the belief that building deeper relationships with clients and truly understanding their technology, vision, and culture would result in a more effective recruiting process. This value-based approach became the foundation of the company’s industry-leading CIO RightHire Process, utilized to match the top 5% of professionals with the right organizations. He has since extended that model with the creation of Talentric, offering recruitment strategies across all industries, domains, and regions.

Sunny Gupta

CEO of Apptio

Sunny Gupta is the Co-founder and CEO of Apptio. He is a market and product innovator with a customer obsession that led him to uncover a significant untapped demand for an analytics-based business management system for CIOs. Since founding Apptio in 2007, Sunny pioneered a market category (Technology Business Management or TBM) and drove the company to become a leader in a disruptive industry with significant scale. Sunny led Apptio to an Initial Public Offering in September 2016 (NASDAQ: APTI) as well as its acquisition by Vista Equity Partners in January 2019 for $1.94B.

David Spitz

CEO of ChannelAdvisor

David Spitz is the CEO of ChannelAdvisor (NYSE:ECOM). He has been with the organization since 2006 and has served as CEO for the past six years. ChannelAdvisor has been on the front lines of e-commerce since 2001, helping retailers and brands connect with customers, optimize operations and grow sales channels. The corporation has grown from a small company in a young industry to an industry leader at the forefront of a global revolution — with thousands of clients and billions of dollars in transactional revenue flowing through their platform every year. In 2018, they drove $10 billion in sales for customers.

Dan Streetman

CEO of TIBCO

Dan Streetman is the Chief Executive Officer of TIBCO. TIBCO Software Inc. unlocks the potential of real-time data for making faster, smarter decisions. Dan is an expert at leveraging data to support both strategic and real-time decisions.  Prior to leading TIBCO, he helped lead significant data-driven transformations, most recently at BMC, Salesforce, and C3.ai. He is a strong advocate for creating cultures of collaboration and he honed his leadership skills as an Army officer, serving in combat operations and receiving decorations including the Bronze Star. Dan is a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and earned an MBA at Harvard Business School. An avid athlete, Dan has completed multiple Ironmans, including the Ironman World Championships, and he enjoys guiding visually impaired marathon runners each year in the California International Marathon and the Boston Marathon.

Todd Olson

CEO of Pendo

Todd Olson is the founder and CEO of Pendo. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, Todd has spent over two decades launching and scaling companies. Todd demonstrated an incredible talent for software architecture and computer programming. He attended Carnegie Mellon and while there launched a startup, Cerebellum. He grew the company over the next four years, gathering a wealth of startup experience. After Cerebellum, Todd started other software ventures, in addition to serving as VP of Products and Product Development at TogetherSoft and Rally Software Development. The company has been recognized for numerous accolades including ranking 26th on this year’s Inc. 5000 list and “Best Workplaces,” Glassdoor’s “Best Private Cloud Company to Work For,” as well as Forbes’s “2018 The Next Billion-Dollar Startups” and “Cloud 100: The World’s Best Cloud Companies.

Jason Williamson

VP at Oracle for Startups and Oracle for Research

Jason Williamson leads his teams with the mantra to “help people build things that haven’t been built.” The Oracle team works with people who invent, create, and discover with Oracle Technology; the team is committed to helping startups accelerate growth, development, and revenue opportunities by bringing an array of resources to assist in all areas of growth. Startups are supported at any stage (dorm room to C Round) regardless of industry or location. Oracle for Research strives to see the generational impact in advancing our world through scientific discovery. Every day researchers around the world are utilizing Oracle’s technology and technical support to change the world. Jason’s background spans technology, business, and education — as an enterprise leader in the IPO days of Capital One to building new programs at Amazon Web Services. He also serves on the Board of Visitors at the historic North Carolina Central University.

Igor Jablokov

CEO of Pryon

Igor is the founder and CEO of Pryon, an artificial intelligence (AI) company delivering an enterprise knowledge management platform. Pryon’s NLP engine ingests and transforms data into experiences that solve critical business challenges. Previously at IBM, Igor grew impatient with the gap between the invention and commercialization of AI and departed to establish cloud computing pioneer Yap. Five years later, Amazon acquired the company for its AI expertise and machine learning (ML) technology, now embedded in billions of Alexa-powered devices. Igor was subsequently awarded Eisenhower and Truman National Security fellowships to leverage entrepreneurial ecosystems in addressing geopolitical concerns. Igor passionately supports STEM careers and educational opportunities. As such, he is a TechStars’ Alexa Accelerator mentor, was a Blackstone NC Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR), and founded a chapter of Global Shapers, a program of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Scot Wingo

CEO of Spiffy

Scot Wingo is the CEO of Spiffy, a technology-enabled on-demand service with operations in four major cities across the U.S. Spiffy helps customers use their device to request and schedule services like oil change, cleaning, windshield repair, and tire changes; digital tracking, rate, and payment is available for each service. Spiffy is the fourth startup that Scot has created. He is an accomplished entrepreneur who has successfully started four startups and exited three (so far), including Stingray Software (1995-1998), AuctionRover.com (1999-2000), ChannelAdvisor (2001-present), and Get Spiffy (2014-present).

David Spitz

CEO of ChannelAdvisor

David Spitz is the CEO of ChannelAdvisor (NYSE:ECOM). He has been with the organization since 2006 and has served as CEO for the past six years. ChannelAdvisor has been on the front lines of e-commerce since 2001, helping retailers and brands connect with customers, optimize operations and grow sales channels. The corporation has grown from a small company in a young industry to an industry leader at the forefront of a global revolution — with thousands of clients and billions of dollars in transactional revenue flowing through their platform every year. In 2018, they drove $10 billion in sales for customers. 

Isa Watson

CEO of Squad

Isa Watson is an Inc 30 under 30 entrepreneur and a classical pianist. She is the Founder and CEO of Squad, a leader in the newly coined “connection economy.” Isa left Wall Street to found Squad, an app that helps millennials make new friends, meet new people, and build genuine connections. Backed by notable Silicon Valley VC firms, Squad has been scaling nonstop since its launch. Much more than just a VC-backed founder, Isa heavily incorporates her core values into the product and the way in which Squad scales. Unlike many digital platforms, Squad has created a community where people feel (a) like they can bring their true selves, and (b) are rooted in values like respect and integrity.

Paul Martino

Managing Partner at Bullpen Capital

Paul Martino is the Co-founder & Managing Partner at early-stage VC firm Bullpen Capital in Menlo Park, California. For the last decade, Bullpen has funded over 100 companies. Bullpen Capital invests in post-seed companies that have achieved product-market fit, but have not yet proven sufficient market scalability to raise a major VC round. Bullpen invests in companies that have an operational plan to hit big milestones within a 12-month period, working closely with companies in the portfolio to develop this early traction into large, sustainable businesses. Bullpen’s strategy aims to provide leverage for founding teams, who can minimize dilution to maintain ownership and control of their companies

Larry Long Jr.

Director of Collegiate Sales at Teamworks.

Larry Long, Jr. is the Director of Collegiate Sales at Teamworks. Larry is an experienced sales leader with a demonstrated history of success in SaaS sales. He is passionate about coaching, and has a proven track record of hitting goals and helping sales professionals take their game to the “next level.” Based in Durham, North Carolina, and founded in 2004, Teamworks provides an innovative cost- and time-saving software solution to nationally ranked NCAA and professional teams in leagues such as the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, MLS, and MLL. In addition to a primarily athletic team customer-base, Teamworks’ technologies are also used across a broad spectrum of professional organizations to streamline and optimize their daily workflow.

David Brown

Founder of Techstars

David has a 30-year career starting and building sustainable companies, including Pinpoint Technologies and Techstars (with David Cohen, Brad Feld, and Jared Polis). He frequently writes on all aspects of entrepreneurship and scaling up businesses for sustainable profitability from the vantage point of a founder, an investor, and the founder of Techstars. The Techstars worldwide network helps entrepreneurs succeed. Founded in 2006, Techstars began with three simple ideas—entrepreneurs create a better future for everyone, collaboration drives innovation, and great ideas can come from anywhere. Now Techstars is on a mission to enable every person on the planet to contribute to, and benefit from, the success of entrepreneurs.

Anthony Pompliano

Founder of Pomp Investments

 Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano is the Founder of Pomp Investments. He has led the investment of over $100 million in early-stage technology companies, including multiple seed investments that are now valued at over $1 billion. Today he operates as a solo-capitalist who is seeking asymmetric opportunities at the earliest stages of a business (www.pompletter.com).

Atticus Tysen

CIO/CISO of Intuit

Atticus Tysen is the CIO, CISO of Intuit. He leads the technology and innovation vision for the company he describes as “lifelong learners.” Everything at Intuit is in service to a mission of powering prosperity around the world. Intuit is dedicated to providing the tools, skills, and insights that empower people to take control of their finances and live the lives they want.