Women Startup Challenge

FemTech + HealthTech Grant

Maria Velissaris is a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist. She is the Founding Partner of SteelSky Ventures LLC, an early stage venture fund that invests in women’s health tech solutions. Current fund investments include: Zipline, Lark, Motivo, Origin, Twentyeight Health, Cayaba Care, Mae and 23andMe.

Maria founded her first business, Wakeboxes, which became Collegeboxes, and was later acquired by U-haul. She started her career as a technology strategy consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton and was awarded the National Women of Color in Technology Rising Star Award. Throughout her 18-year career, Maria has been at the forefront of marketing, strategy, and technology solutions. Maria developed a passion for healthcare while working as Head of Marketing and Product Development at Schweiger Dermatology Group, which she helped scale to become the largest dermatology chain in the Northeast.

Maria is extremely passionate about developing a funding pipeline for femaleis a member of Pipeline Angels and a charter member of the NJ Golden Seeds Chapter. Maria is also a mentor for international entrepreneurs at Entrepreneurship Roundtable Accelerator (ERA Global) and 500 Start Ups. She speaks regularly on investing and entrepreneurship panels including Amazon, LinkedIn, Google for Startups, NYU Stern, Johnson & Johnson, Bayer, and Samsung and judges pitch competitions nationally. She’s been featured in Forbes, profiled on ABC News and has recently been honored with the 2020 NYU Stern Alumni Changemaker award and named to Business Insiders’ List of Rising Stars in Venture Capital.

Maria obtained a B.S. in Information Systems from Wake Forest University, an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship from the Stern School of Business at New York University and a certificate from the Venture Capital Unlocked Program at Stanford University, an invite-only investor training program for emerging leaders who want to shape the future of the venture capital industry. She also serves on the Yale School of Medicine Center for Health and Innovation Advisory Board and The Executive Board of The National Patient Advocate Foundation and the Advisory Board of MassChallenge.

Maria holds FINRA Series 7 and 63 licenses.

Barbara Clarke, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, The Impact Seat

Investor, economist and entrepreneur, Barbara Clarke enjoys
interacting with professionals who believe in creating diverse teams
to drive innovation and business success. Called ‘The Force’, Clarke
fuels change in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, stimulates growth in
early stage tech startups and boosts organizational excellence with
her investment expertise and global insights.

Founder and president of The Impact Seat, Clarke has been investing in
emerging technologies, including medical devices, for almost a decade.
To date, Clarke has invested in more than 60 companies and 12 funds in
North America and Europe. She has been creating opportunities for
under-represented entrepreneurs by investing in companies that are
either led by women of color or have women on their funding teams –
even before it became fashionable to do so. As a key member of the
investment community, she also advises entrepreneurs and innovators on
launching companies, accessing capital, and leveraging the
international network of investors.

Barbara serves on several boards, including Portfolia, an investment
fund focused on women as venture capitalists, Founders First Capital
Partners, an accelerator and finance firm that invests in a diverse
group of founders and Boost, an artificial intelligence (AI) platform
using computer vision technology.

When she is not scoping out promising startups to invest in, Clarke
enjoys exploring new cities, supporting local artists and listening to
alternative/indie rock.
 

Kate Brodock is a Founding Partner of the W Fund and CEO of Women 2.0, a global brand for gender equity and inclusion in the tech industry. Women 2.0 has catalyzed over $91m in funding to women-led startups, provided programming for women at any stage in the industry, and engaged with numerous firms and companies to promote internal diversity and inclusion. Kate is a regular speaker, appearing on stages at SXSW, 15 Seconds, Collision Conference, Fast Company's Innovation Uncensored, and Techstars. She has been featured in the Washington Post, TechCrunch, Al Jazeera, and MSNBC, and she's a contributor for Forbes.com.

Stephanie is a Partner at J.P. Morgan Technology Ventures. Having started her career in Venture Capital in Israel in 2011 and relocating to the US in 2018, Stephanie has led venture teams for both strategic and institutional funds such as Porsche Ventures and NFX. She joined the J.P. Morgan Technology Ventures team several months ago to round out the team on the West Coast.

Stephanie has her undergraduate degree in Counter-Terrorism and Security from Reichman University in Israel and a Master's from King’s College London in Terrorism, Security and Society.

Candice Matthews Brackeen is a General Partner at Lightship Capital, the Cincinnati-based VC firm dedicated to backing underrepresented entrepreneurs in the Midwest. As General Partner, Candice leads entrepreneur selection, board membership, investor relations, and serves on the investment committee.

She is also the Founder and CEO of Hillman, an entrepreneur education program that focuses on tech startups led by underrepresented entrepreneurs. Through her work at Hillman, Candice successfully influenced state policy around economic inclusion and established meaningful partnerships with companies like Procter & Gamble, Kroger, and Chase.

Candice has more than 15 years of entrepreneurial experience including co-founding Hello Parent, a national safety technology partner of the Brady Campaign to Reduce Gun Violence and the American Academy of Pediatrics. She later founded the Cincinnati Chapter of the Black Founders Network (BFN), which works to increase diversity and inclusion efforts within the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. The initial 11 members of BFN have gone on to raise more than 60 million dollars.

Candice currently serves on the advisory boards of the Global Accelerator Network and the Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Northern Kentucky University. Candice received both the VentureOhio Catalyst of the Year and the Cincinnati Business Courier Women Who Mean Business awards, and maintains a busy fundraising schedule, working diligently to identify and develop transformative tech startups.

Candice holds a BA Economics from the University of Cincinnati where she was a Hewitt-Kautz Fellow.

Twenty plus year digital media career innovating at two media giants. Serial intraprenuer starting and supporting dozens of new initiatives including launching new brands and deploying new technology while inventing and perfecting growth strategies.

Now 100% focused on a unique startup greenhouse called HearstLab — an invitation-only community of early-stage, women-led startups working inside Hearst Tower, home to one of the world's most diversified media, information and technology companies. HearstLab invests in startups that are innovating in media, information or services where connectivity with any of our more than 360 businesses is difference-making for a founding team. HearstLab provides seed investment, office space, and access to a large and fast-growing community of corporate leaders, subject matter experts and senior mentors at Hearst and across our networks.

Dr. Jain is a Primary care Physician by background and has her MS Eng from Stanford and an MBA from Wharton School of Business. 

Until recently, she led healthcare investments at a $1B fund in SF and has invested in very successful companies including Berkeley Lights, Zymergen, and Mission Bio. 

She is passionate about mentoring and investing in under-represented founders and serves on the advisory board of The Femtech Collective. 

Damilola Thompson is Vice President and Co-Director of EchoVC Partners and has over a decade of experience investing and supporting entrepreneurs improving quality of life and solving frictions in emerging markets.

Dami has core competencies leading Venture Capital and Private Equity transactions and leads the corporate development arm at EchoVC as a director. In her years of experience, she drove seed and early-stage financing transactions in startups across geographies and sectors – TMT sectors, Financial services sector, Healthcare sector, etc.

Ms. Thompson is passionate about startups and venture financing and providing early-stage companies with much needed mentorship required for scaling. She has graduate degrees from the University of Lagos, Nigeria and University of California, Berkeley. She has also completed various post-graduate courses including the Kauffman Fellows Academy course on Venture Capital. She is a co-founder of Ventures Dialogue, a non-profit platform that connects entrepreneurs with investors alongside other resources to help them build sustainable businesses; the Sponsorship and Partnership Lead for Rising Tide Africa; and a part of the leadership team of the SingularityU Lagos Chapter.

A Kauffman Fellow and Board Member of the Angel Capital Association, Juliana is a Lead Investor of the Portfolia Rising America Fund, Consumer Fund, and Rising Tide Fund. She is the Launch Director of Greentown Labs Houston and an Advisory Board Member of the Investors of Color Network, the Cougar Venture Fund, and the Houston Diversity Fund. Juliana was the Director of the Texas Medical Center Venture Fund and the Managing Director of the Houston Angel Network. She was the Manager of the Sophia Business Angels network in the French Riviera and of Antipolis Innovation Campus, as well as Project Manager of several International Projects funded by the European Commission.

Previously, Juliana worked for 5 years in Singapore: first as an International Trade Consultant for the Trade Commission of Spain in a broad range of industry sectors and then as a Project Manager for the Asia Technology Office of Citigroup, leading projects at international level. Juliana obtained an MBA at the London Business School, specializing in Entrepreneurship.

Saloni is an investor at Founders Factory where she leads investments across both Consumer and B2B. Formerly she was a strategy consultant, and more recently worked at Uber and Expedia. Saloni has been angel investing, predominantly in female-led businesses, for 3 years, is a part of Backed VC’s community, Alma Angels, and January Ventures’ Operator Network. Saloni is also a Venture Partner at Sie Ventures, aiming to close the gender funding gap in the venture capital ecosystem.

Vanessa Villaverde is an award-winning innovator, activist, mother, and strategic advisor for startup organizations. Known throughout healthcare policy circles, she leveraged her expertise outside of government to structure private public partnerships that created better access, more affordable, and more informed healthcare solutions for vulnerable populations. She is now an angel investor and a Board Advisor to Georgetown University Graduate School of Nursing & Health Systems. 

As a first generation Mexican-American immigrant, raised in Dallas Texas, she set out to utilized every professional position across her career to both innovate through collaborations, and extend pathways for others. In her current role as Head of Risk Transfer Strategy at Caresyntax, she was instrumental in building a women’s initiative to support female staff globally and offer curriculum aimed at continued mentorship, skill building, and personal support where needed as many juggled personal and professional responsibilities during school closures.

Her personal work has always centered on mentorship of youth in communities of color. As a federal employee she developed the CMS mentorship program for first generation college students in Dallas. She’s a Court Appointed Special Advocate for foster care youth and continues to visit Texas annually for career fairs to discuss broad healthcare careers available to low income youth, including informatics, life science product development and more.

Vanessa graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought from Amherst College. In addition, she earned Master’s Degrees from the University of Texas at Dallas and Georgetown University School of Nursing. She is a mother of three boys and stays active in their music and muay thai boxing activities in the New England area.

Gaurav works with Advanced Innovation at Philips Healthcare. He is interested in building intelligent systems (Human+AI) in medicine and healthcare. He works on solving problems and challenges during design and development of intelligent HealthTech for patients, provides, and payers.

Gaurav has a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from University of Pittsburgh, where his dissertation was on designing interactive methods for Natural Language Processing on Clinical records. He has served a reviewer for several Biomedical Informatics conferences and journals. He is also the founder of the meditation club at Pitt and continues to teach workshops for university students.

Louis Metzger believes that the precise engineering of biology will enable a coming revolution in how humans live, work, and interact with our planet.  Inspired by his undergraduate research in the computational modeling of protein-small molecule interactions, Louis earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at Duke University, where his work lay at the intersection of enzymology, lipid biochemistry, and bacterial membrane biogenesis. He subsequently performed postdoctoral research at UCSF, where he employed protein X-ray crystallography to study enzymes’ structures and functions. Louis then joined Novartis (2012-18), where he developed technologies in protein chemistry and contributing to therapeutic projects in diverse disease areas. In addition to founding and leading an antibacterial discovery team in Novartis's Infectious Diseases Program, Louis served on an outward-facing Novartis search and evaluation task force, a role that sparked his enthusiasm for the San Francisco Bay Area’s vibrant biotechnology ecosystem. From 2018-20, he served as Chief Scientific Officer of Tierra Biosciences, where he helped to build an automated, cell-free “in vitro protein printing” platform. He is Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer at a stealth biotech startup that connects Nagoya Protocols compliant environmental genomic data with users in the bioengineering industry.  He is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Deep Views Inc., which advises deep tech companies and their investors through management and technical consulting. Deep Views helps build transformative new technologies and apply existing science to new business cases in life sciences tools, biotechnology, and pharmaceuticals. 

Louis is an avid student of history, and is interested in how societies’ Hallin’s Spheres shift as a result of unforeseen events. He co-leads Biocaptivate, a think-tank/salon, to examine and influence the culture(s) of biological science.  He passionately advocates reforming educational methods and structures, especially in the sciences.  He is a Forbes Contributor.

Jill is the Venture Principal at Capital Factory, the most active, early-stage investor in Texas since 201. Jill manages Capital Factory's 7th venture fund, the Texas Fund, and new investment opportunities.

Prior to becoming Principal, Jill was a Senior Associate at Capital Factory, where she sourced and invested in startup companies for the Accelerator and Investment Fund. She personally sourced over 82 companies in the portfolio with over 88% of the companies being owned and operated by a minority-founder. 

From leading an innovative (and mostly remote!) team at a Fortune 15 through the challenging process of developing and marketing patented products, to refining early-stage offerings, Stephanie Bauer Marshall is an industry-recognized leader in successfully bringing products and services to market.

As founder of M3 Advisors, Ms. Marshall advises early to mid-stage start ups and association clients as they define, position, market and evangelize new products and services.

She currently serves as Board President of Citrine Angels, and as a mentor and instructor for FedTech. 

Kulika is a Principal at Creative Ventures, investing in early-stage companies solving critical global-scale challenges with advanced technologies. She specializes in biotechnology and healthtech verticals at Creative Ventures. 

Kulika has an entrepreneurial, scientific research, and business development background. She's a co-founder and former CEO of a Bay Area based biotech company, addressing infant nutrition using synthetic biology. Kulike received her Ph.D. in Microbiology from UC Berkeley, and B.S in Economics from the Wharton School.

For over 30 years, Robert Garber has invested in, advised and led early-stage healthcare and technology companies, co-managing three venture funds and holding leadership positions with three high-growth companies.  Robert is currently a Partner at 7Wire Ventures, a preeminent venture capital firm that invests in early-stage digital health companies supporting an “Informed Connected Health Consumer” - the epicenter of a consumer-first, tech-enabled convergence of the health and wellness markets. Fund successes, such as Livongo Health, are due in large part to the team’s experience as both seasoned operators and investors with extensive industry experience. As highly selective investors, the firm works side-by-side with founders to build companies at scale that change the status quo and empower consumers to be better stewards of their health.

Jessica is the founder and GP of Coyote Ventures, new Venture fund investing in Seed-stage companies innovating in women’s health and wellness. She's passionate about innovation that drives positive change in human health, equality, and our relationship to the earth.

Jessica worked for 6+ years designing and launching the Impossible burger as the 12th employee; she helped build a pilot impact-focused VC fund with a conscious celebrity; she has developed product strategies as a consultant and advisor to startups internationally; she is an angel investor, Venture Partner at Republic.co, and an active investor in Portfolia’s FemTech fund. She can often be found swimming in the SF Bay and walking her Pom rescue.

Neku Atawodi-Edun is passionate about social change and believes in empowering social entrepreneurs to address many of the challenges facing the African continent.

Neku served as Regional Director and Country Director for the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST), training and investing in African entrepreneurs aiming to create Africa's next leading Technology platforms and create employment across the continent. Neku is a self-starter entrepreneur, having spearheaded the launch-to-market of companies in various sectors under her watch.

Prior to this, Neku worked as a Senior Technical Advisor to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) where she developed the FCT’s revolutionary File Tracking System. The system was further deployed at the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Defense. Neku is passionate about empowering African entrepreneurs through technology and was a member of the founding team for Africa’s pioneer Impact Investment Tracking Platform.

Neku has been a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, an Associate Fellow of the Royal Commonwealth Society and a Clinton Global Initiative Lead Mentor. She was named as one of Forbes Africa’s 30 under 30, was a nominee for CNBC's Young African Entrepreneur and, in 2020, was honoured by the Guardian newspaper as one of 60 Africans who have impacted the last decade.

Neku holds a Masters Degree in International Business from the European Business School, London and, in her spare time, is an avid equestrian having founded Ride to Shine, a not for profit organisation creating future opportunities for disadvantaged children, through introducing them to equestrian sports.

Dr. Adrianne Stone is a Venture Associate with Capital Factory where she works with early-stage founders to hone their pitches, connect with mentors, and raise money. Prior to joining the Capital Factory team she was a Product Scientist at 23andMe where she led the team that built My Health Action Plan, a feature that combined medical guidelines and users genetic and survey data to construct a personalized preventive health tool. 

She also completed a PhD in Translational Biology and Molecular Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, where her work focused on gene therapy and the use of novel tools like CRISPR-Cas9 in the diagnosis and treatment of bone and cartilage disorders. 

Samina is passionate about empowering women through health and wealth. She currently Heads Finance and Go-To-Market at Turtle Health, a digital health company. In an effort to close the gender funding gap, she also leads The WHealth, a boutique advisory for women-led startups, primarily in femtech and consumer. She's an active angel investor, having spent her career investing across venture, growth, and buyout. At American Securities, she initiated and led diligence of the global fertility market. She also co-founded SLK Venture Capital in Austin, TX, a $25 million fund focused on healthcare, consumer, and technology. Samina began her investing career as an early employee at ICONIQ Capital, a multi-family office investing on behalf of the founders of Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, among others. She graduated from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.  

Vera Baker is an entrepreneur, operator, and investor pushing for diversity in the tech ecosystem. Based in Paris, she is a Venture Partner at Jua Fund, an early-stage, Pan-African fund that invests capital and community into exceptional founders. She invests into European startups as an Angel Investor for Atomico and works directly with budding startups as an Investor in Residence at the Founders Institute Paris Chapter. She mentors underrepresented founders in the Unconventional Accelerator in the Nordics and the Colors Accelerator in Paris. She has also built a global community of women of color (and their allies) via For Colored Girls Who Tech, a curated weekly newsletter highlighting entrepreneurship and venture capital in the tech ecosystem.

Namrata is an early stage investor and advisor, passionate about supporting founders, especially women and underrepresented minorities. She is the Director of VentureBridge Accelerator at Carnegie Mellon and invests alongside Republic, Indie VC, and angel groups.

In previous roles, Namrata worked at an early stage industry-agnostic VC fund and an incubator in Zimbabwe supporting entrepreneurs in Southern Africa. Prior to that, she worked in product development in startups and large organizations in B2B, B2B2C, and B2C. She co-founded 3 startups, two of which she took from idea to revenue. In her spare time, she serves as an independent consultant.

She holds a BS in Biology and a diploma in Software Engineering from India, MA in Professional Writing from Carnegie Mellon, and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley.

A coffee aficionado, she loves to wake up to a good cup of coffee.

Chaarvi is currently investing in social enterprises in early-stages in the US, with the AmFam Institute.

Chaarvi has woven her professional journey extensively around social entrepreneurship, impact investing and ecosystem building. Prior to AmFam, she mentored women entrepreneurs in South-East Asia, curated a podcast for social entrepreneurs in emerging markets, invested in startups in India and Vietnam, created social impact measurement frameworks, and founded a handicrafts social enterprise. Chaarvi graduated from Columbia University with a Masters in Public Administration.

Reena Krishnan is an accomplished finance professional that has been analyzing the operating fundamentals and growth prospects of companies across multiple industries for over 15 years. In her current role, Reena works directly with private equity and venture capital technology investors to source new investment opportunities and monitor their portfolio companies.

Prior to her current role, Reena was a Vice President and Sell-Side Equity Research Analyst, where she covered publicly-traded companies across the Business Services, Industrial and Retail sectors for Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Jefferies.

Reena is also a social justice advocate and believes in supporting women entrepreneurs and promoting women's leadership. She serves on the Board for Fund Her as well as the Leadership Committee for How Women Lead.

Kenneth is the CEO/CIO at Ortus Africa Capital where he provides leadership and strategic oversight to harness investment into and finding capital for entrepreneurs and businesses to drive Africa’s growth. Kenneth oversees The 97Fund a venture investment vehicle managed by Ortus Africa Capital.

Prior to founding Ortus Africa Capital, Kenneth was a financial advisor and management consultant at Deloitte, initially in the UK and then in East Africa, based in Uganda where he advised on a number of assignments including the formation and fundraising for an agribusiness private equity fund domiciled in Uganda which achieved a $20m close.

Kenneth has co-founded and invested in companies including ventures in fintech/e-commerce, research and data analytics, transport & logistics, energy & infrastructure. Kenneth likes working with and supporting entrepreneurs and businesses to grow. He is also the Co-Founder of the Kampala Angel Investment Network (KAIN), a platform that prepares and matches early stage entrepreneurs to angel investors locally and globally.

Marina is a multilingual professional equipped with a background in health research and a unique skill-set acquired through her experience in Consulting and Venture Capital. She started her career in healthcare investment and had the opportunity to work with multiple investment funds, notably she worked with BDC Capital and later joined two advisory teams, wherein she advised private companies on IPO dual listing (HKEX, NYSE) and due diligence on M&A transaction buyer side. Meanwhile maintaining key investors relations throughout her career, she gained a keen interest for VC fundraising and LP relations. At Hike Ventures Marina oversees health-tech deals, Canadian deals and fundraising with LPs.

Louise Rix is a venture capitalist at Forward Partners where she invests in early-stage Applied AI and marketplace companies. She is a medical doctor having spent 3 years in the NHS and is previously the founder of a healthtech startup. 

She is passionate about diversity and inclusion in the venture ecosystem and has been a driving force for D&I at Forward Partners. She is also deeply interested in FemTech and blogs about women’s health on Medium.

Vic Lanio is a Principal at Flare Capital Partners.

Prior to joining Flare Capital, Vic was a Product Strategy Manager at naviHealth, responsible for enterprise product strategy during the integration of legacy naviHealth, Curaspan and RightCare businesses. Vic joined naviHealth by way of Curaspan, where he worked on their successful strategic sale to naviHealth, a Cardinal Health company.

Previously, Vic was a manager at McKinsey & Company serving healthcare providers. He focused primarily on health system strategy within the context of the Affordable Care Act and the transition to value-based care models. He helped build the Objective Health new venture, a tech-enabled consulting model for small to mid-sized health systems that is now a part of McKinsey’s Healthcare practice.  Out of college, he worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers in their Health Industries Advisory Practice, focusing on operational improvement, revenue cycle, and personalized medicine.  He also helped launch and served as the President and Executive Board Chair of Boston Young Healthcare Professionals, a 501(c)(3) organization aimed at providing educational, networking and community service opportunities for young healthcare professionals in Boston.

​Vic obtained his B.S. from Boston College, with majors in Physics and Finance. He also obtained his M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management. While completing his M.B.A., he worked concurrently with Curaspan, Wellframe and was a Flare Capital Scholar. He also co-Directed the inaugural MIT Healthcare Innovations Prize, a pitch competition for health tech entrepreneurs in Boston.

Margaret Malone is a Senior Associate at Flare Capital Partners. In this role, she is responsible for sourcing new deals, performing diligence and executing on investments. She is active with the portfolio, providing strategic project support to companies including Cayaba Care, higi and Eden Health.

Prior to joining Flare Capital, Margaret partnered with investors and board leadership to build executive teams and create foundational human capital strategy for early stage healthcare technology and services companies. Margaret also brings experience in healthcare-focused venture capital through her prior roles at 7Wire Ventures and B Capital Group.

Margaret began her career as a clinical transformation consultant with Huron Consulting Group’s healthcare practice. While at Huron, she helped some of the nation’s leading academic medical centers adapt to changes in the industry through performance improvement initiatives resulting in greater interdisciplinary collaboration, higher quality of patient care, and improved reimbursement.

Margaret obtained her BA from Vanderbilt University with a major in Medicine, Health and Society. She earned her MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with concentrations in Finance, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management. At the University of Chicago, she received the Madelon L. & Richard N. Rosett Merit Scholarship and the Hyde Park Angels Venture Capital Award. While completing her MBA, she was a Flare Capital Scholar.

Rebecca is a Vice President at DRI Capital, a leading life sciences investment firm based in Toronto, where she focuses on sourcing and supporting investments in pharmaceutical royalties.  Prior to DRI Capital, Rebecca worked for several biotechnology companies in business development roles and at BMO Capital Markets in biotechnology equity research.  She graduated with a B.Sc. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from Western University and an MBA from The Richard Ivey School of Business.  

Valerie Charles, JD, has a passion for technology.  She served as a founding member and Chief Strategy Officer of GAN Integrity and is an investor in the Portfolia FemTech Fund.  She is a Partner at global advisory firm, StoneTurn, where she guides corporate clients in using technology and data analytics to improve compliance programs. Valerie is firmly committed to getting more women on boards and in the C-Suite and activating women as investors. 

Bio coming soon.

Aaron is an entrepreneur and early-stage investor/advisor with a give-first mentality to support founders on their vision and dreams. Aaron is currently building Music Everywhere, inspiring people to access and think about creativity and music differently, further helping to advance the areas of emotional health and behavior change.

Aaron’s upcoming lofty projects include composing a musical score for an Amazon Prime film based on Hesse’s novel, Siddhartha, and writing a self-help book on creative thinking called ‘The Dreams Inside Us’.

In previous roles, Aaron worked as the CEO of Psocratic, a mental health tech company, and as a data scientist at Gartner. He composed the music for Dan Rather’s podcast, Blinking Red, along with other podcasts and short films.

Aaron holds an engineering degree from the Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, has passed multiple actuarial exams, and won an international math award helping to advance brain surgery.

Rei was a strategy and management consultant at Accenture then a forward deployed engineer at Palantir before becoming a VC investor. Thus far, she's worked for over 15 client entities across a multitude of verticals including tech, healthcare, utilities, retail, nonprofit, and government. She enjoys working on civic pro bono tech projects in product or data roles in her free time, and she's worked on projects in hate crimes, volunteer management, campaign logistics, and voting rights."

Ben has over 20 years of experience advising companies in the Healthcare and Life Sciences sectors. He has worked with leading pharma, MedTech and diagnostic companies on equity and debt financings, merger, and acquisition transactions. In addition, Ben has advised dozens of smaller life science companies on partnership and licensing agreements with leading global companies.

Prior to pHpartners, Ben held leadership roles as a senior Life Science investment banker for Ernst & Young, BofA Merrill Lynch, and Pacific Growth Equities in San Francisco.

Mia is an Investor Fellow at AmplifyHer Ventures and part of Cleo Capital's SAGA MBA women in venture cohort. She also works with Precursor Ventures, a pre-seed/seed stage fund based out of SF dedicated towards supporting stellar founders with compelling ideas regardless of industry, background, or track record. She is passionate about bringing capital into emerging markets and loves nothing more than hearing inspirational women founders talk about their journeys and growth across the industry.

Mia is completing an MBA at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business where she has completely immersed herself across the femtech/women's health innovations and venture landscape. 

Prior to business school, Mia spent her career in Deloitte's M&A Consulting practice where she supported billion dollar deals across the Consumer Products and Life Sciences & Healthcare industries across all stages of the deal lifecycle. She also led several pro-bono consulting projects for domestic and international companies seeking guidance and support for their growth trajectories. 

Diane Yoo is a results-driven entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and angel investor with more than 15+ years of experience. As an accredited investor, she has invested in 30+ companies and is passionate about empowering women and diverse investors and founders. Diane is Founding Partner for Medtech and Healthtech venture capital in the heart of the largest medical center of the world.

With VC and accelerator expertise, she has consulted over 50+ global companies. Her area of expertise is university venture funds as she has launched numerous venture funds to 15 universities. Diane is also co-founder of Global She Ventures, a women's accelerator. She serves as mentor/judge to Rice Business Plan Challenge, Rice University’s 48 Hr Accelerator, Gener8tor, Brandery, and Mass Challenge. She is also an investment partner to the largest women’s fund and the first FemTech Fund in the nation. 

Diane is passionate about advocating and empowering women for senior executive and professional positions in the investment world.

Born and raised in Switzerland, Bérénice studied International Relations at the London School of Economics and lived for three years in San Francisco, where she was the VC reporter at VentureBeat. She is now based in London and has been angel investing in Femtech and consumer startups. Her investments include HANX, a sexual wellness brand; August, a period brand for Gen Z; Leda Health, which wants to re-invent care for sexual assault survivors; and Elektra Health, a modern solution for menopause.

She is part of January Ventures’ operator network, where she helps source deals and support portfolio companies and recently joined the Alma Angels community, which was founded to fund more female founders. Bérénice has also been working with Michelle Kennedy, the founder and CEO of Peanut, to help her set up a microfund to back female-founded businesses at the pre-seed stage.

Jane van Dis, MD, is an Ob Hospitalist for OB Hospitalist Group and is Assistant Professor at the U of Rochester. She is Co-Founder of Equity Quotient a consultancy for equity analytics in healthcare and beyond.  She co-founded OB Best Practice in partnership with OBGProject an online eBook for ObGyn. She is Co-Founder of TIME'S UP Healthcare; she co-admins the non-profit OB Mom Group – a group of 5300+ women ObGyns. She advises multiple health care startups, a health tech incubator in London, and is a Lead for the FemTech Fund II at Portfolia.  Dr. van Dis is a national expert and speaker on equity in healthcare and she is a single mom to twins Brooklyn and Miles. Follow her on Twitter: @janevandis.

Dianthe has been working in startups since 1995 and during that time participated in 3 successful acquisitions. She is a seasoned strategist and leader with more than 25 years of success across technology, media, and entertainment and has extensive experience in product marketing, marketing communications, advertising, and public relations. She's an authority in the transformation and hyper-growth of companies, with a focus on go-to-market activities.

Dianthe was a key contributor in programing for the Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology's Grace Hopper Celebration, starting when it was a small 500 person event and helping turn it into the world's largest gathering of women in computing

In 2018 she co-founded and helped build a startup accelerator focused on creating more diverse and inclusive ecosystems. To date, 61 companies have completed the accelerator program

She is actively involved in various startups and innovation incubators in advisory roles for fundraising, investor relations, and scaling up.

Amanda Way is an investor on the Health Team at Emerson Collective, the family office of Laurene Powell Jobs that leverages venture capital, policy, and philanthropy to enable the most underserved communities to live to their fullest potential. The venture arm of the Health Team primarily makes early stage investments in the oncology space – Amanda focusing on therapeutics, diagnostics and research tools for 3 years, recently pivoting to focus on digital health over the past year. Amanda also serves as the co-lead for the Healthcare Vertical at the Emerging Venture Capital Association (EVCA). Prior to Emerson Collective, Amanda studied neuroscience at Brown University – working in the Assad Lab on the optogenetic investigation of neural rhythms and learning, as an EMT, and co-founded a cystic fibrosis focused company that reduces bacterial growth on nebulizers.

Rona Li is currently a Managing Director at Redesign where she leads New Ventures teams through the ideation, diligence, and launch processes for portfolio concepts. To-date, she has deployed $32M in capital to enable founders and innovative businesses in healthcare.

Before Redesign, Rona spent three years as a Venture Architect at BCG Digital Ventures, the dedicated business building firm of Boston Consulting Group. Previously, Rona spent several years at JPMorgan in their investment banking division across Healthcare Coverage and Natural Resources Equity Capital Markets. Rona started her career at Citi covering municipal entities in the Northeast as part of the Public Finance investment banking team. Rona holds a B.B.A. in Finance
& Economics from Villanova University.

Anna Raptis is the Founder and CEO, Amplifica Capital, a VC fund with the goal of diversifying the investor base by actively increasing the participation of women investors in private capital. Anna grew up in a family business environment. She has first-hand operational experience and understands many of the challenges that entrepreneurs face. Anna is committed to the development of professional women and women investors, to support this goal, she is a cofounder of Mujeres Invirtiendo, and Voz Experta Mexico.

Anna’s experience includes investing across sectors and geographies in international equities, health tech, funds, energy, real estate and as an angel investor and limited partner in venture capital funds in Mexico and the United States. She was recognized as one of the top female investors by the Latin American Venture Capital Association.