techstars
‍Startup Weekend
San Francisco AI

Igor L. Markov is Research Scientist at Meta. He previously worked as professor at the Univ of Michigan. He received his M.A. in Mathematics and Ph.D. in Computer Science from UCLA. He is an IEEE Fellow and an ACM Distinguished Scientist.

Anton is a Partner at STRATMINDS, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm focused on applied Artificial Intelligence. Prior to STRATMINDS, he was a Founding Product Designer and Head of Design at Neeva, an AI-powered, ad-free, private and personal search engine with ambition to create a better alternative to Google. Neeva was acquired by Snowflake in 2023 for its amazing AI search tech after growing to 2M users. Before Neeva, Anton was a Founding Product Designer at WhatsApp, where he hired and mentored a global design team serving its growing user base (0 to 1.5B users). He is passionate about integrating life into products and design, and has been studying at buildingbeauty.org, a program based on the works of Christopher Alexander. Anton actively supports the Ukrainian startup and design ecosystems, enjoys connecting designers with businesses and publishing books about design and unfolding life.

Iain has ten years of experience as a founder, CEO, and Head of Growth, building and scaling innovative products and teams across fields ranging from wearable neuro-technology to applied AI. His startup experience includes raising $6M in funding, conducting extensive user testing, clinical trials and shipping hardware/software products to thousands of paying users, garnering mainstream press attention and establishing strategic partnerships.

Managing Director at Techstars for the San Francisco-based Future of eCommerce program (powered by eBay), Oakland (powered by J.P. Morgan), and Chicago programs. Loves solving meaningful problems and helping people make progress. At Techstars we #givefirst and help founders succeed.

Kevin is the Head of Investments and Portfolio Capital at Techstars and helps manage the global investment portfolio of over 3500 portfolio companies. As of 2023, Techstars has more than $1B in AUM across both Accelerators and Venture and Techstars alumni have a combined market cap of more than $105B. Kevin is a pre-seed and seed investor in over 40 companies including Retool, Vise, Culture Biosciences, Hightouch, Causal, Certn, and Seldon. Kevin is based in San Francisco.

Hendrik loves building deep robotics and computer vision tech. Co-founder Google Street View, Co-founder Google Maps GroundTruth, First engineer Waymo, DRI HomeKit Secure Video, Stanford AI Lab.

Nick Bilogorskiy was the director for Security Intelligence at Google, leading an engineering team to promote trust and ensure user safety at Google. He has over 20 years experience building great security engineering and operations teams. Nick was a founding member at Cyphort, which was acquired by Juniper Networks; created and led the Cyphort Labs Threat Research team and played a critical role designing Cyphort’s malware detection logic and product user experience. Prior to Cyphort, Bilogorskiy was Chief Malware Expert at Facebook and also held security research leadership positions at Fortinet and Sonicwall.

Founding Investor at Conviction, interested in AI, ML & more. Previously engineering and product lead at Neeva. Prior to that, published first-author neuroscience work and was a Rhodes finalist. Motivated by learning to do hard things well from talented mentors.

Kevin Leffew is a Sr. BizOps Manager at Replit; helping companies and developers go from idea to software, fast.

Tara Tan is Founder and General Partner at Strange Ventures, an investment firm focused on AI and the future of human creativity. An industry veteran who has built and backed startups in emerging technologies for nearly 20 years, Tara previously drove investments at global design and strategy firm, IDEO.
Prior to that, she led design at deep tech startups, and founded an interactive media and gaming company in 2012. Tara is a frequent contributor and speaker on the intersection of creativity, technology, and capital, and has appeared at SXSW, SF Design Week, DevCon, and more.

Nadine is a Principal at Crane Street Capital, focusing on the education and healthcare sectors. Her approach blends solid private equity principles with a focus on technological advancements. Nadine plays a key role in integrating AI solutions into her portfolio companies, improving their processes, efficiency, and growth. She is passionate about identifying and applying practical, innovative strategies while maintaining a strong emphasis on sustainable capital allocation and long-term business health.Prior to that, she led design at deep tech startups, and founded an interactive media and gaming company in 2012. Tara is a frequent contributor and speaker on the intersection of creativity, technology, and capital, and has appeared at SXSW, SF Design Week, DevCon, and more.

Safa Rashtchy is the founder and Managing Partner of Think + Ventures, a thesis-based and research-drivenearly-stage fund in Silicon Valley. Safa has been a Silicon Valley investor, advisors, and board member for over 15 years and has invested in over 60 companies. His investments include Bina Technologies (acquired by Roach), Tubi.tv (acquired by Fox Media), Nimble VR (acquired by Facebook), and several other exists.Safa is an advisor/board observer to Snapwire, Spry Health, Axgen, and Contilio. His thesis on consumer value proposition and market-driven investments have been at the core of Think + Ventures. Safa pioneered the concept of “Teen Focus Groups” for internet and online trends and has continued his mission to encouragecompanies to get close to their customer and to listen to them. Safa has worked with and advised numerous public companies during his Wall Street years, including Google, Alibaba, Netflix, Yahoo, and others. From 1997 until 2007, Safa was a Managing Director at Piper Jaffray and Company. He led the firm’s expansion efforts in the Internet industry and its expansion to China, as well as active involvement with leading Internet and technology companies.Safa enjoyed top ranking and recognition from Wall Street, including three consecutive years of the prestigious Institutional Investor (II) ranking, as well as top rankings for stock picks and earnings estimates. In 2007, Safa was named the Investment Analyst of the Year and received the 2007 New Economy Award from iResearch in China. In 2002, Safa was named to The Wall Street Journal’s ”Best on the Street” analyst survey and was also a winner in Institutional Investor magazine’s “Home Run Hitters of 2001ʺ top stock pickers list.

Nazar is a passionate and experienced Ukrainian tech entrepreneur and startup founder based in San Francisco. With a strong background in business and technology, he is dedicated to empowering young founders and companies to bring their innovative ideas to life.
Additionally, he serves as a TechStars Community Leader in San Francisco, leading a local pre-acceleration program.

Adi Kancherla, holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His impressive career trajectory includes a significant role at Google, where he developed vital software for Fortune 500 companies. As a serial entrepreneur, Adi founded three venture-backed startups in the Web 3 space, showcasing his acumen in identifying and nurturing nascent ideas into successful businesses. He served as CTO and CEO, raising nearly $5.3 million USD. Adi’s expertise extends to building talented teams, proving his knack for recognizing and cultivating potential. As a mentor, he offers invaluable insights, a robust industry network, and a proven track record in transforming innovative ideas into thriving enterprises. His guidance is a beacon for startups striving to make a mark in the tech world.

At Improvado, Fabio played a key role alongside the CEO in securing $22M for the Series A funding round. Responsibilities included the preparation of crucial presentations for investors, strategic business planning, and ensuring meticulous readiness for scrutiny and due diligence. Fabio was also actively involved in preparing board of directors' meetings.Simultaneously, Fabio provided support to founders by assisting in the restructuring and enhancement of pitch decks. Leveraging past experiences in customer-facing sales pitches, Fabio contributed valuable insights to optimize presentations.

With over a decade of experience, Arjun brings expertise in B2B enterprise sales, data science, machine learning products, marketing, customer success, and GTM strategy to the table.

Michael is a serial entrepreneur with a track of record in SAAS B2B startups.Since 2007 he started 3 and successfully exited one startup.As a management consultant, I helped market leaders in fintech, e-commerce, and entertainment to achieve transparent and predictable delivery.

Serial award-winning technical expert in Generative AI, Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence. She is currently an AI technical lead at Vanguard which is an American registered investment advisory firm that has been around for close to 50 years with $7.7 trillion in global assets under management. Samy's cutting-edge research contributions have been acknowledged through various awards: - Making a Breakthrough in Computer Science Award by Google, - PhD of the year awarded by the Professional Association for Australia's ICT sector - Featured Amongst Top seven researchers as CSIRO's seven. She has also been featured in 20+ newspapers and magazines Worldwide, some of which are: The ABC Science Show, SBS, The Financial Review, WHO magazine, The Deal & many more.

A serial tech entrepreneur from Ukraine now based in San Francisco. As founder of the virtual events platform Party.Space, raised over $2 million in funding, closed deals with Google, Zapier, Grammarly, and UC Berkeley, and navigated pivots before winding down operations. Have experience in investments and helping companies fundraise. Now working on a new venture in the AI field. Yurii makes meaningful connections and enjoys barbecue, shisha, and shawarma.