Reading Lists

Lidia Lipinska - BI & Analytics | Digital Solutions @ JLL
Lidia Lipinska is an internationally seasoned business strategist. She thrives on bringing her full skill set of business analytics and project management to bring businesses to the next level.

Berg Moe - Partner & CEO, EntraHouse AS
My LinkedIn profile sums it all up; Serial Entrepreneur, Business Angel Facilitator, and TEDx speaker. Owner & manager at Gründerklubben - The Entrepreneurs Club - the largest entrepreneurs network in Norway. GEN member (Global Entrepreneur Network) and GEW Oslo organizer (Global Entrepreneurship Week). I have more than 30 years of experience with funding, coaching and growing companies and great ideas to the next level. Have an extensive global network of people in both the seed funding and venture capital world. I consider myself as an entrepreneur by heart and is always looking for win-win scenarios. Currently, I have invested in a few startups and are now engaged taking them to the next level.

Aashay Mody - 👨‍💻 Growth at Astro | 🤖 AI Digest Curator at Startup Digest | 🎓 NYU Stern Alum
I help early stage startups go from idea to business. I draw inspiration from breakthrough technologies when they intersect with innovative business models and have the ability to fundamentally shift the status quo.

Sergio A. Escobar - Helping founders build and scale massively successful companies in the US & Canada | Canadian🇨🇦Super Angel investor in B2B Cloud & SaaS at BCFventures.vc | MD @ Founder Institute Montreal pre-seed accelerator | Twitter: @SergiusEscobar
Sergio is a Super Angel investor across the United States and Canada with a diversified investment portfolio of companies ranging from B2B Cloud & SaaS startups leveraging Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Security, to B2C Consumer startups leveraging Mobile Apps, IoT/Wearables and eCommerce. Sergio has +15 years of experience as a multiple times tech entrepreneur with startups in Aerospace, eCommerce, Manufacturing, AgTech and Financial Technologies. Over the last 8 years, he has been deeply involved in the international entrepreneurial incubators and accelerators scene through his involvement in Founder Institute, Techstars Startup Programs, Startup Chile, Startup Peru, Startup Bootcamp FinTech London, MsB Tunisia, Kuwait National Fund, World Bank 'Tech Entrepreneurship Program for Innovation in the Caribbean', Krypto Labs in the Middle East and Creative Destruction Lab in Artificial Intelligence. He has been pioneering the Canadian investment scene by launching one of Canada's very first super angel funds.

Vincent PÉTRÉ - Head of Sourcing - 33entrepreneurs
Sourcing promising startups in the fields of Wine,Beer, Spirits and Food at 33entrepreneurs, global tech startups located in Bordeaux. Also son of champagne makers and, of course, addicted to wine among many other great life pleasures.

Rajesh Johnny - Disruptive Economies Emerging.
Rajesh Johnny (RaJ) has more than 20 Yrs of experience in the innovation domain. He is the Co-Founder of Oryx, a crypto VC Fund and InQ Innovation, a global startup Ecosystem. He has exposures in the Middle East and India. Blockchain and Fintech believer with a Crypto-For-Good Philosophy. As a GTM and Strategy expert, he's a keen observer of the emerging economies and helped many organisations to scale and go global. Also serves as the Board Member of WMC, a diaspora organisation which has presence in 43 countries started out of New Jersey;CDEP, an India Entry think tank (Fintech Chair) working for expats to connect with the Indian economy; and India Fintech Week (Worldwide). He also strategises and curates ICOs.

Edith Yeung - Partner at 500 Mobile Collective Fund
Recognized by Inc Magazine as one of the Silicon Valley investors you must know, Edith Yeung is a venture capitalist, technology executive, creator of China Internet expert and a partner at Proof of Capital.

Xu Tao - Founder of 硅谷早知道, Editorial Director at 36Kr

Carie Davis - Partner, Your Ideas Are Terrible
Carie left her tenure as the Global Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Coca-Cola to start Your Ideas Are Terrible with Shane Reiser. The team works with global consumer goods companies to implement tools and systems that deliver a steady flow of innovative ideas and doubles the speed at which concepts move through the enterprise pipeline. Within her role at Your Ideas Are Terrible, Carie serves as the Managing Director of the BridgeCommunity - an Atlanta-centric, commercialization program that accelerates the application of startup technologies to large, local enterprise’s core business challenges. Under her wing, the program produced nine pilots and proof-of-concepts in 2016 and doubled the number of participating startups in 2017.

Jose Iglesias - Regional Director EMEA Techstars

Michael Ryan Norton - Crowdfunding & Marketing Consultant — focused on startups, innovation, and sustainable creative livelihoods.
I'm a business design and development consultant, technical project and marketing campaign manager, interested in all things related to crowdfunding, digital marketing strategy, art merchandising, and manufacturing. I'm also a photographer, songwriter, musician, audio engineer, and caffeine enthusiast.

Muneeb Ali - Co-founder, Blockstack
Muneeb co-founded Blockstack, a new decentralized internet where users control their data and apps run without remote servers. Muneeb received his PhD in Computer Science from Princeton University specializing in distributed systems. He went through Y Combinator and has worked in the systems research group at Princeton and PlanetLab—the world's first and largest cloud computing testbed. Muneeb was awarded a J. William Fulbright Fellowship and gives guest lectures on cloud computing at Princeton. He has built a broad range of production systems and published research papers with over 900 citations.

Ryan Shea - Co-founder, Blockstack
Ryan co-founded Blockstack, a new decentralized internet where users control their data and apps run without remote servers. With his co-founder Muneeb, Blockstack has raised funding from top investors like Union Square Ventures and Naval Ravikant.Ryan majored in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton with a minor in Computer Science. After graduation, Ryan started working on tech startups, where he was inducted into the Forbes 30 Under 30, went through Y Combinator, and authored several popular open source libraries in cryptography and blockchain technology.

Lilibeth Gangas - CTCO @ Kapor Center | SW_Oakland Organizer
Lili Gangas is the Chief Technology Community Officer. In this role, Lili helps catalyze Oakland’s emergence as a social impact hub of tech done right – where tech, diverse talent, and action driven partnerships can tackle pressing social and economic inequities of our communities head-on. #techdoneright #Oakland #ecosystembuilder Contact Lili@kaporcenter.org

Aurelio Jimenez Romero
Aurelio Jiménez is the COO of ZAPIENS, the company that connects people and knowledge building the collective intelligence of any organization.

Startup Digest Education

Hrvoje Morić - Teacher, Podcaster
Hrvoje Morić is a Global Perspectives teacher at Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools in Kazakhstan. Previously, he taught Social Studies at Prepa Tec high school and International Relations at the Tecnológico de Monterrey university in México. He also moonlights as a gamification teacher trainer and produces the Geopolitics & Empire podcast.

Jennifer Chin - Education Community Builder
Jennifer Chin is a community connector and startup education advocate. She runs the community at CodeCore Bootcamp in Vancouver and has previously worked with impact incubator Spring U, and growing startups like Foodee, and Trulioo. She is passionate increasing the accessibility of education for all, especially when it comes to women in STEM.

Jemma Israyelyan
Jemma is the founding director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Executive Development in Armenia and a visiting lecturer at the American University of Armenia. Her earlier experience includes economic development projects and consulting with Deloitte in the Bay Area.

Diana Anthony - Venture Capital Investor
Diana Anthony is a partner and co-founder of Figure Eight Investments, a venture capital firm that invests in education. Diana is a former Montessori and third-grade teacher, with years of classroom experience to her name. She is passionate about supporting high quality ed-tech tools.

Raphaëlle Houdot - 🇨🇦🇫🇷
Raphaëlle has been working as the COO of Voilà Learning, an edtech company that aims to disrupt language learning. Building upon her multidisciplinary background in Politics, Philosophy, Economics and International Relations, she is particularly interested in AI, inclusivity and social innovation. She has at heart to learn to unlearn. "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." - African Proverb

Laura Truncellito - Founder & CEO of Language Scholars
Laura is the founder and CEO of Language Scholars, LLC, a company which seeks to utilize cutting edge technology to enhance global learning and communication. She is a Grow with Google Scholar and has earned three master's degrees, most recently in Technology Entrepreneurship from the University of Maryland. Her specialty is in front-end web development, and she maintains a keen interest in machine learning. Laura's role with Startup Digest Education allows her to draw on her background as an entrepreneur and a technology enthusiast, and to pursue her passion to make the world a better place through education.

Anurag Maloo - Regional Manager (India, South & Central Asia)
Anurag Maloo is an active Indo-Asian startup innovation Community Architect and entrepreneurship ecosystem builder. As a Regional Manager for South & Central Asia with Techstars and Startup Weekend, he is responsible for the cultivation and sustained growth of vibrant startup ecosystems in India, SAARC nations and Central Asian countries. He is incredibly passionate about fostering entrepreneurship, grassroots leadership, and building strong collaborative startup communities.

Rajesh Johnny - Disruptive Economies Emerging.
Rajesh Johnny (RaJ) has more than 20 Yrs of experience in the innovation domain. He is the Co-Founder of Oryx, a crypto VC Fund and InQ Innovation, a global startup Ecosystem. He has exposures in the Middle East and India. Blockchain and Fintech believer with a Crypto-For-Good Philosophy. As a GTM and Strategy expert, he's a keen observer of the emerging economies and helped many organisations to scale and go global. Also serves as the Board Member of WMC, a diaspora organisation which has presence in 43 countries started out of New Jersey;CDEP, an India Entry think tank (Fintech Chair) working for expats to connect with the Indian economy; and India Fintech Week (Worldwide). He also strategises and curates ICOs.

Fatima Anila - Curator Energy and Clean Tech Digest
Founder CEO and Director at Alishverish Pvt. Ltd. in Pakistan. An experienced Business Development professional with a demonstrated history of working in the Telecom and solar power equipment commissioning supply industry. Clean-Tech enthusiast and Entrepreneurship advocate. Affiliated with UNIDO's GCIP - Global Clean Tech Innovation Programme in Pakistan as Change Agent and Business Trainer at Solar Bibi initiative in Pakistan. Compiled and developed first ever Renewable Energy Technology Installation Training programme, and Energy Efficient Electronics Innovation Programme, for Engineering graduates with Pakistan Council of Renewable Energy Technologies (PCRET) and National Institute of Electronics (NIE) in Pakistan. Working closely with PCRET and NIE in renewable energies. Over 12 years of experience in teaching Business management and entrepreneurship at MBA and BBA level in different universities in Islamabad as visiting faculty member. Skilled in Entrepreneurship, Volunteer Management, Team Building, Administration, and Volunteer Training. Strategic Management professional with a MS focused in Management from COMSATS Institute of Information Technology.

Alessandro Ravanetti
Working in the fintech industry since 2011 - currently in Barcelona as Co-founder & CMO of Difitek, the framework needed to launch and operate financial technology platforms of any scale. I built and managed digital companies with distributed teams and international partners, gaining experience with both startups and large corporations. I am an author on multiple publications and an expert evaluator with the European Commission for the SME Instrument programme, part of Horizon 2020. Feel free to give me a shout and we can talk more.

David Nagy - ALL about FOOD, Innovation & Collaboration
Ambitious. Bold. Curious. Learning @FOODxTECH / Past @relayr_cloud @StartupVerband @pitchmarathon @GoLibre

Winnie Leung - Communications Director at Bits x Bites
Winnie is Communications Director at Bits x Bites, China's first accelerator VC to invest in startups solving food system challenges.

Ron Flavin - Growth and Funding Strategist
My name is Ron Flavin and I am passionate about helping entrepreneurs, startups, businesses of all sizes and organizations of all types get to where they want to Grow. I have been launching and growing startup ventures since I was 21 years old. Through years of trial and error, I learned what it takes to launch and grow a successful business or organization. I also know first-hand that success is possible regardless of background, circumstance or situation.

Yonca Braeckman - Founder Impact Shakers
Yonca is a connector and community builder. She's the co-founder of Impact Shakers, and is building a curated microlearning platform to help employers navigate the future of work. The past years she helped the Belgian and European tech startup ecosystem evolve and guided many startups on their first steps abroad. She is the curator of TEDxGhent and the Startup Digest Reading List on Impact Entrepreneurship. Currently living in the Bay Area, she’s passionate about science fiction and how imagination can work as a catalyst for a better world.

Cristina Almeida - Head of Communications at MAZE Impact
Cristina is in charge of brand, communications and community management at MAZE impact (Lisbon, Portugal). She was an analyst at EY, seconded at Impact Investment Group in Australia and learned the ins and outs of start-ups at Mellow. BSc in Economics from NOVA SBE, BSc in Political Science from ISCSP. Her hobbies include studying Psychology and dancing like no one is watching.

Miriam Meima

Frankie Grundler

Mitchell Cuevas - Sr. Marketing Director at Techstars
I do marketing at Techstars, am passionate about helping entrepreneurs, and am obsessed with finding, playing with, and implementing all the best new marketing (and other) technology I can get my hands on. Shoot me an email anytime if you want to help curate or connect.

Edith Yeung - Partner at 500 Mobile Collective Fund
Recognized by Inc Magazine as one of the Silicon Valley investors you must know, Edith Yeung is a venture capitalist, technology executive, creator of China Internet expert and a partner at Proof of Capital.

Timo Hoffmann

Manuel Heckmann - Co-Founder & COO
I am an experienced founder, COO, investor, advisor and mentor. My focus is mobility, transportation, logistics, agile development, transactional analysis. My motto since the early days as junior entrepreneur has been: "Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world - are the ones who do." (http://herestothecrazyones.com/)

James Gleave

Lidia Lipinska - BI & Analytics | Digital Solutions @ JLL
Lidia Lipinska is an internationally seasoned business strategist. She thrives on bringing her full skill set of business analytics and project management to bring businesses to the next level.

Christian Nicholson - CEO of EchoMe Inc.
Christian is the cofounder of EchoMe, a real-time music platform. He produces and writes music, loves product design, and believes the music revolution has just begun.

Corey Crossfield
After graduating from the University of California at Los Angeles, Corey began her career working for the Collective Music Group in Los Angeles where she built, designed and executed forward thinking digital marketing campaigns and technology for the prominent artist roster. She parlayed her digital marketing into a career in music management after discovering some amazing new artists. Corey then joined Revelation Management, a division of Red Light Management, as the head of digital strategy for the roster before co-founding her own management company and digital marketing agency.

Claire Topalian - Public Relations for Tech Startups
Firm believer in PR as Lead Gen. I've worked with numerous startups, non-profits, and major corporations on their PR and content strategies. Most recently, I began hosting webinars and workshops designed to help entrepreneurs and small business owners avoid outsourcing their PR and marketing needs to expensive agencies.

SC Moatti - Tech visionary, early stage investor & fmr Facebook exec
Tech visionary, early stage investor & fmr Facebook exec | Opera Software board director | Stanford b-school lecturer | Bestselling author & keynote speaker

Gaurav Hardikar - Director, Product Management at Brilliant Smart Home
Product @ Brilliant. Teach @ Product School. Write @ Products that Count. Curate @ StartupDigest

Kyle Kelly - Director of Business Development, Global Ecommerce & APIs
Helping clients navigate the complexities of global ecommerce and cross-border trade. Creating and building partnerships with ecommerce platforms, shipping & logistics companies, retailers and middleware providers. Previously, at Zappos (Amazon), a VC-backed startup, Merrill Lynch, and technology consulting.

Joan Torres - @SmartUrbanite
Tech entrepreneur and co-founder of LABCITIES, a global platform connecting smart city projects, experts and organizations around the world. I'm also a digital innovation consultant with extensive experience working with companies and governments across Europe and the Middle East.

Tarek Mohamed Hassan - Founder at Visions LAB
Helping changemakers in their personal development and connecting global ideas.

Daniel D'Alonzo - Founder
I build due diligence platforms for startup ecosystems.

Selina McPherson - Software Development for Tech Startups
Selina McPherson is VP of Marketing at Hatch Apps, an automated app development platform empowering businesses to launch and manage software. At Hatch Apps, Selina is a full-stack marketer, managing digital channels, content marketing, events, pipeline development, and conversion metrics.

Julian Miller - @gvillesjules
Driven polymath making the world a better place day and night. Voracious reader, connector of disparate dots, and ponderer of novel notions.

Joe Landon

Will Martin - Curator
@LiveDuel founder Startup Weekend Facilitator, Sports Tech Digest Curator

Brad Feld - VC at Foundry Group and author of Startup Communities
I'm a VC at Foundry Group. I live in Boulder, Colorado, invest in software and Internet companies around the US, run marathons, and read a lot.

Shane Reiser - @shanereiser

Julian Miller - @gvillesjules
Driven polymath making the world a better place day and night. Voracious reader, connector of disparate dots, and ponderer of novel notions.

Zubin Chagpar - @phylosopher

Sergio A. Escobar - Helping founders build and scale massively successful companies in the US & Canada | Canadian🇨🇦Super Angel investor in B2B Cloud & SaaS at BCFventures.vc | MD @ Founder Institute Montreal pre-seed accelerator | Twitter: @SergiusEscobar
Sergio is a Super Angel investor across the United States and Canada with a diversified investment portfolio of companies ranging from B2B Cloud & SaaS startups leveraging Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Security, to B2C Consumer startups leveraging Mobile Apps, IoT/Wearables and eCommerce. Sergio has +15 years of experience as a multiple times tech entrepreneur with startups in Aerospace, eCommerce, Manufacturing, AgTech and Financial Technologies. Over the last 8 years, he has been deeply involved in the international entrepreneurial incubators and accelerators scene through his involvement in Founder Institute, Techstars Startup Programs, Startup Chile, Startup Peru, Startup Bootcamp FinTech London, MsB Tunisia, Kuwait National Fund, World Bank 'Tech Entrepreneurship Program for Innovation in the Caribbean', Krypto Labs in the Middle East and Creative Destruction Lab in Artificial Intelligence. He has been pioneering the Canadian investment scene by launching one of Canada's very first super angel funds.

Yonca Braeckman - Founder Impact Shakers
Yonca is a connector and community builder. She's the co-founder of Impact Shakers, and is building a curated microlearning platform to help employers navigate the future of work. The past years she helped the Belgian and European tech startup ecosystem evolve and guided many startups on their first steps abroad. She is the curator of TEDxGhent and the Startup Digest Reading List on Impact Entrepreneurship. Currently living in the Bay Area, she’s passionate about science fiction and how imagination can work as a catalyst for a better world.

Karina Hisayasu - Independent Concept Designer and Producer
I'd once planned to be making pastries in Paris and continue domesticating wild vanilla plants in the Brazilian bush... And somehow I wound up in Virtual Reality instead. My interest is arts-focused and centred around impactful user experiences. Aural environments, cognitive sciences and cultural relativism are some of the topics noodling around my mind at the moment.

Ashish Aggarwal - M&A and Corp Dev at Opera Software
Ashish is passionate about helping entrepreneurs in building great technology products and in scaling companies. In his current role, Ashish is responsible for making strategic corporate acquisitions in for Opera Software. He has worked previously in VC (OCA Ventures), as an entrepreneur (Founder of Click2Deals in India), in big data marketing (at Dell), and as an engineer (for Yahoo! for five years). He actively mentors startups from various accelerator programsHe led startup due diligence for Startup Europe Partnership, an initiative of The European Union led by Mind the Bridge Foundation.

Kevin Fung - Product at Kensho Technologies

Will Martin - Curator
@LiveDuel founder Startup Weekend Facilitator, Sports Tech Digest Curator

Tyler Wall - High Performance Specialist - Founder at MovWithin.com
Tyler is a high-performance coach, with a focus on embodied cognition and the benefits of affecting human behavior through the integration of our multi-sensory system. His history and experience in the health and fitness industry have helped him develop a deeper understanding of the human framework and how we can elicit desired results through actionable techniques and habit formation.

Clare Bennett - Director of Marketing at Morning Consult

Marie Assé

Mevish Aslam - Founder at sprinters.co & MuslimFemaleEntrepreneur.com
Former lawyer turned entrepreneur whose passion is to foster inclusive entrepreneurship. As the Founder of sprinters, Mevish has led hackathons for women around the world since 2015. Mevish founded Muslim Female Entrepreneur to shine the light on Muslim women doing incredible things.

Tony Cueva - CEO & Co-Founder - Drop Technologies, Inc
Tony is electronic engineer who has co-founded Drop, the first automated treatment for reducing excessive sweating. He is an entrepreneur who is passionate about creating new ventures in healthcare and education.