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Judges
LUCAS J. POLS, M.S.
Lucas is Managing Partner of Amplite Capital, Founder & CEO of Spark xyz, and a member of Tech Coast Angels.
In his previous career at ADP he successfully helped roll out two technology driven national pilots, while additionally winning District Manager of the Year and Sales Executive of the year. More recently he helped launch the Quake Capital Accelerator here in Los Angeles successfully building out their program and advising the startups on business development, leadership, and fundraising.
He received his Master’s in Entrepreneurship from the University of Southern California. While at USC, Lucas was the case protagonist of professor Noam Wasserman’s case study, which focused on his venture, Spark xyz, and hybrid entrepreneurship.
Lucas also currently writes for Forbes and does speaking engagements around Los Angeles.
Patrick Driscoll - 500 Startups
Patrick serves as the Investment Education Program Manager for 500 Startups’ multiple Venture Capital Unlocked programs in partnership with universities, governments, corporations, and other institutions in the US and abroad. In this role, he manages relationships with VCs, corporates, governments, family offices, syndicates, and angels from more than 60 countries. Within his capacity as a relationship manager, Patrick has actively increased the number of funds, specifically focused on impact, for 500's robust portfolio of investors by nearly 200%. Since moving to LA in November 2019, Patrick has also overseen startup recruitment and due diligence for 500 Startups' seed programs. Outside of his current role, Patrick is quite active in the LGBTQI+ advocacy space, specifically serving as the Chair of the LA Programming Board for StartOut, volunteering with at-risk youth groups, and speaking at engagements regarding LGBTQI+ issues in entrepreneurship and tech.
Prior to 500 Startups, Patrick served as a Lender Relations Specialist with the US Small Business Administration in LA, where he trained lenders including HSBC, JP Morgan Chase Bank, East West Bank, US Bank and more. He also served with the US Peace Corps in Senegal as a Community Economic Development Agent where he led programs in business management, microfinance, agriculture, and lending practices. He is passionate about empowering entrepreneurs and investors from emerging economies around the world and underserved communities in the US.
He has an MA in Global Finance, Trade, and Economic Integration from the University of Denver and speaks Spanish and Senegalese Wolof. He has lived in Mexico, Colombia, Senegal, France, and all over the US.
Karl Alomar - M13
I’m inspired every day by the creativity and boldness of strong founders.Seeing founders achieve the impossible, simply because they don’t live within traditional limits, always excites and inspires me. After exiting China Export Finance, I took 3 years and focused on working with a portfolio of young technology companies to help them along the journey to build their businesses.
During that time, I was exposed to both inspiring talent and a wide set of challenges that really opened my eyes—to the unique nature of every business, yes, but also to the problems and solutions they often had in common. Working with these founders not only grounded me as a mentor, but also provided me with countless insights and significant growth that prepared me for my tenure at Digital Ocean, where I was able to leverage my 20 years of experience and build the company from the ground up—ultimately reaching 500+ employees and over $200M in revenue.
I’m thrilled to be able to share this playbook of knowledge and experience with M13’s partner entrepreneurs, across every stage of growth.
Brian Horner - Tech Coast Angels
Brian is an active angel investor and board advisor to several seed stage companies in LA. He is President of Tech Coast Angels LA Chapter and is currently in charge of both their VC outreach program and their new sidecar investment fund.
During his time with TCA he has screened over 300 companies and met with several hundreds more.
Last year, TCA invested $15 million across 57 companies, matching similar amounts in 2017 and years prior, making it the largest angel investment group in the US. In addition to angel investing, Brian also trades energy futures for a commodities hedge fund.
Prior to joining TCA, Brian spent 10 years in the investment banking industry in New York. Brian received an MBA from UCLA Anderson.
Jawhara Tariq - Moonshots Capital
Jawhara has a background in LP investing, operations, and statistical analysis. Prior to joining Moonshots Capital, she created the investment mandate for a family office, helped to scale a venture development firm, and consulted with a fund of funds investing in underrepresented fund managers.
Jawhara also worked as an associate at a venture fund in San Francisco where she made primary and secondary investments in late-stage enterprise software companies.
Before working in venture capital, Jawhara worked in nonprofit consulting where she advised private foundations on how to increase impact. As a UCLA graduate and LA-native, Jawhara is passionate about building the LA tech ecosystem.
Laurent Grill - Luma Launch
Laurent is an Entrepreneur turned Venture Capitalist who works with start-up founders to successfully build scalable teams, strong company cultures and disruptive products. Laurent believes that there is a fundamental need for additional support in the early stage ecosystem in Los Angeles and other budding technology hubs around the US and globally. This desire to support these growing tech communities led him to his current role as the Lead Investor at Luma Launch, a pre-seed to seed corporate venture and accelerator. Luma Launch is focused on early-stage startups at the convergence of evolving technology and content markets, capitalizing on internal and external resources to create successful products.
Janice Louie, Cedars-Sinai Accelerator
Janice is Program Director at the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator where she works with early stage companies and leads strategic partnership development. Prior to joining Cedars-Sinai, Janice led the Market Strategies team at AVIA, the nation's leading innovation network of health systems, where she evaluated and screened hundreds of healthcare technology startups. She previously worked at Rush University Medical Center and Chicago Public Schools. Janice received an MS from Rush University and BA from Vanderbilt University.
Brett Munster - Sway Ventures
As Principal at Sway Ventures, Brett Munster focuses most of his investment activities on the seed and earlier stages for the fund. In addition to evaluating new investments, Brett’s responsibilities include coordinating the due diligence process across all investment opportunities for the fund, monitoring performance of the fund and modeling portfolio allocation, and working directly with many of Sway’s existing portfolio companies. Prior to joining Sway Ventures, Brett ran day-to-day operations for a financial services company, where he oversaw a portfolio of distressed assets that grew to over $2 billion. Brett began his career at zAthlete.com, a sports social networking startup that he launched during his final semester at UC Berkeley and sold in 2009. Soon after, Brett launched his second start-up Visual Icon, a platform designed to help bring Hollywood content online. He also holds an MBA from the University of Southern California where his focus was on entrepreneurship and technology commercialization.
Kat Yalung - Bixel Exchange
Kat Yalung is the Director of Bixel Exchange’s Startup LAunch Program, a Small Business Development Center (SBDC) in partnership with the Small Business Administration. Bixel Exchange is the Center of Innovation and Technology at the second largest Chamber of Commerce in the United States, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. Bixel Exchange believes in an inclusive tech ecosystem reflected in Los Angeles’ workforce and entrepreneurs. She leads the development and implementation of Bixel Exchange’s core business advisory services, helping foster more than 250 tech startups each year as an impact driven incubator.
Drew Leahy - Hawke Ventures
Drew Leahy is the Managing Partner and Cofounder of Hawke Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund that focuses on consumer and technology that powers consumer. Three-time entrepreneur and inventor, Drew was previously the Chief Marketing Officer and Co-founder of SnapSuits.com, a tech-forward men’s fashion e-retailer. He leveraged his seasoned product team, based in Colombia, South America, to achieve an 8x ROI with powerful technology and marketing.
Drew was also previously Entrepreneur in Residence at memBrain in Los Angeles, working with tech and entertainment angel investors Ken Hertz and Liz Heller. He hails from Brighton, MI, graduated from the University of Michigan, and was awarded 2010 Ross School of Business Entrepreneur of the Year.
Bryan Landers- Backstage Capital
Bryan is a Parter at Backstage, translating vision into execution. He works to grow our impact globally through Backstage Accelerator, invest in the best underestimated founders through Backstage Capital, and support our team and founders through Backstage Studio. He also produces + co-hosts Backstage Capital’s podcast (The Bootstrapped VC, leads overall brand design, and creates content for Green Room.
Bryan’s past work with startups ranges from helping the early Pinterest team with HTML email campaigns to leading visual design and co-leading product at Zapier (YC S12). He holds a BFA from CalArts and has been a touring + recording banjoist in Nashville, a film/TV composer, and a music editor for the Reba McEntire sitcom, of which Arlan is a fan.
Brandon Maier - LvlUp Ventures
Brandon Maier is the founder of Lvlup Ventures and has extensive experience building financial and marketing strategies for startup companies.
Prior to launching Lvlup, Brandon was a Founder and Managing Partner of Quake Capital, an industry-leading accelerator and investment firm with offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Austin. Under Brandon’s tenure and leadership at Quake, their portfolio companies raised over $100 million, including $25 million raised directly from Quake’s fund.
Quake was named one of Forbes’ Top-Ten VCs and highlighted by CrunchBase for making the second-most investments in female-led startups (2018).
Miki Reynolds - Grid110
Miki Reynolds is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Grid110, an early stage startup accelerator and community development organization. She has 15 years of experience working in tech, ranging from digital marketing and creative services to software development and e-commerce.
Sergio Marrero - Rebel One
My purpose is to create the future through increasing the speed of innovation and launching disruptive ventures. I am an entrepreneur, facilitator, researcher, coach, and project manager who graduated from the Harvard Business School and the Kennedy School of Government with experience in strategy and innovation consulting, startups, research, manufacturing, venture capital, and design. I have a breath of background to lead the creation of both physical and digital innovation initiatives.
Harout Nazerian - Nex Cubed
Harout is Director, Investor Relations & Portfolio Management for Nex Cubed where he works with early stage companies on due diligence preparation and helps create startups. His day-to- day includes investor relations, building relationships with the venture and angel communities, and monitoring performance of the Nex Cubed portfolio. He is a successful business professional with experience as an entrepreneur, consultant, engineer, and project manager working with cross-functional and international teams on international and domestic projects with budgets from $10,000 - $1B+. His diverse industry experience includes the restaurant, engineering, construction, healthcare, oil & gas, dermatology, tech, blockchain, and lifestyle industries. As a former entrepreneur now with an MBA from UCLA Anderson, he has helped startups, small businesses, government, and large, international corporations across many industries set goals, identify sound strategies, and execute them flawlessly. He is also an active member of the USC and UCLA Anderson circles and in the local startup and university communities in the Southern California region.
Kiyan Yazdi - Mucker Capital
Before joining Mucker Capital, Kiyan was member of the founding team at The Beard Club (f.k.a. Dollar Beard Club) where he helped build the company to over 70,000 monthly subscribers and $18 million in revenue in just 18 months. Prior to The Beard Club, Kiyan worked in private equity, where he assessed standalone investment opportunities as well as strategic add-on acquisitions in the SaaS and enterprise software industries. Kiyan holds a BS in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business.
Kathryne Cooper - CTIP
Kathryne Cooper, MBA is a native Angeleno passionate about growing and funding early stage companies and creating an ecosystem to support entrepreneurs. She believes in applying a growth mindset to startup challenges and is interested in the integration of technology in settings that are traditionally analog. Since 2017, Kathryne has served as Co-Director of The West Coast Consortium for Technology & Innovation in Pediatrics (CTIP).
Kathryne is the head of CTIP’s investment arm, where she selects medical device companies with commercialization potential, high clinical impact, and proprietary technology for investment and support. Kathryne engages the investment community at large – building relationships with Venture Capitalists, Angels and strategic partners to advance MedTech innovators within the CTIP portfolio.
Kathryne holds a BA in Human Biology from Stanford University, an MBA from the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business and a Certificate in Venture Capital Finance from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. She began her career in medicine, attending medical school at the University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine before transitioning to the business side of healthcare. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Bertran F. Cooper, M.D. Scholarship Fund via the Howard University College of Medicine and the Advisory Board of the Los Angeles City WiSTEM (Women in Science, Technology, Engineering & Math [STEM]) initiative via the Office of L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti.
Kathryne nerds out connecting innovative people, products and ideas.
Carey Ransom - OC4 Venture Studio
Technology entrepreneur, executive, investor, and board member, Carey has started, grown and/or led nine B2B and consumer technology companies during startup and growth phases. He's held senior-level roles for companies that have collectively raised over $250M in venture capital and achieved $1B+ in enterprise value.
Wan Song - Pepperdine Graziadio
Wan has been investing in companies for over 20 years, covering numerous industries and verticals that are relevant to the present and future trends. An entrepreneur by heart, he grew his last firm into recurring revenue exceeding $30MM. Since retiring in late 2013, Wan spends his time meeting and mentoring startup founders, venture partners, and institutions to help grow Los Angeles as a true venture and entrepreneurial destination. He is an active member of LAVA, Singularity University, and Abundance360. He received his MBA from Pepperdine's Graziadio Business School in 2012.