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We’re gearing up for an epic Startup Battlefield competitors at TechCrunch Disrupt on October 18–20 in San Francisco. Competing is usually a life-changing milestone. Simply ask the founders of Cloudflare, Dropbox, Fitbit, Mint and Yammer.
Like those that got here earlier than them, this 12 months’s contenders should work exhausting to impress the seasoned VCs who will measurement up their pitches and comply with up with exacting questions. We’re thrilled to announce our third group of judges (take a look at others here and here) prepared to find out who wins the glory and the $100,000 prize.
Professional tip: Startup Battlefield isn’t simply thrilling to observe; it’s additionally a masterclass in how buyers suppose. The judges’ suggestions supplies perception into the standards they use to find out whether or not an organization is viable or not. Watch and study what buyers search for, what motivates them and what pushes them to schedule a gathering.
With out additional ado, listed below are the following three professional VCs prepared to assist crown the following Startup Battlefield champion:
Maryanna Saenko, the co-founder and CEO at Future Ventures
Maryanna Saenko’s early investments in SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, Planet and Skype signify $800 billion of mixture worth creation. She invests in frontier applied sciences that make the world a greater place, together with nuclear fusion, sustainable agricultural and land administration, bee immunology and ladies’s reproductive longevity.
Saenko has held VC positions at Khosla Ventures, DFJ and Airbus Ventures. Throughout her earlier profession as a analysis engineer, she labored on lunar rovers, martian landers, driverless vehicles and long-range, low-frequency communication techniques. Saenko holds a BS in biomedical engineering and an MS in supplies science and engineering from Carnegie Mellon.
Emmalyn Shaw, the co-founder and managing companion at Flourish Ventures
Emmalyn Shaw brings greater than 20 years of tech funding expertise to main Flourish’s U.S. portfolio staff. She led the agency’s investments in, and supplied steering to, Brigit, Chime and Propel, and she or he sits on the boards of Unit, Kin Insurance coverage, SeedFi, Clerkie, Cushion, EarnUp and Regular.
Shaw advocates for remodeling the U.S. monetary system to assist create higher monetary well being. She is a robust believer in working with marginalized communities and leads her agency’s DEIJ+ efforts. Shaw serves in management roles at YPO and All Elevate.
Previous to founding Flourish, Shaw served as a companion at Omidyar Community, a enterprise companion with Oak Funding Companions and a tech funding banker with Morgan Stanley. Shaw holds an MBA diploma from Wharton and a BA diploma from UC Berkeley, the place she graduated summa cum laude.
Wealthy Wong, a companion at Accel
Wealthy Wong joined Accel as a companion in 2006. He led the agency’s investments in — and at the moment serves on the boards of — Atlassian, UiPath, Checkr, Instabug, Pyn, Course of Avenue, Middesk and Qwilt. He additionally served on the Nationwide Enterprise Capital Affiliation board of administrators.
Wong beforehand led Accel’s investments in AirWatch (acquired by VMware), Indignant Birds/Rovio, MoPub (acquired by Twitter), AdMob (acquired by Google), Supplier.com (acquired by Cox), Osmo (acquired by Byju’s), Parature (acquired by Microsoft), ServiceChannel (acquired by Fortive), Sunrun, SwiftKey (acquired by Microsoft) and 3LM (acquired by Motorola).
Previous to Accel, Wong served as EVP/GM of merchandise for Openwave Methods and as CMO of Covad Communications. He started his profession as a model supervisor at Procter & Gamble and at McKinsey.
TechCrunch Disrupt takes place on October 18–20 in San Francisco. Buy your pass now and save as much as $1,100. Pupil, authorities and nonprofit passes can be found for simply $295. Costs improve September 16.