Speakers

Nuno Goncalves Pedro is the founder and managing partner of Chamaeleon, a unique VC firm with a disruptive operating model and AI, quantitative & technology platform - Mantis - developed and maintained fully in-house to augment its deal sourcing, due diligence, risk, portfolio management and liquidation activities. While based in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Firm also has offices in Europe and it focuses on series Seed and Series A investing. Nuno is particularly focused on consumer and consumer-like start-ups, e.g. gaming and social, as well as horizontal SaaS, e.g. consumerized Enterprise and bottom-up SaaS.  Before this, Nuno founded and was the managing partner of Strive Capital, the first quant early-stage VC firm in the US and in the San Francisco Bay area. The firm focused on consumer and enterprise software, with investments in DraftKings (IPO), Robinhood (IPO), Ohmconnect (Merger Google), Rubrik (IPO), Gusto, App Annie (Sold), Enish (IPO), Virta Health, among others.  He is the co-founder and co-host of decipheredshow.com, a top 2.5% podcast, globally, across all topics, and the creator of the “Rejection & Adversity as a path to Growth” methodology (bit.ly/3badkvb). Nuno has served and continues to serve as a board member, advisor and coach to various start-ups, corporations and nonprofits in the US, Europe and Asia. Nuno was a Senior Expert and member of the Asia-Pacific Technology, Media & Telecom leadership team at McKinsey, where he created impact for Fortune 500 clients, including consumer electronics, network equipment, carriers/operators, Internet players, sovereign wealth funds and private equity funds. Nuno was previously the Head of Strategy, Product, Corporate & Business Development for the GSM Association, where he created and executed, at its inception, the blueprint that led to the GSM Association becoming the leading non-profit for Mobile globally.  Nuno is a guest lecturer on product management and growth at Stanford GSB and Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley. He is also a guest lecturer on Venture Capital and innovation topics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the College of Engineering of the University of California Berkeley. Nuno is an alumnus of Stanford, London Business School, and other world-renowned organizations.

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Jeremiah is well-recognized by both the tech industry and the media for his grounded approach to deriving insights through research. He identifies trends and advises major companies to adapt their business models to better connect with customers. His clients include Adobe, Cisco, Wells Fargo, Nestlé, Esurance, Johnson & Johnson, Visa, and Colgate, among others. An acknowledged thought leader and widely read publisher, Jeremiah has appeared in prominent publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, and Fast Company. He also publishes numerous research reports, playbooks, and frameworks to help businesses navigate change, improve customer experiences, and identify trends before they happen. Jeremiah's expertise extends beyond analysis and consulting-he has served on the board of directors of multiple tech startups, including Ustream, which sold to IBM for $130M.

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Murali Joshi is a General Partner at ICONIQ. He joined ICONIQ in 2018. Murali has helped lead over $7B of investments in Anthropic, Datadog, Procore, 1Password, Drata, DX, Statsig, Netskope, Fivetran, Calendly, Loom and several others. He was recognized on the Forbes’s Midas Brink List in 2024 and was previously featured in Forbes’s 30 Under 30 list. Before joining ICONIQ, Murali worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs’s Technology, Media and Telecom group. He is also the founding member of an advertising analytics startup called Switchboard Media (fka AdsOnTop), which was eventually acquired, and also served as the Business Development and Product Strategy lead at Little Labs. Murali earned a B.S. in Business Administration from The Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.

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Rikki Singh is VP of Product & Engineering for Emerging Technology & Innovation at Twilio. In this role she leads Twilio's Horizon-3 initiatives focused on driving step-change innovation that empowers builders and unlocks Twilio’s next era of growth. These innovations span AI-powered customer engagement, LEOS communication, privacy-first data services, and the next-generation developer experience.

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Kanu is a Partner at Khosla Ventures where she invests in enterprise applications and infrastructure that leverage advances in AI, as well as robotics and autonomous systems. She has led, and helps manage investments in companies including PolyAI, FieldAI, Aleph, Point One Navigation, Windborne, Kognitos, Zendar, Nomagic, Waabi and Genesis AI among others. Kanu has more than 10 years of operating experience as a research scientist at Intel and Cadence, and founding / early engineer Heavy.ai (hardware-accelerated analytics solution), Spyglass (predictive analytics for design, acquired by Synposys) and Nascentric (fast-circuit simulation tool, acquired by Cadence). She was awarded the Nvidia Graduate Fellowship for her work in hardware acceleration. Kanu has co-authored three books; authored 35+ peer-reviewed publications; and holds a US patent. She obtained a Ph.D. and master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from Texas A&M University and a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the University of Delhi. Kanu also earned her MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was co-president of the annual Venture Capital and Private Equity Conference.

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Adrian Rosenkranz is Chief Revenue Officer at Webflow. He leads global Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, Partnerships, and Revenue Operations. He is helping grow Webflow into the leading AI-powered website experience platform for ambitious brands. Prior to Webflow, Adrian was Chief Operating Officer of Tableau Americas at Salesforce, where he scaled a multi-billion dollar business and led go-to-market strategy across the enterprise segment. Adrian speaks on the future of go-to-market leadership, AI-powered growth, and building resilient, high-performing teams. He’s an alum of Stanford and serves on the board of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.

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Jeremy is a Partner at Scale. His investments sit at the application layer of AI across a variety of vertical and functional markets. One of the most interesting trends in the AI era has been that many of the most explosive vertical AI companies (legal, healthcare, trucking) have come out of markets where traditional software adoption lagged and where core systems of record were weak, making these markets particularly attractive in the AI era. Recent investments include GC AI (legal AI), Freed (medical scribing), HelloPatient (voice AI), and AI investments focused on the physical world including Motive (trucking), Spot AI (video AI) and Inspiren (sensors in senior care).

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Vijay is a Partner at Mayfield and focuses on investments in AI. He brings over a decade of inception and early-stage investing experience in from Clear Ventures and Intel Capital. Vijay has invested across the AI stack from silicon, systems, infrastructure software, data, middleware & tools and applications. A Kauffman Fellow, Vijay received his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and has a BS & MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

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As CEO, Michel has grown Airbyte into the leading open-source data integration platform, known for its extensive connector library and flexible self-hosting. With over 600 connectors and 250,000+ deployments, it supports use cases across analytics, operations, governance, and AI across structured and unstructured data in hybrid and multi-cloud environments, and now has more than 7K customers (including 18% of the F500). Prior to founding Airbyte, Michel served as Director of Engineering at rideOS and led data integrations at LiveRamp, where he helped shape foundational innovations in data infrastructure and engineering.

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Illia Polosukhin is the Co-Founder of NEAR, on the mission to build User-Owned AI. He is best known as a co-author of "Attention Is All You Need," the 2017 paper that introduced the Transformer architecture. Before founding NEAR Protocol in 2018, Illia was an AI researcher and contributor to TensorFlow at Google, where he worked on deep learning, natural language understanding, and large-scale ML infrastructure. His work has spanned from foundational research to building real-world systems. A pioneer at the intersection of blockchain and artificial intelligence, Illia is working to make AI open source, decentralized, privacy-preserving, and aligned to users.

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Jon Carr-Harris is the Founder and CEO of CRED—an AI-powered platform enabling data-driven decisions with real-time external signals. Since its founding in 2023, CRED uncovers consumer and business behavior to drive profitability for enterprises such as the Golden State Warriors, UTA, and the PGA. With 10+ years as an entrepreneur and product innovator, Jon specializes in the application of predictive analytics, machine learning, and behavioral design. Previously, Jon founded Swish Labs, leading corporate solutions for Prudential, Nasdaq, Gatorade, and HSBC, and was a founding member of a financial exchange launched in 2018. Widely recognized as an expert in startup investment and marketplace platforms, Jon has also advised companies such as Airbnb, Khan Academy, and Kik to enhance their product strategy and development.

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Charles Hudson is the Founder and Managing Partner of Precursor Ventures. Under his leadership, Precursor has raised five funds, invested in 450+ companies, and supported 1,000+ founders. Prior to founding Precursor, Charles was Partner at Uncork Capital and Co­-founder/CEO of Bionic Panda Games. He holds an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in Economics and Spanish from Stanford University. Charles stays connected with Stanford through volunteering and teaching. He is an active member of the VC community, serving on advisory boards and as a mentor to emerging managers. Charles was the 2023-2024 Chair of the NVCA Board of Directors and also serves on the San Francisco Opera Advisory Board.

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Drew Dennison has a diverse work experience that spans over a decade. Drew is currently the Co-Founder and CTO of Semgrep since May 2017. Prior to that, they worked as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Redpoint Ventures starting in September 2016. Before that, they worked at Palantir Technologies, where they held various positions including Lead Software Engineer from October 2015 to September 2016, Software Engineer from August 2012 to October 2015, and Software Engineer Intern from May 2012 to August 2012. Drew also founded Silhouette Technologies in 2012 and worked there as a Founder until January 2013. In addition, they served as the Tech Chair for the Simmons Hall Tech Committee at MIT from November 2009 to June 2012. Drew also gained valuable experience as a Software Engineer Intern at OnStar from May 2011 to August 2011, where they developed a packaging utility in Java. Moreover, they worked as an Undergraduate Researcher at MIT in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering from September 2009 to September 2010. Lastly, they participated in the MIT Autonomous Robotics Competition in January 2010, where they contributed as a student and gained skills in team collaboration, problem-solving, soldering, programming, and control theory. Drew Dennison attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2009 to 2013, where they obtained a Bachelor of Science (S.B.) degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

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Brian Sparkes is CEO of Silicon Valley Venture Corp., a global venture platform supporting investors, founders, and ecosystem leaders. A third-generation Silicon Valley entrepreneur, he is known as a “super connector,” facilitating high-value relationships across the startup ecosystem. As Head of Strategic Ventures & Activation with STAK Ventures, he builds venture ecosystems that turn community into deal flow, market access, and growth. A Community-First operator and Strategic GTM Communication advisor, Brian works with over 1,400 startups and executives annually to refine positioning, fundraising, and market strategy. He collaborates with leading organizations to accelerate traction and leadership development. Brian also hosts the Silicon Valley Impact podcast and has lectured at Stanford Law School on communication and entrepreneurship.

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Captain Hoff (Steve Hoffman) is a well-known angel investor, AI expert, and the author of three award-winning books: Make Elephants Fly (Hachette), Surviving a Startup (HarperCollins), and The Five Forces (BenBella). He’s also the founder of the Captain’s Future Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps young people become future leaders in the era of AI. As the Chairman & CEO of Founders Space, a global venture builder with over 50 strategic partners in 22 countries, Hoffman has mentored and incubated hundreds of startups. Hoffman also advises global corporations on innovation, leadership, and AI strategy. These include Qualcomm, Adobe, Alibaba, Bosch, Intel, Disney, Warner Brothers, Volkswagen, PwC, Ad Age, MetLife, Infosys, NBC, A&E, Siemens, Huawei, Viacom, Turner, Cemex, Gulf Oil, Ford, EXL, Cognizant, and Ralph Lauren. Hoffman served on the Board of Governors of the Producers Guild’s New Media Council, was the founder and Chairman of the Producers Guild Silicon Valley Chapter, and was a founding member of the Academy of Television’s Interactive Media Group.

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Kate started her career building a fashion brand from scratch, then led innovation at Cisco and BCG Digital Ventures, launching dozens of new ventures for some of the world’s biggest brands. She’s now Co-Founder and CEO of Heatseeker, where she helps marketing teams move faster, test bolder, and make smarter go-to-market decisions with live and synthetic market experiments.

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Grace Gong is the founder of Smart Venture Media and the host of two well-known VC podcasts: Smart Venture Podcast (SVPpro.com) and Venture with Grace, a daily show. She is an angel investor in the AI sector, a super angel & venture scout for Alumni Ventures, Advisor at Berkeley SkyDeck. Her podcasts have featured high-profile guests such as C-level executives and VPs from companies like Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Sephora, Dunkin' Donuts, Chipotle, Adidas, Pepsi, Instagram, Deloitte, Reddit, DoorDash, Pinterest, Cisco, Salesforce, NVIDIA, Snowflake and more. Additionally, she has interviewed Managing Partners from top funds, many of whom have appeared on the Forbes Midas List, as well as unicorn founders from companies like Craigslist, Square, Loom, and Glean. Grace regularly posts about technology, venture capital, and entrepreneurship and has been recognized as a LinkedIn Top Voice in Finance. She is also a #1 Bestselling author in the VC category on Amazon New Release. Before founding Smart Venture Media, she worked in venture capital and private equity. If you share her interests, feel free to connect with her on LinkedIn @GraceGong.

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Lu Zhang, Founder and Managing Partner of Fusion Fund, is a renowned Silicon Valley-based investor, a serial entrepreneur, and a Stanford Engineering alumna. Lu has deep domain expertise in AI in healthcare, Enterprise AI/Networks, Edge Computing, and Data Privacy. Lu started Fusion Fund in 2015. Since then, Lu has built a distinguished eco system and established her reputation in the VC industry. Lu frequently speaks at conferences such as World Economic Forum(Davos), Future Investment Initiative (FII), Web Summit, SuperReturn, etc. and she is also an instructor at Stanford University. Lu serves as a board member of many portfolio companies, the board director of CommonSpirit Health Foundation, the Board of the Youth Council of Future Science Award, and Jury Board of the Cartier Women Initiative. She holds an M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University.

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"Vijay Kotu is the Chief Analytics Officer at ServiceNow, where he leads the company's transformation into a data-driven, AI-first enterprise. Leveraging his extensive experience in building and scaling analytics organizations, Vijay catalyzes business growth through the strategic deployment of data, analytics, and AI initiatives across the company. At ServiceNow, he champions a comprehensive AI strategy that balances innovation with responsible governance, ensuring ethical AI deployment while maximizing business value. His leadership spans large-scale data initiatives that optimize operations, unlock new revenue streams, and enhance enterprise-wide decision-making. Vijay's expertise encompasses data and AI strategy, business intelligence, machine learning, experimentation, engineering, and enterprise adoption. Before joining ServiceNow, Vijay held leadership roles at Yahoo and Life Technologies. He is the co-author of the book ""Data Science: Concepts and Practice"" and continues to write about the transformative power of data and AI."

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