Women receive less than 3% of VC funding.
LET'S CHANGE THE RATIO!
VC Panel
Anna Palmer
General Partner| Flybridge
Co-Founder & GP | XFactor Ventures
Anna’s investment interests include commerce 3.0, marketplaces, mobile, consumer and e-commerce. Prior to joining Flybridge in 2020, Anna co-founded XFactor Ventures in partnership with Chip Hazard and Flybridge, a seed stage fund focused on backing female founders and gender diverse teams where she personally led investments in Chief, Zubale, MixLab, and more.
Alongside her investing roles, Anna serves as Chairman of Dough, a company she cofounded, which is the premier marketplace to shop and discover women-owned products. Prior to Dough, Anna was co-founder and CEO of Fashion Project, the industry leader in online designer clothing donation. Anna holds a B.A. from Eureka College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Daniela Plattner
Co-Founder and Managing Partner |
Palm Venture Studios
Daniela is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Palm Venture Studios, a venture studio and family office providing "second-chance” capital and strategic support to early-stage, impact-driven startups. Distinctive in the venture studio landscape, Palm takes a high value approach to investing, providing critical funding and resources to startups that face challenges charting sustained growth.
Before Palm, Daniela led a strategic facilitation firm, specializing in leadership, team performance, and innovation for venture-backed startups and Fortune 500-level companies, including Autodesk, IKEA, Meta, Splash, and more. She began her career in Capgemini’s Accelerated Solutions Environment, where she helped large corporations navigate crucial moments of complexity. Daniela holds a B.S. in Psychology with a focus on applied creativity from Bard College and a Master’s in multimodal problem-solving from the European Graduate School.
Jenny Fielding
Co-Founder & Managing Partner |
Everywhere VC
Jenny Fielding is one of the most active global pre-seed investors, having invested in 300+ companies as the first money in. As the cofounder and Managing Partner of Everywhere Ventures, Jenny has built a thriving community of 500+ founders and operators who help source, diligence, and invest in the next generation of startups across 3 core verticals: money, health, and work.
Prior to launching her own fund, Jenny spent 7.5 years as the Managing Director of Techstars where she invested in a portfolio of companies with a current market cap over $10B. Jenny is a 2x founder, a lawyer by training, and an adjunct professor at Columbia University and Cornell Tech.
Sheena Jindal
Founder & GP | Sugar Free Capital
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Sheena (MIT’ 13) is a General Partner and the Founder of Sugar Free Capital, a Seed & Series A fund which cross-pollinates world-class [often MIT] Technical Founders with proven go-to-market support. Prior to founding Sugar Free Capital, Sheena was a Partner at Comcast Ventures where she pioneered new investment verticals within the fund and led 11 investments.
Sheena started her career at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) — advising clients in the financial services and retail sectors on growth strategy and transformation. Deepening her operating experience, Sheena joined a Series A startup, Symphony Commerce, one of the first compound solutions for e-commerce. Sheena started her VC career 7 years ago at Bessemer Venture Partners before joining the team at Comcast Ventures in 2019 as a Principal. Sheena holds a B.S. from MIT and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
Hayley Cuccinello | Panel Moderator
Senior Finance Reporter, CNBC
Hayley Cuccinello is a wealth reporter at CNBC, focusing on family offices and high-net-worth investment trends for the network's "Inside Wealth" vertical. She joined CNBC in January 2025, bringing a wealth of experience from her previous roles in financial journalism.
Before joining CNBC, Cuccinello served as a senior finance reporter at Business Insider, where she covered wealth management, finance titans, and the culture of wealth. Prior to that, she was a wealth reporter and assistant editor at Forbes, profiling unknown billionaires, covering the entertainment business, and managing the 30 Under 30 Media list. Her work has also appeared in The Huffington Post, Bustle, Fusion, and SheKnows. Cuccinello holds a bachelor's degree in English from Harvard College, where she contributed to The Crimson.
Judges Panel
Cindy Cook
Board Chair | New York Angels
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Cindy Cook is the Chair of New York Angels (NYA), a prominent angel investment group based in New York. Appointed in April 2024, she is the first woman to lead the organization. Since joining NYA five years ago, Cook has been an active member, serving on the Board and contributing to key committees such as Member Engagement, Marketing, and Screening. She has also led several investment deals and holds Board Observer roles with companies like Allstar and Kidas.
Before her tenure at NYA, Cook amassed over 30 years of experience in senior operating roles across industries including entertainment, healthcare, education, and consumer packaged goods. Notably, she played a pivotal role in launching "World of Warcraft" during her time at Vivendi Games and spearheaded digital transformation initiatives at Universal Music Group, Cengage Learning, and Elsevier. Her extensive background in marketing and strategy informs her investment approach, focusing on sectors where she has substantial expertise.
Cristina Dolan
Professor | Columbia University
Managing Partner | Crimson Founders
Cristina Dolan is a renowned advanced technology executive, and executive cyber advisor for Crimson Vista, currently serving on the boards and audit committees of several prominent public technology companies involved with Industry 5.0 technologies. At RSA Security, Netwitness, she held key leadership roles, including Managing Director for LATAM, Head of the Americas Channel, and Global Head of Alliances.
An accomplished entrepreneur, Cristina launched startups such as iXledger, a cyber insurance marketplace focused on advanced technologies, and was CEO of an MIT AI Spin-off she commercialized before orchestration acquisition. She is also a co-founder of Additum, a European 'Value Based Healthcare' ecosystem. Currently, Cristina is a Senior Lecturer at Columbia University’s Technology Management Program and has contributed to the World Economic Forum’s cybersecurity publications and authored books on ESG and Data. Her career includes executive roles at IBM, Oracle, Disney, and Hearst, as well as leading the MIT AI spin-out, Wordstream.
Cristina’s achievements have been recognized with numerous accolades, including the Harold E. Lobdell Distinguished Service Award from MIT and the Coup de Coeur du CEFCYS Cybersecurity Europe award. She earned a Master of Science degree from the MIT Media Lab and a Master of Computer Science and Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree.
Thomas Graham
Founder | Lightmatter
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Thomas Graham is the co-founder and CEO of Lightmatter, a pioneering company specializing in photonic computing. With a background in physics and engineering, Graham has played a crucial role in advancing AI hardware by leveraging light-based processing to achieve unprecedented energy efficiency and speed. Under his leadership, Lightmatter has emerged as a key player in the semiconductor industry, developing innovative photonic chips designed to revolutionize artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.
Before founding Lightmatter, Graham pursued advanced studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he focused on nanophotonics and computational hardware. His work in the field has been instrumental in pushing the boundaries of Moore's Law, providing scalable alternatives to traditional electronic processors. By integrating optical computing into mainstream AI and data processing, Graham and his team at Lightmatter are setting the stage for the next generation of computing technologies.
Arina Shulga
Partner | Fox Rothschild
Arina Shulga is a corporate and securities attorney with extensive experience representing startups and emerging growth companies. She often acts as outside general counsel, guiding clients from formation through initial financing rounds and beyond. Her services include entity formation, advice on U.S. operations, employment law, intellectual property matters, structuring complex joint ventures and distribution agreements, and facilitating investment and exit opportunities. Arina also advises angel investors and venture capital funds on their investments.
In the technology sector, Arina advises on the legal framework related to equity crowdfunding and the issuance of security and utility tokens in the United States. As a native Russian speaker, Arina assists Russian-speaking founders and investors in conducting and expanding their businesses in the U.S. or securing venture financing for exit transactions. She is active in the New York City startup community, a member of the Wall Street Blockchain Alliance, and serves as an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School, where she teaches Entrepreneurial Law.