Women receive less than 3% of VC funding each year.
LET'S CHANGE THE RATIO!
VC Panel
Gabriella
Garcia
Investor | Two Sigma Ventures
​
Gabriella joined Two Sigma Ventures in 2022 with a focus on early-stage investments across a variety of verticals, including DeepTech, Applied ML, and Enterprise Software. Prior to joining Two Sigma Ventures, Gabriella worked as a researcher, mechanical engineer, software engineer, and product manager across academic labs and large companies. She built prosthetics and medical devices at MIT’s Media Lab, led early-stage mobile app teams at Facebook, built complex mechanical systems at Apple, and led products across AR and fintech infrastructure teams at Google. She is passionate about helping founders leverage new technologies to build innovative products. Most recently, Gabriella worked as the PM Lead for Banking on Google’s Payments Platform, which powers payments across Google products including Adwords, Play Store, YouTube, and Google Cloud. Gabriella holds a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Stephanie
Campbell
Co-Founder & General Partner | The Artemis Fund
Stephanie Campbell is the Co-Founder and General Partner of The Artemis Fund. Prior to co-founding Artemis, she was the Managing Director of the Houston Angel Network (HAN), one of the most active angel networks in the country. While at HAN, Stephanie grew the membership by 200% and 10x female membership.
Prior to her angel investing and VC career, Stephanie worked as a government relations associate at the Washington, DC lobbying firm Potomac Partners DC. She served clients in the transportation and infrastructure industries as well as assisted public municipalities navigate federal education, housing, and healthcare policy. She also served as an executive recruiter for the roles of Chief Security Officer and CIO for the Fortune 500, hedge funds, and investment firms during and shortly after business school.
Stephanie has a bachelor of science in Political Science from Spring Hill College and an MBA from the Rice University Graduate School of Business.
Victoria
Grace
Founder | Colle Capital
​
Victoria is the founder of Colle Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm. Victoria is focused on promoting data-driven management, founder diversity, and ESG. She has served on the board of directors at successful Colle portfolio exits Hyliion (NYSE: HYLN) and Doctor.com (Acquired by Press Ganey). In addition, Victoria made meaningful contributions to the business development initiatives of Bread Finance (acquired by Alliance Data) and Syft (Acquired by Indeed). Prior to founding Colle Capital, Victoria was an angel investor in several companies, resulting in several very successful exits. Victoria began her career in investment banking at Salomon Brothers before joining Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein’s Private Equity Group. Following Dresdner, she entered
venture capital as a Partner at Wall Street Technology Partners. Additionally, Victoria has worked as a researcher at the National Institutes of Health and at the Washington University School of Medicine.
.jpeg)
Tara
Bishop
Founder | Black Opal Ventures
​
In her twenty-year career as a physician executive, Tara has on-the-ground experience in delivery system improvement, health policy, payer operations, product development, value-based care, and start-ups. She is the founder and managing partner of Black Opal Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in companies that are transforming healthcare through technology. Before Black Opal, Tara served as the Chief Clinical Officer at an early-phase start-up at the forefront of disrupting healthcare, now called Surest. Before that, Tara was the Medical Director and Senior Expert at McKinsey & Co. She was an associate professor of Medicine and Healthcare Policy at Cornell Medical School where she did cutting-edge research. She directed quality improvement at Cornell and cared for patients as a primary care doctor. Tara serves on the boards of Optellum and the Weill Cornell Alumni Association and the advisory boards of Marani Health, Arsenal Capital, and 25 Madison Health. In 2022, Tara was named a Woman of Influence in Venture Capital by Private Equity International.
Laura
Rippy | moderator
Managing Partner | Alumni Ventures
​
Laura Rippy is a Managing Partner at Alumni Ventures. Recently, she started AV's Women's Fund, building on their 357 female-founded, co-founded, and female-led portfolio companies. Additionally, Laura leads the Dartmouth-centric and Harvard-centric Funds at Alumni Ventures. Previously, she was a Board member and three-time startup CEO. She started her career in strategy consulting at Microsoft. Laura is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Business School.
Entrepreneur Panel
Loewen
Cavill
Founder & CEO | AMIRA
​
Loewen Cavill is the CEO of Amira, a groundbreaking femtech company based in San Francisco, California. Loewen is a dynamic leader in the field of women's health technology. Under Loewen's leadership, Amira made a significant impact at CES, where the team showcased their innovative Terra product—a wearable system designed to provide uninterrupted sleep for women experiencing hot flashes. The product garnered attention from media outlets like The Wall Street Journal and MedCity News, and Amira gained its first customers during the event.
Loewen's journey in the tech industry includes roles at Interact, Wing, Dorm Room Fund, and Commonwealth Fusion Systems. A mechanical engineering graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Loewen is known for promoting proactive healthcare through data-driven solutions. As the CEO of Amira, she continues to lead the way in addressing women's health issues and making menopause a more manageable and informed experience.
Lissy
Alden
Founder & CEO | MYNDY
​
Lissy Alden is the founder of MYNDY, a mental fitness company for the modern mind. Mental fitness is the practice of positive, research-backed habits that fight burnout and lead to high performance. MYNDY has built a proprietary framework and product that eliminates and prevents burnout for the overworked, modern professional. Before building MYNDY, Lissy specialized in working with organizations to measure and operationalize culture, improve engagement, and enhance workforce development. Partnering with some of the world’s largest corporations (JPMorgan, Amex, and NYT) and startups (as a founding member of the Enterprise Team at General Assembly), Lissy worked with teams to co-create and execute on high-impact employee initiatives to drive results. One of the biggest challenges she faced in high-growth organizations, and the motivation behind founding MYNDY, was employees’ challenge with practicing mental fitness daily. Lissy is a graduate of Cornell University, and received her MBA from MIT.
Henriette Fleischmann
CEO & President | Hosta a.i.
​
Henriette is Hosta a.i.'s CEO & President. Hosta a.i is an innovative A.I. company that automates damage assessments of interior spaces to accelerate repairs and reduce administrative efforts related to an estimate through integrations with Xact and Symbility. Prior to co-founding Hosta a.i. in 2020, Henriette received her MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management focusing on A.I. and Entrepreneurship. Originally from Germany, Henriette’s professional career began as the Chief of Staff to the CIO of Daimler Financial Services and she later joined Porsche Consulting as Strategy Project Manager in the automotive industry. Before moving to Boston for her MBA, she was Head of the Strategy Office for Peek & Cloppenburg, one of Europe’s largest fashion retailers. Henriette graduated from the Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) with a B.Sc. in Business Administration and from the Hochschule Wismar with an M.A. in Specialized Sales, Merchandising, and Marketing Operations.
Alessandra
Henderson
Co-Founder & CEO | Elektra Health
​
Alessandra Henderson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Elektra Health, a next-gen women's healthcare platform on a mission to smash the menopause taboo. Elektra partners with top health plans including Massachusetts General Brigham Health Plan and Emblem Health to empower the 50M women navigating menopause in the US with evidence-based telemedicine care, education, and community. Prior to Elektra, Alessandra spent 10+ years building early-stage consumer businesses at Artsy, the MIT NYC Startup Studio, and Human Ventures. She holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from MIT Sloan, where she received the Martin Trust Award and Patrick McGovern Entrepreneurship Award. Her work has been covered by The NY Times, Fast Company, Techcrunch, Fortune, and more.
Carly
Chase | moderator
Adjunct Professor | Columbia Business School
Vice President | U.S. News
Carly Chase is an Adjunct Professor teaching entrepreneurship at Columbia Business School as well as a Vice President at U.S. News in charge of building out their new Career business vertical. She advises two early-stage companies, Dynocardia and SureStart, and is the co-founder of Crabwalk, an education and coaching company that builds career agility. Previously, she was an Entrepreneur in Residence at MIT's Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship where she ran programs such as their premier student accelerator MIT Delta v, coached hundreds of student entrepreneurs, and taught two classes (Advanced Startup Tactics and Corporate Entrepreneurship) as a Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan. Ahead of her time at MIT, she worked with a number of startups in various product development, marketing, and business development capacities. Carly also formerly worked at the NYC Economic Development Corporation under Mayor Bloomberg where she launched and ran a number of programmatic initiatives aimed at making NYC a friendlier city for entrepreneurs to start and grow their companies after starting her career at Goldman Sachs.
Judges Panel
Stephanie MacConnell
Director | MIT delta V
​
Stephanie MacConnell is the Director of MIT’s delta v accelerator in NYC. Most recently she held a senior product role at Clover Health. She is a Forbes contributor and is passionate about FinTech, HealthTech, and investing in underestimated founders. Stephanie has supported companies across stages from pre-seed to growth and large corporates. She is passionate about building great products and helping develop the next generation of entrepreneurs. During her MIT MBA, Stephanie was the Healthcare Sector Practice Lead in the Martin Trust Center and a venture capital investment partner at Dorm Room Fund. Active mentor in the innovation ecosystem.
Tamar
Gubins
Partner | Fox Rothschild
​
Tamar is a business-oriented attorney with extensive experience throughout the lifecycle of a technology company, replacing or supplementing typical in-house counsel. She advises emerging and technology companies on formation, financing, corporate governance, and public offerings as well as technology transactions and privacy and data security. Pragmatic and creative, she is adept at providing clients with strategic advice in clear, understandable terms. Tamar has a broad transactional skill set that includes: mergers and acquisitions, financing transactions, IPOs, public offerings, terms of service agreements, equity compensation, employment, and contractor agreements.
Karen
Wang
Investor | Deutsche Bank Venture Capital
​
Karen is an investor at Deutsche Bank Venture Capital based in New York. She invests in Series A/B enterprise software companies. She is passionate about working with entrepreneurs and early-stage startups. Prior to that she was the Head of the Entrepreneur in Residence Program at Deutsche Bank working with startups to co-create and co-design solutions jointly. Karen has worked in Silicon Valley and New York. Additionally, she is a startup mentor at the Fintech Innovation Labs, a partnership between Accenture and the Partnership Fund for New York City and a board observer on several companies.