Jason Mackey - cofounder/managing partner at athenian capital

Jason Mackey is a serial entrepreneur, strategy consultant, and venture capitalist with over a decade of experience in business formation, growth strategy, and early-stage fundraising. Most notably, Mr. Mackey is co-founder of CXOHQ (formerly Venturitas Consulting Group), Occam Strategy Group, and Advanergy Consulting.

He has extensive experience advising startup founders and small business owners - across multiple industries - on growth strategy and operations management. He has successfully raised tens of millions of dollars for emerging and established ventures worldwide. As Managing Partner at Athenian Capital, Mr. Mackey is responsible for all aspects of the firm’s investment strategy, positioning, and day-to-day operations.

Jifei Ou - founder & ceo at opt industries

Jifei Ou (欧冀飞) is an inventor, researcher and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of OPT Industries. Prior to OPT Industries, Jifei worked at the MIT Media lab as a researcher. His work focuses on developing mechanical metamaterials through additive manufacturing. He has been leading projects that study biomimicry and bio-derived materials to design stimuli-responsive packaging, garments and furniture.

Jifei was born and raised in southwest China and has brought his design practice and scientific research to Asia, Europe and the U.S. His works have been published in numerous academic conferences; awarded by design competitions. He has been granted over 10 US patents on his research inventions.

JADYN BRYDEN - VP AT XFUND

Jadyn is a Vice President at Xfund. Prior to Xfund, she was the Chief Strategy Officer of Harvard Student Agencies (HSA), the largest student-run company in the world, with 12 separate business units, over 600 employees and over 50 managers. Leading up to her role as the CSO, Jadyn was the Chief People Officer of HSA. In her years in the C-suite, she led the strategic development of the company, updated the compliance standards of the business, and drove innovation at the company which resulted in the creation of new agencies.

IAN JOHNSTON - SENIOR ASSOCIATE AT THE ENGINE

Ian Has a background in biomedical engineering and life sciences consulting. Coming from his prior position at Putnam Associates, Ian brings experience in addressing key business and therapeutic development questions for biopharmaceutical and health-care clients. Before this, Ian worked at the Penn Center for Innovation, assessing technologies for their patent and market potential. He also holds a PhD in Pharmacology from UPenn and BS in Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers University.

Anna Palmer - Flybridge Capital Partners

Anna Palmer is a General Partner at Flybridge Capital and the Executive Chairperson at Dough Collective. 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.

Habib Haddad - E14 Fund

Habib is the founding Managing Partner of the E14 Fund, the MIT Media Lab affiliated venture fund. Prior to E14 Fund he was part of multiple startups in the Boston and the Middle East.

From 2011 to 2016 he was the founding CEO of Wamda, a platform of entrepreneurship programs, networks and venture fund focused on the Middle East and North Africa region.

John Harthorne - Two Lanterns Venture Partners

As the Founder and decade-long CEO of MassChallenge, John is obsessed with entrepreneurship and has worked with thousands of startups since 2010. MassChallenge is the most-startup-friendly and largest startup accelerator on the planet, and has graduated nearly 3,000 startups which have cumulatively generated billions of dollars of revenue and have created over 160,000 jobs.

While launching and running MassChallenge, John generated a vast network of new and established founders, corporate partners, investors, and innovation talent. Furthermore, John gained unrivaled experience working to support startups as an advisor and connector, learning which teams, models, and partners create sustainable success  most consistently. John left MassChallenge in 2019 to launch Two Lanterns in 2020.

Jon Bloom - Podimetrics

Dr. Jon Bloom is the co-founder and CEO of Podimetrics, the creator of the FDA-cleared SmartMat™ and integrated clinical care services that can help save the limbs and lives of complex diabetic patients.

Jonathan Ng - Iterative Scopes

Jonathan Ng is the CEO and Founder of Iterative Scopes, a pioneer in the application of artificial intelligence-based precision medicine to gastroenterology with the aim of establishing a new standard of care for the detection, and ultimately, treatment of gastrointestinal (GI) diseases. Iterative Scopes is a startup that spun out of MIT, recently raised $150 million in Series B financing to accelerate development of its core algorithmic innovations. Funding has been raised from top venture firms across the country and the company has been featured in various publications and research awards globally.

Lily Lyman - Underscore VC

Lily has a background as an operator, founder, and investor. She is currently a General Partner at Underscore VC, a Boston-based early stage firm focused on B2B software.

Lily leads Underscore’s investments in the areas of vertical SaaS, including Insurtech, Digital Health, Commerce, as well as the Future of Work. She is a founding member of the leadership team of the All Raise Boston chapter, a NEVCA board member, as well as on the MIT Sandbox funding board. She was named a 2021 Rising Star by Venture Capital Journal.

Prior to Underscore VC, Lily worked in product strategy at Facebook focused on international growth, working across the core products of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. Prior to Facebook, Lily held a variety of strategy, operational, and entrepreneurial roles. She was an early Investment Committee member of Yard Ventures, Harvard’s alumni angel investing fund.