Category: Mentors (Page 1 of 23)

Claire Zhang 张春阳 is our strategic partner in China. Zhang is an angel investor whose investment projects include education, e-commerce, and B2B startups. Before joining Founders Space China, Zhang was an entrepreneur, launching a startup in the consumer app space that brought Chinese traditional practices to the mobile internet.

Prior to this, Zhang worked for the financial arm of Sina Group, which owns Sina Weibo, equivalent to the Facebook and Twitter of China, with 583 million monthly active users. Zhang worked directly with the President of Sina Finance and was responsible for strategic development and government affairs. Her responsibilities included helping to build overseas enterprise structures and support Southeast Asian business expansion, including setting up VIE structures in Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, and India.

Zhang is an alumnus of CEIBS, which is ranked the #1 business school in China. She also served as the Secretary General of the CEIBS Digitalization Association and a member of the Shanghai Council of the CEIBS General Manager Club. Read More...

With over 14 years of senior marketing experience across various industries, including aviation, healthcare, real estate, and hospitality, Candice Wang has established herself as a global bridge between markets. Having lived and worked in cities such as Singapore, Seychelles, Dubai, Beijing, and Toronto, Candice is a recognized leader in cross-cultural communication and business development. She has a proven track record of managing high-stakes projects and successfully launching international partnerships.

At Founders Space, Candice is responsible for overseeing the company’s strategic operations in the Middle East. She leverages her extensive network of contacts and deep understanding of the region to foster growth opportunities for SMEs. Fluent in Mandarin and English, she bridges Eastern and Western markets with a keen eye for emerging trends. Read More...

Wendy Hu is our strategic partner in China. She’s a veteran startup founder with extensive experience in fundraising, event production, and gov relations.

Hu is committed to bridging the gap between China and the United States by bringing clean energy and other tech startups into China and helping them access the world’s biggest market. She also works with Chinese entrepreneurs that are looking to expand overseas.

Hu has deep relationships with government and private enterprise. She can draw upon policy support to build relationships and secure contracts. In addition, Hu works closely with partner VC funds to help entrepreneurs secure the capital necessary to scale their businesses and compete on a global scale.

Steven Echtman is Executive Producer at Founders Space and founder of Aiify.io.

Echtman has been working with the Founders Space team to advise client startups and facilitate networking and investor relation events. As a serial entrepreneur who’s successfully led fundraising efforts for a number of companies, he has significant experience and knowledge about the mindset of investors. He’s able to advise startups on what they need to show and tell investors, in order to assess if there’s a stage and sector fit. He coordinates startup pitch competitions and is able to introduce companies to active and interested investors.

As the founder of Aiify.io, Echtman builds and supports the AI community (including developers, investors, integrators, businesses, and other professionals ) via events, consulting, and advisory services. He helps organizations explore how AI can be leveraged for practical solutions and increased efficiency, both today and into the future. Members gain insights that help craft their AI strategy, discover new business opportunities, and see how the latest developments in AI can help everyone become more effective, creative, and competitive. Read More...

Pat McCarthy is a Fractional CFO and startup investor who’s helped startups grow from founder to 30 people company, raise over $15M in funding, and grow revenue from 10K annually to more than $10M while partnering with some of the largest advertisers and companies in the world.

As the VP of Finance at SpokenLayer he built out a complex financial infrastructure, managed enterprise SaaS and advertising financial models and budgets, raised $8M in venture funding, managed cap tables through 3 funding rounds, while also taking a heavy hand in operations. He’s advised over 50 startups over the last 5 years and invested in more than 100, and currently acts as Fractional CFO to several early stage ventures.

Brent Keltner has joined Founders Space as a mentor. He is President of Winalytics and created the company’s value-driven growth methodology. Winalytics helps client reach their top growth potential by consistently positioning and qualifying around buyer value in go-to-market and sales execution strategies.

The advantages of moving from product- to value-driven growth accrue throughout the buyer lifecycle. Value-drive growth increases prospecting success, accelerates deal velocity, and increases deal value through better negotiations and quicker account expansion.

Prior to starting Winalytics, Brent spent 10 years as a revenue leader in enterprise to early stage companies at Kaplan, Eduventures, and CollegiateLink and 10 years as a Ph.D. social scientist at Stanford and the RAND Corporation. Brent lives in Boston’s West End with his wife Ann-Marie, son John Henry, and daughter Anna. When not at work, he enjoys the practice of Uechi Ryu Karate

Mark has been a Mentor with Founders Space since 2015. Mark mentors start-up companies at all levels – from inception to market, and beyond. Mark has met with hundreds of companies during the past five years – helping them prepare pitches and presentations; with understanding the opportunity in respective markets and positioning as such; creating and/or revising targeted plans, providing creative direction/ideas, and much more. If you were to come to one of our mentoring days, you might see teams waiting (sometimes hovering around) to meet with him. On the days Mark is mentoring, it is not unusual for him to spend entire days at Founders Space, having follow up meetings with the companies he had met with prior, that same day. For the companies he has felt were/are on the right track i.e. product/service, team, structure, culture, maturity, passion, etc., he has agreed to join on respective advisory boards. When Mark joins a company as an advisor/mentor, he provides a valuable insight that can help take that company to a new level.

Mark’s entrepreneurial experience extends over 20 years – from Founder to advisory positions, and everything in between. His focus is primarily on consumer related products and services. He has served as Founder/CEO, General Manager, Business Development Head; VP Sales & Marketing; Creative Director, COO, etc. in ventures relating to sports programming, video/streaming technology and content, sports nutrition, events, entertainment, app technology, efficiency products and services, and toys & games. Prior to engaging as an entrepreneur, Mark was an advertising agency executive and manager. He is currently working in financial services as a financial advisor.

Education: Mark is a graduate of UCLA, where he received his BA in Economics.

David Haubert has been helping companies succeed since 2010 when he started Trinity Consulting after completing a successful 20 year career in sales, marketing and brand management for multinational companies like Nestle, IBM and Safeway (now Albertsons) where he held roles of increasing scope and responsibility.

Extending his training and learning at these large traditional companies, David brings an extensive and comprehensive experience base of knowledge in new product launch, project management, and sales negotiations. David helps companies, entrepreneurs and CEO’s in all stages and sizes to write business plans, raise startup capital, develop new market entry strategies, evaluate product development opportunities and grow their business with hands on business development assistance. This often spans functions from proof of concept development to full commercialization.

Over the years David has gained deep and broad experience in creating and commercializing technology based solutions for real-world problems. Roles included Director of Manufacturer Collaboration, VP or Strategy and Innovation and SVP of Business Development. Read More...

David Hattenbach is a Founders Space Mentor and seasoned marketing & biz dev leader.

With 25 years of experience leading award winning advertising and growth marketing initiatives for companies large and small, David has developed a talent for turning consumer insight into highly effective marketing solutions.

Prior to becoming an entrepreneur himself, David was EVP Global Strategic Planning Director for Foote Cone & Belding Advertising where he led global marketing and business development. Read More...

Working with tech start-ups and visionaries (including Elon Musk), Cynthia is delighted to share her wisdom and expertise with entrepreneurs. She started her own company Care Navigate after the last economic meltdown and knows success takes execution, tenacity and reinvention, not just great ideas.

Most recently director of international implementation at eXp Worldwide Holdings, a global real estate company, Cynthia was chartered with launching new markets from scratch in under 6 months. She accomplished this rapid roll-out by collaborating with more than a dozen functional teams and coaching country leaders, building a repeatable, sustainable process for future countries.

Cynthia is advising companies at the intersection of technology, real estate and other sectors. One recent example is VirBELA, a cloud-based workspace redefining how people can effectively interact across cities and the world. Read More...