Austin Oehlerking is the co-founder and CEO of Boxbot, an Alameda, California robotics company reinventing how parcels are stored, sorted, and sequenced inside the supply chain. A mechanical engineer trained at MIT with a Harvard MBA, he cut his teeth building electric vehicles at Arcimoto and Tesla before starting Boxbot in 2016 as a self-driving last-mile delivery venture. When customers proved more excited about the box-handling robot than the delivery van, Oehlerking pivoted the company toward AI-driven, high-density parcel storage, turning the flat conveyor belt into a three-dimensional machine. Boxbot has raised roughly $28-29.5M from Playground Global, Toyota Ventures, Maersk Growth, Pear Ventures, and Artiman Ventures.
Noah Helman is the co-founder and CEO of Industrial Microbes (iMicrobes), an Alameda, California synthetic biology company that engineers the central metabolism of microbes so they can eat cheap, renewable feedstocks - ethanol and methane - and spit out the chemicals normally pumped from petroleum. A Stanford applied-physics PhD who spent roughly a decade in physics labs before crossing into biology, Helman co-founded the company in 2014 with two fellow alumni of the biofuels startup LS9. iMicrobes targets drop-in, cost-competitive, net-zero versions of acrylic acid (for paints and adhesives) and acrylonitrile (for carbon fiber). The company went through Y Combinator's W15 batch, holds more than 20 patents, raised a $10M+ seed round in late 2024, and in 2025 announced it had scaled production of 100% bio-based, high-purity acrylic acid.

Eric Hunter is the Chief Executive Officer and Board Member of World Market (Cost Plus World Market), the specialty retail chain known for globally sourced furniture, home decor, artisanal foods, and international gifts. Based in Alameda, California, Hunter joined World Market in May 2021 as Chief Commercial Officer, was elevated to President in June 2022, and became CEO in July 2023. He brings deep retail marketing expertise from executive roles at Pier 1 Imports, JCPenney, Kellwood Company, and Ascena Retail Group's plus-size division (Lane Bryant, Cacique, Catherines). Under his leadership, World Market has pursued digital transformation, flexible payment solutions, and continued its mission of delivering unique, globally inspired products across nearly 250 stores and online.
Celera is an Alameda-based analog semiconductor company using AI to automate the historically artisanal craft of analog IC design. Its ChipHUB platform combines proprietary machine-learning agents with decades of analog expertise to deliver custom analog and mixed-signal chips up to 10x faster than legacy vendors. In March 2025, Celera became the first company to sample an analog IC entirely designed by autonomous software.
Nico S. Enea is a co-founder, board member, and distribution lead at NUG, Inc., a state-licensed, vertically-integrated California cannabis company he helped build from the ground up starting in 2014. Operating out of Alameda and Oakland, NUG has grown into one of California's most recognized cannabis brands, represented in over 80% of the state's dispensaries, with $28M+ in annual revenue, 150 employees, and a $15M Series A round under its belt. Enea also serves as Founder and CFO of Bloom Innovations Holdings LLC, a cannabis holding company managing diverse assets including property, IP, patents, and securities.
Pyka builds large autonomous, all-electric aircraft for crop protection and cargo logistics. Headquartered in Alameda, California, the company designs its own airframes, batteries, flight computers, and autonomy stack, and flies them commercially across four continents for customers in agriculture, freight, and defense.
Eat Just, Inc. is a San Francisco-area food technology company best known for JUST Egg, a plant-based scrambled egg made from mung bean protein, and GOOD Meat, the first cultivated meat product cleared for sale anywhere in the world. Founded in 2011 by Josh Tetrick and Josh Balk, the company has raised more than $850 million to push affordable, animal-free protein into mainstream grocery aisles, restaurants, and - now - U.S. retail meat cases under the Just Meat brand.

Adam Elsesser is the co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Penumbra, the Alameda-based medical device company that pioneered aspiration thrombectomy for stroke. A former real estate lawyer turned operator, he has run Penumbra since 2004 and, in January 2026, agreed to sell it to Boston Scientific for roughly $14.5 billion.