Tagged: baltimore
10 results
Rapafusyn Pharmaceuticals
Rapafusyn Pharmaceuticals is a Baltimore-based, clinical-stage drug discovery company spun out of Johns Hopkins University. Its RapaGlue platform designs non-degrading, cell-permeable macrocyclic molecular glues that modulate hard-to-drug intracellular and transmembrane targets - drawing on a proprietary DNA-encoded library of more than 8 billion compounds and machine learning for target selection. The lead program, RAP-0001, is a selective ENT1 inhibitor advancing toward IND-enabling studies for the prevention of acute kidney injury in cardiac surgery patients, with a broader pipeline spanning oncology, immunology, and pain.
Mort Fertel
Mort Fertel is the co-founder and CEO of Poplin (formerly SudShare), a nationwide peer-to-peer marketplace often called the 'Uber for laundry,' which connects customers with independent Laundry Pros across 500+ markets and 8,000 zip codes. Before laundry, he spent two decades as a globally known relationship expert and author of the Marriage Fitness system, used by millions in marital crisis and the subject of the documentary 'Back from the Brink.' He started Poplin in 2018 alongside his teenage triplet sons after his wife, drowning in laundry for their five kids, asked why she was still washing clothes like her grandmother.
Samantha Scott
Samantha Scott, PhD is the founder and CEO of JuneBrain, a Baltimore medtech startup building the first wearable, technician-free retinal scanning system. Trained as a biomedical engineer at Stanford and USC, she is turning high-resolution eye imaging plus AI into a way to detect and monitor brain and eye conditions far outside the walls of a clinic. JuneBrain has raised more than $3 million in private capital, won $3 million in NSF grants, holds four issued patents, and is on track for an FDA submission.
CoapTech
CoapTech is a Baltimore-based medical technology company that built the world's first ultrasound-guided gastrostomy system. Its FDA-cleared PUMA-G System lets bedside clinicians place feeding tubes using only ultrasound imaging and a patented magnet-aligned catheter, replacing procedures that traditionally required an operating room, endoscopy, or interventional radiology. The approach aims to make feeding-tube placement faster, safer, and cheaper, and has been used in more than 1,000 patients across ICUs, step-down units, and long-term acute care hospitals.
Brad Kreger
Brad Kreger is a medical device and manufacturing executive who became CEO of Baltimore-based CoapTech in November 2025, taking over from co-founder Howard Carolan. He brings nearly three decades of operations experience, most recently turning around metal 3D-printing company Velo3D as its CEO, with earlier senior roles at Fluidigm/Standard BioTools, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Affymetrix. At CoapTech he leads commercialization of the percutaneous ultrasound gastrostomy (PUG) system, an ultrasound-guided method of placing feeding tubes at the bedside that has been used in more than 1,000 patients.
Flywheel
Flywheel is a Baltimore-born digital commerce company that helps brands grow on Amazon, Walmart, Instacart and 400-plus other online marketplaces. Born in 2014 as one of the first specialists in the messy mechanics of selling through Amazon, it pairs cloud software (the Flywheel Commerce Cloud) with managed services across retail media, retail operations and market intelligence. After being bought by Ascential and then by Omnicom for roughly $835 million in 2024, Flywheel now serves more than 4,500 brands - including over half of 2022's top 100 publicly listed CPG companies - with about 2,600 colleagues across the Americas, Europe, APAC and China.
Jennie Strobeck
Jennie Strobeck is AVP of State & Local Sales, Digital Media at Adobe, where she leads government sales strategy across city, county, and state agencies. With a career spanning enterprise tech sales at DLT Solutions, immixGroup, and Avaya Government Solutions, she has spent over two decades at the intersection of technology and public sector transformation. At Adobe, she previously served as Chief of Staff and Channel Sales Manager before stepping into the AVP role in 2022. She is particularly focused on digital accessibility, helping governments meet DOJ WCAG compliance requirements and modernize document workflows at scale.
Deren Baker
Deren Baker is the CEO of Flywheel Ventures, the innovation arm of Flywheel Commerce Network - now part of Omnicom Group after a landmark $835 million acquisition in 2023. A serial operator with deep roots in digital commerce analytics, Baker has led transformative companies including Jumpshot (which tracked 160 billion monthly clicks) and Edge by Ascential. He is a recognized thought leader in ecommerce strategy, retail media, and data-driven advertising, with bylines in Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and Entrepreneur Magazine.
Munier Afshar
Munier Afshar is a co-founder at Maze, the AI-powered user research and continuous product discovery platform trusted by over 60,000 brands including Atlassian, Lowe's, and Sony. Based in the Baltimore/Washington DC area, Afshar helped build Maze into a category-defining research platform that raised a $40M Series B in 2022, bringing total funding to over $57M. Beyond tech, he serves as Vice President of the Afghan Relief Fund, lending organizational leadership to a nonprofit supporting vulnerable Afghan families. His career spans entrepreneurship, operations, and community impact.
Austin Rief
Austin Rief co-founded Morning Brew in 2015 as a college sophomore after cold-emailing a classmate about a PDF newsletter. He helped grow it from a campus PDF to a 5-million-subscriber media company with $70M+ revenue before Axel Springer bought it outright. He served as CEO from 2021 to 2025, then stepped back to Executive Chairman while building Oceans Talent (an offshore staffing platform at $15M ARR) and Rief Ventures, a seed fund with 16+ investments including enterprise AI unicorn WRITER.