Allison Blais is Vice President of Business & Strategic Operations and Chief of Staff to Adobe President David Wadhwani, running day-to-day operations of Digital Media - Adobe's largest business unit. A lawyer-turned-operator, she transitioned from 15+ years in financial services and corporate law into driving strategy for Creative Cloud, Document Cloud, and Adobe Firefly, the company's generative AI platform. Her path from FINRA regulatory analyst to VP at one of the world's most influential software companies is a masterclass in reinvention.
Patrick Bet-David is an Iranian-American entrepreneur, author, and media personality who fled Iran as a child refugee, served in the 101st Airborne Division, and built PHP Agency into a 40,000-agent life insurance firm before selling it for roughly $250 million. He founded Valuetainment, one of the most-watched business YouTube channels in the world, and hosts the PBD Podcast - a long-form show spanning politics, culture, and business with millions of listeners. A Wall Street Journal bestselling author of 'Your Next Five Moves' and 'Choose Your Enemies Wisely,' Bet-David is known for blunt straight talk, a relentless work ethic forged in a German refugee camp, and a genuine belief that every refugee or immigrant story can have a second act.
Chris Do is a Vietnamese-American designer, Emmy-winning creative director, and founder of The Futur - an educational platform on a mission to teach 1 billion people how to make a living doing what they love. He fled Vietnam as a toddler on April 30, 1975, built Blind into a $7M+ annual motion design studio serving Nike, Xbox, and Sony, then pivoted at 42 to education - amassing 2.7 million YouTube subscribers, 500K community members across 190 countries, and a $5,000/hour consulting rate. His philosophy: hard truths, gently told.
Ben Thompson is the founder of Stratechery, the subscription newsletter that essentially invented the paid independent newsletter model. Writing from Taiwan for over a decade before returning to the US in 2025, he developed Aggregation Theory - the most influential framework for understanding how internet platforms accumulate power - while building a solo business earning $5M+ annually from 40,000+ paying subscribers. Substack's founders literally used him as their pitch-deck inspiration. He also co-hosts three podcasts, including Dithering with John Gruber, where every episode is exactly 15 minutes by design.
Packy McCormick is the founder of Not Boring, a weekly newsletter with 250,000+ subscribers that covers technology, business strategy, and startups through long-form essays. He also runs Not Boring Capital, a solo-GP venture fund with two funds totaling ~$38M invested across 79+ companies. A former investment banker and startup operator, he turned a writing homework assignment into one of the most-read independent tech publications, pioneering a 'media flywheel' model where newsletter content and venture investing reinforce each other.
Janet Czifrus (born Zsanett Czifrus) is a Hungarian-born transformative coach, TEDx speaker, yoga and meditation teacher, mindful eating coach, and certified doula with over 14 years of management consulting experience across top-tier firms and multinationals. She bridges rigorous business strategy with holistic personal development, focusing on daring women, female founders, and global citizens navigating reinvention. Operating under her coaching brand Zsanett Czifrus Coaching, she runs the newsletter and podcast 'Less Traveled' and the 'Mindful Entrepreneur' community for female founders building service-based businesses.