digital-marketplace
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Steven Schwartz
Steven Schwartz is the co-founder and CEO of Whop, a New York-based digital marketplace where people buy and sell software, courses, communities, and other digital products. He started building and selling iOS sneaker bots from his bedroom at 13 with future co-founder Cameron Zoub, ran through roughly two dozen side hustles, and launched Whop in 2021. The company reached a reported $1.6 billion valuation, processes billions in annual commerce, and Schwartz says it has minted over 650 millionaires. Backed by Peter Thiel, Insight Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, and Tether, he pitches a future where work is fun and money worries are obsolete.
Paul Gatti
Paul Gatti is co-founder and CEO of CompareNetworks, a South San Francisco-based B2B media and technology company he built from a postdoc's side project into a 12-brand portfolio serving 8 million science and engineering professionals. Trained as a microbiologist at Tulane and UCSF, Gatti pivoted from the bench to the boardroom around 2000, assembling a media empire that connects buyers and sellers across life sciences, pharma, engineering, and industrial sectors. Under his leadership, CompareNetworks has grown via strategic acquisitions — GlobalSpec in 2020, Gulf Energy Information in 2025 — backed by Main Street Capital since 2019.