Fork Farms is a mission-first agriculture technology company in Green Bay, Wisconsin that builds self-contained indoor vertical hydroponic systems - led by the Flex Farm - paired with a digital platform (Farmative) and K-12 curriculum. Its technology lets schools, hospitals, nonprofits, food pantries, businesses and homes grow hundreds of pounds of fresh produce per year on-site using a fraction of the water and land of conventional agriculture, turning food access into something anyone can do indoors.
Valentin Ruest is the co-founder and US co-CEO of Classtime, a Zurich-born edtech company building a formative and summative assessment platform used by educators and learners in more than 90 countries. A University of St. Gallen and Harvard-trained economist who once ran mortgages at a Swiss fintech, he traded banking for classrooms, splitting his life between Santa Barbara and Zurich while teaching personal finance in public schools and arguing that software should help teachers decide, not decide for them.
Ahsan Rizvi is the CEO and co-founder of Kiddom, a San Francisco-based education technology platform that has become the first all-in-one solution for high-quality digital curricula in K-12 schools. Born and raised in Pakistan, he came to the US after passing a grueling 1-in-1,100 entrance exam at age 12, an experience that shaped his lifelong commitment to the transformative power of education. After earning degrees in Industrial Engineering and Public Policy from the University of Illinois, he co-founded Kiddom in 2015 with his college friend Abbas Manjee. The company has raised $56.5M in total funding, grown to 220 employees, and now has at least one teacher using its platform in 70% of US schools.
Kurt Beidler is the Chief Executive Officer of Quizlet, the AI-powered learning platform used by hundreds of millions of students worldwide. Appointed in July 2024, he brings 17 years of Amazon experience scaling subscription businesses - most notably growing Amazon Kids+ into the world's largest youth-focused subscription service and launching Kindle into China. Under his leadership, Quizlet has grown revenue to $139M annually while aggressively integrating AI tools including a native ChatGPT app integration, lecture recording features, and an OpenAI partnership aimed at keeping students' entire study workflow on one platform.
Connie Tang is the CEO and founder of CCT Technologies Inc., operating as ComputerLand of Silicon Valley - a San Jose-based IT solutions firm she built from a storefront computer shop in 1991 into a 55-person enterprise serving government agencies, K-12 schools, higher education institutions, and commercial businesses across Northern California. After more than three decades at the helm, she led the company through a strategic acquisition by ISSQUARED Inc. in May 2024, positioning the combined entity to expand in cybersecurity, AI, and edge computing.
Anandan Chinnalagu is a PhD computer scientist and serial technology entrepreneur leading MindPro Technologies, an AI-focused software development firm headquartered in Karur, Tamil Nadu, India, with personal base in Sunnyvale, California. With over two decades of building enterprise software companies - from founding AC INFOTECH INC in 2003 to steering MindPro's 110-person team - he specializes in machine learning, natural language processing, and Google Cloud AI integrations. His academic research in sentiment analysis has been published in PeerJ Computer Science and IJACSA, while his products span educational platforms, IoT consulting, and notification automation under the CanString brand.
Paul Kellenberger is the CEO and President of zSpace, Inc., a San Jose-based company that pioneered display-based augmented and virtual reality for education. Rather than strapping headsets onto students, zSpace built a 24-inch 3D screen with head-tracking and a haptic stylus - no goggles required. Under Kellenberger's leadership, zSpace expanded from zero revenue in career technical education to 50% of its pipeline in that segment, served over 2,400 U.S. schools, and took the company public on Nasdaq in December 2024 under ticker ZSPC. With more than 70 patents, research partnerships with NC State showing 40% better retention rates, and recent acquisitions of BlocksCAD and Second Avenue Learning, Kellenberger is pushing immersive learning into the mainstream of American education.
Dave Vasen is the founder and CEO of brightwheel, the leading all-in-one software platform for early education that serves thousands of childcare centers and preschools across the US. A Stanford and Wharton graduate, Vasen left AltSchool in 2014 to build brightwheel after seeing firsthand how preschool operators struggle to run both a classroom and a business simultaneously. He famously appeared on Shark Tank in 2016 where Mark Cuban and Chris Sacca fought over the deal, landing a $600K investment. Brightwheel has since raised $88.8M in total funding and reached a $700M+ valuation by 2024, with $75M in annual revenue - making it one of the most impactful companies in the early childhood education space.
Pooja Nath Sankar is an Indian-American tech entrepreneur best known as the founder and former CEO of Piazza, an online Q&A and collaborative learning platform used by millions of students across 1,500+ universities. Born in a rural village in northern India with no electricity, she became the first girl from her hometown to attend an IIT, went on to work at Facebook, and left pre-IPO stock options on the table to attend Stanford GSB and build Piazza. She stepped down as CEO in 2022 to focus on family and teaching.