CHAOS Industries is a Los Angeles defense technology company building Coherent Distributed Networks (CDN), software-defined sensing systems that detect aerial and missile threats faster and cheaper than traditional radar. Founded in 2022, it makes distributed radar products like Vanquish and Astria for counter-drone, border, and homeland defense. By late 2025 the company had raised over $1 billion and reached a roughly $4.5 billion valuation.
Sherry A. William is the founder and managing attorney of Pacific Ivy Law Group, a Los Angeles-area corporate boutique that pairs Big-Law rigor with what she calls emotional IQ. Harvard Law educated and trained at three top-tier firms in New York and Los Angeles plus a stint in Tokyo, she negotiates deals for companies, individuals, governments, and financial institutions worldwide. Raised by an immigrant single mother in the Egyptian American community, she is fluent in Arabic, licensed to practice law in California and New York, holds real estate broker licenses in both states, and leads the Harvard Law School Association of Los Angeles and the League of Egyptian American Professionals.
Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal are an American comedy duo and lifelong best friends who have built one of YouTube's most enduring empires — Good Mythical Morning — into a daily talk show with over 19.5 million subscribers and 10.8 billion views. Operating out of Burbank as Mythical Entertainment, they create shows, podcasts, merchandise, books, and live experiences, ranking #4 on Forbes' 2025 highest-earning creator list with $36M in annual earnings.
Adrienne Lofton is the Global Vice President of Product & Integrated Consumer Marketing for Google's Platforms & Devices Division, where she leads end-to-end marketing for the Pixel ecosystem and drives activation across Android, Chromebook, Chrome Browser, Google Play, and Google Health & Home. A Howard University graduate and Kellogg MBA, she built her career on brand authenticity — from multicultural marketing at Target, to CMO of Dockers at Levi's, to Senior VP of Global Brand Marketing at Under Armour, to VP Head of North America Marketing at Nike. An Ad Age Brand Genius award winner, Adweek Most Powerful Women in Sports honoree, and board director at Alaska Air Group, Lofton is one of the most recognized voices at the intersection of sports, culture, and consumer marketing.
FLOWER CO. is a California members-only cannabis delivery club that sells lab-tested weed, prerolls, edibles, and concentrates at wholesale prices, shipped next-day from Humboldt to San Diego.
Chad Powell is the CEO of FLOWER CO. (Flower Company Cannabis), a members-only cannabis delivery service operating in California. He co-founded BloomThat, a Y Combinator-backed same-day flower delivery startup that was acquired by FTD Companies in 2018. After honing his product and growth chops at startups like Nebia and Boosted, Powell joined FLOWER CO. as Head of Growth, rose to VP of Product Development, and eventually became CEO. Under his leadership, FLOWER CO. has scaled to $53.4M in annual revenue with a lean team, offering 40-50% discounts vs. traditional dispensaries through a Costco-style membership model sourcing directly from California cannabis farms.
Dan Calpin is a senior technology executive and founder who has spent his career at the intersection of AI, media, and enterprise strategy. As Founding Partner and General Manager of Bain Media Lab, he co-created Mensio, an AI-powered analytics platform measuring TV advertising and sponsorships. He went on to serve as President of Hive, the enterprise AI company specializing in content understanding, and later as EVP North America at Incode Technologies. He is currently launching a new stealth AI venture.
Dylan Serota is the CEO and Co-Founder of Terminal, a global tech talent marketplace that connects elite remote engineers with high-growth companies. After building a 100-person engineering team in Mendoza, Argentina during his time at Eventbrite, he co-founded Terminal in 2017 at the Atomic venture studio alongside Joe Lonsdale (Palantir co-founder) and Jack Abraham. Terminal has raised over $27M in funding including a $17M Series B led by 8VC, serves 100+ clients including Hims&Hers, iCapital, and Grindr, and is on track for nearly $50M in gross revenue. Serota took over as CEO in 2024 and has become a prominent voice on AI's impact on engineering talent and the future of distributed work.
Jesse Pickard is the Founder and CEO of The Mind Company (formerly Elevate Labs), the studio behind Elevate (Apple's App of the Year 2014), Balance (Google's App of the Year 2021), and Spark - a portfolio of science-backed mental fitness apps with over 80 million downloads. A designer-turned-entrepreneur, Pickard co-founded language learning startup MindSnacks in 2010 before pivoting to build Elevate in 2014, pioneering the consumer mental fitness category. He is also an Investing Partner at Volo Ventures.
Hamed Ahmadi is the Co-Founder and CEO of Medsien, a leading AI-powered remote care management company headquartered in San Francisco. A PhD mathematician turned Silicon Valley engineer turned healthcare entrepreneur, Ahmadi co-founded Medsien in 2018 alongside Sina Torabi with a mission to extend quality care beyond clinic walls to the 150 million Americans living with chronic conditions. Under his leadership, Medsien has grown to 110 employees, $12.7M in annual revenue, and raised $5.3M in funding, powering remote care programs for hundreds of healthcare organizations across the US.
Nellie Wartoft is a Swedish technology entrepreneur and the CEO and founder of Tigerhall, a Change Activation Platform that helps Fortune 500 companies drive organizational transformation at scale using AI and social learning. She moved from a small Swedish village to Singapore at 18 with a one-way ticket, spent 4.5 years as a top billing recruiter at Michael Page, then built Tigerhall from scratch into a platform operating across 32 countries, backed by Sequoia Capital and Monk's Hill Ventures with over $10 million in venture capital. Before her tech career she was a Swedish national champion in skeet shooting and air rifle.
Sarah Wood is a Senior Executive Business Partner at GoFundMe and the founder of Easy Living Collective, a household management company supporting working women and caregivers. A 15-year veteran of Google across roles in learning & development, program management, people operations, and Google.org, she brings operational depth and a people-first philosophy to everything she touches. Based in Los Angeles, she has been instrumental in GoFundMe's partnerships supporting women-owned businesses recovering from the 2025 LA wildfires.
Tanner Johnson is the Co-Founder and Former President of Curated, a San Francisco-based expert marketplace that matches shoppers with passionate product specialists for high-consideration purchases like outdoor gear, skiing equipment, golf clubs, and jewelry. A Princeton-educated psychology and neuroscience graduate with roots in outdoor education, Johnson helped build Curated from a 2017 founding concept into a $141.5M-funded platform with over 250 employees - until its $330 million stock acquisition by social commerce company Flip in July 2024.
Ethan Klein is the co-founder of h3h3Productions and host of the H3 Podcast, a long-running commentary, comedy and interview show he runs with his wife Hila Klein. What started in 2011 as a YouTube channel built around 'reaction' style videos and 'exe' edits became one of the more durable creator businesses on the internet, with a podcast launched in 2017 that has put out more than a thousand episodes.
Gagan Palrecha is a seasoned technology entrepreneur, executive, and investor with over two decades of experience spanning early internet infrastructure, consumer tech, blockchain, and fiber optic networking. Currently CEO of Stealth, a Los Angeles-based fiber internet provider that has raised $22.8M in funding, Gagan has held senior roles at Dapper Labs (NBA Top Shot), Getaround, and NFTSTAR, while also serving as COO at RLY Network Association. A Y Combinator alumnus (2010) and General Partner at Palrecha Capital with 36+ portfolio companies, he brings an engineering foundation from Loudcloud - the legendary cloud infrastructure startup co-founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz - to every venture he touches.
Michael Boese is the CEO of Specright, the first cloud-based Specification Data Management platform, appointed in April 2025. A seasoned enterprise software executive with 25+ years across Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP, Taleo, and multiple startup CEO roles, Boese brings a track record of scaling B2B SaaS companies through operational discipline and product innovation. Under his leadership, Specright is accelerating its mission to digitize product specifications across global supply chains, with $42M in total funding, $22.4M ARR, and ambitions to infuse AI across its platform to help manufacturers, retailers, and brands make better, more sustainable products.
Aaron Sisto is the Co-Founder & CEO of Chronicle Studios, a content intelligence platform that uses proprietary agentic AI to help creators launch and scale global IP franchises. A PhD quantum chemist turned deep-tech investor turned entertainment entrepreneur, Sisto blends hard science and pop culture instincts in a company that raised an oversubscribed $11.6M seed round in 2025 backed by Patron and Point72 Ventures. Previously a partner at First Spark Ventures and Director of Engineering at Schmidt Futures, he co-founded Chronicle alongside entertainment veteran Chris deFaria, former president of DreamWorks Animation.
Tommy McGlynn is a Los Angeles-based engineering manager at Meta's Reality Labs, where he leads the AI Character Platform team building AI-powered characters for the mixed-reality metaverse. A self-taught hacker who cracked an ad referral platform at 12, he went on to design scalable server architectures for Apple's TestFlight, speak on stage at WWDC for three consecutive years, and author the Oculus Developer Hub launch. He bridges design thinking and deep engineering - from Flash games and real-time multiplayer systems to VR developer tooling and interactive AI agents.
Jai Malik is the founder and CEO of Amca (Advanced Manufacturing Company of America), an aerospace and defense manufacturer that launched in April 2025 with $76.5M from Caffeinated Capital, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz. A serial entrepreneur and self-described 'industrial capitalist,' Malik previously founded Countdown Capital (2020-2024), an early-stage hard tech venture fund, after stints as an early team member at AI defense startups Accrete and Forge.AI. He also serves as Venture Partner at Redbud VC in Columbia, MO. Amca's thesis: acquire legacy aerospace suppliers and rebuild them from the inside out, starting with a 60-year-old avionics supplier in El Monte, California.
Kara Nortman is a Princeton and Stanford MBA-educated venture capitalist who spent eight years at Upfront Ventures before pivoting to become the defining force in women's sports investment. She co-founded Angel City FC — the NWSL team that became the world's most valuable women's sports franchise at $250 million — and then launched Monarch Collective, the world's largest women's sports investment fund at $250 million. She was also in the room at IAC's Hatch Labs when a restaurant-reservation app called Cardify was reborn as Tinder.
Mark Suster is a Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures, the largest early-stage VC firm in Southern California, and the author of the influential blog Both Sides of the Table. A serial entrepreneur who built and sold two companies before switching to investing, Suster brings a rare founder's perspective to venture capital. Known for coining 'fauxmentum,' championing the LA tech ecosystem, and advocating openly about ADHD, he manages hundreds of millions in capital while hosting the Upfront Summit — one of America's premier LP and VC conferences.
Khamari is a Boston-raised, Los Angeles-based R&B and neo-soul singer-songwriter known for his deeply intimate, guitar-driven sound and confessional lyricism. A multi-instrumentalist who started violin at age 4 and briefly attended Berklee College of Music, he drove cross-country alone to chase his vision in LA. After releasing his debut EP 'Eldorado' in 2019 and signing to RCA Records, he dropped his critically acclaimed debut album 'A Brief Nirvana' in 2023 before leaving the major label over creative differences. His sophomore album 'To Dry a Tear' (2025) on independent Encore Recordings marked a major artistic breakthrough - earning him festival slots at Governors Ball 2026 and All Points East 2026, headlining tours across dozens of cities, and comparisons to Frank Ocean, D'Angelo, and Jeff Buckley.
Mk.gee (Michael Todd Gordon) is a New Jersey-born musician, producer, and multi-instrumentalist whose debut album Two Star & the Dream Police (2024) became a critical phenomenon - ranking #1 album of 2024 by The New York Times, Dazed, and Clash, and earning a Metacritic score of 83. A reclusive guitar savant with an ear for lo-fi distortion and cassette warmth, he has co-produced for Omar Apollo and Dijon, co-written for Bon Iver, and collaborated with Justin Bieber, all while maintaining a fiercely independent artistic identity.
REI AMI (born Sarah Yeeun Lee) is a Korean-American singer, rapper, and genre-bending artist from Germantown, Maryland, who blends hip-hop, R&B, alternative pop, and pop-punk aggression into a sound entirely her own. After breaking through with Sub Urban's viral 'Freak' (2020) and debuting with her mixtape FOIL (2021), she catapulted to global stardom in 2025 as Zoey in Netflix's animated film KPop Demon Hunters, voicing and performing as part of the fictional K-pop trio HUNTR/X. Their single 'Golden' became Netflix's most-watched film's signature track, hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and won both a Grammy and an Oscar — firsts for any K-pop song.
Snow Wife (Emily Leann Snow) is a queer hyperpop and maximalist dance-pop artist based in Los Angeles who broke out in 2023 with the viral single 'American Horror Show' (55M+ Spotify streams) and her debut EP QUEEN DEGENERATE (146M+ total streams). A trained dancer of 10+ years turned bedroom songwriter, she launched her celebrated 'Bodyology era' in 2025 with the EP BODYOLOGY — her most ambitious project, blending club music, dance choreography, and queer pop maximalism. With nearly 900K monthly Spotify listeners, a Governors Ball 2025 performance, a Gold House Future Music Accelerator selection, and major press coverage from Rolling Stone, SPIN, The FADER, and Nylon, Snow Wife has become one of indie pop's most exciting rising voices.
Sofia Isella is a Los Angeles-born, 21-year-old indie-pop musician crafting sharp, cinematic dark pop about womanhood, rage, and the absurdity of modern life. Classically trained on violin from age two and daughter of Oscar-winning cinematographer Claudio Miranda, she grew up between Taiwan, Australia, and New Mexico before channeling her itinerant childhood into ferociously literary songwriting. Her 2023 viral breakout 'Hot Gum' (16M+ streams) led to opening for Taylor Swift at Wembley Stadium before 90,000 fans in August 2024, where Swift personally sent her a handwritten letter praising 'Everybody Supports Women.' By April 2026, Isella has released four EPs and surpassed 150 million worldwide streams, headlining sold-out shows across Europe and the US on her 'Her Desire, The Nemesis' tour.
The Marías are a Los Angeles-based indie/alternative band led by Puerto Rican vocalist María Zardoya and drummer-producer Josh Conway, blending psychedelic soul, dream-pop, and bilingual lyricism into a hazy, cinematic sound. From viral Craigslist couch photoshoots to surviving a bandmate breakup, a Bad Bunny co-sign, and a Billie Eilish TikTok that sent 'No One Noticed' to #22 on the Hot 100, the band turned 10 years of underground hustle into a Grammy Best New Artist nomination at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards in 2026.
Lia Haberman is a creator economy strategist, educator, and the author of ICYMI — a weekly newsletter read by 45,000+ marketers, brand social teams, and creators. Teaching social media and influencer marketing at UCLA Extension since 2018, she built her reputation as an independent, no-nonsense analyst who helps brands and creators navigate a landscape that reinvents itself every six months. With clients ranging from Google to Disney and a Threads following that dwarfs her Instagram audience, she practices what she preaches.
Amanda Natividad is VP of Marketing and Chief Evangelist at SparkToro, the audience research platform co-founded by Rand Fishkin. She coined the term 'zero-click content' — the practice of creating platform-native content that delivers full value without requiring a click — and turned it into a framework, a podcast, a consultancy, and a forthcoming book. A trained chef and former tech journalist before she was ever a marketer, Amanda brings a rare blend of narrative discipline, culinary generosity, and data-driven rigor to a field that often settles for one of the three. Her newsletter 'The Menu' reaches 16,000+ subscribers and was named by Forbes among the top marketing newsletters. She has 200,000+ combined social followers and has guest lectured at Columbia Business School, Cornell, Stanford, and the University of Washington.
Joanne McNeil is an American writer, editor, and art critic who sits at the curious crossroads of internet culture and contemporary art. Best known for 'Lurking: How a Person Became a User' (2020) - a critical history of the internet told from the perspective of ordinary users - she followed it with her debut novel 'Wrong Way' (2023), a tech-industry satire about precarious gig labor. Formerly editor of Rhizome at the New Museum and founder of The Tomorrow Museum blog, she has written for Frieze, Wired, the Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe. She holds the inaugural Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation Arts Writing Award and has been a fellow at the Logan Nonfiction Program, a resident at Eyebeam, and an instructor at the School for Poetic Computation. Her next nonfiction work, 'Too Early for the Future,' is forthcoming from MCD/FSG.