startup-scaling
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Frédérique Dame
Frédérique Dame is a General Partner at GV (Google Ventures), where she leads investments in consumer technology, life sciences, and AI. A French immigrant who moved to Silicon Valley at 24, she built her career as a product and engineering leader at Yahoo!, Photobucket, SmugMug, and Uber — where she helped scale the company from 80 employees to 7,000+ across 68 countries. At GV she co-leads the Women's Health investment team and has backed companies including Midi Health, Found, Allara, Oula Health, and TMRW. She serves on the board of Les Mills International and previously on Ubisoft's board, and was named to Rock Health's Top 50 in Digital Health.
Jeremiah Owyang
Jeremiah Owyang is a General Partner at Blitzscaling Ventures, where he leads early-stage AI startup investments and co-manages the Blitzscaling AI Fund. A two-decade Silicon Valley veteran who has tracked five major technology waves from Web 2.0 to the current AI era, he is also the founder of Llama Lounge, the Bay Area's most prominent AI startup event series, which has hosted 24+ gatherings since April 2023 and turned away 900+ applicants at a single event. Previously co-founder of Altimeter Group and Kaleido Insights, Owyang combines rigorous tech analysis with hands-on community building, and is known for working from a 22-foot Airstream trailer parked 29 steps from his back door.
Greg Strickland
Greg Strickland is the CEO of Ignition, a Sydney-founded revenue operations platform used by over 7,500 professional services businesses globally. A Silicon Valley veteran with 20+ years of experience scaling SaaS companies, Greg helped grow Box from 18 employees to a publicly traded enterprise, served as COO at Periscope Data and Productboard, and advised startups including Loom, Preset, and Grain before joining Ignition as Global President in 2024. In his first year he drove a 50% year-over-year revenue increase in North America, and in early 2025 he stepped up as CEO as co-founder Guy Pearson moved to Executive Chairman.
Tom Hammer
Tom Hammer is a Partner at Andreessen Horowitz where he leads People Practices for a16z speedrun, the firm's early-stage accelerator investing up to $1M in pre-seed startups. A veteran people operator who has scaled teams at Riot Games and Bird Rides, Tom coaches founders on talent strategy, organizational design, and building high-performance cultures from day one. He is known for his direct, founder-first approach and his belief that strong hiring is the single greatest lever a startup has.