For Groups and Bundle purchasers, we’re including exclusive invitations to a series of candid conversations about starting up from an extremely experienced group of founders.

Greg Galant

Co-Founder & CEO, Muck Rack

Greg bootstrapped Muck Rack for over a decade, growing it profitably before taking outside capital. In 2022, the company raised $180M from Susquehanna Growth Equity — its first major institutional round, reflecting years of disciplined, capital-efficient growth.

Why founders should care:
Greg represents the durable SaaS builder. By delaying fundraising until he had leverage, he preserved ownership, negotiated from strength, and created optionality. His path is a case study in long-term compounding over venture velocity.

Amanda Hesser

Co-Founder, Food52

Amanda built the company by blending community-driven editorial with commerce, expanding into DTC and retail partnerships while navigating the difficult economics of digital media, selling a majority stake in the company for over $80mm.

Why founders should care:
Amanda built brand equity in an environment where most media startups struggled. Her journey shows how to translate audience trust into revenue, balance storytelling with margins, and raise venture capital while protecting brand voice.

Edward Woodford

Founder & CEO, Zero Hash

Zero Hash raised over $170M from investors including Bain Capital Ventures and Point72 Ventures. Edward built the company as crypto infrastructure rather than a consumer-facing brand, embedding digital asset trading and settlement into fintech platforms, creating a rising unicorn in the space.

Why founders should care:
Edward has navigated volatile regulatory environments and multiple crypto cycles while building infrastructure revenue. His experience offers lessons in compliance-heavy categories, enterprise fintech partnerships, and surviving market swings.

Audrey Gelman

Co-Founder, The Wing

The Wing raised over $100M from investors including Sequoia Capital and NEA, expanding rapidly across major U.S. cities. The company became a high-profile brand before facing operational and governance challenges that ultimately reshaped its trajectory.

Why founders should care:
Audrey’s experience spans hypergrowth, marquee VC backing, intense media scrutiny, and scaling culture under pressure. Her story offers rare insight into how capital velocity and brand momentum interact — and where execution risk shows up.

Vivek Sharma

CEO, Movable Ink

Movable Ink raised nearly $100M and is now valued at over a billion dollars. The company scaled into a global enterprise SaaS platform serving major brands with personalization and marketing automation infrastructure.

Why founders should care:
Vivek’s journey reflects disciplined enterprise SaaS scaling — large rounds, global expansion, complex sales cycles, and measurable ROI. He demonstrates how to build durable growth in competitive B2B markets without chasing hype.

Alexis Lê-Quôc

Co-Founder & CTO, Datadog

Datadog raised roughly $150M in venture funding from firms including Index Ventures, OpenView, and ICONIQ before its 2019 IPO. Since going public, Datadog has grown into a cloud infrastructure leader with a market capitalization in the tens of billions of dollars, becoming foundational tooling for modern DevOps teams.

Why founders should care:
Alexis represents the technical founder who built a category-defining public company. His path shows how deep product focus, developer trust, and disciplined scaling can evolve into long-term public-market compounding.

Zuben Mathews

Co-Founder, Brigit

Brigit raised over $100M in venture capital to build financial wellness tools focused on everyday consumers. The company operates in consumer fintech, a heavily regulated and risk-sensitive environment, selling the company for over $400 million.

Why founders should care:
Zuben’s experience spans mission-driven fintech, underwriting risk, venture expectations, and navigating consumer regulation — all while scaling a financial product for underserved customers.

Rob May

Founder, Neurometric AI; Co-Founder, Backupify

Rob May founded Backupify, one of the earliest SaaS backup companies for cloud applications. Backupify raised venture capital and grew into a leading provider of cloud-to-cloud backup before being acquired by Datto in 2017. Datto later went public and was ultimately acquired by Kaseya in a $6 billion-dollar transaction.

Rob has since founded Neurometric AI and remains active in AI and early-stage investing.

Why founders should care:
Rob has built through multiple waves: early SaaS infrastructure, acquisition, public-market adjacency via Datto, and now AI. His experience spans fundraising, exit execution, enterprise SaaS scaling, and adapting as technology cycles evolve.

Event Schedule & RSVPs