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Susan Mason, Managing Partner Aligned Partners has over 25 years of operating management and venture capital experience. She is the co-founding partner of Aligned Partners, an early stage venture capital firm focused on investing in capital efficient start-ups in the enterprise space. Prior to Aligned Partners, she was a General Partner with ONSET Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm with $600 million under management. Susan specializes in investing in the information technology area, specifically communications, security and financial technology. As an investor and board member, Susan has played a pivotal role in the development of companies including Securent (acqd CSCO), Alteon (IPO), Gadzoox (IPO), SilverTail Systems (acqd EMC), Omney (acqd MA), and many others. Prior to entering venture capital investing, she held positions in high-technology engineering, marketing and business development. She led a highly successful consulting practice, helping Fortune 1000 corporations capitalize on emerging markets and technologies. Early in her career, she held positions in marketing and engineering design of high-performance systems and microprocessors for Fujitsu Microelectronics, Fairchild Semiconductor and NCR Microelectronics. Susan received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Colorado and an M.B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a regular guest speaker on entrepreneurial topics at Stanford University, UCLA and many of the local events in Silicon Valley. She is a founding boardmember of the Center for Venture Education, which operates the Kauffman Fellows Program. She has served as its Chairman and continues to serve on the board as Chair Emeritus.
Clint Korver, Partner Ulu Ventures graduated from Grinnell with a B.A. with honors in mathematics. He also holds an M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford University in management sciences and engineering. He is a partner and co-founder at Ulu Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm investing in early-stage information technology companies. He is also a Kauffman fellow, co-founder and co-president of Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs, and a venture partner at Crescendo Ventures. Prior to venture investing, Clint founded and led Outcome Software, Decision Street, The Decision Company, and Decision Quality International, all of which helped individuals or organizations make better decisions through software, consulting, or training. He regularly guest lectures at Stanford on entrepreneurship, decision-making, and ethics. He has taught ethical decision-making at both Stanford and Grinnell College and co-authored Ethics for the Real World (Harvard Business Press 2008).
Pocket Sun is co-founder and Managing Partner at SoGal Ventures, the world’s first female-led millennial venture capital firm. Previously she founded SoGal, one of the largest global networks for women entrepreneurs and investors, across 10 international chapters. At SoGal Ventures, Pocket and her business partner Elizabeth Galbut invest in and advise on early stage startups that are redefining how the next generation lives, works, and stays healthy. The duo has invested in 40 companies in the past two years. Pocket received her Master’s Degree from the University of Southern California in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and shortly after became one of the youngest people to ever be on the cover of Forbes Magazine at the age of 24. She has been featured in Forbes 30 Under 30, Fortune, BBC World News, LinkedIn Top Voices, Prestige 40 Under 40, Harper’s BAZAAR, CCTV, The Straits Times, Business Times, Channel News Asia, DBS Bank “Asian Unstoppables”, etc.
Moderator: David Spark is a veteran tech journalist and founder Spark Media Solutions, a content marketing firm for the B2B technology industry. Spark has reported on the tech scene for more than 20 years in more than 40 media outlets. and he now reports predominantly at trade shows for companies such as HP, IBM, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Dice, Citrix, and Juniper Networks. Read Spark’s musing on his Spark Minute blog or listen to him and his co-host weekly on the Tear Down Show podcast.
