Demo Day of Outstanding Startups

Fadi Ghandour is the Founder and Vice Chairman of Aramex. He is currently Executive Chairman of Wamda Ventures, a new Venture Capital fund focusing on technology investments in the Arab World, and Managing Partner of MENA Venture Investments. He is Member of the Board of Abraaj Capital, Member of the Board of Endeavor Global, Member of the Advisory Council of the MIT Media Lab and Member of the Board of Trustees at the American University of Beirut (AUB). He is also Founding Investor in Maktoob.com sold to yahoo in 2009. Ghandour is the Founder and Chairman of Ruwwad for Development, and Chairman of Ruwwad Micro-Venture Fund, an equity-based fund providing seed capital and support for microbusinesses and micro-entrepreneurs.

Yousef Hamidaddin leads an Innovative Strategy Initiative from Jordan, and was previously the Chief Executive Officer of Oasis 500. His current focus is on developing funding models for startups and SME’s across the region to be launched this year, and creating innovative funds that can deliver the rebuilding requirements for distressed countries such as Syria, and Yemen. For the last 3 years he has been focused on building and deploying a regional innovative strategy starting from Jordan and worked on developing innovative funds to deliver solutions that address the a region to be well positioned to be an "open lab” - a term he coined for early adoption that can take solutions globally. Yousef launched the Creative industries Fund for Jordan, the Oasis 500 Space Venture Initiative in partnership with the European Space Agency, and the European Investment Bank, the Yemen Startup Fund.

Evan Burfield is a cofounder of 1776, driven by his passionate belief in entrepreneurship as the engine for solving the major problems facing America and the world today—from education to energy efficiency.

Evan became an entrepreneur in 1996 when he founded netDecide, shortly after graduating from the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. Before he turned 25, he built netDecide into the leading provider of enterprise wealth management solutions for top tier financial service firms. After netDecide, Evan served as the Director of Strategy and Technology for Oakwood Global Finance, where he led the London-based private equity firm’s analyses of new global markets, new business models in financial services, and data-driven investment strategies. In 2006, Evan returned to Washington, D.C. to found Synteractive, a consulting firm that builds innovative social apps for startups, corporations, and government agencies.

Evan holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford. While at Oxford, he won the Webb Medley prize for outstanding work on the effects of organizational incentives on knowledge sharing. Evan currently serves on the Board of the Rothermere American Institute at Oxford, dedicated to the study of American history and politics.

Alex Salkever is a writer, futurist and technology leader. He is the co-author with Vivek Wadhwa of “The Driver in the Driverless Car: How Our Technology Choices Can Change the Future”. The book was named as a Finalist in the 2017 McKinsey / Financial Times Book of the Year Competition, one of the most prestigious competitions in business books. In the book and in dozens of articles published online he explores exponentially advancing technologies such as robotics, genomics, renewable energy, quantum computing, artificial intelligence and driverless cars. He previously served as the Technology Editor at BusinessWeek.com and as a Guest Researcher at the Duke University Pratt School of Engineering.

Over his career, Salkever has collaborated with Vivek Wadhwa on two books and wide range of research projects. Their first book, “The Immigrant Exodus: Why America Is Losing the Global Race to Capture Entrepreneurial Talent” was named a Book of the Year by The Economist in 2012. They are working on several additional book projects looking at the intersection of technology and society and the impact on the future of work, what it means to be human, and how we can be happy while using technology.

When not writing, Alex has served as a senior executive at a host of Silicon Valley startups in green technology, data science, open government, and cloud computing. He has been a senior leader at respected brands in technology, most recently at Mozilla where he served as a vice president.

He speaks regularly at industry conferences, universities and schools and to corporations and Boards of Directors.

Dr. Deniz Tunçalp is Associate Professor of Management, Advisor to the Rector on Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Istanbul Techical University. Dr. Tuncalp is also Board Member of ITU GINOVA Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and CMO at ITU ARI Teknokent, which is the leading teknokent in Turkey, aiming to develop entrepreneurship and innovation.

Bill Kenney has founded 6 companies and currently leads two growing ventures. MEET (My Expo & Event Team) specializes in helping growth companies and economic development agencies effectively exhibit at trade shows. Test My Pitch is an online platform helps students, entrepreneurs and professionals develop their communication skills quickly in a safe and collegial environment. Bill entertains audiences frequently and speaks on a variety of topics, including entrepreneurship, networking, revenue generation, and community building. He also leads several community building efforts in his home state, Connecticut, USA. Bill is an active participant in the Startup Champions Network (formerly Startup America). He is an avid sailor, cyclist, and paddleboarder.

I am the author of bestseller The Art of Business Networking Book and co-author of the Golden Rules of Entrepreneurship.

As the Speed Networking expert and executive trainer, I consult for international companies, startup hubs and NGOs with Networking trainings, one-to-one CEO Mentoring and Speed Networking events.

David S. Rose has been described as ""New York's Archangel"" by Forbes, ""patriarch of Silicon Alley"" by Red Herring, and a ""world conquering entrepreneur"" by BusinessWeek. He is a serial entrepreneur, an Inc 500 CEO, one of the world's most active angel investors., and CEO of Gust, the SaaS platform powering over 500,000 startups and 50,000 early-stage investors. He's the NYT best selling author of ""Angel Investing: The Gust Guide to Making Money & Having Fun Investing in Startups"" and ""The Startup Checklist: 25 Steps to a Scalable, High-Growth Business.

David founded New York Angels, runs the AREA accelerator, is on the boards of KoolSpan and Social Bicycles and has funded over 100 early stage companies, with exits to Facebook, Google, Intel, Amazon, and other industry leaders. He founded the Finance, Entrepreneurship & Economics track at Singularity University, and is a keynote speaker on the future of business and technology. Dubbed by BusinessWeek ""The Pitch Coach,"" he is a frequent guest lecturer at business schools including Yale, Harvard, Columbia, NYU and Venture for America. He founded wireless Internet pioneer AirMedia in 1988, and in 1997 was honored as a finalist for Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Earlier in his career David was co-founder of one of the world’s first computer training firms, and spent a decade developing technology-enhanced real estate. Prior to that, he served as Deputy Director of the New York office of US Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

A native New Yorker, David has a B.A. from Yale (where he is an Associate Fellow of Pierson College), an M.B.A. in Finance from Columbia Business School and a D.Eng. (hc) from Stevens Institute of Technology. He is a graduate of the New York City public school system and Horace Mann High School.

Chris does all sorts in banking and technology. He writes a daily blog at thefinanser.com, and consults about the future. When people want digital banking done, he brings in 11:FS. When they want to know everything FinTech, he refers them to Innovate Finance. When people want to meet, he tells them about the Financial Services Club (fsclub.net) and Nordic Finance Innovation (nordicfinanceinnovation.com). Oh, and he speaks at lots of conferences and is a prolific author of 14 books.

Global Head of Strategy of Naspers with responsibility for group portfolio strategy, identifying investment opportunities, corporate development, and special projects. Investor in and board member at various growth stage companies

Hasan Haider is a Partner at 500 Startups, the most active Venture Capital firm in the world, based in Silicon Valley, with 1,700+ investments in 50+ countries and $330m in AuM. Hasan heads up the firms practice in the MENA region, with the Arabic speaking market being a core area of focus. 500 Startups has invested in 30+ startups in the region over the course of the last 4 years, including Wuzzuf, Jamalon and fetchr. Hasan is also the CEO and founder of Tenmou, the first business angel’s organization in Bahrain and one of the first in the MENA region, and a founding member of the MENA Angel Investors Network (MAIN), an association of all the active angel investment groups in the region. Hasan’s work in developing angel investment in emerging markets through Tenmou has been picked up as a case study by the World Bank and is taught to Entrepreneurship Policy makers at Babson College. Hasan is an active support of startups in the MENA region, having invested in close to 40 of them, and looks to continue to actively invest in seed stage startups across the region.

Mr. Omar A Syed is a well-experienced private equity professional. He is managing director at The Abraaj Capital and has been working for nearly 10 years. Previously Mr. Syed took several responsibilities at American Capital Strategies and PricewaterhouseCoopers (pwc). Mr. Syed also has responsibilities at Yörsan and hepsiburada.com.

Mike Butcher is Editor At Large of TechCrunch, the biggest breaking news site about the world’s hottest tech companies. Mike has been named one of the most influential people in technology in surveys by The Daily Telegraph, GfK NOP, The Independent, Wired and The Evening Standard. He is a regular commentator on the tech business, appearing on the BBC, Sky News, and Channel 4, among others. Mike is also co-founder of TechHub, the co-working network for startups, and founder of the Coalition for a Digital Economy and a London Technology Ambassador.

"Khaled is a career venture capitalist and currently Managing Partner at Wamda Capital, a Venture Capital fund investing in technology-enabled companies in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey. He started his career at Dubai International Capital where he supported the development of the MENA region’s first seed capital fund. Since then Khaled assumed a number of venture capital and startup roles including heading investments and strategy at twofour54 in Abu Dhabi. Khaled has centered his career around identifying and investing in disruptive businesses that displace incumbent inefficiencies in traditional sectors of the economy. His areas of interest include ecommerce, Fintech, marketplaces, digital content and enterprise solutions. Through out his career Khaled has focused on building lasting partnerships with the entrepreneurs delivering the region’s digital economy. Khaled has invested in and managed over 60 early stage transactions including Careem, Littlebits, Mumzworld, Insider and Luxury Closet."

Faruk Eczacibasi is one of the two equal partners of Eczacibasi Holding, which amassed wealth from pharmaceutical assets before moving away from drugs and into building materials, consumer products, finance, information technology, mining and real estate development. It owns one of the world's largest ceramic factories and is the market leader in Turkey for toilet paper. After graduating from the German High School in Istanbul, Faruk went on to study at the Berlin Technical University for both an undergraduate and a post-graduate degree in management. He is currently the president of the Eczacibasi Sports Club, whose women's volleyball team won the Women's Club World Championship in 2015. He has an extensive modern art collection and loves jazz music; he lives in Istanbul's historic peninsula of Galata.

"She is building O.school, a shame-free platform for pleasure education. Previously, Venture partner & entrepreneur-in-residence at 500Startups & co-founder at inDinero, led team to first $3M ARR in sales, generated $1M in sales personally in < one year through empathy superpowers. Company is now 200+ employees with 5 offices. "

Jeff Burton co-founded Electronic Arts, CardSmith, and Licence to Mail. He is currently CEO of Woodside Creek, LLC and is working on a stealth project. Jeff recently served as the Executive Director at SkyDeck Berkeley, the University’s only cross-discipline startup accelerator from its beginning until the end of last year. He was the third employee of Atari’s International Home Computer Division, responsible for its business development throughout Europe and the Middle East. Just as the Venture Capital communities were awakening to the power of home computing and the serial potential of entrepreneurs in emerging digital companies, he joined former classmates as a founding team member of Electronic Arts in 1982. There he led the company’s international expansion from inception until its IPO 7 years later. With the advent of the Internet and the dominating role of software development, he founded and/or led a series of software companies including License to Mail, Cardsmith, The Hive Group, and Just Arrive, all of which were the result of ideas and skills of recent Stanford University graduates. Jeff obtained his undergraduate education and MBA at Stanford University and has lived in the Bay Area for the past 40 years.

Mudassir Sheikha is the co-founder and Managing Director of Careem, MENA’s leading car booking service that is based out of Dubai and operates from Morocco to Pakistan. Prior to Careem, Mudassir was an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he advised clients on strategy and business building. Before McKinsey, Mudassir spent a decade in the Silicon Valley building technology startups, where he was most recently the co-founder of DeviceAnywhere, which was eventually acquired by Keynote Systems. He has an academic background in Computer Science and Economics from Stanford and USC.

"Over the last 20 years he has co-founded several startups such as Araneum, one of the first Danish web-companies, with Alexander Aghassipour, co-founder of Zendesk, and with other prominent Danish IT-entrepreneurs such as Thomas Madsen-Mygdal and Nikolaj Nyholm. He serves on a number of boards of eCommerce and IT or web companies where my primary contributions comes from my unique combination of business, technology and legal insight and experience. Today, He spends a considerable portion of my time and energy on advising on legal and commercial issues related to open licensing within open source, creative commons (open content), open data, open APIs and so one. "

Internet/Media entrepreneur and CEO dividing time between the future of news and advocating/mentoring for global entrepreneurship. A few hours a day as a venture investor in US startups and VC funds and writer on entrepreneurship, innovation and emerging markets. Author of the new Startup Rising: The Entrepreneurial Revolution Remaking the Middle East.

In 1997, in partnership with Softbank, Teruhide Sato co-founded Cybercash Japan (now known as VeriTrans), an online payment company that went public in 2004 and later was acquired by Digital Garage. In 1999, he also co-founded BEENOS (formerly netprice) and as CEO took it public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2004. He has typically invested in commerce platforms and payment platforms in emerging markets such as Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, India, and Turkey. Notable Investments are Tokopedia, Veritrans Indonesia, Shopclues, CitrusPay, KartRocket, Akakce, Iyzico, Duriana, Paynamics, and Nearex. Member of Nippon Keidanren(Japan Business Federation), YPO and YGL(WEF).

Ross Kingsland is Communication Strategist for prestigious clients like Lamborghini, Virgin and high profile individuals. Ross is the founder of Inception Growth. Ross believes that the difference between those who succeed and those who fail is the skill to inspire others to act. Ross works with leaders and organisations who have a desire to inspire those around them and succeed. Inspiration is a key tool that has been utilised by highly successful organisations and individuals strategically. This is not anecdotal. This is not mythical. Inspiration is a science-based, psychological process as easy as turning on a light bulb – once you know where the switch is. Ross has dedicated his life to, not only the science of creating inspiration in the minds of others, but applying this to multi million dollar business strategies and high profile leaders to achieve the result they are seeking.

"Serdar Kuzuloğlu has been a journalist since 1994. My area of ​​expertise is technology and trends.

Currently, he is consulting various companies for digital content production, communication strategies, product development, repositioning and social media. Istanbul Bilgi University has many programs licensed. He teachs Digital Marketing at Next Academy.

The most pleasant part of his speech (from my point of view) is to speak at conferences and seminars.

He founded and directed several popular websites, including newspapers, TV channels, radios, video and music services. He took part in a series of digital service purchases, sales and mergers."

Nick Tommarello is the founder and CEO of Wefunder, an equity crowdfunding platform that has funded over 100 startups with $15 million. He’s an alumni of both Y Combinator and Techstars, and also mentors many of the startups he’s helped fund. In his spare time, he climbs mountains and digs up dinosaurs.

Marie is a passionate believer in the power of entrepreneurs to transform their communities— and the world—for the better. Committed to creating opportunities for the exchange of people and ideas, she brings energy, curiosity, and creativity to everything she does. Before joining the Blackbox team, Marie served under the Obama Administration at the U.S. Department of State. She was a member of the planning committee for the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit, designing and executing digital engagement strategies that resulted in the largest combined online reach of any U.S. government-sponsored event in history. Marie has worked with young people from more than 120 countries, empowering them to lead the way in developing smart solutions to some of the most pressing global challenges of today. Today, Marie is focused on helping entrepreneurs connect to their own greatness through Blackbox. She leads program development and works to cultivate, engage, and maintain a top-notch global community of Blackbox alumni, advisors, speakers, and mentors. Marie graduated cum laude from George Washington University. She lives in San Francisco with her boyfriend, Dmitri, and cat, Pippi. In her spare time, she enjoys making music, cooking, and seeking out adventure whenever (and wherever) possible.