GNVC Finals Livestream

Waverly Deutsch created WyseHeart Advisory to continue her work with entrepreneurs and venture capital firms which includes serving on the advisory boards of several startup companies, as an Operating Partner for OCA Ventures, and as a Senior Advisor for PACE Healthcare Capital. Prior to WyseHeart, Waverly spent 22 years as a professor at Chicago Booth where she most recently taught the Global New Venture Challenge and Building the New Venture for Booth’s Executive MBA program. From 2001 to 2021, she was a full-time coach for the New Venture Challenge, a top-ranked academic accelerator program that has launched over 600 successful companies. In 2005, she received the US Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship’s Innovative Teaching Pedagogy award for the YourCo simulation that parallels the Building the New Venture class and allows students to develop and run a mock startup through the launch process. In 2015, Deutsch was honored with the Phoenix Faculty award for her contributions to the Booth student community beyond the classroom. Her quarterly articles appeared in the Chicago Booth Review magazine from 2016 thru 2021. Before joining Chicago Booth, Waverly was managing director of NetFuel Ventures, an internet incubator. Waverly spent seven years with Forrester Research in Cambridge Massachusetts, a leading technology market research firm. Waverly holds a BS in computer science from the University of Pittsburgh and a PhD in theater history from Tufts University

Venetia Kontogouris is the managing director of Venkon Group LLC, a company that invests in real estate and early stage ventures, with an emphasis on technology and cloud-based services. Current investments include Zumigo, Ruby Seven Studios, Flow Inc., Be Health, Energy Savvy, and Simple Mills. Prior to her employment with Venkon Group, Kontogouris was the senior managing director for Trident Capital, where she oversaw venture capital investing. She was one of the original members and co-managing partner for Funds IV, V, and VI with over $1.5 billion of venture investments under management. During her time at Trident Capital, she was responsible for many successful investments and exits including, Odyssey Logistics, Outsource Partners International, Microland, Advantec, Infotrieve, Sphere, Viant, Daou Systems, Vality, PBN/Taleo, IPro, Invention Machine, and CrossMedia.

Sonia Nagar is a Venture Capitalist, angel investor, and board director. Sonia is currently a General Partner at Pritzker Group Venture Capital responsible for sourcing, diligence and oversight of the firm’s investments in marketplaces, consumer products and services, and emerging technology companies. Before joining PGVC Sonia was vice president of product and head of mobile apps for RetailMeNot, responsible for leading an app redesign that earned a People’s Voice Webby Award for Best Shopping App. Sonia joined RetailMeNot in 2014 following its acquisition of Pickie, the venture-backed mobile shopping start-up she co-founded in 2011. Prior to Pickie, Sonia was a senior associate for Booz & Company, and worked in product management, investment banking, and engineering roles with Amazon, Goldman Sachs and General Motors.

Koichiro “Koh” Nakamura has led numerous investments including Coinbase, Palantir, and Square. He is also actively involved with Zoom, Fastly, Insightly, One Concern, Chainalysis, and Clearbanc among others. Koh, a Waseda University Law and Chicago Booth MBA graduate  and two times finalist of NVC, was a member of Kauffman Fellows Class 12, and was given the Jeff Timmons Memorial Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to that program. 

He was an early pioneer in Japan’s IT scene as a member of the founding team of Yahoo Japan, and led the seed investment into Scigineer. He co-founded Sozo Ventures in 2012 to guide globally ambitious founders looking to maximize Japan and Asian expansion opportunities. Koh, who says, “Iconic companies go global, and global markets go through Japan,” points to Palantir as the portfolio company that took the long-term view, which has rewarded them with a $150M joint-venture in Japan, and over $550M in the pre-IPO round from Japanese partners.

Koh, having shepherded hundreds of companies through international expansion, has shared his expertise in Nikkei, MarketWatch, Forbes Japan, Venture Capital Journal, Newspicks and many other publications.

Kathleen Swan is a partner in the Chicago office of Locke Lord LLP where her practice focuses on corporate finance, venture capital, private equity, and institutional private placements. Kathleen has represented clients within a number of diverse industries, including health care, retail, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and utilities operations. She has represented both venture capitalists and angels in connection with their respective purchases of common and preferred stock; institutional investors in connection with the purchase of both senior and subordinated secured and unsecured notes; and investment bankers in connection with the sale of several corporations.