College New Venture Challenge (CNVC)

David Appel serves as chairman and CEO of Wag Hotels, the West Coast’s leading pet care company. Prior to Wag Hotels, David served as chairman of Orange Glo International (the creator of Oxi Clean and 3 other category-leading household cleaning products). Prior to OGI, he helped to develop Accenture’s retail practice, serving as a partner in the San Francisco, Paris and Tokyo offices. David has been a director of Petco Animal Supplies and Chicago-based Fitness Cubed, marketer of Cubii fitness products. David is an active philanthropist and a mentor/investor in early-stage consumer-focused companies.

Starting in a spare bedroom in his parents’ home, Sid scaled a software development company, alligatortek, into one of the top 25 Microsoft Partners worldwide. He sold the company in 2020 to HealthChampion Partners.

He then served as President of Calcium, a digital health platform, helping it scale to a $75M company.

During Sid’s tenure as President and CEO of alligatortek, the company won Citizenship Partner of the Year from Microsoft and two Chicago Innovation Awards. The team was honored as a five-time winner of the 101 Best & Brightest Companies to Work For in the nation.

He serves on the boards of several private companies in healthcare (Silver Cross Hospital), marketing (M. Harris & Co.), government technology (DACRA Tech), digital experience (Relivable), food and beverage (Transcendence) and Calcium (digital health).

Sid serves on the boards of these nonprofits: The Economic Club of Chicago, Chicago Innovation and Lincoln Presidential Foundation. He is an active member in the Commercial Club of Chicago, the Chicago Club and Hyde Park Angels.

He holds a BA from the University of Chicago and graduate degrees from MIT and the State University of New York. He and his wife live in Chicago.

Larry Berlin, AB ’89, MBA ’94, is a founder of Blue Point Adivsory Services, a financial strategy consulting firm for younger businesses.  He is also an angel investor in about 10 businesses.  He also is a mentor for the New Venture Challenge at the Booth School of Business.  Previously, he was CFO at Freedom Fries, a search engine and news aggregator.  He was a senior vice president and general partner at First Analysis until April 2019, where he led venture  investment efforts and provided research coverage of leading private and publicly-traded companies in the financial technology and digital marketing sectors.  He serves on or has served on multiple boards including Movero, Freeosk, RiseKit and Incapital where he served on the compensation and audit committees. His work was cited for excellence in the StarMine analyst awards. Prior to joining First Analysis in 1999, he was acting CFO at Doculabs, a Chicago-based information technology consulting firm. Earlier, he was a consultant for Ganymede Corp., an associate in corporate finance at UBS, and a member of the Chicago Board Options Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade. He earned a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Outside of work he curls, bikes, sails, and is a photographer. He serves on multiple non-profit boards and committees.

John “JG” Chirapurath is Executive Vice President at SAP responsible for Data Analytics, AI and other product initiatives. Before that, JG served as SAP’s Chief Marketing & Solutions Officer.  Prior to joining SAP, JG held senior roles across Fortune 50 companies: Vice President at Microsoft responsible for Azure’s worldwide commercial strategy, marketing and GTM, Chief Strategy & Product Officer at ProQuest, and Vice President & General Manager at Hewlett Packard. Additionally, JG co-founded two core technology companies and led both to acquisition; one of the companies later became a case study at Harvard Business School.  He holds a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Maryland and a MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Arnav is the CEO and one of the founders of Cubii, a startup that is passionate about making wellness approaching for all ages, abilities, and lifestyles. Named as one of Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under Forty Class of 2020, and EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2020, he is a successful entrepreneur who has taken the time to listen to customers, using their direct feedback and personal stories to continue improving the products and experience for users of all fitness levels.  

Cubii was included in Inc. 500’s Fastest Growing Companies of 2020 for the second year in a row with a team that has now doubled in size and continues to grow. Even with expanding numbers, in sales and employees, Arnav and the leadership team have held close the importance of being a company that feels like a close-knit community. They strive to maintain a safe environment where people can be vulnerable, be heard and listened to, and can collaborate as a true member of a team.   

Arnav lives in Chicago with his wife, Shivani, who is also a co-founder of Cubii. 

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

Jennifer is the CEO and co-founder of Flow Medical, developer of a novel thrombolysis catheter to treat pulmonary embolism. Previously, Jennifer was the GM of Explorer Surgical, a GHX Company, after leading the company as CEO and Co-Founder from inception to exit. Both companies were founded with leading physicians at The University of Chicago Medical Center. Within the university, Jennifer also serves on the faculty at Booth as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship.

Jennifer’s passion is building innovative businesses in the healthcare industry, especially those that use technology to solve inefficiencies and improve patient care. She started her career as a consultant at Bain & Company in Chicago and prior to Explorer Surgical, Jennifer pursued a career as a healthcare venture capitalist. She currently invests part-time for two venture funds and is an active angel investor, LP and advisor to early-stage healthcare companies.

Jennifer holds bachelor’s degrees in applied mathematics and economics from Northwestern University and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She lives in Highland Park with her husband Eric, son Gabriel and daughter Zoe.

Robert Gertner is Joel F. Gemunder Professor of Strategy and Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business where he is also the John Edwardson Faculty Director of the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation. Gertner has been on the Chicago Booth faculty since 1986. He was a Deputy Dean at Chicago Booth from 2012 to 2017. His research interests include social innovation, strategic decision-making, organization economics, and social enterprises. He has published papers in numerous scholarly journals and is a co-author of the book Game Theory and the Law. Gertner teaches a course entitled Perspectives on Capitalism as well as several social entrepreneurship courses, including the one that supports the John Edwardson Social New Venture, UChicago’s accelerator for student-led social ventures. He is the Chair of NORC at the University of Chicago’s Board of Trustees, a member of the Faculty Advisory Board for the University of Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression, and is a life trustee of Interfaith America.

Louis Goldman is the General Counsel of Bloq, Inc., a leading blockchain technology company. He is also the managing partner of Navigator Law Group, a boutique law firm focused on corporate projects including M&A, securities, and significant work with startups, blockchain technology and venture capital/angel investing groups. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in economics and then earned a law degree from the University of Chicago Law School (Order of the Coif and cum laude). In New York City, Goldman worked for Cleary Gottlieb and also established a merchant bank, Abacus & Associates LP, where he was a managing director. In Chicago, he was the cochairman of Altheimer & Gray where he opened 10 offices outside of the US and managed a team of 450 people. He also was on the management and investment committees of 4 private investment funds of A&G Investors. He was a cofounder of JustWrite EMR, an electronic medical records startup.

Alex Meyer is a managing partner at Origin Ventures, a leading early stage venture capital firm focused on Series A and Seed investments throughout North America. He is the founder and chairman of the Harvard Business School Alumni Angels and Entrepreneurship Council of Chicago and serves on the global board of the HBS Alumni Angels Association. He helped establish the Global Alumni New Venture Competition at the Harvard Business School, where he is an emeritus member of the school’s alumni board of directors and its executive committee. He serves on the board of directors of the Illinois Venture Capital Association and served as part of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s tech and economic development delegations to London, Israel, Tokyo, Beijing, and Boston. Earlier in his career, Alex held leadership roles at SAP, Deloitte, and House of Blues. He is a founder and vice chairman of the board of Chicago’s Stage 773 Theater. Alex earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Carl Meyer is the chief executive officer and chief investment officer of Silver Rock Financial LP (“Silver Rock”), an investment management firm with offices in Los Angeles and New York.  Mr. Meyer founded Silver Rock in 2016, focusing on opportunistic investments within credit markets, including performing bonds and loans, and distressed debt. Prior to launching Silver Rock to raise outside capital, Mr. Meyer served as chief investment officer of Silver Rock’s predecessor firm, an ultra-high net worth family office based in Los Angeles, from 2010 to 2016.  Previously, Mr. Meyer worked for approximately 18 years at Citigroup or its predecessors where he ran the High Yield Syndicate business, the public side of the US High Yield business, and the Global Distressed Debt and Equity businesses.  Mr. Meyer earned a BA and MBA from the University of Chicago.

Doug Monieson, MBA ’89, is a veteran entrepreneur and Midwest investor. He is currently executive chairman of the board of UICO, a rugged touch screen company founded at Chicago Booth and one of the first investments made by Hyde Park Angels (HPA). He is chairman emeritus of Hyde Park Angels (HPA), the largest and most active angel group in the Midwest. Doug is also founder and head trader at Doug Monieson Trading, LLC. and on the Board of Directors of Fishidy, a mobile/social fishing app that was recently acquired by Ray Marine, a division of Flir Inc. He is also on the advisory board for the Kaplan Institute for Entrepreneurship at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He led the successful exit of Gradebeam, which was purchased by Textura (TXTR) in 2011.  Gradebeam.com was a SAAS business that connects general contractors and subcontractors in the construction industry. Doug has a bachelor’s degree in economics at the University of Michigan and an MBA in finance from Chicago Booth.

Jeb Ory, MBA ’11, is a startup founder, entrepreneur, and investor. He is currently advising a number of early stage companies, and testing a new startup idea. Previously, he cofounded Capitol Canary (previously, known as Phone2Action) and led the company from startup phase through multiple funding rounds, a private equity recap, two acquisitions, and ultimately to exit.

Ellen Rudnick, MBA ’73, is a successful startup executive, having served as chairman of Pacific Biometrics and CEO of Health Care Knowledge Resources. She has held positions as corporate vice president at Baxter Healthcare and president of Baxter Management Services Division, which she founded. Her current board experience includes Liberty Mutual Insurance and Old National Bank (NASDAQ: ONB). She previously served as a director of Patterson Companies (NASDAQ:PDCO), HMS (NASDAQ: HMSY) and Oxford Health. She serves on the MATTER board of directors and on the 1871 Advisory Board. She was formerly the inaugural executive director of the Polsky Center.

RoseMary Safranek founded Ninepeaks Capital Management in 2002. The firm is a specialized investment advisor.  She chairs the investment committee for an international family office and works closely with an Asian-based family office. RoseMary has lived and worked in New York, Hong Kong, London, Tokyo, and Chicago since setting out from Fort Smith, Arkansas to attend the University of Chicago in the 1970s.  A four-year varsity tennis player and Illinois Small College Doubles Champion, RoseMary earned an AB in economics and an MBA in finance from the Chicago Booth.

Adarsh Sarma is the Managing Partner and Founder of A3/C Partners (A3/C). Prior to founding A3/C, Mr. Sarma spent two decades at Warburg Pincus, a New York based private equity firm with more than $80 billion in AUM and was co-head of Europe and a Partner for 16 years. Mr. Sarma joined Warburg Pincus in New York in 2005 and moved to London in 2016. He has invested more than $5 billion of equity capital in 24 platform investments, both growth and late-stage buyouts in the US and Europe, focused on software and data, education, and tech enabled services sectors. He was selected by Financial News and Private Equity News as one of the 50 Most Influential in European Private Equity from 2020-2022. He serves on the Board of Pratham USA, one of India’s largest not-for-profit organizations. He is also a member of the Chicago Booth Trustees and Polsky Private Equity Council at the University of Chicago and a member of the Dean’s Council at Weill Cornell Medicine, which is focused on advancing the goals of medical research, teaching, and patient care. Prior to Warburg Pincus, he worked at ChrysCapital, a leading Indian private equity fund with over $5 billion in AUM, and prior to that Radiowave, a technology start-up whose Series A was led by Warburg Pincus, Intel and Motorola and prior to that McCown De Leeuw, a middle market focused private equity fund. He received a BA from Knox College, Phi Beta Kappa, and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

David Segura is an accomplished entrepreneur and investor with experience in a wide variety of industry verticals including media, fintech, and consumer categories among others. David has developed a reputation for being a “founder friendly investor” who adds value to company operations. A cross selection of current investments include Eaze, Grove Collaborative, Hawthorne, UsageAI, and many more. David has also previously founded Giant Media, where he served as the CEO from launch through acquisition. The company was an early video advertising exchange that included Toyota, American Express, L’Oreal, and Dollar Shave Club among others. Launched in 2009, Giant Media was successfully acquired in 2014 by Adknowledge, an AdTech platform funded by TPG Growth, JMI, and Nokia. David is currently the CEO of Glassbox Media, a podcast company and is a proud graduate of the University of Chicago.

Marc Shiffman is the former president and chief executive officer at SMS Assist. He also served on the board of directors. Before being named CEO in April 2019, Marc was president and chief financial officer. With thirteen years of experience leading SMS Assist, Marc was a driving force behind the company’s rapid revenue growth and profitability, and oversaw the development of market-leading, technologically driven solutions in the facilities management industry. Marc successfully sold SMS Assist to Lessen, Inc. in January 2023 creating a combined $2 billion+ leading end-to-end technology platform serving the entire property services management industry.

Marc transformed the company into a Proptech leader by innovating the service delivery model and establishing operational excellence, leading to highly profitable and scalable client relationships. SMS Assist redefined the way service providers and property owners work together by delivering unprecedented transparency and control within the facilities maintenance industry. Retail stores, banks, restaurants, rental homes, and more make up the 210,000+ properties that rely every day on SMS Assist’s technology platform, in-house subject matter experts, and 24/7 support. SMS Assist leverages its network of 20,000 skilled providers across more than 58 trades to deliver an exceptional maintenance experience to the communities where we live and work.

During Marc’s tenure, SMS Assist grew from 25 employees generating $30 million in revenue to more than 1,000 employees with nearly $1 billion in revenue. In June 2016, SMS Assist raised $150 million at a $1 billion valuation from Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, the same team that invested in Uber, Facebook, Pinterest, and Spotify. Goldman Sachs joined other notable investors including the Pritzker Group, Huizenga Group, and Insight Venture Partners.
Before joining SMS Assist, Marc provided strategic, financial, and operating support to entrepreneurs leading early-stage startups as they transitioned to hypergrowth mode. Prior to that, Marc worked as a senior executive in corporate finance and general management at MacAndrews & Forbes owned-and-operated companies including Revlon, The Coleman Company, and Sunbeam Household Products.

Marc earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and his MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Marc currently serves on the Board of Directors of Springbig (OTCQX: SBIG) as well as the Chicago Innovation Board of Advisors and the Board of 1871. In July 2019, Marc was named to the Crain’s Chicago Business Tech 50 list.

After many years of judging and mentoring Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge (NVC), Tebbe brings a wealth of successful entrepreneurial experience into the classroom by leveraging his founding of two NASDAQ-listed corporations as well as direct involvement in numerous startup and high-growth companies over the past thirty-five years. For over ten years, as both an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship and an entrepreneur-in-residence at the Polsky Center, Tebbe aids students in their entrepreneurial efforts and helps other professors enhance their classes. Outside of the classroom, Tebbe serves as chairman of World Business Chicago’s Innovation and Venture Strategy Council, a dedicated public-private effort to improve Chicago’s economic development as well as national and world competitiveness in science, technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship.