Edward L. Kaplan, '71, New Venture Challenge (NVC)

Roy Bahat is the head of Bloomberg Beta, the early-stage venture firm backed by Bloomberg L.P. that invests in startups making work better. Bloomberg Beta treats founders as its customers and was the first venture capital firm to focus on the future of work and the first to focus on artificial intelligence. The firm sees Bloomberg L.P. as an inspiration for startups: founded on a powerful idea, led by its founders for decades, reaching global scale, and embracing technology as part of a strong, transparent company culture. Bloomberg Beta has invested in Replit, Lambda Labs, MasterClass, Flexport, Campus, and Weights & Biases, among other companies.

Before starting Bloomberg Beta more than a decade ago, Roy started a venture-backed company, was a corporate executive (at News Corp.), in government (at New York’s City Hall), in media, and in academia. He was named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business. Roy hosts a podcast called This Is Not Advice, about how successful people thrive in their occupation (e.g., “how to be a scientist”).

Roy teaches at U.C. Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, including a first-of-its-kind course on organized labor and another on the media industry. He was named one of the favorite MBA professors.

Roy serves on the board or has been an advisor to several non-profits including the Golden Gate Institute for AI, Abundance Network, Stanford’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, the Economic Security Project, and the Center for Investigative Reporting. Roy chairs the Aspen Institute’s Business Roundtable on Organized Labor, and was a commissioner on the California Governor’s Future of Work Commission. He proposed the creation of the National Academy for AI Instruction, led by the American Federation of Teachers and United Federation of Teachers. Roy is also a senior fellow (non-resident) at the Brookings Institution, where he writes about AI.

Roy graduated from Harvard College and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University.

Cindy is an affiliate at ARCH Venture Partners. She focuses on life science businesses and is a cofounder of several ARCH portfolio companies, including deCODE genetics, an Icelandic diagnostics company; Adolor, a pharmaceutical firm developing novel analgesics; and Elixir Pharmaceuticals, an anti-aging and metabolic disease company. Cindy has worked with ARCH since 1992 and has been instrumental in sourcing companies like Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Agios Pharmaceuticals. She has also participated in the planning and diligence for many other companies in the portfolio. Early in her career, she was a general field engineer with Schlumberger Offshore Services. She holds a BS in physics from the University of Rochester and an MBA and PhD in virology from the University of Chicago.

Joshua Bloom has advised over 250 tech companies on monetization, growth, and go-to-market strategies, helping to create billions in enterprise value. He’s passionate about driving sustainable & profitable growth, especially in the emerging AI sector.   In his previous role as Managing Partner for North America at Simon-Kucher, he led a team of 30 Partners and 300 associates, while also steering the US LLC’s financial operations.

Dan Caruso is Managing Director of Caruso Ventures, a 3x decacorn entrepreneur and an avid supporter of entrepreneurship.

In 2020, Dan and Cindy Caruso founded Caruso Ventures, which represents their investment portfolio, family office, and not-for-profit activities. Most of Caruso Ventures’ direct investments are in support of the Colorado ecosystem. Current investments include Exum Instruments, BillGO, Genalyte, Canopy Aerospace, Kuleana Rum Works, ALLCITY, Radia, Boom Supersonic, Guest House, Tovala, Language I/O, Outside Interactive, Voyager Space Holdings, Honest Jobs, Maybell Quantum Industries, VUZ, Arryved, Atom Computing, Infleqtion, Codigo Tequila, Mindful Care, Pippin Title, Ninja Nation, Firefly, Resonance, Chamba, Agile Space Industries, Toters and Zayo Group. Exited investments include euNetworks, Bolder Surgical, Envysion, GTS Central Europe, and Galvanize.

Dan was the Founding Partner, Chairman and CEO of Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ZAYO), where investors enjoyed a $8.5B equity exit on a $1.0B investment. Dan was a co-founding executive of Level 3 and joined Metropolitan Fiber Systems (MFS) as it began to scale. All three exited for enterprise values > $10B. Dan also led the take private of ICG, which achieved a 25X return and led to the ideation of Zayo.

Dan is a supporter of Colorado’s and Chicago’s entrepreneurial community, and is particularly interested in the intersection between tech scaleups and inclusion. He serves as Chairman of the Board for Endeavor Colorado and is on the boards of Elevate Quantum and Colorado Thrives. Dan was the original Steering Committee Chairman of Colorado’s Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network.

In 2015, Dan and Cindy established The Caruso Foundation to Support Initiatives that Inspire Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Inclusion. The Caruso Foundation supports a number of impactful organizations including University of Chicago’s New Venture Challenge, University of Colorado Boulder’s Startup Summer, Catalyze CU, and New Venture Challenge, Greenhouse Scholars, Endeavor Colorado, Colorado Thrives, CiviCO, Access Opportunity, and EforAll.

Dan is a recipient of several awards including the Chicago Booth Distinguished Alumni Award for Entrepreneurship, University of Illinois Alumni Award for Distinguished Service, Colorado Technology Association’s Bob Newman Lifetime Achievement Award, University of Colorado Leeds Corporate Partner Award (Zayo), and Colorado Governor’s Corporate Citizenship Medal.

Dan gave the commencement address for the University of Illinois Grainger College of Engineering (2019) and the University of Colorado Boulder MBA (2020).

Dan holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois.

Bin Chen is Co-founder of Stori, a unicorn fintech focused on providing equal access to compelling banking products with digital features in Latin America. As CEO of Stori for over 7 years, Bin led the founding and scaling of Stori to over 4 million customers, $400 million annualized revenues and profitability, besides raising $350 million equity from top global investors such as GIC, General Catalyst and Lightspeed. Bin has 24 years of fintech experience with Stori, Capital One, BCG, and Mastercard in Mexico, U.S., and Asia, where he has been focused on driving financial inclusion with innovations and technology. Bin has an MBA from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in International Economics from Fudan University.

Jake Crampton is the founder and CEO of MedSpeed, the market-leading provider of same-day transportation services to the healthcare industry. Under Jake’s leadership, MedSpeed has grown from a Chicago-based startup to a national enterprise with over 140 operations across 29 states and a client base that includes one-quarter of the top 100 health systems in the country. Jake and his classmates created the concept for MedSpeed at Chicago Booth as the final project for Professor James Schrager’s New Venture Strategy course which they further developed as a participant in the second annual Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge. After winning the competition, Jake changed his postgraduation plans to focus on launching MedSpeed.

An entrepreneur by nature, Jake founded and nurtured a successful language-training business in Mexico City prior to launching MedSpeed. Jake was named Entrepreneur of the Year Midwest by EY in 2017 and received the Chicago Booth Entrepreneurial Distinguished Alumni Award in 2021. Jake earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois and an MBA in entrepreneurship from Chicago Booth.

Sara Crown Star is a Venture Partner with FemHealth Ventures, a firm focused on advancing innovations in women’s health. FemHealth invests in drugs, devices, digital applications and diagnostics.  Sara was a director of Thinx, a FemTech company she backed and advised from its early stages, which was sold to Kimberly Clark in 2022. She is a life trustee of Erikson Institute and a director of 1871, Musicians on Call, Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago, and the Covenant, Ortus, and Crown Family Foundations.

Earlier in her career, Sara practiced law in New York City and Chicago. She also served as a trustee, governor, or director on multiple boards including, Crown Family Philanthropies, Craniofacial Center at the University of Illinois, Latin School of Chicago, and Hebrew Union College. In addition, Sara launched the Business Law Scholars certificate track at Georgetown Law, the Star Fellows Cantorial program at Hebrew Union College, and the Bazelon Fellowship at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law in Washington, D.C.

Sara has a B.S. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, an Executive MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and graduated from the Wexner Heritage Program. In addition, she received the Paul R. Dean Alumni Award from Georgetown University Law Center, the Spirit of Erikson Award from the Erikson Institute, and the Shofar Award from Chicago’s Jewish United Fund.

Sara was the 2013 Runner Up in the Giordano’s Dancing with the Stars competition and has co-produced two Off-Broadway shows.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/saracrownstar/

Jai Das is a managing director, president, and cofounder at Sapphire Ventures. He invests in startups which he believes are developing ground-breaking products and services, and have embarked on their journey to become a company of consequence. Das has more than 15 years of experience helping companies innovate their product and marketing strategies in order to scale and become market leaders. Eleven of his investments have become publicly traded companies including Alteryx, Box, Five9, Square, and Nutanix as well as nine of his investments have been acquired including Apigee (Google), CloudHealth (VMware), ExactTarget (Salesforce), and MuleSoft (Salesforce). Das is currently a member of the board (director or observer) at AllyO, Catchpoint, Clari, DataRobot, JFrog, Narrative Science, OpsRamp, Portworx, PubNub, Punchh, Splashtop, Sumo Logic, and ThoughtSpot. Prior to joining Sapphire Ventures in 2006, Das worked at Oracle, Intel Capital, Agilent Ventures, and MVC Capital. He earned a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Brown University and an MBA from Chicago Booth, where he was awarded the George Hay Brown Prize for academic excellence.

Laura Desmond is the CEO at Smartly, an AI-powered advertising technology company, transforming ad experiences for brands and their consumers.

Prior to Smartly, Desmond was Chief Revenue Officer of Publicis Groupe and Chief Executive Officer of Starcom Mediavest Group, the #1 media and marketing services agency brand globally for five straight years under her leadership. Desmond has worked with some of the biggest and most successful marketers worldwide, including Samsung, Spotify, Coca-Cola, Visa, Bank of America, and P&G. 

During her career in Advertising, Desmond has been awarded many honors including: AAF Hall of Achievement, Ad Age “Women to Watch”, WSJ Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Business, Fortune’s Most Powerful Women and Chairwoman of the Advertising Council. Today, Laura serves on the boards of Adobe, DoubleVerify, as well as Smartly.

Additionally, Desmond is a champion of the advancement of women’s sports serving as an early investor in Chicago women’s sports franchises, including the Chicago Sky and the Chicago Red Stars.

Thomas is a Partner at Elopian Capital, a private investment company focused on early stage software and services businesses. Elopian manages solely the Partners’ money and has a patient and long-term investment horizon. Prior to Elopian, he was the co-founder and co-CEO of Tegus, a leading research platform serving more than 30,000 public and private market institutional investors, investment bankers, consultants, and corporations. In 2024, Tegus was acquired by AlphaSense for $930m. Thomas received his BA in Economics from Brown University. He lives with his wife and two children in Chicago.

Jim Frank spent his entire business career leading Wheels, Inc, a business wholly owned by the Frank Family, where he was CEO from 1975 until becoming Executive Chair in 2017.  Jim’s son, Dan, was CEO from 2017 until October of 2021 when the business was sold to Athene Insurance, a subsidiary of Apollo.  Wheels founded the Vehicle Fleet Management and Leasing Industry in 1939 and, under Jim’s direction since 1975 was a leader in Innovation, growing from 25,000 vehicles to become one of North America’s premier fleet management providers with over 300,000 vehicles under management in North America and over 1 million vehicles in 40 countries in partnership with ALD.  Jim has held leadership roles in Industry Organizations, has been keynote speaker at national conferences and has testified on behalf of the Industry before the US Congress, Federal Trade Commission, U. S. Treasury, and the Financial Accounting Standards Board.

Jim has a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Stanford University. He is actively involved in Community affairs, serving on the Boards of: University of Chicago, Dartmouth College, Field Museum of Natural History, Illinois Network of Charter Schools, Teach for America, The Chicago Public Education Fund, Vice Chair of the University of Chicago Medical Center where he was recognized as an “Honorary Fellow of the Division of Biological Sciences, and Board Chair of Intrinsic Schools, a charter school network serving 2,000 students in Chicago.

Jim lives with his wife Karen in Winnetka, Illinois and Aspen, Colorado.  They have three children, and five grandchildren.

Brent Hill is a partner at Origin Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on software, marketplace, and consumer companies. He serves on the board of directors of portfolio companies 15Five, Fountain, Blueboard, Measured, Tilt, Everee, Salad, Pronto, Voxpopme and Kidizen. He is a board observer for the firm’s investments in Cameo, Tracer, and ViralGains. Other previous investments include Grubhub (NYSE: GRUB) , Tubemogul (acquired by NASD: ADBE), Ahalogy (acquired by NYSE: QUOT), Teem (acquired by WeWork), and Apptentive (acquired by Alchemer).  Prior to joining Origin, Brent led sales organizations for Twitter, Google, and Feedburner. Before joining FeedBurner, he was the president of a national consumer services business, an entrepreneur-in-residence, and an EVP with a unit of Interactive Corp. He also co founded MVP.com, an early e-commerce business. Brent started his career with Accenture, where he spent 10 years developing CRM software for the telecom industry. He received a BS in finance from Bradley University and an MBA from Chicago Booth.

Robert is a Partner at The SoftBank Vision Fund, the worlds largest technology investment firm, where he leads investments across ML/AI, Generative AI, Consumer Enablement, and Consumer Internet. Before joining SoftBank, Robert was a Principal at B Capital Group leading investments across similar verticals.

Robert began his career at JP Morgan, before leaving to run business operations at a seed-stage ad-tech startup and then lead Growth at Spring (acq. ShopRunner). Robert received a BBA from the University of Michigan (Class of 2011) and an MBA from the University of Chicago (Class of 2019).

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.

Mark Koulogeorge is managing general partner of MK Capital where he leads the firm’s digital marketing and software investment practices and has over eighteen years of venture capital experience. Mark’s functional expertise is in developing sales, marketing and distribution strategies to achieve market leadership and in the building of high performance executive teams.

Prior to founding MK Capital, Mark was a managing director at First Analysis and served as a general partner of The Productivity Fund III & The Productivity Fund IV. Prior to his career in venture capital, Mr. Koulogeorge was an Executive Officer of Eagle Industries, a $1.5 billion diversified manufacturer, controlled by Chicago entrepreneur Sam Zell and earlier a consultant with Booz Allen. He earned a BA from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Stanford University.

Mark is a partner in the startup and venture capital group of Fenwick & West. He advises technology and life science companies, including those focused in the software, telecommunications, and semiconductor sectors. His practice includes startup counseling, venture capital financings, public offerings, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, and joint ventures. Mark represents companies in varying stages, ranging from privately-held startups to publicly-traded companies. Earlier in his career, Mark worked as an engineer. He received a BS in industrial engineering from Stanford University and a JD/MBA from the University of Chicago.

Mark is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Enlightened Hospitality Investments. Mark is actively involved in all of EHI’s portfolio companies, and serves on the boards of Joe Coffee, Salt & Straw, Goldbelly, Dig, Banza, Restaurant Technologies, and Slutty Vegan and is a board observer at Madison Reed. Additionally, Mark sits on the board of Union Square Hospitality Group, is a member of the Council on Chicago Booth for the University of Chicago, is on the board of A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham, a leading contemporary dance company, and serves as Chair Emeriti of Jacob’s Pillow Board, a dance school and performance space in the Berkshires, for over 20 years. In 2020, Mark was included in Nation’s Restaurant News’ Top 50 Technology Power List, which features the 50 most influential technology and innovation leaders in the restaurant industry.

Prior to founding EHI, Mark was head of the Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Investment Banking group at Piper Jaffray & Co. He previously served on the boards of Trinity College, the Harlem Globetrotters, Centennial Communications, Citadel Communications, T/SF Communications (TSF), US Radio, and Leap Wireless (LEAP) where he also served on the Finance Committee and Transaction Committee during its sale to AT&T.

Mark earned a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Trinity College.

Chris joined Valor in 2011 and leads the firm’s research function. Chris is an economist with more than 30 years of experience in leading strategy, business, and market research and analysis initiatives across a range of companies and industries.

Chris joined Valor from Pipal Research Corporation, a Chicago-based business research and analytics firm. As part of the founding team of Pipal Research, Chris led the development of the company’s overall research capabilities and infrastructure and was instrumental in growing the company’s Corporate and Professional Services business segments until the company was sold to a unit of Standard & Poor’s in 2010.

Chris was formerly with McKinsey & Company. During his nearly six years with McKinsey, Chris led teams in North America to deliver high-quality, value-added research services and directed global knowledge management and training initiatives. Prior to joining McKinsey, Chris held management and analyst positions with Moore Corporation (now part of RR Donnelley) and Kohler Company, where he was actively involved in providing market analysis and planning, market research, competitive intelligence, and forecasting. He also worked with the U.S. Department of Defense in Washington, D.C.

Chris earned a Master of Management Degree with Distinction from the J.L. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, graduating Beta Gamma Sigma. He holds an Honors B.A. in Economics and Political Science, magna cum laude, from Marquette University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. Chris also holds an M.A. in Applied Economics, with a specialization in Financial Economics, from Marquette University.

Chris is active with the Marquette University Alumni Association Mentor Program and previously served as a board member with St. Joseph School (Wilmette, Illinois).

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.

Carter is a Managing Partner of OrbiMed, a $17 billion global healthcare-focused private investment firm.  Since joining the firm in 2002, Carter has led OrbiMed’s growth in several areas, including healthcare royalties and Asia private investments. He was previously a Director in the UBS Alternative Investments Group and spent four years in the investment management division of First Chicago (now part of J.P. Morgan). Carter received an M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Chicago and his CFA charter in 1995. He also received a B.A. in Economics from Emory University and a C.E.P. from the Institute D’Etudes Politiques in Paris in 1991, although his French has atrophied quite a bit since then. Carter is a member of the Rockefeller University Council and the University of Chicago’s Harper Society.

Eric Pérez-Grovas is founding partner of Wollef, a VC Fund focused on LATAM early-stage internet companies, among its investments it has unicorns such as Jeeves, Kavak, Konfio, Loft and Nubank. Eric is also co-founder and president of the board of the Mexican Association of Online Sales (AMVO), which among other things, organizes the most relevant e-commerce event in Mexico: HotSale. He also serves as board member of Walmart of Mexico and Central America, Kinedu, Solvento and Nexu. Eric actively participates in nonprofits, serving as board member of CMR Foundation. Eric’s internet experience began in 1999 when he opened and managed Mercadolibre’s Mexican operations. He also worked in consulting at McKinsey & Co. and Bain & Co. and held management positions at Cemex and Satmex. Eric holds a BS in industrial engineering, summa cum laude, from the Tecnológico de Monterrey. He received an MBA and MPP from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was elected co-president of the GSB Latin American Student Association and vice-president of the Mexican Student Association at Stanford. Eric is a Kauffman Fellow, Class 22.

Focus
David is the Co-Managing General Partner at Crosslink. He joined the firm in 2011 and focuses on venture investments in software, financial technologies and digital media.

Experience
David brings more than 20 years of experience working with technology businesses as a venture capital investor and investment banker. Prior to joining Crosslink, David was a partner at 3i Ventures, a global private equity and venture capital firm. He also served as a senior officer in the technology practices at both Robertson Stephens and Piper Jaffray. Some of his prior investments included: BlueLithium (acquired by Yahoo!), Demand Media (DMD), Fotolog (acquired by Hi-Media), Omniture (OMTR; acquired by Adobe), Speakeasy (acquired by BestBuy) and Vonage (VG).

Portfolio Companies
AutoFi, Arturo, BetterUp, Brace, Chime, Enigma, Great Jones, MarketDial, OnCue , Clyde and Weave

Select Prior Investments
Bizo (acquired by LinkedIn), BuildingConnected (acquired by AutoDesk), Casper (CSPR ), ServiceMax (acquired by GE), Vungle (acquired by Blackstone), BlueLithium (acquired by Yahoo!)*, Demand Media (DMD)*, Fotolog (acquired by Hi-Media)*, Omniture (OMTR; acquired by Adobe)*, Speakeasy (acquired by BestBuy)* and Vonage (VG)*

Education
BA, Dartmouth College
JD, Stanford University

* Investments made prior to joining Crosslink

Katlin Smith is the Founder of Simple Mills (NVC ’14), the largest natural cracker, cookie, and baking mix brand, known for nutrient-dense products made with simple, purposeful ingredients. She started the company in her kitchen in 2012 and grew it into a nationally distributed brand, which sold to Flowers Foods in 2025 for $795 million. Smith now serves in a founder and advisor role, focusing on mission, innovation, and long-term impact. She is passionate about catalyzing systems-level change across climate, civic strength, and social progress – working toward a world with more individuals equipped, inspired, and empowered to spark change.

Smith, a former management consultant, has been widely recognized for these achievements, including being honored with Forbes 30 Under 30, Inc. 30 Under 30, and Progressive Grocer’s Top Woman in Grocery awards.

Guy has been with HPVP since its beginning in 2011. Prior to HPVP, Guy worked for the Boston Consulting Group where he focused on corporate strategy across a variety of industries. Previously he served as an associate and investing member with Hyde Park Angels, and spent his early career as a mechanical engineer with Raytheon and General Electric. Guy has led investments in a number of software companies and manages HPVP’s investments in Fixer, MarketWagon, Upfront Healthcare, and Zipnosis, among others. He writes about venture capital and startups at vcwithme.co.

Pete Wilkins is a Purpose First leader committed to creating a positive impact on the world.

Before he was thirty, he was a critical part of two technology startups that sold and IPO-ed for more than $2.8 billion. He later went on to lead the turnaround of a medical education company from record losses to record profits and build one of the premier online physician education communities, which he followed by starting a double-bottom-line company focused on college attainment for Latino families. Not every step was successful, but they were all purposeful.

Today, Pete leads HPA—one of the most successful early-stage venture investor groups in the country. He and his firm have partnered with hundreds of founders to help turn their dreams into reality, helping them scale their businesses from start-ups into industry leaders, many of which have gone on to join the exclusive “Unicorn Club.” As a venture investor, board member, and advisor to many entrepreneurs, Pete has created billions of dollars of economic value, but more importantly, he has helped countless founders manifest their purposes into thriving businesses that are improving the world.

In his first book, Purpose First Entrepreneur, Pete draws on a lifetime of lessons and research into value-driven principles and proven methodologies, plus the vast insights he’s garnered from working with and investing in some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs. The book and online resources offer a new approach to help entrepreneurs discover their purpose, turn it into a thriving Purpose First Business, and harness it to perform at an elite level in all aspects of their lives.

In the spirit of giving back, Pete shares his perspective and insights about investing in companies and people as a Forbes contributor. He is also passionate about building Chicago’s entrepreneurial community and is actively engaged in World Business Chicago Leadership Council, Future Founders, and P33, a bold initiative to make Chicago a global technology leader. In recognition of his contributions, Pete has been named one of the Top 100 Chicago Innovators by the Chicago Tribune, was recognized as an “Innovation Blazer” by Chicago Inno, and won the Illinois Technology Association CityLIGHTS Industry Champion Award and the Chicago Innovation Award.

Sam Yagan serves as Founder and CEO of Fifth Star, Inc., a holding company of consumer and consumer-adjacent technology companies, and Co-Founder and Managing Director of Corazon Capital, an early stage venture capital firm. He recently served as the Chief Executive Officer of ShopRunner, Inc., an ecommerce enablement platform; in 2020, he led the sale of ShopRunner to FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX). Prior to ShopRunner, Sam served as Vice-Chairman of Match Group (Nasdaq: MTCH), a position he assumed after leading the company as Chief Executive Officer through a period of explosive growth that culminated in its IPO in 2015.  Sam chairs the Boards of SpotHero and Voltage Park and recently served as a lead director of Grindr, Inc., guiding the company  through its IPO in 2022.

Sam’s prior entrepreneurial ventures in the consumer internet sector include SparkNotes (founded in 1999), still the dominant brand of study guides, and eDonkey (founded in 2002), once the largest peer-to-peer file-sharing network in the world. He sold SparkNotes to iTurf, Inc. and then to Barnes & Noble, Inc., where he served as Vice-President and Publisher and oversaw the expansion of the digitally native brand into an expansive multi-platform media business. He also co-founded OkCupid, which he led as its CEO through its sale to Match Group in 2011.  Under his leadership, Match Group incubated and launched Tinder, one of the most successful native mobile apps of all time.

Outside of work, Sam devotes himself to mentoring technology entrepreneurs and civic leaders. In 2009, he co-founded Excelerate Labs (now TechStars Chicago), a leading start-up accelerator, and served as its first Chief Executive Officer. Sam sits on the board of several private companies, including Brilliant Worldwide.. He also advises several venture capital funds, including Hyde Park Venture Partners and the FireStarter Fund, which he co-founded. He has served on Target Corp’s Digital Advisory Council, the Stanford Graduate School of Business Management Board, the board of Chamberlain Group, and as an advisor to Procter & Gamble. He also sits on the boards of nonprofits Start Early and the Rush University Medical Center. 

Sam has earned recognition on TIME Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World,” Fortune Magazine‘s “40 Under 40,” Crain’s Chicago “Tech 50″ and “40 Under 40”, Billboard Magazine’s ”30 Under 30,” D Magazine’s “Dallas 500” and ranked #19 on Silicon Alley Insider’s “Most Inspiring and Influential People.” He has received the Chicago Innovation Awards’ “Visionary of the Year Award,” IMSA’s “Distinguished Leadership Award,” the DCIA’s “Pioneer’s Award,” and admission to Chicago Innovation’s Hall of Fame. Sam has testified before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee and has spoken at the CATO Institute, Digital Hollywood, IRCE, the Federal Trade Commission, and numerous other industry events. Sam has a BA with honors in Applied Mathematics and Economics from Harvard College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he earned distinction as a Siebel Scholar, an Arjay Miller Scholar, and the Henry Ford Scholar, the award granted to each class’s valedictorian. Sam lives in Chicago with his wife, Jessica, and three kids, Maggie, Jack, and Max.