Strategic operator with expertise in scaling businesses with a consistent track record building high performing businesses and teams. Chair of the Blockchain Council, and also drove the Storm Token ICO in 2017. Innovator, inventor and writer As seen in: Forbes, CNN Money, Huffington Post, U.S. News & World Report, Puget Sound Business Journal, Geekwire, Retailing Today, Seattle Times, and more.

Britt Stromberg the Founder and Editor in Chief of Underwire Media, a weekly newsletter curated to help female founders control their own damn destiny in business. Britt is a 25-year veteran of brand marketing for the world’s top brands and innovative startups. She’s founded four companies, gone in-house as the creative director for a VC-funded ecomm fashion startup, and guided brand projects for 100+ companies, including Intel, Hershey, Merck, Pepsico, Frito-Lay, Stanley, Getty Images, Starbucks, Puget Sound Energy and more than 75 startups in the consumer and tech space. Tap Britt’s market launch expertise via her consultancy, Brand Blocks.

Chuck Stonecipher, Managing Director, is a member of Trilogy’s investing team. Prior to joining Trilogy, Chuck served in various executive capacities, including President and COO, with Advanced Digital Information Corporation (NASDAQ: ADIC) from 1995 to 2006, when it was sold to Quantum (NYSE: QTM). During his tenure, ADIC grew from less than $20MM to over $400MM in annual revenues. Prior to ADIC, Chuck served as Chief Financial Officer of Interpoint Corporation and as a manager and consultant with Bain and Company in San Francisco. He began his career as an engineer with Boeing Aerospace and then Korry Electronics. Chuck holds BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is part of a five-generation wheat farming family from Walla Walla, WA.

Dave Parker (LI) is a six-time founder, having sold three and closed two of his startups. His current roles include co-founder and board member. He’s a former VC for a corporate and early stage venture fund. He’s most known for his work as a startup community builder through his work with WTIA Startup Programs and “6 Month Startup – Ideation to Revenue.”

Bootstrapped founder turned angel investor turned operator. Investor in 15+ seed-stage startups since 2015. Currently serving as COO of local, venture-backed startup Gamesight.io.

Dennis is an active member to two of the most active angel groups in Seattle – the Alliance of Angels (AoA) and the Puget Sound Venture Club (PSVC). He screens deals and leads due diligence teams for both groups.

Hope is an independent director on the Board of Directors and Audit Commitees of Hasbro, New Relic and MongoDB. In addition, she is a Managing Director with Madrona Ventures where she gets to meet and support amazing entrepreneurs.

Full time individual angel investor and member of different angel groups in Seattle (Grubstakes, Alliance of Angels, SWAN Venture Fund). My previous professional career doesn’t really apply to startups (I was a small equity fund manager), but as an analyst I can help brainstorm business ideas, markets and industries. And as an angel I can help review pitches and pitch decks, explain the point of view and common questions posed by angel investors, and share what I have found to be the best practices for fundraising for early stage startups.

Julie Sandler is a Managing Director at Pioneer Square Labs (PSL), a Seattle-based venture capital fund and startup studio. She runs the organization’s VC fund, PSL Ventures. Julie is an adjunct professor at the UW Foster School of Business and a board director of the Washington Roundtable and Washington State Opportunity Scholarship. She was a partner at Madrona Venture Group (where she launched the Seattle Entrepreneurial Women’s Network in 2011) after her tenure at Amazon Kindle, TeachStreet, and Accenture. She has served on the boards of privately held companies and several industry associations and advisory boards.

Martina Welkhoff is an entrepreneur and early-stage investor with growth and acquisition experience. She’s a Founding Partner at the WXR Fund, a venture fund focused on women-led spatial computing companies, and a Venture Partner at Jump Canon, a San Francisco fund focused on underrepresented founders in emerging tech. She is on the advisory board of the Center for Leadership and Strategic Thinking at the University of Washington, and for over five years was the President of Seattle Women in Tech as well as previously serving on the board of Seattle Angel.

I write community and branded stories for Built In Seattle, a fast-growing news source and recruiting hub for the Puget Sound tech industry. The content we publish helps people find jobs at companies they’re passionate about, working with products that matter. While I have a decidedly non-technical background, I’m always on the lookout for opportunities to celebrate the area’s vibrant and diverse tech scene and learn more about its most innovative products and services.

Rob Smith is the editor in chief of Seattle Business magazine. Smith previously served as editor of the Portland Business Journal for more than 10 years, and was also editor of the Puget Sound Business Journal. Most recently, he served as a national retail coordinator and reporter for CoStar, a comprehensive commercial real estate database that launched a news division for its subscribers.

Rochelle is a Partner with KIG’s Venture Capital group. Prior to KIG, she spent nearly 10 years with Intel Corporation in a broad range of senior marketing roles. Rochelle is also a Board Member at Alliance of Angels. She received her MBA from the University of Washington and her BA from Pomona College.

Susan Preston is the Managing Partner of SeaChange Fund (formerly the Seattle Angel Fund), committed to fostering entrepreneurial growth in the Pacific Northwest through early-stage investments, as well as Co-Manager for the Element 8 Fund, focused on cleantech investments. Susan is the author of numerous articles, white papers and books on angel financing. She authored, Angel Financing for Entrepreneurs, Early-stage Funding for Long-Term Success was released by Wiley Publishing in March 2007, and her first book, Angel Investment Groups, Networks and Funds: A Guidebook to Developing the Right Angel Organization for Your Community, a comprehensive guidebook on the establishment and operation of angel investment groups, for which she has received numerous accolades, was published by the Kauffman Foundation in 2004, and later adapted for use by the World Bank in emerging markets. Susan is a world-recognized expert in angel financing and angel organizations. Susan spent much of her earlier career in senior management positions in public and private companies, from general counsel to CEO. Susan is a recent recipient of the Angel Capital Association prestigious Hans Severiens Award, given each year to an individual whose actions advance the role of angel investing, expand entrepreneurship and benefit the angel investing industry as a whole.

Taylor Soper is a GeekWire staff reporter who covers a wide variety of tech assignments, including emerging startups in Seattle and Portland, the sharing economy and the intersection of technology and sports. A native of Portland, Ore., and graduate of the University of Washington, he was named a “New Journalist of the Year” by the Society of Professional Journalists.

Monica Nickelsburg is GeekWire’s Civic Editor, covering technology-driven solutions to urban challenges and the intersection of tech and politics. Before joining GeekWire, she worked for The Week, Forbes, and NBC. Monica holds a BA in journalism and history from New York University.

Michael is a veteran Capitol Hill operative, seasoned communications professional, and public policy wonk. He currently leads WeWork’s Public Affairs team in the Northwest and is focused on storytelling, social impact, government affairs, and strategic partnerships. He is a former Legislative Director for a senior member of Congress, having focused on international trade, foreign policy and defense-related issues. Under Michael, Rep Blumenauer secured the second highest “Legislative Effectiveness” score in the House, illustrating a keen ability to not only craft policy but successfully drive it though the legislative process. He is proudest of the opportunity to help revise and reform the Iraq and Afghan Special Immigrant Visa programs, and help craft the Water for the World Act, boosting the US’s capacity to provide greater access to clean water and sanitation and mitigate transboundary water conflict. He hails from Portland, OR, got stuck in DC and Boston for the better part of a decade, and now proudly calls Seattle home. Michael obtained his bachelors from American University and his masters from Tufts’ Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, graduating magna cum laude at both. When not working, you’ll find Michael with his two young daughters and wife seeking adventure both far and near.

Jonathan is an associate in the firm’s Seattle office and is a member of the corporate practice group. His practice focuses on the representation of public and private companies and investors in a wide range of corporate, securities and business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, 1933 and 1934 Act Securities and Exchange Commission filings, securities offerings and financings. His experience also includes formation and funding of emerging growth companies and venture capital and private equity investments.

Claire is a partner in the firm’s Seattle office, and a member of the corporate practice group.  She represents clients across a broad spectrum of industries on corporate, securities, and financing matters.  Her practice is focused on representing growth-stage companies and venture capital and private equity investors.  In addition, her experience includes advising clients as buyers and sellers in mergers and acquisitions, complex financings, and general contract and corporate governance matters.

Liz Pearce, a technology entrepreneur and marketing specialist, was CEO of Seattle B2B project management software startup LiquidPlanner, where she began as a marketing contractor and ascended to lead the company for five years. Liz led her team through venture capital financing, growing the company through 10x revenue growth while committing to a high ratio of female employees in the traditionally male-dominated tech world. She is admired by fellow entrepreneurs for her character, grit, determination, ability to learn and grow… but also for her compassion and human quality. She is deeply respected by her LiquidPlanner team for her leadership, openness and executive presence. “Liz is an exceptional leader and example to other women”, said one of her nominators. “It is rare for someone to have an impact on your career in 30 minutes over a single cup of coffee, but that’s Liz.”

Melissa Lehman is the COO of Armoire and CEO of Pogo Rides. Both companies are focused on making life easier for busy women. Prior to getting bitten by the start-up bug, she spent 15 years helping helping Fortune 50 companies and nonprofits develop strategies for growth and implement them around the world.

Melissa graduated with honors from the University of Washington with degrees in Business Administration and Interdisciplinary Fine Arts. When not working, she enjoys chasing her two active little boys, picnicking at Greenlake and cooking for friends.

Ian Bergman heads Microsoft’s engagement with technology startups across North and South America, as well as the organization’s global startup partnerships strategy and execution. A Microsoft veteran, Ian has held previous roles in the company spanning business strategy, hardware & device planning, partner engineering and product marketing. Prior to his time at Microsoft, Ian helped build Raw Story, a leading political news site, and held several roles in IT and network administration. Ian holds an MBA from the University of Washington, and a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College. A Seattle-area native who has had the opportunity to live and work across the US and around the world, Ian is the proud father of a toddler and husband of a tech startup CEO, and in his free hours, enjoys photography, skiing, strategy gaming and nerding out on whatever is in the vicinity.

Raj is a startup adviser at Microsoft. He advises solution ready AI ML IoT data science startups (partners of Microsoft) go-to-market and drive their revenues working with the Microsoft Field and Microsoft Channel partners. Startups in his portfolio market to Financial Services, Healthcare, Retail, Manufacturing, Automotive, Media & Entertainment, and Public Sector (Fed, State and Local Government). Before taking this role, Raj was the COO of Microsoft HealthVault (a healthcare startup from Microsoft).

Before joining Microsoft, Raj was a startup guy, and his company was sold to a competitor (Enterprise) as part of their Digital Transformation acquisition. Raj comes from a strong global background, has worked in Asia, Europe and North America, and has proven experience in product management, launching V1 & MVP products to market, go to market, and driving revenues for early stage startup companies. Raj works with global startups, investors, channel partners, and enterprise customers from around the world. Raj is selectively open to Board Membership to growth companies.

Lizzie is a program manager for Azure Marketplace and AppSource, Microsoft’s commercial storefronts for cloud applications and services. She helps Microsoft partners grow their businesses through co-marketing activities. Her previous experience includes marketing, non-profit fundraising, product management, and project management for experimental machine learning. She is passionate about representation in the development of artificial intelligence, and is a proud alumna of the University of Michigan and Pomona College.

Founder & CEO of Reverb. Author of Female Firebrands: Powerful Advice for Women at Work (and Their Male Advocates), coming in 2019.

Annie is a startup ecosystem and community leader.  She’s built and run 15+ accelerator programs globally with deep knowledge of startup communities across the US, Europe and Australasia.

She’s invested in hundreds of startups through these programs and has lost count of how many entrepreneurs she’s worked with over the years.

Annie joined Microsoft in 2019 as the global head of their Startup programs, based out of Sydney.  This role covers the broad market offers Microsoft provides to the startup community, and also the ScaleUp initiative.  The ScaleUp program works with later stage enterprise startups to help them get ready to sell to a large customer audience.  Based in 8 cities globally, the ScaleUp programs offer a genuinely unique opportunity for startups not only to grow in their home markets, but into international locations as well.

Prior to Microsoft, Annie held a number of roles in the startup ecosystem covering early stage co-working space Fishburners, as well as a number of accelerator programs.  Annie co-founded muru-D – Telstra’s startup accelerator program with 5 locations in Australia and Singapore.

Annie was also Head of Operations for Wayra, Telefonica’s startup accelerator program which had 7 startup hubs across Europe.

A firm believer in the importance of paying her knowledge forward, Annie spends a lot of her spare time supporting growth across the wider startup ecosystem too.  In 2014 she co-founded and continues to Chair Code Club Australia, a charity helping to teach primary school kids the basics of coding through after school clubs.  This network of clubs is now stands at 2,200 with over 165,000 kids in Australia having been educated for free.

Annie also co-founded Techfugees Australia a global movement connecting the technology ecosystem together with newly arrived refugees in Australia to help solve some of the problems they face.  Through Techfugees, companies have been created, jobs found and most importantly lives changed for the better.

Passionate about diversity and inclusion, and helping wherever she can, Annie is an active angel investor and mentor and loves helping founders achieve their full potential.