Faculty

As the Innovation Catalyst and Product Manager for Citibank, Sarit seeks to accelerate the growth trajectory and adoption in a changing industry landscape. She drives innovation, competitive differentiation and speed to market by bringing the outside in, focusing on identifying and introducing startups to jump-start the Bank’s objectives and priorities. Sarit has had the responsibility for creating an entrepreneurial culture by facilitating Design Thinking and Lean Startup workshops, presenting at a variety of internal events to foster a spirit of innovation. She has launched new digital products through Citi’s D10X startup incubator, a program that enables employees to identify, test, and validate new solutions. Previously, Sarit led the Consumer Insights team supporting North America businesses. Prior to Citi, Sarit worked at GfK in business development and as a management consultant at Novantas. Originally from Israel, Sarit studied Sociology at the University of Florida and earned a PhD in Demography from the University of Texas at Austin.

As VP, Community and Strategic Partnerships at Springboard Enterprises, Anna incorporates online tools and in-person networking to build strong business collaborations and enhance visibility of Springboard portfolio companies and the women who lead them. Anna manages the Springboard Dolphin Tank program, a “friendly-feedback” pitch session for entrepreneurs as well as all other virtual and in-person Springboard community events. While previously based in Washington, DC, Anna now lives in Sacramento, CA. Anna has worked for members of Congress on campaigns, in the district office and on the Hill. She also ran corporate sales for California Delicious, a food and wine gifting business and stayed on through its acquisition to Hickory Farms. Anna is dedicated to getting more women in public office and more scalable women-led companies funded.

Kathleen is the CEO and Co-founder of ecomedes, enabling sustainable buildings through frictionless, universal product transparency in the cloud. She is the Chairman of the Board of 5 Gyres, using science to drive solutions to get plastic out of our environment.

Kathleen started her career in New York digitizing luxury brands like Chanel and Calvin Klein. After an MBA at HBS, she moved to the Bay Area with dreams of becoming an entrepreneur. She has grown four venture-backed startups from concept to successful exits via acquisitions. She helped pioneer Price Optimization at ProfitLogic (acquired by ORCL). She then led Data Science and Client Operations for Revionics, the leader in Merchandise Optimization (acquired by Aptos), and for Quri, the leading crowd-sourced compliance app for CPG (acquired by TRAX Retail).

Kathleen is passionate about ocean health, sustainability, and equality. She produced It Ain’t Pretty, a documentary about pay inequality in professional big wave surfing. A die-hard surfer and skier, she lives between Ocean Beach, San Francisco and Alpine Meadows, Tahoe with her husband and six-year son JJ.

Jenevra is a lawyer, startup advisor and angel investor. She is the founder of Spark + Sterling, a legal and business consultancy that helps entrepreneurs negotiate lasting relationships with large companies.

Before starting her own company, Jenevra spent 20 years as a manager and in-house counsel at American International Group, Inc. (AIG). During a time of crisis and change for the financial industry, she built and led a legal group that closed $50-$100 million worth of deals each year. She has advised C-level executives on matters including contracts, process improvement, and online marketing.

A frequent speaker and writer on startup law topics, Jenevra mentors early stage companies through Project W and the Hudson Community Incubator.

Sarah is an associate at Unshackled VC focused on investing, post-investment founder working sessions, and helping their teams raise their next round of funding. Prior to Unshackled Sarah was on the Platform team at First Round Capital where she helped FRC’s active 250+ companies with their hiring, people ops, and HR needs. She worked with companies like Notion, Superhuman, and Bowery Farms as they made crucial hires on their engineering, sales, and business teams. Before First Round Capital, she was an early team member at Vettery and helped build out the outbound sales team and customer success team. She saw the company from 50 to 150 and a successful exit. Sarah has a BA from the University of Vermont where she majored in History and minored in Gender Studies. While living in Burlington, Sarah interned for a gubernatorial candidate and two city councilors. Sarah is an avid cyclist and when she is not standing at her desk, you can find her in the Headlands enjoying the great outdoors.

Ainhoa is a Senior Associate at M12, Microsoft’s financially driven venture fund, where she specializes in B2B software investments. She collaborates with M12’s Partners to drive deal sourcing, diligence, transaction structuring and negotiation. Ainhoa is a board Director or Observer for five of the fund’s portfolio companies and provides hands-on governance and guidance across financial forecast and modeling, fundraising and investor relations, market positioning, and go-to-market strategy.

Ainhoa jumpstarted her career as a financial analyst at Intel, where she managed and optimized financial processes affecting more than $1.5 billion annually. She now leverages this experience to manage fund- and company-level financial reporting efforts for M12’s fund of 100+ companies.

Ainhoa earned her M.B.A from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where she was a UChicago Innovation Fund Venture Capital Associate. When pronounced correctly, her name sounds exactly like saying “I know a…”

Eva is a marketing leader, impact investor, and startup advisor with 10 years of experience in technology marketing. Sasson grew her career on the marketing teams at Google, popular developer platforms Twilio, Sentry, and currently is the Head of Marketing at New York-based fintech startup Argyle. Sasson is passionate about supporting and promoting women in technology, managing several programs for girls and women in tech spanning from London to New York to San Francisco, and currently manages an impact-investment fund Primera Impact. A Bay Area native, Sasson holds a BA from Barnard College and a MSc from University College London.