Ankit is the CEO and Founder at Micello. He was selected to be a Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in 2010 and helped Co-Lead the Silicon Valley Chapter in 2011. Ankit continues to be an active advisor and mentor to new Startup Leadership members.

Fellow since

Azita Gandjei is the founder of Essatory, collaborative content creation platform. She is also designer co-founder for the startup, Innomation— predictive modeling tool for assessing whether a product will be a success with targeted customers. Azita has also worked at Oracle, MAAP Technology and Commerce One. She is an expert in Strategy and Product Management. She holds a degree in Political Science and an MBA in Marketing, Bus. Economics, Finance. She is a 2015 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Silicon Valley.

Fellow since

Mica Longanecker is the Co-Founder and CEO of Basemapp, an innovative map management software for companies looking for more productive and effective ways to manage their property and assets. Prior to Basemapp, he worked as an Independent Consultant. Mica has also worked at the Global Climate Adaptation Partnership (GCAP) Kenya and for GCAP Global. He has many years of experience in project management, business development and company operations. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Science from the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce, with concentrations in Finance and Management. Mica is passionate about using technology to create a better, more productive world. He is 2015 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in DC Chapter.

Fellow since

Nayeem spent the majority of his career working in corporate finance for a large technology company. He first scratched his entrepreneurial itch by investing in real estate and eventually founding a real estate investment company. While in business school, he embraced his passion for tech and disruptive ideas by co-founding a company focused on innovating for the connected home. Now a full-time entrepreneur, Nayeem has embraced the challenge and also the NYC start­ up community. He is a 2014 fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in New York.

Fellow since

Nikhil Gupta is the Director of Business Development & Strategic Alliances at ForeScout Technologies Inc. He has previously worked at VMware as Senior Manager, Product Management. Nikhil has also worked at Cisco Systems, Ericsson and Entrisphere. He was the co-founder of Spocsol, a SaaS startup.He is an expert in Cloud Computing and Product Management. Nikhil has been awarded Awards of Excellence at Vmware, Cisco, Entrisphere and Ericsson. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, a Master's in Computer Science & Engineering and three MBA degrees. He is a 2015 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Silicon Valley.

Fellow since

Sanjeev is founder of Idea First Technologies: a technology company that, through its several websites, empowers consumer with information to find best shopping values. One of its popular websites generates 2 million page views a month. Sanjeevpursued his MBA at MIT's Sloan School of Management. Prior to starting his own company he held management positions in software engineering at Sycamore Networks for nine years. He is currently the founder and CEO of Internet Media Corporation.

Fellow since

Scott Pollack, Founder, PriceJuicer Sectors: Technology Scott Pollack is a co-founder of PriceJuicer, a price optimization tool that takes the guess work out of pricing tickets to events by allowing event organizers to dynamically adjust ticket prices in real-time. Previously, he was the founder and CEO of Hot Pot Culinary Events, a social cooking events company based in NYC. Scott began his startup career as a Java developer, rising from college intern to CIO of UVentures, a startup that was acquired in 2003. Scott has also worked as a Senior Manager of Business Development at American Express, signing and leading partnership deals with Costco, DirecTV, Sovereign Bank, and others. Prior to American Express, Scott was responsible for a $30MM sales distribution partnership pipeline at Dow Chemical. He has a degree in Finance and Information Systems from NYU Stern. Scott is a 2012 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in New York.

Fellow since

Sean Petterson is CEO/Founder of StrongArm Technologies, a company changing the industrial world by de­ sign, one worksite at a time. Sean's an Industrial Designer whose approach is design in the real-world first, not in the studio. His goal is to translate user input into a holistic solution designed by the end user, not the designer. He is a 2014 fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in New York.

Fellow since

Fellow since

Thyaga Venkat is the Founding CEO of WizioTec Corp., a technology based talent search company. Prior to WizioTec, he worked at RulesPower Inc. as a Sr. Product Architect. Thyaga has also worked at Plexus Software, Far East Computers and Kirloskar Software Services. He is an expert in Enterprise Software, Product Development and Software Development. He holds a degree in Computer Science & Engineering. He enjoys playing tennis & golf. He is a 2015 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Silicon Valley.

Fellow since

I am a technology minded, entrepreneurial self starter and believe that success is earned through hard work, innovation and strategic partnerships. I am excited to be involved in the San Diego Startup community and want to utilize SLP to create relationships with like-minded professionals, learn from experienced mentors, grow my network, access funding and continue to gain knowledge about entrepreneurialism and the startup community in San Diego and around the world.

Fellow since

Vipul Bahety, Staff Engineer, Qualcomm Vipul Bahety is a Staff Engineer & Manager at Qualcomm. He helped close and execute multi-million dollar business for his company with pre-sales engineering activities for selling QChat to Nextel International in five Latin American countries by working cross-functionally with Business Development, Product Management and Engineering. He has represented Qualcomm at the International Multimedia Telecommunication Consortium (IMTC) to establish video telephony standards and perform inter-operability tests. He has experience managing large engineering teams situated in different geographic locations. He is also the founder of Prabhav (meaning impact), which helps fund education for underprivileged students in India. Prabhav encourages people to look around their own circle of connections and find students who cannot continue their education because of lack of funds. Vipul holds a Master’s in Electrical Engineering and currently pursuing part-time MBA at UCLA. He enjoys traveling, camping and water sports. Vipul is a 2012 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in San Diego.

Fellow since

VS Joshi is a software product management professional with experience in leading companies - Compaq, EMC & NetApp. He has launched new software products & entire portfolio with positioning, messaging, competitive analysis, marketing programs, sales education & sales tools. At Netapp, he won all Marketing awards including the *Excellent Marketing individual* award. VS started working on the current venture - TrintMe - to solve a problem that he had faced as a college student. The startup ran a social experiment in one college and won 3 awards and mentions in Boston Herald and Boston Innovation. As of end 2012, startup is trying to get the Beta of the product out - looking for college students and interns to act as campus ambassadors in various colleges. He has completed his Engineering, MBA from India and Advanced Management program from Babson College, MA. USA. A student leader for all the 4 years of Engineering, He received a special award for his Leadership Qualities from Maharashtra Academy for proposing and influencing a new examination pattern for the entire Pune University that affects more than 100,000 engineering students every year. He is 2013 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Silicon Valley.

Fellow since