Agathe Assouline-Lichten is the CEO & Co-Founderof Red Velvet NYC, a food tech start-up revolutionizing home baking and disrupting the $12 billion market in the US. Prior to Red Velvet NYC, she worked at Harry Winston, where she was managing the global events and partnership marketing. Agathe has also worked at Jaegar-LeCoultre, Sothebys and Ecole hoteliers de Lausanne. She is an expert in Business Analysis, management, strategy, data analysis, finance and hospitality. Agathe was awarded Campbell's Real Food Innovation Challenge. She holds a degree in MBA in hospitality. She is a fan of Arianna Huffington and Mark Cuban. Agathe is passionate about making gourmet baking easy, convenient, and fun. She is 2019 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in New York.

Fellow since

Ben is the founder of VillageVines, a media marketing company that provides a private market for restaurants to price promote their excess capacity. As founder, he negotiated a seed financing round of $500,000 and has solidified consumer side partnerships totaling distribution of over 400,000 consumers in New York City. Previously, he worked in investment banking for Merrill Lynch's global technology group, covering internet and digital media companies. Prior to Merrill, Ben founded CheapSummerHelp LLC, a service referral company that employed over 30 workers and generated over $540,000 of annualized sales. He sold the company in December 2007. He is a 2008 graduate of Georgetown University, where he was on the Varsity Baseball team and graduated with a political economy degree.

Fellow since

Sonia Kapadia, co-founder and CEO of Taste Savant Sectors: Food, Local Discovery, Technology Sonia Kapadia is Founder and CEO of Taste Savant, a Restaurant Discovery Site. Taste Savant helps people find new restaurants to eat out at by aggregating critics’ reviews and coupling them with your friends’ recommendations. Taste Savant is in Private Beta at the moment. Prior to launching Taste Savant, Sonia worked at numerous consumer facing companies and has deep experience in Brand Management, Marketing, and General Management. She spent 5 years at PepsiCo in the US and the UK. She had the entrepreneurial itch and left Pepsi to become CMO of a consumer products startup in the UK called Gu Chocolate Desserts (www.gupuds.com) which was sold in 2010 to another private company. Beyond consumer products, she also has spent time in fashion and retail. She was a Strategy Manager at Henri Bendel (owned by Limited Brands) and was a Marketing Director at Rent the Runway, managing Business Development and Partnerships. She has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is a 2012 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in New York City.

Fellow since

Steffan is Co-Founder and CEO of Public House, an innovative box wine company in New York City with a mission to make drinking wine a more social experience. Before co-founding Public House, Steffan was a strategic planner for Young and Rubicam and Saatchi and Saatchi, working on Johnnie Walker and then Miller Coors Consumer Relationship Marketing. Steffan graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in Visual Studies and Consumer Psychology. He is a 2015 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program.

Fellow since