Over the last few years, many cities like Los Angeles have joined the ranks of Silicon Valley and New York as some of the world’s top hubs of tech innovation. Between 2013 and 2016, Startup funding in the city of Los Angeles has tripled.
We have seen the small spread of funds throughout the United States for sure, but other major cities worldwide have not seen the same growth. Ahmed Shabana, Founder of Global Ventures Summit and Managing Partner at Parkpine Capital, noticed this trend and decided to do something about it.
In April 2017, Mr. Shabana launched his first ever Global Ventures Summit in Bali, Indonesia. Since then, he has hosted an event in Los Angeles, Dubai, and in February of 2018 he will host the first Mexico City event. His overarching goal? To spread the wealth.
Mr. Shabana as leveraged his extensive background and connections to bring some of Silicon Valley’s biggest investors to places around the world that have plenty of startup talent and limited access to capital.
Global Ventures Summit brings entrepreneurs, investors and influencers together to discuss the city’s rapid expansion of innovative tech-based businesses. Along with pitch battles, prizes and exhibits, the GVS summit features an all-star lineup of Venture Capital veterans and investors sharing their ideas and experiences.
In 2018, Mr. Shabana plans to take his event to Mexico City, Bali, Los Angeles, Dubai, and is currently exploring opportunities and cities in China. Here are some of the investors Global Ventures Summit has been able to lineup at their events in 2017.
Christine Herron, Managing Director at Intel Capital
Along with leading Intel Capital’s investments in companies at their early stages, Christine Herron is a co-leader of the company’s Diversity Fund where she has helped the company to expand their support of startups led by women and underrepresented minorities.
With companies like Goldbely, betaworks, SmartZip and Yummly in her portfolio, Herron has also become a well-known mentor and serves as a founding advisor to StartX and 500 Startups.
Eva Ho, General Partner at Fika Ventures
Before she became a co-founder at Fika Ventures, a young firm focused on L.A.-based investments, Eva Ho was a founding General Partner at Susa Ventures. She previously spent time as Google and YouTube’s Senior Product Marketing Manager and co-founded the Seattle-based health startup Navigating Cancer.
Ho is the City of Los Angeles’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence, lending her expertise to Mayor Garcetti’s team. At Fika, Ho’s priority is investing up to $1 million in seed-stage funding to launch more business-to-business startups and platforms on the west coast.
Andrew Romans, General Partner at Rubicon Venture Capital
You may have seen Andrew Romans from the many times he’s made an appearance guest speaking for shows on MSNBC, ABC and CNBC. Romans has spent the last two decades qualifying as Silicon Valley’s VC expert, with experience as a Venture Capitalist, as a startup advisor, founder and CEO of tech startups and managing partner at Georgetown Venture Partners, a VC focused on international investments.
Romans is the author of Masters of Corporate Venture Capital, Inside Secrets from the Leaders in the Startup Game and The Entrepreneurial Bible to Venture Capital.
Rashmi Gopinath, Partner at Microscoft Ventures
Over the last year, Rashmi Gopinath became an integral part of the genesis of Microsoft Ventures by handling areas of software-as-a-service, security and mobile, Cloud infrastructure and more.
This proved as her bread and butter in her previous years spent at Intel Capital, where she took a keen interest in data storage startups like BlueData and Maginatics. Gopinath’s priority for Microsoft Ventures is to help add value to smaller startups through corporate investment.
Bill Reichert, Managing Director at Garage Ventures
Bill Reichert’s experience as an entrepreneur and investor goes back more than 30 years, even before teaming up with Guy Kawasaki at Garage in 1998. After getting his B.A. at Harvard and M.B.A. at Stanford, Reichert worked at the World Bank and McKinsey & Company.
Reichert has been a board director and observer of companies like WhiteHat Security and Simply Hired. He is also an advisor to the Women’s Startup Lab and is a council member at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
Richard Jun, Co-Founder and Managing Director at BAM Ventures
Richard Jun’s background in law proved as a great asset and entry into the startup world. When it comes to entrepreneurship, a law degree can offer so much more than working in a courtroom. The Columbia Law alum specialized in transactional law before joining Shoedazzle’s General Counsel, where he met fellow BAM co-founder Brian Lee. BAM specializes in e-commerce and is said to invest between $50-200k to startups each month.
Ossama Hassanein, Chairman at Rising Tide Fund
Dr. Hassanein’s experience extends across the globe with roles as EVP of Berkeley International in San Francisco, President of Canada’s Newbridge Networks Holding and Chairman of Technocom Ventures in Paris. A Mentor, Venture Capitalist and Entrepreneur, Hassanein is currently a Chairman at Silicon Valley’s C100, an organization that coaches and finances Canadian entrepreneurs.
